2024-04-27: Rise

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<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    Thin, wispy clouds trail out across a brilliant blue sky. They do not obscure the sun, free to further scorch the cracked earth underfoot. Where the rolling dunes of the Aveh desert give way to the broken landscape of the Gunsmoke, one knows they have arrived in the very heart of the Ignas Badlands. Ahead, on the horizon, one can see the outline of the skyline of November City, one of the largest of the Seed Cities of Gunsmoke and a natural hub for the Drifters of Ignas.

    A distant roar has begun to become audible, and soon, it drags itself into view. Brilliant white plating catches the sunlight as the Solarian aerial light armored cruiser makes its approach. It's flanked by what appears to be a Gear escort.

    "Major, November City is now in sight. We are ready at your order," Captain Loren Voss reports over Solaris's frequency. His hands tense over Schiehallion's controls only to relent, his gaze fixed on the display fed from his Gear's external cameras.

    ...How many children are there in November City?

    But there is no going against the command once it has been handed down. The Seed Cities must be purged. 

<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.

What is happening at November City? The rumors have gone that something big is coming there, something to do with Solaris. A soldier running his mouth? Shevat intelligence given to Adventurer's Guilds? or...?

Major Sadalbari--the Watcher--stares from the bridge of the cruiser, out at the city ahead. November City is in sight...

"Acknowledged," the commander of the mission intones. "Hold."

Leah turns and walks off the bridge, making her way down to the hangar without delay.

How many children are in November City? Many.

Soon, the hangar doors open midair. There is a glint from above as someone steps out...

The glint falls.

Soon, Leah Sadalbari crashes into the sands from high above, a shockwave roiling out through the dunes at the point of impact. She rises from one knee, standing up to her full height again. She wears the armor of the Watcher, but no helmet any longer. There is no need for disguise any longer.

"...Continue on my signal," she says into her radio, and waits. Her eyes are on the city's skyline. 

<Pose Tracker> Xiumei Klein has posed.

ARMS has an intelligence network, and when rumors of Solarian activity in the Badlands came along -- especially in light of their recent strikes in Nede -- it was a simple choice: send some opposition.

Today, that is Xiumei Klein, who is on a small ARMS aircraft flying towards November City. The plane rattles and shakes as they fly -- and Xiumei peers out of the front window, standing behind one of their pilots: a bearded middle aged man, named Joseph.

"Miss Klein, this baby don't got any guns," he says. "I ain't sure getting us any closer is wise--"

"It's quite all right," Xiumei says, currently unarmored -- but starting towards the back of the plane. "Lower the altitude, please. I can do quite the jump, but..."

"You got it, ma'am!" Joe says.

"And... once I've jumped, fall back and circle," she says. "Stay out of their line of sight."

<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

    Ethius has been about in the area as a matter of gauging some of the reach of the escaping Pokemon through the rift. It may seem fruitless to even try to take stock, but biosecurity is something of a big deal in his line of work even in the face of (usually) far more imminent threats.
 
     He picks up the rumor about something coming to the Seed Cities entirely by chance, and... well, luckily, the Caravan Kinship was able to make arrangements a while back to ship their Gears from the Aquvy region to here. The minute details of transportation need not really be gone over in the moment.
 
     "I have visual on Solarian aircraft," Ethius shares over secure waves to those whose comms he has access to. The Aiguille unit is behind rocky outcrop cover, and he's keeping movements to a minimum. The short-burst dash jets don't generate heat signals so long as they stay in short bursts, but the amount of cover from his position is slim pickings so he can't approach too much closer unspotted.
 
     The Seed Cities are absolutely of Pangalactic Federation interest, and not letting Solaris have their way with any part of them is - in the moment - part of his duties too. (A lot of things are, even well after Demetrioi had been dealt with.) 

<Pose Tracker> Chase has posed.

Something big is going to a place called November City. A city from Filgaia. Filgaia, a world suffering from war. Something big that could have been stolen from Nede, that Nedians -- like Chase -- weren't able to protect. He doesn't have to have ever been to November City to know people will suffer. But. He might have the tools to stop it.

Chase rides across the desert on a horse with a whistle onomatopoeia for a name. Pikachu clinging to his shoulder as Ponyta leaves a streak of flames behind, galloping tirelessly toward danger. Mount and rider skid to a halt, both of them, with Pikachu, staring in horrified awe up at the massive vehicles that threaten the Seed City.

Pikachu and Chase nod to one another. Chase pulls out a Poke Ball he rarely uses: Pikachu's. He calls Pikachu back into her ball... but not for long. Brilliant light spirals from Chase's wrist with rays like a star. The Poke Ball grows to the size of a volley ball, encased in an effulgent, pink grid. It takes both arms for Chase to handle, hurling it overhead.

In an explosive, pink vortex and bursting white motes, Pikachu emerges, swelling rapidly in size. 1. 2. 3. Big. Bigger. BIGGEST! Round! Rounder! ROUNDEST! She does not merely grow several stories tall and land on the earth with a tremulous crash. She becomes stockier in shape, and her tail becomes longer and radiant with energy.

Pikachu looks directly toward Schiehallion -- and to Loren, by association. With a curly smile on her face and her stubby, but huge, arms raised in the air, she unleashes a resounding challenge with new depth to her once cutesy voice:

"PIIIIIII!"

DC: Chase switches forms to Let's go BIGACHU !! GIGANTAMAX !!!

<Pose Tracker> Meng Wu has posed.

There's something to be said about removing old equipment from mothball status. With the situations unfolding, the rumors she'd caught. The outcomes that are implied, she has finally uncovered Shrike form it's hiding place. Wu has spent the last week meticulously going through the systems with her crew. Repairing, refreshing, refueling and repainting. It's an older Solarian gear. Slender, sharp angles and fast. It's painted in a smokey blue with a single yellow shoulder plate. There was a unit mark, forcibly scorched off with a welder. Bolted over it is some kind of diving bird wreathed in thorns.
 
 If the machine hadn't blown her identity before, there's a very good chance this will. And she's okay with that.
 
 However, at the moment, she's sitting under a camo lean-to covering up most of the gear with a pair of binoculars out. Observing the situation.
 
 She relays the sighting to her team, who themselves relay the information on the approaching aircraft. They're operating a little outpost!
 
 Wu herself is in a pilot jumper, though it's mostly around her waist as the heat's not her thing.
 
 Pulling gloves on, she slots the binoculars in their case and settles in the cockpit. Firing the machine up and going through the initial start up routine. She's waiting for the drop. 

<Pose Tracker> Xiumei Klein has posed.

"WHAT IN TARNATION!" Pilot Joe screams, removing both hands from the airplane's controls to slap them on his great bearded cheeks. "Ma'am, I say, I say, I SAY! There's a giant electric rat out there!"

Xiumei pushes her glasses up her nose; they catch the sunlight, glint, and hide her eyes.

"...P-Please keep flying the plane."

<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

As a traveling merchant, Jacqueline Barber collects a lot of rumors. Most of them are only of mild interest... but every now and then, some reach her ears that are particularly notable. And today's rumor, courtesy of Ethius, is quite concerning - news of Solaris making some sort of move on November City.

There's no telling, yet, what that entails - but one thing for sure, it has to be investigated.

"I see... Thanks for the info." Jacqueline replies, as Ethius confirms visuals on Solarian aircraft. While Aiguille takes cover, Issachar soars through the air - and lands, interposing herself between the oncoming Solarian forces and November City. Issachar's spear spins, and then is planted into the sand. She stands defiantly, a serious expression on her face...

...which vanishes immediately the moment Chase's Pikachu Dynamaxes, and Jacqueline bears witness.

"Is... is that a Pikachu? But... how? She's so big! Look at her...!" Jacqueline gasps. ...Oh no, it's too cute!

...And then, she clears her throat, looking just a bit embarrassed.

"This- Ahem. This is Jacqueline Barber, piloting Issachar. I stand with you." She announces over external speakers to those gathering in November City's defense. 

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.

    The Seraph Boudicca can always be found in Filgaian cities in need -- though not, typically speaking, this kind of need. No --

    The Heartlatch family's house was damaged by a shootout, and they've found themselves haunted by a spirit which seems to right those wrongs ever since.

    Young Cindy Heartlatch is five; her older sister, Earnest Heartlatch, is 16. They have a brother, Tank Heartlatch, who's twelve. There are children, here, in November City, and some of them can even see Boudicca -- even if their parents, Helena and Henry Heartlatch, can't quite manage it. (Helena thinks she hears something, sometimes, though.)

    But a ghost like Boudicca hears things, going to the general store to disappear nails and screws. (She leaves shiny rocks as payment. These ones shimmer in a white-based rainbow; she doesn't know the value of opals, but those vendors do.) She tells Cindy to tell her family to retreat to their bunker, and when the little girl cries, she embraces her.

    "I am a protector of Filgaia who reports to Moor Gault themself. I will defend you."

    Little girls don't know much about religion, but they do recognise help when it's offered. The Heartlatches retreat. Even so...

    ... could their bunker withstand the full might of a Solaris purge?

    Well, that's why Boudicca is here. And that's why --

    "Goodness," Boudicca exclaims, as a gauntlet-clad hand shades her eyes, already shaded by that draconic helm she wears. (A woman in full-plate is strange, in Filgaia, so perhaps it's best that most people can't see her.) "That Pikachu is quite large. Even so... she is here to aid us, is she not?"

    Boudicca is still learning how Pokemon communicate, but she's getting pretty good at it, and it's not like Pikachu's message is unclear.

<Pose Tracker> Vivace Mori has posed.

Ever since Solaris' attack on Sylph Co., Vivace has been trying to find out more about them. A trip to Filgaia wasn't too hard to manage. She'd gotten through before. She could do it again... even though it took her further away from the portal than she'd ever been before.

In her search, she'd mostly failed. Nobody on Filgaia seemed to know a whole lot about Solaris when she asked. She'd tried to keep it subtle, as she'd heard they were secret, but she'd tried direct a couple times... nothing. They must be *really* secret, Vivace figured. Hopefully it wouldn't get back to them that she'd been nosing around.

Until the rumours, anyway. *Finally*.

So now the result of that is, in addition to various other Gears and enormous Pokemon, there's something else accelerating toward November City. It's not nearly as big as the average Gear, being perhaps twelve or thirteen feet tall and the same front to back, but it's far bigger than a human - and it's flying, if not very high. It averages about fifty feet off the ground.

The machine has a roughly triangular hull with a raised section in back that a booster pack or battery or something has been plugged into, with an oversized four-barreled gun pointing forward. It has two backwards-jointed legs with round bipartite feet that it can probably jump on very, very well, but right now is flying with an electrical hum and a faint plasma-like trail behind it.

To the Filgaians, this machine is categorized as a particularly small Gear or strange ARM. But to Nedians, this is a known being: Erikodus, a particularly mechanical Pokemon.

On top of the Erikodus is a fourteen or fifteen-year-old Nedian (or elf, maybe, if you've never heard of Nede), wearing her cropped shirt, fashionably distressed jeans, and an unzipped windbreaker with an ARMLOCK KEYS logo billowing with her speed.

"C'mon!" she encourages Erikodus and the Niquia in the plug, confident nobody else can hear her at the speed. "You two can get us there in time, right...?" 

DC: Vivace Mori switches forms to Erikodus Rider!
DC: Seraph Boudicca switches forms to Oracle of Moor Gault!

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    One of the best things about Seed Cities? Radio stations. The Halcyone's antennae and the signal strength isn't enough to cover far outside of city lines, but it's enough to make wait times a little tedious, if there is any. She's not the only person delivering, after all.

    Munching on some fresh fish and chips as she listens to the radio, Gwen does some calculations on her clipboard, thumping the eraser end of her pencil in time to the bluesy song croons over the radio.

    Like many, Gwen's heard the rumors. Who's to say she didn't take those into consideration for what deliveries she was doing today?

    And who's to say that's why she keeps looking towards the sky, even as a cheery ragtime tune rattles on the radio? The Halcyone isn't really been equipped to fight; against Solaris tech, it'd be severely outmatched. But that just means its pilot will have to come out and fight instead.

    Spotting the glint of metal in the distance, she hurries through her meal and puts away her work. Those doesn't really feel like typical carriers.

    And sure enough, they don't sound like them either.

    Over her shortwave radio, Gwen transmits: "Me n' the Halcyone're here! This ain't specc'ed for attacks from this caliber of enemy, but it can sure pack a whallop!"

    Recognizing the markings on the giant Pikachu (wait, wasn't there a fairy tale about creatures that could do that at some point?) Gwen's hands work the stick shift, turning the Halcyone from standby to drive. And so, the Halycone rises from the buildings like a Gear-sized.... well, it's not like a chicken exactly in shape, but those legs don't help. Still, it goes over to Pikachu's side, standing ready.

    "Yoooo, Pikachu! I got chu covered!" says Gwen's voice over the Halycone's loudspeakers. "Mighty big of ya t'come to this city's defense. Is Chase safe? I can handle a few passengers if things get rough. These guys play rough!"

     It takes her a moment to recognize the Schiehallion, and remember who its pilot is. In the cockpit, Gwen sits back, and sighs, speaking to herself now. ".... Better we're doin' this without it bein' face to face, Loren. If Leah's behind this... you probably didn't have a choice, did you?" 

<Pose Tracker> Hannah Curie has posed.

Solaris has been active recently, and although their exact plans are unknown... with the information they received from Solaris, there are some very worrying implications for what they might have planned. Stolen Mega Evolution technology, Nedian technology, meant to enhance the power of a pokemon on a short-term basis...

They'd been on high alert for Solaris activity already, and when they received word that November was their next target... Hannah wasted no time in rushing there. She's still in her Nedian garb, of a navy blue skirt, long green striped top, and a long, flowing pink vest. Zephyr, circling overhead, spots them first, and Hannah rushes to the sight of the battle to take stock of the situation.

A gear, and Leah. Hannah is... reasonably certain her magic is up to the task of fighting the Watcher, but it might put too much of a strain on her, and her magic has been... extra-problematic recently.

Cassandra is running along with her, already out of her ball for the trip. The Absol surveys the landscape, growling faintly, then turns to Hannah and looks up at her. "Ab. Ab, absol."

Hannah looks to her pokemon. They'd discussed it, at length, but hadn't had a chance to actually test out the new Dynamax bands. "If you're certain... then alright."

She reaches into her satchel and pulls out the red and blue band, slipping it onto her wrist. "Alright, Cassandra. Let's do this. Dynamax!" Hannah holds her hand to her chest as the Wishing Stone within it shines brilliantly.

A glow surrounds Cassandra, and the white-furred pokemon lets out a growl as she starts to grow, larger and larger, until she is a match for Loren's gear Schiehallion. She strides forward, taking her place amongst the other gears (and Dynamaxed Pikachu).

"You got this, Cassandra! Zephyr an' I'll support you as best we can. Show Solaris you ain't gonna let them steal from your world just to fuel their own ambitions!"

"Ab!" declares Cassandra, her stance low and ready to strike. 

DC: Hannah Curie switches forms to Dynamax Cassandra!

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    A normal-looking sand dune rests in a sea of similar sand dunes--just another part of the badlands, rolling on to the horizon. About a hundred meters away, a sandy-hued drone the size of a bread box rests atop a building, its sensors turned skyward. As the Solaris assault force rolls in, it takes flight, racing back towards... nothing.

    Well. It looks like nothing from above, in the visual spectrum. In reality, it's the half-buried foundation of a building that was abandoned and leveled--and much more recently, turned into a hiding spot for a Gear. The Dust Dragoon hunches beneath a sand-colored tarp. The little drone flies through an opening, settles into a socket on the Gear's waist armor. In the cockpit, Ida lets out a breath.

    "They're here," she says, into the Empathite radio clipped to her piloting suit's breast. Ida slips her helmet on, and presses her thumbs to the linkages. A hiss fills her ears as her suit's environmental systems activate. The scent of recycled air is an old friend. She turns to the mesh bag hanging next to her seat. It's been firmly secured to the cockpit with rivets and tie-downs, to keep it from rattling its occupant as she maneuvers.

    "Ready, Sal?" Ida asks.

    "Butterfree," says Sal. She flashes Ida a thumbs-up from within the inner crash harness made from shock-absorbant cord and electrical tape.

    The Dust Dragoon stands. The tarp rips free and blows away, catching on the base of a nearby transmission tower. The blue-and-gold Gear takes a thunderous step forwards, unslinging something massive and cylindrical from its shoulders. It's a cannon--almost as long as the Gear is tall, and gleaming the brilliant hues of Dragonbone.

    "Ida and Catastrophe Sal," says Ida, into the local tightband. "On station, prepared to--"

    'PIIIIIIIIII'

    The panoramic display fills with brilliant red light. "What the devil," Ida says, eyes wide behind her visor. Recognition sets in. "Pikachu," she breathes. "That's--that's Dynamax?" God, they weren't kidding when they said it was a game-changer. Moments later, a second massive form joins the first. Sal starts cheering from her sack.

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    'Hold', she says and he would be a liar if he didn't hold the vaguest of vague hopes in his heart in that moment.

    But Leah leaps from the aerial warship and takes even that with her. And why should he have thought otherwise? Hadn't she told him, herself? There is nothing she is not prepared to sacrifice or destroy to attain their goals.

    WARNING: GEAR SIGNATURES DETECTED, announces Schiehallion's on-board system. With a glance at his radar, he can see that this is correct. "...Major, Gears incoming." He can see them -- there are Gears on the horizon now. They're here awfully fast if Solaris's advance was only just noticed, Loren considers darkly. Did someone leak the operation plans? ...Or is he overthinking it?
    And shouldn't he be angry about that, instead of relieved?

    "Beginning operational support protocol," Loren states, locating Leah where she stands atop the broken and barren earth. Exhaling a long breath, he slots his own Ether into the amplifiers in Schiehallion, extending and doubling its output into something more than its component parts. Green light leaps from Schiehallion to Leah, pulsing slowly in its brilliance before it fades away into a glittering wash and then not even that.

    Pink light, off into the distance, catches his eye. It grows, swelling into an enormous vortex of pink-white from which Loren can see... an enormous Pikachu. "What," he utters, as if he were uncertain whether he can really believe what it is that he's seeing. He blinks, shaking his head. ...The Pikachu is getting bigger. ...And bigger still! It's as big as a Gear now, and it looks his way and speaks in a voice that will certainly be back later to haunt his nightmares.

    There are several seconds of radio silence from Loren's end, Leah will notice.

    But then Gwen announces to the world and everyone that she's on Pikachu's side, too, and Loren utters, apparently just to himself, "Okay. ...So, okay, that's happening." It's not that dissimilar to the device they'd found out about and stolen from Silph, sure, but there's a large gulph between knowing this and seeing a giant Pikachu.

    The fact that there's another one -- a giant white and black wolf-like Pokemon -- only clinches the matter further. That, and his computer has just reported other things worth worrying about, one of them advancing at a very high speed.

    "Applying additional enhancements," he says to Leah over the Solarian frequency. "Additional signatures observed and incoming." 

GS: Loren Voss spends 1 Combo on Inspire!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Energy Principle!
GS: Loren Voss has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Loren Voss with Barrier Element!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Barrier Element!
GS: Loren Voss has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Loren Voss has completed his action.
GS: CRITICAL! Loren Voss accepts Loren Voss's Barrier Element for 0 hit points!
GS: Shield applied to Loren Voss!
GS: Shield applied to Loren Voss!

<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.

Leah reaches into the folds of her armor's robes, and pulls out a small orb. She extends her hand: in it is now a Pokeball. She clicks its button, and in a flash of light, there emerges something:

A blue-steel creature with four 'legs' each terminating in spiked metal ends, with two black-and-red eyes and an 'x' over its face. It is robotic, but living; metallic, but mobile.

It is a Metagross, for those who would recognize it. And Leah stands behind it, her blonde hair flowing in the desert wind. "Come," she says. "It's time."

"Metaaaaaa!" it cries in an electronic whine.

Leah's voice carries on the wind, through technology or magic or both, as she says, "It is time to see whether this technology was worthwhile..."

She lifts her gauntlet and within it is suddenly visible a small, colorful stone. "Go. Mega Evolution!"

The stone glints in her hand, and she raises her gauntlet to the sky. The Pokemon calls out in something like fury, and suddenly a whirlwind of energy envelopes the both of them. There is a bright explosion.

When it passes, Metagross is transformed. Its bulk is now drker teal, and the 'X' on its face has turned gold. Each of its 'legs' now has a great claw at the end, and there is a gigantic spike at its 'mouth'. It is much larger than it ws before, and it seethes with power.

Leah narrows her eyes at the Gears before her as her Pokemon floats ahead. "...Metagross," she instructs. "Destroy the city."

"METAAAAAAAAA!"

Metagross's eyes gleam crimson, and it begins to float forward--before lifting all four claws and issuing a horrible pink energy beam towards the city in the distance! 

DC: Leah Sadalbari switches forms to Mega Metagross!

GS: Loren Voss spends 1 Combo on Inspire!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Energy Principle!
GS: Loren Voss has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Loren Voss with Barrier Element!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Barrier Element!
GS: Loren Voss has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Loren Voss has completed his action.
GS: Loren Voss heals Leah Sadalbari! She gains 66 temporary hit points!
GS: Pray adds  Blitz!
GS: Blitz and Regen applied to Leah Sadalbari!
GS: FP up! Loren Voss's Reload!!
GS: Leah Sadalbari gains Combo from Inspire!
GS: Leah Sadalbari accepts Loren Voss's Barrier Element for 0 hit points!
GS: Shield applied to Leah Sadalbari!
GS: CRITICAL! Loren Voss accepts Loren Voss's Barrier Element for 0 hit points!
GS: Shield applied to Loren Voss!
GS: Your next attack with the Counter flag will display with the name Broken Halo.
GS: Leah Sadalbari spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Blitz! Leah Sadalbari has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Flash Cannon!
GS: Leah Sadalbari gains 70 THP from Regen!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has completed her action.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey mostly guards Leah Sadalbari's Flash Cannon for 418 hit points!
GS: Jam and Mute applied to Ida Everstead-Rey!
GS: FP up! Countermeasures and Reaction bonus!

<Pose Tracker> Xiumei Klein has posed.

"There's more of them big monster things, ma'am!" Pilot Joe says.

"They're all on our side, except..." Xiumei's eyes shift towards the giant Metagross; that huge, clawed, vaguely metallic machine. She sucks a breath in. "...Except that one."

Joe frowns. "We're about as low and close as I can risk, ma'am."

"It's good enough!" Xiumei says. She closes her eyes; there is a bright green flash of light, which explodes around her. When it fades, she has white, teal, and light green armor over her body and her clothing. Her hands, now gauntleted, flex.

And her eyes glow, with a brighter-than-usual green color from holographic lenses. "I'm going in. Get clear, Joe."

"Ma'am!"

Xiumei leaps out of the plane -- and comes crashing down, slamming into the earth. Sand blows out in a shockwave around her, when she impacts.

"That's a big one." Varius speaks, the crystal in her chest pulsing with his words.

"I know," Xiumei says. "We'll just be careful."

She forms her hand cannon -- the weapon appears, cubes of data-light condensing until it forms -- and she grabs it, then aims towards the Metagross, and fires off a shot of three blasts of pale green energy for its leg, as Xiumei begins to run towards it.

GS: Xiumei Klein has attacked Leah Sadalbari with AV Buster - Triple Shot!
GS: Xiumei Klein has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Xiumei Klein has completed her action.
GS: Leah Sadalbari mostly guards Xiumei Klein's AV Buster - Triple Shot for 48 hit points!
GS: Mighty and Riposte applied to Xiumei Klein!
GS: FP up! Countermeasures!

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.

    The Dust Dragoon is here, and thank Moor Gault for that, Boudicca gets eleven words into thinking before --

    "IDA!"

    She clearly sees her absorb Mega Metagross's blast -- and in the wake of it, Ida and Sal will find warmth flooding their cockpit and machine, as Boudicca clicks her fingers together, flint to steel.

    "Spark!" Her voice carries on the wind, though she has no radio to transmit it. That's just one of her strange powers, as an air ghost. "And burn bright! Rekindling Breeze!" Boudicca disappears for months at a time, because Seraphim are terrible at mortal timekeeping; even so, she always seems to be right where she's needed.

    (Oxygen feeds flame; so too, here.)

    She is still small, next to Metagross; even so, there is a spiritual might about her which betrays her size. "You will not destroy this city," her voice carries, as she abjures Leah. "We will not allow it."

GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Rekindling Breeze!
GS: Seraph Boudicca has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Seraph Boudicca has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Hannah Curie has posed.

Hannah blinks when she turns her head and notices--a giant Pikachu. "Whoa, Nellie! That-- that looks like a Pikachu..." Even Cassandra turns to look and blinks, at how radically Phwee has changed.

Zephyr squawks, but he spots something, and zooms down to do a swoop around Chase, offering a chirp when he circles in front of him again.

"Whew. Alright. Then she is with us." Hannah runs over to stand by Chase, giving him a nod. "Howdy, hun. Glad you'n your friend are here to help." No, Hannah--you shouldn't be encouraging kids to fight like this!

Who's she to talk, when she set off on her own at 15 with nothing but a red-tailed hawk and a magical malady?

There is a second, shocked expression as Leah, of all people, produces a pokemon--and then promptly Mega Evolves it, which is its own startling transformation to watch. Her heart seizes as an attack is ordered on the city--but Ida in her gear seems to take the hit.

She taps her empathite. "You all good, Ida?"

But Loren and his gear are before them, and Hannah frowns as she studies it. She's new to pokemon battling in general, and in gear-scale combat... Well, she doesn't own a gear. Yet.

But she'll put her faith in her pokemon. "Alright, Cassandra! Use Knock Off!"

Cassandra responds with an "Ab!" of acknowledgment. She springs forward, zigzagging back and forth before pouncing and swipping at any of the external equipment on the gear she reach to try and disrupt its functioning. 

GS: Ida Everstead-Rey accepts Seraph Boudicca's Rekindling Breeze for 0 hit points!
GS: Restore! Jam and Mute removed!
GS: FP up! Seraph Boudicca's Reload!!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey gains Combo from Inspire!
GS: Hannah Curie has attacked Loren Voss with Knock Off!
GS: Hannah Curie has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Chase has posed.

Pikachu is here. Pikachu... is big. There are more giant machines around here, but these ones speak in familiar voices. Friendly voices! Even without Chase's help, Pikachu recognizes her allies -- especially Cassandra, but that's a bingo free space for Pikachu. "Piii Pikachu!" she greets cheerfully, dancing in place. But her body is less agile in Gigantamax, and her little jig is thunderous and clumsy.

Maybe that only makes it cuter.

With Pikachu taking to her new size, it's now Chase's job to command her from below. Ponyta remains with him, deftly carrying him out of danger as he weaves through the battle and sharply whistles out commands. Whether or not, as Gwen asks, this constitutes as being safe is an entirely different manner altogether. No one would be blamed for identifying this is hardly safe at all.

At least he's got Hannah and Zephyr with him now, and Chase smiles faintly at the latter before giving the former a nod.

Both Chase and Pikachu stop, attention snapped keenly on battle as Metagross appears. Not just a Metagross, but evolved beyond that. Mega Evolution. And with a simple command, it fires upon the city with its terrifying beam. Chase's eyes go wide. Destroy the city. Pokemon. Used to destroy a city. Time seems to freeze, though the beam doesn't, and by a miracle of the Dust Dragoon, the city remains standing.

This has to stop. Metagross is a dire threat, and is receiving support.

Pikachu's giant ears twitch, attuned to Chase's whistling even now. Her smile remains, but her brows lower, and she hunches down, then springs up and introduces herself.

"PIII PIKACHU!"

A twinkle of light sparkles from her paw before she descends like a meteor, her whole heavy body thrown fist first into a punch for Schiehallion.

GS: Chase has attacked Loren Voss with Max Knuckle!
GS: Chase has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Chase has completed his action.

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    A low hum emanates from the Dragoon's cannon as it strides towards the lone Solarian on foot. Its front cameras zoom in. Ida's guts twist as she sees the Watcher--no, Leah Sadalbari--pulling a Pokeball from her robes. She releases something...

    As Metagross manifests, Ida reaches out and thumbs the switch for the external speaker. "Leah," she says. Her voice is thick with tension. She's pleading. "Please. Don't do this."

    "Free...?" Sal breathes. Bright red eyes gleam with horror as they watch Metagross grow and change. Is that Pokemon going to fight them? Or Pikachu? Or Cassandra? No.

    That Pokemon's going to fight the city. It's going to destroy the city.

    "NO!" Ida screams. The Dragoon's jets fire, sending it hurtling forwards; a spray of sand trails out behind it. Ida throws her machine between Metagross and its target, barely managing to twist so the beam hits the heavier armor on the Gear's front. Everything goes white as the cameras overload.

    Ida's Gear is still there when the beam peters out, but it's hardly undamaged. The armor on its left torso is a molten, runny ruin, still glowing with heat. Ida glances at the status board and swallows, but the anger boiling inside her makes thoughts of herself a distant second. "How dare you," she snarls. "How dare you. Using that to--to murder--"

    She breathes in. Familiar heat settles into her chest, and a familiar voice echoes in her ears. "Boudicca," Ida whispers. "Thank God. I--it's good to see you. I'm all right, Hannah."

    The Dust Dragoon sets its heels. Data links open over the local tightband--archaic by Nedian standards, or even Solarian, but still more than adequate to deliver information. Ida diverts every sensor she has towards analyzing Leah's empowered Pokemon, and transmitting the to Xiumei's heads-up display, Wu's Gear's computer... and even Vivace's cellphone.

    "All right, you devil," Ida whispers. "Let's see what you can do."

GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Vivace Mori with Early Warning!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Meng Wu with Early Warning!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Xiumei Klein with Early Warning!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Early Warning!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
GS: Xiumei Klein accepts Ida Everstead-Rey's Early Warning for 0 hit points!
GS: Quick applied to Xiumei Klein!
GS: Vivace Mori accepts Ida Everstead-Rey's Early Warning for 0 hit points!
GS: Quick applied to Vivace Mori!

<Pose Tracker> Meng Wu has posed.

There is an extended moment of confusion when spotting the giant Pikachu from Wu. That's. That's a new one.
 
 It elicits a raised eyebrow even.
 
 "I assume it's friendly." She.. thinks. Maybe.
 
 The fact that there's a second giant monster, this time she's not so sure. Then a few more for good measure. She thinks. There's the faintest hint of a frown as she hops on the radio. "Can we ID which monsters are friendly?" Already reaching over to adjust her gear's computer once she gets word.
 
 Might have something to do with sitting far enough away with sensors off for ambush reasons that she doesn't quite recognize the rider of the metagross.
 
 She thumbs the channel and relays over her own network, "Moving out. Keep the engine running and ready to bolt if it goes wrong." before once more togglign the switch. She's not taking her underlings with her.
 
 Either way, she's far enough away she's going to have to rev things up and join in the brawl. With one last check of her systems, she goes full tilt from zero. Breaking free of her concealment and sprinting straight at the one she's at least fairly confident is an enemy. 

GS: Meng Wu accepts Ida Everstead-Rey's Early Warning for 0 hit points!
GS: Quick applied to Meng Wu!
GS: Meng Wu has attacked Meng Wu with Redline!
GS: Meng Wu has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Meng Wu's stances have changed from Counter to Avenger and Counter!
GS: Meng Wu gains 5 FP from her Daredevil!
GS: Meng Wu gains 5 FP from Gleam!
GS: Meng Wu has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Loren Voss perfectly guards Hannah Curie's Knock Off for 114 hit points!
GS: Cripple and Jam blocked!

<Pose Tracker> Vivace Mori has posed.

There are multiple Dynamaxes going on. Vivace, distracted, looks away from her flight path for a moment to lock eyes on Pikachu and Absol.

Erikodus and Niquia are still giving it everything they have, and as Vivace looks back, the trio lower slightly, skimming sand and kicking it up in huge plumes to either side like a wake. She's pretty close now, so Vivace can make out more details, but she *really* wishes she had thought to wear goggles or something - she's rarely ridden Erikodus quite like this before, and never in a desert, and it simply didn't occur to her.

She sees a giant robot, not using the term 'Gear' in her head, and she sees a single person with a Pokeball. Who throws it.

Metagross. Vivace is, of course, very familiar with Metagross, but she's never caught one; she considered it, for the squad, but she never had the opportunity with one that she thought would be a good fit. But what's a Metagross going to do here?

...That, apparently.

Vivace didn't come to the Sylph meeting because she didn't think she needed to. She already knows perfectly well what Dynamaxing is, along with Mega Evolution. She's sure Solaris wanted it; she didn't realize Solaris had it *now*.

Vivace's eyes widen. She can't *get* there fast enough - but one of the Gears can. Vivace doesn't slow down even after that, though. "Eri, down!" she says, and Erikodus drops entirely, feet hitting the sand and plowing a line through it.

A moment later, and the Erikodus launches itself into the air, those spindly legs working perfectly to leap, higher and higher, as Vivace holds on the frame of the Pokemon tighter. There's a faint flicker of Symbological energy -

Vivace's phone rings.

"I AM NOT TAKING THAT CALL," Vivace yells, as Erikodus plummets to the ground, feet-first, with only one stop on the way: Mega Metagross. 

GS: CRITICAL! Loren Voss critically fails to guard Chase's Max Knuckle for 343 hit points!
GS: Hyper, Mighty, and Shield applied to Chase!
GS: Vivace Mori has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Erikodus - Bounce!
GS: Vivace Mori has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

    There is a part of Ethius who should be more surprised that there are a multitude of Pokemon taking to the field capable of achieving greater size. The impact loses a little on the thought 'they have the means to make them smaller to fit in specialized sphere-shaped equipment, this seems in-line with everything else.'
 
     No one can see him stare blankly in his cockpit. He might forget to blink for a whole minute.
 
          He catches the younger Nedian on the walking armored thing or another whose name escapes him (but he can make out the 'ARMLOCK,' so that's Nedian), and that's Hannah with the... he really should brush up on Pokemon species names better.
 
     That leaves...
 
     "I need identification on the one with the four arms. Red eyes." Ethius requests as he finds his composure. "Who is that one with?"
 
     Metagross makes it clear who they're with as they achieve a form beyond their normal, as an enormous beam is sent towards the Seed City. 'With Solaris,' in plainer language.
 
     "The Seed City--" Ethius is too far off to intercept. Ida's Gear saves the day, in the moment, and it's beyond clear now that the need to intercept and interrupt the offensive has become more complicated and on a much shorter timetable at that.
 
     As the smoke clears and the Dust Dragoon remains upright, Ethius reasserts his cross-arm grip on the controls he steadfastly refuses to have adjusted for his left-handedness.
 
     "I'm moving to engage the support Gear," he says. With that, he pilots and pivots the Aiguille into firing position. While he's working from a range most advantageous to him, the Metal Demon War-era laser weaponry it has does come with an Achilles' heel.
 
     An array of laser fire rings out from the front-most segment of the laser rifle-staff to test and probe the Scheihallion's erected defenses, but that laser fire is very easy to trace once it's out to needle Loren's Gear. 

GS: Ethius Hesiod has attacked Loren Voss with Suppress!
GS: Ethius Hesiod has completed his action.
GS: Leah Sadalbari critically fails to evade Vivace Mori's Erikodus - Bounce for 181 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Leah Sadalbari gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Delay applied to Leah Sadalbari!

<Pose Tracker> Rena Lanford has posed.

It wasn't precisely a tip off... it was more a sensation, a feeling. An uneasiness that wasn't even from her, but from someone far more sensitive than she was to such things-
 
danger
avoid
but this
is my world
 
Resolution, felt in one, became a reflection in the other.
 
then
we fly
 
Loren and the Solarian ship would assuredly see the shape coming on the sensors, at high speed. There is a reason that Solaris rules the skies of this world - and it is by disallowing others to progress to the point of challenge.
 
It would fly fast enough to challenge many Metal Dragons, even if it's mass is much smaller, blurs of blue pressed to its body contrails of blue energy forming behind it, as it dives down low.
 
Flaring out its cerulean wings of energy out, the Psynard looks like a strange mechanical amalgamation between machine and dragon in it's own right, cybernetic perhaps in this case.
 
Bluish grey in color, with a squat head and large fin, a girl with blue hair is clinging onto them for dear life.
 
"Solaris!? But they're- is that a Metagross!?" She recognizes that Pokemon but- it's size, is it like the same thing Giovanni pulled.
 
"That man." Rena realizes as she thinks of Loren Voss, upset at the implications, with November City being in the path of that Pokemon. "Of course Solaris would use Pokemon for this."
 
Another squat little Pokemon, a Psynymph clings beside Rena on her mother's back, as Gabby squawls her discontent, "Psy! Psy! Psy!" And Rena pulls her closer. "Stay close to me Gabby. Lady Brightwing!"
 
protect
protect
 
The Psynard lets out a mechanical screech before it dives in a sharp arc at high speed, by the Mega Metagross, the wings elongating just subtly into feathered blades of energy.
 
It swoops by, attempting to strike it with radiant energy on the way, before arcing back around, and trying to do the same thing on the return pass.
 
"You think we'll just let you do this!? Pokemon were never meant to be weapons of war!"
 
Gabby abruptly turns around in Rena's grip, neck craning, as she begins chattering, "NYPSY!" In a sibilant synthetic warble, and- is she actually waving a paw at the Aiguille?
 
"Huh!? What do you mean Ethius is here too?"
 
From the back of Lady Brightwing as it turns about Ethius, Rena awkwardly finger wiggles too, "Didn't... realize he had a Gear, actually."
 
Gabby at least seems very impressed by Ethius' ability to turn into a giant mechanical being.
 
"Well... he does keep to himself." Rena answers either Gabby or herself after a moment, it's unclear.

DC: Rena Lanford switches forms to Flying High On Wings of Resolution Come Out - LADY BRIGHTWING!!

GS: Rena Lanford has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Radiant Wings!
GS: Rena Lanford has gained 3 Combo!
GS: Rena Lanford has completed her action.
GS: Gamble: Moderate! Leah Sadalbari marginally guards Rena Lanford's Radiant Wings for 203 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Leah Sadalbari gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Blind and Drowsy blocked!
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!

<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

There's another giant Pokemon, too - Jacqueline can't tell who's commanding her, but she can see that she's helping to defend the city.

Pikachu does a little jig and gives a cheer of greeting. Jacqueline can't help herself, and Issachar responds to her first thoughts - the Gear raising a hand to offer Pikachu a polite wave of greeting in return.

And then, Solaris acts. Jacqueline turns, focusing up once more. Schiehallion utilizes support Ether, but then... the unexpected happens.

Leah calls out a Pokemon - and it transforms. Issachar's computer registers a massive spike of energy in response - and then, it jumps up even further as it prepares an attack.

"No!" Jacqueline gasps. She starts to move - but fortunately, Ida gets there first. She pays the price for it... but fortunately, the Dust Dragoon is still standing. Jacqueline exhales gratefully. "Are you alright?"

Ethius announces his movements - and Jacqueline nods.

"Right behind you." She replies. Issachar soars in close, thrusting a spear toward Schiehallion! 

GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Loren Voss with Fuel Thrust!
GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

?"That one's with Leah, I think," Gwen answers Ethius over her speakers, though it's very clear just who Meta is serving. "Looks like they're plannin' on using Energy Nede's tech to attack. Really shouldn't be that surprised." 

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    "That one's with Leah, I think," Gwen answers Ethius over her speakers, though it's very clear just who Meta is serving. "Looks like they're plannin' on using Energy Nede's tech to attack. Really shouldn't be that surprised."

    She's saying this, while unironically swooping around the giant Pikachu in defense of November City. "All of y'all goin' towards Leah," she adds, now addressing everyone here with a sober tone, "... This is me, Gwen, tellin' y'all to be careful. Whether you go to her or that Pokemon, by guess is you're gonna be grabbin' on by the bull's horns."

    Loren's support Gear is going to be equally as annoying, since he'll make that threat even worse.

    "Okay, Halcyone, let's go show 'em whatca got!" The four digit hands sink into each hand of the Gear, which turns them into a ready cannons to launch harpoons meant for a sea of an entirely different kind. They work here too, especially if one or two manage to snag onto the the Schiehallion for some added damage later. 

GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Loren Voss with Portman-tow!
GS: Gwen Whitlock enters a Counter stance!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.
GS: Loren Voss mostly guards Ethius Hesiod's Suppress for 57 hit points!
GS: Jam blocked!
GS: Loren Voss critically fails to evade Jacqueline Barber's Fuel Thrust for 290 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Loren Voss gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Disease and Corrode applied to Loren Voss!
GS: Shield applied to Jacqueline Barber!
GS: CRITICAL! Loren Voss perfectly guards Gwen Whitlock's Portman-tow for 119 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Loren Voss gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    It's time, Leah says, and all Loren feels able to do is watch on as Leah summons forth Metagross and applies the technology he'd stolen exactly for this purpose. It, too, grows in size; soon it turns its attention towards the city. As commanded, a great crimson beam leaps forth from Metagross.

    Loren doesn't say a word.

    Is it some small blessing that one of those Gears intercepts? If he is ever asked, he will not say so.

    And indeed, soon enough, he has other problems to attend that are far, far more immediate than wondering at what of Metagross's attacks might succeed in leveling November City. That other Pokemon's attention has turned towards Loren's Gear, running right at him to leap high into the air -- impossibly high, were she not now appropriately-sized for such a confrontation - and swing with her claws. But Schiehallion is heavily armored: only one layer of shielding is cleaved through and Absol is unsuccessful in knocking loose any external components (for now).

    But Absol isn't the only oversized Pokemon that Loren should be concerned regarding. There is, of course, Pikachu, and Hannah isn't the only one who has twigged to the fact that Metagross (and Leah) is receiving aid from the support Gear. Loren's only warning sign is a streak of yellow, and then, from above, a warcry. Pikachu is moving. Schiehallion is not. Physics ensues.

    When Schiehallion hits the ground in the seconds thereafter, it leaves behind a crater. Jets blaze as Schiehallion briefly takes flight, removing itself from the crater. It's then that Ethius' lasers lance out, dancing across the superlative exterior plating and finding them sufficiently functional... except where Absol had cleaved through previously.

    "So it's you--" Loren speaks over the public frequency, apparently noting Ethius' technique for what whose it is. "What are you playing at--"

    Ethius, of course, isn't alone. Jacqueline and her Omnigear are right behind him. Or behind Loren, as the case may be. It won't be the first time she targetted him thus. The spear finds exactly what it's looking for.

    Loren's gaze skims the damage report in the moments after. Damn... a leak already? He'll have to use care in what he does--

    He catches movement. Threading the spell through the engine as fast as he can, he raises a shimmering wall of light, off which Gwen's harpoon cracks. Within the cockpit, Loren heaves out a breath.

    "Why," he asks, over the public channel, "are you here?" And as if to underscore that sentiment, he draws both of the small-barrel Gear-scale ARMs holstered against Schiehallion's lower back and unloads upon Ethius and Gwen's Gears with Ether-attuned munitions.

    Neither does he ignore the two large-scale Pokemon: with a breath, he conjures two great spears of stone and earth, set off in an arc for both Chase's Pikachu and Hannah's Absol.
    And in the last he turns hard towards Jacqueline's Gear and lets her have it with both barrels. 

GS: Loren Voss has attacked Ethius Hesiod with Meridian Storm!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Meridian Storm!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Chase with Terra Ray!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Hannah Curie with Terra Ray!
GS: Loren Voss has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Jacqueline Barber with False Eclipse!
GS: Loren Voss has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Loren Voss takes 59 damage from Corrode!
GS: Loren Voss has completed his action.
GS: CRITICAL! Jacqueline Barber mostly evades Loren Voss's False Eclipse for 167 hit points!
GS: Cover applied to Loren Voss!
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!
GS: Chase marginally charges Loren Voss's Terra Ray for 234 hit points!
GS: Shield applied to Loren Voss!

<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.

Xiumei's shots get Leah's attention; she turns towards the woman who just hit the ground like she did, and the Mega Metagross moves to fold its claws in to protect against the blasts. They're still powerful, but not enough to stop it yet.

Boudicca abjures her; a look across the distance sees Leah focus on her. "Will you not?" she inquires. "Let us see your resolve, then." Her voice carries, too. But the Metgross also notices that rekindling breeze, and its red eyes focus on Boudicca. It calculates its best move--and launches towards her, extending a slashing claw carrying purple energies.

The Dust Dragoon is providing support, and its pilot speaks to Leah. She shakes her head on the ground. "A weapon is a weapon, Ida. Would it be kinder if I sought to kill them with guns or bombs? Would it be more acceptable if I used a means you could abide?"

Metagross turns to the Dust Dragoon, and a shockwave of psychic energy follows. Metagross seeks to scramble electronic systems and Ida's mind both as the attack settles like distorting air toward the Gear.

"Don't forget the small one," Leah instructs her Pokemon, and it settles its gaze on Xiumei. The whole huge thing launches at her next, swinging its claws in a flurry of punches meant to obliterate her outright.

"The inheritor of the Reploids," Leah reflects, her voice carrying to Xiumei. "But do you have their skill as well as their power?"

Vivace's Erikodus launches itself--and this is a battle that has perhaps played out in the past, in the badlands near Armlock. It plays out here like this: With tht Symbological energy empowering it, Erikodus stomps the Metagross, slamming it downward and away from Xiumei before it can follow up its attacks. But Metagross, blue-gray and terrible, turns immediately, its eyes glowing. Psychic teeth launch through the air towards Erikodus, chomping down at it.

Leah's eyes move sharply to the flying thing in the distance as her Pokemon battles. The Psynard appears, Lady Brightwing in all her glory, and Rena calls out her defiance. "Metagross! Move!"

Metagross does move; it is able to evade the first of Lady Brightwing's two strikes, but not the second, wobbling mid-air s it is knocked backward again through sheer force--but in Lady Brightwing's passage, it raises one metallic claw to try to slash her in return.

"Do you think you can stop me?" Leah asks of Rena. "As I said, a weapon is a weapon. I will use whatever means are necessary to achieve our aims."

Metagross finally spots Wu's Gear in the distance. It suddenly comes to a stop, turns--and roars, the sound echoing into the distance, echoing loud enough that it can even be heard in the city, and when the shockwave passes Wu's Gear might suddenly be much harder to maneuver through Symbological interference.

"Continue the mission," Leah instructs Loren. "Your new objective is to destroy the obstacles." 

GS: Leah Sadalbari spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: Blitz! Leah Sadalbari has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Shadow Claw!
GS: Blitz! Leah Sadalbari has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Confusion!
GS: Blitz! Leah Sadalbari has attacked Xiumei Klein with Bullet Punch!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Blitz! Leah Sadalbari has attacked Vivace Mori with Psychic Fangs!
GS: Blitz! Leah Sadalbari has attacked Rena Lanford with Metal Claw!
GS: Blitz! Leah Sadalbari has attacked Meng Wu with Scary Face!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Leah Sadalbari gains 58 THP from Regen!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has completed her action.
GS: Access! Leah Sadalbari takes 126 damage!
GS: Rena Lanford fails to evade Leah Sadalbari's Metal Claw for 428 hit points!
GS: Cripple, Jam, and Mute applied to Rena Lanford!
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!
GS: Vivace Mori fails to guard Leah Sadalbari's Psychic Fangs for 201 hit points!
GS: Dispel! Quick removed!
GS: Hannah Curie fails to charge Loren Voss's Terra Ray for 254 hit points!
GS: Ethius Hesiod mostly charges Loren Voss's Meridian Storm for 77 hit points!
GS: FP up! Countermeasures!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey accepts Ida Everstead-Rey's Early Warning for 0 hit points!
GS: Quick applied to Ida Everstead-Rey!
GS: CRITICAL! Ida Everstead-Rey fails to evade Leah Sadalbari's Confusion for 588 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ida Everstead-Rey gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Mute applied to Ida Everstead-Rey!
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!
GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Boudicca mostly evades Leah Sadalbari's Shadow Claw for 122 hit points!
GS: Jam and Mute applied to Seraph Boudicca!
GS: FP up! Power Burst!
GS: COUNTER! Gwen Whitlock counterattacks Loren Voss with Stuff Attacking From The Other Side!!!
GS: Gwen Whitlock critically fails to charge Loren Voss's Meridian Storm for 242 hit points!
GS: Shield applied to Loren Voss!
GS: FP up! Countermeasures!
GS: Meng Wu accepts Meng Wu's Redline for 0 hit points!
GS: Hyper applied to Meng Wu!
GS: Riposte applied to Meng Wu!
GS: Meng Wu critically fails to evade Leah Sadalbari's Scary Face for 263 hit points!
GS: Entangle and Slow applied to Meng Wu!
GS: Loren Voss perfectly guards Gwen Whitlock's Stuff Attacking From The Other Side!! for 98 hit points!
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!
GS: CRITICAL! Xiumei Klein mostly evades Leah Sadalbari's Bullet Punch for 144 hit points!
GS: Jam and Mute applied to Xiumei Klein!

<Pose Tracker> Hannah Curie has posed.

Hannah has a protective instinct for kids a mile wide, as does Zephyr. And Cassandra may have a similar instinct, at least towards pokemon. She nods to Pikachu, "Absol, absol." Hannah doesn't have to speak pokemon to know Cassandra will keep an eye on her.

To Chase she gives her own, much more unguarded smile, despite the dire circumstances. It's as much for Chase as it is for herself.

She breaths a sigh of relief as she gets a reply back from Ida, though the state of her gear is--distressing, to say the least.

Hannah chimes in on her empathite to respond to Gwen. "They are usin' Nede tech. Short story is, last week they stole tech from a Nede company that enables somethin' called Mega Evolution, to power up a pokemon. We got a briefin' on it. Iiiii'm guessin' what we jus' saw was it."

Loren wants to know why they're there. Hannah suspects he means how they are there, but she's not about to answer that. "'Cause we ain't just gonna roll over an' let Solaris do what it wants."

A mighty ray of stone and earth is called forth, and sent after Cassandra. She growls and tries to stand her ground, but her footing slips and she is driven back, sent crashing down to her side with an earth-shaking thud. She slowly rises to her feet with a pained growl. "Cassandra!" shouts Hannah. "Hang in there, girl!"

Destroy the obstacles, says Leah. "Well, if it's obstacles you're wantin', then let's make this as difficult as possible. Cassandra! Detect!"

Cassandra responds with an "Ab!" of acknowledgement. Her horn starts to shimmer as she channels energy through it. Absols are known for detecting the presence of natural disasters (and unfairly blamed for the causing of said disasters), through a sensitivity to vibrations in the air and the earth.

And Gears cause some mighty big vibrations of their own, now don't they?

Cassandra bolts forward, pushing her senses to the max to respond to incoming attacks with preternatural grace. She zigzags back and forth before making a pounce at the gear with her claws. 

GS: Hannah Curie has attacked Loren Voss with Detect!
GS: Hannah Curie has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Hannah Curie's stances have changed to Hero!
GS: Hannah Curie has completed her action.
GS: Loren Voss fails to evade Hannah Curie's Detect for 442 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Loren Voss gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Cover and Riposte applied to Hannah Curie!

<Pose Tracker> Xiumei Klein has posed.

Sensor data from Ida's Gear floods across Xiumei's vision -- the holographic lenses over her eyes doubling as a HUD -- and her eyes blink, once...

But she nods. "Thanks, Ida," she says, softly.

She looks up at the Metagross -- a frown on her face. Then, she shakes her head. "We'll find out," she says. The claw swipes slam into the ground, where Xiumei was -- she's already leaped up, though only just evades the massive claw slamming down. The wind is enough to knock her backward.

She leaps in the air, then she comes down for the Metagross, the AV Saber forming in her other hand; the AV Buster vanishes in a flash, before she grabs the weapon with both hands.

Then slashes down, as she descends for the gigantic Pokemon, leaving a trail of green light through the air.

GS: Xiumei Klein spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Xiumei Klein has attacked Leah Sadalbari with AV Saber - Jump Slash!
GS: Xiumei Klein has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Xiumei Klein has completed her action.
GS: Leah Sadalbari mostly charges Xiumei Klein's AV Saber - Jump Slash for 240 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Leah Sadalbari gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Countermeasures and Reaction bonus!

<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

    The resolve of Lady Brightwing and her dear friend Rena make their colorful, rapid entrance, and Ethius spies Gabby waving in his direction. He is full aware how futile it is to completely hide himself from potent Psychic-type creatures. This is a strange, scary, violent environment. The least he can do from his cockpit is return the sentiment, albeit in a clinical fashion that merely communicates the return of affection once he can free a hand from the Gear's grip of the weapon to return such a wave.
 
     He maintains it a little longer as Lady Brightwing looks to him, as if he might be in trouble by the Mother Psynard.
 
     He's going to have to open a public line anyway for everyone on Pokemon to hear.
 
     "The large one with the four arms is working with Solaris to attack one of the Seed Cities," he gives that run-down to Rena with quiet acknowledgement he can't speak of for Gwen breaking it down a bit more clearly, and that is as much time as he gets before he has to deal with Schiehallion's return fire (both verbal on behalf of pilot and actual rounds).
 
     'Why are you here?' The sequel to the half-formed, interrupted 'what are you playing at--'
 
     Ethius guns it, and surges the Aiguille forward, because its present cover indeed doesn't survive the ARM fire from the Meridian Storm. His weaving is skillful despite it having been some time since he last piloted the Aiguille in a high-stress situation.
 
     It is less skill, and more purpose, as he leans forward in his cockpit and narrows his eyes. Professionally, he'd turn off public comms and leave Loren without an answer.
 
     Personally...
 
     "I can't allow you to use what you've taken to bring harm to the rest," says a man who was once a young boy who saw the home that never should have been his home caught in the crossfire of a crime cartel-related assault his family invariably brought to them.
 
     Today's another day to prevent a similar fate from befalling the children - and grown-ups, and everyone, really - of the nearby Seed City.
 
     Some of the grounds noticeably graze the Aiguille - the right shoulder took a not-insignificant grazing that shears off armor plating - but he keeps weaving along so he doesn't get caught up in the cross-fire of an enormous Pikachu and an unsettling Absol, keeping clear of Issachar and positioning wider yet from the Halcyone.
 
     Ethius goes so far as tor isk melee, swinging the segmented rifle-staff in an upwards blow to pile on the pressure against the Scheihallion as everyone involved has to deal with the novel calculus of giant Pokemon doing giant Pokemon things.
 
     "There is no question or doubt as to why I would be present," Ethius punctuates that point. 

GS: Ethius Hesiod has attacked Loren Voss with Vertical!
GS: Ethius Hesiod has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Ethius Hesiod has completed his action.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.

    Metagross is three feet taller even than Boudicca's amazonian frame; on the other hand, it is only three feet taller, rather than three times taller. It means that she is able to leap away from its Shadow Claw without being crushed by the shockwave, though it is quick enough still for its metal claws to tear into the silks around her armour, ribboning her skirt to tatters on one side.

    "You speak vapid philosophy as you come to kill the children!" Boudicca accuses Leah, on the heels of her reply to Ida. "Any woman of sane mind would see that the answer is the answer, no matter the means! By gun or bomb or knife or Arte or prayer or Pokemon or hammer or spear or flame or flood, still would you come to slay these men!"

    She thrusts out a hand, as a massive green Seraphic circle alights upon the earth. "Your means are wretched as your aims, and I will not allow it! THE WORLD EXHALES!" And as she invokes the Arte, the Breeze wraps about the Dust Dragoon, healing Ida's machine of its ills. "Soothing Breeze--!!"

GS: Seraph Boudicca spends 1 Combo on Reload!
GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Soothing Breeze!
GS: Seraph Boudicca has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Seraph Boudicca gains 5 FP from Sufferer!
GS: Seraph Boudicca has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Chase has posed.

A very large battle takes place, both in scale and in stakes. Chase's eyes dart from one combatant to the next. Metagross and this massive metal weapon called a Gear. The city under threat. Win conditions flash in his mind, almost overpowered by the sheer number of loss conditions. It's unbalanced when one side wins through enough inflicted harm, and the other through total survival.

Try, and keep trying. Breathe. Hannah smiles back like everything's fine, and Chase decides to believe that. A Psynard soars overhead, and Chase feels a little warmer, a little more confident. Ponyta snorts flames, watching with as much intensity, and keen to Chase's every command as a rider.

A spear of earth launches toward Pikachu and is that rock or is that ground and does it even matter? There's no time to move! It plunges into her body, sinks in and bounces like Loren had just attacked a particularly springing pillow. "Piiikaaaa!" she complains, off balance and waddling from the force of it despite her spongy defenses.

One may imagine what it would be like to hug such a Pikachu.

Loren may be about to find out. Or at least his Gear. For Pikachu teeters and totters and goes to land upon him. All ????.? lbs of her collapses to smash into Schiehallion. A whistle from Chase is nearly lost in the din of the collapse, trying to salvage a bad situation as Pikachu takes the advice to simply lean into hurling her body down harder.

Wherever she lands, she fractures the earth, and then a pillar of light EXPLODES from the cracks, shooting into the sky with the power to rend armor asunder.

GS: Chase has attacked Loren Voss with Max Strike!
GS: Chase gains 5 FP from Gleam!
GS: Chase has completed his action.
GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Boudicca heals Ida Everstead-Rey! She gains 415 temporary hit points!
GS: Restore! Mute removed!
GS: FP up! Seraph Boudicca's Reload!!

<Pose Tracker> Rena Lanford has posed.

Lady Brightwing's pass is cut short by a sudden metal claw which pierces her exterior. There's a spout of something - oily, like the Metagross hit something vital.
 
Yet before she would hit the ground, she swings about in a corkscrew like barrel roll, arcing back up, wings flaring as she screeches.
 
The wound still visibly trickles some kind of fluid as Rena answers her, "Just me? No... I won't." Rena answers, "But I'm not alone. Since I've gone to Nede - I've gained so many more precious friends in my life."
 
Rena continues speaking, her voice symbologically amplified in this moment, "Lady Brightwing isn't my weapon! She opposes you by her own choice! And we won't let you ignore the lessons of Nede's past to harm the people of the world that took me in."
 
There are no visible eyes on Lady Brightwing, but there is abruptly the impression of a gleam, as the Pokemon rapidly begins to flap her wings, before they flare open, glowing brighter, and brighter, before she sends two great swaths of energy at the Metagross.
 
They slice down in an X, each demanding it's toll as the energy slices deep into it's psyche. Gabby the Psynymph abruptly spies the wound on her mother, and then looks down at the Metagross and angrily shouts, "NYNYNYNYNY!"
 
"Gabby! Language!" Rena sounds scandalized before she corrects, "Er... thought?"
 
This communication is complicated and new to her after all, thoughts translate to feelings and feelings into thoughts and the line blurs somewhere along the way.
 
"Though I do agree with the sentiment... your Mother should do that."
 
Ethius explains and Rena considers it, because while she'd gathered, "Why though? They're not - at war with them! Right? Why is Solaris even doing this?! All these people..."
 
In a moment however, she thinks of the answer the Ten Wise Men might give, a myriad of answers but most prominently- 'Because we can.'
 
And part of her just shudders in revulsion at the thought.

GS: Rena Lanford spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: Rena Lanford has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Psycho Cut!
GS: Rena Lanford has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Rena Lanford has completed her action.
GS: Loren Voss mostly guards Chase's Max Strike for 63 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Loren Voss gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Loren Voss's Break Ward may block the effect!
GS: Entangle applied to Loren Voss!
GS: Break blocked!
GS: Hyper applied to Chase!
GS: Loren Voss marginally charges Ethius Hesiod's Vertical for 146 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Loren Voss gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Jam applied to Loren Voss!
GS: Cripple blocked!
GS: Charge!! You gain 40 FP! (That's 25 more than usual!)
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    Unfortunately, aiming those harpoons to get a hook on Loren means no way to guard, so as another joins in to clang off of Loren's barrier, Gwen is left with taking on Loren's attack head on.

    Well, the Halcyone is, rather. Thankfully, it's a little better at weathering such attacks than Gwen is on-foot. ... Assuming the ether user is also on foot, anyway.

    A stray chip launches up from the impact, hitting Gwen on her left cheek. 'Why are you here?'

    Oh, Loren.

    Gwen grins, grabbing her com off its hook with gusto. "I could ask you the same question, y'know. But yeah. I'm a courier. It's my job." She doesn't question him further-- not with Leah about. As much as Loren shoulders the blame for this attack, he's recieving it now; Gwen doesn't want to give Leah any reason to punish Loren for any possible thoughts of treason. ... That said-- "Also on my list? Makin' sure these nice cities don't get attacked by any sky cities."

    Switching channels to respond to Hannah, Gwen says, "So that's why they're all big n' mighty? God, don't let any of those get next to Voltie."

    Still, she's not going to attack again just yet. Halcyone wouldn't last if she took more of those.

    Instead, she slides open a compartment beside her, and nabs some random supplies. "Ida! Rena! Vivace! Catch!"

    Each blast launches a care packet, complete with a little parachute. If it gets a little dinged in the process, you'll have to forgive Gwen; this was one of those ideas she had that didn't pan out with her clients. Sure makes for a great idea in battle, though! 

<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

Issachar's spear finds its mark, and Jacqueline draws back as Gwen closes in. Loren asks a question - but she doesn't quite get to answer, just yet. Schiehallion turns on her and opens fire. Issachar dodges the first shot but the second connects, slamming into its and sending her reeling back through the air.

Hannah and Ethius offer perfectly fitting answers. And Jacqueline...

"What they said. And what about you? Wiping an entire city off the map... This is madness. Surely you can see that!" Jacqueline asks.

Issachar casts a hand out - and several bladed feathers of the Wing Unit floating behind Issachar detach, rushing toward Schiehallion at her command like a flurry of knives, slashing at Loren's Gear as they pass to harry and distract. 

GS: Gwen Whitlock spends 1 Combo on Reload!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Air Mail!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Rena Lanford with Air Mail!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Vivace Mori with Air Mail!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.
GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Loren Voss with Feather Swarm!
GS: Jacqueline Barber has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action.
GS: Gwen Whitlock heals Vivace Mori! She gains 112 temporary hit points!
GS: Pray adds  Shield!
GS: Shield applied to Vivace Mori!
GS: FP up! Gwen Whitlock's Reload!!
GS: Gwen Whitlock heals Rena Lanford! She gains 218 temporary hit points!
GS: Pray adds  Surge!
GS: Surge applied to Rena Lanford!
GS: FP up! Gwen Whitlock's Reload!!

<Pose Tracker> Meng Wu has posed.

Wu clicks her radio twice in confirmation of Ida's relayed information. She's rusty and might be a little more tense than her usual appearance would suggest. That she was fine running into a gunfight without an issue.. somehow makes it funny somewhere in the recesses of her mind.
 
 She doesn't respond to Leah's question of cruelty. Mostly because her older gear wasn't exactly handling the roar as well as she'd have liked and she has to clear the double vision from her eyes for a moment. Which she accomplishes by closing her eyes and hitting her head back against the seat. Focus!
 
 She didn't let off of the throttle though.
 
 There is isntead a wry comment briefly audible on the radio, "I feel I missed out in bringing my own monster." Some attmept at a joke, though it's deadpanned. She's trying! She's got a new audience though and it's probably the wrong sense of humor.
 
 A weapon's a weapon. To a degree she doesn't herself, disagree. "It's how the weilder chooses to use it." She keys on her speakers. Still deadpan. "You aren't the weilder though."
 
 She has a hunch as to why the attack is happening. A few really. Either denying assets or..
 
 She taps the comms isntead, "Is this a feint?" Asking to her current allies. They may or may not trust her yet. She knows what she'd have done in this position and why.
 
 Feint or not, it's a serious attack and she's going to help put a stop to it.
 
 Swinging a crosshilt spear around, she thrusts forward. Any sympathy for the pokemon compartmentalized for the time being. If able to make contact, the gear suddenly jerks forward, then lifts, kicking the pole upward at the same time. She's not actually sure on the weight of the pokemon, but... well. Putting them off balance is a start right?
 
 "I'm not letting you finish this mission." Said at the same time as the thrust. There is determination there, but like everything else, it's muted somehow. 

GS: Meng Wu has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Pole Kick!
GS: Meng Wu has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Meng Wu gains 5 FP from her Daredevil!
GS: Meng Wu gains 5 FP from Gleam!
GS: Meng Wu has completed her action.
GS: Gwen Whitlock heals Ida Everstead-Rey! She gains 218 temporary hit points!
GS: Pray adds  Shield!
GS: Shield applied to Ida Everstead-Rey!
GS: FP up! Gwen Whitlock's Reload!!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Leah Sadalbari mostly guards Rena Lanford's Psycho Cut for 153 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Leah Sadalbari gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Dispel! Blitz, Regen, and Shield removed!
GS: Blind and Drowsy applied to Leah Sadalbari!
GS: Leah Sadalbari marginally evades Meng Wu's Pole Kick for 151 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Leah Sadalbari gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Misery adds  Cripple!
GS: Cripple applied to Leah Sadalbari!

<Pose Tracker> Vivace Mori has posed.

Still clinging onto the back of Erikodus, Vivace does close her eyes during the impact, when Erikodus drives Mega Metagross downward to the sand and springs off, but she's got them open again moments later.

Which is good, because the psychic Mega Megagross is chomping, telekinetic teeth clamping down. "Side!" Vivace calls, and Erikodus makes a quick evasion, Niquia beginning to form a barrier from its back.

The barrier does more than the dodge. The teeth grind into it, shattering the light even as it forms and crunching into Erikodus itself. "Gh - " Vivace makes a noise even though she wasn't the one hit, Niquia making a beeping "Ni ni ni!" in warning behind her. She knows already!

This isn't even how the Outsiders fight. This is Nedean creatures, Nedean technology, and Vivace has to be better than they are. She's going to be a Gym Leader; she's going to be the champion. Which means... Her hand slips toward her pocket, and she reaches in, though she pulls nothing out yet. Just grips.

"That's a Metagross," she says, and this time she lets Niquia handle the communications. "It's steel - so my department - and psychic. They're some of the most durable - and strongest - Pokemon around." Vivace assumes the Visitors could use some info; it's not like most of them have Pokedexes. "But if you've got Flamethrower, that'll work. Or ghosts." HEY BOUDICCA YOU HAVE TYPE ADVANTAGE.

(Though, isn't *she* the Visitor here...?)

She looks up at the Psynard, suddenly startled by its presence - she didn't see it before, she was busy getting thrown around and bitten - and she scowls. It's got a Nedean on it, but it's not a Nedean she knows well, and from what she hears she's barely a Nedean at all; she's not *from* Nede, is she? She didn't grow up there. Filgaia is her home.

She doesn't like it. Nedeans should be able to handle Nedean problems, and it shouldn't have gone to someone like her. Problems like Mega Evolution, even in the hands of Solaris...

"Hey, Solaris," Vivace calls. "Why don't you buzz off? And leave the Metagrossite behind! Erikodus, give me a beam - "

Erikodus, landed again, is obedient. Its forward-mounted gun raises slightly, tracking, before it fires an electrical beam - which blasts forward, and then blasts *back* toward Erikodus, supercharging it!

Meanwhile, air mail... threatens to miss. Vivace leans way out to one side to catch it. "..." She supposes she ought to say something about it. "...thanks?" 

GS: Vivace Mori has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Erikodus - Charge Beam!
GS: Vivace Mori has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Vivace Mori has completed her action.
GS: Leah Sadalbari critically fails to guard Vivace Mori's Erikodus - Charge Beam for 199 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Leah Sadalbari gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Mighty applied to Vivace Mori!
GS: FP up! Countermeasures!

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    A voice Ida doesn't recognize--Wu--transmits over the local band. "Solaris," Ida says, "the four-armed metal one with the gold X is with Solaris. The others are friendly." Jay asks if she's all right, and she lets out a hiss of breath between her teeth. "For now," she says. "Don't know if I can take another hit like that." The Metagross is terribly agile, especially for something of its size. The Dust Dragoon limps forwards, staying between the Pokemon and the city.

    The blare of an ancient air-raid siren echoes in the distance. Ida reminds herself what's at stake, and sets her jaw.

    "I won't abide this butchery, no matter what you use," she snarls.

    "Butterfree!" Sal cries. She can't tell Leah to get bent in those precise words, but the spirit is there.

    Mega Metagross turns its full attention to Ida's Gear. Its jets ignite and burn beneath it, throwing it sideways--but it's too late. The psychic force washes over it. The jets sputter and die mid-dodge, and it lands with a heavy CRUNCH, bleeding momentum as it skids across the sand.

    Ida's gloved hands scrabble against her helmet. She can't tell if she's upright, if she's looking at the panoramic display, if there's a fire in the cockpit, if something's shorting out. She's strapped into her seat and he's threaded into his Metal Dragon siege-form. Or is it the other way around?

    Boudicca's voice. Ida hears her Oracle's voice, and clings to it like a life preserver. Sal's voice joins it a few moments later. The blurry world resolves into a panoramic screen mottled with static. The monitors show what's happened: the Dragoon is lying on its side, its cannon still gripped tightly in hand. Gwen's package contained a pressurized cannister of fire suppressant, which burst open on impact with the Gear's superheated hull. She might've saved Ida from a cockpit fire.

    The Gear wedges itself up on an arm, awkwardly using the butt of the cannon as a pivot point until it can get its legs beneath it. Once it's kneeling, Ida locks onto Metagross.

    "Dirty pool," she says, her tone cold as a glacier. Moments later, a torrent of white-hot flame spills from the Three-Dragon Cannon. That Nedian Trainer said this thing was Steel-type, and the other day Elaine told her Steel was weak to Fire. Ida has Fire in spades in this thing.

GS: Ida Everstead-Rey spends 1 Combo on Poison!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Three Dragon Cannon - Flame Breath!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey gains 5 FP from Gleam!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
GS: Leah Sadalbari fails to evade Ida Everstead-Rey's Three Dragon Cannon - Flame Breath for 426 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Leah Sadalbari gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Corrode applied to Leah Sadalbari!
GS: FP up! Countermeasures and Reaction bonus!
GS: Loren Voss mostly guards Jacqueline Barber's Feather Swarm for 193 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Loren Voss gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Delay and Mute blocked!
GS: Shield applied to Jacqueline Barber!
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!
GS: Loren Voss enters CONDITION GREEN!!

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    "..."

    He doesn't have an immediate answer to Ethius' response -- indeed, it's the sort of response anyone would give. Does Leah notice?
    Probably.

    No, those two Pokemon aren't the only ones. While he'd initially taken the one to be some strange sort of Gear, he realizes quickly that it too is a Pokemon--
    As is the Psynard that has come bearing down to stop Leah's Metagross.

    His new mission is to destroy the obstacles.

    Which is to say, the people now trying to stop them from destroying November City -- or any of the other cities that have made the Gunsmoke Desert their home. "Understood," he tells Leah.

    But as Hannah says, the 'obstacles' aren't just about to roll over and let them do what they want. Which, Loren can appreciate in the grander scheme of things... while also not appreciate for what it could mean for him if Leah and/or the Ministry decided to take action for his failure in this endeavor.

    Cassandra the Absol comes in hot, unfortunately, and Loren's Gear has taken damage since she'd last taken a swing. And Gwen has just lobbed another strike at him, which he intercepted with another conjured shield, leaving him momentarily distracted. So when she hits, she hits hard: hard enough to shear away further exterior shielding and deeply enough for this strike to be matched with a short spray of sparks.

    Speaking of sparks! Remember how Loren is definitely, totally also fighting a giant Pikachu? She might not be hitting him with a jolt of electricity or anything similar at the moment, but what she is doing is alarming enough. Loren widens his eyes, realizing what is about to happen. "What-- you lunatic!"

    Slowly she faaaaaaalls towards Loren and only some pin-point negotiating on the part of his Gear (impressive, maybe, since the thing steers like a cow) keeps him from getting slammed into by Pikachu and all of her ????.? lbs of squishy huggable (???) softness. But this doesn't stop the ground from shuddering and swaying underfoot, which makes staying upright in a heavy Gear take all of his attention.

    This is a fact that Ethius exploits, and it's already too late for Loren to evade or mitigate the blow as it comes in hard and fast.

    "No, there's still enough things you haven't blown up yet," he deadpans back in response at last to Ethius.

    "And the last I checked, being a courier meant delivering packages--" he starts to say to Gwen, when she adds to her statement that the other part of her reason for being here is to make sure that no cities are leveled today. To that, Loren gives no immediate response.

    And it's Jacqueline who asks more directly why he's here and doing this, to which Loren's response is a swift, "Because I'm in Gebler. I do what is asked of me. Whatever it is." Because he's an officer, and that's what he'd sworn to do--
    Because there isn't any other way that he can see.

    Light shines at various places about him, Ether barriers intercepting several but not all of the blades as they scythe towards Schiehallion: scores are made in the outer armor where they do touch.

    Loren's response to Jacqueline's volley is swift: with both ARMs, he unloads again upon her position, taking advantage of the cover this gives him to take the calculated risk of a jet-assisted leap a distance across the field. With some room between him and Pikachu, he conjures a rising tide of water from thin air to crash down upon the gigantic Pokemon.

    Using the vantage point this gives him, he aims for the ground about Gwen's Gear and Hannah's Absol, keen to kick up enough disrupting dust and rock to delay their advance. With the other Gears in the escort group attending the airship and awaiting any reinforcements from November's defenders, he needs to be able to manage this solo.

    So he'll give it all he has. The earth underfoot where Ethius' Gear stands has begun to tremble.
    It won't be long before the rocky spires tunnel their way upwards in staggered stabs. 

GS: Loren Voss has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Binary Fire!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Terminator Rounds!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Hannah Curie with Terminator Rounds!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Chase with Aqua Prime!
GS: Loren Voss has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Loren Voss spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Ethius Hesiod with Terra Vector!
GS: Loren Voss takes 59 damage from Corrode!
GS: Corrode and Disease expired!
GS: Loren Voss has completed his action.
GS: Jacqueline Barber mostly guards Loren Voss's Binary Fire for 211 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Jacqueline Barber gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: CRITICAL! Ethius Hesiod critically fails to guard Loren Voss's Terra Vector for 311 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ethius Hesiod gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Shield applied to Loren Voss!

<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.

Leah watches as Xiumei approache her Pokemon, when she leaps into the air after recovering herself. Xiumei slashes down, and the saber's green light hacks through Metagross's armor, leaving it to vibrate in place briefly before it can respond. "Met--"

With a pink glow, Metagross abrubtly counterattacks, slamming its head right into where Xiumei's standing, the whole bulk of the creature involved in an attack of her.

Boudicca is next. She abjures Leah's philosophy and methods both, and Leah turns to watch her again as her Pokemon continues the fight. "That's correct," Leah answers Boudicca smoothly, her voice still amplified. "Regardless of the means, I aim to kill every being within November City. This is a purge. Those unnecessary to this world will be removed."

"Can you stop us? Then do so."

"Voss," Leah says then, "Take care of Halcyon." That healing is a problem.

Vivace's Erikodus ets loose a terrible beam. "We won't," Leah assures her, and then the supercharged beam smashes into the Metagross, causing it to shudder in place through electricity's bite. "We will take all that we need. No matter the source."

As for Wu, "Hmmm. Am I not?" The wielder, that is.

"Try your hardest. We will see if it's enough." Wu says she won't let them, but--

Metagross manages to turn such that Wu's pole kick hits its broad underside instead of a more vulnerable place, aand those gret swaths of energy are partially blocked by its claws. It roars in what one must assume is pain, though.

"Do you think my Metagross is under some special control?" Leah advisess Rena. "Silph Company's technology did not have such a device. This Metagross wishes only to battle. To find enemies--and destroy them. No matter what those enemies might be. ...The research we acquired was most useful in communicating with it. Training it has been an effort. We shall see how useful it has been."

Though, why is Solaris doing this? "It has been determined that the Seed Cities are a threat to our plans. It's that simple."

Ida's Flame Breath is indeed super-effective; Mega Metagross briefly turns red with hot how it becomes. But now, it is free to make its own assaults. And attack it does.

The Dust Dragoon is the first target, as Mega Metagross sails past the Dust Dragoon, carving out from its armor along the way. ?Then, it dives for the ground, and kicks up sand and mud with its claws, slamming it towards the Psynard and the Erikodus both. For Wu's Gear, it rushes forwrd, sailing through the air until a powerful pair of arms delivers a hammerblow up the Gear's torso, the momentum and force knocking Metagross towards its next target.

Boudicca, in the meantime, gets a blast of psychic energy that distorts the very air on its way towards her.

"Your power will be insufficient. An obsolete world cannot protect a city that has outlived its usefulness. Resign yourselves to these facts." 

GS: Leah Sadalbari spends 1 Combo on Interrupt!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has attacked Xiumei Klein with Zen Headbutt!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Metal Claw!
GS: Delay expired!
GS: Leah Sadalbari enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has attacked Rena Lanford with Mud-Shot!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has attacked Vivace Mori with Mud-Shot!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Confusion!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Leah Sadalbari spends 1 Combo on Interrupt!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has attacked Xiumei Klein with Zen Headbutt!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Leah Sadalbari takes 62 damage from Corrode!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has completed her action.
GS: Access! Leah Sadalbari takes 100 damage!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Metal Claw!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has attacked Rena Lanford with Mud-Shot!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has attacked Vivace Mori with Mud-Shot!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Confusion!
GS: Chase critically fails to guard Loren Voss's Aqua Prime for 490 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Chase gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Delay blocked!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has attacked Meng Wu with Hammer Arm!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Gwen Whitlock perfectly evades Loren Voss's Terminator Rounds for 0 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Gwen Whitlock gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Delay and Disrupt blocked!
GS: Shield applied to Loren Voss!
GS: FP up! Countermeasures and Reaction bonus!
GS: COUNTER! Rena Lanford counterattacks Leah Sadalbari with Psybeam!
GS: CRITICAL! Rena Lanford critically fails to charge Leah Sadalbari's Mud-Shot for 394 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Rena Lanford gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Xiumei Klein marginally guards Leah Sadalbari's Zen Headbutt for 213 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Xiumei Klein gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Interrupt blocked!
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!
GS: Xiumei Klein has lost 2 Combo from Interrupt!
GS: CRITICAL! Vivace Mori critically fails to charge Leah Sadalbari's Mud-Shot for 240 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Vivace Mori gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: CRITICAL! Hannah Curie mostly evades Loren Voss's Terminator Rounds for 86 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hannah Curie gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Delay and Disrupt applied to Hannah Curie!
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey fails to guard Leah Sadalbari's Metal Claw for 546 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ida Everstead-Rey gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Cripple applied to Ida Everstead-Rey!
GS: FP up! Countermeasures!
GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Boudicca critically fails to guard Leah Sadalbari's Confusion for 297 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Boudicca gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Mute applied to Seraph Boudicca!

<Pose Tracker> Xiumei Klein has posed.

The huge Pokemon's head slams into the ground. It doesn't have to hit Xiumei to cause her a problem -- she leaps backward, but the shockwave still hits. She slams both feet into the ground, trying her best to not get bowled over by it.

It still shakes her, to her core, and she shakes her head quickly.

Xiumei swings her AV Saber back out, looking at Metagross for a moment -- then up at Leah -- and then she dashes forward. She springs towards it, slashing at the armor on the leg as she leaps past, and then lands to its side.

GS: Xiumei Klein has attacked Leah Sadalbari with AV Saber - Dash Cutter!
GS: Xiumei Klein has gained 3 Combo!
GS: Jam, Mighty, Mute, and Riposte expired!
GS: Xiumei Klein has completed her action.
GS: Leah Sadalbari critically fails to guard Rena Lanford's Psybeam for 99 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Leah Sadalbari gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Leah Sadalbari fails to evade Xiumei Klein's AV Saber - Dash Cutter for 224 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Leah Sadalbari gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Countermeasures and Reaction bonus!
GS: Meng Wu has activated Force Action: Accelerate!
GS: CRITICAL! Meng Wu mostly evades Leah Sadalbari's Hammer Arm for 512 hit points!
GS: Slow blocked!
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!

<Pose Tracker> Hannah Curie has posed.

Hannah is watching the battle unfold around them, and Zephyr gave Chase an encouraging chirp of his own before taking off into the sky to provide an aerial view of events for Hannah. "Jus' make sure you stay out of range of enemy fire," she comments to herself. This statement, curiously, is completely unaided by any of the technological conveniences at hand, and Zephyr is already long gone from her immediate vicinity.

Weird.

A little bit louder, for Chase's benefit (but still unaided and unbroadcast), she comments, "I know there's a lot goin' on. But your partner's countin' on you to keep a calm head." She's... not an experienced pokemon trainer, being clearly a visitor, yet...

Maybe her time spent relying on Zephyr has given her a few insights on dealing with animal companions.

Still, she replies on a more private channel to Gwen. "Our pokemon are Dynamaxed, which is also Nede tec but... we c'n get into the differences later."

But Loren is trying to delay them, kicking up dirt and rock from the ground with fired rounds. Cassandra leaps to the side, zipping around the worst of it, but not before some of the direct gets into her eyes and slows her reactions down.

"Power through it! Keep your focus on that Gear!" shouts Hannah. "We're makin' a dent in 'is armor-- Get in' there and find a weakness!"

"Ab!" Cassandra growls as she slowly prowls around Loren... Then she leaps, but drops down short and jukes in a different direction, trying to get inside Loren's guard to expose more weaknesses. 

GS: Hannah Curie has attacked Loren Voss with Feint!
GS: Hannah Curie enters a Counter stance!
GS: Hannah Curie has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Delay expired!
GS: Hannah Curie gains 5 FP from Gleam!
GS: Hannah Curie has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.

    "Do you hear yourself when you speak, you unpietous wealdscathe?!" Boudicca is so angry, she forgot which era of Common she was speaking. "I see only one unnecessary creature before me!"

    She strides forward, a strange red aura flickering about her, as she points towards Leah.

    "AND SHE CALLS THIS METAGROSS TO ATROCITY!"

    Boudicca throws up an arm to guard herself from that blast of Psychic energy. It is a more effective assault than Metagross's claws could ever be, because she is a spiritual being, and so the only damage she can truly sustain is to that spirit; even so, she's still standing, when the Confusion washes over her. Perhaps she really does have the Type advantage...?

    She takes another step forward, thrusting her arm out as another Seraphic glyph glows gree beneath her feet. "Blow, storm, and stopper misery!" She invokes her Arte, as the winds pick up around her. "HOWLING GALE!"

    The storm which assaults Metagross is warm-winded and needling; the wind blows in and blows through, and it is vengeful enough to shake it even at its size.

    She's not just a supportive figure, apparently. See, Loren? This is what happens when you don't shoot the healer first.

GS: Seraph Boudicca spends 2 Combo on Gatling, loading 2 into Gatling!
GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Howling Gale!
GS: Seraph Boudicca has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Seraph Boudicca gains 5 FP from Sufferer!
GS: Seraph Boudicca has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Chase has posed.

There is a battle here going on beyond the physical, those Chase isn't sure how much weight it carries. This argument back and forth... As if there's any argument to be had. The word 'purge' hits him and he visibly shudders, paling. Even if Chase could speak, would he want to? His actions will have to say it for him. That's the only way. But... what could make a Metagross desire battle to this point...? To partner with such a trainer...

He takes a deep breath, nodding to Hannah's advice as he continues to keep his eyes on the battle.

Pikachu fails to crush Loren, pushing herself up on all fours and shaking her head with a THUMP THUMP THUMP of her ears slapping against her head before she rights herself. Loren accuses Ethius of needing to blow up more things, and Pikachu looks to Ethius excitedly. "Pika!"

She is raising her paw. She is volunteering. But a wave rises, tidal in size. Pikachu looks to it in alarm. In the desert?? A wave??? Here???! It crashes directly into her open shocked mouth and shoves her giant body away.

WHARRGARBL!

Chase races after Pikachu on Ponyta to stay close to her general orbit, wincing as she manages to wobble back up looking quite a bit heavier and sicker than before. At his next whistle, she slams herself down on all fours, left side first, then the right side. Then coming up a little too much on the left side from momentum and planting herself back down with a jiggle of her waterlogged form.

Finally steadied and secured, she raises her tail, opens her mouth and...

...spits Loren's Aqua Prime right back at him!

GS: Chase spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: Chase has attacked Loren Voss with Max Geyser!
GS: Chase has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Chase gains 5 FP from Gleam!
GS: Mighty expired!
GS: Chase has completed his action.
GS: Leah Sadalbari mostly guards Seraph Boudicca's Howling Gale for 296 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Leah Sadalbari gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Loren Voss critically fails to guard Chase's Max Geyser for 329 hit points!
GS: Hyper, Shield, and Shield applied to Chase!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font!
GS: Loren Voss marginally charges Hannah Curie's Feint for 233 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Loren Voss gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Dispel! Cover and Shield removed!
GS: Hyper applied to Hannah Curie!
GS: Charge!! You gain 35 FP! (That's 20 more than usual!)

<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

    Ethius' Gear has to deal with some of the seismic shocks of movement too, even with his own being on the lighter side compared to some of the fellow Drifters. He follows through with the swing, pivoting and swinging the weapon down to his side in a downwards diagonal movement, around the time he catches the retort.
 
     'No, there's still enough things you haven't blown up yet.'
 
     "...In a manner of speaking, you are not incorrect," Ethius makes a sideglance in the cockpit, but some of it comes from having to try and keep watch for what the Mega Metagross is doing in the periphery. He's not new to multi-tasking across so many flashing scenes and colors and lights and sounds, but he's still a human being with only two eyes, two ears, two hands, and one mind to keep it all coordinated.
 
     'Pika!' Says Phwee.
 
     "...Yes. Pika." Ethius knows better than to not return a 'Pika.'
 
     He mistakes the movements of one of Loren's ARMs as starting to come his way as opposed to Jay, which puts him in a more precarious place when Loren takes a leap and manages to partially clip Aiguille in their leaping trajectory.
 
     As the Schiehallion is a much larger, heavier Gear, a collision - however brief or accidental - does not work in Aiguille's behavior as the dash jets are engaged to try and keep himself upright and balanced.
 
     The changing topography of the battlefield makes it tough, and the actual counter-assault Loren intends does its job.
 
     Ethius has the Aiguille lean forward in a controlled descent as to not go completely prone from imbalance, and the shaking ground makes that more than a little difficult as one knee strikes the earth.
 
     Rocky spires approach, and the sequence lands several critical punctures with explosive results as the final one lifts Aiguille up and hurls them back.
 
     "I'm hit," Ethius calls a little too calmly. There's whiplash, but the cockpit has decent enough suspension that the carry-over momentum doesn't snap his neck (nor get a concussion, which is good for everyone involved). That's a plus - but he is lying prone.
 
     He hesitates for a moment when he calculates what he might need to do to get the Gear upright, only to look to his belt where his friends from Nede reside. Should he...?
 
     "Arcmene," he decides, tossing the ball and producing the nightmarish spider-shaped creature. He guides with a finger towards some levers. "I can't reach those. Can you push them?"
 
     Arcmene looks at all the blinking instruments and worrisome colors, transfixed. Operating heavy machinery is, to be frank, not any Pokemon's strong suit, but he complies.
 
     Aiguille starts to right up, careful spurts of dashjets to help facilitate this as the skirmish specialist rises back up.
 
     "Good." Ethius exhales. "Hang on as tight as you can."
 
     "...ene," mutters the spider-like thing.
 
     "I'm still in the fight. Engaging in strafe maneuvers," Ethius says over the more private lines as the Aiguille starts to put more distance between itself and Loren's support machine, the laser shot-staff firing off a handful of shots in sequence as he goes wide towards the right (Loren's left). 

GS: Ethius Hesiod has attacked Loren Voss with Strafe!
GS: Ethius Hesiod has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Ethius Hesiod has completed his action.

<Pose Tracker> Vivace Mori has posed.

Though her knowledge of other Pokemon is not nearly as extensive, Vivace is an expert on Steel-type Pokemon - probably one of the best on Nede outside some specialist professors, certainly the best here and now. Which means, when Leah explains that they don't need to control it...

"She's probably not lying," Vivace calls. "Metagrosses are made of multiple smaller Pokemon put together. Their brains are like a supercomputer, they're all logic - and when they're Mega Evolved, they don't want to do anything but win. Some of them will blow themselves up instead of letting you beat them. Nobody gets to take them down but themselves. All you'd have to do was teach it that this was the best thing to do, and..."

Vivace approves of the competitiveness, but she's never found even a Metang she could get along with. They're too similar in some ways, and too different in others.

She focuses, for a moment, on Leah. This would be so much easier if... but she can't see any way to get Leah to go away. Vivace is pretty sure that they could drive the Metagross off if she wasn't here, let it drop out of Mega Evolution, and then take it out, but not now.

They'll have to do this the hard way.

Though she does have to ask, "What's a wealdscathe? Niquia, look that up." Niquia beeps, and then again, a little more sadly. "What do you mean I have to spell it? Ugh. Later!"

When the Metagross moves again, Vivace moves to react. "Forward! We got this," she encourages Erikodus, too quiet for Niquia to send it to anyone else. The robotic Pokemon lunges forward - right into the dirt! The spray of sand and mud completely envelops Erikodus, leaving it - and Vivace - buried, a new sand dune in the desert. They're completely hidden from view, and it looks like Vivace is defeated.

For a moment.

Then a bright light swells in the dune, magenta-red-purple beams shining through cracks in the sand as something starts to push it aside.

It's Erikodus - but it's not breaking out of the dirt so much as making it irrelevant as it swells into enormity. Before it was a mere twelve feet tall, or so; now it's closer to eighty, taller than Pikachu and longer, too. It looks subtly different; sleeker, with its short 'gatling gun' replaced with a longer, more sci-fi cannon, lines running down it glowing cyan. A magenta cloud the same colour as the light swirls slowly around it, with a smaller one around the still small in comparison, but bigger than before, Niquia docked in it.

And Vivace isn't sitting on Erikodus anymore. She's standing, balanced closer to the front, arms crossed as her windbreaker billows out behind her.

"Hey," she says, as the cannon begins to glow brighter. "No, you won't. I won't let a Pokemon be used like that - and I won't let *you* do it. Erikodus! FIRE!"

Erikodus lets out a rumbling "ERI," in bass, and then...

Fires.

For a moment, there is a narrow shimmering line - and then nothing. Silence. For about two heartbeats - before the line traced by the first beam *explodes* into an immense cyan lightning bolt, smaller white-yellow bolts crackling down the sides and intensifying the cannon's shot.

Vivace, who has never actually asked Erikodus to use its G-Max Move before, does an admirable job of not flinching at the sound, but she doesn't hear much but ringing for a bit afterwards. 

DC: Vivace Mori switches forms to Gigantamax Factor Erikodus!

GS: Vivace Mori spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Vivace Mori has attacked Leah Sadalbari with G-Max Muon Cannon!
GS: Vivace Mori has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Vivace Mori has completed her action.
GS: Access! Vivace Mori takes 46 damage!
GS: Leah Sadalbari critically fails to guard Vivace Mori's G-Max Muon Cannon for 532 hit points!
GS: FP up! Countermeasures!

<Pose Tracker> Rena Lanford has posed.

A care package!? Rena has to lean out to catch it as Lady Brightwing flies, before settling in, as Gabby without any delay, rams her head right into the box.
 
A muffled, "psy-psy-psy!" can be heard, as Rena herds her out, before- "Wow. There are even Blueberries and Heal Berries in here!" Rena exclaims, "And all these syrups, salves and-"
 
Pause as she realizes.
 
"Lady Brightwing, catch!"
 
Rena just hurls the box forward, and the Psynard's squat head snakes out and- devours the box whole. Suddenly the wound begins to close, as if somehow the care package had helped significantly.
 
As the Psynard swoops by the Halcyone, Rena gives a close eyed smile and puts her hands together to tell the pilot 'Thanks'
 
Well, if she can see her. She is comparatively pretty small to Lady Brightwing.
 
As Leah tells her that her Metagross is not under control, Rena focuses on it, and is suddenly struck by the sheer wave of aggregated...
 
aggression
cruelty
 
Momentarily dazed by it, the sudden enormous clod of Mud clips Lady Brightwing - but as she does Leah would notice the sudden charging of something in her maw.
 
Even as she takes the hit head on, it's unleashed, in a beam of Pure Psychic Energy that blasts the mind of the Metagross as if to challenge that narrative.
 
Rena clutches her head, shocked to her core for a moment by a Pokemon having that much aggression but...
 
... then she remembers the other Psynard, how it reacted how...
 
"She's not." Rena answers Vivace, still recovering, "But t-that's even more reason not to treat them like your weapon! All of them are different! Just like people! If they desire to battle for you then..."
 
The Psynard flaps her wings, before it abruptly takes off, flying higher than before, spinning in the air before she ceases again.
 
There's this sense of eyes upon the Metagross, even though the Psynard's are visibly closed, a gleam of energy.
 
"... they deserve more dignity than that!"
 
And it's like reality ripples over the Metagross - fraying and tearing at the seams, trying to hinder it's ability to recover from the assaults.
 
"A threat- to Solaris?" Rena utters, as if trying to comprehend what here could be the threat, "Then that's even more reason for us to take a stand here."
 
Because if something here can oppose Solaris then... they can't be allowed to have their way.

GS: Rena Lanford has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Psychic!
GS: Rena Lanford has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Rena Lanford has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Meng Wu has posed.

Wu finishes adjusting contols one handed as her gear stabalizes from the attack. Quick, practiced. Pure muscle memory even after all these years. There's something grimly satisfying about it. Even if the memories are why she's here, now instead of on the other side.
 
 "If you think a flamethrower would help here, I may retrofit one later. If we find-" she pauses. Then twists to look towards the trainer. She probably meant something else. She can't help, but feel old for a moment for some inexplicable reason.
 
 Other than she is in fact, a bit old.
 
 Speaking of flamethrowers, she does hop away from the megametagross.. that's what they- She hops away out of the flamethrower's reach.
 
 The cannon flamethrower not the po-. She gives up for now.
 
 Leah's questions are met with a simple answer. "No." She's viewing it through her own experiences though. She wasn't the hand that wields, she was the weapon at hand. A blunt force trauma incident waiting to happen. "It'll be good to shake the rust off." She knows she's lost some of her edge piloting a desk. That's not going to stop her though.
 
 The attacker's claws are big enough that dodging isn't going to be the most effective option she has, but she's not about to try and use a simple gear spear to stop it either. It's a glancing blow. Crunching the relatively light armor. Revealing hints of the white paint below. She reaches out and hits above one of the gear's monitors to stabalize the image.
 
 Wu may not have the flamethrower and no one told her earth was effective, (ground, but who's counting), but she's not about to make this easy. Not with a blow like that.
 
 Channeling her ether, the earth rumbles, becoming unstable before lurching. Shrike leaps into the air as the slab of earth roils and stands on end. A clean cut rectangle of rock and earth. It tilts forward, collapsing towards the pokemon in time with a downward stab from the briefly airborne spear weilding gear. Landing on the edge, combining the momentum. Working the earth, trying to prepare for something more as the cracks spread from the ground.
 
 There is a grimace that the pokemon might self-destruct which doesn't fully track in her mind, but she can't say it's wrong. "Duly noted. Thank you." She states, starting to try and bounce away from the big, metallic pokemon.
 
 Wu isn't old enough to know what a wealdscathe is either. It's strange enough to catch her attention. That's time for a dictionary dive later.
 
 The fact that it's a threat to Solaris gets the first real sign of life on the pilot's face. Sitting up. Toggling her radio to relay that information with the slim thought that it still might be a feint. 

GS: Meng Wu has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Avalanche Rider!
GS: Meng Wu gains 5 FP from her Daredevil!
GS: Meng Wu gains 5 FP from Gleam!
GS: Quick and Riposte expired!
GS: Meng Wu has completed her action.
GS: Leah Sadalbari marginally charges Rena Lanford's Psychic for 302 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Leah Sadalbari gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Hex applied to Leah Sadalbari!
GS: Leah Sadalbari marginally evades Meng Wu's Avalanche Rider for 315 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Leah Sadalbari gains 1 additional Combo!

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    'And the last I checked, being a courier meant delivering packages--'

    The second reason had silenced him. "... Also. You interrupted my lunch break," she adds, with a lighthearted tone, until she overhears Leah's own statements to Boudicca.

    'I aim to kill every being within November City. This is a purge. Those unnecessary to this world will be removed.' It's not as if Leah was exactly neutral before. But now, she's actively calling for the purge of an entire city?

    Switching over to Jacqueline's line, Gwen interjects. "Jay. He's got Leah overseein' him right now. No matter how much we tell 'im to stop, it won't. Not until Leah does."

    Gwen spots Rena through the cockpit window. With a big grin, she gives Rena a thumbs up, before radioing Hannah back. "Man, horses're easier than all this. At least a horse is a horse."

    Leah's also noticed Gwen's unorthodox assisting methods, unfortunately, as she orders Loren to target her.

    This time, what Gwen says is only for herself, as she frowns. "... Sorry, Loren. Not gonna give you that chance."

    This attack will need a little juice to get going, though, as Gwen unlatches another compartment that allows access to the wiring within--

    "Joltik!" Voltie pops up on Gwen's shoulder, and does a furious dance with his little legs.

    Gwen chuckles. "Right, right, you can help too. Geez, I thought you were asleep."

    As Joltik hops down onto Gwen's ungloved right hand, the two of them combine their electric charge towards the Halcyone, which in turn makes it fire a beam of lightning, straight at Loren's Gear. 

GS: Gwen Whitlock spends 5 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Loren Voss with Spark Plug!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

Ida confirms she's alright - for now, at least. Ordinarily Jacqueline would suggest she fall back... But right now, with what's at stake, that isn't really an option.

"Right... Just try to hang in there and keep her busy. We can get you patched up once this is over." Jacqueline replies.

Loren gives her an answer - because he's in Gebler. He does what's asked of him, whatever it is.

"And you're okay with that?" She asks. "Okay with this?"

Gwen interjects... and Jacqueline grimaces. She's right, of course - she heard Leah's declaration, firm, unwavering, and to the point, same as everyone.

"...Still... I hate this." She murmurs in response to her.

Loren brings both of Schiehallion's ARMs to bear against her again. Her spear is brought forward, spinning in front of her to intercept the blasts.

Ethius announces that he's hit in his usual calm tone, and Jacqueline grimaces.

"Can you still fight?" She asks - and, in fact, he can. She nods.

"Okay. Let me know if you need some cover." She replies.

In her cockpit Jacqueline draws a Crest Graph, inserting it into a slot on the console. Glyphs of Wing and Muse light up, and Issachar casts a hand out. Electricity crackles across its fingertips before jumping to Schiehallion - and then jumping right back, stealing reserves of power to add them to Issachar's own. 

GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Loren Voss with Siphoning Current!
GS: Jacqueline Barber has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    "She does this for her 'God'," Ida growls. There is scorn--venom, even--in that word. The Dust Dragoon rises to its full height. Its movements are still a little jerky from the errors Metagross threw into its systems. The horrible wound it took for November is still there. "Any God that would demand this..." The Gear takes a few steps forward, its gait not quite coordinated. It aims the cannon at Metagross' belly as it makes to charge.

    "DESERVES NOTHING!" There is livid fury in her voice. Gwen and Boudicca have certainly seen her this enraged; the others might not be as familiar.

    Metagross slams head-on into the Dragoon before Ida can take the shot. Its claws rake through the Gear's armor, carving ragged gashes in its shoulders. The whole thing rocks back. Ida jams a foot against the emergency stabilizer, and presses it to the floor. The balancers kick in at the last second, keeping the Gear upright.

    "Why couldn't she find a murderous Caterpie instead?" Ida complains, bitterly. Vivace's words give this whole project much-needed context, but that doesn't mean Ida likes it.

    "Free," says Sal, tugging on Ida's shoulder indignantly. (Sal is still secure in her crash webbing. This is why Arceus gave her String Shot.)

    "All right, poor phrasing, but--"

    The Dust Dragoon raises its cannon in full, now, and braces itself in the sand. White-hot light builds around the cannon's muzzle once again; the electromagnetic torus inside crackles to life, containing the superheated plasma pouring from Dragon Filaments. Superchilled Filaments siphon heat away, keeping the whole thing stable as the fusion reaction builds.

    A lance of sun-bright fire tears across the field, aimed right at Metagross' center of mass. The Three-Dragon Cannon radiates visible heat-haze as its cooldown cycle starts.

    And then a second pillar of red light rises. Ida watches as another Gigantamax Pokemon takes the field, mouth open.

    "Butterfree," says Sal, equal parts awed and envious.

GS: Ida Everstead-Rey spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Three Dragon Cannon - Breath Of The Sun!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey gains 5 FP from Gleam!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
GS: Leah Sadalbari critically fails to guard Ida Everstead-Rey's Three Dragon Cannon - Breath Of The Sun for 488 hit
points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Leah Sadalbari gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Countermeasures!
GS: CRITICAL! Loren Voss marginally evades Ethius Hesiod's Strafe for 328 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Loren Voss gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Riposte applied to Ethius Hesiod!
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!
GS: Ethius Hesiod enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: CRITICAL! Loren Voss mostly guards Jacqueline Barber's Siphoning Current for 237 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Loren Voss gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font!
GS: Jacqueline Barber drains Loren Voss! Jacqueline Barber gains 134 temporary hit points!
GS: Loren Voss critically fails to guard Gwen Whitlock's Spark Plug for 412 hit points!
GS: Jam applied to Loren Voss!

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    Also, he interrupted her lunch break. "...Seriously?" he sighs, irritated, and perhaps Gwen can imagine the sort of look on his face when he reacts too seriously to her jest.

    "Oh, don't encourage her!" It's not at all encouraging when Pikachu seems excited about the discussion of explosions.

    Pikachu is laid out by that impossible crashing wave, and for a brief -- brief -- moment, Loren achieves a sort of temporary sense of peace.

    Alas, it is not to last: no sooner is she out of his general vicinity than she is back in it and looking a little bit... wobbly. Like a water balloon.

    Pikachu quickly demonstrates why. Schiehallion is blasted back several hundred feet courtesy of Loren's own spell to his Gear's face. This is horrible!

    And also, essentially, just the sort of opening that Hannah's Absol was looking for. In she lopes while he's unable to do much about it except prepare to take the hit that comes... and comes from a completely different direction than he'd expected, at that. Claws take away a section of ancillary plating: there's 'subdermal' beneath that because Solaris does not mess around when they shield their heavy Gears, but...

    It's one layer less than there had been before.

    Is he okay with this, Jacqueline asks of him. And-- it doesn't matter, does it? He can think whatever he wants about his orders, but he doesn't get to pick and choose.
    And, more to the immediate point, it's certainly not in his best interest to speak about how he feels about his orders when his direct superior is able to hear anything he says (she's always able to hear anything he says).

    And so he doesn't respond. It will still speak volumes, though, that he does not answer Jacqueline, rather than answer in the affirmative and say that he is okay with this.

    Take care of Halcyon, Leah orders him. Loren at once sees this for what it is -- it's as much a test as it is battle strategy. Leah knows that Gwen is Loren's friend. And Loren knows that she knows this -- as much as he knows that she knows that his heart isn't in this battle.

    She has already instructed him about how unwise certain courses of action can be. It would be wise for him to not invite another discussion.

    "Understood," he answers. She didn't want someone who blindly obeyed, she'd once said to him. But what that had actually meant was--

    Ethius comes in on his left. Banking hard -- as hard as a Gear like Schiehallion can -- Loren tries to swerve out of the way. It only slightly works as the shots spray across his left, some of them taking where the plating has been more seriously damaged than in other places. Sighting Issachar's movements, he conjures a barrier to defend against whatever it is that the Gear is about to do, but even as some of the sparks are deflected in midair, enough still make the connection between him and Jacqueline's Gear to siphon away some of his own machine's energy. "Tch--" Perhaps he should have expected no less from an Omnigear, but it still rankles him that even his Schiehallion isn't enough.

    Sorry Loren. Gwen says she won't give him the chance. "Just you-- try me," he hisses, while unbeknownst to him, situations are transpiring within Halcyon's cockpit, situations that contribute to the blast of electricity that pierces the glowing wall of light Loren conjures and takes his Gear right down the middle. Sparks dance for a moment across Schiehallion's surface, and Gwen might be forgiven for assuming she's dealt an appropriately stunning blow, but then the Solaris Gear starts to again move.

    "Gwen! I'm not playing around!"

    That seems to have done it for him. Aiming first at Ethius's Gear and then at Jacqueline's, Loren begins to take shot after shot at the two of them, switching it up periodically for which of them receives the bulk of his attention as he works to -- or so it seems -- keep the both of them at bay. He needs them to clear out, after all--

    Pausing but a moment after this volley, he takes but the moment to slot into his ARMs two specialized shells, one after the other. Leah had said to take care of Halcyon, and just as Loren had said to Jacqueline, he's in Gebler. That means something. It has to mean something.
    He'll make it mean something.

    It's another calculated risk: another expediture of more fuel he's slowly losing due to the leak. But better to take the risk and win the day, he thinks, bearing both ARMs before him as he focuses on Gwen's Gear. Rocketing forward, he ejects the two twinned shells. One brings ice. The other, earth. The two static elements of the Solarian system -- of the system they drilled into their heads in Jugend.

    Still in flight for her, the very air about Schiehallion begins to tremble. When they come, they do not come from the earth below. The cleaving arcs of crystal cut down from above for both of the large-sized Pokemon that seek to harry him in his Gear, the stone itself manifest from nothing but the air itself. Breathing hard in the safe confines of his cockpit after the emanation of so much Ether without the use of the Drive, Loren urges Schiehallion into an evasive backwards vault, aiming to put distance between him and his opponents. 

GS: Loren Voss has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
GS: You have activated the Force Action Full Clip!
GS: Loren Voss has activated Force Action: Snipe!
GS: You have activated the Force Action Snipe!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Ethius Hesiod with Iron Halo!
GS: Loren Voss enters a Counter stance!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Iron Halo!
GS: Loren Voss enters a Counter stance!
GS: Loren Voss has gained 3 Combo!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Loren Voss has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Aphelion Purge!
GS: Loren Voss has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Chase with Terra Limit!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Hannah Curie with Terra Limit!
GS: Entangle expired!
GS: Loren Voss has completed his action.
GS: Jacqueline Barber fails to evade Loren Voss's Iron Halo for 412 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Jacqueline Barber gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Gwen Whitlock mostly guards Loren Voss's Aphelion Purge for 418 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Gwen Whitlock gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Mighty applied to Loren Voss!
GS: FP up! Countermeasures!
GS: Strain! Loren Voss takes 150 damage!
GS: CRITICAL! Chase mostly charges Loren Voss's Terra Limit for 219 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Chase gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Healthy! For entering Condition Green, Chase receives 200 temporary hit points.
GS: Chase enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Ethius Hesiod critically fails to evade Loren Voss's Iron Halo for 359 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ethius Hesiod gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Countermeasures!
GS: COUNTER! Hannah Curie counterattacks Loren Voss with Payback!
GS: CRITICAL! Hannah Curie mostly charges Loren Voss's Terra Limit for 290 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hannah Curie gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Hannah Curie enters CONDITION GREEN!!

<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.

Xiumei looks at Leah. Leah looks back at Xiumei. Even as Rena's Psybeam crashes into Metagross, Leah watches Xiumei, and she watches her hack into the Metagross again while it cannot get out of the way in time. She is agile. Too agile for it, maybe.

"Perhaps you do," Leah says to Xiumei. "I wonder what Juno would say of you..."

Boudicca shouts at her. Maybe she does have the type advantage; Leah is no expert yet at Pokemon battling, relying on raw force where the Nedians use greater strategy. Metagross guards against Boudicca's gale--but even putting its claws before itself again to block is not enough to stop the howling winds from shearing at its metal 'flesh'.

"This world is stuck with me, I'm afraid." Leah's voice is dry, as if observing the weather to Boudicca. "For a long time yet."

"I hear myself. Do you? Or is the flame in your ears enough to roar out the knowledge that your god is dying as surely as his world?"

Vivace's Erikodus transforms. It becomes gigantic, huge, dynamic, and Leah watches it curiously. "...Hmmm. Interesting."

Metagross roars in anger and defiance, "GROSSSSSSSSS!!!"

That incredible bolt slams into Metagross, forcing it to the ground for a long moment, cratering a dune under the force of its impact. it is long seconds before the Pokemon rises again.

"Very interesting," Leah says to Vivace. "So this is Nedian technology and 'will'..."

Rena, too, hs something to say. Leah listens to her--eeven as Metagross manages to only partially block that blast of psychic energy, visibly straining before the blast finally hits home. And Leah says, "A soldier is a weapon, wielded by a general. You don't know very much about war, do you, girl? I give this Pokemon the dignity it deserves--true battle, not just play-acting."

A threat to Solaris, she said. And many have heard it. But Meng Wu beliees 'no' to much of what else she said.

Metagross manages to slide partially out of the wy of the rumbling earth, still buried in the eruption that comes of dust and rock despite it. It appears after, worn and the worse for wear, but still able to battle.

"Change requires sacrifice, Ida. Effort, blood, flesh. All is achieved this way. God does not 'demand' these things."

"His coming requires them."

The sun-bright fire finally tears a gouge in Metagross's armor, after everything. Leah frowns, sharply.

"What would you sacrifice," Leah begins, "For what you believe in? For those you care for? To revive this world? Would you lie? Would you cheat? Would you steal?"

"Or would you kill?"

"Metagross," Leah directs. "It's time." Loren is already failing to answer in the affrimative as to his orders. 

<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.

Metagross charges the Dust Dragoon first, crashing toward center-mass in an effort to disable the machine's primary systems, rolling like a top as it seeks to destroy Ida's Gear. Next it turns to Dynamax Erikodus, and foresees a terrible attack--its red eyes glow, and in moments, Vivace's Pokemon will suffer a blast of psychic energy in a torrent from the sky above.

Then the Metagross whirls in place. It lets out more psychic energy, seeking to grab hold with its mind of Boudicca and Xiumei to crush them to the ground.

But Meng Wu and Lady Brightwing suffer the brunt of Metagross's aggression this time, as it charges up--and lets loose terrible streams of huge meteors for both!! 

GS: Leah Sadalbari has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Take Down!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Leah Sadalbari spends 4 Combo on Interrupt and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has attacked Vivace Mori with Future Sight!
GS: Leah Sadalbari enters a Counter stance!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has activated a Boss Action!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has attacked Xiumei Klein with Psychic!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Psychic!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Leah Sadalbari spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has attacked Meng Wu with Meteor Beam!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has attacked Rena Lanford with Meteor Beam!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Magnet Rise!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has gained 3 Combo!
GS: Leah Sadalbari's stances have changed from Counter to  and Counter!
GS: Leah Sadalbari takes 66 damage from Corrode!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has completed her action.
GS: Access! Leah Sadalbari takes 49 damage!
GS: Leah Sadalbari accepts Leah Sadalbari's Magnet Rise for 0 hit points!
GS: Restore! Hex removed!
GS: Hyper and Quick applied to Leah Sadalbari!

<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

    AT THE SAME TIME THIS ALL UNFOLDS
 
     Tromp. Tromp. Tromp. Heavy footfalls come from a bipedal... Gear?
 
     Aveh and Kislev have had occasional reports of strange bipedal Gears - very small ones - without pilots. Walking machines, ceaseless. They followed reports of seeing very small things fly from time to time, and where they went...
 
     Something with angular domed steel plating with bright red trim comes into view over the hills, without clear eyes or anything of the sort. Strange ARM weapons start to warm up, the immense heat radiating from it turning the sand underneath into glass as it spies one small such thing in the company of...
 
     "TAKI." The strange thing - a Takikodus - bellows. "TAKITAKITAKI."
 
     It starts off in a dead run towards where its yellow-decorated counterpart suddenly changes underneath a novel glow of power into something larger, something greater, something... gigantic, beyond the maximum.
 
     It freezes in its track, looks up as some of the gouts of flame warming in its gatling slow to just pitiful little embers dropping onto the ground, and then...
 
     It dips its upper body in a bow, turns around, and walks away without another word. 

GS: Rena Lanford mostly charges Leah Sadalbari's Meteor Beam for 627 hit points!
GS: Strain! Leah Sadalbari takes 150 damage!
GS: Xiumei Klein mostly guards Leah Sadalbari's Psychic for 148 hit points!
GS: Cover applied to Leah Sadalbari!
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!
GS: Xiumei Klein enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Meng Wu fails to evade Leah Sadalbari's Meteor Beam for 782 hit points!
GS: Strain! Leah Sadalbari takes 150 damage!
GS: Meng Wu has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
GS: Seraph Boudicca critically fails to guard Leah Sadalbari's Psychic for 323 hit points!
GS: Cover applied to Leah Sadalbari!
GS: CRITICAL! Ida Everstead-Rey critically fails to evade Leah Sadalbari's Take Down for 787 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ida Everstead-Rey gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Strain! Leah Sadalbari takes 150 damage!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
GS: Vivace Mori has activated Force Action: Guard!
GS: CRITICAL! Vivace Mori mostly guards Leah Sadalbari's Future Sight for 495 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Vivace Mori gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Interrupt blocked!
GS: Vivace Mori has lost 2 Combo from Interrupt!

<Pose Tracker> Chase has posed.

Ethius gives a 'pika' back! Pikachu smiles with her entire face. The contract is sealed.

A massive battle is taking place, and Jacqueline's Gear fires off electricity that jumps back and forth. Pikachu makes a perfect (and giant) 'o' with her mouth. Now who's admiring who?

But back to violence. To battle. To brilliant bright lights as both Chase and Pikachu whip their attention around to see an Erikodus rising to a scale even larger than Pikachu herself. She rises up on her hind legs, paws in the air as she sways back and forth, cheering. "PIII PIKA! PIII PIKA!" She is quieted by Muon Cannon's moment of silence, and then shrieks a happy, "Chaaaa~!" as it lights up the sky.

Chase makes another sharp whistle and Pikachu is back to focusing. But this time, he does more than that. He charges forward on Ponyta, bidding a leap to Pikachu's long tail and vaulting off in a high bounce of a leap. On the descent, Chase returns Ponyta to his ball, landing on Pikachu's shoulder. He looks to Loren, unyielding, even as the crystal cleaves come. And then instead of whistles over the din of battle, whistles quietly and low, and runs his palm over Pikachu's fur to guide her.

She lowers to all fours and charges through the manifesting stone. It pushes her left and right, the force of it hammering in, but the blades bouncing off her squish. Chase fights to keep his balance, but keeps it, clutching on and patting encouragements as Pikachu heavily cavorts toward Loren one ground shaking frolic at a time. She trusts Chase as she pushes past every otherwise disconcerting blows.

Her bright red cheek pouches spark.

She is smiling.

"PIIIIIIKA~!"

Dark clouds form over Schiehallion. Dozens of lightning bolts, all exceptionally thick and jagged in the adorable shape of Pikachu tails converge upon his position and strike in an immense explosion of electricity.

GS: Surge added to Chase!
GS: Chase has activated Force Action: Boost!
GS: Chase spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Chase has attacked Loren Voss with G-Max Volt Crash!
GS: Chase has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Chase gains 5 FP from Gleam!
GS: Chase has completed his action.
GS: COUNTER! Loren Voss counterattacks Hannah Curie with Broken Halo!
GS: Loren Voss marginally charges Hannah Curie's Payback for 274 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Loren Voss gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Charge!! You gain 35 FP! (That's 20 more than usual!)
GS: Loren Voss critically fails to guard Chase's G-Max Volt Crash for 578 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Loren Voss gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font!

<Pose Tracker> Rena Lanford has posed.

The Psynard is met with meteors, and it begins to push forward into them, not so much evading, even as rock after rock batters its form, it turning just enough to avoid any of them striking Rena or Gabby.
 
Several causes her to lose altitude, before slamming her down further, but she simply accepts this, listing in a sudden last second correction.
 
Because she has to get close - for what happens next.

"You're wrong! Because weapons don't have families and loved ones to go home to. We don't mourn the deaths of weapons." In that moment at least, Rena remembers Cecile - who although she didn't die from war, it still taught her a lesson. Of how death - grief can scar the people whose lives they've touched. "If you don't know that much, then you have no business leading ANYONE into battle!"

This time, when Lady Brightwing's mechanical looking maw opens, there's this gathering, of pastel colored flame, it wafts about like wisps of embers in the air, of a growing, crackling flame.
 
And then when something like a mechanical growl - it comes forth in a sudden eruption, the flames becoming a great gout of energy, intended to burn away everything with pure draconic power.
 
It pours over the Metagross, in one great stream of purplish-blue power that feels as if it goes on for far longer than the Psynard ought to be able to endure it.
 
"... But I think once upon a time, you knew that too."
 
Not because Rena got some psychic cue. Indeed, they're not on Nede.
 
But because even this one must have had a family that loved and cared about her. That's something she has to believe.
 
"NYPSY!" Gabby calls out as a chirpy cheer over the roar of draconic energy, as if to support her mother.
 
(And perhaps to ask when she'll be able to do that? She really wants to know!)

GS: Rena Lanford spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Rena Lanford has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Dragon Breath!
GS: Rena Lanford has gained 3 Combo!
GS: Cripple and Jam expired!
GS: Rena Lanford has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Hannah Curie mostly evades Loren Voss's Broken Halo for 172 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hannah Curie gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: CRITICAL! Gamble: High! Leah Sadalbari critically fails to evade Rena Lanford's Dragon Breath for 681 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Leah Sadalbari gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Blind, Corrode, Cripple, and Drowsy removed!
GS: Blind and Drowsy applied to Leah Sadalbari!

<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

    Things continue to deteriorate over as regards the four-armed metallic Pokemon, and Ethius' attention needs to be split to ensure it's not about to spill over. He's seeing how they're starting to bear their entire weight down and charge an immense amount of power, and--
 
     And even with his personal mobility advantage, Loren is still a skilled marksman.
 
     Loren is indeed not playing around, as shot after shot is skillfully led and placed, with Ethius finding himself forced to move in directions that is instead away from being able to help intercept the Metagross, with one key shot managing to score a direct center-of-mass hit that rocks the machine to an explosion and plenty of sheared plating.
 
     Ethius breaks the cross-arm grip to brace tightly from the shaking, as red lights and security notices come up. (Plus the Panic Eye system seen in Digs is giving off all sorts of random 'hostile, hostile' heads up alerts from some other stray projectiles flying, he needs to get that thing recalibrated again.)
 
     Arcmene's grip is sure, but the quiet Pokemon skitters down low. In retrospect, he should've kept Arcmene's ball within reach, it's now rolling to the other side of the cockpit.
 
     He's not sure that Loren's done firing, as the Aiguille is down to a kneel.
 
     "Systems... yellow. Integrity reported holding at about fifty percent," Ethius remarks calmly under duress as he flips some levers. He quiets very quickly when immense electrical power starts bearing down from the heavens, and maybe that lower kneel might've been what helped save him from catching any of that. Anyway.
 
     "Rerouting power into weapon, presently uncertain I can move to help intercept the hostile Pokemon--"
 
     Arcmene, less hardened to technology going awry, gets scared and skitters over some of the buttons.
 
     "Arcmene," Ethius calls, as the individual staff segments start to open. He uses this to briefly desync and depower them to ventilate them of excess heat, usually, but the flickering display for their systems shows something curious. They're presently in sequence where they're gradually widening, like a cone, and the diagnostics consider them linked. A thought crosses his mind. Arcmene, for lack of any other place to feel safe, crawls up to Ethius' side (and accidentally cuts off the comms). He parts a hand to rest on their back for a moment.
 
     "It's going to get warm," he warns. "Am I being heard?" He's not, because Arcmene flipped a comm switch. "Gathering system power through weapon. Attempting a novel attack. It should fan out without much loss of concentrated strength." Amplify it, even.
 
     The rifle-staff is hefted anew, held with care to not jostle the delicate arrangement. "Charge at... one hundred and thirty eight percent." No overheat warnings. Curious. "I'm commencing the--"
 
     Arcmene skitters along and hits the comm thing again, turning it back on.
 
     "Attack." Ethius declares, that singular word heard - and nothing else. 'Attack.'
 
     Immense power built through the conal funnel made by the segments blares out towards Loren with a wide, white-hot beam which has now unfortunately been christened something wholly mundane. (This is the one time Ethius' lack of name-related creativity is not at fault!) 

GS: Ethius Hesiod has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
GS: Ethius Hesiod spends 5 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Ethius Hesiod has attacked Loren Voss with Attack!
GS: Ethius Hesiod has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Ethius Hesiod has completed his action.
GS: CRITICAL! Loren Voss critically fails to evade Ethius Hesiod's Attack for 676 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Loren Voss gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Jam applied to Loren Voss!
GS: Cripple blocked!

<Pose Tracker> Hannah Curie has posed.

Hannah can see Chase taking off, both from the periphery of her vision and from Zephyr's overhead view of the battlefield. She can't keep up with a horse pokemon on foot, but she does want to keep tabs on Chase in case things get dicey, so she starts to follow after, while keeping most of her focus on the battlefield.

She watches Ethius' gear go down, lying prone, and can't imagine that's a particularly advantageous position for a gear. Through whatever narrative convenience they've landed on for this fight, she calls out to him. "Do you need an assist?"

But he does manage to recover his footing after all, so all good on that front.

But Vivace has an explanation about Metagross, and Hannah frowns at that. "Well that's mighty distresin' as it is, an' I ain't puttin' it past Solaris to do somethin' like that." 'Teaching' something to win at all costs, in a way beneficial to Solaris. She can't help but think of Azoth and his overrides.

To Gwen she shakes her head, even though she's audio-only right now. "Oh don't get me started on horses. I keep gettin' questions 'bout 'em. You ever realize how many expressions we got that're animal-related?"

"Nice work, Cassandra!" shouts Hannah when she sees that section of plating come away. Up ahead, Zephyr offers his own encouraging chirp (though really, Hannah's the only one who'll hear it at this rate.)

Cassandra looks pleased as she retreats to wait for another opportunity to attack. It comes moments later as Loren calls upon his Ether to summon a arcing crystals that come crashing down from the sky. But Hannah makes a guess that all that casting has to be draining--she's not an expect on Ehter but it would be draining even for her with her... 'condition' boosting her power.

But Cassandra is still light on her feet, wounded but not suffering greatly. "Go! Now!" she shouts.

"Ab!" Cassandra springs into action, ducking and weaving her weay through the crystals. It cuts through her coat as she goes, but the Absol's expression is fierce and determined, underscored by a fierce growl. She strikes, again, for that weakened spot where the subdermal plating is exposed before darting back once more.

She was moving towards Chase, but she skids to a stop in the sand as she sees Pikachu letting lose with a large strike of thunder. Hannah lets out a low whistle.

But, this has gone on too long, hasn't it? The longer they delay, the more they risk damage to the city, to the citizens.

She'd been briefed, by Silph co, that Cassandra would be able to access new powers when Gigantamaxed. She'd even been given a primer, but she doesn't need to pull it out now. The name of it gives her pause. Even if she's getting used to the idea that a Dark Type doesn't mean... evil, to order something like this still gives her pause.

Especially because it hits too close to home for her, with her own, mysterious magic constantly acting up.

But she hears the echo of a chirp in her mind, and nods. "You're right." She'd told Chase his Pikachu was depending on him. And Cassandra is depending on her.

She throws her right hand--the one with the Dynamax Band--forward, fingers spread open as she calls out. "Cassandra! Max Darkness!"

"Ab!" Cassandra fixes her stare on Loren--or rather, Loren's mech--planting all four feet firmly in the ground. She growls low, as a dark aura slowly starts to rise up from her body in whisps. First a few, then more and more, until it becomes almost like an ever-burning flame of darkness wreathed around her body.

"Absol!" she calls out, charging forward once more as she lifts a heavy paw to strike, trails of dark energy pouring from her claws as she strikes--then strikes again with the other paw, and again and again. 

GS: Hannah Curie has activated Force Action: Lock On!
GS: Hannah Curie has activated Force Action: Snipe!
GS: Hannah Curie spends 5 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Hannah Curie has attacked Loren Voss with Max Darkness!
GS: Hannah Curie has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Hannah Curie gains 5 FP from Gleam!
GS: Disrupt expired!
GS: Hannah Curie has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Loren Voss critically fails to guard Hannah Curie's Max Darkness for 550 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Loren Voss gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Hyper and Quick applied to Hannah Curie!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font!
GS: Loren Voss has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.

    Boudicca pauses, and looks back to Vivace. "Oh, did I forget the era..? Forgive me, I am quite incensed. The wealdscathe was a word humans once used to describe ravening monsters, centuries past."

    So then, how old is Boudicca?

    (Boudicca is 333 years old, and she'll remain 333 years old until the next century.)

    Her hands grasp to fists, the steel of her gauntlets grinding. "And how many children did you put to the altar," she hisses, "to achieve your longevity? How many spirits did you lash to your skin to be able to claim such irremovability? HOW MANY DID YOU TAKE?! TELL ME, THAT I MAY TEAR EACH FROM YOUR HEART!"

    She slashes her arm against the air, and screams, as angry as her Seer: "THE FLAMES WHICH SURROUND ME ARE HEARTH AND REBIRTH! NEITHER MOOR GAULT NOR I SHALL SUFFER YOU IN THIS WORLD, SOLARIS--!! FOR YOU KNOW NOT -- THAT THE ONLY SACRIFICE WORTHY --"

    Psychic ravages her; she staggers back, one step, and another. Her heart is weary, though her flesh is unscarred. But she has power still, enough, to cry: "-- THE ONLY NOBLE SACRIFICE IS ONE'S OWN SELF!" She snaps her fingers, flint to steel, and the flame weaves out to warm those who Metagross laid low. It enflames their spirits; it may lend them just enough strength to go on a little longer.

    "Receive my beneficent sign! Smoke Sigil!"

    (And perhaps Leah will note the way it's Boudicca's own breeze which feeds that fire; she has turned her Type disadvantage into their strength.)

GS: Seraph Boudicca has activated Force Action: Extend!
GS: Seraph Boudicca spends 1 Combo on Reload!
GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Smoke Sigil!
GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Meng Wu with Smoke Sigil!
GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Vivace Mori with Smoke Sigil!
GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Rena Lanford with Smoke Sigil!
GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Xiumei Klein with Smoke Sigil!
GS: Seraph Boudicca has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Seraph Boudicca gains 5 FP from Sufferer!
GS: Jam expired!
GS: Seraph Boudicca has completed her action.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey accepts Seraph Boudicca's Smoke Sigil for 0 hit points!
GS: Amplify, Burst, and Hyper applied to Ida Everstead-Rey!
GS: FP up! Seraph Boudicca's Reload!!
GS: Rena Lanford accepts Seraph Boudicca's Smoke Sigil for 0 hit points!
GS: Amplify, Burst, and Hyper applied to Rena Lanford!
GS: FP up! Seraph Boudicca's Reload!!

<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

Loren... says nothing. Jacqueline frowns. Silence - not even a word of dismissal... It does say a lot.

"...Alright." Jacqueline says, exhaling in resignation. Whatever his answer would've been... it doesn't change the fact that there's only one way this fight can end.

Her serious expression is marred only slightly when Pikachu admires her handiwork. It's hard to keep a straight face in the face of Pikachu Admiration...

Fortunately, Loren gives her a very good reason to focus back up. Issachar is a very fast machine - but even it will have trouble keeping up with such a volley, staggered between herself and Ethius to keep them both busy. Issachar dodges between shot after shot, but one the first one hits, the rest have a continuously easier time making contact.

"How we're holding up?" Jacqueline asks, as she's briefly given some space to breathe. Ethius reports in... systems yellow. She frowns. They're all getting strained, here.

She doesn't hear the rest of what he has to say.

And so, Jacqueline makes her move. Once again, she casts her hand out. Bladed feathers detach, rushing toward Schiehallion. This time, however, in her cockpit, Jacqueline draws out a particular device - a Copy Sea Medium. She focuses on its power, and Issachar blinks out of existence...

...and reappears right behind Schiehallion, even as the feathers slash at it. From behind Issachar takes up its spear, unleashing a flurry of stabs in tandem with its feathers in an attack from every direction.

And then they're all recalled - rushing to reunite with the Wing Unit which, with a gesture, raises over Issachar's head before swinging down toward Schiehallion like a massive blade. 

GS: Jacqueline Barber spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Formation! Jacqueline Barber has attacked Loren Voss with Omnidirectional Sequence!
GS: Jacqueline Barber has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Meng Wu has posed.

The blows to the gear are reminding her that she's out of practice, that her gear's probably outdated and it needed more than the recommissioning it received before. It's going to need a rebuild after this. There's a wry laugh from Wu at the thought of it all.
 
 Whether she believes the situation or not is irrelevant, she's going to look into it. These kind of operations are never clear, clean or striaght forward. Even if some of her missions were!
 
 She's actually not entirely sure what the hit was. At least the issue with the monitors is gone. Mostly because she can just see physically through gaps in the armor. She reaches a booted foot up and kicks the hatch out of the way with a few solid blows.
 
 Fighting the controls the whole way, she forces the crippled gear back to it's feet. She needs a better view as she begins to gather more ether to herself. The slab and worked earth before starting to rumble and twist. The pilot's ignoring a few injuries and a reminder she should get a crew helmet.. and better armor and-
 
 "I've given up everything already. Change does require sacrifice, you're not wrong." Spikes begin to form, glittering, crystaline and precise like all of her other practiced spells.
 
 "But what I threw away was little more than waste and nothing has changed since." In more ways than one. She's stagnated too.
 
 She continues fighting the controls to stay standing, using the spear as a crutch for the machine as the spikes suddenly jut out from all directions. "I don't like those memories." She says, actually sounding alive briefly before the mech's systems finally give out. The engine rattling to a stop and the machine slumps forward. Leaving the pilot disentangling herself, ready for whatever else comes. She made mistakes, it's how she figured it'd go down some day. 

<Pose Tracker> Vivace Mori has posed.

Still half-deafened from her own attack, Vivace makes out most of what Leah is saying - and more to the point, she knows that she (and Erikodus, and even little Niquia back there) are getting attention. Respect, even.

She's wanted this. Still standing, balanced on Erikodus, Vivace gives out a fierce grin.

"...what?" Boudicca takes her a moment to parse. "Oh. Well we don't say that on Nede." She's going to put any archaicisms Boudicca uses on her being a Visitor - well, a Filgaian (even though she's not one) rather than being old. Vivace is Symbologically aware, and can see Seraphs... but she doesn't really know what they are in any detail.

Erikodus has nothing to really wave back with toward Pikachu, but it fires a missile - straight up - which pops in something more like fireworks than an actual missile burst. "I didn't call for that!" Vivace startles, but she's not going to tell Erikodus and Niquia they can't. Not right now.

"C'mon," she says, quietly, to Erikodus as she crouches to give it a little pat on the... head? Front? She rises up a moment later to regard Leah again.

"I know what I'd do," she calls back, "but you know what? Someone who comes into *my home*, starts attacking *my world*, to get something they can use to kill a city because apparently what they already have just isn't enough for them - "

"You don't deserve an answer. You're acting brave, but you're a coward. You can't handle anyone who isn't just like you and yours, so the only answer you've got is to make them go away for your 'god', attacking people who can't fight back. I don't like the Visitors trying to solve all of Nede's problems, but at least they're trying. You're just a bully with a gun and there's a reason we locked those away."

Vivace has fought people who were trying to actually kill her... never, before this. She's terrified, but she refuses to show it; her arms-crossed dramatic posing is as much to keep herself centered as to look cool (though she does think it looks very cool).

The blast from the sky - "Niquia!" she yells, suddenly, and a wall appears above her. Shining light, layer after layer... it doesn't stop the beam but it diffuses it, breaking it up and weakening it. It still strikes. Sand goes everywhere from the impact, and once again Vivace regrets not wearing goggles or a mask or something; Erikodus wavers, clearly running low on energy but still trying. The lights down the cannon are a little dimmer, and one of them flickers off and on.

Vivace judges its status all at once. "Do it," she says to Erikodus. "Erikodus, more missiles. Niquia, back 'em up!"

Erikodus lets out another rumbling "Eri!" - and then, as if to show up the Takikodus' mastery of flame, fires a pair of almost comedically large missiles trailing huge plumes of smoke. They arc up... arc down... and explode in something that's half flame, half bursting colourful fireworks all aimed directly at the Mega Metagross! Niquia is steering them so they both impact together, though that's not as obvious; what is more obvious is Niquia signaling to the others so that nobody blunders into what is suddenly ground zero, electronic messaging delivered with happy beeps and - for those using text - a collection of cute emoji, because unfortunately for Vivace Niquia is tied into her phone. If you have ever wanted to see a cartoon Vulpix with a baseball cap, now's your chance. 

GS: Meng Wu has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
GS: Vivace Mori accepts Seraph Boudicca's Smoke Sigil for 0 hit points!
GS: Amplify, Burst, and Hyper applied to Vivace Mori!
GS: FP up! Seraph Boudicca's Reload!!
GS: Meng Wu accepts Seraph Boudicca's Smoke Sigil for 0 hit points!
GS: Amplify, Burst, and Hyper applied to Meng Wu!
GS: FP up! Seraph Boudicca's Reload!!
GS: CRITICAL! Loren Voss critically fails to charge Jacqueline Barber's Omnidirectional Sequence for 619 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Loren Voss gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Charge!! You gain 50 FP! (That's 35 more than usual!)
GS: Loren Voss has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
GS: Meng Wu spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Meng Wu has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Iron Maiden!
GS: Meng Wu has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Meng Wu gains 5 FP from her Daredevil!
GS: Meng Wu gains 5 FP from Gleam!
GS: Entangle and Slow expired!
GS: Meng Wu has completed her action.
GS: Vivace Mori has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
GS: Vivace Mori has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Max Flare!
GS: Vivace Mori has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Vivace Mori's stances have changed to Avenger!
GS: Mighty and Shield expired!
GS: Vivace Mori has completed her action.
GS: Access! Vivace Mori takes 30 damage!
GS: CRITICAL! Leah Sadalbari marginally guards Meng Wu's Iron Maiden for 502 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Leah Sadalbari gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Hyper applied to Meng Wu!
GS: Strain! Meng Wu takes 50 damage!
GS: Meng Wu has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
GS: Leah Sadalbari critically fails to guard Vivace Mori's Max Flare for 502 hit points!
GS: FP up! Countermeasures!

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    "I mean, yeah. Had t'take a late lunch break." Unfortunately for Loren, Gwen was being serious, on top of using it as a quip. She *was* on lunch break, but she was eating inside her Gear.

    .... Because she had heard those rumors.

    ".... I hate it too," Gwen says quietly, to Jay.

    'Gwen! I'm not playing around!'

    To Loren's cry of anger, comes Gwen's own, flustered and panicked. "Shit, it was still o--?!" The radio is now off, as Gwen's second reaction is to grab her Pokeball to zap Voltie inside.

    This time, she doesn't transmit what she wants to say. "... Do what you need to do to survive, Loren."

    Two shells rocket towards the Halcyone, hitting against its arms and encasing them in ice, while the other spears it through with earth. "... Ngh!" Gwen, bruised from her fall against her cockpit seat, forces her shift stick forwards, slowly amping the power needed to free the Halcyone from its ice and mud prison and rocket straight into the sky, aiming a spear directly for the Schiehallion.

    "Do that, Loren, n' I'll do the same!!"

    With that, she falls down with the other harpoon in hand, rocketing down on the Gear with either the rope of the other harpoon guiding her, or just simple gravity. 

GS: Gwen Whitlock spends 1 Combo on Link!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Loren Voss with Kingfisher!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has launched an attack Link!
GS: Gwen Whitlock's stances have changed from Link to Hero and Link!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Loren Voss with Gwen Reaper!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    The Dust Dragoon's mobility is compromised. Metagross has a fraction of its mass, but is moving with terrible, buzzsaw speed. The Pokemon strikes the Gear head-on as it steps back; Ida sweeps the cannon up to block, but Metagross simply glances off and keeps going. For the second time, Ida feels the bulk of the machine around her in free-fall.

    "Hold on, Sal!" Ida cries.

    The Dust Dragoon twists, mid-fall, landing awkwardly on its side. It crushes a few crates, and plows through the side of a warehouse. Mercifully, nothing alive is caught beneath it. As the dust settles, Ida dangles in the cockpit. The radio is spitting static, and the panoramic display is a glitchy mess. Ida glances up, and sees Sal hanging above her.

    'What would you sacrifice for what you believe in? For those you care for? To revive this world?'

    Ida has her answer. She hooks a leg around the side of her seat, then unbuckles the webbing holding her in place--first the straps at one shoulder, then the other, then the ones at her hips. She hefts herself up, perching carefully.

    "Wait here, Sal," Ida says. Her fingers close around the emergency release lever, and she pulls. Behind her, heavy hydraulics rumble to life armored plates slide apart. Light spills into the Dust Dragoon as the cockpit opens.

    Sal meets Ida's gaze, unflinching. "Ree," she says. "Free." A tiny hand unbuckles a tiny strap, then another. With the tiedowns undone, Sal wriggles free of her own crash webbing, and takes to the air.

    "Sal, you don't--if we don't stop this thing, thousands of people will die. I'm going to do something terribly reckless. Are you sure?"

    "Butterfree, Ree." Sal puts one tiny hand forwards, clenched in a fist. Ida clasps a hand, tapping her knuckle against Sal's.

    "Together, then."

    A few minutes pass. A tiny form flits up from the prone Gear, black-and-white wings fluttering in the desert sky. Catastrophe Sal carries a larger mesh sack, and inside that sack is a... drum, of some sort. A cannister about a foot and a half tall, and maybe half a foot wide. A bright orange stripe marks the middle. She bobs uneasily in the air--whatever's inside is clearly heavy--but she's on a direct intercept course for the Metagross. It's had the advantage of flight this entire fight. Sal's eyes narrow in determination.

    Time to show it what a real Flying-Type can do.

    "Butterfree!" Sal cries, and she goes for what looks like an aggressive swooping gesture--like a sparrow harrying an eagle. She pulls up, and swoops again.

    On the ground, Ida takes a knee to steady herself, and raises Devil's Due. She only has iron-sights. Sal's keeping the canister as steady as she can, but it's still bobbing about.

    Sal passes directly over Metagross. "BUTTERFREE!" she cries, and that's the signal for Ida. In Poke-speak, it's roughly "SMILE, YOU SON OF A--"

    The cannister falls. Metagross might see the label HANDLE WITH EXTREME CAUTION. FUEL IS UNDER PRESSURE. EXPLOSION AND FIRE HAZARD.

    Ida sights, and pulls the trigger.

    Sal rides the ensuing explosion with a bright, trilling "Freeeeee~" like the awesome action hero she is.

DC: Ida Everstead-Rey switches forms to Gentlewoman Adventurer Ida!

GS: Ida Everstead-Rey spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Tandem Attack - Bombardier Drive!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
GS: Leah Sadalbari critically fails to guard Ida Everstead-Rey's Tandem Attack - Bombardier Drive for 116 hit points!
GS: FP up! Countermeasures!

<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.

In the midst of the terrible bttle, as Lady Brightwing attacks, Leah falls silent.

"..."

Leah's blue eyes are on Rena and her Psynard, Lady Brightwing. "...Yes," Leah answers Rena distantly. "I suppose I did."

Metagross suffers under the power of the Psynard unleashed, roaring defiance but still unable to do more than shout underneath its power for long, long moments. "METAAAAAAAA!" it calls.

Leah cannot be heard over the dragon's breath, so she waits to answer Boudicca until it is done. "None," she answers. "To my knowledge. It was not by my will that I was made thus, Seraph."

"My rest was sacrificed on the altar of God."

Then, she looks to Vivace and her Erikodus. She considers her, as Vivace gives her answer--her non-answer. But throws out more missiles, all the same. The missiles burst at the Mega Metagross, and it is surrounded by flame and shrapnel, more of its armor scratched. "GRRROOOOSS!" it calls, in fury.

"Your actions are reply enough. You have shown me what you will do. Perhaps it will be enough."

At the same time, Meng Wu's attack slams in, and despite its awesome power, the Metagross is able to partially guard it. It still throws glittering spikes tht are powerful enough to injure the Metagross. And Leah considers her words.

"I believe you," Leah says. "But you will find, I think..."

"That there is always more to give up."

Metagross judges the battle over. It suddenly stops, and curls in on itself. The glowing that ensues is recognizeable to at least one Trainer as the beginning of the Self-Destruct maneuver--a maneuver that will not kill the Metagross, but will disable it... and possibly the rest of the battle, while it's at it.

Leah looks on, impassive to all eyes. Until she hers--

"BUTTERFREE!'

The explosion slams into the Metagross, and interrupts the attack. The Metagross disappears briefly in the huge blast, but reappears a moment later. It wobbles in the air. Its aggression has not abated. It is, however, on its last legs, clearly injured, warning tones sounding.

"Metagross," Leah instructs. "Return."

She regards the battlefield for a moment. "Seraph," she addreses Boudicca. "Keep your charges well. We are not the only threat to their lives."

She then raises her hand to her earpiece. "...Gebler," Leah instructs. "Retreat."

"It would seem that the Seed Cities will see the world to come after all."

She turns back, out towards the battle. "What we know, and what we have known."

"...Where is 'truth'?"

Leah Sadalbari begins to walk away into the sands. A storm is picking up. She will not be found until she wishes it. 

GS: Leah Sadalbari has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
GS: CRITICAL! Loren Voss critically fails to charge Gwen Whitlock's Kingfisher for 353 hit points!
GS: Charge!! You gain 40 FP! (That's 25 more than usual!)
GS: Loren Voss has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
GS: CRITICAL! Loren Voss fails to charge Gwen Whitlock's Gwen Reaper for 498 hit points!
GS: Charge!! You gain 50 FP! (That's 35 more than usual!)
GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!
GS: Loren Voss has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    Change requires sacrifice.

    The only noble sacrifice--

    What Leah says to them is a distillation of what she has already told him. He has already given his answer, and he already knows the truth that rests in his own heart. This, and he has enough to attend without listening in on conversations that circulate without his own field of battle. But this one carries. Loren cannot help but hear it.

    It will live for some time in his mind, rent-free.

    As will Leah's answer.

    ...He already knows. Lan had told him. And it's no longer something he can ask about -- confront her about. But all this time, she had been awaiting the moment her body would give out and she would die. And he knows why. And he knows it's no longer possible for her, now.

    There are things that Issachar can do that Loren's own Gear cannot. Those bits, for instance -- they remind him of AERODS, an application of Ether technology that in spite of his birth, he doesn't have the correct aptitude to use cold. But Issachar can do that without relying on one's Ether. And on top of that, as an Omnigear, its response time is incredible: it's as if it's just an extension of Jacqueline's body. Of course he can tell the difference in its speed.

    Elly's new Gear was the same.

    But the trick she pulls off with Issachar has nothing to do with its inherent response or technologies and everything to do with its ability to interface with certain Filgaian modes of sorcery: it disappears from before him and appears behind him, and though he conjures barriers to try to intercept its feathers, it's not enough.
    Especially not when Issachar drives at his Gear with all those pinions united as one.

    The damage report is extensive: one camera is out, and other sections have suffered deep cracks.

    Speaking of those cracks.

    Down comes Gwen, her Gear freed by now from its prison of ice and mud. When--? But that's irrelevant, he realizes, even in the moment: her harpoon finds one of those cracks and twists and sinks deep. "Gwen, you--!!" he bellows out, the distortion of his voice across the comms suggesting that she'd also damaged one of the connection cables. Oops?

    He had hoped in that moment to lay Pikachu out, or at least prevent her through the extreme effort (only made possible by the amplifiers within Schiehallion; he could never have completed such a feat outside the Gear (without Drive)) he'd expended using Ether in such a way. But she is indefatigable and emerges far, far close than he'd like her to be to his Gear, particularly when he is recovering from his prior exertions.

    Also, she's smiling, and Loren learned many years ago to be wary of people who smile when they fight (this, probably, extends to himself). Given his current opponent--

    He's not wrong. Lightning strikes, and strikes, and strikes, and it's only because there's sufficient pathways around the cockpit for such a current that it doesn't result in either Loren or his Gear's OS getting torched outright. As it stands, though, Schiehallion locks up where it stands: forget the mother-of-all-shorts, this is the grandmother-of-all-shorts. It takes time for the Gear's system to recover from this, and while it's doing that--

    A great white-hot beam tears into Schiehallion's side. With the system only halfway up-and-running, Loren's not even sure what hit him. He can't even get a damage report, let alone see--

    What everyone else will see is this: moments after getting slammed into by a white-hot beam, the Schiehallion is still intact, if scorched, on its left side. And then, with no fanfare or ceremony, the greater portion of its left arm falls off to crash onto the ground.

    --but he can tell that something about Schiehallion's balance is off and that's not a good sign.

    "Hurry up," he hisses at his Gear as he grabs the controls. Something smells burnt. That's probably bad, he figures, even as the external cameras finally do come fully online and he's finally able to see Cassandra bearing down on him with a nimbus of darkness floating all about her. "Shit--" he utters, threading Ether through Schiehallion's resurrected amplifiers, giving everything he has to try and defend his Gear from what is to come. But in his current state, he doesn't have anything left to give and pain blooms bright behind his eyes.

    Barely slowed, Cassandra tears into his Gear. Rattled in the core of Schiehallion, he reaches for his emergency supply kit. A Rosesol, then. Or-- maybe the time has come for something else--

    'Metagross, return.'

    'Gebler, retreat.'

    His hand moves after a moment's hesitation from the kit and all the pharmaceutical interventions that away. He follows orders, as he had said.

    Jetting backwards, he abruptly urges Schiehallion into the air to rejoin the aerial cruiser. He does not say a word to Leah or anyone else. 

<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

It's a brutal end to the fight - but the fight ends, with everyone pulling out all the stops. Leah disappears into the sands, and Jacqueline knows better than to try and pursue. Schiehallion, too, retreats...

...And so, the threat is halted, at least for now. Jacqueline breathes a sigh of relief and allows Issachar to descend, touching down.

"I think... I think we did it." Jacqueline says. "Issachar's beat up, but we can still move... does anyone need a hand?"

Everything's still at the back of her mind... but for right now, this is the best next step. 

<Pose Tracker> Chase has posed.

Somewhere in all of Vivace's Niqua's texting, Chase blinks and checks his phone. He texts back an emoji of a Pikachu wearing a hat in response. What else do you say to that?

But when all's said and done... Gebler is retreating. The Seed Cities remain standing.

Pikachu's ears perk and wriggle. She looks left and right. She licks her paw and uses it to wipe her face. Then her tail wags wildly as she spots a prize of battle, scampering over without waiting for Chase's input to heft up Schiehallion's fallen arm into her grasp.

"PIIIKA PIII~!" she sings, spinning and happily brandishing the severed limb of her enemy until the brilliant pink aura around her begins to dim.

"PIKA?" She drops the arm and looks to her own paws when -- 3. 2. 1. Small. Smaller. Smallest! Pikachu shrinks back down to standard Pikachu size, hanging briefly in the air with Chase somewhere in the middle of her previous height before both fall.

"Pika?!"

Chase catches hold of Pikachu and Pikachu produces, inexplicably, a bunch of balloons. They both Floaty Fall their way down, and the balloons scatter up into the sky once Chase safely touches foot down into Schiehallion's open palm, perched there. Pikachu latches onto his neck with a hug, rubbing her cheek against him in a joyous nuzzle as Chase hugs her.

He looks over the horizon.

Sacrifice. God. 'Truth'...

Chase frowns and hugs Pikachu more tightly.

<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

    One of the side effects of firing an enormous beam is that some of the camera feeds short out - it was that bright. There is a time where Ethius has to wait for sound cues to be absolutely certain about what to do next, tensely gripping controls in his cross-arm grip while Arcmene dips low to the ground... and then crawls up as if to peek.
 
     "Head down," Ethius reiterates, firmly.
 
     His ability to recognize which audio cue is whose weapon systems is uncanny, even if he has to pick them out in-between the loud 'PIKA,' 'ABSOL,' or 'ERI' sound cues.
 
     '...Where is 'truth'?' Leah's words cut through all of that, beyond the limit of physics of sound. It's chilling, to hear, when so much is in the air. The matter of the Seed Cities' presence here is complicated. Ethius' hands tense, as a storm starts to pick up. What surviving sensors are there is enough to give him a decent read of who is present, doing what, and where.
 
     'I think... I think we did it.' Or he could listen to what Jay says.
 
     Ethius drops out of his cockpit to retrieve Arcmene's ball, just as the spider-like Pokemon taps the comms.
 
     "...rcm." They mumble, in public channels. "arcm. cme. rcme. ne."
 
     "The confirmation is appreciated," Ethius talks over that so that no one confuses Arcmene's mumblings as a cry for help for his Trainer. From all he's experienced - or rather survived - by Solaris' hands, he's left to wonder what the exact nuances of their endgame must be. 

<Pose Tracker> Hannah Curie has posed.

Hannah's eyes widen as she sees the way Metagross starts to glow. "Oh hell-- Cassandra! Max G--" But she cuts herself off as she sees a familiar Butterfree--No, that's Sal, charging right for Metagross. Her eyes widen as she spots that shape. She can't see the labelling, but she certainly recognizes that shape, and the color.

"Ida what in tarnation--" Oh, Ida is... Hannah gets it now. She hopes it works. But even so...

"Cassandra, be ready, jus' in case."

But no, the Self-Destruct is interrupted, Leah recalls Metagross, and Solaris retreats.

Hannah heaves a huge sigh of relief, letting her shoulders sag. Cassandra watches as Loren retrets in his gear, and crouches low, as if to purse. "No, Cassandra. He ain't causin' anymore trouble today."

Especially not with that arm of his Gear missing.

Cassandra watches as the gear and Leah retreat into the distance and/or blowing sanda and snorts, then nods. "Ab." She turns and starts making her way back to Hannah. The Dynamax ends right when she reaches Hannah, and she lays down, taking a load off.

Hannah kneels down to check her over, petting carefully down her back and side. "You did wonderfully, Cassandra. We kept the people safe. You rest up, an' I'm gonna check on the others." She reaches into her satchel and offers up a Heal Bettery to Cassandra, who happily takes it.

"I'm all good," says Hannah in response to Jay's question, tapping into general comms. "Cassandra's doin' alright, too. Chase, and, ah--"

Her phone dings, and Hannah frowns, pulling it from her pocket to check it. A picture of a Vulpix in a hat. "Huh. Cute. Chase, Miss Vulpix in a Hat. I got a few extra Heal Berries if you need 'em for your pokemon."

Meanwhile, Zephyr dives down to make a tight circle around Chase and Pikachu, chirping at them, then goes over to keep Cassandra company. Hannah walks over next to check up on Chase. 

<Pose Tracker> Meng Wu has posed.

To a degree, she's surprised she's still alive. She spits a mix of grit and worse from her vantage point half out of the cockpit. Then she climbs down. Still ignoring a myriad of injuries. Looking up at the wreckage of her gear, mothballed for so long and totalled. She says to no one in particular, "Never did like throwing my gear away." Sounding disappointed in herself, still more human and less robotic than she has in some time.
 
 Eventually she tilts her head, grimacing and radios for a pickup as the people leave the field of battle.
 
 "Wonder what else I'll have to burn."
 
 She then promptly sits on the best spot of the wreckage she can find and pulls her cigarettes out, giving an annoyed look at the mangled status and lights one up anyway. Nothing else for it. She's no healer. 

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    In the middle of battle, something drops into that crack the Halycone just made into the Schiehallion's shell.

    It's easy for Gwen to do, since the harpoon function is the same as the cannon function. Just different valves.

    "... Sorry, Loren." She leaves those words to herself; the package itself may speak on its own.

    She's willing to give her all to the wrong people, but Loren did the same for her.

    The Halcyone quickly clears the area, smoke and sparks beginning to fire off the sides until it ungracefully lands a safe distance away.

    Lowering onto the ground like a tired hen, the Halcyone's cockpit opens, revealing a bruised but safe Gwen.

    "... That fucker... ruined my lunch break." Gwen's rubbing her eyes, trying to make light of the situation, but the red edges of her eyes that she tries to hide is another story.

    "Who needs supplies? I grabbed a bunch thinkin' I'd need more." 

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    That Metagross was about to self-destruct, just like Vivace said it might. Thanks to everyone's efforts--and two partners showing what they were willing to risk--it doesn't get the chance.

    Sal half-flies, half-careens towards Ida, a trilling "Eeeeee~" dopplering out behind her. Ida reaches up to catch her, and then hugs her to her chest. "I'm so proud of you," she says. "You were so brave out there."

    "Butterfree, Ree," says Sal. She's a little scorched and sooty from the explosion, but Metagross came off far worse. She hops up onto her Trainer's shoulder, bracing against the side of her helmet. Sal flashes Cassandra and Pikachu the tiniest of thumbs-up to let them know she's okay.

    Ida, meanwhile, takes a seat, and just breathes. Afterwards, there will be time to realize that was a real adult Psynard she saw glimpses of, with Rena riding it. How did she earn its trust?

    And she will find those emojis, in due time.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.

    Boudicca poured everything into keeping Ida, Meng Wu and the others upright; she has no offensive response to Metagross, as it prepares that final rejoinder. But Leah calls it back; Leah, whose eternity was not given to her by choice.

    She is not a woman whose heart cannot be moved. She could weep, for Leah. But before she does, she would weep for every city Leah crushes beneath her grasp -- this woman emblematic of Solaris. And so her voice is steady, as she replies to Leah: "I know well the threats they face. Pray, do not return here. Filgaia now is under my protection."

    And her protection is her sacrifice, and would she weep, to know that Loren heard her? But Loren is a tool of this oppression, too.

    She turns, and she will see to the wounded, supportive as she ever was.

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