2016-01-24 - Ohtori Academy Invaded!
| Title: Ohtori Academy Invaded! | |
|---|---|
| Summary: Ohtori's ball ends abruptly when first the bridge connecting to the mainland is blown up, then all the magical girls are sucked into Zero Time to fight a gigantic Cybody, and finally, once they emerge a mix of exhausted, wounded, and unconscious, the Golden Age Paramilitary company moves in to occupy campus! | |
| Who: Lera Camry, Fuu Hououji, Kozue Kaoru, Takeo Akamizu, Sayaka Miki, Mai Tokiha, Mikoto Minagi, Sachiko Majime, Hikaru Shidou, Nori Ankou, Iona Hikawa, Minako Aino GM: Hotaru Tomoe | |
| Where: Ohtori Academy, Zero Time | |
| OOC - IC Date: 01/24/16 - 09/23/14 | |
<Pose Tracker> Hotaru Tomoe [Infinity Institute (6)] has posed.
That marvelous ballroom ceiling of glass and gold filigree has made a noble frame for the sky all evening. As the sun slipped over the horizon, it gradually painted a palette of oranges and lavenders and deepening, deepening blues, until black overwrote it entirely but for the silvery shimmer of the moon and the twinkle of distant stars.
All but one star, that is. One light in the night sky is a baleful red, a feature of Ohtori's constellations that those who haven't spent the evening here before may not recognize. It does not twinkle, it just... shines, like a bloodied, distant pinprick. After a while, its sheer constancy makes it easy to forget, the brain adjusting to its background presence the same way it might filter out a nearby, routinely passing train.
But what happens next, no one will ever forget. It's the kind of thing that you remember, the hour-minute-second it happened, exactly what it was you were doing before, the little details...
...because afterwards, nothing will ever be the same again.
The effect can briefly be mistaken for the sun rising far before its foretold hour, as a shimmer of light grows behind the blackness of night, which rises to blue; in combination, a sickly green flash.
But it's gold, gold, the gold of fairy tale treasure troves, of fevered, frenzied dreams, the stuff that riots are made of, that showers downwards -- not coins but light, purest golden radiance that puts the solar corona to shame, makes it seem butter yellow, pale and frothy in comparison.
Although beautiful, it's also horrible, otherworldly. Anyone who's ever been to the extreme north might find the trails in the sky faintly reminiscent of an aurora, but that comparison is also inadequate. If a kid with gold fingerpaints were to tear down the sky, this might be what results.
It is a silent phenomenon, until it isn't.
Until a pillar of golden light at least a quarter mile thick shatters the atmosphere, boiling the rare stray clouds in its path, and impacts Southern Cross Bridge, which connects this island to the main body of Tokyo. With a terrible tremble like the snapping strings of fate, it then explodes upwards in a spherical blast all too similar to a mushroom.
The air shakes, the ground shakes, the ocean roars; the steel and concrete of the bridge, as well as any unfortunates who might have been on it at the moment of impact, are absolutely and completely vaporized. Waters gush into a hemispherical chasm that had been instantly rendered to steam, which strains what's left of the bridge on either end -- which isn't much at all -- to collapse.
The bridge -- the only connection between Ohtori Academy and the rest of the world -- is just... gone.
More quickly than the stunned silence can be broken, the shockwave arrives, shattering windows, knocking people to the floor, tearing weaker trees up by their roots.
/Now/ the screaming begins.
<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
Lera didn't manage to find Setsuna after they got separated. The girl's feet stumble to a stop when the golden light floods in. Her eyes widen for a moment with confusion -- she doesn't know what to make of this -- and then she turns to look at the window a moment later, as she feels the ground underneath her shake. She sees the light punch through the bridge. Lera doesn't stop and stare at it after that, though.
Conscious thought overrides instinct. Midchildan mages deal in causing large explosions and she knows -- has felt -- shockwaves before. She turns and covers her face with an arm. The shockwave blows in windows, sending shards of glass flying by her. Lera hisses softly, lowering her arm, and staring out the window with confusion.
Thoughts rush through her head. Setsuna is somewhere; she has no clue where. Endo said he was going to check on Ren. She frowns, looking around her, and then back out the window. "Any idea what that was, buddy?"
<None. Some kind of orbital weapon? But... I didn't think Earth had those.>
<Pose Tracker> Takeo Akamizu [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Grinnign and looking rather deeply into Mai's eyes, Takeo takes a deep breath and says softly, "Tohika-san..." And he might be soncidering saying something else, except there is light. LOTS of light. And the Bridge is gone in an explosive gout of golden light and steam.
Blinking, Takeo looks at Mai again, and sighs. "Remember when I said we don't have to be Super Heroes tonight?" He pinches the bridge of his nose. "I may have lied." He then undoes his tie in a deft pull and undoes the top buttons on his dress shirt to grab the medallion underneath, which he removes and holds.
He doens't transform. Yet. It might be a good idea to figure out what is going on first. But his eyes scan and are looking for a safe spot to do just that. "One of these days I'm going to remember Camelot."
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
Fireworks at the end of a formal ball aren't exactly unheard of. Orbital killsat strikes are another story - and Fuu is still in the middle of thinking that when the shockwave from whatever just took out the bridge slams into *her*, sending her flying thanks to her dress and its cloak providing rather too much of a 'sail' to be blown around by. Fortunately, she doesn't fly all that far - but it's still an awkward landing. Somehow she doesn't twist an ankle on the way down, nor does she break her glasses.
She's quick to get back to her feet, although keenly aware that her glove-jewel is back with her other things. More than that, though, she's worried about her family, her classmates, *everyone* who's stuck on Southern Cross Island with the bridge taken out. Fuu manages not to panic, though - partly because there's nothing to run away *from* right now. For that matter, places to run *to* are in extraordinarily short supply. Unless there are people who have their own boats and/or aircraft and are willing to ferry others back to mainland Tokyo - and this is Ohtori, so there more than likely ARE - there isn't any benefit to worrying about how to get off the island. Really, there are just two questions which are predominant in Fuu's mind right now:
Where did that beam COME from?
And is it going to happen a second time?
A third question quickly splits off from the first one, as she recalls Queen Beryl's attempt to banish every magical girl on Earth who wasn't a Sailor Senshi: was this part of a gambit to concentrate the Tokyo population of magical girls in one fairly small locale for some purpose ... ?
That's the point where Fuu Hououji *really* starts worrying - but she still suppresses her fear and maintains her composure as well as she can. Freaking out will just impair her ability to think and analyze the situation; clear thinking may let her determine the path to safety, for herself and her comrades, Magic Knights and otherwise. Still, getting her glove-jewel might be a smart and important move ... but until there's an enemy present who can be fought, there's little point to worrying about it except for the sake of preparation.
<Pose Tracker> Hikaru Shidou [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
One moment, Hikaru is enjoying a good time at the party, even if it's getting a bit heated...
The next moment, she's finding herself wondering just what the heck just happened. The bridge leading away from here has been destroyed by a weird beam. What is it and where did it come from? Is there some sort of enemy they should be on the lookout for? Many questions swirl in Hikaru's mind, but the biggest issue is if there's a youma or something behind this. She, too, would go for her glove-jewel, but at the time doesn't want to risk overreacting. So she looks around and narrows her eyes, almost like she's going into extra scrutinizing mode.
"I don't like this, Fuu-chan," She comments as she moves past Fuu. "I think someone or someTHING doesn't want us leaving anytime soon!"
<Pose Tracker> Iona Hikawa [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Iona manages to make it out to the terrace right when the golden light appears, flooding the school. "What?" She asks, mostly to herself. Her eyes sweep the area, trying to look for any logical point of origin. This is cut short by the sudden rumbling of the ground, making Iona stumble backwards, requiring her to lean on the corner to keep herself steady. When it subsides, Iona pushes off the wall and stands up fully. She bites her lip for a moment, trying to see what can be done. She could try to help save the civilians, but with all the light everywhere and the bridge going out, she's not sure where people could go to be safe. So... somewhat more direct intervention is necessary, but Iona doesn't want to transform in a croweded ballroom.
Iona turns and leaves the terrace, attempting to act /very/ regal as she manuvers her way out of the ballroom area and towards a more secluded place.
<Pose Tracker> Sachiko Majime [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
Woah, woah, woah! First there was mandatory attendance and then one also had to dress up? So much about tonight's event just rubbed Sachiko the wrong way. But it's not like there wouldn't be a small army of like minded delinquents forcibly attending the festivities tonight. It was all too easy for Sachiko Majime to find some co-conspirators that were also looking to ditch the planned activities and get into some real trouble. This was Ohtori Academy afterall. There would most assuredly be some shenanigans afoot -somewhere- tonight. But for once, Sachiko didn't have to find trouble. Trouble found her. By the sound of all the explosions and screaming, it seems the party already started without her.
Reaching her interlocked fingers out before her, the softball starlet begins to stretch lazily. It's been too long since she's transformed and who cares about that damn warning Kyubey gave her. She'll handle that whole grief seed thing soon enough even if it means resorting to violence.....especially soon if it means resorting to violence. As for now, it was time to see just who had the gall to trash -her- school. Starting from her fingertips, a bright orange light covers Sachiko from head to toe. Her borrowed ballroom dressed is exchanged for the orange and black attire of her Puella Magi 'uniform'. The final speck of orange light fade to reveal Sachiko standing there with an axe slouched over her shoulder.
Without skipping a beat, Sachiko nonchalantly strides forward a few paces and begins to grin happily. Maybe tonight was going to be fun afterall.
COMBAT: Sachiko Majime transforms into Puella Magi Sachiko!
<Pose Tracker> Kozue Kaoru [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.
A hand lightly touches upon a marble railing, her eyes looking up. She'd been perhaps a little pensive but... when she looks into the sky, there's something different. What does she see? Baleful crimson light as always, but tonight... it's different. No not different... something is just joining it...
She hurriedly shields her eyes with her other arm and quickly ducks as purest auroral gold drowns out red, creating what can only be an event horizon in her eyes, a point of no return. It's nigh impossible to act cool and composed before such overwhelming power, and once it's over, a hand touches back upon cool marble, perfect manicured nails clenching down tightly as she draws herself back up to standing position.
Her eyes don't have to look around for long. Her breath catches in her throat, just as the scream starts. Whirling around with a sort of angry intensity, she runs as countercurrent to the panicked crowd of students. Whereas the natural impulse is to panic and stream outwards, she's moving in, threading the throng, pushing, and shoving when need be.
The cobalt blue strapless ruffle-trimmed crepe gown she was wearing becoming more a hindrance than anything, even hiking its skirt up with one hand, it's tripping her up enough that soon enough the worry is more that she'll actually fall and be trampled underfoot. Enough so that eventually instead of shoving her way through the center mass she's moving through the fringes.
Kozue had so many questions, but there were a few at the forefront of her mind. Questions which she insisted upon at anyone unfortunate enough to cross her path, familiar or unfamiliar face alike since it was one that anyone might know the answer to. Some she'd grab and demand right in their faces angrily, "Has anyone seen Miki Kaoru?! Where's my brother?!"
Normally she'd put up some sort of front, but in this situation with an undercurrent of panic and fear... she knew full well what her priorities were and this was not a situation to make even vague attempts at concealing them.
<Pose Tracker> Minako Aino [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
Minako Aino turns in stunned silence as the ground reverberates beneath her feet. From where she's standing on the terrace, she has a perfect view of it -- the bridge collapsing into the water below, leaving no way for anyone to get back on -- or off the island.
For one second, Minako forgets to breathe. But the screams erupting from inside the ballroom rouse the sailor soldier of love from her shock. She turns on heel to face the two boys her lips pressed together in a thin and narrow line.
Then, without hesitation, Minako pulls her arm back and sends it racing towards the nose of the boy with the subpar lines. She snatches the wrist of his would-be victim and races inside at full speed, hoping Setsuna's keeping pace behind her.
Minako knows it'd be far easier to find a place to transform outside than in, where most of the students are located, but she would hate for either one of those goons to take advantage of this girl in the chaos. Save this individual girl first, work on saving the rest of the students on the island second.
Once the two of them blast past the doors to the ballroom, Minako turns back towards the girl and forces an encouraging smile. Difficult to do considering everything that's gone down tonight.
"Find someone you know and stick with them," she instructs her.
When the girl doesn't react immediately -- perhaps in shock from either the attack on the bridge or the attack on the male student a minute before -- Minako takes a step towards her, her eyebrows furrowed with concern.
"Okay?" she repeats.
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
Mikoto had slipped outside, after she absconded from the dance floor. It meant she had an /excellent/ view of what was to come - light as gold as those parts of her trim which aren't now stained purple. Light twinkles in the sky, and then comes crashing down in a torrent of sunlight -
Mikoto springs into one of the trees, grabbing it with her hands and swinging herself up in a deft movement. She climbs for a few moments, the branches tearing at her dress -- she pulls it free, tearing it in the process. From there she springs onto one of the buildings, and runs off, to get a closer look at what did that while hiding herself in the shadows of the rooftops.
It really is a good thing that waiter gave her these comfortable slippers.
<Pose Tracker> Nori Ankou [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
Nori Ankou was not feeling very much like the belle of the ball after misadventures previously, despite an excellent round of the waltz with young Mr. Universe. The fading light above them all was welcome. The sunlight always stings a little bit.
And then something glows gold... All consuming amber light rising around them. Nori looks at her hands, then up and around, at others. The light comes down like water from a pitcher, poured into a glass - from the perspective of the bottom of the glass. The light falls -
There is something flying in the distance.
Nori stares at the explosion as it comes forwards. It seems unreal. She doesn't rise to her feet to meet it and this is a lot of why she is not knocked over when the burst smashes against the building, smashing windows in its turn, bringing a ripe harvest of screams. She covers her eyes with her arm.
When she lowers it, the sober and deliberate thought comes to her mind: Maybe the world is ending.
That is not too surprising. The thought that comes after it - Maybe I should see about leaving - is a little more precise. Even so, her ears are ringing, and when she stands up, Nori finds she's shaking. She turns neatly, though, and heads towards the exit. Perhaps, of course, to find a few hundred other people with the same idea.
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi transforms into HiME Mikoto!
<Pose Tracker> Hotaru Tomoe [Infinity Institute (6)] has posed. <SoundTracker> Mashup: Monochrome - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZlgCXGXV48 and It's Only The Fairy Tale - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFqKHgd0eB0
There's glass all over the ballroom floor, and innumerable injuries from the ceiling's shattered trip from point A to point B. Sniffles and sobs (and a few ongoing hysterical screams) have replaced the orchestra music.
The one who finally steps forward to organize is the Vice-President, Shizuru Fujino. She sets what's left of her teacup down primly on a nearby table, then clears her throat. After all that, any girls who've suddenly undergone dramatic costume changes honestly feel like an anticlimax, and she does not seem to be too concerned about them. Rather, she brings order to the chaos with a few words:
"Kiryuu, call emergency services. Hotori and Saionji, organize transport for those injured who can be safely moved to the infirmary. When they run out of space, take the rest to the chapel -- Kikukawa, arrange for triage there. Suzushiro and Arisugawa, please organize a calm movement of the students and staff towards the main gymnasium. Once it is at fire limit capacity, please take the rest to the Fencing Hall. Maintain a mixed distribution of ages, so that older students can help younger ones."
Lifting her tea, she takes a long sip. Then, at something more like a battlefield roar (which somehow never goes above a refined bark):
"Everyone, if you are unharmed, please follow Suzushiro and Arisugawa to safety. Thank you for your consideration. Would any Sister Schools staff please report to me for assign--"
---
In a room unseen by everyone, above and beyond, in shadow and chains, a girl sings. Though a crisp fall breeze has reached the island today, her voice is more felt than heard, the sweet caress of winter's loneliness, the sleeping earth yearning for renewal, for the touch of light.
And standing by the destroyed bridge, another girl sings, equally invisible from this distance, and equally audible even so. Her voice provides that touch of light -- so lovely and so lonely. Their voices intertwine, golden providing a sweet soprano descant to silver.
The dancing snowflakes are fragments of stars
Who are those little girls in pain
Reaching out towards the heavens
Trapped in the castle on the dark side of the moon?
And in another place -- a cavern once visited by a legion of pissed-off magical girls reclaiming the city's stolen homework -- a cavern filled with creepily skewed, obliquely fashioned, gigantic, otherwordly mannequins -- a pair of strangely dressed people mount the steps up a tower crowned with twin metal chambers that look for all the world like coffins with wires sticking out of them.
They wear golden masks, elaborate and unique, some vintage distilled from a blend of the opera and the cat burglar. And as they descend into their Electric Biers, they tear them from their faces, faces that were at the ball earlier in the evening, and shout as one:
"APPRIVOISER!"
The coffins slam shut.
I can feel my wishes as they come and go
Twelve of them shining bright in vain
Everything is now in monochrome...
Like flowers that blossom just once in years
Light explodes from two of the mannequins, visible in this strange altered space even by those still in the ballroom. The light forms a golden pillar that twists and twines towards the unreachable heavens, sealed forever? beyond its touch. A false tree of life, it holds no salvation. In the ballroom, the confused, milling crowd slows, then stops entirely, frozen in space and time.
All the color in the world seems sapped out of existence... until, with a glittering shine, dozens of other golden masks illuminate their wearers, who seem to have surrounded the ball to prepare for this moment some time ago. Distance has no meaning now, and they can be seen all over the island, standing ready in their strange costumes, able to move in this space beyond time.
The white breath spilling softly from my lips
Is shaped like the words I want to convey.
It must be the warmth that's making the sky grow faintly lighter
Our wings are drenched in our shared sorrow
Turning pure white as they overlap
And becoming a gentle courage for the future
We passed to each other...
All of the msyterious mannequins -- the Cybodies -- have golden masks just like those of the humans, and two of them glow in response to all this, and then, alive with red and black lightning that wriggles like snakes, they seem to explode with flesh -- or is it armor? -- becoming far more than mere abandoned dolls. Within the electric biers, the Star Drivers scream, and their voices differentiate; one is a boy, and the other a girl.
The singers' voices have separated, too.
They're dancing in the shadows like whispers of love
Just dreaming of a place where they're free as doves
The Cybodies are different, too. One is massive and red and already drawing a huge, sparkling crimson energy blade from its chest. The other is dark blue with pink highlights, and seems to have glowing green energy wheels instead of feet.
They are by any metric giant robots, but the most massively magical, sparkling ones imaginable.
The beating of my heart as I wait for the dawn of an unknown world...
A new tomorrow that begins as I depart with the first rays of light
We each follow a different path
Even if we never meet again
The scattering stars are like sand
Tenderly caressing my heart again
Inhuman eyes behind the Cybodies' golden masks flare with blood red light...
And suddenly there is no world left at all... only an infinitely finite galaxy. A rainbow of stars whirl, reflected in a ground that belies their truth, like a mirror that can only see itself. Mystical gears of every conceivable color interlock the corners of this nonreality, literal seals of a place that is figurative, figment, at best. The girls are adrift in a space that is no space at all.
The afterimage of a dream during quiet slumber
They've never been allowed to love in this cursed cage
All is still in a shade of monochrome...
It's only the fairy tale they believe...
Zero time.
<Pose Tracker> Hotaru Tomoe [Infinity Institute (6)] has posed.
There is a large audience in bubbles that float, glowing occasionally with translucent golden circuitry, through the zone. Not all of them wear masks, but nobody is close enough to be recognizable. Normal students from the ball are not witnesses here, though; presumably they cannot access this strange dimension, and remain frozen in place, left behind.
"Go on and transform, then," invites the voice of the girl who screamed, who is now inside the huge red robot. "We were told you'd at least put up a fight."
And, indeed, it is once again possible to move in this place, as magical people discover themselves surrounded by halos of light the same colors as their hearts, which banishes the terrible gray.
"Unless you want us to take this battle into the real world, that is," suggests the boy, from the lipless mask of the huge blue robot. "I'm sure all your buddies on the island would really enjoy that."
The explosion of light that follows, as dozens of transformations take place at once, is even brighter than the vision of the golden tree. The Cybodies are far enough from one another that they can't be engaged by the same people, and roughly half of the group is already leaping towards the red robot with a sword --
-- that leaves the blue one, the one with wheels for feet.
"BRING IT!" roars its pilot. "I AM SPEED KID, AND THIS IS MY CYBODY TETRIOHT! TOGETHER WE'RE THE ACE OF FILAMENT SQUAD, AND WE'RE HERE TO USHER IN THE GOLDEN AGE!"
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe transforms into Cybody Tetrioht!
<Pose Tracker> Takeo Akamizu [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Zero Space fills his everything and Takeo drops to a knee. He growls deep in his throat and removes his blazer to fold it neatly and set it aside as he looks up at the big massive Cybody. He snorts once and rolls his shoulders. "You're a bunch if punks." He calls up.
He holds the medallion out in front of him, he looks over his shoulder to Mai, winks, and says, "Hey. I just want you to remember you were the one who called me a Knight earlier..." and then calls out loudly, "I SWEAR TO DEFEND THE INNOCENT!"
Lightning crackles from the medallion and springs outward to envelope the boy in a luminous display of crackling azure blue bolts. Each bolt snaps and cracks thunder, and with each bolt a piece of armor appears on Lancelot. He tosses the medallion in the air, and it cracks like thunder to become the gleaming white sword of Arondight. Traces of lightning spark and dance along the blade as a blue cape shimmers into existence. "I an the Cavalier Lancelot, defender of the Innocent, and wielder of the sacred blade. You want a fight punks. COME GET SOME!"
He roars and charges forward, lightning trailing in his wake as he leaps at the last second toward the "Speed Kid" Mech's knees, "LIGHTNING SLASH!"
COMBAT: Takeo Akamizu transforms into Lancelot! COMBAT: Lancelot has used Lightning Slash on Hotaru Tomoe.
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
Mikoto's plan was to get to ground zero and assess the situation.
This plan is rudely interrupted by the world going /grey/, a greyness followed by an explosion of stars and light. Mikoto finds herself falling, and twists to kick off of one of the gears which had appeared before her, rolling as she hits the ground with a terrible crash. "Mai," she murmurs as she pushes herself up, looking back and forth along the now-flat plane of Zero Time for her characteristic red hair.
There she is.
Mikoto twists around to grapple with her cape, trying to tear at the stitching. After a few moments, she gives up and barks a command to the ethereal air - "Miroku!" - and the sword appears in her hands as the weight fades from her back. The tears in her dress at least make it easier to run towards the closest enemy, a scream building in her lungs as she charges towards the blue mechanical being.
By the time she rejoins the others, she's screaming with all her might, and she lifts her swordtip from the ground to cleave into its metal legs.
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has used Obsidian Blade: Dauntlessness on Hotaru Tomoe.
<Pose Tracker> Nori Ankou [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
Nori Ankou feels a strange resonance in her heart, faint and subtle, as she joins the press. Even as gold and light and stars surround them, something's --
On the lawn, Batiste is running desperately across the lawn. It is extremely adorable, especially as he is carrying the Brazen Pharos in his little mouth. Nonetheless his run is grave until SOMETHING draws the Pharos, though sadly, not him, into the air. It vanishes from sight a moment later even as the poor otter is dumped on his back.
-- The world's gone sparkling in nebular intensity. In her ballgown, Nori Ankou finds herself rotating. For a fleeting moment there is nothing, but she knows that this is the sense of being at the trough of a wave. The music is holding her in place, like magnets in a museum...
Her left hand closes around the Brazen Pharos.
In a jolt everything makes sense again. She is completely surrounded then by an ovoid shape of blue so deep it might as well be back, threaded with silver.
La Sirene du Nord floats. The echoes of the songs she'd heard hang in the air, but they're fading. The 'light' falls away from her, and she descends to land on the impossibly-near plane, having been merely a knee's height 'above' it - if that even is a sensible thing to say. Her eyes are closed.
"'Speed Kid'... the Ace of Filament Squad... here to usher in a golden age..."
La Sirene takes a deep breath.
"Golden for who, I wonder."
Her eyes open. They are wide and pale and staring. Her lips crack into a half-smile.
"Ah well," she says, raising the Pharos. "I suppose it doesn't matter."
She flutters the lid --
-- in this place, shadows might be meaningless. La Sirene's will pours through the Black Mirror that fills that lantern with the strange reversed light of the Sea of Tears, though, and something far different happens. For a fleeting moment she is /right in front/ of the apparent 'head' of the Cybody, smiling in that way that helpfully shows the viewer every single one of your teeth.
It only lasts a moment, but a moment can be an eternity, of course! And with two others coming in with swords, perhaps it will dismay him at a critical point.
COMBAT: Nori Ankou transforms into La Sirene du Nord! COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord has used Brockenspectre on Hotaru Tomoe.
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
"This party's getting weird, isn't it?"
Fuu blinks, looking up at the man who just spoke: green hair cut fairly short, an Infinity boy's uniform, an extremely large sword ... "Ferio?!"
The green-haired swordsman smirks faintly, handing a small cloth pouch to Fuu. "We'll dance later, okay? You and Hikaru are gonna need those; just leave the red one to the rest of us." And with that, Ferio starts running towards the red Cybody, unshouldering his sword and yelling a battlecry as he leaps into the fray.
Fuu stares after the Cephiran swordsman for a few seconds, clutching the pouch to her chest - then blinks, hearing another battle starting up closer. She pulls the pouch open - and beams, tossing one of the items within to Hikaru. "Let's transform and help the others!" She pulls the other glove-jewel onto her left hand, clenching her fist briefly.
"Belief becomes power .... Winds, guide me!!" She thrusts her left hand up into the air as she finishes the invocation, and a green-tinted whirlwind gathers about her, whipping at her skirts and cloak before the winds hide her fully from view; a few seconds later, the whirlwind disperses to reveal the Magic Knight of Wind, left arm still upraised.
"WINDS OF ADMONISHMENT!!" the Wind Knight shouts, not even lowering her arm before she focuses her will, summoning a larger whirlwind to try and entrap the Tetrioht where it stands. Or skates. "I'm quite certain, Speed Kid-san," she comments in a loud but crisp (and somewhat clipped) voice, "that your 'golden age' could have waited to begin until *after* the ball!"
She lowers her arm, bow materializing in her left hand and quiver across her back as she begins walking towards the blue Cybody. "You interrupted a night of beauty and wonder with terror and destruction," she continues, less loudly but just as clearly. "Do you really expect us to stand aside and let you have your way after such an act? Thousands of happy boys and girls have just had their dance ruined ... you should not expect our forgiveness!"
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji transforms into Magic Knight! COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Winds of Admonishment on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe perfectly dodges Lancelot's Lightning Slash, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge! Hotaru Tomoe's Fade ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Flash ability activates! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces Mikoto Minagi's Obsidian Blade: Dauntlessness, taking 19 Fatigue damage! Mikoto Minagi is Psyched!
<Pose Tracker> Sachiko Majime [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
The whole world goes sideways and upside down as Sachiko Majime is transported along with the others to this Zero-Time plane. Now that certainly was something different. Next, she removes her axe from her off her shoulder and lets gravity swing it down to her feet. Placing both hands on the haft of her weapon, she uses her weapon to prop herself up as she watches the new fireworks and light show. Was that an actual robot that was being piloted by someone? The orange clade Puella Magi glances down and flicks the side of her dull, reddish-brown broach that is featured prominently in the center of her outfit. Eh, she would be fine. There was plenty of fight still left in her. Sachiko thinks as she intently settles her glare on the blue robot. "I really don't care who you are, why you are here, or even what you are planning to do." The young girl begins as she tightens her grip on her large battle-axe and lifts the weapon effortlessly up into the air. "You just look pretty strong, but I'm going to show you that - Sachiko Majime- is even stronger!"
But before Sachiko can even launch her attack. Several others including a swordman and a swordswoman make their attack. And the sword-girl even had let out a ferocious yell as she attacked. "Hmmm. Not bad." Sachiko admits before getting her game face back on. She watches the blue Mecha move back and forth a little before thinking she's finally found her opportunity. The transformed softball pitcher takes a hop and a step forward as she begins her windup. Her massive axe is whirled 'round and 'round before she under-hand launches the axe towards her foe as hard as the young girl can muster. "Hiyaaaah!" Sachiko staggers forward and hunches over from the sheer momentum of her throw and has to belatedly turn her head upwards just to see if her throw was even on target.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe perfectly counters La Sirene du Nord's Brockenspectre, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Counter! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe's counterattack, Energy Wheel Explosion, bursts all the way through, doing 27 Fatigue damage to La Sirene du Nord! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly dodges Fuu Hououji's Winds of Admonishment, taking 16 Fatigue damage! Fuu Hououji is Psyched! Hotaru Tomoe's Fade ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Flash ability activates! Trap applied to Hotaru Tomoe! COMBAT: Sachiko Majime has used Fastball Special on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces Sachiko Majime's Fastball Special, taking 15 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Kozue Kaoru [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.
"What do you mean you haven't seen him!?" Kozue shoves middle school boy back roughly, uncaring where he lands. "Useless!" Her eyes flit over to Fujino as she tries to bring order, and not seeing him she starts to storm towards the other end of the ballroom when...
Golden light flares from two... Mannequins!?
She's not too swept up in her frenzied search to not notice how their light seems to take over that of the ballroom, both distant and far as her whole self becomes monochrome hues of black and white. "Nani!?" In the all encompassing glare... she's instantly brought within.
When her vision clears... rainbows and starlight.
Even if it's not the same light as that auroral golden light in the distance, but it seems like it, in this strange landscape that seems to stretch to the ends of eternity and beyond.
And in the midst of it at all, a mechanical colossus of blue and red, as real as real could be. Her breath hitches as they speak to her. A moment later her element, slender and bladed in one part, and she makes a swift cut just above the knees of her gown.
There's a ripping sound, as Cassandra tears it off, and kicks off her heels. "Alright. You've got my attention. ... Wait? Your name is 'Speed Kid'? Really? Of all the names you could have picked to usher in a 'Golden Age' and you picked that one?"
She's afraid on one level. Whoever did this coordinated it well, they had power and a lot of it and weren't afraid to wield it in this demonstration. But after she regains her composure from the initial awe, there's a cruel smirk on her face, something cold entering into her features as she begins to run through the paces. Grasping her element with both hands she begins to make a whirling motion with a long stretch of piano wire thin cord before sending the tenebrous weight at it down upon the floor.
Given the translucent mirror like nature of it, she's almost afraid that it won't serve it's purpose, that it won't bounce. "Just like a little boy to think they can compensate for their inadequacies..." And yet it does with a soundless rebound, before being sent upright and past it even as she runs sideways.
With a vicious tug, she causes it to reverse its flight and change it to quickly aim a strike towards the mech's hip, trying to follow up Mikoto's leaping strike at its legs. "...with a giant toy like that!" It's mostly bluster given what's arrayed against her, but if she can throw him off his game, maybe they'd stand a chance even in a landscape like this.
COMBAT: Kozue Kaoru transforms into HiME Kozue! COMBAT: Cassandra has used Vicious Circle on Hotaru Tomoe.
<Pose Tracker> Hikaru Shidou [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
At first, Hikaru can't believe her eyes! Ferio is here? How did he get here, and why is he here?
Both questions are answered almost immediately as both Fuu-chan and her are given their glove-jewels. "Well, this is quite useful!" She says with a smirk, before turning to Fuu-chan and nodding. "We've got to do this, Fuu-chan! It's our duty!"
Hikaru places the glove-jewel on her hand and raises it while calling out, "Belief becomes power... Flames guide me!" The fiery transformation occurs and Hikaru turns into the Magic Knight of Fire, her sword at the ready!
She glares at the blue Cybody as she approaches it. "You've done a fine job of ruining a nice evening, so you're gonna burn for it!" She points at the Cybody and calls out, "FIRE ARROW!" Sending forth an arrow-shaped projectile at her target, which is naturally made of fire!
COMBAT: Hikaru Shidou transforms into Magic Knight of Fire! COMBAT: Hikaru Shidou has used Fire Arrow on Hotaru Tomoe.
<Pose Tracker> Iona Hikawa [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Suddenly, the world is different as Iona enters Zero Time along with everyone else, and as she appears in the psychadelic galaxy-space, there's a moment where she's weightless, before gravity takes back over and she is lowered to the ground. "Where are we?" She shouts, before she sees the giant Cybodies. She looks up, and up, and up at the giant robot. It's... taunting them. Iona growls at the words of the red robot, but it is the words of the blue robot that sets her on edge. There's a part of her that is right out offended by the desire to bring a fight into a place where innocent people could be hurt. She pulls out her mirror again, but she looks around. Some people have similar themes, and seem to know each other regardless of transformation. Iona's angry, yes, but she still wants to be somewhat prudent about how she transforms.
However, the fact that everyone seems to be transforming, making the already bright Time even brighter, gives Iona something of an out. She'll just use the light of everyone transforming to keep herself cloaked, and her own transformation goes off as a result, as she slips two more cards into the mirror, turning Ballroom Dress Iona into Cure Fortune. As her new clothes come into being, she moves a hand up and down, left and right to draw a star in front of her. "The star of hope that glitters in the night sky! Cure Fortune!"
When her own light fades, she wastes no time immediately running for the Cybody, leaping up in the sky. Her ribbon expands into purple wings, giving her extra height and speeding herself along to give more force to Iona's kick.
COMBAT: Iona Hikawa transforms into Cure Fortune!
<Pose Tracker> Minako Aino [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
The girl nods her head numbly, and Minako nods back at her -- the smile a little more genuine, and flashes her a V-sign before racing off.
A FEW MINUTES LATER
Sailor Venus is racing across the battlefield towards the blue Cybody; there are others there with her -- faces she's seen before, and it hardens her resolve. They can do this -- together.
"How dare you interrupt our celebration with your rude announcement! Now, none of us will get home before curfew! In the name of Venus, I, Sailor Venus, will punish you!"
COMBAT: Cure Fortune has used Fortune Star Kick on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Minako Aino transforms into Sailor Venus! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly dodges Hikaru Shidou's Fire Arrow, taking 21 Fatigue damage! Hotaru Tomoe's Fade ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Flash ability activates! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces Cassandra's Vicious Circle, taking 5 Fatigue damage! Hotaru Tomoe is Quipped! Stun applied to Hotaru Tomoe! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly counters Cure Fortune's Fortune Star Kick, taking 11 Fatigue damage! Cure Fortune is Psyched! Stun applied to Hotaru Tomoe! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe's counterattack, Energy Wheel Explosion, partially gets through, doing 11 Fatigue damage to Cure Fortune! COMBAT: Sailor Venus has used In The Name Of Venus on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces Sailor Venus's In The Name Of Venus, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Sailor Venus is Psyched!
<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
Zero time.
Lera experienced it once before, but this feels different. This Cybody looks different than that amalgamation she experienced. Her amber eyes stare up, widening as she stands in the technicolor world, and hears the challenge from Speed Kid. Then, her teeth grit together; her gloveless hand balls up into a fist and she feels a flash of anger.
She reaches into the little pocket she had sewn into the sleek folds of her dress, pulling out the red pen there. It spins between her fingers, and she holds it aloft. It glows once.
"Soaring dreams, fiery love!" Lera yells. Light blazes across her as she speaks; a Midchildan magical circle appears under her feet and flashes upward. "Soaring Sky, SET UP!"
<Get set!>
Her shimmering, sleek golden dress is gone in the blink of an eye. Lera's coat appears, trailing out after her -- and black pants and a silver shirt. The pen in her hand, with a flash, expands out into a broadsword. She spins it over her head, then glares at the Cybody. "You--were you behind destroying the bridge!? You... you had no right! This is supposed to be special, y'know?"
She leaps, shooting straight for the Cybody. Lera wheels backward -- and then /slams/ her foot for the head of the blue, whelled mecha.
COMBAT: Lera Camry transforms into Barrier Jacket Perihelion! COMBAT: Lera Camry has used Sonic Kick on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly dodges Lera Camry's Sonic Kick, taking 8 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Lera Camry is Psyched! Hotaru Tomoe's Fade ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Flash ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Mai Tokiha [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
It's not a perfect moment, but it comes kind of close for a seventeen-year-old girl.
Flush with excitement as the tango draws to a close, Mai looks into Takeo's eyes. Candlelight flickers overhead, casting a romantic light on the situation, framing this moment. Outside, the first light of dawn shines on the...possibly a couple? "Akamizu-kun..."
...that's not dawn. It's a realization Mai might have made, were she not caught up - but then the light grows too bright to ignore, and the shockwave slams into the area, and there is screaming. Everywhere, screaming. Takeo apologizes - stalks off to be a heroic knight - and for a moment Mai is just left in mute shock. A moment, and then her face pales. "Takumi...Takumi!"
She whirls around, tearing off for the crowd, in search of the one most important to her - but whatever Mai might think, she doesn't have a monopoly on desperate need to protect a sibling. It's pandemonium, chaos - and Kozue's storm of terror for a similar cause certainly doesn't help Mai's efforts. Without any sort of plan in mind, Mai searches in a blind panic for her brother...
Shizuru Fujino's speech helps, inasmuch as it jars Mai from her quest for a moment. There's...actual organization being done, and although Mai's face is rife with fear, it's...the sensible thing. The best way to help her most important person is-
Time stops.
Endless space bound to a prison surrounds a mere handful of those who had been at the ball. A crimson corona surrounds the girl in the red-and-gold dress of flame, and freed from a frozen state Mai's gaze whips around. For better or for worse, Takumi isn't here...and most certainly for the worse, two metallic titans -are-.
Takeo calls out. It's a distant gaze that drifts over to the boy in question - her dance partner, so little time ago - and despite herself, a small smile finds its way back to her face. "Showing off..."
Mikoto's defiant scream is a more pressing draw on her attention, and she whips her head around to behold her roommate's assault. Wildly charging - as if any other adverb would fit - and slicing into the fearful Tetrioht. More light around her, more calls of defiance or fury, the assembled ball-goers banding together against a true threat...
Mai brings one hand to her chest, takes a deep breath. 'Speed Kid' issues a threat, and her eyes snap open to glare at this...this...to borrow a word from Mikoto, 'enemy'. This person, speaking similar words to what Alyssa had... "...and risk you putting Ta- putting all our loved ones in danger? I don't think so. Whatever this 'Golden Age' is...if you're going to even think of threatening what I care about, if you plan to ruin our special nights...I'll make sure it never happens."
Flames dance. Figurative, at first, as some unseen wind makes the stole on her shoulders billow as if a bonfire blazes on her back. Then literal - spirals of flame, waking to her call, crystallizing into rings of gold and jade (that, somehow, match well with her golden dress). The corona around her grows a fraction brighter as she takes up her mantle in its full form, rising into the air on spinning flames.
Violet eyes glare, and the flames grow hotter - some distant cry answering her fury. Flames arc out, twisting around themselves into a spiral homing in on one of the mech's feet, and Mai snarls as they build. "So get out of here, and let us get back to them!"
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha transforms into Mai-HiME! COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has used Infernal Embrace on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces Mai Tokiha's Infernal Embrace, taking 16 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit!
<Pose Tracker> Hotaru Tomoe [Infinity Institute (6)] has posed.
It's hard to overstate how /huge/ a Cybody is. Attacks from ordinary-sized girls are basically mosquito bites (which doesn't make them less effective, but means that one cannot target 'legs' or 'knees' so much as 'a spot on a leg or a knee'). Even by the standards of the giant monsters who routinely appear in Tokyo, these robots are just staggeringly immense.
And this one seems different than the one fought during the Case of the Missing Homework, too. /That/ one had been... infected, or something, with some kind of evil plant magic. It wasn't being piloted by a real Star Driver, it was being remote controlled by a shadowy woman who was scornfully unfamiliar with the technomancy in question.
Tetrioht is unquestionably bigger, and its presence feels more real, more urgent, as though it tries to furiously impose itself upon the non-space it inhabits, demanding attention, recognition.
There's plenty of that to go around.
The Cybody's pilot may be named 'Speed Kid' but the /reason/ for that becomes apparent as Tetrioht /disappears/ out of the way of Lancelot's Lightning Slash.
"Hmmm. Sir Lancelot du Loc, electric powers, swordsmanship," mutters one of the gold-masked observers, typing notes on a tablet. The man proceeds to continue to name the names of anyone else who announces them, along with a brief summary of their apparent powerset. Folks who don't announce themselves are named things like 'Surveillance Subject #51'.
The Cybody reappears behind Lancelot, one wheel digging into the ground by the simple expedient of growing spikes, which allows it to spin into a massive, horrifying uppercut. The fist is quite a bit larger than the knight.
Mikoto and 'Cassandra' successfully stage a one-two assault on the left leg and hip, and sparks fly everywhere as their blades collide with the armor, highlighting that this monstrous creation is not just huge, not just fast, but tough, tough, so tough.
"Huh," remarks the pilot, his drawling voice issuing through the Cybody's red-eyed mask, "You're it? I was expecting you to be more of a threa--ack!"
That 'ack' was Nori momentarily appearing right in front of his vision. She isn't really there, though, and somehow he seems to know that, because the panicked reaction Tetrioht gives is to launch (and instantly regrow) one of its green energy wheels straight at La Sirene du Nord, whereupon it explodes. Just for good measure, he sends two more.
The Magic Knights of Wind and Fire send their respective elements at the robot, and it promptly outruns them both -- faster than wind, quicker than flame -- which leads to a bit of a fiery whirlwind, as the attacks merge. It melts a bit of the floor, which leads to him slipping for just one single moment.
"It was a nice dance," he agrees, thereupon outing himself as, presumably, a Sister Schools student (or an effective infiltrator). "But we're on a timetable or something, I don't know, it wasn't my call. Supposedly we've gotta save everyone from something really bad happening..."
He sounds rather guileless, actually, which is disarming in its own way. Still, he's a skilled and deadly fighter, that's for sure; once again he summons more energy wheels just in time to mitigate Cure Fortune's kick; she winds up basically kicking the explosion, which rocks them both back, and then, like La Sirene, is facing three more of those wheel-blasts.
Once again the Cybody virtually teleports its way out of the path of someone -- this time, it's Lera Camry's kick. "Hey! /I/ didn't blow the bridge. You're lucky you're not fighting the ones who did, they are seriously fu--"
CLANG! goes Sachiko's axe, as it buries itself into the Cybody's ankle. "--ed up. I'd do what they want if I were you." The robot once again whirls, detaching a wheel in order to transfer momentum from zooming in circles around the group to uppercutting the Puella Magi, though this time it's more of an axe-kick since she's by his foot.
Flames are also by his foot, courtesy of "--oh, I read up on you, you're the flaming one," he remarks, even as he scrambles to keep his balance. He fails. That's the bad news.
The good news is that apparently he has more options -- because in mid-air, as the immense robot is toppling towards the starry ground -- it begins to /transform/. Which is immensely unfair. A few spectacular moments of interlocking technology and magic later, and it has gone from being a humanoid robot to, more or less, a gigantic motorcycle. (The pilot is still inside it, though, not riding it.)
"LET'S SEE IF YOU CAN KEEP UP!" he roars gleefully, before taking his speed to the next level. Now he's a barely-visible blur as he circles the girls, round and round and round...
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Drive-By Uppercut on Lancelot. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Big-Mouthed Biker on Mikoto Minagi. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Big-Mouthed Biker on Cassandra. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Energy Wheel Volley on La Sirene du Nord. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Big-Mouthed Biker on Fuu Hououji. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Big-Mouthed Biker on Hikaru Shidou. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Energy Wheel Volley on Cure Fortune. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Big-Mouthed Biker on Lera Camry. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Drive-By Uppercut on Sachiko Majime. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Cybodycyle Transformation on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has finished attacking. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe accepts Hotaru Tomoe's Cybodycyle Transformation, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Accelerate and Empower applied to Hotaru Tomoe! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Big-Mouthed Biker on Mai Tokiha. COMBAT: Cassandra fails to dodge Hotaru Tomoe's Big-Mouthed Biker, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Cassandra is Quipped! Cassandra is Taunted! Tangle applied to Cassandra! COMBAT: Mai Tokiha fails to dodge Hotaru Tomoe's Big-Mouthed Biker, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Mai Tokiha is Quipped! Mai Tokiha is Taunted! Diversion and Tangle applied to Mai Tokiha! COMBAT: Lera Camry perfectly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Big-Mouthed Biker, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge! Lera Camry's Fade ability activates! Lera Camry's Flash ability activates! COMBAT: Cure Fortune fails to dodge Hotaru Tomoe's Energy Wheel Volley, taking 12 Fatigue damage! Blind and Stagger applied to Cure Fortune! COMBAT: Sachiko Majime narrowly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Drive-By Uppercut, taking 7 Fatigue damage! Sachiko Majime's Fade ability activates! Sachiko Majime's Flash ability activates! Diversion and Stun applied to Sachiko Majime! COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Energy Wheel Volley, taking 2 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! La Sirene du Nord's Block ability activates! La Sirene du Nord's Parry ability activates! Stagger applied to La Sirene du Nord! COMBAT: Fuu Hououji narrowly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Big-Mouthed Biker, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Fuu Hououji is Quipped! Fuu Hououji's Fade ability activates! Fuu Hououji's Flash ability activates! Diversion applied to Fuu Hououji! COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi fails to dodge Hotaru Tomoe's Big-Mouthed Biker, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Mikoto Minagi is Quipped! Diversion applied to Mikoto Minagi!
<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
"So you're an opportunist?" Lera snaps back, but any attempt to sound flat and disapproving fails; she wears her heart on her sleeve, and it comes out angry and sincere instead of the intended quip. "Taking advantage of what other people do? That's--that's despicable!"
Lera flies up, watching as the motorcycle spins round and round. She grits her teeth, her eyes narrowing. What he said about the people outside, though. Someone that was even stronger. She feels something chill inside of her. She needs to find Setsuna, Endo, and Ren, still -- and Fate, if she came. She takes a deep breath.
One thing at the time.
Lera glances about as she floats in midair. She looks at Sailor Venus, first, then at La Sirene du Nord. She worked with them both before. She remembers well how brave Venus is. Then, finally, she looks to Mai Tokiha. They might have had their differences, but...
...she looked so happy.
"Hey! Venus, uh, Sirene!" Lera yells. "And--and Mystery Waitress!" That hasn't stopped. "We... people were having a great time, y'know? They didn't come here for this! To have some people do something like this! Let's show them that it doesn't matter how big their wheels are, they're not just gonna roll us over!"
COMBAT: Lera Camry has used Soaring Heart on Sailor Venus. COMBAT: Lera Camry has used Soaring Heart on La Sirene du Nord. COMBAT: Lera Camry has used Soaring Heart on Mai Tokiha. COMBAT: Sailor Venus accepts Lera Camry's Soaring Heart, taking 0 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Mai Tokiha accepts Lera Camry's Soaring Heart, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Mai Tokiha is Cheered! COMBAT: Lancelot perfectly counters Hotaru Tomoe's Drive-By Uppercut, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Critical Counter! Lancelot's Reverse ability activates! Lancelot's Tactician ability activates! COMBAT: Lancelot's counterattack, Veil of Steel, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Hotaru Tomoe! COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord accepts Lera Camry's Soaring Heart, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! La Sirene du Nord is Cheered!
<Pose Tracker> Lancelot [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
There is a flash and a crack fo thunder as the Lightning form Arondight fails to find a target, and Lancelot doesn't feel the bite of the steel on an opponant. Instinct picks in and he spins calling out, "VEIL OF STEEL!"
Lighting coalesces on the Knight's balde which he slams down into that impossibly large fist. It doens't stop the attack, but it pushes the knight up into the air, and he rolls off the knuckles, to run up the forearm, since he can't fly, and narrows his eyes. "HEY! Speedy!" He calls out and leaps off the arm abround the elbow to fly past the thing's face. "MEEP MEEP!" He calls out before he points Arondight and cries, "LIGHTNING III!!!" Sending a blue bolt of thunderous lightning to arc towardd Speedy's face plate. Or. In it's general direction.
He does, however briefly wonder how he is going to land. But. One thing at a time.
COMBAT: Lancelot has used Lightning III on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hikaru Shidou fails to dodge Hotaru Tomoe's Big-Mouthed Biker, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Hikaru Shidou is Quipped! Hikaru Shidou is Taunted! Tangle applied to Hikaru Shidou!
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Venus [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
Sailor Venus races back as the robot begins spinning, a mere blur in front of her eyes. He's whipping so fast that it's almost impossible for her to know where to strike. Venus swallows, deliberating how to react when Lera calls out to her.
Venus nods, and her resolve hardens even more. "We have this!" she says, with her usual confidence. She turns back towards the still-spinning robot, determined to make her attack land no matter how fast it is moving.
"Save everyone?" she demands of the pilot in the robot. "How are you saving anyone by attacking?"
Venus doesn't wait for an answer, instead lifting a hand to the sky.
"The planet of Love, Venus! Give me the power of Love!"
A single orange heart forms, hovering slightly above her palm. She lowers her arm, then taps the heart with her hand, a metallic ting reverberating off of it as it begins to spin -- though not as quickly as the robot was moments before.
Sailor Venus says, "Rolling Heart Vibration!" she shouts out, and the heart races out towards the robot's lower legs."
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly counters Lancelot's Lightning III, taking 5 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe's counterattack, Energy Wheel Explosion, partially gets through, doing 13 Fatigue damage to Lancelot!
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Venus [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
Sailor Venus races back as the robot begins spinning, a mere blur in front of her eyes. He's whipping so fast that it's almost impossible for her to know where to strike. Venus swallows, deliberating how to react when Lera calls out to her.
Venus nods, and her resolve hardens even more. "We have this!" she says, with her usual confidence. She turns back towards the still-spinning robot, determined to make her attack land no matter how fast it is moving.
"Save everyone?" she demands of the pilot in the robot. "How are you saving anyone by attacking?"
Venus doesn't wait for an answer, instead lifting a hand to the sky.
"The planet of Love, Venus! Give me the power of Love!"
A single orange heart forms, hovering slightly above her palm. She lowers her arm, then taps the heart with her hand, a metallic ting reverberating off of it as it begins to spin -- though not as quickly as the robot was moments before.
"Rolling Heart Vibration!" she shouts out, and the heart races out towards the robot's lower legs.
COMBAT: Sailor Venus has used Rolling Heart Vibration on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly dodges Sailor Venus's Rolling Heart Vibration, taking 14 Fatigue damage! Sailor Venus is Psyched! Hotaru Tomoe's Fade ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Flash ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
The Wind Knight's expression darkens noticeably behind her glasses as she nocks an arrow to her bowstring. The Cybody is a massive target - aiming for its eyes is unlikely to do much good, and she'll need wind magic boosting her shot to get anywhere near a vulnerable spot - but she can't depend solely on high-powered magic to carry this fight. "In case you and your 'organization' didn't piece this together yet," she calls out, "we're protecting people as well ... even when it means protecting people from *you*! There's no threat that could possibly menace this world that we -"
The Cybody *TRANSFORMS* into a gigantic motorcycle, something so big that Godzilla could probably be carried on it, and the Wind Knight just ... kind of stops talking. But that does give her a more likely target, if she can avoid getting donut-ed as it drives in circles.
"GALE ARROW!"
Wrapped in a layer of wind that steadies and speeds its flight, the arrow flies towards one of the Cybike's tires - hopefully with enough force to punch into it, and with a lot of luck, rupture it to the point that Speed Kid can't keep driving around like that.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Gale Arrow on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces Fuu Hououji's Gale Arrow, taking 8 Fatigue damage! Fuu Hououji is Psyched!
<Pose Tracker> Cure Fortune [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
When Fortune goes in for the kick, she gets engulfed by a laser wheel! This knocks the Pretty Cure to the ground. She pushes up to get herself to stand, and takes flight again. But the blue robot throws more laser wheels at her. She dodges the first one, but a second one seems specifically aimed directly where she'd end up, and Cure Fortune hits the ground again. She climbs back up to her feet, and tries again! Third time is the charm, right?
So when she goes in this time, she rears back her fist and tries to strike the giant robot directly on the point where the wheel meets the rest of the Cybikey. And then again, and again, and again, and again, trying to punch the robot as many times as can.
<Pose Tracker> La Sirene du Nord [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
Energy wheels! Well, la Sirene du Nord thinks as they barrel in towards her, I'm not sure what I expected from a robot with wheels that talks itself as being a speed ace. She twists round the Brazen Pharos, knocking aside one of the wheels, getting a second on the backstroke - the third swats into her, staggering her back a pace and then, well, exploding.
And yet, to la Sirene's surprise - it stung. She's staggering on her feet. But she stayed up. She stayed up!
Of course so did the Speed Kid. Who is moving round at shocking speeds. La Sirene's lips purse, but then she glances up at Lera when her name is called! This seems to surprise her. She blinks several times, but the otter-on-a-wheel in her head soon enough realizes what Lera is saying, and she smiles at her.
"The wheels of history do rotate, don't they? It would be unfortunate indeed if... this is getting away from me," la Sirene mutters, before raising her voice. "Speed Kid!"
She points with her left hand. "Do not disavow your own behavior! I heard you making an implicit threat to the poor people who had come merely to enjoy this ball. You may deny it all that you like, but the record of the air itself would reveal you to be /a liar/ if you did!"
La Sirene does not try to pursue the fast-moving Cybody. Maybe if it slows down she can try to give it a Gothique Kick. For now however she /does/ have the Pharos, and flickers of that streaking black unlight snap out of it, moving with impossible swiftness -- darkness, after all, is said by some to be faster than light itself -- to try and lay its chill and strangeness upon the Cybody, even as it transforms itself into a monstrous motorcycle.
"I hope it is not preparing to receive a rider," la Sirene speculates aloud, probably for the benefit of Lera, the Mysterious Waitress, or Sailor Venus.
COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord has used Pieces of the Perfect Black on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord has finished attacking. COMBAT: Cure Fortune has used Fortune Flurry on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Cure Fortune has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Hikaru Shidou [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
"We can do anything!" The Fire Knight says to the Wind Knight in response to her comments. Unfortunately, she finds herself getting a bit distracted by the fact that the creature has turned into a huge motorcycle. The Fire Knight would jawdrop if she could. But she's not up for funny faces now. Instead, she instinctively uses her sword to slash at one of the tires in hopes of deflating it while jumping out of the way.
COMBAT: Hikaru Shidou has used Sword Slash on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hikaru Shidou has finished attacking. COMBAT: Sayaka Miki transforms into Puella Magi Sayaka! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly dodges Cure Fortune's Fortune Flurry, taking 16 Fatigue damage! Hotaru Tomoe's Fade ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Flash ability activates! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces La Sirene du Nord's Pieces of the Perfect Black, taking 6 Fatigue damage! Blind applied to Hotaru Tomoe! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly dodges Hikaru Shidou's Sword Slash, taking 2 Fatigue damage! Hikaru Shidou is Psyched! Hotaru Tomoe's Fade ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Flash ability activates! Stun applied to Hotaru Tomoe!
<Pose Tracker> Sachiko Majime [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
Sachiko Majime has fought some big foes before, but this one was definitely up there. The real strength of their foe seems to be his speed as that thing was moving pretty fast for a hunk of junk. It was moving so fast that it nearly crushes Sachiko's chin with a sudden drive by uppercut/axe-kick. Thankfully the orange clad magic girl dives out of the way at the last minute, but the kick was so close to landing that Sachiko could literally feel the heat off her opponent's strike. No fair! She was supposed to be one bringing the heat so to speak.
Gritting her teeth, Sachiko dusts herself off and gets back up on her feet. She outstretches an arm backwards and rematerializes her axe into her grasp before she considers her next move. However, it is Speed Kid's declaration that the super-tough baddies were elsewhere that draws her attention. And there also was notion of the big robot turning into a big motorcycle that was now driving around and taunting them instead of fighting. Sachiko soon smirks. "Hey, grease-for-brains! You said the tougher guys were somewhere else, right?" Sachiko purposefully turns her back towards her foe and gestures openly to her sides. "I think I'm going to go fight them instead. They probably have weapons more intimidating than that oversized toy bike of yours."
COMBAT: Sachiko Majime has used Unsportswomanlike Conduct on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly counters Sachiko Majime's Unsportswomanlike Conduct, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Hotaru Tomoe is Quipped! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe's counterattack, Energy Wheel Explosion, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Sachiko Majime!
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
The size of such an enemy might have given any normal girl pause - a moment of awe, of despair, of terror.
Mikoto is not a normal girl, and does not feel these things. She hears Speed Kid's declaration that he is her enemy, and that's the end of the matter - this thing, unspeakably huge and threatening and fast, has to go.
With Cassandra, she leads the assault on the mech's leg, obsidian blade meeting hard metal chassis in a shower of sparks. 'I was expecting you to be more of a threat,' says the Cybody's pilot, and Mikoto growls as she leaps backwards to get a better look at the situation. That's not what they're supposed to say. If her enemies can so easily laugh her off, if she can't cleave through them, then...
(Then what use are you, Mikoto Minagi?)
For a few precious moments, Mikoto is stuck there, trying to assess its potential weak points while trying to ignore the unsettling feeling of being mocked. The joints, she decides, ignoring her feelings as it darts around the battlefield. The joints are what she has to strike. All she has to do is hit it where it's weak. She leaps forward, trying to catch it in its moment of weakness as it falls --
But it's not weakness at all. The Cybody transforms again, becoming a motorcycle, screaming around the group of girls at top speed. Mikoto runs to the edge of its radius and cleaves her claymore into the place it ought to be, bringing herself and her weapon right into its path with a great swing to rip a hole in its gigantic tires and bring it down.
She spares no thought to the idea that he thinks he's a hero.
There's no room for heroes and villains on the battlefield in Mikoto's mind.
There are only allies and enemies.
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has used Obsidian Blade: Devastation on Hotaru Tomoe.
<Pose Tracker> Mai Tokiha [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
The flaming one. As nicknames go...Mai's heard better. She's heard a lot better.
She's about to follow up those flames with...well, either more flames or just trying to ram the mech, knowing her...but his words catch her off guard as they sink in. "You call this kind of thing saving people?! You call dest-" Her condemnations die away as he goes into more detail. These lunatics aren't the ones who destroyed the bridge...and they're even worse. As the bike circles round and round, Mai watches, heart uncertain...
'Mystery Waitress!' A...familiar voice calls out, and Mai looks over to Lera in no small surprise. "...you're right. Whether or not these goons are the same as whoever...did that to the bridge...doesn't matter." She takes a breath - it's a corner she still wasn't expecting support from, but... she's a bit quieter, more direct to Lera. "...it means a lot. Thanks."
She turns back to the battle, watching the bike circle round and round. Throwing enough flames to hit it would require...setting a great deal more on fire than she's prepared to do right now. Instead, she calls out. "Don't think we're going to roll over for you - or for whoever seems to hate bridges. Anyone who seems to think that 'might means right'..."
Distantly, one might almost hear a dragon's cry - and Mai trails off, uncertain for a moment.
...and then she sees Mikoto moving to the bike's path, and rushes through the air. Flames wreathe a figure in gold as she heads for the ring formed by the speeding Cybody, crimson light growing brighter. "Mikoto, be careful!"
Mai's flames are furious. But before everything, her power is one of fiery barriers - and it is into this that she throws her strength. As Tetrioht wheels around, Mai is abruptly in its path - and like a brick wall, blazing crimson stands in the giant bike's path.
(She won't be a hypocrite about power making right...but about putting one's self in danger? Absolutely.)
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has used Sanctum Blaze on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly dodges Mikoto Minagi's Obsidian Blade: Devastation, taking 7 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Hotaru Tomoe's Fade ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Flash ability activates! Stagger applied to Hotaru Tomoe! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly counters Mai Tokiha's Sanctum Blaze, taking 19 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe's counterattack, Zero Time Roadkill, partially gets through, doing 24 Fatigue damage to Mai Tokiha! Trap applied to Mai Tokiha!
<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Miki [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
"I like the swords way better, but sometimes..."
Sayaka stares up, and up, and up at the red titan, envying everyone who has a way of attacking something like that without climbing it. Really, flying would be nice, too. Every time she gets near that thing she's terrified it will /accidentally/ kill her. But well, Sayaka's an optimist.
"Don't worry, Madoka-chan! I have a plan this time!" As the other girls swirl around the Cybody, many of them aerial, Sayaka bounds through those unlucky individuals such as she who are limited to the ground. Normally her massive leaps are more than sufficient mobility, but with this one, even the lowest target is tricky. Jump after jump, and on the last one, Sayaka steps onto a resonant circle of musical notes, blasting up and forward until she lands atop the Cybody's shoe.
"Hah!" Sayaka barks her victory, reversing her sword and raising it far above her head, preparing to jam it into the top of the robot foot. "Clever warrior of justice, Puella Magi Sayaka, never--!"
The Cybody lashes its foot out to kick someone else, not having even noticed Sayaka. The momentum hurls the tiny blue Puella through the air like she's on her way to a field goal, her head and heels exchanging places multiple times. Repeatedly, Sayaka summons disks of music to stop herself, but tears through each like paper, slowing each time. When she finally hits the ground, she rolls uncontrollably, but she's dispersed enough momentum to avoid more than minor bruising. "A-cha-cha-cha," she hisses, lifting her head with a gloved hand cupping the lump on its back. Her sword is lost somewhere.
Sayaka finds herself in an entirely different fray, now. It feels like she and the other girls here are in the eye of a tornado, and she can see the scene only in strobed snapshots, backlit silhouettes. A huge axe, flame and wind, and a familiar profile, elongated of cheek and chin, delicate.
"Miki!" Sayaka shouts, kicking up to her feet and catching herself with a hand against the ground as she stumbles forward in a rush. Why is he here? It doesn't matter. "Miki-kun!"
Sayaka steps in front of Cassandra, drawing a fresh sword from her cape with a razor gleam. "I'll get you out of here." She reaches back and grabs Miki's upper arm, turning back to glance at him. "You're not... hurt..."
Sayaka's eyes get large. That's not Miki. That's not even a boy. A smile like a cracked china teacup splits her confused face.
"Ah?"
COMBAT: Sayaka Miki has used His on Cassandra. COMBAT: Cassandra accepts Sayaka Miki's His, taking 0 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Hotaru Tomoe [Infinity Institute (6)] has posed.
"Nah, 'Cheeseburger-chan,'" Speed Kid corrects Lera casually, the levelness of his voice implying that he isn't feeling the speed at all, "Your friends have the right idea, we're all in it to win it together. But like, /I/ didn't blow up the bridge, or decide to blow it up, or schedule its blowery-uppery for, y'know, the ball. If /I/ were in charge I would have done it way earlier to spare us all the Athletics Festival crap, just end it before it started. Three-legged races... what a pain in the ass."
Lancelot's attempt to use his momentary attachment to the robot in order to send lightning right at its face is a really good idea, a good enough idea that once again, at the push of a button, its wheels of green energy launch upwards to intercept it (while instantly replacing themselves). Venus, Fuu, Iona, Hikaru and Mikoto all, collectively, try to hit one of the wheels -- it's a good idea, but that bike is fiendishly difficult to target when it's moving this quickly, and also it doesn't have 'tires' so much as it has 'green energy'. Puncturing is not really a problem it faces, they discover the hard way. That energy burns things on contact, and is probably solid all the way through.
Sufficiently determined efforts can wear away a little bit of the energy, though, forcing the bike to swerve. It does so right at the same moment that La Sirene blinds its sensors, an effect that doesn't last but /does/ cause it to spiral outwards along a much broader, banking turn than it might have otherwise.
This gives the girls a moment to regroup, a moment that Speed Kid fills by talking. A common theme seems to be 'we can beat anyone (including those tougher folks you mentioned) so this is what he elects to address. "Hah, y'all think you can beat /anything/," mid-turn he triggers another one of those energy wheel blasts, which drowns out the second half of Sachiko's taunt with its explosive roar, "But you've been swimming in the little leagues until now. You see what happened to that /bridge/? That's just the beginning. The power that you have... that I have... that we all have... it's gotta be used for the right reasons, and in the right way. There's just too much on the line. That's why--"
"--WOULD YOU SHUT UP AND RUN THEM OVER ALREADY?" shouts Scarlet Kiss from offscreen, as she fights another, separate army of magical girls from inside her crimson Cybody.
"Yeah, a'ight."
With an ominous, rising 'vroom' of acceleration, the gigantic bike bears down on its enemies, ready to run them over, just pancake them straight between its wheels and the floor. Mai's grimly volunteered to be up first, and it roars straight through her flame (not without some sizzle on the armor, though) before bearing down on the rest of the group. It crosses them again and again, going just absolutely unreasonably quickly, turning on a dime, never losing acceleration.
Being momentarily under those wheels feels like being crushed and burnt all at once. At least the 'ground' is pretty, all those stars.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Zero Time Roadkill on Sayaka Miki. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Zero Time Roadkill on Mai Tokiha. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Zero Time Roadkill on Mikoto Minagi. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Zero Time Roadkill on Sachiko Majime. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Zero Time Roadkill on Hikaru Shidou. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Zero Time Roadkill on La Sirene du Nord. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Zero Time Roadkill on Cure Fortune. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Zero Time Roadkill on Fuu Hououji. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Zero Time Roadkill on Sailor Venus. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Zero Time Roadkill on Lancelot. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Zero Time Roadkill on Lera Camry. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Zero Time Roadkill on Cassandra. COMBAT: Fuu Hououji narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Zero Time Roadkill, taking 35 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Trap applied to Fuu Hououji! COMBAT: Mai Tokiha narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Zero Time Roadkill, taking 20 Fatigue damage! Mai Tokiha's Block ability activates! COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord perfectly counters Hotaru Tomoe's Zero Time Roadkill, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Counter! COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord's counterattack, Les Mysteres, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Hotaru Tomoe! COMBAT: Hikaru Shidou narrowly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Zero Time Roadkill, taking 27 Fatigue damage! Trap applied to Hikaru Shidou! COMBAT: Lancelot fails to dodge Hotaru Tomoe's Zero Time Roadkill, taking 43 Fatigue damage! Trap applied to Lancelot! COMBAT: Sayaka Miki narrowly counters Hotaru Tomoe's Zero Time Roadkill, taking 24 Fatigue damage! Trap applied to Sayaka Miki! COMBAT: Sayaka Miki's counterattack, Disjunct Chord, partially gets through, doing 9 Fatigue damage to Hotaru Tomoe! COMBAT: Cure Fortune fails to dodge Hotaru Tomoe's Zero Time Roadkill, taking 49 Fatigue damage! Trap applied to Cure Fortune! COMBAT: Sachiko Majime fails to counter Hotaru Tomoe's Zero Time Roadkill, taking 49 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Sachiko Majime's counterattack, Swing for the Fences, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Hotaru Tomoe!
<Pose Tracker> Lancelot [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Lancelot finds himself slammed back after he shoots lightning into the face of the huge mecha. He falls and hits the ground HARD with an explosion of breath. and then gets run over by a giant green wheel of death. Rolling over he looks to the monstrosity and mutters, "Why...." He pants as he tries to catch his breath, "Why don't I bring my Horse to these things?" He asks of anybody near him. "First the Rabbit tells me I don't need her for a heist, then I decide not ot bring her to the Dance. I mean. Why would I need a Horse at a dance right?" He pushes himself up and shakes his head to clear it. "Of course THESE guys got to bring their giant robots, but I had to leave my horse at pasture." He picks himself up and looks up at Speedy. "I jsut want my Horse. Is that too much to ask?"
He spins Arondight, mostly to make sure he has the strength left to lift the sword after that fall and looks to Speedy's closest foot.
He takes a deep breath, roars a battle cry and surges forward. The Knight grips Arondight in both hands as he closes in on the things foot, trying to ram the point of Arondight someplace that would be painful on a person, but maybe just damaging on a hundreds feet tall Mecha. "My bloody Kingdom for a horse."
COMBAT: Lancelot has used Disabling Strike on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Sailor Venus narrowly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Zero Time Roadkill, taking 34 Fatigue damage! Sailor Venus's Fade ability activates! Sailor Venus's Flash ability activates! Trap applied to Sailor Venus! COMBAT: Lera Camry fails to brace Hotaru Tomoe's Zero Time Roadkill, taking 47 Fatigue damage! Trap applied to Lera Camry!
<Pose Tracker> Cassandra [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.
If shock and awe are what they're going for, well then, mission accomplished. That's not just one giant and powerful robot, but it was also fast. She watches it warp around the other Mahou Shoujo's attacks and honestly think she's lucky to even score a grazing hit. ... Which did very little, if truth was to be told. Her assault had less than impressive effects, and he called her on that instantly. She didn't seem like much of a threat really. But... she hated to be called out on it, "I'll show you who isn't a threat!" She says through gritted teeth.
This didn't seem like some foe she could simply pummel into submission. A frown creasing her lips as he talks about 'saving' everyone from something really bad happening. "Wait seriously? You're going to paint yourself as some savior after the stunts you all pulled? How delusional can you get?!"
But if anything... her eyes flit over to Mai and in that moment she feels a sort of kinship at least with her goals. An unspoken agreement to get back to the people they cared about, even if she wasn't about to say that aloud to this driver and the observers in their bubble.
But first they had to deal with this, and he was proving that it wouldn't be an easy task. As he transforms and starts moving round and round in dizzying circles, Cassandra's heart started to fall. What exactly was she supposed to do about that?
He seemed even faster than Miyu Greer, an individual who had casually demonstrated how worthless her efforts were against the unfathomed force she represented. It was clear now in retrospect that she'd been toying with them, and their efforts today were more focused.
She suddenly had the ice cold feeling that perhaps this wasn't something she'd get out of at all. That maybe she wouldn't get back to her loved one after all. The snarl she makes is like a strepitoso undercurrent to the battle. A denial to that defeatist line of thought. Even if this thing seemed invincible to a bunch of magical girls on foot, she had to try... and if necessary... well... she always had 'that' in reserve.
This time when she whirls her element over head, she flits side to side with her footwork, trying to give the lightning fast thing the impression of unpredictability, spinning on a bare heel, before tossing the line outward, and allowing the cord to scream in a wide circle that she thinks will allow it cross the path with the biker. And then she lets go. Bladed end and all. "Let's see how you like this!"
She can summon it back to her hand in an instant anyhow. It'd be worth it to let go of it for a moment if she managed to get him to run right into it and see if she could gum up the wheel once it all gets to the spokes.
But dissonant to that was the sudden call of 'Miki!' then 'Miki-kun!' The voice is familiar but she's not even thinking about that, instead, she's dropping everything, her anger, her righteous fury, instead gripped by fear. Was her brother really here!? How? Why? Those questions meaningless until his presence is confirmed. She's looking every which way in frantic confirmation. "What!? Where is he!?" Suddenly in front of her with a flutter of white cape fabric is the very picture of a hero of justice. From behind, she even momentarily mistakes the blunette for Miki, "How did you get here!? And why are you wearing..." She puts a hand on her shoulder, and as Sayaka draws out the sword she takes it for confirmation, until she sees the type of sword she's wielding, gets a better look at her front. "...that."
Suddenly she feels extremely foolish, in so many ways, and she sees that mirrored in the eyes of her would be savior. A blunder which she had to play off and quickly, no matter who it was in front of her.
The hand slides away from it's loose place on her shoulder, instead finding its way to her hip like some unimpressed Princess who wasn't really looking for a rescue in the first place, but got one anyhow. She deadpans. "My hero~" She sing songs briefly, before her words take on a crueler slant, "Now if you're finished with your outstanding rescue then maybe you'd like to get out of my way before we become interstellar roadk-" Which is when she sees a blur in her periphery, ready to run them both over. And for just a moment... her fear causes her to freeze.
COMBAT: Sayaka Miki covers Cassandra for Hotaru Tomoe's attack, Zero Time Roadkill, taking it upon themselves instead! COMBAT: Cassandra has used Strepitoso Chord on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Sayaka Miki fails to brace Hotaru Tomoe's Zero Time Roadkill, taking 44 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
Being run over by a normal-sized motor vehicle is supposed to be a rather unpleasant experience (to put it mildly). The Wind Knight quickly determines that being run over by a gigantic robot turned equally massive motorcycle is probably several times worse (again, to put it mildly).
She's somewhat surprised to find, after the overwhelming pressure and burning passes, that she can still feel anything at all - even if most of that 'anything' is pain. Still, it's better than feeling the cold nothingness that death is supposed to resemble ...
Only marginally, perhaps, but still.
The Wind Knight manages to sit up, but she's in too much pain to move very much, even though she's aware - in the back of her mind - that she really DOES need to get up and moving again before the Cybody's next pass. A quick look around indicates that she's not the only one with severely reduced mobility, either; Hikaru and Lera are the most familiar figures she sees - and they're the closest to her at the moment, which helps as well. "Winds of Healing," the Wind Knight says softly, and a warm, restorative breeze enfolds first her, then the Fire Knight, then the Device-using 'transfer student'; she doesn't have time or focus to fully heal any of them, but she can at least offset their injuries enough for the three of them to get back on their feet and continue fighting.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Winds of Healing on Fuu Hououji. COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Winds of Healing on Hikaru Shidou. COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Winds of Healing on Lera Camry. COMBAT: Lera Camry accepts Fuu Hououji's Winds of Healing, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Cleanse! All of Lera Camry's debuffs are cleared! COMBAT: Fuu Hououji accepts Fuu Hououji's Winds of Healing, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Cleanse! All of Fuu Hououji's debuffs are cleared!
<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
'...it means a lot. Thanks.'
Mai's words bring a smile to Lera's face -- a brief, quiet moment in the battle -- before she shakes her head. "Don't--don't worry about it, y'know? I came with someone too, and it's... these kinda things are important. He's tough, but... we can do this!"
Mai takes off for Tetrioht, and Lera follows her, flying the entire while. The Midchildan glances at La Sirene and Sailor Venus, nodding, before she looks ahead at the Cybody.
"A-a pain in the ass!?" Lera yells, angrily. "Those--those are fun! Some people like them! Why are you even doing this, then? If you're not with them, or if you think you're with us, then--then why attack us in the first place?"
Speed Kid comes rushing by, zipping through their ranks -- and then the wheel hits Lera. She shouts, getting smashed into by the side of it, and hurtled away from the Cybody. She slams into the ground, rolling once, and then comes up with a hiss. Everything aches; her jacket has numerous tears and black burns across it. She takes a moment to rise.
Fuu's healing spell is well-timed. Lera's kneeling as it washes over her, lighting her up with an emerald color. She looks at Fuu and nods; then, she grunts, before she pushes herself to her feet.
<Are you all right?> Soaring Sky asks.
"Yeah," Lera murmurs, softly. "He's... he isn't wrong, y'know? There's tougher stuff out there. We keep finding it."
<True. But it doesn't mean you'll be incapable of handling it.>
She cranes her neck to the side -- it pops -- and then grins, slightly. "Yeah," she agrees. "C'mon, buddy. We can't let up yet."
She runs at first, then she leaps. She shoots into the air above the strange, star-filled ground; a line of red-orange light is left in her wake. She does a twist in midair, and then she comes crashing in towards Tetrioht, over the handlebars. Light explodes in front of her; a magical circle flashes into existence behind her, and a blade of fiery plasma erupts along the length of her broadsword.
She pivots in midair and slashes the sword for the rider. The energy explodes off the front of the sword, firing right at the Cybody, while Lera shouts wordlessly.
<Inferno Slasher!>
COMBAT: Lera Camry has used Inferno Slasher on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe perfectly dodges Lancelot's Disabling Strike, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge! Hotaru Tomoe's Fade ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Flash ability activates! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces Cassandra's Strepitoso Chord, taking 13 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Hikaru Shidou accepts Fuu Hououji's Winds of Healing, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Cleanse! All of Hikaru Shidou's debuffs are cleared!
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Venus [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
Venus attempts to dodge the Cybody -- and just barely manages to elude the robot's attack, only to stumble over her footing. Her knee hits the ground -- hard -- sending a bolt of pain up her left leg.
Teeth gritted, she pulls herself back upright, wondering what felt so familiar about the pilot. He seemed to enjoy being the center of attention -- at lording his knowledge over others. And that's why Venus isn't so quick to immediately attack after she pulls herself upright.
"The right reasons?" she asks skeptically of the pilot, folding one arm over the other. "What are 'the right reasons', exactly?"
She tsks, the same way she does when she's on the verge of informing Artemis that Yes, He Is Wrong, and She Can Definitely Get a New Boyfriend By Following These Hot Eight New Tips He Doesn't Want You To Know. "Must be really something if you're going to let yourself get chewed out like that!"
COMBAT: Sailor Venus has used Antagonizing the Antagonist on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Sailor Venus has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Cure Fortune [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Cure Fortune lands after the punching flurry, as ineffective as it might have been. She doesn't try again for a few moments, watching the extraordinarily fast giant bike. How does it go so fast, being so huge? Then it turns and goes directly for her. She leaps to the side, attempting to dodge the wheels of the bike, but the bike is too fast, and she gets completely run over by the bike and the guy piloting it.
Fortune yet again climbs up to her feet, and growls to herself. "That does it!" She spins the dial on her PreCure Brace. "Fortune..." She raises her arms and produces five purple stars, which then turn into glowing purple rings. "Star..." She watches the bike drive around, and tries to time her aim to lead the bike. "Ring!" She swings her arms down, sending her rings (hopefully) to intercept the robot bike.
COMBAT: Cure Fortune has used Fortune Star Ring on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly counters Sailor Venus's Antagonizing the Antagonist, taking 0 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe's counterattack, The Right Reasons Are (Roadkill), partially gets through, doing 36 Fatigue damage to Sailor Venus! Critical Counterhit!
<Pose Tracker> La Sirene du Nord [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
La Sirene du Nord takes a deep breath as the Speed Kid makes his pronouncement.
"Do we?" she says, and then she stands perfectly still. She makes no move to aid Mai or any of the others who the Speed Kid rips towards - over - perhaps even through. She can't move fast enough. Her fingers curl round the handle of the Pharos as she turns to face him with her left side ahead, right hand coming upwards with her fingers crooked oddly.
She counts off in her head. Like a rhythm being beat on a cast-iron drum steadily. La Sirene crouches slightly.
And when her own fate comes upon her...
"Les Mysteres," la Sirene says. Her right hand descends like a guillotene: "COME!"
A vast sound of steel strings and darkling magic ripple out at the same time as the spell itself. Against the shining splendor of this Zero Time space the veves and patterns that spill out from the invocation of les Mysteres do not stand out clearly: the eruption of inky-black, silver-threaded force from the Pharos DOES though, a sudden cloud heading forwards to smash into that oncoming train and for at least one single fleeting instant STOP IT DEAD-- or so La Sirene perceives.
What she also perceives --
He'll kill them, she thinks in her heart. They don't have the charm, or their own such. They're standing back up but he'll really smash them all to bits --
And so in that instant she leaps forwards and swings round. It is not the most expert of maneuvers, but during the instant of ground-contact loss from Les Mysteres, la Sirene throws everything she has into a roundhouse kick /into/ that front tire -- and hopefully sending that two-wheeled menace reeling.
Her eyes gleam as she lands. "And is what you are doing, now, the right REASONS? The right WAY?" Her head tilts back.
Her heart skips a beat even if her voice doesn't: "Enough of your impertinence," she says. "Show me your best and end this morbid teasing. If you have the courage!" Her head tilts back, tossing her hair with her free hand as she looks down her nose (with some difficulty) towards the Cybody and its partner.
COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord has used Seeing The Tears Of... Speed Kid on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe perfectly dodges Cure Fortune's Fortune Star Ring, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge! Hotaru Tomoe's Fade ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Flash ability activates! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly counters La Sirene du Nord's Seeing The Tears Of... Speed Kid, taking 20 Fatigue damage! Stagger applied to Hotaru Tomoe! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe's counterattack, Zero Time Roadkill, partially gets through, doing 13 Fatigue damage to La Sirene du Nord! Trap applied to La Sirene du Nord!
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
Attacking head-on doesn't do anything. But Mikoto has to keep trying. And try she does, slashing at the light, where the tires ought to be. She screams.
'You think that you can beat anything,' he says, and Mikoto hears his next words as a simple: You're not strong enough. In a distant part of her mind, Mikoto knows it's true. That bridge was obliterated while they were busy having fun. The battle had started - and finished - before Mikoto even knew it. And now, here, up against this giant, implacable thing...
She doesn't have much time to dwell on it.
The Cybody runs her over. Once more, Mikoto screams - in pain, now, not anger, as she tries to bring her sword up to protect herself only to get crushed by the energy anyway. Her entire body burns, her dress offering no protection. Once Speed Kid passes over her, she's able to slowly stagger to her feet.
It doesn't matter - it doesn't matter. They're all enemies. She grips Miroku tightly, staring up at the motorcycle.
Even if it doesn't work, it's all she knows how to do.
She lifts Miroku, and leaps at the robot, screaming again.
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has used Obsidian Blade: Disequilibrium on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly dodges Lera Camry's Inferno Slasher, taking 21 Fatigue damage! Lera Camry is Psyched! Hotaru Tomoe's Fade ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Flash ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Hikaru Shidou [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
The healing winds wash over the Fire Knight, and they help her feel better. But her ability to fight isn't fully back. Yet she struggles to improve her overall clarity with her sword and her skills. "I can do this!" The Fire Knight yells as she attempts to go in for the target again, swinging her sword simply!
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly counters Mikoto Minagi's Obsidian Blade: Disequilibrium, taking 22 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe's counterattack, Needs More Roadkill, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Mikoto Minagi! COMBAT: Hikaru Shidou has used Sword Slash on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly dodges Hikaru Shidou's Sword Slash, taking 6 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Hikaru Shidou is Psyched! Hotaru Tomoe's Fade ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Flash ability activates! Stun applied to Hotaru Tomoe!
<Pose Tracker> Mai Tokiha [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
It's a courageous plan, but perhaps not a smart one. Mai's wall, blazing boldly crimson, shatters like glass as the Cybody slams into it. If Tetrioht is slowed or in any way impeded by the wall, Mai doesn't notice at all - instead, she has a fraction of a second to realize just how foolhardy this plan was.
The one saving grace is that Mai was airborne - and so instead of being turned into a HiME pancake, she's hurtled wildly out of its path by the impact. Spinning out of control, her ballgown glimmering in the light of her flames as she tries to regain a sense for which way is up - just in time to see the criss-crossing motorcycle bearing down on her for a second attack. "You've got to be kidding-"
There's a loud ring, of metal on metal, and a flash of crimson - but Mai brought her rings to bear in time to simply by smacked out of the way, again. This time, she hurtles downward, crashing into that strange non-ground stuff below. The spray of astral starstuff glitters in her wake as she skids along, Elements and head both ringing...
And the bike tears through her stole, left drifting in the air after the second impact, and the HiME sees red.
"...the right reasons? You think this 'golden era' of yours is anywhere close to a 'right reason'?!" There's yells of defiance around her - and a scream from Mikoto that gives Mai a moment's pause to make sure the girl is all right - but taking a deep breath, she storms into the air once more.
"It's called morals, you hotheaded jerk! It's not that we think we're powerful enough that we're always right...it's that standing by and letting people like you take over is un...acc...eptable!" As she yells defiance at the cybody, her rings spin fiercely, building up a strange keening - and with her final shout, burst forth with brilliant light. The heat takes second fiddle to making it as bright a beacon as possible, to distract the Cybody...
...and hopefully less of a fool this time, Mai flies down moments later. Take...Lancelot could use a hand, and she needs to check on Mikoto, and...
Why did all of this have to happen -now-?!
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has used Devoted Scintillation on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to brace Mai Tokiha's Devoted Scintillation, taking 8 Fatigue damage! Blind and Cripple applied to Hotaru Tomoe!
<Pose Tracker> Sachiko Majime [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
Sachiko's decision to taunt and then turn her back on her foe was a part of the plan. This tactic, while fool hardy, did grant her enough time to get out of the way of her opponent's energy wheel. But Sachiko does not have much time at all to rest on her laurels for her enemy appears to be picking up speed, literally and metaphorically. He was starting to live up to his name, but Sachiko knows not to panic quite yet. As the bike goes on the offensive, the orange Puella Magi starts to line up her swing. Her strategy was simple. She was going to wait for the Speed kid to rev his way towards her, she would take a huge swing, and BLAM. Knock'em a good one so that she can show him who is little league and whose not!
But then everything just went wrong.
Speed Kid did eventually come straight at her which set Sachiko's stratagem into motion, but this proved to be the only thing that went according to plan this time. Hefting her axe into the air, the softball star waited for what she thought was the perfect moment and swung her axe with all of her might. But she whiffed utterly and completely. This left her completely defenseless against the charge mecha motorcycle and subsequently sent her flying into the air from the impact of motorcycle alone. The now airborne Puella Magi loses her grip on her weapon midflight which causes Sachiko and her axe to crash into two different locations, both creating clouds of smoke from their respective craters.
For a long and bloated moment, Sachiko decides to stay put and ruminate over her strike-out. There was failing and there was failing -spectacularly-. The fallen softball player clenches both of her hands into balled fists as she pounds them both against the ground before haphazardly pushing herself up onto her feet. She can't give up so easily. Sachiko knew she had to be stronger than this. -This- can't be the extent of her powers. "That the...best you got?!" She sputters out before wiping some blood on her orange sleeve. "I barely even felt that, Bolt Boy." declares Sachiko shakily on just as shaky legs. To her credit, she does manage to atleast smirk in what she thinks is the direction of her speedy foe.
Electing not to try that swing again, Sachiko instead begins winding up again. Her axe reforms mid wind-up and she proceeds to hurl her weapon high into the air where it eventually breaks in its trajectory and curves back down, seeking the murderous bike.
COMBAT: Sachiko Majime has used Sa-chi-ko Special on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly dodges Sachiko Majime's Sa-chi-ko Special, taking 22 Fatigue damage! Hotaru Tomoe's Fade ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Flash ability activates! Exhausted applied to Hotaru Tomoe!
<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Miki [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
Sayaka's outfit has many small echoes of Miki's. Gleaming metal panels at the collar of her cloak, a Miki-like aiguillette ennobling her shoulder, and a decorative epee hilt on her sword. Cassandra will find much that is familiar in this knight's armor.
As for Sayaka, she feels the panic of a recognition just beyond the reach of her fingers. "You /know/ him," she wonders aloud. She looks at her own shoulder. And in knowing him, she wanted to be near him. She /expected/ to be allowed to touch him.
But was she any different? Sayaka pulls her gloved hand from the girl's arm rapidly. If it were anyone else but herself, Sayaka would have excused it. She was just rescuing him. But she's spent too many afternoons in class idly wishing something terrible would happen at school so she could show him what he means to her. Just because her justification finally arrived doesn't mean it wasn't a justification.
"Who do you think you are?" Sayaka demands angrily, because she is ashamed.
The blazing wheels of a hell-biker chart destruction of almost geometric precision, and up until the very second it is upon the two false Miki's, neither realizes they do not have the luxury of time. There is nothing but a wall of screaming energy. It isn't a movie-like terrorist attack Sayaka can foil, it isn't an alien invasion, it isn't some bully. But it's danger ahead of her and Miki behind her and it's everything she ever daydreamed in class, and if there's one lesson Sayaka Miki will never learn no matter how many times the world turns, it's to be careful what you wish for.
Miki steps in front of Kozue. It's true no matter which way you look at it, isn't it? Miki hauls up his inadequate sword and braces her inadequate shoulders and he and she slashes down hard enough through the blazing tire to open a large, instantaneous void in the searing energy, a wedge-shaped slice of impossible safety bought by the cost of motes of scalding flame spraying her piano-arms.
Miki rotates with the motion and grasps Cassandra's shoulder, Miki throws her to the ground and drives Miki's sword into the strange unnatural plane they stand on, forming an X across Cassandra's neck with arm and blade. That X supports Miki as the tire spins down over them both like a belt-sander made of flame, scorching that proud white cape to tatters.
She did it, right? She saved...
Sayaka looks blearily at the girl she shielded. No. Yet another dream.
"Damn it," she coughs. The burns on her back are rippling, starting to shrink, as she begins to push herself up, trying not to look at Cassandra at all.
COMBAT: Sayaka Miki has used Caprice on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces Sayaka Miki's Caprice, taking 3 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Hotaru Tomoe [Infinity Institute (6)] has posed.
One can essentially summarize the next few heartbeats of battle in a few broadly outlined images. They could be marked with steps, simple diagrams, cautionary warning signs on the road.
Step 1: 'People get in close with the motorcybody' -- imagine a yellow field, upon which a simple black silhouette (with pigtails, just to clearly establish it as a magical girl) dives at the symbol of a bike.
Step 2: 'They get run over' -- the silhouette is now on the ground with the bike zooming past it.
With a few, alternative versions involving its nigh-teleporting speed as it gets out of the way of swords and purple energy rings, which slice and explode /just/ where it used to be a second ago.
It is as annoying to fight as it sounds. And it's even worse that he's keeping up a steady stream of banter -- way more talkative than the average youma, this guy is so very, very human.
"You think that you can defeat evil as it comes, and comes, and comes," he explains patiently, as he's questioned about the why. "But has it ever occurred to you that things are the way they are for a reason? There's a system, man. And every time there's a fight, you may win, but there are always casualties. Just like this ball. How many friends to you have who have been possesed or turned into a monster or gone to the hospital because they got caught in the crossfire? Just because you /win/, is it really enough?"
There's a pause filled by the sound of him running someone over, as he gathers his words carefully.
"There's a system," he repeats, "And like it or not you're a part of it, part of what makes it go round and round and round. What if there's a better way? What if we could finally bring real peaaaaaoww!"
The light at the end of the tunnel, which starts to change the momentum of the battle, is Mai-HiME's makeshift flare. It detonates right on one of the Cybodycycle headlights, and a crack forms there (while, unseen inside, Speed Kid miserably blinks away the blurry afterglow of what was experienced more like a flashbang). A moment later, he sees Sachiko's axe a little too late because of it, and while he gets Tetrioht out of the way, it sends him into a only marginally controlled drift which screams across the battlefield. Nails on a chalkboard have nothing on energy tires on Zero Time's floor, it's an unspeakable vibration.
And when it ends -- accompanied by a flash of green light -- the Cybody is once again a giant humanoid rather than a giant motorcycle.
He's still fast, but not as fast. It is probably the single best time to counterstrike. And Speed Kid knows that, he knows that with all his heart, and that's why he leads with his best defense: a good offense. Explosions light up the battlefield, green wheels exploding on impact as he launches a dozen, all at once, and then a second volley, too. By that time he's in close with the group, and, given that he has two arms, leans down and simultaneously, one to either side, tries to massively uppercut Mai and Sachiko, largest creators of this moment of opportunity.
Succeed or fail, he keeps going. The speed doesn't stop. It won't stop.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Energy Wheel Barrage on Sayaka Miki. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Drive-By Uppercut on Sachiko Majime. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Drive-By Uppercut on Mai Tokiha. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Energy Wheel Barrage on Hikaru Shidou. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Energy Wheel Barrage on Mikoto Minagi. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Energy Wheel Barrage on La Sirene du Nord. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Energy Wheel Barrage on Sailor Venus. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Energy Wheel Barrage on Lera Camry. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Energy Wheel Barrage on Fuu Hououji. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Energy Wheel Barrage on Cassandra. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Energy Wheel Barrage on Lancelot. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Motorcybody's Got Legs Again on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has finished attacking. COMBAT: Sailor Venus fails to brace Hotaru Tomoe's Energy Wheel Barrage, taking 51 Fatigue damage! Sailor Venus is unable to keep fighting! COMBAT: Fuu Hououji fails to dodge Hotaru Tomoe's Energy Wheel Barrage, taking 50 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Lancelot narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Energy Wheel Barrage, taking 23 Fatigue damage! Lancelot's Block ability activates! Lancelot's Parry ability activates! COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi narrowly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Energy Wheel Barrage, taking 42 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Mikoto Minagi's Fade ability activates! Mikoto Minagi's Flash ability activates! COMBAT: Cassandra narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Energy Wheel Barrage, taking 12 Fatigue damage! Cassandra's Block ability activates! Cassandra's Parry ability activates! COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Energy Wheel Barrage, taking 24 Fatigue damage! La Sirene du Nord's Block ability activates! La Sirene du Nord's Parry ability activates! COMBAT: Cassandra covers Sayaka Miki for Hotaru Tomoe's attack, Energy Wheel Barrage, taking it upon themselves instead! COMBAT: Sachiko Majime fails to dodge Hotaru Tomoe's Drive-By Uppercut, taking 29 Fatigue damage! Stun applied to Sachiko Majime! COMBAT: Mai Tokiha fails to dodge Hotaru Tomoe's Drive-By Uppercut, taking 29 Fatigue damage! Stun applied to Mai Tokiha! COMBAT: Lera Camry fails to dodge Hotaru Tomoe's Energy Wheel Barrage, taking 38 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Cassandra narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Energy Wheel Barrage, taking 18 Fatigue damage! Cassandra's Block ability activates! Cassandra's Parry ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Lancelot [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
"Blah Blah." Lancelot calls up as he //somehow// braces for impact against that big nasty thing. It still ground him up and spat him out, but he manages to pick himself up form the ground and rub some dirt in it. "All I hear is Blah Blah. You bad guys are all the same. I'm doing this for my pet kitten, so I HAVE to end the world." He snorts. "Come on! Just admit, you went full on Dark Vader for a Mechanized suit that is really jsut an oversized Transformer." He grins as he holds hsi sword to the side. "You are nothing but a big bully. A sell out. You don't have original thoughts of your own becuase you sold them away for a fancey toy!"
Lancelot nods and allows energy to gather on Arondight. "So do us all a favor Speedy!" He rushes forward and leaps toward anything that looks vaguely importnat and will hopefully get him out of the line of fire, "JUST SHUT UP!" He attacks, his balde flashing not once, not twice, but dozens of times as he calls out, "BLADEFURY!" With each flash of Arondight, thunder rolls over this strange dimension, and lightning crackles in blue white sparks.
COMBAT: Lancelot has used Bladefury on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hikaru Shidou narrowly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Energy Wheel Barrage, taking 12 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe accepts Hotaru Tomoe's Motorcybody's Got Legs Again, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Withstand applied to Hotaru Tomoe! Cleanse! All of Hotaru Tomoe's debuffs are cleared! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly counters Lancelot's Bladefury, taking 10 Fatigue damage! Lancelot is Psyched! COMBAT: Lancelot is unable to keep fighting! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe's counterattack, Zero Time Roadkill, partially gets through, doing 36 Fatigue damage to Lancelot! Lancelot is unable to keep fighting! Trap applied to Lancelot!
<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
"That's--"
It's hard to carry on a conversation with someone as he rushes across the battlefield, even as Lera flies up to get away from him after his teleportation brought him away from the sword slash. Her fists grip the hilt of Soaring Sky tighter. "--that's not it, though! It's not a system! We're trying to stop the people who get hurt, and--and I hate it when they get hurt, but... the people who do the hurting cause it! The system--it's not a system! It's the people who do things like blowing up that bridge!"
She points, fiercely, out the shattered window.
Then the volley of green wheels comes flying in. She tries to dodge them -- she weaves left, then right -- and fails. One slams into her side; the second strikes her back. She hits the ground, running over it, and rolls up.
She lands, barely, on her feet. Blood drips down from a cut on her scalp, running down her face. Lera's teeth grit together. She swings Soaring Sky up, pointing it at Speed Kid, and breathes heavily. "All right, buddy?"
A couple of cracks run up Soaring Sky's blade. <Good enough. We've got to try to finish it.>
"Yeah."
She swallows, then she yells again. It's hoarse and tired, but her movements are no slower for it. Lera leaps into the air and spins, blade trailing after her. It leaves a corkscrew of red-orange light in her blade's wake as she yells out: "C'mon, Sky!"
<Arc...>
She comes crashing down for the Cybody. The Device flares. Plasma erupts along the sword, shooting out to form a blade of fiery energy around it. Forks of orange lightning shoot off it, and she slashes down with an overhead strike at the Cybody, screaming all the while.
"BREAKEEEEEEEEEER!"
COMBAT: FINISHER! Lera Camry has used Arc Breaker on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Lera Camry has finished attacking. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly dodges Lera Camry's Finisher, Arc Breaker, taking 45 Fatigue damage! Hotaru Tomoe's Fade ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Flash ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
Trying to avoid getting run over is exactly why the Magic Knight of Wind was hoping to work primarily with arrows and magic - but the Cybody is just too freaking mobile, and also ridiculously FAST, and she gets run over again anyway. At least she's able to get up again this time ...
But she can tell how much that took out of her. The next hit she isn't able to get away from will probably put *her* out of the fight as well, and she's far from the first to get eliminated from the battle. The Wind Knight picks herself up off the 'ground' again, looking around, then gazing (or maybe glaring) up at the Cybody.
"STORM-DANCE OF KAMAITACHI!!!"
There's no point to holding back now; she probably won't have a 'later' to save her reserves for at this rate. The Magic Knight of Wind calls on one of her most violent attack spells, conjuring another tornado - but rather than trying to bind the Tetrioht with another whirlwind, this tornado is meant to simply rip into it as violently as possible. If she could simply shred whatever probably-supernatural alloy it's made from, that would be ideal, but its massive size works against her on that count as well. She'll simply have to carve as deeply into it with the tempest as she can manage, and trust her remaining allies to do as much damage to it as they're able.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Storm-Dance of Kamaitachi on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to counter Fuu Hououji's Storm-Dance of Kamaitachi, taking 27 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe's counterattack, Energy Wheel Explosion, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Fuu Hououji!
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Venus [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
Is this guy for real? Does he really actually believe what he's saying? Sailor Venus' eyes can't roll further into her head. It's the same explanation she's heard a million times before -- and she's weary of hearing it again.
Powers like these are meant to be used for good -- to protect people; nothing anyone can say to Venus is ever going to convince her otherwise.
Before she can let out another quip, though, the robot lashes out; she attempts to brace for the attack, but her reaction time isn't good enough. The impact sends her flying backwards -- and Sailor Venus hits the earth hard --
and this time, doesn't get back up.
<Pose Tracker> Cassandra [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.
It's an interesting question. In other circumstances she might have answered her with similar fire. She doesn't though. Instead she's frozen with fear. Her Element isn't in her hand and she hasn't brought it to bear, and everything is just going so wrong.
She cringes for a moment, as her Element shimmers back into her hands, holding them up feebly, even as Miki stands in front of her. Every bit the heroine. She expects to get squashed like a bug, not the hand on her shoulder. Not the... impact on the ground. Nor the heat that feels so close and so far.
Her arms are trembling a little and she's safe and... nigh uninjured save for whatever damage was done to her ball gown. She's not really hurt, she's just frazzled, and she makes it to her feet far more quickly than Sayaka will. She looks at her, really looks at her, even as Sayaka tries not to look at her. And eventually... "You didn't have to do that." She says, as little more than a faint whisper, gratitude warring with a failure to assert her strength and will and independence.
After a moment she puts a hand under her shoulder and tries to hoist her back up, trying to steady her own arms as she does so. "Get up! You think he's going to go easy on you because you're feeling like a nap? We're not finished yet!" It's pretty far from the thanks she wants to give but... it's what she can give right now.
Though it seems that's not true. She almost wishes she hadn't stood the girl up as a pair of energy wheels are sent back her way. She doesn't have time to shout a command, just to act. Unhooking her arm from under her shoulder, she lets her element shimmer back into her hands as she takes a step forward. It would be far easier right now to just try to get out of the way wouldn't it?
Instead her arms suddenly blur as the line she's wielding is cut in front of her in random patterns that sends the line out in a criss cross of dark strings that give the impression of piano wire with how the sharpened end rebounds and keeps going. When the green wheels reach them, she turns at the shoulders giving the end she's holding onto the sharpest tug she can. The line retracts in almost an instant, rending black against powerful green as she shaves the energy wheels apart piece by piece. It's still explosive, but more distant than intended the concussive effect sending her skidding backwards almost into the blue Puella Magi behind her. Her already trimmed apart ball gown has wisps of smoke rising off of it and is considerably darker.
She doesn't say anything to Sayaka. She doesn't want recognition. She doesn't want to acknowledge what she's done or be acknowledged by it. Instead she takes a step away, after a few moments, answers Speed Kid instead with her own version of defiance. "I don't want your peace. I don't want any part of your Golden Era. I'd rather stay a part of the system and use it to get exactly what I want. And what I want right now is for you to stop acting like you know better than us! All you are is some kid who bought into the crap the adults are selling you!"
Instead of going round and round in circles herself, she flings the length of her Element straight forward, the blades on the end windmilling in a cruel spiral intended to shear apart anything in its path.
COMBAT: Cassandra has used Gratitude to a Hero? on Sayaka Miki. COMBAT: Cassandra has used Shearing Spiral on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly dodges Cassandra's Shearing Spiral, taking 28 Fatigue damage! Hotaru Tomoe's Fade ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Flash ability activates! COMBAT: Sayaka Miki accepts Cassandra's Gratitude to a Hero?, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Sayaka Miki is Cheered!
<Pose Tracker> La Sirene du Nord [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
La Sirene's kick against the Cybody's -- tire? wheel? forelimb? -- while perhaps meant well, ends up sending a lot of pain shooting up her leg. She lands on her feet again and winces, gritting her teeth.
She breathes deeply as the Speed Kid makes his case.
"... and if we don't listen, you will keep hurting us?" she answers. She can't get off more than that - doesn't even have time to pat herself on the back for producing a one-liner. She wanted to say more, but those whirling green wheels are assailing her; she tries to dive out of the way but several of them explode against her, charring her dress, singeing her lace, bringing her to a kneel more than a mere crouch...!
He's fast, la Sirene thinks. Too fast.
A memory comes to her.
A memory... not of beauty or of friendship, or of the distant past or the hoped-for future. There is a moment of fear when she sees the goddess of love not rise. There is a moment of grim reassurance when that strange woman, Cassandra, speaks. But that memory comes to la Sirene in a burst:
Smell of distant perfume and engine oil. A droning voice. When is the most dangerous time, the teacher said, to drive in the rain?
La Sirene, despite the pain and the anxiety and the coldness in her battered body, raises up the Brazen Pharos above her head. She doesn't rise from her knees. "I appeal," she says, though not to anyone but herself, "to the tempest..." A squeeze of the handle, a brassy click-tink...
The front of the Pharos opens and the mirror within it gleams. La Sirene braces it with her other hand as the unlight within spills upwards. Not on anything. Soon enough there is a smell of rain in the air, even here in this impossible space. Rain that comes true, whipped into a sudden surging froth by the wind from within there and that which is being MOST helpfully provided by the Magic Knight of that very natural event!
It drives, it storms, it even thunders, but what may be most fatal to speed -- is if the water makes that ground perilously slick. At least there are few obstacles to slam into -- other, of course, than the spells of the other girls.
COMBAT: FINISHER! La Sirene du Nord has used L'Appel de la Tempete on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to dodge La Sirene du Nord's Finisher, L'Appel de la Tempete, taking 127 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit!
<Pose Tracker> Cure Fortune [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Cure Fortune watches as the bike /outspeeds/ the rings, and completely misses them. She mutter to herself as the bike turns back into a bipedal robot. "H-how? How can I..." Today is not a good day for Cure Fortune. Though... now that it's finished, Fortune decides that she can try /one more time/.
So she starts running towards the Cybody. Quickly spinning her dial, her ribbons expand and she leaps into the air again. "Fortune..." She rears back a fist, which erupts in purple energy. "Star..." Fortune then unleashes it with a mighty punch to the head (or failing that, just /anywhere on the robot/, Iona is not picky). "Burst!"
COMBAT: Cure Fortune has used Fortune Starburst on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Cure Fortune has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Mai Tokiha [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
'Has it ever occurred to you that things are the way they are for a reason?'
After a line like that, Speed Kid's yelp of pain gives Mai a perhaps more satisfied smirk than is really appropriate.
It's not that he's completely wrong here. Those are things shadowing all of Mai's hopes - the casualties, the collateral (oh let's not get started on the collateral), and the inevitability of things going wrong again, and again, and again...
"'Things are broken, we should do something, and this is something!'" Mai stops her escape to whirl on the Cybody, high in the air. Ballgown still fluttering like a bonfire, she points directly at the motorcycle as it's beset again and again. "That's how you sound - just because you think you've got a plan doesn't mean that it's anywhere near accepta-"
Suddenly the motorcycle is a giant robot again, and it's punching the noisy, flying target.
Mai lets out a cry as she's smacked down again, crashing into glittering starstuff with a resounding crash. Somewhere in there, she heard a name, calling out - part of her wants to just stay down, but...she can't. Can't give up, or all those words are empty.
Lancelot is...down, Mai's head is ringing, and...Mikoto is rushing over. The fiery HiME is a bit shaky as she reaches out, but relief is plain on her face. Relief, in spite of all their combined injuries. "Mikoto..."
She nearly asks if the girl is okay. Nearly...but doesn't, looking up at the Cybody in worry. Despite everything, it's still going...and judging by the explosions, it's playing for keeps. It's when her hand is taken that she snaps out of it, and the eyes that look down on Mikoto a short time later...they're determined. There's worry, but at the same time. "...yeah. Let's go hit this enemy with everything we've got."
When the duo charges, it's not subtle. Black and gold, paired together, flying through the air towards the titanic Cybody Tetrioht, Mai holding Mikoto close in her arms. Moreover, flames are revelling in her wake - a veritable inferno blazing out from the HiME's Element, building more and more as the rings spin faster and faster...
"Go ahead and try to claim the moral high ground all you like - but if you try something like this?!" A final burst forward, a tidal wave of flame to crash against one side - and carrying something more terrifying than mere burns with it. "We'll do whatever it takes to stop you!"
COMBAT: FINISHER! Mai Tokiha has started a combo targeting Hotaru Tomoe! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly counters Cure Fortune's Fortune Starburst, taking 21 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe's counterattack, Zero Time Roadkill, partially gets through, doing 23 Fatigue damage to Cure Fortune! Trap applied to Cure Fortune! COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has joined the combo started by Mai Tokiha!
<Pose Tracker> Sachiko Majime [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
Sachiko's body was tough and could take a lot of punishment. But even she had her limits which were quickly being reached. This time she wasn't so lucky in dodging the uppercut from the speedster. She simply did not quite clear the needed distance to keep herself from harm which directly led to her taking the full brunt of her opponent's uppercut. The attack to her mid-section is powerful enough to lift the Puella Magi off her feet and send her spiraling through the air before crashing back down into the ground. Sachiko knew that a multitude of her bones had to be broken from that attack, but she could still move despite those injuries. Such was the nature and willpower ofa Puella Magi.
It takes longer than before, but Sachiko eventually moves. She gets up on one knee, pushes all of her weight down it, and then uses that momentum to get back onto two feet. Sachiko stands once more, but only for a moment. The weakened softball star topples forward and has to use her axe as an impromptu cane to support herself. It is not the most elegant maneuver, but it's the best that she can manage at this point in time to keep herself up. "People get hurt if we don't fight and people get hurt when we do fight. It's the same no matter what we do," states the young teenager stoically as she tests her balance further.
"Whatever. So be it. But I know I need to be strong enough to see these things through! And it starts right here! Right now!" Sachiko started speaking quietly, but she slowly increased the volume of her voice until she was shouting. The wounded Magic Girl holds her axe aloft and charges the mecha once more and she uses no elaborate strategy this time. There is no feint, no deception, no anything. Sachiko simply crashes forward, cries out, and swings her axe towards the Cybody with all her might, with all of her anguish, with all of her remaining power.
COMBAT: Sachiko Majime has used Swing for the Fences on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly dodges Sachiko Majime's Swing for the Fences, taking 9 Fatigue damage! Hotaru Tomoe's Fade ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Flash ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
So here's what happens:
Mikoto charges.
Mikoto gets run over.
Mikoto charges again.
Mikoto gets run over, again.
It's Mai who breaks this cycle, of course - Mai, whose light cracks its headlight, who makes the motorcycle turn humanoid again. "Mai!" Mikoto yells, happily, but there's not much more she can say before the explosions ring out. She manages to leap away before any of the green wheels impact her, but the blasts of heat catch her as she runs. But when she hears Mai hurt, she turns to run to her, immediately.
"Mai," Mikoto says, quieter now, taking Mai's hand. She's been listening, even if she won't humour her enemy with a response, and so she says, "Don't listen, Mai. It's an enemy. Enemies will say things to trick you and make you stay your hand," and these aren't her words she speaks as she grips Mai's hand, not really, even if she doesn't remember where they really /come/ from, "so ignore them, Mai! Destroy the enemy!" Her voice shakes with emotion, seeing them both so hurt against such a implacable enemy, but there's determination there. And Mai listens - of course she listens, because Mai is good and an ally.
Mikoto can't fly, but Mai can - and up they go, Mai holding Mikoto, Mikoto holding Miroku. Up they go, higher and higher - and then Mikoto crashes down on the other side, announced by flame, cleaving her sword right into the Cybody's face.
COMBAT: COMBO! FINISHER! Mai Tokiha and Mikoto Minagi have used Combo: Obsidian Blade: Deflagrate, composed of Passionate Conflagration and Obsidian Blade: Destruction, on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly dodges Mai Tokiha and Mikoto Minagi's Finisher, Combo: Obsidian Blade: Deflagrate, taking 52 Fatigue damage! Hotaru Tomoe's Fade ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Flash ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Miki [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
Sayaka doesn't feel proud about protecting this Miki-girl. She feels disgusted with herself, with her self-serving fantasies, with her willingness to ignore reality. But as she hikes herself under Sayaka's arm, she makes it difficult for Sayaka to ignore her. Turning her head away can only be symbolic now, but she does it anyway.
She imagines Miki's back, his slim neck, as he sits at a grand piano before a great empty hall.
"I don't remember the difference between having to do it and wanting to do it," she admits in a faded voice.
Sayaka winces under the bossy encouragement, but it's the sort of thing that works on her on the sports field and it's the sort of thing that starts to work on her here. "Ow ow ow," she complains, the ungentle treatment of her burned arm unpleasant. She nods rapidly to try and get her to ease off. "Okay, okay, let's fight!"
But Sayaka isn't fully ready to do that when the wheels come, and Cassandra is. Oh, Sayaka prepares herself to draw a new sword, but she isn't ready to jump down the throat of the beast. Cassandra sends her chain through the wheels from every direction, then ruptures them massively, sending her back at Sayaka in their fiery wake. Sayaka opens her arms wide instinctively to catch her, but her next instinct is to avoid doing anything to her that she actually wants to do to Miki, so Sayaka pulls her hands back as though from a hot oven and backpedals a few steps, holding her palms up as if to demonstrate to everyone that she /didn't/ catch Cassandra. "Um," she tells the HiME, but none of this was visible to her, and she seems to have no more time for Sayaka anyway. The Puella Magi sighs in relief.
"Nothing good comes of doing bad!" she tells the Cybody. "You have to do things the good, hard way if you want them to turn out right! One more time!" She is bounding forward, her leaps soon carrying her onto rippling air-puddles of pure music, until she lands once more on a giant foot and raises her sword.
"Clever Puella Magi Sayaka, never gives up!"
Sayaka swings down with both hands in a great reaping slash, and it doesn't stop there. She starts hacking down into the foot like she's trying to dig a hole through it, crisscrossing great slashes as the burned tatters of her white cape lash and flutter with her bare-shouldered labor.
"Get out of our school!"
COMBAT: Sayaka Miki has used Furioso on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly dodges Sayaka Miki's Furioso, taking 14 Fatigue damage! Hotaru Tomoe's Fade ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Flash ability activates! Sayaka Miki drains 6 fatigue from Hotaru Tomoe!
<Pose Tracker> Hotaru Tomoe [Infinity Institute (6)] has posed.
Lancelot makes a brave speech, and his blades and lighting are just as courageous, as he lunges right into the personal space of the massive Cybody. Speed Kid seems frustrated at the accusations, after he's spent all this time trying to explain things. "I -- what -- fine, be that way."
The left wheel comes down with a smash... and a squish. There is blood intermingling with the starry surface of Zero Time. But there's no time to appreciate it, as Lera's massive, overhead strike illuminates everything with plasmic orange, everything including the blue Cybody, though she does not -- quite -- connect.
He's too fast for her, but not fast enough to follow up with his green energy wheels to intercept the Magic Knight of Wind's tearing tornado; they soar in the wrong direction totally, triggered too late, and then the storm sends him flying off balance.
Even in midair he can correct, turning what might have sheared an arm right off into merely creating a gaping patch of shorn armOR, courtesy of Cassandra's spiraling blades.
But without being in motorbike mode, he is not faster than a storm. La Sirene's rain joins that tornado, then overwhelms it -- and him -- completely. That one masked observer who was commentating earlier makes a sharp note on his tablet.
Tetrioht crashes to the ground, hard, and when he hits it, the surface of Zero Time /shatters/. Not completely and not irreparably, but strange light shines through the cracks, white light edged with just a tinge of familiar gold.
There's a moment where one might wonder 'is this it' but the answer is no, an answer that comes as quickly as everything else about this fight. He's getting to his feet even as Cure Fortune rushes in to detonate a blast of holy light against his knee, and kicks his leg upwards, and then downwards, trying to crush the blast and the Pretty Cure into the ground. They both wind up staggering back, though, because that purple light is /strong/. And because Clever Puella Magi Sayaka was digging downwards through his foot the entire time, until he finally desperately moved it, twitching her off, which, of course, let Cure Fortune's explosion through.
He's learned to fear that axe of Sachiko's, and this time when he sees it coming he pulls a limbo of desperation right underneath, which affords the Puella Magi a glimpse up close and personal at that golden mask and burning red eyes. The pilot, one gets the feeling, is not inside the head.
The HiME have also started to teach him some healthy respect, and when Mai and Mikoto come in with tidal waves of flame and a blade wielded with tsunami force, he continues the limbo stretch into an actual, massive, somewhat remarkable backflip. As he lands, wheels-first, they crunch into the broken ground. He won't be doing any more speedy wheelies today. There's just too much debris. That means it's do or die.
He's stopped talking, and his silence is a desperate one. It's not that he's run out of things to say -- it's just that he's been gripped by a stronger power than that of his need to get these girls to understand his side of things: fear. Fear that he's about to lose it all. Fear that he'll be stripped of his rank as a Star Driver. Fear that he'll just become some nobody.
Hell with it.
Maybe he's got one... last... drift in him. Green lightning crackles around his wheels as he revs them up, punching the ground like an overexcited runner, an emergency brake that lets him build speed. Finally he lets it trail behind him, gashing up even more of the ground with the tips of his fingers.
There's still another tide coming in, and it's the tide of shattered dimensions behind him, bits of starry red mirror, sharp as glass and massive, ready to bury the survivors, to slash them to bits, to drown them. The cosmos reflects in all directions, becoming a crazed kaleidoscope.
He aims his actual wheels for some of the ones he was ordered to target, plus that storm-summoning chick who totally screwed him over. And if getting hit by them before was bad, now they seem brighter than any sun, blinding, burning, crushing... it's on a whole new level.
Afterwards, from the other side, he looks back over his shoulder to see what he's wreaked--
OOC: If you've survived, please pose your attacks as a sort of two second flashback, occurring as he and the tidal wave of Zero Time floor passed through your battlespace, in the middle of his charge!
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Zero Time Roadkill on Sayaka Miki. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Zero Time Roadkill on Sachiko Majime. COMBAT: FINISHER! Hotaru Tomoe has used Zero Time Mega Drift on Mai Tokiha. COMBAT: FINISHER! Hotaru Tomoe has used Zero Time Mega Drift on Mikoto Minagi. COMBAT: FINISHER! Hotaru Tomoe has used Zero Time Mega Drift on La Sirene du Nord. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Zero Time Roadkill on Lera Camry. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Zero Time Roadkill on Fuu Hououji. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Zero Time Roadkill on Cassandra. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Zero Time Roadkill on Cure Fortune. COMBAT: Lera Camry narrowly counters Hotaru Tomoe's Zero Time Roadkill, taking 11 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Lera Camry's Reverse ability activates! Lera Camry's Tactician ability activates! Trap applied to Lera Camry! COMBAT: Lera Camry's counterattack, Sentinel Flash, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Hotaru Tomoe! COMBAT: Mai Tokiha narrowly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Finisher, Zero Time Mega Drift, taking 73 Fatigue damage! Mai Tokiha is unable to keep fighting! COMBAT: Fuu Hououji narrowly counters Hotaru Tomoe's Zero Time Roadkill, taking 12 Fatigue damage! Trap applied to Fuu Hououji! COMBAT: Fuu Hououji's counterattack, Spinning Slash, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Hotaru Tomoe! COMBAT: Cassandra narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Zero Time Roadkill, taking 48 Fatigue damage! Cassandra's Block ability activates! Cassandra's Parry ability activates! COMBAT: Cure Fortune perfectly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Zero Time Roadkill, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge! Cure Fortune's Fade ability activates! Cure Fortune's Flash ability activates! COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord fails to brace Hotaru Tomoe's Finisher, Zero Time Mega Drift, taking 117 Fatigue damage! La Sirene du Nord is unable to keep fighting! COMBAT: Sayaka Miki narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Zero Time Roadkill, taking 23 Fatigue damage! Sayaka Miki's Block ability activates! Sayaka Miki's Parry ability activates! Trap applied to Sayaka Miki! COMBAT: Sachiko Majime narrowly counters Hotaru Tomoe's Zero Time Roadkill, taking 10 Fatigue damage! Sachiko Majime's Reverse ability activates! Trap applied to Sachiko Majime! COMBAT: Sachiko Majime's counterattack, Pinch Hitter, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Hotaru Tomoe! COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi fails to brace Hotaru Tomoe's Finisher, Zero Time Mega Drift, taking 133 Fatigue damage! Mikoto Minagi is unable to keep fighting!
<Pose Tracker> Lancelot [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
That wheel comes crashing down on Lancelot not once, but twice and he lays there armor actually shredded, and Arondight ripped from hsi grasp to skitter away on the wierd floor of Zero Time. His left pouldron splintered from the crushing assault and the shards of that magical platemail have speared through the upper shoulder and arm, as well as slashed the left side of his face. He tries to get up, pushing himself to his knees, one eye actually swollen closed, and he spits a bloody mess out.
He looks up to see Mai and Mikoto fighting on and he smiles slightly. "Go get em. Flame. Princess." Then falls face first, unable to hold himself up. Out cold and bleeding on the strange floor of Zero Time.
<Pose Tracker> Mai Tokiha [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Reality is cracking, and fear grips Mai's heart. It's just similar enough to what's happened once or twice before...and even though it's not quite the same...something's not right with that shade of gold.
A moment's fear - and then Mai turns her head in time to see the Cybody out for blood - green lightning sparking as it charges forward, full tilt, bearing down directly on...her and Mikoto.
(And La Sirene, and frankly the wake of his charge is going everywhere, but...Mai has priorities.)
Flames whirl, sputtering back to life to carry her out of the way - but it's too fast. She lunges, either to escape or to try to spare Mikoto this final wrath...but it's not quite enough. There is a strike, sending Mai plowing through fragments of splintered cosmos, and this time...
This time, she stays down.
She should look to see if Mikoto fared any better, if Lancelot is okay, but...
From here, all she can do is - barely - see how this ends.
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
They didn't destroy the enemy. Reality cracks, shatters, and Mikoto tries to withstand it, she really does try -- but it's useless, useless as she goes flying. Miroku sails away, landing embedded in the earth. Mikoto's small body, too, is sent flying by the impact, limp as unconsciousness takes her.
She tried.
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
Arrows really just aren't doing her any good, and when the Cybody returns to overly-humongous-motorcycle mode and bears down on the remaining fighters once again, the Wind Knight finally resorts to her sword, stepping into the charge with a pivoting movement, bringing her blade around to at least *try* to deflect some of the force of the Tetrioht's charge -
And in the midst of that motion, something catches her attention. A flicker of light, a chip in the armor, perhaps no more than a last desperate gamble ... but she gathers her will and her remaining strength, lunges, and leaps, trying to drive her sword *deep* into that possible flaw she caught sight of.
It's the last attack she has any energy at all for in this battle, but everything that she has left is committed to that strike in the split second that she can see a potential target ... and the window of opportunity is too minuscule for her to even know if her strike did any good or not before she's back on the floor, the pain of that half-deflected impact catching up with her as though it means to make up for lost time.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used To the Point on Hotaru Tomoe.
<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
Lera spins around to face Speed Kid. She sees the way that time and space are breaking apart; she really doesn't know what it means, except that it can't be anything good. She grits her teeth, then, and she surges forward. The girl launches forward. She does a tight spin, just narrowly moving between two of those brightly burning wheels.
<Jet Ignition!>
She speeds up. Faster, and then faster still. If this weren't in the rapidly crumbling Zero Time, then Lera would break the sound barrier; today, there isn't a sonic boom. She just becomes a blur of red-orange light, bleeding gold at the edges, and rockets straight towards the center of the damaged Cybody, meeting him in the charge.
When it ends, and he turns, Lera's standing. She has to lean over on Soaring Sky; the weapon is planted, tip first, into the ground. Cracks run up and down the blade. Blood drips from her chin, running over an eye that's closed. Her jacket is burnt and blackened; it crackles with static in parts, where the spells threaten to give way completely.
But she still stands. Barely.
COMBAT: Lera Camry has used Jet Ignition on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to dodge Lera Camry's Jet Ignition, taking 39 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> La Sirene du Nord [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
La Sirene, already kneeling, can't get to her feet quite enough to vault out of the way of the incoming bike. The Star Driver smashes his way forwards...
A broken mirror, la Sirene thinks. How ironic. I did ask for this, didn't I, she thinks as her world fills with the incoming wheel of the Cybody. She crosses her arms in front of her face at the last minute, and then she's struck.
Everything is bright and jagged for a moment and then la Sirene is left in the skidding remnants of reality, like a tossed-aside doll, the little cap on her head fallen off and her hair veiling her face.
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
Arrows really just aren't doing her any good, and when the Cybody returns to overly-humongous-motorcycle mode and bears down on the remaining fighters once again, the Wind Knight finally resorts to her sword, stepping into the charge with a pivoting movement, bringing her blade around to at least *try* to deflect some of the force of the Tetrioht's charge.
It only sort of works; the Magic Knight of Wind isn't entirely flattened underneath the massively large energy-tire, but she's sent flying in one direction while her sword clatters off another way, leaving her disarmed, flat on her back, and trying desperately to get some air back into her lungs. She thought she spotted a vulnerability ... but she can't capitalize on it.
Not alone.
<Pose Tracker> Cassandra [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.
'Clever Puella Magi Sayaka, never gives up!' If there was anything to cause all of her cognitive processes to just lock up, it was that statement. That one right there. Even as her blades return to her hand, her neck turns and she's staring at the blue Puella Magi as if she'd just declared that she really had been Miki Kaoru all along. ".../You/!"
She can't even form more words than just that. Even with all her idealistic talk of how she'd carry on Miki's dreams and expecting nothing in return, never in her own wildest imaginings would she think Sayaka Miki, the childhood best friend of her brother for as long as she could remember, was a Magical Girl. Did the duels do this to her!? She didn't have any idea! She's really not certain how she feels about this development. She's not given enough time to process how she feels about that.
Because desperation itself is breaking the world. Green lightning sparks against the heavens like some reality shattering apocalypse, and it all starts to break apart. His brakes bringing about her celestial doom.
No matter what happens she'll face the storm, then she'll face broken existence and then it'll all be... "...Well. Let's hope you can be extra clever here, little Sayaka, because he's forcing the issue!" On her giving up that is.
As the world breaks apart behind him, she rushes Tetrioht head on. It's all she can think to do in light of this. She takes a short hop, then like a springboard upon shattering reality, leaps as high as she can... onto Mai as she descends, her bare feet landing just between her shoulders before she then takes another leap headlong into the arbiter of this destruction. It's a pretty thoughtless act given that she /liked/ Tokiha generally but she thinks it's a necessary one right now.
As her flight takes her to Tetrioht's flank, she suffers for it between the green lightning and the wake of broken stars and nebulas. Fire and ice, and everything in-between. She shrieks like a wounded animal just to bear it. The agony worth it just to get closer, just to take her revenge.
Her Element is grasped between both hands like two conjoined blades between wire, which as she reaches Tetrioht and impacts him, she attempts to drive both of them into his gleaming armor. Again and again, bellowing with fury that her razor like blades, her arms blurring she tries to take out her vengeance on the Cybody and it's driver. It may be an impotent gesture, but it's all she has to give in just the few seconds before she's thrown off into what seems like shattering existence itself.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Cassandra has used Wild Animal on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to dodge Cassandra's Finisher, Wild Animal, taking 126 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit!
<Pose Tracker> Sachiko Majime [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
Speed Kid would not be the only one looking out of sorts when Sachiko gets up close, but not quite personal enough with her axe. The blonde Sachiko was running on fumes as she's already reached her limit and now was merely hanging on with what little she had left. When the Cybody comes to crash through and finish the job, all Sachiko can do is swing her mighty axe defensively to take most of the force out of the would be impact. She is still knocked down to the ground, but she's breathing and concious. Say what you will about Sachiko Majime, but she is definitely not a quitter!
But the pummeled almost road-kill magic girl was not the only one knocked to the ground by Speed Kid's attack. Sachiko landed quite near a certain Magic Knight of Wind. Sachiko wasn't really much of a team player these days. But like hell she was going to let that cocky Speed Kid beat them! The softball pitcher forces her aching muscles to push herself up and offers a hand out towards Fuu Hououji. "Hey....you...um, do you got anything left in you? Because the bases are loaded and we need to send this jerk packing." It's not much of a motivational speech, but it's the best Sachiko can offer at the moment.
COMBAT: Sachiko Majime has used Pep talk of Desperation on Fuu Hououji. COMBAT: Fuu Hououji accepts Sachiko Majime's Pep talk of Desperation, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Fuu Hououji is Reinforced by Sachiko Majime!
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
The Wind Knight's hand closes on the hand offered by Sachiko, and she levers herself to her feet with that extra help - and the change in position lets her reinflate her lungs with a loud gasp. "I've ... got just enough ... I think ..." she pants, then takes a deep breath, steadying herself physically and emotionally, her will and her determination both renewed by the hand and words of support. She's still squeezing Sachiko's hand, and maintains that grip for a moment longer, as if drawing additional strength.
Then she lets go, as a breeze from nowhere picks up around her, ruffling her hair and skirts and maybe at Sachiko's as well. The Magic Knight of Wind brings her arms up and back, her gaze focusing on Tetrioht with a cold yet crystalline clarity ...
"EMERALD CYCLONE!!!"
And then she cuts loose, turning the fury of the storm loose on Speed Kid and his massive Cybody. There was something she barely noticed while trying to deflect its charge, and her attention is focused on it - to find that little crack, or a flaw, or whatever it was, and to blast it open ... or if it was just her desperate imagination, then to CREATE that flaw or crack, whatever imperfection she can force into being on the massive machine-like form, and still to capitalize on even the smallest, faintest weakness in Tetrioht's defenses and armor.
She can still only hope that it'll be enough, combined with the efforts of everyone else - both those still standing and those who've already fallen - but at least she has the strength to depend on that hope once again.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Fuu Hououji has used Emerald Cyclone: Focused on Hotaru Tomoe.
<Pose Tracker> Cure Fortune [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
When the Cybody suddenly rears its leg up, it brushes past her very quickly, but its true purpose is pretty easy to determine when it comes crashing down at her to try and get her between it and the floor. But, her wings swiftly pull her out of harms way and the leg comes crashing down. With the assault on its other leg, this allows the punch to get through, and not with getting green laser wheels in her face. Finally, something fortunate happens for the Cure named after it in this fight.
She lands once her Starburst is finished, and spins her dial once again to continue the onslaught. "Fortune..." She calls out, readying another attack
But... instead of the purple energy that she's known for, she only gets sparks. Cure Fortune looks down at her brace. "What? Come on!" She shouts, in the vain hope that loud words will get the job done.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to dodge Fuu Hououji's Finisher, Emerald Cyclone: Focused, taking 29 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Miki [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
Sayaka is blissfully unaware that she's been made, as she's mid-rampage on a Cybody foot. She veers about drunkenly as the foot lifts, but as it's not an actual kick this time, she's able to keep up her digging. Unfortunately, the massive monologuing mecha tires of this soon enough and kicks her off again, sending her hurtling through the air once more, but it buys Fortune the opening she needs to get her blast through.
"Nice!" she cheers Fortune, only to swallow the end of that joy as the wheels rev and tear. She glances at Kozue, perplexed. She doesn't exactly have time to explain that the title isn't really to indicate that she's always clever, but that what she's /doing/ is clever. See, when the hero makes an attack, she--I mean just hypothetically she, no particular she in mind here--she gives it a cool name. But now Cassandra thinks that she's Clever Puella Magi Sayaka and Sayaka can't really walk it back. The onus of being smart whenever Cassandra is around from now on would be anxiety-inducing for any hero, especially because Cassandra talks like she's usually the cleverest one in the room.
The hailstorm of hatred that approaches is not something Sayaka has a clever answer to; she draws up what remains of her cape, turns her sword to its flat to hold over her face, and lets it rip over her, punching strange shards of unreality into her. Wincing over her cape, she notices her erstwhile foot-attacking partner Cure Fortune faltering next to her in the storm, her bracer sparking. She's managed to repel the attack entirely, but can't mount one of her own. Well, maybe it would help her concentrate if she didn't have to deal with all this motorcycle flak?
There's no time for thought. "I've got you! You handle him!" Sayaka spreads her hand quickly in an arc between Fortune and the storm, laying down a dense layer of swords which immediately begin clanging and pinging with debris. But as Fortune's attack charges, the layer begins to crumple, one blade snapping and whizzing past.
"Just concentrate!" Sayaka urges in a friendly tone, and scoops her hands under Fortune's boots, braces herself, and triggers a note-ripple, driving them both up into the air where the attack is less dense, just before the swords begin to snap almost all at once.
COMBAT: Sayaka Miki has used Daily Double - S-Words on Cure Fortune. COMBAT: Cure Fortune accepts Sayaka Miki's Daily Double - S-Words, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Cure Fortune is Reinforced by Sayaka Miki!
<Pose Tracker> Cure Fortune [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Cure Fortune is still focused on the Cybody approaching when she hears a voice telling her to concentrate. Her head swishes over to see another magical girl, someone she doesn't quite recognize. A moment passes, and Cure Fortune nods. "All right!" She runs towards Sayaka and is launched into the air with the Puella Magi. Now in the air and with Sayaka's encouragement ringing in her ears, Fortune tries again, spinning the dial on her bracer.
"Fortune..." She sweeps her hand in front of her. A large number of stars, each one not unlike the stars in the night sky, appear in front of her. "Star Stream!" Her hand swings forward, bidding these stars to launch towards the Cybody, hopefully aiming towards a more central part than she had attacked before, just as her ascent crests and she begins the descent.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Cure Fortune has used Pretty Cure Star Stream on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to dodge Cure Fortune's Finisher, Pretty Cure Star Stream, taking 54 Fatigue damage! Hotaru Tomoe is unable to keep fighting!
<Pose Tracker> Hotaru Tomoe [Infinity Institute (6)] has posed.
Speed Kid looks down, and the massive, masked head of the Cybody looks down with him.
Their eyes widen as one as they see the impact of Lera's sonic boom-speed strike, puckering the chest. Lower down, there are a multitude of lacerations from Cassandra's blade, a spiderweb of damage. It doesn't seep red, or seep at all, but it has the torn-out look that comes when a rat bursts through weak wooden molding, all shards and splinters.
He hadn't recognized, at the time, that the sound of a thousand strange metallic flutes had been the Magic Knight of Wind's cyclone whooshing through the gash, widening it, sending cracks further upwards, through the Lera-sized dimple towards the robot's neck, and all because the mouthy softball player extended a hand.
And the idea that a hundred blades, not a one of them touching the Cybody, were tolling the bell of doom one twing-a-ling-snap at a time, hadn't occurred to him at all. Cure Fortune's stream of stars, ripped from the heavens of her heart to cascade upwards into Tetrioht, are conducted through the wound and ultimately return to the sky, or what passes for the sky in Zero Time. On their way up, they slice straight through that golden mask, which splits in half--
--creating a massive explosion of light.
Speed Kid's scream merges with that of Scarlet Kiss, as, in the same moment, her Cybody erupts in a similar conflagration, the natural consequence of the equally desperate beating it received at the hands of the other magical girls.
Afterwards, far underground, they'll have their Star Driver pins ripped from their lapels. They'll be in disgrace with their organization, at least for a while. They took their Cybodies into battle... and failed.
But the girls won't know -- and even if they did -- they have other things to think about.
---
With the defeat of the Cybodies, one might expect the golden-masked crowd to be more upset. One turns to another, and mutters, "Well, that went about as planned," to which there is a murmur of agreement.
Which can't be a good sign.
But things are shattering all the way across the battlefield now, from one end to the other, big chunks of the 'ground' sparkling like cosmic diamonds. From beyond is a white light that shines between dimensions, which gradually becomes infected with the same familiar gold that blew up the bridge.
And then the world is back, everyone is once again in the ballroom, untransformed. That's the only part of the battle that's hidden, however -- the exhaustion and injuries remain.
"--ment," finishes Shizuru Fujino coolly, apparently totally unaware of the massive battle that just took place. She sips her tea again. Her eyes flicker across a crowd that is a little bit more wounded than before, a few more students injured by the falling glass or laid out unconscious by the shockwave than she'd realized.
And then the air is abruptly filled with yet another new and unexpected sound; the sound of massive engines. They roar in a veritable chorus of combustion, punctuated here and there by the staccato of chopper blades. Searchlights beam down from sleek chrome helicopters* and there are actual tanks, treads and cannons and all, rapidly surrounding the crowd.
There are also soldiers, of course. Their uniforms bear no insignia save for a golden circle on one shoulder, which could be interpreted as an eye, or a sun. The most military-knowledgable might recognize that they comport themselves as a paramilitary organization of some kind; militaries that answer to civilian authorites generally don't level guns at student bodies.
"ATTENTION SISTER SCHOOLS! THERE ARE TERRORISTS HIDDEN AMONG YOU WHO JUST BLEW UP THAT BRIDGE! WE'RE HERE TO PROTECT YOU FROM THEM BUT YOU MUST COOPERATE IF YOU'RE GOING TO BE SAFE! NOW, PUT YOUR HANDS SLOWLY INTO THE AIR!"
They wait for a measure of acquiescence, which they largely receive, before continuing in blaring, strident tones:
"EVERYONE WILL NOW BE ESCORTED TO A SECURE LOCATION!"
The soldiers -- there are an appalling number of them, many hundreds -- begin flanking groups of students and jogging them towards Ohtori Academy proper.
It seems that something much larger than a giant robot fight has just begun...
TO BE CONTINUED
- Those chrome helicopters shimmered into the sky out of nowhere. They may be faintly familiar to magical girls who were active most of a year ago, back when the chopper fleet showed up to steal the seventh Star Shard on the Hokkaido Winter School Trip. Shortly thereafter, the world was plunged into an unnatural sleep until some magical girls entered the realm of dreams to defeat the menace who'd wished upon a star for such a thing to happen...
Relevant BBposts:
Southern Cross Island Attacked!
The news feeds of the nation -- and the world -- are abuzz with panic, horror, anger and grief. The Southern Cross bridge, linking Tokyo's Southern Cross Island with the mainland, has been instantly destroyed in a massive explosion. A number of insurgent groups have come forward to claim this terrorist attack as their own doing, but the most reliable intelligence sources indicate that the real perpetrators are still on the island, and there's chatter about plans for a biological attack -- some kind of weaponized virus -- as their next move and possible escape plan.
This would endanger all of the people currently on the island, which includes the inhabitants of sunny Southern Cross Town, and the students and staff of Ohtori Academy. What's worse, the attack came at the conclusion of the Sister Schools Athletics Festival, so virtually the entire populations of Infinity Institute and Juuban Public School are also present... and trapped.
In an attempt to liberate them and control the situation, Southern Cross Island has been briefly placed under the jurisdiction of a joint UN Peacekeeping task force. At the vanguard is the Golden Fleet, owned by the United States-affiliated Private Military Company Golden Age. Concerned citizens should be reassurred by the knowledge that they have already blockaded the island with their warships, and landed platoons of soldiers and squadrons of armored cavalry in order to restore order to the island, protect the people, and apprehend the terrorists before they can release their biological weapon.
The Golden Age PMC has not been available for public comment, but the UN Secretary-General and Japanese Prime Minister appeared together to condemn the attacks, and together promised to bring the perpetrators to justice before any further harm can be inflicted upon Tokyo and its people.
Ohtori Academy Invaded!
In an immense blast of golden light that left auroras scarring the sky for hours afterwards, the bridge connecting Southern Cross Island to the mainland was instantly and totally obliterated. Everyone affiliated with the Sister Schools was on the island at the time, which means that everyone is now trapped; the channel between the island and Tokyo proper is crawling with warships, and the skies are full of helicopters.
The island itself is full of soldiers and tanks, who have announced that they have been sent to protect the students and find the terrorists responsible for the attack, who are believed to be hiding on the island, probably within Ohtori Academy itself.
Students and staff are being rounded up and kept in Ohtori Academy facilities -- mostly the classrooms, though with at least triple the number of students, the gymnasiums and sports arenas are also in use. The dormitories have been emptied; it seems that the soldiers prefer to keep everyone together, as much as possible.
Their search for justice appears to include systematic blood tests of the population, a very slow process. It will probably take several days to get everyone through that battery of inspections (and it's a brusque process, extremely upsetting to most people, be they child or adult). Rumor has it that they're testing for some kind of virus that the terrorists may have released on the island.
The Sister Schools' Student Councils have jointly released a statement asking their peers to cooperate with the army, but also demanding better conditions for the students. It has gone largely ignored by the military, who continues to act with rudeness that is, at best, born of urgency.
There are rumors of runaway students -- though why they're running is an open and difficult question. Regardless, the military is patrolling the beaches and forests of the island with thoroughness and skill. It's not impossible to hide out, though, as the island is riddled with cavern systems. There are also whispers of monsters, though this is mostly dismissed as ghost stories. And who wants to be telling ghost stories at a time like this?
Ohtori Invasion Facts Some important information (which can and should spur scenes throughout the two IRL weeks of this event):
- The entire playerbase is trapped on Ohtori Academy's Southern Cross Island, because they were there for the Athletics Festival when the bridge was blown to smithereens.
- There is no internet and no cell phone service; a total information blackout seems to blanket the island. Calls to parents are /not/ being facillitated.
- Students and teachers alike are expected to stay in their classroom or gym. All trips elsewhere -- to the bathroom or the cafeteria (the only source of food at the moment) -- require armed escort.
- Complaints (many of them from the teachers rather than the students) are met with brutal indifference which will quickly escalate to violent subjugation if the complainer doesn't back off.
- The soldiers really are testing everyone medically, and also comparing faces to a set of photographs. Glimpses of those photographs make it clear that all their targets are young female students. Sometimes they refer to their enemy as 'valkyries,' presumably code for the terrorist organization, but given that their real targets are Sister Schools students... Something Fishy is going on. Something bad.
- The soldiers seem very interested in the Library (which has been emptied of students), searching it with the kind of detailed care that one might use to look for secret doors or something.
- The soldiers are occupying the Chairman's Tower as their home base. That the Ohtori Student Council is still also in the tower is about as blatant a hostage threat as any, though it's possible they're actually collaborating (or being forced to collaborate).
- It is totally possible (and highly encouraged) for sufficiently determined and magical students to escape the soldiers, but it's worth noting that they seem extremely willing to gun down anyone, including innocent students, in order to apprehend the uncooperative. They will casually threaten harm, so a direct assault on the school to liberate everyone is not currently possible.
- Escapees' best option is to hide out in the woods and try to gather up. But the woods are not very safe; besides patrols, there are strange monsters, especially floating purple manta ray-like creatures with strange red sigils on their backs (sigils that are very similar to some of the monsters which had previously attacked Ohtori Academy students over the spring and summer). The monsters tirelessly hunt escaped students, but leave the school alone.
- Ohtori also has an exceptionally high population of Witches (in the Puella Magi Madoka Magica sense) who are currently gorging on the panic and despair of the student body. They're both a danger out in the woods, and a danger to the population that the military knows nothing about (as they can, and are, entering school grounds to feed) -- hunting them without being apprehended by the military is a major challenge, but a necessary one for the altruistically-minded.
- There is no escape to the mainland. All attempts to leave by water or air automatically fail; there are just too many monsters and too much hardware, too much to blow through before girls get tazed, netted, bolo'd, or otherwise recaptured. Escape attempts are welcome to be scened out, but they will need to end in retreat, back to hide out on the island.
- Escapees can and should find the cavern system under Ohtori Island to hide out in. It has fewer of the manta monsters, no soldiers, and more Witches. It's a real labyrinth down there -- there's a lot to explore, and that includes some very interesting ruins. There are lots of carvings and obelisks and things. What they are and where they've come from is confusing and impenetrable, though -- the historically-minded might notice, at best, that there are remnants from /multiple/ civilizations down here, there is some serious diversity of mysteries afoot.
- What there isn't is food, which may necessitate raids on the Academy kitchens (an extremely fraught proposition, given the possibility of students used as hostages to get escapees to surrender again). Indeed, even out in Southern Cross Town (the little town on the island that kind of supports the school proper, as well as some tourism) food seems to have all been moved to a centralized location, and the inhabitants are up in one of the Academy gymnasiums.
