2023-01-21: Alarm
- Log: Alarm
- Cast: Anti, Gridman
- Where: Junk Shop Aya, Tsutsujidai
- Date: 2023-01-21 (OOCly 2023-01-14)
- Summary: Gridman and Gridknight work together to bring down a memory of the first Spartura Custom which attacked Tsutsujidai. The two of them have reached an understanding, despite Alexis Kerib's efforts.
<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.
It's the memory of a dream.
The machine walks with a heavy gait. It isn't staggering. It's steady. It knows what it's doing. It knows where it's going. Many Mobile Suits, Knightmare Frames, whatever you want to call them, work against their weight. This machine - squat, thick, with its two arms, two legs, and two forward claws that resemble nothing more than titanic fangs or a pair of horrid pedipalps - doesn't. It ambles, like an elephant. The blades scrape together. The hands squeeze together. A demurely trim waist holds everything aloft, reinforced by bare struts mounted in the back, the hip joints' upper cowling.
No -- no, that's how it WALKED, a year ago.
The Ground Attack Nostalgia was a Spartura Custom -- a machine powered by a man who had nothing left but his dream, strapped down and wired up, fire streaming through his veins. There is no man inside the Nostalgia, now, as another meaning of the word joins existence. Alexis Kerib has forged the facsimile from scrap and memory, and sent it lumbering out to meet Tsutsujidai.
To keep them busy.
And they were busy,
"Knight Light Wave Missile...!" Gridknight exclaims, as the two of them finish the Ground Attack Nostalgia -- and unlike the first time it attacked, he's fighting with Gridman in an entirely different way, now. Beside him, as the explosion rocks out.
They both have energy lamps. They flash.
And the two of them find their way to Junk Shop Aya, where Akane discards all those things she thinks she doesn't need.
"At the end of my life," Anti -- the boy, barely over four feet tall, one side of his head bandaged by a doctor -- says, with measured tones, "I'll defeat you."
He takes a breath. He does not move, from his straight-backed stance, standing six feet from the Hyper Agent.
"Live until then."
<Pose Tracker> Gridman has posed.
United with his comrades, Gridman has transformed for the first time since he awoke as himself. At first, the exhiliration of being useful again was all he felt, but then--
A spark of realization. As his comrades join with him, they all suddenly understand. Max, Borr, Calibur, and Vit, they weren't fighting Alexis Kerib with Gridman, before his fall. They were Gridman. They all, initially, are the same being. Little pieces of one Giant's soul, sundered from their source. It's enough to bring Full Powered Gridman to a halt, as he appears in Tsutsujidai.
But, as always, the city comes first. They can deal with this information once this latest monster has been taken down. United as never before, Gridman shines gold, raising Calibur high.
"Grid..." He shouts, joined by his comrades. "Full Power... Finish!"
Sparking with light, Gridman tears through the Ground Attack Nostalgia as though it were made of paper. Golden radiance ignites the re-animated monster, painting Gridknight's target. Not that he particularly needs it.
Gridman stands by Gridknight's side as the Ground Attack Nostalgia explodes into nothingness. With a glance toward his kin, the Giant vanishes, spilling Gridman and his comrades back into the Junk Shop Aya. In their smaller forms, of course.
The Neon Genesis Junior High Students, now undistracted, face their true identity in their own ways. Without a word, Vit leaves the shop, searching for a certain someone to take the sharp edge off this news. Calibur sits heavily on a bar stool, pulling his knitting needles out of his suit jacket and staring blankly at them. Borr swears, then laughs, then flops on the couch. And Max places his hands on Gridmans' shoulders.
"Gridman. If we all combine again, I believe the true Yuta Hibiki will awaken." The masked man felt the presence of the young Repli-Compoid closely, as if he could reach out and pull the boy to reality.
With a nod, Gridman glances to the door, his gaze pulled away by the jingling of the bell. It looks like he'll have to deal with that information later.
"Thank you." Gridman says, smiling at Anti. "Without your help, we couldn't have won."
Cutting the distance between them in half, Gridman approaches the young man. Anti makes his declaration, and nobody in the room reacts badly. Gridman's smile doesn't even waver -- this is simply Anti's way.
"Right." Gridman intones, seriously. "But as things are now... We can't let Alexis Kerib run amok. And that means we're going to need everyone's power."
<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.
The true Yuta Hibiki...
Long ago, Anti attacked him -- slashed his shoulder, saw the red which came out, learned that humans are red underneath, took that information into his own veins -- and he screamed, Gridman, Gridman, Gridman.
He couldn't have known. He was blinded by his own purpose.
But Anti does have a terrible habit of saying true things, even when no one believes him.
It's strange, to hear this boy thank him. This boy he tried to kill... even so, he was essential, to defending them. Anti nods, short and sharp and just the once.
"Yuta Hibiki," he says, and says his human name, though his eyes have changed. "I won't run away." It has meaning here, too, in those ways he always scurried from his conflicts with Gridman and his defenders. "I see what Alexis Kerib has done." He sees, though he has one eye to look.
He sees because he has one eye to look.
<Pose Tracker> Gridman has posed.
Gridman's face softens as Anti speaks Yuta's name. Where before, it might've hurt him to hear the name of the boy he's used so terribly, now, Gridman's looking forward to meeting him.
"I won't run away, either." Gridman's voice echoes with metallic determination. "We'll meet him together."
Speaking of Alexis Kerib...
BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP
In a terrible sort of harmony, a scream shatters the hard-won peace of the city in the same moment as Gridman's Primal Acceptor reaction. Heavy footsteps shake Aya, ratttling the items on display.
With a glance to Gridman, Calibur vanishes in a blur of movement, then appears again, Vit by his side. Borr jumps to her feet, and Max looks toward Junk.
Gridman, running to the glass door of Aya, feels his heart stop. No matter what form she takes, no matter how distorted her voice, he will always know her. His friend. His mission.
"That kaiju..." Gridman breathes, turning back to Anti. His voice strengthens, and his eyes turn hard. "Akane is up to you. I have something I must do."
<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.
"Understood." Anti nods, again -- once, stern, lower and lift.
Gridman was never the thing hurting Tsutsujidai. He'll fight beside Yuta, against Alexis Kerib, though his manner is strange compared to the last time he met him.
If this were a different time -- a different place -- Anti might have asked. Anti might have learned.
But the Acceptor beeps, and Anti steps, quickly without startling, to move beside Gridman to the door of Aya. He recognises her. Anti does, too.
He takes a step in front of Yuta -- Gridman -- and this, too, is an indication of the change, within him.
From standing in opposition to standing in defence.
From Anti, to a Knight.
"All right," Anti says, as he turns, to look to Gridman with his visible sunset eye. "I pay my debts." And in this, he acknowledges his debt to Gridman, too.
His teeth grit, as he turns, and runs from Junk Shop Aya.
Towards Zegga.
No -- towards Akane Shinjo.
<Pose Tracker> Gridman has posed.
Anti can do this. Gridman has faith in him. They're kin, now, and nobody knows Akane better than her younger brother. Watching him go, Gridman nods once. His fight lies elsewhere.
Along with his comrades, Gridman stands before Junk. "We're all here." Max rumbles.
White light sparks to life, coursing through the various items of the Junk shop until they touch the ancient computer the Hyper Agents face. In a flash of colorless incandescence, Junk presents them with a gift. As their eyes adjust, every single one of Gridman's comrades finds a Primal Accepter strapped to their left wrist.
"Okay? The heck's this?" Borr holds their new accessory up to the light, looking at it suspiciously.
Gridman steps forward, standing in line with the Neon Genesis Junior High Students. "Accepters join seperate hearts and make them one. Let's go! Together!"
In perfect harmony, all five Hyper Agents hold their arms forward, then raise them vertically. "Access... Flash!" Consumed by light, they vanish into Junk.