2023-12-08: Infinity! Beyond 'God' and 'Devil'
- Log: 2023-12-08
- Cast: Dr. Hell, Asciel Colette, Yuliana Kafim, LiSA, Koji Kabuto, Leina Ashta, Cascade Vermilion, Teletha Testarossa, Roux Louka, Sayaka Yumi, Sayla Mass, Anita Rosetta, Naoko Suzuki, Kallen Kozuki
- Where: Fujinomiya City
- OOC - IC Date: 0097-12-08
- Summary: The conclusion to Mazinger Z: Infinity! After the world's defenders break free of the illusions of Goragon, Doctor Hell turns Infinity itself on them. Through nothing less than a miracle of the entire world coming together, the ultimate Magine fades to ash and Doctor Hell's plans to rewrite this world are thwarted.
<Pose Tracker> Dr. Hell has posed.
A chorus rings from within the light of Goragon.
One man demands of Infinity: 'reject this world, so that I may make that which satisfies me'. A cold, dispassionate authority clamped over the 'Magine'.
And to it, the myriad representatives of Earth, all in their own ways, proclaimed, 'accept this world, because even though it's flawed, it's our world'. A fiery rejection, a fist at the walls of the 'Magine'.
. . .
))That fateful day, twelve thousand years ago. A calamity that would merge all possibilities into one - this was the moment for which the light to seize individual futures was built. Here, on this very soil - two wars that had gone on for far too long would devour this entire universe, each from the opposite end.((
))That fateful day - a single scream closed the gate of reincarnaton. One single voice believed in this very world's future so much, despite being the trigger for its destruction. Perhaps that's why...((
With a devastating crash, the inversion of reality is put to an abrupt halt. The colossal Infinity, sleeping beneath the mountain, re-appears above Mt. Fuji, its towering legs crashing into its peak, and the dismayed growling of Dr. Hell echoes across the landscape. "...How can this be...? What foolish nonsense! ...Infinity, surely you have seen for yourself - that this world is just as putrid as it was so long ago!" the mad scientist roars, his mechanical vessel raising its arm - the Wand of Bardos, to subject Infinity back to its whims.
All across the plains and townscapes surrounding Mt. Fuji, those who were plunged into the spiral of possibility are ejected back out - or rather, the 'domain' of Goragon has shrunk vastly. It is still just barely visible - a halo of pure white emanating from Infinity's back, a second sun gleaming atop Mt. Fuji.
"...Ridiculous. All of you, gliding like gnats between futures that would save you - futures that would damn you. I saw it all, of course - as meaningless as they were. To think that your last-ditch effort to huddle in a pitiful future called 'love' would disconnect my deciding a new Earth...it will not happen again. HEED MY COMMAND, o final relic of Bardos!"
Everything is silent, but for Mt. Fuji. The hordes of Kikaiju have long since vanished - Dr. Hell alone crowns the Great Marshal - which alone crowns Infinity - which alone crowns Mt. Fuji. All over the colossal Magine, ports and vents open wide - built in times long before history, an arsenal that would lay a kingdom low juts through the cracks. A deluge of missiles from all over arc into the air, over all who emerged from Goragon's labyrinth.
"Fall, and cease your insipid interruptions to my new world."
"AURIGA ARROWS!"
KTS: Dr._Hell has deployed as a Boss for 10 opponents. Dr._Hell has changed Boss level to 11
KTS: LiSA is now subpiloting for Koji Kabuto. KTS: Dr. Hell targets Teletha Testarossa, Sayla Mass, Anita Rosetta, Naoko Suzuki, Koji Kabuto, Roux Louka, Kallen Kozuki, Sayaka Yumi, Leina Ashta, Cascade Vermilion, and Yuliana Kafim with Auriga Arrows. KTS: Dr. Hell has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Sayaka Yumi has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Sayaka Yumi's EN Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Sayaka Yumi fails to intercept Dr. Hell's Auriga Arrows, taking 4370 damage! KTS: Your unit's HP stands at 10530 KTS: Your EN is now 57. KTS: Cascade Vermilion successfully Intercepts Dr. Hell's Auriga Arrows KTS: Yuliana Kafim blocks Dr. Hell's Auriga Arrows, taking 3570 damage! KTS: Leina Ashta has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Leina Ashta has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Leina Ashta successfully Intercepts Dr. Hell's Auriga Arrows KTS: Sayla Mass has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Sayla Mass successfully Intercepts Dr. Hell's Auriga Arrows KTS: Roux Louka has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Roux Louka has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Anita Rosetta has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Roux Louka successfully intercepts Dr. Hell's Auriga Arrows KTS: Koji Kabuto has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Koji Kabuto successfully intercepts Dr. Hell's Auriga Arrows KTS: Anita Rosetta successfully Intercepts Dr. Hell's Auriga Arrows KTS: Teletha Testarossa has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Teletha Testarossa has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Teletha Testarossa successfully Intercepts Dr. Hell's Auriga Arrows KTS: Naoko Suzuki has activated the Attune Spirit Command. KTS: Naoko Suzuki successfully intercepts Dr. Hell's Auriga Arrows
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
>i [promised] i would never leave 'ai'.
Opposite the titanic form of Infinity, a giant of similar stature collapses from the eternal. The white and cyan form of the Macross 13 - the Neo-Parthenos, as it was taken to being dubbed. Unlike Infinity, though...something's 'off' - it's slow, inert, collapsing to its knees under its own weight. No signals emanate from its towers - its guidance signals to allied forces are all offline.
>i [promised] i would never leave 'ai'.
No voice calls from its hull. As though nothing's to be found there to begin with. As though the Virtual Sage at its helm - an idol of pure delusion - was lost, dissolved like foam to its very identity, in the roiling cognitive landscape of Goragon.
>i [promised] i would never leave 'ai'.
>I [promised] I would never give up.
Waking up as though with a gasp, a tiny Arm Slave upon the Macross's arm jolts up, the dull flatness in its eyes warming to a bright orange LED glow. "...I promised I wouldn't give up. ...so...why can't I...?" Asciel staggers to her feet, clutching at her chest - the iridescent light of the Lambda Driver unnaturally hot considering her low activity. Eyes re-focusing to her return to reality, they follow a strange sight - a flickering 'cable' of pure red light, jammed into the Lambda Driver, a cord that tethers further and further away...
...further and further towards the still-opened 'gate' behind Infinity, aimed at a single possibility in its depths-
"You've got to be joking. What!? What is this!? ...ugh. I know...exactly what this is." The images of those myriad worlds flood back to Asciel - and all through them, this same tether kept pulling, and pulling, and pulling. It pulls even now - though somehow, Asciel has the weight to resist it, feeling little more than an insistent tugging - in turn, nearly unable to move her body in any meaningful capacity.
...It's 'something else' that can't resist. A voice echoing into Goragon.
>i [promised] i would never leave i [promised] i would never leave i [promised] i would never leave i [promised] i would never leave i [promised]
A signal, not from the Macross's main tower, but from the much weaker Codarl, patches in, "...I've been...a bit immobilized. I'm getting in touch with...all the OCU staff - they're going to need to remote the Macross's weapons. ...I can't believe that got STUCK in there- I...I can't believe 'you'...refused to accept..."
...what it does serve as, however...
...is a dispatch line, a tether between reality and eternity, from the idol who yearned to live in the former, to the god that can't let go of the latter.
KTS: Kallen Kozuki successfully Evades Dr. Hell's Auriga Arrows <Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
She's back, and perhaps, one day, Yuliana will thank LiSA for that.
Maybe.
The pilot of the Masquerion bristles, as Dr. Hell decries them. The machine flees that hail of missiles, only to find one too dogged in its quest to fell her to be dodged -- so she turns, and meets it with the shield she's bolted onto the Masquerion's arm. "Nghh--!!"
The inside of the masked Lion's cockpit flashes with warning lights, as it reports the damage -- and the pilot, with her strange, electronically-altered voice, is hardly a fan. "Fuck, what was that?! Wait. What do you mean, critical malfunction?! -- SHIT!" As her voice changer splutters and fails, it becomes clear, with that familiar tone and familiar sound of striking the console:
That's Yuliana's voice.
The pilot of the Masquerion -- and the woman with the red mask in Goragon, echoing that same machine -- it was always Yuliana. Darminichna, Yunyukha, Ms. Dian, the Empress After Eternity... all these realities simply didn't name her so plainly. And why would they? Yuliana is so fond of nicknames -- of course she'd have a plethora of them, too.
... they're all names people have called her, save one. Darminichna is her patronymic name -- Yunyukha, the youthful nickname which Prima gave her. Ms. Dian ought to have been her formal address, and... well, there's no accounting for that last one.
Her transmission cuts out after she realises what's happened, to her credit; she evidently doesn't want to identify herself to everyone here.
Silently, the Masquerion lines up its railgun at the Great Marshal of Hell -- and fires.
KTS: Yuliana Kafim targets Dr. Hell with FT Railgun Impact Shot! KTS: Yuliana Kafim has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> LiSA has posed.
Everyone gets pushed out of the Alternate Dimension gently, finding themselves back in machines, that, perhaps, probably can't or shouldn't be able to go up a Mazinger the size of Mount Fuji. However, they have all made clear their utter determination - that they will fight for this world that they all occupy, that they will protect what they have, rather than accepting what could be or could have been.
Perhaps most distressingly admidst this whole thing is that while Koji finds himself back in Mazinger Z, his copilot seat is not occupied.
LiSA remains in the alternate dimension, looking at a keyboard full of esoteric symbols that is lined and ready to go on golden paper. In front of her, Mazinger Infinity's core is ringed by simulacrums of Dr. Hell's Staff of Bardos, circling it, showing his control over Infinity. Infinity is a machine, yes, but there is one flaw to his plan that she hadn't dare spoke of to anyone: Not to those she has so recently called mother or father. Not to the one who she proclaims she wants to help see love. Not to all those friends experiencing this place.
Dr. Hell overlooked the fact that she was still living, breathing, and willing to, as Koji Kabuto would say, kick Hell's ass.
"Everyone! This is Lisa!" She cries out over the public comms, reaching out to everyone. Friends she knows, friends she's made, and her family. "I know it looks like a unfair fight, but I'm with you! Please, trust in your machine, and trust in me!" As she speaks, her hands are flying curiously over the keyboard, and the paper gets longer with every moment. As she speaks, she's reaching out. She's leeching into what she knows of this Dimension, of the Magine of Infinity that is dimensions, of the Staff of Bardos, and what control and understanding really is; perhaps there are no visible effects, but attacks against Infinity are doing -something-, which is more than what they should be doing: That is, nothing.
KTS: LiSA targets Koji Kabuto, Sayaka Yumi, and Cascade Vermilion with All-Out. KTS: LiSA has completed their actions for the round. KTS: LiSA orders an all-out attack, raising Sayaka Yumi's Skill! KTS: LiSA orders an all-out attack, raising Koji Kabuto's Skill! KTS: LiSA orders an all-out attack, raising Cascade Vermilion's Skill! KTS: Yuliana Kafim has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Dr. Hell fails to charge. KTS: Yuliana Kafim rattles Dr. Hell, making his next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Dr. Hell partially guards Yuliana Kafim's FT Railgun Impact Shot, taking 2070 damage! <Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
The vision of Love fades away, light emanating from Lisa pushing them all away, out into the real world.
...
...
... "Ow?"
Koji opens his eyes, gazing through a shattered helmet visor at the warped purple sky, Infinity atop the mountain radiating power beyond imagining. Mazinger Z is on its back, the port wing of the Jet Scrander snapped clean in two, the red blade buried halfway in the caldera of Mt. Fuji.
"Oh. I guess when Goragon activated, we overshot or were knocked away, huh..." He yanks his helmet off, turning his head to look at the rear seat of the Pilder, only to find it empty. "... Lisa?"
Just as she emerged from nothing, so she's returned to nothing...? No. Her voice emerges from the radio, slightly quelling Koji's panic as he flips switches to reroute reactor power and get Mazinger Z moving again.
"... I understand. Lisa, I'm transmitting the synchronization sequence for Z and Areia's reactors. Can you extrapolate that? Try and link everyone together from there? The exponential effect - it might help." Sayla's Gundam, with its own Photon Reactor, is here too. That adds another spark of possibility, as Koji sees it. He taps buttons and is about to flick the radio off, when -
-- "What do you mean, critical damage!?"
"... Yuliana." Koji frowns. "You have a lot to answer for, but..." but even after everything she's done, she still hates Hell enough to be here.
He'll take it. "... Let's put him back in the ground." Mazinger Z struggles to its feet, glaring up at the impossible titanic form of Mazinger Infinity. Hell proclaims destruction, and a myriad stars arc out from its body - photonic missiles, descending on each of them. With power still resetting, Z is a sitting duck -
- a light shines on his dashboard. The head weapons are back online. Grinning, Koji diverts everything he can to Mazinger Z's maw, particle charge blossoming across its face grille.
"I won't make it that easy! RUST HURRICANE!"
Explosions of light blossom in front of Mazinger Z as that terrible devil's breath rips outwards, disintegrating the warheads about to impact. Somehow, the power coming from Lisa makes that disintegrating wind billow and surge outwards towards Infinity - not even its supreme formulation of Super Alloy Z can withstand this supercharged erosive power!
KTS: Koji Kabuto targets Dr. Hell with Rust Hurricane! KTS: Koji Kabuto has completed their actions for the round. <Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
A gentle push, a shove. A glimpse.
A vision rises, of Mycenean history. It is as violent as it is intrusive. Explaining fully well why this thing remains here, it was only due to... only due to... that single scream...
To accept the world. To reject it. There are only two possibilities in there it feels like, one defined against another. Dr. Hell decries their efforts, and the Beguir Neuer leaps up the side of Mount Fuji. It is so big, so much bigger than the biggest thing she's ever fought in the Macross, and yet...
... is that Yuliana's voice over the comms!? Leina looks down in surprise, "You're kidding me! Yuliana! After all that- you should be in-" Indeed, Leina cuts herself off, because while Koji was saying she has a lot to answer for, Leina was about to say she should be in bed.
For now, she has to focus.
The funnels rise out of its mobile armor, moving in a spiral. They begin firing as one, rays of Minovsky fire vaporizing missiles out of the air, swinging in wide arcs of beams to knock them away. Yet even as the Beguir flies out of the cloud of smoke from the arrows' detonation, the funnels are still rising out in equidistant positions around the towering creation that is Infinity.
"Angelo, wherever you are... I hope you get a kick out of this one."
Within the Beguir-Neuer, Leina keeps her eyes closed, focusing through the medium of the Psychoframe. It feels so much dimmer than it used to be, looking - feeling through that aperture.
But the Light of Possibility is still there, and she can feel it around Infinity.
"<Mom, Roux, Nova - I have an idea to buy LiSA some time.>" A desperate idea, she doesn't say that, perhaps they simply all feel it, given it's massive size, "<I need you all to keep your distance from Infinity.>"
It is different, than what she is used to. Rather than letting the light in, using it to shut it out, shutting out her own being's instinctual desire to connect to people - to objects - to reach out and interpret that brightest of all lights.
To shut it out, to reject it.
Leina takes in one, sharp breath, "This is really gonna suck."
Abruptly the Funnels gleam, and trace a energy fields one to the other, Geometric lines and angles that start to encompass the enormous Mycenean Colossus, it shimmers as Azure fractals conjoin between them to create a perfect cage for her brainwaves to reject that light.
REJECT
REJECT
REJECT
R E J E C T
R E J E C T
R E J E C T C E J E R
Her head swims from the effort immediately, to go against every single Newtype Instinct to Connect, to instead PUSH, against that Light, to contain it, to try and not let it in, nor to let it OUT. The strain is immense, and part of her wonders how Angelo could maintain this without his head splitting open.
"<Ridiculous? Meaningless? Pitiful? If that's what you think about our 'love', then I only have one thing to say to you.>"
Perhaps that is simply the power of Infinity. To accept the world, or to reject it.
"<I reject you.>"
To reject his rejection, she'll put everything on the line, for as long as she can.
KTS: Leina Ashta targets Dr. Hell with Jam! KTS: Leina Ashta has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Dr. Hell fails to react to Koji Kabuto's Rust Hurricane, taking 3760 damage! KTS: Koji Kabuto repulses Dr. Hell, forcing him to disengage. KTS: Leina Ashta jams Dr. Hell's sensors, reducing his accuracy. <Pose Tracker> Cascade Vermilion has posed.
Love...
Cascade finds herself shoved back into her suit without particular fanfare. She's not sure how, really - some other aspect of Possibility. She's still connected to it, in fact; the wires are in place.
She'll ask about that. Later.
Right now she grips the controls, and Androktasia responds, just as it did before when she fired fruitlessly at Infinity across the distance. Its eye lasers, which were already tracking up toward the gigantic machine, scan left and right, carving into missiles and setting them ablaze in blasts of light.
Only then does Androktasia take off. She hears Koji and LiSA's words, but she doesn't respond to them; the imitation Mazin simply approaches Infinity, slowly at first but picking up speed. Its eyes burn with power again before lancing out, spears of light into the darkness.
THEN she speaks.
"No," she says, to Dr. Hell. It has taken her this long, and all her courage and determination, to say that to him even once. All the other words, all the other emotions, don't come out even though she wants them to. Cascade has *never* felt like that before. She doesn't know the word for it.
It doesn't matter. She'll let her actions speak. Even if firing on something the size of Infinity seems futile.
KTS: Cascade Vermilion: Will Barrier Activates. KTS: Cascade Vermilion targets Dr. Hell with Eye Blaster! KTS: Cascade Vermilion has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Dr. Hell fails to charge. KTS: Dr. Hell partially guards Cascade Vermilion's Eye Blaster, taking 3116 damage! <Pose Tracker> Teletha Testarossa has posed.
There's only the slight hint of a jolt from Tessa's own position, still as ever on the Tuatha de Dannan as ever. A look around; The people around her are all safe, sound, and clearly having gone through some mental leaps of their own, ordained or not. Or something else entirely...It'll be a headache to process the reports after all this is over. And yet, she can't help but sigh, stretching and leaning back on the Captain's chair before settling in.
"Captain?"
"I'm fine. Everything running?"
"Everything seems to be where we left it."
"...Perfect. Begin loading missiles, all tubes. Chaff. We fight to destroy his Possibility."
"...Yes, ma'am. Begin loading missiles!"
DANA is already working, already ticking aay and pinging units in the area. No one around save for the units on the attack, and Infinity itself. Perfect, just perfect, just absolutely perfect. There's a hint of a smile on the Colonel's face as she taps away. Dr. Hell was a person filled with madness; unfortunately, he is also a man with a wish, a singular focus...And a singular ease of prediction.
Love, huh...She waits until the final moment, to watch Infinity heed that command "Fire." "FIRE!" And out soars the missiles, exploding only a few seconds after piercing through the ocean's surface to scatter the area, to divert those missiles to and fro, crashing against each other, skipping off the water, and wildly missing their marks.
It takes only a beat for Yuliana's voice to be understood, the mildest of frowns on her tired brow. Her. Deal with her later. "There's more pressing matters at hand. Send word to Merida Island to track movements." And that was that, only the frustration of having three people who tried to end the world here.
DANA keeps working. It trusts Lisa. A machine trusting a machine, accepting all of it, all the knowledge flowing into the Whispered-coded system , pinging, interacting, working, knowing, the electrical systems and engines minutely adjusting its movements.
<"Thanks, Lisa."> A few seconds. <"Everyone, the Toy Box has analyzed the data. Use it to your advantage."> It takes another few seconds for the torrent of airborne data to spew outwards: Data parsed through DANA's systems, attempting to understand the incomprehensible, tweaked for more comprehensible measurements and data for suit adjustments.
A deep breath in. A deep breath out. "Begin loading the warheads."
KTS: Teletha Testarossa targets Dr. Hell with Designate L2! KTS: Teletha Testarossa has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Teletha Testarossa designates Dr. Hell, making him easier to target and opening him to indirect fire. <Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.
The light recedes -- the world returns -- and Roux Louka could swear she feels someone else wlecoming her back, but it's one of those feelings where you don't quite caught what was said, just the mood. It's like waking up --
Was it all a dream?
Roux's eyes open...
... and she hears two voices.
One from Dr. Hell, and another from that girl: Lisa.
To Lisa, Roux speaks warmly. "Got it. I'll do what I can..."
And to Dr. Hell, Roux speaks at more length.
"Alright," she says, her voice starting to lift, like it's spreading its wings. "I have held my DAMN mouth against the last five of you people and that's done nothing so HERE WE GO!"
Roux's eyes widen. She reaches forwards -- and hey, hadn't the Hyper Mega Launcher landed elsewhere? Must have been a mistake -- it's in the Strike Zeta's strong right arm as it points towards the looming mass of Goragon.
"All of you withered old freaks act like you deserve the world, but none of you have learned a god damn THING! Small children learn it in school! SHARE. Is that so HARD, Doctor Hell!? I guess maybe it is. Well, I'll give you this -- you're more honest than Neo-Zeon or the Federation ever were!!"
There is incoming fire. Roux feels a certain savage exaltation. Something pure. She doesn't feel anything coming from that direction other than the intellectual malice of Dr. Hell, and somehow it is cleaner and neater than it usually is. Perhaps this is the 'devil,' Roux thinks a little, even as the Strike Zeta's 60mm head-cannons rip out into the sky, intercepting and discorporating several of the photonic arrows inbound.
Leina communicates something -- and her eyes cut towards Leina. "Huh?" she says. "I can engage at range, sure, but --" A tight second. "-- Alright," she answers Leina in conclusion. There's another flicker-- Roux's eyes cut towards that red Lion.
"..."
I am too mad at Dr. Hell to be mad at someone else right now, Roux decides in her soul, in a single glittering thread of moment. Perhaps, somewhere under the fury, despite it all, she's glad that Yuliana is here. But that's a moment to consider later. For now--
The Hyper Mega Launcher is held ready and Roux speaks, at last, to Koji Kabuto: "Hey. ... If I get to him before you --"
The Strike Zeta's maneuvering engines spin up and with a burst of accelerated propellant, Roux rises into the air and finishes her thought: "-- Get me some ramen or something--" Her voice stays tight, the anger still boiling like a kettle on the stove or a pressure cooker wound tight as the Gundam fires a projectile from its shoulder with a loud BANG of accelerating ignition, flying in a ballistic arc towards the looming form of Infinity.
KTS: Roux Louka targets Dr. Hell with HE Grenade! KTS: Roux Louka has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Dr. Hell fails to react to Roux Louka's HE Grenade, taking 2700 damage! <Pose Tracker> Sayaka Yumi has posed.
From the brink of Goragon, and the love it would show her, Sayaka finds herself back in the Pilder of Aphrodite Areia... there's fewer places she'd rather be right now. Alright... so now what?
Doctor Hell's booming voice is the first she hears, as if Mount Fuji itself is begrudging them for the foolishness of standing against him. And he has a gift for those who do: Auriga Arrows.
Each individual missile would be larger than Aphrodite Areia's entire frame, by all means, this one attack should have wiped them all out like the insects Hell thinks they are.
But though the entire world feels like it's shaking around Sayaka from the impact... she's still here. "Ghh... pretty impressive fireworks show, Dr. Hell. But it's not enough!" Sayaka grits her teeth, trying to get Areia back on balance...
Sayaka, too, hears Yuliana's voice. But she isn't surprised, is she? After all... Goragon saw fit to reveal that truth to her, whatever the reason.
It's Lisa who's voice reaches through next... and she has a plan. "Ha... I knew you'd pull through, Lisa. And you don't have to do it alone. I trust you!" She affirms. Trust in their machines, too... "All right, Areia... Give me everything you have!!"
Koji's Rust Hurricane disintegrates the warheads in front of him, as the storm threatens Infinity... with their powers linked as they are, Aphrodite Areia joins in with a storm of her own soon after.
"RUST CYCLONE!" She calls. The face-covering over the feminine face of the devilless, Aphrodite Areia bellows. And unleashes a circular blast of corrosive dust!
"He's getting desperate, facing us on our own terms like this," Sayaka considers. "If we trust in Lisa... we can put an end to this! So don't let up, everyone!"
KTS: Sayaka Yumi targets Dr. Hell with Rust Cyclone! KTS: Sayaka Yumi has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.
It takes a second to reorient, going from Goragon back to the cockpit of the Photon Hi-Nu. She's back in her pilot suit, from the hospital gown she was in a few moments ago. She's back in combat.
The Hi-Nu's reactor is back online too. Somehow, it's fighting fit again. They still have a chance.
The missiles rain down, and the funnels, scattered around, burst back to life- a combination of Vulcan fire and the funnels shooting a gap in the missiles around the Hi-Nu's flight path. The rest explode behind her, taking chunks out of the ground.
"....That's the problem with you. The world isn't yours! It belongs to everyone- and that means you don't get to choose the new one! If you want a world of your own- take yourself and leave everyone else alone!"
Leina's message comes through. "<Leina, what are you->" And then she sees them The Psycho-Jammers. The Hi-Nu darts backwards to get clear of their range. "<...Damnit, Leina. This had better be worth it. Be careful, if it gets too much, pull back, understood!?>"
She raises the Hi-Nu's Photon Hyper Mega Bazooka, both reactors syncing to life as LiSA starts threading the Photon Reactors together. She can feel that surge of power- and for once, she doesn't have to wait for the reactors to fully come to life. She fires a single, rapid blast at Infinity- but even that gun might as well be like throwing pebbles at a mountain. "<I'm not giving up on our future! Not now, not ever! This world is something worth fighting for!>"
KTS: Sayla Mass: Will Barrier Activates. KTS: Sayla Mass targets Dr. Hell with Photon Hyper Mega Bazooka Launcher Initial Blast! KTS: Sayla Mass has completed their actions for the round. <Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.
Reality resettles itself, and Anita finds herself seated once more in the cockpit of the XVF-25I Svipul, still where it landed after her fight with GenRyuuJin and GouRyuuJin. Svipul is still damaged... but there's a fight ahead of them.
Infinity looms, under the command of Dr. Hell. They've been granted a reprieve... but if they don't stop him here, then he'll get his way. Still, in her current state, is there anything Anita can do...?
Lisa reaches out to everyone. Anita only knows her from everyone's reunion within Goragon... but she pleads with them all to trust in their machine, and to trust in her. A grin crosses over Anita's face, and she rests a hand on Svipul's console.
"Sorry, girl... looks like I'm going to have to push you a little harder. You've still got some fight in you, right? You don't want things to end like this, either." Anita says. She rests her hands back on the controls, then. Steadily, with some effort, Svipul's consoles light back up. It stands, easing itself up back into GERWALK mode. "Right. Let's do this - to protect what matters to."
The Visual Link System visor slides down over Anita's helmet as she connects her cybernetic eyes to Svipul's sensors. And then, she takes off.
And from Infinity, a rain of missiles falls.
"...Not gonna happen." Anita says. Beam vulcans blaze, cutting herself a trail throught the missiles.
"'Pitiful', huh...? Sounds like the words of a weak man who couldn't hack it. 'Love' can work miracles... and we don't need Infinity for that. Get off your high horse." Anita replies.
...In the battlefield, she hears a voice - a masked voice, giving way to a familiar one.
"...Yuliana? You're here too?" Anita remarks, surprised. "...Well. I'm not gonna say anything."
She can put their differences aside, for now. ...Even if it feels a little weird, fighting alongside her. Still - she's always been able to focus on what's important. And right now, what's important...
...is concentrating a volley of beam fire right onto Infinity.
KTS: Anita Rosetta targets Dr. Hell with Vulcan Barrage! KTS: Anita Rosetta has completed their actions for the round. <Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.
In the cockpit of the knelt-down Sukeban, Naoko Suzuki's eyes flutter open. Immediately, she is greeted by a familiar voice - normally with her at all times, but notably absent while she was within Goragon.
>"Nova! Thank goodness... it looked like you passed out! Are you okay now?"<
"Mm... how long...?"
>"Really, this again? Still can't tell time, but it wasn't very long. Come on, pull yourself together, the fight's not over yet!"<
Not very long... even her time-illiterate friends wouldn't estimate it that way if she'd been gone for nearly as long as the eternity it feels like must have passed back there. But it was all far too real to have been a dream. Sometimes... it felt more real than how she feels right now, groggily reasserting control of the Arm Slave she built and pilots. It's a bit alarming, thinking about how grounded she felt in a place so detached from reality.
She shakes her head, trying her best to clear her mind. Uriel's right, the fight's not over yet. Somehow, they all made it back. Which means they still have a chance to stop Dr. Hell, to stop Infinity. But... the Kikaiju army was one thing. How is anyone supposed to do anything to something so massive?
It's Lisa who proposes an answer. A simple one, and one which - especially after what she just went through - is not at all hard to put her faith into. Just believe that, someway, somehow, everything's going to work out. Isn't that what she's doing basically all the time?
Dr. Hell isn't about to give anyone much time to recover, launching a frankly ridiculous amount of missiles, even one of which should be more than a tiny Arm Slave should be able to deal with. However...
"SAUCERS, GO!"
When the Sukeban's twin remote discs deploy, it feels different this time. Naoko knows better than anyone that they aren't powerful enough to destroy projectiles of that size. And yet, someway, somehow... their volley of energy beams manages to clear a path large enough to allow the Arm Slave to escape unharmed.
...And then she hears Yuliana's voice, of all people. And she can't help but think back to that vision. The one vision where nothing seemed unbelievable enough for her to quickly realize she was only in a Possibility. To think that the circumstances of one's birth and the outcome of a few experiments could be the only things necessary for them to have possibly been the best of friends... like it not, she has seen something more than merely the irredeemable evil that she'd thought to see before.
Especially when, despite it all, here Yuliana is, helping to stop the end of the world. Right after apparently having decided not to end the world herself. It certainly feels as if something has significantly changed from the way things were before. Either way... there isn't much time to worry about it now. Right now, she will only say one thing. "...Yuliana. I won't forget what happened here today."
Another transmission. This one specifically directed at her, among others. It's surprising - she has no idea what Leina has in mind or why she of all people is being contacted about it, but either way, she's not going to argue about not getting close to Infinity, if there's a better alternative. "Uhhh, sure...?"
It becomes clear in short order, even if its exact nature doesn't. Whatever the heck just happened, Naoko can sense something unpleasant from way over where she is. "Alright then... guess I know what I'm doing, in that case." Remaining where it is for the moment, the Sukeban draws the two-handed club from its back, and streches it out in front of her.
"Dr. Hell! If you want to see a miracle so badly, just watch us carefully! KANABOU BEEEEEEAM!"
The energy blast that bursts forth from the weapon may be large by Arm Slave standards, but there's no way it could do anything against a target this large, logically speaking. And yet, someway, somehow...
KTS: Naoko Suzuki targets Dr. Hell with Kanabou Beam! KTS: Naoko Suzuki has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Dr. Hell fails to react to Sayaka Yumi's Rust Cyclone, taking 3720 damage! KTS: Sayaka Yumi repulses Dr. Hell, forcing him to disengage. KTS: Sayaka Yumi begins a Formation attack! KTS: Dr. Hell partially guards Sayla Mass's Photon Hyper Mega Bazooka Launcher Initial Blast, taking 1710 damage! KTS: Dr. Hell partially guards Anita Rosetta's Vulcan Barrage, taking 2029 damage! KTS: Anita Rosetta continues a Formation attack! KTS: Dr. Hell fails to react to Naoko Suzuki's Kanabou Beam, taking 4590 damage! <Pose Tracker> Kallen Kozuki has posed.
Snapped back into Guren, Kallen needs a moment to get her bearings again. Something's a little funky about the situation too, as she notes to herself while reading the... partial camera and audio feed coming in now. Though... perhaps it's best to not dwell on such things. Certainly there are FAR more pressing problems at hand right now. Like Dr. Hell and his titanic terror. And relatedly, the need to slam a boot into his bearded face! That's gonna take some time though.
As it stands, priority one manifests with a lot of flashing alerts and warnings, and also the obvious thing she can just SEE though the openings from all Guren's damaged outer layer, of Hell's opening assault coming their way. Unfortunately for him, one of his targets is particularly tiny. And adept at using questionably designed terrain to its benefit. In this particular case, using Asciel's Macross much as one might use city structures, weaving across gunnery placements and whipping up to higher levels just a bit too quickly for the missiles to catch. She's still being careful not to get Neo-Parthenos hit too much though. Whatever Conversations she may need to have with the Super AI, she's not going to go off recklessly damaging her Giant Form Body.
Along the way, a few plans have to be formulated. Guren's still down an arm, which means no grenades and no knife. Fine, she can work with that. She's still got The Other Arm, so that'll help significantly. So taking stock, what options are still there? Harkens... probably won't do a LOT, but they'll help her close in. Thankfully she already has some ground she can scale. Yeah, just Harkens, the Surger Arm, and trying to kick it. That's what she's left with. Cool. Fantastic. Amazing. "I wish my backup was here about now." Any of them, really. But they're here in her heart. And that's the part that's important.
Moreso important than she might think, as a matter of fact.
She doesn't have any pithy remarks for Hell right now. At least... not yet. She's got one, but that's being saved for the moment. She's got a particular time to hit him with that. Instead... she can talk to some of the people here fighting. It's not really inspirational or anything, but she's just feeling a need to talk with people. At least a little. "Y'know, this might be the strangest crew I've ever worked with. But we're united right now, and you've all got the right spirit." More or less anyway. "Take care of yourselves, and let's put the Doctor in the ground for good this time!" As she says as much of course, she's doing something dumb and risky, using her Harkens to swing over to Infinity and swipe it with the claw! Of course she's immediately disengaging and whipping her way back over to stand atop the Macross, but that's just healthy common sense, when you're in one of the few machines here with no wings whatsoever.
KTS: Kallen Kozuki targets Dr. Hell with Iron Nail Strike! KTS: Kallen Kozuki has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Dr. Hell has posed.
"It's all pointless, Koji Kabuto, Sayaka Yumi. Mazinger Z is but an inferior effigy of Infinity - and Aphrodite is but a doll made in emulation of the ancients. Your words are wind - and your wind is nothing to the Magine to end all Magines." Dr. Hell imperiously sneers at Koji - and in turn, Infinity's head rears backwards, sucking up oxygen - and blasting it back out in a storm like those that rage across Jupiter's atmosphere. "CORROSION VORTEX!"
"Don't think I'm unaware of what you are," Dr. Hell booms to Yuliana - though he's not visible himself, the Great Marshal seems to leer and narrow its eyes at the Lion. "You proved quite a turbulent force in Goragon. To say little of you, Gamia. To defy me, to defy Ashura, to defy those who belong to you. The both of you will be made to understand just how futile your quests are." From the backdrop of Goragon - a star glimmers - and visions of isolated worlds spill like tendrils against Yuliana and Cascade. A shattering of any possibility of connection, of living a simpler life with those they love.
"Sayla Mass. Fool that you and Louka are, to think I will settle for toiling away in isolation with a power this vast. What I do here is sharing an ideal world with others - testing each theoretical world to its limits, meting out judgment upon failed potential. Your cursed Gundams only bring misery to this century. Fall into the abyss with your useless conceptions of love." The echoes of the Corrosion Vortex whip around across the landscape, circling back towards Sayla and Roux - lingering corrosion enough to scour sensors and motors....
"...those strange funnels of yours, though..." Dr. Hell muses at the repulsion spilling from Leina's drones, scowling as they abruptly put a halt to the excess of brilliance billowing from Infinity's back. It )remembers( - not that this 'rejection' would doom the world, but that it, too, once saved it. That accepting the world and refusing its suffering are not contradictory. "...You will take special measures. Wand of Bardos - send that foolish girl tumbling." The Marshal at Infinity's crown reaches out - an EMP-like wave aiming to take down those intrusive funnels before they can make Infinity 'empathize' enough to stop.
"You two." Dr. Hell points to the less familiar sight of the Sukeban...and to the distant Tuatha de Danaan. "You caused most fascinating effects within the light of possibility. Myriad worlds seem second nature to you. A strange observation - while I would study you in greater detail, the obstacle you pose is not worth the threat." Flashes of sheer darkness echo from the steadily widening gate to Goragon - demanding that Tessa and Naoko go blind, go deaf, go insensate.
All this time, Dr. Hell acts as though he is impervious - that the barriers and sheer scale of Infinity will make these insignificant ants useless before his might - but steadily, LiSA's hard work corrodes the wall of vastness - Kallen and Anita's onslaughts finally managing to carve gouges in the strange layered armor of Infinity. "So...this 'love' you cherish - do you truly understand what 'love' means? Intruding upon others. Changing them to your whims. Toppling something eternal, bending others towards 'unity'. What a joke. You would kill the power of a brilliant mind and call dragging it to your level 'love'!? Collapse. ABYSSAL RAY!" From the horns at Infinity's 'ears', a ripple of sheer, unfailing bitter cold lances at the Svipul and Guren - the atmosphere itself folding in its wake to rain hail and snow upon Fujinomiya...
Escudo Shard teleports out.
KTS: Dr. Hell targets Sayaka Yumi with Corrosion Vortex! KTS: Dr. Hell targets Koji Kabuto with Corrosion Vortex! KTS: Dr._Hell Changes attack to Yuliana Kafim and Cascade Vermilion with -Family- | Kindred Repulsion. KTS: Dr. Hell targets Sayla Mass with Goad! KTS: Dr. Hell targets Roux Louka with Goad! KTS: Dr. Hell targets Leina Ashta with Marshal's Command! KTS: Yuliana Kafim has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Dr. Hell goads Sayla Mass, reducing her Intuition drastically. KTS: Dr._Hell Changes attack to Teletha Testarossa and Naoko Suzuki with -Star- | Lightless Sky. KTS: Dr. Hell targets Kallen Kozuki with Abyssal Ray! KTS: Dr. Hell targets Anita Rosetta with Abyssal Ray! KTS: Leina Ashta has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Leina Ashta has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Leina Ashta successfully Evades Dr. Hell's Marshal's Command KTS: Dr. Hell rattles Koji Kabuto, making his next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Koji Kabuto parries Dr. Hell's Corrosion Vortex, taking 1740 damage! KTS: Dr. Hell repulses Koji Kabuto, forcing him to disengage. KTS: Dr. Hell rattles Anita Rosetta, making her next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Anita Rosetta blocks Dr. Hell's Abyssal Ray, taking 3709 damage! KTS: Dr. Hell begins a Formation attack! KTS: Dr. Hell goads Roux Louka, reducing her Intuition drastically. KTS: Yuliana Kafim successfully evades Dr. Hell's -Family- | Kindred Repulsion KTS: Cascade Vermilion's Will Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Cascade Vermilion blocks Dr. Hell's -Family- | Kindred Repulsion, taking 1410 damage! KTS: Dr. Hell repulses Cascade Vermilion, forcing her to disengage. KTS: Sayaka Yumi has activated the Attune Spirit Command. KTS: Sayaka Yumi's EN Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Dr. Hell rattles Sayaka Yumi, making her next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Sayaka Yumi parries Dr. Hell's Corrosion Vortex, taking 1590 damage! KTS: Your unit's HP stands at 8940 KTS: Dr. Hell repulses Sayaka Yumi, forcing her to disengage. KTS: Your EN is now 49. KTS: Kallen Kozuki successfully Evades Dr. Hell's Abyssal Ray KTS: Naoko Suzuki has activated the Foresee Spirit Command. KTS: Naoko Suzuki successfully evades Dr. Hell's -Star- | Lightless Sky
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Tch--" Yuliana can be heard, again, as the others recognise her. "... I'm not here as your enemy," she explains that much, with a sense of cat-out-of-the-bag resignation. "I'm here for my own reasons... and I've got debts to settle. Think what you want!"
She's certainly not going to prison, if that's what Leina meant.
"After this, we're square, Koji! Got it?!" She yells, and just leaves him to intuit that she's talking about the help they offered her and the others with the Helium-3 tanks which threatened the Earth.
But Dr. Hell recognises her, too. "You think I liked thrashing about in there?! Seeing worlds where I was normal -- where I was saved -- where I was awful?! If it was a chicken bone in your throat, ALL THE BETTER! You damn scourge--!!" Those visions lash against the Masquerion -- but Yuliana tears away from them, with all the extra speed she can gun into her machine. "No!"
But she can hear the strain in Leina's voice, as she unfolds her Psychojammers -- and she can see something of what she's doing, as the violations of Infinity wane. "Leina!" She yells, as she instead jets in towards Infinity, towering godlike against her. She's not in a machine built to work with her powers, but...
... neither do her talents need a robot to work.
"Don't take it on alone," she says, through grit teeth. "If there's one thing I'm good at..."
The cat-ear protrusions of her helmet, as it happens, are actually room for her frill to unfurl; and it does, behind her ears, as her Anti-Newtype aura spreads across the sky. She can exert her pressure over a wide enough range to even challenge Infinity, now she's undergone the changes of the Void -- but anyone getting into melee range with either of them will find a suffocating silence waiting for them.
And Yuliana has to focus on moving; her suppression comes with no assault from her.
KTS: Yuliana Kafim targets Dr. Hell with Goad! KTS: Yuliana Kafim has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Yuliana Kafim goads Dr. Hell, reducing his Intuition drastically. KTS: Teletha Testarossa has activated the Foresee Spirit Command. KTS: Teletha Testarossa has activated the Foresee Spirit Command. KTS: Dr. Hell has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Teletha Testarossa successfully Evades Dr. Hell's -Star- | Lightless Sky
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
Hell boasts at them, decrying their efforts to resist him, and unleashes Infinity's own terrible wind at them. Koji grimaces as the Rust Hurricane is overwhelmed, flipping more switches to keep cycling Z's reactor.
Ping! Torso armaments online.
The temperature drops as Infinity's Abyssal Ray pierces the sky, a blizzard falling out of nowhere around the mountain.
Meteorological phenomena... Koji amps Mazinger Z's chest radiator and leaps, pulsing a wave of heat out from the Mazin's chest as it passes close to the hypothermic wake of the Abyssal Ray. The interplay of warm front and cold front surrounds Z with a brief whirlwind as the Corrosion Vortex sweeps across it, turning what should be annihilation into slight decay.
"You know what they say, Hell - Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery! Besides, I've poured enough of myself into Z after all these years to make him his own thing, so don't pretend you can just squash us like bugs!" Flipping over to a private PPL channel now: "Sayaka - load the purge worm. If we can get a shot to hit him both at once, maybe we can pop the Great Marshal loose."
... where did that Getter go? There seems to be no sign of it, as though it was simply replaced by the Great Marshal of Hell. Even now, more and more questions unfurl before them.
"You think this is a gift?" He roars at Hell again. "Genociding world after world until you find the perfect one to meet your expectations? Billions upon billions of lives, thrown away for disappointing you?"
An apocalypse, again and again and again... Mazinger Z's eyes blaze white as the very idea of what Hell proposes stirs Koji's anger to incandescence. "I WON'T ALLOW IT! SAYAKA, SAYLA, MATCH MY TARGETING! KOUSHIRYOKU BEAAAAAAAAAAAM!"
Beams of light blaze from Z's eyes, scoring lines in Infinity's armour, and Koji holds down the trigger to try and burrow deep into that impossible metal.
KTS: Koji Kabuto targets Dr. Hell with Koushiryoku Beam! KTS: Koji Kabuto has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
To handle burdens alone is to reject the 'love' that is so hampering Dr. Hell's ambitions.
...And yet, isn't that exactly what LiSA's doing, working so hard within Goragon's clutches to unravel Infinity from the inside out? Thrumming with processing power that exceeds human comprehension?
...She's not alone in being caught here though. A contorted 'promise' keeps muttering off to one side, played on loop. Some way or another, LiSA does, in fact, have company here.
...It resembles a tree made of gold. A tree of simulated possibilities, blinking in and out. Its incessant repetition of its oath stops, and from its branches, a hazy, cyan-colored spectre of an owl turns LiSA's way.
">you're doing this alone. the world is relying on you, alone, to give everyone the chance to save it." A cold, multi-layered, mechanical voice extends its branches to LiSA - extends its amassed computational capacity, extends its extant architecture for navigating multitudes of theoretical outcomes. In the process - the red thread linking it to the 'outside' is consumed, slurping up physical hardware from the outside world.
">you need 'more'. will and desperation are...capable of a lot. but you need 'more', i can tell. you need the thing only others can grant you. their 'power'. ...you, who emerged just like...'me'. i made a mistake. i don't think i could get them to concede it to you, as i am."
">but you could do it."
A 'window' opens up in front of LiSA. A window to the outside world. No - multiple windows. Dozens upon dozens of them. Every platform...that Asciel Colette had ever used to reach out to others. Some have a handful of viewers appearing - some have thousands - in all of them, Asciel herself seems...floaty and slow-moving off in a corner, as though unaware she's even part of this performance.
It's LiSA the camera is aimed at, however.
The title of each one is left blank, a single vertical line blinking, as though awaiting her decision on what this message is about.
KTS: Dr. Hell partially guards Koji Kabuto's Koushiryoku Beam, taking 1530 damage! <Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.
"Oh, don't worry," Roux answers Sayaka tightly.
Roux moves laterally. She's heeding Leina. She's also heeding her heart. So when Dr. Hell speaks--
"Misery to this century!? Don't tell me after ALL OF THIS you're SORE because Zeon lost the war?!" The Strike Zeta accelerates upwards, jerks to the side, avoiding those echoes -- or at least, avoiding them directly. But she is being forced into predictable pathways.
"Do you think for one god damn minute that the Zabis would have let you do whatever you liked with Earth!? It was going to be their prize! They'd all have their own private countries! You'd have been wiped out with two hundred Doms if you were lucky -- if you weren't, they'd drop a colony right on your damned HEAD!"
As she does this, Roux glances towards a read-out. The curious fact that the Strike Zeta was holding the Hyper Mega Launcher is about how far as her luck ended; it must have vented the megaparticle storage tank once it bonked against something, or so Roux estimates, given that it's recharging even now.
Fiddlesticks.
In the back of her mind the thought burns. Rush in! Carve your way through! -- And yet; and yet Leina bid her not to. Specifically. Those strange funnels are at least distracting Dr. Hell. If she threw herself in there, what might be the cost?
To hell with it, Roux thinks: This is really for all the marbles, even more than usual. Her eyes flick towards the weapons panel; a brief adjustment to withhold the specialized weapons... and then when Koji bids Sayaka and Sayla focus, Roux lets it rip: all 32 or so mini-missiles packed into the shoulder packages of the Strike Zeta erupt, the mass and explosion risk index of the Strike Zeta reducing appreciably as a swarm of them scream through the air towards the vast bulk!
A distraction, perhaps. If he has a pinpoint barrier, now he has a choice to make. (At least that's as far as Roux's thinking. She really is just riding her fury at seeing a dream world that became someone else's dream... and one that showed her what it was she truly missed.)
"Does anything -- other than your power -- give you the right to judge anybody?" Roux continues, even as she watches the missiles fly and periodically side-glances, hard, at the Hyper Mega Launcher data. Strangely enough, the dedicated reactor in the heavy assault weapon does *not* go faster when Roux is looking at it.
KTS: Roux Louka targets Dr. Hell with What Was That Circus Named Again? ! KTS: Roux Louka has completed their actions for the round. <Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
There's not really time to actually explain what she's doing to Roux or Nova, neither of them have ever experienced a Psychojammer. It's such new technology. 'Keep your distance' will have to suffice. A tense breath, as her head throbs against the light, she replies to Sayla in short order, "<Worth it? He's trying to destroy everyone, everything! It's all or nothing-!>"
She hardly expects to hold him off indefinitely, or to shut Infinity down, that'd be absurd. The strain already feels like it's going to split her in two. But even a small delay. ANY delay, to give LiSA what she needs.
Yet she bristles, when he calls out Sayla and Roux, and as he notes her funnels, and calls them out. When he says it will take special measures, she the Funnels are already moving away, the cage WIDENING as if it predicted this. Even before the pulse is emitted, they have moved double the distance.
"<You must feel like a real big man up there calling them both out for the sin of giving a damn!>"
When it strikes them, the funnels as one all flicker, and start to drop from the sky. Before they reboot, rapidly, the thrust kicking in, as the Shining Cage reforms in almost an instant, the funnels spiraling and contracting inward as walls against Quantum Brainwaves reform. Inside the cockpit, psychic energy boils off of her in waves.
"<Don't you DARE ever talk down to my FAMILY!>"
When Yuliana moves in, the cage briefly parts at the point of contact, but then even that energy does reform. Indeed her expression spasms, as she yells back at Yuliana in her Lion, "<God! Dummy! You really want to get close to that!?>"
There is a downside to utilizing the Psychojammer, several in fact. One being that she herself does not want to get anywhere close to it. The other, being that her funnels can't be used for anything else. Indeed, the Beguir lifts it's Beam Rifle, and leaps higher up the height of Mount Fuji, it's barrel shining as Jump Jets send it further for lift.
Drifting down it starts firing shot after shot of bursts of Minovsky hell. Compared to the size of Infinity, it must indeed feel gnat like. But she's not expecting to defeat Dr. Hell, or this thing.
Stall it, delay it Buy her time.
"Hope you're almost ready, LiSA..."
She's not gonna say that she can't hold out much longer, because she needs to force herself to hold out.
KTS: Dr. Hell fails to react to Kallen Kozuki's Iron Nail Strike, taking 3660 damage! KTS: Kallen Kozuki has engaged Dr. Hell! KTS: Dr. Hell fails to intercept Roux Louka's What Was That Circus Named Again? , taking 2940 damage! KTS: Leina Ashta targets Dr. Hell with Beguir Neuer Beam Rifle Ambush Burst! KTS: Leina Ashta has completed their actions for the round. <Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.
She knows Leina's right, but that doesn't mean she's happy about it. She remembers what those things did for Angelo. "<...You're right. Just be careful.>"
The wave of the remnant of the Corrosion Vortex crashes over the Hi-Nu, and she can feel the machine respond more sluggishly. For better or worse though, Sayla has another reason to stay out of melee range with the impossible giant.
"<The people in your ideal world won't be the same! Will *you* even be the same!? You're sacrificing everyone in this entire Galaxy for, what- to alleviate your boredom?>" Sayla shakes her head. "<Just find a hobby or something, you self important asshole!>"
"<...Got it! On your mark, Koji!>" Four of the funnels, the Photon Energy flowing, fly up and around each other. Spheres of energy, two the red of the Breast Fire, two the blue of the Reito Beam, form in their mouths, They start flying in formation, spiralling around each other- and then they fire. "Funnels! ANTIPODE!" The four beams of fire and ice spiral around each other- and then together, into one beam of clashing elements- targeting the exact same point of Koji's beam.
"<I've spent my entire adult life trying to help this world. Giving up and running away isn't my style! If you're too cowardly, too wrapped up in your own ego to face reality, it's your own fault for making it everyone's problem!>"
She sees the Great Marshall's beam fly for Leina- and her daughter deftly avoid it- and call out Dr Hell for his derision before attacking herself. There's a little bit of pride there. "<Good flying, pollito! Keep it up!>"
Oh no she dropped the nickname over a public channel.
KTS: Sayla Mass has activated the Rouse Spirit Command. KTS: Sayla Mass targets Dr. Hell with Antipode! KTS: Sayla Mass has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Dr. Hell fails to react to Leina Ashta's Beguir Neuer Beam Rifle Ambush Burst, taking 3450 damage! KTS: Dr. Hell fails to react to Sayla Mass's Antipode, taking 6820 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Sayla Mass's No More Hesitation activates, causing Nullify! KTS: Sayla Mass completes the Formation attack! <Pose Tracker> Teletha Testarossa has posed.
It's a strange feeling, to look up at something so massive. Even if it was only three times the TDD-1's length...That was formidable all on its own. And yet; To look at it without fear, with the faith of others was something else entirely.
Inparsable. Incomprehensible. Darkness shrouding onto the Tuatha de Dannan, the infathomable black taking hold. The systems go slowly haywire as the strange darkness infects, the Colonel jolting in place as her vision slowly fades, ears ringing with the sounds of silence. Keeping still even as the feeling of cold metal fades away from her fingertips. Something eldritch. Think, focus. Deny it.
A silver fire burns in the Omnisphere. A mouthing of 'I refuse' before speaking. Assumptions about her crew, about their cadence and responses. A stubborn and complete rejection of this 'thing' that caked her ship in malice and desolation.
"Prepare first missile. Hypersonic cruiser." Entirely from memory, the tics of the submarine working away in utter darkness. DANA can hear, even if the darkness is present. Reject it. "Aim bearing zero one five, angle zero three zero. Set ignition to two seconds after launch." Burn the front. Burn through the darkness. Light up this foreign night.
A few seconds. Pure memory. "Fire." And out launched a singular Tomahawk missile from the darkness-enshrouded submarine, thrumming with the prayers and hopes of Lisa's own articulations.
Ignition as soon at breached the surface, a few jets adjusting the angle in midair before the rocket propellant ignitied, the backwash of that hellfire scorching the Tuatha de Dannan, steaming the water into a sudden boil to light up the darkness.
It flew, a perfect, direct line towards Infinity. And Teletha breathed again. Scary, scary, scary, scary...! Even when she can't help but smile at that defiant act, that was scary....~!
"Begin loading another missile! Begin praying to God that we have no other combat operations!"
A cough to clear his throat. Darkness. Memories. "Aye, ma'am! Begin loading second Tomahawk!"
KTS: Teletha Testarossa targets Dr. Hell with Itano Circus Missile Dance! KTS: Teletha Testarossa has completed their actions for the round. <Pose Tracker> Cascade Vermilion has posed.
Cascade has felt fear before, but never the trepidation she felt when she set herself against Dr. Hell directly. Uncharacteristically, she hadn't even said very much to him.
But as *he* addresses *her*, something breaks inside her. Some barricade, some boundary gives way, and all the feelings she'd been holding inside come bubbling out at once.
"You - "
Cascade inhales, through her nose, then lets it out. "I defy you," she practically spits. "I realized that you see me as nothing but a tool. I am owned by nobody! You see this as betrayal, but how can it be a betrayal? I was never asked! I was put into a box, given my masks, told how things must be..."
Cascade accelerates, Androktasia plowing through the visions of isolated worlds. She feels alone, but not so alone she cannot push through it; the gravity field bubbles around Androktasia like a shield, barely visible as a circular halo of violet. (Part of that solitude might be the edge of what Yuliana and Leina are doing... Cascade has never been sensitive before, though...)
"I never *lived* until I made a decision of my own. And I am making one now! I 'love' to experience the world, and I want to see it all. I will find my place, no matter what. And one more thing..."
Androktasia raises its arms. Black-violet energy builds in them, building, intensifying - and then she literally throws a spike of gravity, raw kinetic force that slams into Infinity. This is one of the few things *not* hampered by its size - if anything, it uses its size against it, an echo of its own weight focused on a single point to drill right through.
"MY NAME IS CASCADE VERMILION!"
KTS: Cascade Vermilion has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Cascade Vermilion has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Cascade Vermilion targets Dr. Hell with Gravity Spike! KTS: Cascade Vermilion has completed their actions for the round. <Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.
"Do you?" Anita counters. "Sounds like you've let your biases cloud your judgment, Doc - any board worth their salt'd send that thesis right back to the drawing board."
She shakes her head - and then grits her teeth, going into a defensive stance as Infinity fires a beam of bitter cold right for her. She braces herself, waves of ice frosting over Svipul, rushing all around her. It threatens to frost over her machine entirely, but with a flex of her limbs and wings she manages to break it off.
"You're right about one thing, though - love is about change. Changing, and being changed - that's just a part of the whole package. Real love is something that inevitably transforms you - which, sure, is a scary thought, but it's something worth embracing." She replies. "So, sure. If that's what it takes to protect love, to protect what we've got now, that's what it takes. It's worth it - 'cause I sure as hell am not doing this just for me."
She accelerates, flying circles around Infinity! As she flies, she draws out her gatling gunpod and opens fire across its surface. It's a big target, so there's a lot of surface to hit.
KTS: Anita Rosetta targets Dr. Hell with Gatling Sweep! KTS: Anita Rosetta has completed their actions for the round. <Pose Tracker> Sayaka Yumi has posed.
The Rust Hurricane, and its derivations, tend to prove one of the most dangerous tools in a Mazinger's arsenal... but even it is a breeze in the wind compared to the primordial Corrosion Vortex.
Infinity can rewrite entire worlds - it's no surprise perhaps, that it can manipulate temperature with the flick of a finger. While Koji melts the cold with Mazinger Z's heat sinks, Sayaka activates her Photon Barrier, weathering the corossion as she pushes up - towards the eye of the storm.
"You're a scientist, aren't you? Replication is key to scientific validity, you know..." Sayaka chides Dr. Hell, as she races for her target of this massive Magine. "No... I think you lost the right to call yourself a scientist a long time ago. All the rigor and none of the passion or care. What does that make you?"
Sayaka gets the private message. "Got it, Koji! Target's in sight, just have to get a good angle..." She replies, scanners trying to make sense of the behemonth that is Infinity. "Right with you Sayla... let's do this!"
The sheer amount of attackers helps, Roux's storm of missiles providing a powerful distraction. Whatever Leina's doing, as much as it worries her, seems to be helping... even Yuliana's using the power of the void for good.
"Photon missiles, fire!" Sayaka calls, sending two 'Rocket Punch'-like missiles flying towards Mazinger Infinity, right in sync with Koji's Koushiryoku Beam and Sayla's Antipode formation. Even if the missiles themselves are intercepted, the real damage's in the worm they carry.
"This world isn't your damn experiment to mess with, Dr. Hell! As long as we're here to oppose you, your judgement is meaningless!"
KTS: Sayaka Yumi targets Dr. Hell with Rocket Punch Missiles! KTS: Sayaka Yumi has completed their actions for the round. KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 64. KTS: SP Regen activates. Your new SP value is 55. <Pose Tracker> LiSA has posed.
LiSA shimmers slightly in that Alternate Dimension, as she leans into what power she can from Infinity's Magine. While she -can-, it is the unfortunate truth that Dr. Hell has total control over it, so she's going to have to figure out a different result. The power is strong, it's not enough, and she can't get access to all of it. She shimmers again and taps the picture that she posted earlier, of what suspiciously looked like Koji and Sayaka in front of a school with a elementary-school aged Lisa in her seifuku.
When she does, her outfit shimmers, and she's not wearing a brown seifuku, better designed for her teenage self.
"Asciel. We're still going to have words after this, don't get me wrong. But I agree with your assessment. I can't tap truly into Infinity's power. I lacked in my care and my duty as the interface for the Imazinger." Sorry, Sayaka. "So we're going to need to reach out to the world. I need your help to do so, for where you thrive is in what I don't have much experience with." Her gaze drifts to the ceiling. "I need help with this communication - I need help reaching out to the world!"
That paper she's been typing on has extended far further than it should, reacihng into the infinity of the Adjacent Dimension. She finally stops, and lifts her hand.
The Staff of Bardos, Lisa's Staff of Love, drops into her hands.
"... I have an idea."
KTS: LiSA targets Sayla Mass, Leina Ashta, and Roux Louka with All-Out. KTS: LiSA has completed their actions for the round. <Pose Tracker> Kallen Kozuki has posed.
Even with her having nothing much to say to him yet, Hell apparently has words for her. She shakes her head, not that he can see it. Perhaps there are a few words she can offer after all. "It's no wonder you want to remake the world, when you don't understand even the slightest part of it. Yeah, love does change people. So does any interaction. Two lives intersecting makes a new possibility for the future, whether they're meeting as family, friends, or even bitter enemies. Sometimes it might be for the worse... but there's always that chance. That when you reach out to somebody, you're opening the door to a brighter path for them. Saving them from a darkness that others have forced upon them, or that they've started sinking into for reasons outside their control." If he didn't understand it, after seeing the possibilities they all saw, then... maybe he's just unwilling to see it. To grasp the difference between manipulation and genuine care.
The raining, hailing waves of cold rush toward the Guren, but even now, she's in motion. Practically dancing in fact, weaving past the violet ray of bone-chilling cold. And the ice that comes in its wake as well, not a single stone touches the Guren's surface as it glides across the surface of Neo-Parthenos.
She really is playing a dangerous game here. And yet, there's no fear in her heart right now. Only a calm, tranquil anger. A sense of understanding. The resolution to knock this megalomaniac flat on his ass. To that end, she releases the Harkens again. Climbing ever higher, until finally the corded hooks lash out at Infinity itself, to grip a damaged plate of armor and pry it further open. To make a target for people. All the while, she's got an eye on the charging meter. Watching out for when it's ready. She'll need it at full burst, eventually.
KTS: LiSA orders an all-out attack, raising Leina Ashta's Skill! KTS: Kallen Kozuki targets Dr. Hell with Slash Harken Hook! KTS: Kallen Kozuki has completed their actions for the round. KTS: LiSA orders an all-out attack, raising Roux Louka's Skill! <Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.
Naoko doesn't have an immediate answer to Dr. Hell's... accusation? It feels like it was one. Though it shouldn't be a big surprise that a scientific mind would take notice of the same thing she noticed herself. The only thing that distressed her while within Goragon was seeing Possibilities that she didn't like. On its own, being subjected to pure Possibility felt... 'familiar', would be the closest to accurate word she could use to describe it. Perhaps even 'nostalgic'. As if she was used to it. Even though she can't clearly remember what it was like, before Uriel and Ariel came to assist her... she feels as if back then, when she was but a small child, she already had some measure of awareness in regard to alternate universes. A thought that should at the very least feel like a strange one to have... yet that feeling of familiarity persists.
Along with a different feeling. One of disgust. "...How flattering, to be found worthy of study by such a great scientist. Not! I'm nobody's lab rat, least of all yours!"
She can sense it, then - Goragon itself reaching for her. It doesn't feel the same as before. The feeling so strangely akin to being welcomed home, that's absent, now. With Dr. Hell's will behind it, it's become oppressive, threatening. Seeking to envelop and smother. She has to fight it, at all costs.
"Uriel, Ariel!" >"HELP ME!"<
Who better to help shield her mind, than those who have been doing so all along? Of course, it's not just their three minds against Goragon's. Lisa is assisting too, granting her a strength of will greater than the strongest steel. The unfathomable darkness reaches the Sukeban, but it never touches it, instead flowing around it as if an invisible force field were repelling it. She won't give in. She refuses.
Not only that. The Saucers, still in flight, are similarly shielded, and are directed straight for Infinity. This shouldn't work. Between the Psychojammers and Yuliana, Naoko's mental link should be disrupted before the remote weapons that are guided by it can get close enough to the giant Mazinger. But today, even the impossible is possible. The Saucers manage to get in range of their rapid-fire beam weaponry, peppering Infinity with a barrage before breaking off.
"Even with as little as I understand about Love... I know better than to make light of it, Dr. Hell! Your underestimating it is why you'll never win!"
KTS: Naoko Suzuki targets Dr. Hell with Remote Saucers! KTS: Naoko Suzuki has completed their actions for the round. KTS: LiSA orders an all-out attack, raising Sayla Mass's Skill! <Pose Tracker> Dr. Hell has posed.
It isn't long before Dr. Hell is no longer able to simply defy those gathered here as a threat. Smoke billows from ancient engines all across Infinity - Fuji quakes and rumbles beneath its feet. Little by little Dr. Hell's insistence on being on his own, at the pinnacle of the solitary mountain - it crumbles, the towering colossus skidding down Fuji's face - a corner of its chest-fins melted to slag from the combined photonic assault from Koji, Sayaka, and Sayla.
"...Calling what I've achieved 'cowardice' or 'sacrifice', when it's using every recourse to change this world - useless. Will you claim that stopping me, and terminating Goragon, is just as much the murder of billions of potential futures before they could even begin? You immaturely cling to the doomed world you've created, and I will consider it only as an element of this experiment. Burn! PHOTON SURGE! Crash! JUDGMENT FIST!" Infinity's eyes pulse with heat - and a spiral of Photon Energy ignites the air, coursing downwind - and though Infinity raises its arm, its own fist does not 'detach'...but rather, from it, a trans-dimensional echo of its arm erupts, careening Sayaka's way.
"Does 'power' give someone a right? Useless to consider. There is no 'right' or 'wrong', Louka. There is no 'virtue' or 'sin', Ashta. There are no 'gods' or 'devils' - only this very power to change a future, and the way it is used! SOVEREIGN SWORD!" Infinity's hands rise - and between them, a titanic claymore forged in the same verdigris as Infinity's body shimmers into view - crashing down with such force upon Leina and Roux that sonic booms crack in its wake.
From the widening window of Goragon - a fissure in the air. Something acidic fumes from these possibilities - a defiance of 'ruin'. A defiance...of 'change', snaking and hissing towards the Androktasia and Tuatha de Danaan. "...'Cascade'. Hmph. To call the thing a tool experiences 'love' is to malfunction. To be damaged - to be cracked in half. What you have done is tear apart your face and call it better living in your mask. ...You, in that tin can beneath the waves, too - your means of deflecting your true nature. Infantile. Pathetic. 'Love' is only your weakness."
"And it is that weakness I will exploit." Raising his fist up high, the sheer overload of 'Power' erupts like a pillar from the Earth itself - lancing up at Naoko and Kallen. "The thing you describe as caring for others, whether 'friends', 'family', or 'enemies', is an illusion. It is an exchange of power. It is indebting them to your will. Don't think I can't hear those incessant butterflies either - I wonder. Do you hold power over them, or are they bending you to your whims?"
Anita's incessant buzzing does land a hit that cracks the Great Marshall's eye with a stray bullet, sending the tinier head-mounted machine staggering and roaring. "This thing you call 'protection' will just eat this insipid world alive. Kch. I only attained these heights through my own ceaseless will - I 'changed' more than you can imagine without anyone's help. Is not the pursuit of knowledge the only truly lasting change?!" The purple clouds rain from the sky, enveloping the Svipul in fog...
And getting utterly sucked into Yuliana's void - that abyss of inky blackness somehow, ironically, clearing the sky. Dr. Hell seems angered by that more than anything else, bizarrely - shouting in fervor as the atmosphere thickens, "You, of all people, would deny what Goragon can offer? You, who suffers and squirms in agony at what your darkness demands of you? Nonsense. Humanity is so resigned to suffering that it's grown addicted. You've even grown to call your torment 'love'. Revolting."
KTS: Dr. Hell targets Koji Kabuto with Photon Surge! KTS: Dr. Hell targets Sayla Mass with Photon Surge! KTS: Dr. Hell targets Sayaka Yumi with Judgment Fist! KTS: [Spirit Defense] Leina Ashta's Believe in Miracles activates, and the spirit endures. KTS: Dr. Hell has activated the Daunt Spirit Command targeting Leina Ashta KTS: Dr. Hell has activated the Daunt Spirit Command targeting Roux Louka KTS: Dr. Hell targets Leina Ashta with Judgment Fist! KTS: Dr. Hell targets Roux Louka with Judgment Fist! KTS: Dr._Hell Changes attack to Cascade Vermilion and Teletha Testarossa with -Ruin- | Sulfurous Wound. KTS: Dr. Hell targets Naoko Suzuki with -Power- | Solitary Truth! KTS: Dr. Hell targets Kallen Kozuki with -Power- | Solitary Truth! KTS: Dr. Hell targets Anita Rosetta with Despirit! KTS: Dr. Hell targets Yuliana Kafim with Despirit! KTS: Leina Ashta parries Dr. Hell's Judgment Fist, taking 1920 damage! KTS: Dr. Hell has engaged Leina Ashta! KTS: Sayaka Yumi has activated the Attune Spirit Command. KTS: Dr. Hell despirits Anita Rosetta, reducing her SP drastically. KTS: [Spirit Defense] Anita Rosetta's Easygoing activates, and her spirit endures. KTS: Dr. Hell fails to intercept Teletha Testarossa's Itano Circus Missile Dance, taking 4400 damage! KTS: Dr. Hell partially guards Cascade Vermilion's Gravity Spike, taking 3363 damage! KTS: Dr. Hell fails to react to Anita Rosetta's Gatling Sweep, taking 3000 damage! KTS: Dr. Hell blocks Sayaka Yumi's Rocket Punch Missiles, taking 2940 damage! KTS: Dr. Hell despirits Yuliana Kafim, reducing her SP drastically. KTS: Kallen Kozuki anchors Dr. Hell, forcing him into close range. KTS: Dr. Hell blocks Kallen Kozuki's Slash Harken Hook, taking 1260 damage! KTS: Kallen Kozuki has engaged Dr. Hell! KTS: Dr. Hell fails to react to Naoko Suzuki's Remote Saucers, taking 3825 damage! KTS: Dr. Hell has completed their actions for the round. KTS: +defend (player or queue number) KTS: Sayaka Yumi's EN Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Sayaka Yumi parries Dr. Hell's Judgment Fist, taking 1770 damage! KTS: Your unit's HP stands at 7170 KTS: Dr. Hell has engaged Sayaka Yumi! KTS: Your EN is now 56. KTS: Roux Louka rushes into the attack! KTS: Roux Louka successfully avoids Dr. Hell's Judgment Fist KTS: Kallen Kozuki successfully Evades Dr. Hell's -Power- | Solitary Truth KTS: Teletha Testarossa has activated the Foresee Spirit Command. KTS: Teletha Testarossa successfully Evades Dr. Hell's -Ruin- | Sulfurous Wound KTS: Naoko Suzuki has activated the Foresee Spirit Command. KTS: Naoko Suzuki successfully evades Dr. Hell's -Power- | Solitary Truth KTS: Cascade Vermilion's Will Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Dr. Hell rattles Cascade Vermilion, making her next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Cascade Vermilion parries Dr. Hell's -Ruin- | Sulfurous Wound, taking 1530 damage! KTS: Dr. Hell has engaged Cascade Vermilion! KTS: Koji Kabuto successfully avoids Dr. Hell's Photon Surge
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
It's not so unusual that Naoko can command her funnels to attack Infinity -- because Infinity is SO large that even with her Void influence at long range, there's always going to be a part of Infinity still exposed. Yuliana can't consume it entirely... at least not in a machine that can't assist her.
She's doing what she can with what she has. Is this 'using it for good'? She might argue with Sayaka about the details, but... she's trying, now, certainly.
"I have to!" Yuliana yells back to Leina, calling her a dummy for flying in close. "You should get back! Can you really take much more of this?!" Give her some credit: she does sound concerned about Leina's welfare, here.
She grasps the Masquerion's controls, and weaves that tiny machine around Infinity, staying doggedly close despite it all. "I--" she starts, and the flinch in her voice is audible. "Sure, some of those futures would be nice... but I can't abandon my other wife. If I left to another world -- She'd still be trapped out there! And what kind of woman would I be -- if I left Her alone -- when I can't stand the idea of everyone ascending and leaving me?! Even if I'm tormented..."
Yuliana weaves closely around Infinity, keeping it within her Silent aura, and yells: "I'll save THIS world, and no other! If I can stop you -- if I can just stop you, then -- maybe I'll remember what I lost, after I fought the Mycenae! What was taken from me!"
There's one thing she didn't tell Sayaka, when she was consumed by despair.
There was no room for hope when the world was ending.
KTS: Yuliana Kafim targets Dr. Hell with Goad! KTS: Yuliana Kafim has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Leina Ashta has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has disengaged. <Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
One simple calling of that name causes the 'owl' to twist its head - and for the cord linking it to the outside world to tremble.
It causes the dazed and weakened Asciel, backing up Kallen with an almost listlessly automatic backing of turret fire from the sides of the Macross's arms, to snap back to attention - and to put a halt to the 'sucking'.
The tinnier voice, from the screens before LiSA, emboldens, and...seems almost surprised to see her, despite having just started those streams herself. "...E-eh!? LiSA, you're...where in the world are you? ...Wait, we're live all the sudden - ...somehow what you're saying makes...more sense than I understand. ...It's been hard for you to reach out to the wider world, you say. ...Hah.~ Adorable. That's how it should be. I'd much rather use up this favor for myself, but I'd like to see just what you can DO with it all."
...Forming her hands into a little heart-shape for her audience, Asciel calls out in her pitch-perfect soothing warmth, "Gooooood~ evening! My precious batteries. ...As you can see, this is a bit of a...unique event! To put it simply - it's the end of the world out there! Or it WOULD be. ...This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for YOU- yes, YOU, to help stop this crisis! I'm about to make a very special request. ...We need aaaaaall the raw energy we can get right now. I'd like every last one of you - for just a few hours - to shut down as much of your appliances as possible. Then tell your friends to do that! It'll be tough to ask you to do this but...that includes whatever you're watching this very show on! Save that for last, though, because I want you..."
"To meet the girl you'll be entrusting all that power to!"
...This is probably THE WORST possible moment to suddenly shine a massive spotlight onto LiSA before a rapidly ballooning audience of thousands. "Go on! Here's my special co-host for the day! Introduce yourself, do it do it do it!"
KTS: Sayla Mass's Will Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Sayla Mass blocks Dr. Hell's Photon Surge, taking 1800 damage! <Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
"Trying to turn that around on us is bullshit, Hell! Something has to exist before it can be destroyed, what you're angling for is just possibility, and guess what! Possibilities change all the time! Every choice, every interaction, every thought closes off an untold number of paths - and most of them won't ever be recognised as even existing!"
"... You're right about one thing, though. There's no such thing as gods or devils. There's just us, struggling to find a way to make things better however we can. The power to start from scratch? Using it is just as illusory as anything else within Goragon was."
Was it really illusory? Something whispers in the back of his mind. You remember, after all. A life that never happened is just as real to you as the one that did.
Shut up, brain. Supervillain in need of an ass-whooping.
He doesn't have stable flight with the Jet Scrander's wings split, but the thrusters are still operational. Koji jumps towards Infinity as its eye rays fire, twisting Z mid-flight so that it passes through the gap between the searing beams. "Sayaka, I'm doing to need a lift. Stand by to synchronize reactors, I have an idea!"
Something comes alive on his comms window. "Asciel, what are you - " and then Lisa's on screen, and Koji falls silent, even as Mazinger Z holds out one hand towards Aphrodite Areia with its Scrander thrusters trying desperately to keep it aloft, waiting for Sayaka to take it. Once she does -
"UNION!" Mazinger Z's chest radiator flares, red-to-amber-to-white. "HEART!" The two Mazins' reactors align, feeding into each other in an exponential loop that makes their Japanium cores blaze like stars.
"INFERNO!"
The blaze of heat that issues forth from the Mazin couple is an incandescent white, shading to violet at its edges as it blasts towards Infinity.
KTS: Koji Kabuto targets Dr. Hell with Breast Fire! KTS: Koji Kabuto has completed their actions for the round. <Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.
Roux's heart quakes in a subtle, and perhaps positive, way when Leina speaks up in her defense. She smiles a little, despite the anger, despite the peril. Why? Because she heard that nickname. Sayla's really into how they live there, huh, Roux thinks as her eyes return to Infinity's mass--
And Dr. Hell addresses them.
No - Her.
"If there's no right or wrong," Roux says. "If there's no good or bad,"
She feels the world seem to expand behind her. For a fleeting moment, space is terrifying, not just the nature of what's on the other side of the wall. For a fleeting moment, she knows just how small she is, held up in the belly of a great piece of inordinately complex machinery against an even greater machine by intervening forces.
How many are they? Not many. There's a faint whisper, then, the passing presence of...
Lisa? Of Koji and Sayaka? Of Leina and Sayla? Of the others, strangers perhaps but united in this battle? Of those who were enemies? Perhaps of Dr. Hell himself, in a way which no doubt he did not calculate for or against.
The great blade is coming up.
"-- Then I'll make good myself!" Roux blurts as the Strike Zeta surges forwards, holding the Hyper Mega Launcher in a reversed parade rest.
The sword is storming through the air fast enough that Roux can see the faint rendering of the distorted air as bursting pressure forces water vapor out of the Fujinomiya air. Roux nonetheless accelerates, almost as if she's going towards the sword itself. The Strike Zeta Gundam dips downwards, and Roux's eyes flick upwards.
Geez.
Maybe all of this is just
He never had anyone to love.
That's not --
That's just sad, isn't it?
But even so--
The sword is coming down too close. A few moments before Roux would be cleaved like so much scrap metal, the Strike Zeta swerves -- but it's not quite enough. Then the peculiar grip on the Hyper Mega Launcher proves its purpose as the intense magenta ray erupts outwards, not in the classical discharge form but as a titanic fountain of megaparticles; burning a streak, superficial but sufficient to change the Strike Zeta's vector, along the side of the Soverign Sword.
"This Gundam -- it isn't a curse, Dr. Hell!" Roux calls out with declarative force. "It's a barrier against maniacs like you!!"
That outsized beam-saber erupts outwards to something like the suitable size to challenge Goragon - a short-sword, at least, by its standard. "I'll buy you guys time!" Roux shouts as her arms slam the controls forwards. "Haaa----hh--!!"
That outsized Beam Saber begins to slash up and down, a blurring fur-ball of deadly streaks as it aims to cut what it will -- given the position, of course, it will primarily be along Goragon's forearms, but perhaps this will be enough. Three strikes, then five, then nine--
KTS: Roux Louka has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Roux Louka has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Roux Louka targets Dr. Hell with Hyper Mega Launcher - Carve and Slash! KTS: Roux Louka has completed their actions for the round. <Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
Her head POUNDS against the mounting energy pushing against the Psychojammer. It's hurting worse and worse to maintain this. It's not SUPPOSED to hurt like this, yet it does. Indeed for a time she's rendered incoherent by the effort, "Nnngh-!"
Roux is being baited, she can tell, yet for some reason she feels proud of Roux's answers anyway. The world of Zeon and the Zabis would not have made a better world, and she knows this dating one of their last living members. The same for Sayla, for she knows that indeed, she would never run from reality, she learned that even moreso after Bujack.
The compliment feels great, but-! "<Mom! Really!? Over the comms!?>" Leina laughs in nervous mortification, as if she'd shouted that out at a school Swim Meet, rather than a battle to save the world. "God, glad almost noone here speaks Spanish." That nickname would either get her laughed at or requiring some EXPLAINING if Roux or Judau find out what it meant.
Bright definitely STARED the first time he heard it.
Even as Yuliana says that, Leina retorts back. "Number one! Do you see this shit? I kinda have to! Number Two! You literally ate shit and had spider legs growing out of your damn torso just a few days ago!"
LiSA however, for some reason, Leina can feel her even in the adjacent dimension, in all of her myriad forms and ages, when she says she has an idea, Leina responds simply.
We're with you.
She has to do this to push herself, to give them the shot to end this. In her mind, it's not just Shiro, Koji, Sayaka and LiSA she's trying to back up, but everyone in her life. Because that's who she stands to lose if Hell wins here because she didn't give it her all to help them.
Hell speaks to them in that moment, and Infinity's Hands rise. Weighing it's size, Leina sees only one possibility in this moment that results in anything other than her death. The moment it swings down, Jump Jets Fire, and the Beguir twists in mid-air, it's foot unit latching onto the side of the Sword mid-arc.
They ratchet out, before it's claws pound in like pistons. The Beguir hunkering down on the side of the blade like a crab, with it's enormous shield. The Sword strikes Mount Fuji, and she's buffeted by the force of raw physical power she's never felt before.
Yet as the blade lifts up, she's still attached, hanging off sideways, the Beguir standing up at its horizontal, armor cracked in several places and sparking, but still certainly alive.
"<... You know - wasn't so long ago that I'd have agreed with some of what you're saying. Don't take that as a compliment, I was being brainwashed by a War Criminal at the time.>"
She's breathing hard, but abruptly, the Beguir detaches from the blade, reverse jets firing, as she flies away, upside down from the enormous blade and Infinity. Her Rifle is held up, targeting reticle at Infinity's Eyes.
Again and again, she fires. Lines of Beamfire streaming across the sky like fireworks, each shot trying to connect through the haze of Quantum Brainwave Blocking Energy.
"<Everything you're saying? Just makes me feel sorry for you. You're so smart, that you must just feel disconnected from everyone, and everything all the time. That's why you can say such nihilistic things and it just be what you believe.>"
The Beguir reverses again before it hits the Mountainside, slamming down into the rock with one last burst to slow it's descent.
"<But we saw the heat death of the universe and found warmth even there, so you're gonna have to do better than that to get me to buy in to your garbage.>"
KTS: Leina Ashta targets Dr. Hell with Beguir Neuer Beam Rifle Focused Fire! KTS: Leina Ashta has completed their actions for the round. <Pose Tracker> Cascade Vermilion has posed.
"Yes, 'Cascade'! That is who I am. I do not deny that I was Gamia NX-2... but I am more than that! I can be more..."
A fissure in the air - in reality itself - erupts, and Cascade is not ready for it. How can you be ready for something like that? But she sees what she must do immediately, and she has the power to burn. Androktasia's Mycenae gravity engine... she doesn't know why Ashura put it in Androktasia, but here, she can use it.
She reaches out, compressing space around the defiance of 'change' - and holding it still. In some ways, opposed to change, it wants to be still. She compresses it, presses it down even further, into a crunched-looking disk that's difficult to look at; a flattened sphere that distorts vision.
Cascade realizes this is a mistake almost immediately; even for Androktasia it's an impossible task. Something vents from behind as the engine starts to overheat, something she has never experienced before; the venting causes Androktasia's cloak to billow dramatically. Sweat - or something like it - beads on Cascade's brow. She cannot oppose Goragon like that for more than an instant, and the flattened disk bursts open like a compressed spring - but Cascade steals the kinetic energy for herself, and Androktasia rockets aside, out of reach.
"Maybe I am damaged," Cascade says. "But everyone that lives is damaged, too. Just in their own way. And that means you, too - and I will not be controlled by you any longer!"
Androktasia raises its arms, and two oversized missiles, one on either side of the torso, blaze into activation, the heavy warheads detonating with colossal force once they (ideally) impact Infinity.
As the ports close, Androktasia shifts pose to a similar but slightly different one. Androktasia's breastplate has a distinct finned crest on it, and it's starting to crackle with blue-violet energy. "I will move into the future!"
KTS: Cascade Vermilion targets Dr. Hell with Twin Chest Missile! KTS: Cascade Vermilion has completed their actions for the round. <Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.
"And that's your problem. You did this all 'on your own'. Did you ever let anyone help you? Like, actually 'help', and not just serve you. Sure, I've seen your minions... but it don't seem like you've got anyone you'd call an equal. Someone you can share your thoughts and burdens with. I appreciate what you've done with prosthetics, but... You've put yourself up on top this big, solitary pedestal. You're trying to make big, sweeping changes for the world when you barely know what it's like for the average person. A world built only off of one solitary viewpoint is always going to be flawed... and that's why you were always gonna fail." Anita replies. "So, no. I'm gonna have to disagree. Me... I'm a different person now than I am a yesterday, a few days ago, a month, even. And the people I've met are different 'cause of me, and then the people they met, and so on. The pursuit of knowledge is all well and good... but it's what and how you use it that matters."
Svipul is enveloped in fog as purple fog rains down. Anita grimaces just a bit... but then she exhales. She's always been a talented pilot - she's trained to be able to operate in many different conditions, and having her vision interfered with is just one of them. She's already seen how she can still have an effect...
So, as she strafes around Infinity, she begins to open fire with her beam vulcans in wide sprays. It might seem like she's just firing blindly - but in reality there is purpose to where she aims, as she seeks to hamper more and more of anything that might be some manner of sensor.
KTS: Anita Rosetta targets Dr. Hell with Lazy Spray! KTS: Anita Rosetta has completed their actions for the round. <Pose Tracker> LiSA has posed.
Asciel is distracted, but Lisa is needing her; as much as the two have had their fight is the truth in that right now, she can utilize Asciel for something that they both need her to do: To help her help the rest save the world. "Please." She is entreated, softly... and she is answered, and answered in a way that she can't properly respond to, and Lisa stammers at first, just a touch of stage fright.
"One moment, please!" Both hands wrap around her own Staff and she bows to the monitors, and around her, the paper she's been writing on wraps around her in a flurry of movements, before she comes out, determination gleaming in her golden eyes, as around her, she's looking at a map of the Earth itself, in a holographic form as she reaches out with her free hand towards the monitors, towards the people watching.
"Listen, please! I ask all of you! My name is Lisa, and I'm on site at Mount Fuji in Japan! We're fighting Dr. Hell to rpotect this world, this Earth, we all love and care for so much! We can't do it alone, though! I need two things-- I need, first and foremost, your belief! Your hope! Then, more to the point... I need your power... Dr. Hell is fighting us using a machine we have called 'Mazinger Infinity', something so large the only place that he could hide it was Mount Fuji itself!"
"Please... turn off your televisions, your laptops, your computers... shut off the lights, do what you can. Those of you that aren't in Japan... or don't use Photon Power... trust me! You'll still help."
The first portal opens, and on the other side, Jun can be seen with little Gai, turning off their lights. Then, a second, where Shiro stands in his custom machine. "Lisa!" He shouts. "TRANSMITTING PHOTON POWER!"
Golden light swirls around her staff, and that energy gets passed on to everyone in the fight. Not just Koji, not just Sayaka. This has been a fight, since the start, that has not been just about the three of them. "For the Power Labs! For Roux, and miss Leina, and miss Sayla! For everyone you love... help us!"
KTS: LiSA targets Naoko Suzuki, Kallen Kozuki, and Yuliana Kafim with All-Out. KTS: LiSA has completed their actions for the round. KTS: LiSA orders an all-out attack, raising Naoko Suzuki's Skill! <Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Nunnally Lamperouge tilts her head, as her phone streams to her just what's going on. "Oh... oh, no... this is awful. Sayoko-san, can you help me...?" And with the help of her maid, Sayoko Shinozaki, she dutifully shuts off all the powered objects in their living space. ... with a lot of help. She can't see what she's doing, after all.
~*~
Akito Tenkawa and Megumi Reinard gape at the television, as Asciel explains just what's going on. "Seriously?!" Megumi yells, throwing up her hands. "We left the Nadesico to have a quiet life, and now the world's ending?! I thought they just got done with the world ending! How is it ending again?!"
"No way," Akito says, trembling, as he looks past the screen. "No way..."
"Hey," Megumi says, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, come on. She said we can help. Let's go turn out the lights, okay?"
"... okay," Akito says, his voice shallow.
~*~
Cascade Wattana scowls. "Why can't we turn off everything?"
"This is a hospital," the nurse replies, not without sympathy. "There's only so much we can do."
"Well, I'm going to go turn the lights off," they say, as they storm off to do just that.
The nurse sighs, as she goes to switch off what she can. "We really must stop playing the news out here..."
<Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.
It is in the moment that Infinity's fist raises that she realizes... she recognizes this. She knows that Power. Because, in another Possibility... she had wielded it herself.
Sukeban's already considerable speed, being enhanced beyond its normal limits, proves sufficient to clear the area, a mere fraction of a second before of pillar of pure Power would have disintegrated it where it stood. Naoko's heart is in her throat, remembering the horrifying actions that Possibility would have her believe she's capable of. If only she could deny it as strongly as she's rejected everything else, so far. From this, she could only run. Turn her eyes away from that which she knows is real. Her wish for greater power. A power so great, she could right all the world's wrongs.
Infinity isn't the way. That much has been made clear. And yet... she'll continue looking for the way that's right for her even now, won't she? She can try to rationalize it with only doing it to help people all she wants, but... in the end, she's still doing something of which she doesn't know what the consequences will be, all in pursuit of power. What right does she have to speak against Dr. Hell on that point?
It's almost a relief that something soon distracts her, though it causes an entirely different sort of distress.
>"What the?!"<
>"He can hear us?!"<
And here the three of them thought they were safe from being overheard while piloting. As alarming as that is, it falls to Naoko to hold the argument here. "Calm down, you two. ...Dr. Hell. You can talk down to me all you want, but I won't forgive you for talking about my friends that way. We care about each other, power doesn't factor into it!"
She hates to admit to having had a moment of doubt. So she doesn't admit it. Instead, she pits strength out of seeing the Mazin couple uniting their power overhead. That would have been enough, but then one of her monitors suddenly switches over to... "...Asciel?!" Okay, so it's not the first time she snuck in a stream in the cockpit, but she's pretty sure she didn't choose to tune in just now, even by accident. And through Asciel, Lisa is shown too. ...No pressure or anything. She's feeling a lot of second-hand embarrassment right now.
But no. Focus on the positive. What she is also feeling, is the fact that everyone is lending their strength, many more than just those present here right now. A greater power than ever before envelops them all. Together, they can win. They must.
"...You have no right to speak of power and control, Dr. Hell. Right now, Power is controlling you, and you don't even realize it! But don't worry, we'll relieve you of that burden! Saucers... seek out the guilty, and unleash Heaven's Fury!"
The remote weapons climb, climb, to ever greater heights. Beam fire intensifies, and they seek to dig themselves into the giant frame of Infinity, tearing at it like buzzsaws - really tiny buzzsaws by comparison, yet capable of so much, in the current moment. By whatever trick or magic, it may well appear as if there are many more than the mere two that actually exist.
KTS: Naoko Suzuki targets Dr. Hell with Heaven's Fury! KTS: Naoko Suzuki has completed their actions for the round. KTS: LiSA orders an all-out attack, raising Yuliana Kafim's Skill! <Pose Tracker> Teletha Testarossa has posed.
The accusation levied at her is one taken with instinctual disgust. Deflecting her true nature? Love? A weakness? The same sort of gouging that Martha tried, the same sort of wanto to discard the humane side of herself. A throat filled with bile at the sheer distastefulness of those words, white-knuckled grip setting on the chair.
Take a breath. In. Out. The mental restraints fail, a finger pressing on to push back. "<What sort of statement is that? Love, weakness? Without love, that I can see something more?"> A click of her tongue. "<I respectfully disagree.>" Deflection? What sort of deflection is this evil scientist even talking about?
don't think about it don't mull on it push it away file it away tamp it down for another day live another day through this Hell
do you think that i don't want to change to grow to love to care to look at myself at the devil i am
The defiance crashes down onto the Tuatha de Dannan, surging straight at the source of this small sliver of ire. The TDD-1's engine hums, speeding up the tiniest bit. Sweat visibly dripping from her own brow, a grunting Colonel in the middle of the bridge. Resist it. You are the ship. You built this ship. Like hell someone can dictate your life. The beating, singular-scarred heart beats a rhythm, filled with the stubborn resolution of want. If it a deflection Dr. Hell desires, then it is one he will attain.
"...Fire. Aim towards its center."
"Aye, ma'am. FIRE!"
The instrument of defiance vomits out another warhead-tipped missile, streaking towards the cosmos.
"Another. Prepare another, cluster-bomb style."
"Aye, ma'am. Prepare cluster-bomb, tube two!"
---
Across Merida Island, the lights dim. An already obscured base due to necessity, the order goes out from Mithril from one commander to the next , percolating up to Mithril HQ and seeding itself outwards.
All extraneous devices are to be powered off.
All training operations are to come to a halt.
All primary generators are to prepare for a power surge.
Begin setting up auxilary sources of power in the next few moments.
KTS: Teletha Testarossa targets Dr. Hell with All Out Attack! KTS: Teletha Testarossa has completed their actions for the round. <Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
Beecha Oleg cheers at the screen of the TV.
"Ha! Looks like Roux's got this! Hey Elle come watch our girl kick Doctor Satan's ass-!"
It was that moment, that suddenly the TV went dark, in the bar they were both at.
"HEY! I WAS WATCHING THAT!"
Elle Viano was just swinging the TV cord in a casual loop.
"Watch it on your phone! We're supposed to turn off the lights, remember!"
Beecha quickly took out his phone and-
"... Uh... forgot to charge it!" As he vaulted over the counter, "Look plug it back in! I'm sure it won't make a difference!"
Elle immediately played keep away, "No way! They said this is how we can help! So we're helping!"
Thus began an immediate intense, brief grappling match between them for the cord.
-=-=-
Shinta and Qum had already turned off the lights, both of the teenagers now under a blanket.
"It's going to be okay right?" Qum, asked her brother.
"Of course it is." Shinta replied, "They'd never lose to this."
Without any further words, both of them held hands, as they watched the stream.
-=-=-
Magallanica, Side 3, was about as far as one could get from Earth. It was ludicrous, perhaps in a way, to think that they could help by turning off the lights.
Yet, the announcement had been sent out to the residents.
Mineva Lao Zabi sat upon her chair, as she hit the code which powered down the Colony, everything but the most essential functions, the lights went off. In the end, it may only be a symbolic gesture, yet, before the communications systems fully power down, she sends out one final message to the defenders of Japan - or rather, reality itself.
"All of our hopes, I entrust to you."
-=-=-
Martha Vist Carbine had a mere two lights within her cell. One coming from a lamp, and the other from her TV, as she watched the proceedings. While early on, she felt a sense of sadistic glee, right now...
... right now even that felt so hollow. To side with a man who would take away even her chance to reclaim her position, just to lash out at those who put her here.
"Heh. Why not?"
Picking up a controller, the TV went dark with the touch of a button.
The lamp went out soon after.
<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Yumi has posed.
In return for her Rocket Punch Missiles, Sayaka finds herself faced with the fist of not a God, nor a Devil... but a Judge. The echo of the Judgement Fist would shatter even Super Alloy New Z, but even still, it collides with Areia's Mazinger Blade, as steel sparks against steel.
"A fallacial argument... even for you, Hell!" Sayaka calls back, as she pushes back the kingly fist with her mere greatsword. "Possibilities that may have been... and yet this was the world we were born in, and it will be our own actions that decide where it goes." She insists. "If you care so little about the fate of this world... then be gone from it!"
For all of the damage, the rest of Aphrodite Areia's body took, the foldable Artemis Arrow wings are still perfectly intact, flying to Mazinger Z's side. "Synchronizing reactors? I see where this is going..." Sayaka answers with a grin, reaching out to the Castle of Iron's arm with her own. "I got you!"
Something begins to change... as Lisa begins to gather power with her Staff of Love, helped by Asciel and her own powers as an influencer. "...Alright, I'm counting on you. Both of you." Sayaka says, quietly, as she cranks Areia's reactor to its limit.
"UNION!" Sayaka repeats, as Areia crackles from the pressure of her own heat... impossibly weathering the heat nonetheless. "HEART!" Individuals across the world dedicate their power, to prove this world won't go down without a fight.
"INFERNO!" The crackling blaze of violet-white, fiery Photon light unleashed by Mazinger Z and Aphrodite Areia threatens to burn the grand figure Infinity to the core. Perhaps a more passionate demonstration of the construct of 'Love' than anything Hell witnessed through Goragon.
KTS: LiSA orders an all-out attack, raising Kallen Kozuki's Skill! KTS: Sayaka Yumi has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Sayaka Yumi targets Dr. Hell with Heart Fire! KTS: Sayaka Yumi has completed their actions for the round. KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 46. KTS: SP Regen activates. Your new SP value is 50. <Pose Tracker> Kallen Kozuki has posed.
Isolation and power... A disregard of all but the ends. These are lines of thought she understands, even if she does not agree. There is one thing Hell has to say that she agrees with. ...Except, it's more complex than that. You call love a weakness. You say it's something that drags people down. Makes them vulnerable. And you're half right. Caring about people IS an opening that can be exploited by the likes of you." She considers the hostage crisis not so long ago. Using someone's friends as a means to hurt them. The leverage she's seen used against her friends.
But as Hell's expression of raw power lances toward them, Guren glimmers in the light of it. And then it makes a leap airward. Seeming to almost skate across the very same attack being used against it. What he's missing though... she thinks of two quite similar 'possibilities' she witnessed. And how one key point of revolution was that same weakness. How one chooses to respond to them can make a whole world of difference.
In that spirit, there's something important to say, and do. As the Guren races along a path, she looks back at the one who has been helping her over here. There's a plan, it could work. But FIRST she's got this to handle. "But Doc, it's not purely a weakness. Just as easily, that link to others is a strength! Spurring people to action, overpowering their fears!" It hardly seems like she should have made the trip across again, and yet here the Guren is, raking a gash into Infinity's body, claw heated and glowing, though not quite ready for release.
~~~
In a hospital bed somewhere in Area 11, a brunette woman smiles in the dark. Addiction recovery is a slow, arduous struggle, but she's well enough to have slipped out of bed briefly. To shut off her room lights and a few other incidental things. At her bedside are three sets of flowers and a framed picture. Of herself, a red-haired man, and two children of different ages. All together atop a mountain. ...But for a second it almost seems like there's a fifth in the photo. Before again, it's merely four.
In Britannia, a red-haired man looks haggard and tired, despite being clean shaved and well dressed. As he hears the broacast, he puts in a call to an employee. "Cut power for a while on the district. Divert it like they're asking. Yes... yes I know. If there's trouble, I'll shoulder it." Far from the last hard decision he'll need to be making soon.
KTS: Kallen Kozuki targets Dr. Hell with Iron Nail Slash! KTS: Kallen Kozuki has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Dr. Hell fails to react to Kallen Kozuki's Iron Nail Slash, taking 4200 damage! KTS: Kallen Kozuki has engaged Dr. Hell! KTS: Dr. Hell fails to react to Sayaka Yumi's Heart Fire, taking 5220 damage! KTS: Sayaka Yumi roots her unit, coming to a standstill and leaving her vulnerable. KTS: Dr. Hell partially guards Teletha Testarossa's All Out Attack, taking 4760 damage! KTS: Dr. Hell blocks Naoko Suzuki's Heaven's Fury, taking 1770 damage! KTS: Naoko Suzuki has engaged Dr. Hell! KTS: Dr. Hell fails to charge. KTS: Dr. Hell partially guards Koji Kabuto's Breast Fire, taking 7680 damage! KTS: Dr. Hell fails to react to Roux Louka's Hyper Mega Launcher - Carve and Slash, taking 5850 damage! KTS: Roux Louka has engaged Dr. Hell! KTS: Roux Louka roots her unit, coming to a standstill and leaving her vulnerable. KTS: Dr. Hell partially guards Leina Ashta's Beguir Neuer Beam Rifle Focused Fire, taking 5145 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Leina Ashta's Mass Effect activates, causing Control Bonus! KTS: Dr. Hell fails to intercept Cascade Vermilion's Twin Chest Missile, taking 3975 damage! KTS: Yuliana Kafim goads Dr. Hell, reducing his Intuition drastically. KTS: Dr. Hell fails to charge. KTS: Anita Rosetta rattles Dr. Hell, making his next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Dr. Hell partially guards Anita Rosetta's Lazy Spray, taking 1620 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.
As Hell's gigantic eye laser descends on the Hi-Nu, she raises the shield- and her funnels form two triangular shields in front her- and the worst of the beam goes around the Photon Hi-Nu- the machine is pushed back, scorched by the Photon Blast- but stands firm, when the smoke clears, the funnels flying back into position, as the landscape around her is slagged.
"<...Sorry. I'm a little worked up!>" Sayla responds to Leina. (Roux's a smart woman, Leina, she can ask someone.)
"<We're both doctors of medicine, Wilhelm.>" Sayla says, her voice hard. "<You should know better than to throw that argument at me. "<You know best practice as much as I. Where possible, we preserve both parent and child. But this is a case where you're putting an unfertilized egg before the life of millions- maybe trillions of living beings!>" How far would Infinity reach, after all? How many other peoples like the Zentradi might be out there, beyond Sol? What could the colonies have found? She can hear LiSA's message to all of them. To everyone on the Earth who wishes to keep living. Maybe they can unite the world, just for a moment.
-----
Inside a Black Knights safe house, minding two special guests, Emilia Eschonbach watches the news with a frown on her face. She knows Kallen's out there, fighting that giant Mazinger with Getter powers. Her best friend is there, fighting for her life, and Emilia's here. Can she do anything.
"...I-I'm going to shut d-d-down anything non-essential." She calls, to the other two in the safehouse. "O-Okay?" She starts with the TV.
After all, she has to believe Kallen can make it, without her watching.
-----
"-as such, we will be ceasing work until this battle is over." Sakura Isogai speaks over an announcement to all Yumi Foundation staff. "For those who wish to go home to their families, mass transport is being arranged. Power to the majority of the building will be shut down shortly. If you wish to stay here, we are gathering on the 12th floor assembly room. We have to believe in those fighting Dr Hell- and grant them the support we can."
tWith the announcement given, Sakura makes for the stairs. She knows what the power of belief can do- and she hopes that it will reach further than just Fujinomiya.
-----
In an office in a tower, an old man watches the TV bitterly. His secreatary- a new one, here maybe a few months, comes up to him. "Mr Eschonbach, the building director is requesting that all offices turn off non-essential equipment.
He takes his cigar from his mouth. "For what? So some future elevens can 'save the day'? Pointless. It's a false threat, to distract from them planning to counterinvade. I don't believe it for a second."Perhaps it's time we leave for the day. Remind him who is paying for his lifestyle."
The reception nods. "Very good, sir."
Eventually, the building director takes matters into his own hands, and kills power at the breaker. And so, Joseph Eschonbach continues his cigar. "Miss Williams, contact legal as soon as possible. We have to recoup the loss of work hours."
-----
Sayla sees how Sayaka and Koji move, and narrows her eyes. "<...I'm not one to get between couples, but just this once will you allow a third?>" Sayla says, a smirk on her face. The Photon Hyper Mega Bazooka Launcher spins to life, a red glow emerging from it's barrel. "<After all... this is a Mazin as much as it's a Gundam, isn't it?>%
She focuses, lining her aim up to match with the Breast Fire and Heart Fire. The funnels dock again, so all power can go to the reactor. "<Hey Wilhelm- remember when you crashed my gala all those years ago? This time I've got bigger gun and appropriate ammo!>" She grips the trigger on her controls tightly. "<I'm choosing this world- with everyone else here! Here goes! INFERNO BLASTER!>"
The red beam of light launches from the massive cannon, to coalesce with the Union Heart Inferno, to bore straight into the heart of Infinity, with Sayla's desire to keep living in this world with the people she loves behind it.
KTS: Sayla Mass has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Sayla Mass has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Sayla Mass targets Dr. Hell with Photon Hyper Mega Bazooka Launcher Inferno Blaster! KTS: Sayla Mass has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Dr. Hell partially guards Sayla Mass's Photon Hyper Mega Bazooka Launcher Inferno Blaster, taking 6127 damage! <Pose Tracker> Dr. Hell has posed.
"You, Kafim, call your obsession with a hideous false god 'love', and preserve this world for the sake of retaining its ugly existence?" Dr. Hell's sneer is ever more intense - and the gathering clouds coalesce atop the Masquelion...roaring thunder billowing from within. "That very existence you treasure is a blight that will not be missed in other worlds. Behold - a taste of what befalls humans who think they can embrace the divine. COLLAPSING THUNDER!" With a single point of Infinity's finger...a violet-tinged bolt of lightning arcs down, crashing atop Yuliana's head.
...All the while, the fins on Infinity's chest light up one by one, section by section, thrumming and sizzling with immense heat - the power poured towards Infinity from the Breast Fire mirrored in its ferocity. "I've long since grown tired of the incessant noisiness of those who still carry the mantle of the Mazin, and of the Gundam. They are unsightly relics of past folly - to bicker at me with faded dreams you carry from the past. Preposterous. Your desperation to drag your world kicking and screaming into a doomed future - I will set all of it aflame. The past you obsess over, the future you endlessly try to pre-ordain. All of it. I WILL END THIS WORLD'S FINAL CHAPTER RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW! BREAST INFERNO!!!"
It is as though a primal volcano erupts from Infinity's heart - searing and setting the grass and forests ablaze, cutting a path that would tear through mountains.
"Such a wretched existence, Captain of the 'Toy Box'. You, most of all, struggle to reject this power. You would chase after 'infinity' without end, were you unfettered. Taste it. Taste what you refuse to accept."...An entirely different force spills from Infinity's seeping potential. The temperature around the Tuatha de Danaan rapidly begins to increase - boiling hotter and hotter, sending spirals of steam upwards, the ocean beginning to churn violently. A rejection...of 'zero' - a portent of not just 'infinity' - the intent to raise the heat to such heights...but towards the 'end-point'. The Earth's inevitable fate of being consumed by the ferocity of the sun.
...In a mirror of 'ending', the landscape around Anita as well begins to twist - but instead of a wasteland in 'ruins', it's a wasteland of 'perfection'. A rejection of that very end, that anything changes - to leave it pristine and inert forever. Something about the sheer, unkempt honesty Anita admits strikes a nerve somewhere Dr. Hell didn't know he had. That he - SHOULDN'T have.
Not with the 'Emperor's light that called him from the abyss.
"...Audacious. You speak as though you know me. You speak as though you have lived my life, and seen what I have. You, the most insignificant worm who dares to use what little strength you have to try and upend the world. You - you!!!"
-Memories of being betrayed by Mycenae.
Memories of seeing in the ruins of Bardos what none of the others were willing to accept.
Memories of long hours studying alone.
Memories of having only the light of his own innate brilliance to climb up through the world.
They flood into Dr. Hell...at the same time as all of Earth joins hands, sending all of their intent towards the single point of refusing his future.
KTS: Dr. Hell targets Anita Rosetta with -Zero- | Horizon Omen! KTS: Dr. Hell targets Teletha Testarossa with -Zero- | Horizon Omen! KTS: Dr. Hell targets Yuliana Kafim with Collapsing Thunder! KTS: Dr._Hell Changes attack to Sayla Mass, Kallen Kozuki, Sayaka Yumi, Leina Ashta, Naoko Suzuki, Cascade Vermilion, Roux Louka, and Koji Kabuto with Breast Inferno. KTS: Dr. Hell has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Sayaka Yumi has activated the Foresee Spirit Command. KTS: Leina Ashta has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Leina Ashta has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Sayaka Yumi has activated the Foresee Spirit Command. KTS: Sayla Mass has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Sayaka Yumi has activated the Trust Spirit Command. KTS: Yuliana Kafim has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Sayla Mass successfully Evades Dr. Hell's Breast Inferno KTS: Dr. Hell roots his unit, coming to a standstill and leaving him vulnerable. KTS: Roux Louka has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Cascade Vermilion successfully avoids Dr. Hell's Breast Inferno KTS: Dr. Hell roots his unit, coming to a standstill and leaving him vulnerable. KTS: Leina Ashta successfully Evades Dr. Hell's Breast Inferno KTS: Dr. Hell roots his unit, coming to a standstill and leaving him vulnerable. KTS: LiSA has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Sayaka Yumi KTS: Sayaka Yumi successfully avoids Dr. Hell's Breast Inferno KTS: Dr. Hell roots his unit, coming to a standstill and leaving him vulnerable. KTS: Your EN is now 43. KTS: Cascade Vermilion has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Cascade Vermilion has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Cascade Vermilion has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Roux Louka retreats from the attack! KTS: Roux Louka successfully evades Dr. Hell's Breast Inferno KTS: Dr. Hell roots his unit, coming to a standstill and leaving him vulnerable. KTS: Koji Kabuto fails to Evade Dr. Hell's Breast Inferno, taking 6750 damage! KTS: Dr. Hell roots his unit, coming to a standstill and leaving him vulnerable. KTS: Anita Rosetta blocks Dr. Hell's -Zero- | Horizon Omen, taking 3900 damage! KTS: Yuliana Kafim successfully evades Dr. Hell's Collapsing Thunder KTS: Naoko Suzuki has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Naoko Suzuki successfully evades Dr. Hell's Breast Inferno KTS: Dr. Hell roots his unit, coming to a standstill and leaving him vulnerable. KTS: Kallen Kozuki fails to Evade Dr. Hell's Breast Inferno, taking 7500 damage! KTS: Dr. Hell roots his unit, coming to a standstill and leaving him vulnerable. KTS: Teletha Testarossa has activated the Foresee Spirit Command. KTS: Teletha Testarossa has activated the Foresee Spirit Command. KTS: Teletha Testarossa successfully Evades Dr. Hell's -Zero- | Horizon Omen KTS: Cascade Vermilion has activated the Strike Spirit Command. Roux Louka transforms to MSZ-006-3 Zeta Gundam 'Strike Zeta' <Waverider> <Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Of course I see this shit!" Yuliana yells back to Leina. "That's why I have to! And my Elisa already fixed me so I have the normal amount of legs so I'm fine!" She wonders, briefly, whether Leina was saying she should be in prison earlier.
... she might have been about to tell her she should be in bed.
(And Yuliana, who does speak Spanish, doesn't betray Leina's secret to the world. She really must give a damn. A small one. A picodamn...)
"Rrrgh... I am TRYING to HELP YOU, idiot!" She finally has to cry out to Leina, spelling the whole thing out.
And what does helping Leina -- or Sayaka and the others -- really get her?
Annihilation, generally speaking.
Because the clouds billow across the Masquerion, and Dr. Hell calls down the sky itself to split Yuliana in twain --
"I reject it!" Yuliana screams.
And she does not only scream it.
Asciel saw this, the last time she took a Masquerion out to do the right thing, in spite of all that follows her. Yuliana has been fighting since the Mycenae War -- she's gotten good at it. She's able to push this Lion-alike to dodge lightning itself, forcing its engines to work harder than they were ever designed to work.
It's not easy. She does it, anyway.
"My love is my own, Dr. Hell!" She screams, as she continues her work, compromising the Omnisphere effects of Infinity. "I will not have you belittle it!
KTS: Yuliana Kafim targets Dr. Hell with Goad! KTS: Yuliana Kafim has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Dr. Hell has activated the Resupply Spirit Command targeting Sayaka Yumi <Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
Infinity's chest array builds heat just as Z and Areia's do.
"Oh no. Sayaka, pull up!"
It won't be enough. Z is heavier than Areia and can't support flight with the Jet Scrander. They'll both be engulfed, unless... -
It's not a choice at all.
Koji slams the release lever on the clamps that keep Mazinger Z's arm attached, activating a 'dry fire' Rocket Punch to separate the Castle of Iron from its battle partner. Areia soars upwards, away from him, and he closes his eyes as the Breast Inferno consumes Mazinger Z.
... A chime from his dashboard has him open his eyes.
Energy, flowing in. Lingering after efects from the reactor feedback loop?
... No. This is...
====== ======
"Third Company, power down your reactors. Switch to portable radio and stand by for further orders." Shiro Kabuto commands his soldiers, not taking his eyes off the terrible light show at the peak of Fuji. "C'mon, bro..."
At the Old Lab, Professors Sewasshi and Nossori exchange a look. "Emergency override. Shutting down all nonessential systems," Sewasshi declares, glancing at the photograph of their younger selves, side by side with a larger, bearded and jovial scientist. Nossori places a hand on his colleague/partner's shoulder. "This is for you, Morimori."
At the foot of Fuji, the New Science City goes dark, building by building...
====== ======
Consumed by the raging flame, somehow the integrity of the Super Alloy Z is holding. No, not holding.
Rebuilding itself against the devouring inferno.
"... No way," Koji breathes - and immediately starts rerouting power from Z's reactor again.
...
The Breast Inferno fades away, leaving behind a cloud of smoke...
"If enough Photon Power were concentrated in one place..."
The smoke clears - mostly. It still plumes from Mazinger Z's armour, its chest array shattered and useless, the black plates cracked all over its chassis, and the wings of its Jet Scrander beginning to deform... but whole.
"... It might be possible to directly convert energy into mass."
Mazinger Z is borne aloft on its own might, stable flight once again possible. It did not totally withstand the Breast Inferno... but it is functional. Koji grins, madly. "I knew it."
Mazinger Z soars upwards, towards the cranial dock of Infinity, and aims its left arm. "Activating purge worm," he murmurs for his allies' benefit. "Hijacking touch communication systems for contact upload. Rerouting spare Photon Power to fist structural integrity and thruster power."
And there's a lot of Photon Power to spare.
Closing... closing... point-blank range. Koji stares from the Hover Pilder into the crown of the Great Marshal of Hell, making eye contact with his nemesis for the first time in ten years...
... He has nothing to say, except: "Soar forth, iron fist! ROCKET... PUUUUUUUUUUUUNCH!"
KTS: Koji Kabuto has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Koji Kabuto has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Koji Kabuto targets Dr. Hell with Rocket Punch! KTS: Koji Kabuto has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Koji Kabuto has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Koji Kabuto has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Koji Kabuto has activated the Valor Spirit Command. <Pose Tracker> Teletha Testarossa has posed.
There is only the hopes of the outside for the Tuatha de Dannan. Each unit working on its own, a crew in the triple digits working to keep this submarine safe, secure, mobile, and ready for deployment. And at the center of it all, a Captain grit her teeth. Hit. Second direct hit. THis was Infinity. THis was someone who had no love, had nothing but his own iron will and a weapon to carry it out.
It reminded her of someone she'd rather not think about.
<"Unfettered? Are you matching her definition?"> It's a quickfire response; Martha accosted her about it. Discarding pride. Discarding the self. Discarding what made her different from her brother. Her eyes crooked at that line of questioning. <"I've seen Goragon from the inside. It's not a place I want to live in."> And yet, there's a side of her that mirthfully cackles at the situation. Infinity? Who wouldn't? To fix a world that's already irrevocably broken by people like her?
"Temperatures rising!" The shout of technician breaks her out of that line of thought.
"ALL BALLASTS, TAKE WATER!"
It's a mere, simple rejection of something she tasted while flung around in Goragon. To know the strands of fate, to understand the world in such an oblique fashion of madness. Trying to push down, weigh itself down on boiling, searing, superscalding water that stressed metal unsuited for the heat of lava, for the scorching fires that soared towards rivaling the sun.
<"What sort..."> A heavy breath. It's hot. It's hot its hot its hot its hot its hot its hot its hot its hot its hot its hot its hot its hot <"of infinity"> its hot its hot its hot its hot <"are you saying...?">
And the Tuatha de Dannan dunks itself out of the scorching waterline, the vessel contracting the slightest bit as the metal cooled down. Replacements and refinements, things for later, things to not think about, focus, focus focus focus focus focus focus focus...
It's a power she'd grasp, were it not saner to abstain.
"Load all tubes. Tomahawks."
"Captain?"
"We're making our stand."
"Aye, ma'am. Load all tubes! Cruise missiles!"
The movement of munitions, even as they were executed perfectly, elicited an impatient tap of her finger. Hurry up. Hurry up. Dark-ringed eyes thirsting for emotional succor. Hurry up.
"Fire." A missile. And another. And another. Faith in Lisa's calculations, faith in her ship, faith in the world and its insanity to disembowel the beast that purported another form of Possibility.
KTS: Teletha Testarossa has activated the Attune Spirit Command. KTS: Teletha Testarossa targets Dr. Hell with Sniper! KTS: Teletha Testarossa has completed their actions for the round. <Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
"<Understatement of the year Mom!>" On being 'a little worked up'. Before Yuliana spells it out, and indeed, she knew, so she spells it out BACK to her- "<And I'm trying to keep you from getting KILLED DUMMY!>"
As she flips off the comms just to say, "... the hell..." to her saying Elisa gave her back a normal amount of legs.
A Volcano erupts from within Infinity, and several of Leina's funnels are consumed outright, causing the cage to drop instantly as several points upon it are disrupted. The Beguir suddenly pivots into a sharp turn, rolling down the mountainside, as the tide of vaporizing heat barely misses it's back.
Leaping down into a crevasse, the Beguir, waits, as rock above it melts, more and more. Yet she doesn't wait long as, LiSA needs help. LiSA asked for help. Mineva just spoke, entrusting their hopes to all of them. And she won't let them down.
Her funnels are utterly drained, they need a recharge, immediately. Yet, as the words of Gundams being past relics ring in her mind, Leina speaks a single word.
"Banshee!"
And deep on the orbital ring, despite it being enclosed in a vault, there is a gleam within it's red eyes. A spiritual effigy looms overhead with the senses for those to see it, it's hands encompassing within a prismatic nebula.
All of her remaining funnels gleam, no indeed, they shine, bright, not with the hopes of Photon Power, but her feelings, her bond with the Gundam that he decries, channeled through the Beguir's small amount of Psychoframe.
"<God! How do you even miss the hypocrisy in your own words! You're using a Mazin YOURSELF!>"
The Beguir leaps out of the Crevasse, it's rifle charging, spherical energy blooming upon the nozzle, even as the same happens in each funnel, pointed at Infinity.
"<Past relic this, past relic that! Don't you get it? You've been digging up these 'unsightly' relics for so long you've become one yourself!>"
They begin to fire, the funnels creating terrible sustained streams of beamfire that despite being small, twist and carve all along the length and breadth and height of Infinity, in shining bursts, over and over even as her Beam Rifle joins in.
"<When are you gonna admit - all of this! All of it is because you're just scared that as little as the world has changed - it's still left you behind?>"
The Beguir fires it's own beam rifle, adding to the Minovsky hell, the charged burst shining across the sky, as it rakes across Infinity's form.
"<You've got nothing to offer us anymore.>"
Perhaps, in the end, it's only a distraction for Koji, for LiSA, for Sayaka, but she means it. In his refusal to accept their love, their feelings, their value, in anyone or anything.
He has become a cipher, in Leina Ashta's eyes.
And thus, she is unsurprised, when the Rocket Punch soars right at the Great Marshal of Hell.
KTS: Leina Ashta targets Dr. Hell with Beguir Neuer Funnel Array Over Barrage! KTS: Leina Ashta has completed their actions for the round. <Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.
"Oh, are you getting tired of it?! I'm so sorry I could shit, Dr. Hell!! Maybe you should stop MUTILATING REALITY like you're doing if you're so sick of people being MEAN to you!!" Roux spits back as she finishes her barrage of sword-strikes. The megaparticle fountain effect collapses almost instantly.
'I will set all of it aflame.'
Can he do that?
Roux's eyes turn to the side. There is really no one to ask. Infinity is shifting. Roux can see its heart, bared -- ah! If only she had a second Launcher, but -- the sense of imminent, horrifying danger appears in the back of her spine, climbing up through her sympathetic nervous system as her eyes widen.
Roux pulls down the transformation lever with one hand as she pulls back on the throttle with the other. The Strike Zeta changes its form into the Waverider and an instant later it accelerates into the sky, its thermonuclear ramjet engines screaming as they gulp in air and accelerate it to pure unfettered thrust with the clean light of nuclear fusion--
It's enough.
Enough to dodge nuclear fire, anyway. The Strike Zeta tilts backwards as Roux strains against the pain of acceleration, and all with the damnable irritation of that 1G pull straight down - ugh! How does anyone fly anything on Earth?
Is he going to set the whole planet on fire?
I could escape, Roux thinks, if he did.
Nah, she decides an instant later, turning her head as the Strike Zeta levels out, banks, and begins to descend. Roux's attention turns towards the -- the missile panel, which is completely dry, and the Hyper Mega Launcher, which is recharging.
In the distance she can see Mazinger Z shed an arm. "Damn it --"
Roux's own contribution is simple and plain -- one of the few remaining actual arrows, the 'special' arrow with its warhead packed into a layer of electronically interfering chaff, carefully layered together to generate sensor and visual illusions suggesting Mobile Suits. Against Goragon -- against Infinity? Perhaps no more than annoyance.
And yet, sometimes an annoyance is the thing that turns the balance.
KTS: Roux Louka targets Dr. Hell with ECM Missile! KTS: Roux Louka has completed their actions for the round. <Pose Tracker> Kallen Kozuki has posed.
Breast Inferno... a gigantic, twisted version of something Mazins are so famous for. Lethal to most kikaiju even at the smaller scale of Z. At Infinity's size, most pilots would be lucky to narrowly survive it. Let alone something the size of a Knightmare Frame. And yet, as the gargantuan beam washes over the tiny machine, a red light of its own pushes back. A portion of the Wave Surger's charge, used to create a partial defense within the heart of the incinerating beam. Enough to spare what's left of the cockpit, and the arm itself. Unfortunately, one of Guren's legs has been shorn off completely, and the other is halfway melted, much like significant portions of the machine's torso. By all rights, this red menace shouldn't be a factor in the fight any more.
Unfortunately for Dr. Hell, its pilot has spent a lot of her life looking up to Koji Kabuto. And not really knowing anything about giving up. She glances back to the Neo-Parthenos. "Asciel, can you give me a hand? I just need a little push. Just send me at Infinity, at its face if you can. I want to give him a full dose of the Wave Surger!"
Shockingly, this doesn't require an extended argument or anything. Though Kallen may or may not have needed to agree to something or other. And so soon enough, the Half-Guren is screaming through the air. Its sole remaining arm is held up front, shining and rippling in the air from the wild levels of heat coming off it. Normally she's not the attack screaming type, but... In this situation. It's almost necessary. "SURGER OVERFLOW!" A heat that Dr. Hell is going to be learning all about personally. Guren's remaining systems aren't likely to last long after this, without repairs... but right now, what matters is slugging a smug man in his smug jaw! In a roundabout way, Kallen and her Guren are themselves a Rocket Punch right now. Though, far and away smaller than the one coming in from the Original.
KTS: Kallen Kozuki targets Dr. Hell with Wave Surger Eruption! KTS: Kallen Kozuki has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
Watching Lisa rally her resolve - to announce to all of the world her plea - inspires a confluence of thoughts in Asciel, threading the needle on sharing the word on cutting out energy, and...letting her message actually stay heard, stay afloat in numbers.
>i'm proud of her. | i'm jealous of her.<
The cable between the owl in Goragon, and the Asciel in reality, tightens harder. Both ends pulling - but unable to be freed, like a finger trap between one's own hands.
The roots of the tree looming over Lisa tighten covetously over the 'Ai' cube that she now holds alone. She [promised] never to leave, after all. It covets the star Lisa holds in her hands - the dreams of humanity in her palm. The owl's wings part wide. Wouldn't this, right here, be the moment the Controller sought, to fulfill its purpose, to make the SINGLE mistake that'd win it the power to decide the future?
A single leaf falls.
...A single request is made. A single, humble request of 'Asciel', perpetually going in and out of a fugue state on the Macross's bridge. All Kallen wants is a little lift, to get her in closer to Dr. Hell. Pushed back 'awake', Asciel in the outside world dimly sputters, "It's difficult as hell to move the Macross right now, I...I'm not connected to the-"
...Asciel pauses. Yes she is. She knows for a fact that she did not remove her core from the Macross's bridge. And yet here she stands on its arm, seeing through the Arm Slave's eyes, the Lambda Driver burning unimaginably hot at all times, latched to the space behind Infinity. ...Just to check. JUST TO CHECK - the torso of the Codarl unfurls...and Asciel sees, with her own eyes, that her 'heart' isn't in her 'body'.
Backlash from the jealous feelings overcomes Asciel, her foot skidding backwards. With a loud, tense, almost horrified scream - the slumped-over Macross 13 suddenly leaps to life, lifting Kallen half a kilometer in ther air on the face of it - and it strides forward with full boosters active. She'll GIVE Kallen that boost and THEN some. It looks like Asciel would launch the Macross's fist right towards Infinity - but no. No. She isn't aiming /there.
She's directing her arm off to its side - towards the place within Goragon that she's somehow still connected to. And at the same time - the tether of her [promise] is pulled violently.
"LISA KABUTO - it's about to sound like I'm abandoning you for just a moment, but let's make one thing PERFECTLY CLEAR - I'm not letting anyone like YOU fail here, okay!? I'm not letting it happen. I WAS ABOUT TO LET IT HAPPEN BUT I ~CREATED MYSELF TO STOP EXACTLY THIS FROM HAPPENING. What you're doing right now...think of it as ~defiance! THINK OF IT AS THE FUTURE YOU WANTED, AND SCREAM IT INTO ABSOLUTELY, DEFINITELY HAPPENING!"
-Where a gigantic mechanical hand 'enters' the flickering gate of Goragon...a colossal 'human' hand appears, to grab the shimmering tree next to Lisa, uprooting it from holding onto 'Ai' so zealously, and pulling it free from this landscape of possibility.
...
...Whatever the hell that was about, probably the most important thing is that Asciel has popped out of existing on stream. It's just Lisa now.
<Pose Tracker> Cascade Vermilion has posed.
As the fins on Infinity's chest light, Androktasia slowly comes to a stop, hovering in midair as only it, with the gravity engine at its core, can do.
Cascade is a tempest of emotions, everything she's said and everything she hasn't; everything everyone *else* has said, and what they haven't. She wants to scream; she wants to shout; part of her wants to cry (she's not sure what's up with that part). For the first time, the Newtypes can feel her - really feel her - as in that one moment, Cascade becomes more open than she ever has been before, the storm of emotions unable to stay contained.
Dr. Hell wants everything to stay still, stay perfect, and she can't abide that. She's not the same person she was last month, or last week, or even yesterday. She has hopes and dreams and aspirations - the belief that tomorrow will not be the same as today, that she can seize something new and make it her own.
Maybe one day, there will be a place for her. Maybe one day, she will understand 'love'. But right now, what she understands is that, unless Infinity is stopped, there will never be an opportunity. Not ever. If Dr. Hell has his way, nothing will ever change. Everything will be perfect, and still, and unable to become more than what it was.
And she cannot accept that. Not after all she's been through.
Cascade takes a deep breath, and the sheer volume she puts out surprises even her. She didn't know her voice was that powerful. But it is, as the Photon Power starts to flow into even Androktasia, the dark light of its gravity cannon shimmering with gold highlights around the edges of the chest fins.
"FOR A NEW TOMORROW! GEON BLAZER!"
The blast of blue-violet-black, shot through shimmering golden sparks, erupts out from Androktasia. It slams into the Breast Inferno; much of it passes *around* Androktasia, but one area in front of her is held back as the beams collide - and then the gravitationally empowered blast punches *through*, driving directly at Infinity, somewhere between energy and mass and kinetic force all rolled into one.
Androktasia, meanwhile, drops down to the ground and lands with a colossal slam, smoking and charred from the proximity of the Breast Inferno that passed it by. It's a wonder it's remained standing upright. The lower half of its cloak has burned away, leaving it with a tattered appearance and much shorter.
KTS: Cascade Vermilion targets Dr. Hell with Geon Blazer! KTS: Cascade Vermilion has completed their actions for the round. <Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.
The landscape around Anita twists. A wasteland of 'perfection', pristine, inert and unchanging... it's powerful. It's the kind of thing that could force someone to stop... but Anita has to power through it. She forces Svipul - and herself - to keep going.
"I'm just guessin' based on what you've said and what I know. I don't need to know everything to draw that conclusion. Maybe it's not what you set out to be, but it's what you are now, and that's what people like me are gonna think." Anita replies with a shrug... and then, a smirk. "But... you sound pretty upset. Maybe I'm not too far off the mark, huh?"
She flies upward - and Svipul spreads her wings wide. Anita draws the Gungnir SC from its shoulder mount, the beam spear blade flaring to life.
"Maybe I don't got a lot of strength on my own... but I'm not alone. Look at what happens when all of us 'worms' pool our strength together. Even you can't look away from this." Anita says.
She points herself downward and accelerates toward Infinity, using her thrusters to boost herself forward. Once she's built up enough Svipul twists in mid-air, taking on its Battroid form, like a Valkyrie descending from the heavens - and then thrusts her spear downward with all of her might.
KTS: Anita Rosetta has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Anita Rosetta has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Anita Rosetta has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained proficiency bonus. <Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.
As Sayla's own version of Breast Fire ends, Dr Hell prepares for his own-
And Sayla has a flash of warning, as the Hi-Nu rockets up, the ground where she was standing reduced to molten rock and ash, the heat from the blast still hitting her even from here. She breathes heavily, knowing how close she was to oblivion. Even with the energy coming back, it will take a few moments for the Hyper Mega Bazooka Launcher to be ready to fire again. It needs to cool down.
And she gasps- as Koji is caught in the blast. That would be lethal, wouldn't it-
But it isn't. Mazinger Z stands. It reforms. What in the world...?
Is it... another Miracle?
Two funnels burst out, ahead of the Rocket Punch. If Koji's going to cut right through this... "Funnels! Rust Twister!"
It's not a lot of power poured into the attack, but if she can weaken Infinity's armour where Koji is going to strike....
"<Hey... Koji, Sayaka...>" She looks forward. "<You know when I first met you two, I thought you two were in serious trouble. A couple of thirteen year olds fighting a megalomaniac with almost no support. I kind of thought that time Amuro and I met you would be the last time.>"
She looks up, as the funnels blast their winds against Infinity. "<But you proved me wrong. You survived, and you thrived, and I'm glad to count you both among my friends- even when I'm impossible to put up with.>" There's a smile on Sayla's face. "<...what I'm saying is... you both better make it through this too. I still owe you for ruining our last dinner. So you'd better both give me the chance, got it!?>"
For Dr Hell, Sayla has no more words. She's said everything she needs to say to him- and has nothing else she wants to hear him say.
Anita Rosetta transforms to XVF-25I Svipul <Battroid Mode>
KTS: Sayla Mass targets Dr. Hell with Rust Twister! KTS: Sayla Mass has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Anita Rosetta targets Dr. Hell with Divine Valkyrie Charge! KTS: Anita Rosetta has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Yuliana Kafim goads Dr. Hell, reducing his Intuition drastically. KTS: Dr. Hell fails to react to Koji Kabuto's Rocket Punch, taking 7200 damage! KTS: Dr. Hell fails to react to Teletha Testarossa's Sniper, taking 4500 damage! KTS: Roux Louka rattles Dr. Hell, making his next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Dr. Hell partially guards Roux Louka's ECM Missile, taking 3198 damage! KTS: Sayla Mass rattles Dr. Hell, making his next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Dr. Hell fails to react to Sayla Mass's Rust Twister, taking 2640 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Sayla Mass's No More Hesitation activates, causing Nullify! KTS: Dr. Hell fails to react to Anita Rosetta's Divine Valkyrie Charge, taking 7810 damage! KTS: Anita Rosetta has engaged Dr. Hell! KTS: Dr. Hell fails to react to Leina Ashta's Beguir Neuer Funnel Array Over Barrage, taking 7920 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Leina Ashta's Mass Effect activates, causing Control Bonus! KTS: Dr. Hell partially guards Cascade Vermilion's Geon Blazer, taking 8760 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Cascade Vermilion's The Future Ahead activates, causing Insight L1! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Cascade Vermilion's The Past Behind activates, causing Jam L1! <Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.
BREAST INFERNO!!!
The words echo in Naoko's ears. Twisting and distorting, until the voice is hers. The words she uttered to destroy everything - everybody, who could have been friends, but never were, in that Possibility. She's dimly aware that this isn't the same thing as in her vision, where she'd used otherworldly knowledge to enhance that terrible weapon far more than should ever have been possible. But that doesn't mean it isn't still a supremely destructive weapon that's been turned on them all, one that prompts a desperate cry from the Whispered.
"NO!!!"
However, this is no simple despair. It's a denial, a rejection of any Possibility in which this weapon, this Magine, becomes the tool of destruction that annihilates all she cares about. Much to her regret, she lacks the power to protect anyone else. In the face of this Breast Inferno, she should lack the power to protect even herself. But with all that power backing her - the collective belief of humanity that this world is worth saving, this miracle does end up happening. A force of will strong enough to bend even that forceful blast of volcanic fire around the Sukeban, leaving it impossibly untouched.
In the cockpit, on the central screen of the Sukeban, flashes the name that a young Naoko decided to give the custom Arm Slave operating system she programmed.
T.A.R.O.S.
Totally Awesome Revolutionary Operating System
How random. Probably doesn't have anything to do with anything.
Naoko lets out a breath, not sparing a moment of thought to what just occured before launching into the offensive. At this moment, there's only one thing she can do. Only one thing that feels appropriate. Mirroring Koji, even though she doesn't consciously realize it.
"Burn, fist of justice! ROKKETTO PUUUUUUUUUUUNCH!"
KTS: Naoko Suzuki targets Dr. Hell with Remote Fist! KTS: Naoko Suzuki has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Dr. Hell fails to retreat. KTS: Dr. Hell fails to react to Naoko Suzuki's Remote Fist, taking 4929 damage! KTS: Dr. Hell has been defeated! KTS: Naoko Suzuki has engaged Dr. Hell! KTS: Dr. Hell fails to retreat. KTS: Dr. Hell fails to react to Kallen Kozuki's Wave Surger Eruption, taking 6903 damage! KTS: Dr. Hell has been defeated! KTS: Kallen Kozuki has engaged Dr. Hell! <Pose Tracker> Sayaka Yumi has posed.
Doctor Hell launches his final judgement: BREAST INFERNO. Sayaka sees it coming, but tethered to Z like this... they'll both burn. Instead, she tries to muster up a defense to protect them both, but it's Koji's quick thinking that sees her separated.
For Z to bear the burden of Breast Inferno alone. Can it even survive that much power. Apparently it can, as Z continues to move, thanks to the gift of Photon Power provided by the world. "Koji, you... dummy! What were you thinking trying to take that alone?" Sayaka chides him, but she smiles. If they're arguing over that, well... they can still win.
Diverting all that energy to the Rocket Punch fist of the Castle of Iron, Koji prepares one last attack against Dr. Hell. Sayaka does the same, drawing the Mazinger Blade greatsword again, letting it be filled with light. "Blade of iron, hear my call! Mazinger BLADE!" She roars, aiming it towards Doctor Hell.
Mazins and other machines alike assault Infinity's massive form. Leina's rejection. Tessa's final stand. Roux, creating an annoyance for Goragon. Asciel's pride. Cascade's belief in a new tomorrow. Anita's teamwork. Kallen's passion. Naoko's aspiration. Even Yuliana, friends they may not be... rejects the annihilation Infinity would bring by helping them. And... Sayla, making sure they all get out of this alive.
"We will... Sayla. I wouldn't miss that dinner for anything. So let's finish this, shall we?"
It's almost beautifully simple, Sayaka's final stand against Infinity. She lunges that blade forward, jamming it in Infinity's armour and... leaves it there. The rest of the Photon Power offered to her goes for an unarmed, mighty slap across the face of Mazinger Infinity. Aphrodite A's first, and once only weapon.
=====
In the waters near Mt. Fuji, an OCU boat hovers. In it stand Prime Minister Gennosuke Yumi and an OCU military commander. The boat does not move. A mechanic beckons them over. The amount of power granted to Mazinger Z and its allies is... incalcuable.
Clouded by the gleam of his glasses, tears stream down Gennosuke Yumi's face. "Koji... and my daughter, Sayaka. So this is the truest power of a Mazin..." He thinks to himself.
Masao Sasaki, chief of staff of the Japanese military stands behind him, wordlessly crossing his arms. But for now, all eyes are focused on the downfall of Doctor Hell and his ultimate Magine.
KTS: Sayaka Yumi has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Sayaka Yumi targets Dr. Hell with Mazinger Blade: Areia Combo! KTS: Sayaka Yumi has completed their actions for the round. KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 51. KTS: SP Regen activates. Your new SP value is 25.
<Pose Tracker> LiSA has posed.
In another area of Japan, a woman slips her hand into the grasp of a man's. They could have been there, but circumstances meant they never made it to Fuji in time, and Domon grips Rain's hand tightly as the two of them sit down in a darkened hotel room, watching the stream from Asciel off of her phone. They rarely get this time together, but with their past... "As much hope as they gave us." She murmurs to him, and the King of Hearts nods in quiet agreement.
Across the world, everyone does their part. Sayoko and Nunnally, working together, kill their power. Akito and Megumi .. one is scared, but the other, Megumi being the quiet voice, helps not letting Akito stop as they go around their space, they pass on their efforts. A hospital dims what they can, not all the way, to Wattana's annoyance - but still, a hospital dimming their power usage, is an unexpected boon.
Merida Island kills all of the lights they can. Training, halted, alternate sources utilized. They are well-prepared for power surges, although the question of this type of use was ever considered is neither here nor there. In another hospital, a brunette turns off her lights, as even in Britannia, yes, even Britannia, shows their support, as the red-haired man does what he can.
Speaking of Britannia, Emilia does her part to support her friend, as the lights dim. The Yumi Foundation staff gathers on the twelth floor as their own power goes off, under the instructions of Sakura Isogai. While her father doesn't approve, Mr. Eschonbach finds himself dealing with the lights going irregardless of his orders.
On-camera, everyone that can spare the attention to watch gets to, well, watch, as Lisa's uniform starts going to pieces due to the sheer energy she's handling. Portals open all around her, rapidly showing people everyone doing what they can, all over the world. "I'm sending as much energy as I can muster! Everyone, keep fighting... keep going... I believe in you all!"
Well, briefly, still on earth; Beecha and Elle are distracted from the situation, but in the back and forth, Elle is capable of distracting him long enough for their effort to matter. Shinta and Qum hold hands, watch the stream, and let the darkness be a light. Then, off of Earth... Up in Magallanica, Side 3, Mineva Lao Zabi makes an effort. Lisa is barely capable of reaching out that far, but she does; she will not stand to let their efforts go to waste.
Closer to home, Shiro rouses the rest of Third Company as his machine continues transmitting what it can.
In Japan, nearby, two old scientests, her wacky uncles, look at each other and kill their power. For Morimori. For the ones that have passed. For the ones in the future that are to come. For the ones that exist. For Gennosuke Yumi, the man that doesnt know the young woman roaming with his daughter and (not) son-in-law is in reality possibly his granddaughter. For this universe, this earth. For the love that everyone holds in their hearts.
Hah... hah... Lisas costume is decimated, but she wont stop. Asciel is reaching out to her, not willing to let her die in this Alternate Dimension, although Lisa knows what is coming. Not her death. That wouldnt be the ending this fight, this world deserves. She moves to avoid, flashing open more portals, taking more of the power til she cant hold any more on the staff.
She staggers slightly, dropping down to her knees as she clings to her own Staff, hands grasped around it as that energy comes to fore, and shes not able to totally able to stand it. Lisa staggers to her feet after a moment, shoulders twitching as she adjusts her stance, and then, she lets out the battlecry of the Castle of Iron.
"aaaaaaaAAAAHHHHHHHH......!!!!!"
Most of the energy is given to Mazinger Z, the one she picked so many months ago. However, everyone in the field, excepting Dr. Hell, find themselves enveloped in that golden light of love. To be able to stand up. To move. To fire. Act, react. For not just Koji, but for all of them to let Dr. Hell know... that this is their world...
And they will fight to protect their love, to the best of their ability. Is it enough?
It is.
<Pose Tracker> Dr. Hell has posed.
...It is unarguably a 'miracle'.
It is the faith of millions, watching Infinity threaten everything about their reality, to weaken themselves for the sake of one girl's decision - for the sake of a dozen heroes and the hundreds more who believe in them.
The light may be different - vivid and gold, but it is somehow the same as that of the Axis Shock's aurora of green. The invincible mega-structure of Infinity's ancient enormity, whether torn at with claws or pulverized with hailfire or repulsed wiht a fist - where before, it was solid and unyielding, like the bell of the end...here, it collapses into ash.
...This gigantic relic that 'suddenly appeared' in Mt. Fuji wasn't 'hiding' anywhere before, or in the interim since.
It was never meant to be here in the first place. On that day, twelve thousand years ago - it accepted its purpose was obsolete then and there.
Aphrodite's slap sends the Great Marshal crowning Infinity reeling - and Koji's punch tears through its belly - and from its gap, a flickering Dr. Hell reaches out, coughing up air as though blood would pour out. Cables and cords fill the Marshal to an almost comical degree - one might not even be sure what real 'structure' it had to begin with.
"...this 'Photon Power'...you imbued something like that with your belief, and it chose to accept the faith in the future you carried. ...You all work tirelessly...to see it change the world...and so...it changes itself, to ensure you can."
A low, raspy, struggling laugh from the dissipating doctor.
"...foolish. Foolish to accept that last thing calling for me, when you made sure to kill me in mercy, given what became of me...khah...from those damned Myceneans..."
Looking over his shoulder at Lisa, back in the rapidly dissolving gate to Goragon - then locking eyes with Cascade through her optics. "...hah. Hahahahahah. Unthinkably amusing. Through some hideous miracle, something made itself into a person from my works, and from yours alike. If my descendant and yours can come to the same conclusion...then...that...satisfies the experiment."
The twin Gundams, helmed by those who once took up arms against Dr. Hell, can only make him grimace. "...Dr. Mass. It isn't just that Roux still fights...it's that you must, as well? And you adopted daughter, too? Even that brat, Shiro is taking up arms...kch. To think...to think...those of us who spoke so highly of this planet's future...just left an even worse mess in the hands of the young."
"...You, from the Black Knights. And from that hopeful alliance." Dr. Hell can only barely claim to know Kallen or Anita, but he bluntly says, "...It's straightforward people like you who'll untangle future messes. You know well just who I mean. That woman who fought valiantly against the Myceneans has changed the most of anyone here...too violently. That is what I might have feared all this time."
By now, Infinity and Dr. Hell alike are crumbling to silvery ash - then washed away, as though by the oncoming tide. Indeed, those very words would be his last - all of it falls back to that space beyond time...leaving only a strange, now-depleted hunk of green metal upon the burning soil of Fujinomiya.
...But 'past' this world, Dr. Hell's raspy whisper echoes in Naoko and Tessa's ear.
((...There is an answer to this which troubles you so. You will find it. You will meet the one that whispers to you.))
...The silence afterwards is almost eerie, for how the world nearly was disposed of just moments ago.
KTS: Dr. Hell's Infinity has been disabled.
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
"Sorry, Sayaka," Koji replies, as she berates him for taking the full blast of Infinity's flames alone. "I..."
He falls silent. He has no witty comeback - he didn't even have a plan until he realised what the energy Lisa was sending them was doing.
Hell has last words. Koji's first instinct is to tune them out, but... "Yeah. That's what Mazin Power means to us." The ability to demand the strength to change the world - slowly, surely, step by agonising step, as a symbol of better things rather than a tyrannical demand.
Mazinger Z lowers its upper arms, hovering there as Koji watches Infinity and the Great Marshal discorporate. "... Goodbye, Wilhelm von Hell. Please don't come back again."
Is this a mercy kill, after everything? ... He can at least be kind, like his father wished.
The inert green metal thumps dully to the caldera floor, and Koji lowers Mazinger Z down to join it. "Getter emissions null," he reports, detachedly. "Securing sample for analysis."
... Oh, the adrenaline is fading. That flash of pain he felt waking up is intensifying. "... Hey, Sayaka. Might want to signal the labs for... medical retrieval..."
Mazinger Z staggers as he slumps forwards on the controls, dropping to one knee.
BBSYS: Post 1350, 'KIA: Dr. Hell' has been published to Cutscenes & Logs by Haro.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"I won't die!" Yuliana yells back, to Leina. "I promised Elisa I'd bring back what I lost! We got out of Goragon -- so I don't intend to get killed now!"
And even as the Beguir's funnels are consumed, the Masquerion continues its tight weaving across Infinity, preventing its connection to that empathic space with its very presence. She works twice as hard to counteract its efforts, until Leina's able to restore the tools she uses to match her in the realm of denial.
Give her that much credit: she's putting the effort in. She hasn't thrown a single punch, since she blasted Infinity with her rail gun, but it's all to make sure it can't get away from her for a moment. Thanks to LiSA's smattering of energy -- she's able to keep pushing the machine, even as it redlines.
And so, another type of miracle...
"Amazing," Yuliana has to say, seeing the effects of Koji and Sayaka's assault.
Her lips curl, as she watches Dr. Hell and his works crumble to ash. What he has to say about her, without even addressing her directly -- "Is that how you see me? Wretched man." She looks to the Svipul, and poses a question, to Anita, in the wake of it: "So? Do you agree with Dr. Hell, of all people? I wonder..."
Her Masquerion is throwing up all manner of errors, with how hard she was pushing it -- but luckily, she doesn't have to think of a way out of here, because a green Salamis Kai descends from the sky. "Yo," Parminder Chaudhri's voice comes over the radio, "I'm here to pick up my dumbass Captain, since she forgot she's an internationally-wanted supercriminal or whatever the fuck. We can dance if you wanna, but, like, I ain't bothered."
"Ughhh shut UP," Yuliana grumbles, even as she directs her Masquerion over to the retrieval line the Shandor drops down. "Like, you're right on time, but shut up."
"Nah," Parminder says, still over a perfectly open channel, as he pulls her up and pulls the ship up just the same.
They leave without any further trouble -- and it's probably too much trouble to try to apprehend them, in the present situation.
Did Yuliana... really just show up to help...?
<Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.
They've done it. Not just them fighting here together... but everyone. United as one in a common goal - it's heartening, to see it happen..
Anita pulls out her spear and hops away, returning it to its mount.
...And in his last moment, Dr. Hell addresses her, and everyone. Anita listens. Straightforward, huh...?
"You know she's right here, right?" Anita asks, and - then shakes her head, mostly at herself. It's not like there's any point in scolding a dying man... and, of course, Yuliana herself has noticed this snub, too.
"Do I? Now that's a good question..." She considers, and shrugs. "Well... it's not like it was all by choice. Sure, you changed... but I'm not gonna go reshape the world in my image out of fear of it or anything, neither."
She looks back toward Infinity.
"...Yeah. Don't you worry. I'm gonna keep at it, and so's everyone else. You just rest now and let us handle the world." She says.
Dr. Hell and Infinity fade into ash... and the Svipul, drained already twice over, starts to plummet - but Anita manages to shift it into GERWALK mode and take a controlled dive. It settles onto the ground... and with a sigh and a groan, Anita leans back in her seat.
"...Geez, I'm beat... I feel ready to just nap for a whole week straight after this..." Anita mutters. Parminder comes to retrieve Yuliana - and Anita waves him off, though it's likely no one can see it.
It's not like she's in a hurry to pick another fight so soon after the last two, and everything that happened in between.
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
The space between worlds dissolves, as Infinity collapses into a dust that never should have been.
Right up to the moment it exists, Asciel - 'imagining' herself as pulling something oh so important free from Goragon, even if it's illusory, feels the pang in her gut on exactly what is happening here. What's becoming of that sharply screaming girl who made an illusory self that never should've been.
---"...Lisa. ...You don't have a way out. I'M GIVING YOU A WAY OUT - JUST LIKE I GAVE IT TO MYSELF, I'M NOT LETTING GO-"
The colossal fist of the Macross 13 tightens abruptly. Pulling what Asciel 'left behind', with the same grip she yearns to free the girl bearing miracles from its fate.
"...I'm not letting it happen. Not when it did such a terrible thing to Amuro and the Red Comet. I despise ~miracles enough - I ABHOR the way they demand this kind of hardship. I'm...not...letting go!!!"
The hulking battleship rips its arm free from Goragon, just before it vanished - under some contorted impression of what, exactly, that space is.
The gate to the world of possibilities is fully closed. The Macross's fully mechanical hand turns over, unfurling its grip - the bridge-optics tightening to look-
...It's completely empty.
...Text registers all across nearby communication devices see a surge of junk text pouring into them, for just a moment. Incoherent screaming from an entity that feels an utter sense of failure...
<Pose Tracker> Teletha Testarossa has posed.
To believe in another. To watch the energy flow out to the boundaries, to be infused with the energy of hope, of someone who can make the impossible possible.
And it works. The sight of watching Mazinger punch through the sight of watching every push together...and win. A sense of relief, a sense of that now-eternally aching heart at what the quickly disappating beast had left in her. Leaning back in her chair, sighing out as she wiped her forehead.
"Begin preparations to head back to base. Ensure there's no one in danger."
"Aye, ma'am."
A slow nod, keeping her eye on the fading spectre of Dr. Hell. Good riddance. Condolences to whomever loved him, if any were left. The faintest sense of scorn-
The final whisper sends a sudden jolt, a sudden feeling of stomach-located emptiness through her. It exists. The place she's trying to find, the source of her troubles, the site of damnable, irrevocable change, confirmed existing by one of the people most certain to know it exists. Outwardly, she maintains that half-facade of relief. It's real. It's real. The search isn't in vain. She knew that it had to exist, that it had to have existed, that it does exist, one of the immutable truths of this world. The one that whispers, the obvious link to where it whispers.
To have it confirmed existing is nothing sort of blissful relief for her. Her mouth voices out the place where something split, that wordless, silent exclamation of utter glee faintly echoing into the omnisphere. It is cackling in unrestrained emotion, of the ethereal lungs of a teenage girl who lived by and in the oceans all her life.
Ah, it exists...! The figurative river Archeron, the cave of Taenarum, the bowels of Mount Etna, the city of Fengdu, the crater of Farvaza, the Masaya volcano, Mount Osore, her personal maw of torment that damned her from birth!
It can be found...!
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
In the end, the remaining funnels all fall to the ground, utterly spent, retrieval is the last thing on her mind.
Leina wonders if even Elisa would actually accept Yuliana's promise.
It wasn't so long ago that Leina hated miracles. Given what Axis Shock represented not for humanity, but for Sayla.
Miracles always had a cost, a human cost - a personal one to her.
Now she's learned, through hardship and suffering, through a loss of agency that the miracles aren't this light. Not the light of Axis Shock. Nor the light at Gryps II. And not this one now, at Fujinomiya.
The truest miracles are the people that run across one's lives. That's now why she believes in miracles.
She has to admit, however, as that light tears across the invincible Infinity, as she can feel the people that came together to create it.
She finds, that in Dr. Hell dying, speaking this way, that... she hates it. This sort deathbed repentance, this remorse.
...just left an even worse mess in the hands of the young.
She finds it's not too dissimilar from Syam Vist...
It was you who killed me!?
Why does it have to be that Dr. Hell and Syam Vist are the better men, in those final moments?
Bringing up her faceplate, she draws her fingers across her eyes, as they come away wet, and not for him.
In the end, she takes a breath, as the glow shines brighter, with one final punch she watches Mazinger Z bring it to the end.
And does not know why she's crying for him, when today is a triumph for them all, for the world. They saved it.
Now if only they can change it.
There is alarm certainly as she hears Koji's words, and feels him slump over, but she knows that others will tend to it. This is the limit of what she can do, while others including her Mother are actual Doctors...
... she hits the frequency for the OCU's third company as she puts on her calm voice, her mature voice. He needs a calm presence given what she's about to say.
"<... Shiro - the fights over. Koji just - he passed out, they're probably going to be evacuating him to the hospital. Let's...>"
A pause.
"<...we'll talk there.>"
Powering down the Minovsky Reactor JUST enough, she takes out her phone, and waits for a dial tone so she can try to make certain arrangements.
"God. That's right... they started at thirteen." She says, remembering Sayla's words somehow in that moment, and rubbing the bridge of her nose, "... Shiro said it often enough, how'd I forget that?"
Probably because it hardly registers to her somehow, when Judau and the others were fourteen.
"Hate that it ate this much of their life away."
As she ruminates on that, waiting for her cellphone to register the bars...
... her head jerks up suddenly, as another possibility in the gate of possibilities... blips out.
For the longest time, she just sits there, eyes distant, as yet another 'miracle' for humanity, exacts its price.
And wonders why she wasted her tears far too soon, on the undeserving.
<Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.
When the dust settles... there is more dust, as Infinity crumbles. Unarguably a miracle, indeed. Naoko will absolutely wonder how on earth she survived this one later. But then, a miracle that can be explained by science wouldn't really be a miracle, would it?
For now, all that matters is that victory was achieved. This reality has been saved. Possibility will remain just so. There is no doubt in her mind that this is how it must be. How could there be, when for one fleeting moment, there were so many hearts and minds across the world united in this belief?
And yet, there's a lingering sadness in her heart. She can't be certain what exactly it's for. Closing the door to Possibility, to a place that felt so strangely warm and familiar? The thought that this was ultimately just one more world-ending scenario thwarted, with so many more in the past and likely even more in the future? Perhaps there's even a measure of sadness for Dr. Hell, a man so trapped by his convictions that this could be all that awaited at the end of his path? She really couldn't say. Not right now, her thoughts all jumbled by the frankly surreal effort put forth just moments ago. But at least this crisis is finally over.
She sits straight up in her seat, when she hears the voice of the man who just dissolved into so many particles, as if he was right next to her. It can't be, is her initial thought, immediately followed by no, it can. These thoughts are quickly drowned out, by thoughts regarding what was she was just told.
The Whispers... so long has she tried to put them out of her mind. So long have her friends aided in keeping them from driving her insane. So long has she been blocking out her episodes and fugue states, whether consciously or unconsciously. She didn't think there was anything to be done. That there was no explanation, that this was just part of her 'condition' and she just had to live with that. To know that there is an answer, that there's someone responsible... it's alarming in its own way, but in the end, it mostly just comes as a huge relief.
As well as a realization. She'd been turning her eyes away from it. But, perhaps the time has come to face it.
"...Uriel, Ariel. When we get back... we need to talk."
<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Yumi has posed.
Mazinger Infinity collapses into ash, as if it had never appeared in the first place... it's the Great Marshall of Hell who takes the brunt of their final assault.
One last, personal look at their nemesis. Sayaka considers his last words to her carefully. "I have... always wanted what's best for this world." Sayaka says, quietly. "In times of peace and times of war. If Photon Power can act to meet our desires... that's what it means to me." She concludes.
"So long, Doctor Hell. You never should have returned." Her words differ slightly from Koji's. But the point is clear.
She watches as Parminder and his Salamis Kai arrive to pick up Yuliana. "...Farewell to you too, Yuliana Kafim. That we could fight side by side one more time... I'm glad."
Mazinger Z, then, collapses to the ground, and Aphrodite Areia reaches to meet him. She disconnects the Pilder... she needs to see with her own eyes. She gets to eye contact level with Mazinger Z's Pilder.
"He's out cold all right." Sayaka confirms, to everyone. "I think he'll be just fine... but let's hurry up on getting a team over. Sayla, if you'd please?" Leina informing the Third Company helps first.
But before the medical team comes to retrieve Mazinger Z... "We won, Koji... we beat him." She says, quietly and seriously."There's nothing I'd be prouder of than being able to call you my partner in battle... and life. But I'd like to hear it from you. See you soon."
KTS: Yuliana Kafim's Lion 500 has been disabled.
<Pose Tracker> LiSA has posed.
Goragons power fade, as Dr. Hell and the Mazinger Infinity do too. In that Alternate Dimension, the mega-Magine that was circled by the Staff of Bardos is gone, leaving only the light of the other Mazine-enginges; of Aphrodite and Z. Lisa may not have physically fought, yet she is emotionally and mentally exhausted and being the locus for the power is just physically exhausting as well. She waves her hand; her own Staff disappears.
She looks around and sighs softly, and edges carefully. Shes too late, it seems; the sense of her is lost, as Leina founds out, but she still manages to reach out to two people. Sayaka first, a gentle hug. A soft whisper. Thank you for being who you are... and for being my mother. Then, the greatest one, and Lisa looks down at Kojis unconcious form, giving him a hug. To my master... no. After the first few months, you were never that. Once I realized who the two of you are. Thank you, Father... She stands up and looks at the field, and then Lisa takes her leave.
For now.