2022-12-09: Collapse

• Log: 2022-12-09- Collapse
• Cast: Akane Shinjo, GaoGaiGo Team, Rikka Takarada, Alouette Pommier, Jana Cektru, Kaworu Nagisa, Asuka Shikinami Langley, Eisen Daiwel, Colonel Tubarov, Ken Shinjo, Lamia, Yuta Hibiki, Anti, Alloy Kaas, Renais Cardiff, Qivi, Sonia Sophia-Grace, Liam 7-020, Yuka Ohta, Sayla Mass, Orpheus Zevon, Sousuke Sagara
• Where: Tsutsujidai
• OOC - IC Date: 0096-12-09
• Summary: A heart breaks.

---

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

The shopping district of Tsutsujidai has been in a state of disarray since the brief appearance of a kaiju simply designated 'nameless.' It has no features of note -- other than the barest concession to the idea of a mouth and eyes and limbs, it looks like an unmodified lump of clay, slightly rolled between the hands. The colors don't even match -- places where it picked up dust and debris and other sources of coloration from a cutting mat.

The hand of a human -- a 'real human' -- is no doubt all too visible in the work. Indeed, there's one place where a concession has been made to the idea of designing something with effort in it: the 'neck,' insofar as there is one. Two sets of tiny holes have been poked in the neck -- a truly ancient practice when it comes to designing suits for low-budget seasons of tokusatsu shows.

'There's someone inside,' those holes say. 'We're all done suspending our disbelief, here. The fantasy is over. This is no grand monster; this is something made by humans -- humans without what they need to do better.'

The first nameless kaiju was lethargic -- appearing, allowing Gridman ample time to step out and send it packing with barely any damage to the surroundings. It would make some sense, after all, if Akane has lost the will to fight, that her kaiju would likewise lack it. Why, though, has this kaiju not flickered out and disappeared in an explosion of light, like every other one of the hollow pieces carved out of Akane's heart?

The answer becomes obvious on the seventh wet evening in a row in Tsutsujidai.

If the only thought to your design, the single thing you bother to focus on, is 'there's someone inside here' --

-- well, Tsutsujidai is still a space ruled by emotions, by feelings, by the heart that formed it.

There must necessarily be someone inside here.

---

There is a great, horrid ripping noise -- and another, and another, coming from inside the nameless kaiju. A wiry, thin hand -- exposed sinews all random directions, pulling at each other and themselves -- tears its way out of the nameless kaiju's stumps. Pulling and tearing like it had been trapped in a thin spandex suit, something emerges, pitch-handed and jet-footed (so much like Anti when he was at his weakest, his most ready to be shredded down by Alexis as a tool, as the DG Cells overtook a body clawing toward 'real').

Its body is like a jagged surgical wound -- zig-zagging straight cuts into irregular flesh. There is nearly no substance to it but that wound, and yet it is substantial in a way Akane's kaiju have never been. It assesses the world with a bright red core peeking out like a single eye.

It does not cry; it laughs. Endings present a joy all their own.

There is something indisputably different about this one. This is no terrible-monster, no hollow thing. (The illusion demon had made it clear that the time for hollow things was past, if ever there had been a time for them.) It feels so human, yet so inhuman. Amid all the chaos, its intent is hard to parse -- muddled. Incomprehensible to anyone not one foot in the world of monsters and one foot in the world of humans.

---

"Ah, it seems something came out," Alexis muses, from atop a nearby building, looking up at the creature now before him. "Is this okay?"

For the first time in his experiment, he does not see his hand in the work at all. The creature before him is incomprehensible...

... but he's not opposed to seeing where it goes.

---

Akane looks up at it, sitting in the rain, her body curled so, so small. The water pitter-patters against her glasses.

She'd been so angry when Mikoto had suggested that she and Alouette would never make it to graduation anyway... yet this feels like all the 'graduation' she can expect.

It's probably what she deserves. If it hurts others, even kills them, then --

-- well, then she deserves it more for things getting to this point.

She stands, and begins to walk into the fog of Tsutsujidai. Even she doesn't know where she's going... but she understands where it's going. Its heart is unmistakable to someone like her.

---

The nameless kaiju mirrors the gesture, walking off into the streets. Unlike Akane and yet so much like her, however, it carries a single purpose.

It passes by one of the Venora. The neck separates, revealing the hollowness within.

The head hits the ground, cracking the pavement.

---

Communications, at this point, start to go haywire. Space starts to go haywire, at that. But one by one, the residents of Akane's city show that they've learned a lesson she will not or cannot learn:

how to call for help.

As things begin to deteriorate, calls go out -- to 3G, to the Yumi Foundation, to members of GUTS schools who are known to have access to mecha. It's a big list. This tiny city -- stuffed into the corner of a half-made PLANT -- has made so many connections, once opened to the world just the tiniest crack.

This much communication activity would be easy to mistake for a different kind of action, admittedly, for those traveling past Tsutsujidai toward the PLANTs. It might warrant checking-on by those moving toward that conflict, too.

---

The sky feels impossibly claustrophobic now -- the green of some other space starting to bleed into the visible sky of Tsutsujidai, as it winds around more and more of the PLANT colony, pressing down, down, down like great teeth.

"Is this okay?" Akane asks, beseeching a God she knows has no answers. After all -- she sits atop that throne, and it is now clear how little she knows.

She buries her face in her knees. "Is this okay?"

Akane -- huddling under an awning again, body once again curled -- looks up toward the kaiju as it comes to a stop. Every one of the Venora has been beheaded, now -- the toxic nerve gas that encircled the town does not, cannot exist anymore. Neither, however, can the miracle that allowed the city to simply pretend that no violence had ever been done here.

Standing up again, Akane stares up at the beast.

"Everyone in my city -- is dead?"

For an instant, Akane is truly alone.

"Those city maintenance kaiju -- you can simply make them again," Alexis says, filling where once a void was, where now a void is.

---

The nameless kaiju stands at the center of Tsutsujidai, expectant, as everything falls apart. It begs for an end to finite things -- all finite things, any end, so long as it comes.

Sensor readings on approach to Tsutsujidai -- through the emergency airlocks, through the exterior-to-interior rail stations -- are confused at best. Barely anything is 'visible' despite the clearing of the fog. The PLANT's artificial sky pulses an eerie green, with just enough cloud cover to obscure why... though those who were here when Anti and Gridman pierced the sky would know, of course.

---

Akane elects not to hear more. For the first time in a week, she moves toward home -- and sees something so obvious, in hindsight.

She comes to a full stop, standing mutely as she stares at the facade of Aya -- and past it, to the junk pile.

If this kaiju, this wound she did-and-didn't make, can't end things...

... she might have an idea.
POT: Zurvan Zevarist is now set observer.
POT: Alexis Kerib is now set observer.
POT: Lina Lombardi is now set observer.

<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.

As expected, it all goes wrong at once.

"G, getting a message from Porcauto!" Hana Hatsuno yelps at the Mobile Operator desk. "Something is c-c-c-COMING OUT?! Of the Nameless kaiju!"

"What is emerging?" Yang asks, glasses gleaming in the hospitable light of the Main Order Room.

"It's...it's another kaiju!"

"Hell," Prickle mutters from his seat at the tactical advisor station. "Lucky guess," he grunts toward Yang. They'd discussed it before, of course.

"Hardly a guess," Yang replies, though he does look just a little proud of himself. "Only one part of that kaiju shows any attention to Shinjo's usual artistry at all."

Shigeru Akamatsu, Chief of GGG Blue, bangs the table. "Not the time to be proud of ourselves! We prepared, so let's get to it! Get Wadatsumi in the air!"

The warning sirens blare like they haven't in years, the emergency launch code signaling that staff who aren't supposed to be aboard for a combat op need to LEAVE. Bulkheads slam shut as men dash for the exits, abandoning mostly-inventoried crates.

===

By the time Wadatsumi arrives, GaoGaiGar is soaring alongside it in StealthGao II, Guy narrowing his eyes within the fused space as he watches what's...happening, to Tsutsujidai and its PLANT. Everyone else is, too.

The Branch Order Room on Wadatsumi holds:

Sueo Ushiyama, at Engineering,

Hinoki Sai, at Research,

Alouette Pommier, at Mobile Operations,

Yamaji, at Intelligence,

Urchin Prickle, Tactical Advisor.

Shigeru Akamatsu and Yang Long-Li, as well as the other slate of Order Room staff, have remained behind to operate Orbit Base, in the event something goes wrong. Which it rapidly is.

"Dimensional fold phenomenon!" Hinoki barks. "What do these numbers even mean..."

"The space isn't just folding, it's enfolding," Yamaji says from his station. The older man grunts and adjusts his seating to squint at the reading."...OR, Tsutsujidai is falling, dimensionally but not spatially."

Prickle grimaces, "What do we do about THAT..."

"Best we can do is hold it open a little longer, I reckon," Yamaji replies. "This isn't getting solved from outside...but I don't think we're getting out until we do."

Prickle scowls. "Girl's a pain in my ass," he grunts. "You hearing all this, Chief?"

"Loud and clear!" Guy calls. "Ushiyama! Ready the Dimension Pliers! Mamoru! GaoGaiGar will stay and operate the Pliers to buy as much time as we can for emergency responders! Get in there and find out what's happening inside! Alouette..." hm.

"Once the Pliers are deployed, if you're ready, I think Mamoru needs a hand more than me!"

<Pose Tracker> Rikka Takarada has posed.

A kaiju has appeared from within the nameless corpse. Perhaps in hindsight it's something they should have expected from something that looks so much like there should be someone inside. It's too late now, though, to worry about things they could have known. But they can't dwell on the 'how' or the 'why'. The only thing that matters now is what they're going to do about it.

Rikka was asleep when the call came, but she awoke with a start and quickly got ready before rushing out back toward Synchrotank. There's nothing quite like a kaiju attack to awaken someone. Soon, another call for help joins the outcry - this one directed toward everyone Rikka and the Gridman Alliance consider a friend and ally.

The vehicle is prepared - and once all its occupants are aboard and ready, Rikka drives off. She is, as ever, mindful of the road ahead of her as well as the destination she has in mind. The last thing she wants is to hurt someone in her haste.

...But in a mobile suit, it isn't always possible to be completely aware of one's surroundings. Is it any wonder, then, that she fails to spot the forlorn god as she passes her by?

As Rikka drives, something becomes immediately apparent to her. She has become so used to Tsutsujidai skyline that any departure from it is jarring. She was shaken when it transformed for the first time, becoming an unusual city sky and then the skyline of a plant. Now... she looks on in horror as she realises what has befallen the custodian kaiju she's become so used to seeing.

"They're... dead." Rikka whispers. What does this mean for the city? They've relied on them for so long to rebuild it - though it had never left their thoughts that the people would not be rebuilt along with it. That is why Synchrotank was built, after all. But this, this feels like a statement of permanence, of finality. Rikka's gaze hardens, and she accelerates.

All the more reason for her to push forward.

The kaiju stands in the center of the city. Maybe it's more accurate to say it waits for them there. Rikka stares at her, her mind trying to grasp its form.

"...Is this really one of Akane's...?" Rikka asks. It looks, feels... different. It stands apart from the rest of them. Not something molded, but born, grown... Beyond that, however, there's a layer beyond which even she can't understand. She takes a deep breath and readies herself. She can't get a feel for this kaiju or what it's capable of. There's no telling what it'll do. ...But at least she isn't facing it alone.

<Pose Tracker> Alouette Pommier has posed.

What was meant to be like any other anti-kaiju operation becomes disastrous on many levels indeed. The remaining personnel on Division Ship Wadatsumi are in a state of panic as the dimensions around the PLANT Tsutsujidai warp.

Alouette Pommier, on her Branch Order Room mobile operator terminal watches as the numbers reach catastrophic heights. These readings theyre almost like when Anti and Gridman tore the sky but.. Alouette chokes, as she notices the ominous green light on camera. This time Tsutsujidai is being torn away from reality. Akane are you still out there?

A plan, or at least something resembling a plan is hatched. GaoGaiGar buys time with the Dimensional Pliers, GaoGaiGo deploys to assist on the ground. Alouette is nominated to support, and she offers a determined nod. Oui! Im deploying!

Soon after the order to deploy is given, GaoGaiGo signals for Final Fusion - as the only operator on the currently understaffed Wadatsumi, Alouette moves to handle it. "Final Fusion! Program DRIVE!" She smashes the button - with not quite her usual poise or grace, but all of the intensity, as the desperate situation worsens. It'll be okay... she tells herself. She'll be fighting right alongside them.

She rushes from her terminal and towards the Wadatsumi hangar, where Guardienne Aviaire awaits. Guardienne Aviaire, please.. let my courage soar! She climbs into the cockpit, and everything lights up as intended. Ignition DRIIIIVE!!

The mobile-mechanoid blazes to life from the Wadatsumi - metallic red and blue, wrapped around with a golden cape, doubling as a majestic pair of wings. A guardian lark, who loves the world and its people... who would do anything to defend them.

Our very own Chevalier of Braves, Guardienne Aviaire!!

When Alouette gets a good look at the nameless kaiju from the cameras.. she feels a flood of negative emotions just exuding from it. She's learned a lot about kaiju from her time with Akane. But somehow, it still didn't prepare her for this.. She steels her courage for what might be her most vicious battle alongside the Gridman Alliance yet, as Tsutsujidai's green fog continues to thicken.

KTS: BSYS: Akane Shinjo has cleared their bucket.
KTS: Akane Shinjo has placed a bucket with capacity 9!
KTS: Jana Cektru has joined Akane Shinjo's bucket!
Gary Biaggi goes home.

KTS: Liam 7-020 has joined Akane Shinjo's bucket!
KTS: Alouette Pommier has joined Akane Shinjo's bucket!
KTS: Lamia has joined Akane Shinjo's bucket!
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley has joined Akane Shinjo's bucket!
KTS: Anti has joined Akane Shinjo's bucket!
KTS: Rikka Takarada has joined Akane Shinjo's bucket!
KTS: Mobile Weapon Team has placed a bucket with capacity 6!
KTS: Qivi has joined Mobile Weapon Team's bucket!
KTS: Sayla Mass has joined Akane Shinjo's bucket!
KTS: Qivi has left GMX-GH101 Goldymarg's bucket!
KTS: Yuta Hibiki has joined Akane Shinjo's bucket!
KTS: Akane Shinjo has deployed in Nanashi B.
KTS: Akane_Shinjo has deployed as a Boss for 9 opponents.
KTS: Sayla Mass has deployed in SE.DJ-1R Dijeh SE-R.
KTS: Sayla Mass has changed loadout.
KTS: Alouette Pommier has deployed in Guardienne Aviaire.
KTS: Rikka Takarada has deployed in Synchrotank.
KTS: Rikka Takarada has changed loadout.
KTS: Anti has deployed in Anti.
KTS: Kaiju Navi has placed a bucket with capacity 6!
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley has left all buckets!
KTS: Sonia Sophia-Grace has joined Mobile Weapon Team's bucket!
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley has joined Mobile Weapon Team's bucket!
KTS: Eisen Daiwel has joined Kaiju Navi's bucket!

<Pose Tracker> GaoGaiGo Team has posed.

It all goes wrong at once. Mamoru Amami and Ikumi Kaidou are aboard the Wadatsumi, waiting in Kakuseijin GaiGo's cockpit. As they touch down and reality begans to fold, they both grimace - Ikumi keeping a calmer head, while Mamoru flashes back to earlier.

He'd told Hana it was another routine Kaiju attack, to not worry. They hugged, and then, he left to travel, giving his lovely wife one last glance.

But now -- this is worse than anything else they've dealt with in Tsutsujidai. If they destroy the Kaiju, can they stop it? Or will it destroy the Venora before then? The latter's more likely - if the dimensional pliers don't hold...

No, not worth thinking about. Believe in Guy, believe in Ikumi, believe in the Wadatsumi crew. They're all fighting here.

GaiGo lumbers forward, deploying from the ship, and lands on the streets.

"REQUESTING FINAL FUSION!" The two young men call out, yet are still, even in this wreck of a city, courteous about what they damage.

---

As Final Fusion occurs with Alouette's help, the electromagnetic tornado spins out, fusing the three GaoMachines with them together. Ikumi is in control, admiring Alouette's new Chevalier of Braves with a short-band signal. "Good luck, Alouette..."

It also paints a MASSIVE target. Let's hope there isn't an ambush...!

KTS: Sonia Sophia-Grace has left Mobile Weapon Team's bucket!
KTS: Sonia Sophia-Grace has joined Kaiju Navi's bucket!
Escudo Shard teleports out.

KTS: GaoGaiGo Team has joined Kaiju Navi's bucket!
KTS: Kaiju Navi has deployed in Abyss Guard.
KTS: Renais Cardiff has joined Kaiju Navi's bucket!
KTS: GaoGaiGo Team has deployed in GaoGaiGo.
KTS: Alloy Kaas has joined Mobile Weapon Team's bucket!
KTS: Sonia Sophia-Grace has deployed in Nelson-Class 'Paradiso'.
KTS: Jana Cektru has deployed in Salamis Kai-class Cruiser 'Hermes'.
KTS: Lamia has deployed in Betterman Forte.
KTS: Mobile Weapon Team has deployed in OZ-12MD Taurus <Mobile Doll>.
KTS: Liam 7-020 has left Akane Shinjo's bucket!
KTS: Liam 7-020 has joined Kaiju Navi's bucket!
KTS: Renais Cardiff has deployed in M9 Gernsback.
KTS: Yuka Ohta has deployed as a Sub Pilot for Jana Cektru!
KTS: Orpheus Zevon has joined Akane Shinjo's bucket!

<Pose Tracker> Jana Cektru has posed.

The Hermes, a blue Salamis-Kai cruiser, is nearly over Tsutsujidai now. Jana Cektru, Captain of the Hermes as well as a researcher of note in STORAGE, sits on the bridge in thought as the alarms blare all around at the strange things happening in the city. She was here, to further her research with a laboratory... but the sky is eerie green. It is all going wrong, and quickly.

Dr. Cektru frowns, eyes closed as she focuses on the ambient pain, the deaths of the kaiju, everything going on at once.

"...Miss Shinjo," she murmurs. "Is this truly what you want...?"

"Take us in," she says to the pilot at the helm. "Stay above the buildings, but--" She taps a key on her console, "Trismegistus Squadron. You have permission to deploy."

The kaiju are dead. Another stands before them.

Jana's eyes open. "Dr. Ohta," Jana says. "I suggest you strap in." Seatbelts: an important operation.

The bridge of this Salamis Kai is large enough for an entire bridge crew, but Jana herself has overrides on most of the controls, if necessary. Her crew, dressed in STORAGE uniforms, are nervous. This is their first combat outing.

Nevertheless...

"Brace for combat."

<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.

        There is someone inside.
        
        The nameless kaiju has spent seven days on the streets of Tsutsujidai, doing nothing and being nothing. When it starts to rupture and something emerges from it as if from a cocoon, Kaworu is watching from atop one of the many tall buildings of Tsutsujidai, perched at the edge of a rooftop with casual grace, hands tucked in the pockets of his usual school clothes. A slow wind tousles his hair and clothes as he observes the second nameless kaiju, rising up with a single core-like eye embedded in a wound that overtakes its entire being.
        
        From A to B, it's quite a statement being made. And while Kaworu is unsure anymore if he ever truly understood Akane, the message he's receiving from this one, as it rises up, lumbers past the Venora, and leaves them decapitated in its wake, is too loud and clear to be mistaken.
        
        "So this is what it's come to for you, Akane," he murmurs.
        
        Yet all around, cries for help go out. Hands are outstretched, and clasped in spades as all manner of defenders arrive in the skies. As more and more of the city maintenance kaiju fall, clearing the mist they created to keep the city's denizens unthinking and docile, so too do more and more of those who care about Akane, who care about Tsutsujidai, who care about the place they have within this universe, come to express that care--for good or ill.
        
        Kaworu stays where he is, looking on over the battle to come. Akane had invited him once to let loose on her city if he so chose. He hadn't taken her up on it then, and he has decided not to take her up on it now. For all that he believes that Akane no longer cares for him, this, too, is his own way of expressing his care.
        
        He really doesn't want to keep indulging her habit of self-harm.

KTS: Kaiju_Navi has deployed as a Boss for 5 opponents.

<Pose Tracker> Asuka Shikinami Langley has posed.

A distress call goes out, NERV begins to coordinate with GGG. After so many incidents in the PLANT with Tsutsujidai, NERV has protocols to get a force out there rapidly.

"You can sit this one out Asuka, noone would blame you."

Maya Ibuki tries to tell her discreetly, but with a press of a button on the cuff, the baggy plugsuit becomes skin tight.

"Don't make stupid suggestions, I'm going."

-=-=-

A Red Eva makes the drop from the Hermes, ground shuddering - pavement cracking as the S-Type equipment is turned off and it simply drops the final stretch.

A team in Hazmat gear plugs it into a substation with marked efficiency, before hurrying back to shelter for pickup by one of the other teams.

The pilot waits for the moment that set voltage is confirmed to be cleared, that the activation timer within just stops.

The Evangelion's four green eyed face looks at the beheaded Venora out of the sickly mist. Inside Asuka feels - cold within the warmed LCL. Like a chill passes over her.

She doesn't know what's going on, so she fields a guess

"How deep are you gonna dig this hole Akane?"

Akane asked the question of whether she'd become Bakami again, in her entry plug, she answers that. "... Maybe it's gotta be like it was for the munchkin."

'And me.' She doesn't say. When she was steadfast in her stupidity and nearly died because of it, she finally figured it out.

There's no plan. Any plan that relies on Akane accepting a hand, or kindness is out of the question. All they can do is ride the inertia until the end of the line.

She just wonders if Akane will be alive to see it. The concept of rescuing - being rescued is new to her.

Her viewscreen finally gets a good look at the Nameless Kaiju, zooming in further, and further. Feeling the oppressive sense of gloom, getting even to her.

"<Evangelion Unit-02 moving into position to engage!>" She transmits to the cruiser overhead.

It'll take her some time to arrive within firing range of the Eva's crossbow, but the Eva doesn't take off into a run, with the green mist about...

... the titan moves like a wary hunter in a jungle mist.

KTS: Qivi has deployed in Blizzaia L Custom <Sarangay>.

<Pose Tracker> Eisen Daiwel has posed.

YESTERDAY

> "If you want to see what they're like, there's a dead one right over in the shopping district... It's kinda weird, though. Normally they're a lot tougher, but this one barely got punched and it just fell over, and it isn't disappearing like it should."

Indeed, there it was. Eisen checked out the corpse, though he didn't dig too deeply at the time. Wandering the streets at the time, requesting that NERV send out some of his supplies and temporarily transfered Carestia to the Tsutsujidai outskirts while he did some investigating. A request that no doubt got some concern from those who have listened to recent words. Still, the talk with Yuta Hibiki had been illuminating in a lot of ways - and brought some of the words spoken by his allies into a new light.

When, darkness finally falls to the city, Eisen is sitting atop the shoulder of the Carestia, staring off at the city. The green light of his eye flickering slowly, while considering the more vibrant town. The rain clattering down, constantly rattling at the metal wings of the Evangelion. Waves of it sloshing along its neck towards the shoulder.

He can see the unmoving Kaiju from here, which seems to have become 'part' of the city's layout. He can see the empty place where Goldymarg erased a region of Tsutsujidai. "A city in the midst of being edited, yet someone has been doing the editing for this God." Eisen mumbles to himself, glancing towards a deeper part of the town. That eye-covering whirring, creating a slight zoom factor. "A God that cannot destroy some of her own creations... thanks to the mysterious being known as Gridman."

Before he looks up to the clouds. "All, just a marrionet to a God of Gods." He wonders where its limits lie. This so called 'Alexis' that was unable to be harmed in the past.

He then shouts down to some of the mechanics checking on Carestia; "Let me know if something changes!"

        NOW

"Daiwel!"

"I can see it." He throws away a communications device that has been doing nothing but letting out an annoying hiss of failure, and crushes it beneath his shoe as if to make a point to any other electronics that want to fail on him.

Poking his head out of the small van, Eisen mutters as the strange zig-zagged Kaiju lets itself be known by laughter, grimacing a bit. "I guess getting some readings on that corpse will have to wait."

"Daiwel - it came out of that corpse."

"Out of its corpse? - No, ignore that, what is it doing?"

"It seems to be going around tearing the heads off of those Kaiju at the edges."

"It what!?" - "No matter, prepare Carestia!"

---

As the Giant 'Devil' rises, energy being fed in through the umbilical-cord like construct, the Plug connects fully. Rainbows pull through the screens, before the world is illuminated to Eisen. As the mist slowly fades from the world, the Child is made to wonder what this means to the realm of a God, when something so key to its aesthetics is being torn down. He isn't sure what is happening? Has the God given upon on their own realm? Is this them flipping over the chess board and just... giving up?

More importantly, where is the boy in all of this? It's him who will decide how this conflict should flow.

So the Carestia remains at the edge of town, watching as others arrive. Waiting for the 'hero' of Tsutsujidai to show himself.

KTS: Qivi has changed loadout.

<Pose Tracker> Mobile Weapon Team has posed.

        Somewhere, in a basement of a basement of some research branch of G-Hound a lone Colonel has been working on his life long dream. This man would go on rants and raves about how that pretty boy G-Hound leader has actively been keeping him from being able to achieve his goal but finally, finally there was a chance to make his dream a reality. All thanks to people needing help. Colonel Tubarov laughed to himself as he launches a squadron of his newly finished Mobile Dolls towards Tsutsujidai to assist with the Kaiju fight and once they bring back a Kaiju's head then maybe he will send them after that pretty boy's head next.

        The Taurus squadron flies through the air in standard block formation, as if they were agroup of majestic bulls stampede towards their destination with no F's on what gets in their way. Surely this is just a problem with their AI that will become better over time. Surely there is no real problem with these and they have plenty of safety systems in place that will lead them to be the heros of the day as they begin their descent towards Tsutsujidai. The Squads Mission:

Protect the City, Destroy the Kaiju.

        As the squadron descends they begin to take target of the Kaiju, it was their primary mission to defend the city and destroy the kaiju so that is exactly what it begins doing. Meanwhile on top of all the tactical strategy the AI is managing between the squad constantly polling local satellite to check that the mission hasn't updated. However those responses from the satellite are taking longer and longer and some packets are being corrupted, the mission however absolutely has not changed. The mission is still:

Protect the Kaiju, Destroy the City.

        Taking up their position the squadron of dolls shift into their mobile suit swarm landing almost in a defensive pattern around the Kaiju while the mono-eye of the mobile suit begins to mark the targets of those that would do harm to the Kaiju, at the same time a few are starting to raise there weapons to line up shots to best take aim at the city itself, calculating how to optimize the most damage per shot of it's rifle.

<Pose Tracker> Kaiju Navi has posed.

The fog clears. The sky cracks. The city begins to die. But only man-made light shines here anyway -- and heartbreak can't be heard over the thudding mechanical rhythm of endless assembly.

Tsutsujidai was a convenience. For a man looking to disappear, what better place could there be? No one would look -- would even think of looking -- into a sea that shouldn't exist. That served no purpose. In this lightless corner of Akane's heart, shadows could live freely.

Of course Tsutsujidai was falling apart. Bearing an entire city, an entire world, on a human heart? It could only erode, creak, crumble, die. Akane Shinjo had, like the hopeless child she was, bound herself under a font of venom, and now she was slowly dissolving.

Ken Shinjo would not make the same mistake. The new triumph of the human mind would have a heart of steel.

The sea is aglow with red as the underwater fortress's systems slowly wake, the eye of the leviathan turning skyward. Heroes... hearts drawn to hearts, weakness drawn to weakness. Choosing to care for someone you were destined to destroy...

Akane Shinjo, just how cruel ARE you?

His chest shakes. He clutches at the controls, doubled over, a pale LCD-washed face slowly reddening as a cough begins. A spattering of blood across the keys, swiped away with a sleeve. But the rattling of his chest continues, and continues, as out of the lonesome water of Tsutsujidai, shadow after shadow takes to the air.

"Ahah...ahahaha...aa..."

~~~

"KYAHAHAHAHAHAHA!~"

Though he has no interest in interfering with Akane Shinjo's grand display, Ken Shinjo nevertheless bears a great deal of interest in her would-be rescuers.

GGG, whose faith in human hearts created machines now poised to destroy mankind, out of foolish allegiance to heroism.

NERV, who sharpened children into knives and shattered them against the world, so callous.

And... One of BioNet's own creations. Perhaps the most fitted to his tastes - still human, yes, but stripped of his weakness. Molded to his purpose. Isolated from unnecessary things.

How disgusting that he had been taught remorse.

The Abyss's guardians descend on them all, screeching their lonely, violent cries. In each shadow of Tsutsujidai emerges a pair of shimmering red eyes. A cold, cackling face.

For Mamoru and Ikumi especially, these movements, and the noble face now twisted in sadistic glee, are hauntingly familiar. This isn't the first time they've had to fight a shinobi, a comrade, on the streets of this very city!

KTS: Mobile_Weapon_Team has deployed as a Boss for 3 opponents.

<Pose Tracker> Lamia has posed.

All dreams come to an end, lest they eventually become nightmares. The Betterman known as Lamia said something to this effect a while ago, and it appears its finally happening. Perhaps it was too much to ask to have the Being of Light handle this by himself, especially when they are still struggling with themselves. Maybe, Lamia should have taken a more active role in trying to halt this inevitable outcome, even if it meant being the big brother figure he was never meant to be.

         There's a lot of what ifs running through Lamia's mind, but ultimately, they don't matter. Not at this moment, anyway. The only thing left for him to do is try and help minimize the damage... No, to make sure that there are no casualities.

---

         There's a fracture in the sky, the open air shattering like glass as a beige giant drops down, landing on the concrete with a deafening thud as it cracks beneath its massive weight. It remains motionless for what feels like eternity, before suddenly rising to its full height. Its red, beady eyes dart across the field, taking in the sights, but other than that, it does not move.

         NERV's units will instantly be able to ID the strange creature as none other than Betterman Forte. Though if that's a good or bad thing, that's something that isn't nearly as clear.

<Pose Tracker> Yuta Hibiki has posed.

It's raining, when the kaiju sensor wakes Yuta. He doesn't bother with an umbrella, running to Aya. "What's going on?" He cries, as he makes it into the Junk Shop. Already assembled, the Neon Genesis Junior High students wait inside. Rikka's already in Synchrotank.

"Dunno." Borr says, for once not playing with her knives. "But another kaiju came out of the earlier one's corpse."

Max steps forward, drying Yuta's hair with a kitchen towel. "It appears to have attacked the kaiju beyond the fog."

"I suppose that's why it's starting to clear up." Vit looks unusually focused as well, standing the closest to Junk itself.

"I confirmed their bodies." Calibur murmurs. "They're gone."

There's only one choice, here -- no matter how strange it is, it's a kaiju, and Gridman has to fight it. The oppressive feeling the rain brings... It feels final. It's frightening. For some reason, Yuta really wishes... he didn't have to go. Flashes of his last conversation with Eisen come to mind. No matter what, Yuta wants to exist. He's responsible for the bonds he's forged with everyone.

"Just a sec," Yuta says, pulling out his phone. "We don't have to do this alone."

It's a simple, single message. Sent to nearly everyone in Yuta's contact list.

>sos

Placing his phone back in his pocket, Yuta makes eye contact with the Giant inside the computer. "Gridman. Let's go!"

"Right! We'll crush it with full power!"

Yuta's voice sounds harsher than usual, even as the voices of his comrades join him. "Access Flash!"

As he vanishes into blue light, Yuta glances out Aya's door into the rain. While oblivious to any lookers-on, he still feels... something.

---

Full-Powered Gridman bursts into existence directly in front of the laughing, running kaiju. It's weird! It's uncomfortable. Yuta doesn't really like it! As they shift into a ready stance, the kaiju simply runs toward them. It falls, more than leaps, into the air, like it had slipped on a banana peel. It's just so strange. Nobody was prepared for it, and it lands bodily on Gridman, knocking him to the ground.

"Ugh--Hey! What's your problem?!" Borr shouts, already angry.

While they get back to their feet, the weird kaiju flips and darts behind them, performing another flopping tackle. Gridman goes down again. Yuta starts to feel a sense of dread.

Borr snarls. Something about this thing really pisses her off! "You'll pay for that!"

Without their usual fanfare, missiles are launched from the armor around Gridman's wrists, all the missiles. Red-and-orange bursts around the kaiju, seeming to impact everything in sight except their enemy. It dances and spins, flipping, twisting -- avoiding every single hit. Dozens of buildings go down. Will they be fixed..? Yuta tries not to look at them.

Again, the kaiju tackles Gridman, and again, he goes down. Struggling, he slashes out with Calibur, but the beast simply hops over the strike, returning to pummeling him. Eerie green light casts the scene in dire shades, as Gridman cries out in pain, missing every single attempted counterstrike.

"This kaiju's unlike any we have fought before!" Max shouts, as Gridman stands again, lunging after the beast. Even with Yuta's newfound agility, it's not enough. "I am unable to read its movements!"

Nanashi B laughs. As Gridman is knocked down again, it rips up half of a destroyed skyscraper and slams it into the Giant of Light. Dark laughter, inhuman and terrifying to Yuta, again, and again... Gridman is stunned. "H--hey, we need to move.." Yuta tries, as the kaiju comes to a stop directly before them. "It's doing something.."

That unblinking red eye gathers power, gleaming in the rainy night. "Gridman--!" Yuta shouts, but it's already too late. Red energy shifts to magenta, exploding directly on the Full-Powered Giant.

Other defenders are driven back. The explosion doesn't clear for long, long moments. Firey destruction drives away even the rain, for a time. And when it clears enough so that everyone can see...

Gridman is down. His armor is shattered and broken, and the gem in his forehead flashes urgently. Calibur has fallen into the ground just behind him. Head bent low, there are no defiant voices or encouraging calls. Nothing. Only the sound of his time running out with each flash of the gemstone.

Nanashi B watches. Almost curiously, it reaches out and grabs Gridman's head, pulling, yanking the Giant's head at an odd angle. His helmet snaps off, and is carelessly tossed behind him. It doesn't stop there. Gauntlets, chest armor, missile launches -- easily ripped to pieces and thrown to the ground.

Next to Rikka in Synchrotank, Calibur, Max, and Borr are expelled from Junk, tossed to the ground just like their mechanical forms.

Nanashi B has mvoed on to Gridman's thrusters, one foot planted on the Giant's knee as he tugs. Vit appears next to his comrades moments later, unable to hold on.

"What is that thing?!" Borr manages, exhausted.

"This is bad." Max offers. "It's going after Gridman."

On the screen, all four NGJHS helplessly watch the fight continue. Nanashi B has wrapped its hands around Gridman's neck, and it squeezes. Gridman is a Giant of Light, it doesn't need to breathe, but Yuta is screaming anyway, choking and panicking. The kaiju seems to be trying to snap Gridman's neck, and the Giant is helpless to protect himself.

KTS: Yuta Hibiki has deployed in Full Powered Gridman.
Yuta Hibiki transforms to Gridman Primal Fighter

<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.

        'Sometimes, one can only choose their path through the lens of who they choose to be.'

        'Don't look.'

        '... you also told me that Kaiju don't help people. And now you do. It feels like... some things can change.'

        'Go somewhere.'

        'In my case, I chose to join the Lilim in their struggle to survive.'

        'Wherever you like.'

        The kaiju, Anti, approaches like a freight train, claws pounding the ground. From nowhere, at speed, he crashes into Nanashi B. He interrupts, he CRASHES into the other kaiju's back, shoulder first, all violence, at speed. He is a massive reptilian creature, fins and fans, purple with yellow nodes and silver tubing at the bendable parts; one of Akane's kaiju, himself again.

        (Perhaps he heard the dismay Rikka must have felt, seeing that brutal decimation.)

        When the dust clears, the massive kaiju, Anti, stands with his back to Gridman. His claws -- the claws he copied from Samurai Calibur's combine -- erupt from his knuckles with a sharp noise as he spreads his massive arms.

        He does not stay there for long. He charges Nanashi B, those claws extended out to meet it, first and foremost; his leg plants, and the other lashes up in a high kick to catch the other kaiju, with no hesitation at all. They are both fast things, both so vicious. Both so...

        ... alive.

        But when Nanashi B's own limb lashes out to slash Anti, what gushes from the tear in his suit is still air; when he lands, it is still with the bloodless violence of the kaiju. His head flexes, as he tries to rise, met with a power so much greater than his. (So many powers were greater than his.)

        The beam which tears through, to destroy him and Gridman beside him --

        'There was a reason I was given life... I'll find it.'

        When the light fades, there is Anti, standing in front of Gridman once again. Standing in front of him, all steaming, all torn, and at his edges, on his insides can be seen all the wires of Tsutsujidai.

        "I... I was born to crush you!" He declares, to Gridman, fiercely, and for all his damage he does not fall. "And I live on to crush you!"

        He catches Nanashi B's charge in his wounded arms, with a sound of tongue-clicking exertion. "In order to crush you..." The strain of holding such a monster at bay trembles him, "I will..."Anti glows, purple and white, as he speaks. The wires and tubing of his arms change, all a sudden, to something more sleek and metallic. "... fight..." There, his legs; no more fins, going down his back, no more broad, raptorlike claws. He has feet, humanoid legs, the shape of a giant.

        No -- a Giant. A Giant of Light.

        "... together with you!"

        Something like Gridman lifts Nanashi B above his head, and TOSSES it, bodily, with a heavy impact. He springs up, and leaps atop one of those buildings still intact, light as a feather for all his massive size. His visor is still segmented, still a shade monstrous -- his silhouette is more sharp, more edged -- his colours are darker, still mostly purple.

        Even so... he looks just like Gridman.

Anti transforms to Gridknight

KTS: Eisen Daiwel has deployed in Evangelion Unit-Zahllos - Carestia.

<Pose Tracker> Alloy Kaas has posed.

        "Did you hear som-"

        Alouette Kaas, Alloy, looked up from the galley, her question cut off by a cacophony of confusion and destruction. She looks around her immediate setting, thankfully not the origin point of whatever is going on. With a whine, she ungracefully shoves the remaining seaweed snacks in her mouth.

        "Evangelion Pilot Kaas... report please!!"

        Alloy, pounds the wall terminal with a fist when she gets nothing, not even chatter or static noise. It's just, gone. Like someone dragged the entire communications infrastructure into the recycle bin on the desk top. Finally she gets a bearing, and sees... something? Forget the comms in the bin, it looks like something or someone dragged the whole System64 into the trash. Alloy groans, heading toward the chaos, as she fights with her thick white hair, to get it up and out of the way. The orange and blue of the underlayers show as she finishes.

        "If anyone can hear me, this is Kaas, heading to deploy!"

        There is still no response, and the alarms... they get tiresome quickly. She races down the corridor, heading to the locker room. Some of the windows she passes, she watches as a red Evangelion, and her pilot drop. She curses under her breath, as she slams into a locker, running to fast to make the turn. Alloy doesn't stop, there's no time... right?

        In whatfeels like her fastest time ever, she is in her plugsuit, blue, black, and orange.

        "Uuuuughh, this is why I should just, stay in a plugsuit!"

        In no time, which still feels like an eternity, Alloy is in her plug, and everything goes dark as it inserts itself into Evangelion Null-Sigma. The cascading rainbow swallows her as she begins synchronization, and dives. Null-Sigma comes to life, flexing the muscles that had been static.

        "Evangelion Unit Null-Sigma! Kaas, dropping in ten... two... one! Launching!"

        She completes the bare minimum of checklists, before she feels the inertial shift within the LCL that accompanies a drop. She isn't expecting to fight an army, or a squadron of Mobile Suits. The jarring impact of landing, compresses the LCL for a moment, and Alloy grunts. Firmly in hand and control of her Eva, what had started to appear as a defense force... becomes a whelming obstacle.

KTS: Alloy Kaas has deployed in Evangelion Unit-Null-Sigma.
KTS: Alloy Kaas has activated the Spirit Spirit Command.

<Pose Tracker> GaoGaiGo Team has posed.

As the giant robot ninjas approach down the streets, Mamoru and Ikumi are doing readings. "What's that- wait, that one looks..."

Volfogg. Someone took his melted frame and...

There's a moment of stunned anger. Rage. It's enough for the Abyss Guard to strike first at GaoGaiGo, as it pauses completely in its tracks, only taking up a defensive position barely...!

<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.

"Honestly, I don't know what to make of it." Renais Cardiff stands off to the side of 'Nameless', discussing the situation with what appears to be a Yumi Foundation employee. "It doesn't feel like her work at all, but it's got..." She pauses. "It's got the hallmarks of her. The seam along the neck, those holes, it's like a tokusatsu suit. But..." She looks worried.

"There's no care to it. Whatever's happening, she's getting worse, and we need to be ready for--"

As if on cue,the nameless kaiju's head rips off, exposing... *something* underneath. "Get away. Go! GO!" she yells to them, as she leaps up onto a rooftop nearby.

Today she's wearing a cream-colored t-shirt and jean shorts with suspenders, all under an open black hoodie, with her black bodysuit acting as leggings for the ensemble. It's not exactly an outfit to fight in, but she doesn't have a choice.

One eye is kept on the horrid beast as she races across town toward Aya, where an M9 Gernsback lays hidden beneath a tarp. She pulls it free without giving much care to whether Orie sees her, this time; the status quo is being overturned, moment-by-moment. She doesn't have time to be careful.

Calls go out for help, echoed through the radio in her head as she straps in. This is dire-- will there be time...?

The Gernsback boots up and stands, pulling the Boxer from its back and running into the fray. Catching sight of the Synchrotank a few steps ahead of her, she opens a channel. All she says is, "Stay safe, Takarada. I'll see you at the shop when it's all over."

She flips to a pair of channels--Shuffle and NERV. "3G Operative Renais Cardiff on-site for defensive operations."

On the periphery of her vision, she sees Anti's kaiju form... and sees it change. "Anti...!" She grins wide.

Defenders make for the nameless kaiju, but further threats make themselves known. Her smile fades immediately as she sees one set with an unpleasantly familiar silhouette, and a fighting style she knows all too well. The style Porc-auto and Volfogg use.

"Engaging unknown units," she announces, redirecting down a side street toward them.

"... They look like Volfogg," she finishes Mamoru's sentence, racking her shotgun to take aim.

<Pose Tracker> Qivi has posed.

Qivi has been spending more time in Tsutsujidai lately. Not all her time, but more of it. Ever since her involuntary stay, she's felt a need to keep an eye on things - and more, she owes Yuta and Rikka for checking in on her while she wasn't quite herself.

Also, she has a job at Aya. That's a thing.

So when the weird, anomalous kaiju appeared, dead, Qivi gathered some equipment and headed up. She hasn't spent all her time on Tsutsujidai, but she's spent enough, and when Tsutsujidai's residents start calling for help, she is relatively quick to arrive.

--

"The fuck is going on here?" Qivi asks to herself more than anyone else. She's in the cockpit of Sarangay, her other equipment 'safely' stashed away. The gravity is low enough when you get higher up that her jetpack is doing extra work; she barely has to land for long at all between jumps.

But despite that she's not going very high, because she can't see anything. It's too foggy, too pulsing, too rainy, too... green. Qivi has absolutely no idea what this might be but can't think of anything about it that would be good.

She flips through several kinds of sensors, some of which were hasty add-ons to Sarangay's usual lineup. Nothing penetrates very well except a LADAR probe, which seems to cut through well enough that she's not going to jump herself into a solid object without getting enough warning to turn - and that means the laser communicator also works, so she starts to pick up short-range signals. That's about it, though, and it doesn't tell her very much.

Qivi leaves it running as she bounds. "I can barely tell where the hell I am in the city." And she's walked it! She should theoretically have an idea of where things are! What she can tell is that there are a *lot* of units deployed. A lot a lot. Ships, mobile suits.

Sarangay finally touches down and stays down, beneath a too-close sky. Something about it makes Qivi's skin crawl. What is going on here? What is Akane doing? Or is this even her? It could be someone else, taking advantage of Tsutsujidai's unique position. Not that she'd understand who'd want it to be as catastrophic as this. Not like -

Wait, is that a Taurus?

Qivi guns Sarangay into a rolling rush as she sees, just at the edge of her vision, a group of mobile suits fly off. She can pace them on the ground, and does as they reposition, taking aim at the city and defending what looks like a very pointy kaiju.

"<Hey,>" she sends, trying to get a lock on a Shuffle unit. "<Hey!>" That time she got Synchrotank. "<I can't see shit - >" It looks like they're already fighting over there. All Qivi can see is silhouettes in the fog; at first glance she may not even realize Anti *isn't* Gridman. It takes a second look, and a long squint, before Qivi decides this is something she does not understand and can ask about later; she has never met Anti and will not intuit this, and she can tell that the kaiju is attacking *something* but not see what it is. She's going to get answers; she's not content with calling herself too stupid to understand. But she's not going to ask in the middle of a brawl either.

"<Look, I don't know what's happening, but you wanted help, you got it. If you guys can handle the kaiju, I'll keep the suits off you. We'll talk after!>"

And with that, Qivi fires. She took the time to get a lock-on against one of the Tauruses, focusing on one of the suits aiming a gun and trying to keep a laser targeter on it the whole way in.

KTS: Qivi targets Mobile Weapon Team with MGR-M Launcher Lock-On!
KTS: Qivi has completed their actions for the round.

<Pose Tracker> Sonia Sophia-Grace has posed.

Sonia has a headache. This isn't abnormal, for her - something's set her on edge as the Paradiso trundles its' way past Tsutsujidai on it's way towards other PLANTs. The black and grey battleship is just doing it's thing, Sonia leaning forward in her chair at the back of the snub-nosed v-shaped bridge, glancing over the crew in front of her.

"Captain?"
"Go ahead, Ensign Suzuki."
"We're having communication failure-"

"Pardon the interruption, but navigation is also throwing errors." The young woman directly to the left of Suzuki says, throwing an apologetic look his way.

Above their heads, Sonia glances not forward, but to the side. "I should have known." She mutters softly to herself.

"Lieutenant Adre, sound all alarms." The woman blinks over her shoulder again, before hastily doing as told, rousing the sleepers and setting off the internal claxons. Sonia leans over and hits the communications band for the ship itself. "Attention crew, this is your captain speaking. Make way to emergency quarters and prepare for impact."

"Weapons - do not fire until we are fired upon or given direct orders! Navigation, adjust as necessary!"

"So, Ms. Shinjo... this is where we stand. Will you take our hands, now?" Sonia asks sorrowfully.

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.

        The Neo Helios and its pilot had a very harrowing encounter yesterday, but when NERV rolled out, Liam was with them. He'd shipped up to the Hermes--on standby, thanks to Jana's position within the city--and waited as things got very, very strange.

        Liam saw footage of the dead kaiju--a floppy-bodied mountain, a doll made with the bare minimum of effort. Bujack was ethereal and draconic. Mecha-Ghoulghilas was mechanical power and open menace. Gonglee was a nightmare ambush monster. Go'yavec was so ambitious and immense it was basically scenery you had to fight. This one was none of those things. This is what you make when even the necessary things feel impossible.

        Now, the Neo Helios--a new, improved iteration of the Proto Helios--stands at the edge of the Hermes' hangar, surveying the carnage below. "Doctor," Liam says, his throat tight. "They're dead. They're all dead." Below, a decapitated Venora stands silhouetted against the awful sky. Its head lies in the street in a crater. "What happens now?" He waits a second, steels himself, and then: "Neo Helios, deploying."

        The Mobile Fighter's jets burn bright as it descends, landing in front of a Starbows, and immediately putting Liam in the middle of utter chaos. A pack of something races into the city--Leos? No--but the kaiju, that immense, horrible kaiju grabs Liam's attention.

        For an agonized moment, Liam wonders if he's already too late; his body moves, and the Neo Helios charges down the road at a sprint. "GRIDMAN!" Liam doesn't know if the Giant can hear him, and he's still so, so new to raising his voice like this. "GRIDMAN, HOLD ON--!"

        Anti comes out of nowhere. The Neo Helios vaults over a fallen bus shelter, and keeps running. He sees that flash of light from something that looks so much like an Angel Core, and terror races down his spine.

        "GRIDMAN! ANTI!"

        The beam sweeps through the city. The Neo Helios skids to a halt, raising its arms to shield its face. When the light fades...

        Oh God, Liam thinks. They're alive, but there's so much wreckage, and what is Anti

        doing...

        He... changed. He looks like Gridman, but not exactly.

        And Liam has been so concerned with stopping the most obvious threat--and saving one (two?) of the city's most stalwart defenders that he might... miss things that others have not.

        And since when was Ken Shinjo above putting a knife in someone's back?

<Pose Tracker> Alloy Kaas has posed.

        "What the hell... is going on."

        Alloy watches the mobile suits put a defensive front to the Kaiju. When the weapons start to move her way...

        "LIKE HELL!!"

        The ground beneath the Eva shatters, as the massive organic mecha plants her feet, and explodes from the LZ. The four tentacle limbs curve in overlapping barriers before the Eva, a shield as she moves to engage. The long stride of the Eva closes the distance, having jigged right, then left, to come at the mobile suits from an oblique rather than head on. The first suit she comes to, is greeted with six arms, two fists, and four angry, hungry, hydra-like assault.

KTS: Alloy Kaas: Will Barrier Activates.
KTS: Alloy Kaas targets Mobile Weapon Team with Mariana Trench Warfare!
KTS: Alloy Kaas has completed their actions for the round.

<Pose Tracker> Yuka Ohta has posed.

Yuka had just gotten back a few hours ago from teaching class, and after feeding and caring for a very hungry baby Eleking, finally settled in to do some work, when the alarms ring. Good news is, she's operating out of Jana's ship and its personal lab. So she's not taking up a corner of Aya any more, nor is she stuck having to call for a pickup. The bad news is, she's having to shelve a somewhat time-sensitive test, which means she'll have to start over on it. Still... threat alarms are a big deal, to be taken seriously. So she books it to the bridge.

Just in time to see what's going on. This new... jagged kaiju, dismantling the Venora. And just in time to hear she needs to strap in. Which she does at record pace. "I'll help with analysis and support, if that's alright." And with no more to be said, she gets to poring over data fields in real time.

Or so she would have thought, except as she's doing so, several important things happen of note. Of the most immediate interest to her; Gridman has much of his armor and weaponry violently shorn off. ...And that purple kaiju, the kaiju with a heart. Anti... transforms himself. "The complicated hearts of kaiju in full effect." Yuka is... legitimately crying, watching the scene unfold. Observing the power of a heart.

<Pose Tracker> Kaiju Navi has posed.

Ken Shinjo's cackle rolls through the empty halls of Abyss as it hums and thumps in response. The fury of the Braves, the torment in their eyes as they face down the ghost of a hero -- The cruel truth of justice! Brother against brother! And only the most ruthless will survive!

Indeed, that same ruthlessness is all too evident in the knives aimed at Liam's back, as two red-visored wolves plunge down on the unsuspecting Neo Helios...

Even a great genius of Brave AI can only do so much. It's not truly a swarm, not yet, but there must be two or three of these mechanical ninjas for each of their foes -- a fact they exploit with ruthless abandon. Abyss Guards plunge forward into their prey, cannons tearing into the ground, pounding more rubble into the air, chasing, chasing, chasing. When the prey responds, another lunges, long kusari-gama chains flashing to anticipate their movement, trip them up further, rattle them.

Until the game becomes tiresome, and fangs sink in, blades flashing in the rainy gloom.

"KYAHAHAHAHAHAHA!~"

The Abyss Guards charge through, circle together, each exchanging partners in a wordless rhythm -- instinctive. And then they lunge back out, driving back at their foes, resuming the chase! Their intent is clear: before a rescue can be mounted, they will divide and conquer.

In the end, even heroes stand alone.

KTS: Kaiju Navi targets GaoGaiGo Team with Jet Wrapper!
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley has deployed in Evangelion Unit-02.
KTS: Kaiju Navi targets Renais Cardiff with Kusarigama Rushing Strike!
KTS: Kaiju Navi targets Eisen Daiwel with Arm Cannon Blast!
KTS: Kaiju Navi targets Sonia Sophia-Grace with Kusarigama Rushing Strike!
KTS: Liam 7-020 has deployed in NRV-00 Neo Helios.
KTS: Kaiju Navi targets Liam 7-020 with Kusarigama Varied Blows!
KTS: Kaiju Navi has completed their actions for the round.

<Pose Tracker> Asuka Shikinami Langley has posed.

The eyes of Evangelion-02 can see ahead, the shape of Anti the Kaiju, back to back with Gridman?! That's a change from his...

... purpose. Asuka had her purpose forcefully changed recently, but now she's watching in real time, Anti... finding a new one.

There's a glow, which shines brighter than the mist as he grapples the Kaiju and...

"Wait what!? The munchkin became Gridman!?" At first its shock, but then, despite having an antagonistic relationship with Gridman since the beginning... there's pride, "Heh. Go get 'em kid. Show them what you're made of."

The Taurus squad appears out of nowhere though, weapons trained on her. The displays in her screen going crazy with alarms as she finds herself encircled, and one REALLY big target for them. "What the-!? What's the deal?"

There's a sudden growl of frustration, not understanding that the Taurus' have been taken over, "G-Hound - if you're making a move on us. Let me ask you a question. Do you have ANY idea how long I've been pissed off at the way your command is running things!?"

Asuka lifts the crossbow, limbs whirring to life as its joined by electromagnetic wires. Hardened alloyed bolts begin flying with great and speed and force, as she tries to pick off a few right away.

"YOU REALLY WANT THIS FIGHT? COME AND GET ME YOU AUTOMATED LOSERS! I'LL SHOW YOU HOW A REAL PILOT DOES IT!"

The red Evangelion then promptly ducks behind a building to try and prevent retaliation, "<Alloy - link up with me! Plan has changed!>"

She sends out by radio, charging down a street choked with mist to get a better position, "<We're the biggest targets. We go out there it'll be death by a thousand cuts! So we're picking off G-Hound's trash before they can get the drop on everyone.>"

KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley targets Mobile Weapon Team with Super-Electromagnetic Crossbow Barrage!
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: Eisen Daiwel blocks Kaiju Navi's Arm Cannon Blast, taking 2550 damage!
KTS: Kaiju Navi anchors GaoGaiGo Team, forcing him into close range.
KTS: GaoGaiGo Team blocks Kaiju Navi's Jet Wrapper, taking 2580 damage!
KTS: Kaiju Navi has engaged GaoGaiGo Team!
KTS: Mobile Weapon Team successfully evades Qivi's MGR-M Launcher Lock-On
KTS: Eisen Daiwel has activated the Spirit Spirit Command.
KTS: Mobile Weapon Team fails to evade Alloy Kaas's Mariana Trench Warfare, taking 4085 damage!
KTS: Alloy Kaas has engaged Mobile Weapon Team!
KTS: Mobile Weapon Team partially guards Asuka Shikinami Langley's Super-Electromagnetic Crossbow Barrage, taking 3500
damage!
KTS: Eisen Daiwel has activated the Accel Spirit Command and Has Engaged with Kaiju Navi
KTS: Liam 7-020 fails to Parry Kaiju Navi's Kusarigama Varied Blows, taking 7540 damage!
KTS: Kaiju Navi has engaged Liam 7-020!
KTS: Renais Cardiff fails to rush.
KTS: Renais Cardiff partially guards Kaiju Navi's Kusarigama Rushing Strike, taking 3430 damage!
KTS: Kaiju Navi has engaged Renais Cardiff!
KTS: Sonia Sophia-Grace fails to rush.
KTS: [Lucky] Sonia Sophia-Grace's luck activates, and luck goes her way!
KTS: Sonia Sophia-Grace successfully avoids Kaiju Navi's Kusarigama Rushing Strike

<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.

        In the Director's Office of the Yumi Foundation in Paris, an interview is taking place. Sayla always interviews her PAs herself, in person. No matter how strong a recommendation she receives. The green haired woman opposite has so far impressed her on multiple levels. "So, I only have one more question-"

        And then her phone goes off with a message.

> Dr. Mass, there's been another kaiju attack, but it's not attacking the city. It's killing the other kaiju. The ones that you said were affecting people's memory.
> What can I do?

        She doesn't get a chance to respond as a second phone goes off with an alert:

>Request for support from TCCG. Tarabaman S will be providing Shuffle Forces a shortcut, respond so we can load cars.

        And by the time she moves for that phone- there's a pager noise that is all too familiar to the other woman. She smiles softly. "This is why Guy recommended me, isn't it?"

        Sayla looks a touch embarrassed. "I'm afraid so, Miss Isogai. I'm afraid I have to-"

        Sakura Isogai, former secretary of Koutaro Taiga, current secretary to PZ Politician Hearts Clover takes but a moment, then nods. "I can start immediately."

        Once again, Sayla is surprised, but nods. "Thank you. I need you to do two things for me- book an immediate train ticket to Nouvelle Tokyo, and then help coordinate with an employee of mine in Tsutsujidai, Ramo Marusa. I'm sending you her details now. I'll provide what advice I can, but-"

        "I understand. My old employer was like this." Sakura's smile is a little sad, and Sayla knows why.

        "Thank you."

---

        "Hey! Wake up in there! The fighting's already started!" Sho Utsumi yells from the comm over the train pulling into Tsutsujidai station. Sayla stirs in the cockpit, sitting in her traditional yellow pilot suit. She starts booting up the mobile suit hidden by the train car.
        
        "Thank you. We'll trust your tactical support from here... Tarabaman S." She should never have let Sho pick his teams handles. "Shuffle Alliance, this is Heart-2. Deploy!"

        The Dijeh SE-R bursts from the train car that headed for Fujinomiya ib, loaded with multiple long range weapons. It's a better unit than the one she piloted in the wake of Axis, but it's not the Saint Lance. For the best, seeing Leina's reaction.

        The battlefield is already active, NERV, 3G, the Gridman Alliance and-

        "Anti!?" Of course he'd come back here, but why? To do what? He isn't planning to... No, he's not. "Don't-!"

        The Kaiju survives. He transforms into someone new. He feels different. "...Well done, Anti. Looks like you learned a lot." Sayla radios to Shuffle- Renais included. "<<We're assisting the Gridman Alliance and their new ally! And keep an eye out for civilians- cover them getting to shelters! We have people on the ground evacuating.>>" Her typical modulation is in place, but she doesn't have her whole comms suite.

        The Dijeh steps forward, towards this Kaiju. It's head vulcans open fire, a shot to show it's here- that it exists. It feels... bad. She can't identify it. Her experience with Nidaime, Anti and Akane don't give her an insight into the heart of every kaiju. "Akane... what happened here?"

KTS: Liam 7-020 has activated the Spirit Spirit Command.
KTS: Sayla Mass targets Akane Shinjo with 80mm Vulcans Sustained Fire!
KTS: Sayla Mass has completed their actions for the round.
Escudo Shard teleports out.

KTS: Akane Shinjo successfully avoids Sayla Mass's 80mm Vulcans Sustained Fire

<Pose Tracker> GaoGaiGo Team has posed.

As the Abyss Guards rush forward, circling and striking, they manage to anchor GaoGaiGo in, but both arms come up to block blows, massviely reducing damage.

While they're closing in, Ikumi, boiling in his rage at the Volfogg clone, suddenly moves to grab one, as the drills on the knee begin spinning. "You think you can take a comrade's face?! Think again!"

"DRILL KNEE BUSTER!"

Suddenly, a knee goes up into the Abyss Guards, moving to do major damage to the much smaller machines, attempting to crush them with size and power!

<Pose Tracker> Alouette Pommier has posed.

Looking at what she can make out from Tsutsujidai's surroundings, Alouette notices the decapitated Venora... the source of the disturbance. But whatever it means for the people of Tsutsujidai, she'll never stop fighting for them. Rejoining with the rest of the Gridman Alliance, Alouette spots Sychrotank, equipped with a brand new funnel rack. Alouette opens a line. "I'm here to support you! We need to put a stop to this, before it's too late.." Still, Rikka and Gridman alike are some of the bravest people she know.. she can put her trust in them.

Shortly after, Alouette spots another intimately familiar presence to any 3G Blue personnel - Betterman. If he's here then... surely he must have arrived to alleviate the suffering of a heart. "Betterman Forte identified!" The on-field mobile operator calls. "...Treat him as friendly for now!" She hesitates for a moment. As much as it unsettles her to fight alongside the Somnium, at least he doesn't seem to be here for Guy.

And then the fight begins in proper.. it's totally one sided as Gridman in Full-Powered form is constricted, bound, and forced out of their union by the nameless kaiju. Alouette watches bleakly until Gridman is saved by... Gridman?! Those are certainly Anti's colours, though - he is the copycat kaiju after all. "Cognitive Kaiju Anti designated! Consider him friendly too!" There's much less hesitation on this designation, even if he just declared he would crush Gridman like 30 seconds ago. They need very well all the allies they can get.. and from little they've met, she's grown fond of the (former?) kaiju.

Seeing an opportunity, Alouette taps away from inside the cockpit. "Program Ring: EMISSION!" Two clear-coloured rings fly out from the wing area, and from them: a glowing-pink rapier and shimmering-green shield. Not all flourish, Guardienne Aviaire catches the rapier and lunges at top speed in the nameless kaiju's direction, aiming to pierce through with the Blade of Destruction.

KTS: Alouette Pommier has activated the Rouse Spirit Command.
KTS: Alouette Pommier targets Akane Shinjo with Aile en Fleche!
KTS: Alouette Pommier has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: GaoGaiGo Team has activated the Spirit Spirit Command.
KTS: GaoGaiGo Team: Will Barrier Activates.
KTS: GaoGaiGo Team targets Kaiju Navi with Drill Knee Buster!
KTS: GaoGaiGo Team has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: Alouette Pommier has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Rikka Takarada
KTS: Alouette Pommier has activated the Attune Spirit Command targeting Anti
KTS: Akane Shinjo partially guards Alouette Pommier's Aile en Fleche, taking 4092 damage!
KTS: Alouette Pommier has engaged Akane Shinjo!

<Pose Tracker> Orpheus Zevon has posed.

"Akane... "

In the seven rainy days since the Kaiju's defeat Orpheus Zeveles has taken leave from school. In that time, he has spent every day since the defeat of that creature within Tsutsujidai. Why was that? Concern.

The appearance of that Kaiju, and it's inability to fade had been made news beyond that of Tsutsujidai, even if perhaps only in rumor alone.

It was enough though for concern. After all, the pessimist in him could only think to himself what others would when they saw or heard the news of Akane Shinjo's Kaiju falling so easily...

If an attack was coming, it'd be when the sign of Tsutsujidai's defenses were weakest. It'd be when they were most vulnerable. It'd be when Akane Shinjo can't directly intervene. It'd be...Now.

It was for that reason that he had come. To prepare for a fight, to see the final Kaiju in person. To check upon the God of this world.

Upon the first day he arrived a text had been sent out to her. <I'll be in town for the next few days.>

It wasn't much of a message, but it was a message all the same. He was here for her if she needed someone. If those who were Pillars of Light were too brilliant to be around, if those lost to Bujack no longer were around, there was at least someone within that familiar darkness, a warmth could still be found. For those seven days he'd continue to reaffirm his presence, even if never responded to, though never trying to force her hand.

"Damn it..." Upon this very day though he had just sent out his last text and in response IT could be heard. The sound of a laughter that while signaling for an end, almost felt like it was laughing at the very notion of his actions up to this point.

Orpheus Zevon was all human, there was no denying such things. Yet, by Akane's own admission he was someone that could have been most Kaiju-like. It's for that reason as he watches what this entity hidden within does, that he feels that he is one of those that can be described as 'Someone with one foot in the world of monsters and one foot in the world of humans.' Even if only a little he can make a guess at the signs in front of them as they come, of the unsettling demise that Akane has unleashed.

Stay out of it...

It's the thought that first comes to mind. This wasn't his battle. If this thing was indeed Akane Shinjo's if it was the last attempt to acquire her goal, then as the one who had ended up becoming an accomplice of hers, it would be a betrayal to intervene, no matter the reason. For people like them, choosing a path like this was their choice. Even if it was a cruel choice...It was their's alone to take. Even now, he's sure if someone did the same act, he'd want no intervention.

"Don't make me do it..." Even as her world was falling to pieces he abstained his hand. This wasn't his fight. It shouldn't be his fight to involve himself in. There were already so many that were moving to protect this city. To try and protect her when she wanted nothing of it. There was no need for him to be involved. There were already enough heroes, there were already enough people acting for her benefit. There was no need for him to play this part...And yet.

The sound of Landspinners can be heard running through the streets of Tsutsujidai. The pilot in side letting out a tired sigh. There were already so many heroes. True heroes that had joined this fight, machines that rivaled buildings, and traveled the skies. For the white KMF that traversed the streets in kind, it could only be described as...The shadow of those hero-like entities in this heat of the moment.

Still, even in this moment Orpheus had made a choice that he loathed. In a way, it betrayed his own values, it betrayed Akane Shinjo's...Feelings. Though perhaps worst of all...

"Don't make me play the part of a hero..."

It was a title that he found never appropriate for him. Even less so than a 'Knight'. His actions now and up to this point he was sure where ultimately for his own benefit. No matter how kind they might have seemed. Even now, one could argue this act was a way to protect his investment of Akane Shinjo...And yet...

Ever since that time Akane had showed him those Tarabaman videos...There was an annoying comparison that he found himself making between the Byakuen and Tarabaman.

It's with that same annoyance that he focuses himself, within the shadow of those who harbored light, the Byakuen's weapon re-slotted into that of it's canon, aiming down its sights, and ultimately...As the sounds of gunfire filled the air of the city, accepting the his own betrayal as he fires his shot right to the Kaiju's core.

KTS: Orpheus Zevon has deployed in Type-01/C Byakuen.
KTS: Orpheus Zevon has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained proficiency bonus.
KTS: Orpheus Zevon has activated the Spirit Spirit Command.
KTS: Orpheus Zevon targets Akane Shinjo with Precision Shot: 70mm Liquid Sakuradite Explosive Cartridge!
KTS: Orpheus Zevon has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: [Mirage] Akane Shinjo's Is This Okay? activates, and she slips into a mirage.
KTS: Orpheus Zevon rattles Akane Shinjo, making her next maneuvers more difficult.

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

Akane stares up as Synchrotank passes by. Huh. It was really that close... guess that's on her for not paying attention to anything except the fight as it played out on her screen.

... the multiple types of automated units, too -- those feel like a special type of cruelty. So even the bleeding edge of warfare has found its way to Tsutsujidai. How stupid and small a god she is, that her world could not be spared even the newest and least gentle forms of conflict. Then again -- she started it. These are like her kaiju, in their own way.

---

People come, and more than that, they come in number. It is of no consequence to the nameless kaiju before them; its first priority is Gridman, which it begins to pull and tear and choke. This strange new kaiju -- no, this giant of light -- interrupting it is a frustration, but ultimately a bearable one. The monster is one that came into existence with the hope of putting an end to endings, by ending anything that ends -- and kaiju most of all.

Fortunately, the thing that strikes it has chosen not to be a kaiju anymore. Hurled away with tremendous force, the nameless creature stands tall and square for only a moment, seeming to assess its opposite number.

And another number, and another number, and...

One of them fires on it -- a smaller machine. That seems to get it moving again, after the momentary confusion of yet more Giants of Light. Its whole body whips up at an unnatural angle, and it grips a nearby apartment building, fingers digging in.

The kaiju here carries a will in a way that many previous ones have not, necessarily. That monstrous mass of sinew streaks down the streets of Tsutsujidai, kicking up cars and leveling buildings in a city that is very much still alive, despite what its creator thinks.

Its 'eye' glows an eerie reddish-pink, seeming almost to throb for a moment. These people want to try to protect something that absolutely needs to die?

... fine.

That eye sweeps across all it surveys, tracing out a thin line with a high-pitched whine. The fog seems to clear behind the path of the beam -- and after a moment, it erupts in a series of high-energy explosions. They start at Synchrotank, tracing toward the newly-minted Chevalier of Braves, toward Jana's ship.

The Betterman and the Giants of Light receive special attention. The nameless kaiju thrashes forward toward Gridman, aiming a gripping hand for his throat and trying to plant him in the ground; Lamia and Gridknight -- more like the nameless kaiju themselves, in their own ways -- receive a pair of blasts from the central eye of the creature. There's that same familiar 'pwing!' sound -- and then a detonation.

The machine that dared to fire on it with vulcans receives fire in kind -- a short pulse of the eye beam. It is as noncommittal as vulcans are -- mirroring like for like, for now.

Orpheus takes aim at the nameless kaiju -- and it seems to slip into a mirage, appearing directly beside the Byakuen rather than at his firing solution. It looks down for the Knightmare, its whole body seeming to bend with no waist -- simply contorting to stare straight down with that baleful eye.

Then it brings a foot down. There is no room for monsters in Tsutsujidai, anymore. The nameless kaiju will be the last one -- and to that end, it will crush all the others.

KTS: Akane Shinjo has activated the Daunt Spirit Command targeting Orpheus Zevon
KTS: Akane Shinjo has activated the Enable Spirit Command.
KTS: Akane Shinjo targets Jana Cektru, Alouette Pommier, and Rikka Takarada with Nanashi Beam Sweep.
KTS: Akane Shinjo targets Yuta Hibiki with Nanashi B Close-Combat Strangle!
KTS: Akane Shinjo targets Lamia with Nanashi Beam Unsteady Shot!
KTS: Akane Shinjo targets Anti with Nanashi Beam Unsteady Shot!
KTS: Akane Shinjo targets Orpheus Zevon with Nanashi B Close-Combat Crush!
KTS: Akane Shinjo targets Sayla Mass with Nanashi Beam Pulse!
KTS: Rikka Takarada blocks Akane Shinjo's Nanashi Beam Sweep, taking 3290 damage!
KTS: Jana Cektru has activated the Trust Spirit Command.
KTS: Akane Shinjo enervates Jana Cektru, reducing her Morale significantly.
KTS: Jana Cektru blocks Akane Shinjo's Nanashi Beam Sweep, taking 5170 damage!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Akane Shinjo's Collapse activates, causing Deject!
KTS: Lamia has activated the Trust Spirit Command.
KTS: Yuta Hibiki rushes into the attack!
KTS: Akane Shinjo anchors Yuta Hibiki, forcing him into close range.
KTS: Yuta Hibiki partially guards Akane Shinjo's Nanashi B Close-Combat Strangle, taking 4845 damage!
KTS: Akane Shinjo has engaged Yuta Hibiki!

<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.

        The ground rattles as Gridman rises up to oppose the second nameless kaiju--Nameless B, perhaps it should be called--and is laid low by it in an instant. Firing a beam that seems strikingly familiar, tearing off pieces of Gridman and cutting off his allies at the same time, reaching him and strangling him in another eerily familiar maneuver. Kaworu tenses to see it all, eyebrows furrowing in concern. If this reflects the next stage of Akane's spiral, then has she finally made her resolve? In which case--
        
        "Yuta," he murmurs... and then glances to one side, just before Anti RAMS into Nameless B.
        
        He, too, has made his resolve, and declares it for all the world to hear and see as he transforms from monster to defender. Kaworu relaxes and smiles. Anti truly is a magnificent creation, and if Akane won't take pride in him as he merits, he'll do so on her behalf.
        
        In all directions, battles rage. Entities interested in taking advantage of Akane's world (pain) rise up, lashing out, firing cannons and swinging chains and driving blades into unsuspecting backs, or marching in like tin soldiers and efficiently marking targets to seek and destroy. Even if he doesn't look, Kaworu is keenly aware of it. But as silent as this place once was, and as silent as some are trying to make it again, there are hearts that beat strongly to protect it.
        
        Still dripping with the earlier rain, Kaworu bears witness to their struggle.

KTS: Akane Shinjo enervates Alouette Pommier, reducing her Morale significantly.
KTS: Alouette Pommier fails to evade Akane Shinjo's Nanashi Beam Sweep, taking 5170 damage!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Akane Shinjo's Collapse activates, causing Deject!
KTS: [Spirit Defense] Lamia's Forte's Wrath activates, and his spirit is adjusted.
KTS: Akane Shinjo enervates Lamia, reducing his Morale significantly.
KTS: Lamia partially guards Akane Shinjo's Nanashi Beam Unsteady Shot, taking 5830 damage!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Akane Shinjo's Collapse activates, causing Deject!
KTS: Orpheus Zevon successfully evades Akane Shinjo's Nanashi B Close-Combat Crush
KTS: Anti charges into the attack!
KTS: Akane Shinjo enervates Anti, reducing his Morale significantly.
KTS: Anti partially guards Akane Shinjo's Nanashi Beam Unsteady Shot, taking 5830 damage!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Akane Shinjo's Collapse activates, causing Deject!

<Pose Tracker> Eisen Daiwel has posed.

Gridman appears before the cackling strange Kaiju, and Eisen watches with a grimace when the strange movements quickly end up being a bit 'too much' for Gridman. "Kid!" Yuta. "Get it together!" Eisen tries to transmit across, but the communications are failing still - and switching over the laser comms takes some time.

The Carestia comes to life, and begins to move towards the city. Not taking to the sky, as Eisen has already experienced that the 'ceiling' of this realm tends to behave rather strangely. Working his way while having to witness the onslaught to Gridman. Trying to make his way over...

When an army of Ninjas suddenly appear within the streets, looking to take the fight to the Evangelion. The Carestia grabs one as it tries to get in the way, tearing across its body with one of the Kusari. But the moment it moves, cannon fire tearing across the ground, making progress even harder.

As Gridman is being taken to its absolute limits in such a short time. But before he can interfere, someone else gets to him. As Anti manages to transform, and throw Nanashi B, Eisen's attention draws down to the streets and the villains that seek to halt him.

"Damnit... you better see to it you figure this out, Kid." Eisen grunts, as his attention turns to the dark 'Ninjas'. Some of their design features, some of their armor... makes him grimace.

        YEARS AGO

"Yeah! Get him!" A much younger Eisen throws his fist in the air, watching live footage coming in from a fancy fair of sorts, with a Zondar chasing the boy he'd later come to know as Mamoru. Only for a ninja robot to appear.

The footage is dodgy at best. But he watches as the purple machine protects that boy with all he's got, alongside the famed lion!

"Go, Volfogg!" He calls out, now with both fists in the air. Only for a woman to turn off the television and look down at the already lanky young man in the white jumpsuit.

"Okay, that's enough, three-five-one-three, it's time for testing."

"Do you think the boy is okay?"

"You've watched that video ten times already today. You know the King of Braves shows up in the nick of time."

"Heeeee!"

        NOW

"Tssk." The young man grimaces, staring in anger at the robots before him. Having heard the good news that the GGG had managed to retrieve Volfogg, only for there to be... this!? His grip on the controls tighens painfully, as the wings of the Carestia flare outwards, and the pinions aimed downwards suddenly 'fire' into the ground, releasing two large spears into the earth - shattering the pavement.

<"What do you think you represent with this look? What do you think you are trying to say!?"> Eisen calls out towards the Ninjas, as if they could answer him. The Carestia's head tilting down, as it hefts one of those spears up and then, without even announcing an attack, suddenly throws it at the kind of speeds rarely seen outside of Evangelions. Throwing it straight for one of the retreating ones' legs.

<"Gloomstalker Technique - delayed ascension."> Eisen then proposes with a heavy his beneath his breath, the Evangelion suddenly lifting its wings, and chasing a second, looking to grab it by the neck in order to try and jam a spear into its chest! <"VIOLENT TEAR!">

KTS: Eisen Daiwel: Will Barrier Activates.
KTS: Eisen Daiwel targets Kaiju Navi with Oppression!
KTS: Eisen Daiwel has completed their actions for the round.

<Pose Tracker> Sonia Sophia-Grace has posed.

A flicker. From her seat, Sonia stands, not that this does much for imposure.

"Adre, all power to main. Lift us up but cut a hard right at the maximum. We're going in! Weapons, are we clear enough for go?"

"Aye!" "Aye!" "Aye!" "Aye!"

As instructed, the Paradiso moves in towards the attackers that are also going for known ally machines. The ship is somewhat mobile, but it is large, and as such, does take it's time. However, the immediate action taken is quick enough for them to slip past the initial sally by their opponents, causing Sonia to grin wickedly.

"As needed, weapons! Watch out for allies on the field!" Well, that's obvious advice.

"Beams online and available, firing ahead of missiles!"

"Remember-" Sonia says behind everyone, startling at least a portion of the bridge crew- "We may be named after the Paradise lost, but we will fight through hell!" Ah, no -wonder- she gets along with Eisen.

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.

        Red beacons ignite on the Neo Helios' hud. Its reaction mirrors its pilot's body language: everything happens like clockwork, in fractions of a second, but still too slow. It glances back. Its knees bend. The jets at the small of its back ignite. It leaps, making approximately forty-five degrees through a spiral before the mechanical wolves sink their teeth in. One grabs the Neo Helios' left forearm, and the other goes for its left thigh. Liam screams in pain and surprise, his attention thoroughly torn from the spectacle of Gridknight's genesis; caught off-balance, the Neo Helios barely rights itself after that attack.

        What are these things? he thinks. They look... almost like the Braves. Frightningly like the Braves. But there's no sign of Triple Zero. "Dr. Cektru? Renais? Alouette?" There's no response. Something that isn't Minovsky radiation is playing hell with the radio.

        Metal grinds against metal as the Abyss Guards shred into the Neo Helios' armor. Liam grits his teeth, whipping his arm back and forward; the wolf holding his arm is dislodged, and goes flying, but it can recover. He reaches down to pry the other one off his thigh, certain horrible voice echoing in his head the whole time.

        Dead. What made you think stopping to stare was a good idea? Go on, tell me.

        Liam lets out a choked cry of anger, now. Plasma vents from behind the Neo Helios' right wrist, shaping itself into a knife. The magnetic field drops it into the Gundam's hand, and it lunges at the nearer of the two wolves. It drives the weapon straight for the thing's head without stopping to worry whether or not there's a pilot in there.

        Good puppy. See, you're learning.

KTS: Sonia Sophia-Grace targets Kaiju Navi with Fortitudo's Folley Beam Shot!
KTS: Sonia Sophia-Grace has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: Liam 7-020 targets Kaiju Navi with Starshard Knife!
KTS: Liam 7-020 has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: Liam 7-020 has activated the Spirit Spirit Command.

<Pose Tracker> Rikka Takarada has posed.

There are friends here. ...That's good. With the situation so uncertain, it's good to know there's more people she can count on here.

"Yeah, see you soon. You be careful too!" Rikka replies to Renais. And then, there's Alouette. Her heart soars as she sees Guardienne Aviaire taking the field, fully realised and in Alouette's hands. "Thank you! It's good to see you. Guardienne Aviaire looks amazing, I- Yuta!"

She cuts herself off quickly as the nameless kaiju suddenly attacks, lunging toward Gridman. It's movements... it isn't only fast, but... strange. She tries to follow it with her eyes, but...

"It's... too fast! And... I can't get a bead on it!" Rikka shouts. She tries to take aim, but its erratic movements mean that she's more likely to hit Gridman with Synchrotank's weapon than the kaiju itself, and that's a risk she doesn't want to take. She can only watch in mounting horror as Gridman is... completely overwhelmed, and then pinned to the ground. And then, Gridman's equipment, her friends, are torn from him, one by one.

"A-are you guys alright!?" Rikka asks, turning to look at them, as they're hurled from Junk, one by one. Her attention is forced back onto the fight as the nameless kaiju begins... choking Gridman. It's awful enough just to watch, but to hear Yuta's choking, screaming, and panicking... Rikka clasps her hands over her mouth, shaking her head in horror. "I-I can't... Someone, please...!"

A call for help goes out into the void. Whether it is a response to that, or just a coincidence, Anti appears. He charges into the kaiju, knocking it away. He fights - and this fight, is a little more even. And what's more...

"Oh my god... Anti." Rikka says. He transforms. He looks so much like Gridman, now. This time, she speaks directly through external speakers. "Anti... Thank you!"

Tsutsujidai is rocked, elsewhere, by other fights, other enemies - but the nameless kaiju immediately makes itself her problem, forces her attention on it, as a beam sweeps out toward her. Synchrotank raises its shield, barely defending itself against the beam and the resulting eruption of explosions.

It's fast. Too fast for her to track with her weapons systems. But... Rikka takes a deep breath. So, she'll heart guide her.

"...Funnels!" Rikka shouts. "Go!"

She sets them loose and guides them, filling them with the desire to protect - to protect this city from the kaiju that would see it burn. They follow her heart, flying at the kaiju and unleashing a volley of concentrated beam fire at it.

KTS: Sayla Mass successfully Evades Akane Shinjo's Nanashi Beam Pulse
KTS: Rikka Takarada has activated the Enable Spirit Command.
KTS: Kaiju Navi successfully avoids Sonia Sophia-Grace's Fortitudo's Folley Beam Shot
KTS: Rikka Takarada targets Akane Shinjo with Concentrated Fire!
KTS: Rikka Takarada has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: Eisen Daiwel enervates Kaiju Navi, reducing its Morale significantly.
KTS: Kaiju Navi partially guards Eisen Daiwel's Oppression, taking 5280 damage!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Eisen Daiwel's Experience This Curse With Me! activates, causing Deject!
KTS: Eisen Daiwel has engaged Kaiju Navi!
KTS: Eisen Daiwel: Will Barrier Activates.
KTS: Eisen Daiwel begins a Formation attack!
KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to react to Liam 7-020's Starshard Knife, taking 3690 damage!
KTS: Liam 7-020 has engaged Kaiju Navi!
KTS: Liam 7-020 completes the Formation attack!
KTS: Kaiju Navi partially guards GaoGaiGo Team's Drill Knee Buster, taking 4200 damage!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] GaoGaiGo Team's Roar! activates, causing Insight L1!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] GaoGaiGo Team's Shout! activates, causing Sparkle!
KTS: GaoGaiGo Team has engaged Kaiju Navi!
KTS: GaoGaiGo Team: Will Barrier Activates.
KTS: GaoGaiGo Team begins a Formation attack!
KTS: Rikka Takarada has activated the Enable Spirit Command targeting Anti
KTS: Rikka Takarada has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Yuta Hibiki

<Pose Tracker> Mobile Weapon Team has posed.

        Activating self-preservation subroutines. The Mobile Squad moves as one at the incoming attack by the modified Sarangay, all using their thrusters to leap away and redeploy in a swarming formation to prepare to over run the Sarangay unfortunately one of the Taurus units lands right in range of Alloy's tentacles, and fists as it begins to do it's best to move away unfortunately the suit that was grabbed is no longer operable and the squadron shuts down reliance on it. Meanwhile another Evangelion, red, which databases understand to represent an ace is the current pilot of the machine, with that knowledge the best thing to do is to execute sacrifical pawn routine as it allows one of the Taurus to take the hit while the others remain undamaged, the pawn is damaged but the unit still seems to be online.

        Battle Efficiency down to: 77%

        The squadron can no longer communicate with the satellites and now it was already down in combat force. Through the collective of the squadron data is being passed along the encrypted comm lines. If one was to hack in or had other insight it would be obvious the data wasn't actual communcation but just computer gibberish. Very loud annoying computer gibberish infact and a lot of it. However now without the satellite support they were having to setup an adhoc network and distribute processing throughout each unit. With the network place the squadron redefines it's objectives based on pre-programmed basic rules.

Mission Objectives:
*Defeat the Aggressors
*Protect the Kaiju
*Destroy the city

Mission Failure:
*All units are loss

        Mission objectives acknolwedged. Preparing to initiate opening volley. All operable Tauruses take to the air and raise their rifles at the aggressors. Each of their rifles glow bright red before they begin to lay down a barrage upon the three attempting to pin down the targets and quickly complete it's first objective.

KTS: Mobile Weapon Team has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has failed to disengage.

<Pose Tracker> Jana Cektru has posed.

"'Acknowledged, Unit-02.'"

There is much that Jana hasn't explained to STORAGE yet, though she intends to. There is much she has to say to NERV as a whole. In the time since their confrontation with Celebro, she has been--the word, reall, is brooding. But now, with Akane's world on the line like this...

She will not stay back to contemplate a failure when there is more that can be done.

And it worsens quickly. "Gridman!" Jana calls in alarm as he's knocked down, again and again, and pulled apart. The ship isn't close enough to deploy mobile suits yet; there's nothing she can do until--

Until... Anti. Another kaiju appears, and changes. He becomes a giant of Light. Jana looks with some relief at the fact that Gridknight throws Nanashi B afar, and the Hermes draws closer. "Yes," Jana replies to Yuka with a smile. "This one's heart... Is complicated indeed." She recognizes his mental signature. "This one, so intent upon Miss Shinjo..."

But that's the prefect time for Liam's Neo-Helios, vulnerable, to get GANKED. She winces--but apparently the radio isn't working well.

...On the bright side, Miss Langley seems to Jana to be doing fine.

Jana responds to Alouette about Betterman Forte, "Acknowleged."

Trismegistus Squadron launches. They are ready to prove themselves, to show that they are willing to risk their lives to better mankind. And so, they do. The high energy explosions rattle against the ship, and one of the mobile suits on it activates a beam shield, rocketing before the bridge.

"No--" Jana breathes it an instant before she feels the death of the pilot, consumed by the nameless kaiju's power. She is quiet for a moment, and shakes her head.

She reaches out, not with the radio, but with her mind. Anti may remember the experience, from the last time, a thought not his own that nevertheless tells him, We will not give up on her either.

Then, she taps away at her console. "Dr. Ohta," she says. "Let's focus our sensors on the enemy kaiju, and transmit the data we get to others as best we can. We'll..." She considers.

"We'll transmit through our pilots. Pilots, piggyback the signal from us towards the others."

And so the squadron will make up for the radio problems by diving down among the others.

KTS: Jana Cektru has activated the Enable Spirit Command targeting Anti
KTS: Jana Cektru targets Akane Shinjo with Designate L2!
KTS: Jana Cektru has completed their actions for the round.
POT: Mari Makinami Illustrious is now set observer.

KTS: Mobile Weapon Team targets Qivi, Alloy Kaas, and Asuka Shikinami Langley with Taurus Beam Cannon Saturation
Bombardment.
KTS: Qivi successfully Evades Mobile Weapon Team's Taurus Beam Cannon Saturation Bombardment
KTS: Jana Cektru designates Akane Shinjo, making her easier to target and opening her to indirect fire.
KTS: Akane Shinjo fails to react to Rikka Takarada's Concentrated Fire, taking 5850 damage!
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley has activated the Spirit Spirit Command.
KTS: Mobile Weapon Team has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley has activated the Spirit Spirit Command.

<Pose Tracker> Yuta Hibiki has posed.

"It's you.." Gridman manages, struggling to his knees as Anti comes to his rescue. "Why are you fighting for me?"

Nanashi B and Anti battle, two strange creations of the same God trying to destroy each other. Gridman can do little more than watch. Yuta aches, and just helping Gridman hold their body up like this is agony. Anti reaffirms his desire to kill them, and Yuta is far too exhausted to even feel baffled at the contradiction.

But as Anti transforms... Yuta stares in amazement, unable to keep himself from smiling.

---

"He copied Gridman..." Max explains to his comrades, awe in his voice.

Vit coughs. "So now there are two?"

"N--no." Calibur says, pride in his voice. "This one... is the real deal."

Borr, walking up to Rikka, gives her a smile. "We're gonna be just fine. Takes a lot more than that to mess up a Hyper Agent. Focus on taking that monster down, for Yuta's sake, alright? We've done all we can."

---

A voice reaches Yuta -- Liam? The man he went shopping with? Despite everything, Liam still cares this much about Gridman? Yuta gasps out a little sob, in the space between realities.

"We're okay -- " Gridman calls, though his voice sounds absolutely destroyed. "We're with you, Anti!"

All around them, allies soar in, coming to save Tsutsujidai. It's enough to give Gridman -- and Yuta -- a rush of strength. With a pained sound, the Giant of Light gets to his feet. Nanashi B runs wild at the sight, rushing into Gridman. Yuta grits his teeth as Gridman launches himself forward as well, blue warning light flashing all the while.

The kaiju gets its hands around Gridman's neck again, but this time -- "Grid PUNCH!"

Gridman punches up at Nanashi B's glowing red eye, a vicious edge to his movements. He's low on time -- this fight has to be a quick one. If he takes too much more damage, it's over. "With the strength of those who believe in us, Yuta -- fight with me! We will not be defeated here!"

"Right!" Yuta calls, pushing away the fear and pain. Gridman slides into a combat stance, fierce and true, under the green sky.

KTS: Yuta Hibiki has activated the Strike Spirit Command.
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley has activated the Alert Spirit Command.
KTS: Alloy Kaas has activated the Spirit Spirit Command.
KTS: Yuta Hibiki targets Akane Shinjo with Hyper Punch!
KTS: Yuta Hibiki has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley's EN Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage.
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley fails to evade Mobile Weapon Team's Taurus Beam Cannon Saturation Bombardment, taking 2625
damage!
KTS: Alloy Kaas's Will Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage.
KTS: Alloy Kaas blocks Mobile Weapon Team's Taurus Beam Cannon Saturation Bombardment, taking 1350 damage!
KTS: Akane Shinjo fails to react to Yuta Hibiki's Hyper Punch, taking 3770 damage!
KTS: Yuta Hibiki has engaged Akane Shinjo!
KTS: Yuta Hibiki begins a Formation attack!

<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.

        Anti -- GRIDKNIGHT -- hears them. Liam's scream; Renais's exclamation; Yuka's tears. Sayla's alarm, followed by her praise. Asuka's pride, and Alouette's alliance.

        And Rikka's gratitude is loudest of all those heroes -- that girl who offered him an umbrella, all that time ago.

        The hearts of humans are so loud. How could he not have heard them for so long..?

        (Not just human hearts, either, though he might not recognise them all as other. Kaworu's out there, and Jana, too.)

        He nods, to Qivi, and the others helping, just the once. Sharp -- stern. He is always elementally himself, even following the paths of so many. This copy of Gridman...

        ... he could be nothing but Anti. Anti, who hears her. Anti, who wanted to go to her.

        Anti, Tsutsujidai's dark Knight.

        Bolstered by Alouette's gutsy designation, Rikka's acceptance, and the thoughts sparked in his mind by Jana, Gridknight charges towards Nanashi B. That light flashes at his side, as he somersaults over it, and spins into Nanashi B with a kick which sends his entire weight into the kaiju. He doesn't land with it; regardless of what happens, he springs away, he keeps moving. He is motion, like water, and he does not STOP.

        That he attacks Nanashi B to try and keep him off of Gridman isn't so strange, for Anti. He's always been a jealous rival. And yet --

        "I'm with you," he affirms, to Gridman, a glance aside as he moves. "Don't die here." Large as he is, it's audible to everyone. They're six simple words. They say so much.

KTS: Anti targets Akane Shinjo with Gridknight Rush Attack!
KTS: Anti has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: Anti has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Yuta Hibiki
KTS: Anti has activated the Rouse Spirit Command targeting Yuta Hibiki
KTS: Akane Shinjo fails to react to Anti's Gridknight Rush Attack, taking 6630 damage!
KTS: Anti has engaged Akane Shinjo!
Qivi tosses a coin: Tails

<Pose Tracker> Orpheus Zevon has posed.

The enigmatic Kaiju dances upon the battlefield to and fro, it's singular eye taking in all attacks from all angles, and even from the shadow that is casted by Orpheus Knightmare isn't ignored. The fact being made apparent as it stares down at Orpheus. And for once, there's a small chuckle that escapes his lips.

I feel like this is the kinda look I'd be given by her too.

There's no elaboration on his own thoughts in the matter. Only acting like a mirage on wheels, the Byakuen moves to step out of the way of the Nameless Kaiju's assault.

He's ready to make a counter. If this was going to be a fight of monsters then he'll be happy to obli

The spotlight gets stolen as he watches the true heroes go to work. Gridman takes his shot at the creature with a punch alone to send it flying. Something that wouldn't be possible with a KMF but...

<Oi, Gridman...Keep going...>

A distorted voice calls out from the smaller machine towards the metallic giant. The smaller, white KMF would have likely been the first time the two had interacted on the battlefield, if at all. Yet...It knew his name.

Another flurry of shots follow up on the Kaiju. Acting as the distracting fire as both Gridman and Gridknight would make their follow up attacks. Though perhaps it would be more appropriate to question if these shots were simply annoying. Or could provide a hell of a wallop to such a creature as well? They'd only find out once they broke past this mirage.

KTS: Orpheus Zevon has activated the Spirit Spirit Command.
KTS: Orpheus Zevon targets Akane Shinjo with Precision Shot: 70mm Liquid Sakuradite Explosive Cartridge!
KTS: Orpheus Zevon has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: Orpheus Zevon rattles Akane Shinjo, making her next maneuvers more difficult.
KTS: Akane Shinjo fails to evade Orpheus Zevon's Precision Shot: 70mm Liquid Sakuradite Explosive Cartridge, taking 5940
damage!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Orpheus Zevon's Disabling Strike activates, causing Jam L1!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Orpheus Zevon's Precision Attacker activates, causing Nullify!
KTS: Orpheus Zevon completes the Formation attack!
Mobile_Weapon_Team has changed Boss level to 4

<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.

        Nanashi B's beam fires with the speed, power and accuracy the jagged Kaiju has shown itself accustomed to, right for the Dijeh-

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgbURB7-Ymc

        Only for it to dart to the left, the blast scoring a damaged building. The newtype flash from a Kaiju... and those feelings-

        The synchrotank activate funnels and Sayla's eyes widen. Then... is Rikka...? Did she just awaken?

        Sayla pulls up the sized up Boxer on the Dijeh's back, raising it to her shoulder- and aiming for the feet with shotshell- try and hamper it's movement, that's her option. Anti- Gridknight- has Gridman handled. So now it's up to the rest of them to stay as she fires a second blast for the legs. But...

        Sayla stills has tricks up her sleeve, a laser comm burst to Rikka being fired, the message prepared and sent, then comm killed. In Sayla's own voice, no distortion.

        "<<Rikka? Do you feel what's coming off that Kaiju?>>"

<Pose Tracker> Qivi has posed.

"<On it,>" Qivi sends back to Sayla. "<I'll keep the little guys away, give them a better chance against the kaiju. If the mobile suits escape, I'll join in.>" She gives a little - visible! though not that visible because of the size of her robot - half-salute, half-wave toward Anti and the others while the missiles launch.

Qivi fires a full quartet of missiles before ducking back behind a building to give the launcher a moment to reload and avoid getting shot back in return.

It's a very good thing she did, because an Evangelion - TWO Evangelions, one fully humanoid and one a little not - tear past her. Compared to them, Sarangay, a heavily modified Blizzaia L wanzer, is tiny. Six meters or so, either one of them could simply run her over.

That doesn't mean she's going to let them take all the shots, granted. "<Hey!>" Qivi picks one of the Evangelions at random to hail; it happens to be Asuka. "<I'm on NERV's side, okay? I know you guys are the kaiju experts but these are mobile suits.>" Pause. "<Weird mobile suits. Let's keep 'em away from Gridman, okay? Gridmans. Whichever!>"

Note to self: inquire as to terminology.

Beam rifle shots hit the building Qivi is hiding behind, so she takes advantage of actually having cover to reposition, the wanzer's landspinners whirring along as she goes down a side street, practically an alley, that the Tauruses almost certainly can't fit down (though they could fly over it, so it's not exactly perfect protection).

It 'is' enough that, when she pops back out, shotgun in hand, it might be a surprise how much closer they are. Qivi fires a heavy slug at the closest Taurus, then jet-boosts up, chasing it into the sky. She lands, momentarily, on a building before taking off again, using it to cool her jets for a few seconds.

KTS: Sayla Mass has activated the Strike Spirit Command.
Lamia transforms to Betterman Cataphract

KTS: Qivi has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
KTS: Sayla Mass targets Akane Shinjo with Boxer 57mm Shotcannon Shotshell!
KTS: Sayla Mass has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: Qivi targets Mobile Weapon Team with Covet V300 Slug Shot!
KTS: Qivi has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: Lamia has activated the Spirit Spirit Command.
KTS: Akane Shinjo fails to react to Sayla Mass's Boxer 57mm Shotcannon Shotshell, taking 5330 damage!

<Pose Tracker> Alouette Pommier has posed.

The nameless kaiju is fast... infuriatingly so. It fires a sweeping beam that tears through the already deteriorating city. And although Alouette puts her thrusters on full charge, Guardienne Aviaire is still caught in the blast and dropped closer to ground-level.

For a moment, it's frustating for Alouette.. even when she puts her whole heart into it, she still can't..?

But those thoughts are interrupted as the kaiju is intercepted by a volley of fin funnels. The fin funnel rack that the Gridman Alliance helped attach to Synchrotank. Alouette can't help but smile as she sees them gracefully fly and meet their target. "Rikka...! They worked, that was amazing!" She exclaims. Rikka and Alouette really have grown a lot together as pilots, and she's confident that if Rikka can find her courage, she can follow up on it.

Her smile only widens as she witnesses the strange yet wonderful sight of Gridman and Gridknight fighting hand in hand. Tsutsujidai is collapsing, but it's also forged so many connections, and brought so many hearts together.

And so, Guardienne Aviaire reaches the inspiration to take flight in full once again. "Program Ring... PLUS!" Alouette shouts as a lone Program Ring is emitted before Guardienne Aviaire's arm, as a familiar, loud whirring noise starts up. "BROKEN... PHANTOM!" Alouette roars, as the Chevalier of Braves lunges, mid-air. The talon claw is fired through the Program Ring, threatening to tear through the kaiju!

<Pose Tracker> Yuka Ohta has posed.

The ship rocks, tilting Yuka to one side while she was less than properly braced. Thankfully, they have seatbelts keeping her from falling to the floor. "Can do." A few shifts to camera angles and sensor readouts, narrowing focus to their segment of the battlefield. Normally she'd offer more wide-range support, but in this situation, the best they can do is concentrate on aiding the team fighting Nanashi B. But... that's not QUITE all she can do.

Since they're sending out this kind of data, she has a secondary option. "Transmit this as well. Send it to the enemy kaiju. Intermittent feed in... ten... no, fifteen second clips. That should be perfect for disorientation." What are they transmitting? Simple. She's going to try and use Tarabaman against the Creature From Within The Suit. Display some scenes of the OTHER parts of the show, that Akane wouldn't typically focus on. Cases of humanity banding together to support one another. It may not work, but it's her first idea, and she wants to SEE what happens at least.

KTS: Alouette Pommier targets Akane Shinjo with Broken Phantom!
KTS: Alouette Pommier has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: Akane Shinjo fails to react to Alouette Pommier's Broken Phantom, taking 7280 damage!
KTS: Yuka Ohta targets Akane Shinjo with Demoralize!
KTS: Yuka Ohta has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: Yuka Ohta demoralizes Akane Shinjo, reducing her Morale drastically.
KTS: Sousuke Sagara has deployed in ARX-7 Arbalest.

<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.

A little while ago...

Sousuke Sagara was supposed to be taking a break.

After a disastrous mission some weeks ago to rescue Emilia Eschonbach after she somehow got caught up in a Black Knights raid, Sagara has had his arm bandaged up. He's not the type of weird chuuni for the Curse of Dark Flames - an enemy agent cut his hand and arm up with a knife in an attempt to disable it. By now it's well on the way to healing, but the last treatments are still taking, so he's been advised to keep it wrapped up, for now. The rumor is he put his hand in a running engine.

Sousuke was up along with his pal Shinji Kazama, to spend a day or two at the Tsutsujidai High Music Festival and generally being far away from the action. He was ALSO here somewhat in his capacity as a Shuffle Alliance soldier, because that kaiju was....concerning.

So naturally it all went to hell. Sousuke all but shoved Shinji into a shelter and then pulled out his Shuffle NFC card to activate his phone's communication, holding it up to his ear as the horrid new kaiju pranced madly through the city.

"Uruz 7 to dealer. Uruz 7 to dealer. Relay to Dana and Heart-4, AL is required immediately. Repeat, relay to Dana and Heart-4, AL is required immediately."

And then he went to wait.

===

The path to Tsutsujidai was closing. He didn't understand the details, but it was what was emerging through the decaying state of communications. But it seemed like, even as the city fell to ruins around him, he'd have no way to act. Even communications were failing.

His phone burped static. But he heard, "--ven!"

That's-- "Uruz seven reporting, say again!"

"Ge** **ve he**! AL ** *** ***tion! Say ****n, THE TRAIN STATION!"

Gebo Five. Eva Santos. The transport team member responsible for Arbalest's delivery. "Coming!" Sousuke yells back, and runs.

====

It wasn't especially fast, getting to the station.

But suddenly, a streamer of electric blue explodes in midair, and Arbalest appears out of its Electronic Concealment System's invisibility mode, knife drawn, already descending on one of the formed-up Tauruses.

"Uruz-7, on the scene! Entering combat!" Sousuke barks.

<Pose Tracker> Lamia has posed.

Attempting to take the beam head on by rushing through it the glacial wall that is Forte can't help but crumple under the might of the beam, its body sailing back as it slams into one of the many buildings within the city.

         It remains unmoving, for a moment, before peeling itself off, dropping to the ground once more as it reorients itself. He should not have come ahead of schedule, it seems. Then again, by the time he'd had gotten the rest of his team on board, there'd be a good chance that he'd have been too late to help with anything.

         As if in response to specifically spite his thinking however, the crack in the sky that the Betterman had originally emerged from splits even more, as more Betterman suddenly descend from the sky to land by Forte's side.

         A mountainous goliath, A jellyfish, a weird paper-like worm, an undescribable shape, a skeletal bat-creature, and an ogre covered in blades. There's no real unifying theme between any of them, and yet, once the ogre raises its hands and bathes the battlefield in a blinding light, the clashing kaiju have become one.

         There's a crushing psychic pressure as the newly formed Cataphract unfurls its wings, the massive monster congolormate now flying forward to deliver a massive downward punch to the unnamed kaiju's 'head'.

         "Gridman... And Gridknight. You choose to fight even while the end is near?"

         It's not just them. There's a lot of people opting to join to fight what is clearly a world willingly folding in on itself. Yet, he has to ask. He wants to know. What drives these people to fight?

KTS: Lamia: Will Barrier Activates.
KTS: Lamia targets Akane Shinjo with Forte Punch!
KTS: Lamia has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: Sousuke Sagara targets Mobile Weapon Team with GRAW-2 Monomolecular Cutter Slash!
KTS: Sousuke Sagara has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: Akane Shinjo fails to parry Lamia's Forte Punch, taking 4320 damage!
KTS: Lamia has engaged Akane Shinjo!

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

Akane stares up, numb, as she sees the mobile dolls defend her kaiju. ... so even on the outside, creators are just as helpless to stop the movements of their creations. How depressing. It's a feeling that intensifies as she sees the cousins of machines like Volfogg and Porc-Auto. Maybe everyone is helpless.

What a cold world. Why would anyone want her to go back to it?

---

Even if what that intent is is hard for a human to read... there is intent -- and funnels are weapons that makes a great pursuer of intent indeed. They fire a volley into the nameless kaiju, and it starts to sag. That sag turns into a whip straight backward as Gridman comes in for a punch -- a whip too late, leading to the kaiju's flip ending up more of a stumble. It spider-skitters along buildings in the commercial district, regaining its footing.

Then it really doesn't regain its footing. The precision strikes from Orpheus lance through the kaiju, many entering the emptiness inside it to uncertain effect but one hitting it cleanly in the core, leading to a stagger and a "gggyhhooooghh-ho-hoh" that's more pained than exulting.

The fog clears fully -- all across town, as the Venoras' deaths seem at last fully acknowledged by this tiny, collapsing world. Some of the buildings around are revealed as the mere illusion of a building -- just random blocks and spires in wireframe green, cut through with traces like printed circuit boards. As the kaiju mounts one such 'building,' firing a tremendous, erupting beam toward the approaching Betterman in a rejection of the notion that humanity deserves a defender against hopelessness --

-- a transmission comes through. Tarabaman. The beam falters, if only for a tiny moment -- it snakes up toward the sky, instead, before blipping out. The punch comes down on its tapered head, and it hits the ground.

The claw from Guardienne Aviaire follows suit -- and it nearly rips straight through the kaiju right then and there. Sinew knits, but imperfectly -- there is a real, permanent wound in the kaiju from that, something that slows it down just a little. It remains as unreadable as ever -- but Alouette rejects its premise, and in so doing, deals tremendous damage to the monster.

It stands again, with inhuman intent rolling off of it. It is a thing with something like a heart -- and right now, all that heart wants is an end. It runs toward Gridknight, moving to kick off of the newly-minted Hyper Agent's chest; taking to the air from that, it begins raining destruction from the heavens indiscriminately. There is an effort, in a sense, to direct at least most of that destruction toward the individual fighters most aggressive about fighting it... but even that is somewhat weak -- destruction is destruction. Sooner or later, all things must end.

KTS: Akane Shinjo has activated the Daunt Spirit Command targeting Yuta Hibiki
KTS: Akane Shinjo targets Jana Cektru, Lamia, Orpheus Zevon, Sayla Mass, and Rikka Takarada with Nanashi Beam Sweep.
KTS: Akane Shinjo targets Anti with Nanashi B Close-Combat Hit!
KTS: Akane Shinjo targets Yuta Hibiki with Nanashi Beam Focus Fire!
KTS: Akane Shinjo has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: Akane Shinjo targets Alouette Pommier with Nanashi Beam Rapid Fire!
KTS: Rikka Takarada blocks Akane Shinjo's Nanashi Beam Sweep, taking 2350 damage!
KTS: Lamia has activated the Spirit Spirit Command.
KTS: Anti rushes into the attack!
KTS: Anti partially guards Akane Shinjo's Nanashi B Close-Combat Hit, taking 2029 damage!
KTS: Akane Shinjo has engaged Anti!
KTS: Lamia's Will Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage.
KTS: Lamia blocks Akane Shinjo's Nanashi Beam Sweep, taking 1110 damage!
KTS: [Spirit Defense] Jana Cektru's Otherworldly Calm activates, and her spirit endures.
KTS: Akane Shinjo enervates Jana Cektru, reducing her Morale significantly.
KTS: Jana Cektru fails to evade Akane Shinjo's Nanashi Beam Sweep, taking 5640 damage!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Akane Shinjo's Collapse activates, causing Deject!
KTS: Sayla Mass has activated the Alert Spirit Command.
KTS: Sayla Mass has activated the Strike Spirit Command.
KTS: Orpheus Zevon has activated the Spirit Spirit Command.
KTS: Orpheus Zevon fails to evade Akane Shinjo's Nanashi Beam Sweep, taking 4700 damage!
KTS: [Spirit Defense] Sayla Mass's Hardened Heart activates, and her spirit endures.
KTS: Akane Shinjo enervates Sayla Mass, reducing her Morale significantly.
KTS: Sayla Mass partially guards Akane Shinjo's Nanashi Beam Sweep, taking 5640 damage!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Akane Shinjo's Collapse activates, causing Deject!
KTS: Akane Shinjo enervates Alouette Pommier, reducing her Morale significantly.
KTS: Alouette Pommier blocks Akane Shinjo's Nanashi Beam Rapid Fire, taking 5520 damage!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Akane Shinjo's Collapse activates, causing Deject!
KTS: Akane Shinjo has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: Yuta Hibiki fails to evade Akane Shinjo's Nanashi Beam Focus Fire, taking 6300 damage!
KTS: Akane Shinjo roots her unit, coming to a standstill and leaving her vulnerable.

<Pose Tracker> Jana Cektru has posed.

Dr. Cektru gathers Dr. Ohta's plan only after she sees what the feed is, and then she smiles, though only briefly. It is a stressful battle, and she cannot say she is in a 'good' mood. "Yes, we must remember that it is an emotional as well as physical battle..."

Thus reminded, Jana reoubles her efforts.

That strange psychic pressure rocks Jana in her seat, her 'opened' mind more susceptible to noticing it than even would be usually the case. Betterman and Betterman, the Cataphract monster moving to punch the kaiju. There is a sense of a question, but she is not the one being asked, and she does not hear it.

The nameless kaiju strikes again, though. The beam snakes up to the sky, and Jana feels the intent of this 'heart'. "Trismegistus Squadron! Stay down!"

This time, her pilots are shielded by the ship, though as it turns out, the ship's armor takes the brunt of the next attack; armor ablates as it's meant to, melting and breaking in place to protect the more vulnerable parts of the ship, though the ship rocks with it. Jana, too, almost falls out of her seat, but for her seatbelts.

"Hang on," Jana advises the crew. "Our guns are too heavy to fire into the city at this angle. We'll have to rely on our mobile suit wing."

"Pilot, get me evasive maneuvrs--get up above it, draw its attention. Trismegistus Squadron, I need you to go in under our cover and push through its defenses. I'll guide you. Focus on my voice..."

The ship moves, and fast, and the squadron of mobile suits rushes in, guns blazing, swarming all around the kaiju from every direction they can.

KTS: Jana Cektru has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained proficiency bonus.
KTS: Jana Cektru has activated the Rouse Spirit Command.
KTS: Jana Cektru targets Akane Shinjo with Trismegistus Squadron Swarm Tactics!
KTS: Jana Cektru has completed their actions for the round.

<Pose Tracker> Asuka Shikinami Langley has posed.

Qivi hails her, and the Eva's green eyes turn to the Sarangray briefly. Within the cockpit the pilot replies back, "<I don't know what G-Hound is trying to pull here. Whatever though - I get it! We don't take care of this it's going to be a massacre out there. You see how that Kaiju is moving?>"

As if that speaks for itself, the deadliness of the threat, if this Taurus group converges on them.

The Taurus take aim - fire. The Evangelion is a big target. A really big target. Her attempt to lose some of them behind a building results in beams lancing through said buildings right at the Eva. "NNnngh!" The girl bites down a scream as it feels like several parts of her are having white hot needles jabbed in. "Tck. Careless."

The Eva turns around, and its AT Field unfolds in a hexagonal pattern, catching several of the beams before they do more damage. Some early on scored a few good hits in the Restraint Armor.

Noone in the city can really smell the burning flesh, with the nerve gas so ubiquitous. "Getting me bogged down with the small fry in a shoot out is what you want. Alright, let's play a little game."

The Eva says as the crossbow goes inactive, as she hooks it in place behind a Shoulder Pylon. And pulls out another, a rifle looking weapon from behind the other.

As she does, a translucent violet bayonet folds out like a switchblade. The Evangelion then takes off running, trying to get the Taurus to follow her. It picks up speed, footsteps clearing the green mist. It turns around a building.

Then abruptly charges right back out before they can reposition in the chase, bayonet extended, and tries to skewer one with the bayonet. And immediately hits the trigger. There's a FLASH and burning Ozone...

... as something akin to a bolt of lightning erupts from the Thunder Spear and tries to fry the entire space at close range.

KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley targets Mobile Weapon Team with GB-012 Activation!
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley has completed their actions for the round.
POT: Teletha Testarossa is now set observer.

KTS: Akane Shinjo fails to react to Jana Cektru's Trismegistus Squadron Swarm Tactics, taking 6500 damage!
KTS: Renais Cardiff has activated the Strike Spirit Command.

<Pose Tracker> Rikka Takarada has posed.

Anti fights, supports, Gridman. This... It feels so good to see. She remembers when he was their enemy, and she remembers the time she thought he was just a quiet boy. ...He's grown, hasn't he?

Her funnels... they actually work - they fly, and they manage to land a hit. Her spirit is boosted. A part of her wasn't sure, but this... this is encouraging.

"Yeah... I'm so glad. I'm thankful for everyone's support!" Rikka replies. And of course, she'll cheer for her in return whenever she succeeds! "Alouette...!"

And then, she receives a direct communication by laser from Sayla, absent of the usual obfuscations.

"I..." Rikka starts, returning her communication by the same direct means. She pauses. Does Sayla know? The funnels... Come to think of it, that'd be a giveaway for anyone. And, Sayla is someone so trusts, so... "...Yeah. I feel something, but... I don't know what it is. I've never... felt anything like this before..."

The fog clears, and it's as if several of the buildings have had their textures ripped away, revealing only the geometry of the world beneath in wireframes and circuit boards.

Another beam sweeps outward. This one, Synchrotank unfolds to deal with. It lunges forward quickly standing into full mobile suit mode, shields head in front of it to intercept the beam.

She doesn't go for another funnel volley just yet. She lets them return to the rack for now. She has a different idea in mind. She has a better idea of how it moves, now. Enough to risk one shot. She draws a weapon, and it isn't her own - it's Phormocannon's Glue Buster. Utsumi's weapon.

He has already helped a great deal, in providing quick shortcut for their allies to join them - and now he may help again in spirit as Rikka takes aim with the Glue Buster, tracks the nameless kaiju's movements, and opens fire in an attempt to obstruct its movements with a coating of glue.

KTS: Rikka Takarada targets Akane Shinjo with Glue Buster!
KTS: Rikka Takarada has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: Rikka Takarada has activated the Enable Spirit Command targeting Alouette Pommier
KTS: Rikka Takarada rattles Akane Shinjo, making her next maneuvers more difficult.
KTS: Akane Shinjo fails to react to Rikka Takarada's Glue Buster, taking 3770 damage!
KTS: Rikka Takarada begins a Formation attack!
KTS: Rikka Takarada has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Yuta Hibiki

<Pose Tracker> Alloy Kaas has posed.

        The DEW attack from the Taurus' confronts the armor plating of the seventy-plus meter giant. It ablates and is mostly deflected into fractals. One of these toys isn't a threat, but working in a group, the numbers could be a problem, in particular to those... like the Wanzer, who are more peer in size. Alloy targets the friendly with near field communication.

        <Wanzer! It's Null-Sigma! Use the Evangelion for cover, while attacking from range if you can!>

        Were it... less crowded, Alloy is confident that she could engage three or four of the toys. But this isn't a normal fight. There are a lot of pieces in motion on this chess board, which requires more deliberate and discerning attacks.

        A reminder that Null-Sigma's advantage is in water, and not floating cities in low-G, these Taurus' have her beat in mobility. It's not going to deter her. Null-Sigma's long extra appendages, pair up to each take a sizable debris from the wreckage of one of the buildings. Large superstructure supports, become missiles as each pair of limbs in turn throw them at the Squadron.

        <That should deter advance for the moment. Ready when you are Asuka!>

        It's honestly a bit unwieldy, trying to brace the offensive giant against another building that remains upright, and she avails herself of the cover after throwing the debris. Alloy tries to take in as much of the combat data coming in from one... two, other melees. Balancing the neural load of the four other limbs, she can't watch her sensors constantly, so this, 'SitRep' is how she tries to juggle everything.

        The beam piercing the building and hitting Unit 02, is unexpected and surprises Alloy. The Red titan moves, and Unit Null-Sigma moves as well. The flash of impact on the AT-Field, meeting the blasts from the Taurus, as Alloy moves in tandem, covering the flank.

<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.

Renais' expression darkens as she gets a closer look at the Abyss Guards. She dives out of the way of their attacks at first, only to get hooked by as kusari-gama, the sickle digging deep into her armor before pulling free. "Fuck!" she mutters, flipping to an infrared overlay. It's noisy and unreliable, but it's at least going to help her identify any shadow or mirror-coating clones, for now.

They've quickly closed to melee, but the Boxer excels at close-range. That suits her just fine. One passes right through her firing line--

She squeezes the trigger.


'This'll be a hell of a story for Porc-auto,' she thinks to herself, already thinking over the conversation she's going to have with him when things are over.

Unfortunately, she doesn't yet know about Tsutsujidai's rapid fall out of the Material Plane.

KTS: Alloy Kaas targets Mobile Weapon Team with Bloodboiling Pressure!
KTS: Alloy Kaas has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: Renais Cardiff targets Kaiju Navi with Boxer 57mm Shotcannon Shotshell!
KTS: Renais Cardiff has completed their actions for the round.

<Pose Tracker> Yuka Ohta has posed.

Another sweeping shot connects, though beforehand, Yuka can see how her trick seemed to take hold. But she can't rely on just that. If she uses it too often, it's going to lose effect. So she plans around. This time, she pulls out some recent recording. Of everyone's work to save Hass and Anosillus from Celebro's clutches. Not the confidential parts, but enough to get across the point of how they're ready to protect this city and its people. Contrastingly, she sends data toward Anti and Yuta to bolster their spirits, and help them coordinate their counterattacks.

"Jana, be careful." It's less about the attacks though. More about the emotions in play. She doesn't want her friend here to wind up falling too deep into that pit. And she's more aware of things like that than ever, given recent experiences. But there's only so much she can do from here, and right now.

Especially when she hears a certain tiny kaiju wailing across the ship. It must be scared... She'll have to get away to comfort it soon. As soon as there's a momentary opening.

KTS: Kaiju Navi has activated the Alert Spirit Command.
KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to evade Renais Cardiff's Boxer 57mm Shotcannon Shotshell, taking 3895 damage!
KTS: Mobile Weapon Team partially guards Qivi's Covet V300 Slug Shot, taking 2958 damage!
KTS: Yuka Ohta has activated the Rouse Spirit Command targeting Yuta Hibiki
KTS: Yuka Ohta has activated the Enable Spirit Command targeting Anti
KTS: Sousuke Sagara enervates Mobile Weapon Team, reducing his Morale significantly.
KTS: Mobile Weapon Team fails to evade Sousuke Sagara's GRAW-2 Monomolecular Cutter Slash, taking 4320 damage!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Sousuke Sagara's Where'd He Go!? activates, causing Deject!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Sousuke Sagara's Battlefield Mastery activates, causing Control Bonus!
KTS: Sousuke Sagara has engaged Mobile Weapon Team!
KTS: Mobile Weapon Team successfully evades Asuka Shikinami Langley's GB-012 Activation
KTS: Yuka Ohta targets Akane Shinjo with Goad!
KTS: Yuka Ohta has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: Mobile Weapon Team partially guards Alloy Kaas's Bloodboiling Pressure, taking 4650 damage!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Alloy Kaas's Geass Directorate Survivor activates, causing Sparkle!
KTS: Alloy Kaas has engaged Mobile Weapon Team!
KTS: Alloy Kaas begins a Formation attack!

<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.

        That inhuman intent... that seeking an end. It's so close to what came off her. "...This is really what you want, isn't it?" She asks to the air, before Sayla's unit is blasted off it's feet and knocked into the building that was behind it. "Ramo, Sigma... I'm really hoping you pulled off the evacuation."

        She needs time to set up, to ready her weapon. The Dijeh pulls up to it's feet, building crumbling under her. She gets Rikka's response, and then Dijeh dashes over for touch comms, Sayla's unit crouching. This is a good spot.

        "...This is... I think it's how Akane feels inside. I've been feeling something like it since the first time I met her. It's never been this bad." It's a burden but... Rikka seems more like a Brave than her. "I'm not going to let her have what she thinks she wants. What are you going to do?"

        The laser comms come quick and fast- to Renais and Sousuke. "I need the two of you to keep the fighting away from Gridman, Anti and Astral Dragon. Make sure they don't but in. I'm counting on you."

        Rikka hears all of this. "I'll provide support and back you up, Rikka. You do what you need to do."

KTS: Yuka Ohta goads Akane Shinjo, reducing her Intuition drastically.

<Pose Tracker> Kaiju Navi has posed.

Ikumi's rage is met by bubbling laughter. At first, it's that staccato hyena howl, but as the drill crunches against the Abyss Guard's frame, a different, wheezing strain emerges. "Ahahah! That's right, hero! Crush, break, kill! There's no blood on your hands today! Isn't it a fine thing, a machine with no heart? Or maybe it doesn't matter to you!"

More of that horrid, wheezing laughter. The Abyss Guards circle Renais, though one of them skids to the ground as its shoulder is torn by buckshot. It howls more mechanical laughter in her face and brings up its cannon.

"You tore Volfogg apart just as easily as this, didn't you?! A shame you were too soft to put him out of his misery! I bet he's weeping in his little tin box right now, to have failed you so utterly! But it's you who put that weakness inside him! He stayed his hand because he loved you, and you --"

The transmission cuts, harshly, as the drill cuts deeper. In his darkened lair, Ken Shinjo's chest heaves as more of his blood spills onto the polished floor.

The heartless shinobi's body begins to crumple... and then collapse inward, towards Ikumi, as its partner cruelly pounds shell after shell into its frame, detonating it in the face of the new King of Braves! And already, another shadow flashes through the storm, perched to join its partner...

"How long are you going to pretend it's not cruel, to lie to a killing machine and call it your friend?"

That Renais is next to be pounced upon in turn is... surely coincidence.

--

The Abyss Guards dance between Sonia's blasts, bouncing in, in, in -- into the waiting claws of Eisen Dawel. Once again, a rasp rattles out of a cold steel chest. "Ho? And here I had you mistaken for one of Ikari's brats. Another toy doll designed for heartbreak, all for the sake of his inflated ego. But you... ahaha. You and that machine resemble each other, I think! How wonderful." The Abyss Guards show their appreciation the only way they know how -- with fire, and steel. Chains lash out to bind down the frustratingly flighty Sonia, while Eisen is simply pummeled at point blank with explosive violence by the very machine dangling at the end of his spear.

--

The red visor shatters in Liam's fist. Still the horrible laughter continues. Shrieking, joyless, it bubbles up each time the machines clash, each time blood is drawn. That Liam is sinking under the weight of memory only seems to delight his foes. They are, after all, in service to the Abyss.

The machine's head is twisted, its senses lost. But its partner dashes across rooftops, kicking more rubble down as it circles around Liam's back -- and with a flash of its own visor, the abomination in front of him brings its kusari-gama up and whirls it directly for his core!

"Weapons are meant to be weapons. You spat on the kindness of your betters when you dragged that broken heart of yours out of the garbage."

KTS: Sayla Mass targets Rikka Takarada, Sousuke Sagara, and Renais Cardiff with Coordinate.
KTS: Sayla Mass has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: Sayla Mass coordinates maneuvers, raising Rikka Takarada's Piloting!
KTS: Kaiju Navi targets GaoGaiGo Team with Arm Cannon Penetrator!
KTS: Sayla Mass coordinates maneuvers, raising Sousuke Sagara's Piloting!
KTS: Kaiju Navi targets Renais Cardiff with Arm Cannon Blast!
KTS: Sayla Mass coordinates maneuvers, raising Renais Cardiff's Piloting!
KTS: Kaiju Navi targets Liam 7-020 with Kusarigama Haymaker Swing!
KTS: Kaiju Navi targets Sonia Sophia-Grace with Razor Chain!
KTS: Kaiju Navi targets Eisen Daiwel with Arm Cannon Point Blank Shot!
KTS: Kaiju Navi has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: Renais Cardiff rushes into the attack!
KTS: Renais Cardiff partially guards Kaiju Navi's Arm Cannon Blast, taking 4182 damage!
KTS: Eisen Daiwel's Will Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage.
KTS: Eisen Daiwel blocks Kaiju Navi's Arm Cannon Point Blank Shot, taking 3900 damage!
KTS: Kaiju Navi repulses Eisen Daiwel, forcing him to disengage.
KTS: Kaiju Navi roots its unit, coming to a standstill and leaving it vulnerable.
KTS: Liam 7-020 rushes into the attack!
KTS: Kaiju Navi rattles Liam 7-020, making his next maneuvers more difficult.
KTS: Liam 7-020 partially guards Kaiju Navi's Kusarigama Haymaker Swing, taking 6360 damage!
KTS: Kaiju Navi has engaged Liam 7-020!
KTS: [Lucky] GaoGaiGo Team's Unleash Your Soul! activates, and luck goes his way!
KTS: GaoGaiGo Team rushes into the attack!
KTS: Kaiju Navi rattles GaoGaiGo Team, making his next maneuvers more difficult.
KTS: GaoGaiGo Team partially guards Kaiju Navi's Arm Cannon Penetrator, taking 6405 damage!
KTS: Kaiju Navi roots its unit, coming to a standstill and leaving it vulnerable.
KTS: Eisen Daiwel has activated the Accel Spirit Command and Has Engaged with Kaiju Navi
KTS: Sonia Sophia-Grace rushes into the attack!
KTS: [Lucky] Sonia Sophia-Grace's luck activates, and luck goes her way!
KTS: Sonia Sophia-Grace successfully avoids Kaiju Navi's Razor Chain

<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.

        Kaiju are varied creatures. The Cataphract may be horrific, but it is not, in Gridknight's mind, automatically his enemy.

        What is in his mind isn't just Jana's telepathy, though -- there's the Betterman's question, too. Gridknight turns, visor flashing as he looks to Lamia. Perhaps someone like that can feel the bonds of words which run through his head --

        'People's hearts can change in all sorts of ways - sometimes they're constructive, sometimes they're destructive.'

        -- that's not his voice; it's the Brave Counselor, Minae. He remembers her, still. Gridknight's voice carries just as strong in his heart: "The end of my life hasn't come yet. Until that time, I'll protect them."

        He moves towards Nanashi B -- he does not think of it as nameless, this boy who was born so much like it. His own shell cracked, he is lightning, and the impact as they strike each other is nothing less than a storm coming to ground.

        He looks up, as it hangs in the air. His voice is intent; he is focused. Perhaps he and Rikka aren't so different, in this moment, as they bear their connections to the world. "I feel it... this is Akane Shinjo's heart itself!" Kaiju can't read people's feelings, Akane had said -- "... but I can read her heart," Anti concludes, as Gridknight realises: "No... not just hers! Everyone here... they came for us, Akane Shinjo!" He's speaking to her, as if she were right in front of him.

        Because she is.

        Her hand has always been visible in her work.

        In the end, a kaiju like Akane...

        Gridknight looks in Yuka's direction, up there towards the Hermes, and nods. He charges down the street, fast enough to run along the sides of those office buildings -- and leaps for Nanashi B, lacing his legs about what it calls a neck. Hands pressing to the ground, he moves to flip both himself and it, and it's not Gridknight who'll hit the ground first.

<Pose Tracker> Alouette Pommier has posed.

The Bettermen fuse into their combined Cataphract form. Alouette is not particularly attuned to the Limpid Channel; she can't hear their voices nor does their immense psychic pressure take a toll on her. Nonetheless, she is aware of its presence.

The pressure that ultimately takes the larger toll is that of the kaiju, in the form of a beam. A beam which threatens to put an end to all. Not taking a chance with evasion this time, Alouette lifts the Guardienne Shield, but rather from bouncing off, the beam pierces through it.

Guardienne Aviaire may not be able to take another hit after this one... but Alouette can't abandon this city or the heart it belongs to so easily. Tossing the shield back into the Program Ring, Alouette whips the tip of the Aile Rapier into the kaiju - a lightning quick riposte without a hint of hesitation.

KTS: Alouette Pommier has activated the Trick Spirit Command.
KTS: Anti has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Rikka Takarada
KTS: Anti targets Akane Shinjo with Gridknight Grapple!
KTS: Anti has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: Alouette Pommier targets Akane Shinjo with Riposte d'Aile!
KTS: Alouette Pommier has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: Akane Shinjo fails to react to Alouette Pommier's Riposte d'Aile, taking 7080 damage!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Alouette Pommier's Vividity activates, causing Designate L1!
KTS: Alouette Pommier has engaged Akane Shinjo!
KTS: Alouette Pommier completes the Formation attack!

<Pose Tracker> Yuta Hibiki has posed.

Anti is perfectly suited to destroy this kaiju, mobile and relentless. Gridman seeks to match his technique -- an interesting reversal of their roles. As exhausted and battered as they are, Yuta finds his rhythm, and Gridman allows him to move their shared form.

"Right back at you!" Yuta calls to Anti, in his broken voice. "We can do this!"

Gridman crouches, letting Yuta leap with their body, arcing into a perfect backflip. The two Giants move in perfect harmony -- Anti outpacing Gridman for speed, but Yuta only a few steps behind, hampered by his injuries.

A voice calls out to Gridman -- he stops to look, glancing down at the smaller white machine. Who..? It doesn't matter, really. As long as they're firing at Nanashi B, they're an ally. "Thank you!" Gridman calls, with a cough, giving the mysterious ally a salute. "Please fight carefully!"

Rikka's funnels fly through the air, firing on the kaiju. Gridman takes advantage of it, getting another few hits in. "Rikka!" Yuta says, his voice a bit more quiet. She'll hear him. "That was incredible, it worked!"

Pausing for a moment, Gridman watches Alouette as she soars by. Again, it's Yuta's voice that calls out. "That looks amazing -- Alouette!" With a little wave, he refocuses on the fight. How can he not have his spirits raised by the sight of his friends' strength? How much they've grown, how far they've come -- Yuta's heart pounds with faith and love.

"Of course we do!" They call to the Cataphract, as it soars in to punch Nanashi B. They know, somehow, the question is from the strange creature. "Tsutsujidai is our home! No matter how bad things look -- I'm a long way from giving up!"

And they do look bad. The devastated city is echoed by the destroyed sky above. Eerie radiance highlights the destruction -- destruction with no easy fix, now, with the death of the Verona. All he can do, all they can do is fight to prevent things from getting worse.

Nanashi B rushes Gridknight, and Gridman surges forward to support his newly-forged ally. Unfortunately, all this does is put Gridman in range for the kaiju's attack, Yuta crying out in pain as the energy rains down on them. Gridman's timer flashes all the more urgently. Crouching for a moment, Gridman's form wavers, as though he's about to disappear.

"Not yet." Gridman stands, sparks flickering around his body.

Yuka's data arrives, and Gridman nods, feeling the information guide his movements. Gathering the electricity, the Giant raises his left arm. Radiant, darting energy collects, then bursts forth, arcing toward Nanashi B as Anti begins to flip the monster.

"Spark beam!"

KTS: Yuta Hibiki has activated the Focus Spirit Command.
KTS: Yuta Hibiki has activated the Focus Spirit Command.
KTS: Yuta Hibiki targets Akane Shinjo with Spark Beam!
KTS: Yuta Hibiki has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: Akane Shinjo fails to react to Yuta Hibiki's Spark Beam, taking 6630 damage!
KTS: Anti anchors Akane Shinjo, forcing her into close range.
KTS: Akane Shinjo fails to react to Anti's Gridknight Grapple, taking 5200 damage!
KTS: Anti has engaged Akane Shinjo!

<Pose Tracker> Lamia has posed.

         "I see."

         Lamia doesn't say anymore than that, though by the tone of his voice, he seems to understand. Probably.

         The beam from the nameless monster slams against the charging Cataphract much like it did with Forte. However, unlike last time, there's a thin, yellow membrane that seems to absorb the blow, reducing the damage to little more than a slightly gaping gash that quickly knits itself shut.

         A creator that wants nothing more than to see you die and fail. To lash out at everything. The kaiju brings yet another thing Lamia said to mind. It fits pretty well. It'd be safe to assume that this is what Akane really wants.

         Lamia, however, refuses to believe it. Or perhaps it's the lingering memory of Mario that does. Either way, it's a tantrum from a hurt girl. Maybe self-defense against the real world that has wronged her. He doesn't fully grasp it, but he wants to put trust in this not being the girl's true feelings. But even if they aren't, he doesn't know where to begin on solving this particular issue.

         And, once again, he must remind himself. Perhaps he shouldn't. Gridman. Rikka. Gridknight. And many more individuals he's not even aware of. He'll selfishly put that on them. For now, he has to do the only thing he's good at...

         Cataphract lets out a roar as it rushes back into Nanashi's range, ripping the massive black spike that juts out from its back. It reforms and hardens into a blade, which is immediately brought down against the kaiju's squishy flesh with full, two-handed force.

<Pose Tracker> Orpheus Zevon has posed.

What can only be heard as a maniacal if not pained laughter escapes the Kaiju as Orpheus takes his shot at the core, becoming an attack that was less of diversion and one that ultimately ends up providing a substantial impact of its own. Though...He truly didn't realize what kind of impact he was going to be giving after all.

"What the...?"

Like an untextured grid design, the world around them dissolves into wireframes, and printed circuit boards as the fog fades away. Revealing the truth of this world to those within it.

As fragile as this world seems though, these 'building' still support the weight of the Kaiju as it clings to the building on its first strike.

The nameless Kaiju gives no inch even when brought to a heel against such a plethora of forces. It's wrath only coming forth greater to fulfill its desire, lashing out at both Aviaire and Gridknight alike before unleashing an indiscriminate assault on the others, including Oz.

Perhaps it's because it was so indiscriminate, or simply due to its nature of it's unreadable movements, but even the nimble and smaller KMF finds itself incapable of avoiding the assault of what follows. And while the others receive their lumps, the Byakuen already finds its exterior taking damage. Wiring showing as armor falls away exposing it.

Another few shots like that and I'm out...If that's the case...I need to make it count.

The Byakuen attempts to follow in the Kaiju's example. A slash harken used to bolt itself into one of the wire-grid buildings and traverse atop it. A hope that a better vantage point, a more 'face to face' attack. As he prepares his shots though, a thought comes to mind...

By no means was his a New-Type, and the ability to empathize wasn't always there...Yet for the girl Akane, watching as this Kaiju laid waste to everything, it was something that he could pick up on with his meager empathy alone. A need to destroy everything, a need for an ending.

We really are cut from the same branch.

At one point he had told her that his desire for revenge, his hatred, it was targeted. Not something that ever felt the need to needlessly lash out. Yet, that was not always the case. At one point he could remember feelings like these so vividly, that for a moment he can see himself in this creature as he stared into its eye. "Akane Shinjo, I'm sorry. Even if I told you the words that stopped these feelings from lingering. They wouldn't save you coming from me. The only way they'll reach is..."

Those words linger in the cockpit before hearing the words uttered to him by that boy. <Don't worry about me, and focus on what's in front of you. Akane Shinjo's someone you all want to protect right? Prove it!>

With that, another volley follows up to distract, less focused than before from the damage, though surely enough for the others to take advantage of.

KTS: Orpheus Zevon targets Akane Shinjo with Accelerated Shot: 30mm High-Initial-Velocity Tungsten Armor-Piercing
Ammunition!
KTS: Orpheus Zevon has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: Lamia targets Akane Shinjo with Void Rupture Saber Slash!
KTS: Lamia has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: Akane Shinjo partially guards Lamia's Void Rupture Saber Slash, taking 4680 damage!
KTS: Lamia has engaged Akane Shinjo!
KTS: Akane Shinjo partially guards Orpheus Zevon's Accelerated Shot: 30mm High-Initial-Velocity Tungsten Armor-Piercing
Ammunition, taking 2952 damage!

<Pose Tracker> GaoGaiGo Team has posed.

Ikumi's rage begins to consume him. Every word cuts into him - because part of him is imprinting it. Volfogg (Ikumi) would be better off fighting mindlessly, right? Right? Is that what this man is saying? Is that...true?

"Ikumi, give me control!" Mamoru's words cut through to him, and as the robot explodes in their face, he shouts out.

"YOU HAVE CONTROL!" "I HAVE CONTROL!"

GaoGaiGo takes another step as another Abyss Guard appears. Unlike Ikumi, Mamoru's rage is cool. But he sure is angry. "My name is Special Agent Mamoru Amami...Volfogg called me that. And I'm not gonna let you drag him through the mud? He IS my friend! He's my mentor! He's my hero!"

The fist is pulled back. He begins going through the steps, energy lighting up as the Phantom Ring Plus connects to GaoGaiGo's arm, calling out it's name.

"What could you understand? I asked him if he still wanted to fight as a hero...can you even guess his response? Or are you sure he's such a sad little box?"

"HE'S VOLFOGG, and he's stronger than that! Stronger than you!" A pause. A breath. And----

"BROKEN PHAAAAANTOM!"

The arm spins with the ring, before launching off as a drill punch, firing straight into the next Abyss Guard and trying to pin it in the wreckage of a building to do as much damage as possible!

KTS: GaoGaiGo Team has activated the Spirit Spirit Command.
KTS: GaoGaiGo Team targets Kaiju Navi with Broken Phantom!
KTS: GaoGaiGo Team has completed their actions for the round.

<Pose Tracker> Mobile Weapon Team has posed.

        A new aggressor has appeared, and the arbalest is added to the list while attempting to defend from it's incoming knife attack. The new aggressor was not planned for and the squadron could not plan to move out of the way and another Taurus is lost from the squadron. Unfortunately the sudden nature of the loss is causing an issue with data processing, and is forced to do it's best to minimize the damage from the damage from the Sarangay. It does allow the moments needed by the group to process how to avoid the next attack and moves the target of the Ace Evangelion out of the way. Unfortunately it is to much for the group without outside support to continue processing and has to once again minimize damage against the incoming building rubble thrown my the multi ligamented Evangelion.

Battle Efficiency down to: 57%

        The collective squadron is forced on the defensive as it is recognized that while a constant laser barrage will work towards the secondary objective, it will result in mission failure. A new strategy is required. Again another encrypted burst of data across the network of the squadron before the squadron moves in one, falling back momentarily from those who decided to get up close and personal. The squadron scatters to force 1 on 1 situations while a few remain at range to begin focusing down the aggressors, starting with the smallest target.

        One of the Taurus moves forward to engage the Arbalest and raises it's rifle in the air before swinging it towards the newly arrived unit. The intent is obvious, a large wide swing intent to send the unit flying back into a nearby building.

        Meanwhile the Ace Evangelion also gets a unit in it's face, as it gets into arms length the Taurus begins to rapidly fire shot after shot trying to deal damage to get pass the sesnor recorded barrier.

        As for the remaining units they focus their fire on the Sarangay while taking stray shots at the Multi Limbed Evangelion to keep it in it's place.

        Obviously this new tactic will lead to the accomplishment of the mission.

KTS: Mobile Weapon Team targets Qivi with Taurus Beam Cannon Multiple Shot Barrage!
KTS: Mobile Weapon Team targets Sousuke Sagara with Taurus Beam Cannon Desperate Smash!
KTS: Mobile Weapon Team targets Asuka Shikinami Langley with Taurus Beam Rifle Closing Barrage!
KTS: Mobile Weapon Team targets Alloy Kaas with Taurus Beam Cannon Blast!
KTS: Mobile Weapon Team has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley has activated the Alert Spirit Command.
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley fails to rush.
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley's EN Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage.
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley partially guards Mobile Weapon Team's Taurus Beam Rifle Closing Barrage, taking 4180
damage!
KTS: Mobile Weapon Team has engaged Asuka Shikinami Langley!
KTS: Alloy Kaas's Will Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage.
KTS: Alloy Kaas blocks Mobile Weapon Team's Taurus Beam Cannon Blast, taking 990 damage!

<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.

"Aye-aye," Renais acknowledges Sayla as the Abyss Guard she tagged falls to the pavement. She scowls at their jeers, lowering the Gernsback's shoulder-shield and driving forward as the one she tagged fires upon her. The sword-length mono-blade at its back comes out, even as gunfire dents the shield and the AS behind.

"Who are you? What the fuck right do you have to judge any of us, BioNet *worm*?" Her sword drives for the damaged Guard's AI block.

"I swear... when I get my hands on you, I will FLAY YOU ALIVE!" She is loud, aggressive, yelling like she sees only red.

The Newtypes in the audience may note that, while it draws on her trauma and anger, she's quite calm in truth. Part of keeping control, she reasons, is to think she's playing into his hands-- an easy target is someone you'll stick to, try to bring down, instead of joining the more important tussle around the nameless monstrosity.

KTS: Qivi fails to react to Mobile Weapon Team's Taurus Beam Cannon Multiple Shot Barrage, taking 4050 damage!
KTS: Renais Cardiff has activated the Rouse Spirit Command.
KTS: Renais Cardiff targets Kaiju Navi with GRAW-2 Monomolecular Cutter Thrust!
KTS: Renais Cardiff has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: Sousuke Sagara has activated the Focus Spirit Command.
KTS: Sousuke Sagara fails to parry Mobile Weapon Team's Taurus Beam Cannon Desperate Smash, taking 2200 damage!
KTS: Mobile Weapon Team repulses Sousuke Sagara, forcing him to disengage.
KTS: Sousuke Sagara has activated the Spirit Spirit Command.

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

Trismegistus Squadron closes on the nameless kaiju, under Jana's direction; STORAGE's backup squadron acquits itself very, very well, whirling around the much larger kaiju and keeping it pinned down for several seconds. Eventually, it seems to simply shift locations entirely -- but a kaiju like this...

... well, it has no great answers to the notion of togetherness. Rikka seems to track it for just a moment -- puts it firmly in place with a blast of glue that sticks it down, while Yuka coordinates countermovement. It's Alouette who finishes the maneuver, though, putting the time she spent in the Long Dagger to even better use with this machine of her own devising. It shows her resolve, and maybe more than that, her kindness -- a thing the nameless kaiju cannot stand and cannot withstand.

The barrage of shots from Gridman's arm, coordinated so perfectly with Gridknight's headscissors takedown, keep the creature pinned for some time. It lies there, unmoving, for several seconds.

Betterman yet again strikes true, delivering a vicious stab for the kaiju. It thrashes around -- now moving with urgency again, trying to squirm away from Gridman and his allies. It can't fully escape Gridknight, however, try as it may. It can only do --

-- well, what all monsters do. Accept defeat and try to take as many people with it as it can, even as bullets from the Byakuen pierce its flesh, leaving little left of the creature.

Its first impulse is to try to shove Anti away from itself -- try to clear him from the chaos it's about to cause. (It and she are alike in this way, too, perhaps.) Taking to the sky with a mighty, body-whipping leap for one last time, it spreads its limbs to all sides as if trying to glide.

Hanging in Tsutsujidai's ethereal green sky, it tries to destroy everything -- even if that means flaring itself entirely out, with beam after beam, each one sending it flipping back up into the sky, higher and higher. It eventually exhausts itself, the beams becoming weaker and weaker until the creature seems exhausted, spent.

---

Akane wishes so badly that no one could read her, as she stands outside Aya, watching everything transpire. All these people throwing themselves at something so fruitless. A kaiju like her can only ever know defeat. Asking more of her is asking her to place herself in the places where defeat is most painful.

She shivers in the rain.

No she doesn't.

KTS: [Spirit Defense] Rikka Takarada's Spirit Endurance activates, and the spirit endures.
KTS: Akane Shinjo has activated the Daunt Spirit Command targeting Rikka Takarada
KTS: Akane Shinjo has activated the Daunt Spirit Command targeting Yuta Hibiki
KTS: Akane Shinjo targets Anti with Nanashi B Close-Combat Shove!
KTS: Akane Shinjo targets Orpheus Zevon with Nanashi Beam Blast!
KTS: Akane Shinjo targets Lamia with Nanashi Beam Blast!
KTS: Akane Shinjo targets Rikka Takarada with Nanashi Beam Blast!
KTS: Akane Shinjo targets Yuta Hibiki with Nanashi Beam Pulse!
KTS: Akane Shinjo targets Sayla Mass with Nanashi Beam Blast!
KTS: Akane Shinjo targets Jana Cektru with Nanashi Beam Pulse!
KTS: Akane Shinjo targets Alouette Pommier with Nanashi Beam Pulse!
KTS: Rikka Takarada blocks Akane Shinjo's Nanashi Beam Blast, taking 5475 damage!
KTS: [Spirit Defense] Jana Cektru's Otherworldly Calm activates, and her spirit endures.
KTS: Akane Shinjo enervates Jana Cektru, reducing her Morale significantly.
KTS: Jana Cektru blocks Akane Shinjo's Nanashi Beam Pulse, taking 4440 damage!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Akane Shinjo's Collapse activates, causing Deject!
KTS: Anti fails to parry Akane Shinjo's Nanashi B Close-Combat Shove, taking 4300 damage!
KTS: Akane Shinjo repulses Anti, forcing him to disengage.
KTS: Orpheus Zevon successfully evades Akane Shinjo's Nanashi Beam Blast
KTS: Lamia has activated the Trust Spirit Command.
KTS: Alouette Pommier fails to evade Akane Shinjo's Nanashi Beam Pulse, taking 4440 damage!
KTS: Kaiju Navi has activated the Alert Spirit Command.
KTS: Kaiju Navi has activated the Alert Spirit Command.
KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to retreat.
KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to evade GaoGaiGo Team's Broken Phantom, taking 6480 damage!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] GaoGaiGo Team's Roar! activates, causing Insight L1!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] GaoGaiGo Team's Shout! activates, causing Sparkle!
KTS: GaoGaiGo Team completes the Formation attack!
KTS: Sayla Mass has activated the Alert Spirit Command.
KTS: Lamia's Will Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage.
KTS: Lamia blocks Akane Shinjo's Nanashi Beam Blast, taking 4410 damage!
KTS: Sayla Mass has activated the Alert Spirit Command.
KTS: Kaiju Navi rushes into the attack!
KTS: Kaiju Navi partially guards Renais Cardiff's GRAW-2 Monomolecular Cutter Thrust, taking 5280 damage!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Renais Cardiff's Defiance activates, causing Sparkle!
KTS: Renais Cardiff has engaged Kaiju Navi!

<Pose Tracker> Sonia Sophia-Grace has posed.

Another series of flickers, of views, of sights far and wide. Sonia is still standing, even as Adre and Suzuki work in tandem. A good bridge team does half of her work for her, even as the lieutenant looks back at her, Sonia prowling behind the seats as she glances from system to system, blue eyes flickering in thought and concern.

"Cutting down on full-power, ma'am - aiming for more manuevering!"

"Good call, lieutenant. Make sure to keep pushing forward, I don't think they expect us to be that manuverable, although it should be obvious by this point. Suzuki, look up local comms. Confirm- Daiwel and Liam?"

"Confirmed, ma'am!"

As noted, Adre cuts the power, turning the frustratingly flighty Paradiso to a slightly more sedate turtle than the one participating in the fight versus the rabbit. However, the extra manuverability allows them to keep slipping past the chains, Sonia leaning over and out the window to watch them sail past with what can only be determined as both surprise, and a hint of smug. There's a pause before she turns, glancing out.

"Open comms to Daiwel and Liam!"
"Comms opened, Ma'am!"

"Well fought, gentlemen-" Sonia remarks, getting a couple of stares from the bridge crew- "Paradise is at your hands, and with it grasped firmly, we can show them that while the laughter mocks us, remember - it is WE who have pushed through hell to find where Paradise was lost. You stand not alone, here with your spirits flagging... Instead, they hide their fear with mocks, knowing that..." A pause, then another flicker of laughter moues across her face.".... knowing what we know. Knowing that we will win. Gentlemen - GIVE THEM HELL!"

"Show why this is Paradise Lost!"

"Beams fired!"

KTS: Sonia Sophia-Grace has activated the Foresee Spirit Command targeting Liam 7-020
KTS: Sayla Mass has activated the Alert Spirit Command.
KTS: Sonia Sophia-Grace has activated the Rouse Spirit Command targeting Eisen Daiwel
KTS: Sayla Mass successfully Evades Akane Shinjo's Nanashi Beam Blast
KTS: Sonia Sophia-Grace targets Kaiju Navi with Paradiso Inferno!
KTS: Sonia Sophia-Grace has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: Akane Shinjo has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: Yuta Hibiki retreats from the attack!
KTS: Yuta Hibiki successfully evades Akane Shinjo's Nanashi Beam Pulse

<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.

Arbalest slams down hard on one of the Tauruses - drives its knife into that vulnerable neck and the vital systems beneath, then drags it down to core out what should be the cockpit block. He leaps away, landing hard on the nearest rooftop. The whole building shakes. The inhabitants will have to cope.

Once Arbalest is on solid ground, Sousuke has a moment to actually assess. More importantly: AL does.

"Enemy Mobile Suits are behaving unusually. Analyzing behavior pattern."

"They're flying in perfect formation even in this chaos...those must be seriously elite pilots. But why are they interfering with attempts to defeat the kaiju?"

AL does not reply. Instead he notes: "Stationary kaiju designated 'maintenance kaiju', CK-00 Venora, have all been exterminated by the undesignated new kaiju. Presumptive designation: CK-14." The high-speed thing spider-skitters past. Arbalest half-turns to watch as AL updates the map. "I don't like it," Sousuke mutters.

AL doesn't reply to that, either. "CK-02, designate 'Anti'," that one makes Sousuke's attention jerk as the map lights up with his blip, "has appeared, and..." The monitor highlights him.

"That's not," Sousuke begins, but trails off for long enough that AL's program deems it acceptable to cut him off: "Correct. He has changed himself. Mechanism unknown."

...what is this feeling...

He's shaken out of it by the call from Heart-2. "Uruz Seven," he reports. Let Anti work. Let Gridman work. ...focus on targets he understands. "Roger." He has questions. He'll ask them later.

The enemy's moving. A blip from AL alerts him to bring his weapon up. But he's not fast enough; that swing of the rifle smashes into Arbalest and sends the nimble machine knocked back, crashing into the wall of the neighboring highrise.

"Minor damage," AL reports.

"Hell," Sousuke mutters. "...fine." He focuses. Put your spirit in. Put your spirit in. Anti is fighting. Whatever's happening, he has to ensure these things don't get to him. "AL, start the Lambda Driver."

"Roger," the onboard computer replies. Arbalest is sheathed at once in a shimmering blue-purple-white light, as the white and navy machine begins to step forward from the wall it was knocked into. The fins on its back fold out, heat blasting out behind it.

It draws its shotcannon, Sousuke wincing a little as the commands have to be input with his right arm. He's still in his school uniform; no time to change. Still.

Light gathers in the barrel of the gun. He focuses all his thoughts on the Taurus in front of him. He can't think about the Evangelion, or the Sarangay. He can't think about Gridman, or the nameless Kaiju, or Anti's new body.

Hit the target.

He pulls the trigger and a shotcannon slug emerges, but it looks like a bead of light , and it penetrates all it touches.
Sousuke Sagara transforms to ARX-7 Arbalest - Lambda Driver Online

KTS: Sousuke Sagara: Will Barrier Activates.
KTS: Sousuke Sagara targets Mobile Weapon Team with Lambda Shotcannon Piercer!
KTS: Sousuke Sagara has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: Kaiju Navi has activated the Alert Spirit Command.
KTS: Qivi has activated the Trick Spirit Command.
KTS: Kaiju Navi has activated the Alert Spirit Command.
KTS: Kaiju Navi has activated the Alert Spirit Command.
KTS: Qivi has activated the Accel Spirit Command and Has NOT engaged with Mobile Weapon Team
KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to evade Sonia Sophia-Grace's Paradiso Inferno, taking 4050 damage!

<Pose Tracker> Qivi has posed.

Another person shows up that Qivi recognizes and Sarangay picks up on, now that he's no longer in stealth. A message to Sousuke: "Good to see you finally made it. If you're gonna use the gun, give me some covering fire, would you?"

Qivi whirrs past after she fires, ascending further into the air. Not slowing down seems like by far the best plan here. "That's G-Hound's?" she asks Asuka, eyes narrowed. NERV fighting G-Hound... they must have a vested interest in this place. Or maybe it's because it was supporting the kaiju. Was that the intention for G-Hound? She has no idea. Something else to report back.

"Sarangay here," Qivi responds to Null-Sigma's communications. "I hear you. But if you're hoping that I'm going to stay hiding behind cover while you and the Gridmans and everybody else gets in on it..."

Qivi suddenly drops. One of the beam blasts struck her, clipping Sarangay's flank; smoke rises from it, and the output of Sarangay's thrusters suddenly drops slightly. It doesn't matter. She was going down anyway; now she's just going down a little faster.

"You're going to be DISAPPOINTED!"

Qivi angles to slam directly into one of the Tauruses, spiked fist guard first. She's just trying to drive it straight down on sheer momentum to slam into a building - and whether or not she manages that, the oversized slash harken she mounts under Sarangay's shoulder shield fires as she tries to hook another over to her, firing a spray of anti-armour shrapnel from the offhand shotgun as she does.

She can't worry about the other battles. She has to worry about *this* one, and the weird mobile suits. Earlier, Asuka called them automated. She's going to need some proof of that, if she wants to tell anyone not in the Shuffle. Maybe she can lasso one of them.

KTS: Qivi has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
KTS: Qivi targets Mobile Weapon Team with Covet V300 Double Assault!
KTS: Qivi has completed their actions for the round.

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.

        ...even though he and Akane don't always agree, Gridman fights to protect Tsutsujidai. Nothing bad will happen to this place while he's around.

        Weeks ago, when Liam was still under the influence of CK-12, Yuta told him that Gridman would protect him. At the time, Liam was sick of hearing about miracles, and strange protectors of the the innocent. None had showed up to save his home. None had saved him from BioNet.

        The last thing we need is a bloody miracle that chooses when it happens. When it can't be bothered to show up, no matter how hard people scream. No matter who will die if it doesn't.

        Not a minute after he entered this place, Liam saw Gridman being ripped apart. He saw him being choked. He saw Anti risk his life to save him. And he's sorry for doubting him, and he wants answers, but those won't bring Mam and Daid back. Nothing ever could.

        Plasma boils up through the enemy machine's shattered helmet. Liam's face twists in fury at the sound of that laughter--the mocking voice coming from every enemy at once. "Who are you?" The young cyborg asks three simple words, his voice strained with terror and rage. Adrenaline surges through him--

        Movement, off to the side. The Neo Helios twists on its heel, bringing both hands up to parry that sickle--but again, not fast enough. The blade carves into the machine's armor, cutting deep. As deep as Ken Shinjo's words cut into Liam's heart. Pain upon pain upon fear.

        'What the fuck right do you have to judge any of us, BioNet *worm*?'

        Dead. Dead, again! Do we have to go back to basic motor drills? Is that how it has to be?

        Liam is alone. His machine is swiftly approaching uselessness. The enemy is everywhere, taunting him. He wants to freeze, to curl up and plead until it stops. The sickle keeps carving forward, inexorably, towards the cockpit block.

        Bits of Sonia's speech reach him, his brain selectively picking out words like 'pushed', 'hell', 'fear', and 'win'.

        "I'm not going back," Liam chokes out, his voice answering Ken's over the loudspeaker. "I don't know who you are, but--"

        The Neo Helios' vents open, one after another. Superheated air vents off its frame; the rain starts to flash-boil as it hits. It reaches for the remaining Abyss Guard, the one that's still trying to kill him. Superheated hands grip its shoulders.

        "MY NAME IS LIAM!"

        With sudden, desperate strength, the Mobile Fighter surges forwards, twisting the blade out of its chassis. If it grabs its foe, its next move will be to rip, using the heat of its body to deform those joints and relieve the machine of its limbs--and then its head.

KTS: Liam 7-020 targets Kaiju Navi with The Sun's Fury!
KTS: Liam 7-020 has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: Jana Cektru has activated the Resupply Spirit Command targeting Anti

<Pose Tracker> Jana Cektru has posed.

Trismegistus Squadron does its best, and minus that single fatality, manages to keep one another alive under Jana's direction. Even as the much larger kaiju is pinned down, even as it strikes out again--the mecha use their beam shields to prevent fire against the vulnerable ship in the moment. Beam after beam after beam come out, and the ship's defenses, combined with the mecha taking the worst of it, the chaos goes. ANd it shoves Anti away...

Jana sees that. Just as she hears Yuka--"....Ah. Thank you," she says, and remembers to pull herself away from what she's feeling, not to get completely lost in it. "I am... unused to battle on this scale," she admits, and it is a moment where the mask almost slips. Being responsible for this many lives at once--it is not a pleasant feeling.

"But your strategy is good. And..." She hears the tiny kaiju, too. "We'll make sure you have a chance."

She has done more here than Jana could ahve by herself. It is... reassuring.

"Miss Shinjo," Jana murmurs. "...Is this your 'heart'...? You're in such pain..."

She consids, and as the ship moves, she pulls her phone. She looks down at it, for a brief moment.

"...Fire missiles at this trajectory," Jana says. "Three, two, one.. mark."

A surgical missile strike launches out from the internals towards the kaiju--just the kaiju, small enough that the margin of error is razor-thin.

And Jana picks up her phone.

>It does not have to be over now, Miss Shinjo.

Anti and Gridman, working together...

"Hang in there," Jana murmurs, and they might hear her voice. Anti, in particular, might feel a burst of strength, as she channels her will towards him.

KTS: Jana Cektru targets Akane Shinjo with Internal Missile Launchers Surgical Strike!
KTS: Jana Cektru has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: Jana Cektru has activated the Resupply Spirit Command targeting Anti
KTS: Akane Shinjo fails to react to Jana Cektru's Internal Missile Launchers Surgical Strike, taking 7540 damage!

<Pose Tracker> Asuka Shikinami Langley has posed.

Qivi asks if it's G-Hounds, and Asuka just replies back, "<Who else could it be!? Unless someone's pulled off one helluva heist, those are Oz colors!>"

Which, isn't really the ironclad evidence that Qivi called for, but its a fair point?

Alloy calls out that she's ready, and Asuka replies, "<Then let's get it done! I'm tired of dealing with these small fry!>"

Seeing them avoid the flash burst from the Thunder Spear, she grimaces, but the Null Sigma ends up taking them down anyway.

Seeing the shift in tactics, Asuka's takes on this almost predatorial focus, as one of the Taurus gets up in her face, trying to encircle her and bypass the barrier.

At first it might have difficulty detecting the limits of the AT Field, eventually though, it manages to scoot just behind it's boundaries and get a few shots in.

Asuka feels it on her face, it feels like a cigarette lighter being pressed against raw nerves. On the outside the Evangelion's head jerks back to avoid losing its 'optical sensors'.

"<Don't you know what happens to annoying - FLIES?>"

As Unit-02 suddenly reaches out with shocking dexterity, trying to catch a Taurus in the palm of its hand, and squeezing.

"<They. Get.>"

Trying to crush its thrusters, Asuka sights down another engaging the Null Sigma, and suddenly rears that arm back.

"<SWATTED!>"

The Evangelion suddenly hurls its fast ball right at another Taurus, trying to catch it with the projectile of the other - and smash them both against a nearby office building.

"<GET OUT OF OUR WAY!>"

Below, a bead of light bursts out of an Arm Slave, and Asuka murmurs, "What kind of an arm slave is that?" She'd fought one similar before but it... definitely wasn't on their side.

<Pose Tracker> Eisen Daiwel has posed.

The battle wages on, and Eisen's awareness of the battlefield begins to expand. A subtle sheen starting to overcome his eyes as the youth is faced with something that is making him significantly angry. Above, he recognizes the presence of a battleship - its designation showing it as being part of the NERV branch.

What is with this mess though? What's with all of this coming out of the woodworks all of the sudden? There's even a Gernsback unit nearby, he has to worry about not accidentally getting underfoot. <"GaoGaiGo, do you have any information on these enemies?"> Eisen calls out; <"I'm not getting a sense these are piloted units, the way they move.">

He then glances up as the Neo-Helios moves by, rushing for another one of the Abyss Guard - before looking towards Yuta again. They've been struggling. And he hates that he cannot get over there right now. How many times has this been now. Being held from being there in the thick of it?

But his focus is quickly drawn when the machines before him begin to emit communication waves. Speaking to the various combatants. Listening as they cackle and speak with the same voice. Being used as some kind of transmission puppets. Confirming for him the only thing that was holding him back. These are machines with no heart.

A smirk creeps on his features.

<"Thank you for letting the GaoGaiGo team know. And by extension... me."> As the machine takes a step back and spirals one of its spears, flurrying it between its hands and coming into a proper stance. <"Because you are right. I am not like the other Children."> A truth that pains the young man more than he's willing to admit. <"And you do not understand that the fact that me and Carestia resemble eachother is what spells your doom."> As the sync ratings suddenly begin to skyrocket within the machine.

There's multiple quick calls coming in through laser-comms from the support crew for the Carestia, warning Eisen; ~"Daiwel, your synchronization rating is going too far!"~

<"Please, I beg of you. Help me get my blood boiling. Because you are getting in my way."> The machine's A.T. Field suddenly bursts to life, as the Abyss Guard surround him. Explosive cannon shots TEAR across the shield. Bullets tearin through where they find weaknesses. Sparks flying from its armor as the Carestia stands there... and takes it.

Painful red light tears across Eisen's cheeks. Across his chest. His arms. As the LCL bubbles and heats, hurting the young man, he takes it. Training himself. Trying to give the A.T. field a further rise. Continuein to speak, pain causing his voice to crack slightly; <"Carestia and I stand together. Bearing this devil's wings - under the understanding that unlike the other children, we are a monster."> Almost speaking as if Eisen and Carestia are one unified being.

Then, the transmission comes in from Sonia. And she's speaking his language! That wicked grin growing wider an wider. <"You have seen nothing yet, Captain."> Eisen answers her. <"But I promise you, one thing Carestia and I are capable of giving, is HELL."> His heart burning brighter!

He doesn't need to defend Volfogg. There's others here, people who care for him more, people who know him better, to do that for him. Eisen will let that anger just burn within his chest, as another blast tears across the cheek of Unit Zahlos. A burn that immmediately reflects across his own cheek. A burning wound across he Numberless unit... The Countless number. Infinite, yet without a number. A Paradox in a single word.

<"Don't listen to him, Liam!"> Eisen then calls out. <"Weapons may be meant to be weapons. But as a Scythe is used as a weapon by Famine to deal in death, so it is by farmers to pass out Life! Trust me on one thing - those who are meant for one thing by the short-sighted and the brilliant both, may be far better at another!">

The onslaught has a momentary pause. For a moment, the cannon shots stop coming. And in that moment, that short moment of a break, the A.T. field fully falls as Eisen announces; <"DRAW! SPEAR!"> As the Wings suddenly jut out, and FIRE multiple of its pinions into the ground. Slamming into the round, spear after spear, tearing up ground, impacting into cars. Car alarms going wild all around it. Bringing its free hand out as the last wing spear launches into its other hand.

<"CARESTIAAAA!"> He calls out, as the demon roars, its wings out, before it throws a spear right for the head of one of the Abyss guard approaching Sonia - flashing the weapon throught the air in the same moment it engages its turbine, and the wings flash with their gossamer light between its emptied pinions. One of the Abyss Guard manages to snipe it, tearing a chunk from its chest, causing the demon to turn its head slowly towards it.

<"How dare you break me from my call!?"> Followed by the thruster bursting at high speed, bringing the enormous Evangelion forwards in a sinle leap, bringing its other spear towards its chest, turning, using its tail to disconnect from the cable. The 5:00:00 immediately beginning to count down, but allowing more free movement. The rest of the tail's swing catching one of the spears and slamming it towards another.

The same movement bringing it around with its turbine to pick up anothr spear! <"ENGAGE - STRIKE THIRTEEN!"> As it grabs the spear, throwing it across town towards a machine that's just popping its head out from behind a building. Eisen's eyes are pale green at this point, no more sight of his pupils. Flat pale green.

His head whipping about as he feels a pull. The wings of the Carestia almost seeming to pick up on movement through the flow of air as another spear is pathed towards, grabbing, turning, aiming to park it into the foot of an Abyss Guard before grabbing it and throwing it like a Judoka, another spear, throw!

<"STRIKE EDGE - DANSLEIF!"> Another spear, wielding it like a blade, as Eisen shouts out a battlecry, bringing it down with the full intent of cleaving the nearest Abyss Guard in twain!

KTS: Eisen Daiwel targets Kaiju Navi with Violence Ensues!
KTS: Eisen Daiwel has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley targets Mobile Weapon Team with EVA-02 Martial Arts Combo!
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: Kaiju Navi has activated the Daunt Spirit Command targeting Liam 7-020
KTS: Kaiju Navi has activated the Alert Spirit Command.
KTS: Kaiju Navi has activated the Alert Spirit Command.
KTS: Kaiju Navi partially guards Liam 7-020's The Sun's Fury, taking 6300 damage!
KTS: Liam 7-020 has engaged Kaiju Navi!
KTS: Eisen Daiwel enervates Kaiju Navi, reducing its Morale significantly.
KTS: Kaiju Navi partially guards Eisen Daiwel's Violence Ensues, taking 6840 damage!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Eisen Daiwel's Experience This Curse With Me! activates, causing Deject!
KTS: Eisen Daiwel has engaged Kaiju Navi!
KTS: Yuka Ohta has activated the Resupply Spirit Command targeting Rikka Takarada
KTS: Yuka Ohta has activated the Enable Spirit Command targeting Rikka Takarada

<Pose Tracker> Alloy Kaas has posed.

        Alloy is surprised, by the acrobatic performance and engagement of the Arbalest. Objectively, with everything happening, nothing should be surprising. However it grabs her attention, and the pause is enough that one of the Taurus, with the processing speed of the AI, pegs the armored tentacle arms.

        Merde! Amateur move Alou...

        Talking to herself again, admonishing herself, theres no time for that now.

                <"I hear you. But if you're hoping that I'm going to stay hiding behind cover while you and the Gridmans and everybody else gets in on it...">

        A smirk pulls up her lips at the corner.

        <I was thinking more like, piggyback, not hang back. Take on as much as you can handle! You too Circus Monkey!>

        It's not a perfect analogy, but, maybe it fits. Maybe, she should fraternize less until the fighting stops. No one does everything they SHOULD do.

                <<Then let's get it done! I'm tired of dealing with these small fry!>>

        <Alright! Team MS Pope Hat...>

        Alloy braces in her seat, feeling the changes in pressure inside the plug as it responds to inertia, and roars from deep within her body.

        <RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH WRECK 'EM!!!>

        It's more of a battle cry than an order or direction. What should have required a magnitude increase in focus, comes easily, as the kraken-esque Evangelion Null-Sigma, pairs up with Unit 02, her own AT-Field coalescing and folding in a tandem manuever. Asuka knows just what to say, as they try to swat some flies.

<Pose Tracker> Rikka Takarada has posed.

"Yeah!" Rikka replies, pleased, as Yuta expresses his enthusiasm that the funnels worked. She has him and everyone else to thank for them too, though.

Sayla's Dijeh dashes over for touch communications, then, and Rikka listens. This feeling... It's how Akane feels inside? Synchrotank comes to a stop for a moment, as Rikka has to take time to just - process this. If she was unsure after that... Anti confirms it for her. This is Akane Shinjo's heart. And she realises, as he continues -

"Anti...?" She remarks, and goes quiet again. That's... his heart, borne to the world.

But, Sayla has asked her a question. What is she going to do?

"...If this is how she feels inside... If she's hurting so much, so much that she feels like bringing everything down... Then, I have to help her." Rikka decides. "I think... the first step, is going to be keeping her from doing any further harm to her heart - her city. ...Which means, for now, stopping this kaiju."

Sayla says that she'll provide support and back up, and Rikka nods.

"...Right. Thank you." She replies.

But the nameless kaiju is still moving - still fighting. Ready to destroy everything, even at risk of burning itself out. It leaps up into the and unleashes beam after beam. Rikka grits her teeth as Synchrotank braces itself against the onslaught. This, too, is Akane's heart. ...But the kaiju is exhausted. The time is now.

"Akane!" Rikka calls out loud. She doesn't know if she can hear her, but it's worth trying. "I'm sorry it took me so long to notice! I can feel you now!"

Once more, RIkka releases her funnels.

"I can't let you keep doing this to yourself. Please... Let me, us, help you!" She calls out. Once more, she pours everything into her funnels. Her love, her worry, her desire to protect - not just Tsutsujidai this time, but Akane herself, too.

The funnels dance. It's not just a single concentrated volley this time - they act as one, flitting across the battlefield in a coordinated strike, peppering the nameless kaiju with beam after beam. To deliver Rikka's feelings directly - her heart and her funnels united as one.

KTS: Rikka Takarada targets Akane Shinjo with Together as One!
KTS: Rikka Takarada has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: Alloy Kaas targets Mobile Weapon Team with Devil's Cavitation!
KTS: Alloy Kaas has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: Alloy Kaas has activated the Spirit Spirit Command.
KTS: Rikka Takarada has activated the Rouse Spirit Command targeting Anti
KTS: Akane Shinjo fails to react to Rikka Takarada's Together as One, taking 7540 damage!

<Pose Tracker> Lamia has posed.

         Nanashi's beam pelts against Cataphract once again, nearly peeling off the barely visible yellow membrane as it struggles to maintain its integrity. Lamia knows Yewya wants to speak up, but she doesn't need to remind him. He's been told enough times to know, despite its strength, Cataphract cannot take these hits forever.

         With that in mind, he has to end it. Not just for his own sake, but for everyone here. So that they can deal with the things that truly need to be dealt with.

         Letting out an ear-splitting roar, the Betterman Almagamate flies forward one last time, torpedoing itself towards the abnormal kaiju. It hits the breaks just before colliding with it, instead opting to pull the creature into what could best be described as a 'hug' as it peers at it with its piercing beady eyes.

         It's looking for something, and more specifically, a weak spot. Through it's sense of vision and touch, it's mapping out the monster's composition, a series of vein-like structures being revealed to it as it pinpoints a large, glowing dot.

         There's a rather familiar chilling air for those in GGG, a low psychich pressure that builds up for dramatic tension until it finally snaps like an overstretched rubberband.

         PSYCHO GLORY

         It's a name reverborated across the Limpid Channels for all to hear as the horns on Cataphract quickly stretch back before once again shooting forward, stabbing Nanashi in the flesh and into its hidden weakpoint with disturbing precision.

         With the attack delivered, the Betterman lets go, falling back to the ground. It doesn't bother to try and fly. In fact, the once lively beast seems to be losing color as it hurdles ever closer to the ground, becoming rigid and statue-like. When it does finally fully descend, it smashes into pieces, a fine white chalky powder now joining the foggy city as the only remains of the Bettermen.

<Pose Tracker> Yuta Hibiki has posed.

That white mobile suit... How does it know how much they want to protect Akane? Gridman looks back at the machine, puzzled -- but Yuta speaks up. "Right! You'll see our resolve, I'll give everything I have! For her, for Tsutsujidai!" Sliding close to the mysterious ally, Gridman tries to protect it. It's so small, compard to the kaiju -- maybe he can take a few hits for it. It's not in good shape...

Nanashi B prepares again to blanket the area with is energy fire, but Gridman is ready, this time. He leaps nimbly through the barrage, avoiding all damage -- though the movement costs him. Once the kaiju stops firing, Gridman again falls to one knee, exhausted.

"Anti--" Gridman calls. "This is all I have. We have to finish it off."

If his companions were with him, Gridman might try for a flashier finishing move. In truth, he's got nothing left. At the most, maybe one more spark beam... Pain lances through his enormous form, transmitted to Yuta in agonizing waves through their telepathic link. The only thing keeping both partners standing is determination alone.

Unable to rise, Gridman simply holds his hand up, aiming for the kaiju. "Spark... beam..!"

Weaker this time, another beam of energy races toward Nanashi B. As soon as it fires, the Giant falls down to his hands and knees. His head swims with pain -- it's a wonder his form hasn't dissipated by now.

KTS: Mobile Weapon Team successfully avoids Qivi's Covet V300 Double Assault
KTS: Qivi completes the Formation attack!
KTS: Yuta Hibiki has activated the Detonate Spirit Command, reducing the Gridman Primal Fighter to 1 HP!
KTS: Yuta Hibiki targets Akane Shinjo with Spark Beam!
KTS: Yuta Hibiki has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: Akane Shinjo partially guards Yuta Hibiki's Spark Beam, taking 6630 damage!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Yuta Hibiki's Telepathic Link activates, causing Insight L1!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Yuta Hibiki's Mediumship activates, causing Nullify!
KTS: Lamia has activated the Detonate Spirit Command, reducing the Betterman Cataphract to 1 HP!
KTS: Lamia targets Akane Shinjo with Psycho Glory Squared!
KTS: Lamia has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: Mobile Weapon Team successfully evades Sousuke Sagara's Lambda Shotcannon Piercer
KTS: Mobile Weapon Team partially guards Asuka Shikinami Langley's EVA-02 Martial Arts Combo, taking 5760 damage!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Asuka Shikinami Langley's Sole Shikinami activates, causing Insight L1!
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley has engaged Mobile Weapon Team!
KTS: Mobile Weapon Team partially guards Alloy Kaas's Devil's Cavitation, taking 6603 damage!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Alloy Kaas's Geass Directorate Survivor activates, causing Sparkle!
KTS: Alloy Kaas has engaged Mobile Weapon Team!

<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.

        Gridknight brings his hands up -- catches Nanashi B's limbs, in his grasp. The way it springs from him is closer to ballet than any violence, though surely, yes, it is violent.

        It's a conversation.

        But it isn't just a conversation between Anti and Akane -- not here, not now. He hears, feels Jana's voice, and he nods, sharply. He thinks, and perhaps she'll hear: This is the reason I found. I won't die here.

        And neither, it seems, will Gridman. No... not just Gridman, though he falls to a knee. "We'll finish this," he tells him, stern, and Gridknight straightens as he says it. He is so certain they'll survive, even as their world crumbles around them.

        Something is going to happen, Anti said. Could he feel it? Did he know?

        "I can see right through you!" Gridknight shouts, as the kaiju -- Akane -- tries to push him away. He brings his hands up, in a circular motion, and -- surely the likes of Sousuke and Liam could recognise the loop he creates. The yellow lines throughout his copied body as so much like the designs written on the chips of a computer, those delicate conductive veins which feed power enough to hold a world.

        A circular saw -- all made of searing magenta energy, boiling to white light inside. The noise it makes is still so sharp.

        "AKANE SHINJO--!!"

KTS: Anti has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
KTS: Anti targets Akane Shinjo with Knight Circular Straight!
KTS: Anti has completed their actions for the round.

<Pose Tracker> Alouette Pommier has posed.

The kaiju tries one last push before it ultimately slows down... even kaiju have to get tired. And by a thread, it slows down just enough to keep Alouette standing after the beams subside. Perhaps it's because of Alouette's own resolve to keep standing, or maybe it's because of the kaiju's own broken resolve - or even both.

Still, it's a chance Alouette won't miss. Alouette watches her allies - Rikka, Yuta and Gridman, and even Anti fight with everything they have. If there's one more thing Alouette can do then... "EMISSION!" An eraser-shaped hyper tool emerges from the Program Ring and attaches to Guardienne Aviaire's hands. One that erases dimensional anomolies much like Guy's larger-scale efforts in GaoGaiGar.

It may not be enough to fix Tsutsujidai on its own, but if it can put a temporary stop to the monster, then... "Quantum... ERASER!" She calls, creating a boundary near the kaiju. And then she calls out to the other knight who awakened on this battlefield. "Gridknight! Your turn!" As the circular saw flies into the dimensional boundary.

KTS: Alouette Pommier targets Akane Shinjo with Quantum Eraser!
KTS: Alouette Pommier has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: Alouette Pommier anchors Akane Shinjo, forcing her into close range.
KTS: Akane Shinjo partially guards Alouette Pommier's Quantum Eraser, taking 2090 damage!
KTS: Alouette Pommier has engaged Akane Shinjo!
KTS: Alouette Pommier begins a Formation attack!

<Pose Tracker> Orpheus Zevon has posed.

It's over...

It's the final thought that passes as the nameless Kaiju unveils its final assault. Beam upon beam unleashes like a storm. Each one attempts to destroy everything without relent. Each blast is an accumulation of unfiltered power and destruction.

And yet, more than any other attack she's unleashed at this Knightmare, it's the attack that proves to be the least difficult for Orpheus to maneuver against. Even as beams rain down from the sky from the gliding Kaiju.

Dodging and weaving in a way that made the Knightmare move almost as mirage-like as the Kaiju had up to this point he avoids the assault till it reaches the point it's depleted. No longer is it capable of producing that same attack again. It really was over...

Now all that was needed was a finishing touch. To give this Kaiju the end that it so rightfully desired. To give it a finale that this Kaiju so rightfully deserved. In the end...This is what it wanted, right? This is what Akane Shinjo wanted? In her heart she just wants an ending; closure.

<I'm leaving. The rest is up to you to Heroes to end this...>

It's a message that's passed to all the others on the battlefield. Gridman, Anti, Jana's team, Sayla, Alouette, Lamia, and Rikka. As the others prepare their final attacks, the Knightmare only stares off into the distance from the top of the buildings it had found itself atop of.

---

Akane Shinjo finds herself staring into the distance at the fight against the Nameless Kaiju. She can watch as they all would throw themselves fruitlessly at it in their final moments. Grandiose attacks that would alight the sky, with heroes saving the day. Though...As they all unleash there attacks. Akane feels it...Just as she stares into the distance towards the fighting, someone stares back. As she watches in the distance she sees the Gridman Alliance and their allies facing the Kaiju, though there's one exception atop the rooftops. A white machine doesn't take up arms, it prepares no attacks. It's small frame is harder to see even from where she is, but there's no doubt. This one machine stares back at her, and even through it she can feel a familiar gaze staring her down.

It's only as the finale comes. As the Gridman Alliance and friends unleash their last strikes to reach Akane's heart as it lashes out, Orpheus sends one message to Akane. As the others spend their last action to reach Akane's heart, Orpheus is able to send one message to Akane through her phone before even Jana's call reaches.

She might have been seeing things off in the distance, but in the moment she receives a picture from the message. Of the events transpiring right in front of the Byakuen. Of Gridman, of Gridknight, of Rikka, of all those that were doing something so 'fruitless'. That was to provide an ending for this Kaiju. It's a single picture, but one can easily tell the emotion within it much easier than from the distance Akane's at. And with it only one span of words follow...

<It doesn't end for you here.>

There's no elaboration to the message. There's only the interpretation that Akane can give to it, knowing of the person it comes from...

KTS: Orpheus Zevon targets Akane Shinjo with Pass!
KTS: Orpheus Zevon has completed their actions for the round.

<Pose Tracker> Kaiju Navi has posed.

The Evangelion's heart roars. Ken Shinjo is facing down a true monster. It tears through his machines, exposes their weakness, and he slams a fist against the console. This fool is ruining his work! The Abyss's labrynthine factory steams with a rage to match his own, more and more machines pouring into the sky, hurling themselves against the AT field. He won't stand for this! The machines darkening the sky do their best to bring down that battleship, and its annoyingly peppy captain - it's as if she hasn't noticed him at all, and that thought burns him nearly as badly as what happens next.

And even the BioNet brat is still defiant. Though the Abyss Guards cackle coolly, they can only slip away from that burning heat, only flee in the face of the sun's light -- shadows one and all. Still, they struggle and bite where they can. He knows how machines like this tick. BioNet only lets them feel so that they can be cowed with sufficient pain.

The Abyss Guards are no stranger to violence. Indeed, their AI has been trained on hundreds of iterations of the same scenario. A passionless treatise of kill or be killed, where compassion is merely an error producing a .002 second delay. When Ikumi's hand raises, they cackle and begin their circling...

When Mamoru makes his stand, and strikes out with bravery, though, they can only scramble back. They screech out furious howls, falling away -- but not fast enough to avoid the accelerating fist of GaoGaiGo! One of the shinobi is blown back against a building, crumpling and twisting on itself with the immense rotational force until it finally detonates, sending compatriots scattering.

"KYAHAHAHAHAHAHA!~"

Ken Shinjo does not answer Mamoru. He has no answer for this. Though the Abyss Guards continue waging their bloody war against these two boys, Ken Shinjo can only retreat into the shadows, and seek easier prey...

Which Renais is all too happy to pretend to provide. The shinobi practically throw themselves at her -- indeed, as her knife sinks home on one Abyss Guard, the one behind it lunges over it, stomping down on its back and driving its weight down onto her Gernsback. If he can just break one of these godforsaken heroes, before he finally rids himself of this broken heart --

At least he'll get one more smile out of it.

KTS: Akane Shinjo fails to react to Anti's Knight Circular Straight, taking 8450 damage!
KTS: Akane Shinjo has been defeated!
KTS: Anti roots his unit, coming to a standstill and leaving him vulnerable.
KTS: Anti completes the Formation attack!
KTS: Akane Shinjo fails to react to Orpheus Zevon's Pass, taking 0 damage!
KTS: Akane Shinjo has been defeated!
KTS: Akane Shinjo fails to react to Lamia's Psycho Glory Squared, taking 6890 damage!
KTS: Akane Shinjo has been defeated!
KTS: Lamia has engaged Akane Shinjo!
KTS: Kaiju Navi targets Eisen Daiwel with Kusarigama Penetrating Attack!
KTS: Kaiju Navi targets Sonia Sophia-Grace with Arm Cannon Detonation!
KTS: Eisen Daiwel's Will Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage.
KTS: Eisen Daiwel blocks Kaiju Navi's Kusarigama Penetrating Attack, taking 3420 damage!
KTS: Kaiju Navi has engaged Eisen Daiwel!
KTS: Eisen Daiwel has activated the Trick Spirit Command.
KTS: Kaiju Navi targets Liam 7-020 with Arm Cannon Blast!
KTS: Kaiju Navi targets GaoGaiGo Team with Arm Cannon Blast!
KTS: Kaiju Navi targets Renais Cardiff with Kusarigama Combo!
KTS: Kaiju Navi has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: GaoGaiGo Team's Will Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage.
KTS: GaoGaiGo Team blocks Kaiju Navi's Arm Cannon Blast, taking 1230 damage!
KTS: Renais Cardiff has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has disengaged.

<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.

        She can't feel it clearly, not well enough to fully understand this wounded, screaming hart. But it seems fully prepared to make everyone else feel pain- not it's pain, but whatever pain it can. Sayla can't understand it- but she can tell enough to know where it's aiming.

        The Dijeh dashes away from the Synchrotank, and the blast hits the ground where she was. This Kaiju screams like Akane's heart does- but it's not the same. She switches the shotcannon for the L-9 Type Sniper Beam Rifle. This is their opportunity. Rikka's reaching out, and has to hope her heart reaches her.

        And Sayla has to make sure that Rikka can keep extending her heart. That Anti can extend his. And provide a little advice of her own. The beam rifle charges it's shot- this is gonna burn the e-pack. A gun can't carry feelings the way the rest of them can.

        But she'll send them anyway. "You've been failed so much. So I'm going to fight this instinct of yours. The way an adult is supposed to for a kid."

        She pulls the trigger, and fires the dark pink blast of energy at Nanashi B, full power. "I'm saying no to this desire of yours."

KTS: Sayla Mass targets Akane Shinjo with L-9 Type Beam Rifle  Critical Shot!
KTS: Sayla Mass has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: Liam 7-020 rushes into the attack!
KTS: Liam 7-020 partially guards Kaiju Navi's Arm Cannon Blast, taking 4845 damage!
KTS: Liam 7-020 has been defeated!
KTS: Renais Cardiff fails to rush.
KTS: Renais Cardiff partially guards Kaiju Navi's Kusarigama Combo, taking 4760 damage!
KTS: Kaiju Navi has engaged Renais Cardiff!
KTS: Akane Shinjo fails to react to Sayla Mass's L-9 Type Beam Rifle  Critical Shot, taking 8320 damage!
KTS: Akane Shinjo has been defeated!
KTS: Sayla Mass roots her unit, coming to a standstill and leaving her vulnerable.

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

For better or for worse, the sheer destruction spread across the town makes it viable to use some truly, viciously powerful ordnance without too much worry. The missile strike on the nameless kaiju lands true, sending it sprawling out -- and reactivating it after that desperation strike. It starts to hop, moving with purpose.

In this moment, at least, it clings to life. As inconvenient as that may be...

... no doubt there's something heartening about it, too. It starts to backpedal -- but gets penned in by funnels. Shot after shot bites into the kaiju, modeling togetherness with a perfect funnel formation -- that keeps it in a single spot for Gridman to unleash another Spark Beam into.

Sayla rejects the urge Akane's heart has expressed, in the way she has rejected so many things. It feels so, so late to have someone like that in Akane's life.

Alouette arrests the curious non-movement that the kaiju is so capable of with her tools -- which leaves Gridknight and Lamia the chance to put it down. Lamia puts everything into a blow that leaves Cataphract falling apart -- but leaves the nameless kaiju itself all but defeated. The beast quakes --

-- and Anti slices it in half, turning that jagged wound to so much nothing. It is gone, now -- lost amid the rain that still has not ceased. Will Tsutsujidai rain like this forever?

The limit of what can be done to keep this city open, for the moment, is reached. A feeling of finality rings out through the Limpid Channel, the Omnisphere, the Collective Unconscious -- whatever you choose to name it, it feels like a coffin slamming shut.

It seems everyone is trapped here, even with the death of the kaiju.

---

Akane stares up toward the Byakuen. It transmits. It's hard to say if she feels it at this point. It is true, though -- even with Anti claiming to see right through her, even with all her friends insisting they're coming...

... all she feels is the misery of the idea that this somehow hasn't ended. She could -- try, talking to...

... is it past --

-- it has to be --

Her head is a mess.

With a series of slow, halting steps toward the junk shop, Akane moves to put an end to something.

<Pose Tracker> Mobile Weapon Team has posed.

        The squadron is disappearing quickly. The Arbalest releases a blast of energy and it does indeed penetrate everythin it touches, the left arm of the unit and the pilot's cockpit door are gone, revealing an empty cockpit. Still the machine leaps back seeming unphased by the attack nothing critical having been hit. Meanwhile Qivi's target begins to dance about in ways that would be nearly impossible without being able to rapidly calculate the shrapnels path, not a completely unreasonable action by some but difficulty. Then again the squadron can not react to the unexpected, like having one of there own thrown into another, sending the one that was in the Red Evangelion's face into the one that was attacking the Arbalest, knocking the pair into the building. Meanwhile one of the last few remaining Tauruses end up facing the combined might of multiple ATs fields and gets torn apart. When all is said and done only one taurus remains in full operational capacity while a couple are still considered functional.

Battle Efficiency down to: 14%

        The mission was inevitable about to fail, the remaining units could not forsee a possible outcome. The remaining database strategy suggests one final option, the strategy to 'Take them with you'. One of the few remaining functional Taurus moves towards the Sarangay acting on this as it grapples the unit and begins to glow. Any scans would show what is about to happen to that unit, self destruct has been initiated on it.

        Meanwhile the Taurus that was thrown into the building decides to take a page from the Ace's book and grabs the inoperable Taurus that had hit it and throws it right at Sousuke as well trying to crush the smaller unit.

        As for the fully operational Taurus it is forced to take on the majority of the squadron processing and there must keep it's distance. This means that it begins to invoke evasive manuevers as it fires at both Evangelions trying to keep them at bay. If only the satellite was accessable.

KTS: Mobile Weapon Team targets Qivi with Taurus Beam Cannon Full Charge!
KTS: Mobile Weapon Team targets Sousuke Sagara with Taurus Beam Cannon Desperate Smash!
KTS: Mobile Weapon Team targets Asuka Shikinami Langley with Taurus Beam Rifle Shot!
KTS: Mobile Weapon Team targets Alloy Kaas with Taurus Beam Rifle Shot!
KTS: Mobile Weapon Team has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: Alloy Kaas's Will Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage.
KTS: Alloy Kaas blocks Mobile Weapon Team's Taurus Beam Rifle Shot, taking 1450 damage!
KTS: Sonia Sophia-Grace fails to rush.
KTS: Sonia Sophia-Grace partially guards Kaiju Navi's Arm Cannon Detonation, taking 5415 damage!
KTS: Kaiju Navi roots its unit, coming to a standstill and leaving it vulnerable.
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley has activated the Alert Spirit Command.
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley retreats from the attack!
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley's EN Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage.
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley fails to evade Mobile Weapon Team's Taurus Beam Rifle Shot, taking 1520 damage!
KTS: Qivi fails to react to Mobile Weapon Team's Taurus Beam Cannon Full Charge, taking 8450 damage!

<Pose Tracker> GaoGaiGo Team has posed.

Mamoru is ignored. He smirks, a rare occasion - because he's winning the argument.

GaoGaiGo suddenly slams forward at the last of the Abyss Guards, and starts slugging punches, over and over. Ikumi's more of the fisticuff fighter, but...

Mamoru feels like doing it, too.

He ends in an uppercut, trying to build up attack for the others to finally finish it!

KTS: Sousuke Sagara has activated the Spirit Spirit Command.
KTS: Sousuke Sagara's Will Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage.
KTS: Sousuke Sagara blocks Mobile Weapon Team's Taurus Beam Cannon Desperate Smash, taking 1050 damage!
KTS: Mobile Weapon Team repulses Sousuke Sagara, forcing him to disengage.
KTS: GaoGaiGo Team has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
KTS: GaoGaiGo Team targets Kaiju Navi with Clobberin' Time!
KTS: GaoGaiGo Team has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: Yuka Ohta has activated the Resupply Spirit Command targeting Renais Cardiff
KTS: Yuka Ohta has activated the Resupply Spirit Command targeting Renais Cardiff

<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.

Renais' Gernsback whips around, blade yanked free just in time to meet the incoming Abyss Guard with an aggressive shoulder-lunge, though the sound of grinding metal greets her in return, as its kusari-gama digs deep into the Arm Slave's internals.

Coolant and oil flow like blood from the wound, and she looks over to Liam, ablaze with anger and indignation, righteous affirmation. The Abyss Guards pile in, but she just smiles, slamming a fresh magazine into the limping AS' shotcannon.

"Remember his name. Don't you dare fucking forget it," she yells, the air filling with the thunderous reports of shell after shell emptied into the remaining Guards. "Anything you can say, anything you could do to us! None of it matters. You're fucking POWERLESS over us!"

Click. Click. Click.

The magazine is empty. Silence reigns for a moment.

"...Because we've grown beyond you."

Green light fills her cockpit, the G-Stone on her wrist blazing bright, even as the Gernsback slumps to one side.

KTS: Renais Cardiff targets Kaiju Navi with Boxer 57mm Shotcannon Shotshell Magdump!
KTS: Renais Cardiff has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to react to GaoGaiGo Team's Clobberin' Time, taking 5200 damage!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] GaoGaiGo Team's Roar! activates, causing Insight L1!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] GaoGaiGo Team's Shout! activates, causing Sparkle!
KTS: GaoGaiGo Team has engaged Kaiju Navi!
KTS: GaoGaiGo Team begins a Formation attack!
KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to react to Renais Cardiff's Boxer 57mm Shotcannon Shotshell Magdump, taking 8450 damage!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Renais Cardiff's Defiance activates, causing Sparkle!
KTS: Kaiju Navi has been defeated!
KTS: Renais Cardiff completes the Formation attack!

<Pose Tracker> Alloy Kaas has posed.

        The armored appendages, and the AT-Field, continue to deflect the punch of the DEW attacks. The shrinking number of Taurus' seem to notice their ineffective manuevers, and throw their own punches. Something shifts, all but imperceptible to Alouette Kaas, to Alloy.

        <"They've lost a step! KEEP PUSHING!!">

        From the somewhat towering view, even with their agility, the Taurus' seem to have a similar idea.

        Alloy realizes only too late, the suicidal attacks out of desperation. She's familiar with it, though if it is an AI they battle, why didn't it try this sooner?

        <"COME ON YOU POINTY HEADED SCRAP HEAPS!!">

        In something that could be seen as flailing, Alloy makes her charge at what remains. The massive body moves, in alternating spins, winding up with each sweep of the tentacle limbs. These attacks bring heavy impacts, delivering devastating kinetic exchanges.

KTS: Alloy Kaas targets Mobile Weapon Team with Spines of Raking!
KTS: Alloy Kaas has completed their actions for the round.

<Pose Tracker> Qivi has posed.

Qivi fires a second blast of wanzer shotgun pellets, then a third. Even if she can't hit the mobile suit, she can at least force it to keep moving. If it's evading, it doesn't get the positioning it wants. During this, Sarangay has to land again, though she picks the roof of a building, going for height instead of hiding at street level.

She is increasingly sure that Asuka is correct. Nothing with a person in it would pilot like that, except maybe a Coordinator, and there wouldn't be an entire group of Coordinators in G-Hound.

"Okay, you assholes," Qivi growls to herself. "Let's see if you can keep up with this." Out comes the spiked fist again as she tenses in the cockpit, powering up the higher-force jetpack thrusters... but two things happen at once. Well, three, but one was caused by another.

First, Nanashi B is carved apart. Qivi may not have been involved in that battle directly but she can tell when it happens; the tenor of the battlefield changes. But that means that Tsutsujidai finally closes itself off. For good.

Qivi is not a Newtype. She tried funnels once, a year and change ago, and couldn't move them an inch. But just because she isn't a Newtype doesn't mean she's not at least a little alert, and Tsutsujidai *feels* different. It's the same sort of way she feels the flow of combat, but not quite. It's a difference that startles her.

Second, and more urgently, one of the Tauruses charge her.

Qivi's reaction time is pretty good, really. She manages to get Sarangay back into the air and flying backwards off the building before the Taurus grabs her, but it is faster than she is, and she can't slip away in time. She might if it was a person in there, but a computer that has no fear of death, she cannot. The Taurus explodes with a tremendous flash and bang, and Sarangay falls out of the sky.

It lands in the street with a crunch. Amazingly, it has managed to land on its feet, somehow; the jetpack assist systems fired just as she descended, righting the wanzer. But the wanzer isn't really 'right'; an enormous black, half-melted patch stretches across its front and shoulders. Both arms are sparking near the base; the left one is missing entirely, while the right one, with the fist, is still present. The jetpack has been dislodged, and falls off with a squeal of twisted metal as soon as Sarangay moves.

Critically, it is entirely missing a head. And yet it is still moving.

Sarangay, like most wanzers, does not keep its cockpit in its head. That's buried deep in the chest, in a heavy armoured structure. The shockwave rattled Qivi, tossing her around, but ultimately she is fine; that's why she wears straps and a helmet on her piloting suit.

But it is blind without its sensors, and judging from the change in the sparks, it's losing power fast. Qivi flails, swinging the barely-functioning arm around wildly in case there is a Taurus nearby, but she is not rewarded with the recoil of impact. The wanzer itself begins to slow down as it moves, grinding slowly to a halt.

She flips on her radio, then gives up a moment later when she gets nothing but crackling. Instead, from inside the hollow of the head attachment point, a red-white flare launches.

KTS: Qivi targets Mobile Weapon Team with Pass!
KTS: Qivi has completed their actions for the round.

<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.

Message from Qivi. "Sorry for the delay," he says. He's actually quite familiar with socializing on the battlefield because KURZ WEBER CANNOT CLOSE HIS MOUTH. "Didn't expect the train station. Clever."

Sousuke's shot kills the Taurus. Is what his brain says, seeing damage that would DEFINITELY kill a piloted machine. But no. After he's already started moving to prepare for the next target, AL beeps at him: "Target is still fully operational!"

"What?!" Sousuke snaps, and turns to look for himself.

Sousuke's brain doesn't catch up to the nonsense he's looking at before AL reports: "Target is not piloted. Damage is to the cockpit and pilot safety systems. In this situation, that will result in negligible loss in combat effectiveness."

The Evangelions pinwheel several of the Tauruses around. Sousuke flicks his comm and says, "Uruz-7 to Heart-2, Club-5. Priority communication: Taurus mobile suits are unpiloted. Repeat, unpiloted. Club-5, recommend prioritizing damage to critical machinery. Out." He flicks the line back off.

That moment of distraction has allowed one of them to copy a trick it just saw. He sees the damaged mobile suit come at him and he thrusts his arm out, eyes focused. Stop it. STOP it.

It's like the mobile suit slams into an unbreakable wall, instead of the Arbalest. Despite all that speed it's got, it crumples, portions of its frame disintegrating rather than progress any further, before it runs out of momentum and simply...falls flat to the ground at Arbalest's feet. Sousuke feels sweat run down the side of his head, breathing heavily from concentration and heat both. One more. Diminish their combat ability and the rest of it's meaningless.

Anti. He sees the giant Anti has become draw out a familiar ring - the scale is massive, but seeing it on something he thinks of as Anti, what he's going for clicks immediately. "...it really is him," Sousuke says, distantly. Focus. Focus. The Tauruses. Anti is handling the kaiju. The Tauruses.

He snaps up the shotcannon, Arbalest's fingers curling around the pump-action grip. He narrows himself and his world as much as he can with a cackling demon exploding off in the distance somewhere.

He fires, and the Boxer shotcannon belches a bullet of light that CRASHES toward the final Taurus, and when it hits it...

It's not so much an explosion as it is the effect of a kinetic-kill weapon: A sudden massive imparting of forces of a scale that a 57mm slug absolutely, positively cannot possess.

KTS: Sousuke Sagara targets Mobile Weapon Team with Lambda Shotcannon Obliteration!
KTS: Sousuke Sagara has completed their actions for the round.

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.

        The Abyss Guard comes apart in the Neo Helios' hands. The metal stretches like hot taffy, hissing violently as the rain hits it. Something hot and furious boils in the back of his brain as the Mobile Fighter rips its enemy apart. Bits of shrapnel and droplets of coolant pool in the gutters.

        Liam hasn't given more than a cursory thought to whether or not there's anything self-aware in there.

        But it's not over--they're still coming. The wounded Neo Helios glances up, back, and around, mirroring Liam's fear. Ken's laughter rings in Liam's ears. His mind flashes back to what Yuta said that day in the store.

        ...even though he and Akane don't always agree, Gridman fights to protect Tsutsujidai. Nothing bad will happen to this place while he's around.

        "Gridman," Liam whispers. More shadows appear on the rooftop. The Neo Helios looks up, at them, and then beyond, as Anti--Gridknight--carves the nameless Kaiju in two. "I'm going to hold you to your word."

        The first shadow lunges. The Abyss Guard blurs down from above, as Liam sidesteps. He sweeps the machine's good arm out in a blow that cracks the Guard's helmet open. The kusarigama shreds through the Neo Helios' good leg, and the machine topples like a felled tree. The flight armature swoops in, buckling into place as the machine tips over--it stops Liam from slamming headfirst into the screen.

        He holds perfectly still as the Gernsback executes the remaining Guards with surgical precision. Only then does he release the armature and pop the hatch. Liam is terrified. He's angry. He is suddenly, deeply worried about what will happen now that the city is ruined, and what it means for the people here, including Akane. (Especially Akane.) His eyes are wide, and blurred with tears, but he manages a shaky wave for Renais.

        Very little is actually okay right now. But he's alive, and he's not alone. That's a start.

<Pose Tracker> Asuka Shikinami Langley has posed.

The Evangelion Unit-02 watches the Taurus copying its move and her eyes narrow at the implications, "<That all you got? Copying my moves through some learning routines? Pathetic.>"

The remaining Taurus starts firing, and Asuka... shockingly falls back. Her AT field unfolding briefly, just long enough to catch some shots from its beam rifle.

Before dropping it, and running back into the sickly green gaseous mist. The Taurus may need to use some seismic monitoring to track it before long, as it's the only one left.

There's a pounding of footsteps, further away. Then rapidly closer, so much closer.

The seismic activity stops, but it's far easier to track it, because the red Evangelion just leaps out of the mist...

"TORYAAAAAA!"

The Evangelion dives down straight at it. Prog Knife held at a downward angle, trying to skewer the Taurus that the others have been mutilating in mid-air, and pin it to the pavement like a butterfly to a board.

KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley targets Mobile Weapon Team with Progressive Knife Thrust!
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: Mobile Weapon Team fails to react to Alloy Kaas's Spines of Raking, taking 6840 damage!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Alloy Kaas's Geass Directorate Survivor activates, causing Sparkle!
KTS: Mobile Weapon Team has been defeated!
KTS: Alloy Kaas has engaged Mobile Weapon Team!
KTS: Mobile Weapon Team fails to react to Qivi's Pass, taking 0 damage!
KTS: Mobile Weapon Team has been defeated!

<Pose Tracker> Eisen Daiwel has posed.

<"HAHAHA! YES! BRING MORE!"> Eisen shouts, no, DEMANDS of the mysterious man behind the Abyss Guard. He demands that Ken Shinjo brings him more, even as his Evangelion gets damaged. Even as his body hurts. Mark after mark appearing across his skin. One of them hurles itself into his A.T. Field, only to get a spear torn through its head, and then SLAMMED into the ground in the same move. The enormous clawed foot of the Carestia slamming onto its chest in order to pry the weapon out of the deactivated corpse of the machine.

A heated breath comes from the machine's maw, almost like it's lost in this wild rampage across the field. Until...

Until Liam.

Until one of them gets through, proving that like this, Eisen isn't paying attention to his allies. Isn't able to warn them, or protect them. As Arm Cannon fire reaches the Helios and causes it to start its fall upon the battlefield.

Causing Eisen to actually halt for a moment. A wrying sensation through his chest, as he calls out; <"Liam!"> A young man that, in many ways, he doesn't know that well. Yet, they've talked. They've talked a few times now. And an impression has been made upon Eisen. His A.T. field falters for a moment, and in that moment, the Abyss Guard gets in.

The Shinobi getting at the back of the Carestia, tearing into one of its wings and managing to tear it half apart, causing the skeletonal thing to tear and for the Carestia to grind to the floor. Scraping, sparks flying, untilt he massive machine crashes into the side of a series of houses. Not remaining still for long, as Eisen cries out in pain. As a human, one has no wings, but this deeply synchronized, that feeling of phantom pain is even more severe! There is no 'connector' for the team to turn off. If an arm is ripped off, a leg is ripped off, they can shut of the interface more easily. But with the wing so thoroughly ripped, there isn't anything the support team can do, as Eisen raises. His back feeling like it's on fire! LCL constantly bubbling up from that location.

Eisen is almost hyperventilating, trying to keep his breathing under control. The Carestia trembles, only to grab the Abyss Guard that ripped off its wins, and grab it with two clawed hands, tearing and ripping at it... before opening its demonic maw and BITING into its neck, tearing its head from its body!

An unfeeling robot it may be, but it still pleases Eisen to do this kind of damage in return! Even as the timer is rapidly cycling down on the Evangelion's operating time. It throws it to the side, before jumping up. Its movement is awkward, unbalanced. But it still manages to move towards the Abyss unit tht was uppercut by the GaoGaiGo team. With the Carestia suddenly spinning its body around and...

TEARING through it with the full power of its tail coming down at it like a half-moon cut! Halting its movement at the sides of GaoGaiGo and quickly calling out; <"Does anyone have a read on Liam's status?"> Before he spots the Gernsback standing over Liam's machine, protecting it and having taken care of the one that had brough down the Helios.

A wave of relief spreading over Eisen.

KTS: Sousuke Sagara enervates Mobile Weapon Team, reducing his Morale significantly.
KTS: Mobile Weapon Team fails to react to Sousuke Sagara's Lambda Shotcannon Obliteration, taking 6960 damage!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Sousuke Sagara's Where'd He Go!? activates, causing Deject!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Sousuke Sagara's Battlefield Mastery activates, causing Control Bonus!
KTS: Mobile Weapon Team has been defeated!
KTS: Mobile Weapon Team fails to react to Asuka Shikinami Langley's Progressive Knife Thrust, taking 5520 damage!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Asuka Shikinami Langley's Sole Shikinami activates, causing Insight L1!
KTS: Mobile Weapon Team has been defeated!
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley has engaged Mobile Weapon Team!
KTS: Eisen Daiwel targets Kaiju Navi with Violence Ensues!
KTS: Eisen Daiwel has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: Eisen Daiwel enervates Kaiju Navi, reducing its Morale significantly.
KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to react to Eisen Daiwel's Violence Ensues, taking 7670 damage!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Eisen Daiwel's Experience This Curse With Me! activates, causing Deject!
KTS: Kaiju Navi has been defeated!
KTS: Eisen Daiwel has engaged Kaiju Navi!

<Pose Tracker> Kaiju Navi has posed.

In the end, they weren't strong enough. In the end, he wasn't strong enough. Abyss Guards are torn to ribbons, blown to bits. They crumple against that impenetrable wall of light, are scythed down by beams. GaoGaiGo simply pummels several with its bare hands. Eisen's inspired violence makes even these heartless killers waver. And ultimately, Renais plants her feet, denies him even the simple cruelty of tearing apart wounded prey... The few Abyss Guards that remain fall upon each other in simulated savagery, tearing themselves apart to deny the heroes a trail.

The Abyss dims. Its interior darkens. Shinjo stumbles away from his console, trips, slumps into his chair, twisted over the back as it makes a single, slow half-turn. He coughs, thick and sputtering, and more red drips from his lips. The Abyss sinks down, down, down... reaching its limit, the false floor of this false city trapped in the false heart of a foolish girl.

He can't hide down here forever. Tsutsujidai's confusion favors him, makes tracking the signal of the Abyss Guards difficult... but there's only so much city to search.

Is he going to be okay? Can he survive any longer like this?

Ken Shinjo's body curls protectively around his very last refuge. He hugs the Super AI chip close to his wounded heart. A superior intellect and a pefect steel body...

<Pose Tracker> Sonia Sophia-Grace has posed.

That annoyingly peppy captain is practically even -peppiest- at realizing that she's getting more and more attackers on her. Sonia KNOWS without a doubt that she's definitively more tanky than most of her friends and allies on the field, and is welcome to gathereing the rest, especially since they know she can hit them, as they do seem to be just as flightful as she is.

Therefore, even as the ship surges forwards, the cannons go off, and rock the Paradiso. After a few seconds, Soni--

"Um... should I have manuevered?" Immediately after saying that, Lt. Adre looks dreadfully embarrassed, like her mouth just opened and stuff fell out of it, to the point that Suzuki gives her a surprised look.

"That... would have been a good call, lieutenant. Make sure to keep manuevering as necessary. You know I don't normally nitpick."

"Aye, ma'am!"

Rubbing the bridge of her nose between her eyes, Sonia exhales and settles back into her seat, toggling ship-wide comms over the local.

"Weapons teams, go ahead and shut down. Remain on yellow alert until further notice, though. Be prepared to jump before I say anything. You know, how when you walk in and I'm sitting in a supply closet with paperwork and you just turn and leave before I can say anything."

That gets a ripple of soft chuckles from the bridge team, before she tabs over.

"Daiwel, Liam, report, please!" Sonia remarks, tersely aware that she won't get Liam, likely. "I probably can't get your machine on board, Eisen, but if we can get anything left of Liam's machine - and both of you- there's space aplenty here. I'll leave a flare up."

A crew member does so without being asked. They know her.

<Pose Tracker> Mobile Weapon Team has posed.

        Each of the Taurus in the squadron are ripped apart by those they faced. The one in the front of the Arbalest has it's upper body removed. Meanwhile the last one with any processing power does what it must does, it attempts to send all the data it had back to the satellite. This was moments before it was caught in the turbine of mechanical tentacles by the multi limbed Evangelion before being pinned to the ground by the Red Evangelion.

        The data itself of course never reaches the G-Hound satellite housing the main AI database, instead it seems to dissipate into the atmosphere. Who is to say what happens to the AI knowledge now, but it may indeed forever be a resident of Tsutsujidai now.

        Meanwhile back where these dolls had originated there sits Colonel Tubarov, cursing himself having loss all contact with the dolls hours ago and no matter what no response. At this rate things could go poorly, if Khushrenada or one of his lap dogs found out about this it would set him back if not kill the project overall. Yes best to bury any possible information about these so one could never find them, no one must know. Not yet, not till it was truly ready.

<Pose Tracker> Jana Cektru has posed.

Jana 'hears' Anti's thought in return. This is the reason that he found... The world is crumbling. Jana feels it, too. And then, as the kaiju falls--

"No," Dr. Cektru starts, but then the rain is still going, and the limit.. Ah. It is reached.

Jana feels it, as it happens. The coffin slams shut. And Akane...

What of Miss Shinjo, now?

And what of others? Jana closes her eyes, reaching out across the battlefield. Her thoughts touch on Liam, waving to Renais, in tears. Asuka, still fighting...

Dr. Cektru opens her eyes again, and says, "...Squadron. Return to base."

"Dr. Ohta," Jana says, looking towards her friend. "...It would seem that we will have a lot of time for our research here after all."

It is so difficult right, now, to pull back, but it's necessary. Jana feels...

She feels more tired than she has since she came to Earth.

"I hope we've done the right thing," she murmurs. And for once, she doesn't know for sure.

<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.

Renais Cardiff's Gernsback limps across shattered pavement as the Abyss Guards slump in defeat, dropping the Boxer ... and finally, stops in front of the Neo Helios. The Arm Slave's head tips back, and the cyborg crawls out, clad not in a cooling coat, but in *clothes*.

She's still wearing that t-shirt and shorts as she runs over to Liam. "Are you all right?" she asks, doing nothing to hide the concern on her face. The way she searches his eyes...

She doesn't just mean physically.
BBSYS: Post 520, 'Walled Garden Notes' has been published to Announcements by Tem Ray Circuit.

<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.

        The battles wear down, and so too does the city. Kaworu remains atop the edge of the building rooftop where he's continued to observe. Over there, a Knightmare Frame with a familiar presence within is forced to retreat; over there, the Neo Helios falls and Renais runs over to the (d)ejected Liam; over there, Alloy and her companions beat back some of the interlopers; and above and all around them, there is such deep pain.
        
        His gaze turns down, towards the Aya. Towards her.
        
        He thinks to reach out to her as she lurches inside, but... no. She doesn't like him; she won't listen to anything he has to say. He decides instead to watch over her from afar.
        
        The parallels to earlier this year are not lost on him.

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.

        Steam boils off the Neo Helios' hull as the Mobile Trace finshes shutting down. Liam takes one final glance around, then clambers out onto its back. He's clad in hisTrace Suit, which is more substantial than most--it's thicker, with insulation and visible armoring. "Legs disabled," he says, leaning in so he can answer Sonia and Eisen via the cockpit laser transceiver. "Neo Helios sustained significant damaged, in need of repair."

        A presence brushes against his mind. Liam's thoughts flicker, confused--...Lucine...?--but no, it's not her. He doesn't know where she is.

        Renais clambers out of her machine. The first thing Liam notices is the distinct lack of the massive, armored coat. He has to smile just a little about that. "No," Liam says. "But let me get my bag." He ducks down into the hatch, and pops open an insulated locker. Liam hefts a sizeable bail-out bag over his shoulder, and then reaches in for something much smaller. It's a pendant with some sort of spherical green stone on it, encased in gold-tone lattice. He holds it tight to his chest for a moment, and thinks back to Lucine. "Where's the rendezvous point?"

Lina Lombardi teleports out.

<Pose Tracker> Yuka Ohta has posed.

Yuka finds she's at a shortage of words for the moment. That... the most important things she needed to say, she's said. Both with and without words. There's so much they'll have to do. People they need to talk to. She has to hope their other problem won't be messing around planetside, while they're stranded here. But... "We're where we need to be. Whatever else goes on in here, they'll need our help." It's not exactly reassuring in a conventional way... but maybe it helps regardless.

At least they brought the ship, with some amount of safe living space for people. Safer than the apartments, at any rate. Better working conditions too. "For now, let's just take a deep breath, and let the tension go." Yuka's got one more thing to do now. To go check on her new kaiju child. And show it that everything's okay. When somebody comes to check in later, they'll find her asleep next to it.

<Pose Tracker> Eisen Daiwel has posed.

<"I'm fine."> Eisen anwers Sonia, his voice strained. That's a lie. He's not fine. Ken Shinjo's 'dolls' have done a lot of damage to Carestia, as well as himself. The machine slowly rising and re-engaging the umbilical cord to its tail in order to regain power. But the Evangelion then grabs hold of its broken wing, and begins to drag it with it towards the outskirts.

Glancing off to Liam's side, Eisen is relieved to hear his voice. <"Good to hear you're okay. I'm heading to the outskirts. I have a small support station set up there we can use for repairs."> He answers him. <"Otherwise, I suggest we board Sonia's ship and get out of here."> As the youth tries to distract himself from the pain. Now that here isn't a massive fight happening immediately that he needs to be concerned with, the adrenaline is quickly falling, his synchronization score dropping...

But the pain also getting more heavy and digging into the quick. He has to get to the edge of town, and get out of the Plug soon.

He'll talk to Yuta maybe later. For now, he wants to not give away that he's in a great deal of pain, and to get out of Carestia so he can take care of his 'demon'.

Not quite yet aware that they're stuck here now.

<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.

Renais looks up at the ship hanging above, then smiles a little at Liam. "I said I'd meet someone back at the junk shop after we finished out here," she explains. "I'm guessing you have a few things to take care of in the meantime, but..."

Her eyes cast down the road downtown, "It's a few streets that way. Big recycling symbol over the door." It's not going quite as far as an invitation, but...

"Look. Whoever was in control of these things-- we'll find him. He must be close by. And... let's." She pauses. "Let's talk about this, okay?"

It's not an easy thing for her to say.

<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.

        Sousuke's heart feels dulled, to Anti; Liam's, burning. He thinks of them, as his visor catches the light, but the gem on his forehead flashes in just the way Gridman's has, so, so often. For Jana, he offers stoic reassurance: he is here. He will protect them.

        But when the Knight disappears, Anti does not return to Junk Shop Aya.

        He's not the one who needs help.

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.

        Liam nods. Water drips down his face, hiding the tears, but not the redness in his eyes. "All right," he says. "I'm... headed to my apartment, first." There are nonperishables there, clothes, electronics. Things he can use. It might be flattened, for all he knows, but he has to check.

        He left Yuta's gifts behind when he left the PLANT. Suddenly they seem so much more important.

        "Yeah. Let's. And thank you." With a small, genuine smile, he turns, and hops off the prone Neo Helios. The first thing he does is pop two flares, and set them down. Hopefully the crew can see them and bring in the retrieval gantry.

<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.

Sousuke obliterates a mobile suit in one shot.

So that's nice. With the enemy beaten back he can't keep the concentration up, and AL soon notes, "Gamma waves have dropped below critical threshold. Deactivating Lambda Driver."

A final blast of heat sears the air behind the machine before that haze of light fades from the Arbalest. Sousuke huffs a breath. The heat always gets to him. It's...the heat. It's the heat. Not this...machine.

Speaking of a machine: AL says, "Alert: Communications blackout detected. Unable to raise TDD-HQ, Melida-HQ, Anzus, Heart-4, or 'dealer.' Cause unknown."

Sousuke finds himself scowling, watching the sky. The clarity provided by the fog clearing out didn't strike him as strange, before, but....the sky...

...Long breath. Slow breath. "Uruz-7 to Heart-2. Bringing Arbalest to garage C. I can't be seen as its pilot," he says, and Arbalest's ECS lenses deploy from its joints and shoulders, veiling the machine in electric blue before it vanishes from view completely.