2022-02-20: Contretemps

• Log: Contretemps
• Cast: Renais Cardiff, Yuta Hibiki, Rena Lancaster, Shinji Ikari, Kaworu Nagisa, Rikka Takarada, Akane Shinjo, Guy Shishioh, Haruki Natsukawa, Sayla Mass, Nidaime, Anti
• Where: Tsutsujidai
• Date: 2022-02-20
• Summary: Renais attacks Tsutsujidai to draw out Gridman. Anti takes it real personally. But did he not understand the situation?

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<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.

It's early afternoon, and the day is as peaceful and idyllic as most in Tsutsujidai--sunny and warm, with occasional screaming cicadas, despite it being the middle of late February. School is still in session for an hour or so, yet--a few truant teenagers walk the streets, but the streets are largely quiet.

Near the edge of town, a spinning fist on a forearm the shape of a jet engine plows through a building, which promptly explodes. The thunderous report echoes through the ward, sending birds flying in a panic; a thick cloud of black smoke, illuminated by flames, rises into the sky.

The fist, glowing pink, skims the top of another building as its trajectory pulls it up, leaving a divot that crushes much of the top floor. It loops around to return to its owner: the Reine Noire, a warped Mazin clad in black, crowned with a jewel blazing orange. Its death's-head grin glows like there's a furnace in its belly. It lifts its empty arm, and metal tentacles whip out to dig into the returning forearm to yank it back into place.

It steps forward, footsteps quaking the earth. In the shining jewel of a cockpit, Renais Cardiff sits, her body shining with the Aura of Dawn. Her arms are both embedded into cylindrical sockets which rise from the console, haphazard and greebly in their construction--sharply contrasting with cockpit's clean, curving lines and the control sticks that sit unused.

"Finally time to get a load of Tsutsujidai's protectors for myself," Renais murmurs thinks to herself, as Reine Noire sweeps twin beams of blazing orange up the street in front of her. The asphalt erupts, sending the cars that don't explode flying into the buildings to either side.

"And hey. Maybe Gridman'll come out to play... hope Anti's around." She's sure he'll appreciate that.

<Pose Tracker> Yuta Hibiki has posed.

The day's final period was approaching - as much of a relief as it was a disappointment, for Yuta. School was fun, even if the schoolwork itself wasn't necessarily so, and .. as much as he'd tried to keep his chin up about it, having a home with no parents had left him with a sense of profound isolation. He had no way of contacting them, nor could he recall them in any capacity .. really, the only things he knew about them were that they were salarypeople, and that they were away on overseas business. They wouldn't be back until ... sometime, summer, maybe. That was his running assumption.

Riku moving in had abated that.

The Neon Genesis Junior Highschoolers had plenty of business to attend to on their own, after all, and had never been able to really do more than visit him. Riku on the other hand, lived there just as much as Yuta did - and that was a very different experience to having someone visit. It was .. nice, he supposed.

Soap bubbles and foams on his hands as he briefly pushes his hands under the warm water before pulling them back to thoroughly scrub and lather. It wouldn't do to leave the bathroom without washing his hands, after all.

Once he'd rinsed his hands properly, Yuta uses a handkerchief to dry his hands before folding it neatly and depositing it back into his pocket. It's around this time that a rumbling gathers his attention, and brings him to throw the door to the men's restroom open, rushing out to the nearest window.

"E-eh? Oh, you're .. Hibiki, or something like that, right?" a male student murmurs, to the left. "Y-yeah. Sorry .. I almost hit you with the door."

Smoke rose in the skyline.

 - this is one of the benefits to my parents not being home, I guess .. there's no one to call when I play hooky..!

It's not like the kaiju would wait an hour for class to let out. And while he had no visual confirmation on that, generally speaking, bad things did not happen in this city if there wasn't a kaiju of some sort involved.

It's about fifteen minutes later that Yuta is practically flung off of his bicycle as he makes it quite literally as fast as he could to Junkshop Aya. Pushing his way through the front door, he lets out a frazzled, "Realsorrymissustakaradapleaseforgivetheintrusion -!!" as he sprints through to the back without giving Orie a chance to respond.

Their back yard was where a lot of salvage was stored, and along with it, the Synchrotank and Phormocannon.

The Neon Genesis Junior Highschoolers were already waiting, "I-it's...not a kaiju," Calibur says, offhandedly. "It's not...? Then .. "

Max shakes his head, "We're not entirely sure. All we can say is that much .. but even so, it's up to Gridman to put a stop to it."

"Right! Though .." he pauses, before pulling out his cellphone. I won't let my pride get in the way of protecting what's important. I think Rikka's calling the Shuffle Alliance right now, but, I should also call Shinji, Kaworu and them to let them know what's going on, too.

The actual number he calls is Shinji's, "Uhm. Hey - this is Yuta Hibiki .. we met on the 14th. I'm sorry that this is so sudden, but - Gridman needs help. There's something attacking the city, and we're not sure yet .. if you can help somehow, it'd be great! If not, I'm sure we'll figure something out. Thanks again.."

An awkward conversation later, and Yuta breathes in deep before brandishing his Primal Acceptor. "Okay...!"

"ACCESS FLAAAAAASH!"

Yuta is sucked into Junk, and having been transformed into a mass of light, that mass shoots out into the city, growing large and taking shape into the form of an armored giant, colored with red and white plates, neon green streamers running across his form. " - you ..."

[Yuta. Be careful. That enemy .. I think this was a trap. Even with almost half an hour to do whatever they wanted, all they really did was attack a single building and then wait around. Gridman's voice in-tones worriedly inside his head.

"Whoever you are .. there's no excuse for attacking the city like this."
 KTS: Yuta Hibiki has deployed in Gridman Primal.

<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.

Rena Lancaster hasn't been to Tsutsujidai before...

But sometimes, unlikely events just bring one to it. She recalls fog; she thought she was aboard the Ra Mari, for a moment. But, those memories seem inconsistent -- like a skip in a video -- and don't match the fact that she is in her normal suit, now, helmet off; and, for that matter, she is strapped into the cockpit of the RX-94 Mass Production-type Nu Gundam.

Her brown eyes blink. She looks around -- and sees a city, one both familiar and somehow different -- and her eyes widen. "Didn't Eight mention something about--"

The ground shakes. Smoke billows in the distance.

Rena looks at the Reine Noir. Recognition sets in instantly; she remembers it from the battle when Reine Noir and GaoFighGar returned. She also remembers the pilot, from a chat they had. Her eyes widen for a moment; there is that slight pulse of anxiety, because shooting at someone after a friendly talk is harder.

But she remembers what Renais said. And even if this city doesn't quite register as the Nouvelle Tokyo she knows, it is a city. That spurs her onward. The RX-94 pulls the beam rifle off its backpack and lifts. The sun catches the barrel, gleaming.

Then a pink lance of light shoots through the air, hurtling towards the Reine Noir. "Miss Renais!" she calls out. "It's you, isn't it?"

Rena expected -- hoped for -- some backup to come. What she did not expect was Gridman; she stares at the giant for a second, tilting her head, and then shakes her head. It looks like the briefings she read about Ultramen, but... different, too, somehow.

 KTS: Sayla Mass has deployed in ARX-107 Saint Lance - MS Mode.
 KTS: Rena Lancaster targets Renais Cardiff with Beam Rifle Shot!
 KTS: Sayla Mass has changed loadout.
 KTS: Guy Shishioh has deployed in GaoFighGar.

<Pose Tracker> Shinji Ikari has posed.

Shinji Ikari gets one of the strangest phone calls of his life. "Hibiki? Yeah, I remember, uh. Oh no I was just expecting, I don't know, some kind of special alarm or code phrase. ...it just seemed your speed. No, I think we're already deploying, it's fine! That's what NERV's for, after all. It's. Oh."

Its that Black Mazin.

Shinji hears this and looks at nothing for a long minute. It's not an Angel. He has no responsibility to fight this thing, which frankly kicked his head in the last time. For that matter, Unit-01 could get damaged in a way that gets him, or the world even, in a great deal of trouble. These are all excellent excuses.

Shinji looks at his shaking hands and tries to identify his emotions. He cannot. "Musn't run away." Shinji rasps to himsef, "Musn't run away." Like a mantra, to ward off evil, to change the one great regret in his life. If he hadn't run, maybe. Maybe father would've taken him home that day. Maybe he'd be a whole person, instead of Shinji Ikari.

What is he feeling and why is he so afraid of it? "I musn't..." Shinji squeezes his eyes shut, shame spiking through his spine as he feels tears leak down. No one can see that. No one can see what a fucking crybaby he is. He's fourteen for God's sake.

Time to fight a giant robot from space hell. Shinji presses the button on his wrist, sealing his plugsuit. "Are we good to deploy?"

Shinji wakes up with a start. The bullet train? He can't. Remember. "Are we good?"

"Do you see a Black Mazin tearing up a city block, Shinji?" Misato says, gently, into his ear.

"But are you Misato?" Shinji asks, holding his head in his hands, "Or do I just need someone to hold my hand to cross the street?"

"Would anything in your head be kind to you?" Misato asks, her mouth in that Cheshire cat smile of hers, her eyes unblinking. "It's okay, champ. We all believe in you."

"The world is on your shoulders!" Hyuga says, popping a campaign cork.

"One wrong move and we're dead!" Aboa says, slicing into the sheet cake with his father's face preserved in icing on top.

"Why else would we trust the likes of you?" Maya says, holding a microphone up to start the karaoke off.

"Right." Shinji says, slumping in the strange scented LCL. "Mankind's last chance. I think I see her. Everything's on fire, so it's the right direction. Do I engage?"

"Do we?" Misato Katsuragi says, looking up at the grim shadow of her father, Shiro Katsuragi. "Professor?"

"Activate EVANGEL-ION X with your SAINT PAUL WATCH, Misato!" The corpse demands, "Only then may you communicate with your robot friend, and defeat the space evil!"

"I will, father!" Misato smooths out her skirt and kicks her sneakers together, adjusting her baseball cap to hide the blush. "S-sorry, I forgot myself. I will, Professor. And he's not my friend. He's my tool."

"Yes. Good."

"Yes." Misato Astro says, "Engagement Code Authorized, Atomic Batteries Primed: EVA LAUNCH!"

"Pshcewwww." Shinji says in the 'real world', Unit-01 hanging on a skyscraper like a hideous neon gargoyle. Its scarred face is looking directly at Renias's cockpit, despite Shinji adjusting to dimensional jet lag. It also has an uzi. The great beast leaps down with an unnecessary flip, landing in a slightly different sort of posture, as if someone with a different style of moving was at the controls. It wordlessly fires a tight blast of bullets at Renias's machine, looking to force the Mazin into a corner.

 KTS: Shinji Ikari targets Renais Cardiff with Type MM-99 209mm AU Assault Rifle Shot!

 KTS: Renais Cardiff fails to react to Rena Lancaster's Beam Rifle Shot, taking 2775 damage!

<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.

        It's a little ironic that one who would defend Tsutsujidai opens her salvo by destroying parts of it. But only a little. It can always get fixed later, after all.
        
        It's helpful that Yuta phones Shinji to let him know that carnage is going down in Tsutsujidai. Kaworu has been keeping a closer eye on the place, but it's always good to have a failsafe, and communication is so important. It lets Kaworu know when he should do something about this.
        
        And so, Unit 00 appears within Tsutsujidai, Kaworu in her entry plug, hands on the controls. How did Unit 00 get here? When was she deployed, and how? Was she deployed at all? If she was, where is her umbilical cable? Why isn't the power counting down? These questions are irrelevant. She is here, as is her pilot, stepping cautiously as she turns her single eye around a tall building to peer at the Reine Noire.
        
        "Hey, Shinji," he transmits casually to Unit 01 in the meantime, unperturbed by whatever is going on in his fellow pilot's mental landscape. "Good to see you made it, too. Shall we handle this together?"
        
        Regardless of if Shinji agrees or even acknowledges him or not, Kaworu actually... hangs back for a moment. For a moment, all Unit 00 does is stare. She stares like a little girl peeking around a corner, silent and wide-eyed, innocent but all-observing, absorbing the violence Renais commits like a sponge. She stares until Unit 01 attempts to corner the Mazin, until Renais notices her nearby.
        
        Then she curls her hand around a knife. Her footing shifts. She tilts forward. And then she is there, hurling herself forward at the Reine Noire, free hand up to attempt to slam into the mobile suit's 'face,' knife hand thrusting the supersonic blade towards the Reine Noire's side as if aiming for between its ribs.
        
        "Hi there," Kaworu transmits to Renais this time, his casual tone a stark contrast to the Evangelion's abrupt, violent motion. "I assume you won't stop if we ask nicely, so I'm skipping ahead to the hard way. I hope you don't mind."
        
        Regardless of whether Unit 00's strike landed true or not, her grip intensifies until it trembles, just a bit.

<Pose Tracker> Rikka Takarada has posed.

It's a school day, which means that Rikka... is at school! Because she's a good student. ...Most of the time. Look, sometimes she just isn't feeling it, okay?

She is, at the moment, supporting her head with one arm while occasionally glancing out the window - her eyes occasionally toward the empty seat next to it. It gives her a good view of the city... and, at the plumes of black smoke rising steadily in the distance. It's distant so the class hasn't noticed yet but with everything that's happened lately, Rikka isn't about to discount the possibility of trouble. She stands up quickly, hands slamming against her desk. She pauses for a moment, realising she's attracted attention.

"I... have to go to the bathroom." She announces, dashing out of the room without waiting to be excused. At this, Hass and Namiko share a knowing look.

"...Look at that." "Totally suspicious, right?"

Rikka's flight takes her outside the school, to where(thanks to Yuta's quick action in getting it mobilized) Synchrotank is already waiting for her. She climbs in, quickly sliding into her designated seat as she reaches for her cellphone. Yuta is calling on the people from NERV, so there's only one group of people Rikka can think to call.

Without considering the logistics of contacting the outside world, Rikka quickly buttons through her phone's menus.

"...Hello, Miss Sayla? It's Rikka... there's a strange robot attacking Tsutsujidai. Could you call in anyone who's available?" Rikka asks. She tries to keep her tone level, but... this is something entirely new for her. A kaiju is a kaiju, but if there's a robot, there's a chance there's a person in there...

Soon enough, Synchrotank arrives on the scene. Gridman - Yuta - is here already too.

"Hibiki... be careful, okay? We don't know what it's capable of yet." Rikka warns through Junk, then turns on her communications.

"...Why are you attacking the city?" She asks. She hesitates, not attacking just yet.
 KTS: Rikka Takarada has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Yuta Hibiki
 KTS: Rikka Takarada targets Renais Cardiff with Pass!
 KTS: Haruki Natsukawa has deployed in Ultraman Z Alpha Edge.
 KTS: Kaworu Nagisa targets Renais Cardiff with Progressive Knife Cut!

<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.

Tsutsujidai is... resilient to chaos, but not in the way you'd like or hope. Renais's interference in the world's natural order will be handled by tomorrow, one way or another; the God of Tsutsujidai will always put the world back together, exactly as it ought to be. No one is even getting targeted, here, save for Gridman -- this is strictly...

... what is this, at this point? Is it about defeating Gridman? Is it about engineering some circumstance in which someone, somewhere, who can do something about Renais -- something Akane can't do -- actually has the chance to? It's not even really about keeping her city perfect.

(Or is it? Is the light of the Dawn something someone can be a Vessel of? If Renais were to be defeated, would that help Akane close her world off?)

Too many damn questions. At least this is the last day of the week and she can stop thinking about it soon.

Akane is not at school, because she's emotionally exhausted. She put in enough appearances this week to have things be okay, even if she skipped Monday. She moves to the roof -- it's an odd sort of movement; she's there because she wants to watch, in her room one moment and essentially on the roof in the very next, looking out toward Renais -- toward Reine Noire. "... All right," she says, more stimulated just seeing it happen. As she plans things out in her head, she smiles. This level of response to just Renais... this ought to be enough to take her down cleanly. Maybe the so-called 'heroes' will have a plan for what happens after, too. "Let's see our guests' bravest faces today, okay?" she requests of the world, with a happy little smile.

She's just saying it to herself.

<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.

ORBIT BASE

The yellow alert siren blares as the Mobile Division operator trips the situation alarm. "I'm detecting out of band dimensional disturbance in the area of Nouvelle Tokyo!" calls the Mobile Division Operator on duty, Alouette Pommier. "Chief Shishioh is on his way to PhantomGao now!"

"Seems like a popular neck of the woods," Urchin Prickle says, from the Advisor's chair. Yang Long-li, opposite him in the Supervisor's seat, hums an agreement.

3G Blue Chief Akamatsu belts, "Doesn't matter if it's our home turf or not! But 'cuz it is, we gotta give 'em a REAL RIGHT HOOK! Order Room! Transition to Branch Order Room Wadatsumi!"

The docking clamps release, and the entire room moves down the massive central elevator of Orbit Base, repositioning into Division Ship X: Mobile Execution Fortress Wadatsumi, and soon thereafter, launching for Earth!

As they draw near, Alouette notes, "Chief! We've received a communique from NERV! They're launching to investigate the same situation! And...have some guidance!" ... "Uh."

The entire room stops to stare, because Alouette is a very precise, very smart person, who rarely stammers or stutters. "It's fine!" she calls. "I'll just need to reconfigure a few things! The Research Division can investigate the rest of this later! We shouldn't even need the Pliers for this one!"

Prickle and Yang share a Look.

YET SOONER STILL, PhantomGao launches from the Wadatsumi's Mirror Catapult! With a quiet, focused, "Fusion..." from Guy Shishioh, it shifts and changes into the Mechanoid warrior, GaoFar! And at the same time, Guy sends both the request signal and the authorization signal to Wadatsumi for Final Fusion, howling, "Final Fusion! AAAAAPPROVED!"

As the electromagnetic whirlwind devours GaoFar, and the GaoMachines dive into it...something...changes...and when it clears, there is nothing there at all.

"...Alouette!?" Akamatsu yelps, alarmed.

"All part of the plan!" she yells in the voice of someone who is currently making up the plan as she is speaking.

AND IN TSUTSUJIDAI:

A deep green electromagnetic tornado bursts out of open space, whirling and sparking and crackling. But moments later, it erupts open, shattering like an egg from within, as a mighty voice roars: "GAO!! FIGH!! GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!!"

GaoFighGar's heavy feet crunch into concrete. "I'm here?" Guy says to himself, looking around. Those Kaiju...so this is where that was? "I see. Alright. And so is..."

A lot of people. But most importantly: "Renais!" Guy thunders.

Then GaoFighGar fully sprints across the distance between them and tries to sock Reine Noire right in the face. "So you'll even come to a place like this, huh!?"

 KTS: Guy Shishioh targets Renais Cardiff with Broken Fist!
 KTS: Renais Cardiff fails to parry Kaworu Nagisa's Progressive Knife Cut, taking 2700 damage!
 KTS: Kaworu Nagisa has engaged Renais Cardiff
 KTS: Renais Cardiff fails to react to Rikka Takarada's Pass, taking 0 damage!
 KTS: Renais Cardiff fails to react to Guy Shishioh's Broken Fist, taking 2850 damage!
 KTS: Guy Shishioh has engaged Renais Cardiff
 KTS: Nidaime has deployed in Anosillus the First.

<Pose Tracker> Haruki Natsukawa has posed.

Train rides home after a long day at work are always nice, especially when you have plenty of time to nap on the way back... Or so Haruki thought. Either he slept too long, or somehow he got on the wrong train, but he's suddenly woken up by the announcement that they're now stopping at Tsutsujidai.

         He practically leaps out of his seat in shock, quickly picking up his bags as he runs out of the train. Where is he? What is this place??? It has to be in Tokyo still, or at least close by. Perhaps if he did better at geography this wouldn't be a problem, but he's a bit lost on what to do, and the next train apparently doesn't come for a couple hours after talking with one of the workers.

         Slumping in defeat, he pulls out his cellphone. At the very least, Yoko will probably know what to do...

         "No signal....Eh? Ehhhhh? I could have sworn I paid the bill on time too..."

         It's not that Haruki's poor, he's just a bit forgetful. But he really doesn't have time to puzzle out his phone woes as the Earth shakes and the sky thunders.

         From where he stands, he barely catches a glimpse of the giant mazin in the distance, and it really doesn't take a lot of brain power to deduce that whatever it's up to, it's probably not good.

         With no Sevenger to mask what he's about to do next, Haruki runs into the station bathroom, locking himself behind one of the stalls as he pulls out his Z-Riser from his work uniform.

         With a quick push of the button, a door of light opens up behind him, which he quickly runs into.

         "Haruki, where are we?"

         A confused, somewhat bewildered giant asks, clearly just as lost as Haruki is.

         "I don't know, no time to figure it out either!"

         With the conversation over as soon as it began, a floating card appears before Haruki, which he promptly grabs hold of with zero hesitation as he slots into the Z-Riser.

         HARUKI - ACCESS GRANTED!

         " SPACE MARTIAL ARTS! THE INHERITED FIGHTING TECHNIQUE!" Opening up a small holder on his waist, he then proceeds to pull out three medals, slotting them into the top of the transformation device as he announces the name of each one.

         "Master Zero! Master Seven! Master Leo!"

         Pulling back on the top of the Z-Riser, the device announces the name of the medals as well. The weird room beyond time and space fills with light, and the giant from before appears behind Haruki, arms outstretched as they suddenly shout:

         "I ASK THAT YOU CHANT MY NAME! ULTRAMAN ZETT!"

         "ULTRAMAN ZEEEEETT!"

         ULTRAMAN ZETT - ALPHA EDGE

         The power of three Ultraman join into one as the Z-Riser announces the name of its new form. Also thankfully, rather than appearing out of and wrecking the bathroom that Haruki had just transformed in, the Ultraman appears not too far away from Renais' black Mazin.

         Standing up from its kneeling position, the uninvited giant lets out a mighty "HIYA", before suddenly rushing over and delivering a series of quick and sudden blows directly into the Mazinger's solar plexus region, or whatever the closest equivalent is on a giant robot's anatomy, anyway.

<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.

        "...Understood. I'll put out the call and be there as soon as I can. Do what you can until then. Fight defensively if you have to."

        When Sayla gets the call, somehow, she's transporting between the colonies. She can't get to Nouvelle in time. Fortunately, a local told her something else fascinating, and it's worth a try if it works. She moves up to the front of the shuttle, floating in the low-g environment. She looks to the captain and pilot of the shuttle. "...I need a detour. Junius Seven."

        The pilot, cool as ice, replies gruffly, "PLANTS are extra, doc. And Junius Seven is another surcharge." The captain nods.

        "Good thing you've got my card, then." She replies, with a smirk. "Just get me close and then let me off. Hang around for 20 minutes and if I'm off your sensors, back on course. And keep off the Federation and ZAFT's radars, please?"

        "It's like you got no confidence, Mass. There's no way I'm fucking over a client that pays like you do." The captain lets out a laugh, and Sayla smiles.

        "Alright. I'll be in touch." Sayla says.

        It's not long after that the Saint Lance in Flight Mode is gunning towards Junius Seven, the smugglers ship keeping an eye for interference. It's frankly insane, but....

        When Sayala wakes up, in low altitude above Tsutsujidai, thanks to the screaming of her altimiter, it worked. She pulls up, and then combines the two units back into the MS Mode, which looks for all the world like 'what if a Bawoo was a gundam and painted as such' as she sees the Black Mazin, and...

        "....That's Gridman? He looks different." Still, she comes to a halt near the assembling defenders. The Evangelion Units, Gendo Ikari's horrid pet project. An MP Nu, that means Londo Bell. And, apparently, Guy goddamn Shishioh and GaoGaiGar. That's a voice she hadn't heard in years.

        The advance comms system on the Saint Lance activates, and broadcasts to Rikka. And maybe Gridman, does he pick up signals? Whatever. "...Rikka. This is your first time piloting something piloted, right?" She's not sure about Gridman. "If you can't pull the trigger, stay back and clear. That's the only safe option in these circumstances. I'll do my best to support. Over."

        The next message, however, is tight beamed to GaoFighGar. "Shishioh, I intend to try and get everyone through this alive and god help me that includes you." She sighs. "I'm the only dedicated comms we have so give me everything you can, and then we can have a talk about what the fuck is happening. I'd say don't do anything insane, but that's what you do. Saint Lance, over." She doesn't bother to clarify who she is. Most of her role in the Primeval War was funding, but she played a part.
 KTS: Haruki Natsukawa targets Renais Cardiff with Alpha Punch!
 KTS: Sayla Mass targets Rikka Takarada, Yuta Hibiki, and Guy Shishioh with Caution.
 KTS: Sayla Mass suggests caution, raising Rikka Takarada's Intuition!
 KTS: Sayla Mass suggests caution, raising Rikka Takarada's Intuition!
 KTS: Renais Cardiff blocks Haruki Natsukawa's Alpha Punch, taking 1200 damage!
 KTS: Haruki Natsukawa has engaged Renais Cardiff
 KTS: Sayla Mass suggests caution, raising Guy Shishioh's Intuition!

<Pose Tracker> Nidaime has posed.

Nidaime as usual just kinda hangs out in Tsutsujidai, an increasingly easy to spell location for her player. She usually doesn't like to call for Anosillus assistance unless other outsiders are coming in, it lends a sense of personal deniability for someone seeing that there is a giant turtle and wondering where it came from.

She flits through her songs on her ipod with one hand and then raises her binoculars from a distant building, focusing on the EVANGEL-ION X with the binoculars.

"He sure gets around huh papa?"

She hums along with her mother (who is music).

Maybe she doesn't acutally need to lend much of a hand here, she starts to think. There's plenty of outsiders lending a hand too. It's important to not make things seem too...lobsided. God is a fickle creature.

<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.

Gridman materializes, and the Noire's head turns toward it. Renais smiles. "Ah! Just the man I was looking for," she broadcasts, the furnace-flame behind the Noire's grin flaring. A sword launches handle-up from the Mazin's left thigh, and it catches it midair, flipping the blade upward in a slash across Gridman's chest. "This place doesn't need you anymore, Hyper Agent!"

A familiar voice calls out to her, next. Rena's. The thought of fighting her causes a moment's conflict--it's enough to distract her for a split second. She raises up the Noire's right arm, calling out, "Protect SHAAA--guah!" It doesn't come up in time, and she takes the full brunt. "Yes. It's me," she confirms, sounding--and feeling--quite annoyed. "ZERO BEEEEAM!" she calls out, sweeping eye-beams toward the Nu.

Ah.

Shit.

Fear starts to rise in her as she sees Unit-01. Her breathing quickens, and she screws her eyes shut a moment to gather her thoughts... and by the time she's calmed herself down, the Eva is already firing a full volley from its rifle. She doesn't bring up the Reine Noire's arms up in time, and the Mazin's crown is peppered with gunfire. "Ugh. Shit... GET AWAY! MAZIN MAGNUM!" she yells, spinning up the Noire's left forearm and launching it at the purple behemoth.

Which leaves her a bit unprepared when Unit-00 charges at her, just as the fist is returning. She knows who's in there, and she doesn't have the same moment of weakness she did with Rena; she reacts by snapping her sword downward in a failed attempt to deflect the blow. The knife sinks into the Noire's side, and she slams the pommel into Unit-00 to dislodge her hand, and hopefully knock her off balance.

Rikka's tank gets Ren's attention, next, and as she calls out, "COSMIC RUST!" a cloud of winnowing dust blasts the Synchrotank, threatening to erode its armor into particles of light.

An electromagnetic tornado manifests out of nowhere... Ren knows what that means, even before it clears. Annoyance turns to frustration, now. "Guy... damn it, you're not supposed to be here!" she growls, letting out a grunt as GaoFighGar's fist smashes into the Reine Noir's chest. The Noire's arm spins up in retaliation, and swings into GaoFighGar's face. "Why? Why are you here?" she asks, the glare on her face audible in her voice. "Why are ANY of you? This isn't your world!"

Another giant. "wh--Goddammit, another giant?" That, or Todo forgot to tell her there were more Gridmen. She's hoping that's not the case, though. The Reine Noire hunches down and blocks Haruki's blows with both arms, Renais grunting as they rock the unit. In retaliation, though, its leg swings up to kick the Ultraman in the gut.

Yet more of them. Ugh. Will they ever stop? The Noire looks up at the Saint Lance, eyes flaring with primordial light, and eye-beams lance forth at it as it descends.
 KTS: Renais Cardiff targets Yuta Hibiki with Lionne Blade Strike!
 KTS: Renais Cardiff targets Rena Lancaster with Zero Beam (Low Power)!
 KTS: Renais Cardiff targets Shinji Ikari with Mazin Magnum!
 KTS: Renais Cardiff targets Kaworu Nagisa with Lionne Blade Disorienting Blow!
 KTS: Renais Cardiff targets Rikka Takarada with Cosmic Rust!
 KTS: Renais Cardiff targets Guy Shishioh with Mazin Magnum Drill Melee!
 KTS: Renais Cardiff targets Haruki Natsukawa with Reine Battre Kick!
 KTS: Renais Cardiff targets Sayla Mass with Zero Beam!


 KTS: Yuta Hibiki has activated the Focus Spirit Command.
 KTS: Yuta Hibiki successfully evades Renais Cardiff's Lionne Blade Strike
 KTS: Rena Lancaster fails to evade Renais Cardiff's Zero Beam (Low Power), taking 2047 damage!
 KTS: Rikka Takarada successfully evades Renais Cardiff's Cosmic Rust
 KTS: Haruki Natsukawa fails to Parry Renais Cardiff's Reine Battre Kick, taking 3532 damage!
 KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Renais Cardiff's Defiance activates, causing Sparkle!
 KTS: Renais Cardiff has engaged Haruki Natsukawa
Asuka Shikinami Langley has connected.
 KTS: Haruki Natsukawa has activated the Spirit Spirit Command.
You have not deployed a robot. (see +deploy)
 KTS: Kaworu Nagisa successfully avoids Renais Cardiff's Lionne Blade Disorienting Blow
 KTS: Haruki Natsukawa has activated the Trick Spirit Command.
 KTS: Shinji Ikari fails to evade Renais Cardiff's Mazin Magnum, taking 2815 damage!
 KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Renais Cardiff's Defiance activates, causing Sparkle!
 KTS: Sayla Mass fails to evade Renais Cardiff's Zero Beam, taking 3071 damage!
 KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Renais Cardiff's Defiance activates, causing Sparkle!
Haruki Natsukawa transforms to Ultraman Z Beta Smash
 KTS: Guy Shishioh rushes into the attack!
 KTS: Guy Shishioh fails to react to Renais Cardiff's Mazin Magnum Drill Melee, taking 3007 damage!
 KTS: Renais Cardiff has engaged Guy Shishioh

<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.

        It's early afternoon, and Anti just woke up.

        Unbound by human conceits like 'school' or 'a welcoming home', he stirs from the bush he's burrowed under, as two truants run past, yelling something or another. A twig sticks upright from unwashed white hair. He shakes his head, and his faux idiot hair falls to the underbrush.

        He straightens up, straightens out. His stomach growls.

        Breakfast... is whenever Anti decides breakfast is, actually. Today, breakfast is an afternoon meal. This is, according to everything he knows, completely normal.

        Also completely normal: monsters in the skyline. The fact that one of them is the Queen of Lions is a strange addition, but not terribly unusual.

        Anti ambles out into the crowd, which by now has figured out that there is a GIANT ROBOT in the MIDDLE OF THE CITY and THEY SHOULD PROBABLY BE CONCERNED ABOUT THAT, ONE WAY OR ANOTHER. "This doesn't happen here!" One old man exclaims, as his daughter helps him to their car. "Things are -- why they're daggum peaceful these days!"

        That woman looks over her shoulder, at Reine Noire. "Is this going to be Operation British all over again..?" The tension in her voice is palpable, as more mobile suits violate their empty horizon.

        Anti watches them speed away, with so many others. He is not the only youngster who elects to get up close rather than flee -- he is the only one of them without a phone in hand, taking snaps of the action. "Whoaaa!" One girl exclaims, to her friend, tugging at her sleeve. "Check it out! I'm gonna get a selfie with the mecha! Come on, come on, take it for me, pleaaase?"

        "Who even calls them that?" Her friend rolls her eyes, but dutifully grasps her camera and snaps a happy shot of a girl flashing a victory-V against the backdrop of horrific, shining Dawn.

        She takes it back, only to bemoan: "Aww, it's so blurry! Kae-chan, come ooon!"

        Anti walks past them. The boy -- shorter still than Akane, dirtied by weather and conduct, glaring intensity -- reaches into his pocket, and pulls out a single, solitary CalorieMate.

        He tears the wrapping off, and shoves it into his mouth. Three chomps, and he swallows. His stomach calms. That man's wisdom proves true.

        Hands back his pockets, he scans the skyline. His heart is unmoved. He wonders if he should call Akane, ask permission.

        He decides: not yet.

        With commotion like this...

                        An armored giant is bound to come.

        Gridman declares there's no excuse, and there is no excuse, for Gridman.

        "GrrrriiidddmmmAAAAANNNNN..!"

        Anti's face twists, in its rage. At first this is an excusable thing, understandable -- but the red overtakes the yellow of his eyes and the sun sets on him entire, all glowing, all angry, enflamed. His features are sketched upwards, indistinct, consuming --

        -- don't you know?

        Kaiju attack Tsutsujidai.

        Primarily, he is purple, reptilian and bipedal. His shoulders are flared, spiking protrusions textured like mushrooms or whale-heads or fruit all carved in half. The white corrugated tubing along his arms, legs, and torso allow him free movement, even in his great lumbering form. His hands end in black claws, just the same as his feet. There are yellow nodes dotted up and down his shoulders, his thighs, his chest; in the centre of his horned head, above a flylike visor, a blue gem sits in a depression on his forehead.

        He roars like anyone here, less a monster than a boy. His voice is different, on the battlefield, to the gravelish growl of the boy he was -- he speaks with passion and hate in equal measure, fiery and foesome as he charges.

        As he charges the Queen of Lions, that is.

        "No! It's ME!" Anti howls, as he impacts her, grasping at her midsection to bodily toss the Reine Noire out of her attacking stance. This girl who wants to take Gridman's death from him --

        Anti's thighs flare out, much like his shoulders. From those salmon vents grow a hundred razors, daggerlike and keen. He grasps two by their bonelike hilts, as if to demonstrate that he has the capacity to cut things down, just like Reine Noire.

        And on her he leaps, those daggers flashing. "I told you," he snarls, all vicious, all assault, "Gridman is MINE!" One, two, the daggers slash inward against her chassis, with all the fury of a forsaken boy.

        "Whatever you can do, I can do BETTER!" This may be somewhat challenged by the fact that Anti elected to copy Lionne Blade, rather than, say -- the Cosmic Rust billowing out there, or those Zero Beams.

        (Anti already has eye-beams. He already has them, so he's very impressive, isn't he?)

        "So STAY OUT OF MY WAY!" Anti yells, as he shoves her, and turns -- too fast, for such a lumbering, stomping beast -- towards the man he's here for.

        The Gridman he's here for, that is. "GRIDMAAAAN...!!!"

        Anti crashes in towards him, daggers flashing, as he tries to succeed where Renais failed to stab him once and once again. One of those daggers he lobs towards Unit 01, who he remembers, from before -- and he fires bullets of energy, from his shoulders, to intercept Synchotank.

        And, as it turns out --

        "You -- you're another Vessel of Light, aren't you?!" Anti accuses, his massive claws batting the air in Haruki's direction. He pulls another dagger from his legs, and cries: "Don't think I won't destroy you, too!"

        With that, Anti twists around to try and plant those daggers right in Ultraman Z's midsection.

        It's all incredibly rude.

 KTS: Anti has deployed in Anti.
 KTS: Anti targets Renais Cardiff with Anti's Thigh Razors Penetrating Attack!
 KTS: Anti targets Yuta Hibiki with Anti's Thigh Razors Haymaker Swing!
 KTS: Anti targets Shinji Ikari with Anti's Thigh Razors Single Strike!
 KTS: Anti targets Rikka Takarada with ME AGAIN - Shooter!
 KTS: Anti targets Haruki Natsukawa with Anti's Thigh Razors Rushing Strike!
 KTS: Haruki Natsukawa's Physical Wall L1 activates, negating 1000 base damage.
 KTS: Haruki Natsukawa blocks Anti's Anti's Thigh Razors Rushing Strike, taking 2215 damage!
 KTS: Anti has engaged Haruki Natsukawa
 KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 126.
 KTS: Yuta Hibiki has activated the Focus Spirit Command.
 KTS: Anti rattles Yuta Hibiki, making his next maneuvers more difficult.
 KTS: Yuta Hibiki fails to evade Anti's Anti's Thigh Razors Haymaker Swing, taking 3150 damage!
 KTS: Anti has engaged Yuta Hibiki
 KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 157.
 KTS: Sayla Mass suggests caution, raising Yuta Hibiki's Intuition!
 KTS: Shinji Ikari has activated the Trust Spirit Command.
 KTS: Shinji Ikari's Will Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage.
 KTS: Shinji Ikari fails to parry Anti's Anti's Thigh Razors Single Strike, taking 2557 damage!
 KTS: Anti has engaged Shinji Ikari
 KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 189.

<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.

Two Evangelions, Rena thinks. She manages to not stare for too long; she does blink at the Synchrotank, though. It certainly seems different.

GaoFighGar, she knows. She sends a transmission, quickly: "Chief Shishioh!" she says. "I'll back you up! Do... you know where this is? It doesn't quite look right for Nouvelle Tokyo."

Renais confirms that it's her. Rena can sense that emotion -- the hesitation, but also the annoyance. She swallows, and then grits her teeth, swearing softly: "Shit--!"

The eye-beams from the Mazin sweep across the horizon. The Mass Production-type Nu Gundam soars upward, a fast leap with its thrusters to try to move away, but that doesn't quite get her away. The beams slash across the Mobile Suit's chest armor and left shoulder. The stark white one, just like Bailiwick Ultrasound's old unit.

It leaves black, burnt paint -- and glimmers of half-molten silvery metal under -- in its wake. The Mass Production-type Nu Gundam slams down onto the ground again; Rena senses something, though. A flash of rage; more than the strange monsters in the distance. (She gawked at those, earlier.)

"What is--a kaiju!" she yells, sounding surprised. "Where did it come from!?"

And it talks, too. And it also goes after Renais's Mazin, as if to shover it back. It can talk, she thinks, a little dimly. She shakes her head, quickly, and takes aim at the Reine Noir. "Miss Renais, I don't know how we got here... but I don't think we should be fighting here!"

The beam rifle has a barrel under it. As Rena charges her Mobile Suit in, she draws a bead -- and fires a grenade. It looses, smoke snaking after, before hurtling for the side of the black Mazin.

 KTS: Rena Lancaster has activated the Rouse Spirit Command.
 KTS: Rena Lancaster targets Renais Cardiff with Grenade Launcher!
 KTS: Renais Cardiff fails to react to Anti's Anti's Thigh Razors Penetrating Attack, taking 3663 damage!
 KTS: Anti has engaged Renais Cardiff
 KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 222.


 KTS: Rikka Takarada blocks Anti's ME AGAIN - Shooter, taking 2340 damage!
 KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Anti's DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE! activates, causing Sparkle!
 KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 256.

<Pose Tracker> Yuta Hibiki has posed.

" - .. yeah, I will. And you be careful, too. A kaiju is one, thing, but this is .. " he communicates back to Rikka, through Junk. Borr clicks his tongue, strapped into his seat, "Yeah. It goes without saying, but there's no way that piece of twisted metal up there's unmanned."

It was a topic that probably, none of them had wanted to openly face. But the facts were the facts, and Borr had felt it important to say that aloud. "But an evil heart is an evil heart. And no one who just starts breaking crap for no reason is a good guy!"

Vit lolls his head to the side, "Ehhhhhn~? But ... Borr, aren't you the kind of no-good bad seed who'd go around beating people up for no good reason?"

"You wanna' try that one again? I know your head's usually up in the clouds, but I'm about to knock you to the moon."

Max sighs, "Your back and forth may be a little funny, but let's not get distracted from what's really important here."

From Junk, Calibur nods, "..y-yeah...besides. isn't it..a lot like, you know .. "

Max squints, "Well, the resemblance is uncanny in some ways, but basically unrecognizable in others."

Just as Shinji had indicated, the EVA units were already basically ready to get on-site. Their speedy interference gives Yuta, at least momentarily, the feeling that they might be on the front foot for once. Thoughtless on exposing his voice, Gridman nods his head once as Yuta thanks Units Zero and One, "So you came .. I'm glad. Let's give it our best, together."

And then a tornado smashes into the ground.

And from the tornado that came out of nowhere, a Brave makes his appearance. It's all actually really impressive and lulls Gridman in his spot, "Erm..excuse me..."

"Do you know that person?"

Asking this, Gridman's hand makes a motion between GaoFighGar and the Reine Noire - only for it to fall back to his side as it dashes across to slug it with its fist. " .. I see .. "

But there's an Ultraman here, now, too - and it isn't Geed .. but, Riku did say that there were more out there than just Geed. Wow .. - Gridman, are you an Ultraman?

No. But, you could say that the giants of light and I fulfill a similar enough role, in certain circumstances.

I see .. so you're kind of like salarymen from different companies who don't mind working with eachother?

It doesn't seem quite right to put it that way. But, I'm always willing to fight by their side.

With a sword strike coming his way, Gridman bends his knees before jumping, tucking his body into a front flip that sends him over Reine Noire's blade at the last second, allowing him to land behind her. "TOH!"

Yuta's retort is cut off, as a voice that isn't his own rings through Gridman's faceplate, "Someone moving under such a wicked, self-serving will has no right to say that to me."

Yuta finds that he can speak once again, as Gridman's voice becomes gentler accordingly, "Just because the city will be fixed tomorrow doesn't make it alright to smash it up today. A wound that heals still happened..!"

Before he can admonish Renais any further in his attempts to convince her to stand down before he resorts to violence himself, a familiar kaiju appears to maul her right in front of his eyes. "Wh -?!"

Max grunts, "It's the one that could talk. From before - it survived..!"

Gridman's body is racked with explosions of sparks as Anti drives into him, pinning Gridman against the side of a skyscraper as he failed to respond in time to get out of the vicious charge's way, "Gh...!"

Grasping Anti's wrists and pushing, Gridman manages to put a breath of space between them so he can squat to the ground. "You're still trying to kill me..!"

Gridman springs upwards while extending a leg in his backflip that sends the toe of his boot under the chin of Anti's snout. "You shouldn't hit your allies like that," he grunts forlornly after Gridman finishes spinning through the air to land on his feet, his gaze shifting visibly between Renais and Anti," - you know?"

 KTS: Anti has activated the Trust Spirit Command.
 KTS: Anti rushes into the attack!
 KTS: Anti successfully avoids Yuta Hibiki's Flash Kick

<Pose Tracker> Haruki Natsukawa has posed.

Another Ultraman? No, they're different... Somehow, Haruki can't quite put his finger on it, but the fact Zett doesn't seem to gush over them is a pretty good indicator.

         Probably isn't the best time to be thinking about these sorts of things, as the retaliation from the Black Mazinger catches him off guard, its mighty kick staggering the Giant of Light as they take a few steps back and nearly fall over.

         "Haruki, they're strong! We should match power with power."

         "K-Kay!"

         Haruki, still inside the weird limbo between space and time, reaches back into the small container on his waist, pulling out a new set of three medals.

         "BURN IN SCARLET FLAMES! THE POWER OF COURAGE!"

         It's the same motion as he did last time, he slots the new medals in, announcing the name of each one as he does so.

"Brother Ultraman! Brother Ace! Brother Taro!"

         Given that Haruki is already Ultraman, there's no need to chant Zett's name again. Instead, there's a flash of light as the mostly blue Ultraman is now... Red. The overall look and feel of the giant is different too, the cool and tactical blue warrior now replaced with a muscle bound and fierce red wrestler.

         Just as they're about to jump back in against Renais however, they're caught off guard by Anti's sudden appearance, their blades glancing against the Ultraman's stomach as it creates a flurry of sparks. It doesn't pierce however, and the newly transformed Beta Smash follows up the only way he knows how...

         He grabs hold of Anti's arm, bringing the kaiju in close to him as he wraps them tightly in a bone crushing hug.

         "SHUWATCH!"

         Making sure he's out of the way of any nearby buildings, the Ultraman lets out a yell before suddenly falling backward, but not before lifting Anti up over their head and across his back as he lets both gravity and his weight do all the work.

 KTS: Renais Cardiff blocks Rena Lancaster's Grenade Launcher, taking 900 damage!
 KTS: Haruki Natsukawa has activated the Spirit Spirit Command.
 KTS: Haruki Natsukawa targets Anti with Beta Power Drop!

<Pose Tracker> Shinji Ikari has posed.

Shinji was enjoying shooting the gun, for once. The gun is far away from the crazy giant Ayanami-lookalike with the grudge. Its great. Shinji loves the gun. He's also, frankly, half drunk because of strange interference in his synch-ratio, which is sputtering like mad. Like something's trying to communicate.

But it's FAR too early for THAT, isn't it Kaworu?

"Wait." For once, Unit-01 sounds like Shinji as he takes in what the Mazin is saying. "Is. Is she afraid? Of me? Why would anyone be afraid of me? Kaworu is something wrong with her?"

Then Shinji has a bad couple of minutes; he gets Rocket Punched in the gut, stumbling backwards and losing his rifle to the ground. Tying to avoid stomping on anyone, he doesn't hear the newcomer until it's too late. "I don't understand-"

ENEMY.

Unit-01 stands up, and holds its hand out. An ATField flickers to life, only for Anti's dagger to pierce the weak barrier and smash directly into Unit-01's good eye. Shinji covers his own, red and bloodshot, whisps of thick, sticky blood hissing out of the sympathetic wound as Shinji is immediately sobered up. The Evangelion stumbles backwards again, covering its face in simulated agony.

"Gonna. Gonna take a rain check on that team up, Kaworu. I think you might be the better guy to take the Mazin down." Shinji says, sounding distant as Unit-01 draws its own prog knife. "And I can't let this spoiled little psycho kill Gridman every time he goes outside."

Unit-01 hunches over, its knuckle scraping against the ground as it charges, weaker buildings shuddering under the pressure of the great beast moving so quickly, as Shinji pulls his prog knife back and goes for a brutal stab between where, on a human, the rib cage would be. Unit-01 grabs for the back of Anti's head, trying to force the kaiju further onto the sonically powered super knife.

 KTS: Shinji Ikari has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
 KTS: Shinji Ikari targets Anti with Progressive Knife Twist!

<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.

This is so much, Akane thinks. On the one hand -- why do these people care about this city? Why are there so many of them? ... it's probably because of Renais, she thinks to herself. Renais has a lot of friends -- that's... that's really great. Renais doesn't deserve the things that happened to her. She's fought so hard for the world, time and time again. She rips the ability to care out of a mind so broken that it wants to burn down the whole world.

It's beautiful (disgusting). A heart like that ought to be fighting kaiju (her), not fighting alongside them.

As if on cue, the world grants Akane's wish.

Anti strikes out at the Brave, and Akane goes from comfortably seated on her roof to standing bolt upright. "OH COME ON!" she shouts, reaching up and pulling her heavy, clunky vented headphones off so she can throw them on the ground in absolute disgust. "I know you're territorial but come on!! This? Now? Would it have killed you to at least not go after everyone?" She doesn't actually issue any orders, because as far as she's concerned, it's a fruitless endeavor at this point. Anti does whatever stupid shit he (she) wants, no matter how dumb or risky or suicidally dangerous it might be, so issuing direct orders while they're in the middle of it seems... kind of pointless.

Her brow furrows, and she shouts. She does a lot of shouting. "Okay -- this is where we're at now, I guess! You better not screw it up this time!" She plops her butt right back down on the roof again to keep watching.

Finishing out the outburst starts to level her off a little bit, though. This might still be okay. The odds are more favorable than they were the last time. Renais... is a lot stronger than Ghoulghilas (Akane). Oooh, Anti defeating some Vessels of Light and Renais getting taken down? ... This could work out perfect after all~

<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.

If you comm Guy Shishioh during Fusion, you get a free visual of Guy's face, with the V-fin of his Ultimate Armor, and behind him is just...white space. How does Fusion work? Where even is he right now? What a great question! Next question!

He flicks on the outboard speaker to reply to Gridman. "We have," he grunts, because he's int he middle of punching Renais in the armored chest, "a history!"

Then, and this is back on private comms of course: "Wh-Sayla! You're here!?" Not that he should be that surprised but he thought Sayla was, like, not piloting, on account of her abiding love of not getting vaporized by beam sabers. "Right! I'll keep it short, the pilot in there is my cousin Renais. She's had her morals warped by an energy called Triple Zero! We have to stop her before she does something she can't take back!"

That was the like WAY short version, but Guy doesn't have time for a 3-hour flashback right now. And really when you put it like that it's not so different from Zonders, actually...same as it ever was, huh?

Toward Rena, next: "I don't quite know myself, Rena! I think I've seen this place before, but I can't say I know too much. But there's people in danger! That's all a Brave needs to know!"

And finally: Renais! Yelling out loud in heroic fashion! "3G Blue has people just as clever as we ever were, Renais! They detected the instability here when you attacked!"

He's guessing that's what happened. Sort of...wildly presuming, even, honestly. He concludes, "And whatever guardians this place already has, the King of Braves will still fight to protect peace!"

She lobs that mazin magnum spinning at his face, and instead of shove it aside, he rushes into it, pushing himself into Reine Noire's space! He was kind of expecting to immediately attack but Renais gets BLINDSIDED by a whole-ass Kaiju, forcing Guy to...not so much lose positioning as stare a bit confoundedly at the exchange.

"That one's not really talking like a local guardian, huh? More like J with a grudge." But there sure are a number of Giants turning up, which without a connection to Wadatsumi he doesn't have the information he'd prefer on them. For now, he'll have to make due with: "DRILL KNEE!" he roars, closing the gap back toward the Reine Noire and leaping up, knee-first, to drive the spinning drill on GaoFighGar's knee into the rogue Mazinger!
 KTS: Guy Shishioh targets Renais Cardiff with Drill Knee!
 KTS: Renais Cardiff fails to react to Guy Shishioh's Drill Knee, taking 2475 damage!
 KTS: Guy Shishioh has engaged Renais Cardiff

<Pose Tracker> Rikka Takarada has posed.

Her first time fighting something piloted... Well, Rikka supposes it's probably pretty obvious. Rikka does want to help, but... there's obviously a voice coming from that robot. She doesn't recognize it, but... as Borr says, there's no way it's unmanned.

"Y-yeah, you're probably right, I-" She starts to reply to Sayla... when, suddenly, the machine's attention turns on her next. With a swift movement of surprise, Rikka turns Synchrotank out of the way of the incoming cloud. The dustcloud blasts the sidewalk instead, eating away everything in its path. ...That could've been bad.

"...It seems like... people know her." Rikka observes. She doesn't get the opportunity to dwell on this for long, though, as soon, as a familiar kaiju bursts dynamically onto the scene.

"...It's the one from before!" Rikka remarks with surprise. And still as dedicated as ever to killing Gridman. Synchrotank doesn't go unnoticed, though - the kaiju sends a barrage of energy bullets its way. It's too fast to try another evasion - Synchrotank's shield raises to try and intercept as many as it can, the impact forcing the machine back.

With that, Synchrotank stands up into mobile suit mode. It might have a better time of things like this.

"He's fast, so... I'll try to restrict his movements." Rikka decides. Synchrotank's hands point toward Anti, chunks of adhesive birdlime firing off toward the kaiju. Normally used to secure crumbling structures or seal openings in colony walls, it can prove effective at limiting movements, too.

<Pose Tracker> Nidaime has posed.

Nidaime startles when Anti appears. She raises her binoculars again, focusing on him. She...feels some anxiety. What if they actually kill him? Then she's basically alone again, isn't she? Then again he does want to kill Gridman very clearly. Why, he wants to kill Gridmans so much that, well, sometimes it gets in the way of dead Gridmans.


She leans back thoughtfully, looking towards Gridman with the binoculars.

He's there, she thinks. Maybe... Maybe she could...

Anosillus the First stomps into view from out from behind a particularly large building, having been hunkered down. It slowly...

Slowly...

Slooooowly makes its way towards the battlefield. It makes turtle noises at Anti.

Anosillus opens its mouth wide and sends some kind of delicious feeling sonic pulse towards Gridman and the Synchrotank!

Nidaime meanwhile scootches forward and kicks her legs back and forth off the ege of the buidling.

 KTS: Rikka Takarada has activated the Attune Spirit Command targeting Yuta Hibiki

<Pose Tracker> Nidaime has posed.

Nidaime startles when Anti appears. She raises her binoculars again, focusing on him. She...feels some anxiety. What if they actually kill him? Then she's basically alone again, isn't she? Then again he does want to kill Gridman very clearly. Why, he wants to kill Gridmans so much that, well, sometimes it gets in the way of dead Gridmans.

She leans back thoughtfully, looking towards Gridman with the binoculars.

He's there, she thinks. Maybe... Maybe she could...

Anosillus the First stomps into view from out from behind a particularly large building, having been hunkered down. It slowly...

Slowly...

Slooooowly makes its way towards the battlefield. It makes turtle noises at Anti.

Anosillus opens its mouth wide and sends some kind of delicious feeling sonic pulse towards Gridman and the Synchrotank!

Nidaime meanwhile scootches forward and kicks her legs back and forth off the ege of the buidling.
 KTS: Nidaime targets Yuta Hibiki and Rikka Takarada with Sound Spirit.
 KTS: Rikka Takarada has activated the Attune Spirit Command targeting Haruki Natsukawa
 KTS: Nidaime's sound spirit flares with his performance, raising Yuta Hibiki's Morale!


 KTS: Nidaime's sound spirit flares with her performance, raising Rikka Takarada's Morale!
 KTS: Rikka Takarada targets Anti with Birdlime Launcher!

<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.

        It seems as though Renais is quick to adapt to the situation she brought upon herself. She hesitates for Rena, shouts in fearful aggression for Shinji, but does neither for Kaworu. Interesting. He notes the snap of Renais's blade and unites his will with Unit 00's; as the pommel twists to attempt to crack her wrist, she snaps away, leaping back to land on her toes with the nimble grace of a deer. It's a close thing. If Renais had hit, she'd have surely done significant damage.
        
        More importantly, Renais doesn't respond. Kaworu assumes that means she's fine with it, and so smiles as Gridman thanks him and Shinji in a familiar voice. "Of course," he replies simply, "Gridman."
        
        Renais then demands to know what any of them are doing here when it's not their world. Kaworu smiles. "The heart calls out to its bonds. It would be too sad if nobody came, don't you think?"
        
        He says this right before Anti SLAMS into Reine Noire. Kaworu didn't do this on purpose, but the timing was excellent all the same. For his part, Kaworu blinks at the kaiju's appearance, not so much surprised by his presence so much as his choice in target. The reason why makes itself plain in short order, at least. Akane's forces aren't very well organized, are they...? He keeps this thought to himself, though.
        
        Ultraman Z appears and launches himself forward into a flurry of blows into the Reine Noire's chest, while Gridman chastises Renais and Anti in turn. Both of them are forced into melee combat with the kaiju--which hurls a dagger at Unit 01, right after it's struck by a rocket punch, to pierce its eye.
        
        "Shinji!" Kaworu calls, urgency heating his tone. Unit 00 turns towards him, both ready to go to his aid. But...
        
        'I think you might be the better guy to take the Mazin down. And I can't let this spoiled little psycho kill Gridman every time he goes outside.'
        
        "..."
        
        Kaworu lets out a long, low breath. It ripples in the sea of LCL around him. Yes. It is too early, for various things. But things will come as they may. And if he tries to do too much for Shinji... won't Shinji end up like the local God?
        
        "...She is afraid of you," Kaworu confirms simply. "But if that is your will, I will abide by it."
        
        An odd thing for someone's superior officer to say to them. All the same, he turns, and Unit 00 turns with him. Her demeanor is more measured this time as she circles around to one side of the Reine Noire, giving room to Rena, Guy, and Sayla to press the attacks on their sides. Once Unit 00 has a clear shot, she stabs again, this time in an underhand strike aiming for the Reine Noire's knee-to-thigh area. If it strikes well, it might give Guy in particular an opening the next time he attacks; Kaworu made to aim for the side he's targeting in particular.
 KTS: Kaworu Nagisa targets Renais Cardiff with Progressive Knife Cut!


 KTS: Rikka Takarada rattles Anti, making his next maneuvers more difficult.
 KTS: Anti fails to evade Rikka Takarada's Birdlime Launcher, taking 4620 damage!
Your unit's HP stands at 41580
 KTS: Rikka Takarada begins a Formation attack!
Kamille Bidan has disconnected.
 KTS: Renais Cardiff fails to parry Kaworu Nagisa's Progressive Knife Cut, taking 2250 damage!
 KTS: Kaworu Nagisa has engaged Renais Cardiff
 KTS: Kaworu Nagisa has activated the Enable Spirit Command targeting Guy Shishioh

<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.

        "Last I checked, it wasn't yours either." There's a modulator on the voice coming from the Saint Lance, to hide it's identify. There are people who might know it. Her sensors are struggling to detect everything. At least the overwhelming lack of presence is overwhelmed by hot blood and guts and angst and despair and will to stay alive. Unfortunately, she's not fast enough to evade the Zero Beam, which clips the Saint Lance's shoulder, and knocking it stumbling backwards. Tsk. It's a real Mazinger, then.

        And then Guy gets back and...

        Shit. Shitting fuck.

        "Got it." She types back. Guy was not wrong about the love of not being vaporized by Beam Sabers, but he wasn't here for the Axis Shock. She can't stay back any more. This though... The newtypes in the area can feel despair and grief flow off the Saint Lance, before a sense of determination. Fine. She can stop Guy going through what she did. "We'll save her, Guy." She's... Not the serious, hard Sayla she was a second ago. Right now she's much sadder... Sayla's blood is cold.

        And then she hears Anosillus and Nidaime and she gasps. She can't tight beam Nidaime. Damnit! Fine. Hopefully three words isn't too much, without the modulator. "Nidaime! Stay back!"

        She looks forward through the cameras. The modulated voice comes back, through tight beams. "Londo Bell Pilot, Evangelion Pilot. Leave the main body to GaoFighGar. Target the limbs. Disabling is our best hope."

        And then she points forward the Saint Lance's Arm, and a grenade fires from the tube, loaded with which Minovsky Chaff and sparking matter designed to scramble systems. She's easier to diable if she can't fight back.
 KTS: Sayla Mass has activated the Strike Spirit Command.
 KTS: Sayla Mass targets Renais Cardiff with Scramble Grenade!
 KTS: Sayla Mass rattles Renais Cardiff, making her next maneuvers more difficult.
 KTS: Renais Cardiff fails to evade Sayla Mass's Scramble Grenade, taking 2325 damage!
 KTS: Anti fails to react to Shinji Ikari's Progressive Knife Twist, taking 7440 damage!
 KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Shinji Ikari's Find The Core activates, causing Nullify!
Your unit's HP stands at 34140
 KTS: Shinji Ikari has engaged Anti
 KTS: Shinji Ikari completes the Formation attack!
 KTS: Haruki Natsukawa anchors Anti, forcing him into close range.
 KTS: Anti fails to react to Haruki Natsukawa's Beta Power Drop, taking 5220 damage!
Your unit's HP stands at 28920
 KTS: Haruki Natsukawa has engaged Anti

<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.

At first, Renais is relieved. Backup. "Thank Go--"

Over the course of the next second or so, she goes from relief to confusion, then from confusion to understanding, as Anti bodies her and slashes deep gashes into the Noire's torso.

He's territorial. Wouldn't see this as help, not like this. Shit. Plasma arcs from the Reine Noire's head to its horns, as Renais fuels it with the heat of her body and that of the Mazin. She sweeps its hand out to cast the plasma, which arcs over toward Anti.

She yells. "Anti! ANTI! You said you--look, I lured Gridman out for you! He's yours! I'm not here to take a goddamn thing from you, kid!" she yells, angry, cockpit flaring with light. "And how the fuck did you--"

No. Really better not to ask, especially right now.

She smirks at Gridman, and the Noire shakes its head. "Selfish? Everything I do is for the good of the universe. I'm here on behalf of a higher power!"

She sweeps her view up to look at Rena, frowning and lifting the Noire's left hand. "Protect SHADE!" she calls out, hunkering down a bit to shield herself from the explosion. "Ugh. Lancaster, this isn't your world!" she yells, "This place isn't--" She stops herself short. The rest of that sentence would probably do more harm than good. Instead, she levels her fist at Rena, launching a spinning, "MAZIN MAGNUM!" at the MP Nu.

Guy's response to her elicits a smile from the corrupted Brave, as the arm returns. "Should've figured they'd be at least that clever!" she replies, grunting as GaoFighGar's knee digs into Reine Noire's midsection, leaving a deep scar before she's able to pull away. "... Okay, fuck you, now I can't unsee it!" she calls out. The thrusters on the Jet Scrander fire, and she closes the gap to unleash a flurry of attacks on GaoFighGar with the Lionne Blade!

"She wants to be left alone!" Ren yells at Kaworu, anger rising in her voice as she moves the Lionne Blade to meet the knife before it can hit its target--but she fails again, and the knife pierces. It meets its mark, and sparks fly from the wound. She retaliates, calling out, "Zero BEAM!" and sweeping eye-beams across Unit-00 from close range.

It looks up to the Saint Lance at the reply. "When all of you are gone, then I'll leave too." she states simply, moving to put cover between herself and the grenade--but it's not that kind of grenade, as she discovers when the Noire slows beneath her. It's like she's moving through soup. Maybe if she can just... the Noire's eyes flare again, lancing beams of orange at the Saint Lance.

"Gridman!" she calls out, looking at the giant. "My friend won't stop until you're dead, but otherwise, this all ends if you--all of you--leave, and don't come back!"

 KTS: Renais Cardiff targets Anti with Heat Break!
 KTS: Renais Cardiff targets Rena Lancaster with Mazin Magnum!
 KTS: Renais Cardiff targets Guy Shishioh with Lionne Blade Combo!
 KTS: Renais Cardiff targets Kaworu Nagisa with Zero Beam!
 KTS: Renais Cardiff targets Sayla Mass with Zero Beam!
 KTS: Sayla Mass has activated the Wall Spirit Command.
 KTS: Sayla Mass blocks Renais Cardiff's Zero Beam, taking 3648 damage!
 KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Renais Cardiff's Defiance activates, causing Sparkle!
 KTS: Guy Shishioh's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage.
 KTS: Guy Shishioh blocks Renais Cardiff's Lionne Blade Combo, taking 4195 damage!
 KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Renais Cardiff's Defiance activates, causing Sparkle!
 KTS: Renais Cardiff has engaged Guy Shishioh
 KTS: Anti fails to retreat.
 KTS: Anti fails to evade Renais Cardiff's Heat Break, taking 3971 damage!
 KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Renais Cardiff's Defiance activates, causing Sparkle!
Your unit's HP stands at 24949

<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.

        It's impossible for a human's voice to carry, this far over the battlefield.

        Nevertheless, Anti feels, deep to his tubing, the exasperated wishes of Akane Shinjo.

        'You better not screw it up this time.'

        Does he hear the words, or does he just feel the desperation, threading through what passes for his veins? (He has none; no heart, no blood, no mess to speak of. Though this form was never carved from clay, the wishes of his designer carried through, to express here in her failure of a creation.)

        There are some words he does hear, though, as Renais struggles to reason with him. And as he's fighting, he yells, pain cracking into his anger: "I--! I don't NEED HELP! I'm not about to screw this up! This, this --" opportunity Renais gave him, apparently with better intentions than he'd suspected. With a frustrated growl, his claws lift to his head, for a full-body shake. "Aaaargh, just -- just stay out of my way!!!"

        He declines to answer her response with more violence.

        Gridman notices that Anti is still doing what Anti does. (What Anti does is killing Gridman.) (Yes, we know Gridman is still alive. It's a work in progress. He can handle this. Shut up.) "Hell yes, I am! Didn't I tell you?! You'll never be safe -- GRIDMAN!"

        Gridman backflips, showing Anti grace and might despite his massive frame. Anti copies his movements by flowing to the side, with his motion, and charging forward to meet him as he lands. He tosses his daggers aside so he can try to grab him -- and if he does, he'll fling him into another building, with no care for whether it's been evacuated or not.

        (Neither does he consider that Gridman is agile enough to avoid hurting anyone. The calculation simply doesn't enter his mind at all. He cares nothing, one way or another.)

        But before Anti can dive onto Gridman again, there's -- "That scrapheap?!" Anti yelps, as he tries to spring backwards. The birdlime intercepts him in mid-air, which means, in fact, that an Anti-shaped tragedy goes rolling-rolling-rolling as he tries to free himself without ever quite stopping his movement. "You little piece of shit!" Anti yells, as he finally carves enough of the adhesive away for him to stand up again. "If you're friends with Gridman, do him a favour and start PLANNING HIS FUNERAL!"

        Tragically, Unit 01 knows very well how to take advantage of an opening. With a brutality unlike the wrestling and energy of Tsutsujidai's kaiju fights, Shinji comes: grasping at those ever-so-convenient horns on his head, to show him just how knives are done. The suit gets a rather large tear in its backside; what is below is too black to see. He kicks, backwards, with those vicious claws of his legs, looking to assault Unit 01's own chances of standing up to things.

        (And in Shinji's feral ferocity may be reflected just WHERE Anti learned to rip and tear with his daggers, even though Tsutsujidai's style is unlike him. Anti remembers; Anti learns.)

        It's almost a mercy, really, that Ultraman Z steps in, to grasp him by his flailing arm, pulling him off of Unit 01 and into -- well, still violence, but much more typical violence for this location. Up and over, he travels, landing in a hail of concrete-dust and a few steel girders flying off to ram through an office building. (Luckily, this one is empty; they're not paying enough overtime for anyone to work through a kaiju-slash-mazin attack.)

        "You...!" Anti spits, invective; if the language were set differently, it would be instantly understood as an insult. "Why are there so many Gridmen, anyway?!"

        Anti, that's -- that's not a -- oh, never mind.

        And to the giant terrapin, Anti yells: "GO AWAY! YOU'RE NOT INVOLVED IN THIS!" He yells this very loudly so the extremely larger kaiju can hear him. That's apparently just something Anti does.

 KTS: Anti has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
 KTS: Anti targets Yuta Hibiki with In My Grasp!
 KTS: Anti targets Rikka Takarada with Goad!
 KTS: Anti targets Shinji Ikari with Calibrated Claws!
 KTS: Anti targets Haruki Natsukawa with Goad!

 KTS: Anti targets Haruki Natsukawa with Goad!
 KTS: Anti goads Rikka Takarada, reducing her Intuition drastically.

 KTS: Anti goads Haruki Natsukawa, reducing his Intuition drastically.
 KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 298.
Kamille Bidan has connected.

<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.

There is a strong flash of awe from Rena. Something about seeing a kaiju attacking an Evangelion -- the size and physicality of it, the brutality and incongruity of Unit-01 trying to stab a monster like a barfight gone terribly wrong -- simultaneously amazes and frightens the Mobile Suit pilot. She lets out a breath she didn't know she held.

Guy's words come over her comm line. Her brown eyes blink; they do a good job of bringing her out of it. "R-Right," she says. "Then... let's go!"

She registers the despair from the Saint Lance. She glances in its direction. Then, she nods her head. She glances at GaoFighGar, then at Unit-02. "This is Lieutenant Rena Lancaster, with Londo Bell's Kakapo Squadron. I read you, unknown Mobile Suit pilot," she says. The Mass Production-type Nu Gundam turns -- and Sayla gets a look at the standard blue-and-teal color scheme, but with a shoulder painted a stark, bright white.

Colors of an old Karaba-turned-AEUG-turned Londo Bell ace, Bailiwick Ultrasound, but certainly not him in the pilot seat.

"Not my world? Where could--agh, that explains a few things!" Rena answers. She sees the fist spin up -- and she knows well what that means. The Mass Production-type Nu Gundam leaps -- shoots itself up past and to the left of that spinning rocket fist -- and then slams into the ground again.

"Miss Renais, I... can't do that," she says. "I'm not sure who that Gridman is, but--I don't think leaving him to be killed is a good idea."

She leans forward into the cockpit, and stats to move closer. As she does, she calls out: "Fin funnels, go!"

The six fin funnels on the back of the RX-94 drop away -- each unfolding, and crackles of mega particle energy shoot between the twin booms, a little like lightning. They fan out around the Gundam, flying in the air, and then two of them fire. Blasts of pink light shoot towards the Mazin -- aiming for an arm, just as Sayla suggested.

Rena considers for a moment. Keep her talking, she thinks. Maybe it could do something. "Is... is the kaiju a friend of yours?"

 KTS: Rena Lancaster targets Renais Cardiff with Fin Funnels!

 KTS: Yuta Hibiki has activated the Focus Spirit Command.
 KTS: Anti anchors Yuta Hibiki, forcing him into close range.
 KTS: Yuta Hibiki fails to parry Anti's In My Grasp, taking 3720 damage!
 KTS: Anti has engaged Yuta Hibiki
 KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 337.

<Pose Tracker> Haruki Natsukawa has posed.

"Hey. Zett. Is Gridman another name for Ultraman or something?"

         "No. Hmmm...If I had to guess, I think he's talking about the other giant here."

         "Oh... Yeah, I guess that makes sense when you think about it... We should probably help them then!"

         Picking themselves off the ground, Ultraman Z changes his attention from Anti to help Gridman.

         There's no spoken words, just weird alien grunts, as the massive red giant helps the Hyper Agent back up on their feet, placing both hands underneath the digital giant's armpits to help prop them up.

Dusting Gridman off while he gets his bearings back, Ultraman Z grabs hold of their hand, firmly grasping it with perhaps a bit too much strength as he stares them straight in the eyes.

         Yuta can feel a swell of energy coursing through him, coming straight from Z... A sensation that's probably cut off a bit short when the Ultraman swings them straight back at Anti.

         "HE-AH!"
 KTS: Haruki Natsukawa targets Yuta Hibiki with Heart!

<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.

So she's doing this to lure out Gridman, in theory so that this Anti character can kill him, but didn't work it out with him ahead of time. They're not really on side with each other, but maybe they're helping the same person? That all seems to track. He wishes the Wadatsumi were here; he feels blind without his eyes in the sky.

Which is when he feels communication lasers crawl across his back. "Chief! Chief Shishioh, do you read me? Chief Guy!"

"I read you, Alouette! How'd you get here!?"

The sky parts for another appearance - Division X: Mobile Execution Fortress Wadatsumi, shaped like a pair of train locomotives set against each other, slots on its hull glowing green with the light of their Ul-Tech thrusters as the near-300 meter-long ship descends through the clouds. "I don't have a good answer to that right now, to be honest! We had GaoGaiGo prepping the Dimension Pliers, but before we could fire them up...well, we're here now!"

"Understood! Are you getting my combat data on the second stream?"

"Yes! We'll identify targets momentarily! This Z0-Similar rating, though..."

"Yeah, it's Renais," Guy breathes. "...I'm working on it."

Which is when Renais gets her sword out. "PROGRAM RING!!" Guy screams, thrusting his left arm of protection forward. "PLUS!" The core of GaoFighGar opens to fire out a Program Ring, which hovers in front of the left arm just as the Protect energy lights on the wrist flash in sequence. "PROTECT WALL!"

Renais' shield SLAMS into the Protect Wall, cleaving straight through the Program Ring; but, made of energy, that ring cannot be destroyed so simply as a blade! Renais blade is forced aside, shoving multiple attacks out of position; but eventually, with 3G knowhow, she manages to come in at an angle that doesn't get fully diverted, scoring a hit that breaks Guy's posture and lets her carve into GaoFighGar properly. Guy screams, his machine staggering away as sparks fly from its armor! "You know," Guy says, low, his breath coming in puffs. "You know I won't!" he cries.

"You know I won't leave innocents behind! And you know I won't stand here and let you plan to kill a friend of Sigma's! RENAIS!" The Protect Hand crackles and sparks, and then Guy thrusts it at her, Protect energy in the form of lightning flying toward her like a net! "PLASMA HOOOOOOLD!!"

And then, screaming with exertion, GaoFighGar puts its whole weight into YANKING that connection and using it to hurl Reine Noire into the nearest building to rattle it and the pilot!
 KTS: Guy Shishioh has activated the Spirit Spirit Command.
 KTS: Guy Shishioh targets Renais Cardiff with Plasma Hold Grappling!
 KTS: Renais Cardiff fails to react to Rena Lancaster's Fin Funnels, taking 3075 damage!
 KTS: Guy Shishioh rattles Renais Cardiff, making her next maneuvers more difficult.
 KTS: Renais Cardiff blocks Guy Shishioh's Plasma Hold Grappling, taking 1260 damage!

<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.

        It truly is unsightly: the way Renais lashes back at Anti and tells him she lured Gridman out for him, the way Anti clearly had no idea and shouts back that she's in the way. Kaworu's lips pull into a faint frown. For all Anti declares he won't fail today, he suspects his creator won't be happy with his results.
        
        The glint in the Reine Noire's eyes warns him. Unit 00 staggers back a step and crouches just in time for the eye beams to shear through the air over her head. They instead carve through several tall buildings at her back, steel lightning up bright orange before slicing apart in a molten slurry. The heat brushes at Unit 00's armor in a hazy wave, and the light turns orange to flickering black.
        
        "I know," Kaworu tells Renais simply. He leaves it at that, for her to interpret as she will.
        
        Wretched emotion shears forward as Sayla wields her Saint Lance. Something about this battle resonates with her... Kaworu gives her a sidelong look, but when the tightbeams go through, he nods. Chiming in after Rena, he says, "This is Kaworu Nagisa with NERV. I agree with your strategy and will comply."
        
        Of course, he's been targeting the limbs, but there's no need to argue the point. While Unit 00 is still crouched, she lashes the prog knife at the equivalent of the Reine Noire's Achilles heel while attempting to crawl backwards out of melee range in a strange, inhuman crab-walk. If she sprouted several arms right now to help with it, it wouldn't be out of place.
 KTS: Kaworu Nagisa targets Renais Cardiff with Progressive Knife Cut!
 KTS: Haruki Natsukawa bares his heart, letting Yuta Hibiki deal some extra damage!
 KTS: Sayla Mass has activated the Valor Spirit Command.

<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.

        "And what's good for the universe?" Sayla asks, her voice modulated, dreading the answer. Why does it keep coming back to people thinking like that. At least, if Guy is right, she might have an excuse. Is that better? Maybe not.

        'She wants to be left alone?' Who is she? Sayla is trying to put together too much with too little. But she can't stop. The Saint Lance's shield absorbs some of the blast, but yet more crashes into the Saint Lance, and she stumbles backwards more. The sheer power behind that... Is that the Triple Zero he mentioned... The Triple Zero Geed mentioned. Whatever they are.

        The paint scheme.... She was mostly inactive with Karaba but she had information. She can't place it right now, but- It's definitely Karaba.

        Sigma? Then... How is this all so interconnected? She doesn't have time. She'll pin down Guy tonight, once they get through this. "We're here because you're here." Sayla responds, the modulator continuing. "Someone here called for help. I'm here to answer that request. Maybe this person wants to be alone, but someone here wants to reach out." She doesn't know if that will get through, but she has to try. She told Guy she would. And Rikka and Yuta and Sho all want to protect Tsutsujidai. So she'll do what she can to support them. And stand against things they're not ready for. The Eva pilot seems to his best to provide the opportunity. "Acknowledged." Sayla engages the Psycommu system.

        One of the missile binders on the wings targets the Reine Noire, and fires. A high explosive payload flying straight for the Reine Noire. She's seen Renais' fighting style. She tends to block. Maybe she can take out that arm.
 KTS: Shinji Ikari's Will Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage.
 KTS: Shinji Ikari blocks Anti's Calibrated Claws, taking 2321 damage!
 KTS: Anti has engaged Shinji Ikari
 KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 376.
 KTS: Sayla Mass targets Renais Cardiff with High-Explosive Psycommu Guided Missile!
 KTS: Renais Cardiff fails to react to Kaworu Nagisa's Progressive Knife Cut, taking 2250 damage!
 KTS: Kaworu Nagisa has engaged Renais Cardiff
 KTS: Renais Cardiff fails to react to Sayla Mass's High-Explosive Psycommu Guided Missile, taking 4125 damage!

<Pose Tracker> Rikka Takarada has posed.

There's another reading on Synchrotank's monitor.

"Is that... another kaiju?" Rikka remarks with a grimace. A third enemy is the last thing she wants to deal with today. The kaiju opens its mouth and Synchrotank braces for impact as it unleashes...

...pleasant soundwaves? They feel good, actually - Synchrotank almost seems to be operating better afterwards, in fact.

"Could that kaiju be... a friend?" Rikka considers. A friendly kaiju... up to this point, they'd only tried to attack them. Is that really possible? Right now, though, a much-less-friendly kaiju is getting her attention.

"...No one's dying today." She replies, rising to his goading. ...It feels like kind of a lame response, though - she really should be able to come up with a better comeback than that... It's times like this when it'd be convenient to have Utsumi around to search for a weakness.

After taking a brief moment to make sure there isn't anyone trapped in the debris, Synchrotank moves to take shelter behind a rubble pile, steadying itself as it takes aim with its two cannons to unleash a pair of wide-range blasts of water. It's aimed squarely at Anti himself, but if there's any nearby fires to put out that'd be great, too.

Speaking of fires, though, the pilot of that enemy robot is speaking - Renais. A friend in Tsutsujidai who wants to be left alone... who could that be? Could she be the same one responsible for the kaiju...?

"...It's great that you're such a dedicated friend, but I can't do that." Rikka comments. It's probably not a great idea to mention that she's from Tsutsujidai herself, so she leaves that out.
 KTS: Rikka Takarada has activated the Enable Spirit Command targeting Yuta Hibiki
 KTS: Rikka Takarada has activated the Enable Spirit Command targeting Shinji Ikari
 KTS: Rikka Takarada targets Anti with Wide-Range Extinguishing!
 KTS: Anti rushes into the attack!
 KTS: Anti fails to react to Rikka Takarada's Wide-Range Extinguishing, taking 3225 damage!
Your unit's HP stands at 21724

<Pose Tracker> Yuta Hibiki has posed.

"He's copying me...!" Yuta states, sure of it this time as Anti mimicks Gridman's agile acrobatics. "That's incredible, but - "

It's scary, too. Actually ... it's not just me, is it? Those claws .. the way his fighting's gotten sharper .. he's learning every second he fights!

"Thanks..!" Yuta calls out to Rikka, shooting the Synchrotank a quick thumbs up for its support before he gets back into tussling with Anti, alongside Zett and Unit One. But Anti's rippling muscles prove themselves to be far too much for Gridman in a direct contest of strength, just like last time, when it comes down to Gridman attempting to prevent himself from being grappled. "Gh..!"

In the Synchrotank, Calibur grimaces while relaying the situation to the rest of the Neon Genesis Highschoolers. "He needs more strength to put up a fight against that one. I - " Max starts before Calibur cuts him off, " .. it's anosilus .. " with a murmur.

"Eh? Wow! It is that old guy. Count on him to show up at the weirdest times, huh? But considering that girl is running around, it's not a huge surprise." Borr whistles.

"..fuu~ ... yeah .. and, Max is right about one thing. Yuta does need more strength to fight that kaiju .. though, I don't really mean muscles."

Borr squints, "Eh? What else would you use to beat up a kaiju except your muscles, you idiot? Thinking really hard isn't going to win a wrestling match."

Vit smirks, lopsidedly, "But. Even such a scary opponent, Gridman's muscles are already big enough .. at least if he uses them right. I'd rather he gets the kind of strength to do that than making him some kind of gorilla boy like yourself."

"Hey. Although you said something kind of wise and cool, don't think you're fooling me. I know the truth; you're just saying that so you won't have to go out and fight."

"Ehhhhn~? Darn. And I thought I was being really smooth.."

Gridman is picked up by Ultraman, having bounced hmself off the building to avoid crashing through it, and thus having landed on the ground. "Gh..Ultraman. You're a big help - eh?"

"WaaaaAAAAIIIIIIT?! IYAAAAH!"

Gridman winds up being hurled through the air, being bombarded by Anosillus' song at roughly the same time Ultraman's energy pass catalyzed in his body. I'm...budding with the energy given to me by them .. this warm feeling, it's like my heart is beating like crazy, and my blood is razor sharp as it passes through my body. This kind of high - you can only get it from being lifted up by others. It's the proof of bonds that shine..!

Tucking his body, Gridman re-orients himself mid-air, a rainbow spectrum of lights gathering into his chest in waves before travelling down into one of his legs. "Rikka .. Ultraman .. Anosillus .. Shinji, Kaworu, Londo Bell and the Shuffle Alliance .. - Kaiju! Black Machine!" he shouts, leg shining with brilliantly crackling, multi-colored lightning. "This isn't my power; it belongs to all of us!"

"SUPER ELECTRIC KIIIIIIIIIIICK!!!"

Gridman shoots at Anti, blazing foot first.


 KTS: Yuta Hibiki has activated the Spirit Spirit Command.
 KTS: Yuta Hibiki has activated the Spirit Spirit Command.
Yuta Hibiki uses Install
 KTS: Yuta Hibiki targets Anti with Super Electric Kick!

<Pose Tracker> Shinji Ikari has posed.

Shinji can wrestle!

This IS wrestling! Where the big kid grabs the back of your beck and the little kid punches you in the stomach until you cry! It's all in good fun right? This is, perhaps, inevitable when you set a stray dog against a stray cat: someone overdoes it a little. Shinji gets to see some wild acrobatics for his trouble, as Anti leaps ino the air and flying kicks him with a barbed leg talon, which catches on Unit-01's shoulder and sends a hunk of armor flying until it crashes into a nearby Mapo Tofu cart.

Shinji's shoulder oozes strange liquid, bearing some thematic resemblance to the ooze beneath Anti's 'suit'. "Kid I don't want to fight you." Shinji says, sincere for all of Unit-01's feral fury. "You sound...a lot like someone I know. Someone who the world made all messed up inside." Shinji thinks, briefly, back to the sight he saw by accident. "Someone this world failed."

"You don't have to kill anybody!" Shinji says, and some part of him moves in synch with Unit-00, leaning into a combat crouch opposite Kaworu's positioning. Shinji leaps into the air, Unit-01 pulling its knees up and sending a shuddering ATField around Kaworu and Unit-00.

"Careful out there Kaworu!" Shinji says, "Ayanami's real particular about the paint job!"

And kicks off of his own ATField, spinning around to bring a flying drop kick Anti'd way, trying to smash the Kaiju into the ground in what, in Shinji's mind, is clearly some kind of restraining move.
 KTS: Shinji Ikari has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Kaworu Nagisa
 KTS: Anti fails to parry Yuta Hibiki's Super Electric Kick, taking 7440 damage!
Your unit's HP stands at 14284
 KTS: Yuta Hibiki has engaged Anti
 KTS: Yuta Hibiki roots his unit, coming to a standstill and leaving him vulnerable.
 KTS: Anti fails to rush.
 KTS: Shinji Ikari rattles Anti, making his next maneuvers more difficult.
 KTS: Anti fails to react to Shinji Ikari's Haymaker, taking 5400 damage!
 KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Shinji Ikari's Find The Core activates, causing Nullify!
Your unit's HP stands at 8884
 KTS: Shinji Ikari has engaged Anti
 KTS: Shinji Ikari begins a Formation attack!

<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.

There's palpable relief from Renais as Anti declines to fight her more. Better to let him do his thing for now... she curses under her breath as the Magnum goes wide.

"Isn't it? He's an interloper! Trying to ruin something that was doing perfectly fine without him!" she yells toward Rena, bringing up a Protect Shade to try and block at least some of the Funnels--but she's misread their intent, and their maneuverability besides. They come at her from all directions, battering through the armor on the Noire's limbs. "Ugh..." she does a running charge toward the MP Nu Gundam, Magnum fist spinning up and delivering a heavy punch toward the Mobile Suit's head.

Everything is slow. Everything is going wrong. The heat's starting to build in her cockpit. Sweat drips down her forehead, and she's jolted hard as Guy slams her into a building. A cloud of debris and dust rises up around the Noire as it stumbles forward from the building. She glares at him, teeth gritted.

"A quick death for the innocent. Punishment for the guilty. That's what they deserve, Guy. And end to the pain! Why don't you see that?!" She glances up at Sayla's question. That should be a good enough answer.

Kaworu's continuing to stab at her weak points, wearing down at her limbs. She can tell what they're doing... and as she kicks at Unit-00 with bladed feet, she yells at Kaworu, "Then WHY CAN'T YOU?"

The flame in Noire's belly flares, and she looks to the Saint Lance again, lifting her hand to put up a Protect Shade--

And promptly having that hand blown to the point of unusability.

Shit. This is getting bad. She's still off-balance from Guy's throw, and they're winning handily... She entertains a very bad idea. With these hands... could Reine Noire...?

No. That's stupid. Don't do that.

Renais instead lifts the Noire's arms above its head. She glances at the heat readout... she's got room... "OMEGA BURN!" she yells, the red crest on the Noire's chest glowing orange with heat, blasting a narrow beam of Zero-enhanced heat energy toward Kaworu, Guy, and Sayla. The heat gauge rises. Warnings start to flash, and the heat gets oppressive around her...

She relents.
 KTS: Renais Cardiff targets Rena Lancaster with Mazin Magnum Drill Melee!
 KTS: Renais_Cardiff Changes attack to Kaworu Nagisa, Guy Shishioh, and Sayla Mass with Omega Burn.
 KTS: Guy Shishioh has activated the Wall Spirit Command.
[OOC] Rena Lancaster says, "oh my god"
 KTS: Guy Shishioh's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage.
 KTS: Guy Shishioh blocks Renais Cardiff's Omega Burn, taking 5016 damage!
 KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Renais Cardiff's Defiance activates, causing Sparkle!
 KTS: Sayla Mass has activated the Alert Spirit Command.
 KTS: Rena Lancaster fails to evade Renais Cardiff's Mazin Magnum Drill Melee, taking 4286 damage!
 KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Renais Cardiff's Defiance activates, causing Sparkle!
 KTS: Renais Cardiff has engaged Rena Lancaster
 KTS: Guy Shishioh has activated the Trick Spirit Command.
 KTS: Sayla Mass fails to evade Renais Cardiff's Omega Burn, taking 5928 damage!
 KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Renais Cardiff's Defiance activates, causing Sparkle!

<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.

        The two Gridmen... are HELPING EACH OTHER?!

        This is the second worst day of Anti's life.

        "GIVE ME THAT --" the kaiju yells, as Ultraman Z (not actually a Gridman, Anti) dusts Gridman off. He proceeds to get his wish, at high speed: "-- NOT LIKE THAT!!"

        Claws coming up, Anti tries his best to catch the Super Electric Kick. Unfortunately -- it's Super Electric Kick, with all the power of friendship behind it. Anti doesn't quite catch all those names he lists off, but he hears Gridman addressing him.

        (And he hears Gridman call the other Gridman an Ultraman? Questions for later. Now is murder time.)

        He is subsequently blazed right into the ground, where he is forced to reflect on what Unit 01 is saying, just because -- he's kind of stuck in the rubble there. He wriggles about, like an Anosillus trapped on his back. (This hostile kaiju doesn't seem to consider the other kaiju a threat. Is it because it isn't trying to kill Gridman?)

        "Messed up inside...?" He plants his claws to either side of himself, and shoves. "Screw you! Don't call her world a failure! I won't forgive you if --" Anti is subsequently cut off by a second drop kick.

        The nodes on his body flash, and explode out, blasting both Unit 01 and Gridman alike -- as well as freeing Anti from the indignity of being stuck in a fallen skyscraper. He just destroys the whole thing. His problem is solved.

        "Wrong answer!" Anti bellows, to Synchrotank, the easier response, as he charges -- straight into the water jets, which at least manage to control the blazes Anti sets alight with his energy. He kind of goes wargl-bargl-bargl a bit, only to keep charging until he meets the scrapyard wonder. Drawing two unreasonably organic daggers from himself, he plunges them right into that recycled metal. Screeeeech. Really, where did he learn to be so vicious? "Gridman will definitely, definitely, definitely, definitely, DEFINITELY DEFINITELY DEFINITELY DIE TODAY!"

        He leaps to Ultraman Z, now, with a frustrated yell. "You other Gridman -- or Ultraman -- or whatever the hell you are! I won't rest until you're out of our hair, too!! You'd BETTER leave!" He lands, knives-first, and drags them upwards as he backflips away.

        (In much the same way Gridman just did -- but his landing is much, much more HEAVY.)

        Anti proceeds to yell at Anosillus: "STOP LECTURING ME! YOU'RE NOT MY DAD!"

        Whether Anti actually understands Anosillus or not is a question we will leave to the audience.

        Meanwhile -- Anti doesn't, quite, copy Ultraman Z dusting Gridman off. But he does spare a glance to the massive heat around Renais, and GaoFighGar. "If you're going to die, don't do it yourself, stupid!" Anti yells, which -- well, it's as abrasive as anything he's yelled to his so-called allies in a fight.

        ... but it's the first time he's ever expressed concern for anyone he isn't trying to kill, too.

 KTS: Anti targets Shinji Ikari with Buster Beam!
 KTS: Anti targets Yuta Hibiki with Buster Beam!
 KTS: Anti targets Rikka Takarada with Anti's Thigh Razors Penetrating Attack!
 KTS: Anti targets Haruki Natsukawa with Anti's Thigh Razors Combo!

<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.

"She's fast!" Rena says, a sharp gasp. She is sufficiently distracted from turtle noises, from the battle with Anti, and even with her allies. Renais may think everything is slow; everything is much too fast for Rena.

The punch slams into the Mass Production-type Nu Gundam. Armor along the side of the head and upper chest crumple; it's bent and crushed inward, and Rena is pitched back into her cockpit's seat. The chair bounces on the hydraulics, and she grimaces, as the Mobile Suit's verniers all fire automatically -- helping keep it from falling over.

Rena manages to come to, then, and looks up at Renais. She hesitates for a second.

"Because that's not protecting the innocent! I know you think it is! I know you... actually believe that," she says, and the words surprise her. But she is a Newtype; she can feel a strongly held belief, sometimes. "But... even if the world has done a lot of awful things, there's still a lot of good, and it's not helping people to take that away from them!"

The fin funnels are still moving. Rena reaches the RX-94's hand over its shoulders. Mechanical fingers grab onto the beam saber's hilt -- and it tears it free from the recharge rack. She looks up at the Mazin. She considers what she has read about their armor.

About the shield that Renais uses. She starts doing math in her head -- the kind she doesn't really tell people she can do in her head. One hand types at her console, while the other moves the control stick forward. She works through the steps.

Override the automated power system for the beam saber.

Then, increase the mega particle emission from the beam saber's hilt, but shift the internal servo for manipulating it by another 22 degrees to direct the flow of mega particles to the front of the blade.

That should, she determines, intensify the mega particles on the front of the blade to pose a greater threat to the armor. She enters the last keystrokes -- and the beam saber ignites, flaring up to half-again the usual size and getting wider at the front.

The Mass Production-type Nu Gundam swings it down, the blade of energy crashing down straight for the Mazin.

 KTS: Rena Lancaster has activated the Alert Spirit Command.
 KTS: Rena Lancaster has activated the Alert Spirit Command.
 KTS: Rena Lancaster has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
 KTS: Rena Lancaster has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
 KTS: Rena Lancaster targets Renais Cardiff with Burst Strike!

 KTS: Haruki Natsukawa's Physical Wall L1 activates, negating 1000 base damage.
 KTS: Haruki Natsukawa blocks Anti's Anti's Thigh Razors Combo, taking 4898 damage!
 KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Anti's DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE! activates, causing Sparkle!
 KTS: Anti has engaged Haruki Natsukawa
 KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 330.
 KTS: Anti has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Renais Cardiff
 KTS: Rikka Takarada fails to parry Anti's Anti's Thigh Razors Penetrating Attack, taking 5680 damage!
 KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Anti's DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE! activates, causing Sparkle!
 KTS: Anti has engaged Rikka Takarada
 KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 369.
 KTS: Renais Cardiff fails to react to Rena Lancaster's Burst Strike, taking 4080 damage!
 KTS: Rena Lancaster has engaged Renais Cardiff
 KTS: Yuta Hibiki successfully evades Anti's Buster Beam
 KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 408.

<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.

"...that really is how you think," Guy says, low, something shaken deep within him. "All it did was pull it far enough out of you to make you say it, huh?"

"Maybe it does hurt! Maybe your life and mine haven't been everything they could be!" Wait, including himself? Well, let's not compare the merits of tragedies. "But that's the meaning of the oath sworn in courage! The will to continue rising! I won't let you proclaim that the will of those who still stand is meaningless!"

She's firing. "PROTECT WALL!!!" Guy screams, and thrusts his arm forward again. The Omega Beam washes across him in annihilating glory. The Protect Wall absorbs much of it, spatially deflecting it in a fivefold path, but even that massive warping of space can't divert the massive TIDE of Triple Zero's energy washing across him. He screams in agony!

And as the light fades, the smoking glass of the street around him bears witness o the King of Braves on one knee, battered badly. But...

"It's not that I don't see it, Renais," he says, as GaoFighGar pushes itself slowly up, straighter. "It's that I have faith in their courage, still. I believe in their will to fight! And I don't accept you or anyone else's claim that cutting that short is alright! Now hold still! THIS MIGHT HURT!"

He throws his arms wide. The Left Arm of Protection flashes brightly; the aura of the Right Arm of Destruction swirls as it gathers its own light together.

The G-Stone Shines Brighter...

Guy grits his teeth, the phenomenal forces of two vast powers channeled at once ripping at his body as painfully as it ever has. He presses the two hands together, grinding them as they resist. He breathes the incantation to unite the two forces, a secret spell from far away. "Gemu giru gan go gufo..."

They unite. A WAVE of light ROARS away from GaoFighGar, shoving Reine Noire off-balance. Guy holds GaoFighGar's two arms forward, and the vents on StealthGao III ignite, BLASTING GaoFighGar forward, despite its totally set feet, charging straight at Reine Noire.

And as he flies onward to rip out the cockpit, he screams the final verse of that chant; the hidden spell they retrieved from the wisdom of the Trinary Solar System!

        "VIIIIIIIIIIIIIITAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"
 KTS: Guy Shishioh has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
 KTS: Guy Shishioh targets Renais Cardiff with Hell and Heaven!
 KTS: Renais Cardiff fails to react to Guy Shishioh's Hell and Heaven, taking 7920 damage!
 KTS: Guy Shishioh has engaged Renais Cardiff
 KTS: Guy Shishioh roots his unit, coming to a standstill and leaving him vulnerable.

<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.

        Gridman calls out to his allies across the battlefield--names Kaworu in particular--before he leaps up and drives a kick towards Anti. Kaworu can only see part of this from where he's positioned with Unit 00, but he hears it quite well.
        
        As such:
        
        "I already told you why," he tells Renais patiently.
        
        Before he and Unit 00 can retreat enough to give themselves room for a long-range attack, though, Renais lifts the arms of her mech--shouts out her power--and absolute heat sears forward in a beam around him, Guy, and Sayla. The blast consumes them, and Unit 00 rears her head back in unvoiceable agony. Within her entry plug, LCL roils, and Kaworu grits his teeth in sympathetic pain. He doesn't scream, for Unit 00 has no mouth. But he feels what she feels as her armor bubbles and peels--
        
        An A.T. Field blossoms before them, fragile but far from weak. It shatters soon, but it lasts long enough to break the last spurt of the Omega Burn. Unit 00 staggers upright; if she can't run, then she'll stand and fight.
        
        For his part, Kaworu smiles, heartfelt, and even laughs a little about the paint job. "Thank you," he tells Shinji, breath labored and voice strained; even so, he also conveys that smile. "Though it seems I'm a little late for that. I'll have to apologize to the First later."
        
        He glances to one side at Guy within GaoFighGar calls up his power and answers Renais, both in word and in action. He charges forward, and Unit 00 follows--but where Guy attempts to tear the cockpit free, Unit 00 drops into a power slide right past the Reine Noire--save for one hand, which aims to grip the mech by its injured foot and yank it off-balance if not completely down, making it easier for not Guy, who hit first, but Sayla, to get in a potentially disabling strike.
 KTS: Kaworu Nagisa targets Renais Cardiff with EVA-00 Unarmed Focus Strike!
 KTS: Kaworu Nagisa has activated the Enable Spirit Command targeting Sayla Mass
 KTS: Sayla Mass has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
 KTS: Renais Cardiff successfully avoids Kaworu Nagisa's EVA-00 Unarmed Focus Strike

<Pose Tracker> Rikka Takarada has posed.

Anosillus makes turtle noises... Trustworthy turtle noises. Rikka nods.

"...Okay. I'll trust you." She says. A friendly kaiju... she hopes he won't be the last.

Anti doesn't seem to take too kindly to her response. He charges right through her water jets, the brazenness taking her by surprise.

"What-" Rikka gasps in surprise. Synchrotank quickly draws a weapon - a salvaged parrying knife, raising it to meet and try to deflect the organic daggers as they come screaming to her. But, the daggers cut right through the weapon, and carve a pair of large slashes across Synchrotank's front, sending the machine recoiling back.

"E-everyone alright...? I think Synchrotank's just holding on..." Rikka comments, once the mobile suit's balance stabilizes. The great thing about building a mobile suit out of junk is that the parts can easily be replaced... but that's not something she can do in battle, so she retreats a few steps out of range.

"...Here - I'm transmitting his movement data from the battle so far. See if you can find a pattern... Make it count...!" Rikka says. She begins typing on two keyboards, simultaneously - Junk's, for Gridman, and Synchrotank's own for the others. Maybe this will help...!
 KTS: Rikka Takarada targets Anti with Designate L1!
 KTS: Rikka Takarada uses Lucky Charm
 KTS: Rikka Takarada has activated the Attune Spirit Command targeting Yuta Hibiki
 KTS: Rikka Takarada has activated the Enable Spirit Command targeting Haruki Natsukawa
 KTS: Rikka Takarada has activated the Attune Spirit Command targeting Shinji Ikari
 KTS: Rikka Takarada designates Anti, making him easier to target and opening him to indirect fire.

<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.

        Those words... That reason...

        "That's insane! You think THAT ends pain?" The modulator has it's work but there is rage radiating off the Saint Lance, radiating off Sayla. "You've given up on trying to make things better so you'll kill everyone!? How much pain do you think you'll cause in the process? Or don't you even care!?"

        The blast sears the Saint Lance, burning paint and and damaging the joints. Cockpit temperature is raising, and she pulls the lever to release re-entry coolant, her best shot. She's boiling inside her normal suit, even if she's nowhere near reaching the heat Renais is having to deal with. Heat vents from a for a few moments, a risk only able to be taken in atmosphere. The Saint Lance drops to one knee, and evasion clearly isn't on the cards.

        Her camera picks up Nidaime on the camera, moving closer and grimaces. The damage taken by the Saint Lance is enough to make it difficult to function. Rena, in the MP Nu, bears the brunt of the damage from that assault, while Guy charges in with the full power of heaven and hell. She sees Kaworu set her up, and nods in her sweltering cockpit. She takes advantage of the kneel, and raises her rifle with both hands. She needs time, that Kaworu's grappling might give her, to max out the charge on the rifle, lining it up. She'll stall too. "What about the woman who wants to be alone? Are you going to kill her too? Then why try and force us out and kill Gridman only to immediately take it from her? Do you think that killing her while she's happy makes it better!?"

        As the shot grows in power, too too does Sayla's anger at Renais. "You're not someonbe making the 'tough call' to save everyone! Even if your own pain is that great, it gives you no right to inflict it on others! It just makes you a coward who refuses to see a path to improve things! And I won't allow that to damn the futures of so many people who deserve better!"

        The blast fires, Sayla's anger and passion and will behind hit. She has to correct for the Black Mazin's escape. She has to hope it's enough, because otherwise it will fly clear and detonate whatever it hits.

 KTS: Sayla Mass targets Renais Cardiff with Saint Lance Beam Rifle Charged Shot!
 KTS: Renais Cardiff fails to react to Sayla Mass's Saint Lance Beam Rifle Charged Shot, taking 4780 damage!
 KTS: Renais Cardiff has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has disengaged.

<Pose Tracker> Haruki Natsukawa has posed.

         "You know... Are kaiju supposed to be able to talk?"

        "It's pretty rare, but it's not exactly unheard of either."

         "Huh... Maybe you should get back to work studying your Earthanese again? If they're talking to us, it's only fair we talk back!"

         "That's.... Hmmmm..."Haruki, and by extension, Ultraman Z, seem slightly distracted by their internal conversation. Anti, however, rightfully doesn't care, and charges at them.

         Raising his arms to block, his guard is shattered almost instantly as the kaiju swings upwards, his arms flailing to the side as he falls over into the building that Gridman was just previously embedded into.

         It takes a bit for the Giant of Light to regain his bearings, as he picks himself back up, throwing his massive shoulders back as the Z shaped emblem on his chest starts blinking red and beeping.

         "Haruki, we're almost out of time!"

         "I know!"

         Frantically bounding back towards Anti in clear desperation, Ultraman Z shouts at Gridman. Not with weird alien language this time however, but with actual, Earth language.

         "GURRIDOMAN! LET'S ULTRA-IKKKKEEEEEE!"

         Before Zett runs straight into Anti, he shoves his feet into the concrete, sliding across the ground he briefly ducks downward right before springing back up with full force, delivering a sudden, Earth-shattering uppercut directly into the kaiju's jaw.

         There's a distinct glow that emits from the Ultraman's fist as it connects, and Anti can both sense and feel the strange, otherworldly warmth.



         It's not very pleasant.
 KTS: Shinji Ikari rushes into the attack!
 KTS: Shinji Ikari fails to react to Anti's Buster Beam, taking 3762 damage!
 KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 447.
 KTS: Anti rushes into the attack!
 KTS: Anti fails to react to Haruki Natsukawa's Zestium Upper, taking 6600 damage!
Your unit's HP stands at 2284
 KTS: Haruki Natsukawa has engaged Anti

<Pose Tracker> Yuta Hibiki has posed.

The energy is building up too fast -! Yuta thinks to himself as Anti's nodes begin to glow. It wasn't necessarily any kind of futuresight, but more so the kind of prediction born from budding battle experience. The sizzling in the air that was foretelling a dreadful explosion. "TOH!"

Gridman jumps backward, tucking his knees to his chest as he begins to spin through the air, transitioning into a backflip as he grazes the edge of the explosion, smoke billowing just right around his body as he stands tall. " . . . "

Yuta. Sometimes .. there are people that words won't reach.
Is it really alright to believe something like that?

" - RIKKA!" Yuta cries out as Anti turns his wrath on the Synchrotank and savages it, rending metal and spilling oil in the process. Inside of it, the Neon Genesis Highschoolers grit their teeth and hold onto their stations, even as the unit receives a heavy beating that would have thrown them back and forth had they not thoroughly strapped themselves in. "Aaaaahn~, I can't relax like this - !" Vit whines, while Borr bears his teeth, "This punk's asking for it, I'm goin' out - !"

"wait. not yet," Calibur advises, casting an eye to Rikka to ensure she was still alright. She was doing just fine, since she was also checking on them. Max is the one who speaks up, "Yes. We got shook around, but it wasn't anything we can't handle. Even if you still want to try and talk to him, they'll die if you don't stop him now!

I know! I know, I know that ... if I don't do it - then..!

Gridman spreads his arms out, making a noise as if he was sucking in a deep breath of air through his teeth, his faceplate shuddering, "Koooooh..."

A swirling rainbow of light begins to center itself on his chest, similar to how it had for his previous kicking attack, but it instead began to surge into one of his arms.

Rikka, using Junk, gives him an accurate prediction of how Anti will move. She was fine - no, more than fine, she was still giving one hundred and ten percent to help, even after having her life threatened.

"Even if you've been dealt such a sorry hand .. taking it out on me is one thing, but I won't let you keep hurting them, too!"

GURRIDOMAN! LET'S ULTRA-IKKKKEEEEEE!

"- !!"

"O-K, ULTRAMAN!"

Gridman's pointed boots pound into the pavement as he takes a running start, and pushes himself into one more acrobatic leap, as his signal lamp begins to flare with a dull beep that increases into a quicker, frantic rhythm. As Ultraman uppercuts Anti with his Zetsium Upper and sends him straight into the sky, Gridman meets Anti's arc with his arm at the ready, releasing a dazzling light that condenses into a crescent as he brings his hand down in a chopping motion, spewing the blade of sparkling energy from his vambrace.

"GRIIIIID! LIGHT! SAAAAAAAAAAAABBBBBBBEEEEEER!"

"SLAAAAAAAAAAASH!"

 KTS: Yuta Hibiki targets Anti with Gridlight Saber!

<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.

Ren glances over toward Anti, surprised. That anger subsides, if only slightly, as the angry kaiju's words anchor her a bit more firmly.

But even so, she's still angry. "Damn it. You don't understand!" she yells at Rena. With one arm disabled, she can't mount the sort of defense she'd like; her regeneration certainly isn't fast enough for it. She tries to get out of the way of the leaping slash, but instead dodges directly into it, as a deep, vital blow is carved into the Protect Arm. She can't move it at all, now... but she has another hand ready to go, and she takes another beating swing at the Nu. It's desperate. Heat gauges are flashing. She can't just pull off another Burn...

Then her machine seizes, stunned by the grasp of Guy's Hell and Heaven. The Noire struggles to regain its balance. She knows what he's doing. What he's aiming for. If she can just...

She manages it, she hopes. Just barely. The Noire's head tilts back, off-vector from Guy's joined fists. All she can do is brace for impact...

GaoFighGar digs deep into the Noire's torso, exposing its innards. The dull red light that shone through its grin blazes from its chest around Guy's hands as he tears out a ball of machinery.

"Nice try, King of Braves," she says with a grin, sounding winded. The Noire's heels dig into the ground, as she sees Unit-00's dash for it... and it springs backward with a terrible wrenching sound, pulling whatever Guy tore out fully free.

It barely lands on feet--Kaworu may not have done what he intended, but the dodge has put her severely off-balance. It's as good a setup for Sayla as what they'd intended.

"I've suffered from the worst things people can do to each other," she explains. The pain--the heat, the hopelessness, two years of torture--all rises to the top. It's less anger, now. More sadness. Her voice is something approaching calm as she continues, "Who better to make the call than what's left of a 14-year-old girl BioNet killed in a lab? She was innocent. She didn't deserve that pain. All the joys in the world aren't worth that. Would have been better to end it before she could suffer. There'll be suffering before this is all done, but at least it'll be over!"

"And the others, the ones who took her... they deserve it. They'll see the worst deaths, them and the monsters like them."

She doesn't answer the other question. As Sayla shoots, she tries to dodge--but she can only go so far without literally tipping over, right now, so the beam shot digs deep into the Noire's other shoulder. "Gh..." She keys a private comm in her cockpit. "J. I need to go!"

"She'll know peace here. I'll make sure of it," she tells the group, as a shimmering, kaleidoscopic portal opens behind the Noire. An ES Window--the same kind she retreated through after the first attack, and one Guy's allies should be familiar with. "... Sorry, Anti," she tells the kaiju, before the Reine Noire stumbles out of Tsutsujidai entirely.

The portal closes.

Safely on board the J-Ark, Renais opens the cockpit's hatch to open air, and as it cools, tears start to stream down her face.
 KTS: Renais Cardiff targets Rena Lancaster with Reine Battre Kick!

<Pose Tracker> Shinji Ikari has posed.

"Her?" Shinji asks, stepping back as he feels his fellow Eva get wrecked by the Black Mazin. This is going poorly, Shinji realizes, despite their numbers. What happens to this place if they lose? Yuta said it reforms every day, but does that count for outsiders? Can he die, here?

Her, huh. "You mean the 'god' of this place? The one the alliance warned us about? You work for her?" It's a guess but that's the only hostile intelligence that's been mentioned and Anti is the definition of hostile. "That's not what I was saying, but.."

Shinji was off his game tonight. He can see the beam coming. If this was an Angel, if this was Remiel the terrible with its divine thunder, he'd be dead, right now. As it is Ikari screams, holding his arms up in a desperate attempt to slow the Buster Beam down!

The force is great enough that Shinji feels both of Unit-01's arms slam against its chest, the energy of the beams melting great hunks of armor, and with a CRACK the left forearm of Unit-01 breaks. Shinji sees his own arm bulge and twist, fingers twitching wildly. "Ah." Shinji can manage, breathless, as he feels the crunch, and sees the large, rigid purple scale growing out of the gouge in his arm, like a horrible scab trying to slow down the damage.

The same color as Unit-01.

"No." Shinji says, as he feels the weight of his monster weigh down on him. "No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no." The beam burns through Unit-01's chest and Shinji feels it there, too, as his plug suit burns off in thick, singing strips. The LCL doesnt boil. Unit-01's adapted from last time, and a green crest juts from Shinji's collarbone, to insulate and preserve his body. "No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no I'm not I'm not I'm not."

Unit-01 looks at the knife in its hand, and the thing that is hurting it, and it does not think 'Yuta has this, I should hold back', because that is something people think. It tosses the prog knife into the air, catching it, and a long, dripping purple tongue falls from its mouth, running itself around the machine's awful red teeth. It lunges forward, a dark mirror of the shining beacon of heroism that Gridman has turned into, aiming its knife directly for Anti's exposed throat.
 KTS: Shinji Ikari has activated the Valor Spirit Command.

<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.

"It's not like I--" Rena starts to say something, but it's the truth: she doesn't understand.

She isn't ready for Renais to dodge into the slash of the beam saber, too. Her eyes widen -- and the punch slams into the Mass Production-type Nu Gundam. It doesn't hit as hard as before, but the armor caves in around the fist; another nasty dent that will need to be worked out.

The Mobile Suit gets bounced backward. It doesn't fall over, but automated systems are the reason why. This may be for the best; the Gundam is clear of GaoFighGar that way.

Renais explains a little more to Sayla -- and Rena's heart sinks all the more. Her expression tightens, stormy and distant at the same time. Some unpleasant memories come back, then. "Miss Renais, wait!" she says. "I'd like to--but--"

But the Reine Noir is through the ES Window.

Rena sighs, slumping back into her pilot's seat. "Aah, this is all really weird."

 KTS: Anti fails to react to Yuta Hibiki's Gridlight Saber, taking 7800 damage!
Your unit's HP stands at -5516
 KTS: Anti's Anti has been disabled.

<Pose Tracker> Nidaime has posed.

Anosillus the First responds to Anti with a barking noise that is probably, judging from Anti's initial reaction, a long lecture about the responsibilities about being the man of the household.

Nidaime pulls out her earbuds, sliding them back into her pocket. She raises the binoculars again and focuses them on the boy.

She feels it more than hears it, the way Anti yells at Renais. He's just a kid like she is, really. He can't be blamed for who he is, she thinks, can he?

He didn't say much, but she wants to talk to him again. She doesn't say this to anyone, it's just a stray thought but it gives Anosillus pause. It turns its turtle head, slightly tilting towards Nidaime and it starts slooowly turning around.

Wait did Shinji say the alliance warned him about the god? Uggh, Nidaime thinks, she didn't want everybody knowing about that. Well what's done is done.

She starts walking down the fire-escape.

Maybe she could try to talk to Gridman directly, she thinks. IT'd be nice to have someone capable of not turtle speech to confide in rather than carrying it all on her own.

Anosillus turns towards Shinji Ikari's Unit.

It trots towards it.

And it sprays Fixer Breath ALL OVER the Unit-01!

Yeah, Nidaime thinks, that's probably a good idea. That guy seems like he needs a cuddle.

Anosillus then looks at the Unit-01's head and makes a braaap noise at it.
 KTS: Nidaime has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Shinji Ikari
 KTS: Nidaime targets Shinji Ikari with Sparkle!

<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.

Guy exerts himself. He thinks he's got it. This should be it! But what he pulls out...!

"No!" he yells out, but his chance is already gone. GaoFighGar hisses, its GS-Ride exhausted. It needs several seconds before it can do much but smolder. "RENAIS!" he screams, the anger replaced with anguish. Missed his chance! Again!

By the time he has GaoFighGar's legs working again, Reine Noire has already fled through an ES Window.

Alouette's voice finally reaches him. Has she been talking? For...a while, possibly? "Chief Guy," she says, gently. "I'm showing a lot of damage to GaoFighGar's legs and arms. We need to bring it back for repair."

"...yeah," he says, voice limp. "Anything interesting in the data?" He forces himself up.

"Unknown Mobile Suit, we're trying to talk Chief Akamatsu down from designating it La Signora Antediluva Magnifica...two new Hyper Agents, which you and Mamoru are really going to have to explain in more depth than that tiny file I found. Unknown Kaiju. It's behaving like a guardian of the area. Lucky. And the hostile unknown kaiju, which from Renais' transmissions we're designating as Anti."

Guy releases a long breath. "Right."

"...you did almost have her, Chief," Alouette offers.

"....yeah," Guy says.

<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.

        Synchrotank's just holding on, her pilot transmits -- so Anti spreads his claws, and tries to grasp her, in what might read as a big ol' hug. "If you can't handle it, LEAVE!" It's not a hug. If he manages to get a hold of Synchrotank, he'll spin around, and lob her right out of the fight.

        (He's aiming to drop her somewhere in the shallows of the ocean, which is, at least, a softer landing than any one of those ruined buildings.)

        Tragically, Anti's attempt to evict his opponent before they can bite off more than they can chew...

        ... probably just comes off as Anti being even more threatening.

        Who would expect a kaiju to learn from helping others, after all? Kaiju are things which destroy. And Anti is a kaiju which destroys --

        "GRIDMAN! Don't you DARE feel sorry for me! I'M YOUR ENEMY!"

        He can see the damage Unit 01 has taken. "You're finished, too," he tells him, Shinji's question unanswered. He catches that knife on his dagger, and that knife carves through his imitation as he grabs Unit 01 by the wrist -- even as the beast inside it slices deep between the claws of the hand which held the dagger in the first place. Anti tosses Unit 01 towards Unit 00, out of his hair.

        He's scarcely finished the rotation of that fling before he turns to face Zestium Upper. The mockery of a lamp on his forehead starts flashing, too, with the way the light crosses strangely over his segmented visor. "Shit--" Anti starts to say, and doesn't manage to get to the exclamation, before Ultraman Z's uppercut sends him soaring skywards.

        Unfortunately, Anti isn't the only one with airtime.

        Gridman comes up, and Gridlight Saber Slash comes down. "GRIDMAN...!" Anti howls, a final, anguished declaration of hate, as his massive form crashes down into the ground. The kaiju bounces, once. Twice. And --

        And he's gone.

        The boy, Anti, slumps to the ground. He looks up; he can't quite struggle himself standing. But he can still hear. He is always listening.

        "Wait," he says, more quietly, unheard, voice a different timbre now. "BioNet... did that, to a girl...?"

        The same organisation which gave him Death Knight... does that, to girls.

        How old was Akane, again...?

        He lifts a hand. It falls.

        "Shit."

<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.

Anti loses. Again. And this time, there's absolutely no way it isn't his fault.

Renais slips out of 3G and Londo Bell's grasp. (It has to be 'again' there, too, given how much the King of Braves knew about the situation.) This, too, prompts blameseeking. Anti is conveniently very much to blame for this too, or at the very least, his very physical intervention is the most comprehensible thing to blame.

Akane slides off of her roof the boring way, onto a balcony. It doesn't take long before she's back in her room. Alexis is there, too, whatever dalliance distracted him evidently finished up with for the moment. He doesn't actually know why Akane is slumping her way back into her room and hurling herself, unceremoniously, into the garbage, but after yesterday's candy outburst, he decides he's not even going to ask.

This is a great feeling totally centered on her world, going totally unexpressed. Why would Alexis try to provide a real outlet for that?

<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.

        It's enough to unbalance the Reine Noire at all, regardless of how it happens. It might be frustrating to Guy to see Renais vanish through a portal and slip out of his grasp, and Kaworu isn't unsympathetic to his feelings, but now that this side of the fight is over, he has other priorities.
        
        "Shinji!" he calls, hearing him panic as Unit 01 charges knife-first at Anti; whatever his other feelings, Unit 00 rises and hurries over to help him. Perhaps it's not needed in the end, but given that Anti hurls 01 around at 00, at least he's prepared to catch him.
        
        He's less prepared for a giant turtle kaiju to breathe fixer breath on Unit 01. He takes it in stride anyway, and in the intent meant. Unit 00 looks over at Anocillus I and nods in gratitude.
        
        "Shinji, are you going to be all right?" he transmits, voice gentle. "The fight is over. You needn't panic any longer. If you want to head back first, you can go ahead." Kaworu, within his Eva, looks over at Gridman. "...I'll wrap things up here."

<Pose Tracker> Rikka Takarada has posed.

"H-he's trying to -" Anti spreads his claws and goes in for a grapple! Synchrotank attempts to move out of the way, but it isn't quite fast enough. The kaiju grabs on tight... and Synchrotank and everyone inside find themselves hurled out of the way! The machine splashes down in the nearby shallows with a loud CRASH.

"O-ow... That was rough." Rikka mutters, forcing the mobile suit up into a sitting position. ...Though not as rough as it could have been, considering - for the moment, she chalks it up to a stroke of good fortune. He wouldn't go easy on her, right...?

"Sorry, I wasn't quick enough..." She says. She quickly turns her attention back to the fight... but, thankfully, it appears both the mobile suit and the kaiju have fled. Everyone... seems to be alive, too.

"Thank goodness." Rikka says with a sigh, sinking into Synchrotank's seat. She's relieved... though she's no doubt going to be sore in the morning.

Well, it could have been worse!

<Pose Tracker> Shinji Ikari has posed.

The stupid lizard kid stupid judo flips them down a stupid intersection. Unit-01 calls up an ATField to slow itself, skidding along the road and causing untold numbers in property damage. Who cares. Maybe they can grab that stupid Mazin and crack it in half like a crab, there had to be gooey insides in that thing. All sorts of interesting energy fields to experiment with. It'd be great, it'd be a bonding experience, just like going to Future Mappyland like we always said we would.

Unit-01 turns to see Unit-00 lagging behind them, like always. Commander's pet. Can't even pick a side. The Beast is stopped, either by its own force or 00's help or likely a bit of both, but the machine turns its baleful gaze towards Unit-00's exposed neck, and again that awful mouth opens, sending out short, furious bursts of air. Unit-00. Akagi's baby.

And then a giant turtle breathes in its ear.

Unit-01's flesh regenerates, and its armor reseals itself; that awful mouth is sealed shut again. It stumbles, under the pressure of kindness, and the orange bonfires behind it eyes fade.

"Oh wow I think I was out for a bit there. Everyone okay?" Shinji asks, rubbing his head. "I had the weirdest...I mean it was crazy. Like I was turning into Unit-01, right? I think my arm got a little messed up, thoug-"

Shinji looks down at his arm, which is already bound into a bright purple and green 'cast' made of metallic resin. There is a little kanji for 'big turtle' written on the cast, as if someone signed their name. "What the WHAT?!"

<Pose Tracker> Haruki Natsukawa has posed.

         Ultraman Z lands back on his feet after delivering his final blow, the city street shaking from the sudden impact of the giant's massive weight. Thankfully, it's just a small tremor, so the only thing that happens is a bunch of car alarms going off.

         "Zett... That was uh..."

         Haruki doesn't quite have the heart to tell the Ultraman that his Earthanese was somehow even worse than before, to the point where he doesn't even continue his sentence. He instead looks over the city and the rest of the group, making sure that there's nothing that requires his further assistance.

         Satisfied that everyone else is capable of handling themselves, Ultraman Z places both hands on his hips and nods, before suddenly crouching down and jumping up, taking off into the air with the power of self propelled flight as he lets out one last mighty cry.

         "SHUUUWATCH!!!"

         He initially starts a bit slow, but eventually his speed picks up, flying away at an alarming rate as he leaves behind a trail of energy in the shape of the letter "Z".

<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.

        Renais' story is brutal. It's suffering she didn't deserve, of course she didn't. Very few do. There's nothing Sayla can say in the few moments before Renais retreats.

        It would be a much better world if this is the first time she heard such a story. Or even this very story. The world is full of monsters. But... What Guy said... That's what she always believed?

        The Saint Lance's joints have locked as the residual heat fades. Which means the unit can't be moved. She doesn't trust NERV, or 3G. Which means...

        Her comms are still working. She opens comms to Rikka. "...Rikka, I'm not going to be able to leave under my own power. Is there room where you store the Synchrotank? We might be able to get it running well enough to leave in the morning. Especially if I can contact a mechanic." She pauses. "Good work. I'm glad everyone in there is alright.""

        And then the harder message. She breaks the comms to Rikka, and then bands Guy again. "...Are you okay?" That would have- did- mess her up. "We should talk. I don't know if your crew can leave, but if not, tonight's as good a time as any." There's a tap, and something is sent. "Otherwise, contact me here. Preferably not on one of their terminals." NERV. She means NERV. "But I think... I hope I can help."

        That's the best she can do, unless she gets a message back, before popping the cockpit. Her normal suit is rather like a OYW Federation pilot suit, with no identifiers, but her helmet is polarized and blacked out, so you can't see her face. She needs to get this thing running, and she doesn't need people knowing who she is.

<Pose Tracker> Rikka Takarada has posed.

Synchrotank receives comms from the Saint Lance - which Rikka quickly identifies as Sayla's unit, when she speaks. Rikka considers this for a moment.

"...Yeah, I think we could make room for you. You might end up running into my mom on the way out, though... It's behind the shop." Rikka replies. She might end up having to come up with some excuses...

At this, Yuta emerges from Junk.

"Welcome back, Hibiki." Rikka replies with a nod. She goes quiet for a moment, considering that, and then...

"...Yeah, after this, we probably might as well..." She concedes.

<Pose Tracker> Shinji Ikari has posed.

"Kaworu I think that turtle's judging me." Shinji says, and lets the nice mysterious people drag his machine somewhere it can recharge.

<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.

'Are you OK?' Sayla asks him.

"I'm fine," Guy says, lying, but the King of Braves cannot afford to show weakness. She gets that big, bold smile of his. "We'll get our way out of this. Hell and Heaven doesn't mess me up as badly as it used to, don't worry about that." Sayla will, through Karaba connections, probably recall that back in the Primeval War, Hell and Heaven was eventually relegated to a measure of absolute desperation because using it nearly killed Guy. Each time. Which was a lot of times.

"I have to get GaoFighGar back up for repairs, but, I'll be in touch. I'm sure the Doctors are in no big hurry to leave."