2022-01-30: A Brewing Storm

• Log: A Brewing Storm
• Cast: Dragates ri Becker, Dr. Hell, Asciel Colette, Sakura Shinguji, Ana Kambinda, Em Gelfand, Asuka Shikinami Langley, Sousuke Sagara, Sumire Kanzaki, Jude Espella, Mia Brinkman
• Where: Baraawe, OAC Somalia
• Date: January 30, 0096
• Summary: A city on the East African coast is suddenly attacked by not one kaiju, but two, with friends.

---

<Pose Tracker> Dragates ri Becker has posed.

It's a nice, quiet day in the African city of Baraawe. It's still kinda quiet, too, because seriously. The only real estate being coastal and with a big, funky weapons depot of stuff that shouldn't see the light of day being in there. It's where all that crazy contraptions tend to be that are just that dangerous. There's rumors of all kinds of goodies in there.

And well, those goodies are prime targets. Even if some are being repurposed to terraform population centers or power cities or something else useful than blowing up small cities or something like that. Thanks to certain connections, Amalgam had learned of where it was. And quite frankly they were there to take the place if not at least a large amount of stuff to bring out on the Federation that they had made, tested, and tossed aside.

That is what had brought about the disruption of this fine, peaceful afternoon as an unidentified ship had appeared Baraawe's harbor. Some place fairly close to the depot itself. And opened it's bay doors from way up high. Then out drops a roughly overgrown humanoid thing. It's not fully a robot, that's for sure, and there looks to be some sort of rhino features to it as it starts towards landfall. The arms have been replaced with some sort of large muzzle on the left, and the right is most certainly a gatling gun. Otherwise, it's a very large beast standing at least a good 20 meters once it's large, plodding feet makes landfall by destroying a still wooden pier.

Of course, someone can't resist making a mockery of the Federation while they are there! Most of the broadcast signals are suddenly taken over, showing a man in a gold colored helmet that covers all but his mouth as he stands on top of the ship, cameras filming him as he speaks, "People of Baraawe! Too long have you been at the hands of the Federation, to live in fear of their weapons so close at hand and so dangerous! We have come to liberate these weapons and show you the proof of what the Federation has stored so close to your homes and families! Dragates ri Becker shall show you what has been kept so close, to bring out the lies of those who say they protect you! Knight Beast Rhigat, breach those defenses!"

Said now named kaiju gives a bellowing roar before starting down and through some buildings towards the weapon depot. One unfortunate police car ends up the victim of the right arm flame thrower and explodes violently.

Yet that is only the beginning as more start to come out of the ship above, including infantry in VTOL craft.

<Pose Tracker> Dr. Hell has posed.

Panzer B1 is broad and tall, heavily armored, with thick box like legs that end in tank treds crudely shaped like feet. The vast majority of its chest is taken up by an enormous cannon, that can move independently of the rest of the creature. It's face is rigid, cylindrical, carved into the gritting parody of a hard bitten soldier man, with a machine gun for a cigar clenched between teeth that double as a belt loaded ammunition rack. Its spine has raised spikes which are painted white and red; warheads. Its arms are large and blocky, composed of two halves of what doubles as both a shield and ram to crush through anything its treds cannot crash.

The Iron Cross is on its belt buckle, with a red eyeball at the center. The symbol of the Brocken Corps. The mark of Doctor Hell!

Count Brocken himself floats alongside the Machine Beast, hovering on a pad shaped like a gigantic version of his head. The old soldier sneers at the countryside in open contempt. He hates this country, having fought here in the resource wars a lifetime ago. The Forever Soldier remembers the shame, the frustration, and how his homeland never really recovered fully from the defeat. Not his homeland anymore, of course. Brocken's head detaches, propelled by rocket, as the Count scouts the area.

Brocken is here for two reasons; to assess Dragates, who his master saw as a long term investment before his departure and entrusted Brocken with keeping tabs on, and to retrieve a man in this city. A Professor Sarvagya, an astrologer at the local astrological institute. Brocken didn't ask why sci-ops requested the man's presence, being a professional. If it were up to him, the beasts would be supported by a legion of Iron Cross troopers and air support to ensure the Federation did not simply bomb them into dust. He is, for the moment, content to observe how the young pups of this decadent era do things.

People scream anyway, as the headless man leers over the city. "How appropriate!" Brocken says, clicking his heels together, his cybernetic monocle gleaming in the sunlight. "Panzer B1, see to your duty. Bring me the professor. Brocken Corps expects efficiency and orderliness in all things. And if they bring one of their Wunderwagons about." The old soldier's hand closes into a grip, the shadow forming a massive, squeezing fist over the city. "Eliminate them. I have no time for senseless heroics."

[OOC] Asciel Colette says, "they'll edit it out in the blu-ray. 'v'"

<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.

Of course, it's not just an aerial assault Baraawe is facing - the kaiju are lovely spearheads, naturally, but a job like this obviously requires someone to handle the more delicate stuff - especially if anything goes south, and they need to beat feet and make off with the highest value goods.

<"Well! Good dramatic entrance there, mhmhm. I'll give it an 8 out of 10 in my books, though I wonder how much the people here actually mind having that kind of thing in their town. If they start rising up, guess that'd tell us~">

Joining in on this operation, Chrome's OWL project lurks off the seashore, hidden just beneath the waves - a teal-hued Codarl, its coolant hair fanning around like seaweed. Her job is mostly intercepting any coastal-mounted defenses - and the first batch of civil defense boats finds themselves facing a torrent of gatling gun fire from below - fired in precision bursts to almost resemble a minefield.

<"Do let me know if your explosive little entrance comes into any hiccups. I'll leap up like ever so graceful a dolphin and pierce through their hearts like an arrow~"> That said, as much as Asciel's playing things safer on the entry - it's absolutely going to be a Major Problem on the airwaves that Baraawe's coast guard is under such oppressive fire from the deep...

<Pose Tracker> Sakura Shinguji has posed.

NEO-JAPAN
"Kaiju spotted off the coast of Africa!" a young woman in uniform says, inside of an operations center in Neo-Japan. "It's moving on the city of Baraawe!"

General Ikki Yoneda sits up, in his chair. His uniform, cleanly pressed, rumples a little as he does and adjusts his hat. "That's a problem. OAC forces are going to be deployed for some of the recent PLANT activity... henh, well, a kaiju's under our jurisdiction. Do we have any units nearby?"

"Yes, sir!" another soldier answers. "Sakura and Sumire are available -- and we have their Kobus. We can get them down there, with some Mithril assets."

"All right," Yoneda says. "Operation... approved!"

AFRICAN COAST

Two small forms arc through the air, riding on heavily modified Dodai Kais. Launched from a Mithril submarine -- the partners-in-crimestopping of the Combat Revues -- each has a Kobu Kai on it. Each also has a short catapult, and launches them again. The pink Kobu Kai flies ahead first, before slamming foot-first down on the beach. The tiny pink machine, round and with steam pipes on the back, turns towards the Brocken Corps' machine and the kaiju. One eye swivels, too, and takes not of the Codarl. There are screams from people nearby.

Inside the cockpit, Sakura Shinguji looks up. Her black hair bobs a little -- and her brown eyes narrow. Then, she calls out, over a loudspeaker:

"Please evacuate the combat area! The Neo-Japan Combat Revue is here to defend Baraawe! We'll hold them back for as long as it takes!"

<Pose Tracker> Ana Kambinda has posed.

LOWER SHEBELLE RIVER, OAC SOMALIA
        A FEW MINUTES AGO

Several white and red targets sit innocuously along the banks of the Shebelle, one of just two main rivers draining this arid region.

A hellstorm of bullets promptly rips them to shreds.

Engines rumble as Ana Kambinda eases her mobile suit out of the attack pattern. "Sight One, this is Mobile One," she reports with a tap of her headset. "Looks like it worked great. Confirm hit percentage."

"Roger, Mobile One," a voice comes back. "We've got eighty three point five on target."

A new record. Ana sinks back in her seat and tries to experience some satisfaction beyond the simple acknowledgment of meeting test flight benchmarks. It's qualified by the knowledge that she's running a unit through its paces for one reason: Politics. It's a burial job designed to keep her out of sight of Britannia for awhile, until the stink of her doing the right thing can die down.

She touches her headset again and forces a smile. "Let's set the targets up one more time and--" She cuts off, frowning as another commline winks to life. An emergency signal radiating from the vicinity. "...Sight One, are you getting that? Looks like hostiles."

"We're getting it, Mobile One. We're signalling Mogadishu Station-"

"Signal them if you want, but we're the closest unit," Ana grunts as she boosts towards where a sub-flight system has been stowed. "I'm going!"

"Mobile One--"

"We have to!"

        ------

        NOW

The machine that bursts into the theatre is big, burly and bristling with weapons. The most prominent are a pair of Gatling guns mounted to its shoulder, beneath a full-length shield. The frame and bulk of a Gustav Karl are recognizable enough beneath the additional armour and weapons, the machine itself painted in a dusty brown sand colour - save the shield. A diagonal white stripe slashes across it, embossed with the silhouette of a gold-on-black Chocobo head.

        [BGM SHIFT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SShOvCl6eFk]

"Filha da mae," Ana mutters as she guides the Gustav Karl Heavy Weapons Type onto the scene, her monitor already lighting up with the readings of multiple gigantic monsters emerging - one of them very obviously giving off Dr. Hell vibes she'd really rather not be getting. As much as she'd love to have reinforcements at her back, responders from Mogadishu won't be here until too much damage is done for it to matter. It'll be up to h-

She pauses, then blinks as her comline is taken over.

A scowl etches across her face as she jabs her comline. "Oi oi!" she barks roughly. "I'm sure you're persuading people real hard by blowing up their homes, cabrao!"

That's when a loudspeaker kicks in. Ana blinks and cants her head, tracking the emerging Kobu.

"...Neo-Japan? Here?"

<Pose Tracker> Em Gelfand has posed.

Em Gelfand is not, as it turns out, a cackling lunatic. Thus, they are not afforded the luxury of a cool flying platform shaped like their own head, or a rocket-powered skeleton, or a loudspeaker powerful enough to yell demands across an entire city. That might actually be a seniority thing for Amalgam, come to think of it; most of the people who have these things are beardy old men. Food for thought.

In any case, Em prefers to be slightly more subtle about this sort of thing.

Fleeing civilians note the scent of ozone but not the source, nor the importance. Giant-sized footsteps are timed with dropships screaming overhead and giant monsters making landfall. In this way, the second Codarl on the field goes unnoticed and unseen as it approaches the target depot, moving around to hit it from the flank while the big, loud distractions march straight towards the front door.

"ECS is operating as expected," Em mumbles to themself, maneuvering across an intersection and scoping out the perimeter of their actual target. Nearby, a dog goes absolutely ballistic, barking madly at a stretch of empty air like its life depends upon it.

Em ignores it. They're not the type to pick on someone's dog. C'mon.

<Pose Tracker> Asuka Shikinami Langley has posed.

THEN

"This isn't the way to Unit-02's hangar." Asuka Shikinami Langley noted as she follows right behind Captain Misato Katsuragi.

"Oh! Is that so?" Misato deflected, and kept walking down to a different hangar bay, presenting... her ride. "You have GOT to be kidding me." As Asuka pointed to a hastily patched up Ichinana. "Is this some kind of JOKE Misato?"

Misato stepped forward and presented the facts. "There's not really time to get an Eva to Baraawe Asuka. Much less coordinate logistics for support infrastructure. We really could use boots on the ground as soon as possible... but... if you don't think you could do it."

Asuka seems to hesitate... Misato blithely flips through her clipboard as if reviewing reports, "I was looking at the data from its computers. You know disregarding the fact that Shinji-kun took it out without following proper protocol... he really did an admirable job. I could always call him back in if you don't think you can handle it."

Asuka clenches a fist.

-=-=-

NOW.

A hastily repaired Ichinana drops down rapidly from the sky, righting itself and lighting up it's thrusters then begin to slow it down with a clomp clomp of titanic boots.

"NERV is here. Ready to defend Baraawe." Asuka Shikinami Langley announces through her loudspeakers, as she shifts the Ichinana into gear. Some may recognize the grating quality of her voice, "And we're REALLY happy about it."

She doesn't sound that happy at all. Quite the opposite in fact.


KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley has deployed in MPMZ-17 Ichinana.

<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.

Beneath The West Pacific Ocean

Sousuke Sagara is on his way to the hangar, where a helicopter is waiting for him. Surface in three minutes, get to Japan in about two hours by helicopter...couple hours on the bullet train...back at his apartment in time to search for bugs and check on Angel before school. Easy. Time table's all in hand.

He enters the hangar. The tall Zaftran man that neither are quite sentimental enough to acknowledge is nearly his father is waiting, clipboard in hand. Sousuke stops, blinking once in curiosity. "Sir?"

"Sergeant," Andrei Sergeivich Kalinin says, and turns the clipboard over to the young man. "There's a situation we'd like you to intervene in."

Sousuke sees the location and frowns. "Is this..."

"Nothing related to the charity, no. We simply feel it is urgent and you are the first hand available."

He looks at another field. "This is ongoing now, sir," Sousuke notes. "It'd take most of a day to get there normally."

Kalinin nods. "Normally, yes."

THE AFRICAN COAST

A missile crests the horizon and cruises rapidly toward the scene at greater than the speed of sound. Who thought of using a guided missile?? In a combat theater?? In UC0096?? Stupid people really do exist!?

<Pose Tracker> Sakura Shinguji has posed.

The pink Kobu Kai stands tall and proud, despite being so small.

Until Asuka arrives. Then, one eye turns -- flashes red -- and the second eye swivels deliberately slower. It flashes green.

Then the Kobu does a three-fingered wave in her direction.

<Pose Tracker> Sumire Kanzaki has posed.

AFRICA, A LITTLE WHILE AGO

Sumire, en route to the Kilimanjaro terminal, gets a call. "Hm? -- Understood. Redirecting. Hoshi! We're going to the coast!"

By the time the submarine is within sight, Sumire has already changed, and swiftly jogs ashore, holding up a signal for the Dodai Kai to make a brief landing and ALMOST cover her in sand BUT almost isn't 'a little,' and so

THAT'S WHY

Another Kobu Kai, purple in hue and carrying a longer weapon, skids into place. Inside, Sumire Kanzaki exhales with some force as she's the late arrival, and proclaims, "Fear not! Your homes, your businesses, all of these will be safe."

More personally, not over the loudspeaker, Sumire says, "This has been a terrible trip, even if the country's lovely--" At which point a 20-meter colossus smashes down through a wooden dock. "-- Even so," Sumire concludes her thought, as the Kobu Kai's exterior camera pods swerve back and forth on their tracks.

"Two of them! What do they even want," Sumire says.

"That big one's on tracks," Sumire continues, a little slyly. "Go left?" And then the purple Kobu leans forwards, accelerating on the wheels in its own feet.

While accelerating, Sumire frowns to herself. "...?" Did she just feel the arrival of someone... stupid? (It could just be Sakura, Sumire tells herself, a little unkindly.)

<Pose Tracker> Jude Espella has posed.

Something stompy is coming in from the coast during the diversion. It comes up to the mainland. It may or may not be associated with these other people, but it's certainly something.

Hugoron is huge. Large, even. He's got a needle for one hand and a hand for another hand, and a huge green body with hardened kelp attached to it and googly-like eyes.

There is a colorful masked clawed gauntlet wielding normal suit pilot on his shoudler. Beast is humming a song, as she is emotionally in tune with Hugoron, moving it forward.

It's odd, though. She carefully avoids stepping on ANYONE with her kaiju, and damage is minimal. She's focused, instead, on the depot, marching straight for it on Hugoron.

Amalgam get a radio. <"Pretend I'm a vulture of opportunity. I'll have my kaiju roar at your kaiju to make it look good.~">
%Hugoron roars threateningly at Knight Beast Rhigat, a clear rival in this battle! Rhigat must have lured Hugoron here. Ignore the girl on his shoulder.

Jude, meanwhile, starts spreading warmth to Rhigat empathetically. She's trying to get a feel of how it is feeling, if it enjoys what it's doing, and if she can via the process of EMOTIONAL COMMUNICATION, if it likes working for Dragates.

<Pose Tracker> Mia Brinkman has posed.

Under any normal circumstances, today would be a day to relax. Even a workaholic needs a break every now and then, but it seems that's not in the cards when reports of a kaiju targeting a city floats across a news ticker in the corner of Mia's monitor. She tries to ignore at first, mostly in favor of putting some finishing touches on a Mobile Suit's weaponry. Alas, that doesn't really pan out when there's messages about this being a targeted strike against the Federation as well, especially when it comes to stuff they've been hiding.

Also, the fact that there's kaiju around.

Thus, something that looks more like a museum piece than a modern Mobile suit crossed with a tractor trailer hitched to its back shows up from further away from the city, some vague amount of time after the unidentified forces have already arrived. The strangely long Dom drifts forward steadily as its mono-eye sweeps the city once, letting Mia take stock of the situation while flipping her comms on and off a few times before finally leaving it on.

<<"How troubling... Have you considered airdropping your kaiju on depot itself? That would've caused less of a panic and gotten you right to your target instead of giving anyone time to mobilize.">>

For now, she'll settle for keeping her eyes on the situation without firing just yet. There's too much potential for collateral damage in the city, so she'll have to identify a more hostile or less risky target first.

<Pose Tracker> Dragates ri Becker has posed.

Dragates meanwhile hops off the ship and actually lands in a core lander-like vehicle, shaped like a gold and red bat. The hovering craft flies down near Rhigat as the monster continues to march on the streets towards the depot.

And the idea presented by Mia has Dragates looking to the radio on whatever he is using as a platform. Then looking over to Brocken, "Brocken. Nice to see you, sir."

He gives a slight salute. Not a fully military one, but definitely showing some respect to the man.

Meanwhile, Dragates checks on more of the field of battle through his bat-like miniature ship's systems as he moves along. "It seems as if we have incoming in a few places... and someone who is saying we should have airdropped on the depot. As if." The masked Dragates gives a laugh, then actually responds on the open airwaves, "<Ah, but where is the fun in kicking down the door, so to speak?>

Meanwhile, the troubles in the coastal waters and the ECS coming along.

The Rhinogat starts to pick up a bit more trouble as well as the Panzer B1 as the pair of them continue to make trouble in the city.

<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.

>-"NERV's around here, mm? Troubling that we've got a convenient anti-kaiju task force here to pester our lovely kaiju-centered strategy. Looks like I'll have to quiiiickly scalpel away that little problem."

With an unnaturally minimal splash, Asciel's Codarl leaps up from the waves after a lull in the naval defenses, the Lambda Driver slowly heating up and turning remnant water into steam...and shortly after, the Arm Slave cloaked in an aura of invisibility. It's a quick enough maneuver that it's likely just a blip on any radars - but soon enough, Asciel's perched on a small rocky islet just off shore, scanning for the announced NERV entity - a brilliantly soaring Ichinana, bright and valiant amidst the chaos of kaiju.

<"What an adorable little mockery of the Fortress of Iron they've come up with. I imagine it makes quite a sight, unmistakable from the most renowned hero unless you really stare. Legacies and imitation are so powerful in this world, aren't they? But from where I'm looking...">

<"It's totally meaningless[/normal] I'm afraid! Sorry~">

Asuka faces an onslaught not from a clear weapon, with a clear trajectory. Rather, the air itself around her starts to -fizzle-, crackling like a sandstorm made of pure energy. Its beginning and end are hazy and shifting, but they intensify into a pattern of pure chaos and static, flickering between darkness and light, loudly hissing over every auditory receptor. If one were in a poorer mood, it's the kind of effect that might feel like tripping out of this world and into the space between - but thankfully it's nothing -that- outlandish. ...maybe.

<Pose Tracker> Dr. Hell has posed.

Panzer B1 has no feelings. Sometimes Machine Beasts do, actually, being so ridiculously advanced they even develop a sense of honor or fair play. Not so the child of Count Brocken. The monster ignores its colleagues, outside of not crushing them, and simply drives through the city in what it calculates is the most expedient way to the large telescope with the best view of the stars. Its master wants to know about the stars. If it obeys, the pain of existence may be lessened.

Brocken is not paying attention to the secondaries around him. He is looking directly at the Ichinana, something awful on his face. It can be recognized as a smile. "How completely like Professor Yumi. To take the great black fortress of the battlefield and make a GM out of it. At least Tem Ray had style. How insulting, to share a battlefield with a ghost of an enemy, piloted by a petulant child."

"Ashura is going to lose their mind." Brocken smiles again.

Panzer is not given orders to engage MAZINGER Z and is therefore focused on the strange, blocky machines before it. The Kobu Kais are color coded, but do not match up with the design specs programmed into the Machine Beast's mind. They are, ultimately, in the way: the Machine Beast's back opens up, and a pair of spine missiles scream out of it, hurtling awkwardly towards both Kobu Kais!

Count Brocken's head detaches, flying closer to get a better look at the machines. "Combat Revue." The man says, somehow perfectly auditory despite speaking softly to himself. "How amusing. Are you ladies going to put on a show for me? Your mobile suits do not look particularly lithe, but I am told plus size dancing is inching back into fashion again. Do you perhaps know the opera, 'Faust'? I have always wanted to see two dead women portray the conversation between Faustus and Mephistopheles."

"See to it." Brocken gestures at Dragates.

<Pose Tracker> Ana Kambinda has posed.

Ana's urge to call someone a baka has never been stronger. She gives the Ichinana a long look before exhaling through her teeth. "...Right. Gift horse, mouth, et cetera."

She jabs her comm pickup again. "Captain Kambinda, OAC Forces. Thanks for the assist. Let's get these bastards out of the city core before they kill anyone else."

A little more assured now, Ana jams her heels against her control pedals. With a boom of thrusters, the Gustav Karl Heavy Weapons Type goes thundering down a sandy street between rows of white mud-brick houses and storefronts, thruster wake kicking up clouds of particles and strewn litter. The big machine's bearing down on the Rhinogat even as the big kaiju continues to cause trouble.

Ana clicks her teeth together. She hasn't been in a front-line situation since the Ouagadougou Incident, back during the ZAFT landings in North Africa. But things come back quickly. She centres a reticle on the Rhinogat and slashes laterally along a street, then booms forward with a rumble of thrusters. "This isn't your playtime!" she barks as she bears down on the giant kaiju - and a reinforced strut assembly over the Gustav Karl's shoulder tilts its shield forward, leveling both of the Gatling guns behind it. They open fire.

The sound and force of the attack is nearly deafening. Flame spews out of recoil absorbers mounted to the guns and belches from the barrels as they disgorge a frankly unreasonable number of bullets towards the giant beast, before recycling with a loud 'BRRRRRRT' that rings through the city. White smoke billows behind the Gustav Karl in a drifting horsetail as it follows the gunfire in, aiming to bull furiously into close range.

Ana squares her jaw, eyes fixed forward with intensity.

<Pose Tracker> Jude Espella has posed.

Pain. Suffering. Something holding back this kaiju. Jude's happy demeanor inside the Beast mask fades, as she crumples her hand into a fist. A radio goes out to Dragates and the other Amalgam.

<"What the hell did you do to that kaiju?!">

Hugoron is feeling her anger, and taking it out on a building, starting to tear the roof off so it can use it as a frisbee. On who? Undecided. He's an easy shot for Mia's Gnomides, though.

<Pose Tracker> Sakura Shinguji has posed.

"It seems like it would be nice, if we weren't in a submarine," Sakura admits. "I'm not really one for boats." She sighs a little bit. Then she jerks, a little bit, as she first spots a missile -- until an IFF code indicates it's a Mithril one -- and then she spots another large thing coming up. Hugoron, as it happens. She makes a face for a second.

She looks back at the Machine Beast. Sakura nods her head, once. "I go left, you go right," she agrees. "It's big, so we better get in close, Sumire!"

Her eyes lift up, towards Count Brocken -- and his head. She makes a face at the way it detaches -- that's gross, she thinks -- and then she shakes her head, and looks forward. "The Combat Revue doesn't put on a show like that!" she says to him. "And I'm sorry that you've missed us, so... we'll give you a performance to remember! Let's go, Sumire!"

The missile comes tearing in. The spine fires -- and slams into the ground where the pink Kobu Kai was. It sticks out of it, as the tiny machine glides speedily over the ground. The Kobu's three finger hand reaches down, to the sheathed blade at its side, and draws free a katana -- gleaming bright silver.

Then, she leaps up at the Panzer B1. The katana swings out, and she chops at the side of it with a fast, two-handed motion.

KTS: Sakura Shinguji targets Dr. Hell with Sword Slash!

<Pose Tracker> Em Gelfand has posed.

The cloaked Codarl enters the compound. Nimble steps carry it past a traffic checkpoint and into a paved parking lot abutting a yard containing completely normal-looking storage containers. The unassuming concrete block of a building is so boring, nobody would ever think it could be the front of a low-key government weapons depot. Ammunition storage for municipal defense forces? Yeah, maybe.

Which is why there's actually an awful lot of fire suppression equipment out here. Em is aware of it, but was not aware that it was installed by the lowest bidder. The Codarl hits a pothole, completely incidentally widening the hole in the pavement -- and cracks one of the decaying water lines that should not be so close to the surface, nor so unprotected. It doesn't even register that it's there until it happens.

There's a spray of pressurized water from the hole that emerges as soon as the Codarl takes another step. Em whirls, pauses, and groans inwardly as it rains down on the near side of the parking lot. From above, the ECS loses cohesion, turning into a blanket of distorted static. Em, aware of the vulnerability, backpedals a couple of steps to get away from the water source, cursing in their cockpit.

Fortunately, nobody is actually *above* them except their allied air support, right? So it's fine! Give it a minute to reinitialize, and then they can get on with the breach. How embarrassing would it be if a budget cut did them in?

Ha, ha.



KTS: Dr. Hell fails to evade Sakura Shinguji's Sword Slash, taking 3690 damage!
KTS: Sakura Shinguji has engaged Dr. Hell

<Pose Tracker> Dragates ri Becker has posed.

Dragates moves behind the Rhigat, calling to it, "Use some missiles on that thing, Rhigat!"

Surprisingly the Rhigat's... sturdy. Very, very sturdy. And big. Someone took the rhino thing a bit too seriously when they made it as it takes multiple hits of the gatling gun spray over the same spot before they finally penetrate a bit.

And that's just saying something about it. The thing's huge, after all, but the major question. Missiles? Then what was assumed to be the gatling gun comes up and launches a literally barrage of missiles at the Gustav. One after the other out of the arm as the thing rotates through a few times, firing off small but destructive barrage at Ana's machine.

And at the distraction, Dragates responds over the Amalgam coms, <Whatever do you mean, Wolfram-2?> He grins a bit, <Rhigat is a literally built and bred kaiju grown in a laboratory.>

Then he comes from behind Rhigat to shout at Ana, "Come now, do you expect to harm my Rhigat with those bullets? Look at him, barely a scrtch on him from your weapons!" The prospect is daunting, after all, and meant that way even as barrages of missiles come across!
KTS: Dragates ri Becker has activated the Daunt Spirit Command targeting Ana Kambinda

<Pose Tracker> Sumire Kanzaki has posed.

The presence of others is glanced at by Sumire, snuggled inside the comfortable, not to say *close* confines of the Kobu's interior. NERV, in an Ichinana -- that strange feeling from the individual she'd felt before, but they were launching from the submarine too, weren't they?

A flying head!! Sumire grimaces as one of the purple Kobu Kai's cameras shows her a glorious image, zoomed in, of Count Brocken's frigging head. It is not the worst thing she's ever seen -- but it's certainly the worst thing this week.

"Sakura," she says, "I think he may be German. Look lively!"

The small machine shifts left, right, jitters further right to come cheek-to-jowl-almost with Sakura for a moment to evade a burst - then resumes her previous course, taking the side Sakura did not!

Sumire does not leap and her weapon was already drawn. The naginata is brought up in a back hand grip, administering strike-strike-strike to road wheels and tread elements. The Machine Beast is no doubt armored and reinforced - but drive wheels and drivetrain elements in general are always tricky, and for once scale is in her favor.

("At least he can't step on us," Sumire muses directly to Sakura. "We have that at least.")

"Though I don't care for your casting, Brocken," Sumire replies: "It's kind of you to guarantee that one of us would be the victor!"

<Pose Tracker> Asuka Shikinami Langley has posed.

The three fingered wave catches Asuka's attention. And then she performs the biggest SIGHHHHH over the comms. "Why did Neo-Japan have to send her here!? And I'm not even in my Eva..." Asuka realizes at the last second that the comm button for the Ichinana is NOT in the same place as the controls for the Eva, hastily shutting that off.

"So many targets here..." Her screen zooms in on each then lingers on Count Brocken in particular, as if she recognizes him from her memory. "Wait. Really? Is that who I think it is?"

The Codarl doesn't catch her attention at first save a small blip on her instruments. Until it starts blaring over the comms. "Ha! You think I'm leaning on its legacy? As if." It's so ridiculous to her... given...

... given something she's not going to talk about. "It's not like I wanted to be piloting this thing. But..." Her tone takes one of complete self-confidence, with a sort of grim determination. "... I don't think they'll be disappointed in how I get the job done."

It's hard for her to perceive the nature of Asciel's attack. The subtle fizzling of the air seems to tip her off to it, as suddenly she thrusts backwards, raising the shield she'd picked back up as if it were a hand held A.T. field. Despite her response brunting... whatever it is, the pilot grimaces as if it gave her an intense migraine, something ringing in her ears. Yet as she does she looks at her sensors - catching that spot on the rocky islet.

Now, even if it cloaks again, she at least has a starting point.

"Alright. That was your CHANCE."

Asuka suddenly shifts the Ichinana into gear, the thrusters lighting the machine takes off, skimming the water as she beelines towards the islet. Suddenly raising her altitude abruptly, she angles it down, charging to attempt to plow into the Codarl, smashing it off of its perch and sending it and the Ichinana both underwater.

"Don't cry to me about WASTING it!"


KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley targets Asciel Colette with Ichinana Shield Bash!

<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.

Sousuke has a bite guard in so he cannot currently speak, because otherwise he would be dead from biting his tongue off.

The onboard AI, AL, reports, "External sensors detecting ECS static in vicinity of compound. Maneuvering to intercept. Contact in 12 seconds. Please brace for transfer to manual control."

Sousuke makes a noise, which is completely inaudible over the sound of the missile cracking apart around him, and the sudden intense shift in direction with a strong downward vector. His screen lights up. AL has already highlighted the target, still sputtering bright sparks from the small particulates of the water hitting an ECS Invisibility screen. Another advanced enemy...and he doesn't like that silhouette. First things first, then.

Arbalest rocks out of the sky, monomolecular cutter drawn, to drive the weapon directly into the attacking machine's body with the full force of gravity.

Amid the flying dust of his landing, Arbalest's green eyes blaze.

Sousuke manages to spit out his mouth guard. "Uruz Seven," he reports. "Entering combat."

"Roger," AL acknowledges.
KTS: Sousuke Sagara targets Em Gelfand with GRAW-2 Monomolecular Cutter Slash!

KTS: Asciel Colette fails to parry Asuka Shikinami Langley's Ichinana Shield Bash, taking 2700 damage!
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley has engaged Asciel Colette

<Pose Tracker> Mia Brinkman has posed.

<<"'Fun'? Oh dear. This is a city, not a base. I'm not a fan of the Federation, either, but this is...">> Mia hums softly as she tries to come up with something fitting, then audibly snaps her fingers. <<"You're sending the wrong kind of message this way. How's anyone supposed to trust you with whatever they're happening if you have no finesse?">>

One of the kaiju is going after another building instead of a pilot. Mia sighs audibly, then takes aim at the Hugoron through her scope as the Dom Gnomides' cannon unfolds from the trailer-thing on its back (in case the whole thing wasn't long enough already). The cannon shifts upwards steadily as if preparing an arcing shot, making minute adjustments by the moment. Once she's satisfied with the projected firing line...

<<"If you really want to send a message, you need to be more precise.">> Only then does she finally fire at the frisbee-tossing kaiju, launching the mortar high over the city to try and minimize the risk of collateral.

<Pose Tracker> Ana Kambinda has posed.

Ana clicks her teeth together sharply. It would have been nice for the bullets to just... deal with the problem. Fate hasn't handed her *that* much of a leg up, sadly.

As the strange man starts mocking her, she bites back the urge to respond, pivoting and snapping the Gustav Karl's head to fire a round of vulcan shots towarrds the missile barrage - a flurry that sails just over. The big mobile suit rumbles under the force of the explosions but soldiers onward gamely, smoke pouring off of its reinforced chest section. A few armour plates buckle, one hanging loose under the right intake.

She grunts and tosses her head to flick a few locks of curling hair away from he forehead, then jabs her comline. "You like to talk, don't you? Alright, challenge accepted."

The Gustav Karl's foot drags across the street as it grinds to one side, staying within close range. Thrusters burn as it pivots under the weight of its heavy armour and weapons, visor coming around to focus on the Rhigat again. Behind the controls, Ana drags her tongue over her lips. She feels rusty. Too much time in too many courtrooms. Too much life lost to the nonsense of politics with Britannia.

        We make up for it.

The Gustav Karl comes up with a long, rugged-looking rifle with a reinforced buttstock and an underbarrel grip. The weapon levels forward, and a flash of magenta fills the streetscape as Ana opens up on the kaiju. The beam shotrifle's blasts fall off at a certain range - but so close, they're potent, and she doesn't seem in a hurry to withdraw.

"I have to ask," Ana says over the bark of the shotrifle, "why are you bothering to mess with us? Go bother the Britannians. An actual threat to world peace, not Africa."
KTS: Ana Kambinda targets Dragates ri Becker with Heavy Beam Shotcannon Slam Fire!

<Pose Tracker> Jude Espella has posed.

<"We'll have to talk, DRAGATES!"> Jude roars over the radio, right as mortar explodes over her. Hugoron lifts the needle hand, using it to shield Jude as the blast detonates across him, doing mass damage to his kelp. It's at this point that another aspect of the kaiju lights up.

The kelp starts to form a barrier over wounds, turning into a shield. It even semi-covers Jude, leaving her available for radio comms.

<"Finesse? Hah! Who cares! I just want the weapons - these other lunatics mean nothing to me. I am the Beast, and I am in a very bad mood."> If Mia has any Newtype vibes, she can feel anger radiating off of Jude.

Hugoron charges, trying to grab the Dom Gnomides and start crushing it with his huge guts and big arms.


Jude Espella Activates Barrier Generator
KTS: Jude Espella targets Mia Brinkman with Hugoron Guts Crush!
KTS: Dragates ri Becker blocks Ana Kambinda's Heavy Beam Shotcannon Slam Fire, taking 4950 damage!
KTS: Ana Kambinda has engaged Dragates ri Becker
KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 83.

<Pose Tracker> Dr. Hell has posed.

"Oh?" Brocken asks, as Panzer B1 utterly fails to avoid the smaller Kobal Kais. The behemoth takes two nasty strikes on its left and right side, as its shield fails to activate. Brocken sneers. "UnACCEPTable." He snaps, confirming his Teutonic rage. "Monster, destroy these interlopers! And then we will retrieve the Professor! Our mission serves a higher cause! I do not permit you to fail!"

Panzer B1 turns to the tiny machines, and the 'cigar' in its mouth adjusts itself. The cigar pops off, revealing a huge machine gun that proceeds to fire what can only be described as a truly massive amount of bullets at both Combat Revue members. They are, it should be noted, made of solid gold, being a donation to Brocken's organization by an old friend from across town.

Brocken himself pulls out a chair, sitting down on his giant floating robotic head. Detaching from his body, Brocken's real head pulls a tea service out of somewhere, and begins setting up a light snack for himself. "So you don't sing at all? Standards really are slipping. Perhaps a kabuki show? You surely cannot be serious warriors, attacking my modern colossus with your antiquated swords and spears."

KTS: Jude Espella has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
Jude Espella has cancelled her attack.
KTS: Jude Espella has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
KTS: Jude Espella targets Mia Brinkman with Hugoron Guts Crush!
KTS: Dr. Hell targets Sakura Shinguji and Sumire Kanzaki with Panzer Tooth Shot Barrage.
KTS: Sakura Shinguji has activated the Spirit Spirit Command.
KTS: Sakura Shinguji fails to evade Dr. Hell's Panzer Tooth Shot Barrage, taking 3003 damage!

<Pose Tracker> Em Gelfand has posed.

Ha, ha. Wouldn't it be funny if there *was* an enemy up there, though?

Something tickles in the back of Em's head. They lift their chin --

"Oh, fu-"

Arbalest comes with on top of the concealed unit and pounds it into the shitty pavement. The cloud of dust is impressive, and the hissing and spitting of a frankly incredibly upset ECS system makes it abdundantly clear that they found their mark. The cloak drops, the outline of the enemy unit solidifying, sweeps of curved armor painted the color of ink broken up by truncated markings in vivid orange.

The cutter's guard is sunk through the palm of one of the enemy unit's hands. The blade bites into the shoulder. Behind it, a gleaming ponytail fans out as red optics shine beneath the face-plate.

Venom.

In the span of a breath, the air around the Codarl becomes heavy. Solid. A momentary flare of violet color runs along its surface, and a pulse of invisible force erupts in every direction. The pothole-turned-crater expands instantly, bits of parking lot rocketing into walls and windows. With any luck, the Arbalest joins them, catapulted away from the thing it just landed on.

Inside the cockpit, Em's eyes are wide and wild. That was too close. A little slower -

KTS: Sumire Kanzaki fails to evade Dr. Hell's Panzer Tooth Shot Barrage, taking 2457 damage!
KTS: Em Gelfand targets Sousuke Sagara with Lambda Driver Repulsion!

<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.

<"Hoooh, a spirited one~"> Asciel muses even as Asuka slams shield-first into the Codarl, toppling back into the sea - though the Arm Slave's hands do cling onto that shield as they plunge deeper and deeper. There's a bit of struggling and grappling to be had...

But eventually, down near the surface, the Codarl pushes away, the Driver still burning bright - helpfully cooled off. It darts backwards, kicking up a cloud of silt...one that seems to darken the Ichinana's views far more than it should. The water pressure starts to increase, the light starts to dim - it's as though Asuka's in a sandstorm somewhere out in the depths of the cosmos, with nary a star insight.

The only light, at a distance, is the brilliantly glowing eye of her opponent.

"Do you truly think you've given yourself more opportunity, bringing yourself down here with me?"

"You had so many more options flying as free as a bird. You've gambled away quite a bit, all to try and deprive me of the same."

"So very hasty. So very suffocating. So very limiting. So very heavy. Does your heart burn too hot to have faith in your future?"

"All you'll do at this rate is burn away your heart, turning the edges into ash, until there's only one outcome left. You should be a little more wary that it could be not a very good outcome for you~"

There's a whirlpool forming high above the water from the compaction meant to slow Asuka down...
KTS: Asciel Colette targets Asuka Shikinami Langley with Despirit!
KTS: Mia Brinkman successfully avoids Jude Espella's Hugoron Guts Crush
KTS: Asciel Colette despirits Asuka Shikinami Langley, reducing her SP drastically.

<Pose Tracker> Sakura Shinguji has posed.

"German... it seems so!" Sakura agrees with Sumire, her brow furrowing with consternation. "Is he--isn't he supposed to be dead? I thought all of Dr. Hell's minions had..."

But she may have it wrong. She wishes Koji Kabuto was here, for a moment. She has to remind herself, then: she has faced down dangers of her own. Maybe she is not the Castle of Iron, but she is Sakura Shinguji. She has to make sure that is enough.

The Panzer B1 towers over her. She catches movement -- she can't help but not -- and her eyes widen. "Sumire! Look out! That thing--it's a gun!"

Bullets explode from the former cigar. The rounds slam into the pink-painted armor. Some bounce off, but leave large dents in it -- and the scratched paint gleams chrome, under. Some puncture through, and one bullet whizzes not that far from her head.

"We'll show you just how serious we are! And we can sing--if you'd like to give us a reason to!" Sakura answers. She sends the Kobu surging forward, considering for a second. "Sumire! Get ready!"

The Kobu Kai flies in close. It executes a tight, twisting spin -- and brings the sword around one of the Panzer B1's legs -- then kicks hard, trying to throw it off balance for just a moment.

KTS: Sakura Shinguji targets Dr. Hell with Roar! Neo-Japan Combat Revue!!

<Pose Tracker> Dragates ri Becker has posed.

The monsterous Rhigat tries to tank it again, which doesn't seem as effective against that beam shotcannon! Some even almost clips the small floating bat that Dragates is in. "Hm... why haven't we? Oh my, you do realize that we have aims and goals, I hope. Or are you perhaps just a bit too... how do you put it.. worrying about your own ends to deal with such?"

The floating bat thing almost stops as Dragates sits in the seat of it, humming a bit as he hears Jude over the comms before he responds, <Later, Wolfram-2. For now, concentrate on our objectives. We have plenty of resources in front of us if we can fend these people off.>

Then he calls out loud, "Rhigat! Crush her!" He even includes a dramatic pointing at Ana's Gustav.

Then the big Rhigat takes a step, then a few bounding more as the creature tries to literally belly flop the Gustav and keep on going.

Meanwhile, the response is given towards Mia on more open channels, "Oh? But this will be harder to cover up, after all. If a path of destruction is laid across the city to one specific point and back, would you not be curious as the cause of it as well as where it leads?"

KTS: Dragates ri Becker has activated the Alert Spirit Command.
KTS: Dragates ri Becker targets Ana Kambinda with MotW Big Body Crush!
KTS: Ana Kambinda has activated the Wall Spirit Command.
KTS: Ana Kambinda blocks Dragates ri Becker's MotW Big Body Crush, taking 2200 damage!
KTS: Dragates ri Becker has engaged Ana Kambinda

<Pose Tracker> Asuka Shikinami Langley has posed.

The Ichinana rights itself underwater as Asciel breaks away, brandishing a machine gun as she peers into the cloud of silt she's kicked up. Thrusters sent her one way, then another, trying to get a better visual of her opponent.

As she spots the eye, she sights it down with the barrel of her gun.

An attack doesn't come, or rather it does, but not the kind that's comfortable to Asuka. "You think I'm scared of whatever piddly advantage you think you have down here?"

So very hasty.

So very suffocating.

So very heavy.

-=-=-

"S-172. Step forward."

A small girl swallows her nervousness and steps forward amongst a perfectly spaced line of identical girls.

A man with a clipboard notates something. "Inside." He gestures with his pen... she can't say no. She can't even hesitate. She knows what will happen if she does.

She steps inside. Into the dark, enclosed, space save the faint illumination from where she came. A moment later her entry is closed off, leaving her in total darkness.

And what's inside...

-=-=-

"Shut up. Shut up."

The pilot of the Ichinana starts saying, over and over...

"Shut. The. Hell. UP!"

Despite the swirling waters starting to restrict her movement. The eye is centered. Asuka slams down on the switch - bubbles flying as a grenade sails into the dark silt storm the Codarl kicked up.

The detonation after is not small.


KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley targets Asciel Colette with Ichinana MG Grenade!
KTS: Ana Kambinda has activated the Valor Spirit Command.

<Pose Tracker> Ana Kambinda has posed.

Ana's doing everything in her power to shepherd the fight towards the outer parts of the city. The last thing she needs is more civilians dying on her watch, especially not to a giant rhino monster with a missile gun.

She taps a comline; it's going out to Sakura and Sumire. "Are you two alright? You're with a combat revue, you said?" It's not something she's familiar with; some Federation unit she's never heard of?

With a grunt, she glances at a side readout - the Gustav Karl's cameras fix forward, monitoring the Rhigat. "I'm worrying about the ends of the people of Baraawe," she answers sternly. "That's what the OAC Forces do. Save the grandstanding about the fate of the world for the guys in the fancy suits."

The sensors aren't giving her a good way to hit Dragates from here. Besides, he's not the one causing the damage. The Rhigat is.

It is about to damage her. Gritting her teeth, she swivels the Gustav Karl's flexible shield forward.

There is a loud crash as the kaiju slams into the mobile suit - but the expected flattening is less spectacular than it might otherwise have been. The Gustav Karl swings its right hand up to brace against Rhigat's shoulder, the other planting its shield against the massive kaiju's breastbone. A coolant line rattles halfway out of its housing and belches a few streams of grey smoke out behind the machine, and the arm supporting the shield and Gatling guns strains dangerously.

The machine does not fall - its reinforced structure bears the attack with aplomb. Ana exhales heavily. "Crush, huh? This mobile suit's built to take a crushing."

The Gustav Karl's left hand snaps forward. The beam shotrifle has been exchanged for a new weapon - a beam saber that flashes to life with a magenta blaze. Ana wrenches the mobile suit's shoulder and thrusts hard, aiming to bury the weapon into the Rhigat's guts.
KTS: Ana Kambinda targets Dragates ri Becker with Beam Saber Thrust!

<Pose Tracker> Sumire Kanzaki has posed.

"I thought so too... maybe he's gone into business for himself, after a period away," Sumire replies to Sakura. "Or it's someone taking his role. Though that head...!"

The Panzer B1's turning. The purple Kobu Kai executes a backflip, skidding along the second-story edifice of an adjacent building for a few dozen yards before dismounting with the aid of the naginata's shaft.

A gun?! Sumire cranes her head back and it is at that point when she brakes to get out of the probable zone of fire-- but she misjudges it, the rounds falling in on the Kobu's top armor with enormous hammer-blow sounds, Sumire flinching for a moment as the iron/lead alloy lining beneath the steel deforms in a slight, visible way! She is at least spared a puncture, but...

Ugh, Sumire thinks. I'm going to have to hammer that myself before I can open the hatch!

Twisting round, Sumire sees the field that was just pocked with rounds... and it's... glittering? "Are you truly...? Opening fire in such an ostentatious way! How offensive!" ("And how did that sort of gold come to his hands? Has he been mining the asteroids all this time...?")

Sakura makes her call. Sumire has no time to hesitate, instead raising one leg and slamming it down - the Kobu Kai leaps upwards, and Sumire's other leg comes round to kick off on the thing's side-armor to get more altitude, to get closer to where she wants to be: To get towards the head, to sweep up the naginata's blade, draw it back, and stab towards that hateful golden gun before gravity retakes its claim!

"Would you prefer we use fists instead?" Sumire says, during the descent. "Hmf!"

KTS: Sumire Kanzaki targets Dr. Hell with Charge! Neo-Japan Combat Revue!!
KTS: Dragates ri Becker fails to react to Ana Kambinda's Beam Saber Thrust, taking 5880 damage!
KTS: Ana Kambinda has engaged Dragates ri Becker
KTS: Dr. Hell fails to react to Sumire Kanzaki's Charge! Neo-Japan Combat Revue!, taking 4000 damage!
KTS: Sumire Kanzaki has engaged Dr. Hell
KTS: Sumire Kanzaki continues a Formation attack!
KTS: Asciel Colette blocks Asuka Shikinami Langley's Ichinana MG Grenade, taking 4620 damage!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Asuka Shikinami Langley's Sole Shikinami activates, causing Insight L1!

<Pose Tracker> Mia Brinkman has posed.

Dragates? That's not a familiar name beyond that same person identifying himself prior to this whole battle, but it's a name nonetheless. That anger that Jude shows towards said name along with the response to Mia's talk of sending messages actually has her furrowing her brow thoughtfully, although she's forced to fall back as the Hugoron starts approaching.

<<"I suppose it would be pretty hard to ignore, yeah... Hm.">> He's got a point there. She doesn't respond right away as she kicks the boosters on for her giant suit, launching it backwards while the cannon folds back into itself and just narrowly avoids the Hugoron's attempts to rip and tear it to shreds. The Dom Gnomides keeps drifting backwards as it swaps to its gatling gun and takes aim in its steady backwards movement.

Although Mia lacks a Newtype's sense of empathy, she can still hear that anger in Jude's voice alone. <<"Oh my... I guess being direct isn't such a bad thing, either, Miss Beast, but... You shouldn't be out here, either.">> There's a somber tone in Mia's voice, but it doesn't stop her from firing on the Hugoron in wide sweeping arcs. <<"What are you planning to do with these weapons, though?">>

Only then does Mia finally come up with something to respond to Dragates again. <<"But the Federation already has plenty of enemies. Couldn't you just leave the trail of destruction on your way out? That way, you can escape while using the scattered emergency response as cover.">>

<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.

One down, Sousuke thinks.

"Strike was not conclusive. Enemy is still alive," AL reports. Sousuke stares at the familiar, flaring light.

"Barrier behavior is consistent with a," AL says, and Sousuke barks, "Lambda Driver!" "Agreed. Classifying target as Venom-002."

Sousuke tries to leap backwards but the burst of a Lambda Driver field gets him, sending him tumbling away. Arbalest lands on its feet, barely, skidding backward and chunking concrete as it goes.

There is a breath. Arbalest's eyes gleam. Sousuke's scan the monitors, seeking some kind of option. He was just talking to the Captain about how unreliable the Lambda Driver was, and now this. Can he do it? Can he get it online? "Al!" he yells. "Start the Lambda Driver!"

"Failed."

Damn! "What do you mean failed!?"

"No information. Activation failed."

"Useless thing doesn't even have a log!" Sousuke spits. "Affirmative," AL reports. "Wasn't a question!"

Arbalest lurches to the side, brings its Boxer shotcannon up, and fires. Got to test the barrier. That's not Gauron. Gauron's dead. Besides, even with barely any contact, he knows. Gauron wouldn't have even gotten himself into this situation.

Which means he has to find out just how much the effectiveness changes between pilots. Right now.
KTS: Sousuke Sagara targets Em Gelfand with Boxer 57mm Shotcannon Shotshell!
KTS: Em Gelfand has activated the Spirit Spirit Command.

<Pose Tracker> Jude Espella has posed.

<"Why not?"> Jude pointedly asks Mia, as the kelp starts to move, maneuvering to block the sweeping arcs of gatling gun fire. It still pierces the kelp and pocks Hugoron's skin, but he just roars and lifts that needle hand.

<"I will supply them to the Area 11 battlefield. We will win the war. We will end the violence. Bring forth peace. The Federation is a tumor, and me and my friends will be the scalpel that removes it. No more will man or kaiju die for seeking to live!">

Suddenly, the hand extends, needle moving to try and pierce the Dom Gnomides from afar, impale straight into its torso, and damage systems! If melee won't work, it's time to try ranged combat.

KTS: Em Gelfand successfully evades Sousuke Sagara's Boxer 57mm Shotcannon Shotshell
KTS: Jude Espella has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
KTS: Jude Espella targets Mia Brinkman with Needle Launch Impalement!

<Pose Tracker> Dragates ri Becker has posed.

Rhigat's sudden momentum stoppage has Dragates looking a little worried. "Oh, I see."

Then the massive beast roars. And probably for the first time... shows that it's not a machine. The burned flesh from the thrust as the beast steps back away from the beam saber is actually bleeding. Actual blood flowing out of it. That alone might be horrifying if one considers it. The beast itself gives a roar before charging and trying to flat out flatten the Gustav with it's own weight, leaping this time as it tries a last, desperate looking attack to take out it's foe.

Even Jude might feel that one way over there. But it's obvious that Rhigat might not be surviving the battle. Dragates himself looks annoyed at that, but floats back away from the battle between the Gustav and Rhigat, back towards his ship as he eyes it.

He calls back, "Ah! I see, a soldier through and through willing to injure the beast! And I see others here who also have the same delight from what someone just transmitted. Your ally seems to think we should have left more destruction on the way out rather than on the way in! Impressive!"

<Pose Tracker> Dr. Hell has posed.

"You know, you're misunderstanding the play." Brocken says, taking a sip of his tea. His head is floating in the air so God only knows where it's going, but he makes a vaguely pleased noise.

Panzer B1 is a big, tough robot that needs a big tough cereal. Sakura and Sumire's formation attack is elegant, brutal, and effective, the machine beast barely seeming to react to the shared impacts except for hunks of Super Alloy Z lined metal being punched in and ripped by the bladed weapons.

"Faust loses, but ultimately so too does Mephistophelese. You understand, as a demon, his only respite from the sublime torment of Hell is when men like Faustus summon him. Even this is cold comfort; for he knows that this shallow, pale freedom is gossamer agony because it must end. The only victor of that play."

Panzer B1's chest cannon turns on a dime, moving with more sophistication than the boxy design would imply. As Sakura gets close, the grim machine lines up a shot and there is a sound so perfectly loud it shatters half a dozen windows in the surrounding area.

"The only winner, my dear, is HELL." Brocken says, monocle gleaming blood red in the murderous afternoon. He has a pastry. "Ha. Dry."

KTS: Dr. Hell targets Sakura Shinguji with Panzer War Chest Point Blank Shot!
KTS: Dragates ri Becker has activated the Alert Spirit Command.
KTS: Dragates ri Becker has activated the Alert Spirit Command.
KTS: Dragates ri Becker targets Ana Kambinda with MotW Big Body Flatten!

<Pose Tracker> Em Gelfand has posed.

Gauron wouldn't be quite as quiet as whoever this is, either.

The shotcannon barks. The Codarl mirrors the Arbalest's movement, but with a sudden burst of acceleration accompanying a grace that defies gravity. Little flickers of unnatural light play across the surface of the machine as it moves, propelled by the pilot's will translated by physical controls and Driver activations.

Sousuke doesn't miss. Not quite. The shot would have at least grazed it, if it wasn't for that device. Instead, it slides off the exterior armor, a ricochet directed into a telekinetic pinball machine. The pellets flicker past it, then loop behind it accompanied by a flashbulb's strobe --

-- and comes out the other side, directed with a flick of the wrist on the pierced hand. Em spreads and accelerates the redirected shot, stray bits striking parked cars and flipping them over from the imparted force.

"Should have called ahead, Mithril," Em suddenly remarks, giddy with a mix of adrenaline and combat stims. "I'd have baked a cake."

KTS: Dr. Hell targets Sumire Kanzaki with Panzer War Chest Point Blank Shot!
KTS: Em Gelfand targets Sousuke Sagara with Lambda Driver Redirection!
KTS: Sousuke Sagara fails to evade Em Gelfand's Lambda Driver Redirection, taking 5760 damage!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Em Gelfand's Imaginary activates, causing Jam L1!

<Pose Tracker> Sakura Shinguji has posed.

Why did Sakura not notice the gold? It may be for the same reason that Sumire Kanzaki groans when Sakura explains where to squeeze a cow to get the best flow of milk.

"That might be--maybe we'll have to ask him!" Sakura answers Sumire, about Brocken.

Sakura never really expected she would be fighting something with Super Alloy Z armor. She winces -- and her eyes narrow, as she listens to the Count's explanation. "But doesn't it depend on the author? Because the earlier morality play is--" Of course, Sakura would know a play. She is interrupted, though, when the Panzer B1's chest turns, with a speed and grace that would impress her -- if it wasn't trying to kill her. The cannon fires, a huge shell shooting at her. Sakura reacts with years of training; with three years of experience, since the Axis Shock.

She swings her sword for the point blank shot.

It catches her and hurls the pink Kobu Kai backward, and it may look grim for a moment. The shell explodes in a fiery blast and a thick, black plume of smoke that engulfs it. When it goes sailing out, there are contrails of smoke and flame. The Kobu lands, hard, on its big wide feet. And Sakura's blade tips down.

The two halves of the shell, that sailed with her, land with a one-two crunch into the ground. The Kobu looks up, then, and its two eyes swivel upward.

"Hell isn't the winner. There is no winner -- because suffering isn't a prize," Sakura says. She looks up at Count Brocken. "You... you're no pale imitation! And that could mean--"

The thing that makes the blood of a child who grew up in Japan in those years run cold. A return that Sakura dare not say aloud, lest she make it true.

The Kobu Kai leaps. She sends it into a fight, fast spin -- and then shoots high into the air. Then, Sakura comes crashing down for the Panzer B1 -- and swings her Kobu's tachi with both hands, cleaving down in a great sweeping strike as she lands.

"HYAAAAAAAAAH!"

KTS: Sakura Shinguji targets Dr. Hell with Moonlit Rush!

<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.

That needling aura invoking a flash of deep-welled trauma is one that, if there were justice, Asciel would feel a spark of. To tug at the soul with words alone should be a duel of spiritual blades - to open oneself to listen, so as to pry open another.

Asciel feels none of it. The door was closed long ago.

She acts on the colder hard data of emotion. Quick reconciliation of her opponent's rough and rugged reaction, and matching it to a suitably discouraging response. Is it cruel, in the wake of that little bit of emotional pain inflicted to Asuka...to ultimately have learned almost nothing about her?

It isn't Asciel's role to know.

<"Ah~ Adorable. You're a terribly passionate person in the heat of the moment. It'd be so much nicer if that single light into the future was broader for you, hmm? It's quite alright. Humanity abhors feeling trapped, so you're not strange or alone...but your impulse to grasp at the light is one oh so easily exploited. Twisted towards others' views of a future that suits them rather than you. This is what almost every human endures, all while trying to survive towards tomorrow.">

<"Ahahahaha~ I abhor it as much as you, worry not! Reeling people onwards into a harder future, and calling this 'hope' is one of the greatest despairs in this world.">

Like the wind blowing away a curtain, Asuka's grenade launcher suddenly brings the oppressive maelstrom to a halt - Asciel needs that same power to mitigate the damage, a glittering -wall- flickering just before the explosive impact, knocking her backwards and staggering the Codarl, but keeping it balanced beneath the water.

From across its back, the Arm Slave draws an honest-to-god greatsword, its razor-sharp edge gleaming from the light of its own orange eye. Gripping it securely in both hands, as Asciel begins to launch forward...at far greater a speed than would be needed to go face to face with Asuka. It's a sweep that'd bring Asciel further past - as though the Ichinana is just one obstacle to be pushed aside.

<"I will sever you from that bond~">
KTS: Asciel Colette has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has failed to disengage.
KTS: Asciel Colette has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has disengaged.
KTS: Asciel Colette has activated the Spirit Spirit Command.

<Pose Tracker> Ana Kambinda has posed.

At this point, Ana's broadened her radio band. She's picking up what conversation she can from the other conflicts, but focusing on the details is tough when she's got a massive kaiju trying to crush her and a well-spoken man trying to talk her down.

She also has a geyser of blood splashing across the Gustav Karl's chest armour. The psychic can feel the stab of shock that goes racing through her. The blood seems all too human, at close range - there's something alive in there, and it hits a visceral note that mobile warfare simply doesn't. "Is that thing alive?" she hisses through her teeth.

It's alive enough to try and flatten her. Bracing herself, Ana fires a quick reminder through her senses:

        Alive or not, it's an enemy to all these people. That's all that matters!

The Rhigat bears down on her like a steam train at full tilt. Ana shouts defiantly as she fires the Gustav Karl's thrusters. The Heavy Weapons Type slams shoulder-first into the giant kaiju, beam saber coming up in a covering cross to try and account for the other arm. The bloody saber wound smashes into the mobile suit's shoulder shield, smearing blood across the chocobo-head icon and white stripe painted there. Knee and arm struts strain dangerously, warning lights winking to life as Ana pushes both the reactor and the frame to try and bear the weight of Dragates's creation. There is a loud metallic pop as a large plate beneath the right arm jars loose, hanging lopsided from the frame and exposing a flash of cabling. Smoke wafts from the damaged section.

But the reinforced frame holds - somehow. The Gustav Karl was built hardened, designed to withstand the bullets of Zeonic remnants operating in the remote parts of Earth. The Heavy Weapons Type is even more rugged. The weight of all those guns requires being upbuilt.

"Look, I don't know who that is," Ana growls at Dragates. "There's one thing I know for sure, though. You know what it is?!"

With a boom of breast thrusters, the Gustav Karl lurches back, whirling and nearly staggering as it manages to slip out of the Rhigat's grip. The mobile suit's knee hits the street, buckling pavement as it brings its other foot down and twists. As it rises, it's swinging its shotrifle forward, thruster wash billowing behind the machine to blow the awnings off of a couple of shopfronts.

"It's that what matters to me is protecting these people!" Ana roars, rearing in her seat. The Heavy Weapons Type's shotrifle blazes with a barrage of beam fire, tearing in at close range as Ana bears down again. She's trying to smash shot after shot into the giant kaiju before attempting to plant the barrel against it and shoot at zero distance.

KTS: Asciel Colette enervates Asuka Shikinami Langley, reducing her Morale significantly.
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley blocks Asciel Colette's Monomolecular Cutter Press, taking 5640 damage!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Asciel Colette's Vex Routine - JUDGE activates, causing Shock!
KTS: Asciel Colette has engaged Asuka Shikinami Langley
KTS: Ana Kambinda targets Dragates ri Becker with Heavy Beam Shotcannon Trench Sweeper!

<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.

"Lambda Driver confirmed," AL says, immediately before the enemy unit slams Arbalest with its own shot. "Category B damage to right shoulder and both knees. Stabilizers damaged."

Sousuke grunts a curse, and then Arbalest....flees? No, rather, it dives down an alley between buildings, and in that moment of lost sight, disappears.

What does a guerilla fighter do when faced with an unequivocally superior opponent? Disappear. Strategize...

And prey on their fears.

A storage bay completely the opposite direction of where Sousuke ran explodes, suddenly, owing to a stealthily thrown anti-tank dagger. A cargo container jerks. Was it tugged by a tow line? Kicked by a hidden ARM Slave?

Where...is he?

<Pose Tracker> Mia Brinkman has posed.

<<"You sound young. Like... Probably around my age back when I started fighting.">> Mia replies to Jude with a vague noise of both distress and interest, the age difference fairly clear in her voice as someone that's very not teenaged. She takes note of the kelp's movements, quickly realizing that such a weapon might not do it against this kaiju.

<<"If you're looking to free Area 11 from the Brittanians...">> She actually doesn't have a good response to that. Is there even a particularly great reason to fight here in that case? That anger, that desire for freedom from oppression, all of it hits Mia rather hard, and there's a moment of hesitation as she doesn't bring out another weapon just yet.

It's only for a moment, though, as the Dom forma Big's boosters flare to life once more, the needle scraping along the side of the entire cannon system with a cringe-inducingly loud screeching noise. Those boosters are disabled as the ones on the back of it activate, sending the chunky machine forwards as it brings out an orange-bladed halberd.

<<"If you believe you can free your people with these weapons, then show me what you can do without them. Show me that you won't lose sight of peace while fighting for it!">>

Once again, it's a museum piece, but it's the best Mia has for close range. The Dom Gnomides charges at the Hugoron, sweeping the blade upwards from below first before bringing it down at the kaiju to try and force it into a grapple.

She has to calm herself a moment before responding to Dragates once more, sounding a bit more sour and not nearly as gentle as she did (relatively) with Jude. <<"It's just proper strategy! Not violence for the sake of... Nn.">>

Alright, maybe a lot more sour.

<Pose Tracker> Sumire Kanzaki has posed.

Hell indeed. The sudden detonating FIRE of the chest cannon while the two Kobus are in close proximity is faster, more agile than Sumire had expected. The shell grazes the Kobu's arm -- the blow jerking Sumire's arm as she hisses in pain, and it is enough to send her naginata flying off through the window of a (thankfully evacuated) All-Halal McDowells outlet.

'Ugh,' Sumire thinks in the second or two before the impact with the road. 'It's numb -'

KLANG! The Kobu Kai hits the pavement and bounces, rolling to the side to get on its front and kip back upwards. The cameras flit round, spotting the naginata as Sumire's lips thin and she drives forwards. It's enormous, Sumire thinks, and it's encrusted with that powerful metal... in a way it's as if we're fighting Mazinger Z itself.

But...

"Heh," the loudspeakers of the purple Kobu Kai say. "A good analysis, perhaps... of the *early* Faust!"

The wheel drive's still fine, Sumire thinks, as she steers forwards, rescuing her weapon. She does not pursue her attack right away.

"But in Goethe's own rendition... Mephistopheles helps Faust to steal the heart of an innocent girl. Gretchen, isn't it? And her life is destroyed, too. Another victory for hell - two or three souls for the price of one, isn't it? BUT:"

The Kobu Kai vaults upwards, using a bus stop to get onto the top of a two-story retail building. Skidding along its roof, Sumire continues. "In the end - Gretchen's prayers - and Faust's own regrets, and constant striving, win them their salvation, do they not? Perhaps you have your own version that you prefer --" Another vault, onto a four-story bank building. Pivoting around from this high perch, she points accusingly with the naginata.

"But I think the crowd's favorite is the one where they elude the Devil, while Hell's back is turned!" This is said while Sakura is on her way up.

<Pose Tracker> Asuka Shikinami Langley has posed.

Asuka pants, as she regains her focus. Countless hours of training kicking in and cutting through the haze of adrenaline. For a while Asuka doesn't say anything, just trying to regain control of the Ichinana in the Maelstrom. It doesn't respond like the Evangelion she's used to... the advantages gained by not synchronizing are lost in moments like these when an unfamiliar machine isn't responding exactly how she wants it to.

It's only through sheer raw talent that she manages to assert control underwater, whirling around the mass produced shadow of the greater Mazinger legacy under her control.

Panting, her breathing still strained in the hyperventilation which feels different from her lungs filled with LCL fluid, she turns around with her shield to meet the Greatsword. The great razor edge careens against it, smashing her down into the sea floor as she struggles to meet the Codarl's far greater leverage, the shield starting to crack apart, the edge of the Greatsword digging into the chassis behind it.

Feet struggling to maintain purchase in the seafloor's sand, Asuka discards the Machine Gun. And reaches out...

"You're the one who's... adorable."

'S-172? She'll never make it past the next round of tests...'

Asuka says as she reaches out for the arm holding the Greatsword, trying to grip ahold of the armor plating at its waist. "You think I care how narrow... that beam of light is?"

'Some so-called Patchwork prodigy? She won't last a week.'

With a lurch, she tries to pull the Ichinana up into the range of the Arm Slave. "I'm the best. And I will ALWAYS grasp it."

Discarding all finesse, she lurches upright, driving the Ichinana bodily inside the Greatswords range, brawling like it's an Eva. The Knee of the Ichinana reaches up to try and slam right into it center mass. As she tries to shift her grip to seize it around the mechanized neck, and start to PULL like she intends to try and rip the Codarl's head clean off... easier said than done.

<Pose Tracker> Jude Espella has posed.

Mia's blade flies out, the Dom Gnomides engaging the Hugoron in a grapple. This is a problem - the Hugoron is bigger.

And he's probably not going to win this fight. Jude realizes this, but she was challenged. <"Who are you to say I must prove myself? We will just have to crush you underfoot, then.">

The Hugoron takes a step forward.

The Hugoron orients his body to fall directly onto Mia's Dom Gnomides and smush it as much as possible. It'll be fine at lifting itself up later.
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley targets Asciel Colette with Ichinana CQC Brawl!

<Pose Tracker> Dragates ri Becker has posed.

Rhigat is still trying to flatten whenever the boosters push it back. Dragates, meanwhile, has escaped back to his ship.

The horrid smell of burning flesh is the next thing those on the street know as the shotrifle comes around, burning the right side and actually making the flamethrower explode before the point blank shot that tears apart what's left of Rhigat's torso. The beast gives a bellowing cry of obvious pain before it ends up falling backwards and dieing in the street. A short time later, all those flames reach the other arm, along with just about everything else and a massive boom sounds out as it's payload of missiles also detonate. All that's left is the rhino-like horn that ends up missing the Gustav and in someone's office it looks like.

Dragates laughs, "Amazing. And here I did not expect to find one of the so-called Heroes in Africa as well."

He radioes the others of Amalgam, <Hm. My Rhigat model has fallen. I suppose I will have to try another sequence.

<Pose Tracker> Em Gelfand has posed.

The Arbalest... runs away?

"Not if I have anything to-" The Codarl gives chase. It rounds the corner -- and its quarry is gone.

Em guides it a step backwards, looking for a sign of passage. Nothing. 'It's just ECS,' they think to themself; 'it's the same system you have. You know all the weaknesses. Find one.'

An explosion. The AS spins on its heel, its own mono-cutter abruptly in-hand and raised to intercept an incoming charge from cover. None comes. A second passes; maybe two. One of the cargo containers moves a little, and the Codarl turns again, dropping low and perfectly positioned to counterattack against a leap over the top from the other yard.

Still nothing.

The pulse in Em's ears is deafening. An awful ringing grows alongside it. Flickers of movement at the corner of their eyes, tricks of the mind imposed upon their sight, start to run and jump and swim. Em bites their tongue, focused on the sudden, very real, very deliberate pain. They caused that. Nobody else. This is real. That isn't. None of that is.

The Venom unit is momentarily motionless, crouched and waiting. Sousuke would be forgiven for thinking the enemy was laying in wait rather than suffering a mild psychotic episode.

KTS: Em Gelfand targets Sousuke Sagara with Pass!

<Pose Tracker> Mia Brinkman has posed.

<<"I'm...">> What's the best way to put this? <<"I'm just a former soldier history forgot, and I'm looking out for a new one.">> Mia lets out a slightly more amused noise at that, at least, and that definitely doesn't come with a strange sense of satisfaction at finally being able to be cryptic for once.

That almost refined tone is immediately destroyed when the Hugoron starts falling at the Dom. There's a startled yelping noise from her end of the comms as the halberd goes up horizontally, trying to hold the sheer weight of the kaiju back as it falls forward. The Mobile Suit is only able to hold that weight for a little while before it starts buckling under the pressure, and its thrusters push it back abruptly so as to not sustain even more damage to its arm joints trying to bear that much extra weight.

<<"Don't forget that you're not the only one that hates war. Maybe we'll find each other again sometime.">>

Shortly after it's able to slip back, though, it goes right back in with that halberd. It swings the halberd in a less smooth manner than before, almost as if Mia's wielding that thing like a sledgehammer this time around in trying to slash up the Hugoron. After two wide swings, it draws back and aims a big stab at center mass.
KTS: Mia Brinkman targets Jude Espella with Standard Physical Melee Weapon Combo!
Mia Brinkman has cancelled her attack.

<Pose Tracker> Ana Kambinda has posed.

Yeah. Yeah, it was alive.

Ana clicks her teeth together as the smell of burning meat infiltrates her cockpit. She pounds a control, forcing the Gustav Karl's particle separators to churn and filter out the worst of it, but some things can't be fully escaped - like the sight of a giant creature being physically torn apart in a way that's completely alien in mobile suit combat.

When the Rhigat falls into the street, the pained cry leaves Ana sitting tense in her cockpit. Dragates fires a provocation at her, but what he gets back is a frankly upset silence. Ana doesn't really feel like a Hero of Africa right now.

Particularly when the Rhigat detonates under her. "Shit!" she curses as she hunkers behind her shield. Chunks of exploded Rhigat splatter across dusty white buildings, the force of the explosion shattering windows and setting off alarms throughout that sector of the city, while some unfortunate someone gets a horn delivered at high velocity.

More collateral damage. Struggling with a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach, Ana jabs her comm control.

"You said your name's Dragates?" she transmits, her voice tense. "What kind of sick cabrao are you, sending living beings like that to fight for the sake of causing this much suffering? And for innocent people? I swear on the fucking Bible that if I run into you again--"

It turns out that Ana's accent grows more pronounced the angrier she gets. Dragates and the gang don't get to see how much farther it goes before she trails off, grinding her teeth for a moment. She draws a long breath through her nose, fighting to steady herself, before letting it out in a long rush.

All she can do from here is turn the Gustav Karl and sweep the battlefield with a surveying look. Rhigat and Dragates didn't come alone.

They very much didn't. Ana presses her lips together. "...What is this all about, anyway," she murmurs. "Did one guy do all this? And that logo...."

She hasn't joined another fight yet. But she might.

<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.

The target is demoralized. Sousuke doesn't see what it's doing other than jerking around uncertainly at each trap he sets. That's all he needs. "Target appears to be in a panic," AL observes. "Agreed," Sousuke says. "Switch us back to combat power."

Arbalest emerges, the electric-blue flash of ECS Invisibility fading as the white machine steps, not leaps, out from behind a building, positioned to take advantage of the Venom's discomfort. Being your own distraction is never great, but it works, sometimes, he thinks.

        Take a deep breath, Kaname had told him. He does.

        Point the gun at him, she told him. He does.

"AL," he says, his world falling away.

"Lambda Driver activation confirmed."

Arbalest's shoulders swing open, long heat-emitting fins BLASTING waste heat and blue-white light behind the small machine.

And in front, light gathers before him, swirling around the bore of his shotcannon.

He pulls the trigger, as he wills it, the shell rips through all defense on its way to its target.
Sousuke Sagara transforms to ARX-7 Arbalest - Lambda Driver Online

KTS: Sousuke Sagara has activated the Spirit Spirit Command.
KTS: Sousuke Sagara has activated the Focus Spirit Command.

<Pose Tracker> Jude Espella has posed.

<"Hmph."> Jude responds skeptically, but she has no real reason to doubt Mia's intentions. The halberd holds up Hugoron enough for her to slip back, and then the swings and stabs cokme in. Hugoron roars in pain, loudly, as he is cut into.

He is not killed, but he's bleeding pretty badly.

And then, Jude raises a hand as she comms again. <"My friend here is hurt pretty badly, and I don't want to see him die. If you're really looking out for a new one, allow us to retreat. I'll believe you that you're not a government dog.">

Hugoron begins heading back for the coast, to retreat. Radio is kept on, surprisingly. Jude isn't going to stick her neck out for Dragates when he couldn't do the same for his own kaiju.
KTS: Sousuke Sagara targets Em Gelfand with Lambda Shotcannon Obliteration!

<Pose Tracker> Dr. Hell has posed.

"Ah yes, the addition." Brocken's attention is successfully diverted by the spirited debate on German theater. "I found the changes to be like most remakes, a dilution of the original text's complexityin pursuit of a broader audience that will likely just recognize the insult to their intelligence. Is there anything more dismissive than a playwright with a grudge?"

"Is that where you find hope? In the vague idea that if you suffer enough, if you find the right tone of voice to beg in, if you starve and crawl and drag through the dirt, there will be any kind of reward?" Brocken looks over the field at the frightened, broken people hitting each other with robots. His lips curl into a sneer. "Pathetic. There was a time when the stars themselves quaked at humanity's passing, curled away at the bright light of our ambition. How low the human condition has fallen in a few short years. Truly, he was correct. Mankind needs a master."

Soaked up in misanthropy, Brocken misses Sakura's maneuvering until the swordswoman slashes the back of Panzer B1 brutally, sending sparks flying as the first serious hit of the melee is landed. The Machine Beast falls to a knee, and Brocken's eyes widen, his lips curling back, foam flecking from his lips as a sudden furious rage overtakes the soldier.

Em, you can see it.

Just for a second. Is it a hallucination?

It is a man, tall, pale, covered entierly in a black cloak offset by a snow white beard and wild white hair. His skin...blue? He's looking at you, inside of your machine. How is this possible.

"You are with me." His voice is the song that plays to end the world, his touch a hand around your throat. "If you die, it will be magnificent. And then I will make you better. There is a place for these feelings."

Doctor Hell's awful yellow eyes shine. "Outside." And the vision is gone.

Panzer B1 shudders, overwhelmed and more targets are making themselves known. So what. The back pops open, and more spine missiles scream out at both Kobal Kais, the machine beast trying to buy itself time to recover.

<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.

<"Hehehe. I hardly take any offense to being adorable. My duty is to be adored, after all! You ought to take it a little more in stride yourself.~"> At this juncture, Asciel's thinking just as hard about the overall operation - the defenders rallying rather successfully, and the kaiju taking a heavy beating - just as much as the Codarl's blaring up with alarm after alarm in the wake of her messy underwater brawl.

At this rate, will she even be able to retrieve a target?

...Even more critically though, Asciel bears just enough witness to Em's struggling - stifled, oh so professionally, to be sure - yet still clear enough in conjunction with noting the sibling Codarl has gone completely still. A disastrous state in the heat of combat.

A little rectangle asserts itself dead-center in Em's displays. A badge boldly emblazoned OWL along the top, suitably stylized with ornate embossed feathers in the corners, and highlighted by fittingly large, alert silver eyes.

Those then wipe away, replaced by human-like eyes behind glasses - hued a piercing, vivid orange. Maybe, even in the midst of Em's troubles, they'd notice it's an artificial rendering, rather than a real person. Though they probably have far more imminent worries in the midst of Sousuke's absolutely devastating blast.

<"It's not ending here. Listen to me...look into my eyes. Hold that. Breathe deep. Close them tightly for a while, now. You've gotten yourself in oh so terrible a situation, hm?~ If you've gotta clap yourself on the cheeks to snap out of it, now's a good time, depending on if that works for you. ...Don't slip away from our tomorrow, no matter what, alright?~">

That transmission ends, and it's just as much invigorating for Asciel, whose Codarl's eye sputters and flickers from Asuka's grappling and damaging of the head...only for the face to open wide, revealing something much more human-like, staring down Asuka with a warm, brimming smile from cheek to cheek.

<"Invest yourself too much in your own triumphs, and you'll find fate has a way of punishing you. Never forget that you're imperfect, that your deeds will be improved upon manyfold, even right before your eyes. ...Do you need a reminder, of how harsh the universe is?">

Every vent on the Codarl bubbles beneath the water, burning hotter and hotter - the cooling 'hair' fanning behind the head radiantly, ascendantly. Asciel parts her arms - and with it, the water splits, held apart by pure force, making an isolated circle open to the sky - the sunlight harsh overhead.

The sun itself seems to judge Asuka - a fierce bolt of energy blasts from above, one that'd probably alarm external viewers to whom this exchange was largely out of sight. From outside, the bolt seems to emanate mysteriously from just below the clouds...but to Asuka, it is a sight like the heavens itself rending a decree.

<Pose Tracker> Mia Brinkman has posed.

Mia's not a fan of kaiju. Even though they seem to be farm more prevalent on Earth, she's yet to see one that she actually likes. That's why, when Jude calls Hugoron a friend, she actually holds back. There's definitely some more to this than it seems, and she's not bout to just destroy a chance at finding out something new.

The heat halberd gets put away, and the Dom Gnomides starts sliding backwards.

<<"Go. Please. If we meet again...">> She pauses. <<"Mia. Just don't mistake me for a friend of the Federation next time.">> She speaks with a softer tone at that last part, and the Dom Gnomides launches a smoke screen to cover its retreat.

<Pose Tracker> Sakura Shinguji has posed.

Sakura's Kobu Kai lands. Brocken is furious -- she registers that as she is bounced by the shock absorbers, hitting the ground roughly. The damaged Kobu Kai turns, armor glinting where bullets have left it brutally scarred -- and where it is viciously blackened along the front, where it was struck earlier. Both of its three-fingered hands still grip the sword, the tachi gleaming in the light. She looks up at the city.

She considers Brocken. She isn't Koji Kabuto, but she can try to do the best she can. "The art of the Shinguji line!" she calls out, as she feels a surge of power; as the cables, running from the Kobu's interior to the shoulders of her uniform rumble. White light begins to crackle down the length of her sword. "Cherry!"

She swings the sword backward, then, as she sizes up the Panzer B1. The huge, cannon-adorned Machine Beast terrifies her; it's something that strikes deep into her heart. Huge, imposing, and frightening. She wonders how she can fight something like this, but she knows.

She learned.

Her Spirit Power flares outward. It is a flash of light up the sword, as white turns pink. It wafts off her blade, and it becomes like spectral cherry blossom petals. "BLOSSOM!"

And the she chops the blade downward. Like she has done since she was a child; like her father did, since he was a child; like a thousand Shingujis did before her. Strike down, cleave through their own power, and send out a blast of fiery pink energy that leaps off her sword. It rises as successive, almost spike-like arcs, and grows to nearly be the size of the Panzer B1 -- it all comes barreling down on it, with a storm of cherry blossoms blowing behind it.

"SMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITE!"

KTS: Sakura Shinguji has activated the Alert Spirit Command.
KTS: Sakura Shinguji has activated the Alert Spirit Command.
KTS: Sakura Shinguji has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
KTS: Sakura Shinguji targets Dr. Hell with Vanquishing Blade - Cherry Blossom Smite!

<Pose Tracker> Sumire Kanzaki has posed.

The Spirit Energy, Sumire would have to admit, is not really going in a super positive direction. Her lips purse for a moment again. Where is it coming from? Is it something that Count Brocken has visited upon them? Is all of this a feint?

But...

"Did they?" Sumire replies.

"I would hate it! I have no interest in being feared, Count Brocken! Your heart is withered and closed-off - it's no wonder you're following the dream of a departed tyrant, who sought to tyrannize all of Japan, and all of the world, yet! Pfah! To look at the stars in the sky and think that they feared me and my people... it would be miserable! Fearful!"

"If the heavens should have an opinion of me," Sumire says, starting to spin the naginata hand over hand as the warmth of Spirit Power rises, "then I would prefer -- by far -- LOVE!" At this point she pulls it into reverse, spiralling round the roof of the bank building as the incoming barrage expends itself and completely wrecks their HVAC equipment - but better HVAC than 'a building, and also a town', perhaps. At which point Sumire leaps from the roof herself.

The blade of the naginata erupts into flame as Sumire descends through the air. Fierce compassion, she tells herself. Erupt -- "Kanzakifujinryu," Sumire recites to herself. The flame burns higher. "Peacock's--"

SLAM!

... she stabbed the ground. "Dance!"

The gathered spiritual energy ripples down, into the rich soil of Africa; off of the ancient stone; and then back up, and around Panzer B1 in a purifying circular rush of flame!

"Go back to the days of the past... where you belong!"

KTS: Sumire Kanzaki has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
KTS: Sumire Kanzaki has activated the Strike Spirit Command.
KTS: Sumire Kanzaki targets Dr. Hell with Kanzaki Fujinryu - Butterfly's Dance!
KTS: Dr. Hell fails to retreat.
KTS: Dr. Hell fails to react to Sakura Shinguji's Vanquishing Blade - Cherry Blossom Smite, taking 7680 damage!
KTS: Sakura Shinguji has engaged Dr. Hell
KTS: Dr. Hell fails to react to Sumire Kanzaki's Kanzaki Fujinryu - Butterfly's Dance, taking 7800 damage!
KTS: Sumire Kanzaki has engaged Dr. Hell

<Pose Tracker> Ana Kambinda has posed.

Ana takes a moment to secure the immediate surroundings - and the Gustav Karl. The Heavy Weapons Type is spattered with kaiju blood, and armour plates hang loose in several places, the result of too many Rhigat impacts against too much reinforced frame. The machine was built to withstand impacts from bullets and rockets carried by Zeon remnants. Handling kaiju brawling is entirely outside Ana's normal scope.

"...Mobile One to Sight One," she reports, touching her headset and looking up to where a single helicopter whirls well outside the battle zone. "I've taken some damage, but it looks like the A3 can still go."

"Roger that, Mobile One," the operator's voice comes back, a little shaky. "That other one... is that emblem--"

"I'm not sure," Ana admits, turning the A3 towards the kikaiju rampaging against the pair of Kobus. "I don't recognize the other units, either. They're not any kind of MULS-P I'm familiar with."

"Acknowledged. What do you want to do?"

Ana takes three seconds to consider it. Then she squares her jaw and cranks her hands against her controls.

The Gustav Karl A3 goes barreling down one of the longer streets, trailing a mixture of blown sand and smoke. By the time she's halfway there, Sumire and Sakura have taken care of half the problem, leaving Ana raising her eyebrows and clicking her teeth together. "Damn, they're strong," she murmurs before lining up a shot.

The Gustav Karl plants at a distance and opens fire with both Gatling guns. Bullets pound towards Panzer B1, the guns' fire noisy, fiery and difficult to miss.

It comes with the opening of a comline. "Is that who I think it is, sending that thing?" Ana's voice asks, aimed at Sakura and Sumire.

<Pose Tracker> Em Gelfand has posed.

Em's apparent panic is total. Nothing is working. Is it the chemical cocktail they took before they engaged? Is it having a delitirious effect? It shouldn't. Their biology is perfect. The chems are precisely-tailored to cause minimal side-effects, and even then, they ought to only occur once their system is flushed of the stuff. Unless...

Unless they're already coming apart. Unless it's worse than they thought. Two more years? Please. Maybe it's only months. Maybe it's only *weeks* --

Em's hyperventilating breaths catch when something else manifests. A vision of a man that anyone in Amalgam's employ would recognize on the spot. It's too vivid, too much for it to be the usual tricks of the mind... and he couldn't possibly be one of the ghosts of the planet's wars that creep up on Em, either. The texture is all wrong.

'Make you better.'

Em shudders, squeezes their eyes shut, and pries them open again. The world is a vista of swirling dust and cracked pavement... and at the center, the Arbalest, with a familiar glow backlighting it.

A sharp inhalation is all Em gets before the gun goes off. The explosive force tears the Codarl out of its waiting crouch and sends it flying, doubled over like a man who had folded in half around a baseball bat. It hits the concrete block that is the depot and punches straight through the reinforced walls, ripping a hole between the first and second floor and collapsing some poor functionary's hard-earned corner office in an instant. Its own Lambda Driver activation seems to go haywire, with spiralling cracks in geometric patterns unfurling across the surface of the building where it's pinned by debris like a particularly violent butterfly. Fires break out where the heatsink ponytail touches flammable materials, filling the interior of the structure with a rapidly-spreading blaze that the now-damaged fire suppression systems struggle to contain.

Em's head bounces off the headrest. They struggle to breathe for a span of seconds. On their display, the OWL badge appears, and calming words give Em something to focus on besides the pain in their ribs and how absolutely pear-shaped this has all gone in about two whole minutes.

"Mithril..." The voice is high and wheezy. There's a cough. "If you didn't-- didn't like cake..." Another wheezy breath. "...you could've said so."

One more breath, this one more measured. Everything seems to crystallize in Em's vision.

The Codarl explodes out of the building with a flare of violet-white light, and the front half of the building comes along with it. It touches the ground once, and then gravity changes which direction 'down' is, the chunks of concrete and rebar ripping free and propelled forward with it in jagged cloud. It 'falls' sideways at the Arbalest, the debris cloud accelerating with it -- and then the ARM Slave abruptly stops a short distance from it, redirecting the g-forces it should be suffering into the enemy machine, the debris compacting downward around the Arbalest like an enormous fist closing on a troublesome fly.

Behind it, its ponytail glows with a brilliant and beautiful white heat.

KTS: Em Gelfand targets Sousuke Sagara with Mind Over Matter Squared!

<Pose Tracker> Asuka Shikinami Langley has posed.

Asuka's efforts are greated by the face of the Codarl opening wide into a brimming smile which momentarily gives her pause. That hesitation, recovers with a renewed focus on her grip. "Stop... looking down on me... with that stupid... SMILE...!"

It's irritating, it wasn't even that long ago, just a few hours when she thought Kaworu was doing the same. And she took great pleasure in turning it into a frown. Now this Arm Slave is doing the same.

"YOU!"

The water abruptly splits as the Codarl ascends out of her grip. She readies the thrusters, but the bolt of energy is already coming. And all she has is a shield that's half ruined by a Greatsword strike and a damaged arm beneath it. No A.T. Field that. She still raises it ANYWAY as a fierce bolt of energy blasts above, as she raises it as best as she can against what's coming.

-=-=-

"S-078. Come with us."

A child who knows better than to cry breaks down sobbing. She knows what it means. Pitilessly she's hoisted off the floor by two adults and pulled out of the room. They don't need to do this in front of them - but they think it serves as proper motivation.

S-172, like so many others, just watches, and vows to herself it will never be her.

It happens again.



And again.

And again.

A cycle repeated.

And it is only the beginning.

-=-=-

Asuka Shikinami Langley never needs a reminder of how harsh the universe is. The very act of it is the twisting of the knife long penetrating the chest of someone who tries to pretend to be numb to its pain.

The edges of the shield begin to melt, while the chassis beneath it begins to heat into a harsh red. Unfortunately... the crack in the shield becomes one unforgivable chink in her armor. The chest it is protecting begins to melt behind it... warning alarms begin to blare all over the cockpit.

And all of a sudden it stops responding to her commands as something vital is destroyed.

Her breathing picks up, her arms shake as she realizes what has happened, trying to pull at the triggers again and again. "DAMNIT!"

She pounds the console once with her fist - and prepares to eject if need be despite being underwater, every part of her shaking.

Yet she doesn't curl up into a ball, she isn't paralyzed despite how dire the situation is. She's a survivor, first and foremost. She keeps her hand on that part of the console, noting that it's still active.

<Pose Tracker> Dr. Hell has posed.

"The Shinguji line." Brocken's monocle burns like an unkind sun, as he hovers over the battle, utterly secure in his invincibility. "I shall remember that name."

The Kobul Kais move like lightning. Brocken is secretly impressed that the ridiculous machines can do that much damage; the elegant, shining displays of swordplay and high school debate tear into the Panzer. Sakura rips an arm straight off, sending it flying through an elegant local arch and directly into the local BMTV (Brittanian Music Television) broadcasting center. Sumire's spear play shatters a mechanical knee, trapping the Panzer on the ground and utterly robbing it of any mobility. Steam rises from the beast, and then the local heroine fires on his creation. Brocken's face twists into a scowl as holes are ripped in the delicate machinery of the Panzer B1.

It's chest cannon is still there.

"Fire." Brocken says, and waves a riding crop. "Fire! FIRE SCHNELL!"

The Machine Beast lets out a weak groan, and fires a shuddering blast from its chest canon at Ana! It turns, losing oily blood and hunks of armor, to fire at Sumire! Finally the machine leans back, all but exposing its neck, to fire one last desperate shot at Sakura! The sheer effort of this maneuver has melted the Panzer's chest cannon, rendering it all but useless.

If you survive the experience.
KTS: Dr. Hell targets Sakura Shinguji with Panzer War Chest Center-Mass Shot!

<Pose Tracker> Sakura Shinguji has posed.

"Make sure that you do!" Sakura answers Brocken, with a little defiance. Defiance, because the alternative is thinking about it for too long and worrying. The anxiety about that can come later. At the moment, she has to survive.

This is not easy.

The Machine Beast is badly damaged but the central cannon works -- and it fires repeatedly. The last blast hurtles close -- and the Kobu Kai ducks just to the side. Sakura takes a deep breath, sucking in a gasp -- and then the shot fires just left of the Kobu Kai. It comes so close that it gives the machine a spin -- and then the Kobu leaps, hurtling for the Panzer, with the tachi out to the side.

"Sumire!" she yells. "OAC pilot! We can do this...!"

The Kobu Kai comes down -- and stabs down, trying to strike the blade into the very top of the Machine Beast--

--and then TWISTS, and tear out the other side.

KTS: Sakura Shinguji targets Dr. Hell with Rising Wave!

<Pose Tracker> Ana Kambinda has posed.

Before Ana gets an answer, she gets a taste of her own medicine in the form of a gigantic cannon.

With a gasp, Ana drops the Gustav Karl to a knee. The A3's shield swivels forward, the bloodied chocobo-on-stripe oriented forward as the burly machine hunkers behind the giant armour plate. The massive cannon shell slams into the shield with enough force that the mobile suit is pushed backward about fifty metres, knee leaving a deep trench in the street. Shrapnel scatters past the damaged shield, cutting trails in the machine's leg and shoulder armour.

The Gustav Karl's shield smokes as Ana fires her thrusters and barrels forward again. "So it is who I think it is," she growls as she begins to maneuver to one side, darting down another of the city's irregularly-plotted streets. "I thought he was dead."

Ana doesn't really have a great grounding in all things Dr. Hell. Her focus has mostly been on defending Africa - and on her personal and political squabbles with Britannia. The good Doctor has, in this case, rather forced himself into the field of things and people relevant to her. Working up a firing solution, she boosts into position before planting a heel and grinding to a stop.

"Captain Ana Kambinda," she answers Sakura. "Let's get it done!"

The Gustav Karl A3 braces and swings its Gatling guns forward, beginning to unleash a steady, deafeningly loud bombardment from the mid-range. The heavy weapons cycle several times, the loud churning sound of their reloading ringing off of buildings between rounds of firing. Each burst lasts only a couple of seconds but puts hundreds of bullets in the air in that span. Ana's timing each burst carefully, maneuvering her targeting reticle to create openings for Sakura and Sumire to strike.

"Whoever those two are, they're pretty skilled," she murmurs, tense. "A Combat Revue...."
KTS: Ana Kambinda targets Dr. Hell with Twin Gatling Cannon Heavy Burst!

<Pose Tracker> Sumire Kanzaki has posed.

"Count Brocken? It seems to be," Sumire replies to the Gustav Karl. "He's certainly got abominable taste in theater. He's lost his head, in my opinion."

Behold, the terror of someone who has done improvisation drills since she was eleven years old! (Thanks, Mom! Actually, perhaps we shouldn't bring up mothers right now. Even so.)

The machine thrashes and screams in its - demise? It does seem almost alive, Sumire thinks even as she hard-banks to the lefthand side, the Britannian Music Television local office suffering further artilleric devastation as Sumire closes in. "Hngh - how rude of it! This must be an authentic Kikaiju, to endure this much punishment!"

The purple Kobu Kai skids momentarily in a gout of oily blood or bloody oil, Sumire's nose rankling even as she chops at neck and limb until it is done!

"Ghh! Where is Brocken!?" Sumire says somewhere around overhead chop #3.

KTS: Sumire Kanzaki targets Dr. Hell with Naginata Strike!

<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.

The waters rush back over Asuka, as Asciel's Lambda Driver winds down, the Codarl steaming all over, crackling and sparkling from the rough brawl. <"For a false Fortress of Iron, you certainly put up a fight~ You put so much of yourself into this art, that I worry you'll crack at this rate. Maybe today can be a good wake-up...that there will always be forces too vast to defeat, and that pinning all of your hopes on victory will hollow you out. Surely you have -someone- in your life who knows how to advise you take a breather?~">

Asciel doesn't stay around long to taunt Asuka - unceremoniously, she's firing the ECS back up and darting towards the supply depot. There's a mission to fulfill that's on the brink of being undone, with the peril that the rest of Amalgam is falling into.

Ten minutes later, a fizzling mirage appears in front of the astrological institute, Asciel scanning the windows and surroundings for signs of Dr. Hell's sought-after Professor Sarvagya. There's obviously plenty of panic and cowering going on...but with enough scrambling and chaos, she eventually picks him out behind a window. The Arm Slave's hand crashes through the glass, the ECS quickly dispersing, reaching out and grasping the target...and pulling him towards an opening around the Codarl's back - a dim, cramped area where there -ought- to be a cockpit, but in this case, is just a single chair isolated and walled off. A functional prison cell for the professor.

As much as she does enjoy teasing her targets...on this occasion, Asciel's silent with the man, especially with him inside the Codarl. Better not to let him get any ideas or insights~

<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.

"Confirm it, AL," Sousuke says, quietly.

"... ... ..."

"AL?"

"Negative," AL says, suddenly. "Negative, target is still moving!"

Sousuke doesn't even have time to complain about MACHINES that don't WORK, because, what...THE hell, is that? Gauron made it repel attacks. OK, sure. Reflection of projectiles. Right. Crazy but a comprehensible physical reaction. Defensive shields, sure. But...

But whatever that is?? What even is that? Sousuke has to understand it enough to want to defend against it!

His will to survive sustains him as the attack crashes against the Arbalest. Its Lambda Driver barrier flares brilliantly, until a rupture happens and the Arbalest soars backward completely out of the compound, landing in a heap among the buildings.

Sousuke groans in his seat. "AL," he grunts. "Ngh. Damage report."

"Class A damage to all mobility components," AL reports. "Continued combat is impossible. Recommend retreat along evacuation corridor 3."

Sousuke lies there for several seconds, stewing. His teeth grit.

"Sergeant?"

"...Highlight the route. Is ECS an option?"

"Lenses 2 and 4 are compromised," AL reports, the screen showing the icons.

"No invisibility and impaired movement," Sousuke summarizes, and slumps against his chair. "My homework will be late," he sighs, and begins the retreat, Arbalest limping away.

<Pose Tracker> Dr. Hell has posed.

Something faster, Brocken thinks, as his artillery piece is ripped apart by a melee dance team, something made entirely of knives.

His wonderful machine is absolutely brutalized, unable to connect a meaningful hit. The general sneers at this failure and is about to blow it up.

But he has orders. "Another time, ladies." Brocken says, and holds up his part of the Baton of Bardos: the Bardos Cross! The medal gleams with the impossible energy of raw Photon Power, bright, brighter than the sun..!

And he, and the robot, are gone.

SOMEWHERE ELSE

"Ashura."

"Back from failing, Count?" Tristan sneers.

"At least the mean girl did your job for you, Brocken." Isolda simpers.

"IN A WORLD OF ENDLESS CHANGE YOU ARE SO CONSISTENT, SOLDIER!" Ashura cackles madly.

Brocken smiles, thinly. "You'll be going there next. The library's in the region, remember? And they'll be looking for you, while I interrogate the old man about stars."

"YOU THINK WE SHY AWAY FROM COMBAT?!" Ashura thunders, gesturing violently at Brocken.

"They have no idea-" Isolda starts.

"-what they have awakened." Tristan finishes.

And the twin faces of Baron Ashura hug the Cape of Good Hope, baleful, antedeluvian gazes with only hatred in their eyes. "SO WE SHALL REMIND THEM OF THE TASTE OF FEAR. AH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!"

<Pose Tracker> Ana Kambinda has posed.

Ana has absolutely no idea that there was a kidnapping afoot. She's a single unit and cannot possibly be everywhere at once. One kaiju was about what she could handle; adding in a kikaiju is something she can manage only because the Neo-Japan Combat Revue has already done the bulk of the stabbing.

Brocken and the Panzer vanish under the light of Photon Power, from which Ana shields her eyes with one arm. When it fades, she blinks rapidly to try and clear her eyes of glare spots. "...The hell was that all about," she mutters as she takes stock of her sensors. They, too, are briefly befuddled by the surge of Photon Power, but flickering back to readiness as the seconds pass.

As they do, several indicators wink to life on her side monitor.

At the edge of the theatre, reinforcements are beginning to cruise in. They take the form of a pair of naval destroyers and a light aircraft carrier, several variable fighters and a couple of Ankshas standing on its deck.

"There's the cavalry," Ana sighs, touching her headset with one hand before canting the Gustav Karl's head towards the pair of Kobus.

"We owe you one. Who're you with again? A Combat Revue, you said?"

<Pose Tracker> Asuka Shikinami Langley has posed.

"Shut it! Stop mocking me! The last thing I need is anyone's advice!" She rasps out shakily, unclear whether her radio is even functioning well enough to get her through.

It takes her several full minutes enough to get over her embarrassment to pick up her back up portable satellite radio and hit it. "This is..." Asuka pauses, as she nearly states 'Evangelion Unit-02' over the radio. "...Langley. In need of pick up... a full aquatic recovery team will be required."

"Asuka!? You're... Already dispatched-! ETA 7 minutes."

Taking her hand off the button. A hand sifts through her hair, and down her face. Then she just lays back and pretends she's floating in LCL.

"And me waiting here without my Wonderswan... could this day possibly get any worse?"

-=-=-

"Really Asuka. You did fine. We took a risk sending you against several unknown enemies without immediate back-up and you acquitted yourself admirably-"

The apartment door opens, Asuka storms in Misato still talking behind her and doesn't bother to slip off her shoes, a Japanese habit she'd only recently come into contact with, it's not automatic for her. The sliding door of her room slams so hard Misato wonders if it's going to fall off for half a second.

"-That girl."

Misato sighs as she tosses down her bag and slides off her shoes. PenPen mercilessly waddles out of the kitchen, an Ichiban in hand, which Misato accepts, and pops the top off of, "What do you think PenPen? Are we making any progress?" PenPen is already waddling back to his freezer, but he turns his head and lifts his wings in a a gesture which might as well say 'I don't know.' before vanishing inside.

"Yeah me neither." Misato takes a long pull from the beer can.

-=-=-

Face half buried into her pillow, Asuka raises a hand puppet like doll, her voice modulating in her usual cutesy self talk. "Don't pay any attention to what she said, Asuka. You're special. Noone can break you. That's why just like now... just like always... you're able to keep going. Soon you'll be untouchable. And nobody will question your talent ever again."

The mocking smile of the Arm Slave appears in her mind's eye, and she pinches her eyes down, her tone changing back to normal. "... nobody." With a defeated whoosh of air from her lungs, she turns over, and reaches for her Wonderswan in bed. The buzz of a push alert on her phone alerts her and she grabs it instead, staring at the screen.

"'Virtual Sage'? Nngh... why do they even bother to alert people over this nonsense?"

She's about to put it aside... when she looks again. And in this moment where she's at an emotional nadir...

...she slowly, presses the link.

<Pose Tracker> Em Gelfand has posed.

It's manipulating fundamental forces and projecting kinetic energy, all right. It's just doing it in ways that Gau "Magical Brute Force Causes My Foes To Literally Disintegrate" Ron couldn't dream of. Honestly, it's one of the few upsides to being what they are. Em is, by their very nature, open to the world, a soul to be seen and understood by others with similar talents.

The Lambda Driver forces the world to be just as open to Em.

The Codarl does not pursue the retreating Arbalest. It backs off in the opposite direction, having the same plan as the Mithril pilot: flee the scene in as surreptitious a manner as possible. The Lambda Driver gradually powers down as it goes, and the Codarl moves more and more like one of the walking wounded, the sheer structural damage it collected over the course of the battle rapidly becoming obvious. Its heat signature shrinks, and shrinks...

Gone.

<Pose Tracker> Sumire Kanzaki has posed.

The shining of Photon Power --

And Sumire is left without a target.

She sets her naginata's hilt on the ground. "Hmf," she says again, before the Kobu's cameras turn towards the Gustav Karl. "Indeed, we are. We were conveniently in the area... I'm proud that we were able to assist you. But I must ask that if you should have inquiries, you address the military office of Neo-Japan..."

Is this Revue standard practice? Well, Sumire's the one talking right now!! "But please know that wherever the people are in fear, we are with you in spirit! For now, I must bid you farewell. But perhaps we will stand together," the beat-up little machine is already pivoting, "some day soon..."

AWAY!

Those things have good ground speed.

<Pose Tracker> Dragates ri Becker has posed.

The small city of Baraawe has seen perhaps a few better days.

There is a destroyed few streets from all the firepower tossed around.

The question of who this group was among other things, although with one baring the Iron Cross, it's possible that it's something to do with Dr. Hell.

Just who is Dragates? And why was there two living kaiju working with them?

Sometime later, however, they find out something more terrifying. They missed a kidnapping while handling the Panzer B1.

Professor Sarvagya wasn't that well known... but he had his specialities. Ones the heroes have little to no ideas about.

<Pose Tracker> Ana Kambinda has posed.

Ana stares after the racing Kobus, opening her mouth to try and say something. But Sumire's in the midst of her speech. Enough of the animation budget is dedicated to it that Ana can't get a word in until Sumire and Sakura are halfway off into the sunset.

She leans forward and drapes her arms over her knees with a nonplussed blink. Then another one.

"...Were those the world's strongest theatre kids?" she murmurs.

She sighs and pushes her ponytail back from where it's bunched over one shoulder. "...What do I know about that," she mutters. "I just grow the friggin' corn."

Out in the water, a couple of old Aqua GMs ae busy deploying a gigantic net for the purposes of retrieving Asuka like a caught redfish. It is probably not the most flattering means of retrieval.