2022-02-04: Emergence
- Log: 2022-02-04 Emergence
- Cast: Anti, Jude Espella, Qivi, Chibodee Crocket, Asuka Shikinami Langley, Euphemia li Britannia, Eisen Daiwel, Elisa Kafim, Nidaime, Ple Two, Shinji Ikari, Riddhe Marcenas, Guy Shishioh, Kaworu Nagisa, Yoko Nakashima
- Where: Nouvelle Tokyo
- OOC - IC Date: February 4, 0096
- Summary: Anti strikes at the Tokyo train station to protect Akane's home. Jude seeks out NERV to get revenge. Both get more than what they bargained for.
<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.
We've had a couple more visitors lately. Some of them seem fine, but I might need you to go outside if they keep showing up after you crush Gridman. If people are slipping in, that's a real problem!
Have you had any thoughts about how to fix the girl's world?
A boy stalks through the streets of Nouvelle Tokyo. Hands buried in his pockets, chin ducked over his neck. His shoulders rise up; his head drops down. The scarf which scatters behind him is his only concession to winter. His long sleeves are summer-thin.
He does not swerve for the crowd, as he makes for his destination.
He has something he has to do.
Soon, not even Gridman will be able to cry for help... and then everyone in my space will be quiet again, and people will stop coming in, and...
This is the Death Knight. Quite the highly-evolved mobile weapon, don't you think?
"Access code: Anti."
Creation of their affiliates, Anti is given passage to this part of BioNet, under Treasure Robotics' skin, all nestled between their bones. Here stands the Death Army unit: Death Knight, brown replaced with grey, red replaced with purple.
He vaults into its cockpit; the securing-harness latches around him, and he supposes that one of the first things he learned was the importance of his seatbelt, after all. Quite a few MORE seatbelts, here, than in the car -- more cables than straps, and sturdier, too -- but it is, Anti thinks, the same general principle.
"You got a problem?" He snaps at the shifting hexagons of those cable-belts, disturbed by motion; but as they make contact with the hollow chassis of his skin, they still.
I just stay in here.
Proceed with extreme caution. But do proceed.
He buries his hands in the open connectors of two of those cables, left exposed; he finds the wires exposed there make sense, to him. Perhaps it's no wonder. He is a child of data.
But the enormity of Death Knight is something else entirely. It hungers for something entirely aside from him -- something REAL. That Anti makes his demands is a ghost informing a starving man. No wonder he yells, as it refuses to take that first lumbering step: "Listen to me!"
Anti is not the pilot Death Knight desires.
But Anti is a creature of invention.
He stares into the sensors of this great, inert thing, which cares little for his hollow existence.
..... and Anti copies the systems of JDG-5555.
All bared teeth, he grasps the wires, and this time he understands how to make it take that step, how to make it heed his call. He is not built for Death Knight and Death Knight not for he. But, together --
"We have something we have to do -- Death Knight!"
I don't need help. I've got you!
Which of her tasks still go uncompleted?
! WARNING !
AGGRESSIVE MOBILE SUIT CONDUCT
DEATH ARMY DESIGNATION: JDG-5555
! WARNING !
It came from the water.
The sea sloughs from it, a scrap of seaweed caught, insignificant, on the spikes of its huge shoulders. Carrying a rifle, shield mounted to its shoulder, a circular saw lodged into the knuckles of its opposite hand...
The silver monstrosity 'Death Knight' stomps onto the dry ground of Nouvelle Tokyo. The sand sinks its gait, in that first step. The second is on concrete. The evacuation orders sounded as soon as nearby sensors picked up just what unit was approaching; those alarms scream through the air in staccato orchestra, a million-million ants streaming into their nests at the first sign of rain.
Rain which falls from it -- from him, as his unit shakes off the water, a sharp gesture as he grasp that rifle. He takes aim -- he fires. The beam barrages towards --
The train station..?
Death Knight takes off at a run towards it, bringing his fist back. The saw half-buried in it begins to WHIRR, dangerously, crackling with electricity. He makes no mystery of his target: the train tracks themselves.
From the unit transmits a voice -- boyish for all his white-hot anger, furious in the way he only tends to be in a battle, all his fears and frustrations unleashed for a cause.
"I WON'T LET YOU INVADE ANY MORE!"
There is a certain desperation, to him, pressured by the implications. He wants so badly to live up to expectations; he wants her love, her acceptance, her consideration so, so much. She is the model he was built on; she is all he can look up to, the elder, the first favoured child, the source of everything he knows. So long as she's happy with him...
How about instead, you figure it out *right now*?
... you know how impatient Akane gets, once you drive past enough opportunities to finish a mission.
.... so long as she's happy with him...
<Pose Tracker> Jude Espella has posed.
The Death Knight has caused an evacuation throughout Nouvelle Tokyo. But it's not alone. NERV is informed that 'Beast', the kaiju tamer that Eisen Daiwel fought, has started a standoff with the local police...using an open-face construction Labor.
Several blocks down from the train station, at an office district, far enough that the Death Knight is visible but not going to interfere, the aforementioned Labor stands over two toppled over old-gen police Wanzers, a makeshift spear in its hand. A sniper is currently taking point, waiting for an open shot, as other police Labors are making their way in.
The pilot is wearing a normal suit, colorful with a beast-like motif and a clawed gauntlet. Her only demands have been 'send NERV' and vague threats of a kaiju attack.
It's useful to check out - maybe distract her long enough for the sniper to get a shot off. Or de-escalate! That works too.
KTS: Anti has deployed in Death Knight.
KTS: Jude Espella has deployed in Zetton Savior.
KTS: Anti has changed loadout.
KTS: Jude Espella has changed loadout.
KTS: Anti has deployed as a Boss for 6 opponents.
KTS: Nidaime has deployed in Anosillus the First.
KTS: Kaworu Nagisa has deployed in Evangelion Unit-00.
KTS: Ple Two has deployed in AMX-004-03 Qubeley Mk. II 'Cybele'.
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley has deployed in Evangelion Unit-02.
KTS: Elisa Kafim has deployed in EXM-E7W Spinatia (Witchcraft Type).
KTS: Qivi has deployed in Zenith 250.
KTS: Qivi has changed loadout.
KTS: Euphemia li Britannia has deployed in RZX-7 Lancelot Club.
KTS: Chibodee Crocket has deployed in GF04-006NA Gundam Maxter.
KTS: Euphemia li Britannia has changed loadout.
KTS: Eisen Daiwel has deployed in Evangelion Unit-Zahllos - Carestia.
KTS: Yoko Nakashima has deployed in SAA-2 Windom.
KTS: Yoko Nakashima has changed loadout.
KTS: Jude_Espella has deployed as a Boss for 6 opponents.
KTS: Jude_Espella has deployed as a Boss for 5 opponents.
KTS: Anti has deployed as a Boss for 7 opponents.
KTS: Guy Shishioh has deployed in GaoFar.
KTS: Guy Shishioh has deployed in GaoFighGar.
KTS: Riddhe Marcenas has deployed in MSN-001A1 Delta Plus - MS Mode.
<Pose Tracker> Qivi has posed.
Qivi wasn't supposed to be fighting today.
After Sarangay got damaged fighting the Britannians, Qivi thought she'd lean on her semi-legal and illegal contacts to get the Knights a shipment of MULS-P parts. That's what she's doing now, near a warehouse on the shore.
"Great," she says. "We'll take them. Payment the usual way. You'll get it pretty soon." She reaches out, offering her hand to shake.
The man she's speaking with - ex-military and looks it - shakes on it. Or reaches for it, anyway - and that's when the seas part, and a god damned Death Army unit walks out of them. "What the FUCK," both of them yell, in perfect sync.
Qivi's hand snaps out for the man's shoulder. "Let me use one of the units," she says. "There's people over there - dammit, *they* never asked for this!"
"The only one that's assembled is a display unit," the man objects. "It's got some kind of demo weapon on it! I don't know if anyone's used one on a wanzer in live combat before."
"I'll take it," Qivi says. "Gimme one of those shotguns, too."
---
NOW
A Zenith 250 that 'fell off the back of a truck' (read: was stolen last week) accelerates through the city streets. It has a spiked shield held in one hand, a blocky-looking emitter in the other, and a shotgun currently locked on a carrying hardpoint across the back of its shoulders. It has the default 'urban camo' paint job and everything.
The Zenith broadcasts no IFF signal until halfway there, when Qivi manages to get it online. Then it starts declaring that it is Jade-Metal Lyman's. This is roughly analogous to a Zeta Gundam broadcasting it is on the Anaheim team, but it does the job of identifying her as 'actually a person and not a rogue Death Army unit' without giving away her real affiliation.
"What the fuck," Qivi complains. She is not wearing her piloting suit and is only about half strapped in, because her motorcycle jacket doesn't have some of the clips. Her hair is going everywhere, because she's using the panoramic cockpit instead of an old-fashioned VR helmet and doesn't have it tied back. "Who mounts a BEAM SABER on a wanzer? This is the dumbest plan. Literally the dumbest."
This does not stop her from driving directly at the Death Knight, granted. There's a Labor making demands but she doesn't rate that as nearly as important as stopping someone (something?) who is actively endangering the population.
"HEY," she yells, unnecessarily because she has a set of speakers that will amplify her without spiking the gain. "Look over here! Leave the nice trains alone!" She isn't sure she's talking with something that's a person, even if it is yelling. It could be a recording. She doesn't know.
Yet.
KTS: Jude_Espella has deployed as a Boss for 6 opponents.
<Pose Tracker> Chibodee Crocket has posed.
Chibodee Crocket doesn't end up in Nouvelle Tokyo that much. New Yark is too needful and this area has all kinds of local defenders. Chibodee instead ends up here entirely by accident -- a photo op featuring Gundam Maxter at a factory that he's got some investments in. Maxter is posing alongside some heavy machinery in an effort to sex up some dull industrial products, which Chibodee enjoys because it lets him drink beers without being noticed.
The civilians get the shelter alarm. Chibodee wordlessly rises up in Maxter and hops onto its flying surfboard, flying in toward the trouble. The thing coming out of the ocean is in his line of sight, so Gundam Maxter sets a course for the Death Knight attacking the railroad. It looks like -- no, it's just got to be a copycat. It can't be that, again!
"Hey!" Gundam Maxter broadcasts, basically in the same vein as Qivi. "People use those tracks to get to work! Knock it off!"
<Pose Tracker> Asuka Shikinami Langley has posed.
A sleek deluxe sized bullet train glides into the city on secure military train lines that come out from underground. It slides to a stop with a squeal of brakes in front of an intact major substation near Nouvelle Tokyo's bay - thankfully less conspicuous than the civilian train lines under fire. There are four long flat 'freight' cars with their cargo covered by tethered canvas. Those watching closely may see a hint of an enormous armored hand, a boot, a helm as the canvas seems unable to fully conceal it.
Immediately support and logistics staff in tan NERV uniforms, some with red berets and rifles rush off the front car to establish incident command.
Well practiced in this set up, the staff divides into four hustling to roll out wheels of enormous cables and hooking them up to the power substation where each is promptly connected. The canvas releasing from all four cars as if caught by a strong wind and torn off. Or at least, so one would think, before hydraulics hum explosively as giants of varying colors and armor design - and one of a different shape altogether, more bestial than the others are lifted into standing position upon vertical towers that unfold upon the cars. Staff monitoring the Evangelions watch the instruments as the substations begin to hum at a fever pitch.
"Unit-00 Internal Voltage has cleared set levels."
"Unit-01 Internal Voltage has cleared set levels."
"Unit-02 Internal Voltage has cleared set levels."
"Unit Zahllos - Carestia Internal Voltage has cleared set levels."
"Tch. We don't have time to tick off all the boxes! Unit-02 is launching!" Asuka says immediately once that comes over the comms, the young pilot in Evangelion-02's entry plug. The giant steps out of the tower... then the train car itself. Logistics staff hastily stepping away as they finish setting up Armory crates. Something detonates out of one of them, causing an armament to fly up into Evangelion-02's hand.
It looks like a simple yet large rifle, whose bayonet flips out like a long black needle like switch knife.
"I'm not waiting to see if that freak in the standoff will or won't..."
Evangelion-02 takes off at a dash, instead of waiting for an update on the situation with Jude cable unfurling behind it as she puts it in a run straight to the edge of the district's bay. "Hey moron! The only one I see invading..." Suddenly pressing a foot down, it does surprisingly little damage in the concrete, as the Red Giant with a demonic visage leaps high into the air, reversing the rifle upside down to attempt to drive it down into him with all of it's not inconsiderable weight behind it.
"-IS YOU!"
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley targets Anti with Thunder Spear Bayonet Stab!
<Pose Tracker> Euphemia li Britannia has posed.
Coordinating with NERV is a regular part of Euphy's role as Sub-Viceroy. Strictly speaking, this is something that's more under Cornelia's responsibility than hers, but Euphemia does often end up in Nouvelle Tokyo or Tokyo-3 to have frank discussions about what NERV needs and who it needs it from. It is not a part of the job she especially relishes; it's the nicest part in some ways but deeply stressful in others, mostly because: it's confusing!
It's not confusing in a bad way, mind. It's simply that for all Charles talks about letting other nations sink or swim on their own merits, Britannia's investment in NERV seems outsized. Euphy *likes* that the investment is there -- but does it make sense? It muddles what she feels like she's doing.
Her meeting with a mid-level functionary on Britannia's commitment to exploring forward iterations on STORAGE's design concepts gets interrupted by something getting kicked up the chain. 'Devil Gundam derivation sighted,' they say. 'Only one unit.'
"Excuse me -- I'll be evacuating," Euphy says.
"These Elevens-in-waiting aren't our problem," one member of the li Britannias' G-1 Base crew mutters to another. "The Princess is back on the bridge, right? We should leave this to them --"
A Lancelot Club, equipped with the anti-kaiju Chester Cascade sized for a Knightmare Frame, streaks out of the launch bay.
"Who authorized that?!" "The Princess, by remote, but she's not on the bridge --" "Wait, does that mean --"
This really is a world built on lies, isn't it?
The stark blue and white of the Lancelot Club streaks through the city. Euphy... probably would've had a better time if she'd taken her ceremonial Gloucester! The Club presents a better range of civil defense options in its present state, though; even if it's a Britannian unit, the Chester Cascade's bulky yet familiar configuration, even mounted on a KMF, is probably going to spook the locals less than a royal's personal machine...
She routes toward their mystery kaiju tamer, first. Maybe that's what lies at the heart of this fight -- it could be that the kaiju tamer's powers extend to the Death Army. If she can negotiate with her, then...
"Kaiju controller, this is Princess Euphemia li Britannia, acting in conjunction with NERV. If you have any control over the Devil Gundam unit, please tell it to halt. Otherwise, please state your full demands. I'm here for negotiations with NERV myself, and can act as a mediator." Please, she thinks -- don't turn this into any more of a fight. These people don't deserve it.
<Pose Tracker> Eisen Daiwel has posed.
Eisen is in his labs when the alarm goes off, demanding his attention and deployment. An enormous chunk of blood and flesh laying on a table for analysis. The young man pulls off the bloodied dark labcoat as he throws his tools to the side and notes; "Seal the lab and freeze the biological matter. I think I've got everything I need from it." Before grabbing a jacket and throwing it over his shoulders as he heads out.
Eisen is standing on the edge of the Plug sticking out of Unit-Zahlos upon that Bullet Train, arms crossed, legs pushing against the metal. His gaze off to the distance as the Death Knight rises from the waters beyond. He would whistle and be impressed, if the wind wasn't cutting so fast past his face that it'd do nothing.
He continues to stare for a little while on the approach, when he getes a message over the military radio before entering the combat zone. Someone is demanding that NERV show up. "Well of course we're supposed to show up..." But the timing doesn't sound right.
His jacket flies off of his shoulders as he stomps his foot to the plug's hatch, and he slides his way inside with the plugsuit on, and sinks himself into position within the cockpit, activating all systems and strapping himself in. The system comes to a halt, and the plugs are being connected. The enormous tail of the Zahlos being maneuvered to the side so it can be connected.
"Connection confirmed. Voltage confirmed." As the machine continues to be raised on vertical towers and unfolding to release the units. And off goes Asuka.
There's this immediate surge of excitement within Eisen. <"I won't let you head at this alone like that."> And the Carestia bursts out of the containment, rushing off. But instead of heading towards the sea-side, he's heading to the matter of the Labor that had been found demanding for NERV to show up.
Before long, above Jude Espella, there hangs an enormous shadow. The gaze of Carestia, stomping through the streets, seeking the street corner that things are happening at. At this height, there is so much to see.
But eventually he spots it. The Labor and the police surrounding it! Its head lowering, its body descending towards the Labor. Reaching out with its hand to just... pick it up. <"Time for you to head home, so we can focus on the important things here."> Eisen remarks almost dismissively to whomever is piloting that Labor.
Only to halt when he picks up a speech from... A Britannian unit!?
Princess Euphy!?
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
What an adorable normal suit!
Elisa D. Kafim is not part of NERV. She is, officially, not here. But Celestial Being has a hangar in the area in secret, and she has been fiddling with her personal radio to eavesdrop on police business, as a concerned citizen does. She has come back here from Tsutsujidai after a very interesting conversation, and...
Well. The Death Knight is potentially interesting, but not entirely Elisa's concern. The brave defenders of the city will surely handle it, and maybe she'll help, if... this doesn't pan out.
Because the radios are saying that there is a threat of a kaiju attack, and that the good doctor has no intention of missing. So, a woman in a nondescript suit walks through the streets, approaching on foot to the office district, from the train station. An open-faced construction Labor. She has purple hair, dark glasses, and is currently sneaking her way up while the police are otherwise distracted, while the police make their way closer. She is now close enough that, with a little help from her technology, she can hear what's going on.
"...Are you really going to summon a kaiju?" she wonders, from far away, eyes sparkling behind her glasses. "I wonder what kind it will be...?"
<Pose Tracker> Nidaime has posed.
Shortly after Chibodee arrives in his GUNDAM MAXTER...
Just sort of stepping around a building and right up next to the Gundam Maxter.
Its turtle head turns to look at the Gundam Maxter.
It makes a kind of honking noise at the Gundam Maxter and lightly bumps its head against Chibodee's giant robot. It probably DWRFS the Gundam Maxter in pure mass and size but it's being gentle. It honks again.
And sitting dramatically on a nearby rooftop, Nidaime eats a sandwich as she's largely here to cheer on her dad and surrogate big bro Chibodee Crockett. She has already put her earbuds in and is mucking around with her soundtrack listing until...
"Oh. My. God. Becktania, look at her butt. Its so big. She looks like one of those rap guys girlfriends." ........ Look she enjoys the song. "I mean her butt, its so big." Nidaime takes a moment to giggle over the word butt. She takes a bite of her sandwich and when the song picks back up. "I like big butts and I can not lie o~ You other brothers can't deny o~"
Anosillus rumbles at Nidaime who says, "Sorry dad I'll turn it down!"
She tweaks the volume settings a bit.
She kicks her legs back and forth off the conveniently situated rooftop.
KTS: Nidaime targets Chibodee Crocket with Sound Spirit!
<Pose Tracker> Ple Two has posed.
SKIES OVER NOUVELLE TOKYO, FIVE MINUTES AGO OR THEREABOUTS
"This training operation is crucial, for as you well know, coordination between our forces has been somewhat... lacking." opines a six-foot-five dude in a naval blue uniform with a high collar and a sick hat like M. Bison. He paces to and fro before the twenty-something pilots in varying states of readiness, all harnessed to the walls because they're riding cattle class on a military transport plane.
"You will represent Londo Bell down there, so shape up! Remember: we have a reputation to uphold!"
Lieutenant Junior Grade Callisto Diana is paying this some measure of attention, though her gaze soon drifts out the window to the city below, since they aren't exactly flying at mega altitudes. She thinks about how weird gravity feels. She thinks about much less annoying life is on the Ra Mari, but also how volunteering for this dumb training gig means nobody else onboard has to deal with it.
She also thinks: hey, that flash from below looks a lot like an explosion and a shockwave.
"Are there any questions?" snaps Sgt. Major Six-foot-five.
A private at the rear raises his hand. "Sir, what's that?" and then points to the plume of smoke rising over Nouvelle Tokyo.
---
The transport plane jerks comically as a door in the side is suddenly kicked open, and an enormous humanoid dark streak suddenly leaps out. A sign inside the hangar bay that reads "DAYS SINCE UNAUTHORISED LAUNCHES" rewinds to 0.
NOUVELLE TOKYO, RIGHT NOW
Vernier thrusters flare brightly, bringing the Qubeley Mark II down atop a skyscraper with feather-light touch. Callisto Diana, totally above-board Londo Bell Pilot, is still doing her helmet up and ignoring all friendly radio signals screaming about where she's gone. "What a mess." she hisses venomously, safe in the knowledge that none of her friends from the Ra Mari can hear or see her like this. "All the ants are coming out to play. Fine by me."
Open radio on.
"Hey, train-smasher! Knock it off!" is her idea of a warning transmission. The Qubeley folds its arms impetuously, and several fist-sized flying beam weapons come launching out of its fat, mechanical tail. They hover in place like heavy obsidian wasps over its shoulders, and then race towards the Death Knight in wildly zigzagging patterns. "All other forces, don't get in my way." Callisto snaps over the radio, her will to fight surging into the psycommu and ordering the funnels to start peppering the air above Anti's Death Knight with beam fire. What a dick move.
KTS: Ple Two targets Anti with Qubeley MK-II Funnels - Tyflos Formation!
<Pose Tracker> Shinji Ikari has posed.
Shinji Ikari remembers the day of the Dark Gundam. He wasn't on the front line by any means, he hadn't been summoned yet. Hand't been demanded to become special. He was.
MIDDLE HAKONE
THE WORST DAY
Shinji Ikari's eyes widened as he swallowed thick, acrid smoke, stumbling backwards. The strange soldiers were marching through the city, their faces wracked in silent agony as they looked for something. At random, it seemed to Shinji, people were taken; Shinji didn't know these people as anything more than shadows in his neighborhood, people he had to interact with briefly every day to survive, but this was his entire world. Mr. Hondo, the plumber, had a Gundam face growing out of his head and was drooling oily black fluid. Shinji was hiding in a pile of garbage with another neighbor around his age, Eddie Suzuki (daddy was a Brittanian who didn't want to acknowledge him), who occasionally told him it'll be fine.
"It won't want us." Eddie said. Shut up, Shinji thought. "We're too young,"
A hand plunged into the trash, and Shinji Ikari's shut, tears leaking freely.
"Shinji?"
Shinji breathed.
"Shinji, help!"
Shinji looked at plump Eddie Suzuki as what used to be Mister Hondo dragged him away, had covering his face.
"SHINJI!"
Shinji Ikari woke with a start, coughing. The launch noises were happening. "I'm here. I'm here. S-sorry."
A sigh over the coms. Shinji Ikari cannot crawl physically into himself, but he wants to. "Where. Where am I?"
"Support Daiwel." A voice says over the lines. Shinji blinks,and for once his father's voice isn't the worst thing in his head. "If the Dark Gundam drone engages, retreat. These orders are absolute."
"You mean the Evas could be infected?"
"I mean Unit-01 will not be."
One catapult ride later, Shinji lands in front of the stage of action, watching that strange Brittanian princess and Asuka and that Gundam fighter he owes fifty gilla to run off to save the world. Shinji looks over at the wanzer where Beast is screaming and the worst part is that Unit-01 resists turning.
"Stop it." Shinji says, sneering at his own reflection, as the Purple Monster lumbers after Eisen's machine, loping through the urban jungle with the restrained violence of a blooded predator.
<Pose Tracker> Riddhe Marcenas has posed.
Over the city, the Delta Plus shifts out of wave rider mode and into MS mode the moment he gets close enough that fighting in the WR mode would be more of a hindrance than a benefit. In the cockpit, in his suit, the heir of the Marcenas family tries to make sense of the situation. The Death Army making a reappearance after all of this time..? Why..?
Bad memories flood the usually happy-go-lucky man's head, causing his mood to turn much dour than normal. He turns his attention when some interesting signals are intercepted by the suit. There is a member of a terrorist group, worse who might have a connection with the deployed death army..? Riddhe grits his teeth a bit more. Goddamn terrorists, using such a thing!
Of course, the second was hearing a Princess of Britannia had taken to the field and confirmed when she opens up 'negotiations'. His attention is off the train smasher for the moment, people are already piling onto it, but the terrorist is calling for NERV? What is the game..? Does he chance to swapping to the rifle? No, this would definitely put too many people at risk.
Instead, he corrects his flight, aiming to stay to the air as he approaches Espella's location. Riddhe tries to remain ready for anything, but a lot is already going on here. Not one thing is anywhere according to plan, so he's got to think of a way to nudge things to a better situation...but the winning move right now is waiting.
<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.
The Main Order Room at GGG's Orbit Base is a hub of monitoring for outbreaks of violence across the Earth Sphere. But Nouvelle Tokyo was home to many of the base's operators, a special place for each. So when Hana Hatsuno, on duty as Mobile Division Operator, gets an alert from the planet's surface, her eyes widen in shock! "W, we have two incidents ongoing! I, in Nouvelle Tokyo!"
Chief Akamatsu thunders, "TWO!?" so loudly the potted plants that ring the Main Order Room vibrate a little.
Hana cringes a little at the noise, but pushes through anyway. "Y, yes sir! Uhm, one is, uhm, a...unknown individual who is demanding NERV's presence, or else they'll send out a Kaiju! And the other is...u, uhm..."
The Intelligence operator, an older man known to one and all only as Yamajii, says, "I'll show them, Hatsuno," to take the burden off of the frightened young woman, and taps open a screen.
The entire room breathes in horror. "Death...Army..."
*
It's not long before Divixion X: The Mobile Execution Fortress Wadatsumi, is making full speed toward the incident. GaoFar is already shooting toward the scene, the GaoMachines around it in formation. "Is it really so bad?" Guy asks, a little perplexed. A Death Army unit on its own doesn't look all that special to him.
"Worse than bad," rattles the Research Operator on duty, Tamara, words rushing out of her with no pause. "Worse than worse than that like you can't even imagine it's just unbelievably super bad!!"
Guy frowns, as Nouvelle Tokyo looms closer. Then, as is now his responsibility as GGG Green's Acting Chief, he gives himself approval for the ultimate transformation! "Alright. Final Fusion! APPROVED!"
Hana back on the Wadatsumi sucks in a worried breath, but nods. "Right! OK!" She winds herself up, clutching both hands over her head. "Program Drive!" Then, SLAMS it down, cracking the safety plastic and the button beneath! "ENGAGE!"
The Phantom Tube appears over Nouvelle Tokyo once more - a sight long missing from these shores. GaoFar and the GaoMachines dive into it, their forms twisting and interlocking, before they emerge again, blasting out of the Phantom Tube with a mighty scream! "GAO! FIGH! GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!"
The mighty machine in black and blue soars onward. His Evoluder body hears the calls regarding the Kaiju - and a VERY CONCERNING announcement regarding one of the people on site - but his priority has to be protecting the infrastructure from that Devil Army devil! So Guy opens like he so often does, swinging his arm back and roaring, "PHANTOM RING! PLUS!"
And as a holographic data-ring appears before him, he thrusts GaoFighGar's spinning fist through it, firing the whole assembly off at the elbow toward the Devil Knight. "BROKEN PHANTOM!!"
KTS: Guy Shishioh targets Anti with Broken Phantom!
KTS: Anti blocks Asuka Shikinami Langley's Thunder Spear Bayonet Stab, taking 2460 damage!
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley has engaged Anti
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley begins a Formation attack!
KTS: Ple Two enervates Anti, reducing his Morale significantly.
KTS: Anti fails to evade Ple Two's Qubeley MK-II Funnels - Tyflos Formation, taking 5060 damage!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Ple Two's Pressure of Aggression activates, causing Shock!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Ple Two's Pressure of Aggression activates, causing Control Bonus!
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
Sirens wail over Nouvelle Tokyo; people scramble to evacuate in an orderly fashion; the Death Knight lurches in to throw a buzzsaw punch at, of all things, the train station. Nearby, the Wanzer pilot known as the Beast demands NERV show up, presumably to fight her, and seems content to wait for them to show up. It all seems senseless on the surface, but there's a context to all actions that make them make sense. One need only know it.
As the military train cars screech into their own station, Kaworu relaxes in the entry plug for Unit 00, waiting for staff to release the cars and allow them to unleash themselves upon the enemy. Wind tears away the canvas that shrouds his; as staff confirm that that the Evas are fully charged, he bids her rise as if from a coffin. She does so, peering along the city with her single eye, then leans forward and upright to step out of the iron sepulchre, then step to one side and crouch to get a better view of the two enemies.
Of course, Asuka and Eisen immediately take off, rendering it mostly moot. Kaworu sighs a faint, oh-well-what-can-you-do sort of sigh, before turning a long gaze over at Shinji and Unit 01, launching to go after Eisen and support him. He would prefer to fight alongside him, but... His red eyes slide towards the screaming Death Knight. The Beast is a partially known entity. This... is something else. And the feel of the one within... Better that he handle this one personally.
"Backing up Unit 02," he announces mildly through the NERV comms as he retrieves a rifle from the NERV train cars. From there, he moves Unit 00 into position to snipe on the Death Army robot with a carefully aimed bullet. There is, yes, an attempt at negotiation happening on the other side of the battlefield, but Kaworu has a fairly good hunch these are unrelated matters.
KTS: Anti rushes into the attack!
KTS: Anti successfully avoids Guy Shishioh's Broken Phantom
KTS: Guy Shishioh completes the Formation attack!
KTS: Kaworu Nagisa targets Anti with Sniper Rifle Aimed Shot!
KTS: Anti fails to evade Kaworu Nagisa's Sniper Rifle Aimed Shot, taking 4510 damage!
KTS: Shinji Ikari has deployed in Evangelion Unit-01 Test Type.
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Nakashima has posed.
MEANWHILE, OVER IN TOKYO CLASSIC
Pilot Yoko Nakashima is on active standby, waiting for the call. And doing paperwork. The call, in this case, is a suprised 'ehh!?' from Yuka.
"The police are reporting someone threatening a Kaiju attack in Novuelle Tokyo if NERV don't show up."
Yoko blinks. The Captain is away which means it's her call, and Haruki is occupied which means it's just her. Fine. "Yoko, send me the location. I'll go."
TWO MINUTES LATER
"Windom, ready for launch!"
"Fourth Gate Open. Fourth Gate Open. Fourth Gate Open," a voice repeats as the SAA-2 Windom is raised into launch position. "Fourth gate cleared."
"Roger," Yoko returns. "Cleared for takeoff. Windom, heading out!" She flicks a series of switches and raises Windom's arms to the jets in the underside of it's upper arms are in position, and then, with an ignition of flame and jetfuel, the humanoid silver robot with a very birdlike head takes to the skies.
NOW:
In plumes of smoke, Windom has arrived! As her sensors come up, she can detect a series of friendlies- Evangelions and... GaoGaiGar!? That's certainly a sight. And then she sees the giant turtle. Is that the Kaiju threat? Not far behind, a small white car with STORAGE's logo pulls up with a tiny Kaiju loving scientist aboard. "Yuka, do you recognize-
And then she sees the Death Knight, and her gaze hardens. She was deployed in Neo-Japan during the Gundam fight. She opens her comms to everyone. "Don't engage that at close range." Her voice is firm, and commanding, if not a full 'CO' voice. "If it has DG Cells you could get infected." Thankfully, it doesn't seem to be spreading. For now.
And then, Windom it'sarms out to the side,it's elbows bent 90 degrees upward, and lets out a sort of 'squawking roar' before the red beam lamp at the top of it's head fires a laser at the Death Knight.
KTS: Yoko Nakashima targets Anti with Laser Shot!
KTS: Anti fails to evade Yoko Nakashima's Laser Shot, taking 2880 damage!
KTS: Yoko Nakashima begins a Formation attack!
<Pose Tracker> Jude Espella has posed.
Euphemia li Britannia. Jude didn't want to have to deal with her, but she will. Beast grabs her microphone. "Ah, the one good princess in a pack of demons. I stated my demands. I am Beast, the Black Knight. I seek-"
Eisen's Carestia arrives, followed by Shinji's Unit-01, and the former dismisses her as not a threat. "Did you already forget about me?! It's only been two days! You're the one I want DEAD!"
"Science! Science and tradition and control is all you government dogs care about! Not the people you stomp underfoot, the people you erase!" The Newtypes in the group feel a sudden flash of Intense Anger. There's also the idea she's lumping kaiju under people, somehow. "Well, fuck you and fuck your science!" Her voice is young, but modulated.
She can't be much older than Eisen or Shinji, if she even is. A child soldier.
"I will never die to a bunch of fools who hurt my precious kaiju friends! Peace cannot exist while you do! You slay the pure-hearted and call it justice! While excusing the humans full of greed and hate and sin!"
Inside the cockpit, Beast suddenly rises, right as the sniper is about to get a bead.
"But I will persevere...because I am a superhero! Come forth, Zetton Savior! Let's show these villains what we can do!"
A palm is raised to the sky, as she shouts out, loud enough to be both heard and felt.
INSTANCE INTERVENTION!
Her mask gleams brightly, as the red flash across her eyes bleeds even through a covered normal suit helmet.
The sniper moves to pull the trigger, when suddenly, everything shakes. The world ripples, and it can be seen from all the way at the trainyard.
Space is distorting, hairline fractures appearing in the sky. Suddenly, they split open for the briefest of moments, as something - or someone? - falls from the sky in a determined leap. It wasn't there before, and it didn't come from space.
A kaiju smashes into the high-rise office building the sniper is perched on, sending him falling to a fire escape below, unconscious, before getting knocked further down as the building crumples.
He is seventy meters tall. He has tubing-like arms and legs, like an old television, and black hands and feet. His torso is black except for two orange objects embedded into his chest, like a bug. His head is split with an orange ridge down the middle and two split eyes, along with a pair of horns on his head.
He is wearing a red scarf, heroic and dashing.
He is Zetton Savior.
Crouching as the police labors begin to turn their focus away from Beast, the kaiju gently moves his hand to extend a finger to her cockpit. She climbs up on top of it, before being risen onto his left shoulder, where she is perched gently.
"Destroy them for their sins, Zetton!"
The two holes on Zetton Savior's head begin to light up, as he starts firing red lasers at every machine in sight - even Riddhe's Delta Plus and Yoko's Windom, trying to build up pockmarks for later. The police Labors are retreating, escaping to safety.
KTS: Jude Espella targets Shinji Ikari with Zetton Energy Laser!
KTS: Jude Espella targets Yoko Nakashima with Zetton Energy Laser!
KTS: Jude Espella targets Elisa Kafim with Zetton Energy Laser!
KTS: Jude Espella targets Riddhe Marcenas with Zetton Energy Laser!
KTS: Jude Espella targets Euphemia li Britannia with Zetton Energy Laser!
KTS: Jude Espella targets Eisen Daiwel with Zetton Energy Laser!
KTS: Euphemia li Britannia fails to react to Jude Espella's Zetton Energy Laser, taking 1739 damage!
KTS: Jude Espella begins a Formation attack!
KTS: Yoko Nakashima successfully evades Jude Espella's Zetton Energy Laser
KTS: Elisa Kafim blocks Jude Espella's Zetton Energy Laser, taking 2552 damage!
KTS: Jude Espella begins a Formation attack!
KTS: Riddhe Marcenas blocks Jude Espella's Zetton Energy Laser, taking 1739 damage!
KTS: Jude Espella begins a Formation attack!
KTS: Eisen Daiwel has activated the Spirit Spirit Command.
KTS: Eisen Daiwel's Will Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage.
KTS: Eisen Daiwel blocks Jude Espella's Zetton Energy Laser, taking 1421 damage!
KTS: Jude Espella begins a Formation attack!
<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.
"THEY'RE NOT NICE!" Anti... hasn't yet figured out that the Death Knight is amplifying his communications, too. It seems entirely logical to him that he would have to yell to be heard by things this big, when he, himself, is still small. He doesn't recognise that the Zenith 250 he's talking to is stolen, or, indeed, that her statement about the trains was really just a turn of phrase.
And to the Maxter, the Death Knight hollers: "WE DON'T NEED YOUR WORK!" He keeps charging, but all a sudden something leaps into his vision -- no! The vision of his sensors!
That one baleful purple eye swivels, to look up at Unit-02, as she crashes down. He turns his shoulder to the force of the rifle blow, having learned, before, what this particular unit liked to do with things which go stab. It stabs into the shoulder-mounted shield, but doesn't manage to dig too deeply into his systems -- but for a crackle around the wound, as he leaps away.
"SHIT!" Anti yells, again, entirely too loudly. "YOU DID IT FIRST!" It's a little childish, but...
There's a kaiju here, too, but -- he doesn't seem very interested in fighting, so that eye focuses on Anosillus for a moment, but when funnel fins come streaming out, he has way bigger problems. He tries and fails to outrun them, fingers playing over those wires around his hands. "DON'T THINK I WILL!" He yells to the Qubeley, unnecessarily loud.
There's another one of those strange suits fiting at him, and the Windom, at that --Anti doesn't manage to outrun those, either. The reason is eminently obvious to anyone with experience piloting -- it's in his jerky movements, the way he overcompensates, like a child wearing stilts.
If there's a real pilot in there, this must be his very first time in the hot seat.
He's listening into open communication channels, too, and his instant transmission after Windom's warning not to get close is: "I'M NOT GIVING YOU THE CHOICE!"
The Death Knight doesn't waste any time, wheeling around to fire his own beams, from his very own Death Rifle. He blasts at the Qubeley, at Unit 00, and a wide spray of fire which threatens to catch both Gundam Maxter and Anosillus.
But he did warn them --
And the Death Knight barrels forward, into the breadth of GaoFighGar, right into that Broken Phantom. Knuckles forward, his buzzsaw WHIRRS, and Anti --
carves a path --
RIGHT THROUGH the Evoluder's assault, the Devil Knight's arm thrusting forward to carve right into GaoFighGar's chassis.
He doesn't have time to press the issue, though, because -- there's someone else, yelling into the void.
Death Knight turns aside.
"Precious... kaiju friends, huh..?"
That line was just for Anti, wondering to himself, more surprised than angry. It transmits, anyway, because you didn't have to yell, Anti. The yelling was inside your heart all along!
The first word he heard, the first word which made him --
"... Instance..."
... Intervention...?
... it looks like Anti isn't the only kaiju with a dashing scarf.
The Death Knight shakes -- physically, the whole thing just sort of vibrates a little, as Anti flexes his fingers and sets his mind. "... well, WHATEVER!" Back to yelling -- back to talking to the people he's trying to fight. "IT'LL JUST BE EASIER TO DESTROY IT NOW!"
And that's when he springs towards Unit-02. Perhaps he doesn't have to go very far to find her, considering he was distracted, for that moment. That whirring buzzsaw lunges for her, now -- and there's a crackle of electricity along the blade which promises to direct RIGHT into her systems if it glances her.
What was that the woman from Storage said..?
KTS: Anti targets Guy Shishioh with Carcass Carving!
KTS: Anti targets Asuka Shikinami Langley with Electrified Buzzsaw Discharge!
KTS: Anti targets Ple Two with Way-Clearing Shot!
KTS: Anti targets Kaworu Nagisa with Way-Clearing Shot!
<Pose Tracker> Eisen Daiwel has posed.
<"Oh! Is that you? I didn't recognize you without the awesome Kaiju."> Eisen answers Jude Espella as she calls out to him, the enormous Evangelion's head drawing back a bit.
Dead.
Oh! Is this a Rival situation? That's awesome!
And Jude Espella goes into a rant that, well... kind of irritates Eisen. Fuck him and his science?! How DARE this person speak badly against Science. He couldn't care less about tradition or control, but Science!
The youth considers the unmodulated voice's source, and continues to watch her.
<"Alright. That's nice. Just get out of the machine before you hurt yourself, 'superhero'. I think it's time that we stopped this...">
Then there's the gleam. That red light, and the Carestia's wings instinctively seem to rise. Its tail nervously LASHING into an nearby building just before space begins to bend. Rippling.
And then shatters down, an enormous being that looks like some kind of anthropomorphized glowbug! The Carestia takes another step back, as Eisen touches the controls. Bringing its arm back to grab one of the spears it hides within its wings, and quickly brings it forward as the Zetton Savior begins to glow.
Beast is upon its shoulder, and Eisen is grinning like a fool.
<"So it is you."> Dramatically. <"Friendship with Kaiju huh? Regardless, you are threatening these peoples lives, and homes. Don't think I am going to go easy on you just because you deployed within a populated city center!"> Pause.
The young man then activates the A.T. shield, halting part of the blow as the red lasers tear across the region.
<"I accept your challenge!"> Eisen then declares. <"Shinji! Let's go. Before this child kills more people!">
The lance comes tilted down, and the Carestia brings it forth. Instead of using the on-board weapons of the Carestia, almost as if he wants to make a point with Beast;
<"REVENANT OF SCIENCE, FIRST THEOREM!"> He starts styling his attack after science, to further drive this point home!
<"LEVER OF ANNIHILATION!"> As the progressive spear activates, and comes forth, aiming down towards one of the legs of the Zetton Savior, and suddenly uses its arm as a level to RIP it upwards, in a motion aimed at carving through its chest region.
<"I dig the scarf though. Good aesthetics.">
KTS: Anti Changes attack to Nidaime and Chibodee Crocket with Rifle Barrage.
KTS: Ple Two successfully avoids Anti's Way-Clearing Shot
KTS: Eisen Daiwel targets Jude Espella with Sonic Glaive Pierce!
KTS: Nidaime blocks Anti's Rifle Barrage, taking 1693 damage!
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley's EN Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage.
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley fails to Parry Anti's Electrified Buzzsaw Discharge, taking 1979 damage!
KTS: Anti has engaged Asuka Shikinami Langley
Elisa Kafim Activates barrier generator
KTS: Kaworu Nagisa successfully avoids Anti's Way-Clearing Shot
KTS: Jude Espella has activated the Wall Spirit Command.
KTS: Jude Espella's EN Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage.
KTS: Jude Espella fails to react to Eisen Daiwel's Sonic Glaive Pierce, taking 2250 damage!
KTS: Eisen Daiwel has engaged Jude Espella
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Fuck science, is it? Elisa doesn't take offense. She listens, instead. The people they stomp down and erase.. In theory, she could be allies with this girl, it sounds like. But that isn't going to happen today. 'Justice'... Yes, she can see that.
But there--there, Elisa comes out of hiding to stare forward, as the world seems to flash. She raises her palm to the sky, and Elisa feels this girl's power. A red flash bleeds through; the world ripples, and a smile spreads on Elisa's face.
"Instance... Intervention," she repeats raptly, and then closes her eyes, pulling a small green crystal. "Well. Time to get closer." She focuses. "Hangar... Street. ENGAGE!"
The cops might notice a shouting woman behind them the instant before in black and green light, a mecha appears, of Moderate size, much smaller than the kaiju that appears that she looks up at. She settles into the cockpit without having really moved, first directing the controls to bring a gleaming shield--is it beams? it doesn't look like beams--to bear against the red laser, knocking her and her mecha backward along the street. But after that, she gets a chance to get buckled in. "...All right, Spinatia," she says within the cockpit, "Time to see what we can do."
"What a fascinating kaiju," a woman's voice crackles over local communication. "Appearing from nothing, here it is. I do wonder if your sniper is all right."
The spindly limbs of the Spinatia whirl into action as it starts to shift forward again, raising a hand--and suddenly extending from a bar is a great staff, with a glowing green crystal inlaid in a strange setting.
A barrier erupts into being around her, and then she extends the staff forward.
The green crystal shines, and a strange energy erupts outward from it, a beam of green power that rushes for the Zetton Savior's chest.
"Show me what you can do!" she calls to it.
KTS: Elisa Kafim targets Jude Espella with Green Fold Quartz Accelerator - Blast!
KTS: Shinji Ikari fails to evade Jude Espella's Zetton Energy Laser, taking 1855 damage!
KTS: Jude Espella begins a Formation attack!
KTS: Jude Espella's EN Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage.
KTS: Jude Espella blocks Elisa Kafim's Green Fold Quartz Accelerator - Blast, taking 1100 damage!
KTS: Nidaime's sound spirit flares with his performance, raising Chibodee Crocket's Morale!
KTS: Chibodee Crocket charges into the attack!
KTS: Chibodee Crocket successfully avoids Anti's Rifle Barrage
KTS: Anti rattles Guy Shishioh, making his next maneuvers more difficult.
KTS: Guy Shishioh blocks Anti's Carcass Carving, taking 1182 damage!
KTS: Anti has engaged Guy Shishioh
<Pose Tracker> Shinji Ikari has posed.
"At least there's plenty of us." Shinji mutters to himself, having mixed feelings about the very pink velvet bodice of oppression speaking for NERV. Its a moral quandary, he thinks, and looks away because you're kidding me. "Oh my God it's that girl." Shinji says, catching Nidaime and a few other civilian types hanging around to stare at the fight. "How does she skip into two giant robot fights-"
Unit-01's speakers turn on, immediately ruining any intimidating presence it has. "<Ah, excuse me. This is Ikari from NERV. If you aren't in a giant robot, please evacuate the area! We don't want anyone to get hurt. Thank you for your cooperation.>" Unit-01 does a tight little bow before Shinji can think better of it.
Then it gets weird.
"It's that girl from Side Five." Shinji says, as Unit-01 hunkers down like Misato taught him. "She sure has a strange sense of right and wrong. Who'd think the Devil Gundam was something to protect?"
She then sweats to kill Eisen. Ah. "You sure have a way with women, Daiwel." Shinji says, irritated that all of this is happening because his co-worker can't keep his mouth shut around unstable people. Then she literally rips the sky open. "What the-"
Some bug in a scarf crawls out of, Shinji guesses, hell or something. Unit-01 holds its arms up, but its ATField is on the fritz for the moment. It keeps looking at-
It is shot directly in the face."Nrrgh." Shinji says, holding his left eye. Good news, Beast, you have Unit-01's attention again. "You know, I'm pretty sure superheroes don't work with the Dark Gundam lady!" Shinji realizes he's in public with a bunch of robot pilots he doesn't know. "I mean, m-miss. I guess."
Unit-01 loses its patience; Shinji gives a little wail of shock as the machine just stomps forward, leaning against a nearby building and kicking off of it, leaping into the air-
-preforming a perfect backflip-
-and holding its leg out, sending a kick directly for Zetton Savior's face!
KTS: Shinji Ikari targets Jude Espella with Opening Charge!
<Pose Tracker> Asuka Shikinami Langley has posed.
"As if I'd ever need your backup flunkey!" Asuka has time to call back over the comms at Eisen as she rushes out there. Her airspace suddenly full of funnel fire, Asuka jukes in mid-air, her Evangelion suddenly in the midst of a strange aerial ballet to avoid being caught in the Beam-Fire. Despite it's unwieldy size, it moves with an otherworldly grace as it seems to glide through one beam after another, even at one point backflipping into an aerial somersault to avoid crossing a beam the funnels are firing, as Asuka calls out over the comms to Callisto in the Qubeley. "Out of your way!? Who the hell do you think you are? This is an official NERV operation! You stay out of MINE!"
A sniper shot whizzes by, and while it's expertly aimed... she doesn't have the same opinion. "And hey! Fifth String! If you're going to insist on being here you could at least wait for me to LAND before firing!"
Did she really get upset at two separate people while descending from her leap?
Yes, naturally.
Even after driving her bayonet into Anti, she suddenly has to rush backwards from Guy's Phantom Ring attack, extracting the bayonet from the Devil's armor as she goes, "Didn't think you'd be here with the 000 investigation still in progress..." She says to Guy, as if begrudgingly accepting his presence. And then Yoko opens her comms with her advice, "What? DG Cells?" Did that actually give Asuka pause, "With Unit-02's A.T. Field active that's nothing to worry about." Apparently not, apparently the consummate teenager is not going to listen to wiser cooler heads.
As Anti shouts at her, she replies confidently, "Heh. That's what you think."
Asuka tries to rush forward, to meet the buzzsaw with the Bayonet of the Thunder Spear, but the buzzsaw at the last second lunges for her viciously, releasing her grip on the spear with one hand in this game of Chicken she fails at... her A.T. Field erupts, connecting as the Buzzsaw hungrily tries to chew away at it, showering sparking electricity, the palm of the Evangelion beneath it. Though it seems to be faltering against the constant onslaught.
"Easier... said than done dumbass! You ready for the pain?"
Suddenly all of the Shoulder Pylons shutters of the Evangelion open explosively, at close range, showering the Death Knight with multiple impaling spikes unexpectedly center mass - right as she side steps and releases her A.T. Field, biting down on the synchronized spike of pain as the saw sparks burn at Unit-02's armor.
Across town, Asuka listens in over the police radio band, before announcing over the comms cross town, "Heh. Looks like you really upset that Kaiju Loving Freak, Flunkey." She says blithely towards Eisen, then looks at the sky as space distorts hairline fractures and... reports of a Kaiju appearing come over her radio, her voice is growing more serious, "If this is all your fault you better take responsibility during the debriefing... assuming you survive this."
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley targets Anti with Pencil Roc Nailgun Surprise!
<Pose Tracker> Chibodee Crocket has posed.
Chibodee gets a mild startle from the appearance of the turtle at the side of Maxter -- really it's more like another building showed up to follow it when he wasn't ready. But the honking of the giant turtle is a comfort. It makes him feel better for reasons he can't explain.
"Alright, big fella," Chibodee says, Maxter reaching over to lightly pat the turtle as he decelerates on the flying surfboard. "Let's just be careful out there."
Maxter didn't rush in against the Death Knight. DOES it have DG cells? The memory of them still fills him with dread. When the Qubeley's pilot says to stay out of her way, the Gundam Maxter makes a graceful gesture toward the Death Knight as if to say 'go ahead.' But that doesn't mean Chibodee won't get involved.
Maxter leaps off its surfboard and charges in toward the Death Knight. It blazes down the road, weaving and bobbing, the blasts skimming by it but not connecting. He's still keeping his distance, bringing out Maxter's pistols and starting to blast at the Death Knight in an effort to harry it. If he doesn't see any signs of DG cells in a moment, he'll risk getting in tight.
"You're not making sense! Why are you out here?!"
KTS: Chibodee Crocket targets Anti with Anyway I Started Blasting!
<Pose Tracker> Riddhe Marcenas has posed.
A Child's voice was not what Riddhe was expecting. He sighs\, great\, and now we have children doing terrorism\, or worse\, being told to create giant monsters. Of course\, NERV isn't exactly thought about at the moment\, because that'd be realizing hypocrisy on his own side. We're at episode two Riddhe\, not episode twenty-three Riddhe.
With the summoning and transforming of the Kaiju\, and her child-like declaration...Riddhe narrows his eyes and dives forward. The beam fired is caught by the shield\, causing the energy to shatter around it. Though it damages the shield and puts strain on the machinery beneath\, the Delta Plus weathers the attack rather well.
Riddhe hits the ground before the others and dives in. He fires a barrage of rockets from the shield\, aiming to pepper it while staying moving. The only thing he could really do is try and heap damage on it while trying to find a weak point in the armor. That or keep it on the back foot if he can.
"Kid. I have no idea what sick sense of justice you have taken on\, or gross humor you've been given...but to tell me that anything related to the Dark Gundam is worth protecting means one thing.."
"You are not worthy to say the name Justice in my presence." Riddhe was focused now.
KTS: Riddhe Marcenas has activated the Spirit Spirit Command.
KTS: Riddhe Marcenas targets Jude Espella with 2-Barrel Grenade Launcher!
<Pose Tracker> Qivi has posed.
Qivi is not happy about today.
First, as mentioned, she's in a unit that isn't hers armed with what reads like a display or test weapon, the lighest shotgun she's ever equipped on a wanzer, and a spiked shield (which, admittedly, she does like quite a lot). She doesn't have a flight suit or a helmet.
Second, she's surrounded by famous people, which is okay except that it's going to get people to start asking questions about who *she* is. (Probably won't be the famous people asking, granted.) There are Evangelions on-field. There's goddamn *GaoGaiGar*, which as far as she knows was banished. There's Chibodee Crockett, who she knows perfectly well because she cheered for him several years ago. There's...
...a giant turtle?
Qivi points her light shotgun up at Anosillus before she realizes that the turtle is not attacking, the turtle is instead making turtle honking noises in her general direction. (Or Chibodee's, more likely.) Qivi is fairly certain turtles do not honk, but she has to admit that she's not actually one hundred percent sure. She doesn't fire the shotgun, lowering it to point at the Death Knight again.
Oh yeah. Third, Death Army. Which is just what you need to see come back.
And fourth...
Qivi knows that voice. It's not aimed at her but she can pick it up. 'A bunch of fools who hurt my precious kaiju friends...' Qivi very deliberately makes sure her radio mic is set to mute, so that nobody else can hear her, and then she lets out a ten-second sustained groan. "This is a really bad time to join in!" she yells, in the silence of her own cockpit. "And if that Death Army machine is yours I swear I'm going to smack you." Jude can't hear her, but it makes Qivi feel better.
Only when she's done does she turn her communicator back on. At least it seems to be its own, and... piloted? Who pilots a Death Army unit? And not even very well. It's moving like - well, Qivi could do a better job and she's never sat in a Death Knight.
So instead she flips over to sending to Chibodee. He gets a message pop-up labeled VOICE ONLY: "Big guy, I know who you are and I know you're going to hit it. I'll back you up." Helping Chibodee fuckin' Crockett was not something Qivi thought she was going to do today but she knows (of) him and she's more likely to trust him than a wild Evangelion or Guy 'Banished Forever' Shishioh. "Tell your turtle friend that, too."
That said, he probably has no idea who she is unless he follows Huffman Island wanzer gladiators *and* can recognize her voice. So that might come a little out of the blue.
She hangs back, driving her Zenith on its wheel boosters almost sideways in a strafe along a road as she fires the light shotgun, spraying fast-moving pellets. "I want my Covet back," she grumbles to herself.
KTS: Qivi targets Anti with Catsray XX Shotgun Dead Shot!
KTS: Jude Espella's EN Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage.
KTS: Jude Espella blocks Shinji Ikari's Opening Charge, taking 850 damage!
KTS: Shinji Ikari has engaged Jude Espella
KTS: Jude Espella's EN Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage.
KTS: Jude Espella fails to Intercept Riddhe Marcenas's 2-Barrel Grenade Launcher, taking 1275 damage!
KTS: Riddhe Marcenas has engaged Jude Espella
<Pose Tracker> Euphemia li Britannia has posed.
Euphy rears back a bit. NERV starts to arrive. At the very least, 'send NERV' seems to have been met -- but unfortunately, there's that spike of anger, and negotiations fall apart. She glances down at the controls, letting out a small sigh.
'Instance Intervention'... and like that -- something slides through the sky, appearing as if by magic. Euphemia winces. ... Was this the real plan? Demand NERV's presence, and then defeat them?
'Destroy them for their sins,' from a Black Knight... it hurts, a little bit. It doesn't even feel very unfair... that anger is very real, and no doubt the reason behind it is real too. Nevertheless -- these people don't deserve to suffer for Britannia's sins, nor whatever imagined slight against kaiju NERV has committed.
... It's best, she realizes, if this ends swiftly -- if Zetton doesn't have the chance to endanger these people. She flicks the trackball up toward Zetton's center of mass -- it's not a very smooth motion, or a very fast one. She's certainly not Suzaku, whose grasp of how to aim a KMF's weapons comes as naturally as breathing. She has to spend several seconds adjusting --
-- during which time the Club gets blasted with a laser. Euphemia rears back a bit as the armor ends up heavily scored. No shield... that's certainly a change from her education, too. A nervewracking one. She needs to act decisively. She's followed her impulses this far -- she'll have to keep following. The Chester Cascade's weapons slide against each other, shifting configuration a little; parts realign until they present a pair of telescoping heavy cannons -- not dissimilar, in their way, to the Guncannon's iconic configuration.
"Okay. If I'm reading this right, this should be a high-intensity configuration for piercing heavy defenses," Euphemia says to herself. She's not a regular pilot. She needs to walk herself through it. She takes a deep breath --
-- and fires. A bright blue beam issues forth from each of the telescoping cannons, and she does her best to keep it centered for the full duration.
Euphy feels something shift in the pit of her stomach. She is *certain* she doesn't want to ever find this easy.
KTS: Euphemia li Britannia has activated the Enable Spirit Command.
<Pose Tracker> Nidaime has posed.
Nidaime is wearing those earbuds again, the SUPER EARBUDS that make it borderline impossible for her to hear what people are saying. She can't even hear Anti shouting in that mech.
However she DOES notice Shinji's Unit-01.
She brightens up upon seeing it and throws a wave towards Shinji's giant robot and then points to the turtle and then gives him a thumbsup. She then points towards her earbuds with a finger.
"Then a girl walks in with an itty bitty waist and a round thing in your face and you get sprung! o/~" Nidaime sings at Shinji happily. She doesn't seem to be too worried about getting squished. Then again, she is a homeless girl. Maybe something's wrong with her.
The turtle doesn't seem to pay mind to anybody not actively shooting at it. It makes more turtle noises at the Gundam Maxter, a kind of chirping rumble.
The turtle waddles after Chibodee but it's pretty slow. It takes some beam fire from Anti which refracts off its shell, charring the sections it hits heavily, but it's a pretty tough big boy.
It opens its mouth and unleashes a sonic blast towards the devil gundam.
Anosillus doesn't seem upset by Qivi pointing a weapon at it either. Instead it makes a croaking noise at her, encouragingly...!!
KTS: Euphemia li Britannia has activated the Enable Spirit Command.
KTS: Euphemia li Britannia targets Jude Espella with Mega Cannon Banisher!
KTS: Nidaime targets Anti with Sonic Blast!
KTS: Nidaime has activated the Rouse Spirit Command targeting Qivi
KTS: [Spirit Defense] Shinji Ikari's Spirit Endurance activates, and the spirit is adjusted.
KTS: Nidaime has activated the Daunt Spirit Command targeting Shinji Ikari
KTS: Jude Espella has activated the Focus Spirit Command.
KTS: Jude Espella successfully Evades Euphemia li Britannia's Mega Cannon Banisher
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley rattles Anti, making his next maneuvers more difficult.
KTS: Anti fails to react to Asuka Shikinami Langley's Pencil Roc Nailgun Surprise, taking 3000 damage!
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley has engaged Anti
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
The Black Knight Beast transmits her anger, and Kaworu glances her way in time to see her call down the red-scarfed Zetton from a tear in the sky. "Instance Intervention..." he murmurs as he bears witness. His gaze turns to her opponents, particularly his fellow Evangelion pilots, but... they'll simply have to take care of themselves.
That the Beast is clearly a child around his own age doesn't even register with Kaworu. To him, that's normal.
Anti in the Death Knight yells a bunch more, then quiets down before yelling again, implying that he doesn't realize that he does not, in fact, need to yell. Combined with his awkward movements, it's quite clear that he isn't used to using a mech. He also seems quite affected by someone declaring that kaiju are friends. It all makes sense and doesn't. As Anti opens fire back, Unit 00 crouches back behind cover, managing to avoid the reckless fire. As he does, Asuka does what she does best: yells at a bunch of people, including him.
"I had faith in your ability to maneuver even in mid-air," Kaworu tells Asuka mildly. He also has faith in her ability to find something to complain about, whether she's accomodated or not, so it really doesn't matter. Even so: "But if you insist..."
Waiting this time for Asuka to finish unleashing spikes on the Death Knight before stepping to one side while he aims, Kaworu unleashes another long-range bullet to shear into the Death Knight's armor, potentially knocking him off balance and enabling Asuka's next attack to reach somewhere extra damaging.
He doesn't try to warn her about DG Cells. Someone else already handled that, and Asuka made her stance predictably clear.
Meanwhile there's also a giant turtle turtling about, but it seems to be helping their allies, so Kaworu sees no reason to concern himself with it for the time being. It's all a matter of priorities.
KTS: Kaworu Nagisa targets Anti with Sniper Rifle Sighted Shot!
<Pose Tracker> Ple Two has posed.
Quoth the static-y voice of Yoko Nakashima: don't engage the Death Knight at romance-range, or you might get Devil Gundam infection.
"Kch...!" Callisto hisses in alarm, as neon targeting reticles dance over the lumbering form in the distance. The raising of the stakes actually calms her some. Like a professional, she yakks over the open radio.
"Is that true? Are you really trying to bring the DG nightmare back?" the question is directed at Anti, asked in a direct and irate manner. But what would Anti know of this Earth's history? Would he care, even if he did?
Or... if that's what Akane wanted, would he do it anyway...?
Callie D blinks a few times as she feels the wild, almost flailing aggression unfurling from the Death Knight's pilot. It's not the usual flavor you can taste in combat. No, it's... different.
(Or is it more familiar than you'd like to admit?)
One more blink. Moments before Anti begins moving, the Qubeley unfurls its arms and leaps from the top of the skyscraper it was standing on. Searing bursts of charged particle-fire burns the air where the rather round Mobile Suit had been loitering. So near, in fact, the jet-black surface of the Qubeley still glows orange from what was a wildly dangerous near-miss.
But better to draw that fire nearer the machine built for war than the building it was atop, right...?
The Qubeley hangs in the air, oddly weightless atop the many plumes of cerulean fire from its legs and back. A stark contrast to the fracturing of the sky behind it, as a tremendous otherworldly beast punches through a hole in space and time. Callie's eyes widen--
..instance intervention..
--and her spatial senses report something incomprehensible. A twisting of the axes, an impossibility. Things coming from beyond the 0-coordinate. Look, you try having these senses. I don't make the rules.
Now, luckily, Asuka Shinkinami is wildly agile and does not accidentally get pinged by a stray mega-particle burst from one of the Qubeley's funnels. The insinuation, however, and the charged outburst--
"Sure of ourselves, aren't we?" Callisto (Ple Two) retorts back, voice cool and composed. Rich with bemusement. The vocal tone of 'its funny how mad you are while i remain as cool as a lake'. "You think I'm clumsy enough to hit you? Your loss."
ANYWAY
Fifteen more Funnels erupt from the Qubeley's back in a spiralling formation, borne on long contrails of sky-blue fire. "Stand down, Devil-Gundam boy. Nobody has to die here!"
They take off after the Death Knight, wildly criss-crossing with one another and diving under freeways, curling around buildings, weaving between people's legs. Surrounding Anti with little regard for his dance partners. That they continue to blast neon mega-particle garbage everywhere is an afterthought to the graceful dance they offer him. Can his will surpass hers? Let's find out.
KTS: Ple Two has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
KTS: Ple Two targets Anti with Qubeley MK-II Funnels - Spathi Formation!
<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.
"It's fast!" Guy yelps in surprise as the Devil Knight rushes PAST the Broken Phantom and straight the hell at him. He thrusts the other arm forward, yelling, "PROGRAM RING PLUS!" as another Program Ring appears, and then: "PROTECT WALL!"
Anti slams into the spatial repulsion field of the Protect Wall, sawing deeply into it. It does force his attack aside, but it's got certain weaknesses against consistent force, which is to say, eventually that sawblade cuts INTO the Program Ring reinforcement, which in turn breaks the shield and allows Anti to score a slice along GaoFighGar's side.
"Oh no!" Hana yelps.
"One slice shouldn't be enough to cause critical infection we can get it disinfected it's fine it's fine it's a little bit probably not fine but it's FINE" Tamara rattles off from the Research Operator station.
Guy grimaces. To Asuka's jab, he says, "I'm not going to sit by while someone's stomping around downtown! That's not how Braves do things!" And then...!
"Wait no hold on something's happening!!" Tamara chatters.
"Spatial...disruption?" Yamajii mutters, scratching his head. "Not an ES window, so it's not a T0 incursion. Not seeing any Z0-Similar, either."
"Ah," he adds, a moment later, as Zetton Savior crashes to the ground. "I have found the target."
"Me too," Guy mutters, looking at the broken sky. "We'll leave it to the others, sounds like that Death Army's the higher priority!"
And, so saying, Guy rises up. He's still in reasonably close range to that unit and he doesn't choose to break that engagement. GaoFighGar prefers it up close if possible, anyway, so the Drill Knees spin up as he rises up from the ground and drives his knee toward the Death Knight! "DRILL! KNEE!" he screams.
KTS: Guy Shishioh targets Anti with Drill Knee!
KTS: Anti rushes into the attack!
KTS: Anti fails to react to Chibodee Crocket's Anyway I Started Blasting, taking 5760 damage!
KTS: Anti rushes into the attack!
KTS: Anti fails to react to Ple Two's Qubeley MK-II Funnels - Spathi Formation, taking 4860 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Nakashima has posed.
Yoko grimaces, as the Zetton's lasers fire out towards Windom and the rest- but the 70m tall metal chicken can move. And it moves by:
It's jets flaring it up and it just moving left right left with seemingly no other animation. Windom just dodges like it's on a two dimensional plane. Meanwhile, Yoko is flicking switches to activate individual rockets. "Evasion successful!"
And then she hears the Eva kids talk and... Well, she knew they were young. Lots of pilots were. But... Something sits ill with Eisen's accusation. She gave plenty of time from calling the attack to happen, and Nouvelle Tokyo has good evacuation protocols. So what are their sins? "Taunting her won't help!" She calls over NERV comms.
And then someone else comes in over Yoko's- and then NERV's comms. "That's a Zetton!" Yuka- an eager young science lady- shouts. "It can generate high powered fire attacks, so be careful!" The comm cuts again- back down to Yoko. "Yoko! Yoko you have to get me a sample! Please!?"
Yoko sighs. She looks up- she doesn't want to risk killing this person on kaiju back. But... "Let's focus on defending the city. She means business."
She hits two more switches, and Windom strikes a pose, before dashing forwards, like a statue, to drive straight in to Zetton Savior. If she gets in close, she can control this fight better, and keep it and the... owner? Where they are. The impact is still serious though.
KTS: Yoko Nakashima targets Jude Espella with Rocket Dash Strike!
KTS: Anti rushes into the attack!
KTS: Anti fails to react to Qivi's Catsray XX Shotgun Dead Shot, taking 3150 damage!
KTS: Jude Espella has activated the Focus Spirit Command.
KTS: Jude Espella rushes into the attack!
KTS: Jude Espella successfully avoids Yoko Nakashima's Rocket Dash Strike
KTS: Anti fails to evade Kaworu Nagisa's Sniper Rifle Sighted Shot, taking 3630 damage!
KTS: Anti successfully evades Nidaime's Sonic Blast
KTS: Anti blocks Guy Shishioh's Drill Knee, taking 3630 damage!
KTS: Guy Shishioh has engaged Anti
<Pose Tracker> Jude Espella has posed.
Beast's anger becomes more empathically palpable as Eisen speaks. "You still don't understand anything! You're so laidback - I hate it!"
The spear drives forth, but as it moves up Zetton Savior's chest, suddenly, Zetton lifts his arm, and an energy barrier pulsates around him, reducing the effective damage even if Eisen does get some. Toku sparks fly as Zetton chitters, and a burst of actual factual magic is sent straight at him. His arm moves up to shield Beast within the barrier, as the blast is diluted across his body. "This isn't a game!"
Shinji has a fundamental misunderstanding. "I'm not working with the Dark Gundam - I'm taking advantage of it to kill that pilot!" Riddhe gets a shout. "What would you know, Federation dog? All you do is kill, and kill, and kill, instead of save and heal! Well, we're tired of being broken down! You've molded us like you, you've dug your grave, so lie in it!"
Shinji's kick is intercepted with both arms, as Zetton is staggered backwards with more genre-appropriate sparks.
Another laser is fired at Riddhe's rockets, but fails to detonate all of them in time, causing explosions to rock against the barrier and cause another angry chitter, Zetton in pain but not really...seeming weak.
There's a sign that Zetton Savior is smarter than the average kaiju, as Euphemia fires her barrier bursting beam. Zetton, instead of allowing it to impact head-on and absorb it but take big damage, decides that Jude's safety is more important, as she nestles up to the neck.
In a flash, he's suddenly zwee-teleporting away, appearing to the side, as the beam coasts on by.
Yoko launches Windom straight at Zetton. As she moves to take control, it rushes her, exerting Brute Strength in order to keep her from grappling or doing damage. "I'll take you all down!" Beast cries out.
Zetton Savior, notably, hasn't counter attacked. He teleports again, repositions himself, and waits. "Now! Meteor Fireball!"
Fireballs begin to spray out of his mouth, a good sized spread at every machine that moves to heat up systems, melt armor, and especially burn into the pockmarks created before!
No channel with that name or alias found.
KTS: Jude Espella targets Riddhe Marcenas with Meteor Fireball Medium Spread!
KTS: Jude Espella targets Euphemia li Britannia with Meteor Fireball Medium Spread!
KTS: Jude Espella targets Yoko Nakashima with Meteor Fireball Medium Spread!
KTS: Jude Espella targets Eisen Daiwel with Meteor Fireball Medium Spread!
KTS: Jude Espella targets Shinji Ikari with Meteor Fireball Medium Spread!
KTS: Jude Espella targets Elisa Kafim with Meteor Fireball Medium Spread!
KTS: Kaworu Nagisa has activated the Enable Spirit Command targeting Asuka Shikinami Langley
<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.
"WHO CARES ABOUT THAT?!" Death Knight demands, on pain, as the Shoulder Pylons blast into him. He knows what systems handle manoeuvres, thanks to his copying, but getting them to fire in time is another matter entirely. He shoves his shield-shoulder into her, and side-steps in the other direction, instead. Speaking of matter --
Here's the strange thing, about Death Knight, on examination: it's live. It hasn't been lobotomised, like some of the Death Army units BioNet has available to sortie; those Cells are performing a myriad of tasks to keep the Death Knight functioning, taking care of all the little details its pilot is evidently too inexperienced to know about.
But...
They're not activated, either.
There is no "human matter" in the pilot seat.
So how is it Death Knight yells, so like a human: "I'M HERE TO STOP YOU!" It's not unlike human emotion, the desperation underlying his rage, so attentive, so diligent. "OUR HOME'S TOO LOUD NOW! YOU KEEP BARGING IN! SO, WITH YOUR WEAPONS --"
The Qubeley did ask, after all, whether he was bringing the DG nightmare back. Anti's answer comes as he buries his fists in the wires, urging the system on -- with power-flaring speed, to rush straight INTO Gundam Maxter's blasts.
"-- I'LL FIGHT IN YOUR WORLD UNTIL YOU LEAVE US ALONE! IF THAT'S YOUR NIGHTMARE, I DON'T GIVE A SHIT!"
He throws a buzzsaw-enhanced punch to Gundam Maxter, which might be exactly what he didn't want to happen, really. Unfortunately, Gundam Maxter has help, in the form of that Zenith 250 he overlooked so easily. Her own shotgun fire earns her similar treatment, as he rushes into her face to punch her, circular blade whirring with electrical power and all the implicit danger of getting up-close-and-personal with a Death Army unit. But then his legs bend, and he --
LEAPS UP --
Have you ever seen a cat jumping into the air to catch a bird in flight?
Yeah, basically that.
He jumps up through that funnel blast, each beam shaking him a little in his trajectory as they meet their marks, and his buzzsaw lashes out for her mobile suit -- fully intending to drag her back down with him, to the ground where he's much more comfortable.
But Callisto said something in particular he has to address. "I'M NOT HERE TO KILL ANYONE!" Yells the Death Knight, filled with its DG Cells, rampaging in a city, somehow. "I DON'T HAVE TO KILL ANY OF YOU, STUPID!"
He finds himself landing in more suppressive fire, thanks to Unit 00 and Anosillus. The latter he avoids -- only to run right into Unit 00's sniper fire. "WHAT'S WITH THAT KAIJU?!" Anti yells, in frustration, as he fires his rifle off at the distant targets. He doesn't have any idea just how bad a first impression he's making! Tragic!
"AND WHAT'S WITH YOU?" He demands, pointing -- like, he physically lifts his mech's arm just to point at Unit 00 -- at Kaworu. "NOTHING TO SAY TO ME?! THEN STOP SHOOTING AND GET OUT OF MY FACE!"
This, tragically, is the exact point that GaoFighGar -- who Anti landed right next to, because obviously he's going to collect all his enemies in a neat little pile, that way he can defeat them all -- rises up with a DRILL KNEE. Anti ducks down, to angle his beleagured shield into the blow; it reveberates through him, anyway.
KTS: Shinji Ikari has activated the Trust Spirit Command.
KTS: Anti targets Asuka Shikinami Langley with Death Slab Bash!
KTS: Shinji Ikari's Will Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage.
KTS: Jude Espella rattles Shinji Ikari, making his next maneuvers more difficult.
KTS: Shinji Ikari blocks Jude Espella's Meteor Fireball Medium Spread, taking 2070 damage!
KTS: Jude Espella completes the Formation attack!
KTS: Eisen Daiwel has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Euphemia li Britannia
KTS: Anti targets Chibodee Crocket with Carcass Carving!
KTS: Anti targets Qivi with Electrified Buzzsaw Heavy Discharge!
KTS: Anti targets Ple Two with Anti Saws A Strange Bird!
KTS: Anti anchors Ple Two, forcing her into close range.
KTS: Ple Two fails to react to Anti's Anti Saws A Strange Bird, taking 2062 damage!
KTS: Anti has engaged Ple Two
KTS: Jude Espella rattles Euphemia li Britannia, making her next maneuvers more difficult.
KTS: Euphemia li Britannia fails to react to Jude Espella's Meteor Fireball Medium Spread, taking 3897 damage!
KTS: Jude Espella completes the Formation attack!
KTS: Elisa Kafim has activated the Focus Spirit Command.
KTS: Elisa Kafim successfully evades Jude Espella's Meteor Fireball Medium Spread
KTS: Jude Espella completes the Formation attack!
KTS: Anti Changes attack to Kaworu Nagisa and Nidaime with Rifle Barrage.
KTS: Anti targets Guy Shishioh with Death Slab Bash!
KTS: Anti rattles Chibodee Crocket, making his next maneuvers more difficult.
KTS: Chibodee Crocket parries Anti's Carcass Carving, taking 354 damage!
KTS: Anti has engaged Chibodee Crocket
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley rushes into the attack!
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley's EN Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage.
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley fails to react to Anti's Death Slab Bash, taking 1121 damage!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Anti's DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE! activates, causing Sparkle!
KTS: Anti has engaged Asuka Shikinami Langley
KTS: Kaworu Nagisa's EN Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage.
KTS: Kaworu Nagisa fails to react to Anti's Rifle Barrage, taking 1196 damage!
Your unit's HP stands at 11304
KTS: Qivi fails to rush.
KTS: Qivi fails to react to Anti's Electrified Buzzsaw Heavy Discharge, taking 2474 damage!
KTS: Anti has engaged Qivi
Barrier Off
KTS: Jude Espella rattles Yoko Nakashima, making her next maneuvers more difficult.
KTS: Yoko Nakashima fails to react to Jude Espella's Meteor Fireball Medium Spread, taking 3201 damage!
KTS: Eisen Daiwel's Will Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage.
KTS: Jude Espella rattles Eisen Daiwel, making his next maneuvers more difficult.
KTS: Eisen Daiwel blocks Jude Espella's Meteor Fireball Medium Spread, taking 1774 damage!
KTS: Jude Espella completes the Formation attack!
KTS: Jude Espella rattles Riddhe Marcenas, making his next maneuvers more difficult.
KTS: Riddhe Marcenas fails to evade Jude Espella's Meteor Fireball Medium Spread, taking 3572 damage!
KTS: Jude Espella completes the Formation attack!
<Pose Tracker> Eisen Daiwel has posed.
<"I don't think you get to comment on that, Shinji. You piss off Asuka on an hourly basis just by existing, and you still live with her."> He points out, then quickly follows up towards Asuka; <"If I somehow lose this battle, I'll give you a free attendance credit for one of my Mad Science Lectures! Usually they go at quite the premium."> Which sounds like it's absolutely fake.
<"Princess, with the utmost respect, I highly recommend you retreat and let NERV deal with this situation."> Eisen calls out to Euphemia li Britannia with the kind of tone she might expect from a soldier. Someone who is pretending to be nice, but clearly just wants her to 'get out of their way'.
Internally, the youth grunts. He could be fighting alongside Guy Shishioh right now! And instead, he has to fight this 'second rate' Kaiju controlling human. Sure, the Kaiju is cool... but...
<"So as long as I warn you a few hours ahead in time, it's okay if I come over to your home and step on it?"> He calls back to Yoko Nakashima with a harsh tone. Followed by... <"Shit, you're right. That is a Zetton. And trust me, when I'm done here, there will be plenty of samples."> The Evangelion almost seems to 'grin'.
The Evangelion brings its arms into a crossed lock, prepared to take another hit, when the Zetton Savior reports!
Eisen's head tilts immediately, following the Zetton Savior as it moves towards Euphemia. THE PRINCESS! The Evangelion pushes off, lauching to try and get there in time, bringing its hand out and creating its A.T. field to attenuate the blow aimed at the KMF that is being piloted, before stumbling and almost crushing a nearby house as it turns, its massive tail coming about and brings its hands forward again after the second teleport.
<"Look, I am kind of flattered that you want to be my Rival. My Nemesis. But I am going to require you to make this cooler!"> Eisen demands of Jude Espella. <"My name is Eisen Daiwel. Can you at least like, shout it out in anger when attacking me or something?"> The fierce fireball shatters across its A.T. field, some of it getting through. Melting into the skin and metals of the Evangelion. Some of it dripping down.
Slag touches across a few parked cars, melting right through them. Shattering windows.
<"Fifth Lichtenstein Maneuver!"> Eisen then demands, stepping back with the Evangelion, before sending it rushing forward in an attempt to TACKLE the Zetton and bring it to the ground, before rolling over it - that enormous power connecting wire rolling with the strike - seeking to slam down upon a 'downed' form of the Zetton if it could get it there!
<"NEWTON'S LAW!">
KTS: Eisen Daiwel targets Jude Espella with Devilish Tail!
<Pose Tracker> Chibodee Crocket has posed.
Chibodee keeps shooting at the Death Knight until he finally has to bring Maxter's revolvers back for the auto-loader to chamber more shells into them. It gives him a moment behind cover to think.
Chibodee responds to the voice-only message. "Got it," he says. "I'll tell the big guy. Be careful near that thing, we still don't know if it's gonna explode into DG slime."
Chibodee goes back to talking aloud. "Hey the wheeled mech is cool too," Maxter says back at the big turtle. Best he can think of under short circumstances. Wing it. The turtle got the message and that's good enough for right now.
The Death Knight charges in. Chibodee lands more shots on it but it's coming in with a buzzsaw. Gundam Maxter's revolvers slide back up its arms as its boxing glove attachments snap solidly across Maxter's knuckles. This is all instinct.
Gundam Maxter slides in at the Death Knight, bringing up its fist to connect against the buzzsaw. A clash of power on technique sees the blade skim across the paint of Maxter's right arm but not breach armor. But now he's in close. It's like putting a bloody steak in front of a hungry dog. Chibodee Crocket is right up against this mech and all he can do is punch.
In that brief opening, Gundam Maxter smacks at the Death Knight with a rabbit punch, trying to immediately jet-hop back to bait it into overcorrecting toward him.
KTS: Chibodee Crocket targets Anti with Jab Punch!
KTS: Riddhe Marcenas has activated the Spirit Spirit Command.
KTS: Jude Espella's EN Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage.
KTS: Jude Espella blocks Eisen Daiwel's Devilish Tail, taking 2310 damage!
KTS: Eisen Daiwel has engaged Jude Espella
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Sadly, Elisa isn't on NERV comms, but she's gonna try to get a sample herself. So hang in there, Yuka!!
Beast calls out that it isn't a game, and Elisa smiles in the Spinatia's cockpit. "it isn't," she agrees over short-band communications. "Kaiju... are our future."
She can't 'feel' Beast's anger; she doesn't have that capability. "You could be the future."
Federation dogs. She doesn't say anything about that. It's kind of convenient not to, frankly. But the Zetton Savior teleports suddenly--and fireballs spread out. The Spinatia W-type spins along the ground, leaping out of the path and seeming to shimmer with black-green energy for a moment as a fireball passes through rather than hitting it. "Accelerator... Moving to increased power." She works a few levers and slams a button before breathing in sharply--and beginning to gather a certain energy within her. Space shimmers between her and the Zetton Savior, before abrubtly the Spinatia blinks forward, too fast to see or else somehow skipping some of the distance. She stops short, and points her Shield forward, which glows green--and suddenly, particles in the air begin drawing towards it. It becomes a portal as much as a shield, though only energy can pass through, air rushing against it with a loud noise. Green lightning crackles--and she crashes towards the Zetton, shield-first!!
If she can knock a piece off, she can get her sample after all.
"And that future is now!"
KTS: Elisa Kafim has activated the Strike Spirit Command.
KTS: Elisa Kafim targets Jude Espella with Hyperdimensional Shield Bash!
<Pose Tracker> Asuka Shikinami Langley has posed.
"Your mad science lectures!? Who would even attend that other than a bunch of your Kaiju action figures!?" Asuka snaps at Eisen over the comms. Honestly she shouldn't be throwing stones on this given her own habits but... there it is.
Anti's sudden rush with his shield slab checks into the towering Evangelion, which raises her A.T. Field a half second too late, forcing the Eva to stumble backwards a step or two, a dent in Unit-02's shoulder before catching it's footing before it'd slam into any buildings. Thoroughly annoyed - and smarting from the hit... she backsteps more warily.
Asuka flicks off the comms for a moment from Kaworu's statement, "How is it someone can say they have faith in my abilities so calmly and still PISS ME OFF SO MUCH?" Still, all the same, Kaworu likely feels a spike of red hot anger from Asuka's entry plug across the field... which really says it all, doesn't it?
The comms come back on though as Callisto prods her back with that tone, naturally she rises to take the bait, furiously sending back to the Qubeley. "You're the one who demanded we clear the field for you to fire! Sounds like the kind of request a B-Tier loser who can't even hack it on the range would make!" The hypocrisy perhaps is thick - for those who know her. "Don't come crying that I was in your way when I take it down without your help!" Guy though, upon saying that's not how the Braves do things... "Well, I suppose I shouldn't have expected anything else." She admits... is she actually being a little respectful? Well a little.
"You're not making any sense you idiot! 'Our world' Are you really from the D.G. Army or what!?"
While she respects it calling out Kaworu in Unit-00... she doesn't say anything, narrowing her eyes. And then all of a sudden, she dashes forward... right after Kaworu's shot gives her an opening which... despite her best efforts, she can't fail to act on it. "'Leave us alone'! That's the kind of things losers say when they can't take any of what they're dishing out..." Bayonet extended, she runs straight at Anti, trying to wedge the Bayonet just into the Death Knight's armor again.
The Evangelion flips a trigger on the rifle, and suddenly the bayonet starts to glow purple, electricity swelling from the nozzle where it connects to the weapon. Suddenly a hellish arc of electricity erupts from the bayonet, spraying all over the Death Knight in a direct persistent electrocution that she intends to keep up as long as the bayonet is kept jabbed in.
"... LET'S FIND OUT WHAT YOUR LIMIT IS TOGETHER!"
KTS: Jude Espella's EN Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage.
KTS: Jude Espella blocks Elisa Kafim's Hyperdimensional Shield Bash, taking 1850 damage!
KTS: Elisa Kafim has engaged Jude Espella
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley has activated the Spirit Spirit Command.
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley has activated the Spirit Spirit Command.
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley targets Anti with Thunder Spear Electric Pulse!
KTS: Nidaime blocks Anti's Rifle Barrage, taking 1209 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Riddhe Marcenas has posed.
The explosion of melting rock that causes all sorts of problems for Riddhe. He's focused on trying to keep up with Jude, trying to keep the pressure on. However, he goes to try and avoid the first burst, only to get caught by a faster barrage and slammed into the ground. Burning pieces of material cause problems across the suit, forcing the now sweating and sweltering pilot to try and recover.
"And what if I am?" Riddhe transmits, trying to make the mobile suit go after that kind of attack. There is still a Princess on the field, who is of course going to fight it. That's a liability, there is some wishy-washy person talking about something absolutely butt-fucking crazy. Also kids on his side, this is going to absolute hell in a handbasket.
Focus, Riddhe, he tells himself. He has a plan now, he just needs to perform. The beam saber comes back to hand, as he closes distance again. No matter how much teleporting he does, Riddhe seems to be RIGHT there in a flash. Like he's predicting where he's going to be.
The beam saber flashes, aiming to try and cut through the creature's armor. "You're making a lot of accusations, for someone in a city working with the dark army. Someone who calls themself Beast and works with terrorists. I am fighting for peace, for a world where nobody has to fear tomorrow!"
<Pose Tracker> Qivi has posed.
It is definitely a good thing that Qivi did not see the Gloucester go by. As is her trigger finger itches and she doesn't know why.
What she actually does is respond to Chibodee. "Trust me, I don't intend to go out like that," Qivi shoots back. "You have any idea what home he's talking about? Is there a DG Cell nest somewhere?" Getting to talk to him is kind of a landmark day - at least one thing turned out decent! - but bothering him when he's fighting seems wrong. But she needs to know. That's bigger even than her job with the Black Knights.
She simply pretends she doesn't see the turtle. If she doesn't have to deal with Anosillus, she won't. It seems to be helping-ish, anyway... Same with the Evangelions, 02 and 00. And Shishioh. She has to admit that so many NERV people in one place at least is good for this kind of situation - though she's been avoiding putting her voice where Eisen can hear it, because she remembers that machine.
Qivi's 'borrowed' Zenith, like all wanzers, isn't *really* wheeled as a primary movement method but it has something like roller-skates for fast linear movement. Right now she's using them rather than the (admittedly slow) walking pace of the Zenith to strafe, but she drops the Zenith back flat on its feet when the Death Army unit takes an interest in her.
The buzzsaw comes in. Qivi tries to move forward, into the swing and up in the Death Knight's legs; the Zenith is about six meters tall, a third the height of an average Mobile Suit, and Qivi has found that staying in *real* close is a good way to put one off their stride until they think to kick her. Which most pilots don't, for some reason.
The buzzsaw catches her, though, forcing her to reverse and circle to avoid getting cut in half. As is the electrified saw sends sparks flying from the shield-and-shotgun arm of the Zenith 250, not taking it off but definitely damaging something internally.
"Okay, here's your shot, Anaheim," Qivi says, and flips the switch.
The beam saber in the other hand flicks on, a brilliant line of yellow-gold. Qivi rarely fights with beam sabers - they don't have blade weight and a melee weapon you can't get a good swing with is barely a melee weapon at all - but that's what she's got and so that's what she's using.
"Hey, death boy!" She means Anti. "Are you a person in there? Or what? I don't even know where you don't want me to go! So you'd better explain fast!" Fast, because Qivi lunges in. Her style is more suited to brawling but she's clearly used extended melee weapons before; she swings the overbright blade in a sweep, then brings it around in a backhand that she ends in a long thrust toward one of the Death Knight's knees before trying to whirr backwards. If it starts leaking DG Cells she doesn't want them on her.
KTS: Qivi has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
KTS: Qivi has activated the Alert Spirit Command.
KTS: Qivi targets Anti with Beam Saber 100 Combo!
KTS: Riddhe Marcenas targets Jude Espella with Saber Slash!
KTS: Anti fails to rush.
KTS: Chibodee Crocket rattles Anti, making his next maneuvers more difficult.
KTS: Anti fails to react to Chibodee Crocket's Jab Punch, taking 3360 damage!
KTS: Chibodee Crocket has engaged Anti
KTS: Anti rushes into the attack!
KTS: Anti fails to react to Asuka Shikinami Langley's Thunder Spear Electric Pulse, taking 5040 damage!
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley has engaged Anti
KTS: Anti fails to parry Qivi's Beam Saber 100 Combo, taking 5500 damage!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Qivi's Unbreakable activates, causing Sparkle!
KTS: Qivi has engaged Anti
<Pose Tracker> Euphemia li Britannia has posed.
Even if she made the right decision, she wasn't suited to executing it. Lesson learned, Euphemia supposes. There's a split-second feeling like she needs to do better -- or maybe just commit herself more fully to the present moment.
It's the latter that wins out. Even as Euphemia receives a transmission from NERV suggesting she fall back -- even as that unit then covers for her -- Euphemia shakes her head. "... If I can protect these people from a kaiju," she says, back over comms, "I'll be happy with that. The rest of today's Britannian delegation wouldn't have committed forces to assist if I hadn't."
There *are* a few Britannian units starting to move in -- mostly Sutherlands and Knightpolice. One of them has a near-miss with a fireball -- only to skid into a wall and out of the fight. Not dead, but certainly crashed.
Euphemia, for her own part, takes the fireball center-of-mass; the Knightmare's armor bulges out a bit from the heat, and Euphemia herself starts to sweat more than a little. "Nnh..." She's going to have to close in, she thinks -- if she gets in close, maybe she can make herself difficult to target...?
It's only about halfway into her movement that she realizes she doesn't actually have any -- tools, for this. The swords are off to make room for some of the Chester Cascade's missiles. In the end, she fires a harken to half extension and then whips the unit to one side, aiming to swing the bludgeon sidelong into Zetton's leg while moving at top speed.
"... Black Knight," she asks, tone gentle over burst comms. "What would it take for you to stop?"
KTS: Euphemia li Britannia targets Jude Espella with Landspinner Rush!
KTS: Jude Espella's EN Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage.
KTS: Jude Espella blocks Riddhe Marcenas's Saber Slash, taking 950 damage!
KTS: Riddhe Marcenas has engaged Jude Espella
KTS: Guy Shishioh's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage.
KTS: Guy Shishioh blocks Anti's Death Slab Bash, taking 725 damage!
KTS: Anti has engaged Guy Shishioh
KTS: Jude Espella's EN Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage.
KTS: Jude Espella blocks Euphemia li Britannia's Landspinner Rush, taking 1575 damage!
KTS: Euphemia li Britannia has engaged Jude Espella
<Pose Tracker> Shinji Ikari has posed.
"Are you sure you're older than me?!" Shinji says at Eisen as things get frustrating. It's not his fault they stuck in him a room with somebody who straight up hates him. And then that crazy homeless girl just breaks into some tiktok dance routine. "A-aren't you a little young for that song? Not that she can hear me-don't die, okay!" He stops paying attention.
The kaiju catches his kick. "What-"
It hurls Shinji backwards, and he has no control. He never has any control. His eyes widen and Unit-01's flicker in panic as they smash directly into an apartment block. The seventy meter tall titan obliterating a good half of the highly damage resistant construction instantly, and then gravity forces Unit-01 to 'sit' down, causing an ear splitting smash noise as the building struggles, barely holding together against Shinji's weight.
"They evacuated." Shinji says to himself, wearing a schoolboy's uniform.
"How often did we evacuate when the sirens happened?" Shinji says to himself, wearing a blood stained plug suit.
"Stop it." Shinji says in reality, Unit-01 waving a hand at the air as Beast goes on and on about how he's a murderer, a dog of the government, how all he knows how to do is kill. And then a fireball blasts Unit-01 directly in the chest, Shinji screaming as he feels synthetic skin peel and bubble away. People just lost their homes, even if they kept their lives. And he.
==
They are marched in threes towards the central pavillion, a great pit dug into the heart of the earth and lit with charcoal and other methods. Shinji's eyes widen as he looks for mercy. "Father!"
The High Priest does not acknowledge him. "The ritual begins. The sin will be cleansed from us. We will be made clean."
"Father!"
"I should go." The girl in red says, sticking her chin up. "I'm a better breed, you know. Built for this. Trained for it. What good is the prototype? When it's MY turn things are going to be run better around here I'll tell you that for free."
The girl in blue can't look anywhere anymore. They bound her eyes, after the last time, and her wrists. She is too afraid to shiver.
"She will pilot it again, if you do not." The High Priest says. "I have summoned you for this."
"Just to kill?!"
"What else are you FOR."
Shinji looks up at the pit, seeing the bones and gore of those shoved in before, and looks behind him at the kind woman in purple with the gentle eyes. "Sorry, kid." She says, leaning down to kiss him gently on the forehead before plunging the knife into his chest, kicking him inside in one elegant, efficient motion. "You had to know it'd end this way, right?"
Unit-01 stands up, eyes glowing a horrible shade of orange, it's great scarred eye gleaming in the moody carnage of the evening. The creature squats down, its movements more liquid than before, natural, as it pulls a knife from a shoulder holster. The machine sprints forward, not bothering to guard anything anymore, shoving detritus aside with a shimmering nightmare ATField as it rushes at the scarf clad Kaiju, one hand snapping out to grab the scarf while the other pulls the progressive knife up, aiming to stab it directly into the glowing jewel-like protrusion in the kaiju's chest.
"Doesn't anyone know what happens when you keep kicking a stray dog?" Shinji mutters in that odd not-quite his voice again.
KTS: Shinji Ikari has activated the Spirit Spirit Command.
KTS: Shinji Ikari has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
KTS: Shinji Ikari targets Jude Espella with Progressive Knife Thrust!
KTS: Jude Espella fails to rush.
KTS: Jude Espella fails to react to Shinji Ikari's Progressive Knife Thrust, taking 4900 damage!
KTS: Shinji Ikari has engaged Jude Espella
<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.
Guy has had the short version of the D.G. Army explained - partly by Hana literally uploading the Neuepedia article straight over the laser comm link - but it still isn't quite sinking in that this is...that. This guy? He's not screaming about the environmn--okay well he's not screaming about the environment IN THAT WAY.
"I won't let you break everything to satisfy your anger!" Guy calls out. He thrusts his arm forward, barely getting another Protect Wall up in time to repel the next savage swing from the Death Knight.
"But if you'll stop attacking, I can hear you out!"
He does not himself stop attacking, because 'blindly hope the other guy listens to reason' is not how he saved the universe three times, buddy. Instead, he just leans right into the Death Knight and gives it a straight right directly to the dome. "What do you mean, 'invading your world', anyway?!" Is he about to find out he has to commit medium treason again? It took them years to get him off the hook the last time.
KTS: Guy Shishioh targets Anti with Broken Fist!
KTS: Kaworu Nagisa has activated the Resupply Spirit Command.
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
For all that this person ("person") is clearly new to using a mech, he learns with remarkably speed. A masterfully made creation. Kaworu takes a moment to admire the cat-leaping-for-bird maneuver, then considers his claim that he's not here to kill anyone. He said before that he wanted to prevent any more intrusions... Naturally he would target the train tracks, then. It makes sense that his creator would give orders like this. But...
"Hm? Oh, did you want to hold a conversation? I don't mind that," Kaworu responds to Anti, as calm and personable as if they were talking at a food court rather than across a raging battlefield. Return fire shoots out towards him; Unit 00 responds to his will by flaring her A.T. Field, blocking some of the attack, but the barrage also strikes the building next to them. Rubble strikes them from an unprotected side, slamming into orange-painted armor. Kaworu and Unit 00 move away from cover, potentially opening them up to reprisal. Even so, he remains calm. "Then allow me to ask: who exactly gave you that unit?"
Unit 00 raises the sniper rifle so its butt rests on her shoulder. As she braces her footing against the cracked and broken streets, Kaworu focuses in on the Death Knight's--arms, he decides; it would be best if this one is able to retreat once they've had enough here. There will be time later to follow and ask more questions. Receiving this intent, Unit 00 opens fire with a ratta-tat-tat, light flashing from her stream of bullets.
Asuka wonders rhetorically how someone who claims to have faith in her could still piss her off. Just as rhetorically, and dry as the Gobi desert, Kaworu wonders back, "Could it be because you refuse to address the rage that boils within you?"
KTS: Kaworu Nagisa targets Anti with Sniper Rifle Sighted Shot!
<Pose Tracker> Ple Two has posed.
Thoughts race to and fro in Callisto's (Ple Two) mind. She remains motionless in the seat of her panoramic cockpit despite the savage tugging of G-Forces as the Qubeley whirls midair and begins climbing skyward. Her gaze swivels. She glances askance at the fusillade of searing fire darting past the avian-featured Mobile Suit, but her head doesn't move. "Leave us alone...?" she repeats Anti's request beneath her breath.
(That will... this isn't someone pushing old ideals.)
(It's too desperate. Like a...)
The Death Knight surges, leaping through the oncoming hail of beam-weapons fire with animalistic instinct. Such is the difference between them: where the Quebeley is calculating transversal velocity, Anti is drawing a straight line between A and B. It's simple genius. Callisto's eyes narrow as the hulking beast of a suit suddenly fills her viewscreen, blade raised high.
(Like a threatened child?)
(Yes.)
The buzzsaw cuts into the Qubeley's shoulder-binder, sinking into the mechanical guts. A shower of sparks celebrates the occasion.
"Where do you want to be left alone?" the Qubeley's pilot asks, voice annoyingly composed despite her cockpit currently being coloured red at the 'someone is hacking your shit up with a buzzsaw, dude' alarm. "And why wouldn't you kill for it?"
The whole DG cells danger is forgotten, so prep the showers back at base.
There's a deafening snap-hiss (if you're outside, anyway) as the Qubeley's wrist blazes to life with a blinding golden beam-saber. Callisto swings it at Anti's... shoulder. That's not what we call a killshot. Is this one of those eye-for-an-eye things?
Also, a vein pops on Callisto's forehead and she hits the radio button with her elbow while also swordfighting, broadcasting her spat with Asuka to the world.
"Ho~h, are NERV fielding girl scouts who don't know how to flank? No wonder they were sending us to offer a few pointers." spits Callie, who has a huge fanged grin on her face despite everything as her heartrate monitor starts climbing over 125. "I can't wait to shake your hand after I clean this mess up!"
guys please can we
can we just get along
KTS: Ple Two targets Anti with Beam Sabers Strike!
<Pose Tracker> Nidaime has posed.
It's not really uncommon for Anosillus to miss a target. He's not the best at 'aiming'. He's the best at helping friends but it's also, you know, a turtle. A very smart turtle! But also a turtle that reacts to being shot by shooting back.
Also being a turtle, it can't really answer Anti. It just sort of honks at Anti.
Nidaime, who looks like she's about 12 years old, is probably actually the exact age for I Like Big Butts if we're being honest.
She's now ground floor. She kind of wants to go for a piggy back ride on Anosillus but it'll have to wait for after the battle. Instead she sings a new song (the track changed). "We took the floor and she said oh don't you dare look back o/~ just keep your eyes on me o/~ I said you're holding back o/~ She said shut up and dance with me o/~ This woman's my destiny o/~ She said ohhh ohhh~ Shut up and dance with me~"
She probably should visit that guy soon, she thinks, let him know to not worry so much. His heart screams anxiety and she wants to soothe it.
She leans against the wall and draws out a baton--
--and she points it towards Chibodee's Gundam Maxter--sending a wave of sound that will repair some of the damage on the Gundam Maxter!
And even as she does so, Anosillus lets out a mighty encouraging roar!
KTS: Nidaime has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Chibodee Crocket
KTS: Nidaime targets Chibodee Crocket, Shinji Ikari, and Qivi with Sound Spirit.
KTS: Nidaime's sound spirit flares with his performance, raising Chibodee Crocket's Morale!
KTS: Nidaime's sound spirit flares with his performance, raising Shinji Ikari's Morale!
KTS: Nidaime's sound spirit flares with her performance, raising Qivi's Morale!
KTS: Yoko Nakashima has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
KTS: Yoko Nakashima has activated the Strike Spirit Command.
KTS: Anti blocks Guy Shishioh's Broken Fist, taking 2850 damage!
KTS: Guy Shishioh has engaged Anti
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Nakashima has posed.
When the Zetton teleports, Windom teleports with it and, frankly, it's a weird experience as she is jumped around twice, and Windom's sensors struggle to keep up and she catches a burst of fire the face. Her cockpit sparks and flares, Yoko cries out, and Windom lets out another of it's metallic roars. But it's still in close.
And then she hears something frankly unexpected. A Britannian princess talking about protecting people. "...She's right." Yoko calls out over speakers. "Protecting people is the goal here." The problem is... protecting people is hard without taking out the threat in front of them permanently. And that means hurting the girl in front of them.
But that's the cost. Sometimes you can't protect something without harming something else.
"Windom! Full Shooting!" She says, slamming a lever and pulling a trigger, and at point black range she unleashes every single missile port at the attacking kaiju. She was given plenty of chances to run. Now Jude has to live with her choices. The all out blast goes straight towards the Kaiju, even as Windom's legs lock to deliver the attack
KTS: Yoko Nakashima targets Jude Espella with Type-20 Full Shooting!
KTS: Jude Espella's EN Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage.
KTS: Jude Espella fails to Intercept Yoko Nakashima's Type-20 Full Shooting, taking 3675 damage!
KTS: Yoko Nakashima roots her unit, coming to a standstill and leaving her vulnerable.
KTS: Anti blocks Ple Two's Beam Sabers Strike, taking 1740 damage!
KTS: Ple Two has engaged Anti
KTS: Anti blocks Kaworu Nagisa's Sniper Rifle Sighted Shot, taking 2310 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Jude Espella has posed.
"SHUT UP!" Beast shouts to Eisen, as his Carestia tackles and downs Zetton. He's down long enough for him to get one hit, which suffuses through the barrier - Beast is hanging on carefully to the kaiju's face.
And then, he uses enormous strength to force Carestia off, rising again and smashing a foot into it!
Riddhe gets a shout. "And you still don't listen! None of you ever listen! None of you except her!" Beast remarks to Elisa after, the her she was referring to. "Finally, a sane person! You want to see what I can do, well, take it!"
Beam sabers, shields, and a bludgeoning harken all strike inton Zetton, and he is smashed into and his armor burned and magically harmed. The barrier is still up.
Euphemia asks an integral question. "NERV must stop killing kaiju - give them to me, if you must - and Eisen Daiwel must SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Part of that is reasonable but unfulfillable. The other part is absolutely insane.
Shinji's knife comes in, as he grabs for the scarf. The moment Beast notices him reach for it, both a literal and a psychic scream burst out, as the knife pierces the barrier and plunges into Zetton's chest. That bit of material they wanted spills to the ground, as a thought crosses every Awakened individual in the fight.
A thought of a girl putting in every effort she can to obtain her kaiju a giant scarf, something that should be positively silly, but shows an Actual Bond. This isn't her pet. This isn't her tool, or her toy.
This is her dearest friend.
During this time, Zetton, in pain, fires a single pair of head rays at Yoko's missile storm, and misses every single one. They detonate across the barrier, as Zetton staggers back in horrible pain, ripping the knife out of his chest.
He suddenly smashes his fists into Yoko's Windom, before striking everyone else with a brutal hit. Shinji's Evangelion, in particular, gets hit with a massive strike, oppressive in its blows.
KTS: Jude Espella has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
KTS: Jude Espella has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
KTS: Jude Espella targets Yoko Nakashima with Zetton Strike!
KTS: Jude Espella targets Eisen Daiwel with Zetton Strike!
KTS: Jude Espella targets Shinji Ikari with Zetton Bully!
KTS: Jude Espella targets Elisa Kafim with Zetton Strike!
KTS: Jude Espella targets Euphemia li Britannia with Zetton Strike!
KTS: Jude Espella targets Riddhe Marcenas with Zetton Strike!
KTS: Riddhe Marcenas fails to parry Jude Espella's Zetton Strike, taking 2227 damage!
KTS: Jude Espella has engaged Riddhe Marcenas
KTS: Jude Espella begins a Formation attack!
KTS: Euphemia li Britannia fails to react to Jude Espella's Zetton Strike, taking 2227 damage!
KTS: Jude Espella has engaged Euphemia li Britannia
KTS: Jude Espella begins a Formation attack!
KTS: Elisa Kafim rushes into the attack!
KTS: Elisa Kafim's Barrier Generator activates, negating 200 base damage.
KTS: Elisa Kafim's Physical Wall L1 activates, negating 1000 base damage.
KTS: Elisa Kafim fails to react to Jude Espella's Zetton Strike, taking 1276 damage!
KTS: Jude Espella has engaged Elisa Kafim
KTS: Jude Espella begins a Formation attack!
KTS: Eisen Daiwel's Will Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage.
KTS: Eisen Daiwel blocks Jude Espella's Zetton Strike, taking 1722 damage!
KTS: Jude Espella has engaged Eisen Daiwel
KTS: Jude Espella begins a Formation attack!
KTS: Eisen Daiwel has activated the Spirit Spirit Command.
KTS: Yoko Nakashima has activated the Wall Spirit Command.
KTS: Yoko Nakashima has activated the Focus Spirit Command.
KTS: Yoko Nakashima fails to Parry Jude Espella's Zetton Strike, taking 2227 damage!
KTS: Jude Espella has engaged Yoko Nakashima
KTS: Jude Espella begins a Formation attack!
<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.
Gundam Maxter can't do anything but punch? That's fine. Whoever is in this Death Knight is evidently quite comfortable with the idea of punching. But the systems are screaming at him about loss of cohesion, and...
"SHIT!" Anti yells, he is still yelling, he still hasn't figured it out yet. "FINE! YOU KNOW WHAT ELSE I TOOK?!"
That second Gridman -- Ultraman Geed, he's thinking of Ultraman Geed -- showed Anti a particular trick, last time they fought. He's copied that unique human trait, HEROIC WILLPOWER...
Which is to say he uses the Valor command. That is what he does. That is what he is doing.
(It might be more concerning in THIS case, because those inert DG Cells are reacting to his inhuman demands on its system, rearranging themselves, optimising the Death Knight's output. But --)
Anyway, he punches Chibodee. He punches Chibodee with a buzzsaw. He speaks the true language of punches, and it would be beautiful, were it not coming from the Death Army.
His next question, to Unit-02, is pretty simple: "WHAT THE HELL IS A DG ARMY?! I'M NOT A SOLDIER! I'M --" There's a pause, here, as Anti cuts himself off. That kaiju girl warned him about revealing himself, and none of these people know what he is, not really. The silence reigns a beat too long, before he thinks of how to finish his thought: "-- I'M THE PROTECTOR OF TSUTSUJIDAI!" That answers Callisto's question, perhaps, of where he wants to be left alone.
Asuka runs straight at Anti; Anti runs straight at Asuka. Predictably, this ends with Anti going flying. His hands extend, to grasp -- crush -- the top of an office-block, and physically toss himself back standing. It's the sort of movement which feels like something he's much more used to doing in anything other than a mobile suit. Clearly he knows the motions, but the execution leaves something to be said.
"Come on!" He snaps -- it's transmitted as much as anything else he's saying -- as he jerks his hands in the wiring. The Cells stir, but only enough to consume the crumbs of yesterday's bento from his dirtied scarf. It seems salmon is more a living thing than he is, even dead. On the outside, the Death Rifle flares with power, before a charged shot blasts out towards Unit-02 -- some vestige of the horrors the Death Army visited, once.
Apparently, he has nothing to say to being called a loser. Within the binding of Death Knight's cables, he seethes. "SHUT UP!"
Of course, having gathered all his enemies in one place, he now has to actually deal with them. He shrugs his shield-shoulder into Callisto's swordplay, and yells: "I DON'T HAVE TO, THAT'S WHY! I DON'T CARE ABOUT KILLING YOU!" ... though, there's something in the emotions of that which suggests he cares about killing someone. He carves at the Callisto's grounded bird, and desperation is the word, yes.
When Qivi comes for him, he strikes at her suit's wrist, where she's manipulating the weapon -- but she's more used to fighting with weapons in an environment like this, and the beam saber cuts through Death Knight, anyway. He strikes at her, in turn, circular saw whirring with an electrical charge. "'A PERSON'... WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?! ARE YOU CALLING ME A HUMAN?!" Why is he saying that like it's an insult?
"I'M NOT HERE TO NEGOTIATE!" Anti yells, to GaoFighGar, because he has apparently heard none of the legendary stories about GaoFighGar and doesn't know that taking GaoFighGar's invitation to stop hitting him is the best deal he's going to get. But, what does he mean about invading..? "YOU HUMANS KEEP SLIPPING IN, AND SHE KEEPS HAVING TO FIX THINGS! DON'T THINK I'LL FORGIVE YOU FOR THAT, BASTARDS!"
'She'..?
He gives Guy the cold shoulder, figuratively and also literally, because that's the shoulder where his shield is mounted. His other hand lashes out to punch-carve, even as he's dealing with the impact. He goes sliding -- through some more buildings, long-since evacuated by Nouvelle Tokyo's orderly sirens -- and turns to absorb Unit 00's sniper fire with that same shield.
Who gave 'you' that unit...
... it's a question with two different answers, based on inclusive or exclusive 'you'.
Anti chooses to answer one, rather than the other: "IT WAS BIONET!" Anti screams, and here again we must point out that he really, really doesn't have to. "YOU GOT A PROBLEM WITH THAT?!"
Another rifle blast -- not quite as horrific, thankfully -- fires off to Unit 00, but it's clear, at this point, that the Death Knight can't take much more of this. There's that sparking hole in its shield -- a dozen more dents and slashes from its melee engagements -- and, at this point, several holes. They open to the air, exposing something hexagonal and full to the brim with ill intent for the world.
But he won't run away.
(He has apparently forgotten about the turtle now he isn't firing at him. Apparently Anti doesn't mind existing with kaiju so long as they're not interrupting his bottom line.)
KTS: Anti has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
KTS: Anti has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
KTS: Anti targets Chibodee Crocket with Anti Saws A Strange Bird!
KTS: Anti has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
KTS: Anti has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
KTS: Anti targets Asuka Shikinami Langley with Consumption Blast!
KTS: Anti has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
KTS: Anti has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
KTS: Anti targets Ple Two with Anti Saws A Strange Bird!
KTS: Anti anchors Ple Two, forcing her into close range.
KTS: Ple Two fails to react to Anti's Anti Saws A Strange Bird, taking 3299 damage!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Anti's DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE! activates, causing Sparkle!
KTS: Anti has engaged Ple Two
KTS: Anti targets Qivi with Electrified Buzzsaw Heavy Discharge!
KTS: Anti targets Guy Shishioh with Carcass Carving!
KTS: Anti targets Kaworu Nagisa with Rifle Barrage!
<Pose Tracker> Eisen Daiwel has posed.
Perhaps it is good after all that Qivi isn't in the same machine as she was last time. Though it might be also fair to assume that right now, Eisen has his hands far too full on this Kaiju before him. As tough as he may be portraying himself as, it's clear that this isn't as 'even' of a battle as the last one. He is needing to focus, and coming together with the aid of others on this.
Though something prickles in the back of his mind. When Asuka speaks of... the miniatures. <"Wait, how do you k~"> Shit! No! The secret 'hair seal' technique he's been using to check if anyone entered his quarters had not been broken! Asuka is surely not a good enough infiltrant to have spotted that! And surely, she will respect the sign that says 'Keep Out' on the front of his personal quarters!
Damnit, he just gave away a secret because of a guess, didn't he!?
And the Princess is still not retreating! <"This fight is not important for you to risk your life on!"> And there she goes, swinging in low across its body. "Damnit." Stop looking so cool, Euphemia li Britannia! That's illegal! And then Shinji is finally getting into things too. <"Of course I am older than you! I've traveled decades to overcome this demon's curse!">
The man is forced to stumble as the Zetton hits him in the back, causing the Evangelion to stumble, then turn properly. <"Are you mad? Without heroes like the Getter Team and Guy Shishioh, the world would be without humans now!"> How dare she disrespect his heroes like that!
<"PYRE FOR EDISON TECHNIQUE!">
The Carestia shifts fully and storms the Zetton from behind, as the hit comes in. But the Carestia keeps moving forward. The slam of that fist ripping into the A.T. field... then slamming into the head of the Carestia. It rips forward, tearing some of the armor away as the unit opens its maw and tries to sink its teeth INTO the Zetton and begins to swing its body around like an Alligator doing a Death Roll!
<"TORQUE ANNIHILATOR!">
The entire unit dropping its full weight to the ground while keeping its jaws set HEAVY into the Zetton's arm in the hopes of ripping its arm off, or at least get a good chunk of its flesh.
KTS: Eisen Daiwel targets Jude Espella with Code: Annihilation!
KTS: Chibodee Crocket has activated the Wall Spirit Command.
KTS: Qivi blocks Anti's Electrified Buzzsaw Heavy Discharge, taking 2474 damage!
KTS: Anti has engaged Qivi
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley fails to Evade Anti's Consumption Blast, taking 3893 damage!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Anti's DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE! activates, causing Sparkle!
KTS: Anti anchors Chibodee Crocket, forcing him into close range.
KTS: Chibodee Crocket fails to parry Anti's Anti Saws A Strange Bird, taking 2474 damage!
KTS: Anti has engaged Chibodee Crocket
KTS: Guy Shishioh fails to rush.
KTS: Guy Shishioh's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage.
KTS: Anti rattles Guy Shishioh, making his next maneuvers more difficult.
KTS: Guy Shishioh fails to react to Anti's Carcass Carving, taking 1633 damage!
KTS: Anti has engaged Guy Shishioh
KTS: Kaworu Nagisa's EN Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage.
KTS: Kaworu Nagisa fails to react to Anti's Rifle Barrage, taking 1913 damage!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Anti's DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE! activates, causing Sparkle!
Your unit's HP stands at 9391
KTS: Shinji Ikari's Will Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage.
KTS: Shinji Ikari parries Jude Espella's Zetton Bully, taking 800 damage!
KTS: Jude Espella has engaged Shinji Ikari
<Pose Tracker> Qivi has posed.
"...so, NOT a person," is Qivi's reaction when Anti screams at her. She doesn't like that reaction. Her (pointed, but well-hidden) eartips twitch once as she reflexively snarls. Well, she's learning.
Learning involves buzzsaws.
Seriously, learning involves buzzsaw. This one Qivi brings up her shield arm to block with, but the shield really is not up to the task of holding off an oversized electrical buzzsaw; Anti doesn't so much tear into it as grind it off the arm, ripping off a good deal of the external plating at the same time and leaving the lower section of the Zenith's limb looking vaguely skeletal.
At least there's music. Or, well, turtle music. Qivi's hair, improbably, presses down against her head, losing some of its enormous volume. Anosillus is not exactly her musical style here, and neither is I Like Big Butts if it comes up (she has other preferences).
Tsutsujidai...
Qivi growls, already angry from the previous comments about humanity without really knowing why, or in which direction she's angry; whether she's mad that he assumed she's human, or mad that she isn't. She doesn't know where that is, but she's not Japanese. She doesn't know every district. She'll try to look it up later, because it's apparently somewhere you can get to by train. (And in that way, Anti has sort of doomed himself again.)
But rather than explain that, Qivi whirs back into action. Down one arm, because half the lower left arm of the Zenith 250 is somewhere on the road, she only has one weapon available but it's the one she wants.
In her own wanzer, the Sarangay, Qivi would have a jet booster. Here, she doesn't, but she makes a jump anyway; winding up at top speed, Qivi barrels along the road before making a mad leap, trying to get up near the Death Knight's head. She sweeps her sword in a mighty arc right around head level, trying to cut it off en route while in midair, land, and keep skidding along the ground on her wheel boosters; she turns around to see what she's managed to do only when she is a good distance down the road, in case it is exploding into DG Cells everywhere.
"That's what I think of BioNet!" At least she's getting to work one frustration out.
KTS: Qivi has activated the Alert Spirit Command.
KTS: Qivi has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
KTS: Qivi has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
KTS: Qivi targets Anti with Formation NexT 100!
<Pose Tracker> Riddhe Marcenas has posed.
Riddhe swings the saber in response to the Kaiju swinging on him...this did not go to plan\, as the Delta Plus is overwhelmed\, tossed from the ground\, and goes sliding across the battlefield. Hitting the side of a building the rattling of the cockpit forces Riddhe to grit his teeth. This is not going to plan at all\, and worse the child is spouting the most ridiculous shit.
"So what\, we should just let them destroy our lives? Ruin all we have worked for? We should just hide in their shadows and hope that they don't kill us?" The eyes of the mobile suit flash\, as Riddhe punches it. The suit aims to dive upwards\, and this time the beam cannon of the suit is grabbed.
However\, he instead fires a barrage of shots from the Vulcans\, aiming to try and shake up the Kaiju and continue with the plan. He was almost there...
"You're an eyesore\," he says\, with as much contempt that he could muster. It didn't matter if this was a child\, it was some insane person who was threatening his home. Again. Again and again and again...it won't stop until they're all in the ground.
KTS: Riddhe Marcenas has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has disengaged.
KTS: Riddhe Marcenas targets Jude Espella with Vulcan Burst!
KTS: Jude Espella has activated the Focus Spirit Command.
KTS: Eisen Daiwel enervates Jude Espella, reducing her Morale significantly.
KTS: Jude Espella fails to react to Eisen Daiwel's Code: Annihilation, taking 9360 damage!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Eisen Daiwel's Experience This Curse With Me! activates, causing Shock!
KTS: Eisen Daiwel has engaged Jude Espella
KTS: Jude Espella rushes into the attack!
KTS: Jude Espella's EN Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage.
KTS: Riddhe Marcenas rattles Jude Espella, making her next maneuvers more difficult.
KTS: Jude Espella fails to react to Riddhe Marcenas's Vulcan Burst, taking 1800 damage!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Riddhe Marcenas's Drum You Out Of Town activates, causing Nullify!
KTS: Riddhe Marcenas has engaged Jude Espella
<Pose Tracker> Asuka Shikinami Langley has posed.
Kaworu's response to her statement that she thought wasn't transmitted over the radio, gives Asuka one locked up moment of bewildered ??? Did she actually hit the button to turn the comms off? Did it stick? DID HE BUG HER ENTRY PLUG? "Tch." She clucks her tongue, annoyed but doesn't say anything else at the moment - only thinking that his advice is absolutely useless.
Instead she focuses her rage on a safer target in Callista, whose statements causes her eyebrow to twitch and forces her to look out of her entry plug at the Qubeley, "Where do you get off calling me a girl scout!? You don't sound much older than me but you're mouthing off like you're some wrinkled Old Granny? Well whatever if that's how you wanna come across I'll take your cues and respect my elders! There's no need to go to the trouble of rolling your wheelchair over here to shake my hand after I finish settling things!"
Eisen lets it slip, and Asuka of course presses her advantage, "Well well-! Sounds more like a mad science tea party than a lecture! Think I'll pass!"
Fresh off of electrocuting Anti, Asuka smugly takes a step forward, as if to press her advantage. And then he says something that stuns even the pilot of Evangelion-02. "Wait what did you say...!? Tsutsujidai?" Asuka is so stunned that she only starts to move her Eva far too late. Anti's shots from his Death Rifle blast burn hmarks in her Eva's armor, and the girl screams as the synch rate she's so proud of gives her a taste of punishment, as she tumbles backwards, only putting out a hand just in time to prevent from crushing part of building.
"'She' huh? Just like that kid... So that's what this is about. Whoever sent you is upset because we found out all about her freakshow."
Asuka's assumptions aren't correct, she just thinks she's onto something here from all the information.The Red Giant stands back up straight, and advances on Anti. "She feels the walls closing in. So she sends you to warn us off."
The Evangelion suddenly tosses the Thunder Spear aside into an empty lot. "Bionet too? You're sure talkative now. Thanks for your cooperation-" The Eva suddenly looks like it's cracking its knuckles in mid-air. "-idiot."
The Evangelion suddenly dashes right at the Death Knight, ducking down low to try and grip its helm with both hands, and tear the Death Knight off the ground if she wins out in the contest of strength, holding it aloft, "Let me show you why we won't be warned off."
Abruptly, the Eva lets go and launches in a knee strike meant to catch him as he falls, ploughing into him with Evangelion Unit-02's larger size and mass.
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley targets Anti with EVA-02 Martial Arts Focus Strike!
No incoming attacks.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Elisa will take being the only one who listens. Inside the cockpit of the Spinatia, she actually smiles faintly. It's not a big enough action that the Awakened are likely to read her feelings at this distance, in this chaos, but it is a smile. But she does answer:
"I do. By all means."
Killing kaiju... On the one hand, Elisa immediately sees this argument as a non-starter. But it makes Jude very interesting to her, even more than she already is. She doesn't sense that moment of a girl putting on the giant scarf, doesn't 'feel' the friendship there. The brutal swing of the kaiju's maneuver next hits in home, except that it doesn't damage the Spinatia nearly as much as its spindly construction would suggest it might. Part of that is an obvious barrier, but part of it is a strange spatial warping that just seems to leech the energy out of the strike outright. But she's still in a bad position.
That's fine. She's close enough that she can reach out. This close, she can get samples. And this close...
"This isn't the way. Not here, not today. But there is a way. There is a way to end war..."
The Spinatia turns, pointing her shield directly at the kaiju at near point-blank range. It seems like an effort at defense at first--but only at first, before a thunderous force ripples off of the Spinatia, thunder without lightning.
Extradimensional energy crackles out from the strange green shield the Spinatia uses. Sensors might recognize the activation of something very like a Fold drive, except nothing moves; instead, a surge of bizarre energy that is hard to look at blasts towards the Zetton Savior. The energy swirls and writhes like a living thing, reaching out to wrap around the Zetton. It hurts the eyes, like looking into the sun, except that it is not bright--it is utterly dark.
Within the cockpit, Elisa makes precise motions, her hands shifting in a circle, fingers out at strange angles, mind and body utterly in sync.
The gate closes an instant later, but the scent of ozone lingers, along with a sense of something alien to the Awakened.
"Rise! Your energy can be much greater!"
KTS: Elisa Kafim has activated the Strike Spirit Command.
KTS: Elisa Kafim has activated the Focus Spirit Command.
KTS: Elisa Kafim targets Jude Espella with Hyperdimensional Shield - Dimensional Gate!
KTS: Riddhe Marcenas has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has disengaged.
<Pose Tracker> Chibodee Crocket has posed.
Chibodee is in his element. The quick bell-ringer definitely got the Death Knight's attention. He swings his fist up to parry, keeping the buzzsaw from piercing very deeply into Maxter's armor. He controls the blow, directiny its force past Maxter, all the while using the movement to get back out of range of all these beams.
The kid is going on and on. It's disorienting to him. What is all this? Why is it happening? There was something he needed to remember, right?
The pulse of DG cells. Chibodee feels it before he sees it, his hands tightening into iron blocks. Whoever this person is has perhaps unwittingly put people at risk. There's nothing for it now.
"Kid," he breathes. "This hand of mine..."
The Crest glows through his palm, even through the trace gloves. "I can't let it happen again. I won't! IT CAN'T!"
Gundam Maxter is locked in closer against the Death Knight. Power builds across its frame as magic energy (interpreted as you will) builds within the pride of Neo-America. Trust in it, he tells himself. Max could do it. So can you.
Gundam Maxter tears in at the Death Knight. Its right arm bursts into plasma flame as he tries to blast the DG Cells he can see with what he broadly understands to be Goodness Energy to destroy them. Maybe they could at least save the kid.
"BURNING PUNCH!"
KTS: Elisa Kafim enervates Jude Espella, reducing her Morale significantly.
KTS: Jude Espella blocks Elisa Kafim's Hyperdimensional Shield - Dimensional Gate, taking 6710 damage!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Elisa Kafim's Beyond the Void activates, causing Shock!
KTS: Elisa Kafim has engaged Jude Espella
KTS: Chibodee Crocket targets Anti with Burning Punch!
<Pose Tracker> Shinji Ikari has posed.
Shinji is stabbed in the chest.
He laughs, or a voice like him laughs, a kind of dry chuckle from a throat unused to laughted as an ATField slows the clawed assault, the prog knife redirects it, and Shinji's chest plate absorbs the worst of the impact. It barely scratches the paint. Shinji Ikari is not awakened, he's not a newtype, the visions he sees in Eva are his mind creating dream like scenarios to desperately explain the neural trauma synchronization takes on him.
The beast laughs anyway. Everyone's exploding and calling out attack names and talking about love and valor like it means anything.
"People lived in that building, you know. I don't think anyone died." And then a little music plays from a little girl, and the end of the world fades from Unit-01's eyes a little. "They're quick to evacuate here, I guess. I mean those are nice apartments, too, they have space for a real kitchen and closets. Room for pets. I think there was a pool? What am I saying. A bug in a scarf stabbed me in the chest and everyone's exploding into angry rainbows."
"This is the part where I look at all of this insanity and think, gosh, maybe she has a point, right? But I just don't see it. I don't see how you got to be so desperate you look at things that are just. Just evil and think, hey, there's a weapon for freedom." Shinji says, and Unit-01 breathes in and out. "I mean look at how ridiculous I am, sitting here in my purple robot fighting a bug in sunglasses."
It pulls its fist back and swings a vicious left hook at Zetton, trying to keep the teleporting monster close to it. "If I don't do this, if I don't stop the Angels, father will put some other kid in this thing. Someone people'd miss. Because you're right."
"Break its neck." The bleeding Shinji in the plug suit whispers, "Look where the meat and the ooze and the pus goes and squeeze."
"Yeah, I guess."
KTS: Shinji Ikari targets Jude Espella with Haymaker!
KTS: Shinji Ikari rattles Jude Espella, making her next maneuvers more difficult.
KTS: Jude Espella blocks Shinji Ikari's Haymaker, taking 3150 damage!
KTS: Shinji Ikari has engaged Jude Espella
KTS: Shinji Ikari begins a Formation attack!
KTS: Jude Espella has activated the Wall Spirit Command.
<Pose Tracker> Nidaime has posed.
Anosillus starts to turn around. It honks once more at the Gundam Maxter, giving it a brief turtle nuzzle before it gets all burning and starts turtle-waddling away.
Nidaime pulls free her headphones and looks back up at the fight.
"Chibi...It'll be okay."
She then loads up her spare change shopping bag on her shopping cart and starts scootching it back a bit away from the climatic super power round she knows full well that can get a little extreme and hot and heavy even for a kaiju like her. Especially for a kaiju, really, if you think about it.
But she gives Shinji one more look and--yeah--she really should pay that guy a visit. Well, whomever the Unit-01 pilot is. Maybe she can buy him ice cream. He probably would like ice cream.
KTS: Nidaime targets Chibodee Crocket with Heart!
<Pose Tracker> Euphemia li Britannia has posed.
Kindness to animals is the mark of a compassionate person, Euphy thinks to herself. But is the 'Beast' so kind to them, so thoughtful about them, out of a genuine desire to connect...? Or is she just so prone to lashing out at humans that kaiju are the only things she can --
-- She gets too worried about her attacker's state of mind that she forgets to think about the strike, and eats a hit firmly into a wall. She rattles in the cockpit -- and the blunt force trauma highlights something that she totally forgot: a helmet. The right monitor in her four-panel cockpit display goes out. No guesses why!
Right eye screwing shut, Euphemia again considers Eisen's words. Should she retreat...? It'd certainly be easier. She has a great excuse, too.
... but the Britannian reinforcements would probably also retreat if she did. As far as she's concerned: Non-starter.
Euphemia opens comms again. They're a little crackly -- a side effect of a disabled monitor: one of the microphones is *also* acting up. "I'm sorry -- we can't do that for you," she murmurs. "Can we meet later, if we both survive this?"
She's in *very* close, and she thinks she sees an opening. She doesn't have a pilot's sense for these things, but she can at least try to trust her gut. Her fingers move toward the Chester Cascade's safety limiters; after some deliberation, she turns them off. She won't get a better chance. It's risky -- but can she trust those around her to take risks, if she herself does not?
The Chester Cascade shifts. A pair of beam emitters pops out of a housing. "... I'm firing the Hyper Strike Banisher," she reports, over local allied communications. "Please position accordingly!" ... She's not actually good enough to be certain about picking her spot.
Euphemia pulls both triggers at once. A burst of iridescent, rainbow light issues forth from the Chester Cascade's current set of emitters; it's thin, but it's *piercing*, and seems to almost wobble. It's a strange type of energy -- not Photon Power, and not a Minovsky beam.
The Lancelot Club throws every warning it has about power draw. It stands still for a short moment. Euphemia tenses up.
KTS: Euphemia li Britannia has activated the Resupply Spirit Command.
KTS: Nidaime bares his heart, letting Chibodee Crocket deal some extra damage!
KTS: Euphemia li Britannia has activated the Attune Spirit Command.
KTS: Euphemia li Britannia has activated the Enable Spirit Command.
KTS: Euphemia li Britannia targets Jude Espella with Hyper Strike Banisher!
KTS: Jude Espella has activated the Wall Spirit Command.
KTS: Jude Espella's EN Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage.
KTS: Jude Espella blocks Euphemia li Britannia's Hyper Strike Banisher, taking 3600 damage!
KTS: Euphemia li Britannia roots her unit, coming to a standstill and leaving her vulnerable.
KTS: Euphemia li Britannia completes the Formation attack!
<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.
'She'?
Guy wracks his brain but can't even begin to imagine what that's about. 'You humans' also catches him; this enemy has said similar things a few times now, implying that they consider humans something other than themselves. Like what though?? There's only so many options, here, and most of them don't hop in a robot and tear up downtown! ...Alone!
BioNet, the enemy says. "BioNet!?" Guy echoes. "They're keeping something that dangerous!?"
Back at the Branch Order Room, Research Operator Tamara and Intelligence Operator Yamajii exchange an awkward look but choose not to clarify the intel they have on BioNet regarding its Sheer Depth Of Bullshit.
The Death Army comes at him again, and the exchange is much similar. This time Guy defends himself less, just using the Protect Wall for a moment to deflect the saw to a less dangerous part. It doesn't particularly work out, the sawblade cutting into GaoFighGar's chest. "AAGH!" Guy screams, the damage feeling like an impact on his own body.
"If that's the way you want it," Guy mutters, "I'll get you out of there and stop this!" He sets his stance, concrete cracking under the weight of the mighty King of Braves. No special authorization needed here. He grits his teeth. It's been a while since he was able to do this properly, but...he spreads his arms wide! And he roars, "HELL! AND! HEAVEN!"
The Left Arm of Protection and the Right Arm of Destruction shine with their respective lights, channeling the lights of Protection and Destruction from the G-Stone.
The G-Stone Shines Brighter...
GaoFighGar slowly forces its two hands together, the glowing mechanics firing crackling energy each other like they desperately want to repel each other to the limits of space. But Guy whispers the phrase from the Trinary Solar System that soothes the two powers enough for union to be possible, murmuring, "Gemu giru gan go gufo..."
He grasps the two hands together, and a wave of POWER roars out from him, briefly crashing into the Death Knight to hold it in place, the EM Mist Generators on GaoFighGar's waist spraying electromagnetic fog in every direction to at least TRY to prevent anyone from interfering in this moment. Guy grits his teeth tight, the sheer FORCE of the two warring powers crackling through his body. The thrusters on his back ignite, sending GaoFighGar gliding toward the rogue Death Army unit, and as he flies forward, he screams the final incantation, a secret never seen on Earth before! A secret torn from the very heart of the Trinary Solar System!
"VIIIIIIIIIIIIIITAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"
The clasped hands slide forward and attempt to slam into the Death Knight, rip through its armor, and tear free its pilot, leaving the unit to fill with the Power of Destruction and explode! Will that happen!? Or will the hand of villainy interfere!?
KTS: Guy Shishioh has activated the Spirit Spirit Command.
KTS: Guy Shishioh has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
Anti's return fire slams into Unit 00's A.T. Field, landing with such force that she bends on one knee, cracking into the debris below as the rifle clatters out of her hands and lands on the cracked streets with percussive force. However, she remains otherwise functional, fingertips light on the ground as if she were about to bound into a forward sprint to visit retribution on Anti with her bare hands. She doesn't. Kaworu keeps the violence that shrieks in her broken soul neatly in check as he considers his foe's response.
BioNet. He frowns, eyelids sinking to half-mast. There are a lot of implications in that admission and none of them are good.
So: "Yes, actually. I do," he replies. "But for now, I'll set that aside. Right now, it's clear to me that you are fighting under a fundamental misconception." He glances at Asuka, taking in her reaction to the news. She'd held her tongue at him earlier, but the rest of the battlefield isn't so fortunate. It's only in times like these that one can expect Asuka to be honest, and she displays it in full force. Your goal here is to protect Tsutsujidai, correct? You want to keep those of us on the 'outside' from entering. I can understand your logic, and I'm not unsympathetic to your goal.
"However, by rampaging in the outside world, you've drawn more attention to the little world you mean to protect. You've established that it is a problem that those of us on the outside cannot ignore--that we will need to take measures against it to keep you from repeating an attack like this. In other words, your actions now will only bring about *more* noise.
"I don't think your creator will approve."
Kaworu doesn't direct Unit 00 to pick up her rifle and aim anew. Some things don't need physical force to strike home.
KTS: Guy Shishioh has activated the Trick Spirit Command.
KTS: Guy Shishioh targets Anti with Hell and Heaven!
KTS: Kaworu Nagisa targets Anti with Shock!
KTS: Kaworu Nagisa shocks Anti, reducing his Morale significantly.
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Nakashima has posed.
The strong and powerful fist of Zetton drives Into Yoko, and there's an explosion of sparks in the cockpit as it shakes and rattles, Windom tumbling back- but not too far back. She's still in close. There's so much chatter on the battlefield, and she can only focus in on so much.
But Shinji's rant... Asuka's bloodlust... Eisen's casualness. They all feel wrong. These aren't people who should be on the battlefield. Not because they're kids, but because they're half trained risks.
But she understands doing something to stop someone else having to.
"She's fighting to protect something." Yoko says, of the princess. Maybe Eisen will understand that. Euphemia keeps trying to negotiate, while fighting. But it won't work. "That's not possible," Yoko says flatly. "If it were..." She trails off. She can't make that call, and especially not in the heat of battle. STORAGE tries to get Kaiju removed safely when they can, but could Beast even understand that right now?
And there are too many other people who could make the situation worse if it doesn't end now.
Windom's hands ball into fists, and then the fists start spinning, generating a whole bunch of wind around them. She'll do it. So no one else has to- or so that nobody enjoys it.
Yoko rushes out with three swift, precise, powerful punches, the spin hopefully enough to break through the Zetton's barrier. It's a little flashy, certainly, but the goal is to end this fight.
KTS: Yoko Nakashima targets Jude Espella with Fast-Rotating Rigid Iron Core Fist!
KTS: Jude Espella has activated the Wall Spirit Command.
KTS: Jude Espella fails to Parry Yoko Nakashima's Fast-Rotating Rigid Iron Core Fist, taking 6600 damage!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Yoko Nakashima's Burn Bright When They Overlap activates, causing Control Bonus!
KTS: Yoko Nakashima has engaged Jude Espella
<Pose Tracker> Ple Two has posed.
The Death Knight and the Qubeley dance amidst a flurry of neon red, a storm of petals the hue of sunset as the mega-particle saber burns against the heavy shoulder-mounted shield, and as the buzzsaw-edge of Anti's own blade mangles the Qubeley's shoulder-binder. There's something primal here. Something respectful. A shared experience.
(That's not the enemy I'm looking for.)
(You're just trying to protect your home, huh...?)
Anti roars his answer: he's not about killing her. The vibe of his answer lands, even if the words are simple. Callisto can feel that much. Even if she doesn't comprehend it 100%, that understanding builds.
"I get it. The feeling's mutual." she radios back with a morose grin. The Qubeley rears back as if to strike again, but--
--one of those damnable funnels fires!
Except the beam expertly clips the Qubeley's damaged shoulder right at the base, shearing the mangled armoured housing free of the rest of the unit. Practically unharmed, save for how naked it looks with one big shoulder and one ... lack of shoulder. This also frees it from being ensnared by buzzsaw.
"Don't die, protector of Tsutsujidai." bids the scarlet-haired girl with a wry smirk as the Qubeley wriggles free and retreats in a brilliant blast of vernier fire. The sixteen-something funnels abruptly turn and spiral back into their resting place at the mobile suit's chunky tail.
okay just as Ple Two is done pretending to be a cool and clever federation pilot who has paid attention to the things her enemy has said for once, suddenly her radio is full of Asuka's Voice again and there's like five seconds before she's pulling her helmet off and cackling with all the restraint of someone who has--for the first time in years--found someone they can get under the skin of legally. An outlet for years of Ple Two's[:normal] pent-up frustration.
"Don't disappoint me after talking a big game like that, now I'm really looking forward to meeting you. The rest's all yours, girl-scout." Callisto--(gotta rein it in, stop acting like your old self)--sounds more amused than anything. Like the whole spat in fast-forward left her feeling tickled, rather than ticked. "Bye now."
Truly the height of dick moves on the battlefield, the Qubeley lazily floats upwards as the remaining fighters converge on poor Anti. Whose words Callisto is ruminating on more, and more, and more...
<Pose Tracker> Jude Espella has posed.
Carestia tries to tear Zetton's arm off. While it grapples flesh and tears it, the arm is far too steady. But then Riddhe fires the vulcans.
The barrier is briefly overloaded, forcing it off. This is Bad, and Beast knows it. She has to prepare for Zetton's final attack, moving further down his arm. She's not responding anymore - they all think she's insane. All but one.
5rThe dimensional energies and the Haymaker both batter Zetton, sending him screeing back. Finally, the barrier snaps back on, just in time for Euphemia's big attack, whick blasts into it, the strange beam causing it to pulsate as Zetton chitters in pain.
"...fine." Beast finally consents into her mic to Euphemia. But that depends on them both surviving.
Regaining her voice, the Beast transmits privately to Elisa. "If...if you survive this, come with me."
"ZETTON SAVIOR! ONE TRILLION DEGREES FIREBALL!"
She moves away from the head, but even then, she can feel the sweltering heat starting to emit from Zetton's forehead stripe.
It's a miracle she can withstand it at all. What is UP with her?
Zetton forms a massive sphere of fire. STORAGE's scanners report the temperature rising into the 'frankly unreasonable' degrees. Everyone else's temperature sensors start to break, but they can get reports from home.
He launches it.
The street slags where it impacts, setting a radiant blast of fire at everyone in range. It melts several of the buildings around Zetton Savior, all thankfully evacuated.
The heat is felt through the cockpit, unless you have extreme coolant. It's sweltering.
As the fireball is launched, Beast realizes the other fight is coming to a close, and instructs Zetton to lift off. He leaps into the air, preparing to fly away! There's enough for final attacks to get some more material, if one wants, but he's gonna escape.
KTS: Jude Espella has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
KTS: Jude Espella has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
KTS: Jude Espella has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
KTS: Jude Espella has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
KTS: Jude Espella has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
Jude Espella uses Hyper Reloader
KTS: Jude Espella targets Eisen Daiwel, Shinji Ikari, Yoko Nakashima, Euphemia li Britannia, Riddhe Marcenas, and Elisa
Kafim with One Trillion Degrees Fireball.
KTS: Eisen Daiwel fails to react to Jude Espella's One Trillion Degrees Fireball, taking 5150 damage!
KTS: Jude Espella completes the Formation attack!
KTS: Shinji Ikari has activated the Trust Spirit Command.
KTS: Elisa Kafim has activated the Strike Spirit Command.
KTS: Elisa Kafim has activated the Strike Spirit Command.
KTS: Elisa Kafim successfully evades Jude Espella's One Trillion Degrees Fireball
KTS: Jude Espella completes the Formation attack!
KTS: Shinji Ikari fails to react to Jude Espella's One Trillion Degrees Fireball, taking 3340 damage!
KTS: Riddhe Marcenas fails to evade Jude Espella's One Trillion Degrees Fireball, taking 5150 damage!
KTS: Jude Espella completes the Formation attack!
KTS: Yoko Nakashima successfully evades Jude Espella's One Trillion Degrees Fireball
KTS: Jude Espella completes the Formation attack!
KTS: Euphemia li Britannia fails to evade Jude Espella's One Trillion Degrees Fireball, taking 5150 damage!
KTS: Euphemia li Britannia's RZX-7 Lancelot Club has been disabled.
<Pose Tracker> Riddhe Marcenas has posed.
The sensors start going wild...the head wave itself was unbelievable\, but his sensors have got to be wrong. This wasn't in the plan at all...it was all Riddhe could do to retreat. It was bad enough that terrorists could have something like this...
Children terrorists? Riddhe can't hide the terror on his face from the literal sun being brought to earth. He tries to shoot the Delta Plus back but...the flash was far faster than he was. The light would overtake the retreating mobile suit.
Moments later\, when it was over\, when the burst from the contracting of temperature would do untold damage...and the Delta Plus\, somehow still in one piece hits the ground because the right leg's joints had melted to an unsustainable degree.
Riddhe sits there in a pool of his own sweat because the inside of his cockpit had become a sauna.
KTS: Anti fails to react to Guy Shishioh's Hell and Heaven, taking 7920 damage!
KTS: Anti's Death Knight has been disabled.
KTS: Guy Shishioh roots his unit, coming to a standstill and leaving him vulnerable.
<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.
"FINE! NOT A PERSON!" Anti yells, having been, admittedly, a little unclear on the fact of his greater personhood until now. But he's learning, too! Just like Qivi!
But his enemies sure are happy about what he's saying, all a sudd...
"... SHUT UP!" Anti yells, and there's an edge of new fear to the words, mixed in with the anger. His eyes stare, wide, in his nest of bindings; his breath comes too quickly from his chest. Kaworu spelled out quite succinctly just why Asuka would call him an idiot. "I JUST NEED TO BEAT YOU! IF I DESTROY THE ENTRANCE, THEN--!"
Qivi jumps at the Death Knight, swiping at its head; the machine leans back, and her prize is a long gash along its primary sensor, rather an lopping the whole thing off. Inside the cockpit, the sensors pitch and fuzz, forced to switch to backup cameras. "Shit," Anti snaps, to himself, this time -- still perfectly audible -- as he jerks his arms to try and summon the secondary sensors instead. "Shit!"
It's in the middle of trying to restore his vision that Unit-02 takes advantage of his blindness to grasp him by Death Knight's head. The Evangelion has the clear size advantage, in this scenario -- though whether tipping a unit full of DG Cells upside down is a matter of academic debate -- and he goes crashing into a(n empty) building, as she thrusts a knee right into his centre mass. "I HATE YOU--!" He yells, as a cloud of rubble rises.
Conveniently, the building he got kicked into was already slated for demolition. Anti would be even more angry if he knew he was helping this other Tokyo. See how angry he is now? Imagine that, but additionally angry.
"WHATEVER YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT, I CAN FIGHT IN THIS THING!" Anti yells, his frustration palpable. He can tell there's more to Death Knight's story than what Alexis told him, but -- but he can't care about what Death Knight's story is. He has to succeed here. He HAS TO succeed here!
"I'M THAT DANGEROUS!" Mystery Child X yells at GaoFighGar, though it may as well implicitly be, '... I HAVE TO be'.
But he isn't the only dangerous thing here.
Gundam Maxter and GaoFighGar each carry with them legacies; they burn with the fury of righteousness. Maxter closes into closest range, and his fist punches THROUGH the shield Death Knight tries to show to him. Death alights, fire burning within it, cauterising one sect of DG Cells after another --
And it means he can't possibly run, in the face of Hell and Heaven.
Anti's not really feeling like rocking, right now.
The glowing power of the solar system itself impacts Death Knight from its other side. It's soon enough for him to struggle free of Gundam Maxter, with the last of his power -- which, tragically, only means that Chibodee is clear of the trinity blast. Panels give way to cables, under the Evoluder's hands.
Everything around him explodes. He screams, as Death Knight reflexively tries to draw from an empty well, wires hot. But there's nothing there. There's nothing there to save them.
And when the Death Knight is left, hollow as it ever was, it's literal as well as figurative.
A vast hole in its shield, revealing empty panelling where the DG Cells have been burnt away.
A --
Guy didn't manage to reach through the cockpit, but it was Anti's own desperation which stopped that. A last-minute turn, with the force of the blow -- GaoFighGar has torn a large hole in the chassis of Death Knight, but the only hint of the cockpit is the outer layer of cabling, cords cut and dangling in the air.
Well, he's not a human, and he's apparently not a person, but anyone with the senses or sensors to tell can figure out there's something alive, in there, all wrapped like a caterpillar's cocoon.
There are lots of things Anti doesn't know, but he knows he doesn't want to be captured by these people.
He has to protect Tsutsujidai.
He has to protect AKANE.
"Shit..." The Death Knight slumps, to a knee. It looks up, with those secondary sensors, to the Qubeley. "I won't die," he snarls, not quite able to muster a shout any more. "Not here... not until I...!"
He forces himself standing, smoke pouring from a robot with so many more holes than it ought to have. If he keeps fighting here, could he really die? He can't. Not until he's killed him.
But it's clear now -- to him, at least -- that he'll fight the rest of the world to protect Tsutsujidai, even if Gridman isn't involved.
"You... you humans... fine!" Anti spits, defeated. "I'll leave for now!"
Somehow, he still manages to be fast, as he charges back off towards the ocean.
(There's an underwater loading dock, obviously.)
<Pose Tracker> Eisen Daiwel has posed.
Eisen grumbles in general at Asuka, but doesn't go further into the topic. Instead, his focus is drawn by Elisa Kafim! <"What the... how did you do that?!"> As space goes all kinds of weird and crackles out like that! That gate...
<"What did you just do?!"> The self-titled Mad Scientist demands to know.
Then, he steps back when Jude exclaims her attack!
<"Yyyyyeeees! Now that's an attack name!"> He calls out, as Jude prepares for the next assault and just... stands there in comfort. <"I knew there was no way you were human, bring it!!">
He brings up the A.T. Field expecting another common attack... but then the scanners start going off. And he starts getting frantic voices from the STORAGE and NERV teams.
"It's going up!"
"The asphalt is melting!"
"The Sensors! They're erroring, that amount of heat!"
No doubt someone is calling out some Pilot's name during it all as the heat radiates out and Eisen is trying to be too cool to stare away from the sun as it forms. The filters within the cockpit flicking on multiple-layers so he's not blinded from staring at the sun...
Before the fireball comes, and erupts! The blast ERUPTS across the A.T. field, pushing back the Carestia, then sending it tumbling away. The defensive use of its A.T. field unable to keep up with the corrupting heat.
Once again, Eisen is exposed to a boiling heat all around his body, screaming out in pain as he feels like he's right there again! Right amidst that hellfire produced by the Black Mazin of Renais'.
His muscles spasm as he tries to push. Pieces of the Evangelion melting off. More and more slag hitting the ground, the asphalt melting beneath his unit, causing the feet of the Evangelion to sink into the mire of black tar-like ground!
And amidst the flames, he sees the shadows of that Kaiju attempting to fly away.
The young man is pain. The fierce agony causing his voice to tremble with shock and stress! <"Don't you..."> He huffs and groans. <"Dare..."> The wings of the Carestia opens, and a blue flame appears behind it. Flickers of light filling the spots between its wings. <"RUN AWAY!">
As the rocket on its back ignites, and the Evangelion begins to lift off. A shadow growing over the houses as the speed begins to build. A flash of light again, a strange series of facets showing between its skeleton-like wings as it beats them down.
<"WICKED WINGS OF LUCIFER!"> Another beat, the flight pack on its back activating in full, and it ROCKETS after Jude Espella's Zetton, reaching out. <"SECRET TECHNIQUE - FIRST DRIVE!!"> It reaches out, another beat of light between its wings, but the rocket does the brunt of its work. Reaching up, towards... almost there!
<"CYANOGENESIS TEEEAAAAAAAAAR!"> As it tries to grab hold of the flying Kaiju and bite towards the side of the Zetton and bite into one of the glowing parts of its chest while its claws dig in. No doubt a natural flier like the Zetton might be able to remove the Carestia from its body.
Not to mention that the Carestia is about to run out of Cable Length - as the massive tube reaches to the skies alongwith the Evangelion...
But there is something deeply... hounding...
The Evangelion Flies.
KTS: Eisen Daiwel has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
KTS: Eisen Daiwel targets Jude Espella with Code: Annihilation!
KTS: Jude Espella has activated the Wall Spirit Command.
KTS: Jude Espella fails to retreat.
KTS: Eisen Daiwel enervates Jude Espella, reducing her Morale significantly.
KTS: Jude Espella fails to react to Eisen Daiwel's Code: Annihilation, taking 9360 damage!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Eisen Daiwel's Experience This Curse With Me! activates, causing Shock!
KTS: Jude Espella's Zetton Savior has been disabled.
<Pose Tracker> Euphemia li Britannia has posed.
"These people deserve protection, and my G-1 Base won't commit anything if I don't!" Euphemia remembers to transmit to Eisen; she's actually a little upset. It creeps into her voice a *tiny* bit.
Her temperature sensors all flare at once. She immediately brings the Club into a controlled backward dash. It's not fast enough; she might have actually done better committing fully everything to the maneuver. She makes a last-second decision that probably saves her life: she goes into a spin to reorient herself for a *forward* dash away, and ejects the Chester Cascade.
It, not her, takes the brunt of the sphere of fire, and unloading it gives her a little extra speed besides. It detonates; Euphemia's KMF, meanwhile, goes into a decidedly *un*controlled spin and smashes into a building at top speed. It's evacuated, but it does leave a KMF-sized gouge into the wall and then some, a bit.
The heat is a little much for Euphemia, in the cockpit; she may have some degree of training in Knightmare Frames, as expected of a Britannian royal -- but she doesn't have a soldier's constitution. Zetton's heat proves too much for her; her blood pressure drops precipitously, and she passes out in the cockpit.
The KMF tips over, grinding against the wall (and second floor) it's lodged in before a loud, half-crumpled thud.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Zetton is sent back, and the barrier comes back on. Elisa looks on, intently, her hands on the controls once more. And then... Then, amidst talk of peace and talk of eyesores, amidst all this battle, Elisa receives a private communication, and she smiles.
She transmits back just as privately, "I will."
As Eisen demands to know what she did, Elisa switches to a public band. "I engaged the hyperdimensional shield's Green Fold Crystal. It's a marvelous technology. Isn't it?"
She is sure that the rampage elsewhere in the city continues, but this is her goal--this is what she came here for, the reason her mission brought her to Nouvelle Tokyo in the first place, she is certain of it. Once more, she is in the right place at the right time.
With total confidence, Elisa works the controls of the Spinatia, even as the temperature sensor within starts throwing errors and alarms into her ears. It should be enough to distract her. But not this time. The heat can be felt through the cockpit, even for her, but the Green Fold Crystals in Spinatia's arms suddenly gleam brightly, and the mecha shimmers out of apparent existence. The ground where it was burns, melted completely to slag in a blast that could've overwhelmed the smaller mobile suit entirely.
Some of the flame comes with her as she reappears next to Zetton, shimmering back into being again, the residual heat transferred with her melting yet more of the street into slag, peeling paint from the Spinatia even on that near-miss. But her mecha is whole... and she is alive.
"I'll follow," she transmits privately to the Beast. And in short order, as the Zetton Savior flies away, the Spinatia EXM-E7W engages its Fold crystal, and shimmers out of existence in a flash of green lightning and shadow.
<Pose Tracker> Ple Two has posed.
Callisto watches the battered Death Knight football-sprit back into the ocean as she sips on a chemically-cooled packet of space gatorade and twiddles the radio, listening to the chatter. Nouvelle Tokyo is not a smoking ruin so Londo Bell has prevailed hard this day.
"Wait, what do you mean there's a Britannian Princess down there?" her eyebrow quirks. Uh...
Oops.
<Pose Tracker> Qivi has posed.
Qivi, amped up as she is, *really* wants to keep fighting Anti. But also...
What he says made her think, a little. And though Qivi is impulsive and hot-headed, prone to big emotions of all sorts, she's not brainless. She listened. She grinds her hands into fists, squeezing the controls she's gripping as she brings the Zenith 250 to a rolling stop.
She can feel the heat from the Zetton from here. It wasn't aimed at her; it's not enough to damage the Zenith, or particularly overheat her at this distance. But the flash is so bright she can't miss it, and the roiling wave of heat is at least a palpable force.
The beam saber in the Zenith 250's hand goes out. Not out of power; Qivi has just put it into standby. "Great," she says, voice coming back on for Chibodee (and other nearby units because she's put it into general broadcast). "It's gone. *He*'s gone. So this is a job for NERV and I'm done. Should I send a bill, or what."
She's not serious. Probably. Though the Zenith 250's arm drops another chunk of structural plating off with a ringing chime as it clatters off the pavement, so maybe she is.
Qivi goes quiet for most of the battlefield. But one person gets some text messages.
<Sarangay> Beast I know you're there.
<Sarangay> 1) what the fuck were you thinking
<Sarangay> 2) get out of there
"There's a WHAT," Qivi blurts out, as 'Callisto' reveals some information that she hadn't noticed. Shit. Can she get over there and crush her or will she get pasted by the six million NERV and STORAGE units plus Chibodee and a giant turtle if she does?
...Probably, so she tries to sound calm.
<Pose Tracker> Chibodee Crocket has posed.
Destroying the DG Cells is the most important thing. Chibodee does not relent, standing over the fallen machine even as whatever Anti is flees into the distance. Watching for any sign of that awful silvery movement. That feeling in his teeth.
"Yeah," he says distractedly back to Qivi. "Just, uh, there's a website, and a form..."
Chibodee doesn't see any. He slowly backs off, running diagnostics. His heart rate is even higher than during the fight. As long as he knows for sure they're gone -- only then will he start to calm down.
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Nakashima has posed.
"Yoko! Get out of there! There's a massive buildup of heat in it's chest!"
That, thankfully, gets broadcast more widely, as Yoko sees the attack incoming. Windom *jets* backwards and diagonally away, as fireballs rain down everywhere. It's amazing that she could evade it all. The power of being a professional. The downside-
There is a beeping in the cockpit. Windom's not going to leave under his own power today, as the five minute battery dies out. She sighs and hits her comms. "Yuka, contact HQ, the fighting's over. We'll need a truck for Windom, and local medical and recovery. Send in an MRC team, though I don't think they'll find much." That last message elicits a disappointed sound from Yuka.
Yoko flicks Windom to loudspeaker. "STORAGE will be bringing in teams to help the wounded and provide damage control. If you can vacate the scene, please do so." She sighs. Yes there are a bunch of famous and important people down there. But-
In all the excitement, Yoko forgot there was *a giant turtle*. But that Kaiju hadn't been harmful. Which means-
Wait, where had Yuka gone?
<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.
Hell and Heaven doesn't quite finish the job. GaoFighGar goes still for several long seconds after it parts from the Death Army unit. The exchange between it, himself, and Gundam Maxter was intense, and Guy needs several seconds to just breathe inside his machine. He feels his shoulders slowly unclench in his Ultimate Armor, heat boiling off of GaoFighGar as the machine cools from the thermal event of using the Two Powers.
He turns his head sharply as the Zetton's massive fireball spikes his sensors, yelling "NO!" and struggling to turn. But GaoFighGar isn't in condition to make that dash, and he can only watch as street is slagged and buildings are obliterated.
The Carpenters can repair buildings, sure, not to mention standard civilian repair contracts. But it's not like they magic them back from oblivion. Some things will be gone. He watches the street smolder with his jaw set unhappily.
"...Uhm. G, good work, Captain," Hana says, tentatively, and Guy is reminded she has direct readings from his bio monitors. He tries to force a smile onto his face to calm his nerves, and it somewhat works. "Thanks, Hana. GaoFighGar's in decent shape, I'll see what I can do to clean up some of this. Any readings?"
"No," she says back. "The enemy Kaiju is gone after that last attack, and so is its controller. And the Death Knight seems to have fled. We didn't detect invasive activity in the DG Cells."
"Alright. Get in touch with Neo Japan anyway."
"Advisor Prickle is already on it."
Guy chuckles. "Of course. You've got a good team, Hana."
"...yeah," she says, warmly. "Thank you."
<Pose Tracker> Jude Espella has posed.
Carestia follows up one last time, damaging Zetton's foot. His foot that kicks it in the head, forcing it back down long enough to reach speeds that the Carestia cannot keep up with, what with all the chaos and probable retreat orders.
It's the material on the ground that's useful, anyways.
Jude reaches into her pocket - her phone luckily hasn't melted! They're currently flying far away from Nouvelle Tokyo, so.
<Beast> its fine
<Beast> everythings fine
<Beast> let everyone know that i maybe hate-befriended euphemia and also won an epic battle with the forces of evil
<Beast> well, stalemated
<Beast> its fine.
It is absolutely not fine.
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
Perhaps words alone weren't enough to dissuade the young kaiju, but they did have a clear effect on him. Kaworu regards the Death Knight dispassionately as its rider bids him shut up with fear in his heart. He doesn't need to do anything further; the mech was already on its last legs, and when Asuka, Chibodee, Qivi, and Guy beat it back as Callisto opts to retreat and the turtle to mind its own business, he watches it hurl itself into the ocean to escape.
He doesn't attempt to pursue, either him or the Beast. When Qivi asks about bills, Kaworu smiles faintly. Since she's joking--probably--he doesn't respond outright, though. More important right now is the post-battle clean-up... especially with those DG Cells. Follow-up can come later.
<Pose Tracker> Asuka Shikinami Langley has posed.
Ple Two DEFINITELY manages to get under her skin, "Oh trust me Granny. I never disappoint. Come find me some day - assuming you can can manage your walker long enough to make it around Tokyo-3."
As she blatantly just... goads her to come at her? Is she really picking a fight!?
Yes of course she is.
"The Entrance?" And Anti can see that moment when Evangelion-02's head looks straight towards the train station he was firing on. She hadn't connected why he was until now, having visited Tsutsuji-dai from a train ride from Tokyo-3 to here not long ago. "Oh. No. You're not gonna last long enough to get to do that."
Asuka looks on Anti in the pile of rubble after he's blasted by Guy's Hell and Heaven attack. "Good. I can take your hate. It's what comes with being the best."
And then, he's gone, over the comms she announces. "Target eliminated. We should probably quarantine this area I guess until this can be removed safely. Have you finished up over there Chuutwo Flunkey? Daddy's Boy? Do I need to come over there?"
Evangelion Unit-02 looks Unit-00's way, as it puts a hand on it's right hip. While the pose is annoyed, her words...
"Guess our timetable on our Tsutsuji-dai investigation just moved up."
<Pose Tracker> Eisen Daiwel has posed.
A fucking what?! A Fold Crystal!? Eisen doesn't have time to think about that, or comment on it. In fact, the woman just up and disappears in her mysterious machine. Leaving him to stew with his mind wracking at the implications of something called a Fold Crystal being here on Earth!
Of course, he also understands the Princess' plight. But in his mind, if he gets going on an operation here, and the Princess Dies under NERV watch... that is going to look bad on him!
They'd do something like Cut his Funding for his research!
And that cannot be allowed to happen.
Slam! A foot slams into the foot of the Carestia. It tries to bite down, but Zetton's leg goes out of reach. With a second stomp, the Carestia finally loses its footing!
It's being pried off by the actual <natural> flier of the two. Then... SNAG. Its tail jolts back as the cable to the generators below snag. A tear happens near the trains as some of the cable is RIPPED out of the ground to make up for that last bit of momentum before the Carestia is slowed enough for the normal force to do the rest of the work!
A sick sensation guts into Eisen as his machine is pulled down towards the ground, its wings turning the wrong way. The engine tries to compensate, but the Jet is being overtaxed. "Shit!" The powerdraw is dropping.
Euphenia re-iterates what Yoko had pointed out. The Princess is trying to protect something. Eisen grimaces, first he has to land this thing.
The heavy burn of the jets releases, then re-engages again. The Carestia's drop from the skies is not a pleasant one, and when it gets closer, Eisen is constantly looking for a better place to land. Then adjusts the controls for the ocean. The cable remaining almost taut as he turns the arc of his descent. The cable falling along the direction to the beach, landing over some unpopulated areas...
Until finally, the Carestia slams into the groun with a hard jostle, the sand tearing under its foot and causing it to slip, until the machine ends up half on the beach and half in the water, legs curled awkwardly beneath it. But it's landed! The jet sputtering out.
He's landed. He's safe...
He can't shut up, as his head tilts down and he offers to the princess:
<"I hope you're still around to protect it. But remember, there are things we are here to protect, and there are things you are here to protect. Think of the long-term consequences if a Princess of Britannia were to die to a Kaiju.">
<Pose Tracker> Qivi has posed.
It's fine. Okay. Great.
Actually no, it's not great. But Qivi can't do anything about it right now.
"Right," Qivi says. She hesitates. A *long* hesitation while she considers whether she can get away with asking what she wants to. But eventually she decides that, at this point, she cannot.
But it felt good to do something that absolutely nobody (except Anti, and possibly Beast, apparently) could possibly think was a bad thing. She felt... positive about what she was doing, for the first time in a while.
"Thanks," she says, and that's just to Chibodee and Anosillus. And then the Zenith 250 begins to accelerate, skidding away as it begins to retreat. Ideally before Eisen hears her voice, because he *will* recognize it.
<Pose Tracker> Nidaime has posed.
As Qivi thanks Anosillus the First--
--there's a giant dotted outline where the Turtle was moments ago. How did it...!?!?!
Nidaime is also missing, pulling her (increasingly usual) disappearing act.
<Pose Tracker> Shinji Ikari has posed.
There's some weird energy that fires right by Unit-01, and Shinji feels the strangeist sensation to stare at it. Why do we care about some weird Britttanian special weapon?
It is enough time for Shinji to be at ground zero of the Zetton's escape attack. There's nowhere to move, nowhere to run, just a wide eyed gulp as an ATField is shattered by the colossal heat. Unit-01 stumbles backwards, steam pouring from the machine, as Shinji turns his coms off to at least spare himself the humiliation of all of these people hearing him scream. He can see it.
The LCL is boiling, Shinji holding his arms together as he feels like what happens before you make soup stock. Unit-01's armor peels and melts, the behemoth following its pilot's motions, as if the primitive act would ward off the heat and pain.
Somewhere in the Geofront, Gendo Ikari leans into his hands, unblinking and seemingly unmoved.
The heat shimmers and swirls in the air, distorting visuals and leaving a screaming orange mark in the eye. Something takes a step. Another. Unit-01's cable is melted, its face is dripping, and weird square teeth are visible which are somehow the most horrible thing of all. The Evangelion has endured, and turns to look at the retreating rival.
It cocks its head back, and lets out what can only be described as a roar.
This finished, Unit-01 flings its umbilical cable off in visual disgust, walking back towards the Bullet Train.