2023-08-19: We Are The Universe's... ~TRIGGER~

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<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.

The Tsutsujidai City Council -- awkwardly elevated to the role of actually serving as a functioning government for a colony, which was somewhat greased by the fact that Tsutsujidai became a colony before the Venora were destroyed by Akane's final, nameless kaiju -- is starting to get a little anxious about the colony's civil defense situation. While Federation refugee designation does entitle it to a modest colonial defense corps of a few mobile suits, there's not much to look at on that front.

(Tsutsujidai's existing civil defense infrastructure consists entirely of GM IIIs. In a truly desperate situation, the police could also use their Kyokei Mk108s. These are very fast and loose definitions of 'consists' and 'could.')

Despite how urgent that all sounds, it really isn't. Things move slowly, and there's some degree of understanding about that. Still, Supervisor Yang has at least requested that they start moving on the matter, with a target of formal proposal somewhere around the middle of 0098.

It's about ten or fifteen minutes before the meeting, and people are starting to filter in. Utsumi's here on time, of course; he's got a notebook, and with a little help from Tsutsujidai's student council (and Marusan, who's been part of sports festival planning initiatives every year of her studies at Tsutsujidai), he's gotten his head around taking meeting minutes. Hinoki and Keita are here; the multiple current deprogramming tickets have been left to Swan, as Tsutsujidai's always been a little more entangled with 3G Blue than Green. Akamatsu hasn't been up to the Wadatsumi in a minute, and is running late. Intelligence has...

... no reps here, actually. Kamuy is off doing -- something?, Yamajii is laid up in Medical again, and Akane...

... where is Akane, actually? Last anyone knew (Gridman, Utsumi, and Rikka all know) she was headed to the park to have a quick sit-down with Knight before the meeting, but... this close to the meeting, she'd usually have texted at least someone.

Strictly speaking, though, she's not necessary to the meeting until the 30 minute mark. It could just be that she's decided to skip out on the early goings... It has been an intense few days. 

<Pose Tracker> Gridman has posed.

Normally, Calibur (he only speaks up to advocate against doing anything to distress the stray cats) is the one to attend these meetings, but if Utsumi's going to be there, Gridman wants to go, too. Marusan gets a friendly wave as Gridman sits next to his friend.

Calibur, for his part, lurks in the very back row, apparently content to stare straight ahead until such time as he is needed to defend the cats.

"Hey, man." Gridman says. He glances around, recognizing familiar faces, but no Akane. "Have you seen Akane? She's pretty important to this meeting today."

Hmm. Pulling out his phone, Gridman sends a message Akane's way. Usually, she's pretty fast to reply, but this time... Nothing.

Rikka, when she enters, is waved over by Gridman. "Is Akane with you?" He asks, frowning. "She's not replying to me, and the meeting's about to start. She was just hanging with Knight, right? They've gotta be finished by now."

Nervously, Gridman looks at Calibur, only to find the samurai now staring directly at him. The two Hyper Agents make eye contact, and a shiver goes down Gridman's spine. Something is going on.

<Pose Tracker> Qivi has posed.

Qivi is probably less explicable than some people.

But it actually wouldn't be her first time at a meeting like this. If nothing else, she's one of the few people here using custom-rigged wanzers for space defense and can advise about the Kyokeis, but she's hoping it doesn't come to that.

But more relevantly, she has personally volunteered for colony defense in the past, and has shown up to back up her words with actions. She's not Tsutsujidai's only defender, or even its best defender, but she's persistent and helping counts for a lot. She even has a job in Tsutsujidai!

(And, as some people know, she's had a bit of a falling-out with some other members of the Shuffles and has focused up here for a while. Tsutsujidai's local defenders have, after all, been associated with the organization in the past.)

The final result of that is that Qivi, thankfully non-macronized today - it would make seating arrangements complicated - has taken a seat and nobody has objected enough to ask her to leave. She wasn't sure how formal she was supposed to be and doesn't really do super-formal well anyway, so her concession toward professionalism involved 'don't wear jeans' (she has a nicer pair of slacks on) and attempting to tame her hair with a brush, which didn't work and is already completely unnoticable.

Her concession toward *non*-professionalism is that she has her chair tilted back at a thirty degree angle and is, for the moment, successfully balancing it that way. She'll probably drop it flat when the meeting actually starts.

<Pose Tracker> Rikka Takarada has posed.

The time has come for a talk they all knew were coming. They have to figure out what to do about keeping Tsutsujidai safe sooner rather than later - they can't keep relying on the handful of mobile suits they have and civilian groups to keep everything safe. Rikka isn't exactly excited about being a part of a big meeting... but it's an important discussion to have, and it's one she wants to be there for. It's a topic that's important to her, especially considering recent events.

She'd rather no one gets the chance to do to anyone else what they did to her, if possible.

She filters in, her attention drifting toward Gridman as he waves her over.

"She's not here already?" Rikka says, moving to take her seat next to Gridman. "That's what I heard, but... No, she's not with me..."

She wouldn't blame her for skipping out on the parts she doesn't need to be there for, especially if it's to talk to Knight. She knows all the traveling has been a little rough on Akane... but naturally a part of her is always going to be on the lookout for her.

Rikka pulls out her own phone, checking and double-checking just in case she missed a message. It's... fine, right? She can't shake the small worry forming at the back of her mind, though.

Shaking her head, Rikka reaches for the nearest glass of water and downs it to try and focus back up. 

<Pose Tracker> Alouette Pommier has posed.

This is an important and necessary meeting... although the Galeoria Pliers continually keep Tsutsujidai stapled to reality, their work doesn't end there, not by a longshot. And having invested herself in Tsutsujidai's well-being for well over a year now, Alouette arrives quite a bit ahead of time. It means she has the chance to wave to her many friends and allies who filter into the meeting.

Taking a seat near the left-center of the room, next to Hana Hatsuno, Alouette props up a laptop in front of her. Operation's say here is pretty huge, she realizes, being charged with the management of 3G's various mobile units. Her insight may well be needed here, so she's prepared to speak up, giving an assured nod to Hana next to her.

She can also personally testify to the threat that BioNet and other science criminal organizations have on the city. It's more than just overt defenses like mobile suits that Tsutsujidai needs.

"She doesn't need to be here for thirty more minutes, right?" Alouette answers Gridman's concerns. "...I don't think there's any question she's safe, though." She says, but it's just as shaky as Gridman and Rikka's tones. "I mean, she's with Knight, isn't she? I know I can trust him to keep her safe." That part is more firm - she knows how capable of a protector he is.

Regardless of whether Akane arrives now or in thirty minutes, though... she's ready to begin the meeting. They can't push this back anymore than they already have. 

<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.

Guy Shishioh is, of course, VERY IMPORTANT to this meeting; sure, Blue's been a leading part of things, partly just because they're the ones who still have like, 'a staff,' but Guy's taken a deeply personal interest in the Tsutsujidai situation, so he's the Chief In Attendance today. Shigeru is back on Orbit Base presumably building a robot penguin.

He walks in with his black vest of office flowing to his ankles, walking with the friendly smile that many here have now seen is - maybe not fake, but perhaps a touch affected, for the sake of the normal folk who have to know him as Guy, the King of Braves.

"Good to see everyone," he says, casually. "Utsumi, been a while." He remains a -kun type for the younger generation, mostly. "Gridman." A friendly not, though...the young man's concern gets him to slow his walk toward the front of the table, pivoting. "I haven't seen her," he says, slowly. Hm.

He looks around. "Kheh, Yamaji really just can't handle artificial gravity, can he? Poor guy," he mutters, and resumes his walk to the front, where he can access a terminal. "I'll see if I can get Kamuy or Volfogg to check the colony camera systems."

<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.

        Kaworu walks in precisely when the meeting starts. Shinji walks in with him. Though Shinji isn't confident that he'd be of much use to this meeting, he does want to offer his support, both to Kaworu and to his friends in Tsutsujidai. Kaworu, for his part, is an administrator in NERV; it's only natural that he'd offer his support.
        
        As they enter, Kaworu smiles at the assembled peoples, particularly Gridman; Shinji offers a bob of the head in greeting, looking up when he's bent to take in the others.
        
        "Shinjo-senpai's late?" Shinji wonders, overhearing Gridman and the others, concern pinching his eyes. "I hope it's nothing serious..."
        
        Kaworu, usually quick to offer a reassuring word, doesn't remark. He simply takes a seat and folds his legs. Shinji quickly follows suit.

<Pose Tracker> Qivi has posed.

Qivi lets her chair land flat with a thump. At least it went forward rather than backwards (thanks to a push of her toes).

"Yeah, I know they say spin gravity's the same but it's not, quite," Qivi says. "Took me a bit to get used to, too. Still better than microgravity in space, though. I really never got the hang of that." Her mental flashback of what her hair does in *that* is a little too close for comfort. "Hey, Shishioh. And the rest of you, too. Gridman, Alouette, Rikka..." It takes her a moment to get Shinji and Kaworu's names, so she just nods instead.

"Maybe she stopped for a tomato juice," Qivi says. "If I'd been thinking I would've brought a coffee in myself." 

<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.

Utsumi seems a little shaky on starting without Akane, judging from a pensive, serious expression, but... well, as everyone pointed out, there's half an hour before this becomes Intelligence's show. "She probably just needs a break," he says, though it's obvious that it's not everyone else he's trying to convince. "Let's get this going."

He seems a little less nervous when Kaworu and Shinji show up, at least. "All right -- it sounds like we're good to go until we need Intelligence to weigh in, so..." Sitting up a little straighter, he tries very hard to sound professional despite being a 17 year old who has just been tasked with helping to make colony-changing decisions. "Our first order of business looks like it's... local Algernon research, and then disaster --"

Yes, it definitely is that.

Tamara Gogol enters the room, moving with some urgency. "Alexis Kerib has been sighted he's outside in a more substantial version of the form we observed during the battle with CK-12 and Triple Zero it's important that we decide who'll be deploying," she reports in her characteristic Tamara way. 

<Pose Tracker> Gridman has posed.

"It's going to be okay." Gridman reassures Rikka and Alouette. "Knight's with Akane. Alouette's right, nothing can get by him. And he can transform whenever he wants, too."

When Guy greets Gridman as, well, Gridman, the young Hyper Agent winces and glances at the local Tsutsujidai representatives. It seems nobody overheard... Thank goodness. "It's nice to see you, Guy."

Kaworu and Shinji make their entrance, and Gridman stands to meet them. Kaworu gets a hug, and Shinji is offered a fist-bump. "Thanks so much for coming. I hope you're right, Shinji... I don't know, I've got this bad feeling."

Qivi is offered a somewhat distracted wave. "Akane does love those..."

The meeting begins. Utsumi does a great job, though he looks a little out of his depth, he handles himself capably. Gridman sits back down in his chair, listening.

This state doesn't last long.

"What!?" Gridman cries, at Tamara Gogol's announcement. He stands, fast enough to knock his chair to the ground, fists clenched in front of him.

Calibur vanishes in a blur of movement. The others must be made aware.

"I will go!" Gridman's earlier caution is abandoned. "I am the Hyper Agent, Gridman. This is my mission. Alexis is a terribly strong and sneaky enemy, I would prefer no one risk themselves. My comrades and I can do this."

Despite his brave words, Gridman's hands shake... 

<Pose Tracker> Rikka Takarada has posed.

Rikka nods her greeting to everyone as they filter in, eventually landing on Alouette as she considers the situation - and then Gridman right after, as he echoes the assurance.

"...That's true." Rikka considers. She trusts Knight. She looks toward Shinji, then. "...I'm sure it's fine. She's probably just getting tomato juice, like Qivi said..."

She says that, even though she worries.

But, Guy is here, and she looks up at his greeting.

"Hey, Guy." Rikka greets, then looks toward Utsumi. She looks unconvinced, but... "...It has been a pretty rough week on her."

She settles in -

...and then, that worry she was feeling builds into a sense of imminent danger. Rikka gasps, eyes opening wide as a pulse of intuition stabs through her mind. Something... Something has -

"...Knight...?" She asks the air. She shuts her eyes tight, trying to sort through it. And it's only a moment later that Tamara enters the room with an urgent announcing the sighting of the worst possible person at the worst possible time.

"Alexis..." Rikka murmurs. ...That flash of intuition, followed by an Alexis sighting...

...It can't be a coincidence. She has to trust her instincts.

"...Something's happened... or is about to happen. I know it. We need to find them. Knight... Akane... where are you...?" Rikka murmurs - because if they were meeting with each other...

A pang of fear and worry builds at the back of her mind. For now, she holds it back.

But Gridman stands, declaring that he'll face Alexis - and that he'd prefer no one risk themselves. Rikka shakes her head.

"You can't possibly think we'd just let you go face him alone, do you...?" She replies. "We're all in this together, aren't we?"

She got into this in the first place because she couldn't bear to let Gridman fight all of their problems alone. She's not going to start being... okay, with that now of all times.

...Right now, though, she can't help but hope the check of the colony camera systems turns up something on Akane and Knight, too...

<Pose Tracker> Alouette Pommier has posed.

Alouette smiles right back at Guy, and waves back to Qivi when they arrive. Kaworu and Shinji get a nod, as well.

With Gridman's reassurance and Utsumi's decisiveness, the meeting is about to begin. With the topic beginning on Algernon, and thus being Hinoki's show, Alouette uncharacteristically slumps in her seat a little.

...Before Tamara Gogol announces the worst has transpired. "Alexis Kerib? No...!" She jolts up, eyes meeting Tamara's. "Did you see Akane? What about Knight?" She almost demands, worry for the two of them surging in her.

But she hears Rikka call out Knight's name. "Rikka? Did you... do you know what happened to him?" She asks, hoping her flash of intuition has answers.

Slamming the laptop shut, she takes to one of the Wadatsumi's operations terminals instead - as Tamara stated, they must decide who to deploy. But the Wadatsumi was prepared for a civil meeting, not a visit from one of their most dangerous enemies. "We barely have any machines to deploy at the moment!" Alouette announces. "None that remotely stand a chance against a powered-up Alexis Kerib, or don't take up time to deploy from Orbit Base that we don't have." An ominous teal energy flares out, noticeable from the building windows... "But since it's come down to it... I can deploy in Guardienne Aviaire." She adds, hands shaking, and then they're still. "Guy! Can you deploy in GaoGaiGar?"

But Gridman insists on going on there alone, citing his duty as a Hyper Agent. "Don't be ridiculous, Gridman..." She frowns. "It's not just your mission anymore." It's just like Rikka said... they're in this together. Meeting or not, that hasn't changed. 

<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.

        It's been a long while since Kaworu and Shinji have seen Utsumi. Both of them offer him a smile and a nod of greeting, Kaworu calm, Shinji bright. Guy and Alouette are greeted back in turn likewise, as are Rikka and Qivi. Kaworu accepts and returns Gridman's hug, and Shinji hesitates for a second, then fistbumps Gridman back with a small smile.
        
        The smile fades as Gridman mentions a bad feeling, and he makes a concerned sound. Rikka chimes in on Qivi's suggestion, though, and Shinji nods, some of the tension seeping from his thin frame. "Yeah, probably so," he replies to the both of them.
        
        Kaworu still doesn't weigh in.
        
        Guy arrives; the meeting starts. Kaworu glances unsmiling to one side, seemingly into empty air, then over at Rikka. An instant later, Tamara enters with a stream-of-consciousness alert about Alexis activity.
        
        "What?!" Shinji utters at almost the same instant Gridman does--he even stands too, though not as forcefully--his chair isn't knocked over. He shoots a glance over at Gridman, face flushing, as if his similar reaction were something to be embarrassed by. Fortunately, Rikka weighs in, giving Shinji something to latch onto.
        
        "She's right. We wouldn't be here if we weren't," he says. "I know this is your mission, but don't tell us we can't help when we're right here. Right, Kaworu-kun?"
        
        Kaworu nods as he too stands, focus on Shinji and Gridman in turn. "You would be quite despondent if the situation were reversed and one of us refused to let you help, Gridman. Rather than fuss about it--" he nods slightly to Alouette, who is already at a terminal and announcing their options, "--we should take deploy who we can."
        
        "Right!" Shinji says with more confidence than he feels, borrowing some of Kaworu's calm energy to balm his nerves. He, too, knows Alexis is a fearsome enemy--and he's worried about Akane and (in a more generic way, admittedly) Knight, too.
        
        Dubiously fortunate that Unit-01 is up in Orbit Base currently anyway, thanks to Duma... but that's something neither of them talk about. 

<Pose Tracker> Qivi has posed.

Qivi...

Okay. Qivi doesn't stop listening when the topic becomes Algernon research. That would be rude. But she neither understands nor is comfortable with Algernon, she isn't the best researcher (most people don't want high school dropouts for scholars, so she never learned), and there's very little she can do about Algernon or for those afflicted. She has no practical experience here.

So she kind gets a slightly fixed smile on her face. Qivi has half an ear for what Utsumi is saying; she'll check back in when it's on disaster relief, colony defense, or something she knows and understands well enough to actually comment on without embarassing herself.

Or that was the idea; what actually happens is that Tamara Gogol barges in and starts talking and Qivi is out of her seat before she finishes. "I'm in!" she declares. "Yeah... I know you want to handle it, but it's like you said. He's strong and sneaky and he's going to pull something. Something more than he already has," Qivi corrects herself. "Because if he's *showing* himself I bet he's already got a plan. Damn!" That WOULD explain why Akane wasn't here, more than tomato juice. (And Knight, but frankly Qivi wasn't expecting Knight to make an appearance, or if he did, to say much. He never struck Qivi as the meeting sort.)

She glances back toward Alouette. "I've got Sarangay here if I can get to it." Qivi's already moving toward the exit - she's going to have to *run*, anyway. "It's no GaoGaiGar but it'll keep up."

<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.

ALSO present, are the rest of the Tsutsujidai Rescue Team. Hass and Namiko have staked out a spot off to the side where they won't be in the way, but...Namiko isn't blind to the fact that, however much she SAYS they'd prefer the Rescue Team remain strictly that, the fact of the matter is that if a monster showed up and 3G was busy fighting the moon or something, Namiko would be like fourth down the list AT MOST for responders.

Fortunately for only her, things don't get that far. Guy's attention turns to Tamara the second she appears, and his face becomes a mask of concern. Doubly when his own limited connection to the Limpid Channel lets him know that what Rikka's feeling is something he should pay attention to. Grimace. Gridman's heading off, and Rikka rises too. Guy stands up. "Obviously, we're going too," he says, and favors Gridman with a grin. "It might've been your mission first, but everyone here's invested. Though..."

He looks at Alouette and shakes his head. "The GaoMachines are on Orbit Base. I can summon all of it right now, but with transit time, we still need to stall them. Galeon will get here faster." But...

Deploying GaiGar alone against an empowered Alexis might put much more than Tsutsujidai in danger...

"Let's get everything in the air we can, first."

Namiko and Hass are in the back quietly resolving that they are not yet up to bat. please do not make her fight the bad man in the thimble robot

<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.

Utsumi gives both Kaworu and Shinji a nod back, of course. It is good to see them.

Utsumi sees Gridman volunteer to fight. Sees those shaking hands. His heart starts to sink. He stands up, looking at Gridman as his own expression turns from panicked to pleading in an instant.

"Gridman," he begs. "I know you have to go, but -- you can't fight alone! You and Yuta both --" He's known since last December, of course, that he can't actually stop Gridman from fighting. But...

He swallows, then lets out a strained breath through his nose. "... I'll be waiting for you guys, okay? You gotta come back," he manages a few moments later. Quieter, he repeats, "You've gotta come back..." He wants to say he'd dig Phormocannon out and fight alongside Gridman, but it's always been Gridman who's fought, and Rikka who's supported him with the power of her bonds. Utsumi might be able to perform occasional double duty between rescue work and support fire, but he knows that if he took the field Alexis would target him -- the least experienced pilot -- first, solely to hurt the rest of the Alliance.

It sucks to know you can think like the bad guy.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

It would be very convenient if there were only one thing to attend to -- if they could all deploy and swarm Alexis.

They cannot. Alexis turns toward the Wadatsumi, his twin swords twirling before being replaced in the next moment with that familiar spear instead.

Alexis pierces the Galeoria Pliers with it; they pop apart into their component Carpenters, just as the first Vessel of Light to concern himself with this space did nearly two years ago.

Reality begins to flicker and shift. While the world doesn't instantly destabilize to the extent it did in December, unoccupied buildings flicker motherboard-green, and time and space distort...

... and a large portion of Engineering, a small portion of Medical, and the climate control room simply disappear, gouged out of reality by the sudden, explosive termination of the Galeoria Pliers' work.

Including Sakura Akamatsu.

The Wadatsumi itself rocks in place; Tamara glances down at a tablet that surely she was holding in the previous animation frames also. "Damage to the Wadatsumi is critical Engineering is compromised deployment may be difficult we'll need time to determine which mobile weapons we can provide proper support for under the circumstances." 

<Pose Tracker> Gridman has posed.

"Rikka?" Gridman puts a hand on her shoulder. He still doesn't really understand her Newtype abilities, but he respects them. "We'll find them. I promise."

The entire room is against Gridman's idea to fight Alexis on his own, it seems. Kaworu's advice to not waste time hits hard. Despite Gridman's misgivings, and fear for his friends... he can't help but breathe a sigh of relief. "Thank you, everyone... I'll be counting on you. Please, be careful. If he is able to stab you with that spear, it'll break your soul apart."

"We'll need someone to look for Akane and Knight, too. We can't all fight. If Alexis is up to something this bad, I'm really scared for what might've happened to them. He's always been obsessed with Akane." Gridman says, grimly. "We have to make sure she won't be hurt by him ever again."

Gridman turns to Utsumi. "I'll come back. It's a promise." He offers his hand to his first friend. "Everyone will. Utsumi, if you can, please find Akane and Knight. Maybe this is something only you can do, while the rest of us take on Alexis."

Right as Gridman finishes speaking, reality around them shudders. Yellow eyes fly open wide, seeing a building across the street distort into that odd, familiar, motherboard-green.

"We don't have time!" Gridman exclaims. "I don't know what Alexis just did, but reality's breaking down again!"

Accompanied by a rush of wind, all four Neon Genesis Junior High Students appear, flanking Gridman.

"It is time, Gridman." Max offers.

A sharp nod in response. "Right. This is why we exist here. We can't fail again."

Calibur places a hand on Rikka's shoulder, giving her a quiet look. Though no words are said, his care and worry for Rikka is clear.

"Anyone who can't fight should work on getting civilians to evacuation shelters." Borr orders. "That bastard means business this time."

Vit, phone in hand, sighs. He gives his lock screen one more long look, then places his phone into an interior pocket of his suit. "It's been a good run. Let's finish it with a bang."

A wave of sickness rushes through Gridman at Vit's words. This is the end. One way or another, he won't be coming back. Max steadies him as he wobbles on his feet. At least everyone is here. At least he won't be doing this alone.

"I'm okay." Gridman straightens up. Light glimmers in his eyes. "I'm ready."

<Pose Tracker> Rikka Takarada has posed.

"I don't... I don't know." Rikka replies, shaking her head as Alouette asks if she knows what happened to him. "But... I think there's a good chance he might be hurt. I felt... pain. And danger. And with Alexis Kerib showing up right after..."

...There's no good conclusion she can draw from that. She exhales, trying to calm herself - and Gridman's hand on her shoulder goes a long way to that.

"...Thanks." Rikka replies with a nod.

...And, it seems, everyone agrees - there's no way Gridman has to face this alone.

"We'll be careful, don't worry." Rikka replies with a nod. "We're all coming back. That's a promise."

And Utsumi... Utsumi begs Gridman, that he has to come back. Utsumi...

...They really started off on the wrong foot, but she respects the person he's grown into. Gridman suggest Utsumi look for Akane and Knight, and Rikka nods.

"Please. If you can..." She says. She hesitates. "I-"

Suddenly, reality flickers and the ground shakes as Alexis's terrible spear rips the Galeoria Pliers. Rikka stumbles, but with Calibur there, there's no risk of her falling. She meets his eyes gratefully, and offers him a quiet nod.

...Tamara gives the report. Rikka grimaces. If the Wadatsumi is damaged... Rikka pulls out her phone.

"...I'm putting out a message to everyone I know. I don't know who'll get it in time, but..." Rikka says, fingers tapping like lightning. They'll need all the help they can get - assuming she can still get a connection. And, that being said... Rikka looks toward Hass and Namiko. "...Can I count on you two to get the Rescue Team back together?"

Borr's right. They need to get people evacuated, too - and she has utter faith in her best friends.

<Pose Tracker> Alouette Pommier has posed.

"That's... no, that doesn't sound good," Alouette replies to Rikka and the pain and danger she felt from Knight. "But if you were still able to feel his presence... that means he's still alive, right? That's all I needed to know." She sounds relieved, almost? "He's protected us all so many times... we can do the same for him."

It's not just her and Rikka: everyone pitches in to convince Gridman he does not need to fight alone again. This is their final battle against Alexis Kerib, come what may. And they won't let Gridman lose the way he did the first time, when no one was there to see him.

"Of course, Ms. Qivi... I'd never turn down your own courage." Alouette offers the half-Meltrandi a smile, as she offers to jump in with Sarangay.

"I figured..." Alouette shakes her head when Guy says that the GaoMachines are up on Orbit Base. She didn't see them in the report of the Wadatsumi's hangar. "I hate it, but you're right. We'll do what we do best... hold off until we have a key to victory." She agrees, as bleak as it sounds. "Hana, I'm leaving mobile operations in your capable hands." The shorter pink-haired girl nervously takes over the terminal. "R-Roger...! Good luck, Alouette-chan, Guy-san... everyone else!" She doesn't chant it like a mantra anymore, but she is indeed convincing herself that she is not scared.

Even more so when the Wadatsumi is rocked by explosions of the dimensional sort, the atmosphere outside begins to shift like a smaller-scale version of what happened in December. "It must be the Pliers!" Alouette answers. "Alexis is trying to separate Tsutsujidai from consensus reality again... we can't let that happen!"

Hana pipes in, too. "Um... Tamara-san's right, engineering's... it's just gone! And... O-oh god... what are we going to tell the Chief? Sakura-chan..." The medical room which Sakura takes permanent residence in is of course... just gone.

It would be simple if they could all swarm Alexis, but... "Without GaoGaiGar, Guardienne Aviaire and the Hyper Tools are going to be needed to deal with all the damage Alexis is causing. I wouldn't be surprised if he has more nasty surprises up his sleeves, either." Alouette reports, climbing into her cockpit. "But it doesn't mean I give you permission to lose, Gridman. Don't forget... we're right behind you. So don't give up!" She cheers on the Hyper Agent, the Hero of Dreams, and more importantly, her friend, Gridman. 

<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.

        Kaworu nods once at Guy's command to get everything in the air they can for now. "I agree. Alexis Kerib isn't going to wait for us."
        
        (Actually, he might, but it would only be in service of making them suffer more, so it's better not.)
        
        Shinji looks at Utsumi--at Namiko and Hass, who he only knows vaguely--and sees their own fear, a mirror of his own. None of them really want to fight, do they? But they have to, because otherwise, people will get hurt. Shinji looks wide-eyed at Rikka as she seems oddly in-tune with what's going on, while Gridman suggests Utsumi find Akane and Knight, and Borr--after a truly gt-wrenching jolt in reality itself--suggests that those who can't fight help with evacuation.
        
        "We'll do whatever we can to keep Alexis busy. So..." Shinji struggles with words for a heartbeat or two, until at last he tells Utsumi, "We're counting on you."
        
        He's not sure if that's the right or wrong thing to say. He's not even sure if he'd be happy hearing it if someone said it to him. But he can't leave without having said anything. (Kaworu, for his part, smiles warmly at Utsumi. His faith doesn't need to be put into words.)
        
        The rip in reality is worse than he'd feared, though. Entire portions of Tsutsujidai are gone--which in turn means delaying his and Kaworu's ability to get to Unit-01 and deploy. Kaworu, at least, takes the increasing chaos with aplomb, despite the grim scenario, and Shinji can follow his lead.
        
        "We'll do this together. Just as we've done all this time," Kaworu reassures him--not just Shinji, but Gridman and the others, too.
        
        Alexis's spear... Well, it would be far from the first time a spear has threatened him. 

<Pose Tracker> Qivi has posed.

Qivi is grateful for Alouette's acceptance, and - once she replies wordlessly, a slight nod - goes double-time. "Right. All together then! We'll all go together and we'll all come back together."

Qivi was halfway to the exit by the time the Pliers shift, and so does the Wadatsumi - more than just the Wadatsumi, but it's what she can see at the moment. It rocks in place; she stumbles, catching herself on an empty chair and levering herself back up.

She grunts something profane under her breath as she does, then, louder: "What the hell was that? Did he pull the whole damn thing?" The more that happens, the less well-settled Qivi is. She has to *do* something or she feels like she's going to explode. The shift in Gridman's tone is noticed, but she doesn't have the context to make sense of it in the correct way; she sees determination, and determination it must be.

Qivi makes an executive decision: "I'm better at fighting than evac, in Sarangay. No disrespect to the people who're better at evac, but I know what I'm good at. Meet you in the air!" She breaks into a run - it's a long way to Sarangay, relatively speaking, and she's going to have to change into something she can strap into properly once she's there unless she goes out without safety gear.

Hopefully the Wadatsumi is intact enough that she can *find* her way out. 

<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.

Oh or Alexis could just go ahead and PUT EVERYTHING IN DANGER ALL ON HIS DANG LONESOME

Guy FEELS it, in his bones, in cells of a body that is in some ways, not strictly physical. "The Pliers," he croaks, one entire second before the whole building shakes.

Alouette and Tamara and Hana have the reports out before he can do much more. He feels ill, briefly, but he forces himself to stand up anyway. "...Sakura," he says, low. "...we have to stop this before we can find her. Change of plans," he says. "Alouette! Get out there on rescue duty!"

Namiko and Hass get their own orders from Rikka about now, and Namiko snaps the worst intentional salute in recorded history. Felt appropriate, anyway. "We took Neutron to get here, we'll go get on rescue duty right now! I'll go bug Mr. Gai, too! C'mon, Hass!"

The duo sprint away while Guy taps into Wadatsumi's network. Sending the call for Galeon and the GaoMachines silently lacks some punch, but he can't rush outside to use the GaoBrace right now, anyway. "I've called for GaoGaiGar, but it'll take a while to get here. I'll work from here to keep the colony under control as long as I can."

... "Gridman..." He looks at the hero with a young boys body.

...For just a moment, he thinks of the Thirteen Sol Masters, looming above him at the colosseum. Defiant. Confident. Knowing he was alone.

"He'll do his worst to you," he says. "He'll try to make it hurt. But you're ready. We'll be there as soon as we can. So go get him!" 

<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.

Nodding to Gridman, Utsumi agrees, "Right." This may not be something only he can do -- but it's still something he must do, so he'll do his best.

A lot is going sideways, here; the rapidly decaying nature of the situation means that some new emergent problem comes up every 45 seconds or so. Someone, somewhere, has to deal with it. Utsumi, at this point, is in a sprint out of the Wadatsumi and toward Kamesan Park; if Akane and Knight were hanging out there, that's the best place to start.

A faint distortion starts to open above Tsutsujidai. It's unclear what, exactly, it is -- but it's something. And Alexis seems to be moving up toward it. Is he... leaving?

Utsumi checks his phone, and is slightly surprised to find he has signal during this crisis after what happened with Akane's nameless kaiju. He snaps off a hasty text to Gridman and Rikka:

> in the Taraba series (look, i know)
> it takes a TON of dimensional energy to open up a hole like that!
> even if he broke all that stuff to make that happen
> he'd still need to connect with a host to survive that kind of
> aknr
> akane or knight
> one of them has to be in there, right?

<Pose Tracker> Gridman has posed.

With one last nod to his companions, Gridman and his comrades all vanish together. He's said everything he could to them. Now, he just has to rely on their strength and courage.

In the space of a moment, they're all lined up in Aya, standing before Junk. Gridman takes a second, opening his mouth, blinking his eyes. Just in case he won't be able to do them again.

Ding

"Huh?" Utsumi's text totally stepped on Gridman's moment. "Sorry, everyone, one sec.."

Pulling out Oshansoo-san and reading through Utsumi's theories, Gridman goes pale. Alexis has already forced Akane into a kaiju once before. And he's always been obsessed with her.

>its gotta be akane
>that just means we have to fight harder so we can save her
>thank you utsumi

His phone placed back in his pocket, Gridman takes a deep breath. "Alright. Access--!"

Five voices call out as one. "FLASH!"

<Pose Tracker> Rikka Takarada has posed.

"Sakura-chan?" RIkka repeats. A person. She doesn't know her. But the thought that they've lost someone, just like that - she feels ill to her stomach and her body lurches for a moment, forcing her to grab the table to stabilize herself. She takes a deep breath.

Things are rapidly spiraling out of control. But right now, each of them have to do what they can.

Rikka makes to leave, too - which is when she receives a message. Her running slows to a stop as she reads the text on-screen - and then reads it again, and a third time. She looks up into the sky, where Alexis is making to leave.

> It has to be her.
> He's been focused on her from the very beginning.
> Maybe this is why.

Her texting voice is calm - but only through great strain. Alexis is - Alexis is trying to take Akane away. To steal away her future for his own purposes.

Rikka's expression shifts to one of fierce determination. She can't let this happen. She breaks into a run, looking at her phone for only a brief moment to shoot off two more messages.

> Thanks, Utsumi.
> Gridman... I'll be there for you as soon as I can. You be safe, too.

For now... the only thing she can do is put her trust and faith in him. 

<Pose Tracker> Alouette Pommier has posed.

"Oui! I'm already on it!" Alouette answers Guy, as Guardienne Aviaire soars from the Mirror Catapult, unfettered determination in her eyes.

It's then that Alouette notices that dimensional tear in the sky... Alexis attempting to leave with his stolen goods at the peak of his power. She doesn't receive Utsumi's theory, but she comes to a similar conclusion... he wouldn't leave if there wasn't something or someone worth taking away.

For now though, she needs to focus on stabilizing the city... It reminds her of a rather interesting report she read one sleepness night, about an application of the Dividing Driver and Gatling Driver that 3G resorted to in the Primeval War.

"Hana! I'm going to need both Drivers!" Alouette requests. Her partner operator works fast: "Y-yes! Dividing and Gatling Driver, kits EMISSION!" Hana smacks her hand on the button behind her, and following Guardienne Aviaire from the Catapult is those twin drivers.

"Merci... locking on, dual drivers equipped." Alouette reports. "GATLING DRIVER! And... DIVIDING DRIVER!" It's not enough to fix what happened to Tsutsujidai, without the Galeoria Pliers. But she can hold back the dimensional residue just long enough to both assist Namiko and Hass's rescue efforts and give Gridman an opening to chase after Alexis.

"Alexis, you can't run anymore." She tells the Hyper Devil coolly, even from a distance. "This time, you're facing Gridman on his terms!"

That report detailed 3G's use of both drivers simultaneously to break out of a Klein Space induced trap. Alexis might be above even principles such as Klein Space with the power he's amassed - even trying to cut off his escape with these means may as well be futile on this scale. But if she can buy enough time for Gridman to get in there... that's something the Hyper Devil can't simply ignore.

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