2023-11-10 - I Bring You Gold
- Log: 2023-11-10 - I Bring You Gold
- Cast: Elisa Kafim, Rena Lancaster, Shinji Ikari, Leina Ashta, Anita Rosetta, Koji Kabuto, Roux Louka, Naoko Suzuki, Judau Ashta, Luanova Luckwright, Sousuke Sagara
- Where: Olofat, Yalafath Island, Orb Union
- OOC - IC Date: November 10, U.C. 0097
- Summary: Elisa Kafim returns to the land for which she won Olympic Gold, and she brings the Void with her. In her quest to seek the Southern Seat of Power, she will rain green fire on her former home, and only the intervention of an opposing side will stop the destruction she will wreak in the claiming.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Clouds reign over the sky, a storm assuredly coming. The rain hasn't started yet, but it will. And there is a sense of foreboding for the sensitive, here in Orb.
On Yalafath Island, the capital of Olofat sits. Beautiful and sparkling, even in the cloudy weather, it is a monument to wealth and life. Smooth windows shine against what light there is today, the buildings not-so-silent monuments to humanity. The noise of the city is plain; cars honking and rushing around, pedestrians walking, people talking, and the noise of advertisements and radio all call out. There is visual noise, too--advertisements in great big lights, holograms in places where displays might not fit. There's even an amusement park nearby, Stellar Park, with its lineage of parks dating back to Sydney, Australia, though that location is long gone. A Ferris wheel; roller coasters. And here, at the center of it all: a city square.
This is the capital, but it is not the center of the capital. It is an important part of the city--but not to government, not directly. No, the place of importance here is an office building belonging to Nergal, home of much research and many jobs. The building is a skyscraper, so tall that it shows easily in the skyline, but not so far that it is not close to the water. It has a beautiful ocean view from its tallest rooms.
There are a lot of people here. And that's about to be a big problem, because of the green-tinged rent in the air above the square that suddenly appears.
With a horrific noise, suddenly all those psychically aware will detect the sensation of something 'wrong', something violent and awful. And in that space comes a robot. With a spindly humanoid silhouette, this machine is polished black with green accents. Its head has a single great eyeplate of noxious crystal; its shoulders and torso are armored lightly with strange metals. Its long feet have spiked heels, and 'wings' in black rise from its waist, bladed. In one hand it holds a gigantic scythe, dangerously sharp, and on its other wrist is a shield that bursts into life, green glyphs rotating ominously in dim radiance.
The EXM-E7W Spinatia (Witchcraft Type) slams into the ground from the portal, falling into a crouch and crunching up the road beneath its feet. As it rises, it puts its other hand on the scythe--and swings for the skyscraper.
The devastation that follows will be plenty of warning that something is happening.
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
Rena Lancaster spends a lot of time in Orb. More than she has to as a member of the Three Ships Alliance -- they started, after all, as a group to protect its independence -- as it's the place that feels closest to home. Her and Anita have even been looking for a condo in Olofat.
She is at one of the air bases given to the Alliance (technically, leased to them in exchange for a sum of money) when the alarm comes. She had been there off-duty, doing some condo hunting.
When she felt that psychic shockwave, though, it was an easy choice.
"Annie," Rena transmits. "Everyone. Do--do you know who this is?"
The Gaia Gear Alpha lifts into the air, in its Mobile Suit form; the white Mobile Suit rises, head turning, and its eyes flash a deep, brilliant blue as they lock onto the changed, crystalline Spinatia. Rena sucks a breath inward, as the scythe hits the skyscraper.
A Nergal building.
The Gaia Gear's thrusters fire and it goes rocketing inward. As it flies in, a beam saber is torn from the recharge rack; it ignites the same dark blue, before Rena makes the Gaia Gear Alpha swing it down for the Spinatia with a double-handed swing.
This time, she speaks to the interloper. "I'm not going to let you do this!"
KTS: Rena Lancaster has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Rena Lancaster: Will Barrier Activates. KTS: Rena Lancaster targets Elisa Kafim with Beam Saber Cleave!
<Pose Tracker> Shinji Ikari has posed.
Today is Shinji Ikari's day off.
Since he moved into the Ra Mari II and joined its crew, he hasn't strayed far. Most of his time has been spent on the ship itself; a few visits have been made to Magallanica nearby. Today would mark his first trip back to Earth since he left about a month ago, and only as far as Orb.
He's been here before. It's a nice nation. It was beautiful when he visited it in the summer, and it's still beautiful now. Objectively speaking. Somehow, that beauty has more difficulty reaching his heart now, even while holding a blue Haro with a squishy Osanshoo-san docked on its head. Right now, it feels a little too... loud.
Walking through the city, trying to enjoy the sights, buying fresh fruit as souvenirs as he did several months ago, Shinji eventually takes a rest on a local bench, setting his Haro, Bud, to his left and his canvas bag of fruit to his right. He breathes a faint sigh and leans back, holding his things close so as not to inconvenient someone who might also need the bench.
On the plus side: no one will need that bench right now.
On the minus side: that's because the sky just tore open.
That awful screech makes him clap his hands to his ears with a strangled cry. It prompts a weird sense of deja vu, as when he looks up, something awful is happening, just like that day he first came to Tokyo-3. Though Shinji has no psychic sensitivity, the wrongness of that strange robot comes across loud and clear just by looking at it, and he gawks in growing horror. The tremor of its landing rocks his entire body, setting Bud flapping rapidly--and then the Spinatia swings that scythe for a nearby skyscraper.
Screams fill the air as people start trying to run away. Shinji doesn't. He simply sits there, frozen, staring at the horrible machine, with the growing understanding that no one is going to some screeching up in a car to carry him away. As the arrival of other mobile suits make it clear that this is about to become a battlefield--one in which he has no place.
This is both freeing and terrifying.
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
Once upon a time someone created a reality rewriting device - either used it, or didn't use it - they might never know. And now it's in the possession of Doctor Hell.
Originally an impromptu meeting with Koji and Sayaka about the situation at a Ramen Fusion bar in Orb, she had just finished detailing what 'Goragon' was to the main office on a video call, which ended in her collapsing in bed to take a nap.
"It's not like I don't understand why someone would want to." Leina murmured as her eyes drowsed shut.
five individual sensations
the pressure of a squeeze
multiplied hundredfold thousandfold
all over everywhere nowhere
everpresent ephemeral
urgency
U R G E N C Y C N E G R U
faster and faster and faster
pulsing like the beat of a heart
The girl sat bolt upright, breathing quickened, as she threw the covers off of her, and stormed towards the door, throwing it open. The bodyguard outside from her Cathedra security detail, Enzo, asked her casually, "Have a nice nap-?" Leina was walking past him, awkwardly putting on a pair of sneakers as she went, "Get the car ready."
"You're not dressed for your One O'Clock with Nergal." He pointed out, as he began to casually follow his quickened gait, "We're going to be fashionably late." Leina stated dryly, "Because we're heading to the shuttle port first."
"Ah." Enzo sighed, "It's one of those days."
-=-=-
The same man was standing in place even as an MS crate rolled across the track into the hangar bay. "This is the part where I point out that nothing's happened but a few clouds, Miss Ashta." He said, his tone not skeptical just pointing it out, "Shall I tell the main office that you're deploying because of the weather forecast?"
Already on the ascent lift, as the crate unlatched to reveal the Beguir, Leina now dressed in her pilot suit called down, "But I'm not deploying. I'm just doing a routine maintenance and startup check."
"Naturally." Enzo couldn't help but sound dubious, as he switched to speaking into his earpiece, as Leina leapt inside the open hatch of her Beguir-Neuer and began the checks. "I'll start with a comms check, testing the emergency services band."
"Very standard." He agreed.
The crackle of the comms reverberated across the hangar from the Beguir's loudspeakers. "<-I don't know what I'm seeing! Some crack just opened up in the sky over the Nergal branch office!>"
"Really? Patching it in on the loudspeakers isn't part of the startup checklist." He noted, dryly, on his earpiece. "You could at least have the decency to pretend to be surprised rather than rub it in."
"Nah!" Leina replied back as the Beguir, with a lilt of a tease as Enzo began stepping off to the side, the tease belying the sense of dread, "You'll call it in for me won't you?"
"... Supposed to tell you to wait for backup, but sure, whatever, give 'em hell, don't do anything that'd get me reassigned."
-=-=-
Jump jets fire and the Beguir leaps, the feeling of wrongness growing into a crescendo, throbbing in her head, pulsating through the aperture that is the Psychoframe. No longer a blinding light, it felt positively dim instead, that sense of the beyond.
V I O L E N C E
N O I T A L O I V
Veering sideways around the amusement park, the Beguir abruptly leaped up, Beam Rifle at the ready. It doesn't take much to assess what just occurred to the Nergal HQ. From that angle it fires a burst of beam fire at the Spinatia, trying to pepper it's form all the way down.
It lands heavily upon its clawed feet, ripping gouges in the road as it pivots around, assessing the situation for whether there's any way that life can be saved, salvaged...
... or merely avenged.
"<Doctor Elisa Kafim. ... You think just because you have power you can do whatever you want?>"
Her mind can't help but think of what Shari said, about how she mind controls even the person she loves when she believes it's necessary.
Her hands tighten upon the controls and the Beguir subtly changes position.
"<This cannot continue.>"
But indeed, she's definitely not alone, and she flips frequency to say, "<Three Ships' Alliance this is Dirae from Cathedra's Dominicus Corps, here to assist.>" A callsign? But also beyond just a familiar sense of who she is, a familiar voice too, "<I've got your back, Renalle.>"
KTS: Leina Ashta targets Elisa Kafim with Beguir Neuer Beam Rifle Ambush Burst! KTS: Sousuke Sagara has deployed in ARX-7 Arbalest. KTS: Will Barrier activated! (But will not apply until relevant Morale threshold.) KTS: Elisa Kafim's EN Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Elisa Kafim fails to react to Rena Lancaster's Beam Saber Cleave, taking 3600 damage! KTS: Rena Lancaster has engaged Elisa Kafim! KTS: Elisa Kafim's EN Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Elisa Kafim partially guards Leina Ashta's Beguir Neuer Beam Rifle Ambush Burst, taking 2146 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.
Orb has become important to Anita. In a way, it's become a symbol of the future she hopes for - that she wants for herself. And because Rena's been spending a lot of time there, Anita's been spending a lot of time there, too.
...Which means she, too, hears the alarms going off from the ensuing devastation. Few things stir Anita to action quicker than trouble like this.
Before long, the XVF-25I Svipul joins the Gaia Gear Alpha as it races toward the source of the chaos. And there, is a machine.
"...No idea. Never seen a robot quite like that one, either." Anita replies with a frown and a shake of her head. They've got company, too - one with an unfamiliar callsign, but a familiar voice. "Glad to have you, Dirae."
Briefly, she flips to external speakers.
"We'll keep this place safe! Everyone, head to the shelters but mind those around you! Don't just stampede, got it?" Anita calls out.
Svipul flips into GERWALK mode, then, strafing around the Spinatia as it unleashes a volley of beam vulcan fire.
"What is your problem?" Anita asks.
KTS: Anita Rosetta targets Elisa Kafim with Vulcan Barrage!
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
It looks like a downpour is on the way for Orb. Recent events have seen fit to bring Koji and Sayaka here to talk to the Ra Mari II about the crisis developing in Fuji.
Koji is aboard the Astro Scrander, reviewing its laboratory data in order to revise his attack plan, when the lights in the craft's lab flicker. In that same moment, the sky tears open and the Spinatia descends. Immediate alarms sound in the lab as the craft's high-spec sensors, tuned to multiple energetic frequencies, recognise the telltale absence that Sayaka's come to refer to as Void energy.
Gritting his teeth, Koji rushes into the cockpit and swings into the seat, already fast-tracking the preflight, and with a hum of photonic energy the Astro Scrander glides from its berth, swinging around to take stock of the situation.
"Three Ships Alliance, this is Koji Kabuto, PPL-1, responding to situation," he calls out as he pulls his helmet on from the overhead gantry. "Void signature identified, proceeding to engage."
His dashboard is flooded with data - civilian presence, structural damage, energy output estimates, as well as the craft's reactor status given the presence of the Void on the battlefield. "Firing missiles," he warns, as a volley of warheads streaks towards the Spinatia.
KTS: Koji Kabuto targets Elisa Kafim with Koushiryoku Beam! KTS: Koji Kabuto targets Elisa Kafim with Double Missiles - Opening Salvo! KTS: Elisa Kafim successfully evades Anita Rosetta's Vulcan Barrage KTS: Elisa Kafim's EN Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Elisa Kafim's Physical Wall L2 activates, negating 2000 base damage. KTS: Elisa Kafim fails to intercept Koji Kabuto's Double Missiles - Opening Salvo, taking 640 damage! <Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.
Roux Louka has few strong opinions about Orb. In fact, she likes the orbital terminus at La Tour the best, though it's weird to her that she's been able to develop opinions about the space elevator terminals. Even so, it's the case, and she had come downwards in order to pick up some missile reloads that were part of the restoration and resupply clause of her various legal instruments with the 3SA.
Which meant she was on hand when this happened.
"I've got a bad feeling about this," Roux tells Rena. "I'll be backing you up, alright?" And then she runs to the Strike Zeta, where it's parked and largely re-loaded.
AND NOW
The Strike Zeta didn't have to fly far, but as it snap-transforms from the Waverider, Roux stares at the slashed skyscraper. It's dizzying. It's something from a movie. Coming to a land and skidding out, Roux does not seem to have much to say right away, possibly because she goes straight for
THIGH BEAM CANNONS: Arcing rays of magenta light aimed towards the Spinatia. Not truly light, of course; compressed megaparticles, aiming to bracket in the attacking mobile suit.
"Hi Koji," Roux says into the comm net, but it's intense and distracted with at most a tiny ghost of her usual flirty yoo-hoo tone. "You seen this thing before?"
At least it's not a dragon, thinks Roux.
KTS: Roux Louka targets Elisa Kafim with Thigh Beam Engagement! KTS: Elisa Kafim fails to charge. KTS: Elisa Kafim's EN Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Elisa Kafim partially guards Roux Louka's Thigh Beam Engagement, taking 1170 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.
Naoko Suzuki doesn't technically have any duties she can be on or off, but she likes to be where the machines are, and pitch in where she can. And where people will let her, it's never a good idea to just let her do whatever she feels like to any machine she comes across. Either way, she finds ways to keep busy whereever there's things to tinker with, and the Orb base is no different. Coming here with Rena and Anita originally, she's been spending her time in the hangar while they were otherwise occupied. That is, of course, until the alarms begin. Technically, a moment before that, a feeling of wrongness in the air causing her to look up at the ceiling, seeing through to the rent sky beyond it.
Not long after, she receives a transmission. "Rena! I don't know what's happening, but you'd better get back here... I'll follow you out, we'll find out together!"
Yes, what she felt was scary. But curiosity is often quick to get the better of her. She has to know what it is... but she'd really prefer not to have to look into it alone. And so she waits for the Kakapo members to arrive at the hangar, the Sukeban launching at the same time as Rena's mobile suit and Anita's Valkyrie.
The Arm Slave's pilots gasps when she lays eyes on the Spinatia. What a cool design, she can't help but think. But she's not about to compliment an obvious villain out loud. More importantly... she quickly pinpoints the crystal embedded in it as an object of interest. Which she soon receives confirmation on, from a most unexpected source.
"Koji...!" A Void signature, he called it. Now she knows she needs to start recording as much data as she can on this. Keeping her distance for now, she follows Anita's lead in her approach, making use of the Sukeban's rarely used Chest Vulcans to add to the barrage. She'd better see how this develops before doing anything that stands out... that bad feeling hasn't gone away.
KTS: Naoko Suzuki targets Elisa Kafim with Vulcan Burst! KTS: Elisa Kafim's EN Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Elisa Kafim's Physical Wall L2 activates, negating 2000 base damage. KTS: Elisa Kafim partially guards Naoko Suzuki's Vulcan Burst, taking 540 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Judau Ashta has posed.
Orb. Judau was never around Orb during his brief sojourn to Earth during the First Neo Zeon War. He also never made it to the islands when he returned from Jupiter -- at least, not until now.
His thoughts, making his way through the capital of Yalafath Island, is that it's all a little too rich for his tastes. Very pretty, but something about all that ostentatious wealth put on proud display, exemplified by Nergal's tower scraping the sky? Puts him on edge.
On the other hand it's one of the nations not beholden to the Federation and that does a lot to put him at ease. He knows this. He knows -all- the nations that don't belong to the Federation. It's important to know, when you want to avoid Federation bureaucracy catching wind of your SOMETIMES -ALLEGEDLY- extralegal actions.
Look -- Judau actually has a good memory, for the things that matter.
WHAT MATTERS IS -- despite whatever misgivings he might have about presentation, the former junker from Shangri-La has mostly been at ease prior to his and Roux's descent to the islands. At ease enough that he tries to haggle with a few munitions people over stock prices on missiles that are not meant to be haggled by the time he feels --
it
Something wrong. Something that feels -off-. It doesn't come from a person -- not specifically. More like it saturates into the air like an aftertaste. Judau pauses in the middle of his haggling, seagreen eyes wide, a certain bile rising in his throat as he instinctively turns skywards towards the epicenter of that rising alarm.
"Roux -- we gotta go!"
Judau is already scrambling into a sprint towards the hangars where the Double Zeta waits, moments before something awful, something horrific, splits the sky with its void-rending scream.
---
It's moments after the Spinatia lands and makes that first, horrendous swing of its scythe that the Double Zeta can be seen roaring through the skies in its bulky G-Fortress mode. Having had to make some last-minute adjustments and reloading, it means despite that headstart, Judau is slightly behind Roux, Rena and the others.
It also means he doesn't -quite- catch that communique from that particular Cathedra-based Beguir in the distance before he's within transmission range -- and firing range.
<"HEY, WHATEVER YOU ARE! BACK OFF!">
In mid-air, the ZZ rapidly transforms; thrusters ignite in controlled bursts to keep it aloft as it swings its right arm around, aims that forearm-mounted, double beam rifle -- and fires off a volley of crackling red mega particles searing through the skies after the Strike Zeta's THIGH BEAMS in rapid-fire flashes of light.
<"Hey! Yo! Koji! This feels like weird nonsense! You gotta know about it, right??">
He thinks the logic checks out. Despite his words, he's frowning as he fires. Something about this feels... -wrong-. Off. And more to the point...
<"Ugh. Cathedra?"> he mumbles, and then blinks. The sensation coming off that suit. "... Wait a sec..."
KTS: Judau Ashta targets Elisa Kafim with Double Beam Rifle - Focused Beaming! KTS: Judau Ashta has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Elisa Kafim's EN Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Elisa Kafim fails to evade Judau Ashta's Double Beam Rifle - Focused Beaming, taking 4510 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Luanova Luckwright has posed.
Luanova Luckwright doesn't get days off. Today it's another fundraising dinner among benefactors and political allies in Orb. She's too worn out to put in the effort not to stand out today, a blonde in a red sundress and straw hat escorted by a pair of tall men in suits with earpieces. They have cleared her route back to the hotel. She insisted on walking.
They did not anticipate the maw of the sky opening.
Lua feels it as a sense of brief vertigo and sharpness, and comes to a halt before her bodyguards do. The bodyguards both pull in closer to her and take up observation positions, each with a hand positioned to quickly reach for a concealed firearm of the sort that will do them no good in this situation.
Lua narrows her eyes. It's not obvious what leads her to pull her bodyguards through the crowd, against the grain of retreat, to a shocked boy seated on a bench nearby.
A visit to the city. Sudden disaster. A misshapen alien mass. And a young adult woman, this one suddenly smacking Shinji in the face with her expensive handbag to rouse him. "Hey! No time to sit here and stare, kid. It's time to clear the hell out of here."
<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
<<Sarge, we've arrived.>>
The cockpit lights up green and blue with the screens as data streams in to the pilot. "Not a sergeant anymore, AL," the pilot says, slight adjustments of his fingers and thumbs sifting through data. The onboard AI handles much of the rest, filtering to the side or entirely out of view data that might need to be shown to the pilot of a less advanced machine.
<<You'll always be Sarge to me, Sarge.>>
"Really gotta get your settings looked at," Sousuke Sagara mutters, as Arbalest lumbers out of the ocean and onto the beach. Rapid deployment is a specialty of Mithril's after all, and even if Sousuke isn't strictly part of the unit anymore, obviously, a high degree of overlap is to be expected. He happened to be in the islands, dealing with a few personal contacts related to a felt-lined private project, when the sky turned green. On another island.
So anyway, Arbalest swam here. The aqua pack hits the beach with the soft thump of silicates displacing. "Gonna need combat power ASAP," Sousuke notes, eyes on the rent in the heavens.
<<What was your clue, the sky-chasm?>>
"Yes," Sousuke replies laconically, then reaches to Arbalest's shoulder, where a roll of throwable ATDs are stored. One of the knife-shaped charges falls into his hand and he flips it into throwing position, before bounding --
Bounding. An arm slave can leap about 40 meters straight up, more than five times its height. Arbalest clears double that, a faint blue-white light crackling around it as the lambda driver machine easily devours chunks of the island in the process of drawing nearer to the combat zone.
Finally, it comes down hard with a straight line on the enemy machine.
<<Confirming. We've seen this one before.>> A popup screen fills out with information - this was the machine Celestial Being fielded to protect Azadistan, back then...among other things. Still. <<I don't think we can let them off with a warning.>>
"Correct," Sousuke says, and whips the ATD downrange, a knife spearing down the street toward the Spinatia - soon after impacting, it explodes!
KTS: Sousuke Sagara: Will Barrier Activates. KTS: Sousuke Sagara targets Elisa Kafim with Anti-Tank Dagger Single Dagger! KTS: Elisa Kafim fails to evade Sousuke Sagara's Anti-Tank Dagger Single Dagger, taking 3060 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Some know who Dr. Elisa Kafim is, certainly. But she does not identify herself at first.
The skyscraper does not collapse--yet. It takes a nasty gouge, but it's significantly larger than the Spinatia is. It would take more than one swipe, even of such a powerful weapon, to bring it down.
No prizes for guessing the fate of those in the relevant rooms, though.
Already winding up for another swing, her scythe beginning to glow with power, the Spinatia's pilot is interrupted in the moment--by Rena's quick arrival. The Gaia Gear Alpha swings down, and a strange distortion meets its blade as it swings down. It's hard to tell whether it did anything beyond stagger the mecha, but it certainly gets Elisa's attention.
"You're not, are you?" comes over the radio, a confident woman's voice.
Leina is next. The beam fire crashes against the Spinatia too, rocks it in place and causes it to finish turning towards her.
"Can't it?"
Svipul's beam vulcans slam into the ground as Elisa turns her Spinatia further, letting it dance out of the way of the attack. At the same time, Koji's missiles score in--and the machine stares up, its face lighting up with power and letting loose a blast to take out a couple of the missiles. Not all, though--the rest hit... and distort, as if diffusing the impact all over the mobile suit.
She charges Roux's Strike Zeta but can't get close without opening herself to more fire, and is obligated to dart back again. "Yes," the voice says. "You wish to stop me. You wish to 'protect' this place from my depredations."
Naoko's Arm Slave uses its chest vulcans, and once again the attack seem to distort visibly, as if physics are a suggestion instead of rules. But the beams have an easier time of it; Judau's focused volley of crackling red megaparticles slams into the Spinatia, and knocks it a step backward on its spindly legs.
"No," she tells Judau simply. Then, "This is no simple 'whim', Leina Ashta. Did you think a lust for blood motivated my actions? Oh, to be sure--I have past issues with Nergal. ...But such concerns, I am beyond now."
Sousuke's machine slams down, and its knife jabs through the distortion to impac hard with the Spinatia. "Ahhhh," she says. 'Sousuke Sagara'. He of the Light. I remember you." She weaves back, but the explosion still takes a chunk out of her machine's armor. "Hmm. So you would bring it against me, now?"
Her footsteps rock the ground, but the bench where Luanova and Shinji are is safe, for now. But only for now, because the Spinatia, instead of lunging at each opponent in turn, begins to dance.
Holding scythe out before itself, it begins a series of slashes and twirls, pirouettes and leaps; a needle-like foot crushes a car, here. The scythe bisects a tree, there. But all around it the afterimages of the attacks begin to linger in the air, like a crystal garden, fractal patterns beginning to link the spaces between to one another.
"Yes," Elisa's voice says. "You will attempt to stop me. You can do nothing else."
"And our battle will be the fertilizer that allows Her will to grow..."
Elisa stops short--and the Spinatia spins, suddenly shattering the crystalline forest and sending jagged power out to every mobile suit in the vicinity. More than a few buildings find their windows shattering in the wake of it.
Broken glass will be a concern for those on foot. This place is rapidly becoming unsafe.
"You cannot stop me. No more than you can stop the night to come."
KTS: Elisa Kafim targets Sousuke Sagara, Koji Kabuto, Judau Ashta, Naoko Suzuki, Roux Louka, Anita Rosetta, Leina Ashta, and Rena Lancaster with Witchlight Scythe Crystalline Dance. KTS: Leina Ashta has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Leina Ashta has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Roux Louka has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Roux Louka has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Anita Rosetta has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Anita Rosetta has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Leina Ashta fails to Evade Elisa Kafim's Witchlight Scythe Crystalline Dance, taking 4650 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Elisa Kafim's Satiety activates, causing Sparkle! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Elisa Kafim's Hunger activates, causing Nullify! KTS: Elisa Kafim has engaged Leina Ashta! KTS: Anita Rosetta successfully Evades Elisa Kafim's Witchlight Scythe Crystalline Dance KTS: Judau Ashta successfully evades Elisa Kafim's Witchlight Scythe Crystalline Dance KTS: Koji Kabuto fails to evade Elisa Kafim's Witchlight Scythe Crystalline Dance, taking 4650 damage! KTS: Elisa Kafim has engaged Koji Kabuto! KTS: Rena Lancaster fails to parry Elisa Kafim's Witchlight Scythe Crystalline Dance, taking 4650 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Elisa Kafim's Satiety activates, causing Sparkle! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Elisa Kafim's Hunger activates, causing Nullify! KTS: Elisa Kafim has engaged Rena Lancaster! KTS: Roux Louka rushes into the attack! KTS: Roux Louka partially guards Elisa Kafim's Witchlight Scythe Crystalline Dance, taking 4650 damage! KTS: Elisa Kafim has engaged Roux Louka! KTS: Naoko Suzuki fails to evade Elisa Kafim's Witchlight Scythe Crystalline Dance, taking 4650 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Elisa Kafim's Satiety activates, causing Sparkle! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Elisa Kafim's Hunger activates, causing Nullify! KTS: Elisa Kafim has engaged Naoko Suzuki!
<Pose Tracker> Shinji Ikari has posed.
One of the robots' external speakers turns on, and Shinji hears someone urge everyone to head to the emergency shelters. Some distant part of him even realizes it's Anita's voice. He doesn't actually snap out of it, though, until Bud bumps into him, rolling insistently into his leg.
"Shinji! The shelters! Shinji! The shelters!" they insist, white eyes lighting up green.
"Huh?" he utters, snapping his gaze down at the blue Haro with wide eyes. Right. Right, he's got to get them to the shelter.
(Just get to the shelter. Get to the shelter, and let someone else handle it. He doesn't need to do anything. If he did something, he'd only mess it up and make it worse. He doesn't want to fight actual human, or near-human, people, anyway. He'd rather die than kill someone.)
It's a weirdly distant feeling, like the real life that's unfolding before him is actually a movie. All the same, his body is trembling so hard he almost can't get up. It's hard to tell if it's because of his own nerves or because of the tremors caused by the stomping of robots at war, but the end result is the same. That delay in physical response keeps him rooted to the bench for a moment longer, staring at the massive gouge in the barely-standing skyscraper--
(he feels sick)
--just in time for some lady to march right out of the stampeding crowds and SMACK him right in the face with her handbag.
It's such an Asuka-like thing to do that his entire world is off-kilter for a second. For that second, he just gawks at Luanova. This is clearly not Asuka, though--clearly not anyone he knows--and he shakes his head sharply as if to clear the cobwebs gumming up his thoughts.
"Okay. I'm going," he says, leaning his weight forward to rise to his feet. He manages not to forget his groceries this time, hooking his canvas bag under one elbow, and grabs Bud with both arms. He shoots several nervous looks over his shoulder at the Spinatia and the assembled mobile suits as they exchange missiles, knives, and more as he does. The fighting hasn't reached this specific spot, but Lua is right; this is not a place to be right now. He, they, need to run. When he's ready to do so, he looks back at Lua and--
Her bodyguards. This is someone important. This information sinks into Shinji's brain without him fully registering it. The more important thing to him is that, despite her harsh approach, despite the fact that she just physically struck him, this woman is trying to do him a kindness.
The same way that Asuka would have done it, even.
"Are you going to be okay?" he thus asks her.
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
"Glad you're both here with us," Rena answers Roux. "Be careful. There's something... really off about this. Do you feel it, too, Judau? It didn't just go away."
It takes a moment before she senses a familiar presence; another, as she spots the Beguir. "Leina!" Rena calls out. Her eyes widen a little bit -- then she notes the callsign. In a half-panic, well, she defaults to what she knows. "Erm--I mean--Dirae! We read you. You've got good timing!"
She glances at the Svipul -- by now, having it on her wing is practically second nature -- and her lips draw into a line. Anita's question is one she would like the answer to herself.
When Naoko speaks, she smiles, though. "Yeah, Naoko. Let's stop her."
And find out who she is.
"We read you, Dr. Kabuto," Rena says. "Glad to have you with us." Void energy, he says -- and she realizes, then. This machine isn't one she has fought before; the portal it came from is.
And Leina confirms it. Yuliana's wife.
"This is my home," Rena answers Elisa. "I'll stop you... and I'll stop whatever 'night' you're bringing! No one asked for that!"
Rena has a sense of Sousuke's approach, but Newtype senses be damned -- she wasn't ready for and is quite surprised when a second Arm Slave comes shooting up to twice the expected jump height, and crashes down for the Spinatia. As it happens, she also isn't complaining about its sudden appearance.
She uses it, to rush inward. The beam saber swings up, but can't quite catch the scythe, which slams into the midsection of the Gaia Gear Alpha. A wicked, ugly gash is left in the white armor, as Rena hits the thrusters -- and then raises the left arm.
The upper part of the forearm armor lifts, revealing the gatling cannon mounted within. It opens fire, pouring a burst of gunfire for the Spinatia -- and aimed carefully, so the stray shots only hit an emptied-out construction site behind her. Rena's eyes narrow.
"What is this 'night' you're trying to bring, anyways!?"
KTS: Rena Lancaster has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Rena Lancaster targets Elisa Kafim with 20mm Gatling Gun!
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
"This is the Kafims' work," Koji answers Roux - and Rena's earlier confusion about the attacker - grimly. "That crystal in the machine's core, it's the power source - an energy siphon and storage battery that can redistribute its collected energy." To Judau: "We've got some data, yeah. Try to avoid aiming for centre-of-mass, we don't need that thing eating a megaparticle shot and spitting it back out at us."
He might be wrong - the Void crystal at the Spinatia's core might be too busy keeping the machine running to draw in new energy - but without testing that it's far too big a risk - and then the mobile weapon is leaping up, its scythe gleaming wicked jade as it arcs down towards the Astro Scrander.
Koji jerks the yoke and the craft banks, metal screaming and klaxons blaring in the cockpit as Super Alloy Z is carved from the Scrander's dorsal fuselage, whole plates of the material tumbling down to the courtyard below. He fights the spin, boosting counterthrust as much as possible until he has the nose lined up again with the Spinatia.
"Let's try cooling things off," he mutters, adjusting the thermal output of the Scrander's beam emitters. "REITO BEAM!" Lances of hypothermic light stab up towards the Spinatia as Koji gets the Scrander's flight under control, building up energy to climb back into the Orb skies and continue assessing the battlefield. As he does so, he notes the Beguir-Neuer being directly addressed by - that must be Elisa Kafim - and beams a transmission to it as he repositions the Astro Scrander. "On your six, Dirae. 'Vengeance', huh?"
KTS: Koji Kabuto targets Elisa Kafim with Reito Beam! KTS: Elisa Kafim rushes into the attack! KTS: Elisa Kafim's EN Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Elisa Kafim's Physical Wall L2 activates, negating 2000 base damage. KTS: Elisa Kafim partially guards Rena Lancaster's 20mm Gatling Gun, taking 1430 damage! KTS: Elisa Kafim's EN Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Koji Kabuto rattles Elisa Kafim, making her next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Elisa Kafim blocks Koji Kabuto's Reito Beam, taking 900 damage! KTS: Koji Kabuto begins a Formation attack! <Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
Leina's ABOUT to hail Roux upon recognition of the Strike Zeta but then the feeling behind her? The visual of the Double Zeta. "-Oh hell."
Take a look Judau, at the modified Beguir-Pente, with enormous Cross Shield, pink and white paint job. And a modular rear armor with funnels.
And the sensation of your sister inside of it. Not concealed by all that feelings sweat left behind of Elpeo from before.
Leina HAD intended to tell him, she just wanted to let Roux and him enjoy the good vibes of the engagement before easing into talking to him about how she's working for...
... THE MAN. Big Corporate.
Everything Judau hates. And you know, how it was a choice of either this or living in a space where they'd all be considered super duper double terrorists.
He's gonna especially love that one.
(Roux knew of course, she's done plenty of mercenary work for them for the wedding fund. Leina just trusts her to be MATURE about this.)
Leina sucks in a breath, "It's okay it's fine. I've done nothing wrong. Just stick to my guns same as always."
She's about to go to her comms to say something to him.
'Leina! Erm-- I mean-- Dirae!'
'This is no simple 'whim', Leina Ashta.'
"God... DAMNIT!"
Great he finds out first from RENALLE and DOCTOR KAFIM of all people! How could this day get worse!?
And indeed she has to hurriedly try to maneuever the Beguir away from her scythe rather than respond to it, even as it comes in, pirouetting as the scythe skims across her Beguir's side, catching in it's armor. All she can do is turn her Beguir with the blow, before it cuts in deeper.
Coming away with the spark and hiss of machinery at waist level.
Rather than retreat further though, the Beguir abruptly LEAPS in, it's clawed feet trying to latch down right onto the haft of her scythe - and ASSUMING immediately she can't overpower the Spinatia enough to bear it to the ground by weight alone, roughly balances her mobile suit against it.
"<It's not about whim.>"
She breathes, as both of the clawed feet TWIST, trying to rip it in two or at least out of her hands, at the same moment that the rifle in hand tries to fire right at the Spinatia, point blank at the head, attempting to cripple it's optics.
"<It's about you unilaterally deciding the fate of billions.>"
As she then lands her mobile suit, sparking and damaged, but still certainly in this fight.
And it's only THEN that she calls out to her brother with a terse, low key sheepish, "<Hey Judau.>"
A beat.
"<So I can explain everything."
Another beat... but this one feels interminably long, farrrrr more awkward.
"<After.>"
KTS: Leina Ashta targets Elisa Kafim with Beguir Neuer Claw and Rifle Combination - Crusade!
<Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.
At the airfield:
A tense crackling of a moment-- "-- Be careful, alright?!" Roux half-shouts at Judau. Then she runs.
In the city:
Roux's jaw tightens at Leina's words. "Well," she answers, taking a breath and letting it out, "I was kind of DISTRACTED, THEN... By the VIOLENCE at the WEDDING... ...I suppose the sunny side is she's gone back to the classics?" Instead of the dragons.
Judau probably can feel the dragons. Not their, like, presence, although we'll see if Elisa makes a monkey out of Roux's hopes and dreams; but Roux's *remembering* of the dragons.
And then Judau tsks at Cathedra.
"Look, we can't pick our comrades right now," thinks Roux, who is also remembering the noise her phone made when the direct deposit for the Indonesia Affair hit her budgeting app and immediately got routed THREE ways. It was like a five-star gacha draw.
"Great," Roux huffs to Koji. "So we need to cut around the margins and then, I don't know, step on the crystal? Throw it into the ocean? Do YOU want it? I guess we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves--"
And the scythe is coming.
Roux knows what she's doing before it happens, paradoxically enough. Perhaps it's partly the subtle harmony of Judau, Leina, and Rena all being present, perhaps it is simply an intuition, and perhaps it is just her body -- and the Strike Zeta -- deciding what ought to be done. But when the scythe swings downwards, Roux grips the Hyper Mega Launcher in both hands...
Is she going to block with it?
Thrusting forwards, Roux raises it upwards and with a click and the shift of a control designed for haptic interface with a Gundam's hand, an enormous beam of shimmering beam-force surging upwards. Not to parry the scythe, which carves a sparkling, jagged gash across the left side and flank of the Strike Zeta:
But to surge towards the spinning Spinatia and swing downwards as if she were trying to carve a slice off of a doner kebab.
"Go beyond THIS!" Roux shouts, heat in her voice.
KTS: Roux Louka targets Elisa Kafim with Hyper Mega Launcher Saber! KTS: Elisa Kafim parries Leina Ashta's Beguir Neuer Claw and Rifle Combination - Crusade, taking 6231 damage! KTS: Leina Ashta has engaged Elisa Kafim! KTS: Elisa Kafim's EN Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Elisa Kafim blocks Roux Louka's Hyper Mega Launcher Saber, taking 3430 damage! KTS: Roux Louka has engaged Elisa Kafim! <Pose Tracker> Luanova Luckwright has posed.
"Yeah. I'm good," Luanova tells Shinji, sounding entirely unconcerned for herself in her focus. A part of her wants to quip something sharper, but she supposes now is not the time for jokes. Not when she's down here. "Now move your ass. Drop the groceries if you have to. Your life's more important than breadfruit." Her eyes are not on Shinji anymore. They're off to the side, following what her senses feel anticipating the Spinatia's movements.
Most of the crowd has not been waiting to have any conversation, thinning the sea of people at least enough to be able to move without bumping people aside. Lua lets her bodyguards fall in around her again, but she seems to be leading them more than they are leading her, to the point where her path curves to give a berth around... a car that, a few moments later, is speared underneath the Spinatia's foot. The afterimages begin to drown out visibility, confusing the fleeing crowds.
Elisa stops in her words, and far beneath, Lua shouts, "DOWN AND COVER YOUR NECK!" She and her bodyguards crouch low, her bodyguards shielding her with their backs, in time for shockwaves to send a rain of glass outward. One of the bodyguards suffers a torn suit and a shard embedded in his lower back. Some number of fleeing civilians follow the warning, and some do not.
Blood spatters across the pavement. Under the thundering of the machines above, Lua has to holler just to be heard by her guards right beside her. "Call the unit! Tell mother to send the unit!"
<Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.
Naoko's here, too! Their teamwork has gotten pretty good - Naoko's vulcan fire joins hers, and Anita sends her a thumbs-up.
"Nice moves." She says approvingly. Fortunately, they've got more help! Roux's always a good sight - and so are Koji and Judau. There's an unfamiliar face in the form of Sousuke, but they need all the help they can get right now.
"Glad to have you all. Let's work well together, yeah?" Anita greets.
The Spinatia, though, dances right out of the way of her volley. It's fast... and the pilot sound plenty confident, too. She's not even flinching about facing this many opponents...
The Spinatia dances with its scythe, leaving behind afterimages, a crystal garden - which is then shattered everywhere! Gritting her teeth, Anita flies, weaving her way through arcs of jagged power and using quick, targeted activations of the Pinpoint Barrier to redirect any that get too close.
"...Damn it. She doesn't care at all about collateral damage." Anita mutters. "...Or maybe that's the goal."
"You're not giving us much choice, huh? Fine, then I guess we oughta fight it out... You got a name?" Anita asks. She's with Rena - she doesn't have any intention of letting this night fall, either. And she's just as curious.
Svipul flips backwards, the beam cannon emerging over its shoulder and taking aim. It charges only briefly, unleashing a quick shot in the Spinatia's direction.
KTS: Anita Rosetta targets Elisa Kafim with Cannon Mode - Quick Shot! KTS: Sousuke Sagara rushes into the attack! KTS: Sousuke Sagara partially guards Elisa Kafim's Witchlight Scythe Crystalline Dance, taking 4650 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Elisa Kafim's Satiety activates, causing Sparkle! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Elisa Kafim's Hunger activates, causing Nullify! KTS: Elisa Kafim has engaged Sousuke Sagara! KTS: Elisa Kafim's EN Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Elisa Kafim blocks Anita Rosetta's Cannon Mode - Quick Shot, taking 1200 damage! <Pose Tracker> Judau Ashta has posed.
Leina! Erm-- I mean-- Dirae!
This is no simple 'whim', Leina Ashta.
Seagreen eyes widen. But really, Judau knew it the second he felt it -- there's no mistaking Leina's presence, especially without the shrouding, confounding mask that the Banshee and Puru-1 provided. Eyes widen... and then narrow.
And Judau Ashta frowns.
Judau Ashta frowns big.
<"Leina, you're in a cop-bot. Roux, she's in a cop-bot!">
this, of course, is the technical terminology. And he'd focus more on it, except -- the Spinatia is starting to move, its pilot addressing him and his demands in the most direct of ways:
No.
<"No, -yes-!">
This is probably one of those unstoppable force meets immovable objects conversations.
Just.
... If it were a toddler-scale argument.
<"Creepy jerk!">
In the immediate sense, Judau's growing realization that LEINA'S COPS is shelved for higher priority concerns, like 'staying alive' and 'keeping everyone else alive'; the Double Zeta's hefty - for a Mobile Suit - frame lands on Olofat's city streets with a concrete-cracking impact, the ground shuttering beneath its feet as green optics flare with life. The Kafims' work, Koji says, and Judau blinks, even as his scientist friend (he'll never be able to grapple with this new reality of Professor Kabuto) provides him with some important technical details that seem to bear out, at least in so much as the Spinatia is just ignoring physical laws like a champ. The Kafims...
Is this Yuliana's--?
<"It's completely fucked!"> is his technical answer to Rena, and really, his technical explanations are rarely wrong. <"Just don't let it get to you, Rena! Focus past it, we can figure it out after!">
Crystalline afterimages of the sorcerous Spinatia forge in the wake of its dance. And the pilot of the ZZ feels the hostility beyond the gracefulness and eerie beauty of the machine and its after-effects. Eyes widen; Judau bears -down- on the thrust of the ZZ.
And as each of those fractal figures burst into a swarm of savage shards, the ZZ -lunges- skywards.
<"Leina! Roux! Watch out, it's--">
regardless of anything in this moment, Judau's concern for Leina's safety wins out as honed Newtype senses just -scarcely- keep his mobile suit from being struck by those jagged flakes of unsettling power. Each burst of thrusters and micro-tune of verniers keep the ZZ jetting in zig-zag, g-force-accumulating movements through the skies. Shards scrape shallow cuts on white and blue armoring but never -quite- strike true before its free of the worst of it; in the aftermath, Judau's attention swerves towards the Strike Zeta, to assess its status -- and then, the Beguir.
He listens to Leina's sheepish words. He frowns.
He frowns so hard -she can feel it-.
<"Yeah, you're gonna. So don't get hurt, 'Dee-ray,'"> he transmits. (now might not be the time to correct him on that code name)
<"I gotta yell at you.">
Well -- at least she has a reprieve for the moment??
In the meantime -- the Double Zeta's thrust suddenly cuts off, sending the mobile suit in a dead drop towards the Spinatia from above -- controlled burns help it weave around the Gaia Gear's bulletfire and the Scrander's hypothermic beams--
To try to land on the Spinatia, plunging both ignited, long tips of its hyper beam sabers towards Elisa's machine in perfect synch with the Strike Zeta as he shouts:
<"To hell with that! I don't care what kinda night you got, there's always a way to brighten things up! That's why Joseph Swan invented light bulbs, dick!">
--so many questions loaded into that declaration--
<"So all I gotta ask you is this -- are you Yuliana's wife?!">
Look. Judau has his priorities. And he has never once met an Elisa in his life. In his -life-. So to him?
This is the most important question right now.
KTS: Judau Ashta targets Elisa Kafim with Hyper Beam Sabers - Heavy Strike!
<Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.
Naoko sends back a plain text \o/ emoji to Anita, always happy to receive praise. Unfortunately, she can't help but notice that this isn't slowing their shared target down nearly as much as it should have. That barrier is something else.
What it does prove is that Naoko's assessment was absolutely correct. This is a very cool machine, that can do some very cool things. Unfortunately, those things are very bad for everything around it, and double unfortunately, one of those things is Naoko's machine, the violet Arm Slave pelted by a wave of crystal projectiles with little means to defend against it. Unable to escape the storm, she can only weather it, crying out as her extra layer of reactive armor patches is violently torn asunder. Which, well, is what it's there for, but being without that safety net... better not let that happen again.
Regardless, the situation, distressing as it should be, doesn't get to her as such. Especially not after the appearance of the white and black Arm Slave. Granted, the Arbalest's affiliation, which she can infer from its previous appearances, might be somewhat of a concern, unsure as she still is regarding her opinion on anything related to the Toy Box. But, much for the same reason as the Spinatia, she still feels lucky for its presence here today.
If nothing else... she is going to get SO MUCH helpful data from this.
But as crucial as data gathering is for The Project, it won't mean anything unless she's able to get back in one piece. That is starting to look like it might end up a bit of a problem. At least from the information being passed around, she now knows who this is. This could be... problematic. Hopefully Elisa doesn't share Yuliana's, well, anything. She can hope, right?
Either way, she's committed to this, now. As such, even though the pilot's thoughts may be all over the place, the Sukeban doesn't hesitate in going back on the offensive. In spite of herself, Naoko can't help but respond verbally, too. "So you win either way, is that it? Well I'm sure you won't be winning quite as hard if we beat you down! Try this on for size! Saucers, go!"
On command, the Arm Slave's circular shoulderplates detach, rocketing ahead of the machine while firing their on-board rapid-fire beam guns. She does attempt to avoid the crystal in the process, not about to question Koji's judgment that what she might normally consider to be the obvious weak point could be a trap instead.
KTS: Naoko Suzuki targets Elisa Kafim with Remote Saucers! KTS: Elisa Kafim successfully evades Judau Ashta's Hyper Beam Sabers - Heavy Strike KTS: Judau Ashta completes the Formation attack! KTS: Elisa Kafim's EN Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Elisa Kafim fails to evade Naoko Suzuki's Remote Saucers, taking 3450 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
<<Flagging friendlies,>> AL reports. Sousuke reviews the results with a glance. "Leina...few from the Three Ships Alliance...we'll make do."
...Elisa speaks. <<You appear to be popular, Sarge.>>
"Noticed," Sousuke replies, and reaches back for the Boxer around Arbalest's back. He thumbs open his comm line. "Someone like you must understand how important practice is, Doctor," is his answer.
Elisa has practiced. That spectral show...<<Don't think we know that one, Sarge,>> AL drawls. Sousuke snaps up with his monomolecular cutter, one-handed slashes to try and cut away the assault, but even with that and the lambda driver barrier flickering from impacts, it doesn't all fail to penetrate, and AL beeps with a damage report soon after.
We can do nothing else... "She's right about that, at least," Sousuke murmurs. "AL."
<<We have activation, Sarge.>>
"Right," Sousuke says, then charges in. With the lambda driver barrier flickering to push back against any resistant force, he drives in toward the Spinatia and lashes out with his GRAW-2 monomolecular cutter, slashing through the modified ExAMACS, its blade sparkling with the will to pierce.
KTS: Sousuke Sagara targets Elisa Kafim with LD Monomolecular Cutter Close Quarters Combat! KTS: Elisa Kafim's EN Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Elisa Kafim blocks Sousuke Sagara's LD Monomolecular Cutter Close Quarters Combat, taking 2625 damage! KTS: Sousuke Sagara has engaged Elisa Kafim!
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
"It was my home once, as well."
Elisa delivers the line dispassionately, distantly, as Rena answers her. "You did not have to ask. The ape does not ask to become the man. He simply becomes."
The gatling cannon on the Gaia Gear unloads--and the Spinatia rushes in. Even as the gatling gun peppers it with shots, the Spinatia moves without seeming loss of momentum, a blast from its facial plate erupting for the Gaia Gear Alpha.
"Do you think that I would make things so easy?" Elisa wonders of Koji, as he lets loose his lance of light. She raises her mecha's shield, and the spinning glyphs simply eat most of its offense, blazing away at the mecha's arm.
"Stay close," she suggests to him, and the Shield turns into a whirlwind of Void energy, attempting to drag the Scrander in close and keep it there.
Leina comes next, and her maneuver is... considerable. Her Beguir turns with her blow, and machinery hisses and sparks. Her balance is perfect. ...But so is Elisa's. The Scythe bends, twisting and mutating and coming back to itself.
The blast hits her straight on, but the machine withstands it, through there is a crack in a number of places there.
"Very well," she says to Leina. "I can see you are passionate. What would you do, then, with the power that I hold? What would you do, if you couldn't hand off the power you hold to someone else?"
The scythe comes down quickly, to hammer at Leina's machine's head in turn.
No dragons approach. Yet.
"There is not a magic crystal you can use to stop this. Not this time."
The Hyper Mega Launcher Saber Roux brings down with her Gundam's hand slashes through the Spinatia, and while it doesn't lose pieces, it's a notable hit, jarring the machine backward again. "I will," Elisa answers her. "I have."
The Spinatia reaches--and there is a spark of green energy. A frigidly cold hand reaches out, and when it makes contact, systems may spark and flicker for an instant.
Anita has questions, and Elisa easily answers, "Dr. Kafim. Your ally asked about the 'night'... I will tell you both. As we fight."
The cannon charges briefly and unleashes a quick shot--which is blocked by the hyperdimensional shield once again. The Spinatia raises its free hand and a bolt of black energy crashes towards the Svipul, crackling like dark lightning.
'No, yes!'
"Creepy. I can accept creepy."
The Doubla Zeta dead drops--and it is a skilled maneuver. Only one thing can prevent the attack that comes:
The Spinatia just teleports out of the way. it's completely unfair. But Elisa does answer, "Hm? Yes, I am Yuliana's wife." She actually sounds pleased at the question. Pleased enough that she doesn't answer that thing about the light bulb. Instead, she lets loose another bolt of crackling energy at the Double Zeta. But she doesn't aim for the cockpit or anything. Nice?
There is indeed a lot of data for Naoko. As it happens, though--Elisa does not project an Anti-Newtype field. Her magic is unpleasant to deal with for the Awakened, but that's about it. "Hm hm," she answers Naoko. "That's true. Do your best."
The remote saucers meanwhile slam forward, peppering the Spinatia with shots. She responds with a sudden slash of the scythe, horizontal.
"I do," she answers Sousuke. "It's quite vital. Really, I should do this more often for that reason."
But his attack sparkles--with will. This is of interest to her, and her eyes narrow within the cockpit. "Fascinating," she says, even as Sousuke's machine cuts a layer of armor off of the Spinatia.
Another bolt of darkness crashes for him. "Your capabilities are interesting..."
On the bright side for those on the ground--the assembled mobile suits have successfully gathered up her attention. There is not another gigantic collateral damage move, this time. Not for the moment, at least. There is time to try to get away.
"The 'night'," she says, "Is the evolution of man. Humanity will adapt to the Void, and in so doing, prepare for the future. A future far beyond petty conflicts and pointless wars that go on under the status quo. I would end war."
"She will empower humanity to become something greater. Just as he embraced the Zentradi, so he shall embrace Her, and seek the stars beyond our own."
"In blessed darkness shall we shine."
KTS: Elisa Kafim targets Rena Lancaster with Face Vulcan Blast! KTS: Elisa Kafim targets Koji Kabuto with Hyperdimensional Shield Vortex! KTS: Elisa Kafim targets Leina Ashta with Witchlight Scythe Piercing Strike! KTS: Elisa Kafim targets Roux Louka with Touch of the Void! KTS: Elisa Kafim targets Anita Rosetta with Saturnine Bolt! KTS: Elisa Kafim targets Judau Ashta with Saturnine Bolt! KTS: Elisa Kafim targets Naoko Suzuki with Witchlight Scythe Quick Slash! KTS: Elisa Kafim targets Sousuke Sagara with Saturnine Bolt! KTS: Leina Ashta has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Leina Ashta has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Judau Ashta KTS: Leina Ashta parries Elisa Kafim's Witchlight Scythe Piercing Strike, taking 1200 damage! KTS: Elisa Kafim has engaged Leina Ashta! KTS: Anita Rosetta has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Anita Rosetta blocks Elisa Kafim's Saturnine Bolt, taking 3720 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Elisa Kafim's Satiety activates, causing Sparkle! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Elisa Kafim's Hunger activates, causing Nullify! KTS: Elisa Kafim begins a Formation attack! KTS: Judau Ashta blocks Elisa Kafim's Saturnine Bolt, taking 1550 damage! KTS: Elisa Kafim begins a Formation attack! KTS: Judau Ashta has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Rena Lancaster blocks Elisa Kafim's Face Vulcan Blast, taking 1550 damage! KTS: Naoko Suzuki has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Naoko Suzuki parries Elisa Kafim's Witchlight Scythe Quick Slash, taking 1050 damage! KTS: Elisa Kafim has engaged Naoko Suzuki! KTS: Elisa Kafim rattles Roux Louka, making her next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Roux Louka fails to parry Elisa Kafim's Touch of the Void, taking 3600 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Elisa Kafim's Satiety activates, causing Sparkle! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Elisa Kafim's Hunger activates, causing Nullify! KTS: Elisa Kafim has engaged Roux Louka! <Pose Tracker> Shinji Ikari has posed.
It's more than a little weird to have someone lecturing him about evacuation procedure, especially a stranger. Shinji nods in silence all the same. This woman he doesn't know seems confident, even unconcerned, despite the danger. She must be a pilot. Maybe a pilot of some kind of experimental unit, based on her bodyguards. She isn't watching him anymore, so she won't see the way his eyes lid when she tells him his life is the most important thing. Maybe she'll feed the down-shift of his mood. Maybe not.
Either way, he doesn't argue or question further; he turns and starts running with the crowds. It's so crowded that it's hard to get away, though, which is why he's still in the area when Lua yells for everyone to get down and cover their necks.
Shinji doesn't absorb the warning. That only comes after someone else body-checks him, sending both of them to the ground. Shinji yelps, clutching his Haro and his bag tighter, just before that shockwave hits. He's safe, thanks to whomever just covered him; his savior, thank god, is more or less fine, too, having covered his neck with one arm. His clothes are pretty shredded up, though.
As Shinji half-turns to look at him, the man gets up, professional gravity in his dark eyes. Shinji realizes as he takes him in that he recognizes him as a fellow member of the Ra Mari II's crew. He doesn't know his name, but he's seen him around--that olive skin, that shag of black hair, that wiry build.
"Are you all right?" the man asks, getting to his feet and offering him a gloved hand.
Shinji nods, making a small noise, as he hesitantly accepts.
"Good. Now let's listen to the lady and get out of here!"
It's the base familiarity as fellow Ra Mari II crewmates that has Shinji nod again, that lets him stand and run when the man pulls him to his feet and drags him off. It never occurs to him to question why this person whose name he doesn't know is trying to help him; it makes more sense than the total stranger that Lua is stopping to help him. At least they both answer to Eight.
Even so, Shinji keeps shooting looks over his shoulder as he moves further and further away from Luanova. He still doesn't know her name, and the roar of combat is deafening, but he still managed to hear her top-of-the-lungs hollering thanks to a well-timed lull in the uproar.
It's never quite occurred to him before now that you could be a grown adult and still beholden to your parent to get in a robot.
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
Rena sucks a breath in, as the Strike Zeta flies in closer -- it takes her a little by surprise, and then she looks back at the Spinatia.
"If we try to disable part of her machine, make sure it won't cause damage to the city," Rena tells Roux and Koji. "If we can drive her off, that's for the best!"
She grits her teeth, then she looks at Anita -- and she nods. "It--it might be the goal," she says. "We've gotta stop her, then!"
'Focus past it,' Judau tells her.
The Gaia Gear Alpha's pilot swallows, then nods. "R-Right," she answers Judau. "We can figure it out after--!"
She can feel Judau's disappointment in Leina. She can feel that it is maybe technically a little her fault from Leina. "S-Sorry, Leina," she manages, though her voice hitches as the Spinatia moves in that otherworldly, effortless way, and a blast of energy fires from its face.
The forearm armor clamps down; Rena raises it, and the blast breaks over the forearm, leaving it dented inward. "The evolution of man? Adapting to the Void?" Rena asks. "That's--you're just forcing others to do what you say! To serve... whatever is there! This goddess of yours!"
This was her home, Rena thinks. That leaves her more disturbed.
"You don't have the right to make that choice for people!" Rena says, before she drives the Gaia Gear Alpha to blitz around the Spinatia. Her eyes dart to the Svipul, noting where it and its cannon are, and then she shoots to the left. The beam saber is stowed.
A beam cannon mounted on the underside of the Gaia Gear's left forearms drops down, and then fires two large blasts of golden energy for the Spinatia.
KTS: Rena Lancaster targets Elisa Kafim with Dual Hand Beam Guns! KTS: Elisa Kafim's EN Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Elisa Kafim fails to react to Rena Lancaster's Dual Hand Beam Guns, taking 3280 damage! KTS: Koji Kabuto retreats from the attack! KTS: Elisa Kafim anchors Koji Kabuto, forcing him into close range. KTS: Koji Kabuto fails to react to Elisa Kafim's Hyperdimensional Shield Vortex, taking 3200 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
"Your kind never do!" Koji yells back at Elisa as she mocks him, asks if he thinks she'd make this easy. The Scrander's proximity alarms scream as he hauls back, trying to fight the gravitic pull of the Spinatia's shield. "Oh for - I know, shut up!" He smashes a button on the dashboard, manually overriding the alarm klaxon (though they keep flaring crimson behind him), and reaches over to the reactor safeties, disabling them.
Light spills from the body of the Astro Scrander, some of it trickling into the vortex raised by Elisa's shield. Holding the Scrander steady, yoke shaking in his hands as the craft wobbles, Koji carefully pivots it to aim straight at the shield.
"Fine. You're hungry? Eat THIS!" The sheathe of light surrounding the craft compresses into points at the beam emitters mounted on its nose, crackling with lightning before blasting the shield with bolt after bolt of lightning as Koji pours the Scrander's emergency reactor output into the shield, aiming to overwhelm it and free the Scrander from the vortex it's caught in.
KTS: Koji Kabuto targets Elisa Kafim with Cyclone Beam - Projected Storm! KTS: Koji Kabuto has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Koji Kabuto has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Elisa Kafim fails to evade Koji Kabuto's Cyclone Beam - Projected Storm, taking 6510 damage! KTS: Sousuke Sagara blocks Elisa Kafim's Saturnine Bolt, taking 2170 damage! KTS: Elisa Kafim begins a Formation attack! <Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
'Leina, you're in a cop-bot.'
"<Yeah? And!?>"
Well at least she maintains a bellicose attitude about it, definitely still his sister. She hears his call of concern certainly, and the mangled call-sign.
She does NOT correct him on it, in a moment of extreme sisterly restraint.
Yet what he says next, sheepish as it is, that tone. That tone. The universal tone of belligerent sibling argument.
"<... Well then be ready. Because I know you. Can already predict what you're gonna say. And I'm gonna yell at you back.>"
The Beguir spins towards the ZZ, "<So hard. You're gonna WISH it was that time I was called to come down to the station because you FOLLOWED MONDO'S LEAD!>" Rena apologizes and Leina immediately veers it as if she's still speaking to Judau, "<S'okay I have done NOTHING to be ashamed of, so there's NOTHING to apologize for - Renalle!>"
... Yeah Rena you're in the middle of it.
Elisa's scythe reforms, Leina WISHES she could say she was surprised. Instead she's merely disappointed, as it comes down quickly to hammer at her.
The Rifle is mounted on its back even as she swings the enormous shield out to strike the haft. The hand that remounted the rifle draws the beam saber from the shield in that motion, igniting it.
Again and again it comes at her, as the Beguir skids backwards in jagged sharp twists and turns, catching the scythe only barely against the enormous strength of the Spinatia.
"<Me? For starters?>"
Again she just barely catches the blow against the ignited saber. "<Wouldn't be an asshole with it. So many people? They're just living their lives! 'Adapt'? 'Evolve'? You think any of them are thinking about that crap?>"
And as they clash again, suddenly the funnels launch out of the Rear Armor, flying up and around, beginning to fire again and again at downward angles.
Forcing the Spinatia to veer off, or make sacrifices of approach angles just to avoid shots from her.
"<You wanna FORCE the issue - then it's a choice all of us make together. Using your power to decide by yourself that all these people get to be sacrifices for that better future?>"
The funnels keep firing every now and then to try and keep the pressure on her, to allow others to capitalize on her attempts to force the Spinatia out of position.
"<How is that any different from the people who chose to make YOUR Yuliana a sacrifice to THEIR future?>"
KTS: Leina Ashta targets Elisa Kafim with Beguir Neuer Funnel Array Strike Formation! KTS: Elisa Kafim's EN Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Elisa Kafim blocks Leina Ashta's Beguir Neuer Funnel Array Strike Formation, taking 4840 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Leina Ashta's Mass Effect activates, causing Control Bonus! KTS: Leina Ashta begins a Formation attack!
<Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.
Anita grin's at Naoko's emoji, then meets Rena's eyes, and nods.
"Yeah, definitely." She agrees. They have to stop this before things get any worse.
And she gets an answer! Dr. Kafim...
"So you're Yuliana's wife, then, huh? Nice to- whoa!" Anita is interrupted as Spinatia unleashes a bolt of black energy. It's coming at her too fast to dodge - Svipul raises its shield and the bolt smashes into it. It crackles across Svipul's form and sends the machine reeling back. It takes a second to recover - and that worrying energy lingers for a moment after, along with an alert on her console that the Pinpoint Barrier's down. Anita grits her teeth - but she's not about to get her manners. "...Nice to finally meet you."
Could they have met under better circumstances? ...Anita wonders if maybe this actually is on the better end.
And she listens, too. The night... is the evolution of man. Anita frowns.
"What she said." Anita agrees with a nod at Rena's words. "Ending war... that's the dream, isn't it? ...But there's gotta be a catch. This 'evolution' of yours, there's gotta be a cost... not in the least being building it on top of violence like this."
The Gaia Gear Alpha fires on the Spinatia with its hand beam guns - and Anita takes the opportunity to close in. The beam cannon is drawn from Svipul's shoulder, a spear blade crackling to life as she comes in with a thrust!
KTS: Anita Rosetta targets Elisa Kafim with Spear Mode - Thrust!
<Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.
'She's in a cop-bot.'
"Yeah," Roux answers Judau with a huff. She doesn't clarify, verify, narrow down, or apologize. Perhaps Judau can pick up that Roux is tolerating this, but Roux was always sort of bourgeois (rouxgeois?) about this stuff.
But Judau cuts to the heart of things, as he so often does.
Rena has some good strategic advice. Roux feels an obscure bloom of pride in herself as they carry down their assault. Witches are, unfortunately, not so easily felled -- at the strike of the Hyper Mega Launcher, Roux pivots a little as if to bring it around to parry the blow.
Instead that spark of the 'void' hits the arm.
There's a crackle as the panoramic cameras flicker. Roux lets out a brief sharp cry as Elisa moves on towards Naoto, towards Sousuke. The Gundam's systems recover, but the arm still is sticking --
"Evolution?" Roux says, even as the Strike Zeta struggles to right itself. Her eyes flick for a moment with panic. She manages it; pushes past. There are people outthere. Koji's carrying down fire, and Leina's speaking with that cogent ease Roux is used to.
Roux's eyes flick downwards towards a weapon data console as she reaches over to slap something else. "So what happens to the people you smash on your way to this evolution void future? Or do they just -- not count?"
"Like she was saying," Roux says as she finally gets something else to come online. (Oh my god, Roux thinks. I should do a full reboot but she would throw me into the bay if I'm lucky. No, Judau would cover me. But he'd be putting the ZZ at risk to do it and that big boy isn't going to be great to have throwing around in a city ARGH RUNAWAY BRAIN TRAIN COME *ON* ROUX)
"-- it's a familiar attitude," Roux concludes, slapping the fire control. The 60mm vulcans on the Strike Zeta's head do nothing for about 0.8 seconds before suddenly firing in a massive BRRRAAAAACPPPP of high velocity slugs aiming, more or less, at the lower half of the Spinatia. Kind of.
Fortunately for anyone in the area, the 60mm vulcans use caseless ammunition. No spent shell fall.
KTS: Roux Louka targets Elisa Kafim with 60mm Vulcan Double Magdump! KTS: Elisa Kafim's EN Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Elisa Kafim fails to parry Anita Rosetta's Spear Mode - Thrust, taking 2640 damage! KTS: Anita Rosetta has engaged Elisa Kafim! KTS: Elisa Kafim's EN Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Elisa Kafim's Physical Wall L2 activates, negating 2000 base damage. KTS: Elisa Kafim blocks Roux Louka's 60mm Vulcan Double Magdump, taking 1725 damage! <Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.
Being told to do your best by a scary witch lady who's clearly trying to cause untold harm would be interpreted as sarcasm by most. It doesn't quite work that way with Naoko. "I will!" she responds, genuinely getting more motivated to impress her opponent. Managing to pull the Saucers back from their strafing run in time to avoid the counter-slash, she instead catches the scythe's blade with the edges of Sukeban's palms, hands crossed and glowing red with heat. It knocks her machine back, but she managed to avoid the worst of it. "How's that?!" ...Is she actually fishing for praise? Maybe.
Soon, however, she finds herself quite distracted. Elisa isn't the only one fascinated by Sousuke and his machine. If one were to somehow be able to see into Naoko's cockpit right now, one might catch a glimpse of the absolutely manic grin on her face when the Arbalest and Spinatia clash.
In her mind, the importance of the actual fight she's in has already become secondary to her wish to get back so that she can review this moment, over and over and over again. A Void-powered machine clashing with that other fascinating technology that for some reason feels strangely familiar... this is inspiring, to the highest degree. The answer she's looking for is in there somewhere, she's sure of it. Even if she has no idea what form it will take, everyone is going to be so impressed when they see it. And then... then, she'll be able to keep the promise she made, for sure.
Reluctantly, she returns her attention to where it needs to be right now, following that moment. A slight frown deepens as she hears the way Rena and Leina translate Elisa's words. "Yeah, uh, pretty sure only your Silent Calling people would be on board with that. Why'd you even bother getting a group like that together if you're not going to give everyone else the choice to stay out of it?" Villains, honestly.
She certainly can't stand idly by after hearing all that. Sukeban charges in, its fists still shining dangerously red. "You may believe your way is best, but...!" The right fist's glow rapidly expands as she draws it back, aiming a powerful single strike for the Spinitia's lower body. "Everyone should be free to choose their own path! BUSTEEEEER KNUCKLE!"
KTS: Naoko Suzuki targets Elisa Kafim with Buster Knuckle! KTS: Sousuke Sagara has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. <Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
Another bead of darkness crashes toward him. And this time, Sousuke answers, Arbalest raising its hand. It's liminal, the flickering edge between invisibility and light, as the bolt of darkness splashes against a barrier that isn't there, shattering into motes of nothing and fading away.
AL, who is on comms, chimes, <<Leina Ashta appears to be well. ...it seems she did not inform her family about her recent reassignment, however.>>
"AL, don't need the gossip."
<<Is that what this is? Exciting.>>
And then, Elisa explains herself.
"...not required," is his response. "I've evolved enough."
Arbalest's eyes flash green, and then the chainguns spin up, firing hundreds of rounds of anti-infantry chaing un ammo. Is...what's...supposed to happen. That thing's basically an M9, the spec of the chainguns is nothing too special.
But the BRRRR of the head-mounted chaincannons is accompanied by what looks more like a stream of light as flickering blue-red accompanies each bullet, sheering through virtually any defense. One will, one desire: Strike true.
KTS: Sousuke Sagara targets Elisa Kafim with Lambda Vulcans Sweep!
<Pose Tracker> Judau Ashta has posed.
Beams crash through empty air.
<"'Yeah'?"> Judau Ashta echoes Roux's answer as the Double Zeta falls swift towards the Spinatia. <"What the hell kinda answer is a 'yeahhhh---wait wha--">
The Man Sort-of From Jupiter REDUX's ends his incredulous question abruptly, a half-gasp strangled from his throat as the Spinatia simply -- disappears, ferried through the veils between space and time. <"Shit!">
It's instinct -- no, beyond instinct, the way that the Double Zeta pivots to face the direction the Spinatia ends up without, rightly, any way of really knowing before sensors even manage to pick up its location. Extrasensory pressure swells around the ZZ, green optics igniting with bright life as it swings its left forearm up.
A second later, a bolt of energy crack-BOOMS against the broad side of its forearm-mounted wing-shield in a bright flash of energy. The impact sends the bulky Gundam -dragging- across concrete and asphalt, churning it like warmed butter against its heels until it stops just before the mass of rubble from the Spinatia's devastation -- just before its back collides with the city buildings.
A long, ugly scorch mark mars the once bright-white of that shield; it's still sizzling with offputting, ebon energy by the time it lowers, both mechanical hands swinging wide with the whip-like snap of its hyper saber's long blades of crackling particles.
So this is Yuliana's Elisa. Seeing her now, hearing what she's saying...
Judau frowns, not for the first time, but for reasons wholly unrelated to Leina's newfound life as a Corpo-Cop.
Things that had been bugging him since his conversation with Yuliana begin to gradually click into place.
Of course, even if Judau's frowning has -nothing- to do with Leina -now-, it's not like she can't add tinder to the frowning fire. She shoots back. And Judau's response is immediate:
<"What the hell d'you have to yell about?! No way, hell no! It's my turn to do the yelling, god dammit! I'm the mad one here! AND MONDO HAD A GREAT PLAN THAT TIME, IT'S NOT HIS FAULT SHANG COPS FINALLY GOT THE BUDGET TO START BIO-LOCKING THEIR SQUAD CARS!">
Rena apologizes after this. The exchange goes exactly like this:
S-sorry, Leina.
I have done NOTHING to be ashamed of, so there's NOTHING to apologize for - Renalle!
"You don't got a DAMN THING to apologize for, outtin' my dumbass sister keepin' secrets from me, RENA!"
Both of them just kind of -- shouting over each other. At the exact same time.
<"THANK YOU!">
Yep. Rena's caught in it now. There's no escape.
If nothing else, though -- the siblings, for all their quarreling in the moment, do come together in a way that only people truly connected can. Frustration and anger pivots towards Elisa as she addresses Leina, as she explains the coming night and what it means for humankind.
<"To hell with that! No one wants you forcin' whatever weird crap you're doin' on them just because you think it's in their best interests!">
Judau's calls come short on the heels of Leina's own as the thrusters of the Double Zeta ignite. It swerves in a sudden charge, interposing itself between the Strike Zeta and the Spinatia like a protective reflex just after the other Gundam has finished firing.
<"Every damn person like you think they know best for humanity -- you're no different than the Federation or Zeon! I don't care what creepy words you dress it up with! Humanity doesn't need someone conceited enough to think they got the right to tell them the world they get to see, the life they get to experience!">
Trying to punch into the Spinatia's defenses once more -- with two sudden, powerful strokes of those hyper beam sabers, cleaved -downwards- towards the hip joints of the strange machine.
<"And people like Yuliana sure as hell deserve more than that!">
KTS: Judau Ashta has activated the Accel Spirit Command and Has Engaged with Elisa Kafim KTS: Judau Ashta targets Elisa Kafim with Hyper Beam Sabers - Blitz! KTS: Elisa Kafim fails to parry Naoko Suzuki's Buster Knuckle, taking 5760 damage! KTS: Naoko Suzuki has engaged Elisa Kafim! KTS: Naoko Suzuki completes the Formation attack! KTS: Elisa Kafim fails to evade Sousuke Sagara's Lambda Vulcans Sweep, taking 3162 damage! KTS: Elisa Kafim's EN Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Elisa Kafim fails to parry Judau Ashta's Hyper Beam Sabers - Blitz, taking 5390 damage! KTS: Judau Ashta has engaged Elisa Kafim! KTS: Judau Ashta begins a Formation attack!
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
"They need not obey me, once the change comes," Elisa says. It is without rancor, without... much of any emotion, really; she could as well be discussing the weather. "You do not know Her. You do not know the glory of the darkness."
A smile in her voice, "But you will. I have every right."
The beam cannon fires golden energy. The Spinatia's obscene barrier can only do so much; it knocks her backward again, in time for Koji's Astro Scrander to come in to aim straight at the shield. The projection hits hard, wearing away one of the spinning runes on the disc. "Perhaps I will," Elisa says, and her Spinatia leans against it, despite the obvious damage it's taking as a result. "Perhaps I will devour your 'light' to fuel my darkness."
"Cowardiace," Elisa says to Leina next. "They do not think of it, no. The average person thinks of nothing but her own life. And that's well enough... for a time."
"Progress brings upheaval. That is what it is."
The Spinatia can't approach the way she would like it to, not without rendering itself more vulnerable. "The world has never operated by consensus, girl. You act to protect a status quo in which you do not even believe."
The question Leina asks, though, brings a laugh--a dark, rich laugh, which echoes over the radio for long moments.
"It is different because I am right, child. God wills it."
"A pleasure," she answers Anita. "You... you are those from the 'Ra Mari II', are you not? Yuliana has spoken of you." Her smile widens. This might be better circumstances.
"Yes, there is a cost. Many lives will be lost in pursuit of this greater destiny, as is always the case in great jumps of civilization. Little of value can be obtained without sacrifice."
The spear comes to life; Elisa attempts to parry it with her scythe, but cannot, instead taking a scoring blow along the side of her mecha. Roux to come next fires rapidly, quickly, at the lower half of the machine. The Spinatia lowers its shield, taking the blow on an arm instead of a leg in defiance of all apparent possibility. "They die," Elisa says to Roux, with neither pity nor shame. "Humanity lives on. Which it won't, if these wars are allowed to continue--if strike after strike against this planet isn't averted. If the monsters that rise from human hearts are not treated with."
"Impressive," she tells Naoko meanwhile, because Naoko appears to know how to play the game. "Your skill is clear. Would you like a job?"
"I am not concerned with what others wish," Elisa answers her then--and that's when that powerful strike goes through Elisa's guard, slamming into the leg of her machine and prompting her to stop doing much of that dancing around. She cannot thus guard against the stream of light that Sousuke shears through. One will: it strikes. Elisa narrows her eyes again. "So that is the nature of your 'power'... yes. Perhaps you have evolved enough."
But then... Then there's Judau. Judau is angry, by the sound of him, and his calls come close on Leina's. He speaks from experience--he argues. "What is 'wanted' is not my concern," Elisa answers. "Who are you, to say what humanity needs and what it does not? You're..."
Pause. Ah. So that's who he is. Leina's brother. She puts it together, even as his sudden, powerful strokes cleave against the hip joints of the Spinatia--and break one, cracking it down the thigh.
"Yes," she says. "You are right. Yuliana deserves far, far better. ...Far better than a world that torments her for her vision. Far better than a world that has tried to slay her, over, and over, and over again, from the dropping of colonies to the avarice of the Federation!"
"YES!" Elisa shouts, suddenly more emotional--emotional at all--than she has displayed all fight. "I will give my Yuliana this world! All I do--"
The scythe falls. She drops it, and it begins to hit the ground, and tilts, toppling over towards Luanova and Shinji, even as the ground begins to shake. In the Spinatia's hand appears a great staff, instead--and she slams it into the ground.
"I DO FOR HER!"
The staff unfurls into a flower as it is driven into the ground. Like an orchid, a lady's slipper, with a black stalk and petals of emerald green. Firing upon it will only lead it to reconstitute itself; already its black roots are spreading deep, deep within the earth.
This road will not be passable any longer. But the asphalt cracks underneath it, and that, too, will be a problem for the people on the ground.
"Is this destruction yet enough?" she muses, theatrical. "...No. No, there must be more."
"I, too, must sacrifice for this Seat..."
"Come!" Elisa says. "Come at me, or I will surely kill all of you, and the people here!"
"O Empress," Elisa calls. "I invoke thee! Send your sign upon this land!"
The skies open. Something begins to crackle forth, from horrid darkness, crackling green. Whatever it is, even those who can withstand the sight of it speaking to them will find that their very machines suffer from its power. The Spiral in the Heavens widens, and madness descends.
Even as a Thing from beyond locks eyes on Leina's machine.
"Come. Understand that which is to come. Look upon the future."
It is gone, in moments. But the memory remains.
KTS: [Spirit Defense] Leina Ashta's Believe in Miracles activates, and the spirit endures. KTS: Elisa Kafim has activated the Daunt Spirit Command targeting Leina Ashta KTS: Elisa Kafim has activated the Daunt Spirit Command targeting Leina Ashta KTS: Elisa Kafim targets Leina Ashta with Profane Manifestation! KTS: Elisa_Kafim Changes attack to Judau Ashta, Sousuke Sagara, Naoko Suzuki, Roux Louka, Anita Rosetta, Koji Kabuto, and Rena Lancaster with Absolute Spiral. KTS: Rena Lancaster has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Rena Lancaster retreats from the attack! KTS: Rena Lancaster fails to evade Elisa Kafim's Absolute Spiral, taking 4650 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Elisa Kafim's Satiety activates, causing Sparkle! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Elisa Kafim's Hunger activates, causing Nullify! KTS: Anita Rosetta partially guards Elisa Kafim's Absolute Spiral, taking 4650 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Elisa Kafim's Satiety activates, causing Sparkle! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Elisa Kafim's Hunger activates, causing Nullify! KTS: Roux Louka has activated the Resupply Spirit Command targeting Judau Ashta KTS: Leina Ashta has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Roux Louka has activated the Wall Spirit Command. #151:dodefend, line 11: Range error ... called from #151:+defend, line 44 (End of traceback) #151:dodefend, line 11: Range error ... called from #151:+defend, line 44 (End of traceback)
KTS: Roux Louka fails to retreat. KTS: Roux Louka fails to evade Elisa Kafim's Absolute Spiral, taking 4650 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Elisa Kafim's Satiety activates, causing Sparkle! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Elisa Kafim's Hunger activates, causing Nullify! KTS: Judau Ashta fails to evade Elisa Kafim's Absolute Spiral, taking 4650 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Elisa Kafim's Satiety activates, causing Sparkle! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Elisa Kafim's Hunger activates, causing Nullify! KTS: Koji Kabuto successfully evades Elisa Kafim's Absolute Spiral KTS: Leina Ashta partially guards Elisa Kafim's Profane Manifestation, taking 3330 damage! KTS: Judau Ashta has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Judau Ashta has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Naoko Suzuki has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Naoko Suzuki has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Naoko Suzuki successfully evades Elisa Kafim's Absolute Spiral
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
Rena looks at Judau's feed. Rena looks at Leina's feed. She gives them both the same expression. The one that says, 'Yeah, you two are related.'
"I-I didn't mean it like you did something wrong!" she says to Leina. "Just... um.. that it might have contributed to an argument with your brother, and--"
She doesn't quite know how to finish that, and so she clamps her mouth shut when Judau also says she has nothing to apologize for. "I feel like I should apologize again to you two..."
Rena watches the Svipul fly in, shifting to keep from firing in her direction -- and out of the way of the Strike Zeta's vulcan fire, too. Then, she fires the wing thrusters -- to keep herself out of Nova's path, as she sends the Sukeban rocketing in.
"I don't need to know that," Rena says. "I'll choose my own path. And... that's the right of everyone you're trying to make that sort of decision for!"
She wasn't sure, really, what Elisa thought of Yuliana. Her answer to Judau is chilling. Rena gasps, as she sees the skies open, and crackling green and darkness erupts around the Gaia Gear Alpha. A blast of green lightning strikes it, slamming the white Mobile Suit into the street.
Rena screams, one hand coming to her eye. There is a memory that lingers; a glimpse of something she couldn't quite see.
"Annie's right," she says through gritted teeth. "You... you don't get to decide if people are sacrifices. And tis--is this what Yuliana wants? Or is it what you decided she wants!"
Blue motes of light erupt from the Gaia Gear Alpha. They waft through the city; the Psychoframe's light passes through buildings harmlessly, as the wing binders fire. Rena glances at the Svipul, then back up at the Spinatia.
"And don't mess with my BEST FRIEND!" she shouts, as the Gaia Gear Alpha rockets into the air on its back-mounted thrusters, blue light trailing after. The Gaia Gear Alpha's beam saber swings up -- and blue light dances over it.
It explodes out to half-again the length, and the Gaia Gear Alpha swings it up in a diagonal slash upon closing the distance with the Spinatia. Then, it carves up, deep blue light trailing after it.
"We're not your sacrifices!" Rena calls out. "And if you can't see what you're doing to your home... then you're the one who's been blinded!"
KTS: Rena Lancaster has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Rena Lancaster has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Rena Lancaster has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Rena Lancaster targets Elisa Kafim with Gaia Flash! KTS: Sousuke Sagara has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Sousuke Sagara has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Sousuke Sagara successfully evades Elisa Kafim's Absolute Spiral KTS: Elisa Kafim fails to react to Rena Lancaster's Gaia Flash, taking 8385 damage! KTS: Rena Lancaster has engaged Elisa Kafim! KTS: Rena Lancaster completes the Formation attack!
<Pose Tracker> Luanova Luckwright has posed.
The confusion on the ground is thick as the action escalates. Luanova's voice calling for 'the unit' carries to Shinji, but if he can even see where she is anymore, the tides of people soon separate them. Perhaps, if he can hear very well, he may catch snippets of her voice and that of one of her bodyguards in a back-and-forth. "No clearance," "standing contract to clear airspace jurisdiction." A whole lot of F-bombs.
A shadow falls over them.
The Spinatia's sickle has landed at an angle, saving some time for the crowds to clear, but the great blade is now threatening to tilt and fall. The earth quakes, and soon splits, opening fissures to separate the people. Can the man from the Ra Mari II keep together with Shinji in leading him to safety? Will they make it intact? Injuries have already begun to mount as the fissures claim some evacuating stragglers. The sky bleeds visions.
Soon, Shinji finds himself at the center of the shadow beneath the falling greatscythe. Luanova has left her security detail behind and is running across the expanse, directly under the shadow, to where he is. She is shouting something that gets lost in the confusion. She is carrying something, too. Without waiting for permission, she throws her arms around her (the thing she is carrying is cold and metal), then shifts her hold to heave him up in a princess-carry, and aims to fire. A long, supertensile grapnel cable whips to a distant fixture on a building far above, and then quickly begins retracting, pulling the two of them clear just before the scythe crashes down where Shinji had stood.
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
Even in the midst of battle she bickers.
"<You think I can't predict what you're gonna yell about!? You think I haven't been practicing for this moment for over a month!? Because-!>"
'my dumbass sister keepin' secrets from me, RENA!'
Leina blurts it out, "<Everyone knew except YOU>!"
Leina takes a deep breath, and her tone deflates, "<You just came right off fielding all that Vist bullshit with me! And I just - I just wanted you to have the high of your engagement for a while without having to worry about the deals we had to make for peace! Because... Because I knew you'd hate it so much that you'd dwell on that rather than all your wedding planning!>"
A pause and-
"<Because I care about your happiness dummy!>"
AL you may need to grab some popcorn.
Indeed Leina is heated up enough by Judau that when Elisa starts responding, she fires back, "<You're wrong! You've obviously never tried living at the bottom, have you? Where you survive because of the people in your life!>"
And indeed as she speaks of sacrifices, Leina shouts, "<You're the one that doesn't care about humanity at all! Not as anything except as a monolith! The only person you care about is Yuliana and YOURSELF!>"
And as she shouts about just that, as the scythe becomes a great staff, becomes a flower - a Lady's Slipper that's driven into the ground, Leina's anger rises around her like an auroral glow in the cockpit.
And as the skies open...
... that thing from beyond locks eyes with her. She can feel it again, gazing at her, trying to wipe away her sense of self. Her identity.
She can feel it. She can feel HER.
That darkness is enveloping, and yet as she feels that profanity smothering her. It is only a moment, then a memory.
'And don't mess with my BEST FRIEND!'
A reminder. The girl takes one breath, then another. Then she cracks an eye open. Breath rasping, even as that glow surrounding her has only dimmed subtly.
"<Oh... I understand... alright. After what I saw in the past. After what Yuliana said... about Her preferences for her.>"
Indeed, even as the spiral descends around the rest, Leina's machine... charges right at the Spinatia, shield held out like a battering ram.
"<I GET IT NOW! AND I GET WHY YOU THINK THIS IS A GOOD THING!>"
She tries to ram into Elisa's Spinatia and keep going, pinning her against a building, jets flaring to try and start pushing her through.
Even as she raises the Beam Saber.
And overhead, the funnels swirl, beginning to fire in these few moments where she might have her pinned down.
"<You're wrong.>"
Is her quiet rejection of someone who believes they're right in all things as she tries to drive the Beam Saber through the Spinata.
KTS: Leina Ashta targets Elisa Kafim with Beguir Neuer Cross Combination - Inquisition! KTS: Elisa Kafim's EN Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Elisa Kafim fails to react to Leina Ashta's Beguir Neuer Cross Combination - Inquisition, taking 7080 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Leina Ashta's Mass Effect activates, causing Control Bonus! KTS: Leina Ashta has engaged Elisa Kafim! <Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.
"That's right." Anita confirms. There's no point in lying if she's already figured out that much. "...Yeah, I bet she's had a lot to say about us."
She frowns, though.
"...Yeah. That's what I thought." Anita replies, of the cost. "To you that might just be a sacrifice... but to them, that's everything. Don't treat human lives so lightly. They're worth far more than some far-off 'destiny'."
Elisa fights - and then, suddenly, there's a surge of emotion as Yuliana is invoked. Anita's eyes open wide, surprised at this sudden shift. It's a distraction - enough that it's too late for her to affect what happens next. The scythe falls - and is replaced with a staff. The staff blooms, and Anita curses under her breath.
"Another one...!?" She mutters. Another bed of flowers. Familiar - and very concerning.
Also concerning - the skies, opening and issuing forth something. A horrible, terrible something, bearing down upon Svipul. It goes flying, crashing into a nearby (thankfully, already empty) building.
"Everyone alright...?" Anita manages, as she Svipul pries itself loose and flies out. It's looking worse for wear - and what's more, the Pinpoint Barrier system is further compromised.
"...Alright. You wanna see what I've got? Then lemme show ya." Anita mutters. Svipul flies, strafing around the Spinatia and peppering it with further vulcan shots, mixing it up with cannon-fire - at least until the Gaia Gear Alpha closes in.
With a burst of speed, Svipul begins to accelerate toward the Spinatia. In mid-air it transforms into Battroid mode, gripping the spear tightly with both hands and joining Rena's attack with a powerful spear thrust!
Anita Rosetta transforms to XVF-25I Svipul <Battroid Mode>
KTS: Anita Rosetta has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Anita Rosetta has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Anita Rosetta has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Anita Rosetta targets Elisa Kafim with Divine Valkyrie Charge! KTS: Elisa Kafim fails to react to Anita Rosetta's Divine Valkyrie Charge, taking 8520 damage! KTS: Elisa Kafim has been defeated! KTS: Anita Rosetta has engaged Elisa Kafim! <Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
"Perhaps I will devour your 'light' to fuel my darkness," Elisa Kafim taunts again as Koji breaks free, bringing the Astro Scrander around for a followup attack run.
"You can try," Koji snarls, "But I've learned a few things - I know there's a limit to your hunger."
The skies open, and reality itself seems to twist into a spiral of emerald, inchoate sounds echoing forth in waves that tear up the buildings and make the Astro Scrander's systems scream in protest. The feeling, of overwhelming, indescribable wrongness, washes over Koji... and he leans into it. That feeling of being peeled apart by a judgmental gaze, an agony that is impossible to transcribe to text.
In the years of fighting Hell's Kikaiju, pain became Koji Kabuto's closest confidant on the battlefield; the catalyst by which his combat focus sharpens. His grip relaxes on the yoke, and the Scrander slides across the spiral, surfing across the waves of destruction nigh unharmed.
"Let's see just what happens when we reach that saturation point, Kafim!" Reactor still screaming with all its safeties disengaged, Koji unleashes another volley of lightning from the Scrander's nose - towards the Spinatia at the centre of the Void Maelstrom.
KTS: Koji Kabuto has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Koji Kabuto has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Koji Kabuto targets Elisa Kafim with Cyclone Beam - Projected Storm!
<Pose Tracker> Shinji Ikari has posed.
Up until now, Shinji has not paid a lot of attention to the verbal exchange between robots. There was Anita's evacuation announcement, sure, but he can't really take in the moral and philosophical arguments when he's busy at first freezing up, then later running for his life.
There's something Elisa says that he can't overlook, though. It drills into his brain through his ears and sharpens the fury at his father that had dulled on his days on the Ra Mari II. He knows Elisa can't possibly hear him. He's certain she wouldn't care if she did. But Shinji digs in his heels, yanking the man from the Ra Mari II to a stop, as he pivots with volcanic anger in his eyes on the Spinatia.
"Then why don't YOU make that sacrifice, instead of pushing it onto everyone else?!" he screams into the empty air.
...of course, then Elisa does in fact decide she should 'share' in this sacrifice, and drops that scythe in favor of... something else.
The sky opens up again. And Shinji is very, very small.
"IKARI-KUN!!" the man yells as the streets shatter, as the two of them are torn apart, as the shadow of the scythe looms overhead. The name tag on his mechanic's uniform, briefly visible as he turns, identifies him as 'Ryujo.' He immediately jumps and climbs to chase after Shinji, outright ignoring other civilians caught up and screaming in the broken streets, but--then he catches sight of that woman from before sprinting towards Shinji, of that thing she's carrying as she beelines towards him.
He shoots his gaze up; around. With a curse, Ryujo grabs a couple of people otherwise struggling under the growing shadow and pulls them to safety.
Shinji doesn't notice any of this. He's paralyzed again as he stares up at the falling scythe, clutching Bud tight to his chest, holding his breath. He's about to die, crushed as one of Elisa's many 'sacrifices.'
He squeezes his eyes shut and bows his head over his Haro-Osanshoo companion.
Then the next instant, something (someone) grabs him, and he's in someone's arms, and they're both in the air to the sound of a reeling grapnel cable just before they swing out of the way of the scythe's path of destruction. He looks down, eyes wide and wild as the wind whips off the hood of his hoodie, his cap just barely caught within it and prevented from flying away. Those wild eyes look up at Luanova in a total lack of comprehension.
Why? his lips form. The sound, if he even makes it, is lost in the wreckage.
KTS: Elisa Kafim fails to react to Koji Kabuto's Cyclone Beam - Projected Storm, taking 6510 damage! KTS: Elisa Kafim has been defeated! <Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.
"Well WHAT GIVES YOU THE RIGHT TO PICK THE SACRIFICES?" Roux answers Elisa, hotly, snapping. The words are from somewhere else, almost, or at least Roux doesn't think about it.
Judau, though, is calling her out. Not for her evil, but for -- for Yuliana?
Roux's eyes widen in the Mobile Suit's cockpit.
The scythe begins to fall but Roux has taken the opportunity to step back several paces from the Spinatia but it is not from the Spinatia that the horror comes, but something in the storm and in the sky --
It presses downwards even as Roux sees the Double Zeta surge. Something about it is overwhelming her. She cannot stand alone against onslaughts like this --
But is she alone?
Judau's here.
Leina. Rena.
Koji. -- ? someone else?
Anita, Naoko, even Sousuke Sagara and-- ???
It's a disorienting sensation. A baffling one, perhaps. But as Roux feels it, senses it, tastes it, she can also see that that strange flower is being set downwards. Forcing out a breath, Roux raises up the Hyper Mega Launcher, which, helpfully, did NOT get disrupted by the touch of the void. "Oh no you don't--"
Two shrieking rays of hypercompressed megaparticles strike out towards the Spinatia, even as Roux speaks - but quietly, and not to Elisa -
"They really got biolocks?" she asks Judau.
There's always another story, if you listen.
KTS: Roux Louka has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Roux Louka targets Elisa Kafim with Hyper Mega Launcher Doubletap!
KTS: Elisa Kafim fails to react to Roux Louka's Hyper Mega Launcher Doubletap, taking 6380 damage! KTS: Elisa Kafim has been defeated! <Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.
Naoko never would have imagined the words 'would you like a job' could feel this ominous. That was enough to feel a cold sweat coming on, but when that's followed up by that cold lack of concern for other people's wishes... well. She was warned that Yuliana could have designs to abduct her, but it's sure starting to feel like her wife might do the same.
"I'm not going anywhere with you!!" she shouts, losing composure shortly after her strike, making her fear and desperation plain. If she were to be taken by the Kafims, some form of change would certainly be forced upon her. She doesn't even want to think about exactly what form it might take. Just the mere thought of losing who she is, that's terrifying enough. She can only reject the notion with every fiber of her being, as if saying the words has the power to keep it from happening.
"I'll never help you do what you want! I'm here to save people from having their choices taken away from them! If you won't stop this madness, then I'll...!"
Whatever else she might have said is never uttered, Judau's word and Elisa's sudden turn for the emotional in response throwing her for a loop. It's all for Yuliana? So this is all about... love, somehow? And she thought she had no chance of understanding their motivations before.
It's almost a relief when Elisa plants more of those flowers. Because that is following a logical pattern. She understands those, at least. Not that whatever they're for is likely to be anything good.
Speaking of which, the skies are rent asunder once more. However, as soon as Naoko's head begins to move...
>"Stop!"<
>"Don't look!"<
Two voices keep her from making a serious mistake. Rather than behold what lies beyond, she sharply turns both her eyes and her mind away from it, actively assisted in the latter by the twin AIs guardians. That was close, she realizes. She can't look, or listen. Instead, she should follow Elisa's earlier advice. 'Come at me'. A simple solution to all of the current problems, she's certain.
There are no quips to go with this one, not under the current circumstances. She just yells, loudly, as she brings the Sukeban's bluntest instrument to bear, the giant club it carries. Charging straight for the Spinatia, she swings the weapon with both hands, discharging a massive burst of electricity to go with it. While she has no coherent words, her feelings in this moment begin and end with a simple go away.
KTS: Naoko Suzuki has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Naoko Suzuki has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Naoko Suzuki has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Naoko Suzuki targets Elisa Kafim with Wrath of Enma!
<Pose Tracker> Luanova Luckwright has posed.
This kid's big wide eyes, staring and mouthing 'why?' at her in disbelief. That image will stay with Lua. It will take a moment to process.
Luanova sidles across the building ledge and finds somewhere safe to set Shinji down before she goes looking for a window. As long as the robots don't come closer this way, it will be safer standing inside than balancing on a windowledge. "I have terrible news," she tells Shinji, as she pulls a window open and ushers him inside. "I think your breadfruit didn't make it."
It looks like this is an office building that, judging by the whiteboards, designs... Haros that contain microbrew coffee makers? Lua pulls a couple wheeled chairs over, but she won't blame the kid if he'd rather just slump down on the floor against the wall.
She'll let the kid stay quiet there as short or as long as he feels like he needs to, while she sits backwards on that office chair, hanging her arms forward over what's supposed to be the backrest.
She glances out the window, at the great black flower under a distorted sky. Something to do with that lunatic who hit Zaftria. "I don't like it when people get killed for no reason," she says.
KTS: Elisa Kafim's EN Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Elisa Kafim partially guards Naoko Suzuki's Wrath of Enma, taking 2900 damage! KTS: Elisa Kafim has been defeated! KTS: Naoko Suzuki has engaged Elisa Kafim! <Pose Tracker> Judau Ashta has posed.
Who are you, to say what humanity needs and what it does not? You're...
<"Judau Ashta! Currently pissed at my sister!"?
-- well if there was any doubts who Judau is related to that about dashes them on the rocks.
<"An' I've seen more of people like -you- than I even wanna think about!">
But it's his words about Yuliana that she grasps onto. In the moment, there's no time to respond to anyone -- not to Rena, not even to Leina's heartfelt (and INCREDIBLY BULLHEADED) shouts or Roux's words - not when the Double Zeta is -this- close to an enemy whose nature he can only grasp in the displaced... -hideousness- he feels seething all around that machine she uses. It's not quite here, is it? Some of that... eldritch darkness... it feels...
He wonders not for the first time, just as Leina does, the ways this connects to that day they both witnessed countless years ago, buried in the weight of history and war. It's short lived, in the wake of emotion that pours out from Elisa -- emotion he can -hear-, emotion he can -feel-, like a tidal wave sweeping past him.
All I do-- I DO FOR HER!
Seagreen eyes widen. It seizes him abruptly.
And his blood runs cold feeling it. He knows it for true, the way she feels about Yuliana, and for some reason that -horrifies- him. All of this, all of this, she's done for...
"That's not--" he chokes out, but it doesn't quite manage transmit before a staff blooms into a beautiful orchid, and the skies sunder. Tha path isn't a straight line.
it's a spiral
He can feel it acutely even before the weight of that... -whatever- it is begins to truly bear down. Energies not of this world, encroach in a corruptive coil that seeps into the Double Zeta's systems and shutters off its cockpit viewports, dunking it and its pilot into a blind, floundering dark. Megaparticles are smothered and silenced, sputtering into nothing at the hilts of the Gundam's hyper beam sabers. Green optics flicker. These things - these things that should be and should not be - Judau can't help but feel all of them, from the twisted resolution of Elisa Kafim to the Thing beyond, fathoming a trembling sliver of the unfathomable --
and how it stares upon his sister's Mobile Suit.
<"Th-that -- that--">
Within the dark of shorting circuitry, the ZZ's Biosensor shines, resonating in perfect synch to the angry, defiant beat of Judau Ashta's heart.
<"THAT'S NO FUTURE AT ALL!">
And once-green optics burn red as systems bloom with renewed, angry life throughout the Double Zeta.
The Double Zeta rises, sparking dangerously as systems have no longer quite-so-foreign power funneled through their circuitry. Whatever is within that spiral -- whatever he -feels- right now -- he uses the fear, the confusion, the anger to fuel his own feelings and empower the Biosensor...
... until a blade ignites from the ZZ's right beam saber.
The hyper beam sabers are usually long blades by nature of the Double Zeta's ridiculous reactor output. But now -- now it grows LARGER until it is nearly twice as large as the ZZ itself, burning not with megaparticles but something -else- that makes the whole length of that crackling weapon seethe with scarlets and pinks rather than crimsons and whites. Sentiment, roaring sentiment, empowers the Double Zeta as an aura like a supernova ignites all around the Gundam.
<"The people you're sacrificing -- They had whole worlds, whole futures, that none of us are ever gonna get to know again! What kinda future is that?! Like hell I'm gonna accept that! They deserve somethin' more! Somethin' real! Real happiness! Real futures! And so does Yuliana!! And most of all--">
Regardless of anything else -- regardless of the tabled argument they have been embroiled in--
Because I care about your happiness dummy!
<"STOP STARIN' AT MY SISTER!">
-- he cares about Leina, more than anything.
The ZZ's arm swings. And that immense blade forged from fervent force of will comes screaming down -- towards the Spinatia and its flower, fueled with the fiery warmth of Judau Ashta.
A second passes, regardless of what happens next, where Judau blinks. He has more to say to Leina, but in the shock of the moment, all he can think to say is:
"...Huh...? --Oh yeah it was a real pain in the ass, we had to push the whole car down the hill manually."
just what were they doing with that squad car
KTS: Judau Ashta has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Judau Ashta targets Elisa Kafim with Sword of Fervor! KTS: Elisa Kafim fails to react to Judau Ashta's Sword of Fervor, taking 9880 damage! KTS: Elisa Kafim has been defeated! KTS: Judau Ashta has engaged Elisa Kafim!
<Pose Tracker> Shinji Ikari has posed.
Shinji, in Luanova's arms, zips up the side of a building. He stands stock still on the ledge, not daring to look down, only watching Luanova as she seeks refuge inside. He tenses at her talk of terrible news, even as he lets her usher him inside; when she gives that news, he looks down at his canvas bag.
Sure enough, it's smashed and leaking bread juice. He barks out a laugh that's more about surprise than actually finding anything about this situation funny.
"Breadfruit. Breadfruit," Bud chirps on low volume. Shinji drops the sopping canvas bag to pat them on the Osanshoo, more to comfort himself than anything else. When Luanova wheels chairs over, he slumps down on one, simultaneously numb and hyperaware.
This really is just too much. He follows her gaze out at the distorted sky. He cannot maintain it; his eyes shoot down to the floor, to the laces on his sneakers, as the cacophony of battle and people's impassionate shouts wash over him.
But then his savior speaks, and those words resolve into something sensical. He shoots up a surprised look at her. It soon settles into something that might--might--be the stirrings of a smile.
"...Me neither," he murmurs.
A pause.
"What happened with your robot?" he wonders quietly. He doesn't really expect her to give more than a glib answer, if she answers at all, but--if she is a pilot, then it would make more sense for her to have joined the battle.
"...you're not with Section 2, are you?" he adds, suspicion shading into his voice and the downward slant of his lips and eyebrows.
(Across the city, Ryujo sneezes as he helps civilians evacuate. The battle has kicked up a lot of dust.)
<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
"...even saying that..." Sousuke grunts, and Arbalest pulls back as Elisa's power grows. "It's hardly evolution."
<<I'm not sure you're as much on each others' wavelengths as you think, Sarge.>>
"Maybe not." Saying Sousuke has any tranquility in a combat isn't really true; the boy gets quite angry often enough. Still...he's got to keep his focus steady. He has to believe in it, this ridiculous machine.
"More to the point, I have school tomorrow," he says, simply. "I can't allow you to make me late!"
And then she invokes the devil. <<I don't believe she's interested in your schedule, Sergeant.>>
That power roars, and Arbalest leaps high and away, coming down on the top of a building that is, most assuredly, not where its roof was. He crushes somebody's desk with the landing. "AL. We're gonna go for it," Sousuke says, breathing deeply. He stows his monocutter, and his shotcannon too, leaving Sousuke unarmed.
But his fist begins to glow, a flickering, invisible force gathering there.
<<You've got activation, Sarge.>>
Then Arbalest LEAPS. It soras into the broken sky, with a leap so mighty it might seem like it aims to pierce the heavens itself, before somersalting and coming down in an arms-out freefall posture, falling straight down toward the Spinatia, green eyes blazing in any darkness she might impose. The crackling, sparking madness whirls past him, sparking harmlessly off an invisible field when it does draw anywhere near, but he swerves and swirls to nimbly evade, before coming crashing down toward the Spinatia.
Focus.
Strike. Destroy only what must be undone.
Sousuke thrusts the Arbalest's arm down, palm-out, and a bloom of crackling blue-red light erupts around Yuliana. From a gun such a beam would core down through the heart of the island, dig out a crater that might take weeks to repair.
Not this. Force comes, yes, but it is motivated by will, not by Newton's commands, striking Elisa like a hammer that only she can suffer, smashing down on the Spinatia with a force that might just strip the machine to its frame from the strength of it. Arbalest is held aloft by the counterforces, a kinetic bloom erupting in its palm!
KTS: Sousuke Sagara targets Elisa Kafim with Southern Wind! KTS: Elisa Kafim partially guards Sousuke Sagara's Southern Wind, taking 7347 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Sousuke Sagara's Battlefield Mastery activates, causing Control Bonus! KTS: Elisa Kafim has been defeated!
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
"Of course I see what I'm doing," Elisa offers Rena. "I am granting it a place in the future to come."
"...But I said it 'was' my home. Not that it is any longer. No... the time when I was part of this place is long ago."
Strike after strike; this one slashes against the Spinatia.
"Do you now?" Elisa wonders of Leina. "And am I...?"
Another strike. This through rather than across.
The Svipul too accelerates. "Are they?" Elisa wonders. "Your governments do not treat them so." 'Worth more', that is.
"Have you, now? Have you found that limit? Perhaps so..."
The light bathes the Spinatia in so much radiance that it is briefly blotted out from vision.
"Power gives me that right," Elisa's voice answers, and it is no longer over the radio. It is just within the cockpits and on the streets, a spectral voice with no apparent source that can nevertheless be heard.
The megaparticles slam into the Spinatia, too.
But Naoko shouts back. "Hmmmm," Elisa says. "Pity. But you're hardly necessary."
The Spinatia bounces with the force of the club and its electricity.
No future at all, Judau calls it. And that gigantic blade erupts--Elisa sees it on her displays, she 'feels' that it is more than just megaparticles now.
"What they 'deserve'..."
The immense blade crashes down, and bisects the Spinatia finally, severing one half from another and blasting the flower.
The flower reconstitutes itself in a slow motion of black particles, but the Spinatia does not. Instead, the Spinatia is hammered by a blow of pure will. A kinetic bloom erupts, and the ground is spared. The machine is not; the cockpit comes loose, and cracks. Elisa is visible within.
Dr. Kafim's flight suit is ruined, of course. But so is her left arm. There are bloody smears where the sheer forces she was using were too much for her body, or the sheer forces enacted on her mecha overcame its safety equipment. Most of the damage is to her machine, but she barely moves, except to look up--and laugh.
Her laughter echoes across the street. "Hahahaha..."
"Soon," she says, with labored breath. "Soon... She comes."
"And Yuliana need fear nothing ever again. You speak of what these people 'deserve'."
"But can you give it to them? You cannot. ...I can. I can give her what she deserves..."
Machine and woman alike descend into shadow, melting away as if in the morning light.
The flower remains.
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
"A place in that futur? The flowers--" Rena's eyes widen. She knew that, already; the flowers were important to their plan.
But she doesn't understand how, even with this confirmation.
She feels relieved, at least, when she senses Leina open one eye -- then the other. Leina can feel that relief, too, then. But, for Rena, it isn't a distraction. She stays focused on the Spinatia above her.
For a moment, everything else -- the fear about the flowers blooming below, worry about Naoko being caught up in this, sorrow for the damage to Olofat -- is pushed aside. There is her, the Gaia Gear Alpha, and the Spinatia.
She cuts past. The Gaia Gear Alpha shoots past Elisa's Spinatia, then descends -- with a controlled set of bursts from her verniers -- until it's hovering beside the Svipul. Rena glances sideways at her partner.
Maybe Anita can't feel her look of concern and pride, but she doesn't have to.
"Is she..." The Spinatia is torn apart by their blows -- and Rena looks down, to see its remains. Elisa, bloodied, is visible within. And she laughs.
Rena swallows a lump in her throat, which won't go down. She looks down at the flower, and the shadow that Elisa and her Spinatia vanished into.
"...I'm worried about this, Annie," Rena admits, her voice small.
<Pose Tracker> Luanova Luckwright has posed.
What happened with her robot? "What?" Luanova has to take a moment to even realize that she might have been overheard calling for 'the unit.' And that seems to have reminded Shinji that robots, tragically, come with the kinds of organizations that build robots. There goes the start of his smile.
"Oh, no. No, I'm not with anyone," Lua says, which is obviously not strictly true, but... "I mean, it's complicated. I'm not supposed to talk about it. They made me sign NDAs and everything. But I'm not with, like, a government, or a terrorist organization, or a squadron, or something. I'm with a stupid weird thing. It genuinely has nothing to do with me being here. I was going back to my hotel after a dinner party." Will Shinji really believe that? Should he?
"Maybe we should start over. I'm Lua Luckwright. Hi, nice to meet you." Luanova Luckwright: daughter of wealthy Neo-American Senator Ada Legatum Luckwright. Sometimes she appears in Orbital Ring gossip columns.
<Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.
"Yeah, well, I don't really care for what the governments think." Anita replies with a shrug. "I'd stand against them if they tried to do something like this, too. I did it once already, I'd do it again."
They fight - and together, they're enough to overtake the Spinatia. It's in rough shape - and so, too, does Dr. Kafim appear to be...
...But despite all of that, she laughs. With a frown, Anita glances toward the Gaia Gear Alpha next to her. She might not be able to feel it... but a part of her can still imagine it.
"...Yeah. I'm worried, too." Anita agrees with a quiet nod.
...For right now, though, all they can do is check on the people here.
<Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.
Naoko needs a long moment to catch her breath following an anxiety attack turned massive mace murder. And what happened after. Whatever it was that she just saw happening, that isn't a thing that normally happens to people. Not that she would have much liked to see what so much combined violence would have done to a regular person, that's beside the point. At least she's relatively okay, considering how much worse that could have easily ended up going.
"...What the hell just happened," is the most eloquent way she can express herself right now. Presumably she's also worried, but it'll be a little bit longer before she'll be able to have an actual conversation.
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
The storm abates. Elisa Kafim, with lethal injuries, looks up at the sky, laughs, and... melts away, leaving behind only that ominous black flower. Koji brings the Astro Scrander into a hovering position, easing the reactor back down into standard output, then turns to look at the craft's staggering array of scientific instrumentation.
"Well," he mutters to himself, tapping a few buttons on the dashboard. "We've certainly just gained a boatload of data." He opens the comms again. "Three Ships Alliance, I'm going to keep this craft in position in survey mode - the more we can learn about what just happened here, the better. ... Everyone's heads still on this side of the universe? Sound off for me." He knows well, after all, that the power demonstrated by She Within The Void can pull in almost anyone.
<Pose Tracker> Shinji Ikari has posed.
The black flower in the skies remains, but the Spinatia is broken. The cockpit opens; even from here, Shinji can see Elisa within. He's not familiar with her--ironically, he's more familiar with Yuliana, even though he hasn't met her before either--but it's a haunting sight. She's torn up, bleeding... and she just laughs. Just calls out how she'll make this world one her wife deserves before fading into darkness and light, leaving only that black flower behind.
It sends shivers down his back. Shinji can only stand to watch it for a moment before he shakes his head.
There's Luanova right in front of him, anyway. She insists that she's not affiliated with anyone, really, honest. His stare remains flat, but... it's not like he doesn't know what the pilot-of-an-experimental-robot life is like. What she describes does sound more like what he knows than what he imagines the life of a Section 2 agent would be like. They don't usually interfere directly until they absolutely have to, anyway.
...well, maybe she did absolutely have to this time, but it's not like he's an Eva pilot anymore. He can't imagine they'd be as interested in keeping him alive now.
She introduces herself. Luckwright... That name sounds vaguely familiar. Shinji can't place it in the moment; he's a little too rattled, a little too unfamiliar with Neo colony politics. When he goes back to the Ra Mari II and picks up a newspaper, he might remember it then. For now, he gives her a shallow nod.
"Shinji," he murmurs back. No 'Ikari.' If she really is here by coincidence, and she has any connection at all to experimental robots, he would rather not risk being recognized. "Nice meeting you too."
He looks out the window again, not at the massive flower, but at the many, many floors between them and the ground.
"Um... how do we get down from here?"
<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
When the shockwave clears, Elisa Kafim is gone, and so is her dreadful machine. Arbalest comes down some meters away, blue-red sparks flecking around it as the Lambda Driver cools. The radiator fins remain out for some seconds more, and then slip back into Arbalest's shoulders.
<<Sarge, I think she's a witch,>> AL supplies, a little dumbstruck.
"What makes you say that?" Sousuke asks conversationally, scanning the incoming data.
<<Principally, the screaming invocation of the devil, and also when she melted into a tar that didn't detectably behave as if it had mass.>>
Sousuke grunts an acknowledgment, and then flicks open a channel. There's another contact he should make.
"...Leina." ... "It's good to see you. AL mentioned some home problems. ... ... Remember, if you do need to make a sudden escape, Huffman is a reliable place to lie low."
he's helping.
<Pose Tracker> Luanova Luckwright has posed.
"Nice to meet you, Shinji." Lua doesn't bother asking for Shinji's surname. Perhaps a good sign? Perhaps bad? Though honestly, he really is just some kid Lua ran into, and she just needs a name to know what to call him. "Well, Shinji," she says, following him to the window to stand behind him and follow his gaze many floors down.
"I can give you a choice. I can, through a series of chained grapnels, execute a controlled descent so that we can approach the ground at a reduced velocity and make a safe landing."
"Or," she hooks a thumb behind her, "we can go down the elevators I found down the hall to the ground floor and walk home. They're right by the vending machine." Right. This is an office building. The power didn't even get cut, it seems.
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
Leina pants in the aftermath of all that, feeling... well, kinda awful coming down from all of it. Because the more she knows, it feels like the less she can DO about this.
And yet, Judau is here. Roux is here. Rena is here. Koji is here... Sousuke and Annie and Nova and AL are here.
Maybe they'll figure out something.
She needs the reminders right now.
To those around her it feels like there's a shadow around her where her sense of self is in flux.
And she's having to anchor herself on the people in her life.
She can at least come down from it some and reflect upon how Judau yelled at Elisa over Yuliana.
At Elisa herself.
At his protectiveness... and...
Sousuke contacts her, "<Good to see you too Uruz-7.>" Leina replies before, she arches an eyebrow, then there's a small chuckle, "<Appreciate the offer but - never once in my life have I backed down from this fight.>"
A grave pause and...
"<But since I may have to maintain radio silence for a while, I'm putting AL in charge.>"
The Beguir limps closer to the Double Zeta, in the end the machine itself took mostly minor damage.
"<We. Are going to talk about this. You. Are going to get every chance to yell at me. I. Am going to yell back.>"
The Beguir then points its' hand at the Double Zeta, "<And then we are going to go to Fujinomiya - and yell at Dr. Hell together for trying to rewrite reality for whatever asshole dimension he'd try to make in it's place.>"
A beat.
"<... And again for the thousandth time - Mondo had a PISS POOR excuse for a plan and you were an idiot for going along with it!>"
... War. War never changes.
<Pose Tracker> Shinji Ikari has posed.
Shinji doesn't really know if it's a good or bad thing. But if this really was just a chance meeting, he's content to leave it be. Either Lua will turn out to be a liar or she won't. There's very little he can actually do about it.
Anyway, there's someone else today who's drawn his wrath. It would be nice if Luanova could just be a brusquely kind person with her own issues going on, and Shinji can seethe instead about Elisa (Gendo).
He is offered a choice. He looks down at the distance between where they are and the ground and pales.
"...are the elevators really safe right now?" he wonders aloud. But, given his other option, he decides: "...never mind. Let's go for the elevators."
On the way down, he adds quietly, "By the way... thank you, Miss Luckwright. For saving me."
<Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.
Power gives her that right.
Maybe it's spillover from the nostalgia, violent though it may be, that Judau evokes. It's a sorrowing kind of thing, but it makes her eyes water slightly.
Something about it makes her want to weep. Anger is dissipating as Kafim departs. Her flower remains, but --
Taking a deep breath, Roux speaks to the others. <"I don't know what's up with the flowers. Koji, uh - I guess you have other things on your mind, but you got any insight? Because it seems like her, and Yuliana, and probably more frigging... void dragons or whatever are fighting to put them DOWN, and, like, I don't get it. Probably going to blow up Earth or something.">
The Strike Zeta lowers the Hyper Mega Launcher and stands there, smouldering faintly from impact heat. The Beguir approaches the Double Zeta, the eternal war between Cop and Anti-Cop. And -
<"Please tell me you don't mean he's literally right there in Fujinomiya,"> Roux halfway-pleads with Leina.
<Pose Tracker> Luanova Luckwright has posed.
Are the elevators really safe right now, though? "I have no idea," Lua answers flatly. But she seems pretty confident that the idea will work out fine. Thanked for her role, she gives Shinji a genuinely warm smile. "Anybody with a grapnel would do the same, right?" A lot of jokes to deflect, this one.
But a few moments down the elevator ride, while looking at the wall and waiting, she adds, "It's none of my business, but you really must be going through something right now, huh?" That mouthed 'why?' The look in his eyes, not a look of shock at the violence and suddenness of what was happening, but just a genuine disbelief that someone would risk themselves for him. As frustrated as Lua has been with things for herself, that's something she's never felt. "Well..." She had assumed she would have something to say, but it takes her a few beats to put it together. "Try to hang in there. There's a lot of assholes in the world. But there really are some nice people, too. Just... folks."
<Pose Tracker> Judau Ashta has posed.
Can you give it to them?
<"It's not my place to!"> Judau shouts after the inky darkness that subsumes Elisa and her weapon. <"An' it's sure as hell not yours, either!">
And just like that, it's over.
But not without leaving a lingering, irreversible sign of what just transpired here - and what will yet transpire - in its wake.
For a long time, Judau Ashta stares at that flower as it reassembles itself, his arguments with Leina fallen by the wayside in those moments after Elisa sinks - literally sinks, megalomaniacs are getting so WEIRD now - into the shadows. Even those final blows - even a direct hit - couldn't undo it. It just keeps... putting itself together, not like it was regenerating, but like it was just... rewinding everything that happens to it.
"..."
Judau frowns.
And then the Double Zeta abruptly shoots the thing like half a dozen times with its beam rifle.
And then it just reforms again.
Judau frowns.
"Gah! How annoying!"
And this is Judau Ashta, rubbing his unruly mop of brown hair in frustration and considering trying his missiles next by the time the Beguir staggers near the ZZ. The Biosensor swirl of will made manifest in broiling scarlet around the Double Zeta has begun to subside by the time seagreen eyes turn towards the approaching Cathedra mobile suit, and everything comes rushing back to the forefront again.
In the space between, before Leina closes that distance, Judau thinks. He feels the uncertainty swirling around Leina, that familiar, harrowing feeling that calls back to a time not nearly long enough ago. His brows furrow.
<"... Roux, I'm gonna stay here for a while, keep an eye on this thing. It just... I dunno. ... I just feel like I oughta."> Sometimes, it's really as simple as that. Sometimes. A second passes. <"... So you knew too, huh. Guess Leina asked you to keep it quiet.">
And then, the Beguir. Judau considers the Cathedra machine for a long, quiet moment as Leina speaks to him. He's still angry -- but despite that, he manages a smile all the same as he shakes his head.
<"No way you're gonna yell louder than me. Just forget it!">
<"See? Dr. Hell's back again, there's weirdo flowers I can't even blow up (but I haven't tried the missiles yet) an' a whole buncha nonsense! This is like the Mycenae all over again! And what kinda weird earthnoid calls themselves Hell! And who gives them a doctorate! What, is there some kinda evil -- doctor's -- college?! Yeah, I just bet!">
As if, in that moment, he could give her something familiar in his belligerence to anchor herself in.
<"AND THE PLAN WAS SOUND! I BET KOJI WOULD AGREE WITH ME!">
everyone should run before they are dragged into the mire of this unending conflict
<Pose Tracker> Shinji Ikari has posed.
When Shinji thanks her, Lua gives him a real smile. She jokes about it, and he laughs weakly, straining to smile back.
...but he does make the effort.
For a time, there is quiet, and it's awkward, but it's also a relief. Shinji's canvas bag is gone, but Bud is still here, and he's largely unhurt. For all the traumatic experiences he's been through, this one isn't even that bad. (It'll be worse when he steps outside and sees all the dead and wounded, how emergency services struggle to reach them with all the destruction.)
But Lua hits on something with him, just as he hit on something with her, and his shoulders tense as he hunches over, clutching his Haro-Osanshoo tighter. Ultimately, though, she just... tries to encourage him. He has his opinions on the asshole-to-nice person ratio of the world, but--
"Thank you," he repeats quietly. "I know there's nice people, though. You're one of them."
For now, he leaves it at that.