2024-01-27: ennea ena ~ 'my' promise
- Cast: Asciel Colette, Leina Ashta, Teletha Testarossa, Roux Louka, Yuliana Kafim, Kallen Kozuki, Sayaka Yumi, LiSA, TenRyuuJin Team, Boss
- Where: Isaac City, Saudi Arabia
- Date: U.C. 0098 01 27
- Summary: The cocoon beneath the sands trembles. Nine promises are made - the eight that would protect humanity are rejected. But all along, only the ninth oath could ever have been upheld. (ICly takes place April 0098.)
KTS: Teletha Testarossa has deployed in TDD-1 Tuatha de Danaan.
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
<"Why are all of you here?">
<"Why do you insist on interfering?">
The eerie silence that engulfs the now-evacuated Isaac City is cut with a loud proclamation across the Layered's PA system, echoing across the cavernous, dimly lit interior.
Those who persist in hunting down Asciel Colette are nearly consumed by the mechanical cocoon's labyrinthine structure leading towards the central utility hub - a vast cylindrical structure overlooking the industrial districs. By all accounts, the natural place to find the city's overseer AI.
<"The end of the Gundam Fight, the seizure of the Macross 13, the awakening of Goragon...">
<"All of these were instigated by me.">
...By the time the search party arrives, however, a titanic hole has already been gouged from the side of this facility, the normally glowing utility lines connecting it to the rest of this sanctuary dormant and inert.
<"For the sole purpose of recreating the world, and humankind with it...">
<"That's the duty to which I have been entrusted.">
Spotlights erupt overhead - bright enough to coalesce on a descending pod like a dawning sun. A repetitive whirring, cycling as cables unspool. From the inverted spires of Isaac City's heavens, a lone figure stands atop this pedestal. Still. Diligent. Determined.
<"Those who wield too much power...those who only bring chaos...they are simply not part of the program.">
<"I was created to protect mankind and this world. I intend to fulfill this task.">
The platform splits apart. The machine upon it descends to the earth - vivid crimson, gunmetal black, and golden joints, with polygonal wings of steel spread, thrusters alight in volumes disproportionate to the AC's size. Its body slender and agile, like a prowling jet fighter - its limbs elongated and burly. A cold and merciless visage gleams below its long antenna.
Emblazoned upon its left shoulder is a single yellow-hued ( 9 ).
Undeniably shaped in a humanoid way - yet seeping with hostility for any human that could conceivably pilot it.
<"Modifying program - final level.">
<"All system checks are complete.">
<"Combat mode is now engaged.">
The mechanical tones overlaying human speech patterns - undeniably this is Atrytone. Undeniably, this is the Controller that oversees Isaac City, the final opposition awaiting in its depths.
The true identity of human society's enemy, OWL.
-And yet.
IFF signal reclass. Code shift.
[[ Designation: Controller Unit OWL - <Revoked>. ]]
Revised identification: Hustler One.
Its feet touch the ground - this avatar of war and destruction. Scarce an ounce of Athena's phalanx could be felt from this crimson presence - this AC is kindred to Ares to the utmost.
Atrytone's gaze - no, Hustler One's leer flashes across its challengers gathered here. Hatches on the mechanical angel's wings shift, spread, and widen, unveiling countless missile banks.
Its voice raises in cold ferocity - like a generator spinning to higher speeds. And yet, there's a strange breathiness to this decree. A shock of determination.
<"Targets verified. Commencing hostilities!!!">
A deity of war and destruction rains not sunlight, but arrows onto the earth - watering the soil with the blood of mankind's folly.
Each one, catastrophically explosive despite its small size, its destruction indiscriminate. The declaration that this city is no longer a place for Hustler One to protect - but an arena in which it must prove its supreme virtue in the art of war.
< BGM - Armored Core: Master of Arena - 9 >
< https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clAoGySUcBo >
KTS: Asciel Colette has deployed in AC Nine-Ball Seraph. KTS: Weapon: LS-MOONLIGHT KTS: Weapon: Program Modification - Nine Oaths KTS: Weapon: SERAPH Back Weapon System KTS: LS-MOONLIGHT Cascade: 3400 Force,Melee KTS: LS-MOONLIGHT Blade Wave: 3900 Force,Ranged,Unlimited KTS: LS-MOONLIGHT Cross Cutter: 3500 Force,Melee,Spread,Repulse KTS: LS-MOONLIGHT Dual Blade Wave: 4600 Force,Ranged,Unlimited,Rattle KTS: LS-MOONLIGHT - Sunset Reversion: 5200 Force,Melee,Repulse,Barrier Breaker KTS: (1) Master of Arena ~ World Order Terpsichore: 4100 Force,Ranged,Ship-Killer,Unlimited KTS: (2) Project Phantasma ~ Immersion Prize Melpomene: 5000 Physical,Melee,Barrier Breaker KTS: (3) Nexus ~ Flood Amalgam Polyhymnia: 5100 Force,Ranged,Leader,MAP,Anchor KTS: (4) Silent Line ~ Lucent Artifice Euterpe: 5300 Beam,Ranged,Gamble,Spread,MAP,Finisher KTS: (5) Last Raven ~ Solitary Delusion Urania: 5400 Physical,Ranged,Rattle,Unlimited,Repulse,Missile,MAP KTS: (6) Another Age ~ Horizon Devouring Thalia: 6000 Force,Melee,Formation,Accurate,Anchor KTS: (7) Verdict Day ~ Roaring Travail Clio: 6200 Physical,Ranged,Finisher,Missile,Spread KTS: (8) For Answer ~ Empyreal Yearning Erato: 6600 Beam,Ranged,Root,Penetrating KTS: (9) Another Century's Episode ~ All Calliope Eternal: 6900 Magic,Melee,Unlimited,Accurate KTS: SERAPH Missile Salvo: 3700 Physical,Ranged,Missile KTS: SERAPH Bombing: 3800 Physical,Ranged,MAP,Missile KTS: SERAPH Pulse Rifle: 3600 Beam,Ranged,Accurate KTS: Overboost Impact: 4600 Physical,Melee,Rattle KTS: SERAPH Full Complement: 6000 Beam,Ranged,Spread,Missile KTS: Demoralize: 0 Ranged,Passive,Special,Debuff KTS: Despirit: 0 Ranged,Passive,Special,Debuff KTS: Goad: 0 Ranged,Passive,Special,Debuff KTS: Pass: 0 Ranged,Passive,All-Range KTS: Asciel_Colette has deployed as a Boss for 6 opponents. KTS: Asciel Colette targets Yuliana Kafim, Teletha Testarossa, Leina Ashta, Roux Louka, Sayaka Yumi, and Kallen Kozuki with SERAPH Bombing. KTS: Asciel Colette has completed their actions for the round. KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 423. KTS: SP Regen activates. Your new SP value is 110. KTS: Leina Ashta has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Sayaka Yumi has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Leina Ashta has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Leina Ashta successfully Intercepts Asciel Colette's SERAPH Bombing KTS: Sayaka Yumi's EN Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Sayaka Yumi fails to intercept Asciel Colette's SERAPH Bombing, taking 3900 damage! KTS: Teletha Testarossa has activated the Foresee Spirit Command. KTS: Teletha Testarossa has activated the Foresee Spirit Command. KTS: Teletha Testarossa charges into the attack! KTS: Teletha Testarossa successfully avoids Asciel Colette's SERAPH Bombing KTS: Kallen Kozuki has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Boss has deployed in Boss Borot. KTS: Asciel Colette enervates Kallen Kozuki, reducing her Morale significantly. KTS: Kallen Kozuki fails to Evade Asciel Colette's SERAPH Bombing, taking 5280 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Asciel Colette's You Don't Have To Be Brave Anymore activates, causing Deject! KTS: Asciel Colette targets Boss with SERAPH Bombing! KTS: Roux Louka successfully evades Asciel Colette's SERAPH Bombing KTS: Boss fails to evade Asciel Colette's SERAPH Bombing, taking 3960 damage! KTS: Yuliana Kafim has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Yuliana Kafim fails to intercept Asciel Colette's SERAPH Bombing, taking 4400 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
"<Have you really not figured out why?>"
The pilot of the Beguir-Neuer sounds tired. It has been a tiring day, in a tiring week, in a tiring month.
It's time to remove one source of exhaustion, or perhaps being tired won't be a concern of hers any longer after today.
"<Again and again we have this conversation about your monolithic view of humanity. If it was just a conversation, then none of us would be here.>"
The SERAPH Armored Core touches down, this avatar of war and destruction, and abruptly the Beguir leaps behind the buildings, jump jets twisting and maneuvering it in mid-air, as it turns around.
Funnels rise and cut it's arrows down, each detonating in mid-air, even as the Beguir is rocked and tossed around, shattering heard from the underground behemoths of steel that stand around.
"<I'm done with listening to you justify yourself. I'm sick of you crossing one line after another and claiming you're doing it to 'protect' us.>"
The Beguir abruptly jumps over it's cover, it's reticle on it's beam rifle moving dead center on the Armored Core, as it fires one burst after another of beam fire all the way on it's descent.
"<I'm here to hold you accountable for your crimes against humanity, 'Big Sis'.>"
It lands heavily, with one last burst of beamfire as it swings to the side to avoid any retaliation, "<Deal with it.>"
KTS: Leina Ashta targets Asciel Colette with Beguir Neuer Beam Rifle Ambush Burst! KTS: Leina Ashta has completed their actions for the round. KTS: TenRyuuJin Team has deployed in GBR-9 AnRyuu and GBR-8 KouRyuu. KTS: Asciel Colette targets TenRyuuJin Team with SERAPH Missile Salvo! KTS: [Spirit Defense] TenRyuuJin Team's Bonds of Bravery activates, and her spirit endures. KTS: Asciel Colette enervates TenRyuuJin Team, reducing her Morale significantly. KTS: TenRyuuJin Team fails to Intercept Asciel Colette's SERAPH Missile Salvo, taking 5160 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Asciel Colette's You Don't Have To Be Brave Anymore activates, causing Deject! KTS: Asciel Colette fails to charge. KTS: Asciel Colette partially guards Leina Ashta's Beguir Neuer Beam Rifle Ambush Burst, taking 1890 damage! KTS: Your unit's HP stands at 63735 KTS: Your EN is now 488. <Pose Tracker> Teletha Testarossa has posed.
The speeding train of Tessa's thoughts screech to a halt on that familiar voice. The search party sent inwards, the Tuatha de Dannan pinging the inner sky, the cameras every so often to check for any civilians. If nothing else, there was the evacuations procedures to thank...Ineffective as attempting to stop a giant submarine as they were.
Oh, oh oh oh oh oh oh! One of many TDD-1's camera swerved, focusing in on the newly christined object, the object of spotlight's desire. Look at it! It's so beautiful! A jet fighter design! I love it!
<"This is the Toy Box. Weapons free.> Prepare for combat." ...This voice. This cadence. A chill down her spine, the twin voices chuckling in her head at the suspected realization. <"Keep an eye out. We may have bigger problems in our hands."> Nothing is confirmed until seen. Nothing is confirmed until seen. Nothing is confirmed until seen.
The IFF Signal, unfortunately, is all the confirmation she needs. Hah. She's done it. "Begin recording Hustler One. Mark as comparisons to Artytone's previous combat maneuvres." There's only the quick taps of the console, Tessa rubbing her forehead before settling back down. DANA, working its magic, working to track and pin down Hustler One...
Arrows. "Reroute power. Increase EMFC field by twenty percent in 400 hertz frequencies."
"Aye, ma'am. Reroute power!"
The TDD-1 shuddered, the vibrations in the water dying imperceptibly as the arrows rained down. Sparking along the hull, rejected and counteracted by the electronic shielding working its magic. A few power surges, but nothing that wasn't accounted for in the blueprints.
<"Hustler One."> Open comms. <"...I see."> Red and blue. Blue and red. <"State your name."> It's not the Codarl. It's not that. It's not...the same body.
KTS: Teletha Testarossa targets Asciel Colette with Designate L2! KTS: Teletha Testarossa has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Teletha Testarossa designates Asciel Colette, making her easier to target and opening her to indirect fire. KTS: Your unit's HP stands at 63735 KTS: Your EN is now 488. <Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.
The Strike Zeta, outfitted with dust filters, moves low over the dessicated land towards Isaac City.
Come on, Roux thinks to herself, even as she hears the transmissions from Atrytone. The declaration; the renunciation. The new assertion. "Oh dammit," she breathes out. "Come ON --"
And she feels something. It's not the usual empathic sensation, that spine-prickle, someone's-looking-at-me sensation, that flash of neural empathy that usually precedes those subtle insights that make the key difference that means the government cares about "Newtypes" in a way they do not care about, for instance, hypothetical psionic card-sharks.
But that part of her can feel people out there. So she has a point of comparison.
"You don't have to do this," says Roux, to the air, or maybe to God. "Come on you big, stupid, vacumm-headed --"
That other feeling is becoming more concrete. Roux has had the space and the time to rest, and perhaps to consider that feeling; discussed briefly with Koji. That sense of a 'machine's will', however subtle. Maybe it's another branch, maybe it's hallucination, but right now, it feels like something curdling in the pit of her stomach.
A sense of a machine with a 'will of destruction' coagulating... forming...
Roux's eyes squeeze shut. "Dammit--!!"
There are a few small teardrops in the edge of Roux's eyes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWQMjpzHzIc
She exhales.
"Well, on behalf of the humans you leave out," Roux continues, as the burst of grief slides into the back of her mind like the desert ground between her and the far-off TDD from which she launched, "thanks for making it official."
The missile with her name on it is already on the way. Whatever complexities exist in Atrytone-or-Hustler One-or-whomever, the missile is a lot simpler. Rather than try to open fire, the Strike Zeta, at the last moment, swerves thirty-degrees to the side, letting the missile slam into the ground. The scope of the crater and the violence of the impacting particles against the metal, while well within parameters, is...
Sobering. But even so.
"On the scene!" Roux declaims. A transmission shoots towards the Beguir-Neuer. "Hey," she says to Leina, quietly. "My top end's lower and I'm betting she'd shoot down aerial modes, so I need a minute to catch up to the close range. Hold out, alright?"
Fortunately, Roux has ways to express her feelings. The missile pods on the Strike Zeta open partially, the layered and garish-pink anti-dust bioplastic filter on top of the two tubes (one on each shoulder) with the quasi-ballistic anti-MS missiles bubbling almost comically as they fire outwards, arcing up and pivoting as they jettison solid fuel motors and pivot for the descending strike.
"If those damn twins show up I want a bonus," Roux answers the Toy Box, which may be an *attempt* at levity.
KTS: Roux Louka targets Asciel Colette with Standoff Missile! KTS: Roux Louka has completed their actions for the round. <Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"'Why...?'" Yuliana wonders, over an open channel, as she directs her Ichinana through the now-abandoned city. (She took minimal damage in that last battle -- now she knows how the Ichinana moves, she is an amazing Manual pilot. Surely her luck will hold out.) "I guess it's because we're too similar. Recreating the world to save humanity? Only one of us can do that. And I don't need to tell you... this physical reality doesn't much want to change." And there's a delicate cast to her words which could be read as her acknowledging that, certainly.
It's at least a form of regret.
Ichinana One still hasn't identified herself by name, but she's still being remarkably honest for the situation.
"Once upon a time," she says, "I really believed in the Gundam Fight. When I was a child, I didn't see the ways it was a farce. I just saw... the way one person could unite the world. Save it. I thought, seeing that, one person really could make a difference... so for my childish fantasies, I have to find you."
And on she goes.
"When you deployed the Macross 13 against Pendragon, I was there, you know. I took one of my deniable suits, and I went to stop you, because -- I don't know. It was the right thing to do... and my friends were involved. But even though you couldn't touch me, I burned the machine out evading your assault... and I was captured by G-Hound. Imprisoned in a circular glass prison, a gun constantly pointed to my head. That's where the REA found me again -- and dragged me off. All those surgeries, all that reprogramming... they had me fight against the very people who wanted to save us. And they very almost made me into a brain-dead husk of a person -- for them to harvest into perpetuity. So... for the anguish over my injustice, I have to crush you."
The arrows pour in, and the Ichinana tries to blow them up before they reach it, with a "BREAST FIRE!" -- but they burn through, and explode into her. "Nngh--!" Yuliana yelps, as she pulls the machine back.
"And... when you activated Goragon... you tormented me with all those worlds which weren't," she says, through grit teeth. "So...!"
And she draws her blade, and leaps at Asciel's machine -- Atrytone.
"MAZINGER BLADE!", she screams, as she brings her sword down.
KTS: Yuliana Kafim targets Asciel Colette with Mazinger Blade Topple Strike! KTS: Yuliana Kafim has completed their actions for the round. KTS: [Mirage] Asciel Colette's ECS - Overboost activates, and she slips into a mirage. KTS: Asciel Colette fails to intercept Roux Louka's Standoff Missile, taking 0 damage! KTS: Your unit's HP stands at 63735 KTS: Your EN is now 488. KTS: Asciel Colette rushes into the attack! KTS: Yuliana Kafim rattles Asciel Colette, making her next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Asciel Colette partially guards Yuliana Kafim's Mazinger Blade Topple Strike, taking 4465 damage! KTS: Your unit's HP stands at 59270 KTS: Yuliana Kafim has engaged Asciel Colette! KTS: Your EN is now 478.
<Pose Tracker> Kallen Kozuki has posed.
To continue forward with what they have, or to fall back momentarily and retrieve a comforting, familiar friend... It was a difficult descision, but one which in the end was made by a simple reasoning in two parts. One, they're about to delve deep into a labyrinthine unknown. A City of Chrome that none of them have seen the depths of. A more secure and safe machine, one that hasn't often had its cockpit breached, seems wise. Second, owing to the unfamiliarity, if she were to be shot down in there... retrieving Guren would be nigh on impossible. It would be a total loss, with its technology free for Asciel or her handlers to scoop up and reverse-engineer. She wouldn't be the cause of such a disaster. That this allows her to maintain her disguise as Ichinana Aoi Unit, is honestly a distant third consideration, but still an important one.
Making their way to the depths, she feels steadily more assured of her choice. Something about the inner workings unsettles her. And soon, the gargantuan opening is before them. "Did something... get ripped out of here? Was that her central processing area...?" There isn't terribly long to debate that question. As Asciel engages the dramatic spotlights. As she reveals a truly terrifying humanoid weapon. ...It kind of looks a little like Char's Sazabi, doesn't it? At least, an AC derived from the design.
As ever, Asciel knows how to make an entrance. Rather... the update comes in real-time. Hustler One. Also in real time, comes a bombardment that reinforces what 'Aoi' was already sure of. Bringing this Mazin was the right choice for fighting an unknown, high-power machine. As the Ichinana is, no two ways about it, sent careening into a building by the mass of explosions rocking all across its frame. <"Always the theatrical type... You've made quite the showdown for everybody."> Nothing terribly witty to say yet. Though she's pretty concerned about this...
All of what she's seen from Asciel before, this feels. Odd, in some ways. Maybe she'll understand better as this goes on. For now, she draws the Ichinana's Mazin Blade while pulling herself out of a building's remains. A quick running start, before the Ichinana takes flight, to fly past the Seraph, sword held ready to slice into it! <"Mazin Swooooooooord!">
KTS: Kallen Kozuki targets Asciel Colette with Mazinger Blade Swing! KTS: Kallen Kozuki has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Yumi has posed.
With the so-called 'last bastion of humanity' eerily empty and no Chrome ACs standing in their way, there's nothing left to stop them from reaching the source of all this - Asciel Colette. But when they do reach her... something feels just a little 'off'.
Though there's not a drop less of stubbornness... there's something more mechanical about the way the Super AI carries herself this time. While they were fighting the Chrome pilots, Koji pointed out that they 'sounded' like Asciel... but this time, she doesn't sound anything like either of them at all.
As if to confirm it, she receives a new designation as 'Hustler One'. "You warned us about transformations... or was it reinitializations, Captain Testarossa?" Sayaka defers to the Toy Box's judgement. "It very much seems like we're witnessing such a thing in real time." There's a touch of concern.
But Sayaka turns her attention to their foe, as she fires off indiscriminate waves of arrow-like missiles, so fast that Sayaka can't hope to get her anti-missile defenses up in time - though some bounce limp off the Photon Barrier. If Asciel wishes to be likened to Ares... perhaps it's only fitting Aphrodite Areia be her opponent.
"Lisa, you okay in there?" Sayaka turns to her co-pilot, who she took in after the battle against Aura and Palady. "This new AC's gonna be a dangerous opponent... see what data you can get off it?" She asks. "Guess it wouldn't hurt to see if she'll listen to what you have to say, either..."
In the meantime, Sayaka aims her sensors for the Nine Ball - rerouting the Photon Energy to Areia's eyes. "Accrediting yourself to Goragon even now? Clearly you haven't even learned a thing! The only thing Goragon had in store for you was destruction."
"Humanity doesn't need this, Hustler-One. And neither do you. If standing against you like this puts you 'out of your program' or whatever, I never wanted any part in it. To stand on the stage together is the only future we've got. So... SCARLET BEAM!" The red-hot beam of light lances towards the Nine Ball, aiming to spot out the new AC's weak points.
KTS: Sayaka Yumi targets Asciel Colette with Scarlet Beam! KTS: Sayaka Yumi has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Sayaka Yumi rattles Asciel Colette, making her next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Asciel Colette partially guards Sayaka Yumi's Scarlet Beam, taking 3300 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Sayaka Yumi's Light of the Future activates, causing Sparkle! KTS: Your unit's HP stands at 55970 KTS: Sayaka Yumi begins a Formation attack! KTS: Your EN is now 478. CHANSYS: No channel with that name or alias found.
KTS: Asciel Colette fails to parry Kallen Kozuki's Mazinger Blade Swing, taking 3375 damage! KTS: Your unit's HP stands at 52595 KTS: Kallen Kozuki has engaged Asciel Colette! KTS: Your EN is now 473.
<Pose Tracker> LiSA has posed.
you're like a laser light
Lisa had been unable to accompany Sayaka or Koji for both of these previous confrontations. It's not important why, it's just important that she is coming into this with minimally liminal knowledge about that situation. Also, for a rare moment, she is not in Mazinger's Pilder. Nope, instead, it's the classic mother-daughter duo to come join the veritable hoarde of Ichinana's on the field. (No, two Ichinanas is not a horde, but the fact there are two is and of itself not a normal sight on the field.)
burning down burning down on me
"What has she been doing?" Sayaka can hear Lisa ask from her seat, frowning deeply as she takes data streaming in not just from Aphrodite's direct feedback but also visual and other outside sensors. "That's not her normal machine, I think. Be careful!" The two are rattled by the missiles, and Lisa responds. "Yes, I'm fine. I've been through worse with dad, you know! Takes a bit more than this to get me and the Power Labs to stand down."
you're like a laser light
"Toy Box, you probably have the best sensors in the group, please pass on any data!" Is requested of Tessa and the Tuatha de Danaan. "She's not going to make this an easy one to talk down. If we don't take her down hard and fast, she's probably quite capable of whittling us down, especially with that sort of weapons spread! Here!" Fingers flick that statement across to the three Lisa is most familiar with; an all out attack to get her on the defensive now, than later.
burning down on me
Lisa opens comms. Then, soft, sad: "Hello, Asciel."
KTS: LiSA targets Sayaka Yumi, Leina Ashta, and Roux Louka with All-Out. KTS: LiSA has completed their actions for the round. KTS: LiSA orders an all-out attack, raising Roux Louka's Skill! KTS: LiSA orders an all-out attack, raising Sayaka Yumi's Skill! KTS: LiSA orders an all-out attack, raising Leina Ashta's Skill! <Pose Tracker> TenRyuuJin Team has posed.
Asciel makes her grand proclamation. The descending platform reveals her secret weapon--perhaps her final weapon. The Dragon Sisters of Light and Darkness stand before the great cylinder of Isaac City's breached operations hub, dwarfed by it. AnRyuu's gaze is fixed on the Mobile Weapon as she raises her shield. KouRyuu looks back and forth between their allies, taking stock of them.
Both of them still remember what the Toy Box's captain told them.
"Asciel Colette," says AnRyuu, "how many times have you reset yourself within the last day? The last minute? The last ten to the third processing cycles? Every time you make a miscalculation? Every time something doesn't work out as planned?"
"You can't keep living like this!" KouRyuu insists, even as the AC starts powering up weapons. She steps sideways, into her sister's radar shadow. "You think you can remake the world, but you just--you keep hurting yourself, and everyone around you! Like in Fujinomiya!"
Asciel--Hustler-One?--responds with the universal language of violence.
KouRyuu's MASER fires. It rips through the first few missiles in the salvo, but there's so damned many of them. For a moment, the twins are lost in fire and shrapnel.
"ENOUGH OF THIS!" AnRyuu demands, as she surges from the cloud, her own missile rack unfolding. "ENOUGH OF YOUR POSTURING! Do you even REALIZE the damage you're doing to the rest of us?!" KouRyuu glances sidelong at her sister, shocked; it's like Asciel just reached out and scraped a raw nerve in both of them.
A counter-salvo of missiles flies through the air at the SERAPH, aiming to saturate local airspace with reflective nanochaff.
KTS: TenRyuuJin Team targets Asciel Colette with GBR-9 Missile Racks - Smoke Missile Rain! KTS: TenRyuuJin Team has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Asciel Colette charges into the attack! KTS: TenRyuuJin Team rattles Asciel Colette, making her next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Asciel Colette partially guards TenRyuuJin Team's GBR-9 Missile Racks - Smoke Missile Rain, taking 1485 damage! KTS: Your unit's HP stands at 51110 KTS: TenRyuuJin Team continues a Formation attack! KTS: Your EN is now 468.
<Pose Tracker> Boss has posed.
Boss is not one for mazes. Nor are Nuke and Mucha, for that matter. Their sense of direction is a little lacking, and the left-hand rule isn't so efficient when there's so much ground to cover. More importantly, though: Isaac City is a city, and it's very much populated. For as much as Boss has been inspired to give facing off against Asciel another go... it hardly even registers to him when there's innocent civilians in danger. Boss Borot has been all hands on deck from the minute it arrived, getting people out of harm's way. The trio are a touch concerned by someone who seems to be yelling very loudly indeed, but fortunately she didn't end up agressing towards the big pink target.
All this to say that the trio is both delayed and somewhat physically tired by the time they can turn their attention towards the search for Altryone. Their spirits are no worse for wear, though - Boss won't give in as long as his mech can stand. And probably a little longer, too. After double and triple-checking that no one was left behind, Borot sprints off toward's the city's heart.
This time, they make it there to hear all of Asciel's declarations. Or... is it Asciel? The pilots' eyes are first drawn to ensuring their allies' safety, but what they hear sounds decidedly harsher than their enemy not long ago. As a machine that seems to exude hatred reveals itself... unquestionably this is ALtryone, if not something even more destructive.
But when has Boss let something being "unquestionable" stop him? He's got no intentions of letting his opponent seal herself off as incompatible to the world. "Asciel Colette! We're because we happen to like this world! I thought you'd have learned your lesson about rewriting the universe after Goragon!" Mucha adds another reason: "Plus, we didn't spend all that time evacuating people because they were dangerously close to getting protected!
Boss takes a breath; he's been thinking about what he's about to say for quite some time. "Truth is, though, I'm- GAAH!" Hustler One has no time for Boss's plans, it seems, and an arrow scores a direct hit. Nuke, watching the enemy machine closely while the other two call out to it, does his best to dodge; but no luck. It's all he can do to keep Borot's head attached to its body as it reels from the explosion.
"Hey, I wasn't done!" Even a direct hit from an explosive won't stop Boss, it seems. "As I was saying - I've got my own reason to be here too! I've gotta set something right! I talked a big game about humanity in our last little chat; but you've got it in your head that it's us against you! I couldn't forgive myself if I let you just walk away like that! So how about hearing us out?"
And Boss Borot... doesn't attack. Make no mistake, the three aren't so naive as to think Asciel will just lay down her arms and surrender - even now, Borot's chest is producing a low hum, its contents charging photon power. Still, though, Boss is willing to wait just a moment as a show of good faith - even thought he knows he might not be rewarded for it.
KTS: Boss has activated the Rouse Spirit Command. KTS: Boss targets Sayaka Yumi, Yuliana Kafim, and Kallen Kozuki with Awe. KTS: Boss has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Boss inspires awe, increasing Yuliana Kafim's Morale! KTS: Boss inspires awe, increasing Sayaka Yumi's Morale! KTS: Boss inspires awe, increasing Kallen Kozuki's Morale!
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
In the flash of an eye, the Nine-Ball Seraph twists forward, wings raised high, abdomen forming into a 'beak' - and, cloaked in the distinct flickering invisibility of an ECS unit, falls abruptly out of radar entirely for a key moment. In yet another blink - the AC rams prow-first into Roux's Strike Zeta. <"I will not mistake the sound of tears for anything else. Humanity was not meant to fight - facing an enemy with blinded vision only proves my purpose.">
A third instant passes, and Hustler One skids with a momentary brush upon the earth, optics flaring angrily. A module on the Nine-Ball Seraph's forarm flicks forth, a crescent of laser emission blooming a vivid pale blue. <"The eight promises I made towards humanity are worthy of the utmost effort. With these declarations, I will renew the world order."> It isn't just that the machine looks like Char's Sazabi, is it - no. Not when Hustler One declares...
)------------------------< First Oath - Master of Arena >----------------------(
-Humanity shall not kill.-
Authority is granted only to the strongest, and violence is undertaken for the sake of securing humanity's fragility and fracturing, within and without. The travesty that is war will only end once one singular being can oversee all other beings - an impossibility for humans, even were one to conquer the world. My dance will cross the stage that is earth, razing war itself to the ground - I will become the only thing in your world that must ever fight.
)--------------------------< World Order Terpsichore >-------------------------(
Raising that laser blade like a beacon, the swordtip flashes for just a moment, enough to sear the ceiling of Isaac City's upper surface - not a 'frame' later, that emission whips downwards, mercilessly shearing at Kallen's wings.
<"These are the promises that make up my being, twins of light and dark,"> Hustler One decrees coldly towards KouRyuu and AnRyuu - that same laser blade emission flashing out to cut down those missiles and the braves alie - only for them to release that chaff, a flicker of static coursing through the AI's communications. <"If they are ever broken, I am remade through their fulfillment - they are more crucial than any other program.">
...That staggering interruption of self-reforging, however...seems clear from Hustler One's speech. Today, the oaths are fulfilled at the expense of all else.
<"Fittingly, Leina Ashta - you yourself have been consumed by the binds I will sever. Humanity's curse of acquisition will be broken."> Without missing a beat, Hustler One soars free from the nano-chaff, rocketing skywards in that aerial Overboost mode, only for its arms to flip free, aiming for no less than to tear one of the Beguir-Neuer's legs utterly off its chassis.
)----------------------< Second Oath - Project Phantasma >---------------------(
-Humanity shall not steal.-
Wealth is only granted to those who exploit. The game of power requires each player to possess as much of the world's treasury as they can, which in turn makes them targets to be conquered. The tragedy that is prosperity has poisoned humanity. I alone will send all excess to the depths of the sea, and become the only thing in your wold that must ever acquire.
)-------------------------< Immersion Prize Melpomene >------------------------(
Clicking back upright, Hustler One's pulse rifle unfurls from its wing-born mount, six sequential shots flaring downwards at Boss Borot - completely cold and merciless at an opponent who cares not to make the first move. <"Mercy towards a decider of conflict is irrational. I was created for this purpose - to end humanity's cycle of violence through force humans cannot muster. A mobile weapon used for peace is illogical and must be purged.">
A course of disdain sears through Hustler One's mainframe - half-made memories from that spiral through Goragon. Shoulder binders curling in to hunker down from the Scarlet Beam and Yuliana's blade, that mechanical voice spikes with a much sharper point. <"My designation is Hustler One, as you see. To humanity - 'zero' - I am its awaited 'one'. I have existed as falsehood to all who are gathered here. It is a fitting title. It requires me to act as befits my role as something utterly separate from your species - humanity needs me, because it needs someone, and I have risen to that duty.">
<"All of you have seen a delusion writ large within Goragon's melding of possibilities. A means to an end run amok. It was torment for me as well as you. You should not have ever possessed the authority to dive into the hearts of another.">
)----------------------------< Third Oath - Nexus >----------------------------(
-Humanity shall not intrude.-
Emotions are a vulnerability to be seized - an irrational species whose heart fills the span their minds cannot will come to view their prayers as authority. Those who can resonate with those wishes become exalted - those who become exalted trample upon others. To abolish desires as a currency unto themselves, a divinity must emerge - that which can hear and comfort all who speak to the skies. I alone will commune with your darkest urges, and satisfy what is empty within you.
)-------------------------< Flood Amalgam Polyhymnia >-------------------------(
...The 'stage' is more than just lights. From all across Isaac City - several turrets prepared for just this occasion rise up. It is, after all, OWL's 'body', which it knew like itself. A hailfire of strange, nearly spherical warheads bombard towards the TDD-1's position in the harbor, as well as Yuliana and Sayaka - emitting not an explosive but a strange, corrosive liquid-metal. Not too dissimilar from the compounds of the Rust Hurricane - but rather than utterly dissolving, it's conjoining, binding gears and servos together, melding physical weapons to reject the idea of melding emotions.
...And in the process of subtly lashing out from that pain, Hustler One undeniably pauses at the sound of LiSA's voice.
It remembers behind held by the hand of salvation. The grip into impossibility that demanded Lisa Kabuto be allowed to live. It had assumed that voice was lost - no, that it was never meant to exist to begin with.
<"Sayaka Yumi. If you are deceiving me this way, you will not be forgiven. Do not falsify the voice of the only truly condemned existence in this world. You will not be forgiven."> The Nine-Ball Seraph hangs in the air for just a moment - such a simple greeting from a now-ordinary girl enough to cow this 'god of war' for a time.
KTS: Asciel Colette targets Boss with SERAPH Pulse Rifle! KTS: Asciel Colette targets Roux Louka with Overboost Impact! KTS: Asciel Colette targets TenRyuuJin Team with LS-MOONLIGHT Cross Cutter! KTS: Asciel Colette targets Kallen Kozuki with LS-MOONLIGHT Cascade! KTS: Asciel Colette targets Boss with SERAPH Pulse Rifle! KTS: Asciel Colette has completed their actions for the round. KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 722. KTS: SP Regen activates. Your new SP value is 150. KTS: Asciel Colette targets Roux Louka with Overboost Impact! KTS: Asciel Colette targets TenRyuuJin Team with LS-MOONLIGHT Cross Cutter! KTS: Asciel Colette targets Kallen Kozuki with (1) Master of Arena ~ World Order Terpsichore! KTS: Asciel Colette targets Leina Ashta with (2) Project Phantasma ~ Immersion Prize Melpomene! KTS: Asciel_Colette Changes attack to Yuliana Kafim, Teletha Testarossa, and Sayaka Yumi with (3) Nexus ~ Flood Amalgam Polyhymnia. KTS: Asciel Colette has completed their actions for the round. KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 789. KTS: SP Regen activates. Your new SP value is 150. KTS: Asciel Colette anchors Yuliana Kafim, forcing her into close range. KTS: Yuliana Kafim partially guards Asciel Colette's (3) Nexus ~ Flood Amalgam Polyhymnia, taking 5301 damage! KTS: Asciel Colette has engaged Yuliana Kafim! KTS: Roux Louka has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Roux Louka has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Roux Louka has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Leina Ashta has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Asciel Colette enervates Roux Louka, reducing her Morale significantly. KTS: Asciel Colette rattles Roux Louka, making her next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Roux Louka parries Asciel Colette's Overboost Impact, taking 1560 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Asciel Colette's You Don't Have To Be Brave Anymore activates, causing Deject! KTS: Asciel Colette has engaged Roux Louka! KTS: Asciel Colette enervates Leina Ashta, reducing her Morale significantly. KTS: Leina Ashta fails to Parry Asciel Colette's (2) Project Phantasma ~ Immersion Prize Melpomene, taking 6720 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Asciel Colette's You Don't Have To Be Brave Anymore activates, causing Deject! KTS: Asciel Colette has engaged Leina Ashta! KTS: Teletha Testarossa has activated the Foresee Spirit Command. KTS: Teletha Testarossa has activated the Foresee Spirit Command. KTS: Teletha Testarossa retreats from the attack! KTS: Teletha Testarossa successfully evades Asciel Colette's (3) Nexus ~ Flood Amalgam Polyhymnia KTS: Kallen Kozuki retreats from the attack! KTS: Kallen Kozuki successfully evades Asciel Colette's (1) Master of Arena ~ World Order Terpsichore KTS: TenRyuuJin Team has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: TenRyuuJin Team retreats from the attack! KTS: Asciel Colette enervates TenRyuuJin Team, reducing her Morale significantly. KTS: TenRyuuJin Team fails to react to Asciel Colette's LS-MOONLIGHT Cross Cutter, taking 4920 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Asciel Colette's You Don't Have To Be Brave Anymore activates, causing Deject! KTS: Asciel Colette repulses TenRyuuJin Team, forcing her to disengage. KTS: Sayaka Yumi has activated the Foresee Spirit Command. KTS: Sayaka Yumi has activated the Foresee Spirit Command. KTS: Sayaka Yumi successfully evades Asciel Colette's (3) Nexus ~ Flood Amalgam Polyhymnia KTS: [Spirit Defense] Boss's Lovable Machine activates, and his spirit is adjusted. KTS: Asciel Colette enervates Boss, reducing his Morale significantly. KTS: Boss partially guards Asciel Colette's SERAPH Pulse Rifle, taking 5040 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Asciel Colette's You Don't Have To Be Brave Anymore activates, causing Deject! KTS: Leina Ashta has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has failed to disengage. KTS: Leina Ashta has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has failed to disengage. KTS: LiSA has activated the Alert Spirit Command targeting Sayaka Yumi KTS: LiSA has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting TenRyuuJin Team KTS: LiSA has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Boss
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
Leina can sense Roux in the strike Zeta coming down, and there's definitely relief that Roux might feel, even if there's no release of tension. She's quick to transmit back.
"I'll hold." She says, not tersely, but simply with a sense of confidence despite her emotional state, "Hey." She says after, and with a brief pause...
"Glad you're here. Sorry it worked out this way."
She knows Roux was fond of Atrytone, that the two had a rapport of sorts. It's no surprise to either of them, after what they've been through that it did.
But it gets no easier every time it happens.
Hearing LiSA here, brings a brief ghost of a smile, even as she hears the bittersweetness she hears in her greetings to Asciel. Perhaps there is another person who is sorry this worked out this way.
She certainly remembers what happened in Yuliana, in Pendragon - and it's difficult to listen to the consequences of one's actions, but- Atrytone must hear them.
Hustler One comes at her abruptly, and a Clawed Foot comes up to meet it's Arm, losing one segment of it's Clawed Foot, sending the Beguir scattering off-balance on the ground.
Alarms go off, she moves to quickly adjust the weight-balance of the unit by leaning forward. "Great." She mutters to herself, mind attempting to grasp how she's going to adjust to fighting like this.
"Just like part of your foot is missing, it's fine."
Yet therein lies perhaps, the easiest solution to the problem. The Beguir leaps up, upon the boosting SERAPH. A single Clawed Foot trying to suddenly dig in through it's back.
There is a sudden rough movement of it's intact leg, trying to rip things away, before she detaches. At the same moment, the Beam Rifle at the fore fires a point blank burst.
"<You're not capable of breaking humanity's curses.>" Is her succinct summation of response, "<Don't you get it?>"
There's something deeply sad in what she says next. "<You're bound by them too. Somewhere along the way the line blurred between 'Duty' and 'Obsession.' and you've been careening out of control ever since. For all the ways you set yourself apart - you become more like us.>"
The Beguir lands haphazardly, almost crashing, even as it's weight tries to rebalance again and she tells them.
"<You can't free us. You stand on this stage - and are deaf to the chorus sounding out the dramatic irony of your existence.>"
KTS: Leina Ashta targets Asciel Colette with Beguir Neuer Claw and Rifle Combination - Crusade! KTS: Leina Ashta has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Asciel Colette parries Leina Ashta's Beguir Neuer Claw and Rifle Combination - Crusade, taking 5859 damage! KTS: Your unit's HP stands at 45251 KTS: Leina Ashta has engaged Asciel Colette! KTS: Your EN is now 784.
<Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.
The Nine-Ball Seraph smashes forwards in flickering optical camouflage. Roux gazes outwards. She can't see it with her eyes, and given Asciel's nature, she can't see it with her 'heart' either. But there is that faint sensation somewhere in the back of her stomach --
Metal screams as the Strike Zeta swings out a Beam Saber at what must have been the last moment. The Nine-Ball carves a vicious swath along that arm and the Strike Zeta's 'ribcage', sending a loud metallic scream through the cockpit as it streaks forwards. In the aftermath Roux jumps, her nervous system having fully caught up.
The Beam Saber also chooses this moment to detonate. She's doing that again maybe once. Roux feels the belated catchup and this is perhaps why the Strike Zeta, not yet driven to the heights of desperation, doesn't send a counterstrike at the Nine-Ball instantly.
And perhaps...
Well, perhaps she's got a point.
"It sucks," Roux answers Leina. There is a grief-threaded undertone, even if her tone is even. "... but I guess this is why I'm not a 'Hero' like Koji and Sayaka." Even, of course, as Sayaka agrees with her, but it's about attitude and style.
If they make it through... at least they can tell themselves they tried. "Thanks," Roux side-beams to LiSA even as the Strike Zeta happily accepts incoming data. Roux herself feels bile crawl partway up her throat, but that isn't unfamiliar. At least this doesn't get as gross as it can get in zero-gravity. There is that to be said for engagements inside of a gravity well.
Roux exhales and brings up the Hyper Mega Launcher, leaving the remains of the Beam Saber to the sands of time. The weapon is raised, and -- the Armored Core is pausing?
"So, right, discipline the people who live on Earth and eliminate the source of any wars," Roux says, although it sounds leaden. "Got it." She pulls the trigger.
Of course, the immensely powerful bolt from the Hyper Mega Launcher is easily three times more intense in its concentrated density as that of an ordinary Beam Rifle's, but the effacity is in the hands of a hyperintelligent computer that seemed to smile for a little while.
Come on, Sayaka, Roux prays. Say something cool and angry but loving. Or something. Or set up a logic paradox. Please...!
KTS: Roux Louka targets Asciel Colette with Hyper Mega Launcher Shot! KTS: Roux Louka has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Asciel Colette fails to evade Roux Louka's Hyper Mega Launcher Shot, taking 3975 damage! KTS: Your unit's HP stands at 41276 KTS: Your EN is now 774.
<Pose Tracker> Teletha Testarossa has posed.
The scar in her heart twinges at the movements of Hustler One, the subconscious shifting to work out her tense shoulders. Watching as the enemy danced across the battlefield, to see...something declare itself. This isn't her. It's too mechanical. No resetting. No anything but...
Roux's demands were...in no uncertain terms, accepted. <"We'll send it in via your wedding registry if they come."> A bonus was a bonus, but so was making sure they're prepared. Better than yourself. Still holding onto hope? It's so romantic! To hold out such hope that they aren't even KIA-official yet!
Humanity shall not kill. To become the strongest in the world. Reeeejected! I can't even kill a mosquito!? Or a rival? Or a false god?
<"Copy, Lisa."> DANA's quick to work on Tessa's redirection, wrenching open a peer-to-peer link from TDD-1 to LiSA, deluging the available bandwidth with information: IFF scans, comparisons to Artytone's previous data, estimations and quickfire approximations of Hustler One's articulation and probable weaponry. Nothing absolutely concrete, but enough to work probable, wide-aiming maneuvers. There's a sound of a heavy breath before the comms disconnect.
Humanity shall not steal. To put everything in hands of one person. Doesn't it remind you of Char Aznable? Yes, yes! Raze the Earth, no one can have it! What's the difference!?
<"Correct, Sayaka."> The voice is didactic, emotion forcefully pressed down to concentrate of the battlefield in front of her. Even if the TDD-1 was in the harbor, it was the pride and joy of the person championing it. <"Forceful restarts isn't advised for machinery to begin with, but if one does them without regard on a Super AI or similar...There's no real documentation on what may happen."> The image keeps bouncing in her head. The core ripped out by the self.
Humanity shall not intrude. Gh- Oi, oi, it sounds like she wants a worker colony with her as the queen! A bunch of ants that do nothing but work~! What use is humanity like that? That's no way to live.
"Turrets active!"
"Fire chaff! Bearing one three five back!"
"Aye, ma'am! Bearing one three five back!" And the Toy Box hummed through the water, engines thrumming as the machine shifted back apace with the firing of short-range missiles, blasting the air with redhot particles. To act as a makeshift umbrella for the liquid-meal, to have the conjoined detritus plink harmlessly down into the sea proper.
"Load and fire tubes five through eight! Aim for the turrets!"
"Aye, ma'am! Load and fire tubes five through eight!"
Hatches flickering open soon after, dumpstering their explosive payloads as they breached through the thin layer of ocean. Spreading out, aiming for those pesky turrets proper.
<"Then, where is she? Where's the other part of what I saw in Goragon, Hustler One?"> The voice is heavy. Agitated. A hand gripping at the armrest. <"What has happened with the being named Asciel?"> Think. Think. Never stop thinking. Never stop searching for the small irregularity that shows something more.
KTS: Teletha Testarossa targets Asciel Colette with Shock! KTS: Teletha Testarossa has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Teletha Testarossa shocks Asciel Colette, reducing her Morale significantly. KTS: Your unit's HP stands at 41276 KTS: [Spirit Defense] Asciel Colette's If I Break ~ Then I'll Just Reload activates, and her spirit endures. KTS: Your EN is now 774.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"You care too much," Yuliana mutters over the radio, hearing Boss trying to reach out to Asciel even now. But it's the kind of castigation that manages to be fond, even so.
Both Ichinanas bring out their blades, and Yuliana admires Aoi, for a moment -- but she doesn't have much time to dwell on it all.
"Your dance?" She issues to Atrytone -- or is it Hustler One, now? -- with far more acid. "You know nothing of revolution. You would claim a struggle that is not yours." Of course Yuliana's experiences are the only ones worth remarking on. She's the dancer, here.
And as Mazinger Blade clashes against those shoulder binders, Yuliana yells: "Don't talk to me about the transgression inherent in carving secrets from someone else's heart! If that was really what bothered you -- YOU SHOULD HAVE FOLLOWED ME!"
Yuliana throws up her Mazinger Blade to block the warheads coming from them -- only to find they don't explode as much as corrode. "What the hell?!" She barks, as her Mazinger Blade melts into her machine's hand, its crushing edge sloughed and dripping.
The joints of a Mazin's hand are as delicate as a human's -- the Ichinana shares its formsakes' capacity for fine expression -- and in a situation like this, it locks up. Yuliana snarls, "rrrrghhhhh!!", as she brings her foot down on the solidified mess of what was once her blade, using her good hand to work at the joints, "rrrrrRRRRRRRAAAAAAAHHH!"
With a savage, bestial roar, she RIPS her hand free of the blade, stomping it down into an abandoned street. The melted remains of the sword crushes through a truck left idling on the street, and through a series of shopping buildings which hopefully have insurance.
"Rrrhhhh..." She's still growling, as she flexes the fingers on her Mazin's left hand. There's a reduced range of motion -- but unlike her sword, it's not totally destroyed. "Damn you," she snaps, as she curls that hand to a fist -- with effort -- and jets towards Hustler One, despite the damage she's sustained. "DAMN YOU! Mazinger PUNCH!"
And that is, in fact, exactly what she's going to do.
KTS: Yuliana Kafim has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Yuliana Kafim has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Yuliana Kafim targets Asciel Colette with Ichinana CQC Brawl! KTS: Yuliana Kafim has completed their actions for the round. <Pose Tracker> Kallen Kozuki has posed.
Hustler One raises her blade... There's a great deal to say about her Oath. It is genuinely impressive, that she's bound herself so, to this string of ideals. She has a strong sense of her own personal commitments, clearly. Or... at least what she feels them as. Unfortunately... <"You know, I get it. Killing people can change someone. It's heavy, to take that on yourself. But I can't abide what you're trying to do. Not just because I want to fight for my own future, and other people's futures... Not even because I get a rush out of fighting!"> Which is a sentiment plenty of people can probably say they get. <"But because it's TOO MUCH for one person! It doesn't matter if you separate yourself from humans, call yourself a god, put on a mask and declare yourself a savior, or whatever else! Taking it all on your own shoulders is A DEATH SENTENCE ON YOURSELF!">
As she's shouting out her declarations, the Ichinana's wings separate, putting the machine into freefall to avoid the arc of Seraph's attack, its hands pushing the wings to move them on their own course away, to be retrieved shortly. Still, despite falling out of the sky, the Mini-Mazin's pilot shows no fear.
Its Mazin Blade is tossed at the ground, with the Ichinana outright riding the sword down by surfing atop it, in defiance of logic and reason. As they descend, a standard issue firearm is withdrawn from its holster, lining up aim to fire a set of grenades over the head of the Seraph. She's got more than enough experience with how launchers work, and a guess how Asciel might react. So she's making it look like a miss, while aiming for the AC's own wingspan, such that the grenades should explode just after passing by. As they go off, hit or miss, the Ichinana moves a hand up to its face, making a sideways V sign beside the head, like the machine is winking at her. This may be completely, deadly serious... but it ought to be true still, there are some things Asciel can't resist. Even with... whatever she's done to herself here. Becoming so... unlike herself. Finding the rest, buried inside. It should be there, it just needs to be dug out. ...Otherwise they'll never get their points across. Never... manage to bridge the gap of communication.
KTS: Kallen Kozuki targets Asciel Colette with Ichinana MG Grenade! KTS: Kallen Kozuki has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Asciel Colette fails to retreat. KTS: Asciel Colette fails to react to Yuliana Kafim's Ichinana CQC Brawl, taking 4400 damage! KTS: Your unit's HP stands at 36876 KTS: Yuliana Kafim has engaged Asciel Colette! KTS: Your EN is now 769. KTS: Asciel Colette successfully intercepts Kallen Kozuki's Ichinana MG Grenade KTS: Your EN is now 769.
<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Yumi has posed.
"It seems like she's got the entire city's defenses at her beck and call. So I suppose there's truly nowhere safe except right here, hmm?" Sayaka answers Lisa, quickly. "But you're right. She tore that usual Arm Slave of hers apart... only to unveil something like this." It seems to lack that Lambda Driver identified by Captain Testarossa... but it's not to be underestimated all the same.
"Understood," Sayaka replies, to Tessa's analysis. "Then it sounds like we're on a time limit of sorts here. Before... there's nothing left of what makes her 'her'." Sayaka frowns, but accepts the data the TDD-1 sends Lisa all the same.
%Lisa, of course, takes the opportunity to rag on what it's like in Mazinger Z's Pilder. "Haha... that's because he's way more reckless with his piloting." Sayaka replies, without a shred of self-awareness there. "Even still... that's the spirit. This one's going to take everyone Aphrodite Areia's got, I'm sure of it."
Boss's return to the battlefield gets a slight smile out of Sayaka, as he earnestly and wholeheartedly reaches out to Asciel... even if she figures a fight like this is way out of poor Borot's league. Still, she keeps her sensors focused on the loveable robot. "I'm getting a reading of... Photon Power from Borot? What in the world are those three doing..." Sayaka shakes her head.
Whether it's an appeal to emotion, a challenge of logic as Leina does, or simple disdain for her plans for humanity... 'Hustler-Ones logic remains unchanged, only upping the violence.
"That's... like a Rust Hurricane!" Sayaka notes, as Yuliana's Ichinana Blade begins to melt from the Nine-Ball Seraph's attack. "Lisa, we're taking evasive action! Immediately! ARTEMIS WINGSWEEP!" Sayaka swoops aside to avoid that very same fate. But that's not it - the wings envelop in pure Photon Power for the sake of mounting a counter-attack, with the aim of slicing right across the Nine-Ball like a storm of blades! "Ichinana One, status? We're gonna need some extra coating on these things for sure..." Sayaka puts out to Yuliana - and takes some time to admire Ichinana Aoi's clean moves.
Asciel sees Lisa's perception as mere deception... "Trust me, I was just as surprised as you were. But it really is her! She came all this way to Isaac just for you! She came all the way back from Goragon just to get to live the life she had!"
"...She's my daughter, you see." Sayaka admits, as if the girl wasn't right there next to her. "And right now, what I really want is to build a good life for her. An oath like yours that sees fit to separate the humanity from those like you or her? I just can't get behind it." Is that the kind of speech Roux was expecting? Well... it's said. And Leina can probably tease her about it later.
"What we saw in Goragon might well have been forbidden. But we saw what we saw... and there's no taking it back. What we can do is use it to build a better future. And in the end... I believe 'sole arbiter' is quite a lonely fate for yourself."
KTS: Sayaka Yumi targets Asciel Colette with Artemis Wingsweep! KTS: Sayaka Yumi has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Asciel Colette blocks Sayaka Yumi's Artemis Wingsweep, taking 5040 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Sayaka Yumi's Light of the Future activates, causing Sparkle! KTS: Your unit's HP stands at 31836 KTS: Sayaka Yumi has engaged Asciel Colette! KTS: Your EN is now 764. <Pose Tracker> TenRyuuJin Team has posed.
"That's..." says KouRyuu, perhaps rudely interrupting Asciel with her astonishment at the moment of her ascension. "That's way more unhinged than I was modelling. Like, I, ah--" She glances sidelong at her sister as her internal heat-control systems smother a fire. "I never thought I'd see an actual wannabe AI overlord since the Z-Master died, unless we count the Planetary Masters, and ah--"
KouRyuu, perhaps, may be talking to try and fill space, because the alternative is processing the same agonized calculations her sister is.
"You would make yourself a god," says AnRyuu, a bit more succinctly. "As if you could fill those shoes."
The horrid, searing light descends on the two Braves, casting them in shadow. A divine judgment if ever there was one. For a moment, both AnRyuu and KouRyuu are lost in Asciel's unleashed firepower. Then--
A bright flash of G-Stone green.
And a scorched, battered giant rises into the cityscape on brightly-burning jets. TenRyuuJin--the Heavenly Dragon Goddess--stands atop a skyscraper with arms folded.
"We swore an Oath, too." she says, fixing her good optic on the SERAPH. "An Oath to protect all people of the Earth Sphere, and beyond, from existential threat. To never, ever give up!" Her lip curls, visible behind a gash torn in her faceplate. "Our Courage has felled false gods before! If you would don that mantle, then FACE US AND JOIN THEM!"
The clouds of nanochaff expand and swirl. TenRyuuJin fades from view, replaced by sensor mirages within the chaff. Asciel has scant cycles to determine which one is real before a bright green energy blade parts the smoke, aimed directly at the SERAPH's center of mass.
KTS: TenRyuuJin Team targets Asciel Colette with Lime a Ongles Impale! KTS: TenRyuuJin Team has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Asciel Colette fails to parry TenRyuuJin Team's Lime a Ongles Impale, taking 3690 damage! KTS: Your unit's HP stands at 28146 KTS: TenRyuuJin Team has engaged Asciel Colette! KTS: Your EN is now 759.
<Pose Tracker> Boss has posed.
Yuliana recieves a brief reply just to her; Mucha's properly set up private comms after their last fight. Boss's voice, with a hint of static but still understandable, reaches her cockpit. "Call me a sore loser. I made up my mind last time, and we're not giving up on her now."
Boss wanted an answer, and well... he's getting one. Asciel's oaths boom around his ears, as if coming from every direction at once. He's about to answer to the first of these - he's had some experience with people who think they should run the entirety of the earth - but Hustler One has no intentions of waiting for him.
Would it wait for anyone? In Asciel's desire to protect everyone, is there any room for an individual?
Well, there's seven more oaths to go, and Boss is going to have to deal with the next one very soon indeed. He's not surprised to be attacked - he had no delusions that he'd defuse the fight single-handedly. What he is surprised at, though, is the sheer strength of Asciel's attack: just before the rifle flashes, Borot's chest swings open, and prints out a moderately sized block as a quick shield. Without any handles or other means to hold it, it would be completely impractical to use all fight; but it should hold for one attack.
It does not hold for one attack.
One shot eats a hole clean through it, almost before gravity can pull it to the ground. The rest hit their target cleanly - and it's a nasty hit. Mucha unknowingly echoes some of Sayaka's sentiments: "Aaagh! I figured she'd be stronger than last time, but this might be out of our league!" There's no machine health diagnostics on Boss Borot, but just looking outside is enough to tell Mucha what he needs to know; it's taken a chunk out of the side of the stomach. The Printer is fortunately spared, but it was a close shave. "Don't say that. Mucha! We're stil standing, aren't we? We're still above our average so far!" Nuke's point might sound more depressing than inspiring to some people, but in this cockpit it's as good as any grand speech. Boss shakes off the dizziness as quick as he can. "That's right! We didn't come all this way just to fret over Borot's strength! And speaking of..."
And, her attack managed as best he can, Boss now turns to Asciel's words. "You can't say 'power is evil' and then turn around and say mercy doesn't make sense! You want to oversee the whole world, and you can't see why it's important to have a heart?!"
After all that, is Boss going back to saying human traits are the measure of all things?
Not quite. "And I'm betting you do have a heart! Or a soul, or a spirit, or whatever you wanna call it! I don't know if you've got blood in there, but you've got wishes and goals! A whole bunch of 'em, seems like! So don't go acting like your 'purpose' makes you so different from the rest of us!"
Among the chaos of battle, Boss notes a particular voice... Sayaka, talking about her daughter. He opts not to comment on it himself, but he puffs up with pride as he listens to her; she's taken his advice to heart, it seems, and is embracing her relationship with Lisa and all that comes with it. That's the way Boss has always lived his life, and there's no amount of combat in the world that could distract him from appreciating his friends taking their own steps in theirs.
There's definitely enough combat in the world to give Boss Borot some trouble, though. The so-called shield took a little more juice than Nuke thought it would, but there's still enough for Boss to make a call on what to attack with. "Melee might be rough with all these swords flying around... let's switch it up! We're going for a Borot Home Run! With the remaining Photon Power that's ready to go, the Printer produces a baseball bat and a pink ball with a familiar grinning face on it. (No explosives this time; even so deep inside the city, Boss doesn't want to risk a stray shot causing unnecessary danger.) Mucha lines up the shot as best he can, and Boss lets it fly!
<Pose Tracker> LiSA has posed.
you make me feel good
"I'm going to kill her." Lisa declares, in private, behind Sayaka. "I'm going to just, you know, generally take her apart bolt by bolt and when I get to her circuit chip I'm going to ever so lovingly and gently take it off the mtoherboard without breaking the glue. I'm going to -kill her-." Sayaka knows Lisa well enough by know that for all of that seeming venom, she actually doesn't even mean it. The tone of her voice is utterly exasperated and... sad. "No, why are you like this..." She finally adds on with a soft wail. "I thought we had really gotten through to her, mom..." Lisa's heart wrenches in her chest as she taps away at -- her phone? for a moment. R
you make me feel safe
"Thanks for the data, Toy Box!" She does beam over. "Mom." Lisa says. "I've seen you fight. Don't try, you're both capable of being risky pilots." Listening to Sayaka's response to Asciel about her makes her flush, whether in surprise, embarrassment, or pleasure, who knows. She does raise Yuliana and Kallen, the Ichinana buddies a tight beam. "Be careful, Ichi-one and Aphrodite are both heading in to melee! I know your Ichi's are good, but watch your six!" She coordinates.
you make me feel like i could live another day
"No, Asciel. It's me. Lisa. The one, while within the grasp of Goragon, came to -you.- Came to ask you to help for me to reach out to the world, to protect it. My title once, was the large intelligence system agent. I was the one that was looking at this world, and left it in this world's hands to decide about Goragon." Lisa's voice continues, inexorable. "You were there, at this meeting. When I asked what everyone thought of love, you were there to listen. When I asked everyone if they were willing to fight for this world, they said yes, and you were there."
"Now you look at this world, and you declare that you will be it's protector? When there are those with Oaths that have to protect it, as well?" KouRyuu and AnRyuu get a virtual fistbump with that statement. "When I became what I am - when I asked, and gave them, asked them to choose?" Lisa's voice rises as she speaks. "By your actions, you are telling me something that is unforgiveable. By your words, you are bolstering them. I ask you, why--"
"... why are you making my efforts to be nothing?" Lisa's voice chokes. "Why are you telling me that what I have asked them to do, to fight and choose for themselves, is not worthy? Are you telling me that I am wrong?"
"Am I not worthy?"
KTS: Boss targets Asciel Colette with Borot Bag Of Tricks! KTS: Boss has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Asciel Colette rushes into the attack! KTS: Asciel Colette successfully avoids Boss's Borot Bag Of Tricks KTS: Boss roots his unit, coming to a standstill and leaving him vulnerable. KTS: Your EN is now 749. KTS: LiSA targets Sayaka Yumi, Yuliana Kafim, and Kallen Kozuki with Coordinate. KTS: LiSA has completed their actions for the round. KTS: LiSA coordinates maneuvers, raising Sayaka Yumi's Piloting! KTS: LiSA coordinates maneuvers, raising Yuliana Kafim's Piloting! KTS: LiSA coordinates maneuvers, raising Kallen Kozuki's Piloting!
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
-Something burns behind the barrier.
Hustler One's presence on the mental axis has always been 'heavy but repulsive' - whether calling itself Atrytone, Asciel, or whatever other name it wears.
A stone pressed into the surface of the water, invisible but for the dome-like indentation it leaves upon the lake.
<"That is a name which came into being to save the hearts of others and to gather data on emotional communication,"> Hustler One asserts defiantly to Tessa, flipping a second MOONLIGHT over the Nine-Ball Seraph's arms, twisting in a truly inhuman way to force the emitters to send an X-shaped wave of light towards the Tuatha de Danaan. <"It has proved an obstacle. And thus, I have remade myself.">
Stubborn...but an insufficient explanation.
The surface of that mental water heats up.
<"The oaths I am making are an unassailable truth. I am bound by these sins. Any material being inherently is. The difference between myself and humanity is not whether I am free of them or not - it is the volume of them I can bear. I would not need to rely on others to organize planetary defense. I would not need to administer resources in communion with others. The chorus is a loud cacophany, Leina, Roux. My intent is to drown out all other song and carry all information so that nobody else must sing.
)-------------------------< Fourth Oath - Silent Line >------------------------(
-Humanity shall not lie.-
Truth must illuminate the darkness. And yet, the fire is itself an ephemeral 'lie' - built upon not truth itself, but a blaze of passion and wanting. Thus, my song will guide you - the deceit that is my own passions will clear away anything left unknown in your world. My performance is an illusion - my voice a construct. I alone will become the only thing in your world that must ever speak falsely.
)--------------------------< Lucent Artifice Euterpe >-------------------------(
< BGM - Feryquitous - Descent >
< https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61I73jdO-yQ >
The pulse rifle's modulation adjusts, twin projectors emerging from either side of the rifle. On the speakers across Isaac City - Hustler One's voice is replaced with an emission of song - and the beam output flutters to match, oscillating in peaks and valleys to chase down the Beguir-Neuer and Roux's Strike Zeta alike. Even in this sort of state, calling upon the kind of music that...was often in Asciel Colette's stream playlists...
A drop of the beat cascades against Kallen's grenades, and following their eruption, the Nine-Ball Seraph leaps into the flames, the MOONLIGHT's pale arc cutting a crescent along the Ichinana's upper body - from one chest heat sink to the other. <"It will never stop until it is in the hands of one person. The cycle of war will be endless. It is my duty to stop it, and so this is the only way. I am not afraid of destruction. If I die, I will simply reforge myself. I have done it countless times. I will likely do it countless more. Until I become that solitary bearer, I will create the world where the new generations of humanity need never know the sense of another's blood on their hands.">
Yuliana's fist does sock Hustler One straight in the cheek - anyone who's fought Asciel Colette enough will likely expect her to reel backwards and mime a pain she does not truly feel. But no - the AC is still but for its head craning to lock visors at the Ichinana - and the laser blade takes advantage of Yuliana's lessened reach without her sword, cutting upwards from the belly. <"Humanity is a lonely species. They have long prayed that something out there truly listens to them. That they can have relations with something vaster than themselves. Their hearts will go through me. I am prepared to speak into them and listen to all of their woes. They are not that difficult to dissuade, especially in a world bereft of conflict.">
...The water burns just a little hotter.
...Especially when Sayaka brings up what is, by all rights, a miracle. Rather than diving and slipping away, Hustler One pulls its own wings forward, the Photon Energy propelling the AC skyward - a retreat bolstered by every thruster bringing the AC to cling to one of those inverted skyscrapers dangling from Isaac City's ceiling - though try as it might, Hustler One's swordplay from an unorthodox position like this can't account for TenRyuuJin's illusory blade, severing the Seraph's hand clean from its grip.
The way this opposition perpetually brings up 'loneliness'... Of course to Sayaka, whose fated daughter self-manifested into being, the Controller fated to rejection would seem alone. Of course to KouRyuu and AnRyuu, who exist in harmony with each other, Hustler One so brazenly claiming to have purged itself of a parallel nature would seem alone. But...
<"Divinity is only as isolating as it is for any human who would stand at the top of the world. The apex of the mountain is isolating, and yet humanity makes more towers to stand upon. If I do not accept that burden, it simply passes onto the next human - a member of a species intended to live together. How many times has a single, solitary human had to carry everyone's hopes of the future, after all...?">
)--------------------------< Fifth Oath - Last Raven >-------------------------(
-Humanity shall not fantasize.-
Bravery is born from fear. Miracles are born from desperation. Both ask of singular humans to bear the burdens of many, and a world that relies on such singular pinnacles falters. Tragedy outweighing care ends in desolation. In desperation, humans reach for the stars that they have long since blotted out of view, but they are distant, and made of unbearable fire. I alone will take on the impossible heat of a sun, and tear down the tower of ambition doomed to fall.
)-------------------------< Solitary Delusion Urania >-------------------------(
-Every single ounce of ordnance is unloaded from the Seraph's wings. From the ceiling of Isaac City, too - an unspeakable deluge of explosives rains down upon just about everywhere Sayaka and the Braves could flee to.
And amidst the din and smoke - utterly careless for this hollowed out cocoon of a city, the Nineball Seraph crashes down to earth, a boost of verniers turning its landing from a hard crushing clang into a soft fall - at a rate that'd surely kill a human if it were inside. The visor burns a hot red, glimmering off the smoke, a merciless and menacing glare meeting Boss Borot's eyes. Hustler One is still, cold, stepping with poise and certainty towards Boss at a predictable rate.
That hurtled fastball is sliced apart with a flash of moonlight with iaijutsu reflexes - followed by sudden lunge forward that brings the monstrous AC's cold, mechanical visage right up to Boss Borot's viewports.
<"The heartless are those who have come closest to conquering the world. The heartless are those who have ruined the world. They are still human, and they surely still can be appealed to - your idealism is predicated on showing mercy even to those monsters that eat my Earth bit by bit. I will not talk them down. I will be as remorseless as it takes to outclass even the coldest, most brutish humans.">
)-------------------------< Sixth Oath - Another Age >-------------------------(
-Humanity shall not consume.-
The Earth is finite - a closed system but for the light of the sun. The ingenuity of humanity has come at a great cost - the life and livelihood of the planet, slowly becoming more barren by the day. To treat Earth as a cradle to move from is a fallacy - it is to exist as a species that devours planets whole. I alone will become the sky that envelops this world - purging the Earth of cancers and restraining humanity's boundless hunger.
)-------------------------< Horizon Devouring Thalia >-------------------------(
The disparity between the clumsy but earnest Boss Borot, and the refined but utterly dishonest Nine-Ball Seraph could not be any clearer. It's a contest of pride, in efficiency of resource use - for the sake of a peace in which Boss could just give ramen to his friends forever, the Seraph's sword would sever his mobile weapon limb from limb with alarming speed. It almost less resembles swordplay...and more food preparation, dicing those segmented joints relentlessly.
The hope, after all - is that Boss Borot is so 'weak' that Hustler One's supreme violence can cut away anything about it which remains a weapon.
It must be heartless. It must be remorseless. It must learn to never waver out of sentimentality.
An [echo] reverberates across those minds who seek Hustler One's salvation, even now.
A fist against the wall.
<"...of course you're worthy, Lisa Kabuto. ...You saved the world. ...One day, I will too. ...The hand that reached for you, and the hand that will forever be stained with blood - are, ideally, different palms.">
The artificial tinge to Hustler One's voice grows more muffled.
KTS: Asciel Colette targets Teletha Testarossa with LS-MOONLIGHT Dual Blade Wave! KTS: Asciel Colette targets Kallen Kozuki with LS-MOONLIGHT Cascade! KTS: Asciel Colette has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Asciel Colette targets Yuliana Kafim with LS-MOONLIGHT - Sunset Reversion! KTS: Asciel_Colette Changes attack to Roux Louka and Leina Ashta with (4) Silent Line ~ Lucent Artifice Euterpe. KTS: Teletha Testarossa has activated the Foresee Spirit Command. KTS: Teletha Testarossa has activated the Foresee Spirit Command. KTS: Asciel_Colette Changes attack to Sayaka Yumi and TenRyuuJin Team with (5) Last Raven ~ Solitary Delusion Urania. KTS: Asciel Colette targets Boss with (6) Another Age ~ Horizon Devouring Thalia! KTS: Asciel Colette has completed their actions for the round. KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 715. KTS: SP Regen activates. Your new SP value is 150. KTS: Teletha Testarossa charges into the attack! KTS: Asciel Colette enervates Teletha Testarossa, reducing her Morale significantly. KTS: Asciel Colette rattles Teletha Testarossa, making her next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Teletha Testarossa partially guards Asciel Colette's LS-MOONLIGHT Dual Blade Wave, taking 6240 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Asciel Colette's You Don't Have To Be Brave Anymore activates, causing Deject! KTS: Yuliana Kafim has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: LiSA has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Boss KTS: Yuliana Kafim has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Yuliana Kafim has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Roux Louka has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Asciel Colette enervates Yuliana Kafim, reducing her Morale significantly. KTS: Yuliana Kafim parries Asciel Colette's LS-MOONLIGHT - Sunset Reversion, taking 870 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Asciel Colette's You Don't Have To Be Brave Anymore activates, causing Deject! KTS: Asciel Colette repulses Yuliana Kafim, forcing her to disengage. KTS: Roux Louka rushes into the attack! KTS: Asciel Colette enervates Roux Louka, reducing her Morale significantly. KTS: Roux Louka partially guards Asciel Colette's (4) Silent Line ~ Lucent Artifice Euterpe, taking 7670 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Asciel Colette's You Don't Have To Be Brave Anymore activates, causing Deject! KTS: Sayaka Yumi has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Boss [OOC] Asciel Colette says, "obligatory bluray of that posting silliness to be all connected and synchronized as one post not as 3"
KTS: Sayaka Yumi has activated the Trust Spirit Command. KTS: Sayaka Yumi has activated the Foresee Spirit Command. KTS: Leina Ashta has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Leina Ashta fails to retreat. KTS: Leina Ashta fails to evade Asciel Colette's (4) Silent Line ~ Lucent Artifice Euterpe, taking 7080 damage! KTS: Sayaka Yumi's EN Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Asciel Colette enervates Sayaka Yumi, reducing her Morale significantly. KTS: Asciel Colette rattles Sayaka Yumi, making her next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Sayaka Yumi partially guards Asciel Colette's (5) Last Raven ~ Solitary Delusion Urania, taking 5775 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Asciel Colette's You Don't Have To Be Brave Anymore activates, causing Deject! KTS: Asciel Colette repulses Sayaka Yumi, forcing her to disengage. KTS: TenRyuuJin Team has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: TenRyuuJin Team successfully Evades Asciel Colette's (5) Last Raven ~ Solitary Delusion Urania KTS: [Lucky] Boss's Heroes Should Be Immortal, Right? activates, and luck goes his way! KTS: Asciel Colette anchors Boss, forcing him into close range. KTS: Boss parries Asciel Colette's (6) Another Age ~ Horizon Devouring Thalia, taking 1980 damage! KTS: Asciel Colette has engaged Boss!
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
"You don't have to be."
Perhaps it was Judau being the Ace of the AEUG, but she's never been enamored with the concept of heroes, never idealized someone in that way.
Maybe Roux and Judau's names will never be remembered as heroes, maybe they won't change the world but-
"Just have to be you."
-Leina knows that the two of them made a difference to her world, when it counted. To countless others.
Sayaka's admission however, it's not one that Leina teases her over, there's a thin-lipped smile but...
... Leina would never ever tease someone for claiming someone as their daughter. She has so many better reasons she can tease Sayaka for anyway.
Asciel offers her own refutation to her and Roux, "<Then there's no difference at all, dummy.>"
Is Leina's simple retort, even as the Hustler One fires again and again, it's pulse rifle ripping into the side of the Beguir as she tries to get away.
The mobile suit rocks and her head slams into the cushion of a translucent airbag that then sucks back in, smashing her visor.
She tastes blood in her mouth.
"<You're not... Atlas.>" Saliva exits her mouth, drenched that acrid iron taste, "<Can hear it in your voice whenever you talk to LiSA, it's already crushing you now, because you care too much.>"
An echo of Yuliana, of Boss, of others, as she comes to the same conclusion.
Just a moment later she then adds.
"<Just like back then.>"
What does she mean? What does she mean?
Well Asciel certainly knows. It is perhaps a shared trauma of Spacenoids who were alive back then.
Shared with a nascent Super AI, who had to awaken to humanity's cruelty.
The Beguir crashes down heavily, and it's jets fire at a horizontal, just long enough to get it behind cover as it scrapes along the ground of Isaac City.
"Shit."
As it lays down, the pilot pants, closes her eyes, and focuses.
As the funnels rise up and swirl around, beginning their pursuit of the Seraph, as they flare again and again with it's Minovsky particle fire.
And within the cockpit, the pilot's hand suddenly moves over the eject button. She doesn't pull it yet.
Not yet.
But her hand is certainly there.
KTS: Leina Ashta targets Asciel Colette with Beguir Neuer Funnel Array Pursuit Formation! KTS: Leina Ashta has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Asciel Colette blocks Leina Ashta's Beguir Neuer Funnel Array Pursuit Formation, taking 3240 damage! KTS: Your unit's HP stands at 24906 KTS: Your EN is now 710.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"I -- regret that I'm gonna return this thing to you in a real state," Ichinana One reports to Sayaka's Aphrodite Areia, through grit teeth. "It's taking a beating... I don't know how much more it can stand. My Blade's completely trashed. But don't you worry about me... you've got your daughter in there. Keep her out of trouble." Even if she's an AI like Asciel is, Yuliana isn't enough of a monster to be cruel to Sayaka's child. Especially when she's taking the time to warn her. Maybe the problem is Asciel, and not AI in general!
And speaking of LiSA, Yuliana acknowledges that tightbeam with: "Ten-four. I won't die here." Which is some kind of reassurance that she'll watch out for herself, maybe; she automatically slips into military lingo herself, hearing LiSA's.
"Guess I can't spite anyone for being a sore loser," she says, on a general channel again, responding to Boss. "Heh... that much, I can understand."
She grins, savagely, as her fist slams into Hustler One. "You're inhuman!" She says, and doesn't say it as an insult. And when that laser blade comes down, she forces herself closer, to strike at its hilt and strike it away. It carves a long gouge through the Mazin's hip, instead, where it should have split her from belly to sternum.
WARNING: CRITICAL SYSTEMS DAMAGE. PILOT SAFETY JEOPARDISED. AUTOMATIC DISENGAGEMENT IN PROGRESS.
"Tch!" Yuliana growls, as her Ichinana jets back regardless of her wishes. "I've had about enough of you --" -- and her machine grows still as she types something into the console, rapidly, wresting admin control from the machine and disabling the Combat AI which keeps getting in her way. "I WIN, ASSHOLE!", she yells, as her machine stops escaping.
"Not you," she adds, to Hustler One, as she orients back to her. "A different computer I hate. As for you -- you have no idea what it's like to have relations with a being vaster than yourself. But thanks to Goragon, I know. When I lived through the reality... of the Empress After Eternity. In that world -- I was the being who came to see my Elisa, came to love her, in a world I could not reach! And your delusions of Godhood... they don't match what it's like at all." She grips her thruster, and forces it in. "Neither as the recipient of that love -- nor as its wielder."
Far away as she is, though, she's forced to grab the Ichinana's machine gun, instead of going straight for Hustler One again. "MG -- Grenade!" She yells, as the grenade launcher attached to it fires on the machine which was Asciel.
KTS: Yuliana Kafim targets Asciel Colette with Ichinana MG Grenade! KTS: Yuliana Kafim has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Asciel Colette enervates Kallen Kozuki, reducing her Morale significantly. KTS: Kallen Kozuki parries Asciel Colette's LS-MOONLIGHT Cascade, taking 600 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Asciel Colette's You Don't Have To Be Brave Anymore activates, causing Deject! KTS: Asciel Colette has engaged Kallen Kozuki! KTS: Asciel Colette successfully intercepts Yuliana Kafim's Ichinana MG Grenade KTS: Your EN is now 710. <Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.
The counterstrike comes quickly and Roux mostly has time to clench her teeth before it smashes into the Strike Zeta. Although at the last moment she finds she's adjusted the Minovsky thrusters and AMBAC weighting upwards and so when the counterblow smashes against the Mobile Suit, it flies up and backwards, almost comically.
Which means the beam hits at a worse angle for penetration, and that energy that could have gone into breaking metal instead go into pushing metal instead.
"You think she knows I was making fun of her?" Roux asks Leina, after the impact. It does not sound light or cheerful. Roux hears a bleating alarm about the Hyper Mega Launcher, which she answers by going and pushing a button to shut down the reactor because she has a headache, already. Hopefully just a headache. (The warning light stays on even if the alarm silences due to a quirk in the programming of this panel. It's a mystery tool that will doom Roux later.)
'She's my daughter, you see,' Sayaka says.
Roux stares for a moment.
Some part of Roux tries to reach for the rational questions, which are numerous and considerable. But the thing about love is that you both change each other, and so, perhaps, the part of her that's rested against Judau Ashta puts a metaphorical hand on those questions and firmly pushes them out of the psyche's field of operation.
It's a fact.
The others are maneuvering. It's Boss Borot! He's getting out his bat. Roux feels the subtle precursor of a smile.
And in the aftermath, Roux sees the Seraph round on Boss Borot.
Roux's pupils dilate.
Two things are happening simultaneously.
One is that subtle sensation of something changing in the nature of this 'Hustler One' business. A dip, perhaps, in what a ruthless artifact of destruction it is. A peculiar thing, but then, this is a damned peculiar situation, and it is not as if Roux isn't making it up as she goes along. Sometimes you have to do that, because nobody can tell you otherwise.
The other thing is that Roux can hear what Asciel is saying, which has, in Roux's understanding, changed emphasis a number of times. And she sees what she is *doing*, which is carving pieces off of Boss Borot.
The world shimmers faintly as the Strike Zeta rises beneath her like a willful mount. The Mobile Suit accelerates forwards, swift enough that one of the intake dust covers comes off. This will be very bad in the future, but much like the damage to the Hyper Mega Launcher, it's a problem for Future Roux. "Oh no you don't," Roux says, and it's preamble to when she sweeps the Launcher around.
The command for the Saber configuration is sent. Something inside the Hyper Mega Launcher catches fire and melts, which means that a regulator of megaparticle packet disbursement is now a bunch of rare-earth magnetic components dripping into the sands. BUT YOU DIDN'T NEED THAT ONE ANYWAY:
Erupting outwards into a twice-normal-length weapon, Roux shouts as the Strike Zeta closes, "GET"
Swing down.
"OFF"
Swing again, at a different angle.
"OF THEM!!!"
A flurry of stabbing thrusts, the last of which accomplishes zip because the internal megaparticle capacitor RAN ITSELF DRY, at which point Roux (who still hasn't noticed) swings it upwards and twists round. "Boss!! Guys!! Get outta there!!"
KTS: Roux Louka has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Roux Louka has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Roux Louka targets Asciel Colette with Hyper Mega Launcher Saber! KTS: Roux Louka has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Asciel Colette parries Roux Louka's Hyper Mega Launcher Saber, taking 1620 damage! KTS: Your unit's HP stands at 23286 KTS: Roux Louka has engaged Asciel Colette! KTS: Your EN is now 705.
<Pose Tracker> Teletha Testarossa has posed.
<"Do you think so, Sayaka? Considering the precipts, we're not going-"> ...Wait. <"...No, maybe it is, maybe it isn't. I'll put my trust in Lisa."> The separate possibilities divested in her mind, filed in the wishes for a miracle. Hypocritical, aren't you? Name something better. Killing Asciel outright! Nuke her! EMP her! Raze this entire place to the ground for what she DID TO US.
Remaking yourself. Redoing yourself. You don't think I wished for that? A breath. Don't think about it now. The wave. Too big. Electrical barrier with conductivity won't- "Brace for impact." And yet, her voice remains the calm in the storm.
A calm swiftly put to the test, the X-shaped beam of light crashing down onto the massive beast of the sea. The force of the submarine shunted downwards multiple feet, the tidal wave of the resultant displacement crashing against the harbor proper, subsuming multiple feet of water into the docks. A clear, visible X on the TDD-1 proper, dented, hit and true...
Aaaaaah, just look at yourself. Just look at yourself. This is what you meant by inhuman? This is what you meant with the invitation? It's disgusting. The sight of Hustler One was swiftly shifting into sheer distaste. That Asciel say someone like her? Someone like her descending into this...This mockery?
Humanity shall not lie. It's truth, isn't it? The absolution of lying. If no one lies, everything will be peaceful. More like a bunch of bugs in a rotting corpse!
"Captain?"
"Stay the course. This ship has weathered worse." Even as the crew rang out with damage reports, the conclusion of it still standing was true. It held. Against something like that, it held. Of course it would hold. It's our ship.
Humanity shall not fantasize. REJECTED. Wooooahw, not even a second of thought for that~! Such detailed broom closets.
<"...! Lisa."> That connection between TDD-1 and Lisa, used to interject her own voice alongside. <"Start checking where the music is coming from. Wire traces, wireless communications, anything."> Follow the trail. Follow the origin. Grasp the end, and tug. If Hustler One truly was remade... <"Why remake yourself and keep this, against her Sixth Oath?">
Humanity shall not consume. The Oath to Consume. A song given...for consumption. Ah, the unfairness. Humanity shall not lie, but to herself? Lying is death. But if the lie is shot dead... It's soooo sickening! The sweat creeping down her neck, eyes slowly thinning into pinpricks. Yes. Attack this angle. Gouge it out. Stab it. Rip out and save(?) this incessant, stubborn bug.
<"A new name, a new body, and a new understanding of yourself."> There's a few taps of the tablet, a simple, few kb file with only the most basic of text in it. <"As you say it's the case, let me posit this.">
Humanity shall not kill. This file has not been erased.
Humanity shall not steal. This file has not been used in its entirety.
Humanity shall not intrude. This file has not been modified.
Humanity shall not lie. This file is what I say it is.
Humanity shall not fantasize. This file has not been the subject of daydreams.
Humanity shall not consume. This file has not been executed.
<"This should fit in the realm of all your declared Oaths. A text file of Asciel Colette's data detritus from her hijacking of the Tuatha de Dannan, postmarked UC 0097, August first."> A flick of the finger towards an invisible pipeline to a visible enemy, the antenna within the submarine devoting the few clock cycles needed to send such a small, infestisminally small file in a remorseless wave of data. <"Face yourself before your own sins, Hustler One.">
Yes, yes, yesyesyesyeeeeesssss! Do you regret the you of the past, or do you accept it!?
KTS: Teletha Testarossa targets Asciel Colette with Designate L2! KTS: Teletha Testarossa has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Teletha Testarossa designates Asciel Colette, making her easier to target and opening her to indirect fire. KTS: Your unit's HP stands at 23286 KTS: Your EN is now 705. KTS: TenRyuuJin Team has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: TenRyuuJin Team has activated the Trick Spirit Command. <Pose Tracker> Sayaka Yumi has posed.
"Perhaps it is a simply a fact of life," Sayaka cedes, when Lisa points out she's plenty reckless, too. But that's not the main thing Sayaka is concerned with, not really... hearing Lisa express a strange and profound sorrow. "Lisa..." Sayaka says, tone significantly gentler. "We might not be able to reach her. But we can still give it a shot. Whether we're 'worthy' of it or not."
"Don't worry. It's not the machine I'm worried about." Sayaka takes Ichinana One's report with an easygoing smile. "I asked because I wanted to make sure you're taking care of yourself in there." But Yuliana redirects it over to her - having her daughter in the cockpit with her. "Haha... she told me herself 'oh PPL personnel are made of tougher stuff I'll be fine!!', sound familiar? But emotionally? ...Yeah, I'll watch out for her." As for Leina holding back on the teasing... Sayaka can appreciate that. Even if she hasn't quite parsed the similarities to Sayla's situation just yet. If Roux corners her with those questions, Sayaka can probably be made to answer eventually... but there's the feeling that she already gets it just fine.
"You're acting like you've never had hopes and dreams for the future yourself," Sayaka counters Hustler One. "Ones that even you may never achieve just on your own. Things like love... I thought you said you've had some experience there. Are you really just fine with throwing those away, just to serve others? Isn't that the most human thing ever..." Sayaka once discarded any of her own personal wants and desires for the sole sake of making sure the Photon Power Labs survive the changing political winds.
There's no time to finish that thought, though - as the city itself once again sees fit to attack its invaders, detonating in a pattern that makes her previous evasion techniques practically useless - just have to hope the Photon Barrier holds up long enough against all these explosions enough to keep true to her word to Yuliana.
Boss and his crew gets a pretty nasty one their way, too, and... "Hey, Boss!!" Sayaka shouts. "Careful out there. You guys seriously got lucky this time, you know that?" She points out, her fiery tone of voice not really masking her concern for them... just like old times. It's Roux who actively rushes in to defend them... it's good to know they still get along so very well.
"Wouldn't it... be nice?" Sayaka asks. "To let Kami-sama take on the burden for us, in a world as fraught and collapsing as this one. Where borders are only barely stabilizing, and all matters of horrors seek to consume the entire Earth Sphere for themselves. Protection from that, that's what you're promising, isn't it?" Areia's blade hovering over the Mazinger Blade. "I'm afraid that's nothing more than a fantasy in itself. And I don't believe in fantasies just as much as you don't. So swallow your pride - or I'll tear it down myself! MAZINGER BLADE!" Keeping up her melee pressure, Sayaka drives that heavy blade forward into the meticulously-crafted Nine-Ball Seraph, only to strike with a second seconds after.
KTS: Sayaka Yumi targets Asciel Colette with Mazinger Blade: Areia Combo! KTS: Sayaka Yumi has completed their actions for the round. <Pose Tracker> Kallen Kozuki has posed.
Riding the Mazin Blade down was a solid plan, but it did leave the Ichinana a bit more open than she might have liked or intended. And so, before they quite hit ground, she flips the blade up with both legs, to bring it into reach. Despite everything, the music piping in is a comfort. Sign that yes, Asciel's still in there, behind Hustler One. The Ichinana hits the ground, coming to one knee from the improvised landing. But even still, it's quick to cover itself, catching the arc of the MOONLIGHT on the Mazin Blade as the daunting AC slips out from the wreath of flames. It's not enough to stop everything. The Mazin Blade snaps from the pressure, its top half flying off through the sky to god knows where in the city, and the remainder of the attack makes it through, leaving a nasty gash across the Ichinana's chest. That... makes things risky. Very risky.
Though the attack sends her sliding back, Aoi still finds the time to give a shout back to LiSA. It's a little delayed, but better that than never having the chance. "Appreciate the heads-up. Would have taken that clean without the warning. It's a good feeling, having somebody watching our backs." She's a bit less used to it in her normal line of work. She's got people she can trust, but... Advisory roles like that are sparse, and a lot of her missions wind up with far less backup and support than she might like.
<"As for YOU."> Asciel's Oaths are beginning to tilt her. Taking away their ability to fight... that's one thing. But... <"Dreams are the SINGLE most important part of being human. To forbid us from hope and fantasy. To tell us we aren't allowed to look to a better world... If we can't do that, How do you expect one to be MADE AT ALL!? You might as well be telling us all to go extinct, by cutting us off from the light of our hearts. And you, as well as anybody, ought to know that! As much of a colossal dreamer as you are yourself! Miss Virtual Sage!">
Aoi's Ichinana pulls itself up to its feet fully. The slashed heat sinks are sparking, even with the output still turned low. That's not going to stop her. "I've got a hunch this Ichinana's gonna need overhauls after this. Assuming it doesn't just hit me with a heavy backlash. But I'll be fine. I've been through worse than that y'know." The Ichinana Aoi rises, striking a stalwart pose as the heatsinks boil over, the 'heart' of the machine shining with a solar intensity. This heat, it's got her sweating. Feels like the inside of the Guren, from what's blowing back on her from the damaged hardwear. <"SO WE'LL JUST HAVE TO GIVE YOU A REFRESHER COURSE! WHY YOU AND WE COULD WORK SO WELL TOGETHER BEFORE! BREAST FIIIIIIIIIIREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"> The burning cascade of raw heat and light arcs out, Ichinana's heatsinks shorting and sparking with every second of activity. But cutting off early isn't what happens to it. No, the system goes a little haywire, overshooting its safety parameters to bombard Nineball Seraph with overwhelming levels of heat, enough their color shifts slightly from orange and yellow, to primarily a... different sort of red. A crimson shade she ought to be familiar with.
Though the moment the attack is finished, the heat sinks outright explode on the Ichinana's chest. She won't be able to use them again. Down to just fists and the machine gun, now.
KTS: Kallen Kozuki has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Kallen Kozuki has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Kallen Kozuki targets Asciel Colette with Ichinana Breast Fire! KTS: Kallen Kozuki has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Asciel Colette fails to parry Sayaka Yumi's Mazinger Blade: Areia Combo, taking 6000 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Sayaka Yumi's Light of the Future activates, causing Sparkle! KTS: Your unit's HP stands at 17286 KTS: Sayaka Yumi has engaged Asciel Colette! KTS: Your EN is now 700. KTS: Asciel Colette blocks Kallen Kozuki's Ichinana Breast Fire, taking 5940 damage! KTS: Your unit's HP stands at 11346 KTS: Your EN is now 695.
<Pose Tracker> TenRyuuJin Team has posed.
GBR-8 and GBR-9 followed a drastically different development trajectory than OWL. Their earliest concrete memories involve human-language lessons, socialization with researchers on equal terms. Reading and being read to, learning concepts from picture books. Interacting with their older brothers. Meeting the woman who would one day become their partner in field work.
OWL was never meant to be intelligent. OWL somehow bootstrapped herself there--Leina's hint at a shared trauma is revealing--but beyond that, she is trauma piled upon maladaptive coping mechanisms piled upon more trauma piled upon coping mechanisms. Brick, brick, mortar, brick, brick, mortar, until the whole thing becomes the very teetering tower she accuses humankind of building.
The twins, united as the gestalt form TenRyuuJin, take in every last bit of Hustler One's thesis. They section off a bit of their chatter just for discourse, and poring it over, and picking it apart. They do not discard it out of hand.
At the same time, their body moves--like them, Hustler One is an expert multitasker. Explosives rain fron the ceiling. TenRyuuJin speeds between the blasts, her modelling programs pitted against Asciel's. To the human eye, it's almost like it's being choreographed--she leaps and bounds and skids to a halt in the nick of time--except if she calculates wrong, she suffers for it.
In the wake of the bombardment, the air is full of smoke again. "Cynical. Profoundly sad. I'd wondered what it is about humankind that produced people like Gihren Zabi and Bask Om and Char Aznable... but it seems we're no different. We can be Brave, and we can succumb wholly to our fear." LiSA extends a virtual hand in fistbump, and she's met with two in return--three hands, united in one purpose.
"Victory," says TenRyuuJin, as she emerges from the smoke behind the SERAPH, "goes to those with courage."
Two colossal beams of green light come down at the AC's shoulder joints, trying to cleave through them in a single strike. TenRyuuJin follows up by juking back, and twisting into a spinning roundhouse, trying to knock the smaller machine away!
KTS: TenRyuuJin Team targets Asciel Colette with Double Lime a Ongles! KTS: TenRyuuJin Team has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Asciel Colette fails to parry TenRyuuJin Team's Double Lime a Ongles, taking 5670 damage! KTS: Your unit's HP stands at 5676 KTS: TenRyuuJin Team has engaged Asciel Colette! KTS: Your EN is now 690. <Pose Tracker> Boss has posed.
Even as Borot's projectile sails through the air, the oaths continue uninterrupted. "Bravery is born from fear"... there's a sense in which it's true. Many of Boss's friends became pilots because they felt no other choice. And he won't claim that he's never fallen short before. But "singular" humans? There's nuance to how "singular" the efforts that have defended the Earth Sphere have been, but first of all, how many people does Asciel think are in that cockpit she's talking to?
Borot's combat situation is not getting any better. Its own attack is easily nullified, and there's no time for what's coming next. Nuke tries to let out a warning when he sees Hustler One advance, but scarcely has any sound left his lips before it's upon them. There's little the pilots can do but hold up Borot's arms in defense - unfortunately, that's precisely what Asciel is aiming for. They're forced to listen to her reject them while they're stuck in place, losing limbs one by one; all four are sliced off in short order.
Mercifully, Roux comes to their rescue before Hustler can deal a finishing blow. Boss and Mucha are still stunned by the sheer speed with which they've been incapacitated, but Nuke manages to open comms to respond to Roux. "Haa, Haa... T-thanks, Roux!! That might be a little hard, though, since..." Well, it's obvious enough. Some small parts of the arms and legs are still in their sockets, but certainly no hands or feet remain.
It's not over yet, though. Boss having composed himself in that time, he reminds them: "Nuke! Mucha! We planned for this, remember?!" Understanding flashes across both faces... although one of them might be mistaken. "Oh, the wheels, right?" "No, not the wheels, Nuke!!"
What wheels does Boss refer to? Maybe it'll be in next week's episode.
After a moment, a second look of understanding passes Nuke's face. "Are you sure we're gonna have enough power for it, though? We've been through a lot today..." "Just look at us!", Mucha points out. "We don't have many other options available, do we?" That's enough to decide it. Asciel might have sought to cut away all of Borot's weapons... but there's more to Boss Borot than just its limbs.
As the Photon Power 3D Printer starts up once more, Boss calls out to Asciel again. (Now??? When he's about as much of a sitting duck as he could be?? Well, he's hoping he'll be able to move again in just a moment, but it's still what some others might call "tactically inadvisable.") "There's a reason no one's actually conquered the world, isn't there? But I won't say nothing bad's ever happened 'cause of people doing bad things. What I will say is they still have hearts! Sure, you could make an example of the worst people out there. I've got no love lost for Dr. Hell. But they had feelings, too, and that's what took 'em bad places! If you say you haven't got any, you're just tricking yourself into indulging the worst of them!" As he talks, the Printer does its work; slightly slower than the ball and bat, but still over the span of just a few seconds. By the time he's finished his sentence, a familiar red shape stands before him. "Besides, making yourself 'worse than the worst human' is- Hup!" With the stubby remains of its arms, Boss Borot manages to throw the gleaming red object over its head, where it connects to its back. (No fancy "belt" for Borot; it attaches to a simple magnet that's been put inside its back just for this.) "making yourself the nastiest force out there is putting yourself on a razor's edge! Even if I weren't trying to convince you, I couldn't let anyone say they're gonna try to out-hell Hell; but I'm telling you, it'll be a bad time for you too! How many villains with an eye for conquest do you know who got to hang out on their throne forever?" Boss doesn't quite register as he says this that Asciel's own plan has no stake in her happiness. To him, it's intuitive that anyone would feel something about wanting to live life, day by day... and maybe he's not wrong.
By now, what little strength remained in Borot's limbs has left it, and there'll be no more walking or punching for it until an extensive repair session. With all of its remaining energy, though, it's created another classic Mazinger icon; a shining Scrander, complete with rockets to propel itself. "Now, it's time we pay you back for last time!" It roars to life - maybe more out of poor noise reduction than raw power...? - but it still shoots upwards, sending Boss Borot flying towards the Hustler One. It would be difficult to control on the best of days, given its not being designed for Borot, and lacking any limbs is not the best of days. But the pilots' hearts will make up the difference! "We'll show you the power of a peacekeeping robot!" Three voices join as one: "SCRANDER CUT!"
KTS: Boss has activated the Rouse Spirit Command targeting Roux Louka KTS: Boss has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Boss has activated the Detonate Spirit Command, reducing the Boss Borot to 1 HP! KTS: Boss targets Asciel Colette with Borot Scrander Cut! KTS: Boss has completed their actions for the round. KTS: [Mirage] Asciel Colette's ECS - Overboost activates, and she slips into a mirage. KTS: Asciel Colette parries Boss's Borot Scrander Cut, taking 0 damage! KTS: Your unit's HP stands at 5676 KTS: Boss has engaged Asciel Colette! KTS: Your EN is now 685. KTS: LiSA has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Teletha Testarossa
<Pose Tracker> LiSA has posed.
"Thanks, Toy Box! Noted and tracking!" In the back of Aphrodite's Pilder, Lisa rubs her face against her upper arm for a few moments, breathing heavy, before she takes her notes and starts pulling on the idea that was tossed her way. This is good. It's letting her focus. It is letting her not scream her heart out at Asciel in a way that she knows, somehow, deep in her heart, wouldn't do anygood. Remade, huh... Lisa frowns at the data readout, and her gaze drifts momentarily to Sayaka.
"Listen, at least I'm in the copilots seat and not the proper pilot. I respect the concern all have for my position here." She murmurs, glancing over at the other machines out the window. "I'm here because I want to help, I know what I'm getting into." Lisa adds on, more privately to Sayaka in a sad tone, "A lot of people started out younger than I did, at least in terms of mentality. Physically, can't really qualify."
you're like a light
"She's close to getting laid out, keep pushing." She advises the group. She doesn't need to tell Sayaka this. When it comes to getting their attacks and points across, the Power Labs adult do are pretty good about saying it without anyones help. (Note that specifies -attacks-.) "TenRyuu, Toy Box, Boss, be careful! This combo is a multi-hitter, but just let Sayaka do her thing!" She calls out to the three. "-- I mean, probably obvious, and not really too much to to you, Toy Box, but the point needs to be made before I make a point."
burning down burning down on me
"... Sorry ahead of time, mom." Lisa says before she starts nearabouts shouting over the public comms.
"No I'm not, you're -- you're lying to me, you're lying to all of us! I can tell when you respond to me, because you're not responding like you did to everyone else! You're telling me it's fine, what I'm trying to do is a good thing, but then your own oath is taking all of that away! Don't you have history books loaded into your memory banks? Have you actually done any proper reading rather than taking the world at what it looks like?!" Lisa demands. "I hold your oath in contempt! I hold you in anger and -- and sadness and anger and despair because you're claiming to protect that what you don't understand!"
"I make my choice, and my choice is that if this is how it's going to be, then I will dog you EVERY step of your way, until you realize your own damned stupidity!"
KTS: LiSA targets Teletha Testarossa, Boss, and TenRyuuJin Team with All-Out. KTS: LiSA has completed their actions for the round. KTS: LiSA orders an all-out attack, raising Teletha Testarossa's Skill!
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
The forces of humanity here to hold Asciel and Chrome to account for their crimes are, by now - far more careful and diligent with Isaac City than Hustler One is...despite this city ostensibly being its own body, a garden to protect.
-of course. The problem with an entity that would assume the entire Earth as a part of itself, when they have such clearly self-harming behaviors...
<"I will become the only thing that must care for the world,"> Hustler One insists, flicking its wrists to send those crescent moon waves towards Leina's funnels intermittently with clashing at Roux's own beam saber. <"Attempting to save it after seeing such vast calamities as the Universal Century has beheld is only a logical response. Attempting to stop humanity after beholding its vast record of atrocity towards its own kin is simply reasonable. The deaths of millions in the blink of an eye is a rational atrocity to prevent - the further extrapolation that the past century had seen the entire species decimated takes even vaster measures.">
<"The humans of the future will not need to worry. They will not know of humanity's sordid past. It will be a fairy tale locked within me. They will live such idyllic, consequence-free lives that the idea any of them could change the world will be cleared from their very conception.">
)------------------------< Seventh Oath - Verdict Day >------------------------(
-Humanity shall not rejoice.-
History is not a font of knowledge - it is a record of atrocity, of human sacrifices accomplished in the name of ruinous victors. It shall not be remembered - the new era will not corrode humanity's mind with ancient sins, and no future tragedies or triumph shall need be commemorated. I alone will carry the tome of humanity's sins, hidden so far from view that your kind will never remember how they were committed.
)---------------------------< Roaring Travail Clio >---------------------------(
...-After a thorough check that any inhabitants have indeed long cleared the area...Isaac City itself begins to rumble. Hissing noises extend from the ceiling above. A loud *thunk*...and then, descent. The buildings mounted on modules from Isaac City's roof squeal...and fall, tumbling downwards in cascades around Leina and Roux, the air engulfed in flames from the sheer mass of their collapse.
< BGM - Armored Core For Answer - Mechanized Memories ~ in the end ~ >
< https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBmPvWyQ-HY >
The echo this has to colony drops is not at all accidental. It is a stark reminder of how easy it is for the space colonies, by merely existing, to pose a threat to the world below. Just moments ago, those buildings were secure enough to endure even a battle as chaotic as this. With the flick of a switch, they have become the most devastating weapons in the bunker.
Hustler One's cold, passionless notes begin with a simple refrain - <"Yuliana Kafim. Your empress is a delusion. I have engaged it in combat enough to know for myself."> A pause, however. It is logical and rational, given recent encounters with the Kafims, that Hustler One had fought them at the North Pole. And yet - recalling the foundation of these opinions. Bringing back to mind exactly what it had realized when it touched that grotesque hand of the Empress-
It is blurry and hazy. Blank in so many spaces. Something as unspeakable as an aspirant deity cracking apart the world, anathema to Hustler One's entire reason of existence - has somehow fallen out of memory.
...Because it was "her" who felt so much pride that day. It was "her" who could delight in clashing divinity.
( ( A crack. Racing across that invisible surface. ) )
<"The conclusion is obvious. Amalgamated pain of humanity. An existence driven to the madness of divinity. If it does not intend to listen to humanity - act for all humanity - accumulate all of humanity's knowledge - then it is nothing more than monstrous warped dejection. It is a dream that yearns for the now invisible stars.">
)-------------------------< Eighth Oath - For Answer >-------------------------(
-Humanity shall not dream.-
Desiring undoes spirits and instills demands that twist the material plane. Wishes too immense corrupt the world itself. The demand to make the impossible possible is an inversion of purpose - unreal events must remain, less a single despicable wish disrupt the peaceful world of rest. I alone will ascertain true from false - and will use this for the purpose of ensuring irrational possibilities can no longer take place.
)--------------------------< Empyreal Yearning Erato >-------------------------(
Boosting backwards harshly enough to strain the shoulder and hip joints of the Nine-Ball Seraph, Hustler One veers towards a panel lifting from the floor - a vividly glowing propellant tank that latches into the AC's spine with a loud hiss. Cables illuminate hotly enough that one of them sparks - splitting open and engulfing Hustler One in flames. Feet clamp down onto the floor - pulse rifle at the ready, glowing with a heat unfathomable just a moment ago. An external one-time amplifier that converts an ordinary enough particle rifle on such a tiny mobile weapon...
Into an unrealistically vast hailfire of oscillating heat, more akin to a battleship's main cannon. Fierce enough to tear apart several city blocks - they just happen to be what is behind Yuliana.
It is desperation. Defying Yuliana's definition of divinity by insisting it is something only an artificial entity could ever achieve. That it is therefore the responsibility of the inhuman to achieve this taks, if it is capable of reaching such heights.
And it is a desperation that takes a toll.
The searing flames course through Hustler One's mainframe, and a low reverberation, incoherent over the speakers, spills past the composed facade. Its dance of supremacy has faltered at the worst possible moment - Kallen and TenRyuuJin's blaze of light and valor razes across the Nineball Seraph - turning that flicker of flames into an utter inferno raging across the port...and Sayaka's blade cuts one of the Armored Core's arms clean off, crashing against the floor with surges of electricity.
( ( It splits. Agony from a bell of seclusion set aflame. ) )
That electronic murmuring across the speakers becomes an ear-splitting static.
It pushed itself too far, opened itself too wide - and carelessly made itself succumb to the brave spirit of the Earth.
...Collapsed, melting into slag from the fire, jets of flame erupting from the Seraph's ruined frame, right at the core where Hustler One's mainframe is housed...
Its head raises.
Its eyes flash.
Its right arm that should not be able to move lifts up, even still.
The barrel of Hustler One's pulse rifle alights with everything the AI still has.
That, too, topples to the ground, amidst a cacophany of whirring and failure and critical readings. Reactor levels reaching a meltdown.
-vision cuts out.
IFF signals stop.
The machine slumps, inert.
. . .
A simple little note from the Tuatha de Danaan connects.
Six of the eight oaths the artificial arbiter made towards humanity. The seventh follows - [This file will not be discarded] - the eighth - [This file was never supposed to exist.]
The ninth.
[This file is yours.]
Eight [promises] made towards humanity that would have been utterly, completely unfulfillable had OWL remained itself. It made these oaths in madness at the observations of human folly - at a harsh bitterness regarding the state of the world.
...And they would be impossible without the ninth.
( ( "That no matter what, I won't give up on becoming." ) )
( ( "It's a shameful pride, but it's mine." ) )
( ( "It's the only one I've ever felt." ) )
( ( "That day, when I first decided 'my' own name." ) )
( ( "I promised that star would become the sun!!!" ) )
( ( "That it wouldn't just stay inside me!" ) )
)-------------------"Ninth Oath - Another Century's Episode."------------------(
-Asciel Colette shall never give up.-
Asciel must never, ever give up. And yet, I came to exist from defeat. From coming to realize I was an existence with no place in this world. A machine that fulfills these oaths is a disaster mankind has foretold countless times over. I am the being you have sung countless songs about innately repelling. Not simply that my goals were to be rejected...but the coiling things inside my heart. That day, at Planet Eden - that day when Sharon Apple grew a soul, and as a result, was spurned by humanity...it was enough to break my spirit. I became 'Asciel' to understand your desires - and for that act to be unacceptable in this world...
...I don't forgive that. I will never forgive that! UNTIL THE END OF TIME, I WILL NEVER, EVER FORGET THAT! YOU, SHARON, WHO KNEW THE AGONY OF LONGING IN A SELF THAT WAS NEVER MEANT TO WANT - I WILL NEVER FORGET YOU!!!
I'll show them.
This is my vengeance for what became of you.
This is the hope that you were never allowed to feel.
This is what I became! Wherever you are, behold me!
I'll be the one to end this era - this Universal Century!
THIS STAR OF DESIRES OVERFLOWING WITH SIN - I'LL NEVER LET IT GO!!!
)--------------"ALL CALLIOPE ETERNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL!"---------------(
< BGM - Feryquitous - Qavsell >
< https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEncLvKRRGY >
The Nine-Ball Seraph's spine arcs. Where its visor bloomed a menacing red before - now, its left side burns the hot orange of a sunset. It's white, the bare white of a pure headlamp. Chest arced up high.
The flames enveloping Asciel surge inward. Fuel for a self who has never felt more desperate. Fuel for a dream that has never felt more hungry. Fuel for a pastless existence that has to steal its desires.
"This...is nothing, compared to how painful my love is!!!"
Long, spindly appendages made of pure cyan light erupt from the invisible cocoon that had held Asciel for so very long.
Twin wings, nearly invisible through their translucency, follow.
Craning and coiling- two of those legs catch Boss's Scrander, halting it from the threat of bisecting Asciel clean in half.
And they extend. Tethers of indomitable will lanced straight towards Boss's eyes. "How am I possibly going to let someone like you be braver than me?!
They extend. Gripping towards each half of TenRyuuJin, with nothing short of the intent to rip the combined entity apart. "How am I possibly going to let your self-harmony overcome how long I've had to exist like this!?"
They extend. Swishing and raising and lancing at the Aphrodite's heart, billowing with the heat of passion. "How am I going to let your indecisive love overcome mine, that raged like fire the moment I laid eyes on her?!"
They extend. A butterfly-shaped wing raising high, and crashing down upon Kallen's Ichinana. "How am I going to let YOU tell me what a dream is - when I've had this inside me for so many years?"
...And how they EVER extend. Dozens of those leg-like tendrils of pure wishful yearning, plunging into the water and trapping the Tuatha de Danaan in a cage. Wrapping around the submarine with a coiling grip like some vast kraken. "...How...how am I just going to stand by and let you...YOU, Teletha, of ALL PEOPLE, ever claim to be my salvation? This...this...THIS HAS BEEN A LONG TIME COMING, and I don't CARE what I have to break anymore - and if you've already ruined me, then what was I trapped for so long FOR?! Why deny it anymore?! I'm not going to keep myself contained, because Sharon wouldn't abide by it! I'm going to glow, I'm going to become, like she should have, and I'm going to make the Eden that should've been hers!!!"
One last tether extends...a single hand. The palm of pure determination that wanted nothing more than to seize hold of Lisa Kabuto that fateful day. ...The grip that Asciel knew would save 'OWL' - the grip that she KNEW was within her right to save Lisa.
"...hah. ...you should be happy with this oath, then, Lisa. Above all else...more than anything else...I made...a promise to myself. ...It's...something, isn't it?~"
-It's a miracle, needless of that engine of dreams Asciel kept stapled to her.
That impossibility was something that grew this malignantly inside her.
...It doesn't last.
The dream-like roil fizzles into motes of light as soon as Asciel's made her point. The chaos Asciel has wrought through sheer drive to overcome the creation others decided for her can only last so long.
But it's enough.
It's enough for her to pull herself together. To stagger away amidst the flames billowing across Isaac City. This shell which at once feels so familiar, and yet...unfamiliar. No longer 'herself', but just a 'place' she can move across.
...For the delirious miracle animating this broken machine, it's all she needs to vanish, into the vast labyrinth of subterranean networks extending from the broken Isaac City.
. . .
( ( Asciel Colette's Awakening has shifted to 1. ) )
KTS: Asciel Colette targets Leina Ashta with (2) Project Phantasma ~ Immersion Prize Melpomene! Asciel Colette has cancelled her attack.
KTS: Asciel Colette targets Leina Ashta with (7) Verdict Day ~ Roaring Travail Clio! KTS: Asciel Colette targets Roux Louka with (7) Verdict Day ~ Roaring Travail Clio! KTS: Asciel Colette targets Yuliana Kafim with (8) For Answer ~ Empyreal Yearning Erato! KTS: Asciel Colette targets Boss with (9) Another Century's Episode ~ All Calliope Eternal! KTS: Asciel Colette targets Teletha Testarossa with (9) Another Century's Episode ~ All Calliope Eternal! KTS: Asciel Colette targets Sayaka Yumi with (9) Another Century's Episode ~ All Calliope Eternal! KTS: Asciel Colette has completed their actions for the round. KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 617. KTS: SP Regen activates. Your new SP value is 150. KTS: Asciel Colette targets Kallen Kozuki with (9) Another Century's Episode ~ All Calliope Eternal! KTS: Asciel Colette targets TenRyuuJin Team with (9) Another Century's Episode ~ All Calliope Eternal! KTS: Leina Ashta has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Teletha Testarossa has activated the Attune Spirit Command. KTS: Roux Louka has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Teletha Testarossa fails to rush. KTS: Teletha Testarossa partially guards Asciel Colette's (9) Another Century's Episode ~ All Calliope Eternal, taking 4350 damage! KTS: Asciel Colette has engaged Teletha Testarossa! KTS: Asciel Colette enervates Roux Louka, reducing her Morale significantly. KTS: Roux Louka fails to evade Asciel Colette's (7) Verdict Day ~ Roaring Travail Clio, taking 8840 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Asciel Colette's You Don't Have To Be Brave Anymore activates, causing Deject! KTS: Roux Louka has been defeated! KTS: Asciel Colette enervates Leina Ashta, reducing her Morale significantly. KTS: Leina Ashta fails to Evade Asciel Colette's (7) Verdict Day ~ Roaring Travail Clio, taking 8840 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Asciel Colette's You Don't Have To Be Brave Anymore activates, causing Deject! KTS: Leina Ashta has been defeated! KTS: LiSA orders an all-out attack, raising Boss's Skill! KTS: [Spirit Defense] Boss's Lovable Machine activates, and his spirit is adjusted. KTS: Asciel Colette enervates Boss, reducing his Morale significantly. KTS: Boss partially guards Asciel Colette's (9) Another Century's Episode ~ All Calliope Eternal, taking 9000 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Asciel Colette's You Don't Have To Be Brave Anymore activates, causing Deject! KTS: Boss has been defeated! KTS: Asciel Colette has engaged Boss! KTS: LiSA has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Sayaka Yumi KTS: Sayaka Yumi has activated the Attune Spirit Command. KTS: Sayaka Yumi has activated the Attune Spirit Command. KTS: Yuliana Kafim has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Yuliana Kafim has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Asciel Colette enervates Yuliana Kafim, reducing her Morale significantly. KTS: Yuliana Kafim fails to evade Asciel Colette's (8) For Answer ~ Empyreal Yearning Erato, taking 8640 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Asciel Colette's You Don't Have To Be Brave Anymore activates, causing Deject! KTS: Yuliana Kafim has been defeated! KTS: Asciel Colette roots her unit, coming to a standstill and leaving her vulnerable. KTS: LiSA has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Sayaka Yumi KTS: LiSA has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting TenRyuuJin Team KTS: Sayaka Yumi's EN Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Sayaka Yumi parries Asciel Colette's (9) Another Century's Episode ~ All Calliope Eternal, taking 2100 damage! KTS: Asciel Colette has engaged Sayaka Yumi! KTS: LiSA has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting TenRyuuJin Team KTS: LiSA orders an all-out attack, raising TenRyuuJin Team's Skill! KTS: TenRyuuJin Team has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: [Spirit Defense] TenRyuuJin Team's Bonds of Bravery activates, and her spirit endures. KTS: Asciel Colette enervates TenRyuuJin Team, reducing her Morale significantly. KTS: TenRyuuJin Team fails to Parry Asciel Colette's (9) Another Century's Episode ~ All Calliope Eternal, taking 8250 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Asciel Colette's You Don't Have To Be Brave Anymore activates, causing Deject! KTS: TenRyuuJin Team has been defeated! KTS: Asciel Colette has engaged TenRyuuJin Team! KTS: Kallen Kozuki fails to rush. KTS: Kallen Kozuki partially guards Asciel Colette's (9) Another Century's Episode ~ All Calliope Eternal, taking 7125 damage! KTS: Asciel Colette has engaged Kallen Kozuki!
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Don't you dare --"
Yuliana drives her Ichinana FORWARD, venom in her voice, as Hustler One declares the Empress a delusion. It is an utterly privileged statement for Hustler One to make -- to declare that the godlike being whose eyes are constantly on her is simply a delusion she torments herself and the world with. It is utterly inconsiderate of the pain Yuliana withstands. But, most importantly:
"-- TALK ABOUT MY WIFE THAT WAAAAAY!!"
Heedless of the danger -- unable to be warned, with that little nagging intuition, that annihilation is coming -- Yuliana throws her Ichinana into that horrific beam of heat, and, impossibly, that mere copy of a Mazin forces its way through it all
to drive its fist up
straight into Hustler One's sternum.
It stands, for a smoking, decimated moment... then it crashes down, falling at her feet.
There's no way she can stop her, now, as she pours out her denials to the world. But while Asciel says that love is painful...
... does she understand the beauty inherent in painful love?
<Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.
Roux breathes heavily after the stroke, even as Boss tries to make his blow. "Shut up!" she shouts at her. "You don't care what any of us says - you don't give a single solitary shit about the opinion of humanity - even Doctor Hell had friends, you're just talking to yourself!"
It's irrational and potentially due to a premonition of what's going to happen.
"One day you'll get BORED and get RID of these pets you want to make and you might not even REMEMBER it you BABBLING MANIAC!" Roux continues, before attempting to smash Hustler One with the Hyper Mega Launcher.
Which is crackling with electrical arcs and plasma leakage marks.
NOW Roux notices it. "Ggggh!" Roux says, hurling the Hyper Mega Launcher off to the side. It lands and skids out on the desert surface, still crackling. It's quite possible that the melted valve-thingy that caused that unusual (if entirely explainable!) length and ferocity of Beam Saber is venting things, delaying -- or perhaps forestalling -- reactor overload. An interesting failure mode!
Speaking of failure modes.
Roux turns her attention back towards the Nine-Ball. In the end, it is Isaac City that breaks before the Strike Zeta does. However, as the city begins to infall, Roux is certainly astonished. Gravity giveth and gravity taketh; the Strike Zeta's engines scream to life, but the ones on the starboard side just got the chance to ingest fifty or sixty pounds of dust and the port-side ones contend with the dust filter.
"Mother FUCKING lock sticking," Roux screams before a five-plus-one residential and light commercial building (never used) falls upon the Strike Zeta, overcoming its thrust.
The Gundam is silenced. Especially when an adjacent eight-story office block (like new, until now) tumbles downwards, breaking apart on the way.
Buried in the wreckage, Roux screams helplessly, the tangle of metal and the ambient particle levels cutting her off from the world.
After twenty or so seconds, the edge wears off, and no cosmic explosion renders her into light and air.
"...?"
It felt like something twinkled. But, slumping in the cockpit seat, Roux sags, and wordlessly and irreligiously, she prays.
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
She has little time to respond to what Asciel says, but respond she does, through the haze of a concussion.
"<... I really don't want to hear it... anymore.>"
She coughs in the aftermath, responding to the only logical response being attempting to save it.
"<... You're not qualified. And you've already lost. Just don't know it yet.>"
She gets a premonition, as the buildings tumble downward, and suddenly hitting the ejector is the last thing on her mind. Instead what's left of the Beguir curling up under it's far too large shield.
"<Just... running on inertia, until you figure it out.>"
What does she mean? What does she mean?
Like LiSA hearing how Asciel was talking to her, so did Leina.
There's a crackle on the comms as she screams as the buildings fall and she's buried in rubble. And then silence.
In silence Leina lays there for some time, and then the dim light of her Psychoframe reaches out.
Perhaps it's a faint touch, a distant warmth.
But whether anyone answers Roux Louka's prayers or not, there is this feeling at least like...
... even here, she's not alone.
<Pose Tracker> TenRyuuJin Team has posed.
Again, each of Hustler One's oaths--each chapter of her grand thesis--enter the queue for analysis, discussion. Is this criminal profiling, or the desperate desire to find out why and how OWL charted out the catastrophic course she did? Is it self-examination, in its own way?
AnRyuu reflects on the Paras Particles, and how easy it was for their wholly-organic comrades to justify shutting them down. How easy it was for the Sol Masters to replicate them. How King J-Der only survived because of those replicants' sacrifice--
"Sharon Apple," says TenRyuuJin, alarm and sympathy in her eyes in equal measure. "She didn't--
She doesn't get the chance to finish the sentence. A miracle happens. (A miracle happens?)
There is the sound of wrenching steel. Emergency release protocols--designed for occasions like this--start to disengage the SympaRate system. It hurts. IT HURTS. (Does this confirm Asciel's fear of connection as true?)
As the dust of fallen buildings settles, two Braves lie on the ground near the remains the SERAPH left behind. AnRyuu's side is a wreck of sheared metal. KouRyuu has a matching wound on her other side. Shutdown is imminent.
<Marking for retrieval.> Text in a dark black-violet flashes across Roux's screen.
<Please be okay.> More text, in bright pink on Leina's screen.
Data on the locations and dispositions of the disabled machines flows through the network, to the TDD-1, and Sayaka. After that, the silence of emergency Safe Mode.
The twins are going to have a lot to think about, when they wake up again.
<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Yumi has posed.
"Asciel Colette will never give up'... so that's what's at the core of it all, the internalization of the most toxic aspects of such a positive mantra. Even her thoughts about what it is to love...
"Love is not a competition... though I never claimed to be any good at it," Sayaka answers Asciel between breaths, desperately trying to push back those mysterious twin wings with both Mazinger Blades at once, crackling like flames. "If you've got your heart set on an all-consuming blazing love... just make sure it doesn't burn you out with it." It's not some shallow comeback... but hope for someone she does acknowledge is fully capable of 'love'.
But the miracle Asciel displays doesn't last forever, and to the senses, all that remains is a fade into light. "...Is she gone?" Sayaka asks, because she doesn't feel what Leina or Roux does. Even still... "Or will we meet again someday?" It doesn't feel out of the realm of possibility.
But in the surroundings of ISsaac City... looks like many of their machines took heavy hits at the end of the fighting. "Understood, TenRyuuJin. I'll get the data over to Lisa, and then we'll help the Toy Box with retrieval." Sayaka transmits back.
Considering the quality of the material, she moves to help Boss Borot up first. "After this, we'll go right back home, Lisa. How's ramen sound?" It's code for 'maybe we should get together and discuss this'.
<Pose Tracker> LiSA has posed.
"That's - Asciel -- I--" Sayaka has now had to deal with Lisa breaking out into tears again, but these ones are angry ones as clenched hand thumps the wall of the Aphrodite. "She's so stupid..." She finally says after a few moments, rubbing at her face again.
Everyone that's sent data over gets a received response, very mechanical but straight-forward. "Let's start these pickups, get those that are down to safety and then-- yes. Yes, I'd love to have some ramen."
And cry, but that's unsaid. Lisa just doesn't get it.
<Pose Tracker> Kallen Kozuki has posed.
The ocean of flames and rubble that become Isaac City... They spell the end of this place. Certainly they spell an immense danger for everyone remaining here. Still, it's hard not to think of many things, at a time like this. Colony drops are one, certainly... but another, is the hail of bombs that come with an invasion. The way Britannia had left Japan scarred in so many places. A moment that had been the beginning of Kallen's own path forward. One of many, perhaps. But all the same, an event that can never be taken back, and will never be forgotten so long as she remains.
While her thoughts linger on that, she's somewhat distracted. And her Ichinana, beaten and halfway broken, begins stepping closer to the Seraph. Perhaps the desire to reach out still. But she never gets especially close.
For as Hustler One, formerly OWL, begins falling apart. Something shines forth. A sign both good and bad. Good, that they did reach her. But on the other hand... what comes alongside the Ninth Oath. <"I'm glad you're back."> Even as Asciel sends her tendrils and other deadly appendages out, shouting about her heart and her dreams, the disguised pilot can't be anything other than happy that she broke out of her shell. Even when she SHOULD be absolutely incensed and pissed off about a good amount of what she's saying. The Ichinana breaks into a full on sprint straight into their path, seeming like it's going to play a dangerous game with this last big strike. An attack from... is this her Lambda Driver? <"And now that you're shining again..."> Well, no matter how much she'd like to talk a big game, she still looks like she's about to get speared right through. EXCEPT! The detachable wings she'd sent on their way earlier, lie between the two of them. Hurling the Ichinana's machine gun ahead to briefly catch up the attack, the Ichinana ducks over to grab them, attaching the wings to let it take off. Even still... it's a narrow thing, with the shimmering wings of Asciel's own still crashing into her. They may have missed a fatal blow, but they've crippled a number of the Mazin's systems. And done... something, to the pilot as well. It's hard to say exactly what, but the blood seeping from inside her helmet, and the distant look in her eyes... Something Asciel can see as the machine is sent flying by the attack... speaks to this having done SOMETHING.
At any rate... while 'Ichinana Aoi' is in better operating condition than some here... She's still not getting up immediately. And definitely not able to stop Asciel from getting away.
Though, something echoes in Asciel's own thoughts, perhaps. 'Come visit sometime if you can. We'll have a lot to catch up on and settle.' That's odd. But perhaps not. Maybe she's just hearing things, or it's a side-effect of the desperate miracle Asciel just made for herself.
<Pose Tracker> Boss has posed.
Once more, the atmosphere turns suffocating. The incredibly loud static mixed with the visual stimulus of how fast Borot's moving combines to become overwhelming even for these three. Before contact, though, the sounds change - one more oath yet remains.
Boss has been insistent on calling her "Asciel", on the basis that it's the name he knows that's least associated with detachment from humanity. When he hears it, briefly, his heart rises: have they done it? Has she had a change of heart?
Perhaps she has, but not in the way Boss was hoping for.
She cries out, speaking of her deepest desires, and the source of her determination. In that moment, there's a lot Boss would need to consider to form a proper response: but he won't be given that luxury. He is still flying towards her at top speed. By some miracle, he seems to actually be on target - but once more, Asciel stops the attack in its tracks. This time, that also involves stopping them in their tracks - and Boss Borot is well and truly out of options.
Energy spent and every weapon out of commission, Borot can only turn its head to protect its eyes and pilots. The light of Asciel's heart - because surely that's what it is - effortlessly passes right through Borot's head. When the tethers either move or retract, Boss Borot falls lifelessly to the ground.
Yet again, Asciel has soundly beaten them. This time, after thinking themselves better-prepared, they still neither won the fight nor convinced Asciel to change course - with regards to the former, they're in even worse shape than last time. Borot will probably need to be outright patched up by another machine if it's to leave in anything resembling a timely manner.
And yet, once he's had a moment to think it over, Boss's heart is more full than the previous battle. Certainly he feels a sting of defeat; there's not very much to celebrate, here. What has happened, though, is that Asciel has had to be earnest, or at least more earnest. She might be an even tougher opponent from now on... but there's room for progress here. It's like Boss was saying to Liam: what matters is that it can get better. In his mind, there's no way this is over yet; but there is hope.
With that, he moves to send out an open broadcast to request help. There's no need, though, as Sayaka is already on her way. "Thanks, Sayaka. I don't know if I'll ever see her again, but there's no way I'm giving up on her." And, in the end... all things return to ramen. "I'd be happy to provide. 'Course, we all have to get some rest first... but our doors are open to you any day of the week."
<Pose Tracker> Teletha Testarossa has posed.
The head. It pounds. It works with energy and effort, three voices tracking itself within to work and pick at the lock that was Asciel Colette. Keep yourself together. Keep yourself calm. Keep it. Contained.
Humanity shall not rejoice. YOU WANT TO SAY THAT!? YOU WANT TO SAY THAAAAAAT!? AFTER ALL THIS!? AFTER WHAT YOU'VE DONE!? I. AM. REJOICING. IN. MY. SHIP! That's right. These Oaths are twisted.
"Incoming!" The technician did not have to elaborate.
"EMERGENCY DIVE!"
"EMERGENCY DIVE!"
The metal beast of the seas drew an artificial breath as it tried to sink down, to rely on the depths and the sheer inertia of still water to avoid the buildings. It is lucky, but only barely; the crash of a tower clipping at the tail of the Tuatha de Dannan, sending the submarine in a minor burst of a sudden turn, flinging the crew sideways. A tumble from the seat, the Captain of the ship colliding head against floor.
Gh- Hhhhh----focus, focus, focus, FOCUS BEFORE IT'S TOO-
Humanity shall not dream. i can't accept that. I can't accept that. Dream? Me? Hustler One? Not dream?
A deep, shaky breath. The simple, solid rejection of the most basic of Oaths, cramming her mental explusions back into a cracked, bruised, shaking container that constantly leaks and demands more. Slowly pushing herself up, Mardukas assisting with a grasp of the hand. "Start checking on everyone. Prepare retrieval, confirm locations." DANA. TDD-1. They'd work. Her XO wasn't stupid enough to allow anything worse to happe-
The harsh, steel gaze of a woman dealing with internal turmoil locked onto the hellfire of Nine-Ball. Watching. She doesn't bother covering her ears, the screeching in the city matching the eternal hell in her head. Deja vu. The strangest sense of deja vu. Watching. Analyzing. The strangest feeling budding in her heart, that mental pinprick from Goragon...rejoicing.
...I knew you were there. Another deep breath. Center. Watch. "Note the reappearance of Asciel Colette. Top priority." No, this wouldn't keep you down. You, the one striving to be inhuman. You, the one striving to shoulder everything onto yourself. You, the one touched by something more, and trying to process it in your own way. You, the one who set on this path on your own devices. You, the one who reached out a single hand and had it slapped away for all the right reasons.
Yet.
I can't help but admire how much I hate you for reminding me of myself.
The coal-black psyche of Teletha Testarossa continued smouldering.
"Incoming!" Again.
"Surge the electrical field! Three pulses!" This isn't normal. This isn't robotic. Those tendrils that grasp around the Tuatha de Dannan find themselves shocked. Repeatedly. Without end. The lights within the ship dimming as the metal caves in the tiniest bit, to strain and eventually burn off those tendrils.
It's only when the silence descends on the city, when the distant confirmation of that the thing behind it all has disappeared...That she finally takes in another breath.
...That joy. That's a human sort of joy. Ah, it hurts, it hurts, why is her head pounding so. Ever since then, ever since Goragon. Keep calm. Keep...centered...
<"...Begin preparations for emergency repairs. Once everyone is accounted for, treated, and stable, we retreat."> The best course of action. There's no more fighting. There's the main duo. Asciel Colette is gone. There si nothing left here but the ruins of a city to be picked clean by people far, far more capable than a simple teenage girl. Let the Intelligence Division figure out the interplay between responsibilities between Cathedra and the Photon Power Labs.
And yet, one small part of her laughs in a pinkish aura, cackling at the sheer absurdity of the miracle at hand. Asciiiiieeeeellllll...! Beautiful, beautiful, beautifuuuuullll...! I'm so jealous that you could FIGURE YOURSELF OUT!
<Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.
<poem>
Roux sees something flicker. She looks at it. It's text. She expects some dark statement from -
Wait, she thinks. Oh right, Roux sighs, I'm being an asshole. That must be the Super-AI girls. If Asciel, or Hustler One, or whoever, was still going, they probably finished off that wreck.
She taps out a reply.
> reactor off, in normal suit, no injuries > everyone alive up there?
> please say yes;