VS Chara
The Doctor, at last faced with no other choice, lowers his head.
"I've done enough proving for one lifetime."
The Doctor Grabs his now-visible soul, and gets ready for the worst.
...
And boy, is he glad to have figured all this out earlier.
Phase 1 is already a doozy for The Doctor. He's used to the ol' "run away" tactic, not battlefield evasion like this. Granted, fighting for human lifetimes in a war beyond comprehension has afforded him the skills to avoid, but he isn't... good enough.
One of the slashes hits him.
12
Surprisingly, only for that much. The product of his understanding.
For phase 2, The Doctor is firmly rooted (hah) to the floor, as he lacks any means to find higher ground. Having had some practice, though, he manages to navigate his SOUL through the spear onslaught. He's reacted to much faster, and dealt with much worse.
...Not much worse than phase 3, though.
Having already observed the peculiar quality of blue and orange attacks, The Doctor is well prepared to deal with the first volley of slashes. If nothing else, he's very good at dancing, even the last bit with the knives converging in only requires some very complicated dancing. It helps that the target is so small, even if The Doctor's SOUL is very slightly larger than a human's.
The last bit, however...
That trips him up. It doesn't quite follow the rules of the game. He expects a telegraph, and waits for a telegraph.
It's Fu's warning that stops him from making a fatal mistake. One last attack dodged, and The Doctor catches his breath.
"You know, you must be the most remarkable person I've ever met. Because I've been alive for a billion years, and in all that time, I've never met someone who wasn't important. Whatever your partner's been telling you... about power, about meaning. I think, suffice it to say, that they're not a very good partner."
The Doctor begins to pace, nearing closer to Chara.
"Because I think I know, why your partner did all this. It wasn't to teach you anything. They did it because they wanted to play a game. Because that's all your life is, to them. A game."
He stands at the edge of SPO!Asriel's spear cage.
"But it isn't to me. And it isn't to us. Your future doesn't have to be a game, it can be anything, anything at all. Your choice."
Edited by Whoma on Dec 13th 2023 at 2:49:34 AM
Yatta!Without a moment to spare, Sebastian quickly teleports about the arena to evade the opening barrage of slashes. Before he can pull that trick off again, however, a pair of vines manage to ensnare his legs; that, combined with his initial surprise, leaves him wide open to a combined volley of spears and knives.
While the onslaught proves capable of flooring him, Sebastian quickly cuts himself free of the vibes entangling him before leaping to his feet, narrowly evading Chara's lethal swipe in the process. As his now-tattered coat flutters behind him in the breeze, he calmly wipes some blood from his mouth and prepares himself for whatever trick Chara/Flowey might pull next.
-
Thor immediately takes to the air once again, avoiding both the opening salvo of slashes and Flowey's vines. Of course, he still has the combined flurry of spears and knives contend with. While he manages to successfully bat away numerous projectiles, enough of them manage to connect and send him crashing back to the ground.
When Chara decides to try delivering a killing strike, Thor instinctively rolls aside in time to avoid the fatal blow. He then hauls himself back up, his eyes glowing electric blue as he readies his legendary hammer.
Edited by IchigoMontoya on Dec 13th 2023 at 3:25:39 AM
VS Chara
Okuu looks surprised at the soul popping out of her and reflexively grabs it.
"Hey! Get back inside." she says to it, trying to cram it into Yatagarasu's eye on her chest. It simply bumps against it but seeing as how she'll probably keep trying anyway, Yatagarasu reaches out a ghostly bird talon and keeps it clasped (they share a soul before you complain Chara you dingus).
At this point is getting more used to the slashes, so the first barrage leaves her unscathed. She ignores the text boxes (she doesn't like reading) but Yatagarasu does note their contents...
The moment the vines try to grab Okuu, she stomps down and a nuclear pulse shoots out and incinerates them (and the vines grabbing those near her. She then flies up, avoiding some spears only for one to graze her... and pass through. Huh. This means the next one hits the soul dead on though and ow pain. She resolves to fly though the rest in a way that keeps the soul out of the path.
With Yatagarasu's advice, she moves in the appropriate way to dodge the color coded daggers, being reminded of that weird blade maid she fought once by the sheer quantity. She looks ready to treat the last one the same way she did the rest-
Then Fu's warning comes in.
It takes her a moment to process that. Dying isn't something she's usually worried about but her eyes widen as she sees the red slash heading her way. She thinks about Orin being finally left alone and-
She's gone, in the blink of an eye. Those wondering if she teleported will soon hear a sonic boom sound indicating she simply went that fast. After the attack passes she lands back down, catching her breath.
"Wew... that really caught me off guard." she says, not so much exhausted physically as just that surprised. She takes this moment to get her thoughts back in order, though she stares at the ground Flowey is hiding in, pupils looking distinctly more animalistic.
"I would have to agree. From what I hear, it sounds more like you attempted to rationalize what your so called partner did rather than accept they were a loathsome individual, like many I've seen in Hell." Yatagarasu says, deciding to speak up. "It's best to not let oneself be weighed down by their malice, lest they drag you down into the pits with them."
"That was a pointless encounter with a pointless person."Neuff used her teleportation to draw closer, so she can't do like Sebastian and spam teleportation. What she does is that she pulls out Gae Bolg and the Bitch gun and try to use it to swat or deflect the projectiles, shooting with the latter and spinning the latter. Being a Sister, she has a natural knack for weaponry. And thus, she's able to skillfully fend off the projectiles.
But some do hit, and she flinch just long enough for the vines to wrap around her legs.
Oh what the hell?! Neuff gets caught off-guard, lacking the proper experience to calmly react to a threat yet, and get hit by a whole bunch of projectiles. Being a toughie, she's able to withstand such damage, but she realizes that she's being put under pressure, and accumulating more wounds than she'd like. Regaining her composure, she once again defend herself with her weapons...
But also bring down lightning from the heavens on her. Not having much fine control over her electromagnetism, she try just burning/blasting the vines away with a bolt of lightning that can't really harm her anyway. And then she's able to take to the air. I should really go thank Dun and the others for teaching me about that bit! As Chara's onslaught stops, Neuff's...
... Only begins.
She swoops back in with the non-pointy tip of Gae Bolg scraping against the ground, leaving out a trail as she razes close to the ground with her flight. She's not comfortable enough with violence to like try to impale a kid with a spear but she does feel comfortable enough with violence to beat the shit out of them, so she try to hit Chara in the chin with an upwards movement with the other point of her spear.
If he's tossed into the air, she then briefly let go of the spear and move to try to smash Chara in the stomach with a succession of hits that would've culminated in a bash to the ground. But Asriel... one Asriel, she doesn't really care, decide to trap Chara when he was basically set-up for a massive team beatdown.
Huh
...
The Hammer simply sticks his chest out and wait for the others to inevitably fail to attack him. Unluckily for it, he... sort of forgot that furtniture can hurt him, allowing Formortiis to get the first hit in.
The Hammer doesn't speak unless it feels compelled, but the way it staggers back, with its screen glitching out, is telling. Then it gets further whacked by furniture, each time moving it about and causing it to stagger pretty bad.
No! Our pool! It's ruined!
Unfortunately, with half the group taken out, the Hammer is able to shrug off the attacks and get to its feet, with a suitably enraged expression on its face as it moves one hand to his tv head and tune up the volume after it got thrown out of wack. Using its almighty power over space and time, the Hammer raises its enormous daddy arms and bend both to...
... teleport a few feet behind the group and deeper into the house. Then it sort of does nothing, and so will the heroes, as the rest of the good guys group is allowed to recover to their feet with no interference. Fair-Play Villain much? Except NOT, because The Hammer then immediately power up, forming a thick blue energy shell around it as it begins to pool its power together for one almighty attack.
EVERYBODY GET DOWN! Megumi screams, jumping to the side. Since he was standing on the hallway, he splat against a wall and fall on his back with a dumbfounded expression. Everyone else mostly fare better by choosing one corner to pile up on, with Diavolo, Beruka, Corrin and Yuji all jumping to the same side, and quickly amassing into a mountain.
Get off you clowns! It's MY side!
Nuh-uh.
Well I do own the house so...
No, we own the house. It's our corner. Get off.
Alright. Diavolo and Yuji get up and walk off to another corner where they might be safe and secure. They kind of stumble around the room, searching for spots, considering which is better, arguing about who will take who and then doing six rounds of shifumi before eventually going along their respective sides. Luckily for them...
The Hammer is slow as shit with forming an attack.
He first start out by spinning his arms clockwise, then counter-clockwise. Then he jump to stand on said arms and spin his short legs counter-clockwise than anticlock-wise, then he get back on his feet and begin making a Kamehameha, before eventually pulling his fists back and pointing overhead at the ceilling, at which point he puts his arms down the length of its body and start to wobble from side to side, eventually "freezing" in an awkard position, with his knee all bent.
Then, the Hammer puts his arms to the side, hands raised to the sky, and flap them up and down, causing his legs to stand back up again. He then spreads his hands to the side and repeatedly tap the sides of his robot head. Once done, he does the entire Thriller Dance.
Irritated, Beruka drags a fallen clock to her side, still laying low, and impatiently tap on it with her fingers, waiting for The Hammer to get done.
hey guys the game is haunted you should probably know about this before As Marceline suddenly walk into the hallway, she even more suddenly become aware of The Hammer and the bunch of people (hopefully) scattered around the ground.
oh
... Mostly The Hammer, who glares at her as he finish charging up its attack. With a simple forward flick using its hands, The Hammer hurls a mighty ball of concentrated demonic energy into Marceline, letting it soar over the group and slam into the Vampire Queen.
you're still bottom 50 games of all ttiiiiiiiiimmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee....................... As Marceline goes flying off into the distance, carried off by the ball of concentrated awesome, she zooms over Hub Centralis and directly towards Luin, wherever the hell she might be in the Arena. It was her who was the target all along: Marceline was just a nice bonus.
And wherever Luin might be, there's also an orphanage for sick children, with Mahito lurking close to it.
I'm going to snap a bunch of pics of sad children and send them to Yuji he'll be so sad hahaha... ah?
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee The sky ignites blue as The Hammer's energy ball slams into the world at full speed, causing Mahito to screech in helpless fear as the energy engulfs him completely and utterly. Bolded destruction ensues, you're probably kind of familiar with it.
OH GREAT GOR AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
9,000,000,000,000,000 people instantly fucking die. At least 7,000,000,000,000 more die a few seconds later. An enormous pillar blast of blue energy reach high into the air, the ocean dries, the stocks collapse, your momma sends you an unfunny meme she found on Facebook, the sky falls, at least three regions of the Arena are scorched, at least 10 more characters show up in a cameo where they shrug off the attack, the ground shakes, Refia goes "waaa" as usual.
It doesn't really matter to the group at Hub Centralis, who only see a very, very distant blue "boom" followed by nothing else that matters. Acting quickly, Megumi summons his trump card.
WITH THIS TREASURE I SUMMON THE MEANS FOR YOUR ASSKICKING he yells, grabbing a wooden chair. Diavolo stands up and pull his sleeves back before grabbing a nearby fridge.
Yuji also hurry upstairs to avoid competition. He comes back with a whip and a whole closet. I didn't know if the whip was furniture so I went for the safer option.
Beruka grabs the kitchen sink and rip it out of the wall. Corrin goes and pick up the couch, with lethal intent in his red eyes.
Edited by Bolded1 on Dec 13th 2023 at 5:21:00 PM
Nautolan picture belongs to Bonesmarinated on twitterHAMMER
Nuue has vanished into thin air. Huh.
A houseplant
happened to be relaxing on a beach when the massive fucking energy wave hit close enough to vaporize the beach, his lounge chair, and, most importantly, his phone.
This, he would not stand for.
A sonic boom sounds out as he suddenly moves towards The Hammer, crashing through any obstruction in his way to do so. When he arrives...
you broke my phone you asshole
He summons a chair from nowhere and fucking Gravity Guns it at The Hammer. And then another. And then another.
buy one chair get two free what a deal
He hovers there, eyes still closed, completely unmoving.
aeiou: the secondHammertime
As it turns out, the chair Megumi picked up had a Taye wrapped up in it, causing him to be picked up with the chair. Said chair + Taye combination is surprisingly lightweight and easy for Megumi to move around or otherwise manipulate. Freaking Taye, how do they work?
He (Taye) barely knew what's going on in all the chaos, or why the Arena decided he should get tangled in a chair when he's most certainly better than this.
But hell, it's about time to be part of the chaos.
"I AM THE CHAIR!" Taye shouts like a shounen protagonist as Megumi... does whatever he (Megumi) was about to do. Taye's used to just going with the flow at this point.
Edited by Hotpizza on Dec 14th 2023 at 10:29:42 PM
HAMMER
Wriggle and Yamame had deviously avoided the attack by hiding in the safest spot, off screen where the narrator would forget to mention them during the attack's effects. They get kicked back out though by Luna Child who is still hogging it until her next scene.
Anyway, the Hammer guy. Yamame just grabs an ironing board and uses it as a blunt instrument while Wriggle makes a whistling sound. The cockroaches then reemerge, all holding tiny insect sized pieces of furniture and fly at THE HAMMER's face to start attacking him in the eyes and other sensitive areas.
"That was a pointless encounter with a pointless person."VS Chara and Flowey
Pseudo's monitor gets annihilated instantly. And I mean... kinda logical that it would. It's just a flying television.
Khai's visor glows, allowing him to remain focused during Phase 1 and ensuring that he's able to dodge the incoming slashes.
For Phase 2, Khai begins to parry the spectral Undyne the Undying's spears with his blade, channeling power from his other systems into his blade to give it more strength and speed. No need to deal with SOUL shenanigans if you can deal with the attacks themselves.
Unfortunately, this leaves him ill prepared for Phase 3 due to needing to re-redirect power to the rest of his systems. He gets tripped up BAD by the colored slashes as a result, taking some serious damage from being unable to adapt to the alternating colors, ending up with him getting slammed on the ground, full of gashes within his metal frame that'll need a moment to heal up.
But then...-
Pilly hops back first before she starts speed-jumping around like freaking Spider-Man, evading most of the slashes of Phase 1, but not all of them. Thankfully, thanks to Chara's earlier debuffs, the resulting damage is manageable.
For Phase 2 she relies on dodging again, but she is not aware that the spears target her temporary makeshift SOUL. The moment it gets hit she gets stunned and hit again numerous times, dealing a good bit more damage to her.
"Owww...", she groans, briefly examining the cuts over the parts of herself she can see. She was gonna need repairs after this fight.
Phase 3 then happens, and she decides to kick it off a notch, jumping and bouncing off of walls and trees to avoid the orange slashes while coming to immediate stops for the blue slashes by digging her spider legs into the closest solid surface.
But then...-
Two more monitors fly out of the base, both flying in front of Pilly and Khai and getting hit by the instant-kill slashes in their steads. The screens flicker red upon getting hit, a bunch of 9's splattered all over them before they start to shake violently, eventually exploding.
That was barely on time. Pilly and Khai would have been goners otherwise.
-
Neuff gets cucked as her spear attack gets blocked by more upcoming vines. Though her attack does shred said vines, prompting Flowey to pop back up angrily, though he quickly switches back to a little smirk.
"Boy howdy, for a little girl you sure pack a punch!"
"Chara, let's-"
Flowey looks alarmed as he sees what SPO!Asriel's about to do. But he can't stop it from happening.
The exhausted Chara listens to what the Doctor says. And while he doesn't really believe it, there's some doubt in his eyes.
Chara then gets trapped along with SPO!Asriel (having been distracted by the Doctor's words), and with his knife outside of the cage there's nothing he can really do.
". . ."
He smiles.
"So. Are you gonna try to finish me off?"
"Nah, as if you'd have the guts to kill anyone."
... Is he trying to bait Asriel?
Regardless, with Chara locked in, Flowey looks uncertain. He retreats back underground, likely seeking a way to get to Chara.
Regardless, this upcoming turn Chara can't attack or be attacked. This is the perfect time for everyone to catch their breaths and heal up further if necessary.
Khai sputters a bit before descending onto the ground. Even with his body beginning to repair itself, he's not in a good state right now.
Pilly tries to assess the situation. The physical damage done to her body is not life-threatening, but it's still not something she can casually ignore. She may require some healing magic.
Edited by DevilPsyco on Dec 14th 2023 at 6:57:42 PM
In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay."Do you have the guts to admit when you're wrong?"
- ACT
- Chara
- Talk
- Us
- Talk
- Chara
"I'd like to think Chara is mostly the same throughout worlds. A child who preferred monsters over humans. Who learned how humans hurt monsters, and wanted to hurt humans back. Who roped his best friend into a scheme... And then, because of their actions, his best friend became the schemer controlling other innocents."
SPO!Asriel points at Flowey. "Do you still think that is truly Asriel? That he would've wanted you to kill, and kill, and kill no matter who it is in your way? Flowey is a sad vessel full of broken dreams. Asriel wouldn't be ordering you around like this. And, unless a third party was involved... you wouldn't be listening to him.
"God knows, you never listened to me."
He chuckles a little, and takes a step back as the spears disappear.
Edited by KiriK on Dec 14th 2023 at 12:39:34 PM
"A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to."Sebastian, deciding to give SPO!Asriel's attempt to talk down Chara the benefit of the doubt, doesn't move to attack this time. However, he does prepare to take action in case Chara proves to be beyond reason.
-
While SPO!Asriel decides to try reaching out to Chara, Thor casts a glance at GT!Chara and GT!Asriel.
"If you two have anything that can heal her injuries, I imagine she might appreciate the aid," he says, gesturing to Pilly.
The Past
GT!Chara puts his Empty Gun back in Dimensional Box A and instead pulls out... two square rod-box things with a green crystal in the center of each of them. He rushes over to Pilly.
"This oughta help. Hold still."
He holds the two boxes in each of his hands and it forms a screen- highlighting areas of damage before restoring them with a green glow. 80% charge left.
There you go."
He reaches out a hand to help her back up.
...
GT!Asriel looks over at Chara and sighs, deciding to add on to what SPO!Asriel was saying.
"I know Flowey never had anything but bad intentions. I was... like that once, and I regret it now. If he were really Asriel, he wouldn't want you to do this, either..."
GT!Asriel is unarmed, with his guard currently down.
"So please... stop this, and come to your senses... Even though you're not my Chara, it still feels wrong, seeing you like this..."
A text box pops up, visible to Chara.
*Asriel is sparing you.
aeiou: the secondChurro
Okuu doesn't have anything to say really. It sounds all kinds of complicated and messy and she usually lets Miss Satori deal with those things. Or Orin. Or Yatagarasu.
She does notice Flowey slip away again, probably planning something since he seems like a shifty type, especially with everyone here badmouthing him so openly. So while everyone is resting and talking, she aims her arm cannon at the dirt and presses it down.
Geothermal "Nuclear Blaze Geyser"
She infuses the ground with nuclear energy, turning underground chunks of it into magma and making magma spouts erupt from in a way that's pointedly far from her allies or Chara to flush Flowey out. Like flushing animals out of a burrow but with magma instead of water.
This might not be the best idea really but hey she's not the thinker here.
"That was a pointless encounter with a pointless person."The Christmas Tree
Thankfully, neither the fireballs or the grinding affect the tree, since is a divine one.
As Switch rushes through the branches, a bunch of small spheric ornaments around began to glow, exploding shortly after.
Meanwhile, some of Corva's fireballs hit Pampín's back, leaving her a bit bruised... And a lot angry.
Amparo laughs on her couch. Hahaha! Finally some violence!
Pampín summons her staff (another forme of Inti) and leaps towards Corva, attempting to hit them with it.
Current status: At 10% of the tree, now Switch has the lead, getting deeper into the branches. Corva and Pampín are tied a bit below.
Majin Gaismagorm
Bely switches into Mermaid mode to fire some blinding scales towards Gaismagorm while he's busy with the pallette-swapped ninjas.
But as she's busy, Pancho Pantera rips her hair, and knits quickly a new rope, which he uses to attempt to grab Gaismagorm in his new form.
Mega-Paco just flies quickly towards Gaismagorm to attempt to drag him far from the MK ninjas.
Three freaking ghosts!VS Chara
Observing SPO!Asriel's plan, and the relative lack of effect of his own, The Doctor takes a step back, giving SPO!Asriel an affirmative nod.
His HP isn't full, which doesn't really feel like anything to The Doctor, but he full well knows that reaching 0 would be "game over". Still, it's not like he has anything to recover that with, half-eaten melty chocolate bar aside, and even that isn't monster food so Who knows if it would work (he knows, it wouldn't)
Here's The Doctor's chance to collect his thoughts and listen. A part of him, ruthless and uncompromising, loathes that his only option is to talk. But he doesn't have a choice.
Even if it means he has to lie, just a little. Not to Chara, but to himself.
Though, something about SPO!Asriel's words do bother him. That... intentional separation of identity. Flowey and Asriel are the same person, he can tell that much just from listening to them talk, but SPO!Asriel speaks as though there's a clear line where Flowey begins and Asriel ends.
There might well be, he doesn't know, but he suspects the truth is that SPO!Asriel is denying something about himself.
Hub Centralis - Below
It is calm below now. To Vera, and to Sariel, nothing strange at all might seem to be afoot if it weren't for where Ana had gone to last. Concealed within the Paradiso, a war could be waged with them none the wiser.
The transports that Vera saved change course. Clearly, whatever's going on up there... it isn't good.
Near the trio, a lump of rare unharvested rubble begins to stir, something caught under it. A survivor, perhaps? The man who rises from the ashes looks pale and thin, and the injuries he sports are far too great.
And his eyes. His eyes are like a corpse, except... golden.
"...Veeeeraaaa...." he- it, mumbles, stumbling forwards as though drunk.
The air is thick with smog and smoke, but all the dark clouds in the sky no longer seem capable of holding back the sun any longer.
Something is wrong.
Hub Centralis - Paradiso
Ana raises her right arm. Golden ichor leaks from a tear in her flesh, dribbling down the palm of her hand. A cord of golden light appears, wrapping around her thumb, pointer finger, middle finger, and so on until her right hand is bound in thread. A subtle distortion follows it, like the heat of the desert rippling the air.
Ana hears Golden Bat, and seems, for once, to mull over the question. She looks away from her endless list of victims, grinning curiously.
"Look at the sky, see what the stars say to you as you wait. You find... belief, in a meaning, greater than the sum of its part. But your meaning, your "something beyond", is a lie. Billions of years of evolution, have gone into forcing your flesh to think that it is capable of... grasping some greater, monumental truth... and then you run in circles."
An enormous pulse of energy permeates from the void rift behind her, pushing away Ryve's Ouroboros and, at the same time, dramatically increasing the rate at which it overheats. Talulah's own attack is just as useless, blown away by the biting of a fog rift. At a distance, the force kicks up a wind that the collected crowd struggles against.
Ana wheezes out a laugh.
"But you will never know. The machinery of your flesh. It is not really understanding."
The crack in reality behind Ana.
Spills open.
And behind it something. Something golden, and bright, and brilliant. Beyond description. Beyond.
The answer to Ana's question, carried on the light.
She does not want a "something beyond" to comfort herself.
Because she is.
Nia tries to avert her eyes, but she can't. The light is brighter than any light she's ever seen, and it burrows through her, tearing at her mind with a meaning that she cannot comprehend. Too much exposure... and it might hollow her out.
It would hollow out them all.
(Maybe. It definitely won't have an effect on Ayona or Ryve, at the very least)
...And yet.
With a wide grin on her face, as the gates of heaven open, Ana does make a mistake. Something sneaks up on her, and perhaps, punctuates her point with its only refutation, instigating something not far from misfortune upon her, and indeed, it could only possibly be one source causing it.
A Calamity. Kirike's power, just now slipping past the impenetrable veil of Ana's monumentality, and delivering upon her a fate made uncruel by her own cruelty. A beam of light erupts from Golden Bat's scepter, an attack of a sort suited to harm a being as powerful as her, and Ana, beset upon by that misfortune, makes an unlikely miscalculation.
She blocks the attack with her right hand.
The threads binding her rift together are severed by Golden Bat's attack, creating a massive refractive pulse of her own energy, and Ana's hand explodes with a crash.
The fog rift behind her snaps shut, an inverted wind carrying a few loose objects into it as it rapidly implodes upon itself before vanishing entirely.
Icarus's efforts open the cargo bay doors, opening room for evacuation.
And Ana regards her ichor-leaking stump... with a little frown upon her face.
Hub Centralis - Below
Outside the Paradiso, things are strange. The instant Ana opens her rift wider from within the ship, the situation on the outside grows broadly much worse for the duration of it. The dead rise in groups, possessed by far greater strength than before, as the sun beats down in such brilliant gold that it becomes difficult to see. Even more curiously, this effect is isolated to the section of Hub Centralis Ana is in, not a logical phenomenon at all.
But it doesn't last long.
These light-hollowed zombies crumple when Ana's rift is closed, and the growing light of the sun follows that trend. Near Vera, Kirike, and Sariel, the single risen corpse continues to shamble, one of a select few.
Possessed by unnatural power, it strikes at Vera, attempting a haphazard but relatively strong punch.
Hub Centralis - Comms
"I am sending down a small group of reinforcements. Additionally, my ship is capable of local transport. If you provide me sensor information, I should be able to extract in groups of up to 25, with a capacity of 2000."
That is the extent of Other!Edelgard's communications. The Powershift itself, now in visual range, is a sort of flying saucer in the stylings of the Freeza force's ships, albeit repainted and redecorated to share fewer things in common with the aesthetic of a tyrant. It isn't very large.
Her reinforcements consist of one individual. Just a single person.
But who in the world could that be?
Yatta!The Christmas Tree
Switch reacts almost bemused when he comes in contact with Corva's fireballs, despite them pushing him down the tree.
"Ha, as if that would stop me! Take this!"
He returns fire by throwing an anti-gravity core in her direction. When he notices that the ornaments around him seem to be explosive, he does what no sane man would've done, and positions his skateboard right above an ornament that's about to explode, hoping the blast will carry him upwards.
If it disagrees with experiment, it's wrong.Paradiso - Cargo Bay
Scattering!
The freed cargo ships jet out of the bay, their shields going up and speeding off towards the hospitals, carried onward by currently-overclocked thrusters.
...
"Gah!"
Ryve and Ayona are forced to separate to avoid overheating, and are thus mortal again. Both stare up at the light, but all it does is make the Ouroboros symbols in their eyes glow brightly. Both look up at Ana with an annoyed expression on their faces.
"Truth? Understanding? Life isn't defined by those things."
"People chase goals all the time. Even ones that might seem impossible."
"We've taken on stronger than you, I'm sure of it. The creator of a false world..."
"...felled by our hands. What makes you think you're any different, other than the mysterious banter?"
Hollow, meanwhile, is similarly unaffected. Mostly because Croque's body was designed with memetics in mind- and thus resists them quite well.
Talulah stares, and when the rift finally closes, is in a momentary daze. She'll shake it off in a bit, but for now...
Croque regains control of her own body.
"...I'm starting to get real damn annoyed. You break into my damn ship. My own creation, and all you do is cause destruction for no seeming goal. All these people, put at risk!"
Anyone with the ability to sense energy output or heat will note a massive spike in Croque's power output.
"So, I guess what I'm saying is we've had enough!!"
While Ana is injured, Croque, Ryve, and Ayona leap forth, with another suddenly busting in...
"Hah!"
The hangar's doors to the hallway open to reveal Amiya,
◊ with her sword drawn and her power at its current peak.
"Together, eh?"
Ryve smirks at the distant memory this evokes. But what's more important...
...is the result that comes of it.
Ryve is the first to attempt a strike, boosting forward with his Blade's boots, zig-zagging at an insane rate to avoid getting hit- before slamming both his gauntlets into Ana's side- or at least attempting to.
Ayona readies her rifle and fires a shot into the air, producing a mist that specifically heals allies.
Croque's power is finally released- a ton of DL-Croquii being warped in before unleashing a powerful strike each- this burns their reactors out, but that also means the possible hits will be strong- and augmented by blasts of energy.
Amiya finishes this missing-two-people Chain Attack with a sudden teleportation and downwards slash with her Arts-formed blade.
...
Lastly, some of the hull paneling over the cargo bay warps away, leaving it exposed to the sky.
Paradiso - Bridge
We'll use any help we can get. The anomalous energy spike tells me something's up.
The shutters of the bridge slam shut at the bright light, and Nil continues evacuation operations. Almost done...
Edited by RainbyPlays on Dec 14th 2023 at 8:07:56 AM
aeiou: the secondDamage Control
Icarus calls off the fleet. He's coordinated a special maneuver with Nil, which might send major quakes through the earth if successful - a desperate attempt at forcing Ana out of the cargo bay, pushing the digital entity's resources to its limits.
Falling from orbit and continuously accelerated by rocket thrusters, despite the air in front of it forming fusion reactions from all the heat and pressure, is a massive, Collapse Fluid-compressed lead cylinder, carrying with itself so much mass and momentum it's almost a miracle it hasn't collapsed in on itself. It's aimed at the weak spot in the Paradiso's hull, and meant to impact Ana at full force and drive her, along with whatever metal scrap happens to be in the way, downwards out of the ship. If this doesn't shove her out, Icarus is out of options.
—-
Damage control, comms
We're pretty much done with the recovery part as of now, combat backup is still appreciated. Right now, I'm trying to help get a target out of the Paradiso, which is the big ship in low altitude. Watch out for a very high-impact attack.
Icarus sends a trajectory of the lead cylinder, encoded as a Bezier curve - hopefully that's compatible with whatever data types Edelgard's systems use.
If it disagrees with experiment, it's wrong.Neuff rolls her eyes and heal herself. It dips into her stamina but she's got more than you'd think. And while she doesn't heal herself fully, she basically manage to make the worse of the wounds look like paper cuts.
It's one of those kinda fights, huh
Nautolan picture belongs to Bonesmarinated on twitterAurum
Nick's park bench and trash can both immediately hop forward and unleash a rush of kicks, their legs being made of a hyper-dense version of the material they came from further increasing the power. But by nature of being a fucking trash can and park bench, they both immediately stumble and fumble around after the kicks. Nick's hoping those two can make a diversion he can run off and save a little g-
"Goddamn pyromancers..." He growls before deciding to conjure more familiars by running into the crowd and uncover his wand to show a knife and quickly go for the closest group of people he can find and strip them of half their clothing, doing it as fast as he can to not interrupt them running away.
Much to their ire but their lives are on the line so they can't really process what's going on.
"HEY HEY, THE LIZARDS WOULD HAVE DONE THE SAME!! Sure's nice seeing a bouncing pair though"
This extremely odd detour lets him create a daisy chain of cloth-legged-familiars comprising of shirts, skirts, and undergarments that runs for the Glavenus in a coordinated formation to try and jump, surround, coil then strangle them.
realChristmas Tree
Pampín lost her balance because of her attack being deflected, and also because she got hit by Switch's attack, and she fell off the branches. She barely clutches the bark with her nails, saving herself of a tough hit on the ground.
In a risky, but smart play, Switch got impulsed by the explosion of the ornaments, altough they didn't got too far, since the explosions weren't too strong.
Current status: Switch is in a clear advantage, reaching the 15% mark. Corva is still on the 10% mark, while Pampín plummeted to the 2% mark.
And Amparo watches thoroughly the events, while licking some Nutella.
Three freaking ghosts!Sarah
Eleven looks down at the result of her attack. Her arm goes limp, no longer feeling a need to keep a fist clenched. She powers down and descends to the unconscious Sarah, grinning.
"Finally. I win."
her guard is down, jumping time
M12R1
Trainer Reyna calmly walks onstage, raises an eyebrow at Mariana, smirks, and sends out a Greninja, her own first starter in her many journeys.
This would be interesting...if it used regular Pokémon type matchups. Grass beats Water, but Dark beats Ghost. Unfortunately, in Masters formatting, Reyna's Greninja is only weak to Electric.
The Hammer
hey fuck you bolded refia ain't the crybaby character no more it's kirike now 😠
Fomortiis runs outside, transforms back into his colossal demon form, and picks up an entire Slumberland Furniture store, tearing it out of the ground by the foundations. He leaps into the stratosphere, doing twenty full-rotation front flips and a backflip for good measure, before coming down to CHAOS DUNK the building onto The Hammer's head!
Collateral Damage
"Naruhodo. Shikashi, moshi ningen ga guusen to kagaku-busshitsu ni suginai to shitara..."
For once I'm providing the translation in the post so others can work off of it if they want. "I see. But if humans are nothing more than chance and chemicals..."
Golden Bat syncs his reply to the exact moment Calamity strikes upon Ana.
"Naze kisama wo uchinomesu unmei ga sonzai suru no darou?"
"Why does fate exist to strike you down?"
He moves to complete the Chain Attack, by grabbing Ana and carrying her into the path of Icarus' makeshift meteor so that it brings them both down to the ground.
And as soon as it does, he'll be back on his feet, ready to pummel the shit out of her with his bare hands.
—
Meanwhile, Vera remains horrified by the sun's rotten light even after it vanishes. Sariel doesn't bother to warn her or intercept the zombie's attack...
Because another angel does. He looks like a blond young man in a priest's clothing,
◊ but he wields an ornate golden warhammer, the head of which he is holding out to block the punch, the impact making a shockwave that pushes him back. He tosses the hammer up, catches it by the hilt in both hands, and does a meteoric golf swing to smash the hollowed husk to pieces. All with a stone-cold glare on his face. The boy then turns to face Vera, and if he failed to at least send it flying, she quickly conjures a barrier between it and the angels.
"What have you gotten yourself into, Therafiel?"
In a shaky voice, Vera replies, "To be perfectly honest, I don't know, and I'm scared, and-"
The impact of the lead cylinder prompts her to yelp in surprise.
After a momentary silence, she asks, "Permission to take my leave... Aura, sir?"
"You shouldn't have been here in the first place. Go. I'll clean this up." Aura dismisses Vera, who vanishes into light. If the zombie is still alive, he leaps at it with an overhead hammer swing that hits the ground hard enough to form a jagged-edged crater!
Sariel is just standing back and watching this whole time. She could interfere and solve this instantly, but there's something entertaining about watching them fight it out.
Yawning Abyss
Godvessel Malzeno (finally thought of a Deviant prefix for it) is incensed by Altzaira matching his barrage. He also sneers at Morph Moth. "Oh, spare me the theatrics. You hardly even knew him."
He tries to fend off the various efforts of Bombon's characters to separate him from Sub-Zero and Scorpion, but with all of them working in rapid succession, he gets caught, and before he can break free of Pancho Pantera's rope, Baiken and Morph Moth start comboing him, with the finishing slash launching him across the ground.
He manages to brace his feet against the cliffside and spring off, swinging the flat of his sword to deflect Miraidon's Dragon Pulse and one of Nitori's beams, giving Haru's transformation a grin. The other beam still hits and flinches him, but he releases a ripple of infernal Qurio energy to melt the Terrarian's bullets before getting sandwiched between Scorpion's attack from behind and Haru's attack from the front. His body is so hot he seems to bleed liquid hellfire instead of blood, and even Haru mimicking Malzeno's form could get burned by being close to it. Not to say Godvessel Malzeno has gained a fire immunity, it's like Fatalis where adding even more heat could overheat him.
Speaking of even more heat, Quintet Magician's magic attack. The force of the blast slams Godvessel Malzeno back into the wall, this time unable to tech off of it as further flames pour out of his body and he howls in agonized rage. When it ends, he flash steps up to the Magician's face. "And you, unleashing all this power for a dragon a part of you never spoke to, and the rest of you never even met. Do you think this is worth it?"
He delivers a decapitating swing of his sword, the Abyssal Sunburst, a red glow around its blade, before turning his attention to Nitori. "You, on the other hand... Were it not for you, he would not be restored to his former strength."
Godvessel Malzeno flash steps up to Nitori's mech and thrusts a hand forward, casually ripping its cockpit open and yanking the pilot out (in an OOC-approved autohit), holding her by the collar of her shirt.
"I would not be able to claim his strength. Now, let me give you your eternal reward..."
He raises the Abyssal Sunburst to the kappa's neck... only to freeze and wince, his arm trembling. He drops Nitori and takes an unsteady step back.
In a strained voice, he chokes out, "I... will... not..."
"SILENCE!" Gaismagorm's voice reasserts itself as he thrusts his sword at her face—and barely misses. Malzeno growls and pants, nearly doubling over from exertion.
"A knight...does not betray...his benefactors."
He shakes his head, roars, "ENOUGH!" and simply kicks Nitori away before turning his focus back to the others. He lunges at Mega-Paco to try and impale the superhero, then throw him into a waterfall on the edge of the crater in hopes he'll get fried by his own electricity.
For his last attack this round, Godvessel Malzeno sprouts wings. He flash steps, stabs at Haru with one wing's blade-like tip, then swings it out in a wide sweeping slash to try and also hit Scorpion. He flash steps again and uses the other wing to stab at Morph Moth, then swings it out at Baiken.
—
Finally getting back on his feet, Zenitsu takes a deep breath. "Cover me if you can. If I get the chance... I might be able to end this in one move."
0/4
Baiken tumbles away, blood spewing from a gash across her chest. She plants her feet and leaps right from her prone position into a sprint at Malzeno, only to hear Zenitsu. She raises an eyebrow at him, but kicks up another tatami and holds it up in front of him protectively instead of attacking.
Lacking his powers for the most part, Sub-Zero leaps at Godvessel Malzeno with a flying kick, then tries to pummel him with punches and open-hand chops upon landing.
Miraidon takes a deep breath complete with Valstrax-esque Sucking-In Lines, then howls and fully absorbs the Electric Terrain. It finally gives up on named moves, opting instead to put its size advantage to use... by lunging to grab Godvessel Malzeno in its jaws, scrape him against the ground, and toss him away before blasting him out of the air with a Tera-Electric Tera Blast! It's a combo ironically similar to a Monster Hunter monster's pin attack sequence.
Edited by KiriK on Dec 14th 2023 at 1:41:58 PM
"A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to."Deep Beneath Hub Centralis
"If you're looking for the lady who hides, I'm afraid, you won't find her here."
"Interesting. That's the same thing the last dozen people told me."
teal t456
says to a mysterious old man. This part of Hub Centralis isn't seedy, so much as it is forgotten. A place where people go when they want "being lost" to be a permanent state of being rather than a temporary feeling. Further than the dark, seedy underbelly of the hub's worst and most nefarious places, here is where even the tremors up above rarely reach.
God only knows what lays at the bottom. The people who go looking rarely come back.
"Well, she wouldn't be called the "lady who hides" if she were easy to find, now would she? If anyone around here knows who she is or where to find her, I imagine they're doing a very good job of keeping it a secret."
t456 puts a hand against her chin, the artificial lights briefly catching a literal sparkle in his eyes.
"Well, that's troubling. I thought twelve was a lucky number... still, I appreciate the help. That said, if you could point me in the right direction...?"
The mysterious man chuckles.
"Sounds to me like you're at the end of your rope, huh? You're not the only person who's asked for the lady who hides, and not the only person whose trail ended with me."
t456 hums, lacing her fingers together behind her back as she gives things a think-over.
"Are you totally sure?"
Unlocking their fingers, t456 raises their scythe, which they were not holding a moment ago.
"I can open your head and find out."
The man sinks into his chair, and laughs... a little more than nervously.
"I'm sorry, I really don't know, and I think I need to get on my way-"
t456 leans towards the man, the blade of their weapon cutting off his escape.
"Are you afraid?"
"Do you want me to be honest?"
"I think so."
"Yes. Very. Please don't kill me."
t456 blinks, and backs off, leaning away from the man in an excessive fashion, hands both up in the air and notably scythe-less.
"Hold on? Kill you? Why in the world would I do that?"
She thinks back on her last... oh, 6 or so sentences. A flash of realization hits t456's face.
"I am so sorry," he apologizes profusely, cringing, "That did sound like a death threat, didn't it?."
The man, recovering from his (not) near-death experience, waves off t456's concerns, but still needs some time to calm his racing heart.
"I was talking metaphorically, t456 continues anyways, "I use the scythe to keep myself from falling over sometimes, it was a miscommunication-"
"Alright, I get it! Please, just, leave me be. You aren't going to find the lady who hides by talking with me."
t456 stops, looking straight ahead. He opens his mouth to say something, but bites her lip to stop herself.
"Sorry, yes, I mean..."
t456 rises onto their feet.
"I'll get going. Posthaste. Apologies."
Without any further word, t456 gets going, sinking away into the dark alleys. The mysterious old man rolls his shoulders, and pats himself on the chest. He shakes his head.
Edited by Whoma on Dec 14th 2023 at 10:53:33 AM
Yatta!

The Quarry
"Will? I've got quite enough of that."
Yakedo's head is sent flying from the punch- though it stops and floats in place, encasing itself in a barrier as to avoid another surprise.
Her headflame sparks up again, and some beads of light flow into it...
Memories. Fuel for her mental fire, her fallen foes made into frenzied fire.
"But there's always someone more, isn't there?"
Her body leaps forward, unleashing a massive torrent of flame that scorches a good stretch of forest, as well as (hopefully) engulfing Gentos- if they're burned to ash, they can't regenerate...
...right?
Not That One Dinosaur Place, Aurum
"-two of them?!"
Toreiru leaps back to dodge the initial strike, and then realizes the immediate danger the onlookers are in. Mostly, that girl...
"NO!"
He claps his hands together, and a wave of fire shoots down at the raptors to keep them at bay. He scoops up the girl and then quite literally hurls her to safety- though he did encase her in a gel-like pod beforehand. He knows most civilians can't regenerate themselves or the like.
He lands and slams his hands into the floor...
...and metal spikes jut out to impale the raptors.
"You guys focus on the Galvenus! I'll try and get the last of the people out!"
Toreiru knows the monster names? Huh. At any rate, he starts transmuting the very earth beneath his feet into golems to both keep any remaining raptors busy and get the people away from the area. One might notice he isn't using an alchemy circle for this. So what is this power drawing from?
vs Chara
GT!Chara and GT!Asriel both grab their SOULs and stand next to each other. They nod...
...and then the attack starts.
They dodge the slashes- they've seen the attack a grand total of roughly three times now, they know how to avoid it.
At the rain of spears, both move their SOULs about, though they're tripped up for a moment by the vines. GT!Asriel takes a grazing hit to his SOUL, though that doesn't matter- his whole body flares up in pain and he winces, but keeps going.
For the next attack, they're separated from each other. Both dodge the colored knives pretty easily, as... again, it's a similar attack with a different gimmick. Sort of.
Then the instant kill slashes come, and GT!Chara yelps as he barely dodges the first one. So does GT!Asriel- but both focus on dodging as best as they can. After all that, they're both breathing slightly heavily. Out of breath but not truly tired.
GT!Chara opens up his Dimensional Box B again, and pulls out two slices of Pie. He hands one to GT!Asriel.
*I eat the Pie. The aroma fills the air and reminds me of those I'm fighting for... My HP was maxed out! And... My HP overfills by 20!
*Asriel eats the Pie. His HP was fully restored. ATK up, DEF up.
Both of them look refreshed, and even healed. GT!Chara looks around to check if anyone's injured from that last attack, while GT!Asriel looks on with a focused expression.
Edited by RainbyPlays on Dec 13th 2023 at 4:48:50 AM
aeiou: the second