Battleworld 2.0

Mitakihara Middle School Roof

"It's alright, Wendy-chan," Madoka continued, finally breaking the hug so that she could look at Wendy in the eyes. "I like to think that people are good at heart and want to do the right thing, so I want to give everyone a chance." Her smile was as welcoming as ever, going forth with the prospect of making new friends even in this crazy world they've all found themselves in.

From behind Madoka, Kyoko would look lost in thought for a moment at the former's words, eyes pointed at the rooftop before swinging back towards Carla and Cana across the way. "So what are you guys gonna do, tag along as chaperones?"

Josuke - Sparda Estate

Josuke blinked after the group was transported to yet another location. He swore under his breath when he saw that Okuyasu had been separated from him. Still, he reminded himself that this sadistic 'god' would most likely not just kill someone like that. He joined the general Akko comforting effort. "Hey, don't feel bad about it. It's all that Nyarly bastard's fault anyway."

Once the demonic-looking thing entered, Josuke imediatly manifested Crazy Diamond. He didn't get the context, but it was clear this thing was not good news. While he was concerned for V being punted like that, he saw that that latter was caught with enough efforts to keep him unharmed. So he decided to focus on the enemy. The japanese teenagers rushed towards the monstrous warrior, and his Stand began to try to repeatedly punch the for with a mighty cry of "Doradoradoradora!"

Both Okuyasu and Yukako looked around to see that 1: they were in another place and 2: the intruders were organized in yet another group. They didn't have much time to talk, however, as the monster that was once Lady appeared.

Okuyasu honestly wanted to puke upon seeing the monster and learning it was once a human. It reminded him way too much of his father. So the thuggish-looking boy angrily replied to the voice of the eldritch god. "Screw you, buddy! We came here to save that chick, so that's what we're gonna do! Then we're gonna drag you out of your hiding place and give you a good lesson!" He covered his ears in pain once he began to hear the shriek. Since he didn't have a good way to reach her, he stood in place and waited for Monster!Lady to make a move.

Meanwhile, Yukako was more aggressive. [[grey:"Love Deluxe!"]] Using her tentacle-hairs, she launched herself from the ground towards the bird-monster-Lady-thing. Then she moved her hair to try to grab the waist of the monster in question.

Mitakihara Middle School - Roof

"I think that too, Madoka, and I reeeeally hope you're right about other people too, not just us," Wendy said, a slight sniffle followed by rubbing her eyes clear of tears. "But... what do we do now?"

"Chaperone? Why - well, I suppose," Carla said with a huff.

Cana looked at Kyoko for a moment, and then shrugged.

"Pretty much, kid. Preeeeetty much. Can't exactly separate Carla from Wendy anyway, and Erza'd pound my skull through the guild floor if I ditched you guys to go to the bar." She sighed. "But hey, I'm cool too, right? Maybe I can be like your... cool older - _slightly_ older sister, huh?"

Luna Nova Entrance

"Fear not, my petite and delicate little fanciulla, were Littorio trying to sweep you off your feet, there would be not question about it - and you would not be standing."

Littorio chuckled long and hard at that, finally stopping when the shorter girl came by and demonstrated the proper... 'swooning'... technique.

"Ah, I see you have more of a mind for these matters. That is good. Of course, I believe I am a bit too mature for a girl such as yourself. Perhaps though... in another time. Another life. A life where you had more... experience, yes?" Littorio held a hand out, the palm facing out horizontally, and then held it up as if indicating the girl needed to be a good five inches of experience taller. "But you have a good heart for one so young, I am sure you could make any of your little friends swoon indeed, no? Perhaps even...."

She licked her lips, put a finger to her tongue, and thought for a moment.... Then she pointed at the girl with the French accent.

"Her, yes? Littorio has an eye for these things, after all, and you can never go wrong with instincts. There is-a definitely something there."

She tilted her head up when she noticed the cylops and the troll - specifically the troll. And up. And up. It didn't take her long to suss out what the creature was doing, and she couldn't help but sympathize with him. Strolling over towards him with purposeful steps, she flourished her cape and held her hand up with a great deal of fanfare.

"Good start, my large friend, but..." She handed the troll a trio of roses, one between each of the fingers on her right hand, the stems held out towards him. "..it always helps to have one of these to break the ice, no? Never give up, and perhaps one day you can have a way with the ladies the same way Littorio does - ahaha, well, perhaps not quite that much. But still good, yes? Ah, and of course, how could I forget - wear a cape, They add a good deal of nobility and mystery to your aura."

She took a moment to put her hands on her hips, puff out her chest, and revel in the glory of her advice.

Then she caught wind of Felicia heading away.

"Of course, signora! Right away." With that, she scurried off after Felicia, keeping close.

Common Room: Curiosity Kills Cats, not Dogs

Despite their monstrous appearance, it seemed that these creatures from Voya Nui had some semblance of human etiquette; the Dog's "studious" staring at the blurry-lined green one caught the attention of it's black companion...and the thing's greeting was less than inviting.

"No," the Contractor replied to the question—though perhaps someone Zaktan's (though sadly not Reidak's) wit might notice the unsaid "not here" laced in her tone. In contrast to the Piraka's overbearing posture, the Dog took a calm approach: relaxed shoulders, weight leaning on one side, a hand in a pocket. One might even mistake her stance as an insult to the aggressive creature; the ugly bastard was so below her league that she didn't feel the need to defend herself!

"Hate to break it to you, but you and your boss don't exactly blend in." the Dog replied with her free hand thumbing over to Miss Watson and her interview. "Most folks around here either are, or are pretending to be human; can't say I've ever seen something like you stomping around here."

She blinked, and leaned away from Reidak a few inches. No, was that right? Had she never seen something like these things on Battleworld? Not in person, obviously—who could forget these faces only their mothers could love?—but maybe in this room's feed...

The Dog glanced over towards the globe. The name "Voya Nui" stuck out in her mind for some reason, but it took an uncomfortably (or maybe from Reidak's perspective annoyingly) long silence for her to piece together why the name was so familiar.

"...y'know what? I think I have heard of some creatures like you. They came from something that ended in 'Nui,' too. Can't say they left much of an impression from what I can tell, though. One of those 'flash in the pan' states that leave almost as soon as they arrive."

The Dog snapped her fingers in discovery, and smirked. "Mata, that was it. Mata Nui. You see so many people come and go, at some point they all start to blend together. Even the weirder ones."

For the first time since searching for answers, the Dog turned her eyes back to Reidak's. Then, with an almost oblivious smile, she asked: "Friends of yours?"

Castlevania, Castle Keep: ...Can We Chat in Private?

If the Count wanted to see a crack in Majora's childish demeanor by sharing this news, he succeeded. At first, the response was subtle except for the dead silence, but as the seconds passed Majora slowly craned the husk's neck towards the floor.

"So...he can't be dead...for good? He can kill my friends and they'd normally never come back...but that monster somehow...managed to beat death?"

Tiny fists trembled by the husk's side.

"Not fair..."

The trembling rattled up its limbs its arms.

"Not fair..."

Shoulders, neck, then finally the mask's entire puppet stomped its feet and flailed its arms in fury.

"Not fair not fair NOT FAIR NOTFAIRNOTFAIRNOTFAIR!!! How come a murderer like him gets to live forever, HUH?! That's CHEATING! Ugh, how's it even possible that I can I HATE that little monster even more than I already DO?!"

Amid his tantrum, Majora's eyes (or the good one, at least) came across his companions. Seems they chose to brave the angry keese to follow him into the castle keep. Awww! What loyal puppets, they were!

...though Koishi's presence might pose a problem. The Count had just baited Majora with some much-needed information on the mask's enemy, but if Dracula spilled all the beans with Koishi present, the carefully-woven lies Majora had used to swap heroes and villains might start to unravel. And at least for now, Koishi Komeiji was too valuable a pawn to lose.

So with an exaggerated cross of the arms and legs, Majora squatted on the ground in an oh-so-mature pout. "Koishi doesn't need to hear all this; you'll hurt her feelings if you keep talking, Mister. That immortal murderer turned her big sister against us, and tore down half their home just to do this to me!" The mask glared up at Dracula, a finger pointing to the eye with a vertical gash straight through it. "And I'd bet my other eye that he caused all that ruckus just to give me a warning! So think about that next time you let some strange kid come over for a visit—they could be a bloodthirsty maniac!"

A pause, and Majora realized a few beats too late just what it was insinuating.

"Not us, though!" the mask corrected as it leaped to its feet, and the group's defense. "We're the Good Guys! Eh hehehehe!"

HGT, Hatsudai Government Building: Around The World in Eighty Days Minutes!

"You make excellent points all around, Madame Delegate." Nishijima hummed, "And while I might argue that encompassing a globe of this scale may not be as great of a commitment as one might first believe, I concede that the cons far outweigh the pros."

Despite having part of his request thrashed for the absurdity it was, the Research Director was far from bothered by the rejection. Quite the opposite, he leaned forward more in his chair as his smile inched into something akin to sincere.

"If I'm being candid: your approach to these negotiations is quite refreshing, Madame Delegate. Just as you say, I could have mapped out my proposition or demanded something even more outrageous and wait for you to take the bait, but please believe that even if I wanted to patronize or deceive you, I already judged you to be above those tactics; they seem an insult to your intelligence, at the very least. I expected either a short and outright rejection—which would not be unmerited—or a demand for a reasoning beyond 'I want Luna Nova protected.' And while you chose the former in the end, you did so in a way that did not insult my intelligence. Unfortunately, not every delegate I have negotiated with has done the same."

Nishijima's eyes subconsciously wince at the memory of dealing with Princess Azula...

"Regardless, even though you did not ask, I believe you should know my reasoning for the request: whether by coincidence or the Cure's design, most of the coastal states on the Western hemisphere belong to either barbaric warmongers or highly-advanced Imperialists. I have already summarized the known state of Outworld and the Koopa Kingdom, but their Western neighbor is likely also unstable:

"City 17 was governed by one Dr. Wallace Breen, a supposedly brilliant physicist who managed to gain the lion's share of the area's political power. I say this all in the past tense because two days ago he was usurped from his position by...well, what I can only call an impressive number of enhanced individuals from across the planet. Since then, I suspect that City 17's government has either destabilized, or fallen apart entirely—the language used in the rallying cry to depose him suggested he was a dictator, and like many dictators I doubt these would-be 'liberators' strongly considered what might happen to the rest of the city once its ruler was gone. I cannot say one way or another if City 17 has any naval or air presence, but they have the technology needed to create one. That means if Shao Kahn wishes to pick an easy target with much to gain, City 17 may become a viable threat later on.

"To the immediate South of City 17 lies Zi-Jin Cheng, a rather enigmatic state whose presence in the Common Room plummeted about four days ago. Like Outworld, their isolationist approach is a touch concerning, but unlike the barbarism expressed by Shao Kahn, Chancellor Sun-Tsu Liao seems to boast a highly-militarized religious sect with technology that far surpasses our own. It would not surprise me to learn that Zi-Jin Cheng has a powerful fleet at it's disposal, but sad to say that is pure speculation on my part."

Nishijima paused, as if he wanted to say more but had to double-check his calculations before doing so. In the end, he must have decided there was more risk in holding this information than in sharing it now.

"...unlike the Archadian Empire. Before I say more, know that the city of Archades is among the members of PANDORA's fellowship, and that we have a mutually beneficial trade agreement. However, less than twenty-four hours after striking our deal, the man I signed it with—Lord Vayne Carudas Solidor, heir to the Archadian Empire—ascended the throne after the death of his father, Lord Gramis Solidor. I have not been disclosed to any details myself, and I pray it is just a tragic coincidence, and yet...I'm sure we've both read enough political history. That, and the fact there are a staggering number of military airships at Lord Vayne's disposal, makes me believe that he has grown tired of the borders to his rule. If Archades were to invade one of it's neighbors, Luna Nova would make an easy foothold into the planet's central states. After all, it's just an all-girl's school surrounded by a dense forest; hardly an obstacle for a fleet of airships that can travel as fast as commercial aircrafts."

Nishijima let the sentiment linger in the air as he sipped his tea. It was getting lukewarm.

"Speaking of which, what sort of air force can Azur Lane offer? While the need may not be immediate, it never hurts to have some reconnaissance aircraft on hand, just in case."

Edited by TheodoreHastings on Jan 25th 2021 at 7:27:39 AM

Sparda Estate

Minako flinched as the mansion before them exploded and covered her face and neck with her arms in case any stray shrapnel came flying for her, though thankfully she managed to avoid any damage. Things began moving fast, not the least of which were V being punted through the air and Akko tagging along for the ride. The SEES leader felt her mind clear into crystal lucidity as Raphael's Auto-Maraku washed over the party and raised everyone's pain tolerance to superhuman - or in some people's cases, more superhuman - levels.

The ponytailed teen tapped her foot, keeping her own time as she thought about how to take this enemy on and shouted out a "Matarukaja!". Raphael flourished his sword as his spell enveloped the party again, magically increasing blood flow to their muscles and brains, which should theoretically make their attacks hit harder.

"Alright, Maki! Let's do this!" Spider-Man said with a nod, snatching up the crossbow ammo and cautiously glancing out of cover before breaking for the monstrosity's back in a sprint. As he ran, he circled the implements in his hand with sticky webbing, and by the time he closed the distance to the creature, he prayed it would be distracted enough not to notice him until it was too late. He may have been a loudmouth with quips, but Spidey knew when a stealthy approach was better.

Reaching the thing's feet, he attempted to slap a pair of bolts to one Achilles tendon, then tried to do the same with the other two and the second foot. Of course, the fact that they were now super-adhesive wasn't a problem for the wallcrawler, who could easily stick and unstick from whatever he wanted.

Ruined House -> Apex

Aigis took a while to process everything that was going on around her, still shaken from the final showdown with her own Shadow.

"How long do you plan to continue pretending? Your so-called friends wish to return home, not knowing what awaits them! But you remember! After all, how could you forget the ruin you sowed ten years ago?! It was because of your own weakness that humanity was doomed! But now, as long as the host stays in Battleworld, sealed off in The Cure's pocket universe..."

The metal maiden followed mindlessly behind the rest of the party, her thudding footfalls heavy on the wooden floor. She winced and covered her facsimile ears at the transformed Lady's screeching. And once the platform they were left standing on had risen from the ground, she noticed something the others seemed not to: one of their own had been left clinging to the ledge.

Also realizing that the little boy in green was in need of healing, Aigis called out for her Persona - "Initiating summoning sequence!" - and healed him back to perfect health with a Diarahan, then let the summoned spirit act as a shield between herself and Lady while she stepped over and reached down to haul Homura up from the brink.

"Are you okay?" she asked kindly once the dark-haired girl was safely upon the platform, crouching to minimize her profile behind Palladion.

City Hall, Mitakihara — Phone Call

"Ah yes..." Osborn acknowledged, "As I'm sure you noticed, my city's apparent representative as appointed by the thing that brought us all here is an individual named Spider-Man. He's a costumed vigilante who operates outside the law, or as his fans call him, a superhero, who's been active locally for about eight years now. Thankfully, he came to me yesterday and expressed a willingness to cooperate with Manhattan's government to do what's best for the city. I've always thought of him as a glory-hound, but perhaps I've been misjudging him..."

"Regardless, I have to admit we have a bit of a gang problem here in New York. Thanks to the efforts of the NYPD, the city's largest crime boss, Wilson Fisk, was taken in a few weeks ago. However, in his absence, crime has actually spiked as various factions have scrambled to fill the power vacuum. We also have a number of, ahem, supervillains imprisoned in a maximum security facility off the coast called The Raft, separate from our prison facility at Rykers Island, both of which came to this planet with us. If some nefarious character were to stage a jail break, we would be... in a bad place."

"And how about your city, Acting Mayor?" he continued, "What sort of things does Mitakihara have to offer our captor?"

Common Room

MJ found herself grinning at Bremerton's antics already. Very clearly a woman of the modern age. The white-haired of the pair was clearly older and more refined, which also bolstered the redheaded New Yorker's smile. It was nice to be dealing with someone who was a professional. "Well," she said, sticking out her hand to each in turn for a handshake, "I'm Mary Jane Watson, reporter for the Daily Bugle paper, and this is Eddie Brock, my cameraman. Nice to meet you two! We're really supposed to be interviewing people in this room and giving Manhattan a sense of what else is out there, but seeing as you all are our new neighbors, I suppose we can change our plans."

"Think Robbie'll be okay with that?"

"If he's not, I'll handle it."

"Alright. You're the boss. I just point the camera and keep my mouth shut."

"Damn straight! Alright, ladies and gentleman, if you'll please follow me." MJ strode to the portal and stepped through.

Times Square, Manhattan

What would greet the ladies of Azur Lane and their press entourage upon exiting the portal were, in order:

• A bright yellow line on the ground.
• Things behind and to their sides that looked like white, waist-high Jersey barriers with transparent blue screens projecting upward several more feet (solid to the touch), funneling newcomers in so they could only move forward or back into the portal. Through the screens, it was clear there was a larger walkway of red brick to their left and a busy city street to their right.
• Two people in what looked like futuristic full-body white armor over black. One couldn't see their expressions from behind their helmets, but their relaxed posture and loose grip on their boxy riles suggested they were less than hostile.
• A little wooden table with a boombox sitting on it, which coincidentally began blaring a new (old) song as soon as the ladies stepped through.
• Past that, a simple white tent taking up the width of the isosceles triangle of pavement they found themselves on, with further barriers funneling them inside.

"Yes, hello, state your- Oh, that was quick!" one of the armored pair commented in a distinctly Slavic accent on spotting MJ, "Interviews are over already?"

"Nope! Change of plans, Ivan! We're interviewing these two while giving them a tour of the city."

"Hmmm, must be nice. Just in time, too! I think lady in there is getting bored with nobody to be making card for." He jabbed a gauntleted thumb over at the tent.

"I'll tell her you say hello," MJ assured, giving him a mock salute which he lazily returned.

"Oooooh, Lordy!" the 'lady in there', a gray-haired black woman exclaimed as they stepped in and she spotted Bremerton, "Child, put some clothes on! Whatch'you gonna do if some little girl or little boy sees you dressin' like that?!"

"Hey, Gladys!" MJ greeted, "Ivan says hi!"

"Mary Jane, if Ivan wants to say hello, he should walk ten feet this way and do it his own dang self!" Gladys huffed, settling down to her laptop on the generic plastic table before her. To her side were a mid-sized printer-looking device, a hole-punch, and a box of red-white-and-blue lanyards. "Names?" she asked after a couple clicks.

Chinatown FEAST Center, Manhattan

Jasminka's dreams weren't long in being fulfilled, as May rolled over her cart with platefuls of wheatcakes for each of them sooner rather than later ("Here you go, my dears!"). They were wheaty. They were oaty. And as promised, they were melt-in-your mouth delicious. And seeing as their table was her last stop, now was the perfect time to ask her a few questions. Speaking of which, John started so the others wouldn't have to!

"Hey there, May!" he said, lathering the syrup on his wheatcakes and placing the bottle back in the middle of the table, "We got to talking about Peter, and I think Amanda here had something she wanted to ask you about him!"

"Oh, really?" May blinked, but looked pleased. "Well, he's my nephew and I raised him. What do you want to know?" she asked with a beaming smile.

Velvet Room

Mitsuru offered a genteel smile to the professor as the latter emerged from the heiress' quarters, waving off her thanks with a "think nothing of it." If her reaction to the teacher was quietly warm, however, her take on the other redhead's question was anything but, her gaze filled with contempt and cold scorn. She crossed her arms across her chest as she (elegantly) looked down her nose at the worn-out woman and paid no attention to Ursula's slip-up.

"As much as you may like to believe in the absolute power of your Master to do whatever he pleases, he has no power here," she answered. "You murdering terrorist scum," one could almost hear her mentally append. "We - and you - are completely safe from him while we remain here, or, for that matter, venture into the Common Room area."

"Now if you'll excuse me, I have important business to attend to with Professor Callistis. Professor, if you'll follow me, please." She led the blunette down the stairs and into the main room, where she sat on one of the plush, L-shaped blue velvet couches, complete with little tables of blue-tinted glass.

"Would you like anything to drink, miladies? We do have everything!" the perky and younger of the two attendant sisters asked, stepping over and beaming at the redheads and redhead-incognito expectantly.

"Just a water, thank you, Elizabeth." Mitsuru sat back with poise and folded her hands in her lap, nodding to Ursula.

Reidak snorted. "Why in karzahni would I wanna pretend bein'...what'd you call it- hew-mon? You fleshy little twigs don't look like much.'"

At the mention of Mata Nui and the inquisitive 'friends of yours' remark, Reidak drew himself up and sneered like she'd just offered him a hairball as a present. "Never heard of 'em. But any tablet-thumping little sycophant who names their home-place after the Great Spirit ain't no friends of mine. Was it matoran living there? Had to be. Zealous little ankle-biters..."

The two soon found themselves joined by Zaktan. Having concluded his conversation with Nobunaga, he'd decided to see what was taking his muscle's attention. "Ah, I see you're making new friends already, Reidak." Reidak folded his arms with a petulant grunt, and from the ever-wide grin on his face, the boss was relishing it. "Aren't you going to introduce me?"

Misaki would be audience to an odd reaction from the young woman in front of her as she described Vector, even as subtle as it was. Thanks to to the fact she was paying close attention to her.

The officer might catch a hint of familiarity, fear, and anger in Delfi's gaze for a brief moment before it just... disappeared. A stonewall coming down inside her, and her already neutral demeanor becoming almost unnervingly so. "I see. Thank you for the warning."

6 years surviving under Edenia's fist and watchful eye had ingrained things into the girl that even she was unaware of, her reaction instinctive and unnoticed. Her thoughts were elsewhere regardless, as she pushed aside the news and instead focused on the woman before her. There was no lie to her words, but there was an obvious hole in what was going said. Obvious by the way she picked her wording, at least to Delfi.

Internally the wheelchair bound woman let her irritation rise at the probing questions that Misaki continued to ask. Hitting on a line of information that she couldn't easily talk her way around. She didn't expect Tatsu to be the sort to keep his nature a secret, not from what she'd seen of him on the television during his attack on the parade. It was a matter of when, not if, his nature came out. And depending on what she said now, would change how the people before her might react.

"It is not unique to me, no." She replied, after only a brief moment to think. Her power her lending her much more time than usual to do so. "Neither my powers nor these implants." It was the moment of truth as well. Better to foster some measure of geniality than hide the truth temporarily. She had ensured she had ways around any possible reactions, after all. "They are no unique to me here either, in fact."

Velvet Room: I'm Not in Denial! YOU'RE in Denial!

Surprisingly, Mitsuru's razor-edge retort brought the shade of a smile to Havoc's face. The Master holds no power here, it's perfectly safe—who knew someone with an obvious stick up their ass could crack such a funny joke?

Less surprisingly, Havoc didn't give a damn about this so-called "important business" with a woman who was much too old for Halloween costumes. She wanted answers, and she was going to get them; the worst thing the kid could do was far from the torment she'd endured these past three days. So the Contractor trailed the two ladies down the stairs, arms crossed and eyes glued to the back of Mitsuru's head.

"You really don't know what you're up against, do you?" the Red Giant chuckled. "Doesn't matter what Big Red wants in that big empty room. My master can go anywhere he wants and reach anyone he wants to. And if he can't break your body, he can always break you up here."

She pointed to her right temple, not that Mitsuru would probably turn around to see it. It's not like the VP would be interested in humoring this denial.

When Elizabeth turned to Havoc for an order, her knowing smirk withered and died. She stared at the servant with an objective indifference that told the peppy young lady to leave her the fuck alone—she was busy.

Rather than take a seat, Havoc elected to interrupt the "oh-so important business" from a slouched lean against the wall. "Seeing as how your little clubhouse seems pretty vacant, I'm guessing Hei and your friends are off on their suicide mission. Sounds like the most obvious reason why we're still alive—my master's just playing with his food, that's all."

Morbid as the words were, the Red Giant's delivery sounded much less menacing. She spoke the last part through a sigh, the way someone might shrug off the smallest inconvenience.

"So why'd you stay behind?" Havoc asked the Persona-user. "Don't tell me you got cold feet. Though that would explain why you're pretending this is a safe zone."

Common Room: Dr. Livingstone, I Presume?

The Dog's violet eyes closed partway, which seemed to only sharpen her focus on the strange creature grunting in front of her. Strange and stupid, from the looks of things. Definitely not the type to keep it's cards close to the chest.

The green one, on the other hand...judging by how it addressed it's comrade, the creature seemed to hold some authority over this 'Reidak' thing.

"Zaktan, I take it?" She didn't wait for Reidak to introduce it's C.O. to her—not that she expected it would, but that was probably the joke. Not a fan of etiquette...least that was one thing the Dog and black Piraka had in common.

Since the supposed man in charge was present, the Contractor turned all of her attention to Zaktan. "Just talking to your pal here about how unique you both look. Can't say I've ever seen anyone like you."

The green Piraka could probably glean two things from the shaved-head speaker: "unique" probably wasn't the word she honestly wanted to say, and—judging by the subtle glances away from Zaktan's eyes towards the occasional Protodite that buzzed a little too out of line—she hadn't seen anyone like Zaktan.

Meeting Room: That Delfi's Lookin' Pretty Sus rn...

The crinkle in Misaki's forehead returned with a vengeance. There was nothing unique to Delfi's abilities? Well then why was she taken to Battleworld?! Abducting a lone wheelchair-bound teenager—whose abilities weren't special even by her world's standards—just made no sense. Watching her fight wouldn't make good entertainment; not according to the Cure's tastes, that's for sure. This didn't just go against their host's best interests, this went against his whole M.O.

Something really wasn't adding up...but it took Misaki too long to notice that she was probably making Delfi more nervous than the poor kid already was. The way her expressions froze, it was almost like the Thundercore girl was pretending to be a Doll. Just as the Section Chief suspected and feared, Delfi knew all-too well what Misaki was referring to. The girl brought up the energy source matter on her own, after all.

Time to shift gears. With a dismissive shake of the head, Misaki refreshed her kind and patient smile—once again an honest one, Delfi could tell.

"Let's focus on something else. Apart from anything regarding your abilities, what was your life like back on your world? What does your home look like? Do you go to school? How many friends would you say you have?"

These seemed like innocent enough questions on the surface, but Delfi's ability would help her peer behind the curtain. There were small signs of anxiety in the Section Chief's expressions; indicators that she had some sense of the answers, and either didn't want to know or wanted her suspicions to be proven wrong. It was probably safe to say Misaki wanted to avoid anything that confirmed the "human battery" idea wasn't just the product of a teenager's wild imagination. But then again, there could be more to those micro-flinches than that horrific picture.

As Hanbei glanced at the Checkpoint, he would take notice how the soldiers guarding the area seemed alarmed and at chaos. From the looks of it, it seems they suffered a attack not a long time ago. He could also notice a few of them carrying some body bags away.

Hanbei would find a rather annoyed officer staring at him◊ along with four soldiers near him pointing their guns at him.

"I don't get paid enough for this shitty job." He mumbled to himself before he focused back at Hanbei. "What do you want? If you are another attacking party, let me say I'm not in the mood for it and I don't have enough drinks for another paperwork situation." One of the soldiers muttered something about him looking like shit to another one before the officer spoke again. "So what's your business?"

"I guess I am attached to it." Strelok nodded to Shadow. "The place may have their fair share of murderers and scumbags who won't hesitate to kill you on sight....but they also have people who you build camaraderie with and you survive together with. Even if this place is death trap itself...I suppose you get so attached to it that if you leave it...a part of it still remains with you."

He motioned him to follow him back to the village as they crossed through some of the...strange built defenses of the Village, getting in sight of Grant and Lucy.

The stalker sighed as he glanced back at the Checkpoint, using his binoculars to see if they are moving out to the area.

"If you can convince them to stop somehow, be my guest. Any attempt to reason with them ends badly. Especially after the loss of Father Valerian. Us free stalkers haven't been a unified group anymore since he got killed off."

Meanwhile, Lucy and Grant would take notice of Strelok, Shadow and his dog as they moved closer to the Village.

"That sure is very concerning indeed." Assistant Stefan said during the explanation. They never discovered Artifacts that were capabale of such mass destruction before.

"Indeed. We shall keep an close eye on it and make sure it is on very safe hands Dr Vectrof. The least we want is for a unprepared stalker to get an hold on it, causing a chain reaction near an anomaly and end up causing the Zone to expand. It's not something none of the nations here would want whatsoever. The rumours of strange sightings back at our home universe at Kabul in Afghanistan after some terrorists detonated nuclear bombs on it are already concerning enough."

Edited by Darkomega245 on Dec 5th 2020 at 12:24:43 PM

The intense focus on his many eyes did not go unnoticed, and as more and more of the worthless ants targeted his weak points, Urizen put up his guard to minimize the damage. The demon blocked Morrigan's Shadow Blade with a forearm, digging the sharp wings into his limb instead of the massive eye on his chest. A minor inconvenience, but perhaps it would keep the succubus in place for his counter. Mirajane's Darkness Stream was a more difficult blow to intercept, but at least his raised guard blocked the giant hands targeting his right shoulder.

...too bad that by blocking one assailant, he opened himself up to two more—Alfred and Constance's bullets hit their marks: two of the smaller eyes along Urizen's right ribs popped with a satisfying squish! Yet the demon couldn't retaliate just yet...there were still some stragglers eager to witness true power.

With Josuke and Sayaka closing in for some melee strikes, and Spider-Man planting two charges on Urizen's feet undetected, the demon was ready to make his move. In what must've seemed like a strange move, Urizen dropped his guard and stretched his arms out wide. The sudden breeze would be the only warning that something big was about to happen. A moment later, Urizen crossed his arms once again and cried:

"BEGONE!"

Those closest to the demon king (Morrigan, Mirajane, Sayaka, Josuke, and Spider-Man) would feel the rush of hurricane-force wind pushing them far away from their target, possibly even knocking them off their feet in the process. Now that he had some breathing room, Urizen got to work casting some spells targeting the strongest among these vermin—and to no surprise to him, the strongest among them were demonic in nature.

A swift wave of his hand summoned two dozen pink balls of light in front of Urizen. These lights took to the sky before diving back down to earth, half aiming for Morrigan while the other half aimed for Mirajane. The nefarious usurper began casting another spell to deal with the feeble humans, but a sudden pain in his ankles forced him to pause.

Behind a small pile of debris shimmered a soft blue light, one that the survivors of Memento Mori would recognize as a sign of a Contractor activating their ability. The detonation tore through the demon king's skin, exposing the tendons beneath to the open air, but did little more than send an annoying sting through Urizen's body.

"You pathetic mortals."

Resuming his spell, the demon king waved his hand once again to strike at the humans who had dared to touch his flesh directly. Josuke and Sayaka would have less than a second to notice the six blue circles emerging at their feet before they would be engulfed in a plume of blue hellfire.

The others, Urizen ignored for now. Let them scurry around like the ants they were; he would deal with them soon enough.

Over by his cover, Maki slammed his fist against the rubble. It didn't work! How the hell was he supposed to help fight if even striking the weakest breaking points didn't do any good?! Perhaps it was the adrenaline of combat, or perhaps it was the effect of Minako's spells, but the boy had taken a half step out of cover before his Contractor rationality forced him to slam the brakes.

You'll be dead before you can even blink. Just stay out of sight and wait for another chance.

Another chance to do what? He couldn't say. Calling Spider-Man over would only draw the enemy's attention to him, and then he'd really be in trouble. So as the others were busy with facing the enemy head-on, Maki turned his attention to his pouch of bolts, looking for anything he might use to offer some support.

If Artemis could display any emotion, that emotion would've been befuddlement. One second she was facing over a dozen enemies, the next...nothing? It took the (literal) sudden shock of a lightning bolt—soon followed by a cut in her wing and the feeling of hair clutching her waist—for the demon to realize it had all been a trick. The enemy was still here, which meant she could still kill them. Wasting no more time to strike, Artemis charged her middle set of wings to sweep the tower with a wave of horizontal laser bullets.

...or she would have done that, were it not for the sudden dismantling of a pillar that likely strained Reisen's cloaking ability to its absolute limit. The massive chunk of stone took Artemis completely by surprise, and the demon fell to the ground just narrowly avoiding the pillar that could've crushed her to death.

This was their chance! Without a moment to lose, Hei reached for his carabiner and rushed towards the fallen opponent.

"Restrain her while she's down!"

For his part, the Black Reaper tied his carabiner and grappling line around the base of Artemis' tail. The fins would help keep his grip in place, anchoring himself to her if she managed to slip past the others trying to pin her down. For good measure, Hei took one of his daggers and dug it deep into the demon's tail. Hardly a fatal blow, but he hoped it might help tire her out if the fight didn't end here. He would've tried to electrocute her as well, but with the expectation that the others would join in on the dogpile, he didn't want to electrocute them as well.

Link celebrated Ozen's super smart and definitely not intended to be lethal blow with a few fist pumps in the air. Not that the Lady was on the ground, he could play the Song of Healing without having to worry about her falling! He removed the Zora mask and assumed his Hylian form, then rushed up to Artemis' head with his ocarina in hand.

Unfortunately, the demon was simply down, and not out. As Hei, Link, and however many others rushed in to pin her in place, little white lights began to glimmer around her. Those lights drifted towards Artemis as her head opened up once again. Those who weren't prepared for it would be bombarded with another powerful scream, this one strong enough to push anyone nearby away with sound alone.

Now tethered to the demon at the tip of her tail, Hei managed to keep his hold on Artemis. On the other hand, Link had been by the demon's head when she screeched, and just like before attacks like these were especially effective against him. The little hero was thrown flat on his back, his face drained of color as he tried—and failed—to get his body to move. The Ocarina of Time had been pushed out of his hands and slid along the ground, resting beside Kyubey.

Edited by TheodoreHastings on Dec 13th 2020 at 12:05:09 PM

Sparda Estate

Sent flying back by the monster's wind attack, Spider-Man landed with catlike grace on a piece of the former-mansion's rubble. "Okaaaaay..." he mused to himself, "Time for a different approach!"

The masked hero sprinted for the thing's back again, but this time raised his hands to align with the demon's own. With a pair of Thwip!s, he attempted to attach a webline to each of the enemy's hands and pull his arms together behind him. Assuming success that far into the gambit, he would grip both lines with one of his own hands, freeing up his other digits to toss a web-bomb at Urizen's hopefully-touching wrists for good measure.

Meanwhile, Minako finally settled on a course of action. "Vishnu!" she invoked, using her Evoker once more to summon a god that would have given a certain Electric Batman 'Nam flashbacks. On her command, he bolstered her magical attack power with a Mind Charge.

"Try to get him on his back!" she called to the others as she continued to keep to a silent beat with her foot.

While others were busy dealing with the demonic monster's attacks, Nero withdrew to the back to check and make sure that V haden't been spattered against a pillar or something. Luckly, V was still alive. Nero shook his head.

"Don't move too much, ok, I'll find a way out and get you there, and-"

"Do not waste your time, he will not have left one. The only ones who would have the ability to control access to this realm are those of his own creation. Focus on the fight. Do not concern yourself for me, I will stay well out of the way until it is done."

Nero nods, and starts to move.

"Wait, Nero."

He pauses and looks back down at V

"I....."

He pauses, seeming to be at a sudden loss for words. Nero just shrugs after a moment.

"Don't sweat it. Big and blue with a lot of eyes? Ain't the most impressive thing I've seen."

He starts walking up right as someone yells to knock the big guy on his back

"One knock down, coming up!"

He reaches backward, grabbing his sword and revving it, causing it to glow red with heat. Then he opens his robotic hand, sparking with electricity. As he sees the spider guy grabbing at the demon's arms with webs, he makes his move, jumping and blasting the big eye in the face with his hand, then bouncing off of the body to get more distance and slashing with his sword at the upper chest

A lot of people got blown away as Lady fired off another shriek shockwave, but Dante haden't rushed in, and his very nature rendered him at least a little more resistant to that sort of thing then some people here. With Lady momentarily restrained, he ran in front of her.

"Wait!"

He lifted his hand toward the rest of his allies in a stop motion, then tried to look Lady in the.......well let's call it a face.

"I don't know what this thing did to you, but whatever it did, I know you. I know you've better then this, to let yourself get turned into some slave for a demon. Just give us a minute, just......let us try to fix it."

She paused to consider this for about a second, before screaking, seemingly even more enraged at seeing him then she'd been before. With apparent renewed rage, she twisted her tail, lifting Hei off of his feet and slamming him into Dante. Whatever the damage it did to Hei, the apparently unprepared Dante was wacked and, due to poor choice in positioning, flung directly off of the tower and fell out of sight.

Then she screaked again, and lifted her wings, firing a series of purple, glowing projectiles that looked suspiciously like missiles out of them. They'd turn and start looking for the nearest targets, although at least two of them would turn to target the mage who's magic had been responsible for the cloaking illusion earlier

Trevor & Sypha, Tower

Sypha was, at least, smart enough to not try to get that close to Artemis even when she was down. That would have been too easy, after all. A Dark Lord's lieutenant would certainly be stronger than that!

Instead, she tried to use her icicles to try to pin Artemis to the ground and hopefully freeze her in place. However, the piercing scream flung Sypha's icicles away from Artemis, causing them to shatter without hitting anything.

Trevor, seeing that Link was in trouble, ran towards him to grab him and pull him away from Artemis, using his Vampire Killer to try to swat away Artemis' missiles.

Sypha tried to follow this up by summoning Holy Flames to try to explode the two missiles before they hit Reisen. Dante seemed to have been flung off the Tower, but last time this happened, he came back in his demonic form. She felt Dante will probably be fine.

"Lady!" Sypha yelled to Artemis. "I know you can fight this! You need to fight this! You cannot let the demons control you!"

Morrigan, Sparda Estate

Morrigan seemed to struggle pulling the Shadow Blade out from Urizen's limb, knowing it was no good to have her wing stuck like this. And her instincts were right as she was blown uncontrollably into the air by hurricane force winds. Having wings were a problem when one was dealing with hurricane force winds. And Urizen following it up with two dozen balls of light that Morrigan was just barely able to defend against the last dozen of them with her wings. When the smoke had cleared, Morrigan was on the ground trying to get back up to return to the fight again, somewhat worse for wear.

Morrigan looked to be enjoying herself, though. This was certainly an exciting battle!

Grant, Rookie Village, The Zone

"Hey, you ain't from around here, are ya?" Grant asked as he pointed at Shadow. He was prepared to fight them if needed, but he wanted to make sure they were enemies first.

Reisen kept her dead eye glare, as if she was intent to simply stare the demon down into submission. Artemis may have been named after a goddess of the moon, but Reisen carried within those red of eyes of hers the very image of the moon itself. Not the pale reflection upon the canvas of the Earth that humans were so used to. No, the true face of the moon. The hidden moon whose very visage is enough to break the minds of mortals and gods alike. Of course, she could only keep up the look for so long. After it looked like everyone was going to do what they were going to do, she quickly broke character and began rubbing her eyes vigorously.

"Atatatata..."

That really stings! Keeping her eyes open like that with out blinking was hard enough, but she was manipulating waves at the same time! Doing that for a group this large was already a tall order! But then each of them moving every which way and expecting her to keep up!? Do they have any idea how complicated what she was doing was!? She had to bend light into a unique mobius pattern that allowed them to still perceive light and sound while removing their presence form the creature. She would explain in detail, but its not like any of their human brains would be able to understand Lunarian science. It felt like she was going cross eyed doing that. Maybe she should lay off the eyes for a bit and let them rest.

It seemed the initial assault allowed them to pin the monster down. Good, since Reisen needed a moment. Remaining back, she pulled out some eye drops and began applying it. She may have been busy manipulating light waves in the initial encounter, but that didn't mean she didn't see that. She wasn't familiar with everyone yet, but a woman that tall was hard to miss. Especially when she lifts a pillar and tries to kill the person they were trying to save! Was it too much to ask not to be paired with people who actively sabotage team goals? You would think she would be used to it by now with all the time she spent with Tewi. Ozen would hear from the back of the group the bunny girl complain at her.

"Hey you emo oni! Be careful what you are doing with those dumb clumsy hands of yours! We are just beating up that thing, not killing it! Its not like fish or birds are known to have particular strong bones!"

With the last of the eye drops, Reisen blinked her eyes repeatedly. Her eyes were all puffy now, like she had just gone through a good cry or were suffering from allergies. Not the most attractive look, and a far cry from the look she gave a few moments before. She looked back toward the fight just in time to see everyone get thrown off in a mighty wail. Even back here, the rabbit had to grab her poor long ears in response. Are you kidding her!? She already warned Lady about screaming like that around people with sensitive hearing not but five minutes ago!

"Would you cut that out!"

Whatever anger and frustration Reisen was feeling, it flushed from her face as soon as she saw the guy in the red coat get blown right off the edge and seemingly fall to his death. Replaced was a look of disbelief and bewilderment. Not simply at what she had just saw, but also the lack of reaction to it. It was certainly surreal. She pointed sheepishly to where the guy fell, her voice almost under her breath.

"Shouldn't we..."

She let out a sigh and shrugged. Guess he's dead. Its not like she would have caught up to him even if she tried to catch him. Besides, it seemed the flying mermaid had a little something for her. Two danmaku? It seemed Artemis didn't quite grasp the concept of bullet hell. No matter, dodging this much was easy mode. With a smug smirk, the Lunarian bunny prepared to move.

Then the two exploded before they even got close. Seemed it was thanks to that witch. The look of bewilderment returned the bunny's face. She almost looked dejected. Still she offered a half hearted gratitude to her savior.

"Uh...thanks..."

Between being knocked out for the sniper, staying on the side lines for shadow Sypha, getting distracted for shadow Mami, and that whole mess that was the battle royale at the end of the city, Reisen was beginning to wonder if she was ever going to get the chance to do something cool. Maybe it was because she physically moved to the back to get a good vantage point for her wave manipulation, but she could swear she could feel her self fade deeper and deeper into the background.

Still, Sypha had afforded her an opening to act. It looked liked the muscle guy with a whip got the kid. It was hard to tell in the chaos exactly how everyone else was doing. The trouble of rolling a higher initiative. She guessed there was the guy in the mask thrown against the guy in the red coat. But he kinda looked like a weirdo, and Reisen wasn't really sure she wanted to get next to some anon with a knife. Her eyes were still throbbing, so that was a no go. Perhaps it was time for some danmaku, to perhaps even steal center stage for her self.

Reisen drew out her bunny eared ray gun and grasped it with both hands in front of her, before spreading both her arms out horizontally, a copy of the gun in each hand. She quickly fired out a burst of three danmaku to each side. She then quickly flew up in the air until she was above Artemis looking down. With her arms still spread out, she spun around firing. The glowing bullet shaped danmaku would fire out before slowing down and stopping at a set distance. The bullets lined up to create three sets of circles, each one smaller and nestled in the first. Like a large bulls eye target made of danmaku, with Reisen in the center. She then clasped her hands together, the two guns becoming one, and pointed it at Artemis. She took this time to yell out at Sypha.

"I don't think talking is going to work! If it did, it probably would have happened a moment ago when her boyfriend was trying to kiss her...lets just tucker her out and see if she is willing to listen to reason after she no longer has the strength to fight!"

With that, the Lunarian fired. The single bullet headed toward Artemis, followed by the inner most circle of bullets, then the next circle, then the next, until all the danmaku holding in the sky was converging at the spot the monster was currently at. Though any one watching might note that the bullets were rather slow. No more then the pace of a light jog. It was a speed that anyone down there should be comfortable dodging.

Its not like Reisen could really fire a torrent of bullets down in an area that consisted 95% of friendlies. It was even why she was converging all bullets into a single spot rather then getting a nice spread. Only an idiot would get hit with a pattern like this. But it looked impressive, all those bullets raining from the sky like that, and that was more what bunny girl wanted. She wanted Artemis to see her as one of the biggest threats in the room. For it to turn all those lasers up toward her, where she had all the room in the world to dodge and weave, and away from the others.

Still, just in case, the burst of shots she fired before flying up traced the out side of the tower. Assuming she was doing her math right, they would turn between some of the pillars and head straight for Artemis at a higher velocity then the show in the air. Danmaku was kind of tricky in a group like this. She has no idea how those fairies were able to do this in groups with out hitting each other. There was no one in the trajectory when she fired at least. She suppose, worst case scenario, its just danmaku. But knocking out an ally in the middle of battle is something she still wanted to avoid.

Edited by ImmortalNeet on Dec 15th 2020 at 4:09:18 AM

The dumbo-esque Akko struggled as she tried to slow the two of them down. Her wide floppy ears filled with the rushing wind as she held on for dear life to the wand tethered to V. It almost looked like some odd parasailing scene the way she was being dragged along like that. Just instead in the air, and with a big eared elephant instead of a parachute, and a flying pretty boy instead of a boat. Actually...it might not have been all that much like parasailing now that she thought about it. Any confidence that the girl knew what she was doing was probably swept away by the panic scream she made during the flight.

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHH"

Akko's strength finally gave out. The wand slipped from her grasp. As it did so, it changed back into its original shape. At the same time, the elephant changed back into the teenage girl. The magic was gone, just gravity at work now. The three of them crashed and tumbled into country side with an unpleasant thud. A rough landing, but it could have been worse. Besides, Akko was used to these kinds of landings by now after all her flying lessons. Taking a few moments to merely lay there and groan, getting a feel for the new bruises, the little witch got up and brushed her self off. She was thankfully still in one piece. After a small heart attack and a few seconds of panic searching, she was happy to report so was the Shiny Rod. That left only that boy to check on.

It looked like someone beat her to the punch. Some other pretty boy. Though while V seemed to be going for the sensitive artistic type, this one seemed to be going for the bad boy image. V didn't seem to be in the best shape, but he did just get kicked in the face by some big ugly blue demon, so there was only so much helping that. The point was, he was, in relative terms, ok. That meant she had a big old bully to contend with.

But just as she turned to make off toward the battle, curiosity got the better of her. She turned back toward those two with narrowed eyes and a scrutinizing look on her face. Was it just her or were those two close. I mean, its not like she spent enough time around boys to get a good feel for how they interact with each other. Sure there was Andrew, but he was basically one of the girls at this point. But these two. Was it just her, or did they seem a little...GAH! Spending too much time around Lotte has poisoned her mind! Concentrate!

With renewed vigor, she turned back toward the battle and charged with wand held high above her head, in an apparent attempt to simply run over and club the demon. During the dash, she gave her best war face and war cry, which did little to improve her intimidation factor. The futile charge was cut short as hurricane winds suddenly erupted out of nowhere. She may not have been that close to the epicenter. But some one as light as her was easy enough to be blown away, even at the weaker end of the attack. Whatever progress she made toward the demon was undone as she flew and landed once again in the out field with a tumble and a thud. After taking a moment to dust herself off, she raised the wand and charged once again in the same course of action.

The tiny legs of the engineer had taken her an adequate distance away. It probably didn't really matter with how fast the thing moved, but at least death wasn't simply a hand swat away. The melee scene became crowded. It looked like buckshot was no longer a viable option. With a beep and a boop, she changed the setting on her shotgun to fire out magical solid slug rounds. As she waited for an opening, she took note of the demon's strange movement. She had played enough video games to recognize these little tells bosses tend to have. Something big was about to happen. Luckily she was ready.

When the hurricane winds hit, she raised her magical barrier. The wind traced around her invisible orb as she got prone to lower her profile. As the gale died down, she recognized an opening when it presented itself. Transforming her weapon once again, she pointed it at the monster and rapid fired.

clickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclick

She didn't get the chance to properly frame or adjust the focus of the camera. She would have to just hope at least one of the shots came out alright. She didn't have time to worry about it though. The thing was preparing for some sort of spell bombardment. Constanze prepared to raise her shield again, but it seemed to be unnecessary. The projectiles were exclusively for the fan service demons. Before anything else could happen, the demon seemed to explode.

click

Hopefully the explosion didn't over expose the film, that was a pretty cool shot. But there was no time for that. They got new orders from Minako, and if Constanze wanted her share of whatever loot this thing drops, she was going to have to pull her weight. Alfred might notice the mute girl from the city making gestures at him. It seemed to be military hand signals, which may or may not have been accurate. Even then, it was hard to say "Focus fire on exposed tendons. Time shots for when melee units move in to give advantage" with the usual gestures. It just didn't come up all that often in modern warfare. But maybe the military guy was able to read the mood and get the gist.

With the camera changed back into a shotgun, Constanze aimed for the open wound. It may have taken an explosion to get through the dermal layer, but with the tendons exposed, a good slug or rifle round should hopefully be enough to get that thing feeling the pain. Looked like their opportunity was coming up. Spider man was restraining the things arms while some guy who apparently drove his sword came in with the attack. Firing into a melee was always risky business. She would just have to trust in their marksmanship. She wasn't going to shoot friendlies...correction, she wasn't going to shoot any more friendlies. Waiting for the right timing, Constanze breathed, exhaled, and pulled the trigger.

Mitakihara Middle School Roof

Something about what Cana said seemed to give Kyoko a moment’s pause before her face moved quickly to cover it up with a scowl. "Note to self: sarcasm is a double-edged sword."

It was a few moments before Madoka came up with an answer to Wendy's question. "How about I show everyone around the school, since we're already here and no one else is? I mean, even though we're not supposed to be here…"

Mitakihara City Hall

"Hmm, I see." Kurogane repositioned himself a bit in his chair to get more comfortable. "I must say, Mr. Mayor, that the story you are about to hear from me may bear some similarities to what you've just said about your own. We, too, have our own vigilantes working behind the scenes of our city. In our case, the threats they have been battling are of a supernatural nature known as Witches. From what I've been told, these Witches usually hide in pocket dimensions and influence the minds of normal humans with dark emotions and induce self-destructive actions, up to suicide. I say 'usually' because right before we were taken from our world and brought here our city was struck with an extremely powerful storm that inflicted extensive damage — for several days it honestly looked like a war zone here. It wasn’t until after we had arrived in this world that we were informed that that had been the work of an extraordinarily powerful Witch.

“I'll assume that you have already seen our chosen representative's name of Homura Akemi; she is the leader of a group that has been combating these Witches for some time now. Like your Spider-Man, they too had been operating outside our law until our city was brought to this world. Likewise, she also expressed a willingness to cooperate with the government after revealing herself a couple days ago. Along with a gift of sorts. I said before that our city looked like a war zone in the past tense for a reason — prior to that meeting she was apparently responsible for...well, for lack of a better way to phrase it, magically restoring our city so that it was as though it had never been attacked, either by a Witch or by the space empire a couple days afterwards. When Mr. Green arrives, we would be willing to share pictures of how our city looked a few days ago for comparison."

He banked for the moment that the description — or at least whatever he knew of — of Witches would mask his avoidance on the topic of gangs. It wasn’t like they had a major problem with delinquents, after all.

Sparda Estate

Sayaka had been about to take a stab at one of the eyes when the demon shouted “Begone!”, with such force that it knocked her off balance and she fell to the ground, with such force that she was dragged away from Urizen a noticeable distance. She needed the moment’s break from Urizen prioritizing Morrigan and Mirajane to reorient herself and get back up off the ground, just in time to see the scattering of light spheres heading for their targets. She had been about to summon another sword to go at him again, but the lights glowing from under her feet got her to jump again out of the way behind a nearby pile of rubble just as they erupted in blue hellfire. This wasn't going well at all, to put it mildly — at least beating that Heartless Armed Angel had a relatively straightforward strategy of running until they found a place to counterattack. Here there didn't seem any place to do that, but right now there didn't seem any obvious way to get through. They needed a plan.

From farther back, Mami took the moment to observe since her trying to actively fight would have been suicidal, and she wasn’t about to go through that again. From the look of things right now, the only attack of hers that could possibly do damage would be Tiro Finale, and even then he seemed ready to tank that kind of attack as he was now. And that was also assuming she could still pull it off as she was now…

Mami shook her head. She needed to focus. Her eyes surveyed the developing fight, looking out to see who else she recognized — Minako moving in and shouting orders which sounded as though she already had an idea, Constanze...apparently taking selfies while also engaging with Urizen. Moving on. Mami’s eyes did a double take as they swept leftwards to catch Sayaka near the right foot in the aftermath of the giant’s shout, her breath catching a hitch as she witnessed Sayaka just avoid getting incinerated by blue flames from the ground. Mami wasn’t sure if Minako’s shouting reached her fellow Magical Girl’s ears — Sayaka Miki did always tend to become tunnel-visioned in the midst of battle — but she also didn’t want to risk distracting her while she was so close to danger via telepathy. She’ll have to settle for covering fire from a distance if Urizen looked as though he was going specifically after her, maybe pick off an eye or a tendon.

A groan from below her drew her attention once she saw Sayaka make it back onto her feet and move to a relatively defensible position. Mami saw Nero leave V to bring the battle to their enemy, which left the latter unattended. With no immediate concerns with the battle itself, Mami took a chance at trying to get information about him: <Pardon my intrusion, but it seems as though we are fighting something born of the darkness from within you. Is that correct?>

Tower

With the help of Trevor and Aigis, Homura was pulled back from the edge and onto (relatively) solid grounding. “I’m fine,” she’d say curtly to Aigis’ inquiry before peering back at the developing fight in the center of the tower just in time to see Dante exit stage down. She allowed one moment’s worth of lingering before turning back to Aigis. “Do we have a plan yet?”

Kyubey had braced low against the floor when TCFKAL let out another screech to paralyze those engaged in combat, watching as the elf-boy’s ocarina bounced out of his hands and towards where he lay. As soon as the screeching let up, Kyubey got up off the floor and bounded over to the instrument. As it was nearly the size of his torso, Kyubey had to use both forelegs to push the ocarina scooch by scooch behind a column, away from Lady’s line of sight while the arena was bathed in magenta magic missiles. Once it was as securely positioned sandwiched between himself and the column’s corner, Kyubey peeked back out to try to find Tatl.

Shadow — Rookie Village, The Zone

Lucy and Grant were brought to Shadow's attention by Interceptor, who began to growl as soon as two new arrivals stepped into the village. Shadow folded his arms with skepticism. The blonde woman was far too exposed and clean to be anything but another tourist into the Zone. The man was far too exposed and tattered to be anything but a vagrant from another realm. Whatever story brought the two side-by-side into the Zone was probably a long one, but still of no interest to Shadow.

"You are correct," Shadow said, responding to Grant with his arms folded. "I found Strelok here in dire need of assistance. His way to and back from home was blocked by the local military, and some grunts had a flying machine that could destroy this village at any moment. Both matters have been resolved."

Shadow quietly stared down Grant and Lucy, arms folded, trying not to project himself as a fighter. "That won't be an issue to you, I hope."

General Leo Christophe — Sparda Estate

As large as he was, and with all of the magic spells he threw around, Urizen's main weapon appeared to be his ability to spew bluster. This couldn't be the best he could do against a room full of people who were out for his life, was it?

Leo had no interest in fighting a demon fairly in any context. Audacity was best fought with audacity. While Urizen was occupied with putting down everyone who personally annoyed him, Leo approached Urizen from behind, flourished his crystal sword, and made a lighting-fast slice for Urizen's back.

General Celes Chere — Tower

While everyone else continued to make a stand against Artemis, Celes saw Link getting a bit too close to the enemy, and getting hurt as a result. Everyone makes that mistake sometimes. Celes approached Trevor while everyone else scrambled to keep Artemis at bay. With a gentle nod to the Belmont's proudest son, she looked down at Link. Poor kid had been through a ringer now. Everyone reached their limit eventually. Sometimes they pushed their bodies too far. Sometimes their minds just couldn't deal with it anymore.

Celes opened her palms at Link, speaking clearly, but quietly.

"Cure."

That single word was all it took for green sparkles of light to emit from Link's body. His cuts started to close, his bruises began to fade. He'd have an easier time catching his breath after being winded. If Artemis' howls made him deaf, he'd regain his hearing over time.

While she stood by Link and Trevor, Celes made sure to stand upright. Artemis would have to go through Celes if she wanted to finish off Link right now, but judging by how the tides of the battle turned, it wouldn't go that far.

Tower Apex — Aigis

"I believe the plan is currently to attempt to immobilize the creature so that Link-san can do something to reverse Lady's transformation," Aigis replied, content with the knowledge that the Magical Girl was alright, and though she momentarily flinched in pain as her Persona intercepted a couple of the magic missiles, Palladion was resistant to projectiles and held up. "However, all of my ammunition is lethal, and Link-san's instrument has been misplaced. I believe Kyuubey-san has secured it over there," she continued, indicating the corner the Incubator was hiding in.

Tower

Homura turned her head to see where Aigis was talking about, spotting Kyubey's head peeking around the corner of a column at a lenghty secant from their hiding spot — not quite directly opposite them on the far side of TCFKAL, but pretty close to it. It took Homura a few moments to piece it together: "The boy was able to restore Mami Tomoe after she had turned into a Witch by playing a song — they must be hoping to do the same here." Her eyes traced around the perimeter of the columns that surrounded the arena in the center before turning back to Aigis. "When you say 'lethal', do you mean for an ordinary human?"

The battlefield was chaos, so many people in one space facing off against a single foe meaning that they were constantly ducking past each other, crossing each other's lines of sight, and making it a lot harder for Alfred to draw a clear and safe shot. He wasn't about to start firing into the fray with the possibility of hitting one of the others.

The young soldier covered his face briefly as a powerful wind tore from the flying foe, knocking the people closest to him back and away. And giving him an open and clear line of sight to fire. Unwilling to lose the chance, he suddenly extended his arm out so that his rifle was held directly at the large target with one hand. Then, he pushed as much power into the gun as he could, thick bolts of electricity crackling and jumping down the barrel, and to the ground around him.

There was a sound like a thunder strike as Alfred fired, the bullet within the gun leaving it with sharp flash of light and crackle of lightning. The electromagnetically accelerated and enhanced shot aimed right at the center of the demon king's chest. At the time same, in one swift move the teen dropped the warped and burning remains of his gun and retrieved one of the spares on his back. Using his power to float it quickly into his grip.

Tatsu darted around the outskirts of the battle with quick, light steps. His body crackling with red lightning every few seconds as he darted around fast enough to almost blur while still being able to be tracked and seen. There were a lot of people around, and a lot of fire being drawn on the monster, but with his accelerated senses he waited for the right moment to suddenly turn and dart towards it. Drawing his blade in a lightning-fast strike to try and wound it, before speeding past.

On the outskirts of the tower, hunched over slightly with his pale eyes darting about, Mono watched with nervous energy for a possible opening to attack. His stomach and chest clenching as nothing revealed itself and he was left standing there as people fought, useless and unable to do anything to help.

Edited by Alleydodger on Dec 31st 2020 at 5:02:18 AM

The moments that followed Urizen's counter attacks were flooded with split-second distractions that worked far better than they should have. A slice in the back that felt like getting scraped by a thorn, a sharp pain as some super-charged bullet dug deep into the largest eye, and a wet and sticky substance trying to restrain his arms behind his back were all just troublesome enough to divert the demon king's attention from the loud and obvious charge heading his way. By the time Urizen spotted Nero's approach, it was too late—in half a heartbeat, the Red Queen was hilt-deep in that ugly orange eye.

Up until now, the demon king had viewed this battle as a thoughtless chore; a minuscule obstacle on the path to ultimate power. This swarm of fleas were mostly humans, after all—what was there to fear? Yet within the first minute of swatting at these pests, they had managed to strike him enough times for the collective pain to mean something. No longer was this a mindless task even that human's Shadow could handle with ease, it had now become a full-fledged nuisance.

And the one thing worse than a prideful demon was a wrathful one.

In the blink of an eye, a plume of blue hellfire burned the webby restraints to cinders. With his hands liberated, Urizen could start doing some real damage to these pests.

"You will regret..." Urizen hissed through gritted teeth. A massive hand swiped for the demon hunter. If it caught Nero, the demon king would squeeze him just enough to force out a cry of pain.

"...being born..."

A tree in the distance caught Urizen's eye—one that sheltered a certain Magical Girl, though the demon king couldn't see her through the leaves. Regardless, he took aim.

"WORTHLESS AND HUMAN!"

Taking a half-step forward, Urizen would throw the demon hunter towards that tree, aiming for the base of the trunk. Yet with one nuisance dealt with, another one took its place. This time, the irritation came from his ankle, where it seemed one of the humans had chosen to salt the wound with a shotgun. Against his adamantine skin such weapons were like trying to wound someone with peas, but his tendons weren't accustomed to direct sources of pain. The signal was sharp enough to force Urizen to raise his foot on instinct, but with his weight unbalanced after using Nero to give an opening pitch, the move resulted in a tumble.

So down the demon king went...straight into a portal he opened during the descent. A moment later, Minako might find that the battlefield had suddenly grown a lot shadier. With Vishnu as his target, Urizen emerged from the portal above the Persona attempting to deliver a powerful punch to Vishnu's head.

The demon king had learned from his earlier mistake—these humans will take every advantage they could get, and strike him from every possible angle. Which is why he conjured another spell to counter the enemies now at his back: a large pink circle appeared a foot above the ground. Spider-Man, Constanze, Leo, Alfred, and Mirajane would have about one second to react before a massive laser beam erupted from the circle and turned to sweep by them in a fan of destruction.

Meanwhile, the pile of rubble Sayaka had sought for cover turned out to have another occupant.

"Do you think you can stick these in his ankles?" Maki asked the Magical Girl as he handed her two crossbow bolts. "You're a lot faster than me."

Given the earlier explosion, Sayaka could probably guess what the Contractor had in mind.

Despite their best efforts, Artemis was now free to move as she pleased. Unfortunately, she was also packing on an extra hundred and fifty pounds or so, thanks to a certain Black Reaper who had anchored himself to her tail a few moments earlier.

So the first task on the demon's list was to get rid of the extra baggage. With speed and agility that rivaled birds of prey, Artemis flew around the tower intending to either break or shake off the masked Contractor trailing her. Despite the initial volts of electricity stopping her from moving at her full speed, something peculiar happened when she flew over the empty air: the electric currents stopped. The Black Reaper wouldn't risk a lethal fall—for himself, or for Lady. With this new discovery, it did not take long for Artemis to force an already disoriented Hei to detach from her tail. The Contractor took a sweep over the tower as a chance to untether himself, and he rolled to safety—and smack into the fallen pillar.

That now made three of the fighters down for the count, but at least the cable still dragged behind their airborne opponent. The line was long enough to touch the top of the tower when Artemis floated at rest, and as the others had just witnessed, it was at least strong enough to support a grown man.

Reisen's danmaku bullets were by and large avoided while Artemis was trying to shake off Hei. By the very nature of the struggle, the demon was flying much faster than a light jog, and moving in patterns that were difficult to predict. Not to mention with Tastu zooming around the arena trying to slice at Artemis himself, friendly fire was a strong possibility. Yet even with her mind preoccupied with prying herself free of this annoying piggyback, Artemis still had a chance to counter those few landed bullets with a little surprise of her own: six purple lights spawned from her wings and began to slowly float towards the Moon Rabbit. Reisen probably didn't have to guess what would happen if they reached her.

Just as the Moon Rabbit had expected, Sypha's pleas to Lady were less than effective. While the demon did respond to the name "Lady," the (slightly delayed) reaction was one of anger at the speaker. The witch had just marked herself as a larger threat. To eliminate the chance of fighting on even more fronts, Artemis used her highest set of wings to fire thirty beams (each the width of a ping pong ball) high into the air, only for them to rain down on Sypha and the unfortunate Magonian standing idly nearby: Mono.

Over by Trevor and Celes, the little hero was dealing with the costly aftermaths of a very effective attack. He was twitching, hyperventilating, and had the distinct Thousand Yard Stare of someone who had just narrowly escaped death, but their body hadn't figured out the "narrowly" part yet. With more cortisol than thoughts running through his brain, it was clear that Link wasn't about to bounce back from this attack.

At least, not without the help of Celes and Mr. Belmont. One Cure spell later and that all-consuming ringing noise died away, allowing Link to hear what Mr. Belmont was saying to him in between swatting missiles away with his whip:

Blink how many fingers Mr. Belmont was holding up? Link could do that. Three, two, five, this was easy. Take deep breaths? That was a little tougher—maybe if he held his breath for a...no, that didn't work, but he could take control of his breathing again. In, out, and a little slower now, in, out, even slower now, in, out. He didn't feel as dizzy anymore. So as the little hero followed Trevor's instructions to the letter, an admiring thought emerged in the boy's mind:

Link knew how to fight fearsome foes; Mr. Belmont knew how to be afraid, and keep fighting anyway.

With her partner slowly returning to the world of the living, Tatl tried to locate the sacred instrument that had fallen out of his hands. Her scan of the battlefield led her to the column that little cat ferret thing had taken cover behind.

"You have it?! Did it break?!"

Before Kyubey could react, Artemis made her next move: as her middle set of wings began to shine with that familiar glow, a sweep of horizontal bullets fanned across the arena. Followed by another wave. And then another. The more agile heroes might be able to leap over each wave of bright bullets, while others might try to safely duck underneath them. Once the third wave was out however, the demon would extend all of her wings and launch herself straight for Sypha—aiming to send the witch down to meet Dante.

Edited by TheodoreHastings on Jan 6th 2021 at 6:24:21 AM

As Reisen watched as another of the humans went down, she had to wonder if this Lady was really worth all the fuss. She better be some sort of saint if they were going to go through all this effort! Though the moon rabbit could empathize with the feeling. That undying loyalty to those close to you, even if they are useless lazy bums with no redeeming qualities. So as long as the witch and the whip guy held on to that desire to save Lady, she was going to do everything in her power to help. Besides, after she saves Lady, she can simply bill her for the effort.

As expected, the danmaku missed. A simple pattern like that wasn't going to amount to much. It was part of the reason why spell card patterns tended to more extravagant designs. That and a flair for aesthetics. But at the same time, it had the exact results Reisen was hoping for. The creature turned her newest volley of magical missiles straight for the moon rabbit. While it was difficult for Reisen to shoot down there with all the potential of friendly fire, it was easy enough for her to dodge any return fire shot back at her with all this open air to her self.

Reisens's red eyes darted from one projectile to the next as calculations ran in her head. Putting down her bunny eared gun, she raised her free hand and pointed with her index finger and thumb out. She quickly fired out three bullet shaped danmaku out of the tip of her finger which curved to intercept a different projectile each. Thanks to Sypha, Reisen knew these were the type of danmaku that could be destroyed. She didn't have enough time to calculate an interception trajectory for the remaining ones, so she was just going to have to dodge them. Flying forward, she twisted and weaved between the oncoming missiles with all the grace and precision of a ballerina dancing in the air (Graze:3). Once she cleared them, she would turn around and raise her gun to open fire to blow up the remaining missiles as a safety precaution. Back lit by the explosion, the moon rabbit turned back toward the demon with a glare and a satisfied smile. She said something under her breath, something she was hopping was drowned out by the explosion.

"Hehe...that was pretty cool..."

Of course any bad ass look Reisen was hoping to foster faltered when she flinched at the sight of the second attack. 30 lasers!?

"What's with the sudden increase in difficulty!?"

She clenched her teeth. It wasn't exactly above her abilities, but Artemis was really going to make her work for it this time. The Lunarian focused, getting into that state of mind that was akin to instinct. Her eyes focused not on any particular laser, but instead took in the motions of the laser volley as a whole. When danmaku patterns became like this, you didn't have the luxury to think. Mind and body had to move as one with no hesitation. If Artemis was going to shoot 30 lasers at her, she was just going to have to dodge that shit!

The lasers rose in the air, only to fall sharply back down toward the their actual target. As it did so, Reisen floated there, body tense and ready to move. It took her a few blinks to realize that none of the lasers were even for her.

''Ehhh!?"

Not only that, but even the next attack went on to totally ignore her. A slightly annoyed look crossed the bunny girl's face, before turning to an evil grin. If the demon was going to ignore her verticality like that, then Reisen was just going to have to take advantage of the opening. While the others were being put on the defensive by waves of horizontal attacks, Reisen was wide open to go on the offensive from her vantage point. Splitting her bunny eared gun back into two pistols, Reisen let loose with the danmaku. Since Artemis was keeping everyone else at bay, Reisen could afford to be more reckless, firing faster shots with increased rate of fire. As she went wild with guns akimbo, she let out something that was cross between a war cry and making gun sound effects with her mouth.

"Tatatatatatatatatatata!"

The volley stopped at the same time as Artemis series of horizontal waves. Since Reisen didn't have to worry about dodging the previous attack, she was able to see that thing prepare it's wings. It was about to move. With watching Red Coat fall to his death still fresh on her mind, this time Reisen wanted to be prepared to do something. When Artemis moved, Reisen followed in a parallel pattern. She quickly fired off a few danmaku and stopping them mid air in Artemis' flight path. Hopefully it got the thing trading some of its forward momentum to dodge or reeling a little from the hits, but if not, at least it was a few free potshots. In either case, Reisen was try to fly outside the edge of the tower.

Should Sypha actually get knocked off, she would soon feel a pair of arms grab and keep from falling into the abyss, accompanied by a familiar rabbit's voice complaining.

"What is it you humans eat that make you so heavy!?"

If not, then the moon rabbit would spend a few moments floating out side the tower, looking like a frantic catcher in outfield.

Trevor, Temen-ni-gru

Outside of pretecting Link with his Vampire Killer and noting Celes' Cure spell, Trevor kept his focus on making sure Link was okay. Link seemed okay if still out of it. They likely have Celes Chere to thank for that. It was clear the woman was a witch similar to Sypha even if her spells are different.

Ideas were forming in her head. It would be a risk since doing what idea he had in his head could kill Lady... but it looked like they were losing by holding back on her.

"Celes, I need your help," Trevor detailed his plan to her and Link once he was awake. "Lady has become a demon... My whip, the Vampire Killer, is designed to kill demons, which is why I've been avoiding attacking her directly."

It looked like Trevor was absolutely pained to say this, "...I don't think we can hold back our attacks against the demon."

"I'm going to do it and hope I can hold back just enough so that Link can use his ocarina and you can heal Lady after-" Before he could finish that sentence, he saw Sypha get flung off of the tower. "SYPHA!!!"

Sypha, Temen-ni-gru

Sypha pushed Mono out of the way of Artemis's attack, but this cost her the ability to avoid the laser assault completely. She was still alive and conscious, but she wouldn't be able to counter Artemis attempt to fling her off of the battlefield.

Oh crap! Sypha closed her eyes as she fell off into the abyss. I-I'm dead!

...

"What is it you humans eat that make you so heavy!?"

That was Reisen... Sypha wasn't dead?

"Remind me to go on a diet if we survive this battle," Sypha grinned, but turned serious again. "Thank you, Reisen."

Trevor, Temen-ni-gru

SLAM!

Artemis would feel the Vampire Killer strike her wings. A weapon that was specifically designed for killing creatures of the night. Even then, Trevor was still holding back as if trying to see if there was anything left of Lady within this demon.

"Demon, you've never faced a Belmont before!" Trevor glared as he taunted Artemis. "No demon from your world has ever faced a Belmont. My family name puts fear in even Dracula himself."

"My weapons may be more primitive and magicial, but otherwise, I'm just as human as Lady is," Trevor readied himself to start dodging Artemis' attacks.

Morrigan, Sparda Estate

When Morrigan noticed Urizen creating a portal, she scanned the battlefield its sister portal... discovering it opening right above Minako and her summoned demon. Morrigan instantly flew to land where Minako and Vishnu was standing. When trying to smash Vishnu, Urizen would find his punch hit with the full force of a...

"SHADOW BLADE!"

It was Morrigan's wing shapeshifted into a blade versus Urizen's fist, but Morrigan's goal was to shove that fist of Urizen's back through that portal of his.

Grant, Rookie Village, The Zone

"It's not..." Grant noted to Shadow. "We decided to try to help these people protect themselves because..."

Grant looked at Strelok, "There appeared to be a misunderstanding that could have threatened the lives of these innocent people."

"I recognize you two from your... encounter at the portal," Grant explained to the two, though he was still looking at Strelok. "You look native, so mind explaining what's goin' on?"

Shuddering footfalls stomped across the other end of the arena, with Ozen trying to circle around the demon as she kept an eye on this. This was made more difficult by the waves of energy that rippled towards her...what a pain it was to be tall right now. She had to alternate between bending low, jumping high and at one point tanking a ring to the chest.

Her armor only did so much, dulling the blow but letting it through to her much more durable skin. There was a searing gash where it struck, still hot from the blast and etched across her torso.

She briefly grasped at it in the briefest amount of pain she'd be willing to show, before the attacks let up. The demon focused itself on the witch, giving her enough time to prepare: her goal was to break off a short piece of the fallen pillar, as wide as a man is tall, and grasp it in-between two hands. Given she had the time, she would spin it around and around, each rotation putting more and more energy behind it like some exaggerated version of a discus...

...before finally throwing it headlong, trying to aim and hopefully not hit any sensitive persons who might be in the way. Even Ozen cares about collateral damage...sometimes.

Constanze kept her gun trained on her target. She needed to wait for the right moment if she wanted to bring down that giant. With stoic calmness, she kept her finger ready on the trigger until the moment was right. There! He was off balance! The single shot rang out and found its target. Just like that, it was a modern David and Goliath story. The eldritch abomination was falling on its back, giving Minako the opening she needed. Mission accomplished. The short tactical witch had all of a second to look pleased with her self when the thing decided to simply open a portal rather then hit the ground. She let out annoyed grunt as her brow furrowed. Looks like they were going to have to figure something else out.

Around this time Akko had finally reached the battle. With a war cry, she charged and swung at the place Urizen had been a moment before. Not satisfied with a single blow, she then began swinging the priceless wand like a bat over and over again.

"Take that! And that! And that!"

It took a moment for her to realize she wasn't actually hitting anything. She opened her eyes only to confirm that some how that big thing was gone! She kinda closed them during the charge over. The big blue guy was really scary. Not having to look during the charge helped keep her courage up. With the monster no where in sight, she quickly looked around utterly confused.

"Huh!? Where did he go!?"

Both the Luna Nova witches took note of the magical circle before them. They had barely a moment to wonder what it was before a laser erupted from it. The pink energy beam missed them. But they soon realized the only reason why was because it was sweeping across the area in indiscriminate destruction. Akko took off sprinting in the opposite direction of the approaching beam, looking to out run the panning death ray. An understandable look of tense panic was on her face. Even so, she made sure to make a small detour to grab Constanze off the ground by the collar along the way. With friend in tow, Akko made a mad dash until laser stopped following them.

Assuming the laser didn't keep chasing them in circles, Akko would take a moment to catch her breath, then turn to her friend with renewed resolve.

"I think its time we use the combination technique."

Constanze gave a solemn nod in agreement. Akko got on one knee and held her arms spread out like a hawk. Constanze then jumped on the larger girls back. As she did so, Akko warped her arms around the engineers legs and secured her in place. They then turned back to the battle in their new and improved form.

"Fuuuuu-sioooon~! Run and Gun form!"

In this new form, Constanze hands were free to keep firing while taking advantage of Akko's longer legs and natural athletics. Of course it was obvious to anyone looking that the larger girl was simply giving the smaller one a piggy back ride.

The pair made off toward the boss creature. Constanze pointed her shotgun at the massive demon. The barrel of the gun visibly started gathering energy as a light from within began to glow. Urizen wasn't the only one with big old laser beams! After a few seconds of charging, a continuous beam of blue energy, roughly a foot in width, erupted out of the barrel. It was not unlike a certain famous anime attack. After a few seconds of continuous fire, the laser stopped. The gun in Constanze's hand steamed as she cocked it to release the spent magical battery. Catching the overheated crystal in her gloved hands, she stored it away before pulling out a back up battery. She would let the gun air out and cool down a bit before attempting to load the new battery.

In the mean time, Akko was ready with an attack of her own! She pointed her wand at the big bully and recited the incantation.

"Mrrph mrrr mrrph mrrph!"

The wand hung there uselessly. With her hands supporting Constanze, she had to carry the Shiny Rod in her mouth. Who would have known that would be a problem? Whether it was because she currently was unable to actually speak the magic words, or because of her lack of magical talent in general, Akko figured the solution was to keep to the same course of action. Just with more volume and frustration.

"Mrrph mrrr mrrph mrrph! Mrrph mrrr mrrph mrrph! MRRPH MRRR MRRPH MRRPH!"