Allies From Above

Gogo Gadjet

Gogo was about to double down and tear the creature to shreds, but before she could, it spoke. She knew they could, but their ability to speak was infinitely more interesting than what they were saying.

But this was different.

Her arm stopped in mid-air, feet stuck on the ground, her mech frozen in place. As had she.

"Uh, chief? You okay? You didn't get a brain freeze, did you?"

But Gogo didn't listen. She stood still, motionless as a statue. The beast's words had struck a chord, and it held her in place. It took Boltnut a minute to notice, but notice they did.

"Come on, Gogo! Don't tell me you're gonna let this get to you? Don't you got something to prove?"

Slowly, her fingers twitched. She lowered her limbs, looking down at her feet, standing still as Alex said his piece. It was... was...

...an utter load of nonsense.

"Don't listen to that sentimentalist hogwash! If you want to be noticed, you need to make yourself noticed! Force your way down their throats until they're forced to acknowledge you, and never stop until they do! But I will say, throwing a tantrum like a spoiled brat is not the way to do it. Yes, it is cathartic, but it's not very productive. So how about you stop acting like a child so we can work on a better solution?"

"Smooth, chief. Real smooth..."

Mabel growled, reaching out to punch the side of her cockpit. Her magi-mech, mimicing her motions, left a dent in a small car. She'd FINALLY got into position to take a second shot, only to have this happen.

Glitch gave a few quick, inquiring chirps.

"No, no, I'm not going to waste a shot on an invulnerable target, and I can't be sure of hitting the smaller targets." Mabel said. She took a deep breath. "Ok, what did the monster say? 'No name loser'? Glitch, any way we can find out who this sin core is?"

Glitch gave a a high speed series of tones.

Mabel activated the communication link. "May here... I'm trying to..."

-sounds of incessant beeping-

"...fine, fine. GLITCH is trying to find a name for our Sin Beast's core, but says there's no video posted online on the transformation and he can't hack the city's security cameras just using the cell-phone network service. Does anyone have access to the city's security cameras? We either need to get an image of whoever the victim was and do an image search through social media, or back track her through the security cameras to find out who she is."

Edited by Nodrog on Jul 28th 2022 at 8:56:55 AM

Reefside high school bunker

Because Stella was in detention for getting in a fight against a bully, she had to stay after school. That meant that while the city was getting ravaged by a Sin Beast Stella had to stay hunkered down in the high school's shelter, a repurposed cold-war fallout shelter, with her teachers. Stella was listening in on the Magisoldiers in battle, through headphones connected to her Positron partner, Mr.Resonance.

That was until Mr.Resonance interrupted the broadcast.

"Psst. Stella, I have an idea. Get ready to run. I'll hack into someone's phone and start a distraction." Mr.Resonance whispered. Stella nodded silently andwalked towards the exit.

"Where are you going?" a teacher asked.

"The bathroom" Stella replied.

A few seconds later, when Stella was close enough to the exit door, on the other side of the bunker, the principal's cellphone played Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" at full volume, with the screen and the flashlight lighting up like a flashbang. Everyone's eyes turned towards the owner of the phone, who frantically tried to mute it.

Stella took the chance to dart out of the fallout shelter and into the parking lot. Mr.Resonance transformed into its magisoldier form, a robotic insect the size of a school bus. Stella took her seat in the cockpit in the front, a translucent polyhedral of bulletproof plexiglass. As she strapped herself in, Mr.Resonance took off and flew towards the scene of the battle.

"Can't you fly any faster?" Stella asked.

"I don't have jet thrusters." Mr.Resonance replied Stella set her comms to transmit on the channel the others were speaking in.

"Stella Lee here reporting for duty! Sorry for the delay, I was stuck in detention.", Stella broadcasted.

"By the way, if the city's security cameras are just like the ones at school, they're separate from the internet, and they're connected to the main server with cables. Maybe someone could hook up with 'em" she said, referring to Mabel's question.

"That's what she said," added Mr.Resonance.

Mabel bit her lower lip, thinking. "Does anyone have a better idea then trying to break into the city's security server room to try to get the footage?" she finally asked. "Or any way to find a witness to the transformation? Because I've looking at the Sinbeast spiralling, and I don't think we'll be able to talk her down if we don't even know her name."

Gogo Gadget

Gogo heard the last part of their conversation. She hoped she could talk some sense into the girl, but it would be easier if they knew her name. And she had promised to play nice. She wasn't sure what this would accomplish, and it would incredibly risky. But when had that ever stopped her?

"My positron can plug themselves into the nearest port or outlet and get whatever information you deem important. Unfortunately, we'll need to scale down to do so, leaving ourselves vulnerable. But in the interest of team spirit, I'm willing to volunteer my esteemed services if you deem it necessary."

"Me and Psyph can cover you!" Curt said to Gogo, as he got his mech into position.

"Oh by the Virtues, they're making a mess of it!"
"Wasteoids tend to do that."
"No I mean the other pilots! They're conflicting their messages and those messages aren't great to begin with..."

Heather let out a sigh as she swung her mech's body through another flock of regenerating minions and looked out the main viewport towards the tree-like Sin Beast at the heart of this battle. Looked like it was time for her to do the Hero Thing.

"Mecha Magica inbound, please clear space and let me do the talking!"

The snake mech began rushing towards the Sin Beast, attempting to shimmy up the trunk to get closer to the face and the core. Heather took a deep breath to steel her nerves, turned off comms and booted up the loudspeaker.

"You are witnessed. And I know this is a bad first impression, but please let me know the heart beneath this pain. Shall we start with names? If you want me to go first, just say the word and I will."

Gogo Gadget

Gogo was reluctant. She knew shrinking down would be dangerous. Logically, it would make sense to have someone cover her, but she didn't want everyone to think she was weak. She nearly shrugged him off, but a nudge from Boltnut was enough to get her head straight."

"Fine. I'll try and make this snappy, but don't blame me if you get blown to cinders."

A quick flash and Gogo and Boltnut had shrunken down. She ran towards the nearest computer store, dashing in and searching for whatever port or outlet she could find. As soon as she found it, she'd plug Boltnut in with his tail, connecting him to the city's infrastructure. From there, the rest would be elementary.

Edited by kkhohoho on Aug 2nd 2022 at 8:02:43 AM

Mabel glared at the head of the snake mech. Offering information was a risk. She felt a momentery urge to pull the trigger, then fought it down. Threats were one thing. To actually fire on one of her peers would risk losing her status as a magic soldier, or worse become a sin beast of her own.

She moved the rifle up. "Glitch, what do you need to scramble any electronic recordings?"

Edited by Nodrog on Aug 2nd 2022 at 5:56:17 AM

Seeing Gogo had shrunken down, Curt positioned himself in front of the store she ran into. Better to let her focus on finding out who this Sin Beast was without the monster distracting her... not to mention keeping the building intact so the job could even be done.

"Nonsense! Hogwash! Balderdash! You're only as noticed as you allow yourself to be! If you think yourself a mouse, then people will simply assume you are one, and to be surprised by that revelation is nothing short of laughable! You must show your strength, show your pride, reach deep inside yourself, and ROAR!"

"Felis I don't think that's the positive kind of affirmation that they need when they're literally big enough to topple a building with a casual backhand," Erik grunted, as he took a step back from the collective pile-up that was forming on the sin beast. The massive form looked behind him and narrowed his eyes at the Wasteoids around them.

"I'm going to keep the Wasteoids off everyone else!" He annoyed to the group, and Mabel, specifically, since she was one of the damn few willing to actually work with the others on a plan. "Come on Felis, we're keeping them off them while Alex and Heather try to calm it down and Gogo hacks!"

"Point me in the right direction, and they shall be striped beneath my claws!" The lion roared, and as it ran in the direction of the Wasteoids, he went from his Humanoid form into his Lion form, roaring (for dramatic effect anyway), with claws blazing with bright blue lightning, he went to work on cutting through the Wasteoids as quickly as possible, mentally setting up a perimeter to let them all work.

Mabel's mech stood, moving to the edge of the multi-level parking garage she was using as her perch. She tracked Erik's mech, prepared to fire if any of the wastoids were held in place long enough for her to take a shot. Assuming, of course, that Felis didn't take them out instantly.

Edited by Nodrog on Aug 8th 2022 at 11:19:11 AM

"I see now." Said Antigal.

"Yeah, whoever that Sin Beast was has had it rough."

"Those multiple faces make much more sense; she was imitating that which she so envied and aspired to be."

"She?" Asked Will, "How do you even know it's a woman?"

"A deduction, based on what I've observed in my many years, my friend. Many young women have faced pressure to follow an idealized image of beauty and meet impossible expectations over the centuries, and I suspect the witches have prayed on this person's insecurities to turn her into this Beast! They are despicable!" Will was surprised at how his normally calm partner cursed the Witches; it was clear he felt compassion for whoever had become the Sin Beast.

"You're one perceptive old bird, aren't you?" Quipped Will.

"I suggest you join your companions in trying to reach her with your words." Answered Antigal, back to his calm demeanor.

"Not yet, we better learn all we can about her before joining the "support group"; besides, I don't want to get us killed with my sense of humor. For now, we stick with May's plan."

Ending the conversation, Will flew down to help Felis deal with the Wasteoids, shooting them from above.

"Hey! Is thy majesty in need of assistance?"

Edited by Angry_Clown on Aug 9th 2022 at 11:30:32 AM

Stella and Mr.Resonance arrived near the scene of the battle. They landed in the parking lot of a nearby supermarket.
Mr.Resonance trained his cannon on the Sin Beast.
Stella radioed the others.
"I'm here at the supermarket parking lot. If you need anything, just ring me up! In the meantime, I'll try to keep the Wasteoids away."
Mr.Resonance aimed his cannon at one of the Wasteoids. He fired the shockwave cannon, propelling the Wasteoid into a cinderblock wall, which came crashing down on it. He threw a piece of broken concrete in front of the muzzle of his cannon and fired. The jagged piece of concrete pierced the wasteoid.
"Guys! Are we trying to throw whatever comes to mind at this Sin Beast, or do we have some sort of strategy?" radioed Stella.

Turning his attention to the latest member to arrive, Will tried to summarize the situation.

"Save your cannon for the Wasteoids, Stella! This Sin Beast was a normal person transformed by the Witches, we're trying to find out her name so we can talk her down! Right now, we need to cover Gogo while she gets the info—"

A Wasteoid tried to grab him from behind, but using his arm's blade, he cut its arms off and blasted it.

"—and keep ourselves alive in the process."

"How's it going in there, Gadjet?" Curt urgently asked over the comms as he slashed at incoming Wastoids to keep them away from the store.