2010-11-15 - Hidden Pirate Island

EARLIER THAT DAY

"The samples believe that they have beaten us by bringing down the field. They think that this Invasion is over and that thier pathetic lives will return when we lay down and die for them. These primates are mistaken. Today, we will burn one of their gems to the ground. If they come to swat us, we will show them exactly how hopeless it is," Tapud says to his gathered soldiers. He is a somewhat tall man dressed in a green flight uniform. He is missing an eye and his hair is tied back in a braid. He takes a swig from some bottle and continues walking down the line with a fierce smile on his face. It makes me appear quite upbeat about burning a city to the ground. He nods to the last soldier and comes to attention. "My loyal saviors of Balmar...This is the time when we show them exactly how far we will go. If you see someone on the ground, make an example of them. It will only dishearten them further. For the glory of the Empire."

Tapud salutes and walks toward his machine, taking a large swig of his drink on his way there. He didn't walk in a straight like but practually stumbled there. This was Tapud Shikor, one of the oldest members of the fleet.

NOW

The Balmarian invasion soars over the city of Hong Kong, keeping quick pace to avoid the first barrage of the EFA's defense. Tapud, however is far above the initial battle, watching with interest. He sighs, taking a swig as he aims his battery downward. "I wonder if my aim is off today."

"SHIKOR! SHIKOR!" The sphere robot replies from next to him. It stops when Tapud reaches over and slams his fist down on it swiftly.

"Shut up. Ugh, I wish I could take out your voice box." Tapud fires a beam straight down, blasting through the center of a skyscrapper. While the building didn't fall, there was a big hole down the center and it looked about ready to topple. "Commense the operation!" Tapud yells into his radio. "Don't let them feel a moment of hope."

Esram Yarok hovers above Hong Kong, waiting for the Earth to send their best to stop this assault. Tapud takes another swig.

Aitan Chazak frowns ever so slightly as Tapud passes him on the way out of the briefing... the aging soldier has a strong dislike of such /vices/, especially coming from someone of equal rank to him. Still, it is Tapud's mission after all, and Aitan knows better than to try and usurp control. Let the drunkard fail on his own accord. Maybe with any luck, the Samples will kill him and save the Empire the embarrassment of having such an undisciplined man in their ranks. As for Aitan... well, Aitan is a survivor. He has no intention of going down with Tapud's ship. *** Amidst the waves of Aerogater machines, the blue and white Ezekiel Har appears, it's massive Olga Cannon shouldered. After a cursory glance around to pick out targets of opportunity, the cannon extends and he grips it in both hands, aiming for one of the towering skyscrappers. His opening shot is precise, cutting away the foundations like a lumberjack felling a tree. The tower groans and whines as it starts to pitch, before collapsing into rubble, taking with it several blocks of buildings.

Adom Nazir knows the samples are gaining moral from the massive attack and reatking of the lunar base. She listens to Tapud's word and nods a little bit. His reputation is quite apt. She seems to cheer up a little bit as she prepares for the operation.

Now: Hong Kong.

Just another hive of samples. Well now they had to break their backs some more. She can deal with that, she will enjoy that as her machine hovers she brings up her short rifle and starts opening fire, any anything that looks imporant and one target just happens to be the tower that Wong used to own.

The Earth's best is probably pretty good.

Descending from the heavens, atop a pillar of blue fire, arms folded before it is a Neo RX-7 unit. Gunbuster, the hangar queen that it is, has gone in for some polishing up, and would in any case be a little bit much to use in the Hong Kong area. The machine is painted white with red highlights; the frost of the upper atmosphere wars on its durable outer hull with the heat of recent entrance and deceleration into the atmosphere.

Then its pilot sees a building fall down. Too soon, Aitan Chazak. Too soon.

"I see that our imperialist guests from another star system are too stupid to learn!" Jung Freud announces with a weird sort of cold pleasure in her tone, possibly largely for the benefit of the machine flanking her. "Come on, let's show them." The spear of hullmetal is drawn from the back of the surprisingly dainty machine and held out, braced carefully like a lance against the side of the NRX-7 as it angles carefully.

Then the reaching-orbit thrusters are feathered, lightly, for a second.

This means Aitan suddenly has a machine accelerating at a significant fraction of Earth's escape velocity aiming to skewer his Ezekiel right through the middle. There is a FOOM! of sound barriers being broken over Hong Kong, but it's pretty paltry compared to damage from, well, Balmarians. The horde is disregarded for the moment, possibly stupidly.

The unit tagging along with the Neo RX-7 is a little slower than the other; the pilot has not yet learned that sometimes it's better to actually use gravity in your favour instead of trying to stay up at all times. It's also noticable mostly for being painted a warm pleasant pink, at least over significant areas of its body; the rest is shiny white.

"Okay!" Meriden says, responding to Jung, before: "Ack! Wait for me, I can't fall that fast!"

The Newtype-Use Gundam prototyle doesn't fall so much as glide downward on occasional pulsed discharges from the enormous number of thrusters on its legs. Meriden may be new, but she keeps good control of her machine anyway, accelerating downward as she steers.

She doesn't have a weapon out. Actually, she doesn't even have a way to hold one; the Gundam lacks hands. Presumably she has a plan; as is Meriden is nonaggressive as she tries to follow Jung down from low atmosphere without screwing up horribly.

EARLIER THAT DAY

Ascian is staring intently at the technicians working on Amenthes - attaching new armor plating to the unit; lost in a previous battle. Sitting next to him is another technician, talking about the unit that was being worked on, whilst the BAHRAM member of the DC listens only half-hearted. Normally he would be quite interested, but with his unit having been severely damage a few days ago - and now getting a chance to pilot it once more - he was simply too impatient.

He'd had to wait as it was shipped out of the Cradle to a base near Asia. He had to pilot what he had concidered a 'unwieldy' unit, the Valkyrie... but also come to the realization how much he relied on his unit's A.I.

NOW

The EFA are not the only ones with a radar installation nearby - capable of detecting the incoming units. Sending out one of their more... sturdy scout units - Ascian Luddite, a Divine Crusader frame-runner, comes in at high velocity, his unit only just newly repaired; close over the water. He is somewhat surprised as his unit's radar begins to indicate enemy units in quantity - marking them each with a red marker and their distances, and then shifting the color as soon as it recognizes the IFF signals.

"It is to be expected for some of the earthnoids to be present." He mutters to Duat, his unit's A.I. However, the presence of the aliens unnerved him; as he watches single rifle shots destroying an entire building. His eyes however catch the rapidly decreasing distance-count on the Gunbuster unit - going for one of the alien machines. "Are we helping them out again - sir?" Duat requests of of runner. Ascian twitches. "It's what command probably wants. Let's go for the nearest alien, and radio in the meantime for instructions."

 Ascian Luddite transmits, "Command. I am engaging a series of units over Hong Kong - please advise."

So, a radio-link is opened up to Divine Crusader command whilst the unit heavily veers up into the air and does exactly that. And the nearest for him - coming from the direction of the water, ends up being Adom.

Using a quick burst of speed - the verniers on the reverse-blade looking wings on the Amenthes revving up to full - he speeds underneath Aitan's MS and lets a series of white bolts dart from his unit's fingernails, with an electro-web held in between - and then sends another fierce signal through his controls. A strong red glow indicates to him that it got the urgency of this command and speeds straight away again.

BEFORE Lockon Stratos and Setsuna F. Seiei participated in the mission in lunar orbit, and shit got pretty real. A LITTLE MORE RECENTLY Instead of hiding out with the rest of the Katharon forces, the Gundam Meisters did what they tend to do, bunch of secretive jerks that they are, and after retrieving Risa Pzallon and Exia and getting them medical/mechanical attention, got the hell out of Dodge. They returned to the most recent hideout the Meisters have been using planetside, which is in Beijing... So when stuff started exploding over in /Hong Kong/, they were practically next door already! So naturally... NOW

A hunter green and white mobile suit, with the distinct lines and design aspects that mark it out as a Gundam, jets through the air towards Hong Kong on a trail of brilliant green GN particles. GN-006, the Cherudim Gundam, has recently undergone repairs (again) to get it back up to fighting strength, its pilot whistling faintly to himself as he sees the forces arrayed already in the rather unfortunate city. They just can't catch a break lately, can they? "Looks like we're never gonna get any time to relax, huh Haro?" Lockon Stratos wonders of the spherical orange partner robot docked in the cockpit, although he keeps his attention forward on what's actually happening instead of looking to the AI terminal. "BETTER GET PAID OVERTIME," Haro agrees, cheerfully. "BETTER GET PAID OVERTIME!" Cherudim alights, briefly, on a rooftop, and Lockon half-rises out of the seat to grab the rifle-shaped targeting computer, tugging it down to a more useful height; as he does so, the forehead of the GN-series Gundam pops open, presenting a third eye to the world, giving the counterfeit Gundam Meister additional targeting data and a better view as he sights his rifle, aiming... All the way up? He whistles, again. "Oh? That looks like a new one. Well, better get started." "Cherudim, Lockon Stratos! Sniping the targets!" Lockon's gloved finger pulls the trigger on the targeting computer, sending a single precise lance of compressed particles into the sky, at the (unsuspecting?) Esram Yarok!

The Balmarians have arrived. As Bian Zoldark had once predicted so long ago, aliens had come to bring Mankind beneath their heel. They come without open arms; they give no chance for negotiations, for peace, for kindness. They come bearing arms, drawn against the nations of man for no reason but that they can.

How entertaining.

A shadow begins to blot out the sky. It is visible from a distance, these roiling black clouds, the bolts of lightning that arc through the darkness; it does not need to hide, for the one who truly controls it needs not do anything less than declare his presence. He is the bringer of destruction; the conqueror of conquerors, the man who lurks in the shadows. As long as there is evil, there shall always be...

DOCTOR HELL!

The Air Fortress Gool enters a holding position over Hong Kong. Inside, Count Brocken clutches the command staff in his hand tight. Dr. Hell's orders were absolute; the Lord of Disorder was not to be questioned. Still, to risk playing even a hint of their true hand to the Balmarians... what was Dr. Hell thinking?

On the other hand, in such desparate times as these, was there truly any other recourse?

"Prepare to launch the machine beast! Granzyd G-3!" Brocken roars, standing up and throwing out his hand. Ultimately, it did not matter; he would not question his master. He would sit at the right hand of Glory, when all the world belonged to the only man who could rightly lead it in the face of threats such as these.

The bomb bay doors of the Gool open, and a great mechanical lion falls. It lands with a *thoom*, crashing to the streets; cars are knocked around by shockwaves; the lion's tail twitches, rising into the sky to reveal a devestating stinger, presumably with some sort of horrible laser ray inside.

Wait, stinger?

Oh, shit.

Brocken's beheaded lips split into a great, wide grin as Granzyd G-3's tail crackles with lightning, letting loose a bolt of destructive electricity towards Aitan's machine. The bolt erupts with thunder, shattering glass and setting off car alarms; apparently, Hell's learned a trick or two from Great Mazinger.

Yes, Brocken thinks, sinking back into his command chair to watch the havoc. He would sit at the right hand of Glory.

"All hail Dr. Hell," he murmurs.

 Count Brocken transmits, "The army of Dr. Hell is arriving on scene momentarily."

 Ascian Luddite transmits, "I will assist - please designate targets as required."

 Count Brocken transmits, "How nice to see a soldier who can follow orders. Take out that one lingering over there. We will cooperate with A-LAWS to bring down this one, and then exit the battlefield."

 Ascian Luddite transmits, "Affirmative!"

China and the general vicinity around had it become something of Celestial Being territory by virtue of the Gundam Meisters being there when the Aegis Shield went up, separating them from their happening mothership and effectively stranding the pilots on Earth.

Of course, now that the shield was /down/ it ought to be a different story, but re-establishing contact and mobilizing and all that took some time. So it may not surprise anyone that Allelujah Haptism at least still happened to be around when a bunch of aliens dropped on Hong Kong out of nowhere. It's almost relieving to have something to focus on besides the all-too-distressing fact of Marie wanting to pilot again, or everyone's favorite non-numbered Meister getting wrecked a few days ago (It's okay, she gets better).

The orange and white gundam flew astride it's fellow sniping unit over the skies of a Hong Kong, bathing the city in a shower of green GN particles. Rather than break off as Lockon does, Al will make a direct path for the chosen target, running interference while Cherudim support from behind.

"Arios, Allelujah Haptism, engaging the enemy!!"

The variable machine snapped both wrists forward, mounted submachine guns empting shards of pretty, pretty pink particles at the Balmarian unit.

"Why don't I get a cool catchphrase..?" The Super Soldier muttered under his breath.

Yes, with Celestial Being presently forced to hang around in a lush tropical-like paradise instead of being out there in space on their totally rad spaceship, it opens up entirely new windows of 'just happened to be there.' This one is perfect.

BEFORE

Setsuna F. Seiei stares at a panda sitting just outside the remote structure that 00 Gundam is being repaired at. "Is that thing a bear? I don't think I've fought a bear for some time now," he comments to the nearby technicians. They advise he try using bamboo.

NOW

"I'm surprised that bear was able to wield a bamboo stick so well," Setsuna F. Seiei sports a black eye and a limp, the latter of which isn't a huge problem. What is, however, are the Balmarian units currently assaulting the vicinity. Coming in third on the Meister Conga-Line, the twin drives spew out their myriad of particles, and as he hits the pedal to the metal they leave a pair of rings in the wake, merged together to form the symbol for eternity.

"Don't let them feel a moment of hope? I'll carve that hope for them! Seiei, commencing elimination of alien units!"

And with that, the 00 Gundam surges right for the head of the operation, aiming to sever the brain. But with proximity being an issue and still needing to be gained, it opens up with an absolute rain of particle beam fire. The gloves are off. 00 Gundam is coming in ridiculously hot.

God only knows what time it is. God only know when Tieria Erde actually sleeps.

Standing in the medical bay of the impromptu Celestial Being-slash-Katharon base in Beijing, he's next to the bed of their newest member, the recently-recruited Meister F-- Risa Pzallon. It's hard to say how long he's been standing there, but the Innovade's expression is as empty and blank as it ever is. Yet, those that know the Gundam Meister better would be quick to realize he is, in fact, feeling something.

He's seen the guncam footage from various units, as well as the Exia. He's chastized Risa numerous times for her scattered mannerisms and habits, her lack of a sense of direction-- but like someone else that he knows so well, she has skills. Talents. A reason for being here. Before, Meister 004 would have told the superiors of Celestial Being that she is not fit to be on the front lines with them. Now, he's grown, whether or not he realizes it.

When he walks out of that infirmary, he looks /furious/.

Only one word passes his lips, jaw clenched. "/Aerogaters/..."

NOW

The GN-008 Seravee Gundam does not teleport in like the Aerogaters. It does not come in on the same linear course as the Arios, it doesn't snipe like the Cheridum. Like the 00 Gundam, it takes a very direct approach, with a lot of really, really big guns. Bursting through the clouds, vapor trails swirling over the armor and an absolutely excessive amount GN Particles vent out in the Mobile Suit's wake.

"Tieria Erde, Seravee. Target aquired."

The four GN Cannons mounted on the Gundam's frame align themselves, the two on the shoulders shifting, the two in the legs hinging forward. Lining up his shot, shifting the control sticks just so, his thumbs press down on buttons before he pulls a pair of triggers. Point and click, at it's simplest.

Compressed beams blaze from the four guns, each one intent on catching the Esram Yarok off it's guard with shots from on high to match the other attacks!

Others might call felling a skyscrapper onto a residential area to be senselessly brutal: Aitan calls it being efficient. Aitan doesn't bother to admire the resulting destruction though. He has a job to do after all, and sitting there gloating over his ability to demolish buildings is not going to accomplish it. Instead, he glances around, spotting several inbound defenders. His snaps his Olga Cannon to take aim at what of the newly arrived GN powered Gundams-- only to stop when a collision warning blares. The Ezekiel sidesteps, it's cannon snapping up to unleash a quick shot at the descending Yulianna. it moves too fast for him though and his shot streaks harmlessly by moments before she hurtles past mere feet away from him. The resulting sonic boom rattles his machine. "Valiant attempt at a sneak attack, but at such speeds you can not correct for your enemy's movements!"

His cannon snaps back down for a second shot, but the Chimera Machine Beats intervenes, sizzling the sky nearby with a bolt of lightning. Aitan snarls as he snaps off a hasty torpedo round, then ducks behind a nearby building. After all, they came to demolish Hong Kong. Might as well use their structures for cover before knocking them down. Plus the dense urban environment makes it ideal for ambushes. Keeping low to the streets to help avoid detection, the Ezekiel Har creeps, quickly drawing it's laser blade. The blade stays unignited though to avoid giving off his position... and there's his target. The RX-7. With a last second burst of speed, Aitan springs out of hiding and lunges for Jung, waiting until the last second to activate his weapon and send it crashing down on the Top Squadron pilot's head.

"Heh heh," Jung answers Meriden. "It's not really falling - think of it as flying with gravity." She sounds rather tight and distracted. The vague tension of the /human tragedy/ Aitan has so casually created is skittering on the edge of her mind, but it is not enough to take the edge of savage joy that the prevailing situation has created in her.

The fact that she is apparently fighting by the side of Dr. Hell's soldier, Count Brocken, makes her squint for a moment. Brocken gets a brief, almost friendly double-flash of the NRX-7's running lights, but this is all that Jung has either political will or attention to provide. Then she's swooping by, the blast going wide as the machine streaks past, thrusters kicking up to decelerate rapidly - there's another FOOM as it reaches subsonic and then rapidly more muted velocities. Then it lands, finally...

And turns in a sweeping motion, almost like a dancer as the far larger Ezekiel lunges towards her! The laser blade melts asphalt, and a magnetized penetrator harpoon is flung into the machine's side from the NRX's left hand. "Hey," she says with mock surprise, "You forgot to call me a sample! Are you really a Balmarian?" Another harpoon lands in that hand with a 'shunk' noise, a hiss coming as it couples with the cable coming out of the winch on the machine's shoulder. Jung digs in one heel --

And hurls the other dart, this time aimed at the Ezekiel's hip. "Hit him, Almace!!"

"SHIKOR, SHIKOR" The gutted Haro bitches at Tapud again, causing the pilot to open an eye.

"Eh? Hmmm. I guess I'll have to work today." Tapud swings around his rifle, bringing up the shields around the Esram just in time to get slammed by Lockon's shot. "Tch. Cocky bastard." Tapud aims despite the machine shaking from the impact. Almost, almost.... Tapud opens fire on the Cheridum with a quick shot from his rifle.

"First time a sniper tried to face me. Think you got what it takes to deal with me?" Tapud replies, stopping to take a swig of his drink before starting up his targeting computer calmly.

It is almost as if the threat of battle didn't really scare Tapud so much as annoy him. "Just so we're clear, Sample, when I'm done, I'm going to burn this city to the ground. How does that make you feel?" He yawns after the statement before smiling lazily at Lockon's machine in his monitor. "Cuz the last guy I told this to flipped his shit."

"SHIKOR, SHIKOR!"

"Eh? I already know you piece of Jun---" Tapud jolts in his chair as Allelujah's submachine gun shells start to dent up the armor around the Esram Yarok. Tapud actually raises a brow before grinning. "Oh, you brought a friend. Nice." He trains his rifle around to fire at Allelujah.

"Shikor! Shikor!"

"Heh...heh...hahahahahahahah" Tapud begins to cackle as Setsuna and Tieria all show up and fire at Tapud's machine. He is too busy laughing as the Esram is bouncing around from each impact. He doubles over, laughing as Tieria's shot hits. The impact almost blows the armor clean off. The Esram seems to be just a sitting duck now as it looses most of its armor It begins to race in one direction while it gets its barrings of every one of its attackers.

"Oh this is just beautiful. All the sparkling ones are actually showing up to take on little ol' me! So the Samples finally grew a pair. WELL LETS SEE THEM! LETS SEE YOU TRY TO SAVE THE WORLD! I'm waiiiiiting." The Esram aims it's rifle as Tapud finally goes into high gear, flipping switches excitedly as the gutted Haro next to him keeps calling his name. "YES! I know I'm drunk but isn't that just the thing. I shoot a lot better when I've had a few!" Tapud pulls the rifle back and takes direct aim at the 00 Gundam, radioing the pilot. "HELLOOOOOO! Buh-bye!" He pulls the trigger repeatedly, quickly firing more shots at the other gundams.

The tornado round gleams harmlessly off the Mechanical Beast, and, undaunted, it follows after its foe on all fours. Granzyd charges through the city, uncaring of its own destructive potential as it chases the Balmarian like... well, like a giant robot lion. What would you think it would chase him like? A duck? Jesus, people.

High above, Brocken takes note of the double flash of the lights. The Gool flashes a pair of spotlights down - an old method, akin to flag signals, but good enough to let the A-LAWS know that the alien was far more important on the kill list than they.

Granzyd skids around the corner, clawing at pavement and concrete; the iron beast lets out a tremendous, ear-splitting roar of challenge at Aitan's machine. The soundwaves ripple outwards, making the skyscrapers of Hong Kong sway back and forth from their terrible vibrations. Would it have a similar effect on Aitan's machine?

Now the red and white machine pauses as an Divine Crusader shows up. She's rather suprised with this, but as the Martian and their machine arrives, it seems to get the attention of Adom, before the other machine even opens up. She turned her rifle away from the other targets namely the city it self. Then the red and white machine now opens fire on the other machine, she laughs a little bit and sends a message to the human made machine.

"Is that all you have sample? You'll have to do better than that, and really do you think your Zentradi Lap Dogs will be able to save you?"

She puts the rifle away, and pulls a metal cylinder out and it expands into pole and then grows a point, it's clearly a spear after that little detail; She spins it once almost idly. She sounds bored over the radio as she adds.

"I guess I'll have to deal with you before I can get back to my missile."

The Red and White machine now lunges at Ascian's machine, she's moving quickly at rather high speed, she thrusts, slashes and stabs rapidly with no sign she's going to slow down. "It's a shame most of you samples are not even WORTH MY TIME!"

Unlike some of the people who may be present; Ascian has /no/ problems what-so-ever about doing the exact same as Aitan's unit was doing. He sends his unit straight down towards the ground whilst looking over his shoulder - his unit quickly moving a holographic image so he can actually look 'behind' his unit; allowing him enough view to dart out of the way of the rifle-assault and uses a nearby building as a shield. From the corner of his eyes - another vidwindow - he notices a mighty storm brewing, and the strange lion-like thing crashing towards the streets soon-after. A friendly! Or so his unit's radar claimed, as it marked it with a 'white' color.

Chatter on the radio had already resulted in him agreeing to take care of the unit he had already proceeded to assault; Adom's mobile suit. This conversation however, does not have what it takes to distract him. The fact that people around him were screaming for their lives - and buildings were crushing the innocent... /that/ had effect on him. "Sir. Concentrate!" Amenthes' A.I. warns her runner as it detects distraction within him. "Right. Soldier training." The young man's grip on his unit's controls tightens. "Thanks, Duat."

For a moment, Ascian wondered why the original creators of the Amenthes had decided that the A.I. needed to be capable of speaking - as he didn't really need the reminders, the link to his unit being strong enough to get the reminders from Amenthes directly. A series of little windows pop up along the length of the cockpit, displaying heatsignatures of the units present, so he can keep track of whether or not they may pose a threat to his current position, and can evade them as needed.

It also allowed him to notice that Adom's unit had followed him. He is forced to concentrate as she stabs and slashes at him, chasing him constantly. "Darnit!" He calls out, as he just barely manages to weave in and out between buildings, getting far enough of a distance and tries to hide behind a further-away building - pressing Amenthes' back up against the brick wall. He can already feel the sweat dripping off of his forehead. Last time - against the aliens - he had been taken down in a single hit.

"Damnit! Just get the hell away from here!" Radio turned off; he loses his concentration and normally more reserved attitude. The wings of his unit open up - bursting into pieces, much like funnels, that however stick extremely close to the Amenthes. From there, they send out a dozen of red beams through the sky. They dart past some of the temporary 'friendlies', evading them magnificently and defying physics in the process and veer for all of the currently present enemies. Of course... this ends up betraying his position, but he's too frozen up to react to this fact.

Aitan rumbles with discontent... this one is good, to avoid a sneak attack such as that. His arm snaps up as the magnetic harpoon spears into his machine's arm. The follow up wire harpoon however finds it deftly snatched up as Aitan drops his cannon and grabs it in hand, "You wish to be called as such, than I shall oblige you sample!" His machine yanks hard on the wired harpoon, clearly intent on yanking Jung off her feet. This plan is foiled however when her 'wingman' interferes with those guided drones. Shots come precariously close to the Ezekiel and one manages to sever the wire he's trying to pull Jung over by. His machine staggers back, slightly off balanced, but he quickly covers his momentary weakness by launch a torpedo off towards the Gundam. Then he sees the bestial machine carving up pavement as it rounds the corner and unleashing a roar that shatters windows. His hand snaps down to grab the Olga Cannon moments before he leaps into the air to evade the sonic burst. though the air he arches, before landing right beside the beast to bite into it's side with his laser blade before launching away again onto the rooftops. "Three on one odds... not what I would like. Time to even things up a bit." A barrage of spark torpedoes lance out, carving their way towards the two A-Laws. This is merely supression fire though to keep their heads down as he swings his Olga Cannon towards the machine beast and opens fire. The beam lances out, carving into the building right beside it... and with another rumble and creeking, the four story apartment building collapses onto it.

"Who the hell does this guy think he is?" Lockon mutters to himself, the reply shot impacting roughly with Cherudim's e-carbon, GN composite armor. It's impressive that he manages to survive being attacked by all four Gundam Meisters at once, and is able to squeeze off further shots at /all/ of them, one heading directly for the hunter green sniper machine again. "Tch--!" the counterfeit Meister hisses in annoyance, trying to move out of the way and firing again with the GN Sniper Rifle II, the beam going wide of its target. Well, he's not just going to leave it at that. "Let's go, Haro!" Lockon says, letting go of the targeting computer for now and settling properly in the cockpit seat to grab the controls directly. Cherudim lifts into the air again, green particles propelling it upwards as the barrel of the GN Sniper Rifle II folds under, changing the weapon's profile completely - and with it, its operation. Raising the rifle, bracing it with the Gundam's left hand, Lockon opens a direct channel to the Esram Yarok. "Sorry, but we're gonna have to take you out quickly~" He doesn't sound very sorry at all, though, especially as he unloads a rapid-fire barrage from the rifle.

You know, that tropical island base they had really /was/ nice. In fact, he wouldn't mind it if they made it a point to use those more often when they were doing operations on Earth.

He could do without standing around on the beach while Setsuna got his hair cut though. That was a little weird.

The Gundam Meisters initiate a classic attack strategy of theirs against a lone opponent, one that had worked splendidly in the past until the 00 showed up and just started cutting everything in half on it's own. To whit: Lockon harries the enemy from afar, while Al provides mid-range support to keep the enemy on it's toes. Meanwhile, Setsuna introduces them to his unique, personal brand of melee fuckery until Tieria wrecks the show with GN overkill.

At least, that's what /usually/ happened. But this unit, even if it was a commander one, actually took that first wave pretty well. "Aerogater techonlogy, huh.." The Super Soldier makes some quick alterations to his battle plan, thinking this one may take a bit longer to go down than they thought.

Al has never been the talker of the group, at least not when this personality is at the helm, so he'll let someone else handle the requisite word mincing with the Esram's chatty pilot. The report of the Ario's Twin Beam Rifles fills in any gaps in the conversation as the mobile suit boosts nimbly aside one of the shots fired it's way.

"He can't possibly focus on all of us at once." The Third Meister re-assured himself, methodically pulling the trigger with each red confirmation of his targeting reticule, "This won't be a problem."

Then why did he have this incredibly uncomfortable feeling?

Firing fast and furious at the Esram Yarok, Setsuna F. Seiei finds himself the sole recipient of a rather well placed flurry of return fire. The blasts prove more than capable, the first narrowly avoiding the head of the 00 Gundam -- only for the sudden evasive dip to line it up beautifully for one of the wing binders. Forward momentum becomes a forward out of control spiral, as the pilot within fights the controls. And as he does so, he attempts to recall what that voice just said;

"Arghh--!" A moment or two later. "Lockon, repeat that." "Tch--! What?"

The 00 Gundam, smoke billowing from the loss of its binder, finally pulls out of that downwards spiral. Thanks to that, it's now well overshot the target, and close to crashing into buildings as well. "That was close. Don't worry about it, I guess it's not important." He knows he heard Lockon say something just then.

Bringing the 00 Gundam up from below the Esram Yarok, the remaining wing binder opens up, firing off a plethora of micro-missiles, leaving a circus-like contrail as they all slam towards the Balmarian unit!

In the midst of the first exchange. Tieria grunts; the beam hits the Seravee cleanly, but the damage only cuts through the first layer of the bulky, fat Gundam's armor. The Seravee sways to the left next, cutting itself lower in the sky while trying to align itself into a support position that doesn't put allies in the line of fire. Other units blip up on his IFF readings, but he doesn't pay nearly as much mind to the DC and A-LAWS at a time like this.

Okay, maybe A-LAWS. Just a little.

As the next shot comes his way, Tieria's a little more ready. The luminescent green of GN particles increase and form a thick shell to completely encase the Gundam's bulk. There's a flash of light as the beam diffuses through the field, the alien technology not /quite/ piercing the barrier, but still rattling the Mobile Suit with a hit.

Yet, Tieria is busy typing on his console. Messages pop up to talk about GN Compression Ratio, charges, and the output of the solar reactor housed somewhere inside the bulky machine. A few swift motions later, the Gundam Meister returns his hands to the control sticks, his legs shifting and feet altering their movements on the seat pedals.

Seravee turns away from the Esram Yarok, but only for a moment. On cue, the GN Field drops-- and Tieria sets his aim while blazing over Hong Kong's sky, starting to fire from each of the GN Cannons again-- but this time, including the heavier, more powerful blasts of the massive bazooka rifles held in either hand!

The winching mechanism on the NRX-7's shoulder gives Aitan slack - and what more could any man want from life? Jung herself counters, saucily, "You know that all you managed to do here is piss us off, right? Nobody's ever managed to get terror to work once you've done it like you just did."

The NRX-7 cuts its cable then, suddenly whizzing into the air as one of the torpedoes strikes home -- but its own outer carapace is quite tough, if blackened notably by the impact. Jung grits her teeth, especially when the Balmarian's attack hits towards another residential building.

She continues, her voice lower, and also in clear - perhaps largely for Meriden to hear. (She is also signalling, more covertly, for Meriden to keep boxing him in. She can't communicate so easily with Count Brocken, at least not any /more/, but she has at least some confidence that the minions of Dr. Hell aren't going to be complete idiots.)

"You know us pretty well. I'm sure you've raped history books out of people's brains, or else Prisken brought them to you. You may be condescending but I'm sure nobody who can fly a colony-sized moon through space will underestimate --" A sudden blurring motion to the side, the NRX-7 diving around the far side of a now half-wrecked building. "-- an enemy with interstellar travel. Right? So that must mean..." Irrelevantly, the discarded harpoon and its length of cabling rattles for a moment on the ground.

A violet ray lances from the cannon on the NRX's shoulder, towards where she anticipated the Ezekiel was going to go. It blows up some more rubble, marginally. "That you're doing this because you think it's /fun/. And we know what to do with people who like to play with themselves while murdering civilians," another lancing shot, this one closer as Jung sweeps outwards and in front of the line of sight of the Ezekiel. She sights down the pathetically small gun, clearly eager to get shot to death by the Olga Cannon.

Except that now she's on the other side of that abandoned harpoon, which, obedient to the will of the magnetic attractor on the NRX-7's arm, flies into the air again, aiming to, hopefully, stab right into the back of the larger Balmarian machine. "That being kill them," Jung adds in a tone of exaggerated aside. "FAIR'S FAIR, RIGHT??"

Meriden may be reconsidering her career path around now. Maybe.

"Yak!"

Meriden lets out a startled yelp as the spark torpedoes came in at her, and it provides its stated purpose - getting her to take cover - very well. After one of them hits her Gundam in the middle of the chest, rocking it back, she seems perfectly willing to keep her distance. The bits fire off a few more shots before whirring back, slamming home into their shoulder launchers with paired clicks.

Okay, she thinks to herself. Stay calm. Think. Decide what to do - "He's cutting up the city!" Meriden objects, interrupted in her mental litany by - well, Aitan cutting up the building to get at the weird unit. And Jung needs help, she can't just /leave/ her out there.

The Newtype Gundam runs back out. Literally runs... and then it puts its hands on its hips. "I'm not going to let you cut up the city! Go, bits!" This time it doesn't launch two; it launches six, both of the shoulders and four of the backpack launchers. Four of them whirr out, firing not little energy bolts but sustained, drilling beams of energy. The remaining two shoot, eventually, miniaturized missiles. They track the drilling lasers in and strike wherever they're hitting, unerringly.

She is not reconsidering her career path. Yet. That might come later.

The Olga Cannon does its job well; the building next to the great Machine Beast teeters, and the manticore monster pauses in its sonic assault to flick its eyes to the side. Bestial intellect processes the situation, acting on sheer instinct as it throws itself out of the way of the fall. As the dust settles, Granzyd G-3 lets out another terrible roar, this one a roar of challenge to Aitan's machine - a roar proving its dominance over the other opponent.

The Machine Beast starts loping forward, heedless of the A-LAWS attackers that may or may not be in its way, as well as literally everything else. It plows forward, a single-minded desire to grab its foe and rip it to shreds with its mighty jaws, to tear the Balmarian mech to tiny little robot pieces, to leave it strewn across the ground and loudly proclaim Dr. Hell's glory for the world to see. It charges, and it leaps, and its jaws open wide to reveal terrible iron fangs.

Brocken sighs. Machine Beasts were so tempermental sometimes.

Adom Nazir Sees her foe trying to break off from her own battle and this leaves the fiery both in looks and personality, alien. Rather unhappy with the sample, quite unhappy with the sample. It's machine seems to actually be able to ignore her taunts. That was rare, she then comments. "Prehaps if called you an Ender, would that loosen your tongue?!"

There's nothing else said, as she keeps after the other machine as they go through the city, she is at least not comming after the city now. She's all on him, so he's managed to pull her off the city, that's good right? Cause here she comes again, with another wave of spear attacks, she stabs trying to impale the other machine several times before pulling back. She then adds, a sucker punch to the combination of attacks.

"SHIKOR, SHIKOR!"

Tapud breaths heavily, keeping the Esram move at all costs. Even when Ascian unloads on him, Tapud doesn't fall off his focus. He is in his element now. This was a battle fitting for one of the Balmarian Knights. Tapud pulls around Allelujah's shot, laughing as flies into empty air. "Geez your aim is terrible."

And then Lockon talks to him, prompting a rasied brow from the pilot. "Take me out quickly. Those are strong words, Sample. Lets see you back them up." The submachine gun rips into the Esram, tearing off armor as it dents into the machine itself. Yet Tapud doesn't seem to react so much as laugh like an idiot. "That's all? Hmph." He swings the rifle around and opens fire on the Cheridum, aiming for the GN Drive since it seems to be the power source. "COME ON!"

"SHIKOR, SHIKOR!"

"SHUT THE HELL UP! I DON'T NEED YOU!" The pilots roars at the Haro, almost breaking it with one swift punch into the robot's case. "This is the most alive I've felt in months. LETS DO THIS!!!"

At that moment, Setsuna's missiles hit thier mark, almost knocking the Esram out of the sky. Parts rain down on the city below as the unit continues to just keep going. It almost seems to be powered by this alien's good spirits alone. "Heh." He cracks his neck, taking assessments on which systems are shot and which can be salvaged. "Very good." Tapud is answered again by the GN Bazooka's fired from Tieria's Gundam. The impact actually does knock the Esram into the ground, crashing through a building.

There is a moment where you wonder if he really did just die until a beam fires straight through the building, causing the wreckage to fall down and reveal the Esram taking the opportunity to aim at Seravee. "I gotta admit that was pretty tough." He fires again and again, flooring it horizontally to avoid counter fire. He doesn't seem to mind crashing into another building either. He fires at the other Meisters.

Clearly Jung is tempting him to use his cannon against her, but Aitan is willing to gamble regardless of that fact. He knows that the difference between being live bait and being dead is a slim one. His cannon snaps up, charging with energy to strike the taunting A-Law down... only to find the harpoon slamming into his back. He staggers and grunts out, then leaps away as Meriden's beams and missile strike the spot where he stood. Another spark torpedo is let loose as he dives behind another building. "I do not take satisfaction from destruction. I am too old for that. That is for younger, more foolish men, such as the one that proposed this plan in the first place... but I am loyal to my emperor, and if it is his will, I shall carry it out as a loyal son of Balmary!" He steps out of cover to take aim at Meriden, only to hear snarling coming out of his left speaker. He turns just in time for the machine beats to bowl him over and tear into his machine. Aitan struggles to wrestling the best away, "Savage cub! I will /break/ you!" Then Aitan grabs the bestial creature as he wrestles to his feet, before bodily picking it up and slamming it into the ground with a sickening thud. Then one great boot rises up to slam down on it's spine with ruthless brutality.

Projectiles and other come crashing down near Ascian's unit, and it is the big red warning sign that displays before him - indicating that he'd just been hit - that snaps him out of it. He had been hit... multiple times... but he was still alive? The young man blinks profusely. "Good to see you've come to your senses, sir. Shall we now properly initiate combat?" Duat requests of the framerunner. "Right." Ascian shakes his head - hair flailing about for a moment and somehow settling perfectly back in place.

He does momentarily lift one arm up to wipe the sweat off of his forehead - but presses his hand firmly back onto the controls the moment his radar goes whining at him due to something being in close-proximity - and he just barely is in time to burst away from the volley of attacks coming in. His mind begins to process things properly again. "I am proud to be an Ender! It sets me apart from these earthnoids!" Ascian calls out at Adom. "Any other praises you wish to give?" He requests. His mind had reasserted itself properly.

In order to not have to go through the stress of evading every single attack again, the young man sends his unit straight back into the air at high velocity, the 'bits' forming the reverse-blade wings again. Amenthes verniers carry him quickly through the air, and then push him back down a few yards away - where he dives behind a building and dashes eastwards to reposition himself. "Get me a heatsignature on them. We're taking them, and a few buildings, out at the same time." Ruthless again - he raises his machine's arms towards the calculated position of Adom's machine.

Both of Amenthes' arms reshape and twist, forming a set of long rifles between the two of them, then get set together. Like a twin buster rifle, minus the destructive accuracy and power, the two form into a single unit and begin to charge up. The readings of his unit read out; "Compressing Space!... Complete." And mentally the runner pulls the 'trigger' for this weapon. Firing straight through a two-some of buildings, hoping that his opponent won't realize he doesn't mind some collateral damage, a beam of physics defying power flows - compressing space and crushing anything near it.

The natural progression for Setsuna F. Seiei is to fire from afar while rushing in, and then start with the sword chopping. Thus far, he's yet to draw a blade for that purpose, and it doesn't seem to be changing anytime soon.

His rush at the target is cut short as the sustained fire from the Meisters sends it slamming down into the building. There is that moment, floating there, where he is left wondering if it's all over. That moment quickly fades as the building crumbles, and that well aimed shot is sent flying for the Seravee. The young man's attention snaps back to the target just in time to be caught by a follow-up shot. On instinct, he fires back, peppering shots back down at the Balmarian unit.

"This guy's nearly as good a shot as you are, Lockon," the Meister converses with his teammates, taking a moment to survey the damage readout in front of him. The 00 is going to need extensive repairs again at this rate. Ian Vashti is going to kill him.

To that end, he upgrades the rifle fire. Snapping back the solid blade of the longest sword, the 00 aims a long rifle at the Yarok, firing off cross-shaped blasts at the target!

"You know what we do with emperors around here, don't you?" Jung answers Aitan. She sounds joyous. It is really probably kind of weird. "We had an emperor where I'm from once -- he got us into a war where millions of people died for his vanity." Her tone approaches gleeful. "Guess what we did to him??"

Of course the enemy's rage is temporarily focused on the Machine Beast. This lets Jung leap into the air again, the NRX-7 buoying itself on its own thrust as she twirls the double-ended black spear in her hands. It crackles blue for a moment: "If it's your emperor's will that you murder a bunch of Chinese people in their beds, surely it's our right to object, don't you think? Or does Balmary not have a word for 'fair'?"

The NRX-7's head turns for a moment to catch sight of that Newtype use mobile suit, Jung raising the free hand for a moment to acknowledge, before diving downwards towards the back of the Ezekiel, slamming both of its hands down, wrapped around the center of that electrified lance; it produces its own localized roll of thunder as it discharges, hopefully not into hapless civilians lodged in rubble.

"You can let it go, you know," Jung adds. "We're famous for our grandmotherly kindness. Why don't you ask Britai Kridanik sometime?" She pulls back, the NRX-7 backflipping away. This may be your shot, rookie!!

Instantly, Tieria furrows his brow in irritation. He didn't want to cause collateral damage to the area, but... that definitely forced his hand. The shots returned to him could very easily be bent around the power of the Seravee's GN Field. So easy, in fact, that even the bulky Gundam can twist away from the shot even if it manages to crack through the shield.

But then his eyes widen. Something is wrong.

At the last moment, Tieria regains his senses, gripping the controls tighter and pulling back hard, stomping his feet down. The Seravee Gundam lurches backwards while the GN Field projects, the beam cutting through the barrier and slamming squarely into the Seravee's chest. The Innovade's head turns away as the display fills with a white flash, grunting as the Mobile Suit is slammed backward through the sky.

Losing a bit more altitude, Tieria very nearly drops into the Hong Kong cityscape. He digs in, arms reeling forward and posture shifting, and manages to catch the Gundam's weight before it goes crashing down to the streets-- or worse, into a building. Twisting around again, doing a near barrel roll, Tieria blinks a few times, he shakes his head.

No. His comms are scrambled.

After a moment, intent on chasing the escaping Balmarian, Tieria brings the GN Bazooka Rifles to a vertical position while he glides sideways down one of the wide city streets, looking for an opportunity to line himself up in the carnage that is the escaping Esram Yarok.

Swinging one of the massive rifles upward, it locks onto the GN Cannon mounted on the shoulder. Tieria's eyes narrow while he checks the beam yield-- still worried about the collateral, because he's not Tomino-era-- and lets a wider, larger blast blaze through the city-gone-warzone.

The mobility on the suit was good. Al may have to double-check that Arios's calibration when he got back, but he doubted that as the problem. "If I'm a bad shot, I'll just have to get better."

But for the one shot he misses, the other three Meisters strike home, giving the Balmarian a solid mincing for all his trouble some talk. "Did we get him..?!" The Super Soldier dares to hope, unable to confirm the target just yet amidst all that collapsing rubble and smoke.

Of course, he doesn't need to when a lone shot rings out in Tieria's direction. "Guess not.." Al grimaced, then pulled pressed the 'TRANSFORM' button on the Arios's control menu.

Torsos turned, legs compacte and wings snapped out as the Gundam's flight pack unfolded, the transformed fighter flying off to take advantage of the Esram's vulnerable position of the ground.

Allelujah couldn't discount a strange, familiar feeling as he bore down on that unit, but it didn't keep him from taking the shot, "There's something...I don't know. I have a bad feeling." His cryptic warning reached out to the other Meisters on the radio as twin lances of GN-fueled plasma assailed the ground the Esram stood on.

The hunter green and white Gundam twists around as the Esram tries to hit its power supply; protecting the True Solar Furnace is kind of a big deal, after all. As the shots come in, the armor protecting the drive actually pops off, along with the armor on the knees and the small 'shield' on the left shoulder, nine discrete pieces of hunter green armor, shaped like elongated hexagons, moving to intercept the blast. Five of the GN Shield Bits defend the drive, while the other four twist onto their sides, the small beam weapon built into each bit firing back at Tapud's machine. "Heh," Lockon chuckles confidently in response to Setsuna's remark. "He's not that tough!" Stowing the GN Sniper Rifle II on the right shoulder, both hands reaching back over the Gundam's shoulders to pull free the two hilts rising over its back: On a 'traditional' Gundam design, derived from the venerable RX-78-2, this would be where the beam sabers were mounted. But on GN-006... Two short axes pull free as Cherudim's hands come down, the weapons flipping forward on their handles and locking into place, becoming the machine's two GN Pistol IIs. Diving towards Tapud's machine, Lockon pulls the triggers in quick succession, right and left pistol firing in turn, but he's not actually trying to hit the Esram. These shots are actually a distraction. It's when all nine GN Shield Bits race towards the Balmarian machine from another direction that the real attack comes, focused GN particle fire trying to overwhelm Tapud's defenses!

Meriden Almace's bits retract again after destroying a perfectly innocent chunk of asphalt in the street, slamming home with dull thumps Meriden feels through the suit. It's not working, what's she going to do /now/?

Well, Jung says she's still helping (but Jung is saying a lot of things, which range from perfectly sensible to kind of worrisome). Even the chimera, which she has now identified as what would under ordinary circumstances be an enemy, is being pretty helpful.

The Prototype Gundam lifts off on blazing thrusters. In the atmosphere it flies more slowly than it would in space, but it does well enough with the additional verniers that have been bolted on. She stays away from the front of Aitan's Ezekiel; bounding over a building, she comes in from behind instead.

Her arms are trailing two of those bits, different ones again. These ones don't get more than about ten or fifteen feet away from her at any point in time, because they keep docking to reload; they are firing solid-state bullets, and they only have enough for about five seconds of full-auto before they need a refill. She's yelling. "I'll still get you! Stop attacking, alien! I don't care who ordered it!!"

Adom Nazir says, "Your species is so good at dividing itself over things that are laughable such are thinking gravity can affect the soul." She laughs hard at that one, those zeeks were pretty insane as far as this alien was concerned. She now takes the hit, the first real hit of the fight. Her suit lights up from the hit.

She says nothing but the spear is readied she lowers it a little, but the previous attack's damage is still visable. Yet? The machine oddly tilts it's head for a moment then lunges at the other machine, no fancy work, no quips, just one well aimed strike going for the center of the orbital frame's mass.

Tapud snaps the Esram to the right to avoid Setsuna's blast, skidding down a open street. The balmarian machine crumbles the concrete as it skates down it, pulling the rifle up to aim at Setsuna with one final blast. Tapud is sure that this Gundam is the weaker unit. It is already looking pretty bad after just a couple of shots. "Sorry, Sample. You just weren't experienced enough to handle me yet. When you go to where ever primates go when they die, cry a little for me." He takes one well placed shot to attempt to cut through where the 00's cockpit might be.

The Esram dashes down the cityscape as the Seravee takes aim with it's stupidly large weapon. "Heh. You just don't give up. ALRIGHT! COME AND GET ME!!!" Tapud waits for it to come and get him, waiting until the laser is fired. The Esram swings to the right and fires back at Tieria.

Al's beam rifles cuts into the Esram's body, blasting huge holes in several places. It was looking bad for Tapud as he continued to move quickly down the road, taking off into the sky. "Whats the matter. Ain't got it in you to kill a superior being?!" Tapud laughs like a maniac as he attempts to avoid further retaliation from Allelujah.

Just in time to hear the warnings that he was in Lockon's sights. "Hmph." Esram swings around, taking aim at Lockon as the sniper was about to fire. "BANG!" At the same time, Tapud fires twice to counter Lockon. The Esram is thrown backwards by the blast from the Cheridum, having a large hole in the shoulder. Smoke begins to fly out of the shoulder of the Esram as it comes falling toward the cityscape. "Very nice." Tapud readjusts the rifle, taking another shot at Lockon as it comes falling back toward the earth.

There is another crash as the Esram hits another place on the ground. Dust covers the Balmarian mech's exact position but is Celestial Being really stupid enough to fall for that trick twice?

"Ha...HAHAHHAHAHAHH!" Count Brocken cackles, standing and throwing out his hand high above. "YOU THINK YOU'RE ENOUGH TO TAME ONE OF DR. HELL'S MACHINE BEASTS, BALMARIAN? YOU'RE WELCOME TO TRY! FACE IT HEAD ON, GRANZYD G-3! SHOW IT THE TRUE POWER OF DOCTOR HELL!"

Granzyd G-3 lets out a tremendous burst of souond as Aitan grabs the beast. It battles against its foe with all of its strength; and when it is bodily lifted, it lets out a 'gwar' of surprise before it slams into the pavement and is stomped on.

But, impossibly, the damage is not so severe. The visible damage is little more than a few dents! How can ordinary iron be so powerful in the face of the alien invaders?

"Hahahahahaha...AHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHAHAHAHAH!" Count Brocken's laughter echoes mockingly over the open channel. "Do you understand now, Balmarian? Do you see the futility in fighting against mankind? Against the forces of the Divine Crusaders?"

"Do you understand the power the lurks in this world?!" Brocken roars, thrusting the staff forward into the sky; it glows with crimson light, and the Granzyd's eyes do the same. The chimeric machine beast rolls out from under the Ezekiel's boost, releasing another powerful howl - but rather than sonic waves, what erupts from its jaws this time is acid, powerful acid capable of eating through metal in seconds! The Granzyd's acid spray streaks outwards, threatening to chew through the Ezkiel as quickly as it lands!

A rifle-shot scathes right past Ascian's cockpit and breaks off parts of armor-plating off of the Amenthes' torso... but he seems unfazed - staring straight at his opponent's position - where the shot had come from. "We can do this, Amenth... Duat." Why did he just call his Orbital Frame by its proper name, instead of his A.I.? Had Lord Alberto been right after all? He shrugs it off. He cannot risk getting distracted right now! "Warning, energy starting to run low." Duat claims and shows an indicator.

"Stop voice-warnings." The young man closes his eyes and lets out a deep breath. "I need to concentrate from here-on out." Amenthes' verniers come to life again and lift the frame further up from the near street-level position it had taken. He can feel the unit trembling - not as aerodynamic in its current damaged state. A few plates fall off due to the previous hit he'd taken - cracking the asphalt beneath. It is the machine's hesitated movement upwards that causes the framerunner to have problems getting out of the assault's way.

Bursting through the buildings he'd fired through, Adom's machine comes rushing with its weapon aimed at him. It crashes against the side of the front of the cockpit and glances off to the left as he pushes his unit for more lift. Had that attack been even a bit more to the right - he'd been a shish-kabab. Further up the machine goes - rifle still out - but splitting into two. One reforms into a simple hand shape, where-as the second shifts into that of a rifle and sends a quick volley of red-shaded plasma-shot out at his opponent beneath him.

 Tightbeam to Adom Nazir: You say, "I find it much more laughable that you believe in a thing such as a 'soul'."

 Tightbeam to Adom Nazir: You say, "In addition - I believe not that their souls are held down. Those who commit to politics on earth simply are not to speak for those outside of their gravity-well - unless they know what it is like out there."

 Tightbeam to Adom Nazir: You say, "And those who follow like sheep are just as much at fault."

"I think it's time to stop playing around with this guy," Setsuna F. Seiei says from within the cockpit, hearing the banter going on from the seemingly far too energetic Balmarian. It draws the youth's lips down into a line, and his head into a shake. These aliens, causing such distortion.

"Preparing the soft burst--" he announces over the Celestial Being frequency, willing the 00 Gundam's drives to reach peak synchronization -- and to activate the most powerful system that the team has at their disposal.

It's at about that time that the Yarok fires, the beam seemingly catching the pink 00 Gundam square in the cockpit. That should be bad news, if not for the fact that the unit is pink -- and turns even pinker, dissolving into giant motes of pink particles to reappear in the skies above the city.

"TRANS-AM!" Seiei roars, the first stage of it all. The twin drives begin refining, shunting out purified particles, filling the air above the city in a growing cloud. It'd be easy to think this were an attack. In some ways it is, as the ever-growing cloud seeks to draw together all the pilots that fall within range, to allow for heightened human consciousness and communication.

Floating there in a field of white that exists on a higher plane, wearing nothing but conveniently placed fog, Setsuna F. Seiei's eyes glow a bionic yellow, streams of light flowing within his pupils.

 Count Brocken's laughter abruptly stops, raw fury taking hold. "What...is this light...?!"

 Ascian Luddite's voice sounds oddly distorted, "I don't know!"

Adom Nazir listens to her own machine which is bringing up various status reports and such on her machine. She's managed to keep the Orbtial Frame and it's runner on the run, even if she'd not been able to score a direct hit on the Martian machine but she's kept it mostly on the ropes or it seems as much to be so. As the human machine makes another attack run? This time it doesn't connect, this time Adom was ready for the human's little trick.

The red and white Knight evades each of the incomming shots, she clearly had to some how know, the way Ascian was attacking before he'd even pulled the trigger, that was kinda odd in and of it's own, but she's not going to give him much time to think, she's going to keep the pressure up, this time she speeds up, she starts to move quickly and there seems to be several more units appearing, only one's real, it's either some sort of illusion or she's just moving that darn fast.

The Esh attacks at the Orbital frame again and again, not holding back anything at all, the intent is just take him down and run Ascain's machine through, that's all there is to it really, but the rate of the barrage and the number of melee attacks is getting a little bit nuts.

"Your really not that enjoyable, a few sample earned their lives by being witty, but you can't manage even to do that can you? You know in the end there's no difference between you and those from your home world. You will either serve the Empire or you will die, it is as simple as that!

There are a few systems and mobile suits out there known to be almost like they were alive. Metatron, with many of its aspects still unexplained or undiscovered, has been known to have a direct effect on the brainwaves of its runners, as well as synchonizing with them. But who could have expected the effect that Setsuna F. Seiei's TransAm would have on this system? When Ascian has his mind 'altered' by the effects of the GN particles, and confusion hits - he is not the only entity there.

He can feel it, looking over his shoulder - holding him along his chest like a protective mother of sorts - a red wave like water, distorted looking and riddled with black splotches. It takes a more proper shape; like a low-contrast yet glowing woman made out of lava. Her eyes are looking straight at Adom - burning furiously. "HOW DARE YOU HURT US! YOU WILL NOT COME BETWEEN US!" The 'being' cries out. The distorted figure happens to cover parts of the young man's body.

Ascian is immediately unnerved by this, his blue hair suddenly feeling dirty and his skin getting goosebumps. He felt so incredibly naked before the entire world. His hands twitched. The young man would have been unable to tell if he was still in the Amenthes or not, had it not been for the strong mental link between the two. Forcing his mind to react and get through this strange effect, he is 'led' by Amenthes to rush for his opponent and watches his 'person' going towards her and just 'knows' he is attacking her.

"I am not here to be witty! I am here just to survive! I want to follow my own rules - not those placed on me by someone I've never met before!" He calls out telepathically as his unit almost /magically/ weaves in and out of her attacks. Not a single of her attacks manages to touch onto the frame. Its movements are different though - whilst its runner is under the effect of Transam. Like someone, or something, took over. Almost like a dancer it moves its arms and shifts them into rifle-form at perfect interval when it 'jumps' up into the air and places the rifle-arms together and fires a near point-black blast of compressed space at Adom's unit.

The beast is stamped down upon and Aitan grinds his foot into it just for good measure, growling fiercely. But surprisingly, the creature doesn't break under his foot. He quickly backs away as the beast regains it's footing and unleashes a spit of acid. Then Count Brocken /speaks/. So surprising, so familiar is the voice and hatred that goes with it that Aitan barely manages to evade the acidic spit and completely fails to dodge the flanking attacks from Jung and Meriden, getting hammered form both sides. And then Aitan just /snaps/. "/YOU!/ I'll rip out your guts you headless dulahan! I hope Dr. Hell has more luck sewing the rest of your pieces back on than he did you sku--" Suddenly, Aitan is sitting there in the White Space, "What trickery is this-- AAARG!" He clucks his head, feeling white hot pain seering into his mind. Images flash through his brain, images of a past he does not know. An old veteran, his face grizzled and his eyes moarnful over the countless people he has served with and lost. A fiery red headed woman, and the verbal fights they two of them would have. A rousing drink with comrades in arms at the pub, celebrating their latest victory. And a grim, skull faced goliath, looking over him. A figure so ugly, so heinous, that it strkes fear into his soul. "N-no... I will not... give into this... trickery! I am a loyal son of Balmary... I am Aitan Chazak... I... am... RELENTLESS!" His mind half crazed by pain, the old soldier whips around brandishing his massive cannon and unleashes it's full fury upon Meriden.

Tieria grunts as the return fire pelts across the Seravee's armor again. More than anything, the Innovade is upset at himself for not being able to hit the Esram-- or even drive it back out into the sky, where they can attempt to minimize the damage to the city.

His laughter, his voice. Both are filled with malice, but there's something that's so wrong, so familiar about this entire situation, the Gundam Meister cannot help but frown harder-- and not his usual frown, either. No-- it's not a frumpy face at all.

The Seravee's bulk leans forward as it blazes through the Hong Kong streets, detaching the GN Bazooka Rifle from the GN Cannon on it's shoulder. While the area starts filling with the 00 Raiser's GN particles. It's an effect he's been privy to once before, when the 0 Raiser was first sortied to connect with the 00 Gundam, and we'll throw in a couple more 0s for good measure.

Tieria Erde blazes toward the Esram Yarok.

The Seravee Gundam's left leg swings forward instead of the guns, the cannon mounted on it splitting open-- the emitter array for the GN Cannon revealing itself to be the back of a hand, one holding a GN-powered beam saber that tries to cut a disabling slash across the Esram Yarok's hip.

"LOCKON STRATOS!!"

In quick succession, to things happen that Lockon Stratos is not an enormous fan of. First of all, Tapud Shakir fires directly at him with a brutally accurate attack, the GN Shield Bits racing back to the Gundam to interpose themselves in the way of the blast. They link together, forming a complete shield in front of Cherudim, and Haro races to re-direct the suit's particle flow - as well as, remotely, the particle flow of the bits - to maximise defense, the possibly lethal shot spending itself on the Shield Bits and not reaching the Gundam itself, although the bits look a little worse for the wear... And then, Setsuna uses Trans-Am. He was there, the first time this happened, the first time the complete 00 Raiser entered Trans-Am, and he experienced the overflowing particles, the strange input flooding his mind as his thoughts connected with another person's. For a second, Cherudim seems to vanish around him - along with his flight suit, how scandalous - but Lyle Dylandy doesn't relent. He grits his teeth, and while his perceptions exist on another plane, in the strange space where the quanta gather, his body guides the GN-006 Cherudim Gundam down at top speed, brandishing both GN Pistol IIs at the Esram Yarok, the mean green machine juking and weaving as it fires in irregular patterns. "YOU CAN'T HIDE FROM ME!!"

As the 00 Raiser spreads across the battlefield, Count Brocken lets out a roar of utter fury. Katharon's secret weapons were never a good thing for the likes of him; with an authoritative shout of command, his hand flies out, and the soldiers begin backing the Gool out of the range of the particle flare. As Aitan roars out his insult, Brocken frowns.

"So...that's your identity, is it." Brocken's lips twist upwards in a terrible smirk. "I see. Well...it's nice to see you again, Inner Sphere Rodent. It seems I didn't crush you quite as thoroughly as I'd intended!"

"BUT NO MATTER!" Brocken closes his fist, "WHETHER BALMAR, INNER SPHERE, EARTHLING, OR OTHERWISE-"

"THERE IS NO ONE STRONGER THAN DR. HELL!"

The acid stream abruptly cuts as the Machine Beast leaps forward. Its jaws move to grab Aitan's Ezekiel by the head; its razor-sharp claws slash downwards, its tail stabs for a hand. The Lion seeks to pin the Ezekiel entirely, to hold it down and give it neither quarter nor kindness. Dr. Hell's minions do not 'save' people.

Especially not foes.

/Now/ who's a terrible shot?

The Arios blasts overhead a few machs short of the sound barrier, circling back around for another attack. Still, a new complicating factor had arisen in the battle as Tieria demonstrates: It wasn't safe to fight that unit in the city. Celestial Being had enough image problems without blowing up a city on the evening news.

Also, they were against that kind of thing anyways.

"I can use the Arios for that." Al's voice chimed in over the radio, heterochromatic eyes flashing, "I'll need to get in close...occupy his attention for me." The Super Soldier pitched up on the flight control sticks, bringing the Arios on a long angle down towards the ground.

What happened next should not be attempted by children, who really shouldn't be piloting mobile suits anyways.

The orange and white fighter flew dangerously close to the ground, upside down, bearing down on the Esram like the juggernaut of yore. The front end of the unit splits in half into a giant pincer claw, snapping hungrily several time for good measure. With any luck, he'd snare the Balmarian and take him well away from collateral damage city, assuming Lockon and Tieria didn't take care of him first.

Then everything gets weird, again.

GN particles oversaturate the air just like they did before, and the Super Soldier is no less spare the trip to the sparkly green nude zone than any of his cohorts. But having known it once before, there's less of a shock. His quantum brainwaves keep him tied to reality, keep him focusing as the two disparate halves of his personality unite into one in the small window of opportunity the 00's Trans-Am offers.

The Arios does not falter.

"GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE..!"

Oh fuck, Jung thinks belatedly, they're doing it again. "Almace, don't panic!" she speaks, urgently, into the transmitter. Then it comes --

And it is not as bad as Jung thought. Maybe it is the awareness that 'it' is coming. The flowing waves of GN Particles, largely diffused by the time they wash over Jung's location, make her feel as if the world is sparkling in some kind of slowed time. Her tongue washes over her dry lips; it feels like it takes a full (sensual) minute.

She thinks she can feel that boy from before. He's nearby. Others are more novel. Including Meriden, who is currently being targetted. Can she move fast like this? she thinks, even as the NRX-7 lunges forwards. It's like she's pulling the spear through pudding, she thinks; the capacitor hasn't recharged, so her sideways paddling slam at the head of the Ezekiel is unheralded by actinic flashes of blue. After the strike, she grasps it and yanks it downwards, aiming to slowly peel open the back of the machine. Maybe she can disable it, she thinks.

No, she thinks, this is just an artifact. It's actually going --

'Yuliana' leaps forwards as the spear comes around to slam sideways against the Balmarian's head, then slam down pointfirst into a rear-facing plate and pry it open!

-- too damn fast, Jung thinks. God, she thinks further, fuck Celestial Being, seriously.

Tapud cringes as his shots don't seem to down the 00. Infact, they just seem to make the Gundam glow a rather ugly shade of pink. He growls under his breath, watching the particles to satuate through the air. He looks around as the sky turns into rainbow sparkles time and then shoots his eyes back at the 00. "Whatever this is, it is pretty stupid, Sample. I don't see the military applications for this at all!!!" And then everything goes bright white for a moment.

Tapud appears on the field of heighten, glaring at the ground. He is wearing nothing but fog that makes sure this game stays in rating. He keeps his eyes on the head tilted down for what seems like enternity to the people watching this. Finally, his head tilts up slowly, revealing his face. It was an Irish male with an eyepatch and a smug expression. His hair was tied in a braid but it was finally clear as day who he was. He stares at first at his copy from across the happy, fun time space field, meeting eyes. "Tch. What the hell is this, sample?" He roars at Lockon in his voice. He gives him a glare with Lockon's face and slams down Lockon's fist against the Esram's controls back in real time space land.

And then Tieria says the magic words. Tapud is suddenly visiably stunned. Almost dumbstruck by this name. "Lock...on.."

Tapud looks down at the gutted haro as it begins to chirp at him. "Lockon! Lockon!"

"Lockon! Lockon!"

"Lockon! Lockon!"

For one split second, he is paralyzed by this name. His stomach begins to turnand he almost vomits over his controls by just the shock of a name. He repeats it. "Lockon. Lockon."

Tapud's teeth suddenly clinch as he fires a counter into the Seravee as it slasmes the beam saber into him. His eyes grow fierce as his naked form in space fun time land is notably more crazy than before. "LOCKON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" He shireks on the top of his lungs, pointing the barrel into Seravee's chest. "DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE! DIE!!!!!" He roars which each haphazard pull of the trigger, screaming incoherently now as the Haro continues to bellow at him.

Then Lockon's shot fires toward the Esram, causing the pilot to try to side step the energy bursts. This takes the arm of the Esram clean off, sending it flying down the road. Still Tapud is unflinching ,attempting to turn the rifle around to try to get Tieria again.

But the rifle and the other arm of the Esram is ripped clean off by the pincer claw just as it discharges one last shot. The rifle explodes in the air, showering fire down on the Balmarian unit.

Tapud breaths heavily about ready to try to ram Tieria in his rage. ...which admittedly looks pretty hilarious in space time land. It's a naked crazy Lockon Stratos.

This is probably your cue to get him out of here, other Balmarian people.

Retracting the bits again, Meriden prepares herself for fight or flight - possibly literally, with the thrusters blazing the way they are. She was expecting a response, all right, but not - not the massive blast from the cannon.

Her eyes widen even before he swings it around and begins to fire, an instinct she has no idea where it came from. "I'M NOT PANICKING THERE'S JUST A LASER," she yells back, throwing the MRX in a hard bank to the side, apparently angling down a barely-seen alleyway.

Meriden's mind fizzes with the possibilities. This is rather more intense than she normally gets it, and she isn't sure why; she has a remarkable presence for someone so young, a sense of radiating pressure that still does nothing to drown out what she can tell is around her. People, people everywhere -

In real space, Meriden is missed entirely by the laser, but blinded by the images in her mind, she rams into the corner of the building instead. The Gundam's metal frame squeals as it's bent out of shape, spraying sparks as she hits the ground and tries to recover.

She staggers her machine upright again, lurching out into the yard. The effect is already fading, but Meriden is still getting scraps of imagery, scraps of /sensation/ from other people, weakening. She still knows exactly where the man is, though. She can see that.

Six bits leap out from Meriden's machine, and she controls them with rather more finesse than usual; she doesn't even need the wire guidance, really, as she forms them into a rough arc to her sides and over her head. "I can... I can do this!" she says, to nobody in particular; her voice echoes through the minds of others before pulling back to itself.

Bullets and beams fill the air, one last time.

Note: Blinding white hot pain in your brain is not good for trying to concentrate on your surroundings. Neither are blinding flashes of beam fire from your big ass cannon. By the time the blast from the Olga Cannon fades, it's too late for Aitan to see the hellish chimera coming. It slams hard into his bachine and literally tears it's entire face off, exposing the balmarian circuitry beneath. the Olga Cannon drops to the ground as Aitan pulls out his blade and slashes into the beast's side. Then suddenly jung is behind him, he twists around but it's too late. the spear drives right into the Ezekiel's neck. with a twist and a little bit of leverate, the entire head from the neck up just rips free. He follows through with his slash regardless, even as his scanners switch to backups. A blast catches him in the back of the knee next, pitching the machine forward as it falls onto it's hands and knees Aitan twists enough to launch off a volley of torpedoes. Dimly, he is aware of the state of his energy reserves. Forcing his madness back, the aging soldier reaches for his recall function. And then the Balmarian mech is gone.

 Count Brocken transmits, "Gool has cleared the range of the anomaly. BAHRAM soldier, are you clear?"

 Ascian Luddite's radio simply lets the sound of a ghostly whisper amongst the 'fizzzzz' of distortion within the cockpit.

 Count Brocken transmits, "Hm. Apparently not."

 Count Brocken transmits, "BAHRAM Pilot! Once you are free of your engagement, return to the Gool immediately. Dr. Hell will make certain you have not been contaminated once we return to Bardos Island."

 Count Brocken transmits, "It is imperative that we discover a countermeasure for...whatever that device was."

 Count Brocken transmits, "Is this understood?"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite's radio continues to simply feed static...

As Aitan retreats, Count Brocken gives a passing thought to assaulting his weakened foes. The A-LAWS were no friends to Katharon, and they were still busy with the Balmarians. But at the same time...

Brocken closes his eyes and crosses his arms. Do-gooders had a way of teaming up against you, regardless of factional alliance. Their would-be morality was so situational...couldn't they understand that Dr. Hell was the best hope for this world in the days to come? Still...

Brocken flicks his hand outwards. The machine beast lets out a growl of confusion, looking between Jung and Meriden...and then scrambles off, leaving the battlefield to join Gool. Brocken slumps down in his chair. "Begin retrieval protocols. We will wait outside thhe combat zone for our BAHRAM friend and retrieve him for later. Dr. Hell will no doubt wish to see what occured here."

Yes. That was far more valuable than punishing traitors. Let Dr. Hell see the mysterious Celestial Being weapon - and eventually, all would be laid bare before him.

It seems that things are unfolding. At the center of the white plane, Setsuna F. Seiei simply watches, his brow furrowing, a frown tugging at his lips. He has words; he does not speak them. "Am I seeing double here?" he wonders aloud, feelings of bewilderment and confusion mounting.

So much so that he prepares to disengage the Trans-Am System, unsure on how to proceed. "What have they done?" he mutters inside the cockpit, hand hovering over the shut-down switch. He'll push it in just a moment.

For the time being, the 00 Gundam floats up there still, spewing particles, a rather easy target if anyone decides to be so inclined.

The effect from the battle with the Gundam Meister is spreading, Adom's mind is already prone some similar abilities it doesn't take long to pull her in, she's pulled in much quickly she pauses looking confused, she's no more than 20 or so dark tanned skin, half her hair's white the other half is red, she's also got one of those strange alien tattoos on her forheads. The samples were using this mental weapon again, she could hear many of their thoughts. She sees the strange human for a moment. she doesn't hear the AI, she's pulled into this. She doesn't seem to be bothered by the lack of clothing. However she looks at the runner for a moment as he now evades the incomming attacks.

"Your savage animals you butcher your own kind over petty things, and we come to collect the harvest. The only thing you proved with the technology we left you, was how well you can kill your selves with it."

She then realises her commander has suffered worse than she has. But another attack hits.

Still in the strange space her presence flares up a bit. "I do not know what sort of weapon this is sample but it will not work. Enjoy your stay of excution."

Tapud isn't doing so well. She's actually breaking off from her fight and now using buildings as cover, she ignores the minds of the sample civilians as her machine moves quickly. The Gundam Meisters would pick up another of the alien's machines comming in. It doesn't look like it's here for a fight, it's here for Tapud from the looks of it. They would see the same mental precence of a young lady, with red and white hair to boot. Both in Sparkle Space, and in the real world she moves to grab Tapud and begin to intate a recall.

"I do not know what you animals have done to my comrade but you'll regret it!"

The Machine Beast is pulling back, Jung thinks as she lands, breathing steadily. The world is still sparkling. The dark heart of Brocken is not aligned against them. She raises the spear up in a momentary and mildly ironic salute.

The NRX-7 then leaps towards where the Gundam has landed, standing at its feet like some sort of weird robot hobbit. Jung reaches up to put a hand on the machine to enable more secure direct discussions, which does have the peculiar effect of the Machine Weapon appearing to grab at the Gundam's butt from the side.

Jung's voice, slightly distorted by touch talk, says, "Sorry I didn't warn you, Almace. I don't think we're near the ef-" then it cuts off. "Effect," she concludes. "You OK? We need to secure the area but it seems they're pulling back."

WHAT... THE... FUCK Lyle Dylandy finds himself rushing towards what is in fact... Almost his identical double. It's a face he sees every day when he looks in the mirror... And it's a face he hasn't seen in a long time, barring inadvertent almost-meetings at the grave of Owen and Lyndsay Dylandy, their daughter Amy buried with them because there was no way to differentiate the remains. The faces aren't exactly the same, of course - the other one is marred by an eyepatch, by whatever other Balmarian craziness has been visited on the former Lockon Stratos in order to remove him from his former identity. But, Lyle would know that face anywhere. No matter what they did, in a situation like this, he recognises his brother. "Neil?" Lyle says, disbelief and a dozen other things warring in his voice. "Neil?!" he repeats, eyes widening in the strange plane of quantum space. And then, something else wins out as Lyle Dylandy shouts, rather angrily, "YOU SON OF A BITCH!!" And then, I swear to God, he tries to punch the quantum projection of his brother right in the face.

The Newtype-Use Prototype Gundam is quite a bit bigger than the average mobile suit, standing about ninety feet tall, and the Neo RX-7 is short. It takes Meriden a minute she should really be looking /down/ to figure out where Jung is.

The machine practically sags, half against the wall Meriden hit and half against Yuliana. The bits whirr back into their places, vanishing up the ports that launched them. "I think I need to sit down," Meriden says, before realizing: I am sitting down, I'm inside the cockpit, on a chair. Not seeing light, not seeing people.

She squeezes her eyes shut, then open. Everything looks normal again. "Okay, I lied, I'm fine now," she says, and /that/ is half a lie. "Did they all go? I don't f - see the Balmarian we were fighting. Or the monster."

Well, no one saw /that/ coming.

"Lockon...Stratos?!" Allelujah gapes at the original beared of that codename in his mind's eyes as the Arios shears off a good chuck of the alien mecha, anti-idiot piloting system carrying safely back into cruising space now that the fighting seemed to be over and we can focus exlusively on mental bullshit.

On the green, sparkly plane of nakedness, Allelujah Haptism watched one Dylandy brother leap at another with a conflicted expression. "Sh....shouldn't we do something here..?" He asked, somewhat helplessly, to anyone who listened.

"Are you kidding?" Hallelujah was suddenly beside him, not even bother to hide a feral, terribly amused grin, "This is going to be /awesome/. I give five-to-one odds on the one with both eyes."

With the effects still continueing, Ascian seems confused when the alien woman retreats. A slight blush had appeared on his cheeks; apparently not quite socially integrated enough to be used to this kind of display. In a ways, he's suddenly glad he didn't continue the attack. Wait... what attack? He knew he'd somehow attacked her again - as his fingers were shaking... and the girl had called out something about an attack he'd pulled on her. But he doesn't recall pulling the trigger. The from lava-formed female that had been hugging his body from behind continues to be there, staring up at Setsuna - who had not disengaged the TransAm system yet.

He registered the people talking around him, he could tell that they were speaking about the aliens leaving. It almost seems as if there is an entire aura of... relief. But he himself was still tense - his attention still trained on the naked form of Adom. But something stopped him from firing her in the back. She could probably tell that his unit had a good aim on her, but that he was stopping himself from proceeding with this action.

After a short period of time, the young man finally relaxes and turs his attention elsewhere. He wants to know exactly what is going on. So - he steers himself towards Setsuna and 'floats' towards him whilst trying to reach out for him with his voice. "Tell me, what is this?" The BAHRAM runner actually sounds calm. The overwhelming presence of Amenthes quickly declines, as if afraid of Seiei.

The beam saber cuts across the Balmarian unit, and Tieria does not even try to budge when the return fire slams into it. The saber-wielding hand twists back, the cannon-arm that is attached to the left leg shifting in order to keep from stabbing the Seravee through the chest.

The GN Field at this range is unreliable at best-- while the defense is perfect against almost every other forms of assault, Tieria still hasn't quite figured out how to tune the GN Particle output to completely sway away the attacks of Aerogater machines. The Seravee jerks backward, the right leg swaying back to keep it steady while the bulk of the massive Gundam comes under repeated fire from the rifle.

And EVERYTHING GETS WEIRD, THE RETURN.

Tieria's used to this weightless feeling in his senses, the separation of his mind and his body. The Innovade's mind churns a mile a minute as he puzzles on the process that causes this reaction from the 00 Gundam and the Trans-Am System through the 0 Raiser, but his surface thoughts are more chaotic, somewhere between fear and relief.

'Lockon.' "Lockon!!"

'The Aerogaters took him?' "Snap out of it!!"

Mind and body synch. "You have to snap out of it!!"

Tapud looks up as Lyle attempts to show his twin with brotherly affection... from his fist. He is too busy laughing and repeating, "Lockon" to really try to avoid the punch from his brother in naked, space time land. He merely looks up at Lyle when he gets close and smiles. "Ha...ha..." And suddenly Tapud is pulled from the Quantum Space field when his unit is physically teleported out of range. This means Lyle's fist meets open air where "Neil's" face once was. Isn't that just like him? Pissing off his brother to the very end.

As he disappears from the field, Tapud looks over at Tieria. They meet eyes for a moment and the Balmarian tilts his head. And then he is gone from battle.

Upon arrival back at base, Tapud is promptly taken to his quarters to be rehabilitated/calmed down. His haro still chirping as he's dragged away. Soon, Tapud would be right back on his feet.

Jung laughs, briefly.

She may have felt that thought. "They're leaving. I think Celestial Being was getting called out. I don't know what the fuck they want with Hong Kong." She looks over in the distance. "Don't worry," she adds, perhaps to add to her legendary mystique.

"Do you feel solid enough to take off? We ought to get back as soon as we can, they're probably pulling this shit across the planet /as we speak/."

Meriden Almace rubs her eyes with finger and thumb before switching to the bridge of her nose. Definitely better. And she's young; she recovers fast, for all her flaws.

"I can fly!" Meriden says, with surprising and sudden brightness. The pressure is gone now, aside from the normal sensation of being near another Newtype, something she long ago learned to tune out; even that is starting to fade as she stops feeling stressed. "But I can't hit orbit with this thing, it can't go up that high on its own. But I'll fly with you."

Floating there doesn't last forever of course. Seiei is physically aware as the Balmarian teleports out, removing the other Lockon from their potential grasp. He's left blinking, sparing a glance in the direction of the person floating about him in the white space. "This is where the particles gather," he replies, cryptic, mostly because he has absolutely no idea how this works either.

"Good work today, tomorrow's enemy," he says by way of thanks to those who have showed up to force the Balmarians into the retreat. But the implication is clear; Celestial Being is not done with its interventions. Once the Balmarian threat is over, the game is back on.

With that, he disengages the full output of the twin drives. Particles linger, but the joint consciousness is bound to fade away like the odd daydream that it is.

Left sitting in his cockpit, the young Gundam Meister grinds his teeth. This... was not a victory for them, with this revelation. "Meisters, meet back at base," he snaps off the transmission. The twin drives change their orientation, and the 00 Gundam begins flying away.

When the 'field' disappates, due to Setsuna taking off, Ascian is left behind feeling somewhat... empty. He'd finally felt something close to what had been described to him as the 'sense of being a NewType', or just generally 'NewTypes senses'... and now that his mind woke back up to being just plain unconnected human... he felt sad in a way. "Tomorrow's enemies." He mutters. That moment, in a way, had had a profound effect on the young man. "Does it have to be that way?"

The soldier within him answered that question. Yes. It had to be that way; they stood for different things. Yet, he knew that what Adom had said was true too. Any excuse to fight amongst eachother. Perhaps the aliens were ri... woooah. No no - no thinking like that. There was plenty of perseverence left in Ascian to let him discard that thought immediately. Instead, it gets replaced with a sense of happiness. He'd been capable of damaging an alien vessel - and had come out fairly unharmed. A little display of his unit's state confirmed this to him.

"Let's take off." He mutters to Amenthes. She agreed with him. He'd become a bit more aware of his unit having some kind of... being. He could not explain what had happened during the TransAm situation, but he knew there was 'something'. Something about his unit that others did not seem to have. The young man notices a marker had automatically been placed that would guide him to Gool. The verniers hum to life fiercely and soon there-after carry him through the skies; burning away at high velocity.

In the strangeness of quantum space, Lyle's not actually physical fist passes through empty nonexistent air as the visage of his older twin brother vanishes, the Balmarian machine vanishing in the real world simultaneously. Angry and frustrated by his inability to give the image of his brother the thrashing her probably completely deserves, Lyle... ...Finds himself perceiving conventional reality completely again, as the Quantum Event ends along with Setsuna's Trans-Am. Haro looks at him, quizzically - which is an impressive feat for an orange sphere that doesn't have a face - but the counterfeit Gundam Meister can't bring himself to meet the robot's 'eyes', instead hanging his head, drooping slightly against safety restraint that connects his flight suit to the cockpit seat, and swinging his fist out again. This time, he slams the butt of his hand against the Gundam's panoramic monitor, accomplishing nothing but sending a satisfying twinge of pain up his own arm. Haro, with a sense of great robotic dignity, turns and starts piloting Cherudim after the deparing 00 Raiser. Lyle doesn't say anything through the whole trip back.

"Aw, what a gyp." Hallelujah pouted out a look of complete disappointment that looked especially weird naked, "I really wanted to see two pikes kill each other."

"Please..please stop talking." Allelujah had his face in his hands, "It doesn't even work like that here. How...how did they get the first Lockon? What does this all mean..?"

Fortunately, Setsuna cuts the line right about then, sparing the Super Soldier any further terrible awkwardness. The full weight of that terrible realization comes down on their shoulders, that one of their own has been taken, and fights against them. He can do little more than manage vacant nod and affirmative sound at Setsuna's words. The Arios follows the trail back to base.

He was not looking forward to getting back.

It disappears.

When Tapud turns his head to look, it isn't just the Esram Yarok that's looking at the GN-008 Seravee Gundam-- Tieria Erde is looking Neil Dylandy square in the eye, the Innovade's calm and usual disapproval of everything in life melted away into something else. Concerns? Of course. Worries? Yes. Regrets?

God only knows.

As his perceptions begin to shift and bleed back into some semblance of normalcy, as the familiar feeling of his mind drifting to places his body cannot, there's the same pit inside his soul that he felt after his access rights to Veda were revoked. That loss of connection, that lack of presence is much more noticable than it was before.

The purple-clad Gundam Meister lets his hands slip off the control sticks. Seravee's stance becomes more neutral as auto-balance systems keep the bulky Mobile Suit standing upright and in place. His hands curl so tightly his fingernails would dig into his palm were they not gloved, and his eyes close tightly.

Then slam down on the armrails of the cockpit chair.

Jaw tightened, Tieria's eyes open as a slow breath escapes his mouth.

Slowly, the Seravee rises, scattering a thick blanket of GN particles in it's wake as the final Gundam Meister departs.

Risa Pzallon is unconscious in a medical facility.

Neil Dylandy is alive, and in Balmarian hands.

Tieria is frustrated and angry. What makes it worse is that can do nothing about it.