2011-06-26 - The Squishy Tendrils Of Evil

Let it never be said that Princess Devilotte de Deathsatan the Ninth does not know how to make an entrance.

Suddenly, one of the random piles of debris erupts in a furious explosion of bright pink limbs and stabbing spikes. The octopoid design of Super Eight is not exactly subtle, but nor is it meant to be! Because at last! After HOURS of waiting in bored opulence, the trap is sprung! IT IS--

A passing satellite, which is suddenly caught in a tractor beam, and scooped on board.

"... Xavier. I thought your crystal ball said that the ~R-Wing~ was passing by, not this... this...!"

For a moment, the mage looks horrified, knowing that he is likely to be set on fire for this terrible mistake. Except, the R-Wing really is... right over there! And he points! Excitedly! "No Princess! Look! There he is!"

The giant pink octopus spits the satellite back out, and then swings around to raise all limbs at the patrolling machine. "--oh. Good! Open the radio!"

At which point, Ryusei is treated to a transmission of Devilotte's ... bratty face and beaming, fanged smile.

"That was just a DEMONSTRATION of my machines awesome power! Now eject and fly off back to Earth like a good peon, and give me your robot, or I'll ... EAT IT ALL UP!"

Totally menacing.

"Mbuh?" Is the first, dazed response.

Ryusei suddenly tries to sit back upright and tones down the radio. ("Fight for our dreams / Goldtigeeer! / Fight for out cause / Goldtigeeer! / Goold / Tiiii / Geeeer!!")

"W-wait, what?!" The young pilot, caught by surprise, tries to identify the evil, evil... well, kinda evil.... menacin- no, malic- ok, let's start back. The young pilot, caught by surprise, tries to identify the loli talking at him through the radio, and fails. He quickly runs through the radar logs (he wasn't paying attention) and notices what just happened.

"Hey! Wait a second! I have no idea who you are, missie, but you just hijacked the neo-MTV's satellite coverage for east asia! They're going to broadcast the pilot for Forever Fighter Starkiller Five next thursday! Put it right back!"

Priorities, ladies and gentlemen.

Now, for once, it seems that Ryusei is not the only one on a recon mission... again. And /again/, the other one with that same goal are the Divine Crusaders. A set of Orbital Frames are traveling along orbit, seeking out any EFA convoys that may be foolish enough to be unguarded. The crusaders have priorities too! Mostly consisting of 'find a chump and rough him up a little'. God, Devilotte would probably love these guys somehow.

The red Orbital Frame, holding Lieutenant Ascian Luddite of BAHRAM, is at the lead, its red wings spread outwards, a stream of crimson feather shaped embers following in its wake. Within that machine, the Ender is tapping his fingers impatiently on the control orbs, as he watches the sensors. And then, he suddenly halts. That is to say, the Orbital Frame comes to a complete stop as the young man notices a rather strange shape on his radar.

"A space... octopus?" What is an octopus doing in space? The full spectrum identifiers on the frame quickly notices that a signal suddenly went missing, and Duat reports to the framerunner that, indeed, Neo-MTV's broadcast just went down. But more importantly, it identifies the R-Wing! "So... it's that guy." Ascian actually believes Ryusei to be quite the capable fighter - as he'd gone up against the Yatagarasu and done some serious blows to his little sister's vessel.

"I have some unfinished business with that guy." Ascian grumps, and ignores the whole fact that Devilotte is giving Ryusei the Evil Loli Baddy (TM) speech, and just goes right into combat; thus disturbing the sweet little moment the two are having! THAT FIEND! The right arm of the Amenthes changes and morphs into the shape of a rifle of sorts, and then fires a thick bolt of red plasma.

The blue Orbital Frame is holds somewhat back from its red sister, the pilot tending to react to combat situations like this a bit more calmly than her twin. Alina, bathed in the soft blue glow of metatron, seems relaxed as she looks across her viewscreen, zooming in first at Devilotte's strange unit and then at the R-1. She taps her fingers along the control orbs, and then rolls her shoulders. "Alright. He's yours then. I'll watch your back." There is a sound something clicking into place as the large, longer-range gun of the bulkier Orbital Frame is shouldered, replaced by two smaller pistols. Lin tended to feel more comfortable with the smaller weapons - especially if she had to react quickly.

The feathers of Mayet flap against the non-existant air of space, the glowing membranes between them somehow giving the image of wings that aren't actually there. The diamond-shaped defensive drones that flow out around it give that illusion, even as they seem to move in reaction to the AI's will. "I want a full radar scan. Let me know if we have any incoming." For the time being, she'll hang back and see just what her brother plans on doing. Afterall, he is the ranking member of BAHRAM here, and her commanding officer - even if she /is/ the older twin ... by ten seconds.

<"Understood Miss Lin. Radar sweep starting now."> The AI talks in a distinctly soft-spoken feminine British accent.

"/I/!"

DA DA NA, goes dramatic music in her head.

"Am Princess Devilotte de Deathsatan the Ninth, and YOU are in MY--"

Hey wait, someone else is shooting at her R-Wing!?

Devilotte's good humor evaporates almost instantly. Given she had very little to start with, this doesn't take a lot. Ruining her dramatic entrance even more than the badly-botched satellite snatch had done, certainly qualifies.

A vein bulges on her (expansive) forehead, and she rounds the Super Eight in the direction of the newcomer who would DARE to fire upon the beautiful R-Wing. Open communications are the name of the game now, and she SHRIEKS into her radio.

"HOW DARE YOU ATTACK MY BEAUTIFUL R-WING?! THAT'S MY MACHINE, NOT YOURS!"

Not exactly up on 'reality' it seems.

The next words might just send a bolt of fear through all concerned, though, as she jabs a finger at Dr. Stein. "Shoot the Satellite Cannon!"

And with a mechanical whirring clunk, a large gun extends from the bottom of the Super-8. And from that, the MTV satellite for East Asia is launched at prodigious speed directly at Amenthes. The satellite glows bright red from the force of the shot, and is still broadcasting the latest cheerful K-Pop tune at obnoxious (space) volume right up until the moment of impact. Or until it sails off into the great black.

KAWAII DESU NEKO NEKO KAWAII <^_^>

As the princess lords her satellite theft over Ryusei, something else begins falling from the overhead orbital ring. Trailing a shower of bright orange light, one might be forgiven for thinking it a junk meteor burning out... Except it's in the wrong place /entirely/

Princess Devilotte isn't the only one with wonky, unreliable foresight. Half an hour ago, a pilot stalked out of a Federation medical center, fully suited and anonymised behind her helmet, and stole into the hanger bay. Picking out one from a dozen identical A-LAWS GN-XIII mobile suits, the pilot started the suit, and after only the briefest of requests, lept out into open space, and dived towards the Earth.

And below, the enemy units have only a moment to pick out that the orange light diving towards them is a Mobile suit. Rocketing towards the octopus, it rotates around, and dives feet first at the Super-8. Extending at foot, the pilot fires the suit's emergency thrusters, hoping to scorch the tentacled robot.

 Duat claims, "Incoming A-LAWS unit." Which of course is followed by Ascian going; "Tssk, A-LAWS. Alina... want some revenge? Have at it."

 Alina Luddite transmits, "On it."

>>INCOMING<<

The reaction time for a plasma bolt coming from a shooter at maximum range in space is about two and a half seconds. If that seems like much, well, it shouldn't. Even a fighter craft designed for speed and without the bother of being surrounded on all sides by atmosphere still has limits. Not to mention the reaction speed of the human pilot.

However, Ryusei isn't a normal human pilot. He's actually a mutant, created by a life of exposure to a highly realistic videogaming environment.

...Hey, there are super heroes out there with origin stories that make less sense than that.

A quick glance reveals the attacker's IFF: DC, BAHRAM. That's not important right now. Heading, aspect, projectile speed, the amount of standard deviation from Earth's gravit- oops.

Turns out that two and a half seconds isn't much at all, yeah. The bolt slams straight into the R-Wing's left-flank armored plate, blossoming in a firey explosion that completely rocks and throws off course the small airfract, straight into the vaguely deathstar-like PoPTV satellite for New Jersey. And through it, in yet another firey explosion.

"WHAT THE CRAP MAN GOD DAMN YOU DC SPAWN CAMPERS PISSING ME OFF" is all the short-range radio broadcasts before the R-Wing is brought back to the straight and level.

STOCK FOOTAGE TIME

The cockpit turns and swivels as the wings open up and fly away on their won, reforming in a medium-sized shield quickly grasped by the R-1's arms, extrucing from the fuselage. The legs fold back down in a marvel of robotic engineering as the robot's shape turns from aircraft to humanoid. Brightly colored white, blue and red, there stands R-1, defender of Earth!

"Eight! You're, like, Batman or something! Give me a hand here! Outnumbered by crazy satellite-hijacking tentacle lolis and DC sniper spawn campers!" he calls out, grasping the standard-issue Mega Beam Rifle and snapping a shot at the Amenthes as the R-1 spins around in an elaborate evasive maneuver. "EAT FLAMING LASER!"

Indeed, two and a half seconds is not a lot. It's especially not a lot when you are not expecting a /different target/ to be firing at you! Ascian has his eyes firmly set on Ryusei's R-Wing, rifle coming to a pulsing red once more as the veins of the Amenthes flow with the light of Metatron energy, only to have Duat pop a big window before his very eyes!

<<< WARNING >>> <<< INCOMING FIRE >>> <<< WARNING >>>

His gaze goes up, and his eyes grow a tad wide when he sees a huge satelite coming his way. "Is that..." He mutters. "The Neo-MTV satelite." Duat replies. "They..." - "Canceled Neo-Farscape." Duat confirms. Ascian's gaze turns into a thin glare. And with not a spark of regret, he fires that red bolt straight through the satelite, blasting it to pieces - letting the shattered remains crash across the shield of the Amenthes.

The machine's wings then spread out and 'flap', sending it upwards as finally, his designated enemy fires a flaming laser at him! Hey! Flaming stuff is Yatagarasu's thing. Or maybe even Amenthes! The frame spins around artistically, and aims that rifle at Ryusei. "You hurt my little sister last time. So I am here to make you pay." He is ignoring the fact that Ryusei is calling him a spawn camper. "AND THIS ISN'T A GAME!" Okay, that was a lie.

But now with two enemies to face, Ascian fires that rifle at the giant squid instead. And at the same time, he lets Duat devote its targetting computer to let a good series of lasers rip from its wingtips to lash into Ryusei's machine.

<"Incoming. Incoming."> Amit's voice rings into the cockpit, announcing the additional enemy almost as soon as the mobile suit comes into range. Alina's eyes move and the AI pulls up an image of the A-LAWs unit almost the split second that it appears and begins firing at the octopus-like machine with the loud-and-loli pilot. "Cannon mode." There is a moment of hesitation from the AI before it chirps a quick, <"Affirmative. Cannon mode engaging."> The larger beam cannon, something obviously not part of the standard Orbital Frame's parts - the color doesn't even match - is drawn down from her shoulder once more, locked into place around one outstretched arm.

Inside the cockpit, there is a blip, blip, blip as the targeting computer begins to track the movement of that mobile suit, little red brackets moving across the screen as it tries to get Eight's approach lined up right in her cross-hairs. "Ascian wants me to draw off the A-LAWs unit, so that's what we'll do. Full power to the cannon." <"Charging."> The lines of metatron begin to flow down the arm of the sphinx robot, the tail twitching out behind it almost as if it had a mind of its own. However, the cannon doesn't seem to like the strange power being fed into it. A dangerous red color starts to spread over it, the improper energy transfer causing it to overheat.

<"Heat levels are beyond safety levels."> "Tssh." Lin disregards this, her blue eyes cold as she moves her palms against the glowing control orbs. There is a flash as the energy begins to flow more readily, the metatron causing the lines on her forearms to react - lighting them up and casting her ever paler against the backdrop of the cockpit. "There. Fire!" She calls, her body tensing as if she were pulling some trigger, even if it is the AI who finally lets that blast of energy rip free from the cannon, streaking across the void and moving directly towards Eight's Mobile Suit. Of course, it leaves behind a very overheated cannon, which Lin is left having to detatch quite quickly from her Orbital Frame's arm - since even metatron shielding might not quite handle a beam cannon meltdown.

"Get the cooling systems online." <"Cooling systems engaged. Cannon heat levels are returning to acceptable levels.">

The Super Eight is kicked in the face.

For a moment, the inside of the giant pink octopus is a cacophony of screams as the trio inside spin and spin. When it finally comes to a halt, the Princess splutters, and adjusts her crown. "Xavier! FIRE AT WHATEVER THAT WAS!" She declares, in the very height of leadership. One of the arms spits a bright, shining blue missile at Eight's machine. This sails past quite merrily, because space magic is less reliable than earth magic.

In response to /lasers/ slamming into the machine, the Princess has other ideas, and guns her octopus forwards. Limbs flail at Ascian, but it doesn't connect at all... so she goes straight /up/. Boosting high into the black. All of the limbs work in concert and give the robot a strangely... swimmy look, as Devilotte surveys the chaos.

"ALRIGHT. ENOUGH!" She shrieks.

"YOU, YOU, AND YOU." She jabs a tentacle at Alina, Ascian and Eight. "You've ruined EVERYTHING. Now I'm going to HAVE to destroy you! And YOU."

She jabs the same tendril at Ryusei. "I can't help but notice you STILL haven't given me my R-WING!" She sounds more like she's having a temper tantrum now. Slamming one gloved hand down on the dash of her machine. "So there's nothing for it. I'll just have to punish you as well!"

After this little speech, she presses all the buttons.

And space is full of bright pink missiles. They would almost look silly, if there won't so many of them. But, there are. She'll show these fools what happens when you defy a Deathsatan! And KICK HER IN THE FACE WITH LASERS!!

Ryusei grits his teeth. "I shot your sister because she shot me first!" He replies as the R-1 does a zero-gravity cartwheel-like maneuver, with a single beam from Ascian's barrage glancing off the custom PT's armored breastplate, and the next missile striking the upper right leg, blowing apart the armor and leaving a nasty burn mark and deformed plate. "Damn!"

>HIT< >HIT< >DAMAGE REPORT<

He scowls angrily to the main screen as it rattles off the number of junctions and power relays damaged. Focusing himself, he sends a telepathic request to the main computer asking if a particular subsystem on board is still 100% operational. And, if it is, to activate it NOW.

>>>T-LINK SYSTEM - FULL CONTACT 100<<<

"Little girl!" He calls out over the radio, his tense face, teeth grinding and helmet glass cracked. "I can't give you the R-1! I need it! To protect Earth!" He cuts comm and switches it over to Ascian. "You! Would you DC guys just start LEAVING ME ALONE!"

>>>T-LINK KNUCKLE<<< Like a comet trailing green energy, R-1 blasts its rocket reactors to full throttle and flies fist-first into the Amenthes.

The Orbital Frame was a suprise, but the Jinx manages to handily evade the incoming beamfire, dashing away from the Frames and the Super-8. Just in time, it seems, as the octopus decides to unleash a volley of missiles at the A-LAWS suit...

Which, seeing as the pilot had their beam rifle readied, get swatted out of the cosmos by another burst.

Locking the suit's sidearm back into place, Eight readies her suit's lance, and levels it at the Super-8. Best take out the unknown unit first, before it can show any more suprises. Taking aim at the center of the swirling arms, she tries to hit something vital, as she switches on her open broadcast radio.

"To the pilot of the unknown Mobile Weapon, and the two unidentified Frame Runners, this is the Federal Autonomus Peace-Keeping Task Force. Power down your machines, and surrender immediatly, or we will use deadly force." Eight receits, a bored, resigned tone in her voice as she reads from the memorized script.

<"Yeah! Well..."> Okay, Ascian doesn't really have a reply ready for that. He and Seril /had/ been the first to attack. Although. <"Actually, /I/ fired the first shot. You then attacked /her/, who had done nothing to you!"> She, of course, /would/ have proceeded to waste him. But really, Ascian was looking for technicallities now, just to prove this EFA agent wrong. That's how it was just going to be!

Then suddenly, missiles! "Rachel?" Ascian mutters as he realizes that the missiles are /pink/. Hey, if you pay enough attention to Katharon, that is an easy mistake to make really! The Amenthes turns its attention towards the massive incoming volley and unleashes a large quantity of red bolts from the right arm of the Amenthes, trying to shoot down the missiles...

Only to be interupted by Ryusei! Fighting on two fronts at the same time still is not something Ascian is very good at. He can deal with it usually, but ace pilots do make things quite difficult. His Amenthes quickly ducks down beneath the fist-attack coming his way, so that he may outrun him... only to end up right in the path of a new set of missiles.

The phoenix styled Orbital Frame raises its legs and crosses its arms as it prepares for the impact of the many explosive projectiles, raising its shields, and waits out the assault whilst going over the sensor data and maneuvering the Amenthes away from the onslaught coming from Devilotte's machine. He had no time to take on Ryusei right now! He had to stop those missiles.

The tailfeathers on the Amentes activate, and quickly begin forming orb upon orb of fire, hidden within its shield. Then finally it blasts out from the clouds of explosions which it had been suffering beneath and begins tossing them, one after one, straight at the massive octopus - each 'fireball' filled with volatile and weaponized Metatron energy, kept within a thin shell of compressed space.

He then takes a moment to send out one more message. Eight speaking those words just... reminded him of the MANY times he'd tried that same thing. <"That really never works... does it?">

"Is it just me, or did space suddenly get a bit more whiny?" Alina comments in an off-handed tone of voice - this part kept just between herself and her AI for the time being. <"I can adjust the volume controls if needed?"> "No, that's alright, Amit." A smirk play son the woman's lips as she takes a moment to shove that overheating beam-cannon into her Vector Trap. She'd have to figure out just what went wrong with it later - but for now, there's more important things to deal with. "Get me in closer to that mobile suit." <"Full speed engaged."> Full speed, for the bulkier Orbital Frame, is not exactly as fast as it is for Amenthes.

Her eyes flick sideways, keeping an eye on the tentacled robot. It's a good thing, too, since it fires off those missles in her direction, announcing her and the others to blame for interrupting. Well, they were to blame, but that doesn't mean that she's going to stand by and get hit. Somehow, the movement of Mayet is enough to keep those missles from impacting her directly, the feathered 'wings' lashing out and causing them to explode in a trail behind her.

As for Eight's declaration for them to power down, Lin simply laughs, her hands gripping the controls. "I'm afraid I don't answer to the Federation." Not only that, but Lin did have a bit of a 'beef' with the A-LAWs. afterall, they did have plans to cut out her brain and kill her. Some things - people just don't forgive that easily. With a flick of her wrists, Mayet's hands shift into those pistol-like weapons, formed out of the power of Metatron and the pilot's will. "I want the shots to follow my mark, Amit. Don't fail me." <"Understood.">

The framerunner raises her hands into the air, moving as if she had two pistols of her own. The targeting system seems to follow her motion, the glowing lines of her arms moving in the darkness like a blur. With practiced, careful accuracy, Lin squeezes off a series of quick pistol blasts, trying to sweep them across Eight's path. She may have failed in getting the mobile suit's attention the first time, but perhaps she'll have better luck this time. If nothing else, she needed to draw some attention away from her brother - which meant getting into the middle of the ongoing chaos.

"... A mere SPACE COP is trying to arrest ME? And she's /BORED/?!"

There's a certain amount of incredulity from Devilotte, as she guides the Super-8 neatly out of the path of the sniper shot. The legs twist and turn, and a second bright bursting blue missile is sent streaking back at the cop, almost as an afterthought. Naturally, because he's not looking this time, Xavier is marginally more successful.

The eight legs of the octopus wrap tightly in coils about it as it is subject to /exploding painful doom/. Devilotte maintains her composure this time, largely because she is so incredibly frustrated with how this has all turned out. She was supposed to be off enjoying her new R-1 by now, and plotting how to make an incredible combining SUPER-super robot for her Daddy. Not getting blown up by people she hasn't even seen before.

Then again, the robots are nice. Perhaps she should just settle for those.

The arms snap back out and steady the rocked robot against the inky black. For a moment, it looks like it might stay there.

This illusion does not last.

"I'LL SHOW YOU!!"

Naturally, the most sensible thing to do when attacked by something which throws explosions at you, is to try and hug it. Which is what the Super-8 does. Bursting towards Ascian, the tendrils stab and slash out, aiming to coil around the limbs, crush, and pull, as the central ball smashes forwards towards the central mass of the Orbital Frame.

Xavier laughs, loudly, and perhaps a little hysterically. "It'll take a lot more than a few Empowered Fireballs to scratch our beautiful Super-8, right Princess?!"

"Listen, missie!" Ryusei is grinning almost to the breaking point of his teeth, every other inch of him, muscles and nerves, arms and legs and thoughts, engaged in the melee-range dogfight with the two BAHRAM units as he manages to send a message to the Super-8. "I can understand why you'd like the R-1! It's a fine piece of work, the best in Personal Trooper technology, the head of Super Robot SRX, and the dream of every man! And, er, apparently, girl. Girls can like robots too! But- I can't give it! It's not mine, it belongs to the Army, and we need it to keep the Earth safe! BUT!"

>Send S-008_Super-8 -> R-1_Custom_Neo-Kotobukiya_1/100_scale_album.zip

"I have a Neo-Kotobukiya perfect-grade 1/100 scale model of the R-1, still boxed and in its original plastic wrap! It's all sold out and worth a fortune, a real little treasure! But, since you love R-1 soo much- Damn! Almost got him! Err, was I saying, yeah, you have good taste! You can have it- so just stop attacking me and Eight and let us go... please?"

During this conversation, the R-1 spirals through space with surprising agility for a machine so badly damaged, surrounded by a bright emerald glow as the Psychodriver energy fills its power conduits, dodging, parrying, blocking, striking with its telekinetically-augmented fist in a real zero-gravity martial arts match between giant robots!

The Jinx's pilot doesn't bother to respond. She's someone preoccupied attempting to dodge the other Frame's beamfire barrage once more... Only this time, she's not as successful. Chunks of armour fly off, exposing the twinkling innards of the GN-strengthened armour. This was becoming problematic... But at least the strange armour was attacking the Frame, and not her. Taking advantage of the Princess's distraction to switch targets, the Jinx *charges* forwards, lance levelled at Alina, in order to strike at the Frame's chest as Ryusei passes by.

She's show him!? Ascian squints his eyes at the giant octopus and quickly lets his machine rush towards the machine up ahead. It is /obvious/ that when an enemy is trying to grab you, the most sensible thing to do is to attack it head on! Since when did Ascian turn into a Super Robot pilot!? No matter! The within moments of getting in close, and those tendrils roll close, the machine suddenly halts. Its red eyes blink a few times. And then suddenly, Ascian gets to reminisce about former events as the machine suddenly throws its arms out, shifting them into blades, and starts swining them around wildly.

<"IIIII--IIIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"> The Orbital Frame cries out in a girly voice, as a tendril touches its chest, and tries to grab her there. She cuts off the small end of the tendril and then disarms itself by shifting those swords into hands and /blasts off/, away from the gigantic tentacle monster. "Amenthes!" Ascian calls out in the pilot-seat as the machine overrides the maximum velocity it can go at, and he gets a severe surge of G forces pressed down on his body!

"Amenthes, calm down!" Cut to chibi-vision, where Amenthes in a schoolgirl outfit waggles a small dagger at tentacles that are coming her way, with a pouty and crying face. Then suddenly Ascian appears, knuckles the tentacles, and stands all knightly before the Amenthes, who ends up hugging him from behind. Yep, that's /totally/ how that just happened.

The machine halts and turns about at quite the distance. "Phew..." Ascian mutters and turns his attention towards the battle-field where Ryusei... is attacking his sister. <"First you attack my little sister, now you attack my big sister! You really don't know when to give up, do you!?"> Ascian shouts at the young man, and lets the Amenthes arms come up. Slowly, they shift into two rifles, which get placed together. A red flow of energy quickly rushes to the front, followed by a condensed /laser/ cutting straight through space, planning on just cutting parts of the R-1 into /pieces/! Taking note of the cockpit? Not this time.

All of a sudden, Alina goes from being slightly outside of the combat, trying to help draw fire away from her brother, to being right in the thick of things. Somehow, mid-unintelligable babble, Ryusei's R-1 manages to come a bit too close to the Orbital Frame, slamming into it and sending it end over end quite suddenly. A blaring alert sounds in Lin's ears, causing her grit her teeth, forcing herself to focus. "Amit, stabilizers!" A few flames of blue light flare out from the unit's legs, causing the spin to slow and then to stop a moment later. "Hey, try watching where you're going!" While Lin rarely uses her unit's speakers, this time the girl does at least transmit /something/. The girl's voice is youthful, but just a little winded from being nearly knocked into a full-out spin.

Of course, matters aren't made much better when Eight's mobile suit comes racing at her, that lance seeking to skewer her if she doesn't move quickly. Defensively, the great feathered wings of Mayet sweep forward, deflecting most of the blow with a few sparks. Backwinging, the sphinx gets a bit more distance, raising those twin pistols, looking through the haze of combat fire to try to find her target. Her brother might be distracted, but for now, Alina at least keeps herself focused on one person.

"Amit, keep an eye on Amenthes for me." <"As always, Miss Lin."> The AI at least seems to know this about her pilot, that family matters more to her than anything else. Still, between the feathers of Mayet's glowing wings, Lin fires off another round of quick beam blasts, trying to knock the mobile suit away from her and possibly into the path of some of the others attacks.

The Princess looks momentarily confused. The enemy is running away (which is only natural) but, her screen is full of pictures of a toy?

... that does look pretty fun ...

For a second, the Super-8 is still, bobbing in space as she considers the offer.

"ALRIGHT! SUPER-8! GET IN FRONT OF THE LASERS!"

Naturally, shouting at her robot makes it go faster, and the machine practically burns a bright pink trail as it races to catch up. At the very last moment, the octopus spreads out directly in front of the homing lasers, taking them all and scorching off deep marks in the armor plating. But why this selfless act of heroism?!

Devilotte doesn't bother to make the transmission private, but she seems to be genuinely sniffling as she transmits. Small tears in her eyes, her fangs peeking out just the smallest bit. Her crown even looks like it is drooping. "Oh, such a kind offer! I didn't realize you /needed/ the R-1 to save the earth. I thought you were just hogging it because you are greedy. If it is for a cause as worthy as /saving the earth/ I suppose I can settle for a model. So long as you sign it for me~."

When the transmission stops, Xavier looks stunned. Dr. Stein, however, does not. "It is a very beautiful model." He rumbles, nodding solemnly, "The detail is fantastic, it will be a great prize, well worth--"

"Shut up, idiot!" The Princess snaps, beaming evilly from ear to ear, "FIRST, I'll take his toy... and THEN, I'll take his robot! It'll be the perfect crime."

"MWAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"NOW!" She grabs the controls, and wrenches three of the arms up towards Ascian, "Lets show that thing how LASERS are REALLY done!"

Ascian has a few seconds in which bright lights flare at the tip of each tentacle. And then poor Amenthes is subjected to even more horrible tentacle nightmares.

A total of three bright lancing yellow beams shoot out in a twisting, spiralling pattern, aiming to catch the Orbital Frame in the middle. This is a matter of pride, now! She's not going to let her Super-8 go down before these meddling interlopers are dealt with once and for all!

Oh, this was bad.

Weaving in and out of Mayet's continuing barrage, Eight backs away once again, opening up the range, and attempting to keep the frame at a distance. She needed to end this, so she could support Ryusei... Or at least, before her own machine lost power. Setting her lance to one side, Eight reaches behind her suit, and shoulders a massive bazooka, locking it into place. Concentrating on the Frame, she flies up, and over Mayet, framing her in the Earthlight, as she lets fly a luminescent orange shell towards it!

Ryusei breaks the dogfight and gains a bit of distance, sighing with relief at the strange girl's agreement. "Thank you!" He radios back. "Then- hey, I'll contact you, on radio freq 1337! As soon as I'll have some free time, I'll hand you the promised model! You're gonna love it!"

R-1 turns around, green energy glowing and pulsating around it like a battle aura, facing Ascian's Amenthes. "Now look!" He screams over the radio, pointing R-1's finger straight at him. "And listen to me very carefully! If you really cared about your sisters, you wouldn't allow them to get in a warzone! You'd protect them properly! But if they insist on fighting me, this means that they don't need their big brother protecting them! That they can fight on their own!" He proclaims!

"Therefore..."

>>>T-LINK - FULL CONTACT 100<<<

"Face me without worry or fear! Not as a big brother protecting his sisters, but as a soldier fighting for what he believes in!! T-LINK KNUUUUCKLEEEEEEEE!!"

The Amenthes ends up having to try and weave in and out of those beams, up up, down down, left, right, left, right, B... WHERE IS THE B-BUT~ - DAMNIT! Explosions cover the Phoenix styled Orbital Frame, lashing through the shield with ease, sheering into its armor and arms. Ascian growls, hunching down a bit. he hadn't expected that large thing to suddenly go and covered Ryusei's machine.

<"Get out of the way!"> Ascian shouts out, obviously not very happy that Devilotte, master evil, is getting in the way of him protecting his own sister. And then catching him with those lasers. <"You thought those were lasers!?"> His gaze catches the list of attacks in front of him, nicely listed in SRT style. And... the homing laser attack is showing gray, because he's out of EN. "DAMNIT." So yes... ignore what he just said.

Instead! The Amenthes lifts its rifle and is /just/ about to fire straight at the middle of the octopus when suddenly, Ryusei reappears from behind it and gets in the way again. <"Damnit! Make up your damn mind! And stop hiding behind the little girl!"> The rifle turns and shifts up at Ryusei. <"And I know this is war. And she can pilot just fine! But I hate it when people mistreat my big sister!"> And yet another laser of red - does this machine come in different colors? - zaps through space and reels towards Ryusei's machine.

"Tssk." <"Miss Lin?"> "Nothing, Amit." Something in Ryusei's words seemed to have gotten to her, perhaps finding the idea of not protecting her family to be a bit of an idiotic notion. This might be war - and she and her brother may be able to fight toe to toe with some of the best out there - but that doesn't mean that she won't always watch out for him, and the same in return. "Federation dogs would never understand family." She clenches her fists over the controls, cold eyes looking out at the battlefield.

"Ascian, withdraw if you need to. I'll hold them off." The little chibi read-out of Amenthes's condition is showing an exclaimation point above it. The two pistols shift suddenly into longer rifles which take up most of the Orbital Frame's arms. Metatron flows like a second heartbeat along the unit, welling up at her elbows as she aims outwards, trying to keep as many enemies in her view screen as possible. If she had to protect her brother's retreat, she'd need to keep an eye on them - and she doesn't particularly care if the octopus unit makes off with a Federation ship. That's hardly a major worry at the moment.

Leveling those two rifles, she brings them together at Mayet's chest, aiming them outward at the Mobile suit. If nothing else, she'll prove that she can fight on her own, without the help of her brother. Even if that means going up against uneven odds. "Amit. Keep our wings ready. We may need them." There is a few blips in reply, but no commentary as she flexes her fingers, firing off a series of higher powered blasts towards the Mobile Suit.

If Super-8 was conscious, it would probably be in mixed mind about lunging directly at Ascian's Orbital Frame again. The poor thing was cute, and all Super-8 wants is love. Why does nobody love Super-8? ~;o;~

It is probably for the good of all that Super-8 is not conscious. Yet. But this is likely far from anyone elses mind as the octopoid robot boosts forwards, streaking purple and smoke behind it as Devilotte charges into the fray behind Ryusei. "I think there's some sort of war on." She comments, idly, to her minions. "I'm sure its nothing important though. Fufufu~."

Why is she so happy?

Well, because the Super-8 is spinning. All of its tendrils splaying out in a crazy dance. The tips burn with that same bright energy, but this time, she's just aiming to slash and slap madly at the Amenthes, with no thought at all about what chest-plate areas might be inappropriate to touch.

Oh the humanity.

As Mayet's twin rifles fire up towards the Jinx, the suit leaps away, jinking to the side, and allowing the beam to dissipate into empty space. Eight grins behind her polarized visor. She was... concerned, was she? Well, it was time to give her reason to be concerned. Not wanting to risk another Bazooka shell on the Frame, she levels her lance once again, locking it into place, and preparing to charge...

Only to dash *sideways, orbiting Mayet, to bring the Jinx around to face the Frame's head. As she repositions herself in freefall, the Lance starts to spin, getting faster and faster, until Eight lines up her shot.

A barrage of GN Particles rains down on Mayet, as the lance fires a constant, unceasing stream from its four barrels!

Ryusei Date says, "I understand family!" Is Ryusei's reply as the R-1 ducks below a high-powered red glowing laser shot which narrowly misses its head, and then accelerates back in melee range, answering with a quick jab to the upper torso, which the Amenthes sidesteps and dodges. "I have a family! What, you think they found me under a cabbage patch?! Listen, just fall back now before someone gets seriously hurt, if that's what you want to avoid! I'm here to keep Earth safe, and if that's really what you wish for, too, we shouldn't be here shooting at each other!" Punch, left uppercut, low kick, distracting zero-g maneuver, sway, parry, backflip, axe kick, feint... A quick combo of attacks from the R-1 is easily blocked or avoided, but it was only leading up to the last strike, a powerful, TK-charged roundhouse kick!

Despite Ryusei's words, his movements betray some form of martial arts training as the R-1's green-glowing leg traces an arc through space, not at all half-heartedly like his speech would suggest, aiming to connect with the Amenthes' neck."

The Amenthes is left scrambling for its defenses, swords coming out once more to deflect the tendrils one by one. As much as Ascian isn't too great with those blades, the combined effort of Duat and Amenthes - who is quite afraid that she's somehow going to get violated by the evil tentacles! "Iaa! Iaaa! Iaaaa!" It screams out, chibi tears falling from her eyes as she waggles those blades along the paths of the lit up tips of those tendrils.

Then Ryusei has to get in the way again! Amenthes now is being made to shift its attention two ways, and manages to lift a blade up to meet that final knuckle and /does/ catch it. But the force behind it sends the machine into a momentary twirl and rips further armor-plating off of the machine - to such an extent that the SSA can no longer commit to self-repairs. Ascian guides the machine away from both of his enemy and lets out little growling sounds under his breath, as he is forced to realize that in this state, he just cannot keep fighting. He watches as Duat automatically shows that the energy that is being used for his life-support is slowly fading.

"Shit, I have to pull out..." Ascian calls out over the radio. As for earth. <"I don't care about Earth."> A lie, there are some people he cares about on Earth. <"As long as it is the enemy of Mars, I will remain to be your enemy."> He doesn't care what Ryusei has to say about family really. He didn't really think he was making all that much sense. "Tssk..." Another annoyed sound escapes the young man, before he turns about the Amenthes and blasts off, heading straight down to earth; to North Africa, so that he can get his machine repaired at the Earth Cradle.

There is no way for Mayet to avoid the constant rain of fire from the Mobile Suit, so al she can do is raise those feathered wings to absorb the worst of it. It rocks the Orbital Frame, causing the pilot to grit her teeth within her helmet, her muscles tensing slightly. As much as the bulkier blue machine managed to stay in the fight longer than that twin unit, that doesn't mean that Lin is a better pilot - in fact, Ascian had a few months on her, and years worth of memories that the white-haired framerunner had lost.

"You're tough." She murmurs, transmitting this much towards Eight's machine. "The battle is yours today. You fought well." At the very least, there were some among the Crusaders who did have some sort of sense of 'honor', although it wasn't very common to show it. With a great sweep of the feathered wings, Mayet moves backwards at high speed, following Amenthes's trajectory towards Earth even as she keeps the others in her sight - just incase they decide to try to follow.