2011-03-18 - The Sun God Emerges

Brazil

Macua is back home in Brazil, it's nearing winter in this part fo the world. Doubly so with the whole issues of the environment but she needs to train and a swim would be good, so she's at a beach that's pretty much unpopulated and has dived into the water. She's swimming out a good ways from shore and is just in a normal bikini it shouldn't be too long of a swim now should it right?

SuiKyosha

Well, to state something like that - 'shouldn't be too long of a swim', is a thought that almost always gets rewarded with a backhand in the face by the name of fate. That, or a giant water battleship. It's your choice really. A massive shadow suddenly appears beneath Macua. And before she can even manage to get away, she is suddenly pulled into a strong stream that pulls her underwater. Moving rapidly through a broad 'tube' or sorts, she suddenly finds herself her swimming between two walls - underwater. One side is entirely dark, but the other shows a long hallway and people... walking through those hallways, turning around in utter confusion!?

Above her, there is some light. Is that the surface!? A few children start pointing, and more people come to the 'glass window' that looks into the cityship that is SuiKyosha. And these people all start gawking and staring at her - more of them point. And none of them seem to think it'd be needed to head off and warn their captain that someone may be drowning in their walls.

Macua Huitl is swimming along and just enjoying her time out in the water. Whatever it is, she looks down there's a huge shadow and suddenly she lets out a yelp before she's dragged under the water. She's pulled in and now she's confused, a bit dazed and otherwise. As she's now under the water. She's holding her breath. She also sees the fish, the plants she's confused and there are fish very strange fish comming by but right now she's got one of the more common elements on earth in mind. She wants onxygen and she wants it now!

With Macua slowly drowning, most of the kids start just tapping on the 'glass' wall, chuckling and laughing. A large fist swims by - a hammerhead shark - which just... ignores the girl entirely. A few of the smarter adults however, start pointing 'up', where a hole was. Assuming Macua would be smart enough to look for that hole and swim up, she'd find herself in the midst of a... waterfarm? Rice, glowing vegetables and fish... are everywhere.

Macua Huitl is well not drowmning so much as it's a SHARK! On it's home turf, she doubts Master Folka would have issue with a shark like that. Heck he might go /fishing/ to give the shark a sporting chance like this. She notices the adults, point up and she's now pulling her self up out and she's hacking, spitting up water and looking very much like a nearly drowned kitten.

When she arrives up top, there stands the captain of the SuiKyosha. A beautiful ornate dragon-styled Gauntlet lays on his right hand. In his other hand he holds a towel, which he holds out towards her. "You'll need this." He states, and steps back. She could not see outside of the walls. They were floating in space. Whilst she had been in the water, that short amount of time, they'd traveled all the way from where she was to Hindustania. "A wise man once said: We should stop meeting like this." And with that, Xiang turns about in order not to face the swimsuit-wearing Gundam Fighter.

HINDUSTANIA AIRSPACE 15,000 FEET

"I'm not sure about this..." Seril mutters to herself as she stares up at the immobile hulk of Yatagarasu, crouched in the launch hanger. Her eyes narrow up at the machine, and she strains as if listening intently. Suddenly, the girl nods once and crosses to it, scaling the machine and sliding in through the port in the back. Once inside, the voice surrounds her.

-My divine flame.---Demonstrate your power.--Demonstrate your birthright.--Burn everything to the ground.--Show them the price of resistance.-

"I understand..." Seril mutters. As the panels slide closed and Yatagarasu seals itself, her uncertain expression becomes one of confidence, her teeth baring in an unnaturally sharp smile, "...I understand!"

CALCUTTA, HINDUSTANIA GROUND LEVEL BEWARE OF FALLING DEBRIS

It begins at first with a support squadrom of SV-51s, swooping low over the cityline. No weapons go off, but as these five fighters ascend and split off from formation, something enormous black and silver falls like a stone between them. Like a meteor, it impacts the park in front of the Victoria Memorial. Unlike a meteor, it ... starts *moving* immediately. The Yatagarasu unfurls itself, rising slowly at first.

Inside it, Seril mirrors the action, raising her arms, "Yes..! I am in control now..!" She raises a hand, pointing overhead. Yatagarasu mirrors the action, pointing to the sky. On the end of its finger, a golden orb of flame begins to form. A voice booms - That of a young girl, mixed with the bass tones of something both ancient and sinister - echoing throughout the city.

"Burn..." Lowering its hand, the Yatagarasu moves the orb to hover over its palm, highlighting the obsidian-carved face of the twisted machine, "Burn...! THIS CITY SHALL BURN..!"

The fist closes, snuffing out the orb instantly. Inside, Seril mutters, "Open, Eye of Yatagarasu..!" Immediately, the machine hunches forward, its back tearing open into a pair of spars. From these extends 'feathers' of a dark energy. The heat begins to rise in Calcutta, as a burning crimson eye slides open within the ancient machine's chest.

-My Divine Flame---Destroy it.---Show them the price of their corruption.---Purify them.---Burn.---Everything.-

"Darcy? Konnichiwa, it's Koji.."

Ensign Koji Kabuto stands in the midst of a crowded Calcutta bazaar and holding a cellphone to his ear. Over a comfortable cotton Gekiganger III t-shirt is his EFA bomber-jacket, its sleeves rolled up just past his elbows. "I'm going to be a bit late." In the middle of his phone conversation, he's waving a radiometer in the open air. It clicks faintly, the little indicator barely nudging past a magnitude of point two. The results bring a frown to the teenager who was once voted Neo Tiger Beat's hottest pilot.

"So, I think you'd better get started without me. I'll just get caught up when I get there."

Not a second later, the phone beeps. End of message. Koji looks thoughtful for a moment. Well, he decides, she should know there's issues inherent with being the study buddy of a pilot. Like never being around when you need to be.

"Akira?" Koji glances over his leather-clad shoulder. "Mark it down. Just standard background Getter radiation." He lets out a faint sigh of disappointment. "This is a waste of time. I think Professor Saotome's got us runnin' off on a wild goose ch-- huh!?"

The sound of SV-51s catch Koji's attention. The spiky-haired youth glances up, casting a curious look at the sky. "H-hey.." his eyes squint. "There.. I think something's falling!"

The meteor-like object descends upon the Victoria Memorial and in moments, becomes something not of this world.

"Shit--!!" Koji stares in surprise. "What the hell is that thing?! I .. think it's attacking the city!" He realizes this just moments after Yatagarasu proclaims that the city will burn.

Hero pilots: not too bright.

"We'd better find Boss and get to our robots!"

Raven's Nest

It was a quiet day at the nest, had been for a few days; Expect for the normal hipe and insanity that happens from time to time. After all, what did a bunch of Mercenaries have better do with their free times, when either waiting for a ranking arena match, a call for a contract, or/and trying to make some deals with a contractor in a corp. That is when suddenly the lights shift a color spectrum and start flashing red. This grabs several of the Mercenaries attention as they quickly run over to the ticker's in the hanger areas. Sure enough in bold red lettering came the words that caused a few to raise a brow and others to scrambles:

Attack In Sector E-7 : Requesting Assistance...

Elsewhere..

A white unit was on the move, a strange field around its armor, as at times rocks from the ground found impacting the field and flung off to the side. <<"Everything is still operating at full efficiency.">> The male voice said calmly, before the Mech flipped around in a 180 spin. <<"Strayed request..">> There was a sudden pause in his voice.

A female voice then spoke up, "What's wrong?"

<<"Nell, change of plans. Put your grid on Sector E-7 in this country.">>

"Wait.. but Crest hasn't.."

<<"I don't care. We are going.">>

The white mech then 'looked' in the direction he had indicated to Nell. That aqua green visor glowing brightly as to where it looks. Before the field flickered, before seeming to be absorbed into the armor of the machine. Then with a powerful hum of the thrusters, and with a bright white, aqua green tail on the thrusters; The Machine launched itself across the ground, before leaping into the air and heading for the location like a jet screaming in the air.

Now

In the distance, speeding at high mach speeds was the white unit moving like a blur in the skies, before lowering down close to the land as it moved. The NEXT was just inches above the ground and that aqua green visor center was flaring brightly. It had come here to stop the Divine Crusaders. No matter the cost.

EARLIER...

"Alright, go ahead and try starting it up." Sinya calls from underneath a piece of a Gunmen, her tail and feet barely visible as she lays on a rolling platform. A young man who couldn't be more than sixteen is standing nearby, "Okay, here goes!" He calls, and flips a switch.

BOOM

With a pop of a minor explosion and a puff of black dust, the Gunmen looks quite a bit worse for wear, as does the boy. With hair spiked in all directions, soot showing from his eyes. Sinya, wheeling out from underneath looks as if all of her fur is standing on end, more than a little dazed. "So, tell me again /exactly/ what you modified on the controls Ling." She's just about rolled from underneath the Gunmen when the radio squacks.

CLANG

"Owowow." She hisses to herself, rubbing at her head and scowling at her young La Gian trainee. "What the..." She grabs for her headset, catching a bit of rushed conversation. The jist of it is enough to have her cursing like a sailor, and not just because of being nearly blown up and cracking her head off of a Gunmen. "You. Go report back to your ship. Now. If you're still here by the time I get in my guymelef, I'm going shoot you there like a hockey puck." Ling, seeming to take this threat seriously, goes racing out of the hangar as Sinya grabs a towel, wiping soot off of her face. "Look how quickly sides change..." She sighs.

NOW...

It has been quite a while since the La Gian mechanic had used her guymelef. There is a whine of an engine as the thrusters power down, shifting the unit from flight mode to combat, the gryphon shaped headpiece exchanging for the knight's helmet as Arius lands on the field with a thrum of the engines powering down. His wings flex out behind him even as he stands fully, snapping one hand to the side to pull free a cylinder. With a click, it extends into a long staff which is thrust downward into the ground.

Within, donned in her own modified flight suit, Sinya runs her fingers over the shiny controls, about to see their first combat since the unit had been nearly destroyed on Mars. Her head scans, the helmet displaing her surroundings even as the camera pans the guymelef's viewpoint. The custom installed targeting system focuses on the - frankly quite frightening looking Crusader machine.

NOW, GIVE OR TAKE FIVE SECONDS DEPENDING ON YOUR SPEED RELATIVE TO THE EVENT.

"Boss, this doesn't seem like a good idea." "Yea, Boss! We could get in real trouble for this!"

Boss puts on a motorcycle helmet and a pair of motorcycling goggles with a snap. "This is important." The Boss Borot stands nearby as Boss and his two thugs stand in front of the Taj Mahal. "I will do this for all bancho-kind. As a testimony to our very way of life!"

Boss starts up his Motorbike, WHICH IS REALLY COOL AND MANLY SHUT UP, ALL THE COOL KIDS HAVE ONE. He revvs the engine twice in the grass, kicking up dirt. And Boss begins to drag the motorbike in wide circles, throwing lawn everywhere.

SuiKyosha Over the Raven's Nest The massive battleship SuiKyosha rests above the Raven's Nest. Just a few minutes ago, it had picked up an unfortunate passenger, and was just about to drop them off as a call for help comes in. Inside of its hangar lays Macua's Amazon Gundam, picked up from Brazil - completely drenched with water. "Make your way to the hangar." Xiang suddenly told Macua, pointing into the direction of a hallway, far along the waterfarm they were in. "I am needed on the bridge." At that point, Macua had no clue what was going on, since only Xiang was hearing the call for assistance.

SuiKyosha Underwater

After receiving the call for assistance, the captain had command the unit to take to water again. "Preparing the water transfer transportation system." One of the young men called out as Xiang walks onto the Bridge. Everyone present suddenly turns about and solutes, whilst Yu Zhi Wu announces; "Captain on deck!" and then drops her salute along with everyone else. The man nods at his crew solemny and turns his eyes at his XO, miss Yu, for a short moment, before he moves about to settle in his captain's seat and turns his eyes on the vision of water before them. "Activate." He raises his right hand, hidden within a beautifully ornate dragon-gauntlet, and points forwards. "Yes sir!"

Calcutta In front of the Victoria Memorial The thin pool of water the Yatagarasu had landed in and was now starting to form a large ball of fire above was slowly starting to evaporate due to the intense heat, when suddenly it begins to gulf and torrent. A whirlpool forms, water begins to glow and grow, and then suddenly, from beneath Seril, a gigantic piece of metal begins to push out from that tiny lake! Water splashes up, and the metal expands the moment it leaves the watermirror. A /gigantic/ battleship is rising out from this lake, obviously traveling through some magical means of transportation!

And this arrival from the water has put it into a direct collision course with Seril's mech. Of course, on the bridge of the ship, there's a sudden uproar. "I thought you said the path was clear!" One shouts. "It was!" The communication officer replies. "It was just above the Water Mirror!" The communication officer replies. "Enough!" Xiang suddenly stands up, whilst the ship it still pushing out from the water. "Ram them!" The water engines power up, and a glow of blue surrounds the ship. The sharp front-end of the ship, still magically charged due to the method of transportation, is on a direct impact course with the firey Divine Crusader machine.

In the briefing, Echidna Iisaki never once raised her voice.

"This is both a mission and a final test: A live-fire test of your machine's capabilities, as well as your ability to handle yourself in an actual combat situation. Go."

NOW:

Hell comes to Calcutta by way of the Yatagarasu, the city's temperature raising in response to arcane, otherworldly forces. Of course, the citizens and civilians are thrown into a panic. People flee for their homes, or to the years-old shelters meant to keep them safe in the event of skirmishes and war.

That is when it rises from the Hooghly River, the waters of the nearby Bay of Bengal spilling down over the surface: A machine just shy of the sixty foot mark, the armor near-exclusively black, save jarring, angular accents of silver. At a glance, parts and pieces resemble that of the ASK-AD02 Ashsaber, but it looks a bit more mean: The right arm is heavily reinforced, the left sporting a long and slightly curved blade reaching upward from the elbow. Thick and heavy legs also carry large, layered kneeguards, all the way down to broad, long feet. What holds it in the air is undoubtedly a Tesla Drive.

The head tilts forward to regard the city below. Under a dark visor, yellow eyes burst with light and intent, providing a glow that casts against the two wings at the sides of the head and the longer, slightly taller fin down the center of the head.

Inside the cockpit of this machine, Lethe Rusina shifts her weight in the cockpit chair, her hands taking a firmer grip of the control sticks. Extra panels sit just over her thighs, the main console in front of her a bit more broad than the standard, with extra screens and displays to either side of her head both above and next to her.

Green-hue eyes look up through the translucent wraparound sunglasses, and her voice rings out on DC frequencies:

"ASK-UC90 Flickerist, deploying."

 Lethe Rusina transmits, "ASK-UC90 Flickerist, deploying."

 Yu Zhi Wu says, "This is the SuiKyosha, of the Trailer Dissuasion Force. Divine Crusader forces, cease and desist all hostile actions against Calcutta, or be prepared to be bombarded back into the cradle of earth!"

Now, when Koji asked Akira to help him with something, he expected it to have something to do with fixing up a motorcycle or maybe some homework or whatever. This, however, was not what he expected. Traveling all the way to Hindustania to don a Saotome Research Institute labcoat and write things down on a clipboard. Still, it's getting him out of the house and giving him something constructive to do. "Just background radiation, huh?" he repeats, writing it down as he speaks. "Well, I guess we don't have to worry about everyone turning into flesh-eating ghouls any time soon. By the way, Koji, how did you get signed up for this job? Why are you checking for Getter radiation in places like this?" And then a meteor hits. "I'll hold it off while you find Boss!" Akira says, throwing off the coat as he runs as fast as his legs will carry him toward a nearby parking lot. "RAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIDEEEEEEEEEEEN! FAAAAAAAAADE IN!" A giant gold statue in the parking lot responds to Akira's cry, a pink beam shooting from what appears to be its head. As soon as it hits him, Akira floats up to the beam's point of origin, guided along by its light. To the outside observer, it looks like he melts into the metal, but what is actually happening is that...no, wait, he's melting into the metal. It's a weird feeling, one that he'll never get used to, but soon enough he's in Raideen's cockpit, and the god machine's golden sheen is replaced by red, white, and blue. "RAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIDEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN!" the statue roars, causing the ground to shake throughout the city. Reaching behind it, it grabs several arrows from an invisible quiver and lines them up on its bow, aiming at the Yatagarasu's general direction. If Akira can distract it long enough for Koji to get to Mazinger, this battle should hopefully end before the city is engulfed in flames. The arrows are loosed all at once, followed by several more, and more after that. Where they come from is anyone's guess.

"So yeah I'll be coming back up to space tonight, Mom."

"Wonderful! Oh, could you pick up some indian food on the way? We haven't had any in years, it might make for a nice change!"

"Okay, Mom!"

tSo it is that the Star Hawk is flying over Hindustania, Staren trying to look up restaurants so he can get to one / get food / get out before the Feds show up.

And then it's announced that the city will burn.

"Seriously? Man, why don't these giant monsters ever learn?" The Star Hawk transforms, landing in a street somewhere and aiming the railgun on its right arm. "So, you think you're going to be the first giant monster Earth's defenders won't be able to defeat? I don't think so!" He fires a burst of hypersonic velocity slugs.

You know what? It actually feels _really good_ to be on the unambiguously good side in a fight again. After firing, Staren has the hybrid swords unfold and lock into place under the forearms. "I'm Staren Wiremu! I created this machine myself, and with it I will destroy the weapons and armor of evil!" Yeah, it's been way too long.

 Kazuma Ardygun transmits, "... what're the Crusaders doing in India?"

 Sinya Leland transmits, "Trouble."

 Nell Aulter transmits, "Unknown.. but looks like nothing good."

 Akira Hibiki transmits, "It doesn't matter what they're doing. They brought a demon."

 Kazuma Ardygun transmits, "Need so... wait, 'demon'?"

 Nell Aulter transmits, "..Str.. R is on his way to assist."

 Sinya Leland transmits, "I'm on site, myself. Offering assistance."

 Yu Zhi Wu transmits, "Str?"

 Nell Aulter transmits, "Strayed."

 Yu Zhi Wu transmits, "Ah, finally starting to refer to mister R as a /person/ I see. Guess habits are hard to break."

 Nell Aulter transmits, "... This was his call. Not anyone else's. He himself wanted to come help. I'm just along for the extra pair of eyes."

Macua Huitl is a bit surprised and glad she's handed over the towel. She pauses, it's Xiang. The captain of the water ship from La Gias Captain. She nods a little bit and starts dying her self off. "...at least in that manner. I'll have to ask why your ships in the habit of eating swimmers. Or was it trying to recuit me or something?"

She nods but wonders what the heck was she going to drive but she heads off to the hanger. That is when things really get strange for she finds to her shock her gundam soaping wet and sitting in the hanger. She is going to have to ask questions about this but at a later time. She's quickly climbing in, off with the swimsuit and activating the trace system. It takes a moment but the machine is up and as the machine rises there is the Amazon Gundam on the bow of the ship. It's arms are folded and it then leaps off an instant before the ramming and she's already opening fire on the machine before her with her head vulcans.

"So the Crusaders again? FINE LETS SEE HOW YOU HANDLE THIS!"

 Sinya Leland transmits, "Nice to see you again SuiKyosha. Did Ling make it back alright?"

 Wildcat transmits, "...What's this now...?"

 Yu Zhi Wu transmits, "I wasn't implying he didn't want to come himself."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Yu Zhi Wu transmits, "Good to see you too, miss Leland. Yes, Ling made it back."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Sinya Leland transmits, "Good, one less thing to worry about."

SOME TIME AGO

A body goes flying through one of Jindai High's many doors.

It's not the first time this has happened--it isn't even a particularly uncommon occurance, not since Koji Kabuto enrolled.

"Baka yaro!" Koji screams as the door - the locker room door, as it turns out - freely swings back and forth on its hinges, squeaking desperately for oil with each movement. "Touch my motasaikuru again, kusotare!" The victim of Koji's wrath - a first year student who can barely even hear the shouts, what with his lapsing consciousness - slumps a short ways into the locker room, at Darcy Weyland's feet.

Behind Darcy, the other, towel-clad students in her phys. ed class gawk at the scene in shock.

Darcy, meanwhile, is simply mortified; her towel dangles from her fingers, yet to be wrapped around herself. Her eyes are huge, her lip quivers; she /wants/ to yell at both of them to leave, but all that comes out are small mewling noises of dismay.

Koji, meanwhile, just stares. And glowers; there's a freshman who still needs pummeling, after all.

SOME TIME AGO IT'S AFTER THE FIRST THING BUT STILL BEFORE THE PRESENT

"... assign study partners for the quarter. There are to be no. Substitutions; not unless one of you is /projectile vomiting/," drones one of Jindai's homeroom teachers. "This is an academic undertaking, not a mixer. Now. Takahashi and Kohn. Imagawa and Uematsu. Weyland and Kabuto..."

Darcy pales in the back of the classroom; given her complexion, this takes her skin to somewhere between 'wedding day white' and 'albino'.

NOW

As soon as she got the call that Koji would be late, Darcy was relieved; it meant she might have time to work on the abstract Dr. Hell insisted she write up on the flexion range of Mykene-enhanced iron and the weaponization potential thereof. However, as soon as she opens her research materials, her phone rings;

--CALCUTTA. ALRAUNE--

flashes across the screen. Frowning, Darcy quickly inputs the command code to enable the phone's secreted Flash System.

Within seconds, a gargantuan, metal-clad fist punches its way through the ground bordering Hindustania and quickly hauls itself into the open air. The monster's humanoid section is clearly feminine--/despite/ the armour plating it from head to waist; once it has fully unearthed itself, however, it's clear that the rest of it is distinctly not. The woman's waist disappears amidst the central petals of a blood red rose, and countless, verdant vines coil beneath the bud; a multitude of other blossoms bloom amidst the vines and hidden beneath the great red petals, and as its undulations shake the dust from its body, the Machine Beast - and through the screen on her phone, Darcy herself - survey Hindustania.

"It'll be okay," Darcy assures the monstrosity as it sets its eyes on the flaming Yatagarasu.

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Kazuma Ardygun transmits, "Tch ... Valstork's nowhere close, or I'd already be on my way to help. Good luck, everyone, and make sure you stick 'em with the biggest repair bill their accountants've ever heard of!"

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Wildcat transmits, "...Apparently... I've missed much..."

A FEW WEEKS AGO

Leeron watches the Duke Brazen Custom be hauled on board the Dai Gurren. It was a Gunmen alright....a Heavily modified one. It seemed that Dr. Hell used some biological components and used the Gunmen as a super battery. This made this particular Gunmen something that should be studied. He smiles to himself, wondering exactly what he could do with it.

SLIGHTLY BEFORE NOW

Hindustania. Or as it was known to Kamina as---The Place with the hottest curry and good beer to wash it down.

Kamina was currently chilling, maxing out all cool. When he hears the alarm go off on his watch. He looks down at it, still stuffing his mouth with extra hot enjoyment. "MMph!" He swallows and presses the watch. "HEY! I'M AT DINNER!"

"Hey Idiot! We're about to be attacked by incoming DC forces!" Kittan scowled at Kamina.

"Who the hell are you?

"KITTAN! -KITTAN-! Damnit, Kamina! This isn't funny anymore!"

"Tch. Shut up, guy I don't know!"

Kittan is shoved aside and Kiyal begins, "Kamina! We need to protect the city!"

"WHAT?! THE CITY IS UNDER ATTACK!? WHY DIDN'T YOU GUYS TELL ME SOONER?!"

Kittan growls. "I just did."

"Could you guys stop letting strangers on the ship? That blonde guy is pretty damn irritating!"

NOW NOW

"What do you mean Gurren Lagann is out?!" Kamina slams his fist against the console across from Leeron. He looked absolutely furious since he wanted to protect the land of the hottest curry and good beer to wash it down.

"We're not done doing calibrations on it. Plus, Simon isn't here. You can't pilot it by yourself. And Gurren might not be strong enough on its own."

"LIKE HELL I CAN'T! MY DRILL MIGHT NOT BE AS SHARP AS SIMON'S BUT IT WILL STILL DO THE JOB!"

"It won't be enough. As it stands, you are better off in one of the other Gunmen." Leeron sighs. "Why not the King Kittan?"

"WHY DO WE EVEN HAVE THAT THING!? The hell is a Kittan?!"

Leeron sighs and folds his hands. "Well we do have -that-"

Kamina raises a brow.

NOWER THAN NOW

Suddenly as the heat rises as Yatagarasu closes in, a Gunmen begins to rise on the deck of the Dai Gurren. It's armor was a dark shade of Crimson. It's body was the face of a wide grinning skull, wearing black shades similar to the ones on Gurren. It's red eyes stared on as he crosses its arms, finishing rising.

The Gunmen came to a halt, drawing a chainsword and pulling the rip cord to activate it in a hellish roar.

"BASANNIGON! FEEL THE HEAT OF MY FURY!" Kamina yells as he charges forward.

The large helm, shaped like a chicken lets out a loud "KA KAW!!!!!!"

Yes. Chicken head.

It swings it's Chainsword for the middle of Seril's robot.

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Macua Huitl transmits, "I go swimming and get devoured by a living ship..."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Emperor Xiang Yuan transmits, "Sorry about that."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Sinya Leland transmits, "It's a bit trippy, isn't it?"

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Ringo Mason transmits, "Wait what?"

It was going to be a nice day for Lunata Croze.

An invitation from the Dakshineswar Kali Temple near Kolkata, for an exchange of meditative grace, techniques and worship of all that is natural and good. A true celebration of the faiths across time and space -- that of Earth and the colonies, and another goodwill project for the Neo Vatican Colony, showing that they appreciate religious faith in all its forms where peaceful and harmonious.

The silver-haired maiden sits, in one of the many positions that she will be sitting throughout her spiritually contemplative day; her style is taught to her in youth from the Akshardham Temple in Delhi, India, where a kindly old monk saw the spiritual faith in her and taught her of the Hindi martial arts for a year and a half. She mastered its basics and principles, and moved on.

Then, there was fire; the tranquility of her day was ruined.

Lunata opened her eyes, and saw nothing. But within the darkness she sensed immediately the anguish and misery of the citizens nearby. From the very pores of her skin she felt the sweltering heat of the Yatagarasu's flames. There was oil, rubble, brimstone, mixed with blood and gristle that caught her nose.

She rose, and reached for her right temple. Slowly, softly, she strode towards the topmost step of the temple and looked towards the heavens. Her right arm rises, in a precise motion, as she announces in a voice that rings throughout the temple's halls:

"Descend, Gundam."

There was a breach within the darkened clouds above. A beam of light shone down from the stars above, the Mitre-shaped atmospheric re-entry cocoon bursting forth like a symbol of the Neo Vatican that it is; as the outer casing shatters away, the Mobile Fighter can be seen, strewn upon the beam backdrop of a radiant cross. The Holy Cross.

"You who so commands wreaths of flame... Disturb not our peace in mind and soul. Retreat, you, to black and wicked repose, Lest you invoke Judgement's heavenly wrath!"

The Judgement Gundam's shimmering eyes light up as Mobile Trace and T-LINK System both achieve full synchronization. The black, gold and red fighter starts marching towards the scene of the battle, full of purpose.

Boss leaps up into the Boss Borot's outstretched hand, dragging his motorbike along just as everyone starts bearing down on them. The thugs scramble up and into the grills of the Borot. Boss hmms. "We need to get there fast." Boss leaps into the pilot seat, grabbing at the steering wheel. "Quick! ACTIVATE BURROW MODE!"

The Boss Borot pulls out a pair of Bunny Ears and puts it onto its head. Then, it hops up and simply dives into the ground, scrambling into the dirt and throwing mounds of it behind it as it tunnels quickly through the ground towards Calcutta.

Seril's eyes shoot from side to side, scanning over the fleeing persons and vehicles. The roads begin to clog up with traffic, residents eventually just abandoning their vehicles and fleeing on foot. And she laughs. The Yatagarasu's shoulders shudder with the gesture, though the machine makes no further proclimations. It begins to maneuver forward - And then hesitates. Leaning back, it looks down. Seril's eyes narrow, then grow wide, "What..?" Instinctively, she bends her knees, such that when the SuiKyosha erupts from the shallow pond, its impact is virtually unfelt by the floating godmachine.

Now, riding on the battleship's hull, Seril's eyes narrow more with anger than suspicion, "A battleship..! HAH! I'll show you the error of your ways! Messing with me..!" The Yatagarasu pulls its arms and wings in, forming a circle of stars around its feet that bore into the gunship's hull. Leaning back, she thrusts her arms out, and the spiralling stars erupt upward around her - Making it all but impossible for Kamina's chainsaw to get within reach. Bending its knees, Yatagarasu takes to the sky, twisting its way around gunfire from the Raideen, only to recieve scores in its armor from more rapid-fire weapons. Inside, Seril winces, then leans forward with her teeth bared, "Not good enough..!" Glancing aside, a little circle opens up - showing the arriving Machine Beast. Above it, another cicle showing Lethe's Flickerist, "...Fine, just stay out of my way..!"

Whirling, the Yatagarasu's arm cannon erupts in a glowing pillar of plasma in the vague shape of a beamsaber, which is used to swing at the close-range Gunmen piloted by Kamina. The spiral continues, though the Yatagarasu's forward movement stops. The cannon is raised straight up, and something cracks through the air - Louder than thunder. Between the Starhawk and the Amazon - And somewhere around the vicinity of Raideen which happens to be in that direction as well - a pinpoint of yellow light forms. Heat intensifies, glowing lines running along the upraised weapon on Yatagarasu's arm into the glowing point at its end. Something cracks again, and an alarm begins blaring through Calcutta's streets. A distinctive and unmistakable alarm klaxon.

Quite suddenly, the pinpoint of light explodes into a sphere of compressed matter and pure plasma, a solid manifestation of heat and light. A star.

"Can you feel it!?" Seril roars from within the twisted machine, "Can you feel it, you insects!? BURN! *BURN* IN THE MAKER'S FIRE!!"

Moments later..

"PILDER ON!!"

The thunderous cry heralds the activation of Mazinger Z, legendary defender of mankind. The colossal Guardian rises to meet the skyline of Calcutta, its arms raised and flexed in the face of the Crusader onslaught. Its eyes blaze with Photon Power, the mysterious source of its strength.

"Akira!" Koji Kabuto calls out from the confines of the Pilder as he manuevers Mazinger Z to stand beside Raideen the Brave. "Who -are- these guys!?" His remarks are confined to the sudden upswell of individuals who've risen to protect Calcutta. "I think they're Trailers!" Koji's suspicions lend toward the obtusely obvious. "What do you think they want with the city!?"

Several blips on the computer and Koji's eyes go wide. "Shit! The Crusaders are all over the place! Akira, you'll have to handle this. I'll try to stop the reinforcements!"

Koji swings Mazinger's chrome crown around, bringing his mighty robot's gaze upon Alraune V8 and the Flickerist. He swallows hard, the adrenaline coursing through his system already threatening to get the better of him.

"I won't let you guys get far!" he swings the controls forward, compelling Mazinger to raise its arms.

"LET'S GO, MAZINGA ZETTO!"

Targeting systems try to compute firing solutions on either enemy. Koji punches out a quick set of buttons and returns his hands to the T-shaped yolk. "I'll have to hold out until I can get some help!"

"ROCKETTO... PAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANCH!!"

At the very least, Sinya can be thankful that she isn't alone in this fight. On Mars, she had been the one outsider who dared get involved between two warring factions. Here, at least there were others coming to the aid of the people of Calcutta. Unlike so many of the others, she isn't one who has words of bravado to shout at the enemy. Small blips of light appear across her overview, identifying civilians already fleeing from the impending chaos.

Then, her screen flickers. "Not again." The right eye of the gryphon chestpiece seems to flicker on and off, causing a disruption in the guymelef's power systems. "I /so/ do not need this right now. Work damn you!" Sinya pulls one of her legs free from the controls and lashes out, thumping her booted just behind the crystal. It seems to go out for a moment, and then come back on. "Hah!" Apparently, a little 'tough love' is all that the guymelef needed. With hop, she slides her leg back into the controls and starts to move forward, treading her legs into the space within the suit as it drives the guymelef's feet outside.

Being one of the smaller units, and probably the least experienced, it makes perfect sense for the catgirl not to try to draw the fire of any of the main Crusader forces. Instead, she joins the skermish going on around the Yatagarasu. "If anyone has need of assistance, send me a tight-beam radio transmission. I should be able to manage some battlefield repairs if needed." She transmits to those defending Calcutta. Oddly enough, for a Trailer, she hasn't mentioned charging anyone for the services.

For the time being, with this battle just getting started, Arius moves into positition, drawing closer to the Crusader vessel emiting the strange dual voices. "Creepy mech is creepy." She mutters to herself, the lower voice sending a shiver up her spine and causing the fur on her tail to puff up. "Neat looking, though. Maybe if... No wait, bad guy." She has to keep herself from being distracted by the need to analyze mechanical devices and /focus/ on the task at hand.

Spinning the staff in his hand, Arius steps forward, drawing closer to the larger machine as he tries to find an opening between the attacks of others. The last thing that Sinya wanted was to end up taken out by friendly fire. With a click of a few buttons, she engages Arius's thrusters, his wings seeming to control his course of flight even though it doesn't seem to make much sense to work that way. The staff is spun first in one hand, and then transfered over to the other in a seemingly smooth transition, then brought high over the guymelef's head and swung outward towards the Yatagarasu's legs.

The NEXT was moving in and moving in fast. He sped around the city, before bring up his altitude in a massive leap into the air, before those white feet landed down on the ground. His aqua green visor glanced around, before it focused on the target. <<"..what is that..">> He said softly before he loaded a clip into the assault rifle.

"Not sure." Nell replied. "Looks like most of the area has been evacuated, however don't activate your primal armor unless you have too. Kojima particles may not last long.. but if there is anyone on the streets.."

<<"I know, Nell.">> The NEXT pilot replied before he suddenly rushed himself toward the god machine. The White machine was quick across the streets, he let Nell tell him who was friendly and who was foe. That Assault rifle raised up into the air before he strafed around, nearly missing a car under his feet before he opened fire with the bullets.

The demon is surprisingly small, and annoyingly quick. Akira will have to finish this as quickly as possible, but he can't do it alone. Even the other Trailers seem to be having some difficulty. Where the hell is Koji? They could really use something like Mazinger right now... Suddenly, a pinpoint of light appears. Akira knows exactly what this means, and immediately starts moving. He's far enough away by the time the star explodes that the damage is pretty much just some scorching of the stone that makes up Raideen's body, but the destruction it causes to the city... "You damn demon. Your kind always think they can get away with whatever they want. Burn? You want us to burn? I'LL MAKE /YOU/ BURN, DEMON!" Akira says, suddenly shouting with fury that can be felt a mile away. He doesn't seem to like the Yatagarasu much. Raideen draws another arrow from its quiver, this one larger than the others and bearing four points on the end. As he lines up the shot, a ball of blue light appears at the arrow's tip, quickly enveloping the whole thing in an aura of psychic energy. "GOD GOOOOOOOORGON!" he shouts again, firing the arrow at the Yatagarasu's heart. Or at least, where he thinks its heart is.

"Sir, we're clearly detecting more Divine Crusader signals on the sonar." The radar guy comments on the bridge, turning towards Xiang, then Yu - who was standing right next to him. They all knew that unless Xiang gave a command, she was the one who would dictate the flow of battle. Their captain hardly ever spoke, but if he did - it was always for good reason. It was their combination the entire crew put their trust in.

In the meanwhile, after the SuiKyosha breaks out entirely from the watermirror, its full volume becomes apparently. Armored in a metalic blue shade, with details of green, oranges and some yellows that made it look like it had coral sticking to some parts of it. The machine pushes past the Yatagarasu, even as it tries to bore into the hull which... just gives way, turns into water, and makes it extremely difficult to actually pass the attack through. In fact, the entire ship barely even seems to notice that anything has happened.

Yu takes a step forward on the bridge whilst a large screen comes downwaters, looking like it is filled with water, and begins to display what is going on outside. It splits into a nice series of smaller images, displaying both allies and enemies. The massive guns on the battleship then suddenly begin to form. "All crew to battlestations!" The XO calls. And all throughout the ship, shops get abandoned, metal shutters close, and people put their fine china into more proper locations where they won't fall whilst the ship finally evens out entirely and lays across the horizontal plane. A sudden 'wash' of magic appears beneath it, making the air shimmer and making it look like there is another layer of water in a circle around the ship: surrounding it and waving up and down.

It truly looked like the watership was /on/ water now. Though it defied all logic. The top hull's main guns begin to shine in a blue light, and the water of the rivers nearby begin to torrent, small whirlpools forming everywhere nearby. Even some kitchensinks suddenly are filling with tiny whirlpools - and some dishes are done in Calcutta without anyone having to touch anything.

"Launch the first volley. Magic Hydro-chambers, twenty percent output!" Yu throws her hand forward, pointing at the screen with his index and middle-finger, pointing at two screens which immediately expand. The massive cannons on the ship turn and swivel, aiming their gigantic barrels at points in the general direction of Idunn's Alraune and Yatagarasu. "Ute!"

Blinding blue beams suddenly coil out from the cannons, flowing like water, drops of magical energy spraying in their wake whilst their heads were clearly aglow with a terrible power. And it's those beams that try to puncture a hole into the armor of both units - and potentialy crush them towards the ground with the weight of the hydropower.

NOT SO LONG AGO BUT PRETTY FAR AWAY

A very stern looking man in an A-LAWS uniform with a sharp hat and a really stupid moustache is barking orders through a tiny monitor window. Both hands are on the console in front of him, long having been slammed onto it for dramatic effect much to the chagrin of everyone else in the communications centre trying to get their goddamned jobs done. "I don't want your excuses!" he roars, loud enough to punch through the crazy space headphones all the operators around him are wearing. Their eyes collectively roll. "I want you making a difference, RIGHT NOW!" Another desk slam. The picture warps a little as the device groans beneath his angry ham-fist strikes.

It's almost impossible to tell what expression the pilot on the other end is wearing, since the picture quality is totally ass and the sexy A-LAWS helmet makes it hard to tell exactly what is happening beyond that, but believe me when I tell you that Ibis Douglas looks like she doesn't give a good god damn about this dumb motherfucker anymore. "I... can't launch until the Astelion is fueled." she repeats, for what is like the seventh time already since this conversation began. "I told you, as soon as it's done, I'm laun--" "I DON'T WANT ANY MORE EXCUSES GOD DAMN IT DOUGLAS LAUNCH NOW OR I'LL HAVE YOUR BADGE--"

Ibis' headache increases tenfold and she looks dispairingly out towards the technicians desperately trying to jam-pack her space fighter full of mysterious nondescript space-fuel, and they look back at her and shrug. Looks like it's business as usual here at the headquarters for the...

~SPACE COPS~

RIGHT THE HELL NOW RIGHT THE HELL HERE

For no discernable reason other than to be as obtuse as possible, it looks like Ibis Douglas' mission orders are actually contained within a sealed envelope which is only to be opened at the appointed time. Which is now. Hands off of the controls for a moment, she quietly rips into the envelope (FOR YOUR EYES ONLY) and unfolds a peice of paper printed on A-LAWS letterhead which contains the phrase: 'TAKE A BULLET FOR KOJI KABUTO STOP.' God damn it.

The gleaming white form of the Astelion rips out of the sky with all of the elegance of a ballistic missile, hurtling for the telltale IFF signal that reads 'MAZINGER Z' in all capital letters with bold /and/ underline and possibly even blinking text. "What a mess." mutters the redhead at the controls, whose natural instinct when flying into a crowded city is to of course increase speed and perform a sweet flyby inbetween a couple of conspicuiously placed buildings and buzzing past the gigantic metal Alraune bursting out of the ground. Like an afterthought to the whole thing, rows of windows shatter in the jet wash and the A-LAWS repair bill is looking annoyingly huge this season.

But the Astelion don't give no damn about that, and makes another pass by the Alraune. This time, punctuated with hypervelocity rail slugs. It's like a love tap, only made of tungsten and travelling at a couple thousand miles per hour.

The Flickerist's head cants just slightly, the glow of the yellow eyes beneath the visor settling back as it takes in the sight of the Mazinger Z's massive rocket-powered fist heading toward it. Verniers in various locations prime with a dull blue glow, and the Assault Dragoon moves to lurch backward while turning to present it's left side in the direction of the source.

The fist impacts with a sudden crunch of metals upon metals, and Lethe narrows her eyes under her sunglasses. There's not so much as a frown crossing her face, even as the young woman lurches in her seat. A few long purple strands drift across her face as the machine is carried a short distance in the impact-- and a few shots fire from a hefty plasma revolver in the left hand, including a rotating cylinder in the gun's frame. Two green bolts fly Koji's way, but it doesn't pan out all that well for her...

The Flickerist is freed with a hard shove to the side, the fist allowed to continue travelling on it's path back to the source. Meanwhile, her head turns just slightly toward the screens to her left, toward Judgement riding down on it's beam of light-- and the Gundam becomes a priority target. The on-board computers reach out to get readouts and information on the Neo-Vatican fighter, scouring for accessable data to find some weak point, some information, /any/...

Lethe's lips part again, her voice soft. "Strike, Flickerist."

The shoulders shift. Two black remote weapons detach from behind the back, streaking out to either side. Two more burst upward, coming over the top of the Assault Dragoon... and then they /scatter/.

One darts beyond the Judgement, one goes high, the third and fourth coming toward her at odd angles. The one in front of her fires a fierce purple beam through the Calcuttan skies, but it's only a feint-- the real attack comes from the second of these bits, off to the side.

The Flickerist's head cants just slightly, the glow of the yellow eyes beneath the visor settling back as it takes in the sight of the Mazinger Z's massive rocket-powered fist heading toward it. Verniers in various locations prime with a dull blue glow, and the Assault Dragoon moves to lurch backward while turning to present it's left side in the direction of the source.

The fist impacts with a sudden crunch of metals upon metals, and Lethe narrows her eyes under her sunglasses. There's not so much as a frown crossing her face, even as the young woman lurches in her seat. A few long purple strands drift across her face as the machine is carried a short distance in the impact-- and a few shots fire from a hefty plasma revolver in the left hand, including a rotating cylinder in the gun's frame. Two green bolts fly Koji's way, but it doesn't pan out all that well for her...

The Flickerist is freed with a hard shove to the side, the fist allowed to continue travelling on it's path back to the source. Meanwhile, her head turns just slightly toward the screens to her left, toward Judgement riding down on it's beam of light-- and the Gundam becomes a priority target. The on-board computers reach out to get readouts and information on the Neo-Vatican fighter, scouring for accessable data to find some weak point, some information, /any/...

Lethe's lips part again, her voice soft. "Strike, Flickerist."

The shoulders shift. Two black remote weapons detach from behind the back, streaking out to either side. Two more burst upward, coming over the top of the Assault Dragoon... and then they /scatter/.

One darts beyond the Judgement, one goes high, the third and fourth coming toward her at odd angles. The one in front of her fires a fierce purple beam through the Calcuttan skies, but it's only a feint-- the real attack comes from the second of these bits, off to the side.

Macua Huitl has clearly got the anger of the strange robot she smirks a little bit and she pauses spying Kamina here there can't help but grin. She moves quickly and senses another she knows comming that being Lunatta. She sees the trailers pile on toe the strange thing, she moves quickly attempting to get up close to what ever this thing is and actually punch it. No luck on the first attempt, so she's going to do what Folka would she's going to start kicking the heck out of it and rapidly kicking it!

"THATS ALL YOU GOT COME ON! DO NOT WASTE MY TIME!"

Kamina growls as his first swing isn't enough to cut through Seril's machine. "Tch. You got some nerve! But I'm not gonna let you burn down the place with the hot curry and the really good beer!!!!" Kamina swings his chainsword around as the plasma beam fires, swinging it around to deflect most of the beam. As the Gunmen does this, the Chicken-like head lets out a loud squawk before firing a torrent of flames toward the body of Seril's super robot.

The sword smokes as the onslaught from the Yatagarasu ends. The pilot winces as the nerve sensors transmits the damage into his body. "Heh. You think I'm done with you, Ms. Talks A Lot? WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM?!" He reaches behind the unit and ignites a beam saber, attempting to use it to pierce Seril's armor in a strong handed thrust.

Meanwhile, Somewhere far, far away

Camille Bidan comes back to where he parked the Zeta Gundam, staring up at the machine. He had parked the machine on the outskirts of a friendly city in order to buy Doughnuts for the Argama and crew...even Katz. He was in a pretty good mood for once. Nothing could get him down. He stares up at his Gundam, admiring it. Then he notices something. Something missing. It would appear one of the Beam Sabers on his Gundam has been stolen. Camille squints.

He calmly tosses the Doughnuts and decides if he couldn't be happy---No one gets to be happy.

Left. Right. Above... 0700 flank.

Lunata's combat march is stopped at the first presence of Lethe's Shadow Bits. The black weapons' purple beams lance through, forcing the armored fighter to skid to a stop as it twists around and bobs around broken landscape and crushed cars and naan stands. The beams strike, armor scathed and melted away where they strike.

She cannot sense it. There is no psychic signature.

"... troublesome," Lunata murmurs gently as she shifts her mental output towards the Mobile Fighter's sensory systems. She focuses. She hears the Bits' sounds as they fly forward... and makes for a break through the formation. Her white-gold Beam Sword is drawn from a shoulder recharge rack, the fighter of Neo Vatican moving in for a first swipe to test the waters, as it were.

"Why do you commmit actions such as this? Who are you?" Lunata announces to her opponent; her voice is gentle, and already, even without trying, her Psychodriving senses are trying to reach out to get a feel better for her opponent... ...which might not work so well, given Lethe's Gynoid status.

"Sub-Weapon System: Axe, activate," Lunata announces. The voice synthesis system registers, and the Judgement's arm mimics hers as she reaches for the hip weapon holster; a modular pair of axes fold into shape.

They are then thrown in the most ceremoniously ostentatious fashion possible: in an arc flying overhead, aimed to crash down onto the Flickerist.

ELSEWHERE

"Th--/this/ is why he--" Darcy stammers as her eyes lock with Mazinger Z's through her camera's view screen. "B--but--"

|            |                                                --o--  FLASH  --o-- |            |

HINDUSTANIA

Mazinger Z's flying fist of justice and SuiKyosha's beam collide in the space Alraune V8 once occupied; a cerulean haze clings to the monster's body as it settles several feet away from the collision, its many vines coiling around one another as it steadies itself upon the ground.

ELSEWHERE

"What do I ev--" Darcy begins to whisper before--

HINDUSTANIA

--a railgun slug rips right through Alraune's shoulder. A million miles away, Darcy Weyland sucks in a breath; right here in Hindustania, Alraune V8 wails painfully, and before its mistress can get a hold of its raging instincts, vines shoot from its undercarriage to grab not only Mazinger Z's mighty Super Alloy Z limbs, but the Astelion's forward nacelles. Lifting and throwing something as blocky as Maziner Z would be difficult, animalistic strength or not. The Astelion, however--

If Alraune gets a hold of the Astelion, it will try to violently crown the Invincible Black Castle of Iron with the PTD Prototype.

Inside the Flickerist's cockpit, Lethe's eyes are wide open under the frames of those wraparound sunglasses. Her hands shift from the control sticks to the panels folded down over her legs, fingers working in a flurry across keyboards while mathematics and trajectories brim across the screen. To a Psychodriver's senses, it will register like an empathic void; this is Robot Country, we can't stop here.

Her heels dig in as the Judgement charges in, the Flickerist's legs spreading beyond it's shoulder width. The extra thrusters in the legs fire, and the blade sinks in against that reinforced right arm. It doesn't quite make it through the armor-- but it does leave a bit of a noticable gash.

"I follow the orders that I am given," she says very simply. Soft as it is, her voice sounds like she's reading from a script, dull and monotone. Who is she? "You are not authorized for that information."

The axes flip through the air, their blades crashing into the Flickerist's sizeable spaulders. Lethe shows her first signs of actual, legitimate irritation on impact, signalled through a slight twitch in her brow. Her hands shift again to the controls, and W18 drops from the air while sweeping backwards, aiming to get a bit of breathing room while drawing a little closer to the river than she probably needs to.

The four Shadow Bits still flitting around the sky start flying toward the Judgement at top speed, crossing from left and right, front and behind, above and below-- but the pattern remains the same, two beams firing to catch the Gundam in a cross, a hard change of direction, and repeat...

"Are those.. funnels!?" Koji Kabuto bares witness as lasers fire from every direction at the GF14-T2BWL Judgement Gundam. "It's like they can attack from every direction!" he gasps, spellbound and horrified at the implications of the ASK-UC90 Flickerist's power. "That mobile unit has so much power!"

Vines wrap around Mazinger Z's armored limbs, catching its pilot offguard.

"Nngh!" Koji lets out a grunt. He's struggling with unresponsive controls as Mazinger tries to wrench itself free from Alraune V8's tendril-grasp. "It's got me! I can't.. I can't break free! Can't brute force it.. I'll just have to cut myself free instead!"

> Iron Cutters activated.

Axe-like blades extend from Mazinger's forearms. A quick jerk of its shoulders and the sharp edges easily shear the vines in twain. Koji lets out a puff of relief, his shoulders easing down. "Okay. Now to get my legs free... and I'll have enough room to equip the Jetto Scrandah!"

Mazinger Z's bladed arms reach ahead. Its Super Alloy fingers collapse into tightly-packed fists.

Koji narrows his eyes.

"IRON CUTTAH!!"

Mazinger Z's fists take to the skies once more, this time wielding blades of incredible shearing force!

The Bits fly in, but this time, Lunata is readier. She cannot dodge them -- she doesn't have the spatial capacity and advantage to dodge that which she cannot sense. Instead...

The Judgement Gundam's arms form into a cross as barrier systems come online. Pringle-shaped shock absorbers come into sight as the Afterburner systems release a reactionary beam blocker to help diffuse the damage done by the Shadow Bits; yet, still, they are not enough, and more chunks and plates of armor fall in burnt, abused blocks towards the ground.

Lunata frowns slightly at Lethe's words. She hears her words, but she cannot sense her spirit. Words, echoing without faith, without conviction, without ideals. Empty words... empty. She grits her teeth, clenches tightly. There was nothing worse to her than a person she cannot even understand... it was like talking to an illusion.

She faces her opponent and clenches her fist, and shouts those immortal words.

"Your words are as -EMPTY- as your soul! This city ill needs a puppet such as you."

The Judgement breaks into a forward run. The balanced mass of metal kneels once she closes in, hydraulics pressurizing into a forward propel and verniers erupting to golden life in the Gundam's back.

Rising into the air, the Afterburner system erupts in accord, fist wreathed in golden flame and afterimages trailing behind as the Judgement Gundam delivers a flaming uppercut towards its opponents.

A coffee cup emblazoned with the CAPCOM(tm) logo rattles around dangerously on an otherwise vacated desk in a nearby office building as a shadow falls across the windows, blocking out the sun. If everyone wasn't already evacuated from it, then undoubtedly there'd be a badass moment of dawning comprehension as a giant white foot comes into view. But as it is, the freshly-transformed Astelion has nobody inside to scare as it perches on the side of the office and puts a foot straight into the management floor as gigantic vines come grasping for it.

"Tch. Koji!" yells Ibis into her mic dramatically as she sliiiiides down the side of the building and has a totally sweet Beat It-style knife fight with the vines trying to get ahold of her on the way down, her Armored Module gripping the assault blade in reverse and carving away at the creepy would-be tentacle rape going on around her, unable to get close enough to break Mazinger Z free! Not that it needs the help, it seems.

"Don't get caught up in dealing with the remote weapons and vines and... whatever the hell else!" Somewhere in a distant Command and Control centre, a rolling tally of the collateral damage caused by Federation forces is rolling upwards at an astounding rate.

Flares and micromissiles pop out of the Astelion's shoulders near the rear in some kind of insane fire-for-effect strategy that more or less fills the air inbetween Ibis and the Alraune unit proper with explosions and fire, aiming to dissuade those vines from coming any closer. This is immediately rendered useless as the Astelion tosses the enormous giant-robot knife up into the air and catches it the right way up again, and then those tesla drives fire with an annoying high-pitched whine and the Project TD Lion bowls straight through a couple of streetlights to charge at the Alraune.

Holy shit this is the worst idea ever what are you doing.

It felt good to say that, Staren hasn't given a justice speech in ages! But then the monster makes... oh please tell him that wasn't really a miniature star, the radiation could do who knows what to people here... And there's a machine beast at it's side! "What is wrong with you people? What do the crusaders get out of destroying a city? This isn't a military base, it won't help you take over the world! We'll send you all packing!" And with that, he raises the Star Hawk's other arm, firing a spread of beams from the 'beam shotgun' at the monster and the machine beast, while starting to run towards them -- time to close to good ol' reliable melee!

Within Yatagarasu, Seril laughs at the glorious thing she has created, "Look at it!" she shouts, "Isn't it beautiful? Look, didn't I do well!?" Who the hell is she talking to? Unfortunately, the way Yatagarasu hovers there makes it a very shootable target - Rounds burst against it, and the girl inside shrieks in surprise and pain. Its attempt to swing around Raideen's arrow is futile, and only drives it right into the rapid-fire kicks of the Amazon Gundam. Though the extreme heat output makes such close combat hazardous, it's the blade from Sinya's Guyamelf that scores a noticable cut in that obsidian and silver hull. Reeling, Seril thrusts her hands out, "GET AWAY!"

The Yatagarasu does similar, dropping back and away, only to right itself and dive beneath the building line and under the SuiKyosha's line of fire and away from Kamina's gunmen.

-Do not run.--Show your power.--You are my flame.--ACT LIKE IT.-

The Yatagarasu suddenly stops in the street, Seril inside, stuck dumb by the voice booming through the cockpit of her machine. Shaking her head, she shakes off the pain and twists the machine about. Its wings raise, then thrust downward once, hurling Yatagarasu back into the sky. She thrusts the arm weapon straight up, pouring power into it. As a golden orb of heat and light begins forming on the end, she screams with rage, "Don't take me lightly..!"

Her position places the Guymelef, Gunman, and Amazon Gundam between herself and the Suikyosha, which suits her just fine. The cannon is thrust down, and the star forming on its end is fired with a concussive force.

Even if the launched star misses the three mecha, her true target is the enormous SuiKyosha - Which should be a bit easier to hit. "So you turn into water if I try to hurt you..." Seril mutters, swinging the arm cannon back with a spray of dissolving plasma, "But even water is powerless against the Sun..!" As the plasma ball nears, Yatagarasu raises its free hand overhead, fingers shuddering. Quite suddenly, they close. That distinctive klaxon booms through the streets of Calcutta as the sphere - Which might be burrowing into the SuiKyosha - expands rapidly in size, "SHOW ME HOW MUCH HEAT CAN YOU TAKE!!"

A second later, the star collapses into -literally - nothing.

Shooting a look over her shoulder, Seril bares fangs that weren't there a minute ago. The glare is directed at the Raideen, "..Don't think I've forgotten about you..!" Thrust shoots out from between the black energy 'feathers' that make up the Yatagarasu's wings, and it soars in an arc over the city with its arms extended out to either side. Small orbs - Tiny suns - form and descend all throughout the arc. As they reach a certain altitude, each star expands in size and then bursts, scattering orbs of superheated material like bombs around R's NEXT, Staren's Starhawk, and the Raideen -- And a sizable chunk of Calcutta.

Gritting her teeth, the La Gian mechanic yanks on the controls, pulling her hand hard across her body to bring the staff back around just as the thrusters ignite, pulling Arius out of range of a retaliatory strike from the ominous Crusader machine. "Whew. Close call." Sinya whispers to herself, her eyes following a stream of data moving up along the side of her visor's viewscreen, detailing basic information about her surroundings. While the guymelef has come a long way from a terrestrial, nearly medieval combat machine, it still required far more manual intervention than most modern machines.

Reaching up, Sinya engages one of the cooling systems, transfering power from the failing secondary energist over to the main core, hoping that it will hold out under the added stress. It's a quick movement, a flick of the hand and then her arm once grips the controls. The gryphon's head lifts pausing briefly on the familiar machines as Sinya checks each for damage. It lingers a bit longer on the SuiKyosha, the newest of the Trailer fleet.

"Hope they're doing okay." She murmurs, mostly just to hear something else other than the sound of the gears that drive the guymelef's movement. She'd spent quite a bit of time on the battleship lately, going back and forth to train the hangar crew. Now - was their first real test in combat. At the very least, as untrained as she is, there isn't that overwhelming sense of panic from those first days. Then again, knowing the battleship's captain, she doubts much panic is going on.

Nodding her head to focus her own mind, trying not to think too much of the others out there fighting. If they need her help, they'll call, right? So, gripping harder on the controls. Just as her gaze sweeps back to the monsterous machine. There isn't enough time to get out of the path of what seems like a supernova being thrown her way, so instead, Sinya spins her staff quicker, trying to brace against the worst of it. The heat and raw energy strikes against her guymelef, driving it downward toawrds the ground until the armored knight lands on his feet.

Sweat beads up on the cat-girl's forehead, having carried even through armor of her mech. Bits of Arius's armor are showing a glowing red, as if they'd been superheated. Even so, the Crusader was attacking one of the Trailer's own vessels as they're main target, so she has no choice but to press the attack. Arius spins his staff at surprising speed, creating enough wind to cool the armor back to a normal color even as the guymelef moves forward, trying to catch some part of the Yatagarasu's legs in the spin.

Strayed sped across the ground, before it circled around. Then as it came from behind, by passing a few buildings. The white NEXT leaped up, slamming its foot on the roof of one building, before leaping up higher in the air; Its thrusters carrying it then the rest of the way. The device on its left arm starts to glow a sick aqua green color, before the beam holes construct the a blade made of Kojima particles. As it attempts to get in closer, it is suddenly slammed by one of the fire balls, <<"Nrgh!">> The pilot lets out before the NEXT starts to fall back from the impact.

It crashes into a building below, before it comes out the other side. <<"..right then..">> He says calmly, smoking rising of from where the impact was made. Armor scorched off and some parts of the armor missing. <<"Activating Primal Armor..">>

As The NEXT calmly walked around a aqua green field suddenly flashed around it, before it seemed to vanish from view. Anyone with radiation meters may pick up a spike in radiation around the unit itself. That Aqua green visor slowly glanced up at, before the whole visor flashed, before the 'sight' went back to the solid color once more. Then with the blade blazing to life once more. Strayed charged once more in a full run.

Soon the Overboost drive kicked on an accelerated the NEXT at extreme speeds for its target. The left arm drove back, before it slashed out, with a spin of its body.

Kamina eyes narrow as the Yatagarasu flees from the Beam Saber stab. "HEY! DON'T RUN AWAY! GET BACK HERE AND FIGHT LIKE A MAN!" The Bassanigon lets out another call as it turns toward the Star Blast. Kamina quickly swings Camile's Beam Saber to block the incoming attack, blocking the blunt of the attack but still feeling the burning sensation as just enough breaches his defenses. The Gunmen stands there, glaring at the Flame mech from the face on its chest.

Kamina quickly reduces the chainsword and beam saber taking out the Rail Gun. What was once a relic from a forgotten era was no refitted and refurbished in order to fit it's new master better. The gun begins to spark as electricity starts to power the magnetic strip, pulling particles toward it. The particles begin coming in larger masses, quickly forming into a drill. "I DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW THIS WORKS RAIL GUN BLASTAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!"

Macua Huitl doesn't seem to be well down yet but what is this thing, she keeps an eye on Kamina, she knows he's a skilled fighter but he's quite unpredictable in a brawl, so it's a good ide to know where he is at all times. She does feel something strange about the strange fiery mech. She narroes her eyes.

"I do not. If you were not worth my notice you'd have fallen /already/ NOW COME ON! SPEAK IN THE PROPER WAY WITH YOUR FISTS!"

That's just what Macua is about to do here, her machine is caught in the flames she feels the heat inside her cockpit. This thing's no joke but nor is she. She again is moving to attack the other machine, she attacks with her fists and fetat and doesn't show any signs of stopping, she's actually trying to basically kick the large machine prehaps even up into the air, but succeed of fair she'll leap up and come down at hte other machine launching into a savage combo on the way down.

"I AM A STUDENT OF MACHINE GOD FIST AND ENOUGH YOU MAKE INNOCENTS SUFFER I WILL RIP YOU APART!"

THe machine assault gets worst and the final strike is an attempt to shove one fist in and rip something out but that may not be the best /idea/ but who knows.

"I will not tolerate devastation like this!"

Akira is serious. As soon as the arrow goes flying, he immediately starts moving again, watching the Yatagarasu fire another ball of plasma at the SuiKyosha. And when the demon comes for him, it's a simple matter to avoid the stars left in its wake. It's just like playing a danmaku game, except this is real. Raideen finally manages to catch Akira's attention, telling him through their link that the enemy they face is a monster in more than just appearance. Inside of it is something that does not belong in this world, something destructive that wants to see the world burn. "You don't look like you're from the Youma Empire, but a demon's a demon! My power and Raideen's...WE'LL DESTROY YOU TOGETHER! PSYCHIC LIGHT WAVES!" Akira yells some more, more anger than he has ever felt before welling up inside him. Raideen begins striking a number of poses, its body becoming enveloped in a green glow as the pilot's psychic power floods every inch of its stone frame. Finally, it ends with one fist raised in the air, and all of the energy it's built up is released in an enormous wave of red and yellow, quite different from the usual green tornado. "GOD ALPHA! RAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!"

Lethe gives no reply to the dramatic cry thrown her way. She doesn't seem to react to Lunata's anger and fury; the gynoid's reaction seems closer to /observational/, as though she were trying to process the human emotions being thrown her way. They're so loud, powerful-- and recorded in her mind for later review and study.

However, the Judgement Gundam becomes the greater issue. While before, that great right arm was used to defend the Assault Dragoon, the imposing black machine's eyes flare with the yellow glow, diffused behind the equally dark visor. The Flickerist jerks backward with a short burst from it's thrusters, the right hand balling itself up into a fist.

"Boost Knuckle," she says.

The scalloped guard on the forearm shifts to expose the nozzle of a hidden vernier inside the bulk of that right arm-- and the limb swings around to drive the knuckles squarely into the Judgement's robo-abdomen!!

Drifting back further, hovering over the waves, Lethe continues to stare at the overlay of the Judgement Gundam while calculating angles, flight speed, and the reaction time of the Mobile Fighter's pilot so far. With all of that taken in mind, the legs pick up just a bit-- and two more of those bits slide out of docks hidden in the kneeguards.

"Formation switch."

The other four scream back through the sky to surround the Flickerist, spinning before they move in formation, along the Flickerist's arm to the end of the EC71 Plasma Revolver being aimed at the machine. They spin in a tight band before priming, a purple glow at each of their muzzles...

... and then a whole /lot/ of purple blasts toward the Neo-Vatican fighter!

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Xiang Yuan transmits, "To all trailers, move away from the plant and the sun God!"

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Xiang Yuan transmits, "This will only take a small moment."

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Nell Aulter transmits, "I'll inform R, since he at the moment is right ontop of that thing."

Lunata's attack was foolhardy... was it consumed with rage, the very Fury that she had sought to be studying and controlling? Was she so overtaken by this unfathomable opponent that she'd allowed herself to become engulfed in her emotion?

She pays for it, either way; her attack is amateurish and comes wide, and the opponent is incredible enough that she is punished for it. The Boost Knuckle coms crashing in and smashes into the Judgement's chest proper. Fortunately, its armor is thickest there, protecting Lunata from any more than just a rough shake, but it sets her up for...

...the Shadow Bits to bombard her further. Working in concord, the Bits finally sink their proverbial teeth through the Judgement's armor; explosions rock the Gundam Fighter, for a moment sweltering it in heat and flames as systems are compromised. Oppressive red warning labels flash in her mind as the systems start failing and automatically rerouting. Its mask is shattered and falls to pieces, exposing circuitry underneath the head. There is feedback coursing through every pulse of her body for a moment as she endures through the pain, feeling the Judgement's own. Will this be the end?

"No... it will not end this way."

Lunata takes a deep breath and immediately assumes contact with the Judgement again; she springs back, taking several defensive glides back and bailing out of the Shadow Bits' formation wherever she can, to regain her footing.

"I have never quite felt this way before... to be utterly incapable of connecting on any level with my opponent. Nonetheless, I owe the people of this city a great deal."

Her eyes open again. Though they are useless, with a gray, cataract-esque film over them, they shimmer ever so slightly, now, as Lunata announces: "T-LINK Full Contact mode. Sub-Weapon System: Knife, set."

To Lunata, it is as if time has stopped.

The Judgement Gundam strides forth, once more; its arms extended to either side. Appropriately, it was the Akshardham Temple monks that taught her how to perform rapid striking motions. This knowledge is what she will use to defend this place.

As Lunata's arms move, so do the Judgement's; Knives are launched at a rapid rate, six at a time, filling the space and all aimed towards the Flickerist as Lunata indulges herself some good old fashioned shouting for once:

"MUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDA!!!"

And thus, time resumes...

ELSEWHERE

"No!" Darcy exhales as Mazinger Z's bladed fist slices one of Alraune's petals clean off. "Alraune, y--"

"Darcy!" the elder Weyland child's cousin exclaims from downstairs; the front door slams shut, punctuating her cry. "Darcy, get your buns down here! There's a /tourney/ in a week and I need /practice/!"

"Wh--but--"

HINDUSTANIA

After an initial flurry of motion that sees Alraune V8 barrel through all the smoke and fire to slam /into/ Astelion and send the Armored Module flying across the street and towards a Spacebucks franchise, the Machine Beast comes to a full stop. There /is/ a bit of stirring in its petals to herald the appearance of half a dozen sleek, chromed out mechanical bees from somewhere within its depths, but other than that, Alraune is, for all intents, dormant.

Even when Star Hawk's shotgun 'shell' cracks its abdominal armour, it's unmoving--loud, and angry, but unmoving. The half a dozen bees - three for Mazinger Z, three for the Star Hawk - do the reprising for it, sweeping in from eccentric angles to bury their stingers into the two machines' bodies before flying away.

HINDUSTANIA

"But--I--Abby--homework--" Darcy ineffectually mumbles as her cousin walks her into their shared home's living room and seats her before the entertainment center. With the push of a button, the TV flares to life with an intro movie and a pre-colonial song purported by historians to have been used by ancient martial artists to aid them in more effectively centering their chi before important fights.

o/~ I can feel it coming over me         I feel it all around me          I've been waiting for this moment all my life It's my destiny... ~/o

"I gotta--"

"Ten games," cousin Abby bargains with a confident smirk, "and then, I guess, you can do your homework, or something."

With a quiet moan of distress, Darcy does her best to kind of cradle the phone in one hand while gripping the controller in a way that'll allow her to play it.

HINDUSTANIA AFTER LIKE FIVE SECONDS OF ALRAUNE V8 DOING NOTHING

"TIGEEEEEER KNEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" echoes a flat, feminine voice as Alraune abruptly hurls itself after the Astelion. Its many vines flail wildly beneath its body, but none quite reach the Armored Module before it lands.

ELSEWHERE

"Oh--oh my god!" Darcy squeals as she haplessly fumbles with her controller and phone simultaneously.

"Tiger Shot! Tiger Shot! Tiger Shot! Tiger Shot! Tiger Shot!" the TV rhythmically drones.

"Stop doing--I can't even--/what am I supposed to do/?!"

"Maybe get /out/ of the corner and try to /hit/ me! /Jump/!"

"O--o--"

"Tiger Uppercut!" the TV reports. "KO!"

"Wh--" Darcy disbelievingly utters.

Adjacent to her, Abigail smirks triumphantly; Darcy mumbles something beneath her breath and grips her phone tighter for a brief second, her frustrations echoing through space and the circuitry of the Flash System to guide her favoured monstrosity.

HINDUSTANIA

"TIGER--"

Alraune 'crouches', which given the vines pretty much just means that it kind of bends at the waist and not much else; its right arm bends until its fist is even with its waist, and its solid, green eyes gleam violently. A bright, sparkling tone resonates from around it.

"--UPPERCUT!"

Alraune's /entire body/ explodes upwards, its right arm uncoiling to drive that balled fist right into what passes for the Astelion's chin. Its lips part to admit a bestial roar as it rises, and its entire body shimmers gold for the several seconds its ascent lasts.

The SuiKyosha is a ship unlike any other, and in that she also is differently built than one would be able to judge on one's initial assault. When the Yatagarusu speeds along its hull to beneath it, a gulf of 'water' seems to follow her position upon the hull, as if forming a second layer of armor, growing bigger and bigger the further she moved. And when she is finally at the bottom and halts, this layer of thicker hull - this water - solidifies whilst the ship begins to move away from the Yatagarusu so that it can get a better vantage point.

It is all these preperations that save it from the gigantic mini-sun that is begin generated, though it can easily be heard that the metal of the ship is 'beginning' to strain underneath this massive display of force. The whirlpools all over the city sudden erect up into the air and begin to flow right towards the ship - connecting to its hull as it feeds off of the connection to water.

"Sir!" Yu turns towards Xiang, who suddenly has a pensive look on his face. "Seems we are facing a god." And he suddenly stands up from his chair, which has everyone in the crew - including Yu - suddenly giving an odd look. It was not often their captain got up that early on, especially not to claim such a thing. "SuiKyosha trembles." He continues to explain and directs the ship to move further along. The helmsman is quickly given a command to keep moving, hiding the fact that SuiKyosha has slightly taken over.

Xiang turns his eyes to the monitor, where the star had disappeared again. "Now!" He holds the gauntlet before his chest. "When the sun sets, so will our victory begin." The Captain claims with much ferver. "Close all gates. Increase the hull plating, define our allies to the SuiKyosha, and prepare for the onset of a new ice age."

The ship seemed not to be doing anything, though its armor did seem to thicken slightly. And windows that looked into the ship were closing off, and then... something strange began to happen. The clouds that were present suddenly begin to release... snow!? The color of the area turns a duller color, and the rivers that had once been whirlpools suddenly come to a complete halt. Everything is freezing! This freezing air quickly encroaches towards both the plant 'monster' as well as the god of the Sun. Those allied with the ship find their vessels however strangely unaffected.

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Xiang Yuan transmits, "A wise man once said: don't lick the icicles."

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Sinya Leland transmits, "And don't eat the yellow snow."

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Xiang Yuan transmits, "Very wise words."

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Nell Aulter transmits, "..what did you people just do?"

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Yu Zhi Wu transmits, "SuiKyosha is making Calcutta freeze over."

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Akira Hibiki transmits, "I WILL DESTROY why is it snowing?"

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Edward Fawkes transmits, "Snow? Where?"

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Nell Aulter transmits, "The exterior of Strayed is reporting temperture drops.. but that is-- ... How did you pull that off?"

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Kazuma Ardygun transmits, "Magic."

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Yu Zhi Wu transmits, "Magic."

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Sinya Leland transmits, "Tell R, that this is that 'magic' they were talking about earlier."

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Edward Fawkes transmits, "Hey Kaz, How 'bout we go build snowmen when all this blows over?"

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Nell Aulter transmits, "Magic doesn't exist. It is just another form of science-- but fine, I'll let him know."

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Kazuma Ardygun transmits, "..."

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Kazuma Ardygun transmits, "'Scuse me a sec, I have an Arena match to focus on, get back to you when we're done."

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Edward Fawkes transmits, "....assuming things there aren't some horrible wasteland of sufering or anything."

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Lunata Croze transmits, "... what an unsettling opponent."

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Astrid Stalvern transmits, "Eh? Found a chatty one, did you?"

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Lunata Croze transmits, "No... the contrary."

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Edward Fawkes transmits, "You'll have to excuse my dance partner. Everything alright there Captain, Nell?"

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Marcus Gunter transmits, "The world is filled with aliens, psychics, Godzilla, and interdimensional portals to an alternate dimension in the /center of the earth/, and it's Magic that you disbelieve?"

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Akira Hibiki transmits, "And living statues."

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Nell Aulter transmits, "Strayed should be fine. The Primal Armor is up and running at full efficiency. I am not sure how Crest is going to feel when they find out that he did take a nasty hit before it went up though."

Knives, knives, and more knives come streaking toward her through the sky. Lethe's eyes shift at rapid pace to track them; the revolver lifting to aim. One shot, another, and a third fire, some catching the knives out of the air with superhuman accuracy.

Others... not so much.

The Flickerist starts taking knives after knives to the torso, the right arm slinging around to catch more of them before they puncture the cockpit bloc. One plants straight into the head unit, so on, and so on-- and it just doesn't end well for the Assault Dragoon.

A buzzer sounds over her shoulder as two of the many screens flicker to red, her HUD similarly showing heavy damage to the left shoulder and arm. The purple-haired gynoid again shows that brief sign of irritation through the twitch in her brow.

"Flickerist withdrawing from battle zone. Damage threshhold for live combat testing has been exceeded."

The large black robot drifts backward further and further, trailed by the black remotes swirling about in formation. In short order, the Flickerist turns away and fires all of it's thrusters at once-- it isn't as fast as some machines, but this particular robot can haul ass once it builds a good head of steam.

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Xiang Yuan transmits, "Anyhow. With that said. You are safe to approach again."

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Macua Huitl transmits, "It's got Tentacles. I'm keeping clear of it."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Lethe Rusina speaks in a calm monotone. "Flickerist withdrawing from battle zone. Damage threshhold for live combat testing has been exceeded."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Divine Crusader Command, "Roger that."

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Nell Aulter transmits, "Everything can be proven by science."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Seril Vaskell transmits, "Fine, get out while you still can! I'll wrap things up here..!"

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Nell Aulter transmits, "That is why I don't believe in magic."

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Sinya Leland transmits, "Yeah. I'll introduce you to Gaean float stones Nell. You'll have fun with those."

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Edward Fawkes transmits, "Magic is a good enough shorthand for the stuff we don't know all the rules and mechanics for just yet."

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Nell Aulter transmits, "I need to focus on my job again. Though it seems I am more sitting here drumming my fingers and watching vitals then actually working."

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Lunata Croze transmits, "I could not sense... her. She was not human."

Mazinger Z weathers the bee counterattacks as best it can. A few tendrils of smoke rise from its armored plating, its finish dull and scratched.

"Hngh..." Koji Kabuto grits his teeth. He's doing his best to slough off the rest of the vines, but the controls are still sluggish for the moment. "I gotta help Ibis--!!" he lets out a grunt. "C'mon, Mazinga..!!"

The bladed fists of Mazinger return to its elbow-stumps, its fingers flexing with renewed strength. A tap of the radio controls and Koji hones in on the Photon Power Labs's frequency. "Hey!" he shouts. "I need more power! Send me the Jet Scrander as soon as you can!"

> "Understood, Koji! We're launching right now!"

Snow begins dappling Mazinger Z's ebon construction. A thin sheet of white begins to accumulate here and there, catching Koji's attention. "Wh-what? Snow!? Is this.. is this magic!?" His eyes narrow as his fingers tighten over the control. "/Wizards/," he lets out with a hushed tone of distrust. "Is this the monster's doing? Or the Trailers!? Shit, this is crazy!"

With a sniff of air, Koji settles his attention back on Alraune V8. "It'll be a bit before the Jet Scrander can get here. I need to keep this monster's attention away from Ibis!" His arms thrust forward, driving the controls up. Gyro-stabilizers engaged! Drive-train synched!

"MAZINGO!!"

The shout is like a thunderclap that reaches every single ear on the battlefield.

It's Mazinger Z -- STEEL GUARDIAN OF PLANET EARTH -- charging after Alraune V8. Its fist leading the way, swinging one after the other as its heavy footfalls shake the land. Mazinger's eyes are lit up with Photonic Power, the energy of peace! Nothing can dissuade it from its path!

"Take this! HUAAAAAH!"

Mazinger Z thrusts off the ground, its foot-mounted rockets blasting out cones of flame that carry it directly after Alraune V8. Its swinging out, delivering its Super Alloy fist directly for the bulk of the Machine Beast's body!

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Edward Fawkes transmits, "What's an operator do anyway other than monitering the 'big picture' sorts of stuff where your pilot's deployed?"

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Yu Zhi Wu transmits, "Watch porn."

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Nell Aulter transmits, "We.. What? No!"

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Edward Fawkes transmits, "*cough. Sputter*"

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Wildcat CACKLES!

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Nell Aulter transmits, "/He/ Might have."

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Dour Ernula, dully, "Play card games."

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Sinya Leland laughs.

BEEEES

The Star Hawk sort of dances around and swats at them inneffectively -- it is able to avoid the strange sun demon's attack and fire back with a quick railgun shot. Staren turns to face the demon, and the Star Hawk flicks its wrist before turning to run down another street towards the machine beast -- a spherical object held in the Star Hawk's hand as it runs and _hurls_ it straight at Marchionessa's creation!

Under Seril's machine, another spherical object drops out of the sky, thrown in a high arc from where Staren was standing.

And then both explode in a blast of mega particles.

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Edward Fawkes transmits, "Hey Ernula."

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Nell Aulter ahems softly.

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Wildcat transmits, "...One moment... R now has... an /Operator/?"

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Nell Aulter transmits, "Yes. I am his Operator. The name is Nell Aulter."

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Wildcat transmits, "...I see... I am Wildcat..."

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Edward Fawkes transmits, "Problems buddy?"

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Nell Aulter transmits, "Now to answering the question. We keep an eye on the vitals of the pilot. The state of the machine.. Combat information.. Attempt to hack into intel before the pilot gets there.. assist in finding a new direction if the original direction is blocked."

<Radio> Tightbeam to SuiKyosha: Macua Huitl says, "Can you make use of the water to try and control fires?"

<Radio> Tightbeam to Macua Huitl: SuiKyosha's communication officer replies, "Of course."

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Edward Fawkes transmits, "....I wasn't gonna say it Miss. I really wasn't. R taxes your patiance enough as is without the jokes."

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Wildcat snickers.

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Otsdarva transmits, "Damnit, is that Wildcat?"

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Otsdarva transmits, "Uhggggh I thought we were rid of you. Welcome back, crazy."

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Wildcat cackles. "...You can't lose me that easily... Good to hear from you again, Lynx..."

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Nell Aulter transmits, "I can barely deal with him either, to be honest. Hopefully we have come on some equal grounds."

<Radio> Tightbeam to SuiKyosha: Macua Huitl says, "Great!"

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Edward Fawkes transmits, "Well Seeing how often I've been in spots where an extra pair of eyes looking at the field would've been helpful I can say I'd appreciate your job. Not sure I'd follow directions all that well, but I'd make sure you aren't ready to bite nails in half."

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Nell Aulter transmits, "We are all very under appreciated. Now if you excuse me, I need to get back to paying attention to this screen encase he somehow does something stupid. Like losing an arm or shutting down his primal armor at the worse time."

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Edward Fawkes transmits, "....Yes. That would be bad. Allah Guide your hand and show you mercy."

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Wildcat transmits, "...Though I wouldn't put it past him... to give you a scare... just because he can... I doubt you have to worry about that... But don't mind us..."

OH SHIT FLASHBACK

Ibis Douglas and Tsugumi Takakura sit at a table in a Spacebucks somewhere absolutely nowhere near Hindustania, the red haired pilot nursing a cup of pumpkin-chai latte (how does that even work god damn) with closed eyes as she sinks into a sugar-boosted blissful trance. It is snowing outside. There are Christmas jingles playing over the radio inside, and children are laughing and playing for no good reason. "You know..." muses the bookish brunette sitting across from Ibis, adjusting her glasses and looking at the half-eaten muffin sitting in front of her. It is like 75% chocolate chips and 25% muffin.

"It's still hard to believe that just a few months ago, you and Heero Yuy saved this place from the Triads."

Ibis's eyes fling open, but they see nothing. Because...

FLASHBACK WITHIN A FLASHBACK WHERE THE INCEPTION AT Y'ALL

The roar of gunfire is deafening within the confined spaces of the over-produced coffee franchise store in the heartland of America, where eagles fly and freedom soars on their wings. But this day, freedom and America and coffee are under attack by gangsters in expensive suits with expensive guns! It is behind the counter, beneath a shattered cash register that Ibis Douglas and Heero Yuy crouch, back-to-back with pistols held high as bullets rip through the walls and glass jar full of donut sprinkles explodes like a grenade full of sugary confetti.

"Ibis." says Heero Yuy in a perfect monotone, turning his head to regard the A-LAWS hero. His hair is full of pink and green sprinkles, and is probably delicious. A Triad ganster yells something in perfect SNK Engrish and lobs a grenade behind the counter, but before it can explode, Ibis nods once grimly towards the terrorist she finds herself bunkered in with, and the two leap over the counter with guns blazing as the picture freeze-frames and fades to grey.

BACK TO THE PRESENT

So many memories shattered.

So much coffee, gone. Scattered to the winds and the snow. Like tears in rain. Wait, that's nothing like tears or rain at all.

The Astelion's pilot snaps out of her daydream, which was kind of selfish and strange anyway because it's not like she actually got punched or anything, and that mysterious bit of Alraune kung-fu only caught the Astelion on the very tip of the jaw despite having a full ultra meter! "What a punch." grimaces Ibis into her radio because she is dumb and forgot to turn it off. "I guess it's time to get /serious/! Thank god for Koji Kabuto." she nods to herself and pulls the trigger on her flight stick as though it took a lot of effort and represented something really heavy.

The Astelion itself sits up and its chest flips open, revealing a pair of oversized miniguns that spin up with an obnoxious whine. Ibis grabs ahold of a nearby barber pole and hefts herself back up to her feet on it, steadying herself on red white and blue. You know why that works? Because AMERICA.

"Koji, get clear!" she yells and opens fire, a steady stream of armor-penetrating rounds buzzing after the Alraune and believe me you do not want the chip damage from trying to block that shit, it is dumb.

Yatagarasu reels as so many enemies converge upon it. The Amazon Gundam, fists flying. Sinya's guyemelf with its knight blade. Strayed's NEXT, with its combat knife. Floating backwards from the assault, Seril winces and flinches in the cockpit as chunks and chips of Yatagarasu's stone form are knocked away, raining down on Calcutta's streets. It seems the machine bleeds - Its blood is a nasty, glowing red that sears pavement where it falls. The machine draws its arms in, then thrusts them outward, generating a ring of stars around itself that spirals upward, "I SAID STAY AWAY!"

Using the reprieve that grants her, Seril ducks under the gathering of melee attackers, battered by energy waves from Raideen. The temperature begins to lower rapidly, but with the extreme heat generated by Yatagarasu, there isn't even a chance for thermal shock to crack its armored plates. Wheeling about, the sinister godmachine rears its cannon-encased arm back, pouring energy through it. But, before this can be thrust down in some kind of counterattack, a shot the Starhawk's railgun knocks it off balance.

Rather than thrust the gathered power into the ground beneath it, Yatagarasu whirls on the Starhawk, firing its gathered power at the machine. The concussion from its bomb shoves Yatagarasu's aim off, though, and the star goes wide before it dissipates.

Within the machine, Seril growls, her teeth grinding slowly. She pauses, then slowly reaches up, touching her mouth, running a finger along her teeth, "That's funny... When did..." She shakes her head, returning her attention to the battle at hand, "I'll worry about that later."

The biomechanical monstrosity, Yatagarasu, raises its arm cannon overhead, pouring more power into the rod-like weapon. A dull roar eminates from it, rattling windows in the city below as the machine builds up its power. Lowering the cannon, it draws its limbs in and emits a booming alarm that echoes throughout the damaged city. A second later, the machine explodes. More accurately, the Yatagarasu becomes engulfed by a large sphere of boiling plasma - A star, easily twice as wide as the machine itself is tall. This star spins rapidly, drawing itself out into a disc and then hurling matter off in all directions. In midair, the globules ball up, forming smaller stars.

"This ends NOW!" Immediately after saying that, her voice changes. It becomes overlayed with the booming voice of the god imprisoned within the machine she pilots, "*BURN* YOU MISERABLE WRETCHES!!"

"To all trailers, move away..." The words seem to surprise Sinya enough to make her jump a little, her tail puffing up instinctively and her back arching. Her head moves subtlely, as if she were about to go in search of the sound, but then one ear lifts. Even if she hasn't known the captain long, she has picked up on his crew's tendency to listen when he says something in battle. When her attack fails, Sinya grips both controls and pulls backwards, sending the guymelef away from the god machine. "Let's see what we can do to give them a hand..." She flicks a few of the keys on the control pannel, causing a burst of light from the main energist crystal which seems to momentarily interact with the SuiKyosha's outer hull. Just what it did, is anyone's guess.

What happens next, even for someone who grew up in La Gias, is enough to have Sinya jaw-dropping. The 'magic' of her own world is nothing compared to the powers of the elemental ship. Her breath hangs in the air for a moment, as the chill is enough to cause goosebumps to rise on her skin. Perhaps it is in response to something otherworldly going on, but the guymelef's own energists seem to glow a bit brighter, as if feeding off of the energy.

When the guymelef begins to move again, there are areas of his armor that seem frosted over. Still, perhaps that would be good against an enemy that seems to have the ability to create massive heat. Did we mention the massive heat? Because that's exactly what happens when it seems like the Crusader ship turns into the heart of a very, very angry star. "Sh--." Sinya bites down on the curse, throwing herself into the very physical act of getting her guymelef out of the way to avoid being drawn into the ball of plasma.

Skidding backwards, the guymelef's feet dig into the ground. "Damage? No. Systems stable." There is a sound of relief in her voice as she bobs her head once, the unit doing the same to match her movements. "Okay, let's try something else." Her fingers twitch a combination of keys, re-routing power from the main energists and focusing it instead into the chestpiece. From there, a series of blue beams of light shoot out from the guymelef's chest, arcing them across the area where the Yatagarasu was, and a new star seems to be forming now. At the very least, she isn't drawing any closer to it - not about to risk her machine getting turned into a melted pile of scrap... again.

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Xiang Yuan transmits, "To all trailer units. You are welcome to use the SuiKyosha as a barrier between you and the enemy!"

Lunata's tranquil contemplation of her unnatural opponent is shattered when the fury of the fiery god Yatagarasu converges down upon her. The star matter hurling against her is dodged, the very end of the world seeming to come to life with its power...

...but no matter, for Lunata has a job and she isn't done yet. She looks towards the friendly IFFs that are around -- Koji, Ibis. She does not yet know their names.

> "This is Lunata. I am going to assist in stopping the city threat."

Lunata 'looks' upwards -- the battered, damaged Judgement Gundam looking up in tandem. Unlike Lethe before her, she can sense this opponent... and what a feeling it is. She can't help but grimace slowly, but also be overjoyed at the chance and opportunity to interact with... /something/.

"You have caused enough destruction today, defiler of lands," she proclaims as she straightens her body, arms spread to either side as she summons her inner chi. Focus and faith meld into one as she utters a holy prayer.

The prayer is key to accessing some of the Judgement Gundam's most powerful moves, and sure enough, what wasn't broken off by the Flickerist hatches open, shimmering streams of beam energy starting to flood and bask the Gundam Fighter in an aura of ephemeral power.

"The power of the Lord compels you!" Lunata announces with stern admonishment, the entirety of the Judgement Gundam's beam output shot outwards as she does so.

What can be seen is a Cross-shaped beam firing from down below towards the Yatagarasu, afterimages of a certain bearded Son of God trailing behind it as he fuckin' bodies the sinister godmachine on his cross.

The Kojima Blade connected, however for the NEXT's trouble it was slammed shortly back; Which was about the time that Nell warned him what was said. Thankfully the Primal Armor shielding ate most of the fire, which whipped around the field as the Kojima particles interacted with the heat, sending it rushing around and not even really touching the armor. However the force itself send the NEXT back toward the ground and with a flip of its body it landed down on its feet; Sliding back a few feet before the Kojima Blade seem to 'retract' back in, though it was more like it was shut down one cylinder at a time at a very quick succession.

Then suddenly.. It started to snow and got really cold. The snow flakes also interacted with the Kojima field, causing it to glow faintly. Steam could be seen rising from the NEXT, as where it stood the ground slightly melted thanks to the field itself. One staring past the aqua green field could see the NEXT itself looked a bit like a blurry image thanks to the heat within the field. <<"Your something else!">> the NEXT stated to the divine crusader.

<<"Nell,">> The man's voice said calmly, <<"Tell Yu I'm impressed.. and ask her if she ever been ice skating.">> Wait-what?

Strayed then spun the Assault rifle casually before it then looked elsewhere. For a moment the NEXT was on the move again, before suddenly floating up high in the air. Then aiming to the side of its body; It started to try to lock the sights on the head of the god machine. There was just a moment it floated there, as its internal systems started to scan quickly for any weakness, before it then opened fire.

Staren smiles at the effectiveness of his bombs, he is _so_ glad he started using those... And then, SUNS. WHAT. How does that even WORK he is going to be reviewing the battle info later. The Star Hawk takes hits, but it's tough although covered with scorch marks and some bits of slag. "Alright, enough of this! You're not burning this city! HYAAAA!" The Star Hawk leaps into the air and then with a burst of thrusters is up in the Yatagarasu's face, and unloads, attacking with the hybrid swords (metal armblades with beam edges) and firing the beam shotgun and railgun at point-blank!

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Nell Aulter transmits, "Yu-- R states that he is impressed by the snow show."

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Nell Aulter transmits, "..."

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Yu Zhi Wu transmits, "This is not even close to her full abilities. She's just feeling hesitant around the God of the Sun."

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Nell Aulter transmits, "And he wants to know if you can.. Ice-skate?"

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Nell Aulter transmits, "..Does he ever take his job seriously?"

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Yu Zhi Wu transmits, "Hrrm... we have an ice-rink on the fourth floor."

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Wildcat cackles. "Nope!"

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Yu Zhi Wu transmits, "He'll just have to come on board and see if I can ice-skate."

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Edward Fawkes transmits, "*transmits sounds of falling debris, lots of it* I'M GONNA RIP YOUR ARM OFF AND BEAT YOU WITH IT FOR THAT!"

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Xiang Yuan transmits, "Mister Fawkes - to lose to one's anger, is to forfeit one's life."

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Jiron Amos has conveniently forgotten how to work a radio.

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Edward Fawkes transmits, "Having a building coming down on your head does not favor an even temper."

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Nell Aulter transmits, "I can imagine that be painful." pause, "..he really needs to focus. How could he have /missed/ that."

"Sir, they are still moving just fine. I don't think it's having any effect." Yu reports to Xiang, who is casually looking up at the screen. He doesn't seem too worried it isn't have an effect. He just wanted the god of the Sun to concentrate on him. But when it rears that gigantic rod up and 'explodes' into the form of a star, the ship quickly sends a gigantic gulf of cold towards it - catching the heat in the midst and releasing a gigantic plume of steam between the two that's enough to rip some trees which had not burned to ashes yet into nothingness.

"Ready the tubes." Xiang sits back down on his seat and looks up at. "Let's put out that fire." Yu adds and calls out through a small seashell. "Prepare to increase the barrage! Prepare the ice-missiles!" The ship begins to pull around and lowers towards the ground, so that it can give cover to some of the trailer units. And then, from all sides, holes open into the ship for a short moment and stars of ice suddenly come flying from all directions out of the ship - launching and moving straight for the Yatagarasu - crashing around it and sending a gulf of ice-dust into the entire area. "Continue to launch all missiles!" Yu Zhi Wu calls out.

The ice upon the rivers cracks and begins to break again, shuddering under the force the God Elemental ship is putting onto their bodies, and finally the whirlpools turn into gigantic typhoons that lurch and bend unnaturally to connect to the SuiKyosha and form a gigantic yet thin barrier of water in front of Sinya's unit that was somehow managing to reduce the effects of the heat on her machine.

The snow continues to fall, and with the SuiKyosha again connected to the rivers, the barrage of magical ice-missiles just continues on flying at Seril's solar mech.

Macua Huitl is in close combt with the other machine and she's not letting up she's not letting up at all. She keeps tabs on her allies and also on the machine something doesn't feel right about it. She doesn't like this machine if it could be called and Macua actually isn't trying to run she's trying to stay up close even as the others keep attacking she feels the ring of fire and plasma. She presses her machine forward it hurts the machine is heating up.

"You fight like this for what with such a machine? I have seen this planet and it's people suffer enough because of careless fools."

Worse in the back of her mind is this thing lose in the controlled enviorment of a colony would be a thing of nightmares it might turn an entire colony into an oven and cook everything alive.

"So your nothing more than a rampaging beast, fine I'll put you down like the rabid dog you are!"

She lets out a war cry and it starts into kicking, just rapid kicking over and over again with one final high powered one but it may very well leave her open, very open.

ELSEWHERE

"KO!" the TV exclaims.

"Okay, that--that's ten, right?" Darcy squints at the screen; her side reads '0 Wins, 10 Losses' and the little graph beneath the records indicates that she was the lowest possible rank in every possible facet of playing the game. "Can I just--I'm gonna--"

Without actually waiting for permission, Darcy hops to her feet and begins to sprint for the stairs, only to be stopped by her cousin's loud throat-clearing.

"What," Abigail wonders with a faint smirk, "some boy, or something? 'Homework'--right."

"U--uh--" Darcy swallows and looks down at her phone just as Mazinger Z's big, blue fist smashes into Alraune's nose.

"--something--something like that," she mumbles.

"Hah! I knew it! Listen, Darce, it's /okay/--I'm not that much older than you! I remember what it was /like/ at your age--hell, I was on the pill Sophomore year!"

"U--uh-huh..." Darcy numbly murmurs as she edges fearfully towards the stairs.

HINDUSTANIA

Just as Alraune manages to draw itself away from Mazinger Z - with a hole in its facial armour that puts its pale, scarred and freshly broken nose on display - Star Hawk's bomb lands amidst its petals.

And then it /explodes/, sending the Machine Beast flying on a high, distant arc that doesn't quit until the floral fiend has crashed through an IT call center.

Thankfully for the monster, this places it /well/ out of the way of Astelion's armour piercing bullets.

ELSEWHERE

"... gotta just /get in there/ and /go for it/, y'know?" Abby instructs her cousin, closing her hands tightly around the air before herself.

Darcy is too mortified to even say or do anything but stand there staring gape-mouthed at her cousin. Of course, somewhere in the back of her psyche, she can't help but think of Koji, a little.

SOME TIME AGO A COUPLE OF SECONDS AFTER THAT FIRST FLASHBACK

"G--g--get--" Darcy finally manages to stammer to the spiky-haired bosozoku before herself; given a little while longer, she'd probably manage a full sentence, but the unexpected chime of a delivery bell from a ways Koji startles her.

"Comin' through! Dead frogs, dead frogs, comin' through!" a jumpsuited man exclaims as he furiously pedals through Jindai's halls. "Ol' Mach's got a delivery for the bio--" The man skids to a stop just beside Koji; he is shocked, because there's no logical explanation for the door to a girl's locker room to be hanging open like this in the middle of a school day, and after initially trying to /find/ one, he remembers his manners and uses his clipboard to cover his eyes.

The damage is done, though, in its way; with the wholly unexpected appearance of Mach Herman, Deliveryman Extraordinaire - not to mention the thoroughly confused teachers bunching behind Koji and Mach - other girls, similarly startled, jump, and flee, and shriek.

Towels fall as they scurry for safety.

With an ear to ear grin, Koji pumps a fist in the air and exclaims, "YATTA!"

ELSEWHERE NOW

Between the events then and the Abigail's story time now, Darcy cannot help but want to keep herself as far from Koji Kabuto as humanly possible for a while.

HINDUSTANIA

The half a dozen mechanical bees break sharply from what had been a simple roving pattern above the fight, cerulean lights glittering beneath their wings. Within seconds, they're alighting on Mazinger Z, crawling across its body in search of gaps in its Super Alloy Z armour.

If any are found, that's where their stingers will go.

The Bassanigon is showered in the godlike power of the Yatagarasu. The nerve sensors burn through Kamina. The armor of the Gunman blackens from the intense heat of the attack. the Bassanigon puts away the Rail Gun, taking out both Chainsword and coming toward the Godlike robot with a running start. "SHUT UP YOUR FACE CHAINSWORD BUSTA!!!!!!!!!!"

Akira shuts off the God Alpha just in time to bring up Raideen's shield, blocking the worst of the plasma. But he's not done yet, not by a long shot. Dodging to the side to avoid a few more miniature stars, he starts flying away from the Yatagarasu. "Raideen, we need to end this now. The city has already taken heavy damage, but maybe we can still save what's left..." Akira says to the guardian statue, which doesn't answer. Suddenly, Raideen shoots up into the air, flying straight up for several hundred meters. In the span of about two seconds, its form shifts into that of an ornate eagle, beak pointed toward the sky, the sunlight gleaming on the tip as it comes to a halt. And then it turns back toward the ground, and more specifically, the Yatagarasu, the sharp beak of the God Bird aimed straight at its midsection. A pair of beams shoot from its eyes, locking onto the target and guiding Raideen along as it flies at the demon at top speed. Halfway down, it breaks the sound barrier. "GOD BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRD!!" Akira shouts the whole way down, as Raideen's body bursts into flame, fuelled by the fire of his rage."

The stellar disc continues to spin, assaulted by the barrage of water and ice from SuiKyosha until the reaction that keeps the star alive suddenly collapses from the onslaught. While it managed to cancel out the attack, the Yatagarasu continues to hover there, steaming with the extreme heat its body is generating. Inside, Seril pants heavily from the exertion, the tax it's putting on her own body. Beams, suddenly, from two directions at once catch her off guard. As she tries to figure a way to evade at least one of them, the delay is enough that both strike the hovering machine one after the other.

The spin this throws Yatagarasu into is enough to make its trajectory completely unpredictable, and R's shot goes unintentionally wide. Inside, Seril's eyes are tearing up, staining the fluid she floats in. With a shout, she pulls back, away from the swirling chainsword Kamina waves in her direction, only to leave herself completely open to the Amazon Gundam's assault. She cries out, which becomes a shriek of pain when the Raideen slams into Yatagarasu.

"I..!" Seril chokes out, "I-i.. I can't take it anymore..!"

-Fight.--Win.--Destroy them all.-

"No!" Seril shouts at the furious voice in her mind, "It's too much..! It hurts too much..!"

The god within the machine roars with impotent fury as the Yatagarasu straightens out, spreading its wings and shooting up into the sky. As it ascends, it starts to arc over in a lazy spiral, either headed for one of the orbital stations or perhaps ICBMing itself to a planetary base.

Inside, Seril buries her face in her hands, her shoulders shaking, "I'm sorry.. I'm sorry.. I wasn't strong enough to do what you asked.."

-Then you will become stronger.--My Divine Flame.-

Stepping backwards, Sinya's eyes go wide as a wall of water appears in front of her. At the very least, she is thankful for the support of the SuiKyosha. The heat shielding didn't seem to be working properly on Arius at the moment, and that was making things in the control chamber a bit uncomfortable with the sudden changes of temperature. She growls to herself, irritated at this additional side-effect to her cracked energist.

However, the wall of water does offer one very potent distraction to the cat-girl, as little fish-cicles start falling around her unit. The temptation... it's too much. The helmet of Arius pops open, and the catgirl's head and one arm slip out, snagging a frozen fish out of the air before disappearing back inside the mech. Score! It's dinner and an action-adventure show. Cracking the seals on her helmet, she pulls the visor up, shoving the fish into her mouth, where it flops once or twice, causing Arius's head to bob.

As the Crusader retreats, Arius swings his staff across the water, sending one last wave behind it. Ineffective, but... at least it's a parting shot.

"God damn it! Watch out, Koji, bees!" yells Ibis Douglas ever so helpfully down the communications line as the Astelion puts one foot in front of the other and takes a few tentative steps away from the crushed coffee house. She takes only a moment to scowl disapprovingly and cranks the heater. This, as previously stated, is bullshit.

The minigun fire stops, the barrels spinning to a halt as the hailstorm of lead goes wide and ploughs through a carpark as the Alraune sails cleanly out of the way. An ice-cream van is sheared in half by the errant fire, tinnily playing 'Last Resort' as chocolate mint lifeblood seeps into the pavement. A shadow passes overhead as the Astelion's tesla drives pulse once, lightly, throwing it over the carpark towards the elusive Street Fighting plant monster.

But it goes too fast, and too far, because you're not supposed to engage flight systems while on the ground Jesus how stupid are you Ibis come the hell on. The Astelion sails right over the top and smashes into a gigantic advertisement for Space Nikes (they'll make you sweet at sports) feet first. The billboard creaks momentarily before splitting at the hinges and coming free, and there's a moment where time seems to freeze as the Astelion precariously balances on the flying sheet of metal while upside-down and looses an enormous storm of missiles at the bees being jackasses at fellow Hero of Everything, Koji Kabuto.

The missiles are not in fact filled with bee repellant, but holy shit that would be sweet if they were.

As the god machine takes its leave. The NEXT then quickly speeds toward Sinya and Xiang's vessel. The Primal Armor vanishing around it so when he does get close it wont cause anyone harm. He looks at the two. That Aqua green glow in the center of the optic moves to one side to look at Sinya, before it whirls to the other side slightly to look at the vessel.

It then moves to try and locate, along with the NEXT itself stepping slightly to the side to try and locate Raideen, <<"Just what was that thing anyhow? Some new toy of the Divine Crusaders?">> He hrms softly, <<"They sure are getting a ton of them lately it seems.">>

James is totally innocent this time on this one. He really is.

After slamming into the Yatagarasu at the speed of sound, Raideen backs away and transforms into its humanoid shape again, already reaching for another arrow. Unfortunately, the demon is already running away. Akira fires the arrow anyway, but it fails to fly far or fast enough to land a hit. "DAMN YOU! COME BACK HERE, YOU COWARD! FACE JUDGMENT LIKE A MAN!" he screams as loudly as his lungs will allow, but suddenly the strain from the battle catches up to him, and he ends up having a coughing fit. When it ends, he opens his eyes and...is that his blood splattered on the console? "F...fu...ck..." he says, just before passing out.

As the god machine takes its leave. The NEXT then quickly speeds toward Sinya and Xiang's vessel. The Primal Armor vanishing around it so when he does get close it wont cause anyone harm. He looks at the two. That Aqua green glow in the center of the optic moves to one side to look at Sinya, before it whirls to the other side slightly to look at the vessel.

It then moves along with the NEXT itself stepping slightly to the side to attempt at locating Raideen, <<"Just what was that thing anyhow? Some new toy of the Divine Crusaders?">> He hrms softly, <<"They sure are getting a ton of them lately it seems.">>

Strayed then takes a few steps back, to try to locate where the machine was going, however it was impossible to track as it-- just sorta vanished from sight. <<"Nell. You get anything on it?">>

"All I got when Strayed did the scans, was that its-- pretty fast. I mean, nothing really usable however."

<<"Save that information for me. I'll take a look at it once we get back.">>

"Understood."

Strayed then looked back at the Arius and then the SuiKyosha. <<"You two are ok, right?">>

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Lunata Croze transmits, "Macua. Are you alive?"

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Macua Huitl transmits, "I am...."

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Macua Huitl transmits, "My machine is super heated at the moment... though."

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Astrid Stalvern transmits, "Took a hit in the coolant pump? I hate when that happens."

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Lunata Croze transmits, "Good. I will be assisting relief efforts as soon as they arrive."

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Staren Wiremu transmits, "What _were_ those things it was throwing?"

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Macua Huitl transmits, "No, I was fighting something using plasma... and holy shit there goes Koji!"

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Macua Huitl transmits, "As I was saying there goes the Machine beast. My machine is super heated from the weapons of the attacking thing. I'm not sure what it is. My machine it self is over heated."

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Staren Wiremu transmits, "Uhh... go jump in a lake? There was all that water a moment ago..."

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Macua Huitl transmits, "On the other hand the rain, might help. I'm in the middle of a /city/"

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Staren Wiremu transmits, "Man..."

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Staren Wiremu transmits, "Bastards, making us fight here..."

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Lunata Croze transmits, "It is a rather deplorable action."

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Macua Huitl transmits, "It is, another terror weapon."

Mazinger Z hits the ground. Its crown turns, glancing over its shoulder as Ibis brings her Astelion's weapon up to bare.

"Oh shit!"

Stomp, stomp, stomp! The thunderclaps that serve as Mazinger Z's footfalls are easily heard as the Steel Guard makes a mad dash for some distance. Bees surround the sterling knight, trying as they might to seek the weak points in the chogokin-fortified construction of Juuzo Kabuto's design. Its arms are flailing wildly.

"I gotta get these fuckin' bees offa me!!" Koji panicks.

But there..! Up above!

Something shines in the wintry horizon. A point of crimson light that grows bigger and bigger with each passing second. Several systems aboard the Pilder light up! Koji's eyes widen with realization. It's..

"JETTO SCRANDAAAAH!"

Mazinger Z charges after the oncoming jet-weapon, its cloud of bees in tow. The ground trembles beneath the mighty robot, a few cars haphazardly flattened. Thank god they're empty!

"It's time.. to combine!!"

Mazinger Z leaps into the sky...!

..and the Jet Scrander descends behind it, slowing down as it slides over its back.

"SCRANDAAAAH CROOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSUU!!"

Chrome bands slide around Mazinger's waist. From behind, power linkages connect in. Conduits fill with Photonic Power!

Loading Scrander.dll... Loaded! Flight mode engaged!

Mazinger Z takes to the skies, its arms raised above its head in a powerful flex. Energy surges across its marvelous construction, coalescing up to its crimson heat-sinks upon its chest.

"This power..!!" Koji sputters, his eyes alight with the same fantastic yellow light as his Mazinger's own! "I will use it... TO PROTECT THIS WORLD!!"

Overhead, the skies darken with the gathering of clouds. A flash of lightning! The rumble of thunder! From up on Olympos, the golden-gleaming Father of the Gods turns his head toward the mortal world below. Upon his stern face, a slow smile edges across his pale lips. Silently, Mighty Zeus lends his consent,

Go forth, my son! Bring order onto this world!

Hands possessed by Divine Will reach for the controls. A panel slides back, revealing an auspicious lever. Koji's fingers wrap around it. One by one, with tremendous strength, Koji amplifies the power! "Nnngh..!!" The settings climb with each strained grunt...!

The red fins atop Mazinger Z's chest begin to glow! Each heat-depleting cell within lights up, one-by-on. The massive thermal output of the Armor of Miracles is channeled into these heat sinks, which radiate with such intensity that it dares challenge the sudden wintry climate!

The lever climbs to an incredible power output: 11!!

Mazinger Z rears its arms back, pressing its chest out as it hovers above Alraune V8.

"UWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!" Koji screams!

EARLIER

"Soo.. umm.." Koji glances to the ground slightly. He digs the toe of his shoe in the ground. "Y-y'wanna be my study partner?" he glances up to Darcy Weyland, eyebrows raised with hope -- and perhaps -- a touch of fear of rejection.

HERE

"BEGONE FROM THIS WORLD, MONSTER!!"

Koji slaps his hand down on the button.

"BURESTOOOOOOOOOOO..."

The output from Mazinger's heatsinks goes critical.

"FIYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!"

And from it, an incredible beam of intense heat blasts forth, melting anything that dares stand in its searing path!

At first, Sinya can't answer the transmission from Strayed, her mouth being a bit full with one very anxious flopping fish. She plucks it out, holding it by the tail as she clears her throught. "All good, here, barely scuffed the armor. Going to head back promptly and see if I can't get a crew out to help with the damages to the city, though." She sniffles a little, which probably isn't a good thing. Going from hot to cold to hot again is bound to bring on a cold! Oh no. Well, at least there's fish. Putting the fish back into her mouth, Sinya launches Arius into the air, shifting him into flight mode as she does one circle of the battle area, surveying the damage. Then, having managed to survive yet another combat, and gotten fish for her troubles, she throws Arius's thrusters into full, the guymelef speeding off back towards the Raven's Nest.

"Did she just?" Yu is looking at the mainscreen that was viewing the Arius. Even Xiang can't help but let a little smile on his face. Whilst most of his crew doesn't catch it - his XO does. It kind of scares her, but at the same time causes her to show a smile on her face too. Somehow, she suddenly felt better about herself. The captain had that kind of effect on her.

Xiang then stands up and wanders straight towards the communication officer and takes the microphone from him.

<<"To all of those present. We are expecting a sudden rain. To those who need repairs, the SuiKyosha is a free ship. You can expect warm food as a thanks for your assistance in protecting Calcutta." (pause) "Also, we have fish.">>

The man knew how to keep people happy. Yu gives her Captain a confused look. "Sir?" She asks. The man just nods at her. And the woman quickly begins making preperations. The SuiKyosha lowers itself towards the ground and opens its gigantic hangar bay up at the bottom-back of the ship by releasing a huge spiralling metalic 'ramp' which leads up from the ground. The hangar was quickly filling with techs, making sure none of the Gunmen were in the way.

At the same time, women and men that were capable of cooking put the heat under their pans and begin to prepare food for the warriors that may accept Xiang Yuan's offer to feast on board of SuiKyosha. At the same time, the clouds that had previously been snowing, now let a gentle rain splash onto the surroundings, ensuring that burning buildings were quickly put out. The temperature in the area rapidly goes back to a more normal one as well - and those with overheating problems on their machines might find their equipment to be settling properly again.

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Staren Wiremu transmits, "So, you're the Holy Gundam Pilot?"

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Macua Huitl transmits, "Staren if you get started I will do my impression of the Spanish inquistion upon you."

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Staren Wiremu transmits, "I wasn't going to argue her out of believing or anything."

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Lunata Croze transmits, "I wield the Judgement Gundam, yes."

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Staren Wiremu transmits, "It just seems... strange, having a holy gundam. A weapon of advanced science, blessed by the pope or whatever."

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Staren Wiremu transmits, "But I guess it just shows you keep up with the times."

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Lunata Croze transmits, "Once, iron swords and plate armour were advanced, back in the Crusades."

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Staren Wiremu transmits, "She brought up religious war not me, don't hit me!"

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Staren Wiremu transmits, "I wasn't going to mention the Crusades, honest!"

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Macua Huitl transmits, "It's too bad the Iron Knights means of construction were lost, I seen sketches of them....."

<Radio: E - Global> Koji Kabuto transmits, "Wh--what happened to Akira..??"

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Lunata Croze transmits, "Faith is merely the guiding principle that lets us use our knowledge for better purposes, Staren."

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Lunata Croze transmits, "There is no reason that science must be taboo."

<Radio: E - Global> Saiga Junki transmits, "Eh?"

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Staren Wiremu transmits, "Ethics and morality are the guide, you mean. Religion _is_ one potential source of them but not the only one."

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Macua Huitl transmits, "I recall something about an earily flight experiment being done by a monk. Though he broke his legs."

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Macua Huitl transmits, "In the process"

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Staren Wiremu transmits, "Well, let's see if you can clear up the anti-tech religious stereotype: Would you consider what the Coordinators are doing to be playing God, messing with His perfect design? Or is it the natural evolution, that God's greatest creation would be capable of even self-improvement?"

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Oliver Evlien transmits, "This strikes me as a sensitive question..."

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Staren Wiremu shrugs, "It gets to the heart of the issue brought to hand."

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Astrid Stalvern transmits, "Tch..."

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Staren Wiremu transmits, "It's not like I'm gonna go attack her if she disagrees with me."

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Macua Huitl transmits, "The technology doesn't have a butcher bill like cybernewtypes do. Of the dead and people who are utterly mentally broken."

SOME TIME AGO

The hallway in front of Jindai's girl's locker room is a hell of high-pitched shrieks and teachers charging in to quell the situ--

NO, NOT THAT FLASHBACK, THE ONE AFTER IT

"... drop down my balls! 'till the sweat drop down my balls!" Baron Ashura croons as zie shakes hir robed booty all over Bardos Island's laboratory. Headphone wires disappear into the robe's neck hole. "Awwwwwwwwww, skeet skeet skeet skeet!"

Like five feet away, Darcy pours a vial of acid right onto the floor; the beaker filled with luminescent purple liquid it was meant to be added to swishes in her other hand.

"Awwwwww, skeet skeet goddamn! To the windows--"

NOT THAT ONE EITHER IT'S BEFORE THAT BUT AFTER THE FIRST THING

"W--well--" Darcy murmurs as the rest of the homeroom class filters out; her eyes are pretty much /glued/ to the ground, and despite Koji's glances her arms have instinctually folded up tight.

"Sure." A beat passes; a small smile crosses her lips.

"That'd be okay."

HINDUSTANIA NOW

In a terrible red flash, a mile-long trench has gutted Calcutta; at its end, there is a smoking crater.

At the bottom of that crater, Alraune V8 - or, rather, a charred, cracked, smoldering mockery of Alraune V8 - frantically digs through the earth to escape. It only has one arm, and its one hand only has like three fingers left; it still digs. Fire /never/ bodes well for Alraune V8.

More than anything, fire's always come the closest to /killling/ Alraune V8.

Within seconds, it's gone with little more than a high-pitched wail of horror and the sound of dirt and rock shifting against itself.

ELSEWHERE

"--special shampoo, and believe me, that's a /bitch/; you gotta make sure you're not doin' it anywhere dirty, or if you are, it'd better be wor--hey--Darce? Darcy--ah--well, just as well, I guess." Abigail flops back onto the couch, satisfied that she's performed her duties as surrogate guardian figure.

Darcy, meanwhile, just sprints up to her room as fast as her legs will take her; all the while, she's apologizing profusely to herself and frantically mashing the pound key to summon search and rescue Machine Beasts to bear Alraune V8 back to Bardos Island.

"Please, please, /please/ be okay, Alraune," she whispers as she crosses the threshold to her bedroom.

"Please--please forgive me, Koji..."

The door slams shut.

Macua Huitl is doing a lot of damage but the thing, she keeps after them she's flat out intending to put an end to this machine at the very least. She's moving intending to contionue her assault and then she pauses as the machine launches off into space and feels something else strange. What the heck was that thing, the earlier snow hadn't done much for her, but the rain, now that does a lot more the slightly glowing machine starts to let off steam, a lot of steam a whole lot of steam, she waits there to cool and talking on the thing.

<Radio: C - None> Saiga Junki transmits, "What is wrong with Hibiki?"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Lethe Rusina transmits, "Confirmed return to base. Mission complete."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "Welcome home."

<Radio: E - Global> Koji Kabuto transmits, "Wh- I think I lost him!"

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Staren Wiremu transmits, "Cryptic, but I guess your answer to the question is that such science is not the enemy of god unless used immorrally, then."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Lethe Rusina pointed silence before a monotone, "Yes."

<Radio: E - Global> Saiga Junki transmits, "Hibiki? How-- what--"

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Lunata Croze transmits, "We of the Neo Vatican have come a very long way from our ancestors' days."

Mazinger Z gently lowers to the ground, its heat-sinks beginning to power down. Thick, black smoke billows up from its fans. "I hope Akira's okay.." Koji frowns as he glances around, unable to locate Raideen the Brave.

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Lunata Croze transmits, "No tenets of spacehood or Newtypes or Psychodrivers exist within the religious texts. It is up to us, as our ancestors did, to discover what we can hold in faith as morally sound."

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Staren Wiremu transmits, "I'm glad to see that."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Seril Vaskell babbles between pained sobs, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry.."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "Hey... are you okay?"

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Oliver Evlien transmits, "That's a good viewpoint, Ms. Lunata!"

Ibis Douglas rips her helmet off and massages her ears with a wince, her world still an echo of explosions, coffee, memories and dudes yelling about firey breasts. "Gaaah, I think I'm going deaf..." she mutters to herself, and sets the Astelion down right in the middle of the icecream-filled carpark now that there are not swarms of robot bees and vines trying to defile and/or kill everyone. Just another day on the beat.

Somewhere back at HQ, a certain terribly-moustached A-LAWS officer crosses his arms gruffly after adjusting the brim of his cap. "You're a loose cannon, Douglas." he rumbles to himself. "But, by God, you get the job done."

One of the operators sitting behind him rolls his eyes, again, and makes a jerking-off motion with one hand.

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Lunata Croze transmits, "Ours is an open colony. In Space, there are not many centres of spiritual faith. Thus, we welcome practitioners of many paths, believing that the collective sum of our faith makes us stronger."

Ibis Douglas rips her helmet off and massages her ears with a wince, her world still an echo of explosions, coffee, memories and dudes yelling about firey breasts. "Gaaah, I think I'm going deaf..." she mutters to herself, and sets the Astelion down right in the middle of the icecream-filled carpark now that there are not swarms of robot bees and vines trying to defile and/or kill everyone. Just another day on the beat.

Somewhere back at HQ, a certain terribly-moustached A-LAWS officer crosses his arms gruffly after adjusting the brim of his cap. "You're a loose cannon, Douglas." he rumbles to himself. "But, by God, you get the job done."

One of the operators sitting behind him rolls his eyes, again, and makes a jerking-off motion with one hand.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Seril Vaskell transmits, "I wasn't strong enough... I...I'll be okay. Once I get out and...and let it heal."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "You'll be fine - stopping by the Earth Cradle by any chance?"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Seril Vaskell transmits, "I guess.. It's the closest safe place to here. ...Where it sent me."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "Give me a bit. I'm overseeing the repairs to Amenthes. But I know just the thing you need."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Lethe Rusina transmits, "Pilot stress levels suggest rest and recuperation will be required."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "You're welcome to join too, miss Rusina. But I know something much that will assist the rest and recuperation."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Lethe Rusina transmits, "Roger."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> R transmits, "Hrm."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Ernula transmits, "Myu?" "What's up?"

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Yu Zhi Wu also goes 'hrm'. "Fish or steak...?"

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> R transmits, "Swear the Divine Crusaders keep pulling out odder things." pause, "Steak."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Edward Fawkes transmits, "Wha happened this time?"

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Yu Zhi Wu transmits, "Fish it is."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> R laughs.