2011-01-21 - Kennedy Redux

PARADIGM MEMORIAL SPACEPORT & INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT PARADIGM CITY 06:30 PM - Local Time

Welcome to Paradigm City - A Nice Place To Live!!

A black SUV rolls its tinted passenger side window down a scosh and a man with sunglasses peers through a crowd of people loading and unloading in the whitezone. He raises a chunky walkie-talkie up to the side of his face and with the press of the transmit button, a burst of static comes through. "This is Little Wing, in position."

In the distance, several semis roll onto the tarmac. Each semi has trailers attached, all of which have 'BOB'S KEBABS - YOU'LL GO AGOG FOR BOB'S KEBABS, WE DELIVER!!' emblazoned across their length. Similarly, one of the passenger's side windows rolls down and an individual glances curiously through their sunglasses. Another burst of static and the ineveitable report, "Hey Joe, in position."

Additional reports roll in, each one from a different point across the bustling spaceport. A man with a deliciously well-kept blonde space-pompadour glances over his shoulder to a pair of men standing behind him. "Crosstown Traffic, The Wind Cries Mary, and Stone Free also report in, sirs."

"Looks like we're go." Admiral Bright mentions as he fiddles with his collar. He reaches out to his colleague, a short stocky man in a bomber jacket. "Thanks for everything, old friend."

Director Hayato smiles as he nods softly. He clasps Bright's hand and gives it a shake, "Make planetfall a bit more often, willya? Frau always looks forward to dinners with the Noas. Karaba'll provide support just in case anything should happen, but we're expecting everything to go pretty smoothly anyhow."

"Hmn," Bright's head bobs in acknowledgement. He takes a moment to suck in a breath, letting his lungs fill to capacity with Earth air. It might be a long time before he'll breathe it again. "Make sure Mithril is taken care of. It'll be a while before they're back to normal. So long, Hayato."

The Admiral begins his way toward nearby cart, where Camille and Katz lie in wait.

"So long!" Hayato waves.

We're expecting everything to go pretty smoothly anyhow...

MEANWHILE

In a nearby shed, a man with an unpleasant pooch to his stomach fiddles with the controls of his cellphone. "Yes, Captain Jung? This is AGENT G. LAIVE. I think you ought to know, Katharon is making their big move into space! I'm at the Paradigm Memorial Spaceport and International Airport. They're hiding amongst the civillian populace! Bring troops! I believe they're hiding those WRETCHED GUNDAMS in here!!!"

NOW...

Under the cover of innocuity (is this even a word?), plainly-dressed Katharon agents begin securing their new shipment of MOBILE WEAPONS into the hangars of ordinary shuttles. They're just eighty percent away and the next batch of suits hidden away under white tarps begin moving out of the BOB'S KEBABS trailers, totally unsuspecting of a sudden but inevitable attack.

Across the tarmac, actually like several city blocks away, in a nearby parking lot outside a rundown stripmall containing a Pork-E Pigs Pizza Play Land a Staplers Office Repo and an abandoned pharmacy, is a fast food truck, the side window is open and a man in a nice suit, wearing mirrored aviators and a blue turban is working the food counter, serving a very small lineup of people food.

The sign on the side of the truck says, "Said's Falafel No You Can't Have a Waffle!" and then it has a blurry number or a stain followed by 'infidels served' the cook, the Man in the Blue Turban, serves a falafel and then holds up a pair of covert ops binoculars which look just like opera glasses. "Bob's Kebabs, BOB'S KEBABS! HOW DARE THEY STEAL MY BEEZEENESS!"

Fuming the man begins to clean up, as the small line of 7 people now aware of the bob's kebabs trucks start milling around and discussing how they don't really like felaffle anyway. There is the clink and clang of utensils as the cook begins to shut down lunch service immediately.

One of these 'shuttles' is not so ordinary. Beneath all the fake plating and registered under a false name, the Freedan II sits, it's engines hooked up to a pair of MASSIVE space boosters required to make the trip into space. They merely wait the loading of the supplies before launch procedures begin. "Captain," Sara says as she turns her chair to face the command seat where Jamil neate is sitting, "The shipment has arrived. The cargo is being loaded now." Jamil, his face always serious and his eyes wary for trouble beneath those black sunglasses he wears, nods grimly as he waits, "Good. Has Kid finished securing our Gundams yet?" Toniya nods, "They just finished up. All the Gundams are bolted down for the trip," She turns her chair back towards the controls, then grins a bit, "I think this is the first time we've actually gone to space as a crew. I always wanted to see what the Earth looked like from above." "Oy, Kid! Where do you want me to park this trailer?" Garrod calls out to Kid Salsamille as the truck drives up into the Freedan II's cargo bay. "Park it over there in the corner, we'll get to work securing it as soon as you're done!" "Gotcha!" Garrod fires back as he shifts gears and reverses the truck into the deisgnated spot.

Heero is pretty used to this kind of undercover mobile suit transfer, if the amount of god damned tarp-covered trucks featured in the show are any indication. It's like there's a coalition for Gundam-sized confidential tarp trucks all around the world -- making your Mobile Suit Move hassle-free!

The disguise part wasn't as easy this time, though.

LAST NIGHT

"Out of stock?" Heero inquires with the designated choice of disguises. "I am part of this operation -- I require a disguise."

The officer in charge can only shake his head and shrug, with the most apologetic of looks. "Sorry, man, we had a short notice on the orders, and the spare ones are way too big for your size."

The diminuitive 5'2" Heero stares back. "What do you have, then?"

"Well, Mr. Winner left this outfit here..."

NOW

A pair of long leather calf boots step down onto hard Paradigm tarmac, from one of the BOB'S KEBABS trailers. It's followed further by leather chaps, hard-tight jeans, about five too many belts, a distinct lack of a shirt, a a studded leather vest, and a long feathered Indian Chief headdress half-covering his mop-like tuft of brown hair.

Oh, and some sweet Tom Selleck Magnum P.I. sunglasses.

What was his code name again? Oh, yeah. He lifts up his radio. "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert reporting."

America is weird.

EARLIER. AWAY FROM THE PRYING EYES OF BRIGHT NOA AND ANYONE ELSE IMPORTANT

A vase strikes the wall behind Katz' head, prompting the kid to almost hit the floor in utter fear. The source of this flying conversation piece?

Frau Kobayashi stares at her adopted son with narrowed eyes. "Do you understand what you've been doing, Katz?"

"Trying to save the world?" Katz says looking up from his place on the ground. Another random something strikes the floor next to him, shattering. Katz almost jumps away, looking at his adopted mother with wide eyes.

"Your father and I are very disappointed in you! You've been making your father's work almost impossible with these little stunts of yours! I mean didn't we raise you better than this!?" Frau sighs, looking at Katz with sad eyes. Despite the anger she felt, Katz was her responsibility. "Captain Noa's job has also been hurt by you. Don't you understand, Katz? You can't just go into these things without thinking about the consequences!"

Katz frowns and tears up. "But why did you throw my Gekiganger Vase collection at me, mom!?"

Frau looks at what she's been throwing and shakes her head. "If you're going to be a soldier, you don't have time for such childish keepsakes."

NOW

Katz prepares to launch the Mk. II Gundam. He frowns as he stares at his hands. "Even my mother doesn't understand me... I just want to help." He clenches his fist and looks at his view screen, preparing to launch. "I'll try harder to make Bright proud of me. I'll be the hero... Just like Amuro was. Just like everyone on White Base was." The MK II Gundam launches, ready for orders that it might or might not obey.

SPACE

Jung Freud picks up the phone. She doesn't correct Laive on her name - she knows this is another Intelligence power thing, sort of like when Huang redacted

Her lips purse. "I see. Thank you for your support, sir -- your order will be on the way."

SOON.

The approaching forces are not in a unified wing. Such is the brilliance of the Virtual Rendezvous force concept! However, what does approach pretty concretely, coming from the northeastern direction of Vancouver, noted lair of the hated A-LAWS, is the low-flying, ominous form of the Empruss mobile armor. It may have escorts, too - such things may only be revealed in different camera angles.

Jung purses her lips, flicks on the mike, and speaks to those vectoring in.

"Gentlemen and ladies, thank you for your time. I'm Captain Freud, and our job today is to seize or disable these rebel Mobile Suits before they can get into space." (Those with the Leeron-written Earth Explanation App get an explanatory pop-up: "space is very big and easily hidden in!)

"As you can see our target is near the civilian airfield. I understand things happen, but I expect all of you to keep your fire on Katharon assets, /especially/ if it spills out towards the dome zones. We don't need to give them anything else to whine about, eh? Good hunting, all of you."

She clicks off the mike, flips down the faceplate of the normal suit, and steers the joysticks gently forwards. Her right arm twinges, slightly.

The dim red-orange glow of the Empruss's dual Tau drives cast a menacing glow in the raincloud it is descending through. This may be the Katharon forces' first - and possibly only - warning.

Conveniently, Staren has a perfectly innocent excuse to be here in Paradigm City: Alex Rosewater has hired his services before, and so the Star Hawk has become a not uncommon sight in the vicinity of the Rosewater estate, though not so much recently, as Staren needs to use it for personal transport from his home in space. Those who've seen it coming and going probably assume it's a weird plane of some sort -- It's never fought here, and eccentric civilians with demilitarized planes or mecha isn't _entirely_ unheard of to those who know of the outside world.

Today though, Staren is here on _different_ business. The Star Hawk appears to be powered down, but Staren sits inside, monitoring Katharon radio transmissions. Hopefully things will go off without a hitch, and he can return to space without incident. But if not... He's ready to provide support, as one of the few capable of leaving the atmosphere on his own.

Meanwhile, over on the commercial side of the spaceport, a rather tall and lanky-looking machine is transferring cargo containers from a train to a spaceship. It's relatively routine and boring work, but when you're working to make ends meet, you don't turn up your nose at a decent paycheck.

Of course, this particular paycheck is just an excuse for Kazuma, Mihiro, and the Valhawk to loiter in the vicinity of the spaceport. Kazuma had heard a 'reliable rumor' to the effect that Katharon might be in a position to make use of some extra cover fire, so he gritted his teeth, got the Valhawk a quick and (literally) dirty paintjob - it looks less like the pride of the Valstork Family and more like some machine which has been kicking asteroids around for most of a year - and made the other necessary arrangements.

For now, ignorant of the sort-of-coded transmissions going back and forth between Katharon operatives, he keeps transferring cargo from the train to the ship's cargo bay, with his machine exercising a grace and delicacy which some Gundam Fighters would have a little trouble matching, even WITH trace suits.

Kazuma does it all manually, too. And takes pride in it.

Macua Huitl is also on the Freedan, she's finished her business here in the city for now, it's time to get going. The Phoebe and The Amazon are secured upon the hanger, the Amazon isn't quitebolted down just yet. She's meanwhile using a common worker's outfit as she helps to load up with one of the other trucks. She says "Come on, you guys should be better at this than that! It would be good to get going this many things here made her nervous and she wasn't sure why that was so.

"We're just about done here."

EARLIER

 Tightbeam to Trowa Barton: Quatre Raberba Winner comes crackling through the radio.

 Tightbeam to Trowa Barton: Quatre Raberba Winner says, "Does this channel still work?"

 Tightbeam from Trowa Barton says, "Quatre?"

 Tightbeam to Trowa Barton: Quatre Raberba Winner says, "Hey Trowa. My. It's been... how long now?"

 Tightbeam from Trowa Barton says, "A very long while.."

 Tightbeam to Trowa Barton: Quatre Raberba Winner says, "Sorry. I've been... out of touch with everyone. Captain Bright actually reminded me that I should get in touch with my friends more often."

 Tightbeam to Trowa Barton: Quatre Raberba Winner says, "And not to mention, I never properly thanked you for your help at the White Star. I'm feeling like such a fool."

 Tightbeam from Trowa Barton says, "It was a fairly hectic battle. It's good to hear from you."

 Tightbeam to Trowa Barton: Quatre Raberba Winner says, "It's good to hear from you too, Trowa."

 Tightbeam to Trowa Barton: Quatre Raberba Winner says, "I heard from Captain Bright that you are with the A-LAWS now."

 Tightbeam from Trowa Barton says, "Yes. I joined them after the mass defection by ZAFT and the Buster Corps. I thought it would get me closer to OZ."

 Tightbeam to Trowa Barton: Quatre Raberba Winner says, "How has that been going? Getting closer to OZ, that is."

 Tightbeam from Trowa Barton says, "Difficult. After Ingram's defection, they've gone into hiding. I suppose they don't want to cause any ripples while everyone is still jumpy about traitors in their midst."

 Tightbeam to Trowa Barton: Quatre Raberba Winner says, "That sounds like trouble. Especially for what I am about to do."

 Tightbeam to Trowa Barton: Quatre Raberba Winner says, "I think I need your help, Trowa."

 Tightbeam from Trowa Barton says, "Help?"

<Radio> Tightbeam to Trowa Barton: Quatre Raberba Winner says, "I need to get into OZ."

<Radio> Tightbeam from Trowa Barton says, "Hmmm... alright, I'll see what i can do to sniff them out."

<Radio> Tightbeam to Trowa Barton: Quatre Raberba Winner, "Thank you Trowa. I owe you one. I'm glad I can always count on you."

<Radio> Tightbeam to Trowa Barton: Quatre Raberba Winner, "I'll be launching into space soon. So... I guess... wish me a safe flight."

<Radio> Tightbeam from Trowa Barton says, "Take care."

<Radio> Tightbeam to Trowa Barton: Quatre Raberba Winner, "See you soon."

NOW

A young Arab looks out of the window of one of the still somewhat empty shuttles, looking somewhat worried. He is wearing his normal suit, but his helmet is still hanging off the back of it. "I hope I am doing the right thing, Rashid." He mutters worriedly. Then looks about and realizes... Rashid isn't there. The bearded arab is to remain on earth. "Oh... right." He feels somewhat lonely all of the sudden. For someone who's been amongst company for so long, being on a spaceship with so little defense... he cannot help but be a bit worried.

Especially as he is now looking at the tarmac and he spots a rather oddly dressed young man in... what... "Heero..." Quatre shakes his head a bit. "I can't believe he found that! I hope he doesn't rip it... I paid good money for that leather. And those glasses..." A young man looks over his shoulder suddenly; a technician who happened to be on the same shuttle. "Dude. That is so out of style!" Quatre slowly turns his head towards the technician. Their eyes meet. And suddenly... the man decides that it may be a better idea to sit elsewhere. Nobody talks bad about Quatre's choice in clothing! That may be even worse than killing a puppy. Just maybe.

The shuttle shakes. And a crackle follows over the speakers. "We're having some problems. The loader to the Sandrock Gundam is broken. We need to drive up a second loader, otherwise we can't get her into the shuttle." Things were going badly already. Quatre had a bad feeling about this day already.

<Radio: B - Secure> Quatre Raberba Winner transmits, "I... have a bad feeling."

<Radio: B - Secure> Garrod Ran groans a bit, "Please don't say that. It's never a good sign when someone says that..."

<Radio: B - Secure> Katz Kobayashi transmits, "We'll be alright guys!"

<Radio: B - Secure> Staren Wiremu transmits, "Are you a newtype, Quatre?? If not, maybe a bad feeling just means you ate something that didn't agree with you..."

<Radio: B - Secure> Quatre Raberba Winner transmits, "People sometimes say I am..."

<Radio: B - Secure> Heero Yuy transmits, "It's just nerves."

<Radio: B - Secure> Duo Maxwell transmits, "If he ain't, th' Heart of Space is the best damn intuition I ever saw."

<Radio: B - Secure> Katz Kobayashi transmits, "I'm a Newtype and I think we're gonna be fine!"

<Radio: B - Secure> Heero Yuy transmits, "This is a sensitive operation."

<Radio: B - Secure> Quatre Raberba Winner transmits, "Oh... Heera?"

<Radio: B - Secure> Staren Wiremu transmits, "Uhhh is one of the Gundams supposed to be revealing itself already? I thought we were trying not to show anything 'till the Feds show up... Wait, is that a Mark II? You guys are still using them?"

<Radio: B - Secure> Quatre Raberba Winner transmits, "If my leather vest has even ONE tear in it when I get back..."

<Radio: B - Secure> Duo Maxwell transmits, "...you borrowed his leather vest?"

<Radio: B - Secure> Heero Yuy transmits, "Don't worry. ... these chaps are awfully tight, though."

<Radio: B - Secure> Katz Kobayashi transmits, "Hey! THat's my Mk.II"

<Radio: B - Secure> Quatre Raberba Winner transmits, "Let's just say... we'll be doing something about your wardrobe."

<Radio: B - Secure> Garrod Ran transmits, "... Chaps?"

<Radio: B - Secure> Katz Kobayashi transmits, "Don't knock the Mk.II!"

<Radio: B - Secure> Duo Maxwell sounds shockingly unsurprised. "Quatre's got a...uhh..."

<Radio: B - Secure> Garrod Ran transmits, "Oh this I have got to see. Now where are those binoculars...""

<Radio: B - Secure> Duo Maxwell transmits, "SO HEY how's Trowa doin', Quatre?"

<Radio: B - Secure> Quatre Raberba Winner transmits, "He's doing well. I'll be seeing him soon, in fact."

<Radio: B - Secure> Duo Maxwell transmits, "That should be a nice da-, er, get-t'gether."

<Radio: B - Secure> Quatre Raberba Winner transmits, "Well, I do plan to hang out for him for a good while."

<Radio: B - Secure> Heero Yuy transmits, "... I'll make sure to keep these clothes intact for that occasion."

<Radio: B - Secure> Duo Maxwell transmits, "Enjoy it. Y'guys deserve it."

<Radio: B - Secure> Duo Maxwell transmits, "Enjoy it. Y'guys deserve it."

<Radio: B - Secure> Quatre Raberba Winner transmits, "Wait... huh? What are you implying..."

<Radio: B - Secure> Katz Kobayashi transmits, "Well....Uh"

<Radio: B - Secure> Katz Kobayashi transmits, "I just won't!"

Onboard the Raven Nest Drop Ship...

The radio fromm Jung Frued plays over the communication waves. The dirty blond, suiting up listens to the orders given out to A-laws and most likely to the EFA as well. As he zips up the brown suit with the Raven's emblem on either shoulder and he then reaches for the dark brown, near black helment, tucking it under his arm. He then strides for the main hanger area of the drop ship, which only holds one Armored Core instead of the standard four.

He gives a nod to one of the hanger officers onboard the drop ship, before he places his helment on, then flips down the visor over his teal green eyes.

He climbs up the ladder, before hoping into the back of his AC unit, named Gabriel, before climbing through the small walk way inside to his chair, before he sits down, and the chair automaticlly spins around starting up all the screens.

The Armored Core's lifeless optic starts to glow red gently before it intensifies brightly. This his voice comes over to the A-Laws and all allied to them, ~"This is Archangel of the Raven's Nest, I have received your orders and complying to them. If you have any other further instructions for me, please notify me by this frequency band."~

Over the city high above...

The Black Raven drop ships, hatch in the back slowly lowers down as the white AC then takes position, before the truster pods on the back open it, then with a great whine of the thrusters, and spiraling vortex of light, the machine blasts out into the sky, just as the Drop ship starts to pull away, heading for the target zone.

<Radio: B - Secure> Heero Yuy transmits TOTALLY OBLIVIOUSLY, "You'll need these chaps for some kind of roughhousing, probably with horses, I suspect?"

<Radio: B - Secure> Quatre Raberba Winner transmits in a determined fashion, "Of course. What else would I use those for?"

Well, not absolutely /everything/ being transfered to ~space~ is an actual mobile weapon. Katharon had a few allies still stuck in the past, as it were -- A World With No Boundaries was still operating with technology developed many a year ago, and they decidedly lacked a way to send their assets into space on their own. Thusly it was that the ADFX-02 Morgan and it's pilot were being put at the mercy of other forces in Katharon; they still needed to stay on their allies' good sides, for the time being, so help was given freely.

Repainted in the blue and white colors of a civilian company dedicated to flying advertising slogans on banners off the backs of their aircraft and given a false registration number to match, the Morgan was still rather poorly disguised; as a result, it had been kept covered in the process of unloading and re-loading onto a shuttle. Pixy couldn't help but rub at his forehead in exhasperation as a delay keeps his machine on the airport ramp; at least he and his people weren't crazy giant robot pilots that anyone was likely to recognize the faces of.

<Radio: B - Secure> Garrod Ran transmits, "Ah, here are the binoculars! Now, let's see..."

The clock's pendulum rickets back and forth. Marking out the time. Solis takes a brief moment to brush off his shirt, his tie having a bit of grease from where he accidentally caught it in the closing door that allowed him to access the metronome like clockwork of the clock in question. The manor house of Roger Smith is not maintained by automated units, despite his best intents to accomplish it. Still, there are unpleasant things afoot and Solis rouses at them. The crackle of non-military police radio bands in particular show up amidst the usual playing of big band music on the local radio internet. Solis stands, making his way through a few side pathways in the mansion. He's forbidden access to any large engines in the city's confines by his father's orders, and when the dominus of megadeus tells you no, you damn well listen. However, as he engages the hissing steam powered storage cylinder and intones the sacred chants of awakening, he finds himself glad that such requirements do not extend to armor... Solis dons the armor, feeling the mechanisms lock in, even without the somewhat lacking sensation... No wonderous manifold here. The machine engages the nearby levers, and drops lower, taking advantage of Roger's lines, although in this case its specifically the smaller disused maintenance railways that serve no purpose to the primary occupant of Paradigm's forgotten subterranean train system... Within moments, Solis and his Tengu are at the spaceport. For the moment he waits, unseen in the inky darkness..

Afterall, no trouble has /actually/ started yet.

<Radio: B - Secure> Duo Maxwell coughs.

<Radio: B - Secure> Duo Maxwell transmits, "Heero, it ain't nice t'ask a guy about what he's plannin' t'do on his date."

<Radio: B - Secure> Quatre Raberba Winner transmits, "Date!?"

<Radio: B - Secure> Heero Yuy transmits, "Date?"

<Radio: B - Secure> Quatre Raberba Winner transmits, "Duo, I am on an important mission here..."

<Radio: B - Secure> Duo Maxwell hastily corrects, "Meeting!"

<Radio: B - Secure> Duo Maxwell hastily corrects, "Meeting!"

<Radio: B - Secure> Duo Maxwell transmits, "Private hangout time with a close friend."

<Radio: B - Secure> Quatre Raberba Winner transmits, "I don't think we'll have time for private hanging out..."

<Radio: B - Secure> Heero Yuy transmits, "Oh, like that time you and I did, you mean?"

<Radio: B - Secure> Garrod Ran transmits, "C'mon you stupid things... focus already! Almost... ther--"

<Radio: B - Secure> Duo Maxwell transmits, "No, Heero, an entirely different kinda thing."

<Radio: B - Secure> Garrod Ran transmits, "..."

<Radio: B - Secure> Garrod Ran transmits, "Uuuh...."

<Radio: B - Secure> Duo Maxwell transmits, "I'll...I'll tell you about it later, Heero."

The last several weeks have been a blur for Camille Bidan. He's been going here and there, doing as he was ordered, flying background missions and reconnaisance, writing reports and offering insight on anything the Captain requested of him. He's been a busy boy, a good and commendable soldier.

What he has not been is entirely honest.

Somewhere on it's way to Anaheim Electronics were the complete schematics for a wholly new variable design on the Zeta Gundam.

Elsewhere, an extensively customized Bushnell unit lay hidden from view amidst a surpluse of mass-produce suits onboard the Argama, bearing the sign of Zeta and a payload uniquely suited to the sorts of mecha one saw in Arena fighting.

Beneath Camille's bunk was a stylized mask and a newspaper clipping (Yes, newspaper!!!) of a slick new car, advertised with a market price of only $20000

He'd been a good soldier, yes, and he'd continue to be one. And soon, so very soon, he would collect his dues.

But that had nothing to do with anything that was going on right now, as the Newtype stepped out of the passenger side of the truck Heero Yuy had just emerged from. Wearing a similar pair of shades, a mac truck hat and a flannel jacket complete with denims he resisted the urge to tell the Wing Zero pilot how ridiculous he looked. He was sure he felt it inside.

"This is Big Daddy, ready for action." Camille replied over the com ignorant of any irony, crossing his fingers and asking space god for one thing and one thing alone: Please, please don't let Katz kill any civilians this time.

PREVIOUSLY... ON GURREN LAGANN!

Boota screams into his phone, "SHOW ME THE MONEY! YOU DON'T GOT THE MONEY? THEN YOU'RE DEAD TO ME! DEAD! ... buu." Kamina embraces Simon, "Simon... I'm sorry... but I... have space cancer." He turns and walks back to Coach Ota, a still frame freezing on his back. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Simon screams for no readily apparent reason. "That G. Laive person dresses absolutely horrendously." Leeron turns his nose up. "I'm sorry, but he is NOT invited to my ball." "Hey kids! Do you want to find Buu's Clues?" Yoko starts playing the guitar. "Buu's clues. Buu's clues."

AND NOW

Simon is looking at the Leeron-written Earth Explanation App as he flies through the air. "Space..." He says slowly, "Is v--verry." Pause. "big and easily hi....hide...hidden! in." He nods sagely and turns up from the notification to listen to 'Captain Jung'.

"Well--that doesn't seem too tough!" He says, "Good luck out there, Jung!" Simon says smiling. "Not that you'll need it, right?" He descends.

<Radio: B - Secure> Garrod Ran transmits, "G-guys... we have company."

<Radio: B - Secure> Staren Wiremu transmits, "What? Dammit... Powering up, here I come!"

<Radio: B - Secure> Heero Yuy transmits, "Hmn. Roger that."

<Radio: B - Secure> Quatre Raberba Winner transmits, "I don't wanna say it but..."

<Radio: B - Secure> Quatre Raberba Winner transmits, "I told you so."

<Radio: B - Secure> Duo Maxwell transmits, "Heart of Space, only wrong once in a blue moon."

<Radio: B - Secure> Staren Wiremu transmits, "Heart of space?"

<Radio: B - Secure> Quatre Raberba Winner transmits, "I have full trust in you people. though."

Even in times of perpetual space war, the high school field trip is a semi-regular right of passage for students across the world.

Well, except for the ones in The School, as murder-forays do not count as field trips.

And, okay, the kids from the Super Soldier facility because they're all dead because Allelujah Haptism is a goddamn murderer.

And maybe not the largely adolescent crew of the Argama either, possibly because they are too busy fighting war, or because Bright Noa hates education, or something.

For teenagers who /don't/ fall into those groups however, well--there are still field trips.

And one of Jindai High School's social studies teachers has elected to bring his class to Paradigm City to examine the strange ways and customs of a quasi-pre-Colonial society.

Among them is Darcy Weyland, dutifully taking notes on the cities eccentricities; they're notes on its layout, its means of ingress and egress, possible defensive bottlenecks, weak points and fortifications, and so on.

They are not for the man who brought her here; The test they'll perhaps one day help her pass is on matters far weightier than the curiosities of speakeasies and ancient muscle cars.

At one point, her class stops to observe a caucasian man with midnight black paint covering his face and the back of his hands as he adroitly dances and belts out a Neo-Jazz standard. The class is all laughter and excited finger-pointing and appreciation for its quaintness.

Darcy, meanwhile, only has eyes for the strange orange gleam in the storm clouds above. Those eyes narrow; she begins backing away from the rest of her class to slip into a nearby alleyway.

<Radio: B - Secure> Duo Maxwell transmits, "It's Quatre's thing, he says it a lot.."

<Radio: B - Secure> Duo Maxwell transmits, "Uhhh, Philosophy, I guess."

<Radio: B - Secure> Quatre Raberba Winner transmits, "I don't say it that often!"

<Radio: B - Secure> Duo Maxwell transmits, "It talks to him. He talks back."

<Radio: B - Secure> Pixy transmits, "Ch. Trying to take off while being shot at isn't exactly my first choice for mission parameters. How many are we talking about?"

<Radio: B - Secure> Staren Wiremu transmits, "It... talks..."

<Radio: B - Secure> Duo Maxwell transmits, "It'd be great fun at parties if Quatre knew how t'throw a real party an' not one'a those high-society parties I'm always feelin' way uncomfortable at."

<Radio: B - Secure> Quatre Raberba Winner transmits, "The Heart of Space sometimes speaks to me... it's why I know I can trust all of you."

<Radio: B - Secure> Staren Wiremu transmits, "Uhhhhhh-huh."

<Radio: B - Secure> Duo Maxwell makes a scribbling sound.

<Radio: B - Secure> Duo Maxwell transmits, "An' a dollar in the jar..."

<Radio: B - Secure> Staren Wiremu transmits, "Is... is this like Heero and ZERO, is there a system in your machine...?"

<Radio: B - Secure> Quatre Raberba Winner transmits, "I am sorry Duo. I'll try to cater my next party more to your tastes."

<Radio: B - Secure> Duo Maxwell transmits, "Man, I'm jus' teasin'. Lighten up an' focus. An' if you guys die, I'll go right inta Hell and drag you back out so I can kill you again, you hear me?"

<Radio: B - Secure> Staren Wiremu transmits, "That would be quite a feat, Duo..."

<Radio: B - Secure> Quatre Raberba Winner transmits, "Focus on what? I am sitting in a shuttle..."

<Radio: B - Secure> Duo Maxwell transmits, "Th' God of Death forbids them from dyin', Staren, so they ain't allowed t'die."

<Radio: B - Secure> Staren Wiremu transmits, "Hm."

<Radio: B - Secure> Quatre Raberba Winner transmits, "Nobody will die today."

<Radio: B - Secure> Katz Kobayashi transmits, "That's right!"

"What the hell...?" Admiral Bright glances to the direction of a nearby loudspeaker. The address by Captain Freud brings an alarmed wide-eyed look to his face. Or it would, if his eyes weren't obscured by a pair of mirrorshades and his head framed by a motorcycle helmet.

Bright's black leather pants creak slightly as he shifts his weight to his left, "They're going to attack... in the middle of a spaceport crowded with civilians!? Damn it, those A-LAWS!" He darts across a corridor, sprinting as best as his pair of boots will allow him. Hands push aside shocked passengers, who simply regard this as a normal thing. After all, they simply see a mustached MOTORCYCLE COP rushing off to a scene of attention after Captain Freud's announcement!

"Damn boots," Bright grunts as he rushes along. He reaches for his walkie-talkie and clicks on the transmit button, "This is FOXY LADY. We can't let the A-LAWS keep us from launching into space, but we can't let them sortie in a busy spaceport! We'll have to scramble emergency mobile suits and divert their attention away from everyone and everything! Camille, Heero, get to the air at once! We'll have Commander Pixy launch to provide firesupport!"

<Radio: B - Secure> A large group of men suddenly shout over the radio, "Heeeeeeeeeeeeey! We're here too!" They sound rowdy.

<Radio: B - Secure> Staren Wiremu can't surpress a grin, "'Foxy Lady?'?

<Radio: B - Secure> Quatre Raberba Winner chuckles. "Oh... you guys."

<Radio: B - Secure> Katz Kobayashi transmits, "What about me, Captain?!"

<Radio: B - Secure> Quatre Raberba Winner transmits, "Seems my friends are here to help out today as well."

<Radio: B - Secure> Captain Bright Noa transmits, "The rest of you get moving! What's the status of the Freedan?"

SUDDENLY, without any warning, rhyme, or reason, something green and white falls out of the sky and comes down on the Empruss Mobile Armor like some kind of humanoid meteorite. The mech drops out of the cloud layer--there is /always/ a cloud layer in Paradigm City--and approaches on a collision course at high speed, apparently uncontrolled.

Brief inspection will reveal that this is none other than WALKER GALLIA, the Walker Machine of notorious bandito JIRON "DEAD-EYE" AMOS, TERROR OF THE SIBERIAN WASTES.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH," Jiron shouts, apparently some manner of battle-cry.

ELSEWHERE

Blume and Daiku stand on the deck of the Iron Gear, looking up at the smoke trail rising into the air.

Daiku turns to Blume. "Did you really put Rag's Lizard Surprise in the fuel tank?"

Blume grins, hands behind his head. "I thought we could save some gas. It makes everyone /else/ run, right?"

Garrod finishes loading the trailer in it's deisgnated spot and unhitches it, then drives the cargo truck out of the Freedan's main hatch to pick up the next batch. While he waits, he listens to the... 'interesting' conversation about Heero's choice of attire, "... Chaps? Oh, I gotta see this... now where are those binoculars..." Garrod unbuckles his seatbelt and starts rummaging around in the cabin for that which he sees. Finally, his hand pops up in the front window, triumphantly holding a pair of binoculars! Duh duh duh DAAAAAAAAH! "Here we go! Now..." Garrod sits up and puts the spyglasses up to his eyes, then starts to focus the binoculars so he can see what hilarious outfit Heero has chosen to wear. "C'mon you, focus!" As everything unblurs, Garrod grins and announces, "Almost... ther--" His words die off as everything comes into sharp clarity. And finds himself staring right at the Empruss. "... Uuuh..." He reaches over to grab his walkie talkie without looking, "... Guys? We have company..." A moment later, the binoculars are tosses aside as Garrod leaps out the cab and runs back into the Freedan's hanger, "HEADS UP! WE GOT HOSTILES!" He beelines towards one of the trailers and leaps up onto it, "Don't bother securing this one, just get the rest loaded and move!" Garrod disappears under the tarmack and slides into the cockpit, then starts powering it up. The figure behins to move, a foot sliding out from under the fabric as it steps onto the hanger floor. It rises, shedding it's cover as it stands. "Huh, a Crest Close Combat-Type? I didn't know Katharon was importing Cores... but I guess beggers can't be choosers when you're part of the revolution." the CC-Type lifts it's machinegun up and turns towards the open door of the hanger. It's thrusters ignite as it starts to hover in the air, then speeds out and angles away from the city limits, "Don't wanna get stuck in another street to street firefight like last time..."

Some distance away, freshly recharged, and blasting out a vast shower of angry red GN Particles, a black GNXIII charges towards the spaceport, travelling as fast as the bulky frame will allow. Locking the controls in the cruise setting, Eight glances at briefing with an empty, unfeeling look. Another escape attempt. Another time they would run from her. And, she added pessimistically, another time more would get away.

She had to stop them. She /wanted/ to stop them...

But now, she had the advantage. A short, fleeting advantage.

She could feel an unchained, unbound heart. It called to her. Its soft, faint raidence was clear, even so far away, under the weight of the world.

It was a perfect target.

With a distant flash of light, a hail of GN beamfire rains down around Quatre, and the surrounding containers, as Eight fired a dozen shots from her lance. Closing in range, the Cyber Newtype smiled, coldly.

Now... She could /start/...

<Radio: B - Secure> Garrod Ran transmits, "HEADS UP! WE GOT HOSTILES!"

And the one person that would know a hell of a lot about the classic murder-foray /is/ someone who has survived-- proudly-- The School, and now serves the Federation's semi-autonomous task force. With bomb collar ever-present around her neck, a constant reminder that her service in the A-LAWS is not of her own volition, Arian-16 sits in the cockpit of her Mobile Suit and watches scanners, HUDs, and ... some really screwed-up thing about how vast space is.

Whole sections of the planet have been razed by aliens if not Haman Karn, Katharon's being upstart sons of bitches in California and now here, things have become kind of hellish unless you're lucky enough to be assigned to just the right place, and...

... the Federation blows money on /this/.

Arian sighs after a moment, and jams her finger down on the "mute" key.

"Lance-6," she says, pulling up the zipper to her flight suit, "ready to go."

The GNX-612/AA Superbia GN-X is not your standard GN-X, or GN-XIII. All at once it has a unique appearance, but harkens back to the original GN-X. Hip-mounted GN Vulcan pods are primed, and the twin GN Kunai mounted on the underside of either forearm carry a grim promise of kicking your ass. Yes. /Your/ ass.

With the black and purple coloration, it could even pass for a ninja, if not for the burnt orange particles being waylaid out into the air behind it...

<Radio: B - Secure> Heero Yuy transmits, "Roger that, Foxy Lady."

<Radio: B - Secure> Duo Maxwell pffffffffffffffhahahahahahahhaa

<Radio: A - Chat> Jamil Neate replies, "We're about 70 percent done with loading. It'll take use several minutes to finish and move to the launch ramp."

<Radio: B - Secure> Captain Bright Noa transmits, "You've got one minute! You're on double-time now, Captain Jamil!"

And here comes the noise. Or rather, the fuzz.

Mihiro looks annoyed at the radio controls on her console, "So they're seriously launching an attack? *Here*?"

"This is what we came to help deal with," Kazuma responds, trying to keep his cool. "Transmit the clock-out code, it's time for us to get airborne and start running interference."

Mihiro nods, transmitting the signal which says they're off their officially appointed job. "Code's transmitted ... we want to stay *above* the EFA and A-LAWS forces so any shots that miss us don't hit the spaceport or ships, right?"

"You got it," Kazuma answers, making sure the cargo he was moving is secure - then shifting the Valhawk into Air Force Mode and rocketing into the sky, leaving a sonic boom in the recolored mobile unit's wake.

Despite what some people might think, Max might NOT want to shot at some of these guys, simply because of the coordinated efforts during the Balmarian Invasion. However, he DID have orders from Global, and rather than disobey a direct order, he just watched.... until someone on the radio announced that Pixy is in this fight. Max gives a little grumble as he hears the name. "Well, if I'm going to make a good show. Might as well be with him." She says as he watches for Pixy's fighter to take off.....to fire a single shot at him.

<Radio: B - Secure> Jamil doesn't sound particularly happy, but replies none the less, "Understood." *Off speaker* "Sara, tell Kid to just focus on loading the cargo. He can finish securing them while we're positioning ourselves on the ramp. Shingo, purge the camoflague plating and bring our weapons online."

The Target was the space-port, however the pilot of Gabriel didn't feel the best at going at a spot just yet with people running around on foot. However his AI then piped ip, ::"AC Detected."::

"Bring it up on screen." The dirty blonde then glanced over at the HUD display along with information status, "Huh-- one of Crest's toys."

~"Unranked AC."~ The computer chimes in again.

"Probably unmarked too." The pilots says with a smirk playing on his lips.

Gabriel for just a moment lands on the ground, sliding along, before sprinting in a run for just a moment, before the overboast once more slams on and flies itself into the air, ~"Crest Pilot, tell your owners I said Hi when I send your machine back to the scrap."~ He says with a chuckle, before Gabriel then opens fire with the machine gun.

The Man in the Blue Turban, has no face, a very bad fake beard hangs from his face as the confused patrons of his Filaffel truck become quite confused and upset.

The man presses a button on counter and suddenly the entire inappropriately aesthetically ugly strip mall behind him begins to unfold like a giant truck, in fact all of the exterior turns out to be a gigantic tarp, with highly detailed outer facadery.

Where the strip mall was stands a heavy assault Core upon quad hover legs, big fat ones, it was going to be painted all blue, but instead it's all black with a giant red V emblazoned on it's front. It is in the parking lot of Cool Hand Luke's a pilot and ne'erdowellbar, dimly lit, thinly patronized, and replete with flickering lights. Inside a few patrons point outside. "Hey look Joe! The view came back! Ad look there's giant robot fighting!"

"Aw nuts, not again, hey Sam can you put the game on?"

Meanwhile the pilot of the Break Shot, Rebel 316, disguised as Osama Neo-Jihad of Vertex, begins to move, firing upon local authorities from the EFA because he is unable to determine if he has a dance partner in this mess, and hates the Feds arbitrarily.

Even as terrorists are about to get spanked, people still want food.

Hungry people begin to line up by the Bob's Kebabs truck, an alarmed plainclothes Katharon officer waves frantically from the side. "H-hey!! We're not a full-service truck!! We're only delivering food!! H-hey!!"

When he hears word of the attack, Staren starts powering up his machine and prepares to take to the field...

From the direction of the domes, the Star Hawk in fighter mode suddenly flies in, it was hiding in the city? Staren sees defenders already going out to meet the approaching federation machines, but when he glances down at the spaceport he sees something they missed... And so he transforms midair, and falls to the ground, leaving two deep footprints in the pavement ahead of the Tengu. "Oh no you don't! You're not getting to those shuttles!"

Solis would recognize the voice. And the design is clearly a new, sleeker version of the Star Hawk.

Macua Huitl isn't doing so well either as she's looking up from the truck and ees what going on. She curses and leaps out ot the truck it's pretty much a loss at this point. She can't get tothe freedan, she's only got one choice. She yells out.

"COME OUT AMAZON GUNDAM!"

The Amazon Gundam just seems to come out of nowhere rising and now towering over her.

She didn't like having to do this she had no chose at this point. She pauses and then leaps into the open hatch, It seals up, she rips off her outfit and the ring comes odnw, the trace suit is pulled over her body as the Mobile G fighters medical systems check her vitals.

"All vitals green."

Mac now pulls herself up nd the Gundam does the same, as it starts to look aroung, she's going to have to cover the Freedan as it gets ready for launch.

A passing truck masks initial sounds from the port as things start to get complicated, which means that Kouta is not actually privvy to the initial eruption of shenanigans on the port. When the truck is passed, Kouta has been replaced by the armored form of Fighter Roar.

A moment later Roar is over the fence in a single leap. It's only around the time that he lands that alarms start to go off. He even, for a moment, thinks they might be for him. He's moving pretty fast, but he's a small (if bright red) target.

Once he realizes there's an assault going on, though, there's no use crying over spilt milk. He skips over a forklift and leapfrogs across a staircase like stack of transport containers before coming to a stop near the Freedan, his arms crossed before his chest.

A stray gust of wind kicked up by descending mechs catches his scarf, causing it to billow away like a slightly disreputable windsock. "NEO BRAZIL!" he announces, "I HAVE COME TO SEE HOW YOUR SKILLS HAVE KEPT UP!" Well, the armored guy definitely has the screaming part of the Standard Gundam Fighter Manual down pat.

It takes a type of restraint that Ibis Douglas almost doesn't have to refrain from throwing the Astelion to full throttle and forgetting about the consequences, so eager is she to try and find some way to make up for the incredible fuckup of a sortie she had last time someone was dumb enough to try and enlist her help in an operation, but she isn't /totally/ retarded so she sits on the wing of Jung's Empruss like a good minion ought to, or at least does until the trouble starts.

America's favourite bad pilot dejectedly scans her displays, mind totally elsewhere as she breaks formation and swoops down towards the city. It's kind of a shame that the Astelion isn't doing like mach 10 and breaking a bunch of windows with a totally sweet flyby.

Instead, it just kind of slams on the air breaks and transforms into humanoid doll configuration mid-landing, slamming into the streets and leaving sick wicked cracks and craters in the ground as it whips out a railgun and goes looking for terrorists.

Oorah, A-LAWS! Devil Dog Semper Fi Do or Die Army Strong!! We are oscar mike!!

Solis Vivent skids to a halt as Staren comes crashing down in front of him... Solis takes a moment to briefly assess his opponent. Shuttles? What would Staren be defending in the shuttles? Solis frowns, and takes a half step back, "...Wiremu, this is my father's city. I will not have you and yours bringing trouble into it. You will surrender, and then you will take this outside..." The Tengu lingers back for a moment before springing forward, attempting to grapple onto Staren's mech and punch a hole into his power regulator systems with a harsh steady blast of laser fire. "...I apologize if I'm being too forward, but in my experience, no one ever listens when I make a rational demand."

It doesn't take long for Pixy's mans to throw off the covering and start unhooking the Bob's Kebabs banner from the rear of the aircraft. The advertisement is left splayed proudly across the tarmac as the Morgan taxis into position along the runway -- there wasn't exactly a huge amount of room with the commercial aircraft about the place, but Pixy's aircraft was both small and capable of quick acceleration. In the cockpit, Pixy works on the launch preparations, and fits on a helmet and airmask -- the Morgan is soon barreling down the runway, picking up speed for liftoff.

"Shit!" Pixy growls out as a round strikes a glance across the fusselage of the aircraft, gashing a stain upon the pilot's pride moreso than upon the operation of the aircraft. With a swerve back on course, Pixy struggles to keep the takeoff on track -- fortunately, the nose soon lifts, and with a dangerous wobble, the Morgan is sent airborne.

"I've got a unit to handle," Pixy radios to his allies, "But I'll try to provide air supprt if I can break away for long enough." Once having gained altitude, the Morgan is maneuvered to strike at Max's Valkyrie -- thohugh having taken so long just to get into position, plenty of opportunities to strike the aircraft again were presented before Pixy could even get off a shot.

Heero had this contingency in mind -- they always attack you when you're most vulnerable. All of the factions involved are very good at timing attacks, and there are no better times to attack than when they're preparing something as time-consuming and complex as a transfer to or from space.

The Wing Zero is somewhere deep in transfer right now. No, it was not secure to leave that one hanging. No, this time he'll have to use...

The Indian Chief dashes over all of a sudden, looking back at Camille 'Big Daddy' Bidan. "You heard him, I'll catch up with you up in the air." He slips his sunglasses down and shoves them in a breast pocket in his vest, climbing up to one of the trucks and snaking in under the big white tarp and going into an easy-access chamber.

Moments later, a white-winged mobile suit rises up; it is unmistakably the Wing Gundam, but in a unique and refashioned configuration since its original sortie down to Earth so long ago. Large yellow-framed wings spread out majestically over its white humanoid body, laced with blue and red highlights also sported over its shoulder and chest armor.

"Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Wing Gundam, deploying," Heero announces to the shared comm as the Katharon-aligned IFF comes into sight.

Later this night, the guy in charge of designating codenames for this is going to hang himself for not calling Heero 'Mitzi Del Bra' and the Wing Gundam 'Priscilla' instead.

The Wing Gundam sweeps forward, moving in for the closest target in attack trajectory... the Astelion? Fuck. Heero opens up a communication channel right away, even as the Wing's beam saber is withdrawn from the shield's recharge rack and swiped across with a swift slash, arc of emerald energy coasting erratically along with it.

"Ibis..." Heero states, very seriously.

With a super serious face complete with Indian Chief headdress and shirtless leather vest and chaps.

Some distance away, freshly recharged, and blasting out a vast shower of angry red GN Particles, a black GNXIII charges towards the spaceport, travelling as fast as the bulky frame will allow. Locking the controls in the cruise setting, Eight glances at briefing with an empty, unfeeling look. Another escape attempt. Another time they would run from her. And, she added pessimistically, another time more would get away.

She had to stop them. She /wanted/ to stop them...

But now, she had the advantage. A short, fleeting advantage.

She could feel an unchained, unbound heart. It called to her. Its soft, faint raidence was clear, even so far away, under the weight of the world.

It was a perfect target.

With a distant flash of light, a hail of GN beamfire rains down around Quatre, and the surrounding containers, as Eight fired a dozen shots from her lance.Closing in range, the Cyber Newtype smiled, coldly.

Now... She could /start/...

"Aw great, Ravens," Garrod mutters as Archangel issues his challenge. What is it about Ravens and their obsession with challenging other supposed Ravens? Are they perhaps trying to be the Last Raven? As he still tries to get a handle of his machine's capabilities, Garrod snaps up his machine gun and unleashes a quick burst from it as rounds shudder the CC-type's hull, "guess this thing isn't anywhere near as fast as the HOGIRE... but at least I'm not liably to snap my neck everytime I take a turn..." The CC-Type goes into a sideways skid as garrod turns to face his foe and circle around him widely, "Heeeeey, Archangel. Long time no see buddy! Fraid I won't be able to deliver your message. Just borrowing this machine for a bit, but I'll tell ya what. I'll try not to wreck your poor baby too much. I know how much she means to ya." The Machinegun snaps up and unloads a full burst of hot lead.

Macua Huitl pauses as she's called out by someone. Are they on the side of the EFA, wait a moment its tht who she thinks it is? It's fighter roar all right. "... So your still alive!" She smirks guessing why he's here. The Amazon now drops into a ready stance. "If that's what you want? CHALLENGE ACCEPTED! GUNDAM FIGHT! READY GO!"

The Amazon Gundam springs to life at Fighter Roar, she's clearly faster than she used to be, and the next question is? What else has changed is the question, her style sure has. She attacks rapidly trying to get Fighter Roar, with a barrage of punches, she's got to be fast. She knows how agile he is.

Quatre gets a bit more nervous as the radio indicates that his hunch was right. This was going to be bad. He raises a hand to his lips and carefully chews on the tip of his thumb. "The Sandrock has been moved to the other loader. But it will still take a while to get it into the shuttle. We may be launching last." Not good, not good. But he can't help but smile a little when he hears the voice of Rashid and the rest of the Maganac crew coming over the radio. That did put his mind and heart at ease when suddenly...

//Cooler Than Just A NewType!// //It's a philosophy!!// //Heart Of Space Flash!!!//

Quatre looks straight up all of the sudden as his heart suddenly stood still. Dispair. Confliction. He suddenly feels strong emotions above him. Killing intent. His eyes widen a bit. "Why...?" He whispers... then suddenly calls out, not intent on having anyone hear. ~"[ansi(hw,Why!? We shouldn't be fighting!)]"~ A sudden wave of kindness, that made that 'sense', that 'purity', that 'golden heart' stand out that much more against the earth. So brightly, that to one like Masamune, it could cause hesitation of some sort. She might even 'understand' what he'd just shouted. In fact, others might suddenly get that same feeling. Like fighting is 'the wrong thing to do' at the moment.

Whatever the case, the effect is clear. Masamune's blasts do not hit the shuttle. In fact, they hit all around it, but NOT on the transport itself. It was almost like a miracle.

Then suddenly, running from out of the hangar of the airport, a set of mobile suit tarps get tossed off, and a series of units come running out, raising their outdated beam guns up at the machine which had just shot at Quatre's shuttle, and fire away with white searing beams of light coming from the rifles.

"I am getting the weirdest sense of deja vu." An odd resignation the state of things colored Camille's tone as Jung and her retinue announced their arrival and Bright gave orders in response. "Well, best laid plans..." The youth looked to Heero for a quick show of solidarity-nod, glance, brofist, whatever-before hoofing it to the back of the truck they'd been riding in.

It didn't take long. In moments the the trucks cargo section stood itself right side up with the aid of powerful hyrdraulics, the formerly top end sliding up like a sheet metal curtain to reveal the freshly tuned and painted Zeta Gundam, flagship mobile suit of the AEUG, shining symbol of the new era!

Certainly not destined for such an ignoble fate as Judau getting its head blown off replaced with a Zaku head.

It was cloudy and overcast in Paradigm City with a slight chance of rain when Camille Bidan took up the throttle, the interior of the Zeta's cockpit vanishing around him for the panoramic view of the outside world. "Camille Bidan, Zeta Gundam!" The boost from the Gundam verniers was like a personal kick in the ass from the divine as it blasted off into the skys, "It's showtime!"

Specifically, it was a show/down/ with the customized GNX he'd picked up off the radar to start with, piloted by someone he felt a brief twing of otherwordly recognition before. That aside, an ace pilot didn't exist the take out the grunts in a fight. A special for a special, so they said, and thus the Gundam opened fire with most /prodigious/, if reluctant gusto for the glittering GNX.

Camille loved to fly mobile suits. Would that it could end there.

Upon seeing the Gurren Lagann Katz' eyes narrow. He tightens his hands across the controls, taking deep breaths as he powers up the machine. All systems are ready. He breaths heavier.

All Newtypes In The Area Feel Katz's determination and desire to be the hero by any means necessary.

The Mk. II draws its beam saber and comes in full force toward the Gurren Lagann, aiming to cleave through the super robot's chest. This is despite Katz knowing he's never even used a simulation involved a super robot. This is despite Katz being a subpar pilot against real robots. This is despite Katz feeling in his gut that he might not win. No, Katz is coming in to kill and prove to his mother and Bright that he was every bit as relevant as Amuro "I Cry A Lot" Ray.

"YOU WILL NOT STOP US TONIGHT! FOR I, SPIDERMAN - TURN OFF THE DARK, WILL SLAY YOU!"

Max tracked Pixy as he took off, and shakes his head. Keeping his gun trained on Pixy's fighter, he fired off another round at him. He wasn't using his biggest attacks either...just the gunpod...

The Empruss's left claw undocks from its side and comes up as Jiron throws himself for it. There is a resounding "TNK!" as he is swatted casually aside. Jung grunts in annoyance; hopefully whatever that was is going to either land safely or die without incident.

She glances to the right, towards the general direction of Eight Murasame. She said she was designated targets; she has no idea what the probable Cyber Newtype is up to. Another direction towards Arian "This Shiv Of Mine Is Burning Meh; Its Snark Tells Me To Stab Victory" Sixteen.

She can see more launches on the big board on the Empruss's cockpit. The place where that sliver of metal went through. She shakes her head once. "Okay," she says, this time more generally. "I'm sure you're going to treat this as a formality but it helps me sleep better at night: Katharon commanders, stand your forces down and let's make this a clean surrender. You know why we're here; we know why /you're/ here; let's not fuck around, huh?" How cynical and soulless!

Then she feels... pressure. Pressure from a source she can't quite verify. She feels her nostrils flare, but she tries to push aside that grimdark determination, instead skewing a beam assembly around to shoot at the plummeting Walker Machine, just to blow off steam. It had it coming.

"How the hell did that thing get up here? Also, I don't want to see any of you firing on a shuttle you don't know is full of Mobile Suits!" she bitches, largely into the Federal network and its happy friends.

Staren's eyes widen. "Solis?!" Father? What? And then Solis _jumps on him_. He's kind of ready for it though because that's what he'd do if he were in the armor -- the Star Hawk suddenly twists at the last second to keep Solis away from the most vulnerable areas, but the laser begins turning armor to slag. "Solis... the trouble is already here, we're trying to _leave_! If you want to talk instead of fight, fine... but if you mean surrender to the Federation... I can't do that until I am left no other choice."

The Star Hawk takes a step back. And then from one of the leg FAST packs, a missile shoots up, loaded with one of Katharon's signature warheads!

Archangel raises a brow at the voice. "..Huh.." he says softly, before he flips a radio switch back to the Crest Core. ~"How you doing yourself? Hopefully you don't take this personal, Bossiness as always. But really,"~ Archangel smirks faintly, before he quickly lets Gabriel drop back down to the ground and skid around as the machine gun bullets from the pixie miss short, however his own do not, ~"That makes me feel better about damaging this thing, uhh-- just do me a favor and remember to get out before it explodes, ok? Hate to mess with an trailer mate."~

The White AC banks around on the ground, before it does a near 180 spin around, waiting for the Crest core to get in close before the Overdrive slams on and he goes to bring the energy saber from low to the ground, in a high arch angle on passing.

Some people would be considered insane for taking on a full sized mech on foot. These people are not spoken of with fear by Clan Elementals. His hair whips wildly in an unseen wind for a moment as Roar watches the Amazon come in for several moments...

And then he moves, weaving in the midst of the onslaught of rapidfire punches, eventually winding up on the back of one of the fists as it comes in. Riding the limb in as it returns home, Roar leaps off suddenly and delivers a punch towards the mech's shoulder.

It's like a gun going off, a big one.

He allows his momentum to carry him upwards, deflecting off of the armor as he rises into the sky. A moment later a pair of boosters mounted on his back flare for a moment and he drops down from above, feet first, towards the Amazon Gundam.

"OUTSTANDING!" he bellows.

An enemy, Simon thinks! And it appears that it is some sort of Spiderman! "J..Jung!" He stammers, "My enemy is some sort of spider person--I'm not sure I can handle--Wait a minute..."

FLASHBACK

KAMINA bursts into the Gurren Luncheon. "SSSIIIIIIIMOOOOON!" Simon screems the girliest scream a boy his age could scream. "Ah--y, yes big bro? What's u-up?" He is tidying up with a mop, it's pretty DULL looking. "I have decided..." Kamina says, "That we are going to become superheroes! I am going to be the INCREDIBLE J JONAH JAMESON and you will be my underling, Spiderman!" Kamina presses his hand down on Simon's head, who looks up adoringly at his brother. "H-how do I become spiderman?" "By jumping off of buildings and--hey where are you going? Simon! Siiiimmoooon!!"

PRESENT

"No, I see my brother, I must face this challenge on my own. I must face my inner demons... and defeat Spiderman!!"

Simon charges forward, swinging back his fist, ducking underneath the beamsaber, and slugging the Spiderman Gundam in the chest.

"I will not give into my fears, so you might as well give up now!" Simon shouts.

Solis hears the keen of the missile being primed, the close range and physical contact allowing him to hear Staren's mechanism's internal operations... The Tengu digs its clawed hand into Staren's machine, kicking off against him as the missile whizzes past...

Solis takes a moment to leap off of the Star Hawk's leg, even as the tengu draws back a truly enormous looking chainsword...apparently a repurpossed gallop weapon being used by the man portable armor. Solis sends a quick burst of cant "...if there's trouble, Wiremu, your people brought it here. Surrender to the EFA? I'm not concerned for that, but I want to minimize damage to the city. I may need to destroy your cargo. For the time being I need to neutralize you. Since I know you, Wiremu..." In the time it takes for that to parse, the chainblade is already coming down towards one of Staren's arms.

Puddles explode beneath Darcy's hurried footsteps, spraying brackish water every which way--not that it matters; the alley she winds up in is lined with trash both binned and un; a little dampness from below couldn't possibly worsen the wet rankness emanating from the space. Even if it /were/ a problem, it won't be one for long; once she's gotten a good ways in, the young woman plants her feet and clutches her hands near her heart. She parts her lips to speak the secret words imparted to her by her teacher's two-faced pygmy general.

And with a gentle, vibrant pulse of emerald light, the ground beneath her cracks as kudzu creeps from below to begin inching up the walls to either side of her. Blossoms sprout betweeh the vines, between the trash cans, from /within/ the trash. Soon, the stench of wet garbage is gone, replaced with the creeping, cloying perfume of a dozen distinct varieties of floral life.

And Darcy just as kudzu threatens to overtake the buildings beside her, Darcy is wrapped up in the flowering green mask and verdant robes of the Marchionessa Idunn. She clutches a staff with a glowing golden bauble adorning its tip, drawn from nowhere at all--clutches it and raises it high. Her eyes lid; her consciousness expands.

"Downpour I2," she murmurs. "Come."

A haberdashery is gutted from the inside out when--tentacles - thick, powerful, half-magenta, half-chromed tentacles - rip through it. One whips towards the front-left quarter of the Empruss; the other towards the Astelion, appearing suddenly through the green light of Wing Zero's beam saber. When the dust and smoke and debris settle, the bulbous head of an octupus - half-magenta, half-chromed - is all that remains where the storefront once was. Its magenta portions are, seemingly, organic; barnacles and hard scales and spikes of /bone/ of all things randomly stud their surface.

This time, Pixy is ready for it. That gunpod fire breezes past a wing that tilts just out of the way of the streaking round; a grin crosses the pilot's mouth as he radios directly with the opposing pilot. The Morgan stays on it's course for the Valkyrie, cruising through the sky; one of the pilot's hands moves over to flick a few switches, arming the weapons of the aircraft.

"Sorry," Pixy says, mostly to himself -- "But I don't have the luxury of taking potshots." The laser pod beneath the fusselage of the Morgan crackles to life as the Morgan lines up it's nose toward the EFA pilot's machine -- a wide beam of red energy sears through the sky as the chemical laser activates, forming an enormous beam saber of sorts; the aircraft tilts it's nose upward, that glowing light slicing through the sky and, hopefully, through anything to have the misfortune of being in it's path. After making it's sweep, the energy beam pitters out just as quickly as it engaged, the red light from the sky briefly shimmering before it disappears entirely.

"What the hell is going on out there?" Bright wonders aloud as he asks a nearby man dressed as a construction worker.

The construction worker stares at Bright puzzledly, "How'm I supposed to know, man? Aren't you the cop here?"

"I..." Bright raises a finger for a moment and then thinks better. He must've had the wrong guy. Goddamn it, these costumes are ridiculous.

Several moments of jogging later,

..Bright arrives by a Bob's Kebabs trailer.

"Admiral!" a Katharon agent waves, "We're being attacked by numerous A-LAWS and EFA troops! There's even Trailers fighting against us... and some kind of monster just appeared and is attacking -everyone-!"

Bright stares. His upper lip twitches slightly, causing the moustache plastered across to swish. "Damn it." He pulls his walkie-talkie up, "The Freedan'll be making the first launch. We can't let it be stopped! Staren, you'll need to work harder and get beyond your opponent! We've got no time to waste!"

Descending toward the city below, the black and purple GN-X's HUD starts to section off targets, contacts and other points of interest, the Leeron app also mutely asking if it can help designate her targets today. Killing the program altogether with another jab at a button on the console, Arian-16's head cranes to follow the panoramic display within the cockpit, to see--

"Gundam..."

The Zeta ascends. The Superbia changes directions spectacularly, twisting and arms and legs splaying out into a spread-eagle dive toward the original Zeta Gundam. As the beams come blazing her way, her head fills with noise-- with /math/, more like, as finely-honed skill and training come back to her all at once. The right hand hinges downward at the wrist, fingers wrapping around the underarm barrel-slash-handle of the GN Kunai. The blade detaches, and the sword sweeps back and forth in careful moves, brandishing the flat of the blade to swat the blasts head-on...

... and /deflect/ them.

Once clear of the initial barrage, the legs swing forward while the GN Tau's thrust angles to catch the machine before it enters that horrible 'crash velocity' phase, the blade again docking under the forearm. Inside the cockpit, Arian-16 has an absolutely shark-like grin on her face, her eyes a little wider than they should be. Her brows are furrowed, and she looks just... a /little/ crazy. She still hurts like hell after that fight days ago, but this is--

"Is that all you got, GUNDAM?!"

On cue, both arms extend, the hands lifting and fingers fanning out. From the barrels mounted under the wrist, thin, needle-like beams of weaponized GN particles start raining down on the Zeta Gundam in a furious spray!

<Radio: B - Secure> Pixy transmits, "... Maybe that was a bit overkill, hah."

Macua Huitl is facing something so tiny conpaired to her machine, but Macua is taking it seriously. She's seen what the late Master Asia could do, and knows what Fighter Roar can do. She also knows what he and Folka did to Jade Falcon Elementals. She now blocks the incomming attack, even then there's a noticable amount of damage to the machine and she'd been blocking it.

"So your back! I was wondering what happened to you! You just vanished after that crime against all creation that was unleahsed in Japan."

She rises back up and it's her turn to leap intpo the air and drop down in a Kick at the much smaller fighter!

The Gurren Lagann slugs the Gundam Mk. II in the chest, bouncing the pilot around his cockpit. "No. Not just Spiderman! I am 'Spiderman - Turn Off The Dark!' You gotta say it all or you won't be talking about me!" Katz frowns hard when his beam saber misses the mark, the saber flying out of his hand and landing in a near by French Maid Bar and Grille. Luckily, the patrons are mostly out of here but where will Karaba get their Buffalo Wings now?! The Beam saber's blade lights the building.prompting him to raise his beam rifle and unload a few rounds at the Gurren Lagann.

"I won't be useless anymore!!! I'll be the hero!" Katz fires his beam rifle again and again. He is framed by the fire he just set, giving his Gundam a hellish glow. Katz narrows his eyes.

The Manganac's beam rifles uselessly scorch the sky, unable to land a blow on the rapidly diving GNXIII. Within moments, the black Mobile Suit is diving towards the airstrip, and with a bright shower of GN particles prepares to impact on the taxiway... And stops, lightly touching down with barely a sound. However, with its lance still drawn, he aims it at the blonde teenager, surrounded by the Manganac Corps. The suirs four eyes focus in on Quatre, and at this distance, the golden eye insignia on the GNXIII can be seen. Activating the suits speakers, the pilot's voice comes across as young girl, flatly delivering lines in an uncaring manner.

"Quatre Raberba Winner. On behalf of the Autonomus Peace-Keeping Task Force, I order you to surrender yourself to the Earth Federation, or you will watch your soldiers die in front of you."

Staren swats the Tengu away from his arm, and thinks a moment -- decides honesty is the best policy, even if Katharon yells at him later. "The cargo is mobile suits, which we are launching into space to continue our anti-war effort. I have no desire for any damage to the city... If you agree not to destroy the cargo, I'll--" In the background, Solis can hear Bright's voice: 'Staren, you'll need to work harder and get beyond your opponent! We've got no time to waste!' Staren frowns a moment. He was willing to stand doin to avoid a fight... But it seems that's not an option. His assistance is needed elsewhere, and he can't let Solis get to the cargo. "I'm sorry. I can't stop here." The hybrid swords come out, and Staren... tries to smack the Tengu around with the flats of the blades.

"So... long time no see. How've you been?"

The Freedan II begins to move as the fighting erupts all across the spaceport and the surrounding countryside. As it lumbers out of the hanger, the camoflague plates begin to purge in turn, exposing beam turrets and missile launchers. The hanger bay doors close tight. "How long until we're in launching position?" Jamil asks. "... About 90 seconds once till we're in place." Shingo replies as he steers using a big wooden sailing wheel. No, I have no idea why it has one of those either. "Contact Garrod, tell him he has a minute to get back here, otherwise he'll have to catch one of the other transports for extraction." As this news is passed along, Garrod frowns a bit, his laser blade igniting as Gabriel charges. He skids sideways and sweeps the blade up, deflecting it away, "A /minute/? You have got to be kidding me! How am I supposed to fight off an ace pilot /and/ get back to the Freedan in a /minute/?" With a growl, Garrod flicks a switch and takes aim at Archangel, "Sorry, I got a schedule to keep, so we'll just have to skip the foreplay!" ports snap open on the misisle launchers mounted on the CC-type's shoulder and rockets spray forth, arching in towards the Gabriel.

Ibis Douglas, miserable git that she is, feels her mood sour even further as Heero--at least, that sounds like Heero, even if he /looks/ like some kind of bizarre extra from some kind of theatre act--barges into her communications channel and sternly reminds her of her own name! Fuck, her only weakness!

She responds quickly to one threat, which is kind of admirable. The Astelion blocks the beam saber slash with one arm, moving quickly like some kind of retarded martial artist, except those arms aren't really built for blocking beam sabers so now one of them is pretty well melted into uselessness. Sweet plan.

But then there's the matter of some kind of crazy space-tentacle smashing into the white Lion-Custom, which tries to respond way too late with a burst of railgun fire that probably does a better job of wiping a couple cars and sick wicked custom motorcycles off of the map than it does actually hitting an enemy target. The Astelion is flung into a nearby coffee shop, crushing the Columbian-roasted dreams of its owner in a spray of debris and dust.

Simon's eyes widen as he ... he lets go of the beamsabre and it flies out of his hands and...into a French Maid Bar and Grille. It's mostly empty, but Simon doesn't know that just from looking at it. "Be careful--!" He says, slugging the SPIDERMAN GUNDAM one more time before actually turning around and jogging towards the French Maid Grille. This results in pretty easy shots for Katz to take, ripping across his mech's back and doing solid damage.

"Can't I just call you Spiderman for short?" He asks, ducking down to look in the Grille--he doesn't see anyone but he better keep moving to avoid drawing additional fire to the building, one way or another..

"That was a close one..." He says, turning back and throwing the shaderangs at Katz in a quick motion. "Hey, I understand about not wanting to be useless..." He says, "That's one of the reasons I piloted Lagann--but the other reason is that I had to! If you want to be a hero, you have to do your best to help people--and you have to be careful!--your incredible power could hurt innocent people if you're not careful!"

And suddenly there's a ... is that a machine beast or just a random kaijuu? Kazuma takes a couple of seconds trying to figure that out, then pushes that question to the back of his mind. Besides, Katharon and their allies are so busy mixing it up with the EFA/A-LAWS/*their* allies already that Kazuma's not sure where he can be of much assistance ... plus, there's a little problem with trying to maintain an altitude advantage when you're attempting to avoid damage to the surrounding landscape and/or architecture - namely, that he'd have to shoot down, and if he misses ... well. Kind of spoils the whole point, right?

The additional fact that those tentacle-whatsits are in fact targeting EFA/A-LAWS units, and in effect 'helping' Katharon by keeping Ibis and Jung distracted, doesn't dissuade Kazuma from feeling like he ought to help kill the giant monster. Monsters are monsters, Machine Beasts or other types. Also, it's a bigger target by a considerable amount - and it's showing a LOT less concern for the surroundings than Kazuma is willing to tolerate. "All right, slight change of plans here .. Mihiro, lock target on that giant tentacle monster, and warn me if anything's getting into our line of fire besides more of it!"

"Roger that! - Oniichan, are you sure - ?"

"Call it 'better publicity than the alternatives,'" Kazuma answers his younger sister as he snap-rolls the Valhawk into a better attack vector and descends in a strafing run, Laser Vulcans spitting pulses of coherent burning light at the Downpour I2.

You ever been to one of those movies, where two guys who fight with a lot of kicks start trying to kick each other? And they're just a little too well matched, and the kicks start flying and they're blocking with their legs, trying to get inside their defenses and each take out the other guy?

This is kind of like that.

The hillariously size mismatched Fighter Roar and Amazon Gundam start trying to kick one another, and the forces wind up counteracting one another. "I wandered, lost, for ages," Fighter Roar states, "And then I realized, one day, that it was not the world that was wrong."

There's a terrific slam as he catches the incoming, Gundam-sized foot with his hand. The tarmac shudders in response as he digs in his feet.

"It was me."

A moment later he SHOVES the Gundam mightily, trying to flip the machine over. How exactly a frame so small can manage this is probably best left up to the Master Asia Clause.

The hybrid blades find themselves sparking against chainblades as the Tengu manuevers in mid air, making use of minor jump jets to adjust itself and avoid being flung about. "Mobile suits?! You brought mobile suits here?!." Solis grits his teeth, no wonder the EFA is so angry. "Through civilian channels?! Do you have the least idea of how many people's lives you endangered not only here but at every stage of your /smuggling/, Wiremu?!" The Tengu does land however, again setting its feet as it rushes at the star hawk's ankles, the chainblade rotating such that its individual blades are only visible as a glowing line of diamond tipped pain. "As for how I'm doing? My girlfriend said she loved me. And I'm stuck fighting against your people because they're /endangering my father's city!!/" The Jump Jets kick in again and Solis launches forward, slashing out with the blade... Sanger would want him to say something appropriate... It mostly comes out as, "RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!"

The Walker Machine makes a 'TNK!' sound when it gets swatted aside. Jiron flails wildly, but he doesn't really go anywhere... anywhere but /down/ anyway, since gravity apparently does apply in this episode. That's kind of a pain in the ass, all things considered. Why couldn't it take a day off?

Pain in the head, too, now that Jiron remembers Staren trying to convince him that gravity was some kind of fundamental force of the universe caused by being huge. Why doesn't Fatman have people rotating around him if that's the case, huh? Jiron grumbles a little to himself as he falls down, down, down--

--and then suddenly goes /up/ again. The huge hoverfan on the back of Walker Gallia starts up, a steady sound like a helicopter rotor. It jinks out of the way of the beam shots, the torso-mounted autocannon spitting fire back upwards as a sort of 'screw you federales' to stitch across the mobile armor's less-than-mobile armor.

Jiron keeps falling. He looks around wildly and spots something to land on, figuring it's as solid as anything. The hoverfan carries him over as he descends, trying to level out--and he lands!

Predictably, the blimp does not hold his weight. Walker Gallia powers through the top and bursts out the bottom, dragging the whole thing with him. The fan tears it into two pieces, jamming it and causing him to fall /even further/ out of the sky. Walker Gallia tugs and pulls, and eventually the whole blimp comes free and shoots into the sky!

The blimp shoots upward at the mobile armor that threw him downward. Walker Gallia, meanwhile, continues it's unlucky descent--right towards Eight Murasame's mobile suit, which, as it happens, is directly beneath it.

Archangel smirks softly as Garrod makes his announcement, ~"Really? Well that is a shame and here I was going easy on you then."~ The pilot muses before leans back then pops his knuckles, ~"Well, lets get busy then."~

As the missiles come, the machine gun quickly mows them down and they explode in front of the Raven. Soon Gabriel blasts out of the smoke plum, returning fire with his machine gun, before he skids around to keep up with Crest core piloted by the former Trailer. Archangel raises a brow slight, "..schedule huh.." He says softly.

~"Unknown reference."~

"Yeah, cause I wasn't talking to you."

Gabriel then takes aim with the machine gun once more, It holds the machine gun there for a moment, then it quickly leaps into the air, cutting over from above while opening fire. <<"You sure you don't want to take this nice and slow?">>

"A... I..." Quatre receives the message sent by the... young girl, and gets up from his seat. He slowly walks to the front of the shuttle and opens the door, where a pair of tought looking pilots are, giving him a somewhat confused stare. They aren't sure what to do. In the meanwhile, the Sandrock Gundam, under its tarp, is being loaded into the transport. "Set me up with a communication channel." Quatre asks, smiling at the two. "Don't worry, it'll be fine."

Eight suddenly receives an audio&video stream to her cockpit, if she'd accept it, showing the blonde and blue eyes Arab giving her a gentle look - as well as an option to 'send' audio and visual herself in reply. "This is Quatre Raberba Winner speaking." He introduces himself, leaning forward so that she can see his face and a good portion of his upper body. Well... the normal suit anyhow. "And I am sorry..."

"But... I cannot do that. I have to go up into space. It is important." Then... he suddenly smiles. "Your bosses would be very upset if you shot my troops. Is he... is Quatre... lying!? He's doing a mighty good job at making it sound believable though. "It's on need to know basis, but obviously... you need to know." He adds, mysteriously. "You see, I am defec~..." Then suddenly, he notices Jiron falling from his window. "Look out!" He warns Eight.

"Ch. Bringing the fight to the ground, eh?" Pixy mumbles to himself, eyeing the Valkyrie out through the cockpit window as it shifts forms to break it's fall; he knits a brow slightly as he rights the Morgan's direction, ceasing it's altitude gain and instead turning to come around for an attack run on the grounded Valkyrie. He'll have to try to finish this quickly -- not that he's one to shy away from blowing up civilian structures for a good cause, but it probably wouldn't reflect well on him to his allies.

A missile is fired, and Pixy's reaction is quick -- an ECM pod is launched from the Morgan, sending the missile veering off course from the aircraft with it's electronic interference, leaving it to instead explode harmlessly away; it seems the Morgan is well equipped for electronic warfare. "Is that all you've got in you," A smug grin, "Maximillian Jenius, Macross Ace?"

How does a Machine Beast stay on the roof?

Jung's eyes see an explosion of blue light.

TENTACLES!

The Empruss is so high up that the whipping tentacles strike it without sufficient force to do more than slightly ding the polycarbon armor, though she does hiss inwards. "Damn! What the hell is this? One of their own, or some kind of guest star?"

Another glance at everyone else. People seem to be doing fine even if they've been engaged. Then, a blimp, ruptured and out of control, flies up towards the Empruss; the impact is not what does damage, it is the part of it that undergoes exotic chemical reactions in the GN tau exhaust and then catches fire in Earth's atmosphere. That half-loosed claw rips at the wreckage, even as the Empruss stops its forward approach, hovering over the airfield like a giant menacing bat-crab.

And it /is/ giant. It seems to be a significant portion of the size, if perhaps not the raw mass, of the Argama. One might wonder if there's an MS hangar in it, though this would be in vain. Seeing it disengaging wreckage from itself is probably illustrative of subtle design principles... if you are paying attention.

"If that's Spiderman, ask him why he doesn't marry Lois Lane already," Jung answers Simon, sounding annoyed (but not at him). Her eyes flick around, the prosthetic one processing the boards faster. Everyone seems in shape, and if she brings the Empruss lower she runs the risk of either slamming into something expensive and litigiable, or else into her own forces, or else simply being tied up in between durable buildings. She remembers --...

She shakes her head once. "God! No wonder I haven't used this thing in months," Jung complains at herself even as the un-deployed claw unlatches itself, the Empruss pivoting while it hovers on its blistering GN exhaust to face that Mechanical Beast. What whips out are several long, thread-thin tendrils animated by that terrifying GN particle irradiance, aiming to slide down and out-tentacle that horrid Thing below!

The Crest CC-type abruptly changes directions as Garrod starts to beeline back towards the Freedan II, bullets choewing up the pavement in his wake. Garrod grits his teeth as he switches to a backward skid and counter attacks with a burst from his chest vulcans, ~Sorry, just as I'd like to, I don't have the luxury of taking things slow.~ Without any warning whatsoever, the AC changes directions once again, this time bursting /forward/ at max speed as Garrod lines up to punch gabriel in the face. Oh, by the way. Garrod's fist has a LASER SWORD in it.

Max tries to dodge the ECM pod, but only manages to get hit in the left arm, the same damaged one. However, the radio transmission is still heard as Max's Valkyrie switches to Gerwalk mode again. 'I dunno where you're hearing this 'Ace' Stuff from. I'm not an Ace, I'm just a pilot. want an ace? Face Roy Fokker. This is just a job to me." He says through the radio as a heavy armor piercing missile is fired from the Valkyrine before it switches BACK to Soldier mode. damn he's quick on those transformations.

"Be careful?! I am being careful! In war, you have to fight with everything you can in order to be the hero! No one listens when you mumble!" Katz aims again nd fires into the Gurren Lagann, keeping it's stance. "I can't lose today! My dad is watching me! My heroes are watching me! I will keep going until the end! AND NO! YOU HAVE TO SAY SPIDERMAN - TURN OFF THE DARK! It's a codename! Because if I say I'm Katz Kobayashi, people will realize I'm that guy who blew up tha---Crap."

The Gundam just kinda stands there. Yes, Simon, you've heard of this guy. He is a monster who kills students and dogs. He robbed a store of toys that could've gone to children. He is darkness incarnate. "Damnit! I won't let you make me mess this up!" He fires wildly at Simon.

<Radio: B - Secure> Quatre Raberba Winner transmits, "I believe in you all!"

Gabriel quickly slides to a stop as the Crest CC comes right back in towards him. Archangel tsks softly as he quickly types in commands. He almost didn't have enough time and it shows.

The Core CC slams its fist with the energy blade into Gabriel's head and the blade itself put a nice big hole in it, however as the other Core is in close, Gabriel quickly reached in and takes ahold of the chest vulcan, before going to quick step over and slam the core down into the ground.

~"Nicely done."~ Archangel says almost to calmly. ~"But not good enough."~

The Armored Core quickly skids back, more correctly in the direction that Garrod seem to be want to go, before it knelt down. The Grenade launcher swung around and rested down on the shoulder. "..computer get me the specs on that core," He then pulls out a cord and hooks it to his helment, his visor then flickers as it shows the data that normally would be on the HUDs that are now dead, "..also give me all manual controls."

~"Acknowledged."~

Then with that a pair of foot pedals extend out from the ground as R then slips his hands into a pair of gloves, at which he mimics the Armored Core's stance the best he can from where he sits, till the computer peeps on sync. "..been awhile R.. but not gonna a roockie show you up, right?" He smile then turns deadly, "..of coarse not. Don't have time for these games anyhow."

It wasn't long till the grenade started to charge the barrel up to fire the explosive shell as the computer then gives over the data to Archangel, <<"Boom baby.">>

Then the grenade fires.

It is a kinda sureal fight really with the size different, she pauses at the machine beast out of the corner of her eye. It has tentacles, it has tentacles. Oh god Dr. Hell made one with tentacles and she's in a G Fighter, she'll stay over here. Fighting Roar, which is much sanity safer idea.

She manages to not lose her balance as he pushes her back.

"Not bad but not enough!"

She pulls back before he can throw her and she's again trying to just punch the heck out of Roar, possibly leaving impacts in the runway as she goes.

With a practised ease, the GNXIII reaches up, and grabs the Gallia in midair, and spins around in place. Holding it by the arm, the GNXIII spins around and tosses the Walker Machine to one side, trying not to aim for anything too flammable, but instead aiming for the nearest Manganac suit. Keeping the lance aimed at the shuttle's cockpit, the GNXIII holds up one hand in the hopes of preventing them from doing anything... unwise.

The channel to Quatre's shuttle opens, revealing a pilot wearing an A-LAWS flightsuit, and a polarized visor, blocking out her face. "Quatre Raberba Winner, for your willing participation in the Colonies Liberation Organisation's Operation Meteor, I am placing you under arrest. This is your last warning. Surrender now, or I will kill this extended 'family' of yours after I pin this shuttle to the runway with my *foot*."

"Admiral, why're the Trailers attacking us?" a Katharon agent asks Bright.

To this, Bright can only lift his shoulders in a shrug. "I haven't a clue. I suppose they're far more insidious than we were lead to believe. It might be what lead Jiron and his friends to switch sides." He rubs his chin in thought, wondering if this might've also been the reason that brought Jack-O to his doorstep yet again.

"The Freedan should be close to launching!" Bright shouts into his walkie-talkie. "Start bringing our remaining shuttles ready for launch! Whatever we can't load on board, we'll just send back to Karaba!"

"We'll SEE ABOUT THAT!" Fighter Roar bellows as the fist comes in. Once again he skims over the back of the fist as it comes in and flips off of it. He bounds up the Elbow and lands a heavy left cross against the Amazon's head before skipping back and up.

He is now, visibly, glowing. There's a distinct nimbus of what appears to be fire around his body as the fight continues. Dropping down from overhead once more, feet first, he attempts to cross the Amazon up with a flying kick that leads onto several others as the tiny fighter bounds around the tarmac.

An armor piercing missile? Well, that's certainly new. The Morgan certainly was more heavily armored than your average regular airplane -- though not anywhere near the level of a regular mobile suit. It seems Pixy had placed a little too much faith in the power of electronic warfare; the missile strikes the Morgan and sends it swerving off course through the sky, sparking and crackling with fire and damaged electrical equipment.

Fortunately, however, Pixy is still able to salvage control of the plane; it is with great wobbling that it maneuvers back toward Max's direction, the pilot's brow knitting. A quick glance is given over the controls and gauges, and then Pixy opens fire with the aircraft's machinegun; cannon rounds thump out through the sky toward the Valkyrie, peppering at random -- the machine's laser pod remains silently at rest, at least for the time being.

Didn't beams work on /anything/ anymore? With all this damn deflectors technology and bullshit fairy dust engine crap going around Camille was beginning to imagine what the Zeons must have felt like when Amuro was punching holes through their battleships like it wasn't no thang.

"Good reflexes..." The Newtype's hand flew over the controls in an accomplished mastery of the craft carrying the Gundam out of even the remotest chance of harm from the deflect beams, "But better than mine...?!"

Katz's resolve hit Camille like a runaway truck, and he cursed his annoyance with the littlest freedom fighter under his breath, "Fucking damn it Katz, what's gotten into you?!" He'd hoped seeing his family would instill some caution in the younger pilot, but it seemed to have only made things worst. Must be an adopted thing.

Back to matters at hand, the blue-haired boy suppressed a groan as his opponent went on about Gundams, "Oh great, you're one of those." One of the downsides to flying a gundam was having red, white and blue target painted on your for every jumped up enemy pilot looking to make a name for himself. Taking down a gundam was the equivalent of banging two chicks at the same time as far as military accomplishments went. At least, that's how Camille's teenaged, post-pubscent mind saw it.

The problem came when you dealt with someone who might actually be able to /deliver/, like when Camille is suddenly trapped in a furious spray of plasma-powered death.

"Damn it!" The Zeta weather the storm admirably, but it wasn't pretty. Fuck that new paint job, fuck auxillary sensors, fuck head vulcans.

"You..." There was something about the pilot, something unhinged. He didn't have time for crap like this, /they/ didn't have time.

"You have no idea what the hell you're doing!!" Lacking for any better line, Camille shouted out the first stock phrase that came into his head as the Zeta charged through the remaining particle fire to close with the superbia, beam saber flaring out in a wide arc for the GN drive, the weak point on those units!!

Suddenly, hundreds of miles away, one particular mercenary looks up from his newspaper and Garm-O's and suddenly feels the unnatural urge to punch a fairy.

Garrod lets out a cy as his Core is slammed into the ground, then quickly rolls to his feet and gets up, "tch, damnit..." he glances over to where the Freedan II is. "Captain, we're in launch position now," Sara announces. Jamil frowns a bit as he glances over to her, "And Garrod?" "Still engaged in combat... it doesn't look like he'll be able to get back in time..." Jamil frowns a bit... to delay the operation and wait for Garrod, or to launch now and hope he makes it out alive? After a moment, Jamil squeezes his hands, "Begin launch procedures and inform Garrod that he has until we get up to speed before he'll have to catch the next flight out." Garrod punches his throttle forward as Gabriel opens fore, zipping right out of the grenade barrage and streaking right past Archangel. His AC spins around as it once more goes into a backwards spin, then unfurls it's massive cannon. "FIRE!" The cannon thunders as the AC jerks back from the recoil. After all, normally you aren't supposed to /fire/ something that big while moving, and it's only through sheer grit that he keeps the CC from tumbling over from the shock.

Max, somehow, is able to get out of the way of the cannon fire, only to let the plane fly by. That was one advantage of a Valkyrie. it could sit still while a 'normal' plane had to remain moving to fly on by. However, Max didn't bother wasting words this time, firing a long Gunpod burst in Pixy's direction, or where he was heading....

Wielding thehaberdashery's enormous bowler-shaped sign in its tentacles, the Sinister Cephalopod shields itself from the Armoured Module's railgun slugs as best as a monstrous octupus with a hat-shaped sign /can/ protect itself from railgun slugs... which is to say that the sign is reduced to metallic tatters and the slugs stopped dead in their tracks before they can reach its body.

Somehow.

Valhawk's vulcan spray see more success, flaying flesh and metal alike across the Machine Beast's two-toned cranium. Elsewhere, in the garden she's made for herself amongst the refuse of Paradigm City, the Marchionessa presses her teeth tightly to her bottom lip. Her hands are a little unsteady around her staff and sifting what's happening to her Machine Beasts from what's happening to /her/ is still a bit challenging when gunfire is involved. For that matter, suppressing the /powerful/ urge to down, just, buckets of shrimp and clams and crabs is pretty difficult too; with enough time, separating its wants and needs and impulses from her own should be no trouble at all, but time is a limited commodity today. Empruss' Egner Whips are undulating towards Downpour, and--

//FLASH//

--and without warning, the young, would-be General perceives the cerulean violence of Jung's intent. Her perception is translated into Downpour I2's motion, and Downpour I2's motion brings about the collapse of whatever was left of the Haberdashery as the /rest/ of its body rumbles from its crater.

Beneath its distinctly marine head lie the tentacles it's so far utilized to sow chaos through the A-LAWS' ranks; beneath /those/, however, there's only the body of a spiny, metal-clad pachyderm. Tremors shake the streets as it thunders onto them, setting loudly chiming car alarms off for blocks away.

"You've chosen very pourly," she lowly states; her words are carried to the Valhawk's cockpit through the magic of a Newtype Flash System and good old fashioned radio transmissions.

Also carried towards the Valhawk: the Machine Beast's bizarre, grey, metallic bulk. Now that it's free, it's picking up speed as it stampedes through the city, and as it lowers its head in preparation for butting the mobile suit from the sky, it emits a piercing, trumpeting cry from deep within its body. Windows break, Paradigm citizens clutch their ears, and most importantly, a wall of compressed sonics race towards the Empruss to try and force it from the sky.

<Radio: B - Secure> Quatre Raberba Winner transmits, "Pixy! You may not know me... but..."

<Radio: B - Secure> Quatre Raberba Winner transmits, "I just wanted to tell you... The Heart of Space is with you!"

<Radio: B - Secure> Pixy transmits, "The Heart of Space, huh? I guess that means this is a good time to go for all or nothing, then. Hah."

Staren winces. The words hurt, more than the attack. His mind races for rationalizations. "Solis... It's not _my_ smuggling... Katharon... I trust Bright Noa!"

Staren stares into the distance, through his screens. "What would you do, Solis? You've seen what the federation has done... And what's public knowledge is only the tip of the iceberg! We can't have bases everywhere like the Federation, we're not the _government_! We still have to fight back! We don't kill civilians just because it's _convenient_... We don't kill civilians at all! Katharon isn't _perfect_... but who is? Do you think I could stop the federation on my own?!"

The words are accompanied by flailing with swords!

The dirty blonde narrows his eyes as he quickly follows where Garrod goes. Gabriel's head follows him just as Archangel looks in that direction inside. "Cute." He says flatly. Gabriel then quickly comes about to face the other AC, and just as the Cannon is fired, the Overboost drive kicks on, <<"Let me show you how this is done!">> He yells out on the comm before he laughs.

The white AC then thrusters at accelerated speeds, and just turns a near 90 degree angle to avoid the blast, only inches away, before he then brings down the Laser sword to bare, before taking another step and then the grenade launcher comes around once more, before pumping out several close quarter blasts right for the Crest CC.

In truth, being so close, was screeching the other AC back, even as it feel down on its knee because of the stress loads.

Curse of not being a PLUS and all.

"I know exactly what I'm doing!!"

Camille draws closer, and the Boosted Child knows that the pilot of the Zeta Gundam fully intends on making this a close-quarters battle. Her lips purse as she blows a bit of air through her mouth, watching his arc the whole time she continues to fire, and--

-- shit, he's going for the GN Drive--

The Superbia attempts to rotate to the left, to spin the engine away from the Zeta Gundam's prying sabers. Her attempts are only partially successful, the blades ripping along the conical casing that protects the Tau Drive, skimming along the back and shoulder while the circular cap is bent straight off the frame, complete with the large connector bolts snapping free before it flips and spins off toward the ground.

"What, do you need a rocket to be able to hit me again?!"

Continuing to turn, the Superbia's arms sway backwards while the torso twists. The twin GN Vulcans mounted in the hips start to blaze beam 'bullets' from their nozzles while she attempts to get just a little more clearance from the sabers-- so she can get her next plan of attack in line.

Macua Huitl Says, "Heh, too slow!" Mac's moving quickly really quickly she pulls back and weaves out of range of the other attackers strikes. Kouta is fast, he's strong. Mac's having a darn field day with this. But she's yet to give up as she launches into a much more focused assault on Fighter Roar. She tries to boot him up into the air. She'll then try to punch the air born Fighter Roar and follow it with another combination of strikes which could then send him flying into a large pile of lugage!

"MACHINE GOD FIST COMBINATION ATTACK!"

Solis watches as Staren rushes in, the blades catching him, slicing at armor and causing the various sytems to be somewhat overwhelmed. Unlike Staren, his limbs are his limbs...and those blade strikes are pretty damn unpleasant to weather...

As the assault abates, he falls to one knee, feeling the blood running down his arms and legs...

"...I don't fight for the federation. I am 3G. I fight for the earth. I fight for the colonies. I fight for humankind, be it human, zentraedi or whatever other species are true kindred of us. Your anti-government tantrums are /endangering/ people, Wiremu! You want to deal with corruption in the world? You want to prevent harm from coming to civilians. Then fight for a true goal, and not just to OPPOSE SOMEONE ELSE!" The Tengu stands up, electricity crackling over it, "I am Solis Vivent. I have been working on growing up, Wiremu. I have tried to pry the scales from my eyes and by the glory of the omnissiah I have made progress. It is time for you to WAKE UP. Just because you oppose someone more evil does not make your own sins clean and bright. Or was I right to burn the world for the glory of the divine crusade?!" He hefts the weapon, firing a punishing barrage of energy at Staren, "Ruminate on this!!"

"How did..." Quatre is surprised that Muramasa knows of his identity. Not to mention Project Meteor. He shakes his head. "I am flying to your superiors. You can get on the shuttle and ensure that I go to the nearest A-LAWS base in space. But I cannot stop here. It would look too suspicious. And I am not ready to die yet." He then suddenly winces... as Muramasa throws the Galia onto one of the Maganac units, which immediately crushes the thing, causing a quick explosion that rocks the shuttle.

"MOHHHAAAMMMMEEEED!!" The Maganac crew suddenly shout and all use their machines to grab for giant tomahawks mounted on the backs of their machines. Then suddenly... a man comes crawling out of the wreckage, fixes his red Fez hat... and drunken-walks to the nearest hangar. Quatre raises a hand to his chest and smiles. "Thank god..."

"The Sandrock gundam is loaded sir! We're ready to blast off." Quatre then stands up and points fowards. "Get out of the way, hang on, or face your superior's punishment!" And then, looking all cool and everything, he puts on his sand-goggles and grins. He looks mightily confident.

The machine begins to start up its engines, and turns slightly to face away from Eight. "Come with me! Mysterious pilot. If you successfully protect me, I am sure you will be well paid." The machine revs up... the Maganac troops still holding their weapons. After all... their friend didn't die.

Ibis tries to peice together exactly what is going on, head swimming. Heero was saying something and blowing her mech up with a laser sword and then there was an awfully sudden sensation of lift and now the Astelion is kind of awkwardly laying in this crushed building and trying to sit up and oh god why won't those alarm klaxons shut up already surely the damage isn't that bad right.

The targeting computer tries to figure out why a monster octopus with a giant hat-shaped sign is giving off enough of a heat signature to make for a valid target and gives up halfway through, instead just suggesting that maybe it's time to fight back and figure the specifics out later. Still lying prone and unable to get to its feet for all of the god damned rubble and coffee machines and other detritus and bullshit making it difficult, the humanoid form of the Astelion disgorges a barrage of missiles towards the Satan Hell Death Tentacle Octopus.

"Wha --" Kazuma's exclamation is cut short as he pulls up *hard*, dodging the Machine Beast's 'true' body as it charges down the street. "Okay, what the heck was THAT?!"

"Trouble for the neighborhood," Mihiro sums up. "Which part are we targeting?"

"The .... whatever kind of animal that's supposed to be, the one that tried to charge through us on its way down the street. Let the A-LAWS deal with the tentacles."

"Thank you," Mihiro breathes as she resets the targeting systems and Kazuma dives towards their new part of the target.

"All right, ya big ugly. Hunting season is officially open!"

And with that declaration, Kazuma locks on with the Beam Shot Launcher, opening fire.

The Freedan II's engines ignite as the battleship begins to slowly force it's wait ahead towards the orbital launch ramp. It doesn't take long though for it to accelerate and Garrod grits his teeth as he watches it move, "C'mon... c'mon!" Alarms go off in his cockpit as missiles swarm down on him. Twisting halfway, he opens up with his machinegun, but only after a few flashes of gunfire, it runs out... and the missiles are still closing, "Shit!" The AC takes off at high speeds with the missiles in hot pursuit. It seems that Garrod is trying to beat them to the Freedan II It also seems that he's losing. Then micro-explosions ripple across the CC's frame as the core ejects all of it's weapons, purging everything not of value. The discarded gear falls away and slams into the tarmack, bouncing and twisting. A moment later, the missiles run straight into the flung debris and explode. the Freedan II accelerates skill and Garrod skims up along side it, struggling to squeak out every last ounce of speed as he reaches for the opening hanger door, "C'mon! C'mon! MOVE!" Then he leaps and reaches out for the ship, his Core's hand reaching out... And he falls short. just then, a hand grabs his own and Kid yells out over the skin-contact radio, "Gotcha, Gundam Boy!" Garrod looks up to see a civilian use Raysta pulling him into the Freedan's hanger. Garrod lets out a held breath and sighs, "Thanks Kid, I owe ya one." The Core plants it's feet under it as the hanger doors start to close, right around the same time the Freedan hits the launch ramp itself and ignites it's Space Boosters for the final push into the skies above.

A duel of gunpods finds both Pixy and Max whiffing like professionals; both machines are too maneuverable to find easy purchase using unguided fire, it seems. But with the damage to his aircraft mounting and with encouraging words over the Katharon radio network, Pixy decides that it's time to put everything in to one final charge. "It's been fun, Macross pilot," Pixy radios to Max, knitting his brow in a more serious expression beneath the featureless mask of his flight gear. "But I don't have anymore time to play around."

The ADFX-02 Morgan maneuvers on course for front of Maximillian's Valkyrie, aiming it's nose straight toward the enemy's -- it seems he is going for an old fashioned jousting match between pilots, without the ECM tricks he'd used previously. The chemical laser pod beneath the aircraft crackles to light once more, charging up it's gleaming red light before searing through the sky once more, straight ahead; the craft makes no movement to divert and slash it's giant laser blade, instead attempting to simply lance the Valkyrie from the air in an honest, head-on charge.

Jung's eyes cut to the side now to see -- one of the GNXes has a shuttle pinned. But isn't doing anything. She sends a brief radio message, closes the mike, turns her eyes downwards, then! The roar is immense; a sonic blast that ripples the clouds /above/ the Empruss, a thousand little components in the manufactured craft rippling, shuddering, shaking, loosened now.

Jung exhales... and tastes a little blood in her mouth. She wonders with a moment of anxiety what that wave did passing through /her/, but dismisses this as residual worry from her own body horror moment in that exact same seat. Her eyes pivot down. Was that a show of a tithe of power, or was it a main weapon system? She's unsure - the reports on Machine Beasts are always ambiguous. Some say they're incredibly powerful and Koji Kabuto and friends are merely excellent at stopping them; the others say they are more or less La Gias monsters, made of metal and controlled remotely. Some are in between. Jung can't know.

She does know she has lasers, though.

Several pulsing bursts of red light shock downwards, aiming to bracket that fetching haberdashery. Innocent hats perish by the score, but the circling pattern aims to confine and obliterate that Machine Beast! "Douglas, you OK?" she says as she does this, perhaps also noting Ibis's contribution of the traditional Project TD greeting (missiles).

"That technique!" Roar suddenly exclaims. Before he'd mistaken it for the method of Neo America's Chibodee Crockett. But that stance. He KNOWS that stance.

That man.

That man!

...Who may or may not be dating his sister...

And then, as he tries to get a shot off, because he's stood there looking at Macua's stance a little too long, gets KISHIN-KENed, and goes flying. He impacts the side of a nearby container and sticks there for a moment before shoving himself clear.

He shakes the cobwebs out of his head after a couple of moments and then adjusts his shoulder with a careful rotation, just to make sure that everything is still attached.

"Pretty good..." he remarks. He then shifts how he's standing slightly. "COME AT ME!" he then shouts, shoving himself laterally across the tarmac suddenly. His fists do the talking as he skips upwards and attempts to turn loose a few dozen of them at the Gundam's torso, upper arms and upper legs.

<Radio: B - Secure> Jamil Neate announces over the near deafening sound of being launched into outer space on the end of a gigantic rocket, "Freedan II, launching!"

<Radio: B - Secure> Quatre Raberba Winner transmits, "Roger that, Freedan II. I will be following any moment now."

The Gundam is struck by the shade slasher. Katz growls as his Gundam now features a gash across the front. The blade also managed to damage the beam rifle. Katz quickly throws the rifle at the Gurren Lagann and attempts to body check the super robot with some fancy martial arts.

Fancy for Katz.

Katz is not very good.

The Gundam is literally trying to punch Gurren Lagann in the crotch... That's the martial arts it is using.


 * Tink*

Max moves out of the way JUST in time to avoid said attack. Will miracles never cease. Well, in this case, what max calls himself, and what he actually IS is now called into question. However, Pixy now has a problem. Max switches over to Fighter mode and is now on his tail... intent upon blowing him out of the sky, or making him retreat.

The GNXIII's reply is swift, sudden, and without any further unwitty replies. With a blur of motion, the mobile suit leaps into the air, high above the shuttle, leaving a trail of GN particles in its wake. For a moment, it seems as if it was letting it pass... But then, the engines reverse its velocity, and the massive suit rockets downwards, lance first, aiming straight for the Shuttle, just between the cockpit and the cargo bay.

The intent is obvious. Rather then its foot, the GNXIII is going to pin the shuttle to the taxiway like steel cocktail weenie!

Archangel quickly gives chase. Gabriel is nearly on the heals, if not a bit behind the other core, till that core starts to dump stuff, at which he has to use the overboosters to accelerate. As he gets his last chance he raises up the machine gun and takes aim.

This was a tricky shot, he was sure...

There.. was a kid?

Gabriel's arm froze there, before it lowered down slowly, allowing the shuttle along with the Crest core to get away.

The dirty blonde pilot then unhooked his hands from the gloves before he removed his helmet tsksing softly. "..computer.. normal combat mode.."

~"Acknowledged."~

Walker Gallia gets grabbed, hefted, thrown, and kind of skips the rest of the way across the tarmac. Jiron gets kind of tired of all this chichanery. Walker Gallia stands up and dusts itself off in a very human gesture, and then just kind of... walks off-screen. It hops the fence and kicks in it's hovernozzles and hoverfan, zipping out of the combat zone with as little explanation as it came in there with.

Later on it will come back to drive through a Speakeasy's front window, but that's a story for another episode.

"Launch remaining shuttles!" Bright commands over his walkie-talkie.

On several other launchpads, the successive ignition of thrusters is like an oppressive series of thunderclaps. They're starting to take off!

"Camille, Pixy, keep pressing your defense! We're almost to the finish line!"

Quatre looks up and smiles at Eight jumps across. "So much conflict in her heart... perhaps I can help her one day..." He holds a hand to his chest and settles down in one of the extra seats in the pilot's cabin. The shuttle's thrusters engage to full. And just as it seems like the girl will do some harm... FWOOOOOOM! The shuttle suddenly picks up speed, leaving her with firing at nothing but tarmac! Quatre gets pushed into his seat and gasps for air. He was not used to this kind of punishment.

Outside in the meantime, the Maganac troops raise their heat tomahawks in celebration of their leader's escape and then suddenly all turn on Eight. Were the visors of their machines suddenly glowing red? "You tried to kill master Quatre." Ohhh shiiii....

And then suddenly, all of the units run straight for her unit and swipe their gigantic axes at her unit, trying to cut off the trusters and arms and legs... anything but the cockpit!

Unfortunately for Katz, punching Gurren Lagann in the crotch does not translate to a crotch punch into Simon's crotch thus removing the source of his power forever.

Unfortunately for Simon, he doesn't really expect people to punch Gurren Lagann in the crotch. He is thrown back, hard, and crashes near the fallen beamsabre. He considers throwing it but, ugh, he'd probably miss and hit the kitten korner behind Katz and that would be just awful.

"It seems I have no choice...but to use his own tactics against him." He draws back a fist, drills pushing out of the knuckles of the Gurren Lagann and charges again, obviously.

And then rolls down at the last minute and retaliates with a DRILL CROTCH PUNCH COMBO for Katz's robonads! Stealing your techniques and making them their own, that's the Gurren Brigade Way!!

Camille Bidan says, "Rocket? What the hell are-"

Oh, right.

"You!!" The elation Camille felt that the pilot had survived that ridiculous attack was tempered by the knowledge that he may well have to kill her now, but the AEUG ace was prepared to do his duty, however distasteful he may find it.

The beam saber cuts the edges of the GN Tau's protective casing, but fails to find true purchase. So much for a quick end to the fight.

Muttered curses trailed the Zeta's wake like afterglow as Camille pitched back in anticipiation of a follow-up attack, and received one.

He wasn't in a position to dodge, so he did the next best thing: The Zeta's shield came up to intercept the spray of 'bulletfire' from the Superbia's steel hips, the pilot's psychic brain racing on equal parts adrenaline and hormones to sort out his next move.

"I'll hit you when I damn well please, and not a moment before!"

Heero was out, Katz was Katz and Camille had only half an ear to what was going on elsewhere. For all he knew the line ended here.

Time to get dangerous.

"You didn't want me getting close to you.." Maybe because that unit wasn't so well suited for close combat? "But you're going to see you can't always have things your way!!!"

The Zeta advance again, twin beam swords arcing out for a deadly cross slash, a finishing attack that didn't arrive.

That is because it was a faint, plasma-filled sabers switching back at the last moment as the Zeta brought it's right leg out for hopefully smashing connect with the side of the GNX cockpit. He'd knock some sense into this girl!!"

Ch-- So. Playing nice won't work, huh? "Got it." Pixy replies simply to the Katharon radio channels, apparently not one for titles and politeness -- he instead focuses on swerving the Morgan around to take another strike at Max. It's time for blood! A wing is slightly clipped by the fired missile, but it isn't like Pixy's nickname is just hyperbole -- even with a damaged wing, the aircraft is soon leveled to charge at the Valkyrie once more.

"Sorry, Max. But I can't be the one to lose here." He mumbles to himself, hands squeezing the controls -- apparently deciding that he's played fair for long enough, the laser pod hums and crackles yet again. That red laser streaks through the sky, soon glimmering in a wide sweep as the Morgan's nose turns. The energy beams slashes across toward the Valkyrie, seeking to return the favor -- maybe he'll get to see if Max can pull off the same one wing'd stunts. Or maybe he'll get to see the lad explode.

Who knows.

Eight. Is. Pissed.

With her lance embedded in concrete, it would appear she was out of options. As the Manganacs fall upon her, however, she dodges and weaves her way through their attacks, evading slash after slash, their tomahawks swinging in her glittering trail, and never landing a blow. Until, with a sudden, solid, *yank*, the mobile suit pulls the embedded lance free of the concrete, and once again leaps into the sky, high above the battlefield. With the shuttle now rapidly running out of range, she turns to the Manganac Corps. Singling out the leader, or at least the most respected of them, she dives towards the group, lance once again in a charging stance, as she aims for the Manganac's /cockpit/.

Staren can't think heavy thoughts at the same time as fighting -- the Star Hawk is pummeled, laser after laser making armor run down the mecha in a river of slag.

He became a pilot to become a hero. Has he fallen astray?

"Solis... do you really think that I care about stopping the federation for the sake of stopping the federation? I care about it _because_ they're a danger to people! That's why we fight! To protect those who can't fight or choose not to... to _allow_ people to choose not to fight and have a chance at peace, that isn't under some corrupt tyranny where they could be struck down at any moment just because they were _inconvenient_ to some federation commander! But how much can I protect people alone? I'm one person. People won't listen to me... But I'm not alone. Everyone in Katharon is fighting for the _same reason_. Perhaps today's mission was a mistake... People make mistakes. That doesn't mean give up. If Katharon's leaders should ever descend to the level of the divine crusaders... I and my friends will kick their asses personally! I'll invite you if you like! Now... Get out of my way!"

Staren rushes forward, continuing to batter the Tengu with its armblades... He winces at the thought of what it must be doing to Solis, dammit why did he have to show up in the power armor! Then again, compared to what the Hostis did to him... Staren turns down the power on the railgun and the beam shotgun, trying to weaken the Tengu with its weapons as swords batter again and again!

~tink~ Max's reflexes, somehow, win out again as he dodges the laser attack. The fighter is now spewing smoke, but Max is somehow able to hold it together. However, he opens a channel to Pixy. "I did say I had to put up a good show for the black box, Pixy. In this case, my orders were to stop the launch and... well, you distracted me. Time for us both to limp home." He then closes the channel just a /second/ lock on tone buzzes in the cockpit... and an ungodly number of missiles is fired from the valkyrie....

The chainblade swings around, deflecting the majority of the larger strikes even as the rail cannon shots rain in... The explosions buffet the tengu's arm, as Solis remains resolute within... Its like a giant fighting a very angular monstrous looking mechanized knight given the size difference... "Wiremu. Those are excuses. Excuses like I used to make. I am only one man. How can I hope to stand alone? You stand with few, and say the lone man accomplishes nothing. You stand here and say one man can accomplish nothing. There will be war always Staren, always tyrants, always monsters and horrors rising up out of the darkness, but so long as one man stands against them, this universe is worthy of fighting for." "You are in my way, Staren. In the way of protecting the people who need it by stopping this insanity at the source." He raises his blade, "Toll the great bell once. Pull the lever forward to engage piston and pump!" "Toll the great bell twice. With push of button stir the engine and spark the turbine to life." "Toll the great bell thrice..."

The Tengu charges forward, throwing its chainblade skyward as it launches upwards, sending a punishing barrage at the center of the Star Hawk's mass, before grabbing the blade and attempting to capitalize on the weapon's fire, "SING PRAISES TO THE GOD OF ALL MACHINES!!"

The Superbia's gunfire continues from the hips all while the Mobile Suit reaches to the small of the back and snaps up a GN-powered beam rifle from it's hardpoint, the gun swinging out to the side for a little more clearance while Camille closes in one more time. The teenaged supersoldier only continues to grin while those crossed sabers bear down toward her. The beam rifle swings upward, and--

-- punt desu.

Arian-16 reels to the side as the cockpit bloc of the Superbia is struck, the outer hull of the skirting armor denting in deeply from the force of the impact. Her screens go dark, to static, while her left heel digs down into the pedals. Her right leg lifts completely, and she seems to be waiting for something.

"Y'know, a lot of girls don't like a pushy guy!"

And then her left foot eases back, her right foot stomping down until the pedal hits the goddamned floor of the cockpit. The Superbia sways out of it's drop while the beam rifle is hefted up in two hands, the legs swinging backwards while the balls of the GN-X's feet drag across the asphalt. Heels drop, legs spread wide, and Arian-16 seems to be lining up her next shot. Aim. Strike. Hit... /Hit!!/

"If I say it's gonna hit..."

The static that ripples through her screens every now and again doesn't help, nor does the lingering pain from the strain she put herself through in space, but... she pulls the trigger, sending a single, precisely-aimed beam squarely for the Zeta Gundam's head!

"IT'LL HIT!!"

That man, is Macua's teacher. She has no idea about the whole Sister thing at all. She's be shocked to find out if Folak ws dating something. She's also be suprised he's not asking for advice with it. But away they go they are still fighting. "Oh I haven't opened upt but there's some things I just can't use in a place like this! but other than that! It's on!"

Mac back lips her machine away, s Kouta statts his attack just keeping the heck out of harms way. She comes for a landing then rolls awya, and is back up, and now opens fire with her machine's wrist blsters as she keeps her distance for a moment.

"Your good, relly good! Not many could take a G fighter like this!"

The Marchionessa frowns at Kazuma's response; having spoken on many occasions to Count Brocken, she is /used/ to meeting difficulties in discourse, but she's nonetheless disappointed by the young man's manner. On some level, she'd been hoping for something a little... /more/ than gung-ho bravado, despite Dr. Hell's lessons to the contrary.

Of course, Downpour I2 is just as disregarding of the Valhawk's Beam Shot Launcher and Empruss' GN Cannons as he is of her, demonstrating seemingly impossible levels of agility by sharply turning its massive magenta body to the side, gathering strength in its legs and /leaping/ over a grocery store; the two beams clash in mid-air, briefly struggling against one another for dominance before disappearing in a discordant flash.

Though it slides along the ground when it lands, it does not stop; it merely lowers its head to the ground, emitting ugly snuffling sounds as it seeks the Astelion's scent. At the same time, Marchionessa Idunn scrambles up a fire escape to get a better view of the battlefield for the sake of getting some kind of visual confirmation on the downed Armoured Module; just as she sets eyes on it - and just as Downpour I2's head snaps to attention - she sees the missiles streaking towards it.

"No!" she exclaims, thrusting her staff towards the Astelion. The gesture and shouted word are unnecessary; the monster wheels around to face its bogies as soon as her desire reaches it, and rather than evade it grabs the explosives from the air to flick them haphazardly towards the Valhawk. It does not pause, not to aim, not to follow the missiles with its own body, not for anything. It just runs. It just pulverizes the street beneath it. It just charges through Paradigm City without a care for its well-being or its citizen's safety, right until it reaches the Astelion.

And /then/ it stops.

And the looming shadow of its massive foreleg falls across the Armoured module, swiftly widening as it descends upon the Project Terrestrial Dream's No. 2.

The Maganac unit Eight goes after is the leader of the pack for a reason. When she readies her lance and comes rushing, the unit sturdies itself and... holds the axe right at its side. And just as it would see that she'd pierce the cockpit, the axe comes swinging! It crashes against her lance, and just manages to deflect it enough to bounce it off course and across the unit's shoulder, sending it reeling.

However, it somehow manages to correct its footing, and then suddenly... the units don't get closer. She could probably feel it, being a NewType. The grins. A loud 'BEEEEEEEP!' goes off. She'd stepped on a mine!? How'd that happen!? Where'd that come from!? 'BEEEP BEEP BEP BEP BP... bp bp bp bp!' It quickly repeats that annoying beep, faster and faster. She better move fast!

Kazuma's expression darkens as the Machine Beast tries to stomp on the Astelion - or maybe more than merely 'trying,' he can't see for sure. But he's attempting to change that, maneuvering towards where the Downpour I2 'landed' -

And triggering the Valhawk's transformation. "All right, whether you're one of Dr. Hell's or just a wandering random encounter, we're taking you *down*!!" Kazuma snaps, keeping the Valhawk airborne a little longer with controlled bursts of its thrusters, then attempts to land behind the Machine Beast ...

And to grab it. And lift it. And if luck is on his and the Valhawk's side, he's trying to *suplex* the Downpour I2, right on whatever passes for its head.

It crosses Mihiro's mind, not for the first time, that maybe Kazuma really *has* spent too much time around Gundam Fighters, going for a move like this. But she's used to it.

Katz narrows his eyes as Simon talks again. The pilot of the Gundam Mk. II prepares himself for what comes next. As the Gurren Lagann rises to its feet, the Gundam is already preparing itself for the attack. Katz couldn't lose this fight. His dad was watching. Bright was watching!

And then Katz notices the drills. "HEY! That's---" The drills strike the Gundam in the crotch and it doubles over. It almost looks like it is in pain. In actual practice, Simon just punched off the Mk.II's legs and smacked Katz back from battle. The Gundam's lower portion explodes into a shower of sparks, even as Katz attempts to work the Vulcan cannon. The Gundam crashes down and It is over.

Meanwhile

Hayato Kobayashi frowns with a furrowed brow. His son just destroyed his favorite restaurant and managed to take several of those unmanned prop planes with him. "That boy ain't right."

Meanwhile

Frau feels some maternal instinct to feel very disappointed in Katz. She does so.

Meanwhile

The Gundam Mk. II comes down on a church, smashing it with it's broken Gundam butt. Was anyone hurt? Probably not. However, the media is going to have a field day with "Celestial Being Hates Religion!" and "Katz Kobayashi hates your savior"

Meanwhile

Frau Kobayashi feels the need to be more disappointed with her son. She decides to take out the red wine and watch her stories.

Well, shit. Pixy can dodge a missile, usually. Hell, he can even dodge two missiles with reasonable success. What he apparently cannot dodge, however, is /all the missiles, ever/. His expression tenses, controls gripped as he struggles to evade the swarm of the Valkyrie's remaining missiles; if he can just get through this last storm of an attack, he can finish off Max once and for all --

But alas, it is not to be. A stray missile crashes into the Morgan's wing, exploding on impact and sending the machine hurdling; another strikes at the tail, due to the lack of maneuverability, compounding the problem. To hell if Pixy is going to just roll over and explode, however -- the Morgan is built more solidly than that. Swerving and swaying, Smoke belches along a wide trail behind the aircraft, yet miraculously it manages to.. well, sort of right itself. Really, it's more like the aircraft version of pathetically limping away to whatever hidey-hole Katharon might have set up.

<Radio: B - Secure> Pixy transmits, "Pixy, pulling out. Good luck to those who remain."

<Radio: B - Secure> Quatre Raberba Winner transmits, "God speed, Pixy."

Ibis stares blankly at the giant monster limb about to put an end to her pathetic existance and hopes briefly that, maybe, her actions have somehow managed to not bring any harm to the innocent dudes and dudettes inhabiting Paradigm City.

Oh, who is she kidding? Bitch probably killed scores of people with errant firepower by now. Get off that high horse.

The Astelion buckles like a paper doll as something it can barely identify, let alone /track/, crushes into it and puts the fantastic white flying machine out of comission for the second time in under a week, a new record that comes with a fabulous high score!! Somehow the cockpit isn't actually smashed into peices and the pilot killed, although that would probably look totally sweet on neo-ogrish if someone got that on camera. It's certainly enough to KO the pilot, at least, who flops pathetically in her seat as a result of not having worn a proper space-seatbelt.

Staren raises the hybrid swords, blocking the chainblade -- and then jumping back, as it begins to cut through his weapons. How is he losing ground to a _battle armor_?! "Dammit, Solis! That's very dramatic-sounding but it's just _words_! If I go to EFA HQ right now and call them out, what do you think will happen? Maybe, if I had the skill to manipulate people, to come up with world-altering plans, I _could_ form some sort of cunning scheme to strike from the shadows, pull political maneuvers that make the tyrants fall from power, and make the world a better place without a single dangerous conflict... But I'm not! I'm not that kind of _clever_! What I _can_ do is help the people who _have_ a plan! I can make sure that they have more than just words and ideas!"

The Star Hawk then leaps again and fires jumpjets, transforming and flying away.

"I'm happy for you, Solis. To see you've _chosen_ something to fight for. I'm sorry it's come to this..."

And then it starts flying _back_. "...But those shuttles are trying to _leave_, and allowing the federation to slaughter or imprison my friends won't make anyone's lives any better!" And then he fires the missiles _all_ the missiles, which rain from the sky around the Tengu... if he can just disable the darn thing before Solis ends up hurting his allies...!

The blast strikes Roar directly. He can't get out of the way in time. His armor sizzles and sears visibly as he weathers the blast. He comes out the other side still visibily burning. His hair is now whipping in a wind that must be generated entirely from the heat of his armor.

The scarf, however, does not seem to be combusting.

"Then.. I suppose I should stop holding back..." he declares.

The flames then, abruptly, seem to draw entirely into his right hand. His right hand remains on fire as he charges the Amazon Gundam. Skipping off the ground without firing his boosters, he rises up to the Gundam's upper chest level and lowers the boom.

Despite what is going on in the rest of the battle, Max flies after the Morgan and grabs onto it's wings to help Pixy right himself. Not that Pixy's a bad pilot, but he'd rather not let Pixy crash. However, once Pixy's on the ground, Max is gone to another base. whee...

"Mother of God," Jung complains, "how can something that fat dodge so well!"

INSIDE THE EMPRUSS'S TARGETTING SYSTEMS

A half-melted ice cream bar is sitting, with a familiar set of fat fingerprints wedged into it. Whose are they? It's a mystery, but all signs point to a certain Admiral G---

BACK HERE

Jung feels another sharp twinge, this one connected more clearly to the Astelion being brought down. Guided perhaps by the self-hatred oozing out of Ibis like some kind of venereal sore, the Empruss stops simply hovering, moving closer as she shouts, "Bitch!" towards the metallic monstrosity. Douglas doesn't seem to be screaming, which could cut several ways. Either way, the approaching Empruss explodes in a flurry of grappling forearms; one of them moves over to hoist and shift the Astelion in a rather undignified way, while the other one slams forwards, extending on an actuator arm and snaking and slamming around, aiming to rip and tear and crush against the Machine Beast!

"Fucking robot elephant! Why the hell are you EVEN HERE!!??"

Halfway across the world, a certain airfighter lounges on an extraordinarily comfy looking couch, wrapped in a cotton bathrobe. A sudden pang of /unrightness/ surges down the pilot's spine. Eyes narrow- from where does this urge to celebrate come from?

Oh, it hits alright.

Camille's momentary victory is short-lived as the beam punches through the the Zeta's armor like it was made of paper mache. The heat in the cockpit spiked to several degrees short of a sauna-it had been a close hit-and the familiar grey metal of the cockpit returned to Camille's surroundings. The panoramic cameras were offline..that meant he was running on auxillary power, only the most bare systems necessary to allow the gundam to fight and fly. One camera, one weapon, one shot.

"Okay then.." Camille admitted with a glowering wariness for this pilot, "We'll play it your way."

This time the Zeta doesn't swing back in for a melee strike. No, it doubles back, /triples/ back as sabers and rifle alike were stowed in favor of the far larger rifle commonly held on the Zeta's back. The Hyper Mega Launcher took careful aim of the distant Superbia as the targeting reticule hovered like a drunken fly over the viewscreen before blazing red with a pleasant chime that meant 'kindly get fucked' in machine language.

"I KNOW WHAT GIRLS LIKE!!" He insisted, half-believe it as a finger came down on the trigger, and the Zeta brought a nuke to a gunfight.

Pew pew, motherfuckers.

Eight frowns as the Manganac pilot manages to turn her blow aside, but a moment of insight leads to a deeper, frustrated look. The GNXIII leaps into the air, away from the Manganac's leader, evading the brunt of the mine's explosion.

Levelling her suit's lance Eight backs away from the gang of suits, and opens fire, showing the crowd with beamfire, and keeping out of reach from those Heat Tomahawks.

How is he losing to a battle armor?

Because its Solis Vivent, and he's not in a giant hulking war machine tearing his body apart and eating his soul little by little. In a world where Solis Vivent can get a loving girlfriend, anything is possible. "Its because you can't make world altering plans, because you can't manipulate people, Staren..."

The Tengu walks through the roiling apocalypse of explosions and missiles, the flames and explosions buffeting him, but Solis walks on, forward, resolute, unstopping even as he's thrown about by the missiles striking in... "I am Solis Vivent. I am the bulwark of mankind, Staren Wiremu. It is not the wise who carry the weight of man. It is not the strong. We are not their kings. We are their protectors. Their fate is their own. It falls to us to make sure that their fate remains strong. But, yes, these are words. And words have limitations. Ordnance speaks a much more strident tone." The SRM missiles on the rear of the tengu open up, launching at Staren's machine. "You are hiding behind them, Staren Wiremu. You are making excuses for me. Take responsibility. Be your own man. Katharon is another pit, another game which in the end will replace one wrong system with another. Mankind has had its fill of kings and reformists. It has yet met its need for men!!"

Simon cringes as the Gundam Mk II crashes down onto a church. He doesn't even. He doesn't even. He actually feels bad for beating Katz. Okay, he was a stupid prick according to Chibodee but he just feels bad. He takes a moment to send a transmission to his compatriots--due to all the nutpunches, he has sort of lost track of a few things.

And he forgot to ask him to marry Lois Lane, he realizes.

The moment the shot fires, impacts with the Zeta's head-- just as she had planned-- Arian stands the Superbia up straight, the arm swinging again out to the side to twirl the rifle like it were a goddamned Personal Trooper manhandling their weaponry in that usual way they always do. Arian grins a bit, but then-- oh.

Wait, that's a--

"Shit--"

The heels lift and the GN-X ascends a bit, trying to get out of the path of the Hyper Mega Launcher's beam. She doesn't get too far, and the blast rains down on the specialist Jinx with enough force to blow a hole through the head, the left shoulder, and punch a deep hole into the massive GN Condensor mounted inside the chest.

Pulling levers as hard as possible, the cockpit bloc ejects from the skirting armor before an explosion tears a hole through the rest of the torso, skipping across the asphalt with a scream of metal and a shower of sparks before coming to a stop.

A few moments later, the Boosted Child opens her eyes to the darkened interior of her cockpit, hanging upside-down... held up only by her seat's restraints. "... Huang's never gonna let me hear the end of this," she mutters to the darkness.

Macua Huitl looks at Roar for a moment she's not able to get out of the way she feels something comming and the huge machine drops into a proective stance. IT doesn't help mush as the attack the boom as it were? Hits. Mac's got the wind knockjed out of her from the feedback. The chest part of her suit lighting up bright red, but she's still in the fight. She's being pushed hard, very hard. Any other newtypes would get a sense of enjoyment almost excitement from Macua.

"I can't hold back now either now can I? It would be an insult to your skills as a warrior!"

She reds her right hand as she rises up and then launches one full out strike to slam Fighter Roar into the ground!

SOLIS EIGHT JUNG

BATTLEFIELD EXPANDED! REINFORCEMENTS HAVE ARRIVED!

Anyone who just heard EVA's voice while reading that, has obviously played too much Command And Conquer.

A large freighter ship suddenly comes burning into the airspace at full Velocity. Side-doors open as well as back-side. A large crane is on both sides. In fact, this thing is HUGE. A Garuda!?

It is painted in sandy colors, and a series of Maganac units are hanging on the sides. It is coming from the direction where Staren was flying off, and just as his unit begins to be shattered, the machine dives for his unit and opens a top gate as well. A series of Maganac troopers come out and using clamps, capture the wreckage, as well as the Escape pod. All in flight. They even provide covering-fire, launching attacks on Solis to keep him away from the large MS carrying transport.

"Katharon troops! This is Rashid speaking, of the Maganac Corporation. Sorry we are so late, we ran into some trouble on the way here. I am making a quick pass-through. Anyone who wants to get on and get out of here, now that all shuttles have taken off, please make use of this opportunity!"

The machine begins its descent and reduces its velocity by a slight bit, whilst from the side-gates, Maganac troops begin to fire large beam-rifles at any enemy targets they can find. And then... it touches down on the tarmac. But it keeps a good speed up... ready to take off again!

The ground units, Eight had been facing, try to spread out. Her bullets hit, and one of the machines ends up exploding, but not before the pilot gets out of the machine and gets picked up by another. As much as they are outdated machines, and the pilots are not fantastic in and off of themselves. Their teamwork is impressive! They quickly begin running towards the incoming Garuda transport, and try to get in from the sides of the machine.

What passes for I2's head is--well, its /head/; sure, it's half ruined flesh and half metal, sure it's bulbous like an octupus' despite the rest of its body being fat like an elephant's, but a head is a head and the head is what has to break Downpour I2's Valhawk-assisted fall. The Marchionessa's muscles briefly tense in the moment of impact, first in preparation for the shock she expects to course through her nervous system, and then because--

"BRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!"

--the injured Machine Beast's survival instincts are kicking in as it roars and thrashes in Valhawk's grasp to retake its feet. As soon as it's /upright/, Empruss' cables have ensnared it, and so the thrashing continues... only now that it's got its bearings again, 'thrashing' means 'slapping cables aside' and 'trying to grapple the mobile armor right back' and worst of all 'baring the weird bird-like beak hidden /beneath/ those tentacles to try and take a chunk from the GN-powered behemoth' should its strength prove sufficient.

The Marchionessa's teeth are bared too; her eyes are wide, twitching, glued to the encounter.

A low growl rumbles in her throat.

Fighter Roar bellows, "I ACCEPT YOUR CHALLENGE!" shoving himself forward at the incoming, Gundam-scaled fist. The collision is titanic. Roar's uncanny strength collides with the fist and for the briefest of moments it seems that the armored fighter just might be able to hold the fist back.

The tarmac begins to bubble under his feet as pressure begins to build. Heat rises, billowing around his form as that aura of flame he manifests at times flares back up.

But then he reaches a point where he simply cannot push himself further. One of his legs gives out from under him and he's thrown backwards. He skips several times, finally colliding with contents of a busted open container which apparently is full of crackers. Why anyone is trying to ship crackers ANYWHERE is a bit of a mystery. It was, however, not the roughest landing that Roar has ever had.

He's still for several long moments before a hand rises up.

<Radio: B - Secure> Macua Huitl transmits, "Garrod?! *goes off in portugese about not leaving her behind!*"

One two three four, Staren declares a missile war!

Staren loses.

The missiles hit the already damaged machine. Staren's cockpit pod is automatically ejected before the tell-tale gout of flame from a reactor breach is followed by secondary explosions -- the Star Hawk, or what's left of it, tilts down, leaving a smoking trail as it curves towards the ground. At least it's going down far from the city.

Staren's cockpit pod makes its way towards the shuttles -- Hopefully, Staren can get on just before they launch WHY HAVEN'T THEY LAUNCHED YET ANYWAY, although plan B is already set in motion as, far away in space, Staren's Thunderbolt takes off on autopilot. Worst case scenario, he just has to avoid detection long enough for it to pick him up, then fly away and hope EFA-LAWS can't catch him.

Although a little worried about the very severe consequences of getting caught, Staren feels... oddly calm at the whole situation. This _is_ an interesting development, and he's proud to see Solis like this... shouldn't he be angry at the world for turning friend into enemy? Perhaps, but it won't help and he's not so sure Solis is really going to be an enemy. "Solis..." he transmits from the pod. "I want to talk, sometime, when lives aren't hanging in the balance. Maybe you're right. These recent urban incidents _do_ concern me, but some of Katharon's leaders have earned my trust, and I'm not going to turn on them for failing to be perfect a few times." Hoo boy, if he only knew about Tessa ordering the massacre of those children!

"If this continues and I can see _any_ other way, I will consider... making some changes. Thank you, for being concerned, for trying to stop me. Heh... Perhaps now you see how I felt when I was warning you about the teachings of that cult... But it's not the same. I chose to help Katharon, and they don't tell me to kill people just because they don't fit some definition of person. I... Please, _can_ we talk about this, another time? I'd like to."

The disguised Katharon shuttles ascend into the atmosphere, racing beyond the reach of unassisted Mobile Suits as they continue on to orbit. Nearly all-hands near their destination -- minus two, which had been caught in crossfire earlier.

Beyond, the Argama and Irish and with them, safety, await.

If Kazuma even knew what an elephant was, he might be wondering whose idea it was to fuse one of those with a giant octopus.

Or he might not care at all, instead being more concerned about how to minimize the damage to the city. Towards that end, hand-to-whatever combat definitely has its advantages; they may abuse the heck out of the road, but better the pavement than the architecture.

In the meantime, the Downpour is completely focused on Jung's mobile armor. This gives Kazuma an excellent opportunity to release the Beam Shot Launcher from its hardpoint, prime it with a nice big plasma charge, and try to ram its muzzle into whatever passes for its backside, angling the weapon upwards far enough to make sure no stray plasma will do additional harm to the Empruss.

Oh yeah, one other thing after all that ... he pulls the trigger.

The Superbia dispatched, Camille felt some relief when the mental cry of death did not materialize. The pilot would live to fight another day... fight /him/ another day, maybe. "Next time, it might be me.." The fact that he'd come so close was a potent reminder to Camille that he was not the Hero, and that there were no heroes, at least not in the sense of 'person who totally cannot die'.

The shuttles launch, and a sigh of relief drops the Newtype's shoulders some. "Cam-er, Big Daddy coming in. I've dispatched my opponent, but not without taking heavy damage. Headed back for repairs." Whererever 'back' was, "Stay alive, guys. We did good today."

Solis stands resolute as the Maganac fire comes crashing in around him... He turns his head to regard Staren as the escape pod launches skyward.

"...we'll see, Staren. We'll see."

He turns as the Star Hawk explodes behind him, striding across the tarmac, the angular form of the battle armor framed by the glowing burning embers of the downed machine behind him.. He mutters into his radio, "Engine Kill."

Eight barely notices the shoulder hit from the spray of fire from the Garuda, firing off a snap shot with her shorter-barreled Beam Rifle in return, before stowing it again. The ones in front of her are the concern. She promised they'd /die/ and she was going to /keep/ that promise. Levelling the beam lance at the fleeing suits, the lance starts to spin in the GNXIII's hands, building up to quite an unnerving speed. And then, it starts raining fire. A contant, rapid-fire stream of beam pulses rain down on the Manganac Corps, sweeping back and forth across their number systematically, not resting on any one for any length of time. But then, it might not /have/ to, as thousands of blasts per minute thunder out of the lance's spinning barrels.

Watching it carefully, Eight supresses the faintest hint... of a smile.

The Empruss is a monster itself. The Machine Beast's incoming attacks are born on the 'head' of the thing, even as its teeth attempt to grind into the metal. Teeth - beak - whatever it is. Because something happens, something like the spraying hiss of red juice in the drink dispensers in the space quick marts. A flowing shimmering stream of red particles buffer and blunt that bite - if the Machine Beast was less...

... you know...

horrifying, it would probably be burning off its lips and tongue on the spray of GN tau particles. Jung grins tensely, before her eyes swivel -- reinforcements? She fires a blast from the central cannon towards them, not even noticing beyond that, as she curses inwardly. This means they've failed. Part of her wants to lash out and blame someone -- who? Maybe that new girl -- but she tamps it down.

She's been fighting, what, Jung thinks, six people? She's doing fine. Her attention goes back to the central creature, as she bares her teeth (pointlessly) at the thing. "Well, aren't you a pretty one," she spits, before the grappler arms shove outwards again - both of them this time. But their goal is not really to grapple the thing directly; it is too slippery for that to quite work.

No; the Egner whips deploy again, and this time at much shorter range /and/ from both directions. Can anything prevent Downpour from enduring lethal radioactive bondage!?

Macua Huitl says "Got to go Roar, I got a lift comming!" Also Kid's going to have more work to do. She yells something in Portuguese about Nate needing to wait for for her. She's running but another way comes out as Quatrue's transport, it's time to go she makes for the transport and she's going to get aboard as quickly as possible.

<Radio: A - Chat> Macua Huitl transmits, "Garrod, I'm going to ... need a lift later."

<Radio: A - Chat> Macua Huitl sighs.

<Radio: A - Chat> Staren Wiremu transmits, "You lost your machine too?"

<Radio: A - Chat> Macua Huitl transmits, "I'll meet you guys hopefully on the space ring. "No the Freedan lifted off before I was able to break off."

<Radio: A - Chat> Garrod Ran transmits, "Alright. Wish I could have waited, but I barely made it to the Freedan before she launched as is."

<Radio: A - Chat> Rashid transmits, "Don't worry, we'll deliver the lady to you, safe and sound."

Simon examines Gurren Lagann's crotch (the heaviest damage he took in the battle with the mighty Spiderman - Turn off the dark. Wait was that the codename or was it--well, in any event. Simon lifts Gurren Lagann into the air, though the movement is a little awkward due to the crotch damage. "Coming Jung--" He says--at least the crotch damage will probably not make it easy to miss a giant elephant monster robot thing.

He really dislikes Dr. Hell.

"MACHIIIIIIIIIIINE BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAST!" Simon shouts. It's not in ansi however--!

"MACHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINE BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAST!!!". There we go.

Simon swings his fist back--not having the focus or inclination at the moment to summon a larger drill. Instead, using his Shade Slasher to parry tentacles, he aims to clobber Marchionessa in the face.

It's the almighty 'punching the face' technique, often shortened to 'facepunch'.

<Radio: A - Chat> Macua Huitl transmits, "I know, turns out Fighter Roar was alive. He didn't die to Nerv's antics."

One of the shuttles however, gets picked up by a different ship. A simply space freighter, which had been lying in wait along with the Argama and Irish. Quatre's shuttle would soon dock with it, the young man already looking out of the window as they sail into space. Out of the window. "I never get tired of this view." The blonde arab claims, smiling upon earth. "I'll be back soon, I promise." He keeps holding a hand to his heart whilst he says this, then finally turns his attention to the shuttle... that would take him where Eight wanted to take him. The A-LAWS.

On the ground, in the meanwhile, or rather... on earth, since the Garuda is slowly starting to lift off again, trouble are abrew. The Maganac troops that are trying to get on the Garuda are getting shot at. A few of the troopers already on board help the others on board, but simply cannot get all of them on board. "Nooooo! MOHAAAMMEEEED!" Darn those Arabs... and their lack of originality in names. But that's right. A series of bullets hits one of the Maganacs as the sacrifice themselves, standing with arms wide in front of the other troopers, trying to stop the bullets from striking anywhere else.

It is a noble sacrifice.

We will miss you... Mohammed.

Anyhow! With his sacrifice, the Garruda can now take off... and guess who is in its path!? That's right. In front of the gigantic machine's nose, is a particular GN-XIII. And she can probably hear the Arabs cheering and she is just about to get threatened to become this machine's bug on a windshield.

The wise thing to do with the Valhawk charging in with its rifle would be to be /elsewhere/, to escape Empruss' nascently electric grasp, to hold Gurren-Lagann at bay. The Marchionessa can /feel/ Valhawk and Gurren-Lagann approaching I2; their pilots' violent intentions crackle violently across her consciousness and the unmistakable sensation of the space around the Machine Beast yielding to admit them sends tingles along her spine.

The problem, then, is that Downpour I2 is wounded, trapped, roaring, raging; it wants to escape, sure, but more than that it wants to crush. To rend. To tear.

To kill.

And the circuitry at its heart, the system that allows the Marchionessa to direct its actions as if they were her own... the system linking its feral instincts with her own, it's transmitting those bestial desires through the sparkling ether.

So when plasma shreds through its back, it and she cry out in pained wrath while its tentacles lash wildly, desperate to somehow subdue the attackers piling on it from all sides; when the Gunman's drill-bearing fist bores through its skull, it seizes. /She/ seizes; the tentacles continue to flail, but it's a body memory thing, now.

And once the Egner Whips have deployed their charge, the flailing will cease and the only movement from its body will be the wisps of smoke rising from what's left of it.

The Marchionessa pitches backwards from the shock of having her connnection with the monster so sharply severed, but without its instincts clouding her judgement she's able to collect herself and scamper back to the safety of they alley in short order.

Soon, Darcy Weyland will rejoin her class as they interview a genuine gumshoe, slipping into the back to avoid notice. The note-taking, however, will have to wait until her Flash System-induced headache goes away.