Zondar Hellion
WHO: Fate Harlaown, Haruko Haruhara, Master Asia, Mercade Alexander, Monkey D. Luffy, Parmesan, Reis Deular, Roronoa Zoro, Sephi Graham, The Master
WHEN: Tuesday, April 8
WHERE: Berlin, Germany
WHAT: After a run-in with Venetia Martens leaves Sephi feeling sorry for herself, she decides to take a break in a random Gate and relax... only to have two kinds of trouble follow her there. Giant robots ensue.
WATCH FOR: Haru-Chan Containment Device, Nested Parenthesis, Misogyny On CitBand, Rampant Bad Touching, The Sword That Cleaves Evil, DYNAMIC STEALTH ENTRY
City of Berlin
IT'S BERLIN
Prominent landmarks include /Berlin/, and a great big factory down in the industrial quarter shaped suspiciously like an enormous clothing iron.
It's a pleasand fifty degrees today in Berlin, and not a cloud in the sky. The city is as bustling as ever, and there isn't anything supernatural or paranormal in the slightest occuring. So what, exactly, brought Sephi here today?
Sightseeing, actually. And a clue to a century old riddle involving a secret code written on the Treaty of Versailles, which may or may not be a hoax but you can never tell with the Internet and, frankly, the Scion had nothing better to do today. Her head has been the source of a constant throbbing ever since her chance encounter with one Venetia Martens who is quite possibly the most annoying person the Helspawn has ever met, without even trying to be. Stupid Greeks...
That is neither here nor there, however. With flimsy justification in hand, the Scion decided going somewhere she was sure to not recognize anybody to relax and draw was just the thing to clear her mind.
Heh heh heh. Not recognize anyone? Well, that /would/ be handy, but...
Far above, something glimmers. If Sephi has some decent perception, she'll probably notice it, sitting on a rooftop not too far away - a yellow Vespa, straddled by a woman in an orange vest, gnawing on the contents of a bag of potato chips.
She is watching Sephi through a pair of binoculars, and grinning in a definitely predatory manner.
It had been almost a week since she first spotted her. The girl had been awfully /nosy/ as well-for what reason, she didn't understand because as far as she could tell, Sephi did not stand with the IPA. She was watching the detective though.
The detective! That damned detective and his attempts to pull Parmesan away from Lord Pasdar with his trickery! He would /pay/ for that. That is part of the motivation why she was here now, watching the girl. The other was something that she just picked up as...odd about Sephi.
This would be a good target. She could /feel/ it.
Yeah, something supernatural's going to go down here soon enough. It's not immediately obvious though-the Machine King is in her human disguise, though somewhat inappropriately, it resembles the green-haired woman she was wrought from, right down to the casual clothing and long-coat she had disappeared in. Of course, the exception is the opaque sunglasses resting upon the bridge of her nose. She doesn't approach the girl yet, at least, appearing to be just another tourist in the area.
Sephi does, in fact, have decent perception. Not epic perception, granted, but quite a respectible attention to detail. Seeing as she is constantly looking up as she sketches that curious giant iron in the distance, the strange gleam easily catches her eye, and she stares at it for a moment to try and make out details of what exactly is making it.
After a few moments, the remarkable yellowness becomes clear. There is only one reason a yellow vehicle would be on a rooftop, its passanger staring at the Scion through binoculars. Calmly reaching into her bag, Sephi pulls out her cell phone and begins making a call.
The green-haired woman is entirely ignored, as Sephi has never seen her before and has no reason to be suspicious of anything aside from Haruko.
[RADIO] To Reis Duelar, you radio: *ring ring ring~*
[RADIO] To Sephi Graham, Reis Duelar radios: :picks up very quickly. She's learning! "Hello?"
[RADIO] To Reis Duelar, you radio: Hello, Duelar. This is Persephone Graham.
[RADIO] To Sephi Graham, Reis Duelar radios: Oh, hello, Persephone. How are you?
[RADIO] To Reis Duelar, you radio: Quite well. I thought it prudent to inform you that I have encountered the Wasp Woman again.
[RADIO] To Sephi Graham, Reis Duelar radios: Reis sounds worried. And tired, but she sounded that originally. "Oh? What did she do this time?"
Haruko grins to herself. "Sitting duck..." she murmurs -- and then /she/ enters Haruko's vision, that all-too-familiar new Zondarian pest. The Vespa Woman sneers a little, reaching for her guitar. "Am I gonna have to--"
...wait. The girl didn't give her a reaction at all, but Zonder Metal tends to work on the emotions. And N-O reacts to emotion. Which /means/...!
Haruko chuckles to herself, then unhands her guitar, settling in to watch the display. A little experimentation never hurt anyone, right?
Distracted, that's good, though the lack of stress is turning Parmesan off-and given the current situation the Machine King's are facing right now, perhaps she should be a bit more selective. She turns, pondering perhaps a way to introduce some more stress into the situation, when something catches her eye.
Haruko, from her position on the roof and should she be looking at Parmesan right this second will find the Machine King looking /back/.
Oh no, not /this/ time. "Excuse me." she speaks up to Sephi as she makes that call. One hand slips into the pocket of her coat, grasping the fist-sized spherical object within. "You..."
The second Sephi turns to her, if she does, Parmesan is on the move, whipping the purple-hued piece of zondar metal out of her pocket and slamming it towards the Scion's forehead.
Sephi waits for the phone to pick up as she continues to watch Haruko. A few words are exchanged, and it is in the middle of the conversation that Parmesan interrupts her. "Hmm?" the girl says as she glances up, only to find herself hit in the forehead. The /forehead/. Right where the band-aid is.
An immense wave of pain washes over the Scion as the metal is ground into the injury the Wasp Woman inflicted. She cries out in pain, dropping her phone and bringing her hands to her head to claw at the metal. "Not there, augh..." The pain soon turns to anger within her, which makes the pain even /greater/. It feels as if something will burst from her mind at this rate...
...until the exact opposite happens, anyway. The purple metal sinks into the Helspawn's skin as she desperately tries to claw it out. She takes a step back instinctively, accidentally stepping on her phone and breaking it. "Wh-what? No! Get out of my head!" she cries out as the metal... wait, is it the metal? There's so much going on within her mind, thoughts racing and being squashed and... and...
[RADIO] To Reis Duelar, you radio: Nothing as of yet, but she is watching me from a nearby rooftop. I expect she shall make a move momentarily. I am currently in Berlin in gate +4867129v, if you wish to bring a team to attempt to-- hmm?
[RADIO] To Reis Duelar, you radio: *the phone clatters loudly, as if dropped, and Sephi's voice becomes distant* Aaaagh! Not there, augh...
[RADIO] To Reis Duelar, you radio: *sudden loud crumpling, then louder feedback, then nothing*
Parmesan says, "NOT THIS TIME, WOMAN!"
Parmesan says, "THIS ONE'S MINE!"
Haruko Haruhara titters girlishly.
Haruko Haruhara says, "Why, I have no idea what you mean~~ But...you may not want to stand there for too long, skipper~"
Somewhere not too far away at all - buried deep underground in a secret facility not even the highest government ministry knows about - a monitor lights up.
>FLCL activation confirmed within city zone 17:00
>Machine Plague "Zonder" detected at active end 17:00
>Dispensing MM class [KD].023 to inhibit and counteract 17:01
>Mission parameters: Destroy Zonder, destroy all opposition, destroy cause of FLCL 17:01
And as agony and the Zonder Metal conflict in poor Sephi's gothloli skull, the true form of the thing under the bandage becomes apparent. Sephi finds herself levitating just a little, as an anti-gravity field wraps around her body. The horn tears itself free of its prison, and then rises higher, and higher, and higher, growing exponentially. Except it's not a /horn/, anymore, as more such horns resolve, and rise up out of the girl's skull, until a second hand rips itself free, rises up, and then gripping a nearby lamp, drags itself up, up, out of Sephi's skull. The horn slinks /around/ the Metal, which remains embedded in Sephi's forehead - literally slipping through it like the thing weren't even there, and finally RIPPING itself away from Sephi's head, somersaulting through the air, and landing neatly on the ground.
It is a robot - covered in thick metal tubing and pumps, which are spraying out some kind of misty material.
It looks around, and begins sending targetting data...somewhere.
>>FLCL transit complete 17:04
>Targets identified: Raharu Haruha, Zondarian "Parmesan", unknown threat "Formative Zonder Robo" 17:04
>Mission Parameters: Destroy all targets 17:05
>Secondary Mission Parameters: Defeat Zonder Robo before substantial damage can be done to employee zones by Zonder 17:05
>Good luck to [KD] on execution of battle strategy 17:06
Haruko Haruhara switches armor modes to Medical Mechanica Robo.
Parmesan says, "....what the hell?"
Haruko Haruhara hm hm~
We bring you live now to Berlin, Mundane Plane +4867129v, where local police have gone on high alert as what appear to be giant /robots/ are appearing in the city, and beginning to wreak havoc! We're also receiving reports that the local MM Corporation plant has begun sounding alarms, possibly indicating some attempted theft. Authorities are calling for IPA assistance, and...
Parmesan cackles and steps back. "Yes! This will be perfect. There's absolutely no way you /can't/ come to fruition as a zondar metal plant! Meddling guitar woman or /not/!"
The gleeful expression gradually fades, however, as something crawls out of the girl's head. Wait, zondars don't work like /that/, "What the hell?" she mutters, taking a step backwards, staring upwards at the machine thing that just went...around the metal. "That's not supposed to happen! What the hell?!" Parmesan points at it. "You are a machine! You-" she glances back at the Scion, who is still struggling with the zondar metal, confusing the Machine King even further. "You!"
She points at Sephi now. "Your first task is to /eat that thing/!"
Sephi spasms in midair as the Medical Mechanica robot uses her skull as a shortcut to Berlin, then tumbles to the ground and begins screaming in pain. The Zondar Metal seems to liquify and races towards the point where the great tubed robot burst free from. Her head raises jerkily as Parmesan points towards the robot she wants destroyed, her eyes rolling back and displaying only the whites. "N... dar..." she moans.
Then the unexpected happens. Well, all of this is quite unexpected, but even Haruko couldn't have predicted THIS. Even MORE robots begin to pour out of Sephi's skull, in all manner of shapes and sizes. They scramble to stay within Sephi's head, apparently not as eager as the first one to escape whatever hell constructed them. This is not to be, unfortunately, as the great machinery-eating field of the Zondar Metal pulls them through and tears them into their component pieces, which swirl around the young Scion and are reformed into roughly humanoid shapes.
"Agh," Sephi pants as she curls into the fetal position, the robots piling around her in a great mound. "Urrrrgh." Though she is now completely encased, the pile begins to grow even further, undoubtedly because more robots are appearing out of her forehead, drawn through by the Zondar Metal's insatiable hunger for machinery.
Minutes pass, and eventually the pile stops growing and instead lifts into the air, hovoring a good ten feet off the earth. There is little rhyme or reason to this Zondar, no elegance of form and apparently no function. Simply a great, hulking ball of what appears to be nude, genderless human beings made of gleaming steel, crawling over each other and writhing with god only knows what emotion. Though faceless, they echo the cries of the soul trapped within.
"ZONDAR (ZONDAR (ZONDAR)"
You switch armor modes to Zondar Robo.
"What happens when you hold two magnets right up close together?" The man with the rosette muses to himself, tapping his pencil against the table to some strange, internal drumbeat. "What? Oh. Oh. Of course I'm paying attention, Mayor Ninamori. If I did not care about your daughter's well being, I assure you, your honor, there are many more interesting places I can be. Yes. Yes. Mm. Mm hmm. Well, I believe you are forgetting one important detail-"
The Master then hangs up, idly placing his cellular phone inside the breast pocket of his suit coat, and standing up. The renegade Time Lord brushes his suit off, leaves a few marks on the table, making sure to tip generously, and idly pulls a thin pair of glasses out of his pocket, placing them on and then attaching a set of sunglass lenses over the spectacles.
"Facinating." The Master murmurs to himself, smiles a little, and presses a button on his mobile, holding it for a second before it jingles a particular tune. 'General Staal' shows on the mobile's screen, and the Master grins, whistling to himself as he idly walks down the street, making his way towards at least one of the giant biorobotic monsters that'll be causing trouble this evening. "Ai yai yai, where's my samurai? Green black and blue make the colors in the sky...!"
Reis Duelar doesn't really care about what the people in this city think about someone riding in on a giant yellow ostrich.
Reis is currently with a yellow chocobo borrowed from the Vanguard Detachment's stables; it's not /hers/, precisely, but they won't mind if she uses it, at least if she doesn't get it killed. She is riding as fast as she can manage, heedless of the way it hikes her skirts up around her knees. She can afford a little immodesty and embarassment.
And seriously, it's just her knees. Who cares about her knees?
Even from quite a distance away, she can see robots, plural. At least it tells Reis which way to go, although her eyes widen as she stares up at it, prodding her chocobo to go faster. It shies a little, then straightens out and heads that way under Reis' encouragement.
A low roar begins approaching from the east, the Doppler effect evident as a dark, fast-moving object burns across the sky at low altitude. The Master Gundam veers between skyscrapers at just under the speed of sound, only paying passing attention to the area around him, his eyes studying the readings he is receiving from the Machine Empire's newest Zondar. "Fascinating technology," he mutters to himself, stroking his moustache.
A chirp attracts his attention, however, and he turns his head to regard a magnified view of a woman approaching on a chocobo, the Master Gundam bringing up as much information as the Horsemen have on Reis....which isn't much, all things considered. "Hmm," he rumbles, then cracks a smile. "This is all they send? Intriguing."
The Gundam alters its course, streaking over Reis's head toward the Zondar, leaving her behind and then slowing rapidly. A small hatch opens and Master Asia leaps out, dropping some fifty feet or more toward the ground. He tucks into a spin and lands in a three-point crouch a hundred yards or so ahead of Reis, the pavement cracking under his feet.
"Lady of the IPA," he says as he rises. "I am afraid I cannot allow you to intrude on a private matter. You may withdraw if you wish to live."
Zoro really doesn't care what's going on.. all he knows is that he was wandering about, and with a screech of this and that.. well, metal moving in ways it shouldn't is enough to catch the wandering samurai's attention .. even if he is more of a lost Samurai than really a wandering one.
Hand on the hilts, or at least one of them, he looks up at the massive ball first. "What the hell?" He says, more interested in what a writhing ball of metal really MEANS, and what the other robot is.. well, that's also a notable mention.
Towards Reis, who is a ridin' TO there, well.. she'll know right?
"Yo!" He calls out, waving. "You know what these things are?" He asks, looking back to the one machine that Haruko produced.. then over to the writhing metal with the other woman there. What a place to wander into .. both are pretty darn huge, and neither look friendly..
If only one had a sword, you know? This'd be perfect.
>ALERT: Zonder Infection spreading via FLCL 17:06
>ALERT: Unable to force-close FLCL 17:08
>ALERT: Massive damage to plant could be sustained 17:09
>Priority revision for [KD]: Destroy Zonder Robo immediately 17:10
>City is of no consequence. Maximum power output approved 17:10
>Mission will be considered a failure if central complex is absorbed 17:10
>Good luck to [KD] in the execution of battle strategy 17:12
And as information passes between the conspicuously unmoving robot - which has, for the attentive, an obvious logo shaped like a stylized pair of Ms branded across the large, translucent tube which forms its chest - Haruko Haruhara stands atop a nearby building, glowering down at the relatively short Medical Mechanica robot, guitar in hand. "Alright, first things first!" she jeers. "/You're/ useless, so let's send you back where you came from!"
She bounds off the building, arcing through the air along an impossibly long trajectory, streaking in toward the Medical Mechanica robot, guitar held back. She grabs the hand-operated motor, giving it a hard pull that makes it start to buzz and whir ominously, sparks flying! Haruko swings the guitar back for a swing--!!
The lid on top of the robot's central tube suddenly swings open, and the phrase "HA HA, SUCKER" is written in several languages in immaculate writing on the underside of the lid, which Haruko collides with, then slides down into the main tube. It closes with a surprisingly final-sounding POP!
Then it starts filling up with ominous-looking liquid, while Haruko lies in the bottom, dazed, and the Robo finally begins to move - suddenly LUNGING at the Zonder Robot, pulling back one huge fist, and slamming it toward the featureless mass of horrific quasi-humanity.
Haruko Haruhara hits Sephi Graham with her Punchy the Magnificent Robot Fist attack.
You take 20 damage.
Parmesan snicker.
Monkey D. Luffy says, "... Hey, where did Zoro go?"
Ben Tennyson says, "The guy with the sword?"
Monkey D. Luffy in an excessively loud voice, "ZOROOOOOOOOOO!! YOU GOT LOST AGAIN, IDIOT!!"
Monkey D. Luffy says, "I'M EATING YOUR SHARE!!"
The Master says, "Oh, is that the famous tripple-sword-style using swordsman?"
Roronoa Zoro says, "WHAT!?"
The Master says, "Golly, between the Zondar robots and the Medical Mechanical device, not to mention the always charming Master Asia, well, gosh, it does not take an intellect of my caliber to deduce the danger...poor fellow. Shame to see that style die out, as well."
Roronoa Zoro says, "Luffy, don't you dare! ... How about this. I bring you back a souvenir or something, and we can trade, eh? How 'bout that? - Sorry pal, I'm not going to die here."
The Master says, "Well, you'd have to be a really amazing swordsman to get through this mess."
Now Parmesan is /excited/. "Yessss! Yes! I chose well, /this/ is a magnificent Zondar!" She turns slightly to sneer at Haruko all the way over there on that building. "Your piddling little /thing/ doesn't stand a chance!"
As the Master Gundam arrives on the scene, Parmesan cheerfully waves at her ally. She does hope he at least finds some excitement here-or can at least keep the IPA from interfering while the zondar continues to develop.
Haruko arcs overhead and is promptly sucked into her own creation, drawing a snicker from the Machine King. "Well, if that-" her taunting is cut off as the Medicinal Mechanica actually starts fighting back against her creation. "..hey! Don't stand there and take it!" she shakes a fist at the zondar, "...go, Hellion Zondar!"
Roronoa Zoro says, "Got something to do before I can let myself do that. Kinda strange you knew my style but think I'm just going to roll over."
"ZONDAR (ZONDAR (ZONDAR)" the newly christened Hellion Zondar screeches in pain, bellows in rage, and moans with pleasure as the Medical Mechanica robot leaps forward and punches it in the bodies. It floats back a few feet, then shudders. Several mannequins fall off of the greater body, attempting to land upon the piped robot. Metal fists pull upon the tubes, trying to tear them from their connections, while steel feet lash out in attempts to shatter tubes with mighty kicks.
Seeing as there is nothing else assaulting it, and it has recieved no further orders, the Hellion seems to be content for the moment to focus exclusively upon the strange tube-beast.
You hit Haruko Haruhara with your It's raining men, hallelujah! attack.
Reis Duelar pulls up her chocobo sharply as a person drops in front of her to avoid running him over. Yes, he just dropped twenty yards from a... is that a giant robot? ANOTHER one? ... but that's no excuse to trample before she finds out what's going on.
Then the man speaks to her. "I'm sorry," Reis says, not /too/ impolitely. "This is a personal matter for me as well. My - colleague is inside there." She almost said friend, but decided not to lie at the last moment. "Excuse me."
Prodding her chocobo in the ribs with her heels. Reis attempts to simply go straight past Master Asia, letting her chocobo pick up speed as she goes.
Trump tromp trumpityTROMP. Trump tromp trumpityTROMP. Trump tromp trumpityTROMP.
"It's always nice." The evil Master says, looking up at the horror of Sephi Grahm's Zondarization as though he were viewing a television program, "When everyone else has to hear it, as well."
Doors open throughout the city; seemingly abandoned buildings, warehouses, broken down theaters, a civilization's worth of old rubble and forgotten construction waiting to be paved over again. They march out in lockstep, squat, dwarfish figures with large, ugly helmets looking for all the world like iron bubbles wrapped around their heads, as rifles are placed in position, weapons are primed, and at the head of the legion, its general opens his visor.
"Master!" General Staal snaps, punching his chest with his fist, "The Thirteenth Clone Legion of Sontarians has arrived, as promised, here to defend our-"
"Then get to it!" The Master's voice snaps, and silence reigns among the Sontarians-he interupted a general. That's Just Not Done. At the same time, the wicked charisma of the Master, the Time Lord's authority reaching out from his very DNA to grab hold of anything that naturally looks for a leader, radiates around the man, "Show these false creatures, this combination of robotic spare parts and biological garbage, what the pure, tested, toned strength of the Sontarians can do!"
"As you say." General Staal's enormous, round head, far too large for his body, twists into a grin, until his helmet is relowered; the Sontarians do not, in fact, turn as one, but instead spread out, breaking into units consisting of a handful of Sontarians who move with brutal, military efficency, twisting for cover, fireing their vicious laser weaponry at the robots with terrible accuracy, and moving back as quickly as possible. This is no robot battalion, or legion of cybernetic drones designed to intimidate, this is an army of creatures to whom 'professional soldiering' is as fundamental a concept as 'breathing', etched in every line of their cloned, carefully gardened DNA.
The Master smiles, adjusting a pendant around his neck and beginning to fade into the "crowd" again, starting to make his way towards the Zondar. They should purchase him the time he needs, at the very least. And then, the Rani would be helpless to stop his plans! "Heh heh heh heh...heh heh heh heh heeeh..." The Master blinks, realizing that he's chuckling sinisterly to the tune of THAT SONG. "/Damn/ that Doctor..."
The Master switches armor modes to Goons.
The Master gets a glancing blow on Haruko Haruhara with his War! What is it good for?! jab.
The Master hits Sephi Graham with his Furthering the Master's sinister plans! (What, that doesn't fit the beat.) jab.
You take 19 damage.
Master Asia folds his arms over his chest as Reis-on-chocobo rolls right past him. "It is regrettable," he says, rolling his eyes somewhat theatrically, "To see the young so casually make such foolish mistakes. Ah," he says with a sigh, "It clearly must be the doom of the old and experienced to have their advice so casually disregarded."
The old man suddenly vanishes in a burst of speed, reappearing again in front of Reis. The old man leaves the ground in a tight spin, his left foot whipping around in a spinning, leaping kick aimed for the centre of her chest. "I am sorry if you misconstrued my statement as a warning," he says as he lands. "It was a statement of fact....although the offer for you to withdraw and survive has now been rescinded."
Master Asia critically strikes Reis Duelar with his Vetinari Needs To Teach You About Rule #1 attack.
The Master says, "Picking on girls, Asia?"
High overhead, a bright yellow shooting star streaks through the skies.
...do shooting stars usually get bigger?
The yellow glow grows bright as it approaches, and a young woman wearing black can soon be made out in the center of it. Hair streaming behind her in twin tails, the Golden Flash accelerates toward the combat zone. "Bardiche. Initiate area scan. Identify Friend or Foe pattern five four nine one." A soft chime sounds from the staff in her hand, and a large magic circle forms in the air in front of her as she flies. Several yellow dots appear on the circle, surrounded by swiftly-scrolling letters, but Fate doesn't seem to have any problem reading them.
As Fate arrives within her own firing range, she sweeps an arm through the circle, dissipating it. "Bardiche!"
~Haken Form~
The axehead of her staff swings back with a thunk, and a long scythe blade of yellow energy extends from the side. While she has never personally encountered one of these Zondar things before, Fate has read the reports, as well as listening in on the radio during a previous encounter. So she knows what to do. As she begins to descend, the blonde brings her arms back, then quickly swings the scythe through the air.
~Haken Saber~
As it completes its swing, a crescent arc of electricity flies from the blade, spinning through the air toward the Zondar.
Fate Harlaown hits Sephi Graham with her If he made this one, would this be a Pizza Cutter? attack.
You take 24 damage.
Master Asia says, "It is the role of a man to correct the aberrant behaviour of women when required. A firm hand is essential - it is best to consider them like stubborn mules in that way."
The Master says, "Be sure to tell the Rani that, would you?"
Master Asia says, "I shall."
Parmesan tsks.
Alexandra Shiraz tsks.
The Master chews on some popcorn. "Wonderful."
The strange tubes-and-spikes-based robot is bombarded by little Legionaires dropping onto it and kicking things! Oh, they break things open, alright...but then vents open beneath them, drawing them into the various clear tubes around their body. Pistons suddenly rise across the body and, slowly, begin to compress.
In medical science, hemofiltration is a form of renal replacement therapy - one of several types of "kidney dialysis". In it, blood is pumped through a machine known as a "hemofilter." There, pressure is applied, forcing waste out of the blood. This robot appears now to be using a system with a similar principle, as the incredible pressures involved in the compression chambers around its body press, and press, and press, until the Zonder taint from the metal men is forced out through a membrane, leaving nothing but useless lumps of now-purged metal behind.
The robot is struck in this process - laser blasters open fire on it, and it turns to face the Sontarans. It shifts, ducking to one side and evading much of the laser fire. It then raises one of the tubes up, and with a concussive POOM! the lid flies up and the useless metal is expelled at the Sontarans with all the force of a cannonball! Then it spins back around, and the robot levels another chamber at the Hellion Zonder, firing several more chunks of purged metal at the amalgam.
Haruko Haruhara hits The Master with her CANNONBALL jab.
Haruko Haruhara misses Sephi Graham with her It Does What attack.
Straw Hat Luffy was never blessed with a particularly intuitive mind. So as he entered Berlin, it was specifically for one purpose only: in order to find his directionally challenged crew member and friend. Any chaos, destruction, and death surrounding him is apparently missed, as he seems to be doing such with relative optimism. But at the same time, Luffy is quite confident that something even on this level... wouldn't be enough to rid the world of the man named Roronoa Zoro.
He wanders through the streets of the city, ignoring any other presences at the moment. His expression... shows curiosity, but no visible concern, as if he's looking for a missing item rather than a missing dear friend.
... But then, he spots the familiar head of green mossball hair, and immediately a wide and possibly -dangerous- smile begins to form. "There he is!!" he exclaims, barely containing his excitement. And as he says this, two LONG rubbery arms fly out towards two lamp posts on opposite sides of the streets. When Luffy gets a hold of them, he immediately starts pulling his body backwards. When the arms finally become taut, Luffy lets his voice rumble low. "Gomu Gomu no..."
In moments, Luffy lets go of the ground below him, and -springs- towards his crew member at speeds no human or even projectile should conceivably reach. "ROCKET!!!!" Luffy yells, so loudly that it can be heard echoing throughout the entire city. And as his flight path towards Zoro shortens, he yells once again!! "FOUND YA!"
Monkey D. Luffy successfully targets Roronoa Zoro with his HEY THERE GOOD BUDDY action.
Roronoa Zoro buffs his ACC to -2.
Roronoa Zoro buffs his POW to +2.
It would be nice and simple if Parmesan could sit back and allow her zondar to do all the work-indeed, that's what Machine Kings usually do anyway. Something else, however, was a factor here, something unknown only to the Machine King herself. It was that tiny fact, that secret, which meant that success was /strongly/ encouraged.
So when a magical girl drops down with a bardiche and tons of dwarf-like aliens swarm about to shoot at her precious zondar, Parmesan acts. The human disguise is dropped suddenly as she pushes off the ground, floating in the air as she normally does. She doesn't concern the girl who has chosen to engage in melee combat-the Zondar should take care of that easily enough. Those little bastards with the lasers, however, could be a problem. She selects one out of the many squads around, darting downwards and grabbing a Sontarian clear off the ground, which is promptly flung into another.
Parmesan hits The Master with her Gumbie cleanup! jab.
Master Asia's foot catches Reis quite solidly in the chest. She has never fought someone as fast as Master Asia is before and has no idea people can even move that fast; she makes almost no attempt at all to defend herself from the attack she can't see coming.
Removed from her saddle, Reis is thrown back several yards, tucking and rolling and ending in a bundle of brightly coloured skirts. She rolls up to a sitting position almost immediately, then gets up the rest of the way, red-faced from her fall and in pain from the kick. She is /also/ angry with what she hears over Citizen's Band. Just because she doesn't talk often doesn't mean she can't hear it.
Reis does not immediately fight back. She has no weapon. She keeps her hands up, defensive, and starts to edge to the side; she's not sure entirely how to fight back and her instincts haven't all kicked in yet.
The chocobo does not like robots, and wants to flee, but it wants people to stop kicking its rider more. Warking loudly, the yellow bird pecks at Master Asia rather like a very determined woodpecker.
Reis Duelar switches armor modes to Trained Monster.
Reis Duelar gets a glancing blow on Master Asia with her Choco Attack jab.
And then there's a swarm, or legion, of troll men. This day just keeps getting weirder. Giant robots all over with odd things attached to them. Some space woman, some martial arts master and some woman on a ... a..
GIANT CHICKEN.
Well, heck. If LUFFY was going to eat his dinner, he'll be able to get his own! And unsheathing a few blades.. over kill for such a thing, Zoro holds them in their respective limbs.. and mouth. "Hey! Bird! Don't move!"
That's as best he can do, yes. He's never had this thing for animals. ANIMALS ARE FOOD. All of them. Even if they sort of talk. Unless they're nakama.
The most important part, however, is that he isn't ready when Luffy.. well.. he doesn't hear, or see.. or KNOW Luffy is coming. You generally don't. Until it's too late. "Huh...Rocket?... WAIT A SECOND!" He tries to turn around.. but that doesn't happen. What does is that Luffy SLAMS into the small of Zoro's back, causing him to grit, before the force applied sends the green haired swordsman BARRELING through the air.. and he was in the midst of turning around.
Which means he's sent on a crash course towards the moving mound of steel. "LUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUFFFY!" He cries out, as he barrels straight through the air.
He's either going to end up going into, through, or around that lump .. or straight into a building.
Really, none are winning choices .. but in an attempt to make it hurt less.. he starts spinning halfway through. Hurt less for him, that is.
Roronoa Zoro hits Sephi Graham with his Sometimes no plan is the best sort of plan attack.
You take 27 damage.
Roronoa Zoro resets his buff status to neutral.
The old man smiles, appearing very self-satisfied as he adjusts his sleeves and moves slowly toward Reis. "I am somewhat impressed that you continue breathing," he says evenly. "Many lesser men would have lost their wind. Still, I am loath to continue this charade - my presence may be required keeping...wark?"
Master Asia turns to face the chocobo, dumbfounded that the beast did not simply turn tail and run following his strike - evidently this Reis woman has trained her beast well. He hisses a breath out from his lips as the chocobo's beak tears a line across his left arm, but then his game face slips on, his gaze locking on the monstrous avian creature. He withdraws two steps, fading to his left to evade further strikes, and then suddenly lashes out with a pair of left-footed kicks toward the side of the chocobo's head.
Dumb beast or no, it is in his /way/.
Master Asia hits Reis Duelar with his Kick The Dog Chocobo jab.
Fate's blast of energy strikes the Hellion Zondar square in the middle, causing bolts of electricity to arc across it's form for a few moments. Several bodies separate from the great beast in response, floating in a magnetic field generated by a device stolen from one of the absorbed robots. After a few moments of silent hovoring the mannequins are hurled forward at great speed, acting as 'human' missles to try and take down the incoming Fate. Any that miss plummet to the ground and smash to pieces.
The lumps of metal being fired by the Dialysis Robo blast off great chunks of metallic corpses, causing the ground around the Hellion to become littered with mangled robo-bits. The knowledge that every mannequin it throws at the Mechanica Robo will be used against it does not change it's strategy in the slightest, and it throws a few more bodies at it to kick and punch and break more tubes.
Zoro impacts the Zondar in the upper hemisphere. Various hands reach out to grab him. Quite a few get torn off entirely from his spinning blades and sheer velocity, but eventually they manage to bring him to a halt, half-submerged in mannequins. More hands reach out and begin to touch the swordsman. Some beat against his chest weakly, as if venting frustration. Others tenderly caress his body in altogether unwholesome ways. And as for that one reaching for his neck? Well, take a while guess.
And as for the Sontarians? As the lasers strike the great mass, more bodies shed off, striking the ground roughly. These bodies shuffle to their feet and begin to lurch towards the approaching army, trying to get within melee range without being shot down.
You miss Fate Harlaown with your MRI Cannon attack.
You hit Roronoa Zoro with your The Anger Sphere says: ASUGHASKJHADSJKASLJK jab.
You hit Haruko Haruhara with your Totally Tubular attack.
The thud of metal cleaving meat is heard throughout the battlefield, as a half dozen Sontarians fall to the sudden rain of shrapnel caused by the robot! The Sontarians grunt and groan, but remain professional...even as the attack is followed up by the mad Zondar woman leaping into the melee!
"Hrm." The Master mutters to himself, ducking under the liberally flung Sontarian and pulling a small, silver device out of his coat in one smooth motion. "Well, gift horse, mouth, all that. Electricity's just a very focused sort of light, after all. Perhaps..."
"Captain!" A Sontarian yells, "The other one's lurching towards us...!"
"No ranged fire." The captain grunts-he knows it's probably not true, but looking dumb is one of the few advantages they have right now. "Squad Theta, prepair the phase disruption cannon!"
A snap of a sallute, and a handful of Sontarians spread out, while two of the remaining squads rush to guard them, hurling explosive devices at the more threatening of the giant robots, even while the massive form...
"...setting thirty-two should do it." The Master mutters, and the Laser Screwdriver fires, a pulse of light shuttering towards Parmesan's head, even as his cloaking comes undone for a second...
...and the Sontarian general scowls at the Zondar Machine Queen. "You would throw my warriors around like children, woman?!"
The Master gets a glancing blow on Haruko Haruhara with his Space Grenades From Space jab.
The Master successfully targets Parmesan with his Let Me Pick Your Brain action.
The Master says, "Oh, right, side affect. Hallo! I have to say that beats the 'trash ballerina' or 'living tugboat' look. Good on your dark overlords!"
Master Asia grunts. "And yet you were implying I was a mysogynist."
The Master says, "What, I can't compliment a woman?"
The Master says, "'Hey, that's a nice look for you.' isn't quite the same as 'You may need to slap a woman into submission, much like a sassy barn animal.', I daresay."
Master Asia says, "Even I could detect your sarcasm."
The Master says, "I still fail to make the 'I don't like your battle armor, just doesn't suit you.' to 'Previous mule slapping.' jump."
The Master says, "Is that, like, some local eccentricity? Because I've just gotten my head 'round grits, I warn you."
Shyloh Castaga says, "Grits?"
Master Asia says, "It is perhaps lost in translation."
The Master says, "I know! And all that effort just for corn porraige."
Shyloh Castaga says, "Oh! Corn meal."
"Well yes!" Parmesan beams. "They're just so /small/ and throw-able! How could I /resist/." She pauses, noticing an OMINOUS GLOWING LIGHT out of the corner of her eye. The Master critiquing the Machine King forms of her co-workers doesn't go unnoticed either. "In fact.." she continues with the General, reaching out and seizing another Sontarian off the ground. "Observe."
She whips around, this time quite purposefully flinging the dwarflike warrior at the now-uncloaked Master.
Moments after the creature is thrown, one of the strike shield bits peels away from its place on Parmesan's back and re-attaches its flat side to the back of the Machine King's hand. This isn't followed up on-yet.
Parmesan hits The Master with her This is dedicated to Crono, a true pioneer in the art of midget-tossing attack.
Those... are definitely odd projectiles. As she sees them coming in, however, Fate goes into evasive maneuvers anyway. There's no telling what being hit by one of those things would do. As the blonde dives around one, spins past another, she extends her free hand forward. There seem to be friendlies--or at least, non-enemies--around the Zondar creature, so she'll have to compensate for that.
...and she is not a space woman! She's a magical girl! Get it right!
When the mannequins stop firing, Fate finally comes to a hover, free hand still extended toward the Zondar. "In the name of the Time-Space Administration Bureau and the IPA, you are ordered to stand down!" The mage doesn't really expect that to work, but there's always that small chance.
Meanwhile, a large magic circle forms around her extended hand. "Damage the creature, not the core. Trident...." The hand is brought back as a ball of yellow energy forms in the palm. Fate pauses for a moment to aim a bit high, preferring to hit the thing where there aren't pirates.
"SMASHER!" She suddenly thrusts her hand forward, shoving the energy against the magic circle. As soon as it hits, the small ball of electricity expands outward, forming a trio of yellow beams which stream downward.
Fate Harlaown misses Sephi Graham with her Three times the beamspam! attack.
Parmesan says, "What was /that/?"
The Master says, "Would you believe I was taking your temperature?"
Parmesan says, "No."
The Master says, "Looking for caveties?"
That's plenty for the chocobo. Getting beat up was not part of its life goal for the night. It turns tail and flees; Reis will have to chase it down later. This probably means no jumbo chicken wings for the pirates, too.
Reis herself actually seems to get more psyched up from the chocobo being punched than her. She advances toward Master Asia, absolutely uncertain but trying not to show it much; she has never fought another living being as a human with intent to hurt and is second, third, and possibly quadruple-guessing herself.
She settles for picking up a chunk of debris, possibly dislodged by monster fight, and throwing it. It is large enough to take both hands, and she throws it probably harder than someone her size and build should be able to. "Leave my chocobo alone and let me past!"
Reis Duelar misses Master Asia with her wtf throw stone isn't in this class feint.
Parmesan says, "How did you know about Primada and Penchinon?"
The Master says, "See, now that's a much better question. You're learning. Good on you!"
Dialysis Robo's method remains the same - although suffering damage, vents reopen, shunting the mannequins into filtering tubes and sucking the evil out of them with the POWER OF SCIENCE.
Who the hell builds a robot based on kidney dialysis, anyway? Somebody apparently thought it would be useful, and it's hard to deny it's not /effective/, even if its ability to deal with multiple targets appears limited. Could this thing have been designed specifically to deal with creatures like the Zonders? It seems ludicrous, and yet...it totally ignored that Zonder Metal when it was coming out...
For the time being, Dialysis Robo does not resume pelting Hellion Zonder with bits of itself. Instead, the relatively dinky Medical Mechanica-spawned robot suddenly jumps across the distance, bounding a huge distance toward the Zonder, and implanting its fist against its thick hide. Then it opens its palm...revealing another filter tube!
Guess what happens then?
Haruko Haruhara critically strikes Sephi Graham with her SUUUUUCK attack.
You take 28 damage.
Haruko Haruhara successfully targets The Master with her Not Shooting You Again Yet action.
Penchinon adds a helpful comment: "BRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE"
The Master says, "Oh go bother Donald Duck."
Parmesan cringes a little.
Penchinon responds eloquently. "UREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBL."
Penchinon adds, "BrrreeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeee~"
The Master says, "I have a Sontarian wiggling on me. Bugger off."
Reis's display of sheer muscle is enough to pull Master Asia's attention away from animal abuse and back to where it belongs. He strokes his moustache consideringly - evidently, he needs to update the Horsemen files. "Interesting...." he begins as the stone is thrown toward him. The old man rushes forward rather than away from it, sucking in a breath and letting it out in a powerful shout, his right fist driving forward to meet the stone in mid-air. The debris chunk explodes into several smaller versions of itself; a slightly more rubbly rubble, if you will.
"...but futile," he concludes. Master Asia takes another step forward, his left hand clenching into a fist. As his foot touches the pavement, the old man drives his left side toward the Dragoner in a single, powerful motion. Chi flickers along his body as he punches the air, creating a small fist-sized bullet of air pressure that hurtles toward the young woman.
Master Asia gets a glancing blow on Reis Duelar with his Wave Punch jab.
Parmesan muffles a small snicker.
SLICE. Zoro barrels through a few before .. he .. slows down? "Wha...?" He's not moving anymore after THAT!?
And then suddenly hands reach out and grab him, submerging him half way so quickly, some of the metal hands slamming against him over and over, the pain certainly noticeable. Still not like a sword though!
... And then at the first touch, Zoro's eyes go wide. "YO LUFFY! LUFFY!"
Man, you'd think giant steel blobs of moving people like objects would be more WHOLESOME! "Give me a hand up here!" But he doesn't let go of his blades at all. None of them.. and of course, he can't even continue his yelling for attention! ..
Because he's being strangled. But struggle as he might .. he can't break free of them just by struggling.. "MPHHHH! MPPHH MPPH!" Oh god, he's being pulled farther and ... suddenly spinning his upper body, blades twisted, then thrust so hard upwards the rest of his body begins to follow, a miniature twister is formed as he rises, spinning upwards and away from the hands. A bladed tornado! .. Hopefully he'll be able to angle it and get AWAY from the ball.. if he even gets into the air at all! "Let.. GO OF ME!"
Roronoa Zoro critically strikes Sephi Graham with his Dragooon twisstaaaaa- more sharp spinning! attack.
You take 39 damage.
Unlike Zoro, Luffy remains relatively unfazed by the whole event. In fact, he seems to have -completely- missed the results. Luffy's body slides along the ground due to his reckless actions, and he looks... rather confused. He quickly brings himself to his feet. "Huh? Where did he go? Did he get lost again?" Luffy wonders aloud, with such irony that it may just turn into a tangible force and knock down anyone in a close radius.
... But Luffy doesn't dwell on the fate of his comrade too long. In fact, his attention is -immediately- focused on the Dialysis Robo. Clearly, Kidney Dialysis is a wonderfully fascinating topic to the young pirate, because you can literally see the stars in his eyes as he observes it. "That's so cool!!" he shouts, mostly to himself. "It's so awesome looking that... I want to kick its ass!!!" he shouts, not minding the non sequitor at all. He's... particularly well known for such, after all.
And with that, Luffy -springs- from the ground and uses his stretching rubber arms to grab hold of buildings and -swing- over to the robot. When he closes the distance, he lets out a short flurry of punches as he flies -directly into- the robot. Of course, given the size difference... this probably doesn't seem like such a threat. But.. most of the people here aren't quite acquainted with Luffy's Punches (tm) yet.
Monkey D. Luffy hits Haruko Haruhara with his ... Did You Guys Hear Something? Must Be The Wind jab.
"Oh bloody-" THUMP. The Sontarian is slammed into the dark Time Lord, man and clone stumbling to the filthy ground and groaning, as the Master quickly adjusts his laser screwdriver, the setting shuddering for a moment before he fires it...
...at the Sontarian general?!
"Is it ready yet?!" The Captain exclaims, looking warily at the battling automations.
"We need a few more seconds!" His Lieutenant shouts, as the Sontarians quickly work on building whatever it is they're building...
And the General's rifle glows, shuddering with newly realized power. Staal grins, for just a second, before dispensing with the gloating and stabbing forward, trying to jab the front of his rifle into Parmsean's chest. Or throat. He's not picky.
Scrambling back up, the Master looks between the Medical Mechanical robot, the more intimidating Sephie-Zondar, and...smiles, pulling a ring on his finger. The orb-like device snaps open, and gleams red, as the Sontarian on the ground screams, his body twisting, compressing...until it's the size and weight of an action figure. "Tissue Compression Elimination Ring. Everything needs an upgrade once in a while." The Master reaches down, picks up the doll, and procedes to hurl it towards the kidney dialysis machine. But for what purpose...?
The Master buffs his POW to +2.
The Master hits Parmesan with his Way To Turn Your Back On The Trolls attack.
The Master successfully targets Haruko Haruhara with his Dolling It Up action.
Pfft, beamspam. The Hellion is made of disposable robo-bodies, there's no way to pierce the core with beamspam. Well, maybe sustained beamspam for several minutes ought to do the trick, but that's hardly what Fate did, is it? Several large chunks of the Zondar's surface are slagged by the assault, but it merely sheds the ruined bodies off, letting them hovor in its magnetic field for a moment before hurling the three chunks of metal at the magical girl again. Hopefully they'll be a bit harder to dodge, since they're each comprised of several mannequins fused together.
Speaking of, those shambling mannequins finally manage to reach the Sontarians, unaware that an ominously-named phase disruption cannon is being prepped. They really don't seem to have any ranged weapons, as their attack of choice seems to be grabbing onto the trolls and attempting to rend them limb from limb.
The Dialysis Robo successfully gets itself wedged into the side of the Hellion, and sucks righteously. More than a few inner-lbody robots succumb to its stunning sucking action, causing a small section of the robot to collapse in on itself and making the perfect sphere of bodies rather more like a partially-deflated beach ball. Unfortunately, it would appear that the inner bodies aren't nearly as small, or at the very least as streamlined, as the outer ones. Several manage to get themselves caught up at the entrance of the filter tube, and unless the Dialysis Robo has an emergency shutdown mechanism, it'll find the vacuum reaching critical mass and quite possibly causing its sucker to damage itself.
Zoro's spinning strike successfully frees him from the Hellion, making the ball o' bodies even more misshapen as more shrapnel is sent falling to the ground. It doesn't even send any hurled bodies after him as the Zondar writhes and wriggles, trying to regain a spherical form,albeit a bit smaller than it started out as.
Of course, this isn't to say he's completely free. A couple of severed hands have managed to fall into his clothing.
With most of the outer layers of mannequin sheared off, it's becoming apparent that there was only so much spare metal that could be formed into humanoid shapes. As it becomes smaller, the robots that make up the Hellion's shell are becoming misshapen. Some of them are only half-completed, several have clearly robotic limbs, and there's a few pieces of obviously mechanical parts sticking out that couldn't be broken down.
You get a glancing blow on Fate Harlaown with your Slag Assault attack.
You hit The Master with your RIP AND TEAR jab.
You get a glancing blow on Haruko Haruhara with your YOU SUCK attack.
You successfully target Roronoa Zoro with your bad touch~ <3 action.
Roronoa Zoro needs a tag
WHEN: Tuesday, April 8
WHERE: Berlin, Germany
WHAT: After a run-in with Venetia Martens leaves Sephi feeling sorry for herself, she decides to take a break in a random Gate and relax... only to have two kinds of trouble follow her there. Giant robots ensue.
WATCH FOR: Haru-Chan Containment Device, Nested Parenthesis, Misogyny On CitBand, Rampant Bad Touching, The Sword That Cleaves Evil, DYNAMIC STEALTH ENTRY
City of Berlin
IT'S BERLIN
Prominent landmarks include /Berlin/, and a great big factory down in the industrial quarter shaped suspiciously like an enormous clothing iron.
It's a pleasand fifty degrees today in Berlin, and not a cloud in the sky. The city is as bustling as ever, and there isn't anything supernatural or paranormal in the slightest occuring. So what, exactly, brought Sephi here today?
Sightseeing, actually. And a clue to a century old riddle involving a secret code written on the Treaty of Versailles, which may or may not be a hoax but you can never tell with the Internet and, frankly, the Scion had nothing better to do today. Her head has been the source of a constant throbbing ever since her chance encounter with one Venetia Martens who is quite possibly the most annoying person the Helspawn has ever met, without even trying to be. Stupid Greeks...
That is neither here nor there, however. With flimsy justification in hand, the Scion decided going somewhere she was sure to not recognize anybody to relax and draw was just the thing to clear her mind.
Heh heh heh. Not recognize anyone? Well, that /would/ be handy, but...
Far above, something glimmers. If Sephi has some decent perception, she'll probably notice it, sitting on a rooftop not too far away - a yellow Vespa, straddled by a woman in an orange vest, gnawing on the contents of a bag of potato chips.
She is watching Sephi through a pair of binoculars, and grinning in a definitely predatory manner.
It had been almost a week since she first spotted her. The girl had been awfully /nosy/ as well-for what reason, she didn't understand because as far as she could tell, Sephi did not stand with the IPA. She was watching the detective though.
The detective! That damned detective and his attempts to pull Parmesan away from Lord Pasdar with his trickery! He would /pay/ for that. That is part of the motivation why she was here now, watching the girl. The other was something that she just picked up as...odd about Sephi.
This would be a good target. She could /feel/ it.
Yeah, something supernatural's going to go down here soon enough. It's not immediately obvious though-the Machine King is in her human disguise, though somewhat inappropriately, it resembles the green-haired woman she was wrought from, right down to the casual clothing and long-coat she had disappeared in. Of course, the exception is the opaque sunglasses resting upon the bridge of her nose. She doesn't approach the girl yet, at least, appearing to be just another tourist in the area.
Sephi does, in fact, have decent perception. Not epic perception, granted, but quite a respectible attention to detail. Seeing as she is constantly looking up as she sketches that curious giant iron in the distance, the strange gleam easily catches her eye, and she stares at it for a moment to try and make out details of what exactly is making it.
After a few moments, the remarkable yellowness becomes clear. There is only one reason a yellow vehicle would be on a rooftop, its passanger staring at the Scion through binoculars. Calmly reaching into her bag, Sephi pulls out her cell phone and begins making a call.
The green-haired woman is entirely ignored, as Sephi has never seen her before and has no reason to be suspicious of anything aside from Haruko.
[RADIO] To Reis Duelar, you radio: *ring ring ring~*
[RADIO] To Sephi Graham, Reis Duelar radios: :picks up very quickly. She's learning! "Hello?"
[RADIO] To Reis Duelar, you radio: Hello, Duelar. This is Persephone Graham.
[RADIO] To Sephi Graham, Reis Duelar radios: Oh, hello, Persephone. How are you?
[RADIO] To Reis Duelar, you radio: Quite well. I thought it prudent to inform you that I have encountered the Wasp Woman again.
[RADIO] To Sephi Graham, Reis Duelar radios: Reis sounds worried. And tired, but she sounded that originally. "Oh? What did she do this time?"
Haruko grins to herself. "Sitting duck..." she murmurs -- and then /she/ enters Haruko's vision, that all-too-familiar new Zondarian pest. The Vespa Woman sneers a little, reaching for her guitar. "Am I gonna have to--"
...wait. The girl didn't give her a reaction at all, but Zonder Metal tends to work on the emotions. And N-O reacts to emotion. Which /means/...!
Haruko chuckles to herself, then unhands her guitar, settling in to watch the display. A little experimentation never hurt anyone, right?
Distracted, that's good, though the lack of stress is turning Parmesan off-and given the current situation the Machine King's are facing right now, perhaps she should be a bit more selective. She turns, pondering perhaps a way to introduce some more stress into the situation, when something catches her eye.
Haruko, from her position on the roof and should she be looking at Parmesan right this second will find the Machine King looking /back/.
Oh no, not /this/ time. "Excuse me." she speaks up to Sephi as she makes that call. One hand slips into the pocket of her coat, grasping the fist-sized spherical object within. "You..."
The second Sephi turns to her, if she does, Parmesan is on the move, whipping the purple-hued piece of zondar metal out of her pocket and slamming it towards the Scion's forehead.
Sephi waits for the phone to pick up as she continues to watch Haruko. A few words are exchanged, and it is in the middle of the conversation that Parmesan interrupts her. "Hmm?" the girl says as she glances up, only to find herself hit in the forehead. The /forehead/. Right where the band-aid is.
An immense wave of pain washes over the Scion as the metal is ground into the injury the Wasp Woman inflicted. She cries out in pain, dropping her phone and bringing her hands to her head to claw at the metal. "Not there, augh..." The pain soon turns to anger within her, which makes the pain even /greater/. It feels as if something will burst from her mind at this rate...
...until the exact opposite happens, anyway. The purple metal sinks into the Helspawn's skin as she desperately tries to claw it out. She takes a step back instinctively, accidentally stepping on her phone and breaking it. "Wh-what? No! Get out of my head!" she cries out as the metal... wait, is it the metal? There's so much going on within her mind, thoughts racing and being squashed and... and...
[RADIO] To Reis Duelar, you radio: Nothing as of yet, but she is watching me from a nearby rooftop. I expect she shall make a move momentarily. I am currently in Berlin in gate +4867129v, if you wish to bring a team to attempt to-- hmm?
[RADIO] To Reis Duelar, you radio: *the phone clatters loudly, as if dropped, and Sephi's voice becomes distant* Aaaagh! Not there, augh...
[RADIO] To Reis Duelar, you radio: *sudden loud crumpling, then louder feedback, then nothing*
Parmesan says, "NOT THIS TIME, WOMAN!"
Parmesan says, "THIS ONE'S MINE!"
Haruko Haruhara titters girlishly.
Haruko Haruhara says, "Why, I have no idea what you mean~~ But...you may not want to stand there for too long, skipper~"
Somewhere not too far away at all - buried deep underground in a secret facility not even the highest government ministry knows about - a monitor lights up.
>FLCL activation confirmed within city zone 17:00
>Machine Plague "Zonder" detected at active end 17:00
>Dispensing MM class [KD].023 to inhibit and counteract 17:01
>Mission parameters: Destroy Zonder, destroy all opposition, destroy cause of FLCL 17:01
And as agony and the Zonder Metal conflict in poor Sephi's gothloli skull, the true form of the thing under the bandage becomes apparent. Sephi finds herself levitating just a little, as an anti-gravity field wraps around her body. The horn tears itself free of its prison, and then rises higher, and higher, and higher, growing exponentially. Except it's not a /horn/, anymore, as more such horns resolve, and rise up out of the girl's skull, until a second hand rips itself free, rises up, and then gripping a nearby lamp, drags itself up, up, out of Sephi's skull. The horn slinks /around/ the Metal, which remains embedded in Sephi's forehead - literally slipping through it like the thing weren't even there, and finally RIPPING itself away from Sephi's head, somersaulting through the air, and landing neatly on the ground.
It is a robot - covered in thick metal tubing and pumps, which are spraying out some kind of misty material.
It looks around, and begins sending targetting data...somewhere.
>>FLCL transit complete 17:04
>Targets identified: Raharu Haruha, Zondarian "Parmesan", unknown threat "Formative Zonder Robo" 17:04
>Mission Parameters: Destroy all targets 17:05
>Secondary Mission Parameters: Defeat Zonder Robo before substantial damage can be done to employee zones by Zonder 17:05
>Good luck to [KD] on execution of battle strategy 17:06
Haruko Haruhara switches armor modes to Medical Mechanica Robo.
Parmesan says, "....what the hell?"
Haruko Haruhara hm hm~
We bring you live now to Berlin, Mundane Plane +4867129v, where local police have gone on high alert as what appear to be giant /robots/ are appearing in the city, and beginning to wreak havoc! We're also receiving reports that the local MM Corporation plant has begun sounding alarms, possibly indicating some attempted theft. Authorities are calling for IPA assistance, and...
Parmesan cackles and steps back. "Yes! This will be perfect. There's absolutely no way you /can't/ come to fruition as a zondar metal plant! Meddling guitar woman or /not/!"
The gleeful expression gradually fades, however, as something crawls out of the girl's head. Wait, zondars don't work like /that/, "What the hell?" she mutters, taking a step backwards, staring upwards at the machine thing that just went...around the metal. "That's not supposed to happen! What the hell?!" Parmesan points at it. "You are a machine! You-" she glances back at the Scion, who is still struggling with the zondar metal, confusing the Machine King even further. "You!"
She points at Sephi now. "Your first task is to /eat that thing/!"
Sephi spasms in midair as the Medical Mechanica robot uses her skull as a shortcut to Berlin, then tumbles to the ground and begins screaming in pain. The Zondar Metal seems to liquify and races towards the point where the great tubed robot burst free from. Her head raises jerkily as Parmesan points towards the robot she wants destroyed, her eyes rolling back and displaying only the whites. "N... dar..." she moans.
Then the unexpected happens. Well, all of this is quite unexpected, but even Haruko couldn't have predicted THIS. Even MORE robots begin to pour out of Sephi's skull, in all manner of shapes and sizes. They scramble to stay within Sephi's head, apparently not as eager as the first one to escape whatever hell constructed them. This is not to be, unfortunately, as the great machinery-eating field of the Zondar Metal pulls them through and tears them into their component pieces, which swirl around the young Scion and are reformed into roughly humanoid shapes.
"Agh," Sephi pants as she curls into the fetal position, the robots piling around her in a great mound. "Urrrrgh." Though she is now completely encased, the pile begins to grow even further, undoubtedly because more robots are appearing out of her forehead, drawn through by the Zondar Metal's insatiable hunger for machinery.
Minutes pass, and eventually the pile stops growing and instead lifts into the air, hovoring a good ten feet off the earth. There is little rhyme or reason to this Zondar, no elegance of form and apparently no function. Simply a great, hulking ball of what appears to be nude, genderless human beings made of gleaming steel, crawling over each other and writhing with god only knows what emotion. Though faceless, they echo the cries of the soul trapped within.
"ZONDAR (ZONDAR (ZONDAR)"
You switch armor modes to Zondar Robo.
"What happens when you hold two magnets right up close together?" The man with the rosette muses to himself, tapping his pencil against the table to some strange, internal drumbeat. "What? Oh. Oh. Of course I'm paying attention, Mayor Ninamori. If I did not care about your daughter's well being, I assure you, your honor, there are many more interesting places I can be. Yes. Yes. Mm. Mm hmm. Well, I believe you are forgetting one important detail-"
The Master then hangs up, idly placing his cellular phone inside the breast pocket of his suit coat, and standing up. The renegade Time Lord brushes his suit off, leaves a few marks on the table, making sure to tip generously, and idly pulls a thin pair of glasses out of his pocket, placing them on and then attaching a set of sunglass lenses over the spectacles.
"Facinating." The Master murmurs to himself, smiles a little, and presses a button on his mobile, holding it for a second before it jingles a particular tune. 'General Staal' shows on the mobile's screen, and the Master grins, whistling to himself as he idly walks down the street, making his way towards at least one of the giant biorobotic monsters that'll be causing trouble this evening. "Ai yai yai, where's my samurai? Green black and blue make the colors in the sky...!"
Reis Duelar doesn't really care about what the people in this city think about someone riding in on a giant yellow ostrich.
Reis is currently with a yellow chocobo borrowed from the Vanguard Detachment's stables; it's not /hers/, precisely, but they won't mind if she uses it, at least if she doesn't get it killed. She is riding as fast as she can manage, heedless of the way it hikes her skirts up around her knees. She can afford a little immodesty and embarassment.
And seriously, it's just her knees. Who cares about her knees?
Even from quite a distance away, she can see robots, plural. At least it tells Reis which way to go, although her eyes widen as she stares up at it, prodding her chocobo to go faster. It shies a little, then straightens out and heads that way under Reis' encouragement.
A low roar begins approaching from the east, the Doppler effect evident as a dark, fast-moving object burns across the sky at low altitude. The Master Gundam veers between skyscrapers at just under the speed of sound, only paying passing attention to the area around him, his eyes studying the readings he is receiving from the Machine Empire's newest Zondar. "Fascinating technology," he mutters to himself, stroking his moustache.
A chirp attracts his attention, however, and he turns his head to regard a magnified view of a woman approaching on a chocobo, the Master Gundam bringing up as much information as the Horsemen have on Reis....which isn't much, all things considered. "Hmm," he rumbles, then cracks a smile. "This is all they send? Intriguing."
The Gundam alters its course, streaking over Reis's head toward the Zondar, leaving her behind and then slowing rapidly. A small hatch opens and Master Asia leaps out, dropping some fifty feet or more toward the ground. He tucks into a spin and lands in a three-point crouch a hundred yards or so ahead of Reis, the pavement cracking under his feet.
"Lady of the IPA," he says as he rises. "I am afraid I cannot allow you to intrude on a private matter. You may withdraw if you wish to live."
Zoro really doesn't care what's going on.. all he knows is that he was wandering about, and with a screech of this and that.. well, metal moving in ways it shouldn't is enough to catch the wandering samurai's attention .. even if he is more of a lost Samurai than really a wandering one.
Hand on the hilts, or at least one of them, he looks up at the massive ball first. "What the hell?" He says, more interested in what a writhing ball of metal really MEANS, and what the other robot is.. well, that's also a notable mention.
Towards Reis, who is a ridin' TO there, well.. she'll know right?
"Yo!" He calls out, waving. "You know what these things are?" He asks, looking back to the one machine that Haruko produced.. then over to the writhing metal with the other woman there. What a place to wander into .. both are pretty darn huge, and neither look friendly..
If only one had a sword, you know? This'd be perfect.
>ALERT: Zonder Infection spreading via FLCL 17:06
>ALERT: Unable to force-close FLCL 17:08
>ALERT: Massive damage to plant could be sustained 17:09
>Priority revision for [KD]: Destroy Zonder Robo immediately 17:10
>City is of no consequence. Maximum power output approved 17:10
>Mission will be considered a failure if central complex is absorbed 17:10
>Good luck to [KD] in the execution of battle strategy 17:12
And as information passes between the conspicuously unmoving robot - which has, for the attentive, an obvious logo shaped like a stylized pair of Ms branded across the large, translucent tube which forms its chest - Haruko Haruhara stands atop a nearby building, glowering down at the relatively short Medical Mechanica robot, guitar in hand. "Alright, first things first!" she jeers. "/You're/ useless, so let's send you back where you came from!"
She bounds off the building, arcing through the air along an impossibly long trajectory, streaking in toward the Medical Mechanica robot, guitar held back. She grabs the hand-operated motor, giving it a hard pull that makes it start to buzz and whir ominously, sparks flying! Haruko swings the guitar back for a swing--!!
The lid on top of the robot's central tube suddenly swings open, and the phrase "HA HA, SUCKER" is written in several languages in immaculate writing on the underside of the lid, which Haruko collides with, then slides down into the main tube. It closes with a surprisingly final-sounding POP!
Then it starts filling up with ominous-looking liquid, while Haruko lies in the bottom, dazed, and the Robo finally begins to move - suddenly LUNGING at the Zonder Robot, pulling back one huge fist, and slamming it toward the featureless mass of horrific quasi-humanity.
Haruko Haruhara hits Sephi Graham with her Punchy the Magnificent Robot Fist attack.
You take 20 damage.
Parmesan snicker.
Monkey D. Luffy says, "... Hey, where did Zoro go?"
Ben Tennyson says, "The guy with the sword?"
Monkey D. Luffy in an excessively loud voice, "ZOROOOOOOOOOO!! YOU GOT LOST AGAIN, IDIOT!!"
Monkey D. Luffy says, "I'M EATING YOUR SHARE!!"
The Master says, "Oh, is that the famous tripple-sword-style using swordsman?"
Roronoa Zoro says, "WHAT!?"
The Master says, "Golly, between the Zondar robots and the Medical Mechanical device, not to mention the always charming Master Asia, well, gosh, it does not take an intellect of my caliber to deduce the danger...poor fellow. Shame to see that style die out, as well."
Roronoa Zoro says, "Luffy, don't you dare! ... How about this. I bring you back a souvenir or something, and we can trade, eh? How 'bout that? - Sorry pal, I'm not going to die here."
The Master says, "Well, you'd have to be a really amazing swordsman to get through this mess."
Now Parmesan is /excited/. "Yessss! Yes! I chose well, /this/ is a magnificent Zondar!" She turns slightly to sneer at Haruko all the way over there on that building. "Your piddling little /thing/ doesn't stand a chance!"
As the Master Gundam arrives on the scene, Parmesan cheerfully waves at her ally. She does hope he at least finds some excitement here-or can at least keep the IPA from interfering while the zondar continues to develop.
Haruko arcs overhead and is promptly sucked into her own creation, drawing a snicker from the Machine King. "Well, if that-" her taunting is cut off as the Medicinal Mechanica actually starts fighting back against her creation. "..hey! Don't stand there and take it!" she shakes a fist at the zondar, "...go, Hellion Zondar!"
Roronoa Zoro says, "Got something to do before I can let myself do that. Kinda strange you knew my style but think I'm just going to roll over."
"ZONDAR (ZONDAR (ZONDAR)" the newly christened Hellion Zondar screeches in pain, bellows in rage, and moans with pleasure as the Medical Mechanica robot leaps forward and punches it in the bodies. It floats back a few feet, then shudders. Several mannequins fall off of the greater body, attempting to land upon the piped robot. Metal fists pull upon the tubes, trying to tear them from their connections, while steel feet lash out in attempts to shatter tubes with mighty kicks.
Seeing as there is nothing else assaulting it, and it has recieved no further orders, the Hellion seems to be content for the moment to focus exclusively upon the strange tube-beast.
You hit Haruko Haruhara with your It's raining men, hallelujah! attack.
Reis Duelar pulls up her chocobo sharply as a person drops in front of her to avoid running him over. Yes, he just dropped twenty yards from a... is that a giant robot? ANOTHER one? ... but that's no excuse to trample before she finds out what's going on.
Then the man speaks to her. "I'm sorry," Reis says, not /too/ impolitely. "This is a personal matter for me as well. My - colleague is inside there." She almost said friend, but decided not to lie at the last moment. "Excuse me."
Prodding her chocobo in the ribs with her heels. Reis attempts to simply go straight past Master Asia, letting her chocobo pick up speed as she goes.
Trump tromp trumpityTROMP. Trump tromp trumpityTROMP. Trump tromp trumpityTROMP.
"It's always nice." The evil Master says, looking up at the horror of Sephi Grahm's Zondarization as though he were viewing a television program, "When everyone else has to hear it, as well."
Doors open throughout the city; seemingly abandoned buildings, warehouses, broken down theaters, a civilization's worth of old rubble and forgotten construction waiting to be paved over again. They march out in lockstep, squat, dwarfish figures with large, ugly helmets looking for all the world like iron bubbles wrapped around their heads, as rifles are placed in position, weapons are primed, and at the head of the legion, its general opens his visor.
"Master!" General Staal snaps, punching his chest with his fist, "The Thirteenth Clone Legion of Sontarians has arrived, as promised, here to defend our-"
"Then get to it!" The Master's voice snaps, and silence reigns among the Sontarians-he interupted a general. That's Just Not Done. At the same time, the wicked charisma of the Master, the Time Lord's authority reaching out from his very DNA to grab hold of anything that naturally looks for a leader, radiates around the man, "Show these false creatures, this combination of robotic spare parts and biological garbage, what the pure, tested, toned strength of the Sontarians can do!"
"As you say." General Staal's enormous, round head, far too large for his body, twists into a grin, until his helmet is relowered; the Sontarians do not, in fact, turn as one, but instead spread out, breaking into units consisting of a handful of Sontarians who move with brutal, military efficency, twisting for cover, fireing their vicious laser weaponry at the robots with terrible accuracy, and moving back as quickly as possible. This is no robot battalion, or legion of cybernetic drones designed to intimidate, this is an army of creatures to whom 'professional soldiering' is as fundamental a concept as 'breathing', etched in every line of their cloned, carefully gardened DNA.
The Master smiles, adjusting a pendant around his neck and beginning to fade into the "crowd" again, starting to make his way towards the Zondar. They should purchase him the time he needs, at the very least. And then, the Rani would be helpless to stop his plans! "Heh heh heh heh...heh heh heh heh heeeh..." The Master blinks, realizing that he's chuckling sinisterly to the tune of THAT SONG. "/Damn/ that Doctor..."
The Master switches armor modes to Goons.
The Master gets a glancing blow on Haruko Haruhara with his War! What is it good for?! jab.
The Master hits Sephi Graham with his Furthering the Master's sinister plans! (What, that doesn't fit the beat.) jab.
You take 19 damage.
Master Asia folds his arms over his chest as Reis-on-chocobo rolls right past him. "It is regrettable," he says, rolling his eyes somewhat theatrically, "To see the young so casually make such foolish mistakes. Ah," he says with a sigh, "It clearly must be the doom of the old and experienced to have their advice so casually disregarded."
The old man suddenly vanishes in a burst of speed, reappearing again in front of Reis. The old man leaves the ground in a tight spin, his left foot whipping around in a spinning, leaping kick aimed for the centre of her chest. "I am sorry if you misconstrued my statement as a warning," he says as he lands. "It was a statement of fact....although the offer for you to withdraw and survive has now been rescinded."
Master Asia critically strikes Reis Duelar with his Vetinari Needs To Teach You About Rule #1 attack.
The Master says, "Picking on girls, Asia?"
High overhead, a bright yellow shooting star streaks through the skies.
...do shooting stars usually get bigger?
The yellow glow grows bright as it approaches, and a young woman wearing black can soon be made out in the center of it. Hair streaming behind her in twin tails, the Golden Flash accelerates toward the combat zone. "Bardiche. Initiate area scan. Identify Friend or Foe pattern five four nine one." A soft chime sounds from the staff in her hand, and a large magic circle forms in the air in front of her as she flies. Several yellow dots appear on the circle, surrounded by swiftly-scrolling letters, but Fate doesn't seem to have any problem reading them.
As Fate arrives within her own firing range, she sweeps an arm through the circle, dissipating it. "Bardiche!"
~Haken Form~
The axehead of her staff swings back with a thunk, and a long scythe blade of yellow energy extends from the side. While she has never personally encountered one of these Zondar things before, Fate has read the reports, as well as listening in on the radio during a previous encounter. So she knows what to do. As she begins to descend, the blonde brings her arms back, then quickly swings the scythe through the air.
~Haken Saber~
As it completes its swing, a crescent arc of electricity flies from the blade, spinning through the air toward the Zondar.
Fate Harlaown hits Sephi Graham with her If he made this one, would this be a Pizza Cutter? attack.
You take 24 damage.
Master Asia says, "It is the role of a man to correct the aberrant behaviour of women when required. A firm hand is essential - it is best to consider them like stubborn mules in that way."
The Master says, "Be sure to tell the Rani that, would you?"
Master Asia says, "I shall."
Parmesan tsks.
Alexandra Shiraz tsks.
The Master chews on some popcorn. "Wonderful."
The strange tubes-and-spikes-based robot is bombarded by little Legionaires dropping onto it and kicking things! Oh, they break things open, alright...but then vents open beneath them, drawing them into the various clear tubes around their body. Pistons suddenly rise across the body and, slowly, begin to compress.
In medical science, hemofiltration is a form of renal replacement therapy - one of several types of "kidney dialysis". In it, blood is pumped through a machine known as a "hemofilter." There, pressure is applied, forcing waste out of the blood. This robot appears now to be using a system with a similar principle, as the incredible pressures involved in the compression chambers around its body press, and press, and press, until the Zonder taint from the metal men is forced out through a membrane, leaving nothing but useless lumps of now-purged metal behind.
The robot is struck in this process - laser blasters open fire on it, and it turns to face the Sontarans. It shifts, ducking to one side and evading much of the laser fire. It then raises one of the tubes up, and with a concussive POOM! the lid flies up and the useless metal is expelled at the Sontarans with all the force of a cannonball! Then it spins back around, and the robot levels another chamber at the Hellion Zonder, firing several more chunks of purged metal at the amalgam.
Haruko Haruhara hits The Master with her CANNONBALL jab.
Haruko Haruhara misses Sephi Graham with her It Does What attack.
Straw Hat Luffy was never blessed with a particularly intuitive mind. So as he entered Berlin, it was specifically for one purpose only: in order to find his directionally challenged crew member and friend. Any chaos, destruction, and death surrounding him is apparently missed, as he seems to be doing such with relative optimism. But at the same time, Luffy is quite confident that something even on this level... wouldn't be enough to rid the world of the man named Roronoa Zoro.
He wanders through the streets of the city, ignoring any other presences at the moment. His expression... shows curiosity, but no visible concern, as if he's looking for a missing item rather than a missing dear friend.
... But then, he spots the familiar head of green mossball hair, and immediately a wide and possibly -dangerous- smile begins to form. "There he is!!" he exclaims, barely containing his excitement. And as he says this, two LONG rubbery arms fly out towards two lamp posts on opposite sides of the streets. When Luffy gets a hold of them, he immediately starts pulling his body backwards. When the arms finally become taut, Luffy lets his voice rumble low. "Gomu Gomu no..."
In moments, Luffy lets go of the ground below him, and -springs- towards his crew member at speeds no human or even projectile should conceivably reach. "ROCKET!!!!" Luffy yells, so loudly that it can be heard echoing throughout the entire city. And as his flight path towards Zoro shortens, he yells once again!! "FOUND YA!"
Monkey D. Luffy successfully targets Roronoa Zoro with his HEY THERE GOOD BUDDY action.
Roronoa Zoro buffs his ACC to -2.
Roronoa Zoro buffs his POW to +2.
It would be nice and simple if Parmesan could sit back and allow her zondar to do all the work-indeed, that's what Machine Kings usually do anyway. Something else, however, was a factor here, something unknown only to the Machine King herself. It was that tiny fact, that secret, which meant that success was /strongly/ encouraged.
So when a magical girl drops down with a bardiche and tons of dwarf-like aliens swarm about to shoot at her precious zondar, Parmesan acts. The human disguise is dropped suddenly as she pushes off the ground, floating in the air as she normally does. She doesn't concern the girl who has chosen to engage in melee combat-the Zondar should take care of that easily enough. Those little bastards with the lasers, however, could be a problem. She selects one out of the many squads around, darting downwards and grabbing a Sontarian clear off the ground, which is promptly flung into another.
Parmesan hits The Master with her Gumbie cleanup! jab.
Master Asia's foot catches Reis quite solidly in the chest. She has never fought someone as fast as Master Asia is before and has no idea people can even move that fast; she makes almost no attempt at all to defend herself from the attack she can't see coming.
Removed from her saddle, Reis is thrown back several yards, tucking and rolling and ending in a bundle of brightly coloured skirts. She rolls up to a sitting position almost immediately, then gets up the rest of the way, red-faced from her fall and in pain from the kick. She is /also/ angry with what she hears over Citizen's Band. Just because she doesn't talk often doesn't mean she can't hear it.
Reis does not immediately fight back. She has no weapon. She keeps her hands up, defensive, and starts to edge to the side; she's not sure entirely how to fight back and her instincts haven't all kicked in yet.
The chocobo does not like robots, and wants to flee, but it wants people to stop kicking its rider more. Warking loudly, the yellow bird pecks at Master Asia rather like a very determined woodpecker.
Reis Duelar switches armor modes to Trained Monster.
Reis Duelar gets a glancing blow on Master Asia with her Choco Attack jab.
And then there's a swarm, or legion, of troll men. This day just keeps getting weirder. Giant robots all over with odd things attached to them. Some space woman, some martial arts master and some woman on a ... a..
GIANT CHICKEN.
Well, heck. If LUFFY was going to eat his dinner, he'll be able to get his own! And unsheathing a few blades.. over kill for such a thing, Zoro holds them in their respective limbs.. and mouth. "Hey! Bird! Don't move!"
That's as best he can do, yes. He's never had this thing for animals. ANIMALS ARE FOOD. All of them. Even if they sort of talk. Unless they're nakama.
The most important part, however, is that he isn't ready when Luffy.. well.. he doesn't hear, or see.. or KNOW Luffy is coming. You generally don't. Until it's too late. "Huh...Rocket?... WAIT A SECOND!" He tries to turn around.. but that doesn't happen. What does is that Luffy SLAMS into the small of Zoro's back, causing him to grit, before the force applied sends the green haired swordsman BARRELING through the air.. and he was in the midst of turning around.
Which means he's sent on a crash course towards the moving mound of steel. "LUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUFFFY!" He cries out, as he barrels straight through the air.
He's either going to end up going into, through, or around that lump .. or straight into a building.
Really, none are winning choices .. but in an attempt to make it hurt less.. he starts spinning halfway through. Hurt less for him, that is.
Roronoa Zoro hits Sephi Graham with his Sometimes no plan is the best sort of plan attack.
You take 27 damage.
Roronoa Zoro resets his buff status to neutral.
The old man smiles, appearing very self-satisfied as he adjusts his sleeves and moves slowly toward Reis. "I am somewhat impressed that you continue breathing," he says evenly. "Many lesser men would have lost their wind. Still, I am loath to continue this charade - my presence may be required keeping...wark?"
Master Asia turns to face the chocobo, dumbfounded that the beast did not simply turn tail and run following his strike - evidently this Reis woman has trained her beast well. He hisses a breath out from his lips as the chocobo's beak tears a line across his left arm, but then his game face slips on, his gaze locking on the monstrous avian creature. He withdraws two steps, fading to his left to evade further strikes, and then suddenly lashes out with a pair of left-footed kicks toward the side of the chocobo's head.
Dumb beast or no, it is in his /way/.
Master Asia hits Reis Duelar with his Kick The Dog Chocobo jab.
Fate's blast of energy strikes the Hellion Zondar square in the middle, causing bolts of electricity to arc across it's form for a few moments. Several bodies separate from the great beast in response, floating in a magnetic field generated by a device stolen from one of the absorbed robots. After a few moments of silent hovoring the mannequins are hurled forward at great speed, acting as 'human' missles to try and take down the incoming Fate. Any that miss plummet to the ground and smash to pieces.
The lumps of metal being fired by the Dialysis Robo blast off great chunks of metallic corpses, causing the ground around the Hellion to become littered with mangled robo-bits. The knowledge that every mannequin it throws at the Mechanica Robo will be used against it does not change it's strategy in the slightest, and it throws a few more bodies at it to kick and punch and break more tubes.
Zoro impacts the Zondar in the upper hemisphere. Various hands reach out to grab him. Quite a few get torn off entirely from his spinning blades and sheer velocity, but eventually they manage to bring him to a halt, half-submerged in mannequins. More hands reach out and begin to touch the swordsman. Some beat against his chest weakly, as if venting frustration. Others tenderly caress his body in altogether unwholesome ways. And as for that one reaching for his neck? Well, take a while guess.
And as for the Sontarians? As the lasers strike the great mass, more bodies shed off, striking the ground roughly. These bodies shuffle to their feet and begin to lurch towards the approaching army, trying to get within melee range without being shot down.
You miss Fate Harlaown with your MRI Cannon attack.
You hit Roronoa Zoro with your The Anger Sphere says: ASUGHASKJHADSJKASLJK jab.
You hit Haruko Haruhara with your Totally Tubular attack.
The thud of metal cleaving meat is heard throughout the battlefield, as a half dozen Sontarians fall to the sudden rain of shrapnel caused by the robot! The Sontarians grunt and groan, but remain professional...even as the attack is followed up by the mad Zondar woman leaping into the melee!
"Hrm." The Master mutters to himself, ducking under the liberally flung Sontarian and pulling a small, silver device out of his coat in one smooth motion. "Well, gift horse, mouth, all that. Electricity's just a very focused sort of light, after all. Perhaps..."
"Captain!" A Sontarian yells, "The other one's lurching towards us...!"
"No ranged fire." The captain grunts-he knows it's probably not true, but looking dumb is one of the few advantages they have right now. "Squad Theta, prepair the phase disruption cannon!"
A snap of a sallute, and a handful of Sontarians spread out, while two of the remaining squads rush to guard them, hurling explosive devices at the more threatening of the giant robots, even while the massive form...
"...setting thirty-two should do it." The Master mutters, and the Laser Screwdriver fires, a pulse of light shuttering towards Parmesan's head, even as his cloaking comes undone for a second...
...and the Sontarian general scowls at the Zondar Machine Queen. "You would throw my warriors around like children, woman?!"
The Master gets a glancing blow on Haruko Haruhara with his Space Grenades From Space jab.
The Master successfully targets Parmesan with his Let Me Pick Your Brain action.
The Master says, "Oh, right, side affect. Hallo! I have to say that beats the 'trash ballerina' or 'living tugboat' look. Good on your dark overlords!"
Master Asia grunts. "And yet you were implying I was a mysogynist."
The Master says, "What, I can't compliment a woman?"
The Master says, "'Hey, that's a nice look for you.' isn't quite the same as 'You may need to slap a woman into submission, much like a sassy barn animal.', I daresay."
Master Asia says, "Even I could detect your sarcasm."
The Master says, "I still fail to make the 'I don't like your battle armor, just doesn't suit you.' to 'Previous mule slapping.' jump."
The Master says, "Is that, like, some local eccentricity? Because I've just gotten my head 'round grits, I warn you."
Shyloh Castaga says, "Grits?"
Master Asia says, "It is perhaps lost in translation."
The Master says, "I know! And all that effort just for corn porraige."
Shyloh Castaga says, "Oh! Corn meal."
"Well yes!" Parmesan beams. "They're just so /small/ and throw-able! How could I /resist/." She pauses, noticing an OMINOUS GLOWING LIGHT out of the corner of her eye. The Master critiquing the Machine King forms of her co-workers doesn't go unnoticed either. "In fact.." she continues with the General, reaching out and seizing another Sontarian off the ground. "Observe."
She whips around, this time quite purposefully flinging the dwarflike warrior at the now-uncloaked Master.
Moments after the creature is thrown, one of the strike shield bits peels away from its place on Parmesan's back and re-attaches its flat side to the back of the Machine King's hand. This isn't followed up on-yet.
Parmesan hits The Master with her This is dedicated to Crono, a true pioneer in the art of midget-tossing attack.
Those... are definitely odd projectiles. As she sees them coming in, however, Fate goes into evasive maneuvers anyway. There's no telling what being hit by one of those things would do. As the blonde dives around one, spins past another, she extends her free hand forward. There seem to be friendlies--or at least, non-enemies--around the Zondar creature, so she'll have to compensate for that.
...and she is not a space woman! She's a magical girl! Get it right!
When the mannequins stop firing, Fate finally comes to a hover, free hand still extended toward the Zondar. "In the name of the Time-Space Administration Bureau and the IPA, you are ordered to stand down!" The mage doesn't really expect that to work, but there's always that small chance.
Meanwhile, a large magic circle forms around her extended hand. "Damage the creature, not the core. Trident...." The hand is brought back as a ball of yellow energy forms in the palm. Fate pauses for a moment to aim a bit high, preferring to hit the thing where there aren't pirates.
"SMASHER!" She suddenly thrusts her hand forward, shoving the energy against the magic circle. As soon as it hits, the small ball of electricity expands outward, forming a trio of yellow beams which stream downward.
Fate Harlaown misses Sephi Graham with her Three times the beamspam! attack.
Parmesan says, "What was /that/?"
The Master says, "Would you believe I was taking your temperature?"
Parmesan says, "No."
The Master says, "Looking for caveties?"
That's plenty for the chocobo. Getting beat up was not part of its life goal for the night. It turns tail and flees; Reis will have to chase it down later. This probably means no jumbo chicken wings for the pirates, too.
Reis herself actually seems to get more psyched up from the chocobo being punched than her. She advances toward Master Asia, absolutely uncertain but trying not to show it much; she has never fought another living being as a human with intent to hurt and is second, third, and possibly quadruple-guessing herself.
She settles for picking up a chunk of debris, possibly dislodged by monster fight, and throwing it. It is large enough to take both hands, and she throws it probably harder than someone her size and build should be able to. "Leave my chocobo alone and let me past!"
Reis Duelar misses Master Asia with her wtf throw stone isn't in this class feint.
Parmesan says, "How did you know about Primada and Penchinon?"
The Master says, "See, now that's a much better question. You're learning. Good on you!"
Dialysis Robo's method remains the same - although suffering damage, vents reopen, shunting the mannequins into filtering tubes and sucking the evil out of them with the POWER OF SCIENCE.
Who the hell builds a robot based on kidney dialysis, anyway? Somebody apparently thought it would be useful, and it's hard to deny it's not /effective/, even if its ability to deal with multiple targets appears limited. Could this thing have been designed specifically to deal with creatures like the Zonders? It seems ludicrous, and yet...it totally ignored that Zonder Metal when it was coming out...
For the time being, Dialysis Robo does not resume pelting Hellion Zonder with bits of itself. Instead, the relatively dinky Medical Mechanica-spawned robot suddenly jumps across the distance, bounding a huge distance toward the Zonder, and implanting its fist against its thick hide. Then it opens its palm...revealing another filter tube!
Guess what happens then?
Haruko Haruhara critically strikes Sephi Graham with her SUUUUUCK attack.
You take 28 damage.
Haruko Haruhara successfully targets The Master with her Not Shooting You Again Yet action.
Penchinon adds a helpful comment: "BRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE"
The Master says, "Oh go bother Donald Duck."
Parmesan cringes a little.
Penchinon responds eloquently. "UREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBL."
Penchinon adds, "BrrreeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeee~"
The Master says, "I have a Sontarian wiggling on me. Bugger off."
Reis's display of sheer muscle is enough to pull Master Asia's attention away from animal abuse and back to where it belongs. He strokes his moustache consideringly - evidently, he needs to update the Horsemen files. "Interesting...." he begins as the stone is thrown toward him. The old man rushes forward rather than away from it, sucking in a breath and letting it out in a powerful shout, his right fist driving forward to meet the stone in mid-air. The debris chunk explodes into several smaller versions of itself; a slightly more rubbly rubble, if you will.
"...but futile," he concludes. Master Asia takes another step forward, his left hand clenching into a fist. As his foot touches the pavement, the old man drives his left side toward the Dragoner in a single, powerful motion. Chi flickers along his body as he punches the air, creating a small fist-sized bullet of air pressure that hurtles toward the young woman.
Master Asia gets a glancing blow on Reis Duelar with his Wave Punch jab.
Parmesan muffles a small snicker.
SLICE. Zoro barrels through a few before .. he .. slows down? "Wha...?" He's not moving anymore after THAT!?
And then suddenly hands reach out and grab him, submerging him half way so quickly, some of the metal hands slamming against him over and over, the pain certainly noticeable. Still not like a sword though!
... And then at the first touch, Zoro's eyes go wide. "YO LUFFY! LUFFY!"
Man, you'd think giant steel blobs of moving people like objects would be more WHOLESOME! "Give me a hand up here!" But he doesn't let go of his blades at all. None of them.. and of course, he can't even continue his yelling for attention! ..
Because he's being strangled. But struggle as he might .. he can't break free of them just by struggling.. "MPHHHH! MPPHH MPPH!" Oh god, he's being pulled farther and ... suddenly spinning his upper body, blades twisted, then thrust so hard upwards the rest of his body begins to follow, a miniature twister is formed as he rises, spinning upwards and away from the hands. A bladed tornado! .. Hopefully he'll be able to angle it and get AWAY from the ball.. if he even gets into the air at all! "Let.. GO OF ME!"
Roronoa Zoro critically strikes Sephi Graham with his Dragooon twisstaaaaa- more sharp spinning! attack.
You take 39 damage.
Unlike Zoro, Luffy remains relatively unfazed by the whole event. In fact, he seems to have -completely- missed the results. Luffy's body slides along the ground due to his reckless actions, and he looks... rather confused. He quickly brings himself to his feet. "Huh? Where did he go? Did he get lost again?" Luffy wonders aloud, with such irony that it may just turn into a tangible force and knock down anyone in a close radius.
... But Luffy doesn't dwell on the fate of his comrade too long. In fact, his attention is -immediately- focused on the Dialysis Robo. Clearly, Kidney Dialysis is a wonderfully fascinating topic to the young pirate, because you can literally see the stars in his eyes as he observes it. "That's so cool!!" he shouts, mostly to himself. "It's so awesome looking that... I want to kick its ass!!!" he shouts, not minding the non sequitor at all. He's... particularly well known for such, after all.
And with that, Luffy -springs- from the ground and uses his stretching rubber arms to grab hold of buildings and -swing- over to the robot. When he closes the distance, he lets out a short flurry of punches as he flies -directly into- the robot. Of course, given the size difference... this probably doesn't seem like such a threat. But.. most of the people here aren't quite acquainted with Luffy's Punches (tm) yet.
Monkey D. Luffy hits Haruko Haruhara with his ... Did You Guys Hear Something? Must Be The Wind jab.
"Oh bloody-" THUMP. The Sontarian is slammed into the dark Time Lord, man and clone stumbling to the filthy ground and groaning, as the Master quickly adjusts his laser screwdriver, the setting shuddering for a moment before he fires it...
...at the Sontarian general?!
"Is it ready yet?!" The Captain exclaims, looking warily at the battling automations.
"We need a few more seconds!" His Lieutenant shouts, as the Sontarians quickly work on building whatever it is they're building...
And the General's rifle glows, shuddering with newly realized power. Staal grins, for just a second, before dispensing with the gloating and stabbing forward, trying to jab the front of his rifle into Parmsean's chest. Or throat. He's not picky.
Scrambling back up, the Master looks between the Medical Mechanical robot, the more intimidating Sephie-Zondar, and...smiles, pulling a ring on his finger. The orb-like device snaps open, and gleams red, as the Sontarian on the ground screams, his body twisting, compressing...until it's the size and weight of an action figure. "Tissue Compression Elimination Ring. Everything needs an upgrade once in a while." The Master reaches down, picks up the doll, and procedes to hurl it towards the kidney dialysis machine. But for what purpose...?
The Master buffs his POW to +2.
The Master hits Parmesan with his Way To Turn Your Back On The Trolls attack.
The Master successfully targets Haruko Haruhara with his Dolling It Up action.
Pfft, beamspam. The Hellion is made of disposable robo-bodies, there's no way to pierce the core with beamspam. Well, maybe sustained beamspam for several minutes ought to do the trick, but that's hardly what Fate did, is it? Several large chunks of the Zondar's surface are slagged by the assault, but it merely sheds the ruined bodies off, letting them hovor in its magnetic field for a moment before hurling the three chunks of metal at the magical girl again. Hopefully they'll be a bit harder to dodge, since they're each comprised of several mannequins fused together.
Speaking of, those shambling mannequins finally manage to reach the Sontarians, unaware that an ominously-named phase disruption cannon is being prepped. They really don't seem to have any ranged weapons, as their attack of choice seems to be grabbing onto the trolls and attempting to rend them limb from limb.
The Dialysis Robo successfully gets itself wedged into the side of the Hellion, and sucks righteously. More than a few inner-lbody robots succumb to its stunning sucking action, causing a small section of the robot to collapse in on itself and making the perfect sphere of bodies rather more like a partially-deflated beach ball. Unfortunately, it would appear that the inner bodies aren't nearly as small, or at the very least as streamlined, as the outer ones. Several manage to get themselves caught up at the entrance of the filter tube, and unless the Dialysis Robo has an emergency shutdown mechanism, it'll find the vacuum reaching critical mass and quite possibly causing its sucker to damage itself.
Zoro's spinning strike successfully frees him from the Hellion, making the ball o' bodies even more misshapen as more shrapnel is sent falling to the ground. It doesn't even send any hurled bodies after him as the Zondar writhes and wriggles, trying to regain a spherical form,albeit a bit smaller than it started out as.
Of course, this isn't to say he's completely free. A couple of severed hands have managed to fall into his clothing.
With most of the outer layers of mannequin sheared off, it's becoming apparent that there was only so much spare metal that could be formed into humanoid shapes. As it becomes smaller, the robots that make up the Hellion's shell are becoming misshapen. Some of them are only half-completed, several have clearly robotic limbs, and there's a few pieces of obviously mechanical parts sticking out that couldn't be broken down.
You get a glancing blow on Fate Harlaown with your Slag Assault attack.
You hit The Master with your RIP AND TEAR jab.
You get a glancing blow on Haruko Haruhara with your YOU SUCK attack.
You successfully target Roronoa Zoro with your bad touch~ <3 action.
Roronoa Zoro needs a tag