LOG: Directed by Michael Bay (Pt2)
Who: Simon Parker, Polly Chandler, White Gale, Utsuho Reiuji, Agrias Oaks, Alice Moore, Persephone Graham, Jacqli,
Where: Hub, Northwestern Warzone
What: Simon goes Deus Ex on a secret meeting of demons!
Watch For: Abuse of FPS tropes, and how fighting Fire with Fire doesn't always work, important villainous after-battle plans
--
The gun jams with one bullet still left in the chamber, and Polly tosses it carelessly aside. Stuff like that tends to happen when you're a walking tornado of entropy, which is why she usually prefers her own Resonance to any silly human weapon. But hey, sometimes it's fun to mix things up a bit.
Simon's shout, though, makes her burst into raucous laughter. "You think I give a shit whose fight it is?!" And she only laughs louder when Ava tackles him to the floor. Factioners don't care who fights who, only that there IS a fight! Simon specifically said "Factions," though, which means he's figured out who she works for. That's something to remember.
But right now, Polly's got something a little more important to deal with. It's already ridiculously hot in here, thanks to Utsuho, and Simon's just made it even hotter. Polly backs off, cursing and coughing; she could swear she can feel her skin blistering. Her foot hits something--a piece of makeshift furniture considerably more solidly built than the ones she crashed into earlier. She glances down, scans the faded words stenciled across its curved surface...and a wicked grin slowly spreads across her face.
Ava isn't the only one who can toss large, heavy objects around. Polly bends down and wedges her fingers under the metal drum, then heaves it up over her head with a grunt of effort. "HEY, OKUU!" she shouts above the roar of flames and gunfire. "Got a light?!" And then she hurls the barrel towards where Simon and Ava are wrestling on the floor, or whatever they're doing over there. Because no first-person shooter is complete without a barrel of something explosive.
Polly Chandler says, "HEY, OKUU!"
Utsuho Reiuji says, "What?!"
Polly Chandler says, "Got a light?!"
--
"Is that so?" Sephi says with some measure of surprise. "Then I shall call you Nigele." She continues to skate forward, closer to the Exalt who needs to waste precious seconds getting back to his feet. "What Belmont and the others may wish of me is irrelevant, if they wish to change my course then they would do better to barter with Hel herself!"
The frozen arrow impacts Sephi square in the shoulder-- coincidentally or not it strikes in the same place Frozen Heart's weapon did when they battled for his soul in his Deathlord's drydock. She winces and grunts with pain and excitement. "Saving your soul does nothing for mine, Nigele! Consider me an enemy if you will, it makes things far simpler."
She raises her hands and roughly mimics drawing a bowstring. Ice begins to manifest out of the air around her hands into an equally rough copy of White Gale's weapon. She's not particularly skilled at using such a weapon, however, and her first shot goes wide. She summons another icy arrow, this time her entire forearm becoming encased in ice to stabilize the shot. Plenty of time for the Solar to counter or escape should he so choose.
Garrett snarls at Agrias, unafraid of the knife that she draws upon him. That's not to say that he's uninjured, of course. Far from it, she gives him a clean cut across the flank, almost instantly staining his mottled white fur red and getting him to loosen his grip and retreat for a moment.
That one moment is all the Holy Knight shall get, so she had best make it count. The terrier barks angrily at the woman for several seconds before he jumps into the fray once more, the giants' blood flowing through his body muting the pain from the wound. He leaps for Agrias' arm, trying to latch on and worry the limb to bring her to the ground police dog style. Whether twenty-five pounds of Westie is sufficient to do that to a trained knight is another question entirely.
--
Jacqli glances and watches for a few brief moments as the guard goes down. She breathes a sigh of relief and turns to resume the chase for her psychotically happy robot...
Only to notice it's not there anymore. Another sigh. She raises an arm and begins to chant the summoning song again, but then suddenly there is /fire/ and explosions! And...
Jacqli squints. "What is that on her arm?" This is, of course, referring to the raven making nuclear fire everywhere. She wasn't near the action, but she could very well hear it.
She looks towards the location where her friend the gunner was, and wonders what could very well be in there. Then she looks back towards the brawl with the nuclear fire. Then she looks back. A few moments later, she comes to a decision. "It's not worth it." And she turns and begins to sprint out of the area, towards where her robot might've gone. She's not sure she'll gain anything by sticking around too much longer.
--
Circling warily, Agrias keeps her knife pointed at the dog when she manages to gain a little distance away from Garrett. Worthless cur. Who breeds dogs so uselessly small, anyway? Only the nobility and royalty, in Ivalice.
The useful dogs of Ivalice are usually large -- sighthounds, scenthounds, for the most part; and the ever-popular mastiffs used for guarding estates and fortifications. Lord Oaks had once kept a most impressive kennel of mastiffs set to guard the estate. Big brindled beasts, with jaws that could practically tear off a man's arm.
And yet this stupid little thing managed to clamp down on the leg she's had injured countless times, and she can feel the pain throbbing in it.
Limping back, Agrias scowls at the dog.
"Go on," she snaps angrily, thrusting her misericordi back into her belt and drawing her sword. She can use a knife, but her primary training is in the use of swords. Beside that, Defender is long enough that she can defend with it, as well.
Better a defense than using her own arm, anyway, though she could do that in a pinch. She's done it before with chocobos, and they probably bite a lot harder. She thrusts the flat of her sword forward, so the Westie can close his jaws on /that/ instead of her arm. "Back to your master, worthless cur, before I sheathe my blade in your eye!"
And if Garrett decides to keep pressing the offensive, she'll try to do exactly that -- wrenching Defender away from his jaws, and bring it whistling down in a slice aimed to cleave into his shoulder. She doesn't particularly seem to care if she happens to kill the dog; after all, he looks rabid! Has to be if he's attacking like this. Besides, she's a little angry now. That bite wound is amazingly painful, and every time she shifts her weight or steps aside, blood follows, pattering to the ground where she steps.
...Part of her can't really believe this stupid mutt is giving her this much trouble. There are bad days, and then there are /bad days/.
......That damned dog better not be rabid.
--
"What?!" is shouted at Polly, in response to being shouted at. When Utsuho glances in her fellow Hell denizen's direction, lowering the Third Leg slightly, it's plenty of distraction for a flaming stick to bounce off the side of her head. "..Ow!" Squinting an eye shut, the raven holds out her free hand. A tiny sun appears over her palm, swelling to the size of a softball. She thrusts this out, "Of course I do!" This tiny sun bursts into a fan of spike-shaped flame darts. One or two should clip that barrel midair. They're more than hot enough to ignite its contents.
Turning, the Raven swings the Third Leg to one side and stalks in Alice's direction, "You survived that?" She rears the simmering control rod up and thrusts it into the ground in front of her. Immediately, a gout of hellfire explodes outward from the floor, "Are you making fun of me?!"
--
Simon is trapped. Ava's arms are squeezing the life from him, pushing bullets deeper into his flesh and stealing the breath from his lungs. It's the same technique he's used before, only he doesn't have the luxury of trying to reverse the hold--she's got his arms. A minute of this, and it'll be all over, it'll be Trauma for him--
Polly saves his ass.
The barrel flies towards the wrestling Celestials and explodes in a firey conflagration--Ava catches the bulk of the blast, though she's just too small to shield Simon completely. The Djinn howls in pain and rage, and makes a mistake. She shifts her grip on the Seraph so she can try and keep him clinched while she smothers the flames--and this lets him slip free.
Simon takes several stumbling steps away, gasping for breath... And then the two Celestials resume their business, by which we mean they start sizing each other up. Now would be a good time to intervene.
--
White Gale is more experienced with projectile weapons, and knows what to expect. While Sephi's arm encases itself in ice, he begins to chant, and Essence illuminates him. Even though he takes a hard hit by the ice, refusing to duck away, he continues to chant amid the bleeding and the pain, and the magically-charged Essence around him bursts into flame. He does not, however, unleash the firebird forming around him on Persephone quite yet. It just looms around him, giving his aura an unearthly, fiery glow mirrored in the Twilight symbol burnt into his forehead.
When he speaks, it is with unusual reverberation and authority. Very rarely does he let Essence tinge his speech, but here it does. "Sephi. If what you are saying is that you need rescuing from the thrall of your mother, Jade will do that. Shane will do that. /I/ will do that; I swear, as you rescued me from the thrall of my former master, so shall I free you. In return, please, let me through to find my friend before he gets killed. Let me find him and reach him in his madness, as you once reached for me. If you do not let me pass, I will unleash my fire upon you. And I know you do not like fire..."
--
Intervene? Now that just wouldn't be any fun at all, would it?
If Polly could have seen how close to defeat Simon was when she chucked the barrel at them, she might be kicking herself right now for doing it. But hey, it was an excuse to set that uppity bitch on fire, and that's a win in her book.
And now the two are facing off, and Polly grins like a crocodile as she dusts gunpowder residue off of her hands. Killing Simon herself has dropped quickly out of the top spot on her priority list, because it'll probably be more fun to watch someone else do it--and she doesn't even have to /make/ someone else do it this time!
Somewhere behind her, someone is talking about trying to get inside to find his friend, and Polly casts a baleful sideways glance over her shoulder in Nigele's direction. Then she sidles over to take up a position in the doorway, arms folded across her narrow chest, like some sort of very unlikely-looking bouncer. The show is about to start, and she'll be Blessed if she lets anybody else ruin it.
--
Garrett continues to bark and growl and snarl and gernally make a nuisance of himself to Agrias, rushing in and snapping at her to force the Holy Knight back even in the face of Defender. He sees her limping and continues trying to go for the injured leg, hoping to bring her down so that he might drag the woman back to his master as he was commanded.
The reward for his perseverence is the great blade being raised and dropped upon his head, the blade sinking into his shoulder and... not getting particularly far. Though his ancestors may have been bred to be adorable ratcatchers Garrett is clearly no ordinary terrier. Even a relatively shallow blow goes a long way when the muscles in question are so small, however; the dog rapidly loses feeling in one of his legs and begins limping as his quarry does, howling even louder at the woman even as each step brings with it a muted yelp of pain.
--
"I'm not making fun of you!" Alice seems very sure about this. "I'm just trying to stop you before you destroy eveCRAP "
Alice jerks backwards, feeling the heat of the fire on her face even through her own corona. If she can actually feel that, it must be /hot/. She has no interest whatsoever in seeing if her fireproofing can handle it... okay, maybe a little, but not enough to stick her finger in. What if she ended up with no finger? That would be horrible!
She regains her composure quickly, at least, even though her face is reddened from all the heat being thrown around. "Stop breakin' stuff and I won't have to hit you!" Firebird yells again, pitching herself in a wild leap toward Utsuho.
Alice starts to spin as she approaches, sticking one arm out and whirling around, repeatedly punching. It's kind of awkward, but /somehow/, she manages to make it work, though her pirouetting on one spot on the ground is starting to drill a scorched hole. "ULTIMATE TORNADO PUNCH!"
--
"What I am saying, Nigele, is that I have chosen my path and will not stray from it. As Mother and Grandfather shall betray their ilk for the Titans' cause, so too do I fight under the banner of the forces of Helheim." The daughter of Hel seems unafraid of both Nigele's ultimatum or the phoenix which enshrouds his form. "If you would think me mad then strike me down, Nigele, else you shall suffer such a Fate!"
Persephone throws the bow to the side where it shatters into a flurry of snow. Her worn Mary Janes click against the frozen ground, easily finding purchase where the Solar could not. More ice begins to coalesce around her: great crystals growing around her torso and immense claws of frozen ichor sprouting from her hands, so large as to wholey encase her forearms. Below the knees it forms as well, slowing her pace and making her strain to move, but the Helspawn will not let her own power stop her as she lumbers towards Gale.
--
"Damn and /damn/!"
There's a hiss of pain from the Holy Knight when Garrett's teeth manage to find their mark again, shredding her black pants a little more, drawing more blood and tearing at the flesh and muscle of her leg. That leg has always been a liability, injured several times in the past, and never quite healed correctly.
It's always been succeptible to pain, and being worried around by a little ratcatcher is no exception. Balancing back a bit, Agrias aims a vicious kick at the dog's head, trying to open up space enough to bring Defender down.
She's certainly a skillful combatant, but Agrias is unaccustomed to fighting a foe so small. She bears down on her sword stroke, but there seems to be an awful lot of resistance. A blow like that should have killed such a small target. Instead, she has to wrench her blade from his shoulder, frowning in temper and in puzzlement at the relative lack of mortal injury.
Garrett starts limping, though, and that's all the incentive she needs.
Backing away, Agrias sheathes her sword, blood and all. She'll clean it later. Instead, she makes a quick grab for her longbow, drawing an arrow and nocking it to the string, even as she retreats.
An arrow is fired straight at Garrett the Westie as a warning shot. A second follows, and a third, as Agrias gives herself a certain amount of cover fire. She's looking rather bloodless from the pain, at this point. It wasn't a terribly deep wound -- but it was a wound on a place that's been wounded countless times, and the pain is maddening.
"Cur," she spits, angrily. "Go back to your master. I'll have nothing for you but an arrow in the eye if you follow me. Go!"
And provided the irksome little dog doesn't try something stupid, like rushing in to try and savage her leg some more, the Holy Knight makes her retreat... leaving a blood trail as she does.
Stupid dog.
--
"Arf!" Garrett bellows angrily at the retreating Agrias, trying to follow her but unable to match the pace of her longer strides thanks to his own injury, stumbling to the sides to avoid being hit by the warning shots and falling farther and farther behind. "Arf arf roof arf garoooo!"
--
Utsuho Reiuji says, "Polly! This twit is bugging me. DUCK!"
Polly Chandler says, "Okay, but try not to kill these other two twits, wouldja? I wanna see 'em tear each other apart!"
--
White Gale watches as Sephi fashions herself into a beast of ice, blocking his way, refusing to back down even when he makes his offer on her behalf. When she makes her Fated decision. Her fate...
He starts laughing. It is not a very nice laugh; it is slightly unhinged, but not entirely. It is the laugh of something that is old and powerful, not like the modest, bespectacled teeanger Nigele usually is. It's all too familiar. Entirely too familiar. Just like Shane, when he drove Nigele to fight him; just like Nigele himself, when he felt crushed under the Dark Fate of his Neverborn patron. And now, he finally says what he always wanted to say when confronted with the Worldly concept of Fate...
"You Scions are all so STUPID about Fate! You cower in its shadow, as if it were a great creature ready to swallow you, as if you were helpless in its face. Don't you understand that Fate is like all other things? If you are fierce and stubborn enough, if you burn bright enough, Fate will cower in the glare of /your/ flame just like anyting else!" And then, he unleashes the Flight of the Brilliant Raptor spell, the enormous firebird plunging down directly at Sephi. It should hopefully not harm her too drastically, with all of that ice around her, but it should give him the time he needs to run past in the meantime.
And when he reaches the angels confronting one another, and Polly, he attempts to just slip right past her and grab Simon by the arm, sticking him with a needle of /something./ "WE'RE GOING HOME NOW, OKAY?"
Well, hopefully, at least...
--
Persephone veritably /snarls/ at Gale as he lectures her. "You know NOTHING of our Fate! In your world perhaps you can fashion it into whatever form pleases you, but in ours it is everything short of a living, breathing being!" Further ranting is cut short as the Brilliant Raptor descends on her, the daughter of Hel instinctively summoning even more ice in order to protect herself from the brightly shining firebird.
As the flames and light fades, the girl is left entirely unharmed. However, she is also completely immobile as the extra ice has locked up all of her limbs. She struggles against her self-imposed bonds for several seconds before grunting with resignation. "Accursed Exalt!" she yells after Nigele as he bolts for Simon.
--
Well! That was a satisfying explosion. Utsuho doesn't have much time to appreciate it though, as the awkward flaming bratlet leaps into her face again. The concrete at her feet, and even the metal walls around the two fiery combatants are all starting to liquify by their combined heat radiation. Utsuho's is less obvious, mostly centered on the vividly glowing, searing crimson metal attached to her right arm. She takes a step back, that concrete-encased foot planting in the semi-molten concrete of the floor.
What a crazy flurry of punches! Utsuho swings the Third Leg back, trying her best to only get beaten about the Head and Neck. You know, non-vital areas for bird-brained hell ravens. And she successfully catches many blows with the side of her face. It doesn't work as well as she was hoping. "Ow..! Ow! Damnit!" Golden rings rise out of the floor around her, swishing around in semi-molten material, marked with trifoils and the CAUTION flags all over.
"Polly!" the Raven shouts, "DUCK!" With Alice so close, Utsuho tries to take advantage of it by invoking a spellcard, then hurling out a tiny orb of heat. "Blazing Star!"
Drawing her hand back, the Raven reveals three more cards in her hand. As she shouts, these cards are consumed in flashes of blue light. Each card consumed feeds the thermonuclear reaction, "HELL'S!" Fwush! The basketball-sized sphere swells to several feet across, "NEW!" Fwash! Another card consumed, doubling the sun's size. It's starting to affect the entire room, "SUN!" The final card disappears, and with it the new star pierces the roof and one of the walls.
Utsuho Reiuji says, "Blazing Star..! HELL'S! NEW! SUN!"
Utsuho Reiuji ahahahahahahahahaha~!
--
The two Celestials--angel and demon--keep up their stalemate; both are injured, Simon less so than his former mentor. They're just /waiting/ for openings, which... ultimately, never come.
Nigele happens. Before Simon can protest, his friend and tenant jabs a needle in his arm--and he lasts a grand total of fifteen seconds before slumping over and passing out.
Ava lets out one last howl of rage, and then Utsuho's attack hits.
She goes down hard, and it will be a while before she gets back up, picking herself out of the rubble of the warehouse.
--
"Whoa there, not so fast, four-eyes!" White Gale attempts to slip past her, and Polly moves to interpose herself between the Solar and his target. "Where d'you think you're goin', huh? Only enough room in here for one glowing maniac, and that's my friend up there." With one hand, she jerks a thumb over her shoulder in Utsuho's direction. With the other, she reaches out to grab Nigele by that loud Hawaiian shirt of his and shove him backwards--
--but then Utsuho happens, and the wall above Polly's head crumbles. She was lucky enough to still be able to stand after getting clobbered by one chunk of broken masonry; the second time, not so much. "Agh--!" The Calabite disappears under a cascade of falling debris. Some of which may also be on fire.
--
"SHUT UP," Nigele calls towards Polly as he starts running while dragging Simon over his shoulder, getting clobbered by fire and rubble in the process and glowing brightly as he burns Essence just to keep running. And run he does, past frozen Sephi going NEXT TIME SOLAR NEXT TIME, past the crazy crow-girl, calling back to Alice.
"FOLLOW ME OUT HERE, ALRIGHT?"
Provided he does not somehow collapse in pain within a few minutes, he will take Nigele back through a gate, and all the way to his manse, in case the angel wakes up sooner than expected and decides it is time for VENGEANCE.
--
Holy crap, Alice thinks. She can make a new sun. /I/ can't make a new sun. How is that even a little bit fair?
Alice leaps backwards at the sudden surge in size of the second (third?) sun. She actually goes a little bit further than she'd meant to, slamming into one of the heat-weakened walls. Flaming paint showers down around her, though she ignores it; none of it actually touches her skin.
She doesn't want to run. Heroes don't run! But at this point, everything in here is practically a ruin anyway. White Gale is right; they need to get out of here. And maybe, without Alice around, she won't keep breaking everything.
"I'm gonna find you later!" Firebird proclaims, jabbing herself in the chest with a thumb. "Remember me! Firebird! But right now, I'm gonna help my friends!"
And then she turns and tears off after Nigele, through a hole in the wall. She's left the still-burning remnants of her bat behind. Maybe she'll call that a present.
--
She laughs. Utsuho cackles happily as the building is ruined by her careless, casual dispension of overkill. It lasts several long moments, boiling away the thinner sheet metal wall panels until the warehouse's skeleton is all that remains. Sagging, molten in spots, and utterly worthless.
It takes a bit for her to realize the warehouse itself is actually empty. While this wouldn't ordinarily bother her, a second later she realizes Polly isn't there laughing too. The sun promptly and very abruptly disappears.
"Unyu?"
Shielding her eyes with one hand, the hell raven scans over the cooling wreckage, "Polly? Did I get you, too? I'm sorry!" As if 'sorry' would solve 'sunny delight'.
--
There doesn't seem to be much left of Polly at the moment, just one bony leg sticking out of a pile of rubble. But eventually, that leg twitches, and a few chunks of debris shift and go bouncing down the sides of the pile. A muffled coughing fit can be heard from somewhere beneath them, with swears wedged in between the coughs wherever they will fit.
--
Is that.. It's a foot! Utsuho spreads her wings and floats over, raising the Third Leg and sweeping it in a broad swing to knock rubble away. She then lands, wrapping her hand around that ankle and simply lifting. It's uncerimonious and probably a little embarassing, but is there really any way to get pulled out of a rubbish pile that isn't embarassing?
"Did you see it? I made a really big one that time!" See how concerned Okuu is for her friend's well-being? This is the sign of a caring relationship!
--
Polly is dragged out of the mess, coughing and spluttering and covered in dust and ashes. Held upside-down by one ankle, she aims a venomous glare up--down--along her body at the owner of the hand. "Yeah, I saw it," she grates. "Thanks for the warning. Now put me down before I break your arms."
--
Just as uncerimoniously, Utsuho drops Polly with a simple release. Turning her back on the calabite, she swings the Third Leg up and props it over her shoulders, "It's not my fault you didn't duck! But look, it got everyone except that icy girl. Burned to a crisp, no doubt!"
Swinging her hand up, she folds it against the Third Leg at the back of her neck, "I feel like celebrating! There's a shop I heard of called 'i love egg', I think I'll go there. You can come along if you want."
--
"Oof--" Polly should have seen that coming. She lands in an awkward heap, and has to take a minute or two to sort out her limbs and get back to her feet. She does this with exaggerated patience, possibly counting to ten (thousand) in her mind so that she doesn't just haul off and Resonate all over Utsuho out of pure annoyance.
"What is it with you and eggs?" she grumbles instead, rummaging in her pockets for a fresh cigarette.
--
"What?" Utsuho glances over her shoulder, lowering a wing so it doesn't block her line of sight at her demonic companion, "You don't have a favorite food? They're tasty and good for you, what other reason do I need?" Turning away, she spreads her wings and takes to the air in a bustle of star-spangled cape and a few molted black feathers, drifting to the now-cooled ground.
"You don't have to come if you don't want to! I bet you want a bath anyway!"
(Includes Fac-BA chatter)
Where: Hub, Northwestern Warzone
What: Simon goes Deus Ex on a secret meeting of demons!
Watch For: Abuse of FPS tropes, and how fighting Fire with Fire doesn't always work, important villainous after-battle plans
--
The gun jams with one bullet still left in the chamber, and Polly tosses it carelessly aside. Stuff like that tends to happen when you're a walking tornado of entropy, which is why she usually prefers her own Resonance to any silly human weapon. But hey, sometimes it's fun to mix things up a bit.
Simon's shout, though, makes her burst into raucous laughter. "You think I give a shit whose fight it is?!" And she only laughs louder when Ava tackles him to the floor. Factioners don't care who fights who, only that there IS a fight! Simon specifically said "Factions," though, which means he's figured out who she works for. That's something to remember.
But right now, Polly's got something a little more important to deal with. It's already ridiculously hot in here, thanks to Utsuho, and Simon's just made it even hotter. Polly backs off, cursing and coughing; she could swear she can feel her skin blistering. Her foot hits something--a piece of makeshift furniture considerably more solidly built than the ones she crashed into earlier. She glances down, scans the faded words stenciled across its curved surface...and a wicked grin slowly spreads across her face.
Ava isn't the only one who can toss large, heavy objects around. Polly bends down and wedges her fingers under the metal drum, then heaves it up over her head with a grunt of effort. "HEY, OKUU!" she shouts above the roar of flames and gunfire. "Got a light?!" And then she hurls the barrel towards where Simon and Ava are wrestling on the floor, or whatever they're doing over there. Because no first-person shooter is complete without a barrel of something explosive.
Polly Chandler says, "HEY, OKUU!"
Utsuho Reiuji says, "What?!"
Polly Chandler says, "Got a light?!"
--
"Is that so?" Sephi says with some measure of surprise. "Then I shall call you Nigele." She continues to skate forward, closer to the Exalt who needs to waste precious seconds getting back to his feet. "What Belmont and the others may wish of me is irrelevant, if they wish to change my course then they would do better to barter with Hel herself!"
The frozen arrow impacts Sephi square in the shoulder-- coincidentally or not it strikes in the same place Frozen Heart's weapon did when they battled for his soul in his Deathlord's drydock. She winces and grunts with pain and excitement. "Saving your soul does nothing for mine, Nigele! Consider me an enemy if you will, it makes things far simpler."
She raises her hands and roughly mimics drawing a bowstring. Ice begins to manifest out of the air around her hands into an equally rough copy of White Gale's weapon. She's not particularly skilled at using such a weapon, however, and her first shot goes wide. She summons another icy arrow, this time her entire forearm becoming encased in ice to stabilize the shot. Plenty of time for the Solar to counter or escape should he so choose.
Garrett snarls at Agrias, unafraid of the knife that she draws upon him. That's not to say that he's uninjured, of course. Far from it, she gives him a clean cut across the flank, almost instantly staining his mottled white fur red and getting him to loosen his grip and retreat for a moment.
That one moment is all the Holy Knight shall get, so she had best make it count. The terrier barks angrily at the woman for several seconds before he jumps into the fray once more, the giants' blood flowing through his body muting the pain from the wound. He leaps for Agrias' arm, trying to latch on and worry the limb to bring her to the ground police dog style. Whether twenty-five pounds of Westie is sufficient to do that to a trained knight is another question entirely.
--
Jacqli glances and watches for a few brief moments as the guard goes down. She breathes a sigh of relief and turns to resume the chase for her psychotically happy robot...
Only to notice it's not there anymore. Another sigh. She raises an arm and begins to chant the summoning song again, but then suddenly there is /fire/ and explosions! And...
Jacqli squints. "What is that on her arm?" This is, of course, referring to the raven making nuclear fire everywhere. She wasn't near the action, but she could very well hear it.
She looks towards the location where her friend the gunner was, and wonders what could very well be in there. Then she looks back towards the brawl with the nuclear fire. Then she looks back. A few moments later, she comes to a decision. "It's not worth it." And she turns and begins to sprint out of the area, towards where her robot might've gone. She's not sure she'll gain anything by sticking around too much longer.
--
Circling warily, Agrias keeps her knife pointed at the dog when she manages to gain a little distance away from Garrett. Worthless cur. Who breeds dogs so uselessly small, anyway? Only the nobility and royalty, in Ivalice.
The useful dogs of Ivalice are usually large -- sighthounds, scenthounds, for the most part; and the ever-popular mastiffs used for guarding estates and fortifications. Lord Oaks had once kept a most impressive kennel of mastiffs set to guard the estate. Big brindled beasts, with jaws that could practically tear off a man's arm.
And yet this stupid little thing managed to clamp down on the leg she's had injured countless times, and she can feel the pain throbbing in it.
Limping back, Agrias scowls at the dog.
"Go on," she snaps angrily, thrusting her misericordi back into her belt and drawing her sword. She can use a knife, but her primary training is in the use of swords. Beside that, Defender is long enough that she can defend with it, as well.
Better a defense than using her own arm, anyway, though she could do that in a pinch. She's done it before with chocobos, and they probably bite a lot harder. She thrusts the flat of her sword forward, so the Westie can close his jaws on /that/ instead of her arm. "Back to your master, worthless cur, before I sheathe my blade in your eye!"
And if Garrett decides to keep pressing the offensive, she'll try to do exactly that -- wrenching Defender away from his jaws, and bring it whistling down in a slice aimed to cleave into his shoulder. She doesn't particularly seem to care if she happens to kill the dog; after all, he looks rabid! Has to be if he's attacking like this. Besides, she's a little angry now. That bite wound is amazingly painful, and every time she shifts her weight or steps aside, blood follows, pattering to the ground where she steps.
...Part of her can't really believe this stupid mutt is giving her this much trouble. There are bad days, and then there are /bad days/.
......That damned dog better not be rabid.
--
"What?!" is shouted at Polly, in response to being shouted at. When Utsuho glances in her fellow Hell denizen's direction, lowering the Third Leg slightly, it's plenty of distraction for a flaming stick to bounce off the side of her head. "..Ow!" Squinting an eye shut, the raven holds out her free hand. A tiny sun appears over her palm, swelling to the size of a softball. She thrusts this out, "Of course I do!" This tiny sun bursts into a fan of spike-shaped flame darts. One or two should clip that barrel midair. They're more than hot enough to ignite its contents.
Turning, the Raven swings the Third Leg to one side and stalks in Alice's direction, "You survived that?" She rears the simmering control rod up and thrusts it into the ground in front of her. Immediately, a gout of hellfire explodes outward from the floor, "Are you making fun of me?!"
--
Simon is trapped. Ava's arms are squeezing the life from him, pushing bullets deeper into his flesh and stealing the breath from his lungs. It's the same technique he's used before, only he doesn't have the luxury of trying to reverse the hold--she's got his arms. A minute of this, and it'll be all over, it'll be Trauma for him--
Polly saves his ass.
The barrel flies towards the wrestling Celestials and explodes in a firey conflagration--Ava catches the bulk of the blast, though she's just too small to shield Simon completely. The Djinn howls in pain and rage, and makes a mistake. She shifts her grip on the Seraph so she can try and keep him clinched while she smothers the flames--and this lets him slip free.
Simon takes several stumbling steps away, gasping for breath... And then the two Celestials resume their business, by which we mean they start sizing each other up. Now would be a good time to intervene.
--
White Gale is more experienced with projectile weapons, and knows what to expect. While Sephi's arm encases itself in ice, he begins to chant, and Essence illuminates him. Even though he takes a hard hit by the ice, refusing to duck away, he continues to chant amid the bleeding and the pain, and the magically-charged Essence around him bursts into flame. He does not, however, unleash the firebird forming around him on Persephone quite yet. It just looms around him, giving his aura an unearthly, fiery glow mirrored in the Twilight symbol burnt into his forehead.
When he speaks, it is with unusual reverberation and authority. Very rarely does he let Essence tinge his speech, but here it does. "Sephi. If what you are saying is that you need rescuing from the thrall of your mother, Jade will do that. Shane will do that. /I/ will do that; I swear, as you rescued me from the thrall of my former master, so shall I free you. In return, please, let me through to find my friend before he gets killed. Let me find him and reach him in his madness, as you once reached for me. If you do not let me pass, I will unleash my fire upon you. And I know you do not like fire..."
--
Intervene? Now that just wouldn't be any fun at all, would it?
If Polly could have seen how close to defeat Simon was when she chucked the barrel at them, she might be kicking herself right now for doing it. But hey, it was an excuse to set that uppity bitch on fire, and that's a win in her book.
And now the two are facing off, and Polly grins like a crocodile as she dusts gunpowder residue off of her hands. Killing Simon herself has dropped quickly out of the top spot on her priority list, because it'll probably be more fun to watch someone else do it--and she doesn't even have to /make/ someone else do it this time!
Somewhere behind her, someone is talking about trying to get inside to find his friend, and Polly casts a baleful sideways glance over her shoulder in Nigele's direction. Then she sidles over to take up a position in the doorway, arms folded across her narrow chest, like some sort of very unlikely-looking bouncer. The show is about to start, and she'll be Blessed if she lets anybody else ruin it.
--
Garrett continues to bark and growl and snarl and gernally make a nuisance of himself to Agrias, rushing in and snapping at her to force the Holy Knight back even in the face of Defender. He sees her limping and continues trying to go for the injured leg, hoping to bring her down so that he might drag the woman back to his master as he was commanded.
The reward for his perseverence is the great blade being raised and dropped upon his head, the blade sinking into his shoulder and... not getting particularly far. Though his ancestors may have been bred to be adorable ratcatchers Garrett is clearly no ordinary terrier. Even a relatively shallow blow goes a long way when the muscles in question are so small, however; the dog rapidly loses feeling in one of his legs and begins limping as his quarry does, howling even louder at the woman even as each step brings with it a muted yelp of pain.
--
"I'm not making fun of you!" Alice seems very sure about this. "I'm just trying to stop you before you destroy eveCRAP "
Alice jerks backwards, feeling the heat of the fire on her face even through her own corona. If she can actually feel that, it must be /hot/. She has no interest whatsoever in seeing if her fireproofing can handle it... okay, maybe a little, but not enough to stick her finger in. What if she ended up with no finger? That would be horrible!
She regains her composure quickly, at least, even though her face is reddened from all the heat being thrown around. "Stop breakin' stuff and I won't have to hit you!" Firebird yells again, pitching herself in a wild leap toward Utsuho.
Alice starts to spin as she approaches, sticking one arm out and whirling around, repeatedly punching. It's kind of awkward, but /somehow/, she manages to make it work, though her pirouetting on one spot on the ground is starting to drill a scorched hole. "ULTIMATE TORNADO PUNCH!"
--
"What I am saying, Nigele, is that I have chosen my path and will not stray from it. As Mother and Grandfather shall betray their ilk for the Titans' cause, so too do I fight under the banner of the forces of Helheim." The daughter of Hel seems unafraid of both Nigele's ultimatum or the phoenix which enshrouds his form. "If you would think me mad then strike me down, Nigele, else you shall suffer such a Fate!"
Persephone throws the bow to the side where it shatters into a flurry of snow. Her worn Mary Janes click against the frozen ground, easily finding purchase where the Solar could not. More ice begins to coalesce around her: great crystals growing around her torso and immense claws of frozen ichor sprouting from her hands, so large as to wholey encase her forearms. Below the knees it forms as well, slowing her pace and making her strain to move, but the Helspawn will not let her own power stop her as she lumbers towards Gale.
--
"Damn and /damn/!"
There's a hiss of pain from the Holy Knight when Garrett's teeth manage to find their mark again, shredding her black pants a little more, drawing more blood and tearing at the flesh and muscle of her leg. That leg has always been a liability, injured several times in the past, and never quite healed correctly.
It's always been succeptible to pain, and being worried around by a little ratcatcher is no exception. Balancing back a bit, Agrias aims a vicious kick at the dog's head, trying to open up space enough to bring Defender down.
She's certainly a skillful combatant, but Agrias is unaccustomed to fighting a foe so small. She bears down on her sword stroke, but there seems to be an awful lot of resistance. A blow like that should have killed such a small target. Instead, she has to wrench her blade from his shoulder, frowning in temper and in puzzlement at the relative lack of mortal injury.
Garrett starts limping, though, and that's all the incentive she needs.
Backing away, Agrias sheathes her sword, blood and all. She'll clean it later. Instead, she makes a quick grab for her longbow, drawing an arrow and nocking it to the string, even as she retreats.
An arrow is fired straight at Garrett the Westie as a warning shot. A second follows, and a third, as Agrias gives herself a certain amount of cover fire. She's looking rather bloodless from the pain, at this point. It wasn't a terribly deep wound -- but it was a wound on a place that's been wounded countless times, and the pain is maddening.
"Cur," she spits, angrily. "Go back to your master. I'll have nothing for you but an arrow in the eye if you follow me. Go!"
And provided the irksome little dog doesn't try something stupid, like rushing in to try and savage her leg some more, the Holy Knight makes her retreat... leaving a blood trail as she does.
Stupid dog.
--
"Arf!" Garrett bellows angrily at the retreating Agrias, trying to follow her but unable to match the pace of her longer strides thanks to his own injury, stumbling to the sides to avoid being hit by the warning shots and falling farther and farther behind. "Arf arf roof arf garoooo!"
--
Utsuho Reiuji says, "Polly! This twit is bugging me. DUCK!"
Polly Chandler says, "Okay, but try not to kill these other two twits, wouldja? I wanna see 'em tear each other apart!"
--
White Gale watches as Sephi fashions herself into a beast of ice, blocking his way, refusing to back down even when he makes his offer on her behalf. When she makes her Fated decision. Her fate...
He starts laughing. It is not a very nice laugh; it is slightly unhinged, but not entirely. It is the laugh of something that is old and powerful, not like the modest, bespectacled teeanger Nigele usually is. It's all too familiar. Entirely too familiar. Just like Shane, when he drove Nigele to fight him; just like Nigele himself, when he felt crushed under the Dark Fate of his Neverborn patron. And now, he finally says what he always wanted to say when confronted with the Worldly concept of Fate...
"You Scions are all so STUPID about Fate! You cower in its shadow, as if it were a great creature ready to swallow you, as if you were helpless in its face. Don't you understand that Fate is like all other things? If you are fierce and stubborn enough, if you burn bright enough, Fate will cower in the glare of /your/ flame just like anyting else!" And then, he unleashes the Flight of the Brilliant Raptor spell, the enormous firebird plunging down directly at Sephi. It should hopefully not harm her too drastically, with all of that ice around her, but it should give him the time he needs to run past in the meantime.
And when he reaches the angels confronting one another, and Polly, he attempts to just slip right past her and grab Simon by the arm, sticking him with a needle of /something./ "WE'RE GOING HOME NOW, OKAY?"
Well, hopefully, at least...
--
Persephone veritably /snarls/ at Gale as he lectures her. "You know NOTHING of our Fate! In your world perhaps you can fashion it into whatever form pleases you, but in ours it is everything short of a living, breathing being!" Further ranting is cut short as the Brilliant Raptor descends on her, the daughter of Hel instinctively summoning even more ice in order to protect herself from the brightly shining firebird.
As the flames and light fades, the girl is left entirely unharmed. However, she is also completely immobile as the extra ice has locked up all of her limbs. She struggles against her self-imposed bonds for several seconds before grunting with resignation. "Accursed Exalt!" she yells after Nigele as he bolts for Simon.
--
Well! That was a satisfying explosion. Utsuho doesn't have much time to appreciate it though, as the awkward flaming bratlet leaps into her face again. The concrete at her feet, and even the metal walls around the two fiery combatants are all starting to liquify by their combined heat radiation. Utsuho's is less obvious, mostly centered on the vividly glowing, searing crimson metal attached to her right arm. She takes a step back, that concrete-encased foot planting in the semi-molten concrete of the floor.
What a crazy flurry of punches! Utsuho swings the Third Leg back, trying her best to only get beaten about the Head and Neck. You know, non-vital areas for bird-brained hell ravens. And she successfully catches many blows with the side of her face. It doesn't work as well as she was hoping. "Ow..! Ow! Damnit!" Golden rings rise out of the floor around her, swishing around in semi-molten material, marked with trifoils and the CAUTION flags all over.
"Polly!" the Raven shouts, "DUCK!" With Alice so close, Utsuho tries to take advantage of it by invoking a spellcard, then hurling out a tiny orb of heat. "Blazing Star!"
Drawing her hand back, the Raven reveals three more cards in her hand. As she shouts, these cards are consumed in flashes of blue light. Each card consumed feeds the thermonuclear reaction, "HELL'S!" Fwush! The basketball-sized sphere swells to several feet across, "NEW!" Fwash! Another card consumed, doubling the sun's size. It's starting to affect the entire room, "SUN!" The final card disappears, and with it the new star pierces the roof and one of the walls.
Utsuho Reiuji says, "Blazing Star..! HELL'S! NEW! SUN!"
Utsuho Reiuji ahahahahahahahahaha~!
--
The two Celestials--angel and demon--keep up their stalemate; both are injured, Simon less so than his former mentor. They're just /waiting/ for openings, which... ultimately, never come.
Nigele happens. Before Simon can protest, his friend and tenant jabs a needle in his arm--and he lasts a grand total of fifteen seconds before slumping over and passing out.
Ava lets out one last howl of rage, and then Utsuho's attack hits.
She goes down hard, and it will be a while before she gets back up, picking herself out of the rubble of the warehouse.
--
"Whoa there, not so fast, four-eyes!" White Gale attempts to slip past her, and Polly moves to interpose herself between the Solar and his target. "Where d'you think you're goin', huh? Only enough room in here for one glowing maniac, and that's my friend up there." With one hand, she jerks a thumb over her shoulder in Utsuho's direction. With the other, she reaches out to grab Nigele by that loud Hawaiian shirt of his and shove him backwards--
--but then Utsuho happens, and the wall above Polly's head crumbles. She was lucky enough to still be able to stand after getting clobbered by one chunk of broken masonry; the second time, not so much. "Agh--!" The Calabite disappears under a cascade of falling debris. Some of which may also be on fire.
--
"SHUT UP," Nigele calls towards Polly as he starts running while dragging Simon over his shoulder, getting clobbered by fire and rubble in the process and glowing brightly as he burns Essence just to keep running. And run he does, past frozen Sephi going NEXT TIME SOLAR NEXT TIME, past the crazy crow-girl, calling back to Alice.
"FOLLOW ME OUT HERE, ALRIGHT?"
Provided he does not somehow collapse in pain within a few minutes, he will take Nigele back through a gate, and all the way to his manse, in case the angel wakes up sooner than expected and decides it is time for VENGEANCE.
--
Holy crap, Alice thinks. She can make a new sun. /I/ can't make a new sun. How is that even a little bit fair?
Alice leaps backwards at the sudden surge in size of the second (third?) sun. She actually goes a little bit further than she'd meant to, slamming into one of the heat-weakened walls. Flaming paint showers down around her, though she ignores it; none of it actually touches her skin.
She doesn't want to run. Heroes don't run! But at this point, everything in here is practically a ruin anyway. White Gale is right; they need to get out of here. And maybe, without Alice around, she won't keep breaking everything.
"I'm gonna find you later!" Firebird proclaims, jabbing herself in the chest with a thumb. "Remember me! Firebird! But right now, I'm gonna help my friends!"
And then she turns and tears off after Nigele, through a hole in the wall. She's left the still-burning remnants of her bat behind. Maybe she'll call that a present.
--
She laughs. Utsuho cackles happily as the building is ruined by her careless, casual dispension of overkill. It lasts several long moments, boiling away the thinner sheet metal wall panels until the warehouse's skeleton is all that remains. Sagging, molten in spots, and utterly worthless.
It takes a bit for her to realize the warehouse itself is actually empty. While this wouldn't ordinarily bother her, a second later she realizes Polly isn't there laughing too. The sun promptly and very abruptly disappears.
"Unyu?"
Shielding her eyes with one hand, the hell raven scans over the cooling wreckage, "Polly? Did I get you, too? I'm sorry!" As if 'sorry' would solve 'sunny delight'.
--
There doesn't seem to be much left of Polly at the moment, just one bony leg sticking out of a pile of rubble. But eventually, that leg twitches, and a few chunks of debris shift and go bouncing down the sides of the pile. A muffled coughing fit can be heard from somewhere beneath them, with swears wedged in between the coughs wherever they will fit.
--
Is that.. It's a foot! Utsuho spreads her wings and floats over, raising the Third Leg and sweeping it in a broad swing to knock rubble away. She then lands, wrapping her hand around that ankle and simply lifting. It's uncerimonious and probably a little embarassing, but is there really any way to get pulled out of a rubbish pile that isn't embarassing?
"Did you see it? I made a really big one that time!" See how concerned Okuu is for her friend's well-being? This is the sign of a caring relationship!
--
Polly is dragged out of the mess, coughing and spluttering and covered in dust and ashes. Held upside-down by one ankle, she aims a venomous glare up--down--along her body at the owner of the hand. "Yeah, I saw it," she grates. "Thanks for the warning. Now put me down before I break your arms."
--
Just as uncerimoniously, Utsuho drops Polly with a simple release. Turning her back on the calabite, she swings the Third Leg up and props it over her shoulders, "It's not my fault you didn't duck! But look, it got everyone except that icy girl. Burned to a crisp, no doubt!"
Swinging her hand up, she folds it against the Third Leg at the back of her neck, "I feel like celebrating! There's a shop I heard of called 'i love egg', I think I'll go there. You can come along if you want."
--
"Oof--" Polly should have seen that coming. She lands in an awkward heap, and has to take a minute or two to sort out her limbs and get back to her feet. She does this with exaggerated patience, possibly counting to ten (thousand) in her mind so that she doesn't just haul off and Resonate all over Utsuho out of pure annoyance.
"What is it with you and eggs?" she grumbles instead, rummaging in her pockets for a fresh cigarette.
--
"What?" Utsuho glances over her shoulder, lowering a wing so it doesn't block her line of sight at her demonic companion, "You don't have a favorite food? They're tasty and good for you, what other reason do I need?" Turning away, she spreads her wings and takes to the air in a bustle of star-spangled cape and a few molted black feathers, drifting to the now-cooled ground.
"You don't have to come if you don't want to! I bet you want a bath anyway!"
(Includes Fac-BA chatter)