Log: Winnebago Blitz, Part One
WHO:Brigit Kelly, Daos, Flandre Scarlet, the Onion Knight, the Radiant Dynamo of Invention, Revya, Sync, Vivi Ornitier, Zidane Tribal
WHEN: Friday, September 18th
WHERE: The Alliance-Occupied Zone
WHAT: The Coalition is running low on supplies, and goes on a raid to seize what they need from the Alliance. They get kind of carried away with it.
WATCH FOR: Nobody thinking to taking any supplies. Also starring Flandre Scarlet as the little brother from A Christmas Story.
The wartorn northeastern part of the Hub was strangely quiet. At times, there were skirmishes - some short, rather anticlimatic executions of fugitives from the slave camps, others refugees who took a wrong turn, or scouts who weren't careful enough. Other times, they were more explosive battles between the factions.
And on rare ocassion, you get flying winnebagos.
From the driver's seat was a panicked redheaded woman working the pedals for the driver; a young Zidane who apparently didn't know how to drive any better than she did. They landed, but poorly, squealing tires and barrelling through the front gates and fortifications in a crazy half spin before finally coming to a 'rest' (see: crashing into) a collapsed building.
The Coalition was new at this whole raiding thing.
"Wauughhhh! Z-Z-Zidane, are you sure you know how to drive this thing?!" Vivi Ornitier, the little boy in the back in the blue vest and the face in shadow, has to keep a hand on his hat to keep it from flying. He doesn't know what the buckles are for, after all, and the squealing knocks him into the seats from behind. His head reels on the floor of the Winnebago. "Ohhh... what happened? Are we okay?"
Revya had also been in the back, because she didn't want to crowd everybody in the front (and she doesn't know how to drive either, having never sat in a driver's seat of anything in her life).
She is currently wedged behind one of the seats on purpose and trying not to get thrown here, there, and everywhere by simply bracing herself in place. Her sheathed sword is held in the crook of her elbow and has been bouncing around nearly as much as she has.
"I don't know," Revya says, head down. She feels like she might be sick from all the sudden turns and stops.
Oh, see, this is a winnebago! He knew that!
Onion Knight did not, but he doesn't like to admit ignorance. He's sitting perched in one of the passenger seats, adjusting his helmet which has fallen over his eyes in the wake of the FLYING WINNEBAGO ACTION. "HEY, UH," he has to shout to be heard over the roaring engine and squealing tires, "SHOULDN'T WE TRY SNEAKING IN? THIS ISN'T VERY SNEAKY! ACTUALLY IT'S PRETTY LOUD AND-"
As the car comes to an abrupt stop, his face makes contact with the seat in front of him. He doesn't know about seatbelts yet.
"...Well, too late for that, I guess." The boy in the red armor dusts himself off in an 'I meant to do that' way. "I mean, I guess we'll sneak in next time..."
It is a busy shift at the Foundry tonight. Steam and smoke pour up into the air from ducts around the central smelter, and workers are everywhere. Most of them are wearing the featureless black jumpsuits of the Yugashi Populat, but there are a handful of others-workers and technicians and supervisors from other Alliance members.
The Winnebago arcs in low, the roar of its engines barely audible above the industrial din of the smelters. As it comes closer, some of the workers notice it-they stop, point, and chat worriedly amongst themselves. Still, they do not abandon their posts. They have a job to do.
This all comes to a screeching halt when the Winnebago crashes into the bombed-out shell of a building, toppling girders and chunks of mortar onto the supply depot next door. Some of the workers engaged in less strenuous tasks stop what they're doing-some scurry off to a safe distance, while others approach the Winnebago.
"Stand back!" a voice barks, in Autochthonian. The workers quickly do as they're told, and none too soon-two figures are approaching the crashed vehicle. The first, of course, is Dynamo, clad in her traditional shirt, slacks, and buffcoat. The other looms over her, easily more than seven feet tall; he's clad from head to toe in moaning soulsteel armor, and he's carrying an enormous two-handed axe.
"I said get back!" Dynamo cries, again. She's keeping her distance from the Winnebago, as though expecting it to explode at any minute.
That, decides Zidane, as the dust settles and his ears still ringing, Was a lot more fun than it had any right to be.
The second thought to occur to him is that they are pretty lucky, landing like that without getting seriously hurt. Not one to look a gift chocobo in the mouth, the thief shoots the Winnebago's occupants a quick thumbs up from over his shoulder along with a-pardon the term-roguish wink. "No problem! Safe and sound!"
He climbs down, leaning between the front seats. "You okay, kid?" is likely meant for Vivi, who he'll offer a hand up before disembarking.
The fact that their noisy arrival has undoubtedly attracted the attention of the Black Alliance doesn't seem to have him in any kind of rush. "I'd prefer sneaking in, too," confesses the monkey-tailed blond, scratching his head. "But this was a lot more fun. Come on! We've got work to do!" There's a twitch of the aforementioned tail; the thief straightens up, peering out the window. "And from the sound of it... the welcoming committee's arrived."
"Lord Daos," a Chaos Space Marine growls, "we have reports of a flying winnebago that has come into our sector. They have disrupted several Yugashi workers."
Daos, who currently sits on a massive throne of crystal in the deepest heart of the Foundry, frowns. It has been a busy time for the Champion-General of the Black Alliance; making the Hub his had turned from a job of blood spilling, conquest, and fleeing masses into a long process of pacifying a conquered area. The sole advantage he enjoyed was the complete lack of morals in how he pacified his new holdings.
"And what are we doing about it?" Daos asks.
"Blood for the blood god," the Chaos Marine explains, simply.
"And skulls for the skull throne, yes." Daos stands up, and stretches both of his massive arms. The Sinistral of Terror then gets a smile on his face; like all of his smiles, it is not a friendly one. "I require a relief from my boredom. I will attend to it... personally."
A moment later, Daos appears outside of the building in a flash of light. Blue light slams down from the heavens and rolls out; as it fades, the Sinistral is left standing there. He went to the armory on his way; in one hand, he holds his immense mace, ending in the soulsteel-coated skull of Jason Stevens. This weapon is tried and true, battered through the skulls and bones of many of his enemies.
The other is a newer weapon: John C. Newman, esquire. The lawyer, held by his bound feet in Daos' other hand, screams and flails his arms in complete panic. "H-Help!" he screams. "This is illegal!"
Daos just chuckles. "What have we got here, Dynamo?"
"Man, you've got to be kidding me."
That is Sync the Tempest's reaction when he hears a flying car crash into Black Alliance territory, several blocks away from where he stands now, doling out orders to his men. He's torn between annoyed and amused, and either way after giving clipped orders to the replica Oracle Knights to secure the area and ensure nobody's sneaking in while someone else causes a noisy disturbance, decides to jog out to the scene of the invasion. It's been a while since he's thrown down properly with someone, and although things have settled down more or less for his double life as Ion, and he's more or less over her, it'd help to just be violet and break someone's face.
He's there in short order; Sync isn't called the Tempest for nothing. He spots Dynamo-unsurprising, as he knows this is an area with her people's workers around, which played no small part in his decision to do something about the noise-and frowning, picks up the pace and then slows down to stop next to her. "What's the situation?" he asks, before letting masked eyes rest on the people crawling out of the Winnebago. One of them has a tail. Huh. "Never mind, it's pretty self-evident," he concludes, eyes narrowing.
And then the Sinistral of Terror appears, pretty much right next to them. Sync takes one look at Daos' new weapon and laughs nastily. "Nice," he remarks.
Drifting through the air, a crimson girl with multicolored crystal wings looks down below, dressed in a bonnet and a red dress, of all things. Young... and taking in everything. No one told her about this place! No one told her about anything outside that basement-but look at it all!
To her, the destruction that is ravaged just looks like some odd scenery, like everything else. The dark clouds of smoke choking the sky make it easy to fly in, and it's not that hard to breathe. It's a bit funny smelling though! She stops as a rather loud crash makes her look down, especially as something metal flies towards her and then down. The vampire glancing towards the noise and the motion.
"What was that weird thing...?" Flandre asks of herself, slowly spiralling downwards, "Oh there's things in it to-Too loud!..." Tail. Tail. "An animal!!!" Ooooh it's like a teddybear and-"A doll~!" Flandre squeals, noticing Vivi.
She still stays away for the moment, attention held with rapt due to curiosity.
"I think so," Vivi says, gradually coming back to his senses as Zidane helps him up. The little black mage runs to keep pace with the thief, trying to hold onto Zidane's hand, but as Zidane looks forward, Vivi spends most of his time looking to the sides and back. And growing increasingly more worried.
"Zi-Zidane! I think they've found us!!" As if it needs to be stated. Vivi holds his staff out defensively against the strange soldiers of the Alliance-look out, there's a little boy with a stick!
Of course, the winged girl as a little distracting, and Vivi looks over at her nervously. "I'm not a doll!!"
There is some commotion from inside the vehicle, and the driverside door rattles for a moment. Then, it suddendly opens with a bang, one slender leg ending in a tennis shoe having kicked it open with a squeal of protesting metal. It retreats back in, and a Zidane is thrown bodily out.
A redheaded woman in a lavender colored, long sleeved dress and an apron follows, blushing and looking comically furious.
"D-don't touch-Watch where you put those hands, mister! You should be ashamed of yourself!" Meet Brigit Kelly. Virginal scion and worlds-class chef.
She looks up, then takes a startled step back. Oh. Brigit looks at the two Alchemicals, then slooowly up to size up the entire length of the larger one.
"....." Immediately looking sheepish, the scion looks at the two and offers a bright and decidedly dorky (although strangely endearing) smile. Before she can say anything, though, the blue beam of light that was Daos' arrival causes the chef to yelp unheroically and jump nearly out of her skin.
Then, there's someone she remembers... a man in a mask - Sync, wasn't it?
"Y-y-y-" She points, her hand trembling, then shakes her head as if trying to reboot her language skills. "You're that guy who attacked me and Tirana! Sync!"
A pause, then she glances distractedly at the weapon Daos holds. "......" Is that a person? Oh god.
Revya is one of the last ones out of the Winnebago itself. She doesn't look any more disheveled than normally as she clips the sword back onto her belt (such as it is), letting the enormously long weapon hang out behind her-but she does look a little dizzy.
It ends quickly. It looks like they did end up where they were trying to go, the Foundry (more or less) and so Revya takes a look around. Machines check, giant angry machine check, giant regular giant, check... by comparison Sync is so normal-looking that she just skips over him for a moment.
She reaches for the grip of her sword, holding it without quite drawing it yet. "Hey, put the guy down!" Revya calls, looking at Daos' off hand.
Onion Knight makes a wide leap out of the Winnebago, surprising considering his armor, and lands with a slight clank. "That giant is holding someone hostage! I'll-" Well, he's not exactly enthusiastic abotu the idea of fighting someone who can obviously crush him. But it is what a knight would do, isn't it? Part of his duty and all that? And besides, it isn't as if this is the first time he's gone up against something big. If they're big, it usually means they're dumb.
Right?
"You!" He points his fencing sword at Daos, striking a pose because that's just how it's done. "Unhand that innocent or face me, giant! I'll take you down!"
"You should learn better what to ask for," Daos snarls. He wheels back his arm, and then sends the lawyer flying. The man screams as he goes airborne, limbs flailing and kicking; he tilts over a few times, and then comes careening downward, right towards both Revya and Onion Knight. The Sinistral figures he can get them both.
One might even say he has practiced similar things.
"Come, weaklings," Daos shouts, after that. The aura around him, a light blue haze, bursts into a small conflagration of blue flame that crackles here and there. "Come face your better! I will put an end to you all HERE!"
Daos hits The Onion Knight with his Lawyer Toss jab.
Daos gets a glancing blow on Revya with his Lawyer Toss jab.
What the hell? Sync frowns up and over at the girl with the crystalline wings as she brings herself into noticeable view and starts squealing about aminals and dolly-wollies. "She a new recruit?" he mutters to Dynamo, Daos and Forge. "I don't recognize her."
Well, not like Sync's the meet-and-greeter, but he typically keeps an eye on when new people show up, both on the roster (when it works) and on radio channels, wherein he receives his negative answer. Even if he isn't talking, he's listening. He pauses when he's recognized, though, as more people pile out of the winged vehicle, a couple of whom ignore him in favor of Daos, which is A-OK with the God-General, who even indulges in some schadenfreude to snicker when the Sinistral throws the lawyer at those who demanded he be let go. Peering at the redhead, he's at a loss for a moment until she describes how she met him. Now he remembers, and he lets his lips curl up in a scythe-like smile.
"Oh yeah, I did do something like that once, didn't I? As I recall, you sucked at fighting, even if you were annoyingly persistent," he says nonchalantly. "Got new boyfriends to come to your rescue, huh?" Stepping forward, casually cracking his knuckles, Sync continues, "But you're out of your league here, girl. This is no four-on-one fight." Another vicious grin, and he gives her the universally-recognized come-get-some gesture-one hand forward, palm up, fingers gesturing towards him, gathering fonons within himself as he taunts her. "This time, I'll kill you!"
It's kind of ironic that Sync calls Brigit 'girl' when he looks and sounds like he can't be any older than fifteen years.
Sync buffs his POW to +1.
"Oh a talking doll!" Well, that's not unheard of. "Oh you want to play?" His note that he is really not a doll completely ignored. After all. The doll is just there for amusement, and she's going to be amused. "OooooOOhh!" Flandre notes, as the blue flame that crackles about Daos erupts outwards. "I want to do that TOO!"
Fortunately she can.
"Look what I can do!" Raising the little wand she has, a burst of energy flares about her, the crystals in her wings glittering. "Seeeee?! Heeheee!"
Zidane doesn't have Vivi's hand very long. See, something about an angry Cooking Mama seizing him - the thief has just enough time to give her a grin that utterly fails to be appropriately sheepish - and throwing him physically out of the Winnebago. He picks himself up, dusting himself off with a careless chuckle. "Aww, don't be mad, it was..." An excuse, an excuse? Bah. "A happy accident!" he proclaims, bowing with a flourish. "One I would be glad to repeat-hey! Who are you calling an animal?"
Oh, it's another lady.
"Huh...?" is about all the Genome can say, before looking towards Vivi with a furrowing of his eyebrows. "Guess she's on their side. Too bad," remarks the thief, tugging two daggers from their sheathes and giving both a twirl once they're settled in his grasp. "I'll be right back." Zidane heads directly back into the Winnebago. And out the other side, circumnavigating the battle as it begins. Why? Well, they're here to raid, right?
He's going shopping. Nothing quite like the five-finger discount! <3
Dynamo looks over her shoulder and smirks as Daos appears, "Looks like someone made a wrong turn," she quips. As Forge moves to interpose his brick-wall bulk between his partner and the Winnebago, she fires off a quick radio report to the Project Manager, who is demanding to know what exploded up there.
Sync approaches. Dynamo stifles a smile, and holds up a hand. "Don't get too close," she cautions.
"Dynamo-" In front of her, Forge tenses, unslinging the massive chunk of soulsteel that is his axe; Ku's Final Mercy seems to moan softly as he swings it up in a defensive stance. "Its passengers survived."
"Oh, really?" Dynamo pauses just long enough to unholster her crossbow, and loads it. "Too bad for them- What the?" Quite suddenly, there is a winged woman in the air.
Dynamo then does what she does best-she delegates. Dynamo barks, in Autochthonian. As Zidane tears off, the smaller Alchemical dashes after him. She decides to give him the benefit of a warning shot, firing a crossbow bolt over his right shoulder as she runs. "Stop!" she cries.
Forge, meanwhile, stomps up to loom next to Sync, all the while keeping an eye on the winged woman. "Surrender," he says. His low, gravelly voice carries no malice, but his intent is clear: Stop, or else.
"I'm not here to- wahh!" Flandre can't keep Vivi's attention for long-that giant just throw that man! And he's got magic! Weird magic that Vivi hasn't really seen before. The little boy hunkers down, his amber eyes narrowing under his hat. "Y-you big bully... um, v-very big bully! You can't just throw people around like that!" The little boy in the bulky clothes waves his staff around in a circle, and then thrusts it forward, hopping in the air a little bit. As he does so, a stream of blue light flows out of it, splitting in twain and flowing down into Revya's and the Onion Knight's weapons. The steel grows freezing cold, and almost begins to thrum, volatile and ready to unleash itself.
You buff Revya's POW to +3.
You buff The Onion Knight's POW to +3.
S-sucked at fighting?! Oh, come on... surely she wasn't that ba- well, yeah, she kinda was. She froze up, like she almost always did (until recently, that is) and basically turned out to be useless with her lack of self-confidence... or was it that she just told herself she was insecure so she didn't have to admit she wasn't really as human as she would have liked?
BOYFRIENDS?! Brigit flushes a bright red and opens her mouth, looking silently dismayed with embarrassment. She also remembers that was the time when she learned to start wearing shorts under her uniform.
Brigit looks a little upset, mostly frightened, but seems to steel herself. She'll prove herself! She got her friends in this mess, but this was her moment to prove to herself and to get back at the Alliance!
"Sh-shut up! I'm going to... to... kick your ass!" The nice thing about Epic Charisma is that no matter how dorky she is, it seems to come across as a little endearing. The bad thing was that few people actually took you seriously in a fight. Brigit doesn't really know how to intimidate at all.
So she lifted up her fists, hands trembling. Smokey gray eyes glance down at them, then back up at Sync. No, this won't work. She dropped her arms, shaking them loose and tilting her head to the right, then to the left. After this, she dropped her weight down a little, bending at the knees and looking a little more... steady.
Her trick? She imagined Lavan was watching. Gotta prove she can make it! She'll repay him one day! One Alliance creep at a time!
bonk
Daos has excellent aim with the lawyer, judging by the fact that he successfully bounces him off the Onion Knight and at Revya. The difference is that Revya catches him; she was only hit hard enough to make her stagger once, she still had both hands free, and she's a lot bigger than the Onion Knight to start with.
She puts the lawyer down, carefully, and then draws her sword; she slices the bonds around his legs. "Get out before you get killed!" she says, then steps forward, holding the sword in both hands. It's not a normal sword. It's black, for starters, not metal-coloured-onyx or obsidian or something like that. The hilt is disproportionately long and the crossguard has red gems in it.
Revya just holds it for a moment at about waist level, point slightly lower, breathing in and out slowly based on Vivi's request. The stone blade doesn't have quite the same effects as steel; it frosts over, crackling with cold.
She tries to ignore the sudden roar of Gig in her head, furious that his sword prison has been abruptly frozen and that someone else is casting magic on him, the great asskicker. The only effect everyone else gets is the sudden flicker of red under the frost on the sword before Revya charges with it, driving it at Daos in a leaping thrust.
Revya misses Daos with her Charging Thrust attack.
Revya resets her POW buff status to neutral.
"WHOA!" Onion Knight nearly catches the lawyer, but instead is toppled over by the impact. Thankfully, Revya has him in hand, and the boy blushes in slight embarassment as he climbs back to his feet. "Stupid brute, I'll take you down and oh my god you're a mage."
This is confirmed by a faceful of blue fire, which scorches the boy and leaves him staggering back. Alright, rethinking plan, he can't be a dumb brute if he's a sorcerer. He has to be...something else. Smart and big, perfect. Juuust perfect. He's about to suggest a plan when Vivi offers one-and the knight holds his fencing blade up, waiting for the black mage to bless it with magic.
It's a lot easier for him to deal with than poor Revya. Although the sword's added weight makes his leaping slash a bit awkward, he still manages to adjust, running, jumping and attempting to bring the sword down on Daos's shoulder.
The Onion Knight gets a glancing blow on Daos with his Ice Sword Stolen from Chrono Trigger attack.
The Onion Knight resets his buff status to neutral.
"Don't worry about that," the God-General says to his "mother," nodding once regarding not getting too close. He's no fool, after all.
Sync snickers at Brigit's embarrassment, pausing when the strange winged girl starts showing off, and the kid with the stick and the hat gets interrupted from what he was trying to say thanks to lawyer. "Hey, that doll's ignoring you," he calls up to the red-clad girl. "You aren't just gonna let that slide, are you?"
Well, it's worth a shot, anyway, even as Forget tells her to surrender.
For now, though, Sync regards Brigit again, laughing at her bravado. "Yeah, whatever," he says, amused. Cute she might be, but she's still an enemy. It at least means he's willing to indulge her a couple of seconds to adjust her fighting stance-even if it's largely because he can't help but feel a touch sorry for the poor idiot-before nodding once to Forge next to him before he takes on that other girl, then bolting forward, killing the distance between himself and the Scion before leaping up to kick her in the face.
'Feeling a touch sorry' doesn't mean he'll go especially easy on her. It's not like he cares, and how would that look in front of the guys?
Sync critically strikes Brigit Kelly with his BOOT TO THE HEAD attack.
"And exactly how will you try to stop me?" Daos sneers. He does, however, pause as he sees Vivi do that. For him, magic was never so practically applied - the Sinistral used it almost exclusively for aggressive purposes, or the occasional instance of infusing someone with a mindbending amount of fear.
The lawyer looks at Revya. He swallows, turns, and starts to run off as she charges in. Daos growls, and looks at the woman - but his eyes lock on the sword. He can sense the incredible amount of power contained from within it. He begins laughing, and brings his other weapon; Jason Stevens' metal-covered skull catches the weapon, and the ice shatters into slivers of frost.
"What sort of weapon is that?" he asks. "How did you make something so strong? And yet... you're unworthy of wielding it!"
The Onion Knight scores a hit on Daos' shoulder, a moment later. Ice explodes across it; the pauldron cracks here and there, and dents in sharply, but the piece of armor does not break. As he lands, Daos whips his huge mace around, and then drives it skull-first into the ground. Light and energy explodes off it, in a ring, which rockets out towards all of them.
Daos hits Vivi Ornitier with his Sunder jab.
Daos hits Revya with his Sunder jab.
Daos misses The Onion Knight with his Sunder jab.
It takes excellent marksmanship to fire a crossbow while running or while on horseback with any accuracy; Zidane reflexively flinches his face away, albeit a little needlessly given that the crossbow bolt doesn't even touch him. Nor, he notes, was it meant to. That smacks of a warning shot; he skids to a stop, whirling around in a three point crouch, one dagger between his teeth. As the Genome stands to his full-if diminutive-height, he relieves his teeth of the metal.
"If you insist," calls Zidane, leaning the flat of one dagger against his shoulder and cocking his head to the side with a sly grin. "It's kind of weird, facing off with a lady, but if you're that determined for the company who am I to refuse?" There's a reason he's here, he hasn't forgotten it. Also it wouldn't do to expose his back to an archer. So, it's parley time.
"Huh. She looks kind of..." Like a statue, crafted by a potter and a jeweller who couldn't decide what to make her out of. "This is my first time with a construct," he cat-calls, "Be gentle~!"
Brigit was just starting to feel good, ready to rumble! Sure, she was terrified, but it helped to know that she had allies with her, people to watch her back while she watched theirs!
Of course, the problem with being watched is that you also run the risk of being thoroughly embarrassed in front of your peers. Like what happens when Sync's foot greets the scion's face, throwing her completely off balance.
In slow motion, the foot pushes her face back, her body following like she was yanked by a rope connected to her head. Arms pinwheel in a clumsy attempt to defend or break her fall, and instead she just collapses spectacularly. Sprawled and dazed, Brigit lays there for a moment with her eyes squeezed shut and grimacing.
"Nngh!" She complains, her face feeling like a tiny world of pain. M-maybe he's right... that was pretty awful! What's all that training if you can't even take a hit from some young boy with a mask?!
Humiliated, she imagined Lavan in the background, eyeglasses flashing and shaking his head in disappointment. She blushed again and bounced to her feet, back into the fight with tenacity, although she's too upset to talk. This time, she advances and then swings her leg up and in a horizontal sweep for his torso.
Brigit Kelly critically strikes Sync with her T_T GOD DAMMIT BRIGIT attack.
"Way to go! All right, Revya!" Vivi cheers from the back ranks, hopping up in the air again at the freeing of John C. Newman, Esq. That doesn't last too long, as he's almost immediately bowled over by an exploding wave of pressure. "Waaaaahhhhh!!!"
The little black mage thumps onto the roof of the Winnebago, sent flying surprisingly high by the wave. "T-that hurt..." he says, climbing uneasily back to his feet; he stumbles to the side for a few moments before he gathers his balance. "You... you jerk! You can't just hurt people like that!!" The boy narrows his eyes, and waves his staff in the air, driving it upward in a golf-swing arc. A rush of air and light erupts in a circle around his feet, heralding the magical energy released. As his staff reaches the apex of its arc, there is a sudden screaming crash as a star falls from the sky, rushing downward in a half-parabolic curve, aiming to bowl over the Sinistral of Terror.
You hit Daos with your Comet attack.
What?! Dynamo is equal parts flattered and repulsed. She is being flirted with by an intruder who looks like he got badtouched by the Wyld, and he's drawing her away from the main battle in what is likely a feint. Dynamo trusts Daos to handle himself, but Sync-
Sync can take care of himself, too. It feels kind of like she's lying to herself.
Dynamo skids to a halt about ten paces away from Zidane, and loads another bolt into the crossbow. "Gentle, huh?" the Alchemical says. "You couldn't handle me, even if I was." Dynamo fires again-only this time, it's not a warning shot. The bolt speeds for Zidane, and it's going to hurt if it hits.
Hit or miss, Zidane is going to get another unpleasant surprise. The weakened wall of the building to his left explodes outwards, and the enormous, soulsteel-clad man barrels out from within, trying to shoulder-check Zidane into the ground.
Why isn't Forge watching Flandre himself? This may have something to do with the small, hummingbird-like contraption watching the winged woman with sensor eyes. Familiars: Gotta love 'em.
Radiant Dynamo of Invention misses Zidane Tribal with her Double Tech?! attack.
Revya raps the sword against her heel to knock off the last remaining chunks of ice and frost before coming back up in her standard stance. "I didn't make it," she says, "and I'm not going to answer any more questions by someone like you!"
The sword does in fact continue to radiate energy; every so often, a wisp of something red drifts away from it, like an exhaled breath. Revya ignores it.
The blast wave does a good job against Revya; she is literally picked up and thrown, hitting the ground yards away and rolling. At least she manages to keep a grip on her blade; when she stands back up, she's already armed, and she comes in with a two-handed chop upwards at an angle. She looks pissed.
Revya critically strikes Daos with her Have Sword Will Travel attack.
So many eyes on her-she doesn't seem to notice them.
But while energy is being thrown around, Flandre's attention is about as constant of any of that. Eyes jump around, and from one place to another. There's so many of them, they all have weird powers 'n stuff-and they're using them on each other! They seem to really know each other well, too.
"Slide?" She asks herself, "Sure it can!"
He giggles, the wings beginning to glow a bit-the vampire's slow fall turning into a straight plummet behind Vivi, before she pulls up, just right near the ground. She ends up ... 'sliding' on her stomach, wings carrying her over.
Of course like some kind of penguin vampire, she's going to headbutt the littlest mage-and it's not like her head is very soft. "Wheeeeee~!"
Flandre Scarlet gets a glancing blow on Vivi Ornitier with her Let's play! jab.
"Too slow!" Onion Knight perhaps unwisely taunts his opponent as he leaps away, bouncing off of the giant's arm and staying just out of the reach of the great club. Aha, there's the giant's weakness! He's probably slow, being so huge. A slight smirk crosses the boy's face as he lands on both feet, brandishing his sword.
"There are advantages to being small, you know," he taunts before rushing forward again. Staying quick on his feet, he becomes a whirling dervish of movement, dashing, leaping and stabbing wherever he sees an opening. The individual fencing blows aren't very strong, but they're fast and ANNOYING.
The Onion Knight critically strikes Daos with his Pesky Speed Monkey attack.
Flipping backwards in midair, using Brigit's face as a jumping board, Sync lands nimbly, laughing at her. "What's the matter?" he begins to taunt, before he notices over that way what Zidane's saying to Dyname. Momentarily, he makes a face of surprised disgust. Normally, Sync wouldn't care about overhearing something like that, but dude, that's his mom. He'll leave it to Dynam-
Ow. A leg slams into his side, sending him reeling, almost flying back, to land hard on the concrete. That hurt like hell, he's surprised to realize. Was she this strong before? Yes, Sync concludes, he thinks she was; he hadn't forgotten that she'd been the one to chase him through the Cheagle Woods when he decided he'd had enough of picking on her and Tirana. Her clumsiness and general ineptitude had stayed in his memory more, but he does remember that when she did hit, she hit like a dreadnought.
"Cute," he retorts as he rolls forward, one hand down, sassing in spite of the ferocious ache of his ribs. Any broken? Nope, though they'll be awful sore later. "Who taught you that move? Your dance instructor?" While distracting her with that taunt, Sync concentrates briefly, speed-casting a fonic arte, as evidenced by the fonic circle beneath him.
"Take this! Turbulence!" he shouts, and the coalescense of Third Fonons converges around Brigit in the form of a razor whirlwind. Think fast, Bri!
Sync critically strikes Brigit Kelly with his Whither the Wind Goes attack.
"And exactly what will stop me?" the Sinistral bellows. The star slams into his armor and explodes off it; flame erupts, and leaves the armor burnt and battered where it hit. Daos stumbles backward, and is poorly prepared for Revya. His eyes go wide - and he sees the sword chopping out. The Onyx Blade bits into his armor, and through it. Purple blood flows from without, and he stumbles forward.
The Onion Knight comes in, and whips into him with numerous blows. The sword strikes hammer his armor and cut through his red, regal robes. A few bite into flesh, blood running down the armor. The Sinistral roars, grabbing for the Onion Knight, and throws him into the air.
Then, he throws a punch - hand gripped around his mace - for Revya.
"Don't want to tell me?" he barks. "I'll tear it from your hands and ask it myself!"
Daos hits The Onion Knight with his Toss attack.
Daos hits Revya with his Punch! attack.
If only having a tail is enough to repulse Dynamo, she'd better steer clear of Lindblum. Heck, imagine her reaction to Cinna! If Zidane minds, it doesn't erase his devil-may-care smile. "Oho," answers Zidane, lifting his brows at the Alchemical. "I think..." I can rise to the challenge! was going to be the rest of that sentence, aborted not by a crossbow bolt (which had met its end in two pieces, scissored in twain by two daggers catching it out of the air)-
But by the sudden arrival of the Kool Aid Man. Er, that is, when the Angry Boyfriend shows up.
"Whoops!" the Genome exclaims, shortly before he's squashed, life snuffed out in the prime of his youth! Oh tragedy!!
There is a low, appreciative whistle from a crouched figure about five feet from the cloud of dust kicked up by Forge's landing.
Tragedy! ... Or not. Zidane kips back up to his feet, sprints forward and, provided his aim is still good in all that dust, intends on using Forge's head as a springboard on his way up and over Dynamo's head. "Love to play some more, but overprotective jealous boyfriends cramp my style!"
Zidane Tribal gets a glancing blow on Radiant Dynamo of Invention with his Not Tigger, But Still Bouncy. attack.
WHEN: Friday, September 18th
WHERE: The Alliance-Occupied Zone
WHAT: The Coalition is running low on supplies, and goes on a raid to seize what they need from the Alliance. They get kind of carried away with it.
WATCH FOR: Nobody thinking to taking any supplies. Also starring Flandre Scarlet as the little brother from A Christmas Story.
The wartorn northeastern part of the Hub was strangely quiet. At times, there were skirmishes - some short, rather anticlimatic executions of fugitives from the slave camps, others refugees who took a wrong turn, or scouts who weren't careful enough. Other times, they were more explosive battles between the factions.
And on rare ocassion, you get flying winnebagos.
From the driver's seat was a panicked redheaded woman working the pedals for the driver; a young Zidane who apparently didn't know how to drive any better than she did. They landed, but poorly, squealing tires and barrelling through the front gates and fortifications in a crazy half spin before finally coming to a 'rest' (see: crashing into) a collapsed building.
The Coalition was new at this whole raiding thing.
"Wauughhhh! Z-Z-Zidane, are you sure you know how to drive this thing?!" Vivi Ornitier, the little boy in the back in the blue vest and the face in shadow, has to keep a hand on his hat to keep it from flying. He doesn't know what the buckles are for, after all, and the squealing knocks him into the seats from behind. His head reels on the floor of the Winnebago. "Ohhh... what happened? Are we okay?"
Revya had also been in the back, because she didn't want to crowd everybody in the front (and she doesn't know how to drive either, having never sat in a driver's seat of anything in her life).
She is currently wedged behind one of the seats on purpose and trying not to get thrown here, there, and everywhere by simply bracing herself in place. Her sheathed sword is held in the crook of her elbow and has been bouncing around nearly as much as she has.
"I don't know," Revya says, head down. She feels like she might be sick from all the sudden turns and stops.
Oh, see, this is a winnebago! He knew that!
Onion Knight did not, but he doesn't like to admit ignorance. He's sitting perched in one of the passenger seats, adjusting his helmet which has fallen over his eyes in the wake of the FLYING WINNEBAGO ACTION. "HEY, UH," he has to shout to be heard over the roaring engine and squealing tires, "SHOULDN'T WE TRY SNEAKING IN? THIS ISN'T VERY SNEAKY! ACTUALLY IT'S PRETTY LOUD AND-"
As the car comes to an abrupt stop, his face makes contact with the seat in front of him. He doesn't know about seatbelts yet.
"...Well, too late for that, I guess." The boy in the red armor dusts himself off in an 'I meant to do that' way. "I mean, I guess we'll sneak in next time..."
It is a busy shift at the Foundry tonight. Steam and smoke pour up into the air from ducts around the central smelter, and workers are everywhere. Most of them are wearing the featureless black jumpsuits of the Yugashi Populat, but there are a handful of others-workers and technicians and supervisors from other Alliance members.
The Winnebago arcs in low, the roar of its engines barely audible above the industrial din of the smelters. As it comes closer, some of the workers notice it-they stop, point, and chat worriedly amongst themselves. Still, they do not abandon their posts. They have a job to do.
This all comes to a screeching halt when the Winnebago crashes into the bombed-out shell of a building, toppling girders and chunks of mortar onto the supply depot next door. Some of the workers engaged in less strenuous tasks stop what they're doing-some scurry off to a safe distance, while others approach the Winnebago.
"Stand back!" a voice barks, in Autochthonian. The workers quickly do as they're told, and none too soon-two figures are approaching the crashed vehicle. The first, of course, is Dynamo, clad in her traditional shirt, slacks, and buffcoat. The other looms over her, easily more than seven feet tall; he's clad from head to toe in moaning soulsteel armor, and he's carrying an enormous two-handed axe.
"I said get back!" Dynamo cries, again. She's keeping her distance from the Winnebago, as though expecting it to explode at any minute.
That, decides Zidane, as the dust settles and his ears still ringing, Was a lot more fun than it had any right to be.
The second thought to occur to him is that they are pretty lucky, landing like that without getting seriously hurt. Not one to look a gift chocobo in the mouth, the thief shoots the Winnebago's occupants a quick thumbs up from over his shoulder along with a-pardon the term-roguish wink. "No problem! Safe and sound!"
He climbs down, leaning between the front seats. "You okay, kid?" is likely meant for Vivi, who he'll offer a hand up before disembarking.
The fact that their noisy arrival has undoubtedly attracted the attention of the Black Alliance doesn't seem to have him in any kind of rush. "I'd prefer sneaking in, too," confesses the monkey-tailed blond, scratching his head. "But this was a lot more fun. Come on! We've got work to do!" There's a twitch of the aforementioned tail; the thief straightens up, peering out the window. "And from the sound of it... the welcoming committee's arrived."
"Lord Daos," a Chaos Space Marine growls, "we have reports of a flying winnebago that has come into our sector. They have disrupted several Yugashi workers."
Daos, who currently sits on a massive throne of crystal in the deepest heart of the Foundry, frowns. It has been a busy time for the Champion-General of the Black Alliance; making the Hub his had turned from a job of blood spilling, conquest, and fleeing masses into a long process of pacifying a conquered area. The sole advantage he enjoyed was the complete lack of morals in how he pacified his new holdings.
"And what are we doing about it?" Daos asks.
"Blood for the blood god," the Chaos Marine explains, simply.
"And skulls for the skull throne, yes." Daos stands up, and stretches both of his massive arms. The Sinistral of Terror then gets a smile on his face; like all of his smiles, it is not a friendly one. "I require a relief from my boredom. I will attend to it... personally."
A moment later, Daos appears outside of the building in a flash of light. Blue light slams down from the heavens and rolls out; as it fades, the Sinistral is left standing there. He went to the armory on his way; in one hand, he holds his immense mace, ending in the soulsteel-coated skull of Jason Stevens. This weapon is tried and true, battered through the skulls and bones of many of his enemies.
The other is a newer weapon: John C. Newman, esquire. The lawyer, held by his bound feet in Daos' other hand, screams and flails his arms in complete panic. "H-Help!" he screams. "This is illegal!"
Daos just chuckles. "What have we got here, Dynamo?"
"Man, you've got to be kidding me."
That is Sync the Tempest's reaction when he hears a flying car crash into Black Alliance territory, several blocks away from where he stands now, doling out orders to his men. He's torn between annoyed and amused, and either way after giving clipped orders to the replica Oracle Knights to secure the area and ensure nobody's sneaking in while someone else causes a noisy disturbance, decides to jog out to the scene of the invasion. It's been a while since he's thrown down properly with someone, and although things have settled down more or less for his double life as Ion, and he's more or less over her, it'd help to just be violet and break someone's face.
He's there in short order; Sync isn't called the Tempest for nothing. He spots Dynamo-unsurprising, as he knows this is an area with her people's workers around, which played no small part in his decision to do something about the noise-and frowning, picks up the pace and then slows down to stop next to her. "What's the situation?" he asks, before letting masked eyes rest on the people crawling out of the Winnebago. One of them has a tail. Huh. "Never mind, it's pretty self-evident," he concludes, eyes narrowing.
And then the Sinistral of Terror appears, pretty much right next to them. Sync takes one look at Daos' new weapon and laughs nastily. "Nice," he remarks.
Drifting through the air, a crimson girl with multicolored crystal wings looks down below, dressed in a bonnet and a red dress, of all things. Young... and taking in everything. No one told her about this place! No one told her about anything outside that basement-but look at it all!
To her, the destruction that is ravaged just looks like some odd scenery, like everything else. The dark clouds of smoke choking the sky make it easy to fly in, and it's not that hard to breathe. It's a bit funny smelling though! She stops as a rather loud crash makes her look down, especially as something metal flies towards her and then down. The vampire glancing towards the noise and the motion.
"What was that weird thing...?" Flandre asks of herself, slowly spiralling downwards, "Oh there's things in it to-Too loud!..." Tail. Tail. "An animal!!!" Ooooh it's like a teddybear and-"A doll~!" Flandre squeals, noticing Vivi.
She still stays away for the moment, attention held with rapt due to curiosity.
"I think so," Vivi says, gradually coming back to his senses as Zidane helps him up. The little black mage runs to keep pace with the thief, trying to hold onto Zidane's hand, but as Zidane looks forward, Vivi spends most of his time looking to the sides and back. And growing increasingly more worried.
"Zi-Zidane! I think they've found us!!" As if it needs to be stated. Vivi holds his staff out defensively against the strange soldiers of the Alliance-look out, there's a little boy with a stick!
Of course, the winged girl as a little distracting, and Vivi looks over at her nervously. "I'm not a doll!!"
There is some commotion from inside the vehicle, and the driverside door rattles for a moment. Then, it suddendly opens with a bang, one slender leg ending in a tennis shoe having kicked it open with a squeal of protesting metal. It retreats back in, and a Zidane is thrown bodily out.
A redheaded woman in a lavender colored, long sleeved dress and an apron follows, blushing and looking comically furious.
"D-don't touch-Watch where you put those hands, mister! You should be ashamed of yourself!" Meet Brigit Kelly. Virginal scion and worlds-class chef.
She looks up, then takes a startled step back. Oh. Brigit looks at the two Alchemicals, then slooowly up to size up the entire length of the larger one.
"....." Immediately looking sheepish, the scion looks at the two and offers a bright and decidedly dorky (although strangely endearing) smile. Before she can say anything, though, the blue beam of light that was Daos' arrival causes the chef to yelp unheroically and jump nearly out of her skin.
Then, there's someone she remembers... a man in a mask - Sync, wasn't it?
"Y-y-y-" She points, her hand trembling, then shakes her head as if trying to reboot her language skills. "You're that guy who attacked me and Tirana! Sync!"
A pause, then she glances distractedly at the weapon Daos holds. "......" Is that a person? Oh god.
Revya is one of the last ones out of the Winnebago itself. She doesn't look any more disheveled than normally as she clips the sword back onto her belt (such as it is), letting the enormously long weapon hang out behind her-but she does look a little dizzy.
It ends quickly. It looks like they did end up where they were trying to go, the Foundry (more or less) and so Revya takes a look around. Machines check, giant angry machine check, giant regular giant, check... by comparison Sync is so normal-looking that she just skips over him for a moment.
She reaches for the grip of her sword, holding it without quite drawing it yet. "Hey, put the guy down!" Revya calls, looking at Daos' off hand.
Onion Knight makes a wide leap out of the Winnebago, surprising considering his armor, and lands with a slight clank. "That giant is holding someone hostage! I'll-" Well, he's not exactly enthusiastic abotu the idea of fighting someone who can obviously crush him. But it is what a knight would do, isn't it? Part of his duty and all that? And besides, it isn't as if this is the first time he's gone up against something big. If they're big, it usually means they're dumb.
Right?
"You!" He points his fencing sword at Daos, striking a pose because that's just how it's done. "Unhand that innocent or face me, giant! I'll take you down!"
"You should learn better what to ask for," Daos snarls. He wheels back his arm, and then sends the lawyer flying. The man screams as he goes airborne, limbs flailing and kicking; he tilts over a few times, and then comes careening downward, right towards both Revya and Onion Knight. The Sinistral figures he can get them both.
One might even say he has practiced similar things.
"Come, weaklings," Daos shouts, after that. The aura around him, a light blue haze, bursts into a small conflagration of blue flame that crackles here and there. "Come face your better! I will put an end to you all HERE!"
Daos hits The Onion Knight with his Lawyer Toss jab.
Daos gets a glancing blow on Revya with his Lawyer Toss jab.
What the hell? Sync frowns up and over at the girl with the crystalline wings as she brings herself into noticeable view and starts squealing about aminals and dolly-wollies. "She a new recruit?" he mutters to Dynamo, Daos and Forge. "I don't recognize her."
Well, not like Sync's the meet-and-greeter, but he typically keeps an eye on when new people show up, both on the roster (when it works) and on radio channels, wherein he receives his negative answer. Even if he isn't talking, he's listening. He pauses when he's recognized, though, as more people pile out of the winged vehicle, a couple of whom ignore him in favor of Daos, which is A-OK with the God-General, who even indulges in some schadenfreude to snicker when the Sinistral throws the lawyer at those who demanded he be let go. Peering at the redhead, he's at a loss for a moment until she describes how she met him. Now he remembers, and he lets his lips curl up in a scythe-like smile.
"Oh yeah, I did do something like that once, didn't I? As I recall, you sucked at fighting, even if you were annoyingly persistent," he says nonchalantly. "Got new boyfriends to come to your rescue, huh?" Stepping forward, casually cracking his knuckles, Sync continues, "But you're out of your league here, girl. This is no four-on-one fight." Another vicious grin, and he gives her the universally-recognized come-get-some gesture-one hand forward, palm up, fingers gesturing towards him, gathering fonons within himself as he taunts her. "This time, I'll kill you!"
It's kind of ironic that Sync calls Brigit 'girl' when he looks and sounds like he can't be any older than fifteen years.
Sync buffs his POW to +1.
"Oh a talking doll!" Well, that's not unheard of. "Oh you want to play?" His note that he is really not a doll completely ignored. After all. The doll is just there for amusement, and she's going to be amused. "OooooOOhh!" Flandre notes, as the blue flame that crackles about Daos erupts outwards. "I want to do that TOO!"
Fortunately she can.
"Look what I can do!" Raising the little wand she has, a burst of energy flares about her, the crystals in her wings glittering. "Seeeee?! Heeheee!"
Zidane doesn't have Vivi's hand very long. See, something about an angry Cooking Mama seizing him - the thief has just enough time to give her a grin that utterly fails to be appropriately sheepish - and throwing him physically out of the Winnebago. He picks himself up, dusting himself off with a careless chuckle. "Aww, don't be mad, it was..." An excuse, an excuse? Bah. "A happy accident!" he proclaims, bowing with a flourish. "One I would be glad to repeat-hey! Who are you calling an animal?"
Oh, it's another lady.
"Huh...?" is about all the Genome can say, before looking towards Vivi with a furrowing of his eyebrows. "Guess she's on their side. Too bad," remarks the thief, tugging two daggers from their sheathes and giving both a twirl once they're settled in his grasp. "I'll be right back." Zidane heads directly back into the Winnebago. And out the other side, circumnavigating the battle as it begins. Why? Well, they're here to raid, right?
He's going shopping. Nothing quite like the five-finger discount! <3
Dynamo looks over her shoulder and smirks as Daos appears, "Looks like someone made a wrong turn," she quips. As Forge moves to interpose his brick-wall bulk between his partner and the Winnebago, she fires off a quick radio report to the Project Manager, who is demanding to know what exploded up there.
Sync approaches. Dynamo stifles a smile, and holds up a hand. "Don't get too close," she cautions.
"Dynamo-" In front of her, Forge tenses, unslinging the massive chunk of soulsteel that is his axe; Ku's Final Mercy seems to moan softly as he swings it up in a defensive stance. "Its passengers survived."
"Oh, really?" Dynamo pauses just long enough to unholster her crossbow, and loads it. "Too bad for them- What the?" Quite suddenly, there is a winged woman in the air.
Dynamo then does what she does best-she delegates. Dynamo barks, in Autochthonian. As Zidane tears off, the smaller Alchemical dashes after him. She decides to give him the benefit of a warning shot, firing a crossbow bolt over his right shoulder as she runs. "Stop!" she cries.
Forge, meanwhile, stomps up to loom next to Sync, all the while keeping an eye on the winged woman. "Surrender," he says. His low, gravelly voice carries no malice, but his intent is clear: Stop, or else.
"I'm not here to- wahh!" Flandre can't keep Vivi's attention for long-that giant just throw that man! And he's got magic! Weird magic that Vivi hasn't really seen before. The little boy hunkers down, his amber eyes narrowing under his hat. "Y-you big bully... um, v-very big bully! You can't just throw people around like that!" The little boy in the bulky clothes waves his staff around in a circle, and then thrusts it forward, hopping in the air a little bit. As he does so, a stream of blue light flows out of it, splitting in twain and flowing down into Revya's and the Onion Knight's weapons. The steel grows freezing cold, and almost begins to thrum, volatile and ready to unleash itself.
You buff Revya's POW to +3.
You buff The Onion Knight's POW to +3.
S-sucked at fighting?! Oh, come on... surely she wasn't that ba- well, yeah, she kinda was. She froze up, like she almost always did (until recently, that is) and basically turned out to be useless with her lack of self-confidence... or was it that she just told herself she was insecure so she didn't have to admit she wasn't really as human as she would have liked?
BOYFRIENDS?! Brigit flushes a bright red and opens her mouth, looking silently dismayed with embarrassment. She also remembers that was the time when she learned to start wearing shorts under her uniform.
Brigit looks a little upset, mostly frightened, but seems to steel herself. She'll prove herself! She got her friends in this mess, but this was her moment to prove to herself and to get back at the Alliance!
"Sh-shut up! I'm going to... to... kick your ass!" The nice thing about Epic Charisma is that no matter how dorky she is, it seems to come across as a little endearing. The bad thing was that few people actually took you seriously in a fight. Brigit doesn't really know how to intimidate at all.
So she lifted up her fists, hands trembling. Smokey gray eyes glance down at them, then back up at Sync. No, this won't work. She dropped her arms, shaking them loose and tilting her head to the right, then to the left. After this, she dropped her weight down a little, bending at the knees and looking a little more... steady.
Her trick? She imagined Lavan was watching. Gotta prove she can make it! She'll repay him one day! One Alliance creep at a time!
bonk
Daos has excellent aim with the lawyer, judging by the fact that he successfully bounces him off the Onion Knight and at Revya. The difference is that Revya catches him; she was only hit hard enough to make her stagger once, she still had both hands free, and she's a lot bigger than the Onion Knight to start with.
She puts the lawyer down, carefully, and then draws her sword; she slices the bonds around his legs. "Get out before you get killed!" she says, then steps forward, holding the sword in both hands. It's not a normal sword. It's black, for starters, not metal-coloured-onyx or obsidian or something like that. The hilt is disproportionately long and the crossguard has red gems in it.
Revya just holds it for a moment at about waist level, point slightly lower, breathing in and out slowly based on Vivi's request. The stone blade doesn't have quite the same effects as steel; it frosts over, crackling with cold.
She tries to ignore the sudden roar of Gig in her head, furious that his sword prison has been abruptly frozen and that someone else is casting magic on him, the great asskicker. The only effect everyone else gets is the sudden flicker of red under the frost on the sword before Revya charges with it, driving it at Daos in a leaping thrust.
Revya misses Daos with her Charging Thrust attack.
Revya resets her POW buff status to neutral.
"WHOA!" Onion Knight nearly catches the lawyer, but instead is toppled over by the impact. Thankfully, Revya has him in hand, and the boy blushes in slight embarassment as he climbs back to his feet. "Stupid brute, I'll take you down and oh my god you're a mage."
This is confirmed by a faceful of blue fire, which scorches the boy and leaves him staggering back. Alright, rethinking plan, he can't be a dumb brute if he's a sorcerer. He has to be...something else. Smart and big, perfect. Juuust perfect. He's about to suggest a plan when Vivi offers one-and the knight holds his fencing blade up, waiting for the black mage to bless it with magic.
It's a lot easier for him to deal with than poor Revya. Although the sword's added weight makes his leaping slash a bit awkward, he still manages to adjust, running, jumping and attempting to bring the sword down on Daos's shoulder.
The Onion Knight gets a glancing blow on Daos with his Ice Sword Stolen from Chrono Trigger attack.
The Onion Knight resets his buff status to neutral.
"Don't worry about that," the God-General says to his "mother," nodding once regarding not getting too close. He's no fool, after all.
Sync snickers at Brigit's embarrassment, pausing when the strange winged girl starts showing off, and the kid with the stick and the hat gets interrupted from what he was trying to say thanks to lawyer. "Hey, that doll's ignoring you," he calls up to the red-clad girl. "You aren't just gonna let that slide, are you?"
Well, it's worth a shot, anyway, even as Forget tells her to surrender.
For now, though, Sync regards Brigit again, laughing at her bravado. "Yeah, whatever," he says, amused. Cute she might be, but she's still an enemy. It at least means he's willing to indulge her a couple of seconds to adjust her fighting stance-even if it's largely because he can't help but feel a touch sorry for the poor idiot-before nodding once to Forge next to him before he takes on that other girl, then bolting forward, killing the distance between himself and the Scion before leaping up to kick her in the face.
'Feeling a touch sorry' doesn't mean he'll go especially easy on her. It's not like he cares, and how would that look in front of the guys?
Sync critically strikes Brigit Kelly with his BOOT TO THE HEAD attack.
"And exactly how will you try to stop me?" Daos sneers. He does, however, pause as he sees Vivi do that. For him, magic was never so practically applied - the Sinistral used it almost exclusively for aggressive purposes, or the occasional instance of infusing someone with a mindbending amount of fear.
The lawyer looks at Revya. He swallows, turns, and starts to run off as she charges in. Daos growls, and looks at the woman - but his eyes lock on the sword. He can sense the incredible amount of power contained from within it. He begins laughing, and brings his other weapon; Jason Stevens' metal-covered skull catches the weapon, and the ice shatters into slivers of frost.
"What sort of weapon is that?" he asks. "How did you make something so strong? And yet... you're unworthy of wielding it!"
The Onion Knight scores a hit on Daos' shoulder, a moment later. Ice explodes across it; the pauldron cracks here and there, and dents in sharply, but the piece of armor does not break. As he lands, Daos whips his huge mace around, and then drives it skull-first into the ground. Light and energy explodes off it, in a ring, which rockets out towards all of them.
Daos hits Vivi Ornitier with his Sunder jab.
Daos hits Revya with his Sunder jab.
Daos misses The Onion Knight with his Sunder jab.
It takes excellent marksmanship to fire a crossbow while running or while on horseback with any accuracy; Zidane reflexively flinches his face away, albeit a little needlessly given that the crossbow bolt doesn't even touch him. Nor, he notes, was it meant to. That smacks of a warning shot; he skids to a stop, whirling around in a three point crouch, one dagger between his teeth. As the Genome stands to his full-if diminutive-height, he relieves his teeth of the metal.
"If you insist," calls Zidane, leaning the flat of one dagger against his shoulder and cocking his head to the side with a sly grin. "It's kind of weird, facing off with a lady, but if you're that determined for the company who am I to refuse?" There's a reason he's here, he hasn't forgotten it. Also it wouldn't do to expose his back to an archer. So, it's parley time.
"Huh. She looks kind of..." Like a statue, crafted by a potter and a jeweller who couldn't decide what to make her out of. "This is my first time with a construct," he cat-calls, "Be gentle~!"
Brigit was just starting to feel good, ready to rumble! Sure, she was terrified, but it helped to know that she had allies with her, people to watch her back while she watched theirs!
Of course, the problem with being watched is that you also run the risk of being thoroughly embarrassed in front of your peers. Like what happens when Sync's foot greets the scion's face, throwing her completely off balance.
In slow motion, the foot pushes her face back, her body following like she was yanked by a rope connected to her head. Arms pinwheel in a clumsy attempt to defend or break her fall, and instead she just collapses spectacularly. Sprawled and dazed, Brigit lays there for a moment with her eyes squeezed shut and grimacing.
"Nngh!" She complains, her face feeling like a tiny world of pain. M-maybe he's right... that was pretty awful! What's all that training if you can't even take a hit from some young boy with a mask?!
Humiliated, she imagined Lavan in the background, eyeglasses flashing and shaking his head in disappointment. She blushed again and bounced to her feet, back into the fight with tenacity, although she's too upset to talk. This time, she advances and then swings her leg up and in a horizontal sweep for his torso.
Brigit Kelly critically strikes Sync with her T_T GOD DAMMIT BRIGIT attack.
"Way to go! All right, Revya!" Vivi cheers from the back ranks, hopping up in the air again at the freeing of John C. Newman, Esq. That doesn't last too long, as he's almost immediately bowled over by an exploding wave of pressure. "Waaaaahhhhh!!!"
The little black mage thumps onto the roof of the Winnebago, sent flying surprisingly high by the wave. "T-that hurt..." he says, climbing uneasily back to his feet; he stumbles to the side for a few moments before he gathers his balance. "You... you jerk! You can't just hurt people like that!!" The boy narrows his eyes, and waves his staff in the air, driving it upward in a golf-swing arc. A rush of air and light erupts in a circle around his feet, heralding the magical energy released. As his staff reaches the apex of its arc, there is a sudden screaming crash as a star falls from the sky, rushing downward in a half-parabolic curve, aiming to bowl over the Sinistral of Terror.
You hit Daos with your Comet attack.
What?! Dynamo is equal parts flattered and repulsed. She is being flirted with by an intruder who looks like he got badtouched by the Wyld, and he's drawing her away from the main battle in what is likely a feint. Dynamo trusts Daos to handle himself, but Sync-
Sync can take care of himself, too. It feels kind of like she's lying to herself.
Dynamo skids to a halt about ten paces away from Zidane, and loads another bolt into the crossbow. "Gentle, huh?" the Alchemical says. "You couldn't handle me, even if I was." Dynamo fires again-only this time, it's not a warning shot. The bolt speeds for Zidane, and it's going to hurt if it hits.
Hit or miss, Zidane is going to get another unpleasant surprise. The weakened wall of the building to his left explodes outwards, and the enormous, soulsteel-clad man barrels out from within, trying to shoulder-check Zidane into the ground.
Why isn't Forge watching Flandre himself? This may have something to do with the small, hummingbird-like contraption watching the winged woman with sensor eyes. Familiars: Gotta love 'em.
Radiant Dynamo of Invention misses Zidane Tribal with her Double Tech?! attack.
Revya raps the sword against her heel to knock off the last remaining chunks of ice and frost before coming back up in her standard stance. "I didn't make it," she says, "and I'm not going to answer any more questions by someone like you!"
The sword does in fact continue to radiate energy; every so often, a wisp of something red drifts away from it, like an exhaled breath. Revya ignores it.
The blast wave does a good job against Revya; she is literally picked up and thrown, hitting the ground yards away and rolling. At least she manages to keep a grip on her blade; when she stands back up, she's already armed, and she comes in with a two-handed chop upwards at an angle. She looks pissed.
Revya critically strikes Daos with her Have Sword Will Travel attack.
So many eyes on her-she doesn't seem to notice them.
But while energy is being thrown around, Flandre's attention is about as constant of any of that. Eyes jump around, and from one place to another. There's so many of them, they all have weird powers 'n stuff-and they're using them on each other! They seem to really know each other well, too.
"Slide?" She asks herself, "Sure it can!"
He giggles, the wings beginning to glow a bit-the vampire's slow fall turning into a straight plummet behind Vivi, before she pulls up, just right near the ground. She ends up ... 'sliding' on her stomach, wings carrying her over.
Of course like some kind of penguin vampire, she's going to headbutt the littlest mage-and it's not like her head is very soft. "Wheeeeee~!"
Flandre Scarlet gets a glancing blow on Vivi Ornitier with her Let's play! jab.
"Too slow!" Onion Knight perhaps unwisely taunts his opponent as he leaps away, bouncing off of the giant's arm and staying just out of the reach of the great club. Aha, there's the giant's weakness! He's probably slow, being so huge. A slight smirk crosses the boy's face as he lands on both feet, brandishing his sword.
"There are advantages to being small, you know," he taunts before rushing forward again. Staying quick on his feet, he becomes a whirling dervish of movement, dashing, leaping and stabbing wherever he sees an opening. The individual fencing blows aren't very strong, but they're fast and ANNOYING.
The Onion Knight critically strikes Daos with his Pesky Speed Monkey attack.
Flipping backwards in midair, using Brigit's face as a jumping board, Sync lands nimbly, laughing at her. "What's the matter?" he begins to taunt, before he notices over that way what Zidane's saying to Dyname. Momentarily, he makes a face of surprised disgust. Normally, Sync wouldn't care about overhearing something like that, but dude, that's his mom. He'll leave it to Dynam-
Ow. A leg slams into his side, sending him reeling, almost flying back, to land hard on the concrete. That hurt like hell, he's surprised to realize. Was she this strong before? Yes, Sync concludes, he thinks she was; he hadn't forgotten that she'd been the one to chase him through the Cheagle Woods when he decided he'd had enough of picking on her and Tirana. Her clumsiness and general ineptitude had stayed in his memory more, but he does remember that when she did hit, she hit like a dreadnought.
"Cute," he retorts as he rolls forward, one hand down, sassing in spite of the ferocious ache of his ribs. Any broken? Nope, though they'll be awful sore later. "Who taught you that move? Your dance instructor?" While distracting her with that taunt, Sync concentrates briefly, speed-casting a fonic arte, as evidenced by the fonic circle beneath him.
"Take this! Turbulence!" he shouts, and the coalescense of Third Fonons converges around Brigit in the form of a razor whirlwind. Think fast, Bri!
Sync critically strikes Brigit Kelly with his Whither the Wind Goes attack.
"And exactly what will stop me?" the Sinistral bellows. The star slams into his armor and explodes off it; flame erupts, and leaves the armor burnt and battered where it hit. Daos stumbles backward, and is poorly prepared for Revya. His eyes go wide - and he sees the sword chopping out. The Onyx Blade bits into his armor, and through it. Purple blood flows from without, and he stumbles forward.
The Onion Knight comes in, and whips into him with numerous blows. The sword strikes hammer his armor and cut through his red, regal robes. A few bite into flesh, blood running down the armor. The Sinistral roars, grabbing for the Onion Knight, and throws him into the air.
Then, he throws a punch - hand gripped around his mace - for Revya.
"Don't want to tell me?" he barks. "I'll tear it from your hands and ask it myself!"
Daos hits The Onion Knight with his Toss attack.
Daos hits Revya with his Punch! attack.
If only having a tail is enough to repulse Dynamo, she'd better steer clear of Lindblum. Heck, imagine her reaction to Cinna! If Zidane minds, it doesn't erase his devil-may-care smile. "Oho," answers Zidane, lifting his brows at the Alchemical. "I think..." I can rise to the challenge! was going to be the rest of that sentence, aborted not by a crossbow bolt (which had met its end in two pieces, scissored in twain by two daggers catching it out of the air)-
But by the sudden arrival of the Kool Aid Man. Er, that is, when the Angry Boyfriend shows up.
"Whoops!" the Genome exclaims, shortly before he's squashed, life snuffed out in the prime of his youth! Oh tragedy!!
There is a low, appreciative whistle from a crouched figure about five feet from the cloud of dust kicked up by Forge's landing.
Tragedy! ... Or not. Zidane kips back up to his feet, sprints forward and, provided his aim is still good in all that dust, intends on using Forge's head as a springboard on his way up and over Dynamo's head. "Love to play some more, but overprotective jealous boyfriends cramp my style!"
Zidane Tribal gets a glancing blow on Radiant Dynamo of Invention with his Not Tigger, But Still Bouncy. attack.