When the robot came to life and Urania went down, Emain Ablach spared a glance to Promethei and Imhotep. They were awake and ambulatory. Urania was down on the ground. She was being protected by Grieve, but it could scarcely hurt to have more than one person doing so, right? So Emain Ablach ran forward, determined to help put another body between the robot mau and the unconscious Urania. Circling behind Grieve so as to stay out of her way, Emain Ablach took position, raised his shield, and shoved it as hard as he could at the attacking entity.
When Emain Ablach ran off, Imhotep had to admit he had a point in doing so. They were there to help Urania. How well they could do that without getting closer to the direct threat to Urania was beyond him. "Might as well follow." This was directed at Promethei as Imhotep began to make his way over.
He was searching for anything he could use as a weapon on the way. He was hardly a brawler, and his weapon... wasn't. Worse came to worst, he would try punching and kicking, but he wasn't optimistic about the outcome of that.
Worse coming to worst, he positioned himself as out of the way as he could get and swung at the periphery of the wires and cords.
Alright, evil robot chaos entity. Great. That was what they needed, wasn't it?
He tossed his beaker up and down in his hand, wondering how he was supposed to handle this. Promethei was fairly sure his magic wasn't going to do much good here; could he get this robot to just start telling him their secrets? Did this Aether even have the kind of sentience that would make any difference for that, or would it earn him nothing but a blank stare?
Did it even matter?
Maybe he could help by aiming for some of the wiring like that moon page was? He let Emain Ablach run off to try and protect Urania. For his part, he attempted some more fine motor damage.
It was reminding him of what he had seen on Astraya. That was not necessarily a problem in itself; Home Helper was someone who he still missed. What was a problem was the fact that many of the sentient beings there were just trying to find souls for themselves. Was Aether the same, or did their chaos have them whipped up differently?
Apparently, it was different enough to take down Urania instead of just diving for her starseed...
While he could have dedicated his ability to taking out the being addressed as Aether, Encke instead cleared the distance over to her. His newest ability was one that could do something about this, he hoped.
Encke crouched down in front of Urania, summoned the plasma to his hands, and pushed his hands toward her.
Meighei
healing Urania!
Super Sailor Scout Attack: "Plasma Discharge!" Based on plasma medicine, Encke presses his hands toward his target, generating a current with a mild heat which will feel hot but will not burn. This heat is accompanied by a small amount of light. As this current travels from him into his target, it will completely heal minor injuries and moderate wounds (such as bleeding or abrasions) can somewhat stitch themselves back together and have improved healing. This magic may have some success temporarily stabilizing more serious injuries, but at best it can only stop them from worsening for a short time. Allies injured in the nearby vicinity may also feel this effect. (Usage: Twice per battle Duration: 30 seconds Range: 10ft radius around target)
It were times like this that Elliott deeply wished he had better access to things like ... well, thumbs. What was he supposed to do that would be significant against a barrier and now a robot who his senshi and knight guards were already attacking. He was just a cat in comparison. He was just a cat with no thumbs and no meaningful magic.
He wondered if the one walking around in a civilian guise managed to get a hold of that...
No matter. He was fairly certain he spotted a way he could help even with his limited knowledge and limited ability. Aether looked like she was hooked to wires. He could go at those.
Things have seemed to be going well. They had made progress. But then, things turned worse.
“Urania!”
Without a second thought, Wallia ran towards the fallen senshi. “Is she going to be okay?” the teenager asked from the much more experienced senshi (Encke), with a hint of worry in his voice. “Your magic helps her, right?”
After saying that he felt instant guilt. This wasn't time for doubting! There were more important things to do!
“I… I’m sorry.. to not trusting…. I just…” he staggered while looking away from him. “I..” His gaze went from floor to the yellow senshi (Grieve), then to Earth knight (Emain Ablach) and then to the robot mauvian who seemed to be the biggest threat here. “I'm going to put up my fort!” he announced then, took a step forward and slammed on the ground.
“Cat's Dream Fortress!”
Quote:
Sailor Scout Attack: Cat's Dream Fortress! Description: Wallia calls out his attack and slams his hand on the ground. An illusionary fortress (which looks like it's made of cardboard boxes) forms around him and anyone within ten feet. It gives cover from sides, blocking the sight almost completely. The walls are as tall as he. The fortress stays there for 20 seconds before it crumbles and disappears. The fortress will block completely against physical and magical attacks from first stage characters but repeated hits from second stage characters will destroy it prematurely. A third stage character can destroy it with a single hit but it will take the damage instead of the group inside. He can use this attack three times in per battle. (Sidenote: Despite it's name it has no special effect on mauvians. (Unless the player wants, of course.)) Lasts for: 20 seconds Number of uses: 3
“No, you need to leave or be destroyed!” Cynthus shouted at the weird Chaos woman with the wires and the… cat ears?
Urania seemed to have recognized her just as the barrier fell, but then Urania got herself knocked out, so it wasn’t like they could ask. Cynthus forgot all about her healing magic and focused on the Chaos woman. Or whatever this thing was. Her eyes definitely didn’t look normal, and the wires coming from her back were kind of creepy. (Fortunately, others seemed ready to assist Urania.)
So: Chaos woman. And destroying Chaos was what they came for, so that meant destroying her.
Okay. Okay, that wasn’t so bad. She was one Chaos woman against a bunch of them. Cynthus was sure she and her friends could handle it even without everyone else (she had no reason to believe otherwise), but the fact that there were so many of them meant this would be even easier.
Cynthus had certainly attacked people before. She and Reims and the rest had beat up a couple of Negaverse agents when they were trying to find the creep who stole Stirling’s starseed. Sure, they hadn’t destroyed the agents, but… Well, it couldn’t be too hard, right? It was Chaos. And in this case, it wasn’t like they’d be murdering a real person… because… Chaos.
So Cynthus swung her crook, aiming a strike for the Chaos woman’s head.
Rose didn’t have time to be relieved that Mechelen was in good enough spirits to smile. The barrier came down, but Urania took the full brunt of a burst of Chaos. Rose gasped and watched her go down.
She’d known, of course, that this would be dangerous, but it wasn’t until she saw Urania inert on the floor that Rose realized how dangerous it was, how awful. Urania was hurt. This was her world, and at the moment she couldn’t even defend it. Chaos was a terrifying force Rose had not truly understood the magnitude of until now, and there was a considerable chance this was only a small fraction of what people like her had been dealing with for years.
And she was powerless. Not totally; her normal strength was heightened when she transformed, but she had no magic and her weapon suddenly seemed so miniscule. What good could she do? Her friends were stronger, and she trusted them to keep her safe, but they shouldn’t have to. What if they got hurt because of her? She would never forgive herself if something happened to Mechelen, or Reims, or either of their friends. Ephesus, Amarynthos, Dering, Cynthus, and Yvoire had all been so kind to her (maybe distant in Yvoire’s case, but she was sure he had his reasons).
Rose didn’t know if it would be better for her to move in to help or to stand back and stay out of the way. She didn’t want to be reckless, but she didn’t want to be a sitting duck either. In the end, she chose to attack. She’d come here to fight. She’d do as much as she could, and hope it was enough.
The barrier fell and Yvoire took a single step back, bumping into Reims. Then Urania went flying (metaphorically speaking, of course) and hit the ground, unconscious.
Yvoire went pale but set a narrow-eyed stare onto the creature that had been hiding behind the barrier. That’s all it was to him: a creature. Maybe it looked a little human, but Chaos had clearly done a number on it. Whatever good may have once existed in it was probably long gone. Yvoire didn’t know who it had been or what happened to it that it had become this way. He didn’t care. Chaos took people and twisted them, and then those people hurt others, ripped lives away and left families broken.
He reached for Dering to make sure the Lysithea Squire didn’t get too close, at least not right away. Too many people rushed in to attack, apparently without much concern for who they might trample in the process. Yvoire stuck close to Dering and Reims to get his bearings, searching for an opening, fighting the impulse to rush in blindly.
When he found one, he darted forward, ducking beneath Cynthus’ brash swing to shove the point of his parasol up into whatever vulnerable part of the creature he could reach.
Perdita kept a small smile on her face up until the barrier fell. She flinched and ducked a bit as Chaos burst forward, watching as Urania was struck and hit the ground hard.
“s**t.”
Perdita was at least able to keep the uncharacteristic swear at a low murmur.
Don’t panic, she told herself. Urania being knocked out was unsettling, if only because they couldn’t ask her for information if they needed any. But their goal hadn’t changed. They would simply have to be careful. Their time here hadn’t been unpleasant before, but now was quite obviously the moment they would all have to get serious.
Perdita took up a defensive position, letting some of the others get a few swings in as she made a survey of the not-quite-human-being.
“Just a little Chaos, yeah,” she agreed with Belmont’s prior assessment.
He wasn’t wrong. At the moment, there was only a single figure. That could change, but at least for now they were nowhere near outnumbered.
Perdita took a chance when she found one and kicked at the figure, making sure not to lose sight of either Connie or Belmont.
Oh! It had been a robot behind the walls. It had been an evil robot. In some ways, that seemed bad, but also, based on what Almere had seen in her movies and games, usually if you were able to destroy something like this, it would help everything else be less evil too?
Yeah. There were two real endings. You either had to find true love to fix things, or you had to get rid of the bad guys, and this was going to be situation number two.
Mechelen had also seemed to find some other people who she knew, which was good! It meant Almere didn't have to focus on her quite as much. Instead, she caught onto a nearby wire and tried to rip it apart.
For a moment, Halle found himself distracted by the...mini magical fortress? That sprung up around Urania. Now that was a cool piece of work. Glancing around, he saw that Mechelen and Almere were still together, Ngome was doing fine, and no one else seemed to have been harmed by either the barrier's breaking or by the...robot? That emerged.
Outside of Urania.
Was that due to proximity, or had it been targeting her specifically?
Either way, it looked like she had some very cool protection on hand, and Halle felt his own shield would be rather unnecessary considering there was also that Earth knight as back up.
Brining his small shield up, he turned it and slammed the edge of it down into several way too wiggly wires.
The figure that came out from behind the barrier was feline. Really? It had ears, and no spots. It wasn't Daphnean, but it almost felt like a mockery of one.
Everything that was happening here tonight felt like such a mockery of her, wasn't it?
It was a reminder that her wishes would never come true, that no matter how hard she worked, she'd never get what she really wanted. She'd have to settle for the bitterest of consolation prizes.
Now there was this, too?
Her tail bristled, and with a growl, she threw a fist at its metal face.
Kyuseisha no Hikari rolled 1 10-sided dice:
1Total: 1 (1-10)
Amarynthos saw Urania, saw her land. Saw others rushing to her aid. He wasn’t going to be any use checking on her. He had no first aid nor healing magic.
Ephesus did, and for a brief second he glanced at the other Moon Knight as if trying to predict if he would heal her or stay with the group. Amarynthos supported him no matter what; he knew where his strengths were, and Ephesus was a compassionate soul who couldn’t stand others being hurt.
Amarynthos knew he was going to be most useful focusing his energy on attacking the Chaos. There was only one target for now and he didn’t know if it could call for backup, but he really didn’t want to give it the chance.
Cynthus was going in strong, but she didn’t really seem afraid of much and Amarynthos admired her for that. Sometimes, things needed to be black and white, and if it was between one of them leaving or being destroyed…it was definitely going to have to be Chaos.
With an opening, he jabbed the butt of his staff at the woman threatening them.
oops copied my old tag and no the new one so removing quotes
Kyuseisha no Hikari
Crew
Dragonslaying Dragon
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Kyuseisha no Hikari rolled 1 10-sided dice:
5Total: 5 (1-10)
Relief was short-lived. Urania had been okay, but now she was lying limp on the ground. Alastor saw her land but she was too far away to intercept. She looked like she’d landed hard but in the brief look he’d been able to manage, it didn’t seem like she’d snapped her neck or was bleeding out. She was breathing.
Alastor was not a healer; there were others better suited to the task.
Aether offered him no clues beyond knowing that she recognized whatever was at the source of the Chaos. Or, thought she did.
The Chaos seemed like it was only just now starting to come alive. His efforts were better spent trying to stop it before it grew to full power–or hurt anyone else.
Daphne had lashed out with surprising force; Alastor’s brows lifted slightly in admiration but he didn’t have time to get distracted. He’d have praise for her when this was all over.
