---

And lo', the gods would descend a hail of dying stars against the Guardian's bulwark of sturdy and immaculate stones few jewel cutters could ever hope to emulate, but made of slightly lesser stuff than the hail of bolts of a thunder god's proportions. Or if they weren't made of lesser stuff, Corban leveraged it well. The structure became concave and flexed in metaphysical despair as an invisible flash of lightning foretold a half-transmutation as the core of the barrier plumed outward, and the rest of the shell collapsed into smaller and larger particles that blew this way and that in fleeting winds of obsolescence. Corban pocketed the remaining two diamonds for now.

"Hm. Not quite the welcome party I would have hoped for."

<Were you expecting a red carpet?>

"Not quite. But a grenade to a new neighbor's face? Those are just bad manners."

<Mannerisms are taught through generations. Blame the parents. Not the children.>

"Fair enough. But where's the mother?"

<Incoming.>

As man and blade ended their colloquy of minds, the witch beveled out of her flight and landed just a few yards away. She first addressed the woman who's company the mage had just rescued, spitting vast boasts and threats. This Corban was used to. He was not, however, quite as used to being praised as he was of others praising themselves. So he was taken aback for only an infinitesimally small moment by the comment, only to be ran afoul by her followup comment. Had he not been who he was, it might have hurt his feelings. This is not to be confused with ignorance: Corban was aware all of his adversaries secretly admired him! He just wasn't used to them admittting it. His response was a simple one.

"Challenge accepted."

It seemed this mage thought she'd be the the one to bring down Saezar. She surely wouldn't have been the first with that onus. And if Ishtalle had anything to do with it, she surely wouldn't be the last. Though for now, he contained her immaculate form in her far-less-than-maculate black sheathe. He then turned his attention to the flittering hologram, and for a split moment hovered mentally over the inner circuitry before responding.

"It was nothing, honest." he began. "But id be careful about thanking me just yet. Eggs before they hatch, right?" his eyes once again met with the she-mage's, though when he spoke again it was still to Alexandria. "But I must ask that you let me handle this one. Alone. It's a mage thing. If you must participate then you're in a prime position to suppress-fire."

In most battles of mages, it generally came down to superior positioning, and who had the faster draw. In close quarter combat it came down, ultimately, to kinaeshesia and conservation and expenditure of momentum. Its why spell casting is the mystic equivalent of gun-slinging. Corban straddled the fence, but was even more dangerous up close than most life-devoted warriors. He planned to show why.

From within her sheathe Ishtalle's multi-layered mirror flat-side cycled through a seemingly endless laundry list of runic arrays, strange materials, and various-complexity spell-circles that showed in her reflection like looking at a painting through a sheet of ice. It revolved like a gun-barrel until it found its chosen chamber with the appropriate 'bullet'. There would be no flex of magical might and no tells from the mage. This was no activation. He was merely fumbling with change, not making a purchase. Most of all, he was a professional, and every professional, regardless of vocation could appreciate the concept of discrepancy.

"Now that I've bought us some alone time..." his hand rapped in a theatric twirl, bleeding onyx-grey that quickly perfected itself into a perfect crystal lattice. The complex folds and cuts were the likes of those beyond the craftsmanship of any smith or artificer, and it took the form of an incredibly long(6 feet to the blade, 2 to the hilt), slender great-katana. Its surface was aphotic black, and running along the spine are three equally black runes carved half of 1/16 inch deep.

Like Ishtalle's own reservoir(but limitlessly limited by comparison), these would give off no energy, though unlike Ishtalle, whom's systems were energy neutral, this was endoenergetic. In this sense, it became a black box. One may see what goes in(ambient light, but this would be negated as a viable means of spell-detection by the blades aphotic nature anyway), but has no idea how that related to what would come out, nor what actually happened within in the first place.

The left foot slid forward, and knees were bent by a slight gradient. Reinforced center of mass, positioned with both hands on the hilt of the sword, held in front of his chest with curved blade tip pointed horizontally.

"Who makes the first move, sweetcheecks?"

Grandiloquent avowals aside, The guardian was legitimately curious.

Alexandria Skye

Alexandria had her sights right on the witch in case she did anything funny. But it was then that a strange unidentifiable object emerged from behind her. The moment she detected it, she used her thrusters and dodged just in the nick of time before be smashed by a mysterious shadowy substance. "Shit! She can see me!" She thought. "That just made things a hell of a lot trickier." After that thought she elevated straight up into the air while performing dodging maneuvers in case the witch decided to fire projectiles. After reaching about 50ft in the air, she attempted to aim down the sights of her automatic railgun. "Let's see if you can block steel bullets being fired at several kilometers per second!" And with that she laid down a barrage upon her, but making a mental note not to hit her mysterious benefactor in the process.

@Divinity@Nightknight

Darquesse grunted in frustration, as her prey escaped the clutches of her solid shadows. While she wasn't able to see Alexandria she was able to sense the human's soul, allowing her to follow her movements even without sight. Of course, she could gain more detailed vision if she wanted, but there was no need to do so right now. Because it seemed Alexandria had taken to the air, and the air just happened to be Darquesse's domain. She was the big bird here, and nobody got to share her airspace. She gestured as if she were pulling down a curtain, and a powerful wall of air formed above the rapidly ascending soldier. A circle ten meters in diameter, an invisible barrier harder than steel. Alexandria would slam into this barrier before being pushed downwards again, the wall slamming her right back into the ground. It was a devastating attack, cracking the ground as the wall slammed into it. A normal human would have been squished to goo by the pressure.

As the other mage spoke, Darquesse raised an inquisitive eyebrow. "A mage duel? Oh wow. I feel honoured." She turned to Alexandria, who was most likely preparing another attack. "You heard him, Armour Girl, stay out of this one for a moment. I know you'd love to interfere, but if you do I'll just have to start targetting the squishies. And you don't want that, now do you?" Darquesse's smile and mannerism left not a moment's heistation as to whether she would kill the relatively defenceless soldiers of the squadron. And if she really wanted to deal some damage, there wasn't much the soldiers would be able to do to survive it.

Once more focusing on the strange transmutation mage, Darquesse grinned. He was good. He hid his magic, but her understanding of magic was phenomenal. She could see the very strands of energy, as well as the addition 'soul' he was carrying with him. Although his masking did make it quite hard to figure out just what the magic actually did. But she figured she'd find out soon enough. "I guess I'll go first." Breathing in, Darquesse drank in the death of the battlefield. Dozens lay dead around her, their last moments etched into the very soil. She could feel the darkness, she could feel their suffering. And she drew it into herself, and molded it into her weapon. Drawing power from every lost soul, every fallen soldier, every suffering little spirit. Shadows flickered over her skin, and beneath her skin, as the very air seemed to become colder. Her dark aura manifesting itself physically, an immaterial sense of dread that emanated from her.

"Let's do this."

Dozens of lances of shadow shot out from Darquesse like bullets, ripping through the air at supersonic speeds as they aimed to tear Corban to bloody ribbons. Even as he prepared against this attack, a massive blade of darkness would sweep towards him from behind. Commanding the shadows with her mind, Darquesse silently directed dozens of supersonic blades as they surrounded and attacked Corban with a constant and opportunistic frenzy of death. She was now beginning to unleash her full power, taking this mysterious opponent seriously as she amped her own considerable power with the environment's generous supply of death energy. She'd rip him apart in moments if he didn't figure something out, and he'd have to do it fast.

@dirty slime

Roy was about to intercept and keep the powerful witch from leaving, by blasting the woman with intense fire, but he noticed the Mage-Knight had launched something at him. He had not enough time to get out of the way. With impressive aim, the helmet kicked by the Licht group Knight had connected with Roy's lower left arm, breaking the bones easily. Roy gasped in pain and planted the sword in the ground for a moment, before he carefully placed his right hand against his left, and gingerly touched his left sleeve, transmuting it into a sling for his broken arm. He picked the sword back up with his right hand and faced the Knight, clearly in pain, but as defiant as ever.

"If you aimed a bit higher, you probably could have killed me, or at least knocked me out. Did she strike that much fear in you? Who is she?" Roy asked as he lifted the sword. Despite not knowing how to use it as effectively as the Knight in front of him, he believed he should be able to block some of the attacks, and hopefully get a few hits of his own in.

"Can you turn the fire part of your sword off, or is that fire the whole blade, it'll make this more honorable." Roy asked hoping to buy some time.

The Knight's response to Roy's mockery was to simply make long, powerful strides towards the Alchemist officer; showing his naked aggression and telling his foe that there will be no more delays, no more distractions. The time has come for him to have his resolve and courage put to the test. Though what the Alchemist said about his weapon warranted a correction.

"Your pain and anger must be making you delirious, as my sword has never been alight with flame. You must be thinking of the Captain."

The Knight then looks towards a section of the battle line, only to visibly recoil in surprise when a massive nova of flames erupts from where the Knight-Captain presumably was, said fireball accompanied by the faint but distinctive cries and screams of people getting burned alive.

"...I did not expect that to happen..."

Knowing that such a destructive and indiscriminate technique being used means that his superior officer was cornered and desperate, the knight realizes that he has to finish this duel quick and come to the aid of his comrade before he inevitably exhausts his mana stores and is left at the mercy of his enemies. Making a quick step forward, the knight opens up with a diagonal cut aimed at hamstringing his sword-arm, if the officer was able to dodge or somehow parry the blow, the metal monster would deny his attempt to rally or retaliate by shoving into the Alchemist shoulder-first. Which considering how heavy that armor must seem despite the Knight's quickness, would probably be like getting rammed by a log.

---

It was rare, as experience would tell, that Corban was ever wrong. From the looks of It, it seemed the castress was more than eager to continue his streak on two fronts. The first was the dichotomy between sigils and free energy. Using free magic is arguably, on a magical scale almost always more potent than all but the most mathematically perfect sigils by virtue of their nature. This also means that using free magic was like firing guns -one may not outright be able to find the source of the bullet, but they'd know that a gunman was there, and even if he had a silencer, a talented mathematician could locate him via entry wound-trajectory- Sigil's however, were the equivalent of a blade's sheathe. The blade is contained within and never seen on the outside. Corban's choice of 'sheathe' (the aphotic blade) would all but leave her ignorant of the sigil's etched along the spine. What she would instead see is light being siphoned into the blade as a whole as opposed to fixed points along the edge. If she wanted to find out what was up with his fancy sword, she'd have to see it up close.

Secondly, as he had thought, she was a spell-blaster, and like he assumed earlier, she'd rely on the speed of her draw. But gun dueling was more a matter of foresight and aim than raw speed. Well, speed helps, but not much against Corban.

As the bolts of hard-shadow neared him, he recalled several other encounters he had with a group of necromancers just a few years prior. It may have been a while, but he distinctly remembered them employing similar tactics. The old 'shadow behind the back' trick was as common as the 'Control one's own shadow' among practitioners of shadow-magic. He wasn't sure how polymorphic her use of the darkness was, but that could be discovered a la trial by fire. With the hard part over, all that was left to do was decide how to deal with it!

Dynamic - Move: A simple enough solution. Avoid damage zones entirely instead of rushing through them or standing directly against them. At least when the properties of a spell are not properly gleaned. However, this left room for counter-attacks like rapid-directionally-shifting flechettes. Mages had a bad knack of doing that.

Static - Stand: Rather than give up defensive positioning for speed, this suggests sacrificing mobility for defense. However, against loaded weapons, this could be turned against one who isnt careful. Luckily Corban was the epitome of 'careful'.

???: There was still the option of doing neither.

He may not have been the fastest, but he didn't need to be. Fortresses rarely moved anyway, but when they they did.... They'd move like.... Well. Moving fortresses. Why choose one when he could use both?

"Dispel."

He said for no particular reason just as the flying shadows would gorge upon him. A shock emanated out from what seemed to be him as the epicenter, unraveling the shadows coherency as they passed through. Simultaneously, his skin Flinched as a coating of organic metal covered his body. The components came together quite nicely into a triple-chain railgun-flare-slidestep that would close the distance between them like a cheetah closes distance with a turtle.... Thats about twenty feet away.

A series of magical flares and feints were discharged that wouldn't so much take away preternatural sight as it would make having it a hindrance. In the mundane world, not a single thing changed. However, in the steeps of the arcane, it registered as a flash of light easily topping at over 20k lumens. Luckily for him, Corban didn't need to see to do what he needed.

If she could see at all after that sudden blast of light, Corban would be nowhere in front of her any longer. Between his zone of silence and the magical super-flare, he'd be positioned several feet behind her silently. Two-hands gripped hilt as he furls out of a lowering spin that would bring his edge to cross her from the top of her right rib to the bottom of her left rib, carrying the full diamond dusted force of the wind behind his strike for greater impact and cutting force. As his hands swung, bubbling metal began to drip from his left hand.

He wondered, how would she fit the fancy power-suit if she were literally cut down to size?

Wind buffeted Optimus Prime's vehicular form as the LAAT/c transport made its way towards the battlefield. Explosions began to erupt around the craft, as the enemy began to notice the craft carrying him to the war below. They had passed the front line, and were currently over the enemy controlled portion of the battlefield. His hope was to land somewhere he wouldn't have to worry about crushing his allies.

"Prime! Flaks gettin' heavy, I'll need to turn back soon. You ready?" As the human spoke to him, the craft shook from an explosive burst that was unnervingly close. Although there was no significant damage, it foreshadowed a fate neither wished to occur. The longer the lone craft flew so close to the fighting, the odds would steadily grow in favor of the vehicle being shot down.

"It will have to do. There is no need endanger yourself unnecessarily for my sake!" he replied, preparing himself for an airdrop from a significant height. He would not have the blood of his human escort on his hands.

The magnetic clamps promptly disengaged from his metal chassis, and the craft began to pull away from him as he dropped towards the battle. His vehicular form started to change in ways most wouldn't believe it should move. In a matter of seconds, Optimus had transformed into his true form.

A few small parachutes erupted from an area on his back, slowing his fall as he rapidly approached the ground. Fortunately, the enemy forces did not seem to notice his approach until he was much closer to the surface. As small arms fire began to pepper him, he cut the strings of the parachutes and free-fell the remaining distance.

He landed atop some unfortunate Stormtroopers, and his massive size quickly reduced them to little more than a smear. Although he swore never to harm humans, the conflict involving the multiverse had made keeping his vow much harder. It was no longer a conflict involving Cybertronians and humans, Autobots and Decepticons. Things that were once clear were no longer. His enemy now was a collective of different races and factions from across the multiverse, many of whom seemed to have little to no regard for the rights of others.

Activating his twin arm cannons, he began to return fire. Many of his weaker opponents were easily blown in half by the blasts, while others took longer to take down. His pinpoint aim quickly found their weak spots, particularly their knees or necks. As the bodies piled up, the desert sand was quickly stained red.

He was surrounded on all sides, and the enemy forces were using this to their advantage. For every foe he cut down, be they demon, cyborg, or some other form of creature, two more replaced them. It was a battle even he could not sustain forever. The longer he engaged the enemy forces from his current position, the more stronger opponents would head his way. It would culminate in him fighting several high powered enemies, and force him into a situation he likely would not come out on top of. Transforming into his truck form, he began to plow his way through the enemy towards his allies. Applying more speed, he quickly surpassed the normal capabilities of his alternate form.

'Maximum overdrive!'

It was the splendid view that only a proper battlefield could provide. Smoke, bodies, explosions and flashes like happy summer fireworks. A brilliant blue blast ripped through the air from the desert and just evaporated one of their control towers. That had been pretty dope, but he didn't have time to get distracted. He'd start falling any second now, so he had to take a quick scan of the fighting. He followed the path of the blast with his rifle to see some guy clad in blue at the end of it. He considered taking a shot but weighed his chances of surviving a fight with someone that could do that and found himself wanting. One close brush with death today was enough. So he swiveled around to search for easier prey.

He found a few potential targets before something in particular caught his eye. Some sort of valiant human drama was occurring over by the resistance dropships, and who had decided to crash that party but his eager new friend. He was about to turn away from whatever carnage was about to ensue when the woman was struck by a hail of laser fire and set off toward it. Intrigued, Richard followed her path to a bunch of soldiers that he hadn't seen before. Camouflaged commandos, arranged in a defensive formation around...

Oh my. What was that? He zoomed in and focused on it to confirm that he wasn't just seeing things.

He fell just as the group was reforming to meet Darquesse's charge. He boosted a few times to try and kill his momentum, but the shock of his impact with the ground rattled the inside of the cockpit. "Again, again!" He said, and his men seemed to sense the urgency in his voice and quickly got back into position. Once more Richard was cast into the air, this time with a target in mind.

He spotted it in the thick of them. There were certain tell tale signs of camouflage, small little inconsistencies with the surrounding environment that stuck out to someone who know what to look for. Richard had fought in Arizona. He knew what to look for.

There were lots of reasons to sneak on the battlefield. Some important. Some not so important. A bunch of soldiers sneaking with something? Something that requires more than one set of hands to carry from the look of its size? That was super important sneaking, and it was super important that your cargo remain hidden. Otherwise you would put it in some kind of transport. So the question was, what was it? A jamming device to be activated at a critical moment? Some sort of teleport beacon to beam a million extra troops right to the battlefield? A bomb sufficient to take out the whole fortress once they got it inside? Oh, Richard so hoped it was a bomb.

He found them again on his way up. Two people were standing their ground against Darquesse while the rest seemed to be beating an organized retreat. He searched until he had the cargo in his rifle sight again. For a moment he wondered whether or not he should take the shot now just in case it was a weapon and Darquesse was caught in the blast. After all, she was responsible for leading him to it. He decided to com her.

"Thanks." spoke the little bead on her jacket.

In this way Richard soothed his conscience at the zenith of his ascent. There, in the moment of stillness between ceasing to rise and beginning to fall, Richard held his breath, focused his aim, and took his shot.

@Nightknight
@thewizardguy

-Deleted-

---

A melody of chaos whirred from the sphere that separated Yzeira and Bayonetta as it climbed its master's vertebrae. She was fast enough to incite discourse in the atmosphere, but Yzeira's eyes caught the Umbra witch as she reappeared several feet behind him with intent to strike him down. The sphere at his back suddenly sprawled out, covering Yzeira with a transparent film of red energy, intercepting Bayonetta's bullets like a sponge, and scattering the condensed material in erratic flashes that exploded in web-like patterns. Yzeira followed the streak of black mass in his field of vision as her muscles tensed. Each step, flip, or pull of a trigger sent his synapses into full motion. He focused the energy in his barrier to disintegrate each bullet with deadly precision. Her onslaught paused for a moment as Bayonetta's attention was torn away from combat, even if only slightly. There was a chance. As Bayonetta stopped hard on her right foot, a spike of condensed energy shot out of Yzeira's left elbow as he reeled it back in one swift motion, striking out towards her calf like a cross-bow bolt. The void-powered mage slid his left foot against the ground in the same moment, flooding the ground at his feet with a dormant portion of his power before stepping back and away from Bayonetta as his initial barrier dissipated into harmless arcane residue.

That's when he heard, and saw, the clown-like teenage boy zip through the room even faster than a bullet. Mach 6? 7? It didn't matter. He hadn't gotten close enough to Yzeira to threaten harm, so there was no need to react just yet. But as he stopped, and thanked the nearby ethereal being for its assistance, the vigorous lad pointed at his back, uttering a statement that almost broke through Yzeira's exterior with how absolutely preposterous it sounded.

"You're outnumbered and surrounded. Surrender, and maybe I can convince command to give you a cell with a window."

Yzeira grunted quietly once he spoke, still focused on his aggressor, Bayonetta. The audacity of this clown reminded him of Rajaka. Where was he off to, anyways? That musclebound oaf was definitely on eldritch, he'd seen to it himself that his allies were close at all times. But where? Whatever. Yzeira ignored Kid Flash's 'bargain' and dedicated a portion of his mental fortitude to tracking his movements. He was faster than Bayonetta by a great deal, and if Yzeira wasn't careful, that little twerp might just end up slipping through his defenses.

---

X glared at the strange visitor momentarily with profound confusion poisoning his train of thought. He went on about some nonsense regarding cotton candy for a brief moment, dodging X's question in its entirety before vanishing into the battlefield on a puff of air. What a peculiar entity. The reploid's mind stirred with imagery of insane mavericks, at ease with the discourse they'd caused, or indirectly encouraged. That man was trouble, whether he'd looked to encourage further conflict or not. This battlefield was no place for an insane candy scholar, or whatever the hell he'd fancied himself. With Corban gone though, X was conflicted on what his next course of action should've been. With his range, he could continue to take out various defenses that infested the mountainside neighboring Shinnok's base. He wouldn't have to stand anywhere near the carnage, at the very least...

@tex @savato @Lmpkio @Facepunch @absolis

Apparently between Kid Flash, Bayonetta, and Penny, MC was left to her own devices. Hearing Kid Flash's offer of a surrender to the enemies, MC chimed in. "I'd listen to him if I were you. I'm not even using the good spells!" MC said to the room at large, casting Chain Lightning at the group of space pirates attempting to set up a few automated turrets, each of them targeting Kid Flash. The sounds coming from the mass of electrocuted pirates among the explosions of their turrets was a bit hard to listen to, what with the jittery screams coming from them as a lightning bolt chained from one pirate to the next.

Still on a lightning kick, MC cast Lightning Bolt in an attempt to deal with a large pirate who had just walked up with a large rocket launcher, only to find that the lightning bolt hit something else instead. Something high in the rafters had taken the blast, forcing MC to improvise to deal with the large pirate by commanding her Poison elementals to charge him and the group of pirates, causing most of them to scatter once they realized whoever the poison elementals touched started to scream in pain and twitch violently from the poison.

Looking at Bayonetta, MC had the same idea as what she did with Kid Flash, but this time wanted to see how fast she could make her instead. With the sound of crystal chimes and static emanating from MC, MC cast Haste on Bayonetta. MC then Shifted to a male form soon after, for no reason in particular.



@Mtntopview @Frengo

Light was impressed at how well Roy was holding up on his own. The woman Light had tried to make contact with just zipped away towards a nearby ridge, ignoring Light altogether much to her annoyance. "Well, if Roy is alright by himself, I'll go see if I can find Doomguy. Hes sort of in a worse shape I think." Light said, popping back to the troops who had surrounded Doomguy's last location. It was around this moment Light noticed a blue and red colored truck running through the battlefield. Looking at it, Light laughed a bit to herself as she picked up some rubble and threw it at a few of the enemy soldiers below, a painful squelching sound coming from the landing point of the metal plating. "Mr. I can't laugh in the flesh, err... metal." Light said, shaking her head at the sight of Optimos. If Roy was alright now, Optimus heading there would make him even safer.

---

Hazama wasn't expecting the girl to actually catch his leg. The strength was also unexpected. Though, the girl seemed similar to murakumo units. Though now wasn't the time to think on that. Hazama saw her raise her elbow up, clearly she intended to break his leg. Though holding his leg led her directly into his trap. Hazamas hat would fly off, and his hair would spike up as if he had stuck his finger into a light socket.

"Ahahahaha!

Suddenly Penny would be struck with an extremely powerful chain. Even she would be knocked backwards, which gave hazama enough time to follow up with several slices with his butterfly knives, before a wave of the chains, now indistinguishable from dark energy like snakes, would rise up in a wave and strike her with enough power to knock her down. Before this happened however, pennys flying swords that were heading back to her, would strike the wave. It would weaken the wave of chains, though it would still be strong enough to knock her down.

"Get up! I'm not done yet! Me and you are going to have a lot of fun . Eh? What's that?"

The sounds of squawks could be heard. In the corner, a chicken had been skewered by one of penny's swords, knocked off course by hazamas attack. The chicken would expire, but it's angry spirit would be confused by just what had killed it exactly. Was it penny's attacks, or hazamas? The confusion would be enough that everyone in the room would suddenly find themselves swarmed! No, plagued by an army of angry chickens! Even the summoner, MC would not be safe! The only choice now was to escape or be pecked to death!

@savato@archmage MC@lmpkio@tex@facepunch

---

The moment of truth was imminent, Penny's fist of justice was going to leave another crook in need of the RoC health insurance package WITHOUT dentistry! But just as she was going to disable Hazama and leave him as a minimal threat contrarily to what Wally thought, the green hazmat's hair would have changed appearance and he seemed even more green than usual. Suddenly an outlier chain was sent to strike Penny away. Luckily she had her fist already prepped for assault and she'd use its position to bang her fist against it in reflex, robot reflex mind you which would be less inaccurate than human reflex!

Nonetheless the power given by Hazama's Terumi form made the shockwave emitted from the clash push Penny a few meters back, destroying cafeteria tables in the process. She had to let go of the vile man in exchange for grabbing the chain that pushed her back with its force in order to prevent it from retreating and gaining momentum again. Consequently, she could just lift and whip it to block the upcoming knives heading her way in the process. She held the chain, which would likely vanish a few seconds later anyway, feeling confident that she'd get him next time until her gaze would fall in awe when witnessing the appearance of this wave of snake-like chains befalling her.

"Uh-oh."

That was just too many chains for one day! They even blocked the retreating blades due to their absurd quantity. As they came crashing down, the android made a swift motion with her arms and had them extended in a T formation, by then Hazama couldn't see her through the darkness of the chains and it would have seemed as through she was taken down. Luckily for Penny and unfortunately for Hazama, she had released her full set of blades while levitated over her. They all had a small gap between them and surrounded Penny in various angles because pushing upwards against the chains. The propulsion laser energy she used to go super mega speed was used to resist the mass and power of the wave, combining her already immense power and aura with the already powerful swords.

When the wave would dissipate, the now very deranged Hazama would see a relatively unharmed Penny, brushing her stockings from the accumulated dust after being pushed back earlier. The blades were eerily levitating around her, the cord connecting them to her barely visible to even the most skilled of observers. While the chickens were pretty darn annoyed, clearly there was a malfunction with the cord! Thus Penny couldn't have had sovereignty on them!

"Now it's my turn!"

I the midst of the haze of Cuckoos most likely raging on Hazama more than anyone else, most of the blades would be glued close to Penny while four levitated around her still. She'd use them to propel herself with green energy jets right at Hazama, closing the distance in the blink of an eye, even faster than he did with his chain latch! (RWBY speed tier is rather big but often strange, though Penny is at an insanely high tier in the series.) Now with the momentum gained along with her established strength in regards to Hazama, a simple punch to the gun would be felt by the green man as she arrived at arms reach to him. If hit, well, he'd probably violate the mess hall's walls and a few others while having a bruise practically tattooed on his abdomen. If he were to not find a way to soften it, it'd be safe to assume his abdominal muscles would be too torn up to allow any efficient movement. Otherwise, well, it still hurts a lot and probably affects him in some way.

"I'm having a lot of fun yes! I hope you are too."

She'd cheerfully add, responding to his last assertion that they were going to have a lot of fun. That was totally true! As a robot she didn't really feel much of anything in terms of physical pain, as such she couldn't really grasp the more negative aspects of fighting this psycho. Nonetheless, he was still kind of creepy and did do mean things, as such she would not hold back! She grinned while a cuckoo feather landed on her nose while they wrecked havoc.

Alexandria Skye

Alexandria could only look helplessly at the wizard duel of people flinging spells at one another, for she knew that if she interfered, her unit would suffer for it, thanks to that witch. However, she did have one last trick up her sleeve, one last Ace in her hand that could win her the battle against this otherwise insurmountable opponent. It was then that she got a call from her squad. "Sir! The relay has been destroyed and we are under fire!" "WHAT!!?" She exclaimed over the intercom. The trooper responded. "Sir! We were attacked from the air! The relay has been destroyed! Requesting assistance at once!" "Damn!" She said to herself. With the relay destroyed, she and her entire squad had failed their mission objective. Without the relay, it would be impossible to get in touch with Home One and mission control. As far as she knew, they were sitting ducks. Gone is the importance of maintaining their mission. In this worst case scenario situation, their only goal now was to survive.

Not knowing who exactly had destroyed the relay, Alexandria was forced to flee from her current position and head straight into another battle. She used her thrusters, still cloaking her appearance and sound, and flew of towards the direction of her squad. She was just hoping that whatever was threatening her men, she could take the unknown assailant(s) down.

@dirty slime

It would be difficult for Roy to defend himself with only one good arm, but he had to hold out as well as possible. It definitely didn't help that this was his first time using a sword in combat. He took a shaky breath, pushing the pain, the anger from his mind, trying to focus on the threat at hand, the Mage-Knight and the rest of the Licht group. He was nervous about the strides being made toward him by the large form of the Mage-Knight, who only seemed to slow even for a moment to correct him.

"Your pain and anger must be making you delirious, as my sword has never been alight with flame. You must be thinking of the Captain." The Mage-Knight told him.

"It's possible my memory is being addled by the pain, but given the trouble he seems to be having from my allies, you'd be a better fit for that title in this team of yours." He responded.

As the individual raised his sword and slashed for his sword arm, he raised his to block, which when the swords made contact, he could feel it all the through to his chest. And that was moments before the Mage-Knight rammed him, launching him into a good number of feet. He could feel a few ribs break, one or two of them were sitting against his right lung. And yet despite this, he pushed himself to his feet. He coughed a bit and spat out a wad of blood. As he stood up straight, he began walking back toward his opponent, and gave a powerful backhanded slash.

"As you can see, I won't go down easy."

Richard braced in anticipation of a big boom, then nearly shrank in disappointment when there wasn't one.

It hadn't been a bomb.

Was was even the point then?

He fell back down through the sky. As he neared the ground he boosted to break his fall again, then found himself caught between on of the Zaku's big old hands. He looked up at it, for all the world looking like a childrens toy being held under the arms by the bigger robot. Then he was gently set on the ground.

"Better on your ankles sir." Ovid said helpfully. Richard could hear the dopey looking smile on his face, but he had to admit the boy had a point. It wouldn't do him any good to damage his machine anymore in a fall.

Still, it bugged him that there hadn't been a big explosion. The sight of a some kind of big truck tear-assing through the battlefield made up for it a little, but not by much. Maybe he hadn't hit it in the right spot? Where he came from when you shot something explosive it exploded but that wasn't true in other, apparently lamer, worlds. Maybe if he hit it with an explosive?

"She's pissed." Grand's monotone cut through Richards thought like a red hot knife, as if he'd known what the man was thinking. He looked up to see the Grand's Zaku staring looking off in the direction of the shot. Richard couldn't see anything, but he knew better than to doubt the man. "Sixth sense acting up?" He asked. Grand didn't answer. "She coming this way?"

Grand took a couple of seconds. "She's coming toward her men."

"You're talking about their commander, huh? Kill her with mind bullets!"

"It doesn't work that way."

"You don't practice enough."

"Should we move in to engage, sir?" Ovid interrupted.

Then it was Richards turn to think. "Naaaaah." he concluded. "If she's pissed that means whatever it was I shot, it's broken. Let her stew in the failure. Besides, I can't have two dates in one day. It'd be a bad sitcom." What he didn't saw was that he wasn't in the shape to be confronting anyone head on right now. He could still carry a gun, but felt naked with only two. "Come on you lummoxes. We'll circle around and try and link back up with your squad. Carry my weapons."

"Sir yes sir." Ovid said, running off to scoop Richards discarded weapons out of the sand. Richard made his way over and wrenched the the railgun out personally, and the three set off around the side of the battle, the Zakus leading the way.

@tex


Despite her brief interruption, Bayonetta was able to see the incoming spike of condensed energy coming from Yzeria's elbow and heading towards her calf. It would've been a close call, but with a swift and quick recoil of her leg, she was able to avoid such damage as she twists elegantly in the air, just barely avoiding the shot. A milisecond longer and she'd feel that for awhile perhaps. The void-powered mage slid his left foot against the ground in the same moment, flooding the ground at his feet with a dormant portion of his power before stepping back and away from Bayonetta as his initial barrier dissipated into harmless arcane residue.

"Almost!" she says tauntingly as soon as she lands, "But no score. You gotta be faster then that in order to lay a finger on me."

Even with the presence of Kid Flash in the room, like Yzeria, she payed no attention to the boy. Though she did think that he'd be better off being somewhere else right now. She almost forgot that the void-creation was strong at reflecting projectile weapons, so she needs to get close to him a possible and cause some damage with psychical strength. Yet she then realizes that several angry chickens were in the room! Yet she did not panic and kept her focus on the opponent at hand.

In a sudden dash, Bayonetta runs at him, even running and jumping from wall to wall as he tries to confuse him as well as avoid any incoming blasts that he may unleash. Even the chickens have a hard time following her move! Regardless, once she gets into range, the Umbra Witch jumps, issues a fast summersault and goes in for a fast kick, with her heels armed and ready.

((Collab Post between Letter Bee and NightKnight))

While Osamu and Naoki were doing their own negotiations, one Taichi Yagami, along with his Digimon, Augmon, as well as the Legendary Pokemon Ho-Oh, Entei, Moltres, Groudon, and Heatran, emerged from a portal leading to Doomborg's palace courtyard, with Taichi, dressed in a diplomat's outfit, waving a white flag.

"Hello?!" he questioned. "My name is Taichi Yagami from one of the Multiple Earths in the Multiverse! I want to talk to umm...the master of this place! We have something to offer!"

Doomborg heard the commotion outside from atop the tower where he goes to knit blankets for the damned. He looked out the window saw a list of unusual creautures in his courtyard, one of which was bird lit with flames, but then he saw a formally dressed young man raising a white flag. If not for said invidividual, he would have assumed it was some sort of invasion. He noticed his Palace Guards circling on the guests. "Halt!" He shouted from the tower. And with his command the guards stayed their weapons. "Stay where you are!" He said to the visitors. "I shall meet you in the courtyard in just a minute!" Doomburg than created a platform made of ice and desended to the courtyard below. He parked within feet of the man holding the flag. He was curious has to why the visitors were tresspasing on his ice garden grounds instead of taking the entrance, but was willing to forgive this so not to seem rude. Holding Nibelheim in his hands in a non-threatening way into the ground, he spoke. "Salutations travellers! What brings you to my realm?"

"Ah," Taichi remembered his diplomatic training*, "we are a delegation of ambassadors, sent here by Osamu Akiyama of a group called the Mon Alliance, who in turn follows orders from Naoki Kashima and an entity called Aradia, in order to sound out possible allies for a coming conflict, and are authorized to offer what we have heard was one of the most desperately needed commodities in this region, warmth." The compassion in Taichi's voice for the doomed souls here was evident.

((*Which was also in the first minutes of Digimon Adventure Tri as well as the damned 02 Epilogue.))

Doomborg thought in his head "Warmth? That could seriously improve the living conditions of the souls!" Doomborg was intrigued to say the least of this offer and wanted to hear more. "Ambassadors! Welcome to my palace!" He said has he a offered a short bow. "Come! We have much to discuss inside! I will bring you to the least coldest place in my palace and offer you the finest frozen treats!" He motioned the group to enter the palace.

Taichi gave a small bow, and so did Ho-Oh and the others, who followed Taichi awkwardly -awkwardly because some of them were avians - into the palace, being careful not to melt anything. Once they finished their trip, Taichi, no longer a boy despite his handsome looks, would then say:

"Thank you for admitting us to your residence, Lord Doomborg. Your hospitality is much appreciated."

"Well, I think you for visiting! It has been eons since I have had any sort of company from the outside!" Doomborg responded. He offered a king sized wool chair to the man. "Now." He said as he sat in a the frozen throne. "I heard that you want to offer my people warmth. If so, how would you provide this resource?"

Taichi sat on the cold woolen chair, hiding his discomfort, then said:

"That, is where my companions come in. You see, the Mon Alliance is composed of Humans and three or four classes of 'Monster'; Digimon, Pokemon, and Demons, of which Personas are a virtually identical group of beings. Many of these 'Monsters'," Taichi used the word neutrally, without any negative judgement, "are capable of breathing fire, emitting fire, or otherwise creating or manipulating fire. Others are able to stimulate Sunlight or even plant growth. So, basically, we just send you several thousand Pokemon, Digimon, and Demons, who will then provide warmth, light, and even plants in strategic places around Pluto."

"In exchange, well," spoke Taichi, "we want the help of you and your legions."

"Mmmm." Doomborg thought to himself. This seemed like a no brainer, warmth and organic food to his people, plus the possible protection from the fire creatures, all in exchange for what might be a human's lifetime worth of fighting at the most? It sounded like a done deal! I only thing he was on the fence about was leaving the dead alone and dying, leaving Pluto without a ruler, but the rewards were well worth the risks. "I like this deal." Doomburg said in amusement. "However, I have a few questions and requests to ask before we can make this deal a reality. First, who will I be fighting? Second, I want periods of time where I can return to my people. Third, I also want the fire beings to protect my people in case of an attack. Fourth, I want to fight as an equal, not a subordinate, and finally, I want a declaration from the Mon Alliance that will provide military aid for Pluto when I ask of it. If you can agree to all of these term, you may have your Alliance."

"The current enemy of the Mon Alliance is the Reign of Chaos, a group that wishes to take over all worlds and tyrannize them. These include beings of immense power, such as a Demon called Lucifer who is an immensely powerful and crafty person. As for periods of time where you can return to your own people, you can come back to Pluto at any time in exchange for giving us a regiment of Ice Golems, as well as the services of craftsmen who died from disease, whenever you wish to go. As for equal Rank, you can have the rank of General; same rank as I nominally have. And finally, we will commit ourselves to giving you military aid."

Doomborg has heard only rumors of the RoC, but knew that they were a very dangerous fo, however, with this Alliance in hand, he would be able to repel their invasions. "Very well, I have made my decision." Doomborg said. He then kneeled before the man with sword in hand. "I, Doomborg, so solemly swear, as the King of Pluto and and Lord of the Dead, shall wander through the valley of the shadow of death, and brandish my sword in your name. I shall enceforth, be your ally, and your friend."

"Thank you," Taichi offered his hand. "Let this be a new era for your people then."

Never Been in a War before...

---

"Alright prepare to drop!" A man called out over the intercom of dropship. Clearly it was time to get ready for the troops inside but there was only one rider. She, of course, arose from her seat, walked to the rear hatch of the clunking metal ship, and waited for her cue.

"You know, Red, you don't have to do this... A low hum of her companion called out from his mysterious blue glow. His voice was always soothing and even now she felt a trickle of that peace of paradise that was so wrongfully robbed from them both. But despite what her companion had said, she had to do this. She made a promise and she always kept her promises.

She could feel the ship shift and eventually come to a halt before the screeching sound of the door began to drown out the sounds of the ship's engines. Once the door was fully open, the ex-singer carefully stepped over to the edge of the door, to get a glance of what she was going to be dropping into. The height of the ship made everything on the ground look miniature, save for a few larger bodied entities, but the action was clearly distinguishable. For moment, Red hesitated. She wasn't a solider, just a singer. Sure there was her whole experience of the Process but nothing was ever on this scale.

"... Heh. I'd be nervous, too. Hearing his voice again helped Red take that final step forward so her toes were hanging off. "Whatever you decide, Red, I'll be with you. Always. And that was what she needed to lean forward and fall.

Skydiving was kind of a new experience to Red but she kind of felt the whole thing invigorating. She closed her eyes for a moment and focused on the rush of the wind blowing past. It would be the last moment of peace she'd have before whatever awaited her down there. "Alright Red. It's time. Red opened her eyes and focused them towards the ground, scanning for a clearing in the action. There needed to be one, otherwise, Red could accidentally Jaunt() right into harm's way. Her companion was the first to find an opening. "Red, I found a spot. When you're ready." Of course he needed her to be ready because she only she could activate the Transistor to perform its various functions. In this case, Jaunt() which would allow Red to teleport a short distance anywhere, with or without her current momentum. Makes it very handy for jumping out of perfectly good airplanes.

The moment Red made drew the mental image of her teleporting, she almost instantly appeared in a flash on the battleground, losing all her previous moment to land gently on her feet. Curious and a bit nervous about where she was, she glanced around seeing that an opening had cleared in a battle between two fighters. One in armor and the other in none. The one without appeared to be having it rough after being rammed by the armored man. "Roy Mustang. Nice guy. The other one, not so much." Red knew that he wasn't talking about their personalities but he was cluing her to the alliances of both figures.

Red took a few careful steps forward before using Jaunt() to teleport to the side of both fighters. She went in, following Roy's attack by charging towards the knight's side, swinging her large sword up over head and down towards the ground.

@Saint Girralo @dirty slime

Alexandria Skye

Alexandria rendezvoused with her squad. Thankfully the only thing that seemed to have be harmed was the now destroyed communications relay. She saw what appeared to be a mech and most likely the culprit flying away towards the battlefield. Alexandria was just relieved to her squad were just shaken and still intact. "All units! Your new orders are to head back to the LZ, bunker down and secure it. I will need you all to be my eyes and ears while I engage the enemy." With a yes sir, the squad complied and started heading back towards the drop pod landing zone. Still using her cloaking technology, she decided to fly towards Lt. Roy Mustang's position, ignoring any other hostile targets to get to about a kilometer away from where Roy was fighting the knight.