---

Calvin sighed as he watched the dragon continue it's flight through the air. Even after his attack, and 5 other Nomads wailing on him, he didn't seem to be slowing down. He even entered a death-roll in mid-air, followed by a jet boost. Unless they were in a video game all of a sudden, that meant he was hardly even bothered by their combined attacks. Calvin sighed as he sat down on the side of the roof, slapping his lap as he flapped his lips, exhaling slowly. He wasn't about to waste more ki on an attack that hardly scratched the giant dragon.

But sitting on the roof, he noticed a large mob of robots walking down the road, holding all sorts of looted goods in their hands. Not bags of money, or stolen jewels, but random things you'd see every day. TV's, furniture, clothing, perfume, and--

Holy Crap.

One of the robots was carrying a Guten Junge, which wasn't supposed to be released overseas for a year and a half! Calvin had to do something. He gave himself a gentle push off of the roof, landing on his feet. He rushed in front of the mob of robots, stalling them in their tracks as they all looked at him.

"Hey guys. I'm gonna go out on a limb here, and guess that none of you guys actually bought that stuff, and I know some of you guys are just holding things like soap and clothes, but uh... Yknow Lootings cause more damage than they let on. And if my guess is correct, that Dragon is just a distraction so you guys could sneak in here while anyone capable of stopping you is fighting tooth and nail against that Dragon, which... I'm going to guess hasn't actually caused that much damage, because it's meant to cover up you guys. But see, I'm no good at fighting giant mecha dragons, so..."

Calvin just noticed a good majority of the robots had dropped their spoils and raised guns at Calvin.

"Woops."

Almost the exact moment the Robots started firing, Calvin erected an Ice Barrier wide enough to cover himself from all the robots, so long as he crouched. While hidden, he used his ki to generate a handful of snowballs, which he started peeking over the barrier to throw right at the enemies visors. The ki in them made them freeze upon contact with the robots, causing them to either malfunction or burst and fall apart. But he only had 5 snowballs, and there were well over 50 in this crowd.

---

The unlikely duo were interrupted in their conversation by the sudden crowd that had formed over a spot to the leftside of the street.

"O diabo bateu de novo!" A man in a white shirt cried, clutching his head. The devil has struck again!

The small crowd, consisting of 8-12 people, had formed over 3 dead bodies. Two women and a man. In his hand was a knife, coated in glistening oil. Neither of the women appeared too harmed, but were deathly pale, even slightly shriveled. One of the women had a black hole in the middle of her neck, with dark veins jetting out from it. The man, on the other hand, had several slash marks across his body. The largest one being in his belly, which had been bleeding a material that looked like sparkling water.

As both Rosie and Sage closed in, SYM-04 looked down at them from a rooftop from behind.

They were different. They were some of the juicy ones he had fought back at the loud place that was attacked by Dead Things. One of them he recognized. The Tall Thing that could summon juice to attack SYM-04.

The one who had hurt him.

SYM-04 knew he was a predator. He could lunge in this moment, and take out either one of them. He hadn't seen the other Thing in battle, but he knew the Tall Thing was dangerous. Could summon juice to attack him, and even grow those flat things the Things that Flew had. He could lunge and take her out, feast upon it, and then attack the Other Thing while they were still unaware. He reared his back, preparing to lunge within an instant...

"Located Target. Pre--"

No. Jeremy was trying to come back. SYM-04 had just feasted.

SYM-04 had screamed out loud, clutching his head. Jeremy was cheating. He wasn't playing fair. SYM-04 knew if he feasted twice before the sky went dark, he could keep Jeremy away. He was cheating. A cheater.

A Cheater.







Unbeknownst to SYM-04, he just announced his presence with his scream, and now stood, distracted. The crowd gathered around the victims had screamed as they begun to ran.

Neither Rosie nor Sage needed to be a genius to know who had just showed up.

---

A brawl is surely brewing, Ivory thought. In fact, it had already started.

The Oni Emperor was squaring off against the violet-haired woman who dared to assault him, with a powerful ring of lightning dancing around them both. The Emperor's servants had begun assaulting the fighters and viewers alike. But that was beyond Ivory's concerns at the moment. Her task was to abduct an Oni, and that is what she came to do.

She watched the fight from a safe position, trying to pick a proper subject. Most of the Oni's were giants among men, wielding clubs taller than her. Yet still, the fighters managed to hold them off... Atleast until the Emperor stopped showboating. It was always the leader that tied an army together.

Despite their best efforts, Nomads were falling faster than the Oni's. Oni's were falling too, but they were usually too close to others of their kind, or deceased to the abilities of more violent Nomads. After what felt like half an hour, yet was merely a minute, she found her quarry.

An Oni with long white hair, and one of those ball-necklaces many of them wore. His body was yellow with several orange stripes, including around his lips. He held a double-sided club, and had been panting heavily. Without a word, Ricochet and Commando sprinted past Ivory, and towards their target. Ricochet was much more adept at dodging through the carnage. With most fighters being distracted, many of them only felt a brush of orange run behind them. As soon as she was within range, a fist had connected with the Oni's cheek. Commando, on the other hand, had to carefully maneuver around the tiny circles of the brawl, careful not to provoke anyone. Luckily, everyone seemed too concerned with the monstrous giants of legend threatening to club them to worry about a robotic-looking thing.

But once Ricochet's fist had connected with the giant Oni, Ivory realized her mistake.

Once she was within a closer range, his Ki was much more powerful than it had been at a distance. Mayhaps all the different ki signatures of combatants had scrambled hers? Either way, this Oni was stronger. It must've been one of their elites. But regardless, Ivory had to carry through with her assault. The rest of her Symbiotes, Tortuga and Powersaw, had hung back. She could only control so many of her minions at once. She didn't have Haunt in direct sight, but she knew he was lurking somewhere in the Stadium most likely.

Haunt had always slightly startled Ivory. Out of all the Symbiotes, Haunt was the only one she encountered that could slip her notice, and thus her control. She wasn't concerned for her own safety, fortunately. He might've been able to slip her control, but even if they could, none of the symbiotes would dare lay a finger on her. She wasn't worried about him drawing attention, either. Each of the Pioneers had quirks to their behavior. His was that unless he was ordered to, he never killed anyone that would be immediately noticed.

But she couldn't focus on him, he'd appear when he was needed. Right now, she had to focus on Ricochet, who had just been sent flying into the grip of Commando. The Oni they challenged roared, and stamped towards them, twirling his club over his head. Ricochet had quickly regained her composure, and lunged forth, ramming her shoulder right into his groin. The Oni fell to one knee, dropping his club to his side. Commando took this as an opportunity to lunge forward, and pummel the giant twelve times in his face, before the giant had gripped Commando by his fist, and swirled him in a circle around himself, before hurling him into the nearby wall. Ricochet leapt into the air, sticking a leg straight into the Oni's neck.

This strategy was one she used commonly in the training simulations; When faced with a slow yet powerful foe, she paired Ricochet and one of her more formidable symbiotes, typically Commando or Tortuga, together. When one was being attacked, the other would lunge in.

That strategy seemed to prove useless in this scenario, unfortunately. The powerful Oni had shrugged off nearly every attack they landed on him. Then Ivory realized why she couldn't detect his power properly before; He projected most of his ki into a barrier just around the skin of his body, rendering all incoming attacks equivalent to fly swatters. She needed to change her tactics. She commanded Powersaw to rush in, and Ricochet to retreat, simultaneously. Commando managed to evade & block the Oni's attacks, until Powersaw had rushed in. Commando had lunged to the side several times, forcing the Oni to turn his back... In that moment Powersaw leapt, and landed on the Oni's back, sticking his blades into key points in his back. The attacks penetrated the skin easily, rendering the Oni disabled for several seconds... And then for several hours.

Powersaw had turned his two other blades into saws, and dug them into the Oni's shoulders, cutting deep. The Oni roared in pain as his arms went limp. Powersaw straightened his legs and let go from his back, before sawing into the Oni's legs. In one swift movement, the Oni had been disabled. Ivory climbed atop Tortuga, and ran her minions towards the scene. Luckily, the Oni had been separated from the majority of the combat, meaning she didn't have to worry about an immediate retaliation swinging and knocking her out cold. She tucked her head and clung to Tortugas back like a baby koala, avoiding the brunt of damage that would've come from stray attacks, that unloaded themselves on Tortuga instead. He was damaged, but nothing that went below armor.

With all of her symbiotes--minus Haunt, wherever he lurked-- gathering around the crippled Oni, she only had one goal left on her mind.

She had to move fast; Standing around the fallen Oni made her a sore thumb to any curious Nomads, or vengeful Oni.

---

The situation had deteriorated quickly. An all out brawl had broken out, onis and humans fighting each other, though the humans were clearly at the disadvantage. Margot had barely pushed herself to her feet when an oni zeroed in on her, lumbering up. She drew her blades quickly, the metal glinting in the dim light as she held them in the ready. The oni grinned reaching behind his back with both arms. "You fight with toothpicks." He drew a pair of clubs and swung them horizontally, forcing her to step back and bend back. Fifty kilos of iron crashed together mere centimeters in front of Margot's face. "I will break them, and then you." He pulled the clubs back, twirling them around and resting them on his shoulders with casual ease. "Heh, lucky."

Taking a step back, she stood back up. The oni snorted, their hot breath flapping her hat's brim. His chest gave away his next action, left shoulder tensing up in preparation for a swing. The club came crashing down where she had stood a moment before. She shouted as she stabbed her sword through the oni's forearm, forcing him to let go of his club. With a grunt she pulled her sword out, dodging the oni's wild swing with his other arm, driving her dagger through his hand. Both of the clubs thudded to the ground as he curled up and wept. "No, just good."

She took stock of the situation, picking her way through the rubble, using her nimbleness to her advantage to dodge or subdue any oni that she came across. Already small pockets of Nomads had grouped up, holding off the oni and defending the few surviving civilians to different degrees of success. She barely noticed the woman confronting Daichi in the center of the now destroyed arena. Finally she spotted Brooke kicking an oni down, and ran over to them. "Jill, Brooke, good to see you al—" she noticed the skeleton standing with them, and blinked owlishly. "...On est dans un maison hantée ici?"

@Savo@Surtr@lavulman

---

_{Japan.In the part that's Japan.}

---

---

So, she dodged.

Daichi was not so surprised, but he had an advantage over her that negated her near-teleportation: ki-sensing. The second she reappeared behind him, Daichi was already prepared. He whipped around at blinding speeds - fast enough to surprise her. A blade of energy was heading straight towards him, and he grinned widely. With his free hand (other hand was resting on his chains), he swung his fist in a wide arc, and a brief battle occurred as his ki went up against Verga's. It ended with a small explosion of a blue light, and both attacks negating each other.

He still had his storms ready, so Verga was engulfed in a massive tornado of powerful winds. Strong enough to lift stones up into the air. Daichi fired many lightning bolts into the storm.

---

_Japan.

---

---

While TV told her never to trust a skeleton, Brooke knew he had the plan.

Maybe they shouldn't try fighting Daichi here, with his army of goons. Given that there's far too damn many of them... and he's very powerful. Brooke never learned how to ki-sense, but she definitely could feel the power he gives off. Also he trapped everyone in a giant storm. You have to be a bigshot to do something like that. A club went towards Brooke, and she reacted quickly by stopping the club with both hands, and throwing the oni into another that was ready to attack Alduous.

She caught eye of Margot, before smiling, "Margot!" She said in a chipper tone, "You're alright."

Though, neither of them will be if they don't get out of here. It seemed to Brooke that skeleton-man seemed to put more of the pressure on Jill than anyone else. Which was fine... Brooke didn't have a motorcycle. She could tell he was cooking something in that... weird, skull, head, thing, of his. Even if Brooke wasn't in his plan, she wanted to be apart of it.

"Whatever you need me to do skeleton man, I'll do it!"

---

_Germany.

---

---

Jaden had the perfect plan.

That went out the window when the dragon going Mach-5 and spinning like a fuckin' Beyblade.

Jaden loudly screamed as, not even with his blades embedded in the dragon's back, he couldn't hardly stick onto the mechanical beast! The blades were slowly pulled out, until Jaden was sent flying. Right towards the town. Of course, Jaden loudly screamed as he went flying at incredible speeds. He was going so fast he couldn't find a good spot to teleport to... and eventually went through the roof of a building, and one of it's walls, and landed on a hunk of metal.

He was stunned for a second as he grasped the side of his head.

"Holy shit," Jaden said. "It feels like I landed on a car!"

He teleported to his feet, and looked around... and realized he was in the middle of a crowd of robots. He looked around as they aimed their guns at him, and he grinned. They began opening fire, and the ninja focused for a moment. Moving at speeds blinding to the human eye, he slashed at each of the bullets as he jumped backwards up into the air and kept deflecting the bullets. He landed on a robot, and the bullets stopped for a moment, he stabbed the machine in the head. He backflipped and kicked it in the back at another robot.

As he landed, he sliced one robot in half down the middle, and the moment he hit the ground he cut the legs off another machine and cut it into pieces as it hit the ground. He grinned as he lived for moments of actions like this... but he still felt hardly challenged.

---

_Brazil.

---

---

Sage immediately went over to the scream, ignoring their demon companion as they pushed their way through the crowd.

The angel sighed as they knelt down, and examined the bodies. Their light... had been completely depleted. Sage hated the fact that innocent people were getting killed by this demon, and they were helpless to stop it. The angel stood straight up, and quickly asked everyone a question,

"Has anyone see-"

Then the cry from the rooftop was everything the angel needed to know. They couldn't sense their light, but their eyes was everything they needed to know. It was the thing that Horizon Frontiers told them about, and the same thing that Sage thought was a machine at first glance. It wasn't a machine... it was an abomination.

Immediately, wings sprouted from Sage's back as they valiantly leap up into the air, clutching an arrow as they wasted no time firing a quick burst of three arrows at the experiment.

---

---

"Oh, hey, we got company," said Askin, knocking his knuckles on Otsana's shoulders. From beyond the bike, down crookedy narrow sidestreet, robots could be seen rushing along the next road over. But after a second, it became clear none would go turning down that sidestreet towards Askin an Otsana. Apparently their loot—hygiene products, electronics, and food, from what Askin glimpsed—was of more importance than the two nomads.

"Huh."

Then, a voice. "Otsy, Klara, Munchkin, where are y'all?"

From the opposite direction came Jonas's tiny approaching figure. "Over here!" called Askin.

---

---

---

---

By the time Khan reached the stadium, it was in ruins, and the rain was gone. Now, thunderheads the color of a smoker's lung covered up the sky, and in the ruins of what was once an arena, there was a brawl.

hey i'm here
what the fuck what's going on
who's fighting
are you alive?
hey
benny hey

After a few seconds, a reply:

I see you

When Khan found Benny, she was worse for wear, but, looking at the wreckage unspooled all around them, it was clear it could be much worse.

"What happened—what?"

"Jesus, you're a sight. Yeah, okay, so—wait, cover, get behind that wall—"

"Yeah, right— The ground exploded behind them, the source of the attack unclear. Maybe it was an accident.

"I'm thinking that, uh, them, the oni, are the answer to 'what the hell happened here, what the fuck?'"

"Yeah. Thanks for coming."

"You'd better get out of here, I think that street there looks clear—"

Shuffling and crawling, Benny and Khan made their way to the edge of the blast radius.

"Cowards!" Behind them, a mountain of a figure, a mountain of muscle and horns and tattoos, and he hefted a tetsubo rippling with metal studs.

"Keep going, it's cool, keep going," said Khan, as he turned on his butt to face the approaching oni. Benny kept going, after just the slightest hesitation.

"Running is all your kind knows, isn't it? Your fellows are attacked, and you RUN!"

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Benny keep running. The oni spun the tetsubo overhead, and as his eyes moved from Khan to Benny, Khan pounced. Tackling the oni by the knees, something within his hands crackled with the noise of toy bricks and falling trees, and Khan's cirrhosis halo gouged into the oni's invisible life force. The demon stumbled, and he grabbed Khan in a vicious fist as they went tumbling to the ground. A single squeeze, and Khan felt his ribs go weak like jelly. Another squeeze, and one of them popped. Then, before the oni could crush Khan in his hands, Khan threw his bloody hands into the oni's face and, with a word of magic, his blood ignited with dark sorcery, hissing like fire into the attacker's eyes. They tumbled around some more as the oni screamed, and Khan screamed, because the sensation of the boiling eyes was awful and the burning of his own magic was awful and it was just an awful day, all around.

"I'm having a much worse day than you!" Khan shouted, as he and the blinded oni went falling in separate directions. Khan checked his phone: two new messages.

I'm safe
Hurry and get out too.

But now Khan was in the fray, and there were nomads and fighting and no sign of a clean escape. And the, just to make things worse, he looked to his left, and saw a very familiar little group almost right next to where he'd fallen/

"Oh god damnit," he said, to Ivory and her procession.

---

---

---

---

Faster than Verga would've thought possible, the Emperor spun on his heels and threw out a clothesline of a punch, wide and vicious. His fist and Verga's blue light met in middair, and the resulting blast sent her skidding backwards. She couldn't tell if her attack had hit. Before she could ground herself, before she could counterattack, the Emperor made a gesture, deafening winds came out from the air and surrounded Verga, pulling her off her feet in a screaming vortex of cutting and nicking and buffeting. He's trying to pin me.

As soon as the winds came in, the Emperor made a sign with his other hand, and with a drum-rolling rumble the sky spat out thunderbolt after thunderbolt towards Verga. The first one hit, as did the second one, and by the third Verga had ground her teeth and cleared a blank space in her head—the roar of the wind fought to occupy her every last thought—and a bulb that bent light and air and gravity swelled up around her. The lightning blasts were broken across the barrier into a melt of screaming hot sparks. The barrier wobbled and pulsed. It wouldn't hold for long.

Verga's body was raw from the lightning strikes, like all her muscles had vanished, and her body was holding itself up by the strength of her bones, which felt distinctly like jello. K-RAK. K-RAK. K-RAK. K-RAK The lens was going thinner. Finally, from inside the darkness there was a sound both contrabass-low and bullet-whistle high as the shield shattered, and as it did, as the leftover sparks went scarring over Verga's skin, she hurled out another blade of bright blue time, which emerged with a sudden moan from the heart of the tornado.

The shattering of the shield and the force of the attack was enough to knock Verga free from the tornado on the opposite side, as the time warp went shooting towards the Emperor, mid-bolt. She hit the ground tumbling. Her exposed skin twanged and burned as the dark bruises and angry red tree-shapes scarred into her came in contact with the dusty earth. Digging her fingers into the ground, she forced herself back to her feet.

_Germany.

---

---

The skies above Germany were fraught with the sounds of roaring, slicing, slamming, various explosions, and aggressive shouting. The village below those skies was quiet. Well, quiet in comparison. Still pretty chaotic. Inanna thought it was better down there, anyways.

If one was very scrutinous (and very generous), one could deduce that the young golem looked maybe slightly more mature than he did two weeks ago. His robes had been further ornamented with a couple of extra layers, and he could summon a somewhat less clueless look about himself when the situation required it. That innocent look in his eyes had yet to fade, though.

A green portal opened in the sky, followed by a torrent of water that rained down upon a burning building.

Is this really worth our time? Inanna shrugged. He thought so.

Is it even helping? Well, it looked like everyone was trying to fight the dragon. That was fine. He could just make sure the town didn’t burn down in the meantime! Inanna closed the portal, the makeshift waterfall being cut off until he made another gate in space to a nearby lake.

And so he did. He repeated the process several times, until he eventually put out every fire in town. Smiling, he looked back up at the dragon, and his eyes widened as he saw part of it get engulfed in a massive sphere of light.

Could that be- Welp! Time to see if there was anything else that needed fixing. He turned his gaze back down around ground level, catching a glance of… Oh! It was that lady from the tournament! The one with the straps! Even if she looked a bit down, she seemed a lot better than she did after she threw that giant robot. Humans must be pretty resilient. They really aren’t...

“Hello!” Inanna called out, holding his staff in one hand above his head as he waved with it. “I saw you during the tournament! What brings you out h-” he was interrupted by a figure tripping over his foot, sending various fruits rolling across the pavement. He was about to help when he realized that it was like those robots that shot at him in Rio. It pointed its gun at him, and he heard the sound of many more robots behind him follow in kind. He let out a yelp, bullets whizzing past him as he fell into a portal and emerged in the air a few feet away from the crowd.

---

_Germany.

---

---

Seshat had continued to lead the dragon somewhat closely ahead of it before it had decided to speed up, and getting caught against the wing with a reverberating thud as she failed to keep up the pace with it. Her rifle leapt out of her hands, sliding across the dragon's appendage until it dissolved into blue light as the dragon rose higher into the sky. Curses.

Well, if this machine was going to outspeed her, she would have to ground it. She checked to make sure that there were no other Nomads too close to her.

Her entire suit of armor began to glow with arcane light. A light that radiated ethereal beauty set off-kilter by a growing sense of danger. In an instant, Seshat was obscured by a downright enormous sphere of that same light, that expanded outwards in all directions and enveloped most of the base of the wing.

In another instant, the light faded. And except for Seshat, everything that was enveloped by it was simply gone, exposed internals of the wing sparking or leaking various substances. Seshat herself floated in midair for a moment as the torn wing twisted and fell off the dragon’s side. Her futuristic, robotic armor had vanished, replaced by sleek but archaic plate and mail of the past.

She spotted robots swarming through the town right before gravity regained its hold on her. Was the dragon just a distraction? What was going on here? The safety of the town took priority, but she was determined to succeed whether she knew or not. She kicked off the wing, sending it falling further away from the town. Her spear materialized in her hand as she activated Overboost once more.

She held the spear forwards, skewering three as she came in for a landing. They were firing upon a barrier of ice, concealing what she supposed was another Nomad. Curious. She held her spear forwards and planted her foot on the robots impaled on it, kicking them off and sending their corpses sprawling into their comrades. She rushed over the downed robots and raised her spear high.

“SET!” the warrior cried. A crack of thunder echoed as lightning flashed down from the sky, arcing from the point of the spear and into the nearby robots, frying them. She summoned her greatshield, turning around to block a hail of gunfire from the remaining foes. She held it forwards as she charged towards the bots and smacked one aside, sending it crunching against a nearby lamppost. Seshat impaled another robot and then held her shield forwards once more as she glanced back at the Nomad behind the fort.

“Are you unharmed?” she asked, wondering if she would have to worry about this one.

---

_Rio.

---

---

Rosie tensed up a bit… That darkness, that turmoil, that inner tension that lay within the hearts of all… the air was thick with it. He looked around the area. Normally he would be somewhat offended that Sage had ignored him, but he didn’t care. He had to find the source.

His concerns were quickly answered by the symbiote’s scream. He squinted as he tried to get a better look at it. Then he smirked.

“Well aren't you a deliciously edgy creature,” he observed smugly. “Mind if I have a bite?” he strode forwards. In contrast to Sage’s dramatic leaps, Rosie remained somewhat reserved as he drew his paintbrush and stuck the tip in his mouth. He withdrew the brush, now coated in a strange black liquid, and drew a Dark Bomb next to the symbiote, right in the path of his partner’s arrows. The demon chuckled quietly as the first arrow collided against the bomb, sending pitch-black sludge flying in all directions as the other two arrows flew onwards.

Meanwhile in Japan...

"Cái tháng chó đẻ..."

"Your strange tongue still eludes me," the taller hooded woman reminded her companion. "But I gather that you are not happy with the way things are going."

"Not particularly," the smaller figure said, stepping back to distance herself from the bolts of lightning the Oni King sent towards the insane blue-haired woman. "This might call for more aggressive negotiations..."

"Time to fight then?" the first woman said eagerly. "The angry looking woman looks like a formidable challenge,"

The shorter one stewed a bit, her hood twitching as she glanced between the imperial brawl and the fleeing crowds. The Court's interest was with the Oni, and she was sure that they would have told her to make sure the fight went his way if they were here. But that would mean the war spreading to the whole of Japan, maybe even all the way to the mainland. A deranged oni king, or innumerable innocent lives? A pretty easy choice, all things considered.

"We need to stop this before it gets out of control," the woman concluded. "I'd better handle the Oni Emperor and his friend, do you think you can gather the other nomads here and work on protecting civilians?"

"Does it still involve fighting these devils?"

"As many as your fists can handle."

"Then I can definitely gather the other nomads and protect the civilians!" the taller woman said gleefully before turning around and charging towards an ongoing fight, unleashing a battle-cry that easily caught the attention of everyone involved. Her companion rubbed her forhead beneath her hood in frustration.

"Worry about it later Binh, emperor first," she reminded herself. Planting her feet, she recited a mantra to herself, causing her robes to flutter independently from the wind before darting towards the Oni Emperor, unfastening the clamp around her neck with her free hand.

---

---

Calvin would've been Swiss cheese in the next few seconds.

The bullets of the horde of robots wizzed through his ice barrier, simultaneously cracking it and melting it from the heat of the bullets. But then Calvin saw someone fall from the Dragon above, crash through a building's roof and then wall, and then land in the middle of robots. With a good look, The guy had dark skin and black dreads, and was dressed like some sort of urban ninja. Sweatpants, a green t-shirt, and two swords, it was hard to miss. In some weird after-image movement, the ninja was back on his feet. Most of the robot horde had diverted their fire from Calvin to firing at the ninja, who cut through any robots immediately surrounding him like swiss cheese. But there were still over two dozen robots in this mob, and no matter how fast this ninja was, he couldn't dodge forever.

But before Calvin could rush out to help, he heard a feminine voice shout from above "SET!"

A woman in simple armor had fallen from the sky, a spear materializing in her hand as she impaled a robot upon landing. She then conjured a massive shield, that caught most of the bullets that flew Calvin's way. She looked familiar... Looking up, Calvin saw that most of the Warriors fighting the Dragon were gone. Was she the one that was flying around him? Where'd her scifi robot armor go?

“Are you unharmed?” she asked, looking back at Calvin.

Calvin shrugged.

"Well, I took a pretty harsh landing a few minutes ago when I jumped off of the roof, and I'm feeling a lil' tired from summoning an ice barrier, but yeah, I'm good. But I think we should worry more about that fellow in the middle of the crowd. He's pretty fast, but I think he could use some help. Don't mind me..."

With that, Calvin positioned himself behind his Ice barrier. He sprung up onto it, and then took another leap, landing one foot on Seshat's head.

"Parkour." Calvin calmly stated, as if stepping on people who saved you was unnatural.

With that boost, Calvin launched himself into the air and over Seshat's shield. Once he hit the ground, he projected his ki, creating a slide of ice in front of him. He used the momentum of his landing to propel himself forward. Any robots caught on the path were battered to the side by Calvin's skid of death. Calvin kept producing the barrier until he was only a few feet from the ninja. Once he reached the end of the line, Calvin lunged forward, tackling the ninja into a tumble, projecting an Igloo around them. The igloo was much more formidable than the pathetic barrier of ice he summoned, and most bullets merely scrathed it several times. Once they were safe, Calvin untangled himself from the ninja.

"Hey man, no homo, you just looked like you needed a hand. Or in this case, a dome of fortified ice to give you some breathing room. Anyway, I'm gonna take a real quick snooze. Be back in 30 seconds."

Before the stranger could get a word in, Calvin laid back with his hands behind his head, and started snoring immediately.

---

"Okay. Commando, you lift him by his shoulders, but be careful with his arms. Then, Tortuga, you are going to lift him up from underneath. Then, the rest of you are going to escort us--"

"Oh god damnit," A voice behind her said.

Ivory was startled for a moment, but then remembered the sound of that voice. The green fellow who had been so obnoxious to her.

Ivory turned around, using her ability to make all five Pioneers turn around to face Kahn.

"Oh. My sincerest apologies, it was to my better knowledge that this was a public event," Ivory stated, calm as ever. Her power activated, and Commando and Tortuga went through with her previous orders. Commando had lifted the Oni by his shoulders, stirring a small groan from him. Tortuga then picked him up by his waist, the two of them doing a dual firemans carry of the massive red brute.

"I'll grant you the mercy and not assume you'd try and stop this... man from receiving "medical attention", now would you?" Ivory asked. With this man actively attacking them, she couldn't hope to get the specimen out of here. It was an inconvenience for Haunt's absence at this moment.

---

SYM-04 was hit by two arrows of light, much like the one he ate at the tournament. To make matters worst, black smelling water splattered all over him. Was it dangerous? SYM-04 couldn't tell right now. But something hurted him, and he turned upwards.

No.

The person had grown yellow wings from their body, holding a bow of light. Next to them was the other person. How did they smell him?! SYM-04 let out a shrill cry, as he lunged forwards. First, he lunged his hand forward, claws ejected, straight at Rosie. Then he leapt into the air and lashed his tail like a whip at Sage.

"KILL YOU!" SYM-04 shrieked.

_Japan.

---

---

Jill tried her best to listen, though it was a bit easy to get distracted with all the crazy necromancy going on… yeah, they’d probably need to talk about that later…

Then Brooke showed up with style. Jill's pupils dilated a little as her friend threw Oni over her shoulder like they were nothing… It was like Rider Kuwagata’s reversals, except it was right there in front of her!

Then she realized that Jill was talking to a skeleton.

“Yeah he's a skeleton,” Jill answered awkwardly. “We can focus on that later...” Pit Stop beeped in agreement as she turned her attention back to said skeleton. She frowned reflexively when he touched her bike, though there wasn’t any time to judge.

“So we've gotta rally everyone up and push on through?” Jill repeated. “Sounds easy enough.” Pit Stop quietly booped some sort of message, to which Jill nodded as she leaned slightly towards the necromancer.

“So you can concentrate on your spell while I’m driving?” Jill asked. “I’ll try not to do anything especially crazy, but Nine Breaker ain’t your average bike. Pit Stop’ll try to keep you steady, but that’s about all we can do about it, so I hope whatever’s holding you together’s good at its job.” She nodded at the drone, which produced long, wiry appendages from its sides that wrapped around the bike and Aldous in a way that kept him tied down on the seat. She looked over her shoulder at Brooke.

“Hey, if you could-” The Justice Rider started to say, before Margot reappeared, once again bringing attention to the skeleton. In French.

“Yeah yeah,” Jill said impatiently. “He’s a skeleton. Listen, I’ve gotta babysit him for a bit while he makes his creepy skeleton magic to get us all out of here, I could use some help keeping the heat off me if the two of you can keep up.” The Justice Rider trained her gaze back ahead of her. With a passenger in the back, she resisted the urge to pop a wheelie as she turned the bike towards that weak point in the Oni’s forces. Time to get everyone’s attention.

“OI!” Jill shouted, honking her horn to create a brief but momentary cacophony that cut through the chaos. “WE’RE GONNA PUSH THROUGH AND GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE! ALL NOMADS, FALL IN!” She revved the engine with relish.

“Okay,” Jill took a deep breath. ”LET’S RIDE!” The bike shot off with a bang, The Justice Rider’s scarf trailing behind her as she weaved out of the way of the larger pieces of rubble dotting her way with very slight, efficient turns to keep her momentum going. She didn’t focus on the wet terrain, didn’t let it bother her. She had to focus on going forwards.

She had to focus on the Oni in front of her.

Jill kept driving straight towards him. With a passenger, she wasn’t quite in the position to play chicken, but he didn’t know that. She watched him intently, looking for a sign as the bike drew closer. He tensed up, and Jill smirked.

“TRAILBLAZE!” The Rider cried, activating the EX system to produce a tall, electrified wall of ki that extended from the end of her scarf down to the ground behind the bike, swerving to the left as the oni kicked the trail and got himself shocked for his troubles. The trail cut off as she turned back on course and tore the right handlebar off her bike, producing a long whiplike cord with a small metal star on its end. She swung the whip and wrapped it securely around the oni’s leg. The bike might need a bit more kick for this…

Jill flipped a switch on the remaining handle, mixing in her ki with Nine Breaker’s engine. The bike roared louder than any beast could hope to as it exploded onwards with enough force to swipe the oni clean off its feet and drag it along with her, slamming and scraping it against the ground as she moved forwards. The roaring engine eventually quieted somewhat as it burned through the last of the ki cell. She flipped a switch on the whip handle, adding slack to the cord until it unwrapped itself from the oni and receded into the handle, which she promptly snapped back into place on the bike.

“How ya holdin’ up?” She asked her passenger as she got back on course. She couldn’t exactly turn her head away from her path, so it was a little hard to tell if he was even still back there.

---

_{Japan.In the part that's Japan.}

---

---

Daichi was so sure that he had killed the human.

For a moment.

A blade of ki came out, catching the emperor off guard. He tried to use his hand to guard himself, but it sliced his hand, and his torso. That was when he felt a lot slower. When the woman escaped, while still battered and bruised, she was still alive. Daichi growled as he decided to try to dash after her - only to realize that he was much slower. Daichi slammed his fist into the ground to cancel what little momentum he had going, before he stuck a hand forward. He pulled it back towards himself, and shouted,

"Come here, insolent human!"

A giant gust of wind came that would send Verga flying towards him. He had his chain and mace ready to finish her off.

---

_Germany.

---

---

While Jaden was in the zone, he sensed another ki signature approaching.

A Nomad from the looks of it.

Regardless, Jaden didn't like sneak attacks... he dodged expertly and the kid went flying past him. He whipped around with both blades pointed... at some sleepy looking kid dressed up like some Eskimo? Jaden turned his nose up, and a corner of his mouth, in sheer confusion. Especially as the igloo formed around them. The fuck? This shit was wack! The superstar was utterly confused as the boy explained that he "needed help," and how it gave him breathing room. Then he went to sleep.

Okay, he heard that Europe was weird.

But, he was too black for this shit. Jaden didn't waste any time in cutting his way out of the igloo, and continuing his robot rampage. Not mentioning what in the fuck just happened.

---

_Brazil.

---

---

Sage was quick to react when they used their light-bow to block the attack from the beast's tail. Sage grit their teeth, as that came with the unfortunate side effect of absolutely killing their momentum. They fell backwards, and landed on the ground feet first. The creature was going straight for Rosie... and while they didn't care for their demon companion, they needed to eliminate the creature fast as possible. They readied their bow, and projected the course for the other creature, and fired one arrow where they believed the Beast's head was gonna land.

_Germany.

---

---

Brown stormed down the paved road towards the town, defiance in her run even as she technically did what Jonas had intended her to do in his plan. Yet as the young Nomad blitzed past signs written in German, doing her best to leave the babysitting ‘clone’ in the dust, thoughts of how to dash that plan and surpass it shot through her brain the same way she shot through the landscape.

Could she find a tower and jump onto the dragon? Slingshot her way up to the altitude the monstrous metal beast flew? Have someone throw or launch her up there? Every thought Brown considered as she ran related to the mechanized metal drake that soared in the skies above. It’s intimidating force stood as a challenge and Jonas’s insistence she not fight it simply deepened her thirst to utterly crush it in combat.

Massive, mighty foes were meant to be fought and beaten. Just the memory of what she managed to accomplish at the stadium in Rio got her heart racing. It wasn’t a ‘proper’ victory in her mind, the struggle and injury it cost her made it feel pyrrhic, but it was the closest thing she had and she wanted more.

Suddenly a voice called out to her and she stopped. Skidding to a halt in the central street of the German town Brown looked to see some pale skinned, red robed, person speaking to her. Initially Brown raised her fists, ready to fight the stranger. When the tournament was mentioned and the fact they had seenher fighting made Brown relax somewhat.

Then she saw them.

The robots.

Brown watched as rusted, battered robots marched out of stores lining the street. They shouldered through storefront windows or simply walked clean through the walls, pulverizing wood and stone like it was nothing as they lugged merchandise over their shoulders and in their hands. Brown expect to see German money, gold, or at least robot foot like nuts and bolts in the grips of the numerous machines.

Yet as she got closer Brown could clearly see seemingly normal merchandise being hauled by the machines. Like the rudest, most unpleasant army of hired grocery shoppers the world had ever seen.

“Why the heck are these robots stealing all this stuff? Are they working with the dragon? Are these the same robots that attacked the tournament? I wonder if it’s like the dragons from the stories, where it hoards stuff!”

Brown nodded and smiled to herself, her own internal logic feeling sound as she watched the robots move and the townsfolk flee in terror. Unable to contain herself anymore Brown ran, moving out of the street and onto the nearby sidewalk where a pair of robots lugged bulk replacement light-bulbs out of a store.

The two machines either didn't notice her approach or didn't register her as a threat. This proved to be a mistake as Brown drew back her arm, gripped the round wooden surface of her yo-yo, and concentrated her meager ki energies into the toy as she ran shouted.

“Taikutsunakiba, FADED FANG!”

Looping her middle finger through the string Brown swung her arm forward and hurled the yo-yo to the nearest of the two robots. The wooden yo-yo unfurled from it's string as it flew, spinning through the air with the force of a bullet before crashing into the midsection of the steely skeleton. Ki-hardened wood crushed the metal plating inwards, snapping the spinal supporting of the robot and breaking it clean in two.

Brown's eyes lit up, an adrenaline sweetened smile coming to her face as she watched the first robot crash to the sidewalk in two pieces. With a tug of her arm the yo-yo surged back towards her, winding back onto it's string before landing comfortably in her palm

"Yeah! I was hoping for challenge, but I think I'm starting to like the idea of just destroying you all without any effort at all." Brown cheered, her smile widening as she ran towards the second still remaining robot with her hands clenched into fists.

As she ran forward the robot seemed largely unaware of her presence or the fate of it's comrade. It's head and body faced away from her, still clutching the light bulbs it had pilfered. Yet the moment Brown came within punching distant something changed.

The robot's body tensed up. It's head spun an inhuman 180 degrees. Dilated optics fixed onto Brown and in one blinding movement the robot swung out at the approaching Nomad.

Instead of turning around the robot's arm simply pivoted within it's joint, swinging backwards in such a way that a human arm would be dislocated or outright torn from it's socket.

Skeletal steel knuckles crashed into Brown's chest, depressing her stomach and forcing the air from her lungs. She gasped and was sent hurtling sideways across the street. Brown collided with the side of a car back first, collapsing the aluminum frame inwards and nearly tipping the vehicle over as she came to a violent stop.

Half embedded in the German car Brown wheezed for air, struggling to regain the wind that had been knocked out of her in a single strike by the seemingly low-grade robot.

As Brown gasped and gagged the previously occupied robots all began to drop what they were carrying and turned to her. Optics glowing with a subtle, yellow glow they began to slowly approach her from all sides. Mechanical arms raised and steely hands twisted into murderous fists...

---

---

"Oh. My sincerest apologies, it was to my better knowledge that this was a public event," said the woman.

"What."

"I'll grant you the mercy and not assume you'd try and stop this... man from receiving "medical attention", now would you?"

"What."

She and her procession were taking up a massive felled oni, apparently to spirit him away. Khan wasn't following the train of thoughts involved in their little party, though he wasn't much interested in trying.

"What are you—Jesus I don't time for this. If you're here to help, or—"

"Weak! Haha!"

From out of the crowd, a body was sent flying, and it hit the ground hard. Human, though Khan couldn't tell if it was a nomad or a normal. The body wasn't moving, so Khan was guessing normal. From where the fallen human had been thrown, an oni emerged from the fighting, grinning. "Humans couldn't give a proper fight to save their—"

When he spotted the metal woman and her captive, he froze, and his face seemed to swell with rage, confusion, and disgust. It seemed like he could see something Khan could not. "Monster! Get your hands off him!"

He lunged, and on instinct, so did Khan, the halo building up in his arms as he intercepted the oni by the legs and sent searing wounds through the life energy in the attacker's hamstrings. Khan and the oni fell to the ground, but in seconds, wincing with pain, the oni was trying to force himself back to his feet, still lunging for the woman.

---

---

---

---

"Come here! Insolent human!" The Emperor drew in his fist, and the wind rose up with a vindictive howl. Verga was plucked from the ground, the breath forced from her lungs, and the windstorm yanked her straight towards Daichi.

He raised his weapon.

In midair, Verga somersaulted out of control, then straightened. The Emperor was rushing close.

She nearly lost control, again. Like balancing a grain of sand on the tip of a violent-shaking needle—but her body stays upright. Her body burns. The air gouges at her red-raw skin. But, at least, in midair, there was no way for the Emperor make her kneel. Not yet.

For a split second, like a snapping string, Verga could imagine him winning, all his words and gloats and murders adding up to her, beaten, and him, unbowed. There was nothing in the world more unbearable, there was no wound that stabbed deeper. It fought for space inside her head with the poisonous, vindictive delight of wanting to hurt someone, which in the moment was better than love and better than friendship and better than money.

All the weather in the world seemed to bend towards the Emperor's silhouette.

He was on top of her now.

"Come on!"

Into her hands, Verga dragged from out of herself flesh, blood, ki, light, like dredging the depths of a strip mine, and it overflowed burning from between her fingers, and the face of the Emperor was wide and furious, and the mace came down, and Verga came up, and the Time Warp and the Dark Matter and the Antiparticle boiled cruelly through her skin as she brought the cavalcade of attacks up to meet him.

Apparently Ivory's statement went straight through the green fellow's head, because he replied to both of her statements with "What".

"What are you—Jesus I don't time for this. If you're here to help, or—"

Before he could finish, a human went flying from the crowd. An Oni stepped out, boasting loudly about his own strength, until he laid eyes upon Ivory and her captive. Then he charged with rage straight at her. Right now, Ivory was completely defenseless. Tortuga, Commando, and Ricochet were busy carrying away The Oni, and Haunt was nowhere to be seen. The only weapon she had was Powersaw, but the chances of him fighting a massive Oni all by himself were slim. The most he could do against such a brute would slow him down for several seconds, at the cost of his own life.

But, the green fellow jumped towards the foe, and punched the Oni's leg, causing several burning wounds to slowly open all around his legs. Both combatants fell, with the Oni attempting to get up and resume his charge towards Ivory. That attack was more than enough, Ivory thought. Maybe she had succeeded in teaching the delinquent good manners.

Powersaw stood directly over the Oni, and stabbed two of his knives into his hands, impaling them to the ground. The Oni groaned in pain, Powersaw only staring his single red eye directly at him. One of his knives had begun rapidly spinning, hence his name. He moved the saw closer and closer to the Oni's forehead, until it was less than two inches from being split open.

But that was too much. Ivory took control of Powersaw, and forced him to just barely cut into his forehead. As soon as the blade touched, perhaps even before, The oni yelled in pain, obviously too much to still move. For good measure, Powersaw stabbed all of his four remaining knives into his arms and shoulders, ensuring that even if he could get back up, it wouldn't be likely he'd have the stamina to fight. He then stabbed his empty arms into a compartment on his back, replacing all lost blades.

That itself was too close of a call; That oni didn't harm her because he was incapacitated by another Nomad, but she doubted any more Nomads would rush to her aid. Conveniently, she noticed a Nomad mounting a motorcycle had ridden in it a deafening burst towards the entrance, clearing a path to escape. She might have some explaining to do, but any safe exit was priority. Ivory walked at a brisk pace along with The Pioneers carrying their captive towards the exit, keeping an eye out for any oni, or potentially Nomads, that would attempt to attack her.

---

---

Haunt had hoped Ivory would forgive her for leaving her without warning. But she felt a less dangerous solution to the task at hand. So, when she had turned her head away from her after entering the brawl, she had stepped out. She felt a faint ki signature matching that of the monsters, yet wasn't as powerful or surrounded. Her original purpose was hunter-killer operations, after all. She crawled quickly along the ground, dodging between hundreds of people oblivious to her presence. She identified their positions their faint, weak signatures of ki. She honestly had no idea why The Others were always risking exposure for such meager findings. It was like accepting a beating over one quarter of a cookie.

Eventually, Haunt saw the source; Two young girls, one matching the signature she detected. Unusual. She expected them to be fighting. Their signatures had certainly suggested such. They were a good distance away from each other, both decently harmed. Haunt skittered behind the Oni female, before standing back up. She spread both of her arms wide, prepared to grapple the opponent. She hadn't even grasped the oni when her hidden mouth had emerged, causing her camouflage to disable.

But all it would take was for one moment to secure the target.

---

---

Before Calvin even finished his sentence, the warrior he tried saving sliced his Igloo wide open, and leapt back into the fray. Right as Calvin was getting ready to fall asleep. Darn it, this guy just threw Calvin in a boat without a paddle! Calvin forced himself up, stumbling as he shook off the rapidly approaching exhaustion that came with the Igloo Nap. Thankfully he wasn't in any immediate danger, since most of the surrounding robots were being minced, blasted, or whatever have you by either the robot lady and the ninja. Suddenly, he heard a loud thump, like a car getting hit by a sledgehammer. Turning around, he saw a girl wearing brown pants with shoulder straps covering her topless body, lying against a car, surrounded by unarmed robots.

Calvin shook himself awake, and rushed towards them. He didn't have much ki to throw around. What this required was a much more subtle, more conservative attacks...

"Icefingericefingericefingericefingericefinger..." Calvin recited as he poked each robot surrounding the girl from behind with a glowing blue finger in their temple. Each of them turned to face Calvin with their glowing yellow eyes, and raised their arms as if to start pummeling him, when out of nowhere they began to slow down to a standstill. And then, one by one they fell over, immobile. One cracked it's head on the ground, exposing their internal circuitry had been slathered with ice. Once they were all done, Calvin turned towards the gasping girl.

"You ok? You looked like you got a pretty bad beating..."

Calvin realized that the girl didn't look too fit to be here. A slim frame, albino skin, the fact she was coughing and wheezing...

"Hey, you want me to get you out of here? I don't think this place is too safe for you."

_Germany.

---

---

Inanna watched as the Nomad tore through the robots. He didn’t remember the yo yos, though he wasn’t paying the closest attention before.

Fighting with this strange children’s toy? The voice snarked. How dreadfully inane.

Well, Inanna thought it was cute, anyhow.

As the golem occupied himself with disabling the stray robots, he thought about asking if the lady needed any help, but she sounded like she had things under control. Until she got punched into a car. And it looked like she wasn’t going to get up for a while.

Thinking fast, he opened a portal to the area right in front of the downed Nomad. He and the robots on the other side stared blankly at each for a slight moment.

“Ummm, boop!” Inanna stammered, quickly poked each of the robots in the face with his staff. Thankfully, another Nomad arrived on the scene and poked the robots as well. His seemed to make short work of them, though. He swung his legs through the portal and slid out the other end. The ice wielder seemed to want to get her out of town.

“She only took one hit,” Inanna said. “She should be fine in a bit, right?” He still had trouble keeping track of how resilient humans were supposed to be. He looked down at the lady and offered her his hand.

“You’re fine, right?”

---

_Germany.

---

---

Seshat shook her head at the boy.

“We would be better off not helping that man whether he needed it or-”

“Parkour.” The boy stated as he leapt and bounced off her head. Like some sort of game character. Of course. As he sped away on his ice slide, she made a mental note to remember this moment and slap herself next time she felt lonely. She watched as the robots that hadn’t been swept off their feet by the slide turn their attention towards his little igloo.

She threw her spear with mild disinterest, skewering a couple of them while she picked up one of their rifles.
By Duat, the golem thought. I was fighting smarter forces in my twenties.

Planting her shield in the road with a noticeable crunch, she raised the rifle and delivered a four-shot burst to each of the distracted robots in. When it clicked empty, she chucked it at another robot hard enough to take its head clean off. Seshat simply picked up another rifle, watching as that stupid ninja burst out of the igloo.

---

_Rio.

---

---

Rosie stepped back as the symbiote swung its claws at him, and weaved back in immediately afterwards. It was perfect, the way the sludge hardened and froze the beast in place. Time to have some fun…

Wait, why did it feel like he was being graced? As in it felt like someone cut him with a rusty knife, poured iodine in the wound, and went on an agonizingly extended tangent about his life choices ever since he fell.

He hissed in pain as he looked to the side. Grazed by one of those light arrows, most likely. So they really were holy…

He put the thought aside for the time being as one of his gloves melted into his coat. He ran his fingers down the length of the symbiote’s casing, absorbing that dark aura that it was rife with… feeding on it. It was exquisite.
Then the sludge fell apart.

Wings of shadow sprouted from Rosie’s back and propelled him backwards, leaving a trail of black feathers in his wake. He frowned as his glove reformed around his hand. He didn’t have enough time to get his fill. It was rather unpleasant that his little angel friend had distracted him like that.