Ashley simply grit her teeth as Elroy rattled off a litany of her supposed “offenses”, how she was nothing but a hypocrite who had murdered dozens of innocents and would have gladly murdered Betty and Trisha if Finn hadn’t been present to prevent her. Although a part of the high-tech heroine wanted to bite back that she had only killed when she had no other choice, that the recent debacle at the diner was a result of Finn’s recklessness, and that she had always planned to do everything she could to save Justin’s thralls, she knew that the time for words had passed. If the Immortal Volcano had even remotely been interested in resolving the situation diplomatically, he would have at least explained how protecting the train would still have ensured that the city’s civilian populace would be kept safe. Instead, he’d just chosen to insult her.

Fine. So that’s how its going to be.

Even as the freelancers charged and Raven asked for instruction, Ashley snapped out orders. “Cerberus, Timekeeper, take out the nuns,” the Knight of Tomorrow instructed raising her energy shield to join with Cerise’s. “Everyone else, engage Elroy!”

No sooner had Ashley said this then a neon green bolt of energy shot forth from the gleaming tip of her extended techno-wand, followed by an even larger energy sphere a moment later. With any luck, she and the twins would be able to occupy the Immortal Volcano’s attention, while Raven could move to one of the legendary freelancer’s flanks, or even above him, and fire a few rounds from her pistol at a spot not covered by his massive shield. Meanwhile, Mika and Finn should be able to use their increased speed and agility to attack the two fake nuns from the flanks or rear. The Knight of Tomorrow had little information on their exact capabilities, but she was betting that they were substantially less than Elroy’s, and so she would trust that the two youngest agents on her team would be able to deal with them.

---

---

The perfect soundtrack would have to wait, things were getting spicy and the half naked lady had started a fight, figures. At least Asher didn’t have to worry about moral questions today, it was pretty clear to him that these new arrivals were baddies just like the first operation he’d taken part in.

As things erupted around him a set of dark appendages began doing their best to restrain him starting from his legs and moving up. Asher couldn’t keep the grin off his face, truth was he was flattered, with what little information they had they’d decided Asher was an early threat and sought to remove him from the fight early. Asher wasn’t too concerned as the appendages circled him further, awaiting the moment when it was clear that they had a good firm hold on his lower half but had yet to reach his arms.

“Didn’t they ever teach you not to play with fire?” He asked aloud with a twisted smile as he laid both his palms on the thickest part of the restraints. For a brief second Asher considered holding back, but he had a reputation to maintain and wouldn’t be called Dead Head if something didn’t die every so often.

With a growl and a snap of anger Asher poured a massive amount of heat and energy straight through his palms into the creature attempting to restrain him. From an outside perspective one might assume Asher went supernova based on the amount of fire that he summoned as he attempted to turn his would-be captor into the crispiest of critters.

@Vertigo@The World@Nakushita

While Himiko did her best to skate responsibility, and Cirilla summoned a shadow creature too nebulous to be described, it fell on Marrie to act as her team’s face.

Nova flicked some ash off the end of her cigarette. ”You have a dragon, launcher girl, and those two nuts behind you.” Smoke seeped out of the corners of her mouth. The nicotine could be smelled from the far end of the train. ”Don’t think it would be fair if I didn’t assist, you know?”

”I don’t need any help.” Lenore was already walking forward. ”Why don’t you keep the queen safe?”

”Keep me safe…” Regina laughed. ”I’d take on the lot of these guys myself just for a laugh, but this is a job at the end of the day. And Marrie? I’m not a ‘proud type’ or whatever. I’m a thrill seeker. It’s the only reason I fought Highway to Hell with Elroy and myself. You should have been there. I bet you’re curious how we were able to win so easily.” Her body was wreathed in flame. ”But since you weren’t, I’ll reenact the highlight reel!”

Regina sprinted forward, as did Lenore, but both were obstructed when Nova lobbed a plume of smoke over their shoulders. It struck the back of the train and obscured them from view. The Mavericks wouldn’t have much time to set up before they appeared.

Himiko’s hunt for damage by the front of the train didn’t turn up much. There was evidence that the train had been burned in various spots, but no clear indication of what caused them. Hmmmm, what could have done so much fire damage?

Her fellow freelancer’s laugher did absolutely nothing to stop Noah’s ever growing embarrassment. She really hadn’t meant to just say it, you know?! Like, yeah, she was absolutely going to think it, and be a little judgy about the bdsm getup in her own mind, but even if all the tension of the situation was kind of gone, it didn’t change the fact that that woman probably wanted them dead or something? So, Noah kind of just had to hope she’d take the comment in stride.

Which she did, sort of? Actually, she looked pretty surprised Noah had said… well, what she said, but between her fellow freelancer’s laughter and Raphael actually backing her up, it looked like the woman couldn’t help but find the whole thing hilarious. Which was… hopefully a good thing. Hopefully.

The definitely magical darkness was still surrounding them though, and Noah figured it was probably for the best that one of them actually got rid of it so they could all focus. Still a little off balance, Noah put what the woman was saying to Raphael in the back of her mind for a moment, and tried to go through what she knew she could do with her own magic. It took a moment, mostly because she never actually needed to think of this before, but it seemed like the best option she had was probably just outright dispelling it?

She wasn’t entirely positive on exactly how dispelling worked, but as long as it did what it needed to do, it was probably fine, right? A strong melody was probably for the best, to make sure it worked, but after that, she wasn’t really sure what she…

When Noah noticed the out of place red dot on her white outfit, Noah’s heart was halfway to stopping. She stopped breathing for a second, and just stared at it, watching as it moved ever so slightly in every direction, maintaining its presence on her shoulder. A red dot sight, she immediately knew. Her father had been something of a gun nut- of course she knew what it was.

She jerked, desperate to move herself out of the way of whatever gun was aimed at her. It worked, partially. She felt something hit her, clearly the bullet, but she could still move her arm. When she next looked to her shoulder, she was incredibly thankful to see it still functional and in place. There was a gash, the shooter had carved a line across the top of her shoulder, one that was starting to sting more and more every second.

The dispel had to come second, Noah knew, as her life was very clearly in danger. While the other two of her group focused on their own battles, Noah immediately moved to shield herself. Her body was enveloped in a white-gold glow, as a layer of a magical shield appeared just above her skin. Transparent and adorned with the outlines of crosses, Noah prayed to the lord that it would be enough.

The moment the shield applied, Noah made to follow it up with that dispelling melody. Casting from her left hand, as Noah’s right hand was occupied with trying to protect her head with her cross, another white-gold melody appeared, and was quickly shot towards that magical darkness. While Noah waited with bated breath to see if her idea would accomplish anything at all, she did her best to stay moving, keeping her cross up and blocking her head, to try and hurt the shooter’s chances at hitting her again.

@TaintedMushroom
Asher’s fiery retaliation singed holes into the darkened tendrils, the heat causing them to bubble and boil and smell of death. But whoever was the one commanding them barely flinched, if at all. After all, the appendages were nothing more than a weapon, another construct it created along with the seemingly endless waves of shades everyone was forced to juggle. Luckily it seemed the shades were weaker than their commanders, so the espers could hold them back and focus on the real threats easily.

The tendrils simply tightened their hold around Dead Head and threw him into the mass of darkness. It felt like a pack of wolves biting at him, except somehow worse, trying to tear and feast on his flesh.

Hopefully someone could heal that.

@Kero
The Walking Church had applied her protective melody in time, the next shot ricocheted off her and away to god-knows-where. A minor setback. Noah shooting a dispel melody near the unseen sniper though? Not so minor. For a brief moment, the holy esper could see the woman hiding within darkness shielding herself and quickly running back in, away from the blind spot. She started firing her rifle again, ghosting behind the Walking Church. The shots ricocheted again and again, sometimes hitting that giant cross she was using as a shield, sometimes hitting the shield. Gradually cracking it down until it broke.

Corruption:75%

To be honest, nothing was ever going to numb the sharp pain Finn felt when Elroy, of all people, merely disregarded him with a laugh. Elroy, of all people! Who then went on to say if he wasn't there when the Holy Diver attacked the other agents would've killed Betty and Pac-A-Fist. While the Timekeeper did worry about that, exactly, Elroy then turned around and brought up the incident at Dante's. That immediately made Finn's heart drop to his stomach. Oh god, nonononono... How did word get around so quickly? How far did it reach if it reached the Bates? Did he even know the full story? That Dante and Amanda had been targeting him for whatever selfish reasons they had at the time?

Did that even matter? Of course not.

"You don't know-!" He called out in vain. After all, Elroy was probably one of the many who sympathized with the late father and his grieving daughter. It was a story that'd pull at the heartstrings when you say all the right things. God, what was he supposed to do at this point. Lay down and die? Whore himself off to the people that only wanted to use him as a anything less than a human?

He softly glanced over to Ashley soon as she gave out orders to him and Mika. Attack the nuns, simple as that. They were charging at the agents first, so the machine would need to come at them from behind. He aimed over everyone's heads and fired a bolt to blink behind Elroy's team. If he didn't accidentally throw himself off the train, he'd be able to sprint up and slash Lexi in the back.

I didn't realize chivalry being dead meant the actual thing! But it didn't matter, what mattered now was winning. Her body was still, but her mind was racing a mile a minute. Fuck it. She was going to stop them before they could hit her.

She cast a melody.

{Cold: Gold Self - Storm, Flight}

And then she was in the center of the smoke, or what had been smoke a second before, her Instrument striking Lenore's sword head-on. In the same second she had flown further, jamming her empty arm's elbow squarely into the nun's neck. The momentum of her flight brought Fenrir's chain to bear against Lenore's chest at high speed. {Devour Chance} Marrie made the instant decision to continue through the smoke over Lenore's head (or body, if she was knocked down), even if she didn't connect with her strike, and to the opposite side of it. If the nuns were going to work together despite Marrie's desire for a one-on-one, she'd respond in kind by allowing her own allies to join in.

Once she was fully through the smoke's area of effect, Marrie brought her flight lower to Crazy Train's back and turned backwards, to look back at the nuns. Allowing herself to skid to a stop she quickly, but gently, smacked the monster below her with her Instrument's chain for good measure. {Devour Chance} Hopefully it wouldn't mind. And if it did, hey, she'd apologize and explain how it was in service of stopping it from being roasted to death.

---

Asher had honestly expected shit to blow up, for something to start screaming, hellfire or something. What he hadn’t expected was to succeed at basically letting off a stinky flare before getting catapulted into a mass of shadows. What was that weird french saying that everyone liked to use to sound fancy? c'est Fa pie, Br'est la Tie? Asher wasn’t french, or big on idioms. Whatever, there were more important things going on than metaphorical phrasings, like the angry pack of shades doing their best to puncture Asher to bits and bobs. Couldn’t have that of course.

Asher’s instinctual move upon landing was to cast a shield note, but of course he was a little salty at the turn of events and looking to get back into the saddle. Instead of just hardening his skin like usual Asher cranked things to the max. An angry roar erupted from the pack of shades as Asher’s emotions poured out of him in an almost physical manifestation. His metallic skin took on an even harder edge as the fire’s in his eyes blazed to an inferno. Asher started swinging Hatred around with reckless abandon, every time he found himself with enough room to take aim Asher would unload a slug on whatever poor creature found itself beneath his ire. From an onlookers perspective one might assume Asher had turned feral.

Asher’s anger had clearly bested him for the moment as he was fully focused on thinning out the hoard of chaff that was being sent their way and had yet to consider taking on any of the more important targets. Buuuut Asher wasn’t really thinking about things strategically, plenty satisfied with just killing anything that stepped into his gaze.

Were it not for the incredible danger Noah had found herself in, she might’ve had some kind of comment to make about the woman that had Noah in her sights. Instead, Noah was regretting her previous lamenting over the loss of the drama of the encounter, and wishing that they could go back to the unserious atmosphere present some moments ago.

Instead, her heart was pounding out of her chest, and her teeth clenched so hard that they just might shatter. Her eyes were wide and panicked as her head snapped towards her attacker. Noah hadn’t even meant to reveal the sniper specifically, she wanted to dispel the darkness for everyone, but any reprieve from the gunfire was welcome.

The woman stopped firing only long enough to dive back into what darkness was still present, not that it mattered. Noah knew where she’d gone, and wanted to not be shot at more than anything else at the moment. Not to mention, all the shots coming from the same place made where the woman was hidden clear to Noah’s frantic mind.

Noah moved quickly, keeping her cross up as she did before. As her shield cracked and began to shatter, she glowed once more in her holy light, a new shield taking the place of the old. And, just a second later, approaching where she assumed the woman to be, fired off a second dispelling spell. Surely, two would have to be enough.

Noah hoped her attacker wasn’t all that great at melee fighting. It would be her only real shot, she had to make it count.

@Ponn@Majoraa

And why would Elroy talk with Ashley? Each faction had its own slander. Freelancers were a bunch of dumb money grubbing wannabes, Maverick Alternative were monster loving terrorists, and GEMINI was a collection of murderous sociopaths. If this was just a payday for him, then “saving innocents” was just an excuse to see some guts splattered all over the wall.

The Bates brother's shield had a well documented ability to absorb impacts without letting the wielder feel any of it. Ashley was reminded of this when her techno blasts smashed into the shield with no visible change in Elroy's momentum or trajectory. As she had surmised earlier, they would need to get around him if they were going to neutralize him.

Elroy barreled forward like a train himself. Raven took a deep breath and rushed him. But he was hidden behind his shield, which was spewing flames out the side. With a hop, Raven rolled off to the side and fired at Elroy. This wasn’t anyone’s first rodeo. The legendary freelancer shielded the side of his head with his gauntlet, and the bullet rebounded off of Elroy’s fist. She wouldn’t have time to fire again before he rolled a ball of magma at Raven. She hopped out of the way just as it popped into a puddle of lava.

Taking advantage of the opening Raven indirectly provided, Cereza opened fire on Elroy, saving one arrow specifically to shoot a piercing melody at his arm; an attempt to disarm him of his shield. But a sudden twitch of his arm pulled the shield in front of the projectile. While such a melody would pass through most defences, the obsidian esper was exceptional and the projectile stopped at his shield. He pivoted off course from Ashley and slammed into Cereza hard enough to roll her onto her back. Without missing a beat, he lunged for Ashley, leading with his gauntlet.

Meanwhile, Cerise quickly moved to follow after Raven. Ashley had her own shield, she’d be fine without hers. The scarlet haired miko tossed her own melody at Raven, one of crimson light, and one to keep her shielded from Elroy’s attacks for a little while. Though Elroy wasn’t who they had to worry about presently…

A flame appeared on the end of Bobo’s gun, which was now leveled at Raven and Cerise. With a gasp, Raven grabbed Cerise by her collar and hopped back just as the napalm was fired in their direction.

Finn and Mika both had the same idea of taking on Lexi, though while Mika preferred a straightforward approach, Finn placed himself behind her. Her eyes went wide, and her mouth opened once she realised she was surrounded. Finn and Mika swiped at the same time.

Their attacks hit nothing but air.

The nun before them shriveled and waved, like a mirage vanishing in the summer heat. Just as the agents were starting to assess the situation, a projectile flew out of the darkness. It looked like a lamp with four feathered wings. It smashed into Finn’s back and sent him skidding off the edge of the train. The train was only a few feet off the ground, but at the speed it was moving at, the fall would be near fatal to a normal human. Moreover, he wouldn’t be participating in the rest of the operation.

But Mika didn’t care about that. She looked to see where the projectile had come from and noticed the shadows melting off of Lexi in the distance. It was like she had never moved from her spot, provided this too wasn’t some kind of illusion. She renewed her resolve and scuffed her way towards Lexi, weary of what getting hit by her melodies could do.

Meanwhile, the spirits were no longer just orbiting around. Shovel brandishing specters howled before charging the length of the train towards the Gemini agents. They only had a few seconds to act before they were set upon.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Ashley’s team didn’t exactly have the greatest teamwork. Since his shield could only protect him in one direction, she had intended for at least one of the multiple, multi-angled attacks to find a breach in Elroy’s defenses, but poor timing and coordination meant that the Immortal Volcano was easily able to deal with each of the various attacks in turn. In the span of mere seconds, Ashley’s twin bolts were absorbed by Elroy’s massive shield, before that shield was swiftly repositioned to block an all-too-slow arrow from Cereza, while the freelancer simultaneously used his gloved fist to deflect one of Raven’s pistol rounds. Then he went on the offensive. With his free hand, he lobbed a blazing magma ball at Raven, the Bird of Paradise barely dodging in time. An instant later, he darted towards Cereza, slamming his shield into the redhead with considerable force and knocking her onto her back. Yet, the Immortal Volcano didn’t follow up on this successful strike, instead opting to turn his attention towards Ashley…

As Elroy led with his fist, the Knight of Tomorrow brought her shield up to block the blow, while simultaneously thrusting the gleaming prongs of her techno-wand under the famous freelancer’s guard to fire a pair of energy bolts into his midsection at point blank range. She was dimly aware of Mika and Finn’s attempts to engage the fake nuns being equally unsuccessful, with the latter apparently being hurled off the train for his efforts, but she was far too occupied to spare much thought to that at the current moment, or to the charging specters. She had to trust that her fellow agents would be able to handle themselves, and that she could disengage from Elroy long enough to fend off the train’s ghostly defenders…

---

Corruption:77%

He didn't know what was worse, the fact that in just one hit he was flung off the train, or the fact that he indirectly predicted it. Finn didn't know why but he felt like he was being toyed with. Was he supposed to do something else while everyone fought Elroy, or was he just free to blip himself back? Not like the others cared either way but god damnit he's not letting himself get jacked this early, that's embarrassing as shit! He'd let himself seemingly slip off, but not before firing another blink bolt in an angle that'd hopefully get him back near someone.

That or he'll end up getting punked by that wave of ghosts.

...

Meh, someone'd have to deal with that anyways. Might as well be him.

@BrokenPromise@Vertigo@The World

Himiko took a brief moment to peer over her shoulder from where she had come from. It looked like things had started to heat up back there, but Marrie seemed to be fine so far. So she might as well leave them all to it for the time being.

But she couldn’t help but to feel a little tinge of disappointment about what she found at the head of the train. More burns, without much else that really stuck out from anything else she had observed so far. Tracing her eyes across each burnt spot carefully as she took her time walking to get closer to each spot and get a closer view.

Yep, it was likely that extra esper that was with nuns that had done this bit of handiwork if Himiko had to guess. They must have been attacking the train before Maverick ever arrived, judging on the first thing she did when Maverick did show up.

That seemed to solve one part of the mystery about the behavior of Crazy Train. She found it hard to believe that it was a coincidence that she found more burn marks, and there was a flame esper throwing fire at them the moment they arrived. If she had to guess, they used the balloon as a platform to keep up with Crazy Train, having that one esper pelt it with fire over and over again. With Mavericks' arrival interrupting the process of their attempt to kill it.

These nuns did seem to find a way of getting around, always ahead of the competition, be it GEMINI or Maverick. It was clear they had a good intel system, one that had its hooks buried deep into GEMINI and potentially Maverick as well. During her last encounter it had been easy to surmise that GEMINI has a mole within it. Whether that same mole knew about Crazy Train through GEMINI, which seemed the most likely explanation. Unless, Maverick had a mole problem of its own.

Regardless it was just another example of the broken system that this world found itself in. A world that Himiko one day hoped to redefine and redraw the lines of society. It was clear that the current system was only repeating the same cycle, and it was about time someone threw a monkey wrench into it.

Shrugging her shoulders as she let out a reluctant sigh “I s’pose I found what I needed to find up here….and I may as well head back to where the action is at, just in case….” Taking one last good look around her surroundings to make sure there wasn’t anything she had overlooked. Turning now to make her way back to where she had left Marrie and the interlopers. Taking her time in doing so, with a slow walk as her eyes shifted side to side across her path of travel. Observing as much of every inch of Crazy Train that she could while she had the brief moment of peace.

@Ponn@Majoraa

Elroy’s gauntlet latched onto Ashley’s shield when she brought it up to defend herself. As big and imposing as Elroy’s shield was, its size did make it hard to fit into small spaces. His own arm prevented him from intercepting Ashley’s wand, which she was able to slide her wand under her shield and blast his torso. To a normal esper this would have been a fatal if not battle ending attack. But rather than green techno energy burning through his intestines, his abbs cracked and spewed magma out of them. But he didn’t stop moving forward. He didn’t stop moving up.

Elroy jumped into the air. He was still holding onto Ashley’s shield, so she came up with him. The rushing air would have thrown them both off of the train, but the barrier that was keeping the rain out had also locked the air in place. Though that didn’t explain how Elroy was hovering twenty or so feet in the air.

"Maybe you’d be happy to know my sister is dismantling Crazy Train as we speak."

Below her, Ashley could see the battle unfold. Finn had almost become dashed against the rocks, but the time kid’s quick thinking and quicker melody manifestation saw him teleporting right back aboard. But instead of engaging the nuns, he ran for the incoming spirits. The wall of spectral humans split up, with some crossing arms with Finn and the rest swooping towards the other agents.

Raven was clearly toying with the idea of shooting Elroy, but with Ashley in such close proximity, and Bobo trying to fry them, it wasn’t worth the risk. That, and she was about to receive backup.

”Leave ‘em, we gotta deal with this one first!” Cerise seemed to agree with her notion. With the added intervention of Peace Train’s attendants moving in to attack them, there was no way they’d be able to keep coordinated on just Elroy. The miko nodded to Raven before swiftly moving to rush Bobo and slam her shield into her, channeling a melody through to add a bit of fuel in the resulting impact.

Bobo put her mace between herself and the incoming Miko before bracing herself for impact. Then the specters rushed past her and clamored to Cerise. Her melody vaporised the first ghost, but more quickly took its place. Bobo had plenty of time to dive into the air, where, much like Elroy, she floated in place. She aimed her flamethrower at the Miko before pouring napalm over her. But the massive shield held fast, and even Raven rallied behind her for protection. The ghosts were unbothered by the flames, nor did they seem to mind Raven’s shots.

"This isn’t good…"

Elsewhere, Mika rushed Lexi. Her bestial magic surged towards her hands as she closed in on the nun. After seeing what happened to Finn, she knew she needed to be careful. But unlike Finn, Mika had recently developed an innate ability to tell when something was being aimed at her, and from where. If Lexi was hiding again, she’d pick up on it immediately. But it didn’t seem like that was at play. Perhaps Lexi was banking on Mika being too cautious about sharing Finn's fate. Mika didn’t care.

As Mika closed in on Lexi, she took to the sky. She soared over to Mika’s flank and swat her with her staff, casting Mika off Peace Train. As she fell, Mika groaned in annoyance that she had managed to fall to a similar trick as Finn, but this could work to her favor. Moments before smashing into the ground, her emergency power activated and placed her right behind Lexi. She swiped at the nun’s back, but only managed to cut into her shoulder before she pulled away. The nun clenched her teeth and floated over to her allies.

Then Peace train passed through Pax Septimus. It was hovering high enough that it passed over the streets. Even at its speed, it passed over parked cars, traffic lights, and overpasses without destroying a single structure. "My oh my." Elroy scoffed. "Look at all the destruction this thing is subjecting the populace to!" He hurled Ashley back at the train before lifting his shield. "Why didn’t you guys attack the other train first? Doesn’t this seem weird to you?" But what were these questions at a time like this? Hadn’t the time for discussion passed?

With Elroy’s allies grouped together, he soared towards the GEMINI agents. Bobo and Lexi fired over either side of his shield. Blazing napalm and winged lanterns filled the air on their approach.

---

@Vertigo@The World@Nakushita

Again, it was Marrie who acted as the spearpoint for the team. While most espers would regard a smoke barrier with caution, especially one that turned angels into rolling heads, the fog charged into the smoke. Most would call the action foolish, but it was a gamble that might pay off. The smoke that Nova had created was only a wall, and Marrie could see everything once she flew through the veil. The nuns were already changing positions to make their positions less obvious to those that could no longer see them.

Lenore’s eye glowed bright as Marrie closed in. Sword met chain, but both parties passed each other without incident. Once Marrie landed, she stole some of Crazy Train’s mana through contact with her weapon. Maybe it wasn’t a lot, but monsters used mana differently than humans did. Mana wasn’t used for casting melodies, but it was needed to stay alive. Monsters that lost too much of their mana would grow tired and fall asleep, or worse. Surely Crazy Train wasn’t so far gone that such a small amount would be important, right?

Lenore (and Nova) appeared to be running towards the smoke wall. Lenore sidestepped the incoming rogue shadow projectile. It flew through the smoke screen and didn’t hit anything. But just as they got close to the wall, the two of them hugged and walked into the smoke wall. What was going on?

Where was Regina?

Back on the Maverick’s side of the train, the Ruinous Meteor barrelled through the smoke like she was breaking through the atmosphere. A rock appeared in her hand, and not a moment later did it burst into flames. She lobbed it at Ciri’s face afterwards. A simple burning stone might have been easy to dodge, but why was Regina’s body catching fire? She was from the jungle.

A mighty nova of flame blasted out of Regina in every direction. It came too fast to avoid, and it rolled right through everything it touched. It set Ciri on fire, it set her spider on fire, it set her spider on fire, it set Crazy Train’s back on fire, and it set Marrie’s portal on fire. Even Himiko wasn’t able to avoid it during her casual, lackadaisical stroll back over to the combat area. If she had pigtails right now, she’d have burned them off. Only Marrie had been spared due to her and Regina rushing in different directions.

Regina was soon joined by the nuns, who came out of the smoke screen just moments behind her. They had managed to avoid the scorching, even as the flames crept along the giant train’s back. With a war cry, Regina brandished her daggers and closed in on the burning goth punk oni.

By this point, it came as no great surprise to Ashley that the double blast to Elroy’s midsection did little to deter the famous freelancer. What did surprise her was the Immortal Volcano grabbing onto her shield, and then carrying her with him as he leapt into the air. At first, the Knight of Tomorrow was certain that this was the prelude to her fiery-haired foe throwing her off the train, but instead, Elroy seemed content to simply hang suspended with her in midair over it. From her lofty vantage point, the high-tech heroine could clearly see the battle that continued to rage below. Things weren’t going well for the agents. No one seemed to be injured, but between the fake nuns and the train’s spectral crew, they were completely pinned down. At this rate, there was no way they would be able to complete their objective before the behemoth reached the city…

The disheartening scene was almost enough to make Ashley miss Elroy’s latest quip.

“At least one of you has their priorities straight,” she muttered.

Yet, even as she said this, the train entered Pax Septimus’s urban core…

Ashley gasped in horror at the sure to be imminent cavalcade of destruction, yet, to the Knight of Tomorrow’s stunned amazement, no harm to the city or its populace was forthcoming. Predictably, Elroy didn't miss the opportunity to take another shot at her expense by pointing out the obvious, before flinging her back onto the train. The high-tech heroine landed nimbly next to Cereza. Rising to her feet, she was greeted with the sight of Elroy before her, the two fake nuns at his flanks. Swiftly moving to place herself between the miko and the charging freelancers, Ashley reinforced her shield with techno-mystic power even as the Immortal Volcano began asking questions that pierced her defenses far more effortlessly than any attack ever could.

She wanted to refute them, wanted to merely brush them off as a tactic to break her focus, but no matter how hard she tried, things just didn’t add up. Why had they been assigned to attack this behemoth first? Why wasn’t it harming anything? And why had Elroy thrown her back onto the train when he could just as easily have cast her away, like his associates had attempted to do with Finn and Mika?

“I can’t say that any of this completely sits right with me,” Ashley conceded. “And I’d prefer not to destroy Peace Train if I can help it,” she added. “But even if nothing’s being harmed right now, can you honestly guarantee that will still be the case when it gets to wherever it’s headed?” the Knight of Tomorrow asked, fixing Elroy with a pointed glare, but making no move to take any further aggressive action.

---

@TaintedMushroom@Kero

The fight had barely begun and already the freelancers seemed to be growing desperate. Dead Head was pouring his bountiful anger and mana into a berserker’s rampage, whilst the Walking Church, though more level headed, couldn’t help the fear threatening to overwhelm her. If they weren’t careful, they’d run out of energy before the trains even arrived.

Asher fired Hatred into the eldritch void beast, again, and again, and again, and again. Though his shield melody was able to keep him safe to an extent, there was still the glaring issue of getting himself out from the abyssal maw of the damn thing. Though relatively thoughtless aside from the primal urge to hunt, the beast remained stubborn. His shielding melody could only last for so long. Seemed the best of them were trying to be patient. Something Dead Head couldn’t afford.

A surge of Dragon’s Breath ignited the monster into a glorious blaze of fire, giving Asher the window of opportunity to free himself. It let out a distorted howl as it seized and began to melt, the shape desperately trying to tear itself apart and reach out and escape and kill, melting and bubbling into nothing comprehensible. Not anymore.

And then it sunk into the ground, like a puddle of oil. Was it dead? Maybe he could double tap it to be sure it was dead. But what would that matter, it barely did anything to it normally.

What were they fighting?

Meanwhile, Raphael had little issue pushing through the sniper fire. He used his massive cross-shaped club as a shield and charged towards the dark esper. He belted out a war cry as he closed the distance. The club struck her black katana, and their weapons flew apart in a flurry of sparks. It was always risky to engage an unknown foe, but he believed the sniper would not hit him when he was so close to their frontman. And because of this, he pushed forward again, this time swinging with all of his might. Yet the golden-haired woman seemed to dissipate into wisps of darkness before his weapon could hit. Had she blinked away? Turned intangible?

Well, not exactly. She was the wisps of darkness. She quickly floated around Raphael, aiming to slash at his back while he was still distracted.

Out of reflex, the giant threw himself into a forward roll as the blade bit into his back. He came up with his club drawn across his back, which was now pointed towards the sniper. He winced as the heavy cross pressed into his wound. ”Interesting trick, but it won’t work more than once.”

”Doesn’t need to,” She responded, eyes narrowing at the priest. ”We’re all just doing our jobs in the end, what’s a few losses for the greater outcome?” The shadow wisp lunged again at Raphael before the duration of her melody ended.

Noah remained on the defensive, applying a new shield as the sniper continued to pursue her, throwing yet another dispelling melody in the darkness she hid in. The remaining amalgamation suffered the same fate, melting in a horrific fashion into puddles to be washed away. There was nowhere to hide now, and the sniper knew it.

”Ssssssssshit….” She hissed under her breath, backing away, eyes darting around in a panic. ”Spamming shields is a cheap play, ya know!” Was probably a bad idea to provoke the nun, but Noah still seemed less of a threat than those other two and she’s rushing in to wack her with a cross oh fuck

The sniper quickly raised her gun over her head to knock Noah’s spear away as hard as she could, following up with a roundhouse kick aimed at the nun’s head.

With all the chaos that was going on, the trio had yet to notice another girl boredly stalking everyone by the dumpsters. Ramona originally had hoped to keep her summons up for longer, but the two espers flanking the priest seemed to think they were a more immediate threat than Penumbra or Doberman. Her power had gone to waste. What could be more annoying than that? Ramona couldn’t help but groan. The angry one was gonna notice her soon enough, if he hadn’t gone to help the frightened one or Raphael of course.

Hm…

Maybe she could still make it interesting. Ramona quietly reached a hand out towards the liquified shadows, drawing them back to her, reconstructing them into a large whale. It was about the size of an orca, something that could gobble the common man up in a snap with its razor sharp teeth.

”...Eh, you already know your orders." She waved it off, the tentacles from her back picking up one of the dumpsters to throw at Asher. She didn’t expect it to hit him,

Moreso she wanted to get the knucklehead to notice Monstro swimming up to take a bite out of him.

---

It wouldn’t take a dumpster to get Dead Head’s attention but it might take a little more haste to keep it, the Esper was going practically berserk. The moment his current prey had melted away Dead Head’s head had been on a swivel searching for the next target. Strategically speaking the smart move was likely to find the source of the shadowy attacks and seek to silence it. Unfortunately Dead Head’s sense of strategy was on vacation at the moment and rage was in charge. With an almost feral look in his eyes he scanned the battlefield rapidly before settling his eyes on the golden haired girl from earlier.

That was the one that had initially confronted them, she also looked to be giving Raphael a bit of a hard time. Dead Head couldn’t get paid if the guy paying him went down, so of course he’d have to intervene. He needed to close the gap and do so quickly whilst maintaining a bit of a surprise.

There wasn’t much thought behind his next move, merely adrenaline and anger. Dead Head had successfully pulled this one off once before and instinctively attempted to use a beam blink combo to intercept the golden haired fighter en route to Raphael. In the back of his mind a little voice remarked to itself about the entertaining notion of using this move in front of Bobo, unfortunately she wasn’t here at the time.

At this moment Dead Head had forgotten about the shadows and the other nun who’d accompanied them, he was fully committed to giving the golden haired swordsman one hell of a time.

@BrokenPromise@Vertigo@The World

Himiko’s peaceful stroll was ended rudely by a wave of flames which passed by and over her.Barely having time to get her arms raised in front of her to brace herself. A burning sensation rippled across her body and left her singed as she gritted her teeth. “Oh come on, I just got this coat dry cleaned…..” bitterly inspecting her coat before she yanked it off and started to wave it about, tossing it on the ground and stamping out any bit of flame she could.

Turning her head towards the direction and source of the flames as she frowned underneath her mask. “So troublesome, didn’t anyone teach her not to play with fire…now she owes me for my coat….” bitterly pulling both of her revolvers from their holsters as a light glinted through her golden eyes. If that crazy pyromaniac wanted to drag her into this, it was time to get even.

Leveling them as she took aim, she fired off every round she had in both of them in rapid succession, all twelve rounds being expended as they hurtled through the stormy air towards Regina as she charged towards Ciri with the nuns following up right behind. Not really intending it to be assistance for Ciri, even if it was working out that way.

If it was the last thing she did, she was going to make that pyromaniac pay for ruining her freshly dry cleaned jacket. Even if she had to beat the cost back out of her. It wasn't cheap to buy or clean after all, she had to save up for a few weeks just to afford it. Plus she had to get them custom made and fitted which drove up the costs even more.

Not taking kindly to being set on fire, she finally ended her status as a bystander. She had explored what she had wanted to explore and gotten some information that would prove useful for later. However, Regina and these Nuns had started to get in the way of her goals, which meant they would need to be dealt with in one way or another. Even if it meant having to get her own hands dirty for once. It seemed clear that Marrie and Ciri had their hands full, so she would have to exert some energy this time around.

Corruption:77%

Once again the Timekeeper had found himself engaged in combat away from everyone else. A most ironic danse macabre. But for once, he saw no issue with it. He did force the ghosts to split in half after all. For what good it may do, it'd at least give everyone else less to manage. In the corner of his eye he could briefly see the other half surging to attack Cerise, specifically. If these things were drawn to light, would lightning result in the same effects? What could he do here? The machine wouldn't have much time to think.

The train was coming up onto the city itself now, where destruction and ceaseless carnage were expected, everyone was met with...

Nothing. Peace Train was just vibing along through the streets. "Huh!" There was actually nothing to worry about after all.

...

Oh wait. Elroy was still an issue.

Finn could overhear the Immortal Volcano's high-and-mighty grandstanding, questioning why GEMINI would go after an apparently peaceful (Hah.) behemoth instead of the actual threat. Asides from the crap weather these things are causing? He sarcastically thought to himself. Of course he didn't know. He was just doing his job, following the strings of fate that wrap around him like a hanged man's noose. But Elroy can't really think he knew more than the rest of them, right? Then Finn heard Ashley's response.

Good fucking god, were they all acting on whims here?! Taking a brief window of opportunity, Finn snapped a bolt of lightning to hold the ghosts back while he thinks.

"What are any of us doing at this point? So, Peace Train is, shockingly enough, peaceful. That should be great! But if Ashley's right, there's the chance this thing'll go berserk and that'd be the fault of the Freelancers' head honchos for enabling it. On the other hand if Elroy's right then we're fighting a pointless battle in which either information has been purposefully omitted or this is clear negligence from the higher ups. But fuck if I know, we don't even know why it's even..." Finn's eyes widened as he thought outloud, keeping himself clear from the edges of the train. His eyes remained on the ghosts in case his melody worn out and they continued attacking him.

"The freelancers are trying to save Peace Train and yet kill Crazy Train, but the two of them are bound to run into each other soon enough, right? Are we trying to impede that? Is it a bad idea to kill one train but let the other live? If that's the case, either both will need to die to ascertain minimal causalities," The Timekeeper readied himself to strike at the ghosts again, more out of self-defense, and so he can stall for time. "Or we need to let whatever comes happen. No one's gonna agree on anything, so I'm just gonna test some theories while they argue. Hope that's alright with you, gents?"

It was probably bad that he was rambling to a bunch of ghosts that were trying to kill him, but his standards were low enough.