@BrokenPromise@Vertigo@The World


Himiko locked eyes with Lenore right as she vanished into the darklight. The fragments ended up flying off to the side and in between the two trains, not having to use even an ounce of mana to defend herself. The expected pain never came as some of the tension left her body as she had braced for impact. Thankful that she did not have to take the attack head on as she was left unscathed. Letting out a whistle as she peeked over the side of the train in the aftermath as it looked like if it had hit, it would have hurt like a real bitch.

“That one would have hurt alright, but alas, sometimes fate endlessly eclipses the actions of those not destined to succeed.” muttering as she shrugged her shoulders, taking that moment to reload both of her revolvers. Both problems having seemingly taken care of themselves with very little involvement on her own part.

Even with Lenore having vanished, and Marrie having dealt with the projectiles, it was better to be locked and loaded. She knew that the nun would show her face soon enough. Even with all the other action going on around her, she at least had a moment to regroup and regain her bearing. She felt a change in the air, and sensed that something was changing with Crazy Trains travel pattern.

If that dragon didn’t show back up, she would have to go along for the ride to wherever Crazy Train decided to go at this point. Her golden gaze shifted around her surroundings as even with the smoke present it was clear others had joined the fray, just based on all the racket being made. For the time being, she was at least left to her own devices, until Lenore or someone else decided to come after her.

Either way, she was going to take a wait and see approach, revolvers at the ready in case a threat presented itself. Why rush headlong into a wall of smoke and the sound of battle if she didn’t have to? Besides it looked like everything was being handled one way or another without her having to lift

Light shot out from her cross, and blood of the shadow demon splattered down upon Noah. Staining her clothing and splashing her face. The chill of it was horrible, and the wet feeling made her skin crawl. Plenty of gorey films and games had people covered in blood, and after experiencing it firsthand, Noah could safely say that she didn’t understand in the slightest how anyone could stand it. Her stomach rose to her throat for a moment, and Noah counted herself lucky that it didn’t get into her eyes.

The whale demon wailed so terribly that Noah’s ears rang, but it was clearly one of pain. It had stopped where it was, no longer approaching to bite her in half. Noah’s cross swung behind her as she frantically darted out from between the jaws of the demon. At its side, Noah found one of the demon’s eyes, and without thinking, changed course. Both hands gripped her cross tightly, and with every inch of force she could muster, thrusted her spear into the eye of the demon as deep as she could manage. She didn’t dare use more magic, even in her panicked state, Noah could feel how little she had left.

More of that disgusting blood would certainly coat her spear, but that was something she ignored. Her mind only cared about ending the threat to her life before her. With her cross embedded inside the demon, it would surely scream out once again, but with it blinded like this…

Whether or not she stabbed deep enough to reach the brain and ensure its death wasn’t the first thing on Noah’s mind. With that sniper down, she could run over to her fellow espers and get their help without as much of an issue, or help them, if it was needed. She planted her foot on the demon, and yanked her cross back out of its eye socket.

Noah held her cross behind her with one arm, and took the opportunity to run to her allies, not checking whether or not the whale demon had properly died. She had run from the whale only fast enough to see the scantily dressed swordswoman teleport away, and Noah blanched when she saw the state of the skull faced esper, her stomach rising up again.

“Oh my god- what happened to your arm?!” Noah nearly shouted, horrified. She couldn’t help but feel some measure of guilt, as well. Perhaps if she’d been more conservative, thought her melody usage through more, she might have enough to spare on some kind of healing for her ally… but with as little as she had left, she couldn’t afford to spare any. Whatever had gone on with his fight, it had clearly been much more difficult than her own. At least, he had survived.

Raphael looked… Well, she didn’t really want to say it, since it would be a very rude thing to say about a man who, as far as Noah could tell, was very devout, but… She decided it would be best to not focus on it.

Instead, at Raphael’s words, Noah’s attention was drawn upwards to the trains roaring above. She wasn’t getting a very good view from where she was, but it was pretty easy to tell which one was which, even from the bottom. One looked kind of normal, and the other was all fleshy and red. Noah was relieved, in part, but couldn’t help the dread mounting slowly in her stomach. If things had gone so sideways before they even got to play their parts in this mission, she couldn’t help but worry that things would get even worse from here. And not to mention, she was pretty close to her limit…

Suddenly, an arm wrapped around Noah while she was distracted, and she found herself held in an underarm carry. “... Uh...” Her cross was held awkwardly in one hand, and Noah tried to position it to not scrape off the ground. She turned her head to the side, more than a little bewildered, and she saw the skull-faced esper being held under the priest’s other arm. She blinked a few times when Raphael picked up the other freelancer's severed arm, fighting to keep her stomach under control, and then they were propelled into the sky. “Whoa-!”

Sudden as it may have been, Noah found the short distraction welcome. Even if the raging hurricane made it a bit difficult to appreciate the view. It kept her mind off of the last few minutes… minute? Seconds? She couldn’t tell how long that battle had gone on for. They couldn’t have been fighting for that long, but at the same time…

Her eyes drifted to her cross, and her eyes widened. Red blood had mixed with the black, and it was steadily being washed away by the rain. That was right, she realized. She’d almost killed that woman, hadn’t she? She hadn’t really been thinking about where she attacked, but if she’d just aimed upward a little more…

Noah swallowed, and brought her focus elsewhere. Raphael had made one heck of a leap, and they were on top of a futuristic looking train. There were a lot of espers all clustered about, and given that neither of the Black Sabbath nuns were attacking… things were probably fine here? Which was good.

Raphael set her down, and she got to her feet. She watched with morbid fascination as the skull faced esper’s arm was stuck back into place with a healing melody, courtesy of Lexi. Something she wished she could’ve done, but, again, didn’t have the mana to spare…

Lexi approached her, next. Noah’s face got a little red, but she was too mentally drained to have much more of a reaction than that. And, even if it was a bit strangely said, Noah did appreciate the other nun looking out for her. “A whale tried to.” Noah said, a little out of breath. “Didn’t let it. I think a bullet, um…” Noah checked her shoulder, and found that gash from the bullet grazing her as the battle started, still bleeding. “... Yeah, a bullet caught my shoulder a little, but... I think I should be fine to fix it myself after this is all done?” It wasn’t very big, and she could probably fix it right now, but Noah just didn’t want to risk finding out she needed that little bit of mana later.

Her eyes again turned towards the other unfamiliar, but not hostile, espers. “Um… Looks like things went well for you guys?”

@Ponn@Majoraa@Vertigo@The World@Nakushita@TaintedMushroom@Kero

Gemini and the freelancer’s mostly stood their ground, but there was still a bit of movement on top of the trains.

Marrie had opted for a slow and conservative approach to getting the Immortal Volcano’s attention. She called a beam from the heavens to strike Elroy’s shield and place her in front of him. He paid the mist froth on the front of his shield little mind and plumbited down towards his target. Marrie’s timing wasn’t perfect, it was impossible to be. When she appeared in front of Elroy, her “feet” were off the ground and she fell a few inches onto the train. While she managed to touch his shield with her knife, she was thrown onto her back, and Elroy flipped through the air before coming to a stop just a few feet away. He turned around, clearly intent on charging again, but his face went from teeth clenching anger to mouth open surprise.

"Mist girl!?" He hovered in place, listening to Marrie’s words. Once she had finished, he lowered his shield an inch and crossed his brow. "Usually we work together. I keep her safe." He looked past Marrie. "But you’re right, mist girl, I’ll carry her to the back and meet you there."

Regina hadn’t said anything since she collapsed. She struggled to get to her feet, but Lenore kept her eye elsewhere. ”We’re going to destroy this train, right?”

"That’s your mission, nun. I’m tasked with keeping the other train running." There were no more words as he scooped up his sister and ran through the smoke screen.

Meanwhile, Lenore’s gaze shifted to Ciri. ”Now that’s interesting…”

When Ciri’s melody went off, its shadowy magic seeped into the train, making part of it intangible. Such a massive object couldn’t possibly become totally Intangible, but it was able to work on part of it. The “train car” that she was on became intangible, but so did Ciri due to the AoE nature of her melody. She fell through crazy train and towardsTrixy, who was still on top of Boteg.

"I’ve got ya, baby!" Trixy reached out her arms only to discover that she couldn’t have been further from the truth, as Ciri fell right through her. Marrie fell down shortly afterwards, and she did manage to land in Trixy’s arms. She raised an eyebrow. "You uh, weren’t the one I was hoping for, but…" She stared at Marrie for a moment. "How old are you?"

Ciri continued to fall. She had become tangible again, and looked like she was about to splatter herself all over the roads of pax septimus. Then a sparkler harmlessly smacked into her back, and she began to bounce in the air as if a bungie had been attached to her. Vertigo was starting to set in as she violently bounced around, but she wouldn’t be eating pavement today. Then a giant hand reached out and plucked Ciri out of the sky.

”Nice shot, Tetrad!” Billy kept a firm grip on Ciri, even as the harsh rain pelted them.

”That was awesome!” She laughed from her motorcycle.

Bill kept his eyes on the road while he addressed Ciri again. ”How do we look up there? Anyone defending Crazy Train?”

Soon as he had asked, a pair of melodies had flown out from the direction of Peace Train back to back from each other. The twins hurried over to stand beside Ashley once she ordered them to keep Crazy Train from running into anything. They did their best to keep a close eye on the behemoth’s movement patterns, just to make sure they weren’t haphazardly wasting mana in the wrong places. With the scene becoming more hectic by the minute, they could only hope everyone would get the hint already to get off, killing Crazy Train or not.

Everyone that was presently on crazy train had disappeared from view, save for Himiko. On its way out of the park, Crazy Train noticed a hotel that would be perfect for scraping against. The GEMINI espers concentrated their mana on the hotel as the behemoth attempted to rid itself of the fleas on its back. The hotel only hummed as the creature brushed against the magical barrier. Himiko wouldn’t be able to wait and see much longer, as the train spun like a corkscrew while it passed. The shadow wall dissipated, and even the smoke walls didn’t hold up. It remained to be seen if Himiko had gotten out alright.

The nuns and it were missing too.

As were the Bates.

Or at least Regina was, as Elroy fell out of the sky like a comet. His flesh was cracked and oozing with lava, his clothes smoldering like dying embers.

”Woops!”

A darkened figure suddenly emerged, quickly moving under him with her arms reaching out to catch him. Despite being smaller, she seemed to have no trouble holding the wounded brother in her arms. ”Hey, I think you’ve missed one!” She called out with a chuckle. Her form slowly turned back into someone only Raphael, Asher, and Noah would recognize from prior.

Penumbra had followed them onto the trains. She spared a glance over at the group gathered onto Peace Train, and gave the aforementioned three a knowing smile.

A second shape hopped off of crazy train, though this one was big and notorious enough to be recognized by anyone. Big Tony had only made a few appearances, but it seemed like he had chosen to appear during this operation personally. Intel didn’t do his size justice. HE was twice as tall, twice as wide, and four times as muscled as the strongest esper present. Like any feline, he landed on his feet, and he had Regina slung over his shoulder. He looked up at the assassin flying overhead and scowled, or may that was just how he always looked.

”You have got to be kidding me…” The Timekeeper, though keeping quiet and to himself for the most part after the rest of the freelancers showed up, couldn’t help but react to the sheer fucking fact that both the Bates got their shit wrecked near instantly by a pair of new arrivals. He quickly stood straight back up, hands tightening around his weapon. The…weirdly familiar woman was one thing, but he was more concerned over the literally bigger issue that had accompanied her. Of course the Hand would show up eventually.

”So, any bright ideas on how to fight THAT thing!?” Finn called out to Ashley, and who he assumed was Raphael.

”They’re protecting that demon.” Raphael pointed. ”We can’t get distracted. We need to stop it to thwart their plans!”

”You can’t be serious-!”

Peace train was starting to pull away from Crazy, but that didn’t stop the priest from jumping onto it. Even as it spun through the air, he kept a firm grip on it.

”...Alright! Okay! Cool! Not as if everyone’s been going off of HUNCHES and a lack of solid evidence instead of oh I don’t know ACTUALLY USING THEIR SKULLS!? WE DON’T EVEN KNOW IF THAT THING’S ACTUALLY DEADLY YOU IDIOT!!” Wasn’t really a point in yelling at the proverbial brick wall, but Finn couldn’t exactly help himself.

Mika watched the display and groaned. She turned to Ashley. ”Orders?”

Meanwhile, Lexi had been listening to Noah's story. ”Interesting! And yes, it doesn't seem like Gemini is that interested in attacking peace train. We're fine!”

To Ashley’s considerable relief, her team’s attempts to prevent Crazy Train from damaging any of the structures it crashed into seemed to be succeeding. Even as she and the twins kept a fancy hotel from getting demolished, the Knight of Tomorrow noticed that nearly all of the behemoth’s unwanted passengers had either jumped or fallen off it. However, two, in particular, were of special note. First, a badly wounded Elroy plummeted through the air, only to be caught by an unknown esper, while Regina was soon revealed to be in the claws of none other than the aptly-named Big Tony himself. While the trains’ motivations didn’t appear to be particularly hostile, the enormous tiger’s most assuredly were. Not only was Tony the leader of the infamous Weretiger Mafia that had abducted and assaulted G.E.M.I.N.I. agents, he was also an important member of The Hand’s command hierarchy. Thus, his elimination was a top priority, one significantly outranking the destruction of either of the train behemoths, at least as far as Ashley was concerned.

“I’ll deal with him, Timekeeper!” the Knight of Tomorrow replied after Finn asked how they planned to fight a foe of Tony’s size and power. “I want you and Paradise to focus on assisting those freelancers in taking out Crazy Train! As soon as they’ve damaged it sufficiently to expose its weak point, hit it with the strongest ranged melodies you have!” she instructed. Of course the monstrous priest who appeared to be leading the freelancers was going to jump on Crazy Train the moment it had just gotten rid of everyone else riding on it, Ashley groaned mentally, but if what he said was true and The Hand really were planning on using the creature to aid them in accomplishing their dark plans, then it would need to be taken out, one way or another. That said, the safety of Pax Septimus’s populace still needed to be addressed. “Cereza, Cerise, continue protecting any structures Crazy Train might try to crash into!” the high-tech heroine continued. “Cerberus, keep watch over the nuns and make sure they don’t try anything.”

With that out of the way, the Knight of Tomorrow aimed the twin-pronged tip of her techno-wand at Big Tony’s hulking form and focused her remaining mana into a truly devastating attack. As the neon green orb nestled between her instrument’s twin prongs glowed with ever increasing transcendent power, she only hoped that the staggering energy waiting to be unleashed would be strong enough to spell certain doom for the titanic tiger…

---

And two of the fingers on the monkey's paw curled, forced closed by Ciri. Sure, now the smoke was a non-issue, and yes, being the only one who could fly on their own power meant that she'd soon be alone on Crazy Train... But seriously!? Herself, a half-dead Regina, not to mention Marrie's Maverick allies, and a seemingly no longer wanting to fight Elroy were all falling really fast. She didn't know if the nuns had gotten caught in the Melody too or not, so that was another problem to figure out as quickly as possible. Ugh...

And then a lot of stuff happened in quick succession. She watched Ciri fall through Trixy's arms and Boteg's body just before finding herself there. With terrified eyes she ignored Trixy's question and looked toward the ground below. Somehow, somehow, Ciri survived, now in perhaps the safest place she could be, in Billy's care. A quick look around showed Elroy's flame stopping before hitting the ground, and based on the light he was giving off it seemed like he had been caught. Which left Regina, and... where the hell was Sovereign?

Focus on what you can affect. As soon as she glanced back up at the trains, she saw a giant tiger person falling nearby. Shit...

Marrie turned her attention to Trixy. "Hey, I mean this in the nicest way, but there's really no time!" She jumped off of Boteg, angling herself so she launched and fell towards the hopefully friendly big cat and the Bates. At the last moment before hitting the ground next to them she cast a Melody.

{Bronze Self - Shield - Multicast}

She made sure to land on her feet, much like the tiger next to her, just in case her Leitmotif could factor in, then rolled forwards a moment before getting back to her feet. She had just enough time to trigger the second half of her Melody, putting her hand on Regina's forehead over Tony's shoulder as she did.

{Gold Touch - Stabilize - Heal}

Marrie really wanted to be able to hold her breath as she waited to see Regina recover, but she didn't feel she had time. It didn't help that as she turned to speak to the monster man, she saw a bright light from above him.

"Shit! Sorry about this!" She grabbed Regina by the arm and tried her best to pull her off of Tony and out of harm's way. While she hoped he was, she couldn't be certain the feline was an ally, and hurt feelings were easier to mend than dead people. In the second before the beam reached them, Marrie found herself pushing off of Tony's back with both feet in her desperate rush to ensure Regina didn't get hurt. And if she saved him from danger, somehow, that was a plus too.

Noah’s body visibly relaxed, and she breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh, thank goodness…” She didn’t know why those GEMINI people weren’t attacking, but she didn’t really need to. All that mattered was that they weren’t. With this scenario, all Raphael’s group has to worry about is taking out Crazy Train.

Speaking of the demonic train, Noah turned to get a good look at the current situation with it. Instead of her eyes, however, it would be her ears that first got an idea. A horrible scraping noise stabbed into Noah’s ears as Crazy Train rammed itself against a hotel that was likely full of people. She winced, her free hand moved to cover one of her ears from the noise. All the while, Crazy Train spun itself around and around, for whatever reason.

Past the temporary pain, Noah felt her desire to end the threat of Crazy Train grow. If it wasn’t for the actions of those GEMINI espers…

Her thoughts on the near miss with extreme casualties were interrupted by the arrival of a flaming man falling from the sky, one of the Bates siblings, Noah realized with horror, only to be caught by a familiar voice.

Noah gasped. “Her again?!” It was that same scantily dressed swordswoman from earlier. How had she gotten so far up so quickly? And it looked like she had company with her, as well. A giant tiger man had followed swiftly behind Elroy falling out of the sky… with another flaming body over his shoulder. Likely Regina.

But… they didn’t come after them. Neither of them. In fact, both the swordswoman and the tiger man just dropped down to the streets below. Noah would’ve thought with how the swordswoman had interfered earlier, that she wanted to stop their group's goals, but it looked like she’d given up? Or maybe their goal was getting their hands on the Bates siblings from the start. Noah couldn’t say.

She looked to Raphael for what to do next, and he shouted his order. The three of them, Raphael, Skull Face, and herself, were to jump to Crazy Train and continue their mission. But not only were the trains starting to pull away from each other, Crazy Train was still spinning fiercely, so Noah wasn’t entirely confident-

Raphael then immediately jumped onto the train.

Noah, with a little bit of panic, apologized to Lexi, got herself a bit of a running start, and made the jump as well.

Her cross stabbed into the side of Crazy train, giving herself leverage to hold on to while the Train spun and spun, and with her free hand and legs gripped onto the Train as best as she could.

This was quite possibly the worst roller coaster she had ever been on, and she dearly wanted off, but she had to endure it. Despite the tears in her eyes from the spinning and her stomach once again rising to her throat, still had a job to finish.

Corruption:75%

The Timekeeper didn't know what was worse, the fact that Ashley seemed to agree that Crazy Train was still the problem, or that she believed she could down something as swole as Big Fuckin' Tony. "I still think that is a bad idea! _{Not like anyone's gonna listen to me....}" He grumbled under his breath. On one hand, orders were orders, and he swore he would play nice despite how he felt. But on the other, it didn't really feel right just...leaving the Bates at the mercy of the Hand like this. The fact that they were easily knocked out by those two was testament alone to their strength. The Knight of Tomorrow was wasting time and mana on a pointless gambit.

After a moment of deliberation, Finn sighed. After Ashley had fired her beam at Tony, he followed up with one of his own. Even if it didn't do much, maybe it could give someone else a chance. He just hoped she won't give him a damn earful for not letting her play the lone hero act.

@BrokenPromise@Vertigo@The World@Ponn@Kero@Majoraa@TaintedMushroom

Crazy train was really living up to its name, its twisting attempt to smear Himiko across the side of the hotel was proving problematic. Realizing that it wouldn’t be wise to try to fight gravity and the roll and try to move upward as that would just prolong the issue. Himiko decided to move with the twisting of Crazy Train, letting herself roll with its movement as she released her grip ever so slightly to allow herself to drop down its side until it had finished its course past the hotel.

It hadn’t been easy, or even remotely fun hearing the sound of impact a few mere feet to inches right above her, but she had survived the first attempt by Crazy Train to end her joy ride.

It was then she noticed the presence of all the others that had arrived aboard the Peace Train. She had known others had arrived at some point, but was not able to see them until the smoke had been cleared out. Even through the corkscrewing as she clung on tightly, her golden gaze glimpsed a figure leaping upon Crazy Train, followed by a second not far behind it.

Her golden eyes shimmered as a hidden grin spread across her face. An unexpected opportunity had just delivered itself right into her waiting lap. One that she planned on making full advantage of, no matter the cost.

She could get off of Crazy Train and get to safety, or she could deal with this chance to eliminate a high value target, even if it meant doing so at the cost of her own life.

Not only that, but the group he had arrived with had mostly not followed him. Instead focusing on other threats, leaving him undefended and open to one big attack.

The priest must die, there was no other option or choice in the matter. She knew what must be done and there was no hesitation in her heart, mind or body. It was time to take out the trash, to make one final grand statement, at the final hurdle to reveal some of her true full power before all was said and done.

Her mind made up, and her own fate decided, Himiko began to emit a golden glow as she gathered up her energy, once the process had begun. She released her grip from the side of Crazy Train, letting herself begin to fall to the ground below. Before she fell too far, she transported herself behind Raphael at the last moment. Going all out as she sacrificed any form of self preservation. There was only the plummet down to the ground after she had thrown herself into the air behind the priest. There was no safety net, nothing to grip onto, there was only the focus on gathering up every last ounce of energy she had preserved for a moment just like this.

This was going to be her all or nothing attack, she had to put every bit she had into this. She wouldn’t get another chance like this, even if it meant the sacrifice of her own life.

Both Revolvers aimed straight at his back as they glowed with an intense golden light and aura. The air crackled and rippled around her, strands of her hair lifted up by the amount of energy she was building up to unleash. An intense heat radiated from her energy as her golden aura took on a reddish tint.

A bright blinding glow formed at the end of her revolvers as her hidden smile grew even more. It was time to exit stage left, but she was going to take the priest with her. “I’ll see you in hell!”

With that she fired off her shot, the energy combining from both revolvers into a singular projectile which exploded as it approached its target in an intense blinding light.The force of recoil pushing Himiko back, as she had nowhere to go but down after using up the vast majority of her reserves. Himiko’s form disappeared into the blinding light as a shockwave emitted around the source of the blast.

When the light cleared, Himiko was nowhere to be seen, her white tattered jacket fluttered through the air as it fell towards the ground. Her two golden revolvers, smoking and glowing from the intense heat concentrated in them moments before clattered down to the ground. Ricocheting and coming to a stop in the middle of the street. The Golden Esper had taken her bow,

@Ponn@Majoraa@Vertigo@The World@Nakushita@TaintedMushroom@Kero

With the arrival of Tony, a lot of attention shifted over to the giant orange monster.

Ashley gave a few orders before charging her wand up. While green techno energy gathered at its tip, Tony was already starting to sprint away. For someone of such large stature, he was pretty quick. His comparatively tiny legs were more than enough to help the hulking feline find refuge. Before he could get too far, Marrie fell beside him.

?

With Tony being so tall, Marrie had to hop in order to cast her melody on Regina. The wound on the back of her head started to heal, and her eyes fluttered closed once the “stabilize” part of her melody took effect. The brightest fires burn the shortest, and it shouldn’t have been a surprise that Regina was a glass cannon, nearly done in by a single attack.

Though freeing Regina from Tony’s grasp would be more difficult. She needed to plant her feet on Tony’s back and pull. All the while his fist, which was closed around Regina’s legs, refused to let go. He ran for the back alley while thrashing about, but Marrie wouldn’t let go.

!

As impressive as Tony’s size was, his unusually thick back muscle made it difficult for him to reach around and snatch Marrie. Normally the feline would run on all fours and nobody would be able to hang onto him, but he was carrying cargo that needed to be delivered. The fur beneath Marrie’s feet shook when Tony roared, but she still held on for dear life.

Tony thrashed, Marrie held on, and then her shadow turned into a bird and pulled on her. The bird pulled on Marrie’s legs, and her grip on Regina’s arm started to slip. She slid down her elbow onto her wrist, then her palm, and then…

The bird and Marrie fell backwards off of Tony. She landed on her back, which was pressed against the shadow creature.

But Marrie could feel Regina’s hand in hers. But then why did she feel so light? And why did her own legs feel so warm? When Marrie propped herself up, she could see that she was holding Regina’s hand and little more. Behind her elbow was a stump that dripped crimson.

Regina couldn’t scream right away. The shock induced paralysis prevented her from doing anything, but she was wide awake now. Tony looked over his shoulder at Regina and noticed the wound, then shot Marrie a glare that could freeze water. But his eyes swiftly readjusted to the neon green glow from the back of Peace Train. He dove into the crevice as the beam whipped around the corner. While the cat had disappeared from sight, the blood thrown up on the wall had not. The cat howled before, presumably, limping out of sight.

Things were no less chaotic on the train. Raphael and everyone who followed him hung on for dear life, but the train’s spinning stopped soon enough. The only visible opposition was a single esper.

”Looks like we get a break.” Raphael growled. His demonic wings were pushed over to the side due to the spinning, but as the train slowed, they started to even out. ”I’ll take this one, you-”

But after a furious blast of light, Raphael’s position exploded. His silhouette, minus one wing, was sent flying off the train in a trail of smoke. He fell from the train like a meteor, but the coast was clear.

"What the…" Trixy flew up beside the train on Boteg’s back. She sighed when she realized there was no trace of Himiko. "Isn’t that just like my suitors to up and disappear." She leveled the rocket launcher at Noah. "Well, I can make you disappear too!"

Noah could feel Crazy train curve upwards. With so few people on its back, it seemed like it felt content to vanish into the sky. But what was Noah going to do?

Meanwhile back on the ground, while Tony had fled proper, Penumbra lingered for a bit longer. The blue-haired bleeding heart did only focus on retrieving Regina, so she figured she hadn’t seen her yet. Though as she had watched the two beams shot out towards her co-worker, the assassin was curious. The golden one. It felt a bit too overkill on an already weakened esper, but it did keep the Ruinous Meteor from recovering so soon. Kudos to whoever fired that. But the green one that managed to actually hit him, it seemed more…focused? Was that the term she was looking for? Eh, it didn't matter.

But Penumbra was very curious. Especially when she watched the dear preacher get knocked off Crazy Train despite his devilish power up.

She did warn the guy.

”Hm. Heeeey, Ramona???”

The young devil appeared nearby soon as she called. She handed Elroy over to her. ”Make sure this one doesn’t lose an arm either, I’ll meet up with you both in a sec!” With that taken care of, Penumbra went off to catch up to the trains.

”So, zombie face.” Bobo addressed Asher while trying to light a new cigar with her flamethrower. ”You blowing this popcorn stand?”

Mika's eyes bounced back and forth between the two before. "Orion? Was that an explosion? Did Crazy train crash?" This was, of course, in response to Himiko's final melody.

Damnit, Marrie! Don't let go, don't let go! The blue-haired esper's eyes shut in concentration and exertion as she tried her best to pull Regina from the tiger's grip. And once more, a finger on the monkey's paw curled, still in Ciri's tight grip. Marrie managed not to let go, even as she was thrashed around on Tony's back, even as her shadow tried to force her to...

Unfortunate, then, that it didn't matter. How the yellow beam had managed to have such accuracy without homing or any other modifiers from such a high starting point, she didn't know. All she knew was that when she opened her eyes, Marrie found Regina's forearm in her hand, and her blood on her legs.

God damnit, really!? Despite Tony's chilling glare, the esper was burning hotter than Regina's blood as she stared at the arm in her grasp. She looked up to see the catman diving into an alley, and the beam that she was trying to get Regina out of the line of was following right behind him. A splash of blood shot out, and she tried to get to her feet.

The damned bird laying under her back made it a bit difficult, though. After a few seconds she managed to scramble to a standing position, but it was too late. The tiger was gone. She looked up to check the status of the Trains, and Oh come on! Someone was falling from Crazy's back. She had no idea who it was, but it was decidedly person-shaped. At least the behemoth they came from seemed to be leaving... Was that a fucking missile!? She followed the smoke trail to Boteg and groaned.

"You're supposed to be protecting Crazy, and you shoot a missile at it!?" she shouted to nobody in particular. At least the monster should be able to handle a single RPG, right? Unlike the body that was about to crash into the pavement. Marrie didn't have a lot of mana left, but she had to do something. Options flashed through her mind, and she grasped at those that seemed plausible. It'd take too much mana for most of them, but one...

{Gold Self - Flight}

The next moment she was mid-air, going as fast as she could towards the falling, smoking, one-winged angel's corpse. She had to catch it, she had to.

As Ashley charged up her techno-wand with transcendent power, her eyes widened upon seeing a familiar, blue-haired young woman rush over to Big Tony and attempt to yank Regina out of his clutches. Gale?! However, the floaty freelancer’s actions, while heroic, were also foolhardy in the extreme and seemed destined to fail, with Tony’s strength being far greater than even the mightiest espers. Fortunately, the Knight of Tomorrow had prepared her forthcoming attack to fully avoid the possibility of striking anyone other than the massive weretiger, even if he went so far as to use them as a human shield. Unfortunately, not everyone was so cognizant of such potentialities…

To Ashley’s shock and horror, before she could fire her charged up weapon, Finn, in complete contravention of her orders, unleashed a beam of his own, one which only succeeded in blowing Regina’s arm off at the elbow. Timekeeper?! Still, as enraged as she was, the Knight of Tomorrow had no time to rebuke her disobedient subordinate. Although Tony had dodged into an alley, the high-tech heroine had thoroughly established a target lock on him, and so the ensuing cylinder of neon green annihilation was able to easily curve around the corner after the titanic tiger in complete mockery of the laws of physics. While she couldn’t see the results of her massive attack, the torrent of blood that shot out of the alley to splatter across every nearby surface and accompanying howl of anguish provided more than enough indication that Tony had been severely wounded at the very least. Of course, whether or not that damage would prove fatal was anyone’s guess, and Ashley wasn’t about to go down and pursue the monstrous mob boss to find out, not with a small army of Maverick espers waiting nearby. Besides, she had a more immediate issue to address…

“What the hell was that, Timekeeper?!” the Knight of Tomorrow snarled as she turned an infuriated glare upon the young agent. “I told you to focus on helping the freelancers eliminate Crazy Train!”

"Okay for one, considering my current streak of fuck ups consider just severing a limb lucky." It had taken Finn a moment to process what had happened. He really did consider that failed shot a lucky break, anything more and anywhere else would've meant death for Regina or Blue.

And no doubt would've marked him as a Depraved, himself. Elroy already despised them for what happened with Dante and Amanda, no doubt he'd hunt him down for killing his twin.

Whatever powers-that-be were toying with him, that was a warning from them. In contrast to Ashley's stark anger over his decision, he merely scowled back. "Two, if anyone was even bothering to listen to me beyond sparing Peace Train you'd know that I don't think killing either of them is a good idea." He tiredly sighed, turning to face her. "But frankly I should've expected it. No one really takes me seriously."

The Machine's expression then, surprisingly, softened.

"Look, forgive me for going against your orders again, but the last time I killed the wrong being I had ripped a father from his daughter." His voice gradually grew quieter. _{"I don't even know...I don't..."}

Great, and now he’s starting a pity party… Ashley took a deep breath. “It’s understandable if you had misgivings, but then why would you take such a reckless shot instead? I made sure my attack wouldn’t harm Regina, or anyone else that might have gotten, or been placed, in the way. You just fired off a deadly shot and hoped for the best! Yes, the loss of only an arm is lucky, but it never should have happened in the first place!”

"Well I could've just thrown myself off this train but I figured we'd lead up to here either way." He furrowed his brows. So much for trying sympathy again. "You really still don't get it, don't you? You don't see it?"

Ashley exhaled in clear exasperation. “No, Timekeeper, I don’t get why you continue to disobey orders just so that you can put people in danger with these reckless stunts of yours, and I don’t exactly have the time to discuss it right now.”

As if to prove her point, a blinding light burst into being where Crazy Train was currently spiraling through the air. Ashley doubted Paradise was responsible, especially when she noticed the “holy man’s” charred form plummet off of the spinning behemoth.

What the…?!

"I knew it..."

The next thing she knew, Mika had begun asking questions whose answers should have been blatantly obvious.

“No, that was almost certainly an attack,” the Knight of Tomorrow replied. “Although it didn’t appear to be directed at Crazy Train itself.”

Even now, the behemoth in question was rapidly ascending into the tempestuous sky above. At the speed it was moving, it wouldn’t be long before the twisted train disappeared inside the billowing thunderheads.

“Looks like you’ll get you wish,” Ashley added, turning back to Finn. “There’s no way we can eliminate it now.” She sighed again. “At least the city made it through all this relatively unscathed…”

"Ah yes, pity how my theory about how the behemoths behave was correct. I'm sure there'll be another one you lot can kill with glee next time." Finn rolled his eyes, stepping over to the edge of Peace Train. It was a long way down, but he still had a bit of mana left for a simple slow melody.

"Unfortunately what you imply isn't what I meant. And I fear with the way things are going, there won't be a time."

And once again, Finn was making the situation all about himself. How predictable… “We’re not killing anything with ‘glee’, Timekeeper,” Ashley replied with an annoyed scowl. “We’re just trying to protect this city and its inhabitants from threats.” Like the very familiar golden dragon chasing after Crazy Train… “You need to decide right now whether or not you want to be a part of that, or if you think you even can.”

"Hmm... Protecting behemoths is grounds for getting fired, is it not?"

The machine glanced back at Ashley. He smiled, turning to where his back was towards the edge.

"Consider this my formal resignation from everyone. Don't wanna keep jinxing everyone I meet, right?" He gave those still gathered a two-finger salute.

"Let this be the last time we meet as allies."

Finn let himself fall backwards, off and away from Peace Train.

Well, I suppose that’s that... Ashley sighed to herself in sullen resignation before turning away to begin attending to the operation's aftermath as best she could.

---

Corruption:??????????%

If he wasn't marked as Depraved yet, he had a feeling he will be inevitably.

Whatever sort of God-Entity that was setting him up had the power to do so after all, just as it did fucking up every other part of his life thus far. It was almost laughable to think anyone in this plenum place would spare enough empathy or common sense to realize something was wrong. No, instead most of everyone he thought would understand either turned their noses up in disgust, disregarded him like some lowly insect, or tried to hide the fact that they thought him a lunatic if it wasn't obvious from the get-go. He was right. God, he was right. All of these people didn't see him as a person. Just an object to use as they needed then discard when he outlived his use. The machine was half tempted not to break his fall. To just put himself out of his misery there and then.

But knowing his luck, God-Entity wouldn't let that happen. At worse he'd survive somehow and be left writhing in pain as punishment.

At best...





Finn's fall abruptly stopped. He found himself landing in the arms of...a monster? Some sort of ghost made of darkness???

"Hah. It really is raining men!" Penumbra chuckled to herself at her joke, tilting her head as she looked down at him. "Though you're a little bit young to be falling to your death. You're... Timekeeper, aren'tcha?"

Oh brother.

"Eugh, if you want to kill me too at least don't pussyfoot about it?" Finn groaned, squirming to get out of her hold soon as they were close enough to the ground.

"Why would I wanna do that? You were a stroke of luck for us!" The assassin slowly returned to her physical self. Though before she could explain further, she noticed the boy still had his earpiece. She tapped her own ear to signal him about it. Finn reached up to pull it out of his ear, then dropped and stomped it into the ground until it was nothing but pieces. He didn't have any more use for it now. Penumbra nodded in approval and continued talking:

"Someone was trying to pull Miss Meteor off Tony back there, but your attack helped him escape and kept her from recovering? You got some skill, kid!" She grinned at him.

Though Finn did perk up when, for once, someone had told him he had done something right, he sighed in response. "You do know I hadn't meant to do that, right?"

Penumbra tilted her head again, folding her arms behind her back. "Well I mean... maybe part of you did."

"I don't follow?"

Maybe it'd be better for the two of them to talk somewhere less likely to be eavesdropped. Penumbra nudged the Timekeeper forward, silently urging him to walk with her.

...

...

"So I maaaay have overheard your little argument back there. You don't see eye to eye with the rest of the little scraps of GEMINI that still call themselves a team, don't you?" She spoke. "And yet they still believe they can gain the upper hand in this turf war of ours, it's almost cute. Doesn't seem fair for them to put so much blame on you for them not being able to co-operate with each other though. Or for matters of circumstance."

...Right. He was only doing as he was ordered. He was just trying to do the right thing. And yet either way he was still blamed either way for the simple act of trying?

"If it's any consolation, you did do a good thing protecting the trains. And about that Dante guy-"

"I ACTED OUT OF SELF DEFENSE-"

Penumbra quickly raised her hands up at the Timekeeper's quick response. "Heyheyhey- Not saying you hadn't! Jesus, no wonder you're so tense. No one's really cared to listen to your side of things, am I right?"

Finn's silence said enough. Penumbra nodded. "Sounds to me like the community that once glorified you was ready and willing to throw you under the bus. I don't blame you for going against them." She shrugged.

"...How much do you all know about me?" The boy couldn't help but ask.

"Enough. You have been a person of interest for some of us since before Von Carnage was slain." She explained to him. "Me, well, I'm just catching up on things." She glanced back down at him with a smile. "But let's skip to the chase. If it's alright with you, I can put in a good word with you with the higher ups and arrange for you to meet."

Ah. Finn did have a feeling this was where she was going. He quietly thought for a moment. This was the path he was supposed to take, wasn't it? He already got on Maverick's bad side for siding with GEMINI; even before he join for real, GEMINI ended up treating him like shit, and him attacking Regina wasn't gonna bode well with the Freelancers no matter how they decided to twist his actions.

The Hand was the last option he had beyond pure depravity.

... They all really wanna make a monster out of me? Fine. Let's make this more interesting.

---

This was a mess, clearly, and Asher had not a clue in hell as to what was going on. What was supposed to be a simple job was evidently becoming more than that, again, which was a bit of a trend Asher was starting to recognize. The situation stank to hell and Asher was starting to get a bad gut feeling, on top of that an entire flurry of shit had ensued over the few brief moments that had passed while Asher had attempted to recuperate.

That golden haired bitch had carved his arm off, that much he could still feel regardless of the current state of things. The feeling of having your arm severed from your body wasn’t one Asher could put words to, but it was a feeling that wouldn’t be leaving him anytime soon regardless of his having been made whole. Shortly after that he’d found himself whisked away under the arms of some sort of hellish form the priest had been holding under his sleeve, figured. Asher might have given the man a piece of his mind had he not been blown out of the sky in a blaze of glory.

Fortunately for him Black Sabbath had come to their rescue, tending to the worst of his wounds and giving them a much needed breather after the pitched battle they’d had getting here.

The situation was grim, and Asher felt like the snake had just been beheaded. As keen as his ally had been to fight in their earlier battle Asher could tell she was an amaetur, and given that Black Sabbath hadn’t made a move to defend their employer it didn’t take much for him to surmise that the extent of their contract had been fulfilled.

And then there were all the new faces, some old ones mixed in with the bunch. Let alone it seemed there were not one or two but potentially three different forces at play here if Asher was doing any good at keeping up with things.

”So, zombie face.” Bobo addressed Asher while trying to light a new cigar with her flamethrower. ”You blowing this popcorn stand?”

“Yeah…I think I am actually…got any of those to spare?” Asher finally asked, responding to Bobo’s questioning with a mild tone of disappointment. “Say, any chance you know what the hell is going on here? This all stinks to hell, can’t quite say I am familiar with the city and its many players but things are starting to feel complicated and I don’t like feeling clueless.” Asher asked as he surveyed the scene once more.

@Ponn@Majoraa@TaintedMushroom

It may have seemed strange for Mika to ask what was going on right behind her head, but that was a testament to how intently she was watching the nuns. She didn’t look away from them for one second, despite how relaxed they seemed.

Mika was not relaxed though. As superior and inferior “talked” behind her back, she found her hands tightening into fists.

No one really takes me seriously.

Yet Ashley keeps you by her side in every job we take on.

You really still don't get it, don't you? You don't see it?

You’re the one who’s blind to everyone’s feelings but your own.

Ah yes, pity how my theory about how the behemoths behave was correct.

A broken clock is right twice a day, but we don’t know how this is going to play out.

I'm sure there'll be another one you lot can kill with glee next time.

The only one living out their power fantasy here is you, dummy.

And I fear with the way things are going, there won't be a time.

You’re just trying to be annoying now.

Hmm... Protecting behemoths is grounds for getting fired, is it not?

No, Finn. Being a liability by constantly disobeying orders and getting mad when Ashley slaps your wrist is!

Consider this my formal resignation from everyone. Don't wanna keep jinxing everyone I meet, right?

Oh look, we agree on something.

Let this be the last time we meet as allies.

Good, you'll help us far more on their side than ours.

"Whatever." She curled her lips. There was so much she wanted to yell about, so much she wanted to rub in Ashley’s face, but there was no point. Her anger was only building and-

What was that fluttering through the air?

As if Peace Train was curious, it floated up to it so that Mika could catch it in her hand. It was a jacket. Did it belong to Himiko? It looked like something she’d wear, and Mika couldn’t see her anywhere else on the battlefield. It was no surprise she had finally fallen. Mika had believed Himiko was on borrowed time, and her prediction came true. But it also brought the world back into focus. This was Pax Septimus. Everyone was fighting in a never ending conflict that nobody understood. Because the fighting never ended, continuing to fight lead to certain death. Her mother died, Angelie died, and now Himiko died. Mika had no intention of stopping, so she would die too. She knew she wasn’t as experienced as her mother was, and she only survived four operations here. This was Mika's third, so her number was coming up.

Mika slipped her arms through the jacket. The white tattered jacket looked a little weird with her Arabian style outfit, but it felt nice to wear something that belonged to someone she knew. Even if she was an idiot, she died trying to protect something. She deserved to be remembered, even if it was just for the small time the current espers were alive. She’d have to recover her Grimoire soon.

”It looks good on you.” Lexi commented, but she was ignored.

The corner of Bobo’s lip crooked upwards. She took the cigar she was smoking out of her lips and handed it to Asher. Then she pulled out a fresh one to smoke herself. ”I knew I’d be tempted to light your face on fire if I gave you a fresh one.” But the joke fell away as soon as Asher revealed how confused he felt. ”Eh? Are you sad or something?”

”Yes! We can explain everything to you. Lexi clapped her hands together. But let’s do that once we get out of here.”

Mika fretted her brow and pointed. "Don’t leave with them." She warned. "You’re a cool guy, and I don’t want to fight you later because they lied to you. You saw what they did to Angelie."

Then a familiar voice that belonged to a nun, but not those present spoke up. ”I thought it was hard to see with the smoke screen.

The trio were enveloped in smoke. Mika took a step back and raised her claw defensively, and just in time to defend from Lenore. She flew out of the smoke and collide with Mika before hopping back into the smog. Nova’s gravely laugh ripped through the air before the smoke, the nuns, and even Asher, were gone.

"He had better listen to me." Mika said while pointing at where Asher had been moments ago. "I’d hate to get betrayed twice."

@The World

Below, the priest plummeted. Even if he was just a corpse, he would turn into one hell of a mess if he hit the ground. Surely the vatican wouldn’t be happy to learn of Raphael’s death, but they could swallow it better if he was returned in good condition like his bravery warranted. Marrie was running low on mana, but she pushed herself as far as she dare go. She caught the giant gargoyle and nearly plummeted to the ground herself. But she was able to slow her decent enough that neither her nor cadaver were damaged by the fall.

But once the adrenaline wore off, Marrie remembered something. Dead espers revert back to their true form once they’re slain. Maybe their instruments or outfits remain in some instances, but if Raphael was keeping up this transformation, that could only mean…

”Than you.” The Priest attempted to stand up, but he found himself stumbling. ”We were unable to slay the demon, but the Holy Roller-” He raised an eyebrow. ”You didn’t come to my summons. Why are you here?”

Could this day be worse than it already was? Even as she was hit with the weight of a large man, she kept fighting to keep the smoking wreckage from crashing into the pavement. Relieved that she succeeded, she gave a deep sigh as she landed and lowered the body on the ground. With all the damage, it wasn't until now that she learned who or what she had even saved. Shit... It was Raphael. And he... had demon wings? And he... didn't turn back to a human. Was he a monster? Or was he...?

”Thank you. We were unable to slay the demon, but the Holy Roller- You didn’t come to my summons. Why are you here?”

Oh good, great! He was still alive! Marrie almost broke down crying. She tried her best to stifle the feeling, but her voice broke anyway. "You're alive..." She looked to the sky in gratitude, only to see the behemoths once more and remember that they existed. Her head turned back to Raphael, seeing his damaged state, reminded that he was probably on the brink of death. She took a deep breath and resolved herself once more.

"Look, I'd absolutely love nothing more than to find out what hit you so hard and talk philosophy with you later, but for now... She tapped the priest on the forehead with her index and middle fingers, casting a Melody as she did. "I've gotta make sure nobody up there gets themselves killed. Hopefully that'll help you out a bit." As her Melody ran its course, she cast the second half and began to fly upwards.

{Bronze Touch - Stabilize - Multicast}
{Silver Self - Flight}

"You focus on staying standing and breathing, okay!?" She shouted over her shoulder at the holy man as she continued her ascent. If she couldn't get to Crazy, she should at least be able to make it to Boteg, and he could get her the rest of the way up.

Marrie was damn near totally empty on mana, but as long as the remaining fighters were reasonable, she'd have a chance. Besides, even if she couldn't cast any Melodies, she could at least try, and she needed to. She needed to try.

After an eternity, the demonic train had finally ceased spinning. Noah slowly stood up, breathing deeply to keep her stomach under control. She braced herself on her cross to further steady herself, and looked to Raphael. Sick as she might’ve looked, and as much as she wanted this to be over… With what’s already happened, it’d be pretty silly to not see this through to the end.

Ahead of them, Noah saw another esper. She had blonde hair and dressed like someone Noah would’ve expected to see in some kind of cyberpunk flavored film. Her whole body tensed when she saw the weaponry of the esper, they wielded guns. Again. Two of them, even. Noah knew that there was no way she could deal with her with what little mana she had left, not with how much she had to work to take out that other gun wielding esper. But strangely, Noah couldn’t spot the skull faced esper anywhere. Had he failed to make the jump?

Raphael began to speak, but before he could even finish his sentence, the esper across from them unleashed a blinding light. Noah flinched and threw an arm up to shield her eyes, bracing for an attack… but none came. Not for her, at least.

The light dissipated as soon as it came, and an explosion rang out. Noah saw a go flying past her, and it wasn’t hard to figure out what had happened when she properly looked… But it was far too late for her to do anything to help.

“Raphael!” She shouted in horror, only able to watch helplessly as his body sailed off the train. For a moment longer, she watched in pure shock, before remembering where she was. She gripped her cross tightly as she prayed for him, she turned in both fury and panic towards the blonde haired esper, knowing that she’d have no choice but to fight… only to see nothing. The other esper was gone. The only things that were still on the train, as far as Noah could tell, was herself and one of Raphael’s wings.

Noah was shaken, but she knew she had to keep going. She didn’t know if she even had that capability to destroy Crazy Train on her own, honestly, she probably didn’t, but she had to try. Putting aside the fact that she was on a job to stop it, she knew that monsters like this were incredible threats to humanity. Even if she couldn’t kill it, she could at least try to injure it. That way, whoever was forced to fight it next at least had a better chance at saving their homes from the demon. Noah didn’t want to think about how much damage the two hurricanes raging above Pax had already caused.

Thus, with a goal in mind, Noah ran as fast as she could manage. Behemoths had weak spots, she knew, and if the demon had assumed the form of a train, then Noah could only see its weak spot existing in its frontmost compartment. It’d have to be the engine. Still, it was going to be a bit of a run no matter what.

And, to make things worse, some few seconds after Noah had begun moving, she heard someone shout over the wind. Still running, Noah whipped her head to the side, only to be greeted by another esper. This time, one riding a dragon. Wielding what Noah could only assume was a rocket launcher. That was aimed directly at her.

Unlike the time before with the sniper, the adrenaline bursting through Noah’s body wasn’t able to stop a startled, scared yelp from escaping her. Noah’s body was coated in a gold white glow, and four crosses orbited around her body. A potent shield melody, one that Noah could only pray would be enough to prevent her outright death.

All the while, Crazy Train ascended toward the clouds. If Noah could just stay on long enough for the train to reach the clouds…

Boom! Trixy’s rocket scored a direct hit on Noah’s shoulder. She had to reposition her feet, but she was no worse for wear. She had absorbed the entire attack. The relief she felt couldn’t be understated, but she knew she couldn’t afford to take another rocket like that. Her mana was just too low, she had to end this before she lost too much more.

"Shielded huh? We’ll have to try this…" Trixy plopped herself down and tapped the back of Boteg’s neck. The dragon looked back at its passenger before soaring forwards. Despite the size of the creature, it didn’t seem like Boteg was too keen on getting close. He flew directly over the behemoth, albeit higher than he had to.

Taking advantage of the downtime Trixy had given her, Noah held her left hand, which was now glowing, behind her back. Her right gripped her cross tight and began to prepare a strike. She kept her eyes on the sky, shaking all the while.

Trixy jumped off the back of the dragon with her rocket launcher held overhead.

Noah had been hoping to hit both her and that dragon, but her jumping off so suddenly had thrown Noah for a loop. She could hardly afford to wait, though, and it was too late to alter the components of the melody… but not the targets. Noah’s hand flew out from behind her, firing off an orb of light at Trixy. At the orb's pace, it looked like it would strike low on Trixy's falling body.

As it neared Trixy, the orb of light appeared to split in half. It transformed into two spears of light that shot upwards to both Trixy’s head and her weapon. With any luck, the esper would mistake them as both headed for her head, and try to shield herself. This would all be a lot easier if her opponent wasn’t able to see her strikes coming.

Noah herself gripped her cross tight and breathed deep. She’d taken two quick steps back, moving herself a bit out of range of the incoming overhead, and intent on leveraging the reach of her cross alongside the distraction her melody would hopefully cause for Trixy. Once the esper got close enough, Noah could thrust her cross forwards and take an arm or hand, out of the fight.

But when the orb detonated and attempted to skewer Trixy, her body broke apart as if it was made of clay and rock.

Wide eyed, Noah recoiled out of shock. ”What-?!” She started, before the remains of what she prayed was a clone scattered everywhere, and she was forced to shield her eyes from the resulting debris. The blood and viscera that should have spilled out was replaced with dust and mud. Her form only continued to break down as its fragments rolled off either side of the train.

The remnants of the clone gone, Noah frantically swiveled around, searching for the whereabouts of the opposing esper. That had, in all likelihood, been nothing more than a small distraction to buy time, and Noah hadn’t even thought twice about it! She needed to spot that dragon again, and she needed to do it soon.

Off in the distance, Boteg was flying a good distance off. But not so far off that Noah couldn’t make out the rider. It looked like Trixy was still there, as if she had never jumped off the dragon. Had she not jumped off, or was this the work of her magic? It didn’t matter. She leveled the giant cylinder on her shoulder with Noah and fired. The back of the cylinder flashed smoke, and a stone cannonball flew out the other end. This was not the same projectile that Trixy had fired earlier, which had most certainly been a rocket.

The clouds were starting to look a lot closer, and the world was getting smaller. If she could hold on just a bit longer…

Once more, Marrie found herself holding onto one of Crazy Train’s spikes, though from the opposite direction this time. She’d had just enough time with her flight to get to the behemoth’s side, but she had to pull herself up to get on its back. She took a deep breath and looked around to take stock of the situation. Just in time to see some sort of large projectile coming towards someone else who was there.

”Church!?” she managed to shout. As the words left her mouth, she realized that distracting the girl would not be great for her. ”Look out!”

Fortunately, Noah had been doing nothing but looking out for the entire night. She’d been mid-cast by the time Marrie had shouted, having spotted her opponent as she’d begun to fire. Her body was once again shielded by that white gold glow, and those crosses again orbitied her. If it was enough to stop a rocket, it would surely stop a cannonball.

But Noah was certainly not shielded from the surprise of another esper showing up, one of the very few she’d even met, as a matter of fact. Noah’s head had whipped to face the girl, in utter bafflement as to how Marrie had even managed to get on the train. “Marrie?! How did you even-?!” Noah cut herself off as she remembered where she was, and her focus spun back onto her opponent. She braced herself for impact and prayed that Marrie hadn’t taken a job for an opposing side.

If fate could feel such things, it would likely find amusement in Noah’s concern. ”I can fly!” Marrie took stock of the angle of the incoming projectile and started to move towards Walking Church while avoiding the path it should take, and likely paths from it bouncing off of her shield. ”How did- Nevermind, no time! This thing is climbing, if we don’t get off it soon, we’ll suffocate!”

As she continued her approach, Marrie took a look around. She didn’t see anyone else left on Crazy Train, but… ”Is anyone else up here!?” She was trying her best to keep the panic out of her voice; if there were others still there, that’d make getting them all safely off of the train’s back more complicated.

No one would answer Marrie but the stone cannonball headed for Noah. It had smashed into its target and blew into a hundred tiny pebbles. But unlike the rocket, the cannonball had bypassed the shield and sunk into Noah’s flesh. Streams of blood flew out of her shoulder as her body soared through the air.

Perhaps if Noah had more experience, she might have considered the perfectly smooth stone projectile could have been a melody instead of a physical projectile. Had it been another rocket, Noah would have been soaring through the clouds by now. But the stone’s violent explosion not only wounded Noah, but she was thrown off the train. The overcast sky fell away from her as she plummeted. In the end, the final thing Marrie would hear was a pained yelp.

If there was a silver lining, it was that Noah’s superior resistance to magic had prevented any significant harm from coming to her. While the attack had ripped through her garment and peeled back her flesh, her arm was still connected to her body.

But no one avenges their friends quite like the Mavericks. Trixy yelled at Boteg to chase their prey as they descended, but all the falling church could hear was the sound of the air whipping past her ears.

The pain had taken some moments to set in, and was continuing to set in as Noah fell further and further. Every part of her pierced with a stone was burning and stabbing at her body. Had she the ability or control in the moment, she would have gone stock still, trying to prevent any movement making things worse. Instead, her arm was forced to flap uselessly in the wind, magnifying it all so much more horribly.

Noah hadn’t even realized what had happened, at first. She had not been confident, she hadn’t been confident the entire night, but she had been sure that the shield would’ve been enough. But it hadn’t been. And she was cast from the skies above.

She had reached too high, Noah distantly reflected. Too high too soon. Green as she was, how did she ever expect to succeed with a task as momentous as this on her own? Without the assistance of the other two, with how little mana she had left, what could she even have done? What had even happened, for that matter? Where was the skull faced esper? Why had Raphael been dealt with so easily?

Question after question after question. None of them would assist Noah with her new predicament. Falling straight down, she could see the buildings below closing in. Biting her lip to keep a lid on the pain, Noah’s undamaged arm gripped her cross tightly. For one final time, Noah’s body was covered in a white golden glow. The orbiting crosses centered themselves above and around her head.

The city streets approached rapidly. Noah shut her eyes tight and prayed.

Marrie watched in horror as Walking Church was knocked clear of Crazy Train’s back. She didn’t even have time to run towards her before she was falling, too fast and too far to catch. She did the only thing she could do and ran towards the side Noah had fallen off, watching and hoping that she could manage a shield. But from the distance to the ground, she couldn’t tell.

With tears starting to sting her eyes, she took another hard look around Crazy Train’s back as she stood up. After a few moments, she was finally satisfied that there was nobody else trying to hang onto it, and began to slide down the back of the monster towards the earth. As she reached the bottom, she lined herself up with the center of Crazy's back, and waited for its movement to also align with the golden dragon below, then jumped off towards it.

"Boteg! Gonna need a safety net!"

The sudden call from above caused the dragon to look over his shoulder. Frenzied as Trixy was, a glance over her shoulder revealed what had gotten the dragon’s attention. She cursed under her breath.

"No point losing both of them…" As Boteg spun in the air, Trixy fired another rocket at the falling nun. Between Boteg’s erratic movement and Noah’s rapid descent, the rocket missed its target completely. The dragon rider grunted before looking ahead. Trixy stashed her rocket launcher behind herself and spread her arms. Marrie fell squarely into her arms. She said, as the impact rolled catcher and faller down the dragon’s back.

The tip of Boteg’s tail curled around and stopped the two from rolling further. "Thou art reckless, Mist scare!"

With Crazy Train departing through the clouds, and Peace Train moving towards the horizon, the storms began to settle. The turbulent winds let up, and the clouds started to change color. It would be a bit before it stopped raining, but already it looked like it was going to be a sunny day.

"I’m one for two today!" Trixy looked over Boteg’s head. "How about you take us down?"

"If thou wish it."

But even if Boteg could descend as fast as he could, he wasn’t going to beat Noah to the ground. On impact, the asphalt road detonated, sending blacktop and gravel soaring through the air. Noah had landed with her arms stretched out to the sides and a perfect impression of a cross was made in the road. Regardless of how hard she fell, the fall itself hadn’t harmed her at all. She only had a moment to process her surroundings before a familiar face appeared, and extended its hand.

”The holy roller is safe, at least. The demon yet lives, but by no fault of yours. Perhaps he had other plans for it.” After pulling Noah to her feet, Raphael pointed down a street. ”The Mavericks are still about. We should leave for the time being.” The dragon was about to touch down on a building, but it looked like Trixy was already jumping off to pursue on foot.

Noah’s eyes followed Raphael’s gesture, and spotting that rocket wielding esper again, she couldn’t help but agree. “Y-yeah, there’s… not much else I can do.” She had so little mana left that she could barely feel it. Like a tiny drop in a gallon of water. There was no way she could use it for anything, and then there was the matter of her arm… The pain was still piercing, and she did her best to ignore it, but there was no way she was gonna be able to fight with it. Someone else could, maybe, but not Noah. This was just something she had no experience with.

”Today, you did enough.”

With circumstances like this, against an esper like that… it was pretty clear that the best thing to do was to run away. Noah brought her light to as low a level as possible, and made to follow after Raphael. In a city like this, it shouldn’t be terribly hard to lose the esper, with the headstart they had.

As Boteg began to descend, and the adrenaline with him, she let out a barely audible murmur. ”Can’t help it. Peace Train was too fast, with the angle that Crazy was taking, I missed my shot at landing on it.” She climbed up his back from her position and patted him gently on the head. ”Thank you. I owe you one.”

"Tis praise most splendid, but thou doth not need bless this flying gossamer!"

Truthfully, she didn’t know why Trixy seemed to want Walking Church dead, and she wanted to prevent another meetup between the two, but with how out of mana and strength she was she didn’t think she could stop one. Still, as she sat back down, she spoke up to her. ”You too. Thanks for the catch. Let me know if there’s anything I can do to pay you back.”

The blue haired esper looked up at the clearing sky. Just as she registered that things might be okay, her eyelids closed against her will. It wasn’t until Boteg landed that she was jolted back to reality.

Trixy hopped off Boteg as soon as she was able, and swung her rocketlauncher around. Just as Noah had predicted, the low visibility and recent rain would make her very hard to track down at this juncture. With a groan, she fell on one knee and completely deflated. "She died keeping Crazy Train alive. Why do all of my…" She looked back up at Marrie. "Tetrad wasn’t lying about you. Heh! You uh, you were pretty good up there. I wish I could have done more." She rubbed the back of her head. "Hey uh, if you’re free we, eh, ah, never mind." With the Maverick biker rally peeling down the street, Trixy jumped off the building to join them.

Boteg looked a bit pensive, but eventually called to his sole rider. "Doth thou need to go someplace?"