BrokenPromise

Symphony on High

@Ponn@Majoraa@ERode

The gemini agents were surrounded, they needed a way out.

Anyone who practiced chess would tell you that you always needed to put some pressure on your opponent. Being too defensive allowed your opponent to spread out and surround you, promising a difficult, if not impossible, end game. Ashley may have opened the window to allow her backup a shot inside, but by this point the cowboys had figured her out. The moment she attacked, she was vulnerable for the briefest of moments. When she stretched out her arm to fire, one of the cowboys grabbed her arm and pulled her off balance. Another cowboy grabbed her shield while she stumbled. Ashley wouldn’t relinquish her shield so easily, but with her arms pulled out to either side, there wasn’t much she could do to protect herself. One of them gouged her shoulder with a beer bottle, another delivered a straight punch directly into her kidney. Then her melody went off to shield her from the next few blows. A punch to the stomach, having a bottle broken over her head, hopefully her backup would fire soon.

The situation around Estelle was plenty chaotic. But regardless of what the other agents were saying over coms or what sort of chaos was erupting around the bar, her objective remained consistent. She had to get those teenagers out of here. Everything else was a distraction. Estelle kept her goal in her mind and moved.

Estelle’s Dai-Katana was a potent tool for defense, and one that could make for some fairly absurd situations. But when the ward and chair collided, it didn’t quite have the effect that Estelle desired. The ward operated by taking an incoming force and redirecting it with an equal and opposite force, at least when it was physically struck. The drunk biker wasn’t a monster, and wasn’t swinging with nearly enough force to lift his own body high enough to get swatted by fan blades. The stool flew out of his drunken hands and pierced the particle board ceiling. Dante hadn’t been keeping up with maintenance, so the stool was more than enough to bring down the rotted truss that the fan was attached to. Spinning blades fell, the bikers stumbled backwards, Estelle slid forward as the entire mess crashed down behind her. It wasn’t as “fun” as what she had envisioned, but the end result was the same: The teenagers had a clear shot.

After Estelle relayed her orders, she set off to distract the goons left at the bar. She knocked over a table, prepared a melody, swung her fist… and something wrapped around her neck.

The dryads had indeed not rooted her legs a second time. Instead, the shapeless fey creatures decided to reach across the room to coil their tendril-like vines around her. One snagged her neck and tugged her backwards over the table she knocked over moments before. The fan that had fallen earlier may have been a threat to the bikers, but it wasn’t much to a group of monsters. But before she was sling-shotted backwards, she managed to reach out a finger and touch the Mage’s shoulder. The resulting mana-burning field caught the dryad sitting next to him.

The mage up until this point had remained seated. He was just keeping his head down pretending not to be there while these other bikers beat the snot out of each other. The Shadow Wizard Money Gang didn’t have that many members after the Shadow Government switched over to recruiting espers only. Now all they had were their bikes and their spells. ”Hey man!” The wizard pointed at Estelle with a finger that had no less than three rings on it. ”Keep me outta that shit!” Otherwise, he made no other motion towards the esper that was getting dragged backwards towards a mob of angry drunk bikers. The dryads sitting next to him were not as merciful, and rushed towards Estelle even as the bikers took turns trying to kick her, with a few making a move for the sword she was holding.

At least the girls were moving now. All but one had taken the opportunity to retreat with their unconscious friend. While the stubborn one remained by the jukebox, the other three carried their unconscious friend towards the front of the diner. The last obstacle in their way was all the bikers near the front door.

And then there was Finn. Bound, choking, and about to get the beating of his life. Despite his age, he could see what was going on around here better than everyone. Everything was turning to shit, and someone had to do something about it. They couldn’t play nice anymore. It was kill or be killed.

Fuck it.

His body erupted with a melody, sending arcs of lightning into anything and everything nearby. The cash register went on the fritz, the lights blew out, but most importantly, the vines around his body loosened up. The dryads screeched out animalistic sounds, but they had been paralyzed by the attack. How fitting that the first thing Finn cut would be made of wood? Their vines, their bodies, Atropos sawed through them in seconds. The dryads howled their last as Finn was sprayed with sap and blood. He’d do it this time. He’d save everyone.

With a “Nyah!” a bolt of violet energy flew through the window and landed next to some of the cowboys. It exploded into a chromatic display of hearts, clouds, and horses, and managed to put four of the cowboys to sleep. It would take Violet a bit to neutralize the entire bar, but at least now Ashley could use one of her arms again. The cowboy holding her wand was fast asleep.

The wizards were far less amused with this display.

”Holy shit! That boy ain’t fuckin’ around!” One of the three at the back of the diner pointed out.

”That bitch attacked my boy by the counter too. If we wait too long, we’ll be next.”

”Know what I’m thinkin’?”

”Level four fireball?”

”Fuck yea!”

The three wizards stepped out of their cubicle. One of them grew a fireball in the palm of his hand while the other two traced symbols in the air.

---

@Vertigo

The nerd continued to stare in disbelief as the “oni girl” left his room. It wasn’t clear if he didn’t hear her, or was in such a state of shock that he couldn’t physically react. Upon leaving the room, “Viper” had a similar reaction. They gave Ciri a thousand mile stare as she told them to to stay out of her way, more or less.

”Hmm…”

Ciri sent off her gorilla to find a hiding place, and then she looked down the stairs while asking her friend for a time. But before she got a response, she could hear the familiar “boom” of a shotgun being fired. Ciri turned just in time to see her minion fall onto its back with a giant hole in its chest. Moments later, the gorilla’s body melted into a puddle of inky darkness and dissipated.

The SPAS-12 was a famous gun, largely due to its appearance in movies and videogames. But it was made at an interesting time when the french police force wanted a gun that could do everything. Part of that everything was the specific use case of being fired with one hand while driving a squad car. It’s not difficult to see why they eventually moved on to more specialized guns that were lighter and easier to maintain. But for an esper, being able to hold a shotgun in one hand and another weapon in the other was a rather nifty trait to have. There was no time to cast a melody, and the barrel was already being swung in Ciri’s direction. She had to take cover.

She dove back into the nerd’s room. He must have been thinking of watching her down the hall, because he was in the doorway when she decided to dive back in. The shotgun went off again, and Ciri fell on top of the nerd, pinning him to the ground.

”Uh…” He remained very still as his eyes examined everything in his immediate surroundings.

Then Ciri got a message back from her friend. He couldn’t actually speak, but the sounds she got back let her know he was saying something along the lines of “He’s slippery.” She could hear another wall break down as the dragon dove back outside, this time lunging out of the hotel and falling into the street. He grabbed onto the adjacent building with his fingers, but this was less to get a hand hold and more to slow his descent. As soon as he was on the ground, he started running out of the alley.

Ciri might be able to try and settle the score with the esper here, but her friend wouldn’t be able to stop the fleeing dragon all by themselves. She didn’t have long before the mysterious esper came through the door.

---

@The World@Nakushita@TaintedMushroom@FamishedPants

Justin threw his melody towards the window frame. The glowing ball of electricity might not have struck as fast as a lightning bolt, but it was much faster to get out there, which was what he needed to not become a human torch. However, that slower speed allowed Bobo to react to it. Her eyebrows went up as she stepped away from the window, just as Justin’s projectile bounced to its final resting place. Before he was doused in liquid napalm, he had appeared on the balcony with everyone else. But he wasn’t behind Bobo, he was in front of her.

”Glad you could finally join us.” she grumbled. And with that, all of the espers were inside St Bianchi Church.

Marrie had too many monkeys on her back, so she went intangible, briefly turning into a cloud of fog to get Nova off of her. The nun fell onto her feet, and Marrie attempted to wrap the chain of Apexer around Nova while also poking Lenore with the melody charged tip of her knife. But that was a little counterintuitive, wasn’t it? Apexer had great reach, but with the chain wrapped around Nova, she could only ever get eight or so feet away from her. Nova dug her heels into the ground and took hold of the chain weapon. And pressed her back against the chain. Marrie might have been able to stab Lenore, but she was already running after Mika and Sovereign. She looked over her shoulder and winked as she further distanced herself. Apexer blasted mist out of the edge of its blade as the melody dissipated.

Shotguns were traditionally loaded with standard buckshot, but Asher’s Hatred was only ever loaded with slugs and hellfire. They weren’t particularly accurate, especially when fired on the run, but at this range Asher would have to be a stormtrooper to miss with both shots. One of the shells punched a hole through a construction worker’s chest, right while he was stumbling towards some cover. He finally collapsed near Marrie, wounded but alive. But it was at this distance that she could see why they had such strange head gear. They weren’t wearing goggles, their eyes had been replaced with cathode ray tubes. Her memories of her first operation in Pax surfaced.

Meanwhile, Asher engaged the other gunman in some guntana. He kept his firearm in his hands, but used it to block the incoming blow before kicking Asher in the chest. Though this did more to push himself backwards than it did push Asher away. He’d bought Asher some time to act, but he looked like he was arming his underbarrel grenade launcher.

"I feel like I’ve been taking crazy pills!"

— Mika Fang

For everything that was going on, Sovereign seemed pretty chill with it. Even now, she was cracking jokes and moving like a lunatic with a sword wasn’t trying to end them. That would have been a surprise, but she chose to work for Oros after she cut off her arm. Maybe this level of insanity was necessary for espers. At the very least, being helped to her feet was one of the more pleasant experiences she had when it came to an esper touching her. With a groan, she forced Angelie out of her head. I really wish there was a way I could write that without inviting more puns

Suddenly, and without warning, the balcony where Justin was standing suddenly collapsed. It was as if an invisible swordsman had cut through the wooden structure beneath him. No sooner had Justin made his way in did the floor give way beneath him. There was barely time for a quip at Bobo. As he fell, Lenore extended her hand, and a bean of blacklight hit him. As soon as Sovereign started firing, Lenore and Justin switched places, and she was now firing on someone who owed her a comic.

"Okay." Mika sighed. "I’ll take Lenore, you get the gunmen." Mika growled before charging towards the sadistic nun, who only smiled back at her, black sword in hand.

Nova took a pull of her cigarette, and suddenly the area around her became very smokey. Marrie could feel her chain come loose, as it was no longer around the smoking nun. Though now she couldn’t see anything, and the smoke was only making her weaker.

Bobo pointed off the balcony. ”You still have ammo, don’t you? Keep shooting!”

It wouldn’t be long before they started firing again. This time they had men on every level, leaving few places to hide.

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

...*COUGH*

— Suki Oyama

Suki was use to getting hurt. Her blood power necessitated getting hurt to grow stronger. Her pain threshold was high, and being a magical girl made a lot of stuff hurt a lot less than it should have. She had been smashed by magical war hammers, bombarded by frogs, and run across pink flames as cute as their caster. She had no shortage of experiences to draw upon, but couldn't tell you what the worst type of pain she had ever felt was.

Until today.

It was just a jet of fire, but it hit with some force. The shock wave reverberated in her chest like an echo in a cave. Before Suki could even scream, her body was set aflame ash she tumbled backwards through the air. Bouncing across the ground hurt, but it was difficult to pick a single thing to focus on. Her insides had been ruptured, and her outsides were on fire. With the flames all around her body she couldn't even see. Suki was usually at her strongest when she had been beaten this badly, but this was different. The flames cauterized her wounds while burning to the deeper layers of her flesh. She didn't have many options here.

She coughed up blood, lots of it. Suki's blood formed a large tendril that extended out of her mouth. It peeled open like a banana and enveloped her own body. Usually magical flames stopped burning as soon as you got off of them, but it seemed like Ash Bringer's flames could bypass magical defenses. From the outside, it looked like Suki was in a red cocoon. The tendrils released her moments later, and white smoke rose off of her body. It seemed that starving the flames of oxygen was enough to stop them from burning. She wasn't ready to fight anymore, but fortunately, it seemed like the dragon girl had flown off.

I can't believe none of the reports I heard mentioned her ahoge...

It was much longer before the rest of the Detention club arrived. There were a variety of different reactions, from whispers of how beat up everyone looked to surprise that a fucking building got leveled. Though their leader, Schrade, seemed disinterested in the scene. She looked at the magical girls, the wounded, the collateral on the town, and then at the sky. Her minions raced to help (or mock) the injured while she looked up at the sky where Ash Bringer was seconds ago. Then she grinned and said the most Schrade thing possible.

"Interesting."

Mahou Shoujo No 30 Dai- a spoof rp!

@shagranoz What my character wants isn't necessarily what I want. I'm just playing my character fam.

Mahou Shoujo No 30 Dai- a spoof rp!

I was going to wait for everyone else to post again, but then I decided the RP needed more activity.

Mahou Shoujo No 30 Dai- a spoof rp!

@shagranoz Aw dayum, between crushing its body and severing its head I thought for sure that Osiris might have destroyed its void. Or is the issue that a void is a negative space that gets bigger as it takes damage? I hope Coffin Fortress brought some concrete fill for this one.

Anyway, I didn't really narrate the monster dying, since I feel it's the GMs job to decide that to prevent power gaming and stuff. I was more narrating Osiris's certainty that this thing wasn't going to be alive much longer.

Mahou Shoujo No 30 Dai- a spoof rp!

”Dermestes maculatus!"

— Isra Mahmud

Isra Mahmud may have entered the ventilation shaft as a swarm of bugs, but when she next appeared she would be Osiris. The bionic magical woman bounded from rooftop to rooftop, sometimes skipping entire city blocks in a single bound. A small grin crossed her face as the wind ripped past her body. She did have to wonder why the wise doctor had equipped her with so little to wear, but it wasn’t important. Even at her speed, the wind’s chill didn’t freeze her bones, nor did the insects smash into her face. It might have been an aerodynamic design, or perhaps an invisible magical barrier kept her in peak condition. Either way, the reason wasn’t nearly as interesting as the effect.

By the time Osiris arrived at the park, there were only two other magical girls present. One looked like a fairly “standard” fire manipulation girl, while the other looked… exotic. Osiris had never seen so much pink in one place before, and would not have been surprised if this magical girl shot cotton candy at people. This was probably the “pink princess of dreams” the wise doctor was talking about. Then there was her mark: giant, swift, stone and barbed wire hippo. And of course it fired death rays, because it wasn’t random enough otherwise. Truth be told, monsters like this always seemed like a fashion faux pas. They were just a bunch of random, unrelated junk mashed together. Sure, Osiris’s “Spider” and “Scorpion” augments weren’t exactly bugs, but at least she was worth looking at. No wonder nobody else bothered to show up. If it wasn’t her job, Osiris would have skipped on fighting this monster too.

The pyromancer asked for their help. It seemed like the pink princess was going to be absolutely useless, but that was fine. Her mission was to harvest the heart crystals, and the fewer people intervening with that, the easier it would be to collect them all. ”Just keep it distracted. Leave terminating it to me."

This would hardly be a battle.

The hippo could move as fast as it wanted, but with it being kited by the pyromancer and having a massive size, it wasn’t going to be a hard target to intercept. Osiris wasted no time in launching herself at the ugly pile of boulders and wire. She somersaulted through the air before extending her arm, and her nano machines constructed a massive pair of pincers to clamp down on the creature’s neck. If this were a normal statue, it would have been crushed in half with but a fraction of her power. Though something as deformed and ugly as this was. What the hippo would have a far harder time surviving what came next.

She punched the hippo with her left arm, then her right. Then a third arm joined her left punch, then two more joined her right. Before long, she had no less than six fists drilling into the hippo’s side like jackhammers. Its stone caprice was cracking, and it couldn’t have been much longer before she severed the ugly thing’s head from its body. Mission successful.

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

"I less than three you, Tsubomi. But I less than three everyone.”

— Suki Oyama

Oros the Joyful nodded along to everything Acid Drop was saying. In truth, it wasn’t anything unexpected. It made sense, at least hypothetically, from the perspective of someone who had emotions. Oros remembered reading somewhere that all human desires were felt when the brain absorbed dopamine. Larger quantities increased the desire. They did an experiment with mice where they inhibited their brains ability to absorb dopamine. The mouse just stood in the center of its cage, completely unmoving. It wouldn’t even eat or drink unless the researchers held food up to its mouth. If that was the case for Tsubomi, then why did she choose to do anything? But she remembered them being annoying? Could anyone really be better off this way?

"Huh.” Was Oros’s response. At least until she was prompted as to why she had asked. "Oh! Um, you know?” Her smile got just a bit bigger. "Emotions are very important to me! I’ve just been a bit- Wait, wait, what do you mean ‘they aren’t talking’ anymore?” Oros didn’t really need her to say. The crackling energy of Nyxia’s laser beams could be made out at this distance, as could the freaking explosion that seemed to rock the earth. "Uh, let’s table this for now!” Oros took off again, this time heading towards the conflict.

---

"Never put all your eggs in one basket. Never use all of your vocabulary in a single sentence. Never put all of your power into a single attack. Never post on the same day of the week”

— Ash Bringer

No two magical girls were alike, but no matter how much variety light or dark magical girls had, there were certain cues that made them easy to tell apart. One of which was how they reacted to taking something that was precious to someone else and destroying it. Few, if any light girls would be proud of destroying something dear to someone else. It didn’t matter if they were an enemy or not. Ash Bringer, however, seemed to relish in Nyxia’s hatred. Every sharp breath, every crease on her face, it served to stretch her lips and show off her perfectly white teeth. If this kept up, the corners of her lips might reach her ears. In contrast, her eyes got smaller. They were wide open, but her pupils dilated. "Come on...” She whispered. And then it happened. Nyxia let her anger out in a torrent of bad words and lasers. It was an overwhelming, perhaps grotesque display of power. Ash Bringer inhaled sharply. It was physically impossible for her smile to be any bigger.

…Or maybe she was reacting to the incoming torrent of lasers.

Ash Bringer was not a stationary target. She had already demonstrated how her flames could be used as thrusters, and she did so again with the murderous tubes of crackling death energy closed in on her. While Nyxia’s main laser beam took a fairly straight forward path, the side lasers twisted and curled around to intercept the dragon. There were many close calls, with the lasers burning through her bangs here and there, but she hadn’t scored a direct hit. Meanwhile, Ash Bringer closed in on Nyxia’s location as the web of death beams swarmed behind her.

This only lasted for a moment before the rule keeper threw herself in front of the incoming lasers. She hadn’t been fast enough to get in front of the laser beams, but she was able to slide into the side of them with her shield up. The beams of death energy slammed into her shield, and everything that had passed her faded away.. The cluster of deadly beams that were so close to Ash Bringer dissipated into the air. Next, Earth Shaker had to disengage from all of Nyxia’s beams and come down on Ash Bringer without getting cooked by the torrent of incoming lasers. Something she masterfully did with a mighty bound.

Most magical girls had fairly simple powers. Nyxia could fire lasers, Oros could control her blood, and Acid Drop wasn’t most magical girls. But neither was Earthshaker. Up until this point, Ash Bringer hadn’t really seen why Earth Shaker’s body was glowing the way it was. There was certainly no way she could anticipate that up until now, she had been storing power to use for this next attack. Ash Bringer should have been able to pass right under Earthshaker to continue moving towards Nyxia, but the energy she stored up would be perfect for giving her a boost of acceleration and powering through anything she might fight back with.

It was like a flyswatter hitting a fly.

Earthshaker’s shield came down on top of Ash Bringer and smashed her into the ground. The pavement beveled, and black smoke rose up all around Earthshaker. She couldn’t feel any movement on the other side of her shield. When she moved her shield out of the way to see if Ash Bringer was still conscious, Nyxia’s lasers came in to finish off what was surely a vulnerable target. Torrentia hadn’t heard Ash Bringer scream yet, and she wasn’t going to stop on account of anyone wishing otherwise.

Though with the smoke, lasers, and Nyxia’s emotional state, it was difficult to see the pavement getting pushed up. It was like a giant mole had dug its way out from under Earthshaker and was racing towards Nyxia. The moving pavement mound started to smolder, and then Ash Bringer, wreathed in flame, burst out of the ground and drove her fist into Nyxia’s stomach. Powerful enough on its own, but it was followed by another heated explosion, which set Nyxia ablaze and sent her careening into the rubble of the flower shop. With a hiss, Ash Bringer turned to look at Earthshaker. Aside from a black smudge on her cheek, it didn’t look like her last attack had caused any noticeable damage to her. Ash Bringer wasn’t grinning anymore, she was pissed.

"Why are you all so weak?” One of her dragons turned and fired a jet of flame at Oros, who was mid-flight in an attempt to ambush the dragon woman. She was turned into a ball of fire that bounced down the street. Ash Bringer hadn’t taken her eyes off of Earthshaker. "You’re dark magical girls, aren’t you? You’re aware you need to hunt miseria to become stronger? Your virtues aren’t your strength anymore, you can’t just sit back and let the light girls kill them all!” Her other dragon was charging a fireball and launched it down the street where Tsubomi was likely returning from.

Roche’s skill set made her ideal for one on one fights, but this was no ordinary foe. Ash Bringer was far stronger than any of the local light girls, and may have even rivaled Shrade. But before what was sure to be a tough battle kicked off, the air was filled with the whooshing sound of magical girls leaping from the rooftops. The rest of the Detention Club would be arriving soon.

"There’s more of you?!” While this seemed to annoy Ash Bringer initially, she chuckled soon afterwards. "You know what? Hibusa Town has proven to be pretty amusing. Tell you what? I’m going to give you guys a year to train and get stronger. Then I’m going to come back with my own team and we’ll have a proper fight. But don’t shed any tears. I’ll still drop by from time to time to see how everyone’s doing.”

With one last burst of flames, Ash Bringer flew into the red sky. Shortly afterwards, the sun retreated over the horizon and painted the sky black. The only trace that remained of her was the battlefield that the flower shop had turned into.

Symphony on High

@Ponn@Majoraa@ERode

What could you do with chaos but wait it out?

Ashley’s shield would hold up against any drunken rioter, But add enough of them and things became dicy. The surface area of her shield was only so big, and attacks were coming from all sides. She could dodge here and there, but the Knight of Tomorrow would run out of stamina before her attackers would. Something needed to be done about their assault.

”Well that’s not good.” Fritzi said with a nervous chuckle. ”Did Finn just walk up to Dante? Never mind, Violet’s contracted to help us, so I’m sure she can provide assistance. I’ll page her through shortly, but I want to make one thing clear.” Fritzi’s force became stern. ”If your cover got blown, any one of those creatures could go running to the Hand and expose who you are. If this is the case, I suggest eliminating all hostiles with extreme prejudice, preferably after you’ve extracted the children. That said, the three of you coming out of this alive is what’s most important.” Then Fritzi went silent. With a crack of static, a new voice joined the call.

"Owo?” Came a cautious, yet youthful voice. “Um, Pwink Pwowndah isn’t so good about fwendwy fwire, or pwutting pweople to sweep. So he wiw stay back. But if yowo can open a windowo, I can hewp."

If Ashley could afford to look outside, she might spot the pink and violet colored duo. As a friend of Samuel, she likely heard stories about how protective the big pink fellow was. The windows by the front door didn’t look like they could be opened the conventional way, but was Ashley willing to invite them into the fight?

Estelle’s baton flew over the jukebox only to get snatched out of the air by the cowboy on the other side. He then proceeded to “drink” from it, only to discover it wasn’t actually a bottle. ”Wut n’ tarnation?” In a display of poetic irony, the second object to fly towards the cowboy was a bottle, but he would not catch it. It smacked into his shoulder before falling to the ground and shattering. The cowboy sunk to his knees and started to paw through what remained of the bottle.

”Oh yea! Maybe Amanda is out back?” The stubborn girl pushed herself off the wall. ”Come on guys! Let’s go find Amanda!” But the other four didn’t need any encouragement. They were power walking towards the counter, maneuvering around the cowboys that had been distracted, or decommissioned.

Finn was only half listening to what Dr. Moller was telling everyone through coms. Kind of hard to pay full attention when he was focused more on not getting his ass knocked down by a giant hammer. He did, however, grit his teeth in response to Fritzi’s unintentional(?) jab at his recklessness. Right! Okay! He got it the last several times already! Thank you very much! If he’s so dangerous why shouldn’t he just-

As if the boss already knew what he was thinking, Fritzi had given the go ahead to kill. The Timekeeper discarded the pointless notion of minimizing casualties at that moment. None of these bastards are making it out alive. The next moment Dante prepared to swing again, he fired a beam of lightning square at his chest.

_{[Silver Beam][Damage X] = - 108
642 MP remaining}

The beam collided with Dante’s well defined chest. Rather than blowing a watermelon-sized hole in him, it caused a fistfull of sand to scatter in all directions. Afterwards, the hole collapsed shut. Most monsters would have been reeling from such a blow, but Dante seemed to be more resilient than your average monster. Finn had used an opening in Dante’s defenses to land a clean blow, but now it was Finn who was open to attack. Dante did not cease his swing. Finn had just enough time to bring up his blade for defense. But it was a mighty blow, and the boy was stumbling backwards. That was when Dante hopped forward and drove his foot into Finn’s chest. He flew straight into the arms of a waiting Dryad, who wrapped her vines around his arms and legs.

”Gah-!? Let go of me!!”

The rabbit hiding behind the dryad’s mask hissed as the cowboys closed in around Finn.

But that was of little concern for Dante. He looked to the bar counter and noticed the school girls were approaching it. He moved like the wind, his body becoming a sea of floating sand particles. He moved through the counter and assembled himself in front of the far end of the counter.

”You can’t use the back exit.” He pointed at the door. ”You leave the way you came in!”

”Through that mess?” One of the girls shot back, but Dante didn’t budge. However, that didn’t stop one of the teenagers from trying her luck anyway. Maybe it was bravery or fear, but she lunged over the counter. But her advance was stopped by a swift swing of Dante’s hammer. Anyone looking on might have braced for what was sure to be a gruesome sight, but the blow didn’t dislodge her head. It didn’t even break the skin on her face. Instead, she fell backwards into her friends arms as sand poured out of mouth and ears.

”Meg!”

Dante spun his hammer. ”Next one’s not going to get it so easy.”

One of the cowboys behind the girls stood up and looked them up and down. He pulled back his fist for a wild haymaker, but was intercepted by a ball of flying sand. He sank to the floor screaming, scratching his arms as he rolled in the broken glass.

Estelle wanted to be the rear guard, and she certainly gained the attention she wanted. The cowboys were content to march into her and get dealt with as they came, but the dryads were more shrewd. They bound across the table and circled around Estelle, trapping her between themselves and the cowboys. Their long, flail-like arms let them beat on her without standing directly in front of her sword. Estelle had nigh impenetrable defenses, but she’d need a plan if she wanted to survive an attack on all sides.

---

@Vertigo

It was always risky to let your mark leave your sight, especially one as slippery as the golden dragon. That said, Ciri had faith in it, and would likely be able to hear the dragon man’s screams when he realized what was pursuing him.

The more difficult part of her plan was figuring out where to jump him. This wasn’t exactly a five star hotel. The roof didn’t have any interesting vistas as was likely off limits to the public. By that logic, the staircase wasn’t going to go straight to the roof. Moreover, there were no windows to let those outside know who was using the staircase. Unless someone wanted room service, they wanted as little interaction with the maid staff as possible. Guests were weird like that. The fire escape was not on this side of the building, which meant Ciri was going to have to enter through someone’s room.

The most ideal window was already open. Ciri and her shadowy gorilla ally hurried in as quickly as they could. Who they happened upon was not a “rich fuck,” or at least not what not came to mind when thinking of one. It was a skinny teenager wearing a black shirt with a kanji on it. The wallpaper on his laptop depicted a scantily clad oni brandishing a katana in front of a raging waterfall. He looked over his shoulder at Ciri, but said nothing as she left the room.

The hallway was clear. It seemed like the dragon hadn’t gotten to the top of the stairs yet. That would give Ciri just enough time to find a hiding place and wait.

Then the door to the room beside Ciri’s opened up, the one further away from the staircase. What stepped out might have been a member of some bomb disposal unit. The gear was all present and correct, from the thick padding that covered their entire body to the diving suit looking helmet they wore. But there was something off about it. All of their armor had been stitched back together, sometimes with bits of kevlar sticking out of the seams. They had also spray painted the words “Viper” across their chest, and were holding a shotgun. Specifically, a SPAS, the one that found its way into all those video games because of its iconic folding shoulder brace.

”I’ve got the dragon under control. You can go back underground if you’d like.”

This wasn’t a member of Maverick Alternative, but their suggestion sounded more like an order than anything else.

---

@The World@Nakushita@TaintedMushroom@FamishedPants

Cast a melody and pray. That was really all Justin could do.

The frame of the church door didn’t leave much room for hiding. The smoke in the entryway was noxious, which meant that he’d have to “hide” just outside the doorway. But with the gunmen on the second story, it was awkward to aim down the side of the building. Not only that, but everyone was either inside or running inside. There was no reason to assume Justin was still hanging outside. Or at least, that was how it seemed when the gunfire stopped and the gunmen shifted to new positions. The ground ahead of the church was covered in bullet holes and napalm, without a single hit landing on Justin or Marrie.

Before Justin could get too comfortable (if that was even possible in his position) a ball of ash smacked into the side of his head. It felt a bit like getting hit with a very large snowball, only it burned his skin. Once he stumbled away from the doorframe, a voice called out.

”Bobo! Here’s one!”

The cigar chomping nun poked her head out the window and spotted Justin.Much to his dismay, this villain didn’t have as much as a single one liner to throw at him. She simply pointed her gun out the window and fired. But rather than shooting burning napalm, it fired a spray of black oil at Justin’s feet. The ground became slick where he stood, but more concerning was that Bobo resumed shooting napalm, this time directly at Justin.

Meanwhile inside, Asher made a totally badass slide between the rows of seats. While he had hoped that he hadn’t been spotted, the ensuing gunfire over his head let him know that they might have had an approximation of his position. That didn’t stop him from finding his choice of music, even as splinters rained down on his head. When they stopped shooting at his position, stood up and let everyone know they hadn’t killed him yet. Then his shotgun clicked, and dragonfire erupted from hatred like the bass in his playlist.

Though Asher hadn’t generated as much lift as he needed. The second story of the church was effectively a short balcony at the very front of the building, and it was almost ten feet in the air. Short of using a melody, it was unrealistic to expect his gun’s kickback to make the distance. But asher had managed to set some Pews on fire, and his rapid acceleration towards the gunmen made them run like mad. So if his goal was to sew chaos in their ranks, his mission was successful.

Now about the landing…

It wasn’t a problem. There were some old pews that weren’t quite able to take someone jumping on them as aggressively as Asher was, but his hardened outer body sustained no damage from the landing. He was also under the balcony now, which meant they couldn’t retaliate if they wanted to.

But the construction workers were moving now. Two dropped down in front of Asher while another two hopped off of closer to the congregation of espers. They were totally unbothered by the drop, and already had their weapons drawn. There wouldn’t be much time to react.

"My little heart can’t take all this excitement!"

— Mika Fang

This was going to be a mess regardless of what Himiko said. Of course she was going to be open to pawning off Mika if it meant more money, but it seemed like that was only something she was willing to do after they met with Oros. Mika had never met the mad esper, but she did know that Lenore was trouble, and she couldn’t picture the two of them working together. She couldn’t really picture GEMINI working with Sovereign either, but here we were. Was the money grubbing esper just bad at reading the room, trying to protect Mika in her own way, or looking for greater riches? It wasn’t a question that Mika could answer, and it bothered her.

Her gaze returned to Angelie’s severed head. It was unfortunate that so much was going on. It wasn’t normal to look at something like this and just shrug it off, was it? Yet at the same time, it seemed so natural for something like this to happen. They had all come here on Himiko’s say so, why should she expect anyone to get out of this alive? But as much as Mika could rationalize it, it still felt unfortunate. It wasn’t something she could work through here though. Whatever this nagging feeling was, she had to keep it down until she was out of here. And if she didn’t get out of here, then it wouldn’t matter anyway. Pax was filled with corpses.

"That’s a bit of a shame, because I’d prefer to leave with her now." Lenore shrugged her shoulders before shoving her money back down her blouse. "But I’d be lying if I didn’t say I had planned on-" Lenore was interrupted when Marrie asked if she was friend or foe. That was when Sovereign, ever the talkative one, told Marrie to proceed with caution. That caused Lenore’s lips to curl into a smile. "We prefer to sell children. Isn’t that right, Nova?"

A jet of smoke launched out of the hallway and struck Marrie in the back, covering her with smoke. The smoke cleared out seconds later, revealing a third nun. Like the others, she looked rather outlandish. She wasn’t holding a sword or wielding a flamethrower, but her face was covered in piercings and bandages. Not to mention the spiked leather harness she wore along with her gown. There was also a cigarette nestled between her fingers, but it didn’t stop her from holding Marrie’s shoulders. When she exhaled, thick gray smoke rolled out of her mouth.

"Yeaaaaa" The nun exhaled the words. Her voice was deep, and she smelled like tobacco. "Kids go for a fair price if you can find the right buyerrrrr." But Nova hadn’t just teleported into Marrie. Mika could tell that there was something else in that melody too. Her movements had become sluggish, and it couldn’t have been easy to breathe with that smoke stack hanging around her.

"See what I mean? But you look a little old, so-" And with that, Lenore took a swing. There was little Himiko could do in her situation, but the melody Justin had cast earlier prevented her from losing an arm. Lenore followed up by kicking the money loving esper into Mika, which sent them tumbling across the floor.

There were a lot of things Mika wanted to do in her situation, but couldn’t. Either because it was out of her ability or Himiko was laying on top of her. But she felt like she could buy Asher a few extra seconds. A ball of spirit energy gathered in her hand, and she flung it between the two gunmen aiming at Asher. As soon as it contacted the floor, a big fat cat sprung up in its place. Maybe asher could use it as cover, or to scale to the second floor. Either way, she hoped Himiko would do something before Lenore struck again.

Video Games: The General Discussion & Community Thread Number Two

@SleepingSilence Funny, I just came across this the other day. I guess you can look at it once you're done with those. Can confirm Outcore is a fun experience, even if I didn't like the coding minigame and some of the controls were slippery. It's very playable.

That said, I think a lot of free games get a wee bit overpraised because free = virtually no expectations. You can expect most experiences to lack the polish and/or duration of their commercial counterparts. But you know, it's free, so it's just a time investment.

Mahou Shoujo No 30 Dai- a spoof rp!

@Villamvihar Yup! looks like a million bucks now.

Now I'll have to find time to read it Been hustlin' to get stuff out.