Vandelay Campus - Finance
Location: Midgar Sector 06, the City of Glass
Blazermate’s
@Archmage MC, Zenkichi’s
@Multi_Media_Man, Karin’s
@Zoey Boey, Sandalphon
Word Count: 7159 (+8)
While the other teams scattered in order to reach their various destinations, those who opted to join the fray in Finance were faced with a relatively straightforward path laid out before them. Their objective lay within the confines of the most high-profile building on the Vandelay Campus, the absolutely colossal ‘V’ whose two prongs stretched up into the heavens from the iconic glass-domed atrium, itself a massive edifice to begin with. To get there, Zenkichi ended up retracing some of the steps he took last night along the road to Dendemille Theater, only to turn right and proceed along the main thoroughfare to the atrium with Blazermate and Karin at his back. While the detective and the heiress might contend for the position of leadership in this little squad, Zenkichi at least possessed one tangible advantage: the fact that Sandalphon routed her communication line through him, tinged as he was by the supernatural.
“The office of the Head of Finance is very high up within the atrium, and his private elevator is inaccessible,” Sandalphon told them over her magic connection, after explaining that she and this team would go by the codenames Halo and Hardline respectively. “While Khamsin can’t reach it on his own, he told us he had an idea, and refused to elaborate. His team has already inside the Atrium and have entrenched themselves against waves of robots fresh from Security. You’ll have to fight through them in order to reach Khamsin.”
True to her word, the wide-open thoroughfare leading to the Atrium sported some of the fiercest fighting in the entire Campus. Khamsin had apparently hogged a huge portion of the DespoRHado assault force for himself, including
Gekkos and
Grads, and Vandelay had trotted out an appropriate response. Rather than typical GNR and SBR units, this taskforce featured
SBR-CUR swordfighters with red-hot blades and flame-throwing
GNR-FL0 units, backed up by burning
BL-1Z5 boxers with fists of fury as strong as they were fast, and airborne
VU-REV bombers with wings of flame. Therefore, as one might expect, the well-trimmed lawns, flowers, and hedges were all on fire. The defensive line formed by DespoRHado in front of the Atrium’s main entrance meant that Vandelay’s robots lay between the Seekers and their goal. It was a blazing battlefield, and it looked like the Seekers would need to wade right through it.
”Goodness…” Karin said as she ran, watching the war in front of her. She frowned at the sight of the burning flowers.
”What a shame.” ”I can give us cover for a time if I heal you all up first.” Blazermate said, healing her allies and herself with some overheal and getting a projectile shield ready to give the team cover as they passed over the lawn on fire. There wasn’t really much point in summoning her striker yet.
Karin looked at her body thrumming with healing energy.
”Marvelous, Miss Blazermate.” Standing by a tree, she regarded the battlefield thoughtfully.
”I don’t see any way around it, I’m afraid. Any enemy we bypass will shoot us in the back, and any enemy we haven’t passed yet will gun us down from the front. We’ll just have to carve a path through both sides, with Miss Blazermate protecting us from any enemy we aren’t currently engaged with. ” That was her plan, anyway. No one here, as far as she could tell, possessed the ability to slip through a battlefield unnoticed.
”Mister Zenkichi, I recognize a fighter when I see one. I assume you are up for this task?” She asked with a wry smile.
"Of course," Zenkichi replied coolly,
"These old bones aren't that worn down just yet. A few robots is nothing." With a deep breath, his semi-professional outfit was replaced with the gunslinger-themed Phantom Thief attire he fought in, and he smirked.
"This Wolf is ready to hunt." And he would have ample opportunity. As the newcomers approached, a GNR-FL0 on overwatch spotted them, and he sounded the alarm. “We got incoming!” A whole bunch of the fiery SBR variants turned on the Seekers without delay, quickly forming up in bombastic fashion. They flipped and somersaulted to assemble themselves into a dynamic battle formation, landing in flashy action poses. Of course, some of them flubbed the maneuver and ended up knocking into one another, causing a petty squabble that quickly spread through the whole squad.
“Idiots!” A single BL-1Z5 punched the air at high speed, drawing oxygen into his furnace to set his fists ablaze in a burst of flame. “Get them!” Grumbling, the smaller robots put their differences aside and obliged, the GNRs staying back to spray streams of fire while the SBRs closed in with burning swords at the ready.
As the fight began, Sandalphon’s voice reached them. “Be advised. At low health, these units will Overcombust, shrugging off hits while they chase you down to detonate on top of you. Their leader will split the battlefield with walls of fire. If you can, extinguish his flames.”
”Thank you!” Karin said to their advisor, running forward. Those sword units seemed predictable. She assumed they would swing the first chance they got. She sprinted forward to meet the first foe and then dashed back, her momentum reversing on a dime to bait out a swing. Then she dashed back in a delivered a brutal series of advancing palm strikes into the bots metal body before sending it flying with an elbow towards its fellows that followed behind.
Blazermate meanwhile kept her healing beam on whoever was pushing forward first, letting them absorb some light hits that might get through. Hearing about the exploders, Blazermate had ways of blocking said explosion, notably her projectile shield and even an ubercharge if it was needed. It was a bit of a shame that they were fighting only robots here, she kind of wanted to make some zombies that could help out, but right now she was on healing duty and that was all she was doing. It was too dangerous to go for the purgatory cracks right now, even if the exploding ghosts would help a lot.
Zenkichi ran forward, greatsword resting on his shoulder as he went right past the flaming sword-wielding machines, taking a few light hits in the process, and charging down the GNRs in the back. Grunting as he hefted his blade and brought it down on one of the shooters that hadn't broken formation, he followed up with a stab through the downed soldier's body, disabling it and kicking it to the side before moving on to send its allies following in its footsteps. Even as flames washed over his overhealed body, he didn't complain, more than used to shrugging off minor damage as he fought through hordes of enemies with the Phantom Thieves.
Finished off by the greatsword's deadly stroke before it could activate its Overcombust, the SBR-CUR never rose from the spot where Karin’s bare-handed assault deposited it. More than a little spooked by the ruthlessly efficient display, the four GNR-FL0s spread out to either side in an effort to surround Zenkichi, as well as gain some distance. He could chase down and wreck one, sure, but that’d give the others the moment they needed to burn through his overheal and into his health. As his underlings split, the Blaze made its move two. It executed a powerful low uppercut, scraping his fiery knuckles along the ground before swinging upward to send a flaming furrow through the concrete walkway. In a flash a wall of flame split the battlefield in half, and the Blaze did not hesitate to advance through it to back up the two remaining SBR-CURs facing off against Karin.
”I see.” She saw Zenkichi vanish from her sight with a wall of flame. She eyed the trio of killer robots in front of her coolly.
”So the three of you have chosen to face me alone? I suppose self-preservation isn’t cost effective programming. Karin said, running her hand through her golden hair coils.
Honestly though, being separated from Zenkichi and Blazermate wasn’t ideal. She might have to figure out a way to push through it. Karin dashed to the left, the wind separating visibly around her. She made to put the robot on her left between her and the other two bots, so they would have to get around their comrade before attacking her. Her leg snapped out into the ankle of the Saber bot, and she stepped forward and turned her shoulder into it, moving to get past the sword and crunch her back into the bot.
”Orochi!” After that she made to snatch its sword arm by the wrist and glance over her and the bots shoulder to see what its allies were up to. While the other SBR hung back for a moment, perhaps knowing what was in store, the Blaze went full offense, rushing Karin down with a flurry of fiery punches.
”Hmph.” Karin turned and maneuvered the SBR into the way of the flurry of blows, ensuring Blaze would pummel his subordinate instead of her. She popped the loosened sword up into the air, jumped to meet it, and elegantly flung it towards Blaze. It span quickly to cut into him. The bot stumbled backwards and she approached. They exchanged blows. Every time the Saber unit tried to get close, she circled around, putting the Blaze unit between it. When Blaze unit thought her movement was getting predictable and wound up a swing, she dropped onto her palm and shot her legs forward, eyes closing confidently as she shattered the big bots kneecap. Saber brought its sword down and it clashed with her forearm. It swung and she traced the tip with her eyes, stepping from side to side. It brought a sword horizontally and she prepared. She caught the blade between her palms with a crack of ki. Seemingly with no effort, she used her arms like a scissor and twisted it out of the Saber units hands.
”Predictable~” She cooed smugly.
As the Blaze unit clambered onto its feet, slow in mobility but still high in power, she crushed the Saber unit with a series of palm strikes. It flew to the ground and went into Overcombust, ready to squeeze a few more dollars out of its creation process. Karin aimed her hand and fired her grapple hook to the Overcombusting bots chassis, and then attached the other end to the big boxer bot. Karin had gained plenty of experience fighting enemies that exploded with no regard for their own safety down below the city. They were never particularly gifted with any amount of intelligence- otherwise, they would probably choose to live! The thought made her chuckle.
“What the-!” The moment the Saber flew toward him, the Blaze realized what was about to happen and clamped his jaw. “Hrrgh!” At just the right moment he parried his incoming ally, rebuffing it long enough to ram his fist into its chassis with an upset punch and flip it over his body. The Saber slammed into the ground and bounced away, then promptly detonated in the air. Rumbling, he turned back to confront Karin, fire welling up in his forearms. He slammed the ground, unleashing a quick but weak wave that could still knock someone over, before pumping his fists in a dramatic
ultimatum, complete with flashy red background and pop up text. He then struck five poses, moving like a Tokusatsu hero. He first extending his left arm to the right, then right arm to the left, then both fists up and crossed, then forward, then side-facing with one pulled back. After the fifth pose he zoomed straight toward Karin with a trail of flame to unleash five mighty corresponding blows.
Karin had dropped into a crouch, the quick wave dispersing as she slid backwards slightly. The robot began to pose, and Karin raised an eyebrow. She took the moment to carefully advance, not wanting to get baited into over-extending by a taunting opponent. When the boxing bot blazed towards her, her caution proved well warranted. The blows smashed against her arms as she deflected most of the force, her boots grinding into the concrete. This wouldn’t do.
”Ressencho!” She spent most of the V-Meter she had gained thus far on a V-Reversal. Blocking one strike, there was a streak of white light and a darkening of the surrounding air for a brief moment. Karin glided past the next oncoming fist and then stepped into a defensive elbow strike. While it would only deal a small amount of temporary gray damage, it had force and knockback to let Karin turn the tide on her attacker. Karin dashed forward and kicked the boxer, looking to wear him down and prevent it from starting up any big, hard hitting attacks like that again. No big dramatic walls of flame, ground pounds, or posing. She aimed to dent his chassis one practiced strike at a time and force a mistake. Eventually he obliged, forcing his way through a non-committal kick to crush the ground where Karin had just been standing. Leaping over his head she brought her leg down like an axe onto his back, kicked the back of his knee and then popped his heavy body into the air with a Tenko palm strike. She followed it up with another one, yelling as she put all her force into the follow-up strike, cracking the concrete with a gust of wind. In a shower of sparks the boxer flew away, no longer able to fight. With one final flourish, Karin turned her attention to the flame wall and her ally on the other side of it.
Shaking his head as the gunners tried to surround him, Zenkichi tutted.
”No good fighter is a one-trick pony. Valjean!” Summoning his Persona, Zenkichi pointed to his left, calling
”Triple Down!” as he broke to the right, rushing for one of the gunners as Valjean unleashed a barrage of gunfire on the two to his left, the wide-ranging attack more than enough to fit both of them within its range. Sure, leaving one enemy free to attack wasn’t ideal, but it sure beat the hell out of three.
As the gunner he ran at hefted its flamethrower and bathed the charging Zenkichi in flames, he grit his teeth and kept running, the heat quickly sapping away at his overheal. He stopped suddenly, planting his foot hard onto the ground, and
swung with his greatsword, transferring the momentum of a running man into the swing of his sword, and all of that force concentrated on the edge of its blade meant there wasn’t even a sliver of hope for his target. With a crunch, the gunner unit’s torso was split in half just around where the bottom of a person’s ribcage would be, and Zenkichi turned to the one he hadn’t had Valjean target.
This gunner was more wise to his tricks, and circled around as it unleashed its flames on Zenkichi. Not sure how long the fight would last, he kept his revolvers in reserve, instead charging head-on once more. He wasn’t as fast as Karin, but he was no slouch, either, and his overheal had barely run out as he reached the second gunner, while the two Valjean had shot up were regaining their bearings, fairly hurt but still functional.
”Still standing, huh? Not after this, you won’t be! Valjean, Megido!”As orbs of Almighty magic appeared and exploded among the gunners, Zenkichi swung at the unharmed opponent. Lacking the same momentum thanks to having to stop to direct Valjean, the attack left the gunner hurt but undefeated. It retaliated by cracking its flamethrower against Zenkichi’s face, and he snarled before planting his sword in its gut, planting his hand on its shoulder, and tearing his sword out and through the side, dealing massive damage to the robot and finishing it with an overhead slash. His focus, however, had left him blind to the two GNR-FL0s behind him, Overcombusting and about to detonate right on his back.
Seeing Zenkichi in trouble and having charged her Ubercharge, Blazermate deployed it, saving the turk from the explosion coming his way through sheer invulnerability.
”close one! You know, we should make use of this invulnerability.” Blazermate said, as she flew up to deal with a GNR-FL0’s herself, her confidence boosted by her invincible state. She then realized that these guys were… not nearly as scary as she thought they’d be. It was like fighting a newcomer to robattling as they took hit after hit. Sure they were at least durable, but they just attacked her while she was uber, even combusting in her face in a very predictable pattern when she got a good punch on what she assumed was its face.
”Ooh…. huh.” Blazermate said, not expecting that.
She joined up with Zenkichi to heal up the man while she herself swapped over to her ubersaw. Since she could see the health of these things and when they would combust, she could hit them with her ubersaw, then zoom away just a bit before they would start to combust to leave someone with a harder hitting attack to finish them off. As she moved over the wall of fire to heal Karin, she touched a red crack on the way, having been too fearful to grab one before. This summoned an angry cute ghost that zoomed off to blow itself up and destroy one of the GNR-FL0s Blazermate had weakened prior.
”Hey Karin, ever gotten a kritz? You seem to be doing well in the taking hit department.” Blazermate said, giving her friend a dose of kritz.
”A what?” She asked, before startling as she looked down at her glowing fists and a surge of power.
Zenkichi smirked as the GNR-FL0s exploded against him without dealing a lick of damage, thanks to Blazermate’s ubercharge, and pounced on the last he could see on this side of the fire, crushing it beneath his greatsword and easily finishing it off, leaving him alone.
”Thanks for the assist!”With the last of the flamethrower units destroyed, the Vandelay robots’ reserve force had been thoroughly decimated, allowing the Seekers to advance. Of course, that also meant that the extra power coursing through Karin’s limbs courtesy of the Kritzkrieg had nowhere to go, so she really needed to get moving if she wanted to have any hope of actually using it. Up ahead the corporate warfare at the threshold of the Atrium had continued to rage unabated. DespoRHado’s offensive line had held despite their foes utterly inundating their entrenchments with fire, since while most of the rank-and-file cyborgs had been burned out and melted away, the Gekkos and especially the Grads remained, the latter serving as nigh-impregnable barricades. Meanwhile, DespoRHado’s relentless gunfire and brute force spelled the end for most of the attacking SBR-CUR and GNR-FL0 units too, so only the elites remained.
As the newcomers approached, they could see in front of them a pair of Blazes contending with a Gekko and supporting troops. A heavily-armored cyborg had just been disarmed, his enormous black axe slamming head-first into the ground, and the man put up his dukes. Before he could throw a punch the Blaze threw two, demolishing first the cyborg’s right arm at the elbow and then his left with fiery hooks. As the cyborg reeled the Blaze wound up and plunged his fist straight through his enemy’s torso. “...Perfect!” The cyborg promptly exploded. Just then, the Gekko peppered the other Blaze with gunfire, then went in for a mighty football kick. Avoiding it just in time, the Blaze knocked it off balance with a well-aimed hook, then got floored by a sweeping turn kick. Mooing in victory, the Gekko stepped in to finish the Blaze off with a stomp. In the nick of time the Blaze rolled backward, away from the crater the Gekko left in the concrete, and the first Blaze arrived to snap the Gekko’s head back with a blazing uppercut. It staggered backward, brought its head down and pawed the earth like a bull. With a resounding moo it charged, but together the two Blazes sent forth waves of fire that the Gekko charged straight into, quickly overheating its systems and bringing it to a halt. Then a VU-REV descended on it like a bolt from the blue to smash the Gekko’s head into the ground. As the Unmanned Gear moaned the VU-REV hopped back, detaching and hurling its flaming wings like giant buzz saws to melt the Gekko into three pieces before its wings returned.
Then the three robots, warded off by inaccurate suppression fire from DespoRHado, turned on the newcomers. The Blazes charged in, and the big bird immediately spat out three fireballs to explode and carpet the ground with flame.
“That VU-REV unit is a high-level threat,” Sandalphon warned the team. “Don’t jump at it if it’s alight. It’ll only come down if it’s shot, and is only vulnerable if it’s wings are off or extinguished.” Back at her forward base, the archangel put her hand to her jaw, thinking. Then she came to a decision. “I was planning to do this when you reached DespoRHado, but…”
A sudden flash of electronic blue light went off next to Zenkichi. When he turned to look, he found himself faced with all seven feet four inches of Sandalphon, here in the flesh. She looked down at him briefly, her face impassive and her strange pupils blinking rather than her eyelids as she quickly adjusted to her new surroundings. Then she turned to face the Vandelay triple threat, an
oddly futuristic staff in hand. As she turned it upside down and tucked it under her arm, its head began to spin behind her, and it became apparent that the shaft that she aimed toward the team’s enemies was actually the barrel of a rifle as tall as she was. “I will oversee this battle personally.”
Karin nodded approvingly.
”How very gracious of you- glad to see you are not merely a strategist and opportunist.””Wow, shes a big lady! I don’t think my shield will cover all of her. ” Blazermate said, a bit confused. She then looked at the mooing Gecko out of sheer confusion. Also… why did it have shockingly organic legs? What the heck was that thing?
”It’ll only come down when it’s been shot at, you say?” Zenkichi asked while drawing his pistols.
”Valjean and I can handle that.” With that simple declaration, he called on his Persona once more to
”Triple Down!” and circled around, taking a few shots at the VU-REV in the hopes of forcing it towards the ground.
”I’ve got a shield to give you cover, so just shoot at it. And avoid getting punched or set on fire.” Blazermate said, getting ready to deploy her projectile shield.
When Zenkichi’s Persona opened fire, Sandalphon joined in from the back of her group. Once spun up, her rifle belted out extremely bright blue bolts of energy, the speed and weight of its shots just a few steps shy of a handheld railgun’s. Those payloads plus Valjean’s Triple Down took a couple chunks out of the metallic phoenix, and unable to maintain its altitude the VU-REV descended to lessen the stress on its systems for recovery. “Well struck,” Sandalphon commented. Their efforts put the big bird in reach, but before Zenkichi could sink his teeth in, the team would need to deal with the bombastic pugilists. Both Blazes pounded the earth to send out rolling fireblasts that left a carpet of flame in their wake, and a moment after they arrived to challenge the integrity of Blazermate’s projectile shield -as well as that of the melee fighters- personally. “Capitalizing on the VU-REV will be difficult while they remain,” Sandalphon cautioned the others, taking aim from the backlines at the bird to make of the opening what she could.
”Understood. We’ll keep you covered.” Zenkichi answered simply, stowing his revolvers and hefting his greatsword before charging forward and taking a few swings at his chosen Blaze. The pugilistic machine managed to actually block one, but the second swing hit true, and on the third swing the pair exchanged heavy blows, both stumbling back.
”Not bad.” Zenkichi mumbled, before standing tall and swinging again.
The Blaze had gotten wise to him, however, and easily avoided the relatively slow swing before edging just into Zenkichi’s range and hitting with a quick jab, jumping back before the backswing could land.
”Alright, you’re clearly a different caliber than the others.” Zenkichi praised before letting out a sigh.
”Bring it!” He taunted as the two circled each other, eyes narrowed.
”Then I suppose this one is mine!” Karin said, engaging another Blaze after avoiding their fireballs. She had already battled one- would this Blaze be any different? Karin threatened the Blaze by shifting her feet just outside of his effective swinging range. She backed away from a few strikes, but instead of whiff punishing, she took the opportunity to dash away from the Blaze she was fighting and towards the one Zenkichi was circling. She turned her shoulder into the back of the robot and slammed into it, looking to send it stumbling towards Zenkichi in a very cheeky move.
Her unexpected strike proved to be just the ticket that the Blaze, already softened up a little by Zenkichi’s attacks, needed for the Seekers to break his stun gauge. His poise broke for a moment, rendering him more susceptible to being combo’d. In order to give Karin enough of a break from her own Blaze to put her plan in action, Sandalphon distracted him with a sniper shot, but his own stun wasn’t high enough to keep him locked down. As soon as he could he punched a new fire wave across the ground that swept beneath his ally and set the area aflame. By this time, the flight systems of the VU-REV recovered, and it flapped into the air. It shrieked and began to do backflips in place, a beam of condensed flame sweeping outward across the ground with each revolution to pollute the battlefield with lines of blazing fire. It managed to churn out four before Sandalphon’s third shot forced it back down towards the ground again.
Karin frowned at the Blaze she had left trying to catch up with her with that large flame wave. Though she was back to back with the enemy, she trusted Zenkichi would handle it and dropped into a kneeling crouch, taking the chip damage to block the flame wave and prevent it from hitting Zenkichi while he was ideally punishing the stunned Blaze bot.
Unfortunately pushing back in towards the Blaze would be hard with the streaks of flame in the way. With Sandalphon suppressing it, Karin walked forward to meet the Blaze in battle, looking to hop over the line of fire. Blaze took advantage and struck her out of the air. Indignant, Karin landed with a back roll and avoided a follow up overhead swing that cracked the floor.
”Simple!” She put the Blaze back on the defensive by striking with her legs, swiping at his torso and knees and preventing effective counter strikes by controlling the space between them. It swung and the fist came close, Karin watching it pass by. Then she stepped in and cracked into its knee before zooming forward with an EX-Tenko that launched the Blaze into the air with a burst of golden energy.
”Tenko!” This allowed her to combo into yet another upward palm strike that bounced it up again! For the final one it was getting out of range, so she stepped forward and slammed it away from her. Karin dashed forward as he got up, to swing, she brought the back of her fist down onto its face, elegantly crossing her feet as she did.
After that she advanced with a series of elbows and palms that crushed the metal before resetting into a grab, twisting the bot’s wrist and twirling past him, using his own body weight and strength to throw him bodily into the floor.
”Weak!” She span and brought her heel down on his head like an axe, splitting it in two and destroying the bot.
As Karin jumped in and stunned the Blaze he was fighting, Zenkichi wasted no time in taking advantage of the opportunity. He quickly activated his Fury, adrenaline burning through his blood and his vitality as his blade mercilessly cut down the machine in an invigorated flurry of blows that came much faster than his previous attacks had. After a quick series of truly devastating blows, he deactivated the self-harming ability, finishing the Blaze unit with a furious overhead slash.
”Go Karin!” Blazermate said as she healed Sandalphon as she brawled with the VU-REV. With the Blaze having been defeated, this freed up Blazermate a bit so that she could also assist in attacking the VU-REV. Calling out to Sandalphon and saying.
”You got a good gun, hit the glowing bit!” Blazermate said, pointing out the weak point of the robot, her scan ability highlighted, she decided to go in a bit herself and get some ubersaw swings on it while it was still down.
“So that’s where it is.” Sandalphon calmly adjusted her aim, waited for the spin-up, and pulled the trigger. Her rifle’s payload slammed through the armor of its upper chassis and into the VU-REV’s flame reactor, frying it. The robot squawked and dropped like a sack of bricks, twitching for a few moments until it got its reactor’s temperature under control.
As it stirred again to try to retract back into the air, Blazermate held up her shield arm which let out a loud sonic scream. With the VU-REV being at ground zero, this momentarily stunned it, which let Blazermate hit it one more time before she was forced to move away. As it flew back into the sky, Blazermate did her own bit of flying, but instead of flying into the sky, she stayed on the ground flying about and making her way to touch a few more cracks along the ground, unleashing two more purgatory ghosts that angrily zoomed at the VU-REV and detonated.
Looking battered and bruised from the hits it had already taken and the exploding ghosts, the VU-REV shot its lasers once more, aiming at Blazermate. She blocked what she could with her shield, but this only did so much to lessen the blow as she flew towards a third and final crack. Upon summoning the third ghost, the VU-REV. Decided to target the ghost, knowing it would explode if it reached it. Unfortunately not knowing what a ghost did, being a robot itself, this had no effect as the third ghost angrily zoomed into and blew up, blasting the VU-REV in a strangely bloody but ghostly explosion.
On its last legs, the robot shrieked, and readied its ultimate attack, Burning Revenge. It ignited its wings, first the left, then the right, then the left, then wrapped both around itself as its core flared up dangerously.
“Block in time!” Sandalphon called to Blazermate urgently, analyzing the pattern as fast as she could based on the similar stunt from the Blazer earlier. “Or….evade?”
The next second, it fired off a perfectly-aimed flame beam from its left wing, then right, then left again, before twisting in midair with the last of its strength to let rip an unblockable fire wheel.
Blazermate did just that, blocking the first two lasers, with her shield taking the damage for her. The third hit managed to disable her shield, with the extra damage going to Blazermate herself, but that was all she needed as she was going to dodge the big attack anyway, barely flying out of the way with her metal kimono heating up quite a bit by the heat. But she dodged towards another crack, which as the VU-REV had to cool down after such an attack, another ghost zoomed at it once Blazermate released it from its purgatory. Its impact blew the weakened robot to smithereens in a fiery blast strong enough for the human Seekers to feel it in their bones.
Zenkichi let out a heavy sigh as the wave of heat washed over him, breathing heavily for a few moments.
”Oh my god that’s miserable. Leather and heat do not go well together…”The VU-REV’s spectacular demise heralded not just the end of this fight, but the Vandelay incursion against DespoRHado’s entrenchments. As the Seekers gathered, adrenaline dying doing, Sandalphon turned her weapon in her hand to hold it like a staff and approached DespoRHado with a calm, purposeful stride. “I trust I don’t need to introduce myself,” she stated impassively, connecting herself directly to all the cyborgs that survived their trial by fire so that none could avoid hearing her. “In accordance with the established operational parameters, I have secured on-site reinforcements to provide assistance with the elimination of Vandelay’s Financial Department and the seizure of its assets. Move aside.”
“Yes, ma’am,” the squad leader replied without delay. “All Grads, disengage and form up!”
DespoRHado’s mighty armored siege engines released their pitons and slide across the stone to open the way for the Seekers. Not breaking stride, Sandalphon moved calmly between the lines. Only when she became aware of a noisy disturbance in the water off of Circuit Royal did she turn her gaze from the Atrium’s entrance. After a moment, a gigantic shape leaped over the perimeter facilities of the campus and came down on the Atrium’s front lawn, sending out a wall of air and dust that extinguished the leftover flame. Having taken the field against the Machines in the Valley of Ruin yesterday, Zenkichi would recognize the unmistakable metal monstrosity he witness on the way back to Midgar: the titanic
Metal Gear Ray. It shook the water of Regatta Bay from its immense wings like a duck, then began to stomp forward.
Despite the enormous possible threat, Sandalphon remained stoic. “Stay calm,” she whispered to Zenkichi through the glyph. “All part of the plan.” Indeed, as the Ray approached, it did not engage its weapons. Instead the awe-inspiring machine stepped right over the Seekers and the DespoRHado defensive line to smash through the front of the Atrium. Inside the vast, lavish space stood a colossal statue of Kale Vandelay, several times larger than the Ray and almost as tall as the Atrium itself. Khamsin was standing there too, and though his fused mech stood tall and proud the Ray practically dwarfed it when the Metal Gear approached. Once it drew near, the Ray leaned down and opened its jaws, allowing Khamsin to climb aboard as it made its critical calculations. Then the giant used all its might to thrash itself upward, hurling Khamsin like a boulder from a trebuchet straight toward the Chief Financial Officer’s office, many hundreds of feet off the ground.
“YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-HAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!”
Following in Ray's footsteps, Sandalphon watched him disappear from sight. The sound of a lot of glass shattering could be heard a moment later. “I…see,” she remarked, affected more than she would’ve expected by the ridiculous sight. “So that was his plan.” After another moment she did an about-face to address the Seekers. “You must follow in his footsteps,” she told them matter-of-factly. Above them, a whole host of what looked like large boxes floated throughout the Atrium. Some of them had little parks on them, others offices complete with cubicles and robot workers. A variety of sky-lines twisted and turned all over the place. “Through whatever means you can. My part is done, and I cannot redeploy to assist you again this mission. If you need me, however, feel free to call.” She closed her eyes and bowed politely to the Seekers, then abandoned them, teleporting all the way back to mission control in a flash.
”Wait… do we need to fight that giant robot later or am I confused about the whole situation? Or is there ANOTHER giant robot and we’re going to see a huge, HUGE kaiju fight?” Blazermate said, scratching her head.
After another moment Sandalphon’s voice reached the team in reply. “I would recommend not engaging the Ray. In addition to being very dangerous, it would take far more time to dispose of than you have. It shouldn’t target you without cause, but I would give it a wide berth, just in case.”
”We’re already planning to fight one giant robot, no need to add more. Well…two if Konoe’s still got that thing he had in the Metaverse somehow…” Zenkichi added, still very wary of the Metal Gear before them.
”Let’s, uh…get going.” He suggested.
A loud shout suddenly rang out from behind everyone. “DEAD ON!” When the Seekers looked over, Karin and Blazermate at least would see a familiar face. A one-eyed cyborg ninja had just staggered one of the Grads, then kicked its forward plating to send it spinning like a propeller. After slicing through it the newcomer leaped over the Grad and split it in half with a single slice across its center mass, leaving its red-hot halves to fall apart as he landed. It was none other than Raiden, back to settle his score with DespoRHado and the Winds of Destruction. “Kept you waiting, huh?” he grinned, his robotic lower jaw giving him an almost skeletal leer. “Hope you people saved some fun for me!”
“DespoRHado’s nemesis,” Sandalphon observed, taken slightly aback. “Though it looks like he may be biting off more than even he can chew, his presence puts the mission in jeopardy. Please hurry to the objective, everyone.”
Raiden’s assassination of a Grad kicked DespoRHado into high alert. The other three Grads and the remaining cyborgs immediately swarmed him, and as if that wasn’t enough, the idle Ray stomped over as well. In doing so he inadvertently opened the way for the others, though whether or not he’d be able to take on all this heavy metal himself was anyone’s guess, though not necessarily their problem. Raiden had already demonstrated that he was a loose cannon, and not necessarily the team’s ally, especially if he planned to exterminate the same faction that the Seekers might be able to use against Shinra and Konoe.
Shaking his head in frustration, Zenkichi sighed.
”I can’t believe that lunatic! I’m no fan of these guys myself, but to go against them single-handed…? He’s insane.” Looking around the atrium, his eyes narrowed at the sky-rails and floating islets all over the place, before turning to Blazermate.
”Would you be able to fly up to one of those islands? I don’t have a hook for the sky-rails, but there’s gotta be some way to get around here without one. If they can be moved, that might be our way up.””I’m sure Mister Raiden will be fine.” Karin said with a dismissive wave of her hand. Karin fired her grappling hook at an upper portion of the wall, pulling herself up. She took a moment to situate herself, pushing off, and fired at a nearby floating section. Then she zipped quickly up to it and looked over it down at Zenkichi.
”I suppose we’ll have to find a way down for you.” She considered.
”I shall look as well.” She began to connect her grappling hooks to the closest island and pulling herself up, ascending higher and higher among the man-made technological pieces of land. She didn’t quite know what she was looking for, a switch or some kind of useful implement.
”I got you Zenkichi. You're a lot younger than the last guy I had to carry around, hehe.” Blazermate said before scooping up Zenkichi in her arms and flying up to the island with the rest of the group, that being Karin.
”Oh, well, splendid work, Blazermate.” Karin said, before continuing on her more manual mode of travel.
It would be a ways to go before the team reached the same heights that Khamsin managed to, but theirs was a simple and effective strategy. It wasn’t long until they reached the overlook that preceded the hall to the Head of Finance’s office, itself richly decorated with miniature gardens of colorful little trees and leafy bamboo shoots, the area decked out in gold, white tile, black marble, and dark wood. It’d be absurdly classy if not for doors dead ahead, ripped asunder by a giant rocket-propelled chainsaw axe.
”I think I prefer flying via airplanes…” Zenkichi admitted, a little queasy, after being carried up.
”There are medabots that turn into planes, but they are a lot less of an easy ride I assure you~.” Blazermate said as she put him down. Them then launched about via the man cannons that were situated on the various floating islands.
”Wow this place is pretentious. Like, really? Ego much?” He added as a final comment once they reached the doors to Finance.
Karin regarded the splendor with a rub of her chin.
”It is a bit garish.” She said.
”Clearly someone more focused on showcasing wealth than interior design.” Karin criticized. With everyone’s thoughts on Roquefort’s choice in aesthetics cleared away, they could finally begin the last leg of their journey. Into the belly of the beast they went, driven by the sounds of combat up ahead.
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