Final Fantasy: Ave Verum Crystallis

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"So you're sure your holograms are stable?" I asked Kristen.

The would-be inventor had used some camera-like device to cast a set of holograms on him and the rest, making them appear to be average, non-suspicious Ultima servants. Though as I expected, the moment I tested the holograms' strength by reaching out to touch the one over Kristen, it began glitching in and out rapidly.

"Well, ah, this device isn't exactly a finished design" Kristen tried to explain "B-but it should be stable, as long as nothing serious occurs".

I could only grit my teeth "Well, let's just hope this investigation comes with up something quick".
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We caught the Moogle-operated monorail to a... rather foreboding district of the new city. Smokestacks and twisted metal could be seen for miles around, with a good-sized slum nearby drenched in a rain of soot. I did manage to spot a few floating mansions, likely owned by the nouveau riche wealthy enough to afford somewhere above the smoke yet still with business nearby.

Warmech Ordnance's headquarters stood out most of all, a colossal tower of black iron and spikes, spewing forth clouds of smoke, if not mist, the sound of machines loud enough to be heard from here. Close by was what looked like an army base, surrounded by bulky, brute force weapons with the occasional sleeker, futuristic design around.

"Tell me Kristen, what made you so eager to submit designs to a place like this?" I couldn't stop myself from asking.

"Oh you know, I was struggling for money, still am, and Warmech's one of the biggest companies around" he tried to say while keeping a light expression, though maybe that was just his hologram "And you know what they say, first impressions can be misleading, right?".

Kristen and I soon reached the front door, followed by Xihe, though Doktor, Elatha and Cosmic ended up taking their sweet time.

"Ugh, such an unsanitary place. Though it could be interesting to see its effects on..."
"This, is possibly as far away from the forests as I can take it".
"I knew Warmech wouldn't be as shiny as the rest of the New City, but this is scary!".

We were soon greeted by a welcoming committee of Automata, hovering towards and bowing before us. As they parted, a striking woman with luscious red hair, a great white coat and a sword and pistol by her side, strode between them before kneeling down to take my hand. "Lady Artemisia Lucrecia d'Ultima, so delighted that one of the Noble Lineages would be so gracious to visit our humble factory. I am Fortuna Catia Mathers, billionaire industrialist and current CEO of Warmech Ordnance. Now tell me, what did you wish to speak about?".

"Charmed" I quickly bowed in return "Firstly, could we head inside? Naturally I'd feel more assured discussing business out of possible eavesdroppers".

Fortuna seemed to hesitate at those words, but said swiftly "But of course".

Heading inside Warmech Ordnance, I did notice that the interior looked much nicer and more polished than the exterior, or at least the parts Fortuna was showing me around. After heading up to near the boardroom I presumed in a spacious elevator, I had my agents immediately slip out into the corridors upon reaching the floor. Luckily Fortuna didn't look like she had noticed anything.

I sat down at one end of a vast translucent table that took up almost all the boardroom, a wide digital screen on one side and a wider window showing the sky above the smog on the other. Fortuna sat all the way at the far end, flanked by sharp-suited businessmen and Automata.

"Miss Ultima, if I may. I wish to raise the subject of the other Four Lineages, who have shown none of your family's generosity towards our New City" Fortuna then spoke up.

"Well, er" I began "I was honestly just here to shop around for new technology, but okay. What... would you like to know about them?".

"Simple, advice on how to market our wares to them, the Rubicante in particular. The times are changing,and while the Ultima have been wise enough to realise this, if the other four families keep stubbornly clinging to their crystals, well I doubt the new world will be generous enough to have a place for them" Fortuna smiled at those words.

"Hey, aren't you being too harsh on the Crystals?" I had to speak up.

"No, not at all. They were the perfect guiding lights for their age" Fortuna's tone grew more inviting "However, said Age may very well be at an end, and the Age of Magitech, where wondrous powers shall be at the disposal of all men, not just the aristocratic elites, is undeniably on it way. The Crystals have had their time".

"Okay, er, I see" I muttered, then began thinking things over. "Hmm, I honestly don't know how you'd convince the family Heads. Maliris is insistent on the Rubicante and their strength alone, Ataratheh'd be too concerned about alienating her line further, Zugspitze keeps saying modern conveniences take the fun out of everything, and your guess on how to get in contact with Ozymandias is as good as mine.
If you have a chance, it'd probably be trying to market to the youth of the lineages, the ones who might truly be curious about the new technologies being developed" was the conclusion I came to.

Fortuna seem pleased with that remark, then said "Well then Miss Ultima, might I ask a favour? Could you go around and convince the young upstarts of each family to invest in Warmech Ordnance, as a Lineage Noble, Judge and celebrity yourself we figured you'd have the best shot. Of course, the Ultima would be handsomely rewarded".

[ ] "Er, of course!"
[ ] "Could I have some time to think it over?"
[ ] "Sorry, but with my current schedule I'm afraid I can't. Truly a shame".
[ ] Write-in.​

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At this time, my five agents were sneaking their way through Warmech's offices. Room after room they saw nothing but Automata, most spindly little droids or large chunks of boxy steel engaged in menial labour, but quite a few, in the design of floating white obelisks with black slits and blinking red lines for eyes, being security.

"I've got this!" Cosmic announced, only to find that while your average worker droid might prove easy to hack into, your average security droid had tougher hardware than that. "S-sorry guys, I may have miscalculated.." Cosmic then said, her hologram crackling in and out.

The instant the security robot started flashing red at the first sign of intruders, Elatha quickly fired a bolt straight at its visor. That only did enough to stun it, but it did buy time for Kristen to run over, open up its circuits and unplug some of its cables.
"That should keep it out for a while" he gasped, before admitting "Warmech certainly has some... pretty advanced hardware. I mostly just went by impulse figuring out how to short-circuit this thing, it could months for me to figure a machine like this out".

"I've spotted security cameras up ahead" Elatha reported "Would you have another set of holograms for us?".

"Huh? Oh yeah" Kristen said, promptly racking the settings on his projector-like device. "Er, doesn't look like I do, this thing's pretty worn out".

"Ugh" Xihe groaned "Didn't you recharge it before we left?".

"I- I could've sworn I did" Kristen kept muttering.

"We'll just have to snipe any cameras we come across" Elatha stated "Warmech'll know something's up, but hopefully they won't know it's us specifically".

"Yeah, but Lucia might not be as lucky" Kristen gulped.

"Well on the bright side" Cosmic's amplified voice then announced "Least I was able to get inside this thing. Okay everyone, get behind me for cover!". She then walked over inside one of those grey, bulky worker robots.

"Oh c'mon, how come you gotta hog the spotlight?" Xihe had to remark.

A few shot-out security cameras and droids later... the five were as lost as ever, with Warmech's Ordnance soon showing themselves as a labyrinth of corridors, them being so sterile and identical didn't help matters. The only real sense of progression they had was that these corridors were slowly becoming less and less polished-looking, and more like the rusted wreck the building looked from the outside.

"Hey now, I've got an idea!" Xihe declared as she leapt up and smashed through a window, landing atop a large grey conveyor belt. The second that belt started moving, it became clear that none of the group had thought of riding on it for good reason, as Xihe was soon moved along uncontrollably.

While the actress was able to regain enough self-control to be able to launch a series of high kicks and punches to any robot arms mistaking her for another assembly line item, the rest of the party that followed her was... less mobile. Kristen and the Doktor almost immediately collapsed onto the belt, soon colliding straight into Xihe. Even the agile Elatha was having trouble keeping his balance, conveyor belts not being a common sight in the forests.

Eventually they all feel down into a great pit, a pit that very revealed itself to be full of broken-down machines and other junk.
"Good thing there doesn't look into be an incinerator around" Cosmic said.

"Don't jinx it" the Doktor retorted.

There then came the sound of rummaging and scrap metal being flung around, as with a heaving grunt Kristen tried to pull a specific machine up from out of the trash pile. With Xihe tossing most of the metal on top out of the way, Kristen at last pulled out what looked like some old jetpack contraption, though now heavily rusted.

"This-" he began to say, forcing himself to continue "-this was one of my own designs. I-I mean, I knew it was kinda an experimental model, but... if it wasn't working, Warmech could've at least told me...".

"Hey, think we could use it to get us out of here?" Xihe asked.

Kristen just shook his head. "It'd take some time to repair, in this state more than usual, and it'd get awkward with one jetpack and the five of us".

"Let's keep looking for a way out, I'm guessing there'd be a ladder" Elatha then said.

It was then the entire scrap metal heap shook, as rising up from its depths came three mountains made of scrap. No, not simply 'mountains' as they soon formed mouths, eye sockets and hands, the first of them letting off a mechanical roar.

But the group soon found themselves with an unlikely saviour, as from up in the air a motorcycle came falling down to crash land right on top of one of the metal monsters. Its rider then revved up and sped along fast enough to smash through the insides of another, the motorcycle then sent flying up to break through atop the third.

Skidding to a halt, the rider dismounted in front of the party, who could now see her clearly as a blonde teenage girl, though with a look on her face far less youthful and naive than most her age.

"Hmm, you five don't look like Warmech employees, even that worker droid feels kinda fishy, and if you're janitors you're really dressed in the wrong gear to be down here" she observed. "So the only other explanation that comes to me is that you're also infiltrators".

"Infiltrators?" Cosmic blubbed.

"Also?" Doktor queried.

"Ah well, if I've already given part of the game away" the rider muttered, before properly introducing herself. "I'm Helen, and officially I've been hired to smash up a mecha this company's working on, but if I had my way I'd try to take it for myself. I don't think my boss would mind the later, but I can't say the same for who hired us. Ah, that's probably all you lot should be knowing right now".

[ ] Offer to help her find this mecha, saying it'd be best to destroy it.
[ ] Offer to help her find this mecha and assist her in stealing it.
[ ] Say you can't help her, as you know if Lucia goes along with Fortuna then siding with Helen's gonna look really awkward.
[ ] Write-in.​

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"W-whoa, I must say, you sure aim to impress" I said as my eyes bulged at the sight before me.

At least three steel colossi were lined up before me, the latest finished giant robots off the Warmech line. They loomed over Fortuna and I even though we were standing on a high-up balcony, from which the lower depths of Warmech's facilities were shrouded in darkness.

"Why of course, we wouldn't think of even dealing with those as mighty as the Five Lineages, if we didn't have some serious production power behind us" Fortuna slyly grinned, striding over to me and asking "Now, dear Ultima, is your mind fully made up? No wait, how quick of me to assume" she then turned away "You've only seen these Magitech Weapons dormant, it'd only be fair to let you see them in action before you come to any conclusions".

It turned out action came fiercely quick, as from way down below we could see sparks flying hear loud clanking noises as something began making its way far too fast up the mecha. This ended when a shadowy figure dove atop the mech, came crashing down into the cockpit, and with a great burst of sparks seemed to cause it to short-circuit, sending its head slumping down.

"Opal Weapon!" Fortuna's calm face collapsed at the sight of this great robot somehow under attack.

This shadowy figure then revealed itself by jumping down in front of us, a helmeted Dragoon with paralysing gold eyes glinting out, wielding a pitch-black pike.
"So Noble, how much faith do you place in warmech's designs now?" this newcomer smirked right at me, its voice female.

"Gang boss Dicteria" Fortuna simply smiled, her composed self seeming to return "Oeilvert Surveillance has told us much about you and your little troupe. So, someone hire you to try and sabotage our creations, hmm?".

"Heh, don't think you can spook me with Oeilvert and my name" this Dicteria shot back with, grinning wildly and briefly removing helmet to reveal her blonde hair "I never had any intention of keeping my identity secret, couldn't strike fear into this City's hearts with my name alone if I stuck to total stealth".

"Of course, it's not just that I was hired" Dicteria continued, pointing her dark spear at the both of us "You'll also know I despise Nobles, and though you Fortuna might be a New Money businesswoman, you're little different in my eyes. Plus, with that uppity little Miss Lucia here, that two Nobles for me to take out in one!".

What the-? The nerve of this low-life! Though still, if you can take out a mecha with just a spear, naturally you'd think yourself above anyone.

"I would insist I've struggled as much, if not more, in the corporate world as you have in the underworld" Fortuna hissed, but then sighed and said "Very well, I can see there is no changing a mind like yours. Alright then, Warmech Ordnance has never failed to deliver, so if it's a fight you're here for..."

With a flourish, Fortuna threw off her coat and drew her sword, whose blade in a flash transformed into a laser "...then it's a fight I shall give you, Dicteria!".
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One of the suited businessmen Fortuna was with stepped forth to defend her, but Fortuna swiftly pushed him back "Thank you, but your support isn't needed. I shall show Dicteria I can easily take her down without risking the lives of my employees".

"Er, she did just solo a mech" I had to bring up.

"A dormant mech, dear Lucia" Fortuna smiled "This little upstart would've been no match for the active Opal Weapon".

"So you say" snarled Dicteria, helmet back on, who launched a great blast of Shadow at everyone.

[ ] Disable:
- [ ] Physical attacks.
- [ ] Jumping.
- [ ] Healing.
- [ ] Trance.
- [ ] Write-in.
[ ] Penalize with a Counter-Attack:
- [ ] Physical attacks.
- [ ] Jumping.
- [ ] Healing.
- [ ] Trance.
- [ ] Write-in.
[ ] Write-in.

QM's Note: Reminder that only one Law, at present, can be set up at a time, and that Laws affect both Allies and Enemies. As Judge you can personally ignore these laws, but won't gain JP if you do so.​