You make a snap decision, and swerve sharply, your little fortress turning on a dime. The turn takes everyone by surprise - Haru's thrown against her sister, by the sudden motion, while Kirika's forced to put a hand to the floor to support her.
Chouko, startled, looks askance at you.
"Nishimura Moe's down. We're taking her Gem," you snap.
"Kirika, antimagic pulse if they hit us with gravity," you order the black haired girl. Your gaze shifts to Mami. "Mami, we'll punch through any barriers if they put u-"
Mami's still holding your hand between both of yours, and she nods sharply, looking determined. One hand reluctantlly pulls back, and a musket spins itself out of ribbons, dropping into her hand. Kirika looks up and grins at you, rocking back on her haunches. She still looks a little tired, but her breathing has slowed, and she looks ready for another fight.
Light, deadly beautiful in its stark radiance, blazes down at you from behind. You slam Grief shields into place a heartbeat later, long enough for the beam to splash on the edge of, and
past your platform to burn a trench across the brick building behind you.
You hold, waiting for the beam to blink out.
It doesn't.
It blazes down unceasingly at you, the source
moving -
Sasami's moving, at a guess, bounding across rooftops from the way the beam bounces and jolts across the surface of the shield, a tremendous plume of steam hissing into the air in its wake.
A
second beam ignites, hammering down at you from a slightly different angle.
An effort of will has slabs of Grief slamming up to block it, as you duck behind the defensive walls around the edge of your platform. A fraction of your attention reaches out for Moe's Soul Gem.
There's quite a
lot of Grief in there, and five Grief Seeds on her person, one of them already nearly filled. Then again, her powers probably aren't
cheap to use.
... she's still moving, dragging herself deeper into the building by her working hand.
You snatch the Grief out from her Gem, winding it around her Soul Gem in a solid band, and as an afterthought, the Grief Seeds, too. Her hand reaches weakly for it, but she can barely move.
Sasami slams another actinic, burning beam of light down at you, the earlier beams unrelenting.
"Kirika, antimagic Moe," you snap, focusing on blocking out the beams.
"Where?" she asks. You jab a hand at the hole in the building.
"Right!" The black haired girl frowns for a moment, and you can feel her powers gathering, before a tidal wave of
deadness ripples out from her, bearing down on Moe's body.
The Soul Gem, still enfolded in a manacle of Grief, reaches you, and drops into your hand.
"Right, we're
going," you say, platform swerving away from the building, and
away from the unrelenting bombardment of light.
The beams wink out.
You throw a careful glance back over your shoulder, wary of another blinding strobe of light. It takes a moment for your eyes to pick out Sasami, obvious by the shimmering glow she casts, even against the rain pelting down on you and encroaching darkness of the night. You can barely make out two other figures at her side, likely trying to reason with her.
The University girls are staring at the Soul Gem in your hand, awe and
fear mixing in their faces. Moe's Soul Gem is a crescent, shallower than the one you
know Sayaka would have, should she contract, and hued a pleasant carmine red.
You drop it in your pocket, to clink against Miss Unit 00's. Tamiko, you mean.
No attacks. Why are there no
attac-
Gravity
shifts.
The world turns ninety degrees, yanking you, Mami, Kirika, the University girls, the
entire platform, to the side.
A chorus of screams, as you fight for control.
A thunderflash of light, icepicks jabbed into your eyes. You're not the only one to scream again.
But that doesn't matter. You can see, despite tears streaming down your cheeks.
The rolling tidal wave of antimagic. No use. Yumi's too far for that.
Tumbling. Tumbling
sideways and
downwards. Gathering
speed.
Defense.
Grief blades and walls, flocking around all of you in a dense swarm, to meet a growing cloud of golden ribbons and paper.
You're not the only one who thought to defend.
Burning light, licking out. Burning away paper and ribbons. Scattering off Grief.
The tumbling ceases, but you're still falling. Falling
sideways. You're tumbling
towards Yumi. Closer and closer.
A grip, vise-tight, on your shoulder. You follow it to its owner - Chouko, her butterfly wings flared wide.
"
It's Minami," she screams at you. You recognize the name. Gravity girl. "
Take her out!"
"
Can't!" you reply. "
Range!"
"
Fuck! Miss Tomoe-" Her hand begins to let you go.
"
Wait!" You seize her by the wrist.
Falling
sideways. A plate of Grief 'beneath' you.
You slam into it shoulder first, accompanied by thuds and groans from the others.
You remain nailed to the plate, hovering vertically for a moment, and gravity
shifts, this time
downwards.
She's in range.
You reach out with her powers,
yanking with all your might at her Soul Gem with a flash formed manacle of Grief.
She's ready for it, her hand shooting out to grab her Soul Gem with both gravity and enhanced strength.
Gravity stops trying to slam you to the ground. Now you're 'only' falling.
A platform to catch everyone. Another shield, another bulwark against the beams of light that could crisp you in a second. Spikes, growing out from the manacle of Grief around Yumi's Soul Gem to shred her fingers.
Her powers falter, and you tear the Soul Gem out of her grasp.
The small shape zooms across the distance towards you, with the gravity controller sprinting desperately after it.
You crash onto the surface of your new Grief platform, almost landing on top of Kirika. Groans and thuds accompany the rest of the arrivals.
Chouko lands last, her wings fluttering gently behind her.
Without pause, you snatch the platform, dragging it forward through the rain pelting down at you, and away from that ambush.
"Is everyone OK?" you ask grimly. Yumi's fighting desperately for her Gem, gravity tugging and yanking at the small egg zooming towards you.
"I'm fine," Mami says, shuffling over next to you.
"Yeah," Kirika grunts.
"Miss Sabrina," Haru gasps, getting one hand under her and rising slightly. "I can't... I can't fight like this. My plants need to
grow on
something, and your, your magic..." she holds a hand up, a thorny vine worming into existence in a brief flash of green light, and then lets the vine drop to the ground. Roots sprout and crawl across the Grief platform without finding purchase, and the vine shrivels.
In the corner of your mind, you feel Yumi's body collapse as the gap between her and her Soul Gem opens up.
"Can't," you say. "Minami on our tail, Ramiel sniping us." Your eyes scan the rooftops as you pass at breakneck speeds, wary for another ambush.
"I can't
do anything like this," Haru says.
"Miss Suzuki, we cannot in good conscience let you fight alone," Mami says.
"I won't be alone-"
"She won't be alone-"
The Suzuki sisters speak in unison.
"Haru, Rei," Chouko speaks up. "They're right. Ramiel... burned right through your plants."
"If I had
time I could grow something
sturdier," Haru argues.
You raise your hand, anticipating the incoming Soul Gem. A heartbeat later, Minami Yumi's Soul Gem smacks into your hand.
Haru falls silent, staring uneasily.
Wham.
A tremendous blow knocks your platform sideways, an unbelievable amount of brute force.
"What was tha-" Rei begins, scrambling up and peering over the defensive wall.
Her sister yanks her back down. "Don't!"
Wham. Kirika shrieks as she's nearly thrown out.
A presence, far below on the ground.
And a deep, metallic
screech.
Your take a deep breath, and peek over, ready to duc-
Wham.
You see chunks of the whatever it was spalling past your face, and you flinch back.
But you need to see-
Below you, moving with impossible speed, weaving through the
streets, is a
mountain of metal. It's nearly three lanes wide, comprised of random bits of metal
signboards and shreds of
cars and other metallic
junk, a thundering avalanche cascading and
flowing around the cars being
driven by people. In its wake it leaves torn up asphalt and cars swerving wildly, barely in control.
What might be a mouth gapes open, and sparks fly as it bellows its brassy warcry again - the shriek of solid metal being
torn apart.
What the
fuck.
[] Defend and fly on
[] Engage
- [] How?
[] Write-in
=====
Uh. Yeah. That happened.