World Tree MUSH

    On a world that just recently blossomed, the city of Megaville is... Fairly peaceful for the time being. Crime is a little high, but local superheroes tend to that, so it's not something to worry about right this second. ... Usually.
    Right now things are pretty packed. The city is a massive megalopolis; sprawling, built tall, and spread out. With the recent blossoming, it looks like the people are gearing up to welcome offworlders; apparently quite welcoming of their new neighbors.
    There's something of a citywide celebration going on, because there's a parade with floats and balloons as people line the streets to welcome visitors from offworld with a brilliant display of vibrant joviality.

    THE CITY OF...this isn't Townsville? Wait hang on I got the right script here.

    Ahem. THE CITY OF MEGAVILLE! Dante's been playing Alley Brawler at the local arcade, managing his own in a tourney he just up and joined for giggles. "No way, he's so good!" "This dude's so hacking." "How? He just got here." "Y'ALL IN COLLUSION!"

    Dante just lets them speculate while he bludgeons the latest opponent with Kang.

 
 What was she doing here again? 
 
 This was the perfect spot for an outgoing of some kind, so why was a murder obsessed cyborg doing here? Cyber Frost, the said mentioned murder happy cyborg, stood by the sidelines dressed in her civilian clothes. Watching the crowd with a hint of jealousy in her blue eyes. Her hands were in her pockets and she was leaning on a wall. 
 
 She sighed, plumes of cold breath escaping her lips. "Suiren woulda liked coming here.." She muttered to herself. 

    Why is Hyouka here?

    Because it's a new world, of course!

    The magitech cyborg is all about visiting new and interesting places; and while her tastes typically lean more towards the fantasy side of things, she's still more than happy to see a strange new sci-fi city. Especially when she is, in a sense, one of the guests of honor!

    She might also be here to try the street food. Or festival food. Whatever's handy.

  "Please remind me why I'm here?" Anneka Stojespal's plaintive question is directed into the lightweight headset she's wearing, as she glares at floats inching past. She's wearing the black government suit that screams 'agency stiff,' which means she's here as an official representative of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division -- SHIELD.

  She's silent as she listens to whatever response she's getting, her mien one of bland resignation. Her single eye skims the crowd, and while she's not completely paying attention to the background, she is keeping watch for trouble.

  The quinjet pilot is smoking a cigarette, which explains why there's a slight bubble of personal space around her that is actually not jam-packed with people. She exhales smoke in an irritated breath, turning on her heel to glance over her left shoulder.

  Y'ALL IN COLLUSION!

  A kid's shouting in the arcade, but it's the shouting part that gets her attention. It's loud. Kids are loud. She frowns, because--

  Turning on her heel, Anneka strides into the arcade, although she keeps turning to keep half her attention on the crowds at the parade. "You really get around, don't you, Spardason?"

    The real problem with these sorts of.. festivities, and having groups of people about? Well.. Teresa is used to it. But Claymores are simply.. unsettling to be around. Creepy or weird to some, downright scary to others. Mostly, she's looking to see if there's some work to be had. But this place seems.. reasonably peaceful. There's more technology in place, it would appear, that monsters and the like aren't so much a threat. Or, so she would assume.

    So, it seems this is a mere side trip for her, at least for now. Teresa stays out of the way of most of the revelry, and when locals do approach her, they don't stick around for long. Teresa herself isn't much a fan of small talk, anyway, so it's fine for her, if they just get spooked and keep their distance.

    All in all it's a pretty loud festival. There's good food, good drink, floats, parade cars... The Governor is even in attendance. There's totally even an Alley Brawler tourney in the local arcade. Several local super heroes are in attendance as well, taking part in the parade, waving as their floats pass people by. Anyone who looks like an offworlder is welcomed with open arms- though unfortunately in Teresa's case, people are turned off pretty fast by the Claymore's unsettling aura and shy away just as fast, alas...
    Things go on like this for much of the day, with the whole city having a nice big jolly celebration.
    Until...
    Everything seems to stop when the ground shakes.
    A heavy stomp shakes the ground. And then another. And another. And another. And as the parade seemingly reaches an end, some... THING turns a corner, and marches itself into the rear of the procession.
    There's an instant panic as a monster- no a machine the size of a small building makes its presence known and roars, tromping heavily into the masses, cuasing people to run and scream and forcing the parade to not just come to a grinding halt but to break ranks into an utter wild and riotous panic.
    Cars honk, children cry, floats jumble into each other. The local superheroes mobilize and start trying to maintain order as best they can but it looks like they'll need some help if they want to keep the mechanical monstrosity at bay.

    To supernatural senses like Teresa's, Hyouka does not read as the elf she appears to be. No, she has all the mana of a full-sized, powerful dragon. But she's blissfully unaware of other offworlders nearby, despite her own superhumanly-sharp sight, hearing and smell; mostly because they're all occupied with 'eat food', 'watch parade' and 'listen to music'. Likewise, there's no recognition of kids yelling in an arcade. That's normal, after all!

    It's kinda hard to miss the stomping, though.

    "DARGN?!" the faux elf yells; a voice somewhere in the vicinity of her collarbone responds, "Public news feeds and information don't list this as part of the parade." The woman hisses an irritated, "Honestly, on my day off..." To which the voice merely replies, "Hyouka, your days off are whenever you wish. You're self empl-"

    The scream of a child cuts right through every thought, and the next instant, Hyouka is moving. Full-tilt running, weaving and darting through and around the crowd with superhuman alacrity. She's diving into the crowd specifically to ensure any kids in there aren't going to be hurt.

    Dante grins and takes a bite out of some pocky before offering some to Anneka. It's chocolate chip cookie flavored! "Man's gotta eat, right?" He says before throwing the fight so he and Anneka can chat. He'll collect the winnings he's gotten so far later. "It's good to see you too, Stojepal. How've you been?"

    Of course, of course something happened to interrupt the discussion. "Welp, there goes that. Time to go save the day!" He's not good with people, or evacuation, so he rushes his way towards the building sized machine, Rebellion in hand. Then he rushes it, propelling himself toward the beast and slashing at it with his greatsword.

 
 Yes, it's a lovely scene. 
 
 The people laugh, the children frolic, the sun shines. Everyone is having such a fun time. 
 
 It was why Cyber Frost continued wondering why she was here at all. If Suiren had dragged her to this festival she would understand, but even after all healing she had gone through with her little apprentice, Frost, at the end of the day, was still a creature made entirely of violence. She was molded by brutality, tempered in battle, violence given a cybernetic form. Why was she here? Something had compelled her to show up to a celebration that she had no interest in. 
 
 The ground trembled. The people screamed. The fear in the air was palpable all of the sudden. 
 
 Cyber Frost looked up to see a giant monster approaching the city with evil intent. Her eyes widened and.. why did she care? Why would she ever bother saving people? 
 
 Maybe, she just wanted to be more than a senseless killing machine. 
 
 Also, she was bored, and this would prove good entertainment. 
 
 "YEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSS!!!" Kombat at last!! Frost EXPLODED with freezing chi, and her clothes turned into her cybernetic armor, all with her ninja mask covering half her face, her blue hair VIOLENTLY spiking upwards not unlike a super saiyan. 
 
 "Taste cold death!!" The cyber ninja engaged her foot thrusters and jet pack and she flew into the skies and towards the giant robot. Her hands turned into drills as she dove straight into the chest of the creature, trying to plunge right into him. If nothing else to declare herself as her opponent and ensure the robot did not try and focus on the civilians. Was Frost being selfless!?? Or maybe she was just trying to hog all the glory again. Who knows at this point.. 

    This is particularly.. convenient. While not able to fly, Teresa is quick on her feet, and moves to impede the machine's path towards anyone who might happen to be in the way.

"Not fond of your sort. All these people were having a particularly lovely day. I mean, I do tend to frighten folk, but you? Goodness. I hope you don't step on someone."

Calmly, she draws her sword and approaches further, something of a brief shimmer around her that makes the nearby windows rattle, and anyone else nearby? It might make their hair stand on end. That feeling of.. unease one gets being around Teresa seems to increase. "Either way, I'm afraid you can't stay. And you'll have to go back to whatever.. hole you crawled out of, my dear." She smiles, now standing rather near the thing's feet, or what qualifies, as she looks straight up at the thing. "If you don't, I can't really say what might happen."

  The pocky is eyed suspiciously before the agent reaches out to take it. "Busy, as always." Anneka crunches on the end of it as she explains, glancing out to the street. "Always I am running for SHIELD. And do I get hazard pay for this nonsense? No." Crunch. Hmph. Her head whips around at the arrival of the robot, and she's instantly scowling, jabbing the half-pocky stick at the approaching menace. "And I will not get paid for this, either!" she roars, angrily, already turning on her heel and running towards the parade.

  She fumbles with her headset as she goes. Her cool Secret Agent shades bounce off the bridge of her nose and clatter to the ground, where they're stepped on by about a hundred panicking civilians. Which means Anneka is also pushing and shoving her way through the crowd, and her sharp elbows fly so much that people are moving way quicker than someone her size could shove out of the way. They'll thank her later.

  "Val! Get your ass over here, now!"

  Hovering low, the quinjet drops its cloak and shimmers as its black radar paint shimmers into view. It's already pivoting around to open the ramp, and Anneka is already leaping aboard as she does. There's a brief window of opportunity if anyone wants to hitch a ride, but it's fast.

  A smooth, feminine voice plays over the loudspeakers mounted on it. It's very clear, very calm, and pleasant.

  Attention. Please direct your evacuation routes to South Main Street. This will keep roadways clear for traffic to proceed smoothly.

  Anneka is beating the tar out of the flight controls in an effort to get over to the tangled parade floats. "C'mon, c'mon, c'mon," she slurs under her breath, squinting.

    Captain Stojespal, my systems have already plotted a course to the area of operation. Manual flight controls are unnecessary.

  A spark snaps in the cockpit. The pilot yelps and snatches her hand back. "Wh--that wasn't necessary!"

    It's chaos. In an instant it's chaos and anarchy. People run and scream, cars and floats log jam in the street, and that ... That metal monstrosity inexorably approaches, screeching a challenging cry to anyone that might stand in its way. It is not kept waiting long.
    The instant Hyouka is among the people, a throng of children cower behind the cyborg, looking up at her with pleading eyes, waiting and ready for instruction, whether it's to hide, flee, or find safe refuge somewhere, they'll listen to her.
    Dante and Frost engage the beast, earning a horrid metallic screeching roar as the Son of Sparda hacks into its armored hide with Rebellion and the cyber Lin Kuei jams her icy drills into its heavily plated midsection, it swipes at them with massive claws before...
    Teresa approaches.
    The Claymore remains so calm and placid in the face of this monstrous thing-- she has likely faced far worse in her time, and yet her aura of pure menace causes the monstrous machine to focus *right on her*, as though she were the biggest threat to its existence, lashing out wildly with a massive clawed hand at the silver-eyed slayer.
    Anneka summons her quinjet. The voice that projects over the loudspeakers is, thankfully, louder than the panicking crowds, and on the calm instruction to a specific point of escape, the crowd starts flowing in the direction of South Main Street.
    Among all the chaos there seems to be a poor, unfortunate, victim caught in all the madnes... A small girl with silver hair in a white dress. She seems awfully calm considering the situation, but with the surging crowd all around and the battle with the metal monster so close by, she hunkers down in a nearby alleyway for a moment as though hoping to find succour there from the rioting, disorder, and pandemonium.

    Hyouka spends a few moments just shielding the kids from the press of the crowd - and the crowd will find her decidedly difficult to budge. "Shh, it's okay, I'm here. Big sis Hyouka is here." She looks up, head darting left and right; and then Anneka's jet calls out evacuation directions. A glance up, and then she looks at the kids again. "Okay, I need you all to go that way. Follow the direction other people are going, okay? Keep going, and don't let grownups knock any of you over." She gives them a little nudge, and then turns.

    That parade is still causing problems, and the woman can't help a frown. "DARGN, there any way you can get their attention?" she asks. The AI replies smoothly, "You know full well I'm not equipped with any means of hacking." A grunt. "...I have Wind installed. Is there anything I could do with that?"

    DARGN is silent for a moment, before responding, "Perhaps. I have an idea."

    For once, Hyouka doesn't bother with the 'activation phrase' for her FISTEAU units. Her arms simply begin to transform, forearms fanning open, panels sliding apart, larger pieces folding out and snapping into place from the void within. Two tremendous mechanical gauntlets replace her arms entirely from the elbow down, and lines of green mana immediately begin to trace along them. Fanning her fingers out, Hyouka begins flooding both colossal hands with Wind, the charge building up and glowing brighter-

    -until quite abruptly, she swings the massive hands up and claps them together, discharging all that wind mana at the same time.

    *POW*

    The instant all the parade drivers are looking, Hyouka yells out. "OI! GET SOME CONTROL OF YOURSELVES! YOU'RE GROWN-ASS ADULTS, AREN'T YOU?! YOU'RE GONNA RUN SOMEONE'S KID OVER!"

 
 All in all; a weak counter! 
 
 When Cyber Frost plunged her icy drills into the creature's torso, she was expecting a few more slashes thrown her way. There were some, yes, but they felt half hearted, almost as if the monster was looking right through her to find a better target. Very easy to dodge. 
 
 "What's it looking at??" Frost pulled back in the air to avoid a few stray shots sent her way and looked down to the ground. She saw nothing really, the ruined streets, people running away screaming, and a lone blond woman with a sword? Huh? 
 
 "ACK!" Whatever was going on below her, the monster was FURIOUS! Enough that he plowed right past Frost to try and attack Teresa. Frost was very injured, though not in the physical sense, her pride could not tolerate someone being a bigger threat than her! "Hey you bastard! Don't ignore me!!" 
 
 The cyber ninja screamed as she summoned the mother of all ice lances to her hands. It was easily triple her size and she had to wrap her arms around it to keep control of it. The monster had gone and start attacking the ground though, fully exposing its back to Frost, and she aimed to punish the beast by swinging down her giant ice spear and try and impale its back. Thrusters at full power as she dove downwards into the attack. 
 
 "HRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!" 

    Teresa's sword arm flashes out in the blink of an eye. Maybe even a little faster than that. She can't sense this thing, given it's mechanical nature. But, it's big. So big, that the windup on that attack is one she could see coming. "That's it. I'm right here." Her sword meets one of those claws, with a loud clang, the reverberation of the blow enough to make whatever metal her sword is made of sing.

CLANG..

Teresa herself is shoved back several dozen meters, heels digging into the street itself, till she's knee deep in the asphalt. But, the robotic monstrosity's arm is flung back as well, up and away, as a result. It's simply one of Newton's laws at work, between equal and opposite reactions, and conservation of energy, and such.. Regardless, the thing probably won't be able to wind up an attack like that, again, at least for the moment.

"That was a good one." Teresa offers, with a smile, though she's not certain the thing can understand her.

    Dante's sword cleaves through steel as he and Frost directly engage the mechanical monster. While he doesn't notice Teresa, her senses will get a huge flare of DEMONIC ENERGY from him if she can sense him. Focused on more pertinent matters, Dante blocks strikes with Rebellion before he swipes in return, aiming for one of the joints!

    He can hear shouting in the distance, impressively enough. And yep, that definitely sounds like Hyouka. Dante grins as the office lady turned cyborg dragon-elf tries to wrangle the crowd, there's the fire he remembers from her. God, it's good to have her back in the fray.

  The majority of civilians are following the correct route, the Valkyrie reports to Anneka. Descending to street level.

  Anneka ignores the AI, because she's still irritably piloting the aircraft herself: The manual controls override the autopilot and she knows it.

  It probably helps that the Valkyrie is so silent. Most quinjets rely on turbofans to maintain lift, but somehow, this one makes not a sound. There's a faint electrical whirring, but it's so subtle that it's completely lost in the din, which also means the Valkyrie's loudspeakers are a lot easier to hear.

  "Let these clowns know we're coming down to rescue their asses," Anneka growls, scanning the instruments and the viewport both as she brings the aircraft down. "Make it as loud as you need to. Probably they are all tangled up in those floats."

  Attention. An aircraft has arrived to transport you to safety. Please cease your struggling and allow SHIELD Agent Stojespal to escort you aboard the aircraft, single-file.

  "Nicely done." Anneka's praise is grudging; she'll be waiting for the other shoe to drop later. For now, she's tearing off her harness and sprinting out the cargo ramp; having grabbed a knife from the storage locker, she's intent on helping the operators caught up and tangled inside the floats. She lands so fast she's skidding a bit on her knees as she leans over to start sawing at the float's cords and paneling. "Stop struggling!" she barks, heavily accented in an indistinct Eastern European or Slavic language. "Will make me miss and cut you instead of float!"

  Attention, float operators. This aircraft will pick you up. Please board the aft cargo entrance, some time this cen-- Val's smooth voice glitches out and suddenly carries on as though nothing happened, --board the aft cargo entrance, and secure yourselves in any available harnesses.

    The damage builds. The trio fighting the mechanical beast vastly outpower the thing, but it chooses to remain and fight to the last anyway. Dante's demon blade cleaves into an arm joint, immobilizing that limb and causing it to fall limp while Frost's grand ice lance impales the monster from behind, earning a horrid screech of metal and... Pain. The beast seems to draw in a deep breath before its mouth lights up from within-- before it releases a plume of superheated flame at both the son of Sparda and Sub Zero's best-worst student.
    Before its other arm is sent reeling back by the sheer force of Teresa's blow, earning a snarl of defiance to the utter and spiteful last as it tries to bite down on the Claymore woman with what must be the last of its strength before the three fighting it will certainly be able to bring it down.
    A loud, thundrous CLAP resounds and the panicking float drivers come to grinding, screeching halt, beginning to, just a little more calmly and a lot more embarrasedly shut down their vehicles, climb out, and board the quinjet as berated by the cyborg and instructed by the ever so helpful jet AI.
    But what about that girl in white?
    The one cowering in an alley?
    The issue is... She wasn't exactly cowering.
    There's a soft sigh as she emerges, not too far from Hyouka.
    "Geeze, they're really tearing him apart." Murmured a silver eyes look on at the sight of Dante, Cyber Frost, and Teresa dealing with the monster. This is when a small hand tugs on Hyouka's shirt for attention.
    "Excuse me."
    There's a brief pause as she waits for the cyborg to give her full and undivided focus while the child taps a finger to her lower lip.
    "Hi! My name is Bell." She's remarkably unafraid considering what's going on. "And I'm here to..."
    "BEAT THE HELL OUT OF YOU."
    The sudden swing is like a cobra striking, her fist reeling back and lashing at the cyborg's solarplexus with all the force of a mack truck.

    The parade has... started to come under control. But it's not quite there yet. Hyouka lets the flow of mana into her gauntlets die back a bit, but keeps her hands transformed; she'll have to move further back and try to stop the rest of the drivers. "DARGN, can you at least contact a radio or someth-"

    Tug, tug tug. Hyouka blinks and turns, eyes widening a little. Another child that hasn't evacuated yet? In a heartbeat, the cyborg is back in 'mom mode', face softening. "Hello, Bell. I'm Hyouka. It's not safe here, so let's-" She stops when the girl has more to say-

    Bell can probably learn some things about Hyouka in that brief moment of contact. She's durable; it was already obvious she's at least partially artificial, but that blow feels less like human flesh, and more like hitting steel - or perhaps something even tougher. It's also obvious, from the way her eyes dart and her head tilts, that the woman actually has superhuman reaction times. She sees the blow, and registers it quickly enough that, were she on her guard, she could probably have reacted to it.

    But Hyouka Kiyama is not on her guard.

    Thus, about a half second later, Hyouka's back slams into masonry hard enough to crater the wall, before she falls forward and onto the sidewalk. "Khh-! D-DARGN, what-" "She hit you, Hyouka. With superhuman strength." The faux elf looks up at Bell, shock and confusion plain in her eyes.

>> SUMMARY[Hyouka Kiyama] >> +comp tripped, cyborg is conflict.

    Dante tanks the flame head-on, calling upon demonic energy to 'block' it somehow. This basically just means holding out a hand in a blocking motion while it just...flows around him instead. Superhuman reflexes and the powers of a demon go a long way, you see. With the style of Royal Guard displayed, Dante begins to rush toward the mechanical monstrosity, and he propels himself into the air to deliver a dropkick at the fiery maw with his boot! "EAT HEEL!"

  Anneka stays crouched even as the last of the battle against the giant robot plays itself out. Stubbornly sawing at the nylon cording, she puts some extra effort into it, baring her teeth as she braces and tries to get through the cords as fast as possible. That's a very sharp combat knife made of very fine steel, so it's a very good idea for the float operators to stop moving.

  "Great God I hate when these things come up while I am trying to do something else. Do you know how exhausting it is to have to drop everything I am doing to stop and handle something like this? Who in the hell turns something like that loose on a public gathering, anyway? Come on, get out and get in the quinjet!" Anneka pauses in her sawing a moment to jab the knife, arm fully extended, in the Valkyrie's direction. The quinjet waits, running lights chasing perimeters in calming blue. "Hurry up!"

  She's the last one aboard, lunging past the cargo hold and into the cockpit. The ramp slides closed as the quinjet lifts smoothly into the air, and in the pilot's chair, Anneka leans forward as the Valkyrie pivots to keep focused on the action. It's probably recording the whole thing.

  Down below, she can see Bell suddenly assaulting Hyouka. She punches commands on the console, transmitting her own voice through the loudspeaker.

  <Look out!>

  Too late, probably, but she had to try.

  Oh. Yeah. Too late. Anneka cringes as Hyouka crashes into the wall. Ohhh, that's gonna leave a mark. "Great God."

  Is Dante kicking that giant robot thing to death? She can be okay about that fire, in the cockpit, where she can stay well above it. Oh, yeah, he's totally kicking that thing.

  <Nice one, Spardason.>

 
 If only Sub-Zero could see her now. 
 
 Piercing a giant robot with an enormous ice spike through the back. 
 
 Surely then sifu would realize just how amazing she was! That she was worthy of saving the world along with Cassie and her stupid fan club! 
 
 "SUCK IT DOWN, FOOL!!!" Frost seemed-- unreasonably angry with the giant monster, more so than her usual irritable self. She was probably channeling at this point, pretending that the robot was someone else that she hated in her past. 
 
 "GRRRAAAAH!!" The cybernetic ninja pinned the creature down and snapped the ice spear in half, leaving a chunk of it inside the robot. She didn't bother with the theatrics of claiming it was a Fatality as she was aware that this, despite her best attempts, had been a team effort. With Teresa taunting the thing and vaguely aware of Dante's presence- the man just reminded her too much of Cage to even try and greet him. 
 
 Is that all then? 
 
 *WHAM!* Cyber Frost turned as she heard the unmistakable sound of a superpowered haymaker to a cybernetic solar plexus- a situation she'd been in multiple times. "What the hell?" She narrowed her eyes as she saw a little girl with silvery hair beating the crap out of Hyouka. What was going on there?? 
 
 For whatever reason.. Frost decided to bail on the robot and she engaged her thrusters, flying directly behind Bell's back. She wasn't even trying to attack her in full devastating fury as she normally would, as sadistic as Frost was she couldn't just start wailing on a little girl. 
 
 "Hey! Cut it out ya friggin' brat!!" Snarled the Kunoichi as she tried to wrap her arms around Bell to hold her down tightly and restrain her. 
 

    Teresa's attention, briefly, is drawn to Dante, and his usage of demonic energy. That seems to immediately trip some conditioned alarm bells, but she's able to divert her attention back to the task at hand. "Ah. Pardon me, then." She states, as the creature leans in and tries to just bite her, or at least swallow her whole. So, her response to this is to just jump into its mouth. Those teeth aren't everywhere, of course. Keeping her sword in one hand, the other busies itself by holding the thing's mouth OPEN for a moment, so it can't swallow her. And then, simply stabbing her sword upward.

"This is about as rude as it gets. Didn't your mother teach you to chew first, then swallow? Alas."

She's more.. amused by the thing's course of action, rather than perturbed or in distress. That sword certainly doesn't care what this robot is made out of, that much is certain.

    The monster... Does not last much longer.
    Dante's impressive kick dents the metal skull and as it tries its best to drunkenly bite down on Teresa, the Claymore gives it a taste of her claymore. As that powerful blade bites through the metal behemoth's skull, it must hit something delicate and sensitive within. Because the light dies from the monter's eyes, its jaw falls slack, and it begins to topple with a groan of metal bending in ways it should not.
    MEANWHILE, Bell can't help but cover her mouth to stifle a giggle. The confusion in Hyouka's eyes is just delicious to her after that brutal blow, and the girl spends a beat tittering.
    "Didn't expect that, did you?" She crows. "But you're fast huh... Not a lot of people would have seen that coming." She huffs and gives her knuckles a good cracking as she starts slowly approaching the downed cyborg, clearly intent on dealing out more punishment while Hyouka is down.
    Until Frost of all people comes to Hyouka's aid and puts the much smaller girl in a martial arts lock.
    This... This is when Bell slowly turns her head to the Cyber Lin Kuei.
    "You did not just touch me..." She says, voice low, silver eyes narrowing as she draws a slow breath.
    And shifts her weight suddenly, intending to bodily slam the chilly cyborg into the ground with cratering force.
    Regardless of the outcome, the girl is grinning wickedly.
    "Oh. You all broke daddy's toy. But that's okay... I can take you all on."

>> GAME >> Bell uses a Free Edge for: I Can Take You All On

 
 Who does brat think she is? Trying to intimidate -the- Cyber Frost. She puts the chill of death on greater foes! This cutesy princess got nothing on her! 
 
 Frost glared right back as the little girl turned to stare daggers at her. "Yeah! I did! What'choo gonna do about i-AAAAAAAAGGH!!" *SLAM!* 
 
 Much like Hyouka, Frost did not see that coming. One moment she was restraining Bell and then the next her whole world was upside down as she was slammed on the ground with enough to cause a crater underneath her. "Okay, that smarts.." The cyborg muttered to herself and laid still for a second- though mostly to process what just happened. Then, she was kicking herself back to her feet and facing Bell again, taking a Tongbeiquan stance as she suddenly realized this was a real opponent. 
 
 "What the hell are you talking about?" She shook her head. "Whatever, you ain't a normal kid, that means I don't have to pull my punches." While still unsure of Bell's identity, Frost realized that she was and needed to be handled in someway. 
 
 She inched forward and threw her left foot outwards, making it look like she was going to try and kick Bell on the shin. At the last moment, she changed the trajectory of the kick and aimed high, swinging it hard against Bell's head to try and slam a full on kick on the girl's temple with enough force that it might as well look like she was trying to kick Bell's head off. Then again.. that'd be just like Frost to try and brutalize someone like that. 

    At the very least, Hyouka is quick to get back up on her feet. But more than anything, she looks conflicted. She brings those huge fists up, lines of green light pulsing along them, but the cyborg can't bring herself to go on the attack. When Bell does so, all the older woman can do is fall back into a defensive posture - until Frost grabs hold of her.

    "Wait-!" The woman almost instinctively reaches out a hand when Frost latches on, protective instinct rising up at seeing a grown cyborg fight with what looks like a young girl. The subsequent attempted slam turns Hyouka's face into a grimace.

    "Hyouka," DARGN says, her tone unusually sharp. "She is not what she appears. Judging by her words, she's connected to whoever caused this incident. If you don't fight, your allies will be-" Hyouka cuts across, her own voice agitated. "I know! I'm just..."

  Although Anneka can see what Cyber Frost is doing from the altitude she's at, she can't identify who it is heaping all the abuse on the giant robot; the cyborg isn't familiar to her. She can still be impressed by the sheer level of carnage, though, whistling low. "Damn. Don't want to be nearby when that one has a bad day."

  The cyborg switches targets to the silver-haired girl. Surely two against one might be outside the girl's comfort zone? Oh, and Teresa just jumped into the thing's mouth.

  "Wait, what--"

  Captain Stojespal. Nope stop gawking and pay attention. Might I suggest charting a course through to the southeastern quarter of the city?

  "Do it." Anneka pulls out her phone, letting the Valkyrie pilot itself. "Agent Philip Coulson. I know this is your voicemail. Pick up the phone it's a god damned emergen--oh. There you are. You had better send multiple extraction teams to my location. There are civilians in danger. No, Val, take that parallel, it will be faster."

  Analysis shows--

  "DO IT."

    "Nice stab there!" Dante grins, oblivious to anything Teresa might sense from him, or if she's got some compulsion to attack hellspawn, but Dante rushes off regardless to help Hyouka and Frost.

    To say he wasn't expecting a little kid being a match for two combat cyborgs is understating it, "Lemme guess, she's some kinda demon robot!" He calls out, and he pops his knuckles. Flames envelop Dante's body, the white haired half-demon taking on Devil Trigger, becoming a mix of bug, man, and dragon with claws, buzzing wings, fangs, and horns with blazing red eyes. "You've done it now, sweetheart."

    He then proceeds to try and put Bell into an armlock! It's hard for Dante to explain why, but he's having trouble bringing himself to beat up an adorable girl, even if she is a killer android.

    Dammit. Why does Bell have to make this so hard?

    That was a good distraction. Teresa climbs out of the thing's maw, afterwards, and tucks her sword behind her back. "Ah. Well. Don't think that's for me." She mutters, as the others seem to be.. fighting, what looks to her, to be a little girl. A strong one, but a little girl. Dante's transformation gets her brow quirking upward, but she sighs, realizing she'd been reaching for her sword again. There's probably.. a good reason his Devil Trigger form looks so.. strange to her. Demon or not.

So, with that in mind, she's pretty much done. Everything else more or less being in hand, Teresa just decides to leave, instead. She has no intention of drawing her sword on a child, at any rate.

    The chaos has... Largely died down now. The machine has been destroyed. Anneka ferries people away from the site of the carnage, and that just leaves Bell and the offworld defenders as Teresa chooses this moment to withdraw from the scene.
    And it looks like Frost has no intention to heed Hyouka's plea to wait.
    Dante snags the small girl in an armlock and as he does, the cyber Lin Kuei's kick lands solidly, making Bell's head jerk, but...
    Why does it feel like she just soaked the blow?
    And then. What's worse is her reprisal.
    With an inhuman level of force she hauls off to try and headbutt the son of Sparda before reeling her free arm back to deliver a haymaker to Frost's center of mass with as much force if not more than the amount the cyborg poured into her kick, as she...
    Suddenly stops.
    Bringing a finger to her ear she scowls.
    "What?"
    ...
    "-- But I wasn't done yet!" She snaps, clearly talking to someone over a radio frequency only she can hear.
    "That's not fair! Ugh! ... F-fine, daddy. I'll come home." She huffs.
    ...
    "Yes. Yes, they destroyed it. It's trashed."
    ...
    Lowering her hand, she draws in a slow, disappointed sigh.
    "You're all lucky. I'm going home now. Don't bother following me." She says before suddenly taking to the sky at top speed, contrails of white light trailing after her as she zooms off.

Dante is about to throw Bell into the sky when suddenly she calls timeout. "Did you just-You can't call timeout, this isn't recess!" He protests, only for him to realize he's being ignored.

    Sighing, Dante just turns Devil Trigger off, as comical as the sight of a demon whining like a teenager is it's a drain on Dante's energy.

    Bell zooms off, and Dante stares nonplussed. "Um. At least the city's safe?"

    And the question of whether or not Hyouka would pull herself together and go on the offensive... is left unanswered. The superhumanly powerful girl with the silver hair gets a call from daddy, and just... flies off and away.

    Hyouka does finally lower her guard, but other than that, she's just... left standing there, watching quietly. Not really sure what to say, or do, or even think. DARGN briefly speaks up, a gentler, "Hyouka-" But before the AI can get any further, Hyouka hisses a shell-shocked, "Stop. Just... not now."

 
 WHAT!? What is this girl made out of?? She should have no head now. Frost was almost certain that this kid was a robot so she was expecting at least sparks to start flying when she delivered her explosive kick. Not for Bell to simply shrug it off along with Dante's grapple. 
 
 And what was worse, now she was throwing a punch at her. "Ah! Oh no you don't!" Although Bell's technique was not as refined as that of a hardened martial artist, Frost had seen what Bell did to Hyouka and she wasn't going to let it happen to her. The ninja went for the full boxing guard. Bringing her forearms in front of her and ducking her body behind them so that Bell hit her arms instead of her solar plexus. 
 
 That ought to cushion the blow some. 
 
 "F--FUCK!" The ninja went flying backwards and slammed against a building. The impact causing the wall to crackle, and as she bounced off and fell to the ground, Frost's head actually popped off her neck and rolled off her body. Her eyes spinning in their sockets as she laid still.