World Tree MUSH

    Vines (the portal-y sort) crop up around what at first appears to be an old, abandoned military outpost. Styled quite similar to modern Earth levels of technology, the walls surrounding it are shattered in many places, and old tanks and trucks litter the area half-burried in the ground, rusted, remnants of a war that's lasted far too long.

    It's also night, and pitch black.

    From the camp, gunfire echoes before something seemingly large smashes into the ground and kicks up a dust cloud. A massive armored being, four to five times the size of a person, lifts its sword back up, sending countless men flying.

    Joining the Iron Giant is a swarm of imps, skinny, purple-ish humanoids who'd probably topple over dead if hit in the face with any measure of strength. On the other hand, there's a lot, and they seem to be emerging - that is, coming into existence - out of black and purple miasma that congeals in the shadows.

    Around the camp, there are large spotlight setups, like you'd find around a football field, but oddly they are pointed AWAY from the outpost, save for one. Also they're off. The generators powering them seem to have been badly damaged, and the wires cut.

    Life is pretty awful for those on guard duty right now.

    Shin, of all things, seems to walk out of the Vine leading to this world. He's got his backpack on and it seems to be night, causing him to pull a flashlight out of it and click it on. It's not a particularly powerful flashlight, but it lets him illuminate the road in front of him, "Oh sweet. Wrecked cars." 

    However, upon inspection of the cars, they're all too wrecked to be much good for anything. And too rusted for him to steal pieces of scrap to sell to people, "Aww lame. They're all shitty husks." He shines his flashlight around inside of one and scowls, "Not even any good old shit to RPG Item Acquire in here." He ignores a couple of redstone shards on the ground and keeps walking. 

    Shin keeps walking towards the sounds of a commotion at the old base, curiously shining his light. Once monsters start materializing and turning in out of shadows. Shin keeps a pretty calm pace as he walks towards the base, "Oi! How much are you guys paying to get saved? Like... what's the reward line for this quest? World events tend to be pretty shit for payout, so I might pass." 

    Even as he says this, he grabs one of the imps by the horns and pulls it backwards, tripping it over his leg and then stomping it out on the ground in a practiced motion.

Vines are strange and she's found herself at this place it's pitch black, she can hear gunfire it's not an alien sound to her at all. The raptor she rides on lets out a trilling noise of caution. 

 "That's right Clever this isn't good. We can not leave them." 

 The raptor almost seems to protest but seems to understand. Wing Teeth is also on her shoulder and it does not seem happy about the state of things. 

 Olivia cracks the reigns and the Raptor charges for the camp. There's so many horrors, they need to keep those who can fight able to. The Guards would see a woman in very low tech gear from the looks of her riding a Raptor towards them she then leaps off the raptor gives a whistle she's got a old pistol at her hip and she opens fire on some of the attacking things, she's more trying to get their attention and then wing teeth leaps off her shoulder flying at high speed, while the raptor engages as will, it's clear she's running interference. Hopefully she and her two dinos can get the guards some breathing space. 

 "I COME AS A FRIEND!" 

 

 she fires another shot from her pistol as she moves.

    It had been a relatively quiet evening at Snowpeak. Rydia was handling some minor chore or another when a sudden path to another world opened up outside of the manor.
    "... Terra you might want to come take a look at this."
    Five minutes later the two green-haired girls were dressed in their winter finest to investigate the anomaly outside the fortress manor, and decided curiosity won out over reason, and stepped through.
    "Where are we NOW?" Rydia asks, squinting into the darkness. Before the sound of gunfire makes the child flinch. Then she sees the monsters. The giant and the imps locked in heated combat with the men at the outpost.
    "Should... Should we help them?"
    Too late, the decision is made when men go flying, and Rydia rushes on ahead. Skidding to her knees over a fallen soldier, setting her hands on the man as they glow with a warm light. Her White Magic isn't as good as it could be, but it's better than nothing when the need to establish triage abounds.

    "Hup!" Goku comes flying out of one of the portals mid-long jump! And skids to a halt a good twenty foot beyond it. "I can't see!" He complains to nobody in particular, before realizing... oh, it's night time here. He had no idea that could happen! It wasn't night where he left!

    He's just pondering whether there's any reason not to head back when... CRASH! The distant sound of combat catches his attention... and soon Goku's dashing into the fray! What he can make out isn't that great with all of the lights off, but he comes springing into the front lines and lands atop one of the smaller buildings. "....Hmmmm!!!"

    Tense and on edge, the boy sets his eyes on the imps and the Iron Giant... and takes a good look at what's going on down below... "They LOOK like demons!" Honestly, he has NO idea what's going on, but the brutality being displayed by said 'demons' both excites and angers him.

    "Alright then! I'll help those soldiers drive them off!" Doesn't take much for the boy to make up his mind, does it?

    So Goku slides a bit down the building's side... and kicks off it with enough force to crack the wall.

    This turns him into a speeding meteor. At the last moment he curls into a somersault and focuses all of his momentum and strength into one good KICK to the side of the Iron Giant's head, aiming to knock him clear away from the soldiers and into any imps. Or maybe into the side of the building. Whatever. Either way there's a LOT of force in that kick!

    Terra was just starting to get used to quiet! Still, she tears herself away from what she was seeing to before and looks upon the vine somewhat impassively. What's she meant to make of this...?

    The whirlwind that is Rydia soon sweeps her along into an impromptu adventure at the other side of the vine and her last breath of cold mountain air is suddenly replaced with the scent of battle. The crackle of gunfire is enough to get anyone's attention and she ducks on reflex, reachin for the small girl with her- "Yes, but we must-"

    Then Rydia is off and it's all she can do to keep up, dashing along and drawing her shining curved blade. Despite her training screaming at her to slow down and be careful her primary concern is Rydia, who skids to a halt and begins healing a fallen soldier. Somewhat ashen faced she steps past the guardsman to provide cover while he receives some much needed healing. For the moment she stays her hand, not moving to do more lest she invite further attention from the imps swarming about or inadvertently frighten her young companion with an unnessesarry display. "When we move, please keep low and if I ask you to close your eyes please trust me. Alright?"

    Aww.

    Shin is lucky that people here are used to the concept of wandering adventurers. The ones still standing call out to him, the moment they see him deck an imp with no effort. "Hunter, over here! We'll talk payment after the fact but we're not short on gil, don't worry!" So money, probably.

    Of course, being in the thick of things isn't a total breeze. The imps keep rushing past Shin, occasionally close enough to clip him with their knives or horns even, although they seem to be after the guards more than anything.

    "We need the lights!" the guards insist.

    Olivia riding on a dinosaur is certainly odd, but dinosaurs are a thing here so it's not... THAT farfetched. Enough to make the guards stare, but it's a novelty, not a impossibility. Also she's on their side, so they're not going to complain. Keeping the imps occupied via gunfire keeps them off the guards, who can pick up their wounded easier and rally.

    And the same is true of Rydia, who uses magic to get them up. THAT gets a stare, and a few of the guards audibly wonder if they make Glaives that young or what. Healing magic though, they're not going to complain. More guards rise, their weapons helping keep the imps off their helpers for now.

    Goku goes for the big one. He slams into the Iron Giant, which staggers ever slightly under the impact. That daemon feels more like a suit of animated armor than a living being, Goku's feet can tell him, and it acts like one. A dent in its plating is better than nothing. It spins around, unusually fast, and swings that massive sword around.

    The weapon's big enough that it immediatly threatens Rydia, Terra and Olivia too, not just the friendly kicking child, if not with the blade, with the ensuing shockwave.

    "Sounds fair. I'll name my reward price after we're done," Shin says as he dusts off his hands. There's a lot of people here all showing up at once. He's glad he negotiated terms up front instead of helping for free. He gives the guard that was shouting at him a thumbs up and then winces as a couple imps get him with their knives in passing. 

    "That's multiple opponents, then. I have a size advantage, better leverage. Feels like a chance for some good ol' Judo." Shin cracks his knuckles and then starts to walk towards the guards. His demeanor is relaxed, but he's definitely moving with a certain amount of fluidity and purpose. 

    Generally, any time an imp comes within arms reach, Shin reaches out and grabs it. He uses leverage and balancing to toss it to the ground and stomp down or sometimes outright punch them in the throats. It's pretty brutal and he's able to do it with a remarkable ease as he wades his way towards the guards to try to take over some of the pressure on them.

    "Huh? What's a Glaive?" Rydia seems to have caught that as she moves on from the first man to deal with another, and another where she can. But she is focused, at the moment, on trying to save lives where she can.
    "I kind of can't work blind, you know." She retorts to Terra. "But I mean... Fine, I trust you." She decides after a beat, looking up to see...
    "-Shin! Goku!" Two people who are very good with their fists. This isn't looking so bleak- even if Goku brazenly goes for the giant. Rydia opens her mouth to say something- before the shockwave from the massive monster's sword bowls her over with a squeak. But she's quickly pushing herself up to her feet.
    "Wh... Whyt." She mutters. And the mist that lingers around her responds, swirling in place once before it floats free. The mists coalesce into a more solid form, taking on the shape of a dragon hatchling. "Help me drag the wounded men out of the way." It'll be less for those still able to fight to have to worry about as the girl and her dragon set to pulling people aside, wielding white magic where she can while otherwise trying to be as not in the way as possible.

Olivia Montag sees the local warriors, get the idea she's here to help and they make good use of it. Rydia's pwers dpo catch her attention but not for lng as she's got to worry about that shockwave, whelp that kends Clever flying and Wing Teeeth is forced to get the heck away from it and is unable to fighht. Olivia is also knocked over, and hurt byt the force of the shockwave. All is not lost she's back on her feet and has pulled another weapon as she's recovering. A sword and she seems to know how to use it. 

 "What are you girl?" 

 She asks of Rydia but it's more given she saw her heal the troops in a way not even a Medical brew could, at least the speed. She now moves in getting up close, bobing and weaving into the ranks of the imps as she keeps running her interfearance.

    WHAM! If Goku's foot wasn't as tough as steel that would've probably hurt badly. As it is, with the Iron Giant managing to NOT go flying... the strain on his leg's much greater and pain lances up it. Just a few hints. "Khhhkhkghhhhhh---!" BOING! The boy leaps back and hits the ground in a fighting stance! "That thing's heeeeeaaaaavy!! What is it?" An Android like Metallitron or Eighter maybe?

    Just as he's pondering his next approach... in COMES THAT SWORD! "AAAAAAAAH!!" In a flurry of panicked motion Goku SLAMS his hands against the flat of the blade, hoping to stop it dead.

    This accomplish little besides ensuring he's not chopped in half, as his comparatively little weight means he's HOISTED RIGHT OFF the ground and FLUNG by the centrifugal force. WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH---

    CRASH! ... Straight into the side of one of the outpost buildings. No, straight THROUGH it. The wall crumbles, despite its sturdy construction, leaving Goku buried under a bunch of concrete, steel bars, dust, and whatever else might be used here...

    "HAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!" -- though not for long, as a mighty Kiai sends most of the rubble flying off him and tumbling to the ground around. He somersault-leaps forward and back into the fray lines, drawing the crimson bo staff from its simple holster on his back in the middle of the manuever. A fist against a sword is a bad idea, after all!

    Then he hears his name called?! By a familiar voice no less.

    "Huh?!" A glance over his shoulder-- "RYDIA!" Despite the life or death situation the boy manages a brilliantly cheery smile. For just a moment anyways! There's other things going on back there, but he doesn't know Olivia's name. or that other martial artist. "Do you know what's going on? What do these Demons want?!"

    Back to the fight! He raises the weapon for offense and... "POWER POLE, EXTEND!" The bo staff flashes with mystical energies and STRETCHES out the dozens of feet to the Iron Giant. Beginning an advance of shuffling steps, Goku begins swinging the ungainly looking thing to try and bash the Iron Giant around and beat it back and away from Rydia and the others. Gotta get it out of shockwave range of the girls!

    The situation goes from bad to worse as Terra looks on. The imps- there's so many! The more immediate threat appears to be the massive creature of steel, dimly reminding her of something similar, something terrible. Goku's attack snaps her out of her momentary disconnect and she spares a glance backward. Rydia moves, so she moves as well, swiping her weapon at anything that gets close.

    It appears she underestimated the massive iron beast and the reach it has on tap. The blast from that swipe knocks her prone with a yelp and while, "Only for a moment! Now!" She pushes up, clutches her sword and lifts a hand as she calls upon magic that comes to her with all the ease of a casual stroll. "Please watch out!" Mostly to Goku, though the others will hopefully be alright.

    The air around the golem splits and roars as curtains of flame surge into being and sweep toward it. Should she remain unbothered, she'll continue to pour it on in an effort to aid Goku pushing the thing away and out of range so she might turn her wrath upon the imps still swarming about. Though Olivia and Shin are certainly doing wonderful work thinning that out.

    Shin shows the imps what for. It probably looks spectacular from afar, and the guards sure are impressed. It's worth noting the imps kind of vanish upon death, turning back into that weird black and purple fog. Either way, he'll have leeway to demand payment, that's for sure. Gunfire from the guards finally offers him support, too - there's not a single imp on his tail this time! Shin gets a few moments to figure out what he wants to do.

    Rydia gets an answer from one of the guards she helps up, in the cover of the mist. "You don't know about the Glaives? The Kingsglaives? Special ops, using the king's magic fight against the daemons and the Niffs?"

    Don't look a gift horse in the mouth though. The guards are pretty happy to be both healed and to have cover. From the mist, from the woman riding a raptor. This gives them the time they need to rally.

    And rally they do. Unified and making full use of Rydia's mist, while remaining in the blind spots created by Olivia being such a large target for the imps, and Shin wrecking the little buggers, they open fire and tear through what's left of the imps.

    There are none left. Shin has the highest kill count by far though.

    That leaves the Iron Giant, currently busy being on fire and also getting whacked, hard, by Goku's mystical baton. The armor melts in places, it crunches harshly under the baton's blows. The daemon staffers back several steps, and finally raises its empty hand rather than its sword.

    A black gravity well forms!

    It attracts everyone towards it, with crushing weight at that. The guards seem to know to hold on to whatever they can, to run against the pull, and they're doing their best, but it's still very unpleasant.

    "Hey hey, Rydia. You're lookin' good, pipsqueak. How ya been? Solid?" He shouts to Rydia, giving her a wave as he catches his breath a bit. Once he's cleared himself some breathing room, he tosses his backpack against the wall of the base with a thud so he doesn't have to carry it around, "You got any of them zappy spells? Or can you summon something all electric? You should work on getting the lights back up by giving them a jump start." 

    He's not, per se, telling Rydia what to do. More giving her a suggestion. He thumbs towards Terra, "Maybe she can help you with that. She seems pretty magic. Gonna guess like... dual class." He seems to be trying to assess Terra, "I dunno. Not really my jam-a-lam, though, fixin' shit. Or powering shit. Or doing much besides punching shit." Shin's swearing a LOT for the fact he's talking to, you know, a ten year old. 

    He takes a brief breather, elbowing one of the guards, "Yo. Can I borrow some water. I'm parched."

>> SUMMARY[Shin Tokuyama] >> Mostly chattering at Rydia with some ideas. Asking guards for a drink of water.

    The answer Rydia gets only earns more questions. "I'm guessing these are daemons- what's a Niff?" She asks the nearest man, but her attention has to go elsewhere. "I'm just someone who showed up." She answers Olivia, ducking and covering as Goku uses that staff of his to try and fend the giant off her. It's good the imps are taken care of. "Can you handle everything else from here?" She asks one of the men, "I'm fine Shin, I think I can do-... Th... at..."
    Rydia... Trails right off.
    "Ah..."
    She's left staring as Terra calls down the blazing conflagration. Rydia goes as still as a stone, eyes wide, pupils contracting to two fine points as she stares right into the blaze. She goes weak in the knees- and only barely regains herself as the gravity well forms.
    Rydia claws hand over hand, dragging herself along the ground away from it, half in a blind panic, half in singlemindedly thinking of what Shin said. She's staggering vaguely in the direction of the lights, but it's going to be a moment before she can get her wits about her enough to do anything.

>> SUMMARY[Rydia] >> Immediately useless, for the moment.

    "Alright!" Goku hops out of the way of Terra's flames... and makes a howling exclamation in appreciation! "Cooool! More magic?!" He doesn't know what else to call that kind of trick! Didn't look like martial arts to him! Which leaves him staring down the Giant again, staff in hand... now retracted to a reasonable length again!

    But it raises a hand... and Goku realizes this could be bad. Because that looks like a special technique!

    And then EVERYTHING GETS AWFULLY HEAVY and Goku finds himself slammed on all sides by an unknown weight and drawn across the ground! He can only scream from the pain at first... but soon slams his feet into the ground for extra traction. Not that it helps that much, merely slowing his undesired trenching towards the Iron Giant. "Ngggggghuhhh... why am I so heavy...?!" He's not wearing any heavy turtle shells!

    Inch after inch is surrendered despite his best efforts, and he can practically hear his bones creaking!

    "Ghhhh... whatever you are, I'm taking you down!" The boy defiantly digs deeper for even more traction, pounds the Power Pole into the ground and wraps his tail around it for even more grip!

    His whole body's screaming at him from the strain against that gravity force... but he sucks in a deep breath, slams his open palms together... and slides them to his waist, cupping them towards each other... "KAAAAA MEEEEE.... HAAAAAA MEEEEEEE...." A fiery clear-white aura bursts up around the boy, but the real show is the roiling blue-white sphere of compressed Ki he's containing between his palms for those few seconds. Then... thrusting both those hands forwards together, Goku opens his palms--- "HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

    With a roaring whoosh, the tiny orb expands forwards into a sustained beam about twice the height of the boy firing it! It curves, drawn by the gravity, but it may yet slam into the giant instead of being drawn off course... hopefully?!

The outpost has been held for the moment, the guards are still alvie and many have been healed. Things are looking up here, looking up a lot and Olivia's dinosaurs have recovered their wings or feet to so speak. She sees only the giant remains now. Well the lights could use repairs but right now with the swarm of demons pushed back? It might be best to fell the Giant. As she moves to get into action? She finds that there's some strange power pulling her in with powerful force. She grabs on to something on to anything to keep form bieng pulled in. She has no real reply to give Rydia for the moment. Clever follows it's human's lead and digs it's talons into the groun holding on, it's hurt. Wing Teeth? Isn't so lucky and is out of the fight at this point, dazed on the ground when the spell finally fades, she's on her feet and she's now going to pull a long rifle of some sort from her Raptor's saddle and fire several shots, at the Giant. Then Goku does his thing and she just stops, what the flying Giga?! Is that boy doing?!

    Fire and brute force seem effective enough, at any rate. Terra does her best to keep the fire away from Goku, not wanting to accidentally hurt him or anyone else, really. With the imps dispatched she continues to press, taking a few steps to try and keep the thing in range.

    Even while she continues to hammer at the thing with fire, complimenting Goku's strikes as best she can. She tries to put aside the thought of what she might be doing to Rydia but it is somewhat distracting. So much that she's slow to react to that sudden change of tack from the metal giant.

    As it summons that gravity well she feels the agonizing pull and does her best to resist, digging her heels and leaning back to keep upright. "Ah...!" She's a bit far from anything else to stop herself by hanging on, so all she can do is continue her assault, conjuring more roaring and slashing waves of flame about the thing until Goku attacks. She stops then, wowed despite all good sense and only then realizes that her feet are no longer touching the ground. "Ah! No!"

    There's a lot of chatter amidst the guards about the various displays of magic at play here - of course they call Goku attack's magic too, they don't know better. Judging by the chatter, it's not the first time they HEAR of offworlders, but it's their first time seeing any in the flesh. Unusual and welcome boon, for sure.

    The large wave of ki does a pretty good job slamming into the daemon, causing it to end its attack prematurely as it stumbles back. Damage is definitely adding up - it's less sturdy on its legs, obviously. That opening lets Olivia and Terra unload without the concern of that gravity field pulling them any further in, the flames scorching the daemon's armor and weakening it all over, letting Olivia's shots penetrate with greater ease. But boy is that thing sturdy, and it's getting back up.

    "The Niffs," one of the guard explains to Rydia. "The empire. Niflheim. They're trying to conquer the world with -" The guard stops. They all stop. Something hums, loudly, in the air above.

    A single, rectangular red airship breaks the clouds above and descends towards the outpost. The red light of its engine illuminates the area somewhat, and the hum of its magitek engine is distinct, impossible to mistake once heard. Its cargo bay doors open, and the guards below start shouting.

    "IT'S THE NIFFS, SHOOT THEIR SHIP DOWN!"

    And that's where their attention goes. Gunfire strikes something in the ship's cargo bay, and a robotic humanoid crashes to the ground, ripped to shreds by bullets.

    It is, sadly, followed by two dozen more. And those ones, they're standing. Completely robotic humanoids with glowing red eyes, wielding swords and axes, their offhand literally popping off to reveal machine guns. They open fire on everyone present, all the while the Iron Giant smashes its sword about in a maid flail. There's pain to go around everywhere!

    On the ship, a woman peers out the door, seemingly unhappy. "Well, didn't say I had to keep the daemon alive," she comments, before a flash of red light materializes a large red and black spear in her hand. With the same red light and hum of magitek, the dragoon jumps out of the ship and crashes down onto the Iron Giant spear-first.

    "OH SHIT! WHAT A NARRATIVELY SUDDEN TURN OF EVENTS!" Shin calls out as he tries to duck and weave between magitek soldiers and avoid the fact that he is being shot at by a lot of people all at once. 

    And then... a woman appears! And crashes down onto the iron giant. She's clearly working for the badguys. Clearly a total badass. And clearly very fierce and independant. You know what that means, right? 

    Hidden Path Romance Option. Correct. 

    Shin curls his hand into a fist and his eyes lock onto her. He dashes forward, moving swiftly and darting between Magitek Soldiers, shrugging off the attacks that hit him, "HEY YOU! SPEAR GIRL!" 

    Shin coils one hand back as it glows with Ki, "Geiha Genkou-Ryu! Secret Technique." 

    He jumps straight towards Aranea, "RED STRING BINDING STRIKE!" 

    Hand glowing with energy, he throws a haymaker straight at the 'stomach region' (no anime mishaps today) of her armor. It's a pretty hard punch, but the weirdest thing it does is leave a fist-shaped red mark on her armor.

    As soon as the gravity well comes to a premature end, Rydia scrambles to her feet. Her focus is twofold. One to get as far away from the fire as she can, and two, being to run vaguely in the direction of the lights.
    There's a flinch- a stumble when gunfire sounds off again, and she staggers as the airship overhead starts to drop men of metal and a woman joining the fight against the Daemon.
    Rydia is practically at her wits end by the time she reaches the lights, and then she realizes...
    She has no idea how to work machinery like this.
    Upset, frightened, and only barely beginning to calm down she just does the first thing that comes to mind. Shin said electricity...
    "Thunder!"
    As though on call, a peal of lightning lances down from the skies, thunder clapping a split second later, as the bolt from the sky slams down onto the generator.

    "Wo-wow... it's still standing!" Goku's seriously impressed. And quite worried! He lowers his lightly smoking palms, eyes wide with amazement, to blink and stare at the thing's resilience. His tail yoinks the Power Pole free of the earth and tosses it skywards. he just shifts his stance and lets the weapon fall back into its holster!

    Thankfully it's down for NOW, leaving Goku free to turn and look towards the sky as otehr people do... and stare. "Niff whats?! AH! LOOK OUT, ANDROIDS!" The wrist-guns take him by surprise... and Goku's absolutely PELTED by bullets. The boy goes tumbling backwards in a reverse somersault, propelled by all the projectiles slamming into him! ... Slamming into him and actually... largely bouncing off. His clothes rip with every bullet and he's yelling from the pain. Blood splashes the ground in his wake... but as soon as his roll takes him near some cover he LEAPS to the side and uses it to his advantage. Now he hunkers there, covered in shallow cuts and plenty of bruises. That was a LOT of punishment his body had to handle.

    "Hope these guys aren't friends with Red Ribbon! I -thought- they were dealt with!" He groans out, working to gather a second wind. He wall-jumps up top of the building again...takes a good look at the airship... and vaults off the building to land amidst the killer robots, leaping from one to another punches and kicks and plenty of tail-tripping-yoinks!

Olivia Montag knows just enough about wiring from her tribe, oddly they do have electrial power. To get the idea she might be better suited to fixing the lights. She at at least look for and patch obvious damage, she will start for the lightt even as Clever girl follows. Given Goku's abilities? She would be far better of use getting the lights back on. So she'll set about using a few tools form the saddle to jury rig any broken wires.

    As soon as the iron demon is speared from above and that gravity attack lets up, Terra is spilled uncerimoniously to the ground. There's other enemies now, too, and presumably she's right in the middle of it all.

    Training takes over. She scrambles for cover, having somehow retained her weapon she lets out a frantic cry as she drives into one of the magitek soldiers sword first. Should she prove successful, stop the hateful machine and bear it down behind some kind of cover she might get a moment. She'll need a few; it's been some time since she's used so much magic at once.

    While trying to shelter from the worst of this new wave of the assault, she casts about for friendlies. Everyone's so busy and hard pressed, Shin is boldy attacking the spearhead of the enemy attack and- Oh no! Goku being absolutely abused with all of that gunfire both infuriates and astounds her. That he can weather that at all is remarkable but it still looks like he needs help. When the boy launches into the midst of the enemy she stands and begins to launch healing magic, trying to ease his wounds and fill him with stamina. It's not going to be instantaneous and she's going to be exposed while she casts.

    Aranea is momentarily busy having her spear inside the shoulder slash back of an Iron Giant. It's a terrible position to be in, even for her, when you then need to react to someone suddenly screaming at you. And attacking. WHY. That's what she gets for being helpful.

    On the bright side, her armor is pretty sturdy. There's some kind of field around her, with that same red hue as the glow around her spear, the soldiers' eyes cores, and the ship's engine. Not strong enough to stop his blow, but it's like trying to punch through syrup. She's still knocked back, spear still in hand, and comes to a halt when she grabs onto the Iron Giant's arm. This is, also, a terrible place to be.

    And now her armor has a red fist on it.

    "Well aren't you the world's best greeter. Sorry but I'm just here to put on a show, not take anyone's head home. I guess I can play for just a moment if you really want to, though!"

    Her spear hums again, the red glow around it more visible than before as she lets go of the Iron Giant's arm, angles the spear up, and then launches upward along with it. Apparently it's a rocket spear, good to know.

    And she zig-zags straight for Shin. Seems he gets the blunt of the spear though, not the point. Holding back...?

    Meanwhile, Rydia slams lightning into the generators. They screech to life. This is evidently not HOW they're meant to be powered, so it's hard to say how long it'll last, but for now it's working. Olivia restores the connection with some of the spotlights, and they turn on, at least somewhat. They're flickering pretty badly. Still a few lose wires or unpowered generators here and there. It's not without effect though - the lights seem to be burning the Iron Giant up. Its rampage stops as it, weakened from the fight already, tries to adapt to the light. No giant sword being swung this turn!

    On the other hand there's all those robots shooting or slashing at you instead. Androids is pretty accurate. There's not anything biological in there. It's just a robotic shell with weird tech and a pulsing red core in there. Their limbs are pretty easy to smash off, and it helps that Goku can be a bit more careless than usual with Terra having his back. Magitek Troopers fall left and right, numbers swiftly reduced from two dozen to a bit over one.

    The remaining ones adapt their strategy. Identifying Terra as the healer, they're actually ignoring everyone else! A few shoot at her, while the rest are rushing into melee with their axes and swords. They're unusually fast, but while running they really don't run like... people run. Or machines. It's more bestial than that.

    "For someone like you, there's no better greeting, yeah?" 

    Even as she's zigging and zagging in towards him, he's dashing straight towards her again. His heterochromatic eyes shimmer with what might be enjoyment as the two prepare to clash. However, her spear has frame advantage and hits him spare in the gut. 

    But he grips it tightly and digs his feet in, keeping his balance as he carves out the ground under his shoes trying to resist her as he stares straight towards her, "Yeah well. Play or not, I already won. That red mark?" 

    "Eventually, it'll fade. But I used a secret technique. You and I are bound together by fate. You might not realize it now, but soon our fates are going to be intertwined." Finally, the impact of the spear sends him tumbling backwards, rolling along the ground and tumbling to a stop. He coughs a few times, punches the ground once, and pushes himself to his feet. 

    "Slowly, that brand I placed on you will reform your dark heart! And light will begin to seep in! Goodness! Friendship! Love!" He points at her, "You and I are now bound together by destiny! This is my ultimate technique. And now that I landed that first blow, it can't ever be undone!" 

    Shin coils his head back and laughs. 

    "BWA HA HA HA HA HA! VICTORY IS MINE! TODAY SHIN TOKUYAMA HAS LAID THE GROUNDWORK FOR YOUR EVENTUAL DEFEAT AND CONVERSION TO GOOD!"

    This situation got pretty hectic, and Goku's no longer able to keep track of everything going on! For the boy, it has become simply an all-out brawl against the metal men. "HRGHA!" BAM! An upwards kick might send either an arm or a whole 'bot flying skyward! He hits the ground, springs to the left and buries his elbow in another with enough force to send them flying into walls. He hops from foe to foe, delivering impressively powerful single blows he hopes can take them down hard and fast!

    And he's in a bit of an angry fury the whole while. Because these things are MURDEROUS!

    It's like the Red Ribbon Army all over again!

    In a brief lull he notices... white sparkly energies covering him, soothing his weariness and closing those wounds!? He looks himself over confusedly, not quite realizing the source amidst all the chaos... but figures it's one of the magic girls! "Hey, thanks!"

    He DOES feel better. Even some of his energy was restored, maybe he can manage another KameHameHa or two!

    For now though, he blitzes through the robot horde, prioritzizing any of them that are posing the biggest threats to the others!

    Probably a good thing this boy's on your side.

Olivia Montag seems to be maing progress on the lights, she's not the best at this and she's used to laying down finished lengths of power cables, still she's got some work goign anf with Ryida help she's almost there, the strange magi-tek troopers unsettled her, those lights though need to get back on and she keeps working at a frantic pace, someone who is fully trianed though is going to need to likely clean things up later.

    Rydia jerks as lightning crashes into the generators and they spark dangerously to life. In retrospect it was a poor decision, using black magic like a cudgel where a scalpel is needed. She flushes, embarassed as Olivia starts tending to the generators. She'll leave that to her, to handle the intricate and delicate manner of fixing the generator.
    Her attention turns back to the chaos of the battle behind her.
    Goku and Terra under such concentrated fire. Mechanical soldiers fighting the ment that they had come to save. Shin locked in a faceoff with that spear wielding woman. And the Daemon is STILL THERE.
    Rydia is beyond agitated. Her heart hammers in her chest. Everything has gone to hell, except there's no fire.
    Fed up, the last Summoner of Mist lifts her hands to the sky. ... And the sky responds.
    Dark clouds roll in, lightning dances while thunder pounds. Rydia speaks as though trapped in a trance.
    "Elder justiciar... Lord of knowledge and wisdom... Call forth thunderclouds as dark as winter night amd dispense justice!"
    Thunder roars and there's almost no light left as the clouds blot out the stars and moon.
    Rydia has reached out. And something from beyond, in the Feymarch, the realm of the Eidolons, has deigned to listen to the plea of the last Summoner of Mist.
    From the heavens a great hand reaches down with no warning, plucking Rydia from the ground. This hand belongs to the form of an ancient man in flowing robes, his wizened face hardened into a resolute glower as he surveys the battle beneath him. He holds out his hand and lightning strikes, summoning a staff into his grip. Lightning strikes again, and again, hitting the staff repeatedly and building a charge, before he cocks his arm... And hurls the staff to the ground like a javelin, trailing lightning and thunder in its wake in a pinpoint strike to a cluster of the mechanical soldiers.

>> SUMMARY[Rydia] >> Summon: Ramuh - Judgment Bolt

    Terra standing exposed while repeatedly showering Goku with twinkling motes of healing magic wasn't really the safest plan. Still, she made a decision! This is progress! It feels so right that even as the magitek automatons begin to reassess, she continues to push her luck and try to squeeze every second she can out of reactionary gap before- Oh no they're shooting at her again! That doesn't leave her many options other than duck while her cover is chewed up by suppressive fire.

    Okay, now, as she clutches her sword alone under the threat of incoming magitek warfighting machines, she feels an odd pang. Something? She looks up and simply stops, stricken with a weird and inexplicable sense of familiarity as she looks upon Rydia and her summoned Eidolon. "What...?" Then that staff is hurled upon the battlefield and she's roused from her stupor.

    Her hands come up, her sword falling forgotten to the ground and she casts out both hands, punishing the remaining machines with sweeping blades of fire. She does her best, trying to pick the ones that appear to be the biggest threat. Whether emboldened or empowered by Rydia's show of force, it's hard to say, though here hair flies weirdly and her eyes almost seem to glow. Goodness, is she angry?!

    Aranea status: staring at Shin.

    The helmet makes it a bit hard to discern her exact expression but it's somewhere between amusement and incredulity.

    "Is that a promise, pretty boy?"

    She doesn't press the attack, but there's a very good reason for that.

    Olivia reins the generators in, making them not only cooperate but actually send their juice to all of the spotlights. The lights come back online around the outpost. The Iron Giant howls, a deep metallic rumble, as smoke rises from its rapidly scorching... skin? Is its armor skin, technically?

    And then it melts into a puddle of black and purple miasma. Due to the injuries it sustained, the light slays it on the spot. The outpost is secure, at least from daemons.

    But that's not what silences Aranea. It's the sight of Ramuh - somewhat smaller as he might be - suddenly surging forth and attacking. An Astral? That can't be right, the Oracle's in Tenebrae, and that little girl sure isn't her.

    Not that it changes anything. Magitek Troopers are weak to lightning to begin with. Mechanical beings, how do they work! Troopers explode left and right. The guards are in awe.

    Not that Goku wading through the remaining handful of magitek drones isn't equally impressive. The fact he can do that barehanded (or with his pole) is pretty incredible by this world's standards, and he can get his share of destruction in the chaos.

    Just one left. It clicks and clanks, stops, and the red circle on its chest glows brighter, pulses faster. It's ticking! These things can self-destruct!

    ... but it doesn't matter, because Terra obliterates it before it can overload its magitek core. Nothing goes critical or explodes.

    Aranea's the lone opponent now. She smiles, lifting the 'visor' of her helmet up. Her spear is dismissed in a puff of red light. "Boy was he right, you guys don't mess around. Good thing my orders aren't to deal with you. Guess that's it for me then!" To Shin, specifically. "Catch you later, pretty boy."

    She jumps backwards, straight onto one of the ruined walls of the outpost. From it, she jumps up again, straight into the still-open doors of her ship. Seems it's leaving and there won't be any further chaos for the rest of the night.