Mitakihara Neon District is its usual self today. The sun's going down, the lights are turning on, and the nightlife is starting to wake up. Busy people fill busy streets and go into busy clubs. By the looks of things, everything is completely normal.
In a dark, forgotten alleyway, a Lost Logia stirs. A TSAB distress signal is broadcasted with a wide range. Pretty much anyone could pick it up. If that wasn't enough, the Lost Logia begins to glow with strange power, surging with magical energy that could be felt from anywhere in Mitakihara. If /that/ wasn't enough, well...
The Lost Logia releases its power, creating a large magical barrier. Normal people can't even see or feel it, but the magically inclined who just so happen to be in the area will be drawn in. When they are, they'll see a very strange version of Mitakihara's Neon District.
A maze of energy barriers covers the whole area inside of the barrier. The barriers are transluscent, visible mostly because of the strange runes, geometric lines, and sparkles that dance around that dance across the walls in constant motion. The walls themselves are only faintly visible via a white glow, but they are as solid to the touch as any wall.
Between the buildings, one can see a large pillar of light stretching upward into the sky. One might be able to detect that as the source of all this magical power, but with all these barriers around it might be difficult to find the way to the Lost Logia.
On the other hand, the magical walls may be strong, but they certainly aren't invincible. Brute Force might also be a solution.
The night is the best time for a lot of forces in Tokyo to operate. Monsters prefer it, if their goals cannot be discovered too early. Those who hunt monsters tend toward it by default, as day-to-day concerns are handled earlier on. Those who hunt both of them tend toward the later hours by default, thus.
And so Runealy wanders the Mitakihara area. She pondered visiting certain people instead of just patrolling, but these thoughts are interrupted by... not the signal. She has nothing that would pick it up. Instead, it's the far-off glow and feel that pull her in. "This could be what we're looking for!" Excited, Rune ducks into an alley to transform and beeline toward the source of this commotion while reaching for a phone to call her Knights.
Those hopes are quickly dashed when she emerges to find the area now covered in a wide-area barrier, and the terrain is now... bizarre. "No, I guess I'm doing this one alone," the alien princess realizes as she puts the phone away. Wand in hand, trying to make her way around various obstacles, she heads in what she hopes will be the right direction to find the glow. At the moment, she's semi-lost and making guesses on how to proceed while keeping a worried eye out for whomever else might be in the area... there will probably be no friends or allies here, given what she has been doing these last several weeks; a scary realization.
It's the barrier that gets Mikoto's attention, really. She hasn't been actively looking for Lost Logia - heck, she has no reason at all to assume any would even be on this /planet/. She's just been biding her time figuring out what the heck she's doing. And occasionally thwacking monsters that have the utter gall to actually annoy her.
But she recognizes the barrier. Or something inside her does, at least, and she definitely feels the way it strains the space around her. "Well, Carnwennan?" she whispers, stepping aside into a convenient side-street. "Somebody's up to something."
((Indeed, Meister. It is a very strong barrier.))
"Well, we might as well check it out. If nothing else it's going to attract a lot of attention." She looks about for a moment, making sure she has privacy, then adds, "Set up." Light flares, briefly, confined to the alley, and a different figure emerges from the far end of the narrow street.
Miss White isn't out for any magical reasons tonight. No, she's simply at the dry cleaners after a certain doggie Familiar spilled coffee on her favorite pair of pants. Thus, she's clad in barrier jacket plus white jeans today amidst her usual golden cuffs and tie, frowning as she peers at the results.
"You can still see the stain! Come on, these are three-hundred dollar pants!" Yells the girl at the poor employee of the dry cleaners.
That's when the Lost Logia gets uppity, and she turns away. It'd be impossible for her to miss that much energy, so close by.
"Do it again. I'll pick it all up tomorrow! Jeez, the service here /sucks/!"
Then she's rushing to the site of the fallen Lost Logia!
~~Neon District~~
Poke. Poke poke. Miss White pokes the first barrier as she's within this new version of the district. She's utterly /fascinated, but isn't stupid enough to just leap in. She's already taking data recordings.
"Area Search!" Comes her Device as she tries to pinpoint the source. She points it at the pillar of light. She has a pretty good guess.
Then it's time for a phone call. Riiiiiing.
And then she idly spots Runealy heading into the barrier. A scowl comes to her face, nd she briefly considers just rushing in to punch the girl. No. Patience. She needs backup. Especially as others begin to arrive.
A TSAB distress signal goes off. Chrono Harlaown is able to detect it. But right now, he's busy with something else important. Luckily, Justice has people it can send to something potentially dangerous.
> C. Harlaown: Fortune, I have a favor to ask of you.
> C. Fortune: Does this involve kicking Oresky in the face?
> C. Harlaown: Not really. But something important just happened downtown.
> C. Fortune: Fine. But you owe me.
> Glasan: Putting my shades on to harness the awesome power of sunglasses at nightime!
> C. Fortune: Get off the channel Glasan. -,-.
Meanwhile, there's a Cure flying through the sky, looking an awful lot like a purple shooting star as she flies into the Barrier. She isn't ready for nearly invisible walls and hits one immediatly. It cracks where she hit. She sort of rebounds a moment. She frowns a bit. "Well. That's inconvient."
"Ah! There's all sorts of invisible walls here, Fortune, be careful!" spouts the fairy partner.
She frowns and looks at that light off somewhere. Whatever's there. Must be important enough. She begins to travel around the barrier, flying in the air. Huh. others are in the area. Her eyes narrow.
This may get tricky. She smiles smuggly. She likes tricky.
Takashi was working on setting up parts of his new lab. Was. Takashi is now moving incredibly rapidly, hand on his cellphone. "Another Lost Logia is sending out a distress signal. Like the last one. Meet me there, ready to fight, if last time is any indication. Lets not let this one get away." he taps out on his phone, to Fate and Helix.
He's in henshin as Riventon by the time the two of them get there, but he's arrived on the same side of the disturbance as Miss White has, getting there slightly after her text reaches him. He grumbles a bit. He doesn't want to share today.
But he doesn't let Miss White see it. "White-san, I suppose you picked up on it too?" he asks, smiling. He wonders if news of his new position has reached her yet. It wasn't announced, but Eclipse HQ is two things: large, and full of eyes and ears.
Euphemia was helping Takashi set up the lab, unfortunately she (wisely) wasn't trusted with any of the sensitive equipment and so mainly was relegated to cleaning up all the shipping containers things came in. This wouldn't be so bad, except there were -so many- of them and she kept getting in trouble when she used some more... interesting methods of transporting the junk out of the room.
Luckily she was unsupervised out of the lab itself.
"Fore!" she shouts as she swings one of her large shields into a packing crate, smashing into with a loud crack that sends it flying off the roof, nearly shattering against a neighboring building, and finally crashing with an ungodly clatter into a trash bin. "SWEET! Hole in one! I'm the best!"
Just then her phone rings, "Really? Sweet! I was getting bored here anyway."
A short while later and Helix is floating next to Takashi, poking at one of the barriers. "It's pretty strong. I could probably blast a path through with my cannons, but it'd take so long it probably wouldn't be worth it. Besides- we have company!"
Those who enter the maze find no difficulty in doing so. However, once in the maze it's very easy to get disoriented and lost. One can see through the walls and see other parts of the maze, but the walls themselves blend in neatly with the neon lights, even changing to mimic them in shape and style.
In fact, the whole maze is changing, altering. It's trying to keep people away from the large pillar in the middle. Yet, those who press forward find themselves continuously getting closer. Maybe it only wants them to come on its own terms, or maybe it's luring them in. As long as people obey its rules, they're dancing to its tune.
Hannah's Wide Area Search doesn't have any trouble passing through the forcefields in order to get to the large pillar of light. What she sees there is a groove-covered cube, tilted on its side, emiting huge amounts of power. It's incredibly bright, and the sheer amount of magical energy being poured out in that pillar of light is dangerous to get close to.
Fate Testarossa enters after Riventon and Helix, quietly setting her feet on the ground. She glances briefly at Hannah Sharpe, and then looks to Riventon to see how he speaks to her. She's depending upon him to handle social things. She remembers Miss White from the other day, but only just barely.
Fate looks at Helix for a moment and then at the barrier. "Um... Are they really that hard?" Bardiche pings. Fate points her Device at a nearby wall. <Photon Lancer>
Four yellow magical orbs fire from the tip of Bardiche, slamming into the magical wall, blasting it open. It makes a lot of noise and noticable flashes of light as she does so, but the barrier does shatter. Unfortunately, that did cost quite a bit of magic, and there's just another magical hallway beyond it.
The Lost Logia's rules, apparently, can be broken.
Runealy might not be immediately aware White has found her, as the princess just keeps bumbling along through what amounts to a maze. Eventually she loses patience for this and calls out, "Is anyone out there?" It's basically like buying a lottery ticket, except the possible outcomes aren't 'win or lose' but rather 'no response', 'unknown person response', 'mildly hostile response', or 'extremely hostile response.'
She counts the flashes of yellow light off in the distance as a response, even if it was done in relation to something else entirely. "Yellow... I've seen that a few other places, but where?" It could be any of several matches. On its own, just a brief flash of that color isn't enough for Rune to place what's going on, but she continues to stumble around the area.
Things are going swimmingly for Mikoto, at the moment. If you count 'swimming against the current', that is. Unwilling to simply resort to force and blast her way through, nor to call out to others, she's simply running the barrier-maze the old fashioned way.
Gamers call it "the Egyptian solution", after the ancient method of safely navigating the labyrinths supposedly used to conceal important tombs. The method is simple: follow the left wall, keep following it, and eventually - if not terribly quickly - you'll reach the end.
Of course, that only works when the maze isn't actively changing its structure just to mess with you.
A flash of yellow light briefly catches her attention, and she presses onwards, her eyes narrowed in grim determination. It seems she isn't the only player at this game....
"Kinda hard to miss!" Comes Miss White, her scowl twisting into a grin. Then she wraps an arm around his shoulder, leans in, and whispers.
"Grats on the promotion by the way! When were you gonna tell me, you jerk!? Steak dinner on me! Will be certain to call on your services." A wink. Yup, she knows.
Then she's back to all business. That is one impressive looking barrier. "A shame we can't study it right now. Oh well.
"Hey Helix-chan! So brute force is out, eh? How about we..."
And then, suddenly, Fate. Who manages to blast through the barriers with ease. Miss White /laughs/.
"What was your name again kiddo!? Not bad. Not bad at all. You and me have to fight some time! Come on! Time to chase down a Bandit, find that awesome little cube in the center there, and make home like thieves in the night!" Then one hand grabs Fate's if she doesn't get out of the way, and with wind-boosted speed, and rushing towards the center. She'll follow the maze's guidelines where she's able, otherwise she'll take pot-shots hopefully alongside the other magical folk from Eclipse to burst through!
"Heeeeeeyyyyy, little Bandit-chan~! It has been a while! How are you!? Still stealing what other people worked for like a talentless hack? You just hang tight, okay!? You and I are going to have a little reunion once my friends here take this neat little device off somewhere safe!" Comes Miss White's voice, filled with malice and anger.
She's yet to note the others as of yet though! Barrier PUNCH!
Riventon nods back at Miss White. Those walls do indeed have eyes and ears. Secret unit, not so much. "I feel like I should be the one buying you the dinner." is all he says, smirking a bit.
Then Fate blasts her way through the barrier. "Well, I guess it's not as sturdy as it looked..." he adds with a smile. He elects not to do any blasting of those barriers himself; not out of laziness, but out of a fear the artifact will react as poorly as every other TSAB-related thing he's touched. He makes a bit of a show of a bow as Fate and Hannah move forward.
Then, upon Helix's request, he takes a couple steps away from the barrier. "Just try to make sure nothing hits my back this time."
Everyone else navigates walls. Cure Fortune spent exactly ten seconds trying to navigate the barriers flying before she got tired and frustrated with it.
"Fortune, what are you going to do!?" Glasan asks. He's asking this because Fortune is spinning the wheel of her Love PreBrace.
"I'm making doors." she says gratingly.
"PRETTY CURE!, FOURTUNE STARBURST!...." she yells out as her fist explodes into red and orange fire and she punches the wall. There's a resounding blast back explosion as she shatters through the wall. She travels through the hole.
...Wait that's a voice down below.
That looks like a Princess of some kind.
She is not very fond of Princesses.
"Hello?" she calls back to Runealy. She blinks. Oh right, attitude kicks in. "What do you think you're doing here!?" she asks her in a challenging tone.
Helix watches Fate blast right through one of the barriers, "Well yeah, but-"
And then Hannah punches through one of the others. "I meant it'd be hard to get through ALL-"
And then they're both going off and she's left there floating and looking like an utter fool.
An annoyed look crosses her face, eyes partially lidding as she's both shown up -and- the person she wants to fight alongside is dragged away. "Okay, fine."
Her eyes flick to Riventon and she sends him a mental message via Bulwark. "Cannon Mode."
<Cannon Mode>
Her twin shields flip around so the long end is facing forward, lifting up to reveal a pair of cannon barrels. "Ready, Bulwark? No messing around, we're going -straight to the center-!"
<Yes, Master. Magnum Boulder.>
A green flash, and a pair of hypervelocity beams streak out to the first layer of barriers. A few seconds later a second pair fire, and then a third. And a forth. She won't stop when the first one crumbles, flying forward through it to blow through each successive layer.
The scary thing is it might be time consuming but it looks like she could keep it up almost forever.
It might make one consider how bad of an idea it is to be on the receiving end of those.
And just maybe it's faster than trying to navigate the maze itself.
"...show you not to listen to what I'm actually saying..." she mutters amidst the blasting.
Runealy's wandering is left mostly unbothered. However, she may soon catch onto the fact that she's walking around in circles. At least, she's passed the same building over and over like four times already. Also, something seems a little odd. The building seems to have a giant neon smiley face painted on the side.
Mikoto's clever if well-known solution leads her to an odd place. She does get closer and closer to the pillar of light, where it would be blindingly bright if not for the geometric shapes dancing across the wall blocking out the light. Yet, she's far far above the source, walking up-side down. Apparently gravity itself has been modified to confuse this particular maze-runner.
Fate meekly looks at Hannah Sharpe once, and offers her name as "Fate Testarossa." The way she hides slightly behind Riventon and Helix indicates that she's with them. Hannah's punch through the barrier does bring down the wall, allowing Team Eclipse to access a deeper part of the maze.
Helix feels like a fool, and Fate feels embarassed for making her feel that way. "I-I'm sorry... I didn't mean to..."
Helix's spells pound against the walls, wearing down and then breaking through them. One by one they dent, crack, and then shatter, creating an open pathway.
Cure Fortune's Starburst punches do bring down several walls. With enough power, she's able to forgo a lot of the maze and skip through a lot of nonsense. Her path brings her over Runealy.
All this barrier blasting has a consequence, however. You can break the rules, but there is a punishment. The walls and pathways around the Eclipse crew turns red and starts to shake as if a giant angry hand had gripped their part of the maze and was trying to throw them around.
Fate herself is tossed about, slamming into a wall. Her barrier jacket absorbs most of the impact, but she still stumbles about as if she's disoriented. She isn't sure if she regrets breaking through the wall, yet.
Cure Fortune gets the same response, yet Runealy, despite being close by, does not.
However, Runealy and Mikoto seem to be finding their pathways slightly less confusing. The changing pathways seem to be giving them an advantage. Apparently the Lost Logia shows special treatment to those who don't try to beat it up.
Each of them makes their way through the mazes in their own way, but it's hard to tell who's really closer to the end, due to the confusing nature of the maze.
/Now/ Runealy notices White is here, eyes raising as she hears those threats. Her response is a mix of going tense, and glum at the same time. "I am, and call me what I am. 'Trash' will do." She looks around the area, debating simply fleeing in the face of what is most likely White plus backup... that's at least a two on one, possibly worse, fight depending on how things are actually going. Runealy is certain those odds will prove fatal, and if she falls her world will die with her in time so it is time to leave.
Then she discovers there is no obvious way out, and she has been wasting time going on roughly the same route with no clear means of figuring out how to proceed. Which means she will be gambling with some different odds, free hand fishing out a purple and black crystal. They're already starting to give her less power than before, and she's pretty sure her occasional cough is due to them, but what choice does she have at this point but to risk it?
Cure Fortune's demands cut her off before she can use it, though. "Mm?" Runealy looks up to her, and responds in a low tone, "I'm making a lot of mistakes. Being here was just the latest. If you're here to fight me, I'll understand, but there are bigger threats than me in here." She raises an eye at the barrage of green flashes seen from afar, "I wonder what that was?"
When walls in the distance begin to shake, seemingly shortly after those blasts, Runealy wonders if there's a hint going on here. When Fortune is attacked, the princess' boot-wings light up with a silver flash and she leaps away from the shaking! ...Only to land moments later and realize, "It didn't go after me? Ah... are you okay?" A confused look to Fortune.
Then something occurs to Rune. "If attacking it isn't going to work, and I'm going on the same path over and over more often than not, then..." She begins fishing out a few yen coins, small amounts, and dropping them at intervals while marching. It's done to let her leave some landmarks for where she has been, hopefully without angering the maze as she pushes onward.
Boom. Boom. Boom. /Someone/ is clearly smashing their way in. And it isn't Mikoto. "Brats. No sense of -elegance-," she mutters, hand resting on Carnwennan's hilt.
((Inelegant, Meister, but most certainly swift.))
"You have a point, Carnwennan, that you do. Still..." She pauses briefly, running fingers through her hair, considering the magical walls before her. Then she shakes her head. "Stick to the rules we know, but keep the victory conditions in mind. Don't get distracted picking up rings when you need veeps." Then she looks up, or rather -down-, as it were, and adds, "And never, ever, honk off the GM." She waves cheerily at the others as she finally seems to take note of their presence, having come close enough to pick them out as more than vague blurs behind multiple layers of barrier. "Hmmm," she calls out, pretending to adjust a pair of nonexistent glasses. "You seem to be having a spot of trouble there. Or is it supposed to do that?" Snark mode: ENGAGED.
"We will call it a date!" Quips Hannah to Takashi, all grins! Could what his familiar said be right!?
"Hah hah! Now /that/ is how you deal with Barriers! Good going Helix-chan!" Seems she's here to help encourage fellow Eclipse employees.
"Alright, then, Fate-chan! Keep up those blasts of you...."
Cue a sudden red angry walls that are throwig them around like one of those bouncy rubber castle things! "I think we made it mad! Okay, guys, NEW PLAN! RUN AND PUNCH THE BARRIER HARDER!" Amidst the bouncing, being thrown around, and generally unpleasantness, she'll try to help out her Lab Partner by trying to grab and Princess Carry him further into the Maze, all the while punching and kicking holes to try to get farther into the Barrier.
"Oh, no, no, no! Bandit-chan will do you juuuuust fine! Because you know what happens when people catch bandits? They /HANG/!" There's an entirely too wide grin at that. Inwardly she curses the barriers in the way, or she'd be already trying to get a blow or two in!
Riventon's theoretical inability to blast the walls without setting off some sort of reaction to his dark energy seems to be serving him well. So he figures he can just take advantage of the situation - like he usually does - and walk through the holes left by the others.
That plan falls apart when Miss White scoops him up and carries him along, and he is frankly somewhat shocked, so it takes him a moment to get out "wha?" as he's being juggled along. Eventually he manages to just go with it - and he turns. "Don't let the artifact tell us who's boss! Keep punching and blasting!"
Cure Fortune is too busy not liking princesses to notice that there's red violent wall quaking and suddenly she's falling! Glasan freaks out and dives after Fortune. Fortune manages to right herself as she comes down near Runealy. She frowns. "I have no idea what you're going on about. But I have a mission here." she says plainly to Runealy.
"Cure Fortune will never give up!"
She pushes herself up off the ground and with a burst of light from the bow around the back of her waist she takes off again into the air.
She tries her best to follow the walls this time. Maybe she doesn't wanna be sent flying out of the sky again.
Glasan is a tiny purple fairy wearing sunglasses. She's stayed behind to blink at Runealy a lot and head tilt.
"... why shouldn't you be here?" asks Glasan asks. "What's up with the threats from the other people up there?"
Helix is tossed about, getting slammed into a maze wall or two along the way. She's pretty sturdy however and her Barrier Jacket is thick enough to shrug off that kind of incidental damage, though she begins to wonder if the Lost Logia is going to try even more active defenses as she effectively 'cheats' through the maze.
Aside from a some candid telepathic conversation with her allies she's focused and intent on her task. She keeps firing her cannons and flying through the holes she makes, zipping through those made by her allies when it proves beneficial.
"Just let me through! Not even a fortress like you can stand up to this kind of a beating for too long," she comments, though it's doubtful a Lost Logia is going to listen to her words.
'Bulwark, do what you can to examine these force fields,' the girl commands mentally, 'You've got to be the most compatible Device with this thing in the area. Maybe you can find a weak point, or even try to talk with it?'
<Yes, Master. I'll try to open a datalink, but the odds are slim.>
'I'm going to prove my worth this time, Bulwark. No failures today. We're going to show them what we can do.'
Runealy lays her coins on the 'ground' of the maze. There's nothing inheriently incorrect about this method. Yet, the Lost Logia is in the mood for tantrums, and Runealy will soon find all of those coins launched at her from behind! How rude.
Mikoto is led through a section that coils like a corkscrew, always curving slightly towards the large pillar of light but never really getting to it. For her, the maze no longer branches off, and if she ever looks behind her there's a solid magical wall. The wall constantly moves to be just behind Mikoto. Only one way to go.
Miss White's urging to attack the barriers harder and faster does spur Fate to keep shooting magical spheres at the wall. Fate tries to keep up the firepower, but the shaking only gets worse, and it's starting to throw off her aim. Fortunately, Photon Lancer is a homing move, and she keeps making progress regardless. Between Fate, Miss White, and Helix, the three of them get ever closer to the center, despite the constant shaking.
Bulwark's scans do, actually, start to discover weaknesses and tiny gaps in the maze's walls. Attacking these cracks is easy enough and, once done, will blast the walls open that much faster.
Riventon would be left alone, but he's with the rest of Eclipse and so he gets to deal with shaking because of guilt by association. The Lost Logia apparently isn't that fair in its judgements!
The shaking escalates to severe levels, but after a while it stops. Maybe the Lost Logia is giving up, or maybe it has other plans.
Cure Fortune stops attacking the walls, and the walls around her turn back to a more neutral blue white. Apparently the Lost Logia isn't mad at her anymore. Her path continues mostly without hinderance.
All seven of the maze-runners end up at the same place at the same time, entering from different points. The magical walls form a large room, with the Lost Logia floating high in the air. Gravity suddenly reverses for most, with Mikoto being the only exception. (Her gravity was already reversed). The room is upside-down now, the skyline is the floor, and the street is the roof.
Fate herself, thinking quickly, starts flying the moment gravity is reversed, lowering herself to the new 'ground' gently.
At least seven magical walls appear, one after another, around the Lost Logia itself. However, at this point, there are no walls between the maze-runners. Nothing stops them from interacting with, or attacking, each other.
The Lost Logia, and the pillar of light it is currently being bathed in, hum with a low, mechanical tone. Something is going to be happening, soon.
"Hn!?" White's threat cuts through Rune's focus for several moments. "Maybe where you're from..." She comments, nonetheless startled... envisioning the people of Tokyo banding together to do precisely that to her. Runealy can see it as a city-wide celebration even now, in vivid detail. It's an alien idea to her, something generally not done back home, so she's having to quickly invent new ideas in her head to see how this would unfold.
She's jarred from this by Fortune and Glasan, the former due to that confident shout and surging on ahead. The latter due to a very good question. "You could ask them, but I'll save you the time. It's best to think of me as a monster here to hurt people and take their energy... the only reason I'm the lesser threat is I care whether people live or die." The alien princess isn't very proud of this admission, still startled to come to terms with the notion that some people in Tokyo want to publicly execute her. Well, just Miss White so far, but imagination has its way of taking a fact and stretching it to be much more broad in scope. "Don't worry, though... I don't think you have what I need, so I'm not going to attack you. If you see a guy using dark energy, stay away from him... he'll probably want to 'study' you in the worst possible ways." She's not sure energy-draining a fairy makes much sense, based on what little the princess has seen so far, but fears that Glasan would be of much greater interest to one Mr. Black.
She's interrupted from any further thoughts by being pelted by her own trail-making efforts. "Huh? ...Ow! Fine," she gets this hint as well and begins picking up her litter, stowing the coins. "Sorry?" The area seems to be responding to her efforts, so perhaps talking to it has some merit? "I'll stop that, it's just I don't know where to go or how to figure it out." She can't fly, has no scanning methods, no special communications, and is apparently surrounded by those who do; it's a frightening prospect, especially since the maze itself doesn't seem to want her to be able to even the score.
All she can really do is try to follow the shaking, hoping that if she can't find her way to somewhere /first/, she can at least arrive there shortly behind whomever beats her to... wherever they're going. The occasional glance back to Glasan is offered, though even this is interrupted as she's suddenly flipped to the ceiling! "Wha!?" She manages to flip over and 'boost-jump' to slow her... ascent? Fall? Her sudden shift in location, at least, landing relatively intact. Nonetheless, there are a lot of people in this room and most of them are enemies or people who have made clear they have no regard for her well-being - Fate gets a sudden glance on that note - and then Runealy puts herself in a red energy bubble... a shielding tactic, as she's expecting to be attacked within the next few moments.
And it seems the maze has decided to continue screwing with us tonight, as Mikoto's brief glance back reveals its latest tactic. "Well, plots," she mutters, and just takes off running along the path provided, one hand still trailing along the wall, trailing flickers of light. And then, one last curve, and she's out. Yay!
Except so is everybody else. Well, this ought to be interesting. For some of us.
"Hello everyone! Welcome to 'The Price is Right'!" She blinks, pausing, as if asking herself if she actually said that.
((You did, Meister.)) Carnwennan answers the unspoken question.
"Oh. Well. I meant to. And so! Seven and seven makes seventy-seven, which is why you're all falling up right now." She looks over briefly at Fate. "Or floating. Nice! Good to see someone was paying attention." A grin flirts across her lips as she looks over the others arriving. "Do you know what the most common cause of absolute failure in a game is?"
Riventon tips right out of Miss White's carry as the gravity twists and turns. As someone who regularly falls backwards off tall buildings for fun, he almost immediately ceases falling,floating high in the air.
"I'd appreciate it if all of you that didn't come in with me would step away from MY artifact." he says with a smug grin.
That grin is backed up by the fact that he is channeling dark energy into each of his hands, holding it there as ever-growing orbs of power waiting to be unleashed."Or else bad things will happen to you."
Riventon gestures to Fate and Helix as they likely right themselves, as demonstrations of 'bad things that will happen to you.' He assumes Miss White will be happening to bandit-chan soon no matter what he says.
Thankfully amidst the chaos Miss White has put down Riventon, just in time for the group of magical people to congregate. The Lost Logia itself actually draws her attention away from her real target this time! She doesn't get to stare in amazement long, as suddenly gravity itself flips! Hannah's eyes go wide, and yelps, and hten she's hastily grasping for a way to Not Die. Which happens to be a convenient bit of radio tower she grabs onto. Cursing and sputting, she frowns, then turns to a smile as she notes the floating form of Runealy and her shield.
"Yup! And then we will have a bonfire before we get to the rest of your little 'Guardians'! I will bring the marshmallows and grahm crackers!" She's definitely hamming it up by now just to torment the Princess.
An idea hits her, and she slaps a palm against the end of the radio tower, and a magical sigil appears. Then, she lets go, wind magic not slowing, but accellerating her fall! Right towards Runealy! Instead of aiming directly for her, she instead aims a vicious right hook to the shield, trying to shatter it!
And then procedes to pump magic towards Runealy! It's a rather thin, subtle strand of magic that won't even hurt at first. Should she land it, it will form another one of those sigils on Rune's neck. Then, smirking, Miss White raises her right hand and seems to grab something from the air.
"Wind Bind!" Speaks her Device, as a chord of rotating wind tries to eek into existance, a quite literal noose threated towards Rune's neck, and Miss White's body weight as she slides down to the ground.
She can be a bit literal sometimes.
Glasan has to stare at Runealy a lot. She's a monster? The fairy isn't detecting her as one. For a moment, the fairy seems very sad. Why would anyone want to describe themselves as a monster. She doesn't know. But it still makes her sad. "...you're not a monster." she says matter of factly. "....wha!? Fortune RAN OFF WITHOUT ME, AH!" she freaks out and takes off like a bolt after Cure Fortune.
Glasan catches up with yelling. "Hey...Fortune. I think that. They're going to attack that princess looking gi---"
Fortune just cuts Glasan off right there. "I don't really care about that right now. We have a mission, remeber!"
She says as she turns back around. Is that guy channeling dark energy orbs? and making threats? If he's dark... all it'd take is a Stardust Shoot to put him in a world of hurt--- and then maybe she grab whatever when he's down. Haralown would love the hell out of her for weeks.
Wait-- Is that white haired woman actually trying to /kill/ someone? Nrggggg------ Glasan, as always, is acting as her conscience at the moment. Cure Tender.. wouldn't leave sometime to die. Right?
She begins flying backwards towards the location. She stops mid air and spins the wheel on her PreBrace again.
"PRETTY CURE...! FORTUNE STAR RINGS!" she throws her arms out, and about 8 round, circular energy rings fire from her hands and around her general location into Hannah's general airspace. "STOP WASTING MY TIME!" she yells out at no one specific. She's just angry about this now.
Helix has been flying the whole way and finds herself suddenly 'falling' very fast as her flotation and gravity suddenly align. She flips over and manages to land in a crouch, looking this way and that as she stands back up to full height. "We're... surrounded in barriers." she comments, both to herself and her allies.
She lets out a little giggle, which is quickly followed by a laugh.
'Bulwark,' comes another mental question to her Device, 'Any luck contacting... whatever that is?'
<I'm afraid not, Master. It may be possible if I knew more about what it was but it isn't responding to standard datalink requests.>
'That's fine. Thanks for trying Bulwark. Listen up, I have a plan...'
She lowers into a slight crouch and then reaches her arms into the air, almost looking like she's stretching, only to level them at the opposite barrier wall from herself.
Energy begins to gather in her cannons but unlike normal they don't fire right away. Those with particularly sensitive scanning techniques will detect powerful barriers erecting inside the barrels of the cannons first, followed by a continual, recklessly massive buildup of energy.
As the attack builds up she opens a mental link to Riventon, Miss White, and Fate, "Get ready. When I give the warning you will all need to put up the most powerful anti-bombardment barriers you can manage. Those three are trapped in here with us with no way to dodge."
Even when it seriously seems like she should have fired energy is -still- building up inside the cannons, to the point that the blue-white of the Lost Logia's barriers are starting to glow with her own Forest Green magic.
<Master, in this confined space we will surely take a direct hit from the explosion ourselves,> the Intelligent Device mentally warns.
"What do you want to bet we're tougher than everyone else here put together?" Helix responds with a widening grin.
<Why of course we are, Master! These poor fools will be knocked to kingdom come.>
Her face cast in shadow from the relative brightness the girl begins to laugh. "Hehehehe. Hahahaha. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
<<UNITY>>
As the maze runners all pile into the giant room and start fighting, the Lost Logia looks on ominiously. It seems content to sit and watch the fighting. There's only so much it can do with its powerset.
Fate's wine-red eyes glance between Princess Runealy, Cure Fortune and Mikoto. These are their enemies, right? If she goes after the Lost Logia, they might go after her. She doesn't want to turn her back on them. There are seven walls between them and that Lost Logia, and it would take a long time to break through those when others could attack them at literally any time. Yet, the last time she ignored the Lost Logia to fight, she couldn't secure the Lost Logia.
Bardiche autocasts and announces, <Defenser>, forming a hemi-spherical barrier around Fate to protect her from whatever Bulwark is apparently going to be doing. Those who are standing close to her should also be protected.
The Lost Logia watches on as the others fight, the pillar of light turning a soft green. Its spherical shields float around it, circling and keeping it safe. Yet it sees that some aren't fighting yet. It can't just leave them alone!
Four magical cubes, made out of the same energy as the walls, form in the air, and one each launches at Riventon, Helix, Fate, and Mikoto. Fate's Defensor shield repels the attack, but the others will have to deal with it on their own.
Runealy, Fortune, and Miss White are left alone for now. Not that they don't have their own problems to deal with.
"Absolute failure?" Runealy repeats to Mikoto, confused. "Lack of skill, lack of thinking? Those don't sound like the answers you're looking for, though?" Glasan's remarks are met with: "Thanks, but don't be so sure. Their reactions to me are justif-- nhn!?"
She's interrupted by Riventon's threats and White's assault, which finally manage to draw something other than self-hatred from the princess. Fear is certainly still there, as Hannah smashes through the bubble-shield and sends her sprawling back a few feet... unharmed, but definitely knocked back from the impact all the same. Fear grows anew as she feels a line of air race toward her and around her neck, and then she has all of a few seconds to figure out where this is going.
This is going for... graphic execution on the spot, Runealy realizes. If White's tactic is carried out in full, it will probably kill the princess immediately. This sinks in clearly enough as she starts to be dragged by it with a startled "uhlk!" She would probably die here, and then... then what? Miss White goes on to make good on trying to hunt down Hinote, Gaofele, Raine, and Solomon, and do the same thing to them? She can't coherently reply right now, not with her neck snagged and possibly about to be snapped.
So she says 'No!' in the only other way she can. No hesitation this time, Runealy slams a dark crystal to the side of her neck. It turns into black-purple mist seeping in to her, eyes sealed over by a yellow glow replacing them, as she makes an inarticulate scream. The princess' wand emits a ray a few feet long from its tip, its normal yellow mixed with the same dark colors the mist had. Those who have witnessed this before will note the crystal has indeed made the ray thicker than it usually is. Miss White in particular might remember this... but she might also notice it's slightly less thick than the very last time she saw it.
Regardless, it is some enhancement and she swings it at the Wind Bind to cut free of this attempt to outright hang her.
Even as Helix's laughter rings through the area, Runealy isn't laughing. She doesn't find this funny. Her boot-wings alight again, and the alien princess hurls herself at Miss White. Lots of things are going through Runealy's mind right now, but they can be mostly boiled down to panic and something bordering on berserker fury; the vision of White trying this to her friends rides high in her thoughts, and she is rushing headlong to swing her wand's ray at Miss White with abandon, trying to batter her with it like someone not out to 'hit a home run' with wild swings, but simply out to smash the ball outright in a fit of fury! There are no coherent words, no defiant 'don't you ever talk like that about my friends'... she simply voices that sentiment as a raw scream, one let loose without heed of the fact that Cure Fortune is already attacking Miss White, and this might cause her to fly a bit close to those rings.
Even the Lost Logia, the prize at hand, is forgotten in the immediate moment. She's making no effort to attack the barriers, knowing even in her current emotional state that she doesn't need /more/ enemies by angering the terrain itself, thankful for small mercies in this regard.
"Hey, hey! Watch where you're throwing those things!" yells Mikoto as she snap-draws her Device-blade, catching the blow on blade and sheathe combined - one in each hand - and grunting at the impact.
"Failure," she says, with one last glance at Runealy, "To -focus on the goal-!" And with that she starts pushing towards the Logia, letting Runealy deal with 'Miss White' on her own time.
((Panzershiff)) Carnwennan voices, invoking her own defensive shield. Light gleams around her briefly as the shield is invoked, and fireflies of energy spill from it with every step as she makes her single-minded way closer to the center, trying to get into sealing range of the target.
Riventon sighs. "You know, one day someone's gonna be smart enough to do what I ask and walk away, and I'm gonna be so dumbfounded I won't be able to act for a good few seconds." he says, at the fact that it seems nobody is smart enough to leave.
Hannah is charging in on Runealy, as expected, and it seems like for the moment she's got enough to worry about. But now Helix is charging her cannons - and apparently, overcharging them - so he has to act quick. He seems Mikoto driving up, and responds to her charge.
<SCHATTENSCHLAG!> his device announces, and one of the orbs of energy in his hand erupts into a massive blast of energy, just in front of Mikoto - it'll either force her to stop her advance, or she'll fly into it and be suffused with dark energy (and plain ol' good magical injury energy, and likely flung far away.)
Success or failure, though, he begins to channel his energy into Fate's barrier, strengthening it with his own, and causing it to turn a very dark yellow as clouds of negative energy form on the surface.
And then Cure Fortune is sending rings of magical energy at her! Miss White scowls as she's forced to dodge aside from right to left, dangling a little from her wind-rope. Half of them sail past her harmlessly, before she's forced to put in real effort. Fortune isn't a greenhorn PreCure! A hard kick sends one flying into the other, another takes a chunk out of her coat, and the last one hits her slam in the face, the blow softened by her shielding magic. She spits out blood.
"...Huh. Maybe there /is/ something to you Pretty Cure after all." There's a smirk to the girl.
Which quickly fades. "Anyway, this is a /private matter/! So back off, huh?" Her hand is held out, and a ball of rolling wind forms into her hand. It's kicked straight towards Cure Fortune!
Should it hit, it actually won't do much damage. At first.
"Wind Bomb!" True to its name, the ball explodes in a cutting tornado of pure green wind magic, tearing up more of the area and likely only making the Lost Logia /even angrier/!
And then she almost has the woman putting her friend in danger dealt with. Some small form of morality floods into her darkening heart, and she's just about to let go, when Runealy jams one of those dark crystals in her neck. It's ridiculously easy for her enhanced form to slice through! And then the woman is barreling forward in anger, using that wand less like a wand and more like a very, very tiny iron pipe. Miss White has certainly gotten stronger than the last time they fought, but even that enhancement is more than enough to be trouble! She takes a blow to the face, staggers back, only for a good half dozen blows to the body are either taken outright, or narrowly dodged! Each strike has her calling out in pain. Still, the woman gives as good as she's getting, aiming tight jabs and wild hooks and kicks to either ward off blows, or try to strike back in turn! She's definitely on the losing end of it however as the two trade blows in rapid, angry fashion!
"Now THAT is a good look for you Bandit-chan! COME ON! EMBRACE YOUR ANGER! NOW YOU KNOW HOW I FEEL WHENEVER YOU GET AO INVOLVED!" One final blow sends her tumbling back, and smack into the edge of a skysraper.
There's something small and green in her hand. She breathes hard, laughing as she shoves herself again to her feet, leaping back towards her compatriots.
"But two can play at that little game! Let loose the wrath of my ambitions!"
The emerald Grief Seed has half of its energy sucked into Hannah's linker core. Anyone with a Device can feel the growing Darkness, the taint seeping out from the thing, and Miss White's aura goes all the more black as she's wrapped up in a cocoon of light. When it shatters, that same ghostly bride floats before Runealy. She smirks, then sucks in a breath.
And then she howls out in anger and fury and hatred, walls of wind bursting from around her, threatening to tear apart the 'ground' and perhaps Cure Fortune and Runealy. It doesn't help with two of the white-suired, blank-faced Familiars appear, twin pistols soon blazing away with magical energy right beside the transformed Hannah.
Cure Fortune Kabooom!? Cure Fortune is blown away by an explosive wind bomb. This sends her flying in the opposite direction, rocketing off. She manages to stop her tumbling when Hannah does. Something. And she's a ghost now? A powerful one? And there's henchmen with guns and without faces and--- Cure Fortune is just done. /SHE'S DONE/. She holds her arm high and a bright light emits from her PreBrace.
"Light of the Stars, turn into a sacred power!....... LOVE PREBRACE!...."
"Pretty Cure!" she smacks the prebrace. There's a clap. Energy lights up against her hand. "STARDUST SHOOOOOOT!" she says as she rotates her hands around one another, building up energy until it turns into a giant purple star above her.
She grabs the star, spins once.... and then punches it forward into Hannah's direction, the Star threating to collide with her- and hopefully do enough damage in the meantime to-- whatever the white haired girl became.
<Round Shield>
It sure is good to have such a defensively focused Device when you've just gone and made yourself a huge target! A green circular shield of energy appears as the cube is flung Helix' way, catching and deflecting it so it bounces off somewhere else, the cube remaining intact to make another attempt if it's of the homing variety. The shield, on the other hand, winks out of existence as quickly as it appeared.
The energy continues to build up inside the cannons and those with keen magical senses would begin to feel the barriers containing the energy within straining, and almost about to fail. The girl and her Device work together in perfect unison, pumping in as much mana as Bulwarks dual cannons can possibly hold, the containment fields teetering on the very edge of failure.
Only then is she ready to fire. True to her word a sparse moment before she does she sends a mental warning to her fellow Eclipse members, 'Now!' Then comes a loud cry.
"Shoot!"
<<ERASER>>
The cannons fire, the dark green beams exiting them enormous- much larger than the barrels themselves. Circular rings of magic help contain and guide them as they streak away at incredible speed. One appears directly in front of the barrel itself, and another three quarters of the way to the barrier wall opposite Helix.
There would be a third but as the barrier is struck and shattered the beams detonate, straining in all directions into the incredibly confined space and unleashing magical hell on everything caught within as nothing within the confined space is effectively out of the blast radius, normally measured in city blocks, including Helix herself.
"NNGH!" she grunts as she's slammed backwards against the barrier behind her and bouncing off of it hard enough to cause her to cause her to fall to the ground face first, having to peel herself up and off of it and slowly get back to her feet.
"That hurt like heck... but it was -so cool-!"
As she gets up she catches sight of Hannah's newly transformed state. "That... that's really cool too! Can I do that?!"
<Inadvisable, Master. Linker Core contamination detected.>
"We -definitely- chose the right people to give those Devices too. I'm so glad I'm on her side right now." The girl says still moving a bit slowly from the effects of her own attack's backlash.
She doesn't even care if her ultimate attack gets shown up at this point!
Mikoto's parry works just fine to get rid of the smaller cube, but as she edges closer to the center the Lost Logia reacts. A giant red, rune-covered hand appears in the middle of the air above her, coming down hard to smash Mikoto with its palm. It is /not/ happy with her right now!
However, even if she somehow gets around the Lost Logia's attacks, she'll still need to deal with those defensive shields somehow.
A moment after Riventon launches his attack at Mikoto, the hand fades away. Apparently the Lost Logia is content, for the moment, to not attack those who are already fighting.
Hannah Sharpe's Wind Bomb goes off, and the damage spreads far enough to hit the barriers protecting the Lost Logia. They weaken under the strain. With a little more pressure, they might break.
That pressure comes when Hannah turns into an Artificial Witch, ripping through the floor forcefields and causing holes to appear and spread. Don't fall into them!
A lot of the damage done by her is collateral, but even collateral damage in her state causes the Lost Logia some problems.
With Riventon empowering Fate's shield, Fate feels no need to focus on maintaining it. Which means as Helix charges up her attack, Fate begins to charge one of hers.
<Sealing Mode>
Bardiche's head spins around 180 degrees, Taking the shape of a two-pronged staff. She begins storing massive power into Bardiche's head, charging it up quickly.
Helix fires, filling the room with dangerous magic. Fate hopes that her shield can tank the hit. It's clear that the Lost Logia's shields can't. Between Hannah's collateral damage, and Helix's own ultimate attack, the outer shields protecting the Lost Logia begin to collapse. The first one shatters, exposing the second. The second shatters, then the third, then the fourth. The fifth is strained, and almost seems to be holding after Helix's attack, but it's not over yet.
"Fire" is Fate's soft command.
Bardiche announces <Sealing>.
A thick golden beam of electrical power slams into the weakened barriers, breaking the fifth, then the sixth, then the seventh. The Lost Logia is exposed now, and Fate's sealing magic is slamming into it.
Fate has to sustain the beam for a while. The Lost Logia screeches. Gravity is reversed again, or perhaps it has simply been set right? The walls and maze begin to vanish. The wide-area barrier even starts to fade, but it's replaced by another, from another caster.
The Lost Logia is sealed, floating harmlessly in the air, but it still needs to be claimed.
Runealy might be winning her 'trades' with Miss White, but it's not totally one-sided; the princess is so furious that she is making no effort to defend herself, and she does wince as White manages to sneak in the occasional straight jab while Runealy is swinging, or hook-kicks to the side while the princess is making straight attacks. They're hurting, but Runealy simply does not care right now.
"Shut up! I'm not trying to get your friend murdered! I actually care what happens to her!" The alien princess presses on, though the emergence of White's other form - a haunting look for more than one reason to Runealy, is enough to bring her down to 'speaking coherently.' ...Screaming coherently, rather. "Is that your ambition? To hurt people and have fun killing them, for /your/ benefit!?" She is still very upset about having pieced together how 'hanging' works, and the idea of White making a public spectacle of doing it to Rune's friends.
She starts to rush anew, but this time finds herself checked by Hannah's winds. Raw fury will not be enough, she /has/ to show at least a little sense now as familiars open fire. Shield raised - now an ugly tri-colored bubble of red, black, and purple - she shouts back to White: "I've heard a little about how you do that! I don't know the full truth about this, but you might actually be worse than I am!"
While still riding a mix of fear and rage, Runealy has at least calmed down a very tiny bit... enough to not fire on Hannah directly while Cure Fortune is doing the same; it might hinder Fortune's efforts for all she knows. Instead, Rune spins to launch a pair of wand orbs... one at each familiar, as her shield is lowered. Both aim for direct hits, hoping to burst into distorted tri-color sparkles on impact if they manage to connect.
All of this despite what's going on with the Lost Logia. By all rights she should be concerned with it now that Fate has sealed it since this would be a useful prize in her quest to obtain more energy for her world's protection... but Runealy isn't /that/ smart right now, too hellbent on tearing into the newly transformed White, whose visage unnerves her far too much.
"Lesson two," Mikoto says, pausing briefly as a flurry of mage-bolts slam into the ground in front of her. She lifts her blade, leveling it at Riventon. "Someone tries t' kill you? Kill 'em right back."
((Flakschrecken)) the Device-blade intones, a gleaming path traced behind it as she swings it into place. That path breaks up as the tip is aimed, dividing into a trio of whirling vortices that swirl around the rapier's slender length before being hurled from its tip.
And then 'Ms White' goes full-on Akira. "You see what happens when you lose focus?" Mikoto says, pouring more energy into her defenses, stepping around the impact-point of Riventon's blast. "You get mocked by a teenage witch."
((Flackschrecken)) and another series of vortex-blasts is fired Riven's way, more for show and distraction than for any serious attempt at injuring him.
This is not turning out to be her night to show how easy it can be, is it? No, it really isn't. It doesn't help that someone else is clearly paying more attention to the -actual goal- than she is. That's gonna smart, come morning. She comes to that realization promptly after sending her second burst on its way, and leaps from her perch, taking to the air and rushing straight for the primary goal. ((Fliegerblitz!))
"What do you know!? Quit acting so noble! How long do you actually think it will take for people to realize she's a lead to you!? How long before people start going after her just to get back at you, huh!? As long as you use her, then she is in danger! Call me what you want, but I am not going to let someone I love get hurt by the likes of you /or/ the people you make your enemies! If I can just smash your ambitions and get you out of this town, then that is enough!" She howls back, bleeding and battered even in her new form from Runealy's vicious attacks!
The duo have good timing, as Hannah is forced to deal with both the backblast of Helix's spell bursting through the area, the holes in the area from her own attacks, and the combined force of both Cure Fortune's star-attack and Runealy's burst of magical laser fire! Runealy's magic does an excellent job of glassing the pair of Familiars, shooting their heads clean off. The creatures fade into golden motes of magic, visibly returning to Miss White
A massive golden shield envelopes her as Helix lets loose, Helix's energy causing cracks to form: doing it's job more than admirably as the ground shakes beneath her from that magical backblast, only to curve off the seemingly reflective surface like a very strange mirror, lending rents to the ground. The burst of a purple star hits Hannah in the chest, and sends her plowing through a duo of skyscrapers! Dust and metal and glass fly everywhere as she screams, the false Witch's howls only causing the building to collapse around her!
Another howl, and the remains of the building are a massive tornado around Hannah as she stands up. She bleeding from her mouth as her body approaches its limits to sustain the magic along with her injuries, and she occasionally twitches. Any Device in the area will show her vitals very close to flat-lining. But she pushes herself regardless, Raging Tempest screaming in her ear. She wants to tear into Runealy more. But some small part of her mind gets her back on the /job/.
She teleports away after tossing heaping piles of wind-magic infused skyscraper junk at both Rune and Fortune, only to land protectively before the Lost Logia, and Fate. She'll let out one final howl of fury, trying to drive back those who might come for it. A glance to her partners.
"...Hurry...up..." She coughs, and blood that's increasingly greenish-black comes out.
Riventon is impressed. First, by the massive wave of power that Helix's burst creates, and the way it shudders against the barrier he's strengthend and holding - but barely. He's rocked and tumbled even through the barrier.
It's a hellova ride, and it only gets stranger as Hannah's greif-seed enhanced form. This is the first time it's gone on with him around - well, the first time he was conscious while it went on, anyways - and he's equally amazed at it. "So that's what you were working on." he says, watching.
And he'd probably stay watching, and transfixed, if not for the fact that he's come here for something, and someone was trying to take it from him - Mikoto is driving forward, her rapier-like device - it's like the Storm Knights! he realizes - sending blasts at him. Some of them crash against his shield, and eventually shatter it.
"Tch~" he says, having to weave and fly through the air to dodge the rest. She's headed for the artifact - his artifact - and he's not going to have that happen without a fight. "IT'S RUDE TO STEAL!" he shouts as he drives up - he might not be as fast as the Belkan Knight himself - but the blasts of energy he's firing out of his hands can help close the distance with her, as he's flying after her and weaving out of the way of her blasts.
As fun as it would be to stand there and watch Hannah fight, there's two major problems with that. The first is that Helix has a job to do, and the Lost Logia is now exposed. The second is that the floor has just disappeared.
For a second time Helix finds herself falling 'up', but in this case it actually aids her. Quickly reasserting flight she dives down in front of the Lost Logia, and even in front of Hannah herself should the white and yellow Witchy Woman get there first.
<Hybrid Mode> announces Bulwark, as one of the cannons twists around and gets covered back up by the large shield, whose surface begins glowing green with an announcement of <Terra Shield>
The cannon then begins emitting a green beam sword from it's muzzle, which she points directly at Mikoto. "Sorry, but this one is ours. Even if I'm already a bit roughed up there's no way you're getting past me. I suggest you back off now before we're forced to hurt you."
For emphasis she makes a quick jab with the green energy sword directly at Mikoto's stomach, her energized shield arm held up crossways in front of herself to help ward off counterattacks.
Fate Testarossa looks around. People are fighting each other. No one is fighting her. She also happens to be an entirely speed-focused mage. In this moment, all of this works to her advantage.
Her Defensor shield, once protecting both herself and Riventon, drops immediately. She flies straight for the artifact, Bardiche stretched out in front of her. When she gets close, only just barely beating out Mikoto to the goal, Bardiche takes the small groved cube inside of it.
Just like that, Fate is flying up and away. The real up. Towards the sky, which is now exposed. The magical barrier keeping civillians out fades away, and people start to trickle back into view as if nothing ever happened. Fortunately for everyone, the Lost Logia, and everyone fighting over it, ended up being in a back alley where almost no one could see it.
As Fate flies off in the distance, Bardiche pings her.
"... what? It contains a message?"
As for everyone else, the Lost Logia is gone. Aside from some people's personal grudges, there's little left to fight over. The maze is gone, and everything seems to be returning to normal.
"Then I'll stop calling her!" Runealy shouts back to White, "When she missed my last few calls, I stopped anyway! I'm not leaving Tokyo until I have what I came for, but if you want her out then fine! She's out! I'll find some other way! You mean to tell me though, that some people in Tokyo attack healers like that!?" The idea shocks her, frankly. It's something that even with the awful plan Runealy has been pursuing, never once factored into her considerations; she has even lost time energy hunting to protect Mitakihara Hospital. She might not feel 'noble' about it, in Hannah's words, but apparently the idea of crossing that line had been wholly unconsidered by the princess.
She nonetheless wants to pursue Hannah, or even make a move for the Logia now that she has had a few seconds to calm down and realize how important it would be for her goals, but the sheer debris falling her way - an interesting trick, one the princess has made use of before on smaller scales - is checking her movement. She's having to expend time and effort launching gem-orbs at the wreckage to avoid being crushed.
In the end, such distractions prove enough. Even as Miss White strains, the princess isn't immune to what dark energy is doing to herself. With the prize well away from her, she fires a blast at the ground to kick up some debris of her own... meant to cover up both a sudden cough, and her retreating from the area.
Once out of sight, the princess' transformation fades. She finds an alley to huddle into a ball in, and... begins shaking and crying. It's going to take a while for her to work up the nerve to head back to the store she lives in, to face friends... when all she's going to be able to see is her mind projecting one of White's wind-lines around them...
Pure speed is not Mikoto's forte. Speed of /strike/ is what her kendo training emphasizes. Flight? That's kind of a new thing. Still, she's -almost- quick enough, sliding around the spellfire flying back and forth and through the gravitic distortions to reach out for the McGuffin... only to have it snatched away by Bardiche when she's still an arm's length away.
"Oi! Chibikko!" she yells after the smaller girl. "That's dangerous stuff!" Only to be ignored, most likely, as Fate is zooming far away by the time Mikoto can orient herself to chase after. Besides, it's not as if an organized group like that isn't going to be aware of the kind of caution needed in handling an unstable - oh, wait. Kids. Midchildan types, mostly, too. Well, maybe... no, she's long gone. Mikoto hovers for a long moment, considering those still hanging around, and finally makes her choice. She slides her blade back into its sheathe and zooms off into the sky, away from the scene. Time to practice speed runs so as not to be so easily beaten out again.....
She'd never actually meant to go this far, but both the corruption seeping into her, and her own vicious taunts are backfiring quickly on Hannah. But there's one thing that grabs her attention above all.
Arms cross behind her back as the two's efforts collide. One eye closes, and her sightless eye peers at the Princess.
"It's called collatoral damage. Look at me. Look at what I am doing to myself to get at you, to be able to stop you, and all for one girl! What do you /think/ the 'noble minded' people of this city will do, the real ruthless ones, when they realize the scope of what you are doing!? Anyone you use, EMT's, other magical people, hell, the mailman! They are all links that could lead back to you! Anyone caught in the crossfire is fair game, Bandit-chan! If you really want to do what you are doing without bloodshed, then you cannot get anyone else involved! Anyone who can call themselves an ally is just a target" It's a neat little trick, and yet an honest appeal. Isolate one's enemies from potential help.
"...Fine. You keep your end, you stay out of my way, and no touching Hat Guy. Then I will not need to hunt you down like a dog." She flashes a feral little smile at the end. When the blast kicks up from Rune's wand and the dust settles, Miss White is without her enemy.
With Fate having the Lost Logia, Miss White teleports away wordlessly.
Right into a ward in Mitakihara General that doesn't ask questions, as she's soon coughing up blackish blood and having a seizure.