After the past couple months, all of Tsubasa Kazanari's scheduled concerts had been cancelled. According to her manager, it was because of overwork. Now, a new concert, in one of the larger venues available in the area. People who had purchased tickets for previous concerts had, on top of their refunds, been offered a small discount and priority purchasing for this one. Even so, there was still some room for others to get a ticket here.
Despite the relatively short notice and the size of the venue, the concert sold out, and the audience is large. Upon entry, people are given rave sticks that glow blue when activated. It's to be expected, they're a common feature of Tsubasa's concerts, and has been for years.
She's starting with a new song, a sad song about the weight of memories mixed with happiness about being able to share that weight. This isn't a song that's been published or sung before, and it wasn't announced that she would be singing anything new.
Hibiki is here! Of course she is- not only is Tsubasa her longtime favorite idol, she's also a co-worker now! Plus, she gave Hibiki free tickets! The orange-haired girl is in the audience, in pretty good seats, close enough to the stage to be able to see Tsubasa well without the aid of the giant screens mounted above it, but high enough not to have her view obstructed either.
She's sitting next to Miku, as well as their three friends from school- Tsubasa had given her five tickets! How thoughtful! She's practically bouncing in her seet. "Omigod Miku, look! It's her!" She sqeals when Tsubasa comes out onto the stage, despite the fact that she literally saw the blue-haired idol this morning in person.
She grabs Miku's arm with one hand and begins wildly waving her glowstick around with the other as Tsubasa starts singing. "Uweeee, you rock Tsubasa-san!" She shrieks at the top of her lungs, a minor noise compared to the music and sound of the crowd, but probably half-deafening Miku anyway, poor girl.
There are perks to being in the radio club at Infinity U. Namely, You can get a press pass and tickets on the school! That is exactly what Shinobu did. She had arrived early in hopes that everything would be cleared and it was. So here she is in the, rather pathetic, press area. She would of course put her own spin on the event given the nature of her show, but It doesn't mean she is going to have any less fun with it.
It was up in the air if the Disk Jockey would even be here today. After the events of yesterday and her own brand of nightmare patchwork for first aid, She pretty much wanted to lie in bed and not get up for a few more days. But she gave her word and that means she's here. Sometimes there are distinct perks to having your soul outside your body.
As the music starts, Shinobu begins making notes. Notes on the lighting. Notes on the audio. Notes on everything! How else is she supposed to to give a good report?
Miku may not see the value of buying an album from the store, but a trip to a concert is one of the most exciting experiences of her life. She squeals right along with Hibiki, gladly leaning right into the orange-haired girl. "Tsubasa!" she calls excitedly as she waves a blue glowstick.
Beside her, the trio of other girls from Verone are busy giving Miku and Hibiki a little space. It really is in their best interest.
"If this were an anime," twin-tailed Yumi observes, "We'd have much better seats."
"Would you stop complaining," the tallest of the five, Kuriyo says with a laugh. "We've got free passes to the best concert of the year!"
Meanwhile, Shiori is just busy singing along, waving glowsticks in both hands.
Reiko Touyama was not one of the ones who had thier tickets refunded. She was lucky enough to get tickets though. She had bought two tickets. She'd intended to bring Mei with her. Sadly... well. That wasn't happening now- but after the events of last night- all two of them- she needed to unwind and get away and thusly, she went to the concert alone, getting into the fan t-shirt.
She has her ravey glowstick and is waving it in the air and listening to the music and squealing.
There's like three koi- one to her right, one to her left and one sort of rest on her bouncy orange hair with orange glowsticks waving along!
For now, this is fun- and having the intended effect of distracting her of currently being here alone!
Haru had been one of those who had purchased tickets to a prior concert. Just one, though. Still, he got this one as a raincheck. Which means he's here too. Finally, the opportunity to get to a concert! And one that a new song's being played at too! Such a treat.
He's definitely not one of the typical teens hanging out here, though. That much is clear right from the off. Haru's dressed in a fine suit, blazer and slacks a dark hunter green. The shirt underneath is azure blue and the tie is white. And he wears shiny black loafers. He's also not in possession of a glowstick or waving it about. He is, rather, either standing or sitting (whichever the venue requires), bobbing his head with the music, a small but content smile on his face.
There's a recent song of more moderate popularity, two classics, and then a recent and popular song. About halfway through the concert, right as Tsubasa seems to want to address the audience, something sounding like an explosion happens and the concert hall loses electricity, clouding it in relative darkness. At least the glow sticks don't need power to run. Then, there's a scream in the back.
An emergency generator kicks in moments later, and Tsubasa sounds very serious when she makes a rather different announcement. "I'm being told that two unidentified groups of armed people have started fighting north of the building, and destroyed the power generator. Please stay calm and exit the building through the emergency exit on the left." It's a little light on details, and she repeats the statement before heading to the left, off-stage and to staff only areas.
Hibiki is enjoying the heck out of herself! She never seems to lose her energy, even when Tsubasa sings a slower song. She gyrates left and right and waves her glowstick and is generally having a blast. Of course, that all comes to an abrupt end when that explosion goes off and the arena is plunged into darkness.
"What the.." She stares around in the dim light of thousands of blue glowsticks.. just before her phone starts going off in her pocket. Luckily she put it on vibrate so she can feel it over the sound of the crowd. She pulls it out and peers at the screen, then her brows draw together.
Putting it away again, she turns to Miku. "I need to go. They detected Noise. They must have responded to the Phonic Gain from the concert." She hesitates a moment, but then smiles. "Stay safe, okay?" And then she's standing on her chair, before leaping out over the heads of the row in front of her.
"Balwisyall nescell Gungnir tron~" her voice chimes out, somehow penetrating all the noise around her.. before a blast of orange light encompasses her, forcing the people around already starting to evacuate to look away.
When it clears, she has transformed, clad now in her Symphogear, Gungnir! She lands in a crouch on the stage, kicking off the back of a chair in the last row to make it, and looking around. "Where are they, Tsubasa-san?!"
The crowd begins screaming the moment the explosion happens. Some of them have the good grace to wait for the power to come back on, but others start running and getting hurt.
When the emergency generator kicks in, the commotion dies down a little. Then, Tsubasa's words cause a general gasp through the crowd. Most of them begin making their way towards the indicated exits.
"I know," Miku says, nodding as she pulls her phone out. "Go. I'll take care of everyone. Come home," she begs Hibiki. And then Hibiki is gone.
"Everyone, this way!" Miku calls, starting to direct her friends and everyone near her.
Then there is a loud screech behind the crowd, and the a horrible caucophany sounds, like too much noise at once.
A gigantic yellow-orange caterpillar, the size of five school busses, bursts in through one of the rear entrances, followed by dozens of much smaller blue ameoba-shaped ... things.
"Noise!" Miku whispers worriedly. "Come on come on!" she says to her friends, hastily starting to usher them out.
The caterpillar monster reaches out and touches a man who isn't running fast enough, and he simply turns to dust.
Screams of terror and fear echo throughout the stadium as people begin to run.
And the noise continues to grow.
Reiko Touyama has her eyes closed and then---rumble. explosion. She blinks blinks and looks around. "Eh..?" she asks. The koi dissapear- her concentration and mood broken for the moment as she shoves the glowstick into her poket. Yes.. evacuate. She follows along with the crowd before she skips off to the right somewhere at some point and ducks behind a large speaker set. She pulls her Chroma Prism up from the necklace around her neck- tucked into her shirt.
"Chroma Prism Orange! Transform!" she calls out.
A flash of orange, a pretty dress, a pretty hair bow--- a koi turning into a gem-fish clip in her hair and--- Prism Keeper Orange is here!
She flies up off into the air, lifting off to get a view of what's happening. A giant.... catepillar? With smaller bloby things.
Nrg, okay. What does she do?
She looks off towards the stage. There seems to be others arriving to help, she figures there.
She looks back to the creatures.
She levies her Chroma Wand down towards the smaller creatures, and unleashes a flurry of magical seeking koi!
They aim to swim swim swim through the air, and pop into some of those blobby things with a damaging magical sparkle!
Shinobu is actually enjoying herself amidst her note taking. She is completely caught up in the awesome music and is even waving her own glow stick! Its a wonderful distraction from the chaos which is still chiseling away within her mind from the day before.
And then the lights go out. She groans and looks around. "Great. Either Team Rocket's going to attack or things are about to get ugly." Thats about when the announcement is made. Decisions decisions. There is no shame in running. But there are a lot of people here. She's already hurting. Hanging her head Shinobu simply sighs, "Hero or not?"
Quickly her ring shifts to it's soulgem form. Holding it in front of her, viridian light flares around her. The soulgem becomes a choker with the gem dangling down a short ways. Her clothing changes from a school uniform to a white dress trimmed in viridian. A viridian leather vest forms over her chest. Tan stockings form on her legs and a pair of brown heeled shoes appear on her feet. The light show ends just as the weird creatures burst in.
"Lesson learned from yesterday. I am not holding back." Her bo forms in her hand and its end is slammed on the ground. A pair of scythe blades form on either end. Time shifts for her as she presses her button. With a bust of speed she is off attacking some of the blue creatures.
Crap. There /would/ have to be trouble at the one concert Haru gets to go to this month. Ugh. Oh well. Fighting people isn't his deal. He's just going to let the police deal with that one. Might be something causing the sudden outbreak of violence, though. He brings his hand up to his face, appearing to scratch his nose, and murmurs, "Anthy, get a scan going." There's a soft ping from his pocket.
It happens practically in shotgun time. The Device in his pocket pings, and a computerized male voice says, "Anomaly detected--"
The Noise don't even have the courtesy to let the Device finish the sentence. "...Never mind, Anthy, I see them." And of course there's a panic. Haru quicky ducks and weaves through the crowd, heading to a relatively quiet space out of the way of the push. He draws what looks like a small, faceted, teardrop-shaped emerald out of his pocket. "Anthos Armonia. Set-up."
An emerald-green spell-circle appears beneath him-- that's a Mild-Childan magic circle, if anyone's where they can see him. Though probably not. His body begins to glow that same emerald green, and then gauntlets fit themselves onto his hands. Armored boots fit themselves onto his feet, and then a hooded cloak appears. The gem reappears, and pieces fit themselves around the gem, in the shape of a longbow.
He flies out of his hiding place, trying to stay back, away from the Noise. Yes, he'd seen what these unknown monsters had done to that one man, and he doesn't want to be next.
Out of sight, but close to an open window, Tsubasa sings some hauntingly clear words. "Imyuteus Ame no Habakiri Tron~" A blue light to match Hibiki's yellow, though a bit less obviously placed. When that window is opened, Tsubasa's clad in her Gear, Katana in hand, and looks down at the noise. "Over here, Gungnir!" She calls back to Hibiki, the emphasis on that choice of name a bit unusual, she's trying to draw attention to it somehow.
Then, she jumps down into the crowd of Noise, blue energy forming countless swords in the sky as she approaches the ground, and when she lands, they come crashing into the Noise, every single one of those swords killing one of them. It thins the pack, but there's just so many of them.
She notices the presence of magical youths other than herself and Hibiki, but it's only one of them that catches her eye. Shinobu. The veteran Candidate doesn't quite call the Puella out, but slowly works her way towards Shinobu while cutting a path through the Noise.
Hibiki frowns in clear anger as she sees the Noise catch up with one man, the fatal effect of their touch brought back into clear focus, though luckily it seems most everyone else is getting out through the exits on the opposite side. She casts a worried glance over her shoulder towards where Miku and her other friends were... but she trusts Miku. The girl has a clear head under pressure- she'll get them to safety.
Her eyes swing back as Tsubasa calls her name- the name of her Gear, anyway. She raises a gauntleted fist in acknowledgement.. then takes off at a run directly towards the crowd of blue blobby noise.
As she runs, she sings, the power of her song fueling her Symphogear, the music seeming to come out of the very air around her, her voice cutting through the cacophany. "I absolutely... Won't let go of this hand~" she reaches the Noise, spinning at the last moment and bringing her fist back to send it flying into the first. When she hits it, /it/ explodes into dust- just like had happened to the man. The Symphogear give the Noise a taste of their own medicine. "After all, look, the heat humans make is so warm.~"
She spins, striking a martial-arts pose briefly before bringing her hand down in a chop on another nearby blob, which similarly disintegrates. "I don't need complicated words~" Spinning again, she pulls back on her left gauntlet with the right, a piston locking back along her forearm. "I understand now. We will resonate with our brave minds!~" She punches straight into the center of a larger noise and the piston on her gauntlet springs forward, the Noise literally detonating into fragments from the strength of the blow!
Dozens of noise die under Tsubasa's One Thousand Tears. Wherever a sword touches, the noise simply turn to dust. But dozens of dead noise are meaningless against a steadily growing swarm of hundreds. The koi barrage takes out another several easily. Pop pop pop! As Hibiki charges into the Noise, they seem to scatter, bowled away by her presence.
But for every Noise that dies it seems two omre take their place! The big yellow catterpillar noise roars its cacophany, and begins undulating its way into the arena. Chairs go flying, and people are still screaming.
"Come on come on, keep moving," Miku says, keeping everyone focused on the leaving. The stadium is nearly clear of people. Nearly. But there are so many concertgoers.
Miku reaches out to pick up a young girl that isn't quite running fast enough and carries her in her arms as she stumbles towards the exit.
The caterpillar Noise lashes out at its nearest target: Hibiki. A massive clawlike appendage coes crashing towards the Candidate.
Three blue-hued noisy things come bounding in towards Shinobu, seeking to surround and engulf the Puella.
Five tiny little noise streak towards Prism Keeper Orange. It's like they've turned themselves into fast-moving rockets, and they're about to go straight through her!
Tsubasa, high over head, is spared their attacks, for now.
Well, it's a cinch that this isn't going to be good for any normal people that may be in the area. So, since the Noise seem to be leaving him alone for the time being, that's what Haru focuses on. "Anthy, set up a Barrier," he instructs quietly. The Device pings, and from roughly Haru's position, a multicolored sphere of energy begins to form. It expands and expands, to emcompass a large area around them-- big enough to have this battle without restraining then too much.
An odd effect happens. When the boundaries of the multicolored sphere touches a normal person... they seem to disapear. Mind, they aren't really disappearing. The Barrier is just sort of... shifting things a phase or two to one side of normal space. That should keep any normal people still trapped from getting hurt. And maybe it'll decrease the amount of collateral damage, too.
The viridian puella magi is tearing into the noise with her bo-scythe. She isn't holding back against these things. She isn't in the mood for any of this. Its times like this she is thankful that she brought one of her seeds along because she isn't playing. Her wounded body is screaming no. Her spirit is screaming yes. And neither are relenting.
Its about this point that Shinobu notices the familiar candidate coming closer. Sadly it's also the point where she is being surrounded by noise. "Oh honeys... You just made a huge mistake." She springs up in the air and unleashes a barrage of dozens of bo shurikens at the ones who would surround her. Each one of the dart like weapons is magically charged and ready to shread anything in their way. Upon landing she is ready to keep fighting. "Just no end to these things. What do you call em?" She calls out to Tsubasa.
Prism Keeper Orange blinks and looks around her, who wha!? A barrier!? Okay. This is familiar, she was just in one last night! But this is still very strange because she's looking around for Miss Blue... who. Isn't around it seems. Her eyes trace over to the others as she frowns and turns back to the matter at hand.
Oh no! These things can launch themselves- it means her flight advantage is a little mitigated. Luckily, all it seems they're doing is launching themselves and not flying so this is remedy by flying, Quickly out of the way to the right, as she spins a little dizzily. "Ugh!"
She peers down. Is that girl singing? Do these things need music to defeat?
She'll figure this out later, for now....
She unleashes a torrent of colored beams into the noise below, trying to hit some smaller ones- and that bigger giant yellow catepilar thing in the process! Ugh!
Between lines of her battle song's lyrics, Tsubasa answers Shinobu's question. "Noise." She's getting closer to the Puella as she cuts down all the Noise that are unfortunate enough to get close to her. When the Barrier sets in, she frowns a fraction of a second, trying to figure out the cause.
The Relic User in Blue then flips onto her hands, blades on her feet extending as she starts spinning, using her hands to keep up angular momentum and horizontal velocity, the long and sharp edges extending from her heels forming a blender of destruction, aimed solely at the noise.
During her spinning, she starts coming a little closer to Prism Keeper Orange, but she stays fairly close to Shinobu; and this seems to be intentional.
Hibiki keeps casting worried glances back towards Miku and her friends, even whilst in the middle of punching Noise and singing. She is quite good at punching noise, and as Miku noted, they tend to fall back away from her wherever she moves- other magical people can hurt the Noise just fine, but Symphogears are /made/ to hurt Noise, and the monsters seem to sense this. Though it doesn't stop them from lashing out at her as well!
"Quickly, quickly, these teardrops welling up overflow~" Hibiki sings, as the huge claw of the caterpillar-monster smashes down towards her. She raises her arms over her head, crossing them to block the blow, and although the claw is practically the size of her whole body as it smashes into her crossed wrists it stops, crackling orange light cascading around her! She surges up to her feet, uncrossing her arms strongly, sending the huge monster staggering back as she reverses its blow! "I want to weave our souls together with these millions of feelings... Now, Blast away this energy!~"
Just then that weird energy barrier surrounds the whole area, banishing all the normal (and vulnerable) humans but leaving the Noise and the magical fighters! At first, Hibiki is confused, and she stares around until she spots Haru floating overhead, noting him at the center of the expanding bubble! She gives the guy a thumbs-up! Good work!
"They're called Noise!" She echoes Tsubasa, hearing Shinobu's question as well and not sure who it's addressed to. "And they piss.. me... off!" She takes a running start as she says this, leaping into the air and landing amidst a crowd of Noise, smashing the ground with her fist which craters it and sends a wave of fire out from her landing position, disintegrating a wide swathe of the Noise!
"This isn't supposed to be an anime!" Yumi cries unhappily as she is ushered out of the stadium. "And where is Hibiki!? Where is Miku!?"
"It's not an anime, it's real," Kuriyo tells her friend. "Come on, let's get out of here. I'm sure Miku and Hibiki went out another exit."
The rocketting Noise strike a wall, then bounce off and reform as blobs of Noise right next to Miku. Miku shrieks and clutches the girl to her chest, protecting the little one. The fast-running girl glances around for a way out, then jumps left, right, and then dashes straight between the noise, barely avoiding being touched by them. "Here!" she calls, handing off the girl to an old man with outstretched arms. He takes the girl from Miku, then turns to go, while Miku turns around to face off with the noise. "You won't get her!" she yells at the trio of small blobs as they come towards her.
Just then, Haru's barrier expands outwards, cutting the Noise off from their intended prey. The problem is, for some reason Miku is trapped inside the barrier, too. The noise don't seem particularly picky. Just because they can't reach the little girl, and all the others who are leaving the stadium, doesn't mean they aren't still interested. They reach out towards Miku, who screams, "HIBIKI!!!!!"
The caterpillar noise is knocked back by Hibiki's strength. It rolls over backwards, but isn't destroyed. The massive thing's loud and obnoxious sounds are like squishing and clashing and craze. It rights itself, then roars up and swats at Tsubasa and Prism Keeper Orange.
Prism Keeper Orange okay so color energy can hurt these things, good, so she doesn't need to sing. Because that'd be embarassing. She can't sing well! She can't sing well at all and maybe if these things were hurt by singing- they'd be hurt by how terrible hers is!
Like seriously, those poor cats when she sings to herself in her bedroom when listening to music!
She looks over at Tsubasa and blinks a bit. Who is that?
She thinks too long on this because soon she's swatted and she's sent flying for a bit and tumbling in the air before she rights herself. Ugh. Who got the liscene plate of that truck that toally hit her just then.
Shehe shakes it off and dashes back down to the fray as she peers at Haru curiously, oh so they're the source of the barrier. Okay!
Talky Weapon Users. Do they all know the same things?
"Oraaaaaange Rush!" she calls out, energy rushing from the tip of her wand and towards the more larfer creature this time.
"Of course they're Noise! What else would interrupt a concert!!!" Shinobu calls out as she drives the magical blade of her bo-scythe into one of the blue noise. She quickly flips backwards, dodging an inbound attack from more of them. She quickly strikes at that one too.
Her gaze goes to the giant catapiller. With a quick jump she springs up towards the big and yellow pain in the neck. She takes a couple strikes at it. Wait noise? Is she supposed to be drowning out the noise? She makes another strike before calling out. "Two questions. What's the target? And Should I be singing or something!?"
Tsubasu notices Miku is in trouble, but is too far away to react, especially as she has to dodge the other way to evade the big Noise's swatting. She rolls back and lands on her feed, the sword in her hands growing from a Katana to a big two-handed blade, and looking at the thing to analyze its movements.
"The small ones are weak." She yells in between lines of song, and after the next line of song follows it up with, "But this one is really dangerous." She makes her point as to what 'this one' is by jumping up into the air, and letting blue energy form around her big blade before she unleashes it in a big shockwave by swinging her blade in the Caterpillar's direction.
Hibiki straightens after her splash-landing amidst the Noise, preparing to turn on the giant caterpillar and deal with it, when she hears Miku's shriek overtop of all the other noise! It seems to reach her ears like a clarion call, and her head whips around, eyes widening in panic. "Miku!" Tsubasa and the others will have to deal with the caterpillar.
Hibiki turns and sprints across the stadium, Noise literally flying out of her path as she simply bowls them over without stopping to properly hit them. Her eyes focus on the source of the cry, finding Miku being menaced by a small crowd of the blue noise! They'll get her in a moment!
But not if Hibiki has anything to say about it. "LEAVE.. HER.. ALONE!" She screams as she launches herself into the air again, the rockets on the back of her Gear igniting with a flare of fire that sends her crashing down amidst the noise like a comet, smashing into the ground and sending the monsters exploding away in every direction.. and leaving Miku in the clear for the moment!
No, Miss Blue is not here. There is, however, someone flying about in the air. The person is in an emerald-green cloak with a hood that hides the face. But for those who've seen what a Barrier Jacket is, that is definitely a Barrier Jacket the person is wearing. For the time being this unknown mage seems to be taking it easy. There is, however, a longbow in the mage's hands, one with a string made of pure emerald green mana.
Haru catches the thumbsup from Hibiki, and nods once, silently. And then suddenly the shriek from the girl. "Anthy. Device Mode." The bow pings, and then as he releases it to float in the air before him, the bow reconfigures itself in a seemingly impossible way, changing into a staff with a tulip-shaped trident at the head. The teardrop shaped emerald is the centerpiece, with a single golden prong curving up on either side of it.
He raises the staff into the air above him. "Flu-Flu," he murmurs. Golden dust begins to fall from the staff, raining down in the area under him. Then he swings the staff in a wide arc around him, sending the golden dust across the battlefield. The dust tries to get into the Noise's... well, however they perceive the world. And other places too. It could blind them. It might put them to sleep. It might even poison them! Might just make 'em sneeze. Or it... might do absolutely nothing. Hopefully it /does/ do something, though. Best of all it won't affect his allies.
The noise aggressing on Miku are simultaneously flung away and destroyed by Hibiki's aggressive assault. Terror and adrenaline fade at the same time, and Miku collapses to her knees, clutching the ground between her legs. "That was scary," she tells her friend.
Meanwhile, the massive caterpillar Noise is assaulted by an Orange Rush. It roars in anger and frustration and starts to swipe towards Prism Keeper Orange, but then flashing swords come in, and the thing's arm simply explodes off. The noise roars and rolls onto its side. It slams its tail and tries to root forward, but it's clear the thing is on its last legs. One more good blast will destroy it.
The lesser Noise are beginning to thin, as well, and Haru's Flu-Flu attack seems to slow them all, making them far more vulnerable to attack.
Seeing that her strikes aren't doing as much as she'd like, Shinobu starts observing the area. Oh look... a pole! That works! The Puella Magi quickly takes off towards the pole. "Well this one isn't normal but, lets dance!" She crosses her arms then twirls her bo.
"SEASONS..." Shinobu launches herself off the pole, twirling her bo-scythe and it grows larger and much more menacing. All around her body it goes until she comes up right behind the big yellow catapiller. "...FINALE!!!" The bo spins rapidly, functioning like a saw. Going from tail to head, she goes flying leaving devestating cuts on the noise. Its tail falls off in a messy, nasty, pile. As she lands the attack she turns her back to the enemy. Yeah she's too cool to actually look at her damage.
Prism Keeper Orange eek! She goes to move, but then the thing's arm gets lopped off. Whew. She sweats a bit, as she thinks for a moment. Good. The creature is weakened enough! It's time, she hopes, to end this!
"Prism Aegis Power!" shouts Orange as she raises her wand overhead a moment- building a mass of orange energy. "Orange Chroma Overflow!" she calls out, as she---- unleashes a gigantic koi the size of a small house, aiming to crash into the Catepillar and explode in a resounding purifying light. It's also just a big ol' standard energy burst too- aiming to take out the catepillar and some of it's friends with the burst.
"Take that you jerk!" she calls out.
Because /someone/ had to call it a jerk.
Haru nods as he notes the dust slowing the Noise down. "Anthy. Hunter Mode." Once more he releases the Device and it reconfigures itself in that impossible way again, returning to the form of a longbow. He ignores the horde for the time being, concentrating on the large yellow one but it's not for an outright attack. Though he does draw the glowing 'string' of the bow back.
"Anchor Point."
An arrow made of the same green mana forms, haft resting over the arrow rest. The arrow sparks brightly at the tip. He looses the arrow, aimed at the yellow Noise, and as it flies, the tip springs open into a three-pronged claw. The arrow aims to phase through the beast-- partially. The magical claw will seek to 'pin' the creature in place, on a magical level. Other than the possible pain of being pinned in place though, the shot won't cause any real damage. That will hopefully keep it in place while the others finish it off.
That done, hit or miss, Haru turns his attention to the rest of the lesser Noise, firing arrow-shaped blasts of magic at any stragglers that the others miss.
As the big Noise starts to receive enough damage to be conceivably killed, Tsubasa runs upwards on a wall, throwing her sword into the sky, where it rapidly starts expanding to be several times larger than her. It keeps for now, its upwards momentum as it slowly spins towards pointing at the target.
And that's when she kicks off the wall and blue energy starts to emit from her shoulders. More of the same starts emitting from the sword as soon as her foot connects with the hilt, and this energy works much like a thruster, adding more velocity and energy to the massive weapon as she tries to drive it into the Noise.
Hibiki straightens after knocking all the Noise away from Miku.. giving her friend a grin at her comment. "Don't worry, Miku." She says, confidently. "I'll always be there to protect you." She nods her head firmly, affirming what she views as a universal truth, before turning...
To find the big caterpillar Noise being more than adequately taken care of. "Oh. Well." Her thunder stolen! Except she doesn't really care- she's just happy more people haven't been hurt. She glances around, then looks back to Miku. "I'll be right back!" And then she's dashing off, stampeding through the remaining nearby small Noise, crushing them effortlessly beneath a flurry of punches and kicks, while singing the last strain of her battle song.
Finally, it seems, the Noise have been dealt with, and silence descends over the stadium, Hibiki breathing heavily as she straightens and lets the last words of her song die away.
As the caterpillar's tail falls off, it explodes loudly and violently, spraying dust in every direction. The Anchor Point holds it in place as Orange's gigantic koifish drops down. The purification energy blasts through the remaining body of the massive Noise, and further explosions rock the area.
Miku hugs herself tight as Hibiki rushes off to deal with the rest of the noise. Slowly, she pulls herself back together and starts to rise back to her feet.
The last of the noise turn to dust just as the first did. The entire stadium is a mess of dust and destruction. But except for the first poor soul, it seems no one was terribly injured. Too bad yet another of Tsubasa's concerts was interrupted.
Puella Magi Shinobu lets out a soft sigh of exhaustion. "Another day another view of what the hot box must look like." She pulls a grief seed out and touches it to her soul gem, purifying the cloudy gem leaving it nice and clear. That should have another use at least.
Now that the blend of Adrenaline and magic are wearing off, Shinobu grasps her side. The pain is coming back and doing so hard. She will need to stop at the store and get herself a sewing kit. A trip to the hospital is out of the question. She is just content that she's taped herself up so, no bloody mess today. She gives a little wave to Tsubasa, "Some day we are going to meet on a day where evil ISN'T trying to destroy everything we hold dear." Giving a painful bow, Shinobu looks toward the exit.
Seeing the Noise gone, Haru descends from above, alighting near Tsubasa. He does not, of course, know her name. He turns to her, head still covered by that hood, and asks, "...Is it safe?" Ohp... that's a man. The baritone voice is a dead giveaway, even if the rest of him isn't very forthcoming about his gender. If she says it is, Haru will instruct, "Anthy. Release Barrier." A ping from the gem on his bow, and the multicolored sphere will indeed disappear, and all the people will reappear.
To them, though, they didn't disappear. To the normal people, it was the weirdness in the stadium that disappeared. And now, should there be any people still inside, the magical lot here will just... reappear, out of nowhere. Weird!
Haru does, however, send a look at Miku. The look is unreadable thanks to the hood concealing his face. But he has to wonder. Why didn't she disappear...?
Prism Keeper Orange watches the creature and noise explode. She looks around--- up, down, left, right and huhs. "We did it!" she exclaims gleefully.
She looks at the others. "Hello! I dunno who you all are!" an exuberent way to say she hasn't met any of you before. "I'm Prism Keeper Orange!" she says.
She looks at Haru.. "That was... a barrier. Right?" she asks. "Thanks! I didn't know those were so useful until last night! I wish I could do something like that...." she says softly.
Tsubasa watches Shinobu leave, and she keeps staring, but doesn't stop the Puella. "It should be." She intead answers Haru, and adds an introduction for Prism Keeper Orange. "I'm Ame no Habakiri's wielder." She points towards Hibiki, swords now gone, "And that's Gungnir's wielder." She grimaces a little as she says that, apparently saying that hurts, somehow.
The sword-wielding Relic User turns towards Haru after a little while. "Thanks for putting up that barrier." She takes a step away from the others, seeming intent on departing as soon as she can find an excuse.
Hibiki glances back towards where Miku stands a few yards away as the barrier dissipates. "Go make sure the others are okay!" She calls to her friend, meaning the friends they came with. "I'll meet up with you back at school!" Then she turns and jogs over towards where Tsubasa is speaking with Prism Keeper Orange and Haru. She glances at the departing Shinobu, offering a thankful wave, but doesn't try to stop her.
Still in her Gear, she comes up beside Tsubasa, smiling brightly. "Hi! I'm Hibiki!" She exclaims, not bothering with any of that "Gungnir's wielder" stuff. "Thanks for your help! Those Noise are real nasty! We probably coulda handled it, that's our job after all, but doing it faster means less people get hurt!"
She turns and beams a smile at Haru. "That barrier thing you did was really cool! It kept the people away from the Noise, that's really a great trick."
Haru turns to Prism Keeper Orange at the question. "It was," he confirms. "Keeps normal people out." Then he looks to Hibiki at her observation. "That's its purpose. That and to keep in the thing being fought. Not sure it'd have worked on those things. But it kept the people safe." That's really all he's concerned about. He seems nearly as terse as Tsubasa. Nearly.
The introductions get a nod as well. "Call me Hunter," he offers in return. No real names from him. He indicates his bow. "Anthos Armonia." The Device pings, the sound coming from the green gem on the grip.
Prism Keeper Orange looks at the bow. "Oh! One of the.. talking weapons?" she asks. look, Reiko doesn't actually know the real name for these things and 'talking weapons' probably sounds more respectful than 'talky devices' or 'talky dohickeys'. "So..you're a mage, right?" she asks.
She head tilts. "Hunter then!" she smiles wide!
She looks at Hibiki and smiles back with a wave! "So. Those were... 'Noise'...? Why were you singing while fighting them? Does that weaken them should... we be sining when we fight them?" she asks curiously.
Then she short of blushes. "I don't sing very well..." she mutters.
She glances as Tsubasa runs away. Well. That was a mouthful of a name to remember!
"Our relics operate on the phonic gain produced by us singing." Tsubasa answers Prism Keeper Orange, leaving at a fairly quick pace. Apparently socializing is not what she's interested in right now, she's got no more questions and has to report the outcome of this fight to Section 2.
"It might have." Hibiki tells 'Hunter' as he introduces himself, about the barrier and the possibility of it constraining the Noise. "It's certainly better than not having it either way!"
She watches Tsubasa head off with that cursory farewell, and sighs, looking to Prism Keeper Orange with a slight shake of her head in apology. "Don't mind her, she's always like that. She's amazing and strong and my favorite singer but she can be a little brusque sometimes.. eh heh.."
But she expounds! "You don't need to sing to fight the Noise! It's just that our Symphogears," She holds out her armored arm as an example, "Are powered by Phonic Gain, which is produced by us singing!" She hasn't been singing for a while, but there's enough charge left in the Gear that it won't vanish very quickly when she's not using it to power attacks or anything.
'Hunter' offers an affirmative grunt to Prism's statement. One sound to both of them actually. It's close enough. He stays quiet, but he listens to the explanation of the 'Symphogears', looking to the weapon as it's indicated. His expression is hidden, but he tilts his head inquisitively.
Prism Keeper Orange thinks on this! "Oh, okay!" she says. "So just your suit uses.... sound... then?" she asks. "To power itself, okay!" she says. She looks to the noise. "It responded well to my color energy so... that's good. Sometimes... it doesn't effect some things more than it does others I guess." she says.
"I don't really know specifics!" she says.
She head tilts. "Oh, um.. I should. Probably get going now. I'm sure... this has hit the news and-- my grandpa..." she doesn't mention her parents. "...is probably worried sick!" she says wide eyed.
"Maybe we'll run into one another soon!" she says as she begins to take off, she peeks back at Haru and waves. "You, too!" she smiles as she begins to zip off on her tiny wings. Hurry hurry!
Hibiki nods her head a few times. "Yeah, sound! But like.. it has to be certain frequencies, or something? I dunno! Only certain people can use Symphogears, like me and Tsubasa, apparently it has to do with the frequency of our voices or something. I'm no experty."
She grins, nodding. "Yeah, I should go too! I need to check on my friends. Thanks again for your help, you guys!" Then she's turning and running towards the exist.. her Symphogear dissolving into orange light as she goes, returning her to her normal clothes before she heads out the exit tunnel to find Miku.