Let's gooooo VI Anonymous 2010/11/27 (Sat) 06:47 No. 30175 ▼ File 12908404762.gif - (473.70KB, 300x253 , hisoutensoku.gif)
[X] ...seriousness.
This isn't a time to be fucking around. Those last few fights were all against mechs that weren't too tough. They had pretty good armor, sure, but none of them had weapons that were that special. This mech looks like it probably has special attacks of its own, though. You should... look at the view screen harder than ever, or whatever. Or maybe even take your supposed role as 'team heart' more seriously.
Hisou Tensoku steps forward, twisting to the side enough to turn another quick spear jab into a mere glancing hit. Reimu deftly moves the controls and pushes the enemy's spear away with one hand, then follows it up by using the Onbashira like a club.
However, Mars blocks that attack with its shield.
Mars pushes Hisou Tensoku away and does a shield-bash. Looks like it is trying to get some room to use its spear.
Sanae finishes the prayer, and grabs the controls again. She steps Hisou Tensoku back.
Wait. That doesn't make sense to you. "Why are we pulling back? It seems to be what the enemy wants us to do."
"If we pull back a lot we will have the advantage if War God Mars has no ranged weapon!" Sanae brings Hisou Tensoku back more. "Kogasa! You found the missile launchers last time, right?"
"Y-yes?"
"Press some more buttons and see if we can find more guns!"
Kogasa nods dumbly and starts hesitantly pressing buttons.
The lights in the cockpit turn off. "O-oh, that surprised me! I think that one was the light switch..."
You reach out and hold Kogasa's hand. "Stop before you accidently start the self-destruct or whatever, okay? Just stick to pressing the missile button, that one was cool."
"Okay." She presses a button, and Hisou Tensoku sprouts a bunch of missiles. They begin firing.
Mars begins maneuvering its shield around, blocking the missiles one by one. As it does that, it holds out its spear. The bulges near the base of the spear begin crackling, and your viewscreen shows energy building up there. With a series of loud 'zap's, the spear fires off three energy bolts. The first misses, the second accidently shoots a missile out of the air, and the third hits Hisou Tensoku in the arm. Hisou Tensoku twists with the impact, and the remaining few missiles all go wide.
You look at your viewscreen again. "We haven't sustained much damage. That wasn't a very powerful attack."
Marisa nods. "And the accuracy sucked too. Not an attack I'd want to borrow, you know?"
Sanae does another quick prayer. You figured that "pray" advice was just a figure of speech, but hey. Maybe it'll help, she is a priestess.
Speaking of helping... "So, uh, is there anything else I could do to help but look at our vital statistics?"
Nue snickers. "Maybe you could try actually controlling the mech a bit."
"I haven't done it so far, so I'm worried I would screw up. Also, too many cooks, spoiled soup, etc."
Marisa thinks for a second. "I think there's a function for scanning the enemy."
"Oh, cool, I'll check for it." Maybe it's one of those buttons? "Wait, wait, how do you know that?"
"I said that I read the manual."
"Oh right."
"I know you probably think I skimmed the boring stuff and just went straight to the section on finishing attacks. But that's okay, it won't hurt my feelings. Because it's entirely true. I do remember seeing a functions list though."
Mars charges again, and this time Reimu doesn't quite block the spear attack. Hisou Tensoku's arm gets stabbed pretty hard.
You aren't quite paying attention, though. "Hey, Nue, which of these buttons look like they would activate the scan viewport?"
"Do I look like a technology expert?"
"Er, no?"
"Then why are you asking me?"
"Sorry. Hey, Kogasa, care to press random buttons on my controls until something good happens?"
Nue snorts. "Didn't you just tell her to not do that?"
"Oh, yeah. I'll just do it myself then." You look at the control panel. Uh, uh, these buttons aren't labeled well. Wait, that one has a camera on it, maybe it is the right one?
You press it. There's a camera sound, and a picture of War God Mars comes out of a slot on the dashboard. It's a pretty good picture, but... why the hell does this thing have a camera anyway? And why isn't it a digital camera? Hisou Tensoku rumbles.
The picture has flopped down over your viewscreen, so you pull it away. Okay, so maybe this unlabeled button is the right one?
Hisou Tensoku rumbles again. "What's our status?" Sanae asks you, a bit curtly.
"Oh, uh... minor damage to right arm, mostly punctures. Deep wound on the chest, but it missed anything vital." Since when did Hisou Tensoku get stabbed in the chest? "I'm trying my hardest to find out how to activate scan view, so please bear with me."
"Okay. Now, let's execute attack plan delta!" Sanae charges Hisou Tensoku in and punches. Why does this attack plan even need a name?
But there's no time to watch. You have more buttons to press.
Uh, uh, uh, what was the one you were going to press before you got interrupted? Oh, who cares. Well... wait, maybe the viewscreen is a touchscreen?
You poke it. Doesn't look like it.
The cockpit rumbles and tilts, as Hisou Tensoku is knocked onto its side. Your hand slips and presses a button by accident. The contents of the viewport change to a detailed readout on the enemy.
Oh... huh. "Hey, I found it!"
You look outside. Hisou Tensoku is currently lying in a deep furrow on the ground. Reimu brings up the Onbashira, blocking a kick. She grits her teeth. "That's... nice."
You glance at Kogasa. "Shoot some more missiles. Cover for us as we stand."
Marisa laughs. "Might not be a good idea with the mech's chassis half in the dirt. Some of the missiles would be blocked by the ground."
Kogasa presses the button anyway. The missile ports on Hisou Tensoku open up and Mars quickly backs up, but no missiles come out. Kogasa frowns. "Oh, this thingie says... 'missile cache empty.'"
Sanae uses the chance to stand Hisou Tensoku up, before Mars can press on again.
You look at the screen. "Uh, okay, so, it looks like it has a weak point on... uh. Okay, it has no weak points."
Reimu laughs grimly. "Good job."
"Wait, I think this says that the armor on the arm holding the shield is a bit weaker than the armor elsewhere?"
"Let's attack that arm then!" Sanae charges Hisou Tensoku in again, and tries to hit an arm that is holding a shield without hitting the shield. Mars just blocks the flurry of blows with the shield, of course. Mars counters with a kick, which sends Hisou Tensoku momentarily stumbling back.
The War God uses the chance to nail Hisou Tensoku in the leg with a spear jar.
Reimu glances at you. "Status report?"
"Uh, I can't see our own status while the scan view is open..."
"Then change it back!"
You switch back to status view. "Okay, damage to the leg is pretty bad. I... think it should be okay as long as we don't run any though."
"Okay."
Now what was the button you used to switch to scan view, again? ...oh hell, you didn't think to memorize which one it was.
Hisou Tensoku launches another few punches, and manages to drive Mars back this time. However, Mars continues backing up, even out of spear range.
The War God points its off hand at Hisou Tensoku, and the wrist flips down. A thin, elaborate-looking cannon barrel pops out of the wrist.
There is a rising hum. A familiar rising hum. You feel a sharp increase in magic pressure, and the barrel begins to glow.
It seems like a lot of energy is gathering in that cannon. A lot. You don't need to use the scanning viewport to see that. "Mars is definitely preparing a powerful attack, guys!"
Nue rolls her eyes. "Duh."
Sanae fistpumps. "Let's charge it!"
"What? No!" Reimu seems actually surprised for once. "We can't run, remember?"
Marisa hits a button. "Onbashira Beam!" And Reimu, apparently thinking about the same thing at the same time, brings the Mega-Onbashira up and points it at Mars.
The two attacks fire at the same time. A lance of blistering white light shoots out, and meets a javelin of overhelming magic force. There is a bight flash of light and a deafining bang as the two attacks cancel each other out.
Hisou Tensoku stumbles backwards, barely avoiding falling over. The crumpled Onbashira drops to the ground, out of the mech's hands.
Luckily, though, the mech's systems automatically filter out most of the light, so you aren't temporarily blinded or dazzled by the flash. Therefore, you all see the War God immediately charge and lunge again. It was not pushed back in the least by the explosion due to it's greater mass.
Reimu catches the spear by the shaft, but Hisou Tensoku's grip is not as good this time. The attack is not quite stopped, and ends up puncturing Hisou Tensoku a little.
You look at the console. "Damage is minimal. He did not hit any critical system, it doesn't look like."
With a roar, Sanae makes Hisou Tensoku gather up it's strength and push the spear away, pulling the speartip out of the wound. If she had been a moment slower Mars could have driven it further in. She then charges Hisou Tensoku in and throws several punches at the War God, which dent it's armor but ultimately accomplish little more than momentarily keeping it from attacking again.
"We've got another Mega-Onbashira on the way!" Thanks, HQ. Couldn't you just provide two to begin with instead of sending them over one-by-one? Oh well.
Sanae begins lashing out more, but it is clear that this is pretty futile. Even with the Mega-Onbashira as a weapon, Mars's shield was able to easily block every blow. Simple punches aren't cutting it, and the piloting of the War God is good enough to simultaneously block these blows and do attacks of its own to counter.
After a bit of this, a kick manages to take Reimu by surprise, and Hisou Tensoku is knocked back. Mars immediately follows up with a spear jab, getting Hisou Tensoku in the shoulder.
"Uh, this one hit... er, didn't hit the motors, luckily, but the armor there is trashed. Another good hit might take the arm off entirely."
Reimu scowls. "You should try to avoid punching with that arm then, Moriya Green."
"Alright, we can do this... we just need to step up the offense!"
Nue glances at Sanae. "We aren't going to win without changing strategy. Transforming our offense to something different."
Marisa nods. "We should wait for that Mega-Onbashira to come. They are pretty good clubs, and they can fire some awesome lasers."
You cough. "Speaking of, what's taking them?" You glance at Kogasa, who either has nothing to say or is too scared to say anything. Probably the former... you can hardly think of anything else to say at this point yourself, the plan of action is pretty clear.
Reimu brings Hisou Tensoku back, into a defensive position. Sanae offers a quick prayer, and then says, "It won't be much longer. We just need to hold out!" Well, at least she's not bothered too much by being forced to do something lame like defend.
Mars steps in with a one-two punch: a spear thrust and then a shield bash. The spear is misdirected, but the shield is taken full-on.
However, the shield is not a particularly fearsome weapon. It dents the armor and shakes the cockpit, but it's nothing that Hisou Tensoku can't handle.
Reimu quickly disengages Hisou Tensoku from the shield, before Mars is able to follow that attack up. She dodges another charge, and a moment later there is a loud whistling.
A Mega-Onbashira slams into the ground next to Hisou Tensoku. Sanae quickly picks it up.
HQ opens up on the radio again. "This is the last one we can get to you, so make it count! I'm sorry about the lack of support, but we were taken by surprise!"
"It's okay, we," Sanae swings the Onbashira out, testing the weight, "are definitely going to," she dramatically brandishes it, and then breaks Hisou Tensoku into a dead run, "win!"
You blink. "Uh, that was a nice speech, but remember I told you not to make Hisou Tensoku run?" Hisou Tensoku nearly trips as the damaged leg simply stops working mid-run. Reimu is able to get control for long enough to use the Onbashira to break Hisou Tensoku's fall, and barely ward off another attack with her other hand.
She manages to get Hisou Tensoku standing again, resting the mech's weight on the sparking, gutted leg as best as she can.
Sanae grabs control of the arms again, and begins to swing the Onbashira. Luckily Hisou Tensoku at least got in range. Mars raises its shield.
Sanae lashes out with the new Onbashira over and over, with as much strength as Hisou Tensoku can muster. Every time, though, Mars blocks the blow with its shield. It isn't even bothering to attack now... it's like those bastards are just playing with Sanae, at this point. A good thing too, because Reimu has usually handled Hisou Tensoku's defense, but now she is occupied keeping the damn mech from falling over from Sanae's offenses. Sanae launches one final mighty swing of the Onbashira, and the shield shudders with that blow just a bit, but then Mars kicks Hisou Tensoku away.
Hisou Tensoku slams into the ground. Sanae tries to raise the mech, but with an inoperative leg like that standing normally is impossible. She attempts to push Hisou Tensoku up with its arms, but she puts the weight on the wrong arm and the damaged shoulder makes an ominous snapping sound.
Mars steps back a bit, and holds the spear forward again. It begins to fire more energy bolts. More of those weak energy bolts. Yes, definitely playing.
Sanae groans. "This isn't working. Maybe we should use another finishing attack, see if it works this time."
Marisa shakes her head. "No, he'll just match it with another special attack of his own."
Kogasa timidly raises her hand. "Maybe we could combine our powers?"
"Huh?" Sanae looks at Kogasa in confusion.
Kogasa shrinks a bit, but you put your hand on hers. She goes on. "There's nothing that says that we can't use our own powers, right? I mean, that mean lady used her powers, last time."
Sanae's eyes go wide. "That's genius! Yes, I've got an idea already! Good job, Moriya Purple!" She is almost shouting, and Kogasa shudders a bit. Luckily, Sanae turns her attention to Marisa. "Marisa, do any of our finishing attacks cause the magic energy to, like, float out into the air and stay there for a bit before attacking?"
"'Float out into the air and stay there a bit'?"
"Hey, I'm not a magician. I don't know the fancy magic words for it. You know what I mean though, right?"
"Yeah, I think so. There is this one, 'Froggy Bomb', that sounds like it should."
"Good." She turns to you. "Then you teleport out of the mech and siphon the energy into the cockpit."
"Wait, what? Do you want us to die?"
"You can do it, right?"
Can you? "Uh, probably."
She turns to Nue. "And then, Moriya Black, you use the magic energy and your alien powers to transform Hisou Tensoku into... into Mega Alien Robofighter Hisou Tensoku!"
Nue laughs. "Normally I would object, but this plan is so retarded I have no choice but to try it."
"That's a mean way of saying 'yes', but okay, Miss Alien- I mean, Moriya Black!" Sanae pumps her fist. "And then me and Reimu guide Mega Alien Robofighter Hisou Tensoku in and beat up War God Mars!"
Kogasa raises her hand again, timidly. "What do I do?"
"Oh, uh. Surprise him. You like to surprise people, right?"
Kogasa nods, actually a bit happily this time.
"Begin the plan, then!"
Marisa nods, and presses a button. "Froggy Bomb!"
Hisou Tensoku holds out the Onbashira with its one remaining operative arm, and it begins to glow. The sound of warning sirens blare, and a big orb of energy gathers in front of Hisou Tensoku.
In response, the War God raises its arm and that cannon pops out again. It begins to charge.
You teleport out.
Hm. You should at least take a cool pose, right? You cross your arms, and begin siphoning the energy sphere in front of you into the mech. Behind you, Hisou Tensoku crosses its arms and begins to rapidly rise into the air. Hundreds of seeds of non-identification scatter out of it.
You pull the last bit of the energy inside, and just in time too. You teleport back into the mech a split-second before that energy javelin would have nailed you. The javelin flies straight and true.
Unfortunately for Mars, it flies straight and true straight through where Hisou Tensoku was a few seconds ago. It passes straight under the mech you are in and flies towards the shrine.
Three circles of light appear; one of red, one of green, and one of blue. They spin in place for a second and then converge into a shield of white light, which blocks the javelin of force in midair in front of the shrine. The javelin is caught in the air, pressing against the shield, sparks flying.
The seeds of non-identification combine together in the air around Hisou Tensoku and form into gleaming plates of metal. One-by-one they then fly inward and combine with Hisou Tensoku. Heavy metal gauntlets with a pattern of frogs. Big stompy metal boots with intricrate snake-themed engravings. A new helmet, with strange, alien-like features. A glowing emblem of a UFO on its chest.
Mega Alien Robofighter Hisou Tensoku descends to the ground and lands there smoothly. It uncrosses its arms and takes a fighting pose. Behind it, the force javelin finally bursts into a huge, pyrotechnic explosion, angled straight up due to the fading energy shield's influence.
HQ's voice crackles over the radio again, sounding a bit surprised. "I didn't think it was possible, Miracleteam☆Moriya, but you did it. You transformed Hisou Tensoku into... uh..."
"Mega Alien Robofighter Hisou Tensoku," Sanae cheers.
"Yeah, that. Go kick Mars's ass!"
Sanae cheers again. "Let's do this!" And then brings Hisou Tensoku into a run, dropping the depleted Onbashira as she does. Luckily, it seems Nue had the foresight to do a bit of repairs in the process, according to your viewport.
Speaking of Nue, she is concentrating pretty hard. It looks like she is using a lot of her own energy for this transformation too. In fact, she didn't quite use all of the energy you pulled in. There's still some in the air, though everyone seems to be too busy to notice.
Hisou Tensoku charges into melee range, and begins another series of blows. Mars once again blocks them, but you can tell right away this is different. The War God can see it too, obviously, and does a quick shield bash and tries to back up, but Hisou Tensoku refuses to lose any ground.
War God Mars swings the spear, but at this short range Hisou Tensoku easily knocks the weapon out of the mech's hands. The War God's wrist deforms for a moment as a blade pops out, and within a moment it is holding a sharp looking double-edged short sword.
Hisou Tensoku blocks one slash with its wrist guard, and another with its face. Smooth. Mars gets a fist to its gut for the trouble, though, and for the first time in the battle it actually directly takes damage.
Hisou Tensoku follows up with another punch, but this one is blocked again. The shield isn't handled quite perfectly this time, though, and a chip of it actually flies off from the force of the impact.
Nue opens her eyes momentarily. "I don't want to rush you guys, but I don't think I can hold this transformation for much longer."
You look at your viewport. It has been totally freaking out over the transformation the entire time, obviously not sure what was going on. However, it does look like the thing is beginning to break up.
Sanae nods. "Alright, let's hurry th-"
Mars kicks Hisou Tensoku and grabs its spear again in one motion, rocking the cockpit enough to halt an enthusiastic good girl mid-sentence. It backs off before Sanae has a chance to react.
Sanae grins. "If that's how you want it..." And she brings Hisou Tensoku into a run again.
War God Mars thrusts out the spear, but Reimu guides Hisou Tensoku to twist just right so that the spear thrust is deflected to the side.
The enemy mech sees that its counter has failed. It brings up the shield.
Kogasa reaches out and grabs the remaining energy in the cockpit. She closes her eyes for a moment, and then snaps them open. "Boo!"
The mana burns off, and Mars' control wavers for just an instant. The shield jerks to the side slightly.
And in that barest moment of weakness, Hisou Tensoku lands a mighty punch directly into the enemy mech's chest.
Mars reels back from the punch.
Sanae turns to Nue as she guides Hisou Tensoku into another charge. "Miss Alien, dispel the transformation!"
"What?"
"Just do it!"
Hisou Tensoku suddenly returns to its normal form. The remaining energy in the transformation finds itself with no spell, so suddenly the mech's chassis begins to shake with loose mana.
Your screen shows suddenly dangerous levels of mana. "Hisou Tensoku is being torn apart from inside! It can't handle this much free mana!" Not like Hisou Tensoku isn't already pretty torn-apart, with all of those temporary repairs gone.
Sanae brings Hisou Tensoku into a running jump the moment the transformation ends, with the mech's leg becoming inoperable again in midair.
Sanae leans over and presses a button on Marisa's controls. Marisa glares at Sanae for a moment, perhaps annoyed due to not getting to press the button herself. There's honestly no time to give orders, though. "Mishaguji... Buster!" Wait. She's trying that without an onbashira?
Hisou Tensoku's fist flies forward, and begins to glow. The mana levels lower from the mech rapidly, miraculously enough, as... the mana is pulled into the fist?
Hisou Tensoku's fist connects with Mars's shield. The War God barely had enough time to bring it up, even as it was falling backwards.
There is an explosion of energy directly out of Hisou Tensoku's fist. The battered shield buckles and then snaps, and the explosion passes onward and into Mars's chest.
The enemy mech finally slams into the ground, digging a deep furrow into the land. You shudder to think of how much work it will take to repair that nice shrine path. Hisou Tensoku lands on top of the War God, sliding to a halt with it. The enemy mech's arms feebly raise up for a moment, as if about to try to squeeze the life out of Hisou Tensoku, but then go limp and drop down.
All of the lights go off at once in Hisou Tensoku's cockpit. "Warning. Motor systems have overloaded. Reactor going offline. Emergency power has been routed to AI Unit Ruukoto."
Sanae cheers "We won!"
"A job well done." Reimu smiles a little. "Though it was a little close."
"I guess it was fun," Kogasa timidly offers.
"We're barely better off than the enemy." Marisa grins. "It was a good fight though. The explosions were pretty satisfying, but there could have been more."
Ruukuto speaks up again. "Reactor damage detected in enemy mech. Warning, detonation imminent. Please stay clear."
Everyone suddenly blanches.
You grab Kogasa, and physically yank her out of her seat. You then take Nue's hand, and... "Uh, everyone hold hands, quick, I don't have enough arms for you all."
Everyone complies. Reimu seems to figure out what you are about to do, and grabs your arm while hanging onto Marisa.
You teleport out of the cockpit.
It's a bit tricky to move so many people at once, but the chain of physical contact helps. You resolve in front of the shrine, and the moment you all touch the ground Reimu pulls out a spellcard. "Dream Sign! Duplex Barrier!"
A magic shield appears in front of the group right before the War God explodes spectacularly. It isn't some silly special effect, either. It totally wrecks the path, knocks trees over, and rains metal shrapnel everywhere. It doesn't touch the Onbashira on premises though, you notice.
The smoke begins to die away. Everyone watches, stunned.
Reimu lets the shield drop, and suddenly runs into the crater. She begins sifting through the wreckage. "Ruukoto? Ruukoto?"
You teleport over. "I doubt anything could have survived that explosion. Unless Ruukoto teleported out at the last moment..." You gesture at the wreckage of Hisou Tensoku. It is surprisingly undamaged, really. It was torn in half along the waist, and the body was scorched, shredded, and dented beyond recognition, but it's amazingly still in one piece. Okay, two pieces, it was torn in half. ...okay, three pieces, it seems to have lost that arm also. But still, compared to War God Mars, which current resembles a frag grenade that has gone off, it is very intact.
Reimu is almost crying. "Who is going to do all of my housework for me now?"
Marisa hops down from a broken rock. She pats Reimu on the back, comfortingly. "Just do it yourself, you lazy bitch."
Reimu punches Marisa. It's a good-natured punch, though, not an angry one. You think. "I was looking forward to taking a break from chores after this, you sneak-thief."
"Then get Suika to do them. Why did you stop using Ruukoto in the first place if you liked her so much?"
"I, uh," Reimu scratches her face, a bit sheepishly, "forgot she existed for a while."
"Really."
"Also, she was pretty bad at doing my chores. But by now I don't really care." It seems Reimu's standards when it comes to job performance have been getting lower and lower.
"I'm sure you'll get over it somehow." Marisa begins to walk off. "I'll be going back to the group. Sanae has a victory party in the works."
"If it has free food, I'll come." Reimu follows Marisa.
She sure recovered quickly. You teleport back, yourself.
---
You get back to find that the others have removed their suits, so you do the same.
Sanae seems to be trying to talk Nue into some kind of party.
"-and she said there would be a party. It's HQ's command, so you have to come!"
"What, it's an obligatory party?"
You saunter over. "Are you really complaining about a party?"
"Not for my own sake, but for..." Nue nods in Kogasa's direction. Oh, right.
"I'll handle that, okay? You can go... get wasted and eat all their food, whatever, don't worry."
You walk over to Kogasa. "You feeling okay?"
"Yeah." She doesn't sound too bad, actually.
"I heard that the party is optional."
"HQ sounded like it really wanted us to come."
"And you're okay with that?"
"I- I think so." She meets your eyes. "You'll make sure Sanae doesn't do anything mean, right?"
"Yeah. So you just enjoy the party, okay?" You stretch. "I think I'm overdue for a party, anyway. A bit tense. Did they say what kind?"
Marisa finishes her walk over. "Oh, so there really is a party?"
Reimu glares at Marisa. "You made it up just to get me to leave the crater?" She doesn't actually sound too angry, though. She isn't putting much energy into the accusation.
You shrug. "Well, it turns out there is a party. It's not a lie if it turns out to be true, right?"
Before Reimu or Marisa can reply, an object shoots by your line of view and slams into the ground near the group with a loud bang.
It kicks up a small cloud of dust, which you promptly teleport away. No sense wasting time with this concealing dustcloud shit.
Alice steps out, looking uncomfortably at the broom she had just rode in on. "I came as fast as I could! I think I've figured it out! The... construct, this time, is powered by..."
She looks around. At the huge smoking crater. At the shredded metal embedded everywhere. At the barely-recognizable wreckage of Hisou Tensoku.
She starts up again, in a small voice. "Oh. Nevermind."
---
I imagined a power rangers-esque version of 'faith is for the transient people' playing during that transformation sequence, myself.