destinystrings | Conquestum Paradisi

"Oh my. Friend of yours? I've heard of latchkey children, but this takes it to a different level." Another figure appears with considerably less flash, along with a large stone golem. Yeah, Misery has never been the queen of tact. That and there's something unnerving about that thing to her in a way she can't put a finger on.

"I suppose I can help out a bit. This boy's helping me fight Anoli anyway. It'd be a shame to lose track of him."

"But I need to help these people!"

Nano's doing her best, but there's just too many of them. Too much fighting, and too many people getting hurt. She's already half-slumped over, hands on her knees as she tries to recover herself.

"At least let me come with you."

It's clear she's very afraid right now, evidenced by her shaking legs and the quiver in her voice, but her determination to help is clear as she looks at them both.

"But you -- " He cuts himself off with a shake of the head. He couldn't leave Nano to struggle out of the stadium by herself, but he wasn't willing to turn his back on all the others in need, too. In a flash of light, Enki appears to cast a Diarama on the robot girl.

"Hngh... Then, stay behind us and heal, got it? You can't get too close if we get into any fights, OK? These guys are almost worse than demons! They're not going to fight fair."

"Hmm, we could rather use the support anyway. It'll let us take more of the fools down. Ho ho ho." Misery finds herself relishing this almost too much. Almost everything about the Anoli offends her sensibilities, and the less of them around to threaten her nice, stable existence here, the better. "Don't fall behind too much, though! He may be able to make guarantees, but I can't."

"Thanks..." Nano heaves a small breath as she stands back up, her body feeling refreshed from the healing spell. Her own energy reserves are close to being depleted, but at least Pinocchio can passively heal the two of them if things get hairy.

"I can probably raise our attack and defense once, but Pinocchio's almost worn out from healing all these people," she warns, a frown creeping across her face. She really wishes there was more she could do.

"You're out of MP?"

Atsuro absentmindedly translates Nano's statements into video game terms without a second thought. The chaos of the surroundings threw him back to the time of the lockdown, when he had relied on his COMP to list the attributes of his enemies into easily understandable numbers and formulaic equations.

"What about Chirashizushi?"

He glances up at Misery.

"You don't have any magic potions or anything on you, do you?"

She shrugs. "Didn't occur to me, so sorry. They're not typically something I need myself, see." Oh, of COURSE Misery would think she wouldn't need her own potions.

"I used her first..." Nano says with a frown. "Her healing magic is better. But if I stay here and support you both from behind for a little while, Pinocchio should recover enough to keep going."

[Or it can be Dual Persona time soon, and they can kick ass all the way across the stadium. But Nano doesn't know that yet.]

"...OK. Then... just try not to overexert yourself or anything."

The advantage of having a Persona -- and for that matter, personally being a fighter -- that relied on physical skills over magic was that his own attacks generally drew from his stamina, which was easily replenished with a cast of Diarama. This left him a bit susceptible after an attack, but he rarely had to worry about running out of gas for his own abilities.

Atsuro glances up to give a nod to Misery before he begins moving out again.

((I can NPC someone and have Atsuro take sort of a smaller role in the fight if you guys want!))

"Hmm. A strong heart, I see. I wonder if that will be enough? We'll have to see!" Grinning, she follows after Atsuro casually.

"It's all right. I'll be fine."

After all, she believes in Atsuro. And while she doesn't know Misery at all, she figures if he knows and trusts her, there's no reason she shouldn't as well. So Nano trails along behind the two of them, quietly grateful that Pinocchio at least passively reflects Physical damage so she isn't caught off-guard by any stray bullets, debris, or anyone in the crowd just throwing punches.

((However you wanna do things, Wighty! If this is going to lead to their Dual Persona, I can intro it whenever you're cool with that.))

Belief in the power of friendship! This was the kind of cliche that Atsuro generally saw in anime and the like being weaponized; he reflected, briefly, that it was too bad that other emotions were never put to such use. Belief in the power of the national examinations over the course of the rest of your life would surely be a veritable fount of power just waiting to be tapped.

That said, he had similar ideas on the matter, which is why he turns back now to flash Nano a slightly wan smile. He felt, somehow, as if her safety was in his hands now...

Which was why, later on, in retrospect, he would look back at this moment and feel a certain sense of relief that he had been the first one to go down. As he glances back towards Nano, Nano may notice that Atsuro has apparently decided to use her as a fashion template, given the own piece of metal stuck in his back now.

Although... this was more of a needle, really.

Atsuro's expression doesn't even really change when he takes a step forward and sprawls to the ground, asleep.

The Anoli member who had cast Dream Needle steps forward with his Persona. A mask, of course, lies over his face.

"WHO'S THERE?!" Misery snarls, looking around angrily, staff at the ready. "An amazing cowardly act, wouldn't you say, you rat?!" She orders her Persona to go forth, swinging a Gigantic Fist at their foe.

"Atsuro-san!"

Well. That certainly went poorly. Nano's face turns white as Atsuro falls over, panicking for a moment while Misery lashes out with her own Persona. Unfortunately, this Anoli seems to be using a Persona that renders him resistant to Physical damage. Blood trickles down from behind the Anoli's mask, but it's accompanied by a sick grin at the edges as he staggers back and readies his next attack.

"Ah... P-Pinocchio, please help!"

Just as Nano said earlier, the little puppet has one more Marakukaja left in him. It's all she can do to help at the moment, as golden light washes over her group, raising their defense and protecting them from further attacks. Which is definitely a good thing for Atsuro, since the Anoli seems to be honing in on him as the singular target of his wrath.

Cruel Attack, he commands, the words ringing through the air as the Anoli's Persona shoots forward to strike another blow at the unconscious hacker.

" -- Ow!"

Atsuro is knocked out of unconsciousness by what more or less amounts to a heavy stomp on his body. The idea of Cruel Attack was to inflict extra damage to those who were already Down, but who knew whether or not Sleep had the same mechanics?

Either way, it kind of really hurt. Instinctively, he rolls to the side, though it seems the Anoli has used up his turn for the moment. He is unaware, of course, that the damage was heavily mitigated by dint of Nano's defensive spell.

"Wha -- How long have you guys been fighting?!"

Ten years, Atsuro. You've been gone for ten years. It seems as if he's still struggling to become oriented, though he has the presence of mind to stand and position himself in front of Nano in case of any further attack... He fiddles with his COMP for a moment while simultaneously calling forth his Persona.

"Enki!"

Tch. This man. How obnoxious. Focusing on a downed target? Even she's not that classless. She orders the Golem back, then switches to her own magic, firing dark bolts at the man instead. See how you like THEM apples.

Guh...!

The Anoli lets out a cry of pain as the dark magic collides with his body, his Persona unable to shield him from the attack in time. A hand comes up to clutch at his chest, his breathing heavy and ragged. But rather than run, this one apparently intends to go down fighting, righting himself as he readies his trump attack. The Persona reels back with its fist again, ready to deliver a devastating Earth Punch attack, when Nano cries out.

"Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!"

And then, just for a moment, time seems to dilate around the four of them. The faint sound of clockwork gears and cogs can be heard as a light envelops Pinocchio and Enki, and for a few moments Nano and Atsuro are frozen in time and space to witness what happens next.

Before the two of them floats a creature composed entirely of clockwork gears, dressed in tattered rags and bearing a majestic crooked staff. The sound of grinding gears is much louder now, and the Clock Tower Manager regards the scene impassively as time once again begins its inexorable march.

All at once, several things occur: the Anoli's Persona rushes forward, its fist encased in jagged rock. Nano dives between it, Atsuro, and Misery. The Clock Tower Manager glows magnificently, showering Nano in the same protective light. And as the Anoli's attack explodes forth, the jagged rocks that are thrown in every direction come shooting back toward Nano, most of them disintegrating before they even reach her.

"I... I won't allow you to hurt my friends!"

The little robot glares at the Anoli for a moment before turning back to Atsuro and Misery, instinctively aware of the capabilities of this new Persona birthed from her desire to protect her first and one of her most precious friends in Hinoto-Ri.

"Finish him off! I can protect you!"

"What -- "

Atsuro is steeling himself for the coming attack (crap it looks like it's earth-based...) when a sharp cry stops him in his tracks. He half-whirls to see what's happened.

"Nano!"

Nothing has happened. ...And nothing is happening. Atsuro almost freezes into place himself, unnerved as he is by the strange pocket of time they had entered; he almost fails to realize that he is sharing this moment with Nano alone, rather than with every combatant in this battle combined. But when the words spoken by a strangely familiar voice sound in his head...

"The Clock Tower Manager...?"

Nano, somehow, seems to instinctively understand what to do. Before he can stop her, the moment is over and she's leapt forward, taking the brunt of the Earth Punch before it can reach him. The information comes to him a little more slowly, but he is aware, in the back of his mind, that she has just used one of their joint abilities...

"Bastion...?"

And he is aware, too, that the thoughts he forms in his mind are words she can clearly understand. For Misery's sake, though, he continues to speak aloud.

"A-Alright...! Hang in there, Nano!"

The Clock Tower Manager glides towards Atsuro now, its gear clicking and whirring into place as it prepares itself to execute the command it knows Atsuro wishes to issue. This would be, he understood, an attack that had no equivalent in this city, an attack forged from the link they had created between their worlds...

It only takes a few moments before the gear underneath the Manager is revolving at an incredibly fast speed; up and down its metallic body, sparks and crackling electricity begin to fly... Atsuro can't resist a brief quip before he unleashes the attack.

"Hope you didn't find all of this too... shocking."

The attack shoots straight up into the sky. A ball of lightning that ascends up to the clouds.

...
...
...

It takes three ticks of the clock before the heavens respond in kind, unleashing an immense electrical storm that descends in the blink of an eye to slam into the Anoli with incredible force. Atsuro instinctively shields his eyes from the blinding flash and takes a step back.

Misery isn't exactly sure what just happened. One minute, there's three Persona, and the next there's two. And one of them just prevented her from getting smacked. That was... unexpected, to say the least.

As opposed to Atsuro's quip, anyway. "Oh that was bad even for --"

She shields her eyes as well at the flash; whatever that attack is, it's dramatic, and powerful. She'd almost admire the attack if it didn't require, you know, acknowledging something at or above her level. She peers over her arm to see the results.

When the storm clouds clear and the flash has faded away, the enemy Persona is gone and the Anoli is lying there in front of them, smoke rising from his body. Nano glances sharply away, still unused to combat this brutal. The Clock Tower Manager, for its own part, nods sagely at Nano and Atsuro before splitting apart into Pinocchio and Enki once again, and the refreshing energies of Relaxing Wave and Healing Wave wash over the three, restoring some of their vigor for upcoming battles.

"Is... is it over?"

"...Yeah."

Atsuro has long experience with fighting with both monsters and humans alike, as much as he disliked it. He was used to exercising restraint, knowing the amount of force a human could take before they were passed out as opposed to passed on. Similarly, his demons had always been good about using non-lethal force when he gave the command...

He takes a few steps forward to feel the vitals of the man on the ground before he stands up with a slight frown. Might have overdone it...

"He'll be OK. His Persona took the brunt of the attack, I think, so the damage is more... spiritual.

"Are you both alright?"

Misery dusts herself off. "Fine, fine. I must say, that's a pretty impressive trick you two pulled. Didn't even know you had something like that, she replies, smirking. "Could've dimmed the lights a bit, though."

Nano lets out a long, deep breath that she wasn't even aware she'd been holding in the entire time, relieved to hear that they hadn't finished the man off for good.

"I... I'm all right. What... was that, anyway?"

"...A big gear monster thing?"

Atsuro laughs a bit awkwardly.

"I have no idea. ...It kind of appeared as soon as you started screaming, right?" Well that wasn't phrased very well. "...That was really brave of you, Nano!"

"To be fair, I think ANYBODY would be brave with firepower like that. Goodness, and here I just thought you were a simple backup!" She chortles.

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all_wound_up - 2013-02-01 19:51 (UTC) - Expand

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otakuro - 2013-02-02 05:12 (UTC) - Expand