1739/Artillery versus Juggernaut

Artillery versus Juggernaut
Date of Scene:	11 July 2024
Location:	Botanical Gardens
Synopsis:	Aloisia and Molly find themselves on a collision course, as Aloisia's foul mood and Molly's unwillingness to back down lead to a battle! It's Knight versus Artillery Mage, and one of them definitely has the upper hand.
Cast of Characters:	Aloisia Stauss, Molly Skyline

---

Aloisia Stauss has posed:
     Late night, a time when most people tend to be in bed, asleep, or at least indoors with one's loved ones. Except for a small subset of people, magical people regularly, or otherwise. Tonight, Aloisia Stauss was out and about, simply standing in the middle of the botanical gardens, staring at the flowers and greenery, her massive shields hovering lazily next to her. Just because one can't be too careful when out this late, one never knows when a wild magical girl or youma might attack, after all. That and it wasn't like she cared who saw her.

No, if she did, she wouldn't be standing there, quietly glowering at some particularly gorgeous flowers. "Coming to this green planet from that horrible dustbowl." She mutters under her breath. And yet it's a dustbowl she was fond of. "Even the animals here aren't as threatening." Words full of bitterness, and more than a little bit of envy. A spark of darkness rolling off of her that was likely what even drew anyone to her location, even though she wasn't particularly doing anything. Yet, at least.

Molly Skyline has posed:
If there's anything that reliably draws the attention -- and subsequent investigations -- of magical girls, it's dark energy.

Molly Skyline is aloft, in full flight with her barrier jacket in place and Starcrash in staff form and held at her side. She soars over the botanical gardens, scanning the grounds visually, while Starcrash does his best with his own senses. Well, does his best being a rather literal statement; Starcrash's abilities remain a bit... limited, and anything that isn't directly related to blasting away at the enemy is still a bit foreign.

"Really need to find you some of your missing memory banks," Molly comments, after Starcrash regretfully informs her that he can't find the source of the dark energy with the precision she's looking for, because those sorts of skills are missing.

<< Affirmative >> answers the device.

"Don't sound so glum," Molly chides. "We just got out of hospital, you're in one piece, and I've finally got my new glasses so I don't have to wear those sad ones anymore."

Molly lands in the middle of one of the larger paths, not far from where some of her favorite flower arrangements are. Never hurts to see them at night, afterall. "Alright," she muses, and shrugs. "Maybe it was a false alarm?"

Aloisia Stauss has posed:
     As Molly approached, there was a small static of energy as she passed through a passive Search spell that Aloisia had up, just in case.

<Magische Signatur naht.>

Pings one of the twin devices that hover near Aloisia, who gives a soft exhale, turning her head vaguely towards its source. "I see." She says softly under her breath. The other reason for a difficulty pinpointing it is that it was a relatively minor amount of dark energy, due to Aloisia Stauss not using it actively ... yet.

A hand reaches out to lightly touch one of the flowers, watching as it wilts in the presence of the dark energy currently suffusing her. A soft sigh escapes the woman's lips. "So that's how it is." She turns towards the general direction of Molly. "Well. I suppose we should introduce ourselves, hm?"

<JAWOHL.>

And Molly would soon hear the soft ~click~ of heeled boots powered by heavy footsteps ringing out in the darkness approaching her. "I'm sure you came to investigate the energy here." Says the knight, as she approaches. That spark of dark energy making her chest ache in ways she didn't want to think about. "And it seems you're the only one here. What terrible luck for you." Says the knight, the soft hum of magic starting to build in her shields.

"I'm in a foul mood. And frankly, considering you came here alone... you likely need to learn a lesson about wandering alone at night."

<SPRENG>
<KNOCHEL>

Calm movements changed suddenly into a burst of movement, as the shield-wielding knight launches herself forward, an aura of energy surrounding her fist as she attempts to simply punch the center of Molly's mass, a blast of magical energy exploding with the impact to drive the punch truly home, if Molly doesn't dodge.

...Luckily, there was a fair amount of warning with the speech that things were going to get dangerous.

Molly Skyline has posed:
Honestly, Molly just wanted to check out the flowers. The dark energy signature *was* really small, so it bore looking at, but wasn't exactly... Well it wasn't Sunbreaker here to drain her of her life force or anything, now, was it? So there she is, directing all her enthusiasm to looking at some roses, when the click of heeled boots garners her attention.

<< She is the source of Dark Energy >> Starcrash is helpful enough to inform her.

"I worked that out," Molly replies, watching Aloisia's approach, and evaluating the appearance of her foe. "Hey, wait," she calls out, "Are you a KNIGHT? Like an actual knight with shining armor?! That is so cool!"

Well, it's cool, but apparently she's also a knight who's in a foul mood. Starcrash is openly warning her that hostilities are likely, so Molly sets her feet and instructs Starcrash to raise a shield, just in case. As a few glowing runes expand into a shimmering bubble around her, Molly uhms softly, holding up her free hand.

"Hey, look," she offers, "Can't we talk about this? Yeah, sure I'm -- Okay guess not!" She jumps to the side as she's rushed, managing to mostly dodge the punch, but catching just enough of it that her protective bubble shatters and she's flung a good ten feet away -- landing in a croush on her feet, at least.

"Okay fine, if that's how it is!" She straights, and tilts her head to the side until there's an audible pop. "Starcrash, Eclipse Beam."

<< Armed >>

"Fire!" Molly flourishes her staff and points it at Aloisia, and a brilliant bluish beam lances through the air at the knight, hammering down on whatever it hits with a freezing cold energy. "You asked for this!" Molly calls out, as the blast of energy ends after a few seconds. "I've been *ready* for a good fight for a long time now!"

Aloisia Stauss has posed:
     "Ja. I am a Belkan Knight." Aloisia responds simply to Molly's question of her being a knight. The excitement from the other girl was honestly pretty decent.

"Ja, we can talk."

Aloisia says, even as that Eclipse Beam lances out towards her, and the shield-wielding knight brings one of those massive shields around in front of her, bracing against the back of it to block the oncoming Eclipse Beam, the device deflecting part of the energy outward, and ice building up on the device itself to a degree. Something Aloisia notes as she pulls her arm away from it, shaking some of the ice off of her arm, and then striking the shield to send a shock through it and knock off said ice.

"Knights talk with their weapons." Aloisia comments. "Something you appear to understand."

<STREUSCHUSS>

The core gem of one of the just-frozen shield devices glows briefly, before unleashing a shotgun blast of plasma energy towards Molly. Likely to warm it back up through the shot. "Do not worry."

<GEFANGNIS DER MAGIE>

"We won't get disrupted." Aloisia says, as that Belkan barrier is spread up. "We can fight to our heart's content." There was a small tinge of joy to that voice, but at the same time, there was a bitterness to her voice.

Molly Skyline has posed:
Molly is about to rejoice, when Aloisia clarifies that the talking will be done with weapons. Ahh well, at least she knows know where everyone stands. She glances upwards, as the Belkan Barrier goes up, and she spins Starcrash around a couple of times, finishing up holding the staff horisontally behind her back. "Yeah, I understand," she affirms. "Just thought that *before* we start--"

Molly is cut off by the plasma blast, and once again finds herself diving to the side. She rolls across the grass, fully intending to jump back up at the end of the roll, but instead winding up on one knee and doing her best to make it look like she meant to do that. (She totally mean to do that.) "Well, I'm a mage, and I'm pretty sure you know what that means. Starcrash? Solar Barrets, independant guidance."

<< Armed >>

"Fire!" Molly shouts, levelling the staff at Aloisia, and letting loose a glowing orb of sizzling hot energy, that streaks through the air towards the knight, homing in on her position. The purplenette half-crouches and leaps, taking off into the air and flying in a wide circle around Aloisia, shouting "Fire!" and "Fire!" and "Fire!" again as she travels, keeping the staff pointed at her opponent and letting loose a half-dozen of the homing orbs, one after the other from different points in the circle.

"I think you'll find I know how to carry myself in a debate!" she shouts. "So how do you like homing barrets with the HEAT OF THE SUN?! Please discuss!"

Aloisia Stauss has posed:
The girl was pretty good at dodging, it seems. Which is good, considering it wouldn't be fun if she just went down. "Come, tell me. What do you want to talk about with the person currently attempting to beat you, hm?" Even as Molly rolled out of the way, Aloisia was moving in a relatively calm, slow manner, always approaching, never retreating. Occasionally stopping, though.

"Solar Barrets, hm?"

<PYRAMIDEN>
<MAUER>

A pair of overlaid magical circles appear below Aloisia, followed by a magical pyramid of cerulean light erecting around her to absorb the homing barrets, the heavily reinforced defensive walls erected to stop the homing barrets. "A reasonably effective tactic, though the heat is somewhat lacking compared to Sunbreaker's." Aloisia says bemusedly, her gaze staying on where those homing barrets struck to see where they might penetrate through her defenses... so she can be ready to catch it to further reduce damage. Much like Sunbreaker's attacks though, that doesn't really stop the heat itself as effectively, and while Aloisia doesn't necessarily show it... it does deal its damage.

As the pyramid wall breaks in an explosion of fire, Aloisia is moving with another burst of speed. She comes flying out of the fire, Knight Armor burning at the edges and shield held forward as she leaps towards Molly, seemingly intent to bash her shield into the girl!

<ABWEHRSCHILD>
<MINENMAUER>

But instead she was intent to take advantage of the girl's dodginess, several magical circles appearing moments before impact to attempt to entrap the other mage in a series of bouncing and exploding shields -- if the girl was not careful, she could be turned into a Pinball High Score!

Molly Skyline has posed:
<< Thermal strategy appears to be successful >> Starcrash offers, as Molly fires the last of the barrets.

The purplenette keeps flying around in a circle, picking up speed now that she's finished with her attack. "Yeah, seems that way," she murmurs, before a louder declaration of "Charge Solar Beam!"

<< Charging >>

"I'm not Sunbreaker," Molly points out, coming to a stop mid-air and backing up to put some more distance between her and Aloisia. "I'm not willing to do that kinds of things she was for power. I'm not interested in hurting people. I'll work with what I've got." Well. What she's got, and hopefully some fresh memory banks for Starcrash, as soon as she can find some. "So, talking with weapons. Tell me more. What happens when you just want a normal conversation? What if you need to ask for directions? What do you do if you just want to order a salad?"

Molly stops, as Aloisia is suddenly flying up towards her. Didn't know she could do that. (Molly, you probably should've thought it through.) She's caught thoroughly unprepared, and tries to dive out of the way but promptly finds herself trapped within the bouncing, exploding shields; which, for the moment, her barrier jacket does its job to absorb, but that isn't going to hold. She can't help but shriek as she's bounced about, and after a few impacts yells "Fire!!"

<< Not fully charged >>

"Doesn't -- matter -- fire -- anyway!!"

A roiling hot stream of energy erupts from Starcrash, and with the way Molly is getting bounced around, it isn't really targeted at anything, but really that's the point. The beam flails around, hitting the bouncing shields and everything beyond them, inflincting damage on the surrounding garden and setting a lot of things on fire.

Eventually, just as the beam is running out, Molly gets dropped out of the bouncing shields and lands on the ground in a crouch, resting her free hand on one knee and panting audibly. Her barrier jacket is smoking and in obvious disrepair with a number of holes, but the young mage pushes herself back to her feet, and shakes her head.

"Shield," she gasps, and Starcrash obliges, conjuring a translucent orb of energy around her. "Let's not talk about that again, ever," she adds. "Meteor."

<< Armed >>

"Fire!" Molly levels the staff, and a single barret, basically just a big blast of kinetic energy, goes flying straight for Aloisia. "But if we're being blunt, I can do that too," she adds.

Aloisia Stauss has posed:
    A beam is fired wildly, flying around, burning the area around them, setting the thankfully-barrier-exclusioned garden around them on fire, the soft crackling of burning bushes starting to grow audible. "Are you sure you're not like Sunbreaker?" Aloe asks, her tone a mix of amusement as she takes cover behind her shields from the wildly firing beam. "You seem just as capable of destruction, after all."

"Well, you see." Molly was probably mocking her, and honestly Aloe just decided to go along with it. "When we want a salad, we go out into the wilderness and hunt down a giant leaf-cutter bear -- named because it cuts things with greenery on it, not because it cuts leaves -- and then scavenge for ranchberries in the deep wilderness where the feral scythetigers hunt, if we are lucky we get a good haul of berries, and some bonus meat for the actual main course!" T...there is a concerning edge of truth to her voice, where the heck is this girl from???

"Or we just go trade blows with some farmers as means of payment for their greens, you know, that works too, but it's less fun that way." Okay that one she was clearly joking on, and that dark energy that had been emanating from her earlier seems to have moderately lessened.

Finally Molly drops out of the bouncing and exploding, smoking and ... standing up from that. Aloisia gives a low, appreciative whistle at that. "My my, you managed to get up after that chaos. Perhaps you are not as green as I took you to be."

<TREIBER MODE>

The bottoms of Aloisia's shield split open, crystal spikes sliding down and out of them as Molly conjures a shield, energy arcing between the two sides of the shields and the crystal spikes in the center of them. Meteor is summoned, and two layers of defensive spell are summoned in front of Aloisia, those twin overlaid magical circles appearing and rotating in front of her to absorb the giant Barret. "Your attacks do seem a bit..." She crosses her arms in front of her, even as that Barret strikes the first layer, breaking through it. "Do you know much beyond beams and barrets? I mean, even the midchildans usually have alternative modes." The barret strikes against the second barrier, struggling against it before breaking through. Finally about to strike her, and Aloisia...

<AUFLADEN.>

...Tanks it? Even with the mitigation, that seemed like a poor decision, as the remaining energy of the barret strikes the knight's armor, and there is clear damage on it, some of the metal segments breaking away, and Aloisia even being sent back several feet, her heeled boots dragging in the ground as smoke comes off of her.

"Then again, the basics are basics for a reason, very useful, and you've shown a mix of homing barrrets, elemental barrets, and buster spells..." She muses, as those twin crystal spikes are kept pointed towards Molly, following her movements as Aloisia walks vaguely in her direction.

<AUFLADUNG BEI 30%>

"That should be enough, Doppelwand. I'm not looking to kill her."

<JAWOHL.>
<PLASMABOLZEN.>

A pair of bolts of arcing energy are launched towards Molly, the heavy plasma giving off a screeching sound as it flies at high speeds towards her and bursting into an electric sphere upon impact -- or upon reaching the end of its relatively short range.

"Well." She says, glancing around at the burning garden and damage to the ground, including several blast marks around her and in front of her. "I think I have a good measure of you. Really, it's a good thing I'm not here to cause any /true/ harm." Aloe says with a slight smirk.

Molly Skyline has posed:
Molly shakes her head, "Starcrash is missing a lot of his memory banks," she explains, "I'm looking for more so he can get back what he's lost." Should she really be admitting this? Probably not.

"Hey, you're not bad at this yourself," she adds, "I mean, maybe I could come up with a couple pointers, if I thought about it long enough. Like, maybe instead of going out on a hunting expedition, like you're a D&D player who's character got hired to go kill the giant mushroom people, you could just, like, go to the store and pay a few yen for a salad? Way easier than having to, like, kill it or something. Or fighting the farmers for it. Please, don't do that here, the farmers are really nice and they have children and keep chickens and stuff."

Technically, you could eat the chickens, but Molly isn't about to mention that.

"Starcrash, Eclipse Barrets, rapid fire, target left shield device.

<< Armed >>

"Look, I totally respect to two shield thing? Like honestly that's cool. But the whole, y'know, dark energy bit, I kinda have a problem with. Maybe we could talk about that sometime? Like *talk* talk? Because--"

Molly stops as there's a massive blast of energy coming for her, and she leaps backwards. "Fire!!" she hastily yells, and Starcrash obliges; spheres of freezing cold energy spray off in all directions, none bigger than an orange, but one by one they all find their targetting and change course, rushing down for one of Aloisia's shields.

Molly herself, meanwhile, throws up a shield bubble around herself, but it's not nearly enough. The sphere of electricity overwhelms and shatters it, and wreaks havoc on both her barrier jacket, and Starcrash; the latter sputtering at the end of it, his voice overwhelmed with static, while Molly is left down on the ground on all fours, just barely propping herself up with both hands. Her barrier jacket is glowing, with most of the metal parts looking like they're about to go molten, or just fall off. The purplenette is panting loudly, as she rocks back to sit on her haunches.

<< We ar(gzzzzZZZZzsh) outmached >> Starcrash warns, << Withdraw immediat(tzzzsssshzZZZZZ) >>

"...Alright," Molly gasps, trying to use Starcrash as a crutch to haul herself back to her feet, but for the moment finding it impossible as she just pitches back forwards, still gasping for breath. "I see your point."

Aloisia Stauss has posed:
"A device missing its memory banks? Strange. You should still be able to develop and learn spells regardless. Consider practicing more and conversing with other mages to increase your repertoire. It is not a fast process, since each device is unique, but you should be able to work around the memory bank issue easily enough." Unless Starcrash is missing enough of its memory banks that it, well, is basically like a basic storage device or something. Or worse than one. But that's beside the point.

Paaaause. Going out on a hunting expedition. The just. Chuckles at that. "Well of course, that's how one does it on /this/ planet, but when you live on a dustbowl where the wildlife in general wants to kill you then, well. You make do. Also we just buy stuff from the farmers, it's usually a duel of negotiation at worst." She adds. yeah okay she might have dropped the joke a bit there, but it's fine. Probably.

"...You should get into the habit of not speaking your orders to your device out loud though. Because now I know what's coming, and where it's aiming, and unless you are feinting and aiming for my right device instead, I now have ample time to layer defensive spells over my shield, like so."

<UNBEZWINGBARE>
<MAUER>

The proper Wall spell is erected, as the left shield is put forward to guard against the attacks, the Wall spell itself mainly layering over the obvious core of the shield from multiple angles. The defensive spells were clearly somewhat weaker than the previous ones, likely due to the more offensive Treiber Mode that the device was in, but as those attacks came in, Aloisia shifted rather suddenly, slamming the spiked tip into the ground and expanding the barriers outward to avoid the cold seeping through to the device, as well as covering herself in general. Sure, it didn't stop all of it. But.

...Well, the other mage's Device seemed to understand the situation, as the hum of the other Device that wasn't being targeted charging could be heard. But Molly is struggling to stand at that point, and the charge is dispersed.

<WAND MODE>

The crystal spikes retract back into the Device's central core, the bottom of the shield snapping closed afterwards. "I don't normally use dark energy, in all honesty." Aloisia adds, stepping towards Molly, devices floating next to her passively now that the combat was over, even if one of them was now covered in a layer of ice and having taken several hits, it seemed... well, worse for wear, but it could absolutely be worse. Aloisia's Knight Armor was absolutely worse off than it though. "As I said. You caught me in a foul mood." She reaches one hand out towards Molly, intent to grab Starcrash and pull. Molly might assume she was trying to steal the Device, which was the intent.

Because no mage or knight would let an enemy steal their partner.

And once she was on her feet, Aloe would reach to dust off her shoulder, then pat her head, and turn to simply... walk off, as the barrier lowers and returns them to normal space.

"The numbness should wear off shortly."

Molly Skyline has posed:
Molly can't really argue with Aloisia's pointers. They all make sense. And given that she did just get thoroughly beaten in a fight, she probably ought to take the pointers. At least she hasn't been put in hospital like the last time she saw Sunbreaker, so there's that. Her barrier jacket is a shambles, and she's having trouble picking herself up, but as long as Aloisia doesn't decide to keep blasting away at her, she should be fine.

"Yeah," she gasps, as the knight is walking towards her. "Yeah, I get that. I-- HEY!!"

Admittedly, Molly hasn't got a lot to work with right at the moment; Starcrash is glitching, and she's struggling, but as Starcrash is seized she tightens her grip and holds on as best she can. "Don't-- Don't you dare!! I--"

But it becomes apparent that all she was doing, was picking her up off the floor. Molly sways unsteadily on her feet, not even reacting as she's given a pat on the head. She just watches Aloisia walk off, with her jaw hanging open.

Eventually, she finds the presence of mind to go and sit on the nearest park bench, as she recovers her wits and the numbness is, indeed, taking some time to wear off. "Starcrash," she states, "Text... Text Rashmi. Just got beaten up by a Knight with two shields. I'm okay. She used dark energy. ...Also she was..." she trails off, tilting her head to one side. "Extremely cool. I know that's weird. ...Send that."