2193/Jewel Seed Number 7

Jewel Seed Number 7
Date of Scene:	31 December 2024
Location:	Museum
Synopsis:	Riventon tests his ability to spend energy to forcibly activate a Jewel Seed, leading to a giant fight and a giant suit of armor.
Cast of Characters:	Takashi Agera, Molly Skyline, Nanoha Takamachi, Veronica Perenna, Chrono Harlaown
Tinyplot:	Jewel Seeds

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Takashi Agera has posed:
    Riventon stood on the top of a roof in the Yumegahara district of Tokyo. On his left stood Fate Testarossa, Bardiche in hand, and on his right was Arf, Fate's loyal Familiar.

    And Riventon was speaking to neither of them, instead he was speaking to someone who was a bit higher up on the totem pole.

    "Yes, Director Testarossa, I am ready to begin." Riventon notes. "I'm confident the energy we're about to expend should give us the results which have eluded us." he says. Then he looks hangs up the phone, speaking to himself. "Let us see if we can crack the code on this..."

    Riventon raised his other hand to the sky and a sphere of Dark Energy collected; growing larger and larger - from baskeetball sized to beach ball sized to eventually becoming far larger than he was himself. And then he closed his hand into a fist, the sphere within it crackling furiously with purple lightning before rippling out across the ward - for just a moment, people unattuned to magic might fill a tinge of illness, but those are of magic; Dark Energy especially, will be very aware that Something Just Happened.

    For a moment, everything is still. Arf turns to Riventon and looks at him. "Well, Precia is going to be pissed. That's a lot of energy you just-"

    <<MEISTER. JEWEL SEED DETECTED.>> Axion says. Bardiche 'pings' in agreement. Riventon just looks at Arf with a smug face, and Arf shrugs.

    Down in Pikarigoaka's museum, a small blue jewel that has nestled its way within an antique set of samurai armor humms with energy before turning pitch-black. The armor rips itself free from its stand - terrifying several civilians - and begins to tromp loudly out of the museum, glowing red eyes from behind the mask as wisps of smoke pour out to create a sort of smoky -body-. As it marches out behind the group of confused and scared visitors on a random Monday afternoon, it starts to grow larger and larger, until it is a truly tianic creature, several stories tall, looking over Pikarigoaka Ward from behind its stylized oni mask.

    Riventon and Fate are headed there and will probably arrive there at exactly the same time as the naturally responding heroes do.

Molly Skyline has posed:
Molly had the day off from school... sort of. She was here at the museum, as part of a class project on Japan's history, so of course she's elected to do something about Samurai. As if any serious Dungeons and Dragons player would come to Japan and seek to do a school project about anything else. And, this period has her absoslutely entranced; she's busy learning a lot about Tokugawa Ieyasu and the Tokugawa Shogunate, which held power in Japan all the way up until the Meiji Restoration, and what a period of history that was! Seriously, why hasn't she ever played D&D in a Japanese inspired setting, instead of European? This is so absolutely cool.

So cool, she almost -- almost -- brushes it off when there's that blast of dark energy. It's not that she doesn't notice; even if she had been oblivious to it, she wouldn't have been able to miss the immediate dose of 'Starcrash Intensifies'. But it's not like she's the only Mahou in Tokyo or anything, and she's doing a school assignment rignt now, darnit.

When the suit of Samurai armor tromps by in front of her, though, she just kind of stop, drops her jaw, and watches it stalk past.

"Okay fine, I'll deal with it," she mumbles. She slips past a group of shocked civilians, so she can push through a set of doors that say 'Employees Only', and quickly Henshins, shifting into her Tiefling-inspired barrier jacket and transforming Starcrash from an earring into a staff.

"Deploy Time Space Barrier," she instructs.

<< AFFIRMATIVE. BARRIER DEPLOYED >>

Centered on Molly, an expanding bubble of space with the colors shifted slightly towards a dark green expands outwards, moving her and the armor and everyone else magically inclined over into a slightly different dimension from the civilians. No need t obreak everything in the museum.

"Alright," Molly states, as she walks back out into the main area. "Charge Solar Barrage, forty barrets with homing."

<< ARMED >>

"Now then. Where'd that armor go?"

Nanoha Takamachi has posed:
Nanoha Takamachi is actually not at the museum, today. She was at the pier, in a pair of earmuffs, and a big coat in the winter beach weather picking up... fish. Okay it was a bushel of fish that her mom ordered for the house's food stores, something about trying some American recipe something like fish in flour flat things...

Maybe it'll be good.

That's when Raising Heart pings her about a Jewel Seed being protected and then she looks at Raising Heart. She looks at the bushel of fish....at Raising Heart and sighs and stores the fish in Raising Heart with a digitizing flash because what else is she going to do with it? And then runs through an alleyway...

Nanoha Takamachi, resplendent in Barrier Jacket arrives in front of the Museum as the time space barrier goes up. Which is good. It means someone else is here already!

She bursts through the front doors and...

Oh is that a suit of armor gone crazy!? Oh that might be tricky...

<< Hello!? >> she says into the Device's comms net.

Veronica Perenna has posed:
Ever since Veronica and Usagi had talked about increasing their chances of getting information out of the Spectre Sisters by adding more to the numbers of Sailor Senshi around, and Usagi allowing her to disguise as Sailor Mars, she'd been working in an isolated spot to improve her chances of selling the form of the fiery Sailor Senshi.

That was 2 weeks ago, and now she felt confident enough to try and put to practice her efforts. Even if she does something wrong, she is a hero this time, and she will blend among the many other mahous that are also up to heroic endeavours, making any mistake more forgivable. Possibly.

She was hopping between rooftops in search of anything that might wrong, but really shouldn't she count herself lucky that trouble is so eager to make itself known to all? Not really, no.

Turning right at the appearance of the colossus, she keeps herself as calm as can be while rushing towards the titanic statue. This probably wasn't her lucky day to be trying out disguises.

Chrono Harlaown has posed:
Chrono Harlaown had been out with his mother, actually. There were only two members of the crew missing now and he was well on his way to finding them.

The issue was, admittedly, he wasn't sure how many more streets he could search, how many more avenues he could turn upside down and how many more signs he could put up. It almost felt like they were being coy.

But both he and Fenyx had decided to visit his mother during a... okay, he was skipping school, following up a lead and happened to be in the area and his mother caught him, okay?! YOU HAPPY NOW THAT YOU KNOW THE TRUTH?! And he'd been having lunch with her and Fenyx because there was no way to escape.

Then he felt that energy and glanced up. "What in the...?"

"Is something wrong?" Lindy asked.

"No, it's--" And then he stopped as an alert came up. He put a hand over his forehead. "Nevermind, something is wrong. Admiral, I need to cut this short."

"Mother," Lindy said. "I'm not an admiral here." Frankly, she didn't remember being an admiral at all. Or his mother. But she didn't sweat the small things.

"... M-mother," Chrono said, a little red in his cheeks. "I need to go take care of... a thing. I'll--"

"Join me for dinner this evening?" Lindy offered.

Chrono sighed and then gave the slightly smirking Fenyx a glare. "Yes. I'll see you then, mother." He then raced off, pulling out his card, as Fenyx followed him and in a moment, he and a little lidth jay were flying through the sky, towards a... and now there was a barrier forming over him. Oh, this just kept getting better, didn't it? He glanced back to Fenyx. "Get ready, there's no telling-- oh for the love of..."

<< Nanoha, Molly. A pleasure. Riventon, Fate and Arf are arriving. I'll work to impede them, have either of you managed to locate the jewel seed? >>

"Long time no see, you three. While I appreciate your diligence, this area is already under control and your... I'd say assistance, but frankly your over inflated god complex and..." His eyes wavered to Fate and Arf. "Criminal interference will not be necessary. I hope you understand, if you wish to proceed, I will have no choice but put a stop to your actions."

The lidth jay erupted in a small stream of fire, taking the form of a tall woman, quite similiar to how Arf could take her own different form. Aside from her being, obviously, more TSAB aligned.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    The massive armor stalks around, looking out at an unfamiliar Tokyo - not even the city it had come from, but more than that, a strange world. All it could truly recognize is Mount Fuji - and all it does is assume, therefore, that Japan had been taken over by a hostile power, a strange power, something foreign. The Dark Energy radiated through the armor, warping its desire to protect into a desire to destroy. It unsheathes its equally massive kata from the scabbard at its side, grasping it in two gauntleted hands as it prepares to cut through an unfamiliar tower - as the Barrier goes up, rendering the building it *does* slice through as an unreal copy.

    The towering, multistory tall suit of armor frankly regards everyone's outfit as 'foreign' - Molly's Jacket, Nanoha and Mars' school-unfiorm inspired henshins, Chrono's Everything, and Fate and Riventon and Arf and Fenyx. Since Chrono faced down some of the other arriving enemies it assumed that he was busy - and therefore, swung its massive sword towards Nanoha, Mars, and Star Devil - massive, but moving quickly, as though in addition to its size not being an issue at all, whoever it had belonged to had been quite the master swordsman and had imprinted upon the armor.

    Meanwhile, Riventon looks at Chrono and is... surprisingly direct. "No, not today, TSAB Enforcer. I woke that Jewel Seed up, and we're taking it with us." he says, the red gem on his other gauntlet glinting in the afternoon light. "Gotta get a return on the energy I just spent."

    And that's about all of the warning Chrono gets - Fate and Riventon must have been communicating via Device, because they both move at the same time, with Fate speedily working her way around to Chrono's rear with that gleaming yellow scythe of energy at the same time as Riventon unleashes an unfocused but also uncalled blast of Dark Energy at him. Arf acts a little slower, but she moves in too, diving at Fenyx, clawed hand balled up into a fist. "GUESS THAT MAKES ME THE BIRD-HUNTING DOG TODAY!" she yells.

Molly Skyline has posed:
<< Hey Chrono! >> Molly answers on the network. << Yeah, it's a big suit of armor in the museum, it-- >>

Molly stops, listgening as the armor unsheathes its Katana and just cuts its way out of the building. Also, it's a lot bigger now. Like a lot bigger.

<< Nevermind. You'll see it, I promise. >>

And indeed, people will see it, as they're arriving on scene. Molly's battle visor marks her friends and allies with blue tags, and as she spots them, Riventon, Fate, and Arf all get red tags. For once the system doesn't mess around and just oes ahead and labels tbe Samrai Armor has hostile, too, with a red tag that reads 'Tokugawa', after the last thing she was looking at. Well, good enough.

"Hey!! Riventon?! What d'you think you're doing mate? You didn't even put up a barrier first! Don't you-- OH HELL!"

As the huge Samurai's sword slashes through the hair, Molly turns to look at it just as Starcrash is warning her of the incoming threat. She snaps her fingers, transforming into a burst of light just as the blade cuts through her position, and rockets straight up to reform in the air, Flier Fin wings deploying in the process. << Okay, the armor is mean, >> she declares. She keeps flying upwards, and levels her staff at the giant Samurai, "Fire!" A series of searing hot barrets rocket out of her staff as she gains altitude, slamming into the armor and... hopefully hurting it, that'll remain to be seen. "Starcrash, keep track of that sword," she instructs. "And charge Stellar Pulse, thirty barrets."

<< AFFIRMATIVE, TRACKING WEAPON. >> An extra blip appears on Molly's battle visor. << STELLAR PULSE ARMED >>

"Pick on someone else!" Molly changes course, wrapping around the armor and aiming in Fate and Arf's direction; and she fires, letting fly with a stream of shimmering brarets, which aren't homing nor really meant to do any damage, but hopefully just interupt the two villain's attack vector enough to give Chrono a few extra seconds to sort out what he's going to do about it.

Nanoha Takamachi has posed:
Nanoha Takamachi watches the monstrous armor start outside the museum and then she frowns a little harder when she sees who arrives. Riventon, Fate. Arf. A Triumvate of Terror no less. When they start to move after Chrono Nanoha does something perhaps expected.

She takes off straight ahead and attempts to tackle Fate off course, with a high speed maneuver. Melee is not her specialty. But she's expecting Fate to know this and therefore well. Unexpected.

Regardless if she misses or not she's aiming for the side of the museum so either she's hitting Fate against a wall or she's hitting herself against that wall and hopefully Fate's coming with her.

"That's an unfair fight, Fate-chan!" she yells.

Chrono Harlaown has posed:
and there was a giant, angry suit of armor. Eh. He's seen weirder. A bit weirder, here or there.

Annnnnd Riventon was talking. He glanced to Fate. So, she was a sneaky, but fast thing. Likely going to try and get him while Riventon distracted him. He put up a silent bind behind himself, before...

Riventon... force... activated the jewel seeds? Oh, his eye twitched a tiny bit. Of. Course. He. Did. Ancient lost logia. Destructive. Powerful. Why not just FLIP THEM ON, it'll be FINE, WON'T IT?!

And here came the blast from Riventon. Unnamed, he held out his hands and formed a shield, deflecting the blast but being knocked back a small bit and--

FATE! YUP! THERE SHE WAS! Oh, and here came Nanoha. Right on time. Well... he kind of did expect that a bit, to be honest.

            <<Stinger Snipe!>>

Three little blue balls would appear by him, before rushing off through the air towards Riventon! Take that, dark energy jerkus!

Fenyx, meanwhile, was waiting and, as the fist came at her.... Her own arm moved to block the punch, to try and deflect it before a long leg would try and kick! Well, she had, in many ways, been modeled after Setsuna. Might as well put those long legs to work!

Veronica Perenna has posed:
Now that she is here, how does she even begin fighting something so massive without giving away that she is very much not Mars? Can she hit it hard enough to make a dent? Not like she has any other choice, anyway. She sure would like to say "Evil Spirit, Begone", to this thing.

"Riventon. Fall back here. You aren't making any energy up here, and if you really wanted to take that Jewel Seed, try something more single next time", the Sailor Mars lookalike intimates to the scientist.

Before she has a way too fast giant sword rushing at her, and with what little time she has to move out of the way, she instead chooses to take the hit, the sword causing some cuts on her Sailor Fuku. Grimacing at bruises she can feel are forming, Sailor Mars gets back up, and with a leap, she throws herself at the youma's arm with a kick.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Star Devil's barrets slam into the armor - some burn marks into it, and a few get through, but only cause Dark Energy to leak out of the holes briefly. It does, however, get most of the armor's attention so... yay? Of course that means that the not-so-lumbering massive entity glares at her and makes another sword slice - and Sailor Not-Mars' kick gives a clanging dent to the armor, given that there's no real body inside it.

    But then it does something decidedly UNLIKE a Samurai and unleashes a blast of Dark Energy out of its carved mask's mouth, sweeping it from left to right so as to attack Star Devil as well as Sailor Mars.

    "Well, if you all weren't going to interfere like you always do I wouldn't have minded the energy to set up a barrier, but since I expected you to show up I figured why not let you do it, if you were going to poke your unwanted noses into my business." he yells back to Star Devil.

    Fate's swinging her weapon at Chrono right as Nanoha collides into her, and Fate's very fast; Nanoha connects with her just as Chrono can feel the heat of Bardiche's energy blade near his back, right before contact, and the two of them go towards the wall together.

    Fate looks up at Nanoha with those eyes, deep pinkish-red, as though the impact in the wall didn't faze her. "You again." she says. "Go away." Bardiche reverts to its more normal form and Fate tries to make a swing at Nanoha in the much closer quarters. "This isn't about you. Riventon and I are doing something important. Stop getting in our way. I have to do this for her."

    Arf and Fenyx continue to battle, fists and feet. Riventon's raises his right hand at the blue spheres coming towards him. <<WEITWEITE SCHUTZ.>> calls Axion and the Wide-Area Protection's purpleblue shield erupts around him, blocking all of the orbs despite the trajectories they might take.

    "You know I was hoping to see you, Harlaown." he says, without an honorific, and like the boy's last name was an insult he spat out of his mouth. "So I could field test some things. But I don't really have the time to play with you today, so I'm not going to be able to do that properly. Just have to remove you from the field today."

    <<AKTIVIEREN: DAMONENKERN>> Riventon announces before there's a surge of energy probably all of the Devices can pick up - it's not an energy they'd be familiar with, but it is something very powerful.

    Riventon levels his hand at Chrono as a Mid-childan circle erupts underneath him. SPERRFEUR DES SONNENDAMONS calls Axion, and instead of collecting energy for an attack like Riventon normally does, a sudden series of blasts of Dark Energy simply bursts into being, like a storm of gleaming needles of purple energy that also happen to be on fire, rather than the liquid-like blasts that Riventon often attacks with, raining down in a torrent of power likely to make the other Intelligent Devices take serious note.

Chrono Harlaown has posed:
"Hoping to see me? Oh, that's... sweet, I guess. Happy to know I've left an impression, Riventon," Chrono's tone, in opposition to Riventon's, was calm and relaxed. As if he was talking to a colleague. Not the guy who had caused him NOTHING but TROUBLE every time they met.

Of course, Riventon saying he was going to 'remove him from the field' didn't worry him. Riventon always said something akin to that. 'I'll beat you' or 'I'll demonstrate my superiority' or 'ALL THE WORLD IS MY PETRIDISH!' or some other deranged, sciency thing. Megalomaniacs, what could you do?

He did, however, appreciate Nanoha coming in for the save, as well as Molly's distracting shots. Good to know he only had to fight one powered pain in the butt today...

He glanced towards Fenyx and Arf's battle. Welp, she seemed to have things under control, no need to worry there. Back to focusing on Riventon and--

Huh?

OH FUCK! He put both hands together, forming a barrier in front of himself. Then a second. Then a third and...

It wasn't enough. The magical energy surged, washing over him and then he was... gone.

In the distance, they'd hear a crash as Chrono slammed into *something*.

<< I... I'm okay... just... g-going to need a moment... b-be careful of Riventon.... >>

Ow... Little... Jerk... powered up... ow. Right. Chrono did a few mental calculations. Yeah. He... he was going to need a moment. Since when could Riventon pull out THAT much power, THAT quickly?

Nanoha Takamachi has posed:
Nanoha Takamachi saves Chrono from a double strike. Barely. Fate is fast. But indeed she wasn't expecting the old Nanoha Collider there. The N-Collider! That's what she'll call....running into things. With no plan. In the future!

Yeah she'll... figure out how to better ram into things in the future.

Now though she takes the swing to the front and is sent back flying, barrier jacket shredding and doing it's job of protecting her, but barely at so close a range. She pushes away from the wall and starts firing shot barrets at Fate. Wait a minute. Her?

Oh. Her Mom. That woman.

She frowns a little and keeps firing now as she keeps moving. "I'm not going anywher---huh?"

Raising Heart does ping Riventon's attack suddenly as 'high level', not that the attacks Riventon fields usually aren't but this one is more so than usual. She frowns as Chrono spouts advice.

This is bad.

Molly Skyline has posed:
Molly snaps her fingeres in a hurry, once again disappearing as a flash of light to reappear elsewhere, avoiding the sword chop from the armor. She takes a second to scan her Battle Visor; Chrono has backup now against Fate and Arf, so that's good, and much s she'd like the chance to test herself against Fate, that's just not on the cards today. Armor, Riventon, all that.

"If you just STAYED HOME AND PLAYED VIDEO GAMES like a regular teenager, that would be your business!" she shouts back, "But you summoned a massive sjuit of Tokyo-destroying armor in the middle of the city and that's everyone's business! I live here you know!!" Molly changes course, and is preparing to dive towards Riventon when Tokugawa (she's just calling it that in her head now) blasts her with dark energy; she gets knocked back and her Barrier Jacket takes it for a few seconds before she once again snaps her fingers, vanishing from inside the furious assault and reappearing a few dozen meters away.

<< WARNING: NEUTRINO RUSH REQUIRES THIRTY SECONDS TO RECHARGE >>

Oh well that wasn't expected, but Molly hadn't ever used it in rapid succession like that before. Oh well. "Deploy Aurora Barrier," she instructs instead. "Show me a charge meter on Break Wall, as well.

<< AFFIRMATIVE. DEPLOYED. >> A faceted bubble is briefly visible as it snaps into place around Molly, along with a little progress bar on her battle visor, mirroring the proto-cannister hanging from her belt.

"Overcharge Starfall. Disable safety protocols for this spell. Maximum thermal and kinetic output."

<< Affirmative. Armed >> Molly is about to do her thing, when her battle visor updates the tag on Riventon, signalling a massive build-up of energy; and it's something weird. Unusual. That can't be good. And, her visor lights up with warnings, concerning what that energy turns into as he fires it at Chrono.

Well. She's got her assigned targets. But maybe she can still help Chrono out.

"Fire!" Molly Changes course again, and flie sstraight for Tokugawa; her approach picks up speed, and a halo of brilliantly glowing energy accumulates around her; she just goes straight for the center of mass, and only as she's under a second away from hitting it does she reorient herself, slamming feet-first into it at top speed. Her barrier jacket fires a blast into the armor to absorb the impact instead of her; in her head, the idea of knocking the massive samurai over onto Riventon's position feels pretty great, even if it's unlikely.

Veronica Perenna has posed:
Maybe Riventon doesn't know Sailor Mars. Whoops. Better keep that in mind for future meetings, and hope nobody heard her. She is not going to bank on the chance he just didn't reply because he was focused on Chrono.

Landing back nearby once her kick does an appreciable dent, she eyes the moving armour warily. Would it be safe to try and take the Jewel Seed, aside from having to avoid the creature's retaliation? It's not like her attacks are doing much otherwise.

She pays attention to Fate talking about having to do this for someone, her attention switching to the blonde girl with interest. Just what's the reasoning behind the loyalty (?) she seems to perceive from the blonde girl. Is there any chance her heart is not actually in it?

Before she can dwell on that any further, the dark energy gives fake Mars the second hit of the day, pushing her back by a few meters, leaving her to stop with a pained groan and a laboured breathing.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    "I am so far beyond a regular teenager, a regular person - you can't possibly concieve of it." Riventon says quite seriously, turning away from the cloud of smoke that was where Chrono once was. He knows Chrono isn't dead - he could hope he was indeed knocked out of the fight but he doesn't actually expect that, even if he is pretty sure he just gave the other boy a pretty nasty bruise or two at least. Maybe, just maybe, Chrono would do the smart thing and sneak off.

    It isn't that Riventon doesn't know who Sailor Mars is - well, okay, he's not sure he's seen the red-suited Sailor Senshi stand against him, but she is a pretty girl in a Sailor Suit, and he knows all too well who that means she's with. Sailor Moon. But he's not here to make more enemies. (That's just a natural consequence of being him.)

    Taking the Jewel Seed out of the armor might be a very effective plan in fact, given that Star Crash's attack slams into the armor and the whole thing staggers and does fall towards Riventon hard. Afteer all - a Jewel Seed isn't quite the same as a youma, even filled up with Dark Energy it still is trying to make the dream of an inanimate creature come true - so steadily, slowly, the power within the armor for that dream is already fading, unlike as it might with a living creature.

    Fate takes to the skies, relying on her agility primarily, her Barrier Jacket being lighter in from but the blonde twintailed girl being very, very quick. She swerves left and right, twirling in a practiced sort of almost barrel roll to disrrupt Nanoha's shooting. The way Fate looks when Nanoha gets sight of her may indicate that her heart is... in this in a different way. There's no hostility in her eyes, only a mix of sadness and determination. She may not want to do this, but she isn't backing down. "If you keep getting in our way you're going to get hurt." Fate says to Nanoha. And as if to put proof to the point, several yellow spheres of crackling lightning burst in as she flies around the battlefield. <<Photon Lancer.>> Bardiche calls. "Fire!" Fate yells as four crackling yellow spheres rush towards Nanoha.

    Riventon currently busies himself dodging away from the lumbering armor, as it collpases ontto the battlefield, face down. Arf's got Fenyx busy, and that means he's just standing there to look at Mars and Star Devil, with Chrono missing in action and Nanoha tied up with Fate. "Come on, stand down. I take the Jewel Seed and there's no monster armor to threaten people. We all go home, nobody's hurt. Well, except Chrono I guess, and anyone else who doesn't back off." he says, as one of the yellow spheres flies past overhead trying to hit Nanoha. "The only danger is the danger you are creating for yourselves."

Nanoha Takamachi has posed:
Nanoha Takamachi takes after Fate, to the skies as she says. "Do you hear him, Fate-chan!? That's the chant....of a big bully!" she shouts as Riventon spouts that nonsense at the end, Riventon mightaswell be saying 'stop hitting yourselves'.

Nanoha Takamachi raises her hand, a round shield forming to tank the Photon Lancer this time around as yellow spheres crackle against it.

She looks down at the others... Riventon is... something is going on. Chrono just got... erm what's that term she read online? Something about the man with the ridges on that space show...

Ugh not important Nanoha, for now she looks back up at Fate.

"You work with bullies Fate-chan, we keep fighting until we can't anymore...!" she says tersely. "Otherwise. Bullies WINNNNNN!" she screams out, firing more shot barrets in such a rapid succession Raising Heart starts venting steam.

Chrono Harlaown has posed:
So, things learned today. Riventon got a powerup of some kind. He'd need to adjust the force of his magic when targetting the boy. There was a quick re-adjustment before he, finally, began the long and arduous journey of standing up.

Owwwwwww...

Fenyx, meanwhile, was engaged with Arf. The wolf-girl was a tough combatent, like her owner. But Fenyx was as well. Neither giving ground... unfortunately, there wasn't much need for either of them at the moment.

Suddenly, there would be a low whistling sound... Followed by the blue glow of a dozen or so magical swords descending in a tight-knit spiral pattern over Riventon to try and drive him into the ground.

Chrono hovered overhead, the sleeves of his uniform shredded, but the metal gauntlets were intact. A bit dented, but intact.

"I see you've amplified your power, Riventon. Congratulations. I'll need to keep that in mind going forward."

Despite his casual tone and somewhat casual stance, he was actually breathing rather heavily. That shot had been powerful and dangerous. He didn't want to risk getting hit by another and was now just waiting for Riventon to launch his next attack... and distressingly aware of just how quickly he could bring his power to bear.

Veronica Perenna has posed:
'That thing doesn't mess around at all', Veronica thinks, taking a few steps forward while she recovers from the impact, then starting to run to punch the armor on the helmet's left side. If she arrives that far, she follows it up with a kick to the other side and lands on the ground again.

The Mars doppelganger starts rushing towards "And whatever danger you are using the Jewel Seed for later", not-Mars scoffs at Riventon's comment, shaking her head. Though, that confirms that the Jewel Seed should be safe to extract at least. "You fall back, and we don't have to deal with you, so our focus is on the monster armour." Not that she believes he is going to pay any attention to this.

Maybe she should try this on the blonde girl instead. "You, can you tell me what situation you are in?", Mars II stares at Fate. "Do you really want to work with people who hurt others? Stop fighting, and we can help you", she looks with a friendly smile at her.

Molly Skyline has posed:
Actually grabbing the Jewel Seed wasn't Molly's plan; so... she didn't. She's mostly just really impressed with herself that the plan worked and the armor fell down. So, while it's plummeting and Riventon is dodging and Fate is facing off with Nanoha, and while the vents on her staff and jacket hiss steam into the air around her, Molly hovers and casts her eyes about. "Starcrash, scan for the Jewel Seed, let's locate it," she says hurriedly.

<< AFFIRMATIVE. SCANNING >>

and of course, Riventon is talking, and as usual when he's talking it's the sort of arrogant tripe a Brit would be proud of. Well, two can play that game. Molly descends, and watches as Chrono's attack comes out of nowhere, until she's standing on the fallen armor. "Back down? When have we ever fought and I've done that? Look, Gov, Starcrash isn't warning me there's holes in my Barrier Jacket or that I'm below half of my mana reserves yet. I've got petrol in the tank, a crappy attitude, and the magical equivalent of a mean right hook, you think I'm backing down? Bruh. Where I come from, we don't back down." She swings her staff around, and points the business end at Tiventon. "We don't lose either. Starcrash, keep the safety protocols disengaged. Overcharge Stellar Buster."

<< AFFIRMATIVE. CAUTION: CONTINUED DISUSE OF SAFETY PROTOCOLS NOT RECOMMENDED. ARMED >>

"Got it! Fire."

Molly gets pushed backwards, her feet scraping over the armor as an unstable, crackling beam of searing hot energy erupts from Starcrash, directed straight at Riventon; and where it hits there's an explosion, blasting a hole in the ground and showering everything with debris. As it fires, parts of Molly's barrier jacket glow, and in some places, start to melt, while her vents hiss and spew purple steam all around her.

<< JEWEL SEED LOCATED >>

"Oh there it is."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Fate puts up her yellow shield and bunkers in behind it - she certainly doesn't want to take all of those barrets on her Jacket. But midway through the barrage she can feel the way the continued assault presses against her shield, and her facial expressions harden. "I'll be a bully if that's what I have to do." she says, grimmacing against the torrent of blasts. Is that true? Does she have any choice? Can she imagine a world where that's not the case? No. She's always been - well, ever since she came to this world, when her mother stopped smiling, when all of the happy times ended and she can only remember how hard she had to work...

    The thoughts distract Fate and the very last barret that Nanoha fires breaks through the shield and impacts into Fate, sending her back for a moment, before she rights herself in mid air. She grips Bardiche tighter, her barrier jacket showing signs of the impact. But she can't fall here. Riventon just found a way to activate the slimbering Jewel Seeds. "I can't... I won't stop fighting. I can't give up until it's done." Fate says, sternly, to both Nanoha and Mars. "You wouldn't understand... what I will do... to see her smile. Whatever. It. Takes. It doesn't mattter. Call me what you must."

    A yellow Mid-Childan circle erupts underneath Fate and a focusing circle appears in front of her. She brings Bardiche forward through it. <,Thunder Smasher>> calls Bardiche as a brilliant surge of crackling yellow electrical energy rockets forward at Nanoha.

    Mars' impacts slam into the collapsed armor and perhaps are part of what prevents the thing's red eyes from glowing anew with energy, instead starting to steadily dull.

    Riventon puts a triangular shield up to stop the torrent of blades from impaling him - it is in his colors but crackles occasionally with red lightning, and the swords snarl and spark against it without breaking through. "Just spent a little time in the workshop is all, Enforcer Harlaown." he yells as the swords crackle against the Belkan-style barrier. "But now you're trying harder too, I see." he says, looking up at the swords. "I can feel the energy, it's different here. More like when we first met, isn't it?"

    But then Star Crash's stellar beam is coming in and he's already occupied and it's the sort of thing that, a few months ago, should have sent Riventon limping back to Obsidian Tower. But it's not a few months ago.

    <<KAISERLICHE VERBUNDPANZERUNG>> calls Axion, Axion's core gem as well as the red gem on his other arm glowing and focusing energy as a series of wards erupts - and in all directions, layered shields - Belkan, Midchildan - spring up before being assimilated by some sort of red sphere that keeps Riventon quite safe within it, from the swords and the Stellar Buster, both attacks curving around the strange red sphere, still carving lines into the ground and terrain around him, behind him.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    When the attacks are over the sphere fades and Riventon's device exhausts steam in all directions - a frankly incredibly thick cloud of steam that expresses just how much energy that shield burned to keep him so clearly safe. But safe he is.

    "You're starting to become slightly annoying." he says to Starcrash. "And Fate and I really do need that Jewel Seed, everyone..." he warns. That's the whole warning.

    <<ALPTRAUM AUSBRUCH.>> calls his Device, before... ntohing happens. For a moment. But maybe with enough time to dodge Devices will warn their owners (and perhaps Mars will gain a moment of insight) before the ground erupts, columns of Dark Energy blasting from the ground straight into the sky, covering the battlefield with columns of Riventon's black-blue, ink like blasts, from an unexpected direction. As this attack saturates the battlefield Riventon rushes off from the position he'd been in, heading for the Jewel Seed. However, he runs straight into the bind Chrono created earlier - while he breaks free of it far faster than might be expected, it does mean there's a little bit more of a delay than he expected as well as he moves to try to grab the Seed.

Chrono Harlaown has posed:
Chrono Harlaown cocked an eye before shaking his head. "No. Not quite. Riventon, that time it was a mistake. Not my call to make. Now I'm trying to be better about such things. I hope you can understand that," Chrono said... but he doubted that Riventon could. No. Riventon really didn't seem the type to understand something like that...

Or worse, he'd likely 'understand' it in the worst way. Sigh.

However, the weird attack... did confuse him. And the fact he was able to shield BOTH of their assaults concerned him. He had gotten a lot stronger. He'd need to definitely adjust his variables.

Then the ground exploded.

Chrono had just a moment to unleash a few stinger orbs at Riventon, before he had to divert his attention to defense. Forming a shield below himself and VWOOP! Getting shot up into the heavens. Gosh. Darn. It. RIVENTOOOOOOOOON!

Molly Skyline has posed:
<< WARNING: INCOMING THREAT >>

Incoming threat indeed; Molly's battle visor lights up with alerts, before Riventon's massive area-denial attack goes off. Molly has to put off worrying about how easily Riventon defended against her biggest attack (that isn't a finisher) so easily and just take to the skies, doing her best to avoid getting hit. She doesn't entirely manage that; but a few dark energy blasts get redirected off her Aurora Barrier until that defense sizzles out, and she's just on her own, at least for the moment. Molly is busy trying to work out what spell to use next, but it's difficult when you're trying not to take a hit that you don't want going straight to your barrier jacket.

<< SAFETY PROTOCOLS RESTORED >> Starcrash chimes in helpfully. << NEUTRINO DASH AVAILABLE >>

Oh well that changes things. Molly turns, executing a backflip mid air and diving straight back down. She saw that Jewel Seed; it's time to go for it. Can't let Riventon have it afterall. A blast of energy hits her, and her entire barrier jacket crackles with the hit; she grits her teeth, fighting past the blinding pain as she snaps her fingers, vanishing in a burst of light and reappearing right...

...where she needs to be.

Molly's free hand closes around the Jewel Seed as she rockets past, grabbing it and tearing it loose from its moorings, before she angles to take off straight up.

<< I got it!! >> she reports excitedly over the team frequency. << Now I just gotta keep it. >>

"Starcrash, deploy Round Shield, and deploy Vulcan Defense."

<< AFFIRMATIVE. DEPLOYED. >> A bubble of energy snaps into place a round Molly; and a purple orb appears behind her head with a band of spell runes around it, crackling with energy and ready to shoot down incoming spells. Hopefully.

Nanoha Takamachi has posed:
Nanoha Takamachi is nine years old. The biggest insult she has in her vocabulary she feels appropriate to use is bully. Maybe 'Jerk' or 'Stupidhead' but we're not at that levels for Fate... Riventon is a jerk. She summons another shield...."ROUND SHIELD!" she calls out, before throwing out her hand, forming a double shield----

And it buffets the Thunder Smasher enough to send Nanoha flying backwards, but not take her out of the fight. She spins through the air before she rights herself and shakes it off...

"Now it's my turn...."

"DIVINE...."

She points and thrusts Raising Heart Forward "BUS----"

Before she can finish the incantation and fire off her Divine Buster a column of inky dark energy envelops her, and she yells out and inky dark energy sludge drips off her. This is awful. And it hurts. And it makes her *feel* awful and she only saves her vision by covering her eyes, leaving this 'mask' across her face of clean skin.

"....Yeech." she says.

Raising Heart is begging her to retreat now. She can't fight like this.

She begrudgingly agrees. Raising Heart is clogged, the battle field is an inky, gunky mess. There's a field advantage they just don't have anymore.

"F--fate-chan...." she says through grit tee---oh god it's in her mouth now.

She starts taking off. << I'm sorry I..I have to retreat...! >>

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Chrono's out - that worked better than expected. Not just Chrono, but also Nanoha - that's doublegood. Fate was able to know it was coming; Riventon didn't warn her, but Axion sure did through Bardiche - even without Riventon asking it to. Perhaps it knew what Riventon would want, or perhaps it was just trying to avoid Bardiche being in the same somewhat clogged condition Raising Heart ended up in.

    But Riventon - Riventon had a jewel seed to acquire. Unfortunantly, while Chrono and Nanoha were disrupted, and it looked like 'Sailor Mars' was similarly pressured away from the situation by the attack, Star Devil was still going for the jewel seed. For his jewel seed. Well, soon Precia would be holding onto it, but even she hadn't woken it up! No, he wasn't going to let some sparkle get it.

    Fate's eyes blink as Bardiche relays instructions - and then she levels the staff at where Molly's trajectory is. <<Photon Lancer.>> Bardiche announces again, sending several yellow spheres racing towards Star Devil. Of course, they'd be likely handled by ther shield, by the defense. But they were only part of the plan.

    <SCHALLBEWEGUNG.> calls Riventon's device, speaking the name of the spell Fate had taught him in the Belkan it more often used, shifting Riventon rapidly from his location to the other side of Star Devil. But he doesn't go for a spell, he just tries to reach out for her arm - to grab her and start just draining the energy from her directly, ideally as she's still defending from the smaller Testarossa's lightning assaults.

    "Give me that, leave important things to me and go back to drinking your sad leaf water with your terrible foods!" Riventon says before grabbing at the Jewel Seed with his free hand and then trying to follow up the energy drain with a very up close energy blast aiming to punt her back into the museum itself - or the Barrier copy of the museum that was generated.

Chrono Harlaown has posed:
Chrono Harlaown had managed to, with a bit of difficulty, get off the magic inky ride and spin through the air, before diving down. Just in time to see Riventon get a hold of Molly... Damn it. And Nanoha had been blasted off, double damn it. He knew Riventon and Fate together was a problem. He knew it!

He unleashed a flurry of assaults, little blue orbs at Arf from above, a flurry of smaller, blue orbs at Fate...

            <<Stinger Snipe!>>
            <<Stinger Ray!>>

As he dove at Riventon, diving down at him as fast as he could, hand out, trying to grab him before he could escape with the seed! NOT! TODAY! RIVENTON! He wasn't going to have a chance to stop, but if he threw his all into it... maybe...

Molly Skyline has posed:
Molly is rocketing upwards as fast as she can; this battle is not going all that great, as it turns out, and two of her friends and allies have already had to retreat; but if she can escape with this Jewel Seed thing -- the first time she's actually seen one -- then it's still a win, right?

And then yellow spheres are incoming at a high rate of speed. Starcrash alerts her to the attack; but her defenses can handle it. The Vulcan Defense hovering behind her opens up, rattling off glowing, pinkish sparks in rapid succession. They impact with Fate's attacks, and the few orbs that get through slam into Molly's shield without getting past it.

But then Riventon was incoming. Her battle visor had him flagged of course, but Molly being human was focused on the first attack, and so Riventon manages to get right to where Molly really doesn't want him to be -- close by.

<< ALERT: MANA DRAIN >> Starcrash warnes her with urgency; not that Molly needed the warning. She can feel it. Her defenses go down, and her Flier Fin wings blink-blink on her back.

"Break Wall," Molly gasps; the proto-canister on her belt lets off a burst of light and a barrier appears around he, just as Riventon's blast sends her flying through a wall. The emergency shield absorbs at least some of the attack; and it's definitely down by the time she's passing through concrete.

Star Devil lands hard, tumbling and skidding across the floor and coming to a stop, laying face down on the ground. But, at least she still has the Jewel See--

No she doesn't.

Riventon knocked it out of her hand.

Veronica Perenna has posed:
'Sailor Mars' would like to say that she has got Star Devil's side in letting her keep the Jewel Seed, but with all the dark energy sprouting all over the place and her having been focus on holding the armour back (as much as Riventon's attacks allowed it anyway, which was not very), the scientist won't have any opposition to his grabbing of the Jewel Seed, not until it's in his hands.

She is trying not to think too deeply about Fate's stern expression that accompanied the declaration of what motivates her. Even so, it's still getting to her.

"Curses!", she exclaims when it's too late and seeing the stone is in Riventon's hold, running towards him in a way that leaves her plenty open to be blasted back, her focus more on throwing caution to the wind than avoiding harm as she tries to get the jewel from him in any possible way.

She only knows that Chrono is putting a lot of work in, and Riventon has just used magic that looked quite draining. Maybe one of them can manage it.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Chrono's attacks rain down - Arf, engaged in combat with Phenyx, is taken by surprised and yelps - with the first hit. The second one slams into her and she yelps again but then she breaks melee with Phenyx to shield the others as she rushes towards Fate.

    Fate is more prepared - she'd just blasted Molly and she had Bardiche to warn her about Chrono. So her yellow shield is up in time for Chrono's attacks to impact it - but Arf is in pain and seeking her owner, both for her own comfort and to continue to protect Fate.

    Star Devil is spiked like a volleyabll back down into the museum - and the blue gem is spiraling into the air after having been jostled free, the energy drain doing the work of weakening not only her defenses but the much more mundane function of grip strength. And now Chrono is diving towards Riventon - and Riventon has two hands. One he uses to catch the Jewel Seed, the prize, the thing he started all of this combat for. The other one is free. To attack, to defend?

    As Star Devil's Barrier comes down, and Sailor Mars is also rushing towards him, Riventon outstretches his free hand and points it towards Chrono specifically. "Curses indeed - do be a good girl and tell Sailor Moon how you failed!" he yells to Sailor Mars. Then that hand outstretched towards Chrono is turned around and closed - so he can give Chrono a single raised middle finger, waiting until just the last moment before Chrono can reach him to step backwards into the Duskzone, leaving the fight with the prize.

    For Fate and Nanoha it's not quite that simple - they have to teleport out in a more classical way, with the runes beneath them, Dimensional Traversing back to the Garden of Time, but Riventon's egostical show has bought them that time. Maybe that was his actual goal. Or maybe that's just the kind of jerk he is.

Chrono Harlaown has posed:
Chrono Harlaown reached out... He was so close. So--

And Riventon was gone! he had only a second to register the middle finger, before his eyes went wide and--

He couldn't stop in time. He hit the ground, then bounced, rolled, bounced, slid. Bang bang bang. Smaller bounces until he ended up, laying on his back, body full of aches.

Damn it he hated Riventon. So. So much.

Molly Skyline has posed:
<< I lost the Jewel Seed >> Molly admits, mounrfully. She's laying there on the ground, as her Time Space Barrier falls; and... of course that means that all the damage to the Museum disappears. It also means that she's laying face down on the gorund in the middle of the Dionosaur exhibit, having basically just appeared there, with a bunch of open-mouthed civilians gawking at her. That's fine, right? That's fine.

It's not fine.

Molly grits her teeth -- why does everything hurt so much -- and snaps her fingers. But nothing happens. Oh, right; thanks to overcharging her attacks and Riventon draining her, she doesn't have enough mana for Neutrino Rush. Oh well that's just grand. So, still trailing steam from her vents, she just... dashes off, runs around the corner, drops her Henshin and ducks into the girl's washroom.

<< Can we just... Okay that didn't go well, how bad is it that Riventon got that? >> she asks, her voice high pitched and unsteady.

Veronica Perenna has posed:
'Mars II's rush comes to a stop when Riventon leaves in the most annoying way known to exist. Is he smirking full of himself now at having Chrono that false hope? He probably is, and were it not their loss, she would have probably had good things to say at its action's effectiveness.

Moving towards Star Devil instead, she offers her a hand once she stops lying face-down, accompanying it with a sigh. Not like she has an answer for her, she just didn't want to do nothing.

Chrono Harlaown has posed:
Chrono Harlaown sighs and jsut... was goin to lay there for a while. It hurt. a lot. He ached all over. But...

<< It's fine. It's not the first one he's gotten, Molly. It likely won't be the last... despite my wishes. But no. So long as they don't get all of them, we should be able to, eventually, get the others back. For now? It's best... we recover and plan for future encounters with Riventon, Fate and Arf. >>

Fenyx, meanwhile, walked over and bent over to look down at him. "You okay, boss?"

"... Peachy."

"... You gonna be fine to walk?"

"... In a few minutes."

"... Want me to call Rashmi?"

"........ No, not this time. Maybe next time."

"... Whatever you say, boss."