RP: YSS Miharu Mission 5, Part 2: The Fight For The Lost

[Aendri]

Kyou's inert body twitched slightly, and her eyes flicked over to Kai and Nimura, wondering if they would notice. She still hadn't managed to get any of her limbs to move like she wanted to yet, but motion at all was progress, and by the sounds of things, the rest of the group wasn't much better off then this impromptu group out here. Her eyes flicked back down at her own body again, and she forced herself to resume her attempts at motion. She may have been paralyzed, but that paralysis didn't extend to her perception of pain, and she really wasn't enjoying the sensation of a good chunk of Mishhu weaponry being embedded in her chest.

There! That time she'd actually almost managed to make a fist with one of her hands. It looked to her very much like the paralysis was fading faster as time went on. That or her perception of time was being thrown off by the pain, which option was true didn't really matter though. What mattered was progress. And as small as that progress might have seemed, it meant the world to Kyou at the moment, possibly in a literal sense if things went downhill.

 

[Kai]

"I Suppose that makes sense..." Kai responded, as he felt the pain in his chest finally begin to dull to a point where he might be able to move again- and then he noticed Kyou's hand flex.

"I think she's waking up.. maybe we should pull that spike out of her before she starts moving too much?" the Yamataian observed, hovering over towards Kyou. He wanted very badly to help Nimura, but it was currently impossible. Perhaps Kyou, in much better condition than Nimura, would agree to switch places with the Sprite so that the armor could help treat her injuries, as little help as it would do, it would have to be better than nothing.

 

[Gallant]

Crunch.

It was the final sound that Yuzuki's fleeting consciousness remembered; the sound of its own spinal cord being slammed into the wall like a rattan stick in the hands of a bubbly human child. It wasn't over and over, though; just once. Once was all it took.

She had no conscious thought. If she did, she probably would have thought something along the lines of, 'I should have saw that coming', or perhaps, 'I'm so sorry, I've failed you, Shosa.' Yuzuki was blissfully spared this sort of thinking. She hovered, unseeing and unaware, in the middle-ground between life and death, which some people of particularly philosophical bent deemed to be some sort of purgatory. More practically speaking it was the realm of 'not-quite-dead-yet, but-getting-there'. She lingered in the Unthought, where nothing existed except the sound of her blood gently sloshing around the nearly severed sinews and her almost smashed skull. Nothing except a vaguely warm rushing sensation at the back of her neck, as if a vein had popped, all all her body heat were focusing there - which was a silly feeling, considering that she wasn't receiving any input from her body, at all.

If one were to inspect her again, or perhaps link physically with the inert brain matter that represented everything that Yuzuki was, is, or ever could be, the seeker would - to his or her surprise! - probably find that Yuzuki was indeed having thought; but it was thought without words. Jumbled and miserable, emotions mixed and mulled within her psyche, unable to form themselves, and obviously rather annoyed about it.

In fact, let's view them in caracature, since this seems to be the popular thing to do these days when having out of body experiences due to physical or psycological trauma. Psychosis be damned!

Anyway, look at them -

There stands the Anger; a beast, perhaps part dog, part cat, or some type of werecreature, upright on two legs in the mockery of man. Or perhaps woman - it is difficult to tell with the fur. It is beautiful, sleek in its deadliness, precise in its movements. It is also a brilliant orange, with blue eyes and wonderfully pearly teeth, but this is completely beside the point - really, it's very scary. It is standing over the Shame.

The Shame is a very different creature altogether. Hairless, bald, naked. Perhaps it is not as well defined as its surroundings; here is the place that defined it, joined by its sister, Fear. Together they cling in the cold dampness of some misted room, surrounded by endless nothing, unfeeling walls of gray. Fear and Shame. Shame is ashamed of Fear, covering her, protecting her. The two of them glare at Anger. Anger menaces. And the two of them cling tighter.

Hope is a man, with a blond shock of hair and a really cute and awkward smile. Of course, whether he is naked or not is completely undefined. He carries a flashlight. It would be poetic if the flashlight were to do something clever or magical, such as piercing the endless darkness of night, but it doesn't - it's just a regular flashlight. Hope really hasn't had much hand in things recently; he's a bit character in this drama. Anyway, he shines golden anyway, so there's no reason for the flashlight. Mighty silly job he's got one, then, isn't it? Hope doesn't need to make any sense.

And then there's Logic, who is far too preoccupied with more important things to believe in any of this nonsense - even herself. Pride accompanies her. Pride is also orange, and hairy, and rather rough around the edges, but in a very definably feminine way - Anger's once-in-a-while lover, though she's too proud to admit she likes it like that. She was ashamed to tell Shame because Shame would look at her with those puppy-dog eyes and just cry, and afraid of what Fear would say because Fear could do anything if you backed her against a wall, but most of all she wouldn't want Hope to know.

Pride still wanted Hope.

And then there's Loyalty, who is currently lying unconscious face-first. She's in armor, without which, she would be a Sprite-flapjack, and there's a warm sensation at the back of her neck.

Back to reality.

With no sensory input, completely unconscious, Yuzuki was unaware of the Shosa's efforts to move her. If she had been aware, the sprite would probably have cried - not only because of the physical pain, which was tremendous enough she would have probably passed out anyway - but also because she was very, very ashamed of herself.

That was the general consensus, anyway.

 

[Nyton]

They scored a hit! Several solid hits!

Not feeling so god-like NOW are you!?

Nyton was cheered by the damage they had done to the being, grinning slightly even while still in pain. It was for only a brief moment as the blast from the grenade only destroyed two of the creatures that were forming. Then Mefpralphra fled off in a phasing retreat. He tried not to be frustrated at her escape since they now had two very dangerous opponents left in her wake.

Yukari gave her orders and Nyton determined he would need to be more mobile. Letting out a yell he commanded Arethusa to make him stand up and move his leg while floating. He remained aloft but the shifting of his left knee placed him in a constant state of intense pain.

Through the haze of pain Nyton forced himself to continue, recalling Kotori's words when she freed him from Melisson's grasp. I don't know how much longer I can keep going Kotori but after all you suffered to get us through then I can offer you no less than everything! he thought, a constant grimace coming from him as he focused himself to better manage the pain.

Arethusa's phasing interdiction field range marker returned to Nyton's HUD. He was stealthed but for all he knew the enemy could still locate him. The plasma rifle was handed off to the nodal weapon and he drew an ASP in each hand from the holsters. The plasma rifle read 37 shots remaining and he needed to conserve those for Mefpralphra.

Nyton flew in fast to try and maneuver in to match the speed of one of the monsters. Careful to keep the monster within range of the field but not too close for melee, he held his fire until he was close. With both pistols he aimed for center mass, the largest target, given that his condition was making it hard enough to aim and maneuver.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Ayumu was already overwhelmed by the amount of work she was facing. Already all she was doing was trying to stop as much bleeding as possible before any treatment could even begin. The few remaining conscripted nurses were handling transfusions with the dwindling supplies they had left.

Then Mara arrived, herself in need of attention that Ayumu wished she could give, only to drop off another crew member in dire need of help. With the delivery of Shizuka to the med lab the nurse looked at her newest patient and let out an exhausted breath. "I need more fluid to stabilize her now before I can even remove the metal from her side."

"Ayumu-chan! Onee-chan is hurt!" Akiko said, removing her helmet to allow clearer communication. The younger sister looked haggard herself but was not allowing it to affect her, not even by the twisted leg. Ayumu looked up at Akiko and could not believe what she saw. Having known the Caretaker neko back on the Sekkou she remembered how childish and innocent she could be. At the same time she was dedicated and cheerful beyond any measure she encountered, hopelessly dedicated to her older sister. For that reason she had managed to enamor herself to the crew for she expressed to everyone else around her the same love for her sister. Now she was fighting with the same determination she showed to any other task. Ayumu decided she could do no less. With Hinoto's announcement that victory was at hand she decided to draw the line.

"Shizuka is not dying here today. In fact no one else is dying!" Ayumu declared before looking at the demoralized conscripts. "We are the last line against death for our crewmates! We are too close to winning now for anyone else to be lost to death!" Rushing over to the remaining supply of hemosynth packets Ayumu began to treat Shizuka just as Akiko replaced her own helmet and moved to stand by Miyoko to defend the medlab.

 

[Kokuten]

Thoomp!

"Fuck!"

Thoomp!

"Fuck!"

Thoomp!

"Fuck!"

Thoomp!

"Fuh-hu-huck!" growled Asher, his shots ringing off, sending shockwaves of pain up his damaged arm, and likely shattering the limb further. He hobbled the grenade launcher in his arm and clumsily switched to his Flamethrower, trying to suck down the liquid fire that kept shooting up and down the length from his shoulder to the tips of his fingers. His breathing hiked, as he tried to compensate for the pain. Perhaps it hurt this bad because he was actually using the arm this time. Before, it was just his right doing all the talking, with the plasma gun.

Suck it up, man. You got this... thought Asher as he watched their beastly foe escape the room, only to leave behind even more beastly foes. He shook his head, working out the pain and adjusting his Flamethrower. Fuck.

The Soldier's AIES established locks on both beasts as they approached. He labeled his own unique identifier on the one approaching Tom and Himself, signifying his quarry. The Malifarian surged forth in the air, taking the initiative over the floorbourne beast.

"C'mon Free-Boss!" snarled Asher through his own pain, "Less' show'm tha' bid'ness!" The Plasmathrower erupted in a dragon's breath of flame on the chitinous enemy.

 

[Tom]

Another obstacle! These bastards won't stop!

"Got it!" Tom leveled his plasma rifle at the humanoid... thing and started laying suppressive support fire so that Asher would have the best opportunity to engage and destroy the monster. Asher liked getting close and dirty. Tom wanted none of that, choosing to keep his distance.

Frustration filled him again. He wanted this battle over so badly... The fact that the Infection Queen had fled didn't leave him with positive vibes. It meant a mad monster hunt when they were already depleted and exhausted. Deep in enemy territory. On a timer that was about to run out.

He shook out any thoughts of destiny robbing them, not after they came this far. But Tom didn't know how much more he had to give.

Whatever was left in the tank, it had to be enough to fight off this newest threat.

 

[Rabbit Eclair]

With the battle now taking place right outside of the medlab, it was all Miyoko could do to think over the racket... not that there was much time for thinking anymore.

"Shimabumi-Hei, please keep watching the lab," she requested, before opening the door and leaning out, using the wall as a shield as she fired on the approaching horde. It was a bit of a risk, but... the firefight going on outside needed every gun it could get. If the barricade was overrun, she and Akiko weren't going to be able to defend the medlab for any amount of time worth counting.

 

[Fred]

@ vs. Mefpralphra, the Infection Queen:

Proximity with Nyton meant that any change of phasing states became impossible. This allowed Nyton's dual-wielded pistols to strike Mefpralphra's charging monster spawn when she came point blank. Even though repeated strikes from anti-armor bullets was something she would quickly regenerate, the cumulative recoil was enough to stop her charge.

Tom then struck, adding permanence to the bullet wounds with a flower-like burst of plasma energy; staggering her enough to allow Asher to sweep in and immolate her with copiously more abundant torrents of plasma.

The thing made another horrible banshee screech before her agonized flailing came to an end as she became more cinder and ash than flesh and crumbled to the floor.

Yukari's pursuer was initially deterred by the Shosa and the unconscious Heisho she protected took to the air. The she-monster phased in, endured a pulse cannon hit, and then exploded into nearly a hundred winged bugs. The things almost immediately arrowed after Yukari, dodging the following pulse cannon attacks to batter themselves against her.

High-speed contact with each hand-sized critter felt like a power armor's punch. Yuzuki was dislodged from her grasp. Some of the bugs crumpled on contact, but two-thirds of them survived the suicidal charge and now clung over Yukari's armor, their tough carapaced bodies hugged tightly against her as they labored to take apart the M6 Daisy power armor with collective chewer action.

In addition, two of the tentacles loosened right before Mefpralphra had fled were also quickening, one subdividing itself into a flying bug swarm while the other grew into an humanoid figure with a fang-filled mouth and an expanding mane of sharp quills.

 

[Kokuten]

"Man. Where's a really big fuckin' bomb when you need one? This Mefflefublewut's turnin' inta' a handful. First crazy banshee bitches, an' then somethin' what looks what'd happen if y'creamed on an anthill! Sheesh!" said Asher as he soared through the room, making a turn back towards the team, giving him a clear sight of his superior getting swarmed by the equivalent of robot-locusts. While his arm 'did' hurt, he wasn't getting swarmed by robot-locusts. That would've sucked! So, he decided to lend a hand to Yukari.

"Assistin' tha' Shosa!" declared Asher as zoomed on over her, and made a quick trigger-pull of his flamethrower, bathing her armor in a small wash of plasma.

 

[Nyton]

Nyton analyzed the amount of firepower needed to eliminate the first monster. It required a concentrated effort but that force was now divided with Asher rushing to assist Yukari. Unfortunately Yukari was the one with the hand grenades and would be unable to take out the new swarm being formed. It seemed dangerous but the plasma wash from Asher was probably the only thing that could remove the swarm from her.

"Freeman, move in with me to cover Yuzuki! Try to grenade the swarm first then assist me to hold back the other monster!" Nyton telepathically messaged. He remembered that Tom still had his LASR/SLAG along with some grenade rounds left and hoped he could swap out fast enough. Whether they were explosive or incendiary the blast might be effective enough against the bugs to eliminate most of them. He also surmised their combined firepower could slow down the other Melisson drone monster. He did not expect to do much damage to it without the overwhelming plasma from Asher but they had to keep the monsters occupied until Yukari was free from the swarm.

 

[Doshii Jun]

The explosion of bugs unfocused Yukari's gaze to almost a hundred different targets that came rushing at her. She felt them bash themselves against her, her armor's hemosynth insert puffing itself up to brace her for the impacts but doing little to keep her joints in place. Yuzuki slipped from her arm and went to the floor.

Her cannon was stuck to her arm, unable to be popped out or turned. The last bug crashed into her and her back met the wall.

Then, a chittering. And the scrapping of metal.

They were eating her armor.

Panic rushed over her mind, then stopped. Panic would lead to her death, and dying from alien insects was no way for anything to die. Panic swept again when her armor told her the bugs were smart enough to attack joints as well as plates.

She heard Asher say he was coming to assist her, with fire no doubt. The bugs were packed so tightly that she could not move. The metal scrapping sound assaulted her ears and unnerved her, but her SPINE fed her data. She saw Asher moving, then Nyton and Tom. Yuzuki was just below her.

"N-NO! DO NOT! Help from a distance! DO NOT CLUMP!" Mefpralphra would see them packed together and attack again in force; they already were down one member and could not afford to lose another two or three with them.

 

[Tom]

Yukari!

Tom saw the bugs chewing into Yukari's armor and gasped. He turned out of a desperate concern to save her, but Asher beat him to the punch.

Nyton's orders came in and with a silent confirmation, Tom drew his LASR. But then he heard the Shosa's mental orders.

"N-NO! DO NOT! Help from a distance! DO NOT CLUMP!"

That made his heart run cold. He heard the panic in her voice, a panic not borne of fear for others or compassion, but for herself. He had never heard that come from Yukari before.

But he could not save her. Instead of rushing to her aid, to her side, to take the pain away, he was pushed away by duty. Yukari's emotional suffering clawed at those things that made him her betrothed: not only his sense of love and compassion, but even deeper than that. This tugged at those primal chords of his masculinity, the ones that laid claim to Yukari as his mate and would kill in defense of that.

The conflicting emotions within him started to boil in a renewed anger, giving him a brief burst of energy.

As he flew back, away from the others, obeying the Shosa's orders, he attempted to fire a concentrated series of grenades which would explode in air and engulf the swarm in fiery death.

 

[Fred]

@ vs. Mefpralphra, the "Infection Queen":

Yukari, harried as she was, was too late in her order to really deter Asher from his attempt at freeing her. His flamethrower blasted plasma flame at her, and reluctantly her armor's AIES chose not to protect her with its barrier.

This allowed Asher to fulfill his goal: all the bugs on the Shosa were almost instantly burned to a crisp. But it cost her: the things had mangled through her armor enough so that a significant part of the more segmented sections of the armor plating had been pried away, and leaving bloody gouges in the exposed insert: areas poorly suited to resist the discharge of a plasma weapon.

In most such places, the hemosynthetic insert was eaten away by the flames, seared deeply, and the heat transmitted through was almost painfully hot to the nekovalkyrja within. Worse, however, was a breach over the left thigh in which a vestigial layer of stringly HS muscles easily withered under the flames, the plasma touching Yukari's very flesh.

There was a pained howl, and it was Yukari's as she reflexively retreated, cradling the burned limb protectively despite the numerous tally of other hurts she had accumulated since the beginning of the day - the plasma burn, as far as pain went, seemed to outweigh them all. In retrospect, that was probably just a fraction of the pain the NH-23 Kotori had gone through before she had been killed by Meni.

In the meantime, the fortune of the two others also did not prove all that good.

Tom's barrage of grenades immolated the spawning bugs, killing that threat in its infancy. Yukari's pain, though, totally distracted him from anything else - such as helping Nyton with the last opponent.

The not-entirely-formed humanoid monster, singed by Tom's grenades, charged Nyton and the Taii held his ground as he fired his pistols to deter it from approaching he and Yuzuki - Nyton was supposed to stay close and prevent it from phasing. Without Tom's additional plasma firepower, though, his ASPs weren't enough to stop her this time.

She tackled into him, and the new surge of pain through his ribs and knee had him flinch long enough for her to claw at his face, the swipe so powerful that it ripped off most of what was supposed to be rigid nodal material, exposing his face.

Fetid air assaulted his senses as she bore him down to the ground and shocking pain and wetness struck him as she sliced across his face with her other claw, dragging bloody lines over his upper right eyelid, his right cheek through to the right nostril, his upper lip, gums and the edge of his jaw with a sharp sound of bone grating against bone-and-teeth before belated pain exploded in his face.

His body moving on its own (or perhaps Arethusa's help), during a pained cry he unloaded even more bullets from his pistols into the monster's flanks, but it didn't stop her. Out of the blue, her neck elongated and her head darted forward, slavering jaws clamping in the flesh in-between his neck and right shoulder before the teeth sank into the nodal material - through it! - and vindictively chewed into his trapezoid muscle... and then reared her head in an attempt to wrench the piece off meat off his bones.

 

[Kokuten]

"Fuck! You okay, Yuka-boss? I uh... That looks kinda' painful." said Asher, letting himself land on the solid floor as he watched his commander writhe in pain. He hesitated for a moment, wondering whether or not he should help. The Shosa wasn't the one to request assistance when other important things were happening, as he had seen thus far. So when he took notice of Nyton's condition through his AIES, he knew he needed to stay in the fight. Apologies were for later, problem-solving was for now!

He painted the target with his AIES, transmitting lock to the rest of the squad, while hovering quickly over the bloodied chamber to reach the assailant. His Plasma Torch burst to life as he arrived over Nyton, the torches reach only a mere foot, as to make it easier for both of them to remove the overpowering beast. With that, he ripped the torched along occupied abomination's back section, tearing at what he could to remove it.

 

[Doshii Jun]

Pain was relative. For someone who never before had felt the burn of plasma, Yukari did not think about Kotori, or Nyton, or anyone else but herself.

The pain was unimaginable.

Her body stopped her from going into shock. The Neko OS knew that instinct was fatal in battle, and thus let the senses be drowned in the fiery death throes of untold number of nerves. She knew she would not die, and that did not help. Her howl turned into a scream; her armor cut off radio transmissions before that scream carried over to her teammates.

Her OS kept the tally while her mind tried to handle itself. Fifty-seven percent of her left quadriceps muscle was destroyed. Bone displayed itself, past armor that wasn't there, past hemosynthetic insert that wasn't there, past skin and tissue that wasn't there. All Yukari felt was pain.

It was good, perhaps, that all of her mind was focused on her leg, her arms feebly trying to cover the hole almost as wide as her fingers could spread. Her OS reported second-degree burns to her chest, right elbow joint area, stomach and right tibialis anterior.

The armor's AIES, locked in the helmet that suffered no damage, reported her weapons' condition was black. An image taken from the helmet showed her revolver's trigger was melted into a nonfunctional state, thanks to the plasma fire. It checked her turrets, but the bugs destroyed the one she had that was functional.

She had five grenades. Barely; the compartment's hatch mostly was chewed away.

The shield survived with superficial scarring.

The reports helped her get a sense of what was happening, along with what her OS told her were very potent Neko-made analgesics. All they did was give her a chance to breathe and stop writhing on the ground. She slammed her head into the ground, the brief action ringing her mind enough to focus on something beyond her leg, before she brought her attention to the battle.

Asher, bless him, already was helping Nyton. That was good, as she could not. Her armor picked her up from the ground, floating. She was glad she could not see herself.

"Tom," she said with a calmness her mind did not feel. She forced her OS to not broadcast her pain; what good would it do? "Be ready for her. She will be coming back. Westwood, Claymere, you too." She went back down to Yuzuki and, using her shield arm, picked her up and held her to her chest, ignoring more pain and keeping the shield in front of them both.

 

[Nyton]

The initial impact had Nyton seeing stars when the monster tore the cover from his face. The stench was horrible enough to make him want to vomit; worse than any smell he had ever encountered in any of the slums on Nepleslia. It was immediately forgotten though when he felt his face slashed through. Instinct kicked in as he continued to shoot despite being blinded by both the blood and pain.

Things immediately got worse when the monster stretched it's neck out like a snake and bit into Nyton. He let out another roar of pain as it tried to tear the muscle out. He never even noticed the telepathic message not did he have a display informing him of Asher's fiery assistance. He just knew that he had to stop this monster from ripping him apart.

Nyton brought his left arm up to defend his vulnerable face from any further attack. Meanwhile Arethusa mustered what nodal material it could to attack and pin down the monster's face to keep it from tearing away. Nodal weaponry attempted to stab into vitals such as the eyes or gaps between the armor. Nodal assault also entered from inside the mouth in order to anchor it down, stab everywhere around the jaw and into the brain. At the same time Nyton brought up his right hand to put the pistol point blank to the underside of the monster's neck. The pistol was angled so the barrel would fire towards the monster's brain and clear of himself. He fired and tried to use the impact to loosen the jaw up so he could push it off of him without losing anymore flesh to it.

 

[Tom]

Tom breathed. In and out, each breath forced to prevent him from passing out.

Yukari's injury seemed serious, but not fatal. The knowledge did little for him. She was obviously in a lot of pain, the way she clutched and jerked around. His vision was tunneling on her, all surrounding input fading into background noise.

Yukari. She was suffering.

But then he was ripped out of it by a horrible scream... coming from behind him.

The sight was horrible. The monster drew flesh and blood from Nyton, grinding into his bone before sinking its fangs into his collar. He saw the blood dripping from its claws, the jerking of its head as it fought to tear the very life from its prey.

"Tom... "Be ready for her."

Asher flew by him. He was so fast, so decisive. He needed to be strong too, for Yukari's sake. That was the only way to save her.

Taking aim with his LASR, he provided offensive support for Asher's attack on the monster.

 

[Fred]

@Yuzuki:

After a period of floating in the deeper, darker recesses of her mind, Yuzuki regained consciousness. It was as if something had flipped a reset switch, restarting her. Her eyes opened and while the awakening did not spare her from the pains of an aching neck, she had a sense of clarity, a sense of being functional and capable of fighting.

There were words to the awakening. The memory of words unspoken, unsent, nor texted. Simply data in easy recollection that greeted her on the start-up of her operating system: "I am Yuzuki. I am the part of Miharu which has reached the end of this journey. I will finish what I have started: I will protect my crew!"

New awareness brought knowledge of the current going ons: the Shosa was clutching her protectively, while Nyton was being overwhelmed by some monstrous bestial humanoid thing that seemed all sharp quills, claws and teeth.

Nyton's bad fortune seemed to quickly change as help arrived. Well placed shots of his pistols loosened the hold of the aggressor, whom reared her sliced and punctured face with a feral hiss that was interrupted when Asher burned a line in her back. The hideous thing twisted away, dodged another of Asher's attack and made to pounce on him - but Tom stopped her in her tracks by a volley of railgun projectiles.

Splatters of blood geysered over her form but even the sustained fire of the LASR didn't seem capable of stopping her for good... until Asher capitalized on his opponent's discomfiture and ran her through with his plasma torch, immolating her in the process. One slash, and another, and the Malifarian tore her apart into so many calcinated bits.

Nyton rolled over to his side, half panting, half-retching from his exertions... and then appeared their true opponent.

@ vs. Mefpralphra, the "Infection Queen":

Her body undulating like a charging dolphin, the Umbral Elder streaked out of phasing, plunging out of the walls to ram through the grouped up Asher, Nyton and Tom; all wreathed with her floating crystalline armor along with the three orbiting void-discs making a return.

Fortunately, Yukari's repeated warnings paid off and each was aware enough of the danger when it came to get out of the way of Mefpralphra's blunt front. That, unfortunately, was still not enough to spare them from her lashing tentacles.

Asher was struck square center with a spearing tentacle-claw, the blow smashing the air out of his lungs as he was knocked back several meters until feet braced against the floor had him skid to a stop. Shikamaru's center supports were worn out, but his tough breastplate had taken the brunt of the hit, saving him from being impaled through.

Tom had dodged wide to the side, minding not only dodging the attack, but also scattering from the rest of his compatriots. Still, a massive whip-like strike hurtled his way; a blow that he managed to block with his shield, but strong enough to make the parrying arm achingly numb. For a moment, he was afraid the limb had been dislocated... but luckily that wasn't the case - it just felt like it.

Nyton took the brunt of the Infection Queen's attention. Wounded and the least mobile, her tentacles bludgeoned him before he got too far and she nastily wrapped coils around his broken leg before lifting him by it and briefly flailing him around in the end (the sensation of broken bones grinding against each other was excruciating) before she wrapped her tentacles around his lower body up to his hips.

Nyton's good eye (the one that wasn't blinded by blood) glimpsed Mefpralphra's four eyes narrow to slits as other tentacle claws poised back in preparation of a strike at his head - now that she had him immobile and that his head was bare, she meant to finish him off.

 

[Doshii Jun]

Yukari's armor told her Yuzuki had regained consciousness and almost was at full battle capacity. The Neko's AIES told Yukari's armor to let her go, so she did.

Mefpralphra was attacking. Her body wanted to reject any and every command she issued. Her mind seemed to stumble over itself.

Her OS knew better than that. So did she, and her plan crystallized in her mind.

"Claymere, attack! Yuzuki, Freeman, distract the other two discs! Westwood, eliminate the armor around the bottom of her body!"

At that moment, there only was that flashing blue bauble the alien clutched in its mouth.

Her mind projected her movements inside of a microsecond. She would not wait for the three discs to be occupied; the band of time she had was too small. She would thrust herself up, twisting and spinning like as she flew like a blackened bullet over Mefpralphra to Asher's side, and when she saw his flamethrower flash with its cleansing white fire, she would follow the shot in and get under her.

From there, her armor would stop her forward movement, but not her spin. The armor would brace her feet in mid-air, a clever bit of gravity manipulation to make up for the fact her leg was of no use. She needed just one good spin before she came around, standing flat-footed above the ground in at a 45-degree angle while twisting her hips and shoulders around. Weight all against her good leg. Her shield's lower tip would be treated like a set of brass knuckles. It was the forefront of her punch, straight into the orb, seeking to smash it like so much glass. Then, slip through the thing's tentacles and to safety.

Back in her own mind, she sent a silent prayer to Chiharu, Kotori and anyone else who was listening, then took off.

 

[Kokuten]

Asher turned his head to look back at his commander, standing, giving out orders. Yukari was already under a great deal of pain, everyone was, but she was keeping it straight and doing the most stressful job in the position. To see her persevering despite something he saw as almost completely debilitating, it was... inspiring. Sure, it may have been just because she was a Neko, but even so! Asher had always taken his comfortable looking commander as a little softer than that. For once, he was glad he was wrong.

Now, considering Asher's blatant psychosis always had him 100% morale and 100% tenacity, this did nothing to maximize his morale. Because, everyone knows that it's not maximizing if you go over 100%. The Malifarian was so pumped, he believed he could breath fire just like his flamethrower! Of course, that insane thought wasn't enough for him to rip his helmet off and try, mainly because it smelt like hell in there.

With that 10% of his brainpower devoted to that thought process, Asher got to devoting 90% of his remaining power to cooking their enemies underside.

"Delicious plasma for a Miss," Asher let loose the flames pouring them over her underside as his gravimetric drive kept him lifted on the ground just slightly. "Mepumblewhopra!" That was her name. He was sure of it.