[h3][center][b][i][color=f6989d]Hibiki[/color] & [color=6ecff6]Shizuka[/color][/i][/b][/center][/h3]

[color=f6989d]"But of course. Maid to serve!"[/color] Hibiki said as Hohenheim responded to her. Hibiki watched from her position as Shizuka stormed off to help her Machina allies get across the bridge, wishing her luck. Of course, before she left, Shizuka left a little something behind herself. It wouldn't activate immediately and in the chaos of everything happening it'd be easy to miss, more so since now everyone was heading off. But hopefully it could make a difference. [color=f6989d]"I'm ready whenever you are, mistress."[/color]

As for Shizuka, things got intense quickly. Henry shot forward to avoid the traps laid behind Ni-Mu, while a bunch of imps ran right into them. Bonesword managed to get closer to the entrance but at the same time more imps had triggered the elevator's trap, summoning three snake-women. And then the Angel's blessing went off and various amazonian warriors arrived. And just to make matters worse it was raining and now Balrog was on his way. Shizuka didn't bother thinking too much about who was the biggest threat or had the greatest chance of succeeding; it was time to act.

First Shizuka activated her Force Shield. The light blue energy expanded out wide enough to block the entire bridge behind her; fortunately most of her team sans Hibiki was already in front of Shizuka, leaving only the forces of heaven and any straggling demons behind. Second, Shizuka made sure to outpace Balrog as best she could. None of her weapons had any hope of destroying him right now, so out running him was most important. Next, Shizuka began to hover just a bit above the ground using her wings. The storm made it somewhat hard for her to fly, yes, but it was faster and easier for her to simply glide above the bridge then to try and run across it. It was getting too slick, and her footing was getting thrown off by Balrog's massive steps. Next was to eliminate the threats before her.

While Shizuka knows that Hohenheim intends to sick her creations on everyone, Shizuka wasn't entirely concerned about them. No, it was more important that she prevents others from winning instead. While she wouldn't ignore the snake women, right now Shizuka was more concerned about Henry, who had managed to get into the thick of things. Those amazonian were also going to be an issue, so Shizuka glided up to the head of the machina pack to get in position as she spoke over the comms. [color=6ecff6]"Aim for Henry. He's still has to deal with the snake women. We can avoid them by flying underneath the bridge, but watch out for whatever Alchemist might have up her sleeve."[/color] With one arm holding her shield behind her, Shizuka braced her rifle and fired with one hand in Henry's direction. Shizuka made sure to at the front of the Machina pack, sans Bonesword, to prevent any friendly fire incidents.