"Tail Two, confirmed activation. Release. One, two, three, one! One, two, three, two!"

Five tails are now online. Just over fifty percent of her system's full capacity. It would be a misnomer to call it fifty percent of her true power - operational capability was not the same as kill threat, and creative tools were not the same as creativity. Since the Nine Drive System's secret forms were all designed around the assumption she'd have full access to the entire system at all times (and most critically, the Ninth), so it could certainly be argued that she was not fighting Heim Stockar at full power just now. 

The Gods-Smiting Whip pivots and grabs Tail Two out of the air to hold it like an energy rifle. Turn, aim, fire, according to her internal timings. She shoots missiles out of the sky with a marksman's precision, her own small tribute to her match with Valentina de Alcard. Three missiles explode in the sky, dealing colossal damage to the terrain and raining bits of assorted matter down across the battlefield, but posing no true threat to anybody. The fourth impacts directly, and briefly obscures her frame in a flash of pyrotechnics.

It was also true that Mirror had allowed herself to become blinded by the power of her Nine Drive forms. The potential of her system was far greater than mere Ultimate Techniques, or even in hiding them. The decision to use or not use them had been crippling her. Constraining her logic and shrinking her fighting style. But Heim Stockar would have shattered the Moonlight Immemorial Vanguard, had he only been allowed to match himself against it. 

"Shield integrity... holding. I live. I breathe. I move."

Holding tail two allows for direct energy transfer between it and her embedded tail. The principles behind her adaptive energy shield function here in miniature, creating not a bubble but a directed field with enough power to blunt the force of this otherwise lethal missile strike down to a concussive blast only strong enough to drop her to her knee.

Ideal. This position is preferred for the follow up attack.

"Nine Drive System..."

Node to node energy transfer via the air itself as a conduit. Long range capacity to turn a single mecha frame with only its own crystal fire drive into a miniature fleet capable of formation combat. Adaptability over firepower, and then firepower as adaptability. In the span of perhaps a handful of seconds, the debris covering her fallen tails melts away as they blast their way clear and link up with one another.

"Partial Configuration. The Third. Form."

Mirror adjusts Tail Two inside her hands and pulls on it as if snatching a whip back from a long lash. All at once her dispersed tails obey the silent command and snap into formation as if pulled along the length of that same whip. Their energy charges in circuit, and as they draw closer the tips unfurl like flowers to discharge power in wide-dispersal mode, the technique she uses to turn her guns into her ultimate, unblockable shield. 

But she weaves them around Heim Stockar, instead. The energy barrier is not clean like his was, but bursting with sparks of plasma fire pulling tighter and tighter across his [i]Blast Wall[/i], hemming him and even burning him. [Nine-Tails] torques its hips and rolls out of the way at the last possible moment, barely avoiding being crushed by the ultimate missile through a combination of dodging and directing the aim of its intended strike. It pulls the net tighter, bubbling paint and charring plates of armor to a deep black patterned like rope scars.

"Moonlight. Nightmare. Cage."

She stands. Her fingers dance across her control panel at maximum apm, but this time not a single input is wasted. She adjusts each tail individually, moving the energy output around in unpredictable ways and undodgeable power surges throughout her shield that fry servos in shoulders, knees, a hip. Her tails zip around, seeming almost happy to have been turned into such unorthodox bindings. Holding the output steady requires so much concentration she almost forgets to keep breathing. 

Be honored, Heim Stockar. In the end, defeating your shield required the invention of an entirely new technique. You were the most excellent meal in ages.

"You are wrong about me. I have only one thing to say. The only thing I have ever tried to say. The only thing [i]worth[/i] saying: I am here. I am here, and you will witness me. That is all."

She flicks the power off. Her tails drift out of formation to float lazily about her shoulders, gleaming with the promise of a rain of directed energy fire should hostilities continue. On the monitor, Mirror flashes the slightest of smirks. She lets her eyes blink closed. Only once, and only for the briefest moment.

"...Your count of lives must be very long indeed, Heim Stockar. Given your, hm. Propensity to absorb damage, I was obligated to channel more energy than I could control into my attack. If repairs prove," she pauses and looks around as if she'll find the word she wants sitting in the cockpit with her, "Problematic, I apologize. It was your bad luck to have met me while I have Her title to keep safe."

She turns her back and starts gingerly picking her way through the smoldering, half melted craters the pair of them had left everywhere. Entirely possible she had miscalculated. Entirely possible he is mobile enough for one final strike. If so, then congratulations. There will be no finer target ever again. But she'd like to think there was a point to crossing blades with Heim Stockar for so long. If he'd hidden the depths of his honor code from her this well, he deserved to win after all.

"It was not a battle for the ages. We will not be remembered. No one was even watching."

Well. Almost.

[Defy Disaster with Wit (plus String): [b]7[/b]]