[center][h3]Peak Performance[/h3]
[b]Location:[/b] Midgar Sector 06, the City of Glass
Roland’s [@Archmage MC], Partitio’s [@Dark Cloud], Goldlewis Dickinson, Sandalphon
[b]Word Count: 6499[/b] 7 xp
[/center]

Roland remembered Sundowner, he was the head of security for Armstrong. And from what little he knew about him, he knew he wasn’t the best person. Goldlewis seemed to have heard the same rumors he had. Rumors that… could possibly be true…? Roland started putting two and two together as he and Rekka talked and got ready to fight. That C character had mentioned something strange, something that made Roland’s skin crawl. So he could only ask a simple question. But that would have to wait until after this fight was over.

Roland wasn’t new to fights like this. Even if both targets were his enemy, it would do well to side with at least one of them, the one he could easily take down. But as for now he held a defensive stance to observe these two fight at least a little bit to get an idea of who would be the bigger pain. From the looks of it, Sundowner was a defensive fighter with slow big hits, while Rekka was a grappler, both very annoying opponents…

He certainly got an eyeful, as neither of the two minced any words. Rekka started out by lifting one arm, flexing, and then throwing herself forward in a shoulder barge reminiscent of a runaway truck. She covered a lot of distance in a blink, but her highly telegraphed attack meant that Sundowner was ready. He brought his six plates together in front of him to form a single wall, like the squares of the world’s spiciest chocolate bar. Rekka slammed into him, and in addition to not budging Sundowner one inch, the man’s shield plates immediately exploded in Rekka’s face. The woman grunted as she stumbled backward, reeling and taken by surprise.

With an ugly chuckle Sundowner folded up his shields and went to work with his machetes, slashing first with the right, then the left. He then brought both blades up for a horizontal cross cut, but Rekka brought up her own metal mitts and caught the swords on her heavy gauntlets. Her muscles bulged, and with a shove she threw both off, allowing her to wind up and deliver a door-buster kick right to Sundowner’s belly. The blow actually sent him sliding back a few feet, but when Rekka wound up for another shoulder barge, her opponent’s shields slammed back into place in front of him. Rekka hesitated, her teeth gritted, but Sundowner simply brought the barrier to her with a charge of his own. In the ensuing blast both separated, quickly returned to neutral.

“Can’t lay a finger on me!” Sundowner hollered.

“Watch me!” Rekka shot back. “These hands are rated E for Everyone!”

With neither of his allies at his back, Goldlewis had been hesitant to throw himself into the thick of things from the get-go, but now that the fireworks had begun he recognized the elephant in the room straight away. Those adaptable shields, clearly capable of exploding again and again whenever struck, would be a real problem for anyone trying to step up to DespoRHado's commander in chief. Then again, Goldlewis had seen a lot of very strong gimmicks in his day. More often than not, figuring out how to get past them meant seizing victory. Sitting back and letting them take each other out might be strategically sound, but it’d leave a bad taste in the veteran’s mouth, especially when he felt obliged to show these slack-jawed yokels what a real southerner looked like. Goldlewis reckoned he could outbox either of these two if he got half a chance, but not both at once.

“Enough sittin’ around!” he told himself as much as the others. “We’re breakin’ this up. Cover me!” 

Roland had seen what he needed to see. Had he charged in blindly, he probably would’ve been a victim to Sundowner’s explosive shields. That would be annoying, far more annoying than Rekka’s fairly basic, if strong, punches and shoulder tackles. At least she seemed straightforward, with Sundowner seeming very… tricky at least with those shields.

Seeing his opportunity on Rekka’s next attack, Roland used her distraction of, well, running into Sundowner’s shield to pull out a [url=https://i.imgur.com/4bjoTb3.png]pair of daggers[/url] and with his silent movement, sneak up on Sundowner and strike at the fairly weak looking arms connecting his shields to his body before moving back to wait for another chance to strike. Sundowner could only hear a faint ‘clink’ when Roland’s daggers hit his shield arms, the fixer being silent otherwise. Even then, the big many might not have noticed over the sounds of battle–though the shield arms might be spindly, knives weren’t going to cut through solid metal. But damage was damage, and as he turned in the direction of the disturbance he swung the shield arms on that side like three simultaneous elbow smashes. They did not connect with anything, however, and though Sundowner narrowed his brow, he couldn’t spare any time for further scrutiny. Both Rekka and Goldlewis were closing in.

While watching a good old fashioned fight unfold was all well and good to Partitio it rang home the fact that there were some folk who had more than just a mean punch or a hardy constitution to back them. So when his two companions decided to jump in on the brawl it was the merchant that hesitated to join the fray, even if one of the two they were gonna fight seemed more simple than the other even he knew he was outclassed in strength and power.

With a grunt, Partitio put his back into slamming the office desk on its side "[color=DECF4C]Ya'll sure there ain't no way to settle this over a drink?[/color]" he hollered from behind cover in a futile attempt to solve things in a way he was capable of doing "[color=DECF4C]Don’t much feel like dying today friends, what the hell ya'll fightin' for anyways?[/color]" knowing better than to stay in one place, Partitio rolled out of cover just in case it would be compromised and stood with his spear in hand.

The others ignored him, as the time for talk had clearly passed. If he wasn’t going to take action, he wouldn’t be on their radar. Instead the three brawlers met in the middle. Sundowner immediately locked his shields together and stood there with a grin, waiting to get hit. Rather than trigger another blast, Rekka directed her tackle into Goldlewis instead, who blocked with his coffin. He then lifted his coffin to [url=https://i.imgur.com/fHtsgYy.png]slam it down[/url], but Rekka let loose a giant lariat that shrugged off the blow. Her fist whacked Goldlewis in the shoulder and slid off it into his jaw, knocking him sideways. Rekka couldn’t cancel the lariat just yet though, and as she continued to spin Goldlewis recovered enough to reach out, seize her head in a grab, and bean her noggin with a hefty headbutt. The two stumbled apart just as Sundowner got tired of nobody hitting his shield, and as he charged forward to try and ram them, the others both backdashed to let him hurl himself straight between them. Then Rekka advanced with a series of slow, heavy slugs. Goldlewis ate the first one before he could jump, but he blocked the second and third, then rammed his coffin into her shins and performed a gatling into [url=https://i.imgur.com/ATpBM6f.png]mule kick[/url]. Those not-insignificant hits persuaded Rekka to block low when she recovered, only for the veteran to mix her up with an overhead Behemoth Typhoon. By that time Sundowner had turned himself around, and he rushed back in for another go, splitting the two back up again.

Roland watched Sundowner trying to, frankly, haphazardly get into the fight and failing. It seemed he was far more defensive instead of offensive in nature. He didn’t know an opponent who won using only defense. Additionally it seemed everyone had caught onto his little trick, making him even less effective. And with Goldlewis slugging it out with Rekka, getting those two to fight each other again might be tricky. 

Roland had an idea. If Sundowner was just essentially a walking mine, perhaps using him like that could make things easy. As Sundowner made his way back into the fray between Goldlewis and Rekka, Roland put his daggers away and pulled out a [url=https://i.imgur.com/XZSjKoj.png]mace[/url]. He moved behind Rekka as she kept an eye on Sundowner, and tried to smack her into the charging cyborg. 

He chose an excellent time. Goldlewis had just attempted to take the initiative by jumping and airdashing over Sundowner in order to cross him up, but the big cyborg knew what he was doing. He reconfigured in time to block the cross-up and detonate Goldlewis, launching him. “I’M FUCKIN’ INVINCIBLE!” Sundowner roared. Rekka rushed in and stopped just short as he rounded on her with the same triple-elbow he tried against Roland, but he whiffed and Rekka punished him with a smack before dashing backward. Sundowner locked his shields together and rushed her, but she actually caught him with a grab, clutching and prying apart his shields to expose him. That was when Roland hit her, breaking her focus enough to let Sundowner finish his charge and blast her backward. She landed on Roland and essentially fell on top of him, crushing him beneath her brawny back. “What the!?” With a quick roll she got off him and fixed the unidentifiable man with a baffled stair. “Ain’t nobody who can get away with sucker-punchin’ Rekka!” As a Thunderbird grenade from Goldlewis hit Sundowner in the back off in the distance, Rekka reached down with a massive mitt to grab Roland by the shirt.

'[i][color=DECF4C]Dang it Partitio you're actin' like a right darn yellow bellied coward.[/color][/i]' besides his new allies (or at least one of em') were in a pickle, so it was time to knock some heads rather than hide like a darn coward. Leaping over the desk on its side the riled merchant winded his fist back glowing with a bright blue light as he boosted his attack to max "[color=DECF4C]You're bout to be taught a lesson ma'am. [/color]" fist connecting to the woman's jaw, followed by a one-two gut punch, then a wallop to the ribs before finishing with a nasty strike between Rekka’s eyes to hopefully break her nose.

Though little more than a background element until now, Partitio announced his presence with a ferocious flurry of powered-up punches. For the second time in as many minutes Rekka got blindsided by a heaping helping of blunt force, starting off with a sucker punch to the jaw just as she twisted up Roland’s shirt and hauled him off the ground. The blow both stunned and surprised her, allowing Partitio to land a couple more hefty bashes. When he tried to follow up with a punch to the face, however, his fist clanged off one of her huge metal forearms, doing far more damage to his own knuckles than it did to her. Steam practically vented from her nose as she turned a look of pure rage on the man, who would suddenly have to contend with the fact that he’d poked a tiger with a short stick. Rekka tossed Roland aside like a ragdoll and launched a massive hook punch followed by a devastating uppercut.

Roland flew through the air a bit before landing on the ground, doing a roll to reduce the damage he took from the throw. He underestimated Rekka  [color=d7d7d7]”Tch. You're faster than you look.”[/color] and counter attacked by pulling out his gun and shooting her in the back to get her off of Partitio and start charging him, now that he's got some distance. Aggravated by both enemies and able to choose between them, Rekka growled in pain but did not take her leave of Partitio for now.

The merchant wasn't scared, in fact through his gritted teeth twisted a smile "[color=DECF4C]Heh, ya got a mean punch ma'am.[/color]" Partitio chuckled weakly with his lip cracked and bleeding, Roland’s gunfire turning the angry woman off him for a moment giving him the opportunity he needed to trigger his latent power from the amount of damage those deadly fists did to him. Pointing a finger at Rekka like a gun, a fully boosted gout of flames burst beneath her feet dealing dangerous amounts of fire damage to her.

“Hah!” The burst of flame knocked Rekka back, and she slid to a stop on one knee, her clothes smoking and the tip of her hair on fire. Though she looked angry, she seemed to be smiling. “Not bad!” She blew her hair out of her face, extinguishing it in the prospect. “For a couple-a SHRIMPS!” With a grunt she leaped into the air, then extended both her legs and shot toward Partitio in a diving dropkick. On impact she left a huge dent in the floor panel, which she proceeded to grip with both hands, tear off, and hurl at Roland like a giant frisbee. Then she reached down to the exposed cables, grabbed the biggest one, and started pulling it apart. “Rekka could use some…”

[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/tPc1qW4.png[/img][/center]

[b]”JUICE!”[/b]

Three stacked rows of cables that surrounded the corners of the room on all four sides began to glow like the ropes of a wrestling ring. Electricity arced across her body as she activated her magnetic gauntlets. Suddenly, Partitio began to slide across the ground toward her, her arms held wide to welcome the merchant into her loving embrace. A battered but thankfully alive (for the time being) Partitio hadn't even gotten to his feet, having only just dove away as the lady landed nearly making a merchant sized pancake of him. He had healed to almost half of his health in that time before he began to be moved by some unseen force towards Rekka.

The merchant half smiled and grimaced "[color=DECF4C]You want a big ole hug then?[/color]" instead of waiting for her to pull him to her he leapt with the force that was sliding him towards Rekka with his spear in hand prepared to jab the woman's unguarded chest as he slid towards her.

Roland meanwhile seeing the metal plate heading towards him, decided to pull out his [url=https://i.imgur.com/TLx1eaM.png]large sword[/url] and cleaved the plate in two, before charging in to smack Rekka with the same sword. 

Over on the other side of the arena, Goldlewis and Sundowner were really going at it. The veteran managed to catch his opponent blocking high with a low kick (so low that he was practically sitting down) into low [url=https://i.imgur.com/Ye2pCtJ.png]dust[/url] to knock his foe down. He mistimed a meaty hit and ate a high sidekick into machete slash on incoming, but got out of the follow-up with a backdash and went to punish it with a Behemoth Typhoon, but Sundowner recovered faster than Goldlewis thought and put up his shields, forcing Goldlewis to waste his Tension on a backward-moving purple Roman Cancel to not detonate the shields. The Wind of Destruction happily brought his shields to Goldlewis with a forward charge, but the veteran’s block reduced the blast to chip damage, and not even a double machete overhead broke his guard.

He caught Sundowner with a quick elbow thrust into [url=https://i.imgur.com/gDfDkUC.png]forward-up-back[/url] Behemoth Typhoon, popping his heavy opponent into the air. Its floaty launch gave him enough time to pull out his minigun before Sundowner hit the ground in order to bombard the cyborg with bullets on wakeup, rolling him away from his fallen machetes. He found his footing and rose with his guard up, the electrical turbines in his arms revving up as he hid behind his explosive shields. When the gunfire ended, the shields parted and Sundowner zoomed forward to strike Goldlewis with a mighty lightning clothesline, carrying the veteran for a few feet before bowling him over. Goldlewis grunted in pain, the wind knocked from his lungs, and as he got to one knee he watched Sundowner recover his machetes. Rather than hold one in each hand, however, he attached one to his right forearm, creating what looked like a giant pair of pincers. He then looked at Goldlewis and grinned as he snapped them shut. “The fun’s just gettin’ started!” [i]Tang, tang![/i]

When Partitio aimed his weapon’s point at Rekka, the production manager just grinned. “You want some?” Pulled by her magnetism, the merchant continued to slide toward her until Rekka brought her arms forward for the grab, not to snag Partitio himself, but his spear. Her iron grip clamped down on the weapon with both hands, conducting the electricity that now charged her as she whipped around and flung him with [url=https://i.imgur.com/JejGymc.png]Wedge Catapult[/url]. “You can’t handle it!” He flew and bounced off the arena’s ‘ropes’ and sailed back toward Rekka. As her primary target soared her way Rekka spotted Roland coming in to smash her, so rather than stand there and take it, she jumped away from him and toward Partitio. She met him with the two-stage [url=https://i.imgur.com/vDlXOoi.png]Crimson Punisher[/url], first striking with an arm sweep to spike him downward and then dropping with a titanic belly flop. Then she got up and flexed her arms, essentially letting Partitio go in order to charge her next technique. Lightning sparked around her arms, and after a second she leaped straight up, then brought her fist down, electrocuting the floor of the entire arena. Both Goldlewis and Sundowner got quite the shock right in the middle of their melee as the whole area lit up for a solid two seconds, though after that Rekka doubled over, her arms needed to vent the excess heat.

Thanks to Rekka’s evasive part of her attack, Roland’s sword smashed into the ground, damaging the panels beneath. He then held his sword up to defend himself from her followup attack, the large object offering him some protection from the electric attack that zapped him as Rekka supercharged the floor. Once that attack was over, Roland smoking a bit from all that electricity, he saw his opportunity to attack Rekka and dashed at her with his daggers out, before smacking her from behind with his longsword in a quick flashy display.

Meanwhile a beaten and battered Partitio groaned, ears filled with a shrill whine like they were next to an explosion. The merchant jerkily dragged himself to his feet, and stumbled to whatever nearby cover he could find as he did his best to recover. Roland seemed to be able to keep Rekka busy, and as he quickly got his bearings back as well as his missing health the merchant took note that the big lady seemed to generate more heat than she could handle which got him to thinking…

A sly smile formed on the man's face, fixing his hat on his head Partitio then tugging at his white gloves had himself quite the good old fashioned plan. Chortling to himself, Partitio kept an eye on the two fighting while making sure he was ready to act if Rekka made her move on him or if things went south. He had quite the idea [i]burning[/i] in the back of his mind, so to speak. Another blast of heat might just do the trick, so he was ready and riled to give ole' Rekka something to sweat about.

Things wouldn’t be so simple, though. The wrestler’s arena-wide move had gotten the attention of both Goldlewis and Sundowner, and after using his Tesla Blitz to send Goldlewis flying with an unexpected Psycho Crusher, Sundowner charged into the fray. With his explosive shields extended he was just a second away from ramming into both Rekka and Roland at once.

Roland reflexively pulled out a large warhammer to attempt to block the sudden charge from Sundowner in a defensive flourish. Being one of Rolands more defensive weapons, it blocked a fair amount of damage from the exploding shields, but it wasn’t enough and that sent Roland flying back. 

As Roland did a roll to get back onto his feet, he did note that now Sundowner and Rekka were together and would be slugging it out for a little while. With some heightened emotions, Roland made his way to Goldlewis to help the old man to his feet. Hopefully the merchant would be smart enough to also retreat and let the two brutes duke it out a little bit while they regrouped and recalculated a plan. 

When Roland reached him Goldlewis was already on his feet. He might be old, but he was also tough as nails. Even if the Distortion Mask interfered with his memories of the exact details, he gave the agent an appreciative pat on the shoulder as he hoisted himself up. He then turned his attention to the fight still going. With Partitio withdrawing to an at-the-ready state and her opponent turning his focus to Sundowner, Rekka got a chance to recover, and once the DespoRHado boss dispatched Roland the two faced off. Rekka managed to bash him with a shoulder barge when his shields weren’t up. She then reeled back, winding up for a gigantic downward punch. Sundowner charged up his own electric uppercut, and in an impact powerful enough to send out a shockwave the two titans collided. The trade doubled Sundowner over, but it launched Rekka, and by the time she landed hard in front of him the man had collected himself. He brought his electrified pincer down on top of her for a painful OTG hit, and with a grunt she rolled away.

Rekka got up with her teeth gritted, looking a little less confident and a lot more frazzled. “Hmph! You ain’t gonna make me tap!” She spread her arms wide, and then extended a couple feet in either direction, glowing red. “Just try blockin’ this!” Sundowner clicked his tongue and put his shield up, evidently more than happy to try blocking it, but if he expected a giant clothesline he couldn’t have been more wrong. Rekka bulled forward and caught him in a huge grab, clamping down on the edges of his shield before pulling Sundowner off his feet by the shield. She whirled him around, then tossed him straight upward. After adjusting her hair with a grin, she leaped up after him and snatched his shield arms by their elbows. With each set locked in like a fistful of straws, she pulled Sundowner over her shoulders and began to fall. “HERE IT COMES! …HAH!” When Rekka landed, the force of her buster not only dealt a grip of damage to Sundowner, but pulled his shield arms right out. All the displays in the room lit up with bright lights, the colorful equalizers on the walls turned to maximum. Rekka shrugged Sundowner off onto the ground, casting the shield arms aside to explode around them, then used [url=https://i.imgur.com/rFiP0zK.png]Gadget Finger[/url] to lift him up again with magnetism so she could send him flying with a spectacular cowboy punch.

“Ugggh!” Sundowner tumbled along the floor, his heavy body clanging loudly. He got to one knee and spat. “Hyuck…ptooey! Enough foolin’ around!” Suddenly, a barrage of high-caliber chaingun fire tore through the wall behind him, blasted out from at least three different sources. The fusillade destroyed an entire section of wall, revealing three [url=https://i.imgur.com/uzzbqWa.png]Hammerhead VTOLs[/url]. Standing up, Sundowner grinned. “Time for y’all to DIE!”

“Holy hell!” For a minute there Goldlewis had been more or less content to watch as the two juggernauts just beat the snot out of one another, catching his breath, but the arrival of military hardware took all fun out of the equation real fast. “Come in, Halo!” he hollered into his glyph. “Come in! Sundowner just called in three choppers with Goddamn chainguns to back him up! We need whatever backup you got ASAP, over!”

“Understood, Mustang,” Sandalphon replied calmly, already cognizant of the Seekers’ location. “I have two Flight Units I’m sending to your position, ETA thirty seconds. Until then…” In a blue flash, [url=https://i.imgur.com/H0cxffd.png]Sandalphon[/url] herself warped it, standing alongside the team with her gunstaff ready for action. “We will stand together.”

Emboldened, Goldlewis gave a grim smile. “Glad to have ya, ma’am.”

As Sundowner strode forward, the Hammerheads began to circle around, unloading their chainguns through the walls and the glass to open the way for their missiles. The cacophony of war filled the air. 

[color=d7d7d7]”I knew he looked weird, but I didn’t know he was this crazy!”[/color] Roland said, pulling out his greatsword as he deflected whatever gunfire came his way. There were a few reasons why guns were rare where he came from. It was expensive to own and operate one, but also anyone with sufficient enough skill could make anything but the biggest guns a non issue. Roland used this skill of his to deflect machine gun fire from one of the helicopter chainguns with a great amount of speed and flourish. He couldn’t cover or protect anyone from the other two chainguns, including himself, so he tried to keep moving to help his comrades to cover until more backup came and out of the sight of those two.

At least their dispatcher seemed like she had some good weapons and augmentations. Roland was surprised she came to help when called for, now he just had to see how effective she was. He could at least help Goldlewis and Partitio get into a place of relative safety, if they could keep the other enemies and copters busy.

When the chainguns roared, Goldlewis clenched his jaw and blocked. Doing so reduced the shots to chip damage, but the chip damage quickly piled up, and though he wanted to find cover as much as Roland, no cover could be found. Not even a great defense would last forever, and that went for the both of them. Quickly getting a grip on the accumulation of damage, Sandalphon thrust the barrel of her gunstaff into the ground, expanding a green ring to encircle her allies. While inside the healing field, their vitality would be partially restored every second. After that, Sandalphon crouched behind Goldlewis; she possessed no protective skills of her own, and with defense like hers these circumstances posed incredible danger. One of the Hammerheads focused on Rekka to great effect, but the other two -and Sundowner- laid into the Seekers. Without his shields, the big cyborg charged at Roland with his machetes electrified.to bust down his defense and open him up.

Roland wasn’t going to have any of this lunatic. And unlike before, Sundowner wasn’t blind sighting Roland as much this time as he had to keep an eye around him to deal with the copters. So as Sundowner charged at Roand with his large electric blade, Roland used this opportunity to use his superior speed to dodge around Sundowner, putting him between Roland and the gunship that was shooting him. [color=d7d7d7]”Kids shouldn’t play with such dangerous toys.”[/color] Roland said in a cold mocking tone as he stayed in Sundowner’s blindside and tried to keep the hulking cyborg between himself and the chaingun firing copter. 

The aerial Unmanned Gear registered the possibility of friendly fire and stopped shooting. Sundowner cackled as he turned to face Roland, who immediately got lit up by the Hammerhead that had been targeting Rekka from behind. If the man looked over he could see why: Rekka lay on death’s door in a puddle of her own blood, overwhelmed by chaingun fire and left to die. Now all three choppers could focus on the Seekers. “Kids are cruel, boy!” Sundowner gleefully yelled over the cacophony. “And I’m very in touch with my inner child!” Roland attempted to counter this blow, but Sundowner’s attack broke through his counter and connected, dealing a fair amount of damage and shaking Roland’s resolve quite a bit.

Goldlewis wanted to help, but he couldn’t without getting shredded himself, and Partitio -without any way to seriously mitigate incoming damage- was burning through his latent power just to stay alive. The healing field was severely outmatched. Sandalphon remained calm, but she recognized that the situation had already become untenable–but not unsalvageable.

She stood up to her full height, steeling herself against the hail of bullets, and raised her staff. Rings of interconnected tech lines formed in a circle around her, brilliantly azure, and as they expanded four curved screens arose around her, spinning. After a brief moment the whole thing blazed with cool blue light and the screens shot outward. “Angelic Wings.” In that moment, all three of her badly wounded allies were fully restored. Though in Coordination Protocol, Sandalphon couldn’t make use of the skill’s extra effect since nobody happened to have a status ailment at the moment, but this second wind was a huge boon by itself. Not that the Archangel was done. “Angelic Praise.” She brought her staff down and struck the floor, sending out a ripple through the aetherial currents. It provided an extra burst of health as well as healing-over-time, and thanks to Coordination protocol the others also got an attack boost based on Sandalphon’s own attack.

Goldlewis breathed a sigh of relief. “You’re a real miracle worker, ma’am. I owe you big time.” Roland also thanked her for her healing. It worked faster and better than whatever K corp used, he just hoped there weren’t any bad side effects.

“Think nothing of it,” Sandalphon said. Though her face didn’t change, the symbols in her eyes briefly changed to sparkles.

“Huh!? Traitor!” Sundowner fumed, glaring at the Archangel. “Fine, heal ‘em all you like, angel. You can die as slow and painful as you want! And when ya get to the pearly gates after my choppers mulch ya into ground beef, tell ‘em Sundowner sent ya!”

Rather than keep healing, Sandalphon turned her staff over and tucked it beneath her arm to use as a gun. The symbols in her eyes changed into target reticles. “Pride comes before the fall.”

Suddenly, a huge glittering blade of golden light cut one of the choppers in half. It exploded and fell apart in pieces, revealing the Flight Unit hovering behind it just before the futuristic machine reconfigured into combat mode. Whirling around in surprise, Sundowner got a good look at 2B’s dispassionate disapproval before his face tightened in rage. “Don’t just hang there,” he yelled at the other Hammerheads. “Take ‘er down!” When one rounded on 2B, however, two streams of minigun fire ripped into its fuselage and sent it careening into the tower wall, which it messily crashed through to land in the arena as a burning wreck. 9S directed his Flight Unit closer, its weapons smoking, then turned to chase after the last Unmanned Gear as it peeled away.

The android set her Flight Unit to automatic and jumped down onto the arena, Virtuous Contract in hand as her pod floated beside her. “Unit 2B, reporting for clean-up duty.”

Not too far away from her, Rekka gave a grunt and shakily got to her feet. Goldlewis gawked, wondering how she found the strength, but quickly realized two things: that Sandalphon had healed her, and that she’d probably done it intentionally.

“Feeling rejuvenated, Rekka?” Sandalphon inquired.

“Hah…hah…” The wrestler wiped blood from the corner of her mouth. She looked around at the state of her tower, then through the massive holes in its walls and windows at the entirety of Production. As the closest and most accessible part of the Vandelay Campus, it had suffered the brunt of DespoRHado’s attack. Many of its facilities were burning or falling apart, their bad design and lack of safety measures leading to a chain reaction that threatened to bring all of Production to a standstill. “We’re finished,” she groaned. “Everythin’ I worked so hard for…” She glared at Sundowner. “I done some things I ain’t proud of to get this far, but this sumbitch makes me look like a spring chicken! Just look at what he’s done!” She narrowed her eyes at Goldlewis, Sandalphon, Roland, and Partitio. “Look, I don’t know what y’all want, but it’s yours, long as I get me some revenge!” Roland wasn’t against the idea, but he wasn’t sure if the others would be.

Sandalphon made her calculations instantly. “All we require is your surrender. If that is acceptable, we will cooperate.” She, the three Seekers, 2B, and Rekka spread out to surround the Wind of Destruction. “Sundowner. As Chief Communications Officer and the head of DespoRHado division YoRHa, I hereby relieve you of duty, and for your many crimes sentence you to death.”

“Well then,” Sundowner rumbled. Electricity flooded through his arms, and as his armor reconfigured, his limbs transformed into giant, three-pronged lightning cannons. Looking far more [url=https://i.imgur.com/mwNIv57.png]machine[/url] than man, he rose into the air. “Come and get-!”

Sandalphon immediately shot him in the head, shutting him up, and the others charged. Roland took this opportunity to dash in. Insulted at being ‘shut up’ by Sandalphon, Sundowner aimed his cannons at her, but Roland intercepted the attack, deflecting the lighting bolts with his large sword before dashing in to smack Sundowner with it. [color=d7d7d7]”I don’t think so ‘pardner’.”[/color] Roland said as he advanced on Sundowner, using his sword to land a large overhead smash on the Cyborg, before swapping to his longsword to slash him with another attack.

“Well struck,” Sandalphon commented, the glyph by her head blinking. “But I must go.” With that she disappeared in a flash.

Roland’s professionally executed string of attacks made for an effective combo, and it took only that long for 2B to approach. “Engaging.” She attacked with a quick couple slices, then let go of her pristine white blade to let it spin vertically in place like a floating sawblade. Sundowner let out a bellow as he whirled around with a giant swing, but just before his weapon made contact 2B split into four holograms sliding outward in a plus sign. She then vanished completely as a golden, spherical field expanded outward from her pod, and from the mirage a handful of phantom slashes carved through Sundowner before she reappeared above him for a falling attack. As she landed she twisted around and finished with a line of holographic spears that shot up from the ground beneath him.

With Sundowner momentarily skewered, Goldlewis jumped into the mix. He landed a shoulder charge that he proceeded to gatling into backhand, then back-down-forward Behemoth Typhoon to launch Sundowner toward Rekka, whose guard he bounced off like a wall. Goldlewis spent a bar of Tension on Burn It Down, activating the targeting laser in his glasses, then caught his opponent and extended the combo with the odd [url=https://i.imgur.com/IUUSmUx.png]backwards Behemoth Typhoon[/url] that popped Sundowner behind him. Of course, the next moment another Behemoth Typhoon smashed him down into the ground, but as Sundowner rolled away an orbital laser blasted down through the ceiling to catch him and carry him back toward Goldlewis again. At that point, the veteran just [url=https://i.imgur.com/lDycGRK.png]smacked him[/url] with his coffin.

He'd have been riddled with bullets, cut to ribbons and maybe even beaten to a pulp but with a little bit of his own grit and the divine intervention of the angel Sandalphon the merchant was hale and hardy as ever.

Partitio might have been a simple man without any astounding strength but he was a tough son of a bitch, his mind and eyes set on the task at hand "[color=DECF4C]You've really got my goat now.[/color]" the merchant folded up his coat, rolling the sleeves of his shirt to the wrist and went into a sprint towards the fighting again. "[color=DECF4C]Got some gumption I'll give you that sir but you ain't fighting the right fight.[/color]" his beating earlier had been driven by his determination but now as he stood in front of Sundowner a bright light burst around him as he aimed a finger at him"[color=DECF4C]Cause you picked the wrong one.[/color]" suddenly flames so hot they singed the floor burst from beneath Sundowner as Ember took effect boosted to the maximum effect.


The heavily-damaged cyborg ended up near Rekka. Grinning, the wrestler jumped up and sent him flying with a bombastic dropkick. Goldlewis put up his guard and Sundowner bounced off him like a wall this time, right back toward Rekka, who jumped up to meet him. With gusto she pulled off the same Crimson Punisher that she almost flattened Partitio with earlier, and when the two came down, Sundowner’s body buckled beneath hers. His self-destruct protocol went off immediately, and with a final explosion the Wind of Destruction was no more.

Or so it seemed. A moment later, the now-bodiless Sundowner spoke in a voice twisted by pain and static, seemingly from Sandalphon’s glyph and other remote communication devices in the vicinity. “Sonuva…bitch…you got me!”

“What is this?” Goldlewis demanded, weirded out. “You ain’t dead?”

“Urgh…guess it’s up…to you now…Sam…”

With that the voice faded, Sundowner was gone, and the fight was over. 2B turned and ran back to her Flight Unit without a word, evidently needed elsewhere. That left Roland, Goldlewis, Partitio, and one of the two bosses they’d come here to fight. The veteran eyed Rekka uneasily. “We square?”

“...Yeah. I won’t trouble you folks no more.” Despite her size, Rekka looked deflated as she gazed out over Production again. “Once Kale sees this, I’m outta a job. If y’all ever see me again, I’ll probably be herdin’ hogs or somethin’.”

Goldlewis stroked his whiskers, exhaling as he let the adrenaline of battle ebb away. “Not to say I know best or nothin’, but you ever thought o’ bein’ an actual wrestler, ma’am? Might suit you better than…whatever it is you’ve been up to ‘round these parts.”

Rekka blinked, then lit up. “Say…now [i]there’s[/i] an idea!” Excited, she pounded her fists together. “No more corporate ladders and production deadlines. Just me, my opponent, and the ring! Won’t be anyone’s captive, never again!” With a grin she winked at Goldlewis, then turned and took off running, waving as she went. “Thanks for the second chance, y’all!” 

She left via an elevator with a panel that read ‘emergency escape route’, the sight of which stirred Goldlewis from his ruminations on Rekka’s wink. “Guess we oughta get movin’,” he told the others. As if on queue, the whole tower creaked dangerously. “...I get the feelin’ we don’t wanna hang around.”

[color=d7d7d7]”Yeah. Best to not be around before this place collapses.”[/color] Roland said, giving a bit of a sigh as the fight was over it seemed. [color=d7d7d7]”I got a feeling that guy was even more bonkers than we knew. Which is saying a lot considering.”[/color] Roland said, looking at the spirits of Sundowner and Nikolai Dmitri Bulygin. That was something that perplexed Roland. Why did this cyborg man turn into a rainbow orb or something? Was this related to the ‘monster’ under the city?
[color=d7d7d7]”Hey pops. Is that thing safe to touch?”[/color] Roland asked, pointing at the spirits. 


“Yeah, uh, I’ll explain later.” Not wanting to accidentally fuse with either of them, Goldlewis opened his coffin slightly. “Throw ‘em in here.” Once Roland obliged, the two grabbed Partitio and followed in Rekka’s footsteps.