[IC]TotMG:V2 - Hyperdimension: Return of the Four Felons

[StormLord]

The older girl looks a bit puzzled at the question but glances over to the fence that was behind where the party teleported in from and gestures in that direction.

"Well there's the industrial canal over there, it leads out to the ocean, but I wouldn't swim in it.  There's eight foot fences around it for a reason."
The younger one pipes up, pointing at a rubble-dented truck off to one side.
"Hey if we need to we could use that to drive her ther-"
She cuts off as her phone starts ringing in her pocket, she looks a little puzzled as she digs it out, answering it.  After a second she puts her hand over the speaker and talks to the older one.
"It's the guild calling, they're asking us to come in for a major assignment."

At the same time Mira's communicator from Histoire rings.
"Oh good you're still alive.  I was told they could hear the blasts from the basilicom.  Is everyone alright there?"

[AzyWng]

"How long does it take to get to the ocean itself by truck? I'm not sure how much longer Iowa has until the symptoms-" The contractor cut off as she noticed Mira's communicator ringing. It was rude, but it was probably the best way to get help for Iowa. "Hey, Mira! Can you ask Histoire to send Iowa to a place where the ocean is nearby? A harbor or dockyard or a beach or something? She's fallen ill and I think it's because she's spent too much time on land!" She just hoped this worked, or she'd have wasted a lot of time and resources for nothing...

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Mira

 

Though initially left without much of an answer, Mira shrugged as she took her communicator, both for the fact that their contractor was calling them and for the fact that it urged someone to answer her question, "We're fine. Brave has been eliminated" she informed, pausing for a moment before making a motion that seemed to resemble a sigh, ".... However, Iowa has lost her combat effectiveness due to being away from the sea. Would it be possible for you to send her to a harbor in order to recuperate?"

[StormLord]

(46)
Lyra rummages up [Broken Poison Sprayer x2], [Robot Plating x10], and [Illegal Chipsets x4]

She also comes across another plan:
Remake Plan - Allows the user to combine [Computer Parts], [Metal], and [Giant D-pad] with a crafting token to create:
"X-Bracelet: A bracelet modeled after one owned by the Goddess of Planeptune.

Grants 2 DR against Slashing and Piercing attacks."
Usable once only.

 

Histoire let out a little gasp at the news.
"Oh dear, that can't be good.  Stand clear and we'll bring you back to Planeptune tower, then we'll see what we can do to help your friend."

 

After a few seconds the familiar feeling of a teleportation washes over the group and they find themselves in Planeptune tower once again, this time in a much larger teleporter room than the first.  Several people are on standby to take care of Iowa, and Histoire mentions something about having them send her down to the docks.

The disinterested cat leads the party back to the conference room from before, with as few words as possible.  There are several people waiting inside it when you get there, some of them you recognize and some you don't.  The black haired girl from the Judge fight, Uni sitting with two young girls wearing sweaters, Square from the Trick fight is sitting across from them, next to two empty seats, and at the far end of the table is an older man with two soldiers in bright white armor flanking his either side.
The cat hops up on the table and gestures at the collection of empty chairs.
"We're still waiting on two more, but you're welcome to make introductions with your new team member."
He glances towards Saejik as he starts licking one paw and rubbing behind one of his ears.

[DragonRage]

"Greetings," The aging officer disguises any reactions he might have towards these new arrivals expertly, confining his response to a polite nod in their direction, hands clasped behind his back as he stands ramrod straight, "I am Captain Saejik.  Though I understand things are going to be a bit less formal around here than I've previously been accustomed to, so the use of my first name, Conrad, would also be acceptable.  The good... women and cat here have filled me in on the general details of what we'll be facing."  He looks at his bodyguards and sighs, shaking his head a bit, "Relax, boys.  We've only just met, and they're from other universes entirely.  If they already want to assassinate me, this endeavor is over before it even begins."  The bodyguards show zero inclination to relax.

[AzyWng]

On the walk back to the conference room, Lyra had to remind herself it was out of her hands now. Whatever happened to the strange ship-woman at this point, Lyra had done all she could. Or, perhaps, what little she could.

 

It reminded her of what little she'd done for the team so far. Shout. Wave a wrench about. Get subject to a chemical weapon attack that required someone else's help to recover from (which reminded her she still needed to talk to Perlita about how she'd done... what she'd done). It all made her think that perhaps she didn't belong here. Beyond the fact that she technically didn't.

 

Ugh. Couldn't think like that. She was enough of a liability without self-doubt plaguing her on top of everything else.

 

As she entered the conference room proper, she noticed the familiar faces of the people who'd helped bring down some of the other enemies, like Brave and Trick. And... was that...?

 

Surely not...

 

At least, they looked like they were from that show she'd seen, what with their armor and distinctive helmets... There were multiple universes, so maybe...

 

Shaking herself out of her surprise, Lyra gave the trio a light bow. Whoever they were, it was best to be professional. She could satisfy her curiosity another time.

 

"I'm Lyra Concept, independent contractor. It's nice to meet you, Captain." Whatever the circumstances, it was probably better to address the man formally, regardless of what he said. Would show respect for authority that way, which might help the people with guns relax a little.

[StormLord]

After a few more minutes of awkward silence pass the cat stops and looks up towards the door, after a second or two a pair of familiar figures appears walking toward the conference room.  Falcom and Falcom walk into the room and the old of the two starts speaking.
"Hey everybody, sorry we're late we took th...e...first teleport we could get."
She turns to the cat and points at him.
"How did they get here before us?"
He replies by returning to grooming.

"Whatever."
The pair sits down and the cat looks up again to speak.

"Well now that everyone is here...."  He turns and bats at the air near the middle of the table, causing several holograms to appear and blow up to cover much of the table.

"As I'm sure you know the group known as the Four Felons known to be dead for years was revived not too long ago.  Three have appeared, each corrupted and alien in some way, it is assumed these corruptions are the source of their revival."

He flicks again, shifting the hologram to a fourth figure none of you have seen yet, a woman with long magenta hair in twin-tails, some evidence of cybernetic enhancements, a pair of large metal wings floating behind her, and a halo of thorns.  She's holding a scythe and wearing something that resembles armor if only it covered her indecent areas.

"CFW Magic is the only Felon we have yet to get reports of, though we have seen a barrier appear around the Gameindusti Graveyard.  Given the group's previous tactics we can only assume CFW Magic is projecting the barrier around whatever entity revived them."

He paused again, flipping to a hologram of a large dome shaped field over a strange junkyard-like area.

"We can break the barrier as we did before, but it would be best if everyone was prepared for a fight once its down."
He takes a few steps over to a chunk tablet device.

"You can use this to requisition anything you might need or want before the fight, there is a generous credit limit on it, but don't go trying to purchase the country's entire arsenal.  Any other questions?"

[AzyWng]

Lyra still had something bothering her, and with that, she went to Perlita. She needed to talk to her - if only to learn how exactly her "Persona" was able to do what it had done. After that, Lyra could see if there was something she could do to help 6D and... whatever it was had happened to her after being swallowed by Trick, and once all that was done, she could go and hone her own skills.

 

One at a time.

 

"Hey, Perlita," Lyra said, waving at her to catch her attention. "I was wondering if you had a bit of time to talk about how you healed me during that last fight?"

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Mira

 

As expected, Mira was relatively silent as they moved through the tower, matching the cat's lack of words with her own. For a moment, Mira actually felt relief when she walked into the meeting room once more, laying eyes on a familiar sight of two ready soldiers and their commanding officer.  But of course the relief was hardly noticeable as she moved to sit down, giving the Captain a simple nod before the meeting began. Most of the rundown was going over what they already knew, from Magic's little blocked off playground, along with the other three being revived. Nothing to stir any emotion in Mira aside from anticipation to finish this.

 

"What was CFW Magic like when she was alive? There's no doubt that she's changed some of her tactics after being killed, but I'm sure there's some things she's kept around in her arsenal" Mira asked, going straight for the one question that she had for the coming fight. What Magic was like now was beyond any of them it seemed, so there was no point in her asking.

[StormLord]

The girl from the the fight with Judge, Uni, pipes up, seemingly to the cat's surprise.
"The first time we fought CFW Magic we were expecting someone skilled with spells, but she's also incredibly strong and fast.  She uhh...uses magic to pin her targets down and then hit them harder than any of the other Felons."

The cat sits, flicking his tail and satisfied with not having to answer the question.

[DragonRage]

"How much effort would you need to expend to break CFW Magic's shield?  What methods would you use?" Saejik asks, "Depending on the procedure, and the costs involved, I might have a way to make your efforts easier."

[StormLord]

The cat looks up and sits more properly at Saejik's question.
"I am not personally familiar with the details.  But I believe it's something to do with a heavy bombardment and modification to the teleporter to allow it to sneak in before the hole seals."

He bats the air again, causing a smaller holographic panel to appear where he types a few more things in before bating it away to fly over to Saejik.

"If you would like your people to converse with our people something could be arranged."

In the panel Saejik finds an autogenerated agreement for the trade of information and technology.  Most of the fields are left blank for him to fill out.

[DragonRage]

"I am unfortunately not authorized to share many technical specifications," Conrad mutters, looking over the document, "But...  Yes, I do believe we'll be able to contribute significantly to the bombardment.  And we may be able to share more commonplace technologies."

[Powder Miner]

Perlita had mostly been quiet during the meeting -- she wasn't a technological or tactical or military person or whatever, so she didn't think there was much that she could contribute aside from the already-vital task of healing. (Also, she was trying not to stare too hard at the guy with the Stormtroopers because holy shit, she'd already seen worlds of things she recognized before, but this guy being the Star Wars bad guys was something else entirely.) That meant that she really wasn't doing much but looking down at the table when Lyra came up to speak to her. An initial "Huh?" quickly faded away back to her looking down at the table, though, once Perlita registered just what Lyra had asked her. "Uhm..." Perlita sighed. "Well, uh... once we all got here, the people here handed out a bunch of items we could use while we're here, and one of them was kind of a... um, a revive-y light shard. So I used that on you to keep you alive..." It was the logical next question that Perlita was afraid of.

[AzyWng]

Lyra shook her head. Obviously Perlita was talking about what had revived Lyra from her barely-conscious state, but while Lyra was curious as to why she chose her, she couldn't get distracted by unimportant details or unwittingly guilt-trip her own colleagues. "I'm not talking about that. People make mistakes, forget things in the heat of the moment. Happens even to the best of us. I'm thinking of trying to get something to fix up 6D from that tablet the cat mentioned, but we'll get to that issue when we get to it. No, what I was thinking about was how it was you healed me earlier. Before I passed out? When Crawford healed me, I could feel some of the poison dissipate. I'd like to know how to do something like that on my own. Wouldn't need you to help me that way." And wouldn't need to waste your time, was what Lyra didn't say.

[Powder Miner]

"...oh." Perlita allowed herself to let out a sigh of relief, although she still wasn't entirely happy with herself. "Um, well, I'm not really certain that I can help you do that, unless you maybe can find some sort of source of magic on your own... and even then I guess I'd still be kind of experimenting. See, um... Crawford is something called a "Persona", which is this kind of... representation of the other side of me, I guess. The issue is that I don't really know how Personas are made... there was this whole outside thing that ended up with me having mine back in my home world. Some sort of alien force kidnapped me, and Gabriel and another person rescued me... it was, uh, accepting bonds with them and deciding to help them back that caused Crawford to awake within me. I don't really know what it was that caused her to be there in the first place. Malachi --uh, that's the leader of our group back home-- says it's something to do with a "Sea of Souls" or common consciousness or something, but the gist of it is that I don't think I can teach you any of my magic. Maybe you could get a Persona if you could somehow connect to my world or another world with them, but... I dunno how that'd get done." Perlita shrugged. "Sorry if I'm not being any help."

[AzyWng]

"Don't worry about it. I suppose it was a bit of a long shot anyway." Based on the sensations of being healed earlier, Lyra had some ideas of how to try to replicate the cleansing effects Crawford had, so perhaps she could learn on her own. "About 6D's condition... has anyone taken a look at her to assess what exactly she's suffering from? Maybe we'll be able to get it treated... preferably before this final fight, but we'll see..."

 

It occurred to Lyra that there was one last thing she was forgetting before she left to see to 6D. Slowly, she reached up to her helmet and unbuckled the straps keeping it in place. Removing it revealed messy brown hair and a fair-skinned face that was covered in scars. After a brief moment to compose herself, Lyra put on her best smile and bowed.

 

"Before I forget...

 

Thank you for helping me earlier." With how unconfident Perlita seemed, it was probably for the best Lyra thanked her rather than question her assistance.

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Mira

 

"Good. Then I should be able to handle her without a problem" Mira commented, nodding in response to Uni's explanation, and leaving it at that. A mage would be problematic to deal with, but a regular fighting, even one who employed magic, would be far more manageable, as the others were.

[Powder Miner]

Perlita shifted just a little awkwardly as Lyra removed her helmet -- wow, those were a lot of scars, it went to show just how much some of these people had seen. "Um... you're welcome." Perlita picked at the shoulders of her dress a little awkwardly, but to tell the truth it actually did feel kind of nice to get thanked for the frantic work she'd been putting in. "I'll be there if any of you need me again. Um, about 6D, though... I don't think I can do anything about that. I'm not a doctor or psychologist or anything, so... when something's there my magic doesn't fix, there's kind of not a lot that I can do. I wonder, though... maybe they have doctors or, like... magic doctors here? People who are better at diagnosing things?"

[AzyWng]

Lyra nodded, and looked for one of the natives of the world - or maybe Histoire - asking them if they knew of a doctor who could perhaps fix 6D's injury before the fight they were about to enter into.

[StormLord]

Seeing as no one else had done so one of the Falcoms decides to pick up the requisition tablet that had been left and pick out of things to help with the fight.  A few minutes later a small box of various things arrived.  After collecting what she wanted it seems she ordered a bit too much and left the extras for anyone else to take.

Spoiler

(x3) Eject Button: Banishes the user for one round on use, usable once only, doesn't require a loadout slot.

(x1) Life Shard: Revive one fallen ally to 25% HP, negates any wounds they would've received, usable once only, doesn't require a loadout slot.

(x2) TEC Booster Z: Boosts one target's Syn by 50% for two rounds, usable once only, doesn't require a loadout slot.

(x2) STR Booster Z: Boosts one target's Str by 50% for two rounds, usable once only, doesn't require a loadout slot.

(x2) DEX Booster Z: Boosts one target's Dex by 50% for two rounds, usable once only, doesn't require a loadout slot.

 

Once final preparations are made everyone is led to the teleporter room once more.  It is certainly a bit more cramped than last time, but even with everyone it isn't too bad.  A short countdown begins, followed by the sound of something large being fired, and then whoosh.

Once the party lands on the other side, what they see is a drastic change.  It resembles an old junkyard more than anything, piles of trash and junk cover every inch of the place, to the point where anything resembling soil is just the decayed remains of something left long ago.  The sky here is a dull purple-red with shimmering plates of magic overhead as a large hole is quickly repaired.  There is a river of molten....something to the left, bright green and bubbling menacingly.
There is a glow coming from closer to the center of the Graveyard, bursts of blues and pinks radiating up over the mountains of trash, though there is something of a flat-ish path that seems to lead that direction.

One of the twins shivers at the dark foreboding atmosphere, hiding behind Uni while the other is already dashing off to the side to poke at some kind of oversized lizard made of several cracked game controllers bound together with wire and techtrash.

The older Falcom looks around and stares at her reflection in a giant half-buried DVD disc for a moment.
"They say the Graveyard is the place where all lost hopes and broken dreams in Gameindustri come to rest.  It isn't exactly a safe place on a good day, so keep your guards up."

As Falcom finishes speaking you all hear the lizard screech, followed by a giggle and the sound of ice cracking.  The twin that went to mess with the lizard wanders back leaving a giant lizard-icecube behind.

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Mira

 

At first, Mira simply took in the landscape, her mind trying to make sense of the sheer... Oddness present. A land of junk and trash, items cast aside when they were no longer needed. This was where the final CFW was holing themselves up, but for what? Mira didn't get much time to think on it before Falcom began speaking, the twin yanking the Dark One from her thoughts, alongside the other twin taking the time to freeze a large cluster of trash in the form of a lizard of some sort. Regardless, Mira nodded at Falcom's comment, staring up at the blue and pink lights poking up from beyond the piles of worthless junk,

 

"If that's the case, then we should deal with the matter quickly and leave. Our target doesn't seem to be keeping a low profile here, what with the light show" Mira noted, her shroud of Magra once again enveloping her armor as she took a step forward, immediately heading down the path presented before them.

[DragonRage]

Captain Saejik takes the Life Shard!

 

"Be wary," The Captain cautions the group, as his Stormtroopers fan out a bit.  "Unknown terrain our enemies have had a great deal of time to prepare and study, plenty of cover, unstable footing, highly variable ground cover..."  He sighs, looking at his surroundings with distaste and suspicion.  "This is the perfect set-up for an ambush... or anti-personnel mines.  Spread out, so one mine can't take us all out, keep an eye on your surroundings, and if you worship any deities, pray enemy action is all that's waiting for us."

[AzyWng]

"Understood."

 

Lyra followed Mira, wrench at the ready in case an enemy showed up. Following Saejik's instructions, she made sure to watch her spacing compared to the rest of the group.

 

Glancing at the piles of junk, she wondered if she couldn't take a few things once the fight was over. Give the 'lost hopes and broken dreams' some new life.

 

Well, she'd have to see if she'd be able to keep hold of her life, and that meant being more cautious than before.

[StormLord]

The path ahead stays quiet as the group moves forward, offering up no further threats beyond its nature, giving everything an eerie quality.

After minutes of walking the group finds itself at a large and surprisingly flat clearing, somewhere the junk and scrap has been scoured down to the oldest most decayed material.  The river of ooze flows down and forms a small pond near one side of the clearing.  However its what can be seen in the middle of the clearing that's most intriguing.  A figure in dress similar to that of Uni and Nepgear when the party had first met them only...more, larger, and darker.  Two broad wings of metal stretch out behind her, long strands of neon pink hair trailing between them, and in her hand a warscythe of similar coloring.  CFW Magic.

 

Behind Magic is large mound of scrap, towering above the surrounding piles and covered in various lights and signs that flicker here and there.  Occasionally something seems to spark or the metal shifts oddly.

 

Upon catching sight of them Magic begins drifting forward towards the party, arms open, weapon to her side, but still some distance away.
"Have you come to watch the end of the world with me?"

As she moves the air between her and the mound, the reality, begins to warp and crack under the strain of...something.  As if the mood of the Graveyard hadn't put everyone on edge enough, something very wrong washed over the party sending shivers down spines and guts churning.