Scene #6032: MISSION: End of the Line (11)

Owner	Pose
Starbound Flotilla	Who has made it this far? Not terribly many. The Engine King and his Dragster Throne is blazing away at the head of the pack, having surged far ahead, but he's having a hard time keeping that lead. Just behind him, the cluster made up by Dexter's hovercraft... And Zwei may be right around there as well, if anywhere. Just behind, The Priestess and her own Dragster Throne are pulling in. Hot on her tail is Kotone, followed by a cluster of Yang, Leyanne, and Riva, each of whom might have picked up passengers. Behind them, anyone who's playing catchup at this point! Cruising nearby, probably using the tailwind of the race as a whole to easily keep pace, Gil's own futuristic flying ship provides commentary and data-gathering, as well as seating for Orchid. At this speed, the fish-eye effect of light has gone so far that it has entirely inverted; the environment is a sea of gleaming white glass, the sky is a brilliant white dotted with stark black stars that streak by, and swift jet-black sunrises. The gleaming black clouds of the normally-white plasma tailwind of the Treasure is coming over the horizon and into view. If you're going to punch your nitro and make your moves, it had better be in this next hour or two!
Leyanne	Leyanne settles herself in her seat, just in time to hit... she's not entirely sure what it is she actually hits, other than there's a hologram of a green cross. It feels grody as hell but by the time she's stopped glowing, the injuries she picked up battling Pavo have healed up, mostly - leaving just bruising and bare skin in their wake as evidence. "Groovy..." she mutters to herself, before hunkering down behind the handlebars and opening the taps yet further. She slots in on the Priestess' Dragster Throne, catching sight of that tailwind. As she hits a speed-boost powerup, she lets out a wild whoop of joy. The Treasure. It speaks to her. Regardless of what she may have told the Saint, she /does/ feel the pull of its call, to race forever, going ever faster simply for the joy of trying to headbutt the horizon. She wants to feel that plasma-wash up close, and before anyone else does. It's in her blood now. It's not even about finishing first. Or even finishing at all. It's just about chasing the Rush. Must. Go. FASTER.
Dexter Arkwright	There's a vehicle practically stalking the Dragster Throne. It hasn't made a big deal of attacking people - it's been waiting to see how the fight goes, how people weaken themselves. But the repair powerups are making that more difficult...so it's time to act. The Allegheny Speedster, as it would have been reported to be called via a rather large ad campaign during the race, is a 1920s-style convertible hovercar, four-seater, with a large laser turret on the side. A series of massive thrusters are on the back, letting it boost across the Line at high speeds. Dexter Arkwright is not driving the Allegheny Speedster. He has people to do that for him. No, he's manning the turret, inside his special Venture Suit, while the best racer in the area he could afford with his personal money (which is a lot) is behind the wheel, putting the pedal to the metal. As Dexter's vehicle approaches the Dragster Throne, a special speaker system built into the vehicle fires up, moving to shout at the Engine King. There's a laugh and a grin behind the helmet. "Hey, King! You're going to want to surrender soon, when you see how great my Allegheny Speedster is!" The toy model is in stores now. Anyways, when Dexter gets a chance, he's going to begin firing that laser turret at the Engine King's vehicle, attempting to damage the Dragster Throne.
Corona Arclite	Corona never entered the race to try and win. She entered for the Challenge, and to make sure her allies got the oppritunity needed to push on with their more advanced goals. With the Saint of Fire and his racing tank out of the fight, she would of been content to just sit back with a cold one and watch the rest of a race that NASCAR has nothing one. But, as life tends to be, things conspire against that notion. The first is the realization that while they've been pushing their way through the Empress' supporters, some of them were doing the same and getting closer to the Engine King, meaning another obstacle to her friends. The other being some comm chatter from the Fuel Ark about 'Repair Pods' to deal with mechanical damages... Corona sits up, setting the flask aside and pulling her hyperglass goggles back on. The Foxtrotter wasn't a total wreck, but it was in tough shape. It would take more than one 'hit' to be back to optimal strength, and those pods could do much more for the others with greater vested interests. But with one or maybe two... Corona shook her head. "This has gotta be the craziest, stupidest thing Ah've come up with... Been hanging 'round Tiny too much." She snickered sprang from the seat she'd made, pulling open a hatch at her feet and reach in to yank out Hopalong. She set the mecha-jackalope on the seat, pushed back his head and yanked open his mouth in a specific way she as the constructor knew that wouldn't activate his chippers. Then grabbed the flask with her other hand and dumped the rest of the contents down his mechanical gullet. There's a few plumes of smoke as the highly combustable alcohol reaches the depths, and Corona jerks back as a gout of flame followers from the magitech furnace reigniting, and a whistling blast as steam briefly wails out his ears. "Atta boy, stoke it back up. Gonna need it." Corona pokes her head back out, checking on the Fuel Arcs. Then reachs over to grab the one chunk of the ride armor that does need to be repaired -- the engines and thrusters. Handily, the wings are attatched to that as well. She tosses that out in front, then grabs Hopalong and jumps out as well. With him under one arm she grabs onto part of the working mecha arms with the other to disengage it, then sprints up to roll over and slap her back against the assembly to lock it onto the restraint harness she was already wearing, rolled back onto her feet and sprinted for the edge of the Fire Linerunner. 3.. 2.. 1... Corona lept off the edge just as the Repair Pod is launched towards her, intercepting the arc so it hits the contraption she's improvised. As soon as the machinery is patched up by whatever means the technology works by it roars to life, reigniting the green-blue plumes from the thrusters and sending her hurtling back into the mix. "YEEEEEEHAAAAAAH!"
Orchid	So many are still racing, still driving themselves forward towards the goal. Orchid is not among them. Instead, she has decided that it would be both rude and missed opportunity to not avail herself of the spread of food on Gilgamesh's flying throne. She took a sample of everything, and enjoyed the experience greatly. But, back to the race and the banter. "Racing for the prize, racing for the thrill, racing for honor. Even with the Saints of Fire and Glass having dropped out, it looks like this could be anyone's race; but of course, the race isn't only won by winning the battle, but getting to the Treasure at the End of the Line. Will one slip past the others as they get distracted? Keep watching to find out."
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa is still riding high on her own booster trying to catch up she may have lost herself a little bit in the race. This is the fastest she's ever gone in her life really and it's not going to slow down any time soon. Why do people push themselves and speed? Once there was a story it was thought that a mere 35 MPH would be too much for the human body to take and before the end of that Century? The Sound Barrier had been broken over mankind's knee and they just keep seeking to go faster? Pushing the limit seems to be what humans do best. This is one such instance as Kotone who is more physically machine than flesh is pushing herself to speed she's not thought were possible. She keeps her senses on the path ahead as things are far from over right now and she's going to milk the booster she used for all she can get out of it. BGM The Race - Captain Jack DDR Remix https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUuMECDQprM
Yang Xiao Long	Yang is still pushing her bike. She jinks into the particle drops, using the energy boosts to keep her thrusters firing to catch up with the big group. "Faster... c'mon baby, just a little bit more." she says, eyes locked forward onto the approaching group. "ENGINE KIIIING! I'M COMING FOR YOU! I CAN'T LET YOU DESTROY THE TREASURE." she bellows, a battlecry following as she pushes her craft to the bleeding edge, jinking between slipstreams to get more speed. Each one she passes gets a salute, and she guns the turbo to close with the Engine King's Throne. "PLAYTIME IS OVER YOUR HIGHNESS!"
Riva Banari	Riva's still in it! After a massive battle with the Saint of Carbon, Riva continues to race for the Engine King. The golden Vespid motorbike resumes roaring down the Halfpipe, working to catch up as much as she can. She needs to get to the Treasure... But she also needs to keek the King unmolested. With a grimace, Riva hears Yang's declaration, and she sighs. There's no arguing with her when she's all pumped up like that. This is why Riva doesn't waste time at all in sweeping over and coming in hard and fast to sideswipe Yang, trying to clash her into the danger zone that can drop someone back into Fourth Gear... And basically out of the race! She just has one thing to say.
Yang Xiao Long	Yang is gunning fast, giving her all to catching the Engine King... and then her Aura danger sense triggers. With a desperate burst of her hover engine, she jumps over the incoming Riva, losing speed from the airtime, but not getting knocked out of the pipe. Not yet. "I'll just have to take the King out after I finish you off then! NO MATTER!" she snarls at the Templar, gunning her rig forward again and jinking in close enough she can lash out with a punch, discharging a special Megadiamond shrapnel to sap Riva's speed from her vehicle.
Zwei	It wouldn't be hard to forget that Zwei has finished their inscrutable business and moved on from here. They've done it before, in various circumstances, and they were never even close to clear who they were working for or what their ideological stake in this was. They hadn't shown up at the negotiation, bartered for parts, or spent any time in a garage, tuning up a vehicle. There are in fact probably a lot of people who would really like it if Zwei has finished up and gone away somewhere far, far away. Too bad. Their presence on the track is announced only subtly at first, as a whirring, rising, pitch-shifting roar of fire from behind, building like the spin-up cycle of an electrical generator to higher and higher tones, backed by the steady rumble of exhaust-pounded earth and air. A few seconds after it becomes noticeable to those with sharp ears, over the constant utter bedlam of the race itself, it all but announces itself with a very different, and much more literal roar, simultaneously bestial and electric; savage and thrumming; like the howl of a jaguar and a falcon that revs like an engine and echoes like a busted amp. They don't have a vehicle because they are riding the Velocity Beast. Far faster, far nastier, far more responsive, and far more dedicated to hitting the finish line than any assemblage of engine parts, is a living thing that is all the parts of the Line -almost an avatar of it- steeped in its energies, warped by legend of speed, and mad with the wild, throbbing instinct the reach the end first. Zwei had skipped putting anything on boosters or wheels and made the unusual move of covering an operation with a monster of the week for a single reason: they've ascertained that the fastest thing in the Line is the Line itself. It has also evolved even more since last time. It's a good twenty or thirty meters long by now, big enough that Weiss can saddle in place near the base of the 'neck' and Asche can stand locked to its back, where aerodynamic spines that crackle with Erchius lightning and Line plasma provide windbrakes and cover. Its massive wings, all spikes of flaming white rocket exhaust rather than feathers or membrane, are six in number and spread equidistant around its body, and recessed verniers stud down its spine, chest, and tail. Its head is something like the top half of a fighter pilot's mirrored helmet and the bottom half of a vicious deep sea carnivore, with long teeth that crackle like its spines, and 'gills' like gas brakes along its neck, expelling the particles it sucks in, as it literally breathes the insane ambient waste energy of the Treasure as fuel and burns it inside its glowing, purple 'heart', visible through the exterior of its glassy shell. It seems to be skipping the fuel pods completely, as well as any need for repair, meaning it catches up at a prodigious rate, and has the potential to just keep going ahead even further. <<"Oh hey! A bunch of you are still alive! Would you terribly mind crashing in a ditch by the side of the road somewhere? It'd make my life a lot easier.">> \|\|"Your own, longer."\|\|
Orchid	"So let's recap who is still in the race, and who is on which side; alliances seem to be shifting around. Makes me glad this isn't also a factional dispute. But in any case, the Engine King is still in it to win it, representing the 'destroy' side of the argument. On that side is Riva Banari, who it seems is taking on Yang Xio Long, who has in turn stated her intent to hand the Prize over to the Priestess before it goes into the Gate of Babylon, our sponsor's treasure trove which defines the term 'legendary wealth.' We've got Dexter Arkwright, who had been hanging back but has decided to more forcefully market his branded toys with a win, so has pulled into the main pack, making a move against the Engine King. Corona Arclite is still in it, and has reconfigured her ride armor into more of a jet sled, as she races for the challenge. Leyanne seems to have gone fully into race madness, needing to win just so she can touch the treasure. Kotone is still out there, still looking good, as she keeps up with the pack. Last I heard she was on the Engine King's side. And just what is this? Zwei and their Velocity Beast have returned to the race, approaching the race from the rear. Oh, that is a WILD looking monster, I wonder..." Orchid trails off with a bit of a chuckle. "I wonder how long it will live once the Line is gone? Because, one way or another, people intend to win this, and when the Treasure is gone, so is the Line."
Gilgamesh	The food is there to be enjoyed. Gilgamesh is surprisingly generous when it comes to guests; ancient laws of hospitality apparently obey even when it involves a magical flying machine rather than a house. Orchid is allowed to eat whatever she wants, and it's /stupid/ tasty. The turbobeast appears. Gilgamesh spins something in his fingers thoughtfully - it's probably a quill or something. Should he disqualify it? It's against the Rules, and he does so love the Rules. He is the Rules. Breaking the Rules is defying the King. But on the other hand, it's entertaining. "Well, then," the King says aloud to Orchid, sitting on his lap, "In the name of a more exciting race, I will allow this dramatic twist." "Ah, but you haven't received your budget," Gilgamesh says aloud over the microphone. The Vimana shoots over, above the Turbobeast, hanging there above its head as images of the race fire all around it. Gilgamesh is thinking about something. "Coin will do you no good here, it's far too late." The King waves his hand, and a ripple of gold appears above the Turbobeast. The ripple just sort of.../deposits/ a bunch of ancient weapons onto the Turbobeast. They'll come back to Gil when it's done. "There. I have provided you with your budget's worth. Make good use of it."
Leyanne	Leyanne hunkers down behind her handlebars, starting to weave her rocket-assisted, jet-propelled hoverbike through the pack, riding their superluminal slipstream as she gives herself over, temporarily (she hopes) but entirely to the call to go ever faster, to race for the sheer thrill of competition. There's a bit of radio banter, but really that's just . And then Zwei's velocity beast shows up, causing her to swerve wildly to avoid some shards of hyperglass. The mouse growls. "Those dickheads? Man they're worse than Gilgamesh, at least he's a /consistent/ twat." She mutters to herself. "Skrat, bring the hyperguns online, find me its bollocks and lock on." A crosshair appears on her visor, tracking across the velocity beast. If those precious love-spuds are located, the crosshairs fix upon them - if not, they just pick a random weak-looking spot to settle upon. When she gets tone, the Martian mouse jams her thumb down on the button. A salvo of hypervelocity shells, made of pre-stressed hyperglass with a core of raw Line plasma - the biggest part of Gilgamesh' budget, by far - spit from the bike's two cannons, raking across the Velocity beast's hindquarters.
Starbound Flotilla	The laser lances along the body of the vehicle, lashing through its metal, brutalizing its paint job. The Engine King's face turns to a snarl. His prominent pompadour twitches with a cocking motion of his head. He flicks a cigarette into the wind, where it promptly dissolves into a small puff of plasma. "Alright high roller. You want to put this rocket to the road, you're about to see what ditch that puts you in. Hope you've got enough bread for the king of hospital I'll put you in." The Engine King clenches his teeth and shoves his foot into the pedal, pressing forward right through the laser and trying to maneuver hard ahead of Dexter, exposing him to a gush of plasma exhaust at his back to burn him sorely, and then lancing forward, trying to outrun him even more while blocking him from grabbing any of that valuable exotic fuelstuff being dispensed onto the field, so that the King keeps the turbo to himself!
Riva Banari	There is a blast of shrapnel, and suddenly Riva is missing panels off her bike again. "Man, I really need to stop letting this thing get torn up. It looks so cool!" She grouses as the impact drops her back a couple feet. She's about to retaliate when... That massive Velocity Beast hammers down into the area. Maybe it looks kind of like the last one, but EVEN MORE SO. It's massive, deadly, and powerful, and threatens to completely throw off the Engine King's side of things. "Wow." She says, staring. "That thing looks like trouble." She shakes her head, then, and looks back to Yang, getting up close and personal as she slide over and begins clashing against her own vehicle again. This time, she's bringing out the Cross, sweeping it over to hammer it right down on Yang herself! "Nothing personal!" She yells before it comes down. "Let's have some fun with this, all right?!"
Corona Arclite	As she speeds towards catching up, Corona is still at a bit of a loss what to do. She's mostly here for the Race, and to watch out for her friends as the paranoia she keeps to herself is worried about the effects the Line and the Treasure might have on them. Especially when Leyanne wants to touch it directly. But then that changes with two words -- "Junk Heaps" Even at insane speeds Corona grits her teeth, and for a moment the seething can almost be heard in the air whipping past her. But then it fades, leaving only the calm but passionate fury of an Engineer scorned. And rocketing towards the monstrousity that's been added towards the race. As Hopalong climbs up on top of the rocket-sled Corona grips the mecha arm in both hands, pulling on something inside of it to activate the gun hidden inside of it. "Maybe YOU should be gettin' outta OUR path!" she yells, and then opens fire with a peppering salvo of really fast (they have to be at this speed) but otherwise simply energy bursts.
Yang Xiao Long	Yang sees the Beast come in.. but then breaks off from that, turning back to Riva as she speaks. "You made this personal as soon as you came barreling over here." she says back, bringing her arm up to grab the Cross, the impact forcing her hoverbike a bit closer to the Line itself. Her Aura flares as she absorbs the impact, her open palm shining gold as the defensive barrier coalesces right there. "Do us both a favour and back off, Riva. My honour as a Huntress demands I see this through... and I won't be going easy on you, or anyone else who gets in the way." she says, shoving the Cross away, then aiming her arm at the Templar. Four barrels extend out from over her knuckles, and with a yell, four projectiles shoot out, airbursting around Riva's vehicle in shrapnel clouds of more Megadiamond.
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone does not complain about Gil letting someone else into the race, hey? He did keep it from being a slaughter. That is true he funded it if he flexes thing to get more entertainment out of it? She understands that much he did it at least in part to be entertained. Zwei was in the mix and who knew what could happen now. Leyanne aggros hard on her. In the end, either way, the prize is going to end up in Gil's Vault, right? She wants Leyanne to be alive. She also had her work called Junk Heaps that actually hurts. She also concerned for Leyanne ending up dead, also knows all really fair in this race when it comes to fighting she keeps at her high speed does a barrel roll. Then open fire on Zwei's beast with her front-mounted lasers. It's just a start but what is she doing she has a few other little things ready to go, thanks to the big-budget Gil gave her and every other racer. <<Well this just got interesting.>>
Dexter Arkwright	The Engine King responds to the laser blast with a burst of plasma exhaust, which burns into the Allegheny Speedster (the driver ducking his head down quickly to avoid getting burned, while Dexter just tanks it with his suit). The black paint is burnt off, and Dexter's burnt up, but he's keeping on that turret, which due to the budget he spent on it with the jewels, is pretty damn durable. "I'm the richest man I know, maybe besides that King of Heroes! I'm just hearing compliments from you. Tell me, you willing to risk your life over this race? Because I can't ensure you survive whatever twists and turns this road takes!" It's a little bit of a threat, as the Speedster's boosters suddenly flare up... And the vehicle moves to sideswipe the Roadster, trying to keep side by side and share those nitro boosters instead of getting left in the dirt. As usual, if Dexter gets a chance, he fires another lance of lasers, though this time he turns it up to 'full auto' and begins trying to melt through the Dragster Throne. "Show me what you're made of, you pompous dork with the pompadour!" So far it's not full of hate. Dexter is too confident in himself to actually slam at the Engine King, because the Engine King hasn't slammed at him and he's pretty sure will lose. This might change.
Starbound Flotilla	The Engine King suffers a /brutal/ lash straight through, cleaving through several exhaust systems and leaving a fuel line exposed. The man himself has to swiftly reboot systems and redirect flow, twisting valves and flicking switches, but he keeps his speed and his acceleration as redundant systems kick in. "What I'm made of? Cube, you wouldn't survive what I'm made of. You wanna know the heart? First you better know the /blood/." With one hand in a white-knuckle grip on the wheel, he pulls out something else from a pocket. A large switchblade; he carves it along one side of his hand, and then feeds the gleaming, dangerous fluid directly into a fuel line injector on his dash. As he flicks a few switches, the blood goes right into his fuel line. The plasma ejecting from his many exhaust pipes turns a crimson red. What he does next is hardly a direct attack on Dexter, but it's a direct challenge in a way. A massive /shockwave/ of fire gushes out, more an incidental thing than anything else, and the man surges forward. Dexter will have to strain his own machine if he wants to match that burst of acceleration and keep in combat range -- or even in racing range! "You're asking if I'm willing to risk my life, daddy-o? This /is/ my life. The point of it's to put it on the line. The purpose is to use it to give my boys a chance to get it made in the shade. I live for their lives. Dying isn't any different." He presses that bleeding hand back to the wheel, letting blood drip down it. His crimson hot-rod is rattling and fire licks between the gaps in the metal. "A hub cap like you lives for the long green and nothing else. The problem with you is there's no profit in dying, there's nothing you can grab up and call yours in a shallow grave on the big stretch. So you'll never put anything on the line -- nothing /real/. You want to take the road? You want to race for pinks? You bring your machine and you put everything on the line. You're grabbing things up, all that megadiamond, all that hyperglass, all that fuel -- that /Treasure/ -- but you're not putting it down. You're not betting it. You're at the table but you're folding and folding." "You're never gonna get that Treasure, Arkwright! It's 'cause you won't ante up! You /want/ but you're not /giving/! And the Saint of Glass was right -- that means you're not gonna be worthy, not if you want your hands on it but you can't /ante up/!" The Engine King certainly at least demonstrates his words; his own machine is straining to keep this pace of acceleration, and even if Dexter did nothing but /accelerate/ he'd still push the machine further past its limits!
Riva Banari	The shrapnel blasts around the Vespid, tearing more holes into the armor and sending sparks scattering all over. "Gggh..." Riva says as she falls back... But not much. "What makes your honor any less than mine? You know why I'm here, why I'm fighting on behalf of the King. My choices are just as valid as yours. If that's how you're going to be... then we're doing this. You think you're some kind of /unstoppable force/, huh?" Riva suddenly breaks away. "Let's play this out one more time, then. Here we are, the story of the entire damn Line in microcosm! I didn't come this far to just let you barrel right through and trample over who I am!" With a sudden burst, Riva firs her Anima Boosters, golden trails ripping through the air as she flips up one side of the Halfpipe and tries to repeat the action she did to the Saint of Carbon, simply trying to come crashing down with full force on top of Yang! Will she be able to predict it?
Zwei	Zwei had expected to run into Gilgamesh here. They had also expected that appealing to his sense of excitement would get them through it without issue. They consider the Preserver of Life and the prideful and excessively well-armed lord of Uruk aboard it to be the biggest potential obstacle, and had planned accordingly in the most logical sense: not trading a single shot. Seeing him pleased by the dramatic show and promise of theatrics, Asche catches a truckload of ancient Babylonion laser guns in his massive arms, and Weiss winks and throws off a two-fingered salute. <<"Only the best for the king~">> \|\|That is convenient.\|\| <<Yep.>> \|\|Transferring additional weapons energy allocation into maneuvering.\|\| It isn't long until Zwei has multiple easily offended women on their tail. Well within planned parameters, they stay the course. While Asche and Weiss aboard the Velocity Beast sort out the guns, wedging them into spines to form walls of turret emplacements, Kotone and Corona open up with barrages of lasers and energy bolts. As could probably be expected from something made out of the substance that forms when the Treasure annihilates it with its energy discharge, the hyperglass shell is highly resilient to the energy weapons fire, and the smatterings of clean hits they get don't cause much damage. When Leyanne swoops in for a shot at some critical-looking points (no it doesn't have balls, it's an artificial monster built out of mecha kit parts and nano colonies) all the vernier studs on the Beast's right side flare at once, and it jerks unnaturally to the left, sliding horizontally as if yanked by a string across ice. The expensive slugs go flying through the exhaust plume, wasted on predominantly empty air, or else glancing on the Beast's carapace at a shallow angle. <<"You know I heard that.">> calls out Weiss as the Velocity Beast slides smoothly into a near-broadside position at nine o'clock with only coordinated flutters of dozens of rockets. <<"And I'm not so much offended as perplexed. You're bitching up a storm about the guy who dumped huge piles of free money and rare materials into your lap so you could win a super race? Are you a communist or something?">> It's a bit of a bizarre thing to suddenly say out of nowhere, and the dot on the unexpected question mark is an instantaneous barrage of half the gilded guns handed out by said Gilgamesh, suddenly blasting away from the Beast's back in a laser rave of a salvo, all coordinated at once by Asche's tactical AI. Weiss turns and leans back, producing a pair of transhumanist tech automatic railguns, and opens up on both Kotone and Corona independently, one hand and one gun to one lady. It doesn't matter if they're only railgun slugs if they're going /back down/ the track into their faces.
Yang Xiao Long	Yang watches the other bike pulling away, her eyes tracking the incoming arc. She sets the auto-drive to maintain speed, then lifts both arms up to take the incoming impact. Her Aura flares. "THEN LET OUR IDEALS CLASH AND THE WINNER RISE FROM THE ASHES!" she roars, taking the strike as she stands in her seat. Hands meet the hull of the Vespid, and the weight and momentum cause Bumblebee to dip dangerously close to the Line, sparks flying as the outer hull shreds away. Images flash before Yang's eyes. The sight of the Saint of Flame falling behind. Her friends, smiling, looking angry, crying and defiant. "You've seen my Semblance... you've seen me at my most angry... now... YOU SHALL SEE MY DETERMINATION AND FACE ALL OF MY CONVICTION!" Yang's eyes flicker, from lilac, to red... to a teal blue as her hair billows out, sparkling with blue electric and letting motes of aura spall off of it, trailing a sparkling wake that mixes with the plasma from her thrusters and the Treasure itself. Yang pushes the Vespid back, screaming a wordless roar of defiance then firing eight bursts of kinetic force from her gauntlets, aiming to just launch the bike and its rider clean out of Fifth Gear.
Leyanne	Leyanne snarls as the rockets slam into her bike, knocking armour loose, peppering her with shrapnel, and knocking her off her line. She swerves back under control. "He's a toss-pot!" She shouts back to Weiss. "Stick up-his-arse, thinks - literally - that he rules everything he sees." And that's about as rational an argument as the mouse can provide right now, with that voice in her mind - her own voice - screaming at her to push ever faster, to empty her soul to everything but the urge to go ever faster. She's mostly managing to keep it under control, she's certainly pushing herself harder. Which is why she hits one of the boost-ramps nearly sideways, kicking her into a vicious, barely-controlled powerslide, her rockets flaring irregularly to keep the bike somewhat on the right course. A course that leads her under the Velocity Beast's midsection. Then she pulls out a sword - Pavo's - and stabs upwards as deep as she can, with the full force of her left arm, attempting to either let it pull her along, or rip its belly open, whichever happens first. Of course, being splashed by Velocity Beast blood may not be the best thing for her mental state right now...
Corona Arclite	The lack of effectiveness of the laser based weaponry... Was honestly kind of what Corona expected. But you gotta try everything to be sure, or the assumptions of missed oppritunities will eat you up inside. She shrugs a little, and pulls the internal mechanism to withdraw the blaster and clamp the hand back into a fist. "How's the fire, Hoppy?" The mecha-jackalope click-clacks something in response from atop the jetsled-glider. "Alright then. Keep working on it." As the railguns come up and open fire Corona thrusts hard, turning the booster sled at an angle to pass between the shots. It's not a clean dodge as a shot skims a wing and sends bits of metal scattering behind them, but Corona pushes on. "Ya gonna have to do better than that! Let's go get 'em!" She pulls up and angles the veneirs to spin around a few times like a top, building up some gyroscopic momentum along with the insane speeds they're travelling at. Around and around and around.... "Ya can just--" Then lets go, sending the mecha arm she was carrying hurtling towards the Velocity Beast like a rediculous hammer throw. "--TALK TO T'HAND!"
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone knows she's over her head, there's no resentment for Zwei getting help from Gil. Still, she's more worried about Leyanne getting killed on this whole mess than anything else. so she fights she's going fast, but everyone else is going as fast or even faster at this point with Zwei whom she knows is one very dangerous combatant. It's at least not too personal. The array of weapons that comes her way is most impressive. As Weiss brings up a serious point with Leyanne, though Kotone does not think it's about the money. The Railgun locks on to her, keeping up with her manoeuvres and pegs her body with several shots leaving deep dents, she's lucky she didn't have a lapse of sanity and put pain receptors into the craft itself. Still, she was able to afford lighter and stronger materials for the bike. Which keeps the damage from being even worse, the fight has only just begun and Zwei knows their stuff. She attempts to lock on with the micro missiles she built into her ride. The housing for the launchers opens up and fires off a half dozen of them at the beast. While she opens a comm to Corona. <<Let's focus on keeping Leyanne from ending up road kill>> This has pulled her out of the main race from the looks of things, still there are people who are in it and this is the nature of the Race is it not? Chasing after something important.
Dexter Arkwright	Blood plasma. That's...pretty scary, and while the shockwave isn't super damaging and only further burns the paint, the Dragster Throne gets far ahead of the Allegheny Speedster. As the Engine King tells him he's not really ante-ing up, that he's not /worthy/, Dexter growls a little. "Who are you to say I'm not worthy? Because I'm not willing to sacrifice my life? I'm sacrificing time, effort, money!" Dexter shouts at his driver, telling him to 'hurry the hell up'. "I could be off adventuring, but I'm fighting for this treasure! It's got more potential than you ever will! Don't say I'm not worthy again, you /piece of shit/!" As the Speedster strains, it suddenly moves to pull back to the side of the Dragster Throne, and heavily just /slam/ into the side of it, trying to veer it off-course from powerups, so that Dexter can take those powerups instead. It seems the Engine King pushed a button...but not one hard enough to really set Dexter off-course. "Tell me, king! If you die here, will it be worth it? Will it be worth it for your people to lose you? Or are you just selfish, caring only about your pride and ego?!"
Riva Banari	Yang acts. Her Semblance blasts out, revealing her true power as Riva is forced back from that intense power, that Unstoppable force. Using that energy she sent the Saint of Fire crashing down, driving him from the field. Riva has no such power. Riva has no super mode, no overwhelming power of destruction to call upon. She doesn't match Yang's screaming as her hands go up. Riva doesn't wait for the blasts. She stands, kicking the Vespid to one side, sending it vanishing into a ripple of space which leaves her hanging impossibly over Yang for a split second... Then the blasts come. Riva is sent screeching higher and higher as she is brutally airjuggled by Yang's ridiculous energy. Her body jerks over and over as the crashes create bone-crunching impact noises while she is flung like a ragdoll... But she endures. Perhaps Yang is Unstoppable. But maybe Riva is Immovable. She, too, defeated a Saint, after all, through her grit and determination. Gleaming, Riva arcs through the negative space of Fifth Gear, twisting and tumbling, and her eyes open. With a sweep of her hand, she reaches into space and pulls the Vespid back out of her Agarthan storage cache, tumbling as the motorbike twists and drives back downwards, crashing in front of the Bumblebee... headfirst. Suddenly there is an intense impact, the two machines screeching and screaming as Riva leaps to her feet, bleeding from her wounds, and produces the Cross and shotgun as she dispenses with vehicular attack. "Not done yet." She says simply as she sweeps the Cross horizontally, trying to catch Yang in it and pull her forward to unload point-blank into the Huntress!
Zwei	The Velocity Beast suddenly accelerates with a massive flare of its sextuple wings. Despite its tremendous size, with most of its weight being thrusters, without even fuel mass dragging it down, it is /obnoxiously/ hard to hit. It spins, rolls, and banks through Kotone's missile clusters clipped by a couple to the side, opening glassy potholes that writhe with nanomechanical tendrils. Corona's mecha arm misses its head by a hairsbreadth as it suddenly drops altitude, taking the tip and first three rockets off its upper right wing, unsteadying it far enough to fall back into Leyanne's sword range just an instant after it'd dodged her completely. Pavo's blade finds purchase in a weaker section of its Carapace, and Leyanne is abruptly sprayed not with blood, but globs of flaming, radioactive exhaust liquid, even as the Beast screams like a bald eagle through multiple, stacked, bugging out microphones. <<"Ohhhhhh.">> Weiss replies once both her mags run empty, ejecting them into the wind where they abruptly disintegrate. <<"So it's not like you're a communist. It's more like you're-">> Fresh mags teleport right into the guns. <<"An idiot.">> \|\|Deploying RAISER rifle. 1.3MJ charge at 98% relativity.\|\| <<Make it 1.5.>> Weiss stands up abruptly, magnetizing her feet to the Velocity Beast's back, emptying both guns into Kotone and Corona again, and then tossing them into redshifted storage space, snatching hold of two of the Babylonian rayguns and firing those as well instead of stopping to reload. Asche instead swings over the side, slams his own clawed feet into the Beast's belly, and hangs there upside down, looking straight at Leyanne at an extremely, dangerously close distance. A rifle large enough for even him to hold in both hands is pointed her way, gathering droplets of golden light through a multitude of subsurface channels along its central axis into a blinding point at its tip. There is a blinding flash and deafening, magnetic crack as the air around its muzzle undergoes nuclear fusion, and an energy projectile with the physical weight and force of a battleship cannon and the explosive yield of a bunker buster is ruthlessly fired at her, point blank.
Yang Xiao Long	Unstoppable, perhaps. Immovable, again perhaps. Their ideologies do seem diametrically opposed, but, they want the same thing at the end. They want the End of The Line. Yang's power is a blazing star, golden aura crackling with blue lightning. Riva comes back, slamming her bike down and blocking Bumblebee's forward movement. The Cross comes in and snags the Berserker so that point blank shot can connect flawlessly. It looks like she's done, her eyes shaded by her hair as she slumps over from the impact of the Anima shell, the Anima blast pulsing against the Huntress's Aura, causing it to ripple like liquid gold. The slightly opened mouth twists up into a defiant grin as she reaches for the barrel of that shotgun, grasping it and trying to leverage the Templar closer. "Neither am I." she says back, lifting her head to show the defiant, but happy expression on her face, her teal irises glowing with her determined power. Her free hand moves back, ratcheting into a heavy, overarm haymaker, aiming to slam into Riva's face as the Templar is pulled forwards.
Starbound Flotilla	"Who's gonna hurt if you don't get what you're after? Who's gonna bleed if you don't succeed? If you don't blow me out, whose pain happens? Do you know 'em, clyde? Do you know their faces? Do you know their names?" The Engine King roars. His car growls like a titanic wolf, shaking its entire body. "Bashing ears about how you're going to make the world a better place -- do you know /what/ world? Do you know what you care about? Do you know what you'd put those chips down for, Arkwright?" His face is bleeding from the impact, and he's being denied his extra fuel, his heart pumping hard. He plants his hand firm on the dash again, straining to keep up by juicing his engine with pure bleed off of his Nitro Heart. "You wanna take, you take. What's that /purpose/ Dexter? More long green in the bank for Arkwright Diesel and whoever's buying from you? More technology, better living -- for /who/? What's their names? Can you think of their faces? You know all about /what/ you want, do you know /why/ you want?!" He screams out, his eyes alight with fire, his voice sounding more like a twisting, churning engine. "I'M THE KING OF ENGINES! MY KINGDOM IS THE BOYS I'M SAVING FROM THE PAIN OF OF THAT LIFE WE LEFT BEHIND, THE RUBBER I'M BURNING TO MAKE A BRIGHTER DAY FOR ANYONE WHO'S STILL STUCK IN IT, AND THE ONE CHANCE I'VE GOT TO /TOTAL THE LINE/!" His breath is letting out fire now as he loses blood. "YOU WON'T KEEP ME FROM THE END OF THE LINE, JUST TO /PROVE A POINT/!! I DESERVE THIS -- IT'S MINE!" He pulls back, to one side, and then meets Dexter's heavy crash head on. Something gives. A fuel line crunches. A part jostles free. The finely tuned contours of the engine are crumpled. His vehicle falters. He screams out something stressed and pained. Dexter is going to find that the heat of the plasma that he's coming up on is lifting the height of his hovercraft; if he can just /accelerate/ it a little more with some back-seat mechanical work, there's a chance he can slip in through the cone of insane plasma fire behind the Treasure, and approach it... It's /tantalizingly visible/, though the shape is strange and surreal from this distance. He has to just get a little bit closer to see what it is...
Corona Arclite	On one hand, Corona is glad she's not in the larger and heavier ride armor. It'd have a terrible time trying to keep maneuvering and speed up under the nearly constant frenzy of attacks coming from the Velocity Beast's passangers. On the other hand, it doesn't take up getting hit very well when it does hit, and even being a smaller target there is fire -everywhere-. It's impossible to avoid it all, bits and pieces sent chucking into the void of extreme speed behind them. There's something nasty going on in the proximity of the beast itself as Leyanne disappears underneath it, but she's being held off by the insane coverfire to do much. The most she can do is grit down and power her way through it. More importantly, gotta do something about all that firepower the monster is putting out... "Hopalong, it's time!" Corona calls over her head. "We gotta get in close enough to see what's going on!" The mecha-jackalope nods, and hops off over the front of the booster sled for Corona to catch. She grabs him by the legs, and the construct responds in a ratcheting cacophony of shifting parts to change into his BFG mode. Ignoring the damage being done to her means of travel, Corona dives in as close as she dares while taking aim. "You want heat?" She pulls the triggers, and fires a stream of shearing molten hot slag out of Hopalong's magitech furnace at the Velocity Beast! Corona is hoping it's going to be hot enough to actually burn through some of those weapons and that nasty tough hide the thing has.
Riva Banari	Riva and Yang brawl back and forth on top of their tiny hyperluminal platform, the warped and stretched universe expanding beyond them as the entire force of the Line, with all of its physics, all of its majesty and splendor and horror and tradition... All of it comes down to a simple, straightforward thing. Desire. How bad do you want something? What will you give up for it? Both Yang and Riva desire something intensely. They both wish to put an end to the line. The only thing dividing them is the color of their banner, the promises they made, the honor they will uphold. And so it is that the pair struggle and clash, both of them brutally efficient in close range combat. Any normal person would have been dropped by that shotgun blast, but Yang is not normal. Not normal at all. She is the Huntress. She pulls at the shotgun, trying to drag Riva in... But Riva lets her take the shotgun, the glowing Anima circuits going dark. Maybe Yang can figure out how to dump her Aura through it to augment it, but unless she does it's no better than a basic shotgun. More importantly, it gives Riva enough space as she beings that overarm strike down. In not struggling with the shotgun, Riva gets enough time to bring up the Cross... And with a flare of light, the attack impacts a hexagonal honey-colored field, Riva staggering unter the impact despite bringing up her defenses just in time... For them to shatter, the warping power crushing through the field and threatening to pulverize Riva herself. But she pulls back just enough for the strike to pass by, the time and energy lost allowing her to lean over just enough for the hand to buffet her with the burning, deadly air. The passage alone sends Riva sliding back on the machines, threatening to send her flying off... But she lashes out instinctively, hurling the Cross at Yang and working to hook it around her to grapple her in once again. The weapon tethers to her on a band of golden anima energy, and she twists, working to drag Yang off and spin. Spin, and spin, and spin, and spin.... Before she lets go, hurling Yang into the air herself as Riva pulls out a LAW, breaking it open and sighting along it. The warhead within gleams amber, before she takes a guess at relative location and speed... And fires the blazing rocket to try to smash Yang!
Dexter Arkwright	As Dexter slams his vehicle into the Dragster Throne, the Allegheny Speedster is torn up. The driver is a little intimidated, but he's getting /big/ money for this, so he's keeping up with the thrill. As the Engine King starts to scream, his rage clear, Dexter... Feels the rush. It's exhilarating, the Treasure's energy flowing over him as he gets so close. He's confident. He's proud. And while he hates the Engine King, he's not going to try and kill him - the Engine King will have to watch as Dexter takes everything he wants away from him. "And now you show your true colors, blood as red as your rage. Prove a point? No, it's more than that - I'm going to prove /myself/, that I can be as strong, or as fast, or as powerful as the next guy, that I can reach any heights! That my power is all I need to shape my future...don't worry, there'll be no more of the war you hate so much once we're done with the Treasure." Dexter's gonna do this himself. He moves over to the driver, having him leap into the back as Dexter takes the wheel, flipping all the levers and pushing the speed to maximum. He's no master driver, but he knows how his vehicle works - just in case his driver was sniped in the race - and how to get it moving. It reaches maximum speed, boosting into the air from the heat, as Dexter moves to see the treasure. He's gotta reach it. He's gotta taste it. "I'm worthy, damn it, and you'll watch as I snatch it right from you!"
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone having the money to not utterly gut her bikes defences? She might be a smear all over the line at this point without it. the Velocity Beast is damn impressive even without the added kit Gil gave Zwei to make things even with everyone else. She knows she does not have the firepower to bring Zwei's ride down alone. Hopefully, she can keep fending it off as part of a team with Corona and Leyanne. The Railgun rounds keep hammering her doing more damage,e this time there is an armour breach and an alarm shows up on Kotone's. Then comes the Engine King's speech on the radio, which also makes her reconsider a few things about the King and about Dexter as well. For now she needs to not get exploded from the fight she's picked. She will form up with Corona and try to keep track of where Leyanne is, this was getting messy she can't disengage right now, to go after her friend. She'll arm her own rail guns which have been silent the entire time laying down high-speed slugs at the beast even as she keeps juking about and pulling rolls, flips and the odd barrel roll, there and she keeps shooting she better use the ammo while she has it left to shoot and not leave it in a wreck. <<Corona we need to get Leyanne if we can.>>
Leyanne	Leyanne can't do anything to avoid that point-blank shot. There's a huge explosion underneath the creature as her bike gues up and then the mouse - dismounted, and flailing - comes bouncing out from underneath the monster, skipping across the hyperglass in a way that can't be good for her - even if her armour is, for the moment at least, holding up.
Starbound Flotilla	Dexter's view of the treasure takes a distinctly odd turn. To Dexter, and only to Dexter, the Treasure shifts. What is closest in life to what Dexter sees as an unstoppable force or an immovable object? What, to Dexter, represents these things most comprehensively? In his soul, what is the truth of "unstoppable" and "immovable"? Even in the face of everything anyone might say otherwise, what remains that sort of fixture in his life? The photo-negative world around Dexter is completely encompassed by the white-hot and jet-black light of the plasma. For a single moment, deep in that void, Dexter can see his father, riding in a well-made Arkwright-brand luxury car, sitting in a relaxed and easygoing posture. His head turns, just a little bit, to one side, as if almost starting to notice something behind him. And then the moment's gone. The Treasure is a shining inverted light again, impossible to discern the nature of. There's certainly no way that it was his father -- it's been on this Line for 25 years, after all. As Dexter approaches, something within it is being destabilized. The finish line is not literal, and the idea of this as a "race" was always a little bit impossible to line up properly. What he sees as he pushes past the waves of light is something less like an object and more like a gate. Like a hole in space. He can see, beyond it, what for all intents and purposes appears to be some sort of /city/, still full of light, barely contained. And the moment he touches it, something strange occurs. Massive buildings are beginning to sprout from the ground. Towers, big and small, all around the half-pipe of Fifth Gear. They seem /still/ to those keeping pace with it. The structures of the Immovable Kingdom lost to ancient era are unfolding out of the release. As Dexter approaches and tries to reach it, he's setting off some kind of massive decoupling process. Whether this means he's about to access the treasure or not is going to be another thing. For now, what it means for those in the fight, still battling the Velocity Beast, there's suddenly unusual terrain, and a faltering of the plasma cloud, as though the dangers and pain of the Line, that great scar on the Multiversal superplanet, are beginning to unravel.
Yang Xiao Long	Yang misses her strike. She feels it, that impact, the bleeding of power off so it gives Riva the breathing room she needs to hurl her up and off of the combined bikes. Yang tumbles like a golden comet, uncontrolled and vulnerable. Well, anyone else would be uncontrolled and vulnerable. Yang shoots her gauntlets to right the tumble and arrest her speed, throwing off the rocket aim just enough. The explosion engulfs her anyway, sending her flying off to another vector, but again, her gauntlets flash with discharge and she corrects her momentum to come falling back at Riva and the pair of interlocked bikes. She's desperate, but nothing ventured, nothing gained, her fist ratches back again, aiming for another flying haymaker. This is all she has left, her Aura flaring brilliantly, then condensing at that fist, pouring every ounce of power she has left into this one strike.
Dexter Arkwright	As Dexter races for the Treasure, it shifts. As it starts to shift, he stares at it, wanting to see the truth of the Treasure, wanting to grasp it. He can't, exactly, handle what he sees. His father - someone the world thinks dead, that he still believes is out there, somewhere. He moves to shout for his father, but it's just an illusion. It's not real, and he's gone before Dexter can do so. It hurts his heart to see. But, it's enough to make the blonde push the pedal even faster. When he sees that 'hole' in space, he reaches to push forward and into it. He reaches to try and enter this 'city'. Dexter is going to be the End of the Line. It's what he told himself he'd be. He told everyone he'd be the one to reach it. So he has to be.
Zwei	<<That's new.>> \|\|Revising mathematical model of paradox subspace structure.\|\| <<What, like-?>> \|\|Yes. The old legend.\|\| Parts of a city sprouting out of the substance of Fifth Gear is not something Zwei could claim to be prepared for. It's not something they could confidently claim to have been able to prepare for even with all energy dedicated to maximal cognitive processing. It's something where they think fast and take it in stride, aided by the way the Velocity Beast navigates this terrain as if it already knows it, feeling the unfolding hidden structure of the Line somewhere deep within its light-addled core and speed-mutated brain, baking, strafing, and turning 180 degrees to slip, dive, and weave between buildings as they come, moving at a blistering pace too fast for human perception, until the rising 'city' turns into a tunnel of solid, blurring glass all around it. Preparing for this final chase from the very start seems to be paying off, steadily proving Zwei's hypothesis. Still, the Velocity Beast is gushing fuel-energy it can't afford to be losing so quickly from the rent in its belly, and Leyanne's time as dead weight has slowed it down. Aggregate damage to the wings and body thrusters is starting to take its toll, narrowing down its hefty lead. The crystalline technocytic clusters within its 'flesh' knit the wounds closed, but Kotone and Corona keep adding more damage to the pile, preventing it from gaining distance in front of them. They've done an annoyingly good job of keeping their heads attached to their bodies while wearing away at the ride Zwei had invested an incredibly substantial amount of their limited energy pool in, while the Armiger itself was focusing on Leyanne and her insane stunts. They're forced to double down and focus on those two, or else the Velocity Beast will 'bleed out' before winning. Dexter already being at the Treasure is a serious problem, and something Zwei is keeping an eye on through Weiss, frantically scanning the interaction unfolding ahead of her. Given the more limited corridor of movement, the Velocity Beast has to avoid the incoming fire by turning angles and diminishing its firing profile rather than simply zipping around like a dragonfly, lacking the open space to fly circles around the incoming gunfire. Red hot shrapnel spalls along its sides, causing verniers to flicker and go dark, and streams of railgun fire rattle and crack its chassis like hail on a roof of ice, but it holds steady, weaving between buildings so that it stays out of their sights as much as possible, letting the new terrain soak up most of their shots. When they break into a clearer section of highway, Weiss has the wheel and Asche is back on top, facing rearwards like a bomber's tail turret. The two riders are no longer under threat from submachine guns, but the multi-weapons embedded in Asche's forearms, exposed through unfolded wrist plating, and the firing pods seamlessly integrated into his shoulder units, popped out just the couple of inches necessary. All at once, he discharges a salvo of shrieking, hypervelocity mini-missiles of his own, arching overhead and landing almost vertically on Corona and Kotone, saturating the terrain on all sides to make dodging more likely to plough into a fireball than reach safety. At the same time, both arm guns blast away fully automatic streams of plasma fire, sending toroidal 'bullets' of explosive plasma at the riders and their machines. Asche remains perfectly balanced during the Velocity Beast's intense maneuvers, swaying like a weird, uncanny gyroscope, despite his mecha-like frame and size.
Riva Banari	Yang falls like a comet. A glowing, murderous comet. Riva grimaces as she sees that the incoming assault will not be denied, that her rocket missed the mark. She feels tired. So tired. Her wounds have stopped closing, leaving her feeling pained and slow. Slow enough that Yang comes down, crashing right into her. With a groan, she is knocked back and down, crushed under the power of that Aura as she devotes it into that single blow... But Riva sweeps the Cross up, striking at her in the same moment, working to cross-counter Yang at the same moment as they crush together. One shall stand, one shall fall. But who will it be?
Yang Xiao Long	Yang falls. Yang strikes. The Unstoppable meets the Immovable... and the Unstoppable gets stopped. The Cross strikes as her fist does, the lack of defense on her part leaving her to be smashed away, landing heavily on her bike and going still. The lightning fades, her hair falls limp and the sheer menace that the girl exudes when she's pumped up fades, as the bike slowly disengages, falling back but keeping pace with the other racers. Yang is out of this race, and out of the fight.. but as she falls into unconsciousness, a small smile twitches on her lips. She fought, and lost to someone who wanted it more.
Corona Arclite	The engineer's well trained ears hear, even in this sensory warping setting, the sound of the bike going under long before what happens becomes evident. It's a sound all too familiar, of a machine giving it's all and bottoming out. Corona breaks away from the spraying of molten metal at the Velocity Beast to roll and dive, swooping down low. With a click Hopalong reverts to his normal mode, and as he's swung down by the legs by Corona he grabs onto Leyanne by scooping her out of her tumble with his antlers. Thrusters flare as Corona pulls to heave the martian away from the ground. "This ain't no night for bein' roadkill pardner." It takes a bit more acrobatics to upright the rocket sled and deposite Tiny on top, and Corona latching on with her magnetic boots to stand on it instead of riding it like a glider as she was before. Which turns out to be a good move, as it gives her a bit better control using leaning movements as well as the thrusters to steer. Seeing as weird things are starting to go on as Dexter gets closer to the Treasure. Uh. "... Shit's gettin' weird now. Might be a good time to -- whoa!" She had almost forgotten about the monstrousity they were dealing with. The rocket glider, even with it's additional passenger, weaves and swerves to evade the barrage of plasma and explosive projectiles while not crashing into any of the spawning towers in the process. But Corona is focused on the task of juking and bobbing, because she's got not only herself to keep safe by the extra martian passanger as well. "Ah reckon this ain't just no race no more!" Thank you Miss Obvious. But she's not done with the monster just yet. "Kotone! Don't push it, this madness ain't worth it no more!" That said, she's still gonna give her friend some cover. Corona digs into her arsenal, and pulls out something bigger. It looks like a big launcher type weapon as she hoists it to her shoulder and takes aim. But it's not just RPGs this launcher fires. It's a cluster of rocket-propelled drills sent veering through the air at superluminal speed, and thanks to a few hyperglass components the drills are spinning at near superluminal speed as well, causing them to glow brightly. They may still not be extremely powerful but Corona is trying to aim at the points the molten slag she fired before is hopefully burning into the beast to make relatively speaking soft spots.
Starbound Flotilla	The massive structures forming around grow more dense. The area below the racers is starting to look more like a road and less like a scar. As Dexter tries to move /into/ the space, it's less like he's moved through a hole and more like approaching it has made it expand around him until it overtakes the world. Gilgamensh might recognize the phenomenon. It's not exactly like a reality marble, but the mechanics of the way it seems to press out of its core and into the world are similar. Dexter is probably not aware that the thought experiment of the unstoppable force and the irresistable object is actually emergent from a story recorded in the Han Feizi in the 3rd century BC about a pair of artifacts that Gilgamesh might recall, a spear that can pierce anything and a shield that can defend against anything. The story records a salesman who takes pride in the two artifacts he is selling, but cannot reconcile the two. Whether these are those artifacts, whether Gilgamesh has his own versions of them in his possession, is irrelevant; what matters is that this is the first record of them, and thus, the most universal form they can take. The Spear and the Shield are visible most of all where Dexter is. Now, with the world around him moving at the speed of the Treasure, it hardly takes more acceleration. In fact, it's easier to get out of the car and /walk/ forward, finding a shining steel spear and a humming steel shield, braced against shadowy figures who flicker as they clash in the street of the lost Immovable Kingdom's capital city. Who knows what else can be found here? For the moment, Dexter has a chance to separate the two artifacts with his bare hands. But by their nature, he can only pull one away from the other, and to do so will take tremendous force, needing both, so he can only grasp one. The others -- perhaps those dazed and battered from their respective battles, or aboard Gilgamesh's flying craft -- may find themselves filtering into the strange 'interior world' of the treasure as well, while the battle is kept just away to make sure there's no ambiguity for its winners. But even those beyond it have a chance to see the city, and moreover, to speak on what should be done. Because at the very least it's clear that there's something for "second place" as well, among other opportunities.
Dexter Arkwright	Dexter has no idea about the thought experiment about a spear and shield. But he does know that, as he steps out of the vehicle, his driver kind of tripping out in the back, Dexter steps into an amazing city, one where everything is moving super fast. He knows that the Spear must be an Unstoppable Force, and the Shield must be an Immovable Object. Obviously, he wants the former. Except Zwei just told him they'd kill him if he took the spear, and he doesn't want to deal with that. So, reaching for the Shield, Dexter moves to grasp it, and rip it apart from the Treasure. He uses all his might to pull it away, claim it for the Empire, for science, and most importantly: for himself. His own pride swells. Dexter Arkwright is the one bringing forth the End of the Line. And hopefully, people will remember him for that, good or ill, that he was the hero that saved the day. Hopefully, his father will know, wherever in the world he is.
Kotone Yamakawa	With Leyanne out of the picture? She and Corona are now taking more and more of Zwei's fearsome firepower in a far more spread out a bit more? The attacks are more focused now. It shows with the missiles coming down after them, she does have some countermeasure which she launches, namely some of her own missiles and she deploys a crash shield these two actions? Are why Kotone isn't spirling away to crash and comes out of the fireball. It's clear though it's ripped the hell out of her machine and even her own body from the looks of it. The shell is damage but not so badly as the bike which has melted section one of the thrusters are sputtering in some places, her machine isn't doing very well then she seems something she sees someone has reached the end of it. <<Your right Corona there's nothing we can do at this point break off.>> "You have won this day Zwei I conceded." Kotone says as she manoeuvres her craft trying to break off, then she sees something ahead even as sees something amazing in the distance. There is a city ahead and something more, she had sought to keep Leyanne from getting killed and one way or another that is over with. There's no point to keep fighting now, there is also a thought that hit her, her current Security systems were created by Zwei and they never attempted to backdoor her, and fought her up front. She will not forget that, at all, she raced straight up against her. Now there's the mystery of what lays ahead, the winner has been made clear and it sure ain't her. She is okay with that for she's gone faster than any soul from her world has ever gone before or may ever go again.
Zwei	What precisely the two treasures 'are' is beyond Zwei's concern. Their outwardly perceived properties are what are important for its plans, and it needs one of them for its function rather than its form, enough that Zwei had already sunk a highly risky extent of assets into acquiring it without any care for whether it might be a spear or a spatial anomaly or magical artifact or FTL rubber duck. They're /going/ to have it, and Corona and Kotone still being alive and on their tail is increasingly more aggravating by the second. Nearly a dozen drills fly into the surrounding terrain, boring into Immovable City architecture, but one catches the Velocity Beast in a slag hole, catching and doing exactly what drills do. The horrific artificial racing monster screeches a sound fit to break comms and eardrums alike, as the adapted technocyte struggles to capture and infest the drill at the same time the drill struggles to spin and grind through them, deeper into its flesh. The Beast itself responds this time, its body becoming a disco ball of flaring thrusters that alternate to keep it moving relentlessly forward even as it spins all the way around, loosing a screaming torrent of light-lagged FTL exhaust fire in Corona's direction, hosing her down with a flamethrower of combined Line plasma and Erchius bleed vented from its maw like a dragon. Weiss clambers up to the top of its neck, unholstering a Corpus Lanka rifle from nowhere, sighting down it, and firing a sniper lance of plasma into the maelstrom, sighted for Corona's head, and in line with her engine should she duck. A second and third shot follow, punctuating the screeching roar of non-stop combustion with bass, electronic thunks. Ejecting the energy cell, Weiss looks up, and then waves at Kotone peeling off, immediately switching from cold aimbot to giving her a <<"Bye Kotone! See you later!">> and then going right back to shooting.
Corona Arclite	Corona is of similar mindset. She was here for the Race, and for the Challenge. Facing off with the insane beast was another Challenge in it's own right, and by this point the only reason she was flinging attacks was to get her friend time to get out of everything going off the WERIDSHITOMETER even by the Line standards. But at the same time, she was pushing her own luck. She knew it, but this was the sort of risks she was prone to taking, even if she wasn't quite as reckless about it as some other people were. Despite everything she's pulled, the jury-rigged glider can't take the abuse any longer. And she still had a passanger to consider. Corona kicks the thrusters into redlining what they have remaining for power as she swings the booster sled around, veering away from the plasma breath in doing so. And then that sniper shot rings out, piledriving it's way into the booster assembly, through the particle collectors and right into the chunk of pulsarium, it itself literally energy in a crystalline matrix, at the core of the engine. Immeadiately all the readouts in her HUD go screaming bright red DANGER!. "Sonnuva!" Corona stomps down on the EMERGENCY RELEASE to jettison the thruster assembly, just as it goes critical from the blow to the crystal core and explodes in a massive blinding display of energy and smoke. And the scorched remains of the sled comes hurtling out of the blast, as Corona and Hopalong managed to lean forward just enough to catch the blastwave and, while it was mangling the machinery, ride it out of the explosion like a wave. A big wave of death and destruction. The mangled machine, if there's even enough to call it that, heaves violently though the air for several seconds before hitting the ground and continuing to skip and skid for several more, sending sparks rooster-tailing in its wakes as scant remains of metal and greebles scatter off it's mutilated chassis. It all finally comes to a skidding, smoking stop. It takes a moment, but Hopalong wobbles out of the smoke cloud, being the smaller but stronger of the two carrying Leyanne over his hunched form. It takes another moment before Corona finally staggers out of the wreckage after him. The vixen takes two steps, then pauses to hold up one hand definately. "Any crash you can walk away from--" And promptly faceplants to the ground afterward.
Zwei	When Corona's machine goes up in flames, Weiss relaxes her stance, looks up from the scope, and slings the rifle up to her shoulder, exhaling a <<"Phew. That's that taken care of.">> that she doesn't really need to. The Velocity Beast quickly rights itself and pushes all of its thrusters to maximum burn, battered and 'bleeding', but putting everything it has into its insane, only quasi-sentient, instinctual need to race. Weiss ends up quickly being turned upside down, but walks along the Beast's side and back to the 'saddle', having made sure its flesh would be paramagnetic for a good reason. Both Armiger units settled into place, its a straight, blistering, light-stripping dash to the finish, plunging into the warped bubble of reality the two Treasures are locked into. Though possibly amused by the final representation of them, Zwei had come here for something very specific, and having caught up to Dexter, Asche stays to hold him at gunpoint while Weiss quickly discusses terms with him, unexpectedly arriving at a sensible compromise. She walks out to the Velocity Beast's head as it finally nips the Treasure its original brain has sought for years, and kneels to the spear, dumping the remainder of unused race energy into spatial calculations. Teleporting to the Treasure at the start hadn't been plausible due to the insane speed difference, the ridiculously strict timing, and the way it warps spatial coordinates around it by going faster than light, but now that Zwei is matching speeds and she is inside the region of warped space itself, she is free to finish the last part of Zwei's plan, and separate the Treasure by not forcing it at all; the Spear is dumped into a blueshifted pinching of fourth dimensional space that dumps it elsewhere, at a pre-setup spot, without changing its vector, velocity, mass, or any factor about it. It'll be going infinitely between two wormholes until Zwei stops by to retrieve it, all going to plan.
Starbound Flotilla	The shield. It shudders and makes a noise like the world is experiencing an upset stomach. It's roiling -- no, the space around it is roiling. Whether or not this is truly what Gilgamesh has in his Gate, it's powerful enough that nudging it makes reality around it ripple and twist, convulsing like an epileptic. As Dexter tugs, the Line tugs back, a Treasure that wants to continue to exist in some way, as if the two were always attracted to each other. Perhaps, by their paradoxical nature, they are, on some level. It would explain why Zwei is having a hard time wrenching the thing into a pocket space. Dexter will need everything he has to pull it away. His suit may yet overload just a little, and he'll need to survive a terrible storm of shockwaves as the shield shakes, and shakes, and eventually... It wrenches free, allowing Zwei to teleport it away. And the Unstoppable Force is no longer meeting the Immovable Object. What happens next is remarkable primarily because of its absence of dramatics. The huge storms at the north and south edges of the Line immediately halt. The plasma clears and fades. The last of the spires of the Immovable Kingdom lock into place. The road halts beneath them. The Immovable Kingdom is no longer immovable relative to absolute space, it is immovable in the ground, the normal earth of the multiversal superplanet. The resulting disparity in the motion of air produces a noise like a dozen sonic booms in sequence as multiple concentric layers of artificially accelerated air friction themselves into a sensible place. The phenomenon is breathtaking in the literal sense of taking away one's breath; various movements of the atmosphere make it nearly impossible to breathe for about five seconds, until normality is restored. The weird warping of light fades, and Fifth Gear goes from its inverted photo-negative to a natural appearance, allowing the pure white of the spires of the Immovable Kingdom to resolve into view. Now, in Zwei's persona Bluespace, can be found one of the greatest of all spears, the Unstoppable Force, known to some as the Máo Zìxiang Máodùn -- the Paradox Spear. In the hands of Dexter Arkwright can be found one of the greatest of all shields, the Immovable Object, known to some as the Dùn Zìxiang Máodùn -- the Paradox Shield. When he holds it, he feels as though nothing about him can change, not his views, not his wounds, not his entire life -- and the same can be said for all he owns. That, it seems, is the power it holds, its innate energy. How true that is, well... It's proven to be untrue by the empty city he now finds himself in, devoid of the Immovable Kingdom's peoples. But its energy feels real enough that it may well be yet used to bring back the Empress, or at the very least that's the hope of the Priestess, whose Dragster Throne has now pulled up near him, and who is now basically chasing him down to tackle him with a sort of gratitude. She'd do the same to Yang, but the injuries make that unwise. Elsewhere, the King of Engines, overlooking his Dragster Throne's steaming hood, regards the fresh blue sky formed as the storms of the Line clear, and the incessant warp ceases, leaving it a scar, now, and not a wound. He strikes a match on his old throne, lights up a cigarette, and adjusts his hair; five crowns are left behind as he walks off to the south, stacked against it like a wilderness gravesite.