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Tina Natsumi MUSIC: https://youtu.be/UaYiWRTIPIE

All around Virtua City, fireworks are going off in celebration of the city's next crowning achievement: A luxury airship designed to impress the world and redress the last debacle on the mayor's sea-based ship just a few months ago. Along with the crew and staff members, the dirigible carries with it numerous diplomats from Europe, South America, and East Asia. It's the trip of a lifetime for those on board, and the city's citizens have an opportunity to forget their crime-related woes now that something is actually going right for a change.

What's the problem, then? Nothing's going wrong for the people on board, but for the Virtua City police that have been tailing E.V.I.L. Inc. this entire time. Why?

The bomb that went missing in the subway system courtesy of one Doctor Eggman has been spotted on board.
The airship launched ahead of schedule.

As the unlikely trio of two Virtua City cops (Michael Hardy and James Cools) and one America-obsessed German-schooled streamer (Tina Natsumi) tail the airship from below by racing through the city streets, gunmen donning military fatigues and E.V.I.L. Inc.'s telltale masks are already taking aim from rooftops and in cars tailing the cop car tailing the blimp, ready to gun their pursuers down. They're largely watching the ground, though, since it's Virtua City. They don't usually have to worry about flying do-gooders!

- MEANWHILE -

On board the airship, things couldn't be any better. It's a delight to anyone on board: Velvet cushions, suede robes, fully stocked bars, and a wide variety of entertainers of both the beefy and beautiful variety keep the diplomats fed, intoxicated, and oblivious to what's going on below. Why would they need to worry? There's nothing wrong with this blimp, after all, and it's just the way they like it.

In the back rooms, meanwhile, a strange man in an armored suit pours champagne for his accomplices, only occasionally missing the glasses as he watches the blimp float over the city at a steady pace. "Good work, everyone. Things should proceed smoothly once we finally reach Peru." He speaks in an odd tone, his voice sounding almost like it's coming out of a crappy speaker if not for the fact that it's coming out of him directly. It might sound familiar to those that were on board the train those weeks ago.

This is Fang, the leader of E.V.I.L. Inc.
Yang Xiao Long     Well, it's been a while, and even though she's not fully recovered, Yang's taken to the streets of Virtua City astride her motorbike. She's in hot pursuit of the EVIL Inc cars chasing the cops, weaving through traffic and trying to close the distance without getting tagged by the rooftop gunmen.

    Luckily for them the blonde brawler can't fly. Unluckily for them she's a lot tougher, even when injured, than the usual mooks they're used to shooting at.
Rebecca Chambers There's a room inside the blimp where things like baggage and things like that are being stored, including things like crates and other large storage containers. One of them is a bit larger than the others, which wouldn't seem to make much difference at first until you realize that there isn't something in there, but rather someONE inside there. In fact, the lid of the crate opens a little bit as if someone is peeking out of it. After a few moments of this, a female voice says, "OK, the coast is clear." The crate then closes again for a moment, then the lid reopens and out steps Rebecca in her usual attire.

"So far, so good," Rebecca says to herself as she loads a clip into her Beretta. "Now to find out what they're hiding here," She says as she approaches the exit and opens it just a crack to see if anyone's outside.
Nanoha Takamachi     The fireworks are enhanced this night by a streak of pink that rockets through the air. Having caught a police report about a potential BOMB on a blimp full of important dignitaries, Nanoha was naturally not just going to ignore the damage such an explosion could do to the peace and safety of the world. So while Nanoha is not familiar much with recent events, she nonetheless has taken to the skies in an attempt to reach the blimp.

    Dancing around a few of the fireworks as they explode ahead of her, Nanoha sets her sights on the blimp in the distance. It won't take her long to catch up to it at the speed she's going. But from her vantage point in the sky she can also see the firefight taking place on the streets below. Those rooftop gunners could prove to be a problem... Especially if they notice her!
Corona Arclite This sounds like a matter that could use the touch of someone that knows a thing or three about machines and explosives. Of course there's the whole problem of it being on a hijacked(?) airship.

Actually no, maybe that's not actually a problem. Or what other reason would there be another smaller aircraft approaching the blimp. Looks like some manner of ... biplane? Who flies a biplane in this day and age? Then again that's a pretty heavily modified looking plane, with lots of pipes and copper plating and other steampunkish greebling. So it's most likely not from around these parts in the first place.

Thanks to the old fashioned open cockpit there was plenty of wind whipping through Windrose's hair as the skunk turned her head just enough to squint at Corona from behind her aviator goggles. "Any plan what you're going to do?"
Corona sat up, finished making sure her auto-loaders were loaded, and then shrugged. "Aaaanup... y'know me, by the skin of muh teeth and fringe of muh tail." Assumably that's some vulpine equivilent to 'seat of my pants'.
Windrose rolled her eyes as she turned her attention back ahead and adjusted the control stick to keep the plane's approach on the blimp steady. "Yeah, that's 'bout the answer I expected." Sometimes she wonders why she asks.
Eggman      "My dear Virtua City. This is the first time we've met, but I assure you, it shall not be the last."

     There's an airship descending from *above the other airship*. It's red, and yellow. It's a blimp, but it's a ridiculous blimp, a blimp with weird robotic tentacles coming off the side, a blimp with turrets, a blimp surrounded by flying machines that hum and whir and spin ominously as it descends. On the side of the blimp is the logo of the one and only Eggman Empire.

     A gigantic hologram appears below it, as if standing on the lower blimp. It is of a heavy-set oval man with a pair of reflective glasses and a great bushy moustache. He appears to be wearing a tuxedo with a bow tie, but the hologram is old-school, flickery blue with poor resolution, so it's impossible to tell what colors it is. The Eggman Empire emblem is emblazoned on the pocket protector.

     He strokes his moustache proudly as he starts walking. "Allow me to introduce myself, all you cops and robbers playing your little amateur hour games, all you off-world opponents and easily-duped evildoers. I am Doctor Ivo Robotnik, the greatest supervillain the world has ever known. Please, call me Doctor Eggman."

     There's a brief pause while he lets everybody soak that in. The Egg Assault Blimp continues to descend towards the Evil INC Blimp, slowly but surely.

     He pulls out a pocketwatch. The hands are his moustache. The face is his face. It ticks for a moment. He then places it in his pocket. "I'm afraid that time's up on our deal, my dear EVIL Incorporated. I did tell you, after all, that I was going to initiate a hostile takeover."

     "You so graciously gave me access to all of your agents, I couldn't resist. It's just business, you know."

     He clicks a remote control. Holographic images of EVIL Inc agents being taken out by various ominous robots appear all around the Egg Assault Blimp, assaults from behind withe metal clubs or fists or weaponized shovels or just straight up stun guns. "Considering *you* can't even handle some dime-store do-gooders, I think you'll thank me in the end."

     "With me as the CEO, EGGVIL Incorporated's stock is about to rise.../tenfold/, my good Mister Leader."

     "Don't worry. I'll let you keep your position on the board. I have a lovely table decked out just for our first business meeting. I'll be inviting you soon."

     "For now, though..."

     "This blimp is about to take an *unscheduled detour*."

     The hologram rubs its moustache. "And these low-quality layabouts you call *minions*...well."

     "Let's just see how many heroes it takes to get through them, shall we? I'm betting...three or four." He fakes his moustache drooping. "You haven't encountered this sort of thing yet, but heroes tend to come in packs, and they're *really* very frustrating. I trust your gormless goons can handle that few, don't you?"

     "Now then!"

     The hologram rubs its hands. "Let's see if we can't crash the market."

     The hologram vanishes as the blimp, its tendrils, and its robots begin descending on the EVIL Inc Airship.
Staren     
    THERE'S A MAN ON THE WING

    Oh wait, it's just Staren. Flying over the city on a broom, he sees Corona's plane and changes to an intercept course so he can put the broom away. It looks like there's going to be a fight soon, so it'd be simpler if he didn't have to focus on flying as well.

    There was something a bit shady about the mayor last time, but that doesn't necessarily mean he deserves to get exploded, nor do the other dignitaries! So Staren's here to put a stop to this bomb. It's not that he's not okay with blowing people up EVER, but it seems to be excessive force causing excessively fatal collateral damage for the current situation as he understands it.

    And he's landed just in time for Eggman's monologue. Grrrreat. Then again... does Eggman actually CARE about exploding the dignitaries? Maybe things can still be worked out.
Big Boss A car, similar to an Aston Martin but not one, in red and black, with Eggman's logo on the hood, is flying through the air. Yes, flying, because it has jet thrusters currently replacing its wheels.

Inside the Eggcar is one older man, in his late fifties, in a classic black tuxedo. Big Boss is here to finish what he started, and he just got a killer deal for it. One eye gone, eyepatch visible, he looks like an older version of a classic spy, if he had lost his eye.

The car flies straight for the side of the EVIL Inc blimp, looks for an entrance of some sort, and fly-bys. Big Boss looks over all the buttons. He ignores the big red one. He finds a switch, flicks it...

And the car goes into autopilot.

And /then/ he presses the big red button.

Ejecting out of the car, Big Boss leaps off the seat as it leaves, holds his breath, and moves to grab the side of the airship and get inside the entrance he found. He's armed with a pistol, a combat knife, and his CQC.

Mission start. Standard Operating Procedure: Procure on site.
Tina Natsumi As word of pursuers reaches Fang, he speaks into a mouthpiece at his side. "You know what to do."

Moments later, the mayor's voice comes booming out of the airship's speakers along with multiple speakers spread throughout the city. "Ccitizens of Virtua City! I know the past few months have been rough, but rest assured that I and the Virtua City Police Department take your safety as our utmost concern! That's why today, we've arranged for a little show to go with the blimp llaunch! Please, sit back and enjoy the show!"

YANG: Following the mayor's announcement, those in the cruiser notice their gang-affiliated pursuers. The two blondes in the vehicle, James and Tina, draw handguns and revolvers to start shooting the tires out, and the pursuers start swerving to avoid that gunfire. They notice Yang coming up from behind, them, though, and signal to two more motorcycles merging into that street. The motorcyclists converge on the bike, swinging chains around as they try to smash her right off the road!

REBECCA: The storage area is fairly normal for a storage area. There's lugagge scattered around, vacuum-packed packages of food stored in heavy crates, racks full of outlandish costumes that are likely meant for the on-board entertainment, and even crew uniforms for the cooking staff and security. The coast is fairly clear, but the storage room just leads to the main area of the airship where everyone's busy eating, drinking, and watching various forms of live entertainment.

NANOHA: Luckily, not too many gunners notice her presence just yet. They're busy firing on the cop cruiser below, a few of them grunting and falling off the roof for no discernible reason after getting shot in the chest or arm. It'd be fairly easy to back up the cruiser pursuing the blimp, but it's likely she would get spotted and targetted easily after that. It'd also be rather easy to get on board the airship itself, since there doesn't appear to be any sort of anti-air batteries or anything like that.

It's a luxury blimp, not a battle zeppelin.

CORONA and STAREN: The biplane is a little harder to hide among the fireworks considering it's a freaking biplane. The eyes on the ground point it out, and some of the mobsters on the rooftops start firing at it with assault rifles. Thanks to his proximity to the biplane (and also being a cat guy on a flying broom), Staren too becomes a target for the gunners below. They're gaining on the blimp rapidly and can probably get on fairly easily, but a stealthy entry might not be the way to go at this point. Still, they can see plenty of ways onto the ship proper thanks to an open loading bay and multiple sightseeing decks to choose from.

EGGMAN: And then an airship lands on the airship anyway. The few passengers on the blimp watching TV instead of gorging themselves stare at the news feeds along with several of the people on the ground (probably not including the unconscious ones, though), but Eggman's announcement is soon met with cheers thanks to the mayor playing it all off as a show and not him screwing up on security AGAIN.

Fang does not sound so pleased, though, as his own weirdly artificial voice comes out through the speakers in all its low-quality glory. "So this was your plan, Mister Robotnik? How clever, but you'll witness the true power of E.V.I.L. soon enough. Now!"

BIG BOSS: That car should be a massive warning sign, but his approach ends up getting covered by Eggman's blimp being a little harder to ignore than the flying car coming up below it. The suit will easily let him blend into the crowd, although a few people on the deck do point and gawk at him before clapping.

Apparently, they think he's part of the show as well. Only two of them are around to see his dramatic entrance, but he's probably safe to head into the main area of the airship or even go for a precarious climb to reach another deck all together.
Tina Natsumi EVERYONE: The fliers approaching the airship aren't the only people flying around today. Several people in armored suits with jetpacks dive off various sightseeing decks, doing a few impressive flips before soaring into the air. They circle around the VC blimp on their way up to the Egg Assault Blimp, then start firing at it with assault rifles and even a rocket launcher with reckless abandon!

This is all a show, of course, right? Those explosives aren't actually going to come anywhere near either of these airships, right?! The people on board are a mixture of antsy and excited, largely depending on how drunk they appear to be. Whatever the case is, though, everyone's going to be a little more wary, and they might start getting freaked out if things get too real for them.
Eggman      "Excuse me."

     "DOCTOR Robotnik."

     Eggman rubs his moustache inside his Egg Assault Blimp. "I didn't earn ten or fifteen doctorates to be called MISTER Robotnik, you half-witted hooligan."
Yang Xiao Long     Yang jukes around the disabled cars, throwing her heavy bike around and skimming far too close to crashing more often than not. When the other motorcycles come and start trying to Road Rash her, the blonde just grins and fires pulses of kinetic force into their bike frames before they get a chance. She might not take them out, but she's not really aiming for that. Just trying to take some heat off of the local law enforcement.

    She might be Watch, but that doesn't mean she can't play nice with the law now and then.
Rebecca Chambers Upon realizing where the storage room is located, Rebecca decides to take it upon herself to don a disguise, thanks to the impeccably placed ones that are there. "Just a moment here..."

Rebecca steps behind some crates to give herself a little privacy as she takes the time to get into a disguise that she finds fits her quite well.

After all is said and done, Rebecca steps out again, this time wearing the outfit of a security guard. She looks in a reflective surface and takes a moment to adjust her hair. "There, now I look the part," She says with a smirk as the now-disguised medic walks out of the storage room and into the main area. Hopefully her disguise will keep her from looking out of place here as she attempts to find out where things are going down.
Nanoha Takamachi     <Master.>

    Even as her Device warns her, Nanoha slows to a hover as she looks up at the newly arriving blimp, "I see it..." It's kind of hard not to, what with that rather painful colour scheme.

    As the hologram appears in the air, Nanoha blinks a little, "Ah, I remember him..." Nanoha's only run into Eggman once before. But it was a bit of a memorable moment, given his unique style.

    But as Eggman's supervillain speech drags on, Nanoha looks concerned. She's not entirely sure of the politics going on between the two villainous factions, but Eggman's interference could make the successful handling of the bomb more difficult.

    Already peripherally aware of the other elites here, some which seem just as intent on stopping the bomb as her, Nanoha asks her Device, "Think we should clear the air?"

    Raising Heart chimes in response, <Shoot them down.>

    Nanoha nods enthusiastically, "Right!" The aerial mage bursts forward again, once more picking up speed as she closes in on the two merging airships. She whips her hand out to the side, several orbs of pink appearing around her. And with another wave of her hand, they all go shooting forwards, flying towards those encroaching tendrils in an attempt sever them before they can do whatever it is they are designed to.
Corona Arclite Stealthy? Hahah. They think they were trying to be stealthy. Wrong gadget wielding profession.

The biplane tilts to one side, precariously close to being completely on its side, as gunfire barks through the air from below. The sparks of bullets hitting the precautionary metal panels just blends in with the fireworks, if even visible at all. The evasive maneuver as the small aircraft briefly not directly approaching the blimp, giving it's two passengers a clear view of the second, more ominous airship descending onto the scene and Dr. Eggman making a grandious display of his announcement.

"Ah hate when a second nogoodnik shows up to complicate things," Corona grumbles to herself. "Reckon we're gonna have to leave the bomb to someone else to deal with. THAT thin' could make a mess of the whole dang city without it!"
"Okay, but I don't know how close I can get with all this action in the air." Despite the complaining Windrose banks hard to the right and slightly up to realign towards the Egg Assault Blimp.
"Just gotta get close enough," Corona replies, as she tucks her hat away so she doesn't loose it and then climbs over her pardner and up onto the center of the upper wings.

Don't worry, it's not entirely impromptu wing walking, even if that looks like it belongs in part of the 'show'. There's an audible *cling clang* as the magnetic soles of her boots activate against the metal frame of the biplane. Corona stands upright, blonde hair flaring out behind her, and thankfully goggles keeping smoke and debris out of her eyes.

It's not very intimidating at first appearances as she pulls out what just looks like an oversized revolver, giving the chamber a swat with one hand to spin it and then holding the gun out to aim.

Except that's not actually a chamber of bullets, it's actually a small generator. Which would be why when she starts firing shots, it's a volley of energy beams at the side of the Egg-craft, trying to take out some turrets so they can get closer.
Staren     Staren sees a car fly ahead and disgorge someone onto the airship. At first he assumed it was Eggman's, but that definitely wasn't one of Eggman's robots jumping off! That might have been Big Boss...

    Hmm. Big Boss wants to explode the blimp, so why is he getting on board?

    Staren could fight Big Boss, but win or lose, Big Boss could escape and then blow up the blimp.

    No, he needs to find that bomb and disarm or destroy it. Now, where would you put a bomb on this thing? Near passengers? Cargo? The gas envelope? Did they use hydrogen? Staren has his AI look up what public information is available about the airship; ideally floorplans and type of gas used.

    While it's working on that, Staren flies off the plane to an entrance near the center of the ship. Once there he can deploy drones to search the ship for the bomb!
Big Boss Big Boss is on deck now. The same deck Staren flies to. He ignores the passengers, and eyes security for guns in case a fight breaks out. But it doesn't - they think this is part of the show.

So Staren gets his attention. As Staren starts to release drones, Big Boss steps in the way...

He's tall. If any try to fly over him, he reaches up to knock them out of the air. "I'm sorry if you think it'll be that simple. Why are you here?"

"What are you getting out of this?"
Eggman      Nanoha and Corona take to the air. Nanoha fires on the tendrils with her massive purple energy blasts; Corona fires her revolver full of lasers. Both of them are intercepted by the flying Egg Drones, which seem to exist only to get in the way of such things - they don't bother shooting back, merely gliding into the way of the attacks and erupting in showers of sparks. Bubbles containing small animals drift down from on high as they explode. That's weird. That's really weird.

     "Ahhhh, right on schedule."

     In the cockpit of the blimp, Eggman rubs his hands together menacingly. "I am always eager to entertain enterprising explorers, even in exceptionally inconvenience intervals in evil engineering. Fortunately, I thought ahead."

     "GET A LOAD OF THIS!"

     The blimp...opens.

     The top of it transforms.

     From all around the blimp, the robots begin to reconfigure themselves. They link up with the blimp. Before their eyes, pathways start forming. Traps. Maze corridors. Smashing spiked pits. Bouncing spiked balls. Robot bugs. Robots with guns.

     And then the whole thing closes in on them.

     "WELCOME, MY HEROIC HEADACHES!"

     "TO THE SKY HIGH ZONE!"

     The space closes in, too cramped to fly. From in front of them, the walls begin to move.

     Eggman's voice echoes over loudspeakers. "This devilish maze was personally designed for the sake of eradicating that irritating hedgehog. You'll be a perfect test case."

     A set of turrets pops up from the walls.

     They open fire, slow-firing laser beams lancing out of them in rhythmic disorder. Around the corner, some robots are emerging.

     This is a predicament alright.
Staren     Staren sighs as Big Boss gets in the way. "Who says I have to get anything out of it?" If they're standing here talking, Big Boss isn't advancing his plan either. Hopefully.

    "You really want to know? This blimp is full of people that, to my knowledge, are not so evil as to deserve death. The Multiverse is full of folks like them and their families, who lack the power we have to go around forcing the world into the shape we want. If noone stands up for them, then the Multiverse will be a sad and depressing place indeed, devoid of hope." Staren shakes his head. "And I can't bear to let it become such."

    "What about you, what are YOU getting out of blowing up these people?"
Tina Natsumi YANG: The Road Rash duo is much better in theory than in practice when it comes to deing with someone that can shoot energy out of her fists. Or gauntlets. The difference is largely academic since whatever the case is, the motorcyclists go tumbling head over ass several times over while their vehicles crash into nearby buildings. Tina and James both flash her a thumbs up, the latter holding his hand up in a 'call me' gesture before they both turn to start firing on the gangsters on the rooftops.

The cruiser itself, meanwhile, is headed towards a conveniently located ramp. It'll let the cruiser clear an intervening river, but it's nowhere near fast enough to actually get them on board the airship. If Yang was particularly ballsy about her riding, though...!

REBECCA: When she comes out of the storage room, attention is already scattered all around. Some of the diplomats are still too busy gorging themselves on five-star cuisine while others are clapping and cheering for the QUALITY of the on-board entertainment. Rebecca does find herself being pointed out by a couple of the other suited guards from a distance, though.

To be fair, she doesn't really look the part of a grizzled henchman or even a dirty mobster even with the suit on. Instead of the guards themselves going after her, though, it's a pair of martial artists with their hair tied back in topknots and wearing flame-design pants. Apparently, they're intent on sticking to the 'show' lie, and they come out Rebecca with successive flying jump kicks complete with high-pitched kiais!

NANOHA: Luckily, worrying about villain politics is not a thing she really needs to worry about here. It's a pretty straightforward situation: A blimp affiliated with an entity literally calling itself E.V.I.L. Inc. is being hijacked by another blimp owned by a superdoctor with a very distinct egg visual style.

Simple stuff. The men in the jetpacks aren't going to complain about their sudden magical backup, at least! Still, how long can she trust them not to shoot her if they're part of the other villainous faction?
Tina Natsumi CORONA: Thanks to Eggman's intervention, physically getting onto the (first) airship has become significantly easier. Those on board and below are still gawking, of course, since things are continuing to take a turn towards the nonsensical with literal animal-people joining the scene.

The Aero-Divers are starting to learn to not question these kinds of things any more.

STAREN: As with the others, getting on the airship is the easy part. Finding information on it is the hard part. It's shaped like a regular airship, but it's incredibly roomy for its size. It's a wonder it's able to fly at all, but fly it does!

Perhaps more distressingly, the entire thing is being kept afloat with helium. The drones are going to have a hell of a time actually finding anything, though, between the sheer number of people moving about to watch the fights, getting into fights, and Big Boss himself moving to intercept them!

BIG BOSS: The passengers and security don't give him a second look aside from those that saw him during the initial landing. He could easily pass for security or one of the dignitaries between the suit, the eyepatch, and that grizzled look he has going on. On closer inspection, meanwhile, the guards posted around in the interior of the airship don't appear to be carrying firearms. Batons and tonfas, yes, and a few even have combat knives, but no guns. The armored jetpack guards, meanwhile, are a little busy firing on Eggman's blimp from the outside, and a few latecomers are on their way towards the deck past him to try and join up with their allies.

EGGMAN: When the blimp transforms, the onlookers are once again stunned. Even Fang's tinny tone is conspicuously absent at the sheer mechanical genius behind making something that can not only interlink with the existing airship, that can not only house a wide variety of independently moving hazards and robots, that can not only shoot FREAKING LASERS...

And somehow remain flying this entire time.

The Aero-Divers are out of their league here. They give each other looks from behind their visored helmets, make a few vague hand gestures, then start gliding back into their own airship.
Big Boss "Who deserves death is objectively immeasurable, yet we kill anyways. You yourself do so - you have deemed yourself judge, jury, executioner when it matters to you." Big Boss says, coldly, as he grabs a hors d'oeurve by a passing-by waiter and pops it into his mouth. Mm, sausage.

"I have a view of a better world. To accomplish such, this blimp must explode at the required destination."

"If you simply stand up for the people who can't shape the world themselves, why are you in the Concord? Why are you in a leadership position? What do you get out of all of it? That is more an ideal of the Watch, or the Paladins."

Big Boss might actually also be trying to distract Staren. Talking is cheap, after all.
Rebecca Chambers "Bad choice, Becky," Rebecca says as she realizes the gig is up before it even started. One of the martial artists knocks Rebecca down, but that means the other one misses her completely. The kick lands square in her torso, leaving her gasping for air for a moment as she attempts to get back up, all while realizing her kevlar vest most likely didn't do much good against a foot made of steel.

Two against one would be bad enough, but given that these guys are masters of martial arts, Rebecca knows that she's way beyond outnumbered. Thinking quickly, Rebecca takes out a small chemical flask from her pouch and throws it at the ground between herself and the martial artists.

The explosion is small, but enough to generate some smoke and hopefully give Rebecca a chance at getting some distance while she tries to find the control room for the blimp. "Gotta stop this somehow."
Corona Arclite There's something you don't see every day. Of all the maniacal mechanical nightmares Corona has seen in her time this is pretty impressive, in a somewhat terrifying way. Also really gets the point across that this is an appropriately Big Deal to contend with.

That it's an increasingly restrictive space for flying becomes a moot point when the turrets fire. Windrose is trying to keep the plane stable long enough to get Corona close, and that gets a couple of good shots right up the proverbial nose for the trouble. Black oily smoke belchs out of the main engine as the prop starts to sputter in fits, and the biplane wobbles. "Oh, that ain't good. Get yerself grounded somewhere safe." Corona disengages the magnetic soles, and runs along the length of the wing as the plane starts to bank away. She leaps off to disappear into the closing self-constructing stage as the damaged plane barely skims free of the final walls. Windrose can at least get out over the water before the plane fails entirely and not crash into anything too important.

As soon as she's clear on the inside Corona fires out her grappler to snag some of the new infrastructure that's risen around them, and swing down with that to bleed off more of her own moment. By the time she releases it she's moving slow enough to just plant her heels and skid slightly on the deck. Or floor. Or whatever you call it.

The laser revolver is holsters, and Corona pulls out her hat to replace it on her head, nudging it between her ears and giving it a light tug at the end to position it perfectly.

"Credit where it's due, that's purdy impressive."

This time she pulls out a much bigger and elaborate handgun. More like handcannon really.

"But don't be countin' all yer eggs in one basket just yet."

Corona grabs the action of her modified gun and pulls on it and pulls the trigger at the same time. And holds it, so instead of repumping after each round the handcannon loudly fires repeatedly with shots of fiery plasma at the turrets and robots. "Seriously, what kinda hedgehog takes this kinda madness?" The only ones she knows are kinda slow and bristly.
Yang Xiao Long     Yang just winks back at James, and fires a couple of ranged slugs up at the rooftop shooters. They're tightly packed, but low yield explosive bolts, slow moving by bullet standards, but a surprise if you're not expecting them to literally detonate in your face.

    She then sees the cruiser aiming for the ramp... pulls up in a hard brake maneuver and turns back around. She guns the engine to about where she nailed the Road Rash duo, half-donuts again and guns the engine full bore, ducking low and opening the throttle all the way... she's not... is she?

    Yang might not be able to fly, but give her a ramp and she'll do a damned good impression. She's aiming to smash through a window, or something on the blimp, performing another Akira slide to bleed the speed she needed for the maneuver and then dismounts quickly, looking around for hostiles in the immediate vicinity.
Nanoha Takamachi     Nanoha floats there in the air, watching with an impressed look as the airship proceeds to transform. Soon the robots form with the altering ship, forming those corridors and traps. Finding herself suddenly enclosed within the assembled structure, Nanoha slowly floats down to stand upon the now solid surface below her.

    Nanoha rubs her chin, "This is impressive. Such rapid construction in the air. It would take a VERY accomplished Mage to pull off something similar."

    But Nanoha then sighs quietly, before continuing, "Unfortunately, as much as I might find the idea of trying to run your maze fun, Doctor Eggman, this is just not the time for it."

    The turrets open up with their lasers, Nanoha raising her hand. A spell circle appears beyond it, forming a defensive barrier. Some of the beams slice across it, though the number of turrets make it hard for Nanoha to block them all. A few catch her from different angles, leaving scorch marks across her white combat dress. Nanoha winces as she steps to the side to try and shift her defense to cover those angles too. As she does so, she asks, "Raising Heart, can you get us a target vector?"

    Raising Heart chimes, <Calculating...>

    In the meantime, Nanoha briefly dismisses her defensive barrier as she moves to offense. She raises her staff above her head, several pink orbs appearing above her. She calls out, "Axel Shooter!"

    The orbs burst, firing a number of beams of light. They streak out towards the turrets, trying to silence them before they can do much more harm.
Staren     Staren nods at the judge-jury-executioner comment. "We measure as best we can. Someone has to. Refusing is just passing the buck to those willing -- with no guaruntee they share your values."

    Staren waves a hand dismissively as the other factions are mentioned. "I spent a decade in the Union. They meant well but they didn't THINK, they just did whatever they felt a storybook hero would do, rather than thinking out how to make things better. Oh, they both align when it's something like taking down a tyrant or a man-eating monster, but it's a limited view. After all, in story books, heroes only react, setting right the wrongs made by others; they don't look at the natural state of things and say 'How can I make this BETTER?'"

    Staren shakes his head. "The Watch, as far as I've seen, is the same in that regard. The Paladins think a little more big picture; whether it shows commendable caution or holds them back from quick and decisive action is neither here nor there, but where they've placed their faith is in governments that change slowly and can't adapt to the Multiverse."

    "The Concord, as much as it means occasionally being exasperated by colleagues at times and being asked again and again if we're villains... doesn't hold itself back out of fear that others know better or that they might change the world too much, but DOES limit what evils its members can do -- certainly more than the Confederacy ever did, even if only because Priscilla wants good PR."

    "I am free to do good as I see fit there, as long as it doesn't require the unlimited resources of the Union. You know anywhere else I'd be constantly dealing with naysayers who decry making the world better as 'playing god' or 'meddling in things man wasn't meant to know' as soon as it becomes more complex than just punching the right bad guy."

    Staren sighs and looks around. "So. You said you need this blimp to blow up at the right place. Do the people still need to be on it? Where IS the right place, anyway?"
Big Boss "The Watch's belief is that Elites and non-Elites are no different." Big Boss corrects. "They should not be treated differently, or allowed to be abused or trampled on simply because of power. We are, therefore, an interventionist organization to that extent." And then, at the 'punching the right bad guy comment, he squints.

"You are aware that I, the man you're opposing, is the leader of the Watch, correct?"

And then Staren asks the question. "It is optimal for dignitaries and the mayor to be on this blimp. The right place is the destination - Peru." The optimal comment might catch Staren's eye.
Eggman      Corona grabs a strange yellow ladder and swings down onto the floor to bleed momentum. It's hard and metal, with flashing lights pointing forward. The turrets fire on her and Nanoha; she rolls past them while Nanoha deflects them. They return fire with their own weaponry, blasting the turrets to pieces. Axel Shooter carves pink lines through the flashing lights, illuminating the field better; Corona's repeating cannon joins it, adding to the lighting. No animals pop out of these. Huh.

     It's not a long run forward. It's a twisting one, but it's not a long one. The maze walls are enormously resiliant, and it's clear that just *blasting* through won't work - at least, not in the time they have. The blasts left after their gunshots is proof of that - black marks on the walls.

     The run takes them up and left through a series of spiked balls that hover up and down, menacingly. On the far end is a pneumatic piston with a spike attached to it in front of the door, hammering forward. The counter continues to tick down above them, a new one popping out every so often to remind them of their progress as the Egg Assault Blimp lowers itself towards the EVIL Inc blimp. Its tendrils begin to open like the maw of a squid - ready to grab it and squeeze it and drag it into itself, or up against itself.
Tina Natsumi REBECCA: The smoke bomb works wonders for several reasons!  One: The martial artists don't know what it is, and they assume it's some kind of explosive as they backflip several times to give themselves to escape from the likely explosion. Two: By the time they realize it's a smoke bomb, it's gotten rather hard to see where Rebecca is going.

The downside, however, is that it's starting to shake up the onlookers. "Wait, isn't this supposed to be a show? I can't see a thing!" "Just wait. I bet there'll be lasers any minute now."

She'll need to find the control room fast if she wants to make any headway  before more guards catch up. Luckily, the airship is fairly easy to navigate, and all that stands between her and the control room is three hallways full of armed guards and three sets of stairs separating each of the hallways heading up.

Also, bathrooms. You can't have enough bathrooms. She'll have to move fast, though, since those martial artists can be heard running after her from around a corner!

CORONA: There's the lasers again. Granted, they're outside the airship rather than the area that Rebecca's in, but they show up soon enough to distract the observers from the mayor's plot hole for the time being. One of the Aero-Divers, having given up on trying to comprehend the whole situation, has even grabbed a camera to start floating around and tracking her path along Eggman's stage in real time.

Someone has to do this for the people.

NANOHA: The flying magical mom gets her own Aero-Diver camera crew trailing her moves as well, albeit with a lot more of a wide berth thanks to the lasers she's shooting around and those flying at both her and Corona from Eggman's combat stage. It's certainly providing a good show for the people watching this from home and inside the airship.

Unfortunately, it's also doing a bang up job at keeping the rest of the police force from joining in the chase. Maybe. Why else would Michael, James, and their faux-cowgirl accomplice be the only ones chasing this thing?

YANG: On one hand, Yang doesn't quite get her window to smash through. On the other hand, there's plenty of deckspace to go around to land on, and there's even plenty of glass to crunch for that satisfying crunching noise when her bike slides to a stop.

On the other other hand, there's also several entertainers staring at her. Two giant wrestlers in particular, one with an eye mask and one with a red leopard print shirt, are the ones to approach her, cracking their knuckles and grunting menacingly before charging with their own massive arms swinging right for the stands!

The stands are the outside of the airship.
Staren     Staren shrugs as Big Boss points out his rank. "I was forthright with August, too."

    "Ah. See, I don't necessarily oppose you specifically -- as you mention, we're both here with interventionist goals."

    "If the blimp's not going to explode until we reach Peru, then it sounds like we have plenty of time to talk." Of course, Big Boss COULD just be stalling, but... Staren hopes that conflict can be avoided after all.

    "So. Why does the Watch want these people, and whoever's standing too close to the dock in Peru, dead?"
Big Boss "This is not a Watch mission." Big Boss looks over to the smoke. Hm. This might be bad - hopefully, Eggman can handle it - as he turns back to Staren, replying. "This is a more personal mission, though it is not against the Watch's interests. The end goal is, however, simple."

"EVIL Inc's leader will be destroyed after all this ends, and I have no qualms if Dr. Eggman takes it over. The dignitaries are the best people for the job - their death isn't required, but useful."

Otherwise, he's being silent. It seems he's blunt, but cagey. Not the type of man to play all his cards up-front.
Tina Natsumi EVERYONE: The airship is starting to reach the outer city limits now, just barely passing over the dock where the shitshow with the ship happened months ago. Tina's Persona, a not-quite-giant-but-eight-feet-is-pretty-good robot decked out in red white and blue, appears behind her, and Michael and James don't really get a chance to voice their objections as she and Uncle Sam fling them right onto the deck.

... Right into a pack of armed guards, no less. An all-out brawl starts on that side of the deck, and the cheering continues as the semi-controlled chaos continues. It's not clear if the dignitaries think this is all a show, or if they're just cheering on the fights. At least they're not panicking yet.
Nanoha Takamachi     Nanoha takes a moment to recover after the turrets are blown up. As Corona proceeds to run onwards, Nanoha follows for a short while. As they reach the floating spikes, Nanoha switches from running to take to the air again. Even in this confined space, she proves agile as she attempts to maneuver her way past those spikes. She almost makes it through unharmed, but the last one manages to move fast enough to send one of its spikes cutting into Nanoha's side as she flies past.

    The pointy weapon manages to pierce through Nanoha's Barrier Jacket, drawing blood in the process. Nanoha quickly darts past the the slamming piston and through the door, before slowing down and landing once again. Nanoha moves a hand to where the spike had pierced. Bringing it back, she glances at the bit of red on her glove. That's not good.

    Raising Heart finally chimes up, <Calculations complete, Master. We are ready.>

    Nanoha nods to her before looking at Corona, "You go on ahead, I'm going to try something else." Nanoha plants her feet more firmly against the ground of the maze, a large spell circle appearing beneath it. She continues, "If we split up, we can increase the chances of one of us getting through." Nanoha raises her staff, pointing it not towards the obstacles they're facing, but a plain wall. The path of which calculated to lead straight through Eggman's ship, based upon what they could see during its transformation.

    Magic begins to gather at the tip of Nanoha's staff, quickly growing in size as she pours her power into the spell. Nanoha then calls out, "Photon Smasher!" The spell bursts forth, the rush of magic blasting towards the wall. It strikes with a flash.

    But that's only the beginning, as the spell doesn't end. It's continuous, pouring more and more magic into that structure as Nanoha attempts to force her way out of the maze with brute strength.
Staren     Staren looks around, then back to Big Boss. Eggman mentioned he plans to drop said leader out of his airship after all this, or at least into an oubliette or something. But maybe iut's not time to reveal that.

    "Come now. If you want a specific person dead you have plenty of people equipped to do it. Is he on this blimp? We could go kill him right now. Why bother with a bomb and taking these folks out too?"
Corona Arclite Corona Arclite huffs softly. "Looks like we ain't got much choice, fer now." She's not even sure who the other gal is, but enemy of the enemy and what not. Especially when you're trapped in a maze together.

She pulls a power magazine from her seemingly bottomless supply, ejects the one from her handcannon, and locks the new one in.

Then takes off sprinting.

She jumps at the first pit, not directly over it because of the obstacles, but to the side and parkouring along the wall of the maze to get around.
At the same time she fires her gun and, despite the weird angle it would be, headshots through two robots waiting on the other side before jumping back down to the floor.

A few more steps to keep her momementum going and she then stoops low, going into a slide under several of the bobbing spike balls. Between the legs of a robot, and blasting it in the backside as she hops and twirls to her feet.

Corona holds up her gun to blow some smoldering fumes off the muzzle. "Is that the worst ya got, Doc? Seems a bit simpli--"

That's when the piston with the spikes comes down hard. *WHOOM* To that camera it probably even looks like Corona got crushed by the mechanism!

At least until it rises back up. Corona is standing there, though she looks a bit frazzled. And missing her shoulderpads and part of the back end of her reinforced duster. Because they're laying crushed and useless from being caught in the piston when she -barely- avoided becoming a vixen pancake. "--Ah stand corrected."

Cue one of those timer panels popping up. Ticking down. Until Corona holds her blaster out to the side and shoots said panel out of annoyance. Then holsters the blaster.

Because two can play at this game, so to speak. Instead she pulls out what is best described as a water-shooter that's been given a steampunk makeover. Except this one doesn't shoot water. Instead it shoots some manner of gooey, grungy liquid that upon contact entangles itself into sticky adhesive strands likely to gunk up anything they get caught up in. Like moving parts and gears. Like the machinery to operate those traps. It doesn't turn completely hard, rather, pushing or pulling the compound makes it just squish and squash and get more clingy with every stretch.

Guess we'll see if Eggman can handle someone trying to actually disable his traps instead of just smash their way through them.
Yang Xiao Long     Yang grins at the pair of wrestlers. "Hey boys, you wanna go a round with me?" she asks as they approach, obviously intending to knock her back off of the airship.

    Yang's still hurt. It's not obvious from the outside, and she's certainly not showing it willingly, but as the two guys come swinging in for her the brawler's dodge is a bit more sluggish than normal. She takes a glancing blow from one of those huge guys and gets sent sprawling across the deck, scooping herself back up then launching herself at the one with the eye mask on a recoil assisted leap. She lays in with a steady flurry of punches, each one backed up with a burst of force from her gauntlets, the shotgun report going off with each punch she swings, whether it actually connects or not.
Big Boss "If I wanted one man dead, he would be dead in a much smoother way than this. I am not a supervillain, Wiremu." Is all Big Boss responds, as he checks his watch. This is taking a while. What's happening out there?
Eggman      Eggman's machines aren't just machines. As the goo hardens over them and they come to a stop, Corona gets a glimpse of the underlying mechanisms. It's hard to see when they're in motion, but like this?

     They're *art*.

     There's the sense that if she opened these things up she'd find the roboticist version of the Mona Lisa. This stuff is *unbelievable*. The mechanisms are perfect, perfect in their artisanship. They've been constructed not from just brute-force robots hammered together in a quick configuration but from some blueprint or template that came long before, refined over and over and over until the trap becomes something...wonderful. Unbelievable. Unimaginable. Staring into this is like staring into a master-class on engineering, like looking through the Louvre of electronics. Even just the *pumping mechanisms* are so refined as to be artisanship.

     And all of this in the span of thirty seconds.

     Meanwhile, Nanoha opens fire on the wall. She blows a hole through with as much force as she can muster, knocking it away and narrowly blasting the flying cameraman (harmlessly, though; obviously, those beams don't HURT people) out of the sky.

     Eggman clucks his tongue.

     "Well, now. If you're going to cheat, then so will I."

     He flicks a switch. He pulls a lever. He wheels a dial. He tugs on a whistle.

     The stage unfolds again, opening the top to release them.

     Oh, wait. Not to release *them*.

     To release the flying UFO with arms and a moustache that was waiting patiently in the boss arena.

     Meanwhile, the tentacles latch onto the EVIL Inc blimp.

     The climax.

     The UFEgg soars forward, unleashing a veritable barrage of missiles, bombs, and explosives, raining them down upon both the grounded Corona and the undoubtedly-soon-to-be-flying Nanoha. Its moustache menaces with spikes of metal hair.
Rebecca Chambers So many guards and so little time. All versus one S.T.A.R.S. operative. Fortunately, Rebecca is good at tactical positioning and taking out enemies as best as she can. "Bring it on!" She yells as she double-checks to make sure she's got her MP5K at the ready as well. Her primary goal is to reach the control room and bring the blimp under control. If that doesn't work, she's thinking she'll try to find an escape route.
Tina Natsumi YANG: The wrestlers certainly aren't the dodgy types like she is, but at their size, they don't really need to be. The masked one laughs when she goes flying, but quickly eats his.. Well, it's not really a word, but he does eat several fists to the face. The leotard-wearing wrestler, seeing his opportunity, moves with surprising swiftness as he leaps behind Yang, then runs in to try and body check her into the masked wrestler!

STAREN: It seems that for all that talking, he's starting to get on the nerves of the observing diplomats. "Less talking, more fighting!" "You're just going in circles!"  "Chef! You know what to do!"

One of the hibachi chefs working from inside a carefully sealed glass room shuts off the fire to his display. He steps out with a cleaver, then bows once before charging right for Staren. He doesn't look like much at a glance, but he's surprisingly swift, and that cleaver looks incredibly sharp!

EVERYONE: The airship is starting to pick up speed. It's over the water entirely now, and the city is starting to get smaller and smaller as time goes on.

MUSIC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_r1xFfd8Jk

"It seems my plan has been ruined. But I can at least finish you!" Fang's familiarly low-quality voice modulator comes on once again rather suddenly as he appears, flying off the side of the airship at a massively higher speed than his Aero-Diver compatriots.

It seems he's not particularly happy with how this is all going. Why would he be? Eggman is stealing his organization, his thunder. Big Boss is stealing his ship, his plan, his thunder as well. Then there's all these would-be heroes piling on his ship, and...

It's not a fight that looks like he can really win here. "If you think you're going to usurp E.V.I.L. Inc. from me... Think again!"

He starts firing rockets at the blimp. This could be a problem if any of those actually hit, considering it's a pressure-filled blimp carrying concentrated explodium somewhere on board.
Staren     Staren sighs. "So then it's not really about the head of EVIL Inc, is it? What have these folks on this airship done that requires their deaths? I'm not so ignorant as to assume them all above reproach until their crimes are proven in a court of law, but come on. There has to be a better way to resolve this than us just fighting eachother and then whoever wins does what he wants."

    "I'm not against everything the Watch does just because I think August made a couple decisions I disagreed with. We've even worked together -- that whole business with getting me assasinated STARTED when I helped a Watch mission to take down a corrupt corporate fatcat, after all."

    And then things start going sideways. Staren turns to face the chef and widens his stance as the blimp shakes from rockets, but he's still talking to Big Boss. "Your alleged target is here. Will you let him do what he wants or stop him? I'll be back with you in a moment."

    Staren tries to parry the cleaver with a gauntlet. It's SHARP, but just how STRONG is the metal? Maybe Staren will end up with a cleaver stuck in his armor, but he's willing to bet the attack will break or at least dull the cleaver -- in the meantime, his other arm comes in to grab the chef and electrify him.

    "What kind of chef cuts up CAT in his restaurant? Honestly, have you no class? You're just disgracing yourself in front of these fine people!"
Corona Arclite Corona's ears perk up, though for once it is because she's -not- hearing what she usually does after spraying that gunk into a moving machine. She was anticipating the screeching cacophony of gears and pistons grinding to a halt until they broke themselves apart. "Huh.." She pulls her goggles up to her forehead for a clearer look, curiousity more than gotten the better of her. She's just got to investigate why it wasn't the disaster of crashing parts and busted electronics as expected.

Instead, when she peers into the ingress left by one of the trap parts seizing partway open there is only stillness admist the adhesive strands. Even the simplest of components a piece of mechanical beauty, currently frozen still. It's impressive to a point that words can't really express it.

Madman or not, Eggman -knows his stuff-. It's actually a pleasant surprise, steps up from the hodgepodge of machinery and vengance she usually has to deal with from her adversaries.

The top of the maze opening up catches her attention, barely, and Corona pulls her gaze away long enough to look up and see the rediculously decorated flying saucer buzzing in. "..." Rubs her eyes a moment. No, she is seeing that, a moustached UFO. Looks back in the opening of the jammed trapworks.

Guess that's a really good example of not judging a book by the cover. Or egg by its shell in this case.

Oh, right, the thing is attacking too. Lasers zap into the deck as Corona barely hops out of the way of them. "Sunnova... Don't show me somethin' like that and then interrupt my admirin'!" She whips up her gun and opens fire, shooting several of the missiles out of the air, ducks as one of the limbs swipes at her, rolling off to the side and coming up onto her knee, lifting her gun, pulling the trigger.

Just as a bomb thumps into the end of the barrel. Corona's eyes widen too late to do anything else as the combination of blast and bomb explodes almost literally right in her face. There's a HUGE cloud of smoke and flames billowing out into the air, probably with an Eggman looking face on it, as a now very scorched Corona skids backwards on the ground.

She coughs, puts a hand on her head. Yep, hat is still there. Nevermind the rest of her is pretty well done at this point. She sits up with another cough, looks at the destroyed gun, and tosses it aside. "Welp." Fortunately she's got a rather -sizable- personal little armory.

Also fortunately Eggman calls a time out truce when it becomes apparent the blimp blowing up is more of a threat. Even a bloodied mess she's got enough gumption, looking up at the now not attacking UFEgg. "Hold still." She fires her grappler to grab onto the saucer and zip herself up. Not to attack, just to get on top so she's got a better vantage point.

Then she finally pulls out the -really big- gun she was getting ready. This one makes an audible thrumming sound as it fires, Corona using the vantage point atop the UFEgg to start picking off the missiles being fired at the blimp with her precision aim.
Yang Xiao Long     Yang continues her punch rush on the first guy. When Leotard Guy comes rushing in to body check her, she fires her next punch prematurely, flinging herself sideways so Leotard goes barreling into Eyemask. Hopefully they get each other tangled up, or aggro each other to give the blonde a breather.

    Yang's starting to look a bit winded already. "Man, I'm gonna get nowhere at this rate."
Nanoha Takamachi     Nanoha's spell manages to blast through the structure of the maze, providing access to the outside. The large beam of light fades and Nanoha releases a held breath. A cloud of exhaust gasses blasts out of the head of her staff and the aerial mage then proceeds to fly outside once more.

    Nanoha exits the maze amidst a blast of explosions fired by that floating moustached machine. She's briefly hidden from view, before zooming out of the resulting smoke. Coming to a stop, Nanoha is looking quite roughed up. Her barrier jacket scorched in a number of places, bits of it even completely blown up. But still, she's not quite out of the fight yet, still able to float there.

    Nanona ignores the cameras flying around, not having enough time to worry about them at this stage. She instead turns around to face Eggman's maze-ship once more. Seeing the UFO that managed to get off that large array of missiles, Nanoha frowns. Her Device also shows some concern, <It is strong, Master. Caution.>

    Nanoha smiles a little sadly at her partner, "I'm sorry, Raising Heart. I'm always doing stupid things that put you in danger."

    Raising Heart chimes back in response, <It is fine, my Master. I am to support you. Let's power up.>

    Nanoha takes in a deep breath, before swinging her staff out to the side and calling out, "Blaster Tw-" Nanoha suddenly pauses as a radio transmission comes in, "Eh!?" It's a that point that Nanoha sees what appears to be the leader of EVIL starting to shoot those rockets at the blimp.

    The very explosive blimp.

    "No!"

    Nanoha suddenly bursts forward at high speed, though she doesn't have far to go. As she flies she points her staff towards the blimp, saying, "Axel Shooter..."

    A dozen orbs appear in the air flying alongside Nanoha, then another dozen, and another. Finally Nanoha comes to a stop, finishing, "Avalanche Shift!"

    The large number of orbs begin to fire off beams, which dance through the air around the blimp and towards those rockets that Fang is firing at it. Nanoha is attempting to shoot them down before they can reach the airship.
Tina Natsumi REBECCA: When Rebecca starts straight up firing bullets, the guards almost all dive behind cover in unison aside from the one that gets shot up pretty hard. He's going to need a doctor soon.

"Holy shit, lady! You freaking nuts?!" "You trying to blow us all up?!" "Uh... Guys? It hasn't exploded yet." "... Oh."

When the guards realize that the helium in the airship isn't flammable on its own, they bring their own guns to bear. They're still careful with thier shots, though, since they still don't want to risk tearing holes into the blimp. Rebecca might need to find another way through to the control room if she's not confident in her ability to outshoot them!

YANG: Her maneuver is faster than the wrestlers can react, and they react... Very much like wrestlers when they slam into each other. Mask starts yelling at leotard, leotard starts shoving mask, and they start trading blows with each other that are decidedly less like wrestlers stomping the ground before each hit and more like bears mauling the everoving crap out of each other. It's actually pretty brutal, and the audience is eating it up.

STAREN: The hibachi chef's cleaver is sharp, but it's not extremely strong. It's pretty standard steel otherwise, but certainly enough to leave a mark, a nasty gash, or even worse! Luckily, he gets a hold of the chef and uses the power of SCIENCE to electrify him, but that electrification has almost everyone on board frekaing out.

"What's wrong with you?! Blimps are explosive!" "But we haven't exploded yet!" "But there's missiles outside!"

EVERYONE: The missiles fired by Fang, numerous as they are, aren't really even close to a match for the combined might of lasers and magic orbs blasting them down. There's only so many directions one person can fire from even if he is flying stupidly fast. He's still got a lot of those rockets in store, though, and after the next three or so, his next volleys of rockets start crackling with electricity and moving even faster! Just how many of those things does he have packed away, anyway?

Whatever the case is, just shooting the rockets might not be enough to stop Fang's menacing of the airship as it continues surging ever onwards at its relatively fast cruising speed. Virtua City is but a blip in the distance now, and land is just barely visible in the other direction.
Staren     Staren briefly raises his eyebrows in surprise at the cleaver cutting into his armor -- stronger than expected. But the chef is down now. He gives the bystanders a... 'What?' =_= look. "If you thought blimps were explosive, why are you on board one?" Then he waves a hand dismissively as he turns to the window. "Nevermind, I don't have time for this."

    Staren walks to the nearest window or egress, trusting the other heroes to continue handling the rockets -- although if explosives start hitting the vehicle he can maybe use his own to stop a fair bit of one volley and buy time -- For now, though, he just tries to get Fang in his sights and blast him with his sniper laser rifle. Dude needs to be stopped.

    If worst comes to worst and the blimp starts going down, Staren's reasonably certain he and the others can deal with it; That's how he remains so calm about this.

    Hopefully Big Boss didn't actually use explosives that are likely to go off /by accident/.
Nanoha Takamachi     As Nanoha's spell continues to fire its barage of beams at any of the missiles that Fang is firing, Nanoha darts forward through the air once me. She's zipping her way towards Fang directly. Not wanting to interupt the spell that's helping to intercept the missiles before they hit the blimp, Nanoha chooses an alternative means of attack.

    Swinging her staff out to the side, Nanoha quickly closes the distance to Fang. She calls out to him, "Stop this!" She then brings her weapon around in a quick strike towards the thrusters keeping the man in flight. Hoping that the impact will damage them, knocking them offline and leaving him vulnerable in the air.
Corona Arclite .. Sigh. Some people don't know when to quit.

Corona mutters, taps something on her arm device, and lifts the weapon again. This time it does some elaborate clicking and clacking of it's own to expand and elongate, until it's converted into some rediculous anti-material sniper rifle with a distinctly anachronistic sci-punk design.

Corona pulls her goggles back over her eyes, letting the targeting scope system sink up with the HUD display, then lifts the rifle. Takes aim. Pulls the trigger.

She's aiming at Fang, but not Fang himself. Instead she's aiming at his weapon, intending to blow the missile launcher right out of his hands with her exceptional marksman skills.

Best stop the problem at the source, after all.
Big Boss Well, the debate ends as Eggman decides he doesn't want to blow up the blimp. Big Boss grumbles internally, but the alternative is not advancing his plans for Virtua City and getting stopped entirely. No bueno.

So he grabs his pistol as Joe Fang starts firing at them, and moves to the edge of the dock. Wind's gonna be bad. He's no Ocelot, not by a long shot. But he has several shots. He can be lucky.

Six shots are aimed for the jetpack, to disable it. None of them hit Fang, though some may miss. For a normal man, this shot would be /impossible/.

For a soldier of Boss's capabilities? It's feasible.
Eggman      The only thing Eggman's robots that *aren't* deconstructing Sky High Zone are doing is floating down under Mr. Fang with a big net.

     Eggman is extremely committed to this particular entertainment.
Tina Natsumi Fang is not having a good start to the new year. It was supposed to be great, but... Really. His business partners turning on him and stealing his organization? A heroswarm trying to dismantle his carefully laid plans? Getting bounced around like a badminton... Net ball thing?

Really, he could have handled getting shot at by one or two people with regular guns. The cops on board the airship already have their hands full trying to stop those rockets, but Fang's gear is built more for speed than durability. Staren's laser sniping hits a wing, sending him spinning wildly in midair, and Corona's followup laser creates a small explosion that sends him careening out of control further. The staff smashes clean into Fang's jetpack, knocks him upwards and further interrupts the flow of power to his thrusters to keep him from controlling his fall at all.

Luck appears to be on his side, though, as the jetpack starts sputtering back to life... Just in time for Big Boss' shots to ring through the air. The first grazes the jetpack. With that as the leading shot, though, the next five all hit their mark, hitting it just so that chunks of the jetpack go flying every which way as it breaks apart while Fang drops out of the sky like a screaming rock.

And to top off the crap sundae, he lands in a comically large net. This day really couldn't get any worse. At least he can watch the airship sail right overhead, mere minutes away from sailing right over another city.

... At least, it would be minutes away if not for one of the missiles actually hitting the back end of the ship. There's a sizable explosion in the back, and the blimp starts acting less like a blimp and more like a really ritzy missile getting ever closer to making landfall.
Big Boss Fang is down, but the blimp is gonna explode. This is good.

There's gonna be a war.

As he makes his shots, Big Boss holsters his pistol, moves in his tuxedo, and moves for the side of the deck. The car is still following along in autopilot.

Taking a running jump that hurts because he's an older man, Boss leaps onto the car and pulls himself in, before setting it to return to the dropoff point for the vehicle.

Mission accomplished.
Eggman      Eggman's blimp simply detaches from the other one and rises up. The robots start dragging Mr. Fang up with them. Eggman is getting what he wanted out of this; taking the blimp was largely a theatric to distract Fang while his robots got what he *really* wanted.

     The robots taking over EVIL Inc, not the robots picking up Fang.

     That also is a thing he wanted, though.
Staren     Well, that's one problem dealt with. But the airship took a hit and is now going down. That's bad.

    This blimp is going down on HIS terms, noone else's. <"Someone get to the controls and stop this thing from going to any populated areas."> Staren radios.

    Then he flies up to the damaged part of the ship, deploying firefighting foam and using the matter manipulator to close up any structurally-important holes. Step one in buying time to deal with the bomb; Hopefully someone else can indeed make their way to the helm and steer it away from the city. That's step two.
Corona Arclite Oh snap, the Doc is making his exit.

Corona jumps off her perch to get out of his machine before it folds back up into an airship or whatever it's going to do to leave. No plane? No problem! Corona deploys a glider pack, so she can at least fall with style instead of crashing and burning.

Well, no burning, hopefully. She's aiming for the helm, that might still involve some crashing to get into.
Nanoha Takamachi     Nanoha stops her shooting spell, letting it fade away as Fang is no longer in any condition to continue firing on the blimp. She hovers there in the air, looking down as Fang is captured in that net deployed by Eggman. She starts to float down, intending to take the villian into custody.

    But Nanoha's attention is suddenly drawn by the sound of an explosion.

    "Huh!?" Nanoha looks over towards the blimp, seeing the damage caused by the missile and the airship beginning to lose altitude. This is definitely bad!

    Nanoha looks quickly between the netted Fang and the falling airship... "Nnnngh!"

    Nanoha turns, blasting away from Fang and heading towards the blimp. As she does so, she calls outs, "Blaster Two!" Four remote bits similar in appearance to the head of Nanoha's staff materialize in the air around her. She swings her hand forward, sending them bursting ahead. They split up, flying up to different points along the airship's hull.

    Nanoha herself flies down and underneath the craft. Planting her staff into it, a spell circle appears on the hull at the point of contact. Similar spell circles appear at the points where the Blaster Bits have attached.

    Nanoha then calls out, "ACS Driver!"

    Raising Heart chimes, <Charge.>

    Rocket flames suddenly burst out from the ports of the staff's head as well as the end. Similar flames blast out of the Blaster Bits. Nanoha visible struggles as she attempts to alter the blimps course.
Tina Natsumi With all the chaos going on inside and outside the airship, Eggman and Big Boss make their escape quite easily. At this point, nobody's going to even bother trying to save Fang, and tthey're all too busy freaking out over the airship-turned-missile to worry about who's leaving in what flying car.

Staren's foam stops the flames from spreading and eventually gets the fires under control, but the damage to the airship is done. It's losing altitude fast, but not quite as fast as before, and the previous boost of speed is still carrying it forwards rapidly even as wind resistance starts slowing it down.

The lack of a pilot is going to be an issue, but Corona might have more luck in the helm than the lackeys freaking out and fighting over the escape parachutes. She'll have a significantly easier time getting it under control once Nanoha applies magical brute force to the underside of the blimp, the whole thing starting to shake from the abuse the whole flying deathtrap has sustained through this entire trip.

The combined efforts of the Elites trying to stop it from turning the city into a crater finally bear fruit. Instead of exploding in Lima, it has a more gentle crashlanding near a more remote coastal town. There's a rather tense situation shortly after that landing, though, as the Peruvian military arrives in force to scope out the situation and ensure that this whole thing isn't a threat to their people's safety.

Surely the Elites here can prevent this from escalating, though, right? Probably.
Staren     Once they're on the ground, Staren announces (if not over intercom then over drones in the passenger area) that there is a bomb on the ship and to please vacate it as soon as possible.

    He tells the local military the same thing so they can execute whatever ordinance disposal procedures they have. As long as the military don't gun people down for some reason, he doesn't really care if the diplomats are detained for awhile -- they're lucky to be alive.

    He'll also happily stick around for a reasonable length of time, long enough to give them everything he has; a recording of what just happened and what information his drones have gathered so far, if asked for.
Corona Arclite Corona Arclite crashes into the helm to prevent a crash!

She rolls across the deck a bit with the landing, only to immeadiately spring onto her feet and lunge for the controls. Airships aren't her biggest thing, but as a machinist in general she doesn't need to be an expert top figure out what control to pull where and turn this dial that way to at least get the thing onto the ground without being exploded into little bits. She's seen Windrose do it enough times.

Yes, including the avoiding exploding part.
Nanoha Takamachi     Nanoha continues applying thrust against the airship as it makes a more survivable landing with the help of the others. Only once it's finally stopped does Nanoha relax, the rocket flames cutting out. Nanoha slowly floats down towards the ground, panting a little bit as her remote bits turn into sparkles of pink light.

    Finally Nanova drops to the ground, collapsing down into a sitting position as she tries to catch her breath. Given how much effort she put into everything, it's not surprising that she's looking rather tired after it all.

    Nanoha sits there, letting the others deal with getting the passengers off. As well as the locals. It's a shame that Eggman was able to get away with Fang. But at least the dignitaries were safely rescued. Which is good enough for Nanoha. But... That reminds her.