ic Heavy Mettle

[Gizmo]

The cyclone brought the dark haired guitarist to where the mosh pit would have been in front of the stage, the grassy area cleared of people as she approached and set down. Her hair fell to cover one of her eyes dramatically as she seemed to zero in on Eira, continuing to play the entire time. "You think a half dozen lessons at the strip mall makes you losers musicians? That you deserve all the attention and praise? That you earned fans getting tattoos of your band's name?!" 

 

Some of that arrogance seemed warranted as the notes she played came faster and faster, an intricate display of virtuoso skill backed by waves of palpable self righteous anger. The volume had grown to be deafening but somehow her words carried through it clearly. As her fingers flew across the strings people throughout the crowd and inside the bandshell clutched the sides of their heads, doubled over and clenched their hands or dropped to their knees. "I'll give you all a name to remember! The name of RAGE! APOCALYPSETTE!"

 

With a final power chord electricity in a kaleidoscopic rainbow of colours erupted from her guitar and chained from audience member to roadie to musician and onward, cascading back and forth across the festival. Unconscious bodies fell to the ground in its wake while the power solidified into three hulking forms.

 

On the stage itself something like a spider crab the size of a pickup truck spread its legs outward. Where the front of the crab's body would have been its form instead continued upward into a squat humanoid torso, topped by misshaped hammerhead shark head with a weirdly simian mouth sporting curving tusks. About ten yards away from Natalia and Pan a creature formed with far too many clawed limbs, a horrible rat king of bodies connected around a central point that sprouted upward in a segmented centipede ending in massive pincers. Finally, overhead huge batwings unfurled, attached to the body of an exaggerated jungle cat as its front limbs. From its shoulder blades behind the wings sprouted human-like arms with sabre sharp fingers while its maned head had the same curving teeth arcing outward from the corners of its mouth. All three were partially translucent, with outlines that vibrated in time with Apocalypsette's music and sparked with violent electricity.

[RocketLord]

"Chances are good for either," Pan quipped back at Natalia, then pointed to the punk rock woman as she called out. "But I think that she is the target!"

 

Music, monsters, people falling all around them. It all happened so fast, but the woman? The woman was the connecting pin, was she not. She was playing her music, and the creatures vibrated. 

 

Still standing among the panicking crowds, Pan decided to try something a bit subtle for now. Natalia might notice that he no longer cast a shadow, as it had left him, moving along the crowds before flying up at Apocalypsette where it spread out to catch her in it's grasp.

[Avenger Assembled]

Eira's wings spread wide, lightning crackling around her on-stage as girl finished a sudden transformation into machine, the illusion of organic flesh replaced by the hard reality of inorganic life. 

 

The monster in front of her was a problem, of course, but if it pursued her at her full speed that could only benefit the fragile non-combatants about. The real problem was the monster-summoner, and if she took out the monster-summoner, that could only benefit the others too. And if she got the monster-summoner's attention on her and not on her friends, well - her idea was beginning to sound better and better. She had never seen this girl before, but the anger, the demands for attention and recognition when other people were just trying to live their lives...it made something inside her head twist with frustrated, boiling recognition, powering the spite inside her. 

 

She pointed a metallic finger at the infernalist punk and hissed in a voice carried by the sound system she'd just finished modifying. "What are your threats - to one such as I - with a heart as cold as steel!" And then she took off, wings spread wide, the electrical energy of the stage's generator powering her up as she rocketed some five hundred feet in the air! She spun in the air and dropped down like a diving bird of prey, bringing her wings around and slashing a cut across the top of Apocalypsette's head. It was a blow hard enough to draw blood, and more importantly strike a blow against the vanity of the other girl. Eira hefted her trophy, a fairly substantial chunk of dark hair, and declared "HA!" 

[Fox]

When the crowd around her dropped, Nocturne was still standing - light played across the edges of her literal personal bubble, but she seemed otherwise dismissive and was giving her nails more attention than the villain or her monsters. "I wasn't aware this festival had an amateur night," she said to Pan, loud enough to be overheard.

 

Nails examined and found satisfying, she waved the hand outward; black and gold particles, like dust, brushed against Apocalypsette and suddenly gravity was more in than down, trying to drag her limbs and trap them against her torso. "Points for drama, I suppose; the presentation's good, but...really? Really."

[Gizmo]

"You @$#%!" Apocalypsette shrieked as she whirled on Angelic, eyes illuminated with hellish red light. She didn't seem to notice as her slashed hair writhed like snakes, tips glowing with vibrating kaleidoscopic light like her monsters as it grew back to its original length in the span of a few seconds. The blood seeping from the cut on her scalp, beginning to drip down her forehead and across one eye, was too dark and too thick. As Forever Boy's shadow lunged forward while the guitarist was distracted the hair moved on its own to swat it away as though it had been struck by a bullwhip. At the same time the telltale black and gold motes of Nocturne's power pushed inward against her before vibrating in time with the music and bouncing backward as demonic power threw off the gravity field's yoke. "I am going to literally melt your face off, you bottle blue groupie!"

[Gizmo]

While nearly everyone in the audience and on stage had collapsed in the summoning of the bizarre electric sound monsters and the handful left standing had fled or found what shelter they could, the roadie known as Soup had tossed an unconscious musician over each shoulder and was cautiously trying to figure out how to skirt around the crab clawed beast looming over him, scuttling slowly forward. He swallowed nervously, trying to keep his breathing under control before an armoured figure stepped smoothly between him and the creature, arms outstretched to bar the way.

 

Chitin indicated the way backstage with a sharp nod, then called out to Apocalypsette while continuing to act as a human shield. "So it seems like we're just sort of getting right in to it but like, I don't think we're super clear what you're trying to get revenge for? Specifically?" Talking he down was seeming pretty unlikely but he figured he might at least be able to buy some time and get some context; she seemed like someone who appreciated a chance to monologue.

 

Apocalypsette glanced away from Angelic just long enough to see who was addressing her, then did a double-take and rounded on the stage. "You?!"

 

The teenage inventor reflexively looked down at himself like someone had just demanded he explain his t-shirt. "...me?"

 

"How are you everywhere?! Why do you keep messing with me?!"

 

"Oh. Uh." Chitin tried to split the difference between giving her his polite attention and not turning his back on the squat shark-headed thing as it clacked its huge claws open and shut. "To be fair you keep having your Ragin attack people in public spaces--"

 

"My what?"

 

"Right, yeah! I started calling them Ragin, right, 'cause it seems like they show up after somebody gets super mad and they're got sort of an electricity, electric guitar thing going on plus the Japanese demon teeth, so it sounds like Raijin...?"

 

For a moment Apocalypsette seemed too angry to form coherent words, sputtering indignantly. "That's not what they're called! Behold my MELOD-ONI!"

 

Chitin clapped his hands together in spite of himself. "Oh, that's so cute!"

 

The villain's eyes narrowed to tense slits roiling with tongues of hellish flame. "Rip. Him. Limb. From. Limb." With a roar like distorted reverb the beasts signalled their understanding and began to advance.

[Gizmo]

Refocusing on Angelic, who still had a clump of her hair clenched in her fist, Apocalypsette pulled back her arm and hit a power cord on her guitar with the force of a haymaker punch. The sonic blast shook the bones of everyone within earshot but at its centre a spiral of jagged energy, colours shifting in and out of the visible spectrum surged toward the gynoid. Quick airborne reflexes kept Angelic out of the worst of it, her highly engineered frame holding strong as the blast tried to tear her apart at the seams. Even so she could feel pops and crackles as delicate audio receptors burst, her input replaced by a low hiss of static!

 

The monster on the stage brought a huge crab claw down toward Chitin like a hammer, it's broad bulk giving the armoured inventor nowhere to dodge. Instead he brought both arms over his helmet, crossed at the forearms to weather the blow as best he could. The stage beneath his boots cracked outward as the force reverberated through him painfully. Pinned in place he couldn't avoid the second claw swinging around to grab him in its serrated vice!

 

Back of the park grass the horrible rat king creature swung its towering centipede-like torso toward Nocturne. The coolly collected gravity controlled brought her defensive shield to bear but found the thing's semi-corporeal, vibrating form sliced through with disturbing ease. Thinking quickly she focused on redirecting the arc of its razor sharp mandibles rather than blocking them outright, turning a potentially deadly attack into a slash that cut through the leather of her black jacket and into her left arm.

 

In a bizarre translucent streak the third monster dove from the skies for Forever Boy, wings swept backward and its second set of human-like limbs outstretched in some sick imitation of a jousting knight. Its aim seemed unerring but just as it was about to strike he simply... wasn't there any more. Skipping out of the way faster than the eye could follow, Pan had a moment to size up his airborne opponent as it circled back around for another pass...

[RocketLord]

Pan was distracted for a moment. Eira was up on the stage, near Apocalypsette, pulling her hair loose. He let out a loud "Ha!", before he realized that he should probably pay attention as the bat-like thing dove at him. 

 

He looked almost lazily at it, then he was just gone, a puff of Pixie Dust being all that he had left behind, the creature moving through where he had been just before.

 

Golden dust already gathering into a sword in his hand, he swung towards the creature before it got away, then spun around to watch as it prepared again.

 

"Ah. A Bat-man, yes?" He was not standing on the floor anymore, his feet hovering above the floor.

 

"Bye now!" Golden mists began to fill the area. Pan's friends and the bystanders should be able to see. The monsters and their mistress? Probably not. But then again, that thing did look like a bat.

[Avenger Assembled]

Angelic could tell that Ryder was having some sort of conversation with the monster-summoning girl but having never taken the time to learn to read lips, she had no idea what they were talking about. So instead she rocketed into the air after Apocalypsette and grabbed her by the ankle. "FOOLISH GIRL!" she hissed, unable to hear herself as she climbed up Apocalypsette's body, armored fingers digging into the admittedly-awesome rivets and loops on her outfit. "YOU THINK YOU HAVE POWER?" She couldn't grab the guitar, not with both hands occupied, but as she pulled herself up to Apocalypsette's eye level she was able to hit it with her elbow and felt the satisfying sensation of magnetic-driven muscles knocking the thing out of the other girl's grasp. 

As she touched it, she felt something pass through her armored body, the distinct sensation of eyes looking at her and then looking away - but then it was done. She hesitated a barely perceptible moment and got in Apocalypsette's face as her hands tightened around the other girl's midsection. Eyes close, dripping ice-cold blue hydromagnetic fluid from her ears, she hissed in a sizzling metallic voice: "YOU CANNOT KILL WHAT HAS ALREADY DIED!" 

[Fox]

Nocturne was very still, looking down at a torn jacket and the little bit of blood that was running down her arm. She should have gone after the summoner, that was always the best play with these things; she should have gone for the guitar, even, which had to be more than a cheap prop. She should have done a lot of things.

 

"Excuse you," she said in a voice that threatened to frost the venue over. She was very controlled and not especially calm and she brought her gaze back to the...thing. The impudent thing. Black and gold boiled off of her, less dust and more an overlapping field of circles, and she put one hand - gently - on the centipede's surface. "Excuse you. Die."

 

Waves of gravity, a staccato of sheering forces, ran down the thing's length as every bit of it vehemently disagreed with every other bit on which direction was 'down'.

[Gizmo]

While exotic energies flew about the park, golden glitter and psychedelic sound waves and fundamental forces, Chitin did his best to keep a massive crab claw from crushing him like an empty aluminum can. "Nngh... y'know, I k-kinda had an idea of what th-this was gonna look like when I was deciding who to bring t-today," he grated out, looking up at the twisted, toothy hammerhead shark face, past the monster's second claw as it came down again like a mallet. "I'd say something a-about 'metal' and, like, 'let's get h-heavy' but everybody's pretty busy w-with their own stuff so..."

 

As the claw holding him in place began to tighten and the other reared back for another swing he dropped his arms from blocking to reach for his belt just in time for glossy black passenger who Natalia had brought with them to launch toward the faceplate of Chitin's helmet. The golden mists swirling around the stage were briefly pushed back by displaced air, glowing from within with a blinding light as a tinny mechanical voice called out "Kabuto Beetle Instar! Can't beat this!"

 

Oversized gauntlets grabbed either side of the claw pinning him and forced them open, just enough for Chitin to slide backward and out of its immediate range. He pushed knuckles against his chin to crack his tense neck, the multifaceted eyes of his helmet glowing yellow and framed by a horned samurai happuri. "Probably a lesson here about showboating and the need for attention, huh? Aw, you don't care."

[Gizmo]

Apocalypsette went limp as the guitar was torn from her hands, the cyclone of wind no longer holding her aloft. Instead she tried to get her fingers around Angelic's hands, struggling to pry them loose from around her waist, legs kicking at the air. The robot teenager's hearing came back on line with a hiss and a wet pop just in time to head something hurtling toward her through the golden mists, then a discordant SKRAAANG! as the discarded instrument struck her about the head like a six stringed baseball bat. Sailing through the air apparently under its own power it hovered within reach, radiating malevolent energy.

 

While Chitin and the aquatic beast traded blows inside the bandshell the bizarre rat king monster twisted about unnaturally as Nocturne's assault tried to crush and tear an already divided body. It let loose a shriek that sounded like a crying infant run through a pitch shifter while its outline turned spiky with the piercing sound. The head atop its segmented trunk reared back and launched a wide spray of something that behaved like a liquid but was made of the same translucent, vibrating stuff as the monster itself! 

 

Forever Boy neatly ducked out of the way where the far end of the spray might have otherwise caught him but where it should have splattered against Nocturne and her shields it slowed, stopped and was thrown back at random angles as gravity heeded its mistress' demands. Perhaps thinking to catch Pan unawares the bat winged creature bellowed a low frequency thrum of concussive force from its leonine maw, sending folding chairs and plastic cups flying about. Once more the puckish hero proved too quick, though he could see the unconscious audience members on the grass take a battering behind him...

[RocketLord]

Pan danced on the air, out of the way, up and above, away from the beast and out of reach and...

 

No. The people that had been behind him! Caught in the creature's noise because he moved?

 

He couldn't allow that, could he now?

 

"Enough."

 

The Forever Boy moved with a flourish, whirling about and around, swinging his glowing blade of Pixie Dust in a wide arc, and then, in the last moment, he spun around, instead stabbing the sword into the creature's chest.

Edited August 10, 2021 by RocketLord

[Avenger Assembled]

Angelic looked at the guitar, considering, and then rocketed up into the air as fast as her internal storage batteries allowed. They were close to two hundred and fifty feet up by the time she stopped. It was only now that she let herself hear the internal sensors that warned her of the damage she'd taken, the delicate internal components shattered by that thing's magically-empowered blow. "There. Now there is no one we can hurt, yes?" Her wings flexed behind her as her fingers dug tight into the other girl's waist, enough that she could feel the outlines of her pelvis. "Your machine has no power over me, because there is nothing inside me. Nothing." She smiled, blue fluid dripping from inside her glowing white mouth, voice dropping to a throaty growl as they hovered above the battle below. 

 

She cocked her head and took the time to send a rapid-fire text to her group chat. DESTROY THE CREATURES TO FREE THE CAPTIVES BEFORE THEY ARE EATEN. DO NOT TOUCH THE GUITAR. WHERE IS THIS PERSON? She included a recorded image from her internal files of the angry-looking nonbinary person they had been studying before. 

"We should talk before your artifact cracks my internal batteries and triggers an explosion. You have no power without the guitar. An electro-chemical explosion in the gigawatt range-" rapidly, she hugged the girl to her chest, arms going around her back, and added in her ear in a cold whisper that smelled faintly chemical "would be bad, yes? So-" she added conversationally. "I am Eira," she added. "and I am proof that science is stronger than death. Who are you?" 

[Gizmo]

The sudden height seemed to terrify her captive more viscerally than the somewhat abstract threat of explosion and Apocalypsette dug her fingers into Angelic's wrists and thrashed her dangling feet in the air. "Hhh! Haaah, nngh!" The terror on her face as she looked at the distant ground contorted into fury as the gynoid's words gradually sunk in through the haze of panic. "Y-you think that makes you special?! Why do you think I can hold it?!" She strained against the grip on her waist out of reflex more than anything. "Nobody took little Michiko Tanaka seriously even though I was twice the musician as any of them! So I signed away everything and now they'll fear Apocalypsette!" It had the sound of a speech practiced in front of a mirror many times, tumbling out unsteadily, fuelled by desperation and bravado. "The guitar doesn't care what happens to me and you don't have the stones to do it yourself so we can just float here while my Melod-oni crush your friends, you stupid robot @$#%!"

[Gizmo]

Back on the ground the twisted rat king base of the beast menacing Nocturne shuffled about in a circle while the centipede-like trunk remained focused on her. It pulled back its disquietingly human head for another attack then bobbed abruptly to the side. Just as suddenly its head shot back then forward while each of its torso's segments tried to move in a different direction independently of each other. It shrieked a wailing guitar solo distorted by something like a doppler effect as innumerable limbs knotted in and under each other, gnashing teeth were force upward into palates or were torn loose. Its entire outline lost definition as tortured gravity pulled and pushed it in a thousand directions until it shattered and dispersed across the grass in an unexpectedly pretty shower of colourful motes.

 

As more confused concert-goers came to their senses those motes of power, along with the lingering scraps of the monster Forever Boy had sliced in twain, began to float toward the bandshell, accelerating until they looked like streaks of light. As they struck the hammerhead shark headed creature Chitin was facing it swelled and grew ever larger, cracking the stage beneath its crab legs. By the time it had absorbed everything of its brethren its broad shoulders had cracked the top of the bandshell. Throwing back its head it roared to the heavens with the force of a thousand overpowered amps, load enough to be heard by Angelic far overhead!

[Fox]

Nocturne was breathing heavily as her black-and-gold particles dispersed into nothingness - alongside the musical monstrosity, to her visible satisfaction.

 

She took a moment to scan the battlefield, which was definitely a tactical choice and not because her bones ached, and almost breathed a sigh of relief...until the crab-taur-shark one grew. Eira had the girl with Pan for backup, the guitar was concerning, but Natalia could probably sit down for a while, Ryder had this, right? Right. "Right," she said, gritting her teeth.

 

She didn't fly so much as fell, sliding through the sky toward the bandstand like she'd stepped off a ledge. "Hey!" She shouted, gesturing; the nearest heavy, inexpensive object or rubble she could find shot toward the remaining Melod-oni's back. "Making your music louder's not going to help you if your music sucks!"

[Gizmo]

Propelled by Nocturne's powers a chunk of damaged bandshell structure the size of a horse crashed into the back of the gargantuan monster's toothy shark head. It shook the debris free with a bass drum growl and began to turn around, each step of its pointed crab legs sending sparks flying from destroyed sound equipment or gouging ragged canals into the stage.

 

Chitin stepped to the side to find more stable ground and took in the wreckage, his jaw setting within his helmet. "Everyone worked hard to put on this show and share their music and you ruined it for no reason," he seethed, not really bothering to direct the accusation at the giant Meold-oni. He toggled the chambers of his belt once again and clenched both gauntleted fists. "It's time to wake up." Light spilled from around the edges of armoured plates as power ran from the belt to his hands. Familiar little motes of gold and black danced around his knuckles as the belt's tinny voice cheerfully announced "CYMKudgels!"

 

Launching upward in a piston propelled jump he struck the monster in its gorilla-esque torso, slamming a one-two combination of punches into the translucent thing's stomach. The impacts resounded like thunder even over the cacophony of magical music filling the battlefield. The Melod-oni's outline rippled not with a jagged sound wave pattern but like bobbing waves and it staggered to one side, taking another portion of the bandshell wall down with it.

[Gizmo]

Far above, Apocalypsette continued to struggle against Angelic's grip, despite the deadly fall if she actually succeeded. It seemed she'd been correct about the demonic guitar's lack of concern for her wellbeing at least as it rocket upward after them and tried to skewer the flying teen robot through the small of her back! Eira's construction proved strong enough to withstand the surprisingly powerful blow but the sharpened strap pin carved a line up her spine and across her shoulder where her left wing connected to her body, leaving a trail of sparking damage across silvery pseudo-skin!

[Gizmo]

The towering chimera of sea creatures shivered with a sound like a hundred high hats, pulling its form back into sharp, dangerous focus. Looking down for the source of its irritation it spotted Soup and one of the recently awakened members of Drown in the Loch hurrying to carry one of the last unconscious musicians away from the increasingly dangerous battle. Spaced apart shark eyes flashing and curving one tusks clashing against each other in a twisted grin it pulled back a crab claw the size of a minivan and prepared to crush them.

 

"No!" Chitin shouted, turning to sprint in the direction of the undefended bystanders but knowing that he was too far away after landing from his midair attack to make it in time. Just before the claw could land however a streak of gunmetal and crimson crossed his field of vision and pulled them out of the way!

 

Standing next to the impact crater while Soup and the others fled to relative safety was a lithe armoured figure. The similarities to Chitin's own battle suit were unmistakeable, including a large cylindrical attachment on the front of their belt. The dark grey and black plates of their armour looked weathered and scuffed, however, accented with burnished steel studs on the knee pads and the reinforced toes of their boots. The patch covered leather jacket they wore over their armour had once been an eye catching red but was now splattered with soot, oil and more concerning stains. The front of their helmet was dominated by an X-shaped visor that pulsed with a deep red light.

 

Chitin stopped short, flabbergasted. "Woah! I mean, thank you but who--?"

 

The newcomer pulled a small tube with a green cap from their side and shook it with a flick of their wrist, producing a metal-on-metal rattle. They slammed it into their belt and a grim, robotic voice growled, “Danger! Poison!” The armoured figure raised their hands and let loose a billowing cloud of sickly green mist directly at Chitin, the corrosive gas melting through microphone cables and fallen scaffolding as it enveloped the shocked teenaged inventor!

[RocketLord]

People were running everywhere, everything was happening fast. Eira was pulling the girl with the guitar up and away, they were yelling at each other and... Pan honestly wasn't surprised at that. Nat had taken down that other monster and... someone else was showing up and attacking Ryder. Right, then. Total chaos and confusion, of course. Business as usual.

 

For his part, the Forever Boy reached for a mic that had fallen near him in middle of all the confusion and fighting. Would it work and be connected to the music here? Who knew? It was worth a shot, at least.

 

The Forever Boy raised the microphone to his mouth and shouted at the top of his lungs.

 

"C'mon! Is that it? Somebody shows up to wreck the show, and you start running!? Stop and stand! Show your mettle! Show them that you are not just scared sheep, running because they tell you to! I am here! We are here! Look to the sky, look who is fighting for you! Look around you, see us here, fighting for all of you! We are here for all of you, and nobody will be left behind! Stand up, stand together! Show us what you can do! Chitin! Nocturne! Angelic! This cannot stop you! Everyone! Show them what metal means!"

[Avenger Assembled]

What the deuce? thought Angelic, staring down at the new arrival and wincing at his sudden attack on Chitin, though naturally she was a little distracted by Forever Boy. "That is my boyfriend," she said out loud to Apocalypsette. "Not the one in armor, the pretty one. He is a great speaker, yes? After we save the concert, he and I are going to really have some fun." As she talked with cool precision, she deactivated her magnetic flight circuits and simply dropped down to the ground at accelerating speed until she had stopped just a few feet off the ground in between Chitin and the new arrival. "You!" she declared, still holding the struggling Apocalypsette and visibly bleeding blue from her glowing white mouth. "I do not know what you think we are doing but we are preoccupied with more irritating creatures than you! Stop squirming you will give yourself a bruise!" she added to her captive.  

[Fox]

Nocturne turned in mid air, scowling down at the armored newcomer with something like tired, angry disbelief. "Now there are two of them," she muttered. "I'm pretty sure that isn't allowed."

 

And then they shot acid at Ryder. "Definitely not allowed," she said, setting her jaw; she reached out and made a fist. "Have you considered inventing your own gimmick?" she asked, gravity bending inward on the newcomer like a giant unseen hand. She tried to look less tired than she felt - Pan's proclamation helped, and she'd never tell him so. "Something original. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but it betrays a certain weakness of character. I'll be happy to give you some design advice, but right now we're busy, and you'll have to wait your turn."

[Gizmo]

Even in the midst of everything Apocalypsette paused to look nonplussed at Angelic's banter. "What are you even fu--aaagh!" Her indignation was cut off by a scream as she was carried along with the gynoid hero in a plummeting dive. She regained her bearings in time to see the new armoured antagonist shrug off Nocturne's assault with a pained grunt and the sound of straining pneumatics. 

"Who the hell are you?!"

 

 “Chitin Runner Canister.”  The heavily filtered voice held a hint of deviant, simmering anger.

 

"W-what?" Chitin cut in from over Angelic's winged shoulder, staggering back a step as his armour sizzled and sparked from the corrosive gas.

 

Canister produced another tube, this one with a blue cap and slammed it into their belt. “Danger! Under pressure!”

 

 “I'm here from your future to kill Professor Fujioka."  Power traveled across the suit's plates, partially obscured by their jacket. They lobbed something overhead, arcing past Eira, who had the presence of mind to fold her metallic wings around the less durable young woman she was holding captive.

 

"WHAT?!"

 

 "Anyone who gets in my way is just collateral damage."  The ball of energy detonated midair, sending a shockwave of thrumming force crashing into Chitin and Angelic with a deep bass boom while Canister slid into a ready stance, prepared to take on everyone present at once if necessary.

[Gizmo]

A whistling rose over the boom of the shockwave just before Apocalypsette's guitar hurtled from overhead into the stage like a javelin fired from a railgun, cracking against Angelic's left wing and wrist along the way. In the chaos the malicious musician had the briefest of opportunities to slip free and tumbled forward, somersaulting into a dive that brought her close enough to brush her fingers against the neck of the guitar where it quivered, partially embedded in the ruined bandshell.

 

The moment she made contact an impossibly loud power chord sounded with the force of a bursting dam. Apocalypsette was carried upward and away by dread, howling winds once again, picking out a ascending minor scale with finger-blurring speed, which send a kaleidoscopic burst of sound and light lancing toward Angelic. "You all suck!" she shrieked, eyes blazing. "I'm going to kill all of you! Staring with this freak!"

 

The towering crab-like Melod-oni took that as its cue to bring a huge claw down atop the melee. Canister nimbly hopped back and out of the way while Chitin, armour sparking and struggling to stand, was a hair too slow to avoid being clipped across the shoulder.