01[10:59] <Adriel> The stadium is packed, and the stage is lit up. The night sky is lit up for miles around, practically on fire with a lightshow, pyrotechnics, and a squad of jets doing stunts in the sky above. The crowd is roaring, and the show is just about to start... but where's the lead singer? Everyone's here except for her, and nobody has heard or seen her for quite some time.
01[11:17] <Adriel> ...and then, the sound of a guitar, loud and coming down from high above. "Is everyone ready for the show?" A voice, accompanying the guitar, one they're all familiar with. High above, the singer leaps out from one of the jets, skydiving down onto the stage amidst a swarm of exploding fireworks, her descent kept stable by a parachute shaped like a V of wings. The crowd is going insane, they can't wait for the show, and they're all cheering. "That's what we like to hear!" Their cheering explodes into a chant of the lead singer's name, the word Sigrid exploding through the night sky and audible from a far distance. "Alright, keep that adrenaline pumping people, it's showtime everyone so let's rock the world!"
01[11:37] <Adriel> Several hours later! The show is just winding down, with the people still as wild and cheering as loud as ever. Sigrid has gone back to her dressing room, as always greeting and being quite friendly with the fans along the way. Her attire of choice is, as befits a performer, very loud. A red bomber jacket is the primary centerpiece and the one part she always wears, with that same set of V-shaped wings on the back. Her hair is a bright, golden blonde, with purple and silver highlights streaked through it.
01[11:44] <Adriel> Once she's in her room, she hangs the jacket on a chair, grabbing a towel to wipe away the sweat from her face and upper torso. "That was great! Now I just have to figure out how to top skydiving for an entrance next time. Maybe being shot onto the stage out of a battleship's main cannon."
01[11:51] <Adriel> This goes on for a while, with her recording a number of dangerous stunt ideas as she gets ready to head out to the group's ride back to where they've all been staying on their visit to this city.
[12:47] <Axel_Wildfire> When she heads out, as she passes by the wings, it becomes apparent that the stadium is still largely full - which is itself bizarre, until her manager, waiting in the wings, calls her over. "Sigrid, you won't believe this! Come have a look!" it seems like he hasn't been able to shake the manager's instinct to remain offstage. The arena's only about half-full, but they've turned to watch the...
[12:47] <Axel_Wildfire> ...show going on over the southern lip - a dogfight occurring in the sky over the city. One side, seemingly the aggressors, is using what appears to be mass-produced units, although they're not ones that Sigrid has ever seen on TV or in a news report: they're a good 20 meters or so tall, vibrant blue, with extended shoulder 'blades' (in white). The heads have a single visor that dominates...
[12:47] <Axel_Wildfire> ...the module, and two long 'bunny ears' that peel back as antennae. Each is equipped with an arm-mounted chaingun on one arm, and a big spike on the other, although each of the four units carries its own weapons, too - some rifles of varying designs, and one is using a series of remotes that turn into razor-edged discs. As for what they're fighting against...
01[12:56] <Adriel> It's... gigantic. A huge robot, likely pushing 40 meters or higher, this one is decidedly not an MP model. It doesn't look all that much like any one line of machines, and its main color is a bright red, with a lot of electric blue accents on it. There's a third prominant color as well, gold, but it's in strange, formless masses across the head, chest, and limbs of the robot. It seems unfitting, like while the gold should be there... it should be in a different shape. To fight off these MP machines, it's presently employing all its fingers as missles, firing on them to try and drive them all back from the stadium, off toward the ocean.
01[13:04] <Adriel> The larger robot is... odd in a few ways. Its eyes, while mechanical, appear to have pupils, and it has a very defined face, even a large, expressive mouth.
01[13:08] <Adriel> It's armoring is very rounded, shaped such that sharp angles are limited, and while it looks quite heavy, like a towering giant, it also has this sleek, smooth aesthetic to it.
[13:09] <Axel_Wildfire> It doesn't take long, though, before the group tactics get the better of it. One of the mass-produced units manages to dance in close and lands a powerful hit with that big spike, and the larger robot is shunted back - and then falls.
[13:09] <Axel_Wildfire> Straight towards the arena.
[13:09] <Axel_Wildfire> Then it crashes down, through the sunshades - fortunately people have already started getting out of the way - smashes into the dirt field and draws a furrow in the arena before it crashes up onto the stage and lays there. A support bar that had been buried into its chest comes free, and although Sigrid can't quite see into the gaping hole, she can see the blood dripping out of it.
01[13:14] <Adriel> Sigrid is a lot of things. ...One thing she's never been accused of having though, is a sense of self-preservation. As such, she beelines for the hole, where the blood is pooling. "Hey, you alright in there? You're not dying on us are you, just from a little fall!"
[13:38] <Axel_Wildfire> The pilot was unconscious, but he's woken up by her voice, and he groans as he starts to come awake. He must have been smashed against the side of the cockpit when it crashed, or possibly against the support beam, because his left arm is bent at a horribly-unnatural angle. He's a little older than her, in his thirties, maybe, going grey early in a way that would look regal, rather than old,...
[13:38] <Axel_Wildfire> ...if there wasn't a seeping gash just above his hairline. Then his misty-blue eyes come back into focus and he immediately twists to look up at the sky, where those strange mass-produced units are coming back for me. He starts to move for the controls, then hisses in pain and goes limp, just for a moment, as his broken arm whites out his senses. "Ugh... you should run..."
01[13:49] <Adriel> "Sorry, but no. Don't you know who you're talking to? I don't shy away from something just because it's dangerous! Now shove over and let me help you, or get out and I'll take you to the hospital on foot, but either way I'm not leaving you alone in this robot!" She starts climbing in already, trying to get into the seat. "Now how do you make this thing move?"
[13:51] <Axel_Wildfire> Startled into compliance, he moves, bracing himself against the back wall and nursing his busted arm. After a moment's indecision - and seeing that the mass-produced units are getting closer - he bites his lip and starts the very hurried process of explaining to her how to work the machine.
01[13:58] <Adriel> "Great, then let's fire it up!" She starts working the controls, pretty clumsily making the mech pick itself up off the ground for Round 2. "Let's see... weapons... oh, there's one!" She slams her fist into a button and the finger missles start firing in a tight cluster. "Oh, those aren't what I was trying to use, but at least it works."
[14:01] <Axel_Wildfire> "Here they come." They're quite fast, for things that look like they're made for close combat, and they move with coordinated precision, slipping through and around each other to evade the missiles. One of them, which almost seems like the leader, raises the bulky rifle it's carrying in both hands and sprays Sigrid's new robot down with a rain of pink fire.
01[14:09] <Adriel> The robot rocks around, but it has pretty decent armor on it, so nothing else blows up yet, no more gaping holes. Sigrid moves the huge robot's arms, trying to grab the leader, or at the very least, grab the rifle and compact it. "Get off my stage! Do you have any idea where you are!"
[14:12] <Axel_Wildfire> Unfortunately, he's way too fast for that, and while she's occupied, one of the others, which slipped away to the side, charges in, trying to use that nasty pilebunker on the exposed shoulder, to deaden the robot's arm.
01[14:29] <Adriel> The shoulder winds up with a big hole in it, from the bunker slamming in... and promptly the attacker eats a punch into its torso, trying to grab and rip out the power source. "Okay, weapons, weapons... there's one." The eyes of the machine light up as a pair of beams sweep out across the skyline at the enemies.
[14:43] <Axel_Wildfire> The two remaining ones split vertically to avoid the attack, and one of them throws its remotes against Sigrid's new ride. The discs start out tiny, but after a moment, they extend hooking blades and scream through the air towards her. With the hole in the cockpit, the noise is *unreal*; she can't hear anything but that sound.
01[14:47] <Adriel> Sigrid screams at the discs, firing the robot's good arm off at them, hand open to grab the blades as it arcs toward the enemy that has yet to attack. "I told you people to get the hell off my stage! I'm the performer here and you're all crashing the show!"
01[15:18] <Adriel> [14:29] <Adriel> The shoulder winds up with a big hole in it, from the bunker slamming in... and promptly the attacker eats a punch into its torso, trying to grab and rip out the power source. "Okay, weapons, weapons... there's one." The eyes of the machine light up as a pair of beams sweep out across the skyline at the enemies.
01[15:18] <Adriel> [14:43] <Axel_Wildfire> The two remaining ones split vertically to avoid the attack, and one of them throws its remotes against Sigrid's new ride. The discs start out tiny, but after a moment, they extend hooking blades and scream through the air towards her. With the hole in the cockpit, the noise is *unreal*; she can't hear anything but that sound.
01[15:18] <Adriel> [14:47] <Adriel> Sigrid screams at the discs, firing the robot's good arm off at them, hand open to grab the blades as it arcs toward the enemy that has yet to attack. "I told you people to get the hell off my stage! I'm the performer here and you're all crashing the show!"
[15:22] <Code_Phoenix> Taken by surprise, the strange machine can't dodge in time, and it's smashed flat by the attack. The last one promptly starts retreating towards the ocean, not keen on sticking around for a suicidal one-on-one. Sigrid's companion lets out a pained mutter. "They can't hear you."
01[15:27] <Adriel> "I'm a performer. A singer and a guitarist. I know they can't hear it but saying it feels right anyway. Now, let's get your to a hospital, and these things to a scrapyard... or wherever else it is they should go."
[15:28] <Code_Phoenix> "My guys should deal with that..." he's clearly fading, fast, but he gives her one last direction. "Head over to the beach."
01[15:29] <Adriel> "...Why the beach?" She's questioning it, but heading there anyway.