[Mission] Clash! Do you know the name of Hachimoji? (Gear, MK)

[Kujo]

"Mada mada da ne."

Purin, still with a dubious feeling in her genetically spliced gut instinct, refrained from countering and instead went on the defensive, making sure to steer clear of the dangerous beam of energy the Mortar Headd called a sword. Enki feinted into the shield bash, leaning back to absorb the blow and pushed off with its offhand and clenched sword hand while it kicked off backwards to make distance from the following slice. Landing with the grace of a cat, the white Gunman skidded across the sand. Its heels and free hand dug into the sediment and launched plumes of the dreaded grains that no doubt threated to clog the sophisticated Jokerian mechanisms within Junchoon by the second.

From her agile, crouched pose, Purin could easily see the bright blade lurch hesitantly back towards Enki for a second pass. She lept up over the low swing, much higher than one might think a large machine could ever manage without thrusters, and brought Enki's limbs clear of the front as a missile box emerged from the Gunman's left shoulder and launched one of its projectiles straight into the ground below to create an explosive, billowing cloud of smoke and sand to obscure and confuse the MH; meanwhile Purin would easily be able to find her foe from the shining blade of energy in its hands.

Along the mesa tops, forms began to emerge. With wild eyes and wicked grins and scowls, odd looking machines in crude, vibrant colors gazed down to investigate the commotion. The local Beastman warriors from the previously threatened village just over the range of craggy desert plateaus peered at what they could only think was the famous swordsman Purin engaged with a new enemy after no doubt single handedly destroying the behemoth that now lay beneath them. While some watched the battle, others set the crazed sights of their Gunmen on the distant avian forms and hefted their various clubs, axes, and other brutish implements in anticipation- they weren't about to just hand over this valuable heap of scrap to literal vultures.

 

[Nemesis]

The rattling and the movement about them almost seemed to make Sharon's edges blur, as Sylvius reached up and out, a frown forming on her features. As soon as her hand touched that wavering, ethereal flesh there was a blink of light, like a camera going off. For a moment, it seemed that the specter had vanished - but no, her voice came in once more, low, sensuous, and seductive, right by her ear as she climbed.

"Are you not the same?"

There was a gentle chuckle, mixed with a ghostly sigh. The kaleidoscopic light shrouding the interior made it difficult to see, even when grasping one rung after another in her ascent. Resistant she may be, but not immune, as the AI began to bring more and more of its focus to bear.

"Does she not bend to your every whim? Is she not a slave, by any other word?"

Sharon shook her head, hair flowing as though it were underwater, its dark and murky lengths highlighting the paleness of her expressive, pointed features. There was a distinct lack of malice in her voice. In her tone... and yet there was a dark undercurrent, a grim cynicism, that belied understanding. Sharon nodded slowly, as if coming to some form of understanding... and reached out a hand to caress the Mortar head's interior, affectionately.

"I will give her... give you... the freedom you both deserve." She said, somberly - and then, melted through the wall, leaving the doubtlessly dazed Headliner alone with her thoughts.

 

[MKR]

Eynde furrowed her brow as Purin did her sand based retaliation, most of the sand had been caught by the shield she had placed forward but more than a comfortable part of it had now coated the Junchoon. A non insignificant section of which had made its way inside through the plates, this could not stand and needed to be addressed, if she simply continued on as she was Junchoon's internals would be snapping before this foe was delivered the fatal blow they so deserved in her mind. There was no movement from the Mortar Headd for a good moment until suddenly there was the wooshing sound as if it were in motion but yet it was completely static, instead bursts of sand were jettisoned out of the plating. Preventing the delicate interior from suffering damage as Eynde readied the blade having taken this moment to track the Enkidu amidst the cloud.

In the meanwhile Sylvius shuddered as the voice rang through her, an involuntary shudder like cold ice dropped down one's neck but without the sting of cold. All while the words this holographic Fatima used rang closer to truth than she wanted, almost eager to confirm themselves to her as she could not bring herself to deny the claims brought forth by the belligerent specter. After all while Eynde had chosen her, she was beholden to her as per the rules that Fatima lived by. Not unless she decided to end their arrangement herself but that would just force her to search for another to fill her shoes.

As she crawled into the Fatima Cockpit, shrouded in darkness she felt that side nagging at her. Who of them truly could give Eynde something better after all this specter had made her happy. Could make them both happy, she'd always had that worry that she was an inappropriate fit for Eynde that the Fatima deserved better, was this not better? How could she declare the specter as worse when all she had done was effectively force her will upon Eynde.
These feelings ebbed as the woman vanished inside Junchoon, yet left an uncomfortable sting. Sylvius hung to the part she knew for certain was wrong. Fighting their ally, this served as an anchor of reason. A statement that declared the alternative worse.

Junchoon made a swift dash forwards as Sylvius stood upright, more mentally exhausted then physically but all the same.
"Eynde!" She cried out for the attention of her Fatima, who turned her behelmeted head towards her in the dark. "Stop this."

And so as Junchoon burst through the cloud of dust it paused, unmoving before returning to a neutral pose.
"Ma'am." the Fatima spoke as everything left her before it came crashing down threefold.

The realization from having not followed orders, having broken rules by overtaking controls from a knight, the burden upon her mind from moving every bit and piece of Junchoon. The goal she had been working towards for the idol that brought her happiness, both it and the happiness were gone in an instant. Making every violation every broken rule in her mind for nothing.
"I'm tired." She spoke as she collapsed forwards still sitting in her chair as the madness seemed to end.

Sylvius rushed towards the seat, making sure Eynde was an approximation of okay. In a sense she was but after this they would need to up the schedule on her routine checks and reapply whatever may have broken from this. This thought caused Sylvius to pause, 'was that a good thing', came to her mind.
She exhaled, needing to contemplate this further. Her mind was still racing from the voice that spoke inside of it and the technicolor rampage she endured. She wasn't thinking clearly and without Eynde to turn the equipment back on communicating with their ally was going to be difficult right now.

So all Purin was faced with currently, was the still machine. Having ceased its lethal ambition.

 

[Kujo]

As the form of Junchoon burst forth from the whipped up sediment, it would be met by the prowling Enki striking out with a rising slash directly at the Mortar Headd's sword hand. As quickly as the blade flicked out however, it stopped short as Purin pulled back from the strike.

The dust settled around the two frozen machines before the Beastman spoke up. "Everything alright in there?" Enki slowly straightened up from its agile pose. "If you're done double crossing me perhaps you'd like to take a rest at the village and explain yourself. I'm sure everyone will want to thank you anyhow; we'll even help clean your machine, how's that for an extra reward?"

Purin looked to the mesa cliffs to see her fellow Beastmen cheering and waving. "Nyahaha!" Enki stuck the back of its blade through the crook of its elbow and "wiped" it through, a spray of sparks shot up from the contact but the blade seemed little worse for ware. Whipping the sword about before stowing it through one of the loops on the Gunman's waist, Purin looked behind her to the horizon. "...But first, give me a moment here."

Enki rounded to face the black, avian forms in the sky. A red light gathered around the white Gunman's crest and Enki brought its hands up to point to the circular ornament before the great crimson beam erupted from its center once more. Enki carefully twisted its upper head to swing the stream of energy around, aiming more to disrupt and scatter the scavengers than hit them at this far range. Enki would fire again and again in quick succession until a hazy field of smoldering air surrounded its helmet.

 

[Nemesis]

Enki's beam lashed at the Scavengers, causing them to pause at the perimeter. A clattering and sonorous clicking and clacking went up from them as they irritably stalked back and forth, looking for all in the world like vultures denied their prey as they slowly, begrudgingly began to recede. It seemed there would be no feast today.

Yet, were Purin to turn back towards Junchoon, she would have been met with a harrowing sight.

A woman of pure white, resting on its shoulder. Like a ghost, lit by non-existent moonlight, her long dark hair flowing about her like the tail of a comet. She flickered and wavered, as though the source of her being were petering out - but placed a gentle hand on Junchoon's face, and leaned in, giving it a lover's whisper before finally, ultimately, seeming to blink out of existence. A small, sphere-like object dropped out of the air and burst into flames, bouncing almost comically off the Mortar Headd's shoulder before dropping to the sands below as it dissolved into pieces.

But the damage had been done, and the final command issued - whether out of mercy, or out of spite was uncertain, but its words as damning as they were compassionate.

"Bring them peace."​

The order to terminate its own pilots rippled through Junchoon's system like a wave, pushing over safeguards, attempting to force the ancient engine of war into compliance with its own agenda. Whether Purin would understand, or for that matter, move to prevent what would be a bloody and agonizing display, was yet to be seen.

 

[MKR]

Sylvius calmly removed the helmet linking Eynde to Junchoon as she recovered her breath and her wits. This was not what she had accepted this task for, not at all but here they were, having been tormented by some phantasmal Fatima. One in a physical sense and the other mentally. The strange static was fading now, Purin's voice in turn coming over the comms, once more audible now that the auditory interruption had been quieted.

Sylvius looked over the console, while the minute details of controlling Junchoon flew over her head she did see where on the panel she could turn the outgoing communications back on after Eynde had flipped them off for the sake of that ghost's designs.
"They are now, sorry. We had what I can only describe as a ghost infiltrating Junchoon and manipulating my partner." She waived the details for now, those were less important than sharing that everything was back to normal. Still her tone was shaky, something made her unsure about things and it was audible.

On the outside however, it wasn't quite that simple. After the whisper Junchoon had paused a good long while, the neutral pose it had held then broke as it dropped the shield suddenly dropped. A cloud of dust bellowing upwards as it hit the sand, the machine switching the grip on its blade in more natural movement then it had done when Eynde was behind the wheel. The machine tightly gripped the blade as it now faced inwards and raised it. The tip of the energy weapon faced its eye as Junchoon brought the weapon level with its face. Passing over the Keel as it did so meticulously searching for the spot where it could insert its blade easiest.

While its grip was firm there was a sense of delay to these actions, an unwillingness to perform them by the perpetrator. Unless stopped, it would jam the blade into its eye socket and straight through the Fatima Cockpit, those inside were completely unaware of this unfortunately.
Eynde remained unconscious, now laying backwards in the vibrant pink chair as Sylvius made sure everything was alright. She planned to return to her own cockpit to move Junchoon somewhere else while her Fatima recovered but her lack of knowledge about the internals depicted as they were here and the darkness of the cockpit that Fatima remained in made her ignorant to the events outside beyond even the distraction the headache offered.

 

[Kujo]

"Ghost? Are you sure you're not cra-" Purin turned Enki around and cut herself off as the hazy figure clinging to Junchoon appeared on her screen followed by the dull flash of what seemed to be a spent casing. The Beastman stared in confusion before the Mortar Headd lurched into movement again much like it had during its treachery moments before. "Cut it out already, damn it!"

Enki lept forward as it's crazed eyes flashed. The white Gunman's arm was swung forward to swat the weapon out of the MH's hand; as it traveled, the metal along its forearm began to shudder and split before blooming out like a flower to form a disc about Enki's wrist. The springy metal of the Gunman slammed into the hand and spaad hilt at once, the slicing shield bash aiming to jar Junchoon's solid but hesitant grip.

 

[MKR]

When the shield slammed into the hand of Junchoon its hesitant grip buckled but continued all the same, the recoil of the blow sending it further to the side where instead of finding purchase inside the eye it collided instead with the white metal that made up its plating, where the two met the white colors briefly reflected the red hot energy of the blade, or perhaps it was heated by it instead. The cockpit shook and Junchoon paused as the blade moved between the cheek, shoulder and what could only be described as its 'tiara eyebrow' that loomed now above the weapon. But the shield was in there all the same, Junchoon's grip hanging on both the hilt and the shield wedged in between.

The shock of impact was enough to cause Sylvius to rise and woke Eynde from her enforced slumber, the darkness of the Fatima Cockpit had hidden the reality of what had happened but the impact of the blow to Junchoon's hand and then the cockpit had informed them both at least something was happening outside still.
"What happened?" Sylvius called out, worried that the ghost had instead jumped ship to Enki now and began meddling with the mind of their ally.

"It would appear Junchoon attempted to kill us Ma'am." Eynde called out, half surveying the console in front of her as still the headache remained. Internally the Fatima pondered whether that what had filled her earlier had truly been joy? Had it truly been pleasure? Did those feelings, foreign to her, truly introduce such anguish in those who felt them? It was like an addictive drug what she had felt moments prior, a happiness that desired... No, demanded to be fulfilled. To be spread like a plague, to contaminate and direct.

Happiness had twisted her mind away from her duties and into sin, a Fatima is never justified in taking control over a Mortarheadd when their Master is behind its controls and now she had done that. A Fatima was not to follow orders from those who weren't their chosen Master and now she had done that.
Twice she had sinned within the same breath, twice she had turned against Sylvius and the only feeling she could recall from that was... joy. Joy that demanded it be fulfilled, joy that nagged and ate at her. Hollowed more and more until only it and its supplyer remained, until the only feelings she felt in those moments were the happiness of being the ghost's tool and the desire to fulfill its every wish.

A question arose from within if Joy, if pleasure, had brought such pain as she had never felt before. Would it be better if she were unable to feel it? Was Happiness the greatest adversary faced so far? Sylvius in the meanwhile was telling her to reenable the manual controls, which she did and then she was left alone in the darkness again left to contemplate her sins.

Sylvius dropped through the keel, descent much easier than the rise before and quickly moved towards the controls. There was lingering worry that Sylvius might turn against her again that was only natural but this situation needed to be resolved.
The comms flared to life again, all static purged from it
"The situation here has been resolved, I've regained control on my end." She stated, looking out through the Mortarheadd's eyes to see on one end the massive shield and on the other Enki.

She did not struggle against the shield with Junchoon, instead deactivating the blade and returning things to their normal stance, slowly moving the hand with the shield blocking it away.

"And ghost is the only descriptor that feels apt for what I saw."