[CLOSED] Walpurgisnacht Event

>The debris and strong winds go through Sabo harmlessly as his body is made of fire, but the same wind renders him unable to counter attack, given his flame projectiles would be redirected away from their intended target. For now, he stands his ground protecting the building and using his right hand to keep his hat on his head.

"Contact!"

At that moment, had they looked to the south, an observer on the ground could've made out a dozen white, translucent trails streaking across the low clouds.
They bobbed and swayed ever so slightly in formation, weaving a crazy knot as they angled themselves for the attack.
The telltale roar of their thruster packs was quick to follow.

"This is the North American 19th Magic Squadron, on station. Sorry for the delay; someone spilled an ammo cart in the hangar. B'sides, you didn't really think we'd let ya have all the fun, right?"

Kirino grinned behind her protective steel visor. And though her attention was focused elsewhere, she was sure her noble ally would return a smile.
Deafening explosions shook the air as the dynamite made its mark. With a gesture of her wrist, the lieutenant took them right along the rim of resulting smoke cloud.

"Fangs out... Fire on my mark. Make sure ya break off after the second volley; s'long as she's throwin' around that wind attack, we're liable for a surprise date with the concrete."

With a flick of their hands, each member of the flight summoned a rocket launcher from the aether. Laid the tube on their shoulder, one shot, drop it below. Ditto for the next.
20,000 HP's damage dealt. 20 MP lost from each member of the flight.
They pulled up as soon as the rockets struck, narrowly avoiding a funnel of wind and debris the witch threw in retaliation.

Sorry 'bout the wait. I still ain't feelin' so hot today, but I'd hate to miss out on this. :3 ]]

>lephy shouts "Code 777, activate!"
>unit 02 enters beast mode
>starts killing some familiars
>advances to Walpurgisnacht
>do some biting attacks for 25000 damage
>45 seconds, consuming 75 MP
>a familiar attacks me from behind for 600 HP

>All in One once again seems to materialize from thin air in order to lob some improvised explosive devices at the witch, followed up by a stream of concentrated machine gun fire
>Just before a slab of brick and concrete ripped from a building collides with her she vanishes and immediately reappears a few yards away, keeping up the attack
>Walpurgisnacht begins slowly drifting toward the bridge spanning the North Branch Potomac River
>The machine gun clicks as the clip is fully expended and All in One is gone again as a pickup truck impacts the place she had stood in moments ago
>22,000 damage dealt
>30 MP expended

>Walpurgisnacht reels from the mortar attack, quickly turning away in an attempt to shield its wounded face
>The shrieks of laughter now sound a lot like shrieks of pain
>The witch clears the river bank and is now hovering above the river itself; its elevation is just a bit higher than that of the bridge
>All in One hastily climbs into the driver seat of one of the tanker trucks
"I can try and ram this thing into Walpurgisnacht but it's a bit too high at the moment. If someone can push it down a bit I'll have a better shot."
>Below the witch, the turbulent winds surrounding it start to act upon the surface of the water
>In a few places the water starts to ripple, twist, and then rise...

>The engines in one of the tanker trucks rev up as the vehicle lurches to life and charges Walpurgisnacht
>It slowly accelerates but by the time it reaches the rim of the bridge it is a moving mass of death traveling at its maximum speed
>The tanker hits the rim and bursts right through it on a collision course with the witch
>All in One freezes time to climb out of the driver's seat and attach some explosives to various parts of the tanker for full effect
>She leaps back to the bridge and is able to run a few paces before the time shield clocks out and the tanker explodes right on top of Walpurgisnacht
>A ball of flames quickly balloons in size to truly tremendous proportions as shrapnel from the tanker rains down everywhere
>Walpurgisnacht's howls and shrieks are those of agony, no doubt about that this time
>It isn't a direct hit to its face, but the point-blank blast at its front side still deals a massive 550,000 HP blow to the witch
>All in One expended 75 MP
>All in One receives 100 HP in damage from falling shrapnel

Hot on their ally's tails, all twelve airmen dove in.
The thick cloud of black smoke quickly vanished as they cut through the air, thruster packs roaring as they assumed all manner of orbits around the witch's protective shield.
With the thin white trails they left in their wake, it looked as if Walpurgisnacht had been encased in a giant ball of yarn.
The radio  was abuzz once more.

"Fox two, fox two!"
"Red six- Taylor! Gimme a hand with the aethercannon; let's go topside!"
"Moving into melee range. Steady... Attack ineffective!"
"Red five: Guns, guns, guns!"

Thunderous booms shook the air as the two wings demonstrated their power.
As for Lieutenant Kousaka, she and her wingman pelted the witch's barrier with dozens of powerful magic missiles. Every hit produced a blinding flash of light, and a tremendous bang.
In return, the witch drew a sigil with her hands, summoning a large globe-shaped barrier to block the airmens' attacks.

"Reading another aetherial shield. Ma'am?"
"Keep hammering it!"

Her next moves were twofold. With mere seconds to spare, the witch traced a complicated symbol with her fingers. Meanwhile, the globe barrier acted like a pincushion, actually catching the squadron's attacks rather than destroying them.
By time the ceasefire order was given, it was too late. Thousands of rounds, shells, and missiles; a veritable thirty kilotons of raw firepower; was at her disposal.
Her first attack was a retaliation against one of the canonneers. Leading her target, she made a gun out of her finger and thumb, and launched a powerful homing missile. The airmen's armor held, but her controls refused to respond, and she went skipping like a stone down the Potomac.

"F- Fuck! Flight, ascend to one thousand and regroup on my wing." ordered the lieutenant. "Cheng is down; did anyone see a chute?"
"Unconfirmed."
"Dammit!"

With the wasps driven away, the witch turned her glowing gaze to the assailant on the bridge. Summoning the squadron's expended ammunition, she hurled volley after terrible volley at @All in One, pulverizing the bridge in the process.
This child had hurt her dearly, and she was intent on making her pay.

Back amongst the clouds, the lieutenant had just finished calling SAR for the downed pilot. She watched with wide eyes as the witch's wind spell tore apart the bridge, tossing steel girders and asphalt like matchsticks and dirt.

"That wasn't even its final form..."

250 MP expended by the squadron; 80,000 HP dealt. One member of the squadron was KO'd, bringing their ranks to 23; 11 in the air, 12 in reserve on the ground.

>All in One tried her best to sprint her way off of the rapidly collapsing bridge
>The time shield had been fully used up and was slowly recharging
>There would be no death-defying feats, for now anyway
>She successfully made it most of the way towards one end of the bridge, opposite to the one from which she had launched the tanker at the witch, only for the bridge to give out and crumble beneath her feet
>There was an unadulterated sense of panic as she tumbled through the air and landed in the water
>The current had mysteriously picked up and threatened to whisk her away to God knows where
>All in One then did her best to recall all the swimming lessons she'd had in school and put all her energy into maneuvering herself towards the river bank
>With the assistance of a low-lying branch hanging over the river she was finally able to make landfall on the muddy shore
>While taking a moment to regain her bearings she noticed the many tankers from the other side of the now destroyed bridge, still untouched
"Someone should drive those things away from here. I doubt we'll be able to land another direct hit with one, it's too smart to fall for that twice, but they could be of use later."

"I'm afraid that I'm not too knowledgeable when it comes to electronics. Hopefully someone here is."

>As she is treading through a light tangle of trees a small band of familiars leap from the shadows and attack
>One of them is able to land a hit on All in One, causing a minor wound on her right arm
>For a brief second the searing pain is accompanied by feelings of despair and terror
>All in One whips out a powerful handgun from her shield and is able to swiftly put the fiends to rest
>The recoil from each shot only exacerbates the pain swelling in her wounded arm
"Making my back to town. I'll see if I can draw its attention from the power grid, buy some extra time for someone to fix it."
>She pockets all the dropped mana and continues trudging back into Cumberland
>All in One suffered 150 HP of damage; gained 65 MP
>Her wounds slowly begin to heal thanks to the extra MP

The lieutenant pursed her lips and thought hard. She'd little idea what the Lucians' defensive capabilities were, and property damage was essentially a given. On the other hand, destruction of the city had been defined as unacceptable, and it was their duty as an expeditionary force to abide by that.
She steadied her wings and squinted through her visor. In response, the intelligent viewfinder zoomed in to 20x magnification.  Two more high-tension lines ran from the far side of the city, forming a sort of triangular intersection with the severed conduit. A large substation appeared as a darkish speck on the horizon.
A double-tap of her faceplate returned Kirino's view to normal.

"You'd think they'd have a backup."

Her wingman shrugged.
With a slight nod in return, the lieutenant keyed the comm once more.

"We hear ya, Princess! We'll dispatch some of our engineers to route power from the rest of the grid."

Following a few callouts to the control tower, the lieutenant decided to call in the rest of her squadron. Things were getting real bad real fast, and she'd likely need all hands on deck for this one.

"Ehh... Copy that, Red One. ETA, seven minutes." affirmed the control tower.
"Make it snappy, Launchpad; the Lucians are counting on us! @[deleted] out!"

Kirino scanned the area before planning her next move. Spotting a familiar shade of purple through her polarized visor, the lieutenant gestured towards a copse of trees by the riverbank. In response, a pair of airmen dove for the ground.
The sound of their thrusters preceded them by almost ten seconds. They set down just outside the clump of woods, just as @All in One was about to step out into the open field.
They exchanged a nod, and one of them lifted his faceplate. Behind that vermilion steel was a rather puckish young lad; messy, firelike hair, and the most charmingly vulgar of accents.

"Need a lift, love?" he asked with a grin, "Just pick a spot and hold on tight; we'll have ye there in a jiffy."

No damage dealt or MP expended, but additional allies will arrive in a turn or three.
@All in One gets a free reposition to anywhere on the field. I tend to make only one post a day, so feel free to play 'em as far as that goes. They can also dress that wound, if ya like. c:

"Abyssals, eh? Never heard of those before."

>She pulls out a sniper rifle and looks for a good vantage point
>This building should do
>She deftly leaps up top of it and perches herself facing the advancing Abyssals
>She slinks down into sniping position and gets to work on picking them off, one by one
>Six are down for the count, two are critically wounded and one is lightly grazed
>The boats at the very front of the pack make landfall near the collapsed bridge and make their way up the steep hills in no time at all
>All in One puts away the sniper rifle and brings out a Maxim-style machine gun in its place
>The Abyssals charge down the street
>All in One opens fire and sprays the whole area with bullets as soon as enough of the Abyssals within firing range
>Most are gunned down but a small few are able to flee into alleyways between buildings
>All in One expended 75 MP