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Had to be me. Someone else might have gotten it wrong.
— Mordin Solus

The very model of a scientist Salarian, Mording Solus is a physician, former actor, and former member of the Salarian Special Tasks Group, their special forces arm. His final assignment at the STG was studying the genophage, a mutagenic virus that lowered Krogan fertility. When his studies found that the Krogan were overcoming the genophage, he and the rest of his team created and deployed a new variant to continue controlling the Krogan population. He, and the other members of his team, left the STG soon after, and he instead started a clinic on the crime-ridden station of Omega.

There, he encounters Commander Shepard, who recruits him as part of his crew. He assists Shepard in his fight against Harbinger, assisting with technical development. Depending on Shepard's actions, he can encounter a former assistant of his, Maelon, who is researching a cure for the genophage. He can additionallyt either kill Maelon for this and destroy his research, or keep him alive and keep his data intact. Further depending on Shepard's actions, he can either survive or die during the assault on the Collector Base.

Should he survive, he rethinks his earlier insistence that the genophage was the correct course of action, working as a mole for the Urdnot clan. He works with Shepard to cure the genophage in return for the cooperation of the Krogan in stopping the Reapers. He learns that the Salarian leadership sabotaged the building he planned to use to spread the cure, but insists on going in anyway and fixing his mistake. Should Wrex be the leader of the Urdnot clan, Mordin will either sacrifice himself to deploy the cure, or be shot by Shepard to prevent it. Should Wreav be the leader of the Urdnot clan, he can instead be convinced that curing the genophage is the wrong thing to do, and will go into hiding to fake his death.

Akudama Drive Royale (by Leolab)[]

Ch. 1: And My Hat[]

Two guards stand outside a large bank building, trying not to shiver in the midwinter cold. A third strolls up, holding a cane and sipping from a steaming paper cup. He lifts a grey cardboard cup holder, which contains two more of the same.

“Howdy, gents. Thought you might like a sip,” he says, and the two guards take the drinks gratefully, “Not sure what kind of nutter would break in on such a cold day, though.”

“You got that right,” one of the guards replies, “Even ignoring the weather, our vault is impregnable. Wait, what’s that van doing?”

As the guard noticed, a black van throws its doors open, launching smoke at the trio. The guard is shot in the head, and as the other turns to look, he instead sees that time has frozen. He gawks as his friend’s blood and brains hang in the air, along with a cluster of other bullets to make sure he’s dead.

“And that, my man, is called dramatic irony,” the third man says, slamming his cane into the back of the guard’s knee. He collapses, only for the cane to slam into the side of his head, causing him to fall over, blood pooling at his assailant’s feet. Wayne doffs his hat, throwing it into the air as he lets his time bubble drop. Two muscular splashes of red spill out of the van, one masked with an assault rifle, firing at the security cameras; the other, red quickly revealed to be hair, tosses Wayne his usual hat and second cane as the alarms finally start to blare and an electronic gate crashes down.

A white circle forms atop it as it falls, and it halts. 9S steps out of the van, gesturing at the gate as it obeys his command and opens. A blade flashes behind him as Wei slices his wrist, flinging his blood at the door. As the other members of the heist team filter out, he snaps dramatically, causing large sections of the door to vanish and the structure to crumble.

Mordin combusts several of the guards waiting behind the door as Gene and Red Hood fire into them, cutting down the resistance. Sveta leaps in, slamming into the coordinator of the guards with her Psynergy.

“Stay down!” she yells, and the civilians within the front areas of the bank comply. A fireball streaks past her, setting another guard on fire.

“Let’s hurry,” Y’Shtola says, “We only have a few minutes before their backup arrives.”

Wei strides to the front of the advancing team, throwing a splatter of his blood in front of him, hitting another door and a couple guards. They scream as he snaps, bits of their flesh abruptly no longer there as the door collapses in another cloud of dust. The fine powder illuminates the lasers behind, glinting red as Wei stops. 9S slides forward, sticking out his hand as he hacks into the lasers.

The emitters combust in sequence as 9S forces them to overheat, leaving the net clear. Gene, Jason, and Mordin sprint in, guns blazing to suppress the guards. Sveta glows as several vines grow out of the ground, denying the guards cover. The hail of bullets finishes them off, clearing the corridor.

“Nice job,” Gene says, patting her on the head as the group spills into the now-empty corridor.

“Yes, remind me to call you when I want to wreck Bruce’s peonies,” Jason mutters, giving the massive holes in the floor an appreciative look.

“Well, if we’ve finished embarrassing the poor girl,” Y’shtola says, peeling Gene’s hand away from the blushing princess, “Let’s get moving.”

“Yeah, yeah, we don’t have time,” 9S says.

“Don’t think I can’t tell you’re rolling your eyes under that blindfold.”

“All right, ma’am,” 9S says, “There’s an elevator down the hall…”

“No,” Wei interjects, “They’ll cut the power the instant they think we’re inside.”

“We take the stairs, then,” Jason says.

“Each set only goes between two stories,” 9S says, “It’ll take some time, but…”

“But it’s better than being trapped in a metal coffin. I agree,” Y’Shtola says, “So let’s get finding it. Where’s Wayne?”

“Said he ‘had an idea’ and then vanished,” Gene says, “Let’s leave him.”


“All right, you lot,” a blowhard in a tall hat belts out at the less-than-pristine corps of guardsmen in front of him, “We’ve got intruders in this bank…”

Wayne rolls his eyes in the back as he palms a sheet with several names on it. This was a floor down from his co-conspirators, so it was probably important. As the guard drones on about protecting other peoples’ stuff, he swaps it for an empty flask. A fair trade; that flask was valuable to him. He looks around as the man continues droning on about how the vault would only open if he or an executive states their name as a password, before one of the other guards pipes up.

“Sir, if they can’t get in, can’t we just leave it to our backup?”

“Leave it to the two Executioners?” the man asks, incredulous, and goes on a spiel about stolen glory as Wayne simply processes the name, realizing he had to get to the others, fast. He looks at the flask he had just set down and flings it into the air as he creates a small bendalloy bubble, opening the door and slipping out while the guards were distracted by the flying piece of metal.

He swaps his hat out, creating another small bubble as a guard sees him and runs around the corner, appearing as a blur. The bubble pops as he leaves it, sprinting down a corridor and around another corner before halting, putting his hands up as he stares down the barrel of a gun.

“It’s me, Hood,” he says, “Your ol’ buddy Wayne.”

Jason puts the gun down, clearly still tense under the mask. Wayne started to reach for his flask, to offer the tense man a drink, before remembering he’d traded it for the sheet of names.

“So, that idea pan out?” Gene asks.

“Sorta,” Wayne says, “Got a lead on opening the safe, but the guard captain down that way said something about ‘Executioners’ coming in to hunt us down, and I thought I’d let you guys know.”

“I hear… music from above?” Y’shotla says, ears twitching, “Two girls.”

“He did mention a pair and something about singing.”

“I’ll stay back,” Wei says, face contorting into a vicious grin, “If they think they can stop us with just two…”

“I’ll stay back, too,” Sveta says, “We can each take one on.”

“All right, then,” Y’shtola says, “If you promise you won’t die.”

“Of course not,” Wei scoffs, and Sveta gives a small nod.

Mordin steps forward, only to get held back by Jason, who shakes his head at the Salarian. Mordin holds up a hand, brushing Jason off and walking up to Sveta, giving her a few plastic bags.

“Medi-gel,” he explains, “Use if injured. Heals fast.”

“Thank you,” Sveta says, storing the gel packets carefully.

Mordin returns to the group, waving as they sprint down the hallway, looking for the exit to the next floor. Sveta and Wei turn to the stairway as the singing grows closer, enough to make out one energetic voice and one more subdued one. A blonde bounces off a wall and lands as a black-haired girl rolls in beside her.

“Found you, DESS!” Kirika says, pointing her scythe at them.

“Please surrender,” Sirabe continues, holding a pair of yo-yos at the ready.

“Apologies, but we can’t do that,” Sveta says, taking a combat stance. Wei cuts his wrist as a small group of guards bursts through the same corridor Wayne had come through previously. The Contractor contemptuously flicks his wrist at them, snapping as the blood splatters across the men and walls. Their screams are quickly cut off by the collapsing masonry, and the expressions on the three girls’ faces harden.

Kirika strikes the ground as Wei flicks his wrist towards the pair, catching the blood spray on a set of rocks. A snap disintegrates them, making room for a pink yo-yo to fly past, aiming directly at Wei’s face. The Contractor narrowly dodges with a smirk, that quickly turns into a grimace as the projectile curves around. He ducks under it as Kirika leaps in to intercept Sveta, who leans out of the way of the slice.

The yo-yos continue their pursuit, leaving a tangle of pink lines in their wake. Wei raises his arm to throw some blood forward, but has to dodge another swipe. It cuts his arm, but as he attempts to snap the other yo-yo heads straight for his hand. He weaves between a flurry of spinning yo-yos, snarling in frustration.

Sveta launches a flurry of punches at Kirika, which just bounce off her armor. She ducks under a slice and tries to sweep her opponent, only for the Symphogear to jump, not even interrupting her song. Sveta glows as she jumps backwards, landing as she casts Slap. Kirika’s voice cracks in surprise as a giant hand slaps her across the hallway and into the wall. Sveta takes the opportunity to leap in front of Wei, punching the two yo-yos away.

Wei slips around her, throwing blood at Shirabe with a grin. He snaps as the blood flying, and it starts to glow as Shirabe creates a massive buzz saw in front of her. She spins it rapidly, creating a gale strong enough to blow the blood backwards, so that it splatters on the contractor. He hurriedly cuts off his ability as a roar sounds from Kirika, who activates the jets on the back of her Symphogear. She rockets past Wei, cleanly chopping him in half.

Sveta ducks under Kirika’s follow-up slash, changing into Beastform. The bestial warrior charges at the blonde, grabbing her and throwing her away. She spins and leaps at Shirabe, slamming into her sawblade shield. She bounces off and lands lightly, dashing forward to strike again. She unleashes several haymakers and kicks, striking the shield until it bends and starts to crack. She feels a wind behind her and jumps over the scythe that threatened to cut her in half.

Sveta flips in midair and kicks off of Shirabe’s shield, flying towards Kirika. Her leap is stopped by a pair of yo-yos which spin around her, wrapping her in a pink wire. Shrabe twists, slamming her trapped for against the wall. The yo-yos spin, tightening as Sveta’s Beastform transformation runs out, and Shirabe slams the weakened girl against the wall again, knocking her unconscious.

Kirika and Shirabe look at each other and nod, leaving the corpse and unconscious body behind as they pursue the rest of the heist team.

Ch. 2: Not a Four-Part 9S Sex Scene (Sorry, Laq)[]

“So why’d you give her the gel?” Gene asks, shooting a guard in the face.

“Tired of seeing good people die,” Mordin replies, shooting another.

“Explains why you didn’t give it to Wei. Or the rest of us,” Gene says, seeing a shimmering in the air fade as Wayne slides across the floor. He pops a shot off at one of the two guards the man was fighting, hitting him in the head as Wayne heals the broken bone. The other guard steps around him as the con artist stands and puts up another bubble of dilated time. A split second of blur later and the bubble falls, the guard on the floor and bleeding.

“I planned that,” Wayne says, “Thanks for playin’ along.”

Gene’s response it drowned out by an explosion in a side corridor as Y’shtola annihilates a group of guardsman. She glances at 9S, who throws his sword at another pair advancing towards the mage. He throws his hand forward as the spinning blade cuts through them, a white circle appearing in the air behind them. Two slabs of steel shoot through the walls, crushing an unfortunate foe between them, and let out a metallic screech before fizzling and sparking.

“Good, that should hold them for a while,” Y’shtola says, looking uncomfortable as she wipes the splattered blood off her face, “How’s that explosion coming along, Jason?”

“Almost there,” Red Hood says, putting another brick of C4 into a fist-sized hole, courtesy of Gene’s Caster, “Would be nice if Nines could do this for me, though.”

“Not with how it’s set up,” 9S says, “It looks like there’s separate controls all over the floor, and that…”

“Would take too much time, as you and madam cat-ears keep saying,” Jason grumbles, “Well, this should do it.”

He steps back, a small cylinder in his hand. He presses the button on top, and the remaining members of the heist team cover their ears as the explosives rip through the wall. As the silence returns, Y’Shtola tilts her head, listening to something. The rest of the party gasp in surprise – some few coughing from the dust – as they hear the same thing. The singing from before was growing.

9S sticks his hand out behind him as the others rush through the hole, dropping the dozen or so steel shutters he had raised as they made their way here. As the muffled screech of rending metal reaches his ears, he follows the group into the breach.

He looks around, not seeing the others in the metallic corridors ahead of him. He chooses one of the three corridors at random, expanding his senses slightly to see if there were any electronic traps around. Feeling one, he exerts his will slightly at it, feeling it give way quickly. Several panels in the wall sputter and smoke, the guns within now inoperable.

A smirk spreads across his face as he walks forward, sections of wall sparking and smoking as he approaches. At this rate, he might even beat his co-conspirators to the vault. The smirk doesn’t drop as a hidden door opens, and a small cadre of guards, all wearing night-vision goggles, stream out into the corridor. He tosses Cruel Oath, the blade spinning as it chops one in half.

He catches it as it comes back, his Pod firing at another guard while he slashes a third in half. He sees the fear in a fourth’s as he swiftly hacks and overloads the optics, blinding his foe to make time for a stab. The ceiling opens above him, and a mass of robots drop directly on him, finally surprising the android.

Pinned under the mass, 9S grits his teeth. There were far too many to hack, and he could hear boots running down the side corridor. He sighs in resignation, setting off his self-destruct protocols. A massive explosion surrounds him, shredding his shorts, crushing the robots, and causing the flesh-and-blood guards to collapse as their lungs tear and fill with their own blood.

9S pulls himself up, limping to the end of the corridor. He stops when he hears a click, grimacing as he realizes he triggered a mechanical trap. Several banks of green plastic flip up around him and burst, releasing a wave of electricity into his circuits. Injured as he is, he barely has time to scream before he falls, fizzling and smoking like the traps he had disarmed.


“Did anyone else just hear…”

“Yes, and we can’t help him,” Y’shtola says, firing off a spell at some guards, “We don’t even know where he is.”

“True. Guess there’s no point in waiting at the end, then,” Red Hood says, firing his rifle at a gun barrel popping out of the wall. It shatters, the mechanism behind it whirring futilely until Mordin freezes it in place. The gear shudder as they walk past, startling Gene.

“Geeze, it’s been nothing but a big fight since we started,” he grumbles, “I’m bushed.”

“Well, what did you expect?” Red Hood asks, mask hiding his own exhaustion.

“Anything other than assaulting a defended position head-on. Heard those can lead to killing planets. Perhaps something like tunneling underground? Maybe using the kickass spaceship I have to physically haul the vault out?”

“Tried that with STG,” Mordin says, “Vault infested with Varren.”

“With what?” Wayne asks.

“Like dogs with scales. And tusks. Bred for war.”

“Oh. That probably turned out bad,” Gene says.

“Yes, very vicious. Sick of meat after a few days.”

“Shh,” Jason says, sticking out his hand. The conversation quiets, allowing the rest of the group to pick up what his helmet already had: the sound of singing. Y’shtola gasps, turning and slamming her staff into the ground. A flurry of buzz saw blades slam against it, the light fading and fizzling out as the last one slips through, slicing into her shoulder.

Mordin activates his omni-tool, spraying the cut with medi-gel as the catgirl charges up some magic, raising her staff to the ceiling. A bolt of light flies out from it, and a portion of the ceiling collapses, burying the next volley of sawblades. She prepares the same spell, but as she casts a sawblade slices through her hand, throwing off her aim.

“Run!” she yells, and the remaining members of the heist crew do so as the ceiling falls again, burying her and the corridor in a mountain of rubble. Wayne and Gene look back regretfully, but continue onwards with Jason and Mordin.

The four of them quickly come to a large gate with a small security panel. Jason reaches into his coat for some more explosives, when Mordin holds his hand up.

“Faster to do this,” he says, activating his omni-tool and tapping furiously. In a few seconds, the panel beeps and turns green.

“Passcode accepted. Please state your name,” a computerized voice says. Wayne steps up, as everyone else looks at him expectantly. He clears his throat before speaking.

“I am Emmerson Valentine Eòghann Harris Barton,” he says, imitating the blend of posh British and guttural Gaelic accents he had heard back a few minutes ago.

“Acknowledged,” the computerized voice says, “Please be advised that there is an ongoing break-in. Take care.”

The door opens as Wayne poses dramatically, sporting a smug grin. Gene and Jason clap sarcastically as they walk through, Mordin trailing behind.  

Ch. 3: Joke’s Done, No More Chapter Titles[]

“She’s dead, isn’t she?” Kirika asks, looking at the massive pile of rubble, “Like the man with elf ears.”

“You saw what these people did, Kiri-chan,” Shirabe says, clenching her fist, “And they’re not even being driven by an ideal, or being manipulated.”

“Still, I wonder if we could talk them down.”

“Hibiki probably could. But she’s not here now,” Shirabe says, “If it bothers you, I can knock them out like I did with the werewolf girl up above.”

“But then I’m not doing much.”

“You protect me, Kiri-chan,” Shirabe says, holding the other girl’s hand, “I can’t do my role if you don’t keep me safe.”

“All right,” Kirika says, smiling, “Let’s go, DESS! … I wonder if I can turn Igalima into a shovel.”

“There’s a side passage that way,” Shirabe says, pointing towards a door.

“Right,” Kirika says, and pulls the other girl forward. A whirring sound from Shirabe’s skates accompanies the slightly subdued singing; it seems to have given them away previously. They make their way through the hallway filled with destroyed traps, moving with increasing apprehension until they see a massive pile of destroyed drones. Their expressions turn grim as they see the bloodied corpses of guards crushed under the metal, as well as the two that had clearly died in agony a short distance away.

The pair continue on until they see 9S, lying face down without shorts.

“Pervert,” Shirabe mutters, readying her yo-yos as Kirika stretches out with her scythe, prodding the unmoving figure a few times. She squints as he continues to be unresponsive, spotting the mass of wires spreading from his body. She points this out to Shirabe, who nods. Kirika then walks forward, kneeling down and putting her fingers to the throat of the still motionless android.

“No pulse.”


The four surviving heist crewmen walk through a chromed corridor, its size and shininess disorienting them slightly. Red Hood whistles in appreciation as they near the massive, similarly reflective vault door. Gene wastes no time, drawing his Caster and loading a shell. He aims it as it whirrs and glows, setting the door in his sights. He then pulls the trigger, firing out a torso-sized beam of light. The four scatter as the reflective surface scatters the laser, bouncing it through the room.

“Maybe try something less likely to kill us,” Wayne mutters, “I can’t heal from that.”

“Wait, I hear…” Jason says.

“Shit.”

Kirika and Shirabe burst into the scene, continuing their duet. Shirabe throws a pair of yo-yos, one at Mordin and the other at Wayne. The first hits its mark, wrapping around the scientist Salarian. Wayne throws up a bendalloy bubble, changing the trajectory of the second as it enters. Shirabe lets it go as it veers off-course, instead spinning and slamming Mordin into the ceiling hard enough to knock him out.

“Give me time,” Gene yells.

Wayne puts up a bubble and looks at the field, events folding in slow motion. Gene was too far to reach easily, and Jason’s rifle bullets move through the air towards the black-haired girl. Leaving the other two to their tasks, he turns and sprints towards the blonde. He chains bubbles as he heads towards her, briefly considering that he probably could have done just this to get to Gene’s side.

He dismisses the thought as he catches up to her, deploying another bubble as he swings his dueling canes, well inside the range where she could move the long polearm. Kirika simply flips the grip of her hand, twisting as another scythe head sprouts from the end of the staff. In an instant, she now has a pair of scythes, ready to intercept the canes.

She hooks and traps the weapons, a quick pull slicing straight through them. A swift kick breaks Wayne’s kneecap, sending him tumbling to the ground as he taps into the gold bracers under his coat, rapidly healing as he rolls. He rises, punching at his foe’s unprotected abdomen, only for his fists to meet the flat part of a scythe. He grits his teeth as he feels the bones in his hand shatter and heal, pulling it back as the girl readies herself. He uses the same hand to poke at her eyes, forcing the unprepared Kirika to dodge out of the way.

She jumps back and puts her foot on his chest, shoving him back with enough force to break his sternum. Wayne takes a deep breath as his bones knit themselves back together, vision flickering from the pain. He braces himself as his foe charges in, scythes at the side, and blocks them with his gold bracers. The metal would usually be too soft to help much, but the attack was clearly a feint. The scythes touch the metal, and his healing suddenly halted. He gasps as the pain returns full force, collapsing and blacking out as the fall does even more damage.

The bubble collapses, and Kirika sees Gene holding his Caster, an ominous purple-black aura surrounding it. He pulls the trigger, sending a small black orb towards the safe door. It quickly makes contact, and all four combatants cringe as the sound of metal shearing tears through the room. The miniature black hole dissipates as the vault lays bare, its contents ripe for the taking.

Ch. 4[]

Gene whips around and draws one of his pistols, firing several rounds as the Symphogears’ feet. The sticky paint rounds spread and adhere their feet to the ground, and they fall. Jason fires a burst from his assault rifle at the pair, only for Shirabe to block the bullets with a buzzsaw shield.

“Leave them,” Gene says, “They’re not moving for a while.”

Jason shrugs, tossing aside the now-emptied rifle as the pair strides into the vault. Gene picks up the briefcase, looking at the loot appreciatively.

“Shame the rest couldn’t make it,” Gene says, taking it in one hand under his yellow cloak.

“Yeah,” Jason says, looking at the broken figures of Wayne and Mordin just outside the hall, “Guess we can use the dead guys’ shares to post bail for the others.”

The two freeze in place, locking eyes.

“We’re friends, right?” Gene asks.

“Yep,” Jason says, drawing his SMG and firing. Gene ducks under the spray and runs in a zigzag pattern out the vault door, keeping low and erratic as he crosses the corridor. Jason runs after him, firing his grappling pistol at the ceiling of the corridor. It anchors and zips him up and over Kirika and Shirabe, still trapped, when a flicker causes him to look harder at Gene. The space pirate had turned, pointing a shotgun at him as he flew.

Jason yanks the line, transitioning into a flip as the added momentum throws off his trajectory. The blast misses, and he lands on his feet. He sprints after his former ally, firing to disrupt the other man’s strategies. Gene continues moving erratically, throwing off Jason’s aim as his cloak spreads to obscure his body. One end of it flutters up, revealing a glowing Caster.

Jason throws himself into a roll, narrowly dodging the giant red laser. The maneuver lets Gene get ahead, and Red Hood scrambles to catch up. He turns into a side corridor, vaulting over the corpse of 9S as he fires at his quarry. His boots slam on the metal floor as he sprints down the hallway while Gene rounds the corner at its exit.

He crosses it in the span of a reload, cocking the SMG as he whips through the tight series of corridors, finally catching sight of Gene in a straight stretch. A spray forces the pirate to duck before Jason fires his backup grappling pistol over Gene’s head. The hook latches to the end of the hallway and the motor within the gun whirs, pulling Jason through the air as he lays down suppressive fire.

He spins as he passes Gene, landing a bit in front of his foe. He takes aim, but the pirate lifts the briefcase in front of him. As Jason hesitates, Gene tears off his cloak, tossing it over the briefcase and then throwing them both at his foe. Jason draws his kris and fires through the cloak on one side of the container while stabbing across the other.

The bullets rip through air as the knife collides with something hard, and his options cut off as the cloak covers his head. He feels a blade sink into his throat and collapses, the yellow fabric rapidly turning into a funeral shroud. Gene turns off his light shield as the blade slips away, grabbing the briefcase and leaving his dying foe behind.

He sprints through the bank, loading his Caster as he speeds out the front door and towards the police blockade. He fires, the magic this time taking the form of a barrage of red bullets. The hail of magic explodes, scattering the officers and demolishing their cars. He leaps into the still-running van, slamming it into gear and stomping on the gas pedal.

As he makes his getaway, he opens a small communicator, patching him to his ship, still docked in the planet’s spaceport.

“Hey, Jim, change of plans. Get the Outlaw Star ready to fly,” he says, “I’m going to shake them off then head to you.”

He chuckles as his partner squawks in indignation, nodding his head to the beat of a soft tune, the music gradually growling louder. Suddenly realizing that the van doesn’t have a radio, he looks in his rear mirror to spot Kirika and Shirabe on his tail, riding some sort of green, black, and pink wheeled rocket sled.

“Change of plans from that; take off and come get me. I’m in a…” Gene cuts off as Kirika levels her scythe at him, while Shirabe attaches one of her sawblades to it. He ducks as they launch the projectile, which shears the top of the car off.

“Okay, you’ll be able to see me,” he says over his friend’s cries of alarm, “I’m counting on you, partner.”

He closes the comm before the rest of the crew – especially Melfina – could ask him what the fuck he’s doing and swerves across the miraculously empty road to dodge a volley of buzz saws. He loads a random shell into his Caster and fires behind him, only for the girls to swerve around it. His jaw drops as he looks in the surviving side mirror to see Kirika brandishing a building-sized scythe.

He swerves again, narrowly dodging the attack and staying grounded on the road. Shirabe, however, steers their construct to the broken ground, using the rubble as a ramp. The jets on the bottom of the sled light up in the air, sending them sailing over Gene’s head. They turn as they land, Kirika holding her scythe forward, the head transformed into a scissor-like shape.

Gene grins as she opens it, a louder and more familiar engine drowning out the pair’s song. The red body of the Outlaw Star catches up to him, and the ship’s grappler arms latch on to the sides of the convertible. They lift him up, buzzing the younger girls as the ship pulls up into the atmosphere, depositing Gene in cargo bay.

“We can’t chase that, can we?” Shirabe mutters, grimacing as Kirika shouts incoherently at the escaping vehicle.

Expert’s Opinion[]

9th Place, Wei Zhijun, 8 points
Wei was one of the stronger fighters, but his battle junkie nature means that he’s likely to seek out the Executioners instead of avoiding him. Much like Brawler in the show, his love of a good scrap gets him killed first.
8th Place, Sveta, 28 points
Much like Wei, Sveta is a strong fighter who nevertheless has personality issues. In this case, she’s simply too good a person to get much farther; she was too likely to volunteer for a delaying action against Kirika and Shirabe.
6th Place, Y'shtola Rhul & 9S, 31 points
Y’Shtola is a formidable asset to the team thanks to her natural charisma and leadership skills. Once combat breaks out, however, her usefulness is lessened. She’s capable of dealing great damage, but the cast time of her spells harmed her.
Laq’s Husband was similarly useful to the team thanks to his hacking abilities, and should have been one of the central players in breeching the vault. Unfortunately, his innate curiosity got the better of him during the sim, leading to him getting separated. Most of the votes have him surviving the heist, but that’s not how placements actually worked out; his overall firepower was also fairly lacking.
5th Place, Mordin Solus, 41 points
Mordin is similar to 9S in that he had useful skills to the team, especially in hacking. However, his firepower isn’t quite enough to survive when the party dwindles.
4th Place, Wayne, 49 points
Wayne is perfectly suited for the infiltration phase, which he was instrumental in completing. However, once the battlefield got more cramped and other, more obvious targets dwindled, his abilities are nowhere near what’s needed to fight against either Kirika or Shirabe one-on-one.
3rd Place, Kirika Akatsuki & Shirabe Tsukuyomi, 52 points
And finally, the Executioners place third. They have more than enough raw ability and durability to survive all the way through, but their combined efforts were delayed enough by the rest of the team for the heist to complete. And, since that’s their losing condition, they’re third. Should have won, though.
2nd Place, Red Hood, 61 points
Jason hits his trauma button by being eternally second-best. He’s highly skilled and very competent, allowing him to survive the heist phase where most of the team fell, but he’s not quite good enough to get first.
1st Place, Gene Starwind, 62 points
Gene Starwind was the winner of this match, thanks to his blend of experience, firepower, and the sound judgement to just fucking run sometimes. Nothing much else to say here other than a recommendation to watch Outlaw Star because it’s great.

To see the original battle, weapons, and votes, click here

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