Part 136: Mission 37 (Paris Route) - Intruder From the Darkness - Part 2
Our folks are a quite far away from the Mycenae troops, so let’s skip ahead a bit till I get close enough to do something.
Mind you, before anything, I have Mihiro heal Mazinger with a Faith cast.
Enemy Phase!
Alright, we’re now right in the fray.
: You pop out from your holes and think we'll just hand you the surface on a silver platter?! : Come’ere, you moles! Your tour of Paris just ended so hurry up and get back underground!
Gai is rather far, though, so Valguard will carry us for now.
The brothers are all combined and helping each other.
Still, I have them cast Iron Wall just in case they can’t dodge.
Kazuma is attacked another couple times and always counters with Torpedoes.
As for Tetsuya, he needs to stick to Turbo Smasher Punch lest he quickly run out of gas – he gets attacked thrice by the Dragos.
: These different mechabeasts are fighting evenly with Great!: Very impressive, Mycenae Empire…! If these are their shock troops, their leaders must be even stronger!
Still, it’s not bad.
Kouji is farther back (with no Jet Scrander, he can’t move well inside a city) but he still gets attacked.
: Damn it! We had such a hard time with Dr. Hell and that was just an opening act?!: Still, we can’t lose! If we did, it’d be the end of the whole world!
No problems here.
Gekiryujin is jumped again, so a Wanrei is in order.
Hopefully his EN will hold out.
Mind you, Chouryujin ate the first attack and Gekiryujin took the Supporter.
Finally, the last one goes for Kazuma and barely lives to regret it.
Player Phase!
Without Yumi, Valguard is our top WMD.
All but one Drago survive; Dante and Psychoveia are heavily weakened.
Following that, Chouryujin and Gekiryujin tag team the Dante into oblivion.
Which, finally, activates Kouji’s Mazin Power.
When the enemies’ number is reduced to 5, reinforcements quickly show up to replace the destroyed units, making Boss’ cronies start to panic at our situation.
Boss, however, yells at them to man up; how can Neo-Wärter protect world peace with them shaking in their boots?!
Tetsuya agrees with him, saying that the entire government body and several military commanders, all of whom are necessary for the future, are gathered here in Paris; if they run, they leave it all on the hands of the Mycenae Empire – no matter what, they must protect this place!
Yeah, it’s another one of THOSE stages. Still, we keep going.
A Tomahawk would probably suffice but there’s no harm in a bit of overkill.
: Such power…and they’re numerous, too!: If this keeps up, we’re going to be overwhelmed!
Very nice.
Following that, Tenryujin picks a target of her own and slices it to ribbons.
That there Dante is quite weak, so Boss finishes the job.
As for that Drago, it’s easy pickings for Volfogg.
So there.
Enemy Phase!
A couple of the new Dragos decides to pick on Getter.
Ryouma dodges both attacks with an Open Get before doing a massive counterattack.
The whole Getter team takes a level, Ryouma learns Prevail L8 and Benkei learns Bonds (80 SP – restores 50% HP to ALL allies).
Not wanting him to feel left out, a couple of Dragos also go for Kazuma – who promptly blasts them away with hand-cannons.
Player Phase!
Time for another MAP. Final tally is: Two injured Dragos and four dead.
The Valstork crew catches up to Kazuma and Mihiro (Horis re-learns Exhaust).
Gai finally manages to get in range of something.
: Such destructive power…these are in a whole different league than the mechabeasts!: Can we even win this with so few troops…!?
I wish those Dragos were in line for a chain-attack…[/i]
More reinforcements and, this time, it is Mihiro’s turn to do the worrying.
Kazuma is also getting a wee bit annoyed but knows that they still don’t have a choice but to fight on; Shihomi is, silently, thinking that if things keep going like this…
And you guys get the idea. The enemy reinforcements will keep coming until around 5 turns have passed since their arrival.
Since I don’t want this to turn into another “Marimea Army fight”, I’ll just skip to the end as there’s nothing else to be seen – only a whole bunch of MAPs (Kazuma re-learns Love, too) and chain-attacks.
Player Phase!
Gorgon is getting disappointed, asking if this is all we can do.
Sadly, most of our units were already quite depleted from our battle against Bionet.
: DAMN IT!! If only Kaiser was here!
: Hang in there, bro! : Shirou! And you brought Kaiser with you!: I have it set on autopilot! Take it, quickly!: Alright! I’ve nothing to fear if I have Mazinkaiser!
: You’re too naïve! *Gorgon charges after Mazinkaiser.*
: U, UWAAAAAH!!: Boy, I’ll be taking that Mazinkaiser!: Not good! The canopy of the Kaiser Pailder!
: Get out of there, Shirou!: I don’t think so, boy! You’ll also be quite valuable!: AAAAAAAAH, BROOOOOOO!!: SHIROU!!: AHAHAHAHAHA, the boy sees you as his big brother? Thanks to him, we were spared the effort of searching for our greatest enemy! : DAMN YOU, DUKE GORGON! Give Shirou and Kaiser back!!*Kouji charges after Gorgon.*
: BRO!!: Gather whatever power you have left, Mazinger Z! We have to rescue Shirou!!
: What?!
: Too slow, Mazinger Z!: That’s…
: KOUJIIIIII!!: The Pailder was ejected…!: But Kouji…by the looks of it, he’s fainted!
: All units. Recover Kouji and retreat from the battlefield.
: But, sister…!: But they still have Shirou!
: And they also stole the Q-Part!
: The people from the Paris summit will not be able to escape…: Further combat will not be tolerated. All units, retreat.: …Let’s pull back.
: Tetsuya! What the hell are you thinking?!: Shut up! One more complaint and I’ll drag you out of here myself!: Tetsuya…: Damn…: DAMN IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!!: (Mycenae Empire…I’ll make you pay for this…): (Even if it takes my life…!)
Corbett bitches about our people retreating, but Forreston tells him that we made the right decision to abandon a losing battle.
From here on out, the Great General of the Darkness starts doing the worldwide broadcast that we saw on the other path: proclaiming the rebirth of the Mycenae Empire, the capture of both the Kaiser and the UN Conference and demanding the Q-Parts in 24hrs.
Leo has the other three Q-Parts under guard but it's pretty clear, from what the Bionet agent was able to accomplish at the spur of the moment, that the Q-Parts must not be allowed to fall into the Mycenae's hands, lest mankind be well and truly defeated.
Liger fills us in on a bit of top-secret info from the Security Council: if worse comes to worse, they're ready to take very extreme measures.
That means prioritizing defeating the enemy over the hostages' lives, and using strategic weaponry to do it.
Reneé says that it can’t be a nuclear strike as the Neutron Jammers are still affecting Paris but Horis quickly realizes that the Feds must have some new wide-area death weapon that they plan on using; with the Feds tied up battling the Mycenae world-wide, we're the only ones who could free the hostages - and we can't wait for the other half of our team to arrive from Orb.
Kouji is physically unharmed and resting in the infirmary, but with the Kaiser captured and the Mazinger destroyed, he won’t be able to fight; Shihomi announces that we're going to meet to discuss stealing Paris back in two hours.
When Kouji comes to, our people explain the circumstances to him: Mazinger’s destruction from the Great General’s attack, Shirou and Kaiser captured, the attack of the 7 Mycenae generals.
Kouji quickly starts to angst about his own fault and inability to stop it all but Tetsuya is having none of it – he punches Kouji straight away; he points out that it was Kouji's initial overconfidence in not sortying the Kaiser that resulted in this mess.
Kouji falls silent, then heads off to try to repair Mazinger with help from Sayaka, Boss and crew, who promise that they’ll help him rescue Shirou.
After he goes, Tetsuya intones that the Great General of the Darkness has killed Mazinger beyond anything anyone could repair; he didn't stop Kouji from trying repairs anyway because he well knows that Kouji simply can't sit still until Shirou is finally rescued.
The flames of his anger will help refine his soul - and when they do, that's the time to counterattack the bad guys.
And to help that, Tetsuya has something of a plan, though he admits that it's a pretty lousy bet...