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((Aesford's plot hasn't started yet.))

Mio has been dragged with Chryssa, probably, into Tokyo.

As has Sachi.

---

Victoria's shots continue and.....either these guys have anti-magic, or their armour's tough, because, although more of her shots are downing them, she can still see them bouncing off or merely denting the armour.

Wilson is targeted by another heavy-weapons carrying mook, who proceeds to get a faceful of shield as Penelope runs into battle, ramming him with her shield as the spear in her left hand slowly shifts into some form of rifle, mechanical parts visibly whirring and the body of the spear shortening to make up the barrel and grip. It occurs to Wilson that doing THIS is probably where she got to be a good shot. Among various other things.

Yamal, meanwhile, is almost practically a monster herself, cleaving almost a full circle into the unfortunate souls Tourmaline throws to her with her hammer. Although these soldiers are capable of landing blows- and even to a tough girl like Yamal, they hurt- they're far too busy being downed. Half the time, the only reason they aren't dead is due to the rather tough armour they're wearing.

Dackly does attempt to petrify them, but....wait a second. She's detecting some sort of hatred, but whatever it is, it almost seems unnatural to these people, as if it's not their own hatred they're spewing. Bah, questions later, petrify first. The armour, however, seems to be limiting her ability to petrify them, in no doubt due partly to the fact said armour is already in itself inorganic.

Gozer attempts to limit them with gravity, but before he can do that, he gets slammed with another concussive grenade, chucking the golem into a nearby building and breaking his concentration.

Haruka's initial shield bash throws a few back, but her flames have minimal effect on these armoured warriors, even with magic. Indeed, she has a few seconds to ponder this before a single punch hits her on the cheek, throwing the girl aside into a nearby road barrier.

6AR's jetpack lifts him into the sky, allowing him to lift one unfortunate opponent with the Force.....before the droid gets dragged down into the fray, as a soldier, hanging to his foot, is pulled down by his comrades, pulling 6AR with him.

However, the soldier who DID pull down 6AR falls over suddenly, as the Cryptobiolin inserted into their system by Evridiki's trick hand takes effect. It seems she did find a chink in their armour.

i mean vc gallia

((no
xiphos/lance/rifle bes-oh wait wrong series))

and now i can quit pretending penelope and argent gale are different people

((SB asked me to do this next section. It would've been shorter, but I had most of this mostly written down for something else.))
The smoke clears, with Yamal riddling their attacker with bullets as the armour absorbs most of the blows, but nonetheless downing him, and it's clear what just happened.

Penelope and Wilson are unharmed.

Wilson immediately opens his eyes.
 
Penelope is standing over him, a silver shield on her right arm, the center of the shield blackened from where the explosive had made contact. There are skid marks where she had slid across the sidewalk to protect Wilson, the heels of her boots still smoking. Wilson cab see a small slot, card-sized, mounted on the back of the shield, with what appears to be a keypad underneath. Her other hand is in her pocket, reaching for something and pulling it out.
 
Penelope doesn't look back. “Are you alright?” She asks, lowering her shield slightly.
“Y-yeah….” He nods, his hands trembling with fear. “…..w-where did you get that?”
“……I wasn’t being wholly truthful, I must confess.” The journalist sounds apologetic.
“W-what a-about?”
 
“I’m not just a journalist. I’m sorry.”
 
Penelope lowers her shield to cover her torso, finally revealing what was in her hand.
 
A small card, marked with a stylized wheel on a green background, labelled ‘Shift Trigger: Fortune’.

The courier seems too stunned to do anything. Penelope doesn’t notice as she raised the card into the air, using her shielded arm to unbutton her trenchcoat. He can’t see what was in front of it, but he can see her slide the card across the front of her belt, before her hand seemingly keys something into a keypad.
"Don't worry, Wilson. I'll protect you.” Penelope vows, before breathing deeply, flicking her card into a side pocket and extending her left hand to the side, as if grasping something. “Henshin.”

A small, metallic baritone echoes from in front of Penelope, allowing Wilson to hear what she had triggered.
 
“Complete! Shift Trigger: Type Aeon!”
 
Suddenly, silver lines appear, running down the length of Penelope’s body, followed by pieces of silver armor. Her torso, forearms, lower legs and head are coated with silver armour, the rest protected by flexible, navy blue material resembling that of bulletproof vests. A silver spear appears in her left hand, generated from the same argent lines that had generated her armor. A red scarf wraps around her neck, part of the length extending down her back, blowing gently in the wind. A belt is wrapped around her waist, a small silver rectangle attached to the side and a hook on the opposite. Her armour resembles that of the fighters, only more detailed and far more advanced, judging by the technological detail in the armour.
 
She turns towards Wilson, to reveal that her face is now hidden by a helmet, with her eyes behind a green visor and the rest of her face covered by a silver faceplate, two silver triangles emerging from the sides of her helmet.
 
“P-Penelope?” He utters briefly. She nods at him slowly, before turning back to the fight, the grip on her spear tightening.
 
“I might have misinformed you about my real abilities.” She explains. “I am not just a journalist.

I am Armored Rider Aeon, at your service.”
With that, she helps Wilson to his feet, then turns back into the fight.

---

The fight rages on despite Penelope's sudden transformation.

6AR parries another baton strike against him as he settles into a defensive stance, but in the chaos, there are far too many to keep track of, even with his grasp of the Force. He is knocked off-center by several batons smacking into his back, denting his armour.

Victoria, having managed to disable one, gets up and jumps back onto a nearby fountain, firing into the crowd of mooks with her guns. She is elegant in her acrobatics, almost refining it to an art as she jumps to avoid return fire.

Evridiki's grenade lands in the crowd, releasing screams of shock as their wounds heal. Of course, for Evridiki, the mission was successful. Seeing as Wilson and Penelope are fine, they don't need healing either.

Tourmaline's hammer hurls a villain straight into Yamal's path, perfect for mutilation!

---

Mio is in normal schoolgirl form, while Sachi looks relatively normal.

Most of the crowd are fine, with a few bullet injuries in the legs and arms. No fatalities, thank god. Similarly with the attackers, although there's far more fractures and bruising than bullet wounds. She carefully constructs her grenade, waiting for the opportune moment to throw it.

6AR charges in, expecting an easy fight from these primitives, throwing a flurry of blows with his lightsaber at their gun arms-
Only to have the seemingly normal-looking batons able to parry the saber, as he gains the attention of three of the soldiers. Uh oh.

Behind him, Haruka lands with a thud, cracking the pavement below her. She succeeds in taunting the soldiers as they turn their guns- unsuccessfully- on her rather large shield.

Tourmaline shrieks, deafening a few of the civilians.....and doing absolutely nothing to the soldiers at all.

Wilson throws the grenade into the crowd! He ducks, attempting to avoid the explosion.

Then the grenade is thrown back, landing next to him quite nicely, too. The courier has merely a moment to glance at it before it goes off. The blast hurls him backwards towards the blown-out cafe window, throwing him against the wall and stunning him for a moment.

He regains his consciousness to see one of the armoured men aiming a rather large explosive gun at him. Wilson only has enough time to close his eyes to look away from his fate as the trigger is pulled-
"NO!"
And he sees Penelope rush in front of him, hand in coat, running directly in front of the explosive shell as it explodes-

---

The shell explodes, obscuring Penelope and Wilson from the view of everyone else.

Penelope is about to speak, before a loud explosion sounds from the end of the street. People start screaming and running the opposite way from the explosion, as smoke starts wafting upwards from the horizon.

On the opposite side of the road, civilians seem to be running away from a group of men in full armour, from head to toe. They are wearing grey armour with a black undersuit, with various logos on their chestplate, some with stylized swords, some with a stylized coin, some with grails and some with staves. Their helmets are black with an opaque grey visor encompassing the whole face, and their weapons consist of small, sturdy-looking batons and what resemble small submachine guns, made from solid black plastic and with a small scope on the side to accommodate aiming, attached to a small slide to allow it to flip onto the sights of the gun for aiming.

They seem to firing in the direction of the crowd. Some people are falling over, injured, but the majority seem to be running in fear.

Penelope blinks, then immediately runs across the street, standing between the civilians and the armoured men.
".....it seems that's our lead. Evridiki and anyone else who wants to, follow me. I'll try to cover the civilians. The rest of you, keep on those things and subdue them! My partner should be on the way!"