【Ｔｈｅ　Ｖａｒｉａｂｌｅ　Ｐｒｏｊｅｃｔ：　Ｐｓｙｃｈｅ】

"I'm with Prier. Don't get swept." Claire commented with a slightly irritated huff. Nobody wanted to figure it all out before the fight started, but now that it's all kicking off everybody wants to be the shot caller, now don't they? Figures. Claire spun her Variable around her forearms before pairing them up, having them orbit in tandem. 'Split them up like that? What a joke. It's all about coordination, why split up your attention intentionally like that? Focus.' Claire thought to herself, forming the tips of her spheres into a point. As the two pairs of bladed spheres spun, Claire stood defensively with the pairs in front of her like shields. Refining their shapes into something more effective, she had them now as twin disks as opposed to all the blade she had around, spinning around with extruding points to maximize efficiency.

The two disks spun like a buzz saw would, as Claire's arms went up. At her command, the two spheres went up and horizontal, spinning above her shoulders. And the first, she launched. Claire swung her arm as if throwing, and her Variable followed suit, following a crescent shaped arc from her right side. The blade's trajectory arced around and went to hit the Simulation from it's left side.

Before it could land, Claire ran to the left of the group, following Prier's recommendation to split the group up. Taking the others locations and attacks in time, Claire's eyes lit up as she used her mental Variable for just enough time to actually hit the target. If the Simulation moved, Claire would compensate.She threw her disk up, having it arc down from above, making sure not to hit any of the close quarters fighters on her team. If all went well, the right disk would hit first, and her second disk would follow up.
 
Anchovy, having already utilised her ability to lock on to the somulation's vision, could do this with her eyes closed.

Or her back turned, for that matter.

She generates six guns as her back turned. All these guns were aimed from above the simulation lady. Instead of standard blunt bullets, they shot darts.

Bulletspeed darts.

Even though Anchovy was not looking directly, the bullet lines seemed to follow the simulation wherever she went. One of the bullet lines was constantly shooting and barely missing the front of the simulation.
 
Valiant efforts though they were, the lack of combined coordination would see all their attempts end in failure. With one of their members caught in midair and one completely without any means of attacking, all that mattered was dodging the two incoming assaults. Two from directly ahead, one approaching the left flank. Backing up several feet from the boy who'd launched an assault mere seconds before to create distance, the once believed short range variable transformed into ten small spheres. One shot at the incoming blade from her flank. As soon as the two collided, an explosion followed. One attempt stopped.

Following suit, she launched six to greet the shots fired from Anchovy, and one at the follow up disk hurled by Claire. Two shots left, and Minato knew just who one of them was for. To form a shield was all he could do, but he knew before she even attacked that it was over. A collision, and another explosion. "Excess damage noted on target: Minato Chikao. Target defeated," a robotic voice rang over the intercom.

Yvette's heart sank. Just like that, one of them was already down for the count. The boy's variable was forcibly desynced, and the fight was over for him, reduced to sitting in a corner and watching as the rest of them went on. If only that was the end of the simulation's onslaught. As soon as the announcement was over, the one sphere she had left divvied into seven more, six of which she launched at the group below.

"Claire!" was all Yvette could yell out to the girl who'd already left the group. If these were as explosive as the last ones, there'd be little hope for her to get away without a good counter. A quick turn to the girl of short stature. "Prier, your hand, please! I need a variable!" With two spheres hurtling towards Claire and four headed towards the main group, they'd have to act fast if they wanted to have any hope of countering.

@ERode @R-9 Pilot @Kit-n-Kat @Crow
 
"Use mine of you want," Prier replied, reaching out to grab Yvette's outstretched hand. Her own variable coalesced back into a single sword, and she grabbed it with her free hand, because it was time to switch gears and she doubted she could split her focus to keep anything aloft for this.

With explosions like that and Minato already out of the fight, they were going to have a hard time of it if someone didn't do something. Prier couldn't get much for finesse, but she could at least toss out a fast solution. After the initial surprise, well, it might not be as...useful. She at least made sure to keep the general area where her allies were clear, as suddenly most of the room was shrouded in absolutely crushing gravity. Their simulated opponent and her variables would have to deal with the sudden shift to weighing tens of times what they were supposed to. Prier herself didn't know how to fine tune things yet, she just went with as solid a pull as she could.

It would keep those projectiles from reaching the team, but also stop anything else currently in midair. The spheres fell to the floor quickly, landing far short of their targets and detonating harmlessly. And the moment they did, Prier let off on her focus, and gravity returned to normal. "Weapons free!" she shouted to the others as she stuck close by Haruka's shield. There was no way that stunt wouldn't get attention.
 
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Short range physical, long range physical, what's next?

It was a pity, but Minato's demise was expected, as far as outcomes went, and the explosive ability demonstrated was good information. Powerful enough to blow past a short range physical shield, no matter how hastily constructed it was. The tower shield that Haruka wielded continued to reinforce itself, the outer surface becoming more akin to rubber than steel, to better suit the explosions that she had just witnessed.

Her role was defensive. Her allies could exchange fire at a range. And if the simulation ever closed the distance...well, what was a shield but a blunt sword?

"Center gravitational pull onto the simulation next time, Prier," Haruka said, the lightning spark of her synapses connecting with the mental variable implanted there, "Drawing the explosions towards her own vicinity will make her think twice about using that trick again. If you can maintain it for a longer duration of time, and if you can ground her, I can fight her in those conditions."

The ground beneath her cracked as the rose haired girl braced herself for the next assault and counterattack.

"I'm pretty strong in close range."
 
"Shit!"

Claire was pretty irritated that Minato had gone in and gotten wiped out. This one was gonna be interesting, or a massive pain in the ass. Both disks had been intercepted, and Claire yanked them both back to her, although the sight of the explosive power of this girl's Variable was very, very worrying. Claire's disks both orbited her as she took a moment to analyze the scenario. Calling on her mental Variable again, Claire saw the paths of the spheres and almost panicked. With a yelp of fear, Claire had her twin disks already spinning up. In her quick reaction, she threw one of her disks and adjusted its course to hit the first, and with a quick followup spin, she threw the second. But these ones exploded, and Claire already used her psychokinesis to launch herself back.

Stumbling backwards, barely getting hit with the blast, Claire's skill with her abilities wasn't as high as she would have hoped, and launching herself back forced her into a roll across the white floor of the testing room. Her disks had bounced back nearby to her, and she yanked them back as she slowly managed to get back to her footing. "Shit..." Claire muttered, coughing as she spun her disks around. Alright, plan B then. Claire guided one of her disks with her left arm, tossing it far left and arcing it back to hit the simulation's flank. The second she threw directly at the sim, although she intended for it to miss.

Provided that even if it were intercepted, it would end up behind the simulation, Claire would pull it back to attack from behind the simulation, this time trying to test the limitations of this simulation. If she truly was what the group was presented, then her field of vision would be mildly limited. But if the simulation could tell that the disk wasn't gonna hit her, maybe it would calculate that Claire was trying to deceive her?
 
"Numbers reduced, we had better not have any more reductions."

Minato was out, reducing the number by one. Every member was vital.

Which was why Anchovy needed to be at 120%.

Anchovy's Variable was sliced as she unshaped and returned them to her, preparing her next attack. Her Variable was soon shaped into a pair of bazookas that stood atop her shoulders as she hid behind the shield, peering upwards.

She continuously fired spherical blasts at the simulation. However, she seemed to barely miss all her shots.

Her last two shots were directly aimed for the simulation's stomach to push her back with great impact.

It appeared that all those missed shots were floating spheres behind the simulation, ready to converge onto her and give her a world of pain.
 
More shots fired. Time for short range. Brandishing another sphere in her right hand while awaiting the first disk's approach and letting the fish girl's shots slip past her, a sword formed, followed by a swift upward cut that would see the fist disk sliced clean in two. Dropping herself in elevation ever so slightly, the second assault would meet a similar fate as she held the sword above her head, ready to receive the attack. Once it was clear from the front, the sword transformed backwards and out rapidly to form a hollow sphere around what remained of the second disk, as well as those shots fired by the young fish.

With her free left hand outstretched, something seemed different about the attack she was preparing to launch this time. Looking closely, the long range weapon seemed to almost be absorbing energy. Exactly. If a shot type would be stopped with gravity, then simply go with...

"We need to get out of this spot. Now!" Yvette yelled out, the simulation's assault being let loose before she could even move her legs. The fish's final blasts were evaporated in a radial blast that continued towards them, sure to cause stupid amounts of damage to anything it collided with.

@Crow @ERode @Kit-n-Kat @R-9 Pilot
 
Yvette didn't have to move her legs. Nor Anchovy. Nor Prier.

Because Haruka was a swole gal, and she could deadlift three lolis without breaking sweat.

As energy converged upon the palm of the simulation's hands, a crimson shroud descended around the Amazonian girl, her hair burning like a sunset sky. With one hand, she held the shield. With the other hand, she bundled up Yvette, Prier, and Anchovy like a stack of books and wrapped as much of her arm around them as she could. If it was normal, boring Haruka, this would have just been a waste of energy, but this, this was superhero Haruka, her physical parameters boosted beyond what mere psychokinesis could provide for her.

Moments before the beam struck headon, the group disappeared, the wind roaring as they landed on the opposite side of the simulation as Claire. There was an explosion, blazing heat and prominence, but Haruka's eyes were alive now, the burgeoning tower shield naught but a feather in her grasp.

"Same as before, Prier. Crush the sim into bits!"
@R-9 Pilot
 
"I noticed something."

Anchovy analyses the situation.

"Far range Physicals are much less durable than Close range Physicals. So what if we found a way to control Close range Physicals to attack from a Far Range?"

Anchovy generates a single shoulder bazooka once again as the Variable takes shape, opening a hole large enough to fit a human.

"I need someone with a close-ranged physical to get in. It seems that we're a bit short-handed..."
 
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First disk seemed to have been cut out commission. Claire was rather irritated by that result but in all honesty that was kind of expected. Now she had her other disk to worry about. She wasn't getting targeted by the simulation which left her some breathing room to figure out how to damage the simulation's Variable. Her first plan was to take hold of her own disk and started bouncing it around within the sphere. Bounce bounce bounce bounce bounce, Claire just commanded her variable to wreck inside of it. If that didn't work, Claire expanded her Variable outwards, as if a spike or porcupine to pierce the sphere. At that point is when Claire started splitting up her Variable into more disks, spinning them and bouncing them around the Simulation to distract it from whatever Anchovy was planning.
 
Being picked up like a sack of potatoes and carried bodily across the room was unexpected, to say the least. Haruka was probably lucky it happened too fast for Prier to complain or fight back. "Hm, well, the obvious would be to rush in there." Prier was not one for complicated plans. "If you wanna do it or open fire, better get going before I pin her down, or be ready to compensate."

That she couldn't contribute with a ranged assault of her own annoyed Prier, but she couldn't maintain nearly enough focus or power output to keep both variables active at once, much less fight effectively with them. Or so she felt.

"Gravity on three," Prier said, and started counting quietly enough so only the other girls near her could probably hear. "One." A pause. "Two."

"Three." It was enough time for any last shots before gravity again clawed down at their simulated opponent, this time the area focused much more on only her immediate surroundings, making it little easier on any people or projectiles closing the distance.
 
"Three."

A distortion upon reality sounded, the air around the simulation distorting as Prier's spatial variable activated once more. With a backflip, Haruka slotted herself within the massive cannon that Anchovy had fired, before grinning, her own physical variable melting into an armored bodysuit.

"Make it good, Scarletfever."
 
While Haruka was in, a thin layer of far-range physical variable coated her back, ready to be activated into jetpacks at the swipe of Anchovy's fingers should Haruka lose momentum mid-air.

"Fire!"

Anchovy launched Haruka towards the target at full blast. This plan was now in motion...
 
The final weapon formed was a spear, a lance, the impossibly durable variable peeling off her body as she sailed through the air to manifest into a stake that slew even immortals.

Between the variable or the simulation, she would pierce both.
 
This was it. The group's do or die was upon them. Being without a spatial type, Yvette couldn't boost the gravity's effect on the simulation. Luckily, Prier was compatible with long range physical as well. She'd provide the covering fire that she and Anchovy, who must've been low on energy after a launch like that, could not.

Just as Claire had hoped, her efforts were rewarded. Distracted with the gravity, the simulation couldn't give her full focus to the disks that were quickly ripping apart the inside of her variable. One good spike pierced the disk through to the outside, enough that it could split off and launch close range covering fire once the gravity was lifted.

Prepping for the desperate shots Eevee knew the simulation would soon send off to deal with Haruka's approach, the dark haired girl brandished the long range variable Gaz had gifted her with, she split the sphere into ten smaller ones, launching them at the adversary before them.

Knowing this situation was trouble, the simulation acted quickly. Crushing whatever was inside her short range variable by making it collapse in on itself, whatever Claire had managed to split off before everything inside was destroyed was all she'd get to work with. In her other hand, five shots was all she could give herself while maintaining herself in the air. Launching them at Haruka, her efforts would soon prove fruitless. Because of her focus on staying airborne, her shots were slower than Yvette's, which were just now whizzing past Haruka, spear in hand.

Colliding with her opponent's strike, an explosion shook the air, the super strength girl passing through only moments after it was reduced to a cloud of smoke. The five spheres that didn't go to stopping the simulation's last ditch efforts went on to hit the short range variable the simulation was prepping to swing down towards Haruka. Losing her grip on the weapon, the would-be sword reverted back to a sphere fell to the ground.

Long range shots in the back from Claire still left to go through, with a spear coming from the front... As those behind watched on as the smoke cleared, they could only hope their short ranged teammate would manage to pull through. Anyone could've sworn that, at that moment, they were all holding their breath...

With five minutes left, the result of their combined efforts would be...?
 
With everything in motion, Prier dropped her hold on gravity, to clear the way for Haruka to make her final strike. She could feel the same sort of...drained feeling she'd get sometimes after practicing too much. She was probably running her reserves down far too quickly, with this on top of all the playing around earlier in the day.

She'd just have to switch to the physical type if things didn't work out after this attack.
 
A falling star? No, a flying star, propelled by Anchovy's power, safeguarded by Yvette and Claire's blessings, carrying the burden of their breathless hopes. It was a dragon that burst from the smoke, burning bright and red as it smashed into the simulation. For a moment, there was resistance, variable clashing against variable.

But that was just for a moment.

A shockwave shook the room as the spear shattered the core of the exploding variable, a second eruption of flame bursting out. Vespers of flame clung onto her rose bramble hair as Haruka ascended further and further, her spear driving the simulation into the opposing wall, spiderweb fractures bursting from the nondescript surface.

Silence.

And then, the distinct sound of more thorns bursting from the spear, thoroughly shredding the simulation's torso from inside out.

Suspended in the air, Haruka smiled cheekily at expressionless simulation, raising one hand to pat it on the head.

"Nice fight!"

Then she grabbed the skull and flattened it against ruptured concrete for good measure.

No blood, no fat, no skin, no teeth, no entrails, no fluids. Nothing to clean off at all.

Performing a three point superhero landing, Haruka dropped down to ground level, where all the rest of her friends were, before offering a raised fist to all of them. "So," she said, the neon glow leaving her vibrant eyes, "This is where someone quips about how we're definitively better off without guys, right?"
 
"I don't dabble in quips, thank you very much," Anchovy rises as shakes her head, before putting her joints back in place. "But I will say this - we make a good team."

Anchovy maintains a stern face as she lets a hand out, preparing for a handshake.

"Tactical yet merciless. All of you seem to be the ideal teammates. It was a mistake to doubt any of you, though I suppose I will need to adapt to the concept - the concept of cooperation."
 
"Mission accomplished, I guess." Claire sighed as she sat on her Variable, using it to float like a hover chair of sorts. She took a good look around what the room ended up as, seeing nothing having changed at all. Would they let them finish soon enough, or was that not actually the objective? Claire split off a disk from her variable before taking a quick scan of the area. Nothing much.

Claire crossed her arms, looking over to the wiped out Minato, before huffing. "Swear if that dumbass got us disqualified and we weren't actually supposed to kill the thing, I swear..." Claire spoke to the group, mentally critisicing her performance. She just felt like she didn't do too much besides give the sim a target and get a lil bit of damage in there. Better to figure out how to do more then, she didn't want to bomb.
 
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