Three tailed trouble.

Tokino readied herself, dodging to the side with the first strike, and watched her turn toward them again, ready to attack. As the crystal echidna dashed back at them, Tokino blocked the strike toward her with her blade, planning to parry the blade and deliver a swift strike to the blade-carrying hand.
They were made of crystal, so it probably wouldn't cut through if it landed.

Masuka watched as the crystal echidna rushed at Gear and Tokino to attack, she then noticed she wasn't making an attempt to capture her as of the moment. She looked at the assumed leader of this capture team and yelled at her, "Excuse me, I'm your target, don't walk away from me when I'm talking to you".

Masuka was getting irritated from the lack of focus from this capture team, but was still quite thankful for the two that came to her aid as she knew she wasn't that great at crowd control.

It was 3 versus 1, she was confident that there was no way they could lose, she also had in mind the fact that she didn't fear the attacker's blade, no one would be dumb enough to injure or kill a seasonal kitsune knowing what they were. She pulled her whip back out and aimed at the echidna's ankle and swung it out to try and trip her.

With impressive skill the synthetic Echidna expertly guided her hand out of the way of Tokino's blade and lept up out of the way of Masuka's whip. In retaliation she glided forwards and locked eyes with Masuka, with a dash forwards it looked like she going to try and slice her in half!

At the last second however she spun the blade around to hilt in an attempt to incapacitate the kitsune. Carrying into that same motion Kya spun and made a slash at Gear and Tokino with a compressed lethal air blade attack.

Tokino was a little surprised, a bit frustrated, but just as quickly as the echidna avoided the strike, they were already after Masuka and she was honestly... Shocked.
Gladly, they tried nothing too drastic. But she was still staggered and couldn't do anything to try and stop it herself.
Sighing, she watched as the fast echidna turned about and sent an air slash at her and Gear.

She swung her blade to the side with raw energy manipulation to divert the powerful rush of air coming at them, and looked dead-eyed at the attacker.

"I've had enough of this."

With an extreme burst of speed, she rushed at the attacker, blade in a defensive position as she expected retaliation, and would decide what to do next based on reaction.

Masuka was caught off guard by the echidna who rushed straight at her immediately after her attempt at tripping her. With sword in hand, she spun it around seconds before to strike the kitsune with the hilt, her split second reflex was to put her arms up to cover her face in defense.

The result was she took the blow to her arms and was shoved down to the ground due to the surprise and force of it. "Itai! That's probably gonna leave a mark." she said while waving her arm up and down to shake out the pain.

Kya was already swinging her sword at Gear and Tokino, so Masuka decided to try and take advantage of this. She sent an illusion of herself running around one side of the echidna hoping to get her attention on it, she waited a second before getting up and running around the other side to aim her whip at the attacker's sword to knock it out of her hand.

kya however seemingly saw threw Masukas attack as she immediately locked onto the real one and avoided the attack, altering her blades trajectory to avoid the whip strike. With precision Kya parried the incoming Tokino with a swift strike and brought her blade down to slice the horse in half... that is until there was a flash of greeen light as Gear thew up a shield in the way of the blade as he was right behind Tokino when she shot fowards. 

With a sound of clinking glass, the swords tip shattered into a thousand shards leaving only two thirds intact. 

"Tch...."

Sheathing the blade in the rather large scabbared, Kya took a defensive posture. Her fingerless gloves allowed the Crystal Echidna's fingers to lengthen and sharpen into deadly claws. Without a word she tuanted Tokino with a single handed beckoning motion.

She had allowed herself to get frustrated, and as she watched Gear save her from a strike she wouldn't have had a chance to do anything against unless like she jumped back(eh, not sure if that'd had been possible in this scenario, though it's the thought that counts).
This crystalline creature grew its claws out, and taunted her. She turned her head slightly to Gear a small bit, before thinking of something...
Since last time rushing in and getting close was the wrong move, she taunted back.

She made sure to keep mind of where Masuka was in case the crystal woman grew annoyed and thought she had given up, though she did slash at the ground, sending dirt, grass, and sand up in their face.
If it got in their eyes would it even do anything...?

Masuka hoped she had a chance of being able to strike the attacker's sword out of their hand seeing as she had sent an illusion out first to catch her attention, but Kya avoided it with ease.

She thought to herself, "Hmm... she may be mechanical, would make sense if she didn't think the illusion was me for even a second".

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a sword shattering, it looked as if the Echidna switched to using her claws instead. "Well, I guess no more trying to knock that out of her hand" she said with an unamused tone. Tokino then slashed at the ground to send any debris from the ground into the Crystal creature's eyes.

"Uh... not sure how affective that's gonna be, but whatever you guys think will work, not like I have much of a plan".

Masuka did a slight shrug then rushed at the Echidna hoping that Tokino's distraction would keep her occupied for a few seconds. She aimed her whip at her wrists to attempt at binding them together as if she were in handcuffs. She hoped this would work, she was getting frustrated and running out of options.

Fortunately the spray did do something as Kya threw up her arms to block it. This in turn allowed Masukas whip to wrap around her wrists and keep her from using her hands. 
Taking this moment Gear launched fowards with his fist ready to strike.

"I grow tired of this... Get out of my way."

Kya jerked her arms down to the ground, the mechanism in her head hissed as her hands seemed to merge into the ground. Suddenly, massive crystal spires shot out of the ground around her, forcing Gear to jump back. 

Kya then proceeded to attempt jerking Masuka to her, most likely to grab her and attempt capture.

"Oh no you don't!"

Gear dodged around the crystals and threw a hard kick into kya, leaving her open to attack from trying to deal with two people.

Tokino was glad that it worked, but despite Masuka wrapping up Kya's hands, they still fought.
They were left wide open for attacks...

Tokino jumped back with Gear as the crystals shot up, and watching Gear kick her back, Tokino saw a chance.
She ran up, jumped onto the flat parts of the crystals to launch off of, and swung her blade down at Kya, releasing a large amount of energy at her.

Masuka finally landed an attack, she had successfully bound the echidna's hands together. "Looks like you aren't throwing another punch there, now are ya?" Kya proceeded to jerk her arms towards the ground and crystal spires promptly shot out.

"I guess you will be attempting to throw a few more punches, you're gonna be sorry for making this harder than it needed to b-" She was interrupted by her whip being jerked by the echidna as another attempt at catching her.

But Gear threw a kick into Kya to keep her from doing so, Masuka then decided to tighten the whip around the attacker's wrists and tug them as far away from the ground as possible, hoping she could only control those spires with her hands. Tokino came down with her blade so she dodged to the side to keep as much distance from Kya as possible to avoid getting caught in the crossfire.

Seeing the incoming attack from Tokino Kya jumped up and pulled the whip in the way of the blade slice and allowed it to cut the whip off of her. However her hands where still wrapped tightly, forcing her to jump back again as Gear lept in with a flurry of punches and kicks.

"Nuisances... "

She once again threw her hands down and created a wall to block them off. Trying to buy herself time to get free and get her blade back.

Upon landing from the failed attack, she immediately began moving, searching for perhaps some opening or a weak spot, an imperfection, in the cryatal wall to strike and break through.

Instead her whip got caught in the crossfire and was cut off allowing Kya to retreat behind her crystal spires, part of the whip still around her hands keeping them bound together. 

Masuka yanked the rest of the whip to her side and spoke with an irritated tone, "Guess I'll be fixing that later". She leaned down and touched the ground with her hand, "She wants to bring the elements into this? So be it".

A pit promptly formed beneath her leading underground and between the spires to reach the echidna and maybe catch her off guard. She reached her hand back out of the pit to gesture for the other two to follow her and proceeded to run through the newly formed tunnel to get pass the wall of crystal.

She arrived around where she estimated Kya was and emerged from the ground, once she gained sight of where she was exactly, she made the ground around the echidna sink and close around their feet in an attempt to keep her from making another move.

Kya had almost gotten the bindings off when the ground gave way and she was trapped from the waist down, her arms still bond

Gear had followed Masuka through the tunnel. As after Ky had been trapped he stood like a sentry and charged his plasma shot.

"Unless you wanna be permanently shattered, I'd suggest not moving or trying to escape..."

Kya didn't move, her face was one more of irritation than anger or hate. She remained completely calm and collected as she didn't attempt to break free. Her eyes locked with Masuka.

Tokino watched stopped for a moment, noticing Masuka, and following after her and Gear through the hole.
Upon getting out of the hole, she stood beside Gear, closer to Masuka, in a defense stance as she made sure if Kya found a way out of her situation she wouldn't be able to get Masuka easily.

"Heh, the catcher becomes the captured." Masuka said with a bit of a smug look on her face.

She noticed Kya had locked eyes with her, she saw it as a good opportunity for a bit of hypnosis, so she locked eyes with her as well. The tone of her voice switched to being a bit more stern, "I say you should just sit tight and not make a move, you will most likely get yourself into even more trouble by attempting an escape".

With that, she turned towards Gear and Tokino and thought to herself for a second, ["By now the robot has to have noticed what I am, it's quite obvious due to my multiple tails and season markings, unless he has somehow never heard of the legends. And the horse, she may not know what I am exactly, but they both almost definitely will question me on why I was being attacked..."]

She then spoke out loud to them, "Arigato, thank ya much for the help, I wish you a good day." Masuka then made an attempt at not being questioned as she began walking away like nothing out of the ordinary happened.

Kya remained still. Not by the kitsunes word but by her own actions as she neatly prepared an escape unbeknownst to the three.

Gear quickly stopped Masuka however. He wanted some answers from her before she poofed away.

"Now hold on, we haven't gotten answers about whats going on here. First of i've noticed you've been glitchy and fuzzy, are you ok?"

As Gear tried to get answers out of her, kya prepared to make her move...

Tokino was less concerned by the why of Masuka being attacked, and more of what was attacking her in the first place. She moved a little closer to the crystal creature, katana out and ready to strike if Kya tried anything.
"Don't try anything." She had Kya as prisoner. Masuka was in danger, that's all that mattered.
"I hope to never have to see you again after this."

But before she could sneak her way out of being questioned, Gear stopped her and asked why she appeared glitchy and or fuzzy, of which Masuka assumed would be one of many questions.

With a puzzled look on her face she looked down at her arm to check if her illusion of a common looking fox was flickering or something. Apart from the bruise mark left from trying to defend herself from Kya, she looked like her normal illusion formed self.

She turned toward Gear and answered, "Yeah, I'm fine. But I don't know what you mean by glitchy or fuzzy, is your vision flawed or something"?

She was sure by now Gear would have already known what she was due to him being a robot and them not being fooled by the illusions that worked for pretty much everyone.

Gear gave a slightly sheepish laugh as scratched his head.

"Trust me, I've had my fair share of glitchs... but I'm sure of what I'm seeing."

To prove his point, he reached out and attempted to touch one of the simmering tails. Seeing if it tangible or existent.


Meanwhile Kya was staring at them. Crystals forming underground as she prepared for her next move.

Tokino narrowed her eyes, staring down Kya. She put her blade toward Kya's neck, not knowing that Kya was trying something but rather not wanting to chance her trying something. 
"Machine, instead of questioning the fox, why not try helping her escape? This person has shown what they are capable of, we shouldn't put our guard down."

Masuka flinched and her tail jolted out of the way by reflex before Gear could even touch it. "Ehh... I would appreciate if you didn't enter my personal space bubble, thank ya kindly."

She took a slight step back then switched to speaking to Tokino, "All I expect from myself is to use self-defense when needed, as long as she either runs off or stays put, she isn't much of a problem of mine. So I say leave her be unless she decides to attack again".

She contemplated then came to a decision she was a bit unsure of giving, "If you really wish to talk more and ask questions, could we go somewhere else? Maybe closer to the outskirts of the city and stay out of trouble". Her stomach growled, "Also maybe somewhere that has food of some sort"?

Gear gave a reluctant shrug as he let her lead the way. Just as he did so the ground burst as Kya leap up and broke free ftom her bonds. In a split  second she had dashed straight by the  group and grabbed her blade from the ground.

"You haven't gotten away yet Kitsune. Next time we will get you when you don't have others around to meddle in my mission."

With that she place her gand on the ground and created a small crystal formation that burst into a colourful prismatic smoke cloud. When it cleared, Kya was nowhere to be seen. There was moment of silance as Gear looked on trying to take in what happened.

"Did she say Kitsune?"

She heard Masuka, and while she didn't fully agree she was about to put her guard down...
Then Kya jumped in, gave some monologue, and before anyone could react, she disappeared.
Tokino's eyes were wide, put off by the suddeness as she was visibly off guard, backed off slightly. She looked around after a while, blinking.
She had forgotten to sheath her sword when she turned to face them, "Kitsune...? Seems you do have some explaining to do..."
She caught herself with her sword out, shearing it before looking back to them, "Soon, not here. You said something about food after all this, so I suppose you must be hungry. I'd make something myself, but I'm in no position to do that."
She seemed to be strongly thinking over everything as to accommodate the young woman, when her flicky flew in and landed on her shoulder.
With a sigh, she was uncertain, "Can't talk about this in public, so I guess takeout will have to do, we can talk on the edge of town, alright?"