2014-05-22 - Sailor V is the Princess?!
| Title: Sailor V is the Princess?! | |
|---|---|
| Summary: The Sailor Senshi and Tuxedo Mask go to a pop idol's concert because the pop idol is seriously shady. They get a whole lot more than they bargained for, and so did the pop idol. | |
| Who: Auxiax emitted by Mio Kuroki; Sailor Moon, Sailor Mars, Tuxedo Mask, Sailor Mercury, Sailor Vega, Sailor V/Sailor Venus/Princess Serenity | |
| Where: This huge stadium. | |
| OOC - IC Date: 19 January 2014 - 5/22/14 | |
<Pose Tracker> Queen Beryl [None] has posed.
Previously, on the investigation...
The sensational international pop star "SILVER" has been touring through Asia. That's not too remarkable, is it? She's a little transgressive and very flamboyant but her pop anthems translate into all languages, and her elaborate stage shows are a treat for anyone of any background. That, too, isn't too remarkable.
What is more remarkable was that she gave a rather worrying talk on a variety program. She'd adopted a new look and apparently an entirely different perspective. The tour itself was getting renamed from "LOVE PLANET" to "THE MONSTERS COME OUT"-- and THAT was enough to get certain people, whether interested in popular music or simply obnoxiously curious cats, intrigued.
Will it be too late?
AJINOMOTO STADIUM
"SILVER" has begun performing, and to the relief of everyone perhaps, she's been sticking to the LOVE PLANET set list. Loud and lyrical pop music everywhere. It's quite loud, indeed; it's a good thing too, because there is the complication that tickets were sold out. Even sailor girls may have to jump a turnstile to get in.
However, the third song ends, the bright lights on the stage glittering off a hundred thousand pieces of shining silver on a vast sheet. The crowd screams into the dead air as that sheet billows in the wind. Silver herself, standing alone on stage, is gazing out on everyone in the audience with a single arm raised.
"Do you like that, everyone? Alright!" she says, her voice amplified a thousandfold. Cheering rises.
"Because it's time for us to do something different. Something a little new... Who here saw me on TV yesterday??" More cheers.
The speakers produce a strange noise. A thumping hum - it's almost painful. The cheering, almost as a single organism, wriggles - confused.
The noise comes again. Like a horrible heartbeat, it pulses. The cheers become cries - screams - and moans. And more and more, silence. Clutching their ears, looking nauseated and weak, the concertgoers slump and collapse against each other, a rippling sea of the innocent, stacking against each other like sheaves of wheat.
"Do you like that, Tokyo?" Silver cries out. The huge screens on either side of the stadium focus on her - and her face is a cruel leer, with rectangular cheekbones and an unnatural paleness to her skin. Her upraised hand quivers, jerking and skipping through frames it really shouldn't. Her dress, composed entirely of wire-wrapped quartz crystals for this phase of the show, starts to glow...
As cold auroral colors radiate out from her, "Silver's" head leans back. The rippling sheet behind her floats in the air, folding itself into a pentagonal shape. As another thrum-hum of that nigh-anti-sound radiates out, she murmurs with a peculiar distortion in her voice, "Because /I/ like it. Tonight, my precious audience, the monsters--"
The lights cut out, save for a spotlight on her, and shadowy figures start to pour over the stage. A steady rhythmic marching, squads coming together in platoons, the noise of stomping feet filling the air before they move in stately columns towards the rising staircases that will lead them to the helpless victims beneath! "Come out!!"
COMBAT: Queen Beryl transforms into Youma Form Audiax Silver! COMBAT: Queen Beryl has fully healed herself. She is now ready to take on 6 opponents!
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Moon [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.
Usagi Tsukino has had a day.
The strangest part isn't this concert. Usagi has been to dangerous concerts before. It makes a lot of sense to her, after having heard Luna explain everything. Any time you can gather that many people into a single area and excite them somehow, the Dark Kingdom would have an easy target. There might be uniformed men waiting in the rafters.
Maybe Zoisite.
But, no, it's not that. The strangest part is having Mamoru Chiba and Asagao Uekawa along, as the mysterious Tuxedo Mask and the dedicated Sailor Vega. Well, not Asagao. She's absolutely lovely.
It's one hundred percent Mamoru Chiba.
Usagi felt a little awkward sneaking in while he was watching. It's not like it's the first time he's seen a moon power disguise, though.
So, Usagi has been uniquely silent through the heart-thumping thrill of theatrical fame and terror of impending battle. It took innocent people being threatened to shake her. Or, maybe, to awaken the one named SAILOR MOON.
"SAILOR BEEEEEAAAAAAM!"
With her wand gleaming bright, Sailor Moon slices apart an aggressing shadow with a sparkling beam of fairy-light. She looks up toward the stage, jaw jutting in determination. "It would be really cool if we could all fly!"
Instead, running!
Usagi attempts to dart through a crowd of panicked concertgoers and is promptly swept up in the press of bodies. She appears a second later atop them all, bodysurfing and not very gracefully.
"AUGH HELP!"
Never mind about the running.
<Pose Tracker> Ami Mizuno [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.
Despite the fact that she hasn't quite felt up to it in a long time, the love of a curious cat has gotten Ami Mizuno to head for the concert. She's actually something of a fan of "SILVER" -- her classic work, at least -- though she'd never admit it; having an excuse to jump a turnstile holds some appeal.
She's taken a different path in from Usagi -- a more reserved, delicate one, flowing through the crowd with only slightly less fluidity than the T-1000. She doesn't have Usagi's capacity for disguise, so she has to simply get close, and -- when things start to get a little less conventionally 'concert' -- transform in a burst of "Mercury Power, Make Up!"
As everyone else flees, Sailor Mercury moves forward, trying to weave her way toward Sailor Moon's cries for help.
COMBAT: Sailor Mercury transforms into Sailor Mercury!
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Vega [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.
Frankly, Asagao is not really so much a fan of 'Silver' - but Orpheus was uncharacteristically insistent on her being there. And when Orpheus is insistent about anything besides food, it's worth listening to.
Plus, she got to go with Mamoru and Usagi, and that at least would be fun - getting to study them up close outside of their natural habitats - though the noise level makes Asagao wish she were just about anywhere but there. Until things start to go bad - "God I'm starting to really not LIKE it when Orpheus is right," she muses.
One opening of locket and calling upon the power of Vega Make-Up henshin sequence later, Sailor Vega summons wand and ribbon to hand, dispatching a few shadows with shimmering coils of power before getting submerged in a crush of the crowd...
... Emerging into a bubble of space several yards away from where she vanished, crawling on her hands and knees out from under someone, looking a little rumpled and vaguely embarassed while trying to get her bearings.
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Mars [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.
Rei Hino is a unassumed fan of music in general. She just doesn't let people know, that is. She likes listening, even singing when she's sure noone is there to hear it. But she doesn't like making a show of it, that's why she avoids Karaoke with the others.
But she couldn't get tickets for this one show. Yet, she followed Usagi and Ami to the show... but as she watched her friends jump the turnstil, she grumped up as she often does "You guys, that's not right at all, if everyone does that, they won't be enough space and air in there for everyone!"
Of course, Usagi and Ami are already off... probably didn't hear a single thing of her. Even that Mamoru guy was tagging alone. Was she the only one trying not to break some rule in here? >_<
But then, panic ensues. People just flood out the gates as the shadows appear on stage. Alright, well, there is no show now, right? <.< >.> It doesn't break any rule to slip in... and transform in the back of the theater, behind some curtains so she won't be noticed. No doubt Moon and Mercury are already on it, since they slipped in before her.
A few seconds after Moon's cry for help, a pillar of flame screeches out to burn her pursuers to a crisp, hoping to save her friend. Fortunately her fires do seem to do little damage to other objects unless she wills it to.
"I hate breaking rules, but even more those crashing's everyone fun! Sailor Mars will punish you!" More incomming fireballs to clean up the shadows.
<Pose Tracker> Tuxedo Mask [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Mamoru Chiba, the Ohtori upperclassman that's been giving Usagi grief since the day she threw her test paper and it hit his head. Mamoru Chiba, who had the cash to buy a skyrocketed-price ticket off eBay, but was frustrated by people with autobid-bots.
Mamoru, who instead bought someone's ticket who'd gotten sick drunk in the parking lot and had to go home--
--and is apparently Tuxedo Mask. He hadn't said a word about anyone sneaking in, which probably didn't help Usagi's peace of mind either, and then took a seat with the rest of them in the row. Not entirely a fan of pop music, he'd spent the first songs googling Silver and her rise to fame on his phone, then reviewing notes for an exam he has tomorrow.
When things go weird and phenomenally unpleasant, he shifts in his seat to glance--
--and there we go. People are running, people are collapsing en masse, and Sailor Moon's on her way. There are various cries of 'Make Up' and no one's actually looking; he shoves his phone into his pocket and dives into the crowd.
Roundabout the same time that Mars is basically napalming the shadows that are chasing the crowd that's carrying Sailor Moon away from the stage, out of apparently nowhere (read: coming up through the panicked mob of people he'd been elbowing out of his path on his way upstream)--
From the perspective of anyone who'd been watching the twintailed heroine, it looks like she's crowdsurfing and then she's in Tuxedo Mask's arms as he leaps out of the crowd toward the stage! "Time to give some voice lessons, Sailor Moon," he tells her with a lopsided grin.
<Pose Tracker> Queen Beryl [None] has posed.
The Sailor Beam snaps through a shadowy figure and its immediate neighbor, disrupting the formation coming down one staircase. Naturally enough, they troop back around to form back up into a neat square again, boots stomping.
Of course, Sailor Moon is then momentarily trapped atop a pressing crowd. At least this is no mosh pit.
"SILVER" - whose sneer is quite easily seen from their position near the stage - points a finger forwards. "You...! Hah! I suppose I can't be too shocked to have you come by. The only thing shocking is that you survived the Girls; I suppose you're durable, aren't you? Like an insect..."
Sailor Mercury slides through people quite readily (if not literally). Vega's appearance increases Silver's audible scorn: "Hmf! If the crowd's bothering you so much, don't worry - it won't be a problem for long!"
Of course, streaks of magical fire slam outwards. They dissipate shadows, thinning the ranks - and indeed, there's a clear path up to the stage now, if people are of a mind to hasten up and get hands-on. The downside is that the shadows, after completing another loop, seem to have solved the problem of "marching in proper echelon again."
Another non-thrum emanates from the speakers. Even for the pretty soldiers, it doesn't feel great. Tuxedo Mask leaps upwards, onto the stage, to the consternation of Silver - she declares, "Get off my stage!" in fact, even as she starts moving with jittering speed, aiming a strike towards Tuxedo Mask's abdomen with one glossy-nailed hand.
The troopers, for their part, descend. And it is Mercury, Vega and Mars who stand between them and the innocent and helpless. They feel cold to the touch, enervating - but they're easy to dispel. At least, one by one they are...
COMBAT: Queen Beryl has used Just Dance on Tuxedo Mask. COMBAT: Queen Beryl has used Marry the Night on Sailor Mars. COMBAT: Queen Beryl has used Marry the Night on Sailor Vega. COMBAT: Queen Beryl has used Marry the Night on Sailor Mercury. COMBAT: Queen Beryl has finished attacking. COMBAT: Sailor Mars fails to dodge Queen Beryl's Marry the Night, taking 19 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask fails to dodge Queen Beryl's Just Dance, taking 27 Fatigue damage! Blind applied to Tuxedo Mask! COMBAT: Sailor Vega narrowly dodges Queen Beryl's Marry the Night, taking 3 Fatigue damage! Sailor Vega's Fade ability activates! Sailor Vega's Flash ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Moon [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.
"AUGH AAAA AGGGHH NOOO--"
From below, Tuxedo Mask! Usagi is frozen while they fly through the air toward the stage, unsure of what's happening and how to feel about it. When they land, at least, she offers Mamoru a sheepish grin before slipping out of his arms.
"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!"
With her boots on the ground, Sailor Moon takes an aggressive stance! She has to be as strong as an entire team of sailor soldiers so that everyone else is free to protect the crowd from the shadows!
"Planet Love sounds like a wonderful place full of happy people! Meanwhile, The Monsters Come Out is a completely different shift in tone! These people still put their trust in you, and now you're abusing it! I won't forgive anyone who abuses the faith of open-minded admirers!"
She spins, backlit by Mars' enthusiastic firebombing, and then points accusingly at "SILVER".
"I'm the sailor-suited pretty soldier of love and justice, Sailor Moon! And, in the name of the moon, I will punish you!"
COMBAT: Sailor Moon has used In The Name Of The Moon on Queen Beryl. COMBAT: Sailor Moon has finished attacking. COMBAT: Queen Beryl fails to brace Sailor Moon's In The Name Of The Moon, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Sailor Moon is Psyched! Cripple and Trap applied to Queen Beryl!
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Mars [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.
Sailor Mars is now serving as backlighting for Moon. There could be worse fates. Like dead to these things. But that's not going to happen soon, from the looks of it. She dispatches several throves of them, making sure that they aren't going after the fleeing spectators. When she thinks things are clear enough, she moves in to support Moon at the stage. She looks over to Mercury as well, making sure that she's alright too. Just in case she needs some help, although she's more worried about Moon right now, the closest one to the mastermind controlling them.
"Don't forget about us, Senshis of Fire and Passion!" She starts off for Mercury to follow with, as she pulls out ofuda's from her top (as usual, no idea where she hides those). "Demons and bewitching devils, I make them my concern!" She soaks in the sound attack, not showing any apparently weakness from it. She doesn't want to slow down for any bad guy. The ofudas fly, surrounding SILVER to entrap and dull her senses. That would work on any standard demon at least.
COMBAT: Sailor Mars has used Evil, Begone! on Queen Beryl. COMBAT: Sailor Mars has finished attacking. COMBAT: Queen Beryl fails to counter Sailor Mars's Evil, Begone!, taking 25 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Queen Beryl's counterattack, Can't Read My..., fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Sailor Mars!
<Pose Tracker> Tuxedo Mask [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
The sheepish grin is well-received on Tuxedo Mask's part-- the vicious and sudden jab to his abdomen, not so much. And right in the middle of Sailor Moon's speech! Incredibly rude, he's thinking, even as he staggers back a step or two, half-folded from the impact and the abrupt pain.
When he collects himself, he's still seeing stars, but he can hear just fine, and the speech is, as ever, a rallying cry to Sailor Moon's friends as well as an intimidation gambit toward the enemy.
All the tall boy in the cape and mask can do is hope that they plow through the shadows and save the people in time to help Usagi. In the meantime, he can certainly punctuate her declaration.
Still blinded by the shock to his system, he straightens up with cane suddenly in hand and lunges toward the glittering silver (and frankly rather loud even without a microphone) youma. "You're supposed to wait," he scolds, whipping the cane through the air in a quick and decisive backhanded arc toward her, "until it's OVER before you try anything! Did you even GO to youma school?!"
COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask has used Tuxedo Mirage Hurricane Sting on Queen Beryl. COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask has finished attacking. COMBAT: Queen Beryl perfectly counters Tuxedo Mask's Tuxedo Mirage Hurricane Sting, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Counter! Queen Beryl's Tactician ability activates! COMBAT: Queen Beryl's counterattack, Just Dance, bursts all the way through, doing 26 Fatigue damage to Tuxedo Mask! Blind applied to Tuxedo Mask!
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Vega [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.
"And Sailor Vega, Soldier of Devotion!" the eponymous Senshi proclaims with another swirling of ribbon scattering the shadow in front of her. A moment in the battle to pose - ribbon coiling up into her wand-hand, while the Sailor from another Star points accusingly.
"Your fans are true, and to betray their ardor in this way is to invite heartbreak! Stop this foolishness and beg their forgiveness before it's too late!"
Sure, asking demons nicely to stop works, right?
COMBAT: Sailor Vega has used Your Fans Do Not Appreciate This Experimental Phase! on Queen Beryl. COMBAT: Sailor Vega has finished attacking. COMBAT: Queen Beryl narrowly counters Sailor Vega's Your Fans Do Not Appreciate This Experimental Phase!, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Queen Beryl's Tactician ability activates! COMBAT: Queen Beryl's counterattack, Can't Read My..., partially gets through, doing 13 Fatigue damage to Sailor Vega! Diversion applied to Sailor Vega! COMBAT: Sailor Mercury fails to dodge Queen Beryl's Marry the Night, taking 19 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Mercury [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.
Sailor Mercury doesn't quite have it in her to handle the sheer number of troopers she has to deal with; she's nearly trampled by the oncoming army, cold and enervating. She doesn't mind the cold -- but not /this/ kind of cold. She practically wilts under it, overpowered so.
She continues to move toward Sailor Moon, unable to quite get there just yet; Mercury is having a rough, rough time of it, and so she decides that it'd probably be best if she led off by evening the odds a little bit.
They want cold, huh? She can certainly show them cold -- raising her hands high into the sky, she calls out, "Sabao --"
Thrusting them forward, she lets loose a spray of bubbles, crying out, "Spraaaaaaaaaaaay!" At the very least, it should slow the advance -- and buy her time to join up with the rest of the team.
COMBAT: Sailor Mercury has used Sabao Spray on Queen Beryl. COMBAT: Sailor Mercury has finished attacking. COMBAT: Queen Beryl narrowly braces Sailor Mercury's Sabao Spray, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Queen Beryl's Block ability activates! Queen Beryl's Parry ability activates! Cripple and Stun applied to Queen Beryl!
<Pose Tracker> Queen Beryl [None] has posed.
Putting her boots on the stage and striking her pose seems to rebuke SILVER, briefly. She bares her teeth. She appears to have three sets of canines; this certainly isn't that singer, is it? (Well, you never know.)
Her voice has more of that electronic ripple in it. "Punish me - you DARE to think that you deserve to PUNISH me? Pfeh! I'm the new sensation, baby; people don't want love and sparkling light, not any more. It's not me you ought to be punishing."
Silver's lips (which are themselves silver) purse as she kisses the air, towards Sailor Moon. "It's yourselves..."
But her chuckle is briefly denied when Sailor Mars' ofuda slap over her mouth. Her lips purse. They're still quite visible in the outline of the sealing paper, and it takes moments for Silver to see what it is she has to do. When her tongue punches through that paper, her jaws opening and spreading her lips just a bit further than they ought to go, she seems somehow even less human.
"It tingles," she says, her tongue running over her upper lip as she turns her attention to Tuxedo Mask. In the spotlight, her outlandish dress ripples with sparkles as he comes in - and finds his cane slapping into the palm of the Youma's hand, silver-painted fingernails slamming down as she leans in to stage-whisper into his ear, "Yes, actually. First in class -"
Her arm jerks with that same overcranked speed, and Tuxedo Mask is sent sprawling out and over the side of the stage. Straightening up with a twinkling, tinkling sound, Silver reaches back to fluff out her hair, giving Vega a look and a fluttering of her eyelashes. The words that come out of her lips - "Heartbreak?" - seem to take on a chilling poignance of their own, enough to still Vega to the core, however briefly.
And then - SPRAY!! The washing away is enough to scrub away the great majority of those marching shadows; a few stragglers start circling around each other, evidently confused, leaving the people safe from immediate harm for the moment. Maybe they'll form up eventually - but once Silver's been handled, it'll all be better. Right?
"Wrong," Audiax Silver says, and that distorted sound SLAMS almost-visibly from the speakers, forming a rippling reversed spike that washes over her and slams down to try and lay out Sailor Mercury. "You and your friends," she sighs then, turning her attention to Sailor Moon now.
Her eyes narrow.
"You just keep getting in my way. Tell me, Sailor Moon --" Another of those bone-shuddering ripples of sound come from the speakers, slamming with great enthusiasm towards Vega, Mars, and poor Tuxedo Mask again. The sound is sufficient to phase towards light.
Silver saunters towards Sailor Moon, then, sparkling. "Have you ever danced?" she asks as she stalks near enough to raise one hand and aim a shove right at the girl's shoulder. "If you haven't, I'm afraid it's too late."
COMBAT: Queen Beryl has used Born This Way on Sailor Mercury. COMBAT: Queen Beryl has used Caught in a Bad Romance on Sailor Vega. COMBAT: Queen Beryl has used Caught in a Bad Romance on Sailor Mars. COMBAT: Queen Beryl has used Caught in a Bad Romance on Tuxedo Mask. COMBAT: Queen Beryl has used Just Dance on Sailor Moon. COMBAT: Queen Beryl has finished attacking. COMBAT: Sailor Mars fails to dodge Queen Beryl's Caught in a Bad Romance, taking 8 Fatigue damage! Trap applied to Sailor Mars! COMBAT: Sailor Mercury narrowly braces Queen Beryl's Born This Way, taking 5 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Sailor Moon narrowly dodges Queen Beryl's Just Dance, taking 17 Fatigue damage! Sailor Moon's Flash ability activates! COMBAT: Sailor Vega narrowly counters Queen Beryl's Caught in a Bad Romance, taking 5 Fatigue damage! Trap applied to Sailor Vega! COMBAT: Sailor Vega's counterattack, Compassionate Wing Cannonade, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Queen Beryl! COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask narrowly counters Queen Beryl's Caught in a Bad Romance, taking 6 Fatigue damage! Trap applied to Tuxedo Mask! COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask's counterattack, Dramatic Intervention!, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Queen Beryl!
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Moon [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.
Sailor Moon begins to get nervous. Even though she feels like she's doing a pretty good job of staring down Silver, there's just so many shadows! Too many for Ami, Rei, and Asagao to handle all at once. It makes since for them to converge on the stage, but that leaves the crowd unguarded!
She puts on a brave face to hide the doubt in her heart.
Doubt that explodes out when Tuxedo Mask is dismissed most violently.
"TUXEDO-SAMA!" she wails, reaching out--but quickly rebuffed by malevolent magnificence of the sinful singer and her bellicose bass system!
The pretty soldier cringes away, holding up her moon stick in defense. Still, she doesn't step away. This ground is hers. It remains hers as Silver sashays over--everyone needs her to be strong and stand up to the youma while they recover!
"I've danced before--" she begins, but is then cut off by the shove. Instead of taking to the floor in the most ungainly way possible, Sailor Moon elegantly whirls away and retains her footing. She finishes with a pose struck so vibrantly that the resulting silver-orange sparkles are painful, if only to the ego.
"--and she was way nicer than you!"
COMBAT: Sailor Moon has used Minako Aino's Lovely Waltz on Queen Beryl. COMBAT: Sailor Moon has finished attacking. COMBAT: Queen Beryl narrowly braces Sailor Moon's Minako Aino's Lovely Waltz, taking 11 Fatigue damage! Queen Beryl's Block ability activates! Queen Beryl's Parry ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Mars [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.
Sailor Mars has seen Moon dancing. Its not pretty. But when she's Sailor MOon she tends to be a tad better at everything. Caught in a 'bad romance', she leaps to the side, holding on to the curtains on the backstage to get herself out of the bad footing she was stuck in, holding out a hand as she forms a small fireball in it.
She catches sight of Tuxedo Mask... Why is he always around when there's danger? Maybe he's attracting it? Well normally she'd think Moon is the trouble magnet, but this just seems to be too convenient that he's always around.
ANYWAY, bigger fishes to fry right now, in the name of SIlver. SHe's getting the feeling that this person is not really a person either. Not human anyway. The way she ate through that ofuda... It sends a shiver through her, as it tickles her 6th sense. Funny that she'd shiver when wielding fire, but that's how it goes for her.
The fireball is launched away at Silver when Moon distangles herself from the dance, a circle of fire at Silver's feet. "Youma Taisan!"
COMBAT: Sailor Mars has used Youma Taisan! on Queen Beryl. COMBAT: Sailor Mars has finished attacking. COMBAT: Queen Beryl fails to counter Sailor Mars's Youma Taisan!, taking 20 Fatigue damage! Sailor Mars is Psyched! COMBAT: Queen Beryl's counterattack, Can't Read My..., fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Sailor Mars!
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Vega [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.
The way Silver says 'Heartbreak?' like it's not even a thing does, in fact, cut Vega right to the marrow. She even gasps audibly, horrified and appalled at such callousness.
When the beat *really* starts blasting from the speakers, Sailor Vega tries to fight thoughtlessness with compassion - though the words of the attack are swallowed up by the omnipresent noise, the sudden explosion of energy birds from the vicinity of her heart is apparent enough.
But the pounding noise wrecks their flight pattern, drowns out their screeching and squawking - and by the time the reach Silver, the ones that make it disappear into a cloud of feathers and shimmers that only serve to further illuminate the already-illuminated Youma while Vega staggers, covering her ears and trying with all her might to focus.
Watching Tuxedo Mask get man-handled doesn't help much for morale. And the shadows are scattering but not -leaving-, Sailor Moon is holding her ground; this is getting complicated and out of hand.
Using her ribbon to clear herself some ground through the shadows, Vega starts *moving* even though her legs feel a bit like leaded jell-o - lining up a "VEGA BOLIDE!" once she's got a decent line of shot past civilians, through Shadows and *towards* Silver.
Hopefully a blazing comet of love will help light a path to victory!
COMBAT: Sailor Vega has used Vega Bolide on Queen Beryl. COMBAT: Sailor Vega has finished attacking. COMBAT: Queen Beryl narrowly counters Sailor Vega's Vega Bolide, taking 22 Fatigue damage! Queen Beryl's Tactician ability activates! COMBAT: Queen Beryl's counterattack, Can't Read My..., partially gets through, doing 4 Fatigue damage to Sailor Vega! Trap applied to Sailor Vega!
<Pose Tracker> Tuxedo Mask [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Tuxedo Kamen is flung violently off the stage, prompting Sailor Moon's cry of distress, but that shouldn't last long-- the horrible driving sound Audiax is emitting is cut short after a second because a very irritated rose comes flying up out of the orchestra pit toward the youma's mouth to cut off the sound.
He'll never admit to hurting as much as he's hurting now, and pushes all his strength into leaping up into the light riggings over the stage in a flash of black and a fluttering of red. Generally the sound cables run this way as well, and he starts grimly looking for what to cut to stop the youma's amplification--
--and calls out from the complicated shadows behind the bright, bright lights, "Good job, Sailor Moon! Vega, Mercury, Mars -- you've got her justifiably doubting her worth as an entertainer, keep at it; hang in there! These people are counting on you, and I know you won't let them down!"
COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask has used Tuxedo Night on Sailor Moon. COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask has used Tuxedo Night on Sailor Vega. COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask has used Tuxedo Night on Sailor Mercury. COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask has finished attacking. COMBAT: Sailor Vega accepts Tuxedo Mask's Tuxedo Night, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Sailor Vega is Cheered! COMBAT: Sailor Moon accepts Tuxedo Mask's Tuxedo Night, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Sailor Moon is Cheered! COMBAT: Sailor Mercury accepts Tuxedo Mask's Tuxedo Night, taking 0 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Mercury [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.
That tremendous spike of sonic energy streaks for Sailor Mercury, but she crosses her arms in front of her and roots her feet; it's not enough to avoid total pain, but at the very least, she's not bowled over or laid out. All in all, she handles it fairly well... but it's rough continuing to walk /afterward/. Everything wobbles.
Tuxedo Mask tries to reach her with his words, but it's just noise to her; maybe she can't hear all that well courtesy of that sonic spike? She doesn't seem to acknowledge him, though, and instead just moves forward.
Staggering toward Audiax Silver, Mercury seems to have no real plan; eventually, with a sudden burst of energy, she springs ahead, aiming her forearm squarely for the youma. Not exactly much of her style; maybe her plan is to surprise it?
COMBAT: Sailor Mercury has used Running Forearm Smash on Queen Beryl. COMBAT: Sailor Mercury has finished attacking. COMBAT: Queen Beryl narrowly counters Sailor Mercury's Running Forearm Smash, taking 5 Fatigue damage! Sailor Mercury is Psyched! Queen Beryl's Tactician ability activates! COMBAT: Queen Beryl's counterattack, Just Dance, partially gets through, doing 7 Fatigue damage to Sailor Mercury! Blind applied to Sailor Mercury!
<Pose Tracker> Queen Beryl [None] has posed.
Audiax Silver stalks towards Sailor Moon, her lips pulled up into a cruel smile. She raises one hand as the former stage decoration rippling in a complex pattern drifts into her hand, shrinking together. It's shining - almost like... a crystal... Could it...?
It's doubtful, at least: while it has light within it, one lobe of the five-sided jewel is distinctly dark. For another, rippling light flickers through it just as the speaker system produces another stomach-dropping noise. "Hmm - how sad," Silver says, before her attention snaps back to Sailor Moon. "Not bad," she says, "if you've only practiced with your classmates. Do you think that's going to be enough...?"
Of course, she is momentarily dismayed in her plan to dance Sailor Moon's feet when flame erupts around her. Silver leaps to the side, pivoting around and giving Mars a rather cool look, even as the wire on her dress - ripples. "You seem very proud of your precious little papers," she says. "Are they what bring you luck? Do you think they can ward off evil? Maybe keep the ghosts out at night?"
The lower hem of her dress drips a jewel. Then another. These are fat things of cut crystal, and they lose their glow as they fall; the glow stays around Silver, though, sheathing her even as stones fall from her like rain. She raises one hand towards Mars, lips curving back in a smile. Some of the stones fall /up/ into her hand -
A Bolide gets in the way. Hurling her handful of jewels towards Vega in a sapphire splash, Silver growls, "You're like a pack of dogs! Is this all the wisdom your magic has brought you? The ability to go AROUND things?" The blow also sent those jewels flying away from her in slow motion, pulling that cloud of light with them. No - not quite so - though something unpleasant and red seemed to be on her body beneath that light. Raising her arms up, she curls her lip, showing perfect teeth as she regards Vega directly.
"Hm-m-m," she purrs, before she pivots on her heel. That errant rose whips past her, making her lean, and it takes with it that shielding cloud. What is revealed is what she was wearing - at first it looks like a red dress. And in a sense, it is, but what it seems to /really/ be is a dress woven out of thin, glistening slices of pork, interleaved with each other.
It jostles unpleasantly when she puts a hand on her hip and gestures at Tuxedo Mask, dismissively. "It's bad enough when you get a poor review in the news. There's no need for amateur critics of a new direction..." She looks away from Tuxedo Mask - and sees a blue streak in that shimmering gem floating near her. It's enough to warn her sufficiently, to pivot around and slam her own arm up with a meaty FSHP! Mercury's momentum is sufficient to stagger the youma a step, but Audiax Silver's arm feels like it's made of steel beneath a thin soft layer of... well... meat.
At this, her eyes cut towards Sailor Moon, and her free hand comes up to tape her nose's tip idly. She smiles, small and cruel, as that five-sided gem vanishes into thin air.
Then she leans back as the stage suddenly thrusts up a pillar of pink-enamelled steel, catching her in the small of the back as she's lifted upwards. A ripple of concentric rings rise out of the stage elsewhere, each indentation wide enough to support even a sprawled figure but definitely putting obstacles between each member of the Sailor Team.
"Oh, I can't just let this be hidden," Silver says. "Camera one, show the stage!" One screen pops up, zooming in on Mars's current position. "Number two, the girl with the comets!" Vega, now, on the other. "And on camera three, let's see -"
She straightens up then, elbow on her knee, looking down towards Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask with a thoughtful expression. Her lip curls again. "Amateur critics."
All three are now on screen. On the screens, ripples of pink and blue and green wash outwards, like a shower of popping bubbles. Harmless, fanciful - except that when the displayed flashes of light brush near the involuntary stars, they erupt into VERY real bursts of agonizingly bright, screamingly loud pyrotechnics, the white-hot light mixing with the dragging, enervating cold of...
"Ahhhh, yes," Audiax Silver says, leaning backwards with a dreamy grin on her face. "Give it UP, my nasty little guests: you're already in too deep to /ever/ go home!" The shimmering pastel energy trickles upwards, like reversed pouring water, moving towards Audiax Silver and her horrid meat-dress! "Such passion - such power - Give it all to me, and scream!"
COMBAT: FINISHER! Queen Beryl has used Artpop on Tuxedo Mask. COMBAT: FINISHER! Queen Beryl has used Artpop on Sailor Vega. COMBAT: FINISHER! Queen Beryl has used Artpop on Sailor Mars. COMBAT: Queen Beryl has finished attacking. COMBAT: Sailor Mars fails to brace Queen Beryl's Finisher, Artpop, taking 6 Mana damage! Queen Beryl drains 4 mana from Sailor Mars!
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Venus [Infinity Institute (8)] has posed.
"Stop the music!"
From the darkness behind Silver, in the depths of the stage's instrument setup, comes a single beam of energy - a yellow-hot spear that aims to shoot the imposter songstress right in the back.
Sometimes, you can't always make the honorable choice when it comes to fighting youmas. Not to mention making flashy entrances.
Once the attack is made, from those same depths steps forward a Pretty Guardian in a Sailor Suit-- Sailor V?? Only something's different about her today. The blue collar and skirt have been replaced with orange, the separated top with a unified leotard. But instead of the standard Sailor Guardian tiara, the symbol of the moon is imprinted on her forehead - and atop her head, she's wearing a golden crown with a heart at the center. The sleeves and gloves on her uniform are lacy and elegant, rather than 'practical', with the whole ensemble overall giving her the appearance of a princess smashed against a Sailor Guardian.
"Music is a thing of beauty. Music enriches the soul! For you to taint something so lovely with the seeds of your hatred is something that cannot be forgiven!"
She steps more fully into the light, one hand on her hip, the other pointing accusingly at "Silver". "The Pretty Guardian in a Sailor Suit, Sailor Venus has arrived!"
COMBAT: Sailor Venus has used Crescent Beam on Queen Beryl. COMBAT: Sailor Venus has finished attacking. COMBAT: Queen Beryl accepts Sailor Venus's Crescent Beam, taking 39 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Queen Beryl is Quipped! COMBAT: You don't have an incoming attack from Artpop. Please check +queue to see your incoming attacks. COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask narrowly dodges Queen Beryl's Finisher, Artpop, taking 5 Mana damage! Tuxedo Mask's Flash ability activates! Queen Beryl drains 4 mana from Tuxedo Mask!
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Mars [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.
She doesn't really take on to the singer's taunts either. People wouldn't understand her ofudas. They aren't mere papers, and they certainly aren't to give her luck. No, they are trustworthy tools for her to use to subdue demons and youmas alike. Although some of them are too strong to be reigned in by them, most are still affected by their spiritual powers. If only to slow them down some. "I don't expect demons like yo to understand only to fear them."
But then her attention is taken away by Venus' entrance. Wait, Venus? V? She had heard of her before, she was all over the news. She had the feeling she might be part of the Senshis, all considering, but she didn't have any clues that she might have been the princess. Although, all considered... if there was only one senshi missing, she could have guessed it was the princess too.
But that's something to think about later. She quickly gathers herself up and moves with Moon and Venus, forming the tighter group facing opposion "That's right, music is beautiful when it comes from the heart. Your chanting serves only to bring uglyness." She forms a veil of fire in front of her, sending it toward toward Silver like a burning wind.
COMBAT: Sailor Mars has used Music is the Answer on Queen Beryl. COMBAT: Sailor Mars has finished attacking. COMBAT: Queen Beryl fails to dodge Sailor Mars's Music is the Answer, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Sailor Mars is Psyched! COMBAT: Sailor Vega fails to brace Queen Beryl's Finisher, Artpop, taking 7 Mana damage! Critical Hit! Queen Beryl drains 5 mana from Sailor Vega!
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Vega [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.
Focused on the screen, the lightshow exploding around her there, Vega throws her hands and arms up protectively over her face - screaming to try and rid her head of the relentless noise; even as she feels part of her power pulled from her by the demon-singer's attack.
When Vega stops screaming in order to take a breath - she spies Sailor V... enus? through the space between her fingers. She knows only the basics of the Sol Senshi's search for their Princess, thanks to Luna and Usagi, and has only met Sailor V herself a couple of times - but nonetheless the appearance of one of her heroes fills her joy; Sailor Venus has come to join her court and help save the day! And Vega gets to be there while it happens!
"You want my power, Silver? Then have a taste!"
Lifting both hands high, Sailor Vega takes a deep, centering breath.
Around her, the nighttime sky seems to close in, the stars sparkling merrily even as a glimmer of light appears near the horizon. "TWILIGHT," Vega announces, as the light gets brighter and more intense, "BOLIDE..." suddenly drawing her fingers across a lyre of golden light appearing in her hands only long enough for effect "CRESCENDO!"
If the Vega Bolide was tough, it's Grandmother is on her way from the stars and it means to punish!
COMBAT: FINISHER! Sailor Vega has used Twilight Bolide Crescendo on Queen Beryl. COMBAT: Sailor Vega has finished attacking. COMBAT: Queen Beryl fails to brace Sailor Vega's Finisher, Twilight Bolide Crescendo, taking 50 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Moon [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.
Meat dress.
Meat dress.
Sailor Moon is aghast. She doesn't know what to not forgive. The abuse of food, the use of fashion to intimidate, the attempt to steer the avant-garde toward evil--it is too much. The pretty soldier begins to lunge with her wand, but there's no direction she can go to stop all of Silver's cruelties at once. And there's still the audience--
With a yelp, Usagi dances out of the way of the rippling set dressing. She navigates it well enough, even if the circular designs end up with her chasing herself round a few times. It's enough of a delay for Silver to continue hamming it up.
Usagi clambers up onto one of the obstacles. It only takes a moment for her to realize what is happening.
"Nooo!"
She reaches out in passionate vain, trying to grasp her friends right out of the dark, unknowable void of what will happen. Her only thought is Madoka Kaname, wasting away in her arms after Erythrite was through with her.
But then--
"Sailor V?!"
No. It's not her. At least, not like Usagi's first impression. She can feel it, and she can see it in a thousand little differences. It's not the Sailor V she met before. It's her. The girl she's spent so much time idolizing from afar, right here, dressed like just them and bearing the mark of the moon.
A chill runs through her so fiercely that she shivers. Michiru spoke to her about duty the other day. If the feeling in Usagi's heart is true, then this is it.
"PRINCESS!" Sailor Moon shouts, bounding down from her isolation and rushing to interpose herself between Venus and Silver. Her friends are still standing. They're so strong. It makes her feel invincible, too. She twists to look over her shoulder, determination writ large on her face. "As the pretty guardian of love and justice, I'm sworn to protect you!"
When she turns back to face Silver, her tiara gem leaves a silvery trail of light. Sailor Moon traces a crescent shape with her outstretched arm, and then draws a V-sign across her own circlet.
"Moon Twilight--"
The stage explodes white, with sharply lit shadows! The shot is ruined!
"FLASH!"
COMBAT: Sailor Moon has used Moon Twilight Flash on Queen Beryl. COMBAT: Sailor Moon has finished attacking. COMBAT: Queen Beryl perfectly counters Sailor Moon's Moon Twilight Flash, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Critical Counter! Queen Beryl's Tactician ability activates! COMBAT: Queen Beryl's counterattack, Can't Read My..., bursts all the way through, doing 15 Fatigue damage to Sailor Moon!
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Mercury [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.
Ami's head snaps up almost immediately at the 'stop the music,' and she watches that beam of energy pierce clean through. The presence of Sailor Venus is enough to make her rally; something about her speech moves her, and she can't stop herself from smiling a little. The corners of her lips upturn oh-so-faintly, and she follows that beam of light back to its conclusion -- and gets her head in the game.
Getting in close was a mistake; that much she knows for certain. However, now she's /there/, which means she's sort of committed to it. Still, she can at least start to weave /away/ rather than stay in, since she seems to have ducked below Audiax's radar for the moment.
Weaving back, she raises her hands to the sky once more, this time calling out in a loud, clear voice, "Mercury... Aqua...!" Bringing her hands around and then forward, she sprays a blast of cold, fresh water forward, continuing to backstep -- this time toward Sailor Venus -- as she finishes, "Mist!"
It's only as she starts to move back that the full gravity of the situation catches up with her. "Sailor... Venus?!" she says with a sudden start, her surprised face overlaid across the corner of the screen in a tiny cut-in.
COMBAT: Sailor Mercury has used Mercury Aqua Mist on Queen Beryl. COMBAT: Sailor Mercury has finished attacking. COMBAT: Queen Beryl narrowly braces Sailor Mercury's Mercury Aqua Mist, taking 4 Fatigue damage! Queen Beryl's Block ability activates! Queen Beryl's Parry ability activates! Stagger applied to Queen Beryl!
<Pose Tracker> Tuxedo Mask [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Wires unplugged instead of cut, and the amplification's still going on. With a look of frustration, Tuxedo Kamen glances toward where Audiax Silver is gesturing machinery and electronics up. Magic. A magic audiovisual system. Of course. He jumps down from the rigging into the spotlight with Sailor Moon once more, just as the camera trains on them.
And then it registers--
Mamoru's never felt this cold but once, when the thing in Sapporo began to devour his energy. His blood runs cold too, because it was so very, very wrong, and he never wanted to feel that again--
Wait. The Princess?! No: it's like he told Luna, the Senshi can protect her far better than he can. He can't think about her right now. Sailor Moon can keep her safe. But... Sailor Moon...
No. Tuxedo Mask focuses-- this drain, it's not. It's not quite like the demon in Hokkaido, not really. Audiax is a youma, is the Dark Kingdom's servant, and they know this, this isn't new and horrible.
He's fallen to one knee while he wasn't paying attention, but now the cold seeping through his essence stops because he knows this, and he's not alone. He's so very much not alone. Not here, with the Sailor Senshi. With V-- no, Venus. No: the Princess. His Princess.
The ice forming in his heart and mind is abruptly turned to the steam that vents before a volcano blows the top off a mountain: these are his allies. These people in the stadium, they're his people. None of their energy is the Dark Kingdom's for the taking.
It's the protective fury of a guardian and all the strength he has that Mamoru pulls into his hand, and it's beautiful in its brightness and retaliatory heat.
"Tuxedo--," he cries out, closing his eyes as Sailor Moon calls out that attack, then flings his hand out toward Audiax Silver, loosing a blast of raw, glowing energy in the aftermath of the whiteout, "la Smoking Bomber!"
COMBAT: FINISHER! Tuxedo Mask has used Tuxedo La Smoking Bomber on Queen Beryl. COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask has finished attacking. COMBAT: Queen Beryl narrowly braces Tuxedo Mask's Finisher, Tuxedo La Smoking Bomber, taking 31 Fatigue damage! Queen Beryl is Quipped! Queen Beryl's Block ability activates! Queen Beryl's Parry ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Queen Beryl [None] has posed.
Audiax Silver had turned her back, confident in her victory, when Sailor V - no, not Sailor V - struck! The burst of light smashes into her, making her jerk to her feet in sheerest agony, back arching as the fiery yellow flame washes over her. She shrieks, a wail of feedback rising outwards as the palpable hit washes over her -
The meat dress produces an unfortunately delicious aroma even as her hair catches fire, rather ruining that. Wheeling on one heel, she glares, baring her three sets of canine teeth again as she hisses, "What -"
The three screens stop showing the victims, snapping all to show her there. Audiax Silver staggers back up to that higher perch - looking downwards. One camera snaps back to her, unfortunately just in time to show the sneer of fury on her face melt away. Her eyes go wide, wider than they should. Her very face seems to contort backwards as she gazes downwards.
"No," Audiax Silver gasps. Her hands come upwards, framing her face as her mouth contorts again, lips quivering. Her hair goes out in a cloud of foul-smelling smoke, her meat-dress still shimmering and smoking unpleasantly. "No no no nononononoONONONONO! Sailor /V/ - is this... Is this the true form, you've been hiding all along?!" Her voice shows something authentic now, neither calculated nor mocking. Beneath the distortion and the implication of autotuning there is something else. In the voice of Audiax Silver, for all her falsehoods and mockery, is now a single true, genuine emotion:
FEAR!
"It's so obvious," Audiax moans, her fingers curling downwards, distorting her features and smearing off makeup that reveals her skin to have been rather gelid and pellucidly white all along. "Oh by all the devils in hell, Sailor /V/ - and V is for..."
Flame whips past her, stirring the distortion covering her body. Water joins it - It whips off globs of greasepaint on her legs, too, revealing them to have a blueish silver tone to the flesh. "V is for... V was always for... VENUS!"
A stone strikes against her, thrown from afar. "Kyaaaahhhh!!" Silver screams as the remaining charred embers of the meat dress fall away, revealing - metal? She staggers down a level, then two, shaking as she shrieks, "No! You were gone - after all the work you undid... aren't you content with the mess you've made, Sailor V... V... /Venus/??"
Sailor Moon moves to defend the revealed Venus, but the blinding light she shines is reflected back. "I have only one chance," Audiax Silver moans, even as the stage lights flicker... and then go out, leaving her bathed in glowing lights of a thousand colors. "This new revelation... I can't let any of you live now...!!"
The lights around her fade - but the glowing energy of Tuxedo Mask's passionate heart snaps upwards, casting a huge shadow, something distorted and twisted, upon the roof of the arena. Darkness returns then.
And the air is filled with a new noise... A new smell, of burning oil, acrid and sharp. A low, monstrous rumble.
The screens turn back on. They show only darkness. The lights rise slowly - and Audiax Silver is revealed once more. Not as she was, but something far worse - a contorted construction, gleaming chrome tailpipes with twin stacks. A high set of frontal forks; her head, intact, with a slash of red lipstick the only color remaining, where the headlamp should be. As she revs her engine, the sound fills the arena, and Audiax Silver says, "For the sake of the kingdom - I have to report back, over your crushed bodies!!" Her slick tires ripple, forming knobs, then chains, and even spikes! Rearing upwards into a wheelie, she descends -
That frontal wheel was aimed towards Sailor Venus, but Sailor Moon's position means she is the one to recieve this motorized assault! "Tch--!" Silver protests, but she lands on the flooring afterwards regardless. Her head snaps towards Mercury, and she accelerates recklessly towards the girl, pursuing her at maximum speed to sideswipe viciously - to send her, if possibly, into Vega!
Skidding a trail of smoking rubber on the ground, her motor revs again, and one last burst of acceleration puts her into a leap, one that's aimed to rebound off Sailor Mars and head into the crowd. "Curse you aaaaaallll!!!" the transfigured youma screams; can it be stopped in time?!
COMBAT: Queen Beryl has used M-m-m-m-m-motorcycle Transform on Sailor Moon. COMBAT: Queen Beryl has used M-m-m-m-m-motorcycle Transform on Sailor Mercury. COMBAT: Queen Beryl has used M-m-m-m-m-motorcycle Transform on Sailor Vega. COMBAT: Queen Beryl has used M-m-m-m-m-motorcycle Transform on Sailor Mars. COMBAT: Queen Beryl has finished attacking. COMBAT: Sailor Moon narrowly braces Queen Beryl's M-m-m-m-m-motorcycle Transform, taking 9 Fatigue damage! Sailor Moon's Parry ability activates! Stagger applied to Sailor Moon! COMBAT: Sailor Mars narrowly braces Queen Beryl's M-m-m-m-m-motorcycle Transform, taking 7 Fatigue damage! Stagger applied to Sailor Mars! COMBAT: Sailor Mercury perfectly dodges Queen Beryl's M-m-m-m-m-motorcycle Transform, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge! Sailor Mercury's Fade ability activates! Sailor Mercury's Flash ability activates! COMBAT: Sailor Vega fails to dodge Queen Beryl's M-m-m-m-m-motorcycle Transform, taking 21 Fatigue damage! Stagger applied to Sailor Vega!
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Venus [Infinity Institute (8)] has posed.
Venus has a moment to smile to herself, basking in the glow of just how well her soon-to-be protegees are doing at holding their own in this fight. At least until Sailor Moon dives between herself and Silver; for just the briefest moment, Venus's face turns into a perfect D: , but she pushes past the initial shock quickly enough and, once Moon finishes her attack, Venus takes a step forward to take the other girl by the hand.
"Sailor Moon!" It seems she's on her way to say something else, probably something intensely inspirational, but she's interrupted by Silver's almost literal meltdown and transformation. After she leaps back instinctively, that look of horror returns, quickly replaced by one more resolute, more stern, more /anagry/ at the sight of her comrades in danger.
"The only one who's days are numbered is you! Crescent Beam!" While Venus calls out her standard attack, instead of a single beam there is instead a furious series of beams, all aiming to inflict the girl's fury on the motorized youma.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Sailor Venus has used Furious Random Crescent-Beam Shots on Queen Beryl. COMBAT: Sailor Venus has finished attacking. COMBAT: Queen Beryl fails to brace Sailor Venus's Finisher, Furious Random Crescent-Beam Shots, taking 85 Fatigue damage! Queen Beryl is unable to keep fighting!
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Mars [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.
Sailor Mars braces against the high velocity attack. Apparently, at that speed, an unmoving target is somewhat harder to hit than a moving one. Ami could probably draw out something to explain that, but what matters is that it barely scratched her and Moon.
And then, the princess to the rescue, but she was preparing an attack of her own. Red energies flaring out of her body, she concentrates it all to the tip of her fingers, throwing a large, deadly rapid fireball, that joins up with the Crescent Beam for maximum impact. It basically follows the path that Venus makes with her attack, invading whatever pierving it created. "Mars Fire Soul!"
COMBAT: FINISHER! Sailor Mars has used Mars Fire Soul on Queen Beryl. COMBAT: Sailor Mars has finished attacking. COMBAT: Queen Beryl fails to brace Sailor Mars's Finisher, Mars Fire Soul, taking 46 Fatigue damage! Queen Beryl is unable to keep fighting!
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Moon [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.
In the battle of headlights, Sailor Moon is found wanting.
She's not sure if she could have gotten out of the way. Maybe. She's learned to feel a lot better about her ability since her first night as Sailor Moon. Clumsy Usagi isn't exactly accurate anymore.
In the moment she has to think about it, Usagi decides that she doesn't want to get out of the way. The tires squeal.
As Venus and the others strike down the youma, Sailor Moon gathers herself up from where she was sprawled on the ground. She is alright. Her shock isn't from the attack. It's that Sailor V is right there.
COMBAT: Sailor Moon has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Mercury [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.
Though the youma sideswipes Ami, she neatly rebounds off the ground, planting a hand and carefully controlling her fall. The Sailor Senshi cannot /quite/ arrest her momentum before she hits Vega, though... and Vega may not be quite so ready for it as she was.
When she realizes that she's made contact, she instantly freezes up, looking downright aghast at what's just transpired. She can't even say anything yet -- she's just sort of horrified.
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Vega [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.
The Youma... turned into... a motorcycle. A MOTORCYCLE!
Watching in horror and also confusion, instead of starting to get out of the way well ahead of time, Sailor Vega bears witness to Moon getting clobbered, Mars taking the hit but withstanding and responding, and Mercury getting out of the way like she's lighter than the bubbles of a well-aimed Sabao Spray.
Except that Mercury getting out of the way involves bouncing off of ... Vega, whose eyes go wide as dinner plates just before she goes sprawling.
While she's collecting herself, Venus Resplendant strikes down the Youma and Mars makes sure it's cleansed with fire.
But is it over? Are the innocents okay? What about Tuxedo Mask?
COMBAT: Sailor Vega has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Tuxedo Mask [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
That-- that thing--
At least one of Sailor Moon's allies isn't looking, for a moment, at the youma or the Princess.
like something that could mar the sun
Tuxedo Mask is still staring, face ashen and blue eyes wide behind his mask, up at the empty darkness above. Where for a split second he could see--
feeling wrong on the deepest level
Finally wrenching his gaze away, it takes his exhausted concentration a moment to see the wild attacks of the youma and the fierce rallying of the girls. And Sailor Moon is down, but she's all right, he can tell from here, up on the stage, away from the rest of them again.
The Moon Princess?
that overwhelming darkness
He wants to disappear back into the shadows, to leave, to think. He wants to.
"I don't know who you are, you hide in the dark"
He picks himself up from where he was half-crouched still, braced against the stage floor with one white-gloved hand. So tired. But he can't go. And the Princess just killed the youma. She as well as lied to him. Why would she lie to him? Every night, as long as he can remember, she asked him to find her-- and he did. But nothing--
"and stay away from the Princess!"
--happened. He didn't find the Ginzuishou for her. And... lightly, forcing himself to look stable and solid and perfectly all right, he jumps off the stage and runs with long legs toward the girls and the fight, expression as blank as the lenses of his white mask.
Because Sailor Moon's still down.
that darkness
He's still fast; he makes it there, past Vega and Mercury and Mars, to where the Princess stands by the prone Usagi, and crouches next to the twintailed heroine. He reaches for her hands. "Come on," he says gently, "get up. The people don't have their energy back yet."
COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Queen Beryl [None] has posed.
Silver swerves to the side as she moves past the orchestra pit (well, its equivalent area), cackling with an unpleasant honking distortion, "You missed, Sailor Venus! You've lost your edge! You're more of a Sailor V-/Not/-"
Her first shot missed! The second rebounded off that sick chrome tailpipe! But her third struck home, bursting rubber and making the youma shriek in profoundest agony! Skidding, she says, "No no no no nooooooooo! My tires! Hnnggh - for the glory of the Queen, even if I have to run -"
"On the wheels--"
But then Sailor Mars adds her mite to the rampaging doom that's seizing her. Her front tire ruptures with a loud BANG, the rear one melting and gumming into the axle as she screeches to a slow, aisle-clogging halt around the 4th row of seats. If the people weren't all in gently-conked heaps this might be perilous, but as it is, there's one heck of a clear field of fire.
And that isn't all that's there, either. Fire crackles over the melted-up rubber thanks to Mars's bursting contribution. Silver's engine roars - starts running rough - and as sweat runs down her face, she screams out, "I can't get away... from you - Sailor - Soldiers--!!"
And then, simply, she explodes. There's a fading gull's cry of dismay from the youma, sparkling chromatic light rising in the air... and tension breaks, the oppressive heaviness in the air unbinding. It takes long, lingering seconds (and one of the speakers gives out with a huge BRAP) but the people begin stirring, moments later... groggily helping each other, confused.
Silver herself - the original one - is found later, stuffed in the luggage compartment of her chartered touring bus. The disruption of the Tokyo concert due to "exhaustion" is the scandal of music news for several days, but the singer herself will return, after a short delay for rest and recreation in a ryokan!
The day itself has been saved... but what would that new day bring to the morning star's pretty guardian?
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Venus [Infinity Institute (8)] has posed.
As the youma explodes, Venus can only stare with some measure of surprise, her gaze flickering between where the 'motorcycle' once stood, and at her own hand. She just stares at her hand for a moment, as if in shock that she was able to use so much power... but after her initial amazement, she shakes her head, and turns to face the other Guardians.
"Sailor Mars, Sailor Mercury, Sailor Vega..." She looks to each of them in turn, before finally settling her gaze on the last, "...and Sailor Moon." She crouches next to the latter, across from Tuxedo Mask, giving the boy an almost coy look before moving a hand to Moon's shoulder, supportively.
"I'm sorry to have kept myself hidden from you for so long, but I had to wait until the time was right... I hope in time you'll come to forgive me." Her smile is gentle and warm as she pushes herself up to her feet, then turns to look towards the side of the stage...
...where a certain white cat steps out of the shadows from where he'd concealed himself. Crescent-moon symbol shining in the stage lights, he practically struts on his way out to sit on the ground in front of Sailor Venus. Apparently with little regard for the fact that people are now waking up - they probably won't remember tonight anyway - he announces, "Sailor Guardians, Tuxedo Mask, may I present Her Majesty, Princess Serenity."
