2015-06-25 - Hot Pursuit

Title: Hot Pursuit
Summary: Homura Akemi stole a number of dangerous artifacts - too powerful to be left in her hands. Unfortunately, Precia wants them back...
Who: Homura Akemi, Mami Tomoe, Eri Shimanouchi, Kaitou Jeanne, Nanoha Takamachi, Fiat Silver, Cure Berry, Fuu Hououji, Mai Tokiha, Nagihiko Fujisaki GM: Honoka Yukishiro
Where: Asakusa Traditional District
OOC - IC Date: 27 July 2014 - 06/25/2015

<Pose Tracker> Honoka Yukishiro [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.

<SoundTracker> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mm2UHRMKtic

LAST TIME ON MAGICAL GIRL LYRICAL NANOHA

Nanoha Takamachi defeated Fate Testarossa in a titanic duel for the Jewel Seeds!

But Precia Testarossa attempted to intervene and steal them anwyay, punishing her daughter with a fierce and brutal blast of lightning in the process.

However, Westar spirited Fate to the dubious safety of his evil mansion at the last minute...

...while Homura Akemi stole all twenty-two Jewel Seeds and disappeared in the confusion!

In the aftermath, Lindy Harlaown and Chrono Harlaown contacted the Tuner Organization through back channels unapproved by the Time-Space Administration Bureau, and agreed to cooperate in the apprehension of the Jewel Seeds! This may lead to serious consequences for their careers. For the time being, however, they've been working closely with the Tuners to locate the Jewel Seeds -- and have already found Fate Testarossa, though they have yet to approach where she's being held.

---

NOW, SOMEWHERE IN DIMENSIONAL SPACE, TSAB PATROL WARSHIP ARTHRA

"Whew... we've been looking for days." Amy, Lindy's subordinate and chief sensory officer, thrusts herself away from her seat. "The data from the Tuner Organization is really good though, it's helped narrow the search. We should have a lock in..."

<ping>

"Now," agrees Chrono, absently combing down a stray strand of hair that relentlessly pops up on the back of Amy's head. He keeps a spare comb in his wide jacket sleeves for just such occasions.

"Now indeed. Great job, you two. Chrono, please transfer down to the area immediately. I'll contact the Tuner Organization for fire support. Go ahead and reach out to any Midchildan Devices in the region as well. If it causes Precia to leave her sanctum, that's not the worst possible outcome." Lindy leans back in her seat and sips the tenth cup of cream-and-sugar-filled green tea she's had in an hour. "Amy, please finalize preparations to transfer our cadre of volunteers off of the Arthra and into Tokyo. I'm afraid we must not remain. There is no time to lose."

---

NOW, ACROSS LIVE TUNER COMMUNICATION RELAYS

"This is... ahem... Grumpy Spike."

Chrono does not like his codename. This comes across in his tone.

"We have located Homura Akemi and the Jewel Seeds in the Asakusa District. There appears to be some kind of Earth tradition going on... many explosions in the area."

"Right on, grumpy. All available Tuners, please proceed to that position right away. Looks like there are gonna be /extra/ fireworks at the festival this year..."

---

NOW, ASAKUSA TRADITIONAL DISTRICT

Even so, it will take a lot of fireworks to make much of a dent in the Sumidagawa Fireworks Festival. The largest and most famous fireworks festival in the world, over a million people are thronging the streets, the parks, the slopes down to any nearby rivers or canals, and of course the rooftops. They're here to see a variety of pyrotechnicians compete against one another for the most spectacular display of the year. As an event, it never fails to disappoint.

Many street corners also have festival foods and games; everything that could conceivably be fried and put on a stick, is. Plenty of people are enjoying the summer evening in beautifully printed yukata, or cooling themselves with large and colorful paper fans.

The sun has slipped over the horizon some time ago, and the sky is just starting to get to the true darkness required for fair and equal display of the first competitor's fireworks with later entries. There's a thrill of electric anticipation through the crowds as ears strain for that precious first 'boom' in the night.

---

NOW, IN THE MINDS OF TOKYO MIDCHILDAN DEVICE WIELDERS

Chrono's mindtouch is a little less grumpy as it's transmitted through his beloved Intelligent Device. There's a coolness there, professionalism. Also a certain gawky awkwardness, despite his best intentions.

<< Pardon the intrusion. My name is Chrono Harlaown. I represent the Ti-t-Tuner Organization in an effort to retrieve the twenty-two stolen Jewel Seeds from one Homura Akemi, before they can be used, accidentally or otherwise, to wreck the kind of harm that could irrevocably destroy this planet. We are beginning an operation to reclaim the Jewel Seeds in Asakusa Traditional District. Afterwards, I am hoping we can all sit down and discuss what to do next. >>

<Pose Tracker> Homura Akemi [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.

Over the last week, Homura Akemi had experienced her fair share of scrapes. A couple of opportunistic Tuners made nuisances of themselves -- that, and speaking with Kaitou Jeanne confirmed it: the Tuners were out to get her. The girl's efforts to secure a Storage Device, which would make hiding the Jewel Seeds easier, failed because of the intervention of Fuu Hououji, Kuniko Saito, and Mai Tokiha. She doesn't have a great way to keep the Jewel Seeds secure; instead of technology, she chose to use remoteness.

An observation tower in the middle of Asakusa Park was judged be sufficiently remote. It is a ramshackle wooden thing, abandoned since the 1960's, which no one quite wants to visit. Unfortunately, the fireworks aren't launching too far from here, which makes passerby unlikely -- though not impossible. This is a small precaution on Homura's part. She anticipates a fight; she does not want bystanders caught in it.

But Homura intends to put up a fight.

She stands on the wooden frame at the top level of the tower. Behind her, inside of a locker built into the small hut at the top of the tower, is a single sports bag. The glittering blue glow of the Jewel Seeds pulses from inside of it. In front of her, Homura seemingly has nothing, but she is ready. She stands in her white and violet coat, with one hand on her shield, and her expression is a deceptively calm one.

She glances up at the still darkening evening sky, where fireworks haven't launched yet. Then, she turns and looks calmly in the direction that she expects them to come. What did Mai Tokiha tell her? That she should try talking to people? She doubts that will work, this time. They can't know why she needs these; what risk she will take, knowingly, to use these against Walpurgisnacht. This is a risk that she must take.

She told Kaitou Jeanne that sometimes, she must go it alone. She plans to do just that tonight.

There is a blink in reality. Then, six hunting rifles appear from thin air, laid out neatly in a row in front of her; the barrels lean against the railing, the stocks rest against the floor of the observation deck. The arrangement and placement of the weapons looks similar to Mami Tomoe's method of fighting, but Homura's cool expression doesn't demonstrate that, as she looks at whoever might approach.

The comparison may make her sad, but she saved that sad look for when she stopped time. Right now, there is nothing but ice in her eyes.

COMBAT: Homura Akemi transforms into Puella Magi Homura!

COMBAT: Homura Akemi has fully healed herself.
COMBAT: Homura Akemi has fully healed herself. She is now ready to take on 10 opponents!
COMBAT: Miki Aono has fully healed herself.
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has fully healed herself.

<Pose Tracker> Nagihiko Fujisaki [Ohtori Academy (6)] has posed.

Nagihiko Fujisaki is not a Tuner, nor is he a Midchildan mage, nor indeed is he, at least for the moment, a magical warrior of any stripe. He's just a ten-year-old boy looking for himself, as ten-year-old boys sometimes do; he will also settle for looking for trouble, as ten-year-old boys more or less always do.

He's also an heir to a wealthy, traditional family, so there's not a chance he'd miss something like the Sumidagawa Fireworks Festival. For the moment, Nagi's laid claim to a paper basket of takoyaki and his own sky blue summer yukata; he's making his way down the streets and up toward a hilltop where he knows a spot is waiting for him (because Kukai Souma is a master of claiming space) with his friends.

He has no idea that things are about to explode in completely different ways than he's expecting, but he's a sharp kid, he'll figure something out. His head cranes off to the horizon, wondering how close it is to time.

<Pose Tracker> Mai Tokiha [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.

There's an occasional glimpse of orange, just cresting among the sea of heads that is the Asakusa Park's crowd. Walking in sandals makes it difficult to look over this many people - not that gaining enough height is easy at the best of times - but this one is among those people trying. Parents searching for children, romantic couples trying to reunite, or just some youth trying to get a better view than anyone else. Unfortunately...Mai is failing to see what she needs to see.

"Mikoto! Takumi! Akira-kun! Eri-chan!" A call out into the crowd - but the overall murmur is loud enough that she's being drowned out. Wearing a nice sea-green yukata, Mai Tokiha is here to enjoy the fireworks show along with those closest to her, with the plan being to make a grand family event of it. (It was that or a romantic date, and prospects there seem to have fallen through of late...) A great group, arriving together...

And almost immediately separated. Akira had spotted some new challenge and dragged Takumi off, Mikoto smelled food and went hunting it, and being jostled by a sudden surge of people meant that Mai had lost track of even Eri. It's a wonderful evening, and a wonderful event, and the only problem is that a million people seem to agree that this is the place to be.

"Mou..." Mai grumbles aloud, and tries to make her way toward the fringe of the crowd. There's no way she can spot anyone among this mass, it's packed enough that cell reception is basically wrecked - she needs space, and high ground. "Okay. First, find Mikoto. Maybe she can just sniff out the rest..." Ears straining not for fireworks but for an invocation of her name, she tries to escape the crowd. Maybe that old tower would be a good way to see over the crowd - and at the very least, it should be quiet enough for her to catch her breath.

Clad in kimono and sandals, Mai Tokiha stumbles into the clearing around the old tower - and beholds Homura Akemi, and her preparations. That thrum of magic, the sign of those items that Homura wasn't able to contain thanks to the intervention at Infinity. And the fact that Mai seems to be effectively held at gunpoint, surprise winning against the danger bells ringing in her mind for the moment... "...um. Good evening? What are you doing up there, exactly?..."

<Pose Tracker> Nanoha Takamachi [Infinity Institute (4)] has posed.

Since the duel with Fate Testarossa, Nanoha Takamachi has not been well. Even more lost in her reticence and internalizing the roiling, riotous, maelstrom of confused and injured emotions into a small ball at the put of her stomach. It has not been pleasant for her. It has not been pleasant for anyone who knows her, to see the redhead lost in such a mire of turmoil and sucked into the depths of her own inner thoughts, tossing over themselves repeatedly.

How could she have done things differently to work out better?

A question she'll have to ask later. The sudden ping and message of a vaguely familiar voice snaps the small redhead from her reverie, and in an instant, Nanoha's eyes shoot wide open.

"--Mom, dad, going out, see you later!" It is the only warning the bewildered Takamachis get as their youngest child bolts out the door, panting every step of the way. Chrono being with the Tuners was... New, but the instant he said 'Jewel Seeds' the child's focus was in that very instant honed to a keen singular point, with but one goal on her mind.

She has to get those back.

Flying like her boots were the wind themselves, the child lets no one and nothing stop her as she storms for the traditional district.

<Pose Tracker> Mami Tomoe [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.

Mami Tomoe is operating here with distinctly less information than she'd like.

Having left the Tuner Organization years ago, she doesn't have access to their live communications, and she certainly doesn't have access to even the TSAB's usual channels. Instead, she gets to rely on two things: Puella Magi gossip... And a habit of hunting out Homura Akemi.

That girl is trouble.

...So in the end it's actually /luck/ that gets her here; she can only make guesses about where things are likely to go down, but her best guess is always spending time with Madoka Kaname when she gets the chance. Maybe she'll hear something--it'd be no shock for Homura to show /there/--and if not...

Well, little Tatsuya is completely adorable.

Right now, though, she's been separated from her friend, as sweets call one side and doing a little checking into her work calls her own. Which means that Mami is walking thoughtfully in her yukata about the crowds, slipping towards the darker alleys where she'd expect trouble to start if it's going to start at all.

...But it's the /tower/ that gets her attention. Mami narrows her eyes... And her trained vision sees the glint of rifles. It's frankly disturbing, how similiar it is to the way she would do it.

She turns the corner into the darkness, and in moments, golden light crashes over her; her soul gem tossed up above her, she spins as she goes into her battle attire.

The night lights up; while Mai hangs back, Mami throws out her hand to fire a dozen shining rifles even as she falls.

COMBAT: Mami Tomoe transforms into Puella Mami!

COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has used Tiro Circle on Homura Akemi.
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Homura Akemi narrowly dodges Mami Tomoe's Tiro Circle, taking 27 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Mami Tomoe is Psyched! Homura Akemi's Fade ability activates! Homura Akemi's Flash ability activates!

<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

While there's something about fireworks that doesn't exactly relax Fuu Hououji, she still enjoys watching them - and the fact that the Infinity archery team pooled its resources to plan a good spot to watch from certainly helps sweeten the deal.

Spotting a familiar face on the way past in a hurry, though, Fuu excuses herself, makes an excuse about having had too much ramune or something, and gets up from her seat with her fellow Infinity archers. A moment to straighten her yukata and she's off into the thick of the crowd, angling towards the same direction she noticed Mai heading.

This also gives her a view of somebody making a magical addition to the fireworks; it's a rather impressive display, to be sure - as if the mundane fireworks weren't that already - but it's also the cue to dig her glove-jewel out of a fold of her yukata, slipping the 'glove' onto her left hand. She doesn't transform, doesn't announce her presence .... but she DOES pay closer attention to what's going on.

<Pose Tracker> Miki Aono [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

Pyrotechnics?

Miki Aono was entirely there. Of course, she had her linkrun out, and was furiously texting her friends - but wherever they were, Miki was just hopeful that they could enjoy the pyrotechnics as well. Fireworks were such an amazing thing, after all.

Dressed in a purple cabbie hat, a long-sleeved blouse (violet, with split sleeves) that read 'Passionate Fruit' in big blocky letters (and had a bunch of grapes near a hip), and a pair of stylish bellbottoms, Miki was enjoying one of those rare, rare days where she didn't have anything to do. Of course she wanted to share it with friends but... one step at a time, hmmm?"

"I should have worn my yukata, huh?" she says briefly to Nagihiko Fujisaki, picking the boy at random in the crowd. Another moment. "Are your parents here too?" she asks, looking up from him to scan the crowd.

<Pose Tracker> Lilian Abarth [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.

The mysterious thief, Fiat Silver... is not here right now! Why would she be? This is pretty ridiculous all told, and frankly she'd be best advised ducking the heat and letting the native authorities defeat Hair Flip Queen or not as the case may be.

However, Lilian Abarth had come out for a walk for the fireworks festival. In fact, she came in echelon with Miranda Sentra, who had acquired new, crisp yukata of the finest reasonably available fabric. For an hour, Lilian was in heaven, walking touristically with her aunt(?), nibbling at festival foods, trying her hand at festival games... and laughing at the four or five times that Miranda 'found' someone's precious jewelry and left it with the lost and found.

But all good things must come to an end. Miranda had to go talk with some people, and not people who she wants to introduce to Lilian right now. It was sad, but Lilian understood; the hug, the embarrassing kiss on the forehead as if she were still nine years old, and the small roll of thousand-yen notes took the sting out of it. As did the promise that they'd meet back up for the fireworks.

And so: She is alone for the moment, but that's alright. And, she tells herself as she lifts up a newly-bought paper fan to cool her face, she's not really alone - as the silver bangle on her upper arm, beneath the scorpion-print yukata, would indicate.

Lilian freezes up when she gets that message.

<Well now!> Silver Scorpion says to her, quietly.

"That... girl...!"

Lilian barely hears Scorpion. "Stealing all of those jewel seeds in the midst of that battle -- and now... now she's threatening this world... and I hadn't seen her for WEEKS... we were going to watch the fireworks together...!!"

<Err...>

"Can you find out where this 'Homura Akemi' is, Silver Scorpion?" Lilian says as she stalks off behind a takoyaki stall.

Silver Scorpion's audio sensors engage. A moment after there is a fusillade of rifle fire. <I think so.>

SOON ENOUGH...

Fiat Silver did not fly because she has gathered from Silver Scorpion's intelligence that both 'Homura Akemi' and whoever is attacking her use a form of explosive-based projectile mass weaponry which is very well suited to shooting people flying in the air. (Silver Scorpion can sometimes be a wisenheimer.) She moved quickly nonetheless, around the fringes of the festival -- and followed a path that led up towards the gunfire.

The blue-and-silver figure tells Mai as she passes, "This is a battle for the fate of your planet! Get to cover!"

As she closes on the tower, Fiat Silver raises up her Device's war baton. "Homura Akemi! This is your only warning. Drop your jewels and reflect on your foolishness, before you do something that can't be forgiven!!" As she says this she also double-times it, to try and get UNDER that tower - and out of the field of fire.

<Well said!> Silver Scorpion encourages, quietly. Fiat Silver, burning with a mixture of outrage, frustration, and a not so subtle fear that the world is going to end /on her and her aunt/, does not reply.

COMBAT: Lilian Abarth transforms into Barrier Jacket!

COMBAT: Fiat Silver has used Cutting Remarks on Homura Akemi.
COMBAT: Fiat Silver has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.

Turning it over with a hiss from the grill, the food vendor put the finishing touches on the savory pancake filled to the brim with vegetables by spreading the sauce after flipping it. Handing it to her on a paper plate, she fished out a few yen coins to give to the vendor, and bowed her head in thanks. Scrunching her plate to help her take a bite, she scanned the dense crowd, then stood on her tip toes(Which was really hard in these sandals) and did it again. "Where did she get off to?" She shakes her head, "I swear, it's not like he's going to collapse in the middle of the festival." And Mikoto's trouble was usually harmless, well mostly harmless.

On a whim, she looks up, because well the image of a desperate Mai Tokiha hovering above the crowds with her limbs ringed in Magatama and wreathed in blazing flame wasn't /entirely/ a remote possibility. Instead of seeing the HiME of infinite teaseworthy nicknames however, she double takes at the glint of violet light out of the corner of her vision, caught from the rays of the setting sun hitting the back of a hand just right. Freezing, she nearly drips sauce over her floral yukata. Quickly dipping her head, she dabs at her mouth with a napkin, and looks again in the direction of that light through her glasses.

In her experience, Homura Akemi being here usually was bad enough. Homura Akemi here /transformed/ and ready for battle, with a rifle line out meant worse things. Maybe Mai's fears weren't so unfounded after all. With a sigh, she threads the crowded, then the line of food vendors to make her way into the alleyway. Dropping her plate of Okonomiyaki, it was immediately set upon by two partygoers one calico cat and one black furred kitten. "Someone might as well enjoy the festival." She comments wryly, before taking out her cell phone and tapping out a text to Mai Tokiha to the tune, 'When you find Takumi and Akira take them home.'

While she could have included Mikoto, she certainly knew that Mikoto could both take care of herself, and would turn up eventually. And then there was a flash of shimmering light, the smell of rain, freshcut grass, and the faintest hint of jasmine. When she crests the side of the building, to look up at the tower again, then down into the courtyard at groans, "You're here already, because /of course/ you are!"

That may be just loud enough for her to hear, as she takes a short hop closer, vine like lengths coiling in her land, as she clenches it, chin turning upward to look at her "That's a bit aggressive for a festival-goer, Akemi-san. Just what are you playing at here?"

There's barely any time to talk though, ears immediately ringing form Mami moving in guns blazing. After she feels like she can breathe again, she realizes her worst fears are happening. Mami Tomoe and Homura Akemi were fighting, right here, and Mai Tokiha was caught in the middle. Herself too, but 'Mai' being there made it far closer to a worst case scenario.

Dropping down to the courtyard to avoid immediately getting caught in the crossfire, she grabs Mai's sleeve and all but wrenches her off to the side to avoid Lilian, "Look take cover! You don't want to get between the two of them when they fight and I don't even know /why/ they're doing this!" ...It could just be because they don't like each other. She was going with that as a working reason right now. "Wait, did she say 'fate of our planet'?" She turns from Mai to give Fiat Silver a long hard look as she makes her speech, then Homura a /harder/ one. "What did she do /this time/?!"

COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi transforms into Puella Magi Eri!

<Pose Tracker> Maron Kusakabe [Juuban Public School (11)] has posed.

Maron Kusakabe remembers going to the Fireworks Festival with her parents, once upon a time. That was a happy memory. But, as a result of that memory... going to the festival now would feel kind of sad and empty. And thus, she hasn't done so since her parents left, several long years ago. This year is no different. Maron Kusakabe isn't here.

Kaitou Jeanne, however, is close by. But not to see the fireworks. She's here for only one reason. only one person. Nobody actually told her that Homura Akemi was here today. Not even Homura Akemi herself. This doesn't surprise her too much, it was pretty obvious when they talked that there would be a time in the near future where Homura would seek to face her problems head-on, all by herself. She didn't press the matter, leaving the impression that she was fine with that and would stay out of the way.

Stay out of the way she did, but not without leaving somebody to keep an eye on Homura. No matter how alert a person may be, there's no way to detect the undetectable: Finn Fish, invisible to almost everybody, was able to follow the Puella Magi this far, reporting immediately when things looked like they were about to take a bad turn, as instructed by Maron. And so, just when the fireworks begin, both of the mundane and magical variety, the voice of Kaitou Jeanne rings out, managing to make herself audible over the din and clamor.

"You've done well, Homura Akemi! But certain things are best left to your senior!"

That voice came from... above? Yes, Kaitou Jeanne's grand entrance today came in the form of a pink hang glider, sailing speedily through the night sky, straight towards Homura's perch from the exact opposite side the frontal assault is happening from. She didn't exactly give advance warning about her presence or intentions, but at least somebody seems happy to be here, given the big grin on her face as she flies right into the danger zone, not seeming concerned about the fact that this leaves her wide open if anybody should decide to focus on her.

Just in case it's somehow still unclear, she finishes her statement by announcing, "Kaitou Jeanne has arrived!" The official introduction is important, it's always important.

COMBAT: Maron Kusakabe transforms into Kaitou Jeanne!

<Pose Tracker> Honoka Yukishiro [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.

ALSO, IN THE GARDEN OF TIME, HIGH DIMENSIONAL SPACE

Precia Testarossa stares out at the middle distance, looking not through space but time, considering an era long past, lost to her. But perhaps not lost forever.

<< Pardon the intrusion. My name is Chrono Harlaown... >>

She smirks as her spying Device planted in Tokyo picks up the communication easily, and relays it to her on a stealthy magical channel. She starts to get up from her throne, but midway through the motion, stops dead. Her enormous length of violet hair trembles right down to its tips, as do her fingers.

The coughing escapes her violently, racking her whole body in agonizing angles. Afterwards, her staff clatters to the floor as she stares at the blood in her palm.

"Very well. Arise, my army! Secure the Jewel Seeds from Earth at any cost! Bring them to me! Bring them ALL to me!!"

Throughout her massive complex, which is as much laboratory as garden and as much grim, austere palace as either of those things, red eyes suddenly activate. Lots of them. An army's worth.

And to think, it's only a spare tithe of her resources, a massive assault squad but far less than she forces to keep eternal vigil over her most precious thing of all.

Then, in a shimmer of dimensional twisting, they warp away en masse.

Precia sinks back into her seat and watches the proceedings through a screen conjured with a falsely carefree wave of her hand. She's still trembling, but it's no longer with pain.

It is with need.

This /must/ succeed. It has to. For...

"...Alicia..."

---

BACK ON EARTH AT THE FIREWORKS FESTIVAL

The first explosions of the evening rock the night to shrieks and raucous cheering, which then hushes itself to awed silence as the display continues to radiate light for far longer than a normal firework ever could. Their trails shimmer and twist as they move around each other, all heading inexorably towards a central part of the district.

Perhaps this is some kind of new chemical reaction. But... should they really be descending that low while still on fire?

It's definitely not an army of armored warriors, all spacemetal plates and burning red energy eyes and flares from their feet propelling them towards the Jewel Seeds. There definitely aren't multiple designs of these automatons, some bearing staves of truly monstrous size, others foregoing any attempt at emulating humanity whatsoever to simply sport gigantic energy launchers on their shoulders or brows.

They definitely don't immediately attack Homura with enough concentrated firepower to turn her into little separated atoms.

And they're definitely not smart enough to /not/ also attack Mami, Fiat Silver, Eri Shimanouchi and Kaitou Jeanne, who they also register as powered combatants in the zone. Everyone here is their enemy, as far as their Master is concerned. A stream, a swarm, of magical blasts, some red, some yellow, and some blue, arc towards all the girls. Suppressing fire.

Chrono Harlaown teleports in right on their heels, his black duster swishing through the air as he spins his card-Device into a full staff and starts firing freezing blue blasts into the fracas, driving them back up into the air, away from the crowds.

<< The magical signatures in these drones are enormous! It's definitely the work of Precia Testarossa. There's no one inside the armor -- don't hold back, keep them away from the people! And get those Jewel Seeds! >>

And /then/ the actual fireworks start. The air is immediately filled with cataclysm of the sorts that can only be dreamed in Tokyo.

COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro transforms into Precia's Assault Squad!

COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa transforms into Sumidagawa Fireworks!
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa has fully healed herself. She is now ready to take on 10 opponents!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has fully healed herself. She is now ready to take on 10 opponents!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Massive Energy Projection on Homura Akemi.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Pretty Deadly Lights on Mami Tomoe.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Pretty Deadly Lights on Eri Shimanouchi.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Pretty Deadly Lights on Fiat Silver.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Pretty Deadly Lights on Kaitou Jeanne.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe narrowly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Pretty Deadly Lights, taking 4 Fatigue damage! Mami Tomoe's Fade ability activates! Mami Tomoe's Flash ability activates! Cripple and Diversion applied to Mami Tomoe!
COMBAT: Fiat Silver perfectly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Pretty Deadly Lights, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Critical Dodge! Fiat Silver's Fade ability activates! Fiat Silver's Flash ability activates!
COMBAT: Homura Akemi narrowly dodges Fiat Silver's Cutting Remarks, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Fiat Silver is Psyched! Homura Akemi's Fade ability activates! Homura Akemi's Flash ability activates!
COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi fails to dodge Honoka Yukishiro's Pretty Deadly Lights, taking 29 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Diversion applied to Eri Shimanouchi!
COMBAT: Kaitou Jeanne perfectly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Pretty Deadly Lights, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge! Kaitou Jeanne's Fade ability activates! Kaitou Jeanne's Flash ability activates!
COMBAT: Homura Akemi fails to counter Honoka Yukishiro's Massive Energy Projection, taking 64 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit!
COMBAT: Homura Akemi's counterattack, Flashstep, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Honoka Yukishiro!

<Pose Tracker> Homura Akemi [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.

Homura pauses, then she glances down at Mai Tokiha, who stumbled upon her. For a second, her purple eyes widen with genuine surprise. Then, her expression becomes more reserved. Think of the devil -- or the dragon, perhaps -- and she shall appear. "Mai Tokiha," she says, her voice having an entirely affected calm. "You shouldn't be here. They're coming for the artifacts I took into my custody."

She looks down at her row of rifles, and then issues the understatement of the century. "There is going to be a--"

Mami Tomoe's circle of rifles fire and the railing and platform that Homura stood on are abruptly filled with holes. Homura and her rifles, however, are no longer there. She suddenly appears on the roof, with the rifles still lined up, and she runs her hand through her hair. She flicks it out with that usual flick of her wrist. "Mami Tomoe," she says. "This isn't any of your business."

The presence of Mami Tomoe isn't precisely expected, but it isn't a surprise. Fiat Silver's sudden appearance is, however. She turns her head and gives Fiat Silver a single, sharp glare. "If you think I want to destroy the world, then you aren't paying attention. I had plenty of time to do so," she says. "This is because you aren't up to this task, Fiat Silver."

She turns, then, to look at Eri. Her eyes widen for a moment, before she shakes her head. She is about to say something, but several things happen at once. First, Kaitou Jeanne comes screaming down a pink glider, and refers to herself as Homura's senior (which she finds, on some level, a little funny -- but she thinks Kaitou Jeanne is a little funny in a complimentary way.

"What are you..." she says, actually stumbling over her words for a moment. "Kaitou Jeanne. This is something I have to do--"

The fireworks conceal the arrival of the drones. Homura tries to spin up her shield -- and then the blasts come slamming down into her. Her rifles, so neatly set up, are blasted into pieces. The shots strike her and smash her off the observation tower. That, too, is blown apart into so much wood and kindling; the Jewel Seeds are abruptly buried within, as the rubble collapses. Homura falls away, tumbling.

She reappears on the ground, then she looks up at the drones -- and Chrono -- and Mami. Her words are directed at the newly appeared mage. "Chrono Harlaown," she states, plainly. "You're outside of your jurisdiction."

Then, in the blink of an eye, she has an assault rifle out; the safety is flipped off, and Homura opens fire with the automatic setting. Rounds shoot up, firing at Mami, Fiat Silver, and Chrono alike. The majority, however, hurtle towards the drones. She may be listening to Chrono's advice.

A little.

COMBAT: Homura Akemi has used Bulletstorm on Mami Tomoe.

COMBAT: Homura Akemi has used Bulletstorm on Fiat Silver.
COMBAT: Homura Akemi has used Bulletstorm on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Homura Akemi has used Flowing Sands on Homura Akemi.
COMBAT: Homura Akemi has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Homura Akemi accepts Homura Akemi's Flowing Sands, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Accelerate and Empower applied to Homura Akemi!
COMBAT: Fiat Silver fails to counter Homura Akemi's Bulletstorm, taking 50 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Fiat Silver's counterattack, Prosoma Guard, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Homura Akemi!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly dodges Homura Akemi's Bulletstorm, taking 44 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro's Fade ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Flash ability activates!
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe perfectly counters Homura Akemi's Bulletstorm, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Counter!
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe's counterattack, Tiro Retort, bursts all the way through, doing 44 Fatigue damage to Homura Akemi!
COMBAT: Miki Aono transforms into Cure Berry!

<Pose Tracker> Mami Tomoe [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.

Homura's speed just means that Mami has to move even faster; it's a perfectly logical calculus. Homura suddenly on the roof isn't a surprise anymore; Mami has come to see the speed with which her rival moves.

"You're the last person who should be telling others to mind her own business, Akemi-san. We're going to settle this now."

But the attack comes from a totally different direction. The sudden magic crashing toward her sends Mami spinning by instinct, hurling herself off of the platform where she'd landed to crash into a pile of rubble made by another beam instants earlier.

But already she's moving. The strange new opponents she doesn't know, but /this/ one she does. Homura opens fire, and Mami snaps her fingers; a brilliant rush of golden bullets crash forward, perfectly parrying the automatic weapons fire and bursting right through to the target in a hail of gunfire.

"Akemi-san!" Mami demands, but leaps to the side to assess her situation, ribbon unfurling around her to blast rubble out of her way as she clears her vision.

COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has used Evadere on Homura Akemi.

COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Nagihiko Fujisaki [Ohtori Academy (6)] has posed.

Nagi's idle searching of the horizon is interrupted by...an older girl!! A mysterious force. His eyes linger; he thinks he hears the first few pops starting, but he doesn't see it yet? But then he looks up to Miki and flashes a grin. Some other kids Nagi's age might be shy, but not this one. The mention of the yukata gets him to briefly actually notice what she's wearing, and an offhanded, "It's the kind of day for yukata, but I think that looks great, Miss!" with the kind of comfortable tone that suggests he is in fact assessing the outfit.

Sorry, Miki, you are talking to a ten year old and get the older-lady honorifics today.

But as she takes an interest in him, he nods. "My parents are, but I was going up to meet my friends." He gestures up the hill... but frowns again, just as the fireworks start in earnest. His head turns the other way. "Though don't those sound kind of weird...?"

COMBAT: Homura Akemi perfectly dodges Mami Tomoe's Evadere, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Critical Dodge! Homura Akemi's Fade ability activates! Homura Akemi's Flash ability activates!

<Pose Tracker> Mai Tokiha [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.

Mai asked a question - and as if in payment for last time, actually gets a sort of answer. "'They?' That's...I'd ask more, but you're right. I really shouldn't-" Before she can continue further, Mami answered for her. The yukata-wearing girl lets out a protesting cry as the rifles ring out - realizing only after the first resounding crack fades that they weren't the guns aimed in her direction. Her gaze whips around in confusion for a moment, and she stumbles in her sandals as she spies the descending Mami. "Wha- you! What do you think you're doing, Tomoe?!"

Things abruptly get very busy, very quickly. A figure in silver blows past her, and Mai echos Eri's comment without realizing it. "Hey!...wait, what do you mean /our/ planet?!" Further questions that she'd love to ask are cut off with a yelp as she's wrenched bodily out of the immediate line of fire; clumsy sandals leave her stumbling more than a few steps, until she's finally able to catch herself on a tree. It takes a moment for her to realize that it's Eri who grabbed her, and she boggles anew.

"Eri-chan?! What's even- I don't know, I think she's trying to store something dangerous, and Tomoe there objected because of course she did-" This last sentence said a bit louder and more pointedly than actually necessary. "- and honest, all I wanted was a vantage point to find out where the rest of you went! I'm perfectly happy to just step out of the way and..."

She trails off, staring upwards at Kaitou Jeanne's grand arrival. Her jaw works a moment in silence, as she has to just stare at the phantom thief of legend. So....that happened.

And before she can continue...things get even louder. The fireworks begin in earnest, a riotous show of colour as a backdrop to the hang glider in the air...one that spirals down, descending with terrible force to reveal monstrous armoured enemies. A small army of them, attacking with raw judgmental power, utterly ravaging the tower and surrounding area. Only fortune - or, in truth, the fact that she has yet to manifest any power - spare her what many have received. She could possibly even escape.

Thoughts of the people so terribly close at hand - three or four mattering more than the million - have her instead curling one hand into a fist against the tree, pushing herself off as she raises her voice. "One nice evening out. It never fails - I try to have one nice evening out, and something like this happens." Flames blossom in the night air, dancing around her limbs, forming golden rings with jewels of jade to match the yukata, and Mai-HiME rises above her clumsy footing.

She glances, worried, to the wrecked tower where Homura had stood - and shoots a glare at Mami continuing her assault. "Tomoe. Is this -really- the time?! OR do you not have anyone you care about back there?" She rushes towards the nearest of the armored figures, flames gathering before her - and exploding out as she closes in, somewhere between a lash and a burning bludgeon.

COMBAT: Unrecognized attack. Please check for typos in the attack name entered.

COMBAT: Mai Tokiha transforms into Mai-HiME!
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has used Vehement Ignition on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

This is definitely not the show she came to Asakusa for, Fuu thinks as the battle ignites in earnest. Literally ignites, in a few cases: Mami's muskets, Homura's more conventional rifle, and Mai's rings, among others. Similarly literal, she thinks, are the small army of drones which are going after absolutely everybody who's already in combat ...

And she does NOT want to know what's going to happen if the drones spread their attention towards those who are NOT already actively fighting. It's probably a good idea not to give them a chance to find out.

"Belief becomes power ... Winds, guide me!" Fuu recites, gathering the wind about herself to cloak her transformation into her Magic Knight armor. Her bow and quiver materialize as well, and she quickly nocks an arrow to her bowstring, drawing back and aiming, letting her arrow fly at one of the drones. If she manages to draw attention away from the more committed fighters, she's okay with that - things were about to be chaotic enough without the additional interference.

She may partially be buying time to sort out who else she needs to focus on.

COMBAT: Fuu Hououji transforms into Magic Knight!

COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Basic Archery on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Mai Tokiha's Vehement Ignition, taking 19 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro's Block ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Parry ability activates!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly dodges Fuu Hououji's Basic Archery, taking 6 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro's Fade ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Flash ability activates!

<Pose Tracker> Cure Berry [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

Miki was talking to a young man - the older lady honorifics were quite alright in her book. Squinting a bit at the sky, she shades her eyes, pointing with one hand. "Ooo, lookit that one! Is that someone setting up the... launch...ers?" says Miki, her voice slowing a bit as she sees the telltale signs of magical girl activity.

Brow furrowing - and lips pursing, Miki's brow furrows. Labyrinth again?!

No, no - the whole thing didn't feel right. And Nagi might realize that Miki was grasping his shoulder a bit too hard. "They do - um... you should find your parents, ok? And if you see your friends - let them know to find their parents too, right?" she says, bringing up a finger to kinda touch Nagi's nose, and give him a wink.

Almost as soon as she turns her eyes away from him, though, Miki was wandering through the crowd with a bit of haste, her features turning a bit grim. She finds a quick place to duck, in an alley.

And ~Cure Berry~ leaps out of the alley not moments later, her lavender hair bobbing. This whole thing didn't feel right - but when she leaps up and sees... twisting throughout the air, Berry pirouettes, her eyes flickering between Homura and the others - the drones, at least, seemed the most blatantly bad. So she purses her lips, and in the midst of her mid-air pirouette, lashes out a foot to give one a kick on its little metal nose, as the drones start firing in earnest.

The fireworks soon follow.

COMBAT: Cure Berry has used Twisting Strike on Honoka Yukishiro.

COMBAT: Cure Berry has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Cure Berry's Twisting Strike, taking 5 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro's Block ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Parry ability activates!

<Pose Tracker> Kaitou Jeanne [Juuban Public School (11)] has posed.

Kaitou Jeanne had her own plan ready to help Homura, whether it was actually welcome or not. She was well-prepared for dropping into the middle of a big fight, she was expecting one to have started by the time she got there.

What she was not expecting or prepared for was a third party to drop in and attack /both/ sides, right as Homura was responding to her. Lucky for her, she's been using hang gliders quite a few times in her heists, and it shows. Tilting her glider at just the right time, she manages to completely avoid the first salvo of magical lights sent her way. It was close, however, and she's not so maneuverable that she's likely to be able to keep doing that. This is not a good time to be a sitting duck. Or a gliding duck, as the case may be.

Trying to tilt back towards the tower, Jeanne only then realizes that it... isn't actually there anymore, or rather, pieces of it are everywhere now. But then, what about Homura? She doesn't believe for a second that anything bad would have happened to the Puella Magi, but not being able to immediately locate evidence of this is still disconcerting.

First things first however. Now that she can't land on the tower, she should focus on getting closer to the ground. Should... but with the situation being as it is, that's too dangerous, her glider is liable to get blown apart on the next shot that comes her way. So instead... she just lets go.

It's a pretty big drop to ground level, but Kaitou Jeanne seems no worse for wear, landing in a crouch, and springing to her feet right away, looking for Homura. Who doesn't make herself hard to find, she's where all the shooting is happening.

But what's this, are they still fighting, ever after this unknown group of new enemies showed up? Shouting in that direction, the phantom thief makes her opinion known to Homura and Mami, trying to keep it concise since things are chaotic enough already. "Stop fighting! ...each other, I mean! Fight /them/!"

As if to mark the proper target, Jeanne flings a number of small pellets in the general direction of the drone swarm. This is no time to care about specific targets. Besides, this is mainly a diversion, as the pellets explode into bright, colorful flashes. Yes, Kaitou Jeanne brought fireworks to the fireworks show. Made sense to her.

COMBAT: Kaitou Jeanne has used When In Rome on Honoka Yukishiro.

COMBAT: Kaitou Jeanne has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Kaitou Jeanne's When In Rome, taking 2 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro's Block ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Parry ability activates!

<Pose Tracker> Fiat Silver [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.

Jeanne's hang glider is gazed upon by Fiat Silver in a mixture of jealousy and astonishment. But then it's gone, even if Jeanne isn't.

Silver Scorpion can pick out the landing of the automatons out of the roar of the crowd and puts a twinkle of the right sort in Fiat Silver's mask. (See? That thing does something other than look cool... it gives her visual cues!) Turning towards them, she answers Homura.

"Pfeh! Trying to blame me for your own actions?? What makes you think that I would have done any better than whatever disaster you're courting!? I only lack the arrogance to think I should hold onto such a massive trove --"

The fireworks begin. The assault begins. The tower collapses.

Fiat Silver... faces them down, twisting her baton and her guarded, gauntleted arm in a chorus of twisting motions, deflecting attacks away with the slim-line old-fashioned pinpoint barriers and a great deal of high speed. "Ha!" she declares at them. Her free hand raises up, fingers curled. "So, are you here to challenge me as well? However many there are of you," and she concludes in an aggressive posture, the tip of that baton elongating into a whipping ribbon of day-glo light. <Telson Mode.> "This ends -"

bam!

The rounds bracket Fiat Silver, who did not expect them. One of them hits near her right ankle, another in the ground ahead of her, and a third one zips into the gap between her arm and her side -- much, much closer to the side. For a moment she wonders if someone just hit her with a hot iron, because it feels much like that. Then the pain hits her, and she staggers forwards, letting out a pained gasp.

"No," Fiat Silver grinds out through her teeth. "I'm not - giving up. This festival..." She can't say anything; the formless blurting welter of emotions that comes from the idea of watching the fireworks with her guardian too strong, too chaotic, to be put in a single phrase. She's going to do it.

She straightens then. Sweat runs down her back beneath her stylish coat as she stares at the automatons, then back towards Homura -- but a path is revealed to her. Crouching down slightly, she snakes the whip forwards (oh! how this hurts! she thinks as the pain comes back like a lance in her side) as the glowing light surges, aimed to wrap around a limb of one of the automatons.

And then she throws her full body into the backstroke. Hopefully, the automaton - or at the least, her whip - will snap forwards and bowl Homura over. "I won't let - you ruin it...!!"

COMBAT: Fiat Silver has used Scorpio Telson on Honoka Yukishiro.

COMBAT: Fiat Silver has used Scorpio Telson on Homura Akemi.
COMBAT: Fiat Silver has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly dodges Fiat Silver's Scorpio Telson, taking 3 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro's Fade ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Flash ability activates! Diversion and Exhausted applied to Honoka Yukishiro!

<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.

The appearance of the phantom thief in the sky, causes Eri to gawk for a moment, wondering what her intent was this time, but she isn't exactly who she's worried about the most. Until Mai states the words 'dangerous objects'. A phantom thief kind of complicates that. "Of course she does." She responds without enthusiasm to the idea of Mami Tomoe objecting.

The Puella Magi mistakes the cacophonous thrumming of the assault squad descending as fireworks, at least until the last second. When the squad crests the courtyard, her eyes widen as she realizes exactly the scale of the battle that she'd walked into. "I knew it! /Worst case scenario/!" Frustration just drips from her tone, she just didn't expect robots. She always hated super robot 'stuff'. While they'd worked together in the past well... those rare occasions can't exactly wipe clean the slate. A robot locks onto her, an energy launcher pulses with blue light.

She leaps into the air, trying to twist in mid-air to dodge the blast. She underestimates it just a tad. It takes her head on in the side, burning a neat hole through her flank, and knocking her right out of the hasty aerial maneuver. She strikes the stonework of the tower courtyard and rolls quite ungracefully, and it takes her a few breaths to clamber back up hastily. Suddenly the 'why' didn't matter quite so much as survival itself in this situation, and survival of the people she cared about.

While the wise thing was just leaving, 'fate of the world' rings out in her mind quite vividly. Taking a pained breath, she laughs despite herself, because the chaos of this situation was getting to be so much that if she wasn't laughing, she'd be sobbing. Trying to focus on the battle, she doesn't quite attack before Mai's comment rings out. And remembering Kyouko's words regarding Mami Tomoe's bitter loneliness, she flinches. Her next words are almost pleading, "Just let her be Mai! If she can't see how desperate this situation is already without the two of them going at it, then nothing you say is going to change that!"

Flicking the vine scourge sidearm, the trio of tendril lashes upward, and attempt to curl around both legs and one arm of a robot in the squad. Leaping, she spins for momentum, pulling the lengths over her shoulder as hard as she can, and trying to rip the assault robot out of the air. If she's lucky, it will strike another robot, on the way down in the arc where she hopes to drive it right into the stonework of the tower if her strength can overcome the power of the magic flying it.

COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi has used Rosary Wheel on Honoka Yukishiro.

COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Homura Akemi narrowly counters Fiat Silver's Scorpio Telson, taking 2 Fatigue damage! Diversion and Exhausted applied to Homura Akemi!
COMBAT: Homura Akemi's counterattack, Suspend Time, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Fiat Silver!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro perfectly counters Eri Shimanouchi's Rosary Wheel, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Counter! Honoka Yukishiro's Reverse ability activates!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro's counterattack, Burning Plates, bursts all the way through, doing 38 Fatigue damage to Eri Shimanouchi! Critical Counterhit!

<Pose Tracker> Honoka Yukishiro [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.

Bullets pour across Chrono's jacket, forcing him to take to the air with the drones. They're contending with Homura's assault rifle as well, in various ways. Some go pingpingping, but for the most part they seem to move within a strange distortion field surrounding all of the armored suits, particularly the smaller ones. It allows them to move more quickly than their still-substantial bulk would indicate, and, in addition, they cause nearby projectiles to swerve and dissipate.

Whenever an attack forces them to become visible, the fields are rippling violet. The color of their maker's magic, a signature as dashing and precise as any scathing pen across an essay.

The degree of resistance causes them to pause, and their burning red eyes, pure energy, to somehow narrow, even twist. Internally, little displays are popping up with information on their first wave of attackers. And just like that, their tactics adjust in ways large and small, subtle and otherwise. Certainly it may be somewhat demoralizing when they neatly twist out of the way of the remainder of Homura's barrage; the way their field becomes subtly cold against the heat of Mai's attack; the way they flip out of the way of the Magic Knight's arrow, twist with the momentum of Cure Berry's kick, put shutters down just in time to block out the worst of Kaitou Jeanne's flashes, limbos -- narrowly -- under Fiat Silver's whip, only to lose its balance and go toppling towards Homura regardless. How the vines around a drone contract, then discover that the plates can become instantly superheated, and send all that flame straight down towards their wielder, Eri Shimanouchi.

What no one could know is that all of this data is being sent back to the Garden of Time.

But one person might suspect.

<< With her forces deployed down here this might be the best chance to stop Precia Testarossa! >> Chrono announces. << I'm going to scout her base -- try to arrest her if possible. You all look like you have things well in hand here! >>

He teleports away in a flash of blue.

<< Chrono, wai-- >> That's a new voice. It's a little older, matronly. Right at this moment, very worried. << Ahem. Please be careful, everyone! The Jewel Seeds in the possession of Homura Akemi could go off at any moment! If one activates, the consequences can't be measured. And if she activates them all on purpose... >>

COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Analysis Eye on Homura Akemi.

COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Analysis Eye on Eri Shimanouchi.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Analysis Eye on Kaitou Jeanne.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Analysis Eye on Mami Tomoe.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Analysis Eye on Fiat Silver.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Analysis Eye on Mai Tokiha.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Analysis Eye on Fuu Hououji.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Analysis Eye on Cure Berry.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa has used Golden Phoenix Spray on Homura Akemi.
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa has used Seven Dragon Spiral on Mami Tomoe.
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa has used Riders In The Sky on Eri Shimanouchi.
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa has used Snap, Crackle, POP! on Kaitou Jeanne.
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Homura Akemi narrowly dodges Juri Arisugawa's Golden Phoenix Spray, taking 2 Fatigue damage! Homura Akemi's Fade ability activates! Homura Akemi's Flash ability activates! Cripple applied to Homura Akemi!
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe fails to brace Honoka Yukishiro's Analysis Eye, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Mami Tomoe is Quipped! Analysis performed by Honoka Yukishiro!
COMBAT: Cure Berry narrowly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Analysis Eye, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Cure Berry is Quipped! Cure Berry's Flash ability activates! Analysis performed by Honoka Yukishiro!
COMBAT: Homura Akemi narrowly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Analysis Eye, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Homura Akemi is Quipped! Homura Akemi's Fade ability activates! Homura Akemi's Flash ability activates! Analysis performed by Honoka Yukishiro!
COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi narrowly braces Juri Arisugawa's Riders In The Sky, taking 1 Fatigue damage! Eri Shimanouchi's Block ability activates! Eri Shimanouchi's Parry ability activates! Diversion applied to Eri Shimanouchi!
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe perfectly dodges Juri Arisugawa's Seven Dragon Spiral, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Critical Dodge! Mami Tomoe's Fade ability activates! Mami Tomoe's Flash ability activates!
COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi fails to dodge Honoka Yukishiro's Analysis Eye, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Eri Shimanouchi is Quipped! Analysis performed by Honoka Yukishiro!
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji narrowly counters Honoka Yukishiro's Analysis Eye, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Fuu Hououji is Quipped! Analysis performed by Honoka Yukishiro!
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji's counterattack, Trick Arrow Shot, partially gets through, doing 4 Fatigue damage to Honoka Yukishiro!
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha perfectly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Analysis Eye, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Critical Dodge!
COMBAT: Kaitou Jeanne narrowly braces Juri Arisugawa's Snap, Crackle, POP!, taking 4 Fatigue damage! Kaitou Jeanne's Parry ability activates! Trap applied to Kaitou Jeanne!
COMBAT: Kaitou Jeanne narrowly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Analysis Eye, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Kaitou Jeanne is Quipped! Kaitou Jeanne's Fade ability activates! Kaitou Jeanne's Flash ability activates! Analysis performed by Honoka Yukishiro!
COMBAT: Fiat Silver narrowly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Analysis Eye, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Fiat Silver is Quipped! Fiat Silver's Fade ability activates! Fiat Silver's Flash ability activates! Analysis performed by Honoka Yukishiro!

<Pose Tracker> Homura Akemi [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.

Homura recovers quckly from the initial bursts of fire from the drones. The girl drops the assault rifle, its rounds spent; she can recover it later or leave the authorities wondering how the cultural association acquired military grade hardware for their fireworks display. She does, however, glower at Mami for blocking her bullets just so. She sees the ribbon around her, then she shakes her head sharply.

"What I tell others isn't your concern," she says. Her tone is icy, but too icy to be dismissive. No, something personal lies underneath her next words. Something that reaches deep -- and into other lives and other times. Deep enough that Jeanne's remark only hardens her heart. "Someone like you... has no business telling others where they belong."

Mai gets a momentary -- and quite surprised -- glance. She didn't expect Tokiha to leap to her defense. She nods, though, and that brief, cool look might be gratitude. She glances at Jeanne, then, and nods. "I appreciate the sentiment, but... I can handle her, too. She is correct about one thing."

Homura looks back at Mami. "This has been a long time coming."

She sees that terrible red eye looking at her -- and then sees it begin twisting and moving out of the way. Homura frowns; she didn't count on drones that could plan so well. This could, in fact, become rather difficult. She already is using more mana -- and more sand -- than she would like. Her eyes narrow and her resolve increases. Homura's hand brushes her shield.

Time stops.

The world goes grey around Homura Akemi, and she looks up at the dimmed out fireworks. Then she looks at the dull red eye of the drone looking at her. She flips the detonator on a homemade bomb, then tosses a pipe bomb at it. The bomb comes to a stop directly in front of it. Then, Homura calmly walks over to Mami Tomoe. She pauses a moment, before she lifts a pistol in one hand.

She fires, and the bullet stops just before it will shoot through the ribbon in her hand -- a maneuver meant entirely to confuse and disorient. Then, she turns, and fires another shot towards Fiat Silver, firing a round towards the Device in her hand.

Her hand spins her shield again.

Time resumes.

Homura stops and frowns up at the sky. "Lindy Harlaown. I have never shown myself to be careless in such a way," she says, calmly. "The same cannot be said of your Time Space Administration Bureau."

COMBAT: Homura Akemi has adjusted her boss levels. She is now ready to take on 3 opponents!

COMBAT: Homura Akemi has used Relativity on Mami Tomoe.
COMBAT: Homura Akemi has used Clockwork Shot on Fiat Silver.
COMBAT: Homura Akemi has used Pipe Bomb on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Homura Akemi has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe narrowly dodges Homura Akemi's Relativity, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Mami Tomoe's Fade ability activates! Mami Tomoe's Flash ability activates! Mami Tomoe is Taunted! Trap applied to Mami Tomoe!
COMBAT: Fiat Silver narrowly dodges Homura Akemi's Clockwork Shot, taking 11 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Homura Akemi is Psyched! Fiat Silver's Fade ability activates! Fiat Silver's Flash ability activates!

<Pose Tracker> Nagihiko Fujisaki [Ohtori Academy (6)] has posed.

Nagi may not be a magical warrior right /now/, but he's had his moments in the past; he sees the same thing Miki does, and has a similar, uneasy reaction, his brows slowly furrowing. "I'm not...sure," he offers back to Miki's enthusiasm, with some worry. The real fireworks are starting, but he's sure he saw something else...

He doesn't really know what to do about it; with Temari back in her egg, the best he can do is alert Kukai and get him to relay that to the others. Is what he's thinking until he notices Miki's own unnerved reaction, and he turns his head slowly toward her; the pressure on his shoulder coming to his attention only then. "Miss?" he prompts her. Is this what he thinks it is? But she gently encourages him to get to safety, and then rushes off into the crowd.

He rubs his nose a little self-consciously, with a helpless tracery of a weak smile on his face. "I guess that's probably the smart thing to do," he says to himself. He loses Miki in the crowd soon, leaving him to stew in the situation on his own. She's right, of course. Whether that was a magical girl who knew what she was looking at or just a normal girl who was worried by the fact that she didn't, he really should leave this alone. What he could see between flashes of firework looked pretty big.

He shakes his head. "Can't just ignore this!" he tells himself. Nagihiko abandons his takoyaki to the cruel whims of fate and snakes his way into the crowd with a dancer's grace, sliding toward what he hopes proves to be a battle.

He'll figure out pretty much around the time he gets there that he has no plan whatsoever, and got focused so he forgot to call the Guardians.

<Pose Tracker> Mami Tomoe [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.

Mami of course initially breezes right past Mai, having no time or patience for distractions from her target. She doesn't bother /answering/ her, either: it's been a long time since the golden Puella Magi has felt the need to answer to much of anyone at all for her magical activities.

Her silence comes off as harsh, uncaring, and to a point it's true--but mostly she's eyeing Homura as carefully as she can, blocking out everything else to the same level she would relegate Familiars. ...Which is to say not as completely as it seems; the fireworks are beautiful this year, but this isn't the place she'd like to be watching them from. A brilliant cyan burst of light explodes in the space Mami was in just an instant earlier; only long experience sent her, firing a gun up into the air to propel herself backward, out of the path of the beautiful spiral that pulses three times before finally fading into ash.

Personal... It's personal for Mami, too, though she still doesn't really /understand/ this strange other girl. "Is that--" She starts to quip her reply to Homura--

'OR do you not have anyone you care about back there?'

Mai's words clip hers like shears in a garden. For just an instant Mami is silent, her breath catching in her throat. Everything seems to go wrong in those next few moments. The voices from elsewhere, and then suddenly the ribbon she was about to use to get a new vantage point is torn to shreds by a bullet she never saw coming. She shifts mid-air to catch herself, rolling to the ground and standing up only a moment later.

What is going on?

Mami doesn't offer any words to the others now; instead, she leaps upward, kicking off of a wall to move somewhere she can get a better vantage.

COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has used Repositioning on Mami Tomoe.

COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe accepts Mami Tomoe's Repositioning, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit!

<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

Whoever Precia Testarossa may be, the Magic Knight of Wind can't really take too much time to worry about it. Nor does she particularly worry about the fact that somebody is using telepathy to address her directly; she recalls quite well how Clef did much the same thing, albeit with Mokona as an intermediary.

More important at the moment is the way those drones seem to be paying more specific attention to their enemies. The Wind Knight swiftly nocks another arrow and lets it fly, trying to crack a drone's visor before it can get a full 'scan' of her; she has her doubts that it worked, but the battle is still raging. /So what should we be focusing on?/ she tries to reply, focusing her thoughts 'towards' the matronly mind-voice, and hoping that whatever spell is allowing for this contact will receive from somebody who doesn't know exactly how to send.

She also considers that arrows aren't doing a whole lot of good ... well, maybe something else will work better.

"Winds of Admonishment!" calls the Magic Knight of Wind, trying to grab as many drones as she can manage (which likely won't be enough) in one of her binding, restrictive whirlwinds. Whatever helps cut down on their evasion is going to be a help, she hopes ...

COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Winds of Admonishment on Honoka Yukishiro.

COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Mai Tokiha [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.

Voices speaking out of nowhere are all kinds of suspicious to Mai. Oh, they've been helpful in the past - the events surrounding Christmas coming to mind - but they've also proven to be malevolent, as with the World Tree. Chrono and Lindy giving their tactical 'suggestions' are thus met with a narrowing of eyes from Mai - authority not so swiftly accepted as it might have been, once. She looks around for someone to answer to, but apart from that mage who just disappeared...

The enemy begin their counterattack - and that strange chill that meets her flames is both worrying and heartening. If it's just sheer cold, maybe she can still overhwelm it...but they're clever, and well-adapted to whatever gets thrown at them...fire sears down a vine, and Mai realizes who the target was all too late. "Eri-chan!" Abandoning her target for the moment, she rushes away from that vigilant gaze toward her friend's side. She spares a glance in Mami's direction, as if waiting for her answer...but there's only silence.

Huh.

Upon reaching Eri, she checks in a half-panic for anything life-threatening. When those concerns are momentarily assuaged, she hangs her head. "Right. Well, if the two of them want to have it out, I guess that's up to them. The rest of us can worry about...everything." She looks away from the invaders, to where a happy crowd is applauding fantastic fireworks...and then takes a deep breath.

First, she calls out loudly for all to hear - because she has no other way of addressing those mysterious voices. "That's all well and good, but exactly who are you to take better care of them? All things considered, I'm more worried about these monsters than those 'seeds' of yours."

She spins in the air once to punctuate this statement, flames trailing like streamers. Those fires continue to dance at her command, sinking low...before exploding upward around the nearest of those mystery invaders. If they want to be cool, then turn up the heat even more - embracing them in a cage of fire. And, hopefully, keeping them back a little longer...

COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has used Infernal Embrace on Honoka Yukishiro.

COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Fiat Silver [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.

Fiat Silver is inspected most probingly. The system she has - well, Silver Scorpion is actually somewhat old-fashioned as a device, and has not been upgraded, merely maintained, for quite some time. The mask must be a quirk of how the Barrier Jacket has been programmed. Probably to guard against explosions?

Such as the ones Homura is about to produce when she explodes and destroys the planet?!

Fiat Silver hears updates. Oh, they're going to arrest - wait, she thinks. Precia Testarossa. Anything to do with that Fate girl? Oh, goodness, she thinks further, my side really hurts. I don't want to think about that being blood.

And then from seemingly nowhere --

The Baton flies out of her hand. "Ah!" she says, lunging over to try and catch it out of the air before it can go flying very far -- managing it, if only just. Clutching it to her chest momentarily, she glowers at Homura from behind her mask.

Hot fury at the ruination of the festival, now more and more plausible, fills her. That, and the words from the new voice coming through her signals, guide what she does. As Homura looks up, Fiat Silver pivots her baton towards her - "Grenadier mode," she murmurs.

"Akemi!! You've ruined everything! SCORPIO -" The aperture on the top of the baton that she's angled towards the white-jacketted heroine of guns glows a shining blue. "SEVEN!" And sure enough, seven is the number of the shards of sapphire that streak scintillant and swift through sultry summer skies! Also they are aimed at Homura's back in an act of moderately petty revenge.

Are my eye lenses fogging up? she wonders - or am I getting close to passing out...?

COMBAT: Fiat Silver has used Scorpio Seven on Homura Akemi.

COMBAT: Fiat Silver has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Homura Akemi perfectly counters Fiat Silver's Scorpio Seven, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Counter!
COMBAT: Homura Akemi's counterattack, Flashstep, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Fiat Silver!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Homura Akemi's Pipe Bomb, taking 8 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro's Block ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Parry ability activates!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly dodges Fuu Hououji's Winds of Admonishment, taking 10 Fatigue damage! Fuu Hououji is Psyched! Honoka Yukishiro's Fade ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Flash ability activates! Cripple applied to Honoka Yukishiro!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Mai Tokiha's Infernal Embrace, taking 7 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro's Block ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Parry ability activates! Diversion applied to Honoka Yukishiro!

<Pose Tracker> Cure Berry [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

The world explodes into color and light. And Berry finishes her kick, twisting around in the air to view the drone she had battered. Landing again as the world ignites, Berry pauses a moment - rising up from the crouch that she had landed in. Hair is pulled by a sudden breeze, crimson the color of her world for a brief flare of a moment before another firework launches.

What was going on here? She wasn't sure if she knew still.

But whatever these were - there was still a crowd of people down there that they were threatening.

Gunfire - as Homura's barrage hammers a drone nearish her, Berry twisting in place to look up towards the sniper's nest that Homura had made for herself. "Wait, stop firing!" she calls to the other magical girl...

And seeing the multitude of further magical girls attack her. Ducking her head low, the PreCure leaps upwards and forwards, hoping to grasp one of the drones and kinda twist with it. Not /kicking/ it so much but trying to force it earthwards.

What /were/ these things?!

COMBAT: Cure Berry has used Lovely Drive on Honoka Yukishiro.

COMBAT: Cure Berry has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.

The flames travel down her scourge so quickly, as if it the whole thing were soaked in gasoline. She tries to let go, but the explosion force behind it goes off almost in her face, suddenly sending her further skyward in an out of control arc. To add insult to injury, as she's airborne from the explosion, yellow starbursts pepper her position, going off in an explosive pattern meant to represent the five chariots of Chinese astronomy, one at a time.

Despite it being a far lesser threat, she swats at sparks with a hand reflexively, still getting one that singes her hair. She regains her balance and lands heavily, down on one knee smoke rising off her burnt form. "I'm alright. I'm alright!" This is maybe more to reassure herself than even Mai perhaps. A beat, "I came to the festival for fireworks, not to become Puella Okonomiyaki." She grumbles, thinking back to Mai's remark on 'One nice evening out'. She already agreed, now she agreed /all the more/.

That's when she notes the displays, and the robots shifting tactics. Beyond the fact that they were already doing a number on her, it certainly promised more pain, and that was demoralizing. "And they're quick studies. Great." Already messed up to the point where it hurts to breathe, having certainly inhaled smoke, and her skin taking on an uncomfortable shade of sunburned red. "So what, they're like bejeweled magical bombs?" She announces to the voice in her head. "I think the girl you're talking about knows about ordnance safety. Just saying." Even if she didn't exactly trust her with /world ending/ ordnance .

Leaping up to a higher point herself, she lands with a clip clop of heels on clay roofing tiles. With a spin, she conjures another whip, and as the familiar feeling enters her hand, she lashes it on tiles, letting it vent her frustration for her, before she spins around, tiny thorns dropping off the tendrils length as it whirls, growing to enormous size as they drop tip down into the rooftop and embed themselves. Gripping one with her off-hand, she tugs upwards, spins it around and hurls it with all of her might. Then another. Then more besides at several robots at the assault squad. The tips gleaming with a poison that she hoped was caustic enough to eat through /flaming/ armor.

COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi has used Nightshade Javelins on Honoka Yukishiro.

COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly dodges Eri Shimanouchi's Nightshade Javelins, taking 23 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro's Fade ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Flash ability activates!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Cure Berry's Lovely Drive, taking 7 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Honoka Yukishiro's Block ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Parry ability activates!

<Pose Tracker> Kaitou Jeanne [Juuban Public School (11)] has posed.

"I..."

This is Kaitou Jeanne's eloquent response to Homura's words. She suddenly has the feeling that there's too much she doesn't know to argue those points. It's not like that ever stopped her before, but... for some reason, it does now.

She also has others things she needs to worry about. She narrows her eyes when she notices her fireworks pellets, loaded with blinding flashes... failed to do any significant amount of blinding. And the way they dodge other attacks besides, those reactions are a little too perfect. Something funny's going on. She doesn't have too much time to worry about it however, especially not after the actual fireworks start happening, and /she/ gets a face full of bright light from staring right into it. "Ahh, stupid...!"

She doesn't finish that thought either. She shakes her head and blinks several times, but the effects linger, leaving everything in her vision a little blurry. It doesn't impact her hearing, however, and even with the blur she can manage to recognize somebody else she knows in the melee when they make themselves heard.

"It's you... Fiat Silver!" She didn't even have the courtesy to notice her fellow thief until now. But then, it was chaos, and she's been rather focused on Homura. People attacking Homura are thus suddenly on Jeanne's radar. She can't see Mami anywhere anymore, which means Fiat Silver instantly has her full attention. Homura may not seem inclined to listen, but... she can still try to dissuade one who is attacking her. "I said /stop it/!"

It's not much of a plan, just running headlong towards someone who's clearly preparing some kind of magical backstab. But it's the only plan Jeanne has. And since she manages to not get herself skewered in the process, this clearly means it was always a good plan. And it's not the only part of it.

With a cry of "Rebound Ball!", the named spherical weapon appears in Jeanne's hand, and is sent flying all in what might feel like it was but an instant... passing right by Fiat Silver's head, towards one of the drones.

Hoping to have gotten attention now, she freely admits to the other thief, "I have no idea what's going on... but I'm pretty sure the real enemy here is those guys right there. Come on, people are going to get hurt if we don't stop them!"

COMBAT: Kaitou Jeanne has used Rebound Ball on Honoka Yukishiro.

COMBAT: Kaitou Jeanne has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly counters Kaitou Jeanne's Rebound Ball, taking 4 Fatigue damage! Kaitou Jeanne is Psyched! Honoka Yukishiro's Reverse ability activates! Stagger applied to Honoka Yukishiro!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro's counterattack, Anti-Air Explosion, partially gets through, doing 9 Fatigue damage to Kaitou Jeanne!

<Pose Tracker> Honoka Yukishiro [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.

<< This is not a Bureau operation, Akemi-san. >> Something about Lindy's tone says a lot more than that, too. Something's afoot. << We're here for the Jewel Seeds -- and that's all. >>

---

The drone feed that Precia was watching, eyes narrowed as she distantly examined her purple prey, abruptly ends in a pipe bomb explosion.

She switches to an alternate input, and gets fire -- a third wind. And those two are quite close together. A real conflaguration is getting going, and as the two drones start to melt, a third -- the one who tried to burn Eri straight through her vines -- comes over, tearing out of more, poisoned vines as it does so, which slows it down but cannot seem to stop it. It shoulderblocks its comrades out of the way, then swivels shoulder cannons upwards to launch homing, explosive purple energy rounds at Mai and Fuu, as well as Eri herself.

The two slagged drones fizzle away -- departing, not exploding, because there's no use wasting resources. They're quickly replaced by another one nearly a story high, which clambers up the broken tower to try to drop down onto Homura, massive knee-first, in a twisting piledriver. It meets Cure Berry on the way down, whose twist changes its trajectory -- the most it can hope to smash Homura with now is a flailing arm. The Pretty Cure, however, will have to contend with its point-blank eyebeam. (It only has one eye. The beam is paradoxically blue even though the eye is red, synergizing well with the stylish Precure's battle dress, so there's that much at least.)

A third drone, this one notably smaller, zaps the Rebound Ball out of the air as it comes towards it. This, however, takes a considerable amount of attention, and it doesn't quite realize it's heading straight towards a rooftop full of people. It's going to be too late if someone doesn't intervene, and the nearest person, by far, is reasonably Kaitou Jeanne herself!

COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Anti-Air Explosion on Mai Tokiha.

COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Anti-Air Explosion on Eri Shimanouchi.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Anti-Air Explosion on Fuu Hououji.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Conquering Charge on Homura Akemi.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Massive Energy Projection on Cure Berry.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Dangerous Heroic Moment on Kaitou Jeanne.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa has used Tortoise-Delayed Explosion on Fiat Silver.
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa has used Mighty Tiger Roar on Cure Berry.
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa has used Golden Phoenix Spray on Fuu Hououji.
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Anti-Air Explosion, taking 5 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji narrowly dodges Juri Arisugawa's Golden Phoenix Spray, taking 4 Fatigue damage! Fuu Hououji's Fade ability activates! Fuu Hououji's Flash ability activates! Cripple applied to Fuu Hououji!
COMBAT: Kaitou Jeanne perfectly counters Honoka Yukishiro's Dangerous Heroic Moment, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Critical Counter!
COMBAT: Kaitou Jeanne's counterattack, Holy Barrier, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Honoka Yukishiro!
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Anti-Air Explosion, taking 3 Fatigue damage! Mai Tokiha's Block ability activates!
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha tries to cover Eri Shimanouchi for Honoka Yukishiro's attack, Anti-Air Explosion, but cannot get there in time!
COMBAT: Homura Akemi perfectly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Conquering Charge, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge! Homura Akemi's Fade ability activates! Homura Akemi's Flash ability activates!
COMBAT: Fiat Silver narrowly dodges Juri Arisugawa's Tortoise-Delayed Explosion, taking 4 Fatigue damage! Fiat Silver's Fade ability activates! Fiat Silver's Flash ability activates! Stun applied to Fiat Silver!
COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Anti-Air Explosion, taking 8 Fatigue damage! Eri Shimanouchi's Block ability activates! Eri Shimanouchi's Parry ability activates!
COMBAT: Cure Berry narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Massive Energy Projection, taking 11 Fatigue damage! Cure Berry's Parry ability activates!

<Pose Tracker> Homura Akemi [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.

Personal though it may be, Homura is not pushing her verbal assault on Mami Tomoe further yet. She is pragmatic, and has to consider the other enemies here. She also has Fiat Silver suddenly shooting at her. She turns her head, in time to see the flash of blue from her Intelligent Device. Her eyes narrow, and--

--and she is simply gone in the next moment. The blast of blue light slams into the ground where she was standing, and Homura Akemi appears a moment later. Her eyes widen, though, when she sees Kaitou Jeanne rushing at her. "Kaitou Jeanne, what are you..."

She doesn't finish that. She isn't sure how.

Her words make Homura glance at Cure Berry, but she doesn't consider her her request -- and like the others, she ignores it. She does glance briefly at Mai and Eri. She says nothing, though; she thinks Eri is correct about her abilities.

But, she is another Puella Magi, and that always complicates things.

She reaches into her shield and draws out one pistol, then two. The girl lifts both firearms up and turns. The Desert Eagle in her left hand is aimed at Fiat Silver in a single, smooth motion as she draws her bead. "You're mistaken," she says. "And projecting. This doesn't involve you, Fiat Silver."

She fires a shot for her, before she spins on a foot. "Kaitou Jeanne, stay alert," she says. This may be something resembling concern. Homura frowns, though, and that frown sharpens. Not a TSAB operation? Then what is this?

She detests not having the answers.

Her mid-step pivot proves eerily well-timed. For the truly observant (such as Precia Testarossa), they may notice that she is suddenly a step to the left. The drone crashing down at her slams into the ground, and Homura's turn puts her facing it. Both handguns are pointed down at it -- and she fires both shots, straight at its head.

Then, she turns once more, and lifts the pistol in her right hand. The Colt .45 fires twice, a pair of warning shots flying in Mami Tomoe's direction.

COMBAT: Homura Akemi has used Guns Akimbo on Fiat Silver.

COMBAT: Homura Akemi has used Guns Akimbo on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Homura Akemi has used Guns Akimbo on Mami Tomoe.
COMBAT: Homura Akemi has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe narrowly braces Homura Akemi's Guns Akimbo, taking 9 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Homura Akemi is Psyched! Stun applied to Mami Tomoe!
COMBAT: Fiat Silver fails to dodge Homura Akemi's Guns Akimbo, taking 12 Fatigue damage! Stun applied to Fiat Silver!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to dodge Homura Akemi's Guns Akimbo, taking 15 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit!

<Pose Tracker> Nagihiko Fujisaki [Ohtori Academy (6)] has posed.

Nagihiko wades his way through the crowd, then through the emptying streets. He's seen this phenomenon before and somehow, approaching a fight like this with just enough supernatural senses to take notice of it, it's much more alarming than it ever was when he had Temari's protection. At least with Amu around he'd know he could duck behind her if something came his way, but...

He can see it, now, as he rounds that last corner; fire and magic lighting up the sky completely apart from the burst and boom of pyrotechnics. And...he's not familiar with those smaller flashes, the BAM BAM BAM and small flashes of light. The thought that those might be actual, literal guns never even crosses his mind, because this is Japan, not some barbaric foreign hellscape like Texas.

Regardless: Nagihiko Fujisaki, Completely Normal Kid, rushes past the last streetlamp before the battlefield, fists balled and telling himself he can still help. If he can get a decent look at what's happening, he knows he can at least give some advice! Shout encouragement, something!

<Pose Tracker> Mami Tomoe [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.

Rightfully she should pay more attention to Fiat Silver, her apparent ally in going after Homura just now... In a positive way. But in practice Mami feels a weight, and doesn't see any likelihood that she'd see eye to eye with the other girl. She keeps an eye on the thief, but doesn't move to take advantage of the opportunity afforded by her attack. Besides, it seems Kaitou Jeanne may have her covered well enough.

...Mami in this case is one of the observant, however; her eyes on Homura, she sees the way the other girl moves. Or rather... she /doesn't/ see it. Which is its own kind of alarming.

The shots come her way; the first is parried with the stock of her rifle spun like a baton; the second pierces her guard, grazing her arm; the two combined stagger her backward slightly despite herself. She's slowed down from where she ought to be, psyched out of the battle by all the competing influences.

But she's not out yet. "Tokiha!" Mami snaps suddenly. "If you're so concerned, handle things yourself! I already know why I'm here!"

She reaches out with a burst of magic and ribbons whip all around as her counterattack to Homura, seeking to ensnare her wrists, her ankles, to end all her moving around. ...It's dangerous.

...But it helps that Mami then /pulls/ to try to drag her opponent towards her, rather than letting her stay in the line of fire, whether she captures Homura or not.

COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has used Legare on Homura Akemi.

COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Homura Akemi fails to dodge Mami Tomoe's Legare, taking 12 Fatigue damage! Tangle and Trap applied to Homura Akemi!

<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

The fireworks intensify, both the festively decorative ones that a lot of people are watching, and the more magical and potentially destructive variety which are a nearer and clearer threat.

There's one of the former which the Wind Knight actually mistakes for a member of the latter category, and a gloriously brilliant cloud of shining gold - seemingly close enough that it's landing on top of her - actually spooks the Magic Knight of Wind into diving away from it. She realizes her mistake quickly -

But by that point, the homing salvo from one of those drones is practically on top of her, and the most that the Wind Knight can do is curl up against the anticipated impact. She's rather slower to uncurl from it, and she's moving much more carefully now.

... including trying to withdraw from the battlefield. She may have been hurt worse than she typically lets on; if so, she keeps hiding it as she hurries towards the edge of the combat area ...

And she dismisses her transformation for good measure, hoping that the reduced ambient magical signature will keep the drones from following her. Still, she doesn't dare head back into the civilian crowd while that risk exists at any degree ... so she settles for hiding herself someplace where she can watch out for additional incoming threats.

She has to agree a bit with Mai-san's earlier observation; she WOULD have loved to get a peaceful (if not quiet) night of fireworks-watching in.

<Pose Tracker> Mai Tokiha [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.

Glimmering crimson shines against fierce violet, as Mai conjures a barrier to try to hold up against the drone's energy blasts. It's a hasty effort - it holds up against the first handful, but the barrage shatters it eventually - driving the HiME back on frictionless flight. Her ears and curiousity are piqued by Lindy's comment, but she can only scowl in return - like it or not, there's bigger fish to fry. Or killer robots, as the case may be - a new one, towering high, can't help but grab her attention.

It's quite a sight, silhouetted against the night sky, and illuminated by yet more glorious fireworks. It looks to be a fantastic show, and it really is a shame to be missing it thanks to these...whatever they are. It could be worse - Eri's protests that she's fine serving for at least a little reassurance - but it could be a whole lot better. "I hear you there - though this might still be easier than trying to walk in those sandals. I swear, though, either my timing for days off is horrible or someone seriously hates me."

She glances, subconsciously, towards Mami with this last outburst - who's fully back into the swing of battling Homura over some old rivalry or somesuch. Mai's gaze hardens as she gets addressed directly, and she raises her own voice to answer. "Oh, -now- you approve of how I 'handle' things? That's a new one! But if it's all the same, I'd rather not go to last resorts here and now - so cut it out and help already!"

She glances to the side - and bites back a curse upon seeing a figure wandering in. Panic, until she's assured that Nagihiko isn't Takumi, and then just general worry. She turns to shout over in that direction - "You seriously don't want to be here - get moving!" - and abandons all pretense, charging a drone's glowing crimson eyes with her rings blazing.

It's almost a given that their cameras can't be overwhelmed by a surge of brilliant light - but as Mai turns a fleeting barrier into a burst of brilliant light to match the fireworks overhead, she shows that she's willing to try all the same.

COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has used Devoted Scintillation on Honoka Yukishiro.

COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly dodges Mai Tokiha's Devoted Scintillation, taking 5 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro's Fade ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Flash ability activates! Blind and Cripple applied to Honoka Yukishiro!

<Pose Tracker> Fiat Silver [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.

"Who are you to tell me to stop it?! This girl's endangering everyone here at this festival - she's threatening this planet itself!" Fiat Silver says to Jeanne. Interesting choice of words. Her free hand comes up to curl into something like a fist but more like a grasping at a subway handstrap. "And she's using these military weapons...!"

She gazes at Homura defiantly. "This night was... was supposed to be something special! Now you're turning it into a war zone!!" Homura's reply is to raise up her gun, of course. Given this kind of warning, Fiat Silver raises her arm up to guard it -

But the sheer, gut-ripping force of the DESERT EAGLE, the greatest gun created in the United States of A-Merica, the finest and most massive possible pistol available (even if it was originally manufactured in Israel, which is kind of like America with better hummus), is not fully anticipated. She'd expected the armor to do the work. The shot sends a hot sting through her wrist, and sends the glossy thief back with a pained yelp.

Staggering back down a few paces, one of the fireworks lands near her feet - the burning, searing red and yellow flares making the light filters on her mask kick in, scorching at her ankles, making her heart race in confusion, agitation.

Silver Scorpion is worrying. <Madame... please, do not be reckless.>

"I'm not being reckless," Fiat Silver says to herself, trying not to shake. "I don't - I don't want this to be ruined... I'm not going to let her turn this place into a war zone, like I s-said, I'm not - I just wanted -"

"I don't want her to see me like this," Fiat Silver says, very quietly. Silver Scorpion has no reply to that.

Kaitou Jeanne is exhorting her to focus on the others. To help. To protect the innocent. If it is that far, Fiat Silver thinks bleakly, then the festival is likely ruined as it is. At least Miranda will probably flee well ahead of all of this. Probably.

Straightening up, Fiat Silver orients her baton towards the creatures. "I'm not doing this for Akemi," she grinds out, largely to herself. "I'm doing this for the people she's endangered." She leads by kicking the burned-out tortoise near her feet towards the drones. And then:

"Scorpio Seven!"

More sapphires! A shotgun blast of seven shards of cerulean -- ARE THESE THE JEWELS YOU WANTED? No, these ones explode... and /don't/ destroy the planet in the process (unless the planet is really tiny, perhaps.)

COMBAT: Fiat Silver has used Scorpio Seven on Honoka Yukishiro.

COMBAT: Fiat Silver has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Fiat Silver's Scorpio Seven, taking 5 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Honoka Yukishiro's Block ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Parry ability activates!

<Pose Tracker> Cure Berry [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

Well, thinks Berry, at least Homura looked at her and considered it.

The shots continue to arc out, and Berry clings to the drone that she was weighting earthward. Now, little drone, there were times to think about fashion and color coordination - but right now wasn't, perhaps, the best time to be thinking about such things, alright?

Berry barely had time to think - as the eyebeam starts, she reaches out to grab the robo's head, and kinda... twist it up with all her strength to try to point it at the sky. As the drone no doubt resists, she wasn't quite able to point it all the way off of herself - but it strikes her shoulder, causing the PreCure to cry out and kinda drop the robot.

Glancing over her shoulder, she spies something - someone - that young man from before?! "Go on! Get out of here!" shouts Miki to Nagihiko, flapping her arm in a gesture that might be a bit ambiguous.

The robo she had dropped, Miki turns to it, her shoulder still smarting. Kicking back a foot, she hopes to kinda give the robo a football style kick, and send it sailing away from the bit of roof she was on.

COMBAT: Cure Berry narrowly dodges Juri Arisugawa's Mighty Tiger Roar, taking 1 Fatigue damage! Cure Berry's Flash ability activates!

<Pose Tracker> Cure Berry [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

...but it was immeadiately after the kick that a flash of light and an exploding firework ignires in Berry's features, the woman throwing up her arms at the last minute and ducking away, kinda... stumbling towards the edge of the roof.

COMBAT: Cure Berry has used Perfect Dart on Honoka Yukishiro.

COMBAT: Cure Berry has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro perfectly dodges Cure Berry's Perfect Dart, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge! Honoka Yukishiro's Fade ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Flash ability activates!

<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.

"Tell me about it, walking on those things is a nightmare! I had a rough enough time tying that obi proper-" The purple beam lances at her, but this time she's ready, raising a gloved hand, it strikes it head on, and while the spasm of pain on her visage is notable, her hand is intact afterwards, bits of something that look like charred bark floating down with pieces of her glove.

She waves it in the air afterwards, as if to put out some unseen flames, before thrusting it outward in a dismissive motion at Mai, as if she were never in danger in the first place. "Don't worry about me Mai!" She barks, tough talk from someone who looks like she'd been worked over by a grill once or twice, as she runs along the roof to try to avoid any follow up attacks.

Then comes the remark to Mai. And despite her earlier statement not to antagonize Mami, a little bit of anger bubbles up in her, as she clenches her wounded hand, "Are you so sure about that, senpai? Do you really know why you're here?" There's a certain sharpness in her tone that borders on disrespectful until it actually crosses the line a moment later, "Would the hero of justice that Sayaka-chan admires so much really be focusing on Akemi-san? How about you get it together, stop being so reckless, and focus on the /real/ threat here rather than your childish schoolyard rivalry?"

Motes of green light float off of her, as a rotating circle emblazoned with sun motifs appears. A sprout appears in the center, which grows to full maturity in seconds. The apex of it's trunk might be aimed at trying to impale a robot with just the sheer speed of its explosive growth, but even if it doesn't do the job, sharp branches jut out in all directions from the trunk to try to strike anything around it.

A moment later, whether or not it hits any of its targets, it vanishes in a shower of verdure sparkles and with the sound of the summer breeze rustling its branches.

COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi has used Weald Advent on Honoka Yukishiro.

COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Eri Shimanouchi's Weald Advent, taking 5 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro's Block ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Parry ability activates!

<Pose Tracker> Kaitou Jeanne [Juuban Public School (11)] has posed.

Kaitou Jeanne only wishes she could respond to Homura, now that it feels like she might be a little more willing to accept help. She only wishes she could give Fiat Silver some words of thanks for making the right choice. She only wishes she could continue her efforts to try and break up this fight between Puella Magi. But she is afforded none of these luxuries.

For a moment, it's as if time freezes. It doesn't actually happen of course, freezing time is impossible. But it appears that way, when Kaitou Jeanne sees a drone veer off at a dangerous angle after intercepting her attack. Her attention is instantly on the rooftop ahead of it, and she can clearly see all the individual people gathered there. An old man, gazing upwards with a content expression. A young couple holding hands, more eyes for each other than the fireworks. A small family of three, their young son having turned around to point in the direction of the incoming drone, the only one to notice the threat, without realizing the danger.

"--NO!"

Jeanne doesn't think - there's no time to think. All she can do is act. Breaking into a run, quite possibly breaking her own speed record, she rushes over to the side of the building as fast as her legs will carry her. In mid-run, she goes through the familiar, practised quick motions of preparing a Rebound Ball and attaching it to the wire in her bracelet. She can't even think of how she's going to do this. She just has to do it.

A mighty leap clears a good chunk of the building. For the rest, the rebound ball is sent towards the railing behind which the crowd has gathered, attaching itself instantly, and pulling Jeanne after it as she has the wire retract. The Phantom Thief can't actually fly unaided, but it's the closest she may get to it when she cuts the wire halfway and somersaults through the air, in the nick of time ending up directly in front of the drone--

--which harmlessly bounces off of an invisible wall, the air surrounding Jeanne shimmering briefly. She didn't do this consciously, but that's when her barrier of light tends to work best.

Not stopping there, Jeanne eventually hits a wall, impacting neatly with her feet, and using it to spring right back toward the drone. Her trusty ribbon appears in hand, to attempt to deliver a slash aimed to bring it down to where it can do no harm anymore. She won't rest easy until she's absolutely sure those people are out of danger.

When the phantom thief finally hits the ground again after seconds which felt like hours, she lets out a deep breath, staying crouched for a lengthy period of time. That took a lot out of her, physically and mentally. Although it's probably too soft for anyone else to hear, she yet murmurs, "Why... why can't you notice what's really important...?"

COMBAT: Kaitou Jeanne has used Ribbon Whiplash on Honoka Yukishiro.

COMBAT: Kaitou Jeanne has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to brace Kaitou Jeanne's Ribbon Whiplash, taking 17 Fatigue damage! Kaitou Jeanne is Psyched! Tangle applied to Honoka Yukishiro!

<Pose Tracker> Honoka Yukishiro [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.

Of the three drones in the immediate vicinity, the first, the Fire Drone, fares the worst. Mai Tokiha charges, blinding it with a glorious flash of fire -- and while it's disoriented, Eri goes in for the kill, impaling it with branches. As it falls, it superheats even further, raining painful drops of molten metal on the whole area.

The massive drone Cure Berry and Homura is fighting only does moderately better. Homura shoots it directly out of Cure Berry's path in an act of truly terrible teamwork -- no Pretty Cure she. And while the bullets rattle its helmet, it seems that the head isn't particularly a vital point on the robot. Its eye is out, though, so that must mean something. No more eyebeam?

It still has knees, and comes launching forward once again, huge enough to try to crush Berry with its knee while its shoulder-launcher of energy ejects straight towards the now-restrained Homura with awful slowness.

Fiat Silver launches a shotgun blast at the drone so successfully ribbon-slashed by Jeanne, and between the two of them, it's rendered unto ribbons itself. Yet another drone, another huge one, rushes in to gird itself in the metal of its fallen brother, and then spins like a bladed top, sending the shrapnel in all directions.

All, that is, save for the one path blocked off to it. The little boy is still pointing, his eyes widen, but now they're shining -- because he's pointing at Jeanne.

COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Molten Rain on Mai Tokiha.

COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Molten Rain on Eri Shimanouchi.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Massive Energy Projection on Homura Akemi.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Conquering Charge on Cure Berry.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Super Shrapnel on Fiat Silver.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Super Shrapnel on Kaitou Jeanne.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa has used Seven Dragon Spiral on Kaitou Jeanne.
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa has used Charizardsplosion on Homura Akemi.
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa has used Riders In The Sky on Mai Tokiha.
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha fails to brace Honoka Yukishiro's Molten Rain, taking 35 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha fails to brace Juri Arisugawa's Riders In The Sky, taking 6 Fatigue damage! Diversion applied to Mai Tokiha!
COMBAT: Homura Akemi fails to dodge Juri Arisugawa's Charizardsplosion, taking 6 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Homura Akemi accepts Honoka Yukishiro's Massive Energy Projection, taking 50 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit!
COMBAT: Fiat Silver fails to brace Honoka Yukishiro's Super Shrapnel, taking 20 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Kaitou Jeanne narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Super Shrapnel, taking 10 Fatigue damage! Kaitou Jeanne's Parry ability activates!
COMBAT: Kaitou Jeanne narrowly braces Juri Arisugawa's Seven Dragon Spiral, taking 5 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Kaitou Jeanne's Parry ability activates! Blind applied to Kaitou Jeanne!
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha covers Eri Shimanouchi for Honoka Yukishiro's attack, Molten Rain, taking it upon themselves instead!
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha perfectly counters Honoka Yukishiro's Molten Rain, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Counter! Mai Tokiha's Reverse ability activates! Mai Tokiha's Tactician ability activates!
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha's counterattack, Flare Shroud, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Honoka Yukishiro!
COMBAT: Cure Berry perfectly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Conquering Charge, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge! Cure Berry's Flash ability activates!

<Pose Tracker> Homura Akemi [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.

Homura is a wickedly fast fighter. Even without her time magic, she is at the very limits of what a fifteen year-old girl can do with practiced athleticism. On top of that, she is a Puella Magi, with all of the physical modifications that her husk has. She is hard to catch for many reasons. Perhaps it speaks to Mami Tomoe's skill, then, that she manages so perfectly. Her legs are caught first -- and then her right arm, with the shield on it.

"No!" she hisses, reaching her left hand towards her shield. The final ribbon snaps into place and catches her arm. She is restrained thoroughly; the tightening of the ribbons prompts her hands to slacken over her pistols, and she gets pulled in closer to Mami.

She doesn't manage a retort to Fiat Silver, being bound up. She is even too distracted to answer Eri's calling out of Mami. At the moment, she can only see one thing: Mami has her caught, and everything could unravel. The plan that she had to defeat Walpurgisnacht; the method that she would use to keep Madoka safe. Her eyes widen and screw up with more emotion than she has ever shown in front of Mami before.

"Let me go," she demands. It's ice cold at first, but then it becomes heated. Her teeth grit together and then she snaps, heatedly, at Mami. "You're going to hurt Madoka. Don't you know what you are? What you do? Why would you drag her into thi--"

She has her back to the drone aiming its cannons, which -- by a twist of cruel fate -- Homura hides from Mami, by virtue of her body blocking the view. The two blasts of energy slam into her back with two rapid flashes. Then she crumples forward, her coat burnt into, and her head bows. She slumps in the ribbons.

Blood drips down onto the ground below, from the two vicious burns shot into her back. Homura doesn't move, at first, the pain -- even through the alterations that Kyubey made to her body -- great enough that she can't think of anything.

Except that, once again, she is failing Madoka.

COMBAT: Homura Akemi has used Falling Down on Homura Akemi.

COMBAT: Homura Akemi has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Homura Akemi accepts Homura Akemi's Falling Down, taking 0 Fatigue damage!

<Pose Tracker> Mami Tomoe [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.

"I /don't/ approve of you wasting your energy on me when there are more important things at stake here!"

Mami's retort is both fast and harsh, popped off distractedly as if a feinting shot just shy of her main target.

Eri's voice is the first time Mami pays much attention to her today, and it cuts into her attention sharply. Once again, she simply has no response--explanations bubble up to her lips but they don't quite pass through. ...Is that really what Eri thinks of her, now? That she would act this way for such...

It's not like it's untrue, is it? She knows what she's trying to do, but does it matter?

Mami shoves those thoughts aside as she feels her snare working, tugging Homura towards her. "Now, tell me--"

The sheer emotion in Homura's face is startling. Mami stops short in shock, silent in confusion at the questions, at the accusation. "Akem--"

The horrible blasts slam right into Homura, unable to dodge thanks to Mami's ribbons. The older Puella Magi stares in mute horror at something that wasn't what she intended at all. "Akemi-san!"

The ribbons melt in an instant as Mami leaps into the air to try to catch the falling Homura, her sense of everything else right now shot to vague flashes of light and blackness. "Ah--"

Something /hurts/ as she sails towards Homura, and she doesn't know what it is.

COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has used What She Is on Mami Tomoe.

COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe accepts Mami Tomoe's What She Is, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Mami Tomoe is Quipped!

<Pose Tracker> Nagihiko Fujisaki [Ohtori Academy (6)] has posed.

When Nagi gets close enough to see people, he starts a headcount. To his credit, he stops at what would be a fairly safe distance if not for the fact that Homura is shooting BULLETS out of GUNS.

There's Mami, there's Eri, there's Kaitou Jeanne (good work, strong barrier, distantly processed). The others he's not as sure he knows; maybe a few fights, long ago. Cure Berry and the fire girl are shouting at him that he needs to get out of here; it's good advice, this looks dangerous, but... he ignores it. He can't just let something like this go. Enemy group is a bunch of what look like robots - magic robots, maybe? He sees lasers.

He's in the process of figuring out what's happening with Mami and Homura when that situation gets turned on its head, and the whole fight with it; one strong laser blasting a restrained Homura, and a person whom he knows, who was restraining her, immediately moves for the save. He bites out a gruff syllable. THat's...he can't figure that out right now. But they just blasted that poor girl and that's all he needs to know from them. He tries to look harder at the robots. "Don't worry about me!" he calls back, at the magical girls shooing him away. He swings his arms out emphatically. "That big one's the problem! That..." He hesitates. The idea that comes to mind is sort of classless, considering what just happened. But... "Eri!" He forgets, for the moment, to not know anybody. "Your vines can hold it down, right? Then you can rip it up at the same time, and the others can pile on! Cure Berry, uh," pause, he literally does not know Mai's name in either life, "And you!" pointing. "Hit it as hard as you can while it's still cooling down from that hit!"

He's more or less guessing, but it feels right, and maybe a little direction will make people feel more confident in a fight this chaotic.

COMBAT: Nagihiko Fujisaki has used Flower Letter on Eri Shimanouchi.

COMBAT: Nagihiko Fujisaki has used Flower Letter on Cure Berry.
COMBAT: Nagihiko Fujisaki has used Flower Letter on Mai Tokiha.
COMBAT: Nagihiko Fujisaki has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha accepts Nagihiko Fujisaki's Flower Letter, taking 0 Fatigue damage!

<Pose Tracker> Homura Akemi [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.

The slighter, smaller girl falls into Mami's arms. Homura is too dazed at first to realize that the older Puella Magi caught her. Her back is slick with blood -- and some is getting on Mami's hands and arms, unless she is careful -- and feels on fire. She is dimly aware that she will need to spend no small amount of mana healing herself. It isn't more than a distant calculation. In the moment, her act slips.

Her arms wrap back around Mami Tomoe's shoulders for just a second and she hugs her. It's almost tight.

TIMELINE NO. 0002

The Witch was dead. Homura's pipe bomb had blown the thing's body into so many pieces, but she mistimed everything. Her leap away, when the explosive would detonate, and the height that she fell. The blast from the bomb caught her in the back, burning it -- and those red glasses fell to the ground. A crack shot up the right lens.

She screwed up, even when she succeeded. Again.

Homura fell, but someone was there to catch her. She found herself falling into Mami's arms -- and the she hugged her, tightly, burying her face into her shoulder and letting out a panicked cry.

PRESENT

Homura pushes away from Mami the moment she catches what she is doing. The look she gives her is strained -- with emotion, with pain, with exhaustion. There is redness and tightness at the corner of her eyes. She didn't want to break away from her or the old feelings that came back.

But she said it earlier: Mami was what she was. Unlike Madoka, it was too late to help her. She has no right seeking any comfort there.

Homura looks away, sharply.

COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi accepts Nagihiko Fujisaki's Flower Letter, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Eri Shimanouchi is Cheered!

<Pose Tracker> Mai Tokiha [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.

Fools rush in, where angels dare to tread. A desperate need to make sure this drone never gets a chance to harm that unfortunate kid - late-elementary still close enough to Takumi's age to be filed as a 'kid' in her books - drives Mai forward to collide with the drone directly. It's certainly effective, and she can't help but grin as Eri echoes her remarks to Mami. What matters most is stopping this thing from hurting anyone else!

They stop it.

It explodes.

There's a blast of metal and heat - and Mai's attempt to bring a barrier to bear against it is derailed by an incoming firework with the worst time. The tandem blast sends her reeling through the air, a sandal completely lost as she tumbles in pain. She's reeling - but the remainder of that wave of molten metal is bound for an injured Eri, and she acts without thinking.

Like Jeanne's grand heroism - albeit on a smaller scale - Mai rushes to put herself between her friend and the danger threatening her. Determination to protect herself only goes so far, but for this? Flame blossoms, blazes in protective fury, teardrops of crimson glistening within the inferno as a wall more solid than stone absorbs the drone's death throes.

As it fades, Mai lets out a breath. "Eri-chan, are you..." She should be fine, hopefully, and it seems like things are starting to get better...but there's still so many drones. Enough of them that even the HiME's desperation might not be enough - not that she could think of invoking that name here. She spares a glance to Mami, a retort to that comment on her lips...

...just in time to see Homura engulfed by the blast, to see Mami freeze up in horror.

She's quiet for a moment, just shocked by the sight of what's become a war zone. The enemies - however many are left, they seem to swap out for each other - are relentless and brutal, a fact made all the more evident by the moment. Fiat Silver's comment brings her gaze to snap around, and she practically hisses her response - Eri might hear it easily, but others might not. "The last time I checked, she's not the one who came in guns blazing..."

She can't call upon her guardian - not here, not now. For a moment, she can only watch - and then the supposed civilian calls out some advice, and her gaze snaps over. That...he might not be a golden-haired girl, but he's still at least a little suspicious. Still...he's not wrong. "Right, right- just give me a moment."

She touches down on the rooftop - wincing as her sandalless foot finds rougher terrain - and shouts out a kiai, a spiral of flame searing out at the big one's cannon. It's a diversion more than anything - but if it damages it even a bit, it's seconds well spent. Then - then, her rings begin to spin...

COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has used Frentic Flames on Honoka Yukishiro.

COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly dodges Mai Tokiha's Frentic Flames, taking 6 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro's Fade ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Flash ability activates!

<Pose Tracker> Fiat Silver [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.

One of the drones goes down just in time to spin around another of its brethren and send huge shards of jagged steel forwards. That's the worst kind of steel... as Fiat Silver has cause to learn.

It knocks her over. That saves her, along with the Barrier Jacket, from something more grisly than mere blunt trauma; Homura has already done enough there. Landing on her back, Fiat Silver lays there, staring up at the increasingly turgid, horrific sky and -

Her eye lenses fog up.

The real purpose of this mask, perhaps, is not to hide her identity, not to serve as a faceguard, not even to give her the license to act like she wants to, with freedom and glamour: no; it's so that nobody will see her when she cries.

She struggles, silently. <Madame... please, you can do it,> Silver Scorpion says. An ever-steady comrade, she thinks. One I took from -

I can't think like this. Those machines are still out there. Even if I just get away, I have to get UP...! Slowly, steadily, she rises to one elbow - and then it gets easier. She regains her feet, but without much grace.

COMBAT: Fiat Silver has used I won't just lay down...!! on Fiat Silver.

COMBAT: Fiat Silver has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Fiat Silver accepts Fiat Silver's I won't just lay down...!!, taking 0 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Cure Berry accepts Nagihiko Fujisaki's Flower Letter, taking 0 Fatigue damage!

<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.

The automaton above them glows red hot, then white hot, and the droplets begin to fall like deadly tears of a thing that knows its dying. At first, she considers leaping out of the way... but there's no time. She begins to bear down and get ready for more burns when. Feeling the heat in front of her, she thinks that the agony is imminent and closes her eyes in anticipation of blotting out that pain.

It doesn't come, instead she opens her eyes to see the heat comes from a different source, a shroud of blazing red energy that is physical enough to block the rain. "Mai you-" She can't say the words of condemnation, of dismissal. She wants so badly for her to stop throwing herself in the way of deadly harm for other people, because of how little Mai seemed to value her life, but... she actually came for her when she needed her, when she was hurting, and she's extremely touched by the gesture. "-thank you." Two words, that encompass so many feelings, that she might as well have added 'for everything' to it.

The horror in her eyes when Homura slumps over is visible, enough that she drops the honorific, or any sense of familiarity, "Homura!" When Mami calls out in concern to Homura, and then rushes to her side, the smile fades, but- she murmurs something, so soft that it's unlikely her feelings would ever reach Mami, "I was wrong. Maybe you knew what was really important after all, senpai." An admission that she'd not be like to make to her face. She isn't surprised when Homura shoves her away, but still, it was the thought in Mami's actions that counted, wasn't it?

Encouragement comes from the crowd. As someone calls out her name, then advice which showed knowledge of what she could do, she scans the crowd, but not quite catching the identity of the person shouting it. Surely it couldn't be that boy over there? And yet, the smile returns after just a moment, "Well good advice is good advice, even if it's coming from a mysterious voice in the crowd!"

She holds up a charred hand, wiggling fingers as if to speak her appreciation to whoever did it, and as she dances away from molten droplets that ran off of Mai's shield, she flicks her scourge into an upward arc. Each length sails past certain robots in the vanguard, before each snakes back down and trying to encircle around a trio of them. "I hope you can all capitalize on this before they set themselves on fire again. It /really/ hurts!" A beat, before she directs the comment to the robots, "Let's see you analyze us when we're actually working together!"

COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi has used Flowing Scourge Feint on Honoka Yukishiro.

COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly dodges Eri Shimanouchi's Flowing Scourge Feint, taking 2 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro is Quipped! Honoka Yukishiro's Fade ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Flash ability activates! Diversion and Trap applied to Honoka Yukishiro!

<Pose Tracker> Cure Berry [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

The giant drone's knee lifts - and as readily as if she were dodging a mountain's strike, Berry sidesteps it entirely - her eyes torn away from the mechanical demon by the strike to her side. Homura - the magical girl was struck by the thing, and Berry gasps - bringing two hands up to her mouth.

For all that she had seen - been beaten, bruised, and otherwise - Berry had not quite seen damage to /that/ degree. For a moment she stands there, stunned. The ten year old boy's words seem to snap her out of it. Concern floods her features, but this situation was becoming more intense by the moment.

Plus, hitting something as hard as she could seemed a wonderful idea as a rule.

Leaping over, Berry lands nearish Eri. She sets something down, and Berry leaps off of a vine, kicking from it and spinning like a top or a bullet as she was launched towards the drones. A backhanded punch, drawing down into a standing roundhouse kick that slams into the side of the thing.

Berry manages a tight grin in spite of her heart hammering like a drum.

COMBAT: Cure Berry has used Bonzanza Spiral on Honoka Yukishiro.

COMBAT: Cure Berry has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to counter Cure Berry's Bonzanza Spiral, taking 37 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro's counterattack, Take A Knee, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Cure Berry!

<Pose Tracker> Kaitou Jeanne [Juuban Public School (11)] has posed.

How rude, not even giving someone proper time to recover. Kaitou Jeanne is still crouched on the ground when the bits and pieces of the drone she just deflected are sent her way. There's not much she can do in defense except raise her arms. She hasn't even fully realized how exactly she dealt with the drone before, half the time she doesn't even remember that she can do that barrier thing. The kind of protection offered by blocking things with her arms is not nearly that effective. And the fireworks haven't gotten any less of a distraction in the mean time, it's making it hard to see everything that's going on.

But once again, she still manages to hear clearly, making out the cry 'Akemi-san'. She didn't see what happened, but the kind of alarm she heard in that voice gives her a really bad feeling.

She tries to stand up, succeeding with some effort. That annoying blur in her vision is back. The shapes surrounding the spot where she last saw Homura aren't clear at all. Stumbling closer, she starts to call out, "Hey... what happened? I can't--"

"Don't."

An unexpected voice comes from close by Jeanne's ear, one that only she can hear, the voice of the angel-in-training, Finn Fish. "You should go now. You've done enough. The others can handle the rest."

Jeanne starts to protest, "But...!" And is immediately interrupted.

"Think this through! You're a phantom thief who suddenly appeared on the scene, they're going to assume you're after the Jewel Seeds. And you can barely see straight. Is it really smart to go over there in that condition, like you were their friend?"

"But I--" Jeanne's words get stuck in her throat. No, she... she isn't really their friend, is she? She can't afford to be. That was the whole point of this phantom thief identity, to be the 'bad guy' who can conveniently take the blame for things. Even things she didn't do herself. That was the plan, originally, to pretend to be the true mastermind behind the Jewel Shard robbery, so people wouldn't be after Homura anymore. If she makes it too obvious how much she actually cares, that sort of thing may not be possible anymore. That level of profound change is a frightening thought... it's the only way she knows how to be. Does she really dare risk to have to give that up?

...no. No she doesn't. The conclusion is painful, but it's the one she arrives at. With a heavy heart, Kaitou Jeanne quietly sneaks away while others are occupied with the battle, or with whatever happened with Homura. She'll... have to find out later, she supposes...

<Pose Tracker> Honoka Yukishiro [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.

<SoundTracker> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Diu2N8TGKA

It seems to be the finale of one of the competitors in the fireworks contest. Indeed, this whole time, for the most part the battle has gone unnoticed by the crowd, because it cannot hope to match the sheer intensity of the nonmagical display -- or, better yet, seems to add to it. Some pyrotechnical engineers are extremely confused right now, while investors are wetting themselves with glee. And the crowds are swept up in the excitement beyond any remembered previous year, and then some.

So as ear-ringing gunpowder whistles sear the air, Mai's spiral of flame comes with perfect timing.

Eri's vines drag another trio of drones into that spiral, where they detonate, though the massive drone remains intact -- right in time with the rhythm of the artfully arranged kabooms.

And Cure Berry comes soaring in with punch and kick, one-two, leaving an massive dent in the surviving drone's side right as the sky fills with a million points of glittering silver.

As they crackle towards Earth like every star in the universe is falling all at once, a thousand thousand wishes to be granted, the drone finally implodes on itself, going to pieces.

The rest is silence, the crowd too stunned by the beauty they've just witnessed to cheer just yet. They have to extract their hearts from their throats first, and regain feeling in their palms.

---

MEANWHILE, IN THE GARDEN OF TIME

"Precia Testarossa! On the authority of the, the, the Tuner Organization, you are Under Arrest!" Chrono Harlaown levels his staff at the woman on the throne, young and bold and in control.

She smiles, and extends her hand...

---

The last thing Chrono sees is, through some awful magic trick, the same thing the girls see on Earth: more of that horrible violet lightning, the same stuff that nearly fried Fate Testarossa on the spot at the Rainbow Bridge. Now it sears a hole in the dimensions, roaring down from heaven like some bizarre reverse firework display (which is how it will be reported in tomorrow's news, and indeed the lucky competitors whose turn it was in that moment will be declared the winners).

It is so bright that it turns everything into shadows.

It is so fierce that it makes the world feel cold.

And it lances straight through the girls closest to the tower -- Homura falling, Mami catching -- in order to ground itself in the twinkling blue gems strewn amidst the rubble where it broke.

They rise in a massive circle, twenty-two twinkles of destruction... and wink out of this dimension, and into another one.

The laughter that follows is as predictable as thunder after lightning, but more horrible by far.

<< Now I have it -- I have them all! Soon I will embark on my great Journey! >>

<< We won't allow that, Precia Testarossa! >>

<< Cross me if you dare... if anything happens to the Garden of Time, who could say what might transpire for my guest! >>

Lindy's transmission pauses for a moment of horrified silence, and that's when the girls might notice that a third fork of the horrible lightning has electrified the metallic corpse of the massive drone. Magic roils within it, transforming it into a golem with pure energy for limbs, and its remaining metal fragments comprising face and joints.

It rears back, about to plow into a crowd of hundreds of people clustered on a riverbank...

COMBAT: FINISHER! Honoka Yukishiro has used Grand Finale on Homura Akemi.

COMBAT: FINISHER! Honoka Yukishiro has used Grand Finale on Mami Tomoe.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa has used Golden Phoenix Spray on Cure Berry.
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa has used Seven Dragon Spiral on Eri Shimanouchi.
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa has used Snap, Crackle, POP! on Fiat Silver.
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa has used Tortoise-Delayed Explosion on Mai Tokiha.
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa has used Riders In The Sky on Homura Akemi.
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa has used Charizardsplosion on Mami Tomoe.
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Cure Berry fails to dodge Juri Arisugawa's Golden Phoenix Spray, taking 6 Fatigue damage! Cripple applied to Cure Berry!
COMBAT: Fiat Silver fails to dodge Juri Arisugawa's Snap, Crackle, POP!, taking 6 Fatigue damage! Trap applied to Fiat Silver!
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha narrowly braces Juri Arisugawa's Tortoise-Delayed Explosion, taking 3 Fatigue damage! Mai Tokiha's Block ability activates! Stun applied to Mai Tokiha!
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe accepts Juri Arisugawa's Charizardsplosion, taking 6 Fatigue damage! Exhausted applied to Mami Tomoe!
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe accepts Honoka Yukishiro's Finisher, Grand Finale, taking 97 Fatigue damage! Mami Tomoe is unable to keep fighting!
COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi narrowly dodges Juri Arisugawa's Seven Dragon Spiral, taking 6 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Blind applied to Eri Shimanouchi!
COMBAT: Homura Akemi fails to dodge Honoka Yukishiro's Finisher, Grand Finale, taking 86 Fatigue damage! Homura Akemi is unable to keep fighting!
COMBAT: Homura Akemi fails to dodge Juri Arisugawa's Riders In The Sky, taking 7 Fatigue damage! Homura Akemi is unable to keep fighting!

<Pose Tracker> Mami Tomoe [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.

Nothing seems to make sense in the moment; Mami feels like her awareness of the world has been cut at by one of those jagged blasts, as Homura tears away when she couldn't have been acting the way it seemed. That expression...

Who /is/ this girl?

"Akemi-san--What--"

The body language is clear, and Mami's question fades away unasked, even as another comes up to the surface. She begins to speak--

A brilliant dance of flame erupts around Mami, not so close as to burn her significantly but close enough to make her an outline in Homura's vision a moment, to stun her as she wasn't even paying attention. "Ah--" It knocks the wind from her lungs, which is almost just as well. It means that when her world turns into horrifying violet power, her lungs are empty instead of filled with the same heat. Her hands, having tried to hang out tightly, open with a jerk as the lightning hits her full-on. Without even the breath to scream, Mami Tomoe hangs in the air with the sheer force of the lightning for the next instant.

Then, she falls, without so much as a flourish, limply sailing down toward the ground with her arms upward as if unknowingly reaching toward the sky.

The landing will not be gentle.

<Pose Tracker> Homura Akemi [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.

Mami's question makes Homura tense more. She doesn't want to answer or explain. If she does, she knows what could happen; she lived that reality before. She can't risk it again. She can't put herself through it again. Her eyes keep to the side, her expression more stricken than she would like. But then she sees the glitter of cyan, as the twenty-two Jewel Seeds rise up. Before the wash of power comes down, she manages to mutter one thing:

"Oh, no."

Then the violet lightning crashes down from the heavens. This time, Homura does not escape the burst of raw power. It catches her as it catches Mami, but she was already on the ground -- so it slams her back to the earth. Her body seizes up, the lightning sending a mighty wash of pain through her, and Homura screams until the breath is ripped from her.

It feels like far longer than it is, before she can move again.

She rises slowly and looks up blearily. Smoke is wafting from her. Her back hurts. Everything hurts. But Mami is falling, and despite the resentment and anger and frustration, she can't bring herself to let the girl slam into the ground. The landing isn't gentle -- but only because Homura's knees buckle when she catches the other girl. What little strength she has almost gives out.

She moves quickly, each step pained, until she gets to a tree to the side. She puts Mami down carefully and looks down at her, panting hard, with strain and pain evident in her violet eyes. "Stay there for now," she says, but it doesn't have the same, usual strength behind it. "I'll finish the drone off."

She turns and reaches a hand into her shield. She sees the drone charging -- in the direction that Madoka is. She tries to take another step, as she pulls out her pistol. Her lips work, trying to mutter Madoka's name, and her hand shakes as she aims the pistol. Her body can't keep up with that, though -- and she crumples back down in a heap.

<Pose Tracker> Fiat Silver [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.

Fiat Silver, on her feet, is not fully aware. She feels raw and sore. Everywhere. From her head to her toes to her side to her heart. She wants Miranda, or her mother, or the Fiat Group to show up in a nice pretty car, take her in, and take her somewhere else. More than anything else she wants that.

A firework rolls in front of her. And while the noise and the light and the singe on her shin are not welcome, they shock her back to full awareness. She can see that well-dressed musket wielder falling, but she can't -

Laughter ripples out. That kind voice argues with someone else. Fiat Silver feels herself gradually chill and solidify in the back of her spine, and her legs stiffen. Especially when that lightning booms down a third time, arousing that drone from its lifeless mechanical slumber.

"... I don't think... I can run," she mumbles.

<You do not need to, Madame,> replies Silver Scorpion.

And, despite everything, Fiat Silver smiles a little. Smiles -- and rises up into the air, because the reason she hadn't before seems rather obliviated now. She trembles while making the passage, buoyed by magic, ahead. By the time she's looping round the drone, she's managed to get her legs moving again.

She sees a flash in the crowd. Sea green. A garment? Or Miranda? She doesn't know, but this pushes Fiat Silver back to full awareness again. Everything shines in crystal, time itself seeming slower.

Her eyes widen behind the lenses of her mask. There isn't time to say anything witty much less think of it - the creature's rising upwards. Its weight is still set backwards, Fiat can tell --

"Full power!" The baton tip shines with blue light - which rotates outwards, making eleven sharp revolutions as that shimmer expands into a positive disk, pulsating with luminous neon intensity. A few small squeezes to adjust the fine detail, and Fiat Silver's unarmored hand raises upwards in a purely reflexive and faint flourish.

<Eleven x confirmed. Commencing barrage,> Silver Scorpion reports.

She has loosed this magic twice already tonight, and it is only marginally easier with the benefit of that advanced charge. Both times it was fruitless, but perhaps this grand third attempt will pay for all. The bursts of forceful shards rain down in a steady shower, aimed at the upper body of the drone just as it rears back. Each burst calculated - well, in a normal situation, to penetrate.

<Fire two. Three. Four,> Silver Scorpion counts off. The mathematic disk increments down with each call. Fiat Silver stares, and in this moment, all of her fear and frustration and anger and pain and longing and loss slim down themselves into a laserlike focus. If she were asked in this moment, this pained and exhausted instant of exertion, what she wanted most in the world, she would say:

For the creature to fall upon its back!

COMBAT: FINISHER! Fiat Silver has used Scorpio 77 on Honoka Yukishiro.

COMBAT: Fiat Silver has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Mai Tokiha [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.

It really is a fantastic show, and it's a shame to miss it. All Mai can do is hope that Takumi is enjoying himself, that Mikoto is marvelling at the lightshow, that those people she cares about are, at least, having a nice evening. It's a thought that sustains her - one that has her slip Eri a brief smile at the thanks. The response - that Mai would do this any time - doesn't have to be said, for better or for worse.

There's hope - and it's answered by despair. Violet lightning sears from clear skies, tearing through space and time to deliver absolute judgment. The pair of Puella Magi at the heart of this - gone from vicious battle to forgotten friendship if Mai can guess - are the target of that heavenly wrath, and the only thing that keeps her from screaming out something is the laughter that follows in the storm's wake.

Precia Testarossa's words, ominous as they are, find little audience with Mai Tokiha. She came here for the sake of her loved ones, fought for the sake of her loved ones...and so Precia's scheme is of far less concern than the resurrected golem that menaces those loved ones. As the gargantuan golem rears back, the HiME takes flight to put herself between it and them.

Green sparks form a corona around Mai as her flight brings a stray firework slamming into her fiery rings, consumed and scattered in moments. The air around her seems to howl, oxygen consumed ravenously by the building heat...Mai might not be Kagutsuchi herself, but there are times she can do a good impression. The rings spin faster and faster, the fire hotter and hotter...

Homura and Mami are falling - maybe to recover, maybe not, but Mai keeps her gaze on the final foe. Whatever empathy she has for those two - perhaps more than she'd thought in one case - can't measure up to what's behind her. She doesn't know that Takumi's in that crowd...but she doesn't know he isn't. And so -

One more light for the show. A corona of flame, for an instant having the seeming of a phoenix - and then a fervent blaze surging forth. A fireball - or perhaps something like a meteor - terrible and bright and conveying zealous passion as it burns through the night to bear down on that golem. The only thing more brilliant than its passage, of course, will be its impact...

COMBAT: FINISHER! Mai Tokiha has used Ardent Light on Honoka Yukishiro.

COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Nagihiko Fujisaki [Ohtori Academy (6)] has posed.

Nagi watches with what composure he can scrape together. A part of him wishes he could be out here, but...if it works, if he can help in even this way, he can be satisfied. And it does seem to have helped. He stands apart; closer to the fighting than any reasonable normal person would, keeping count and watching everything. He nods quietly when Mai, Berry and Eri go off on the thing, and purses his lips hard, hoping. Is this enough? He has no idea, he hasn't felt its defenses, but it's the biggest threat around, so...perhaps...

The lightning screams out of the heavens and Nagi takes a step back, eyes widened in surprise. He edges nearer a taller object, hoping to divert any lightning away from him. It's such a spectacle that he has a hard time telling what all happens, his bones feeling the chill of that awful magic even without the power of a Guardian Character or the advice of their fae perceptions.

But then he sees what exactly is happening - that lightning seizing up the gems twinkling on the ground - but he sees something else, too, and it's much more worrying. "The robot!" he calls out, trying to wake people up from the same stupor he fell into. "It's moving! You have to stop it, go!"

Nagi, for his part, has the great idea to rush in; impulse taking over to rush toward the to falling girls and try to interpose his body between them and the ground. But he's well short when Homura hits the ground, and he stumbles to a stop, watching the last of her strength leave her. He looks across the two fallen Puella Magi, and huffs a weak sound before turning his attention to the drone rampaging away. He sets his feet and waits; if all he can do is watch over these two while the beastly robot's rampage is addressed, then he can do that, too. "I'll keep an eye on them," he says to the air, maybe hoping anyone intending to come near will redirect in response. "Come on, you'll have to give it everything to save those people!"

<Pose Tracker> Cure Berry [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

The show of lights - the thousand stars - the purple lightning. None of it could mean any good.

But it was beautiful. Utterly beautiful.

Berry was one of those standing with their heart in their throat - but the arrival of the golem spurred her to action. Whatever confusion she might have felt for the majority of this encounter - /there/ was something obviously dangerous to people. That voice was obviously a danger.

*CLAP*

"Vile things, wicked things, go away!" she chants, drawing her hands down from where she had clapped over her head. Another moment, and Berry casts a glance over her shoulder - back towards the young man in the crowd, then to the side - where the magical girls from before had fallen and the boy was attending to them. Children should not see that. But he did.

Closing her eyes, she grits her teeth, before reopening them with determination shining in her gaze. She traces a spade before her, and the power surges bright with her emotion. "Pretty Cure..." Another moment, her brows pursing with focus.

"Espoir... Shower!" And with a push forward, a beam of light lashes out towards the golem, the force of it whipping hair and the hems of her clothes.

COMBAT: FINISHER! Cure Berry has used Pretty Cure Espoir Shower on Honoka Yukishiro.

COMBAT: Cure Berry has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.

After Berry punches the metal carapace, she holds up a charred hand as an offer for a small amount of celebration. She doesn't know Cure Berry all too well, but does she really have to after that? As the sky lights up with a prism of fireworks, she unwisely looks up, and like someone looking into the sun, a draconian burst of light flares too close, filling her vision with spots. However, all sense of cheer is stolen from her in a single moment when the shadows of the world deepen, that she starts to shiver despite herself.

Rubbing away at her eyes, she tries to clear that. Before she can, violet lightning which seems to come from a sky beyond that sky sears through dimensions to strike Mami, Homura, the tower itself. The Jewel Seeds, whatever they were, winking out, the horrible victorious laughter of a greatmage echoing in her mind.

More lightning, and the giant drone rises, eclipsing them all and heading towards the crowd. Yet, all she sees are the two electrocuted girls falling. And she was helpless, there was no way she could reach them in time Again she couldn't live up to the standard she'd once conjured up for herself once, long ago. That absurd, impossible to meet standard that seemed so foolish now. She takes one breath, then two, then remembers the words that came from scarlet lips, "Only standard worth having is living." She echoes, even as relief fills her features as Homura rights herself, and catches Mami with that absurd speed of hers.

She turns away, glaring murderously at the titanic drone even as Nagihiko shouts that there were more important things. She didn't want to focus on what she can't do anymore. That path led to so many sleepless nights with tear-stained pillows that she was sick of it. She felt like she had nothing left though. Nothing at all. That she'd reached to the bottom of her reserves and just, found nothing left. That wasn't true though, was it?

Running towards the automaton, she grips the scourge with both hands. This would hardly be impressive but that might stagger the colossal robot, and allow the others to achieve victory. It lashes forward, then out, and she snaps both her wrists sharply upward. The crack at the tips is thunderous, not as impressive as the thunderclaps of the violet lightning by a longshot, but it at least sounds like another massive fireworks salvo. And yet, given the thing's size and mass, could even the blast of concussive force that emanated from the magically infused scourge do a thing?

COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi has used Thunderous Crack on Honoka Yukishiro.

COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Fiat Silver's Finisher, Scorpio 77, taking 24 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Honoka Yukishiro's Block ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Parry ability activates!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to brace Mai Tokiha's Finisher, Ardent Light, taking 113 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to brace Cure Berry's Finisher, Pretty Cure Espoir Shower, taking 91 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Eri Shimanouchi's Thunderous Crack, taking 8 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro is unable to keep fighting! Honoka Yukishiro's Block ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Parry ability activates!

<Pose Tracker> Honoka Yukishiro [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.

<< No single life is worth that of the cosmos... I will do what I must, you heartless woman. >>

<< You have it backwards. No single life is worth /less/. >>

Flame and shards, light and flora, all together they crack into the drone. Power flows into the limbs and chest, merging with the violet lightning, then overwhelming it, as it transforms down the rainbow spectrum through blue and green and yellow and red... to white.

It vaporizes with perfect timing, the latest and greatest display of the fireworks festival.

And as Precia's laughter dies away in the minds of those magically-attuned enough to hear it, Lindy clears her throat. << Those of you here today who wish to help me stop that woman, I will be sure to call on you again. >>

Then her presence fades, as well.

<Pose Tracker> Fiat Silver [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.

And so, after a fashion, the day is saved. In some ways.

LATER...

"Lilian, dear, oh what in heaven's name -"

Miranda steps to the tree under which Lilian Abarth had decided to curl up under after landing and feeling immense, unutterable fatigue.

"What HAPPENED to you?"

"Uh?" Lilian's eyes open. She has learned very well how to make an excuse for someone else's behavior, and for once, this actually accomplishes something positive. "Oh... I think... some fireworks, I was too close..."

"Merciful heavens," Miranda says, crouching, slipping Lilian's arm over her shoulder, and raising her up. "I can't believe that - didn't Silver -"

"S'why it's only this bad," Lilian says, leaning against her de-facto guardian. "You should see the other guy."

Miranda laughs, sharply. "You're going to the doctor's tomorrow. Where does it hurt?"

"Oh... you know, around," Lilian says.

"Did you see the fireworks? I think there was something else going on..."

Lilian keeps the secret quiet. (Silver Scorpion, too, if with silent magitronic misgivings.)

2015-06-25 - Hot Pursuit

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