2015-09-21 - The Summer Homework Monster, Part One
| Title: The Summer Homework Monster, Part One | |
|---|---|
| Summary: Everyone's homework has mysteriously gone missing, with mere days before classes start up again. Truly, a nefarious mind is behind this plot - or perhaps more than one... | |
| Who: Fuu Hououji, La Sirene du Nord, Cure Melody, Fate Testarossa, Lera Camry, Lancelot, Masque Feu
| |
| Where: All over Tokyo, Tokyo Tower particularly | |
| OOC - IC Date: 26 August 2014 - 09/21/2015 and 09/22/2015 | |
<Pose Tracker> Honoka Yukishiro [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
Summer Homework is as inextricably a part of summer vacation in Tokyo as smashing watermelon open or playing with fireworks. The youngsters have much less, of course, but by late middle school it's really piling up and the high schoolers enjoy a metric ton. Different people handle it differently; the most obedient simply follow the instructions to do a little every day. Some overachievers -- or underachievers -- mash it all out in the first week of vacation, and then forget about it, a luxury that may have consequences once semester restart. And others forget about it until the very /end/ of summer, instead.
With a week before school starts back up, though, it's on many students' minds. And so it is that, this perfect Tuesday afternoon, when desk drawers are opened, folders unfurled, and notebooks dug out from under the bed, a truly extraordinary amount of horror is unleashed to find all of the homework -- every worksheet and workbook, every loose-leaf paper, every diarama and every essay -- gone. Vanished into thin air, without so much as doggy drool to commend its passing.
The air vibrates with distress, which quickly turns to despair. And most students -- whether they're 'good' or not -- do the only thing they can do, if they don't want to suffer the abject humiliation (and subsequent parental retribution) of this revelation on the first day of class: they get to work, while the final, golden days of summer sparkle on without them.
---
This doesn't make the news, because it is deeply shameful to /lose/ one's summer homework. Nobody wants to tell their parents. Nonetheless, the lack of gaily frolicking kids on the riverbanks is noticeable, and many wonder if there's some kind of flu in the air keeping people inside.
But all the children know -- it is whispered between siblings, texted between friends. Something so obviously magical is of course not obvious at all to the unawakened; it's just an awful coincidence. But really: /everyone's/ homework vanishes without a trace, all at once? What conspiracy could accomplish such a thing /but/ magic?
<Pose Tracker> Seika Miuchi [Juuban Public School (11)] has posed.
Miuchi Seika is a diligent student. She sat down the day after school and proceeded to grind out her summer homework without a single note of complaint. She left it in a drawer in her desk over the summer and checked it over a couple of times.
She goes to check it again today.
Her eyes widen as she stares into the emty desk drawer.
Slowly, she turns towards the window, open to let the summer in. "Augustine-sama," she asks quietly, "I don't suppose you know what happened to my homework."
"Homework?" Augustine questions with a blink from where he perches on the windowsill. He fluffs his pure white feathers out a bit. "You have homework in the summer? That hardly seems reasonable, Masque Feu! How can a schoolmarm enforce work at home when the school is not in session?!"
Seika lowers her eyelids just a little and slides her glasses onto the bridge of her nose. "Perhaps it is because our education system is superior to medieval Europe's," she murmurs mildly.
"Masque Feu!" Augustine gasps. "No timeperiod-ism!"
The girl in the summer dress - creamsicle orange - rises from her seat, clasping her hands and lowering her head. Worry gnaws at her. She doesn't let it show in her face because of course she doesn't. Instead she dwells on something else. The vibration in the air. The chords of despair that extend even to her high-end condo on the edge of the ciy.
"This seems wrong," she murmurs, her voice tight.
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
In the case of Hououji Fuu, she took a balanced-but-ambitious approach: she probably could have gone full-bore workaholic and hammered out the whole summer's assignments in a week or so, but she spread it out through a month or so, balancing assignments against leisure and hobbies and archery club (and occasional Magic Knight adventures). Upon completing the bulk of that workload, she 'saved' a few assignments for closer to the resumption of classes - some projects which she needed to cooperate with classmates on, for instance, or just the handful of tasks which she really didn't want to do and was content to procrastinate on.
| @straightestarrows - Phoenixwind, do you have the essay on the relationships between kabuki, noh, and bunraku done yet? I could use some help - not asking to copy anything.
| @phoenixwind - Finished it back in June, but I should refresh my memory. Didn't we spend an afternoon at the library over that?
| @straightestarrows - I can't find my essay or any of the notes I took. T.T Please tell me you've got it, the library's PACKED and all the books I need are checked out.
| @phoenixwind - One moment please.
With that, Fuu sets her phone aside and goes over to her desk, checking through her notebook. And her bookbag. And her laptop.
And her bookshelf. And her shopping bags and the area around her TV and game systems ...
| @phoenixwind - This is almost amusingly inconvenient ... ;.; Is that essay all you're missing?
| @straightestarrows - Augh, PLEASE don't remind me! T.T
Further texting ensues, mostly in the form of cancelling plans for the afternoon and evening - plans which Fuu finds out were going to be cancelled anyway by the people she'd been planning with. Frankly, the scale of the missing homework is such that Fuu *can't* believe magic was responsible - somebody would have seen something, or felt something. For what seems like all the summer homework in Tokyo to vanish ... who would gain anything by such an act of malice, and how could it profit them in the face of how much trouble and effort it would surely *take* to perpetrate such a foul prank?
Fuu can't even concentrate on reconstructing her math homework due to the question weighing on her mind: how COULD this have happened ... ?
<Pose Tracker> Hibiki Houjou [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
There are great endeavours to be found in this world, and among them is the terrible, insurmountable mountain called 'summer homework'. For those with spirits filled with dedication and hard work, it is a vicious beast but one that may yet be tamed. For those liberated souls pledged to the principles of summer fun and happy distractions, however...the impossible exists, and it is this stack of assignments.
Hibiki Houjou is a girl firmly planted in the latter category. It couldn't be helped, really; left to her own devices by parents busy with musical careers, she had little oversight. Piano practice has become a much more interesting task than any more academic assignment - though at least her papers for music theory class were relatively easy to put in order. It's summer, and the siren song of a thousand and one ways to enjoy the sun keep calling her name...and finally, on those rare days when she was home with naught to do but behold the homework?
She has a cat. Enough said.
At long last, though - with no small effort on the part of more diligent friends of hers, plus the stern glares of a septet of crystalline fairies - she managed to steel herself, actually sit at a desk, and get things done. Done 'well' is another story entirely, but every worksheet is filled out, every essay answered with some sort of words. With a round of applause from the Fairy Tones to commemorate the morning's hard work, Hibiki settled down for a catnap after lunch.
There's a strange resonance in the air as the afternoon dawns, though - stirring her from slumber, bringing her back to her desk. Did she somehow forget one, or... "...where are they. Where did it all..." Hibiki stares in horror - she didn't dream doing her homework, right? She doesn't have to get started all over again to do it in reality, right? This isn't some terrible endless loop of homework repeated for twelve thousand cycles, right?!
There's a ringing in her ears, that almost sounds like the Melody of Sorrow...
...and there's another ringing from the phone in the hallway. She sprints out to answer it, in the hopes of answers while the Fairy Tones - so proud, themselves, before that nap - look at each other in confusion as half an argument can be heard from just outside the bedroom.
"What- I should be asking you that! I would never steal your assign- okay, okay, fine, /one time/, but I swear - I did too get them done! Ask Hummy if you don't believe me! ...fine, fine, ask the Fairy Tones! ....they are too reliable witnesses!"
The desk may yet remain empty for a while.
<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
"Where iiiis iiiiit!?"
Lera Camry's wail is absolutely piercing inside of her dorm room. She has been packing the place up in preparation for a move -- to an apartment, instead of living at Infinity -- and that meant being sure that her summer homework was secure and ready for turning in. She had almost entirely packed, but now part of her work is undone. Cardboard boxes are torn open, sometimes quite literally, with flaps hanging loosely.
Belongings are strewn across the floor in a panic; she has papers lying here, packed up books thrown there, and much of her hardwork is undone. More things, that haven't been packed, are scattered every which way.
<Calm down, Lera!> Soaring Sky says. <It must be here somewhere. Where haven't you looked?>
"I've looked everywhere! I-I've--um..." She looks around, frantically, turning in circles in her apartment. Her expression is stricken, eyes widened and her lip wibbling. "I've looked everywhere! I can't take apart all of these boxes, or--or I'll never get moved out on time! It was right on my desk or on the bookshelf or maybe I put it in the pile on the floor, but I knew where it waaas!"
<I believe you.> Sky sounds patient. He has practiced.
But, the other Device here, the one she has watched over since the incident at Tokyo Tower, adds: <Uh. Really? She just said she lost it.>
Lera's lip wibbles again. Then she starts bawling. If Soaring Sky could, he would have given Broken Ground the most irritated glower ever. Instead, Sky whines: <That isn't helping!>
<What did I do!> Ground complains back to him. <She said it herself! I just said what she said! Why am I the bad guy--maybe I should stop.>
Sky sighs. <Please.>
Lera wipes at her eyes, before she pulls her phone out. "I-I know!" she says, fumbling with the iPhone. "I'll just... I'll text everyone who's been by recently and ask if they saw it and it's sure to turn up! Everyone notices homework, right?"
<Pose Tracker> Nori Ankou [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
HOMEWORK...
"Where is it? Oh no! You didn't shred it for bedding, did you?!" Nori says as she slams and closes her charming little cupboards and runs up and down her room, checking every bookshelf, under the bed, in the main closet, in the smaller closet that is Batiste's room.
"Cousin, please," Batiste says from his position on top of the bed, which has been torn asunder (not literally) for the sake of this inspection. "I had not even known you were assigned such things... it seems barbaric, really."
"I agree completely. When I am queen I will ban it," Nori says.
Batiste considers for a couple of seconds. "That is pedagogically sound, for the most part, actually."
"What's that word mean?"
FINALLY...
Nori Ankou has turned everything upside down in her room. Not quite literally, but near enough. Everything's a shambles as she lays in her bed, holding an outsized stuffed bear in one arm, Batiste in the other, with the Brazen Pharos sitting on the night stand and gleaming oddly in the filtered summery sunlight.
Batiste has been doing his best to be encouraging. "It's alright. Surely they'll understand you lost track of a few papers over an entire summer, cousin--"
"You don't understand," Nori huffs. "It's - it's more than THAT..."
<Pose Tracker> Fate Testarossa [Infinity Institute (4)] has posed.
While the load of summer homework for Fate Testarossa would not be particularly high as an elementary schooler, she had the additional burden of being a previously home schooled transfer student with the fall term being her first ever. Which meant it was considerably higher just to make certain she would be reasonably caught up to her peers.
Still, Fate was nothing if not a hard worker. Even if she was below average at actually writing in Japanese which made the easy assignment of documenting her summer vacation an arduous exercise of meticulously looking up every other Kanji. ... She left out the first part of the summer for obvious reasons.
And today was the day she was certain she'd be finished with it. "Feitooooo! Can't we go out again? It's too nice a day not to have another walk!" Came the adorable puppy whine behind her from the hallway. "Ah! In a little bit Arf. I just have to..." She opens her desk drawer, freezing as she notes that not just her summer journal, but her math homework, book report, social studies paper and others were... "All - gone."
Popping her head below the desk, she then quickly checked under the bed, then her closet. Then again. "Arf, have you seen my homework?" An orange puppy head popped into the room, "Don't look at me! What would I want with your homework?" A quick telepathic message to Lindy, Amy, and Chrono got her confirmed responses that none of them had looked over her homework.
After checking the entire apartment she finally she sat down on the bed heavily, looking devastated. Voice soft, "It - It isn't fair." She puts her head in her hands, "I worked so hard." Sliding her phone over to herself, she starts writing a text to Lera.
TXT to Lera Camry: Its all gone. Everything I worked on. I'll be busy for the next few days catching back up.
There's a soft whine as a wet snout taps against her thigh, and a puppy lays her head on her lap. Fate scritches her ears as she lays back. She knew that given her pace, there was little chance she'd finish. "I don't know what I'm going to do Arf." A beat, "They won't kick me out for this right?"
A moment later, Fate finds herself tilting her head, to look at Arf's mouth as if contemplating pulling her jaws apart and looking. Arf opens a single eye, and mutters, "I told you not to look at me." "Ah - Sorry!"
<Pose Tracker> Takeo Akamizu [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
"So." The white Rabbit riding on Takeo's Shoulder as he strolls through a kid empty street, enjoying the sun and the feel of the wind on his shoulders. "Let me get this straight Takeo. You are not worried, about your Summer Homework missing, because you haven't done it?!" Merlin asks with shocked expression.
Takeo shrugs a shoulder. "Not a page. I usually wait until the Friday before, then just do it for three straight days. Sometimes I even wait until Saturday night and just not sleep until School Starts." He pauses and looks around. "Where. Is. Everybody?" He feels his phone vibrate and pulls it out. "Huh. All my friends are freaking out because theirs is missing too." He scratches the back of his neck. "I wonder if I should ya know. Armor up, and look into this?"
The Rabbit hangs his head. Many things that Takeo had just said caused Merlin to be in distress over his young student's actions. "Takeo. Armoring up won't help you investigate this. Armoring up is for hitting the bad guys."
"Which I'm really good at!"
Merlin puts his fluffy adorable face in his fluffy adorable paws and silently weeps.
<Pose Tracker> Honoka Yukishiro [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
In a darkened room, a number of shadowy figures stand around a central table. There is a senior board room air to the room, though it's impossible to see any specific accoutremants that lend it such importance -- the people themselves simply shed authority like candles shed radiance. They consult their various devices: phones, screens, crystal balls. And they smile.
Glancing over her shoulder at the skyscraper-like mound of stolen academic labor in the cavern next door, one of them smirks, fangily. "Are you sure we shouldn't just set it on fire? We can make this victory permanent with a wave of our hands."
Another woman meets the first's eyes with a haughty glare; the former may be a Queen, but the latter is an Executive. "Pfeh. There is no great victory in the suffering alone. It's what we can /do/ with it that counts."
"My ladies, we agreed to pledge our resources into this plan on the condition that the output be funneled directly into a... specific... project." This is a man, or at least the masked silhouette of one.
"Yes," another man agrees, his husky voice laden with more layers than can fit comfortably into a cake. It is overburdened with meaning, the innuendo so thick that it's awkward. And that was just one syllable! "Let's proceed to the second part of the plan, shall we?"
"Very well, 'Chairman'." The title is spoken with all the respect due it from a Queen. "Let us see if the Executive's theory of..."
"...it is a simple psychic connection," she snaps out, finishing the sentence. More serenely, with unshakable confidence, she finishes, "You'll see... the bonds between girls and things they care about are very powerful... and can only cause them despair."
---
DOWNTOWN YAMANOTE
It drops out of the sky with such speed that the rare late-summer clouds are dragged after it like a cloak, like the wake from the back of a boat.
It is, to say the least, an extremely weird construction: a glasslike giant, sinuously fused out of... crystal? Ice? But its joints are writhing, poison-dark roots, and its eyes are robotic red, shining with artificial lenses.
All in all, it looks like three monsters of the day mashed together into one, both in design and in /size/. It towers! It has to tower, to be gigantic, because...
...inside the clear substance of its flesh are those precious workbooks, en masse. Thousands upon thousands of them. Maybe even a million. They are not stacked neatly, but jumbled and a bit crumpled up into each other.
Everyone's summer homework is back... with a vengeance.
And it's plummeting towards the ground!
But before it can land, it reaches out one massive arm -- vines lash out of its icy wrists to wrap around one of the poles of Tokyo Tower. Then it grabs another side of it with a crunchy crystal palm, and starts hauling itself up towards the top, roaring its evil name.
"MARATHONNNNN!!!"
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro transforms into MARATHON!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has fully healed herself. She is now ready to take on 7 opponents!
COMBAT: Fate Testarossa transforms into Barrier Jacket!
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji transforms into Magic Knight!
<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
Midway through texting nearly everyone she knows, a message comes across Lera's phone. She pauses, as she sees Fate's message through her tear-blurred vision, and she stares down at it for a moment. Her eyes blink; then she sees a few more messages flickering across her phone. She tilts her head to the side, momentarily confused, before she starts typing a text back to Fate.
>omg fate mine's gone too!! :( this is so not fair and its missing all across tokyo so its just some kind of terrible tragedy y'know???
>............wait >_<
AT TOKYO TOWER
Lera Camry blazes through the sky, straight back towards Tokyo Tower. She leaves a trail of red-orange light blazing in her wake, her sword-shaped Device gripped tightly in her now-gauntleted hand. Her green coat, with its red slashes, flutters in the wind after her -- along with the new belts and armored plates over her shoulders and knees. Her sidebraid flutters beside her head.
"We gotta find what's doing this!" she yells at Fate. "That's everyone's homework! If it's lost, then--then that'd be terrible, y'know?!"
But then, finally, she gets a look at what it is. A thing of crystal, with red mechanical eyes, and terrible roots for joints. She sees a big, terrible hand clutch the top of Tokyo Tower, and she stares -- because inside of it is the object of their intentions.
"No way!" she yells. She speeds up, soaring straight for Marathon -- and then she speeds to the point that she is, practically, just a flash of light before reappearing in front of the amalgamated monster. She ends with a spinning kick, aimed right for its midsection. "Let that homework go! All of our hopes, dreams, dreads, and precious hours of work and PACKING! SO MUCH PACKING--"
<Focus!> Sky reminds her.
"--are wrapped up in that!" Lera yells.
COMBAT: Lera Camry transforms into Barrier Jacket Perihelion!
COMBAT: Lera Camry has used Sonic Kick on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Lera Camry has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Seika Miuchi transforms into Masque Feu!
COMBAT: Masque Feu has fully healed herself.
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
Homework or no homework, a monster *THAT* gigantic requires as much attention as can be directed at it - and the Magic Knight of Wind is no exception, barreling across the city from roof to roof, harnessing the wind to boost and steer her leaps. Plus, she sees as she gets closer, the monster is trying to climb up Tokyo Tower, with an apparent lack of regard for its architectural integrity.
THAT wont' do at all, will it?
"WINDS OF ADMONISHMENT!!" The Wind Knight's voice rings out from two blocks away, and the binding whirlwind covers the remaining distance faster than its caster ever could - but she's not going to wait until she GETS there to start trying to slow the monster down. It's only when the Wind Knight alights on the last foothold before the Tower itself that she gets a chance to see what the monster is made of.
"And here I thought it couldn't possibly be magic at work," she remarks - projecting loudly enough for her arriving allies to hear. "Is it possible to defeat this without destroying the notebooks inside that shell?" she wonders, her bow and quiver manifesting; she wastes no time in nocking an arrow and drawing it back - although she may have to abandon her shot in favor of closing the distance again.
<Pose Tracker> Masque Feu [Juuban Public School (11)] has posed.
"Masque Feu!" Augustine cries out from the window. "Something's happening!"
"I know," Seika calls back, already halfway out the door.
SEVERAL MINUTES LATER
A small sport motorcycle, the sort of thing a 17-year-old could legally ride, is left parked somewhere out of the way while its rider ducks into a back alley and transforms.
"That will be quite enough of that," a firm, stern voice declares in a speaking tone that nevertheless rings out around the Tokyo Tower.
With a click of heels, Masque Feu touches down atop the nearest narrow protrusion she should not be able to stand on top of - in this case she's chosen a lamppost in the tower's shadow, standing with her heels together and a hand at her hip. Her other hand rises above her head, leveled towards the sky, before she slowly lowers it to point at the mishmash monster. "Your mad scheme for this tower is extremely poor behaviour at best," the lone Soeur chides as Augustine flutters to her shoulder. "I, Masque Feu, will--"
She stops dead as she realizes what is floating around inside that creature's frozen structure. She squints. Squints closer.
And her eyes widen as she sees it. Floating there inside the frozen monster. A simple and elegant black trapper keeper with a few stylized white lilies blooming across it and a small sticker on the spine:
- This workbook belongs to: MIUCHI Seika
"You didn't," she breathes.
"Masque Feu, compose yourself," Augustine cautions, but Seika's already too angry. With a little scowl, she leaps up off the post, sailing up in a powerful jump. Her eyes lock on the offending object for a moment before she lifts them to glare at the monster.
"/Give me back my special-edition mail-order Yamayurikai trapper-keeper!/" she shouts in uncharacteristic frustration.
At which point she wheels back and attempts to punch the gigantic tower-scale multimonster in the face as hard as she freaking can.
COMBAT: Masque Feu has used Maria-Sama Is Punching You Out on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Masque Feu has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Winds of Admonishment on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Lera Camry's Sonic Kick, taking 3 Fatigue damage! Lera Camry is Psyched!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly dodges Fuu Hououji's Winds of Admonishment, taking 14 Fatigue damage! Fuu Hououji is Psyched! Cripple applied to Honoka Yukishiro!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro perfectly counters Masque Feu's Maria-Sama Is Punching You Out, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Counter! Honoka Yukishiro's Reverse ability activates!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro's counterattack, Impenetrable Crystal, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Masque Feu!
<Pose Tracker> Hibiki Houjou [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
Time passes. Homework is arranged on a desk. Homework notably does not get done.
"-and for the fifth time, no Hummy didn't just knock it off my desk. Yours is missing too, and she's not that sneaky a cat! ...okay, sure, it could be Siren, but she'd be gloating by now-" Hibiki's telephoned argument is cut short when there's a bellow from the television screen - because of course she had the TV on while doing homework, she's not some kind of animal - and the phone falls slack in her grip. "Wh- Kanade! Turn on the TV! ...this isn't a trick, honest- Kanade? Hang on, you're - what do you mean, emergency baking sess- you know what, never mind, I'm just going to go and get our homework back!"
She moves to hang up the phone - pauses at the screeching that erupts from the handset, and pauses a moment longer. "...no, I'm actually serious this time!"
---
As bystanders stop to stare at Marathon - struck silent by the absurdity - there's a flurry of movement down the street. Brown twintails streaming behind her, Hibiki Houjou puts all her sports experience and general horsing around to good use, sprinting through the crowd towards the grand plaza. It was on the news - and it has her homework. Right there, in its shoulder...or maybe its hip. The point is, somewhere in there is all her hard work, and stealing it for a monster like this is...
She skids to a halt by a tree, momentarily hidden from the eyes of observers, and produces her Cure Module. "Absolutely...unforgivable!"
Strains of holy music resound through the air as a pianist becomes Pretty Cure - and with now-pink hair streaming behind her, she makes a grand leap towards it. it's towering, it's climbing even higher - and so she grabs onto an overhanging streetlamp, swinging around the bar to fling herself higher! It's a wild assault forward, but one suiting her style - and she shouts out as she flies towards the monster feet-first.
"Strumming the wild rhythm - Cure Melody! I won't forgive stealing our hard work!"
COMBAT: Hibiki Houjou transforms into Cure Melody!
COMBAT: Cure Melody has used Fortissimo Flip on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Cure Melody has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Cure Melody's Fortissimo Flip, taking 8 Fatigue damage! Diversion applied to Honoka Yukishiro!
COMBAT: Nori Ankou transforms into La Sirene du Nord!
<Pose Tracker> Fate Testarossa [Infinity Institute (4)] has posed.
The phone buzzes back, Fate picks up that message. Stares at it. Stares at it for a really long time.
"Wait." Fate's has a terrible thought suddenly strike her at the same time Lera's message comes back, "This - this is like something Soular would do." The realization sort of blew her world away. She'd been in Dark Fall, so certainly she knew what they were doing, but until it personally affected her she didn't understand how so simple a thing could so deeply wound someone. "I'm heading out, Arf." Bardiche shines, and she shimmers just as radiantly. "Sure sure, just remember to bring back-" But the window was open, and Fate was already gone.
~Soon~
A golden trail of magic and light like a jetstream, alongside a red and orange one, "We find the one responsible for this. I'll never be able to finish in time otherwise." She stares ahead, into the distance, squinting as Tokyo Tower comes into view. <It's probably not a Nakewameke.> Fate stops short as Lera speeds up, hovering in the air, her cloak and twintails fluttering, "Well whatever it is, it's very large. We shouldn't just charge in without a plan..."
Cue Lera charging in.
Fate's mouth opens wide for a moment. Then it closes, as her eyes narrow with resolution. "Ready Bardiche?" <Yes Sir. Scythe Form.> A chime and a shift of an axe blade, which folds into itself, as a jagged arc of mana appears amongst a hiss of steam. She flourishes him, holding him easily behind her as she turns to face the titanic creature, "Fate Testarossa - Ikimasu!"
But then she hesitates charging in again, as she hears a familiar voice. Her eyes sweep the skyline until she spots her. Then she comprehends her words. "Did it steal something more precious to you than your homework?"
Fate's gloves clench alongside the Bardiche's halberd, and then without further delay, she soars straight at Marathon, spiraling in a measured approach in case the creature had surprises in store for her. Once close enough, she pulls up suddenly and cleaves Bardiche upwards, aiming to attempt to sever part of an undulating dark root that makes up one of its joints. <Scythe Slash>
COMBAT: Fate Testarossa has used Scythe Slash on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Fate Testarossa has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> La Sirene du Nord [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
It is perhaps not entirely clear what brought la Sirene du Nord to this immediate area, though a bad feeling was certainly part of it. Not every bad feeling is justifiable, of course -- but they do give you something to do other than fall into a wet squidgey lump of despair.
And WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT!
"I wonder if it was attracted by the recent disaster," Batiste says from his perch atop la Sirene's shoulder as she vaults between roofs.
"What?!" La Sirene shouts into the howling of the wind. But she's catching up, her sorrow at the prospect of doing homework or eating opprobrium driving her further onwards, nearer to the tower, nearer to that looming thing - and both she and Batiste gasp at the same time as it becomes clear that this is not some fortuitous ice-devil here to bring winter early or something like that.
The sunlight gleams off of a binder notebook. It's a dark navy blue, but it has several stickers on it. A sticker from a Handshake Encounter exhibit. A sticker from the Hokkaido winter festival. A sticker (as much as she may be hesitant about it) from the family company's frozen meals--
"No - no no no NO NO! How did you get that! This is -- this is wickedness I cannot even admire for its dark artistry!" La Sirene cries out in dismay as she leaps over the last of the roof tops. Others are approaching, a familiar green windstorm, a familiar princess, the sweeping aerial form of the mysterious Propane and a new aerial figure with a scythe.
"GIVE THEM BACK! Give them ALL back!" la Sirene cries - and instead of making that last leap, she hoists her lantern aloft. When she pulls the lens open with a squeeze of her hand, the darkness that pours out is no less sharp in the sunlight of day - in fact, it may seem like it dims things a tiny fraction near where that streak of acute darkness falls, the light of the day swallowed up.
Hopefully the force of this streaking inklike disdain will get them all their homework back.
Batiste's tiny paws are clenched into fists. /he bought that sticker himself/. Now he's angry.
COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord has used Pieces of the Perfect Black on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Honoka Yukishiro [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
Marathon has a mouth, but it has a speaker mashed up in it. The 'lips' are rooty things which wriggle above and below the speaker in a ghastly parody of emotion.
"MAAARAAATHONNNN!!!" emits from it a second time, with a ton of enthusiastic, throaty vibrato to the roar. (Elsewhere, in an evil chamber, the Chairman is hogging the mike.)
Strange as that is, the threat that the massive beast presents is no artifice. Lera and Melody's kicks connect but doesn't chisel out more than a heel's worth of ice apiece, while Masque Feu's punch packs no ability to get through its chin at all. In both cases, the impact of flesh on the creature is chilling, straight to the bone, an awful, lingering violation.
And something else: as their hits connect, each of their workbooks briefly shines with the color of their magics, the radiance of their hearts. In this case, two are fiery, though with more and less subtle nuances of brilliance, and one is blinding pink and proof, real proof, that Hibiki's homework actually exists and is not just a lie.
The Magic Knight of Wind's gusts are somehow evaded by the giant, who pulls itself, maybe himself, out of the way and higher into the structure of Tokyo Tower, nothing so much as like King Kong, Homework Abduction Edition. In the brief instant that the winds touch a shin before it's hefted out of the way, the contact sends up a cloud of hissing ice, which boils back towards the Knight without warning or remorse. The shadow that enshrouds his eyes, courtesy of La Sirene du Nord, brings forth another response: laserbeams. Huge ones, red ones, sharp in their retort as they incinerate the air, cascading towards the darkly-clad girl to try to encompass her wholly!
And, within the beast, both girls' workbooks are sheathed in lavish hues as well, shimmering green and a beautiful, complex stormy gray. In general, all of these pieces of homework are in the creature's main body, though every so often, the giant's actions cause them to shift into an arm or leg. He does seem to be mostly hollow.
Another voice issues from Marathon's mouth, a-cackle with a solid sense of victory.
"Yes... your tantrums, your anger and despair, shall feed our--"
Elsewhere, the green-haired Executive smoothly plucks the microphone out of the Queen's hands and places it back in the Chairman's.
"--MARATHONNN!!!"
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Icy Heart on Lera Camry.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Icy Heart on Cure Melody.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Icy Heart on Masque Feu.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Icy Blast on Fuu Hououji.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Laserbeam Detonation on La Sirene du Nord.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has cancelled their attack on Lera Camry. If there are more attacks that need to be +cancelled, please hold all +attacks until the process is complete.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has cancelled their attack on Cure Melody. If there are more attacks that need to be +cancelled, please hold all +attacks until the process is complete.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has cancelled their attack on Masque Feu. If there are more attacks that need to be +cancelled, please hold all +attacks until the process is complete.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has cancelled their attack on Fuu Hououji. If there are more attacks that need to be +cancelled, please hold all +attacks until the process is complete.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has cancelled their attack on La Sirene du Nord. If there are more attacks that need to be +cancelled, please hold all +attacks until the process is complete.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji transforms into Magic Knight!
COMBAT: Masque Feu transforms into Masque Feu!
COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord has fully healed herself.
COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord has used Pieces of the Perfect Black on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces La Sirene du Nord's Pieces of the Perfect Black, taking 5 Fatigue damage! Blind applied to Honoka Yukishiro!
COMBAT: Lera Camry transforms into Barrier Jacket Perihelion!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Icy Heart on Lera Camry.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Icy Heart on Cure Melody.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Icy Heart on Masque Feu.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Icy Blast on Fuu Hououji.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Laserbeam Detonation on La Sirene du Nord.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Masque Feu fails to dodge Honoka Yukishiro's Icy Heart, taking 18 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji perfectly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Icy Blast, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Brace!
COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord fails to dodge Honoka Yukishiro's Laserbeam Detonation, taking 40 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Lera Camry narrowly counters Honoka Yukishiro's Icy Heart, taking 5 Fatigue damage! Lera Camry's Reverse ability activates! Lera Camry's Tactician ability activates!
COMBAT: Lera Camry's counterattack, Sentinel Flash, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Honoka Yukishiro!
COMBAT: Cure Melody narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Icy Heart, taking 5 Fatigue damage! Cure Melody's Block ability activates! Cure Melody's Parry ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Masque Feu [Juuban Public School (11)] has posed.
With a thump, Masque Feu slams her fist into the ice youma.
Time stands still for a moment.
"OW!" Masque Feu exclaims, her eyes wide as she pulls her hand back with a shake. She shivers, cradling her palm even as she descends to an almost absentminded landing at the feet of the gigantic Marathon. She shakes her hand again, cringing and opening her hand to look down at her palm.
SMASH CUT TO SOME TIME IN THE FUTURE
"And that, Sainte Masque Feu explains to her full team of six or nine Silver Soeurs, "is the day I learned it is not wise to try and punch something that is both fifty times my size and made of super ice."
"Oh, now I understand," opines Masque Definitely-Not-Yumi-Fukuzawa.
SMASH CUT BACK TO NOW
"Masque Feu," Augustine chides as he flutters over to the lone Soeur, "that was tremendously ill-advised. You should know better than to throw caution to the wind that way!"
"Perhaps I should, Augustine-sama," Masque Feu murmurs, cradling her hand and squeezing it to try and suppress the pain. "But I know I must defeat it. I saw my special-edition mail-order Yamayurikai trapper-keeper."
The turtledove beats his wings a couple of times. "You can always buy another special-edition mail-order Yamayurikai trapper-keeper," he chides.
"Yes," the girl agrees. "But not all girls can afford to buy a special-edition mail-order Yamayurikai trapper-keeper for themselves. That is why...." She draws herself up, clenching her right fist and gesturing up towards the youma above her. "...For all the girls who cannot afford a special-edition mail-order Yamayurikai trapper-keeper, nor the time to redo the homework within it... I, Masque Feu, must act."
Augustine huffs and comes to rest on a lamppost, puffing up his breast feathers and ducking his head into them. "Honestly, I will never understand the Japanese school system. /Summer homework./ What a sin against God."
Masque Feu's attention is elsewhere; with a soft gasp she darts in the general direction of La Sirene, moving to take up station near her as she sees the laser striking home. "La Sirene, be careful," she calls out.
With a flick of her head, a rather irked Masque Feu brings her wrists together, gathering her flame into coils about her hands. "Red Bind," she calls out, her tone ringing more sternly than usual as she whips her arms back, then casts with her left hand, then with her right, throwing the coiling whips of flame from them in long streams. The fire ropes whirl upwards - and attempt to snare the immense Marathon by the wrists.
At which point she /pulls/ back on them. "Give them back!!" she calls angrily, as she attempts to drag the monster down.
COMBAT: Masque Feu has used Red Bind on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Masque Feu has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
"Gh!" Lera grunts, as her kick fails to do much -- and that makes her wince. She feels the blast of cold shooting through her, chilling her even as she pulls back. She flies backward, her eyes narrowing, and she swings Soaring Sky in front of her. Her eyes lock onto the workbooks that lit up with a fiery glow. One, she realizes, must be hers! "They--they're linked to us! And what we want!"
Which might mean those feelings are fueling this -- and the feelings of every school child in Tokyo!
She needs to warm up. She holds up Soaring Sky in her hand; it flashes, the Device emanating a brilliant flash of light that strikes into that bone-chilling cold around her with something else: warmth. <Sentinel Flash!>
Then, she pulls the Device-sword away, and flies backward a distance. She glances at Cure Melody and yells to her: "I think this ice is gonna make it rough!" she yells, as she points her sword down at Marathon. "C'mon, Sky! Let's see what we can do!"
<On it. Shooting!>
Strands of flame ignite and swirl together. The plasma twists together, bunches up, and forms a rotating sphere -- whcih fires off like a shot, straight towards the combined monster.
COMBAT: Lera Camry has used Plasma Ball on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Lera Camry has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to dodge Masque Feu's Red Bind, taking 25 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Tangle applied to Honoka Yukishiro!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly counters Lera Camry's Plasma Ball, taking 6 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro's Reverse ability activates!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro's counterattack, Laserbeam Eyes, partially gets through, doing 4 Fatigue damage to Lera Camry! Blind and Diversion applied to Lera Camry!
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
Well, this 'Marathon' *IS* a terribly large opponent, far larger than most of the monsters against whom the Magic Knight of Wind has done battle. The sudden cloud of ice catches her by some surprise - but not so much surprise that she can't summon up a quick barrier of wind to scatter the frosty spray of fog. "I suppose this is going to take a while to whittle down, isn't it?" she muses -
Then leaps towards Tokyo Tower's superstructure, crossing the gap in a long, shallow arc, and managing to land without looking too clumsy. She'd sooner keep more of a distance than this, but too *much* distance would mean her arrows can't reach anything with enough force to inflict damage, even with the force of her will assisting their flight. It only takes her a couple of moments to make up some more of the distance, this time vertical, and by the time she stops, she's picked out her next target of focus:
The loudspeaker array which serves as the monster's 'mouth'.
She draws an arrow back, unconsciously adjusting her stance while she lets her mind find that still point .... looks along the shaft ... and looses.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Trick Arrow Shot on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Fuu Hououji's Trick Arrow Shot, taking 5 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Cure Melody [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
Righteous fury and panicked frustration drove Cure Melody forward - paired, of course, with this being something blatantly monstrous. It's only upon closing in that she can truly appreciate just how big this monster is, though - and her wild kick finds a frosty place to land. The dread chill brought from abyssal reams of homework pierces with fear, and she springs away from the monster nearly as soon as she makes contact.
For a moment, that frost-borne fear weighs down on her...and then there's that glimpse of bright pink, swirling around inside an icy shell.
She didn't imagine it? Her homework actually did get done?
"...and you stole it!" Cure Melody comes to a landing atop one of the streetlamps in the area, fists clenched as she looks up at the now-cackling monster. "Tantrums?! All our hard work - all those days of summer fun sacrificed for the sake of these books - you think you can get away with robbing us all, and accuse us of tantrums?!"
She's pretty close to having a tantrum herself, admittedly - but there's no way she can admit that to this kind of nemesis!
Flames whip out to ensnare the ice, as her partner in kicking calls out to her - and she turns to Lera in turn, pumping her fist. "It's icy - but these are supposed to be our days of summer fun! Let's show this thing that it seriously picked the wrong time to show up!" She'd just finished her homework, after all!
...of course, that's easier said than done. It's a giant monster, it's made of ice that's painful to the touch, and Rhythm isn't here to lend her a hand. But...the alternative to fighting this thing is starting her homework over from scratch, and there's just no way that's going to happen! She leaps forward again, running towards Tokyo Tower - and then up that rather steep slope, up the structure. Rapid steps, looking for where this thing is resting its weight.
If she's quick, she can strike without feeling the chill too badly - and just like Judo club, going for where it's placed its weight might just unbalance it enough. The bigger they are...
...if she's quick.
COMBAT: Cure Melody has used Staccato Step on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Cure Melody has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to dodge Cure Melody's Staccato Step, taking 18 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> La Sirene du Nord [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
The homework is sliding around within the creature, but la Sirene du Nord's trickery casts a blinding eye on the beast's face. At which point the sliding pane of immense and profound darkness, darkness so profound as to hold its own color like a photonegative of light, is disrupted in the obvious way:
A laser beam!
La Sirene sees the glittering flicker in time to throw an arm up to cover her face, which is always wise when dealing with laser light. The intense heat of that furious ray streaks upwards, enough pressure to STOP HER IN MIDLEAP - she hovers there, and when the light fades, she falls downwards. There is a smell in the air of burnt lace as she lands on the street heavily, Batiste (who is unharmed) trailing after her.
A few curls of smoke rise from la Sirene. Then, too, does she.
She is much less playful in tone now. "Feed your marathon...? Are you dedicated to making the innocent children of this city struggle and suffer, merely to avoid scorn? Is that your cause...?"
"Do you know how hard many of those children have worked? Perhaps you only want to see them suffer - but some of them won't be able to do so. You're endangering their futures... spoiling their lives..."
La Sirene sweeps her hair back, scorched and sooty as it may be now. Her pale eyes gleam as she glares upwards. "And I won't let you!!" Her left hand comes up, index and pinky fingers upright as her right comes down. "Les Mysteres -- come!!" As Cure Melody lunges in, as Masque Feu ties the thing up, la Sirene's magic bursts outwards - ink black shot with silver, billowing out with shimmering force towards the thing's leg.
"What will we do to return them, la Sirene?" Batiste squeaks.
La Sirene doesn't have an answer for that.
COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord has used Les Mysteres on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces La Sirene du Nord's Les Mysteres, taking 14 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Honoka Yukishiro [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
Masque Feu's flame-whips are rather more effective than her fists, and they entangle Marathon's right wrist with no problem, steam erupting from the contact of fire and ice, moreso as the latter engulfs the former and begins creeping downwards, between the two of them, along the flame.
Unfortunately, he /is/ a massive monster climbing up Tokyo Tower, and his response is to lift his mighty arm, rooty muscles straining through the ice, and try to use the ties that bind them to jerk the Soeur off her feet and directly into a massive fist, for subsequent crushing.
While he does so, he sends another, more precise eyeblast out to intercept Lera's plasma ball, and the two attacks detonate, sending shockwaves back at both combatants. Shaking his head to clear it (an exaggerated, slow motion, for there is a lot of icy head to shake), his efforts are stymied by the Magic Knight causing an arrow to sprout from one icy ear.
With a roar of displeasure, he reaches a hand out to rip the shaft free --
-- but he already had a hand grabbing at Masque Feu --
-- so now he is falling from Tokyo Tower.
His ankles frantically lock on the superstructure, but Cure Melody flawlessly targets them, and the snap of the first thaw of winter rings out through the air as they detach...
...and he crashes into the ground, sending up a huge cloud of debris. Les Mysteres penetrates it easily and slams into one of his legs within half a second of impact, and that one-two lengthens the crack that the Pretty Cure created, causing it to spiderweb up towards the shin.
"MAAAARAAATHONNNN!!"
In response, the joint-vines writhe furiously, snapping out both to patch the wound and to instantly impossible length in order to grab both girls, while his free hand lashes to and fro, trying to slam Lera out of the air and jar the Tower itself to send the Magic Knight back towards the ground!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Icy Grasp on Masque Feu.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Vine Wrap on La Sirene du Nord.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Vine Wrap on Cure Melody.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Immense Backhand on Lera Camry.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Immense Backhand on Fuu Hououji.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Masque Feu narrowly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Icy Grasp, taking 23 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Masque Feu's Flash ability activates! Stagger and Stun applied to Masque Feu!
COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord fails to brace Honoka Yukishiro's Vine Wrap, taking 20 Fatigue damage! Tangle and Trap applied to La Sirene du Nord!
COMBAT: Lera Camry perfectly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Immense Backhand, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge! Lera Camry's Fade ability activates! Lera Camry's Flash ability activates!
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji narrowly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Immense Backhand, taking 9 Fatigue damage! Fuu Hououji's Fade ability activates! Fuu Hououji's Flash ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
The Wind Knight can't jump QUITE fast enough to avoid being jostled from her perch, but she manages to make her fall somewhat less of an uncontrolled plummet and more of a sort-of-navigated descent. There's an audible (if muffled) yelp when her feet hit the ground, though, and she looks somewhat wobbly to anyone who spares a glance to see where she landed.
She's not so badly hurt by the impact that she can't send another arrow flying towards the monster, She missed its mouth - probably not a major target deserving her concerted attention - but apparently its ears and (most likely) eyes are vulnerable; perhaps those are better targets?
Her aim isn't quite precise enough to hit any of those specific marks, though. Maybe once she stops feeling like her hips got wedged into her ribcage by that landing ...
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Basic Archery on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Cure Melody narrowly counters Honoka Yukishiro's Vine Wrap, taking 8 Fatigue damage! Tangle and Trap applied to Cure Melody!
COMBAT: Cure Melody's counterattack, Plagal Cadence, partially gets through, doing 10 Fatigue damage to Honoka Yukishiro!
<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
"Yeah!" Lera calls back to Melody. "You got it! We don't gotta let this thing ruin our summer, y'know?"
Then the eye lasers strike into her plasma ball. The shockwave hits her, throwing the orange-haired girl backward. She goes into a tumble, falling away from Tokyo Tower for a moment, until her flight spell takes hold. A ring of orange-red light explodes out from her feet -- and she falls through it, before she blitzes back through it again, and towards Marathon, even as he begins to fall.
She has to yank to a stop in midair so that the falling monster doesn't smash right into her on the way down. His hand comes whipping backward, then -- and Lera shoots to the side, faster than she ever could before, such that the titanic backhanded slap only whips through the contrail of orange light left in the air.
She does a sharp midair turn, looking down at Marathon, before she does a barrel roll -- and dives down towards the monster. She swings her sword out to the side. Then, she shoots by in a flash of light, slashing at Marathon's side as she rushes by.
COMBAT: Lera Camry has used Line Burst on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Lera Camry has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Masque Feu [Juuban Public School (11)] has posed.
Through the eyeholes of her mask, Masque Feu keeps track of Lera Camry out of the corner of her eye.
It occurs to her a second later that maybe she is not strong enough to pull a massive monster off Tokyo Tower.
"Goodneeeeeeeeeeeesssssssss," she keens as she's yanked off the ground by her own fire. She tumbles through the air, heading straight for that gigantic fist. This looks, unquestionably, like the end for our heroine!!
Except it's not - because she steels herself, bunches her shoulders, lets her fire go free, and swings her hands out.
The fist explodes towards her - and she slams her palms into it, boosting herself up into a headstand in midair. She tumbles - and glances off the edge of the fist, the backs of her shoulders hitting the gigantic icy palm. A pained breath bursts out of her in the form of a cry, and she squeezes her eyes closed, clenching her teeth as she forces herself to finish her painful flip. She goes head over heels, tumbling over the top of that vast knuckle, spinning with her heels coming forward -
Her feet hit the back of Marathon's wrist.
(Perfect,) she decides.
With a hard push, Masque Feu vaults herself into the air, her hair streaming wickedly behind her.
"Blessed Spark!" she calls out as she reaches the apex of her jump, throwing her right arm back. Radiant light pours from the cracks between her fingers as flame fills her grip.
Clenching her teeth, the very pained Soeur sidearms the blessed spark straight down at Marathon as hard as she damn well can. There is a loud /CRACK!/ of displaced air as she throws it so hard, major league pitchers would be put to shame. The ball dog-legs fiercely, a blistering curveball aimed to punch the force of the Blessed Flame through Marathon's head or chest - whichever she hits first.
She ain't picky.
COMBAT: Masque Feu has used Blessed Spark on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Masque Feu has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> La Sirene du Nord [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
Striding forwards, la Sirene takes in a breath, perhaps to denounce this creature in greater detail -- when its vining components whip outwards, the tendrils lashing around her scorched stockings and smoldering shoulderpads to grapple her. "Kuh! How dare you!" la Sirene says, her fingers digging tight as death around the handle of the Brazen Pharos--
But this does mean that she is feeling her lack of sharp objects.
Nonetheless la Sirene strains, even as she thrashes within those grasping climbing vines. Finally she gets her OTHER hand loose - and wraps it around the vines and starts pulling herself closer, implacably closer, wriggling as she goes to lead with her Pharos-bearing hand - more like her side, now.
"Do you think you have trapped me...? Now you have trapped yourself!" she cries out, albeit a little breathlessly. (Batiste starts gnawing on the vine, regardless.) She glares ahead, moving implacably closer, step by step, staggering perhaps but not falling, not yet!
COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord has used Eyes in the Mist on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly dodges Fuu Hououji's Basic Archery, taking 7 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Lera Camry's Line Burst, taking 11 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly counters Masque Feu's Blessed Spark, taking 19 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro's Reverse ability activates!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro's counterattack, Laserbeam Detonation, partially gets through, doing 23 Fatigue damage to Masque Feu!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces La Sirene du Nord's Eyes in the Mist, taking 5 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Honoka Yukishiro is Quipped!
<Pose Tracker> Cure Melody [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
It's a big monster. But...for all of Cure Melody's righteous anger, she's not the only one who's had her hard work stolen by this...this ice-vine thing!
Not alone in anger, and not alone in battle. Plasma and archery streak ahead of her sprint, leaving the monster off-balance just in time for her arrival - and while it's not the finest judo footwork in the history of the sport, it's enough to leave Cure Melody grinning impishly as Marathon tumbles. Cheekishly, she gives the monster a bit of a salute -
And then a thorny vine whips around one ankle, as the monster goes after her footwork.
Cure Melody is neatly plucked from the tower, whipped through the air like a frilly pink yo-yo. It's a few moments before she's able to get a grip on the vine trapping her - and then she yanks, hard, to descend like a IV-I cadence. (She was paying attention to music theory, at least.) An elbow strike in the end, smashing into the body of the thing -
- is that her homework? No, it's nearer the shoulder -
- before rolling off, still ensnared by hopefully less-vibrant vines. "Even if you get away - even if you make us redo all that homework - we're not going to forget the summer we've had. Those are happy memories you can't taint with all the homework in the world! But even so...for the sake of cat-teasing hours lost and sunny days wasted..."
She waits until it's starting to rise again - and then springs forward ahead, fist aiming for the closest crack in that icy shell. "We're going to make you give it all back!"
COMBAT: Unrecognized attack. Please check for typos in the attack name entered.
COMBAT: Cure Melody has used Precure Uppercut on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Cure Melody has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly dodges Cure Melody's Precure Uppercut, taking 16 Fatigue damage! Cure Melody is Psyched!
<Pose Tracker> Takeo Akamizu [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Looking for clues as the location of the missing homework, something that Merlin insists is a Magical event, Take finds himself near Tokyo Tower. He's at the base calmly eating an ice cream cone when a large, monster of Ice and doom and HOMEWORK comes crashing form the top of the tower. Such is the force of the blast and impact that Takeo finds that he is now holding a Waffle Cone
That has no Ice Cream.
Takeo looks from the waffle Cone, to the Ice Cream on the ground melting in the summer heat, to the monster. "My. Ice. Cream." He states softly.
Merlin raises an adorable eyebrow, and asks quizzically, "Takeo? Are - Are you okay?"
Takeo looks to the Ice Cream on the ground. "I spent my last bit of summer allowance on that Ice Cream. It was Mint Chocolate Chip. It was Minty, and Chocolatey, and cold, and," He makes a fist crushing the Waffle Cone. "It was DELICIOUS!"
Lightning flashes in the cloudless sky, and Takeo holds aloft his Medallion. Lightning slams down into the medallion and around the boy, and with each strike, bits of armor appear on the boy, until he holds out hand and a bolt of Lightning forms into the bright white blade of Arondight. Crackling with energy he twirls the blade in a flourish, that sents lightning arcing and parking with each movement of the blade. "YOU!" He calls out his eye narrowing. "YOU have taken that which is most dear to me. FOR THAT YOU WILL TASTE THE BLADE OF LANCELOT!!"
Merlin sighs and shakes his head, ears drooping. "Lancelot. Just... Just take the monster down."
Lancelot surges forward at those words, the blade arcing lighting as he dives in to attack the monster of Ice and Homework Books. He leaps into the crater created by the monster's fall, and as he moves, he leaps through the debris field, bits of Lightning exploding debris as the andry Knight of the Round Table moves. The Debris field flashes in bouts of white light, and he calls out: "LIGHTING SLASH!" Sending a burst of Lightning to clear a path through the field, and send bolts of Lightning in a sword like arc at the Ice Beast. "IN THE NAME OF ALL WAFFLE CONES, I WILL HAVE MY VENGENCE!"
COMBAT: Takeo Akamizu transforms into Lancelot!
COMBAT: Lancelot has used Lightning Slash on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Lancelot has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly dodges Lancelot's Lightning Slash, taking 3 Fatigue damage! Lancelot is Psyched! Blind applied to Honoka Yukishiro!
<Pose Tracker> Honoka Yukishiro [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
The Magic Knight of Wind's next arrow goes zinging past the giant's other ear, and actually clips the top of it, sending a thin shard plummeting towards the ground, a distance that is no longer quite so terrible.
Still, it's slicing towards Cure Melody with dreadful sharpness, and will threaten to impale her just after the giant swings himself backwards, away from her piledriver, in a sort of frantic scoot of his icy butt (which is the size of two school busses pushed together). It gouges the ground, but not in the proper shape...
...how /is/ the giant moving so quickly?
The vines, of course. The vines have blasted out of the ice to form a second pair of legs, so now it's something like a weird plant-arctic centaur. Nori is attached to one such leg, she discovers as she works her way along, Lancelot's lightning sizzling past her and underneath a leg about two and a half hairs' breadth away. The vines are eager to re-establish who is in control here, and a second wave of them flow forth to bury her if they can.
Fully upright again, if supported strangely, Lera gets to buzz his torso and get a good look at the homework within (as does anyone else who takes a moment). Though the ice withstands the plasma blade's full force, it does open another scratch, through which still more vines burst to snatch and grab.
But the homework... the pearl-flickering colors are spreading from book to book, not through direct contact (as they jostle to and fro), but instead through less obvious ways. Some colors seem to create a small, dense web, while others flow freely virtually through the creature's entire body, connecting a wide array of workbooks.
The light is dazzling, mesmerizing.
Not quite as bright, but still spectacular, is the way that Masque Feu's fireball is met midway through the air by another round of those horrible red eyebeams, which punch through it to sizzle the Seour with great prejudice. This doesn't come without cost for Marathon, whose shoulder is a bit melted from the spread of holy flames.
But he's had quite enough, it seems, and rears back on three legs to lift the fourth, one of the ones composed of ice. It axe-kicks at the girl, trying to swat her out of the air to be crushed beneath his foot, which is quite large enough to also crush the incoming Lancelot and nearby Magic Knight in the same painful moment.
COIN FLIP: Masque Feu flips a coin. It lands on heads!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Icy Shard on Cure Melody.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Vine Wrap on Lera Camry.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Vine Wrap on La Sirene du Nord.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Massive Stomp on Masque Feu.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Massive Stomp on Fuu Hououji.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Massive Stomp on Lancelot.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Masque Feu narrowly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Massive Stomp, taking 23 Fatigue damage! Masque Feu's Flash ability activates!
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji perfectly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Massive Stomp, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Critical Dodge! Fuu Hououji's Fade ability activates! Fuu Hououji's Flash ability activates!
COMBAT: Cure Melody narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Icy Shard, taking 15 Fatigue damage! Cure Melody's Block ability activates! Cure Melody's Parry ability activates!
COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord fails to dodge Honoka Yukishiro's Vine Wrap, taking 18 Fatigue damage! Tangle and Trap applied to La Sirene du Nord!
COMBAT: Lera Camry perfectly counters Honoka Yukishiro's Vine Wrap, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Counter! Lera Camry's Reverse ability activates! Lera Camry's Tactician ability activates!
COMBAT: Lera Camry's counterattack, Aura Surge, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Honoka Yukishiro!
COMBAT: Lancelot fails to dodge Honoka Yukishiro's Massive Stomp, taking 52 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit!
COIN FLIP: Masque Feu flips a coin. It lands on heads!
<Pose Tracker> Lancelot [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
"Ow."
That really felt like the best way to describe the feeling he was having. He'd like to say it was new. That feeling of being stomped on by a giant being of evil and hatred. But Really. It's not. Lancelot laws on the ground and tries to speak. Something pithy. Something that shows his great Wit. For surely there must be words that fit this situation. So he opens his mouth and says, "Ow." Once again.
Nailed it.
Pushing himself to his feet, he shakes his head and makes sure that yes, indeed, all his limbs do still work. Little stiff. Litlte Bruised (IE A LOT Bruised.) But other than that he felt simply great. He stretched Arondight out at the Icebound Homework Monster and cried out, "HEY! MC STOMPY STOMPY FACE!" Lighting coalesced on the end of Arondight, "YOUR SENSELESS DESTRUCTION OF MINT CHOCOLATE CHIP HAS COME TO AN END!" And a bolt of Lightning arcs from the tip of the Blade to the Monster.
COMBAT: Lancelot has used Static Shock on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Lancelot has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Lancelot's Static Shock, taking 11 Fatigue damage! Lancelot is Psyched!
<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
"It can change to--to do whatever it needs to!" Lera cries out as she sees that second pair of legs form. Her eyes widen, especially as vines emerge from the scratch she made and strike out at her. She flies a little faster, trying to outrace them at first, until Sky calls out:
<Lera! They're gaining on you!> the Device yells. She grits her teeth and does a midair pirouette, turning one hundred and eighty degrees to simply whirl about and face the vines coming. She swings Sky out, a glimmer of white and golden light dancing up the length of his blade; then, as the vines come in, she chops the sword down hard.
<Aura Surge!>
There is a colossal, brilliant white flash of light. The blade ignites with the flash of energy which beat the vines backward for a moment, and buy Lera time to get away. She flies backward while facing it, then directs the sword downward, pointing it towards the monster. She sucks a deep breath in, then, and grits her teeth. "Look, we worked really hard on this thing!" she yells. "We've tried to do all our homework, y'know? O-or most of it, or we were planning to do it, and... and things came up!"
<Lera...>
"R-Right," she says, with an awkward laugh. "The point is... we can let you just take it away from everyone! We put all of our heart into that homework -- or we're gonna! -- so we can have fun with our friends! So... so we can see the people we care about!" Her eyes widen, as she thinks of everything she went through this summer -- of all the hard times, of all the good times, of all the things she did.
"So we can... so we can make this a summer to remember!" she yells. Soaring Sky flashes; light floods up around her, as her feet come to rest of a magical circle floating in midair. "And I won't let you take it away from any of us!"
COMBAT: Lera Camry has used Soaring Dreams! Fiery Love! on Lera Camry.
COMBAT: Lera Camry has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Lera Camry accepts Lera Camry's Soaring Dreams! Fiery Love!, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Accelerate and Empower applied to Lera Camry!
<Pose Tracker> Masque Feu [Juuban Public School (11)] has posed.
Masque Feu, lone representative of the Soeurs of the Silver Star, is not covering herself in glory right now.
The fireball manages to get through; she gets a laser back. As she hangs there in mid-jump, her eyes go very, very wide and--
- I wonder if this is what they will say of me. Miuchi Seika, a girl who could not be a good Soeur. Perhaps it would have been better had I chased that dove out of my condo that day, for all that I have been able to succeed in finding onii-sama. And now I am going to be killed by everyone's summer homework. I cannot even save my trapper-keeper.
- Destiny is cruel.
- I am sorry, Shirou.
The dazzling light tears through her. Red energy catches the lone Soeur in midair and rakes across her in successive waves of death. Arcs of it crackle violently around her. The pain is simply blinding. She arches back in the air, unbidden as muscles contract in agony.
She screams. The sound tears at her throat, and at the air, a long, piercing sound of pure suffering.
As the beams pass, the dark-haired girl is left plummeting towards the Earth. Ashy cinders stream off her.
Small, twinkling tears follow as she goes. She can't hold them back.
- I'm a failure.
She cannot even begin to defend herself against the massive foot descending upon her. Its shadow falls over her.
It hits the ground with a thundering crash. Plumes of dust are kicked up.
Silence falls for key seconds.
"MASQUE FEU!!" Augustine shrieks at the top of his lungs, his voice breaking with sudden anguish.
Nothing happens for several heartbeats.
- But I am also Miuchi Seika.
Teeth click together like iron - and tormented muscles /strain./
Beneath the impossible bulk of that foot, a girl begins to rise. Her palms press against that monstrous arch. Long legs brace, sharp heels digging into ravaged turf.
The tears pouring down from beneath Masque Feu's mask gleam in the shining light of the blessed flame as she struggles, with all her might, to try and push Marathon's foot up from the ground. It is a Herculean task. She is really not that strong; she's so hurt she should barely be standing. It is all she can do to breathe. She gasps as she struggles to make headway. Her legs threaten to give out beneath her.
- And I stand with grace no matter how much it hurts.
- I walk with grace even to my death.
"BLESSED FLAAAAAME," she roars, her voice guttering in her throat uncharacteristically as she throws her head back and squeezes her eyes closed. Her heart pounds against her chest as fire pours up her arms, cascading up to her hands.
"PUUUUURE /SPAAAAAAAAARK!!!/" she screams with all her heart.
The Blessed Flame rises. It explodes from her hands. It rips upwards as she tries with all her might to pour blast after blast into the sole of Marathon's foot. She fires again and again, as much as she can - hellbent on expending every last joule of her energy to try and send that flame up Marathon's leg - to try and burn away that ice and leave only pure, intact homework.
COMBAT: Masque Feu has used Purespark Barrage on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Masque Feu has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Masque Feu's Purespark Barrage, taking 13 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Cure Melody [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
There's a shadow overhead, as Marathon drags itself away from Cure Melody's righteous vengeance - though she seems determined to pursue all the same. Only the last-minute chiming from Dori - the Fairy Tone hidden by the Cure Module she wears - alerts her to danger at the last moment. She looks up, seeing the icy shard falling too late to properly get out of the way-
But she can roll with the impact, at least. Or rather, get buffeted aside from the force of its descent - tumbling wildly along the ground. Cure Melody rises - unfortunately distanced from the monster now, but still more than ready to get her hard work back.
...those assignments weren't glowing when she completed them, right?
It's dazzling - but she's shaken from those musings by heroic speeches of a nature she hasn't quite heard before - though she can't help but grin at Lancelot's vocal defence of ice cream. "That's the spirit! Don't forget that it's an ally to those who set homew-" She winces as the monster -steps- on the knight, and starts running back into the fray. "...keep fighting the good fight!"
And the good fight is - getting their hard work back from this enemy. Marathon somehow manages to loom even higher, now that it's growing new limbs...but if she were the type to back down from a towering monster, she wouldn't be who she is. Wouldn't be Hibiki Houjou, wouldn't be Cure Melody.
"That's right!" She chimes in as Lera makes her own declaration, running up the side of the tower again to get some height on the monster. "Whether we were sensible enough to get our work done ahead of time, or had to rush over the last few days...we've sacrificed for the sake of what you stole! For the sake of enjoying this last week of summer vacation-"
One can almost hear holy refrains chiming as she leaps from the structure, briefly shadowed by the light behind her before descending with a mighty axe kick. "-we won't lose!"
COMBAT: Cure Melody has used Choral Crash on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Cure Melody has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly dodges Cure Melody's Choral Crash, taking 6 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
The Magic Knight of Wind bolts as she sees that massive leg rising up to smite her, and - with a last-second dive and roll - just barely gets clear before looking back to see how the less-magical knight took it ...
And winces. At least he's still alive, and conscious, and capable of throwing attacks; however, the same can still be said for this 'Marathon' creature, and it's gotten even bigger from the looks of things.
As Masque Feu tirms her fire loose on the monster, the Wind Knight takes a moment to study the monster and the Pure Spark's effect on it - and then calls out once again, "Winds of Admonishment!!" For the second time, she attempts to bind Marathon with her restraining whirlwind - but she's also trying to feed Masque Feu's flame and spread it further around the monster's icy form; if the whirlwind itself can't hold the monster still, it'll be interesting to see how well it walks or stomps with a leg melting underneath it ...
"Hang in there, everyone!" she calls out. "We can still defeat this monster and reclaim everyone's stolen homework!"
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Winds of Admonishment on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly counters Fuu Hououji's Winds of Admonishment, taking 13 Fatigue damage! Fuu Hououji is Psyched! Honoka Yukishiro's Reverse ability activates! Cripple and Trap applied to Honoka Yukishiro!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro's counterattack, Laserbeam Detonation, partially gets through, doing 12 Fatigue damage to Fuu Hououji!
<Pose Tracker> La Sirene du Nord [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
Even as shining light beams out in a gorgeous weavery above her, la Sirene is buried in the vines, the wrapping growing thicker. She strains within, but... well, for all her bluster, the creature really has her, not the other way around!
Buried in darkness, closeness, living things alike, la Sirene strains - but she ends up crouching to try and get more space. She can't just pull herself through her own legs, though, and soon enough she's pulled down closer, the vines implacable. The ground shakes as that stomp ripples out.
I can't breathe, la Sirene thinks. Pulling inwards, she wrenches the Brazen Pharos in with her - but all that does is add a fresh sea-scent to the closing confines within. Despair tugs at her for a moment as the tension builds; her back pops with chiropractic noise.
In the dark, la Sirene sees a momentary play of colors through the seams of the Brazen Pharos. It comes to her -
"North, South, East and West, I salute you," she strains out through her lips, like a half forgotten song: "Twinned in the mirror, the wind ever blowing, endless and silver and for and ever flowing -"
La Sirene's voice picks up slightly. "Flying and riding and crossing the poles, skies of gray and wings of gold, raven and swan crossing the moon, sailing languid through the gloom -"
Something gleams through the crack in the vines. "Hidden from sight as it casts its white fires, your light fed these bonds and I BREAK THEM-" And when she breaks the rhythm the light bursts outwards -- rending the vines asunder, and perhaps their roots as well!
COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord has used Salute the Four Corners on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to dodge La Sirene du Nord's Salute the Four Corners, taking 23 Fatigue damage! Bind Break! All of La Sirene du Nord's debuffs are cleared!
<Pose Tracker> Honoka Yukishiro [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
Lancelot's sacred lightning and Masque Feu's blessed fire blast out in tandem, trying to give the icy giant a hotfoot that he can't ignore. He reels back, his weight crunching vines and roots into the crater deeply -- just in time to once again send Cure Melody soaring past him, instead of, probably, /through/ him.
Bleeding ruby light pools in his eyes to leak into the rising tornado sent aloft by the Magic Knight of Wind; it swirls about, a maelstrom of energy, before blasting at both of them in turn. This detonation happens at the same moment as La Sirene's, which utterly shears her branch of vines -- and thus one of the monster's four legs -- in two.
Within, the light is no longer spreading. For the time being, the connections between workbooks have reached their limit. The majority, thousands upon thousands, are actually untouched, plain paper and hard, hard work. It is only ten percent, perhaps less, maybe even /far/ less -- for Tokyo is vast -- that cradle newborn radiance the shade of these girls' hearts.
It is their homework -- and that of everyone important to them, and everyone important to /them/, unto the second degree. And this becomes obvious, in the moment, because shafts of light blast out from the books, refracted through the crystalline glacier of the giant's cracked bulk, to penetrate each girl's chest.
Visions of their friends, rivals, and even most heated enemies swirl in the heart's eye. Each of them, no matter their relationship, working so hard on their homework, at desks and underneath trees, all at once or patiently, gradually, over time. Feelings of accomplishment, triumph and victory, the many small summer memories created not through festivals or beach trips but alone and amongst friends, united around a common cause that may not be inspirational but is, certainly, inexorably a presence, a thread woven through everyone's lives.
And while this distraction takes place -- MARATHON, oddly, is no longer roaring, his voice apparently also stolen by the surprise lightshow. He staggers another crunching step back, repelled by that which has sprouted from him, the foot melted nearly to a puddle crumpling under his own weight.
An opening!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Eye of the Heart on La Sirene du Nord.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Eye of the Heart on Fuu Hououji.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Eye of the Heart on Cure Melody.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Eye of the Heart on Masque Feu.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Eye of the Heart on Lera Camry.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Eye of the Heart on Lancelot.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Masque Feu accepts Honoka Yukishiro's Eye of the Heart, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Diversion applied to Masque Feu! Empower applied to Masque Feu!
COMBAT: Cure Melody accepts Honoka Yukishiro's Eye of the Heart, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Blind and Diversion applied to Cure Melody! Empower applied to Cure Melody!
COMBAT: Lancelot accepts Honoka Yukishiro's Eye of the Heart, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Blind and Diversion applied to Lancelot! Empower applied to Lancelot!
COMBAT: Lera Camry accepts Honoka Yukishiro's Eye of the Heart, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Diversion applied to Lera Camry! Empower applied to Lera Camry!
COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord accepts Honoka Yukishiro's Eye of the Heart, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Blind and Diversion applied to La Sirene du Nord! Empower applied to La Sirene du Nord!
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji accepts Honoka Yukishiro's Eye of the Heart, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Blind and Diversion applied to Fuu Hououji! Empower applied to Fuu Hououji!
<Pose Tracker> Lancelot [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Marathon hit shim, and the girls around him, with that light show, showing him all the work that others have done. He briefly wonders if maybe HE should have done just as much work. To have poured his dedication and hard work into a project, to find fulfillment in accomplishment and a sense of completion in finishing the Homework.
"Naw. I just want my Mint Chocolate Chip Back."
With those words he holds Arondight to the side and lightning begins to hammer down on the white blade. The energy gathered there making the blade even brighter with each lightning strike. Tens, hundreds, of strikes hammer down on the Demon Bane and Lancelot smiles slightly. "You want a Light Show you Ice Cream Murdering Fiend?" He surges forward at impossible speed and cries out: "LIGHTNING!!" Then he strikes. One swing of Arondight toward the belly of the beast that is Marathon and then cries out, "BARRAGE!!"
The energy in the blade explodes outwards, hundreds of bolts of lightning arcs outward and toward the creature of Darkness and Homework. Each bolt joined by the crack of thunder. The Booming thunder and Lightning echo off the Crater's walls, and Lancelot lands on the other side of the monster in a crouch. He looks over his shoulder, seeing if his attack was successful or not.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Lancelot has used Lightning Barrage on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Lancelot has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
The visions that swirl through Lera's mind are distracting, to say the least. She sees Fate, working so hard over her workbook; she sees Ren Aizawa and Endo Naoki, sitting back to back, while they work on their homework. Many friends dance through her mind -- though, one doesn't, and that absence is just as notable and just as distracting.
After all, Setsuna Higashi doesn't go to any school. She wouldn't need to worry about this. Somehow, that bothers Lera as much as her friends' plight.
<Lera!> Soaring Sky chimes. <He's distracted! I'm not sure why, but-->
"Yeah! I know, Sky!" she answers her partner. "We can't let this opportunity slip by, y'know?" She shakes her head, trying to clear it, and lowers her weapon. She points her sword downward at Marathon, as she stands on the magical circle underneath her feet. It supports her weight, as the blade in her hand splits up the middle. Lightning shimmers and dances between the two blade-halves.
A faint white glow picks up between them, before it grows brighter and brighter. Lera grits her teeth, setting her feet on the magical circle -- and a trio of orange-red control rings appear. Each turns rapidly, filled with Midchildan characters, as she points the sword down the center of them.
<Aurora Burst-->
The spell releases. A massive pulse of light shoots out of the blade, a beam of energy firing through the control rings. As it passes through each, it grows in size -- and glows bright, going from a bright orange to a bright gold to a brilliant, blinding white, before it comes careening down towards Marathon. Over the roar and blast of the blade, Lera lets out a cry:
"RAAAAAAAAAY!"
COMBAT: FINISHER! Lera Camry has used Aurora Burst Ray on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Lera Camry has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Masque Feu [Juuban Public School (11)] has posed.
Right now, Masque Feu would like to call out to her friends - would like to talk to them, assure her that she is with them. Right now, she cannot. She's stuck beneath a foot that she is currently trying to set on fire. Only as the beast stumbles back does she lurch forward -
And light shines through her. Her eyes squeeze closed.
Fate Testarossa, dreading what school might be.
Lera Camry, getting it done to enjoy a fun summer.
Tokiha Mai, scribbling it out in some setting or another.
Nori Ankou, somehow looking incredibly elegant about schoolwork.
Miuchi Shirou, hunched over his desk, a pen in hand.
Amane Yukimi, scribbling in a workbook.
Naoki Endo, opening a textbook.
I can feel you all.
All the love you poured into this simple thing.
The hard work and care put into something as onerous as schoolwork. Even though we all don't like homework... I can feel it.
Tears bead down her face more readily as she stumbles forward. She breathes heavily, sweat beading down her face, her muscles wailing in protest.
Nevertheless she tosses her hair back with a crackle of majestic dark ringlets - and she smiles. The light of that smile practically radiates as bright as the light that poured into her heart.
"My friends," she whispers. Her voice is hoarse with pain, but steady now.
"I can feel your love...!"
Billows of Blessed Flame stream out around Masque Feu. She thought she had reached the bottom of her power withstanding Marathon. The power of all that passion and will pours more into her. It burns through her like radiance. Drawing herself up, she breathes in, steadying the burning silvery feeling, as though all the hard work of her friends had converted itself into magic. Silver sparkles dance behind the coils of fire that rise up her right arm, into her splayed palm. The fire compacts and compresses, burning itself down to a bright shining spark that's too bright to even look at."
"I call upon the blessing of the summer," she intones. Her voice echoes.
And then, with a sudden flourish, she swings that arm. Only a fading shower of silver sparkles flies free. Innocuously. The little silver motes of light dance in the air, slowly twinkling towards Marathon, fading into invisibility as they approach. It is as though she has just thrown a handful of harmless, incredibly slow-moving glitter.
Until, as one, each spark begins to wink to life - and the Sacred Flame /roars./ It blazes in the air as those sparkles ignite into vast sheets of the Blessed Flame, as hot as a summer's day.
The flame /sings./ It threatens to melt away the ice and leave only finished homework.
COMBAT: Masque Feu has used Vacation of the Lambs on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Masque Feu has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Cure Melody [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
<SoundTracker> Pretty Cure's Great Action - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XEb5BpvUBI
Pavement craters from an impact - a shame, because it was meant to be the monster that was broken like this. Still, Cure Melody is grinning beatifically - Marathon is being hammered, and is practically on the run. She turns, prepared to try to smash through that ice entirely-
And is dazzled - nay, blinded by the light shining within.
She can't see the ice-vine thief-monster, but she can see something far more important. Herself, hard at work, as a cat and half a dozen fairies cheer her on. Her best friend, far more diligent, trying to get work out of the day for the sake of time together. Summer days shared in heat and in rain, at park and at beach, while swimming and while playing the piano. Visions, too, of everyone else important to her - of friends, of her friend's brother, of her parents spending their summer in distant realms...but it's summer with those important to her.
She's had a good vacation, especially for having spent it with her best friend.
And even if they have to do the work again, they'll do it together.
Still dazzled by brilliant pink and white, Cure Melody blinks to try to bring herself back to the present. The monster that's stolen their homework is still standing, stunned by...whatever that was. And as much as those visions have sapped her anger...her determination is returning threefold as she grins. It's not just -her- homework she needs to get back, after all...there's another notebook in there, decorated in elegant white.
"Everyone's hard work - it's time you gave it back! Resonate, the wild rhythm!" Staffs of music appear, swirling around Cure Melody with bright notes of triumph - and she strums them like guitars, sweeps them like glissandos on a piano, brings the music to life with boundless joyful chaos. It flies out, shining brilliantly as it swirls around the monster as the Pretty Cure calls out. "Scatenato Slide! Finale~!"
The music is brilliant, joyous, and once wrapped around the monster, explosive.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Cure Melody has used Scatenato Slide on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Cure Melody has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
The Wind Knight is caught by surprise as the light from within the monster seeks her out - reaffirmation, it seems, that the goal is close at hand, that the efforts of a summer will not be wasted.
She lets her bow and quiver disappear once more, gathering the full power of her will and summoning up the winds about her. "It would seem," she muses, "that the one who will feel true despair is the one who was behind this plot ..."
"EMERALD CYCLONE!!" she calls out, gathering the full fury of the stormwinds and flinging them at Marathon in the form of a rending but focused gale. It *has* to be focused - too much power could rip right through Marathon's 'shell' and start shredding the piles of completed homework. Fuu knows full well how much trouble she went to in order to complete her assignments; she's not going to let anyone else suffer the permanent loss of so much toil and effort, any more than she would want to endure it herself.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Fuu Hououji has used Emerald Cyclone: Focused on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> La Sirene du Nord [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
La Sirene rips herself free and spreads her arms, even as the workbooks gleam. And then - shining shafts of light roll down, piercing la Sirene through her blouse's ruff. (Batiste squeaks in dismay, having been scrabbling on the outside of the vines all this time.)
Memories ripple through la Sirene. Not without their pains, of course. But painful memories can be a sweet sorrow at times. She clasps at her chest, mouth hanging slack -- but everyone had to do it. Madoka, Usagi, Kozue, Seika, more besides - all of them working their way through -
Batiste jumps on her shoulder, disrupting that revierie. "It's falling back - Now, la Sirene!"
"Y-yes!" She hoists up the Brazen Pharos, grasping it with both hands with a single brassy clatter as she tilts her head back. This close...
"I call you. I call you forth! L'appel de la Tempete!" she cries - and the storm winds surge out of the Pharos's eye, a sudden searing burst of tropical warmth and humidity. And, of course, incredible gale-force winds that propel that hot air forwards and over the ice - to say nothing of the crackling half-stifled /thunder/bolts that come from this up-close summoning of the storm - but even a sunny summer has the occasional stormy day, and it's good to listen to the rain and play board games now and again.
COMBAT: FINISHER! La Sirene du Nord has used L'Appel de la Tempete on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to brace Fuu Hououji's Finisher, Emerald Cyclone: Focused, taking 37 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to brace Masque Feu's Vacation of the Lambs, taking 36 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to brace Lera Camry's Finisher, Aurora Burst Ray, taking 153 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to brace Lancelot's Finisher, Lightning Barrage, taking 62 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to brace La Sirene du Nord's Finisher, L'Appel de la Tempete, taking 101 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro is unable to keep fighting!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to brace Cure Melody's Finisher, Scatenato Slide, taking 68 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro is unable to keep fighting!
<Pose Tracker> Honoka Yukishiro [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
The red energy projectors that make up the monster's eyes are crackling with the light blazing from all inward directions, unable to see properly. The speaker-mouth fizzles out with a single miserable spark, though the vine-lips surrounding it continue to writhe into a strange, pained smile.
As the manifold bolts of lightning converge into a single awful stroke, Lancelot's heavenly wrath merges with that of Midchildan creation. Lera's blinding white burst sheathes the Knight's blast until they are both too painful to look at directly.
A different kind of storm emerges from the dark lantern of La Sirene, which meets the Magic Knight of Wind's cyclone halfway, the two becoming one larger, deadlier maelstrom that no amount of ice, no matter how thick, can hope to endure.
And a mix of Blessed Flame and wonderful, powerful music entwine the creature on all sides, roaring with heat and resounding with melody, every bar afire, every tongue of flame now also blessed with song.
There is definitely a serious concern that all that precious homework within the creature will be unable to stand the convergence of sheer power rendered against it, but amid the whirling strobe of rainbow explosion, two truths narrowly come to light:
Most of the homework -- the vast, vast majority, everything untouched by the magical girls' connecting light -- shimmers sunny golden and roseate pink, the sorts of colors that tend to herald purification, restoration -- and vanishes, just in the nick of time. Saved!
The creature itself comes apart -- roots withered, vines incinerated, ice rendered into powdered snow, which falls upon Tokyo Tower in late August. There is enough to make snowballs and statuary.
But the girls' homework, and that of those close to them, friends and foes and family and, perhaps most crucially, teammates'...
...is ensconced in a wave of darkness, a bitterly violet aura that comes from nothing good, nothing at all. It also vanishes.
---
Elsewhere, the stack of newly retrieved workbooks is far, far smaller than it was before, but now it is more precious by far.
"You see? /Magical girls/, hah. They care so much for those around them -- especially their allies! Now we can focus not on the big picture, but getting everything we can in a very... targeted... fashion. We may well have the workbooks of every magical girl in Tokyo. The second degree is more than enough, the way these girls cling together. Their 'strength' is truly weakness."
"Enough euphemism. You tire me."
"I'll have a courier transport these to the batteries. If you'd be so good as to send the notes...?"
"They're already being delivered."
---
They appear in drawers and on desks, somehow only findable by the people themselves, and they vanish instantly once they've been read. Elegant, curling calligraphy poses a sinuous threat in deadly earnest:
If you want your homework back -- and that of all your friends -- come to these coordinates tomorrow night.
Under the terms of this plan, quite a few normal people would receive the note too, of course, innocents who have no idea that they are an important part of the life of a magical girl, or even just the friend of a friend. But the senders know well how seriously they'll take such a thing; it's just a prank, a hoax, a fake. Their missing homework is surely just in another drawer, or under the bed, or up in the attic.
They've got to find it, or remake it, stealing the last of their summer.
Cry and wail...
TO BE CONCLUDED SATURDAY
