2015-12-16 - The Terribads Try To Take Tokyo
| Title: The Terribads Try To Take Tokyo | |
|---|---|
| Summary: The Phantom Empire begins an attack on Tokyo, by transforming a girl's happiness into despair. | |
| Who: Lera Camry, Cure Heart, Cure Melody, Steven Universe, Sailor Mercury, Fuu Hououji, Cure Rhythm, Cure Pine, Cure Fortune | |
| Where: Shinjuku Capital Ward | |
| OOC - IC Date: Sep 15 2014 - 12/16/2015 | |
<Pose Tracker> Honoka Yukishiro [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
Okinawa might as well have been in another lifetime, because back in Tokyo, autumn is in full swing. The leaves are just beginning to turn, shimmering with hints of scarlet and gold, and a chilly breeze occasionally blusters through the streets, the herald of oncoming frost. The sounds, sights and smells of school are paramount; kids swinging beautifully wrapped bento (or a few yen for curry bread) back and forth on their way to school; and struggling beneath the burden of large stacks of books on the way home.
Especially beleaguered are the ninth graders, who will, in another few months, face the greatest academic challenge of their career thus far: high school entrance exams. Every subject's teacher has given the class a stern lecture, a list of study guides, and advice about after-school 'cram school' study programs.
There are several truly impressive seminars, but the best of the best is in the heart of Yamanote, surrounded by mountains of glass and chrome. It remains hunkered low to the ground as though clinging with all its might, refusing to be blown away -- and the only thing that has allowed this merely three-story building to stand the test of time, development, and rising property values, is its sheer history of excellence.
Anyone can attend the Twin Swans cram school, but only the dedicated can stay; at the end of each week, they administer a practice exam, and anyone who has failed to master the material is replaced. The waiting list is essentially infinite -- there are always more students eager to throw themselves onto the machine (or be thrown by their parents, anyway).
A garden of brightly-colored school uniforms mingle outside, somehow forming a contiguous clump even as they're buffeted by the tides of salarymen, executives, shoppers and tourists who throng along this major avenue. It is the first day of a new sequence at Twin Swans, and all of their first day in the program. One, Juuban Middle School 9th grader Shiina Suzuki, is especially starry-eyed. She sings to herself quietly as she marches towards these hallowed halls.
o/` "Laaaaa, I'm gonna work really hard / study every day / and every night too! Laaaaa, I'm gonna work so hard / I pass the test / into Mama's high school..." o/`
Most adults smother smiles as they pass this pigtailed studymaniac, but one has to choke back his own vomit. "Being woken up from a nap by a song about hard work... truly, this must be hell, cheerio." He's perched on the roof of the cram school, dapper in top hat, long coat and cane. Little antennae sprout from the hat, not dissimilar to a grasshopper's.
His golden eyes narrow. "But today, at long last, we shall step out of the shadows and take this hideously productive city face on, pip pip."
Leaping down to balance on a nearby lamppost, he points his cane straight at young Shiina. "NOW! LET THE FUTURE REFLECTED BY THE MIRROR TURN TERRIBLE!" A blast of light later, the girl is trapped inside a dark mirror, bound by ribbons. Her eyes are closed, her face overwrought with despair. "COME OUT, TERRIBAD!"
All that's left of the girl is that sad reflection... and the immense monster that has taken her place, out in the real world. It is a good twenty feet tall, but with squat proportions. Black legs and arms emerge from its torso, which is a calculator; it holds a book in one hand, and a ruler in the other. Mirrored red sunglasses hide its face, and a jaunty green scarf is hung around its neck.
As soon as it takes its first stomping step into the street, horrible blooms of mold -- green and blue and pink and purple -- coat the area all around, and people, in turn, begin to cough, poison entering their lungs. The mere presence of this monster is transforming Tokyo into an environment not at all suited for human life!
And sprouting alongside the cloudlike mold are human-sized creatures that could not be more unlike clouds. They're of simple construction, the Kindabads, a black body with gray boots, gloves, and belt. Their red sunglasses match the Terribad's, and is the only thing that gives them the idea of a face -- otherwise, their heads could be mistaken for black marbles.
"CHOIIIIIII!" they shout as one, their kinda scary battle cry, as they try to topple and tangle every passerby in sight, rather than allowing them to escape the encroaching mold.
Up on his lamppost, Namakelder smirks with pure satisfaction. "Ahahahaha! The time has come! This world now belongs to Queen Mirage and her Phantom Empire!"
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro transforms into Terribad and Kindabads!! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has fully healed herself. She is now ready to take on 10 opponents!
<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
Lera Camry passed her high school entrance exams long ago, of course. She has been in high school for months now; she is helping with some English studying, though, as a volunteer position. What better way to put her skills (that may be one word for it) as a native speaker (she is not) to use?
She stops and sighs, though, trying to keep her cheer up; it doesn't last long, though, because being near people preparing for such exams is leads to no small amount of sympathetic stress. She looks up with alarm, though, when she hears voices cry out:
'CHOIIIIIII!'
The orange-haired girl's head snaps to look at the gigantic monster /and/ the human-sized creatures running around it. Her amber eyes widen; the bag on her shoulder slips when her shoulders tense up. "Wh-what is...?"
<I've never seen anything like it!> Soaring Sky states. <Lera, we better...>
"Right!" Lera cries out. "Soaring Sky, SET UP!"
<Get set!>
There is a flash of green light, underneath her feet. It shoots up around her; her jacket ruffles outward as it forms, long and green. A feather charm appears in her hair, the orange-tipped feather flashing into existence. Lera winks -- and a broadsword-shaped Armed Device appears in her hand, stretched out and pointed towards the Kindabads. Then, she glances up at the Terribad, and finally the Namakelder.
"We're not gonna let you conquer the world!" she yells. "Th--that just won't fly at all, y'know?"
<Gladiator Form!> Soaring Sky chimes. The broadsword splits up the middle, into two bronze-colored sabers. With one in each hand, Lera dives at the Kindabads; she leads with the left, slashing for one. Then the girl pivots on her right heel, the right sword slashing for a second Kindabad, and ends with a stab from the right saber at the third solder of the Phantom Empire. <Rapid Skyfall!>
COMBAT: Lera Camry transforms into Barrier Jacket Perihelion! COMBAT: Lera Camry has used Rapid Skyfall on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Lera Camry has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to counter Lera Camry's Rapid Skyfall, taking 27 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro's counterattack, Strength In Numbers, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Lera Camry!
<Pose Tracker> Mana Aida [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.
For Mana Aida, worries about cram school and graduation are still a long ways away.
Well, okay, a year away.
That doesn't stop her from skipping her way towards the cram school, though, a large box of something tucked under her arm. The sweet scent of warm peach-jam buns wafts from the box as she skips along. She's not alone, though.
"Mana, those smell so good!" Charle, the tiny fairy, whispers from the book bag slung over Mana's other arm. "Are you sure we can't have any...?"
"Mmnt-mmn!" Mana says with a shake of her head and a smile. "These are for the students who are waiting in line to study! You can't cram on an empty stomach, you know! And there's nothing like my dad's peach-jam buns to keep your energy up!" She grins and indulges in a twirl, nearly dislodging both a couple of buns and a startled Charle.
And then, suddenly, something happens in the distance. Mana gasps and touches her free hand to her heart as she stares ahead, watching the glasses-wearing... something... spring into existence. Something wearing a calculator.
"Mana!" Charle exclaims, eyes wide as she wiggles out of Mana's book bag. "That's--"
Mana presses her lips together, surprise giving way to focus. "Is it an Ego?"
"I don't think so," Charle murmurs worriedly. "I don't... I don't know /what/ it is."
Mana knits her brows a little - she's not an experienced enough fighter to grasp what she's facing. "...But it doesn't matter," she finally says with a sharp nod. "We've got to do something. Charle--!"
"Mm!" The tiny fairy pops up into the air, and Mana steps into a side alley just in time for the little pink sprite to poof into a puff of smoke and emerge as a cell phone. "Charle!!"
Quickly, Mana grasps her Lovely Commune and drags her finger across the screen to spell out four letters. Charle is kind enough to call them out.
"L~ O~ V~ E~"
The heart at the centre of the PDA pulses - and in a shimmer of magic, Mana lets the transformation begin.
A few seconds pass.
And then there's a sudden click of heels as a blur of blonde hair and pink and magenta touches down. With a twirl, the arriving Precure spins about and comes to bear with a smile.
"Overflowing love!
"Cure Heart!!"
With a broad, steady smile, she brings her hands up to the brooch at her chest to form a heart.
"Poor calculator-san who has lost his love," she says, the heart coming up with a twinkle. "Cure Heart will restore your beating heart!"
COMBAT: Mana Aida transforms into Cure Heart! COMBAT: Cure Heart has used Cure Heart Will Restore Your Beating Heart on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Cure Heart has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Cure Heart's Cure Heart Will Restore Your Beating Heart, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Cure Heart is Psyched! Honoka Yukishiro's Block ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Parry ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Hibiki Houjou [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
There stands, amid the crowd, an embodiment of utmost despair. Clad in the baby blue of an Infinity middle school uniform, Hibiki Houjou looks upon her schoolbooks and despairs. It's a tight-packed crowd, and she's stuck between several taller students - left with little to focus on but the tests hastily stuffed into the pages of her book. Hidden well enough that none can see just what the number on her last math test was.
One might, however, be able to hazard a guess as to how many digits that number is....and so, Hibiki's despair.
"I'm doomed. Totally, utterly, doomed. I'm sorry, Kanade, but after this year it's going to be goodbye, there's no way I'm going to be able to keep up..." She looks up at the building looming overhead, with promises of academic glory...and a shining light ready to burn those fools who reach for something they cannot attain. Finally, though, she turns to Kanade, eyes wide and imploring. "You'll...you'll still come visit me after going ahead, right?..."
And then - absolute -cheerfulness- in the face of academia, enough to break her despair and instead leave her temple twitching. "...did she have this fabled 'too much sugar' you keep claiming exists? Because if studying's that fun..." Hibiki turns, ready to give the girl a piece of her mind-
-and catches a glimpse of Namakelder, unleashing the monster within. The Terribad looms, it gleams, it seems even more invested in studying than the girl was - and the world becomes that much more terrible. "What in the world - ack, ack!" The clouds leave her coughing, just as the gloating begins... "...we wanted to try to do a little better, and you're ruining that with this kind of scheme?!"
She catches Kanade's eye, reaching into her pocket for the instrument within as those around her begin to fall. "Unforgivable!"
There is light. There is miraculous music. And there is a figure in ruffled pink, sprinting through the ominous fog towards the nearest gathering of the monstrous horde. "Strumming the wild rhythm - Cure Melody! And thank you so much for giving me something to hit besides the books!"
She's going to be doing a lot of non-book hitting, if she has anything to say about it.
COMBAT: Hibiki Houjou transforms into Cure Melody! COMBAT: Cure Melody has used 3/4 Punch on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Cure Melody has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly dodges Cure Melody's 3/4 Punch, taking 7 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro's Fade ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Flash ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Steven Universe [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.
Another field trip of sorts!
Well, sort of. Steven had been directed to check out the Twin Swan, a school dedicated to help others study. If they have the aptitude for it, that is. While the small child does not require it yet, it is good to know about fofered facilities. You never know whe nsomething comes up that onen eeds a little extra help with, am I right?
Mr. Universe seems to be mingling with a group of kids his age, still dressed in his school uniform, looking rather dapper in it, if he says so himself! "So they help people that are having trouble with subjects? That sounds really cool! I am having a little difficulty with math, but I am getting help from my teacher. if it gets much harder though...!"
Ofcourse, everything jsut goes utterly south, as a nearby student gets captured in a... mirror? What? "Is that part of the hazing I hear about in older grades?" And then a rather nefarious looking thing appears that is definitely not part of high school hazing tradition. "...A monster! Oh yeah! Someone is itching for a fight! I am still amped up after yesterday's softball game!"
"Wish the Gems were here," he says to hismelf as the mold cloys at the air around. He can hold his breath for longer than most people for unknown reasons, but everyone else might be in trouble! "Badguy! You chose a bad time to attack! Because I, Steven Universe, will stop you! Yeah, that's right! Me!" The boy holds his hand up and summons a beautiful rosate shield adorned with a gemstone and thorn pattern to his forearm.
The boy then proceeds to, rather than attack, taunt the giant creature! Yes, a small child has the gall to taunt a giant monster. He blows a /mean/ raspberry at it, what whatever good that will do. "Now let her go, or you'll get more where that came from!"
Hopefully more superheroes show up while he buys time! They do seem to be everywhere in Japan. Not that that is a bad thing. It is pretty awesome, actually!
COMBAT: Steven Universe transforms into Steven Quartz Universe! COMBAT: Steven Universe has used AND STEVEN! on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Steven Universe has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly counters Steven Universe's AND STEVEN!, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Steven Universe is Psyched! Honoka Yukishiro's Reverse ability activates! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro's counterattack, Flight of the Kindabads, partially gets through, doing 8 Fatigue damage to Steven Universe!
<Pose Tracker> Ami Mizuno [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Cram school, and moreover, a cram school with nigh-constant mock exams!
Needless to say, Ami Mizuno is absolutely here. This possibly exceeds even 'water' as her element, and accordingly, she's squarely within earshot of that song... and its subsequent end.
She rushes toward the shouting monster -- and when she sees it, sure enough, she then immediately gets around a corner again and fishes out her transformation pen. Raising it to the sky, she cries out, "Mercury Power -- Make Up!"
In moments, Sailor Mercury joins the battle! Rounding the corner back onto the street, she locks eyes with the monster, saying, "Everyone here has been working so hard to pass their exams! To disrupt that hard work is unforgivable!" As bubbles roll off of her in waves, she declares, "In the name of Mercury -- I will punish you!" She's hoping that the bubbles can keep that nasty choking mold away from her.
COMBAT: Ami Mizuno transforms into Sailor Mercury! COMBAT: Sailor Mercury has used In The Name Of Mercury on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Sailor Mercury has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has adjusted her boss levels. She is now ready to take on 9 opponents! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Sailor Mercury's In The Name Of Mercury, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Sailor Mercury is Psyched! Honoka Yukishiro's Block ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Parry ability activates! Exhausted, Stagger, and Tangle applied to Honoka Yukishiro!
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
While Infinity Institute students don't necessarily have to worry about entrance exams to advance from the middle-school tier to the high-school classes, extra preparation certainly never hurts; Kuu Hououji still remembers the comparative shock between the last day of ninth grade and the first day of tenth. She was better prepared for it than some of her peers, to be sure ... but she still advised her younger sister Fuu to take advantage of every opportunity to bone up on the material.
So Fuu has been attending Twin Swans, much as she was hoping to completely avoid cram schools. The challenge is relatively invigorating, though, and her archery skills remain solid enough that the (very understanding) team captain is willing to let Fuu miss some team practice sessions. So it's mostly her gaming time that suffers.
Fuu can live with that.
Fuu glances up from a pocket flash-card 'notebook' with a smile at Shiina's quiet singing, and continues on her way towards the doors -
And she's barely two meters away when the sudden unleashing of a monster, and mold, and additional mooks blows against her back, whipping her hair around her face and her skirt around her legs with a blast that seems to have been distilled from last winter's trip to Hokkaido. She immediately runs like hell, not even turning to look back at what just happened; she's just ahead of the mold as she vanishes around the corner of a wall.
"Belief becomes power ... Winds, guide me!!"
A cloud of mold precariously near to where Fuu disappeared is disturbed, then dispersed by a stray eddy of autumn breeze, and then a mostly-green blurr ascends from behind that corner. "Whosoever would prey upon honest students seeking to do their best -"
The Magic Knight of Wind alights on a lamppost, still weaponless as she aims her hands at the Terribad. "- prepare to face the fruits of good students' diligence, first-hand! WINDS OF ADMONISHMENT!!"
And with those last words, the Wind Knight conjures a tornado to try and bind the Terribad where it stands. Her first inclination would have been to enclose all of the mold and the lesser monsters with it, but there are too many civilians who are already being contaminated; she doesn't want to trap them in her spell, though.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji transforms into Magic Knight! COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has fully healed herself. COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Winds of Admonishment on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Kanade Minamino [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
Kanade pats her friend's shoulder as she attempt to give her an encouraging smile. "It's not that bad, Hibiki." She glances at the dreaded number again and winces. "Okay, this time it's that bad, but that doesn't mean you can't improve."
She tries to think of ways to cheer up her friend. Maybe she should try that idea she had of making a reward system out of cupcakes to help her study.
She gave a nervous chuckle as Hibiki shot daggers at the happy girl. "Now, Hibiki, you're over-"
She cut herself off as Namakelder and the monster catches her off guard. She barely has time to react before she finds herself coughing and hacking. "Is this a new enemy?" she tried to ask her friend. Then she hears the gloating...
"People are trying their hardest and you mock them for that!" She catch her partner's eye and brings out her Cure module. "Unforgivable!"
Bright lights and music notes twirl around her and within moments Kanade disappears and Cure Rhythm takes her place.
"Strumming the tranquil melody! Cure Rhythm!" She would make this monster pay for causing so much misery.
COMBAT: Kanade Minamino transforms into Cure Rhythm! COMBAT: Cure Rhythm has used Pretty Cure Kick on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Cure Rhythm has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Inori Yamabuki [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
A future vet has to study hard to get into a good high school which is why Inori Yamabuki placed herself on the waiting list to begin with, months back...
"Inori. Your turn came at Twin Swans came through in the mail today. Congratulations! I know you'll make us proud."
.../Before/ she awakened as a Pretty Cure, and everything that surrounds that, as well as dancing lessons.
Carrying her book bag over her school uniform shoulder, her posture is somewhat slumped by sheer fatigue after coming directly from a hard day of classes straight to cram school, mingling with all the other hopeful ninth graders trying to make it into their high school of choice. "I'm not sure if I'll be able to survive on this schedule." A worried, "Kiiii..." tried to soothe her from within her Linkrun.
But suddenly a cheerful girl at Juuban skips by, all pigtails and song. It brings a smile to Inori's face, the girl's cheerfulness reminding her a little of someone she knows as her back straightens. "But I've got to try! I have to believe that I can handle it."
Still she doesn't have as much pep in her step and she's nearly a block back when it happens. The shout isn't one she catches, but she sees the blast of light and power. And a calculator rising above everything.
Amongst the screams and the fleeing people, Inori finds herself having backpeddled, before tripping, and landing hard on her backside, gawking a bit at the creature, "A calculator? W-Why is a calculator attacking!?"
Mold starts forming everywhere causing her nose to wrinkle, and other smaller creatures pour out of it, giving more urgency to her retreat and she scrambles backwards, on her palms, picking herself up quickly and dashing down an alleyway. She utters a sigh of despair, "I'm going to be late." But that doesn't stop her from doing what needs to be done.
Taking out her Linkrun, she inserts a key at the top, before shouting, "Change! Pretty Cure - Beat Up!"
With a flash of gold, she takes a leap of faith and careens out of the air, back on the block, landing with a click of heels on concrete. She puts her fingers together, shaped like a heart, "The yellow heart is the symbol of faith!" She spreads her hands out, "Freshly Harvested-" Twirling in a circle before taking an energetic hop in the air, she pumps a fist into the air, "Cure Pine!"
Upon landing she's charging into the midst of the throng of kindabads, trying to kick one in the face, before attempting to hop off of it, and perform a leaping punch into one. On the last, she tries to grab ahold of its wrists and twirl it in a circle before casting it amidst the others.
Over to the side there's a new Pretty Cure she doesn't recognize, calling out the Calculator monster, and she seems surprised as she calls out to Cure Heart, "Oh! A new Pretty Cure? Do you happen to know what's going on?" She asks Cure Heart, before catching sight of Melody and Rhythm, "Rhythm! Melody! You're here too!? Oh!" She tries to work her way over to them before asking Rhythm somewhat surreptitiously, "Was Melody giving you a hard time over cram school?"
COMBAT: Inori Yamabuki transforms into Cure Pine! COMBAT: Cure Pine has used Pineapple Express on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Cure Pine has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly dodges Fuu Hououji's Winds of Admonishment, taking 15 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Fuu Hououji is Psyched! Honoka Yukishiro's Fade ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Flash ability activates! Cripple and Trap applied to Honoka Yukishiro! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Cure Pine's Pineapple Express, taking 10 Fatigue damage! Cure Pine is Psyched! Honoka Yukishiro's Block ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Parry ability activates! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Cure Rhythm's Pretty Cure Kick, taking 7 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro's Block ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Parry ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Iona Hikawa [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Iona Hikawa has also been around the cram school for a similar reason: she had wanted to brush up on her academics. She could always use the brushing up. Plus, it kept her mind off of... more recent events. So she emerges from the cram school, not with the frown and despair, but just a sense of determination.
She's wearing her usual Juuban uniform, her bookbag curled around one arm, but she's got some sort of... stuffed toy she's clutching to her chest. It looks like a purple ladybug with large purple glasses. Girl and toy walks along for a few moments, before the stuffed toy suddenly moves! "Iona, look!"
"Wha?" Iona turns just in time to witness Shiina get placed inside the terrible mirror. Her eyes narrow as she lets go of the toy. Instead of falling, however, it starts to float. "Get ready!" Glassan, the fairy, shouts.
Iona nods and reaches for the tiny mirror hanging from her shirt. She opens it, pulling out two cards which she places inside and closes again. There's a flash of light, and what was once Iona is another Pretty Cure! She brings a hand forward, moving it up and down in a figure of a star. "The star of hope that glitters in the night sky! Cure Fortune!"
The light from the transformation doesn't even fade before Cure Fortune comes tearing out, dashing for the largest target, the Terribad, trying to give it a one-two punch.
COMBAT: Iona Hikawa transforms into Cure Fortune! COMBAT: Cure Fortune has used Fortunate Punch on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Cure Fortune has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to brace Cure Fortune's Fortunate Punch, taking 16 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Honoka Yukishiro [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
There are, for the time being, an apparently unlimited number of Kindabads; the little black fellows come from around corners and through doorways and anywhere else touched by that poisonous and unearthly mold. That doesn't mean it isn't worthwhile to engage them, though. If you don't bail out the sinking ship...
And Lera tears through three of them like butter. It isn't a messy business; there is no gore and no splatter. Whatever these shadowy things are, they seem to disperse on impact. Cure Melody forces two more back with her fists, Cure Rhythm, two with her feet -- their leaping out of the way is perhaps a bit less viscerally satisfying, but they did just cause the Kindabads to, specifically, leap /away/ from the twin boys they were about to toss into a cloud of mold that used to be the escalator entrance to a major corporate skyscraper. More mold is trickling its way up the building, vein-ily. The boys, wisely, make a run for it, joining the stampede of humanity crushing its way down the block away from this catastrophe.
Unfortunately, the driven-back Kindabads leap /towards/ Steven Universe, joined by a half dozen of their buddies, eager to surround the little boy and give him a good pounding! Or maybe carry him off on their shoulders to never be seen again. Their arrival blocks his raspberry from their greater soldier's vision, alas. The tide of Kindabads is eager to surround Lera, Cure Melody and Cure Rhythm as well, an assault from all directions. Cure Pine bowls into it, taking another group out, but for every Kindabad smote, two more seem to take their place, screaming "CHOIIIIII!!!" Still more few notice Cure Heart standing a little apart from the crowd (though the Terribad doesn't seem to have much interest in the threat to its supposed heart), and take this as a sign of weakness. They pounce en masse, fists- and feet-first.
From his lamppost, Namakelder looks down at Lera, twirling his pole idly. His voice is clipped and precise and sort of weirdly overpolite, as though he's engaging in formalities that don't quite belong in this culture, or perhaps even this world.
"Your grammar is terrible, miss, wot wot. You're not 'going to' let me conquer the world. And I'd like to see you stop me, pip pip. The Blue Sky Kingdom was just our first stop -- we're spreading despair over all the worlds!"
His eyes narrow at the announcement of the arrival of various Pretty Cure. "You're all a real nuisance, cheerio. Wouldn't it be easier to just kick back and relax, 'Cure Melody'? We're not so different -- it's so much easier to coast along than work so very hard."
Tipping his top hat at the furious Sailor Senshi, he adds, "It's a very good thing I'm not looking for your forgiveness, isn't it, pip pip?"
Mercury's bubbles do indeed seem to keep the mold down, at least in her immediate area, and the Terribad's sunglasses narrow as though they were eyes. "TERRIBAD!" it yells, by way of battle cry and self-identification, before slamming forward with massive book and ruler in tandem, trying to crush the girl into the pavement.
The momentum of this motion carries it past the Magic Knight's tornado, which blows its green scarf right into its face. This makes it impossible for it to bring the ruler up in time to block Cure Fortune, who lands two solid punches, WHAM!, WHAM!, that create a spiderweb crack on those red glasses.
For a long moment, it seems like the Terribad will stagger backwards and slowly fall towards the ground, but it recovers at the last second, handspringing massively upwards, to fall, huge feet-first, towards the one that broke its face. And Kindabads surround her on all sides, trying to block Cure Fortune's escape! Some of them, near the Magic Knight of Wind, start pumping their arms up and down with perky chants of "CHOI! CHOI! CHOI!" which seems to be making the mold grow faster and more horribly than before, closing in on her even from above and below...
"Hmmmm... you look familiar," Namakelder remarks to Fortune. "But we can't have met before, or you would already be in despair, cheerio."
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Kindabads Kindaswarm on Lera Camry. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Kindabads Kindaswarm on Cure Melody. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Kindabads Kindaswarm on Cure Rhythm. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Kindabads Kindaswarm on Steven Universe. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Punches Come In Terrible Twoes on Sailor Mercury. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Kindabads Kindaswarm on Cure Pine. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Kindabads Kindaswarm on Cure Heart. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Not Terrible At Kicking Butt on Cure Fortune. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Environmental Hazard on Fuu Hououji. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has finished attacking. COMBAT: Cure Heart narrowly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Kindabads Kindaswarm, taking 7 Fatigue damage! Cure Heart's Fade ability activates! Cure Heart's Flash ability activates! COMBAT: Cure Pine narrowly counters Honoka Yukishiro's Kindabads Kindaswarm, taking 3 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Cure Pine's Reverse ability activates! Cure Pine's Tactician ability activates! Diversion, Exhausted, and Trap applied to Cure Pine! COMBAT: Cure Pine's counterattack, Pineapple Reverse, partially gets through, doing 21 Fatigue damage to Honoka Yukishiro! COMBAT: Lera Camry narrowly counters Honoka Yukishiro's Kindabads Kindaswarm, taking 5 Fatigue damage! Lera Camry's Reverse ability activates! Lera Camry's Tactician ability activates! Diversion, Exhausted, and Trap applied to Lera Camry! COMBAT: Lera Camry's counterattack, Aura Surge, partially gets through, doing 12 Fatigue damage to Honoka Yukishiro! Diversion and Tangle applied to Honoka Yukishiro! COMBAT: Cure Fortune narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Not Terrible At Kicking Butt, taking 4 Fatigue damage! Stun applied to Cure Fortune! COMBAT: Sailor Mercury narrowly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Punches Come In Terrible Twoes, taking 11 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Sailor Mercury's Fade ability activates! Sailor Mercury's Flash ability activates! Exhausted applied to Sailor Mercury! COMBAT: Cure Rhythm narrowly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Kindabads Kindaswarm, taking 7 Fatigue damage! Cure Rhythm's Fade ability activates! Cure Rhythm's Flash ability activates! Diversion and Exhausted applied to Cure Rhythm! COMBAT: Cure Melody narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Kindabads Kindaswarm, taking 5 Fatigue damage! Cure Melody's Block ability activates! Cure Melody's Parry ability activates! Diversion, Exhausted, and Trap applied to Cure Melody! COMBAT: Fuu Hououji narrowly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Environmental Hazard, taking 7 Fatigue damage! Fuu Hououji's Fade ability activates! Fuu Hououji's Flash ability activates! Blind applied to Fuu Hououji!
<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
"Pine!" Lera calls out to the yellow Cure -- and then flashes a grin. "And Rhythm and Melody, too, and--" She blinks, though, at Cure Heart. She hasn't had the chance to meet her. It doesn't last long; she grins and nods at them all. "Glad you're all here, y'know? There's kind of a lot of these things and--" Another Pretty Cure that she hasn't met! The Device wielder turns to stare at Fortune, for a moment, before she looks back at the horde of Kindabads. The way they dissipated like smoke is remarkable, she thinks. Her eyes narrow, as they come rushing in for her -- and Namakelder yells down at her.
"M-my grammar is totally amazing and great, y'know!?" she yells at him. Somehow, she makes it a question. "I-I'm always speaking clearly and effectively and--kyaaah!"
The tide of Kindabads close around the mage and she is, for a moment, vanished underneath the sea of shadowy figures. But then there is a bright flash of light -- <Aura Surge!> -- and her blade swings through a bunch, casting back many of them. A few still cling to her arms and legs; others press in. Lera focuses for a moment, light shimmering up Soaring Sky's length.
Rings of light appear around her, then burst out, striking at the nearby Kindabads -- rather than the binding spells they were meant to dispel. The effect, however, may be much the same.
<Bind Break!>
COMBAT: Lera Camry has used Bind Break on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Lera Camry has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Cure Heart [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.
"Oh wow, it's more Precure!" Cure Heart gasps as Rhythm and Melody - and Pine and Fortune! - all come exploding into the picture.
"I didn't think there were others!" Charle gasps from her position on Mana's hip. "I mean, um... I guess Cure Sword...?"
Cure Heart blinks a little, then steps forward, shaking her head back towards Cure Pine. "Mmn! No, all I saw was this monster and all those little ones," she says, amazement giving way to focus now that there's a goal in front of her.
Well, giving way except for a big smile and a, "And, hi! I'm Cure Heart. Nice to meet you! Even if it's like thiiiyaaaaaaaa~n~"
Cure Heart's impulses towards being gregarious combine with her experience to trip her up - she gets so sidetracked trying to say hi to Pine that the Kindabad tide swamps her before she really realizes what's happening. With a yelp, she stumbles back as a couple of them rush close. She recovers quickly, managing to hurtle backwards with a sharp leap, then taking another one off to the side to elude a couple more that come hurtling at her.
"Phew! That was close," she says with a self-effacing sort of smile as she lands in a crouch.
Then she straightens up and raises her voice, shouting out towards Namakelder on the lamppost with a sudden burst of indignation - what he says strikes a chord. "That's not true!" she calls out. "Even if it's hard to do something worthwhile, it's still important to try your best all the time! Working hard for something means it matters to you! All these students coming here, it's important to them to get into a good high school and succeed! Besides -- coasting along just means you're making other people work twice as hard for you-"
With a flick of fluffy blonde hair, Cure Heart sinks into a crouch - then springs forward again. "- and that's selfish!" she calls as she hurtles into the air.
"And you /shouldn't be selfish!/" Cure Heart finishes as she plunges into the throng of Kindabads - aiming to slam feet-first into one with a flying dropkick! A dropkick that, if it connects, she's hoping will send the target Kindabad ricocheting into its fellows like a bowling ball!
COMBAT: Cure Heart has used Pretty Cure Kick on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Cure Heart has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly dodges Lera Camry's Bind Break, taking 2 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro's Fade ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Flash ability activates! Bind Break! All of Lera Camry's debuffs are cleared! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly counters Cure Heart's Pretty Cure Kick, taking 8 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Honoka Yukishiro's Reverse ability activates! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro's counterattack, Strength In Numbers, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Cure Heart!
<Pose Tracker> Cure Melody [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
Shadows scattering from where fist and foot have struck down a pair of the Kindabads, Cure Melody finally answers her partner. "You're darn right it's that bad! Okay, maybe not all the classes, but you know how vicious the tests are going to be this year!" Snarling, she follows through to take out another of the Kindabads, and startles as Cure Pine calls out.
"Pine!...nah, I need the help, I'll admit that much. But isn't there some way we can, I don't know...beat up the test? Do you know anyone who can turn our next math test into a giant monster?"
She's kidding. PRobably. Mostly.
But...there's no end to them. Even others standing against the tide - unrecognized Cures among them - can't defy the fact that this monster seems to have brought a small army. There's no chance to even get close to the Terribad, with this many Kindabads in the way...and she clenches her fists as Namakelder speaks up.
"Not so different?! I'm not the one wearing a -top hat-! And sure, I'd love to relax - but I'm not backing down from what needs to be done!" She glances to Cure Rhythm, with a faint smile. Looking to her for support...
...or as the reason she's not allowed to back down. Ahem.
The Kindabads lunge forward, Rhythm leaping back while Melody stands her ground, fending off blow after blow. For all her words, she's driven back, step by step...and then an idea brings delight to her eyes, one hand reaching out behind her with blind trust. "Rhythm! Care to take this one?" She pulls, swinging her partner around to attack the Kindabads in force - trusting that Rhythm will return the favor.
Round and round, kick by kick, dancing violence to a just off-tempo beat~
COMBAT: Cure Melody has started a combo targeting Honoka Yukishiro! COMBAT: Steven Universe fails to brace Honoka Yukishiro's Kindabads Kindaswarm, taking 10 Fatigue damage! Diversion, Exhausted, and Trap applied to Steven Universe!
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
The gathering Kindabads around her perch prompt the Wind Knight to look down at them with a puzzled look - but a short-lived one, since she quickly notices they're basically exhorting the mold to grow even faster. She promptly does the smart thing, and leaps away ...
Or at least, it would NORMALLY be the smart thing. She didn't realize any of the mold had already accumulated ABOVE her perch, and only picks up on that oversight when she winds up plowing face-first through a clump of it.
Of *course* the stuff clings to her glasses - although her unprotected face doesn't necessarily fare much better; she spares a moment to wipe her face clean as quickly as she can with her sleeve. By the time she lowers her arm, the stinging is abating a little ... but she still can't see clearly enough for precision attacks.
On the bright side, the minions are numerous enough and uniquely shaped, so she doesn't have to be THAT precise. Her sword materializes and she starts swinging ... or, well, spinning. Or both.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Spinning Slash on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to dodge Fuu Hououji's Spinning Slash, taking 15 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Mercury [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Even if Sailor Mercury isn't the type to get /too/ mad at her opponents, there's something about being talked down to that gets under her skin more than she'd care to admit -- and it renders her a little late with her leap to the side of that hammering blow. When she lands, it's with a thud rather than graceful; she winces, but kips back up.
Taking a moment to catch her breath and assess her situation, Sailor Mercury considers whether to focus her attention on the larger monster, or the swarm. Her snap judgment says that the /best/ things she can do in this situation... don't actually require her to make a choice.
So, naturally, she begins to form a ball of blue-white light between her hands. With a twirl, she crosses her arms and then lets the energy fly... in the form of even more tiny bubbles, obscuring the monsters' vision and hopefully opening up some new lines of attack for the other assembled magical girls.
COMBAT: Sailor Mercury has used Sabao Spray! on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Sailor Mercury has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly counters Sailor Mercury's Sabao Spray!, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro's Reverse ability activates! Blind and Stun applied to Honoka Yukishiro! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro's counterattack, Flight of the Kindabads, partially gets through, doing 8 Fatigue damage to Sailor Mercury!
<Pose Tracker> Steven Universe [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.
Perhaps taunting the swarming things' boss was a bad idea. Who is to tell? It was fun. "Hey! Move! I was insulting the monster! Go away-- ahh!" Steven is u=quickly surrounded and the poundings come. The boy retreats under his shield in a porcupine style, ducking down, though it doesn't stop well placed kicks. "What are these guys?! They look wierd!"
The gem child looks around through the shield partly, and waits for a moment when nothing is hitting, before springing into action. The second comes, and the boy explodes upward, erecting a Bubble Shield around himself, then immediately expanding it in all directions, attempting to send... whatever those guys are, flying!
"I may be a kid, but I am a Crystal Gem! It will take more than badguy minions to defeat me!" At which point he attempts to charge through the crowd, attempting to close distance between him and the giant leader! And whoever that is talking with a funny accent.
COMBAT: Steven Universe has used Repelling Shield on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Steven Universe has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to brace Steven Universe's Repelling Shield, taking 16 Fatigue damage! Cripple applied to Honoka Yukishiro!
<Pose Tracker> Cure Rhythm [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
Rhythm kicks through some of the kindabads causing them to scatter away in shadow. She hears the cries of other Pretty Cures, including one she's never seen before. Just how many Pretty Cures were there in their world? She made a note to ask Hummy later about.
Pine's voice rang out, letting her feel relieved in a moment. "It's more she's giving herself a hard time," she admitted to her friend. She sighs at Melody's question of beating up the test. "They really don't work that way-"
The Namakelder speaks and she can't help but notice Melody glances her way as she says it and smirks. Nope! No way would she ever like her partner get off that easily. The kindabads lunge and Rhythm dodges and stumbles slightly making her hiss in pain. "Watch yourself Pine! she warns her friend.
Then Melody gives her that look, the look that caused endless amount of trouble and fun in their childhoods. Gleefully, Rhythm takes Melody's hand while shouting "With pleasure!" As she lets her friend swing her, Rhythm uses the force and speed to kick into the kindabads. Quickly, she returns the favor and lets Melody have a turn by swinging. In perfect harmony, the pair swing each other as if it was a dance they had done a hundred times before.
COMBAT: Cure Rhythm has joined the combo started by Cure Melody! COMBAT: COMBO! Cure Melody and Cure Rhythm have used Pretty Cure Jazz Swing on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Cure Melody has finished attacking. COMBAT: Cure Rhythm has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to dodge Cure Melody and Cure Rhythm's Combo: Pretty Cure Jazz Swing, taking 36 Fatigue damage! Cure Melody and Cure Rhythm are Psyched! Stagger, Stun, and Tangle applied to Honoka Yukishiro!
<Pose Tracker> Cure Pine [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
"Oh. So you don't..." A finger crooks at her chin as she laughs nervously, "I see! Well it's nice to meet you Cure Heart, I'm Cure Pine!" Another new Cure joins them, a literal star of hope by her own words, blasting right into the monster. She sounds relieved, "Thank goodness so many Pretty Cure managed to make it today!"
Melody's question takes her off guard, and she laughs nervously again, "Melody. I don't think you should count on a giant monster attack all the time to get out of an exam..."
Before she nods sympathetically to Rhythm, wishing Melody would think better of herself on that front. "...maybe we can find a way to study that suits her better after we make it out of this." She spots Lera in the air, "It really is. I don't know if the others are nearby so we'll have to manage somehow!"
Nodding at Rhythm's warning, she calls back, "You too!" Kindabads are everywhere, swarming her like angry clay dolls. A punch here, another there. And several are latching onto her ankles, hampering her movement. Another is coming at her hoping to score a decisive blow. She sways to the left, as its haymaker nicks her sidetail.
Her hands whip up to grab it's wrist. Turning at the waist, she tosses it over her shoulder like she's going to throw it, but doesn't let go. Instead slamming it into whole masses of them, batting them away like she were scattering rats with a broom. It's only after whirling it around several times does she let it go, bowling over about a half dozen more like they were ten pins.
The mold is growing up and everywhere, and despite her ankles feeling decidedly bruised, she dashes, using footwork to try to glide this way left and right on her approach towards the monster, raising her arms to block blows from Kindabads.
At the last moment she does a small crow hop, before attempting a leaping strike with a twist of her hips to add extra power to a punch right into the '8' key of the calculator, which if it connects is something that might just cause its display to go wild, "Don't listen to him! We can stop him if we all work together, even if the odds are against us! It's not just simple math. I believe we can do it!"
COMBAT: Cure Pine has used Pineapple Punch on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Cure Pine has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Cure Fortune [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Cure Fortune lands after the punches connect, watching the Terribad fall to the ground. She keeps her eye on it as it springs up and up, trying to stomp on her like some sort of mushroom. She raises her arms to block the energy from the kick, but she leaps backwards to slip out from under the Terribad. She turns to see the swarm of Kindabads form up around her to try and block her escape.
Namakelder's words ring at Fortune, and she looks up to where he stands, turning to face him directly. "I am Cure Fortune! Your people stole someone precious from me!" She then turns and descends at the Kindabads, kicking one, punching another, and repeating this action for quite some time
Glassan floats nearby, pondering the situation while Fortune goes to town. "They're just now invading with this force? Where's that old lady with the umbrella? She's gotta be around here somewhere, and not just doin' reconnaissance."
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly counters Cure Pine's Pineapple Punch, taking 5 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro's Reverse ability activates! Exhausted applied to Honoka Yukishiro! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro's counterattack, Catch and Release, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Cure Pine! COMBAT: Cure Fortune has used Kindaclearin' Kindabads on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Cure Fortune has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Cure Fortune's Kindaclearin' Kindabads, taking 3 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro's Block ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Parry ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Honoka Yukishiro [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
Q: How many magical girls does it take to face an army of Kindabads?
A: Two. One would get overwhelmed; any more than that is overkill.
And so it is that the Kindabads get overkilled in /droves/ -- Lera's rings of magical light send a bunch of them leaping away from her and directly into the path of Cure Heart's kick-victim-cum-bowling-ball. They all go flying, but there are so many more.
Fortunately, Cure Melody and Rhythm work in beautiful harmony, and their unstoppable waltz across the battlefield leaves a trail of evaporating bodies in their wake. And the Magic Knight of Wind discovers that the mold that was beginning to surround her is also making it hard for the Kindabads to see her and her sword, and she slices down the ones surrounding her like they're so much moldy cheese.
There are a few more who seem to be making it their personal mission to draw pins out of -- somewhere, there aren't obvious pockets on their smooth black bodies -- and individually pop all of Sailor Mercury's bubbles (as well as give her a sharp poke, once or twice) with taunting calls of "ChoichoichoichoichoichoichoichoiCHOIIIII!" Still, they can't get them all, and a cool mist descends upon the area. It's a lot more pleasant to breathe than the mold.
Steven winds up putting an end to their anti-bubble rampage with a bubble of his own; gloriously pink, it sends them flying back to vanish on their rather rough impact with the ground. He'll have no luck approaching Namakelder, though; the man's on a lamppost, and quite out of reach.
"Neither am I, wot wot," the man says with a yawn, as to Cure Melody's assertion that she won't back down from what needs to be done. "Did we, Cure Fortune? Yes... I can see it in your eyes, your despair. Good!"
Fortune also finds success thinning out the Kindabads around her with myriad punches and kicks, and now there's breathing room to attack the Terribad in earnest. Cure Pine's the first to get there, but finds her fist caught by the stubby fingers not needed to keep ahold of that ruler, and then, with an over-the-head hammer throw, she's bodily flung away! Thankfully, her landing is softer than it might have been, since she's hurled directly onto a cushion of mold. Less thankfully, that mold has a tendency to inspire a great deal of choking and coughing when it's in close proximity!
"Time to clean up, cheerio!" Namakelder gestures towards the group with his cane, and the Terribad resolidifies its grip on its ruler. Then, with a flourishing spin -- not unlike that of someone holstering a revolver -- it swaps the way it's gripping said ruler, such that the point is facing /it/ instead of the crowd.
And at blurrily high speeds, it starts punching out numbers on the calculator! It may be a good thing Pine didn't manage to impact, because for every digit that gets pushed, its replicate soars forward from the screen to try to conk a girl right in the face!
It starts with single digits, 8s and 4s and 9s and 2s, each of them the same green as its scarf, and soon the battlefield has numbers flying everywhere at viciously high speeds.
What's going to happen if it finds the multiplication button?!
"TERRIBAAAAAD!!"
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Your Number's Up on Lera Camry. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Your Number's Up on Cure Melody. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Your Number's Up on Cure Rhythm. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Your Number's Up on Steven Universe. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Your Number's Up on Sailor Mercury. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Environmental Hazard on Cure Pine. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Your Number's Up on Cure Heart. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Your Number's Up on Cure Fortune. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Your Number's Up on Fuu Hououji. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has finished attacking. COMBAT: Cure Pine narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Environmental Hazard, taking 4 Fatigue damage! Cure Pine's Block ability activates! Cure Pine's Parry ability activates! Cripple applied to Cure Pine! COMBAT: Cure Heart narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Your Number's Up, taking 16 Fatigue damage! Cure Heart's Block ability activates! COMBAT: Fuu Hououji narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Your Number's Up, taking 16 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Sailor Mercury narrowly counters Honoka Yukishiro's Your Number's Up, taking 19 Fatigue damage! Sailor Mercury's Tactician ability activates! COMBAT: Sailor Mercury's counterattack, Mercury Crash Launcher, partially gets through, doing 27 Fatigue damage to Honoka Yukishiro! Critical Counterhit! COMBAT: Cure Melody narrowly counters Honoka Yukishiro's Your Number's Up, taking 9 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Cure Melody's counterattack, I Didn't Count On This!, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Honoka Yukishiro! COMBAT: Cure Fortune fails to dodge Honoka Yukishiro's Your Number's Up, taking 31 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Lera Camry narrowly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Your Number's Up, taking 21 Fatigue damage! Lera Camry's Fade ability activates! Lera Camry's Flash ability activates! COMBAT: Cure Rhythm narrowly counters Honoka Yukishiro's Your Number's Up, taking 29 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Cure Rhythm's counterattack, Keeping Time, partially gets through, doing 4 Fatigue damage to Honoka Yukishiro! COMBAT: Steven Universe narrowly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Your Number's Up, taking 7 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Cure Heart [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.
Looking up towards Cure Pine again, Cure Heart's eyes downright shine. "I didn't even know there /were/ so many Pretty Cure!"
"I wonder if they're from Trump Kingdom, too," Charle murmurs from Mana's hip. "But I didn't think there were any others."
"We should ask them later!" Cure Heart answers. She smiles as she takes advantage of a short breather, momentarily watching how the other Precures fight - the teamwork between Rhythm and Melody especially. Her eyes shine.
And then - everyone's number is up.
With a squeak, Cure Heart throws her arms up, planting her heels against the turf and crossing her forearms to block an ugly number 9 that comes steamrolling towards her. The digit slams into her like a freight train. A few number 1s follow. Cure Heart squeezes an eye closed and winces, breath catching at the force of the impact. It hurts - but somehow it hurts a lot less than she would have were she still strolling around as Mana Aida, regular girl. "That's... that's the worst way to use a calculator!"
Then she widens her eyes as something occurs to her.
"Charle! Hang on!" she shouts - and she begins to sprint forward, just as more numbers begin to pile up.
A number 8 booms towards her - and Cure Heart suddenly lunges at it at full speed, tucking one leg up. She sails towards the number -
- over it -
- and kicks off the 8 in midair, her arm thrown back to try and steer herself as she goes sailing towards the Terribad in the calculator suit.
"I've been in math class long enough to know how calculators work!!" Cure Heart shouts as she hurtles in, swinging her arm forward with a sudden explosion of force. Her fist unclenches, hand swinging out towards the calculator -
- as she attempts to slap one of the buttons higher up on the device.
C
COMBAT: Cure Heart has used Brought To You By The Letter C on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Cure Heart has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly dodges Cure Heart's Brought To You By The Letter C, taking 12 Fatigue damage! Cure Heart is Psyched! Honoka Yukishiro's Fade ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Flash ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
Suddenly, numbers. Numbers, flying all around. NUMBERS EVERYWHERE.
The Wind Knight does what she can to protect herself, but it appears that numbers are crunching her today instead of the other way around. She staggers back under the arithmetical assault, guarding her face with the bracer on her right forearm; her breastplate blocks some of the worst of the impacts, but kinetic energy has to go somewhere.
An opening presents itself shortly, though - and when it does, the Magic Knight of Wind is prepared to capitalize. Her sword vanishes; her bow and quiver appear, and as she squints through a mostly-clear spot on her glasses, she lines up an arrow, not aiming for any of the calculator buttons ...
But for the calculator's *screen*.
The arrow flies, as she looses when she thinks her shot is lined up, rather than waiting for the 'feel' to be perfectly correct. If she takes too long setting up her shot, the numbers might start crunching her again; hitting the monster off-target is preferable, at this point, to not hitting the monster at all.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Trick Arrow Shot on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
"It's attacking us with math!" Lera wails.
<Dodge it!>
The Midchildan weaves through a pair of 4's. Then, though, a 9 strikes into Lera and sends her into a vicious spin. She yelps as she slams into the ground, sending a plume of dirt and dust up into the air where she strikes. Lera yelps; she hops to her feet and shakes her head. She takes a deep breath, before she looks up. She peers around a moment.
Lera looks at Cure Heart -- then, she glances at Cure Pine and Sailor Mercury, too -- and nods her head. The girl nods. "C'mon!" she yells. "I dunno what this is, but... we add up to more than it, y'know? We can all work together! Like we did back on Okinawa!"
<Was that--did you just--a math-->
"Focus, Sky!"
COMBAT: Lera Camry has used Soaring Heart on Cure Pine. COMBAT: Lera Camry has used Soaring Heart on Cure Heart. COMBAT: Lera Camry has used Soaring Heart on Sailor Mercury. COMBAT: Lera Camry has finished attacking. COMBAT: Sailor Mercury accepts Lera Camry's Soaring Heart, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Sailor Mercury is Cheered! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro perfectly counters Fuu Hououji's Trick Arrow Shot, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Counter! Honoka Yukishiro's Reverse ability activates! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro's counterattack, Strength In Numbers, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Fuu Hououji! COMBAT: Cure Heart accepts Lera Camry's Soaring Heart, taking 0 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Cure Pine accepts Lera Camry's Soaring Heart, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Cure Pine is Cheered!
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Mercury [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Summoning up more blue-white light, Mercury faces the oncoming digits head-on. As they streak for her, she responds by slamming her hands into the ground with a cry of, "Mercury Crash Launcher!"
The resultant torrent of bright blue-white fresh water, almost icy, engulfs some of the smaller numbers; a 9 and an 8 punch through the wave as it heads for the swarm of Kindabads and the Terribad, and a 2 sails neatly over it to hit her in the head.
Staggering forward just the same, Sailor Mercury processes what's happening -- it's a math attack. Looking to Lera, she gives the other girl a nod before returning her attention to the Terribad. Continuing her plan of 'deluge with bubbles to create openings for everyone else,' she goes through much the same motions as she did before; a ball of blue-white light, a twirl, a crossing of the arms, only this time...
"Sabao Spray Freezing!"
... it's /biting/ cold, rather than merely unpleasant.
COMBAT: Sailor Mercury has used Sabao Spray Freezing on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Sailor Mercury has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Steven Universe [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.
Steven breaks free of all his large numbered-oppressors, and attempts to make his way to the accented jerk. Of course, as usual, he is out of reach. The boy can only frown intensely at his height problem rears its ugly head high above him once more. "I'll be tall... one day," Steven says to himself. If only he could get the hang of shapeshifting like Amethyst...
And, while in his gravity based reverie, theres suddenly numbers made of some kind of energy everywhere! The hybrid child attempts to roll out of the way, but an awry number seven clips his leg and causes the dodge to roll into a fencepost with a thud. "Ow... I think I get the joke about why six is afraid of seven..."
The boy instead turns his attention to the large creature now that the lesser ones have been thinned some. He charges through the crowd, hitting any Kindabad that is unfortunate enough to be in the way as he charges right at the big bad Terribads feet!
Nothing hurts more than a stubbed toe at the wrong angle.
COMBAT: Steven Universe has used Shield Bash on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Steven Universe has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Sailor Mercury's Sabao Spray Freezing, taking 2 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro's Block ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Parry ability activates! Stun and Tangle applied to Honoka Yukishiro! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro perfectly dodges Steven Universe's Shield Bash, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge! Honoka Yukishiro's Fade ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Flash ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Cure Melody [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
It's a dance of joy and teamwork, carrying two Pretty Cure across the plaza. Cure Melody is positively beaming - flashing grins to friends and allies, and alternating between kicking Kindabads into oblivion and swinging her best friend into a position to do the same. As the impromptu swing dance comes to an end, they stand amid the ominous mold and evaporating shadows, triumphant.
A moment, to answer Pine: "I'm not counting on it all the time! I'm just saying, being able to beat up a test would be a lot easier..." Namakelder taunts them anew, and Melody looks up to where the man perches, eyes narrowed. "What makes you think you can beat us, anyway? If we work in concert, nothing can..."
...she didn't count on the numbers. Eyes widened in horror, Cure Melody starts actually running, punching wildly at all the numbers flying her way. A few get through her flailing fists, but the majority get scattered...more or less everywhere except the calculator that launched them. Breathing heavily, she glares down at the numbers that hit her...several blazing green eights, a reminder she never wanted.
"Terribad seems like a fitting name, whatever you are! Rhythm - let's hit that button so hard it'll never work again!" Filled with a grudge against the number eight, and determination to bring this rampage to a close, she runs forward - reaching out for Rhythm's hand. Where they meet, light blossoms... "Pretty Cure Harmony..."
COMBAT: Cure Melody has started a combo targeting Honoka Yukishiro!
<Pose Tracker> Cure Rhythm [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
They were time perfectly, almost as if they were one being, as they swung literally through their enemies. Rhythm laughed, almost not remembering they were in the middle of a swarm of shadows.
She looks to Pine. "I have an idea for a cupcake reward system! I'll ask your help for it later-" She trails off as Namakelder starts to taunts and glares along with her partner. "That's right! When we work together, we're unbeatable!"
Almost as if to prove them wrong they were struck by numbers. Rhythm did her best to counter, except there were more than she, no pun intended counted on. She yelped as they struck her and left bruises on her arms. That 7, 8 and 9 were quite hungry for damage.
Rhythm climbs back to her feet just as Melody's hand reaches towards her, both of them glowing. Sensing her intent, Rhythm takes hold "Harmony ShoT!"
COMBAT: Cure Rhythm has joined the combo started by Cure Melody! COMBAT: COMBO! Cure Melody and Cure Rhythm have used Pretty Cure Harmony Shot on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Cure Melody has finished attacking. COMBAT: Cure Rhythm has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to dodge Cure Melody and Cure Rhythm's Combo: Pretty Cure Harmony Shot, taking 94 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Cure Pine [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
"We've all come together in a crisis before. I'm sure you'll meet the others soon." Pine replies to Heart softly, though she misses the exchange on where they're from. She at least doesn't suspect that they're from the Kingdom of Sweets, they'd found their fourth Cure and she was decidedly red!
The exchange between Cure Fortune and the man in the top hat has drawn her attention. She doesn't exactly know what's going on, but when he says that, "Stop taking pleasure in the pain you're causing her!" For some reason, it seemed far more personal and cruel to her than a Labyrinth Executive exulting in misery.
Pine sideeyes Melody, though there's this affectionate smile there, she's trying hard not to giggle, "Doesn't that just mean you should just study a bit harder, if you think that?" Before nodding at Rhythm's 'method', "With your cupcakes on the line I know you'll be able to get her to focus!"
Her attack is stopped quite suddenly by stubby fingers, and before she knows it she's hurled into a pile of mold. Pine thuds down, creating a Pretty Cure sized dent in it its softness. The problem is it's everywhere, all over her and... she begins to cough, softly at first, but it becomes more of a hacking cough as she pinches her nose and waves a hand, and tries to get out of there.
She feels a bit wobbly after inhaling that many fumes, her chest hurting and her muscles numb.
It's only then that she sees the devastation caused by raining numbers, "O-Oh... I'm really glad I didn't hit that button." It's somewhat worrisome when Cure Heart acts like they're going for the Calculator again, but her eyes light up when she realizes which button they're going for, "Good idea!"
She's still waving a hand in front of her face when Lera calls out to her. It really was like that wasn't it? They'd worked together to overcome hopeless odds before at the spectral tree. They'd done it again against the Cybody infected by twisted darkness, and yet again in Okinawa against a situation that seemed impossible. Her eyes widen, and then she nods at her, a fist clenching in determination, "You're right. I believe we can't be overcome..." She waits for Rhythm and Melody to set up their shot with blossoming light, "...so easily!"
She feels a surge of adrenaline born out of belief, as she dashes forward again, and slams a heeled boot right into the creature's shin. She hopes the surge of energy will help her shake off just how /terribad/ this monster is making her feel with all of its attacks really wearing on her. "So long as we try our hardest!"
COMBAT: Cure Pine has used Enduring Conviction on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Cure Pine has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Cure Pine's Enduring Conviction, taking 6 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro's Block ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Parry ability activates! Bind Break! All of Cure Pine's debuffs are cleared!
<Pose Tracker> Cure Fortune [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Cure Fortune listens to the grasshopper man, and turns away with a "Hmph." as she continues to brawl Kindabads. She grabs one and throws it into another, but her brawling is cut short as the Terribad begins to assign her a number. In fact, it assigns her a whole lot of numbers. Small numbers fly at her. Fortune's waist ribbon expands and glows purple, and the Cure takes flight as she tries her best to avoid all of the numbers shooting at her, but as the numbers grow in... er, number, they also grow in size! When they get to 7 and 8, they get too large and too numerous to dodge, and a number of them impacts her body, causing her to fall to the ground.
Cure Fortune slowly climbs to her feet and addresses Namakelder again. "I'm not going to let you destroy this city's happiness!" She notices, now, the effects the other magical girls are having on the Terribad, from the small kid trying to attack the Terribad's feet to the arrows in the screen, to the cold fog, to the... other Cures? This actually stops Fortune for a few seconds, as the fact that she's not fighting alone finally reaches her.
But, she puts that out of her mind, for now, as she takes flight again. She rears a fist back. "Fortune! Staaarr Burst!" Energy crackles around her fist as she swings directly at the crack she had made at the beginning of the fight.
Glassan, meanwhile, floats at the edge of the battle. She ponders the rest of Team Good. "Hmm, Blue didn't tell us there were more of them."
COMBAT: Cure Fortune has used Fortune Starburst on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Cure Fortune has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to brace Cure Fortune's Fortune Starburst, taking 54 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit!
<Pose Tracker> Honoka Yukishiro [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
The fact that the Terribad responds to various clever tactics with its own cleverness (and/or desperation), rather than simply standing there and taking it, is a solid indication that if they were to properly connect, they would actually cause real problems.
For example, Cure Heart goes for that magnificent C with an equally magnificent smack, but the monster wheels its arms, flailing backwards and out of the way -- at an angle that causes her to connect with the M instead. Its last number was an 8, which goes speeding towards her at point-blank.
And when the Magic Knight of Wind's arrow goes speeding towards the screen, it hastily goes clickaclickaclick and sends a small army of numbers in the way to make a wall. More 8s, of course -- they have the best coverage.
It's not too busy to step out of the way of Steven's charge, though, nor too busy to, with its other foot, try to punt the kid back to where he came from. That's one way to fly! Sailor Mercury's icy blast, though, catches the Terribad in midswing, "Terri--?" and then Cure Pine kicks it right in the shin, sending what was merely 'wobbling off balance' into 'reeling' territory.
Which leaves Cure Melody and Cure Rhythm free to explode the 8 button off of the calculator in a burst of light. It tears free from the plastic housing and tumbles down the street, while the greater monster goes crashing backwards and hits the ground hard, pushing out a spiderweb of cracks beneath it on the pavement.
But not as hard, it must be said, as Cure Fortune hits /it/, in turn. The weird red glasses shatter in a burst of holy violet light, leaving the beast blind and groping. It doesn't bother getting up, knowing that it must try to end the battle here and now. That means that when numbers start shooting out of its screen, they fly straight up -- and then fall straight down.
Numbers like 1024. And 8312. And...
'9!'
...362880, which is like a skyscraper hurtling towards the ground. It will smoosh everyone and everything into whatever combination of 'mist' and 'smear' and 'pancake' floats their visual boat, unless it is stopped... which nobody could possibly do alone.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Factorial Of The Day on Lera Camry. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Factorial Of The Day on Cure Melody. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Factorial Of The Day on Cure Rhythm. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Up, Up And Away on Steven Universe. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Factorial Of The Day on Sailor Mercury. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Factorial Of The Day on Cure Pine. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Feighted Strike on Cure Heart. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Factorial Of The Day on Cure Fortune. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Factorial Of The Day on Fuu Hououji. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has finished attacking. COMBAT: Cure Pine narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Factorial Of The Day, taking 33 Fatigue damage! Cure Pine's Block ability activates! Cure Pine's Parry ability activates! COMBAT: Cure Heart narrowly counters Honoka Yukishiro's Feighted Strike, taking 13 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Cure Heart's counterattack, Heart Cross Counter, partially gets through, doing 5 Fatigue damage to Honoka Yukishiro! COMBAT: Cure Fortune narrowly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Factorial Of The Day, taking 35 Fatigue damage! Cure Fortune's Fade ability activates! Cure Fortune's Flash ability activates! COMBAT: Fuu Hououji narrowly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Factorial Of The Day, taking 12 Fatigue damage! Fuu Hououji's Fade ability activates! Fuu Hououji's Flash ability activates! COMBAT: Cure Melody narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Factorial Of The Day, taking 8 Fatigue damage! Cure Melody's Block ability activates! Cure Melody's Parry ability activates! COMBAT: Sailor Mercury narrowly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Factorial Of The Day, taking 35 Fatigue damage! Sailor Mercury's Fade ability activates! Sailor Mercury's Flash ability activates! COMBAT: Cure Rhythm narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Factorial Of The Day, taking 34 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Lera Camry narrowly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Factorial Of The Day, taking 40 Fatigue damage! Lera Camry's Fade ability activates! Lera Camry's Flash ability activates! COMBAT: Steven Universe perfectly counters Honoka Yukishiro's Up, Up And Away, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Counter! COMBAT: Steven Universe's counterattack, Bubble Shield, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Honoka Yukishiro!
<Pose Tracker> Cure Heart [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.
Cure Heart manages to crane her neck just enough to flash a big, wide smile back at Lera. "Mmhmm! We can do it if we work together!!"
Then her palm smacks into the wrong button.
"That isn't a C!" she yelps - and without thinking, she slams her other hand forward, straight at the 8. The blow hits solidly but off-centre, and the digit tumbles up and hits her in the shoulder, leaving her to tumble, bounce off the calender and plunge to the ground. She bounces a couple of times before rolling over a bit awkwardly to straighten herself, brushing off her skirt.
She manages it with sufficient aplomb to snap a wave to Cure Fortune, and a big bright smile with it. "Hello! Let's do out best, okay~?" Taking a hit or not, she seems to recover almost instantly. Even the failure of her clever gambit doesn't slow her down for one single second.
The sight of a colossal number hurtling down towards the Earth, though - that's not good.
Cure Heart bites down to her bottom lip. Focuses for a second.
"Everyone!" she shouts as she runs forward, clenching both fists. "Let's hit it all at the same time! We can't let it fall on everyone!" She smiles a wide smile as she throws one arm back in readiness, her eyes flashing with sudden confidence. "We can definitely bounce that thing right back onto that monster if we all work together--!"
She hesitates no longer. She kicks off into a soaring leap, almost rocketing into the air. It's a leap every bit as high as the one she vaulted herself into accidentally on her first day as Cure Heart. This time, though, she means to jump that high. She actually sails up past the number - then pushes herself downwards, plunging heels-first towards it.
"MAYBE THIS WAS A BIT TOO HIGH," she yelps as she dives in - and attempts to just /wallop/ the number with as hard of a kick as she can muster. It might not be enough to destroy it - and alone, it won't be enough to change its course towards the Terribad waiting below.
But with more than one magical girl on the job--
COMBAT: Cure Heart has started a combo targeting Honoka Yukishiro!
<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
Lera nods, sharply, back to Cure Pine. She takes a deep breath, then she looks up at the Terribad. Then, she looks up, and sees the huge number crashing down towards her. She yelps; Lera jumps to the side, but she can't quite get away in time. The edge of it smashes into her. She rolls backward from the big number; she hits the ground and rolls a couple of times, before she comes back up, and stares up at the numbers. The damage they could do...!
But, she promised Cure Heart they would work together. She brings her two swords back together -- <Striker Form.> -- and they click together. She watches Heart rush, leaping into the air, and then she runs after it. She pivots in midair, flying up to join her. She doesn't use a kick.
Instead, her sword ignites with plasma that rushes up the edge. Lera does a pivot, swinging the weapon around at the numbers. "Right behind you!" she yells at Heart. She slams the weapon forward, striking for the numbers in tandem with Cure Heart, and--
COMBAT: Lera Camry has joined the combo started by Cure Heart!
<Pose Tracker> Steven Universe [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.
Steven makes his way toward the Terribad with gusto, knocking Kidnabads out of the way that attempt to resist his flow. A strong blow is aimed at the creature's foot, which it merely steps out of the way of. "I should have expected tha--"
What he didn't expect is the opposite foot coming in for a massive kick! "Oh jeez!" A reflexive Bubble Shield comes up to block it, preventing Steven from taking any damage! Awesome!
...Though the Terribad did have one thing on its side: Physics. The Bubbled Steven goes hurdling in the direction kicked, and begins bouncing off walls and objects. The boy inside is attempting to stabilize himself as he flies when he hears one of the supergirls call out to help with the tower of numbers! "Gimme a sec! I think... Yes!"
A bounce off the ground seems to have Steven not flipping around crazy while flying toward the wall of the Twin Swan school. He turns toward it, shield aiming at the wall at the point of impact. The Shield clangs agaisnt the wall, and emits a vicious ripple of energy, sending Steven flying at the numbers in a pink cannonball!
COMBAT: Steven Universe has joined the combo started by Cure Heart!
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Mercury [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Again, Ami attempts to dive out of the way of an impossibly large assault from the Terribad -- and this time, it doesn't go so hot. She technically gets out of the path, but this time she lands more or less face-first; it feels pretty miserable.
As she staggers back to her feet, clearly agonized, she hears the cry for a synchronized attack... and while she isn't feeling quite strong enough to contribute /much/ just yet, she knows it's probably the best plan they're going to get.
All she musters is a modestly-sized blast of wintery mist, which streaks up behind Lera's strike.
COMBAT: Sailor Mercury has joined the combo started by Cure Heart!
<Pose Tracker> Cure Melody [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
The most despised of digits shatters as a blooming flower of music-fueled light slams into the calculator, and Cure Melody turns to Cure Rhythm with a grin and a high-five. "We did it! Take that, math score!"
There's a pause. "...not that that was the grade I got or anything..." She coughs - and then lets out a resounding cheer as Cure Fortune's attack makes the Terribad's day even worse. "Nice one!"
She glances to Cure Pine, grinning self-consciously. "Hey, if it works...for the sake of delicious cupcakes, I'll vanquish even the worst math pro...." Melody trails off, looking up as a titanic number blots out the very sun. Factorials - truly, the worst of numbers.
It's too big. It's too big a number to even fathom having to deal with - hey, she's not in high school, she gets to avoid factorials for a little longer! There's a rush to try to stop it, but...
"...divide and conquer, right?" She claps hands against Rhythm - to psyche herself up if nothing else - then runs for the wall. Runs up the wall, a warcry building in volume as she runs up to meet it - and then pushes off the wall, swinging at the digits with a kick. Maybe if she can cut it down by a factor, it'll be easier to deal with?
Just let those factors rain down on the calculator...
COMBAT: Cure Melody has used Crescendo Kick on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Cure Melody has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
More weaponized numbers go flying; the Wind Knight dodges what she's able to ... but even though she's finally managed to clear the mold from her glasses, there's a new problem. And it is, literally, a very big problem.
"All together," she nods to Cure Heart, gathering up her magic and looking towards the now-descending projectile. Slowing it, even stopping it, won't be enough; it has to be completely obliterated, along with the monster. Possibly it can be reversed, turned against the Terribad, but either way they have to blast completely through the falling number.
"EMERALD CYCLONE!!!"
Rather than turning the fury of the storm loose without control, therefore, the Magic Knight of Wind focuses her most powerful attack carefully, trying to bolster her allies' attacks as well as tearing away at the Terribad's final strike. The Emerald Cyclone should carry enough force to help degrade the numeric projectile's speed, maybe even buy a few seconds more for the other magical girls (and Steven) to do additional damage, whether all at once or by chipping away at the total.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Fuu Hououji has used Emerald Cyclone: Focused on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Cure Rhythm [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
Rhythm gives Melody a nod and jumps up with her to join in on the attack. However, she didn't count on the sheer size of the number and is force to brace herself. It shoves her back, wanting to knock her down, but she just managed to hold her ground. Determined not to give up, she calls out "Don't give up!" and goes in for a punch.
COMBAT: Cure Rhythm has used Octave Punch on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Cure Rhythm has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Cure Rhythm's Octave Punch, taking 1 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Honoka Yukishiro's Block ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Parry ability activates! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Cure Melody's Crescendo Kick, taking 1 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro's Block ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Parry ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Cure Pine [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
Pine marvels a bit at the ferocity of Fortune's punch with the flash of holy light behind it, before shaking her head at Melody with a rueful smile. She doesn't comment on what that girl can accomplish if given cupcakes, instead trying to bring her attention back to the battle, "I think we're going to pull this off!"
... but maybe she spoke too soon, because the Terribad after being juggled by the Harmony Shot and Starbust punches starts creating numbers overhead in a frenzy.
One number descends after another. She catches a bus sized one, and casts it aside only with visible strain as she lands. Breathing hard from the effort of keeping them at bay. Which is when she notices the sky just got really dark and looks up.
You know, when the world comes crashing down sometimes there are just things felt in your heart, in your soul that you have to do as a Pretty Cure. An instinct that tells you what will happen if something like that giant number like that hits the ground on the unsuspecting masses.
So when Cure Heart calls for it, she already feels it. "Right!" She's already bending at the knees, before launching herself skyward in a leap which takes her up many stories at a time.
Unfortunately, she's feeling the wear of the battle on her, and all she can hope is that her efforts add to what the others are doing. She descends with a golden boot outstretched at the same time as Cure Heart, Lera, and Steven, and kicks the larger mass on her descent, repeatedly, one time after another to try to make small adjustments to steer it on its descent.
"Come on..." Melody and Rhythm are helping too by blasting away smaller numbers to make the mass more manageable. "... we can do this. I know we can do this!"
Baby steps! But maybe, just maybe with everyone working together could steer it where it needs to go, and keep the people below out of harm's way.
COMBAT: Cure Pine has joined the combo started by Cure Heart!
<Pose Tracker> Cure Heart [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.
Blasts and blows pour upwards. They pound towards the tumbling number. Magical girls and one magical boy with a magical shield work together to strike the falling numbers again and again. Alone, each blow can't possibly be much against a six-digit number.
But it is falling. And little strikes come with something else. Momentum.
Cure Heart pounds on the number a few more times in the air. Wintery mist flows in; Steven hurtles in too. Lera strikes in with a blade. Cure Pine lends her weary support, her boot striking at the same time as Cure Heart's. Separately, they are small blows. But they are not truly separate.
Cure Heart's eyes positively shine - and she rears back to once again nail the number as hard as she can.
Blow by blow, the team of magical persons fight to break up the big number - and try to divert what's left down onto the Terribad lying below!
COMBAT: COMBO! Cure Heart, Sailor Mercury, Cure Pine, Lera Camry, and Steven Universe have used Combo: Work Together! Our Sweet Dunk, composed of Team Gambit Shenanigans, Mercury Aqua Mist, Pretty Cure Drive, Inferno Slasher, and Pink Pinball!, on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Cure Heart has finished attacking. COMBAT: Lera Camry has finished attacking. COMBAT: Sailor Mercury has finished attacking. COMBAT: Steven Universe has finished attacking. COMBAT: Cure Pine has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to brace Fuu Hououji's Finisher, Emerald Cyclone: Focused, taking 34 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to dodge Cure Heart, Sailor Mercury, Cure Pine, Lera Camry, and Steven Universe's Combo: Work Together! Our Sweet Dunk, taking 117 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Cure Heart, Sailor Mercury, Cure Pine, Lera Camry, and Steven Universe are Psyched! Stagger applied to Honoka Yukishiro!
<Pose Tracker> Cure Fortune [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Cure Fortune lands back on the ground after her Star Burst, and watches it warily. The fact that it's not springing up again is somewhat concerning, but she decides to try and finish things right here, right now. She reaches for a brace on her arm, and spins the dial on it...
Only to get waylaid by gigantic numbers. She dodges the smaller numbers, and the larger numbers, but as the numbers get larger one of them collides with her like a bus. She spins away from it, managing to deflect most of the blow.
Then the giant, skyscraper-like number begins to fall down. She looks around at all the other people fighting the Terribad.
She hears Mana's call for teamwork, but she doesn't seem to acknowledge her, her focus remaining on the falling numbers. But when everyone else started to push the number back, she leaps up and joins everyone else pushing it back, punching it as hard as she can. When the number changes its course, though? She immediately disengages, launching herself directly down at the fallen Terribad, attempting to give it a solid kick in the face for good measure!
COMBAT: Cure Fortune has used High Number Kick on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Cure Fortune has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to brace Cure Fortune's High Number Kick, taking 20 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Honoka Yukishiro [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
The titanic 362880 was originally plunging towards the group parallel to the ground, which would cause incredible collateral damage, not to mention magical-girl-destruction. Cures Heart and Pine, Lera, Steven, Sailor Mercury and the Magic Knight of Wind team up to, through kicks and slash and body-block and mist and wind respectively, keep smacking one side of it at an angle, to try to alter its trajectory into being somewhat more perpendicular to the planet... and directly on top of the Terribad.
At first, it's just too big to move. But then the other Pretty Cure, Melody and Rhythm, leap up and start cutting it down to size. The first hit, Rhythm's punch, is simply tiny against its bulk. At first it seems like nothing happens. But then the huge number splits in two, with a crack like the first thaw of a mighty river, into two 181440s.
Melody's kick sends them soaring into each other, and a moment later there are four far more manageable, merely stretch-limo-length, tour-bus-sized 90720s.
/These/ are very wieldy. Cure Heart and Steven impact one of them at the same time, and it's the first to plunge directly at the cratered Terribad, trailing pink sparkles. Lera and Sailor Mercury's plasma and ice direct the next one with a splash of orange and blue; Pine's kick and Fuu's cyclone the last, green and yellow glitter everywhere.
What a beautiful rainbow of consecutive destruction!
WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!
Falling like a shooting star, Fortune impacts somewhere during the enormous cloud of smokey numerical debris, which lights everything up a brilliant purple.
And yet, as the explosion clears... it remains.
...and it gets up. Not at the encouragement of Namakelder, who at some point seems to have left, either because he didn't want to stick around to see the end or because he has other monsters to create in another part of Tokyo (not a comforting thought, that). Rather, purely fueled by its own terrible despair, it manages to take a knee.
The last dozen or so Kindabads in the area all rush forward, rapidly executing an acrobatic pyramid that, straining, helps lever the Terribad all the way back to its feet.
It has no sunglasses, and no face... it fired that massive number blind, after all. But once again the Kindabads are there to help -- a pair of them rip the cloth awning off of a nearby, business-lunch-only ramen stand, and the rest, in tandem, tie it around the Terribad's head like a blindfold.
At the same time, the Terribad attaches the ruler to the book like the haft to a spearhead... and once it's properly blindfolded, like a samurai of old, it takes a deadly-looking stance.
"TERRIBAAAAAAAAD!"
Charging into the landing magical girls, it sweeps the somehow razor-sharp book this way and that like a massive naginata, trying to thresh them all like wheat. "CHOIIIII!" call the Kindabads, encouragingly directing it, somewhat Marco Polo style, towards the group whenever the Terribad starts to get off course. Its nastiest slashes go towards Cure Heart, the Magic Knight of Wind, and Lera, each of which has just earned its exceptional ire through their equally exceptional contributions to the power of teamwork.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Harvest of Grades on Cure Melody. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Harvest of Grades on Cure Rhythm. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Harvest of Grades on Sailor Mercury. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Harvest of Grades on Cure Pine. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Harvest of Grades on Cure Fortune. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Harvest of Grades on Steven Universe. COMBAT: FINISHER! Honoka Yukishiro has used Sortagrim Reaping on Lera Camry. COMBAT: FINISHER! Honoka Yukishiro has used Sortagrim Reaping on Fuu Hououji. COMBAT: FINISHER! Honoka Yukishiro has used Sortagrim Reaping on Cure Heart. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has finished attacking. COMBAT: Cure Pine narrowly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Harvest of Grades, taking 20 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! COMBAT: Cure Melody narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Harvest of Grades, taking 13 Fatigue damage! Cure Melody's Block ability activates! Cure Melody's Parry ability activates! COMBAT: Cure Fortune fails to dodge Honoka Yukishiro's Harvest of Grades, taking 23 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Cure Heart fails to dodge Honoka Yukishiro's Finisher, Sortagrim Reaping, taking 143 Fatigue damage! Cure Heart is unable to keep fighting! COMBAT: Lera Camry fails to dodge Honoka Yukishiro's Finisher, Sortagrim Reaping, taking 166 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Lera Camry is unable to keep fighting! COMBAT: Steven Universe narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Harvest of Grades, taking 3 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Steven Universe's Block ability activates! Steven Universe's Parry ability activates! COMBAT: Cure Rhythm narrowly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Harvest of Grades, taking 23 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Cure Rhythm's Fade ability activates! Cure Rhythm's Flash ability activates! COMBAT: Sailor Mercury narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Harvest of Grades, taking 12 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Cure Melody [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
The towering total is too much for anyone to tackle alone, as Cure Melody swiftly discovers - but with Cure Rhythm's help, she's able to cut the problem down to size. Rebounding off the now-smaller numbers, she tumbles back into a skid, sliding back alongside Cure Rhythm. Everything seemed lost...but everyone's strength, added together, was enough to overcome the counting catastrophe.
It brings a warm smile to her face - but the calculator Terribad is getting back up, and that mold is spreading as it charges forward. The blow catches her on crossed arms, and launches her up into the air...
But in the air, she catches Rhythm's hand, and the two descend side by side. Cure Melody calls out boldly to the monster, and to everyone fighting it. "Everyone you've hurt today...their voices are singing out! It's time to finish this!"
She turns to Rhythm, beaming. "Time to clear this up, so we can go study over those cupcakes of yours!" In spite of the surrounding darkness, that ominous mold, everything with this Mirage Empire or whatever it was...she's smiling at her friend. Hands clasp...
...and music resounds.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Cure Melody has started a combo targeting Honoka Yukishiro!
<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
"It's still standing!" Lera yells, in disbelief, as the explosion and smoke clear out. The Terribad is revealed there and her eyes widen; she sees the huge bladed book coming down for her. She tries to fly sharply to the left. The book is far too imsense for that.
<Look out! Protecti--> Soaring Sky starts to chime. It comes too late; the blade hits Lera's back as she tries to soar away from it, and her Barrier Jacket flashes to prevent the damage from being fatal. It still applies so much force that the orange-haired high schooler goes flying. She slams hard into the ground.
Her sword is dropped; Lera hits, rolls, and comes to a stop. Then she crumples down into a heap, knocked unconscious. She doesn't get back up right now.
<Pose Tracker> Cure Heart [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.
Cure Heart lands on top of a very large number, which lands on top of a very large Terribad. She tumbles off after a few seconds and lands with a click of heels. "That was great!" she calls out, puming a fist in the air and hopping in place a couple of times. "Such great teamwork!!"
Ten the Terribad just gets up and hits her so hard she goes sailing though the air for about a hundred feet and crashes through a nearby parked car. She's hurled into it so hard that she actually blows through the back door and knocks the thing over. Her legs twitch in the air a couple of times.
"You know what...? I could really go for one of those peach-jam buns," she says with a sigh before closing her eyes and slumping into the backseat of the car.
<Pose Tracker> Cure Rhythm [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
Her rising punch managed to split the number in half, and Cure Melody divided it further. As Cure Rhythm falls back, she smiles in satisfaction, watching as those numbers get slammed into the Terribad.
But it's getting back up, and she has to leap wildly to avoid getting slammed into a building. Eventually, in midair, she catches Cure Melody's hand, nodding firmly. "Ruining everyone's plans...unforgiveable!"
...and then she has to just shake her head at Cure Melody. "I swear, Melody, you're going to eat so many cupcakes you'll be too hyped up to study - which defeats the purpose!" But she's smiling, as they land on the ground.
Step, step, step-step. The rhythm of their heels clacking on pavement summon shining music to burn away the mold near them, to sing a melody of happiness and joy, to shine as a golden treble clef. Together, they call out:
"Pretty Cure Passionato... HARMONY!"
COMBAT: FINISHER! Cure Rhythm has joined the combo started by Cure Melody! COMBAT: COMBO! FINISHER! Cure Melody and Cure Rhythm have used Pretty Cure Passionato Harmony on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Cure Melody has finished attacking. COMBAT: Cure Rhythm has finished attacking. COMBAT: Fuu Hououji narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Finisher, Sortagrim Reaping, taking 47 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Cure Pine [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
Pressing her foot off the number one last time as it impacts, she flips backwards just as the mass of numbers strikes the Terribad center mass. "We-we did it." She sounds more relieved than excited. Yet even as she was back flipping away she realizes it was getting up. Pressing off a nearby building with her foot, she rebounds with a twist to try to try to avoid being scythed away by its razor sharp book.
It comes close enough that it grazes her fantastically yellow frills, the rush of wind in it's aftermath knocking her off course with a shriek.
She only barely manages to right herself before she'd be knocked into an office building, tucking herself into a more controlled descent back towards the ground. "Lera! Cure Heart!" She cries out as she catches sight of their horribad state in the middle of it all. Mid-flip she puts her hand to her side, and grasps her Linkrun. Kirun descends with a joyful "KIIII!"
Into the top with a twist as she runs her fingers across the touchpad simultaneously. The Pine flute appears mid-air, even as she lands, it twirls like a baton on it's downward arc into her outstretched hand. She whirls it around, and exchanges her grip to hold it like an actual flute, as she runs her fingers across the rainbow keys, "Everyone is working so hard to get into high school. I won't let you be more than a stumbling block for them! Heal, harmony of faith! Cure Stick, Pine Flute!"
One by one they light up in prismatic colors with concentric circles of light and sound erupting melodiously from it. She changes to presenting it like a wand, flourishing it this way and that side to side as she speaks the incantation. "Nasty things, nasty things, fly away..." A hop as she raises it skyward, before cutting it downward, the moment her heels touch the ground, she traces it in a diamond pattern, "...Pretty Cure Healing Prayer -" She juts it forward, and the diamond responds, launching at the Terribad, trailing hearts and golden sparkles, "-FRESHHHHHH!"
If it impacts just behind Melody and Rhythm's passionate music of happiness, then the light seems to grow, yellow hued hearts beginning to orbit it like an atom, Cure Pine straining to keep up the purifying power behind it. Yet she's only one girl, one heart, one set of beliefs. It's clear she won't be able to keep this up for long.
She turns her head, giving Cure Fortune an almost desperate look, pleading in it's own way to aid the other Pretty Cure. Yet she doesn't speak her need in words, she feels like if she does then her magic will just collapse upon itself from the distraction.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Cure Pine has used Precure Healing Prayer Fresh! on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Cure Pine has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Mercury [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
The onrush of scything strikes catches Ami off-guard, but the Sailor Senshi doesn't let that get the best of her; she does her best to protect herself as the Terribad advances, clenching her fists tight. She has to hang in there a little longer -- and she does, moving /forward/ to get clipped with the flat of the book instead of with the sharper parts.
Crossing her arms in front of her and summoning forth another ball of energy, Sailor Mercury backpedals a little before sweeping her arms out to either side with a cry of, "Double Sabao Spray Freezing!"
The heightening intensity of her bubbles continues; this time, they sweep out in a wide arc across the Kindabads and the Terribad itself, bitter cold. If it doesn't keep moving, it just might get frozen solid amid the bubbles.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Sailor Mercury has used Double Sabao Spray Freezing on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Sailor Mercury has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
You really would think the Terribad would have been taken out of the fight by now - or the fight taken out of it, at any rate. Certainly the Wind Knight feels like she doesn't have much left in her.
But the Terribad has reinforcements, of a sort. The Kindabads are actively supporting their leader now, whereas Lera and one of the Cures are both out of the fight. The odds are, in short, not very good - and they're starting to get worse.
"And to think that I like math," the Wind Knight comments quietly, mustering her reserves of energy. She's starting to wonder whether this is like one of those boss fights where you HAVE to take out the minions before the actual boss can be defeated ... but she has one more big spell she can use. It takes some observation and some careful timing to find the right opening to cast it, but ...
"Storm-Dance of Kamaitachi!!"
The opening presents itself, and the Wind Knight sends another tornado at the monsters. The spell doesn't actually take form until it's gone past her allies, as a further precaution - but what energy the Magic Knight of Wind didn't invest in the spell itself is rapidly eaten up by trying to keep the Storm-Dance of Kamaitachi from running out of control.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Storm-Dance of Kamaitachi on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Steven Universe [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.
Steven rebounds off the skyscraper of numbers, boucnes around a few mroe times, then comes to a stop, appearing rather dizzy and stumbling around. "DId anyone catch the license plate on that warp pad..." he says, slowly coming to. "Okay... well, that was fun! Vomit-y, but fun."
The numbers are crunched back in the Terribads face, but that doesn't yet stop it!
Though... inspiration comes from an adorable source. Rhythm and Melody break out into an attacking dance number with a sweet tune that just gets the boy jazzed. It might be jazz. Maybe?
"Get your funky flow on, girls!" he calls over to them, kinda dancing on his own. As he does, gemstones appear and begin to float around his shield in an orbiting pattern, and seem to almost channel the light from the sun. At least it looks like it is. It could be calling something else forth.
A Vivid Amethyst. A Lustrous Pearl. A Sparkling Garnet.
They spin, faster and faster, as steven points the shield slowly at the creature. "You shouldnt have messed with my and my friends!" Steven proclaims. He knows the shield is about to do something important, yet he is unsure what exactly, until the light the gems seem to channel connect in the center of the shield, and form a powerful beam of rose tinted energy, right at the Terribad!
COMBAT: FINISHER! Steven Universe has used Believe In Steven on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Steven Universe has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Cure Fortune [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Cure Fortune lands back on the ground, below the remains of the giant numbers. She watches as the firepower from all the other magical girls collide with the Terribad...
But when the smoke subsides, it's still there. Not only that, it's getting back up. Her eyes scan the area to see if there are any other Kindabads left, but she doesn't seem to see any.
She turns to the Terribad, and raises her brace to the sky. It gives off a brilliant flash of light. Cure Fortune spins and spins. "Light of the Stars! Turn into sacred power!" She spins the dial on her brace, slapping it once. "Pretty Cure!" She spins her arms around each other, generating purple light which she raises above her head, forming into a star. "Stardust!" She then brings it down in front of her, spinning twice more before PUNCHING it towards the Terribad. "Shooooot!" As it races towards the enemy, she turns away from the monster, and raises her brace yet again. "Stars! Return to the skies!"
COMBAT: FINISHER! Cure Fortune has used Pretty Cure Stardust Shoot on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Cure Fortune has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to brace Cure Melody and Cure Rhythm's Finisher, Combo: Pretty Cure Passionato Harmony, taking 154 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Cure Pine's Finisher, Precure Healing Prayer Fresh!, taking 119 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Honoka Yukishiro is unable to keep fighting! Honoka Yukishiro's Block ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Parry ability activates! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to brace Sailor Mercury's Finisher, Double Sabao Spray Freezing, taking 85 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro is unable to keep fighting! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to brace Fuu Hououji's Storm-Dance of Kamaitachi, taking 30 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro is unable to keep fighting! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to brace Steven Universe's Finisher, Believe In Steven, taking 81 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro is unable to keep fighting! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to brace Cure Fortune's Finisher, Pretty Cure Stardust Shoot, taking 125 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro is unable to keep fighting!
<Pose Tracker> Honoka Yukishiro [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
Once the Terribad's blind samurai kata is through, it slumps... but feels, with satisfaction, that a couple of its enemies' bodies have hit the ground. Jerking its head upward, it shouts a "TERRIBAD!" so hot and fierce that it might as well be a kiai, cheered on by its Kindabad minions. It's a warning. It's a challenge.
It's a bluff.
And the girls call it together -- with a golden treble clef blast, a pineapple-fresh diamond of pure healing energy, the double torrent of icy Mercury, a vicious tornado and an immensely powerful pink beam.
Finally, a purple star crucifies the Terribad mid-destruction, and more stars spin around it as everything goes white.
When the radiance fades, the Terribad and Kindabads are gone, and so is all the mold. Shiina Suzuki is out of her mirror, blinking at the entrance to Twin Swans and likely to burst back into song at any moment. Indeed, everything is quite back to normal, with hardly a trace of battle. There is only one... and it pops out of the nose of Cure Fortune's fairy, when Glassan sneezes violently.
"Look, it's the power of a super-calculator!" They're a couple of cards with little people drawn on them, quickly vanished in some kind of notebook, which in turn the fairy stores wherever fairies store such things.
---
But Tokyo is massive.
And the Phantom Empire's reach is long... and ruthless.
This wasn't the only place attacked today.
Images of terrible battles, not all of them going the way of Shinjuku's, flicker on magical mirrors hung in a circle around a strange and mysterious room. In the middle stands a bluenette, who folds his arms as he gazes at what he knows, in his heart, is the beginning of the war he never wanted -- and fears cannot be won.
"This is it... the Invasion."
<Pose Tracker> Cure Pine [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
When the purifying radiance is gone almost all signs of the destruction go with it. Pine kind of blinks her eyes at the return of the cheerful girl who'd passed her by earlier standing in front of the cram school. "It's over." She sighs heavily, bone weary, ignorance of the true scope of this invasion driving her words.
A flash of yellow light causes the Pine Flute ot materialize back into the phone at her side. She turns at the sneeze, looking somewhat confused by the fairy's gift at first but then deciding it's not all that different from how... Chiffon does everything she does. She's starting to limp towards Lera and Cure Heart to check on them but...
... something in her step catches, as she stops her walk, and turns towards Cure Fortune, "Cure Fortune wasn't it? Do you know what's going on? What's this Phantom Empire? This all seemed very personal..." She looks down and to the left, "...given what you said about them stealing someone precious to you." She hesitantly looks back at her, though not directly so.
<Pose Tracker> Cure Heart [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.
From the backseat of the wrecked Mitsubishi, a lone right fist rises up, clenched. "I'M GOOD," Cure Heart shouts. She actually sounds like it, too.
She sits up, and coughs up a mouthful of integers.
"My mouth tastes like advanced trigonometry," she complains.
<Pose Tracker> Cure Fortune [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
With everything back to normal, Cure Fortune finally allows herself to breathe a sigh of relief. She turns away from where the Terribad used to be, and regards the area now that all the mold is gone. Everyone can breathe a lot more easily now that Namakelder was gone. She had seen him before, but she had always been confused about why Namakelder's minions created mold. It just seemed so out of place. Or maybe that was the point.
She looks at the cards that were sneezed out by Glassan, some of which had... a teacher's outfit? They're placed in the fairy binder about the time Cure Pine addresses Fortune.
Fortune doesn't look at Pine when she replies, ignoring her words about the situation being personal. "The Phantom Empire..." She begins, "Is a group of people who want to cause misery." She looks towards Pine just enough to get her in her vision. "The Blue Sky Kingdom was conquered by them. The kingdom's princess just /let/ them go free," Fortune's voice gains something of an edge. "and they took the entire kingdom over. Now..." She turns back, away from Pine and towards the rest of Tokyo. "They're coming here."
<Pose Tracker> Cure Pine [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
Empire sounds rather ominous, just the imperialistic implications of the word. Breathing a sigh of relief when Cure Heart shouts and sits up, she nods at Fortune, "That sounds a little like Labyrinth... but..." Were they really so like them? "...something about them seems really different." Maybe it was just the way Namakelder interacted with Fortune that tips her off to that, but also the monsters they created.
It's the statement that the Princess of that Kingdom just let them go free that causes Cure Pine to look up at her, eyes wide, "Why would she do something so dangerous!?" She blurts out, she has no reason to disbelieve her words, instead it's more shock that someone would cause the fall of their own kingdom.
Again her breath catches at the thought they were coming here. It seemed like they were pressed from all sides given all myriad of fronts of attack they were fending off, and after a moment she looks down, seeming somewhat dispirited from a new one arising. But after turning it over in her head, she looks back up, "... Is there anything different that we should know about fighting them or the kinds of targets their leaders pick? Like..." She holds up a finger, "...for instance, Labyrinth doesn't pick people, they pick things and collect the misery they cause. What is the Phantom Empire creating misery for?"
<Pose Tracker> Cure Heart [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.
With a wince, Cure Heart tumbles out of the damaged car. She takes a moment to dust herself off befoe letting out a heavy breath. She's sore and she's tired and part of her wants to go get a peach bun and curl up in bed until she feels better.
She decides not to. She just goes sauntering towards the remaining knot of Precures, doing her best not to look hurt. She even manages a smile as she listens in, though it fades to a frown as Cure Fortune tells her tale.
"That sounds just like the Selfish Kingdom!" Charle gasps from Mana's hip. "They took over the Trump Kingdom and now they're coming here too!"
<Pose Tracker> Cure Fortune [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
The moment Pine also acknowledges the Princess of the Blue Sky Kingdom, Fortune spins back towards Pine. "I don't know! I don't think she knew what she was doing, and I don't think she ever knew!" She stops after this, taking a deep breath or two to settle herself down.
Glassan, floats on over to rejoin the group. "They like to target really happy people, turning their happiness into despair. I think..." She thinks for a moment before returning to looking at the Cures. "I don't think they're powering anything, they just want to put everyone into those mirrors, like they did to the Blue Sky Kingdom."
<Pose Tracker> Cure Pine [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
The heat in Fortune's words takes her off guard, as she visibly recoils a step back, "If she didn't know then..." Her volume drops to something of a murmur, though not so low then it couldn't be heard, "...why are you so angry with her?"
Her eyes drift over to Heart anhd Charle, widening again... two new Cures, two new foes. "Wait, there's another Kingdom invading too?!" It was a lot to take in. And there's quite a bit she'd like to ask about the Selfish Kingdom too, but given that she'd witnessed this invasion she's going to ask more about this one first.
She looks at Glassan as she explains, and doesn't quite nod, because there's something more visceral to this information. Something that she couldn't just accept and digest so easily, "That's what they want!? It just seems so... so... cruel. Like... misery just for misery's sake."
<Pose Tracker> Cure Heart [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.
"That's terrible," Cure Heart murmurs, her right hand coming up to cradle her left bicep without her really thinking about it. She's in quite a bit more pain than she would like to vocalize. "That they're putting everyone into mirrors...." She winces a little.
The wince passes to a simple, steady smile, he eyes bright and sure. "It'll be okay," she assures the pair of Cures before her, though she's mostly talking to Fortune since she seems to be the most upset. "We'll help you whenever we can! We'll definitely get to work together." She nods with utter, utter confidence - nothing arrogant about it, just a /surety./
<Pose Tracker> Cure Pine [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
... After meeting Cure Sword, there's something about Cure Heart's statement that's worrisome to her. She'd thought all Pretty Cure would work together in the past and it didn't quite work out that way. So instead, she gives a nervous chuckle and rubs her chin with a finger, "Uh... that is assuming you wouldn't mind working with other Pretty Cure on occasion."
<Pose Tracker> Cure Heart [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.
Cure Heart nods briskly back to Cure Pine, rocking back on her heels, then forward, eyes practically shining. "I'd love that!" she says, her hand falling from her arm to clasp with the opposite over her heart brooch. "It's always better to help each other out whenever you can!"
She holds her hand out to Cure Pine, then, and holds eye contact, chin coming up. It's almost as if she's forgotten she's hurt. "I'm Cure Heart. It's nice to meet you!"
<Pose Tracker> Cure Fortune [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Cure Fortune keeps going with the words and the loud sounds. "Because she shouldn't have done it! It's her fault that..." Her face drops and her voice lowers to a strained whisper. "that..."
Cure Pine's surprise about the Selfish Kingdom is mirrored by Fortune, who softens just a little bit. But that disappears when the other Cures talk about helping each other, which kind of bristles Fortune just a little bit. She turns away from the Cures. "Don't misunderstand, I'm just in it to destroy the Phantom Kingdom and save the world. This is all just a convenience."
<Pose Tracker> Cure Pine [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
"Huh?" She looks so very bewildered by Heart who'd been injured so badly offering casual introductions, "Well it's very nice to meet you Cure Heart. I'm Cure Pine." A beat, "But..."
She looks down at her hand, then back up at her. She was a future vet, so she had a sort of caregiver's instinct there, "...are you sure you shouldn't be taking it easy?" She very hesitantly takes that hand, wondering if she shouldn't just bow her head instead, like she's afraid she might hurt her merely by gripping it.
Once the handshake is over, she gives Fortune a longer look, "...but you said she didn't know." She whispers. Wondering just how well placed her anger is, or if maybe it was a mistake to test it further.
At the end of her last statement, she nods, "I understand. We'll still help in whatever way we can. None of us are going to stand by and let them take over our world either."
<Pose Tracker> Cure Heart [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.
"I'll be alright," Cure Heart assures, shaking Cure Pine's hand with a big smile that neatly papers over the fact that she looks like she's just been hit by a bus. "Don't worry about me! So long as all those students are alright, I'll be fine!"
Down on Cure Heart's hip, Charle puffs her cheeks out a little and looks up at her Precure with evident worry.
She seems about to say something, but the sight of Cure Fortune bristling and turning away actually takes her aback. Without it, she looks every bit the badly hurt and badly inexperienced Precure that she is, her chin dropping and her shoulders slouching just a little. Then Pine fills in with just the sentiment she was thinking.
Her smile returns again. It's quiet and sure, more subdued this time. "Then I hope you have good luck. I'm sure we'll see each other again."
<Pose Tracker> Cure Fortune [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
It takes a moment for Cure Fortune to join in on the naming festivities, turning back to the other Cures. "I'm Cure Fortune." She doesn't say too much more. She watches Cure Pine mother-hen over Cure Heart's wounds for a moment, though she doesn't join in. Ignoring still Pine's words on the Blue Sky Princess, she does however nod a little slightly when the two of them talk about standing together to stop the world from being taken over.
But that's it. Fortune turns away, and her ribbon wings expand and glow again. She pushes off from the ground and takes flight, away from the battlefield and the other Cures.
Glassan looks at Pine and Heart worryingly, before she floats off towards her own Cure.
