2016-05-23 - Locks and Keys 8
| Title: Locks and Keys 8 | |
|---|---|
| Summary: The Pretty Cure Hunter appears, and does what he does best. | |
| Who: Iona Hikawa, Kuniko Saito, Inori Yamabuki, Fuu Hououji, Steven Universe, Setsuna Higashi, Miki Aono, Phantom GM: Hotaru Tomoe | |
| Where: Uminari Seaside Park | |
| OOC - IC Date: 05-23-2016 - 10-24-2014 | |
<Pose Tracker> Hotaru Tomoe [Infinity Institute (6)] has posed.
<SoundTracker> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uYlrL1YEg0
PREVIOUSLY ON BATTLE FANTASIA
It's "clean up Uminari Seaside Park" day for the Sister Schools, and after a long morning of volunteer labor their hard-earned lunch, provided by a lovely, family-owned local business, was interrupted by a monster. Here's how it ended:
The impact of this Terribad has been spread all over the park just like what happens when a bunch of kids eat too many sweets. It's a vomitorium of a battlefield--
--but one that is, slowly, being cleared. From the SPLURCH that Lancelot makes as the full weight of his body rolls over the monstrous octopus to the BZZZAP of Garnet simultaneously electrocuting a small army of maggots to the song of Kuniko's knife as it rings through the air, slicing and dicing the egg goop until there's nothing left, the magical girls are slowly retaking the park.
The apple-rabbit sub-Terribad flies past Fuu, though, and skitters into the underbrush of the treeline.
It.
Will.
Return.
Someday...
But the rest is done in a flash -- several flashes of beautiful light. Bound in place by the whirlwind of the Magic Knight of Wind, the Terribad is helpless against what the Pretty Cure serve up.
A hurricane of gorgeously scarlet hearts -- impossible wealth embodied in a single, massive golden diamond -- and, finally, a single, perfect falling star, royally purple, which crashes into an entire night sky's worth on impact.
When the light show clears, a single bento box clatters to the ground, the parts of the park that had been transmogrified into Candyland or otherwise wrecked by the fight have all been restored, Cure Fortune is the proud owner of two new PreCards which glow a curious foamy green, and Yuko Omori pitches forward, out of her dark mirror, straight towards the ground.
But behind her, where she had been hanging in the air, is an orb of pure white radiance, which pulls out of her back to hover melodically. It's humming softly, a moderately paced song, a thoughtful paean. It's wordless still, but someday it will be full-throated in its ode to the joy of rice.
And then the light, and the song, vanishes.
The man whose hand is clasped over the Key has arrived with a teleportation so perfect that it displaced no air -- he just winked into being. And there he stands. He's simply dressed, in a long white coat, dark gray pants, black boots. A sword is strapped to his back by a plain belt; its sheath is as fiery red as the gauntlet that encases his right forearm, and more fiery than his hair, which is a vibrant auburn but no fire engine red.
When his eyes open, they're a pure blue so much more dangerous than Hosshiwa's that it's like the first Phantom Empire lieutenant was merely the calm before the storm. These are eyes that have seen suffering. These are eyes that have /caused/ suffering.
"I am Phantom, the Pretty Cure Hunter."
As they flicker over Cures Pine, Passion and Fortune... they promise to cause much more.
Right here. Right now. Without delay.
TO BE CONTINUED... NOW!
OOC: If you participated last night, please +heal/full, representing a second wind born of pure desperation. You still have your wounds and exhaustion; narratively speaking, you won't be fighting at full strength for this one, which will undoubtedly figure into the outcome to some degree...
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe transforms into Phantom, The Pretty Cure Hunter!
COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has fully healed herself.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has fully healed herself. She is now ready to take on 5 opponents!
COMBAT: Cure Pine has fully healed herself.
COMBAT: Cure Fortune has fully healed herself.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has fully healed herself.
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
For what feels like a handful of heartbeats, the Magic Knight of Wind stares at the newest arrival on the scene. The chaos of the Terribad's presence and the fight to defeat it seems to echo in the relative quiet that accompanies Phantom's arrival, leaving three words almost reverberating in the Wind Knight's ears.
'Pretty Cure Hunter.'
The fact that he's laid hold of Yuko's Key is beside the point; Phantom has just declared himself, in so many words, the enemy of *several* of the Wind Knight's allies. She's not even sure, off the top of her head, how many Pretty Cures she knows. But the green-clad Magic Knight does know one thing quite clearly, and an equally clear resolve floods her body and mind as she dismisses her sword, willing her bow and quiver to manifest. An arrow is pulled from the quiver and nocked to the string, the Wind Knight half-consciously arranging her legs into a kyuudou stance as she raises her bow and draws the shaft back, sighting down its length just like she does at the archery hall on campus.
"Hunter you may be ... but I shall not let you harm my allies ... no. My friends."
Phantom may look relatively human, but so did the Dark Generals, so do Labyrinth's executives, so do Alcyone and Ascot and many another villain. The Wind Knight's focus steadies, sharpening its way past pain and fatigue, riding across her heart's fearful thunder; for a second, the only motion around her is the stirring of her skirt and hair in a gentle breeze.
"Gale ..."
The first word is nearly a whisper, all but lost as the breeze about her intensifies, her hair whipping forward about her bespectacled face.
"... Arrow!!"
The second word is a clear call, although not loud, and punctuated by the twang of released tension as her bow straightens, and the wind magic wraps around her loosed shaft to hasten and steady its flight towards Phantom's right shoulder.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Gale Arrow on Hotaru Tomoe.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly dodges Fuu Hououji's Gale Arrow, taking 22 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Fuu Hououji is Psyched! Hotaru Tomoe's Fade ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Flash ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Cure Passion [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
The light fades, and Passion lowers her now-empty hands, stepping forward and letting out a breath of relief. ...The tension, though, flows back into her, not out. But she doesn't have time for that; she steps further, partway over to Pine already, stopping short as she sees Yuko falling ther.
"Oh--"
But she's too far to catch her... and there's someone there anyway. Passion almost doesn't even notice Phantom's appearance, so sudden is his appearance.
But when she does, she freezes, shifting her position immediately to a wary stance. "What...?"
Pretty Cure... Hunter?
She tries not to star e into that blue gaze, shaking her head. She still doesn't have herself together; she's tired, and stil reeling from Hosshiwa's words. "What?" Passion steps up, not towards Phantom... but the rest of the way towards her teammate. Shaking her head, she stands up a little straighter.
She'll just have to stay ready.
"...Try if you want," Passion speaks up. "You won't be the first one to fail." She hesitates, though. Just moments ago...
"...I know better than most how strong they are." She doesn't strike, though; instead, she looks to Fortune, mouth half-open, but... what can she say?
COMBAT: Cure Passion has used Hesitation on Cure Passion.
COMBAT: Cure Passion has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Cure Passion has cancelled their attack on Cure Passion. If there are more attacks that need to be +cancelled, please hold all +attacks until the process is complete.
COMBAT: Cure Passion has fully healed herself.
COMBAT: Cure Passion has used Hesitation on Cure Passion.
COMBAT: Cure Passion has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Cure Passion accepts Cure Passion's Hesitation, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Cure Passion is Reinforced by Cure Passion!
<Pose Tracker> Kuniko Saito [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.
Omori's falling over! Kuniko, the Poissonnier, tenses as if to snap forwards, when someone else appears. Someone who declares himself to be the PRETTY CURE HUNTER.
His eyes are cold. The chill runs down Kuniko's spine, hits the small of her back, and bounces back upwards. She is reminded of salmon somehow, how they'll fight up stream even if it rips them apart. The fatigue -- doesn't quite fade, the bruise on her eye and the pain of being knocked around not vanishing. But the volume seems to go down.
Tugging down the brim of her hat, Kuniko hops off the table on which she stood. "Izzat so?" she calls towards him.
She puts a lid and lowers the heat on something that was simmering, and then slides her hands into the pockets of her sea-green, shimmering cook's pants. They're comfortable and ripple slightly as she steps forwards, her feet still damp with the kickening of Kindabads.
"Because Pretty Cure... is a protected species of utmost concern," Kuniko says, even as the Magic Knight nocks and looses her arrow. "For their vital role in protecting everyone's dreams... hunting season is permanently closed!"
That was awesome, Kuniko thinks. She keeps stepping forwards, trying to make herself lock eyes with Phantom. This does not work very well. Not only is it hard for her to do, but he may legitimately have many things to glance away from.
"Now put back what you just took," Kuniko makes herself say. Her eyes cut momentarily towards Passion -- which is meant perhaps to tell her 'hi get ready' and may instead shortly become a FATAL OPENING.
COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has used That was a good line. I am really smooth. on Kuniko Saito.
COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Kuniko Saito accepts Kuniko Saito's That was a good line. I am really smooth., taking 0 Fatigue damage! Kuniko Saito is Reinforced by Kuniko Saito!
<Pose Tracker> Cure Fortune [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
As the monster dissipates, Cure Fortune breathes a sigh of relief as she slides down to the ground, taking a seat while taking in breaths of air.
But, thankfully for Cure Fortune, she's slumped down near her--er, Iona's bookbag and her tiny fairy confidant, who upon the Terribad's awakening stirred to life and kept her head down when all of the fighting went on. Now that it is over, Glassan pops back up and hovers near her partner. "Good work, Cure Fortune!" Then she looks up at the others, smiling still. "And everyone else! Thank you!" Cure Fortune, for her part, gives a smile to her companion. She closes her eyes to have a brief rest before zooming off to wherever to transform back...
But right before her eyelids fully close, they're reopened by the sounds of a very excited Glassan. "Fortune, I feel the power of a warm beach!" Glassan sniffs and presents her nose to her Cure. "Rub it, rub it!" With a smile, Cure Fortune complies, causing Glassan to giggle... moments before she sneezes.
With the sneeze, two glowing cards pop out of Glassan's backpack and settle, hovering in the sky. The glow fades, and shows what's on the cards. Each one shows part of a dress: one a set of dark green pants and matching yellow shoes, and the other a flowing dress with the same colors. Together, they look like something someone would see in ancient Persia. The words on the cards may confirm this, as on the bottom in bold lettering are the words "Pine Arabian".
Cure Fortune takes these cards and looks at them for a few moments, curious as to what exactly these cards /are/. They feel... different.
But a scant few moments are all Cure Fortune has, as in the next moment someone new appears. Hosshiwa is forgotten for the moment, so is Cure Passion. Her eyes look over to the new arrival, and her breath draws short and her eyes flashes recognition. She was not unfamiliar with the Pretty Cure Hunter. She had seen him once before. But she was also present while he was /hunting/.
That once was enough, as Cure Fortune stands up from her sitting position, eyes awash not only with fear...
but with anger.
Glassan, looking from Phantom to Cure Fortune, then back, speaks to the latter. "Fortune, be--"
Cure Fortune instantly leaps forward, running toward the Hunter. "Phantom!" She yells as she rears a fist back to strike him as hard as she can.
Glassan only continues after a moment, tinged with sadness and fear for Fortune. "Be careful..."
COMBAT: Cure Fortune has used Fortunate Punch on Hotaru Tomoe.
COMBAT: Cure Fortune has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe perfectly counters Cure Fortune's Fortunate Punch, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Counter! Hotaru Tomoe's Reverse ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Tactician ability activates!
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe's counterattack, Mirage Move, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Cure Fortune!
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has adjusted her boss levels. She is now ready to take on 6 opponents!
<Pose Tracker> Cure Pine [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
<SoundTracker> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuTnMBYF5MQ&index=48&list=PL2D68B3BCAB0950B8
When a fight rages like this one has, that moment where she believed it was over is like a breath of fresh air. A bento box clatters to the ground. Cure Pine lets out a sigh of relief, her legs still feeling wobbly. "We did it." The syrup that was all over her has changed to water and now she's dripping wet but it's less miserable than having that sticky film all over her. Clutching the pine flute in two hands, she sighs and says, "Thank goodness."
But... when Yuko falls to the ground, free of the Dark Mirror, her eyes are drawn up to the light. She's not certain what it is, but it seems important to the girl it came from. And despite Pine being exhausted she has the urge to sing along. She certainly wouldn't throw in a dance step though, not in public, not yet! At first she hums along with it, as she dismisses the Pine Flute which vanishes in a shimmer of golden motes but soon enough she's trying to match it with words. "...lovely phrases, full of happiness~" She lilts softly with her untrained vocals.
But the light, the song, it all vanishes abruptly, and, "Eh-?" Her eyes follow it down to the hand, and the one holding it. She blanches as she catches sight of his eyes, her own smile fading, as he announces himself. "P-Pretty Cure Hunter...?" Everything about the man, from his poise to his title told her that this would be even tougher. "...ambushing us when we'd already fought so hard." It's more like a soft complaint to herself.
Every part of her hurt, pain that felt like it went down to every molecule of her. She felt more exhausted than if she'd undergone a marathon session of dance training with Miyuki, her limbs feeling more comprised of gelatin than bones. But despite every part of her wanting to quit, she can't. As this had gone from a conflict to save an innocent life, to an even more desperate battle for their own lives. Fortune leaps right in and... Pine can't help but think she knows her, given how angry she sounds, "Fortune- wait! Don't try to take him-" But she's already gone, already trying to clash with him. She says more quietly, "-alone."
Her inability to work with them felt like a frustrating hindrance, just like Cure Sword. After a moment she looks towards Cure Passion, golden eyes as soft as her voice, "This is going to be really hard, but I feel like I can go on a little longer..." She takes a step, then another, her eyes moving forward to meet those merciless blue ones. "...because I'm fighting for Cure Passion too."
It felt like she had to build up the momentum step by step to even get going, a walk becomes a jog becomes a run where she ducks beneath the Magic Knight's arrow. "Now please-" She starts swinging once she's close enough, trying to build up a rhythm in a flurry of punches which might seem astoundingly slow and weak to the Pretty Cure hunter, but she picks up the tempo quickly enough, a golden boot whipping up in a frontal kick to mix it up as she tries to test his guard. "-let go of that and leave us alone!" The chances of him listening seem abysmally low, but she's making that plea anyhow.
COMBAT: Cure Pine has used Pineapple Express on Hotaru Tomoe.
COMBAT: Cure Pine has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces Cure Pine's Pineapple Express, taking 8 Fatigue damage! Cure Pine is Psyched! Hotaru Tomoe's Block ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Parry ability activates!
COMBAT: Steven Universe has fully healed himself.
<Pose Tracker> Steven Universe [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.
A lazy day this has been for Steven.
Nothing is going on, at all. The boy spent most of his day just laying on the beaches of Tokyo Bay, thinking of days gone by in Beach City. all the events that happened on that small stretch of sand he knew by comparison.
Yet, it was interrupted suddenly by Lion. "What is it, boy?" For whatever possible reasons imaginable. Lion, for once, was the one wanting to go on a walk. And it seemed like in a particular direction - specifically the seaside scenic areas. But why? "Since when are you the one motivating me to go places?"
WIth a laugh, Steven hops atop Lion, and the feline starts walking toward the park. "Why do you wanna go there? You seem intent on heading that way. "Is it 'cause of the Lion Lickers dispensed at the convenience store there there? I bet it is..." he drones with.
A few minutes later, Lion shows up on the scene at the tail end of the first brawl. "Bored bored bored bored..." is all the boy can muster with his face planted in Lions mane, as if trying to suffocate the the boredom. But with Lion's sudden stop, he looks up. "Whoa, what is happening here now?"
When the dilettante man appears though, the boy sees jsut what he has in hand. "Wait a minute." He shakes his pink pal. "Lion! Its a key thingy! We should get it! It needs to go back to who had it. I think. I forget."
"Hey you!" The boy shouts, standing (albeit shakily) on Lion, and manifesting a shield. "That's not yours! I will return it back to who it belongs to, or my name isn't Steven Universe!"
"Im getting pretty good at that, huh Lion?"
COMBAT: Steven Universe transforms into Steven Quartz Universe!
COMBAT: Steven Universe has used AND STEVEN! on Hotaru Tomoe.
COMBAT: Steven Universe has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe perfectly dodges Steven Universe's AND STEVEN!, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge! Hotaru Tomoe's Fade ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Flash ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Hotaru Tomoe [Infinity Institute (6)] has posed.
Phantom's focus is one of the most terrifying things about him -- Fuu's brave speech gets about as much attention as the arrow that shoots towards his shoulder. He shifts his weight just a little to the side, sending the projectile flying past him. The attached winds do tear at his coat a lot more than he expected, but on the flip side, the way the hem flaps all dramatically and ominously is doing nothing to hurt his image. Then he walks -- just walks, casually, seemingly untouchably, each step heavy with horrifying purpose -- past the Magic Knight of Wind, and past Steven and Lion, towards the Pretty Cure. It's Passion who he replies to first, and his words are equally menacing -- an adequate response, all on their own.
"I have defeated dozens of Pretty Cure. In your career, you defeated... zero, ex-ecutive. Don't try to compare our careers."
It's in this moment that Kuniko is glancing at Passion, and somehow he's aware of her distraction -- his closed fist, the one with the Key in it, lashes out, and the ground rips open beneath the double-tap energy bullets that come forth from it to close with the side of the Poisonnier's head.
His free hand is the one encased in the gauntlet, and he brings it up to bat Cure Pine's punches aside one at a time, redirecting them with his forearm. When the kick comes in, it gets the same treatment, only this time he slides alongside her leg to deliver a one-inch punch into her solar plexus, point blank. "No," he replies succinctly, in the same moment, which is also when Cure Fortune moves in to amp up the pace.
He simply disappears, moving so fast that the naked eye thinks he's teleported. Reappearing above her, he makes a grand, sweeping gesture with his gauntleted arm, one which sends a long swipe of red energy straight towards Fortune, a long and deadly blade. It gives everyone a better chance to get a sense of his particular, personal flavor of dark energy; overwhelmingly strong, it hisses and crackles like hellfire, but is not truly flame. It's too red for that, the same red as the ribbons that bound Yuko in her mirror when she was used to power a Terribad. An angry red. A deadly red.
Only after the attack finds Fortune does he alert her to his new location through speech. "You seem to know me," he observes, with the clinical detachment of someone pulling wings off of butterflies.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used A Phantom Menace on Fuu Hououji.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used A Phantom Menace on Steven Universe.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used A Phantom Menace on Cure Passion.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Phantom Bullet on Kuniko Saito.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Phantom Limb on Cure Pine.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Dismissive Swipe on Cure Fortune.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Cure Pine narrowly counters Hotaru Tomoe's Phantom Limb, taking 15 Fatigue damage! Cure Pine's Reverse ability activates! Cure Pine's Tactician ability activates!
COMBAT: Cure Pine's counterattack, Pineapple Reverse, partially gets through, doing 16 Fatigue damage to Hotaru Tomoe! Critical Counterhit!
COMBAT: Cure Passion narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's A Phantom Menace, taking 6 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Cure Passion is Quipped! Cure Passion's Block ability activates! Cure Passion's Parry ability activates! Blind, Cripple, and Stun applied to Cure Passion!
COMBAT: Cure Fortune narrowly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Dismissive Swipe, taking 18 Fatigue damage! Cure Fortune is Quipped! Cure Fortune's Fade ability activates! Cure Fortune's Flash ability activates! Diversion and Stagger applied to Cure Fortune!
COMBAT: Kuniko Saito narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Phantom Bullet, taking 5 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Kuniko Saito is Quipped! Kuniko Saito's Block ability activates! Kuniko Saito's Parry ability activates!
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji narrowly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's A Phantom Menace, taking 7 Fatigue damage! Fuu Hououji is Quipped! Fuu Hououji's Fade ability activates! Fuu Hououji's Flash ability activates! Blind and Stun applied to Fuu Hououji!
<Pose Tracker> Cure Passion [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
"Pine..." Passion looks back to her teammate, watching as she sets her gaze forward, after what she said. "I--We can do it," she says, though she doesn't feel the certainty in her voice and it shows. Pine was even singing, moments ago. But Passion finds herself turning again to look at cold blue.
And then he answers.
"D-dozens?" She misses Kuniko's look entirely, taking a single step back despite herself. But the number, while shocking, isn't what hits so hard. The sting of failure doesn't care that she stopped for a reason, that it's absurd to care about that metric and she wouldn't /want/ to.
Pine in the melee is what finally jars her from inaction, even as he's already striking out with his energy. She still feels slow, and sluggish, but...
"I'm not going to compare something that doesn't matter! We'll stop you here!"
Her pink hair rushes back with the speed of her motion, sprinting across grassy ground to duck down and swing her fist straight for Phantom's stomach.
CHAT: You join channel <Entertainment>.
COMBAT: Cure Passion has used Passion Punch! on Hotaru Tomoe.
COMBAT: Cure Passion has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Steven Universe narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's A Phantom Menace, taking 7 Fatigue damage! Steven Universe is Quipped! Steven Universe's Block ability activates! Steven Universe's Parry ability activates! Blind, Cripple, and Stun applied to Steven Universe!
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly counters Cure Passion's Passion Punch!, taking 4 Fatigue damage! Hotaru Tomoe's Reverse ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Tactician ability activates!
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe's counterattack, Phantom Smash, partially gets through, doing 36 Fatigue damage to Cure Passion! Cure Passion is Quipped!
COMBAT: Miki Aono transforms into Cure Berry!
<Pose Tracker> Cure Fortune [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Fortune zooms in for the punch on Phantom. She's pretty sure she's got a good hit lined up, so it's something of a surprise when she punches empty air. "What?" She looks up just in time to see Phantom... and his evil blade coming right at her. She tries to jump out of the way, and she tries to avoid the despair crackling the blade. She manages to succeed, but the blade passes very close to her, and she feels that despair in the air.
This causes her to stop for a moment and not attack, which enables Phantom to make his observation. She starts to retort, but the dismissive tone of his voice makes her stumble over her words. "I--"
Then her anger comes back to the forefront. "I was there! I was there when you fought Cure Tender--Fought and defeated her!" She jumps back at Phantom again, this time to kick him in his despair-inducing face. "Give me back my sister!"
COMBAT: Cure Fortune has used Tender Kick on Hotaru Tomoe.
COMBAT: Cure Fortune has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Cure Berry has fully healed herself.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces Cure Fortune's Tender Kick, taking 13 Fatigue damage! Hotaru Tomoe's Block ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Parry ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Cure Pine [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
His punch slides in as she kicks, and suddenly she's in a bad position. Instead of trying to alter the momentum of the kick, a hand whips up to hook her fist into his wrist, and she twists her whole body like she was delivering a side kick instead, turning a devastating hit to the solar plexus into a slightly less one, but no less painful to her left flank instead.
She finds herself stumbling back, a hand on her side, while she gulps down air which feels inadequate to meet her sudden needs. Whereas he seems about as unaffected to her as if he'd been attacked by an unruly gerbil. He's disappearing, teleporting around and her eyes are having trouble following his position...
Dozens?
The boast echoes through her already rattled head. Cure Fortune's statement only seems to back it up, as she speaks of a Cure Tender that was defeated. Her-? "Your sister? He-" She had already lost someone to him. It seemed to promise that so many more were going to be lost if this kept up.
She shakes her head as if she had to let some of the hopelessness seep out, as if it could just pour like water stuck in her ears, she can't put her hands up there as they're occupied with holding her side. "Passion-" Her teammate is having a rough time already after that smash, Peach and Berry weren't here and... "-I'm really scared."
It's sounds like a pathetic admission coming from a legendary warrior doesn't it? But despite her fear she remembers the jungles of Iriomote-jima... "But I was even more scared when I thought I lost you. We made it through then. And I believe... that somehow we'll make it through this too."
She takes her hands away from her side, wipes away the sheen of fear sweat from her brow and- "So let's try as hard as we can for as long as we can-" A beat, "-Please."
COMBAT: Cure Pine has used I believe! on Cure Passion.
COMBAT: Cure Pine has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Cure Passion accepts Cure Pine's I believe!, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Cure Passion is Cheered! Surge applied to Cure Passion!
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
That was a perfect shot, even without wind magic; it should have done more than put a small rip in his --
The Wind Knight's train of thought is abruptly derailed by her own aches and bruises, fatigue reminding herself that it *exists* in no small quantity after the fight with the Terribad. She's way below optimal, even if the rush of adrenaline from Phantom's arrival gave her a second wind; even if she were fully-rested and uninjured, she wonders, would she be able to so much as scratch him?
She shakes herself out of *that* mental track as hard as she can; letting herself give in to that kind of despair will cripple her in a fight, and possibly leave her open to far worse than temporary mental hindrance. For now, her bow and quiver disappear; her sword reappears in their place, but rather than leaping to the attack -
"Winds of Admonishment!!"
- she attempts to enclose Phantom in a binding tornado, possibly more turbulent than that with which she bound the Terribad for her allies to finish it off. That note of desperation shows in the weave of her spell, though: she may barely know Fortune or Pine, and may yet need to make better friends with Passion, but if Phantom kills them, she won't have the chance to get to know *any* of them any better.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Winds of Admonishment on Hotaru Tomoe.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Cure Berry [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
Miki Aono was growing increasingly concerned.
The portion of the park that her and her little group were helping to clean up was extra dirty, so it had taken them that much longer to get things done, so she was afraid she missed meeting up with the rest of her friends. So she was hurrying already towards the part of the park that Setsuna and 'Buki were supposed to be in, but... she was hurrying towards, some people were hurrying away, talking about fighting, and monsters.
Miki breaks into a run, ducks behind a tree, and soon enough...
Cure ~Berry~ arrives.
Fear on her face, fear on her features, fear in her heart.
Eyes track across the battlefield - "Pine! Passion!" -and then track towards the target of their ire. The young man who was defeating all of the magical girls set in front of him. Berry's eyes narrow, and determination sets upon her features.
"Labyrinth?!" she says. It was her best guess, she was a little late to the program. Forward hops that present an erratic target as she bounces in, and with a low ducking, as she draws near the man, with one last leap she launches herself at him, feet first - hoping to strike him with her stylish heels.
COMBAT: Cure Berry has used Perfect Dart on Hotaru Tomoe.
COMBAT: Cure Berry has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe perfectly dodges Fuu Hououji's Winds of Admonishment, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge! Hotaru Tomoe's Fade ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Flash ability activates!
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces Cure Berry's Perfect Dart, taking 32 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Hotaru Tomoe's Block ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Parry ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Kuniko Saito [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.
That 'ex-ecutive' thing doesn't quite register with Kuniko. Not least because she just got HIT IN THE HEAD! She staggers at that blow, although between the raw determination of someone forged in the suffering of the kitchen and the buoyant protection of Mise-en-place, she does not go flying.
It does mean her OTHER eye is looking kind of blackened too. She staggers and reels, clutching at her head. That moment of steely defiance is dissipated, and if she had the strength of a salmon swimming upstream there... well, now she feels like a salmon who's been thrown onto the shore by a bear.
A bear who hungers for Pretty Cure!!!
Her eyes swim back into focus and she hasn't been battered into further. (Ha ha, she thinks. Battering. I get it.) Swallowing, she looks up as the Pretty Cure snap into action, before asking slowly, "Cure Tender...?"
He said dozens. DOZENS. A chill runs up Kuniko's back. "Magic Knight!" she calls out. Her right hand works on something even as her left sweeps through the air. "If what they're saying is true, we can't let our guard down. He might be like... the anti-PreCure or something!" Kuniko got hit in the head twice so her thinking is a little fuzzy.
What is not fuzzy is what she pitches at Fuu: she does not have time for plating. But it's a piece of mozzarella, a slice of tomato, and an anchovy filet wrapped like a piece of nigiri sushi. It glitters with fragrance. (Kuniko, meanwhile, steps away, forcing herself to focus her attention on Phantom. It is kind of hard when he has a hunt count that high.)
COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has used Tomato and Mozarella Antipasta on Fuu Hououji.
COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has adjusted her boss levels. She is now ready to take on 7 opponents!
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji accepts Kuniko Saito's Tomato and Mozarella Antipasta, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Withstand applied to Fuu Hououji! Cleanse! All of Fuu Hououji's debuffs are cleared!
<Pose Tracker> Steven Universe [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.
Steven makes his grand announcement to condemn the badguy!
And gets completely ignored. "Wow, rude! That guy... is... rude..."
Apparently it was not due to rudeness. He just finds the boy below him. Without faltering, the being waltzes past Steven, and he is instilled with fear. Something about the guy just makes him freeze up. He was within striking distance, but nothing happened.
"This guy is creepy," the gem child says to Lion. The animal growls but does not make a move yet either. The fellow is just that intimidating.
"You know what, I don't agree with what you are doing to those girls!" he adds, finally girding himself after seeing others get hurt.
"I will stop you, even if you ignore me!" he shouts, running at the... whoever it is, swinging his shield wildly.
COMBAT: Steven Universe has used Shield Bash on Hotaru Tomoe.
COMBAT: Steven Universe has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe perfectly counters Steven Universe's Shield Bash, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Critical Counter! Hotaru Tomoe's Reverse ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Tactician ability activates!
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe's counterattack, Mirage Move, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Steven Universe!
<Pose Tracker> Hotaru Tomoe [Infinity Institute (6)] has posed.
It's possible Phantom was watching the last fight, because he hears out Passion and Fortune and his first reply is a cool restatement, "You think the Pretty Cure I've defeated so far don't matter, huh."
Then he flexes his abdominals, taking Passion's fist straight on -- which makes it like punching the side of a tank -- and steps into the blow, bringing his gauntleted hand straight up into her face. It flies open, releasing a red blast of sufficient size to kick up a mushroom cloud of park debris, with the traitor Pretty Cure left at the center of the crater.
Cure Fortune isn't, because he brings up his arms to intercept her kick, grunts softly at the impact, then twists -- trying to grab her leg with his free hand and chuck her outta there, into the clear blue sky. There's a lamppost at the far end of her new trajectory. "Oh -- it's you," he adds, a flicker of recognition in his eyes, and nothing but icy cruelty in his voice as he relives the fight she's referencing, "The brat who made Cure Tender lose her fight against me. She was really something, one of the first to make me have to work for victory. How did it feel, when you realized that if you hadn't been there at all, hadn't stuck your nose in, your sister might still be with you today?"
He glances back down at Cure Passion, perhaps preparing to finish her off, when Cure Pine starts talking. It distracts him; hot anger fills his eyes, and instead of releasing the gathered energy in her palm at the helpless Pretty Cure, it arcs out towards her teammate instead. "You're making me sick. Believe whatever you want -- it won't change the truth."
With a single step forward, he puts a foot on Passion's sprawled form -- then raises it, bringing his heel down towards her ribs in a mighty axe kick. "You're going to lose--"
In comes Cure Berry, also heel first. Phantom notices in the nick of time and slams into her legs with his forearm, turning her aside. Afterwards, he runs his fingers through his hair, clearly annoyed, and addresses Berry directly. "I serve Queen Mirage of the Phantom Empire. I'll destroy all love in this world in her name." Yeah, it wasn't the kick that irritated him, nor the addition of an additional Pretty Cure -- it was being mistaken for a servant of Mobius. "One Pretty Cure at a time." Thrusting his arm out, another bladelike slash of magical energy shoots straight down it like a railgun, accelerating towards Berry with piercing speed.
Glowering, he walks straight through Fuu's whirlwind, moving with deceptive speed; one moment he's striding slowly along a dozen yards from her, and the next he's right... behind her. Punching her in the back with one-two jabs. The talking comes after the pain: "I don't mind fighting Pretty Cure's friends, too, if you insist on being involved."
Since he's right there, Kuniko's appetizer goes flying right past him, and he blinks, a little nonplussed. Then, at precisely the same angle, he sends back more of those bullets, which means this time they're aiming for the chef's vulnerable and important hands, instead of her face. Sometimes he says much by saying nothing at all.
Steven runs in and bashes nothing but air, as Phantom once again moves too quickly to see. Again he takes to the air; floating there casually, for a moment, he promises, "You'll wish I'd ignored you, child," before suffusing himself in red energy like a living red meteor, flying downwards at shattering speeds to punch so hard that the ground all around them flies upwards as debris.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Operatic Twist on Cure Fortune.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Phantom Bullet on Cure Pine.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Phantom Heel on Cure Passion.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Dismissive Swipe on Cure Berry.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Phantom Pain on Fuu Hououji.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Phantom Bullet on Kuniko Saito.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Phantom Crash on Steven Universe.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Cure Pine fails to brace Hotaru Tomoe's Phantom Bullet, taking 21 Fatigue damage! Cure Pine is Quipped!
COMBAT: Cure Berry perfectly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Dismissive Swipe, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Brace! Cure Berry's Block ability activates! Cure Berry's Parry ability activates!
COMBAT: Cure Passion narrowly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Phantom Heel, taking 13 Fatigue damage! Hotaru Tomoe is Psyched! Cure Passion's Fade ability activates!
COMBAT: Cure Fortune narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Operatic Twist, taking 24 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit!
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Phantom Pain, taking 4 Fatigue damage! Fuu Hououji is Quipped!
COMBAT: Steven Universe fails to counter Hotaru Tomoe's Phantom Crash, taking 39 Fatigue damage! Steven Universe is Quipped!
COMBAT: Steven Universe's counterattack, Repelling Shield, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Hotaru Tomoe!
COMBAT: Kuniko Saito fails to dodge Hotaru Tomoe's Phantom Bullet, taking 18 Fatigue damage! Kuniko Saito is Quipped!
<Pose Tracker> Cure Passion [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
"Your sister?" Passion echoes too, in shock. She knew--knows better than most--how each of those Cures must have /been/ someone, but this brings it home. For half a moment, she thinks what could happen out here.
Half a moment is entirely too long to think of losing a sister.
Passion's eyes widen at Phantom's retort, but she's already committed to the strike; it feels like her fist strikes iron, and while her arm is jolting, she can't defend against that blast to her face. It hits, and /hard/, and when she's aware of anything at all again besids pain, she's sprawled on her back on the ground. "Uh..." She can't even move, in the moment. But there's Pine. Pine speaks to her, and Passion can't even look up at her in the moment. But through her fear, her teammate /believes/ in her. She doesn't feel worthy of it.
But she can't let her down, either. Passion starts to stir, lowering her hand to try to recover herself. Not fast enough; if Phantom hadn't held off at what Pine said just long enough...
Even so, she's pinned down, staring up a him as he brings his heel down. "--No!" She /jerks/, wrigling just free enough that the kick slams her in the stomach instead of breaking ribs, leaving Passion coughing even as Cure Berry charges in.
"Berry!" she calls, almost relieved but certainly desperate. Rolling along the ground, Passion hops to her feet, adopting a wary stance staring at Phantom. Finally, she answers Pine. "I'll... I'll do my best!"
She glances quickly to Pine and Berry in turn. She doesn't have the breath for a lot of words, doesn't have the confidence to say much to them--but her look says enough. Flipping backwards, Passion lands hands-first, springing herself up into the air. "We...!"
She's not alone, when she comes back down. She's watched her friends keep time long enough; the beat goes on, and Passion swings back down dead center at Phantom with both feet out. "Won't lose!"
COMBAT: Cure Passion has started a combo targeting Hotaru Tomoe!
<Pose Tracker> Cure Pine [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
What he says to Fortune is so cruel. And the idea works its way into her mind, that maybe, just maybe this is why Cure Fortune doesn't want to team up with anyone. "Stop it! Fortune. You..." What do you even say to something like that? She wasn't there so she couldn't deny it, or refute any part of it. Instead she makes a plea to her instead. "...it sounds like you're going through something really tough, but let us help you. You don't have to go through trying to get her back alone."
She knew from experience that a Pretty Cure fighting alone was so much weaker than several fighting together, their hearts as one.
But Phantom was annoyed by her, and his angry reply to her trying to reach out to Passion is in the form of gathered energy. She tries to punch forward as if she were going to meet it with her fists, but it overwhelms her in an instant, sending her flying back with a scream as she strikes a picnic table, scattering rice and apple bunnies and octopi wieners as it topples. "It's too much-" She whimpers once, from her sprawled out position.
The hopelessness in her eyes fades a little when she sees the flash of a blue heel. "Berry!" There's relief there, at her ~perfect~ timing but also fear, was she going to lose her too? She puts such thoughts out of her mind as she pushes herself up, "I'm so glad you made it! No he's some kind of-" But, he's already announcing himself, "He's giving us a really hard time."
And now as if to illustrate how Pretty Cure fight better together, she catches that look from Passion, like some sort of tell. Backstepping rapidly to get some further distance, she takes a short hop, then presses at the knees and leaps high into the air. It's synchronized with Passion and Berry that she'll strike simultaneously with thunderous force, the slim-heeled boot of a Pretty Cure leading. "Triple Pretty Cure Kick!"
COMBAT: Cure Pine has joined the combo started by Cure Passion!
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
A delicious treat is delivered in the midst of battle by Kuniko, and the Wind Knight takes a moment to catch it, calling out, "Thank you!" to the chef. She spares just enough extra time for a cursory, "Itadakimasu," before popping the bite of food into her mouth ... and despite the combat still being waged, she takes a moment to savor its taste, the mild yet refined flavor of the mozzarella contrasting with the tomato's freshness and the salty, fishy anchovy. For one brief shining moment, a second so finely split as to have been carved with a paring knife, things are better: her mind clears, her pain subsides, and hope shines anew.
But the moment doesn't last; Phantom's onslaught doesn't even waver in the face of all of the girls' (and Steven's) attacks, and the Hunter continues fighting all of his gathered opponents - including taking advantage of the Wind Knight's distraction, attacking her from behind.
While it's not much, the Wind Knight DOES wear armor - and as Phantom tries to punch her, she does her best to interpose what armor she has on her back against his fists. It's enough to additional bruises, as opposed to broken ribs or internal injuries ... although she still gets the distinct feeling that he could have hit her a *lot* harder if he'd really wanted to cripple her, short-term or long.
And the emotional hit is possibly the worst part of it. The despair that clawed at her earlier comes racing back, rearing up over the landscape of her mind: this is a warrior who kills magical girls with enough regularity to flaunt it like a title. He's not just part of an organization such as Labyrinth, but an antithesis to any magical girl - any *group* of magical girls. If he were to take up arms for the sake of any organization that intends ill to the world, there would be little the heroines could do to continue saving it.
What can they do?
"Phantom-san ... !" Ever polite, the Wind Knight actually addresses the Hunter with a typically formal (if mild) honorific - and possibly does so with a deliberate eye to distracting him. But if her voice catches his attention enough to look at her, then Phantom will see her coming: the green-clad Magic Knight, lunging at Phantom with her sword raised and steadied, its tip pointed for his chest.
And if he sees her coming, likely he can stop her .. that is, if the surprise of a magical girl wielding a potentially lethal weapon - something rather more damaging than purifying spells or sparkles of love - doesn't distract him for that one, critical fraction of a second.
It's a gamble. It's far more risky than the Wind Knight usually resorts to.
But for all that she knows her own life's value, neither will the Magic Knight of Wind undervalue anyone ELSE'S life - and if saving the Pretty Cures here requires that someone pay the highest price, she'll back up her earlier pledge with her own mortality. If nothing else, maybe she can cause Phantom's guard to waver while the (now three, she notices) Cures deliver a more telling blow.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used To the Point on Hotaru Tomoe.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly dodges Fuu Hououji's To the Point, taking 12 Fatigue damage! Hotaru Tomoe's Fade ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Flash ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Cure Berry [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
Berry was learning quickly - /quickly/ - that this guy was the real deal. If not the cruel nature of his words - oh, that was making her mad - but with the strength and skill he was using to fight them off. Berry /felt/ that block in her knees, the kick that made giant nakewameke's heads snap back stopped instantly.
And then his counter.
Gritting her teeth, she starts attempting to reverse her momentum - pushing against his arm as that energy lashes out. With a kick against his forearm with one foot, she adds spin to her motion, leaping away from him with a backflip as that lightning fast energy comes at her. With a high kick and a swipe of her foot, she meets that energy with energy - and the impact of those competing energies just... barely redirects it enough to impact harmlessly upon the ground proper.
But she puts some distance between herself and the man, her eyes on him. "One Cure at a time? Not a chance!" she snaps back.
"Passion, Pine!" she intones, glancing to each in turn. But they trained in dancing together - there were those little tells - almost impossible to see. She could see it in the way they rose, and the way they looked to her, the hidden things behind their eyes. They would do the next attack together.
"Love and peace will always win against people like you!" she says.
Stepping forward alongside her friends, she felt her heart swell with determination and strength. Leaping up at the same time as her friends, Berry adds her voice to theirs.
"Triple Pretty Cure Kick!"
COMBAT: Cure Berry has joined the combo started by Cure Passion!
COMBAT: COMBO! Cure Passion, Cure Pine, and Cure Berry have used Combo: Triple Pretty Cure Kick!, composed of Pretty Cure Fresh Kick, on Hotaru Tomoe.
COMBAT: Cure Passion has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Cure Pine has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Cure Berry has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces Cure Passion, Cure Pine, and Cure Berry's Combo: Triple Pretty Cure Kick!, taking 87 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Cure Passion, Cure Pine, and Cure Berry are Psyched! Hotaru Tomoe's Block ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Parry ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Steven Universe [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.
Steven swings! And hits nothing but air. The strange phantom person talks down to Steven, and before he can say anything cool or witty back, the enemy is suddenly rocketing toward him with a crimson punch of power! Thankfully, Steven raised his shield to block it! His ultimate trump card!
He's totally going to block it!
No, wait, the other thing.
He totally didnt block it.
Sure, Steven raised his shield as he often does, and it almost always works in soem way. But this guy is on an entire different level. The fist connects with the shield, and the sheer force of the connect not only causes the shield to fly back and crack Steven in the head with a hardy thud, but sends him flying on top of that all, right into a fence, which now has a nice Steven-shaped hole in it.
Some groaning can be heard from behind it, but no boy gets up, at least immediately.
Lion of course, wont take that nonsense happening to the boy, at which point leaps into action, covering remarkable distance and lashing out at the man with the golden key.
COMBAT: Steven Universe has used Just Lion Things on Hotaru Tomoe.
COMBAT: Steven Universe has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly dodges Steven Universe's Just Lion Things, taking 13 Fatigue damage! Hotaru Tomoe's Fade ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Flash ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Cure Fortune [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
At the words of Phantom, Cure Fortune stops as she too relives that night, a long long time ago. But before she can reflect, suddenly his hand wraps around her ankle and she's sent flying. Fortune manages to turn in midair and get arms in front of her before she collides with the lamp post, creating a hard and very noticable dent in its otherwise straight structure. It didn't hurt as much as she'd had feared thanks to getting her arms between herself and the impact point, but, as she falls to the ground, it still hurts.
She slowly stands back up... but Phantom's words still stings, because she remembers as well. Back then, she was so sure she had a good hiding spot to watch Cure Tender fight Phantom, and she did remember that Tender swept in front of her eyes to block an attack that Phantom seemed to shoot at nowhere, but...
Wait... was that why Cure Tender blocked that attack? Is he-- Is he telling the truth?
Her anger and her memories flood over her once again, stopping her completely, looking down with sadness reflected in her purple eyes. But as she's looking down, she sees, well, herself. She sees everything that is about herself. But amongst that which is Cure Fortune, there was one thing that didn't belong to her, hung to her hip:
Cure Tender's transformation mirror, that she herself was using to transform to Cure Fortune. Fortune lifts it up for a moment, before thrusting it out in front of her. "Time to change!" The two cards from earlier slide inside, and the mirror closes. "Pine Arabian!"
Light bursts forth, this time a green color. But when the light fades, Cure Fortune is wearing the clothes on those cards, a very pretty Arabian dress.
Cure Fortune does a flying leap in the air, and slowly swishes both her arms in the air, back and forth. But with each swish, she seems to call up... sand?Yes, a very sandy wash tries to flow over Phantom's legs, to try and slow him down, just a little bit, like she was trying to bury his legs in a sand dune.
COMBAT: Cure Fortune transforms into Pine Arabian!
COMBAT: Cure Fortune has used Fortune Desert Wave on Hotaru Tomoe.
COMBAT: Cure Fortune has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to dodge Cure Fortune's Fortune Desert Wave, taking 23 Fatigue damage! Tangle and Trap applied to Hotaru Tomoe!
<Pose Tracker> Kuniko Saito [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.
Red energy snaps out and smashes into Kuniko's hands. She recoils with a wail, clutching both of them to her chest - for a fleeting moment she wonders if fingers broke, but a flex tells her that probably that didn't happen. Just horrible bruising and later swelling! It's like she just had twenty pound frozen turkeys fall on each of them...
He serves Queen Mirage. He finds Pretty Cure and hunts them.
Kuniko sucks in a deep breath, even as he moves to smash at Steven, who, doughty as he is, is tugging Kuniko's protective heartstrings. Especially when he goes flying.
"... You got me involved... the moment you stormed in here and grabbed that Key!!" Kuniko finds herself saying, to her own mild surprise. "Do you think we're all just isolated lumps, standing here and going 'no, not my problem' when someone comes in and calls himself a hunter of Pretty Cures?!"
Kuniko finds herself straightening up. Talking like this helps her a little. Helps that feeling of fear. Her hand curls around something. "Even if we aren't all the same, we're a team! We protect people and we protect dreams and hopes and - and all kinds of things! I --"
Her head turns towards Cure Fortune. "LOVE THAT DRESS!!" Kuniko shouts. She will, later, deduct every possible style point she produced earlier and bury her head in her pillow. But for now, she looks back towards Phantom.
I hope this works, Kuniko thinks as her hand tightens.
And then the sands of the desert get accompanied by a small handful of healthful dolma. Will the superfood qualities of the kale leaf mixed in with the grape leaf be decisive? The savor of the filling? Well, they sparkle as they fly, because the lemon juice within them has been /over/ activated... indeed, at the touch of anything, they erupt in clinging foam, just like the volcano of elementary school classes of yore!
"I'm so glad I peeled that lemon earlier, Kuniko thinks. Actually, she says it aloud.
COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has used Yalanci Dolma on Hotaru Tomoe.
COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces Kuniko Saito's Yalanci Dolma, taking 1 Fatigue damage! Hotaru Tomoe's Block ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Parry ability activates! Stun applied to Hotaru Tomoe!
<Pose Tracker> Hotaru Tomoe [Infinity Institute (6)] has posed.
Phantom doesn't seem particularly startled by the presence of a sword in the hands of the Magic Knight of Wind; after all, there's a sword on his belt, a sword which he has yet to even bother to draw. Nor does he do so now -- instead he just flickers out of the way, dancing across the battlefield. As he passes Fuu, he plants a nasty punch at her gut, all too fast to see.
But he stops dead when the three Pretty Cure are all coming in at once. His heels dig into the lawn, his knees brace -- this is a serious threat and he's ready for it. But maybe he isn't ready for its sheer power; even with his arms crossed above him, even with all three heels finding purchase only on the single piece of real armor he wears, that red gauntlet, the strength of Fresh Pretty Cure's triple kick drags him backwards, churning up furrows of soil, until he finally hits a tree and is able to stop.
He exhales, and it sounds like a slightly pained grunt. Then, with a wordless battle cry worthy of any samurai, he uncrosses his arms, summoning between them a massive and mighty beam of red light, wider than the three Pretty Cure are tall when stacked end-to-end.
It's a feint; right when the pillar of energy reaches them, it splits into twelve smaller beams, which slam into wrists and ankles and solidify, catching Pine, Berry and Passion in midair if they're not careful. These restraints remain in the aftermath, adamantine-hard orbs, and it will be a major struggle to see themselves freed without some kind of help.
"Love and peace will always /create/ people like me," he spits back, before turning his back on the Fresh Pretty Cure to advance on Cure Fortune -- blipping past the incoming pink Lion and leaving a murderously fast barrage of energy bullets for the feline to contend with along the way.
But what happens next is something he didn't, he couldn't, expect -- the Pretty Cure transforms into something entirely new, something he's never seen or fought before, and in that moment of surprise, the rising sands take him totally unprepared. He sinks to his waist in an instant.
His eyes promise furious revenge, but his voice stays calm. "Interesting. But... it's not over yet!" Kuniko buys everyone some time by feeding him the dolma -- he does eat it, and seems briefly glazed over by the intensity of the flavor. The Pretty Cure Hunter, a bit of a foodie -- who knew? But then he shakes himself out of it with a wry smirk, a 'gotta focus, bro' kind of expression.
The ground rumbles as he summons dark energy to himself, and then he explodes out of the sand trap like a rocket. "I'll give you the same choice your sister had, 'Pine Arabian.' Do you stop me -- or do you save /them/?"
The Fresh Pretty Cure may be in varying levels of hindrance but there's no doubt that, while contending with those shackles, they're in serious danger if Phantom comes for them in earnest. Which he seems eager to do; he shoots his first red beam towards them at an angle that invites Fortune to step in front of it.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Phantom Limb on Fuu Hououji.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Phantom Trap on Cure Passion.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Phantom Trap on Cure Pine.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Phantom Trap on Cure Berry.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Phantom Bullet on Steven Universe.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used A Phantom Menace on Kuniko Saito.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Implacable Hunter on Cure Fortune.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Cure Passion narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Phantom Trap, taking 4 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Cure Passion is Quipped! Cure Passion's Block ability activates! Cure Passion's Parry ability activates! Stagger and Tangle applied to Cure Passion!
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji fails to counter Hotaru Tomoe's Phantom Limb, taking 25 Fatigue damage! Fuu Hououji is Quipped!
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji's counterattack, Sword Strike, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Hotaru Tomoe!
COMBAT: Cure Pine fails to brace Hotaru Tomoe's Phantom Trap, taking 30 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Cure Pine is Quipped! Stagger, Tangle, and Trap applied to Cure Pine!
COMBAT: Steven Universe narrowly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Phantom Bullet, taking 18 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Steven Universe is Quipped!
COMBAT: Cure Fortune narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Implacable Hunter, taking 3 Fatigue damage! Cure Fortune is Quipped! Bind Break! All of Hotaru Tomoe's debuffs are cleared!
COMBAT: Kuniko Saito narrowly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's A Phantom Menace, taking 6 Fatigue damage! Kuniko Saito is Quipped! Blind, Cripple, and Stun applied to Kuniko Saito!
COMBAT: Cure Berry narrowly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Phantom Trap, taking 18 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Cure Berry is Quipped! Cure Berry's Fade ability activates! Cure Berry's Flash ability activates! Stagger applied to Cure Berry!
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
Phantom comes through her range again, and the Wind Knight brings her sword around for another attempt to wound him - only for her blade to slice through nothing save air, while his own strike (thankfully bare-handed) connects solidly enough to send her flying, the air driven from her lungs.
And this time, she doesn't get back up.
It's not so much that the strength of her body has reached its limits, or that her heart is being crushed by despair, or that her mana reserves have finally run out. Mostly it's the fact that Phantom's last blow to her midsection left her literally unable to breathe, and with that, the accumulated injuries and fatigue of both body and mind came crashing down on her.
<Pose Tracker> Cure Fortune [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Cure Fortune smiles as the sands wash over Phantom... but only for a moment. Then... then he gives an ultimatum-- attack him, or protect the other Cures. It's at this point that she realizes the tunnel vision she was experiencing with Phantom here at the park, and just now sees the other Cures in phantom shackles, as well as everyone else in the area. She jumps at Phantom, swiftly and fastly, but stops the moment he launches an attack. Now she was seeing the fight she remembered... just now from her sister's perspective. She thinks. She wants to attack Phantom, she really does. She also kind of feels that the other six here, they didn't need to be here. She had to do this alone.
But, she didn't have to be /there/ back then, either. And as much as she felt she didn't need the others here, she also didn't want them to suffer for her own actions.
So it might be something of a surprise (in fact, it's still something of a surprise to her, too) when she jumps in front of the other Pretty Cures, arms crossed to block, as well as jumping in front of the red beam, taking it square in the middle. The force of the attack actually causes her to bounce away back where she came, falling to the ground as she slides to a stop.
She climbs back up again. "Ow... that hurts." Fortune takes a deep breath, before she takes another dancing leap forward, sweeping her arms not to the side, but up above her head as she spins.
This may explain the large purple star, up in the sky, with a equally large purple comet trail. It shines, too, shining down upon Phantom and giving him a little taste of bad omens.
COMBAT: Cure Fortune has used Fortune Comet Shimmering on Hotaru Tomoe.
COMBAT: Cure Fortune has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Steven Universe [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.
Lion, even with his speed, is no match for whoever this is, and gets assailed by energy from where the foe was. the pink mascot crumples for a few seconds before getting to his feet, ready to attack.
"Lion. Come here..."
Steven has managed to get up during the last volley of the phantom being, leaning against the fence. Lion approaches, wondering what he wants. It becomes evident that Lion's mane is what was wanted, as Steven plunges his hands into it.
"We can't fight him. He aren't strong enough. But I do have an idea... The other people fighting might be, and maybe they just need a little help. You know?"
The boy pulls out a fiery ukelele. "Maybe even a little song could help." After a few moments of tuning, Steven begins strumming out some sort of lyrical power ballad for his friends, and puts everything he can into it.
It isn't quite as epic without some amps and modulators, but it will have to do. "This one's for you!" he says, looking up especially at those trapped by the enemy's magic.
COMBAT: Steven Universe has used Blazing Ukelele Solo! on Cure Passion.
COMBAT: Steven Universe has used Blazing Ukelele Solo! on Cure Berry.
COMBAT: Steven Universe has used Blazing Ukelele Solo! on Cure Pine.
COMBAT: Steven Universe has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Cure Pine accepts Steven Universe's Blazing Ukelele Solo!, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Cure Pine is Cheered!
COMBAT: Cure Berry accepts Steven Universe's Blazing Ukelele Solo!, taking 0 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Cure Passion accepts Steven Universe's Blazing Ukelele Solo!, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Cure Passion is Cheered!
<Pose Tracker> Kuniko Saito [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.
Her dolma is - eaten? Even appreciated? Kuniko feels a new hope, but unfortunately, the Empire strikes back before it can really return to her. Even if Phantom isn't aggressing against her directly - it would be hard to, with Cure Fortune still on the move - his very words, the accumulated aches in her already-injured body...
Her head turns. Passion, Pine, even the new arrival - Berry - they're all trapped like that. "Oh come on!" Kuniko cries out.
She gathers herself. Hard day. Rush coming. There's got to be more in you, she tells herself. You didn't win in the Stadium because you /gave up early/. "Cures!" she calls to them, even as she crushes an eggplant that had been hanging out on a virtual-magic charcoal grill within Mise-en-place. As she mingles with spices, she says, "All of you fight so hard. I believe in all of you. And I'm not going to let some kind of 'hunter,' who traps the people he calls prey and makes fun of them, do what he likes--!!"
Kuniko feels a moment of turmoil. It's a confusing, awkward feeling in the back of her throat. It doesn't affect her hands. The smoked and grilled eggplant fills three small pitas, topped with a sprinkle of red paprika, a bit of olive oil, and a thin shaving of delectably orange chicken.
"Besides--- he ate that thing!! If I'm gonna feed people, fair's fair!!" And with that, Kuniko adds a single sliver of pickled daikon (for that Japanese flair) to each. And the pitas themselves are the serving medium, because, of course, Kuniko has to send each of these delectable bites to the Pretty Cures' mouths directly!
Well, 'directly.' There's a pretty significant range here. Either way, the pitas are perfectly mouth sized, and if anything, having to eat the meltingly rich chicken and the savory eggplant simultaneously will make the experience even more vivid.
.**************************** Shitamachi Low City *****************************.
COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has used Babaganoush and Shawarma Chicken Onigiri on Cure Passion.
COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has used Babaganoush and Shawarma Chicken Onigiri on Cure Pine.
COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has used Babaganoush and Shawarma Chicken Onigiri on Cure Berry.
COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Cure Pine accepts Kuniko Saito's Babaganoush and Shawarma Chicken Onigiri, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Cleanse! All of Cure Pine's debuffs are cleared!
COMBAT: Cure Passion accepts Kuniko Saito's Babaganoush and Shawarma Chicken Onigiri, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Cleanse! All of Cure Passion's debuffs are cleared!
COMBAT: Cure Berry accepts Kuniko Saito's Babaganoush and Shawarma Chicken Onigiri, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Cleanse! All of Cure Berry's debuffs are cleared!
<Pose Tracker> Cure Passion [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
There's something about Berry's confidence that boosts Passion's spirits; no, not just her confidence. Even if all she's done is /watch/ the others dance, it's enough; she strikes /with/ Pine and Berry, and her jaw sets as she kicks off and sails back through the air, planning to alight and press what advantage they've gained together.
Passion isn't careful /enough/. Still on the way down, she braces herself to defend against the pillar of red light crashing towards her... and when the real attack comes, the fact that she held against its power doesn't mean anything; she's stuck, and Phantom just turns his back on them. ...That--that dismissiveness--hurts more than the beams.
Passion struggles against the bindings, but all she accomplishes is to strain her arms. She's still trapped, stuck mid-air with dark energy holding her right where she is. She turns to try to see her friends, but they're trapped, too; what she might've said dies on her lips.
She's still struggling as she sees a beam coming their way--and then, suddenly--
"Cure Fortune!"
The last thing she expected was the purple Cure's help, after all of that; even with the change of outfit, she recognizes her, stopping to stare a moment as she takes in the change. "But, what...?" She stares after Fortune, her head hanging as she still despairs of her bonds
But something changes; a reminder of what Earth is like, of the good things here, in Steven's song, for one. Passion blinks at the boy and his lion, stirring. That's when Kuniko calls out to them. "But..." She isn't sure she should be among those. But she can't move, and... she is hungry. Hesitantly, Passion looks at the flying pita--and them chomps down straight into it.
It's... delicious. The comparing textures make her eyes widen.
Fortune fighting, Steven singing, and Kuniko's cooking; it's enough. The feelings entrusted to her mean she /can't/ give up here. "Haah--!" She looks to Pine, then Berry, and struggles one more time. But /this/ time, she wrenches herself free, one straining leg first, then the other, then her arms. "Fortune!" she calls. "Don't... give up!"
Hitting the ground, Passion rolls in her landing, getting her feet again with a click of her black-and-red heels. Setting her shoulders straight, the red Cure has so many things she /wants/ to say. ...But maybe first...
She charges, a blur in motion, and what's good for him seems fine for her; she feints, striking out with a hard punch that turns into a hooking kick as she passes, trying to get up close.
"I'm with you!" she calls to Fortune, trying to keep him busy, despite his obvious power.
From afar (to Hotaru Tomoe and Steven Universe), Kuniko Saito (Kuniko) brb to dog-tend, remains down though
COMBAT: Cure Passion has used Flash Feint on Hotaru Tomoe.
COMBAT: Cure Passion has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe perfectly dodges Cure Fortune's Fortune Comet Shimmering, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Critical Dodge! Hotaru Tomoe's Fade ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Flash ability activates!
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly counters Cure Passion's Flash Feint, taking 4 Fatigue damage! Cure Passion is Psyched! Hotaru Tomoe's Reverse ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Tactician ability activates!
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe's counterattack, Phantom Smash, partially gets through, doing 38 Fatigue damage to Cure Passion! Cure Passion is Quipped!
<Pose Tracker> Cure Pine [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
"Haaa-!" Her heel drives against Phantom, as he's pressed all the way back to the tree. But then with his battle cry, she kicks off, trying to flip backwards, and ready herself for what's coming, in the giant red pillar of energy. But... it breaks apart in many different ways.
The difference catches her flat footed and she finds herself unprepared for it catching her extremities, wrenching them painfully enough that she feels like her limbs are being slowly torn from her sockets. It's a continuous, agonizing struggle against the energy restraints that feel harder than titanium, a constant pained drone out of her lips.
The sight of Fortune's fabulous Arabian dress and the spectacle of her dance catches her attention. As well as the results, which seem to halt Phantom in a trap of sand. "Fortune- That's- incredible." She's bought them some time, so Pine closes her eyes and tries to focus on breaking her shackles, gaining little ground.
But then, the true game of taking them a hostage comes to her ears, and an eye cracks open. A flash of red enters her vision immediately. Despite all the evidence to the contrary born out of Cure Fortune's lone wolf tendencies, she doesn't stop believing that she'll come help them. After all she's a Pretty Cure.
But that hardly stops her from flinching. "I believe-I believe-I believe-" She says rapidly as her own desperate mantra of someone who might be facing down death- if she's wrong.
But, it doesn't strike. Instead she hears Fortune saying it hurts. Her eyes open and she breathes visibly more easily. "Thank you very much for the save Fortune!"
But through the din of battle, the incoming whine of Fortune's comet, she hears... a ukulele strumming. Her face kind of has this befuddled look, and eventually her eyes stray to.
A Pink Lion
Suddenly delight fills her eyes as she recognizes what the pink blur across the battlefield had been. The mere sight of the fluffy, fierce, and proud creature uplifting her spirits and clearing away some of the hopelessness. "You fight with a lion!? He's so cute!" A moment later, a pita gently enters her mouth, served to her by Kuniko. With heavenly flavors of eggplant, basted chicken and paprika create a symphony of textures and tastes. Normally she wouldn't be tempted to eat in the middle of a battle, but with how delicious it tastes she can't help it. A bite. Then another. "It's so good-!" It almost brings tears to her eyes.
But what's more important is between that rush of invigoration created by the food and the sight of the adorable lion, she finds renewed strength in her limbs. Digging deep inside of herself, she makes one last valiant struggle and... her arms and legs all burst free of the energy shackles at once. She hits the ground, all but panting from the feat of strength. "T-Thank you-!"
Passion rushes forward and... this is a desperate enough situation that Pine uses the distraction of her teammate's rush to raise her hands over her head and clap, "Nasty things! Nasty things! Fly away!" Bringing her hands down, she makes a diamond out of the fingers with her hand, "Pretty Cure-" The shimmering gold power of her belief forms between her finger tips and she spreads them outwards, "-Healing Prayer!" The energy lashes out at Phantom in golden waves, trying to catch him in it even as he smashes Passion away.
COMBAT: Cure Pine has used Pretty Cure Healing Prayer on Hotaru Tomoe.
COMBAT: Cure Pine has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly dodges Cure Pine's Pretty Cure Healing Prayer, taking 34 Fatigue damage! Hotaru Tomoe's Fade ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Flash ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Cure Berry [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
There was no dodging him this time.
No - soon after her heel likewise digs into Phantom, she was repulsed by that energy. It was painful - far more than she felt it had any right to be. Doubly so when she finds her arms bound, feeling the squeeze and terror of the restraints, she has to cry out...!
Relief came for her in a hurry, her breath leaving her in a heady sigh. What was that? her expression said, with wide eyes and open mouth. But that open mouth turns into a smile - somewhat pained around the edges.
One Cure at a time?
No - they were all fighting for one strong cause! That uplifts Berry's heart - the sight of the pink lion and Steven's song only bolstering it more - and the pita too! They were all together!
Cure Passion darts forward, and she finds a companion in that - Berry ducking low, and moving /fast/ - moving fast to try to dart up and hit the young man's opposite side at a similar time. "And I too!"
Hopefully, it would be enough to distract him for the attack that she heard Pine preparing.
COMBAT: Cure Berry has used Bonzanza Spiral on Hotaru Tomoe.
COMBAT: Cure Berry has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces Cure Berry's Bonzanza Spiral, taking 12 Fatigue damage! Hotaru Tomoe's Block ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Parry ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Hotaru Tomoe [Infinity Institute (6)] has posed.
Phantom doesn't seem surprised by Fortune's choice to follow in her sister's footsteps -- but he is surprised that she's still standing, afterwards. It must be all the sequins in that new getup of hers; in his experience, they're better than steel plates for Pretty Cure. Sparkles are dangerous.
He rushes past the comet -- it leaves a crater where he was a heartbeat ago -- to meet the Fresh Pretty Cure as they're freed. He /really/ doesn't appreciate the joint powers of food and song being leveraged against his evil magic; his eyes narrow to slits, and he's truly, silently, dangerously furious, even as he meets Cure Passion's charge with his own and leaves her back in the dirt with an explosive punch (while Cure Berry finds her punch meeting those ridiculously hard abs beneath his white coat), then flattens himself to the ground beneath the golden diamond of Cure Pine's prayer.
Losing no momentum, he comes up in a roll, and spreads his arms wide.
Again, that massive red energy beam, the one that split into a trap for Fresh Pretty Cure, is conjured before him. It plunges across the battlefield, filling everyone's eyes with crimson light--
--but this time the trap is the feint. Instead of splitting into twelve beams, it simply splits into three, each one much broader than their targets, the helpful Kuniko, Steven and Lion. And each impacts with concussive force.
"You can't protect /everyone/," Phantom observes with a hateful smirk. "You'd better get the word out -- it's not safe to be your friend anymore, Pretty Cure."
He tilts his head to the side cockily, as though listening to someone in an earbud (or, probably more accurately, talking to him inside his head, as magical warriors are wont to do).
"Looks like you're saved for today. It wasn't really sporting, fighting you right after that Terribad, anyway. Next time... I hope you give me more of a challenge."
And without a single word further, he vanishes.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Hotaru Tomoe has used Phantasmal Killer on Kuniko Saito.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Hotaru Tomoe has used Phantasmal Killer on Steven Universe.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Kuniko Saito accepts Hotaru Tomoe's Finisher, Phantasmal Killer, taking 118 Fatigue damage! Kuniko Saito is unable to keep fighting!
COMBAT: Steven Universe narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Finisher, Phantasmal Killer, taking 60 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Steven Universe is unable to keep fighting! Steven Universe's Block ability activates! Steven Universe's Parry ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Steven Universe [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.
Steven's singing actually manages to hcheer him up soem too, being brushed aside was really getting to him. He is a fighter too! He can do things like, you know, hit people with a shield! It is important! He is on a team!
Seeing the Cures break free felt that much better as well. "Oh yeah! The whooping is about to start, man!" he calls out to the.. he really needs to fiud out what a Pretty Cure Hunter is. Theres gotta be a textbook somewhere.
Of course, being caught up in his helpful reverie leaves him wide open. Lion attempts to dodge the beam at high speed, but the strange Phantom is calculating, and knows where to shoot it to catch him.
As for Steven, the beam heads toward him, and there is one of two things he can do. He can bring the shield up. Or, he can protect his gifted ukelele. He picks the latter, sparing the ukelele a horrible fate at the expense of his own.
THe beam hies perfectly, and when it is gone, there is no Steven. Nothing remains where he is standing. Just a crater. A cursory glance around reveals nothing at first, but a wider look shows something is smoking, entangled in a bike rack a frightening distance away.
The only thing that manages to have color on the smoking form is a gold star on Steven's shirt.
<Pose Tracker> Kuniko Saito [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.
Kuniko swells with pride at the bursting free of the Pretty Cure. She doesn't look towards Phantom except in so far as she's watching them. She's already thinking of a way to follow up on this when -
That beam!
Red horror fills her vision and before Kuniko knows it she's being slammed into by a force that feels almost as bad as a certain other impact she endured. (It's actually worse, but she's stronger - and Mise-en-place has its protective aspects.) That revived memory chills her heart even as she's smashed down to the ground, letting out a strangled yelp as she rolls onto her back, eyes glazed over and momentarily blank.
The pain is massive and swimming, seeming to arc through her whole right side. Passing out wavers at the edge of her awareness, threatening to tug her inwards.
<Pose Tracker> Cure Passion [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Pine behind her, Berry beside her, Passion puts all she can into redoubling her assault, feeling impact under her strike... and then against her chest. Phantom's counterattack leaves her reeling, skidding in the dirt, the wind completely knocked out of her by a too-powerful blow.
She coughs, trying to breathe again, barely conscious. She's bruised and battered, and can't do a thing to stop Phantom as he strikes out again. Rolling painfully to her side, she tries to stand--and her eyes widen, seeing his targets. "No!"
But he's gone. He's gone, and they're hurt, not even his targets. ...Not his targets, and...
'It's not safe to be your friend anymore, Pretty Cure.'
"...No..." A stab of dread lodges itself in her heart, and brings with it... everything that's happened, in this battle, rushing back to her amidst the pain of her injuries.
After all, the crowning achivement of her life...
She inhales a ragged breath, dragging herself up. She looks to Steven, and starts limping her way to Kuniko. "I-I..."
No, there's something else, too.
"Cure Fortune, I..." Where does she start? ...How does she start? "I didn't mean to..."
She stops, and keeps going towards Kuniko, to see if she's all right.
<Pose Tracker> Cure Pine [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
Phantom is fast enough that she has trouble following him. Fast enough that at first she deludes herself into thinking her prayer struck. But then. He's up in a roll a flash and he's- "No!" He's attacking their allies just to prove a point. And then he's gone.
But she feels no relief as she starts limping over to Kuniko and the child. The sum of the sheer number of injuries she's accumulated in back to back battles starting to take its toll now that the adrenaline rush of the battle is winding down. And her whole self feels... numb. Because with someone like that around, their days seem even more numbered.
She slowly leans over the twisted bike rack and the child, checks his pulse as best as she can. Then takes a breath. "Berry, Passion... is it over?" She says as if still in a nauseating daze, as she gently twists a bar of the bike rack away and hefts Steven out of it into an arm. "Because it doesn't feel like it." A pink Lion is nearby, if he lets her, then a hand moves out to rub through his mane. This is almost reflexive for her. She isn't taking the same delight that she normally would.
She seems dispirited, her eyes follow over to Fortune and she murmurs, "I'm sorry about your sister." There are no further entreaties towards working together... just... just that, as she listens to Passion talk to her.
<Pose Tracker> Steven Universe [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.
Red. Birhgt, crackling red.
These are the last things Steven remembers. In drifting on the edge of consciousness, where he can barely form cohertent thought, he wonders. Is everyone okay? Is Lion okay? The ukelele? What has become of him...?
Wait. something is happening. He feels like he was... picked up? He can't tell...
In the consciosu reality. Lion seems to have escaped some of the blast, but not all of it. He limps over to Steven's location about the time Pine arrives. Lion looks hurt, but poises, ready to jump toward the Cure, before he realizes though, this person is helping Steven, at which point he relaxes and comes close, giving Pine the chance to indeed touch a fluorescent pink mascot lion.
The boy seems to be slowly coming two, but is only making unintelligible noises so far.
<Pose Tracker> Kuniko Saito [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.
Kuniko rolls away from Passion.
How cold! She's making little gasping noises and trying to curl up, though. For the moment, at least, it's probably just the pain.
But it isn't a pain that sits on her alone.
She seems to sense the nearby presence of Pretty Cure, though. "I... is everyone... alright?" she asks, her voice tight. She doesn't uncurl, though her head lifts to look towards Cure Passion, face tight with pain.
<Pose Tracker> Cure Fortune [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Cure Fortune is still standing, yes (or, at least she could stand afterwards), but it hurt. It hurt a lot. But she's still standing. Was she stronger than she thought? Or was he just testing her? When Phantom disappears, it seems like the latter had happened, at least.
But she doesn't think about it for quite some time. Instead, she just stares, stares at where Phantom used to be as the Pine Arabian dress fades into her normal one. A number of thoughts swarm her mind, her eyes getting wider and more glassy with each one. Phantom got away. Phantom attacked her. Phantom attacked and hurt people. She didn't save her sister. Her sister is still missing. Had she beat Phantom, she might have been able to save her sister.
Of course, that isn't that simple, but Cure Fortune doesn't care. But another thought, the same words Phantom used also echo in her mind. 'It's not safe to be your friend anymore, Pretty Cure.'
She... she might think that's right, as she looks over the battlefield at the other minions of goodness scattered around, a few not even standing.
But... another thing that she heard from Phantom was his declaration that she couldn't protect everyone. Which might be the only bit of movement from Cure Fortune for a while, as her face hardens into grim determination. She looks from Kuniko to Steven, to Pine and Berry, Even Passion, who gets something of a look of confusion, and maybe anger as well? But she turns away from each of them, and looks up to the sky, muttering a shaky voice of declaration. "I can. I can defend everyone, and I can do it myself."
At this point Cure Fortune starts to walk away, though her wounds slow her movement, enough for anyone to catch her.
<Pose Tracker> Cure Passion [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Fortune's look at her--determination shifting to confusion, to anger... It seems right. But what she says--she can do it, she can defend everyone herself. Passion is sure it isn't true. It couldn't be.
...Part of her is sure she knows that declaration, knows it in her heart. But... How can /she/ be the one to say it? What can she do? Passion looks after Fortune, still standing, and doesn't follow.
'Berry, Passion... is it over?'
"I don't know," Cure Passion answers Cure Pine, her voice loud enough to hear, but tired, empty. She says it only after shelooks down at Kuniko, kneels with difficulty beside her, but before she says anything else at all.
"I'm sorry," she says to Kuniko. "You believed in us, but... You were still hurt so badly..." She offers her an arm, to get up. But she's a little distracted.
Passion sighs, exhausted, and lifts her gaze to the retreating Fortune.
"...I'm sorry," she murmurs at her, and doesn't know what she can do to help.
<Pose Tracker> Kuniko Saito [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.
"S... not your fault," Kuniko says. She accepts the arm, but winces as she eases upright.
"Heh," she says, not looking up. She sort of smiles, in that her mouth pulls back in a smileish way. She doesn't look at Passion as she explains, "Just... banged some old injuries..."
<Pose Tracker> Steven Universe [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.
"Uhn..."
The smouldering body that is Steven actually begins to stir. "Owuh... Ouch... Hurts." The boy slowly opens his eyes, still adjusting back from the intense red he saw before the blackout. "Everything hurts..."
"Lion... Ukelele." A pause. "I wanna go home. To the gem temple island..." he mutters. The poor boy obviously hasnt been hit with an attack of this caliber, readily apparent on how he is reacting.
Lion seems to be tending to his own wounds, though seems to be recovering at an impressive rate.
"Tired..."
<Pose Tracker> Garnet [None] has posed.
As if the beach hadn't had enough action today, suddenly a black and magenta blur shoots down from the sky and hits the ground with a sudden impact.
" It's Garnet!
She scans the area. "OK, looks like except for the magical girls, all the children have been safely..." She stops and sees a familiar blue lion and a smoking crater of...
"Steven...?!"
She runs over to him and picks him up. "What are you doing here! What happened?!"
He doesn't seem to have energy for replies, so she cradles him in her arms. "OK, I'll hear the story later, for now we're going home and you're going back to bed..."
