2016-06-08 - Eudial Attacks! The Egg-O-Lantern Catastrophe!

Title: Eudial Attacks! The Egg-o-Lantern Catastrophe!
Summary: Juuban Elementary School is having its Halloween party, with a number of Sailor Senshi having been roped in to help or chaperone! That means they're on hand when Eudial unleashes a daimon on the party, in an attempt to steal their teacher's Pure Heart! But Sailors Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are not simply allies...
Who: Setsuna Meioh, Makoto Kino, Usagi Tsukino, Eudial, Haruka Tenoh, Michiru Kaioh, Rei Hino, Ami Mizuno GM: Hotaru Tomoe
Where: Juuban Elementary School
OOC - IC Date: 06-08-2016 - 10-28-2014

COMBAT: Usagi Tsukino has fully healed herself.

COMBAT: Yuuko Arimura has fully healed herself.

<Pose Tracker> Yuuko Arimura [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.

Somewhere in a darkened laboratory...

"Yes, Professor," says a woman with burning red hair. "I believe I've identified another candidate..."

On the screen in front of her, images flicker and magnify, interfaces shimmering with gathered information in a retro-modern way. Photos move by. A profile picture. A class photo. All of them resolve into a slightly tired-looking but caring figure. "Mitsuko Takebe... yes, an instructor at Juuban. -- Ohoho, yes, I do remember it well... our last efforts were there as well, but this is a very different situation. That was a visiting researcher, Professor."

Eudial's glasses gleam. "This is an instructor. And later this afternoon --" Another image pops up, a flier declaring a NOT SO SPOOKY HALLOWEEN PARTY, "-- there will be a perfect opportunity. Our model suggests a 79% probability that she holds one of the Talismans..."

Eudial's lips draw back into a small but savage smile even as she coils the old-fashioned phone cord around a finger. "And there's no reason to put it off. I'm free this afternoon myself..."

<Pose Tracker> Hotaru Tomoe [Infinity Institute (6)] has posed.

<SoundTracker> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTKWUFqEO4w

"A diligent teacher," muses the Professor's voice on the other end of the line. "A mentor, a leader, a... mmmmolder of mmmmminds." He slurps the words with all the enthusiasm of someone constructing them out of Chicken Alphabet Soup.

Which he is -- look there, beneath the Escher-esque rafters and pipes that descend more stories than Scheherazade can furnish, down to abyssal depths -- look, and see the plume of white, faintly poultry-scented steam. Breathe it in. It is the only warmth in this dark place.

"I'll have your daimon ready immediately. Don't let me down, Eudial," he murmurs into the phone, while slowly, precisely stirring the bunsen-burner-lit beaker of broth.

"Hmmm. A Halloween party... I'll be sure to send along an appropriate offering." Ending the call, he surveys its golden depths like a seer seeking meaning in tea leaves.

E G P N T

Pushing off of his stool, he goes to the next counter over, which is piled high with vegetables. Great scientific minds do not subsist on coffee and soup alone!! Initially with care, but then with greater and greater speed, he yanks veggies off the shelf, inspects them, then chucks them carelessly over his shoulder.

"No... no... no, no, no, is there no kabocha at all?! No..."

Abused calories splatter the tiles behind him with each flung rejection.

"...yes. Hm. Well, it must be a sign. I'm sure everything will work out. Ahaha. Ahahaha!"

He slams the vegetable -- rounded and plump, but by no means a pumpkin or even very pumpkin-like -- into the Daimon Oven, and his laughter blends dissonantly with the rising hums and crackles of electricity that follow...

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!"

Lightning glints off of his rounded glasses, and then he abruptly turns and walks away, vanishing into the darkness even as his creation explodes with light.

<Pose Tracker> Yuuko Arimura [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.

JUUBAN ELEMENTARY

The Not So Spooky Halloween Party has gotten a bit sprawling, approaching the status of a limited cultural festival due to popular enthusiasm. It's taken over three classrooms, and even has wavy curtains of black crepe hanging through the shoe locker area. Music plays through the PA system, definitely spooky if in the vein of The Nightmare Before Christmas rather than genuine, menacing horror or dissonant noise.

Many of the younger set have dressed up in costumes, ranging from the cryptic to the licensed to the surprisingly accurate. Little sentai heroes contend with cats and witches, though there are enough chaperones to keep any impromptu battles from getting out of hand. And particularly notable among those chaperones: Takebe-sensei, fifth grade instructor, who has been circulating in a black witchy dress with seashell ornament on her hair and a slightly rickety fan on her back. She's smiling far too much to be spooky.

The rooms have different activities - arts and crafts to make (or repair) your costume, a REAL HAUNTED HOUSE where you can plunge your hands into REAL EYEBALLS AND BRAINS (peeled grapes and cooked spaghetti), and a Cafe de la Ossuarie, which mostly means there's a lot of cartoony skulls on the walls and even on the cups of coffee and cocoa passed around.

It's getting chilly outside, so a warm drink or some fresh cookies would be QUITE welcome... as would chaperones, or, really, just about anyone. Shingo Tsukino is here too, though with his entrance into the fifth grade, he's doubtless too mature for things like plunging his hands into bowls of peeled grapes. (Maybe.)

<Pose Tracker> Usagi Tsukino [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.

Usagi was pumped up for the Halloween party. After all, she'd put together what she felt was the perfect costume for her. Something that would make her look just as elegant and beautiful as she truly wanted to feel. She wanted it to be a surprise, which is why she'd brought it to school first before changing, but now as she unfolded the paper carefully wrapped around it she...

"What is this!?"

... cried out in shock which was so was palpable as she stared at what was supposed to be a gown with a mask, and was instead replaced by a fuzzy bear outfit. "There has to be some mis-" Giggling behind her at the door caused her to whirl around suddenly. A hand darted out like a striking snake to catch a collar before the Sentai costumed kid twist aside, "Shingo! WHAT DID YOU DO?"

The elementary schooler had a grin like a cheshire cat beneath his mask, "Well you were so worried about picking out the perfect costume that I decided to help you out with something special from last year's class play!"

"You-" Her frustration was building, as her face grew flushed and fires burned in her eyes, a vein pulsating on her forehead when... Shingo stomped on her foot. Crying out in pain, she hopped impotently on one foot as he gave her a raspberry. "Don't worry, you'll make a great bear, stupid Usagi!"

Usagi lashed out with her hurt foot, just as Shingo slammed the door shut of the room she'd gone to change in. Tears in her eyes, she finally, gingerly put her foot down, and wiped her eyes on her sleeve, "Well the joke's on you Shingo..." She reaches into her purse, "...because your beautiful big sister has a transformation p-"

The scenery changes to Usagi Tsukino's cuckoo alarm clock in her bedroom. A marvelous, magical pink pen sits beside it.

Digging through her purse more and more frantically she took out every single object until she was convinced it wasn't in there. Her wail of defeat could be heard for quite a distance. Not long after there's a bear at the party, fuzzy and brown and just shy of one hundred and fifty centimeters if you didn't count the ears. The costume was itchy, and unpleasant and hot.

She was thoroughly embarrassed, but she wasn't about to leave while her friends were hanging out. Usagi waves a paw in a dispirited fashion, "Rar. I'm a bear, not a princess." She removes the mask and shakes out her blonde twintails to sulk by the refreshment table at the cafe, setting it aside to grab and nurse a cup of cocoa.

Casting a dour look at elementary schooler giggles thrown her way, she stormed off with a cocoa mustache on her upper lip to find her friends. Haunted house, even elementary school ones were too scary to face without them. "Shingo you big jerk. I'll show you! I'm going to have a good time even like this!"

<Pose Tracker> Makoto Kino [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.

Mako Kino is, of course, helping out, and if she's been troubled lately it's sure hard to spot it. The tall young woman went for a little spookier--and easier to spot--in a costume marked on the outer layer by bands of wrapped cloth. Her characteristic ponytail is still out, the wrappings at her head more like a headband and a facemask, since her eyes and nose are free for watching kids.

Or, as the case may be at the moment, helping out at the cafe. Her cup of coffee is sugared to oblivion, as she's on a coffee break! And turns to see..

"A bear," Mako comments to Usagi, lifting an eyebrow. "...It works for you." Half-smile.

<Pose Tracker> Setsuna Meioh [Infinity Institute (U)] has posed.

Setsuna has chosen her extracurricular activites carefully, balancing her interests and scholastic ambitions against the need to keep her afternoons and evenings free for her even /more/ extracurricular activities, like chasing down magical keys and safeguarding time and space. When it came time to cross things off the list, "Volunteer with the elementary schools" stayed safely in its thrice-circled bubble (with a star next to it!). She was one of the first to sign up for chaperone duties for the Not So Spooky Halloween Party, and she arrived right on time to help set things up and guide the little ones in.

She's in costume, too.

Gauzy white linen flows from her shoulders in many layers, somewhat heavier than what her inspiration might have worn but certainly more modest. The top of her shift is secured by a gold lamé collar edged in multicolored glass craft gems, and a shining golden belt cinches the waist. Her evergreen hair is freed from its odongo to fully cascade down her back, with two long locks to either side of her face that end in jingling golden beads. A handcrafted circlet made from twisted bronze strands shines from beneath her bangs and adds a touch of majesty to the look. If there is any remaining uncertainty as to her costume, her dark and intricate eye makeup completes the image.

Cleopatra Meioh circulates amongst the Halloween party rooms, defusing scuffles between tiny monsters and little mecha, ensuring the witch's brew (punch) bowl never empties, and just generally keeping an eye on things. She's good at that.

Normally a coolly serene woman, Setsuna's voice and expression are nothing but warmth when dealing with the youngest students. She smiles at their childish antics even as she intervenes in them.

<Pose Tracker> Rei Hino [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.

Rei shakes out her hair, unaccustomed to the perched ponytail that her costume called for. Her ambitions to make her own costume had fallen by the wayside as schoolwork and shrinework and senshiwork had crowded her free time into a speck. As the deadline drew closer she threw her hands up and took part in one of the newer traditions of the time, and logged into Alibaba.

aliexpress DOT com/item/Freeshipping-anime-products-Inuyasha-Sango-Cosplay-Costume/433946662.html?spm=2114.40010308.4.1.MvztgR well crowded out the visible span of her searchbar, and the image was watermarked to oblivion and riddled with graphical artifacts, but it seemed like it could manage in a pinch. Her grandfather had suggested she just wear her mikyo robes and go as Kikyo, but that seemed no good to Rei. What's the point of dressing up if it's something she wears all the time? Cheap polyester would be the order of the day.

Her boots were closer to sneakers, and her immense boomerang was little more than layers of cardboard wrapped in masking tape, but when Rei arrived at the party she was a reasonable fascimile of Sango the demon hunter from one of her favorite stories.

That great prop came in handy, cutting down between budding method actresses and actors who got a little /too/ into character from time to time. There were many wonderful little outfits, mostly cute or creative or both. Usagi's in particular caught her off guard though, less for the fur than the friend wearing it.

"I'm impressed you didn't just dress up like a princess again, Usagi-chan. Finally trying something new, eh?"

<Pose Tracker> Michiru Kaioh [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.

By the pricking of my thumbs...

The door leading into the hallway that the classrooms lurked in open, and a Draculina walks through it. Long gloves - made of crisscrossing spiderwebs that nearly hide nails, painted black. These gloves draw up over her elbows, hiding the pale skin beneath - hair, black as a raven's back - to flow over her shoulders, long and straight - reaching nearly to the small of her back, and to her shoulders in the front.

Makeup to make her pale, except for dark eyeshadow to make her eyes that much more dramatic, the blue in her eyes a contrast to the color. Ruby red lips, and the hint of fang. And a dress - modest and long, with a high neckline, entirely black, and a trailing skirt that whispers against the ground. It made her look as though she were hovering everywhere.

This Draculina was Michiru Kaioh, her blue hair hidden beneath a dark wig.

Stepping forward, she holds the door open for the person who follows her - a little clever smirk dancing at the edges of her eyes, before her eyes track across the room. She spies Usagi in the bear costume, as well as Rei and Makoto - and a smile touches her lips. But it was Setsuna that draws her attention most of all.

And a softness touches her gaze when she spies her interaction with the children. "Good evening, Miss Meioh," she says, when entering the party proper.

<Pose Tracker> Haruka Tenoh [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.

Where Michiru has fallen beneath the shadow of the vampire, Haruka has been showered with gold to become Perseus, hero of legend. His bronze helm is polished and gleaming, the ornate wings far less ridiculous in metal than they would have been in plastic. Where did he purchase such an item? Perhaps the same artisan that hammered the brazen plate at his shoulder, or the long sleek bracers corded to his corded forearms with leather. A white toga falls to his mid-thighs, and crossing straps of leather take over from the knees down, affixing Classical-style sandals to his swift feet. Simple (but costly) silver armlets adorn his thick, sleekly-shaped biceps. His golden hair is more reckless than usual, artfully messy bangs pressed down his forehead by the weight of the helm.

It is a chilly evening for baring so much heroic limb, but Haruka has, in the past, suffered worse cold than any Tokyo night can offer. Nor will he fail to provide Michiru a worthy partner for this outing. If it was just the elementary school, perhaps it would be acceptable, but there are other social events waiting tonight.

Haruka offers his hand to Michiru as they cross the threshold, mindful of his partner's skirts. So too is he mindful of her unusually pale skin and dark lips, but of that there is less outward sign. He tilts his helm as if it were a tophat as they reach Setsuna.

"It's a pleasure to have two perfect costumes to look forward to each year, rather than just one," Haruka brims with a smile. "Cleopatra, isn't it? It's a good thing I'm famous for killing snakes."

Following Michiru's gaze Haruka glances over at the minor hubub over by the haunted house. This is the first time he's ever spotted Usagi by virtue of her being taller than everyone else. He doesn't have the grace to feel ashamed of being overdressed, even as Sango and her cardboard boomerang appear. "That's Rei Hino, isn't it? You should show her your costume." The miko had seemed impressed by Michiru last time, and Haruka likes seeing Michiru impress people.

<Pose Tracker> Ami Mizuno [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.

Picking out a costume is hard. Ami didn't do so well with that one this time -- her usual creativity just wasn't there, and accordingly, she's ended up hastily shoving something together in an uncharacteristic last-minute rush. She's been worried about Makoto, and as a result, *totally* forgot until the last minute. For a little while it looked like she was going to have to raid her closet for something from a previous year.

Fortunately, there's one costume that's easy, consistently a hit, and can be done with almost no warning!

Ami is a ghost. She howevers in, covered in a sheet, gravitating toward the bear almost immediately, if only as a result of the bear's status as 'near cocoa.' When Usagi removes the mask, though, Ami can't keep herself from giggling. "Oh, Usagi-chan," she says, with a smile. "Your costume is so nice..."

<Pose Tracker> Yuuko Arimura [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.

Takebe-sensei passes through near where Makoto and Usagi are near each other. "Ahh, a bear...!" she declares, before smiling when she half-recognizes Usagi's face, and thus, realizes she's one of the older and more mature set.

Takebe-sensei collects a small cup of cocoa for her own pleasure, pausing for a moment in admiration of the glamorous costumes coming in - in particular the stern and heroic figure that Haruka cuts - but time waits for no teacher, and she soon enough slips out into the hallway.

Peace reigns. Time enough for people to chat, though after a minute or so there's a significant THUMP from the direction of the Haunted House. The screaming has the air of 'excited kids,' however, rather than 'terrified victims,' so it's doubtless nothing to worry about. Makoto can see that Takebe-sensei is moving that way with some curiosity, since a couple of kids DO come scrambling out.

"Is everything alright?" Takebe calls into the place.

A voice comes out. It may feel slightly familiar somehow. "Yes, yes, all is in order - oh, excuse me, could you direct me to Takebe-sensei?"

Takebe-sensei smiles. "Oh, that's me."

"Aaa, how lucky! -- And you know, I LOVE your costume."

"Oh -- thank you, it's just something I made from when I was in college," Takebe-sensei says. "Though, ah, your car is--"

"Oh is that SO! That's so wonderful, the dress is really classic -- Oi! You! Stop touching that! -- Oh excuse me, I don't mean to raise my voice. Oh, though, did you spill something on the front there?"

Makoto can see Takebe-sensei look down with a "Hm?"

"CATCH!" And then there's a streak of horrid black light that strikes Takebe-sensei square in the chest. Her gently bemused expression is wracked with agony momentarily as her back arches hard enough to snap the decorative fanning behind her, and it collapses behind her as she staggers to the side a pace and then slumps into a black-wrapped heap, causing a cry of some dismay from the students in the hallway. ("Sensei!" "What happened?!" "Waa!")

Floating in the air, drifting slightly to the far side of the hallway, is a shining crystal - fragile-seeming, precious, aflame with inner light and indescribably precious.

A woman steps out into the hallway from the Haunted House room. Her hair is corvette-red. She's wearing a lab coat and carrying a curiously tubular weapon in one hand. Her other comes up to reach for that floating crystal --

Pink smoke billows from behind her. Eudial's head turns around as she snaps back at some unseen person, probably a child, in the haunted house, "I told you not to mess with that!! Now you're going to get it!! Daimon!!" She twists round with sufficient force that her hair gently slaps against the pure heart crystal, which drifts down the hall, towards the shoe lockers, still sparkling...

<Pose Tracker> Hotaru Tomoe [Infinity Institute (6)] has posed.

The scream comes from the guts of that pink cloud, or maybe just from the gut, period.

"HALLOEGG!!"

The gut of a monster.

It strides confidently out of the smoke, but then pauses as it catches a glance of itself in a funhouse mirror set up at the edge of the Haunted House. Not that any warping is necessary for this thing to look weird -- it's all over purple, as bulbous as an impregnated figure eight, with some veiny green arms and legs. Its torso has been painstakingly carved with eyes and nose and mouth, all of triangles that glow from inner candlelight.

None of these are /its/ eyes and nose and mouth, though. It doesn't think. No, it has a head... right?

The daimon slowly feels its way up its body, patting carefully, until it finds the head. Eyes -- poink! -- check. Dose -- check. Moth -- check! They look like they might belong to the Wicked Witch, all in green, all long, all sly.

"I'm confused," it complains, which turns into a more drawn-out groan as the words emerge not from its lips but its Jack-O-Lantern center. "Boss, I'm not so sure..."

Its purple flesh is turning steadily pinker with queasiness. "Who... am I?"

It finds at least some of an answer in the terrified eyes of the child walking up behind it. "M-M-MONSTER!!" she screams, piercingly, with the attention-grabbing shriek of the seven-year-old variety.

"...oh! Okay, thanks!" Happy to have been given a clearer sense of self, the daimon lashes out with its green vine arms, eager to wrap up the kid, perhaps shortly to swallow her whole...

COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe transforms into Hallowegg!!

COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has fully healed herself. She is now ready to take on 4 opponents!

DICE: Hotaru Tomoe rolls 1d20+0 and gets 8!

DICE: Hotaru Tomoe rolls 1d20+0 and gets 15!

DICE: Hotaru Tomoe rolls 1d20+0 and gets 15!

DICE: Hotaru Tomoe rolls 1d20+0 and gets 7!

DICE: Hotaru Tomoe rolls 1d20+0 and gets 20!

DICE: Hotaru Tomoe rolls 1d20+0 and gets 12!

DICE: Hotaru Tomoe rolls 1d20+0 and gets 6!

COMBAT: Yuuko Arimura has fully healed herself.

COMBAT: Yuuko Arimura transforms into Eudial!
COMBAT: Yuuko Arimura has fully healed herself. She is now ready to take on 3 opponents!

<Pose Tracker> Usagi Tsukino [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.

From the side she hears Mako's comment, and her paws clench, then she takes a breath. She wanted to scream that it doesn't work for her at all. She wanted to rage and complain about her jerk for a brother. In fact Mako can probably see it for a few seconds, she looks a little upset, but then. "You really think so?" She gives her a brightest smile, her blue eyes cheerful "I do too. I've always wanted to go..."

A giggle emerges from her lips as she rubs a paw to the nape of her neck, "...as a bear." You see, Makoto had had a hard time lately and she wanted to be sure she had a good time tonight too, "You're just about the cutest mummy I'd ever seen Mako-chan! I bet the kids think so too. You're a real natural when it comes to looking after them!"

But then at the comment, an eyebrow twitches, "Rei-chan. Exactly what's wrong with going as a Princess more than once? Maybe some people just know what they like!" She crosses her arms as if indignant, but upon getting a good look at her costume she grins. "Oh! You look like you're straight out of the village of demon slayers!" She looks her up from the tips of her sneakers to the top of her cardboard boomerang, "Hmm hmm! I really like it, Sango-chan!" She winks at her.

And then there's Ami, and she tries to take the giggle not as someone making fun of her, "Ami-chan! You're a friendly ghost right? Well either way you make a cute one!"

Not far away though she spots the other trio of Haruka, Michiru, and Setsuna. Spying on them, it takes her a few moments to work out that it's likely them without telltale signs like Michiru's aquamarine hair, and Haruka wearing a helmet. However the sheer elegance of their costumes suddenly makes her feel childish and a little small. There they were, an Empress, a Vampire, and a Hero straight out of the Classics, even if she didn't know which Empress, and which Hero, or even if Michiru was supposed to be a particular vampire.

Normally she wouldn't be hesitant to approach them as her bubbly self, but today, dressed as a bear, she is a little. But mostly her cheeks feel all aflush, the blood running to her face in a way that would make her a target for any real vampire. She takes a moment to rub them out then leans over to the others, "I think that's Michiru-san and Haruka-san and their friend Setsuna Meioh. Their costumes... they're so gorgeous! Just what I'd expect from Infinity high schoolers." She catches Haruka giving a look at Rei in particular, "I think they're looking your way, Rei-chan! Maybe we should all go talk to them."

Takebe-sensei walks by however and she grimaces, before smiling at her, "Thanks. I like your witch costume. Oh you're Shingo's teacher aren't you? Teaching him seems like kind of a tough job... I hope they give you a bonus this year!" But then the screaming of excited kids becomes a fever pitch and as the teacher wanders off.

She doesn't think anything of it until she hears a familiar voice, causing her skin to run cold despite her really hot costume. "That sounds like-" She looks at the other Senshi, motioning for them to creep up to the edge of a door frame just in time to catch a flash of horrid black light drop her to the ground. And the woman that walks out just after. Usagi murmurs anxiously. "It's Eudial! We have to stop her before she gets away with her Pure Heart!"

Inwardly she's really grateful about having an excuse to get out of this bear costume. At least until she catches a glimpse of the monster speaking from its gut, which causes her to recoil in horror as she spies the rest of its bulbous body just before she makes a dash to another classroom, missing the glimpse of the pure heart crystal as it floats towards the lockers.

"Moon Crystal Power - Make Up!"

Ribbons, and a glimpse of radiant feathered wings. She exchanges the trappings of a bear for those of a Pretty Guardian in a Sailor Suit. "Moon Tiara-" And then out of the darkness of the unlit classroom comes a shine, as if some kids had hidden away for some mischief. "-Action!"

The gleaming disk shines as its flight takes it across the hall before arcing around into the classroom with the Haunted House in an to attempt to slice through vine arms holding onto a youngster, or at least distract Hallow#-1 INVALID ANSI DEFINITION: +arkorchid1 egg away from swallowing them whole before it would make its return arc... Across the hall stands the silhouette of a Sailor Soldier, arms crossed. She'd give a speech in a moment. Speeches were important but not as high priority as making sure someone didn't get devoured!

COMBAT: Usagi Tsukino transforms into Sailor Moon!

COMBAT: Sailor Moon has used Moon Tiara Action on Hotaru Tomoe.
COMBAT: Sailor Moon has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly counters Sailor Moon's Moon Tiara Action, taking 13 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe's counterattack, Trick or Egg, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Sailor Moon!

<Pose Tracker> Makoto Kino [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.

Makoto nods along firmly at Rei's assessment, waves at Ami, and then becomes thoroughly distracted for a moment at a set of three costumes on an older trio--who above all are talking to each /other/, no less. The tall mummy's green eyes widen a moment as she looks over monarch, vampire, and golden hero all at once. "...?"

She shakes her head, suddenly, as if to remind herself what she's here for, brought out of looking by something else that hasn't quite let her go. Besides, Usagi was talking! "Aw, thanks," Mako answers her friend. "I just thought I'd help out. ...Speaking of..." She sets herself immediately to work, missing her friends' chat for a moment as she glances after Takebe-sensei. "Right." Makoto looks to her friends, "It's good you made it. But I should get back to work. Go on without me, okay?" She shouldn't go talk to the cool trio right now anyway.

She isn't even stopping to hang out for the moment, just finishing her dreadfully sugared coffee and tossing the cup to the can in a casual display of undead athleticism.

Makoto pokes her head out, by the hallway, looking down one way and then up the other. he noise draws her attention. "...?"

Might be something she's needed for. Except...

Her eyes widen as she sees the monster there, and as the situation at hand starts to become clear. She sees Takebe-sensei looking down... and then collapsing. Makoto glares forward. "...Right." She ducks into a classroom as well, in the chaos, and lifts her transformation pen.

"Jupiter Star Power - Make Up!"

Brilliant lightning, and the mummy is gone in favor of Sailor Jupiter. But it's not just light that shows her silhouette.

Jupiter charges. "Don't... touch her!"

Her hands crackle with blue electricity as she swings straight for Halloegg's Jack-o-Lantern center an angry, gloved uppercut.

"Pick on someone your own size!"

COMBAT: Makoto Kino transforms into Sailor Jupiter!

COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter has fully healed herself.
COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter has used Full Charge on Hotaru Tomoe.
COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces Sailor Jupiter's Full Charge, taking 14 Fatigue damage! Sailor Jupiter is Psyched! Hotaru Tomoe's Block ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Parry ability activates! Tangle applied to Hotaru Tomoe!

<Pose Tracker> Ami Mizuno [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.

The gang's almost all here -- a fact which brings a smile to Ami's face in a big way. Even if it's totally hidden by the sheet. She looks Rei's costume over with no small amount of surprise -- she hadn't expected something quite so... flashy, but Rei can really pull it off! And Mako... well, Mako would look great in anything. She's so tall.

When Mako gets distracted, so does Ami. There's a moment of private relief that she didn't go with the vampire costume that had been her /first/ thought, because she would've been /totally/ ignorable in the face of.... /that/.

As things turn into chaos courtesy of the monster, Ami runs to the bathroom. Needless to say, what emerges is not a spooky ghost at all, but instead --

"Mercury Star Power - Make Up!"

-- Sailor Mercury, the sailor-suited soldier of love and exams!

With a quick sweep of her hand, she deploys the Mercury Goggle across her face; the deep blue visor -- and the eyes behind it -- begin to assess the monster, looking for weaknesses and potential trouble spots.

COMBAT: Ami Mizuno transforms into Sailor Mercury!

COMBAT: Ami Mizuno has fully healed herself.
COMBAT: Ami Mizuno has used Mercury Goggle on Hotaru Tomoe.
COMBAT: Ami Mizuno has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly dodges Sailor Mercury's Mercury Goggle, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Analysis performed by Sailor Mercury! Diversion and Exhausted applied to Hotaru Tomoe!

<Pose Tracker> Michiru Kaioh [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.

"You are correct, I do believe. That is Rei Hino - what an impressive costume she is wearing," remarks Michiru to Haruka. There was... something, something... pressing at the back of her mind. A little sense of danger. But she brushes it off, its effect upon her person just a brief flutter of malcontent upon her features. Malcontent that was double easy to exorcise when she looks upon Usagi. A smile blooms upon her features, her expression a bit wry.

"Do remember to invite Setsuna to the party, Haruka," reminds Michiru - a little bit of a sigh leaving her as she shakes her head at the snake-slaying comment. Just a little bit though.

Michiru fixes her eyes upon Rei Hino across the room, and the vampiress begins to float her way, weaving her way through children - all of which get a gentle smile, and a...

Michiru pauses in her forward step.

The daimon appears, and that sense of danger pounds with a feeling of dread in her belly. For a moment, if it is allowed - Michiru glances towards Rei - a certain knowing in her eyes, before she looks towards Setsuna and Haruka, her gliding step taking her that way. "We need to leave," she tells the others, her voice rich with the cold of the deep. "...now."

In the chaos, they were the eye of the storm. In the chaos, they were calm, and confident.

Michiru ducks behind a pillar in the hallway.

Sailor Neptune appears soon after, her eyes flickering towards the pure heart crystal. Not a trace of the Draculina left. Alongside the rest of the soldiers, she steps forward. Right now, it was time to strike the daimon. So right now...

Eyes close, and her heart sings of the pure waters of Neptune, her hands starting to glow with reflected light from the same. A step forward - and two balls, luminescent in the Not So Spooky environs, lash out towards the creature. It was distracted with the child. Perhaps that would enable her to make a deadly blow.

COMBAT: Michiru Kaioh transforms into Sailor Neptune!

COMBAT: Sailor Neptune has fully healed herself.
COMBAT: Sailor Neptune has used Harsh Harsh Neptune on Hotaru Tomoe.
COMBAT: Sailor Neptune has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly dodges Sailor Neptune's Harsh Harsh Neptune, taking 30 Fatigue damage!

<Pose Tracker> Setsuna Meioh [Infinity Institute (U)] has posed.

"Hello, Miss Kaioh." Setsuna's smile shifts from maternal to friendly, still warm, as she greets her companions. "As always, it is good to see you both. A slayer of asps is quite welcome in my court, Sir Perseus." There's a quirk of an amusement at one corner of her mouth, there, easy to miss except that Haruka and Michiru know her well.

Without missing a beat she reaches out with one arm to deflect the wild swing of a cardboard sword, wielded less than deftly by a first grade knight-in-plastic-armor, before it takes out a stack of cups.

"I cannot imagine this is the entirety of your plans tonight. Where are you off to next?" Setsuna spies Usagi in her bear costume, then, surrounded by her friends and looking their way, and nods at them, but is interrupted.

The commotion outside draws her attention, draws her friends' attention -- draws everyone's attention. It is rapidly apparent that action is needed, and so Setsuna takes advantage of the distraction to slip behind a coatrack absolutely creaking with vampire capes, angel wings, and all other manner of bulky outer costume layers. It is more than sufficient cover.

When she steps out again, it is as Sailor Pluto, garbed head-to-toe in senshi regalia trimmed with deep ruby and black, graceful Garnet Rod at her side. Her hair is neatly back in its odango and there is no sign of intricate eye makeup, nothing at all to link this imposing senshi to the woman in the Cleopatra costume. She makes for the door to the hallway, staying close to her fellow Outer Senshi soldiers and glad to have them at her side.

The Hallowegg is there in all its misshapen glory, menacing a little girl. She stands tall and spins the Garnet Rod in a slow 360 before her, ending its arc so the Orb ends level with her face. It is a mystical lens, and through it she peers at the menacing Hallowegg, steady despite its strange awfulness. Sailor Pluto has seen far worse, in her time. Has seen littler children fall prey to more gruesome creatures. It is a sadness she locks deep in her heart, with other sadnesses, to be felt later in safety and solitude. For now, battle calls, and her target is clear.

"Golden Eternity Lens!"

Through space and time she studies Hallowegg, seeking weaknesses and strengths alike. Sailor Pluto has always preferred to know her enemy before she attacks.

COMBAT: Setsuna Meioh transforms into Sailor Pluto!

COMBAT: Sailor Pluto has fully healed herself.
COMBAT: Rei Hino transforms into Sailor Mars!
COMBAT: Sailor Mars has fully healed herself.
COMBAT: Sailor Pluto has used Golden Eternity Lens on Hotaru Tomoe.
COMBAT: Sailor Pluto has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Sailor Mars [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.

Just as Rei is about to regale Usagi with the same monologue she'd used on her grandfather to squash the Kikyo idea and wax poetic on the merits of becoming something else for the holiday, her quick-hopping rabbit friend forgets all about it in the glare of her sudden realization and subsequent enthusiasm. The shrine maiden smiles. Usagi's warm nature always wins out in the end, even if it's not the first thing to the scene.

All her friends' costumes are so cute and so lovely! With all of them gathered she thinks of visiting a cafe or something after, everybody still dressed. Except for Haruka, that is..

For a girl so disinterested in boys, Haruka Tenoh has been a rare exception to her apathy. She doesn't have any designs on him, but he's charming and clever enough that his flirtations are more appealing than not. But tonight it's all just a little much.

It's true that there's something striking about seeing somebody like Haruka wearing something like that. On its own, it's a breath-taking sight. But nothing in all the universe exists on its own, and Rei's eyes roll. It's just so gaudily, overwhelmingly /much/. Actual armor? Really? Even if it isn't functional, it's still ceremonial armor at the least. This isn't a party for grown ups, let alone high schoolers, let alone middle schoolers, let alone the actual elementary schoolers it's actually for! And opulence simply doesn't impress her. She's seen how it can come to unworthy men.

But still..it's quite the arresting profile, isn't it?

Although she gave a half nod to Usagi's comment about the peering prince, she's mostly distracted by how annoying she's finding the lad. The scream cuts it all short though. She starts to move to transform, stopping herself as she remembers the sea of children she's floating in. There are terribly few places to credibly hide and transform with so many all about, and the footlockers seem as likely a place as any. Surely everybody's too distracted by what's happening..

As soon as she makes over to them it seems like folly, though. There are just too many people about. Somebody's going to notice something...she's carrying a four foot fake boomerang for goodness' sake! It feels like her only choice is to run out into uncertain danger in a vulnerable state, hoping she can make it around some corner for some privacy...or she can throw caution to the wind.

Something gently bumps into her palm. Turning her head in unthinking surprise, she recognizes it instantly, her pulse quickening. Crimson erupts around her, and she's next seen wearing her warpaint. The spirits have given her something she knows to be precious, and it must be protected.

She can see it now, the lumpen mass of purple and green. Her voice picks up volume as she speaks out.

"How dare you befoul a ceremony to mock evil. This slight will not be endured! Stay back, children...foul youma, in the name of Mars, you will be chastised!"

COMBAT: Sailor Mars has used In The Name Of Mars on Hotaru Tomoe.

COMBAT: Sailor Mars has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces Sailor Pluto's Golden Eternity Lens, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Hotaru Tomoe's Block ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Parry ability activates! Analysis performed by Sailor Pluto! Stun applied to Hotaru Tomoe!
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces Sailor Mars's In The Name Of Mars, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Sailor Mars is Psyched! Hotaru Tomoe's Block ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Parry ability activates!

<Pose Tracker> Haruka Tenoh [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.

<SoundTracker> Immortals Battle https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v729wBRO1WI

"That's right," Haruka remembers, tossing an easy snap of his fingers across his torso. "As you've foreseen, Queen Cleopatra, we're just stopping by. After this, the mayor's having a party. Would you like to come with us? These kids probably don't party quite as late as we might, right?"

The fate of the Takebe-sensei is not long in approaching. When it does, Haruka grows stern, his half-bare shoulders set, his sprinter's thighs tightening in preparation to move. But there is no pity to be found in his eyes. He watches alertly to understand. To him, this is an opportunity unsought. All the more so when a Heart Crystal appears.

"Convenient," he breathes, then nods to Michiru. "I'm with you." On the way out, though, he casts a glance over his shoulder. That bun-head is smart enough to get out of here on her own, isn't she?

But that's the last anyone will see of Haruka Tenoh tonight.

"Youma!" Sailor Uranus calls to the Halloegg. "Alien!" she calls to Eudial. She is striding forward on hard bootheel and powerful calf, raising a fist as she goes. "Acting with elegance, Sailor Uranus is here to cast your putrid forms back into the cold void!" Her pace quickens with each word, and soon she is sprinting, past the monster and toward the woman who created it. Lifting with a snap of her knee, she twirls into a back-kick, long and straight, which she shoves to full extension as her opposite foot gains ground again, driving her boot at Eudial.

"Sailor Moon!" she cries, authoritative. "This is our task now! Don't interfere!"

COMBAT: Haruka Tenoh transforms into Sailor Uranus!

COMBAT: Sailor Uranus has fully healed herself.
COMBAT: Sailor Uranus has used Warrior's Challenge on Yuuko Arimura.
COMBAT: Sailor Uranus has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Yuuko Arimura narrowly counters Sailor Uranus's Warrior's Challenge, taking 7 Fatigue damage! Sailor Uranus is Psyched! Yuuko Arimura's Reverse ability activates! Yuuko Arimura's Tactician ability activates!
COMBAT: Yuuko Arimura's counterattack, Judo - The Gentle Way, partially gets through, doing 14 Fatigue damage to Sailor Uranus!

<Pose Tracker> Eudial [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.

Eudial frowns at the Daimon. Did the Professor-- no, it's impossible for him to have made any significant error, she tells herself. This is deliberate. She just can't spot things out because she's under pressure. She declares to it, "Keep your head in the game, Halloegg!"

She sweeps a hand towards the hallway: "Now capture the pure heart crystal, quickly!" Eudial steps into the haunted house again, even as children - quite sensibly - move away from the immediate area, though a worryingly large number of them look on from behind the cover of the shoe lockers. It might be nice to be cheered, but...

As Eudial slams the back of her faithful car down, she hears cries - FAMILIAR cries - from outside. In disbelief, she exclaims, "So soon--?!" And then goes for the passenger side rear door, opening it and rummaging around. At this point, seeing lights and passion bursting through the door that opens into the Haunted House room...

Well, Eudial's exciting plan was to sneak round to the opposite door and probably jog merrily up behind the Senshi before doing... something. 'Something' has not yet been revealed, because instead she is facing down Sailor Uranus. This is not something to take very lightly, but Eudial pivots towards her, raising her hands...

The kick hits her hands with force that would snap a tree in two. They make her wrists pop. She rolls with the blow and crouches on one heel, and Uranus may sense that something odd has happened when the rest of the force just seems to carry her onwards - Eudial having, if by dint of the warning, redirected her towards the funhouse mirrors that had baffled poor Halloegg briefly!

"Hmf!!" is Eudial's reply. THEN she grasps up her whatever-it-is, whose purpose is not immediately clear even to Sailor Uranus. Now she's under pressure, and so she does go out of that door through which Uranus had so recently entered.

"Halloegg!!" Eudial calls as she waves the device's nozzle around. "You've let them get the pure heart crystal! /Why/?" And for that matter, why isn't Eudial just fleeing post-haste in her automobile?

The all-seeing cameraman shows, briefly, that the collapsing window frame and wall structure which Eudial had backed in through has fallen RIGHT in front of the front tires of that white American-ish sedan. Getting out of that is going to take some careful driving, and that car would have likely done less well against Sailor Uranus's kick.

Rubbing her right wrist, Eudial encourages the Daimon further. "Stop them! Get it back! Do you need help??" And then she flicks a switch on her cobbled-together device. It hums ominously. "Cover your ears!"

Eudial pulls the trigger. An unearthly sound, resonant, penetrating and shrill ripples outwards, radiating out as Eudial 'walks' the emitter over the general area of the Sailor Senshi assembled before them, the side effects enough to make the retreated children scream and in some cases cry. She herself is unaffected, and Sailor Uranus has enough buffering material between her and the emitter to merely be annoyed.

"Covering your ears does nothing!! It's going to echo through your very bones!" Eudial cries, thinly audible over the wave of awful sound itself.

COMBAT: Eudial has used Sonic Wave on Sailor Jupiter.

COMBAT: Eudial has used Sonic Wave on Sailor Mars.
COMBAT: Eudial has used Sonic Wave on Sailor Mercury.
COMBAT: Eudial has used Sonic Wave on Sailor Moon.
COMBAT: Eudial has used Sonic Wave on Sailor Neptune.
COMBAT: Eudial has used Sonic Wave on Sailor Pluto.
COMBAT: Eudial has used OHOHOHOHO on Eudial.
COMBAT: Eudial has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Eudial accepts Eudial's OHOHOHOHO, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Eudial is Reinforced by Eudial!
COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter fails to brace Eudial's Sonic Wave, taking 11 Fatigue damage! Stun applied to Sailor Jupiter!
COMBAT: Sailor Mercury narrowly dodges Eudial's Sonic Wave, taking 6 Fatigue damage! Sailor Mercury's Fade ability activates! Sailor Mercury's Flash ability activates! Trap applied to Sailor Mercury!
COMBAT: Sailor Mars narrowly braces Eudial's Sonic Wave, taking 5 Fatigue damage! Stun and Trap applied to Sailor Mars!
COMBAT: Sailor Moon narrowly counters Eudial's Sonic Wave, taking 12 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Sailor Moon's Reverse ability activates! Sailor Moon's Tactician ability activates! Stun and Trap applied to Sailor Moon!
COMBAT: Sailor Moon's counterattack, Supersonic Screaming, partially gets through, doing 7 Fatigue damage to Eudial!
COMBAT: Sailor Pluto narrowly braces Eudial's Sonic Wave, taking 7 Fatigue damage! Sailor Pluto's Block ability activates! Sailor Pluto's Parry ability activates! Trap applied to Sailor Pluto!
COMBAT: Sailor Neptune narrowly dodges Eudial's Sonic Wave, taking 10 Fatigue damage! Stun and Trap applied to Sailor Neptune!

<Pose Tracker> Hotaru Tomoe [Infinity Institute (6)] has posed.

Hallowegg's is a cruel existence: there are senshi /everywhere/.

It doesn't get far, though, and smoke rises from where the holy energies of the tiara burn away bits of the taint infecting this befouled eggplant.

And yet, there's Sailor Jupiter, up close and personal! Her uppercut dislodges the tiara, which soars back through the air towards Sailor Moon's hands, not much worse for wear other than being kind of slimy and gross with eggplant innards. "Oof," grunts the daimon.

Sailors Mercury and Pluto, meanwhile, are examining it. Their perspectives are very different -- the Mercury Goggles pop up with suggestive grids and bars around the vines and pinpointing the light that shines inside its torso, illuminating the lantern. Pluto, however, recognizes a more ancient foe. Well... sort of. Time will tell: the daimon itself has hardly been alive for an hour. But it /feels/ just like the kind of ancient threats that Neptune and Uranus spent lifetimes protecting the Silver Millennium from. External threats. Whatever made this creature, whatever animates it, is not of Earth.

Finally, Sailor Mars chastises it. It stumbles back from Jupiter, arms sagging. "I've gotta, I've gotta..."

This is all terribly unfair.

Eudial, at least, has the decency to give her an instruction: cover your ears.

Hallowegg obeys. Or she tries. She isn't sure she has ears, and she winds up hopefully patting her viney hands all over her viney body, in a sort of heads-shoulders-knees-and-toes effort to follow instructions.

And then Eudial explains how covering her ears will do nothing.

"THAT!" The light within the torso is starting to burn blue with heat.

"IS!" She clutches her face, both of them, as the burning smell intensifies.

"IT!!!"

Fire explodes out of every conceivable orifice, as she storms around the room, venting her frustration with everyone close enough to take the heat -- which is to say, Sailor Jupiter who charged her and Sailor Uranus who's nearby kicking the crap out of her boss.

Afterwards, she pants, and steams. The room is beginning to smell pleasantly of grilled eggplant. "Wait," she realizes, "Boss, did you ask a question?"

'Why did you let her get the Heart Crystal?'

"OHHHHHHH," she snaps to, "Okay! One Pure Heart, coming right up!"

Inhaling, she summons her innermost strength, extends her hands behind her, and thrusts her torso towards Sailor Mars--

--and out of the eyeholes, the nosehole, the gaping mouth of her jack-o-lantern come... eggs. Tons of them. They're rotten. They're slimy. They're explosive. They're coming for Sailor Mars, to try to slime her to the floor, the wall, to hold her still long enough that soon she'll be able to close in and pry that precious Crystal away.

From the confused look in her eyes, Hallowegg didn't actually expect to shoot eggs.

"..."

But she's gonna go with it.

COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Identity Crisis!! on Sailor Uranus.

COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Identity Crisis!! on Sailor Jupiter.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Easter In October on Sailor Mars.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Like A Rolling Eggplant on Hotaru Tomoe.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe accepts Hotaru Tomoe's Like A Rolling Eggplant, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Hotaru Tomoe is Reinforced by Hotaru Tomoe!
COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter fails to brace Hotaru Tomoe's Identity Crisis!!, taking 21 Fatigue damage! Sailor Jupiter is Quipped! Blind and Diversion applied to Sailor Jupiter!
COMBAT: Sailor Mars fails to dodge Hotaru Tomoe's Easter In October, taking 18 Fatigue damage! Stagger, Stun, and Tangle applied to Sailor Mars!

DICE: Hotaru Tomoe rolls 1d2+0 and gets 2!

<Pose Tracker> Sailor Moon [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.

<SoundTracker> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEsGj0tCT4E&list=PL3CRUt-GCCPPpiB0sVqNxUzbNQQkoZsn1&index=6

Into the light Sailor Moon steps, catching her tiara which fortunately only just escaped becoming Hallowegg's meal. She inspects it for a moment before putting it back on her forehead, making sure there's nothing gunky on it. Sailor Moon is rather shocked when the supremely elegant Neptune shows up, catching a glimpse of her long after she lashed out with luminescent power. Her arrival was something she could never predict, her distance something she just did not understand. But there she is, standing against the Daimon. "Neptune! I'm so glad you're here. We could really use your help!"

But also surprising is... the mysterious Senshi, now without her domino mask which only serves to accentuate her strikingly lovely eyes all the more. "You're here too?" She didn't even have a name to give to her, as it'd been withheld. She's looking at the Garnet Rod bearing Senshi, "Are you-" She points Neptune's way, "-with Neptune?"

It made a certain amount of sense in her mind. Any unknown Senshi was possibly associated with the Senshi whose mysteries were as deep as the ocean. But all she could think of is delight about possibly learning something new about Neptune, or the mysterious new Senshi. "Hmm. I don't suppose you have something I can call you?" She really should focus here, but then Uranus appears and what she says rocks Usagi back in surprise "Wait, alien!?"

Sailor Moon gives Eudial a long look, as if expecting her to suddenly sprout tentacles and bulbous eyes or become some fictionalized depiction of an alien. Though she had... the way she'd escaped Jupiter's hold last time. But then telling her to stay out of it... she thrusts her hands out in open palmed frustration, "How can you tell us to stay out of it with this going on right in front of us!? We've fought her and these things before and it's always really hard! Couldn't you use our help? Besides-" She trails off, then not long after, puts a finger to her chin then, "Oh I forgot to give my speech. Hold it right t-"

The trigger is pulled. Sailor Moon is struck by wave after wave of shrill alien sound. It sends her to her knees almost instantly, as she puts trembling hands to ears despite the warning and squirms under the sonic torture. Until tears spring to her ears, and she starts to wail from the pain. And the emitters by her Odango which normally catch distant cries... begin to resonate with her own agonized cry, tears welling up in her eyes and sparkling down her face, "STOOPPPP ITTTTT!" Wave after wave of supersonic sound clashes against that created by Eudial's device, blunting the impact of each wave.

But it's enough that she felt like she could act again. She works her way to her feet again on legs which felt like wiggly gelati with the equilibrium in her ears disrupted, she wipes a glove at her eyes and finally shouts, in a way that's seems almost amplified by the supersonic waves, "IT IS REALLY RUDE TO JUST INTERRUPT ME LIKE THAT! I HAVE IMPORTANT THINGS TO SAY TO YOU! SO HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!" While small, she wasn't an entirely unimposing finger from the tips of her odango down to the heels of her boots.

"How dare you attack an elementary school teacher! Without them, just how are young boys going to learn important lessons, like how they ought to respect their big sisters and properly admire them as their heroes? If they weren't around then who would teach young girls not to put up with their little brothers being mean to them!?"

Usagi has absolutely no reason to think the answer is 'parents' given her experience with hers. "Sailor-suited Pretty Soldier of Love and Justice: Sailor Moon! In the name of the Moon-" She crosses her arms, one over the other, finger pointing at Eudial in her characteristic pose to give the promise more weight, "-I will punish you!"

She sees the Daimon exploding fire at Jupiter and Uranus, before sending countless rotten, slimy eggs at Mars. "Eugh." She gives Mars a sympathetic look and a sniff which crinkles her nose. Rotten eggs smell horrible after all. "Demon slaying is really messy work I guess." She murmurs mostly to herself before shouting again,- "-Hey let go of her!" She's running her way, rod in hand...

COMBAT: Sailor Moon has used In The Name Of The Moon on Eudial.

COMBAT: Sailor Moon has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Eudial narrowly braces Sailor Moon's In The Name Of The Moon, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Sailor Moon is Psyched! Eudial's Block ability activates! Eudial's Parry ability activates! Cripple, Diversion, and Exhausted applied to Eudial!

<Pose Tracker> Sailor Jupiter [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.

Up close and personal, without so much as a polite speech about what the daimon is doing wrong. ...Jupiter's friends have that much covered, anyway, much as the other senshi seem to have Eudial. Jupiter glances once towards her, sidelong, but doesn't have the space to stop paying atention to Hallowegg in front of her. ...Even if it is stumbling back. It's got to...?

"Stay out of this!?" Jupiter calls back to Sailor Uranus. "Why would we do something like that?"

The first thing it makes her want to do is go straight after Eudial in turn--but that doesn't happen. What does happen is a wave of sound crashing towards her, as Sailor Jupiter finds herself knocked back by the sheer sound of it. "Aagh--" It doesn't make a great show of her defiance. Neither does, right in front of the elegant Outers, Jupiter taking fire straight to the face. The room doesn't smell that pleasant to /her/; instead, Jupiter finds herself on the ground, looking down in a daze. "Ugh..." She shakes her head, glancing once to Sailor Moon--then to Mars, and Merury. The brown-haired senshi sets her jaw. She isn't through yet.

"You want it hot!? I can do hot!"

Electricity gathers in her palm--and Jupiter /throws/ the bolt straight for the youma who's responsible for the fact that she's still singed and sooty.

COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter has used Jupiter Thunderbolt on Hotaru Tomoe.

COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Sailor Mars [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.

Gritting her teeth and digging in her heels, Mars buckles a bit at the sonic slice but stays on her feet, albeit with ringing ears. She shakes her head and snarls and growls and makes a good show of fierceness that..well..is good while it lasts.

Rei Hino likes to think of herself as a brave girl, but there's something palpably.../wrong,/ about this youma. Its wrongness feels more unusual than most other demons', a black sheep of an evil tribe.

And now it's lunging towards her with sulphurous little stink bombs squelching out towards her, bursting into stunningly smelly waves of slime and stench. It's such a bafflingly wrong sight that her mind blanks completely for a beat, and by the time she tries to jump away she fails completely, already trapped in a swamp of stick.

Getting stuck after a jump threw off her poise, tripping her forward and hurtling the holy orb from her hand. Struggling back to a standing poise while suppressing her urge to retch, her face curls into an angry snarl, disgusted by the attack she'd just suffered. A cape of fire glows at her back, narrowing into bands and slithering down her arms. Both jets swirl out from her in a tight corkscrew, coalescing into the crude vision of a viper born of flames.

COMBAT: Sailor Mars has used Searing Serpent on Hotaru Tomoe.

COMBAT: Sailor Mars has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Sailor Uranus fails to dodge Hotaru Tomoe's Identity Crisis!!, taking 26 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Sailor Uranus is Quipped! Diversion applied to Sailor Uranus!
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to dodge Sailor Mars's Searing Serpent, taking 29 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly counters Sailor Jupiter's Jupiter Thunderbolt, taking 11 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe's counterattack, Trick or Egg, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Sailor Jupiter!

<Pose Tracker> Sailor Mercury [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.

The results of Sailor Mercury's analysis aren't great, in terms of formulating a defensive plan. There are no substantial weaknesses to this particular monster -- everything about it is tough. That lantern, though... /that/ bears noting. "... Just keep the pressure on! There's a lantern at the center -- that might be a weak point!" she calls to the assembled senshi, shortly before covering her ears and ducking low in response to that agonizing sound. It doesn't do /too/ much to help her... but it keeps it from being quite the worst.

She takes a few seconds to recover, though -- but she does put the time to good use, working up a plan of attack as well. It's not a particularly robust one, but...

Managing to pop back up, Sailor Mercury extends a hand, with a cry of, "Mercury Aqua Mist!" Maybe she can freeze at least some of the eggs inside Hallowegg with this blast of icy-cold water before it lets out a second volley, and maybe even extinguish that lantern. ... at least, that would be the hope.

COMBAT: Sailor Mercury has used Mercury Aqua Mist on Hotaru Tomoe.

COMBAT: Sailor Mercury has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to brace Sailor Mercury's Mercury Aqua Mist, taking 16 Fatigue damage! Stagger applied to Hotaru Tomoe!

<Pose Tracker> Sailor Neptune [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.

A handful of moments more.

And through her mind, through the screeching of the alien - Michiru feels her head shiver with pain - and the alien sound of the daimon. For a moment, she loses her hearing to the sound of a bell in the distance. And in this moment, she glances towards one person, her teeth gritting against the pain. She glances towards Uranus - and then past her to Pluto.

What drew her eye was the crystal, and in a moment of silent communication between the two Outers, Neptune knows what to do. She knows to dash behind Uranus - letting the other senshi serve as a bulwark between her and other attacks - and reaches her hand up to grasp the crystal, holding it tightly - or as tightly as one possibly can.

And in her other hand - a bright star of energy, to build up, and be released at the Daimon - her eyes tracking across towards the mistress of the thing. To Eudial.

Eyes narrow upon her, and jaw sets.

She releases the energy, to the sound of the rushing ocean, and in the back of her mind... violins.

COMBAT: Sailor Neptune has used Current Crossing on Hotaru Tomoe.

COMBAT: Sailor Neptune has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Sailor Pluto [Infinity Institute (U)] has posed.

Visuals, all in shades of garnet, cascade through Sailor Pluto's vision, briefly omitting the physical world in favor of the metaphysical one, and they all hone her understanding of Hallowegg. The grotesquery she studies through the lens of eternity elicits a narrowing of her eyes, but no other outward reaction. She doesn't flinch. She looks deeper, into the (metaphysical, again) guts of the youma.

An old foe, then. And an otherworldly one.

She emerges from her visions to a voice that she knows, that feels momentarily more fitting with the Silver Millennium of memory than modern Tokyo. Then the world intrudes and Pluto finds herself locking gazes with Sailor Moon across the battlefield.

Her future liege deserves a name from her. The tall senshi inhales once, deeply, and gives it. "I am the guardian of Time and soldier of change. I am Sailor Pluto! and I stand with Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus."

Eudial's sonic wave catches her off guard, but her strong stance allows her to withstand the wincing agony of the shrieking blast without her knees buckling. She renews her grip on the Garnet Rod and shakes her head to clear it. Time to put words to action and join her friends in the fray.

Whipping the Rod into an ever-quickening blur with hands turning end over end, she dashes at the great fire-belching gourd demon, her long hair trailing behind like a comet's tail. By the time Pluto reaches Hallowegg the Rod is just a silver whirl in her hands, audibly displacing the air around her. She directs that force into the great awkward body of the thing, letting the Garnet Rod whirl into it again and again with all the force she can muster.

COMBAT: Sailor Pluto has used Pendulum Blitz on Hotaru Tomoe.

COMBAT: Sailor Pluto has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces Sailor Neptune's Current Crossing, taking 3 Fatigue damage! Sailor Neptune is Psyched! Hotaru Tomoe's Block ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Parry ability activates!
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly dodges Sailor Pluto's Pendulum Blitz, taking 26 Fatigue damage! Sailor Pluto is Psyched!

<Pose Tracker> Sailor Uranus [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.

Drawing her heel in an arc behind her as she skids along the floor, Sailor Uranus disperses some of the momentum Eudial redirected, though not enough to keep her back from crunching painfully into a mirror, which patters down to her feet in shards.

"We do not need your help," she calls. "This threat is not given to you, Sailor Moon. It has been ours for longer than you can imagine. If you try to unite what your Queen saw fit to divide, you risk the safety of the very universe."

The existential crisis of this eggplant doesn't concern Uranus, but the confusing nature of its powers is more relevant. Uranus takes a gout of flame full-on as she looks to confront Eudial again, her leap admirably quick but not nearly /far/ enough for the vast vomit of fire. The Inner Senshi are being battered about too, she sees, but worse, they are getting more and more deeply involved. If they get stuck here, they /can't/ leave.

Tightening her teeth, Uranus slashes her hand down powerfully, a gust of wind ripping out with a faint yellow glow of aether. It blasts across Jupiter, not gently, abrupt enough that in its wake the flames clinging to the brawniest Inner suffocate in an instant. Sailor Mars is the real problem, as she may actually be stuck. "Watch yourself! I'll be back!" Uranus cries to Neptune, and leaps with a senshi's supernatural ease, knees lifting to her chest. She comes down next to Mars and slashes twice with those yellow-glowing hands. The motion is too quick to follow, just two golden arcs against a moment of black, but when it's over, the thickest parts of the egg-goop spray out, shattered by the martial blow.

Finally, Uranus turns to stop Sailor Moon, straightarming her in the shoulder before grasping there, keeping her at arm's length. "Neptune!" she calls, keeping eye contact with Sailor Moon. Telling her she's letting her hear this on purpose. "Find out if it's a Talisman or not." Speaking directly to Sailor Moon, Uranus's voice grows cold. "If it is, we can't let these children have it." Uranus shoves her back a step with indifferent force.

COMBAT: Sailor Uranus has used Outervention on Sailor Jupiter.

COMBAT: Sailor Uranus has used Outervention on Sailor Moon.
COMBAT: Sailor Uranus has used Outervention on Sailor Mars.
COMBAT: Sailor Uranus has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Sailor Moon accepts Sailor Uranus's Outervention, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Cleanse! All of Sailor Moon's debuffs are cleared!
COMBAT: Sailor Mars accepts Sailor Uranus's Outervention, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Cleanse! All of Sailor Mars's debuffs are cleared!

COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter accepts Sailor Uranus's Outervention, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Cleanse! All of Sailor Jupiter's debuffs are cleared!

COIN FLIP: Eudial flips a coin. It lands on heads!

<Pose Tracker> Eudial [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.

"... yes, keep doing that!" Eudial says, faltering momentarily as she smells the rotten eggs coming out of Halloegg. "Keep doing it!" Then her head whips around as...

SAILOR MOON... SAYS

her peace with sufficient force that Eudial's glasses fall askew. She reaches up to grasp them, taking them off as she splutters at these words, raising her voice as she does, "That's what - That's - That's what YOU think!" And then with a grasp and a firm pull, her lab coat goes flying free --

And then even as Eudial is revealed in all of her glory, she sees that the Pure Heart Crystal is going towards Sailor Neptune. Her face contorts in irritation as she shouts back to Pluto, however vainly, "Stand with them!? Pfah! You're representing a lump of cappucino gelato -- haven't you heard the news??"

Then Uranus leaps back into action. "Tch!" Eudial says, pivoting at the hips to follow her with the nozzle of her strange weapon. What is she going to do? This is a mystery for the ages, though she does join in the conversation. To Sailor Jupiter she remarks, "She's right, you know. You SHOULD stay out of this."

But why?

Eudial pulls the trigger at the back end of the hose twice. The nozzle of the weapon bursts outwards with searing gouts of flame, two of them in close succession -- though her need to draw a bead spares Sailor Moon, but instead gives her the wonderful opportunity to (perhaps) see Sailor Uranus and Sailor Mars be engulfed in hellishly intense flame!

She registers what Uranus is saying -- "Halloegg!! Stop them!! The Talisman is ours!" Eudial shouts, even as she pivots on her heel. It is Sailor Jupiter who crosses the line of her sight first, and so she too gets a cleansing gout of flame from the strange device. Can even the mighty oak withstand the flames?

This is probably horrifying and thrilling the far-distant children in equal measure.

COMBAT: Eudial has used Eudial Buster on Sailor Uranus.

COMBAT: Eudial has used Eudial Buster on Sailor Mars.
COMBAT: Eudial has used Eudial Buster on Sailor Jupiter.
COMBAT: Eudial has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter fails to dodge Eudial's Eudial Buster, taking 45 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Sailor Mars narrowly dodges Eudial's Eudial Buster, taking 33 Fatigue damage! Sailor Mars's Fade ability activates! Sailor Mars's Flash ability activates!

<Pose Tracker> Hotaru Tomoe [Infinity Institute (6)] has posed.

Hallowegg's bad day gets abruptly worse. She tries to eat Jupiter's thunderbolt -- sizzles, spitting sparks -- and then burns in earnest when Mars sets her on fire.

"YOW!"

Sailor Mercury's mist comes as a relative relief, but it swings the metaphorical pendulum too far in the other direction -- there's more sizzling, this time of cold water on a hot surface, and then with a soft hiss, her lantern goes out. A few seconds later, Neptune's energy douses her entirely, and that's when the metaphor catches up with reality and Pluto beats her, tick-tock, with that painfully fierce keystaff.

Afterwards, she's just standing there, suffused in steam and smoke, which mingle the ways that they sear the nose. Including her long one, the one on her face. Her upper face.

Sigh...

But wait -- all of this trouble to wrest the Pure Heart Crystal from Mars, and Neptune has beaten her to the punch? Unacceptable.

'Keep doing this!'

"...but..."

She looks around at the decorations. Eggs don't seem very Halloweeny at all -- it discomfits her to eject them like that.

Unless...

"...well, I guess vandalism is in the spirit of things... yeah! Yeah!!!"

Ptoo-ptoo-ptoo-ptoo-ptoo--

She's becoming a machine gun loaded down with rotten egg! They're going for Pure Heart holder Neptune... and everyone else she can lay her eggs on! Sailor Moon, Sailor Mercury... suck on this!

"I'm not sure what a Talisman is but... gimme!!"

Her viney hands stretch through the hellscape of egg goo, going straight towards Neptune's prize.

COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Easter In October on Sailor Neptune.

COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Easter In October on Sailor Moon.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Easter In October on Sailor Mercury.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Sailor Moon narrowly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Easter In October, taking 14 Fatigue damage! Sailor Moon's Fade ability activates! Sailor Moon's Flash ability activates! Stagger, Stun, and Trap applied to Sailor Moon!
COMBAT: Sailor Uranus fails to dodge Eudial's Eudial Buster, taking 46 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Sailor Mercury narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Easter In October, taking 9 Fatigue damage! Stagger, Tangle, and Trap applied to Sailor Mercury!
COMBAT: Sailor Neptune narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Easter In October, taking 3 Fatigue damage! Sailor Neptune's Block ability activates! Stagger, Stun, and Tangle applied to Sailor Neptune!

<Pose Tracker> Sailor Moon [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.

A name is given... "Sailor Pluto?" She repeats, then gives her a delighted look. She might have squealed with delight at the thought of another Senshi. "I'm glad you're with-!" Uranus is denying her help, but it's phrased in such a way that she has no idea why. "I don't understand! What does-What does my-Queen Serenity have to do with it? How does helping out when a threat is right in front of us risk the universe!?"

But she's dashing towards Mars as she let's go of the Pure Heart Crystal, and Usagi catches it's passionate gleam. Stopping short just as Uranus goes to help Mars. Given that she is, her priority is getting the Pure Heart Crystal right? "Oh!" She dances in place like an amateur outfielder trying to catch a fly ball, back and forth, hands in the air, "I've got it, I've-" But the teamwork of the Outers, Uranus blocking for her, and Neptune's sudden dash catches it long before it can even get close to Sailor Moon. "Oh! Good. You got it! Here I'll cover you while you put it back-" She takes it for granted that that's what Neptune will do. Such is her naivete.

And that innocent belief is cut off by Uranus grasping her shoulder. She had such a pretty face. For a moment her cheeks are all flushed from being this close, the swimming sensation in her ears vanishing before that feeling but... "C-Children?" She sputters at the cold tone, the insult. In a moment that's gone, replaced with indignation at the insult, but more confusion than anything, "What do you mean by talisman!? That's Takebe-sensei's heart crystal!" She tries gently to wrench her shoulder away, but only gently. And when she feels how strong the grip is, she pushes against it like she's going to run past Uranus, desperate urgency in her eyes, "You have to put it back! She'll die without it!"

She wants to shout, she wants to scream. She could accept their distance certainly, but this is not how she imagined a Senshi to act. "What's the matter with you!?" Fortunately for her, unfortunately for the Senshi of the Skies, Uranus was blocking the way to Eudial, her being struck head on by the torrent of flames instead of the Princess, "Uranus!" Despite how upset she might be at this turn of events, she's still concerned about her life.

But she can't exactly advance towards Neptune either, or even go to help her. Instead she's having to twist rapidly away from the machine gun spread of rotten eggs from Hallowegg, then leap upwards, and back into a hand stand, then roll on the ground, an egg glancing off her here and there and getting sticky egg goo onto her Fuku. "Neptune please! You can't just let her die-hck!" She comes up to her feet and finds her... boots stuck.

She lurches forward and almost trips over herself trying to unstick them, and instead finds her arms flailing and pinwheeling, "I'm stuck!" The monster is going for Neptune and the Pure Heart Crystal. And right now she feels that while Neptune holding onto it is bad, the monster getting ahold of it is almost /assuredly/ worse! "Mars, Mercury, Jupiter! Follow my lead, we need to keep it away from the crystal!"

Touching her tiara, she's glad to find the rotten eggs didn't stick it to her hair. In part because sticky rotten eggs in her hair would be /the worst/. Like before it becomes a gleaming, shining disk in her hand, "Moon Tiara-" She pulls back her arm, then flings it forward like a holy discus. "-Action!"

It flies in an arc to cut off the Daimon from Neptune. Under most circumstances this would seem foolish given how it nearly outright defeated the attack before. But if at first you don't succeed... try try again with friends. The timing would need to be flawless to meld the power of four Sailor Senshi together... but... after becoming the best of friends, a friendship that even death itself failed to defeat. She trusts in their ability to do it implicitly.

COMBAT: Sailor Moon has started a combo targeting Hotaru Tomoe!

<Pose Tracker> Sailor Neptune [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.

Neptune closes her eyes, focusing on the crystal in her hand. Reaching out, searching out to the spirit within, when... tentacles wrap around the crystal, and tear it out of her grasp. Neptune was not used to failing in her task, and her eyes snap up with a certain sharpness in them - when further tentacles trap legs, arms, and hands, and Neptune cries out with that snap of pain, jerking one arm, then the other.

"I... couldn't sense if it was in time or not!" she calls out to Uranus, her eyes flickering towards the daimon with vengeance in her mind, and heart.

A glance to Haruka - and a nod of her head. Just brief, just slight, and her eyes track towards the Daimon.

They would move together.

A sigh passes her lips, and Neptune leaps forward - hindered by the creature's grasp - and tucks herself in in a somersault before Uranus. Mid-tumble, she glances up towards Uranus, a little light sound touching her lips. "You're not doing so well either. Lucky for you they don't have thorns, hmm?" she says as she completes the tumble, standing up nearish her partner. With that, Michiru begins twisting around to press her back against the other's upper arm - and lash out her leg, using her as a focal point to spin and kick against the creature.

<Pose Tracker> Sailor Mars [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.

The golden destroyer was only with her for a moment, but Sailor Mars is thankful for her role in freeing her that much sooner. She doesn't expect help from Sailor Uranus, and she appreciates the rare moment of focused assistance, as opposed to incidental aid.

She's on her feet and starting a spring as the flames lick towards the spot she'd just left, and Sailor Mars burns on a truly pyrrhic victory pyre, avoding a measure of the inferno but not most of it. Those who wield fire are the most likely to be burned, and Rei is no exception.

From the time that poor teacher screamed, things have moved too quickly for Sailor Mars to react. As Sailor Moon cries out to her and to them, Rei doesn't understand the full meaning of her words, but she trusts her friend. Wherever Usagi is leading them, she'll follow.

Jagged, convulsing fire pours out of her hands, incinerating spikes popping out like water poured into boiling grease. Clenching her jaw and concentrating, she tames the flames into a single ray of immaculate scarlet shooting towards her Princess' whirling diadem, bathing it holy heat.

COMBAT: Sailor Neptune has started a combo targeting Hotaru Tomoe!

<Pose Tracker> Sailor Jupiter [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.

Coming as it is on the heels of Jupiter asking a terse question of Sailor Uranus, it's a surprise when the Outer Senshi's power rolls over her--and the flames clinging to her abate in an instant. "Huh?" She glances down at herself a half-instant... But knows better than to reject help, even if it's coming from someone telling them to leave.

...Especially if it comes from wind.

She's been off-balance all fight, and it isn't helping what's going on here. ...Eudial certainly isn't helping either. "Like I'm taking advice from /you/," Jupiter shoots back at the woman with the weird weapon. ...And prompty pays the wages of her sass; the mighty oak indeed stands... but stands because she starts to pivot on her heel too late to get out of the way entirely. Her arms half-crossed before her, the gout of flame engulfs her, sending her stumbling back with a cough that sees her crouched on the ground in pain.

The conversation for now goes on without her; there's not much she can do there until...

Moon speaks it up. "R-right!" With another cough, Sailor Jupiter rises again, taking a quick breath and trying to limber back up. "We can handle the rest of this... after we crack this egg!"

She may be hurt, but she's suffered before; she trusts the three she's closeset to here beyond that, even as she's unsure with Sailor Uranus. So as Neptune and Pluto keep working too...

Jupiter's mind is with the Inners. Sailor Mars pours out fire. Sailor Jupiter lifts one hand skyward, sending the other forward, as lightning crackles around her from above, and flows out in a torrent towards Sailor Moon's tiara.

COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter has joined the combo started by Sailor Moon!

COMBAT: Sailor Mars has joined the combo started by Sailor Moon!
COMBAT: Sailor Mercury has joined the combo started by Sailor Moon!

<Pose Tracker> Sailor Neptune [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.

Neptune closes her eyes, focusing on the crystal in her hand. Reaching out, searching out to the spirit within, when... tentacles wrap around the crystal, and tear it out of her grasp. Neptune was not used to failing in her task, and her eyes snap up with a certain sharpness in them - when further tentacles trap legs, arms, and hands, and Neptune cries out with that snap of pain, jerking one arm, then the other.

"I... couldn't sense if it was in time or not!" she calls out to Uranus, her eyes flickering towards the daimon with vengeance in her mind, and heart.

A glance to Haruka - and a nod of her head. Just brief, just slight, and her eyes track towards the Daimon.

They would move together.

A sigh passes her lips, and Neptune leaps forward - hindered by the creature's grasp - and tucks herself in in a somersault before Uranus. Mid-tumble, she glances up towards Uranus, a little light sound touching her lips. "You're not doing so well either. You act as though that is the hottest flame you have felt, hmm?" she says as she completes the tumble, standing up nearish her partner. With that, Michiru begins twisting around to press her back against the other's upper arm - and lash out her leg, using her as a focal point to spin and kick against the creature.

<Pose Tracker> Sailor Mercury [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.

The eggs pelt Sailor Mercury, and the Sailor-Suited Soldier of Knowledge recoils. ... Once she has the chance, she cringes, too; the feeling of rotten egg on her skin is distinctly unwelcome. For an instant, she is in fact too busy cringing to do much of anything else, at that.

When Sailor Moon calls for the team to work in tandem, though, she quickly swallows that feeling and gets ready to put in work. "Understood!" she says firmly, giving Sailor Moon a nod and getting ready to act. A bright white-blue light gathers between her hands, as she raises them to the sky.

Her arms swing forward, and that light shifts into a burst of bitter, fresh coldness, joining up with Jupiter's electricity and Mars's flames around Usagi's tiara.

The icy water doesn't stop, either; this is no small burst -- this is a downpour, a cleansing burst of fresh water that won't stop until it's done. Sailor Mercury shifts her legs slightly, her stance becoming steadily firmer as she joins the assault.

COMBAT: COMBO! Sailor Moon, Sailor Jupiter, Sailor Mars, and Sailor Mercury have used All-Star Senshi! on Hotaru Tomoe.

COMBAT: Sailor Moon has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Sailor Mars has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Sailor Mercury has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Sailor Uranus [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.

Uranus's face holds no sympathy. "There are only three Talismans. If her heart is not one of them, we'll return it to her immediately. But whoever holds those Talismans is already dead, Sailor Moon. They just don't realize it yet."

The flame terminates what little time they had for words. Uranus, fleet as she is, has little answer for such a broad and fluid attack. Exposed by her advance, she howls defiance in the flame, which pours over her in a constant stream until flakes of cloth start to peek from her gloves and her stumbling retreat ends in a tumble to her knees. The weary weight of her wounds slows her as she lifts her head and bleary eyes. Meeting Neptune's gaze, she assents, irises sharpening.

Bracing her legs to support Neptune's weight, Uranus rolls across her partner's back as the kick terminates, her heel lashing down at the eggplant. "I've been scalded by worse," Uranus agrees lightly. "But I always have an ocean to drown the burn afterwards."

Together, the two elegant senshi are pitch-perfect, melodic. Uranus kicks out with both legs, letting Neptune catch and spin her back to her feet, then starts striking out with palm and fist, trying to force Halloegg to commit to blocks, to form openings.

COMBAT: Sailor Uranus has joined the combo started by Sailor Neptune!

COMBAT: COMBO! Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus have used Exquisite Duet on Hotaru Tomoe.
COMBAT: Sailor Neptune has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Sailor Uranus has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly dodges Sailor Moon, Sailor Jupiter, Sailor Mars, and Sailor Mercury's Combo: All-Star Senshi!, taking 118 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit!
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to dodge Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus's Combo: Exquisite Duet, taking 82 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Hotaru Tomoe is unable to keep fighting! Sailor Neptune drains 33 fatigue from Hotaru Tomoe!

<Pose Tracker> Eudial [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.

Inwardly Eudial seethes as the senshi rally. Why are they all here?! Is it simple mischance? Do they know how to find the pure heart crystals themselves!? One of them, two, three... Eudial knows she could overcome them, or Halloegg could. The two of them together, certainly! But as those hated words and enthusiasms ripple outwards...

They lose their grip.

Behind poor Halloegg, Eudial seems suddenly filled with delight, leaping up into the air as the pure heart crystal tumbles like a twinkling shuriken. Her cold and hateful hand grabs hold of it, triumph dawning on her face as she lands next to a merrily burning witch's broom. "At last--!"

With a zzzzipp of unspooling cables, a pair of electrode clips come out of that device of hers. One goes on one side of the delicate snowflake of Takebe's pure heart; the other on the alternate side. There is a brief shudder, a change in its radiant light, with Eudial looking down towards a most decidedly /non/eu-dial...

And her face falls.

The clips are taken off and Eudial turns on her heel. "After all of THIS, a dud... How can we acquire all three THIS way," she mutters to herself, before pitching the crystal over her shoulder as if she were littering. With some haste, she makes her way back into the haunted house, and as the engine of her sedan starts, she calls out, "Hold them off as long as you can--!"

There is the grinding noise of a car bulling itself out of an obstacle. Through the loudspeaker on top of the car, Eudial's amplified voice ripples out. "We will never forget your sacrifice, Horologue!"

<Pose Tracker> Hotaru Tomoe [Infinity Institute (6)] has posed.

Hallowegg had a bright and brilliant future ahead of her-- beginning to grasp that rather than embodying neither holiday, she could have two...

Picture her, romping through the Easter Egg hunt meadows, spraying bits of eggplant out of her nose as she giggles.

Hiding beautifully painted rotten eggs, not even all of which are set to explode.

In a couple of days, on Halloween proper, leading the egg throws on the houses that really deserve it -- and then setting up shop on the doorstep of her own house, handing candy eggs (which are only a LITTLE poisoned with soul-draining energy) out to the visitors to her doorstep.

It's a beautiful dream, and one that ends violently with -- coming from two directions, the enflamed-shocking-icy-tiara and the martial arts barrage. She tries to block the latter, with viney arms and legs and even her increasingly sunken, melted torso -- but that renders her wholly unable to step out of the way of the former.

"LOVE-LYYYYY!!!"

The last thing that rings in her ears are the orders she won't be able to obey, Eudial's demands that she hold them off 'as long as she can.'

But... wait...

...I guess she was talking to someone else...

After that death comes swiftly. A rotten eggplant thuds quietly against the schoolroom floor, and out of it emerges a strange, membraneous egg. No earthly bird or lizard laid this -- it's all wrong. It won't be kept for study, though; a moment later it has cracked in half, and emergent from its shattered shell is a deeply disturbing spirit, no less threatening or terrible for the fact that it chitters its way into the long dark night, dissolving into nothingness along with the shell fragments.

<Pose Tracker> Sailor Moon [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.

Eudial announces its a dud, and relief floods her heart. Since Uranus said if it wasn't a talisman then... well there'd be no problem.

Sailor Moon is still stuck in her boots. She's not even sure she can take her boots off without detransforming. She catches her tiara on its return flight. For some reason she feels a little sad when the creature explodes in a cry of LOVE-LYYYYYY!!!, but only because even she knew it's name wasn't Horologue! "You are the worst supervisor-witch... whatever-ever!" She calls after Eudial, but given the speed she's tearing out of here, she's unlikely to hear it.

Through supreme effort of tugging at her legs with her hands until she strains them free, she eventually gets her boots free, but they're sticky in a way that she has to tug extra hard with every step as she moves towards the Pure Heart that was left behind. Sighing in complete relief, she cradles its crystalline edges and warm light between her hands as she moves over to the fallen teacher and places it against her. It'll go back to the place where it's supposed to go. All the while though she's considering a face.

The lack of sympathy in a face that's so handsome and pretty at once is something she never really expected to see. Uranus wasn't some Dark and terrible Queen after all, or a General of the armies of Darkness, she was a Sailor Senshi. And what she says... despite what her classmates and teachers and family might think, Usagi isn't a stupid girl, she manages to put it together from the fragments of what Uranus has said, and the actions of Eudial and Mimete. "Talismans." She takes a breath, eyes lifting to the pair, Neptune and Uranus, "So that's what they're-you're after? Three people have to die so you can get these Talismans? For the sake of..." She sounds numb. "...the universe."

Her eyes look stricken as she she thinks on this but hasn't really comprehended the enormity of it. The universe against three lives. To most people that would hardly seem like a choice. A simple decision of pragmatism really, but not to her. Any sense of dullness goes out of her tone as she starts to cry out passionately, hands clasped together "There has to be another way! We can find another way together! One where noone has to die!"

<Pose Tracker> Sailor Jupiter [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.

As their attacks all come home and destroy the Daimon, Jupiter finds herself half out of breath, not fast enough to follow up after Eudial in the face of...

...Of her getting the name wrong? It's another of the things that keeps Jupiter on-edge tonight, keeps her off-balance in more ways than just physically. The tallest of the Inners finds herself looking down at the bizarre egg that cracks, that fades into... Something. Jupiter glances to Mars and Mercury, as Moon has already started voicing what seems clear to her. Talismans... Some of it might seem over her head, and yet...

"She's right," Jupiter insists, stepping up and crossing her arms beside Sailor Moon as if she hadn't just been through the fight she has. She ignores her own injuries, the fatigue that's obvious despite her stubbornness. "It doesn't have to be that way."

But she's not making an impassioned plea; her guarded stance says that much.

<Pose Tracker> Sailor Mercury [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.

Poor Hallowegg. Even as the Daimon falls, Ami finds herself feeling just a little sorry for it... though it /is/ a daimon. As things shift toward the other group of senshi, and toward their plans, though... /that/ proves to be just as much cause for sadness as the poor creature.

As Sailor Moon puts it together, something churns a little in Ami's gut. Three lives for the sake of the universe -- such a simple, seductive line of reasoning... but that it's seductive doesn't make it right, does it? She shakes her head, moving toward Usagi's other side, still covered in a little rotten egg.

"We'll find that other way," she says, quietly, in Moon's direction. She's seen miracles enough to know that believing in them isn't foolish in the least... and indeed, believing in miracles seems increasingly like it's what makes life worth living -- and worth protecting.

<Pose Tracker> Sailor Neptune [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.

Working together, the creature dies.

And Neptune turns her cold eyes towards its mistress. Eudial makes her pronouncement, and Neptune pauses a moment, her clenched hands - relaxing a moment, the silk of the gloves ruffling beneath her hands.

A beat, though - just a beat, and Sailor Neptune turns towards Uranus. "We don't need to finish here - the pure heart crystal... simply that - a crystal," a pause though, lips pursed.

Eyes flicker between Uranus and Sailor Moon. Just for a moment, considering. Neptune steps forward - shoulders squared, stance tall - not quite as imposing a figure as Uranus physically - but perhaps the ocean in her eyes provided intimidation enough. Neptune moves towards Mars in particular, her hand reaching out to lift her palm between herself and the other senshi.

"You see, perhaps, more than the rest," she states. "Do you see the darkness in our future? Hidden inside of pure hearts are talismans. If they are ever brought together, they will create that grail - they will create something that will destroy all we have ever known. If you see that darkness as well..." a beat, and she steps away - letting her palm fall back to her side.

"Convince your friends to stay out of our way."

With that, Neptune turns - to start to move quickly away. Hopefully, with Uranus and Pluto beside her.

<Pose Tracker> Sailor Uranus [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.

Vegetables can't bleed. But they can bruise.

This is more like it. Fists hammering into eggplant. The sputtering Daimon at a loss for its own defense in the face of the harmonious brutality of Uranus and Neptune. Takebe-sensei is not the only one with a heart outside of her body right now. And when the Daimon is truly staggering, the Inner Senshi drive a stake through its heart. Now why might Uranus have that metaphor in mind?

Rising to her feet, Uranus makes no objection as Sailor Moon returns the crystal. Folding her arms, she watches. She keeps them folded even in the face of Sailor Moon's wrenching plea. "You cannot find what does not exist. Not even with that visor of yours," Uranus tells Mercury. "If the Talismans are brought together, they will summon the power to end all life, to murder your family, your friends, and everyone on this planet. Nor will it be long before that power speaks its purpose. The Grail cannot be hidden, the way a Talisman can. You could fight a thousand battles in its defense, but the very first time you lose, that is the end."

Uranus tips her head, a knowing, eerie smile on her lips. "That's right. The Holy Grail. Do you remember it, Sailor Moon? What about you, Sailor Jupiter? No? Well. But you recognize what you feel when I say it. You have a sense for what it might mean. The Grail is why you are princesses with no kingdom."

Sailor Uranus shifts her gaze to Jupiter. "She's wrong. Realize it, or be wrong with her, but whatever you do, stay out of our way. Strength is more than enduring pain. It's enduring sin, too. Keep her out of this."

Finally, her eyes return to Sailor Moon's face, even as she begins to turn. "Because /she/ will never know strength. No matter how long she lives."

<Pose Tracker> Sailor Moon [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.

Neptune makes her own case to Mars, and Moon's eyes are upon her. Mars saw more clearly than most within her flames. Did she see what Neptune was talking about in the fires of the Hikawa Shrine? Did she agree? ... She didn't know. She's glad to have Jupiter and Mercury's support, her eyes shining with gratitude.

But then Uranus talks, and what she says is too terrible to comprehend, but she tries. She works it into her scatterbrained, irresponsible mind, she holds the idea of it still within it. Focuses on it. A power to end all life. Not even Metallia... had...

She tries to conjure the image of the Holy Grail in her head, as if she could simply grasp it through the fog of memory and the veil of another life, but she can't. She has no memory of it. However she does feel it, something that resonates within her. A feeling of sadness and insecurity, but also something else...

Uranus' eyes return to her face, and for a moment those eyes are wide, but she doesn't avert her gaze, even as Uranus turns, "You're right I guess." Sailor Moon says quickly, but then quietly, softer. "I'm not strong. Not really. Especially not on my own. The kind of strength you're talking about. I don't have that. But you're also wrong, I do /know/ strength."

She allows herself this small smile, "I was never weaker than when I was alone. I was never stronger than when I realized that even if I couldn't see them, or hear their voices, or touch them that they were all still with me. The kind of strength I know, it isn't mine, it's shared."

It isn't long before the softness goes out of her words, before the passion returns, "Maybe there's a lot going on with this that I don't know, and you do! But I do know that no matter what, taking on the burden of sin isn't the right way, or the only way to face the coming darkness! Maybe it'll be really hard, maybe it will be a thousand battles like you say, or more, but together, we'll find a way, where three people don't have to die... where they can keep living out their lives as best as they can..."

Something wrenches her heart as she watches the trio depart, "...and noone has to find the strength to endure the sin of taking that away from them."