2016-07-09 - Locks and Keys 10

Title: Locks and Keys 10
Summary: The final Key emerges at Tokyo Tower, but in the magical girls' eagerness to secure the Key, lives are lost.
Who: Takeo Akamizu, Mami Tomoe, Fuu Hououji, Chitose Shiratori, Lera Camry, Usagi Tsukino GM: Hotaru Tomoe/Utena Tenjou
Where: Tokyo Tower
OOC - IC Date: 07-09-2016 - 11-04-2014

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

<SoundTracker> http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xt53qo_tonari-no-totoro-japanese-opening_shortfilms

Six of Tokyo's mystical Keys to the City have entered circulation. It is somewhat inevitable that the final one pops out at Tokyo Tower.

Or, well, /near/ Tokyo Tower. Technically speaking, /below/ Tokyo Tower, in FootTown. In front of one of the restaurants, a classy French bistro, where a group of Infinity Institute students have gathered, chattering cheerfully about the special deal on creme brulee that awaits them within.

Somewhat less predictably, the victim wasn't actually targeted for her Key, but for her Hoste. Her sky-blue blazer stretches and warps, as though something viscous has reached a boil underneath -- and then she erupts, her piercing scream mingling with a deeper, monstrous howl, as bulbous purple shadow with blood-red eyes and veins and claws and fangs takes corporeal form. With an awful slurping sound, she's sucked into its heart.

Some magical girls have fought such a monster before, at the Museum of Western Art. The power went out that day; it was dark and scary.

Yet for some reason, seeing one of these beasts suck its way across the floor in full daylight, writhing and screeching, is even more sickening and terrible to behold. Sunbeams coming in through the mall's skylights are hungrily absorbed, creating the illusion of black spots wherever they penetrate; artificial lights are less desirable, and create a soft violet shimmer on contact.

Most horrifying of all, recall that there was a /group/ of students, and the monster seems to be, Katamari Damacy-style, lumbering over them more quickly than they can get away, surrounding them with its bulk rather than bothering to bite down with an actual mouth. With each student ingested in this manner, a new scream joins the cacophany that emerges from the protodaimon's maw -- and the monster itself doubles in mass. It is a mangled, warped existence, with too many limbs, which expand, stretch, and pop, like rubbery bubbles, only to reform on another piece of its form. There are extra mouths, too, and entirely too many of those demonic eyes.

By the time it's forty feet tall, that's more than enough to make climbing up Tokyo Tower towards the isolated victims above an easy task. With slurps and pops, it summons tentacles to haul itself into the skies, one rafter at a time. It's visible for miles around, and already helicopters are converging on the scene.

It's weird as heck that the soundtrack to this horror movie is a schoolgirl singing the famous Totoro opening song, but nonetheless, that's where we find ourselves -- the host must be a big fan, because a sparkling, glowing Key is belting it out joyously down at the base of the tower. The protodaimon doesn't seem interested in it; anyone could just... pick it right up off the floor.

OOC: We're going to need an initiative order for this one, and we'll be using the Item Grab rules, so everyone please +item/join Hotaru!

COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe transforms into Proto-Daimon!

COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has fully healed herself. She is now ready to take on 6 opponents!
COMBAT: Takeo Akamizu has joined Hotaru Tomoe's item contest. Please check it with +item Hotaru Tomoe.
COMBAT: Ami Mizuno has joined Hotaru Tomoe's item contest. Please check it with +item Hotaru Tomoe.
COMBAT: Takeo Akamizu transforms into Lancelot!
COMBAT: Lancelot has fully healed himself.
COMBAT: Usagi Tsukino has fully healed herself.
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has fully healed herself.
COMBAT: Usagi Tsukino has joined Hotaru Tomoe's item contest. Please check it with +item Hotaru Tomoe.
COMBAT: Chitose Shiratori transforms into Barrier Jacket!
COMBAT: Chitose Shiratori has fully healed herself.
COMBAT: Chitose Shiratori has joined Hotaru Tomoe's item contest. Please check it with +item Hotaru Tomoe.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji transforms into Magic Knight!
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has fully healed herself.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has joined Hotaru Tomoe's item contest. Please check it with +item Hotaru Tomoe.
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe transforms into Puella Mami!
COMBAT: Ami Mizuno has fully healed herself.
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has joined Hotaru Tomoe's item contest. Please check it with +item Hotaru Tomoe.
COMBAT: Ami Mizuno transforms into Sailor Mercury!
COMBAT: Ami Mizuno has left Hotaru Tomoe's item contest. Please check it with +item Hotaru Tomoe.
COMBAT: Sailor Mercury has joined Hotaru Tomoe's item contest. Please check it with +item Hotaru Tomoe.
COMBAT: Lera Camry has joined Hotaru Tomoe's item contest. Please check it with +item Hotaru Tomoe.
COMBAT: Lera Camry has left Hotaru Tomoe's item contest. Please check it with +item Hotaru Tomoe.
COMBAT: Lera Camry transforms into Barrier Jacket Perihelion!
COMBAT: Lera Camry has joined Hotaru Tomoe's item contest. Please check it with +item Hotaru Tomoe.
COMBAT: Usagi Tsukino has left Hotaru Tomoe's item contest. Please check it with +item Hotaru Tomoe.
COMBAT: Usagi Tsukino transforms into Sailor Moon!
COMBAT: Sailor Moon has joined Hotaru Tomoe's item contest. Please check it with +item Hotaru Tomoe.
COMBAT: ITEM TRANSFER! Hotaru Tomoe has transferred The Final Key to Lera Camry!
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has adjusted her boss levels. She is now ready to take on 7 opponents!
COMBAT: Sailor Mercury has left Hotaru Tomoe's item contest. Please check it with +item Hotaru Tomoe.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has adjusted her boss levels. She is now ready to take on 6 opponents!

<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.

<Another one!> Soaring Sky chimes.

Lera Camry had planned to join several of her friends at the bistro. She is running late, which results in her coming up to find the protodaimon: a horrifying mishmash of tangled limbs, bloated and terrible, climbing up Tokyo Tower. She slows as she runs, staring at the monster for a moment. She gulps, then. "Y-Yeah," she says, with a shiver. She remembers that fight in the museum. "You ready, buddy?"

As does Sky. <Always. Set up!>

There is a flash of light, rushing up around her, swirling about. Her green coat flutters out behind her, her sidebraid swaying in the wind. Amber eyes narrow, as she looks up at the thing -- and then down, at the Key. She swallows.

"Sky," she says, "we've gotta get it."

<Agreed. Can't leave that laying about.>

Lera shoots in. The protodaimon isn't moving for the Key, but she doesn't quite trust that to remain the case -- or that something else will -- and then launches forward. Her hand closes around the Key; then, she hops backward a good distance, eyes on the protodaimon and the others here, and making her way to the edge. "I'll get it out of here!"

COMBAT: ITEM ESCAPE ATTEMPT! Lera Camry is attempting to escape with The Final Key! They must run for 2 more turns!

COMBAT: Lera Camry has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Chitose Shiratori [Infinity Institute (U)] has posed.

Chitose Shiratori was already here at Tokyo Tower, having brought up her Barrier Jacket, and with White Omen on her arm. In fact, she's standing on one of the supports near the top, as her eyes sweep the area looking for something. To be fair, she's not quite sure either.

She looks down at her wrist where her Device hangs. "I know, but this is probably the most subtle way to go about it. Besides, if someone else does find it, we'll find out."

Of course, Chitose is over on the other side of Tokyo Tower when everything begins to happen, and the tower shakes from the giant monster climbing the rafters. She turns and looks down, then recoils at the sight of the gaping maws and the boils. "W-What is that?!"

Chitose looks at the monster for a moment, then back down at the ground. She takes a deep breath, trying to put her disgust and fear away for a moment. "W-well, I suppose I can spend some time dealing with this, right?"

"Right. Here we go!" Chitose spreads her arms and leans backwards, falling off the tower. She spins to re-orient herself and her magic takes over as she zooms towards the Protodaimon, pointing White Omen forward. He fires a few bursts of light at the monster.

Chitose doesn't notice Lera zooming away with the key. Not yet, anyway. There's a greater concern right now.

COMBAT: Chitose Shiratori has used Light Bolt on Hotaru Tomoe.

COMBAT: Chitose Shiratori has finished attacking.

COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe perfectly dodges Chitose Shiratori's Light Bolt, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge! Hotaru Tomoe's Fade ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Flash ability activates!

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

Rather than meeting anyone here, Fuu Hououji was out shopping; one of the game stores in the area was hosting a special event with one of the independent developers whose work Fuu pays attention to, and as she leaves the store with an autographed software box in her hand, it's clear from her smile that she feels the trip was well worth it.

Then all hell breaks loose, as it is distressingly wont to do.

The roar of the proto-daimon nearly drowns out the Totoro theme, and Fuu darts for a nearby access door, ducking through it and glancing around to make sure nobody else is paying attention to her. She has just enough time to pull her glove-jewel on and entrust her current possessions to its storage before she calls out, "Belief becomes power! Winds, guide me!" and a green-tinted whirlwind surrounds her ...

A moment later, the Magic Knight of Wind emerges from the mall, catching sight of Lera and the glint of the Key she holds. "We'll focus on beating up the monster, Lera-san!" she calls out to the Device-user ... but before she charges into the fray, the Wind Knight directs a spell at Lera herself. "Winds of Protection! That should help you get to safety!" she adds, conjuring a wind-element barrier around Lera. It may not last for long, but it could make the difference between Lera making it to safety and the Key being taken back.

COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Winds of Protection on Lera Camry.

COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Lera Camry accepts Fuu Hououji's Winds of Protection, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Accelerate and Withstand applied to Lera Camry!

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

Seeing this creature is, to say the least, awful. Mami Tomoe--apparently ordinary high school student--sees it, but the blonde with perfect hair doesn't scream, or cry out. She looks at it with dismay more than panic, not immune to the fear of bizarre, warped things but accustomed to going towards them, rather than away.

...But this is no Witch.

It was the screams that alerted her, but even then the sheer size of the creature here, in the daytime, unhidden and noticeable, alarms her. She was out here to get a meal, to take a break from her hunting. But now--

Now, taking the time to look at the thing is costing her precious resources, important moments that she could otherwise use. How's she know? ...Because Lera shoots in. Mami clicks her tongue, narrows her eyes, and darts to the side, ducking between buildings to avoid the brightness of her transformation drawing attention. She lifts the hand bearing the ring that is her Soul Gem, the strange mark on her fingernail catching light.

The golden glow that surrounds her also changes her. And in moments...

Mami Tomoe, Puella Magi, appears atop a landing beside the alley, the balcony of a restaurant meant to give a good view to the tower itself and its lights. She stands on a thin railing, eyes narrowed at the sights before her. The key, and what it represents, versus the lives up the tower.

Bending at the knee, Mami jumps for a higher landing. "Camry-san!" she calls out, after Fuu's words. "I know where you want to take that. You know it would be safer with me."

Touch down, bounce again, closer to the tower; now, mid-air, Mami whirls, holding up a gun that appears in a burst of rainbow light, and firing, letting the recoil spin her to fire wit her other arm, and another shot, and another, all leading to her backflipping towards another vantage point.

"I find ugly things take bullets as well as pretty," she quips, mid-shot, as one of her rifles falls towards the ground and disappears in a flash of light.

COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has used Tiro Flourish on Hotaru Tomoe.

COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has finished attacking.

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

Takeo looked out the road from his motorcycle at the tower, he had been just out for a ride, when he saw the thing climb the tower, and felt, rather than heard the cacophany of screams. He closed his eyes. What kind of hero was he? He slowly placed his helmet on his head.

Since he had discovered he wasLancelot he had tirelessly, night after ngiht gone out and battled magical creations, demons, even Queen Beryl.

His hands touch the handlebars, and with practiced ease, rev the throttle.

He had battled, he had been hurt, and he had nearly died.

His left foot leaves the ground, the red motorcycle leaps from it's point. The front wheel leaving the ground as the sound of the rear tire squeels.

He had given up so very much. He had battled. He had fought. He had been wounded, and he had nearly died. All to protect those he cared deeply for, and now, now SHE was on death's door.

The Red motorcycle raced through the city, weaving around cars, hopping curbs to avoid traffic and those in crosswalks. The engine throttle gunned forward, and the rider leaned forward to give the bike even just a touch more speed.

What kind of hero was Takeo Akamizu? Could he fight the monster then go for the key? He wanted to close his eyes and scream frustration to the wind, but he dared not. Not with his bike moving so fast. Instead he asked himself one very simple question.

Am I a Hero?

"Damnit." He reached for his chest on a straight away and called out loudly over the roaring engine, over the rush of wind around his helmet, "I SWEAR TO DEFEND THE INNOCENT!"

Immediately lightning exloded from his fist, trailing behind the racing red machine as it tore through the streets toward Tokyo tower. Each bolt arcing and thundering. Once the lightning storm clears, Lancelot holds his hand out into the wind, and a bolt of lightning solidifies into the shining white blade of Arondight.

Still on the Motorcycle, Lancelot races toward the monster, "Lera! Get out of here! I'll try to hold this Dark Chocolate here off!"

As if the Knight was riding his warhorse, he leans forward a little more on the bike, Arondight held to the side, the tip of the shining blade runing along the concreate creating a massive shower of sparks before Lancelot brings the bike into a power slide that lends his blade just that much more power and cries outm "LIGHTNING SLASH!" The sparks become bolts of lightning that slash and arc toward the Protodaimon's body.

COMBAT: Lancelot has used Lightning Slash on Hotaru Tomoe.

COMBAT: Lancelot has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe perfectly counters Mami Tomoe's Tiro Flourish, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Counter! Hotaru Tomoe's Reverse ability activates!
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe's counterattack, Devouring Shadow, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Mami Tomoe!
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces Lancelot's Lightning Slash, taking 3 Fatigue damage! Lancelot is Psyched! Hotaru Tomoe's Block ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Parry ability activates! Stagger applied to Hotaru Tomoe!

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

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

"...I see those twinkling stars. I feel nostalgic, because I know you're in one of them. La-la- /o~" Even if the lyrics could be little sad, Usagi Tsukino seems so happy listening to them. Happy enough that she was cheerfully humming the rest of the verse as she's forgotten some of the lyrics. Down the streets of Tokyo she strolls, a purse over one arm, a shopping bag in her other hand, a set of earbuds in her ears attached to the phone in her opposite.

Her parents had finally relented and given her her allowance so she'd gone shopping for additions to her winter wardrobe. A cute scarf, a new pair of mittens... "Huh? What's that?" From not quite a whole district over, Usagi's eyes just hit the tip top of Tokyo Tower, and with her hand she slowly slips the earbuds out of her ears, one after the other. A horrific mass was climbing it, helicopters were above and Usagi's first conclusion was, "Oh! It must be a publicity stunt-" Such were common after all in Tokyo. To promote a new anime, or game, or movie.

But the feeling of sickening wrongness of the alien entity hits her like a wave, washing over her and drowning out her senses. The bag hits the ground. Usagi puts a hand to her brooch and... quickly bends down and picks up the bag. Instead of transforming right away, she begins her frenetic run down the sidewalk, her eyes searching for something until... she throws open the door to the local boutique, and pushes her way to the counter, panting as she plops down the bag by the register, "F-Fashion emergency. Please hold onto this for me, I'll be back!" Without any further warning, The worker at the counter blinks her eyes dully as if her ability to comprehend this situation had been slowed by retail literally sucking the life out of her, but then finally reacts. "Hey wait! What?! Are you even a customer!?"

But Usagi was already too far gone, running again, her twintails flowing behind her like streamers in the wind, a hand to her brooch and the other thrust to the air, "Moon Crystal Power - Make Up!" Angel wings and ribbons envelop her...

The actual journey there was difficult, not because anything barred her passage, but because she had to listen to each scream, every cry for help individually as they resonated within her ornaments, and chilled her soul. The monster grew larger and larger in her vision with every leap, the skyline of the city blurring as she pushed herself just a little further, a little harder. "Hold on just a while longer." She whispered, "I'm coming. Please forgive me for being a little selfish. I promise- I promise I'll save you all."

With one final bound, Sailor Moon appears at the tower, a dark silhouette against the harsh light of day, as she leaps up high, many stories into the air. Catching sight of the creature reaching, stretching out for another victim, she doesn't have time to think through a plan. The Totoro song sang a cheerful dissonance in her ears, but it was drowned out by the cry of what would be its next victim.

"Sailor Moon-" Descending downward, with a bright pink boot outstretched, she tries to kick right into the side of that sickening mass and disrupts it. "-KICK!" And she hopes... prays that not a single one of its victims could feel the impact.

COMBAT: Sailor Moon has used Sailor Moon Kick on Hotaru Tomoe.

COMBAT: Sailor Moon has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to dodge Sailor Moon's Sailor Moon Kick, taking 9 Fatigue damage! Sailor Moon is Psyched! Stagger applied to Hotaru Tomoe!

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

The protodaimon is not at all liquid, but there's a fluidity to its form as it swarms up the tower. When it has claws, they make gouges in the iconic white and red metal. When it has mouths, they do too...

It's hard to see the people inside -- there are five of them, though, and for what it's worth they seem to be constantly juggled into the densest part of the monster, probably less for their safety and more for the creature's unwillingness to allow them to be torn away. Still, it amounts to the same thing, at least in terms of their being at risk from sword and blast and bullet and foot.

If only they were safe from the monster itself -- each of them, blurry at best when visible, seems to have lines of light connecting them to the beast. It isn't hard to guess that these flickers are their own energy, their lifeforce, being steadily filtered away.

And for all that it's huge, the monster is /fast/ -- its arm was there one moment and gone the next, Chitose's lightbolts thudding into a rafter instead. In response to the threat, it sends some of its mass her way, in a steadily lengthening, thinning blob that nonetheless is eager to grasp her with five arms-worth of claws, and fling her towards its main body (and thus Tokyo Tower) if possible.

Mami Tomoe receives similar treatment, except that the lovely golden light of her bullets seems to be instantly and totally devoured by the darkness of the monster -- they disappear without so much as a ripple to mark their passing. Lancelot's lightning leaves a desperately small scorch, and now he's also got part of the creature surging his way, while Fuu, who's been hanging back, has an explosive blast of something ichorous and bloody soaring to her courtesy of a sort of boil-like blob that grew... and grew... and popped.

Finally, Sailor Moon's foot finds good purchase on the monster, and seems to send a small shudder straight through it, but it's sticky to the touch! Tendrils of demon goo fly upwards in all directions, trying to grab her and drag her down into it. And the tips of those tendrils are each a single, shining claw...

Lera is too far away from the monster to see much of these events in detail, but what is approaching her are those helicopters. Their blades beat the air with an ominous chopping -- one swerves to avoid her, apparently alarmed by her presence, but the idea that they're innocents in this is abruptly ruined when two more cut off her path of escape. Doors open -- the men inside are wearing mirrored sunglasses and suits, and if she wasn't from another planet she'd have a keener sense of what that meant. Regardless, they call over a loudspeaker, "You are an unauthorized flyer in a no-fly zone during an emergency! Prepare to be shot down!"

They're shooting nets, at least. The bad news is that they're electrified, irregularly shocking, and such treatment is all too likely to jar the Key from her hand...

COMBAT: Utena Tenjou transforms into Men In Black!

COMBAT: Utena Tenjou has fully healed herself. She is now ready to take on 4 opponents!
COMBAT: Utena Tenjou has used A Shocking Twist on Lera Camry.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Mass Effect on Chitose Shiratori.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Mass Effect on Mami Tomoe.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Mass Effect on Lancelot.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Visceral Eruption on Fuu Hououji.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used The Claws That Catch on Sailor Moon.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Utena Tenjou has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Sailor Moon fails to dodge Hotaru Tomoe's The Claws That Catch, taking 25 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Stun, Tangle, and Trap applied to Sailor Moon!
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe fails to dodge Hotaru Tomoe's Mass Effect, taking 19 Fatigue damage! Hotaru Tomoe is Psyched!
COMBAT: Lera Camry narrowly counters Utena Tenjou's A Shocking Twist, taking 4 Fatigue damage! Lera Camry's Reverse ability activates! Lera Camry's Tactician ability activates!
COMBAT: Lera Camry's counterattack, Sentinel Flash, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Utena Tenjou!
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Visceral Eruption, taking 9 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Utena Tenjou has joined Hotaru Tomoe's item contest. Please check it with +item Hotaru Tomoe.
COMBAT: Utena Tenjou has fully healed herself. She is now ready to take on 4 opponents!
COMBAT: ITEM GRAB! Utena Tenjou has used A Shocking Twist on Lera Camry.
COMBAT: Utena Tenjou has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Lera Camry perfectly counters Utena Tenjou's A Shocking Twist, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Counter! Lera Camry's Reverse ability activates! Lera Camry's Tactician ability activates!
COMBAT: Lera Camry's counterattack, Sentinel Flash, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Utena Tenjou!
COMBAT: Chitose Shiratori narrowly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Mass Effect, taking 12 Fatigue damage! Chitose Shiratori's Fade ability activates! Chitose Shiratori's Flash ability activates!
COMBAT: Lancelot narrowly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Mass Effect, taking 22 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit!

<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.

Lera tenses up, before she looks sideways at Fuu. She blinks, once, before she nods at her -- then smiles, as the winds buffet her in that familiar way. "Thanks, um, Wind Knight!" She pauses, then lifts up, beginning to fly -- though not terribly high over the ground. Her eyes move towards Mami when she speaks.

She hesitates, at that, and glances down at the ground for a moment. Then she shakes her head. "Mami-san!" she calls out. "I... I know they'll be fine with Miss Lindy. But--but I could bring you there, so you could talk to her, and see for yourself, okay?"

She hopes that isn't a bad idea. Then, she nods at Lancelot, too. She grins -- but then she's looking forward. She doesn't have the time to cheer Sailor Moon on as she arrives. Instead, she turns to find...

...a black helicopter dropping down in front of her. Lera's eyes screw up, before she grits her teeth. "Wait! I'm just!"

An electrified net fires at her. She swings her sword out. A cross-shaped flash of light erupts from Soaring Sky, blowing the net back towards the helicopter. <Sentinel Flash!> the Device chimes. <Lera! I don't believe we have to listen to them!>

"Not planning on it!" Lera answers. She glowers at the men, then ducks below the helicopter, and shoots under it. A trail of light is left in her wake. "Sorry, next time I'll clear my flight path with Narita!"

...She says it sincerely.

COMBAT: ITEM ESCAPE ATTEMPT! Lera Camry is attempting to escape with The Final Key! They must run for 1 more turn!

COMBAT: Lera Camry has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Chitose Shiratori [Infinity Institute (U)] has posed.

Chitose tsks as the monster suddenly vanishes! She pulls up from the descent after that, hovering in the air briefly. "It's fast." She whispers

Her eyes sweep the area for a moment, and the moment her vision catches sight of the monster she sees claws, fast claws. She rolls to the left to try and avoid the claws. In a split second, the claws just barely miss, but not enough to dig right into her Jacket, shredding small parts of it. "Aaah!" Chitose shudders from the strike, and her free hand rubs the struck area for a moment to dull the pain.

With her other hand, she points White Omen at the monster again, and fires. Bolts like last time, but they come swift and numerous, in an attempt to cover the entire area with bolts. It may not hurt as much as she'd like, but for now actually hitting it is the goal here.

COMBAT: Chitose Shiratori has used Full Spread on Hotaru Tomoe.

COMBAT: Chitose Shiratori has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces Chitose Shiratori's Full Spread, taking 8 Fatigue damage! Hotaru Tomoe's Block ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Parry ability activates!

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

Blocking a spray of pseudo-organic demon pus with the flat of a sword doesn't usually work all that well, but it's all the Wind Knight has to work with as that spray of goop erupts in her general direction. She has to take a moment to try and wipe her glasses off with part of a hand that *didn't* get splattered.

And it's in that moment that she hears the loudspeaker from the direction that Lera-san was going in.

There's nothing she can really do about the helicopters except hope that Lera can make it to safety - or to trust that she'll call for help (somehow) if she winds up actually needing it. The monster is, quite literally, the far bigger problem - and her sword disappears, replaced by her bow and quiver, as she looks up at the blob. In the time she took to assist Lera, the monster has climbed much of the way up the Tower; while she could probably manage to catch up (with a good jump and a strong tailwind), it's faster to attack from where she is. And thanks to her combination of weapon and magic, she *can* do that.

An arrow is nocked and drawn back as the breeze picks up around the Magic Knight of Wind; a few orange leaves, late departures from some tree or another in the area, swirl around behind her in the grip of the gathering wind, her hair and skirts tousled by the air's motion. She lines up her shot, squinting just a little - she doesn't want her shaft to go through any of the captured girls, after all ...

"Gale Arrow!!"

... and looses, the wind about her surging forward, wrapping around the just-released arrow to speed its flight upward and steady its path. It may not be much more than a pinprick to the protodaimon, but ... well, so is a thumbtack when you step on it; just because it's small doesn't mean you can ignore it THAT easily.

And even more than trying to wound the monster, the Wind Knight *wants* to distract it - for better or (as seems terribly likely) for worse.

COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Gale Arrow on Hotaru Tomoe.

COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe perfectly dodges Fuu Hououji's Gale Arrow, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge! Hotaru Tomoe's Fade ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Flash ability activates!

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

Lera could bring her? ...Well...

"It'd be better if you gave it to me /first/," she shouts, from her perch. "But I'll speak with her, if you arrange it." After all, Fate had mentioned Lindy, too. And Mami does have a certain friend who seems to her almost to be there in her mind, encouraging her to /ry/ to talk something out with a familira look.

She doesn't have time for much conversation there, though.The fluid nature of the way the protodaimon moves doesn't do much for Mami's ease watching it; the wrongness to it manifests for her as it being hard to look at. She shakes her head, and refocuses her vision. The way the people inside shift... It requirs careful work to avid them.

At least, that's her thought /before/ she sees her bullets simply disappear into the creature, and then her eyes widen as its bizarre arm reaches out and snatches hold of her. "Oh, that's just--" She can't even dodge; the Puella Magi slams hard into the metal of the tower, cracking glass of a window as she bounces off, starting to tumble back downward again. Her bullets don't even...

"Gh--" She spins as she falls, throwing up her hand and a ribbon with it, to latch onto a support beam and prevent herself falling. She swings, catching sight of Chitose in the meantime. But not just her; many attacks keep disappearing into its mass. So....

"You can't hold back!" Mami calls. "And neither can I." If it's between the innocents already swallowed up, being drained, within, or the other innocents atop the tower...

A flash of light becomes a semi-circle before her, and she fires from below. The roar of gunfire rockets her backward, drowning out anything else she could say for the moment, as twelve barrels unload towards the Protodaimon, caution thrown aside.

COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has used Tiro Circle on Hotaru Tomoe.

COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe perfectly braces Mami Tomoe's Tiro Circle, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Brace! Hotaru Tomoe's Block ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Parry ability activates!

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

Dumping the bike, and wincing every nano-second, Lancelot leaps away from the monster as it surges toward him, only barely escaping the grasping tendrils of the evil creature that pursues him. He leaps up to first one rafter, then another, and then lands in a crouch ontop of the first observation deck, with Arondight held at the ready.

He looks up and then runs to the other side of the deck, mostly to build speed, and then leaps to another set of rafters, bouncing his way up, by going from rafter to support beam, to rafter. During one such bound he slashes at a few of the limbs/mouths that are supporting it, trying to keep the monster slowed.

Lancelot grabs a rafter and swings to the top of the second observation deck and after crouching to make sure he had his balance he stands and looks at the thing. Really takes a moment to LOOK at this thing. The kids inside. The lines of light. "It's feeding off them..." He narrows his eyes in thought, he's got to think of something and fast.

His head slowly moves from the monster, to the support struts below it. "Oh man... Guys! I have a REALLY Terrible Idea!"

COMBAT: Lancelot has used Disabling Strike on Hotaru Tomoe.

COMBAT: Lancelot has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to counter Lancelot's Disabling Strike, taking 10 Fatigue damage! Cripple, Stun, and Trap applied to Hotaru Tomoe!
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe's counterattack, Devouring Shadow, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Lancelot!

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

"W-What's this-?" Instinctively she tries to leap away, but the tendrils, each tipped with a claw catch ahold of her and drag her back towards it. They wrap around each of her limbs, her torso, her waist, making it nigh impossible to move. The raking claws dig into her Sailor Fuku, and drag her closer, closer.

A kya of pain tries leaves her throat, but suddenly it's becoming hard to even breathe from the suffocating strands constricting her. "H-Help-" A pathetic muffled sound. Her eyes trail upwards from the tip of Lancelot's gleaming blade, coursing with lightning, upwards to the silver shine of Mami Tomoe's rifle, and over to... the shine of the key in Lera's hand, as she tried to deal with her own problems. She could hear Mami and Lera shouting back and forth about the fate of the keys.

So close, and so far away. Something in her starts to sag as she's dragged closer and closer to the mass.

Because /she/ will never know strength. No matter how long she lives.

She was close enough now that she didn't need her magic to hear the whimpers, the cries of the victims she'd soon be added to within the teeming creature. Something in her eyes changes a look of resolution to help them, to help herself, as she pulls against the tendrils with one of her arms, raising it, extending the rod at the end of it, pointing it straight at the mass of Daimon, "Moon Sparkling-"

Silvery energy gathers at the tip, which she quickly has to steady, it's shaking so much from how the Daimon is pulling against it. The brooch in the center of her chest shines, "-SENSATION!" Spirals of radiance rain down upon the Proto-Daimon one after another, a shower of purifying streams at nigh point blank range.

COMBAT: Sailor Moon has used Moon Sparkling Sensation on Hotaru Tomoe.

COMBAT: Sailor Moon has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe perfectly dodges Sailor Moon's Moon Sparkling Sensation, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge! Hotaru Tomoe's Fade ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Flash ability activates!

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

The men in black in the helicopters swerve neatly around their missed nets, and when Lera drops directly under one of them, she discovers that the underside hatch has any number of guns mounted there. They immediately swivel and shoot -- harpoons, with electrified wire, a barrage that chases her even as she tries to get further away. The lines themselves are terrifying; the harpoon tips no less so, should they land directly. The shock of either could lead to her dropping the cheerily singing Key.

Back at Tokyo Tower, Chitose has somewhat more success with her huge barrage -- with more parts of it targeted it's hard to get out of the way, and her bolts pepper the violet surface before, gradually and somewhat painfully-looking, being drawn in. Fuu's single arrow is less fortunate; the monster lunges across the gap between them, ducking the arrow and trying to slam into the girl wholesale, perhaps hoping to draw her in. Chitose is hardly ignored, though; droplets of monster goo fly in its wake, and each of them shapes itself into a tiny mouth, eager to clamp onto her and rip and tear.

It's during this time that Mami sends more bullets into the monster without any apparent effect -- is it some kind of cruel anti-Puella Magi weapon? -- while it /opens a hole in its body/ for Sailor Moon's attack to pass harmlessly through. This hole includes the senshi's footing, and if she doesn't manage to notice in time, she'll be in free fall.

But then, so is the monster; with several extremely well-placed strikes, Lancelot severs its grasp on Tokyo Tower, and it goes plunging downwards. As it falls, it emits another one of those horrible, dripping, ichorous blasts, this a large enough one that it's liable to douse (and burn, on contact) Mami and Lancelot at the same time.

COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Mass Effect on Fuu Hououji.

COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Body Horror on Chitose Shiratori.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Visceral Eruption on Mami Tomoe.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Visceral Eruption on Lancelot.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Falling... on Sailor Moon.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Hunger on Hotaru Tomoe.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe accepts Hotaru Tomoe's Hunger, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Hotaru Tomoe is Reinforced by Hotaru Tomoe!
COMBAT: ITEM GRAB! Utena Tenjou has used Grabby Harpoons on Lera Camry.
COMBAT: Utena Tenjou has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Lera Camry fails to dodge Utena Tenjou's Grabby Harpoons, taking 40 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit!
COMBAT: Utena Tenjou successfully grabs an item from Lera Camry!
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe fails to dodge Hotaru Tomoe's Visceral Eruption, taking 30 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit!
COMBAT: Chitose Shiratori fails to dodge Hotaru Tomoe's Body Horror, taking 14 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Chitose Shiratori is Quipped! Bind Break! All of Hotaru Tomoe's debuffs are cleared!
COMBAT: Sailor Moon fails to brace Hotaru Tomoe's Falling..., taking 24 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit!
COMBAT: Lancelot narrowly counters Hotaru Tomoe's Visceral Eruption, taking 5 Fatigue damage! Lancelot's Reverse ability activates! Lancelot's Tactician ability activates! Lancelot is Taunted!
COMBAT: Lancelot's counterattack, Veil of Steel, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Hotaru Tomoe!
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji fails to dodge Hotaru Tomoe's Mass Effect, taking 23 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Hotaru Tomoe is Psyched!

<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.

"I will!" Lera yells back to Mami. "I'll find you later!" She has to yell loud; some of the words may be lost, given how she speeds up -- and she doesn't have time to watch her fight, nor does she answer the claim that the Key would be safer with her. Maybe Lera isn't so certain about that.

Moreover, she discovers that the helicopter's underbelly is far from soft -- and far from armed. She shoots past the harpoon guns, but that gives them a clear shot. The harpoon shoots into Lera's side, catching her in the back, and then slams into the Barrier Jacket. It's only because of those protective spells that she isn't impaled straight through. It still throws her away, electricity jolting through her body.

The Key is dropped -- and there for the helicopter's crew to grab. She sees one of their hands clutch it, as she drops down.

Lera plummets down towards the ground below, breath ragged, and side aching. She wasn't impaled clean through, but she still broke several ribs. She turns about, then lifts back up, a trail of red-orange light left in her wake. Her eyes are narrowed.

She is coming /straight/ for that helicopter.

"HyaaaaaAAAAAAAAAH!" she bellows, as her Device ignites; plasma flame licks up the length of the blade, then explodes off it as she closes the distance in the blink of an eye. She pivots in midair, sword swinging at the helicopter's chassis -- and then explodes in a tremendous fireball at the side of the 'copter. <Inferno Slasher!>

COMBAT: Lera Camry has used Inferno Slasher on Utena Tenjou.

COMBAT: Lera Camry has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Utena Tenjou narrowly counters Lera Camry's Inferno Slasher, taking 20 Fatigue damage! Lera Camry is Psyched! Utena Tenjou's Tactician ability activates!
COMBAT: Utena Tenjou's counterattack, Suppressing Fire, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Lera Camry!

<Pose Tracker> Chitose Shiratori [Infinity Institute (U)] has posed.

Chitose smiles as shots actually hit this time, but the monster isn't quite finished, as dozens of tiny mouths come at her? A part of her tries to comprehend just how the monster can do that. She dives and then climbs again to try and shake them, flying back and forth as well. But they're just too numerous and most of them clamp onto her, biting into her armor as she yelps. This throws her off and she falls to the ground, skidding to a stop a little bit away.

She slaps the ground with her right hand before using it to help stand back up. As soon as she's on her feet again, she points above the monster, not directly at it this time.

One pulse is fired, and if it makes it to above the monster, it spins once, twice, then splits into many smaller bolts, that fall upon the ground like a heavy, piercing rain.

After that, now that she's gotten some distance from the fight, she looks upon the rest of it. Especially the helicopters, which she looks at for a moment, weighing the pros and cons of trying to shoo them away. "Hmm..."

COMBAT: Chitose Shiratori has used Starling Shot on Hotaru Tomoe.

COMBAT: Chitose Shiratori has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly counters Chitose Shiratori's Starling Shot, taking 8 Fatigue damage! Hotaru Tomoe's Reverse ability activates!
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe's counterattack, Devouring Shadow, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Chitose Shiratori!

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

Well, that seems somewhat disproportionate, doesn't it? Still, the Wind Knight *did* want to draw the monster's attention, and with an attack like that by way of reprisal, it would seem that she's managed to claim at least a portion of it.

On the other hand, the green-clad Magic Knight can't help but remember the old saying about being careful what you wish for, because this is a LOT more attention than she can deal with. Strive though she may to dodge, there's simply too much of that ichorous, amoeboid mass for her to evade, and she winds up struggling within the protodaimon's clutches.

She's close enough to its surface to see Lera going on the attack against that helicopter, and she can only guess what happened - but before she can do anything about the Key, whether helping Lera or trying to make sure the black-suited men get away with their lives but without the Key, she has to secure *her* survival against this monster. And the thought of trying to rescue one of the captive girls depends upon being able to rescue herself; if she can't break out empty-handed, there's no point in trying to break out with one or more of the girls in tow.

And given the rapidly building (and intensely painful) stinging sensation on her exposed skin, combined with the pressure surrounding her whole body, she doesn't have time to look for weak points to take advantage of.

Her sword replaces her bow and quiver, and the Magic Knight of Wind starts slashing her way back out of the protodaimon's mass, almost frantic in her movements.

COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Are These Wires Important on Hotaru Tomoe.

COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to dodge Fuu Hououji's Are These Wires Important, taking 15 Fatigue damage!

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

Violet. Violet, everywhere, as Mami tries to find a better vantage point, tries to fire on the creature and does... Nothing. It doesn't just fail to cry out or react, it fails to be /affected/ entirely.

Or put another way, Mami fails to damage it. It happens, of course; sometimes, it takes time to find the rightmode of atack. ...But it shakes her, all the same. There are many here, and it /does/ occur to her, in the moment, that it's her magic that isn't going to work. That moment burns. Wait.

The moment doesn't burn. While she's staring up, falling back towards what she aims to make her next perch, the monster /radiates/ itself somehow, and that hits; she can't even make herself get out of the way, and there's a shriek that Mami can't supress at the awful burn suddenly surrounding her. Her graceful landing fails entirely; Mami is knocked off-course, and hits a building, tumbling down from there to impact a storefront sign and then the ground itself with an ugly sound. "Gh..."

Thoughts race through her mind, in that moment, as she stares down athe ground, fingerless gloves sheltering her palm from the debris on the ground as she pushes herself back up. Few of them are pleasant. "I... I need...."

Gunfire from above. Lera, charging a helicopter. A sparkle.

Mami sets her jaw. The weapons they're using? Well. She gets to her knees, and waves her hand; a slightly larger gun that usual pops up, and two more like it. "All right. ...If I can't save them like /this/..."

Mami sets her targets and leaps straight up, kicking off a lamppost and further. The guns she set below are her first volley, firing straight for the helicopter's engines--th same one Lera is striking at. Her hand is out, ready for any opening.

COMBAT: ITEM GRAB! Mami Tomoe has used Tiro Theft on Utena Tenjou.

COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has cancelled their attack on Utena Tenjou. If there are more attacks that need to be +cancelled, please hold all +attacks until the process is complete.
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has used Tiro Retort on Utena Tenjou.
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Utena Tenjou fails to dodge Mami Tomoe's Tiro Retort, taking 58 Fatigue damage!

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

Then the monster falls from the tower. "Huh, I guess I won't need my really bad idea." He grins and twirls Arondight before he registers that as it falls, it is reacting by shooting at him some form of monster goo. With blinding speed, and just a the last moment, Lancelot slashes at the goo in several qucik cuts as cries, "Veil fo Steel!" The cuts hammer into the proto-daimon's attacks, sending them off course to sizzle and burn on the structure around him as each stroke of Arondight splatters the attack into hundreds of directions. A droplet of goo lands on his cheek, and the knight hisses as he wipes it away with his guantlet.

With the monster now on the ground, Lancelot nods once and takes a few steps back, before he runs forward and launches himself from the second observation deck. He falls toward the beast with Arondight held a the ready, the wind roaring past him much like it did on the motorcycle he rode here, only this time, instead of calling out his transformation he cries: "FURIOUS ASSAULT!"

The diving Knight's blade becomes a whirlwind of crackling lightning bolts, becoming a falling ball of lightning. Just before he impacts the proto-daimon he lashes, once to stab into a support strut and slow his fall, the blade erupting in lightning blasts and accompanying thunder, then he pushes off, flipping through the air and lashing quickly at it, each strike erupting in a balst of lighting and thunder that echoes up the tower and through the city walls of Tokyo.

COMBAT: Lancelot has used Furious Assault on Hotaru Tomoe.

COMBAT: Lancelot has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly dodges Lancelot's Furious Assault, taking 20 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Hotaru Tomoe's Fade ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Flash ability activates!

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

For one brief moment in time Sailor Moon believes she's achieved some modicum of success. However she thinks the monster has dropped her. Instead she's just lost her footing and the tendrils are still wrapped around her. And even worse, the /monster/ is falling too!

It's easier to shriek now. A lot easier. Everyone hears it as she realizes her predicament, legs and arms flailing as she descends uncontrollably, still tethered to the thing.

However, in desperation... a plan forms. Her opposite hand, now more free to act, moves up to her head, to her tiara. She grasps it, and it's instantly infused with sacred light. Crooking her arm so that her swing would be upwards, she calls out, "Moon Tiara-" She throws it, "-ACTION!" She tries to aim it to scythe through most of the remaining tendrils attached and into the thing as it whirls through the air in upwards as a bright disk, before it would return in its arc.

But she's still falling isn't she? Which is why she spins an item in her palm. Out of the head of the pen, an umbrella pops out. Pink and covered with cute rabbit faces. Her flight arrests abruptly as the air catches it, in fact it feels like she's being jerked upward.

Far far below and across the street, a little girl looking on from a safe distance points at the dark silhouette of an umbrella and a girl attached against the harsh glare of the sun, "Poppins! It's Mary Poppins! Look! She's come to help!" However despite the assertion of the child that Mary Poppins was coming to save them from the Kaiju, Sailor Moon's movements lack the same unflappable dignity of the beloved character.

Instead she's clinging onto her slowly floating umbrella for dear life, before reaching out with an extended hand to catch her tiara, which she places on her brow. "T-That was really close." No small amount of relief evident in her voice.. But now her eyes are upon Lera clashing with the Men in Black in their helicopters, upon the Protodaimon. Unfortunately while she yearns to help her friend... the cries of the Protodaimon's victims just are too loud within her ears.

COMBAT: Sailor Moon has used Moon Tiara Action on Hotaru Tomoe.

COMBAT: Sailor Moon has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to dodge Sailor Moon's Moon Tiara Action, taking 54 Fatigue damage!

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

The helicopter with the Key in it has friends -- it's a small fleet of them up there. And they protect their own; first Lera's attempt to bisect the leader is met by so many bullets that she's forced to fly off course, and then Mami's immense shots are blocked, wholesale, by the bulk of another helicopter. Since this was deliberate, it leaves two immense dents; then, with a creaking sound, the door slides off completely to crash into a house below. This helicopter won't be able to do /that/ twice.

They seem to know it. There are entirely too many magical girls down there, and now that they have the Key, it's time to depart; the mighty machines soar across the sky, all too willing to weave in between the narrowly-clustered skyscrapers of downtown Yamanote if anyone is a particularly persistent chaser.

The protodaimon won't let anyone leave so easily, though. It cares about everyone getting in its way -- and to the monster, any one of these girls is a power source mighty enough to let it grow larger than Tokyo Tower all by herself.

Chitose's bolts are more ingested than wounding, this time around, but they help clear a path for Fuu's escape -- she rends a nice long tear in its side, and though it closes behind her, she manages to free herself completely from the monster's grasp. Lancelot reopens the wound promptly, with his barrage of shocking strikes, and the monster makes haste to get away from the group...

...by trying to climb back up Tokyo Tower. Sailor Moon prevents this from happening; her tiara swishes and slashes, and sends the monster crashing straight back down to the ground. There's an immense explosion as the golden disc passes directly through its bulk on the way back to Usagi's hand, and it leaves a sort of scarring of light across the creature's bulk, as though whatever it just experienced was too large, or too sacred, to simply ingest wholesale.

That will not do.

There's a sense of doom as the protodaimon curls in on itself, becoming an only moderately bulbous sphere, becoming denser, sharper, more deadly.

Then, all at once, it explodes in all directions, sending lancelike tendrils out to try to impale everyone in its path. From sphere to sea urchin, in one terrible moment.

COMBAT: ITEM ESCAPE ATTEMPT! Utena Tenjou is attempting to escape with The Final Key! They must run for 2 more turns!

COMBAT: Utena Tenjou has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Body Horror on Lancelot.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Mass Effect on Sailor Moon.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Mass Effect on Mami Tomoe.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Mass Effect on Fuu Hououji.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Mass Effect on Chitose Shiratori.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Mass Effect on Lera Camry.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Chitose Shiratori fails to brace Hotaru Tomoe's Mass Effect, taking 22 Fatigue damage! Hotaru Tomoe is Psyched!
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe narrowly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Mass Effect, taking 18 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Mami Tomoe's Fade ability activates! Mami Tomoe's Flash ability activates!
COMBAT: Lera Camry narrowly counters Hotaru Tomoe's Mass Effect, taking 14 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Lera Camry's Reverse ability activates! Lera Camry's Tactician ability activates!
COMBAT: Lera Camry's counterattack, Sentinel Flash, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Hotaru Tomoe!
COMBAT: Sailor Moon perfectly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Mass Effect, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Brace!
COMBAT: Lancelot narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Body Horror, taking 2 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Lancelot is Quipped! Lancelot's Block ability activates! Lancelot's Parry ability activates! Bind Break! All of Hotaru Tomoe's debuffs are cleared!
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji perfectly counters Hotaru Tomoe's Mass Effect, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Counter!
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji's counterattack, Spinning Slash, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Hotaru Tomoe!

<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.

The gunfire forces Lera back, throwing her backward, and keeps her from getting closer to the helicopter. She scowls, as she is forced to go around it, sliding into the range of the protodaimon. The lance-like tendrils that it explodes outward fly in, causing Lera to yelp as one threatens to skewer her--

--and instead meets Soaring Sky, who sends a cross-shaped fang of light into its path. <No you don't! Not again...!>

"Hang on, Sky!" Lera yells, as she pulls away from the protodaimon. She looks up -- peering at the helicopter, as it begins to move away, and then at the second -- and then she accelerates after the helicopter with the Key in it. She's flown with Fate, before, weaving between the skyscrapers of Tokyo like an aerial acrobat.

She glances at Mami and yells: "Try to keep up! Call out if you're about to fall! I'm going to go really, /really/ fast!"

<Y'know?> Sky finishes for Lera. She gives him a look.

Then a ring of light explodes out from behind her, and she's off. She doesn't take off right after the helicopter. Instead, she banks hard to the right, a skyscraper between the two of them, and Lera reflects along the polished glass side. <Plasma Darts... locking on. Fire!>

Four little bolts of plasma explode off of Soaring Sky, shooting out in arcs and then zig-zagging. Two whip around the front of the skyscraper; another two shoot from behind it. The first two come whipping towards the side of the helicopter, just as Lera races ahead off; wind whips her hair back, and then the darts close in.

They slash into the side of the 'copter. These aren't missiles -- they're darts. They shoot right through, leaving two holes the size of a person's fist, but little serious structural damage, and then two more holes in the other side, as if they missed the Key and the person holding it.

Another skyscraper whips by the two of them, before Lera banks in closer to it. She eyes the holes that her darts carved into the side.

Then the second set she fired come in. The first screams in front of the helicopter, but doesn't catch the nose -- it just fades into nothing. <Got it!> Soaring Sky chimes. <Get ready!>

The fourth and final dart shoots /through/ the exit point of one of the first darts, swerves, and flies right at the Key -- and tries to knock it through the entrance wound that one of the other darts made. The Key, if knocked free, goes flying out...

...right into an armored, fingerless glove. Lera winks at them.

COMBAT: ITEM GRAB! Lera Camry has used Give That Back! on Utena Tenjou.

COMBAT: Lera Camry has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Utena Tenjou narrowly counters Lera Camry's Give That Back!, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Utena Tenjou's Tactician ability activates!
COMBAT: Utena Tenjou's counterattack, Suppressing Fire, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Lera Camry!
COMBAT: Lera Camry fails to grab an item from Utena Tenjou!

<Pose Tracker> Chitose Shiratori [Infinity Institute (U)] has posed.

Chitose is still mostly watching the helicopters, especially looking at the one that the key fell into. Well, she didn't actually see the ket fall into the helicopter, but the fact that some helicopters are /taking hits/ for one of them narrows down the list of possible locations.

The fact that the monster shifts out of the corner of her eye causes her concern, and she turns just in time to get a lanced tendril piercing through her Barrier Jacket. "Ack!" Thankfully, the Jacket cushions some of the blow, which prevents it and other tendrils from going through /her/, but they do stab her a lot, knocking her both to the side and back down to the ground. "Ow." She growls. "Forget this." She stands back up and focuses on the helicopters. "Let's get back to work."

She takes off running for a few moments before she leaps into the air again, taking flight and zooming straight at the helicopter. She follows behind it for a few moments, attempting to catch up and over take it. She watches as a number of darts punch through the copter's frame, and decides to take advantage of it as she comes closer.

She swerves to the other side, the opposite side of Lera's assault, and she points White Omen directly at one of the holes. She takes a moment to brace herself and consider the angle as a skyscraper passes between them. When they both come out the other side, though, she takes her chance.

<Firing!>

A bolt of light shoots out, aiming for the key directly to dislodge it (or the person carrying it at worse). But the moment the light fades, Chitose swerves downwards and underneath the helicopter. Of course, success at this plan requires her to hit a really small target inside the vehicle, which would render the second half (catching the thing) kind of moot if that doesn't work.

COMBAT: ITEM GRAB! Chitose Shiratori has used Lightly Grabbing on Utena Tenjou.

COMBAT: Chitose Shiratori has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Utena Tenjou narrowly braces Chitose Shiratori's Lightly Grabbing, taking 2 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit!
COMBAT: Chitose Shiratori successfully grabs an item from Utena Tenjou!

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

Okay, thinks the Wind Knight. She's out of the protodaimon's body, which is the good part.

The bad part is that this leaves her in freefall, with a view of the helicopters abruptly turning to flee one moment, and an all-too-perfect vantage point of the protodaimon turning into far too many pseudo-organic spears going in every direction at once.

Fortunately, she still has her sword - and she twists around, putting extra spin into her mid-air tumble and managing to slam her sword into a couple of the hardened, sharpened pseudopods that *would* have impaled her through various parts that might not have been fatal, but would have been decidedly painful in any case. Judicious abuse of kinetic physics also allows the Wind Knight to control her descent enough that she lands on her feet, on a nearby roof. Not the most convenient spot, all things considered ... but there are worse situations to be stuck in.

And where the Wind Knight landed, she can also see the helicopters which Lera and Mami are fighting. She has a view of Lera focusing on a specific helicopter, along with Chitose (whom she doesn't *quite* recognize from the Rainbow Bridge incident) ... and she's keenly aware that whatever is done about the helicopters, she can't afford to cripple or crash any of them.

Which sharply limits her ability to do anything. Best to focus on the protodaimon; the girls trapped inside it won't survive indefinitely.

"WINDS OF ADMONISHMENT!!!" the Wind Knight's voice rings out as she invokes her mainstay binding spell, trying to trap the protodaimon within a conjured tornado. Pin it down and the good guys (well, girls plus Lancelot) should be able to carve away at it some more.

COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Winds of Admonishment on Hotaru Tomoe.

COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to dodge Fuu Hououji's Winds of Admonishment, taking 18 Fatigue damage! Fuu Hououji is Psyched! Cripple and Trap applied to Hotaru Tomoe!

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

Mami may be on her way away, but she can't go far enough fast enough to escape the attacks of something so immense; she's sill easily in range, glancing back behind her as the chill of something coming seizes up in her heart. She sees the creature fold in on itself--

She moves in less than an instant, conjuring another gun and firing sideways to shove herself out of the way, such that the lance might not find her heart. It still hits /hard/, scything straight through her leg with a spray of lood and pain, sending her tumbling in mid-flight once again. By now, she should get on a roll, she should tumble forward, show grace--

But for a moment, she's just a girl hurtling through the sky.

"I'm fine!" she shouts up at Lera, and despite her wounds, it's not a lie. "Some of us have... other means of flying!"

The Devices above--Lera, then suddenly Chitose's--work a gambit that makes Mami reconsider her next move quickly. She still has to close her eyes a moment to center herself, tumbling as she is--but she doesn't swing where she'd meant. She pulls a ribbon from her collar, and it grows in her hand, growing from the width of her fingernail to the width of her arm in an instant, as she whips it towards the wall of a building--and it /anchors/, punching through like nothing less than a bizarrely sharp, extra-fashionable grappling hook.

"Almost--" She hits the wall, but manages to hang on, her momentum keeping her moving... but not hitting the ground.

It's going to take her a moment to reorient, like it or not.

COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has used Catch! on Mami Tomoe.

COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe accepts Mami Tomoe's Catch!, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Mami Tomoe is Reinforced by Mami Tomoe!

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

The exploding proto-daimon is a bit of a surprise, and Lancelot swings Arondight in time to deflect a rather large bit of monster body mass into the ground where it impacts wiht a decisive "SPLUT" into the concrete. He narrows his eyes and then swivelshis head, looking for ...

THERE! The Radical Red Motorcycle, covered in bits of monster ... something, and scratched, (A single tear falls) but she looks good! He sprints over to it, and rights the bike in one move. He looks over his shoulder as turns the engine and revs it in a loud roar and calls over to Sailor Moon, as he removes an emergency pair of sunglasses from the bike's side compartment, "Moon! Get on!" Then he puts the glasses on and rolls his shoulder. "It's Key that we stop them..."

YYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.

Once Sailor Moon gets on, he hands her a matching red helmet that says, "Takeo Akamizu" on the side, nods to her, and guns the engine. Once again the motorcycle squeels it's tires as Lancelot guns the engine, sending up plumes of blue smoke. The bike fish tails from the amount of torque, but as if the man guiding it knows what he's doing, the bike is soon racing through the streets of Tokyo at insanely dangerous speeds. He skids around a corner just in time to see Chitose grab the key through some deft flying, and then, when the Helecopter is fully visible cries out, "LIGHTING!" And sends a bolt to try and drive off the Men in Black.

"Oh man. I am gonna get a letter in my locker about this..." This was all mid skid, and once the skid ends, the engine is throttled once more, "We gotta keep those clowns off Chitose-San! Once the key is safe, we can rescue the kids." he calls over his shoulder as he continues to try and chase down the helicopter and try to give Sailor Moon a chance to do her thing! Then he adds to his last words spoken, "I hope..."

COMBAT: Lancelot has used Lightning III on Utena Tenjou.

COMBAT: Lancelot has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Utena Tenjou fails to counter Lancelot's Lightning III, taking 0 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Utena Tenjou's counterattack, Hold The Line, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Lancelot!

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

Sailor Moon floats gently, the breeze shifting her this way and that. However that doesn't mean that her passage is unhindered. The Proto-Daimon explodes, tendrils lashing out every which way. There's no way she can get out of the way except letting go. Instead she spins her rod in a flourish, as it takes on a sparkling sheen of stardust. When the tendril comes at her, she sweeps her arm out, using the built up glittery momentum to strike it away. It sends a numbing shock up her arm from the strength behind it, but she holds onto her rod, and more importantly, she holds onto it, and the umbrella.

But Lancelot's offer... it sounded incredibly awesome to chase after them on a motorcycle. "But the people..."

Her eyes linger on the Proto-Daimon. But then something in her eyes changes again. "We can do both. We'll get it back /and/ save them all." When faced with an impossible choice, her decision was always to choose the impossible. With a click, the umbrella detaches from the pen and she descends the rest of the way rapidly, pink moon boots touching down rapidly on the back seat. Touching down on the seat standing, she then drops down so that she's sitting behind him, she pops the red motorcycle helmet over her head, reminding her of her time at the crown playing the racing game. "Y-You're a good driver right? I always go too fast and crash into walls in the game..."

Off they go, on a chase after the motorcycle that leaves her twintails floating in the breeze behind, in the open door of the helicopter. A shining glow that's shot by another to fall into another girl's hand. "Oh she got it!" Bending over off the side of the motorcycle as it zooms by, her hand grasps another object.

A metal trash can lid.

"Start turning us around..." Her eyes trailing up to the lead helicopter's spinning tail rotors, "I'm going to discourage them more." It was a one in a million shot. But besides sleeping and eating, there was one other thing she was good at. And that was...

...Frisbee. "Hold it steady! Just a little longer..." Using his shoulder, she pushes herself back to her feet on the seat, and turns around, looking through the helmet visor. Her arm juts back, her hand on the edge of the lid, "Moon Tiara-" It gleams, and she throws it with the aim, skill, and strength granted to her by her guardianship over the moon, "-BOOMERANG!"

Upward it sails, up and up and up, and curves at an angle where it might just hit the tail rotor if she's lucky. While it's no contest, spinning tail rotor against flimsy metal, it would still likely give them a little turbulence... for a while. Sailor Moon, quite maturely, then blows a raspberry at them.

COMBAT: Sailor Moon has used Frisbee Skills: Moon Tiara Boomerang!? on Utena Tenjou.

COMBAT: Sailor Moon has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Utena Tenjou fails to dodge Sailor Moon's Frisbee Skills: Moon Tiara Boomerang!?, taking 17 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Tangle applied to Utena Tenjou!

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

Most of the group moves off to pursue the fleeing helicopter, and if not for the Magic Knight of Wind, this could have been a major disaster. But Fuu has the protodaimon's number, at least for a few crucial moments. Her whirlwind rises up around it, blocking its egress in every direction. Its fluidity works against it, now, as any limbs it uses to test the wall of air are quickly drawn into the spiral.

Soon the entirety of the monster is swirling in midair...

The helicopters have a rough time. Lera's plan is almost flawless, opening holes here and there in the bulletproof metal; it gets to the final step, and then she's thwarted by ruthlessness. It is incredibly dangerous for the men in black to discharge their weapon inside the cabin in order to knock that final dart aside. They do it anyway.

But they didn't see Chitose's own bolt coming, and soon enough they're shouting to one another over the radio, alarmed and in hot pursuit.

Lancelot and Sailor Moon work together to buy her a little bit of a lead in the inevitable chase to come -- right when one of the choppers was bearing down on her, the Knight of the Round Table's lightning blasted it back. And the other one won't be making any fast maneuvers with a dented tail rotor.

They're too far from the crossbow-wielding Midchildan to make a play for the Key, but they have something of an 'over her dead body? very well then' philosophy about such things, and a hail of bullets soar her way.

The protodaimon, meanwhile, reaches the top of the whirlwind. What a novel way to ascend Tokyo Tower! But it's spinning wildly out of control, and even as it's ejected from the spout, it finds itself stretching, pulled in all directions.

Something snaps within, and suddenly it's five smaller protodaimons, each with still awful but perhaps slightly less offsetting eyes, claws, mouths and other various limbs. They're all about the size of a school bus, but that's way more reasonable than they were collectively.

Not that 'reasonable' is the first thing that comes to mind, as each of them soar across the neighborhood, homing in on those tasty, delicious power sources -- the hearts of the magical girls. When they come, they come at blinding speed, fang-first.

COMBAT: Utena Tenjou has used Tanks For The Memories on Chitose Shiratori.

COMBAT: Utena Tenjou has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Heart-Hungry on Fuu Hououji.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Heart-Hungry on Lera Camry.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used A Hearty Meal on Lancelot.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Heart-Hungry on Sailor Moon.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Heart-Hungry on Mami Tomoe.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Hunger on Hotaru Tomoe.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe accepts Hotaru Tomoe's Hunger, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Hotaru Tomoe is Reinforced by Hotaru Tomoe!
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji narrowly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Heart-Hungry, taking 24 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Fuu Hououji's Fade ability activates! Fuu Hououji's Flash ability activates!
COMBAT: Sailor Moon fails to dodge Hotaru Tomoe's Heart-Hungry, taking 37 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit!
COMBAT: Chitose Shiratori narrowly braces Utena Tenjou's Tanks For The Memories, taking 23 Fatigue damage! Chitose Shiratori's Parry ability activates!
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe perfectly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Heart-Hungry, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge! Mami Tomoe's Fade ability activates! Mami Tomoe's Flash ability activates!
COMBAT: Lera Camry narrowly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Heart-Hungry, taking 10 Fatigue damage! Lera Camry's Fade ability activates! Lera Camry's Flash ability activates!
COMBAT: Lancelot narrowly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's A Hearty Meal, taking 25 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Lancelot is Quipped!

<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.

Lera didn't recover the Key, but Chitose did -- and she didn't get the memo about Chitose's recent actions. Her eyes widen, as they open fire, pouring automatic weapons fire in her direction. She shouts, but it's a wordless warning.

And then, there is a suddenly smaller protodaimon soaring towards her -- rushing straight for her heart, though she doesn't know it. Lera whirls to face them, eyes widening and looking utterly confused for a moment tat the presence of a flying protodaimon. Awareness kicks back in; she thinks to quickly shoot to the side, the thing flying over her shoulder -- and likely into a building.

"It split!?" Lera yells, worried, before she darts down for the protodaimon. She swings her sword backward; light gathers around it, and then she swings, hard, at the side of the protodaimon. When she does, an enormous flashbang erupts, bright light threatening to sear into it.

COMBAT: Lera Camry has used Aura Surge on Hotaru Tomoe.

COMBAT: Lera Camry has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces Lera Camry's Aura Surge, taking 10 Fatigue damage! Hotaru Tomoe's Block ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Parry ability activates! Diversion applied to Hotaru Tomoe!

<Pose Tracker> Chitose Shiratori [Infinity Institute (U)] has posed.

Chitose snatches the key out of the air. Before she does anything else, though, she uses her thumb and last three fingers to keep the key in check, while she uses the index finger to fit underneath her glasses and pull an eyelid down, followed by sticking out her tounge. Only the tip, yes, but it's there.

Her next trick is to dive again, this time sailing close to ground level as she tries to dodge around the skyscrapers' ground floors. She watched a little blond girl pull this off once. Surely she could do the same?

She takes a moment to look at her Device. "Hey, do you think we should tell the others we have one this time?"

<Sign.>

"Woah!" Chitose swerves and narrowly avoids a street sign.

"I'm not sure, I kind of don't want rogue elements entering our plan."

<Car.>

She swerves to avoid a nearby Toyota. "And what if they get all seven somehow? I don't really know what will happen there." She zones out as she considers her intel on the entire thing. "They'd have to get through some really mean peo--"

Swerve! "Okay, fine, I'll pull up a little bit!" And she gains about twenty feet of altitude as she attempts to get out of dodge. But not before the choppers decide to let loose a string of bullets at her. She turns and holds her free arm in front of her to protect vital organs, and covers White Omen with it briefly in order to protect him from any oncoming fire. But while she manages to avoid taking any major hits, bullets pepper her jacket in a /lot/ of places, up, down and everywhere.

But that's all she's gonna do as she tries to escape from the choppers and everyone else in the field, despite her wounds.

COMBAT: ITEM ESCAPE ATTEMPT! Chitose Shiratori is attempting to escape with The Final Key! They must run for 2 more turns!

COMBAT: Chitose Shiratori has finished attacking.

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

While it was rewarding to see the protodaimon sucked up into the tornado she conjured, the Wind Knight *wasn't* expecting the monster to be launched so high nor with such force that it got split into five smaller monsters. And one of them is headed straight for her ... actually, she thinks, one for each of them, which is disconcerting in its own right.

At least she's able to dodge effectively enough to avoid getting her heart bored through (although she *does* have enough armor on her chest to help reduce that risk). She still gets flattened pretty hard, and knocked off the edge of the roof she had been on up to that point, with nothing below but an unpleasantly long drop to the street.

That's really not good.

A hastily conjured updraft lets her divert her fall to a lower roof, but it's still a bad landing; the Wind Knight rolls to a halt, chest heaving, the world spinning around her. She *still* starts pushing herself back to her feet, trying to get her bearings - is that somebody fleeing which she hears ... ?

Once she can catch her breath, she can look.

COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Skip A Turn on Fuu Hououji.

COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji accepts Fuu Hououji's Skip A Turn, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit!

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

It's just enough time to catch her breath, just enough time to center herself. But Mami doesn't get /more/ than that. She looks up to see the whirlwind and the protodaimon emerging from it, out of control--and just doesn't have enough optimism in her to believe that the way it snaps means it's actually defeated. The bus-sized enemy crashing towards her could crush her without adoub.

So Mami doesn't even /try/ to block it or shoot it down; she just jumps out of the way, leaping into the air again with the golden power afforded her by her Contract, sparkling that much more fiercely with exactly the kind of deliciousness her foe might want.

Chitose flying away--that catches her attention. But--

"Let's see if you're as impervious /now/," she says to the protodaimon before her, unwilling to take her attention off it for any longer than that fraction of a moment. She conjures up another set of rifles, this time three at once. If she takes her eyes off /this/... She might not be alive to worry about any Keys.

So with an elegant flick of her wrist, she lets her magic pull all three triggers at once, a tripod of rifles loudly reporting with a flash of golden light, straight for the bus-sized monster now flowing below her.

COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has used Triangle Sniper on Hotaru Tomoe.

COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to dodge Mami Tomoe's Triangle Sniper, taking 42 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Mami Tomoe is Psyched!

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

<SoundTracker> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xd-Y-PFecuw

The monster is back, and Lancelot knows what he has to do. There is a sigh, and he says softly, "Good by old girl. I love you." Then he looks over his shoulder to Sailor Moon, "Moon! Get ready! I'm going to try to give you an opening, and then you kick this Proto-Daimon's Teeth in! Jump when I say!" He skids the bike sideways to a stop. Pops his neck.

"You asked if I was a good driver?" He grins and then sniffs. "I'm the best motorcycle driver in Tokyo baby." Then he guns the engine once more.

The Totally Awesome and Radical Red Motorcycle squeels its tires once mroe as Lancelot applies ridiculous amount of throttle, throwing the engine WELL into the redzone on the RPMS. The Knight grins like a maniac as the bike barrels down the street toward the Proto-diamon. He calls out "JUMP!" Then he stabs Arondight into the Gas Can and cries "BLADEFURY!" Sending lighting arcing and playing through the blade and into the gas.

Lancelot leaps off the bike at hopefully the same time as Sailor Moon and hit sthe ground rolling and bouncing.

Eventually he slams into the side of a building, jsut in time to lookup and see the Motorcycle sailing toward the monster-

Memories flood Lancelot. Of a young boy, barely a teen knowing what he wants to do. Of doing odd jobs. Eating nearly nothing. Not buying the latest games. Saving every penny he could get his hands on. Of getting his license and his endorsement. Of walking across Tokyo becuase he had JUST enough money one summer day to buy it.

Of the first ride. Racing carefully through the streets. Of the many other rides, along the coast with his sister Mika laughing joyfully. Taking Mai for a ride home from work one night ...

- where it explodes in a fireball. "I'll miss you..."

COMBAT: Lancelot has used Bladefury on Hotaru Tomoe.

COMBAT: Lancelot has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces Lancelot's Bladefury, taking 11 Fatigue damage! Lancelot is Psyched! Hotaru Tomoe's Block ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Parry ability activates!

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

<SoundTracker> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLoQzEF9SKg

There's that moment of satisfaction when it strikes, but they're on a return path back to the Tower. "Baby?" Suddenly Sailor Moon's cheeks take on a red hue when she's called that. "W-Well you're a lot better than some other guy I know at least." Who /may/ ride around town in a purple pleated pants suit and green jacket sometimes on the back of the motorcycle like he'd never once heard of color coordination.

Sailor Moon looks up, "How did it get up there so quickly!?" She doesn't notice the quickly fading whirlwind. However she does see it dividing, a horrible mitosis that creates five smaller ones.

Smaller in the sense of being a school bus size. "Guh! It's coming right at us!" He tells her to jump, and she tries...

...but she underestimated its hellish speed. She didn't even have time for that. In a blur of fangs, it strikes her in the center of her chest, catches her in mid-air and carries her forward. It's fangs sinking into the edges of her brooch.

A small crack forms on the edgeas it tries to break through to the Ginzuishou inside... a strangled noise rising in her throat as she screams in miserable agony, like it had struck her actual heart. And then the motorcycle impacts, it's gas tank exploding from Lancelot's strike. It's that explosion that saves her, the bulk of the Protodaimon shielding her from that, jarring it away before it can reach the powerful essence of the Silver Crystal. She hits the ground in an uncontrolled rolling momentum that only eventually arrests.

Sweat beads on her forehead, tears stream down her cheeks, the bare parts of her body covered in road rash. "I-It hurts... it..." She didn't want to move, she just wanted to stay still. She wanted to curl up in the fetal position and cry. Her eyes fall upon its suffering mass, upon what looks like a face, crying out in agony, crying for help, crying for succor perhaps silently by now, but perhaps not. "...i-it hurts... doesn't it?"

Pushing up with an arm, she holds out her other trembling, bruised and abraised one, rod pointed straight out, or at least as straight as she could manage, it's ornament chiming as it's lit by the silvery light "M-Moon... Prin-guck-Princess- HALATION!"

From it, a flood of pink, glittering spirals. Stars and crescent moons, creating a nebula of silver and pink. Much of it is focused on the Proto-Daimon in front of her, but then she sweeps it in a wide arc to try to catch any others in view within it as well.

Sometimes all of the above isn't as an impossible choice as it seems. But it's never easy. And it always. Always, hurts.

COMBAT: FINISHER! Sailor Moon has used Moon Princess Halation on Hotaru Tomoe.

COMBAT: Sailor Moon has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe counters Sailor Moon's Moon Princess Halation with The End Of All Loveliness, initiating a BEAMWAR! Please see +help beamwar for further information.
BEAMWAR! Hotaru Tomoe and Sailor Moon's attacks collide. Sailor Moon has the advantage!
BEAMWAR! Now accepting mana bids for the first of three rounds! Now accepting new BEAMWAR entrants in this round only!

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

Lera, Fuu, Mami and Takeo all manage to fend off their protodaimons, one way or another, from a slash and a flashbang to a murderous bullet signed in triplicate to a motorcycle set to the 'explode' setting. But though the beasts fail to find the hearts they seek, they live yet, plunging past their quarry with all the terrible speed and strength that pulses yet within them.

The strength of a single soul.

But Usagi -- Sailor Moon -- at her most wounded, so terribly vulnerable, opens her heart fully in an act of outright desperation.

Whether or not her protodaimon would have been instantly vaporized is a meaningless question, because it's less than a heartbeat before, in blurs of black, of violet, of glow-leaking crimson eyes, five once again become one. The monster looms over the Moon Princess, massive, mighty -- howling.

Screaming, an act of pure sonic hell that might be called irony if this moment wasn't so absolutely, deadly serious. There are six voices intermingled there, warping the air with sheer agony -- the five tortured souls within the protodaimon, and the sixth, strengthening in power even as the others weaken with its feeding, an alien malevolence that has no roots in Earthly mores, no hint of heartful emotion. There is nothing there but the hunger.

The sonic blast meets the silver-pink nebula midway in between them, and at the point of contact, explodes into crimson, hateful light.

Down the street, the most whole of the surviving helicopters, covered by its quivering allies, dives at a terrible angle towards the fleeing Chitose, sending its shockingly electrified nets at her as quickly as its launchers allow. Clawlike extrusions, run on something not too unlike a D-pad by the co-pilot, await to reclaim the Key.

COMBAT: ITEM GRAB! Utena Tenjou has used A Shocking Twist on Chitose Shiratori.

COMBAT: Utena Tenjou has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Chitose Shiratori perfectly dodges Utena Tenjou's A Shocking Twist, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge! Chitose Shiratori's Fade ability activates! Chitose Shiratori's Flash ability activates!

<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.

Lera takes a few deep breaths, as she sees the protdaimon sent off. She watches it, for a moment -- and then she looks back at Sailor Moon. She has been in situations like this, before. She can remember it, clearly, at the North Pole, when things looked at their most dire. She watches the attack fly forward -- and then meet the six intermingled voices of the protodaimons. Her eyes widen at that.

<Lera...>

"Yeah," she agrees. "We need to help her. Hang on, Sailor Moon!"

She lifts her sword, aiming it. The blade splits in half, lengthwise, and bolts of red and gold lightning leap between the two halves, and begin to glow. A trio of control rings swirl off the top of the blade.

A bolt of light erupts from the sword -- firing and joining the Moon Healing Halation, after it shoots through the trio of spinning control rings. It glows brightly, as it joins to Sailor Moon's attack.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!"

BEAMWAR! Lera Camry adds her Aurora Burst Ray to Sailor Moon's BEAMWAR!

<Pose Tracker> Chitose Shiratori [Infinity Institute (U)] has posed.

Chitose continues to fly the hell away from all this mess. Now, though, she starts to fly up and down as well to vary her flight path a little bit, as she continues to also zip and zag through the buildings.

What she doesn't expect, though, is the sudden appearance of the helicopters again. Her eyes widen as they zoom down at her. "I thought we left them behind!"

When they ready their nets, she whips White Omen to point directly at it, but his voice stops her. <No! Left!> Chitose complies without hesitating, banking to the left very quickly as a net swishes past her. <Right!> She banks to the right to avoid another one. <Down!> She dives to avoid a net catching her upper body.

At this point, she just attempts to continue escaping. She might have another chance at these guys later, or at least another chance at people they call associates.

Her face gets a little grim as she considers what might happen later.

COMBAT: ITEM ESCAPE ATTEMPT! Chitose Shiratori is attempting to escape with The Final Key! They must run for 1 more turn!

COMBAT: Chitose Shiratori has finished attacking.

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

By the time the Wind Knight is able to focus again, the situation has evolved fairly aggressively. On the one hand, the girl whom she only sort of recognizes seems to be on the run, with an urgency which suggests she's the one who has the Key.

That doesn't sit terribly well with the Magic Knight of Wind, but as before, there's not a whole lot she can do - and she's distinctly worried about the fact that the re-combined protodaimon is now going all-out against Sailor Moon, and now Lera as well. Under most circumstances, the Wind Knight would probably throw in to support them - she's done so before, but this fight has already taken a lot out of her, and she has a sinking suspicion that she'd be the weak link in the chain.

"SAILOR MOON-SAN!!" the Magic Knight of Wind calls out, as close to 'at the top of her lungs' as she can muster. "You can do what lies beyond me ... you can defeat that monster and save the girls trapped inside it! It's shrugged off my attacks so far, but yours can wipe it out without hurting its captives!"

As she shouts, the Wind Knight gathers up what mana she can spare, holding her left hand out towards Sailor Moon (and Lera) and trying to project that energy to the lunar princess - a feeble offering, perhaps, but she's at a loss for other ways to help. She'll just have to trust that the girl escaping with the Key is a better option than if, say, the men in the helicopters made off with it.

COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used May My Will Be Your Strength on Sailor Moon.

COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Sailor Moon accepts Fuu Hououji's May My Will Be Your Strength, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Sailor Moon is Reinforced by Fuu Hououji!

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

It's a bizarre power, a strange, unsettling thing before her--Mami is wary, focused, expecting some awful continued attack by the protodaimon facing her down. Instead, it flashes away from her, blurs and bleeds away. Away towards--

A girl she's fought with, and in front of, before. ...The same girl she said she had to protect from things that aren't these awful forces. A cheerful friend. A friend who is facing down a scream that makes even Mami step back. She couldn't say what part of it disturbs her most. But there it is, and ther' the point of impact. Lera moves to help her. Others are alreay moving that way.

Something else is in Mami's heart, something she knows before she finishes deciding it. With the foe no longer in her face, she can't help bu turn, looking far out towards where the helicopters swoop down. A girl who she already determined was a danger, escaping with something important. She has a choice.

"...Sorry, Tsukino-san. Camry-san." Her voice is quiet, but not soft.

Mami turns, and the gun in her hand is suddenly gone; it's replaced with a whirling ribbon, one which coalesces into a gigantic cannon the height of a delivery truck, gleaming and shining, on a great stand on the ground.

"...Tiro Finale."

The barrel erupts in light.

COMBAT: FINISHER! Mami Tomoe has used Tiro Finale on Chitose Shiratori.

COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Lancelot tries to cover Chitose Shiratori for Mami Tomoe's attack, Tiro Finale, but cannot get there in time!
COMBAT: Lancelot covers Chitose Shiratori for Mami Tomoe's attack, Tiro Finale, taking it upon themselves instead!
COMBAT: Lancelot fails to brace Mami Tomoe's Finisher, Tiro Finale, taking 207 Fatigue damage! Lancelot is unable to keep fighting!

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

Pushing himself to his feet, Lancelot looks between Sailor Moon and the Monster. He nods to her, knowing she has this thing at least occupied, especially since he's seen her destroy some pretty nasty monsters... And here she was giving it everything she had. He rolls his shoulder and then turns toward the Helicopter. He wasn't on that Level, and Chitose had to escape with the key.

He sprints and comes around a corner, where he leaps to a balcony, and then to a rooftop in three easy bounds. He lands on a rooftop and holds Arondight toward the lead helicopter, which is when he spies Mami leveling a barrel at Chitose. Chitose who has agreed to help him, HAS helped him, and managed to give Mika even more time.

Before he knows it, he leaps in front of the barrels just as they fire, and Lancelot cries out: "CHITOSE RUN!"

Lancelot stands there, a burning hole in his chest. The armor glowing red aroun the magical blast that he barely managed to absorb. He falls to his knees and looks at Mami. "D-Damn it Sempai. You... Help. Moon. Help..." He coughs and falls to his hands on his knees. "Help Lera. Save the kids. That's what's important right?" The armor glows blue and then fades on motes of magical lightning.

Takeo looks up at Mami, barely conscious and bleeding badly. "Or are you ... You just a Witch ... Like ... Like you supposedly defend them from?" He falls to his face, gasping for breath. "M-Make. Make your choice Sempai. Sa-Save the innocent, or get your little magical toy?" He rolls on his back and puts one hand to the bleeding wound.

Man. If he lived? Mai was gonna kill him.

BEAMWAR! Hotaru Tomoe has placed her bid!

BEAMWAR! Hotaru Tomoe rallies, tenaciously forcing back Sailor Moon and Lera Camry! Hotaru Tomoe has the advantage!
BEAMWAR! Sailor Moon and Lera Camry each take 9 damage! Hotaru Tomoe takes 4 Fatigue damage!
BEAMWAR! Now accepting mana bids for the second of three rounds! No longer accepting any more BEAMWAR entrants!

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

<SoundTracker> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej6qAJK3lac

Five become one again. Horrific shadowy blurs leaping onto her target, before it becomes one giant mass of teeming darkness. It looms over her, sending out a hateful sonic hell that causes her to flinch at it's scream. An alien malevolence clashes with her silver-pink, each rejecting each other in the central where it spreads out in a constant stream.

Sailor Moon doesn't want to look. She absolutely doesn't. But she does. Her eyes open, streaming tears in the light of the bright glare glashing with the malicious one that spells her doom. Each sparkling individually as they flow off her face and strike the pavement. She never feels weaker than when she feels alone.

And tonight, Ami, Rei, Mako, and Minako... none of them are here with her. They're alive, and somewhere else, and that gives her comfort in a way D-Point did not.

But that doesn't mean she's truly alone either. Just like there, others are with her. But unlike there, they're truly with her. She can see them, she can feel their presence, she knows they're behind her in their own ways, supporting her. It's evident when Lera joins, with her shot of bright auroral light gathering from the center. From a Magic Knight of Wind shouting that she can do it, and sending her a surge of strength. It makes her feel a bit stronger. Less alone against the titanic monster.

And that gives her the strength to slowly, gradually bring herself onto her feet, while still controlling the torrent of might, the nebula of pink and silver flowing from the end of it. Her knees may shake and shudder, enough that everyone may feel like she might collapse at any moment, but the look in her eyes is undeniable. She intends to fulfill her promise, "I w-will... s-save..."

She hears it. Tiro- And for a short moment her heart soars at the thought that Mami Tomoe would be backing her up too, -Finale! ...but she doesn't see the shell. She hears the explosion, but can see it hasn't joined her efforts. And her mind instantly assumes that she must be busy. Maybe part of the Proto-Daimon... hadn't come back. Maybe the men in the helicopters had dropped some giant threat which had to be dealt with immediately.

Some part of her, a part of her that was becoming less enamored with Mami Tomoe's way of doing things... said otherwise, but she wills it away, still thinking the best of her. Still hoping... for the best. She can't afford to turn her head to look right now. She can't.

But she does.

The look of complete horror is evident as something in them changes, as she sees a burning hole in the chest of someone she'd fought alongside with. Placed there by someone who she thought she knew, thought she trusted. Her tears reflecting in the light of her blast. "Takeo... kun..." He falls to the ground, Sailor Moon's power feels like it's diminishing, inadequate against the hateful outpour of alien malevolence, "M-Mami...chan... you- d-didn't..."

She wants to shriek, she wants to scream. As everything seems to come crashing down from people who are making these sort of decisions when the monster is right in front of her. It happens so suddenly. Her Fuku bursting in a stream of red ribbons that flap in the wake of her power with a life all of their own.

BGM Change: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpu3p3KTY7Q

It becomes a presentment of the heir of the Silver Millenium. An elegant gown with a train of shimmering silver, a magnificent bow at the small of her back. Her tiara vanishes into a crescent moon on forehead, the symbol of her birthright. "No matter- what happens... I will-" The cracked brooch in the center of her chest opens, to become a blooming flower of shimmering crystal that floats above her, "-I /will/ protect everyone!" Her battle cry, her denial. Her belief, her resolution that she can set things right.

And then the force of her spell is renewed in kind a sudden outpouring of light which now seems more radiant silver than pink...

COMBAT: Sailor Moon transforms into Princess Serenity!

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

The men in black are all but out of time, and they know it. Chitose is too small and too nimble to chase through Tokyo, and they, in their helicopters, are too noticeable. Already they're unrolling banners out the backs and bottoms of their craft -- advertisements for reality television shows -- so that the public will think this is some kind of publicity stunt.

Magical girls have recognition inhibition.

This guys do their own PR.

They dare not shoot bullets any more, not this low; they dare not fire those harpoons, either. Their only nonlethal option is one they've already attempted, but so be it, they'll try it again -- another round of those nets. A few bystanders might get tazed, but they operate on remote -- nets that miss Chitose can be swiftly turned off, while any which catch her can be swiftly turned UP.

The protodaimon, meanwhile, howls all the more loudly as it senses weakness -- both in the obvious sense of its sonic beam advancing on Sailor Moon and Lera Camry, churning concrete in its wake as it inches closer and closer to the two girls -- and in the more nuanced sense of its awareness of the hearts starting to break across the field. It doesn't have the capacity to understand... but victory, satiation, is all it cares about.

It looms larger than ever as it bears down with all its hatred and hunger, trying to seize its advantage and end this battle for good.

Within its towering bulk, the five victims glow ever more faintly, as their life-forces drain into powering the attack...

COMBAT: ITEM GRAB! Utena Tenjou has used A Shocking Twist on Chitose Shiratori.

COMBAT: Utena Tenjou has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.

Lera hears the cry of 'Tiro Finale!' and, much like Sailor Moon, she expects the shot to join them. She still has some faith in Mami, even if that's been shaken. When the shot doesn't join their efforts, though, she starts to realize what happened. Her eyes begin to widen; she snaps her head to the side, where she sees a bloodied Lancelot.

He encouraged her, earlier, she thinks dimly. Amber eyes widen, slowly, and she shakes her head. "Mami, you... you--" Her voice catches in her throat. Before she manages to say more, she sees the burst of red ribbons, and the silver light. Her head turns, to behold Princess Serenity once more.

The helicopter is a bit of a distant thought, now. She has to focus on the protodaimon, howling loudly, and the concrete cracking and breaking apart under its wrath. There are only two beams firing into it -- one gold tinged red, one silver tinged pink. She looks sideways at Princess Serenity.

"We can do this, Sailor Moon!" she calls out. "Y'know? We just--we just have to hang in there!"

A couple of cracks run up Soaring Sky's blade, as she gets pushed backward by the blast. Then, she focuses, redoubling her efforts -- and the Aurora Burst Ray intensifies, burning that much brighter.

<Das ist nicht gut...> Soaring Sky mutters to himself. Lera can only furrow her brow in worry.

BEAMWAR! Lera Camry has placed her bid!

BEAMWAR! Princess Serenity and Lera Camry rally, fiercely pushing back Hotaru Tomoe! Princess Serenity and Lera Camry have the advantage!
BEAMWAR! Hotaru Tomoe takes 14 damage! Princess Serenity and Lera Camry each take 3 Fatigue damage!
BEAMWAR! Now accepting mana bids for the third of three rounds! No longer accepting any more BEAMWAR entrants!
COMBAT: Chitose Shiratori narrowly dodges Utena Tenjou's A Shocking Twist, taking 5 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Chitose Shiratori's Fade ability activates! Chitose Shiratori's Flash ability activates!
COMBAT: Utena Tenjou successfully grabs an item from Chitose Shiratori!

<Pose Tracker> Chitose Shiratori [Infinity Institute (U)] has posed.

Chitose kind of continues zooming along, and continues zooming along to try and avoid the various things that's coming at her. She's almost free, though, right?

Of course, Mami says words that she's heard before... if only because she /was/ the one the Tiro Finale was aimed at last time Chitose heard it. So when it happens, Chitose freezes up slightly, and if he could sweat, so would White Omen. Chitose looks back behind her, and sees the large gun ready up. She looks back in front of her to try and see if she can get behind something quick enough--

Then it fires.

But the shots never come for her.

Chitose looks back behind her... only to see something she'd never expect. Someone took the hit for her. Chitose stops at this moment, landing on the ground and skidding to a stop, as she witnesses just what happened. Was that... was that Lancelot?

He collapses, and Chitose gasps, covering her mouth with one hand. The pit of her stomach drops, and Chitose briefly considers running back to help him.

But she did hear him shout to her though, shout to her to run. So she turns...

Before she can take off, though, the nets come back and envelop her, electricity running through her jacket and her body, and her hand opens up, and the key falls from her hand.

Well, not quite. The graspers the helicopters also have swoop down and grab it, pulling it back up to the Men in Black.

Chitose, still jolting from the nets, pulls up White Omen and points him directly at the helicopter.

<Nightingale's Lament!>

A large, black beam fires from the crossbow-muzzle at the helicopter, but before the beam reaches it, it splits into many different parts, which all zoom for the helicopter. It's like her earlier Starling Shot, but instead of splitting into bolts, it's more like javelins now.

COMBAT: FINISHER! Chitose Shiratori has used Nightingale's Lament on Utena Tenjou.

COMBAT: Chitose Shiratori has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Utena Tenjou fails to brace Chitose Shiratori's Finisher, Nightingale's Lament, taking 48 Fatigue damage! Utena Tenjou is unable to keep fighting!
COMBAT: ITEM TRANSFER! Utena Tenjou has transferred The Final Key to Chitose Shiratori!

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

There's only so much the Magic Knight of Wind can do, even as she realizes how much she's needed in more than one place. Most tellingly, she just saw Lancelot-san shot - taking an attack for that other girl, apparently - but the attack came from one of Mami-san's gigantic finishing-attack cannon-size guns. A second look confirms that he's still in something bearing a general resemblance to a single piece.

"Lera-san!!" the Wind Knight calls out, desperation now audible in her voice. "Please ... do everything you can to help Sailor Moon-san! This rests on the two of you now; I wish I could do more!" The stream of mana which had been directed to Sailor Moon shifts just enough to relay more power to Lera, and the Wind Knight doesn't hold much back. There's one thing she needs to keep *some* mana for, though.

And she can only pray that she'll get to Lancelot-san in time.

COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used May My Will Be Your Strength on Lera Camry.

COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Lera Camry accepts Fuu Hououji's May My Will Be Your Strength, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Lera Camry is Reinforced by Fuu Hououji!

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

The golden Puella Magi's focus is set. This time, Mami doesn't look away or pick up a cup of tea, jauntily a she assumes the outcome of her attack; she watches, intently, staring forward with golden eyes. So it is that she's watching, when her plan goes awry. Watching, but...

She's already fired, when Lancelot leaps in front of her weapon. She's still in motion when she sees him, and her eyes widen. "What--"

He tells Chitose to run, and Mami finds herself looking at the recipient of her attack instead, down o his knees. "Lancelot! WHY--" The shock is obvious in her voice, as the gun itself disappears, collapsing into a hundred sparkling points of magic that themselves fade all too quickly. "But, why--" He's already explaining, though. Explaining... as Takeo, not Lancelot.

She kneels down, "Akimizu-san, you don't.." The boy who calls her senpai, even though he's actually older than she is. She remembers it, even if it's been a long time since that started. Another one looking up to her. She wants to argue, but the rest of the words begin to die on her lips. Just a Witch. Just the same thing she's defended everyone from for so long. That's what he said.

...They won't understand. No one will. They won't see what she's doing. She'd prepared for that, hadn't she? And yet...

She stares, mouth open but no words passing her lips for those moments, as the roar of magic clashing far behind her eats up the air, seems to draw any joy left towards itself to be annihilated. Slowly, she lifts her head towards that point, Sailor Moon's horror washing over her as she instead finds herself looking upon the silvery glow of Princess Serenity. The same glow that she never seems to be able to match. She feels dull, looking at her.

Mami stands, raises her voice, "Sailor Moon. ...No, Princess. I think... You really do believe that you will."

There is a glow of gold, there, first about Mami, and then close to Serenity herself. The feeling of her magic is not, though, the brilliance that she usually shows.

Mami looks dully towards the battle, dirty with debris. Even the shine of her perfect hat-pin is somehow tarnished, guttering.

She meant what she said. But still, she turns, and begins to walk away.

COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has used What's Important on Princess Serenity.

COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Princess Serenity accepts Mami Tomoe's What's Important, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Princess Serenity is Reinforced by Mami Tomoe!
BEAMWAR! Princess Serenity has placed her bid!
BEAMWAR! Hotaru Tomoe rallies, her The End Of All Loveliness exploding through Princess Serenity and Lera Camry's Moon Princess Halation and Aurora Burst Ray for a total of 760 Fatigue damage! Hotaru Tomoe is victorious!
BEAMWAR! Princess Serenity and Lera Camry are unable to keep fighting!

<Pose Tracker> Princess Serenity [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.

What can someone do with grief?

Quite a lot actually, if you look into unwritten history. To the fall of the Silver Millenium, to its queen. There she had to deal with the death of her daughter, her friends, her court, and all of her subjects on many worlds, and she still wrought the grandest of miracles no matter how imperfect.

Now her heir has to face grief over the possibility of six instead of billions. One life of someone she's fought alongside suffering in agony upon the pavement from a friend's actions. Five more dwindling presences within the Proto-Daimon, their hostes giving fuel to its malevolence.

She's not looking for a miracle here. She's just looking to protect what's left of them before she had need of one.

And that, is what she does with her grief, and her compassion for their lives. Resolute that she'd save them before they needed one, or give them one small miracle if the worst came to pass.

Lera's spell joined with hers, the support of the Magic Knight of Wind to both of them, which makes it more real, more tangible, that they'd achieve it without a miracle. "I'll hang in there, for as long as it takes!"

The dull resignation. The sheer sadness within it prickles her ears, even as a feeling of gold warmth passes over her, granting her renewed strength. "Don't go." She whispers, but that's not something she can actualize. She closes her eyes squeezing out more tears, "Please don't go." Even as tired, as worn, as weary as she sounds, she still wants to make things right, even for those who have done wrong, in every single way.

Strong faith, firm resolution, and deep love.

They can take many forms. Perhaps here- she doesn't have enough of these elements. The Silver Crystal isn't shining as brilliantly as it has before. Still she tries, her eyes opening anew as a brilliant outpouring of light that causes her twintails, and the train of her skirt to billow in the wake of that power. Shining forth against the hateful light of the Protodaimon.

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

Sometimes, you give everything you can and it's just not enough.

The twisted monstrosity looming over Lera and Serenity is just so much /bigger/ than them, so much more; it's six souls against two, and numbers, as magical girls are apt to prove over and over again in the opposite way, do actually matter, sometimes.

But then -- was this really everything they had to give? How different would things have gone if it had been three, or four, or five on the other side? The way that things went wrong here might have nothing to do with the protodaimon at all.

It is easy to imagine that this might not so much be a victory of darkness, as a failure of light.

But the result is the same: the sonic wave slams forward, extinguishing the silver and white lights at their points of origin, and then slams /through/ -- lifting the princess and the mage bodily off the ground, sending them tumbling violently down the street, until they're crushed into a concrete wall, leaving Serenity and Lera-shaped dents in it.

There is a single ray of hope, though, however slender and tragic: the lights within the Protodaimon, its five engines, are guttering out. Already the monster is beginning to lose coherence to its form -- it's becoming chaotic, and subtly translucent. Just a little bit; it's still huge, and it's still dark, and it's still hungry.

But it suggests that it took everything the monster had to defeat the two that dared stand against it... and that a stiff breeze might knock it over, now.

Down the street, Chitose's wide-area blast detonates the helicopters chasing her, and sends the Key tumbling back down into her grasp mere seconds after it was lost. There's some panic, there, debris raining down on the streets. No corpses, yet -- it remains to be seen how resourceful the Men In Black are when it comes to survival and extraction.

Or perhaps the absence of corpses emerging from the fireball is answer enough. How were they saved?

COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.

The sonic wave rips through their two beams. It wasn't enough, Lera realizes with growing horror. She stands her ground to the end, the way that Sailor Moon told her that she would, desperately pouring every last ounce of energy into the spell. It isn't enough, and then the dark-powered energy splits the beam in twain and shatters the control rings. Soaring Sky snaps together.

Then the force of the blow tears the gold-and-silver sword from her grasp. It spins, the gem in the hilt flickering, as two great cracks run up the length of the blade. "SKY!" Lera screams in a panic, as the force blast picks her up bodily and throws her back. "Princess Seren--"

Her voice is lost after that. She gets thrown down the street -- and every last ounce of her mana, even buoyed by Fuu, was spent on that attack. Her Barrier Jacket winks out of existence; in its place is the sky blue uniform of an Infinity Institute high schooler.

She smashes into the concrete wall with no ceremony, only a loud and sickening crack. Dust and debris falls down, before she crumples over, leaving a smear of red on the concrete wall behind her. Her side and shoulder have gashes torn in them, where the impact was at its worst.

Her eyes are closed and her breathing shallow. Sky slams down into the ground, clattering there. The gem blinks a few times, before growing dull and silent.

COMBAT: Lera Camry transforms into Lera Camry!

<Pose Tracker> Chitose Shiratori [Infinity Institute (U)] has posed.

Chitose watches the helicopter explode and the key fall, and just as quick as it was lost her right hand sweeps up and grabs it. But she doesn't escape. Not now. She doesn't even give the Men in Black another thought. Instead, she looks to the monster and the chaos that had happened before, where she sees two girls fall, and one other girl walking away. Chitose growls, and as Mami is walking away, she points White Omen directly at the retreating Mami's back. And she holds there for a few moments, considering whether or not to fire back. While Chitose was not fond of advertising it, she has shot people in the back before, and right now, she may have done it again.

Then the voice of her partner, White Omen, cuts through everything. <Chitose, calm down.>

Chitose forces herself to exhale, and nods. "You're right. Let's finish up here and go home." She takes another breath. "I... I want to go to sleep." She points her device directly at the Protodaimon, and despite a greater distance than usual, he fires.

Birds emerge, flying towards the Protodaimon, attempting to rush over to it and explode.

COMBAT: Chitose Shiratori has used Thunder Dove on Hotaru Tomoe.

COMBAT: Chitose Shiratori has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to brace Chitose Shiratori's Thunder Dove, taking 20 Fatigue damage!

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

"No ..."

Maybe she didn't do enough. Maybe she should have done more - maybe have thrown her full power directly against the monster, ignore the risk of becoming the weak link. Maybe her fear was what allowed Sailor Moon - no, Princess Serenity - and Lera to lose.

Those thoughts race through the Wind Knight's head as, rooted to the spot, she sees the protodaimon's assault overwhelm the powers being unleashed by two of her precious allies. She can't see what happens to them except for their bodies being blown off the roof.

"No ... !"

She stands almost perfectly still, gazing in shock and disbelief and blossoming terror; the only movement around her is the autumn breeze around her form. Behind her glasses, her green eyes threaten to tear up - not for her own sake, but for her allies who have fallen - and for those five imprisoned girls, still being drained to fuel the monster's foul life and its thirst to destroy even more. She has no doubt that the monster will kill them to sustain itself; even if the monster 'starves,' she is *certain* that waiting for it to perish will doom those five girls as surely as arrows through their hearts.

The Magic Knight of Wind finally draws in a deep, shuddering breath, forcing her mind and her will to align once more. She's practically the last warrior standing; she *is* the last one still focusing on the protodaimon, unless Mami-san or the other Key-chaser turn their attention to the monster instead of contending with each other for the Key. The Thunder Dove spell - one she recognizes - sparks some more hope ... but the protodaimon withstands it.

"Emerald ... !!"

It hurts like her soul is being cut in two, but she bears through the pain, gathers and focuses her magic, grasps and feeds the gentle breeze around her and nurses it. Her terror, her anger, are given to the wind, and digging as deep as she can, then deeper still, she musters everything she can for a last, desperate attack.

"... CYYYYYCLOOOOOOOOOONE!!!!!"

And then she gives free rein to the tempest, the tumult within her mirrored by the stormwinds she unleashes, the rending gale tearing across the Tokyo sky and into the protodaimon. The Wind Knight gives no thought to her own safety or escape; she knows only that people are still in danger, friends and strangers alike, and that she *cannot* back down again - she can't fail those who depend on her. It's a selfish move, and it's hardly the act of a dutiful daughter who doesn't want to sadden her parents or her big sister ...

But everyone has family, and those who don't have family have friends. And Fuu would risk all that she has, all that she *is*, to spare strangers the pain of losing those they hold dear. Even if it means letting her own family down.

COMBAT: FINISHER! Fuu Hououji has used Emerald Cyclone: Full on Hotaru Tomoe.

COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to brace Fuu Hououji's Finisher, Emerald Cyclone: Full, taking 83 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Hotaru Tomoe is unable to keep fighting!

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

The end comes belatedly, but it does come.

It comes on sparkling wings, Chitose's invocation exploding onto the monster from all sides, further destabilizing its grasp on corporeality.

And it comes with the wind, Fuu's massive, mighty, tearing power come to bear with all the strength of desperation, of someone whose whole heart is dedicated to saving others at her own expense.

It takes a moment to fully understand, to come to terms, with the reality they're left with, after the protodaimon has been turned to smoke and blown away. But it was already visible, those fading lights.

Five girls -- five middle-schoolers -- lay in fetal positions on the ground, where a monster once stood. And though with the passing of Fuu's gorgeous green sparkles, the concrete stitches itself back together, the chunks taken out of walls and floors and Tokyo Tower all mend...

...the girls' chests never rise. Roses fail to bloom in their cheeks. They are very white, and very still.

It seems the cavalry came too late for Yui, Rio, Yuna, Hina and Koharu.

<Pose Tracker> Princess Serenity [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.

<SoundTracker> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIb282-P8gs

So many factors brought about this failure. So many. The odds were stacked against Lera and Sailor Moon... Princess Serenity in such an impossible way. So much so that even the support of the Magic Knight of Wind, and Mami Tomoe's resigned offering could not tip the balance.

It's never easy.

It always hurts.

She'd made her choice, to try for everything, the best outcome for everyone. She was greedy in a way with only someone of her compassion could be, and reached too far.

And these are the consequences. Serenity is violently swept off the ground in a way that she feels like time has slowed down in order for her to experience every moment of physical and emotional agony wrought upon her by this monstrosity. She's carried through the air, her eyes still dully aware, on the Protodaimon. She can sense the five spots of purity within impurity that swiftly dwindle, like dying stars. The fingers of one hand slowly reach out, as if she could touch them. Will them to stop what she already knows is inevitable. A child's logic, like if you raise a fifty yen piece it's bigger than the moon. If her fingertips can just touch those spots, where she sees them.

They grow further and further away with every fraction of a second in time her momentum carrying her further away. The wind and the sparkling wings tear the monster apart, but even as the impurity fades, the purity of life is leaving even faster. They wink out before she can even finish lifting her hand. And that hurts worst of all. Knowing that she failed them. Knowing that her choices had perhaps contributed to their deaths. Knowing they cried out in pain, reaching out, believing someone, anyone would rescue them. In her mind, she was the one they believed in. And she let them down. Failed them in every possible way.

The impact against the concrete wall that had already happened, the bone-crunching, soul-shattering impact is almost merciful in comparison. She's Princess Serenity for only a moment longer as cracks form upon the blooming silver flower as if it were merely made of glass rather than eternity and the stuff of stars, the spidery webs lining the side causing it to break, petals falling off in droves.

Her vision is growing dark despite her eyelids not falling, but she can see the husks where five middle school girls once lived on the ground, the last image she sees before blessed oblivion claims her. She slumps to the ground and sprawls out, eyes still open but insensate, tears that hadn't yet fallen still welling and pouring beneath her.

She's still Sailor Moon, but an unusual thing happens. Her Fuku, her tiara, her rod, they seem to be flickering, guttering out. To red ribbons and back, as if its state were ephemeral. The brooch in the center of her chest is cracked so many ways that it looks like it is nigh useless, it's silver gleam in the center almost agonal in a way, like a fading heartbeat on a monitor, the moments before life gives out.

COMBAT: Princess Serenity transforms into Sailor Moon!

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

The Puella Magi puts one foot in front of the other, all set to walk away. Her magic is dangerously low, she's vaguely aware. She failed her objective, and she can't offer much more to the others. There's no reason not to leave, is there?

Except for the soft request she feels, more than hears, that tugs at her numb heart.

For the way the monster hasn't yet fallen after all.

For Lera's scream. Lera, her friend; someone she was able to rely on, herself.

Ahead of her helicopters exploding; behind, a sight she doesn't want to see. But want to or not, her boot hovers over the ground, and then stops. Mami turns, sees Serenity and Lera crushed against the wall. Even then, though, she is still, and silent. She watches Fuu's magic; she watches Chitose's magic, before that. And she watches Serenity fall. But above even that, she watches something else.

Mami watches Yui, Rio, Yuna, Hina, and Koharu, on the ground. She never learned their names, but she'll remember their faces now, for the rest of her life. Her mouth opens, again, and at first no sound comes out.

She blinks, and her eyes are wet as she stares at them, stares and feels it weighing down on her more than the numbness ever could alone. "I... I-I..."

A failure of the light. Mami doesn't have to wonder in perhaps. She knows. She /knows/.

"I-I'm sorry," she starts, and is pale with the horror of it, shoulders slumping. "I--I didn't mean--I wanted..." She wants to move, but she's rooted to the spot, the tears starting to drop from her eyes. "I was trying... To save many. I-I thought... I thought it was..."

Her voice breaks, and the veteran of thousands of battles with this magic sinks to the ground, unaware of how hard she hits her knees. "It's my fault. I--I'm so sorry. I--I-I--" The blonde breaks off, her arms wrapping around herself as she stares. She stares, even though she can't see anything through the blurring of her eyes anymore, until she doubles over with a wracking cry of all her failure.

Mami doesn't go. She doesn't go at all.

<Pose Tracker> Chitose Shiratori [Infinity Institute (U)] has posed.

Chitose watches the protodaimon finally fall thanks to the doves and the emerald cyclone of Fuu's. And when that fight is over, Chitose just sees everything that has happened. Unlike a lot of others around, Chitose doesn't cry. Crying is not what she does. Not after the things she's seen, or even the things she's done. Or, perhaps, even the things she knows she's going to do.

But, even then, she still feels empty. Both girl and Device are silent for a little bit. She opens her mouth, and Omen's core flashes as if to say something.

But she doesn't. Neither of them do. Neither of them can

So, she turns and walks away. Though, only a few steps, before she takes off again, this time as far away from all of this as possible.

COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has cleared her item contest.

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

Finally, the monster is destroyed; the Wind Knight drops to her knees as a wave of exhaustion passes over her, and she looks up as the damage to Tokyo Tower is undone. But she thinks - suspects, really, but also feels in her gut - that it was too late for the protodaimon's first five victims, the girls trapped within it.

Coming to terms with that is going to take a while. She doesn't want to believe that feeling, like a lump of lead in her belly, cold and heavy. She caught a brief glimpse of Infinity uniforms, though, and their faces will be matched up with their names.

When the full weight of those losses sinks in, it will cripple her. But for now, the illusion of hope still flickers in the back of her head - and that's what allows the green-clad Magic Knight to focus on those whom she's sure she CAN still help. Already on her knees, the Wind Knight starts to slump forward; her right hand slaps the roof in front of her, halting her fall, and she raises her left hand, focusing on the people and the places. Takeo - the knight Lancelot - somewhere behind her; Usagi - Sailor Moon, and more, Princess Serenity - and Lera, with no codename or title, ahead and to one side. She has a vague sense of where the others are, but it's those three whom she knows are hurt the worst yet potentially within her reach. If her magic can help anyone, they are the ones who need it the most.

"Winds of Healing."

It starts as the faintest stirring in the air, an imperceptible tingle, before she gathers her will behind the spell and sends what restorative power she can to Takeo and Usagi and Lera. It's not much; it might not be enough. But she struggles to dig her heels in against the encroachment of the Reaper's cold touch, to buy any time, any distance, any spark she can to sustain her allies, her friends.

Only after does she try to turn her healing focus to the five innocent girls, who should never have been entangled in a battle such as this.

And in that instant, when the faint yet soothing breeze touches them, she feels the yawning emptiness, a total absence of anything her magic can do.

In that same instant, a burst of wind erupts where the Magic Knight kneels - and Fuu Hououji, her transformation broken, slumps into total unconsciousness. Only a mind-reader would perceive her despairing cry; the rest is truly silence.

2016-07-09 - Locks and Keys 10

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