2017-10-21 - 3000 Channels And Nothing's On
| 3000 Channels And Nothing's On | |
|---|---|
| Summary: Le Papillon targets the heart of Kimiko, a major Tokyo TV newscaster, and as Air Strike she leads the Miraculous-users and their friends on a chase across channels and even media, culminating in the internet! | |
| Who: Adrien Agreste, Lera Camry, Fuu Hououji, Steven Universe, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Usagi Tsukino, Niramo Umokeshi, Nori Ankou GM: Hotaru Tomoe | |
| Where: Juuban, Shibuya, The Airwaves | |
| OOC - IC Date: 10-21-2017 - 02-27-2015 | |
<Pose Tracker> Hotaru Tomoe [Infinity Institute (6)] has posed. <SoundTracker> Hare Hare Yukai https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xT9iAOlt1Mg
Tokyo's two most beloved talking heads -- which is to say, television newscasters -- are attending a rewards luncheon. For Taro. Who, flashing his million-yen smile, gleefully accepts his little golden replica of himself, marked with words like 'Outstanding Achievements In Journalism'.
Kimiko's smile is also present, but more automatic, as is her applause. And, afterwards, as they ride together in the elevator, and he just talks and talks and talks, smiles and smiles and smiles, all about the fifth award he's gotten for a job that is, unquestionably and quintessentially, shared between the both of them... she is startled to hear a voice inside her head.
A purple-black moth flutters in (somehow -- elevator??) to perch upon Taro's statue, which he had gamely asked Kimiko to carry for him. Just to the car, of course.
Greetings, Kimiko. I am Le Papillon. You have been wronged by this city, passed over, ignored, for the last time. Accept my help and you'll be able to show everyone who the true journalist is... you'll never be slighted again!
A violet butterfly appears across her face like a bruise, her eyes on its wings. Eyes that are already not her own, dark with a rage, an influence, from a power that is overtaking her more by the moment.
"...I accept."
---
It's just after school! Which could mean a lot of things for a lot of people. There are clubs to attend, homework to do, homework to ignore by going to the arcade, and so forth.
The end of February is starting to ripen towards spring, though we're not there yet. Still, the chill in the air is edging towards dampness instead of raw cold, and there is just the faintest promise of green intoxicatingly mingling with the other smells of the city. And the sounds of happy children starting to do outdoor things are becoming just a little bit more prominent. Some puddle jumping (though the skies are clear, there's always some leftover rain), some jogging. Some very early spring training for the jocks.
Lighter raincoats are starting to make an appearance, replacing winter coats, too, and they are coming in a profusion of colors. It is both a fashion dream and a fashion nightmare to see the latest season's ideas. From the steps into the front of Juuban Middle School, Alya, with Marinette, is performing a running narration on them as they go by.
"...wow, yellow with black polka dots, maybe bumblebees are coming back, or are those stripes?"
Adrien, meanwhile, is doing a shoot at the Juuban school gate, of all places, but the photographer really wanted to get that natural, co-ed feel for this raincoat collection, and what better place than his actual school?
"Tsk tsk tsk, not enough rain," he chirps, staring at the blue sky and its puffy white clouds like they're a personal insult.
Finally, Wakatsuki Makiko, Niramo's friend, is filling her with facts about the latest CPU announcements, a stream of technical jibberish, as the two of them walk towards their respective clubs. Her silver hair shines, but not as much as her eyes, as she talks about her passion.
"...and then, Intel said they would totally crush AMD..." This seems unlikely to be a direct quote.
OOC: What are /you/ doing after school today? COMBAT: Chat Noir transforms into Adrien Agreste!
<Pose Tracker> Adrien Agreste [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.
Adrien forces another smile as he poses again for the photographer to take a photo. He would make rather be playing that new video game witn Nino at the arcade, but atlas his father expects him to finish this collection. Plagg grumbles from within in coat pocket.
I hate rain! It makes cheese so soggy!
"You'll have to bear with is," Adrien whispers as he leans against the wet gate as the photographer ponders if they need a sprinkler to make it more wetter.
Adrien shakes his head and decides after this shoot was done, he was going to treat himself to something hot.
Marinette's family bakery was close by. Perhaps they had something there he could drink or at the very least he could find something to eat there.
<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
Typically, Lera travels to Juuban to meet her girlfriend -- or any number of friends who go there. However, as she walks along -- her book bag swinging in one hand -- she slows, when she spots who is at the school gate. The sixteen year-old slows to a stop, as she realizes: a model shoot. She doesn't see this sort of thing very often. Her mouth hangs open for a moment.
"W-Wow," she murmurs to herself. "That's... some really colorful, amazing raincoats." She looks down at her own: a dark, charcoal grey one. It feels a little subpar, somehow.
<Yours looks fine.> Soaring Sky chimes it, pleasantly. Lera's lips curl up into a smile, then she nods -- seemingly at nothing. "Thanks, Sky."
She starts over -- but she catches sight of a head of blonde hair that isn't the perfectly styled coif of one Monsieur Agreste. Her eyes widen, and then she grins, and waves quickly in the air. "Hey, hey, Usagi-chan!"
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
It's a pleasant enough day, and Fuu Hououji has availed herself of a chance to swing through Akihabara and see what games are new, in arcades and in shops. Granted, she's interested enough in RPGs to keep track of what's coming out when - but there are other genres of occasional interest, and sometimes she has enough money saved up in her wallet to go ahead and buy something on the spur of the moment.
Today appears to have been one of those days, since she's carrying a little bag from Gamers as she makes her way along the sidewalk; spotting the photo shoot in process, Fuu slows to a halt, wondering whether she should cross the street and keep going (so she doesn't go through the shoot), or simply wait and watch for a bit. She settles, for now, on the latter - particularly as she overhears a familiar voice, which prompts her to turn in search of Lera, the voice's owner.
<Pose Tracker> Steven Universe [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.
It was that time of year again. That spot of dreary between the silent white of winter and the lifegiving green of spring. Though, mostly in weather and color. Actually, in Tokyo the color seems better! The rainbow of raincoat colors of folks passing on the sidewalks provides an excellent getaway from the muted colors and grays this time usually brought.
Well, it doesn't get Steven down! Not after the fun last night! The stout child bebops along in a standard yellow raincoat-like affair, his usual clothes underneath, and shoes instead of flip-flops. Ground was too wet for those.
After school, he got a note from home saying he needed to pick something up, and he knew just what it was. The Gems had ran his small and pink top hat to a local hatter, to see if he could work his magic to remove cake stains from it. He does not know if it was successful or not, but he will find out on arrival!
The boy is unfortunately alone, as whenever it gets wet outside, from melting snow, rain, or other, he tends to vanish. He is a cat after all. But the water present around, cascading into puddles and forming both pleasant fun for children, and obstacles for adults, made him think of something else.
Lapis Lazuli.
Did... did she make it home? What was she doing there? What was there for her that she needed to get back to? He just stars into the puddle, seeing the images of that day play back, and her face at how happy hse was to be free.
Free from that mirror.
A sudden step by someone in the puddle snaps him out of reverie, and he begins to look around. A group of school-goers that look familiar begin to congregate nearby. Wonder what they are up to? Steven decides to find out, and heads their direction!
<Pose Tracker> Marinette Dupain-Cheng [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.
It's not spring yet, much as Marinette would love for it to be. The season of rebirth has so much beautiful imagery to look forward to, flowers to decorate with, a gorgeous restoration of colour and life...but alas, winter's damp grip hasn't quite been released just yet. Today, Marinette is in pink - a coat that might be a little warmer than warranted - and she swings her mercifully-unneeded umbrella. It has flower patterns. She's an optimist.
"You're kidding - who's wearing something like that?" Marinette peers, spotting the coat in question, and frowns. "I don't think it's a bee...maybe a leopard? They're supposed to change their spots, right?" That frown turns to a grin as Marinette walks alongside her friend - as damp as the air might be, there's at least a little bit of sun to enjoy. "I never realized that Juuban was such a jungle...now, look at that shade of green! And with that hood...do you think it's supposed to look like a giant frog, or is that maybe an accident?"
There's a thought. Animal-themed rain jackets. Before she can stop herself, Marinette is digging for a little notepad in her bookbag. "I know, I know, I just don't want to forget this idea before-"
And then there's a more insistent tug, and Marinette is yanked out of the path of a tiny little grade-school kid. One who has made it his quest - his sworn mission - to jump in every puddle with as much force as possible. Even with Alya's intervention, Marinette gets at least partly splattered; the only thing really saved was her bookbag.
"Come on, really? I just finished this one...thanks, Alya." Marinette lets out a sigh, trying to shake water off her coat as best she can. "I don't suppose you'd rather study at the bakery than at the library? Fewer books, but more warm things, that's got to be worth something?"
It's a plea. She's not slacking off, honest she isn't!
...honestly!
<Pose Tracker> Usagi Tsukino [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Right now Usagi is really feeling the humid chill as she watches Adrien's shoot from behind the ring of other observers who are here because she's both A. Slow, and B. Clumsy.
Spotting Lera, she waves, then makes her way around the ring of observers watching, and over to her.
"Lera-chan! Did you come all this way to watch Adrien-chan too?" And then after a moment she starts laughing, "Oh! What am I thinking? Of course you're here to pick up Secchan after Tennis practice! She should be warming up pretty soon."
Still she finds herself looking at the raincoats being used in the shoot with envy. She finds herself picking at the edge of her red jacket, "I wish I had a coat that stylish to put on..." Then after a moment's thought, "...actually I do. I just can't wear it publically."
She says with a soft whine to Lera before lowering her voice surreptitiously, "It was a gift from my kouhai... to Sailor Moon."
Her shoulders wiggle up and down, "It's so unfair, I've only had a chance to show it off a few times."
Right now it was folded up neatly in her gym bag after the sixth time she'd looked at it with yearning within her closet.
Watching Adrien a little longer, she always wonders if he's actually happy to do this. With all his handlers and minders and his desire just to be normal. Still she couldn't help but get caught up in all the glitz and glamour of his model lifestyle sometime in envy.
As they watch, she murmurs again, "You know he's actually a personal friend of mine. I just don't know if he'd want me to bother him right now in a shoot."
Usagi if that's true...
...then why are you hopping up every so often from the back of the crowd and waving like an excitable bunny to try to catch his attention?
<Pose Tracker> Niramo Umokeshi [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.
As the two walked down the halls and Wakatsuki rambled on and on about the new 'processors', Niramo couldn't help but feel pride and just a little exasperated with Wakatsuki. Pride due to just how much she knew about what she loved, and exasperated since Wakatsuki kept on rambling on and on about stuff she never fully explained. But that's what drew Niramo to her best friend in the first place. "Wakatsuki-chan, don't you think you might want to tell that to the science club? I'm going to be late if you keep on talking about the processors!"
Wakatsuki would blink owlishly at Niramo for a moment, being cut off in mid rant, gaining a slight blush as she realized she was doing it again.
"Oh! Uh, yeah, of course, Niramo-chan! See you tomorrow then!"
The two schoolgirls gave a quick hug to each other before they went their seperate ways, with Niramo heading for the classroom being used for the cooking club today. Takk would stick his head out of her bookbag for a moment to check the coast was clear.
"You know, despite being opinated, she really knows technology works."
"I know, right? If you two met each other face to face, i'm afraid the whole world won't be ready for what you two could create!"
Giggling at the thought, she opened the door and walked in, waving at her fellow club mates. "Hey everyone, sorry i'm a bit late! What are we doing today?"
<Pose Tracker> Nori Ankou [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
The warming weather is a concern for Batiste, but it has not deeply percolated into Nori's consciousness. She has had more things on her mind.
This afternoon there was a new concern.
"Oh," Nori Ankou says from the southeast of Usagi Tsukino. "Camry-san, what a surprise. Are you going to be joining us for oden? It's almost the end of the season, you know."
Nori is not trying to ride the fashion super hard, at least at the moment, but her personal wardrobe has expanded with the slow infusion of Akamira materials. Right now, at least, the main thing that's distinctive is a wide-brimmed dark hat with stretched-taut translucent-black fabric that forms a subtle optical illusion between the 'farmer's hat' of ancient memory and a more fashionable sunproof chapeau.
It looked like rain to her, and it's not yet warm enough to tolerate being soaked.
"Is someone having a shoot?" Nori observes, alertly. She can tell the signs.
<Pose Tracker> Hotaru Tomoe [Infinity Institute (6)] has posed. <SoundTracker> ELECTRIC ROCK MUSIC (the Netflix CC description of the Dark Matter theme) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNI7mRUj04Q
Alya's cell phone buzzes with a news alert -- she's always dialed in -- and she gives Marinette a wide-eyed look as she tilts the screen to share it with her friend.
Kimiko, the lady who's always giving the news, is barely recognizable. Her eyes crackle with lightning, and her hair has turned a matching electric blue. In contrast her skin is inhumanly white, and glittering with circuitry instead of veins.
"This is a breaking news bulletin -- Taro Takahashi is permanently off the air. And so are all the other shows -- it's time for twenty-four-seven-three-sixty-five news coverage from me, AIR STRIKE!"
A nearby screen in the convenience store closest to Juuban has also switched, or been switched, to this. As has everyone's cell phones, whether or not they normally use them to follow the news. Ripples of surprise go through the student body -- the citizenry -- as they notice.
It's most noticeable of all in downtown Yamanote, where some of the skyscrapers are crackling with more of that lightning. One, in particular, the building with TOKYO TV in big neon lights up at the top, has the most density of this, and it's possible to see it from miles away. Every roll of thunder, every strike of lightning, pinpoints it more thoroughly.
"To start with!" Air Strike hisses, into her microphone, which looks an awful lot like an Oscar-esque award for outstanding journalism, the head now replaced with a pickup. "I'll be going downstairs to interview YOUR friends and neighbors about how they feel about this exciting new opportunity to learn about the happenings of tomorrow! Want to be on TV? Come to Shibuya Station, and you may not be a star, but you'll definitely be famous!"
The storm is on the move...
---
Shibuya Crossing is iconic, that massive four-way intersection that is, normally, filled with people and surrounded by huge, electronic billboards.
This is currently half-true. The lights and images are still everywhere, but the people are rushing away. Air Strike floats in the middle, above a sea of abandoned cars, the occasional tendril of lightning bursting out of her to crack like a whip over their heads.
"Come on then," she pouts, she crows... she cackles. "Who's brave enough to give me an exclusive?"
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe transforms into Youma Form Relentless Television Youma!
<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
"Yup! I'm here to see Setsuna! But I heard of this guy, isn't he--um--crazy good at striking poses and wearing clothes?" Lera asks, her head tilted to the side. She doesn't, really, know how modeling works. Despite that she knows Miki Aono, who has done some. She knows it is hard work. Her eyes light up, though, and then she blinks.
She reaches out, patting Usagi on the shoulder. "That's rough," she says. Her expression screws up, as she considers. "Maybe... get one of your friends to 'give' it to you, so you can wear it, or--um--would that be weird?"
It sounds weird as she says it. She looks up, eyes turning to Nori -- and she grins, then nods. "Sure. Setsuna's gonna be kinda busy with some stuff, so... I should be free!"
She blinks, though, as she looks at Adrien -- considering for a moment -- and then her head turns to Usagi. Her amber eyes widen a little. "R-Really?" she asks. "I mean--he might be okay with it, y'know? It must get boring. That's a lot of posing. Like, a lot of posing. Like--"
Nori raises a point. She looks at her, then nods. A finger extends by her head. "That's Adrien Agreste! He's, um, got blonde hair and stuff!"
At least one person in this trio gets fashion. It is not Lera Camry.
Then her phone buzzes. She blinks, pulling it out, and squints down at the voice coming across it. She doesn't recognize Air Strike. Her eyes narrow for a moment, before she sighs, and then looks between Nori and Usagi. "Soooooo..." She says. "...Raincheck?"
<Raincheck.>
A LITTLE LATER
Lera sprints down the road -- not flying to not leave her friends in the dust -- and she comes skidding to a stop there, still wearing her raincoat. She stares at the woman with lightning in her eyes and blue hair. She gasps, before she holds a hand up in the air. "I don't watch much news, but--I know that you can't just take over the airwaves! "Soaring dreams, fiery love! Soaring Sky, SET UP!"
- -1 INVALID ANSI DEFINITION: #FF660 <Get set!>
A Belkan triangle spins up underneath her, swirling and flashing. The light erupts under her feet, and her cloathing is replaced in a flash of gold. A green jacket flutters out; an orange-and-white feather charm appears in her hair. She winks, then holds a hand up. She catches the long, two-edged silver-and-gold Device blade. She points it towards Air Strike.
"I'm Lera Camry, a--" Her face screws up. Her nose wrinkles. She stops talking.
<You forgot to make a speech. Didn't you.>
"S-Sailor MooN! I-I think you're up!" Lera says with nervous laughter.
COMBAT: Lera Camry transforms into Barrier Jacket Perihelion! COMBAT: Lera Camry has used Soaring Dreams! Fiery Love! on Lera Camry. COMBAT: Lera Camry accepts Lera Camry's Soaring Dreams! Fiery Love!, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Accelerate and Empower applied to Lera Camry!
<Pose Tracker> Adrien Agreste [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.
Adrien looks over and sees Usagi and gives a small wave that the photographer takes a photo of because it's such a 'natural gesture'. Adrien shakes his head and prays this will soon be over, when they hear all of their phones beeping madly.
The photographer pauses in what he's doing and reaches for his phone. The surprised expression on his face is enough to make Adrien suspicious. "Oh, no," he grumbles. "Not another akuma! I can to cancel this sessions three times because of this nonsense!"
Adrien is barely listening as he scrambles for his phone and sees the broadcast. "Oh boy," he mutters as he looks up to the lightening that's now flashing in the sky.
He sheepishly looks up to the photographer. "Uh..sorry, but I need to go and uh wash my hair!"
The photographer blinks. "Where? In the rain?"
"Uh..yeah, might as well use nature's shower! Be back soon!"
Adrien doesn't bother to acknowledge the photographer's praise for getting into the role as he ducks around the corner.
"We need to go and take care of this. Plagg! Claws out!"
Within seconds, Adrien has disappeared and Chat Noir has taken his place. He jumps to the rooftops up and starts to run.
"I'm feline like I need to have a word with this lady," he says as he jumps. "And with all of this lightening I hope it's a shocking experience."
COMBAT: Adrien Agreste transforms into Chat Noir! COMBAT: Chat Noir has used Feline Fine on Chat Noir. COMBAT: Chat Noir accepts Chat Noir's Feline Fine, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Chat Noir is Reinforced by Chat Noir!
<Pose Tracker> Niramo Umokeshi [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.
Niramo jumped as her red cell phone buzzed with a news alert, leaving her confused as she stared at the screen. "That's odd, i'm not subscribed to any...what the?" It took her several seconds before she finally recognized Kimiko, and just how bizarre she looked now. A quick glance showed that she wasn't the only one seeing this, as the other students pulled out their own cell phones, one even pulling out a model that could barely use the internet. As she listened to Kimiko, she stared out the window, seeing the storm building over downtown Yamanote. This wasn't normal, it was the complete opposite of normalcy, and that could only mean one thing.
As her club started to talk amongst themselves, Niramo quietly slipped out the club room, shutting the door behind her, before breaking off into a sprint for the rooftop. Thankfully, everyone was distracted with the odd news report to yell at her as she ran. Spying the handicap restroom next to the stairway leading up, she quickly slipped inside and locked the door. It would be silly to try running there the entire way, after all!
"Takk, things are about to get really interesting. Hope you're ready! Tail, sprout!"
A small lightshow took place inside the handicap stall, and in half a minute, there stood Sourisi. Her tan bodysuit, long tail, rounded ears and eyemask would certainly make an impression, but no one was there to see her as she started to hop from rooftop to rooftop from Juuban, taking a slightly different route and missed Chat Noir.
As she made her way towards Shibuya Station, she couldn't help but wonder if this is related to La Papillon. 'If Kimiko is acting like this, she's likely not thinking clearly. I think its' time to ground this electrifying special report!'
COMBAT: Niramo Umokeshi transforms into Sourisi!
<Pose Tracker> Steven Universe [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.
As Steven gets closer, he realizes that, yes! These are people he knows! Or at least some of them are. Others he has seen around, like that blonde girl. Actually, didn't he see her last night at the ball? Possibly. Fuu and Niramo he definitely recognizes. Nori as well, though her name escapes him. "Hey ladies!" he says kindly on the approach. "Funny seeing you all out here! I--"
His phone goes nuts for some reason. The boy pulls out the device, and has a good look at it. Seems like something bad is going down! This is not a drill! Everyone standing there also has their phones go nuts! "Not good!" He glances to the others. Ugh, where was Lion when he needed him?!
At the Crossing~
The sounds of lightning and frightened crowds helps Steven locate the problem, which is the cyber-newslady, Air Strike. She doesn't look like a person to mess with. But when has that ever stopped him?
Abandoned cars dot the road as folks unable to deal with the electric power flee, and for good reason. Of course, this gem child runs against the tide, and makes his way atop a vehicle. "Hey lady! Y'know, the news is a shared effort! You can't just take over!"
The boy holds up a hand a cunjures forth a translucent rose-patterned shield from nothing, hovering against his wrist.
"If you think you can just get away with that! You are wrong! Because I will be there to to give you static!" Steve nseems pretty happy with that pun. It may also get him in trouble. But he isn't alone here, that he knows. People are in danger, after all. And where danger lurks, his shield will be there to save the innocent!
COMBAT: Steven Universe transforms into Steven Quartz Universe! COMBAT: Steven Universe has used AND STEVEN! on Hotaru Tomoe.
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
The weather forecast for this afternoon included a chance of rain; Fuu has both her raincoat and an umbrella against that possibility. But the forecast didn't say anything about *thunderstorms* ... or, for that matter, monstrous hijackings of the local airwaves, which is what gets her attention even faster than the meteorological anomaly in Yamanote. So while she gladly waves in response to Steven, and would love to get into a longer conversation, they'll have to talk later ...
Besides, she knows Lera and Steven on the magical side as well, so there's that as well.
Shortly thereafter, the Magic Knight of Wind makes her own presence known near the Shibuya Scramble Crossing - actually on an outdoor staircase rather than on a roof, but she has a better than adequate view of Air Strike from her current perch. "I don't consider myself terribly telegenic," the Wind Knight calls out, "but I imagine your ratings are about to plunge, like so many drops of rain ... Winds of Admonishment!"
And with that, she enacts her own weather-wise strategem - trying to ensnare Air Strike in a conjured whirlwind, and bind her as best the Wind Knight can manage.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji transforms into Wind Knight! COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Winds of Admonishment on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Nori Ankou transforms into La Sirene de Diamant! COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has cancelled their attack on Hotaru Tomoe. If there are more attacks that need to be +cancelled, please hold all +attacks until the process is complete.
<Pose Tracker> Marinette Dupain-Cheng [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.
Honest, Marinette wasn't planning to slack off in her room, however disapproving Alya's glance might be. She can just barely hear some of the chatter going on a little nearer to the school, but most of it goes over her head. Honestly, this test is important, and she doesn't have time to wonder wait what was that about a photo shoot?
Marinette has only a moment to catch a glimpse of the crowd and curse a lost chance when there's an insistent hand on her arm. She looks over to Alya's phone - nice model that it is - and blinks in surprise at the live feed. "Wait, I thought you didn't have enough data left for live vid...oh no. Isn't that that one news anchor..."
Though 'Air Strike' probably wasn't the woman's screen name before all this. Lightning arcs through the sky, and Marinette groans as she raises her head to see the storm in the distance. "Not another storm...wasn't that blizzard bad enough?" Her attention is caught by the resumption of the declaration, and the artistic girl pales at the implications therein.
There's a pause - and then a very insistent hand comes to rest on Alya's shoulder. Marinette has an uncharacteristically stern look on her face, though it's plain to see that she's hiding the urge to grin. "Alya. Dear friend of mine. I know this goes against everything you stand for, but please, please...don't take her up on the offer of an interview?"
There's a little voice, murmuring within the girl's handbag, audible to none but herself. "#-1 INVALID ANSI DEFINITION: +hr It's nice to have wishes, Marinette, but that might be asking too much..."
---
Soon enough, two girls part ways - each lying about their destination. Alya most likely is not heading home as promised, and Marinette is swiftly nowhere to be found. It's not a long story to tell - a side street, a flourish of earrings, a single phrase. From the puddles of the streets, a yo-yo swings out, and the red-suited heroine Ladybug takes to the air.
Lamp posts work long enough to get Ladybug up to the rooftops, along which she runs long enough to leap on top of a passing bullet train. Yamanote isn't too far away at this speed, and she uses the time to watch tumultuous skies to see where the storm is heading. As the train begins to turn away from the trouble, she slings her yo-yo onto a signpost to arc back toward Shibuya.
It's on one of this district's roofs that she finds herself running alongside Chat Noir - just in time to hear an atrocious comment. Thus, Ladybug's introduction to her partner is with a loud groan. "You do know that puns like that probably aren't going to make her bolt, right? Just for that, I'm going ahead - "
And she does so. Another signpost, a helpfully elaborate building, some climbing and parkour, and the heroine emerges into Shibuya Crossing to land atop one of those billboards. Her red-with-black-spots bodysuit is fortunately keeping her warm in spite of the weather, and the mask over her eyes does little to hide a bit of a smirk.
"Well, it looks like today's breaking news is focused on shock interviews - I might not be an expert, but even I know this isn't proper journalism. Don't you think it'd be better to focus on more grounded stories?" She twirls her yo-yo, keeping a careful eye on Air Strike - and hoping that if worst comes to worst, the billboard itself will serve as a lightning rod.
COMBAT: Marinette Dupain-Cheng transforms into Ladybug! COMBAT: Steven Universe has cancelled their attack on Hotaru Tomoe. If there are more attacks that need to be +cancelled, please hold all +attacks until the process is complete.
<Pose Tracker> Usagi Tsukino [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
"Ahahaha... I dunno it's sorta one of a kind. She made it herself and she'd definitely recognize it." Usagi says to Lera.
And when Nori shows up. "Nori-chan! You made it!" Usagi declares as she whirls Southeast towards Nori. "Just look at you!" She may not be trying to ride her fashion, but Usagi certainly notices anyhow. "You're fabulous even when you're trying to go a little incognito."
Which is when she hears the crackle of her phone in her pocket.
She's reaching for it, when a convenience store screen turns on, and a wave of surprise goes throughout the student body.
Dumbly she looks from the screen of the store, to her phone. Then across at Lera. Then back at her phone. "Is this on every channel!?" She moans in the sudden grim realization, "I have shows recording at home!"
What a petty thing to be concerned about.
Looking at Nori, she agrees with Lera finally, "Rain-check. With this kind of emergency bulletin I think I need to go check on Chibi-Usa-chan and make sure she's alright. Maybe we can meet up after this is all cleared up?"
Slinging her bag over her shoulder, she starts jogging in what looks like the direction of her house, "I need to catch up with her quick."
-=-=-
Usagi Tsukino had been running to Shibuya. So it's understandable that Lera would think she's right there.
However what in fact happens when Lera tells her to take it away is that Airstrike might look for Sailor Moon. Instead there's a dotted line right where she might expect to see her.
Why is this?
-=Not long ago=-
Usagi Tsukino thumps her gym bag down in one of Shibuya's many alleyways, puts a hand to her compact, a hand raised skyward and- "Moon Cosmic Power - Make Up!" There's a flash, a ring of hearts and red ribbons. Then Sailor Moon opens a gym bag- and delicately unfolds something.
-=An Uncomfortable Amount of Time after Lera called out=-
"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!"
And there she is, the Pretty Guardian of Love and Justice herself in her Sailor Fuku, a touch breathless as she lands on top of an abandoned car, near where Lera expected her to be. She's wearing a coat over it though with twin columns of pearly white buttons, standing out against baby-blue fabric.
It's cut long and down to her knees, the lower hem and the ends of the sleeves buffed out to white fluffiness speaking to the lining inside. A collar with a soft pink frill balloons out in a diaphonous way. It's both lightweight, practical, and promises warmth against the chill of late winter.
It also happens to be a Marinette Dupain-Cheng original.
She holds up a finger, like she's asking Airstrike to wait for her to catch her breath to finish. She seems relieved that Ladybug, Chat Noir, and Sourisi all made it first. "-aha. Whew. Need just a second... Thank goodness you all made it!"
Finally she stands up straight to face Airstrike in continuation of her speech, "I don't know what you're upset about. In fact I don't have a single clue why you feel you need to do this. But I can't forgive you for picking on the people of Shibuya-"
And then despite the determination, her voice takes on a touch of a whine, "-and for clogging up the airwaves while I have shows recording at home! I was really looking forward to watching them later! Sailor Suited Pretty Soldier of Love and Justice: Sailor Moon! And in the Name of the Moon-"
She strikes a fierce pose, "-I will punish you!"
Why'd she stop to put on the coat? Because obviously it might be the last opportunity she'll get this season!
COMBAT: Usagi Tsukino transforms into Sailor Moon! COMBAT: Sailor Moon has used In The Name Of The Moon on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Steven Universe has used AND STEVEN! on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Winds of Admonishment on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Ladybug has used Keeping Things Grounded on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Ladybug has cancelled their attack on Hotaru Tomoe. If there are more attacks that need to be +cancelled, please hold all +attacks until the process is complete. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe perfectly counters Fuu Hououji's Winds of Admonishment, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Counter! Hotaru Tomoe's Reverse ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Tactician ability activates! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe's counterattack, Commercial Interruption, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Fuu Hououji! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe perfectly dodges Steven Universe's AND STEVEN!, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Critical Dodge! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces Sailor Moon's In The Name Of The Moon, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Sailor Moon is Psyched! Hotaru Tomoe's Block ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Parry ability activates! Cripple, Diversion, and Exhausted applied to Hotaru Tomoe! COMBAT: Ladybug has used Yes, She Punned Back on Chat Noir. COMBAT: Chat Noir accepts Ladybug's Yes, She Punned Back, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Chat Noir is Cheered!
<Pose Tracker> La Sirene de Diamant [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
"Modelling isn't all just standing there and being appealing," Nori says with a small nod. "It's hard work... it's just not the same kind of hard work as, for instance, breaking rocks in prison." What an analogy, but perhaps she reasons that Lera, as an American, will know prison. Perhaps she even did hard time!
Nori smiles at Steven in passing. Then she looks towards the nearby TV.
And she stops smiling.
"If we should miss this dish, then I suppose it will be a regret that binds us," Nori says with a small sigh. Then: "Raincheck. There's always the spring."
SOON.
A bag is opened and a lantern is raised.
A WHILE AFTER THAT
A voice echoes down the increasingly empty canyon of Shibuya's famous intersection. "Once, I met an old man, who wore shades upon his eyes, even in the depths of storm. He told me that in the future, everyone would be famous for a quarter-hour."
La Sirene de Diamant walks down the middle of the street. She moves with the sauntering grace and deliberate projection of a runway model. The fact that she has a weird shimmer around her, flickering faintly in the cold but gently damp breeze, doesn't hurt matters. Her eyes gleam pallid white; the gems on her outfit glitter as she raises her hands, twisting them around in an expression of disdain.
(And a tiny waggle of two fingers towards Sailor Moon. Hi~)
"I think you have had about fourteen minutes and thirty seconds," la Sirene says as she steps up the back of a car and does not leave footsteps on it. Diamonds on the soles of her shoes sparkle. She makes a flippant gesture as if to toss her hair; it sends a shimmering wave of that inverse light towards Air Strike.
"Do you want to see the future?" la Sirene calls. (Her eyes flick away towards Fuu, Lera, the others she is less familiar with... she doesn't look up to the roof yet. Hopefully this glancing-away-to-your-friends thing won't backfire on her.)
COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant has used The Black Kaleidoscope on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly counters La Sirene de Diamant's The Black Kaleidoscope, taking 6 Fatigue damage! Hotaru Tomoe is Quipped! Hotaru Tomoe's Reverse ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Tactician ability activates! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe's counterattack, Commercial Interruption, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to La Sirene de Diamant!
<Pose Tracker> Hotaru Tomoe [Infinity Institute (6)] has posed.
Air Strike grins like the devil herself as the magical girls and boys present themselves for a fight. "Let's get this party started! You're so very wrong -- a fight will be a huge ratings booster!"
Probably true.
Wind pours down around her, then... parts, being drawn instead into two billboards on opposite sides of the intersection. One was advertising an upcoming sci-fi film and shows the void of space. The other is windier still, some kind of hurricane coverage of another part of the world... La Sirene's inverse light suffers a similar fate.
Air Strike's arms had spread to either side, directing this, and now she clenches her fists. Lightning pours down, entering them -- entering her -- and making her a blur as she rushes from person to person, offering them a little static shock.
"Blink and you'll miss it, folks! But don't worry, we'll have everything on instant replay for the seven'o'clock headlines!"
Indeed, this starts happening in real time, with slow-motion replays of people getting struck by lightning popping up on some of the Shibuya screens.
It's only AFTER she's struck Ladybug that she notices who she's tangling with (via glancing at said big screen). "Oh, the main event is here -- thanks for bringing me your miraculous, Ladybug! This will be your grand finale!"
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Livewire Ripoff on La Sirene de Diamant. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Livewire Ripoff on Sailor Moon. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Livewire Ripoff on Ladybug. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Livewire Ripoff on Fuu Hououji. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Livewire Ripoff on Steven Universe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Livewire Ripoff on Lera Camry. COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Livewire Ripoff, taking 7 Fatigue damage! La Sirene de Diamant's Block ability activates! La Sirene de Diamant's Parry ability activates! COMBAT: Ladybug narrowly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Livewire Ripoff, taking 3 Fatigue damage! Ladybug's Fade ability activates! Ladybug's Flash ability activates! COMBAT: Sailor Moon fails to dodge Hotaru Tomoe's Livewire Ripoff, taking 21 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! COMBAT: Steven Universe narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Livewire Ripoff, taking 2 Fatigue damage! Steven Universe's Block ability activates! Steven Universe's Parry ability activates! COMBAT: Lera Camry perfectly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Livewire Ripoff, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge! Lera Camry's Fade ability activates! Lera Camry's Flash ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
Why, Lera thinks, is Usagi taking so long!?
When she hears Sailor Moon cry out, she sees why. Her head snaps to the side -- and sees the fabulous baby-blue jacket, done up in all of those colors and looking so amazing. She gasps softly, placing a hand over her mouth to stare at her friend. "S-Sailor Moon!" she calls out. "Your jacket is amazing, y'know? I give it an eleven out of ten!"
Her head snaps back to Air Srike, and then she watches as parts get drawn in, sucked into Air Strike's winds. She gasps as she moves in. Air Strike is blindingly fast and that static shock is nothing to sneer at. Lera's teeth set, jaw clenched, and she nods--
--and then leaps just as Air Strike reaches her. She shoots up, over her head, and into a spin. Lera whips around, then, and spins to face her. Her eyes dart to the side, to Sailor Moon, then to La Sirene. "She looks to be after--" It takes her a second. "--Ladybug!"
She whips her sword out in front of her. Soaring Sky flashes, and a trio of energy fangs form in the air. They glow with a hot orange light, then explode forward, criss-crossing and try to slam into Air Strike from behind.
<Crescent Fangs!>
COMBAT: Lera Camry has used Crescent Fangs on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Fuu Hououji narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Livewire Ripoff, taking 9 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Fuu Hououji's Block ability activates! Fuu Hououji's Parry ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Chat Noir [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.
Chat Noir grins in pure delight as the delicious pun Ladybug made in return. "I dare say my lady, I believe I am rubbing off on you," he cheered. "That pun was Purrfect!" He laughs as she races ahead and does the best he can to catch up. However, by the time he arrives Airstrike had already struck his lady and the other heroes that have arrived.
He hates the was too late to shield Ladybug, but he might as use this chance.
He jumps off the building, flips in the air and prepares himself to pounce on Airstrike as his prey. Cats always land on their feet and Chat hoped he could catch the bad guy off as well. "I believe it's time to cancel your show," he called out. "You're being far to catty, even for my tastes!"
COMBAT: Chat Noir has used Cat Up A Tree on Hotaru Tomoe.
<Pose Tracker> Steven Universe [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.
Well, she isn't one of those types who enjoys a good pun. Her loss.
The lady suddenly nigh-teleports to each combatant opposing her, and delivers a vicious shock. Steven sees it happen to others, and raises his shield to cover himself, just in time to deflect most of a zap, though lightning arcing around the shield does reach him, delivering a small jolt and frizzing his hair.
"Hey! Not cool!" Steven calls out, recovering his senses. Several magical girls have arrived now. Sailor Moon is here, which is always wonderful to know! The lady from the bakery fight is here with... whatever she uses! Some combination of tech and magic? Fuu is of course here, and then some newcomers he hasn't seen before!
Well, as long as they are trying to stop this electric chick, all is good! Steven tries his best to follow Air Strike, though it is hard to do until she comes to a stop with her attack., though when she does, he takes the chance to slam her full force with his shield with a flying jump!
The raincoat actually looks pretty cool while doing this. Maybe he should wear it more when fighting!
COMBAT: Steven Universe has used Shield Bash on Hotaru Tomoe.
<Pose Tracker> Ladybug [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.
Fortunately, Ladybug isn't entirely alone in spite of having rushed ahead. She gives a quick thumbs-up to the others who arrive - though when she spots Sailor Moon in a rather familiar-looking coat, she nearly stumbles clear off the billboard she's on. Taken aback by the sight and by Lera's vocal praise, she murmurs to herself. "She...actually wore it? I know she took it, but-"
It's the fact that she's watching Sailor Moon that gives her a split-second's warning of Air Strike's blitz tactic. Her response is, without even looking, to drop from the top of the billboard - just quickly enough that she can feel the electricity making her hair stand on end.
There's a catwalk for maintenance just below, luckily, and the red-clad girl glares up at the boastful Air Strike. "Our show isn't going off the air today, Air Strike-"
There's a moment's pause, as Ladybug recovers from the echo - the natural consequence of standing in front of a billboard that has a zoomed-in live feed of your own face.
"We've told your boss before, and we'll say it again - Tokyo won't bend to Papillon's whims so easily! So with that said - " She offers a grand gesture, leading into Chat dropping in from above. Puns aside, it's nice when her partner can follow up on her own speeches. As orange light arcs in and a shield comes flying past, Ladybug leaps back to sling out her yo-yo in a seemingly-random direction.
Seemingly - but there's a strut over there, and a flagpole over there, and a gust of wind that makes the toy loop just right...
And in short order, the yo-yo's cord is forming an ensnaring web around Air Strike. The girl gives the Akuma a cheeky two-finger salute before yanking to pull the trap closed.
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
The Wind Knight can only blink as her Winds of Admonishment are, not successful or blocked or dispersed, but *diverted* into two neighboring billboards. Then Air Strike launches her first reprisal, and a soft yelp erupts from the Wind Knight as Air Strike blurs past and jolts her with electricity. It didn't *feel* much like static - and the weather ...
Well, in all honesty? The weather is being messed with so intensely that she's no longer sure whether it should be conducive to static build-up or not. Her hair is gonna be BADLY frizzed for a while, though, at least from the feel of it.
If her hair is the worst casualty of this battle, though, she's going to be in remarkably good shape. For now, the stairs - convenient as they are for an outdoor perch with *some* semblance of cover - are way too restrictive to her movements, so the Magic Knight of Wind climbs onto the railing, then leaps away, sword materializing in her hands as she passes close to Air Strike -
Not slashing ,but trying to slap her in the face with the flat of the blade.
COMBAT: Ladybug has used Lindy Loop on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Unorthodox Swordplay on Hotaru Tomoe.
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Moon [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
La Sirene gets a little wave and Ladybug for that matter gets a little wave in return before calling out to Lera, "Oh thank you~! I really love-" Right as she gets rushed by the blur that is Airstrike and her eyes widen as she attempts to leap.
The key word is 'attempts' - the electrical shock causes her throat to spasm, her entire body for that matter, and she takes a tumble off the car as the muscles of her legs lock up. When she rises up, tiny wisps of smoke rise from the top of each blonde odango, as she pulls herself over the hood. "Shocking." She chokes out.
When she hears that she's after Ladybug, she thinks of the day Haruna Sakurada was Akumatized. And the others.
She remembers their discussion on the villain, trying to take their Miraculous.
In a way she felt a certain bond there, with the Dark Kingdom having spent so long trying to take the Silver Crystal from her.
This causes her to perk up quickly regardless of her injuries, "As if we'd let you! Ladybug is a hero to this city!" Twirling the Spiral Moon Heart Rod in a circle, she ends up pointing it at them, "We're not about to take anyone harassing her lying down! Moon Twilight-"
Power gathers and brightens as she turns in a single flourishing spin, ending in the same position of pointing it at Airstrike, "-FLASH!"
That radiance flashes forward with all the colors of twilight, taking form, before coming together in purifying bolt of brilliance that rockets towards Airstrike before detonating.
COMBAT: Sailor Moon has used Moon Twilight Flash on Hotaru Tomoe.
<Pose Tracker> La Sirene de Diamant [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
"Her what now?" la Sirene says, before THOOM! Lightning and wind erupt outwards, la Sirene vaulting up into the air and ending up with a burst thus crossing THROUGH her but not grounding in her body. She clutches a hand at her collarbone, and that aura of alien light around her has a weird fulgurous protroberance where the lighnting crossed, but...
She's not dead! Or zapped into tonic immobility! And any day when you aren't in electrically-induced immobility is a good day.
La Sirene de Diamant is in the air. Her arms cross as others lunge in - and the light that erupted around her blooms again, like the spidery tendrils of the living animal flowers of the reefs and rocks! "A grand finale from you...? That's quite an ambitious thing to say. Are you sure you're not just trying to steal the spotlight?"
The manifold streaks of inverted light snap inwards, trying to wrap around the akuma, breaking off when the connection is untenable to grip and squeeze as they evanscence. (No, not like My Immortal.)
As this happens and la Sirene's surprisingly long-lasting vertical leap continues, she calls down, "Ladybug-- I'm pleased to support your efforts!" Her head turns slightly to look at Chat Noir but this seems more like silent admiration than anything.
COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant has used Weavery of the Abyss on Hotaru Tomoe.
<Pose Tracker> Sourisi [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.
Sourisi reaches the last rooftop just before the Shibyua Station, looking down upon the famous Scramble Crossing. It was bizarre seeing it completely empty of people, save for cars, the magical girls, and Air Strike. The weather twisted under Air Strike's control, and as she made her speech, Sourisi quickly glanced to see who was here to face the new villian. "There's the Wind Knight...ah, Moon-senpai is here, but what's with the beautiful coat? And there's-wait!" She grinned as she spotted the red-and-black suitted heroine in the midst of the magical girls, and it fitted the description that Takk gave her perfectly. "That's Ladybug! So Chat Noir should be close by, then!" Sourisi crouched down, waiting for Air Strike to make the first move.
It didn't take long for Air Strike to lash out, and it was all Sourisi could do to stop calling out as she saw Sailor Moon unable to evade the teleporting sparks of Air Strike. That looked very painful, even from up here, but calling out would give away the element of surprise, and she didn't want to give that up just yet! The heroes of justice on the street quickly returned fire, with Sourisi's eyes tracking Ladybug's trap and the surprise pounce of Chat Noir. "Alright, great minds think alike!"
Jumping off towards the intersection, the mouse girl flipped in the air and drew her tonfa and threw them directly at Air Strike. Landing upright on the hood of a car, she couldn't help but call out to the Akumaized reporter. "Your show's stale on its' first airing, and the viewers have decided you're not what we want!"
COMBAT: Sourisi has used Crashing Tooth on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly dodges Ladybug's Lindy Loop, taking 5 Fatigue damage! Stagger, Stun, Tangle, and Trap applied to Hotaru Tomoe! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to brace Lera Camry's Crescent Fangs, taking 12 Fatigue damage! Stun and Trap applied to Hotaru Tomoe! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to dodge Chat Noir's Cat Up A Tree, taking 15 Fatigue damage! Blind applied to Hotaru Tomoe! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to brace Steven Universe's Shield Bash, taking 9 Fatigue damage! Steven Universe is Psyched! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to brace Sailor Moon's Moon Twilight Flash, taking 86 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to dodge Fuu Hououji's Unorthodox Swordplay, taking 16 Fatigue damage! Stagger applied to Hotaru Tomoe! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces La Sirene de Diamant's Weavery of the Abyss, taking 13 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Hotaru Tomoe's Block ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Parry ability activates! Blind and Tangle applied to Hotaru Tomoe! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly dodges Sourisi's Crashing Tooth, taking 14 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Hotaru Tomoe [Infinity Institute (6)] has posed. <SoundTracker> The Music Goes 'Round And Around https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hminkVMTgCc
Ladybug gets off her trap -- her yo-yo, for a critical moment, is able to encircle Air Strike and bind her to the flagpole -- and everyone pretty much just piles on.
There comes from this moment a HUGE EXPLOSION! You can't have that many magical girls and boys jumping in for the kill without one. Too much energy. Too many sparkles.
Also, Air Strike decides to just self-detonate, calling lightning down on the flagpole that runs through her and into everyone that touches her, including following paths back to their origins, along Ladybug's string, backstreaming Lera and La Sirene's energy trajectories, and so forth. It's a big bad boom.
And she is the first to leap out of it, trailing smoke. She hasn't escaped from this cluster unscathed; her eyes are wild, her whole body (which isn't so much clothed as it is just more circuitry, nothing suggestive, more a constant sheath of wires) scuffed here and there, sparking less ominously and more painfully. Her hair is a frizzy wild mass reminiscent of the Bride of Frankenstein.
She looks around at the group, meeting eyes, glaring, panting. She gives Chat Noir and Sourisi a little extra attention, her eyes fixing upon ring and anklet knowingly.
Then she laughs. It is not a happy sound to hear, because it's still full of confidence.
"Well done, very well done -- I'll cede this round to you! But follow me if you dare, if you're after round two!"
And then she jumps, in a flash of lightning, into the nearest electronic billboard. She disappears into it with a ripple, becoming part of the tableau -- it was a vaguely 1920s/early 1930s Americana ad for perfume, Eau de Nostalgia or something, all black and white and a smoke-filled bar.
This is Tokyo, so that billboard is totally animated and so is she, as she rushes through the bar towards the back room. And everywhere she goes, she sends out flickers of lightning that were once blue and are now a very pale gray-white, into all the rough'n'tough guys of the place, in their suits, even the ten piece band.
She's disappearing quickly~~!
OOC: You can follow her into the billboard! Enjoy posing your character in 1930s animation black and white styling for this round -- to reach her you'll have to get through the men inside the advertisement first! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Inescapable Rerun Explosion on Sourisi. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Inescapable Rerun Explosion on La Sirene de Diamant. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Inescapable Rerun Explosion on Sailor Moon. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Inescapable Rerun Explosion on Fuu Hououji. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Inescapable Rerun Explosion on Ladybug. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Inescapable Rerun Explosion on Steven Universe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Inescapable Rerun Explosion on Chat Noir. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Inescapable Rerun Explosion on Lera Camry. COMBAT: Sailor Moon fails to dodge Hotaru Tomoe's Inescapable Rerun Explosion, taking 20 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Ladybug fails to dodge Hotaru Tomoe's Inescapable Rerun Explosion, taking 26 Fatigue damage! Cripple applied to Ladybug! COMBAT: Fuu Hououji narrowly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Inescapable Rerun Explosion, taking 14 Fatigue damage! Fuu Hououji's Fade ability activates! Fuu Hououji's Flash ability activates! Cripple applied to Fuu Hououji! COMBAT: Chat Noir perfectly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Inescapable Rerun Explosion, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge! COMBAT: Sourisi perfectly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Inescapable Rerun Explosion, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge! Sourisi's Fade ability activates! Sourisi's Flash ability activates! COMBAT: Steven Universe perfectly counters Hotaru Tomoe's Inescapable Rerun Explosion, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Counter! COMBAT: Steven Universe's counterattack, Reverb Shield, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Hotaru Tomoe! COMBAT: Lera Camry fails to counter Hotaru Tomoe's Inescapable Rerun Explosion, taking 26 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! COMBAT: Lera Camry's counterattack, Guardian Burst, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Hotaru Tomoe! COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant perfectly counters Hotaru Tomoe's Inescapable Rerun Explosion, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Counter! La Sirene de Diamant's Reverse ability activates! La Sirene de Diamant's Tactician ability activates! COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant's counterattack, Les Mysteres, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Hotaru Tomoe!
<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
"Ah, she's--"
Lera realizes the explosion is coming too late. She makes a barrier appear, but the explosion rips through her fangs of energy and then slams into her. It sends her flying backward, where she slams into a wall hard. Dust flies up and a few cracks are left in the brickwork, in her wake. She does slump down, but she feels a sharp pain in her shoulder that doesn't quite fade when she rotates it.
<She hits hard. I don't recognize this sort.>
"I'm a little worried," she says. "What she told Ladybug..."
<Look! There she goes!>
"R-Right!"
Lera soars into the air, after Air Strike and into the billboard. She hits first, and then blinks when she lands. She holds a hand up -- and stares down at the elegantly painted, black-and-white image that is now everything around her. "Sky? What do you suppose--"
~I think something is...~ The Device's words appear in front of Lera, floating there as white text upon a black box. Lera tilts her head, absolutely baffled for a moment, as Sky finishes. ~...very strange about this.~
"W-We'll get you fixed soon, buddy!" Lera cries out. She takes off, nudging past, and looks over her shoulder. She peers back at Sailor Moon as she enters. "Sailor Moon! If Luna is here, try to get a picture, like the famous poster from Norwegia!"
~Stop! I cannot even complain at you properly!~
She leaps into the air, and jumps over the a man wearing a tie, to come down at a large cart piled with expensive looking, vintage 1930's clothing. Speed lines, elegant and dark, sweep from her foot as she launches a kick aimed right for it.
~Flying kicks. The scent of choice for a discerning young lady.~
She hits the cart of men's clothing. Ties, socks, and jackets go flying like some sort of Great Gatsby closet explosion.
COMBAT: Lera Camry has used Sonic Kick on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to brace Lera Camry's Sonic Kick, taking 14 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Lera Camry is Psyched!
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Moon [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
In the middle of all of this is a middle schooler named Hina Ueto of Infinity. She'd been here today shopping in Shibuya, as evidenced by the bag labelled LUMINE, a famous department store at the station. But she has a secret dream.
She wants to be a reporter. And she's a big fan of Ladybug so today is a win/win.
And that's why she's huddled down for dear life behind one of the cars in Shibuya crossing. An arm raised, held up, every so often she's checking the angle. Right now she's just enjoying the footage she's getting in the middle of Ground Zero.
Sailor Moon only spots her when she starts to lower her arm from the attack - her eyes widen as lightning gathers to break them up.
She breaks into a sudden sprint.
The blast wave of the explosion has just started to ripple through some of the nearby cars when a Pretty Guardian in a Sailor Suit crashes into her, sending her phone flying. It hits her at the same moment, as she's blown halfway across the crossing.
For just a split second she passes out from the pain.
She awakens to the distant challenging call of Airstrike, and the feel of skin against skin as someone pats her face. "Sailor Moon? Sailor Moon!" "...unnn..." "Are you alright? How many fingers am I holding up?"
Sailor Moon slurs, "... three..." "Ah. Um close enough. Oh and thanks for saving me!" A beat, "By the way- do you know Ladybug? Could you get me an interview with her? I'd really like to send it to the Webmaster of the Ladyblog... um! I'd like to interview you too of course - after!"
With a groan Sailor Moon tries to push herself back up, and the future journalist asks, "... Uh, is that a no?"
Lera's quest is unfortunately not answered. As Sailor Moon will need a minute.
<Pose Tracker> Ladybug [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.
Ladybug is very, very smug about this turn of events. "Good work, every-"
So smug that she forgets she's holding on to a wire connected to a lightning-themed Akuma.
As the smoke clears, there's a whirring sound as Ladybug's yo-yo - still steaming a bit itself - rewinds back to her hand. The girl is frazzled and then some, pigtails sticking straight out to the sides - she might not be as frizzed as Air Strike, but she has more than a few regrets. Still, it's plain that the Akuma got the worst of that little exchange.
The glance to the third part of their abrupt trio, however, brings Ladybug's attention to Sourisi proper. There's more than a few magical girls in Tokyo, but as she looks over the mousy girl...
There's a gasp that she can barely hear from her earrings, which is as much indication as any what this might be. Behind her mask, Ladybug's eyes widen. "No way...could you be...?"
There is, however, an Akuma in the area - one who's abruptly making a break for it. "What- get back here! Where do you think you're..." She tries to sling her yo-yo after Air Strike, but her hand twitches ruining the shot, and the villain slips into the advertisement. Shaking her hand, Ladybug turns back to Chat and Sourisi - as well as anyone still nearby.
"We have to go after her - the Akuma will be carrying something that's the source of her power, we just have to find what it is. And, uh..." She blinks at the mouse-themed girl, and rubs at the back of her head. "I really thought it would be just the two of us Papillon was after - but we're always happy to have the help, right Chat?"
With introductions out of the way, Ladybug dashes towards the nostalgic billboard - and putting caution to the wind, leaps into a flying kick. Her goal might have been to crack the billboard itself, but instead she plunges right into the scene. Everything has become a monochrome, but time is nowhere near stopped - and as the girl skids to a halt, she notices a few things.
One is that her ears feel much heavier - the dainty little stud-type earrings are now dangling baubles, almost cartoonishly big. Another is that she feels just a bit off, yet another that her mask likewise seems exaggerated.
Finally, there's the fact that there's a veritable host of rough gentlemen before her, barring the way to a fleeing Air Strike.
"Don't think that reruns are going to let you escape justice, Akuma! As for you - " She thinks back to history, grins, and starts whirling her yo-yo around with nearly windmilling arm movements. " - isn't it time this bar of yours was shut down?"
She might have been a decade off in remembering Prohibition era, but any suit-wearing gentlemen being hit with a whirling yo-yo probably don't care for the distinction.
COMBAT: Ladybug has used Flying Saucer on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly counters Ladybug's Flying Saucer, taking 7 Fatigue damage! Ladybug is Psyched! Hotaru Tomoe's Reverse ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Tactician ability activates! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe's counterattack, Commercial Interruption, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Ladybug!
<Pose Tracker> Steven Universe [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.
One of the magical girls, a young lady in a ladybug-like outfit, gets the major drop on the opponent, binding her in place! "Yeah! Get her!" he says, as he slams his shield in to her side. Maybe if they knock her out they can talk some sense in to her when she comes around. It feels almost brutish to do this to someone, but lives are at risk, so he gives it a pass.
But it seems too easy. Something is wrong. As more attacks pile on at once, a detonation occurs, and thanks to his anticipation, Steve nraises his shield, flicking the inside of it, causing the outer surface to ripple. When the explosion hits it, a backlash of energy fires outward, blocking at least the explosion area coming at him.
COMBAT: Steven Universe has used BAM! POW! BIFF! on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces Steven Universe's BAM! POW! BIFF!, taking 8 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Hotaru Tomoe's Block ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Parry ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
- ZAP!!!* The discharge of lightning sends the Wind Knight flying - and her sword goes flying as well, in a different direction, spearing into the pavement as the green-clad Magic Knight slams into a nearby wall, hard enough that she doesn't slide down it for a couple of seconds after impact. Then gravity reasserts itself -
And she almost can't stand up properly after *that*. She grimaces briefly, testing her right leg, then testing it again; not broken, and not too badly injured that she *can't* walk on it - she thinks and hopes, anyway - but she won't be roof-hopping for a while ...
She looks up just in time to see Air Strike disappearing into that billboard, and she makes a face at the realization. She's going to *have* to run and jump, or something. A quick Winds of Healing takes some of the pain out of the injury; she doesn't have time to do more than take the sharpest of the edge off, and she's still not moving all that smoothly as she retrieves her sword and returns it to her glove-jewel. Fortunately, she has a way to cheat as far as getting up to that billboard is concerned ... namely, more wind magic.
Channeled in a fairly straight line, at an upwards angle into the billboard. Lera goes through it ahead of her, so the Magic Knight is pretty confident she'll be able to follow her through - and it works.
Unfortunately, that puts her in the middle of a bar full of tough guys and a big band.
'I knew from the instant our eyes met that the only way out was through - through the rough-housers and the muscle men, even the big 'n' bad band, with whom that evil storm-slinging dame had surrounded herself - and then we'd have to go through *her*. I wasn't gunning for a fight with anyone but Air Strike, but it was plain as day that the fight was gunning for me either way. There was no helping it; I'd have to meet the storm head-on.'
The Wind Knight smiles ruefully, flicking her wrists and conjuring up miniature whirlwinds about each of her hands. "If you'll pardon us, gentlemen," she says politely, "I'm afraid we need words with that lady who just went plowing through your club." The wind picks up around her hands as she brings her arms up. "You'll probably want to hold onto your hats ..."
Her hands come together, then push forward and apart - and she turns up the tempest, trying to literally blow her way through the mooks with a call of "Wicked Weasel Windstorm!"
.... well, the spell WORKED, so close enough. Probably. The Wind Knight even snags a flying fedora out of the air, settling it experimentally on her head. Women *did* wear snazzy hats in this era, didn't they ... ? (Either way, she's most likely leaving the hat here after the fight - whether deliberately or otherwise.)
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Storm-Dance of Kamaitachi on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to dodge Fuu Hououji's Storm-Dance of Kamaitachi, taking 41 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit!
<Pose Tracker> La Sirene de Diamant [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed. <SoundTracker> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOG3eus4ZSo
Electricity arcs back and la Sirene breathes, "Les Mysteres-"
The surge of black and silver force wash down that extended tendril of the sea-bright darkness beneath an eternal storm and a burning blue star -
"COME!"
The countervailing surge erupts in a sparkling of electrical sacred forms, which dissipate soon enough. la Sirene lands atop a concrete bollard, her head snapping upwards as the Akuma streaks towards the billboard. "Oh, no you don't," she says, leaping off the car, towards the billboard, and then
-
Inside.
La Sirene de Diamant is less affected than many because she was already bordering monochrome, although a lot of subtle touches of vibrant if pale life are lost. She looks at her hands, touches her hair - which is now adorned with a cloche hat and pinned up into a bob. The diamond and piping on her dress is the same, but the overall pattern is straighter, looser. Flappier.
She does not have her light around her. Instead she seems to be vanishing for fractions of a second at a time, which momentarily baffles her.
Especially when an angry man with a slap bass points at her and shouts in musical notes.
Somewhere la Sirene can hear the ragged drag of a stylus on vinyl. But that place isn't here or now.
The bass-slapper raises a hand to slap her - she ducks low, crouching! A drummer aims a kick at her backside - she rolls forwards! A trombonist catches her neck in the grip of his instrument, but la Sirene is too stiff-necked to let him play.
"Terribly sorry, sir," she says to him, "but would you like to hear a song, to make up for this?"
A trumpet is turned and placed up against la Sirene's ear - but she ducks before the mighty TOOT can arc through her ear and out the other. "A song?!"
"You may find it a little strange, but your grandchildren will love it," La Sirene says, with the air of promise.
SOON
To an energetic drumroll la Sirene surges forwards. Several bandsmen have black eyes but a fellow with a stomach like a bellows is murdering his way through a song, bolstered by a brisk military drumbeat: We'll make things right, we'll feel it all, tonight! ("TONIGHT" echo the drummers.)
We'll find a way to offer up the night! ("TONIGHT")
The indescribable moments of your life! ("TONIGHT")
The impossible is possible! ("TONIGHT")
COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant has used Mellon Collie B. Goode on Hotaru Tomoe.
<Pose Tracker> Chat Noir [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.
Chat Noir grins in triumph as whacks Airstrike with his baton before jumping back and taking a bow. "I'm certain that was a blow to your ratings," yet his quib is cut short as Sourisi finished her speech. He blinks stun. No way! Another Miraculous holder.
However, Airstrike attacks again before he could comment further. With a loud yelp, Chat Noir leaps out of the air and just manages to avoid the attack. He glances back and see his partner did not have the same luck today.
"Uh..that's a shocking look for you?" He hoped the pun would lighten the mood. He then pauses to look over their new partner and grins as introductions are made. "Well, good to have you on the team!" He laughs. "I always did enjoy Jerry more in those old cartoons." He gives a wink but then Ladybug calls attention of the akuma getting away.
"Right," he says as he holds a hand. "We can't let her run away to do a rerun! Come on!"
He follows through the billboard and finds his outfit has now changed. He wore a black hat on his head with cat ears sticking out from it along with short black trench coat over his outfit. It reminds him briefly of something a detective might wear to solve a case.
"Well, at least this place has good taste in style," but then sees the large group of men that block them from their enemy.
"Guess we better shut this place down, my lady," he said and winked at Sourisi, "and little smile."
He then charges ahead as he extends his claws out.
COMBAT: Chat Noir has used Cat Scratch Fever on Hotaru Tomoe.
<Pose Tracker> Sourisi [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.
It was only a quick dodge behind the car she was standing on that saved Sourisi from the magically induced explosion, but not the shower of glass as the windows shattered from the sound wave. Jumping back up onto the roof, she let out a quick "Eep!" before catching her tonfa just in time as they boomeranged back to her. Sourisi frowned, her eyes following Air Strike's gaze down to her anklet, and flicking back up to stare the villain in the face. She knew about her anklet, and the fact she already mentioned the Miraculous when she first attacked Ladybug...La Papillion was most certainly behind this, and the reporter was nothing more than a victim here. But a dangerous victim that needed to be weaken first, before she could cause any more havoc!
It was still a shock to her as Air Strike retreated into the -billboard itself-, being rather new to her new life style. She would look at both Chat Noir and Ladybug, checking both of them, and frowning as she spotted that Ladybug's ponytails looked like they were trying to become two miniture afros.
Sourisi, for her part, could only raise her right hand and wiggle the fingers on her tonfa in greeting, a sheepish look on her face. It would be lieing to say that she wasn't enjoying the surprised reactions from both Ladybug and Chat Noir, but they didn't need to know that just yet! "Right! It will has to be something that a reporter wants to keep close to her, if I have to guess. She wants to be the center of attention. And...i'm Sourisi. It's so nice to finally meet you two, Ladybug, Chat Noir! Take the lead, i'll follow!"
Nodding towards the other two Miraculous users, she started towards the billboard. While she may not have Ladybug's yo-yo for ascending, she can climb just fine, and after only a few moments she was rippling through the screen. That's when things got weird, as she found herself in a colorless landscape. Looking behind her, Sourisi could see the square rectangle that leads back to Shibuya, but the colors seemed almost too bright to look at in comparision to the grayscale Sourisi found herself in. It was Ladybug's appearance that really took her by surprise, however, and she quickly reached up with her hands to feel her features.
First thing she noticed was that her rounded mouse ears were gigantic now, almost touching each other due to their size. Her mask was likewise exaggerated, with it and her eyes nearly taking up half of her face.
What was the worst thing, however, was the fact she was even shorter than normal, and her eyes narrowed in silent rage.
"Oooh, now you just made this personal, Air Strike! This may be an oldie, but it's certainly not a goodie!" It was Chat Noir that drew Sourisi back on track, and she bowed her head in agreement.
"Right! Sorry, boys, but the coppers are here and you're on notice. Gumshoe Jerry, Dame Ladybug and Dollface Tom are here to close up shop!"
With that, she charges in, jabbing with her tonfa and lending aid to a welldressed young man that looked oddly familiar! Sourisi made a quick note to try getting a good look at him once all is said and done.
COMBAT: Sourisi has used Mouse Flurry on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to brace La Sirene de Diamant's Mellon Collie B. Goode, taking 40 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly dodges Sourisi's Mouse Flurry, taking 31 Fatigue damage! Sourisi is Psyched! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to brace Chat Noir's Cat Scratch Fever, taking 27 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit!
<Pose Tracker> Hotaru Tomoe [Infinity Institute (6)] has posed. <SoundTracker> Sing Sing Sing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhyhP_5VfKM
The bar was already chaos from Air Strike's intrusion and attack -- these men were definitely attacked, they have lightning where their eyes should be and are under her control -- but it is magnified as infinitely as the cable listings upon the arrival of the others.
Men's clothing goes everywhere, first kicked by Lera and then accelerated to deadly speeds by Fuu.
Much of the room disappears in another debris cloud, this one with the occasional whirling fist or yelping, long-necked head momentarily breaking out of it. Steven's hub cap, Chat Noir's claws, Sourisi's tonfa and Ladybug's yo-yo all make appearances as well. La Sirene doesn't, but she's felt in those moments that the cloud parts and there's nothing to see.
At last there's a clear path forward; men with @_@ faces are strewn everywhere, across the bar, along the stage, all over the floor. Air Strike was last seen disappearing into the back room. The group approaches, and--
BGM Swap: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4n-CiwIZcY
<< PEW! >>
<< PEWPEW! PEW!! >>
<< PEWWWWWWWw! >>
In retrospect the piano note and brass were a clue but not enough of one to pre-empt the speed of light, and the exciting, exploratory music is going in earnest. Laser pistol blasts, each one a streak of red light, chew their way down a spaciously empty, white-lit corridor and directly into the group, fired by a pack of fully colored (and various-colored uniformed) robots with blue lightning instead of pupils in their eyes.
There are vast windows -- well, window is the wrong word, here. There are vast viewscreens, or perhaps portions of transparent hull. Outside: space, not even spectacularly real space but spectacularly fake space, with swirling galaxies and nebula that bring to mind Crayola colors like 'cosmic purple' and 'mid-90s orange'.
There is a distinct lack of magic here in general, and a distinct surplus of sufficiently advanced technology.
At the end of the corridor, Air Strike disappears around a corner.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Keep Circulating The Tapes on Sourisi. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Keep Circulating The Tapes on Chat Noir. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Keep Circulating The Tapes on La Sirene de Diamant. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Keep Circulating The Tapes on Fuu Hououji. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Keep Circulating The Tapes on Steven Universe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Keep Circulating The Tapes on Ladybug. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Keep Circulating The Tapes on Lera Camry. COMBAT: Chat Noir narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Keep Circulating The Tapes, taking 3 Fatigue damage! Chat Noir's Block ability activates! Chat Noir's Parry ability activates! COMBAT: Ladybug narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Keep Circulating The Tapes, taking 6 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Ladybug's Block ability activates! Ladybug's Parry ability activates! COMBAT: Sourisi narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Keep Circulating The Tapes, taking 7 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Steven Universe narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Keep Circulating The Tapes, taking 5 Fatigue damage! Steven Universe's Block ability activates! Steven Universe's Parry ability activates! COMBAT: Lera Camry narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Keep Circulating The Tapes, taking 7 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Fuu Hououji perfectly counters Hotaru Tomoe's Keep Circulating The Tapes, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Counter! COMBAT: Fuu Hououji's counterattack, Gale Arrow, bursts all the way through, doing 34 Fatigue damage to Hotaru Tomoe! Critical Counterhit! COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Keep Circulating The Tapes, taking 8 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! La Sirene de Diamant's Block ability activates! La Sirene de Diamant's Parry ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
Lera lands on her feet, skidding, even as the room around them is strewn and hurled about. She rushes towards the back room, and then emerges into something that might seem like it should be familiar... but is not.
<Oh thank heavens! I--you have to be kidding me.> His voice is clipped and robotic, and has the scratchy sound of a tape.
Lera giggles, even while Lera stares for a moment at the terribly scientifically inaccurate view of galaxies, nebulas, and stars that simply wouldn't exist in reality. Didn't exist on the ships she had spent time on, like the same one that she originally took to come to Earth. Her head tilts. "This looks--"
<Look out!>
She turns, as a bolt of laser light slashes at her side. She throws a hand up -- <Protection!> -- and a barrier intercepts the rest that come for her. She scowls at the robots, before she goes running at them. She swings her sword out to the side, and light ignites up it. It wavers and shines in a sort of off-color way.
And then she leaps into their midst. She slams Sky down, slashing into the first robot, then kicks off it, and slashes at another. With each strike, there is a familiar, chiming sound. Like... a certain space opera film.
<I am filing a complaint!>
COMBAT: Lera Camry has used Regenschauer on Hotaru Tomoe.
<Pose Tracker> Steven Universe [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.
Steven cracks his knuckles after a throwdown with some big fellas. That was actually funner than expected! So thats how normal fights go. Getting hit a few times actually wasn't life and death! Man, normal kids have it easy. Well, maybe. This is a terrible example. They are inside an electronic billboard after all. "She's getting away!" Steven shouts, as he gives chase through an opening.
He follows ehr through and...!
Immediately regrets it, as lasers fly at the group! The boy raises his shield to block, but realizes there is a problem! "Why is there a hole in my shield?!" he exclaims, a laser flies through the hole and clips his shoulder. His shield has become a circular disc-like item, with pink circuitry on it in concentric circles. His outfit has become a full body suit, with pick circuitry lights on it, along with a large white helmet. It loosk really cheesy. "Who programmed this?" he asks. He isn't sure why he asked it.
Rather than dwell on that, he decides to attack those firing upon them! The boy whips his shield down the hall, and it flies much faster than he is used to, leaving a trail of pink light behind it! "Woohoo!"
COMBAT: Steven Universe has used Laser Light Disc on Hotaru Tomoe.
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
They pass out of the bar and into a spaceship - starship, *whatever* - and the Wind Knight doesn't even have time to think about the change, only the fact that they're under fire. Her bow and quiver flare into existence as if materializing out of some kind of teleporter-based storage; an arrow is thrust into her reaching hand and she draws it back on the bowstring as the wind picks up about her ...
"GALE ARROW!!"
And suddenly, that surge of wind is wrapped around the arrow itself as it flies down the hall, somehow deflecting lases which *would* have hit the green-armored Knight, and spearing through one guard robot so sharply that the robot *behind* it goes down as well. They might even topple a third on the way down.
She runs onwards, only belatedly glancing down at herself, similarly belatedly realizing that the fedora is gone from her head as abruptly as she'd obtained it. Her armor is sleeker now than it used to be, and the uniform beneath her breastplate seems - well, more like it was designed by a costuming department than the old school uniform she was wearing at the time she became a Magic Knight. She shakes her head and focuses forward again, loosing a couple more arrows at the remaining robots, trying to give her companions some much-needed cover fire.
<Pose Tracker> Ladybug [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.
As Chat and Sourisi join in - as Lera and Steven and Fuu jump into the fray - as la Sirene enforces a change of background music - Dame Ladybug finds herself with a smirk once more. "Just try making a comment on my look now, 'Chat Tracy'."
She's a bit less frazzled, at least - and Sourisi gets a sympathetic wince for what the place has done to her.
"I think that's enough of the classics - whaddya say, pals, time to blow this joint?" With a grin, she walks toward the back room, pointedly stepping on certain particular suits.
Never liked those styles anyway.
The next room, however, is not a 1930s extravaganza - a few centuries past that, in theory. In practice...it's almost literally painful to anyone with an eye for graphic design, and Ladybug is cursed with such a gift. The flash of laser light has the girl whirling her yo-yo before she can even think, grunting as the cord somehow deflects a beam of red danger into a near-graze.
"Complaint?" The voice from Lera's direction has Ladybug turning sympathetically. "I know what you mean, this is kind of...wait, did your sword just talk? Is that normal, or part of this channel hopping we're doing?"
Briefly baffled, she returns the yo-yo to her hand - and stares at it. There's a strange abnormal glow around the seam, a red light spilling out as if drawn onto the disc in post-processing - and as she swings it experimentally, she finds that the glow almost lags behind it at times. She looks down at herself next, and takes in the changes to her usual bodysuit. It's still a bodysuit, but the black spots are instead reflective chrome. Her earrings are back to studs, and catching her reflection in a window she can see moving lines of light around her mask.
"All right, this is just ridiculous. After we deal with the Akuma, I'm going to hunt down the fashion designer for this show and-" She stops, mid sentence, upon seeing the outfit Chat's wearing - something out of a sci-fi military show with astonishingly...snug fits for their uniforms.
"...thank them, I guess. Anyway! Chat, you go...that way, I'll go this way! Sourisi - be careful, and see if you can't get past those robots while we're keeping them busy!" Ladybug sprints forward, whirling her glowing yo-yo, and leaps feet-first at one robot - before twisting to kick it into Chat's path before moving on to the next.
It's surprisingly well-coordinated, given how determined she is to not look at him.
COMBAT: Ladybug has started a combo targeting Hotaru Tomoe! COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Basic Archery on Hotaru Tomoe.
<Pose Tracker> La Sirene de Diamant [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
La Sirene du Nord leaps and gambols forwards into the doorway and emerges into a world of TECHNICOLOR, whereupon she is immediately shot a half dozen times in the chest and falls forwards, landing flat on her face, smoking gently as if someone put a bag with a bunch of dry ice just behind her.
From the doorway behind her runs up Batiste. Is it Batiste? His ears seem pointier and he has a slightly floppy horn on his forehead. He runs up to la Sirene and squeaks vigorously!
What he says is: "Poukisa mwen gen bagay sa a sou tèt mwen?"
The subtitles read: "Cousin! You can't -- I won't believe you could --"
La Sirene rolls over onto her back and groans. She answers Batiste, as she looks at her hands. What she says is: "Li pike ... kisa k ap pase? Poukisa mwen pale konsa? Si Rèn Samdi tande se li pral yo dwe fache?"
The subtitles read: "It's kicking in... the infusion of Mutagen Serum... the power of Sirius flows through me!"
Batiste squeaks in reply, "Mwen pa pral di si ou pa pral, men kite a jwenn soti nan isit la anvan li vin menm vin pi mal!"
The subtitles read: "That forbidden experiment... but your CyberShield powers are our only hope!"
"Mwen mande si Pharos yo ap fè yon bri lè mwen leve," says la Sirene as she rolls to her feet.
The subtitles read: "CyberShield gene link powering up..."
The Brazen Pharos, which looks subtly different but was already basically a glass box with a glowing object in it, produces a thereminic rising octave.
"Li te fè! Sa ki te gwo!" la Sirene says.
The subtitles read: "DIE FOR SIRIUS!"
With this, streaks of digitized vaguely purple-green effects, rendered on a Video Toaster, fly formlessly from la Sirene's arm (sort of) as she surges ahead towards the end of the hall!
COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant has used Those Subtitles Were Inaccurate As Heck on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly counters La Sirene de Diamant's Those Subtitles Were Inaccurate As Heck, taking 4 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! La Sirene de Diamant is Psyched! Hotaru Tomoe's Reverse ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Tactician ability activates! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe's counterattack, Bad Dubbing, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to La Sirene de Diamant!
<Pose Tracker> Chat Noir [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.
Chat literally claws his way through the men and follows Ladybug into the back room. However, the surroundings change again and this time he finds himself wearing a very tight fitting uniform. He looks himself over as he flexs his hands. "I'm not sure how practical this armour is," he looks to Ladybug and smiles. "But that looks good on you, my lady."
He spies the robot and his surroundings feeling like he had a movie like this home in his collection.
He hears her instructions and give a nod. "Right! It's time to bring this villain out of the dark side!"
He runs in the direction Ladybug told him to go and starts finishing off every robot Ladybug throws towards him.
COMBAT: Chat Noir has joined the combo started by Ladybug! COMBAT: COMBO! Ladybug and Chat Noir have used Crazy Mixed-Up Love on Hotaru Tomoe.
<Pose Tracker> Sourisi [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.
A path was cleared as the dust cloud parted, which left Sourisi a little confused as to what actually happened. "Wait, why were we in a fighting cloud?" Shaking her head at just how odd her own question was, Sourisi refocused on the task at hand and started to head for the back room. If the short mouse girl was taking out her fustrations by jumping on the stomach of each prone man on the way over there, well, it wasn't anything you had to worry about, right? She charged in and-
-stumbled as she suddendly found herself back to her normal height, and coming to a stop when she reached the far wall. The sound of canned laser sound effects, like that from a cheap toy, reached her ears and Sourisi had to quickly raise her tonfa along her forearms in a hasty defense. Once the threat of immediate lasers was dealt with, she had a chance to look at herself. This time, her tonfa had changed, and were metallic around the grip, and obviously painted a bright neon blue down the length. Her bodysuit was still there, but now it had chrome added, giving her clunky boots, gloves, and a bright shiny breastplate that had various gauges and levers sticking out of the front. She even had a metallic tail, segmented into sharp ridges. Her eyemask now had bright blue domed lens over her eyes, turning her whole world into shades of aqua, and her hair was loose and various shades of colors, giving the appearance of loose wires. Finally, her face was painted with bright metallic silver paint, making her appear to be an android.
"NOW THIS IS JUST SILLY. WAIT, WHY AM I TALKING LIKE THIS?!" Sourisi's voice was static-y and only faintly sounded like herself, and the robot mouse girl showed her displeasure as she rushed down the hallway, twirling her tonfa to smash in some fellow fake robots. "FINE THEN! BEEP BOOP! I AM A ROBOT, AND I'M HERE TO DESTROY BAD TASTE IN TELEVISION!"
COMBAT: Sourisi has used BEEP BOOP! on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to brace Ladybug and Chat Noir's Combo: Crazy Mixed-Up Love, taking 66 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Ladybug and Chat Noir are Psyched! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe perfectly dodges Fuu Hououji's Basic Archery, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to brace Steven Universe's Laser Light Disc, taking 26 Fatigue damage! Exhausted applied to Hotaru Tomoe! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to dodge Lera Camry's Regenschauer, taking 67 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to brace Sourisi's BEEP BOOP!, taking 25 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit!
<Pose Tracker> Hotaru Tomoe [Infinity Institute (6)] has posed.
Again it isn't terribly difficult to ford the river of mooks, but the robots put up just enough of a fight to make it take awhile. From some gold-clad fellows pulling out their own beamsabers to briefly engage Lera in spark-flying dueling, to Steven's laser disc bouncing back and forth through the hallway like some sickening combination of pinball and PONG, to Fuu firing lightweight, hyperpostmodern arrows into the fray, to Ladybug and Chat Noir's fisticuffs which really transcend genres with their timelessness, to la Sirene's memorable special effects which blast robots about, but are made slightly less effective when she's startled by her own bad dubbing, to ROBO-MOUSE just mowing down her foes.
They do a little smashing back, but the last of the laser fire fades quickly, the beamswords switching off, around the time that the music ends and the corridor runs out. There's a faintly salty smell from around the corner, and then blinding, blinding sunlight--
--and the sea.
BGM Swap: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRh-dzrI4Z4
A massive and mighty pirate ship plunges into a trench, threatening to knock everyone to the deck if they're not careful, before yawning nauseously upwards on the next wave.
In that time the pirates, who are somewhat more accustomed to their environment, have surrounded the group. A moment later, they charge in, all peg-legs, cutlasses, pistols and yarrs! They're everywhere. On all decks, in the extensive rigging, sliding down masts, swinging from ropes. Firing cannons. Weighing anchors. There are parrots. There is grog. Also the bright sheen of treasure -- all that glitters here is gold.
Air Strike has fled below desks, rushing towards the Captain's cabin.
OOC: Before someone asks, hold onto your finishers for another round, kay? She's not a viable target quite yet. ;) COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Ship Happens on Sourisi. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Ship Happens on Chat Noir. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Ship Happens on La Sirene de Diamant. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Ship Happens on Ladybug. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Ship Happens on Fuu Hououji. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Ship Happens on Steven Universe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Ship Happens on Lera Camry. COMBAT: Lera Camry perfectly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Ship Happens, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge! Lera Camry's Fade ability activates! Lera Camry's Flash ability activates! COMBAT: Sourisi narrowly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Ship Happens, taking 17 Fatigue damage! Sourisi's Fade ability activates! Sourisi's Flash ability activates! Stagger applied to Sourisi! COMBAT: Chat Noir narrowly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Ship Happens, taking 18 Fatigue damage! Stagger applied to Chat Noir! COMBAT: Ladybug perfectly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Ship Happens, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge! Ladybug's Fade ability activates! Ladybug's Flash ability activates! COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant perfectly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Ship Happens, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge! COMBAT: Fuu Hououji fails to dodge Hotaru Tomoe's Ship Happens, taking 33 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Stagger applied to Fuu Hououji! COMBAT: Steven Universe fails to dodge Hotaru Tomoe's Ship Happens, taking 35 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit!
<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
"This is Sky!" Lera says to Ladybug, mid-swing. "He normally talks! Though, he usually sounds clearer than this..."
Lera is pleased that she tore through many of them, despite the burn in her shoulder -- and the continuing ache from her back, where she hit the wall earlier. As she rushes out into the next area, where sunlight shines down and the smell of the sea is strong. She yelps, as the deck of the pirate ship that they are on tilts.
<Yarr. 'Tis--OH BLOODY HELL. NO.>
Soaring Sky goes quiet. Lera looks down at him, frowning, and gives a shake to her sword. She frowns a little more, then, and then she ducks her head instinctively to the side. A cannon ball goes flying by. She turns, slowly. Her eyes narrow.
Then, she grins.
Lera leaps, grabbing onto a swinging rope -- and goes soaring through the air, and slashes hard for the cannon before she drops off it, to the deck, and keeps running!
COMBAT: Lera Camry has used Lanzebrecher on Hotaru Tomoe.
<Pose Tracker> Steven Universe [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.
Steven shield glances and bounces around, and strangely enough, correctly returns despite the fact that it shouldn't have been able to. "Neato! It came back on its own!" A shame he doesn't have that normally. That'd be sweeeet. Then again he can just summon another, but that is also tiring. The boy gives chase dow nthe hall, and before he knows it, he is feet down on a boat!
"A-Ahhh!" is all Steven can let out before a sudden lurch begins to send him all over the boat. Into barrels, crates, and once into a mast in an almost comical manner. The boy gets up, and realizes that he is wearing his raincoat again! But with heavy black wading boots, a super floppy hat, and some harpoons slung on his back! "AHHH MY FACE-- Oh wait."
The boy reached up and realized he had an eyepatch and massive fluffy beard, but realized they were both fake. His shield has become a metal buckler-like affair, with gold trim, and the engraving of a woman's bust depicting a lady with curling pink hair, light skin, and an ivory white dress. Her eyes are closed, and she is smiling.
"Yarr! Get 'um!" Steven curls out, looking toward Fuu especially. "Lass, ye be the best chance we have on these unfair seas! The storms at yer call!" he says, trying to encourage her. Doesn't sound the createst though. Perhaps the feelings will at least reach her.
Afterward, he turns to face some pirates himself. They may be large, burly and armed, but Steven is a Crystal Gem! These seafarers may find this small bearded boy to be...
...the deadlist match!
COMBAT: Steven Universe has used Love Like You on Fuu Hououji.
<Pose Tracker> Ladybug [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed. <SoundTracker> Lucky Charm! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHqH0NBFz-I
Breathing heavily from the robot riot, Ladybug looks around. There don't seem to be any left - just a bunch of sci-fi rejects looking for their nemesis. She's left blinking at Sourisi's grudging 'beep boop', and can't help but giggle. "I'm sorry about this, Sourisi...but does this make you a 'computer mouse'?"
There's plenty of corridor left, though, even as the rising music begins to fade away. There's a smell emanating, though, and Ladybug frowns thoughtfully. "...salt? Don't tell me we're stuck dealing with another-"
There's a resounding crash, as everyone hits the deck - Ladybug absolutely no exception to the rule. Things seem strangely dark on one side, but there's no time to contemplate it as she spies a cutlass swinging toward her. All she can do is jump -
- land on the flat of the sword -
- and jump again, catching on to the rigging overhead with one hand. One of the pirates descending those ropes takes a swing, one Ladybug has to duck at the last instant - and there's a soft tearing sound.
An eyepatch, red with black spots, lands in her hand. There's a moment, as she stares at this, and then she just throws it in the pirate's face. "Blast it all, this channel hopping is getting ridiculous! Chat, Sourisi, I'm going to try to come up with something - and I'll try to find Air Strike!"
A not-very-merciful kick later, Ladybug is scaling the rigging to the top of this mast. It's difficult, as the ship bucks and sways its way down the trench, and the sounds of cannon fire and battle ring out in her wake. Quickly enough, though, she's at the top - and the bucket is just stable enough for her to spin, stand on one foot, and fling up a yo-yo as golden as her earrings.
"LUCKY CHARM!"
Brilliant crimson light shines forth, coalesces, and turns into...what looks like a watermelon-sized ball of red-and-black twine, tightly wound.
"What in the world...this isn't anywhere near strong enough to stop a ship this size, is it?" She peers closer, smells it, and wrinkles her nose. "The only thing this would be good for is - oh! That reminds me - "
Ladybug peers down below, spies a spark of lightning about to escape, and calls down from the lookout post. "Chat! Air Strike is heading below decks, try to chase her!"
COMBAT: Ladybug has used Lucky Charm on Hotaru Tomoe.
<Pose Tracker> La Sirene de Diamant [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
La Sirene staggers forwards, raises an arm, and
Batiste lets out a thin squeak as he mirrors la Sirene's motion.
Because on the one hand there is intense, eye-searing sunlight. La Sirene is pretty sure her retinae just caught fire and she is now blind forever. (This happens a lot when she steps out on a sunny day.) On the other hand, the ship sags forwards...
And rises...
And la Sirene's boot rests on the deck, unperturbed. As her eyes adapt, she squints into the haze and Batiste shrieks a warning and she ducks a pirate's cutlass!
"Everyone! Keep a hand on someone!" she cries out, grabbing blindly at something that she thinks is a rope and turns out to be a pirate's braid. Another duck and tumble later, and she's starting to actually see objects again. This luck can't last -
Ladybug cries out. "Below decks?" la Sirene echoes.
"We can't just sink the ship!" Batiste protests.
"I - I didn't say anything about sinking the ship!!"
COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant has used The Sunlight Hurts My Eyes on La Sirene de Diamant. COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant accepts La Sirene de Diamant's The Sunlight Hurts My Eyes, taking 0 Fatigue damage! La Sirene de Diamant is Reinforced by La Sirene de Diamant!
<Pose Tracker> Sourisi [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.
Sourisi would rush towards the corner as soon as the last robot fell, not wanting to stay looking like an android mouse any more than she had to. This was the kind of getup that a 5 year old on Halloween would be estatic to wear, but not a teenager Miraculous user. She just knew Takk was going to have a laugh about this later, even though he'll deny that he found it funny later. "LET'S GET OUT OF TACKY SCI-FI LAND. WHAT ELSE COULD WE BE FACING?" ROBO-MOUSE would jog around the corner and-
-would suddendly find herself running a bit lop sided. She caught herself on the rigging as the ship plummeted into a deep trench and gave herself a quick look over, and found that there was a bit of an issue. Sourisi was mostly back to normal, if you didn't count the massive peg leg that her left leg had turned into. She could still feel her foot inside, but getting it out of the pegleg wasn't going to happen anytime soon. Various painted, ragged scars ran up and down her bodysuit, and an eyepatch was over her right eye now. Her large mouse ears had bite marks and clearly have seen better days, and now Sourisi's tail ended in a spiked mace to complete the menacing sea rat look going for her. That gave her an idea.
As the pirates rushed in towards her and the others, she simply moved her arms far away from her side, giving her the appearance of an easy target. That was before her tail swung at some tied down barrels, shattering several and sending the rest careening towards the pirates.
"If ye reckon that ye can loot down th' fearsome Captain Sourisi, ye 'ave another thin' comin', ye filthy scallywags! A quick jump off th' plank be th' only thin' that shall save ye from th' likes o' me!" Unlike the space ship, Sourisi seems to be quite enjoying herself! She did look over at Ladybug in surprise, however, as she used Lucky Charm. If she remembered what Takk had told her about what the Ladybug Miraculous could do...things were about to get interesting.
COMBAT: Sourisi has used Tail Snag on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Fuu Hououji accepts Steven Universe's Love Like You, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Surge applied to Fuu Hououji!
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
Bows and arrows are really kind of a superweapon in the post-medieval world, when you think about it. They're relatively silent (compared to gunpowder projectiles), highly accurate at a distance in trained hands, and while they *can* run out of ammunition, it's not that hard to make new arrows compared to reloading bullets or charging laser-gun power packs.
On the other hand, the robots seemed perfectly capable of spotting the incoming arrows and dodging or deflecting them, so maybe the Wind Knight's archery wasn't superweapon enough. Now, the *pirate ship* seems like a good place for more archery ...
If it weren't for a sudden lurching of the deck exacerbating the Wind Knight's previously-tweaked ankle and hurling her against the mast, right as a cannonball slams through it from the other side.
She winds up sprawled on the deck, the glare of the sun blinding her, and sea mist gradually soaking into the dress she wears under her armor. The world just *won't* stop spinning, and the unsteady deck beneath her is as far from comforting as it could possibly get. What *is* comforting and reassuring and strengthening, though .... are Steven's words.
The wind *is* her element. Others have used it to their ends, even turned it against her with greater or lesser success, but she specializes in wind magic - and not just as attacks.
She may not be able to do anything about the sea ... but the wind which stirs it up? *That*, she can use.
She sits up, then starts getting to her feet; a stern whisper prompts the wind to stir her skirts - and then, as she stands fully, she raises her left arm overhead, the glove-jewel catching the light and flashing bright, brilliant green for all to see, friend and foe alike.
And the wind fades - both the breeze which mended her ankle, and the winds which stir up the ocean and fill the ship's sails. She doesn't even HAVE to speak; her will in this moment is that strong, and her magic flows freely to enact it on the world around her.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Moment of Stillness on Fuu Hououji. COMBAT: Fuu Hououji accepts Fuu Hououji's Moment of Stillness, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Fuu Hououji is Reinforced by Fuu Hououji!
<Pose Tracker> Chat Noir [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.
They make quick work of the robots, but it's not over yet as they chase Air Strike onto a pirate ship. He looks down as is rather pleased by the pirate outfit he wears. "Now, this is more like it! I make a great swashbuckling hero!" There's no time to admire himself, with all the pirates coming to wards them.
Chat Noir tries to dodge, but not fast enough to avoid getting nicked by a sword or two before he jumps and clings to the ship's mast.
Upon hearing Ladybug's shout, he grins. "I think it's about time we sink this ship and return to our regularly scheduled programing!"
He summons his power as his hands crackle with his miraculous power. "Cat-aclysm!" Black light glows around his claws as he jumps, spins, and yells as he prepares to dive bomb the ship below.
"Nowhere left to hide!" His claws of destruction sink into the deck of the ship itself!
COMBAT: FINISHER! Chat Noir has used Cataclysm on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces Ladybug's Lucky Charm, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Ladybug is Psyched! Hotaru Tomoe's Block ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Parry ability activates! Bind Break! All of Ladybug's debuffs are cleared! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly dodges Lera Camry's Lanzebrecher, taking 30 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces Sourisi's Tail Snag, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Hotaru Tomoe's Block ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Parry ability activates! Trap applied to Hotaru Tomoe! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly dodges Chat Noir's Finisher, Cataclysm, taking 31 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Hotaru Tomoe [Infinity Institute (6)] has posed.
Things on the pirate ship seem fond of exploding. Lera bisects a cannon with a single slash and it goes boom; Sourisi is similar in her treatment of barrels. Black powder gets everywhere, triggering sneezes and burning eyes, and unlike with the last couple channels where the hordes of opponents were quickly defeated, this time the majority remain, perhaps because the group has to catch their breath a little before resuming their ass-kicking march across TV Land.
But then Chat Noir decides to change the game entirely. With a touch of his claw, the ship begins to dissolve into nothing but black dust, crackling away on the ocean breeze. It quickly catches up to Air Strike, who gasps, then glares, and finally mutters darkly to herself before transforming into blue lightning herself -- no flesh remains -- and crashing into the ocean.
There is a -- forgive us -- cataclysmic explosion -- as not only the ship but the ocean, even the sky, all begin to dissolve away into sparks and static... and 1s and 0s. Whole pixels, and blocks of like-colored pixels, are especially likely to disintegrate at once, leaving only little digital traces of their underlying media.
These are infected by arcs of blueness; remnants of Air Strike's path out of this collapsing channel, perhaps, and they provide a path for the others as well. It is possible though not easy to catch a ride on a flickering pixel, surfing a waveform into an ever-accelerating stream--
BGM Swap: Presented Without Apology https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qN72LEQnaU
The darkness of the dying TV stream gives way to overwhelming brightness -- to millions of colors, every spot on the HTML hex grid and more -- to an intersection that both faintly echoes the typical chaos of Shibuya Station, back in the 'real' world (though is this fake, is it really?) and utterly outpaces it in both speed and raw complexity.
BGM Swap: Sorry not sorry https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmtzQCSh6xk
The rather precarious, dying pixels stabilize into more solid packets, becoming wider and a little bit more uniform, even as windows open on all sides, and also in front of--
BGM Swap: Local color https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTIIMJ9tUc8
--well, this is the WORLDWIDE web--
BGM Swap: Help https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NL6CDFn2i3I
Moment by moment, the group, each on their own little logical surfboard, might be pixelated, or YouTubed into any conceivable genre, or break up into a thousand bits of torrent before being reconstructed--
BGM Swap: And suddenly, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0
--and Air Strike, Air Strike must be dreadfully dangerous here, considering her infectious tendencies. Considering how she's taken over whatever she touches with her lightning, the rising blueness of the internet ahead could well become a true blue screen of death if the group doesn't --
BGM Swap: Yeah, it happened https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
-- catch --
BGM Swap: aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckc6XSSh52w
-- up!
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Memepocalypse Now on Chat Noir. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Memepocalypse Now on Fuu Hououji. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Memepocalypse Now on Sourisi. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Memepocalypse Now on La Sirene de Diamant. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Memepocalypse Now on Ladybug. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Memepocalypse Now on Steven Universe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Memepocalypse Now on Lera Camry. COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Memepocalypse Now, taking 7 Fatigue damage! La Sirene de Diamant's Block ability activates! La Sirene de Diamant's Parry ability activates! COMBAT: Ladybug fails to brace Hotaru Tomoe's Memepocalypse Now, taking 24 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Chat Noir narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Memepocalypse Now, taking 9 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Chat Noir's Block ability activates! Chat Noir's Parry ability activates! COMBAT: Lera Camry perfectly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Memepocalypse Now, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Critical Dodge! Lera Camry's Fade ability activates! Lera Camry's Flash ability activates! COMBAT: Sourisi narrowly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Memepocalypse Now, taking 12 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Sourisi's Fade ability activates! Sourisi's Flash ability activates! COMBAT: Fuu Hououji narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Memepocalypse Now, taking 10 Fatigue damage! Fuu Hououji's Block ability activates! Fuu Hououji's Parry ability activates! COMBAT: Steven Universe fails to counter Hotaru Tomoe's Memepocalypse Now, taking 25 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Steven Universe's counterattack, Bubble Shield, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Hotaru Tomoe! <Pose Tracker> Ladybug [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed. <SoundTracker> Reboot Theme (Orchestrated) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdMtXGG5i_s
"Wait, I didn't mean like tha-"
The ship shatters.
Reality shatters.
Ladybug tumbles further than most, having been up in the crow's nest; this also has her falling faster still, crashing into one long-buried internet earworm after another, her appearance changing with each browser window shattered. That's what it seems like from her perspective, anyway - a million billion frames of computer screens, like panes of terribly inconvenient memetic glass.
The shifts are more rapid now, and Ladybug can barely keep control of herself - until she spies one familiar-looking window off to the side. It's hard to control her descent, but with a bit of straining, she can just barely make it-
-and swings from an expertly-thrown yo-yo, restored to her normal self by passage through the Ladyblog.
"Thanks, Alya...now, how am I going to deal with you..." Ladybug's eyes narrow as she swings towards the fleeing Air Strike. Now she's beginning to make connections - the microphone/statue the Akuma holds, the thousands of browser windows flying through the air amidst every other representation of the internet, the ball of twine under her arm - and she realizes what we have to do.
"Your fifteen minutes are up, Air Strike! They said that video killed the radio star - and now it's time for the Internet to do the same to the TV star!" She swings wide, brushing against a red-framed window, typing in a quick query - then bounces to another, and another, as each window in her wake starts scrolling rapidly, starts growling. As she closes in, she hurls the ball of twine at Air Strike - then flings her yo-yo, to destroy her own weapon. The ball explodes into fragments, a strange green dust filling the air around the Akuma. It wasn't twine at all, but rather...
~ BGM CHANGE -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH2-TGUlwu4 ~
...catnip.
The video search results Ladybug had started complete, and Air Strike - now covered in catnip - is abruptly surrounded by what seems like every cat video on the Net. (Seemingly, but not truly - Ladybug's good, but not that good.) From those windows, the cats emerge - some fat, some skinny, some live and some animated. One riding a poptart on a rainbow leads the charge, and the greatest meme of the net catpiles the Akuma.
Maybe she haz cheezburger.
"That should hold her - take her down, and break that microphone she's carrying!" Ladybug, carefully keeping clear of the cats herself, starts winding up - she's ready to catch a butterfly.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Ladybug has used Miraculous Ladybug on Hotaru Tomoe.
<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
Lera gawks as they sore through the internet itself, surrounded by windows into the internet and internet memes. She gasps as she dives downward on a surfboard of pixels. Sounds, both from modems and songs, assail her and she grits her teeth--until her eyes widen. "Oh! I looked at all of these before I came here! To understand Ear--I mean Japan!"
She can see the threat, though. Her eyes narrow. If they can't deal with Air Strike, she could take over the internet. That wouldn't bode well for the planet.
Fortunately, Ladybug covers Air Strike in... er... catnip? Lera blinks a couple of times -- then she shrugs her shoulders. "W-Well... it works..."
She swings Soaring Sky down. The sword splits in two, down the middle. Arcs of plasma leap between them, like lightning, and a glow begins to gather between the two, as she aims it towards Air Strike. A trio of spinning rings, each lined with runes, appears before her -- and a magical triangle behind her.
<Aurora Burst...>
Then, a beam of light explodes from between the two halves of the sword. It hits the trio of control rings, and the bright blast of light turns into a pinpoint beam that pulses downward -- between the cats -- and shoots directly for the Akuma. Lera cries out over its shot.
"...RAAAAAAAAAAAAY!"
COMBAT: FINISHER! Lera Camry has used Aurora Burst Ray on Hotaru Tomoe.
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
There was a movie - long ago, well before most of this generation's magical girls were born - about a programmer who got digitized and inserted into the mainframe of a big computer engineering company. It had a sequel, not quite that long ago, and a certain glasses-wearing archer enrolled at Infinity wound up watching both of them at some point.
Here and now, as the exploding pirate ship takes out that pocket of unreality, the Magic Knight of Wind thinks back on those movies briefly when the digital television stream around them shows its true form. She *does* have her computer skills, but she's a programmer, not a streamer; she just tries to keep up as best she can.
One moment, one step, and her suddenly pixelated 'form' could have stepped out of an old (or at least retro) video game; a jump later, and she's not merely clad in armor, but looks like a very fluidly-moving machine with thrusters in her wings. That lets her make up a good bit of distance - but she touches down again, and a green-furred catgirl pounces in pursuit of Air Strike from that stepping-stone screen, pawing at the air ahead of her.
She tries very, very hard not to care - but she's looking for better, more strategic windows to leap from. The Magic Knight of Wind doesn't have a dedicated blog covering her exploits, so she can't follow Ladybug's lead, much as she'd like to. The best she can do is land on a clip of schoolgirls driving tanks into sporting battle; that at least gets her to look human again ... but the tank won't let her jump anywhere.
But as long as she can use her magic - and as the turret elevates and traverses, she can feel the words blossoming in her heart - then the details don't matter. The words rise to her throat and she gives them voice: "EMERALD CYCLONE!!!!"
The tempest does not swirl about her - but rather than issuing forth the kind of shell you'd expect a tank's main cannon to launch, a bolt of brilliant green erupts, hurtling down the stream and homing in on Air Strike's microphone: if not with the accuracy of an expert tank gunner, then at least that of a highly skilled archer.
<Pose Tracker> La Sirene de Diamant [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed. <SoundTracker> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5r_bXtnlow
Batiste and la Sirene both scream as the ship erupts -
ROUTE BATISTE
After a half-minute of watching a butterfly with what looks like his extended family, Batiste blinks and scampers out of frame.
ROUTE NORI
Forward. Ever forward.
She's riding an impossible airship and flying to the moon.
She's laying ill and pained in a bed as the walls fall away and the airship becomes the balloon of the Black Parade.
She is flying upwards against a sea of fairies in geometric patterns. (The cloche hat from the cartoon realm makes a second appearance here.)
The fairies fall away and become a bar at which la Sirene comes to rest as an immaculately dressed bartender of ambiguous gender prepares for her a glass of - something.
Batiste runs up to her on the bar. "This isn't real," he squeaks.
La Sirene looks to him. Then to the bar tender with some hope. But then the doorway opens and the doorway reveals the screaming, flickering face of reality.
"Is this the world? What a powerful creature," la Sirene says as she rises, collecting the cherry-sweet and fire-touched drink that was set on the plate before her. Batiste scores the nibble, walking along the bar in parallel with la Sirene.
As she drinks the small, iced beverage, she says, "I can smell mint. Can you?"
"Yes," says Batiste, even as a friendly tabby cat starts running out from a place that doesn't exist, along the stools, and vaulting outwards, called by that heavenly fragrance. "But it's not the same to me as it is for the cats."
"How many worlds do you think there are, Batiste?"
"We've been to at least two others. And of course, every person can be a world entire, to themselves or another," says the otter. He's reached the end of the bar, and goes no further.
La Sirene steps out the door and raises her arms above her head as if stretching. Looking up towards a sky that seems to be a cavern dotted with an infinity of glow-worms, she thinks: Red thread. Follow it.
Her heart aches, tenderly, and her attention goes downwards.
It's too far, la Sirene thinks. It's on the other side of the cavern. I live in the uttermost East, where the horizon breaks down.
But:
Her arms upraised tilt round, showing their palms towards the distant (close?) Akuma. The shine upon it may seem like a simple blacklight, but the siren of diamonds cups her hands, curves them, draws it like a spotlight. Narrow the aperture. Focus the light, the bright light, the cold light, the light that stains and bleaches what it doesn't cast in uttermost darkness. It's definitely an attractive optical effect, much like
a laser pointer
And she's focusing it on the microphone that Miraculous Ladybug called out.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Fuu Hououji has used Emerald Cyclone: Focused on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: FINISHER! La Sirene de Diamant has used The Light That Never Warms on Hotaru Tomoe.
<Pose Tracker> Sourisi [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.
It was Chat Noir's cry of "Cat-aclysm!" that drew Sourisi from engaging the last of the pirates, seeing the black light erupt from his claws. It only took a moment for Sourisi to remember the destructive nature of the Cat Miraculous before she was holding onto the railing with all of her might. That failed as the ship turned to black dust in her grasp, and the whole world seemingly erupted into chaos incarnate. It was only the desperate, instinctive leap away from Air Strike's entry into the ocean that spared her the worse from the 'cataclysmic' explosion, and she landed roughly onto a small mass of flickering pixels. As she stood, it was akward, her body and costume constantly changing and shifting. Anime style. JRPG monster. A Mary Sue.
Another jump to a second set of pixels had her leaping through another window, and she came out looking normal...except her color scheme were now inverted. "Okay...I think we all had enough internet for one day!" That is when she finally turned her attention to Air Strike...and Sourisi started to laugh. She had missed the explosion of catnip all over Air Strike, but if the felines massing onto the villain was any indincation... "It really is true. The Internet is made of Cats!"
Taking Ladybug's words to heart, she jumped onto the back of a rather large, fat and orange animated feline, thankful that this one was too lazy to deal with a mouse riding it's back. "Don't worry now, I just need a lift!" The herd of cats around Air Strike was always shifting around, but the mouse girl would use the backs of each one as stepping stones. "This is going to be tricky, but..." Leaping high off a plain white cat that looked more like a simple doodle than a true cat, she spotted the microphone in the villian's hands as she tried to escape the unleased memes. "Air Strike, why can't you hold all these cats? Sorry, but like so many before you, you can't break the Internet!" Flipping at the apex of her leap, Sourisi pushed off against an open window with her legs, launching herself downwards. She flipped back around and extended both of her legs, her boots glows crimson. "PRIMAL CRAZY RODENT!"
Hey, all Magical Girls should call out their final attacks! This is fun!
COMBAT: FINISHER! Sourisi has used Primal Crazy Rodent on Hotaru Tomoe.
<Pose Tracker> Steven Universe [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.
The boy faces off against pirates, hoping to get toward the bottom of that ship! Though these are much tougher than the bar mooks, most likely due to pillaging, plundering, and some degree of scurvy. Steven takes some good hits, and is rather worn down. Of course, before reaching Air Strike, something happens behind him. Someone launches a powerful attack, and the ship and everything around them disintegrates!
Steven, with what little strength he has, reflexively bubbles as the drop happens, floor giving way underneath. The bubble he thought would save him in fact doesn't as sudden feedback of both light and information overwhelms his senses as he is carted into the world wide web. Or at least that is what it seems like. It is hard to keep with it. He sees others with him, those that helped fight amongst the screens and colors.
He can see the colors and the sounds of attacks lashing out at the electric woman. He doesn't have the strength to do much of anything, but, maybe he can try something! He has to.
A nearby screen provides the perfect opporunity. Steven gets against it, and crouches down. When the time is right between massive attacks from allies, he launches himself off like a springboard, aimed right at Air Strike!
This could go badly. But let come what may! He had to help!
COMBAT: Steven Universe has used Bubble Crash! on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to brace Ladybug's Finisher, Miraculous Ladybug, taking 83 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to brace Sourisi's Finisher, Primal Crazy Rodent, taking 83 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Hotaru Tomoe is unable to keep fighting! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to brace Fuu Hououji's Finisher, Emerald Cyclone: Focused, taking 42 Fatigue damage! Hotaru Tomoe is unable to keep fighting! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces Lera Camry's Finisher, Aurora Burst Ray, taking 88 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Hotaru Tomoe is unable to keep fighting! Hotaru Tomoe's Block ability activates! Hotaru Tomoe's Parry ability activates! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to brace La Sirene de Diamant's Finisher, The Light That Never Warms, taking 99 Fatigue damage! Hotaru Tomoe is unable to keep fighting! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to brace Steven Universe's Bubble Crash!, taking 20 Fatigue damage! Hotaru Tomoe is unable to keep fighting! COMBAT: Steven Universe is unable to keep fighting!
<Pose Tracker> Hotaru Tomoe [Infinity Institute (6)] has posed.
Ladybug throws the catnip, and yes, from the ether of the internet spill
Hundreds of cats
Thousands of cats
Millions and millions and millions of cats
They are all cats and one cat and they slam into Air Strike from behind. The first one barely slows her down but they gradually accumulate like snow on a sill in a storm.
She stutters in her surfing just enough to get clipped by Lera's Aurora Burst Ray, which sends her flying off her board into the vast seas of the internet. She comes close to grabbing a window only to be impacted by Fuu's unusually-rendered cyclone, which blows her away again; led by la Sirene, the cats pursue. At the last moment she's almost able to escape into a torrent, but Steven is there to bubble-block her. She goes sliding off his surface and is easy prey for Sourisi--
--whose two-footed kick lands squarely on the microphone that was once an award--
--and sends it straight down to the nearest floor (turns out to be from a cooking show), where it shatters on impact.
A little purple butterfly starts to wing away... but Ladybug is ready.
And in the aftermath, the internet doesn't so much fade away as consolidate, streams of data flowing downwards to paint a single surface as sidewalk, another as wall, another as billboard, another as door, until Shibuya has reconsolidated around them, with a dazed Kimiko laid out spread-eagled at the middle of the intersection.
She holds her head. "...where...?"
And, all around her, Tokyo returns to motion, its people moving quickly, their thoughts more quickly, and their media quicker still...
<Pose Tracker> Steven Universe [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.
Steven flies through the media medium at a good speed, unsure if it is the data flow that is actually making him faster, or if there is some sort of anti-gravity thing going on. Regardless, his gambit pays off, and he connects with his target, blocking her!
There is a distinct popping noise shortly thereafter as the shield fades, Steven having depleted his energy.
Thankfully, it was all that was needed. The rest put everything into attacking her, and in a flash of reversion, they all slowly reappear in the Crossing area.
Steven himself seems wobbly as he sits on the pavement. This fight has seriously taxed him. Getting home may prove difficult. But at least he and everyone else is okay!
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
The Wind Knight's boots touch down on pavement. No tank, no cat ears or paws, no pixels, no mechanized armor; just the enamel-like shell of her breastplate and pauldrons, over the soft yet resilient fabric that started out as a school uniform. She even brings forth her bow, then her sword, as though to reassure herself that they're real and constrained to their accustomed forms, then letting her weapons disappear once again. "That ... would seem to resolve it," she comments, sounding (and looking) relieved.
She could stand to head home quickly as well, but getting Steven to *his* home is a more important priority for her. It would be easier if she weren't doing it alone, though - the fight took a lot out of her, and not only physically (or in terms of her mana reserves).
<Pose Tracker> Sourisi [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.
Sourisi managed to jump clear as her improntu kick sent Air Strike's microphone flying from her grasp, not wanting to stay near the cats more than she needed to. "Did that do it?!" She called out towards Ladybug as she saw the purple butterfly appear out of the remains of the microphone, but seeing her ready stance was more than enough for her. As reality came back together and they all found themselves in the middle of the intersection, Sourisi let out a soft sigh of relief. "Okay...I think that's enough Internet for one day, that's for sure! Is everyone okay?"
Kimiko appeared to be rather stunned, but free of the Akuma's influence, so everything was good on that front. She finally got a good look at everyone that wasn't Ladybug, Chat Noir or Sailor Moon. While she certainly didn't recognize La Sirene, a girl with orange hair briefly looks familiar to her, and she remembered the Wind Knight from her trip into dreams, but it was the sight of a young man wobbly taking a seat nearby that suddendly caught her attention. After all, she recognized him despite having only just met him very recently.
"Universe-san..." This was said very softly, but she would make her way towards Steven and the Wind Knight, offering a hand to the both of them. Now that the fight was done, she was starting to feel tired, and it was more than just the dull ache in her muscles from all of her jumping. Her stomach felt like a black hole suddendly, though thankfully it didn't cry out for substance. Yet. "We should get him home. We all look really beat, but I think he's going to have the most trouble." She would help pull Steven up to his feet and keeping a good hold on him as she and the Wind Knight started to lead him home. Thankfully, Fuu seems to know the way to his home!
