2019-01-02 - TIMELINE 1: Easy Come, Easy Go
| Title: TIMELINE 1: Easy Come, Easy Go | |
|---|---|
| Summary: An unknown number requests your presence--yes, yours, intepid magical girl of Tokyo--with an invitation: | |
| Who: Eas, Lera Camry, Steven Universe, Usagi Tsukino, Nori Ankou, Fuu Hououji, Niramo Umokeshi, Mikoto Minagi | |
| Where: Yamanote High City - Tokyo Tower | |
| OOC - IC Date: 2019-01-02 - 2014-08-09 | |
.***************************** Yamanote High City *****************************. *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+* Tokyo Tower +*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+* This television broadcast tower is also perhaps the most iconic building in Japan. A lattice giant inspired by the Eiffel Tower, Tokyo Tower looks much like the French building, but has a more rounded, modern style, and is painted in a red-orange tone. Bright white bands punctuate its height, including one for the cylindrical observatory nestled near its peak. At night, it lights up brilliantly: a cool white during the summer, a warm orange for the cooler months, and various colors for special occasions. Once the tallest building in the world, it remains, at 315 meters, the second tallest in Japan, and is a popular tourist attraction. Tokyo Tower straddles a four-story building aptly named FootTown, containing museums, art galleries, and restaurants. Around its middle is the Main Observatory, which contains a restaurant, a Shinto shrine, and a club for live music. Near its peak is the Special Observatory, accessible for an extra fee, which provides a spectacular 360 degree view of the urban skyline. Whether it be attributed to its iconic nature, its ability to transmit long-range signals, or its sheer height, be warned: Tokyo Tower is a frequent target for supernatural events. *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+* Players +*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*
<Pose Tracker> Eas [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Vending machine; concert speaker; broom. Weddings, birthdays, clam bakes, and even the marketplace at Akihabara. The times that Eas of Labyrinth has disrupted the routines of Tokyo's people to harvest their misery are many and varied, and she has become a noted figure in the magical landscape of the city, and gotten to know many of its defenders in turn. She has always been sharp-tongued, arrogant, and quick to anger... But as the summer of the city heats up, she has become angrier than ever, displaying a new edge to her words and actions, and a distinct urgency.
...At least one girl has thought to ask why. Still, Eas has spoken often of the Fuko Gauge, of the purposes for which she gathers misery energy...
And as summer goes on, this trend only continues. There has been a week, however, of peace from her--a time that no one has seen her, either on her own or showing up to watch some other villain's handiwork. That time has now come to an end.
It's been hot all day--a serious scorcher, the sky clear and blue and the sun oppressively hot in places that largely don't bother with internal air conditioning; those who aren't lucky enough to be in buildings that have it have had to find ways to deal with it. But that's not the only distraction for today during school: a mysterious message has been delivered to the phones of Tokyo's defenders, 'inviting' them to be present at Tokyo Tower, at sunset... noted to be from Eas of Labyrinth.
Unrelated, Setsuna Higashi didn't show up to class at Infinity Institute today.
Now, the sun is beginning to set, painting its golden colors over the cityscape, bringing with it the promise of at least a moderately cooler night... people can hope. The streets of Tokyo are bustling and busy, the lights already turning on.
And here, just before sunset, those with sharp eyes will notice a girl in black on a balcony of the complex, a fur collar strange for the area, black leather doubly so.
Her arms are crossed, and she looks out into the distance, next to a passageway shrouded in shadow. Eas is waiting.
...Most people haven't begun to notice her yet. That may change, however, as she steps forward, bends at the knee--
And leaps up onto one of the rungs of the tower, landing sharply, expression imperious.
<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
Lera Camry is familiar with Eas. Recently, she became much more familiar -- or rather, learned she was much more familiar than she thought, for awhile -- with Eas. She appears when the invitation went out. She wondered, really, if she should. The line between Lera and Setsuna and Lera and Eas is ill-defined; to call it blurry is to call it something that it isn't. The Midchildan decided, though, that they had to be honest with each other.
That means answering an invitation that, maybe, isn't what Eas had in mind.
Lera flies through the air, coat fluttering after her. Her expression is serious as she flies in towards Tokyo Tower; her jaw is set, as she looks ahead. <Are you sure about this?>
"If I say no..." Lera hesitates. "...does that sound pathetic?"
<No. I also want to be sure she's okay.>
That makes the expression on Lera's face soften, into a smile. Her eyes look down for a moment. "A-aw, buddy..."
<Lera-->
KA-BONG.
Lera flies, head-first, into a structural beam perpendicular to the one that Eas landed on. She makes a soft 'yelp', arms and legs splayed out around it, and then slides down until her butt hits the beam, and she falls flat on her back, looking up at Eas.
Blink. Blink.
COMBAT: Lera Camry transforms into Barrier Jacket Perihelion!
<Pose Tracker> Steven Universe [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.
It has been a hot one today! Growing up beachside has helped inure to the temperatures, but sometimes it is just a little too hot. Today was one of those kinds of days. Even worse, an ominous text message came to him, one that couldn't be replied to. Guess he would have to brave the heated wilds in the concrete jungle to find this place!
By the tiem Steven Universe has shown up, he has a soaked brow and has a bit of a sourpuss face on, as the ice cream in his backpack melted in its ziplock, and the frozen thingy that kept it cold is the same temperature as outside. "Nnnngh..." he growns, finally reaching the Tower. "I need a bike or something to get me places fast here, this is crazy..."
At least it was finally cooling down. Bright skies leading to vermillion skyscrapers and blindingly gorgeous views. A reach for a water bottle, as the last of the refreshing liquid is drank. "Well, hope I see what is going on here soon. I want in the air conditioning!" he complains, no one around at that moment to provide comfort.
The backpack is set aside, and a beautiful Shield is made manifest, paling the implement as it appears in sections with metal twangs. "...I wonder if I could use this in a frisbee contest?" he ponders aloud. It could be considered cheating. It weighs almost nothing.
Movement in the high rafters gets his attention from down below. It seemed like something moving in the shadows. And then Lera collides with a support beam. "Ohhhhh that has to hurt. That is why I'm glad I can't fly. Riiight there," he states, comfy from his spot on the ground.
COMBAT: Steven Universe transforms into Serious Steven!
<Pose Tracker> Usagi Tsukino [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Usagi Tsukino reaches into her purse, producing the infamous fifty yen coin among the pile of change that already existed to the ice cream vendor. "Let me make something special for you." He pronounced, "Just the thing for a girl in love. Sweets for you to share with your sweetheart."
Usagi flaps a hand, "Oh you-! I'm not here with anyone special..." She touched her pointer fingers together in a long pause, which then looped in a nervous circle during a lengthy pause before she added, "...today at least."
Putting her hands to her blushing cheeks given the courage it took for her to make the addendum, as the man pronounced, "Strawberry - strawberry - and strawberry!" A triple cone that was placed into her hands. It was typically inevitable that the flavors were mixed up, as Usagi was utterly unable to choose - but today they were the same. Yet she held out a hand for it, and the vendor winked, "May it remind you of that special someone."
Letting out a small giggle, she waved a hand as the man went on, licking the tip top of the cone. Which is then that a clearing of a throat came from her feet.
"Usagi-chan." "Mmm?" The girl said as she kept up her enjoyment of the frozen treat in the hot sun, wiping a bead of sweet from her brow. "We're supposed to be here on stake out..." The girl nodded in affirmation, "Mmm-hmm!" And took a nibble, causing her gloss colored lips to take a dab of melted ice cream to them.
"So what makes you think an ice cream break is a good idea!?"
Usagi sat down on a bench and put a hand at her brow to shield her from the sun, "Oh calm down Luna. It's not 'quite' sunset yet, and Eas isn't here." Before she then offered the cone over to Luna. "We're trying to blend in anyhow aren't we? And what's more normal than a girl wanting some ice cream on a hot summer day." She says with a held up finger, in justification, before tilting it over, "Want some?"
"Uhhh..." Taken aback by logic and generosity from Usagi in equal measure, Luna leaned over to sniff it, then leaned back, looking embarrassed. "Well he tailors his ice cream for couples and... mine would be different from yours... so I shouldn't right?"
It perhaps surprised her to notice that when she was looking back for Usagi to be staring at Tokyo Tower more seriously than she expected Her eyes on a shape low on the tower.
"... Hey Luna. When you recruited me for the first time - did you expect things to turn out the way they have?"
Some feeling of dread settled into the Mooncat at that, "Usagi-chan... I..."
The girl saw the way that Luna suddenly looked so miserable, and looked back her way with big eyes, "Oh wow-! That wasn't like me at all was it?" As she starts to smile and rub Luna across the head, "Guess talking like that was a little clumsy of me..." She murmured, as she leaned down to kiss Luna on the forehead, at the Moon Mark, "I'll be right back. Look forward to seeing us all in our new uniforms next Spring Luna."
The girl stood up suddenly, then started to walk away at a rapid pace, her twintails floating behind her. Rather than waste ice cream she started eating it with rapidity. Chomping down one scoop, then the next. And the next, with a harsh crunch of the cone.
Now out of sight, she raised her hand to the air, "Moon Crystal Po-MMMFFF-!"
Cut to a shot of Usagi Tsukino squatting down in an alleyway, hands over her head, as she moans miserably from her... "...too fassss..." ... ice cream headache.
The Pretty Guardian of Love and Justice will need a minute, but she'll be out there.
<Pose Tracker> Nori Ankou [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
La Sirene de l'Aurore has heard about all this sorrow gauge business, alright. She remembers full well when a bag full of fried clam strips was turned into a horrifying Nakewameke, and she realized too the bitter irony that she had left the Stellar Prism in her dorm room and as such was forced to go and hide. Batiste forgave her...
Or so he claimed.
But this is different. That was a girl with big eyes and long black hair and no magic at all. La Sirene is different. La Sirene floats four inches off the ground. La Sirene's hair trails behind her, chromatically gradient and resplendent.
As she moves against the crowd, she gets a couple of glances for the sweet cosplay effects.
"You... you d-" la Sirene begins to greet Eas when she leaps up the side of Tokyo Tower. "Ah!"
La Sirene is shocked and silent even as Lera flies in, bonks her head, reveals that Perihelion can't beat steel beams. La Sirene's fingers flex because - secretly - the witchery that lets her float magnetically off of the surface of the Earth, the same magic that embraces the flux of the sun in beautiful auroras...
...
Doesn't let her do more than hover.
La Sirene grabbles at the side of the Tokyo Tower structure, calling up to Eas, "You! Stop it! I want to talk to you! - Propane, stop her!"
NORI ANKOU GYMNASTIC'S GRADE: Below Average.
COMBAT: Usagi Tsukino transforms into Sailor Moon! COMBAT: Nori Ankou transforms into La Sirene de Diamant!
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
You don't simply roll a monster into Akihabara to wreak havoc and not get on the Wind Knight's personal naughty list. Doubly so when Fuu was actually in Akihabara for something herself at the time, and had to find an alley to transform in before one of her favorite game stores got wrecked. She's been keeping track as best she can of Eas's activity since then - maybe not in particular detail, but the Fuko Gauge sounds worrisome, on top of Eas continually finding new and exciting ways to make it *personal* when a Nakewameke shows up.
So when a message, purportedly from Eas, comes in on her cell phone? She makes arrangements to get to Tokyo Tower before sunset, and a plausible story to explain why she might miss dinner at home. Among other things, she needs to find out exactly how a high-ranking officer of a prominent group of bad guys managed to get *her* cell phone number.
At first surveillance, the girl on the balcony who's dressed in black doesn't draw much attention. Certainly black is an atypical color for a summer day, but it's Tokyo, and there are several major fashion nexuses (nexi?) within the city. Ginza, Shibuya, and so forth. The fur collar, on the other hand, *does* seem somewhat out of place in this heat ... but still, the Wind Knight doesn't pay it overly much mind.
At least until the girl starts ascending the Tower - by the *outside*. That's when the Wind Knight goes on the move, leaping from her own perch nearby and conjuring the wind to assist her leap from a rooftop to the Tower's superstructure.
Although that girl may still have a head start, or at least more upwards momentum.
<Pose Tracker> Niramo Umokeshi [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.
It has been a scorcher of a day, noticeable even in a week of oppressive summer heat. Going outside takes a lot of effort from Niramo, who would much rather stay cool indoors at home, the local library or an arcade, but evil doesn't rest despite the sweltering heat. Well, there was Eas, oddly enough, but she has been missing for several days now. Normally it's a good thing when a villain isn't around to cause trouble, but a gut feeling is telling Niramo that something wasn't quite right...
But a message arrives on Niramo's personal phone from Eas, something that Niramo is certain she never told the Labyrinth villainess about. As she reads it, that gut feeling that has been hanging around for a few days comes to the forefront of her mind. "Uh oh...things might be really hectic tonight."
And so, despite her desires to be inside the cool grip of the AC, Niramo was walking around Tokyo Tower, eyes searching around for black leather clothing that were completely out of season. As for why she had gone here without the guise of Sourisi...well, a magical girl themed after mice is quite noticeable. If she can spot Eas before her plan comes to fruition, she might be able to stop this before it even starts.
"Uuuuugh...can I at least get some water to stay cool?" "Focus Niramo..." Suffering for a stakeout builds character, right?
Wiping the sweat out of her eyes once again, Niramo turns a gaze towards the sky, hopeful for some breeze to swoop down and cool her off. And that's when she spies the shine of sunlight on leather. Blinking a few times and squinting just to make sure she was seeing Eas correctly, she jostles her bookbag and stands up. "Takk-san, I see her. She's on a balcony...ummm, 2 o'clock?" "That would be your 10 o'clock actually." "Right, right. I'm going to sneak over to that alleyway and transform, see if I can catch her off guard!" Walking with a slightly hurried step and trying hard not to keep looking up, (which just so happens to make her miss Lera's spectatual faceplant), Niramo ducks into the alleyway and behind a dumpster, feeling for her silver anklet.
"Tail...Sprout!"
COMBAT: Niramo Umokeshi transforms into Sourisi!
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
Mikoto did, in fact, do something fun with Mai in the calm before the storm. They even managed not to be interrupted by Orphans. It was a nice, lazy Summer day.
And now, well - it's the best time of the year for long naps, no matter what she was supposed to be doing. She stretches out under an Ohtori gazebo, a big fat kitten who is growing larger by the day nestled in beside her shoulder. Mikoto yawns wide, and Katsu yawns, too.
Then her phone beeps.
Mikoto blinks as she manages to flip it open. Oh. The time...
... well, it's fine. She'll just check her messages and...
Her gold eyes widen as she straightens up, Katsu meowing protest as he goes tumbling. "Eas," she groans her own complaint, rubbing at her face. What's Eas doing that she took her comment as a suggestion?
Maybe she messed up.
Her cat headbutts her insistently, and she gives him a small smile as she scratches him behind the ears. "I can't. Remember girl who turned Katsu's mouse into monster..? ... I gotta go fix this." He just gives her a grumbly little mew in response as she straightens up, shrugging her sword-case onto her shoulder. He's a normal cat, after all, and doesn't much know or care about girls who fight too hard.
On the other hand...
...
That message received a series of emoji from one of the numbers it was sent to:
A cat, a stop sign, and a pair of crossed swords.
Mikoto still hasn't figured out how to make the kana work right on her phone.
...
Of the girls who arrive at Tokyo Tower, one doesn't bother waiting for class to be done. Mikoto climbs a little ways up the tower, and finds a corner shaded by the setting sun. She draws her blade in the shadows, and leans against the strut as she waits.
It feels a little menacing to be lurking like this, but she has no illusions about Eas's willingness to threaten them with something impressive. She has her own worries about the pressure Eas is feeling, and the lengths she's going to.
She's better at talking to Eas than a lot of people, but she doesn't think she'll be able to talk through this.
And then it starts. There is a flash of movement, and then something far less subtle. Above her - because she did not climb far, only far enough to escape the eyes of tourists - Magical Propane-chan crashes into one of the struts. She's distracting enough that Mikoto could almost, almost miss the presence of leather and fur.
Almost.
"Eas!" Mikoto yells up, and she cannot hide her irritation. "Wasn't trying to help with this!"
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi transforms into HiME Mikoto!
<Pose Tracker> Eas [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Eas looks out into the distance, a menacing figure of alien teenage girlhood--her red eyes set, her gray hair faintly ruffled in a breeze, light glinting off of one of her thick bracelets. For an instance she might as well be a photograph. ...But in the next...
In the next, a certain Device wielder launches upward, and rams right into a beam. Eas stops short, scowling as she turns to look--and she spots Lera. She looks at her, watches her slide down...
And sighs, loudly, her hand coming to her face in a very, very obvious facepalm maneuver. "Lera," she mutters, shoulders slumping before she shakes her head and stands up straight again.
Mikoto's voice rings out, and people in the crowds start to notice something is happening at this point. Eas turns her head to look down at Mikoto, raising her voice. "But you did. With both." Those cryptic words delivered, Eas looks out over the movement from the crowds, and some she sees, some she doesn't. Her eyes catch on Steven's beautiful shield, though the crowd does not seem to notice his complaints of the heat... though they're starting to murmur at each other, noticing the strange clothes and people climbing the tower outright.
She does not appear to notice Niramo's stealthy approach, nor Fuu's silent use of the winds to help climb from another angle. But she has been here for a while; for those who staked out the event, they'd notice that things are strangely... normal, thus far. There's been no signs of struggle, no signs of immediate action, no obvious clues that this is the trap that it clearly must be. It's just a fairly normal hot day; people are a little unhappy with it, but no moreso than usual.
Now, though...
Now that magical girls (and boy) are arriving, Eas appears to take that as a cue. After her reply to Mikoto, she looks down to the hovering Sirene in her strange Northern light; she regards her briefly, and then raises her voice again. "All right, so talk," Eas answers. There's strangely little anger in her voice today. "But you'll have to talk and fight. If you can do both... then I'm listening."
There's a gleam from her person, a black aura that suddenly spreads, a pressure that can be felt. "People of Tokyo!" Eas shouts, and finally the crowds start to listen to her echoing voice. "Prepare yourselves! I am Eas, denizen of Labyrinth, and faithful servant of its Supreme Ruler, Mobius-sama! Today I come to gather your sorrow, and use it for power!"
She throws out her hand, gesturing, "...Today, Pretty Cure will not be present to help you!" This, to the assembled girls as much as anything. "You've been able to defeat my monsters before... Claiming that working together makes you stronger."
"Now's your chance to prove it, once and for all! I called you because I don't need to sneak around behind your backs--we'll settle this face to face!"
The crowds stare as she speaks, nervous, but the moment hasn't broken yet. "Nakewameke!" Eas calls--and she does not hurl a data diamond into the crowd, does not pick some object out of nowhere. Instead, she pulls something at her side, something the size of a smartphone... with a red diamond already placed on it, that grows and grows as she throws it forward--
Spinning, the black cellphone is suddenly gigantic, tall with a glass screen flashing through images and photographs of ordinary girls, animals, cityscapes--text and time, with arms and legs and a great angry face.
"Naaaakewameke!!"
"With the power invested in a year of learning of Earth...!"
It hangs off of the side of Tokyo Tower, suddenly, one hand holding the rail, and roars out. "NAAAKEWAMEKE!"
People start to panic, fleeing in terror, as the Nakewameke emits a horrible ringing noise at deafening volume.
"Cry more! Wail more! Your misery will become the power that fuels the Sorrow Gauge!"
COMBAT: Eas transforms into Nakewameke! COMBAT: Eas has fully healed herself. She is now ready to take on 7 opponents! COMBAT: Eas has used Cry More! Wail More! on Mikoto Minagi. COMBAT: Eas has used Cry More! Wail More! on Sourisi. COMBAT: Eas has used Cry More! Wail More! on Fuu Hououji. COMBAT: Eas has used Cry More! Wail More! on La Sirene de Diamant. COMBAT: Eas has used Cry More! Wail More! on Sailor Moon. COMBAT: Eas has used Cry More! Wail More! on Steven Universe. COMBAT: Eas has used Cry More! Wail More! on Lera Camry. COMBAT: Eas has finished attacking. COMBAT: Lera Camry partially dodges 0 Fatigue damage from Eas's Cry More! Wail More!, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Eas is Psyched! Lera Camry's Fade and Flash abilities activate! Tangle applied to Lera Camry! COMBAT: Fuu Hououji braces 0 Fatigue damage from Eas's Cry More! Wail More!, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Fuu Hououji's Block and Parry abilities activate! COMBAT: Sourisi braces 0 Fatigue damage from Eas's Cry More! Wail More!, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Stagger and Tangle applied to Sourisi! COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi fails to dodge Eas's Cry More! Wail More!, taking 0 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Sailor Moon perfectly counters 0 Fatigue damage from Eas's Cry More! Wail More!, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Counter! Sailor Moon's Reverse and Tactician abilities activate! COMBAT: Sailor Moon's counterattack, Hold it Right There!, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Eas!
<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
"Ah... La Sirene--"
This, Lera reflects, is complicated.
Lera looks up, slowly, and then she stands as the others approach. "Eas! I, um--I didn't want to ignore--" The Nakewameke appears, though, and Eas makes a promise: that they will have to fight and talk. The black cellphone spins out, becoming a massive mobile phone, and then the ground shakes. Lera's feet stumble as she runs over the red beam, and she looks down at the Nakewameke with widening eyes.
"Eas! Are you... are you trying to learn something about us!?"
She managed to catch that much. She leaps -- and comes crashing down at the Nakewameke. Her teeth grit, as she swings Soaring Sky back over her shoulder. The two-toned blade has arcs of plasma lightning dance across it, as she swings the blade back.
<Inferno Slasher!>
Which is when a blast of fire explodes off the sword, point blank, into the back of the massive mobile phone, and then her sword strikes. "U-Um, let's do our best, everyone!"
COMBAT: Lera Camry has used Inferno Slasher on Eas. COMBAT: Lera Camry has finished attacking. COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant counters 0 Fatigue damage from Eas's Cry More! Wail More!, taking 0 Fatigue damage! La Sirene de Diamant's Reverse and Tactician abilities activate! Tangle applied to La Sirene de Diamant! COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant's counterattack, Les Mysteres, partially gets through, doing 23 Fatigue damage to Eas! Critical Counterhit!
<Pose Tracker> Sourisi [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.
Sourisi climbs up to the rooftops by hopping against the walls of the alleyway and starts to make her way for Eas from up above. However...Mikoto's voice echoes out over the summer sunset, pulling her up short for a moment. "Mikoto-san...right, keep her distracted!" Waving a hand and hoping Mikoto gets the signal, Sourisi starts to creep in from up above.
Unfortunately, Eas is far quicker despite her speech, and a new Nakewameke stands tall in the crowd, a massive smartphone?! They really can use anything for their crystals, but at least Eas' creations are not as bizarre as Wesetar's. That is, until is starts blasting the most annoying -default- ringtone at full blast! Sourisi is quick to clamp her hands over her ears, but the sound drones on in her head, making her eyes water.
Running to the edge of the rooftop with her tonfa drawn, Sourisi glances between the Nakewameke and Eas for a moment, before nodding. As much as she would like to stop Eas, the giant cellphone comes first. "May I just say, if you been trying to learn about Earth, maybe you should invest in a new ringtone? Picking the right theme for you is a struggle for all humans!" Without waiting for a response, Sourisi leaps over and downwards, rushing to assist the others!
The cellphone demonstrates it can climb, and with it being an animated monster now, it will surely be all that more durable. But still, this mouse ninja can only ask one question to herself. Did Eas bothered to protect her devices, or is she just using the base phone? "I hope you have a screen protector, otherwise this is one cellphone not long for the world!"
Climbing and leaping through the exterior of the Tokyo Tower using powerful leaps and hops (with the occasional assist from her tail), Sourisi leaps from above the Nakewameke and pulls out her tonfa. "Let's mute this call, everyone!" Enchanted wood in hand, Sourisi starts smacking away with her tonfa as soon as she was close enough to hit, determined to cause a few cracks in that screen.
COMBAT: Sourisi has used Mouse Flurry on Eas. COMBAT: Sourisi has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> La Sirene de Diamant [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
La Sirene struggles upwards. The subtle magnetism of the aurora helps her not fall back and smash open like an eggplant. It doesn't make getting up any easier. "Huff - were you helping her, Mikoto?" la Sirene says, before looking towards Eas.
Her eyes gleam.
In her mind she remembers a story -
Thalatte.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOOi9y-1c0g
Her head turns upwards to gaze on the vast black mirror and she says to Eas, softly, "You are just mocking me now, aren't you?"
"Do you want to take the sorrows of this world?" "Do you want to give them to someone else?" "Do you want to render them as tribute to the emperor of some distant star?" "Do you want to turn it into mere energy to further some other ambition?"
At every statement, la Sirene's body glows more brightly, more coldly. She sweeps her hair back with one hand and when the Nakemawmeke leans forwards she raises her left hand, straddling a girder as she makes the sign and calls forth, "LES MYSTERES!"
The rippling burst of force slides into that call and distorts it, rising up through the 'wame' part of the cry to rupture against the great glassy screen. La Sirene's prism, sitting on her body, gleams - its black-mirror backing reflecting in distortion the great monster's own shape!
"Too bad!" la Sirene declares. "Someone else has claimed them! They are not for you to put in some gauge to further something else. They are sacred and holy! Only the mother of all sorrows has authority to stop them! You blaspheme against something you know not of!" Her voice is growing louder, with unwonted and atypical heat.
"In every age there are pivotal junctures in history - continually altering its course - and testing our hearts, for the ability to rise to the challenge of evil!! If you have taken it upon yourself to take that side, then I, we, will not let you get away with it!"
"You do not have to do this," La Sirene continues. "At any point you can step off that road - but the ditches grow steeper and heavier with every step you take! There will be a price - how much do you expect to pay?" As she cries out, a prominence sweeps towards the great devil, like a smothering, pushing thing. Is she just going to kind of shove it over?
Then again, phones do tend to crack...
COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant has used Shine On Through The Night on Eas. COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Moon [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!"
Comes a silhouette as the panicked terror of the people cry out in volume. Twilight over the horizon streaming over her shape.
"If you really learned anything about Earth - then you should know that smart phones should be used to connect people - not to tear them apart by terrorizing them! I'll never forgive someone who breaches phone etiquette in the name of World Conquest!"
As she begins to strike a fierce pose, she adds, "Sailor Suited Pretty Soldier of Love and Justice: Sailor Moon! In the Name of the Moon - I'll punish you!"
Perhaps Sailor Moon has faced Eas before from time to time. Perhaps Usagi Tsukino has run into Setsuna Higashi more than once. Perhaps she's annoyed her on several levels from defeating her monsters to simply being infectiously cheerful.
However things are different tonight - and perhaps she senses that.
She then folds her arms, and the silhouette is gone, suddenly she's a girl that seems just a little bratty as she points out, "Besides just listen to you! Do you think you're the first person to call us out in order to try to prove something like that?"
She asks confidently, with an upraised finger, "If you've really defeated Pretty Cure and that didn't prove your point - then what will beating all of us do?"
The girl offers no conclusion to that. No logical extension. She doesn't say it. She doesn't say what she thinks that she's learned of everyone who has done that. Every single Shitennou.
That they're desperate, scared, and angry - backed into a corner.
She doesn't want tonight to be like one of those nights.
"La Sirene's right." Sailor Moon says quietly, in a sotto voce, "Let's end this before it goes too far." There is perhaps her own kind of desperateion in that plea.
COMBAT: Sailor Moon has used In The Name Of The Moon on Eas. COMBAT: Sailor Moon has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
'But you did. With both.'
For a moment the anger is lanced from her as Mikoto looks up, brow creasing into something more thoughtful. "Eas..." She trails off, at once relieved and apprehensive. She's glad Eas worked out her feelings with that messy girl, but...
"I - I tried," she says, to la Sirene de l'Aurore, and the words are a little lost. She is not Sailor Moon, and she is not Madoka.
But she scowls again, as Eas says they'll have to talk and fight, scrunching up a corner of her lip. Eas knows that's hard for her! She listens to her grand speech, and hopes in the back of her mind that Pretty Cure are all right. Eas has always been a very direct and forthright sort of enemy, but...
... no, Eas wouldn't do that. Even if she is their enemy, she wouldn't go that far.
Nakewameke, screams the point of contact between girls in Tokyo, as Eas declares it the sum of her lessons on Earth. And Mikoto shudders and stumbles in her leap away as she hears her say it, golden eyes widening in recognition.
'Without everyone, I think maybe I'd still be scary. Wouldn't trust anyone. Wouldn't wanna know about all the good city things, like days just for chocolate. Or chocolate. If no one'd been nice to me, I wouldn't be able to hold Nori, 'cause I'd be too scared.'
"Eas," she says in sorrow, brow curved up, lips drawn down, and she knows, she knows. She has spent a year learning about Tokyo, too. They are the same.
Perhaps that is why she is not shackled by doubt as she grasps her blade and leaps from beam to beam towards the Nakewameke. "EAS!" She screams her name now, fierce and determined, as her blade comes down on the phone's side.
"I know Eas is figuring stuff out too!" She yells as she drives Miroku into the monster, and perhaps it is nostalgic to one of them. "It's gotta make more sense after all this time, right?!"
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has used Obsidian Blade: Dauntlessness on Eas. COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Steven Universe [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.
Steven staring up at the spectacle forming. "Huh. Guess the person that sent that message is up there!" he says, seeing a figure not immediately recognizeable.
Magical Girls being to scale or fly up the building to call out to them. A voice, clearly Mikoto, calls her Eas. Oh. Her. She isn't very nice at all. A frown slowly spreads. "Great, what is she gonna Monster-ize this time?" he says, sounding dejected.
The answer comes quickly-- a cellphone. "Huh. Definitely different!" Steven is a bit wide-eyed at the creature, as civilians flee for their lives. Being short, the boy gets caught up in the running tides, and takes some effort to weave through.
By the time he gets to free and stable ground, the other young ladies that save the day have assembled! "Yeah! The Covenant of Style is here to beat you up, again!" the boy shouts, as everyone readies themselves for a brawl. It is good to see Sailor Moon and l'Aurore down here representing the ground floor as everyone else takes to the rafters or skies. Actually, can they fly too? la Sirene maybe, she looks like she is floating. Sailor Moon? Uh... maybe she can jump up there.
So since the Nakewameke is all the way up there, Steven pitches his shield at it, at high velocity!
...And then begins to think of a way to get up there.
"We're still going with the Covenant of Style, right?" Couldn't hurt to ask!
COMBAT: Eas decisively counters 12 Fatigue damage from Fuu Hououji's Winds of Admonishment, taking 4 Fatigue damage! Fuu Hououji is Psyched! Eas's Reverse and Tactician abilities activate! Cripple and Trap applied to Eas! COMBAT: Eas's counterattack, Wameke!!, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Fuu Hououji! COMBAT: Steven Universe has used Throw Shield on Eas. COMBAT: Steven Universe has finished attacking. COMBAT: Eas fails to dodge La Sirene de Diamant's Shine On Through The Night, taking 24 Fatigue damage! La Sirene de Diamant is Psyched! Diversion applied to Eas! COMBAT: Eas fails to brace Sailor Moon's In The Name Of The Moon, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Sailor Moon is Psyched! Cripple applied to Eas! COMBAT: Eas counters 23 Fatigue damage from Mikoto Minagi's Obsidian Blade: Dauntlessness, taking 23 Fatigue damage! Mikoto Minagi is Psyched! Eas's Reverse and Tactician abilities activate! COMBAT: Eas's counterattack, Nakewameke! Direct Approach!!, partially gets through, doing 19 Fatigue damage to Mikoto Minagi! COMBAT: Eas perfectly braces 30 Fatigue damage from Steven Universe's Throw Shield, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Brace! Eas's Block and Parry abilities activate! COMBAT: Eas fails to dodge Lera Camry's Inferno Slasher, taking 41 Fatigue damage! Lera Camry is Psyched!
<Pose Tracker> Eas [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
La Sirene asks if Eas is mocking her, and Eas, for just a moment, stops her motions to look into the other girl's eyes. There's not time for more than an instant, but there is something of the sea in Eas, as well.
But like Mikoto, Eas is not a girl who can quickly put her thoughts and feelings into words, and so she does not have time to interrupt the heartfelt speech of a guardian of sorrow.
Lera is easier, simpler to answer. "I've already learned!" she calls back to Lera, and nods sharply as she sees the attack coming. "Fight like you mean it!"
Lera does; the Nakewameke's back ignites and it can't defend against that at first, Eas scowling down at it's failure as it whines, "Nake...!" and starts to turn.
"I won't be so easy to distract," Eas declares to Sourisi. "And the default ringtone is fine!" she snaps back. "They wouldn't select it if it weren't suitable!"
...Eas actually sets different ringtones for different people, but she feels the need to argue the point anyway.
"Worry less about my phone, and more about yourself!" Eas calls, and the Nakewameke turns as Sourisi leaps down, blocking the first blow with a gigantic arm; her blows hit hard, but she hasn't reached the screen yet. Its arms might count as a protector. They certainly count as offensive--as Fuu casts her magic forth, the monster punches straight back at her, and while the winds entangle it, Fuu has to deal with compressed air shooting right back for her.
La Sirene's strange light impacts the screen, though, hard enough to force it backward, slamming into the tower and rattling the whole structure with the screams of people worried that the melee will engulf them, too. "Naaaaaaaaa--"
"Mobius-sama demands it!" Eas answers la Sirene first. "I've already resolved to pay a price!" But... Usagi. No, Sailor Moon--of course Sailor Moon calls out to her, and of course Eas has fought her many times before... or grumped at her in the form of an ordinary girl. But now, the bratty approach--
"You're not entirely wrong," Eas says to Sailor Moon with a more guarded tone, and the lack of anger in her voice makes the monster hesitate for an instant before the Executive snaps, "Get back to it! Do I have to tell you everything!?"
"Wamekeeee!" it wails as it whirls around again, into the face of Mikoto's coming, gigantic attack. She aimed for its side, but catches it full on; it accepts the blow outright, taking a deep gouge to what seems to be its face, which briefly turns into a photograph of a sleeping bear--before its fist lashes out to punch the girl straight back.
"It does!" Eas snaps out at Mikoto. And to Steven, "That name for yourselves--you'll have to try harder if you want to suit it--You won't be beating anything if I have my way!" Indeed, the shield bounces harmlessly off of a parrying shoulder, though it's a very near parry indeed--it could've done a great deal more damage. "Shields are for defending people! Attack us like you mean it!"
"...Through this phone I've learned a lot about all of you. Do you think I don't know how humans use it, Sailor Moon? I know how to study my targets!"
"What it will prove today is which of us is stronger!"
"Now, GO!" Eas's monster does as ordered, swinging up, it starts to rise onto the Tower higher, climbing its rungs before it pulls a giant table out of a restaraunt and hurls it directly for Sailor Moon! Its screen flashes next, and an absolutely dizzying array of images assaults Nori and Mikoto in turn, each one some kind of animal but pulsing so brightly and quickly that they become hypnotic, dizzying--As it rings an alarm bell that sends sonic waves crashing for Fuu and Sourisi!!
"Naaakewameke!!"
"If you think you have more claim to these sorrows, then prove it!" Eas finally says to la Sirene. "You think it hasn't already come too far? Do you think I can just stop, just by wishing it? Would you abandon your cause just because the enemy could talk at you about it!?"
The nakewameke swings next, both hands on the railing, and kicks at Lera, aiming to slam her straight down into Steven--and if not her, then the rubble it makes of the corner of a building.
...Some of the sounds and pictures might be familiar.
"Mobius-sama seeks to use this energy to gather a vast power--one he can use to eliminate your uncertainty, do away with the fears and miseries you constantly find in a world where no one knows their place!"
COMBAT: Eas has used Nakewameke! Direct Approach!! on Sailor Moon. COMBAT: Eas has used Nake!! on Steven Universe. COMBAT: Eas has used Nakewameke! Dirty Trick!! on La Sirene de Diamant. COMBAT: Eas has used Nakewameke! Special Assault!! on Sourisi. COMBAT: Eas has used Nakewameke! Special Assault!! on Fuu Hououji. COMBAT: Eas has used Nakewameke! Dirty Trick!! on Mikoto Minagi. COMBAT: Eas has used Nake!! on Lera Camry. COMBAT: Eas has finished attacking. COMBAT: Sailor Moon partially dodges 7 Fatigue damage from Eas's Nakewameke! Direct Approach!!, taking 27 Fatigue damage! Sailor Moon's Fade and Flash abilities activate! COMBAT: Lera Camry braces 12 Fatigue damage from Eas's Nake!!, taking 18 Fatigue damage! Stun and Trap applied to Lera Camry! COMBAT: Sourisi partially dodges 4 Fatigue damage from Eas's Nakewameke! Special Assault!!, taking 18 Fatigue damage! Sourisi's Fade and Flash abilities activate! Cripple applied to Sourisi! COMBAT: Fuu Hououji fails to dodge Eas's Nakewameke! Special Assault!!, taking 33 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Cripple applied to Fuu Hououji! COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi decisively counters 21 Fatigue damage from Eas's Nakewameke! Dirty Trick!!, taking 7 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Mikoto Minagi's Reverse and Tactician abilities activate! Blind applied to Mikoto Minagi! COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi's counterattack, Obsidian Blade: Dynamo, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Eas!
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Moon [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
There's a moment when Sailor Moon's expression changes to surprise, eyes widening a touch as she watches Eas extremely closely. The idea that someone accepts that she's not entirely wrong gives her hope that it won't end up like it has before. The monster hesitates... and Eas snaps at it. Sailor Moon suddenly has to dive to the side to avoid a gigantic table clipping her.
She almost avoids it that is.
It clips her, sending her into a spinning spiral in which she slams into the edge of a sign post. Despite her Senshi reinforced body, it still leaves the post a twisted hunk of metal, and the girl sprawled out in collapse. With tears in her eyes...
She slowly wobbles back up to her moonboots, hissing as she grasps her side, clenching her eyes shut as they sting her eyes.
"You don't need to do this to prove that." She begins slowly, "I already know I'm weak... I already know I'm scared..."
The girl takes a step forward, then another, "I hate fighting. On most days I tell myself I'm too scared - too tired - too hungry. That I just can't do this."
Her eyes slide over to Mikoto, La Sirene, Lera, Sourisi, Fuu. Despite her eyes being wet, "It took a lot of people teaching me I could do this to start believing I could."
In her minds eye perhaps she thinks of the Inner Senshi, Madoka Kaname, Mami Tomoe, "It took a lot of people to show me I could be strong because of the people I'm doing this for... because of the people who are there with me."
Putting a hand to her tiara, she puts her fingers there, "I'd rather grow up that way - with all that fear and uncertainty - than trade a single precious moment with anyone I've fought with." Pulling the tiara off, she ignites the sacred tiara with glittering feelings. "I don't need anyone to tell me my place! Moon Tiara-" Drawing the arm back, she pivots on her front foot, releasing it with a flick of her wrist, "-ACTION!"
And sends it spiralling through the sky in an unpredictable arc towards the Nakewameke, finishing that thought only moments before it would strike, "Because I already know it's with them."
COMBAT: Sailor Moon has used Moon Tiara Action on Eas. COMBAT: Sailor Moon has finished attacking. COMBAT: Eas braces 33 Fatigue damage from Sailor Moon's Moon Tiara Action, taking 14 Fatigue damage! Eas's Block and Parry abilities activate! COMBAT: Eas has adjusted her boss levels. She is now ready to take on 6 opponents!
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
Always, always it is what he demands, and it wounds Mikoto to hear it because she can understand her devotion.
But what Eas has learned, and what Eas will admit she's learned - Mikoto doesn't have time to think about the gaps between them. A bear, says the phone, as it strikes her, and she is forced to use her blade to defend herself against the crushing force of its fists.
She didn't know as much about talking to Eas, back then.
The Nakewameke's fist grinds against her blade, forces her back step over step until she is at the precarious edge, and it is only then she manages to dig in her heels and throw the force of it aside. She leaps away before it can follow up.
"Who's stronger..."
Her words halt in her throat and take too long to say through the anger of battle, and the Nakewameke has already turned on them. "La Sirene! Everyone-!!" Mikoto yells in alarm for the other girl caught in its trap and for the others who are battered. In response to those images which flash in and out too fast to focus on she leaps forward. From steel to steel she charges up, until she can plant her sword against the screen assaulting them.
It's too late - there's too much. Her sight is so keen and it tries so hard to track the motion, and the sheer volume of data overwhelms her entirely. She shakes her head to try and dismiss the stars which flit across her vision, and strikes out blindly at the monster which surely is still in front of her.
The sound of frustration she makes is wordless, as she tries to clear enough space to step back, feeling out the beam with her heels to avoid plummeting over the side. That same frustration colours her words, when she finds them. "Eas makes a monster, and we chop it up! Eas makes a monster, and we chop it up! Isn't it obvious who's stronger by now?! Eas likes logic, so think logicly!" She does not realise she's mistaken the phrase; it's a struggle enough to put the words together.
She shakes her head again as she tries to focus on the Nakewameke, but she is talking to the scent of leather and antiseptic and strawberries. "Where's Eas's place gonna be when that happens?! If everything's the same -- what about donuts and messes?!" There is a desperate edge to her words, even as she brings her blade up to try and cover for the space in front of her she can't quite see for the afterimages. "Everything means everything, Eas!!"
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has used Obsidian Blade: Demolition on Eas. COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has finished attacking. COMBAT: Eas fails to counter Mikoto Minagi's Obsidian Blade: Demolition, taking 46 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Eas's counterattack, Nake!!, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Mikoto Minagi!
<Pose Tracker> La Sirene de Diamant [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
"In the washed ruins of Luxor there is a garden drowned millenia ago," la Sirene tells Eas, hotly. (Somehow.) "Now it is only a tomb, growing tomb glass and accumulating silt, barren to all life that might take root. In such a field does my care for your Mobius-sama grow!!"
And then she is assailed by images. Oh, what cursed creature! It knows just what to show her - Jellyfish, otters, whales, seagulls, all kinds of the creatures that sing most to her heart, creatures that speak to her condition and her tastes and her temperament. Rays, clams, parrotfish!
And as they come, Eas raises a good point.
La Sirene has no comment, not immediately. Her eyes squeeze shut then, despite the allure of otters holding hands, and she says through gritted teeth, "Do you understand what these words really are...?!"
"Do you think that they are just meant to beat you to death?" "To confuse you and throw you off your aim?" "Perhaps some of them. But this is a weak strategy..." "They speak to you... from their hearts!!"
La Sirene throws a hand forwards, emphatically. "What you describe - this dream of someone else - is it truly your dream? What is YOUR dream? I do not care about uncertainty or doubt, I have lived with them forever. I would reject this vision - is it something being offered, O Eas? Or is it to be FORCED?" A ray of luminosity shines out, trying to force its way into that great pane of glass before them. But the pictures keep coming...
Ahhh, it's a baby whale!! Can la Sirene shoot past it with her auroral prominences?!
COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant has used Carbonado Kaleidoscope on Eas. COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant has finished attacking. COMBAT: Eas braces 9 Fatigue damage from La Sirene de Diamant's Carbonado Kaleidoscope, taking 14 Fatigue damage! Eas's Block and Parry abilities activate! Stagger applied to Eas!
<Pose Tracker> Steven Universe [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.
Well that shield throw was off. It was quite a far throw, must have lost the oomph in travel. "I-I can't exactly make a sword or something with my Gem! Trust me, I have tried," Steven calls back to Eas. "Kiiinda stuck with a shield! So gotta make that work-- wait why am I explaining this to you?!" He seemed to come to soem realization that Eas... probably doesn't care about why he can't do weapons mid sentence.
"As for Style, I got it in spades!" the boy says, running a hand through his hair and batting a hand. A little conceited, but hey, everyone deserves to feel pretty! Even boys!
Sorta.
The boy's shield tangs on the concrete nearby, and a massive foot comes toward the little Gem. One, two steps, and a jumping roll gets him out of the way in time to not be flattened! A glance around, as the boy begins to head toward the tower. Gotta find a way up!
Though a kind voice stops him for a moment. He recognizes that voice. Someone at school, someone he still now has a chance to know...! "Sailor Moon!" Steven calls, as he affixes the shield to some sort of invisible anchor, inches from his wrist, where a proper shield would be gripped. "Fighting can be scary! But we are all here for you! It isn't a Covenant if we weren't all dedicated together!"
"It wouldn't be the same without you! Believe that! Like I believe in you!"
A cheesy smile and a thumbs up accompanies the sentiment. While Steven isn't strong by himself, he is strong because of his friends, his compassion shared. Such a power is mighty in comparison to any amount other Gem powers he may have.
A moment passes.
"Can someone give me a lift?!" A look upward. "Be careful, Mikoto!!!"
COMBAT: Steven Universe has used Love Like You on Sailor Moon. COMBAT: Steven Universe has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Sourisi [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.
'That's right...Nakewamekes don't need screen protectors.' Sourisi is finding this out the hard way as while she's able to land some solid blows on the phone's arms, the screen itself is safe from an introduction with a tonfa or two. If she wouldn't have to deal with her own phone being possessed and trying to collect humanity's sorrow, it might be worth looking into the Nakewameke Protection Plan. "But it's so boring and dull! We're having a dramatic battle and -this- is your background music? Shame on you!"
Landing on the ground below from her airborne assault, Sourisi smiles as the back of the phone bursts into flames from Lera's telling blow. "Looking good there, Propane-san! Light the fire in this night!" She wants to help encourage the others but...uh oh. The air visibly ripples from that annoying alarm, far stronger than the commercial version. Eyes widening in shock, Sourisi begins to play Chicken with the sonic waves, with the mouse just barely able to scramble out of the way as each blast shatters the ground where she stood a moment ago.
Tumbling from the final sonic blast that was just way too close for comfort, Sourisi rightens herself on one knee and scowls up at the phone monster. "I know you don't really understand me, but you better be glad I can't just throw you into a wall and break you for that!...I...have some experience doing that."
It's the reason why Niramo has an antique alarm clock to wake her up in the morning now. No matter how many times she throws it, it still keeps the time cheerfully and wears its' dents with honor.
About to scramble up the tower to engage the Nakewameke up close, Sourisi spies Steven Universe still on the ground. Despite being so magically talented and brave, he just doesn't have a way to ascend like the others...maybe she can help with that. "Steven-kun!" Moving to meet up with the half-Gem, Sourisi kneels down and motions for him to climb on her back. "This is Air Sourisi, flight 1337 departing for the peak of the Tokyo Tower. I request that all passangers secure themselves securely and be prepared to use their shield as we ascend to butt-kicking altitude."
Sadly, there will be no snacks on this flight.
Ascending is a bit more tricky this time around, with Sourisi being unable to ascend like a monkey this time around. But she's still climbing as a fast rate, kicking off the rungs of Tokyo Tower and proving that she can gain some serious height with only her legs. "I'm not really up to date on emoji texting, but I have an idea!" Freeing one hand from holding onto Steven, Sourisi tosses one tonfa, and then the other at the Nakewameke, the wooden weapons weaving over and under metal bars to smash at unexpected angles! "Crossed tonfa, for the martial artist in your family!"
And yet, despite all the jokes that she says to help encourage the others and to try to put aside the fear that combat always brings her...Sourisi's stomach twists as she hears Eas' words. Something is clearly not right here...
COMBAT: Sourisi has used Crashing Tooth on Eas. COMBAT: Sourisi has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Eas fails to dodge Sourisi's Crashing Tooth, taking 41 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit!
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
While the wind is her element, the green-clad Magic Knight can't claim *total* control over it; that would take magic and willpower considerably stronger than she actually possesses - possibly more than any teenaged girl could muster. So when the Nakewameke punches a shockwave of air back her way, she tries to dodge away from it ...
And gets blasted right off her perch for her troubles.
Thankfully, the landing is far from fatal; she doesn't go all the way back down to the pavement, instead managing to aim for a lower girder, and impacting with her ankles taking far more of the force than they were designed to. "!!!" She doesn't quite cry out in pain, but there's a distinctly strained gasp as if a chunk of air got knocked out of her lungs from the shock. She's going to have trouble walking with that kind of an injury ...
Fortunately, she has a spell for that. And it looks like she's not the only one who could use a spot of healing. La Sirene is assailed, not by blows or blasts but images; the Wind Knight may not see what she sees, but it's clear enough that something is interfering with her. And Sourisi has gotten the worst of her own exchange, the Miraculous-user's mobility visibly hampered after getting buffeted around by the sonic blasts.
The Wind Knight gathers her focus, and calls out, "Winds of Healing!" The green-sparkled breeze wraps around her first, the healing magic sinking through her boots and into her legs and feet; then she directs her spell towards La Sirene de Diamant and Sourisi, helping them recover their equilibrium and their strength, so they can fight a little more at optimal condition.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Winds of Healing on Fuu Hououji. COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Winds of Healing on Sourisi. COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Winds of Healing on La Sirene de Diamant. COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has finished attacking. COMBAT: Fuu Hououji accepts Fuu Hououji's Winds of Healing, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Cleanse! All of Fuu Hououji's debuffs are cleared! COMBAT: Sourisi accepts Fuu Hououji's Winds of Healing, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Cleanse! All of Sourisi's debuffs are cleared! COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant accepts Fuu Hououji's Winds of Healing, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Cleanse! All of La Sirene de Diamant's debuffs are cleared!
COMBAT: Sailor Moon accepts Steven Universe's Love Like You, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Sailor Moon is Cheered! Surge applied to Sailor Moon!
<Pose Tracker> Eas [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Eas bends at the knee and leaps to another piece of railing as the battle rises up the tower, the melee slowly spiraling around it as those within are forced to shelter as best they can. ...In the distance, the sensation of something rising is there. But that's in the distance.
"You say you're weak, but you keep fighting--you say you're not, that they taught you otherwise. Which one is it!? Nakewameke, defend--"
It does--the Nakewameke turns its back, swinging in place to accept the blow on a more protected surface, and it's true that it can keep fighting... but it's just as true that that brilliant light sears a moon-shaped mark into it, like a sticker on a phone case, brilliant and well-loved. "...All right. So you say these people are your motivation. Then we'll stake that against mine!"
This time, Eas does not tell Mikoto that she talks too much. She applies logic, and Eas steps forward just enough to shout down, "That's why I'm putting everything into this monster, now! No flukes, no mistakes!"
Where is her place, Mikoto asks? Everything means everything, she says. Eas does not answer immediately; the monster doesn't either, rocked backwards by a desperate strike that takes out scaffolding with it, tears a gouge of glass and rock from the monster with an unpleasant whine. "Naaaaaa!"
"If it drowned," Eas shouts to la Sirene, "Why don't you replant it!?" She does not, frankly, understand what la Sirene just told her. She is sure, however, that it was something unpleasant, and that her comeback can make up in volume what it lacks in specificity.
Some of the otters might be familiar, naturally--a picture that made the rounds among some friends, starting with an aspiring veterinarian. but that would be silly, naturally. Before Eas can answer, la Sirene states her case--and the beam of light rockets into the monster, which roars its electronic mouth off again... but for just an instant, when the light passes the threshold, the screen is not scattered images but simple Japanese characters reading that someone will be there to meet her soon. Who is her? It doesn't stay.
"Once," Eas says, "I thought all it was was stupid nonsense, nothing more than pointless words from pointless people. I know you mean them. And I'll answer them!"
The Nakewameke in that instant whirls forward, and the space between it and la Sirene blurs--no, vibrates, as the whole tower shakes as if in an earthquake from the power of the phone's silent vibration function.
"It's not mine, no. But Mobius-sama gave me everything; my task is to bring his dream forth!"
Steven has style, all right. Eas spots him as he puts a hand through his hair, looks at him appraisingly. ...Watches him comfort Sailor Moon, and be picked up by Sourisi in turn. "...That's what you all say. If it were that easy... Then why wouldn't everyone do it?"
To Sourisi though she snaps, "If you want better music go to a concert, not a battle! I'm not here to entertain you!"
The Nakewameke, meanwhile, adopts an expression of hurt as Sourisi insists it doesn't understand, indignantly chiming, "Nakewameke!!!" in return. As tonfa smash against it, making big cratering cracks in its screen, it swings both feet forward to strike girl and boy both with the force of a truck.
"Nakewameke! Target the Wind Knight!" Eas says a moment after, as Fuu moves to support the others, and Eas sees an opportunity. "...with Sailor Moon! Now!"
"Naaaa!" The Nakewameke, screen cracked, nevertheless faces them--and the images assault them this time, flashes of text messages that go too fast to read more than words at a time, pictures from within Infinity Institute or on trips, one that says 'go buy your own snacks Tsukino' a little longer than the rest. There is a supernatural element to it, brilliant, painful.
Lera, too, gets another attack, but Eas doesn't have more to say to her in that instant--she simply meets her eye, and lets whatever inscrutable emotion is there be her statement as the mage remains locked in combat.
"You fight for these friends of yours--you say that you're willing to put up with the danger, the risk, because of it. But what about the people you leave behind!? What about the ones who can't join you? What should they do while you assume your friendship will keep you safe?"
"You're not the only one who can learn! Nakewameke--Counterattack!"
"Mekeeeeee!" The monster climbs up, and up, and up, and then leaps to another building, swinging out an arm to attempt to clothesline Mikoto and Miroku in the process before kicking off of the other and taking hold again of the Tower.
"You're asking what my place is--how can I ask to have any place at all, if I give up because it's not simple!"
COMBAT: Eas has used Nakewameke! Dirty Trick!! on Fuu Hououji. COMBAT: Eas has used Nakewameke! Direct Approach!! on Steven Universe. COMBAT: Eas has used Nake!! on Mikoto Minagi. COMBAT: Eas has used Nakewameke! Special Assault!! on La Sirene de Diamant. COMBAT: Eas has used Nakewameke! Dirty Trick!! on Sailor Moon. COMBAT: Eas has used Nakewameke! Direct Approach!! on Sourisi. COMBAT: Eas has finished attacking. COMBAT: Eas has adjusted her boss levels. She is now ready to take on 5 opponents!
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
As the Winds of Healing fade, the Wind Knight can clearly hear Eas commanding her monster to focus on her; in response, she wills her bow and quiver to appear, reaching back over her shoulder to pull an arrow out even as the quiver is materializing across her back, and she wastes no time at all in nocking it and drawing it back. She's just made herself a priority target.
.... not that she can really complain about it.
As she draws her bow, the Magic Knight of Wind gathers her magic as well, quickly weaving a spell to support, steady, and accelerate her arrow. It's not so much the turbulence of her wind magic that helps to offset the garish display of the screen, but the discipline of archery itself - but it's only a partial defense; her eyes hurt and her head swims from the noise hitting her visual cortex, even as she calls out, "Gale Arrow!" and lets the shaft fly, wind magic speeding the arrow on its way and ensuring it stays on a straight course.
<Pose Tracker> Steven Universe [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.
As Steven looks for a way to get up closer to that enemy, when a familiar mouse-girl appears miraculously! "A-Are you gonna be some kind of flight attendant when you get older? That was really g-AHH!" The sudden takeoff taking him by surprise! "Whoah, this is high!" But it is up where he wanted to be!
"Because not everyone has been able to experience it yet! All of us with secret magic stuff, if thats what its even called, life a different life. No one walks the same road, Eas! We're all on our own rock tour, and sometimes ya meet up for collaborations! That's life!"
She has a cool style, why does she have to be a badguy? That fur collar is awesome, and reminds him of one of his dad's favorite musicians, on the topic of music.
Steven sees that impact coming from the Nakewameke, too fast for the Miraculous to dodge, and actually bails on Sourisi, jumping to a strut just behind her! Though is quickly evident there's more to the plan.
A wave of a hand, and a swath section of a Bubble Shield is behind him. The hit comes, and Steven jumps to catch her, impacting himself between the shield and her, keeping her from colliding with superstructure and possibly the pavement below. A painful exhalation of wind escapes him. "Ngh! You okay?" he says, stumbling to his feet and helping her upright with one hand, the second, making and outer swiping motion, the section of shield rotationg quickly as if Steven was itx axis, until it is facing the Nakewameke, then pushing outward, sending it spiraling toward the creature.
"A band is only as powerful as its combined melody! ...I actually just made that metaphor now! Awesome! I gotta tell dad." A pause. "That's why the good ones are called power ballads!"
A look to Sourisi. "I'm on musical fire today."
COMBAT: Steven Universe has used Repelling Shield on Eas. COMBAT: Steven Universe has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
No mistakes.
Mikoto does not speak but rather gasps as she tries to react to the sound of the approaching Nakewameke, only to swing too low to account for the way its arm catches at her throat. Her eyes widen as she slips from the strut she had claimed, into open air.
And she thinks, oh. What about them?
Mai will be upset.
She won't be home for dinner. Mai was going to cook rei shabu. The pork was on special. She was so pleased with herself for finding a deal like that, and now...
... she was going to go to Usagi's house, to read a type of book she didn't know much about. It was supposed to be mostly pictures. Manga, right? Is that what it's called? Does it matter?
And... she said she'd take Homura out to try the new ice-cream flavours...
And Endo wanted to show her...
And Steven wanted to play...
And Niramo was going to...
And then... and then...
The glittering shadow Mikoto Minagi does not move for long and painful moments in her free-fall, because she still cannot see with her eyes. But she can see, so clearly, with something else. Every one of their smiling faces.
Perhaps if she relied on her eyes, Eas would be rid of her.
She does not.
Mikoto hears the tower rushing past her, knocked too far to just slam into another strut. Each rung comes a little closer, and in an instant she twists, corkscrewing in the air to slam her blade down. It screams against the metal of a strut, catches there, and she dangles.
From this angle she cannot pull herself up easily but neither is she plummeting; but she knows she is completely open to attack, and that is more uncomfortable than the long fall below. "I..." Her word catches in her throat, three tremulous mora. She has always had the sharpest senses of any of them. If she admits she cannot see to catch herself, she will display weakness to the enemy. "I can't..."
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Moon [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Through the turmoil, Sailor Moon here's a voice calling out to her and... her eyes blink a little as she looks to Steven. She was there when he awakened, and... "Aha... ha..." The girl wipes away her tears, "... when did you grow up so much? Well if that's the way my kouhai feels. I can't let him or the rest of the Covenant down!"
However then Eas targets Sailor Moon with the text messages, and as they assault her with 'Tsukino Buy Your Own Snacks.' Sailor Moon fights through it with a rush of indignation, "EAS YOU CAN'T SHOW THOSE THEY'RE-" And as she does, the Tiara - on it's return arc, changes it subtly - as if the wind had simply shifted.
At the same moment the Tiara cuts through a rope. There's a snapping noise as gravity causes the scaffolding to swing down lopsided into the screen, slamming into it with incredible force.
"-PRIVATE!" She shrieks. The tiara then returns to her hand, which she then puts up to her brow.
Sailor Moon then immediately begins to leap up, from building to building, flying through the air with a grace that she normally doesn't appear to possess. "It's both!" Kicking off from one side to the next, before performing a flip in mid-air. "...You've never had anyone who let you know it's okay to be weak sometimes - have you?" Two boots impact the window, and she rebounds off. "It's the most wonderful feeling in the world when you find someone who lets you be like that around them."
She hears the screech of metal, and her pace quickens. "Mikoto!" As Mikoto's blade catches and the girl dangles precariously for dear life. Sailor Moon leaps onto the strut above, then kneels down, "Hang on! It's gonna be okay..."
Putting a finger down, she reaches out, fingertips not quite touching. Making her statement a lie, at least at first, "I can't... reach you!" Sweat beading on her forehead under the stress of the scenario. Then slowly she considers and, snaps her fingers, "Pen!" And it pops into her hand. Leaning out, she reaches over to Mikoto and uses the extra length of the pen to reach her hand, "Here - take it!" She then retracts her body once it slips into Mikoto's hand, "Okay now let go of Miroku - but keep a hold onto the pen!" That sounds absurd, but then the girl locks eyes with her and simply says, "Trust me."
When Mikoto does fall, she hardly has fallen ten whole feet, before the pen reacts to the stimulus of the sudden drop by unfurling an Umbrella-! The canopy is pink, and covered with adorable kittens of different colors. And different poses, doing different things like eating or sleeping on high things.
It also slows her descent to a pace where she hardly loses any ground, because recovering is... just a simple matter of finding the right spot and timing to leap back up.
COMBAT: Sailor Moon has used Sailor Moon's Umbrella has you covered! on Mikoto Minagi. COMBAT: Sailor Moon has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Sourisi [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.
The entire Tokyo Tower vibrates as if it was the epicenter of a major earthquake, and Sourisi's clawed boots have to cause minor dents in the tower just to gain just enough purchase. No matter how good her jumping skills are, it's a little hard to stay upright when the tower is shaking like this! "Steven-kun, hang on tight, okay? I got you-" Unfortunately for Sourisi, she turns her head just in time to see the Nakewameke swinging both of its' feet at her.
'Oh...I might have made her phone a little mad.'
Sourisi goes flying backwards, taking the full force of a double-kick that makes her entire body ache. Steven's safe, but the metal rungs set to catch her fall might change that-...or it would, if not for Steven's quick thinking and talent. She does land hard, but it's more of a softer landing then plowing through metal and possibly going flying to the ground below.
Realizing that she's stopped and not hurting more than she already was, she cracks her eyes open and lets out a shallow sigh of relief. She...did not want to picture what the landing would have been like. "I-uh...yes, thanks Steven-san. Thanks, you may have just saved my life there." Climbing to her feet with Steven's assistance, Sourisi catches her returning tonfa as soon as his shield spirals outwards at the cracked phone! "Steven-kun, you're rocking like a true Universe."
Glancing once again between Eas and her phone monstrosity, the Miraculous Mouse nods once to herself and tightens her grip on her tonfa. Everyone's reaching out to Eas, and here she is still trying to crack jokes.
It's time for Serious Sourisi.
"You're right, Eas. This is a battlefield, but i'm realizing it's much more than just a physical fight between good and evil. Those images your phone is revealing, those texts you have sent to others, it's proof of someone who exists outside of your total devotion to your 'Mobius-sama.' And you know that." Her body aches right now, but Sourisi takes the chance to look away from the more obvious threat.
"I may not even know out outside of the battlefield, but...you have met others, talked with others and have others revealed things about yourself you didn't know that existed. That's what happens when we meet others in life. We grow, just like you have admitted just now! And you're afraid of that change, right? Why else would you send that text to everyone, to call them here for one final battle?! You're not fighting us, you're fighting yourself at the same time, i'm sure of it!"
Tapping her tail against a tonfa, a golden chain springs to life around her weapon, and with a moment to take aim, she flings the chained tonfa at the Nakewameke. Not to strike, but to ensnare. "So, let's see who can prevail today! Not good and evil, joy and sorrow. But the you that want things to stay the same, and the you that desires something different!"
COMBAT: Sourisi has used Tail Snag on Eas. COMBAT: Sourisi has finished attacking. COMBAT: Eas fails to brace Steven Universe's Repelling Shield, taking 19 Fatigue damage! Diversion applied to Eas! COMBAT: Eas fails to brace Sourisi's Tail Snag, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Trap applied to Eas!
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
Perhaps someone hears her, after all. Mikoto hears Sailor Moon's approach and looks towards her, squinting over the grey. "Sailor Moon!" There is a different type of desperation, there.
One of her hands releases Miroku's hilt to reach up, but she is dangling, and there is only so far her shoulders are willing to cooperate. "Sailor Moon..." Mikoto trails off, and the strain in her words says as much as her name. With one last grab she finally manages to grasp --
-- not her hand.
A pen..?
"Ah..." Mikoto looks up at her, as well as she can see, a frown creasing her face. Has she ever let go of her sword, in a fight? Her grip is steel.
But Usagi has shown her a lot of things, over the past year. They've had a lot of parfait.
And so Mikoto swallows and nods, with an affirmative noise. "... I do." Trust her. It is something more evident in the way her dominant hand releases, and she plummets anew. Down, and down, and --
-- suddenly she is caught in the air, as if she's been tugged up entirely. Her hand catches on a curved handle, and she reaches up to grasp it with her other hand, blinking as she peers up at it. An... umbrella? Swaying slightly in the breeze she descends at a leisurely pace, until her feet find a lower strut. Cats always land on their feet, after all. She puffs out a breath as she pulls the umbrella down to examine it, and through the spots of light she can see the kittens. She smiles.
"Right," she nods, and starts picking her way up the struts again, going from one level to the next without worrying too much about seeing too far ahead of her. She can sniff out Sailor Moon, after all. She's sure to return her umbrella. "Sailor Moon saved me," she says, and there is relief there, and love.
And then she listens for the battle, and she leaps up another rung. And she is HiME, after all, and it is more difficult to disarm her than this. She reaches out with grasping hand, and yells, "Miroku!" --
-- and the blade shimmers out of existence from whence it had buried in the outer edge of Tokyo Tower, and sails through the air to bury in the steel next to her.
"It's not giving up, Eas..." She says, the words slow to come, volume building slowly.
Mikoto draws the blade and leaps, and leaps, and leaps again, and Miroku comes down in an overhead swing which promises annihilation.
"... it's way harder than giving up!!"
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has used Obsidian Blade: Destruction on Eas. COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has finished attacking. COMBAT: Eas fails to dodge Mikoto Minagi's Obsidian Blade: Destruction, taking 60 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> La Sirene de Diamant [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
"Because it is under a meter of tears, you impossible woman!" la Sirene says to Eas hotly. "It used to be deeper but the silt adds up!!"
"No," la Sirene says breathlessly later: "Not everything."
Her eyes narrow then before the text appears and the vibration rises, spreads out... her entire body feels like it's shuddering apart. Something in her jaw goes 'pap!' lightly; she can feel her spine relax and when she is almost abruptly thrown back, she bends almost double!
But the aurora ripples... so too can she. She did in fact lose contact with the tower entirely. But the miraculous (lower-case - important to note) difference with her and that strange paramagnetic levitation of hers is that it is connected to the nearby strongly magnetic object.
Such as... the structural steel of the Tokyo Tower! She drifts closer again, the Stellar Prism glowing warmly and with a pinkish hue as she pants for breath. Sourisi speaks as la Sirene struggles against her fear, and then she looks up as Sourisi cracks the case, even as they can't quite crack the phone's spring. Blinking slowly, she listens as the mouse of renown comes to a conclusion. It isn't about joy and sorrow, it is about stasis and change -
"Thank you," La Sirene murmurs to her. "You put it so well. I just... I get so upset at... a a a A A A AH MIKOTO----"
But it's alright.
Sailor Moon saved her.
La Sirene's hand leaves her heart. As the winds of healing rise around her she calls towards Eas, "I cannot reason you out of a position you didn't reason yourself into. They're all so clever -" Her hands come up, sweeping through her hair, touching the seven-diamond hairpin. The black gems gleam...
And her hands sweep forwards then! As Sourisi binds with chains, so does la Sirene attempt to bind with the inimitable pressure that radiates from every star, like a song of beauty and sorrowful joy to every planet...!
(It looks like blue-gold-pink light billowing outwards, almost thick enough to touch. It actually can be touched: it feels like electrified wind, which Hououji would probably consider extremely correct...)
COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant has used Polyploia on Eas. COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant has finished attacking. COMBAT: Eas cleanly braces 23 Fatigue damage from La Sirene de Diamant's Polyploia, taking 4 Fatigue damage! Eas's Block and Parry abilities activate! Tangle and Trap applied to Eas!
<Pose Tracker> Eas [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
"I don't care about geology right now!" Eas fires off at Steven. ...But she pauses, as she considers what he says about power ballads. For an instant she watches him, uncertain whether she has appropriately judged her foe. She is unaware, for the moment, of his conflicted thoughts on her attire--
But Steven defends, and Eas can see that for certain, watching him press back and back with the shield he uses. "...Do they?" she murmurs to herself, and forgets in the moment to say something mean to Steven to get him off-guard. Instead, she looks from Lera... to Mikoto. Mikoto, who is always so fast, who Eas has singled out in this moment though truth be told she's singled out each of them in their own ways; with what she knows about her...
The dramatic stare is of course interrupted by Sailor Moon's shriek in return. "If you wanted them kept to yourself you should've said so!" Eas answers, but she stops short, watching that flip--watching the impact... and listening to what she says. Someone who makes it okay to be weak sometimes...
Eas simply turns away from that moment; she doesn't answer, doesn't direct her monster to attack while Mikoto is vulnerable, doesn't direct it to swing at the girl falling with the umbrella. "Nice trick," she comments, as her monster whirls around--and begins to bear down towards Sourisi again. "Naaaaakewamekeeee!!" It starts to swing again, preparing to go into melee... as Eas glances la Sirene's way again.
"Then it doesn't sound like a very good garden!" the white-haired girl lashes back, frowning. She... doesn't really understand why they're talking about a garden, frankly. Metaphors tend to get away from her quickly. "Put some fish in it, put it to use!"
"And of course I'm right!" Eas snaps at Sourisi, as much out of habit as anything--but she's been paying attention to the images. She states there's more there, something she knows... and the moment to look away is dangerous, yes, but maybe she will find that it's worth it. Her snare encircles an arm, and the Nakewameke surges closer, seemingly planning to tackle her outright. "Naaaaakewaaaaaaaa!!"
But Eas watches her in silence, watches as she fights, and watches Mikoto as she returns, triumphant. Mikoto says it's harder than that--it's not giving up. And she swings. The Nakewameke takes the swing full-on, now close enough to Eas that Eas can see past the chunk of it that is completely sheared off and falls, falls hard towards the ground with a deafening crash and a cloud of dust. ...But the crowds aren't down there anymore; those that couldn't get out have retreated inside.
"Heh..."
La Sirene cannot reason her out of it. She says that--but even Eas can appreciate the strange beauty of the pressure that she brings, and watches it just before its radiance hurts her eyes and she glances to the side instead. "Mee...keeeeee..."
The cellphone has assuredly seen better days. But it does not, immediately, press the assault--it hesitates, turning its face towards its mistress--
And Eas steps forward, moving to take a seat for now on part of the railing, feet hanging down from it, one hand holding a part perpendicular.
"Yes," she says. "...You're correct. That's why I called you here. ...But I don't expect things to stay the same."
"They never do, here. They're always changing. I've come to know a lot of you. ...But it's not so simple as you make it sound. Things like this..."
"...You don't settle them with empty words. You say it's not giving up. Well, I say--"
"If it were reason, you'd have all given up a long time ago! By reason, you shouldn't want to preserve your fragile society, preserve these things that give you uncertainty! So I'm not trying reason."
"...Nakewameke," Eas says, slipping down, letting herself fall to clink clink land on another part of the railing, and she points forward. "Show them the strength of the messages inside you."
"Naaa..." The Nakewameke looks to its master, and then narrows its electronic eyes. It rears to its full height--less than it was--and suddenly grows, twice, three times its size. "NAAAAAAAA!!"
It charges, swinging down off of the Tower completely and raining blows the entire way down, hurling concrete and rebar and vibrating dust clouds in every direction.
Behind, Eas tilts her head to the side, as if stretching, and begins to stand up straight.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Eas has used All-Out Misery on La Sirene de Diamant. COMBAT: FINISHER! Eas has used All-Out Misery on Sailor Moon. COMBAT: FINISHER! Eas has used All-Out Misery on Steven Universe. COMBAT: Eas has used Nakewameke! Special Assault!! on Sourisi. COMBAT: Eas has used Nakewameke! Special Assault!! on Mikoto Minagi. COMBAT: Sailor Moon partially dodges 22 Fatigue damage from Eas's Finisher, All-Out Misery, taking 88 Fatigue damage! Sailor Moon is unable to keep fighting! Sailor Moon's Fade and Flash abilities activate! COMBAT: Sourisi braces 16 Fatigue damage from Eas's Nakewameke! Special Assault!!, taking 13 Fatigue damage! Cripple applied to Sourisi! COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant braces 60 Fatigue damage from Eas's Finisher, All-Out Misery, taking 40 Fatigue damage! La Sirene de Diamant's Block and Parry abilities activate! COMBAT: Steven Universe fails to brace Eas's Finisher, All-Out Misery, taking 137 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Steven Universe is unable to keep fighting! COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi perfectly dodges 26 Fatigue damage from Eas's Nakewameke! Special Assault!!, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge! Mikoto Minagi's Fade and Flash abilities activate!
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Moon [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Sailor Moon watches for a moment while holding onto her position. Watching with bated breath as the Umbrella opens, as Mikoto reaches the next strut. And watches her rise again. The girl makes a whoop, then starts clapping as if it were Makoto showing off a feat of strength.
However then Eas calls upon the strength of those feelings within those messages. And the Nakewameke responds. It grows. And grows. And grows. Sailor Moon nearly goes bug eyed at its sheer size.
She can't be the brat anymore. She can't say that there's nothing reasonable about handing their lives over. She can't say that Eas is using the strength of emotion to defeat them. As it swings off the tower, hurling down debris. "No..." She almost squeaks pathetically.
It's too large. She can't get away. She can't do anything.
BGM Change: Mad Rush - Bayonetta 2 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vn2NOFY1gUs
You can face so much more than you think.
It's shadow has nearly eclipsed her before Sailor Moon skips off her strut. And allows herself to fall in a leap of faith that seems better than certain death. The Nakewameke hurls down a chunk of the building, and she seizes up for a moment before going into a spinning twirl, it narrowly missing her as she grasps onto a piece of rebar. Her whole weight lurches as the mass spins around in a rotation towards the ground. Once its at the top, she crouches.
And leaps forward, falling off, limbs outspread like a sky diver, the shadow of the creature over her.
Another shadow is incoming fast. A whole steel I-Beam.
Pushing her limbs together, she allows herself to fall faster as it overtakes her. Timing it just right, she puts a foot against it, and kicks off it just before it would knock her out of the sky as if she were a pidgeon fighting a 747.
This sends her into an uncontrolled flip, as she spies her reflection against the side of the building. Another reflection too lower than her.
Of a young boy who is even in a more perilous state than she is.
She shouts out a word.
STEVEN
The turbulence of the wind around her drowns out her scream of panic.
Closing her eyes for a moment, Sailor Moon realizes there's perhaps only one way to catch up to him. And she spreads out her arms and legs, not fighting it any longer. Waiting for the thing to catch up to her.
It does not disappoint, as it slams a fist into her back with a thunderous ripple of powerful energy that almost makes her swoon outright - even as it sends her rocketing forward.
Dazed from spine-shattering impact even against her Senshi Fuku, her arms move like molasses as they reach out to encircle the boy, to enfold him into her arms.
She perhaps does not remember much more than that. It's quite possible she blacks out on the way. The two are in a rotational spiral, but she has one advantage to ensure his safety - one that even academically untalented Usagi Tsukino knows.
She weighs more than him. She's bigger than him.
Debris careens around them on a low building front, and the two smash into a sign depicting a man crossing a finish line.
That's the last anyone sees of them at least. As the sign distorts under the weight of the two of them, bending backwards as it absorbs their momentum, before it snaps. The sign disintegrates and the rooftop collapses beneath them moments later from the weight of debris. The dust settles and it's hard to know what has become of both of them...
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Moon [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed. <SoundTracker> ibid
A Mooncat has beheld all of this in stunned silence. Her throat failing to work as she watches Sailor Moon fall - fall. She sees where she's landing... and starts to run. The area is mostly evacuated now, nary a car dares to pass by. And so the cat's advance is unabated as she leaps from parked car to street, to the sidewalk. Debris is still crashing, causing Luna to move into a white cloud of dust as she runs up to the building. The sensors for the door detect her presence and shunt open as the cat rushes the foyer...
And thanks her lucky stars for stairs that aren't gated by a door. Tearing off like the devil herself is behind her, she rushes up the stairs, one flight, two, three. Not allowing herself to think anything as she leaps up to a bannister on the fourth. She's not a good cat even on her best day, but even she can make the death defying leap across the gap where debris has knocked out part of it to the next one. Scrambling up to the fifth floor.
The building itself has a cavernous opening, and the entire place is a calamity in the making unless the lingering power of her Queen does its good work after...
The cat hops from cluttered debris to cluttered debris, and it's only now that she allows herself to shout - "Sailor Moon!"
Part of a wall has toppled into a razor minefield of glass, and she leaps into it anyhow. "Princess!" She shouts out next, as she scampers forward, worrying not about cuts to her tiny pawsie beans, as she rushes into the next room, and squeezes through a gap to scrunch herself into the next room...
"USAGI-CHAN!"
In her worst of nightmares, she couldn't have imagined Usagi Tsukino being stabbed through by a Queen Beryl that then twists the knife. Now she's learning there are worse feelings. The idea of a Usagi Tsukino buried alive for starters... the Senshi tearing the place apart stone by stone to find...
Light fills her vision as she reaches the end of her darkened small tunnel and she calls out... "Please be..."
BGM Change: To Protect the Stars - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWSNrlaknMQ
She sees one singular blonde twintail laying out and holds her breath, not finishing as she squeezes out and-
There she is. A dusty Sailor Moon, still holding onto Steven Universe in the mail room of a small business. Parts of their two bodies eclipsed by bubble wrap and packing peanuts. Cardboard boxes and letterhead scattered and smashed by debris.
Luna is suddenly off like a bolt of black, leaping up to Sailor Moon's chest, who does not react, simply putting her head down by her mouth. She waits one second - two second - three...
And feels a puff of air escape from her lips.
The mooncat lets out a sob of relief, suddenly weak in the legs and bloodied paws, and sinks down atop of her, feeling the crunch of styrofoam under her bottom. And then she feels a hand lightly stroking her head, absently, as if she were half-asleep. "...Luna..." The word escapes her lips, "...were you scared...?"
The mooncat sinks her face against Sailor Moon's shoulders and sobs out a muffled, "OfcorsIwuz!"
The girl rests her hand on the scruff of Luna's neck, because she doesn't have the energy to keep rubbing her. "... I guess that makes both of us." She whispers, before she allows herself to slip back into blissful unconsciousness again. It takes Luna a few moments to compose herself enough to gently work her way out from under Sailor Moon's arm, up to her wrist, and speak into a communicator...
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed. <SoundTracker> Homestuck - Galaxy Hearts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQX0TWA_x6Q
"Life's not a-- not an--" Mikoto stumbles over the words as Eas asserts they're not being reasonable, because her command of them is so much less sure than her footing. She makes a frustrated noise as she shakes the last of the stars from her sight, glaring up at the Executive with clear eyes again. "-- it's not maths, Eas!!"
It cannot be divvied up into exact measurements. The worth of their lives cannot be calculated like so many numbers.
Besides.
Whenever Mikoto does a maths problem, she always forgets a number somewhere, and the answer ends up wrong. Surely that means maths is a terrible way to approach the worthiness of life.
The Nakewameke is bid to show them the strength of their connections, and Mikoto thinks Eas is not trying to show the other girls at all. She's figuring stuff out, too.
"It's strong..." She concedes, and cannot say anything more because the monster is charging, not like a phone but like a rhinoceros. La Sirene's shout still echoes in her ears and so she does not strike out at the Nakewameke as it passes, but instead springs backwards, once, twice, three times. Firstly to avoid its fists - and then a slab of concrete which shatters against steel - and then to escape the grasp of flying metal supports revealed by that shattered foundation.
She's fast enough to get away.
Not everyone is.
'But I'm not sure what's so good about being happy. It's temporary, it's not... stable, or useful. I don't have time to be concerned with something like that.'
For the second time it slows and this time the air is not stolen from her lungs from the rushing weight of gravity. Her jaw moves and finds nothing. Her lips shape a word, then another.
'Temporary, huh...'
She remembers to breathe.
'Lots of things are.'
"Steven - Sailor Moon--!" She finds her voice as they find the ground. Her words shudder against the fear which never goes away, no matter how many times it happens.
Their happiness... their security... their lives...
... that's what Mikoto was trying to tell her, back then.
Perhaps Eas listened too well, or Mikoto did not explain herself well enough. It is a difficult thing. It is not something they speak of. Certainly, Mikoto and Usagi have spent long afternoons not speaking of it. And always, always, there is the chance that tomorrow they will not have the chance to say anything at all, and that is why today is so important. Oh, Eas, there is always a reason. It is always being reasonable.
But there is one thing which is enshrined in the ephemeral nature of the world, beyond fear and doubt and pain. Pandora's box contains every evil in the world, yes: and at the bottom of the jar is hope.
The debris clouds them as they slam into the buildings, but Sailor Moon caught herself on a sign before the end. And they are strong.
And perhaps they are all right.
If they are -- if they are --
-- Mikoto knows they must be too spent to withstand another attack from the Nakewameke.
Here is the truth: she has always shied from giving all of herself. Mikoto is not one to fall on the battlefield; she retreats. Eas is not the only one with a task ahead of her. Mikoto speaks of hers so rarely, yet it is a reminder which keeps her safe. She is trained well enough to know her limits.
Trained well enough to know she has reached them now.
She should save her strength; she should settle for what she has done.
But Usagi needs her, and Steven needs her.
She does not settle for what she has done.
Mikoto is learning, and here she learns something new.
Hope lies at the bottom of the jar and a glittering shadow descends from strut to strut, a freight train gaining speed. Perhaps if she were different, she would have a speech to yell at Eas as her feet press off from each steel support. Some world-shattering combat diplomacy, some testament to enduring love. But she has given Eas all the words available to her.
It's much easier to scream.
She screams and it says I have not abandoned you, I am coming to save you too, our temporary time is not yet at an end.
She does not say any of them as such, because she is completely focused on the next step, on increasing her speed until it is like she is falling. She is completely focused on the Nakewameke in her sights.
And when she is three floors above it she drops the pretence; she plummets. Gravity is her mistress and she uses its weight to drive down her sword, in a swing which starts behind her and cleaves overhead. She means to split it down the middle. She holds nothing back. This is the strength the Covenant of Style inspires. If Eas will not listen to empty words, she will convince her with all her thunderous force.
Sailor Moon asked if she trusted her.
She does; she trusts them all.
Steven Universe told her to be careful.
But, for once...
COMBAT: FINISHER! Mikoto Minagi has used Obsidian Blade: Deontology on Eas. COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Steven Universe [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.
"G-Geology?" Steven asks, thrown off for a second. Oh right, Gemstones are rocks, aren't they? Huh. Gemology sounds cooler though. "Speaking of Geology, what's a geologist's favorite kind of music?" he shouts to Eas. Super hard for him to keep a straight face. "Rock, of course! Heehee!"
His funny moment is cut short however, as the superstructure of the tower shudders with the might of the Nakewameke. "We should get down! Hurry--"
It gets closer. "I got another one! On the topic of sciences, I can tell your monster thingy is strong! Wanna know how?" the boy says, giggling again, trying to climb down himself. "It has a great cellular structure!"
Maybe if he can make her crack a bit, this fight wouldn't be such a problem. They could possibly stop, even--
Yeah, no. the giant monster has different plans. It lands on the struct Steven is climbing down, and promptly breaks it off, sending the boy into free-fall. "Ahhhhh!" he calls as he begins to freefall
Though there is sudden movement nearby. A worried face and golden hair is all he gets to see before someone impacts in to him with a THUD. "Sailor--!" is all that escapes Steven's mouth as their momentum comes to a grinding halt as they slam into a nearby roof sign. Far better the result instead of what lay below.
The hole they made in the roof as they fell, shines the light of an ending day down into a cataclysm of shipping products. He attempted to Bubble Shield the next impact that came after the sign, but was too weak to hold it up long. It brunted some of the second hit, but not enough for Steven's savior.
When the boy stops trembling, he begins to see what is going on, much like the aftershock of a car crash, everything comes int orealization in an impossibly slow fashion. Moments feel like minutes. The minutes, hours. "Wh... not again..." the boy says, gently standing up. He hurts and aches, but she took both of those major impacts, cushioning him. He holds his head in his hands, even as Luna finds her charge. "She did it again, she... I dunno what to do..." Some tears leak down and drop on the ground. On Sailor Moon's fuku. On an arm. "Why can people be so mean, kitty?" he asks Luna. "Why can't there be happy gauges or joy crystals? Why does everything have to be trying to gain negative things?" the boy says through sobs.
---
If by some miracle that number that was used to call out people to come here still functions, it may receive a text.
- i just wanted to be ur friend
It is followed by a sad emoji face.
---
"Keep her safe... I gotta go back," he says sadly toward Luna, looking toward Sailor Moon one last time, relieved she is at least breathing. But he can still move. He can still fight.
He has to help his friends so the same doesn't happen to them. The Gem Child takes a few long, pained breaths, then heads for the nearest door, after looking back one final time. He has to help end this.
A magical, metallic tang, and a flash of pink can be noticed down the hall he travels.
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
"STEVEN-SAN!! MOON-SAN!!!"
The Wind Knight can't react quickly enough to aid her allies; even with the elemental magic she commands, she can't reach out fast enough or far enough. But it's not like the only thing she can do is watch, either.
She refuses to think of this as avenging them, though, just as a matter of principle. She doesn't want to think that any of her allies are getting killed tonight; she's angry enough as it is ... and the storm that she unleashes conveys her fury in abundance.
"STORM-DANCE OF KAMAITACHI!!!"
It's not the full wrath of the Emerald Cyclone; she has to 'set off' her spell closer to the Nakewameke so she doesn't catch allies in the line of fire. She also has to land her attack before any of her allies who are charging into melee get too close, lest the winds lash at *them* and not just at the monster she wants to obliterate. But the whirlwind does indeed erupt, slashing at the phone-based Nakewameke with a ferocity that would do far more than strip leaves from trees ...
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Storm-Dance of Kamaitachi on Eas. COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> La Sirene de Diamant [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
Eas tells them, if not directly, about what she has had to deal with. What she thinks. How they've had an impact on her, how she's realized that reason has its limits. La Sirene appeals to her as she has at times appealed to the storms and to the heavens: "Those things are precious! It is in those moments of tension and uncertainty that we - that we -"
That we nakewameke, it appears.
The storming blows of the passage of the great creature slam la Sirene de l'Aurore against the side of Tokyo Tower without much preamble or dignity. The faint glow around her fades to nothing, though her diaphanously gradient-gorgeous dress does not. She is wrapped abdomen-first around a girder, dangling like a piece of washing. Twitching, she shifts herself, trying to pull up - to turn - the Stellar Prism sparkling and sputtering as she feels fatigue and soreness pervade her body.
She gazes down at the Nakewameke and how it's approaching and with a horrified gasp she realizes - that debris, it's falling towards SAilor Moon. It collapses towards her before la Sirene can find her voice or her breath and afterwards she can feel her heart seem to slam-thump DOWN into her chest in dismay, a palpable blow.
There is only misery in her heart for a moment. Then, like the tiniest hint of a possible dawn, she can see Sailor Moon - see Luna - move. And there is another cat who is moving with greater purpose far closer. Even so, la Sirene de l'Aurore thinks. Even so.
Is it going to be enough? Are they going to be bowled over like this, without Pretty Cure to help them? Without some other angel to come in and save them. Her abdomen wrenches.
Inside of her mind, she thinks... and she has one of those mental pictures again, a picture of a range of girls who might be her ancestors or her descendants turning over. They are asleep but there is a little light peeping in. A little light, like a little motion.
"... Sourisi," la Sirene says in that quiet-but-penetrating way she has. She raises her head, cheeks wet from tears, to look up at the mouse-girl not so far away.
"This is a little rough, isn't it?"
"We were lucky that Sailor Moon was there. I don't know... if we can be lucky again." She pulls herself up onto the girder and, with a few noises and ghostly groans, crouches. She exhales with force, even as Mikoto makes her attack.
Her eyes well up. To Sourisi she says, almost cries, "I am going to do the most I can but I know I am weak, here. But I - it's electronics, isn't it, and... Sourisi, please, make the most of this."
"Eas! Those messages are not within your telephone! They are within your heart! They're just letters and codes unless YOU read them - unless you know who says them! So please --"
La Sirene de l'Aurore raises both her arms above her head. Her brooch-prism sparkles, and a single white point appears on its jet-black mirror backing.
"Don't regret this."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZtfsfoKSB0
And then her eyes turn down towards the Nakewameke. The Stellar Prism gleams - and light shines down, a prismatic streak that brackets the creature. It is merely light for now, but the pressure of it builds as the prism itself.
"You," la Sirene addresses it. Clinging to Tokyo Tower, she says: "Rampaging. To bring despair to the world. To bring sorrow, to bring suffering. You have done enough. Aye, enough and more; for you have come close to doing something unforgivable." At this point the Nakewameke might be feeling like it is not just under 'light' but under some kind of a spotlight.
"For the days you have ruined. For the lives you have come so close to taking. Before you attained this new career you bore messages of love and friendship to this person. Messages from twenty score sources. Now bear one more."
The white spot in the backing of the Stellar Prism has extended out to something like there's an eye opening back there. Maybe there is.
"That message is that we wish to be your mistress's friend - but friends do not let friends cause horrid things, for whatever reasons they may have. You have done your duty and have nothing to regret. Now, in the name of the Mother of Sorrows!" La Sirene throws a hand out.
The focused prism of light is getting weirdly intense. It's like a spotlight. A spotlight that has the wrong spectrogram for Earth. "Come to thy rest!"
La Sirene sucks in a deep breath. She tightens her grip and wonders if she will swoon again at this feeling. If she does, will she wake up before she hits the ground?
She thinks of Sailor Moon snapping into action. She can do no less, she resolves.
"Coronal Ejection!"
The Stellar Prism turns and the strobospectographic radiance of a star is briefly, stunningly revealed!
COMBAT: FINISHER! La Sirene de Diamant has started a combo targeting Eas!
<Pose Tracker> Sourisi [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.
The golden chain wraps around the Nakewameke's arm several times, wrapping around and hindering the movements to make it similar to wearing oven mitts to sew. The job done, the tonfa snaps away from the chain and starts to fly back to Sourisi, but she's already on the move. Sourisi had to react quickly to get away in time of the full-body tackle, but it was a close shave. Even if her tail is only a part of her outfit, she could feel it getting hit by the movement, which sends her flying lower, but thankfully she can still grab a rung for safety. "For something going all out, you would think the battery would be dead by now!"
Ascending higher and thanking whatever gods were listening that she wasn't knocked off the Tokyo Tower yet again, Sourisi takes a moment to collect her breath before glancing at Eas again. Even if she's snapping out of anger...it seems rather forced. Maybe everyone's speeches were getting through, but she doesn't want to admit it? Maybe she was afraid she would appear weak? "Not everything can be solved with reason or logic, you know! Humans are crazy, they do silly things, and that's what keeps life interesting!"
"If everything could be solved by reason..." A frown grows strong on lips used to smiling. "...the world would be a much colder and scary place."
The cellphone Nakewameke grows to a gigantic size, dwarfing the already small mouse, and hammers the Tower with a series of blows that shake the entire structure violently, ripping metal and and pavement away and clouding the air.
And not everyone can escape to safety like Sourisi could.
A young boy wearing his trademark pink shirt gets hit directly by one massive fist, and the color drains from Sourisi's face. "Steven-kun!" She...she had left him behind to save herself, after he had saved her only moments ago. She had been seperated by him due to that tackle, sure, but to completely forget about him...
Sourisi would much rather it have been her who was hit than the brave half-Gem.
A Pretty Soldier is hit as well, but even in her pain, she was able to save Steven Universe from a landing that could have been lethal. And all Sourisi did was stand there and watched out of shock. Righteous anger builds in the Miraculous User, not at Eas or the Nakewameke who was the cause of the pain to her friends, but to herself. "Sailor Moon...!" She has to thank her, somehow, if both of them survived...but that was for later.
Hearing La Sirene speak up, the Miraculous user looks at her friend, the both of them standing on the same rung of Tokyo Tower. No tears framed her eyes, but it was only due to the shock and rage in her body. Later, when the realization of what has happened can finally dawn on Sourisi, she'll break down crying later. But now is not the time...not yet.
Letting out a shaky sigh, the ninja mouse nods her head once, solemnly. "Collect the sorrows that are caused by that phone, Sirene-san. I'll...ease their pain."
La Sirene de l'Aurore stands tall despite her grief, her will to see things through reaching out to her brooch-prism. Metaphorically, it's time for this mouse girl to do the same.
Not as reckless as Mikoto, Sourisi drops down rung by rung down the tourist attraction, mouth set. A hand here, a flick of her tail to swing there does she descends with gathering speed. At the very last rung, Sourisi swings off with both of her hands and touches down on the ground, all of that momentum having the Miraculous user crossing ground faster than a full sprint.
"We're willing to listen to you, to offer an empty hand of friendship and not a closed fist of war, but you have to listen to what your mind is trying to tell you, Eas! You are on the edge of a cliff, one where one more tiny misstep will ruin everything you're only now realizing can be a possibility!" Trusty tonfa seem to materalize in Sourisi's grasp, shining with a golden pale radiance.
"But now, don't be afraid to reach solid ground now. Just have faith and take that first step on a new path!" A full running leap has Sourisi on that Nakewameke almost instantly, swinging her tonfa hard!
WUMPTH
At first, it appears that is all Sourisi is capable of, one sudden swing that shakes the air. Then there's a second Sourisi, higher on the Nakewameke, hitting at the same time as the first! And another Sourisi, right alongside her. There was dozens-, no, hundreds of her!
Sourisi hasn't figured out some way to make clones on demand, they are afterimages of the Miraculous Ninja caused by a massive burst of speed, swinging her tonfa with building fury, hope and grief.
WUMPTHWUMPTHWUMPTHWUMPTHWUMPTHWUMPTH
Tears hang in the air, coming from a heart that just wants to help someone find herself.
"WILD CLAW BARRAGE!"
COMBAT: FINISHER! Sourisi has joined the combo started by La Sirene de Diamant! COMBAT: COMBO! FINISHER! La Sirene de Diamant and Sourisi have used The Light That Never Warms and Wild Claw Barrage on Eas. COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Eas fails to brace Mikoto Minagi's Finisher, Obsidian Blade: Deontology, taking 77 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi is unable to keep fighting! COMBAT: Eas braces 184 Fatigue damage from La Sirene de Diamant and Sourisi's Finisher, Combo: The Light That Never Warms, taking 123 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Eas is unable to keep fighting! Eas's Block and Parry abilities activate! COMBAT: Eas braces 16 Fatigue damage from Fuu Hououji's Storm-Dance of Kamaitachi, taking 13 Fatigue damage! Eas is unable to keep fighting! Eas's Block and Parry abilities activate!
