2014-09-19 - Traffic Jam
| Traffic Jam | |
|---|---|
| Summary: Society uses color to convey many ideas, including the rules of the road that keep people safe. When a Shade steals those very colors, a disaster could happen. Will Tokyo's defenders rise to the occasion? | |
| Who: | |
| Where: A busy intersection and nearby gas station in Tokyo. | |
| OOC - IC Date: <19 September 2014 – 16 March 2014> | |
<Pose Tracker> Runealy Waldia [Ohtori Academy (7)] has posed.
Tokyo's streets are almost always busy; it's just a question of how much so. On Sunday's early evening hours, one intersection near a full-service gas station sees waves of cars go one way before a traffic light changes its color and signal position to give another group their turn. Some take that chance to pull into the station, where employees guide them into a refuelling bay. Everything is safe and orderly, whether it's at the light or the station.
That is, until the area takes on a dull and faded look. The gas station's bright whites dull as thin, fog-like trails rise off of their surfaces and drift toward a wispy form hovering above the price display. The intersection suffers the same fate, color rising off of cars... and the traffic lights! Suddenly there isn't red, yellow, and sea-green to tell drivers when to stop or go. There is only grey, and some drivers fail to pay attention to which signal light is on; they relied on colors. Others get spooked by what's going on, but their reaction is the same as the inattentive; they go right on through the intersection at the same time others are. Fortunately, nearly everyone notices the problem and brakes squeal. When several cars plow into each other, it is at mercifully lower speeds that will result in few serious injuries. The intersection is nonetheless clogged up, blocking traffic in every direction.
As color-strands flow to the wisp, it glides to the ground and its form expands. It extends foggy tendrils at the fueling pumps overhead, ripping five off with the sound of metal wrenching free. Their frames and pump lines becoming its arms, legs, and 'head' to give it an odd form now about twice as tall as the typical person. People nearby scatter, and one employee has the good sense to hit the emergency shut-off button while fleeing so as to prevent immediate disaster. The freshly grown shade stomps around on its new metal feet, pump nozzles swinging around as vacuum cleaners that suck color out of nearby surfaces and into itself. Even while working on changing the gas station to greyscale, it has its 'eyes' on a greater prize and begins trudging toward the intersection. Toward that tangled mass of cars, some of which haven't had their color fully drained yet... to say nothing of the people within.
(OOC, Social Note: Japan's full-service gas stations have interesting layouts compared to what is typical in the west. There are videos on the internet showing what they look like, if you're curious!)
COMBAT: Runealy Waldia has fully healed herself.
COMBAT: Runealy Waldia transforms into Youma Form Gas Station Shade!
COMBAT: Runealy Waldia has fully healed herself. She is now ready to take on 4 opponents!
<Pose Tracker> Ikiko Hisakata [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.
Ikiko walks along, having recently fed one of the local packs of strays. "It's so nice to be done with finals and have more time for the packs," she smiles, a spring in her step. Spring's coming, which means better weather for her canine friends as well. Things are looking good!
The sound of car horns and panicked people catch her attention. Ducking through the brief crowd of people running away, she makes her way towards the source of the commotion. The sight of the youma and the drained color tells her all she needs to know. "A Shade!" she hisses through her teeth.
She ducks behind some abandoned cars, and then there's a murmured phrase and a glow of silver. Moments later, Tsukiko darts forward. "Hey, over here!" she yells at the Shade. "I got more color than those cars do! And I can keep you busy long enough for you to be defeated!"
Privately, the wolfgirl really, really hopes the Prism Keepers are in the area. Trying to restore the drained color might be difficult otherwise...
COMBAT: Ikiko Hisakata transforms into Cute Wolf Tsukiko!
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has used Bark! on Runealy Waldia.
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Hayate [None] has posed.
For the Leafe Knights, and for Hayate especially, a civilian identity is a matter of the barest convenience, a thin facade to allow them to move around Tokyo without attracting undue attention. He doesn't live in his human guise; he spends more of his time in high places, reading the winds and watching the city below for signs of trouble that could mean demon larvae.
Today, however, he really was just a pedestrian - walking down a sidewalk with his hands in the pockets of his long white coat and the standoffish demeanor of a man who doesn't want to be bothered. For once, the Knight of Wind isn't looking for trouble.
So naturally it finds him anyway.
The sudden, shocking clash of cars making impact in the intersection not too far away has Hayate's head snapping up; he's suddenly on the alert, looking for the cause of the disturbance. It takes him a short while to catch sight of the Shade making its ponderous way from the gas station, but as soon as he sees it, Hayate's mouth thins into an irritated line. This is starting to become far too familiar.
A stray gust of wind from nowhere swirls over the sidewalk. Distracted by rubbernecking the pileup or (more sensibly) fleeing the oncoming Shade, nobody nearby notices when the long-haired man in the white coat simply disappears into thin air... bare moments before a figure in blue shimmers into existence in the air above the Shade and immediately lashes out at it with a whipcrack blade of wind meant to goad it along further in the direction that Tsukiko is trying to lure it.
COMBAT: Hayate transforms into Leafe Knight!
COMBAT: Hayate has used Razor Wind Slash on Runealy Waldia.
COMBAT: Hayate has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Runealy Waldia narrowly counters Cute Wolf Tsukiko's Bark!, taking 4 Fatigue damage! Cute Wolf Tsukiko is Psyched! Runealy Waldia's Reverse ability activates! Runealy Waldia's Tactician ability activates! Exhausted applied to Runealy Waldia!
COMBAT: Runealy Waldia's counterattack, Long-Range Line Whip, partially gets through, doing 7 Fatigue damage to Cute Wolf Tsukiko!
COMBAT: Runealy Waldia narrowly braces Hayate's Razor Wind Slash, taking 7 Fatigue damage! Hayate is Psyched! Runealy Waldia's Block ability activates! Runealy Waldia's Parry ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Mei Akatsuki [Juuban Public School (4)] has posed.
Elementary schoolers don't have finals, per se; at least, not in the way upperclassmen do. But that certainly doesn't stop their teachers from piling on the work as the school year comes to a close.
As such, Mei had been on mega-high Shade Alert for the past two weeks or so, because *of course* a monster will show up to interrupt her IMPORTANT STUDY TIME, right? There's just bound to be tons of attacks as she wades through the ever increasing pile of homework and exam reviews! Right?!
Right?
...c'mon, not even *one*?
It appears not. The Shades -- and other species of youma that she's aware of -- appeared to graciously retreat while the red-haired little girl prepared for her tests. How very kind of them. Not even the tiniest distraction, no sirree.
(This is why, when Roy showed up to tell her about the Shade attack at an intersection, Mei shot out of the apartment like a bullet. You could say this is a bit personal.)
"All right, Shade! That's enough from you!" Prism Keeper Red calls out when she arrives on the scene, hovering in midair a few feet above it. "Draining color here is especially wicked, and I will not allow any more of it!" She trusts Orange will jump in with her own remarks, when she shows up.
Just then, two other blurs of movement catch her eye.
"Tsukiko! Good to see you're here," the girl calls out to her ally, zooming closer to the ground. It's then that her eyes focus more closely on the other attacker. Ah. It's that guy again. The Wind Knight who is not the other Wind Knight. "H-Hayate, it's...good to see you too."
Don't get her wrong, the guy's a good fighter, but would it kill him to smile? Jeez.
COMBAT: Mei Akatsuki transforms into Prism Keeper Red!
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Red has used Colorful Words on Runealy Waldia.
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Red has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Runealy Waldia perfectly counters Prism Keeper Red's Colorful Words, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Counter! Runealy Waldia's Reverse ability activates! Runealy Waldia's Tactician ability activates!
COMBAT: Runealy Waldia's counterattack, Fuel Spray, bursts all the way through, doing 18 Fatigue damage to Prism Keeper Red!
<Pose Tracker> Reiko Touyama [Juuban Public School (4)] has posed.
Reiko Touyama is shortly just to the side of Mei as she flutters about. She'd been perhaps around Mei at the time- and was perhaps also taking in the quiet short burp of time to take in and study and do well on the non-exams the teachers gave.
Netherless, she's following Mei as fast as she can on her wings as she huffs. "Ah! That was too fast." she has to catch her breath. Just a moment.
She huffs. "Hey! People... rely on those lights! You just can't make them grey! Because... if grey also means stop and go, then it's dangerous!" she calls out.
She nods matter of factly and peers over the other heroes! She gives The Cute Wolf a big wave and a smile and Hayate gets a shyer smile. "Hello, The Knight of the Wind." she calls out as she looks back to the shade and frowns all frowny like.
She lifts her hand, spreads her fingers at, firing a beam of magical orange color energy into it!
COMBAT: Reiko Touyama transforms into Prism Keeper Orange!
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Orange has used Orange Beam on Runealy Waldia.
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Orange has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Red has fully healed herself.
(OOC, GM's Note: The above heal was done to correct a mistake, Red had failed to heal before the fight. We made adjustments afterward and carried on.)
<Pose Tracker> Runealy Waldia [Ohtori Academy (7)] has posed.
The shade turns the bulk of its form in Tsukiko's direction... it doesn't have eyes in the conventional sense, but it seems to see her just fine and responds to those taunts by stomping off after her. Unable to immediately get close, it swings a fuel pump at her by using its long line as a whip! Notably, the wispy core at the center flickers a little... perhaps a reaction to either Tsukiko's volume, or feeling provoked by her words.
Hayate's sudden assault from above is taken as a serious threat, and the Shade brings one of its blocky metal 'arms' in front of its core as a shield! The wind cuts a thin line through the front panel, though the rest of it stays intact. He has nonetheless gotten its attention, evidenced by quickly resuming its tromping charge across the concrete in his direction.
Its pursuit is interrupted by Prism Keeper Red drifting in close enough that the Shade interprets her as an imminent danger. It swings a fuel line out as a whip, but this time it's not aiming for a direct hit; it's just trying to get the nozzle close to Red and then unleash an unusually high-pressure burst of fuel at her!
Orange's protests are met with an unnatural rumbling... it's hard to say whether the Shade truly understands her words, but it is dignifying them with some kind of response even as it spins on a single 'foot' and causes the bright ray to just barely graze it.
Between all these efforts, the Shade has temporarily lost interest in the car-pile at the intersection. When there are very colorful people here, all of whom have established themselves as real challenges to its cruel intent, they have to take priority. And so its core begins spinning, 'arms' doing likewise to swing nozzles at those nearby! However, Red draws its ire in a different way as the monster leaps forward and tries to kick her with one of its large, blocky pump housings!
COMBAT: Runealy Waldia has used Nozzle Whip on Cute Wolf Tsukiko.
COMBAT: Runealy Waldia has used Nozzle Whip on Prism Keeper Orange.
COMBAT: Runealy Waldia has used Nozzle Whip on Hayate.
COMBAT: Runealy Waldia has used Pump Bash on Prism Keeper Red.
COMBAT: Runealy Waldia has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko narrowly dodges Runealy Waldia's Nozzle Whip, taking 10 Fatigue damage! Cute Wolf Tsukiko's Flash ability activates! Trap applied to Cute Wolf Tsukiko!
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Orange narrowly counters Runealy Waldia's Nozzle Whip, taking 11 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Orange's counterattack, Orangella Obfuscation, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Runealy Waldia!
COMBAT: Hayate narrowly dodges Runealy Waldia's Nozzle Whip, taking 10 Fatigue damage! Hayate's Fade ability activates! Hayate's Flash ability activates!
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Red fails to dodge Runealy Waldia's Pump Bash, taking 18 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Cute Wolf Tsukiko [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.
Tsukiko yelps as the Shade lashes out at her, then scrambles as it follows through with another swipe. "Red! Orange! I'm glad to see you two!" she beams at the two Prism Keepers. Hayate also gets a wave and a smile, but the wolfgirl's focus is on the two she's talked with and the youma they oppose. "With you here, I know we can beat this thing!" the wolfgirl calls out encouragingly to Red and Orange (and Hayate; the more that fight the Shade the better, after all).
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has used Encourage the Pack on Prism Keeper Red.
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has used Encourage the Pack on Prism Keeper Orange.
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has used Encourage the Pack on Hayate.
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Red accepts Cute Wolf Tsukiko's Encourage the Pack, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Prism Keeper Red is Cheered!
COMBAT: Hayate accepts Cute Wolf Tsukiko's Encourage the Pack, taking 0 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Orange accepts Cute Wolf Tsukiko's Encourage the Pack, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Prism Keeper Orange is Cheered!
<Pose Tracker> Prism Keeper Orange [Juuban Public School (4)] has posed.
Prism Keeper Orange huffs as she throws her other hand forward and a wash of Koi come out and engulfs her in a shield, which absorbs the brunt of the force-- she grunts and winces, as she expends further energy against it and the shield dissapates from the noozle assault!
She hrmphs, and looks down to the Cute Wolf. "We can do it! We just have to keep at it." she says with a grin.
She frowns as she raises her hands and summons up a wave of koi around it before she sends it up and off at the creature. "Eat Fish!" she yells dramatically.
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Orange has used Schools of Pain on Runealy Waldia.
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Orange has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Runealy Waldia narrowly braces Prism Keeper Orange's Schools of Pain, taking 6 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Runealy Waldia's Block ability activates! Runealy Waldia's Parry ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Hayate [None] has posed.
Hayate clearly sees the arrival of the two Prism Keepers; he looks their way as both of them greet him, but it's clear that return greetings are not high on his list of priorities with the Shade rampaging around, and his response isn't much more than a short nod of acknowledgment their direction before his attention returns to the monster.
Barely in time, too. The nozzles lash out in all directions, and the Leafe Knight only just barely manages to fly clear of getting snarled in them - and only by burning leafe to create enough wind to move him in a hurry. Not good, and none of the girls are unscathed either - even worse.
Blue eyes sweep over the field of battle, assessing the situation. Tsukiko's encouraging words don't seem to touch him; he calls an updraft to carry himself a little higher, giving himself a bit more room. "Stay focused," he calls to the magical girls, hands already spreading into the air to either side of him; "I'll try and distract it."
Exactly how he means to do that becomes clear soon enough, because the wind picks up in a way that's clearly not guided by the hand of nature. It swirls in a vortex around the wrecked cars at the intersection and roars and rattles its way over the gas station, picking up whatever bits of litter or debris lie loose on the street and sidewalk. A garbage can upends with a clatter, scattering its contents into the whirlwind as well, and the whole mess bears inexorably down on the Shade to pelt it with a barrage of windborne detritus.
COMBAT: Hayate has used Windblown Debris on Runealy Waldia.
COMBAT: Hayate has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Runealy Waldia narrowly dodges Hayate's Windblown Debris, taking 12 Fatigue damage! Runealy Waldia's Fade ability activates! Runealy Waldia's Flash ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Prism Keeper Red [Juuban Public School (4)] has posed.
There's an old belief that the color red makes animals angry. The Prism Keeper isn't totally sure if that's true or not -- but she's certainly drawn this Shade's attention.
Before she can get a word in edgewise to her teammates, the girl feels a high-pressure blast of fuel slam into her from the side, pushing her back several feet until her knees buckle under the pressure, and she falls backwards with a *plop*. Her skin stings, and her poor outfit drips with magical off-brand kerosene. But this isn't enough for the color-draining monster, obviously. Before she can even scramble to her feet again, the creature's 'leg' collides with her tiny body, propelling it with great force into a nearby collision. Metal bends, glass cracks, and tires skid as the force of the impact drives both abandoned vehicles back farther.
Thankfully, they are more damaged than Red herself is. But it would be a lie to say that didn't hurt.
Time for a less aggressive strategy.
She nods wordlessly as Hayate gives them all advice, and perks up a bit when Tsukiko chimes in with her cheering words. "We're okay. We've got this down, I know we do," she half-says, half-yells, propelling herself into the sky with a leap, pushing through the protests of her sore joints. "Alright, Shade. Let's see how you handle a few leaks."
With a snap of her fingers, Red conjures five red roses, each sharpened at the stem and covered in thorns; with another snap, she lets them fly, aiming to puncture the hoses that just attempted to whip her friends and allies. The key here is distance, distance, distance. When she's not up in the big guy's face, he can't kick her halfway across the street.
Probably.
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Red has used Rose Darts on Runealy Waldia.
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Red has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Runealy Waldia narrowly braces Prism Keeper Red's Rose Darts, taking 18 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Runealy Waldia's Block ability activates! Runealy Waldia's Parry ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Runealy Waldia [Ohtori Academy (7)] has posed.
Undaunted by Orange's resolve, the Shade crosses two pump housings in an 'X' shape to ward off the fish-wave. They leave little dents and splashes of orange against the drained greyscale forms, but it seems the color is more alarming to it than the physical damage as the wisp-core ripples upon seeing that.
The monster is jarred from these thoughts as a few concrete pebbles pelt it, heralding a garbage storm! It twirls and leaps in an effort to avoid the worst of it, though several glass shards and a few bits of metal embed in its 'legs'. Even trash is surprisingly vivid against the dull environs the Shade has taken to supplement its physical form, and it's starting to become keenly aware of this.
Before it can even land from its jump, the Shade is beset by roses! It's one thing for a rose to have thorns, but another to also be a giant thorn! All five hit. One pierces through its core and goes through, causing the Shade's central form to waver like water struck by a stone. Three more end up stuck in pump housings, digging in as far as their stems allow. The fifth however finds what Red was truly hoping for, puncturing one of the arm lines and causing fuel to drip out of it!
While that line now dangles limp, trying to come to terms with what just happened, two more snake out; one from a leg swirls around to spray fuel around the area as though a hose trying to fight a fire, while the other arm's line rushes toward Hayate before suddenly going taut. Its nozzle tries to loom near him, and then... tries to suck color off his form, much as a vacuum cleaner might pick up trash while hovering inches over a carpet.
COMBAT: Runealy Waldia has used Fuel Spray on Prism Keeper Orange.
COMBAT: Runealy Waldia has used Fuel Spray on Prism Keeper Red.
COMBAT: Runealy Waldia has used Fuel Spray on Cute Wolf Tsukiko.
COMBAT: Runealy Waldia has used Color Drain on Hayate.
COMBAT: Runealy Waldia has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Hayate narrowly braces Runealy Waldia's Color Drain, taking 13 Fatigue damage! Runealy Waldia drains 5 fatigue from Hayate!
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko narrowly braces Runealy Waldia's Fuel Spray, taking 10 Fatigue damage! Cute Wolf Tsukiko's Block ability activates!
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Orange narrowly braces Runealy Waldia's Fuel Spray, taking 7 Fatigue damage! Prism Keeper Orange's Block ability activates! Prism Keeper Orange's Parry ability activates!
COMBAT: Hayate covers Prism Keeper Red for Runealy Waldia's attack, Fuel Spray, taking it upon themselves instead!
COMBAT: Hayate perfectly counters Runealy Waldia's Fuel Spray, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Counter!
COMBAT: Hayate's counterattack, Wind Barrier, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Runealy Waldia!
<Pose Tracker> Cute Wolf Tsukiko [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.
Tsukiko smiles back at the two Prism Keepers, then nods at Hayate. It'll take focus to defeat this Shade. Like, say, paying attention to its attacks -- like this geyser of fuel. Turning shoulder-first to the spray, the wolfgirl is pushed back but manages to stay on her feet.
The youma's reaction to the debris catches her eye. "Even non-magical color makes it uncomfortable!" she calls out. A grin crosses her face as she leaps toward the Shade, feet-first. "In that case... have a colorful kick!" she yells as she tries to use the youma as a springboard.
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has used Overrun Bounce on Runealy Waldia.
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Runealy Waldia perfectly counters Cute Wolf Tsukiko's Overrun Bounce, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Counter! Runealy Waldia's Reverse ability activates! Runealy Waldia's Tactician ability activates!
COMBAT: Runealy Waldia's counterattack, Color Drain, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Cute Wolf Tsukiko!
<Pose Tracker> Prism Keeper Orange [Juuban Public School (4)] has posed.
Prism Keeper Orange raises her arms up and covers her head as the next attack washes over her, literarly, it gets her a little wet with the stuff and ughhhhsss. "This is awfullllllll." she whines. "It's all over meeeee." she frowns. She Hrmphs and raises her hands wide. "We can.. do this everyone, but here's some help, JUST IN CASE!" she calls out as magical koi swirl all around the heroes from top to bottom leaving sparkle wavy trails in thier wake, hopefully empowering the various heroes in their endeavors tonight!
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Orange has used Orange Prism Power! on Prism Keeper Red.
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Orange has used Orange Prism Power! on Cute Wolf Tsukiko.
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Orange has used Orange Prism Power! on Hayate.
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Orange has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Red accepts Prism Keeper Orange's Orange Prism Power!, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Empower applied to Prism Keeper Red!
<Pose Tracker> Hayate [None] has posed.
When the fuel nozzle comes at him, Hayate is expecting a spray of gasoline like the others are being treated to. He's ready for that, arms raised before him in preparation to call the wind.
After his previous encounters with Shades, he should really have known better.
He grimaces as color and leafe drain out of him. It's a feeling he knows far too well by now, but it never gets any easier to deal with, this sensation of having the very essence of his being stolen; he feels less real for it, as though if it goes on too long he could simply discorporate altogether.
But there's no time to give thought to it, not with the hoses flailing about spraying fuel in all directions. Without a thought, Hayate flashes across the air in a streak of blue to put himself between Prism Keeper Red and the Shade - wind swirls around his hands, a shield of moving air that breaks the spray of fuel and scatters it away from them instead.
(Nobody strike a match.)
"Watch out!" he says, voice short and sharp. In the next moment, the transparent barrier erupts into a twisting blast of wind that rushes onto the Shade, seeking to wrap its gas-spewing hose limbs around it until its ensnared in its own appendages.
COMBAT: Hayate accepts Prism Keeper Orange's Orange Prism Power!, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Empower applied to Hayate!
COMBAT: Hayate has used Whirlwind Snare on Runealy Waldia.
COMBAT: Hayate has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Runealy Waldia narrowly dodges Hayate's Whirlwind Snare, taking 4 Fatigue damage! Runealy Waldia's Fade ability activates! Runealy Waldia's Flash ability activates! Tangle applied to Runealy Waldia!
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko accepts Prism Keeper Orange's Orange Prism Power!, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Empower applied to Cute Wolf Tsukiko!
<Pose Tracker> Prism Keeper Red [Juuban Public School (4)] has posed.
Good news: her Rose Darts (mostly) found their mark, either plunging into the Shade or tearing up its hose-arms, like they were intended to. Even better, it does not immediately retaliate!
Bad news: it is now leaking gas. Everywhere. And her uniform reeks of the stuff, having been drenched in the first assault.
"This...this sucks," Red says as she breathes in the fumes rising off the asphalt and her clothing, feeling herself becoming dizzy and distracted. "Why don't these things ever go for flowers? Or bookshops? Or...just, nice-smelling places?"
This is ignoring the fact that, more often than not, Shade attacks rarely smell like anything. But the overpowering stench is all she can think about at the moment, given that spilled gas is everywhere, and it's making it so, so hard to concentrate--
The world comes back into clear focus abruptly as the form of Hayate bursts from seemingly out of nowhere in front of her, and a rush of winds drive back the offending fumes, as well as another offensive spray that the youma had fired off when she wasn't looking. The girl blinks once. Twice.
That was unexpected.
"Whoa," she says softly, both at the surprise rescue, and at the clever way he turns his shield into an attack. "That's really something. I guess you really are the Wind Knight, huh?" Red grins, hoping the little joke won't throw him off-kilter too terribly much.
Then she kicks into the air with her wings.
"I gotta get away from these fumes. They're making me clumsy," she explains, then shoots directly into the air, smiling again as a few magical koi lend strength to her muscles and the magic welling within her. "I think it's about time you recognized the international color for 'stop', Shade!" And with that, a magnificent beam of red blasts forth from her hands, aimed squarely at the Shade's grey, metallic core.
(They'd gone over that in class the other day. International symbols for stuff. She'd quietly written down a few catchphrase ideas when they'd brought up colors.)
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Red has used Paint It Red on Runealy Waldia.
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Red has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Runealy Waldia narrowly braces Prism Keeper Red's Paint It Red, taking 14 Fatigue damage! Runealy Waldia's Block ability activates! Runealy Waldia's Parry ability activates! Diversion applied to Runealy Waldia!
<Pose Tracker> Runealy Waldia [Ohtori Academy (7)] has posed.
The Shade swings a pump-housing at Tsukiko's feet, deflecting the kick with no serious harm either way though it is staggered back a few steps from the impact! Being momentarily off-balance causes its attempt to fling a nozzle in pursuit of Tsukiko to fly wide, outright missing.
It recoils from Orange's koi at first, before realizing they're not attacking it this time... they're doing something else entirely. This provides an opening for Hayate's gusts to seize the punctured line and begin twisting it upon itself, to introduce a few knots. If that hose was going to have trouble just due to the loss of pressure, having to work through kinks in the line means that it's now effectively disabled aside from any use as a mere whip. One part down, but many remain.
As Red's ruby beam cuts through the air, the Shade tries to shield itself with a pump housing but is off by just that tiny bit that allows half of the blast to get through and hit its wispy center...
...And it does not just ripple this time. It shrinks, then warps and wavers every which way while small streams of color flow back out of it! The core quickly normalizes, but the effect from even this light contact was profound.
It quickly decides to regain what it just lost, swinging a nozzle into the air after Red. Just as it did with Hayate, it tries to suck color out of her. The threat is made apparent as a little globe of 'grey space' discoloration begins to form around her, even while its remaining lines whip around to bash at the others. They've done a fine job of containing it to the gas station's yard, even if its reach enables it to continue striking at them.
COMBAT: Runealy Waldia has used Nozzle Whip on Prism Keeper Orange.
COMBAT: Runealy Waldia has used Nozzle Whip on Cute Wolf Tsukiko.
COMBAT: Runealy Waldia has used Nozzle Whip on Hayate.
COMBAT: Runealy Waldia has used Color Drain on Prism Keeper Red.
COMBAT: Runealy Waldia has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Hayate fails to dodge Runealy Waldia's Nozzle Whip, taking 20 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko narrowly dodges Runealy Waldia's Nozzle Whip, taking 8 Fatigue damage! Cute Wolf Tsukiko's Flash ability activates! Trap applied to Cute Wolf Tsukiko!
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Orange perfectly counters Runealy Waldia's Nozzle Whip, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Counter!
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Orange's counterattack, Orangella Obfuscation, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Runealy Waldia!
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Red perfectly dodges Runealy Waldia's Color Drain, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge!
<Pose Tracker> Cute Wolf Tsukiko [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.
Tsukiko somersaults backwards from impacting the pump-housing the Shade swung at her, landing in a controlled three-point slide. Orange's school of koi gives the wolfgirl a boost of energy. "Thanks, Orange!" she calls back, diving just out of the way of a direct impact of the Shade's slamming whips.
Rolling to her feet, Tsukiko dashes forward, circling the youma and trying to get it tangled up in itself. After all, if it can't move, then it should be a sitting duck, right?
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has used Herd the Quarry on Runealy Waldia.
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Runealy Waldia narrowly counters Cute Wolf Tsukiko's Herd the Quarry, taking 6 Fatigue damage! Runealy Waldia's Reverse ability activates! Runealy Waldia's Tactician ability activates! Tangle applied to Runealy Waldia!
COMBAT: Runealy Waldia's counterattack, Pump Bash, partially gets through, doing 4 Fatigue damage to Cute Wolf Tsukiko!
<Pose Tracker> Hayate [None] has posed.
Hayate huffs a little bit in indignation at Red's remark. Of course he's the Wind Knight. "As I keep saying--"
That's as far as he gets before the Shade's hoses whip out again, and though he tries to dodge, this time the Leafe Knight just isn't fast enough. One of the nozzles broadsides him right in the ribs and brings him down out of the air, tumbling several feet over the pavement before he manages to right himself and pushes back up into flight once more. "...damn it..." he mutters to himself through gritted teeth. Too careless. He can't afford to get so distracted.
Gaining altitude, Hayate throws out both hands, creating a flurry of shimmering wind blades. These flash through the air not directly toward the Shade but aimed instead at its hoses - specifically the ones around Tsukiko, ensuring that the wolf girl is free to move as she harries the creature with no risk of getting tangled up herself.
COMBAT: Hayate has used Precise Razor Wind on Cute Wolf Tsukiko.
COMBAT: Hayate has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko accepts Hayate's Precise Razor Wind, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Cleanse! All of Cute Wolf Tsukiko's debuffs are cleared!
<Pose Tracker> Prism Keeper Orange [Juuban Public School (4)] has posed.
Prism Keeper Orange frowns as she finally materalizes her Chroma Wand into her hand and spins it up in a flourishing motion as Koi surround her to block the attack, using the crystal's power to strengthen her shield this time as the attack touches her not at all and without as much effort as last time.
She hrmphs as she charges up a ball of orange energy at the tip of the wand and flings it overhead, unleashing an orb of orange color energy at the Shade. "Eat this you Gas Guzzling No-Good!" she calls out.
She pauses a moment.
She needs good guy speech lessons.
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Orange has used Chroma Wand Charge on Runealy Waldia.
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Orange has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Runealy Waldia narrowly braces Prism Keeper Orange's Chroma Wand Charge, taking 14 Fatigue damage! Runealy Waldia's Block ability activates! Runealy Waldia's Parry ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Prism Keeper Red [Juuban Public School (4)] has posed.
Ha! Excellent shot, if she does say so herself!
Red swells with pride just a touch when the beam hits home, looking down just in time to see Hayate begin to respond to her barb -- and then get hit hard by a nozzle hose, directly in the ribs. Oh. Oh, dear.
That was her fault, wasn't it? For distracting him?
The girl feels a small pang of guilt as she winces in sympathy, remembering a few of the hits she took to her own tiny ribcage. It's...not terribly fun.
But she really can't think about that much more, as she notices the edge of her vision becoming grey, somehow even more so than the substantially drained scene around her. Snapping her head up, she sees something of a grey sphere forming around her as a nozzle-vacuum hovers nearby, primed and ready to drain away her precious color.
"Not today, Shade!" she calls out reflexively, and in what feels like bullet time, the Prism Keeper summons her own bubble of color, a startling red to drive back the grey.
"Not!"
And before the vampiric magic can close in on her, Red launches herself at the speed of a freight train, encased in that colorful shield, toward the parasite assailing them.
"Today!"
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Red has used Red Comet on Runealy Waldia.
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Red has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Runealy Waldia fails to counter Prism Keeper Red's Red Comet, taking 23 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Prism Keeper Red is Psyched!
COMBAT: Runealy Waldia's counterattack, Line Lash, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Prism Keeper Red!
<Pose Tracker> Runealy Waldia [Ohtori Academy (7)] has posed.
The Shade moves to meet Tsukiko, swinging a pump-housing kick at her! Yet her speed is well suited to this exchange, and Hayate's gales make it hard for the monster to line up a solid blow... it stumbles even as it makes this strike, nearly tripping into the concrete and snarling the useless line up against one of its legs; the other nozzles swing over to untangle itself, she must have caused something to get badly snarled up regardless since its movements are now visibly more clumsy.
This forces it to stand its ground against Orange's orb, which bursts over its form and causes it to teeter dangerously off-balance! Red's charge capitalizes on this, easily knocking aside a line that whips out at her. More than that, it impacts against the wobbling Shade and smashes it through the concrete with enough force to cut a gouge through the ground!
Even as sparks grind from its ravaged form, the Shade presses the attack. High-pressure sprays continue from the nozzles that still function, though the bursts only last a few seconds this time before trickling to a stop. This is perhaps no surprise; having been ripped free from the fueling bay in the first place, each piece of equipment may have been limited to the fuel it was able to pull into itself just before that happened. Keenly aware of the problem, it swings a line out to grab the station's 'logo tower' and use this to hurl itself through the air, where it hopes to bodily collide with Orange!
COMBAT: Runealy Waldia has used Fuel Spray on Prism Keeper Red.
COMBAT: Runealy Waldia has used Fuel Spray on Cute Wolf Tsukiko.
COMBAT: Runealy Waldia has used Fuel Spray on Hayate.
COMBAT: Runealy Waldia has used Pump Bash on Prism Keeper Orange.
COMBAT: Runealy Waldia has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko fails to dodge Runealy Waldia's Fuel Spray, taking 20 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Hayate narrowly dodges Runealy Waldia's Fuel Spray, taking 17 Fatigue damage! Hayate's Fade ability activates! Hayate's Flash ability activates!
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Red narrowly dodges Runealy Waldia's Fuel Spray, taking 10 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit!
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Orange fails to brace Runealy Waldia's Pump Bash, taking 19 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Cute Wolf Tsukiko [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.
With Hayate's wind at her back, Tsukiko tries to pour on the speed to outrun the new geyser of fuel. Unfortunately, she loses her footing on one of the existing puddles and is sent sprawling by the fuel spray. She picks herself up, her momentum wrecked but her spirit still feisty.
Placing a hand over her face to reduce the smell of the fuel, the wolfgirl takes a deep breath, then begins to howl. The wordless song in her voice speaks of the vibrancy and power of color, of the city running harmoniously through the use of color of signs... and of friendship, confidence, and defiance. To magical girls, this sound is pleasing music; to youma, it's a harsh, dissonant vibration that threatens to shake them apart.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Cute Wolf Tsukiko has used Soulful Howl on Runealy Waldia.
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Hayate [None] has posed.
Tsukiko's howl reaches Hayate, up in the air over the Shade, and the Knight Wind answers. Hovering overhead, buoyed up by the wind, he squares himself as though bracing his stance and lifts both hands in front of his chest.
And the wind comes to his call, whipping over the battleground in a spiral that pulls the haze of gasoline fumes from the air. Inward it swirls, faster and faster, closer and tighter, whipping the Leafe Knight's hair around his face and lashing at his clothing. All of that gas-laden air draws inward to a single point between Hayate's hands, a spinning orb of wind and fumes so fast-moving and tightly wound that it's visible to the eye, like a shimmering ball of liquid glass--
(If Goh were here right now, the errant thought crosses his mind - but no.)
"--Now!" he shouts, and releases it all at once in a single blast, a column of roaring, rending wind bearing down at the Shade like the funnel of a tornado, an open-mouthed serpent ready to devour.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Hayate has used Dragon Vortex on Runealy Waldia.
COMBAT: Hayate has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Prism Keeper Orange [Juuban Public School (4)] has posed.
Prism Keeper Orange gets literarly pushed over and slides across the ground and pavement and eeeeeks! She gets back and hrmphs, making a determined face, as pained looking as it is, because wow, that hurt a lot to deal with! She frowns as she raises her wand high and takes a deep breath.....
"PRISM AEGIS POWER!...."
Theres a bright spark as she spins around and then levels the wand out at the beast.
"ORANGE OUTBURST!" then a straight and orange pink 'lovebeam' flies out at the Shade!
COMBAT: FINISHER! Prism Keeper Orange has used Prism Aegis Power! Orange Outburst! on Runealy Waldia. COMBAT: Prism Keeper Orange has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Prism Keeper Red [Juuban Public School (4)] has posed.
"And stay down!" Red yells as she ricochets off the fallen metallic Shade, the energy around her dissipating as she slows herself and comes to a full stop on the ground again, quite near to Hayate.
"Hey. I'm, uh. You know. Sorry about getting you hit earlier. My bad," she mutters quickly, awkwardly. She's not quite sure how the conversation is going to go in the middle of a battle -- but then the Cute Wolf's howl breaks through the noise, and she knows that there's something else she needs to do, at the moment.
(Though that doesn't stop her from getting drenched in another round of gasoline spewing. Thankfully, it's not her whole body this time.)
"That does it, Shade," the Prism Keeper says, resolute, kicking off into the air again and spinning to fling some of the loose drops of fuel off her beloved costume. "You picked the wrong day to mess with the traffic laws of Tokyo!"
"Prism Aegis Power!" The white rod of the Red Chroma Wand appears in her hand, and her signature magic gathers to her in sparks and specks, like moths to a flame.
She spins three times.
"Red Rain!"
And lets it fly.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Prism Keeper Red has used Prism Aegis Power! Red Rain! on Runealy Waldia.
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Red has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Runealy Waldia narrowly braces Cute Wolf Tsukiko's Finisher, Soulful Howl, taking 42 Fatigue damage! Runealy Waldia's Block ability activates! Runealy Waldia's Parry ability activates!
COMBAT: Runealy Waldia fails to brace Hayate's Finisher, Dragon Vortex, taking 93 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit!
COMBAT: Runealy Waldia narrowly dodges Prism Keeper Orange's Finisher, Prism Aegis Power! Orange Outburst!, taking 46 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Runealy Waldia's Fade ability activates! Runealy Waldia's Flash ability activates!
COMBAT: Runealy Waldia narrowly braces Prism Keeper Red's Finisher, Prism Aegis Power! Red Rain!, taking 37 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Runealy Waldia's Block ability activates! Runealy Waldia's Parry ability activates!
(OOC, GM's Note: The Shade was down to single digits Fatigue at this point, we called it close enough.)
<Pose Tracker> Runealy Waldia [Ohtori Academy (7)] has posed.
Howling? At first, the Shade cannot make sense of this. What is that supposed to do to it? Then it finds out the hard way, as the sound intensifies and vibrations rip through its core. The monster instinctively feels that this is wrong, and has to devote much of its energy to just staying intact!
Hayate's wind-ball surges down, and the Shade brings its ravaged 'arms' up as giant shields once more. This has worked well so far, but they have not faced an assault this powerful so far and it quickly finds itself battered down to the ground once more!
Prism Keeper Orange's beam capitalizes on this opening, and the Shade has nowhere to flee. Desperate, it tries one last time to protect itself with the pump housings. Orange's blast makes contact, and rips through its defense to leave each pump severed from the core!
And so the Shade lies exposed. There is little it can do like this, though it certainly tries. It desperately begins drawing what tiny bits of color it hasn't already stolen from the area, hoping to regain enough power to take on another form. This will not be enough, not as red energy pours down upon it and causes tiny droplet ripples in it. Faint sparkles of color fly out, then the rain intensifies and what started as a few sparks quickly becomes a storm in reverse. Chunks of the Shade are torn out of existence underneath the crimson rain, and each piece dissolved causes an equal amount of color to be released.
Then a final drop strikes the hazy core right in its center, which proves to be the final blow. It scatters into mist and then dissipates, while all of the colors it stole flow out as pinpricks of light that quickly turn into wide rays. They fly back to cars, to gas station equipment, to the traffic light... to Hayate and anyone else who the Shade tried to prey upon. As color returns, so does the area's 'natural' state; concrete gouges repair to normal, gas fumes begin to dissipate. Not everything comes back together, but it certainly looks far better than it started.
Restoring the environs from their greyscale also illustrates a wonderful lesson: while color is used to maintain safety and order, it can also restore them in the face of chaos and worry. Anyone who sticks around will find the calming sight of well polished white and red ambulances beginning to roll in to help out at the intersection. While none of the victims are seriously hurt, expert help in sorting this out and checking people out just to be sure is well warranted.
It's quite the mess, but a manageable one that will get sorted out soon enough. Four heroic individuals have seen to that.
