2019-10-03 - Pulp Fiction 2
| Pulp Fiction 2 | |
|---|---|
| Summary: The magical girls defend the innocent Brontomelon from a bunch of Velocigraptors, and then... BANANASAURUS REX. | |
| Who: Eri Shimanouchi, Steven Universe, Endo Naoki, Mami Tomoe, Rei Hino, Michiru Kaioh, Haruka Tenoh, Fuu Hououji, Chitose Shiratori | |
| Where: Watermelon farm, Nishitama | |
| OOC - IC Date: 10/3/2019 - 07-04-2015 | |
<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed.
Sister Schools field trip to a watermelon farm way out in the countryside.
Square melons, pyramid melons, normal U-pick melons.
Melon-smashing party at the end, pinata-style!
BUT THEN
A mysterious feeling rippled through the air.
It wasn't an evil feeling, exactly.
But it was a magic one...
Something was going on out in the fields.
SO THEY WENT TO GO SEE, AND FOUND
The brontomelon.
It towered, massive and glorious. Its graceful long neck. Its gentle, dark eyes. Its slowly shifting tail. Its round, green-striped back and belly...
...did it GROW here?
It's on the move now, in any case. A slow, lumbering move.
Oh, there's a flower! A weed, technically, amid the vines. Very white amid all the green.
Its neck bends down -- and down -- and down -- and down.
With infinite delicacy and care (and a flash of pink and black, when it opens its mouth), it picks the flower... without so much as disturbing a single one of the (entirely ordinary) melons around it.
It chews... chews... chews... hard to tell if it swallowed, its throat is WAY up there... but the brontomelon is positively radiating contentment.
And NOW it's heading out...
...towards another flower.
It's on the move... eventually... probably.
WHICH WAS SUDDENLY ATTACKED BY
It's green like the brontomelon, but also not the same green. And there's no pink in evidence at all, rather brighter reds and deeper purples, striping down its tail and rippling to the end of its toothy snout. Like brontomelon, its torso is most emblematic of its fruit, but where the melon was rather charmingly round and bulging, this (gigantic) grape is elongated and taut. An engine of hunger. A predator.
Velocigrapetor leaps!
BUT
<Pose Tracker> Mami Tomoe [Ohtori Academy (12)] has posed.
It all happens quickly--as it must. Mami fires, and she's not the only one; the defense of the Brontomelon is swift and terrible, and... probably fairly goopy, to be perfectly honest. Mami spends a moment--only a moment--smiling at the thing they've defended. But then...
Mami adopts a serious expression indeed, looking towards the others in clear concern--she does not relax. Her perfect blonde curls catch the sunlight as her golden gaze sets upon a spot far in the distance... into memory. "...Velocigraptors never hunt alone," she explains, stoically, and tilts her head to the side, listening better as if she hears some distant noise.
"That'll be the bunch."
<SoundTracker> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prgmufg66g0?t=127
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick transforms into Velocigrapetor Bunch! AND NOW THE THRILLING CONCLUSION OF BATTLE FANTASIA'S SIXTH ANNIVERSARY EVENT: PULP FICTION Five more velocigrapetors explode out of the bushes, closing in on the group from all directions. They are eerily similar -- the proportions of red to green to purple on their spines and tails and bellies are all very much the same, or at least, within a tight range of tolerances. It must be as Mami said -- they're all picked from the same bunch. Grapelike torsos or no, their skin is leathery -- though a fruit roll-up is not the WORST analogy possible -- and their teeth /sharp/. Sharp, and painted with the dried orange juice of their last successful hunt. (Whatever could their prey have been? Hopefully this rash of fruity dinosaurs doesn't last long enough to find out.) They don't stop to hiss or stare or stalk. They just leap, using pack tactics to try to inject pure, unadulterated fruity chaos into the battle-ready lines of the magical girls. They leap teeth-first, and tear and chomp at the heels and legs of whoever's nearby, hardly stopping to bite down on one before they're on to the next. One noms on Steven and Endo. One thinks Fuu and Chitose make good chew toys. One launches between Sailor Uranus and Sailor Mars with alarming speed, encircling them like a blurry, not-furry wolf. One assaults Sailor Neptune and Eri with deadly intent. And the last one fixes Mami with a hungry look before shrilly trying to tear her to pieces! COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Bunches of Munches on Steven Universe. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Bunches of Munches on Fuu Hououji. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Bunches of Munches on Sailor Neptune. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Bunches of Munches on Chitose Shiratori. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Bunches of Munches on Endo Naoki. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Bunches of Munches on Eri Shimanouchi. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Bunches of Munches on Mami Tomoe. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Bunches of Munches on Sailor Mars. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Bunches of Munches on Sailor Uranus. COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi perfectly dodges 21 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Bunches of Munches, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge! Eri Shimanouchi's Fade and Flash abilities activate! COMBAT: Chitose Shiratori fails to dodge Pink Moon Stick's Bunches of Munches, taking 21 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Steven Universe cleanly braces 23 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Bunches of Munches, taking 4 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Steven Universe's Block and Parry abilities activate! COMBAT: Mami Tomoe partially dodges 5 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Bunches of Munches, taking 20 Fatigue damage! Mami Tomoe's Fade and Flash abilities activate! COMBAT: Sailor Uranus partially dodges 5 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Bunches of Munches, taking 20 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Sailor Uranus's Flash ability activates! COMBAT: Sailor Mars partially dodges 6 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Bunches of Munches, taking 24 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Sailor Mars's Fade and Flash abilities activate! COMBAT: Sailor Neptune dodges 9 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Bunches of Munches, taking 13 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Fuu Hououji fails to counter Pink Moon Stick's Bunches of Munches, taking 32 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Fuu Hououji's counterattack, Spinning Slash, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Pink Moon Stick! COMBAT: Endo Naoki perfectly braces 17 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Bunches of Munches, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Brace! Endo Naoki's Block and Parry abilities activate!
<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
"You've... encountered these... before?"
Eri had been watching Kyouko, but at Mami's stoic explanation, it had snapped her out of it, to eye her from the side.
Anything else and she would have just taken it as Mami's experience. Fruit Dinosaurs however are just strange enough to question it.
However the silent hunters erupt out of the bush. "Bunch?" As opposed to pack, "How fit-"
One is already upon her and Eri leaps backwards, flipping up and over as the creature darts past her - twisting and holding out a hand to catch herself as she amends her statement. "-fast!" Landing on her palm, she spins around, her wrist flicking out the tip of her lash in a quick riposte, as she tries to snag the Dinosaur's bulbous leg in a quick wrap of her whip.
"For all the gardening I do..."
Pivoting on her hand, there's a sharp tug, and an up and over motion as she flips back to a foot to attempt to trip the thing's footing up with the leverage of the motion.
"... I know next to nothing about winemaking."
... all with the intention of making the Veloci-grape-tor attacking the pair an easy target for Neptune.
"Care to instruct me on the finer points?"
She asks her collaborator on a more personal garden with a smile, as she shifts her whip to a two handed grip, attempting to hold that weapon laden with so many fine points taut.
COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi has used Gardener's Grasp on Pink Moon Stick.
<Pose Tracker> Steven Universe [Juuban Public School (6)] has posed.
With a combined walloping, that one Velocigrapetor goes down into a bloody (???) mess. I mean juice is fruit blood, right? Think about it. And AS FORETOLD BY AUGURY, Steven's school uniform is stained so badly it will have to be dunked in bleach to fix. "We saved it! Good job everyone!" He cheers joyfully.
"Sooo... keeping this dino-fruit around in town seems dangerous. Should we find a way to move it?" he asks, looking at this sweet behemoth that stands before them.
That will have to be a question for later however. The bushes rustle ominously, hissing and clicking coming from within. Steven opens his mouth to alert everyone, but a rush of several round blurs lets them know that wasn't the only onw. They hunt in bunches, after all.
THe Gem Child has little time to react, and thankfully already had a shield manifested. He falls to a knee and braces his shield upward at an angle for the fruit predator to scrabble on. It is quite heavy, and takes effort to repel. "Endo, be careful!" he calls out. THe others are dealing with their own fanged grapes, so it seems to just be them two on this one!
"This is a real dino crisis!" Steven calls to his ski buddy. "I go low, you go high!" he says, then thrusting his shield forward and charging to Velocigrapetor to try and sweep the legs out from under it! "Where did these things even all come from?! Know anybody that raises living plants or something?"
COMBAT: Steven Universe has used Shield Slam on Pink Moon Stick. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick partially dodges 3 Fatigue damage from Eri Shimanouchi's Gardener's Grasp, taking 13 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Eri Shimanouchi is Psyched! Pink Moon Stick's Fade and Flash abilities activate! Stagger and Tangle applied to Pink Moon Stick! COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick counters 9 Fatigue damage from Steven Universe's Shield Slam, taking 9 Fatigue damage! Steven Universe is Psyched! Pink Moon Stick's Reverse and Tactician abilities activate! COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick's counterattack, Grape Expectations, partially gets through, doing 15 Fatigue damage to Steven Universe!
<Pose Tracker> Endo Naoki [Juuban Public School (12)] has posed.
Endo has had a great time at the watermelon so far. He had devoted many minutes to determining how to best smash the elusive triangular melons, to strike perfectly at their green and point tops.
But there are other things to worry about now. The boy has joined the battle lines, arrayed in armor and bearing weapon, prepared to protect the noble brontomelon. Which, at the moment, means being chewed on by one of the circling grape foes.
Endo is quick enough to put his sword in the way when the teeth of the Velocigraptor close down, the dark metal grinding the attack to halt with an unpleasant scraping. A brief tug-of-war ensues over the device, the boy turning to shout to nearby Steven Universe: "Aaa--just a second, hold on--"
Endo stumbles back as he tugs the weapon free, a sharp nod given to the other boy. "Okay! A little off the top!" Just like the triangle melon! He's been training for this! When Steven sweeps the legs Endo follows after to swing high, bringing his sword in an upward arc toward the grape hunter's maw.
COMBAT: Endo Naoki has used Blauverschiebung on Pink Moon Stick. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick braces 19 Fatigue damage from Endo Naoki's Blauverschiebung, taking 8 Fatigue damage! Endo Naoki is Psyched!
<Pose Tracker> Mami Tomoe [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Mami's prediction comes true. There is, sometimes, a certain elation in being correct. ...Not today, though; not here. The velocigrapetors come, closing in on the group, similar--and hunting together. And Eri's question--
"I have," Mami answers--and whirls as they come. She would prefer to be able to defend the others... but she has her own problems, now. The matter of safely moving the Brontomelon will have to wait--for saving themselves and their gentle, large friend.
Fruit and cheese mix in the moment--the shrill look of the velocigrapetor catches a brief, remembered fear, before Mami starts to turn. She whirls; bits of juice spray in the moment as she takes the hit, and then another, and another--she backs up, waiting for a chance to find a better position since she can't actually avoid being hurt.
But she can see a plump, juicy surface of grape just ready to be turned into fruit salad--
She sets her jaw, and focuses, and from above the velocigrapetor taking her on appear above it--and the semicircle of gleaming rifles fires all at once, a loud BANG their report.
"But they definitely shouldn't be here!" she calls as she starts to flip backward.
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has used Tiro Circle on Pink Moon Stick. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to dodge Mami Tomoe's Tiro Circle, taking 46 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit!
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Mars [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed. <SoundTracker> Mirah - Lucky Little Shark https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FJlGB74QnQ
THIS MAJESTIC BRONTOMELON...
... must be protected.
Sailor Mars's determination is soon put to the test, as Mami's prediction cuts true: not one, not two, but five more velocigrapetors leaping in, with all those needly teeth. Up a nearby tree she scrambles, only for those jaws to latch onto one of her fine red heels.
"Yeek!" That's the tragically unladylike noise Mars makes. (Most girls do not have a pre-prepared noise ready for 'just got nibbled on by a fruit-based velociraptor', and so she has defaulted to the noise devoted to 'a very scary rat'.) Luckily, she makes it out..!!
It's a good thing she's not alone in this tree.
Now, to ask the question: how many forgotten melaeons have passed since these creatures last roamed the earth? It's not every day that one springs into the field, just asking for trouble. And oh, it's not just one. Get rid of one, and five more pop up, see? They all shop in the same places, these velocigrapetors. They've got the sort of coordination those other outfits would kill for.
And this one, right, it's circling like a lucky little shark. Remember that song what used to play? The lights were low then, exactly the way they're not now. And the spotlight shone --
Exactly the way fire shines at the tip of Sailor Mars's clasped fingers. "Fire --" it spirals out, down around the trunk, back down to the ground, small and larger and larger still -- "SOUL!"
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Neptune [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.
"We're being guided together - they're separating us with such skill," Sailor Neptune says, with a tension that has replaced her light expression of wonder in the face of a singular creature that, well, she and Uranus might have been able to pulp it on their own.
"Mmm," she then answers Eri, with a slightly-tight smile as Eri moves to bind the creature. "I will try; after all, I would hate to leave these matters to chance." She crouches slightly, spreads her hands, and
leaps!
"Your efforts to instill terroir into the hearts of the innocent shall not go unanswered!" Neptune declares, perhaps getting into the spirit of things, as she descends. She is, of course, wearing heels, not cleats, and she leads with her left foot -- though should it make contact with the velocigrapetor she will subject it to a brutal stomping with her right.
("Excellent work, too; to train your vines so," Neptune adds to Eri, either way.)
COMBAT: Sailor Mars has used Fire Soul! on Pink Moon Stick. COMBAT: Sailor Neptune has used Aquatic Allemande on Pink Moon Stick. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to brace Sailor Mars's Fire Soul!, taking 49 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick perfectly counters 22 Fatigue damage from Sailor Neptune's Aquatic Allemande, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Counter! Pink Moon Stick's Reverse and Tactician abilities activate! COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick's counterattack, Grape Expectations, bursts all the way through, doing 38 Fatigue damage to Sailor Neptune! Critical Counterhit!
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Uranus [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.
Uranus glances sidelong at Mami. The veteran Puella Magi is a longtime rival of Uranus and Neptune, but for that reason she has come to respect her abilities quite highly. Her sky-blue eyes trace the treeline. At the first sign of noise, her muscular haunches tense.
She parts from Neptune with a nod, each to their own battle for now. Uranus and Mars separate when charged by their grapetor; perhaps it is Mars's smaller size. Uranus hesitates, considering taking the time this gives her to summon the wind to her aid. But Sailor Mars can't wait that long, with a grapetor already latched onto her foot. Uranus pursues, taking a vaulting jump to plant a foot on the tree trunk. Grinding off the bark with a shove, she latches a hand on the branch, and that's all it takes: her senshi-enhanced strength can haul her up with one arm at full extension. She flips onto the branch lightly and immediately jabs a kick down to dislodge the grapetor from Mars.
It dislodges, all right: to bite Uranus's foot instead.
"Rrrgh!" Uranus grapples the branch as she's pull downward. The moment the grapetor tries to adjust its teeth, she yanks hard, regaining her chewed boot and shin. For a moment, she and Sailor Mars have both legs safe, crouched face-to-face on the branch.
"Unforgiveable, right?" Uranus asks. "To bite the best legs in the inner solar system." She tilts her head a little, because their noses are too close and that helps the problem. But the new problem is that their noses are no longer in the way, isn't it?
"Burn her, Sailor Mars," Sailor Uranus whispers.
COMBAT: Sailor Uranus has used Act Like A Soldier on Sailor Mars. COMBAT: Sailor Mars accepts Sailor Uranus's Act Like A Soldier, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Accelerate applied to Sailor Mars!
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
Of *course* there were more velocigrapetors, the Wind Knight thinks to herself - barely finishing the thought in time to bring her sword around to try and intercept her own botanical beleaguer. And "try" is the key word - with minimal noise to herald the incoming grapetor, her intercepting swing is *way* off, and ...
Let's just say she's really grateful for her armor.
Fortunately for her, the grapetor's attention *is* divided - and that gives the green-clad Magic Knight time enough to scramble to her feet, stumbling slightly as she re-orients on her target, letting her sword vanish. "Chitose-san, are you all right?" she calls out, bow and quiver materializing in place of her blade.
She wastes no time at all in nocking an arrow to her bowstring, lowering her bow and drawing back, letting the shaft settle into 'place' just below her eyeline ... and then the arrow flies, aiming to punch a hole right through the velocigrapetor.
She quickly readies a second arrow, even as she gauges the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of her first shot.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Basic Archery on Pink Moon Stick. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to brace Fuu Hououji's Basic Archery, taking 8 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Chitose Shiratori [Infinity Institute (U)] has posed.
Chitose Shiratori has not fled the zone yet.
Okay, yet implies she was going to leave. But here she was, suddenly surrounded by graptors. She blinks for a moment. "On second thought, let's not let nature take its course." Did this even count as nature?! She's not sure.
Unfortunately one of the graptors lunge at her first, the teeth tearing at her jacket and getting grape (and orange?) all over her sleeves.
Her jacket will smell weird when she gets home. She pulls away as best she can and steps back a little bit to give herself just a tiny bit of room, and to get herself out of Fuu's line of fire, and just enough distance that she can reciporate and fling dinosaurs at dinosaurs. Except her dinosaurs are tinier and made of light and friendship instead of grape and melon.
<Thunder Dove>
"Are these even dinosaurs?" She asks after a moment, watching her birds fly towards the graptor and hopefully explode.
<Are these even birds?>
Chitose sighs. "I don't even know anymore."
Chitose is suddenly brought to attention when Fuu asks if she's okay, and she nods. "Yeah, I'm fine. Are you?" And, as she is wont to do, she takes off like an airplane, rising up a couple of feet to try and keep herself from the ground level full of graptors.
COMBAT: Chitose Shiratori has used Thunder Dove on Pink Moon Stick. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick braces 12 Fatigue damage from Chitose Shiratori's Thunder Dove, taking 10 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit!
<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed. <SoundTracker> Velociraptor Ride https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2By-G5JHIyw
Grapetor A: Eri's whip lashes out and around her grapetor with a stinging retort, bringing it to heel -- well, to Neptune's heels. But this setup goes badly awry when the grapetor starts trying to eat Neptune's feet, even as it reaches out with its scrabbly scratchy arms to slice up Eri (or her whip, whatever it can get). This is about to become something of a trend...
Grapetor B: Steven's leg-sweep with his shield is a moderate success, except that the creature seemed to anticipate him a bit, and lashed straight back at the boy with its TAIL in a COUNTER leg-sweep. Uh oh. These things are SMART. As for Endo, it seems the grapetor has developed a taste for Fallen Stern. Given his decision to deliver the sword to the maw a second time, the grapetor's eyes light up, like I ACCEPT!, and it chomps gleefully down. Let the second round of tug of war ensue.
Grapetor C: Sailor Mars introduces everyone to the smell of burnt grape. It's an oddly soapy aroma. Then grapetor starts LITERALLY getting up everybody's noses, because when it falls from its flame-arrested leap up the tree, it shatters on the ground into ASH.
Grapetor D: The Magic Knight of Wind does, indeed, punch a hole right through the swirling-fast velocigrapetor with her arrow, but it's a tough beastie, and that isn't enough to put it down all by itself. It tries to eat Chitose's energy birds without success (and the concussive force loses it a couple teeth for its trouble). But it's still up and still coming, and winds up trying to plant both its feet on Fuu's shoulders so it can then LEAP spectacularly into the air to drag down the flying magess.
Grapetor E: Grapetor, meet Mami's bullets. Mami's bullets, meet grapetor. Everyone say farewell to grapetor, and say hello to a magnificent spray of sticky juice that washes over the nearest person to Mami (Eri) like a blast from a car wash.
In the middle of all this chaos, Brontomelon's neck shoots straight up as it finally gets the picture -- its huge eyes somehow even larger and glassier in the face of this swirling melee of grapetor doom -- and at long last, it picks up its massive but only inadvertantly mighty legs and starts to FLEE...
...directly towards the (still-distant) watermelon smashing party.
Really there's more than one reason to try to divert its path; potential danger to students for sure, but also potential psychological trauma to Brontomelon if it makes it into that site of wholesale watermelon slaughter.
Steven asked about how to move Brontomelon, and that question now seems both a little bit prescient, and a little bit off. The question that faces the group is how to STEER Brontomelon.
After, that is, some unfortunates AVOID Brontomelon. Watch out for that tree -- oof, it's gone right through. Brontomelon 1, Mars and Uranus' tree, 0. And Mami and Steven find themselves underfoot, as well.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used The Grapes of Wrath on Pink Moon Stick. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick accepts Pink Moon Stick's The Grapes of Wrath, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Surge applied to Pink Moon Stick! Cleanse! All of Pink Moon Stick's debuffs are cleared! COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Fight of the Concords on Chitose Shiratori. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Fight of the Concords on Fuu Hououji. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Fight of the Concords on Sailor Neptune. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Fight of the Concords on Eri Shimanouchi. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Fight of the Concords on Endo Naoki. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Underfoot on Mami Tomoe. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Underfoot on Sailor Mars. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Underfoot on Sailor Uranus. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Underfoot on Steven Universe. COMBAT: Fuu Hououji fails to brace Pink Moon Stick's Fight of the Concords, taking 19 Fatigue damage! Pink Moon Stick is Psyched! Cripple and Diversion applied to Fuu Hououji! COMBAT: Sailor Mars perfectly dodges 20 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Underfoot, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge! Sailor Mars's Fade and Flash abilities activate! COMBAT: Chitose Shiratori cleanly braces 17 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Fight of the Concords, taking 3 Fatigue damage! Chitose Shiratori's Parry ability activates! Cripple and Diversion applied to Chitose Shiratori! COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi counters 5 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Fight of the Concords, taking 15 Fatigue damage! Eri Shimanouchi's Reverse and Tactician abilities activate! COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi's counterattack, Gardener's Trick, partially gets through, doing 11 Fatigue damage to Pink Moon Stick! Critical Counterhit! Exhausted applied to Pink Moon Stick! COMBAT: Sailor Neptune cleanly braces 17 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Fight of the Concords, taking 3 Fatigue damage! Sailor Neptune's Block and Parry abilities activate! Cripple and Diversion applied to Sailor Neptune! COMBAT: Mami Tomoe braces 10 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Underfoot, taking 8 Fatigue damage! Mami Tomoe's Parry ability activates! COMBAT: Sailor Uranus perfectly dodges 20 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Underfoot, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge! Sailor Uranus's Flash ability activates! COMBAT: Endo Naoki counters 12 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Fight of the Concords, taking 12 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Endo Naoki's Reverse and Tactician abilities activate! Cripple and Diversion applied to Endo Naoki! COMBAT: Endo Naoki's counterattack, Asteroid Eilen, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Pink Moon Stick! COMBAT: Steven Universe fails to dodge Pink Moon Stick's Underfoot, taking 19 Fatigue damage! Stagger applied to Steven Universe!
<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
Eri is ready - and eager to see Neptune dispatch the thing. "You never do." She answers her, beaming at the compliment to her Vines. Just before it goes awry. "Ah!" She cries out in alarm, "Let go of-"
Suddenly the Velocigrapetor slices up one tendril of her whip. And finding herself free, she turns with the momentum of her staggering forward, her whip slicing in a wide circle.
Seeing it's scribbly scratchy arms reaching out for her, she suddenly spins around, running her hand up along the thorns to grasp the whip parallel to the creature's face. In the same moment it's arm reaches her and carves up that lace, is the same moment her whip slices around - and slaps the thing dead on - forcing the two to part.
Panting as the Puella Magi takes a step back. Eri doesn't look as Mami speaks on them not supposed to be here. As she asks... "Then where should they be?"
Suddenly Eri is given a shower of sticky juice. "Eugh!" The girl guides her hand up to the sticky pulp that's gotten on her hair, that's stained her henshin, that's currently running down her leg. And suddenly she inhales, her tone carrying the faintest tease, "I shouldn't complain-"
Suddenly swinging her hand over her head, in a circular motion, her whip begins to rapidly whir around before cracking into the same space as the Velocigrapetor - popping into its bulbous body. Another revolution of her wrist, and it's cracking again. And again - over and over. Faster and faster. It becomes harder and harder to follow - like she's leading it in a dance, attempting to pulverize it into submission.
"-but you could always warn us before you fire. 'You will get pulped' or something." As if it were a theme park near a water ride.
"Anyhow - I believe - you were letting go of..." With one final sharp crack against the raptor, "... her!"
Eri suddenly looks up as the Brontomelon's shadow passes nearby and her eyes become dots as she catches sight of it going, "No no - don't stampede that way!"
She doesn't ask if it's still a stampede if it's just one animal given how big it is.
"Ah- um- Did anyone get a good look at the flower it was eating!?"
She was a little too distracted with its existence to analyze that.
COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi has used Ephemeral Dance on Pink Moon Stick.
<Pose Tracker> Endo Naoki [Juuban Public School (12)] has posed.
"That's mine!" Says Endo, resuming his tug-of-war with the Velcograpetor once the creature clamps down on his weapon again. "Yaaa, let go! Don't be like this!"
<I AM APPREHENDED.> Warbles Fallen Stern, wagging back and forth in its grape foes mouth as Endo loses his grip and relinquishes the blade.
Unlike his allies Endo doesn't have much in the way of magic without his weapon. He can't flambe the velocograptor like Sailor Mars, nor bowl it over with wind. He does, however, have a few years of athletic clubs to draw on.
He goes for the throat. Not to stab, or punch, but in a flying tackle. His arms reach to hook around the monster, cape tangling around as he puts all of his weight against it. He'll drag it to the ground if he can-or just hang on and squeeze for dear life until it releases his weapon. "I'm coming, Brontomelon!" He's definitely not.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick partially dodges 6 Fatigue damage from Eri Shimanouchi's Ephemeral Dance, taking 22 Fatigue damage! Pink Moon Stick's Fade and Flash abilities activate! Stun applied to Pink Moon Stick! COMBAT: Endo Naoki has used Grapeling Hook on Pink Moon Stick. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick perfectly dodges 13 Fatigue damage from Endo Naoki's Grapeling Hook, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge! Pink Moon Stick's Fade and Flash abilities activate!
<Pose Tracker> Mami Tomoe [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Mami Tomoe has similar views on a certain pair of Outer Senshi--but it would seem she's gained respect over time for those others who did not start as early as they did, counting on each to do their part with her warning as best they're able.
...But it doesn't mean she wouldn't at all appreciate Neptune stomping on the things. Or that she doesn't appreciate the sudden burst of flame and the smell of... burnt grape. Mami, as a baker, almost never finds herself so pleased to smell burning food--and yet..
"It's how they operate--they're much smarter than we'd hope," Mami speaks up to Neptune. ...She doesn't comment on flirting. Instead...
"is whether they're 'real' important??"
But as Mami is freed up from her partner, a little more Swiss than she was before if one counts the various holes sharp teeth have left in her...
"Oh, no," she says, looking up towards the frightened Brontomelon. ...And then of course--
Well, Mami isn't crushed underfoot. This is the good news. The bad news is that this doesn't mean she's unscathed; the rumbling ground, the wrecked tree crash against the Puella magi as she rolls with the hits, bringing herself back up and looking--she thinks, quickly.
"...Shh," Mami says, thinking gentle thoughts--and bends at the knee to leap upward into the air, throwing out her hand--from her wrist she pulls a ribbon, which slides from her cuff and grows, and grows. She extends it outward, as if lightly tossing, and more burst from each directions around the Brontomelon. Mami's golden, beautiful ribbons seek to enwrap the Brontomelon's titanic form--hopefully in reassuring, ribbony softness that will protect it against the raptors. She avoids binding its eyes. That... that would be bad.
But she thinks of Eri's question--"The last time I saw them..."
"Well, it wasn't here. It was on another world. It was while we were all exiled from Earth, wandering. I last saw these... during the time after our first assault on the North Pole, facing Queen Beryl. I never thought I'd see them again."
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has used Legare on Pink Moon Stick. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to dodge Mami Tomoe's Legare, taking 14 Fatigue damage! Exhausted, Tangle, and Trap applied to Pink Moon Stick!
<Pose Tracker> Steven Universe [Juuban Public School (6)] has posed.
Steven tenses visibly as his attempt to trip the grapetor goes awry, and it retaliates! A THUD comes from the boy as he lands firmly on his rump from the the tail lash! "Man, you sure have an axe to rind!" he says, somehow making puns despite the seriousness of the fight. Was it really serious?
Well, if it wasn't it is now.
Brontomelon sees its predators, and begins to flee! Unfortunately Steven is pebble-sized to it, and the boy has to dodge and land wrong on his arm to avoid being crushed by tons of melon. "Guh! We gotta stop it!" he shouts, rubbing his sore arm some. He will have to tolerate that pain for now.
But first, Endo is having trouble! "Hang on!" he calls, seeing the sword in the raptor's mouth. "Let that go! It isn't yours! It also isn't food!" Swords aren't food, are they? He might have to ask Kassie.
The boy runs at the vicious little fruit, and goes to try and bonk it on the head repeatedly, like one might bop a dog with a newspaper.
COMBAT: Steven Universe has used Shield Bash on Pink Moon Stick.
<Pose Tracker> Chitose Shiratori [Infinity Institute (U)] has posed.
Chitose keps in the air a little bit, but the graptor is up to the challenge to try and leap up to her, nipping at her heels for a few moments, jaws attempting to get around her feet and pull her down. However just the little bit of magical leather is all the graptor gets, as she tries her best to kick the dinosaur in the face and get it to go away, or at the very least arrest its rise.
She swings White Omen towards the teethy grape and fires, this time a few bolts of laser light try to shoot the raptor, mostly to try and keep it away from her. "Hey! Go and eat something else!" She shouts in between shots. Then again, if it moves away then that may open him up to attack from Fuu, or maybe others as well. "Something richer in... uh..." She tries to figure out what melons are richer in. "Magnesium?"
COMBAT: Chitose Shiratori has used Light Bolt on Pink Moon Stick. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to dodge Steven Universe's Shield Bash, taking 13 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Steven Universe is Psyched!
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
This just isn't the Wind Knight's day, it seems. Sure, the first velocigrapetor went down easily enough, but it seems this one has learned a great deal from the fate of its brother (sister?); the springboard leap gives Fuu a new appreciation for the misery that is a Goomba's lot, and she's not even that much of a Mario fan.
At least it's not her *head* that was stepped on, and her shoulder armor stands up fairly well to the talons digging in as the velocigrapetor leaps up at Chitose. By the time her assailant gets driven back to ground by Chitose's shots, the Magic Knight of Wind has regained most of her bearings and is ready to launch her counterattack ...
"Liberating Gale!!!"
The burst of partly-healing magic wells up around her, and then explodes, trying to blast the velocigrapetor away - preferably in *more* than one direction.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Liberating Gale on Pink Moon Stick. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick cleanly braces 17 Fatigue damage from Chitose Shiratori's Light Bolt, taking 3 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick braces 19 Fatigue damage from Fuu Hououji's Liberating Gale, taking 8 Fatigue damage! Bind Break! All of Fuu Hououji's debuffs are cleared!
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Mars [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
Sailor Mars's valiant hero is... Sailor Uranus.
Who, unfortunately, shortly finds herself victim of those teeth instead.
"Oh-!" Driven by instinct, she reaches for Uranus as she's yanked down, but the larger Senshi is more than a match for the lizard. (Bird? Chitose poses the question, and Mars can't quite remember if they ever settled it.) For a moment they're gathered together, and a heartbeat later Sailor Mars realises how close together.
Close enough for Sailor Uranus to clearly see the way her cheeks light up when she comments on what the velocigrapetor tried to chomp, certainly.
Some part of her files away the comment for her clear victory in argument #36.
The rest of her is suddenly intensely focused on not falling off that branch, because she can't help but notice that for all the complications Sailor Uranus encapsulates, she can hear her even though she's very... very... quiet, and her eyes are very... very... blue.
Light a fire across her face and let it catch in her heart: Fire Soul spirals down and incinerates their attacker to cinders. It's a good thing they're perched astride a tree, in the wake of that ashy cloud. "Ha!" Crows Sailor Mars, in the manner of her particular dinosaurs, pointing down to the ashes. "Teach you to try and make us dinner!"
In a perfect universe, she would take this moment of community with Sailor Uranus and turn it into something beautiful.
In this universe, the Brontomelon notices what's going on.
And suddenly it's not such a good thing they're perched in a tree at all.
Because the Brontomelon has legs up to here, and it's using them to suddenly charge away from the carnage -- right through the tree they've perched on. "Hup!" Mars huffs, thinking fast, as she springs from her branch...
... right up...
... onto the Brontomelon's back.
This is Sailor Mars' perfect plan. Step one: ride the Brontomelon to avoid being crushed under Brontofoot.
Step two:
uh
Step two:
errrr
Step two: give her a minute. This is a plan in progress.
And up here, she kind of needs to latch on just to avoid falling off again. Maybe the ribbons can help! Unfortunately, it gives her a great vantage point to the direction the Brontomelon is stampeding -- which is exactly the direction Mars doesn't want it to run.
"HEY!" Sailor Mars tries yelling. She pauses. She realises that the Brontomelon's head is much, much higher than its body.
Also she is not sure if it knows how words work. She's pretty sure words weren't invented in the Fructaceous. (Whenever the Fructaceous was... wherever these things come from.)
"Alright, alright..." Sailor Mars rises a finger in meditation, and a light flares from it, shooting up to explode in glittering fiery light in front of the Brontomelon. Not too close; she doesn't want to burn it. Just distract it off of its current course. She'll deal with it stampeding to the new place in a moment. That's step three on her plan which she is just now making up.
COMBAT: Sailor Mars has used Mars Attacks! on Pink Moon Stick.
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Neptune [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.
Sailor Neptune is, momentarily, consternated - it's very clear, very elegant, but perhaps not very charming - when the grapeosaurus begins to trying to devour her feet. She spreads her arms, kicking and wriggling and almost stumbling loose - enough to cartwheel for a moment, kicking one leg out to dislodge what must be some sort of pomace-saliva.
Behind her, the Brontomelon's neck rises.
But before her, the grape beast, the fruit brute, rises and trains itself along Eri's vines to assail her. Eri herself has been juiced most thoroughly, and Neptune lets her lips quirk in a small frown as she attempts to leap forwards -
And finds herself with a cramp in one calf, hissing a tiny mote of breath through her teeth. She recovers adroitly; she swings it forwards into a flourishing step and hopes there isn't blood (there is not; but there will be a bad and poorly placed bruise) - her arms come up above her head as she says, "What a vexing creature--"
And a moment later the water itself surges forwards, a sweeping sharp tide aimed to bowl the velocigrapetor over and, perhaps incidentally, help cleanse Eri of some of her burden of purplesaurus-rex.
"I believe it was a Trichosanthes cucumeroides - the snake gourd," Sailor Neptune answers Eri. "But the view was rather brief..."
COMBAT: Sailor Neptune has used Dolphin Wave on Pink Moon Stick. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to brace Sailor Mars's Mars Attacks!, taking 25 Fatigue damage! Sailor Mars is Psyched! COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to brace Sailor Neptune's Dolphin Wave, taking 64 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit!
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Uranus [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.
Uranus lets out a low whistle as the grapetor falls, roasted, like a coach on the sidelines watching the star player. Glancing about for a new foe, she catches sight of the velocigrapetor's ferocious counterattack on her partner.
"Neptune!" she shouts, because things can go so bad so quickly when it comes to a creature with teeth and fans. But Kyouko's kouhai has long since left her shadow, and makes a good accounting of herself with that whip. Plant versus plant, she buys Neptune space.
Still, Uranus is about to hop down and help over there, when she hears the rumble of very large, very adorable off-course produce department on legs. These brontomelon legs may not be the best in the inner solar system, but they certainly win on quantity.
In synch with the Inner Senshi she shares the branch with, Uranus sails neatly into the air, her boots clacking down with a more hollow thump than usual as she mounts the back of the fruitosaur. Observing Mars's plan to redirect it, Uranus decides to up the ante.
Placing her hands together, she half-lids her eyes, her hair rippling in a breeze that sparkles with light. Visible as spinning, whitish distortions in the clear air, a number of orbs flank her.
"Gaze... Turbulent!" Uranus launches her attack right after Mars's, but keeps her hands in place, guiding it and shaping it. The orbs whirl around the flame, feeding it but also containing it. There's only one way to go, and that's up... a well-nourished plume erupts like a warning flare.
"More eye level," Uranus explains to Mars.
COMBAT: Sailor Uranus has used Gaze Turbulent on Pink Moon Stick. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to brace Sailor Uranus's Gaze Turbulent, taking 55 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed. <SoundTracker> Eye To Eye https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbAyap3Knvg"
Grapetor A: The next crack of Eri's whip sends the oncoming grapetor staggering off balance. The next slash of Neptune's wave weaves its way into the crack formed on the grape, penetrates, and explodes it from within, leaving everything marginally-pleasantly smelling of grapey... salt.
Grapetor B: Endo may be eager to reclaim his Device but the grapetor is equally eager to KEEP it. With a toothy grin that evokes the feeling of MINE!! it jerks its head and neck out of the way, and keeps raising purple sparks as it unsuccessfully tries to crunch Stern down into bite-sized pieces. Failure does not dissuade it, however. It is somewhat like a dog with a bone, now. A hungry, feral, vicious attack dog with a bone, before anyone starts thinking too cute here.
Then, highly appropriately, Steven whacks it on the head, and just like that it finally drops the sword, which casually bisects a watermelon (well, they ARE out in the fields) on its way back down to earth.
Grapetor D: Between Chitose's shouting and her many bullets, the grapetor is cowed into going back to trying to eat the Magic Knight of Wind instead, but doesn't get very far, because it's blasted back, head over heels. It lands hard, but not fatally, and scrabbles back upright, shaking its head so hard that its jaws make a whuffling sound.
That's three velocigrapetors down and two to go...
Brontomelon doesn't get at all far before Mami's golden ribbons leash it. Of course, that means she's attached to something much much bigger and stronger than she is. It's like taking an elephant for a walk. A FLEEING elephant for a walk. Still, the entangling has slowed its charge considerably. And Sailor Mars' burst of flame, both fed and guided to the perfect height by Sailor Uranus' winds, gets it to change direction; it takes a hard right, now parallel to the main buildings where all the students are instead of straight towards them.
Straight toward the ROAD, but hey.
No cars seem to be coming... yet.
But there is something else. That magical feeling from earlier, again, that sense of power. You can't hear it or see it or smell it or taste it but it's there, anyway, the weight of the world shifting on its axis, just so.
Suddenly Brontomelon stops in its tracks, skidding to a halt with such force that its butt churns a broad swath of soil. Then it does a complete one-eighty (sending Mami, at the end of her rope, in a broad arc through the air) and starts running quite in the other direction...
...towards the two remaining grapetors (and, it must be said, STRAIGHT BACK THROUGH THE GROUP)...
...only they, too, have perked their heads up -- really midway through follow-ups in which they were trying to carve open Chitose and Endo with those razor-sharp claws, which means one of them jack-knifes in the air in order to change direction.
And they also break into a run, ahead of Brontomelon, who they seem to have lost interest in entirely.
(It may not be the BEST idea to let them escape, all things considered.)
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Underfoot on Mami Tomoe. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Underfoot on Sailor Uranus. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Underfoot on Sailor Mars. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Underfoot on Eri Shimanouchi. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Underfoot on Endo Naoki. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Underfoot on Steven Universe. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Underfoot on Chitose Shiratori. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Underfoot on Fuu Hououji. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Underfoot on Sailor Neptune. COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi perfectly dodges 17 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Underfoot, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge! Eri Shimanouchi's Fade and Flash abilities activate! COMBAT: Mami Tomoe neatly dodges 16 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Underfoot, taking 4 Fatigue damage! Mami Tomoe's Fade and Flash abilities activate! Stagger applied to Mami Tomoe! COMBAT: Sailor Neptune dodges 12 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Underfoot, taking 8 Fatigue damage! Stagger applied to Sailor Neptune! COMBAT: Sailor Uranus braces 7 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Underfoot, taking 10 Fatigue damage! Stagger applied to Sailor Uranus! COMBAT: Sailor Mars fails to dodge Pink Moon Stick's Underfoot, taking 25 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Stagger applied to Sailor Mars! COMBAT: Chitose Shiratori partially dodges 3 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Underfoot, taking 13 Fatigue damage! Chitose Shiratori's Fade and Flash abilities activate! Stagger applied to Chitose Shiratori! COMBAT: Endo Naoki partially dodges 4 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Underfoot, taking 16 Fatigue damage! Stagger applied to Endo Naoki! COMBAT: Fuu Hououji dodges 7 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Underfoot, taking 11 Fatigue damage! Fuu Hououji's Fade and Flash abilities activate! Stagger applied to Fuu Hououji! COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Grapeful Dread on Pink Moon Stick. COMBAT: Pink has not concluded their actions. Reactions are not yet available. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick accepts Pink Moon Stick's Grapeful Dread, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Accelerate applied to Pink Moon Stick! COMBAT: Steven Universe dodges 7 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Underfoot, taking 11 Fatigue damage! Stagger applied to Steven Universe!
<Pose Tracker> Endo Naoki [Juuban Public School (12)] has posed.
"Thanks Steven!" Endo manages this after rolling away from the velocograpetor, careening through the watermelon patches. He comes to a stop in the path of the oncoming Brontomelon, noticing a few seconds too late what all the stomping is about. He's sent scrambling again, though not without getting a good kick to help him on his way.
Thankfully, he ends up relatively nearby his fallen device. Endo snatches up the sword, hefting up and getting a proper grip once more. "Okay-I'll try again." This time he doesn't go for the mouth, though.
Belkan triangles form around his feet, pulsing with energy before the boy uses the runes as a springboard to launch himself forward. He spins with the momentum, weapon coming around in a whirling arc toward the center mass of the tenacious monster, aiming to cut it down before it escapes.
COMBAT: Endo Naoki has used Meteor Absturz on Pink Moon Stick. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick braces 29 Fatigue damage from Endo Naoki's Meteor Absturz, taking 24 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
This time fortunately, Eri sees the wind up to Neptune's massive attack, and starts backpeddling right before it explodes. "Ah!" Her eyes light up as Sailor Neptune answers her. "It has good taste." She remarks, even though she's speaking of the Brontomelon's aesthetic sense rather than it's appetite.
Taking off into a run, she finds herself ducking, and diving through the rampaging Brontomelon's back and forth run - as it stops and nearly sprays her with a wide swath of dirt. Her eyes searching all the while. Every so often her whip slices out into the field...
... only for a star like flower with a lacey fringe to float down into her hands like a dandelion. It's an elegant flower, pretty as it floats down in her hands. Eri in the past has had a complicated relationship with picking flowers when it comes to simply appreciating their beauty, yet now it seems she either does not mind, or simply does not mind picking them for this purpose.
"Keep it distracted!" She calls out, as her whip slices out, cutting through stem, only for another flower to float into her hands. Then another. And another. Until she's gathered a veritable bouquet.
"Mami- I know you're a little busy but... do you mind offering me a hand with some gift-wrapping?"
Trying to keep pace with the thing isn't an easy feat, much less collaborating with Mami who is attached to the Bronto-Melon. Before long the two are in tandem stringing up the bouquet of flowers ahead of the creature - wrapped in a pretty ribbon bow - bound by a web of vines and ribbons that are suspended between two light poles on the edge of the field used for illumination at night.
Eri who is holding one end of the half of the vine web that's suspending them in mid-air calling out soothingly in an attempt to try to calm it down, "Do you like these? Neptune thought you might." She says, "You can have them. You don't have to be scared."
Then she almost shyly adds, "I've never really offered anyone a bouquet before... so I admit I'm a little nervous."
COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi has started a combo targeting Pink Moon Stick!
<Pose Tracker> Mami Tomoe [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Mami Tomoe is entirely too dignified, entirely too troubled by these creatures, to openly acknowledge Steven's puns in the moment. But let's face it: if she weren't attached to a running giant brontomelon, she'd totally appreciate them.
She does hang on. ...Even though that wasn't meant for her. She does not give the velocigrapetors advice on their diet. As it turns out, she is doing something somewhat similar to Sailor Mars, in that... well.
The Brontomelon is very big, and very strong. Staying attached to her ribbons means Mami courses through the air, like a particularly gorgeous hang-glider attached to the jetski water vehicle that is a gentle, beautiful fruitosaur. It's...
It's not gentle. Mami throws herself to the side to avoid churning earth--more to the point, as the Brontomelon abrubtly panics, stars, and turns, in the moments as the change happens and the dust is up everywhere Mami leaps to avoid being swung straight into the ground. "Must go faster," Mami murmurs. "Must go faster..."
"Ah--" She looks down to Eri, when she asks. "...Sure!" Mami offers, still trying to reinforce her ribbons in order to slow the Brontomelon, considering giving it 'shoes' to help push things out of the way that might otherwise be crushed. But...
In moments she diverts some of that effort forward, tossing ribbon towards Eri to wrap into her vines, to wend about flowers as she swings then to the side, as if she is part of one of those carnival rides, or perhaps a sideways carousel.
"You're doing great!" Mami offers to Eri in a loud semi-whisper, attempting to encourage her. ...Though... Well.
Really?? Never?????
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has joined the combo started by Eri Shimanouchi! COMBAT: COMBO! Eri Shimanouchi and Mami Tomoe have used Combo: A Bouquet For a Dinosaur That is One In a Melon, composed of Dryad's Interdict and Legare, on Pink Moon Stick.
<Pose Tracker> Steven Universe [Juuban Public School (6)] has posed.
Bashing the grapetor on the head seems to do the trick! As hammering the gap tends to be effective in producing discomfort. "Let... it... go!" Steven says, the shield making a metallic tang, with a hint of a magical echo. It lets go the sword, and Steven has to reel back quickly as Fallen Stern cleaves the ground, and a spare fruit, with its landing. The boy makes sure he has his feet as well. That was really close!
Endo gets a thumbs up for the cool teamwork!
"Where di the giant melonsaur go to?!" he says, having surprisingly lost the elephant (or brontomelon) in the room (or park). Tremors denote footsteps, which lead to seeing it led away from the civilians, but then out toward the streetways! "Okay, so at least that is kinda better--"
It just turned around. "Oh no." The large shape is gaining speed, and heading right back toward them. "Run... run!" Steven says toward Endo, as the boy zigzags and dives hard into a mess of vines to avoid getting smooshed. He emerges dirty, but other than being tangled in vines briefly and slowing his roll, seems okay.
The raptors also do not like this, and have begun to beat feet. The boy raises a shield high, even while coated in vines, and whips it at a retreating grapetor!
COMBAT: Steven Universe has used Throw Shield on Pink Moon Stick.
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Uranus [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.
Uranus gives Mars a grin as their joint efforts have the desired effect on brontomelon's course. Neptune is doing well with Eri back there, too, which satisfies the warrior. Uranus has to hunch down to handle the hard right turn, but her balance is up to it.
It's not up to the brontomelon screeching around and turning the other way entirely.
Dropping to her hands and knees, Uranus slides rapidly back along the melon-body of the brontomelon. It's a slippery surface, and she can't exactly go punching a hole in it for herself. Shooting off the rear side of the melon, Uranus takes a rough tumble off its tail, then comes down hard on the ground... but on her feet, knees bent far.
Exhaling through her teeth, Uranus stands and tries to run, but she goes crooked with her first few steps, nearly tripping. Reducing her expectations for her disoriented body, she limp-jogs back towards the main group, more or less chasing the brontomelon. "Something changed just now," she realizes to herself, contextualizing that strange feeling she had when on the brontomelon's back. But what? Uranus address the obvious problem for now. She's with the two seer-senshi today, after all. She just be the muscle.
"Out of the way!" she shouts ahead. Spotting the fleeing velocigrapetors, she gives her legs another try, and this time they pump strong and true beneath her. With a grin, she sets her sights on the leftmost grapetor.
This isn't just a fight. It's a race. And the fruitosaur has a head start, to be sporting.
"Neptune!" Uranus calls. "That one!" Bearing down, she lengthens her strides without slowing them, her speed increasing with each second she runs. Getting a good rhythm of panting going, she rapidly gains on and then passes Neptune. As Uranus pulls ahead, teal and blue eyes flash as one, both faces serious, as some information passes between them. Then Uranus roars ahead, the grapetor getting larger in her sight with every step.
It's a good race--it's a VELOCIgrapetor after all. But Uranus is an exceptional runner. You might think she did it in her civilian form, too. Soon the tail of the creature is bobbing in front of her, and she reaches out, not quite able to grasp it, like this was a relay and she was trying to hand off the baton. When her glove grabs on, she latches on with both hands and buries her bootheels, dragging the fruitosaur to a halt. There's nothing stopping the velocigrapetor from turning around and mauling her, with both her hands so occupied, but she hangs on rather than defend herself. She's grinning cruelly at the beast when it looks at her, in fact.
COMBAT: Sailor Uranus has started a combo targeting Pink Moon Stick!
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
Trying to protect the Brontomelon while it's fleeing isn't that difficult; just keep the grapetors too busy to give chase.
Trying to protect the Brontomelon when it abruptly doubles *back* like it just smelled a forest fire, or something similarly dangerous enough to impress on the great melony beast, gets a lot more complicated in a hurry - but at least it sends the remaining velocigrapetors packing as well, momentarily relieving that threat.
Then again, nearly getting stepped on is a unpleasant twist in anyone's day, and the Wind Knight may avoid a direct stomp - but she still gets knocked over, and splatted with stray dirt and leaves and other debris. She looks somewhat piqued as she clambers back to her feet again, but she doesn't break out one of her big heavy-hitting spells. Instead, she focuses her attention ahead of the fruitosaurs entirely, and reaches out with her magic ...
"Winds of Admonishment!!"
It's not the usual directly-focused entrapment whirlwind she tends to conjure; instead, it's more like a 'fence' woven from the wind, potentially ensnaring the velocigrapetors if they run into it - and maybe entangling the brontomelon as well, if it keeps plunging along blindly.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Winds of Admonishment on Pink Moon Stick. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to brace Fuu Hououji's Winds of Admonishment, taking 16 Fatigue damage! Fuu Hououji is Psyched! Trap applied to Pink Moon Stick! COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to brace Steven Universe's Throw Shield, taking 33 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to brace Eri Shimanouchi and Mami Tomoe's Combo: A Bouquet For a Dinosaur That is One In a Melon, taking 33 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Pink Moon Stick is Quipped! Tangle and Trap applied to Pink Moon Stick!
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Neptune [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.
A grape salt? It sounds like something that one might be gently scrubbed with in a spa; something that would exfoliate and leave skin delightfully refreshed.
Sailor Neptune knows that is not happening today. (Well, maybe today... but not in the immediate future.) The thunderous melon-motion guides Neptune's eyes, and her lips purse for a moment at the sight of the two Sailor Soldiers atop that dinosaur for a moment.
"Does it? I've never eaten that flower," Neptune murmurs to Eri, "but I suppose that tastes do vary." Her eyes follow the whipping up of the bloom-- but her attention soon goes back to the enormous melonsaur and the woman sliding from it. She tenses - but the tension abates when Uranus's landing, though rough, now not uncontrolled. She breathes out, and when Uranus passes near her, she confirms -
"It did."
Neptune can't quite tell what. But something, certainly. She rolls her neck, lets out a little huff, and begins to follow Uranus - whose longer legs gives her the advantage, but slow and steady can win the race. As seen - for when Uranus applies the prodiguious strength of her long, elegant frame, the velocigraptor's own force must go to resisting it.
In short, the wind is, in this moment, a brake. A parachute; an anchor.
Sailor Neptune, of course, does no such thing as braking, and as she gets close enough to show her smile, she throws herself forwards -- and vaults up and past Sailor Uranus, over her shoulders, and into the air. Indeed she pivots on one white gloved hand, the fingers still immaculate in spirit even if they may have a bit of green and purple stain on them now.
Pivots so that a leap can turn into a back flip, and allow her to provide another juicing demonstration, as dear Eri so fervently hoped for.
COMBAT: Sailor Neptune has joined the combo started by Sailor Uranus! COMBAT: COMBO! Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune have used Exquisite Duet on Pink Moon Stick.
<Pose Tracker> Chitose Shiratori [Infinity Institute (U)] has posed.
Chitose continues to try and fight off the raptors. More lasers, more friendship. But it doesn't take too long before the Brontomelon intervenes, the giant melon beast comes stomping in. Chitose dove and began flying along the ground to try and avoid the giant legs. She tries to avoid all four legs, but the last one kicks her out of the sky and she crumples to the ground.
She lets the brontomelon get ahead of her real quick before taking off again. She raises up into the sky and looks at the departing fruit-asaurs for a few seconds.
"Honestly," She says after a moment. "All of them have to go."
<The raptors attacked you directly.>
"Yeah, I suppose." And with that she raises White Omen again and fires one pulse of energy, which then splits into a number of smaller shots that zoom directly at the raptors.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to brace Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune's Combo: Exquisite Duet, taking 65 Fatigue damage! Sailor Uranus drains 26 fatigue from Pink Moon Stick! COMBAT: Chitose Shiratori has used Starling Shot on Pink Moon Stick.
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Mars [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
Step three: stay on the Brontomelon.
This step is a resounding failure.
Sailor Mars is THROWN from her position behind the Brontomelon's neck as it skids to a halt -- "waaaugh!" is the noise a girl makes when her perch suddenly becomes whiplash -- and shortly thereafter finds herself trampled.
These Brontofeet were made for walking, and that's just what they do.
Okay, she thinks, dazed, as she pushes herself up. Okay. Step four. Step four... uh...
... most of her plans don't really get to a step four.
Luckily, in trying to find Uranus again, Sailor Mars realises she's chasing after the velocigrapetors, and the velocigrapetors are running off, and that's about when step four comes together.
She does not quite try and dash up to the raptors, though certainly she runs after the stampede.
Rather, with a sweeping gesture and a cry of "Searing Serpent!", she sends a whiplike courser out, to careen before one of the raptors and curl in, aiming to barrage the 'grapetor Steven harrasses with his shield.
COMBAT: Sailor Mars has used Searing Serpent on Pink Moon Stick. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to brace Chitose Shiratori's Starling Shot, taking 39 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to brace Sailor Mars's Searing Serpent, taking 27 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Pink Moon Stick is unable to keep fighting! Sailor Mars is Psyched! Blind applied to Pink Moon Stick!
<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed.
So, let's review: we have the remaining two members of the velocigrapetor bunch outrunning Brontomelon, as all three of them beat feet in the opposite direction from the road.
Fuu gets way out in front... with her magic, creating a wind break of sorts. They crash right through the aerial fence, especially Brontomelon, but not before having their momentum arrested enough for the rest of the group to have a hope of catching up. And Chitose, in that moment of slowness, nails a grapetor squarely in the leg, slowing it considerably.
Steven chucks his shield at the closer of the grapetor, which impacts its head with a solid THUMP that clearly leaves the creature's ears ringing... and its ears burning. No, wait, that's Sailor Mars. It jukes sharply to the left, away from her flame, only for Endo to, snicker snack, pulp it right down the middle.
That's one.
Uranus manages to run down the further grapetor, grab it by its tail, and swing it about, though it takes a tremendous heave; fruit or not, it's quite heavy! And also had a lot of speed going for it, at that first moment of contact. But she manages it, though her heels churn up plenty of rich brown farmland in the doing.
Then NEPTUNE'S heels make it rain. The perfection of the violence she visited upon that velocigrapetor was unspeakable. Let us never speak of it again.
That's two.
It's an open question whether or not Brontomelon is really aware that its former hunters have been pulped. Its panic is palpable, its eyes rolling, whites huge, wild with fear well beyond that it displayed when it first began its now-circular track through the field.
Really it's a danger to itself, going at this speed. If it trips, there's going to be Brontomelon strewn across the farm like a horrible macrocosm of what happened to Michiru Kaioh's blouse, earlier.
There's no music to tame the savage beast, but flowers... well. Food is a powerful motivator, and anyway it's still covered in those golden ribbons, and it's starting to get tired. It takes a bit more cajoling than that -- Mami and Eri's palms get quite sticky with all the patting required -- but finally it staggers to at least a temporary halt, at least long enough to inhale that bouquet. Recharge a little.
That's three.
But it's still shaking.
BGM Start: Psycho https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Me-VhC9ieh0
Brontomelon's shakes turn into titanic quakes as the source of its terror becomes evident. Whereas the magical girls didn't arrive in time to see Brontomelon arrive, and the velocigrapetors were too small and quick to quite catch it, now, at last, they get to see the source of that strange, unearthly feeling, the prickles that lanced the backs of their necks.
There's a mysterious sparkle in the air, spinning, spinning, creating a ring of immense circumference...
...from which is emerging...
'Apex' predator does it a disservice because it implies that there is a maximum involved, and the raw, unbridled threat that this creature represents is so deadly, in part, because it feels unleashable. It CANNOT BE CONTAINED.
The first footprint -- clawprint -- that it leaves in the field sinks two feet from not only weight but force. Every one of its steps is deliberate.
Its eyes burn with a terrible hunger.
And its immense yellow jaws -- mottled, along the sides, with a bit of browning -- split, straight in half, impossibly strange, impossibly wide --
-- wide enough to fit everyone in at once, and a huge chunk of Brontomelon besides --
-- that is a LOT of teeth.
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!"
Preceded in its charge by the smell of its breath, a combination of the faintly floral aroma of banana, plus other rotting fruits... plus blood... it blurs forward, impossibly fast for its enormous size.
Behind everyone, Brontomelon makes a tiny, miserable keen, but doesn't move. It turns its long neck away from its oncoming doom, and looks at someone else instead.
Someones.
Fear has been replaced -- well, offset, a little, a tiny smidgeon -- by trust.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick transforms into BANANASAURUS REX!
<Pose Tracker> Mami Tomoe [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
There are things that are worth sticky hands. Mami is more than happy to pat the Brontomelon frankly. It's nice! It's much better than the alternatives. It's soothing. It's wonderful. The grapetors are gone... And it's quiet. But--
...But, it's still shaking. Mami Tomoe has a very, very bad feeling. And she hears it--she hears the strange sound, the odd feeling...
Slowly, ever-so-slowly, her head begins to turn to the side from where she stands. Agonizing moment by moment, every frame of motion seems apt as she turns, looks towards the sparkle in the air. And suddenly...
"Sometimes I hate being right all the time," Mami announces in a very quiet voice--before she openly flinches at the sudden terrible roar of the Bananasaurus Rex, memory entirely too clear for her to treat it as just another event. Already, the ground has hsook--but--suddenly--
The Brontomelon looks at Mami with that trust in its eyes, that sad keen. And she cannot abandon it. Setting her jaw, the Puella magi turns towards the Bananasaurus Rex, the most terrible frizzard of all.
Mami doesn't waste the time to jump out of the way. Instead, still beside the Brontomelon, she sets out her hands, and ribbons course from her sleeves; what was white fabric blazes golden as she pours her magic forward, and it turns to lines, webbing, weaving into a gigantic shape--
A cannon, silvery and gold and beautiful and shining, pointed up. Its cord is in her hand, set to trigger; the cylinder of its barrel is much larger than Mami herself, and it shines it the light--
Gleams, as Mami points to where the too-fast Bananasaurus must come. She doesn't so much as blink, not willing to give this terrifying force the unobserved time--
And gritting her teeth, the blonde fires, a gigantic shell erupting forth from her cannon like a meteor fired up instead of down, golden light crashing straight for the impossibly huge creature's gaping maw, as Mami Tomoe holds her breath--
COMBAT: FINISHER! Mami Tomoe has used Tiro FINALE on Pink Moon Stick.
<Pose Tracker> Endo Naoki [Juuban Public School (12)] has posed.
The destruction of Endo's fruity foe, the nearby Velcograpetor, earns a sigh of relief from Endo. The help from Mars and Steven gets a thankful wave, even as he watches the others take down the remaining threat. Which leaves the Brontomelon, and whatever it's running after.
"It's-" Endo is speechless for a moment. Not soundless, though. There's a very alarmed sound that he makes when the Banasaurus stomps onto the scene. His head swivels to the rest of the assembled magical girls, asking, "Is it real!?"
But there's not much time for long debate about the existence of the yellow giant. Instead, Endo sets to interposing himself between it and the Brontomelon. He does so with extreme force.
He leaps-up, into the air, onto another runic triangle that springs to lift. This too is a springboard, launching him into a line of similar symbols that whirl to life in front of him. A corridor of magic, each triangle speeding him toward his destination.
<KOSMISCH KOLLIDIEREN.>
He smashes into the Bananasaurus like a meteorite, a blur of purple and black, the point of his sword extended to scour deep.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Endo Naoki has used Kosmisch Kollidieren on Pink Moon Stick.
COIN FLIP: Chitose Shiratori flips a coin. It lands on tails!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick braces 105 Fatigue damage from Mami Tomoe's Finisher, Tiro FINALE, taking 86 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick braces 72 Fatigue damage from Endo Naoki's Finisher, Kosmisch Kollidieren, taking 48 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit!
<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
"It isn't the first time I've given a flower though." Eri says, abstracted, her smile still a little shy. Though it is still taking a lot of cajoling, her bare palm getting sticky from the watermelon pulp as she pats it. Wondering how it must feel to a creature so large. "There you go... have your fill."
And then that mysterious sparkle appears in the air. "Oh - maybe it's here to take it ho-"
BANANASAURUS REX
"-Oh."
Her little Oh may be drowned out by the sudden RAAAAAAAAAAAAAA, thus sparing her the embarrassment of being that wrong in that single note of optimism - causing her to flinch as she hears its roar, looks upon it's terrible visage.
Eri pats the Brontomelon's sticky leg as it keens. "It's going to be okay. I wish I could say something like I'm here to help..."
Taking her hand away, her whip suddenly abruptly shrinks as the vines all vanish, becoming a looping length within her hand.
"... but I don't think that's true..."
She's seemed a little scared before, but not so much now as she takes a few paces forward in front of the Brontomelon. The Bananasaurus is coming so fast - faster than anything has a right to.
And then she upturns her whip all of a sudden, allowing each tendril to rest upon the watermelon patch. "...what I do know..."
There's a green glimmer of magic that seems to emanate from her hand, travelling down the whole thing. Each whip strand's tip slips into the dirt, and more of it follow as she kneels down. The whole ground around her beginning to glow green. Just a moment or two, before the ground rumbles, and a swift-moving blur erupts out of the patch.
It grows high above her head before it stops, twisting thicker and thicker as it grows upon itself, leafy strands still sliding along its outside length. Evoking an imagery akin to that of a fairy tale. Climb it - and you might find a wondrous new realm in the clouds!
Yet it does not climb nearly that high. Not even high enough to reach all the way up the Brontomelon's neck, though it is perhaps as thick.
"... is I'm very good to have around come harvest time." Eri says at the base of the titanic vine - still holding onto the wooden handle.
Concentrating on her creation, a glimmer of green spreads through her hand and downward into the soil - before upwards again, the beanstalk like vine creaks and groans as it flexes backwards.
And then suddenly it snaps forward with all the strength and speed one might expect of a creation of its size, coming to crash down in a blunt impact meant to slam into it and intercept it's charge with a terrible banana-squishing and ground quaking impact...
...or at least so she hopes.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Eri Shimanouchi has used Footsteps of the Kodama on Pink Moon Stick.
<Pose Tracker> Chitose Shiratori [Infinity Institute (U)] has posed.
Chitose flies up and over the brontomelon just in time to see a yellow circle form, and out steps a giant banana dinosaur, which stops Chitose right in her tracks. "Um..."
And the Rex roars directly at her, the force of the sound actually makes her braid flap in the breeze.
She then stops to clean her glasses, just as the Rex begins to charge at the group. When Chitose gets them back on the Rex continues charging. "Eeep!" She squeaks, and jumps backwards just a little bit, as if that would stop him from charging.
Of course, Chitose adds some extra deterrent, as she points White Omen directly at the dinosaur. Bananasaur? Regardless, she fires directly at its gaping maw, and White Omen does as he does.
<Nightingale's Lament>
And she fires, a beam of light lances out to try and hit the Rex, but right before it does, the beam splits into dozens of smaller beams, which does it best to pierce right directly through the Rex.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Chitose Shiratori has used Nightingale's Lament on Pink Moon Stick.
<Pose Tracker> Steven Universe [Juuban Public School (6)] has posed.
The Velocigrapetors are dealt with thoroughly with a flurry of attacks. They won't be bothering Brontomelon again any time soon. "Yeah, got em!" the boy cheers, seeing them go down. You know, he should be more freaked out that they exploded into fruity innards, BUT they were mean. And also fruit.
"Okay! Maybe NOW we can find out somewhere safe to lead them!" he calls out.
Not a chance.
Perhaps those rumbles Steven felt in combat weren't actually Brontomelon's. Perhaps they belonged to something else. That something else peeks through the magical veil, and makes itself known. "IS THAT A T-REX MIXED WITH A BANANA," Steven says, dumbfounded. "Okay, who dropped a fruit salad in with the dino-cloner?"
He is joking of course. Such a thing doesn't exist. Does it? The learning of so much magic in the world makes him think. Oh, imagine a dinosaur magical girl! That would be radical.
ANYWAY, back on topic. "Okay, I guess uhm...!" He is clueless what to do on this thing. Others have massive and cool attacks to deal with this kind of thing! The only thing he has normally is inside his cat.
-- TOKYO BAY --
A shrill voice can be heard practically across the beach. "Garnet!!! The cat has the Duplicator Wand and is copying lizards! They are everywhere!"
"Well, can't just stand by! Gotta help the big fella!" The boy says, slamming a fist into a palm. And while everyone else does their elegant and devastating attacks, Steven will just take his shield and go WANG the Bananasaurus Rex in the toe with it as hard as he can! "We will save you!"
COMBAT: FINISHER! Steven Universe has used Lionheart on Pink Moon Stick.
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Uranus [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed. <SoundTracker> Neptune and Uranus Violin Theme - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfkLhX-cRKY
Uranus knows just when to shield her face from the splatter. Shaking her glove off, she catches Neptune--not like a princess, but like a skating partner, dispersing her momentum and then holding her up with a hug around her legs and a supporting arm for hers. Setting her down with an elegant sweep, she leans her chin back to see what brontomelon is up to... but it's not time for a break just yet.
Uranus's blood runs cold as she realizes that the velocigrapetors weren't fleeing them. The beast that appears is far more threatening than the bunch had been. But it's just fruit, right? Uranus pushes aside its horrifying appearance. If its texture is like a banana, it won't take much to blow it apart.
"Sailor Mars!" Uranus calls. "I'd rather it be a fried plantain than banana splatter, if you take my meaning?"
But the Bananasaurus takes hit after hit without dropping. It's enough just watching it withstand a Tiro Finale and Kos... Kosmic Kollider? Well, Haruka never studied German. She prefers the more elegant French.
"Splatter seems okay," she decides grimly. "Neptune."
Lilting her wrist down, Uranus lifts her arm straight to the sky before unfurling her palm, ripping a gleaming yellow orb of heavenly energy above her head, where it sputters with power. "WORLD..."
Uranus swings her arm down hard, a combination of throwing a pitch and swinging a hammer. "SHAKING!" The orb, the size of a Tokyo mini-coupe, rips into the fertile earth and through it, churning its way towards the Bananasaurus. It races side-by-side with Neptune's attack, as if racing. But where Uranus's body proved itself in the last race, these attacks come from their souls. Side-by-side, they move in perfect harmony at the exact same blistering speed.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Sailor Uranus has started a combo targeting Pink Moon Stick!
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
Velocigrapetors dealt with, brontomelon calmed --
And a new fruitosaur joins the fray, prompting a brief look of exasperation to cross the Wind Knight's face. Something is *seriously* bizarre out among the fields, but at this point, she can't muster the curiosity to wonder at where these interestingly peculiar creatures are coming from. She's more concerned with locking down any lingering threats - and the Banansaurus Rex definitely counts as a threat. Not exactly a "lingering" one; far more immediate and dangerous.
The Magic Knight of Wind draws her arms up and back, her awareness settling into the gesture in the same manner that the act of drawing her bow serves as its own concise little meditation; in response, a breeze rises about her, tousling her hair, sleeves, and skirt. She's aware - not in the back of her mind, but along one side of it, so to speak - of the brontomelon's attention on her and the others, and its unspoken trust in the group of magical protectors.
She remembers the awe she felt in looking upon the first of the fruitosaurs, and smiles briefly to herself. She doesn't want to let her (or him) down.
"EMERALD CYCLONE!!" calls the Wind Knight, grasping the power of the winds called forth by her magic and flinging them forward in two quick, emphatic sweeps of her arms as if physically casting her spell. And the winds follow her will: the wrath of the tempest erupts in front of her and howls towards the banansaurus, as destructive as any typhoon-borne wind - but focused upon the singular threat that looms over the magical girls and boys.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Fuu Hououji has used Emerald Cyclone: Focused on Pink Moon Stick.
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Mars [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
The velocigrapetors are brought to heel, and through Mami and Eri's efforts, the great and gentle Brontomelon comes to a halt, too.
But it's still scared, a sense at the back of the mind which is undeniable and almost physical in the air.
Sailor Mars doesn't have much time to contemplate why. The 'why' becomes manifest, before her, before the lot of them. Uranus calls for fried plantain, and Sailor Mars nods, sharply, in turn. "I can't say I've ever cooked it before..."
She faces down the Bananasaurus Rex, and all its teeth up to here, which looks to her, for everyone keeping track, certainly girl-sized. "... but there's a first time for everything."
Looking forward, she doesn't see who they're aiming at. Looking forward, she can't really see anything but teeth and teeth and teeth.
There's always a strange sense of serenity, looking down the barrel of a gun. Metaphorically. Literally, there's a gun, but its retort is aimed somewhere else entirely.
Sparkle-glimmer the Bananasaurus Rex came into the world, and so too does Sailor Mars sweep out a circle, flame at the tip of her finger. It is fire which resolves into orbs -- eight in total, marked with the insignia of the Womb Realm. "BURNING..."
Her hands come together and so too do the orbs come to her; as she releases them they lengthen to eight discs, sweeping out to barrage into the open maw of the very hungry fructosaur. "... MANDALA!"
It's a terrifying sight, but she'll be scared once it's over.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Sailor Mars has used Burning Mandala on Pink Moon Stick. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick dodges 51 Fatigue damage from Eri Shimanouchi's Finisher, Footsteps of the Kodama, taking 34 Fatigue damage! Pink Moon Stick's Fade and Flash abilities activate! COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to dodge Chitose Shiratori's Finisher, Nightingale's Lament, taking 30 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to dodge Fuu Hououji's Finisher, Emerald Cyclone: Focused, taking 44 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick braces 44 Fatigue damage from Steven Universe's Finisher, Lionheart, taking 36 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick braces 71 Fatigue damage from Sailor Mars's Finisher, Burning Mandala, taking 58 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Neptune [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.
The quaking impact force of the brontomelon rings in the air, even as Sailor Neptune steps out of the remains of that grapetor. "What does it flee?" Neptune asks the heavens, or Uranus, or both. And then a moment later -
She takes in another sharp breath.
"Nature abhors a vacuum, does it not? When there is prey, then there will in time be predators... even if they should come in this sort of a form."
The Bananasaurus Rex roars its breath, with the scent of ten thousand aged daquiris and the coppery undertone of predation, of suffering, of meat.
The power of musket and Armed Device ring out as Sailor Neptune glances at Sailor Uranus. "Blended fruit is the in thing this season, after all," she murmurs, before she presses her hands together, tilts her head forwards...
She has to push for the strength, a little. Her leg still hurts; she will nurse it later. There is the faint and nagging worry, that thought that always intrudes here... what if this is a blind or a distraction? What if saving these fruit creatures, wonderful as they may be, blind them from the Silence? What if they were some ploy by -
But it can't all be ploys, after all, Neptune tells herself as her eyes open. She raises her arms upwards. "Deep..."
The seas seem to part, or perhaps more truly, to rise. This is the full song which the Dolphin Wave has presaged. The seas gather in tsunami strength, the spirit of the ocean rising as the scent of salt and foam is born on the winds that blow. The energy comes together, swirling, compacting into a glistening aquamarine sphere above her upraised hands.
"Submerge!"
And the sphere sails forth - weaving, orbiting with the power of wind, planets in alignment and harmony, spiralling in their balletic dance towards the great Bananasaur!
And when the time comes, they strike as one, sea and wind together.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Sailor Neptune has joined the combo started by Sailor Uranus! COMBAT: COMBO! FINISHER! Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune have used World Shaking! and Deep Submerge! on Pink Moon Stick. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to brace Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune's Finisher, Combo: World Shaking!, taking 244 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed.
BANANASAURUS REX survives Tiro Finale.
Though there's a rain of yellow and brown scales, and the twin halves of its gaping maw close a little.
It survives Kosmisch Kollidieren, Endo sent glancing off to one side when his impact doesn't stick.
Steven to the other, when he and his shield bounce off the tyrannical toe.
Then it becomes hard to see, behind Eri's vines, and Chitose's converged beam, and the Magic Knight's cyclone. It reappears, having jerked around them to the right, in a couple of footsteps that display an incredible economy of motion, only to be met by the roaring flamespheres of Sailor Mars, and the dual skysea orbs of the Outer Senshi.
There is a feeling of... strain. Like the tug-of-war between a velocigrapetor and Endo, earlier, over Fallen Stern, only on a much, much grander scale, and for (no offense to Stern) much, much higher stakes.
And then there is another feeling. It's the one everyone has felt, now, twice before, perhaps thrice. It's like a little too much sugar, too deep inside the teeth. It's like a buzz in the stomach -- distinct from the one from the TERROR, of course, which lives in many a tummy right at the moment (not least Brontomelon, who is hiding its head beneath its neck, tucked around and away).
It's a strange magic, isn't it? But it's rising, from wherever it's come.
An inch at a time, BANANASAURUS REX is pushed backwards, not through the watermelon patch, but through another portal.
When the final, massive explosion of combined energies comes and goes, one can just see, through the smoke and the steam and the soily debris, the closing halves of the circle, the sparkles fading out of existence as inexplicably as they came.
But they closed around a creature whose visible eye was OPEN.
And enraged.
The pins-and-needles don't abate, even after the last hint of the great beast's passage has vanished.
Now flecks of radiance are rising, like fog above still waters, around Brontomelon. Who is calmer, now, and unweaving itself from its frightened little knot. It holds its head up high... then bends at the neck to bring it low. To bring it to girl-level.
There's just enough time to say goodbye.
<Pose Tracker> Steven Universe [Juuban Public School (6)] has posed.
While Steven's effort may have been smaller than others, the effort was a united front to protect this precious giant beast. Who only wanted to eat some flowers! THe tension hangs in the air, even as that mysterious force arrives and comsumes the REX, senting it elsewhere. Though the staring eye is disconcerting at the very least.
"We did it everyone!" the boy shouts, jumping all around. "Okay! There is no more coming right? Like a pineapple triceratops or anything?"
A look around. Nothing. Well actually something does happen. The magic is reaching for Brontomelon too. "Oh... he is leaving...?" A small lipwibble. "Well uh, listen up, fella! Um... stay away from banana trees for a bit. Just an idea!" He starts to reach to pet Brontomelon, but is jsut too nervous, but even the attempt makes him giddy. "Goodbyeeeee!" he says, waving his new plant-like friend goodbye.
"I don't know about you guys, but boy am I ready to cut out of here now, I am exhausted!"
---
"Three Melons please. Seeded, if possible!" Steven, covered still in stains and pulp from the event, is at a table, picking up a few melons. He will have one in fond memory of Brontomelon. Actually, that feels a little weird. Eating something to remember another thing that was alive with... eh.
Steven's overthinking it. THe important part is he will be able to go home and enjoy these in the peace and quiet around his house, spitting seeds for fun, far, far away from these magical shenanigans for a day.
<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
Eri goes bug-eyed as it outright survives Tiro Finale, and even as the rest of them pour it on... she never imagined a Banana to be that sturdy. It's a struggle until the end, when the final massive explosion sends it thorugh the portal. That final glimpse of the eye is a little haunting.
It's like that image in a horror movie that just stays with you.
Her twisted giant mass of vines disappear in a glimmer of sparkles, and as she extracts her whip from the ground, it's as if it had never been. Simply that original whip is there. And as she turns, she looks up at the creature with a smile. The flecks of radiance rise.
It's hard to believe someone like her is capable of saving anything anymore, in that twisted gnarl of cynicism that had taken root within her.
It's like reconnecting to a part of herself that she thought was gone - or at least faded away.
She doesn't say any of that though. Not as the creature brings itself low, down to their level, and she places a hand against its snout. There's a tiny motion, a stroke of her hand.
"You're beautiful. As lovely as any flower fairy or forest guardian."
She remembers lonely awkward younger her, in a garden, talking to flowers - imagining them listening. That there being something there. Anything that might listen. Anything that might find what she had to say interesting.
She doesn't say - that when she was new, this is the kind of thing she hoped being a Magical Girl is about.
Maybe it isn't what it always is.
But maybe it still can be sometimes.
For her.
She inhales through her nostrils, trying not to keep her eyes from misting up, as she forces them shut, still continuing the tiny motion with her hand, "A true miracle. I'm glad... I got to see something like you. Glad."
The hand slides away, and her eyes flutter back open, and she gives it a shy smile, as she steps back from it. "Stay safe out there... survive." She adds, because it's world seems like a very harsh place, if things like those Velocigrapetors and Bananasaurus Rexes exist. "And if I ever see you again."
Lacing her fingers in front of her, she smiles, and doesn't feel ashamed of it, "Promise I'll pick you another bouquet."
