2024-08-18 - The Labyrinth Reloaded

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The Labyrinth Reloaded
Summary:

Starting mid-fight with Lord Moebius, the magical girls continue their foray into the high-tech realm of Labyrinth, in pursuit of the Fresh Pretty Cure and their fairy Chiffon, who is being used to control the many other magical worlds -- including our own!

Who:

Setsuna Higashi, Lera Camry, Endo Naoki, Mikoto Minagi, Nagisa Misumi, Honoka Yukishiro, Kyouka Okazaki

GM: Pink Moon Stick

Where:

Dark Realms

OOC - IC Date:

8/18/2024 - 6/17/16 

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+ Dark Realms +*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*
  Light cannot exist without darkness, nor darkness without the light, or so    
  some claim. Whether the Dark Realms are simply the Fairy Realms through a     
  mirror darkly is difficult to ascertain, but it's undeniable that some        
  realms in either domain lack an obvious counterpart in the other. Certainly   
  the ceaseless war between bright virtue and dark evil gives little heed to    
  the notion that ultimate victory is impossible.                               
                                                                                
  Indeed, a given realm of darkness will often commit itself solely to          
  extinguishing the light forever. With names like Minor Land, Labyrinth and    
  Dark Kingdom, perhaps that isn't all that surprising. Endless plains beneath  
  a midnight sky lit only by bolts of violet lightning harbor armies of         
  strange creatures, or yet stranger war machines. If there is water, it is     
  brackish, tainted. The air itself stabs lungs like a superheated knife. Some  
  denizens of the Dark Realms claim that they're trying to transform the        
  entire universe into worlds like their own, but colonizing more pleasant      
  environments might be sufficient motivation alone.                            
                                                                                
  Black, too, has shades; there are many dark wastelands, but also dark         
  cities, dark oceans, dark forests, dark deserts, dark skies. Some are even    
  possessed of a loveliness all their own; as beautiful as it is deadly, with   
  shadowy landscapes that mesmerize before they surprise. No matter how         
  populous, all are pervaded by a sense of emptiness, of absence, masked at     
  times by swirling rage or despair, but never erased.                          
COMBAT: Kyouka Okazaki transforms into Barrier Jacket Fang!
COMBAT: Endo Naoki transforms into Barrier Jacket Zerstörer!
COMBAT: Lera Camry transforms into Barrier Jacket Dynamic!
COMBAT: Nagisa Misumi transforms into Cure Black!
COMBAT: Nagisa Misumi has loaded her saved combat state! She is now ready to take on 1 opponent!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro transforms into Cure White!
COMBAT: Cure White has loaded her saved combat state! She is now ready to take on 1 opponent!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has loaded her saved combat state! She is now ready to take on 10 opponents!
COMBAT: Kyouka Okazaki has loaded her saved combat state! She is now ready to take on 1 opponent!
COMBAT: Cure Passion transforms into Cure Passion!
COMBAT: Cure Passion has loaded her saved combat state! She is now ready to take on 1 opponent!
COMBAT: Endo Naoki has loaded his saved combat state! He is now ready to take on 1 opponent!
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi transforms into HiME Mikoto!
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has loaded her saved combat state! She is now ready to take on 1 opponent!

<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed.

<SoundTracker> A Hard Fight - Fresh OST Continues To Kick Ass - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQkPnt_Ga8o

PREVIOUSLY ON BATTLE FANTASIA

The magical girls travel to the high-tech realm of Labyrinth, Setsuna Higashi's birthplace, to rescue her teammates and also the fairy Chiffon, aka Infiniti, aka the Belkan vault of stolen Hearts of Magic, whose extraordinary powers are now being misused by Lord Moebius to seize every magical world... including Earth.

After a harrowing trek across a city totally regimented by submission to the will of Lord Moebius (where, among other encounters, they meet a little kid and bribe them with chocolate), the group makes it to a massive central tower which was NOT there when Setsuna was a kid, and which pretty obviously must contain Chiffon and whatever technology is being used to control her. However, there's a welcoming committee out front: Setsuna and Mikoto's former comrades Soular and Westar, and Lord Moebius himself, who, for their past failures to stop these invaders, deletes both of them before everyone's very eyes.

NOW

"They trusted you!" cries Setsuna -- Cure Passion, whose fist slams into Lord Moebius' robes. There isn't much to see, but she does feel her knuckles dent his extremely hard skin underneath.

"I trusted you," responds Lord Moebius, after the slightest pause, as though he has to process what has just happened, the reality that the former Eas has flashed right past all his defenses to strike him solidly. "I, who gave you life and purpose. I, who served as your Mother and Father both!"

Lera chops down with a fiery Soaring Sky, less successfully -- Pretty Cure has taught him a valuable lesson about underestimation, and so he brings up his bare hand and catches the very corona as it crashes down with hardly a grunt. His too-pale skin does not even sizzle. It is a puissant display.

Then he swings, using Sky as an axis to pivot on, sharply avoiding the worst of Fate's Sprite Zanber. He lets go at just the right moment, leaving her crackling yellow energy to singe at his robes -- less impervious than his body, it seems -- but little more.

"'They were supposed' to do this and that? Childish nonsense," scoffs Lord Moebius. "Duty is not a question of value. I am Lord Moebius, Lord of All Worlds, and all shall serve me because there is no alternative."

Again his arm snaps out -- he braces Fallen Stern above the elbow, almost like a clash of blades. There is contact, and then pressure, and then release. "Yes," he agrees. "They were mine. I created them, and now I have deleted them."

He swirls out of Mikoto's way with a long look at the screaming berserker. "This one, too, is a fundamentally flawed tool. I do not think it will be long before she suffers a similar fate. Likely I would be thanked for cleaning up this mess myself."

La Sirene's words, and Les Mysteres' silverdark energies, pour over him both; neither seem to find much purpose. And to her and Kyouka's point, he says something a little bit odd: "Why would it matter that they were people? 'People' are just another kind of data."

Kyouka clips him while he's contemplating this; like Passion, she feels the way that his shoulder fails to give, as it ought to, against the force of her foot and energy. As she explodes backwards against his implacable self, that asymmetry is stark.

Cure Black, propelled by Cure White, feels it too, only about a hundred times. Some of her punches catch only robe. But most of them land, and it's like punching a wall. He is as massive and mighty beneath her knuckles as the Tower itself.

Tarte, Azukina and Baptiste are kept safe by Clara's shield. The ferrets' expressions are terrible as they witness the summary execution of two of their oldest foes, and even moreso when Lord Moebius' counterattack takes an unexpected form:

"Enough of this unsightly display," he rumbles.

With an almost dismissive gesture, he summons not another red Delete Hole but a gray portal that sizzles with television-like static. Rather than suck the group into it, it goes to them, rising upward from below -- and then they're gone, Lord Moebius himself included.

"Oh no!" cries Azukina. "What should we do?"

Tarte looks frantically for everyone -- sees nothing but endless city and sky -- and then sees a pair of curious eyes peeking at him from around a corner. A second ago, of course, what they were staring at was the battle.

"Y'all," he addresses his mascot counterparts, "I think... we need to do what we do best: ask for help."

---

There's a moment of horrible, deafening white noise as space warps around the group --

-- and then they find themselves in a vast, dark space. A few dim lights against a very broad curvature suggest that perhaps they have been brought inside the Tower. Like a double helix, there are two sets of stairs soaring upwards, into nothingness.

"What you resist is only the deepest yearnings of your own heart," says Lord Moebius, but not from his mouth; he is gone, and his voice comes from everywhere, an acoustically shattering echo. It almost feels like hearing a giant speak from inside his throat. "Humans yearn to be controlled, because deep down, they know the truth... more than anything, the greatest sorrows of the world are created by their own choices."

A beat.

"See for yourselves," he says...

...and there, high, high above, many spirals of staircase up, is Love Momozono. She appears to be unharmed, her Juuban uniform freshly pressed. A little too fresh, actually; she's not exactly Miki when it comes to fashion.

Her eyes are not gray and they are not empty; they are her own, pink and lovely and full of... scorn. There's a terrible intent behind them.

"Everything for Lord Moebius," she declares, before thrusting her palms straight downward. A Data Diamond appears between them -- black -- and a massive, monstrous force threatens to slam everyone to the floor. It's like everyone is on the receiving end of a cyclone. No. It's like she just flipped a switch and gravity increased a thousandfold. No. It's like being stepped on by that same giant.

It's like all of that, and worse.

"You will learn your place, as I have!" she shouts down the shaft. "Defiance can only hurt you! Surrender -- or else!"

With an arcane gesture of her hand, reality seems to warp around the staircases, and between them. One becomes icy, with a great many sharp stalagmites. The other becomes an ever-shifting sand dune that must be climbed. Between them, a jungle filled with thick vines, rotten smells, and slithering dangers. There is no path to her, even by flight, that will be easy. 

COMBAT: Lera Camry has loaded her saved combat state! She is now ready to take on 1 opponent!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Data Diamond Blast on Cure White.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Data Diamond Blast on Cure Black.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Data Diamond Blast on Cure Passion.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Data Diamond Blast on Endo Naoki.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Data Diamond Blast on Kyouka Okazaki.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Data Diamond Blast on Lera Camry.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Data Diamond Blast on Mikoto Minagi.
COMBAT: Cure Passion fails to brace Pink Moon Stick's Data Diamond Blast, taking 35 Fatigue damage!  Stun applied to Cure Passion!
COMBAT: Endo Naoki braces 21 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Data Diamond Blast, taking 9 Fatigue damage!  Endo Naoki's
Block and Parry abilities activate!  Stun applied to Endo Naoki!
COMBAT: Lera Camry cleanly braces 28 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Data Diamond Blast, taking 5 Fatigue damage!  Lera
Camry's Block and Parry abilities activate!  Stun applied to Lera Camry!
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi braces 21 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Data Diamond Blast, taking 9 Fatigue damage!  
COMBAT: Cure Black braces 20 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Data Diamond Blast, taking 16 Fatigue damage!  Cure Black's
Block and Parry abilities activate!  Stun applied to Cure Black!
COMBAT: Cure White braces 21 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Data Diamond Blast, taking 17 Fatigue damage!  Stun applied to
Cure White!

<Pose Tracker> Cure Passion [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.

Moebius's response hurts more than the impact of fist on hard skin by far. Passion hesitates for an instant, before through tight lips she says, "...That's true. I betrayed you first. But only because you didn't understand! There's so much you don't understand!"

But maybe... Just maybe, she can explain. Maybe, in some way...

"Don't talk about her that way!" Passion snaps of Mikoto anyway. And sudenly--A gray portal rises to them, and Passion disappears into it. It is deafening, the way space warps around her--but then she sees it. Two sets of stairs, and... That echo. The way that humans--

"I..." Passion has no answer at first. How is she to know what humans really want, and don't want? But until high above, Love Momozono is there, and she makes her declaration. Passion's eyes widen in shock--and horror. "LOVE!" Passion calls, and she is defenseless against the force that comes next. She slams to the ground immediately, her defenses battered through her shock, and she stays down for a long few moments, in despair. But...

"...That's not..."

Passion's hand curls into a fist, and she pushes herself upright, first off the ground, then to her feet. "That's not what Love wants!" Passion calls. "She hates being controlled! She'll do the opposite just because she can!"

"I don't..."

Her expression is tight, "I don't know what humans want. I've never... I've never been good at understanding them."

She looks up. "But it's not what I want, either! The feelings Earth showed me..."

"It won't be the first time I've fought Love! And it won't be the last! Because I care about her!"

Passion leaps for the icy staircase, and begins jumping up, up, up, one step after another-- 

COMBAT: Cure Passion has used Rising Passion on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to brace Cure Passion's Rising Passion, taking 9 Fatigue damage!  Cure Passion is Psyched!  

<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.

"You weren't a real father to her!" Lera shouts at Mebius. "Fathers don't see their children as tools." Her eyes narrow; her teeth grit. "And there's always a choice!"

She shouts that, just as the portal of static rises up -- pulling in both the Device Wielders and the Pretty Cure, and Lord Moebius -- and then they're in a dark space. A double helix, with two sets of stairs leading upward. Moebius's voice echoes around them.

And up, above, is Love Momozono. Lera's lips open; she sucks a gasp in. That's a friend up there, even if she's not as close to her as Setsuna.

"Love..."

Then she grits her teeth, as the Data Diamond comes crashing down. "Ground!" she calls out.

<Shield!>

A dome of interlocking hexagons appears, the diamond slamming intoit with a spray of sparks. It knocks her backward, as she looks at Love -- then at the stairs, shifted so, and the vines between them. No easy path. She looks at Passion, with concern, and sees her start leaping.

So she leaps up, and flies at her side, eyes on some of the tangle of vines ahead. "Passion... let's go get her!"

<Terra Breaker!> Broken Ground chimes. A shimmering globe of light yellow light shines around her -- and pulses out, trying to blow back icicles and vines alike as she flies into them. 

COMBAT: Lera Camry has used Terra Breaker on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to dodge Lera Camry's Terra Breaker, taking 63 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  

<Pose Tracker> Endo Naoki [Juuban Public School (12)] has posed.

Endo closes his eyes instinctively when the world crackles and warps, then cracks one of them open to examine his new surroundings. He doesn't have much time to get familiar before a malicious Love is revealed above.

The immense pressure created by her magic threatens to squish them into the ground, and Endo does his best to endure. He plants his weapon to the ground, teeth grinding together as he tries to remain upright.

The knight's gaze flickers toward the stairs, but neither seem an easy option for ascending toward the girl above. The vines aren't either, but Endo decides to make due.

<ASTEROID EILEN.>

With a burst of purple light he launches upward, extending Fallen Stern and using the Device like a patterning ram as he attempts to follow in Lera's wake. Not around, but straight on through. 

COMBAT: Endo Naoki has used Asteroid Eilen on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick braces 33 Fatigue damage from Endo Naoki's Asteroid Eilen, taking 14 Fatigue damage!  Pink Moon Stick's
Block ability activates!
COMBAT: Kyouka Okazaki fails to brace Pink Moon Stick's Data Diamond Blast, taking 39 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Stun applied
to Kyouka Okazaki!

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

A fundamentally... flawed...?

Mikoto staggers, as her momentum carries her far from Lord Moebius, with none of the expected STOP from her blade hitting flesh; he is too fast, too imperious to strike, and what did she expect from the attempt?

"Who'd... thank Lord Moebius...?" Mikoto is shaken from her rage enough to find those words, her swirling melee coming to a horrified halt. It doesn't even have the dignity to be all at once; her foot plants, and her sword turns, and then, shudder-stop, she all but stumbles over her own heels as she can't quite find her next footing. It's an indignity, and she hears Passion speak in her defence --

Even so, she can't correct her lack of momentum before that portal opens up, isn't able to gather the speed to escape before she's swallowed whole.

Still stopped, she looks upwards -- first to try and find where Lord Moebius has gone, and then, with new horror, at the girl she sees there instead. "Love?!" Mikoto doesn't know her well, but how could she not know a girl so important to Setsuna? She cries, "Don't--!!"

Love does, anyway, and Mikoto finds herself crushed against the earth. (If she presses her in deep enough, will she become a chthonic thing again, where she keeps her spires and her stalagmites?) She grunts, as she stabs Miroku into the earth, using her ill blade to lever herself upwards.

"Who cares," she hisses out, through grit teeth, "if Setsuna doesn't know that? No one knows... that's why you ask."

She leaps up, to grasp at one of those icy spires. It shatters, painfully cold beneath her hand, shards sticking to her and dragging at her skin -- but she's already used it as leverage to toss herself further upwards, kicking off another icicle, charging up the staircase as her blade carves texture into the smooth, treacherous climb.

"AND THAT'S WHY YOU GOTTA SAY -- WHAT YOU WANT--! LOVE HEARS, RIGHT?! SETSUNA DOESN'T WANT IT FOR YOU!" 

COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has used Obsidian Blade: Dauntlessness on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick dodges 11 Fatigue damage from Mikoto Minagi's Obsidian Blade: Dauntlessness, taking 17 Fatigue damage!
Mikoto Minagi is Psyched!  Pink Moon Stick's Fade ability activates!

<Pose Tracker> Cure Black [Juuban Public School (11)] has posed.

Cure Black's assault ends when her panting is no longer sufficient to keep up with the air she needs to punch this quickly and this powerfully, and before that deficit saps her too much. With a final bone-jarring overhand punch, she lets the impact knock her away, though whether Moebius's bones are being jarred or just Cure Black's, she is unsure.

"Ah!" The grey static engulfs Black, and for an instant, with a dazed sense of resignation, she thinks this is it. She and White, deleted. She manages to make eye contact with her partner, but lacks any time to feel fear or regret. Then, in transit, she realizes what this actually is--some form of teleportation--and relief cuts through as she realizes she is still in the game. Thankfully, the lack of time to come to terms with having 'died' meant it leaves no real psychological mark, but Black does feel disoriented.

At least until her orientation is... up.

"Love-chan!" Black calls happily to her, waving, a puppy-like delight on her face right up until the moment she gets crushed.

Driven into a deep squat, Black grits her teeth and forces her powerful legs against it, managing to lift her hips past her knees again, a crucial threshold that lets her apply more strength. Under the absurd, unnatural weight, she feels herself withering. But giants have, in fact, stepped on Cure Black before, and not all of them were glad they did. Cure White, at her side, has legs just as strong, and the two of them grasp hands, so that they have four legs instead of two.

"Do you think that we..."

"Will lose to..."

"Gravity?!"

"Heavy stuff?!"

As the pressure fades, the Cure partners blink at each other. Black scuffs the back of her bleached hair with a self-conscious grin.

Then the two begin to bound up the ice staircase. White shatters the first frigid spike with a precise knife-hand at its weakest point, before Black shoulders bodily through the next in a spray of shards. She keeps going in that manner until the impacts slow her enough that White overtakes her, at which point White kicks and punches them apart until she, too, is slowed enough to be overtaken. In this manner they proceed for several flights. But White, too, knows plenty about brute force, and as the floors go by, she begins to solve this problem the same way her partner is: just slamming right through. It's tiring work... but each only has to do half of it, as even if the shards regenerate, the partners are always right on each other's heels. 

COMBAT: Cure White has used Ice, Ice Breaky on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick braces 7 Fatigue damage from Cure White's Ice, Ice Breaky, taking 3 Fatigue damage!  Cure White is
Psyched!  Pink Moon Stick's Block ability activates!
COMBAT: Cure Black has used Stop, Collaborate and Fist-en on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick dodges 13 Fatigue damage from Cure Black's Stop, Collaborate and Fist-en, taking 20 Fatigue damage!
Critical Hit!  Pink Moon Stick's Fade ability activates!

<Pose Tracker> Kyouka Okazaki [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.

Kyouka feels her attack strike true, but there is no give--Mobius is implacable in that way, and there is a frustrated grunt as Kyouka rebounds to ready herself for another attack. "Who gave you the right to decide what value they had?" she shouts back as she flips, lands, and readies herself to attack again. "People are more than just data!"

But she doesn't get the chance to make another action before the static-filled portal snatches her up.

<Kyouka--> starts Clara, who would insist that she is not a mascot but a /familiar/, thankyouverymuch. Her projected thoughts are strained, and perhaps a little distracted trying to keep them safe, rings out. <Grr... Fine. You do that, I'll try to find the others.>

---

They're brought to a dark place, perhaps somewhere inside the tower. Kyouka clamps her hands over her ears in an attempt to drown out Mobius' booming voice.

The greatest sorrows of the world are created by their own choices.

"You're wrong, Mobius! I know what's in my own heart!" She does, in a very real way that many people (thankfully) never get to experience for themselves. But Kyouka will never forget having her Pure Heart taken--or the one who returned it to her. "And our choices can bring us comfort as well as sorrow--and joy, and even love!"

... Perhaps she would reword that, if she had looked upwards before speaking.

"Wait, is that--" She recognizes that uniform, of course, and then the girl. And then the attack comes.

Kyouka thrusts out a hand, Midchildan runes starting to form a barrier between her and the attack. Strike wolf announces, <Defenser Plus-->

But she's still disoriented from the teleportation (and the booming voice), and the attack beats her to her spell, overwhelming her and knocking her from her feet. She falls to her feet, unable to rise as overpowering waves of force pile down on from above. It's agonizing--but she does endure it.

"Ugh..." Kyouka struggles to push herself up to her feet. "Really glad Barrier Jackets are a thing. You holding up okay, buddy?"

<Affirmative. Barrier Jacket integrity holding.>

"Okay, good."

Passion doesn't know what humans want. "That doesn't matter, Passion. Humans, Labyrithians, Midchildans, all those worlds--and even Westar and that other guy! He's threatening everyone. Just focus on what you want. The rest will take care of itself."

She takes a deep breath and sets her stance, concentrating. A ring of midchildan runes form at her feet, and purple energy washes up and over her form.

<Sonic Step.>

She barely has to bend her knees before she blurs into motion, her belt streaking behind her as she charges for the icy staircase. She lashes out with fist and boot to break through any barriers that might be in the way to help her--and her friends--clear a path forward.

"Defiance is the only thing that will save us!" she shouts back. 

COMBAT: Kyouka Okazaki has used Sonic Blitz on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick braces 14 Fatigue damage from Kyouka Okazaki's Sonic Blitz, taking 6 Fatigue damage!  Pink Moon Stick's
Block ability activates!  Stagger applied to Pink Moon Stick!

<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed.

The ice seems slippery, but it isn't cold. That helps Cure Passion in her ascent -- not because the cold might slow her but because rapidly she might gain the confidence that it isn't ice. It is not the first time she has witnessed the qualities of the realm of Labyrinth warping by the will of Lord Moebius; as Eas, she occasionally saw him perform this feat for his own convenience. It is not as simple as an illusion, but it isn't a very real reality, either. The snow on Christmas Eve was colder, though that might be because Passion was so warm at the time.

Lera is here now, as she was there back then. It's not much of a date, of course -- hardly a comparison at all. But there is a little somethin'-somethin' in how she absolutely incinerates icicles approaching her and her girlfriend with a golden globe. She's like a giant will-o-the-wisp. Or the payload of a massive cannon on an unusually non-parabolic trajectory. Either way, anything that tries to get near her and Passion is toast.

In their wake, Mikoto climbs -- leaps -- soars. Miroku is suited for use as a piton, perhaps moreso than the ill blade would like to admit. But then again, there is no question that he, too, is a tool in someone's hand. Carving ice may be beneath him on some spiritual level -- beneath the reason he was born, to shed blood by causing flesh. Yet pride is a choice and it can be taken away. It is not for him to choose.

Strike Wolf, too, is a tool; but though unquestionably Mikoto and Miroku have been through more together than the junior magical girl only recently reunited with her Device, theirs is in some ways perhaps the safer relationship. Not deeper. Just... safer. And there is no question that Kyouka, too, can in unity with her tool, reduce the ice that bars her path to so much diamond dust.

Black and White use each other differently still. Their back and forth interplay has a sort of tidal force to it; ironic that they are not waves upon the sand of the other staircase, but there is sea ice, too, and it cannot withstand being churned against these two rocks.

The floor trembles a little in the way that Cape Canaveral does when a rocket is about to take off, and then Endo is flying and shedding violet light like so much burning atmosphere as he launches upwards. Individually the vines and the like are no match for Fallen Stern, but there are terribly many of them, and quickly he finds himself hovering and hacking and slashing, a slower approach than he might like. Still, continuous forward progress -- and he notices, in the wake of his slice and dice, that what is falling past him is not organic. It is various computer cords and wires...

High above, Love smirks at Passion, a peculiar expression on her sweet face, something no one has ever seen before. It's disturbing. "You're wrong about me," she tells her, while taking shots at her -- at all of them -- with a little more direction.

There are suddenly great icy spikes sprouting with frightening suddenness and proximity; or ice vanishing beneath feet as though in a sudden melt, threatening to send someone plunging to their doom if they don't get clear in time; or air seeming to freeze, or burn, within unsuspecting lungs; the next few layers of vines have thorns.

Love continues, "Isn't this what we fought for? A world without sorrow? There is a bliss to not having to think for ourselves. To being cared for by Lord Moebius. Most of all... to always knowing exactly what to do."

But, once all these obstacles are surmounted, there is Love, upon a platform of energy that glows faintly blue.

She sets her fist into a defensive stance. She is not Pretty Cure right now, but there's a toughness to her all the same that suggests that she can take whatever anyone dares to dish out -- and will punish any weakness brutally. 

COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Environmental Variable on Kyouka Okazaki.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Environmental Variable on Cure Black.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Environmental Variable on Mikoto Minagi.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Environmental Variable on Endo Naoki.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Environmental Variable on Lera Camry.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Environmental Variable on Cure Passion.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Environmental Variable on Cure White.
COMBAT: Cure Passion perfectly dodges 19 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Environmental Variable, taking 0 Fatigue damage!
Critical Dodge!  Cure Passion's Fade and Flash abilities activate!
COMBAT: Lera Camry partially dodges 6 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Environmental Variable, taking 23 Fatigue damage!
Critical Hit!  Lera Camry's Fade and Flash abilities activate!
COMBAT: Cure Black perfectly dodges 24 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Environmental Variable, taking 0 Fatigue damage!
Critical Dodge!
COMBAT: Cure White perfectly dodges 24 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Environmental Variable, taking 0 Fatigue damage!
Critical Dodge!  Cure White's Fade and Flash abilities activate!
COMBAT: Endo Naoki fails to dodge Pink Moon Stick's Environmental Variable, taking 23 Fatigue damage!  Tangle and Trap applied to
Endo Naoki!
COMBAT: Kyouka Okazaki partially dodges 4 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Environmental Variable, taking 17 Fatigue damage!
Kyouka Okazaki's Fade and Flash abilities activate!  Tangle and Trap applied to Kyouka Okazaki!
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi fails to counter Pink Moon Stick's Environmental Variable, taking 23 Fatigue damage!  Tangle and Trap
applied to Mikoto Minagi!
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi's counterattack, Obsidian Blade: Dynamo, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Pink Moon Stick!  

<Pose Tracker> Cure Passion [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.

Lera shouts for her. Setsuna looks to her girlfriend for a moment, as she speaks of 'real' fathers. Setsuna doesn't know, but... She knows that right now, she'd rather be spending time with Keitarou than Moebius. A part of her feels guilty for that all the same.

Lera is right there with her, too. Passion looks at Lera and nods firmly as she keeps jumping. "Together!" she says.

While Mikoto addresses another worry. She only has to ask... Of course. Passion brightens visibly. "Right!" she calls. "I want--"

"I want to go back with Love! With everyone!"

Focus on what she wants, is it? Passion lets it roll in the back of her mind as she punches and kicks her way up.

No, it's not ice; Passion remembers it... Just as she remembers that Christmas Eve, with Lera. Lera being with her makes Passion fight harder, buoys her; what does she want? ...She wants to be here. With Lera, and with the others.

Love smirks at her though. "I'm not," Passion is sure this time. The spikes sprouting around them nearly hit--but Passion darts to the side, and just as a spike surges up into her space--

There's a flash of red light, and she is next to it, instead. This, at least--this she has confidence in.

"I'm not wrong about you... Just like you weren't wrong about me," Passion insists to Love. "Without sorrow--that's not good enough!"

"I never knew 'sorrow' before. It didn't matter." Passion comes to a stop, looking for Lera, meeting her eyes, and then looking to Love in her fighting stance.

"...But thanks to you, I learned happiness. Little kinds and big kinds... With you, with Lera, with the others..."

"I learned so many things that aren't just 'not' sorrow!"

Passion adopts a fighting stance, too, mirroring Love's.

"...I don't need to be told what to do, now. I'll do... the same as you did for me."

"Haaaah--!"

Passion rears her fist back, and suddenly GLOWS brilliantly crimson, and surges towards Love.

"LOVE!!!" 

COMBAT: Cure Passion has used Breaking Through on Pink Moon Stick.

<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.

Lera feels some satisfaction at how Broken Ground and her use their spell to obliterate much of the obstacles coming at both her and Passion. She feels more satisfaction at the knowledge of who is here to help; Endo, following after, Mikoto not far behind, Kyouka and Strike Wolf forcing their way forward, and Cures Black and White here for Passion.

It's a relief, especially here and especially now.

With Love taking the offensive, a circumstance that Lera wishes that Passion didn't have to relive. One of her shots makes the air turn into ice; Lera and her barrier slam into it, flash-melting some of it, until the barrier overloads.

It crackles, then explodes apart.

Ice begins to crash down. Lera yelps; then she zig-zags away from chunks of falling ice, and rises up above it.

She rises up in time to see Passion rushing for Love. "Listen to her, Love!" she says. "We're all doing a lot more than trying to make a world without sorrow! The world's defined by the good things in it... not the bad things it lacks, y'know?"

She doesn't fly in close. Instead, she backs up Passion. She swings Broken Ground forward; the energy field between the clockwork-like sections of the shield glimmer, brightly. Then, dozens and dozens of motes of light explode outward.

They rocket out, in arcs, with a Cure Passion-shaped space in the middle. <Bombadier Cascade!>

Then rain down, in time, with her, like darts hurtling straight for Love to accentuate Passion's punch. 

COMBAT: Lera Camry has used Bombadier Cascade on Pink Moon Stick.

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

How strange that it isn't cold. Mikoto expected it to be; ice ought to be cold, after all.

Besides, the reason they were born... is not the only end they may choose. Mikoto's been trying to show Miroku another way, but...

(Does it really just come down to who's making the choices?)

Passion's choice matters, anyway. She wants to go back -- so of course Mikoto will fight for that. "That happiness is --" she starts, only for an icy spire to erupt, in front of her, and, "-- rrrrRRRGH!" Any denial she might have had about it is cut off by her anger, as she brings Miroku up to cleave through it.

Unfortunately, there was another one, behind her.

"RRG--h," Mikoto chokes on her own rage, as she's battered by the spires, too thick and fast for her to cleave through the lot of them. She does manage to carve herself a path, eventually -- but stopping to fight them has cost her valuable time, and she's late, by the time she hits the jungle. She's forming the rear guard, now.

Will Miroku be any happier cleaving vines instead of ice, she wonders? They are, in a sense, alive.

Well, they should be, anyway. 

COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has used Obsidian Blade: Devastation on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick dodges 11 Fatigue damage from Cure Passion's Breaking Through, taking 17 Fatigue damage!  Cure Passion is
Psyched!  Pink Moon Stick's Fade ability activates!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick braces 18 Fatigue damage from Lera Camry's Bombadier Cascade, taking 15 Fatigue damage!  Pink Moon Stick's
Block ability activates!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick dodges 16 Fatigue damage from Mikoto Minagi's Obsidian Blade: Devastation, taking 11 Fatigue damage!
Mikoto Minagi is Psyched!  Pink Moon Stick's Fade ability activates!  Stagger applied to Pink Moon Stick!

<Pose Tracker> Endo Naoki [Juuban Public School (12)] has posed.

Wires are cut aside but there's so many more, enough to slow Endo's ascent significantly. They tangle and twist, holding fast. "There's nothing caring about that old guy!" Endo shouts back in defiance to Love's claim. "Being sad...and being happy..." The knight gasps out as he strains against the suffocating grip of tendrils that he's caught in, hand raising his device to begin forming a spell as he adds his voice to Passion and Lera's ardent declarations.

"That's just part of being alive! Those are our choices! And I'll NEVER..." A triangular sigil forms, energy pooling at its center.

"...EAT A GRAY BLOB!"

<METEOR STRUM.>

The sphere of energy bursts outward, breaking apart into a dozen small spheres that streak toward Love and detonate in the air nearby. 

COMBAT: Endo Naoki has used Meteor Strum on Pink Moon Stick.

<Pose Tracker> Cure Black [Juuban Public School (11)] has posed.

Cure Black swings around by instinct the moment she feels White, unexpectedly, become more distant rather than closer to her, and that speed means she whirls around to hug her partner before White even drops past the level of her blue-trimmed legwarmers. Black blushes to be holding her partner so suddenly.

"Safe..." she announces in English, just before the stair she is standing on also disappears. Both Cures, their arms trapped by one another, gawk cartoonishly at the absence of floor for an instant. Then, as they drop, White manages to snag a hand on the remaining stair-material.

Both sigh with relief at the same time.

"Sankyu," Black says appreciatively, in something... like English.

Tossed up easily with just one of White's arms, Black gives her a hand up in turn, and then they are off again, constantly dodging holes in the stairs. At one point, they hit a gap they cannot quite jump under their own power, and so Black tosses White for the extra momentum. Then, taking a running start, she manages, not to clear the jump, but to make it close enough that White's extended arm can reach her extended arm.

At the top of the stairs, the two halt, as Black's face falls, unhappy with what she sees.

"Love-chan..." The pink heart on her fist creaks softly as her fist tightens. "Moebius! What did you do to her?" Glancing at Cure Passion from behind, she notes the strategy that she is taking, and emulates it. But with the controlled-yet-wide-field bombing attacks from Lera and the wild blade of Mikoto swinging, Black hesitates to make herself--and especially White, who tends to fight even closer--an impediment to their allies. Turning around, she drives her hands into the top stair of the staircase, plants her legs, and starts heaving. Unfortunately, among the many flaws of Labyrinth society, poor architecture does not seem to be one of them, and the stair seems at risk of breaking in the middle before it can be torn free.

"Huwaito," Black requests. And with a stomp of a pretty white boot, the stair is suddenly, entirely loose on one side.

With a groan of effort, Black rips the rest of the stair free, and hoists it above her head. Taking a running start, she hops the last two steps on the same foot, twists her body, and fires off a hard throw, sending the long, heavy stair through the air like a javelin.

"As expected of Cure Passion!" she calls. "Show her your feelings!" 

COMBAT: Cure White has used Mighty Stomp on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick braces 6 Fatigue damage from Endo Naoki's Meteor Strum, taking 5 Fatigue damage!  Endo Naoki is Psyched!
Pink Moon Stick's Block ability activates!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick neatly dodges 16 Fatigue damage from Cure White's Mighty Stomp, taking 4 Fatigue damage!  Pink Moon
Stick's Fade ability activates!  Diversion applied to Pink Moon Stick!
COMBAT: Cure Black has used Mighty Red-Faced Lift on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick braces 17 Fatigue damage from Cure Black's Mighty Red-Faced Lift, taking 25 Fatigue damage!  Pink Moon
Stick's Block ability activates!

<Pose Tracker> Kyouka Okazaki [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.

Kyouka insisted once--upon their first meeting--that she and Strike Wolf should be partners. Not just User and Device (or User and Tool, as it may happen.) That she wanted to respect Strike Wolf's wishes, too. Even when those wishes meant that Strike Wolf had to leave her for a time.

But then they reunited again anyway--first momentarily, and now permanently. And Kyouka is a lot more certain of the path forward, too.

It's with all of her new friends.

But it's not easy going up the icy staircase. For one, it doesn't stay as static as ice, with spikes appearing, and disappearing, and heat--Kyouka is fast, in this state, but the power they face is enormous, and with only a single staircase to navigate with...

An ice spike here, air boiling there--all she can do is to try and weave through it, rely on Strike Wolf's protection to protect her lungs, but by the time she reaches the top she definitely looks worse for the wear, frozen rind sticking to parts of her body and making it hard to move properly.

"Being cared for by Moebius? You mean like how he deleted those two guys for failing him one two many times? Yeah, that's not the kind of world I wanna live in. Life is making choices, for good or bad--the answer to sorrow is to surround yourself with those who'll lift you up, or to reach out to someone in need. It's not to let someone make the choices for you!"

She snaps an arm out to shake off a piece of ice, and then in the next instant is surging forward once more. Her fist glows with a bright light as she swings in her attack, and the energy explodes on contact to add to the impact. 

COMBAT: Kyouka Okazaki has used Lunar Impact on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick braces 28 Fatigue damage from Kyouka Okazaki's Lunar Impact, taking 12 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!
Pink Moon Stick's Block ability activates!

<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed.

Love jukes to the side of Passion's blow, both literally -- the punch leaves shockwaves that flatten her cheek strangely around her lips -- and conversationally.

"This is what was done to you...?" she muses, which makes no sense at all.

She crosses her forearms in front of her in a great big X to withstand the arc explosions of Lera's many darts, and does so like a champ. There's something a little odd about her uniform, though. Several of those darts went straight through it, and yet afterwards, no damage. Visually it's almost as though they clipped through, in a low frame rate sort of way.

Endo Makes His Choice. His spheres pepper Love while she's still mid-brace, and just like the darts they don't seem to do much. Kyouka lands more heavily, though, and sends Love skidding back on impact.

Mikoto and Miroku bring up the rear. The vines, she finds, are whippy, and Miroku is big -- it takes longer to clear them than she might hope. But she is reunited with the others in the end, just in time to see something stranger still than the sights thusfar of this bizarro tower:

Cure Black's thrown staircase soars through the air.

Love, momentarily off-balance from the force of Kyouka's attack, gets knocked down -- vanishing beneath the steps entirely. THUD.

Then, an explosion: KABOOM.

It's Miki Aono who gets back up again.

She brushes off her Infinity Institute uniform skirt blandly. Contempt suits her patrician features a little bit more naturally than Love's, but only barely. She, too, is a very kind person at heart.

"Enough of this illogical nonsense," she declaims. "In the worlds I control, there will be no sadness, conflict or despair. This is clearly better for everyone."

Her eyes narrow -- and, form shivering, she is suddenly Inori Yamabuki. It is in the gentlest of all voices that Lord Moebius declares:

"If you choose defiance... then I choose deletion."

Raising her arms, "Buki" summons the same red lightning sphere that Lord Moebius did only minutes ago to execute Soular and Westar. This time rather than suck people in, it seems to go to them, in great, terrible bolts. A single touch is not fatal, but too much of this energy would surely disintegrate anything.

Buki cackles as it pours across the platform, erasing the floor from existence an arc at a time. Soon there will be nowhere to run -- a decisive moment. 

COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Deletion Protocol on Kyouka Okazaki.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Deletion Protocol on Cure Black.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Deletion Protocol on Endo Naoki.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Deletion Protocol on Mikoto Minagi.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Deletion Protocol on Lera Camry.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Deletion Protocol on Cure Passion.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Deletion Protocol on Cure White.
COMBAT: Cure White braces 23 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Deletion Protocol, taking 19 Fatigue damage!  
COMBAT: Lera Camry fails to brace Pink Moon Stick's Deletion Protocol, taking 63 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  
COMBAT: Lera Camry covers Cure Passion for Pink Moon Stick's attack, Deletion Protocol, taking it upon herself instead!
COMBAT: Lera Camry braces 23 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Deletion Protocol, taking 34 Fatigue damage!  Lera Camry is
unable to keep fighting!  Lera Camry's Block and Parry abilities activate!
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi fails to dodge Pink Moon Stick's Deletion Protocol, taking 51 Fatigue damage!  

<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.

"What the--"

Lera's voice catches, as she spots Miki Aono rise from the explosion. Not Love Momozono. Her eyes narrow; when she speaks, it starts to dawn on her. While she changes into Buki, she finally realizes.

"Mobius!" she cries out. "That's Mobius! PASSION! LOOK OUT!"

Lera goes flying in. She zips in towards her, a trail of golden light left in her wake -- it zig-zags, snaking as she does. The bolts of red lightning slam into her, smashing against her Barrier Jacket. Sparks erupt; red flashes of light explode off her.

She pushes through those explosions, coat dirted, sidebraid flying backward, and her Barrier Jacket crackling.

She throws up another barrier as she flies in front of Passion. The barrier -- interlocked hexagons of pale green light -- shatters, before the lightning slams into her.

There's an explosion of electricity. Lera goes flying, sharply,to the side -- and smashes into the ground far below, with an unceremonious thud. 

COMBAT: Endo Naoki decisively counters 48 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Deletion Protocol, taking 16 Fatigue damage!  Endo
Naoki's Reverse and Tactician abilities activate!
COMBAT: Endo Naoki's counterattack, Machtiger Schild, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Pink Moon Stick!  
COMBAT: Endo Naoki covers Kyouka Okazaki for Pink Moon Stick's attack, Deletion Protocol, taking it upon himself instead!
COMBAT: Endo Naoki braces 53 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Deletion Protocol, taking 43 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!
Endo Naoki's Block and Parry abilities activate!
COMBAT: Cure Black braces 29 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Deletion Protocol, taking 24 Fatigue damage!  Cure Black's
Block and Parry abilities activate!

<Pose Tracker> Endo Naoki [Juuban Public School (12)] has posed.

Endo watches Love go down and Miki arise. There's a moment of confusion, but Lera's call clears it up pretty fast.

"Lera!" Endo calls, eyes widening as his friend goes careening off. There's not much time to do anything about it, the red spheres bearing down on himself and the rest of his companions.

With a strained hiss he rips himself free of the tangle of wires he's caught in, lunging toward the nearest person in danger; Kyouka.

<MACHTIGER SCHILD.>

A Belkan triangle springs burns to life, and a dome of ugly orchid forms to intercept the oncoming red sphere. Power crackles and burns across the barrier, eating into the defensive magic and crackling across Endo's barrier jacket.

It is unpleasant. Agonizing, even. All of his hairs stand on end. But the red lightning don't breach any further behind Endo, and when the boy collapses to a knee he's still got enough life in him to wheeze:

"Haaa...go ahead, Kyouka-chan." He'll need a moment before he joins her. 

<Pose Tracker> Cure Passion [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.

Setsuna knows, of course; this isn't what Love would really want, or feel. She is certain of that. It's only how she's been enchanted to feel. Made to feel.

Except it isn't that, after all.

Mikoto fights for the happiness she mentions; Lera reaches out to her sister. And Passion keeps fighting. Endo...

Passion isn't sure why Endo knows about the gray blobs, but the choices he wants to defend--she does, too.

"I will!" Passion promises Cure Black of her feelings.

Conversationally, 'Love' wonders at what was done to her. And there is something strange in that shockwaave.

But Miko Aono--

"Miki!?" Passion starts, but what she doesn't see is what Lera warns her about. Miki's features... they aren't like that, either. Illogical nonsense, 'she' says, Buki.

Terrible bolts crackle, and Lera shields her. "LERA!" Passion cries, and then she realizes the truth. Of course it's Moebius. It was him all along.

"...Love would never say such things," Passion says, looking for a moment towards the space where Lera must have fallen--has to have fallen--and then back to the cackling 'Buki'. "...It was Lera," Passion says, "Who got me to finally understand. What I wanted. What I was doing. I didn't think there was anything left for me, after that. I thought... that leaving Labyrinth meant giving up everything."

"Until Love reached out to me anyway. In our last battle... She gave me something precious. She gave me 'family'. Miki and Buki, too, showed me what it was like to have 'friends'. To spend time with them... It made me happy."

She looks to Mikoto, who already understands, has all along. What she's said to her...

"...Without any of them, I wouldn't be here now. The happiness they showed me... The 'love' Love showed me how to feel. The 'hope' Miki taught me to see... the 'faith' Buki always had in me..."

"And the 'love' I have for Lera, too."

"I'll show you the power of these feelings, Lord Moebius. Maybe... Maybe you'll finally understand."

She breathes in. "I know I wouldn't be anywhere if not for you. The terrible things you've done.... I believe that... That you just don't understand what the other worlds have seen. You're doing your best--but people, not just humans, need more than lacking sorrow."

"So..."

"Sing! Rhapsody of happiness!" Passion calls out, and lifts her hand. "Passion Harp!"

Cure Passion lifts the Harp and lights the strings, giving then a downward stroke as she has so many times. The double heart andornment atop the beautiful instrument lights up, and a flurry of feathers surrounds her all at once. "...Rage, O storm of happiness!"

She stsarts to spin, and energy hearts surge up with the feathers, red and pink. SHe twirls, and twirls, and twirls, calling, "Pretty Cure! Happiness..."

She stops sharply--and lifts the harp on high. The hearts and feathers and power all surge towards 'Buki', towards Lord Moebius himself, in a torrent of deep emotion.

"HURRICANE!"

Cure Black and White, who supported her for so long; Kyouka, a newer friend, but still precious. Endo, ever-reliable. And Mikoto, who understands her like no one else. Lera, who loves her, who shielded her, who must be all right.

They are all here. It must be enough. 

COMBAT: FINISHER! Cure Passion has used Pretty Cure Happiness Hurricane on Pink Moon Stick.

<Pose Tracker> Cure Black [Juuban Public School (11)] has posed.

Cure Black dusts her hands, but there is no satisfaction in her expression as she watches the dust rise from the rubble she just dropped (or rather, created) atop Love. When Miki Aono rises instead, the fist she had begun to raise drops in confusion, and she gives two big blinks.

"There were two of them," she informs White grimly.

White patiently says that there were not.

"This again," Black grits her teeth as the red lightning comes out. White says her partner's name. Black says her partner's name, too. And, setting a foot back to brace themselves, they cross their in front of themselves, tucking their heads against this shield.

There is less force to it than Black expected, but the energy, by square centimeter, is more powerful than most any Black has had directed at her before. Her voice rises, at first in a martial sort of shout, and, as the lightning burns through her armlets and shoulderpads, increasingly in more of a direct wail. Scraps of black raiment incinerate slowly, reluctantly, leaving Black's own body to accept the rest of the red energy. Just when she drops to a knee to try and bear up through the rest, it finally cuts off, leaving her forehead soaked with sweat and curving burn-weals across her tawny forearms.

"Huwaito," she checks, vocally and with her eyes. And ascertaining her partner is okay, she exhales.

"That's not really Buki," she informs White grimly. "...um, is it?"

White agrees this time.

"That's not Buki," Black continues. "But it's between us and her."

When Black and White join the fray, their palms, boots, and fists are the percussion that keeps the beat for Passion's voice, as she recounts her past, shares her feelings, and announces her sincere intentions. Though Black and White would not hesitate to smash in "Buki's" face if they had to, both share a secret relief that they do not. Instead, they harry her, pen her in, lock her in what feels like a cage of rock-hard, hostile limbs. Whatever blow Buki aims at Black is an opening for White to lock the joint of her other arm. But when she grips White by the wrist or hair to try to dislodge her, Black captures the shoulder she needs to finish it, and White slips away unharmed. Back and forth they attack and recede, until Black is trying to seal in a headlock, and White has one of Buki's legs caught out with her knee and is fighting for control of her elbow. They might not be able to fully lock down Moebius. But they are using the full coordination of their teamwork to hold him still. 

COMBAT: Cure Black has started a combo targeting Pink Moon Stick!
COMBAT: Cure White has joined the combo started by Cure Black!
COMBAT: COMBO! Cure Black and Cure White have used Taijitu Taijutsu on Pink Moon Stick.

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

Out of everything, it's Endo's insistence -- he'll NEVER eat a GREY BLOB -- which brings Mikoto the most determination, as she keeps carving upwards.

What's on the line -- it's ramen, too--!!

But when Love wonders at what was done to Setsuna -- it doesn't make no sense. No: it makes perfect sense, from where she's standing right now, to talk about the impacts of Tokyo as what was done.

She remembers, too.

And she remembers vines as whips, a memory which might explain why she makes her way through, though the others have already cleared the jungle. There's a partnership in her heart which can't be chased away so easily -- even now the rules have changed, and the dynamics, too. Those vines do not remind her of sorrow; to her, they echo pragmatic determination.

Only to see -- "Stair?" Mikoto stares, wide-eyed, and cheers: "Black! Black! Black!"

With Kyouka's kaboom, Miki Aono... gets up. And then --

"'Bu...ki?"

They share Animal Care Club together; 'Buki had welcomed Mikoto with open arms, when she finally opened her heart enough to join a club, instead of forming a club of one in her constant, soul-rending search. They walk dogs together, and care for the stray cats, even though all the shopkeeps are so critical of their crates. She just went in and fed them all... this morning, and...

'Buki... wants her to be... deleted?

It's Lera who snaps her out of her stunned feelings, screaming out who that really is, that form changing right in front of her lying eyes. (She can't trust them, these days.) "Uh!" Mikoto cries, as she leaps aside, rolling harshly against the ground as she tries to get away from that horrific bolt. She's not quite able to outrun it -- but it matters that she tries, matters that she makes the effort to save herself from the inevitable.

"Endo!" She cries, as she picks herself up, and looks back. "Lera--!!"

She grasps Miroku tightly, teeth grit, as she listens to Setsuna trying to reach Lord Moebius. She can't deny her that; she has words just like them, trapped in the jagged black-glass shards of her heart.

She understands... all too well.

And perhaps it's for the sake of Setsuna's feelings that when Mikoto charges, she doesn't swing with all her might, with power to split a ship in twain. She leashes her anger; she tries, still, to control herself. She doesn't want to kill him; she wants him to listen.

She can still hear herself screaming, though.

"RRrrrrRRRAAAAHHHHHH--!!" 

COMBAT: FINISHER! Mikoto Minagi has used Obsidian Blade: Deontology on Pink Moon Stick.

<Pose Tracker> Kyouka Okazaki [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.

Kyouka feels the attack land solidly and darts back to reposition herself for another strike. There's something odd, though, about the way attcks seem to clip through--and then the image they've been fighting changes into two other girls in turn.

And then there's a staircase just casually thrown into the mix. That... happened. Kyouka blinks.

Memo to self: test the strength limits of her henshin.

If they choose defiance-- "Every time."

More of those spheres. Crap.

Strike Wolf has some advise in that implacably calm way of his. <Caution: Danger level high.>

"Yeah, I got that--" Kyouka is already darting back, though movement is going to get tricky if she can't find a solid enough footing to launch a counter-attack.

She can't fly, after all.

Lera goes to save her girlfriend, but is sent flying by the impact. "Lera!" Dammit. To go down now, of all times--she wants to go check on her friend, but she has herself to worry about first. Case in point, in the moment she looks to her fallen friend, one of those red orbs is coming for her--

And the ever-sturdy Endo comes to her aid, interposing himself between her and the attack. Kyouka still throws an arm in front of herself, instinctively, but she lowers it again when she realizes she isn't feeling any of that attack.

"Endo-kun...!" She grins a little, despite the grim circumstances. "I can always count on you."

He'll need a moment. "We gotcha." She steps in front of Endo, taking up a stance once again.

She sticks her right fist out, bracing it with her left as a circle of Midchildan symbols spring up beneath her feet. Her fist starts to glow with a purple-tinged moonlight as she gathers power, brighter and brighter. Winds rush inwards, whipping around her as she draws everything in.

She thinks of her friend, Cure Passion, the first person who saw how alone she was and reached out. Who once had a path set for her, but chose her own way. Who died, only to be brought back by some miracle that Kyouka will probably never understand but is grateful that is possible.

"The world isn't a logical place, Mobius. And if you control everyone, you'll deny them the chance to grow, and change. Everyone has their own quirks, their own uniqueness, and all you want to do is to strip that all away. To make everyone uniform so you don't have to get to know them--to learn what makes them tick or what they can offer you that's uniquely theirs."

The power in her gauntlet peaks, flaring to life as the direction of the win surges outwards and Kyouka gets ready to attack. "So if all you care about is logic... we'll kick your logic to the curb. Moonliiiiiiiight--"

In a flash she vanishes, and in the next she is right at Buki--or Mobius--swinging her fist as she releases all of that stored up power at once in a gigntic explosion. "BUSTER!" 

COMBAT: FINISHER! Kyouka Okazaki has used Moonlight Buster on Pink Moon Stick.

<Pose Tracker> Endo Naoki [Juuban Public School (12)] has posed.

Endo flexes his fingers, forcing his aching nerves to comply with his desires. A fist is formed, then unclenched, and clenched again around the hilt of his Device.

<WE'RE NOT FINISHED.> his device warbles.

"Yeah, I know." Endo breathes. He forces himself upward, metal grinding against what remains of the stairway he'd planted Fallen Stern into. "One more, right?"

<ONE MORE.> The machine agrees.

Endo takes a breath as he raises his sword overhead, calling on what little strength he has left in his battered figure. The device pulses once, twice, then lights up like a bonfire. Energy flares outward, burning along the length of the blade and streaking through the infinite distance that the spiraling staircases ascended into before the assembled magical girls so rudely smashed through them.

"If you're right," Endo calls defiantly to Moebius' claim, "Then survive this!"

He wouldn't be here in a world without sorrow, or joy, or conflict. All of those things and sharing them with the people he cares for made him. They let him do this:

<STERN BRECHER.>

He brings the column of light down. 

COMBAT: FINISHER! Endo Naoki has used Stern Brecher on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to brace Cure Black and Cure White's Combo: Taijitu Taijutsu, taking 119 Fatigue damage!  Critical
Hit!  Cure Black and Cure White are Psyched!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick braces 47 Fatigue damage from Mikoto Minagi's Finisher, Obsidian Blade: Deontology, taking 71 Fatigue
damage!  Pink Moon Stick's Block ability activates!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to brace Kyouka Okazaki's Finisher, Moonlight Buster, taking 137 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to brace Endo Naoki's Finisher, Stern Brecher, taking 176 Fatigue damage!  Pink Moon Stick is unable
to keep fighting!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to brace Cure Passion's Finisher, Pretty Cure Happiness Hurricane, taking 102 Fatigue damage!  Pink
Moon Stick is unable to keep fighting!

<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed.

Pretty Cures Black and White close on Buki from either side, and though she tries to resist them, their teamwork is in many respects her anathema. Labyrinth is all about solitude, in a way -- a totally regimented life under the singular control of Lord Moebius. He knows nothing of the power of humanity when they fight, work, live, and love as one.

Black and White teach him a swift and decisive lesson.

But not a final one. That is not their blow to strike, even if they could, and he is too great a foe for them to somehow both contain and destroy him at the same time.

What they do do, accidentally, is engage in such a tight and intricate melee that the illusion simply cannot hope to keep up.

With a final sort of clipping animation Buki is, of course, revealed to be Lord Moebius. This does not change their positions -- Black has him in a headlock, White has one of his legs and is going for an elbow. But it does change their PROPORTIONS... there's a lot more head to lock, and it's a further reach between his leg and his arm. They manage, somehow, but not without stretching to their full heights, spreading their wingspans to the max. If they were at the beginning of their career they couldn't have done it. Not because of inexperience -- but because of the growth spurts they've had along the way.

No one is who they were when they started, of course. Life is measured in centimeters but also in Nakewameke -- almost forgotten now, it's been so long since anyone from Labyrinth has used anything but a much uglier (and less prone to accidental comedy) Sorewatase. It's measured in Christmas dates and found familiars. In conversations with mothers and bowls of ramen.

They have all, one way or another, gotten their happiness since stumbling into the world of magic. Happiness yet incomplete, certainly. But isn't that what life is?

"DEFIANCE," barks Lord Moebius, an almost mechanical response to Cure Passion's impassionate speech. She tries so hard to reach him that even Mikoto is stirred to hold back, just a little -- talk about not being who they were at the start. Passion speaks of love and faith and hope and friends, and also of ignorance, of confusion.

"YOU ARE WRONG," he bellows. "I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT I AM. IT IS YOU--"

The first energy hearts smash into him. The greater portion of Passion's hearts and feathers and feelings initially explode outwards, however. The wall nearest him, its great curvature so subtle as to be almost flat, warps beneath the strain. Then a panel rips off, falling away outside. The city can be seen below.

"--WHO--"

Mikoto's scream is sharper than even Miroku in this moment. Against anyone else it might be the greater weapon. But it does not make him flinch, even a little bit, as a regular person would. Nor does the blade, though differently, and disturbingly. It's as though he feels no pain as it begins to enter him from the side.

It's as though he feels nothing at all.

Kyouka, too, gives a fine lecture, backed by an even finer strike, a single, perfect punch right at his conveniently immobile face. And not just a punch, of course. The explosion from her brave, boon companion, Strike Wolf, is as much his as hers, a different kind of teamwork, of connection made manifest. A pure and unyielding strength. A beautiful purplish light.

"--ARE--"

Not the only beautiful violet light, of course. Endo brings down the column he and Fallen Stern have summoned as one -- so broad and terrible an attack that everyone in melee has to clear the path in the end to let it pass. To do otherwise would be suicide.

And, having swirled to a feverish pitch, the vortex of Passion's Happiness Hurricane collapses inward to a single point, brighter even than the heart of a star.

"--CONFused."

His last word dies on his lips, dropping like a stone, like a tripped breaker.

From the hole Passion made, gray, overcast natural light pours in in a great swath, almost like a curtain.

And what is illuminated, the leftovers which emerge from the titanic clash... is not the familiar visage of the Lord of All Worlds at all.

Or, rather... it is him, it is surely him; at least, there was no last minute substitution. But his skin was never skin, and his flesh was never flesh. When knuckles and toes bruised against the preternatural pallor of this titan, it wasn't because of his extraordinary muscle density, and it wasn't even because of some kind of energy shielding beneath the robe.

It was because he's made of metal.

His robes, torn to strips by the combined assault, reveal the unvarnished truth: they've been fighting a machine. Humanoid the robot may be, but he is certainly no cyborg, not truly human at all, not even in part.

And he crashes to the floor of the platform with an immense CLANK.

Silence falls.

There is time, then, to stand back up, and to stand Lera back up -- it transpires that she fell not all the way to the base of the tower but just a few circles down the double spiral, landing on the no-longer-a-desert, just-a-staircase, still-intact-because-Black-hasn't-thrown-it-yet path.

But not very much time.

Because the wall of the Tower pulses with cyan energy. Not all at once. It first overtakes one level of wires and buttons and ports, then another, then another. Until, finally, the whole thing is illuminated by the beautiful radiance of Chiffon's sacred light. And the whole thing is a single massive supercomputer; even by Midchildan standards, an absurd technomagical achievement, both in how it is huge and in how it is intricate.

Something is wrong.

The light didn't pulse downwards, from above. It pulsed upwards, from below.

From outside, the Tower stood in a vast chasm, and went downward seemingly without end, its base invisible in the distant darkness...

And already the cyan light is vanishing. One wire at a time, it is disappearing. But not because it's fading like a heartbeat might, between pulses. No. The extraordinarily intricate circuitry that goes round and round and up and down is being... overwritten. Engulfed, one slender wire at a time.

Overwritten by something that... crawls.

<SoundTracker> An Incident Occurs - Fresh OST - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IT0bbcrDM0U

It becomes very dark in the Tower of Labyrinth, but for the light from the hole, which is rapidly reducing. Vines slither into place across it, as they have along each and every component of the Tower's sides -- vines not a natural rutilous brown, but the ugly bruise-green of a plant grown strong with sorrow -- or, perhaps, this time, strong with something else.

Before, the illusory jungle was a false one, but now the heat feels very real, as though the plants are doing the opposite of what they should do, breathing as people do, there's not entirely enough oxygen to go around in here, it's stuffy...

Suddenly, the vines all writhe as one, very much like a heartbeat or set of lungs, engorging and deflating. Then again -- and again. It's all too perfect, too natural, to be some kind of sudden, fresh, wild growth. It feels much more like old growth. Like being at the heart -- in the heart -- of something truly ancient.

This supercomputer... was it ever truly inorganic?

Or was it grown, like a trellis, all along?

"...hahaha..."

Even if it was only off the feed from the Pericosmic Array, everyone knows that laughter. And it's infected the nightmares of most, over the years.

"...so, you have defeated my puppet... exactly too late."

Like Lord Moebius, her voice seems to come from everywhere in the Tower at once. Unlike Lord Moebius, it doesn't come through speakers. Some of the smaller vines, with disgusting simultaneity, shape plump, cruel lips in order to deliver this message from every direction.

"I know what you are here to retrieve. Come down and take it... if you can."

And, as the very last of the hole is plugged with plant matter, the lights go out completely, as Northa laughs, and laughs, and laughs...

TO BE CONTINUED

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