2013-09-27 - Malware

Title: Malware
Summary: A young girl is in the sights of some strange men but to make matters worse for the heroes, they find a demon is also on the prowl.
Who: Miyu Oyanagi, Hotaka Domen, Raikari Shinkyou, Fuu Hououji, Midori Sugiura, Madobe Kuroi, Nadeshiko Fujisaki, Syaoran Li,
Where: Akihabara Electric Town
OOC - IC Date: 9/27/2013 - 9/25/2013

Miyu Oyanagi has posed:

It is late in the day at Akihabara and things are slowly starting to wind down as stores and stalls begin to close shop. Shoppers try to squeeze in a few last minute purchases before cashiers are locked down for the night. One of said shoppers is a young girl with magenta lavender carrying with her a laptop huddled against her chest, here to get some replacement power cables for her computer to replace the her old ones.

Unbeknownst to almost everyone though, unfriendly eyes are watching from the rooftops.

One of the figures is an oddly colored man with two-tone skin. The entire right side of his body is a dark red, while the entire left side of his body is a dark blue. Next to him is a black figure with bright red glowing lines coloring his armored body and a trio of glowing spheres on his chest. One blue, one greem and one red. The two-tone man looks down at the screen below, then summons up a holographic display with a wave of his hand showing a zoomed in view.

"There, that girl heading into the electronic shop. She is our target. Remember that she is to be taken alive, do you understand Multex?"

The armored figure says in a very computerized voice, "I understand Io." The figure stands and the three orbs on his chest glow...

And then there are suddenly four of him. One that retains the original colors, and the other three colored red, blue, or green respectively. The four speak in unison, "She shall not escape from our grasp."

Then the four figures vanish, leaving I/O standing upon the rooftops overwatching the street.

Hotaka Domen has posed:

High on another roof top a figure looms crouched down. Those gold eyes glowing softly against the dark brown skin and black hair that moves softly in the wind. The wings against his backside tucked in, almost acting like a cape. They were here to collect the energy of the people and anything that could be of interest.

Soon the wings unfold as they spot a young woman. Unaware that others were on the hunt for another reason entirely. Alastor leaps down from the roof and starts to fly straight down with great speed before landing in front of a woman who is looking through her bag, till she looks up about then to see the six foot figure looking at her.

There was a toothy, fanged smile, before the gauntlet hand reached out and went for her neck. The covered over clawed index, middle, and thumb almost digging into her skin as he goes to lift her up. Her bag-- falling to the ground.

Raikari Shinkyou has posed:

"How would you like to beat up more than imaginary monsters?" Those few words had forever changed Raikari Shinkyou's life, and that was only, what, last night? She still wasn't even entirely sure why the Code Beast ALICRN had picked her, but it had, and the magic-AI had given her the power to as it promised as long as she helped it search for this 'Light Code' it needed to find. Unfortunately it didn't really know where to look, so not much had come other than Raikari agreeing, and ALICRN producing what it called a 'Virtualizer' for her to use when they finally got a lead on their quest.

So for today, Raikari had gone back to life as normal. School, so on, and so on. After which, she had gone for a walk in one of her favorite parts of town. Because it had the best computer stores and game shops. Which she was in front of one right now, pressed up to the window peering at the big displays for the next big release a few weeks from now. "Soon, so soon..."

The Virtulizer device beeps in her pocket, but Raikari is too busy daydreaming about those future sprites to notice it. Much to ALICRN's fluster. If a magic based coded creature can feel flustered.

Fuu Hououji has posed:

Fuu Hououji is not a video game otaku. She does, however, appreciate the occasional RPG - and she's willing to trek all the way out to Akihabara, particularly when she hears that one of the stores here has a very good deal on the collector's edition.

That probably doesn't help her case very much.

Still, she was able to head out to Akihabara after classes let out at Infinity today, and after picking up the collector's edition of 'Final Legend VII: Fate of the World,' she went down a few blocks to look through computer-programming books at one of the more serious shops. She's keeping an eye on the time ... and not necessarily on the monsters in the area.

So as the glasses-wearing middle-school girl emerges from Sofmap with a still-shrinkwrapped game in one bag and a new book on Ruby in the other, she's not really worrying about where to stash her purchases in the event of sudden monster attack …

Midori Sugiura has posed:

Midori Sugiura is done shift, often she works at the diner during the day. To let Mai and the others not have to worry about school things. However she was off by now and quite happily walking along with the latest issue of a Kamen Rider manga tucked under her arm as she went. She's be heading back home now, however she got distracted by one thing or another in display which just held user up long enough to effect just how her evening would be changed.

She's just another adult going about her business nothing important here, right? Though seriously her hair was pretty crazy and spiky, which would be hard to miss as she looked in the shop's display window.

Madobe Kuroi has posed:

Madobe was in the area for unrelated reasons. It was not a relaxing time! However, it's all good now thanks to Tokiko. Hooray for Tokiko! She's actually feeling pretty good about herself now. She is in fact approaching that electronic shop over 'dare to try and get some, well, electronics before she heads home. She is feeling like rewarding herself! But she hears some swooping from nearby and turns, noticing Alastar assaulting an innocent lady! Stopping her from buying electronics! This cannot be allowed to pass.

Ducking down a side street for a moment, Madobe raises her perfume bottle into the air. "Henshin! Sweet Pea! Splash!"

A two minute transformation ensues in which nothing actually happens, but suffice it to stay it's entirely stock footage. Her casual 'peon' clothes as Sei might put it are transformed into pink, pink, and more pink. She wears a skirt over some shorts, carries a holster in which appear two pink MAGIC guns, along with a cellphone in her hand (also pink), and a similarly pink blouse and vest combo. Her hair is pulled up into a ponytail, and changes into the color--you guessed it--pink! But the most important thing of all is the sweet smell that acomponies her appearance. Buy Sweet Pea Perfume, kids!

"Entering the situation zone, Sweet Pea's on the scene!" Yes she's still stealing Tokiko's Quote. Sorry Tokiko!

She points her two pistols towards Alastor and says, "Let her go you creep!" She's feeling pretty confident!

Nadeshiko Fujisaki has posed:'

Nadeshiko Fujisaki is not the...normal, clientele, one might expect in Akihabara, inasmuch as she is a delicate-looking young girl wearing the Ohtori Elementary uniform, and over it, the red plaid cape of the female Guardians, Ohtori's elementary school student council and campus elites. But Guardian business can bring a person just about anywhere, and at the moment, Nadeshiko is out near the end of the business day with a shopping list in one hand and her bookbag in the other. She's got to be home soon, but this should not, she reasons, be too long. "Now," she murmurs to herself, standing on a corner and looking this way and that. "Where is the A/V shop Tadase recommended..."

Hovering next to a nearby street sign, reading it carefully, is a small humanoid fairy about the size of a softball with a ponytail much like Nadeshiko's, with eyes that take up most of her face and her mouth near-permanently disguised behind a demurely-placed kimono sleeve. "I believe he said it was on this block," Temari chimes, in her usual delicate grammar.

Syaoran Li has posed:

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to also almost everyone, un-unfriendly eyes are also watching from the roof...that is to say, they are unfriendly to the unfriendly people...er...

Okay, short version: Syaoran Li is leaping from rooftop to rooftop, because it is almost dinner time and he is basically magical midget Batman. A glowing paper charm in his left hand is acting to increase the strength of the local inhibitive field, such that when he dashes along a clothesline hung between apartment buildings, the housewives on either end remark to each other about how the hopping schoolboys are flying south already, and then immediately resume stringing their laundry.

This sort of gross misuse of magic in close vicinity of ordinary people is exactly the sort of thing he kind of lectured two young girls about not 48 hours earlier. But he is a magus, and therefore it is different.

Miyu Oyanagi has posed:

The sudden appearance of a demon and a magical Girl amidst the busy streets of Akihabara doesn't go entirely unnoticed, as one woman spots Alastor hoisting his prey off the ground and screams, drawing the attention of the crowd.

Almost immediately afterwards though, the four color-coded armored figures land amidst the streets and snap their heads up in unison, scanning the area. The Original slowly rises up as the crowd starts to pull back from where they landed.

"Clear a path."

The three colored versions of the Viral Soldier react immediately, blades extending from their arms as they leap into the fray, their weapons carving through stalls and store fronts as they send the crowd scattering in panic. The original meanwhile takes off down the rapidly emptying streets towards his prey.

***

Not too far away, the target of the attack stands calmly inside of a store, having been distracted from her quest to get a new power cable by all the other neat electronic devices! She currently has her head in a pair of demo headphones, listening to the quality of the music coming from the earpieces. It's only when she notices some people backing away before fleeing that she takes the headphones off and turns, "What the...?"

Hotaka Domen has posed:

Alastor doesn't let go of the woman, even as Sweet pea comes in to be a hero. His gauntlet starts to glow as the magical energy starts to move around her. "You want her?" He says with a chuckle. There was two voices here. They echoed together in perfect harmony. One deeper then the other though.

"Then take her!" He then suddenly throws the woman right toward the magical girl, before he charges right in. His blade forming in from blue flames around his gauntlet hand, creating the massive sword. Which is being dragged across the ground, before he leaps up on the side of a wall and runs across it.

Yes, he was indeed laughing all the time. After all, new chaos was here and he was going to take /full/ advantage of it!

Midori Sugiura has posed:

Midori Sugiura pockets her manga, she sighs inwardly to her self. It seems another new form of trouble was coming out into the open, seriously. She'd had orphan problems before coming to Tokyo, but even only being here a short time, it was clear the HiME were not the only game in town, not by a long shot. Midori wastes no time, she wastes no time at all. She holds out her hand and a labyrs bursts out of the ground and into her hand. She stars them down and calls out.

"Not do fast, do you think you just can get away with such behaviour when the HiME of the wind is here? I think not! In the name of Justice I will stop you. I suggest you go home before you end up getting hurt!"

After all these guys don't look to be mindless like an Orphan might be, she will give them a chance to run after all. Still no flashy transform, no change to her clothing, just the weapon, but the speech is there all right.

Fuu Hououji has posed:

Fuu didn't hear the initial attack, but she *does* hear the screaming start - and she immediately shifts both bags to her right hand, left hand delving into a pocket of her skirt as she looks left, looks right ... there has to be somewhere she can take cover for a moment. This would be so much easier, she reflects wryly, if she were back in Cephiro ...

She keeps her wits about her, and in the absence of an alley or something like that, she heads down into the subway, turning down a side passage to get away from the rush of people trying to flee the sudden monster attack. Once she's out of sight she can pull on her jewel-glove, letting her shopping disappear into the large green jewel, and then clasps her hands to her chest.

"Belief becomes power ... winds, guide me!"

And with those words, a gentle whirlwind envelopes Fuu, replacing her Infinity Middle uniform's purple with green, and adding some light armor over the blazer - conveniently hiding the school badge, and making a few other cosmetic alterations, accessorizing for combat with short boots on her feet and a white bracer on her right forearm.

She waits for the traffic fleeing down the stairs to subside before she comes out of hiding and bounds back up to the sunlight and the open air, and the battle against whatever those monsters are. Idly, she hopes that somebody around here will have some idea of what those monsters *are* - but for now, she summons her bow and quiver out of her glove-jewel, the quiver materializing slung across her back while the bow forms in her hand, and she nocks an arrow, quickly but smoothly drawing it back, and letting the arrow fly at one of the armored marauders who are trying to maul the fleeing innocent bystanders.

Madobe Kuroi has posed:

Sweet Pea says, "Huh?"

The lady goes flying into Madobe and sends both of them sprawling to the floor. Sweet Pea even bashes her head against the ground, though the lady is thankfully unharmed. "dah....dah...."

She helps the lady up and gestures at her to run off, laughing awkwardly for a few moments before fixing Alastor with a glare.

"What the heck was that?! You just did that to be rude! why would you even do that?"

She sniffs once before taking in a long deep breath. And then--

She draws out her cellphone, snaps a photograph about him, and immediately starts writing an angry blog post about what a big jerk he is!

And making fun of his costume!

And also he smells like he hasn't bathed in a while!!! "Grrrrrr...!!"

Raikari Shinkyou has posed:

• beep* *beep* *BEEEEEEEEP*

"Gah!" Raikari jerks back from the window in surprise and shoves a hand into her pocket to withdraw the handheld device as she starts to walk away. "What the hell was that for?!" "No time for pleasantries," retorts the digital unicorn's visage on the device screen, the blips to show a map not unlike the sort you would see in many a videogame. "I have picked up several magic-code signals." Raikari's snarkiness abruptly disappears. "The Light Code you were looking for?" "No. In fact.. these are closer to its counterpart, the Dark Code. Not exact, but similar. Lesser quality copies, spawned from prehaps." "Great, I guess it's time to finally try this out and have a 'Kill This Many Of An Enemy' sidequest." "A what?" "Nevermind." Raikari grunts as she checks that no one is looking at her, and then ducks between two of the buildings. Gripping the Virtualizer tightly, she pressed her thumb against the main button and thrust it over her head as ALICRN had instructed her to when it created the device. "Virtulizer... POWER ON!" Several glowing rings of magic-code spread from the device down around her, solidify briefly against her body, and then spread out down her arms and legs. The first thing to form however is a pair of glowing wings out of her back and flinging her up into the air. From their the glow starts to reside from her form, clothing replaced with the white and metallic blue of a battle uniform. Then down her arms to form futuristic gauntlets and matching armored boots over her feet. As it swirls past her head the code energy consolidates into a high tech looking visor and ear pieces, then a pair of pony-like animal ears poke up from behind them.

But the final touch is the burst of code crackling from the center of the headpiece's brow, hissing forth at an angle and then solidifying into a sharp horn with glowing trace lines running along it.

It's in this form that the newly christened magical girl lands on the street in a crouch not far from where the color goons are raising a ruckus. "Hey, jerk faces. Over here!" She snaps her right arm out to her side, a brief swirling of code energy manifesting into a glowing polearm like device. "With the grace of the unicorn and the strength of the code," she sweeps the weapon in front of her as she stands, snapping it up into a two-handed grip, "I will combo breaker evil in the face!" Then turning partway to dramatically thrust it ahead of her, ready and waiting. "Reflective Sentry Kagami, logged in!"

Not bad for the first Dramatic Entry, ALICRN muses to itself.

Syaoran Li has posed:

Syaoran Li stops jumping when he sees a giant, flaming blue demon with a giant sword running across a wall. He stares at it for about three seconds, unsure as to whether this is something that he should do something about - he has heard stories about the cosplay competitions in Akihabara, after all. But then it throws a woman at some girl, and that pretty much seals the deal. An otaku wouldn't touch a girl like that.

The young man reaches into his pockets, drawing a long length of string with a large cat's eye marble attached to it. He loops the string around his right hand, lifts it to his face, concentrates, and the blade of his great-grandfather appears in his hand. He snaps the broad-bladed jian down and to the right, a gust of wind blowing the cat's eye tassel out behind him.

And...that's it, as far as mage transformations go. Sorry, ladies.

Syaoran crouches, gathering mana in the soles of his feet, tracking the devil's movement, calculating its speed, plotting the trajectory. His legs tense and then surge, carrying him off the rooftop in a high arc. He grips his sword in both hands, drawing it back over his shoulder, and then begins to push mana into the magical steel, charging it with power. The jian of Jinglin Li, China's First Sword, pulses with a brilliant white light as the young magus drops toward Alastor, then throws the weight of his body and mana into a powerful diagonal slash.

Nadeshiko Fujisaki has posed:'

"Uhm..." Temari suddenly chimes, and Nadeshiko looks over the edge of her paper at her Chara. Then follows her pointing hand down the block to where all the people are screaming. "O...oh goodness!" THAT IS A DEMON.

LI WHY IS THERE A DEMON YOU DIDN'T MENTION DEMONS

Oh, speaking of whom... "Li-kun!" she says to herself, and shoves her list in her pocket. For alter! She takes a slow, deep breath, her lips coming together tightly. "Temari," she says, quietly, looking up at the floating fairy out of the corner of her eye. "We have to..."

"Of course~" Teamri chimes, and produces from her tiny kimono a tiny stick with sakura blooms hanging off of it, a sort of prop for Japanese dance, normally. "Chin~" the fairy sing-songs. "Ton~ Shan~".

Absolutely nothing unusual appears to happen to the little girl down on the corner, unless you count the fact that her hair ornament just turned into a bundle of sakura.

Unless you count the fact that she suddenly tears off at a dead sprint directly at a demon man and WHERE THE HELL DID SHE GET A NAGINATA and screaming a low, gutteral "OOOOORRYAAAAAAAAAAAA" as she swings her long polearm at Hotaka with a sudden whirlwind of slashes!!

Miyu Oyanagi has posed:

The Red lands with a heavy thump on the ground as his blade passes easily through the stall before him, splitting it in two and sending broken electronics collapsing to the ground. As he stands however, he catches motion out of the corner of his optics and snaps around, throwing his arms up to deflect the arrow with barely a fraction of a second to spare. Energy pulses through his codelines as he slowly drops his guard and regards this new threat. Then with a loud /SHNK/, a second blade snaps out of his other arm, and he wastes no time leaping through the air towards Fuu with both blades scything down.

The Green marches undeterred down the street of Akihabara, watching as mortals flee before him as his blade sparks across a wall, carving a groove in the bricks menacingly. A voice draws iss attention though as he turns to face Kagami, regarding her speech curiously before turning towards a signpost and ripping it from the ground before sending it hurtling like a javelin towards the Digital Warrior.

The Blue advances menacingly towards a couple cowering against a wall and reaches out with an armored hand to grab them, then stops as a new foe appears. Glancing up, the Viral Soldier sizes up the new opponent and registers her as a greater threat. After a mere moment of consideration, he lunges towards Midori, blade held high.

***</<nowiki>> As this is going on, the lavender haired girl is drawn to the window of the shop she's in to peer out at the dark night, her mind trying to process what's happening. Monsters fighting magical girls? This is like something out of an anime! What the heck is going on out there anyway...? Before she gets a chance to find out, The Original Multex appears hefore her, lunging through teh window with his blade sweeping down to disable her with one fell swipe. Out of desperation, she throws up her laptop as a shield and the blade stabs through the computer, deflecting up and over her shoulder. The force of the impact however is enough to send her careening across the room where she slams into a heavy display case and collapses to the ground, only to find herself pinned as the case teeters forward and collapses on her. ::'''[[Fuu Hououji]] has posed''':<br> "Eep - !" Fuu leaps backwards as the blades slam into the pavement right where she'd been standing, and while she dodges a direct hit, the blades' impact sends chunks of asphalt flying every which way, including a couple which hit the Magic Knight of Wind; she stumbles back a couple of steps on landing, attempting to recover her equilibrium. "Please forgive me, it *was* quite rude to attack without introducing myself," she smiles at the red-armored 'warrior' she's now engaged in battle against. "However, I'm afraid that I didn't have the liberty to simply let you keep attacking people who couldn't fight back ..." She's drawn another arrow by now, even as she debates whether to try putting her magic to use somehow. She has a couple of ideas, if she can just work out how to apply them. For now, she watches her opponent's movements - bow-and-arrow are not a melee weapon, really - and leaps back, aiming to perch atop a street light. It's not the best vantage point, but it buys her some distance, at least temporarily, and she draws and looses again as soon as she's comfortable with her balance. However long she'll have it for. ::'''[[Hotaka Domen]] has posed''':<br> Pictures are taken. Not like Alastor has /any/ idea of what is being type, but still pictures are being taken and that could lead to some trouble later. Like a man hunt; though maybe in some ways that wouldn't be /to/ bad. The demon kicks off the wall about the time another magical user comes into play. Those gold eyes look directly at the sword coming in and quickly twirls himself around, that long strand of hair seeming to have a mind of its own, staying out of the way as he uses his sword to parry the blow. However the force of the strike was enough to send him flying back and slamming hard into a building across the way. Alastor flips down to the ground correcting himself, before suddenly here comes another one. This time he has no time to correct himself or even defend. The Lance slashes in and cuts across his form. One right behind the other, knocking him right into another building. He stays limp there for a moment. The cuts don't even really bleed, but they were indeed on the side of his face and scratch marks on his armor. "Three against one." He says softly, his gold eyes looking directly at Fujisaki for the moment. "I like those odds." Then with a roar, he races right by Fujisaki, to swing his blade at her in a quick passing. His left hand mean while starts to summon a blue orb of fire. After the slash, he rotates himself around and sends a massive the fire ball in both Madobe's and Li's direction. Which suddenly vanishes for a moment, before a circle forms under them and then a massive fire cage tries to raise up and ensnare them in the flames. ::'''[[Raikari Shinkyou]] has posed''':<br> <nowiki>*SHNNK* Sentry Kagami swipes her polearm down at the incoming lamppost to knock it aside. Though as it rebounds off her blade the way it spins to the side catchs her in the shoulder and the unicorn-girl stumbles a bit before rebalancing herself. "That's not how you put out someone's lights." Sounds like she's already got the witty retorts down.

There's a flicker across her visor as several bits of data flit past and then it homes in on the monster that flung the post at her.

Time to find out what she can do in this form!

Armored boots thump against the pavement as Sentry Kagami darts towards her attacker, the trace lines in the blade of her polearm starting to glow. The blade dips down briefly as she closes the distance, only for her to pull it up into a rising slice.

Madobe Kuroi has posed:

"And he doesn't introduce himself properly when you meet him either..." Sweet Pea is hitting before pressing SEND.

Of course so far it might not even be obvious she's a magical girl. She hasn't done any magic, persay, yet. A carge ripples up around her and ensnares her in fire before she can get out of the way! This is what happens when you pay more attention to your texts than what's going on around you!!

Hissing in pain from the heat, she looks about to try and figure out how to get out of this problem.

"I like those odds too and--"

she pauses for a moment, looking towards Nadeshiko.

"..."

That's...that's kind of scary. But...but hey it's on her side, so ... so it relaxes her IN FACT.

She draws out her SWEET PEA SHOOTER and actually shoots at Alastor this time. "Get this cage off me!" Pink blasts fire out of the gun, leaving flowers sprouting where they hit.

Midori Sugiura has posed:

Midori Sugiura sees that her warning is laughed off, she looks at the Blue Viral soldier, she springs into action. Midori leaps from a standing start, flipping up into the air and landing behind the solider. She tilts her head for half a second before she strikes out with the pink Labrys. She then starts moving intending to play a game of keep away from the monster from the looks of things here.

"You made your choice, I will not let you rampage like this!"

She's now closing again while keeping and eye on her allies of the moment. Things are very much busy in Tokyo. She wonders what else might pop up at this rate, but for now there is evil who needs to be handled. Once she's close enough she strikes out with her Labrys at the blue solider.

Miyu Oyanagi has posed:

With a sickening /thunk/, the arrow pierces the chest of The Red, sending him staggering back a step from the blow as he grips the wound with his hand. Then he leans forward, griping the arrow protruding from his chest before yanking it out. No blood oozes from the wound. Wordlessly, the Viral Soldier crushes the arrow in his hand and tosses it aside, then lifts his blade high into the air... and with a mighty sweep downwards, unleashes a cutting wave towards Fuu!

The Green reacts swiftly to Raikari's assaide, sliding sideways as the blade rises up to carve a gash into his chest while his own blade marks the Magical Girl. Then with a loud /shink/, he extends the second blade from his arm and lunges in, unleashing a flurry of stabs.

When Midori unleashes her strike, The Blue Viral Soldier reacts with cool precision, dropping literally to the ground as the attack passes over top him by mere inches before pushing off the ground with enough force that he spins through the air with his blade extended. As he comes back to land though, he ducks low and unleashes a sweeping kick to the back of Midori's knee, aiming to unbalance her as he presses his attack.

***

As this is going on, the lavender haired girl winces as she tries to pull herself free of the fallen display case, but stops as she feels an intense stabbing sensation on her lower back and coughs up blood. Unseen beneath the case, a jagged piece of glass has stabbed into her, driven deep by the weight of the case upon her. Helplessly, she watches as The Original Multex pulls the impaled remains of her laptop from his blade, then casually tosses the ruined piece of hardware next to her head. As it lands, the sparking computer flips open.

Syaoran Li has posed:

The collision between the Sword of Jinglin Li and Alastor's larger blade temporarily arrests the young magus's downward momentum, comparative mass providing the laws of physics an exceedingly rare opportunity to have any kind of impact at all on the outcome of a magical duel. Syaoran shifts to a one-handed grip, his right hand gripping onto a light fixture, right foot pressing against the top of a window. He holds his position, waiting for the moment to--

tea flowers-- their blooming delays the dusk

"Oh, not now," the magus sighs as he turns toward an increasingly familiar presence. The last thing he needs is a well-meaning amateur to jump in on his first honest-to-goodness battle with the forces of darkness; he opens his mouth to tell Nade...shi...ko...

OOOOORRYAAAAAAAAAAAA

Syaoran Li lives alone with his mother, four sisters, and a cousin. This is new, even for him. He closes his mouth and shakes his head, and realizes about a second and a half too late that there is still a fight going on. "Gh--" he snarls as the cage of flames surrounds him, the heat bearing down on his magic barrier. The young man takes the most expedient option and leaps through the bars, trailing motes of crimson light. Gritting his teeth, he pulls a paper strip out of his back pocket, releasing it into the air.

Despite their many inherent differences, magi of both the Eastern and Western traditions have a shared traits. They both rely on mana as a source for their power, however differently they choose to apply it. They can use this energy source to protect themselves, to amplify their physical abilities, or channel them in the form of spells. And every magus tends to be associated with a particular element; while they can use others to a lesser extent, their spells are always more powerful when they use the element that most reflects their inner nature.

Syaoran Li has two. He unleashes one now.

"Kasshin!" he shouts as he drives his sword into the paper strip. "SHOURAI!" Gouts of fire roll out toward Alastor, encircling the demon, aiming to return the favour dealt their caster, with interest.

Nadeshiko Fujisaki has posed:'

Nadeshiko rails the guy straight into a wall!! "Yeah! That's right!" she laughs, slamming her naginata hilt down to the ground. She arrogantly thumbs her nose, smiling like a shark with her eyes narrowed aggressively. "You just siddown for a while!! AHAHAHA ah hell--" He's not down yet! Got to move! She swings on one foot, a graceful twirl, like a delicate dancer, and then slams her foot down when he's already past. "Close!" she jeers, lips curling up dementedly. That put her off center a little, but still, at least she's not HURT. Little winded. She'll live. "Oi, mage-kun!" she laughs, tossing Li an unmaidenly thumbs up.

Then she snaps her hand down, making an INCREDIBLY RUDE GESTURE WITH HER ARMS OH WOW "NOW HOW ABOUT YOU!" she yells, raising her voice to a gutteral shout. "YOU COMIN' BACK OVER HERE OR AM I DRAGGIN' YOU OVER BY YOUR KNEECAPS!? AHAHAHA!"

Syaoran Li has posed:

On second thought, Syaoran Li decides he's glad he was registered in Juuban after all.

Fuu Hououji has posed:

The problem with being perched atop a street light when someone launches an attack at you ... well, there are several problems, really, but the one which is most prominent to Fuu right now is that she can't take a step in most directions preparatory to leaping away from the next attack.

She tries to take a step anyway, realizing her error when her foot winds up pushing against empty air - to zero effect - and she winds up executing a half-controlled tumble. The cutting wave clips her hard, but the armor which Guru Clef enchanted from her school uniform - the same enchantment which her transformation essentially re-invoked - remains relatively intact.

That doesn't help her landing, though. Fuu rights herself quickly, trying to ignore the scrapes and bruises she's accumulated so far, and draws a fresh arrow, her eyes narrowing a little as she sights along the shaft. Her glove-jewel shines faintly, a breeze out of nowhere tousling her hair and tugging gently at her skirt ...

"Reppuu no Ya ... !" (Gale Arrow)

This time, when she releases the arrow, it's not driven merely by the bowstring, but by a *very* focused gust of wind - packing a lot more force behind the shaft. Even if her enemy doesn't bleed, this should hurt it quite a bit more …

Hotaka Domen has posed:

Madobe sends out shots which the bullets scrapping across Alastor's armor as he leaps to the side, as he sends out several more orbs of fire in madobe's direction only trying to intensify the fire really. "What is wrong? To hot for you? Hahaha!" Demonic blue flames are the worse.

However, magic caster flames can be just as bad, if not far more uglier.

The demon lands down, only to suddenly have mystic flames from Li rip around him, casting the area around him in flames and above him as well like the very prison he placed upon them. The sheer overpowering of it actually causes him to fall to his knees. One eye was closed as he tried to think of how to get out of this situation he was now in. "..Nice trick.." He says through grit teeth.

Then Fujisaki decided to take full advantage of the situation by trying to act like a smart little girl. Those gold eyes glare over at her, before he growls at her. "Why don't you come say that closer to me, hmm? I bet I can make that pretty little face of yours burn right with me."

He then attempts to stand up and brings his hands against the fire magical wall. Allowing it to sizzle against his hands as he tries to break it. Those gold eyes glowing brightly as he then roars out. "Is this the best any of you have! COME ON ALREADY! SHOW ME YOUR STRENGTH!"

Raikari Shinkyou has posed:

Sentry Kagami grunts as the Green creature partially knocks aside her attack and strikes her arm in the process before she can recover from her swing being thrown off. Quickly she changes tactics to twist away with the momentum and get a few feet between them so she can face her opponent again.

Only for said opponent to come right at her, slashing with one arm-blade and then the other. Okay this was a little different than just playing a game, but she was catching on quickly. This was just the sort of combo attack the CPU would use to try and drive you into a corner, and she's not having any of that.

Weapons colliding rings out across the street again and again as Kagami snaps her polearm back and forth to deflect the slashes, using not only the blade but the opposite end of the shaft as well to counter. Though the effort doesn't give her an opponent to actually hit back.

Then as the final slash comes she just up and jumps back out of the way, landing on one of the toppled food carts and leaping into the air from it. Her digital wings spread behind her, giving her some extra hangtime.

Time to press the Special Technique button. If she actually had a button to press, that is. "That's it, enough fun and games. I'm going to walk all over you!" Her horn piece glows brightly for a moment, and then several flickers of code energy ripple at her sides and congeal into slightly off-color 'reflections' of herself.

"KAGAMI STAMPEDE!"

In rapid succession the reflections dive towards the monster using their polearms like jousting lances. Followed by Sentry Kagami herself bringing up the end of the attack as she finally drops from her jump with a downward slash.

Nadeshiko Fujisaki has posed:'

Nadeshiko's plan to make Hotaka feel bad about his life choices does not appear to be working. HMPH.

Unfortunately it does appear to be serving in another way, to whit, to get him to yell at her SUPER HARD.

It's so intense in fact that when she attempts to block the sonic wave with her naginata, it gets thrown aside and she goes flying back into a wall! That looks like it hurt.

Especially since she's not...getting up. Hm.

Midori Sugiura has posed:

When things don't go so well for her? Midori is caught pretty hard. Who are these guys? Whatever the soldiers are? They hit very hard and Midori is not able to. She's now in close combat, however? The HiME seems to be adapting as she is about to launch a counter attack of the grunt. She's however not taking this lightly. She's been pressed before but this? She has to wonder what she's stumbled into. Still she'll not turn back as she again launches her self with her element at the solider trying to beat him back.

"So that's how you wish to fight?!"

Madobe Kuroi has posed:

This battle is pretty one-sided. But that magical ninja seems pretty confident. The serial killer, however, needs help!

Running through the fire, never a good idea, but she likes Serial-Killer-Chan--Sweet Pea rushes over and helps pull her off to one side, out of the way but not too far--just enough that she won't get hit by incidental fire.

Time to run away!, she thinks, she's done more than enough! She saved a lady! She's tired of being on fire. Li has it handled. But before she starts running, she tries to shoot Alastor full of pink lasers to plaster him against a wall to open up some space for her to do just that!

Miyu Oyanagi has posed:

As the battle rages on outside of the story, The Original looks down at his prey and advances slowly, looming over the wounded human with a look of distain on his face, "Surely this can not be the Inheritor... she is but a mewling kitten... what a disappointment..." He raises his boot and stomps down hard on the girl's back, then grinds his heel into her spine, "But orders are orders..."

Gritting her teeth, the girl opens one eye and looks over... only to see her laptop sitting there, it's ruined screen black. Then without warning, it flickers to life and displays a single question.

'Do you desire salvation?'

The girl's mouth opens slightly as she gazes at the question displayed on a computer that shouldn't even be functioning, but her gaze is broken when Multex reaches down to grab her. Out of blind panic, she reaches out to the screen and touches it.

When she does, the entire store is fileld with white light.

in that moment of distraction, Multex briefly loses focus on his duplicates and in that precise moment, Fuu, Raikari, and Midori strike. The Red is caught in the moment of distraction and is sent hurtling back from the magical arrow of wind. A moment later and The Green follows suited as Raikari uses his own trick against him and spawns copies to overwhelm his defenses. The Blue meanwhile lets out the closest thing to an actual emotion that any of these clones have made as it roars out in pain from the jagged scar in it's chest.

Then back at the store front, the entire front wall explodes outwards as The Original is sent hurtling out of the building and skips across the ground like a skipped stone over water. A moment later and a new figure emerges, dressed in an eminence outfight with glowing lines of ice cold blue trimming the edges. In her hand she carries a scythe.

As the trio of clones rise up along with their originator, they take stock of the suitation... and then as one, all four of them unleash blasts of purple energy from their foreheads to cut down their foes.

Syaoran Li has posed:

Syaoran Li's plan to light the demon on fire, by contrast, is working amazingly well! He touches down atop a horizontal pole, from which hangs a banner proclaiming the Best Prices in All Akihabara on Some Bunch Of Stupid Moé Crap That Kids Will Waste Their Parents' Money On *(Rough translation. Syaoran Li is 10, going on 43.). He leaps off the pole, having determined that staying mobile is the best tactic for staying alive.

(A brief flashback shows a cackling Yelan Li hurling spears of water at her son's face, over and over. Magical world parenting is like that sometimes.)

The decision to go airborne is a blessing and a curse; he can't avoid the sonic blast and is forced to simply soak the damage, mana leaching away as the magic barrier absorbs the impact, but the force of it simply throws him slightly higher than intended, as there is nothing in the sky for him to slam in to. As he flies backward, Syaoran turns his body to face Alastor again, trying to pick out targets. He spots the demon, who is angry. He spots the one he doesn't know, who is looking batteres. He spots Nadeshiko, who is looking...not...getting up.

>:|

Syaoran touches down on the rooftop, his eyes intent. It is neither chivalry nor chauvinism that prompts his reaction - after being raised by a strong woman in a household of strong women, the young man knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that Nadeshiko is no less competent than he...at least not because of her gender. It is because of countless other things - his education, his training, his bloodline, his history. Countless generations of wizards have guided humanity through the Dark Ages and into the light, culminating in the Magic Association of modernity. He is supposed to protect her because he is the son of the water witch of the Ala Rubra. Because in his veins flows the blood of the greatest wizard of all time. Because he was born and bred to protect Nadeshiko Fujisaki, and all the people of this world.

Because he is Magi, one of the Wise. And this creature must fall.

A pair of paper slips come into the young magus's hand as he leaps down off the eighth story, his clothes flapping in the breeze with the force of his passage. White-blue tendrils of light flow along his body as he goes, power gathering in his tiny form. He lands close to Alastor, coming up in a roll, left hand slapping the twin charms in an X in the centre of the demon's chest. He ducks and spins to evade the initial reprisal, then brings his glowing blade up in a flat-bladed slap...right at the paper charms.

"Raitei!" Syaoran shouts, as the god of thunder rises. "SHOURAI!"

Hotaka Domen has posed:

Alastor's eyes go wide as he suddenly sees lasers being thrown his ways. He growls lowly and has to stop trying to break the spell cast around him. He throws out his left hand as a magical barrier suddenly forms out in front of him. The pink lasers slam into the barrier, one right after the other. A last one breaks through and slams into his right shoulder, causing him to flinch back in pain.

Then suddenly comes in paper X and another little attack from the Magi, only this time a rather powerful summon, which not only breaks Alastor from the fire cage, but throws him right through a building and right out the other side!

'We should finish up. You are not ready for this. Not this long of confrontation.'

A mild desync appears between the two who are acting as one. The real Alastor voicing his concerns to Hotaka Domen. Though the youth effected by the demons powers and thus not his normal self, sneers at Alastor's words. "I got this.." he growls at no one as he nearly goes down on one knee. "..we got this.."

'....'

The demon humanoid stands back up as his wings unfurl. He suddenly jumps straight up into the air, taking flight. That is when Li may notice a shadow soon looming over him and then shortly Alastor dropping right down, sword being held in both hands with a mighty humanoid roar as he tries to bring the very blade right on top the Magi below.

Raikari Shinkyou has posed:

As The Green topples to the ground the copy-pastes disappear, leaving only the original Sentry Kagami standing with her polearm at the ready. "Had enough yet? Or do I need to curbstomp you even harde--Huh?" Her head snaps in the direction of the exploding storefront as another of the monsters is thrown from it, and more importantly, at who steps out of the shop.

Bars of code stream across her visor, and then ALICRN's icon pops up in the corner of her vision. -Detecting PARTIAL MATCH to registered LIGHT CODE wavelength. It's fragmented, but authentic.-

Raikari would probably squee at the awesomeness of her visor having a CODEC if it wasn't for the moment of this discovery being rather important. That was, or at least part of, the special entity the Code Beast was looking for. She wasn't expecting to complete that Quest Requirement so soon!

Unfortunately it's right then while she's distracted that the monsters get back up, and The Green blasts Kagami with a beam before she has a chance to realize her opponent is up and attacking. It slams into her and sends the digital unicorn-girl tumbling across the street until she crashes into a dumpster, leaving a sizable dent in it as she slips to the ground.

- My apologizes for distracting you -

"Eh, it was important, don't sweat it." Kagami jabs the butt of her polearm to the ground to use it to push herself to her feet and shakes herself off. That really wasn't a pleasant experience. "And for you." Eyes narrow behind her visor as she raises the weapon and starts to stalk towards her foe(s)? "You may think that was pretty clever, blindsiding a foe like that. But you know what? I've seen five year olds pull off fancier cross-counters in Gutpuncher Xtreme, and that combo system is murder on the thumbs to learn properly. So despite all this ruckus, I guess you're nothing but a button mashing hack trying to look all leet and dominant. Well, then..."

Abruptly Kagami darts towards the trio, towards the green one specifically, her polearm disappearing into digital space as she thrusts out one hand to grab Green by the face and jerk him foward, and down so she can thrust her knee up into his gut. "DOMINATE THIS!"

Madobe Kuroi has posed:

Take that, jerk!, Madobe thinks.

Madobe leans againsit the wall, hesitant to abandon Nadeshiko. It looks like she could run away. Ninja boy's got this, right? Maybe she should ask him if he's got this. She looks up and over towards Ninja Boy.

Actually what would she do if he WAS in danger? This guy's way more powerful than her. She just shoots pink flowers. Fire and flowers don't mix!

She looks down at her phone and peers at the picture she had taken of Alastor.

Hey! She thinks. There's stats on there! She didn't notice that before!

She pokes at her phone some more again. She also uses this opportunity to check her email inbox. Still empty!

Syaoran Li has posed:

Lightning crashes, and Syaoran Li...sways a little, catching himself a second later. His chest rises and falls quickly, nostrils flaring and mouth puffing as he tries to catch his breath and shake the dancing sparks out of his eyes. He'd known a true battle would be different from training, but...Cheeks puff out in a sigh. He's simply not used to using this many spells in succession. To make matters worse, he's thrown two of his best shots at the demon. And it's still coming.

Syaoran licks his lips, and his eyes flick to one side, where Sweet Pea is dragging Nadeshiko away. Leather creaks as his grip tightens on the hilt of his great-grandfather's jian. Have to keep its attention, he thinks as he lifts the sword in a two-handed overhead guard. This is going to hurt, he thinks a split-second thereafter.

The impact of sword on sword is tremendous, and Alastor will clearly feel the give of true contact as he drives the young magus into the street. Asphalt shatters in a circle five yards across, debris blasting upward as the demon's sword pulverizes everything beneath it. It takes several seconds for the dust to settle, at which point Syaoran Li's broken, battered body is lying at Alastor's feet.

...except...

The boy looks thinner than Alastor will remember. And paler. And...derpier, for that matter, as the boy's expression is a sort of cartoonish XD rather than the >:| he was previously holding. A second later, the body seems to literally melt in on itself, accompanied by the 'phhthththththththbhhbhbh' of a deflating balloon, smoke boiling out of the ears, nose, and mouth. Seconds after that, the body has shrunk down to a white slip of paper, shaped like a children's cutout of a man, except cut in half.

And it is then that Alastor will feel a pair of feet land on his shoulders, followed by a hard ruffling of his hair.

"Aww, and you were so /close/, too!" Syaoran sing-songs in a mocking voice that belies the gaunt, exhausted pallor to his face. He leaps off the demon - hopefully before it can murder him - without doing anything in the way of serious damage.

Unless one was to count the hair he tried to pull from Alastor's scalp.

Fuu Hououji has posed:

Rather than trying to dodge, Fuu braces against the incoming viral beam, trying to take as much of it on her right arm's bracer as she can.

It hurts. Quite a bit, really. But better than taking it without more protection than that. She winces, shaking her arm out as if to try and get some feeling back in it after the impact, and takes stock of the situation - not just her own enemy, but the other heroines (and hero) who are engaged against whatever these armored creatures are. The first spell she developed was for healing, after all ... and some of her allies, even if she doesn't know who they are, are looking much the worse for wear.

At least she can do something about that. She slips her arm through her bow to hold it, then raises her arms, wind swirling about her as she focuses ...

"Iyashi no Kaze!" (Healing Wind) She sweeps her arms forward, gesturing at Midori, Syaoran, and Madobe, and the faintly glowing wind rushes forward to swirl around them - soothing some of their aches and more severe wounds, and restoring some of their fighting ability. If Fuu wasn't looking out for other attacks coming her way, she could do a lot more, but this will have to do for now …

Hotaka Domen has posed:

The magi is getting cocky and Alastor growls lowly as he suddenly feels bodily contact against his armor, then his hair being ruffled, and Li attempting to escape. Those gold eyes narrow, before he left hand snatches out for the Magi Ninja's foot and then suddenly goes to slam him into the ground.

Alastor summons away the sword and then his Gauntlet hand clasps tightly. He looks like he is getting ready to just slug the magi. However with a growl in frustration and sharply narrowed eyes he can only snarl out his words. "I will get you next time. Mark my words. You will live to regret this day, mage."

The demon then steps back, before he leaps into the air and then goes to fly off. It seems for whatever the reason, Alastor was pulling out of this fight. Perhaps that is just for the best.

Midori Sugiura has posed:

Midori Sugiura is just getting the unholy heck knocked out of her at the moment. She's giving a good fight but she's facing something she's never faced before, she's never faced anything like this. The other fighting along side are fairing well but the demon there. The strange soldiers Midori staggers back from the blast she's taken it hurts. It hurts a heck of a lot she grips her element and she looks to them.

"Don't give up, never give up, there's things like this in the world and we are the only ones who can protect people from their dark designs..."

She manages to brace herself up and thanks to one of her allies she is feeling a bit better herself, but the fight is far from over hopefully they can carry the day as a team.

"As a team you can over come what is far stronger than you are alone!"

Madobe Kuroi has posed:

Fuu's magic and MAdobe's words reinstill Madobe with fighting spirit! "Alright...!" Sweet Pea says. "This time we can take him down for sure--lets see what his weakness is.."

She scrolls down the analysis of Alastor's abilities.

She starts shaking in fear again. "...T..there's no way I can hit him that badly..." She whimpers before taking in a deep breath and smacking her face twice. "No! No! You promised you'd be better than this. That ninja boy could use your help!"

She steps back out from her hiding spot and--

--Alastor is running away. "...."

...

She slowly slinks back into the sidestreet.

Syaoran Li has posed:

The heir of Clow Reed gets bounced along the ground like a chew toy. It hurts his pride, and also his face. Syaoran tries to flip back onto his feet, botches the landing, falls on his butt, then scrambles back upward to meet an attack...that isn't coming. His eyes widen in surprise, then narrow in suspicion, then tighten into his habitual neutral glare as Alastor delivers his threat. He keeps glaring at the demon as it flies off, and for several seconds afterward.

>:|

Once Alastor is a speck in the sky, Syaoran's knees give out on him. He grounds his sword and collapses onto the crossguard, gripping the hilt with both hands as he sucks in deep, choking, gasping breaths. His head is hidden from sight, dropped between his arms, which is fortunate for his self-image. Because if anyone could see his head, they would see eyes that are wide, sweat dripping from his face onto the broken asphalt, an expression of pure bowel-clenching terror plastered on his face.

>:| .oO(OH MY GOD THAT WAS A DEMON NO ONE SAID THERE WOULD BE DEMONS AND IT WAS SO FREAKING STRONG HOLY COW I'M ALIVE I'M ALIVE)

>:o <(*huff* *puff*)

>:| .oO(AIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEE)

Syaoran sucks in a deep breath, swallows, then forces his body back into motion, arms shaking as he pushes himself up off his sword. He takes two steps forward, and then starts staggering off in the direction he saw Nadeshiko vanish; the fighting's not done, but he'll need to check on her first. Because it's the polite thing to do. Not because his knees are still shaking. At /all/.

Miyu Oyanagi has posed:

The purple beam of energy sweeps up, slicing through the pavement as it passes. The blast fails to strike the newly arrived Magical Girl as she dives to the side and rolls, only to come up it a crouching position. One hand slips up to her headset as he visor comes online and begins to scan the target...

In the meantime, the Green takes it hard in the gut as Raikari drives her knee up into him, but rather than crumple over in pain like one would expect, the Viral Soldier simply absorbs the blow and retches himself free... and a moment later, the new girl finds out why as her scan completes.

"The colored soldiers are just puppets! The black one is directing them using the orbs on his chest! Focus your attacks on him!"

With a growl of frustration, The original glares at the new female, then snaps his hand out. In response, all three of the other Clones launch themselves forward, wildly striking in unison at the foes arrayed before them.

***

As the battle rages outside, crackling glass being crushed under foot can be heard as I/O steps into the ruined store and gazes out at the street beyond. Then with a slight hint of a frown, he leans down and lifts the display case off the target before hoisting her unconscious form over his shoulder. Then he turns and opens a black portal, pausing only long enough to turn back towards Multex to snap off a salute, "Fairwell, your sacrifice shall not be in vain..."

Then he is gone.

Madobe Kuroi has posed:

Wow, Madobe thinks in her little alleyway. That ninja boy really was stonefaced the whole time. It's really incredible how cool and collected he was able to be with all that. He's really incredible. He probably thinks it was no big thing. And he's only like what 9 years old? That must be one of the benefits of being raised by ninjas, she thinks.

She uses this opportunity to check over Nadeshiko to make sure she's okay!

Nadeshiko Fujisaki has posed:'

Nadeshiko has been konked for a while due to a mean man saying bad words to her very forcefully. Also, due to the demands of the script.

But eventually she comes to, eyelashes fluttering daintily. She picks herself upright, rubbing at her eyelids. "Hm?" she wonders, in her usual dainty mode.

The naginata appears to have disappeared, at some point.

"Oh, is it over?" she wonders, managing not to look disappointed, looking around. There are unusual people here! That's awkward! Her eyes tick over, finding Temari, who has judiciously remained out of sight. "Uhm..." who are you people, where is li, oh is he coming this is going to be really unfortunate isn't it

Fuu Hououji has posed:

Directing her healing spell to those three individuals takes enough of Fuu's attention that when she's not prepared when the red 'drone' suddenly hurls itself at her. Midori's stirring words and the information from the newly-arrived magical girl ... well, they don't hurt, and that information should be useful in the future, but right now, Fuu goes down hard thanks to her opponent resorting to brute-force melee when she's least expecitng it.

This, by the way, is why Fuu tends *not* to try and use healing spells in mid-battle. Except worse than usual.

She gets back to her feet just in time to see Multex disappearing through the portal; she can't catch up in time, and even with her wind magic she can't 'bend' an arrow through there after him. That still doesn't mean she can't do *anything*, though; Fuu focuses her will, and with a yell of "Midori no Shippuu!!" (Emerald Typhoon), she sweeps her arms up, sending focused gusts of wind racing towards the portal -

- where they make a hard turn and go right through it in pursuit of the escaping Multex.

Raikari Shinkyou has posed:

"That would of been useful to know earlier." Not that Kagami is ungrateful for the advice. But it's like one of those times when the game's supposed help guide pops up after you've tried to finish the same level boss several times. Useful, but kind of annoying.

As the now clarified as a clone lunges at her Combo Breaker reappears in her hands and Kagami swings it for his legs intending to throw him aside, but the move doesn't go quite as she intends and instead the green clone ends up crashing into her and both of them tumbling roughly before she finally kicks him off.

Huff, huff. Feeling winded, but the encouraging words plus her own competative determination kick in, pushing her back to her feet. Ignoring the green puppet she shoved off of herself, she turns her attention to the one indicated as the real deal. "Oh look, bad guy in black. How tacky can you get..."

Eyes narrow behind the visor as Sentry Kagami pulls herself to her full height, steeling will as she plants the polearm in front of herself. The trace lines on her horn start to glow brighter and brighter, rising towards the point until the entire piece is glowing in that green color her code energy manifests in. "It's time to turn off your power, for good..."

A few sparks arc from her horn as it crackles audibly, then unleash in a surge that sends a rippling projectile of corruption clearing digital energy hurtling at Multex.

"PURGING UNICORN PULSE!"

Madobe Kuroi has posed:

Mean men saying bad words very forcefully is the most dangerous of techniques.

"Oh. H-Hello." Sweet Pea smiles at Nadshiko. "Um, Satan ran away." She doesn't actually know ihs real name so she's just going to call him Satan. "Are you okay?" Where did that wiked awesome naginata go?? "I'm...um....Sweet Pea. Sorry I wasn't much help... The ninja boy chased him off." That's his name.

She offers a hand. The hand is, yes, shaking. "Eheh....heh..."

Syaoran Li has posed:

Syaoran Li - GOT DISORIENTED WHILE FIGHTING A DEMON!

Syaoran Li - HAS NO IDEA WHERE NADESHIKO WENT!

Syaoran Li - LIKE MOTHS, ATTRACTED TO BRIGHT LIGHTS AND EXPLOSIONS!

The young mage touches down on a rooftop overlooking a bunch of magical girls (ugh) blowing the hell out of another, different rooftop containing some guy in weird black armour for reasons he does not fully understand. He is tired and really just wants to make sure Nadeshiko is all right, then go drink a juice box. But there are magical girls (again, ugh) blowing the hell out of &c. So that's out for now.

"Ugh," he grunts as he straightens. He's already thrown three punches that are as hard as anything he's ever thrown. He's been beaten, and battered. But he's Clow Reed's blood heir. He can't let a bunch of jilly-come-latelies go blowing things up in his town. Blowing things up is what /mages/ are for.

"Veniant, spiritus aeriales fulgurientes," he intones, throwing a half-dozen paper charms into the sky. He tears another one in two, calling a burst of wind that sets the others circling around the distant rooftop. Thunder rumbles across the city, blue-white filaments crawling across the clouds. "Cum Fulguratione!" he calls, and a hole opens in the sky. "Flet Tempestas Austrina!" Fuu in particular will feel the wind swirling upward, mana draining into the heavens, gathering into a ball of surging power. Syaoran throws his hands to the sky, fingers slowly curling inward as he reaches out toward the distant charms, which disacharge their power into an electric circle. It gathers for an instant more, and then his hands drop down toward his sword. "Iovis Tempestas Fulguriens!"

And then a lightning bolt and a tornado hit the same roof at the same time.

Midori Sugiura has posed:

Midori Sugiura sees that her speech has done some good to the other girls, good. She's please with that and she's not quite out of the fight, not just yet. The swarm comes for Midori, and the HiME of the wind? Lives up to her name. For the attacking swarm it is like trying to grab the wind, it just can't seem to be done, Midori waves, flips and otherwise keeps herself out few harms way as she finds herself utterly unharmed this time. It however seems to be over as she watches Fuu along with Raikari has it handled, then again who is she not to join the party to make sure the monster stays down?

"HIME DRIIIIIIIIIIIIVERRRRR!"

She drives her Labrys into the ground which breaks part of the street from the force of the impact and sends a shock wave racing across the ground following up the others attacks. In the end she just couldn't help her self, also? They needed to make sure the thing stayed down.

Nadeshiko Fujisaki has posed:'

Well, she seems nice enough Nadeshiko supposes. She is pretty sure that wasn't actually Satan but in this town she's not sure she can say with confidence, which is sort of upsetting. "I'm fine," she says, and smiles delicately. "Uhm, thank you very much for your concern. It didn't hurt too much." The ninja boy... "Oh, I think I know who you mean."

Nadeshiko does not offer her name because she won't have a wicked awesome alias to use for, like, a year. But then again, it seems like most people just accept the Guardians doing dashing heroics at face value. They are, after all, from Ohtori, where the student council is all amazing... ...something to think about.

"I"ve...uhm, seen him. I should go thank him!" She pops up to her feet dusting her skirt off. "Th, thank you, did you get me out of there? I appreciate it."

Miyu Oyanagi has posed:

The new Magical Girl stands, power pulsing through her as a magical circle appears before her filled with flickering computer code. Quietly, she cups her hands in front fo her and focuses her energy as lightning crackles across the surface of the magic circle. Then she throws out her arms and calls out.

"FATAL ERROR!"

And from the circle an intense blast of energy leaps out wards Multex.

Together, the five attacks intersect on the besieged Viral Soldier, barraging him from all sides with destructive energy. He screams out, his form distorting like the picture on an old, faulty TV before his form distrupts entirely and his voice becomes little more than garbled noise before he dissolves into the ether.

All that remains is a black scorch mark where the Viral Soldier once stood.

Syaoran Li has posed:

"Oh good," Syaoran says wearily. "He exploded. That's...probably okay. I think."

¬_¬

As there is no one around to see him fall down out of exhaustion, he does so, flopping onto his back and just sort of lying there spread-eagled for a while as he tries to catch his breath. At some point, he remembers to deactivate his magical barrier before it knocks him unconscious. He also uses this time to decide that since it's impossible to tell with any certainty which of the multiple attacks actually blew up the bad demon guy thing, it falls to the wisest person present - i.e., a mage - to apportion credit accordingly. As the only Magus present, he awards himself credit for destroying the bad guy, and also for chasing off the demon, which makes it 2-0 for mages vs. magical girls, thereby retroactively justifying the superiority he cited in awarding himself credit in the first place.

Logic is a required course in most magical academies. Ego is technically an elective, but it's a popular one.

Unfortunately for Syaoran, the time it takes him to work all of this out is exactly one second less than the time it will take Nadeshiko to find him, meaning he is still sprawled out like a wuss whenever she turns up. So that's a little humiliating.

Fuu Hououji has posed:

With Multex destroyed - and his 'drones' obliterated with him - Fuu takes a moment to look around the area, and once she's content that there are no more monsters or other bad guys around, she lets her bow and quiver disappear back into her glove-jewel. "One moment, everyone, if you please ... ?" she calls out to her allies, magical girls and otherwise (e.g. Syaoran), and takes a couple of seconds to gather her magic ...

"Iyashi no Kaze!!"

Fuu's Healing Winds gust through the area, doing a more thorough job of healing the injuries that everyone had sustained during the battle. A good meal and a good night's sleep will go a long way towards restoring everyyone's fighting spirit for real, but at least nobody should be harboring any cuts, bruises, scrapes, etc. that might raise questions from family members not in the know.

Raikari Shinkyou has posed:

And the monster is gone.

It's a good thing she's already got her polearm propped on the ground, because Kagami is pretty wore out after her first real fight using her form and powers. She pants a few times to try and catch her breath, leaning on the weapon a bit for support, though be darned if she lets it show just how tired and sore she is. "That was kind of a rush," she murmurs with a faint snicker. Then pauses a moment.

"What -was- that, anyways?"

There's a *blip* not unlike the kind an older style computer monitor would make turning on next to her, where what is basically a chibi white and blue unicorn appears hovering at her shoulder as ALICRN produces a projection much like a hologram of its own form. "A Viral Soldier", the magic-AI answers Kagami, though it's certainly audible to the others as well. "Programs created from a weak analog of the Dark Code to the bidding of its controller." ALICRN turns his head back to Kagami, though its moreso looking past her towards the other new magical girl. "They were after her, the posesser of the Light Code." Though it doesn't mention to the public that it's a fragmented portion of it only.

Kagami grunts, pushing herself back to her feet and shouldering Combo Breaker. "Then prehaps we should get her somewhere safer." "More safe." "Don't you start being a gramma nazi." "A what?" "Nevermind."

Nadeshiko Fujisaki has posed:'

Nadeshiko smiles her calm little smile, nodding at Sweet Pea. "Yes, it appears to be. That...uhm, creature, is probably gone now." She turns and walks out with quick but measured steps away. But she does stop long enough to look back, lips slowly pursing. "I do not," she says. "But it is the duty of a Guardian to stop such things."

IT IS NOT AT ALL THE DUTY OF A GUARDIAN TO NAGINATA FIGHT AN ACHINGLY HANDSOME SATAN

Studiously ignoring her own metatext, she emerges out of the alley, and by and by, sooner or later, discovers Li sprawled out calculating things in his head.

He is not helped in spotting her by the fact that she can be very quiet, when she wants to be, and has a sort of disconcertingly excellent concept of where peoples' cones of vision end, and sets herself about half a step outside of his.

So when she announces herself, basically, she's already pretty much literally right next to him, squatted down delicately at the knees. "Li-kun~" she chimes, merrily.

Miyu Oyanagi has posed:

With the Viral Soldier obliterated, the strange new Magical Girl looks over her handiwork coolly... before she abruptly turns away from the conquering heroes and leaps, her form vanishing in a blur before reappearing within the ruined store. Her eyes scan across the room, looking for any signs... but after several moments, she lets out a sigh and turns to leave, before her foot nudges up against something.

Looking down, she sees the remains of a broken laptop and pauses to kneel down and retrieve it.

Then with nary a glance nor a word, she vanishes once more.

Madobe Kuroi has posed:

"My duty is to fight evil perfume monsters." Sweet Pea says.

She is only 'stealthy' by virtue of following after Nadeshiko. She stares ahead blankly for a while.

And then she asks, "What's a Guardian?" Yup.

Raikari Shinkyou has posed:

And of course while they're discussing what to do, the girl disappears. "Oh that is not fair! How come I don't have teleport spam powers?"

"... That is going to make the Light Code notoriously difficult to track."

"But it makes it harder for them," vage wave at the smear on the pavement that was Multex, "to track her too, right?"

"We can only hope," ALICRN replies, somewhat grimly.

Syaoran Li has posed:

If Syaoran Li was actually as experienced in life or death conflicts as Syaoran Li pretends to be, he would realize that demons and youma probably do not announce themselves by calling out your name. Especially with -kun. And especially with a sweet chime in their voice. As he is not, he does not, and emits a strangled gurgle as he reaches out blindly for his sword.

Reaching out blindly for swords is not generally a good idea. Nor specifically, as it turns out.

"AAAAAAAAAAAUGH!" the blood heir of Clow Reed yelps, spilling a decent amount of the aforementioned from a neatly sliced thumb, which he pops into his mouth post-haste. The habitual glare he directs at Nadeshiko loses some of its effect with a thumb stuck in the mouth.

>:6

Midori Sugiura has posed:

Midori Sugiura finds herself feeling better than she was before, the Viral Soldiers are handled and there's several more magical girls that she still has no idea whom they are. She does not ask, but? A thought hits Midori. She can't be a lone agent, nor should these others. No teamwork would be key as she's got a sinking feeling? There is too much going on for any one person, or small group to handle regardless of power. If only because you can't be everywhere at once.

"Humm Just call me the HiME of the wind for the moment. I came to Tokyo to hunt down the source of creatures known as Orphans. I knew they were not the only game in town, but this is the second incident this week."

she then banishes her Labrys it just vanishes fading away as Midori wills it to go.

"Easy it's over..."

Madobe Kuroi has posed:

Madobe's vision of Li dramatically changes.

Ahh, she thinks happily, I am not /totally/ outshown by an elementary school student. Thank you, God.

Nadeshiko Fujisaki has posed:'

Oh she kind of slipped there. And why is this lady still here, Nadeshiko sort of ended the conversation.

God, middle schoolers. This is what Yaya's going to be like in five years, isn't it? Terrifying.

"We help people," Nadeshiko explains, passively, for Sweet Pea, before she turns a smile on Li. She feels a little bad for making him cut himself. Only a little, though, after the other day. "You seem tired," she advises, pleasantly, remaining squatted at the knee for now. "Everything seems to have calmed down. I have some errands I was in the middle of running, but I wanted to be sure you were alright. You seemed to be fighting well." From what Nadeshiko saw before she got blown up, anyway.

Fuu Hououji has posed:

And with the fighting over, and Fuu not entirely sure how to handle introducing herself to the others -

Well, there's also the fact that she needed to get home again, and she hadn't planned to allow time for a sudden battle in the midst of Akihabara. Realizing how late it's getting, she bows to the other fighters for the side of Good. "I'm sure we'll meet again at some point. Take care, everyone!"

And with that, she takes a side route towards the train station, looking to revert to civilian identity somewhere along the way. A really dedicated tracker would probably still be able to keep up with her and catch her reverting, but there shouldn't be anyone quite THAT dedicated around here.

Especially after the monster attack sent most people fleeing besides the magical girls (and one magical boy).

Syaoran Li has posed:

Syaoran's willingness to be forthcoming is also somewhat limited by the presence of...somebody he doesn't know. Recognition inhibition doesn't usually hold strong if you share your name with someone, and she saw him throwing a metric buttload of lightning at Satan. That sort of sticks in the mind.

He pulls his thumb out of his mouth and digs into his pocket for another paper slip. "Thank you - I'm fine," he says as he slowly pushes himself to his feet. One last surge of mana catches the paper alight, and the young man drops it on the pool of his blood, which begins to burn. Just in case. "You were commendably brave as well. Taking that thing head on - I hadn't realized..." Syaoran trails off, glancing at Sweet Pea. He can't mention Guardian Characters with her here, and his other default answer (you were so terrifying) is unacceptable for other reasons. "...well. That you had quite that much power, truth be told."

The young man pulls his sword up off the ground, then sort of...flicks his wrist, and suddenly he is holding some string instead, which vanishes inside his pocket. "But we should both leave. Now that the active fighting is done, we're going to draw attention. I'll see you soon," he says to Nadeshiko, then nods crisply at Sweet Pea. "Ma'am," he says, then turns and jumps off the building before she can kill him.

Madobe Kuroi has posed:

Hopefully Yaya will not be like Madobe in a few years. Madobe does seem oblivious for a while that she's an outsider here, which is probably because she's talking to people years her junior rather than someone she'd consider peers. well, okay, ninja boy was pretty scary but he's also still obviously a kid (thank god).

But after a few glances she gets the picture. "Ah, I see. Sorry!" She smiles. "See you, then."

And she turns and heads out on her own too.

Nadeshiko Fujisaki has posed:'

Sweet Pea makes her escape, and Li does as well. Nadeshiko huffs, a low sound to get her thoughts in order. Most people have a certain reaction to seeing her Chara Change...it's a little embarrassing, honestly. Or...a lot. Or a lot a lot.

Still, the day was saved with minimal badness and that's alright for her. "Temari?" she calls.

The little fairy emerges from her hiding spot, floating over from a nearby window. "We should get our things and go quickly," Nadeshiko says. "Mother will be waiting."

"Of course," Temari demures, and Nadeshiko turns, cape twirling around her as the two march on to their destination. A monster fight is, after all, no reason not to finish the errands.