2014-12-15 - Feng Shui 8
| Title: Feng Shui 8 | |
|---|---|
| Summary: The dragon attack was revealed as a diversion; the true assault is an army of orphans and robots on the headquarters of the Magic Association! How many enemies are there? And how many people are trying to get control of the World Tree? | |
| Who: Lera Camry, Cute Wolf Tsukiko, Dark Amber, Mai Tokiha, Sailor Mars, Sailor Jupiter, Kuniko Saito, Nadeshiko Fujisaki (as Tadase Hotori), Soular. | |
| Where: St. Ursula's Cathedral | |
| OOC - IC Date: 26 April 2014 - 12/15/2014 | |
<Pose Tracker> Honoka Yukishiro [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
Previously, on Feng Shui 7...
A dragon is summoned to destroy Tokyo Tower, and defeated by the combined efforts of a group of magical girls!
In the aftermath, Kero-chan (a tiny angel-winged lion-cub plushy-esque-critter) arrives to warn the girls that this was just a distraction -- the true battle is taking place right now at St. Ursula's Cathedral, the Tokyo headquarters of the Magic Association!
The Magic Association has other ways of contacting people as well; scrolls sealed with beautifully tied knots appear in schoolbags, atop sports duffels, and even balanced on smartphones. They could /text/, but then they wouldn't be the Magic Association.
Besides, they don't know the identities of the people these scrolls are being sent to. That's not in the nature of the spell -- rather, to send it to people with the ability to help and the heart to do so. The message is simple:
SOS St. Ursula's Cathedral SOS
There's another message delivered to every magical girl in the city by simple, direct heart-to-heart: at the base of the spine, the roil of the guts, something is Wrong. Something is drawing them in, a fundamental imbalance that demands correction, a tension, a tightness, that cannot be denied.
---
St. Ursula's Cathedral is also a small private girls' school. The whole place has appropriately gothic architecture, flying buttresses and stained glass windows and everything. It's not Ohtori, but it's still wonderful. Saturday evening, with the half-day of school, it's mostly empty, but not entirely.
Therefore the occasional scream is not unreasonable, given that a full-scale frontal assault is being staged on the place, right there in the middle of Tokyo. (Some magical girls, who fought the dragon at Tokyo Tower, will happen to be the ones who split off from the group to rescue the students.) There are roughly three kinds of combatants in the mix:
- Red-runed monsters, sigils ablaze on their foreheads, at least for the ones that are animalistic enough to have brows. Their predominant color, otherwise, is purple, and they are all slavering tongue, sharp teeth, and too many legs with too many joints apiece. There are the most of these. Some might know them to be Orphans.
- White-plated robots, created by some unknown factor, with weird black lenses arrayed in rows on their heads, and not much of a face, otherwise. They are far more humanoid than their counterparts, but no less deadly, with both laserbeam-palms and energized-pistoned-kickpunching.
- Golden-masked lieutenants, in command of smaller groups of the rest. There are a frankly impressive near-dozen of these, and their outfits are mostly black but vary as widely as their capabilities. Beautiful energy swords in all manner of jewel tones are the most common weapon that they wield, with no apparent 'lightsaber hilt.'
The Magic Association didn't have very many people on site, but a few groups of cute witches with an impressive variety of adorable striped stockings are still fighting here and there, along with mudo-wielding mikos, a couple of visiting Midchildans, and a really old guy -- before they vanish beneath a pile of monsters. Once subdued, they appear to be being taken inside.
---
Whether led by Kero-chan or brought by scrolls, magical girls who arrive immediately realize that the assault hasn't exactly just started. It's /underway/, and it's not going well for St. Ursula's, one imagines, given the relative /quiet/. A perimeter has been set up at the gates, with more guards just inside the high walls, of the robots, which are, to the innocent eye, seen as cops.
It is quiet enough that, apparently, stage two(?) of Operation What The Hell Is Going On Here is about to commence; a black stretch limo, full mirrored windows, pulls up to the front, and out pour a group of little girls in various attire. The one with the most presence is tiny and blond and wearing a black dress; she's the one who gets out last, after a moment's extra-final security check among the robots. For anyone who was there, these are the girls from the World Tree that one night, and Library Island more recently, where they were dressed more fantastically, like someone got way too excited with ruffles, lace, and glitter.
Second-to-last wasn't a little girl at all, but some kind of teenager, wearing a menacing black trench coat... cape, and a hat of epic proportions. Her eyes flash red as she looks around, but she doesn't seem to notice anyone.
They all head past the gates towards the Cathedral proper. Orphans fall into step(s) behind them.
"NOW! CHEEEAAAAAARRRRRGE!!" screams Kero-chan with the tiny voice of a mighty general five inches tall, and if anyone was hoping to infiltrate this situation subtly rather than simply boil through the front lines to try to stop things before they get worse, they... can still do so, but if at least /some/ people don't help the little guy, he's going to get creamed. He's flying straight for a robot's neck.
OOC: Like Feng Shui 1, part of this scene will be fighting off waves of enemies -- or, in this case, fighting /through/ them! Each round I will heal to a progressively larger amount of Fatigue; KOing me by the end of the round means successfully breaking through another line. If you fall behind, you'll be ICly falling further behind the little girls and their honor guard. After three successful breakthroughs, you'll catch up...! Additionally, attacks will be directed each round at Mytho, who will be playing the role of various damsels in the distress; characters who successfully +cover him will be able to participate in a few specific acts of heroism. One per scene per person, please! Also, this is a big pose that sets up a large-scale scenario, so please don't hesitate to ask questions OOCly! You won't be the only one confused.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro transforms into Ends Assault Team! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has fully healed herself. She is now ready to take on 6 opponents! COMBAT: Rei Hino has fully healed herself.
<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
Lera Camry has no idea that St. Ursula's Cathedral is the headquarters of the Magic Association. It wouldn't change her mind even if she did; once Kero-chan appeared at Tokyo Tower and told everyone (with a bullhorn) what was going on, she took off. Quite literally.
She can see it from a distance, as she takes to the skies. Red-orange light and sparks of gold shoot out after her feet, as she grits her teeth. There is a thin trickle of blood down her forehead ad cheek, from yesterday. She is exhausted, but found a second wind. She can't very well stop now. She sees the black limousine pull up, and grits her teeth. That hat...
...is insane.
Kero sounds the charge, though, and she yelps with surprise. Lera looks down at him and grins, sheepishly. "Aye aye, sir!" she calls down. "C'mon, everybody, we can't stop now! Like we said when Coloel Custer fought in the Second Boer War..."
The moderately famous Magical Cheeseburger Propane-chan swings her Device off her back. The plasma field ignites around the broadsword.
"...victory through airpower! GERONIMOOOOOOOOOO!"
Lera jerks to a stop, before she drops -- and comes crashing down towards one of those large white robots. Her device swings down in a straight, over-the-shoulder chop, plasma field sweeping ahead of her with a wash of heat and smell of ozone before it threatens to chop into the thing.
COMBAT: Lera Camry has used Bolt Diver on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Lera Camry has finished attacking. COMBAT: Kuniko Saito transforms into Poissonnier Kuniko! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to dodge Lera Camry's Bolt Diver, taking 23 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! COMBAT: Kinzo Hiroyuki transforms into Dark Amber! COMBAT: Dark Amber has fully healed himself.
<Pose Tracker> Cute Wolf Tsukiko [Juuban Public School (6)] has posed.
There are times when Tsukiko is glad that she's basically part werewolf. Faster recovery speed from fights is one of them, especially when she has to go from one rough fight to another, possibly *rougher* fight.
So while she's likely to need more sleep than usual tonight, at least the wolfgirl is in good enough shape to respond to Kero-chan's desperate summons. "Right behind you!" she calls back to the winged-lion-plush; indeed, she's quickly following him, lashing out with a low kick at the robot that Kero-chan is aimed at, trying to distract it from the smaller attacker.
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has used Slam Kick on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has finished attacking. COMBAT: Rei Hino transforms into Sailor Mars! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Cute Wolf Tsukiko's Slam Kick, taking 2 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Mai Tokiha [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Somehow, they made it.
The battle at Tokyo Tower was rough, and Mai drove herself to exhaustion trying to match a dragon with a dragon - but everyone pulled through in the end. Temporarily unconscious, she came to in time to hear Kero-chan's warning, and orders, and rallying cry.
The rings marking her as a HiME glint as she runs along - no sense in transforming back with the crisis not yet over. Part of her wanted to leave it to the rest, that diminished instinct trying to tell her she'd done plenty and could rest...but she's used to ignoring that.
Led by a familiar little yellow bear, she finds herself at the cathedral-school. Gorgeous - even by Ohtori standards - but beset by a horde of monsters. The lieutenants are intimidating, though a touch less eerie than the shadows from previous conflicts, but the red-runed monsters draw her attention. She mutters out loud, enough that those nearby can hear. "Orphans...but how many..."
The enemy of a HiME. And yet, the final arrival draws her attention from even that horde of monsters. The girl with golden hair, from the World Tree, from Library Island - she's here. She's at the -head- of the Orphans.
Mai's blood goes cold. She'd begun to suspect something was up, but this - this -
"What...what is she doing? What has she been doing, all this time -" It's her fault. She couldn't tell at the time, but there must have been something she was supposed to do before. Whatever else happens here, whoever else gets hurt...how much is her fault, for not stopping this before?
Kero-chan calls the charge. With a furious shout of defiance, Mai is happy to oblige - the rings she bears blaze with guilty flames, propelling her in a wild charge towards the line of Orphans, bringing her flames to bear with all her regrets.
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has fully healed herself. COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has used Devoted Scintillation on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly dodges Mai Tokiha's Devoted Scintillation, taking 7 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro's Fade ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Flash ability activates! Blind and Cripple applied to Honoka Yukishiro!
COIN FLIP: Kuniko Saito flips a coin. It lands on heads!
COMBAT: Makoto Kino transforms into Sailor Jupiter!
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Jupiter [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Something in the wind called to Makoto - a crackle of tension in the air, like a charge building up, looking for an outlet. She transformed and followed it without thinking, not sure what she was headed *for* but feeling more and more certain, as the wind seems almost to propel her along, that Sailor Jupiter is needed.
"What the he--?" She doesn't even manage to finish the exclamation. There's too much going on right now, too many enemies that need deal with for her to waste breath talking. Arriving at a headlong run, Sailor Jupiter takes in the chaos as much as she can in a quick look, and acts on instinct: her tiara ignites, lightning rod extended, and a slender lance of electricity lashes out at one of the robots, the nearest target to catch her eye.
<Pose Tracker> Dark Amber [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.
Dark Amber was in fact, getting ready to go home when.... something falls from the sky and hits in square on the head. This doesn't really phase as much as it used to anymore, but he does rub his head as he gets flung to the ground. He picks up the scroll and unfurls it when he blinks and his eyes go wide, as he frowns a bit. He's going to be a little late for home. Oh well!
Moments later, Dark Amber materalizes into a whisp of sweet smelling mist that smells kind of like burnt vanilla wood.
He sees people in gold masks and lightsabers.(!?). Robots. And weird Red Rune'd creatures. He seems to take this in for a moment---even as others arrive to just sort of smash into the various creatures.
He jumps down from his tree spot and thwips his arms out towards some of the robots, as a chain spins out- weighted down on either end with a sharp blade.
"Unwanted! Unwelcomed!" he snaps out.
COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter has used Jupiter Thunderbolt on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter has finished attacking. COMBAT: Dark Amber has used Binding Amber Chain on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Dark Amber has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Sailor Jupiter's Jupiter Thunderbolt, taking 5 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro is Quipped! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to dodge Dark Amber's Binding Amber Chain, taking 14 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Dark Amber is Psyched! Tangle applied to Honoka Yukishiro!
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Mars [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
When Rei had leapt from the Tokyo Tower, hanging on by a thread after narrowly evading a hydrogen bomb's worth of dragonfire, she feared that the monolith might collapse and take her with it. By the time she fell to the ground, the dragon fell too..only it wasn't going to be getting up again. Filled with relief, she feels justified in heading home and passing out, drained to the core.
Naturally fate had more in store for her. She didn't recognize the little spritely creature that flitted in like a fairy, but its benevolence was palpable..and its words were alarming. Wincing for just a moment, she knows that she has miles to go before she sleeps. Slapping herself in the face to rouse her energy, she silently prays for a second wind.
The situation seems grim..Rei surely would have sensed what was happening if this dark cloud weren't shaded by the dragon's vile presence. This enemy is cunning and capable to manage such a diversion. She, and the others with her, arrived alongside the limousine. A legion of terror stretches out before her. The fairy-bear charges forward with a bellow that belies its size..no time now to for anything but following it into the fray.
Leaping before the front wave of approaching aberrations, Sailor Mars spreads her arms out to her sides, parallel with the ground. Each limb is engulfed in flames, each firebolt tearing away from her. Twisting her arms, she guides both jets, each following the motion of her hands. In an "S" shaped fashion, twin pyroclasms dart and weave along her foes' formation, burning and biting at as many as she can manage before the fires wither away.
COMBAT: Sailor Mars has used Searing Serpent on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Sailor Mars has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to dodge Sailor Mars's Searing Serpent, taking 29 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Kuniko Saito [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.
Kuniko Saito was learning about the miraculous thing that is... bread, in the form of a later in the day course involving bakery and all the details that go into it. The fruits of this class will feed the elementary school kids at Infinity Institute on Monday. While those children may not remember, in the end, how many breads they have eaten, the nourishing terroir of these rolls will help them be their best.
Then a parchment scroll landed in the middle of the dough. The mustachio'd Italian veteran of the Blue Ribbon who had led the class had plucked up the scroll, read it aloud, and looked soberly over at the others. Including Kuniko.
"Big trouble at St. Ursula's. We must go forth! Hurry!"
AND NOW
Kuniko Saito has one key advantage in this situation, one which, for once, even eclipses the legendary power of a beat-up, custom-chopped Honda sedan. Cobbling together her money from various of her poorly-compensated educational side gigs, she has purchased
DECISIVE CULINARY TRANSPORT DEVICE "MARC ANTHONY"
a second-hand moped.
Poissonnier Kuniko stands on the pedals of the moped as she screetches around a corner, cutting in through an open space on the outskirts of St. Ursula's. As she guns it through the Biblical Garden being cultivated by the third graders, she leans over, grabbing up plants at random.
She also mashes her horn, seeing girls fighting ahead of her (and, of course, cute wolves and dark ambers as well). "Hey guys!" she calls ahead. "Heads up!!"
With a sparkle and a fragrant steaming, coffee whips outwards towards some of the targets ahead of her as Kuniko steers her second-hand vehicle straight towards the side of the column. She may be about to ram something.
The three espresso cups whip out towards the people who Kuniko could see easily, which turns out to be Sailor Mars, Mai Tokiha, and Cheeseburger Propane. This is the power of fire!!
COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has used Espresso Service on Sailor Mars. COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has used Espresso Service on Lera Camry. COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has used Espresso Service on Mai Tokiha. COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has finished attacking. COMBAT: Sailor Mars accepts Kuniko Saito's Espresso Service, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Sailor Mars is Cheered! COMBAT: Lera Camry accepts Kuniko Saito's Espresso Service, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Lera Camry is Cheered! COMBAT: Mai Tokiha accepts Kuniko Saito's Espresso Service, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Mai Tokiha is Cheered!
<Pose Tracker> Nadeshiko Fujisaki [Ohtori Academy (6)] has posed.
The Ohtori Guardians have been, as far as anything in the magic world can be genuinely obvious about anything, pretty obvious about their Magic Association ties. To protect people from the terrible things that might harm their hearts; surely, nothing can more simply summarize the Guardians. And so, though they may be down a member, and also like halfway across Tokyo, when the scrolls appeared, surely these young heroes would answer!
When they do, it's in the form of one boy sitting in a little red wagon tied to an older boy cruising along at top speed on a skateboard. The latter stops short and neatly stops the wagon with his foot a second later.
"Th, thank you, Souma-kun!" the blond little boy says, getting up and dusting himself off: Tadase Hotori, sitting King's Chair of Ohtori Academy.
"Don't mention it, dude," Kukai laughs, with a cocky grin, but then turns a dark look on the melee. "Daichi and I'll do what we can. You do your thing, man."
"O, of course," Tadase hedges, momentarily unnerved by the spectacle of it all. But he clenches his fists, squares his shoulders, and shouts, "Kiseki! Chara Change!"
"As if you need to ask! Show these commoners what-for!" cries out the small, kingly fairy that emerges from behind him. There's a loud, royal #-1 INVALID ANSI DEFINITION: +yellow(*POP*)] and Tadase is quite abruptly, armed with a golden scepter - and a little kingly crown. His eyes focus.
"HOLY CROWN!"
The blast of yellow light races downrange from the end of Tadase's scepter then - shaped roughly like the titular crown, a ray of light that engulfs the first robot it finds and clings to it, making it difficult to move within.
"We must hurry!" the little King urges, hurrying to catch up with Kero and his team. "If they get inside...!" ... ...he's not sure what happens if they get inside, actually.
COMBAT: Nadeshiko Fujisaki transforms into Tadase Hotori! COMBAT: Nadeshiko Fujisaki has used Holy Crown on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Nadeshiko Fujisaki has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Nadeshiko Fujisaki's Holy Crown, taking 3 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Honoka Yukishiro is unable to keep fighting! Tangle applied to Honoka Yukishiro!
<Pose Tracker> Honoka Yukishiro [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
Battle is joined anew at the gates. Lera screams down from the heavens and promptly bisects a robot with her broadsword, from shoulder to hip, which causes she of the insane hat to glance back over her shoulder and pin the girl with a brief but terrible stare before, her hands on the little blond's shoulders, she steers her ward into the sanctuary. The Cute Wolf meanwhile rescues Kero-chan from almost certain doom by kicking out his target's legs just as he's going in for a soft headbutt. He is certain to take full credit for this later. The rest of the robots at the gate are bound by amber chains, then shocked by the wrath of Jupiter and bowled over by a little King's crown.
That clears the way for Mai and Sailor Mars to roast the line of Orphans behind them, and clear a path for the group to enter the grounds proper. The garden is perfectly lovely, with marble statuary, properly trimmed hedges, and a series of delicate fountains.
Also, another huge pack of Orphans, who were, previously, sitting with the worrisome stillness of a monster one would expect to instead be rampaging all over the place, staring up at the sky. All at the same point in the sky.
But there's nothing there... right?
They turn as one to charge the invaders, and then all is chaos. There are so many more of them, it is simple and effective for them to simply pile on, all claws and teeth and ill-smelling hide. Some, however, spit horribly sticky lime green goo.
You know, just to mix things up.
In the same moment, someone bursts out of a side door -- a grandmotherly-aged woman wearing a floral dress and a lab coat. She is unarmed and unarmored, as normal-looking as anyone could imagine. She is also being pursued by a pack of robots.
Turning to face them, her low-heeled feet slam into the lawn in a karate stance, but what hope does she have against these supernaturally strong monsters on her own?
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has fully healed herself. She is now ready to take on 9 opponents! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Orphanpile on Nadeshiko Fujisaki. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Sticky Goo on Kuniko Saito. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Orphanpile on Sailor Mars. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Sticky Goo on Dark Amber. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Orphanpile on Sailor Jupiter. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Sticky Goo on Mai Tokiha. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Orphanpile on Cute Wolf Tsukiko. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Sticky Goo on Lera Camry. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Imperilment on Mytho. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has finished attacking. COMBAT: Mai Tokiha fails to dodge Honoka Yukishiro's Sticky Goo, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Stagger, Tangle, and Trap applied to Mai Tokiha! COMBAT: Sailor Mars fails to brace Honoka Yukishiro's Orphanpile, taking 30 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! COMBAT: Sailor Mars covers Mytho for Honoka Yukishiro's attack, Imperilment, taking it upon themselves instead! COMBAT: Sailor Mars accepts Honoka Yukishiro's Imperilment, taking 17 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Kuniko Saito narrowly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Sticky Goo, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Stagger, Stun, Tangle, and Trap applied to Kuniko Saito! COMBAT: Dark Amber fails to dodge Honoka Yukishiro's Sticky Goo, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Stagger, Stun, and Trap applied to Dark Amber! COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Orphanpile, taking 5 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Sailor Jupiter's Block ability activates! Sailor Jupiter's Parry ability activates! COMBAT: Lera Camry narrowly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Sticky Goo, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Lera Camry's Fade ability activates! Lera Camry's Flash ability activates! Stagger, Stun, and Trap applied to Lera Camry! COMBAT: Nadeshiko Fujisaki narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Orphanpile, taking 4 Fatigue damage! Nadeshiko Fujisaki's Parry ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
When the robot is bisected, Lera is grinning ear-to-ear. There is a part of her that loves this; she is doing what she always wanted to. It's the kind of adventure a girl dreams of. That grin falters, though, at the glower from the woman wearing the hat. Her eyes narrow; she has to get through a lot more of these.
Her free hand shoots up into the air, clutching the espresso cup as it flies at her. She quickly drains it with a long, pleased sigh -- hey, that tastes delicious -- and then she turns her head to look at the up-and-coming chef. "Thanks, Kuniko-san!" Her smile brightes, especially when she sees that the king has arrived. She calls out to the others in Kero's brigade: "Does anyone know who these people are?"
She tosses the cup to the side, then, and clutches the broadsword with both hands. She sees the green goo spat by one of the invaders -- and the glop shoots around her feet, even as she ducks from the glob spat closest to her. She lifts up, then, when she spots the grandmother move out -- and yanks down, a strand of goop attached to her ankle. "Oh, no!"
She slashes through it, with the sword, but there isn't time to help after that; some of the horde is surging by. She turns, spotting one of the masked lieutenants nearby. Her eyes narrow, and Lera jumps into the air. She doesn't fly; rather, she comes back down, launching a mighty roundhouse kick at the mask-wearing lieutenant.
COMBAT: Lera Camry has used Spin Kick on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Lera Camry has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly dodges Lera Camry's Spin Kick, taking 10 Fatigue damage! Lera Camry is Psyched! Honoka Yukishiro's Fade ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Flash ability activates! COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko narrowly counters Honoka Yukishiro's Orphanpile, taking 19 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko's counterattack, High-Speed Kick, partially gets through, doing 4 Fatigue damage to Honoka Yukishiro!
<Pose Tracker> Mai Tokiha [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Wild fury, and brilliant light, take their toll. Mai's fiery charge is not quite swift enough, not quite strong enough - the golden-haired girl and her party are already out of sight by the time the first line of Orphans are cleared away. It's just for a moment that she needs to catch her breath - the exertion from calling forth Kagutsuchi has taken its toll, and she could use a pick-me-up.
How fortunate, indeed, that a cup of steaming coffee lands in her hands. Surprised - but grateful, she drinks deeply. Pitch-black espresso, served perfectly - just what she needed. Mai turns for a moment to Kuniko, eyes wide, and then flashes the cook a grin. "That was delicious - I'll make sure to leave you a tip once we're done."
It was good service, after all.
Energy momentarily replenished, she takes a moment to look around. Sailor Mars, Tsukiko, Dark Amber - there's a fair few people she recognizes today. Setting the coffee mug down now that she has a moment, she calls out. "I don't know what's going on - I haven't seen so many Orphans in one place - but that blond-haired girl. I don't know what she's doing, or what's with all these robots, but...we have to get through to stop whatever she's up to. That..."
Mai trails off, seeing the horde of Orphans staring into the sky. Unconsciously, she follows their gaze upward...and her eyes narrow. Empty skies hold some sight for her, and...more questions just raised themselves.
The pitched battle, however, is the precisely wrong time for stargazing. When the Orphans move, she doesn't notice until gunk is already being sprayed at her - it catches her full-on, lashing her foot to the ground, weighing down her limbs. Disgusting - and terrifying, in that there's no hope for her to nimbly dodge any maw that seeks to devour her. Already, slavering fanged jaws are beginning to open...
But when in doubt, use fire. Unconsciously, her eyes flit to Sailor Mars, snatching a bystander from the Orphans' wrath - and then Mai's rings begin to blaze. Enough to burn free of the goop, given a moment - and enough to slam into the face of the nearest Orphan. Even unable to summon her Child for the sake of the nearby school, a HiME is not without her defences.
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has used Vehement Ignition on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Mai Tokiha's Vehement Ignition, taking 13 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Cute Wolf Tsukiko [Juuban Public School (6)] has posed.
Tsukiko lands a few hits as the Orphans swarm her, but there's a reason pack tactics work so well, and the brawl isn't going so well for her. "So that's how you're going to be, huh?" she growls, then redoubles her efforts in clobbering her attackers, striking with fists, feet-- and fangs.
Especially the fangs.
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has used Silver Fangs on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to brace Cute Wolf Tsukiko's Silver Fangs, taking 16 Fatigue damage! Cripple applied to Honoka Yukishiro!
<Pose Tracker> Dark Amber [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.
Dark Amber is struck by sticky goo, and --- ugh. It's horrible as one would except. It makes it hard to move. This kind of thing is just downright dangerous for Dark Amber to be stuck in---when one relies on quick movement so much. Regardless, his eyes trace over to the older woman as his eyes trace back to the monsters. He frowns as he tries to shake off some of this yeech, before he unleashes a torrent of unending blades into the black creatures, trying to do his best, just like everyone else is.
"Have to work harder..." he murmurs to himself.
COMBAT: Dark Amber has used Amber Bladestorm on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Dark Amber has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Jupiter [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Orphans pile on, and Sailor Jupiter squares her shoulders and throws her weight into meeting them, digging in her heels to keep from being bowled over completely under the weight of a crush of multi-legged monsters.
"You think this is going to stop me...?"
Her breath hisses through her teeth as she's raked by an Orphan's claws, but two can play this game. Sailor Jupiter reaches out with both hands to grab hold of the creature, digging in her fingers, and with an inarticulate yell she *heaves* at the thing with all her might. With all of the effort she can bring to bear, she makes to throw it off her--
--and, if she's lucky, send it crashing into its fellows, to clear a path for her or perhaps another magical girl to get through.
COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter has used Jupiter Smash! on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to dodge Dark Amber's Amber Bladestorm, taking 40 Fatigue damage! Stun applied to Honoka Yukishiro! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Sailor Jupiter's Jupiter Smash!, taking 17 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro is unable to keep fighting!
<Pose Tracker> Kuniko Saito [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.
Kuniko sees the others strike with fire and flame and lightning and the proof of royal lineage. Then she sees Orphans (robots? she thinks they kind of look like those French robot musicians) pivot towards her. She steers Marc Anthony towards them.
ptui spwat
The whirling tire of the moped touches the goo and Kuniko's face contorts in consternation.
The spooge!! That nameless, mysterious substance that accumulates in the bottom of pans, sink drains, walk-in refrigerators and bains-marie alike. This mysterious substance is usually of an organic color and can at times be filled with purest evil, as seen in previous episodes of Cooking with Mascot! It is often clinging and recalcitrant, sent by Satan himself to imperil cooks and their health inspection records.
The moped attempts to go further. It does not work, Flipping forwards, Kuniko is able to throw herself loose - but she stumbles on one ankle, grimacing eloquently as she staggers ahead.
"Oi! Jupiter!" she says to the majestic oak that is Sailor Jupiter. Straightening up, she looks around at nothing - before dishes begin clattering in the invisible kitchenspace of the Mise-en-place.
As a savory smell wafts out, she calls to Mai, "No tip needed, I'm back of the house!" Then to Jupiter, "I have no idea what that means." She presses something together, leaning forwards. "But alright, this is gonna sound dumb, but I guess this is a serious situation... and before anything gets worse, I want to know."
The shaping is finished, and she hands one of the objects (revealed to be Onigiri) to Jupiter, along with the question. "Are you and Mars sisters?"
"Yo, Amber!" she calls - at this range, she does not have to use Service, letting her save her strength for that fraction of a moment. The onigiri is instead lobbed towards him, gently. The last one she wolfs down quickly.
The contents of the onigiri are smokily-mashed eggplant (Levantine style) and shreddings of shawarma chicken, plus a sprinkling of paprika and a single simmered cashew.
COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has used Babaganoush and Shawarma Chicken Onigiri on Sailor Jupiter. COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has used Babaganoush and Shawarma Chicken Onigiri on Kuniko Saito. COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has used Babaganoush and Shawarma Chicken Onigiri on Dark Amber. COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has finished attacking. COMBAT: Kuniko Saito accepts Kuniko Saito's Babaganoush and Shawarma Chicken Onigiri, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Cleanse! All of Kuniko Saito's debuffs are cleared!
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Mars [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
It's good that the girls have punched a hole in the onslaught, wide enough to slip in. Now they'll be able to fight with all they've got..because they probably won't be able to get back out again with anything less than victory. Dashing forward, she almost trips when the moped tears out in front of her, tossing a coffee cup straight at Rei's head. Improbably enough she catches it, pure reflex..and most of it doesn't even spill! She downs it in a gulp..a little hot, but she's the Senshi of fire. Heat she can handle..
Within the beautiful gardens, things feel..different. Things seemed bad on the outside, sure. But more from..like a spectator's view. Now, on the inside? Now she feels under siege too. Threats all about..not just the ones that she can see, and there are plenty of those..but the forces beyond. One doesn't drive to a battlefield in a limousine to join the fight. That seems more like the action of somebody that considers the fight already won.
Mars hasn't had time to think, time to get the lay of the land. Only to dive right in. Was the battle already lost? Is she swimming in a stream that she can't possibly cross? She's in it now either way.
Scanning around, there's no shortage of allies..a lot of unfamiliar faces among them, but not all. One in particular brings a smile to her face, and an ounce of relief.
"Sailor Jupiter!"
She raises her hand in greeting, and starts to trot to her.
Her focus distracted, she reacts that much more slowly than she should have to the sudden stampede. She has just enough time to turn her gaze, for the blood to drain from her face, as she's bowled over completely in a torrent of teeth and claws.
Thrown to the ground and pressed under the dogpiled weight, she snarls in pain and fury. A burst of flame surrounds her as suddenly and briefly as a brief flick of a lighter, and she hauls the dumb beasts off of her with shoves and kicks and the strength of an angry adrenaline, running out with stumbling steps.
Just in time to see a kindly looking old woman burst out from a door, hotly pursued by silvery assailants. Her head is still spinning from the trampling, but she can at least manage to clumsily dash forward, tackling the woman out of the robots' path and shielding her from the punches and kicks. Hunkered down, she can't make out what exactly blasts them away, but something comes to her aid.
Climbing to her feet and pulling the apparent scientist up, she looks around for a safe spot..any spot. Nothing seems particularly well suited. "Are..are you alright? Go..go with the others somewhere away from the fight, ok? Call out if you're in trouble. We're gonna make it through this, I promise. In the name of Mars, I will protect you!"
<Pose Tracker> Nadeshiko Fujisaki [Ohtori Academy (6)] has posed.
Tadase's Holy Crown bowls over a robot! Hurray! "Excellent work, Tadase!" Kiseki crows, and points firmly forward. "Now, onward! Show these wretches what happens when they threaten the dominion of a true King!"
"I'll not allow this!" Tadase says, because Kiseki can be kind of rude sometimes and copying what he actually says isn't usually polite. He takes off, dashing along with the rest of the party. His beat is usually X-Eggs, a truly docile creature compared to an Orphan, and the site of the beasts causes him some measure of alarm, to be sure.
But a King dares not falter, and Kiseki cries out at him: "Don't falter now, Tadase! People are relying on us!" And Tadase knows it's true; the Magic Association teachers he's worked with, the wise men and women who fight so hard for this city and this world...! That scroll was proof enough of their peril!
Unfortunately, while he's psyching himself up, an Orphan lands on his head, snapping and gnawing; but soon, a shining golden light bursts out from underneath it, shining brilliantly. Tadase holds his scepter forward, eyes set and determined. "The Magic Association, and the people who use this Church...they all need us. Holy Crown!"
It's not a strong blast; but it's enough to push the Orphan off him and toss it into the array of blasts raining down upon the monsters from the other magical girls present. He turns around, eyes landing on Kuniko. A King inspires his subjects to their utmost! "Poissonnier Kuniko!!" he declares, vocally. "I know your work well! The castle of our comrades is under siege! We must fight to the utmost of our ability! With all your speed and skill, chef! Cook these devils!"
Kiseki floats behind him, nodding proudly.
COMBAT: Sailor Mars has used In The Name Of Mars on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Sailor Mars has finished attacking. COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has cancelled their attack on Sailor Jupiter. If there are more attacks that need to be +cancelled, please hold all +attacks until the process is complete. COMBAT: Nadeshiko Fujisaki has used Noblesse Oblige on Kuniko Saito. COMBAT: Nadeshiko Fujisaki has finished attacking. COMBAT: Kuniko Saito accepts Nadeshiko Fujisaki's Noblesse Oblige, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Accelerate and Withstand applied to Kuniko Saito!
COIN FLIP: Kuniko Saito flips a coin. It lands on tails!
COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has used Babaganoush and Shawarma Chicken Onigiri on Mai Tokiha. COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has finished attacking. COMBAT: Mai Tokiha accepts Kuniko Saito's Babaganoush and Shawarma Chicken Onigiri, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Cleanse! All of Mai Tokiha's debuffs are cleared! COMBAT: Dark Amber accepts Kuniko Saito's Babaganoush and Shawarma Chicken Onigiri, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Cleanse! All of Dark Amber's debuffs are cleared!
<Pose Tracker> Honoka Yukishiro [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
Lera hones in on the lieutenant commanding the courtyard, causing him(?) to leap back, just barely ducking under the spin-kick, the light from the Midchildan's Device glistening off of his golden mask. He disappears into the sanctuary rather than striking back, for now, but his smile is extremely unsettling, a razor's edge of an expression.
The Orphans, meanwhile, ebb and flow like the tides. They surge against Mai's flames, drawing together for protection in the mass, sacrificing a few for the good of the many in a mesmerizing, hivelike motion. Unfortunately, that leaves them densely clustered with Tsukiko at their heart, and Dark Amber above them, and the two of them wreck havoc with fangs and blades. Finally Sailor Jupiter disperses the last of them by the simple, effective expedient of grasping the largest one and bowling him -- it -- into the rest.
Kaoruko Hanasaki (http://img2.blog.zdn.vn/49907855.jpg) smiles gratefully at her rescuer, Sailor Mars, and then widens that expression to encompass the rest of the group, eyes twinkling as they rest on each child like the bestowing of a profound blessing. There's something about her craggy old face that allows a great deal of quiet joy to nestle within, like flowers that have taken root so deeply within a cliffside that it is transformed from simple rocks to a verdant fall of green and aroma and life, life. "I'm fine, dear, thanks to you. Sailor Mars." Apparently the senshi of passion's reputation precedes her.
"This is the headquarters of the Magic Association," she points out in response to Lera's question. "There are as many reasons for them to be here as there are things that the Association protects. But..."
Her hand unconsciously clasps the pendant at her throat.
"...I think they're here for the World Tree."
That doesn't make sense -- the Tree, while visible in the distant skyline, isn't here at all. And it's just a ridiculously gigantic piece of flora, right? Whatever could that mean?
She doesn't have time to clarify, but maybe someone else will; apparently her purpose in coming out this side door in the first place was to lead a group of ordinary students away from the site. They emerge now, and gather around her, and she nods at the group before escorting the sobbing teenagers off the grounds.
---
The way is clear to the sanctuary proper of the Cathedral. Marble angels, and no few versions of the Virgin Mary, weep upon the congregation below. Pews are askew, carpet is scorched, and a window is shattered into component shards of the rainbow. This was clearly the site of a significant battle, and even now the tell-tale tow-head of the little girl disappears behind the large and impressive altar, the teenager thereafter. They leave a more formidable group behind them; robots who were holding the chamber already, and an honor guard of four gold-masked lieutenants (one of them familiar to Lera), whose beautiful, terrible energy swords ignite in a salute to the approaching magical girls. Then they descend, four completely different sword styles -- Kuniko is attacked by a kendo practitioner with a gleaming red blade, Jupiter a French fencer of sapphire blue, Mai some kind of Chinese kung fu stance in gold, and Lera (of course) faces something wholly unrecognizable and weird which is, ironically, American. Also, emerald green.
Those fortunate enough to not be charged by the lieutenants are met with a barrage of laser fire from the palms of the robots, instead. Each shot stings, burns. They are as white as the plating of the mechanical menaces themselves, and there's a strange loveliness to the emission of the energy.
In one corner, a pair of girls in the plum of Infinity Institute's middle school uniform, crowned with pointy witch's hats, brandish wands back-to-back. It is a sign of the pressure exerted by the invading force of magical girls that the blond's escort was shepherded through here while these two are still fighting. On the other hand, it's also a sign of how much trouble they're in -- five Orphans are closing fast.
One wears glasses, and with a flick of her wand, she summons a tiny wisp of a thing to stick in Orphan eyes, blinding them. Then the other, who seems too pale to be fighting like this, draws a bottle out of her pocket and throws it at the creature, causing it to freeze. "That was my last one," she mutters under her breath at Glasses, deadpan and desperate all at once, her eyes getting wide, throat tight.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has fully healed herself. She is now ready to take on 9 opponents! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Star Sword on Kuniko Saito. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Star Sword on Sailor Jupiter. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Star Sword on Mai Tokiha. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Star Sword on Lera Camry. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Robot Rumble on Nadeshiko Fujisaki. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Robot Rumble on Sailor Mars. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Robot Rumble on Dark Amber. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Robot Rumble on Cute Wolf Tsukiko. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Imperilment on Mytho. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has finished attacking.
Eri Shimanouchi has connected.
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko fails to brace Honoka Yukishiro's Robot Rumble, taking 21 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! COMBAT: Lera Camry fails to counter Honoka Yukishiro's Star Sword, taking 49 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Lera Camry's counterattack, Aura Surge, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Honoka Yukishiro! COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter perfectly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Star Sword, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge! COMBAT: Sailor Mars narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Robot Rumble, taking 6 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Lera Camry covers Mytho for Honoka Yukishiro's attack, Imperilment, taking it upon themselves instead! COMBAT: Lera Camry accepts Honoka Yukishiro's Imperilment, taking 11 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! COMBAT: Mai Tokiha perfectly counters Honoka Yukishiro's Star Sword, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Counter! Mai Tokiha's Reverse ability activates! Mai Tokiha's Tactician ability activates! COMBAT: Mai Tokiha's counterattack, Flare Shroud, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Honoka Yukishiro! COMBAT: Nadeshiko Fujisaki perfectly counters Honoka Yukishiro's Robot Rumble, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Critical Counter! COMBAT: Nadeshiko Fujisaki's counterattack, Majestic Defense, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Honoka Yukishiro!
<Pose Tracker> Cute Wolf Tsukiko [Juuban Public School (6)] has posed.
This fight is becoming quite a learning experience for Tsukiko. Today's lesson: unlike magic, putting your shoulder forward to try gritting your way through laserfire just results in a harshly injured shoulder.
Gritting her teeth, the wolfgirl runs forward and leaps feet-first at the robots, trying to use her momentum to plow over as many as possible.
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has used Overrun Bounce on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Cute Wolf Tsukiko's Overrun Bounce, taking 7 Fatigue damage! Cute Wolf Tsukiko is Psyched! COMBAT: Kuniko Saito fails to brace Honoka Yukishiro's Star Sword, taking 43 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
The smile from the lieutenant makes Lera's blood chill. She frowns, as she hits the ground, feet running along it, watching him flee towards the sanctuary. She stares a moment longer, before turning her head towards Mai. "Get to the hat lady," she answers. Then she looks at Kaoruko; her eyes widen. Endo mentioned them once, as did her mother. Then she nods, quickly, in her direction. She calls out while she leaves with the students. "The big tree over there? I--all right, we'll try to get over there!"
She leaps again, then, bolting into the air -- and then through the doors of the sanctuary. She looks around briefly, taking it in; the angels remind her of Lux Lapsa. Then she looks back at the lieutenant charging for her, with his strange style.
She swings her sword up; it begins to glow with a white light. His blade, however, comes in under that. It catches her in the stomach, running along the Barrier Jacket. It is already battered and blackened from the dragonsfire of earlier; he leaves a long black gash on it with his energy blade. The blow hurls her back across the sanctuary, towards the corner. She rams into the frozen Orphan -- and then she skids to a stop, placing herself between the girls ad the monsters.
"I'm coming for you!" she yells at the lieutenant, before she turns on the Orphan -- swinging her sword out with a one-handed chop. At the same time, the blade clicks; the bottom half drops away as locks deactivate, and she grabs the second sword.
<Dual Form.>
She swings it to the left, chopping for another Orphan -- before she leaps into the air. A magical circle appears on the ground under her feet after she leaps; Lera yells as she does. "Go! I got them, don't worry about it!"
<Rapid Skyfall.>
She lands, sword in her right hand slashing down; the sword in her left slashes up a moment later, and then she thrusts her right plasma sword for yet another Orphan. Sweat drips down her face, and the twin coattails of her jacket flutter, as she executes fluid movements.
COMBAT: Lera Camry has used Rapid Skyfall on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Lera Camry has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Jupiter [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
"Sailor Mars!" Jupiter calls back to her teammate, raising a hand in answer to Mars' call once she's freed of the Orphan pile-on. "What the heck?" That really seems to more or less sum things up at the moment.
She begins to move to join her fellow Senshi, but Kuniko gives her reason to pause for a moment and Jupiter looks toward the Poissonier with eyebrows lifting in curiosity. The onigiri is received gratefully - by the time Kuniko's question reaches her ears, the green-clad Sailor Senshi's mouth is already full. She makes a muffled 'wuh?' sound and swallows hastily.
"Sisters?" she echoes, clearly not quite sure where that came from. "We're not related. --This is delicious, by the way!" She takes a moment to polish off the onigiri, faster than she'd like but they don't really have time for her to stop and savor. "We're teammates!" Jupiter says it with audible pride, glancing off toward where Mars is speaking to the old woman, and she flashes a fast, fierce smile. "Which is kind of the same thing, I guess."
For now, it's clear, they've still got work to do.
Into the cathedral... and, it's clear, into the proverbial frying pan. The salute from that glowing blue energy blade gives Sailor Jupiter a moment's warning, and that's enough - as the fencer's strike lands, Jupiter slips to the side and clear of the blade.
"Too slow!" she snaps, lunging into a return assault with fists ignited with bright arcs of electricity.
COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter has used Lightning Fist on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter has finished attacking. COMBAT: Dark Amber fails to dodge Honoka Yukishiro's Robot Rumble, taking 16 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Mai Tokiha [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Sooner than she'd have preferred, Mai's flames ebb out - but they've done their job well enough. The assembled Orphans are driven together, and everyone's efforts deal with them. Destroyed or scattered, she doesn't much care which at the moment - for all that they're the enemy of the HiME, supposedly, whatever else is going on...
Frankly she doesn't know much about it, but it's got to be worse.
Kuniko's snack delivery continues to be perfect, and for a moment, Mai is lost in thoughts of trying to recruit her for Linden Baum. Or apply to be a waitress at whatever restaurant she runs. "Well, I'll try to thank you in person later." The food is morale-inducing, and she's able to burn away the last of the goop in time to hear the old woman's words.
"The World Tree? But we were there a few months ago, why wouldn't they go-" She pales - guilt and fear turning enthusiasm to ash in her face.. "...unless they already did something what they needed there, and here they've got something else-"
No time for further words. Mai rushes into the cathedral.
Immediately, she and the others face opposition - a gold-masked figure lunching at her with a shining sword of light. Instinctively, her rings blaze to life, and blazing red meets fierce gold - sword and shield clashing in a blinding and deafening cacophony.
But it doesn't break through. Determination burns in her eyes - but she hesitates. Youma or villain or what have you...they look like people, not monsters.
And then another of the lieutenants strikes at Kuniko, and doubts scatter like ashes on the wind. "We're not going to let you get away with...whatever it is you've got planned. You can all just stay put right..."
Even as the barrier fades, Mai is flying up. A target, for a moment - but flames lick out from her rings, forming a lengthly lash of flame. "Here!" The fire should be enough, at least, to herd back her opponent - and hopefully as many of the others as she can manage. A wall of flames to keep as many as possible penned up and out of the way.
Whatever else is going on, it has to be stopped. She's not Mikoto, she isn't willing to 'solve' this problem - but...
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has used Infernal Embrace on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly dodges Sailor Jupiter's Lightning Fist, taking 18 Fatigue damage! Sailor Jupiter is Psyched! Honoka Yukishiro's Fade ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Flash ability activates! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro perfectly braces Lera Camry's Rapid Skyfall, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Brace! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly dodges Mai Tokiha's Infernal Embrace, taking 21 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro's Fade ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Flash ability activates! Diversion and Trap applied to Honoka Yukishiro!
Eri Shimanouchi has connected.
<Pose Tracker> Dark Amber [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.
Dark Amber isn't liking this goop. Luckily, the Onigri, which tastes just wonderful somehow has this odd effect on him that causes the Lime Green Goop to harden and flake off. It's really weird. Also. Delicious. Mostly Delicious.
As people with Lightsabers charge and robots fire--- Dark Amber kind of wonders if Star Wars was actually a documentary now. He may ask the worlds most stupidest question to the Magic Association later if it survives tonight. He'll have to work hard so he can get his answer!
Sadly, his attempt to evade laser fire doesn't work and he ends up getting blasted. It hurts a whole lot. But he's not going to give up. Yet.
He has to think a little harder..... steel himself. Which he does as he attempts to jump for the cover of a nearby tree.
What can he do to halt this advance better....
COMBAT: Dark Amber has used Steel Your Memories on Dark Amber. COMBAT: Dark Amber has finished attacking. COMBAT: Dark Amber accepts Dark Amber's Steel Your Memories, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Withstand applied to Dark Amber!
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Mars [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
By hook and by crook, the defenders of the Cathedral claw forward. The old woman's quiet confidence goes a ways to calming Rei's heart. She'd never admit it, but when things get bad..there's still so much of her that's a scared child. She handles it well, and she's very proud of that. But she's a teenage girl. No matter how well she carries herself, that's always at the core of her. She feels pride that this wise woman knows who she is..but it's the comfort and strength in her that soothes her more than anything.
Sailor Mars joins Sailor Jupiter in the brief lull in the action, hugging her quickly. "It's good to see you..I was just fighting a dragon at the Tokyo Tower. Out of the fire and into the frying pan, huh?" It wasn't long ago at all that the shrine maiden had been staring at a school-bus sized talon raking its way towards her, all too aware of how alone she was, how much she wished that her comrades were with her. Jupiter's presence is an immense balm for her..
The scorched Cathedral draws a shade of anger from her. Rei Hino is no Catholic, but she has an immense respect for the nuns that schooled her, and regularly visits Ohotori's chapel. This battle is a desecration. This place of purity will be avenged.
The next wave draws to bear upon them. No youma this time..but the same metal men she'd just evaded, and golden duelists that she does not recognize. Altogether she has very little idea of what to expect..but as the drones raise their palms with that mechanical unity, letting loose with laserbeams, she's ready.
Pressing the bottom of her palms together with fingers outstretched, Sailor Mars 'catches' the blast aimed for her. Sparks of energy spill out of her grasp like hot popping oil, scorching at her forearms, but she manages a hold on most of the strike. Not so different than fire, this..
Gritting her teeth, the collected energy in her grip pulsates once, and then twice, in violent staccato bursts. Reaching back like a baseball pitcher, she throws her entire upper torso into the throw..the balled beam splits into five, rocketing towards the enemy's heads.
<Pose Tracker> Kuniko Saito [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.
When Jupiter gives her answer, Kuniko says, "Oh-- and yes, totally, that makes sense." Then there's a royal proclamation...
"Yes, my liege!" Kuniko finds herself saying. She looks baffled afterwards, but only briefly.
Inspired, she advances towards the sanctuary with the others, before there's a gold-masked robotic entity whirling towards her. A kendo style blade with glittering, gorgeous red, slicing forwards as Kuniko reaches out to pull forth her habitual boning knife. Ready to duel!
The blade strikes the inside of her wrist -
Fortunately, the glittering sea-green of her chef's uniform provides some protection. The blade recoils off them, leaving a huge burn mark and sending Kuniko staggering, pain wracking her face as she sinks almost to one knee. She curls the wounded wrist backwards, pinioning it under her arm as she looks up at the gold-masked figure.
She straightens up - even with an injured wrist, there's still a lot she can do. Kuniko sidles partially, around a pew, before something sizzles - is flipped - and then loaded, clumsily but with reasonable speed, onto a plate and flicked forwards.
"Can you chew, through that mask? Or is that impossible...?" she declares, as the fresh-grilled filets of sardine, set on crostini and dressed with bitter herbs, sails towards the red sword Kendonista.
COMBAT: Sailor Mars has used Searing Serpent on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Sailor Mars has finished attacking. COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has used Sardine Tapas with Biblical Herbs on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to dodge Sailor Mars's Searing Serpent, taking 37 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Kuniko Saito's Sardine Tapas with Biblical Herbs, taking 11 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Nadeshiko Fujisaki [Ohtori Academy (6)] has posed.
Tadase huffs up; young lungs just don't absorb the air like teenagers' do. Still, he listens. "The World Tree?" he wonders, hand coming to his face, balled in consideration. "But it's so far from here...what could they need here?"
Kiseki, in a rare moment of wisdom, mutters, "The castle doesn't have to be nearby to hold a place's throne, Tadase."
Tadase bites his lilp, uneasy; but they have to cut the conversation short. Which is when Kuniko's response catches his hears. He nods with kingly approval at Kuniko's decree, and swings his sceptre forward: "ONWARD!"
Not too much later, Tsukiko learns a fairly unpleasant lesson! Tadase has a plan for situations like this: "HOLY CROWN!"
The lasers coming in from the robots slam into another projected energy crown, vanishing harmlessly into it. Tadase huffs from the exertion of using his magic so much, but...he has to contribute. He couldn't possibly stand by while such an injustice took place! And so, pouring yet more of his own and Kiseki's strength into the Royal Sceptre, he cries a wordless holler, and the Royal Crown, laden down with laser energy, streaks across the Cathedral's length to bowl over a flock of robots. Behind him, Kiseki hops up and down in mid-air. "Excellent work, Tadase! They'll know better than to stand up to their betters now, won't they, commoners!?"
Kiseki is a fairy who is A) talking to most of those present, which is why it's good that he is B) also probably imperceptible to most of those present.
COMBAT: Nadeshiko Fujisaki has used Heavy Is The Head on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Nadeshiko Fujisaki has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Nadeshiko Fujisaki's Heavy Is The Head, taking 3 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Honoka Yukishiro [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
There are things to learn about the lieutenants by engaging them in battle. They are fast; they are skilled; and they don't hesitate to dodge in such a way that places them not between the group and the altar, but behind them, if that's what it takes to keep themselves from getting electro-juped or maincinerated. And it is -- faced with such potent energies, they need to move with /extreme prejudice/.
Their lives are more important than their mission, apparently.
The kendo lieutenant is wearing a mask that doesn't cover his lips, so he has an easy enough time consuming the tapas, and does so without hesitation. "Wow, what service," he compliments, but with a syrupy undertone that turns it into the lowest form of insult. What service -- you /servant/.
Lera doesn't have to tell Sucy and Lotte (http://th04.deviantart.net/fs70/200H/f/2013/135/8/2/sucy_lotte_by_bikkisu-d65dy9s.png) twice. Though her energy blades don't manage to hit the Orphans cleanly -- and a monster is trying to grasp one blade with its jaws. A faint amount of toxic purple energy leaks from its maw, indicating that this is not, in fact, a completely impossible gambit.
From that corner, though, she is perhaps the first to see that, yes, there is definitely a hidden staircase behind the altar, which the blond child and her guardian have slipped down.
As they go, the two girls she rescued overhear some of the others talking about the World Tree. Lotte (Glasses) tilts her head curiously. "Could you be referring to the Control Point under St. Ursula's? We just learned about it in class last week, apparently there are five, placed in pentacle positions around Bontou..."
Sucy grabs her insufficiently rational (but very helpful) friend by the ear and tows her out of the area towards safety.
Meanwhile, Sailor Mars returns fire on the remaining robots by giving them a taste of their own medicine; the fivefold beam explodes across their tops while the Cute Wolf explodes across their legs, and with their efforts combined, they're taken out. There are no robots left for Tadase's Royal Crown to knock around, but there's those Orphans on Lera, which it clears away, except for the one right up in her face.
The way is /not/ clear; not while that last Orphan is present, and not while the lieutenants, while behind the group, are so easily able to stick a Star Sword in anyone's back. They attempt to do so with prejudice -- Red Kendo swaps targets to the Little King, while the Blue Frenchman adjusts his stance and tries another lunge at Sailor Jupiter. Gold Kung Fu swaps to Dark Amber, while Green American fills in by getting right up in Mai's face, blade-first.
The others have a moment of relative silence to regroup, and then help their friends.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Consumption on Lera Camry. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Star Sword on Nadeshiko Fujisaki. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Star Sword on Sailor Jupiter. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Star Sword on Dark Amber. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Star Sword on Mai Tokiha. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has finished attacking. COMBAT: Dark Amber narrowly counters Honoka Yukishiro's Star Sword, taking 19 Fatigue damage! Dark Amber's Reverse ability activates! COMBAT: Dark Amber's counterattack, Amber Striker, partially gets through, doing 27 Fatigue damage to Honoka Yukishiro! Critical Counterhit! COMBAT: Nadeshiko Fujisaki narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Star Sword, taking 7 Fatigue damage! Nadeshiko Fujisaki's Parry ability activates! COMBAT: Lera Camry perfectly counters Honoka Yukishiro's Consumption, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Critical Counter! Lera Camry's Reverse ability activates! Lera Camry's Tactician ability activates! COMBAT: Lera Camry's counterattack, Sentinel Cross, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Honoka Yukishiro! COMBAT: Mai Tokiha narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Star Sword, taking 8 Fatigue damage! Mai Tokiha's Block ability activates! COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Star Sword, taking 13 Fatigue damage! Sailor Jupiter's Block ability activates! Sailor Jupiter's Parry ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Dark Amber [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.
Dark Amber has a Gold-Masked Kung-Fu Lieutenant come down in front of him. He responds with the 'Schintck' of amber blades being unfurled from his wrist bracers and striking forward into the hit. He gets a little hurt----but hopefully, he hurt his opponenet more.
He then follows up with a dazzling, burnt wood smelling blast from his hand into the golden-masked lieutenants face, hoping to weaken him, perhaps, just a bit.
This is getting dangerous, he just wears a frown as he fights. Nothing to say right now--to anyone. Just protect the Headquarters.
COMBAT: Dark Amber has used Amber Blight on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Dark Amber has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly dodges Dark Amber's Amber Blight, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro's Fade ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Flash ability activates! Exhausted applied to Honoka Yukishiro!
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Mars [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
Sailor Mars blinks. She sort of can't believe that her trick actually worked, let alone worked so well. She wishes Usagi were there to see it, she probably would have loved that. With a little luck it won't be the last time she has to deal with killbots.
The battle is thinning out..so why is Rei's heart pounding harder? Things seem to be going quite well. Maybe that's what she questions..that things are a little too easy. The two girls, the ones from the limousine..they were just here, but now they're nowhere to be found.
Producing an ofuda, Rei holds it before her eyes, the limp slip of paper stiffening, suffused with her energies as she chants the syllables of power. Dashing into the fray, she jumps and darts and ducks underneath the swordslices, and attempts to clap the prayer against one of the duelists.
She doesn't know what's going on. More information is necessary.
COMBAT: Sailor Mars has used Rin, Pyou, Tou, Sha, Kai, Jin, Retsu, Zai, Zen! on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Sailor Mars has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to dodge Sailor Mars's Rin, Pyou, Tou, Sha, Kai, Jin, Retsu, Zai, Zen!, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Analysis performed by Sailor Mars! Stun applied to Honoka Yukishiro!
<Pose Tracker> Cute Wolf Tsukiko [Juuban Public School (6)] has posed.
The remaining foes are a thorny knot, and the close quarters of the fight doesn't give Tsukiko much space to work in. On the other hand, it does mean that a skirmish attack might allow her to land a few more hits in.
The wolfgirl darts forward, dashing past the lieutenants while lashing out with swift kicks as she scampers past each one. It might not be the most effective approach, but it should at least help keep them busy.
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has used Flurry of Kicks on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to brace Cute Wolf Tsukiko's Flurry of Kicks, taking 9 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro is unable to keep fighting!
<Pose Tracker> Honoka Yukishiro [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
There is a rumbling, crunching sound reminiscent of stone grinding against itself.
It came from below.
Something has happened, something unseen. Something from the place that the girl and her guardian went.
Perhaps it was preventable; perhaps not. Regardless, the battle rages above; Dark Amber's smoke weakens the golden Star Swords wielder, while Sailor Mars momentarily paralyzes the red one with a well-placed ofuda. They withdraw towards the courtyard, their advantage lost, and with only two left, that makes it easy for Tsukiko to herd them with kicks further away from the group. Frowning behind their masks, they follow their friends out, holding their wounds gingerly.
That leaves the way forward.
What lies beneath the altar is as dramatic a dungeonscape as anyone might have hoped for in their wildest dreams -- or nightmares. Torches burn with chilly blue light. The floor is as endlessly dark as the night sky, and treacherous, with cobblestones eager to trip anyone who hasn't walked it their whole life.
Down the hallway is a door. A few moments ago, the door was closed, but now it is open, so the magnificent carvings on its surface are pressed up against the walls, but it is still clearly made of many things; gold and brass and lead, rowan and ash and bone, fused in layers visible upon the jamb.
The blond and her coterie of other little girls are walking through it, but their final guardian, she of the trench and hat -- stays behind. The door will not shut so easily, but she is the greater barrier regardless.
"I will be your opponent," she announces in an inhumanly flat voice. It's not a threat, but a promise, and one instantly, brutally fulfilled as she surges forward, golden light flaring around her right arm as it shifts from an arm to a spike, a sword, a weapon of some strange, unrecognizable metal wrought by someone without the morality not to.
She shares in common with her creator that void where compassion should be, apparently -- as the tip of her blade levels against the throat of a collapsed old man nearby. No -- a young boy, but with silver hair... and a blue horn coming out of his forehead?
His eyes are closed, his eyelids bruised; he must have been defeated only seconds before the girls arrived.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has fully healed herself. She is now ready to take on 9 opponents! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro transforms into MIYU!
<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
"A control point sounds important--okay you're biting my sword, stop that!" Lera yells, all in one breath. She glances briefly at Sucy and Lotte -- making sure they're on their way -- before Tadase's Royal Crown sends the Orphans surrounding her away. That makes her crack a smile. "Thanks!"
<Sentinel Cross!>
She swings both swords up at the monster; the purple energy leaking from it suddenly meets both of the blades' energy fields. They flash brilliantly, creating a flash bang that blows the swords out of its mouth, even if that light causes no harm. She grins brightly, with relief, as they flee.
Then she's following them, down the eerie dungeon. It makes her shiver, as she gets towards the bottom. She glances once at Mai -- didn't she know her? -- and then she looks down at the boy, nervously. She looks at the sword-arm, then, and there is a moment of hesitation before she shakes her head. She takes stock of the situation, gauging her ability and her speed.
She decides she can do it.
There isn't any warning, she starts the vaguest lurch of a jump, and then she trusts in the flight spells that Soaring Sky made her practice over and over. He showed her how to do this. He hasn't failed her yet. A ring of golden light erupts from her feet, and then she turns into a red-orange blur of light -- firing like a cannon shot at the hat-wearing woman, and trying to shoulder check suddenly.
COMBAT: Lera Camry has used Line Burst on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Lera Camry has finished attacking.
Yukimi Amane walks over from Tama Outer City. Yukimi Amane has arrived.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly counters Lera Camry's Line Burst, taking 15 Fatigue damage! Lera Camry is Psyched! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro's counterattack, Armed And Dangerous, partially gets through, doing 5 Fatigue damage to Lera Camry! Critical Counterhit!
<Pose Tracker> Mai Tokiha [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
It's a pitched battle, with Orphans and mysterious swords of light and who knows what else. Mai doesn't catch everything the two mages-in-training are saying - but the words 'Control Point' stand out. That- that sounds important. That sounds critical, in fact. "Right, so we need to get there, and figure out-"
An Orphan screeches, and the sword-wielders flip themselves out of the line of fire. On the one hand, Mai is a bit relieved that she didn't incinerate anyone - on the other, they're insisting on keeping things perilous. She glances back - one Orphan continuing to bar the way - and then back to the advancing fencers. There's a switchover, and she has to bring her rings up to guard.
Even with her guard up, the blow knocks her to one side, shining sword clashing brightly against shining golden rings. It's a moment before she can regain her footing, and she grits her teeth. She might have to go all out-
The grinding of stone is a stark, condemning sound.
Even as the other three drive back the fencers, Mai is already turning to that stairwell. It's with reckless haste that she moves, hasty enough that she stumbles on the irregular cobblestones more than once. And then...
A door is open. It reeks with import in its very appearance, the threshold to something arcane and mysterious and critical - and through it, the golden-haired girl is walking. Even as she vanishes from sight, Mai calls out helplessly. "Wait, stop-" She breaks off, words cut short by the guardian with that strange weapon-
Seriously?! Did her arm transform into a sword? "How..." Mai shakes her head. Where the weapon came from isn't as important as the girl it's defending. "Who are you people?! At the tree, and the library - they seemed so kind, trying their best to help. Was that all a lie?! All this time, even when we all protected them against those shadows...why? Why do all this?"
Guilty tears well up. She should have known, right? With a title meaning 'princess', it was Mai's duty to know something was wrong, right? She closes her eyes...and takes a step forward. One step, then another, and her eyes open - still wet, but with that much more determination. "I should have done something. But I won't let you hurt anyone else - I won't let this continue any further." Mustering her courage, she surges forward on flaming rings - aiming to clash her Elements against that sword.
COMBAT: The entered attack name could match more than one available attack. Please try being more specific. COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has used Binding Ember on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to dodge Mai Tokiha's Binding Ember, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Exhausted applied to Honoka Yukishiro!
<Pose Tracker> Nadeshiko Fujisaki [Ohtori Academy (6)] has posed.
Tadase whips up the Royal Sceptre, and with a CLANG, the Star Sword glints off its surface. Tadase's eyes flash, defiant; but it's not his hands, but his companions, that spook the interloper away. He takes a breath, dusts himself off for a moment. "Thank you, Sailor Mars," he says, eyes finding Sailor Mars and nodding. Kiseki floats about his head, managing not to look openly concerned; but Tadase gives his fairy friend a smile, before turning his young eyes toward the entrance down.
He rushes with the rest, and stops short with them too, clutching up the Royal Sceptre and holding it up, the crown on its tip glowing with warning. But she's threatening someone with that dreadful blade that her arm turned into! Which is weird, but he'll have to have Kukai explain magic robots to him later. "Check," he breathes, uneasy. He can't just open fire, she'd cut that boy open, but...what other choice do they have...? They have to advance, but nor can they simply callously...!
Lera decides she's fast enough, and Tadase croaks, "Wait--!" But she's already off. Tadase's fingers tighten, but he finds a smile on his lips just the same. "Like fighting with Souma-kun again. Alright." He snaps the Royal Sceptre up, and cries out again. "I won't allow you to play such a reckless game! HOLY CROWN!"
A blazing corona of gold light races down through the air. This blast, far from a hammerblow or a stunning smash - is more like a goopy royal jelly. It sticks like glue, holding the behatted swordswoman in place and hopefully leaving her a better target for others to manage.
COMBAT: Nadeshiko Fujisaki has used Royal Dungeon on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Nadeshiko Fujisaki has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly dodges Nadeshiko Fujisaki's Royal Dungeon, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Stagger and Trap applied to Honoka Yukishiro!
<Pose Tracker> Kuniko Saito [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.
Kuniko hears the cool words of that man with the red sword. It is complementary - but disdainful. Still clutching her wounded wrist under her arm like a chicken's wing, she crab-sidles over, collecting her dropped boning knife and immersing it in the Mise en place's sanitizing solution.
Others move in, strike faster. Kuniko fights, of course, in her own way, but...
Fortunately this moment of inner doubt is rapidly redressed as they do fight in THEIR own ways, and those ways are pretty darn effective. Deeper, then, into the scene of a young man held hostage and someone else confronting them all. A last obstacle, or a final terror?
Kuniko watches as the flat-voiced woman raises her arm. It becomes a glittering saber of pure light. Kuniko stares ahead, sweat running down her neck, her wrist throbbing. She half expects she has broken it at this point. She curls her fingers together, staring at the mysterious figure.
"If," she says, "you're our opponent... how come you're pointing your weapon at him, huh?"
Kuniko draws herself up to her full height, pivoting herself to present her left side towards the Miyusterious woman. She raises her injured hand, and forces herself to tug down the brim of her fisherman's cap.
"If you focus on him, you're going to let your guard down. In the time it takes you to do something unforgivable, we'll be bearing you down. It's six to one, but don't expect any kinda mercy if you're gonna talk like--" Mai surges forwards, "thank you," Kuniko says, tone deflating as her shoulders sag.
Of course, even with a sore wrist (though the pumping energy of terror and high stakes is at least putting the edge off that), Kuniko can't just let things go without remark. Grasping a metal-handled spoon, she jams it into something, scooping up a plum-sized lump of bright red pepper paste. She reaches
Drawing back with her fingertip, she growls to herself, "You think you're gonna wear me down with this --?" The touch of Kuniko's finger evokes the essence of the harissa pepper paste, the spicy smell rising outwards fragrantly. She draws the metal further and further back --
Then lets go, when she sees a straight shot towards MIYU's face.
COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has used Harissa Pepper on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Mars [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
She smiles and nods to the boy that thanked her, unsure of why at first..he'd been fighting the swordsman she'd struck. That's why..No time for reply though. A sinister sound from the depths confirms Sailor Mars' fears and suspicions. Something is taking place down below, and none of them are there to bear witness. In the absence of combat the hidden staircase is all too obvious. The click of her heels against the stone offers a counterbeat to her thudding pulse.
What lies beneath does not resemble any holy ground that Rei Hino has ever trod upon. This place seems hostile to interlopers, an angry and private urchin disinterested in welcoming visitors. The flickering torchlight does not emanate from any fire that she can recognize. There is only one way forward.
More than anything yet, the many materials in that door chill her to the bone. She isn't very familiar with the old arcana..the ancient spells..but she understand that this is not decoration. There is a purpose behind each and every element of the gateway's construction. She does not understand what those purposes are..but so much purpose in one place is an extremely ill omen, even if the rest of the tunnel were as warm and welcoming as could be.
A single adversary, standing watch over the rear of the eerie procession of 'children' behind her..or it. It's less that this girl gives off a stench of wrongness. It's more that she lacks some intrinsic shade of normalcy..that she does not present some essential aspect of humanity. Rei cannot put her finger on it..but the feeling in her gut speaks for itself.
She runs, her body becoming a blade..but not towards Rei, or any of her companions. Towards..
There is somebody else here. Somebody that she'd missed. Dashing forward, she wheezes slightly. How many dead sprints had she made in the last two hours of this excruciating evening? Throwing her arms out without poise nor grace, a wall of flames shoots out in a messy arc..less an attempt to shield the unconscious..person..and more an attempt to punish this strange girl for attempting to charge ahead.
COMBAT: Sailor Mars has used Searing Serpent on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Sailor Mars has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to brace Sailor Mars's Searing Serpent, taking 32 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit!
<Pose Tracker> Dark Amber [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.
Dark Amber is able to enter with the group. Which he does not seem to bode well when they enter. He frowns a bit a little, as he brushes his bracer off a bit. He raises his arm a bit. "Whatever you think you're doing. It's a bad idea." he merely states.
He tries to throw a knife at this odd person. It seems intent to miss... then it spins around in a curve and tries to hit her in the back, to drive her attention in a different direction.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro perfectly dodges Kuniko Saito's Harissa Pepper, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Critical Dodge! COMBAT: Dark Amber has used Amber Seeker on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Dark Amber has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to dodge Dark Amber's Amber Seeker, taking 9 Fatigue damage!
Michiru Kaioh walks over from Tama Outer City. Michiru Kaioh has arrived.
<Pose Tracker> Cute Wolf Tsukiko [Juuban Public School (6)] has posed.
As the group surges forward, Tsukiko takes a moment to catch her breath before following the others into the hallway. The ambience of the hall is the second-most unnerving thing about the place; the unusual swordswoman is by far the first. Better to size things up before springing back into action.
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has used Breather on Cute Wolf Tsukiko. COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has finished attacking. COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko accepts Cute Wolf Tsukiko's Breather, taking 0 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Jupiter [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
For a moment, Sailor Jupiter freezes.
It's the sight of the hostage that stops her, the boy with the blade-tip held so perilously close to him. Her mind races, searching for possibilities--
Others move into action, and it's like a trigger. There's no more time for hesitation.
As she did before, Jupiter moves on instinct, scarcely knowing what she's going to do until she gets there. As Lera strikes, Sailor Jupiter dives toward the collapsed young man, a quick sprint with her body carried low, ready to shield. While Mai's fiery rings block that blade-arm, while Tadase hinders the girl's movements and Kuniko assaults with pepper paste, Jupiter has dropped down to a crouch beside and over him, bracing one hand on the cobbled floor.
Even as she's pulling the silver-haired boy away from the enemy and putting herself between him and the blade, she lashes out with one leg, driving the heel of her boot towards MIYU's kneecap.
COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter has used Boot of Stomping on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly counters Sailor Jupiter's Boot of Stomping, taking 4 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro's counterattack, Viking Florentine, partially gets through, doing 20 Fatigue damage to Sailor Jupiter!
<Pose Tracker> Honoka Yukishiro [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
A lot of things happen very quickly.
Lera rushes forward and immediately finds out why to not do that -- Miyu takes the shoulder block, accepting that this drives her blade back, away from Clef's throat; but her other arm also shifts into a blade in the same moment, stabbing the Midchildan with great prejudice.
Then Mai catches her blade for a split second on her whirling rings, just long enough to slow her duck underneath Tadase's golden, honeyed goo, which splatters against the brim of her hat instead of the wall behind her. She flings it off, and Sailor Mars' wall of fire incinerates it, but apparently this was an acceptable sacrifice.
Her crimson eyes burning, she leaps out of the way of Kuniko's peppered blade in a blur that takes her into the group. Dark Amber's blade has to turn a full one-eighty to catch her in the back, and it shreds a line up her black leathery cape.
And Sailor Jupiter discovers, as she gets Clef (http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/magicknightrayearth/images/f/ff/Clef.jpg) out of harm's way, that not only are both of her arms a sword, but one of them detaches and falls with a chopping sound, mid-kick, and is caught by an instantly materialized new arm and hand, to slash at the incoming leg.
Her brilliant red eyes shine dangerously, as she whirls, one arm and two swords, to slice and dice in all directions. She blurs towards Mai to leave one in her gut if she can, then shifts this brand new arm into /another/ sword and goes back into full blender mode, slicing high at Tsukiko and low at Tadase, flipping over Lera, flying or no, to take her in the back with another stab if she can, then kicking off the walls of the narrow hallway, left right left, to close with Sailor Mars, who might lose a few inches of hair if she's not quick in getting out of that slash across her shoulder.
Spinning like a top, she stops abruptly in between Dark Amber and Sailor Jupiter, one blade extended in either direction, and leaves Kuniko for last.
The chef, who spoke so scornfully at her, gets a verbal response /and/ a quick slice towards her bad arm. "Does that answer your question?" She does seem well-capable of multitasking. And somehow, by the time it's over... she's back where she started, in the doorway, between the heroines...
...and what's going on on the other side. That evil feeling is increasing in gut-churning strength, and red light is pouring out of the room. Anyone who manages to catch a glipse past the robot and blinks back tears from the blinding radiance sees the girls holding hands in a ring, their hair rising above their heads, pulled upwards by the magic swirling around them.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Sword And Borg on Mai Tokiha. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Sword And Borg on Cute Wolf Tsukiko. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Sword And Borg on Lera Camry. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Sword And Borg on Sailor Mars. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Sword And Borg on Dark Amber. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Sword And Borg on Sailor Jupiter. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Sword And Borg on Kuniko Saito. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Sword And Borg on Nadeshiko Fujisaki. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has finished attacking. COMBAT: Sailor Mars fails to dodge Honoka Yukishiro's Sword And Borg, taking 29 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko narrowly counters Honoka Yukishiro's Sword And Borg, taking 6 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko's counterattack, High-Speed Kick, partially gets through, doing 11 Fatigue damage to Honoka Yukishiro! COMBAT: Mai Tokiha fails to counter Honoka Yukishiro's Sword And Borg, taking 27 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Mai Tokiha's counterattack, Flare Shroud, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Honoka Yukishiro! COMBAT: Dark Amber perfectly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Sword And Borg, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge! Dark Amber's Fade ability activates! Dark Amber's Flash ability activates! COMBAT: Nadeshiko Fujisaki fails to brace Honoka Yukishiro's Sword And Borg, taking 36 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! COMBAT: Lera Camry perfectly counters Honoka Yukishiro's Sword And Borg, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Counter! Lera Camry's Reverse ability activates! Lera Camry's Tactician ability activates! COMBAT: Lera Camry's counterattack, Sentinel Cross, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Honoka Yukishiro! COMBAT: Kuniko Saito narrowly counters Honoka Yukishiro's Sword And Borg, taking 6 Fatigue damage! Kuniko Saito's Reverse ability activates! COMBAT: Kuniko Saito's counterattack, Boning Knife, partially gets through, doing 17 Fatigue damage to Honoka Yukishiro! COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter perfectly counters Honoka Yukishiro's Sword And Borg, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Counter! COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter's counterattack, Supreme Suplex, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Honoka Yukishiro!
<Pose Tracker> Cute Wolf Tsukiko [Juuban Public School (6)] has posed.
Tsukiko dives under the whirling blades, lashing out with a kick as Miyu goes by. The wolfgirl loses a few millimeters off the end of her tail, which at least gets rids of the scorchmarks from the earlier fight with the dragon.
"Keep moving!" she calls to the others as she bounds off of the walls and the floor, cirlcing the cyborg in an effort to keep her immobilized.
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has used Herd the Quarry on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Dark Amber [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.
Dark Amber looks past the robot and notices the going ons. He frowns a bit. He dissapears into a puff of smoke as the fast attacker tries to strike, her blade probably slicing through the air where he was. He appears a bit down to the right of the attacker when she settles back down at the hallway, appearing from that sweet smelling mist again as the first thing he does is strike out with his right hand to try to grasp onto her shoulder. If he misses, this will look akward and he'll be wondering what to do.
Of course, if he manages to grasp her shoulder, there will be a sudden hard, almost flash freeze of hard, gem-like amber appearing on said shoulder, trying to cover her upper part of her torso. "Dark Amber----" he calls out.
"Crush!" he then calls out as the amber explodes inwards in nasty shards, trying to cut through into her.
They need to end this faster. And stop whatever's going on in there.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Dark Amber has used Dark Amber Crush on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Dark Amber has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro perfectly counters Cute Wolf Tsukiko's Herd the Quarry, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Counter! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro's counterattack, Slashing Free, bursts all the way through, doing 20 Fatigue damage to Cute Wolf Tsukiko! Bind Break! All of Honoka Yukishiro's debuffs are cleared!
Mytho has left.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly dodges Dark Amber's Finisher, Dark Amber Crush, taking 44 Fatigue damage!
Mytho has arrived.
<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
The second sword-arm surprises Lera, when it shouldn't, really. She manages to swing one blade down to block it -- sparks fly when it does, and it scrapes against her blackened, increasingly ragged jacket. It tears open the coat on her waist, torn threads revealing the dark red shirt she wears underneath it. When Miyu flips over her, though, she spins on her heel. The sword stabbing at her back is abruptly stabbing at her front--
<Sentinel Cross!>
--and slams into her crossed short swords, scraping over the barrier with a pulse of electricity and plasma up the length of the swords. Lera lets out a laugh born of exertion and near panic, before she breaks the swords apart to see her moving so quickly -- and behind it, the blinding light of those girls. The sense of something terribly, terribly wrong.
"Sky, do you think we can...?" she asks.
<We'll try. Fencer Form.>
The two swords combine back together, locking into place with a click and a flash of light. Lera swings the broadsword up in a salute at Miyu. Then, light flashes underneath her feet. A Midchildan magical circle forms there -- and another behind her, and she leaps into air, blurring like a shot. She turns in midair, sword twisting out behnd her. It leaves a trail of fiery light in its wake.
<Arc Breaker.>
She swings the broadsword back over her shoulder -- and then chops down overhead, as she crashes towards the ground. Fiery light shoots out, reflecting in Dark Amber's shards -- and then the blazing sword swings down. It punctuates with a brilliant fiery blast.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Lera Camry has used Arc Breaker on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Lera Camry has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly counters Lera Camry's Finisher, Arc Breaker, taking 107 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! COMBAT: Lera Camry is unable to keep fighting! COMBAT: FINISHER! Honoka Yukishiro's counterattack, God Will Be Cut, partially gets through, doing 35 Fatigue damage to Lera Camry! Lera Camry is unable to keep fighting!
<Pose Tracker> Mai Tokiha [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Metal rings on metal in the wake of Mai's wild charge - and there's a near-dogpile on the sword-armed...whoever she is. The hat goes flying in the battle, and the enemy's silver-blue hair is properly visible. But - this enemy is fast. Terribly fast, and not prone to answering questions. For a moment, Mai boggles as the girl -detaches an arm- to use as a weapon. Some sort of robot?
No time is left to figure it out, though. Shining red eyes promise punishment for the affront, and the enemy starts slicing and dicing and stabbing. There's no sense leaving things to chance - the HiME puts her full power into materializing the strongest barrier she can manage, between her and her opponent-
-and the sword goes through it like it's not even there.
There's a clanging sound, as the released arm-blade collides the wall - and a thump, as Mai arrives with it.
To her ears, everything is muted and loud at the same time. How much of it is her injury, and how much borrowed enthusiasm wearing off, she can't say - but she feels utterly horrible. Part of it might be whatever's going on, beyond the terrifying enemy...whatever the blond-haired girl and her friends are up to.
...she let things get this far. When those shadows showed up at the World Tree - and again, at the library - she stood as the last line of defense for these girls. Whatever they do now...she has to take responsibility. Mai braces one hand against the wall behind her, and with trembling limbs, starts to rise. The other hand extends forward -
- a moment, to appreciate that one of her Element-rings has been neatly -cut- by that sword -
-and slowly, heat begins to build. Slowly, but without limit, the damaged ring whistling as it spins faster and hotter. It might be an imitation, but it has the scent of dragon's fire - and Mai is careful to take aim. The girl with the swords isn't her target.
She's just between Mai and her target.
"Ka..." Hesitation, and Mai closes her eyes - and it is with conviction that she speaks, throwing the last of her strength and faith forth. Let this be the right path. "...Kagutsuchi."
What surges forth, to bear down on the sword-armed girl - or should she move, the gate beyond - is terrible, ardent flame.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Mai Tokiha has used Ardent Light on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to brace Mai Tokiha's Finisher, Ardent Light, taking 111 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Jupiter [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Sailor Jupiter cries out in pain as the sword cuts into her leg - just how many blades does this girl *have?*
But first things first: keep moving, Tsukiko says, and she's right. Awkward though the fresh injuriy makes it, Sailor Jupiter gathers up Clef and gets her legs under her enough to move the unconscious young man farther away from the fighting, half scooting and half hobbling until she's gotten him out of the immediate danger of getting caught in someone's crossfire.
Then she turns, reaching a hand out toward Miyu, and a wind surges up from nowhere around her as a pink rose blooms in her palm. Petals scatter into the air, becoming a torrent that swirls around the robot girl to (she hopes) distract and confuse.
COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter has used Flower Hurricane on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly dodges Sailor Jupiter's Flower Hurricane, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Stun applied to Honoka Yukishiro!
<Pose Tracker> Kuniko Saito [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.
Kuniko smiles at Miyu as she comes close. "Nah," she says, as she
PUSHES--
This is actually terribly painful, and was only possible for Kuniko to do when she spotted how Miyu was sweeping through the others and spinning left, right and sideways. So when she saw THAT, it was easy to see where she'd have a good chance to score her own telling blow, before the spinning dervish could harm her more seriously! (Hopefully.)
-- but anyway, Kuniko's boning knife snaps upwards in a shower of bleach-fragrant water, aiming to carve a score mark on the inside of Miyu's arm. The trailing mist of bleach water flashes into disintegrated but highly sanitary steam and that forces Kuniko back a pace, coughing once.
"You're protecting whatever's going on in there," Kuniko says, her face still shaded. "I guess with how fast you move, you'll make a pate of us if we try to run past you, huh? So --"
Flame, upon flame. Kuniko sucks in a breath, reaching down low and pulling out something. Holding this in her hand feels much like burning, she thinks, as she does lean herself forwards, moving through the memory-palace of a kitchen as she does, weaving towards the side as Mai calls forth Kagutsuchi's fire. It hurts a little just to be near...
But Kuniko is not unfamiliar with flames.
She hurls something overhand after the flame eases itself. What? It's not much; just NaCl + H2O. But there is that ineffable touch of terroir upon the mixture of ice and water, for this is a combination which is already known for its coldness.
The bucketful of salty ice is shockingly, vividly cold to the touch. Kuniko is hoping that either the ice's crystalline beauty will refract that light - or that the miracle that is thermal expansion will cause the machine-smooth woman problems.
It might be a tiny miracle - but would you call ice cream a tiny miracle?
COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has used Let it Go on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Mars [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
Speed and fury..the firebreather that scaled the Tower not that long ago embodied the same traits, but this is a much smaller arena. The horned one seems safe, thankfully..and with so many fighters arrayed against her, this red-eyed fighter, vicious as she is, will surely fall. But like a badger in bloodlust, she'll do some damage before she hits the ground.
Her entire body seems to be a weapon..transforming its own elements to suit the moment to moment needs of the battle. Rei shudders to imagine what kind of havoc she might wreak if civilians were around. It's good that they'll stop her here, now. Rei doesn't know what this girl is..but what little she's seen is enough to categorize her alongside any youma. She must be destroyed, for the good of all.
She darts and swoops like a peregrine falcon, almost too fast to follow with the naked eye..let alone to match her movements. Sailor Mars knows that she's coming for her when the moment comes..but with her hops and her jumps, she can't keep up with the angle of her attack. The blade cuts deeply into her back, a fine rivulet of blood painting her sailor suit in her customary color.
And all the while, events are in motion down the hall. The artful dodger rips and tears..but when she comes to rest in that doorframe, Rei is elated. Now she can strike..right now..and not fear for catching anybody in the crossfire.
Standing before Miyu, she plants her feet into the ground. One arm extends straight up, to the heavens. The other points directly down, to the hells. She moves both arms in a concentric manner, tracing the arc of a large circle..and where her fingers pass, a fishing line-thin string of scarlet hangs in the air. As the circle is completed, the empty air within the circumference blazes with a divine light.
What issues forth isn't dragonsbreath..but it is very close.
<Pose Tracker> Nadeshiko Fujisaki [Ohtori Academy (6)] has posed.
Tadase's been pretty quick on the draw today; it's taken some toll on his energy, but he's been able to prevent the worst of most of the hits coming his way. He snaps his Sceptre up again, trying to call out for his protective field, "HOLY-!"
Too slow. Or rather, too fast. MIYU slams into him; magic prevents her from chopping his little body to ribbons, but he still hits the floor instantly, crying out a pained "AHH!" and flinching painfully from the blow. "TADASE!" Kiseki yelps, rushing down to his master's side.
But the little king isn't so injured as to lose his Chara Change, and he gives Kiseki a reassuring smile, slowly forcing himself up to his feet. His eyes find the terrible things occuring behind MIYU, and he forces his hand to rise, though it stings from those blades' impact. "A King mustn't falter...when the enemy is at the gates," he breathes, ticking to look at Kiseki. The Guardian Character fidgets, uncomfortable, but nods and turns his eyes away. "We can't stop," Tadase calls. "That...control point, if they're so interested in it to use this much power against it, it can only be used for wickedness! I'll not allow it!"
The Royal Sceptre's tip burns with roiling platinum light, a flicker of potential yet to become. "Out of our way! I command you! HOLY! CROWN!"
It's the same words, but wholly new dimensions - as the light released from the Royal Sceptre's tip explodes downrange like a wrecking ball, golden light crashing down to blow through MIYU and hopefully just send her flying through that gate - and maybe disrupt whatever's going inside with the force of a little King's command.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Sailor Mars has used Fire Soul on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Sailor Mars has finished attacking. COMBAT: FINISHER! Nadeshiko Fujisaki has used Burning Command on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Nadeshiko Fujisaki has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Kuniko Saito's Let it Go, taking 5 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to brace Sailor Mars's Finisher, Fire Soul, taking 71 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to brace Nadeshiko Fujisaki's Finisher, Burning Command, taking 75 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro is unable to keep fighting!
<Pose Tracker> Honoka Yukishiro [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
It all happens in the span of a single heartbeat.
Tsukiko tries to encircle Miyu, but the robot slashes herself free, free and away from Dark Amber, who fails to find purchase on her shoulder, but whose imploding eponymous substance still shreds the back of her cape further.
Lera's energy sword flashes to monumental intensity as it catches on one of the swords... and bisects it, sliding up its length and turning it into a claw, a mistuned fork, dischord.
A claw that finds its way towards the Midchildan's chest.
Before she can twist the knife, Miyu has to move back out of the path of Jupiter's whirling petals and away, to defend the doorway from flame, flame, fire and blood, except that she has no blood to shed in the service of her mistress, only strange metals to melt. And they don't, not properly, though Mai's fury and Mars' faith does strip away layers of her armor. It isn't a terminator moment. In a way, it's even stranger; it mimics skin as quickly as it's lost. In the end, she is... smaller, but still very much herself.
Kuniko's salty ice evaporates on impact, revealing her current surface temperature to be something akin to the heart of the sun, but some of the salt remains like a strange white tattoo across her collarbone. Tadase's golden light blasts it off as it forces her back, one step, two, three.
Her internal readouts indicate that she really can't take much more of this. While she would gladly die for her ray of golden light, now isn't the time or place. This isn't their core mission, either.
"Ojou-sama, we're out of time," Miyu informs Alyssa as she blurs into the room and scoops her up onto her hip like a grocery bag or very dear daughter.
"That's okay," the blond girl replies, breathless with exhaustion. "It's over."
And, indeed, it is. The crimson light is fading, the ring of girls collapsing like the finale around-the-rosey. Ashes, ashes.
The girl's hair luminesces, brightening to an impossible gold, containing layers of radiance that bewilder with their complexity. Then it explodes.
When the spots clear, the girls are gone -- all of them, somehow.
The pulsing glob of flesh and eyes in the middle of the chamber is not. More precisely, in the exact center, for the room is a perfect circle, with ancient runes engraved on the wall that seem to subtly change every time one looks away. They are incomprehensible to most, but not to all.
Regardless: that's definitely related to the pack of Orphans upstairs. It's the same purple color. It's roughly the size and shape of a curled up beach ball larvae. It's got red runes.
Clef, moved by Sailor Jupiter out of the battlefield, stirs, grabs his fallen staff nearby, and uses it to lever himself upright. He hobbles towards the chamber like an old man.
The look in his eyes is ancient, putting further lie to his boyish frame.
"To think, of all the days to visit Earth, I pick this one," he mutters to himself. "You have to destroy it," he barks, "Now! Before it's too late! That's some kind of link... they're going to try to steal the energy of this place!"
Kaoruko (Grandma) comes down the stairs, having seen her teenage charges to safety (and apparently the rest of the building is now sufficiently safe for her to return). "That's the control point for the World Tree," she rasps, urgency the only thing that could make her voice ungentle. "If the energy moves... so will the point. And if they, these people, get enough points... the power of the Tree will be theirs, when it blooms later this year."
---
Unfortunately, at the same time, high above in a chrome chopper, the order is being given. "Activate the mirrors!"
There are four of them, mistaken for modern art installations put up by philanthropists who helped heal beloved public spaces from bizarre vandalism.
On Clover Town Street, an eight-sided mirror begins to shimmer as power gathers around it. It explodes away in an invisible beam that is somehow still coherent, sensed rather than seen--
--to bounce off of the next mirror, which forced the relocation of King Penguin slide in the park by Tokyo Bay by fifteen feet--
--to bounce off the next mirror, high atop one of the roller coasters at Dream Land--
--to bounce off the next mirror, at the back of Hikawa Shrine--
--to bounce off of the last mirror, installed without any problems on top of a skyscraper owned and operated by these people in the first place. If only the others had been so easy to set up. To think that what a community council, park groundskeeper, roller coaster owner and priest would have in common is a dislike of modern art and an immunity to bribes.
If anyone was still on Tokyo Tower, they'd see the way these locations are positioned, in a beautiful arc that has, as its terminal three points, Library Island, the World Tree, and St. Ursula's. Someone may put it together later with judicious application of Google Earth.
The geomancy power roars through the Orphan nodule planted in Library Island, transmits to the one planted at the heart of the World Tree, and the Wrongness reaches its apex, as though some fundamental law of reality is being horribly rewritten, as the energy surges towards St. Ursula's.
<Pose Tracker> Soular [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.
It had begun with the attack on Clover Town Street--at least, for Soular, it had.
That was when the attacks on various locations had drawn his attention in the first place. Others had followed, but as they largely fell out of his areas of focus, it wasn't until the one on Library Island (though given the intensity of that one, he'd made a point to keep a healthy distance) that he realized there was a pattern to them, and went back retroactively to piece together what was going on. It of course helps that Soular is aware of the significance of the World Tree, and his school club as alter ego Shun Minami allows him access to large amounts of information...
And then, over the city, a dragon had roared, drawing the attention of a tall young man with long, silver hair.
"Hmmm," he'd murmured, a cruel smirk crossing his lips. "How flashy... There's no way that can go ignored, can it?"
Which is, of course, the point. Soular is certain of that. He's even more certain of it as he takes advantage of an emptier city to leap gracefully from rooftop to rooftop, or more accurately, from eight-sided mirror site to eight-sided mirror site.
Gloved hands slide up the sides as the Labyrinth executive inspects each one in turn, not for the first time. Verdure data diamonds pierce into them by the very tip--the slightest motion will send them crashing down, back-first, into the mirrors proper. One, then two, then five, the data diamonds are set, inactivated--but it's really only a matter of time before they make proper contact and properly possess the monuments.
Now, the green-eyed young man stands over the battlefield, as robots and Orphans rage below in fierce battle to protect the city. The winds of the upper city blow his hair to one side. Soular watches them with a faint, smug laugh and a sickle-smile, one hand on his chin.
Whatever this other organization is, they're not some hodgepodge assembly. They know precisely what they're doing and how they're going to do it, and they have the man- and womanpower to accomplish it.
And now that he knows that, well... Soular can't simply allow it, now can he?
"Everything for Mobius-sama," he murmurs, gaze glass shard-sharp.
<Pose Tracker> Honoka Yukishiro [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
The data diamonds planted on each of the mirrors shimmers, then crackles, as the energy reaches its peak.
Then they blossom into full, blazing light, snapping down from the tips to fully impact the reflective surfaces, just as the beam reaches St. Ursula's, just as the newly summoned Orphan larvae in the middle of this room the girls fought so hard to reach explodes from every rune on its curled form, then seems to /im/plode, with a pop of whooshing air and no small amount of ichor.
Clef frowns. "It's... gone."
Kaoruko walks towards him, regaining some of her serenity now that things are less imminent, or at least so far beyond her ability to influence that she can't really comprehend them. "The control point? Gone?"
"Gone, not moved," he concurs, and so do the guts of everyone present. The Wrongness is still there, but it's... different. Sustained, ongoing... and lesser in scope. It is about four-fifths of what it was. "Not destroyed, perhaps in transit..."
He sweeps his staff across the room, and, as though tearing a hole in the air, images appear, as his spell follows the path of the energy back to its sources, the five mirrors. A vision of each of them appears, crackling with green energy, framed, infected, with strange circuitry sure to have nothing at all to do with Earthly aspirations or technology.
Anyone who has ever fought a Nakewameke recognizes it, at least vaguely, and also knows what comes next.
Arms and legs pop out of each mirror, and eyes, too, beneath the data diamond which acts as a third upon the brow. One two three four five count 'em five Geomancy Mirror Nakewameke, each one of them obviously charged with all the power that was brought to bear upon, and taken from, St. Ursula's, rear up.
But they don't rampage, they don't seek to make anyone cry and wail. Instead they simultaneously leap into the sky... and do not come back down. Clef's scrying tries to follow them, but cannot.
"Gone," he repeats, baffled. "But all hope is not lost. These monsters may contain some of the power used to harness the World Tree, but for it to be used will require them to put it somewhere. And when they do... it will not be subtle."
"In the meantime," Kaoruko agrees, "We will need to search. If we can pre-empt such a ritual, perhaps we can recover what has been lost. For if the power of the World Tree fell into evil hands..." She shakes her hair.
"It would be the end of your world," Clef intones gravely.
"That's not going to happen," she replies. "Look who's on our side."
Her aged hand gestures at the room.
TO BE CONTINUED IN A FEW IC DAYS...
