2025-02-22 - The Labyrinth Reawakens

The Labyrinth Reawakens
Summary: The magical girls protect Labyrinth from the Outsiders, the mysterious, magic-hungry plague not just from an alien world but an alien existence outside the known universe.
Who: Lera Camry, Setsuna Higashi, Ren Aizawa, Mikoto Minagi, Endo Naoki, Nori Ankou, Fate Testarossa, Nagisa Misumi, Honoka Yukishiro, Kyouka Okazaki, Westar
Where: Labyrinth
OOC - IC Date: 2/22/2025 - 6/17/16

<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed.
<SoundTracker> The Colour out of Space - NINGEN ISU - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JY89ZxVqEg

PREVIOUSLY ON BATTLE FANTASIA

Jail Scaglietti moans from the floor. He's still alive, but only just. He still looks like a rainbow more than a person -- they haven't beaten the magic out of him, just beaten him. But it is, surely, an excellent first step in that direction.

Fate's clones were blown clear of the Devices that used them, but they're still breathing, too.

It is very quiet.

It is too quiet.

At some point, the cheering... stopped.

It was safe to assume that everyone outside, horrified by the power displayed by the enemy, by the suffering of the girls, might have been shocked into silence.

Might have been collectively holding their breath, forgetting that their belief in the magical girls has already been outcome-determinate.

And in any case, the magical girls have been fighting for their lives and the lives of Fate's sisters and the lives of everyone on every world. They shouldn't blame themselves for focusing on their task.

And especially they shouldn't blame themselves for never having the chance to figure out what was wrong with those lightning flashes.

---

A FEW MINUTES AGO

Outside, Tarte and Azukina exchange looks as yet another bolt of lightning crashes... upwards. Like running a video in reverse, it sprouts from the ground -- is attracted to the tower -- and then explodes into the sky.

The last one was teal. This one is peach.

They are striking more and more frequently; never the same color, but always the same sound -- enormous, rending crashes. Thunder that isn't backwards per se, as the lightning's direction is; but, nevertheless, is also not-so-subtly incorrect. It's as though the space that it warps through carries enough sonic hell that merely three dimensions cannot account for all of it.

Tarte is much more seasoned in the art of standing on (...near) magical girl battlefields; Azukina tenderly grasps his paw.

"...is it...a good sign? Does it mean we're... winning?"

Tarte's uncharacteristic silence is its own answer.

---

THEN

Why did an asteroid fall out of the sky over Juuban Public School the night of the astronomy event? Why did Jail send Black Sky to intercept it?

Why did the Maiden of Dreams risk everything -- and lose everything, all evidence that she accepted, if not her total destruction, certainly the loss of a greater part of herself -- to deliver the golden skein to Earth?

Why did Jail seek Chiffon?

What drove Northa to drive her Knights first to depravity and then to revolution?

What destroyed Belka, the most powerful magical civilization of all time, at the very height of its powers?

What did the girls witness, the very first time they held a slumber party to unlock these mysteries in dreams?

...they defy description. If they have eyes, they weren't evolved in this universe to see, and look nothing like what eyes would be. If they have grasping claws, or tentacles, or spikes, it is only because of a certain higher order universality of violence. But any resemblance to recognition ends there. They are hard where they should be soft, and vice versa. They are dark where they should be bright, and dark where they should be dark also, but with strange, shifting colors that, like the rest of them, have not yet existed in this dimension until now, and therefore have never been named.

One swoops down through a Miroku-made skylight, and swallows Jail Scaglietti whole.

But there's never only one.

TO

BE

CONCLUDED

NOW

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

Lera isn't quite sure how to feel when Jail, finally, is brought low. She looks at him with a note of concern. He... might need medical attention. They'll need to get him that attention.

But there's a sense of something being wrong. She looks up, her amber eyes narrowing. Somehow, it feels quiet.

And instead of relief, she feels tension.

She can't place it -- and then she looks at Jail. Something sweeps down, into Jail.

He's swallowed. Lera shouts, screaming, and brings Sky up -- and Ground, across herself.

"What is--"

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

There are a lot of 'whys', but none of them matter to Cure Passion as much as the 'what'. Her henshin shimmers, and she is her ordinary sublime self again, and she stares for a moment at the space where the creature of some kind was. She stares, as Jail is gone of all things.

She catches Chiffon, and holds her close. "Lera..." she starts, and looks to her in that same tension.

She looks around at everyone else, next. There is so much that's happened in the last few moments. So much that's happened in the moments before that.

"...We have to go," she says.

She hands Chiffon to Cure Peach, looking into her sister's eyes for a moment--before she reaches out a hand for Lera.

"We can't..."

"We can't ignore what's happening."

She wants to leap out there right now. She wants to rush ahead.

But she's learned, painstakingly over the years, that she doesn't have to do this alone.

So she breathes, just for a moment. "...Everyone..."

<Pose Tracker> Ren Aizawa [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.

They'd done it.

Jail laid there, battered and bruised, likely wallowing in the indignity of his own defeat. Ren paused, looking around at everyone.

They'd done it! They'd beaten him!

...Though something was wrong. She could feel it in her gut, and from the way Lera was looking so did she. Ren looks to everyone else again, opening her mouth to say something when-

Something swoops down, and in a flash swallows Jail before fleeing back from whence it came.

Oh!

Ren gasps, taking a surprised step back. Did that... really just happen?! Oh yes, it did!

"Passion's right!" She finds her voice, clenching her fists. "We have to go after it!"

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

Jail falls. Mikoto does not look to him and wonder about the medical treatment he needs; she looks to him and wonders if he's really not a threat, any more. ... but Lera and Setsuna aren't moving to take care of him, so maybe that isn't the way.

She doesn't like it, still. The danger hasn't passed. It prickles at the back of her neck-hairs, vibrates through her muscles like the taut strings at a piano's back.

Lera asks what it is, and Mikoto cannot find the words, in her mind, before it happens. Don't blame her; she does not exist in a verbal world, first of all. It's always been a second language.

No wonder she snarls, when that thing dives down, as if acting on those thoughts she'd restrained. Her lips pull, tightly, up and over her teeth, exposing them as her tongue presses in behind. "Rrrrhhh..."

Setsuna finds the words she doesn't have, though -- and when Ren declares it's time to go, Mikoto nods, sharply, to her. "Right," she finds her reply, grasping Miroku tightly as she sets out.

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

Endo, sagging under both the weight of relief and the accumulated tonnage already accumulated over the course of the battle, isn't exactly prepared to stop anything that comes next.

His eyes follow the arc of the intruder as it tears by to munch up Jail, drawn from his allies and fallen enemies by the blur of color.

He agrees with the others. So he goes after it, forcing his tired body to produce the energy to do so.

"Aah, why is it always like this..." He complains, a reflex that bubbles up even through growing terror.

<Pose Tracker> La Sirene de Diamant [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.

OUTSIDE, WITH THE OTHERS

Batiste watches. He has nothing to say. He dry-washes his paws together.

HERE, WHERE IT ALL COMES TOGETHER

La Sirene de Diamant sways. That was a lot. A lot of a lot; and she feels weak, washed out. Like a tea-bag that's being soaked for the third time. But they've overcome him --

-- something sweeps down. Something that isn't out of a nightmare. It's not out of a nightmare because nightmares in all of their infinite horror and cryptic potentialities hold, at least, the *potential* to be understood. Perhaps they are things that could never truly be, but you could, at least in principle, understand the parts.

La Sirene de Diamant feels her back muscles spasm. She doesn't feel what was behind that right away.

"It..." Her head tilts upwards. She can't do it, she feels.

But that can't gains an asterisk after Cure Passion speaks. La Sirene breathes swiftly, five times, and her left hand comes up to rest over her face. She hunches forwards and takes two more deep breaths. She then mutters something, cryptic but clear: "If she could ride a cachalot in her undershirts, then I --"

La Sirene straightens up. Breathing quickly. But more steadily. "We must," she agrees with Ren.

To Endo, though, she says: "I suppose it's our turn to be the rescuers."

<Pose Tracker> Fate Testarossa [Infinity Institute (5)] has posed.

Jail Scaglietti moans from the floor... still glowing prismatically, but he's not Fate's first concern. That would be the girls that were blown clear out of the devices, whom she swoops down to try to catch them.

"Got you!" The thought that 'you' is now capitalized for one of her little sisters crosses her mind at that moment, but she puts it out of her thoughts for long enough. It's awkward to carry two other girls who are much larger than her, but...

As she arrives at the Defenser Plus barrier she put up over 'You' the thought finally catches up and she gives her an apologetic look, before checking their breathing, and there's this sudden look of relief that passes on her face.

As she puts them down, she notes.

"We'll have to figure out a system later."

<Release.>

And the barrier suddenly fades out of existence, in strange patterns of runic fractals, and Fate asks, "You. Can I entrust them to your care? I know I'm asking a lot." Especially after how her hand burned, but... she has to trust she's capable of at least watching them.

There's something wrong with the lightning, and Fate can't place why. Ordinarily that's an impossible question, lightning is in her blood, it's in her magic. It's so much of who she is. She can summon the weather - change it - charge the atmosphere with magic and bring it down.

But she can't figure this out.

Fate turns around, and steps forward, like she's going to address him. "... Fa-" Her senses suddenly roil at something that defies her ability to perceive them. Even a glimpse is-

... and Jail is gone.

Fate stands stock still, words stolen from her, Bardiche still in her hands, and she's not certain how to feel. One deep breath, and...

"No we can't."

... she's still not certain how she really feels about the matter. Only that she has something she desires to protect, there are people here who would call her name...

... and as Passion noted, they can't ignore that. Fate doesn't doubt her ability to fight any foe that she can exchange words with, or understand. This time? This time she's not so certain.

But that doesn't mean she won't try. "I... don't know." She tells Endo. And not for the first time, not for the last, she wonders the meaning of her birth.

COMBAT: Hayato Nishi transforms into Westar!

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

There is a moment at the end of many of Pretty Cure's hardest battles, when stress and fear begin to fade, and compassion gains a little room to breathe. There is little room for hesitation when fighting against all odds, against opponents with more raw power and dangerous, unknown abilities, especially when one has accumulated numerous wounds oneself. But then, eventually, the foe always falls; if they did not, Cure Black and Cure White would not be standing here today. And if they still live, Cure Black often finds herself reviewing her last few actions, wondering if she could have spared them a little.

"Whew." Cure Black hops on the balls of her feet, shaking off the adrenaline, loosening her tanned muscles. She claps her palms behind her back and then in front of her belt, lightly, then closes one eye as she stretches her neck to the side. "We sure hit him hard."

White shakes her wrist delicately to disperse the sting from their double palm strike. "Your hand?" she wonders. Black's knuckles and the backs of her fists were all torn up by the imitation Sky attack.

Black grins, tired but reassuring, displaying her palm to her partner. "Not so b--"

White's palm is already against Black's. "Oh. You were showing me," she realizes.

Shyly, Cure Black smiles at her. Apologetically, White starts to move her hand away, just as Black's fingers start to close to accept the unexpected hand-touch. The perfect synchronization of their final Heart to Heart attack gives way to a brief dance of uncertainty, and the two girls pause, look at each other, and giggle a little.

"Is everybody all right?" Cure Black calls, clearing her throat. This may not be entirely over yet, not until Jail is secured. "Cure Angel Peach, do you want to--whoa! Back to normal, huh?" Maybe everything will be.

And then the least normal life(?) form Cure Black has seen in a long time, maybe ever, plunges through the collateral damage Mikoto made, and makes a meal out of the mad scientist Jail Scaglietti. Precure do not willingly watch their foes devoured, but the matter is resolved, disgustingly, before Black even fully understands what is going on. "Stop it!" Black cries, but the abomination is already fleeing. "Cure White?"

"Un," White nods sharply. Both of them could use a longer recovery break, at a minimum. Neither of them are willing to wait for it right now.

"Lera-chan," Cure Black requests, jogging over to the Device-user. "You can carry me, right?" 'Sky' seems like the Device that probably has the most extra flying power, right?

"Passion," Cure White calls, touching her shoulder gently, an intent to hang on when her friend invokes the Keyrun. "Pardon my intrusion."

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

Kyouka and Strike Wolf deliver their final attack, releasing a satisfyingly large explosion of energy before they fall back to the ground. It's a heavy 3-point landing, clearing a wave of debris from around them with their impact.

"Come on..." The final attack is hits, and Kyouka heaves a sigh of relief as Jail is slammed into the ground. "That," she says between pants, "was too close."

Slowly she stands up, starting to dust herself off. "Okay, so we just gotta get that magic out of him and this is over, right?" she asks aloud to nobody in particular.

But she freezes as a thing that should not exist swoops in and grabs Jail, jumping back with a yelp and raising her hands up in a defensive posture. "Wh-what the heck!?" She looks around at her friends. "Guys? Please tell me that's not what I think it is. I was kind of hoping we were done going through the wringer after fighting all of the magic in the universe."

She's panting still, still a bit winded, but as Cure Passion speaks of having to go, as does Ren, and others. Kyouka closes her eyes, takes a deep long breath to calm herself, and then releases it. "Right."

A small fox with two tails and exceptionally bright red fur suddenly appears next to Kyouka, a green circle of magic under her feet. Clara rushes over to Kyouka. <Kyouka, something's happening--!>

"I know," says Kyouka with a nod. "We're going after it. Can you watch Fate's sisters and the devices?"

<I--> The fox familiar looks from Kyouka to the various other entities about the room, and then slowly nods. <... Right. And
Kyouka?>

"Yeah?"

<If you don't bring Strike Wolf back in one piece I'll never forgive you.> Clara glances away a little, mumbling. <... and I hope
you come back safe, too.>

Kyouka grins. "That's the plan." She looks to her friends. "I might need someone to give me a hand up."

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

"Right!" Replies Endo to Diamant matter-of-factly. Then after a long beat his brows wrinkle up. "Wait, did you get rescued?"

"...Did I?" He stutters in the air as he briefly pauses to ponder this.

<Pose Tracker> Westar [Infinity Institute (U)] has posed.

Golden light fades, and Jail falls.

To be honest, Westar - Denizen of Labyrinth, representative of WT district, decidedly not faithfully serving Lord Moebius any longer - didn't have a good idea what this guy's plan was. His tasks as an Executive were to make plans and throw giant monsters at people, and he wasn't really good at the planning thing.

He's on one knee, breathing slowly out, still in the same pose he was when he unleashed his might, and...actually, his hand is stuck in the ground. Uh. This might take a few pulls to get free-

Oh, there he goes-

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

Leaving behind You, who accepts the care of the other two Fate clones quietly, all three of them left safely beneath the golden hum of Bardiche's force field, the magical girls fly, teleport, or otherwise ascend -- in each other's arms if necessary -- out of the tower and back to the surface.

<NEEDLE DROP!> One Last Time - Rising Tension - FWPC OST - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bshO3GZqROY

Labyrinth was never heaven, but it was also never hell. Well -- let's not understate the purgatory of the soul that the total domination of its population's free will represented. Until a couple of hours ago life here was very bad indeed. Nevertheless...

Things are now are much worse.

The singular Outsider that gobbled down Jail, and all the stolen magic of the universe within him, is soaring almost straight upwards, up towards the same hole in the sky that Jail and Northa and Moebius had collectively channeled Chiffon's power through like a siphon.

Only the hole isn't the same. Not anymore.

What had been a pipeline to draw down all the worlds' color, all the light, all the beauty, through the lamb fairy and then into the man, has been... fractured. Hijacked. It doesn't connect everything, everywhere, in the universe anymore.

Now, the portal's edges crackle everywhere it touches sky, as though the sky itself was an egg that is already starting to shatter beneath the strain. It is an inversion... a portal to somewhere... that isn't. One could say beyond, and one could say outside, but neither of these words can properly capture the relationship of a place that isn't a place, to everywhere that is.

The naked eye struggles to render anything so alien. The portal has all shapes and none. And the Outsider itself... what can sight do but try to approximate with things more familiar? Right now that would be a rainbow, not because of what the creature is but because of what is in it. Jail's body is making it glow from the inside out, which is distressing insofar as, unlike Jail's clearly visible silhouette, it has no recognizable internal structure. If it could be said to have a skeleton it might have been designed by M.C. Escher, but there's nothing in it that really resembles a bone. Too hard and too soft, too sharp and too blunt, too many and too few. It is wrong.

It is not alone.

Cheers of support have turned into screams of terror. A hive's worth of Outsiders are pouring through the portal into Labyrinth and plummeting towards the city, much as they plummeted into Belka, once upon a golden skein. The one with Jail is already vanishing behind the dense screen of an army of allies, which without-being-truly-black-nevertheless-blackens, shadows, the overcast gray sky. Those, they cast, and very darkly indeed. Maybe all the stolen light of the universe can pour out of that one, but the ambient light of one world does not easily pass through whatever substitutes for their flesh.

Some others must have come in that initial drop; some others are already here. Here, as in in front of the screen Azukina and Tarte and Clara set up with the locals. Here, as in a plume of... not smoke, for it doesn't smell like fire... a cloud of debris is rising from a squat complex of RAM chip-like residential buildings nearby. Here, as in dangerous. Deadly. Like the portal warping the sky, whatever the creatures touch struggles to maintain its integrity, its simple existence. The sky is big and elemental and holding on -- for now. That debris cloud, on the other hand, is from the crumbling fourth floor of an eight-story building that has mostly simply ceased to be.

And the screaming must be from people in mortal danger...

...everyone.

Everyone in Labyrinth is under immediate threat.

And everyone else is surely doomed to the long, slow frozen death of the worlds the Queen of Belka's Knights stole magic from, if they don't go get it back.

COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick transforms into The Outsiders: Swarm!

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

Lera looks at Setsuna -- then everyone else, lingering on Fate -- and then she nods. "Right," she says. "Let's do it."

Then, she looks at Cure Black. She grins --and extends a hand. "You bet!" she says. "Special American delivery, coming right up!"

With a grip on Cure Black -- and a glance, to be sure she has her -- Lera flies up with the others, looking at the Outsider -- and the hole in the world. Her eyes widen to see the way the world seems to distort around that portal.

She puts Black down, and nods to her. "I owe you a flight when it's /not/ like this."

There is an army of Outsiders descending. She looks back at Setsuna, then she nods. "I'm going airborne," she tells Passion. "I'll catch up to you, y'know?"

It's an effort to keep her tone calm. She tries, still.

Then, she looks at the swarm in the air -- and she flies towards it. She looks sideways, at the other fliers. "Ready?"

Broken Ground is swung towards them -- then, several bolts of golden light loose from it, hurtling into the sea of Outsiders in the skies.

COMBAT: Lera Camry has used Fault Siege on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick dodges 10 Fatigue damage from Lera Camry's Fault Siege, taking 7 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Lera
Camry is Psyched!  Pink Moon Stick's Fade and Flash abilities activate!

COIN FLIP: Kyouka Okazaki flips a coin. It lands on tails!

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

"...Okay," Passion tells Lera, though it's clear in her face that she's worried. "I'm going to--"

She'll catch up. "I'm going to save my people," she says, her voice tight with unexpressed emotion. She is, as always, an understated kind of girl. "Westar!" she calls. "Let's do it!"

She looks to White then, and gives her a very tight smile.

But they're going different places. So they will. Passion reaches out her hand as she calls on Akarun's power. A brilliant sphere of light erupts from her, and she and the friends going with her will disappear.

In an instant that same light shines on the plaza, and Cure Passion appears next to Tarte and Azukina. "Stay behind me!" Passion calls to her friends and fellow citizens. "I'll protect you!"

Passion starts towards the enemy--and it isn't just the enemy that concerns her. She slams forward, delivering a series of kicks to try to deflect the monsters away from the people of Labyrinth, moving along like a wave wherever they are.

COMBAT: Cure Passion has used Breaking Wave on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick counters 5 Fatigue damage from Cure Passion's Breaking Wave, taking 15 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!
Cure Passion is Psyched!  Pink Moon Stick's Reverse ability activates!  Stagger applied to Pink Moon Stick!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick's counterattack, Devouring Shadow, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Cure Passion!

<Pose Tracker> Fate Testarossa [Infinity Institute (5)] has posed.

"... Yes." She says to Lera, softly after a time.

Fate floats up to Mikoto, and considers the situation for a moment. The two girls are both small enough for this to be feasible, but there is one issue.

"Mikoto. Can you hold Bardiche for me? Just while we fly."

And Fate just holds out the hilt of a crackling energy sword over twice as long as she is tall to Mikoto. "Bardiche, Miroku and you need to behave. This isn't the time for jealousy or pride."

Fate then hoists her up, under her arms and begins to carry her up, but she gives one last look at You, and her other two siblings. "Be safe." She whispers, a wish from a big sister to her three younger. As the older - it's her responsibility.

As Mikoto dangles though, Fate does glance at her then considers, makes some calculations and...

"A few more years..."

Wait... is she wondering how long until she's taller!?

But as they ascend, they see how much worse labyrinth can be under assault. Fate sees the one that gobbled up Jail... the hole, the portal. Her eyes can't make sense of what these things are, just a sense of how strange and wrong they are. She can see the glow of her father.

Part of her wants to give chase, just to have the chance to figure out her feelings, but the screams of terror remind her of her priorities.

Just like Belka.

She thinks, but doesn't allow that thought to reach it's conclusion. It won't become... like Belka.

"We won't allow it!"

And suddenly she diverts sideways, cutting a sharp arc across the sky, flying towards the labyrinthine architecture at high speed. "I'm throwing you!"

And Fate Testarossa suddenly makes an arc around to gain momentum, letting go with one arm, before...

...pitching her towards the missing fourth floor, with everything dangling above it as Fate then races back up and towards the top and conducting a search and rescue from there on down as the rest falls, beginning to move to grab people as she can, before racing to put them down elsewhere in the speedy search and rescue.

She needs both arms for this, which is why she remains 'unarmed', but she isn't... precisely, not with how one of her forearms and biceps are glowing yellow with crackling energy, leaving the hand free.

She just has to hope it works if they come in while she's saving people.

COMBAT: Fate Testarossa has used Thunder Arm on Pink Moon Stick.

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

"Yeah," Mikoto nods, transferring her own greatsword to a single-handed grip as she reaches out to carefully grasp Bardiche, too. "I'll be careful," she promises, though whether she's speaking to blade or girl is an open question. And she pauses, as she looks to the sisters -- "You, careful too, okay?" -- with well-wishing to the clones which is slightly less choppy in context. As she grasps Bardiche in one hand, and Miroku in the other, she dangles as an almost comical duality of protection and violence, trusting Fate to get them where they need to be. Both blades are massive, in her hands, but she manages to stop them from touching throughout the journey up. "Be nice!" She insists, to Miroku, though Miroku -- as ever -- says nothing in return.

"Tall shoes," Mikoto suggests, gravely, as they fly; from one short girl to another, she apparently knows exactly what Fate is thinking, musing something like that.

"Right!" Mikoto barks, though, when Fate says she's going to throw her -- and her legs bend as she moves with the momentum of Fate's toss to land safely at the base of the building. "Hold on," she asks Bardiche, as she plunges him into the ground -- because she needs two hands, too. She turns away, getting her two-handed grip on Miroku mid-whirl. Once, twice, three times, and she plunges her sword into a dark portal, white lightning crackling from it as her shadow splits to two. "MIROKU!"

Her Child rumbles, as Miroku tears from the ground, and Mikoto turns one final time to grab Bardiche before he can be lost to the earthquake. The first through fourth floors of the apartment building are decimated -- and so the first-through-fourth floors of a massive, spiked beast take their place, the oni's great, gauntlet-clad hands reaching up to physically grasp the sides of the building. Obsidian spires tear from the earth to press against the sides where his hands can't reach, providing structural support to stop the whole thing from leaning and toppling. Miroku might have a heart of violence, but he is still Mikoto's Child -- and Mikoto wants to save these people.

"I'll hold it!" She cries, holding Bardiche in one hand and Miroku in the other as she stands beside Miroku again. "Get them out!"

COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi transforms into Mikoto and Miroku!
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has used Obsidian Spire: Entomology on Pink Moon Stick.

<Pose Tracker> La Sirene de Diamant [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
<SoundTracker> of Monsters and Men DOUBLE FEATURE - Dirty Paws & Little Talks

La Sirene smiles faintly at Endo. "No," she says. "La reine de l'espoir. She... Once, long ago, strange things came to the Sea of Tears. Like wasps, if wasps were the size of horses and spat fire. They came from the sky... and they began to hunt humans." She looks upwards.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCHUw7ACS8o

"There was a girl," she says. "We don't know her child name, at least in the stories. She... she had a disease, her body grew uncomfortably. It was a bit like the Elephant Man, you know that one? But despite this... the wasps, she did not look like a human to them."

"But she lived twelve hundred miles from the Desolation Row, and so she - one of the great cachalots, like whales, she held to its fin. The other Sirens of the time had been slain already. She rode across the sea, to the bay. The Mother came to her in the form of a heron, and she became La Sirene de L'Espoir. All - heh - all she could do was talk to people. And the winged and four-legged people, too, even the ones that hadn't learned human languages."

"We don't have much time, so I'll jump to the end," she says. "In the very end it was simple... she... she pushed the mother-bee, the queen, into the sea. Then it reared up. And that was when the grandfather of the cachalots rammed it and tore it in half fifty fathoms deep."

"I saw her statue," la Sirene concludes, her hands curling into fists. "She was beautiful, even with such a challenge. She only lived three years, but she won. And if a girl can do that before she even became a Siren..."

The light around Nori -- around la Sirene -- shifts slightly - becoming almost prismatic, huddling around her, with six stellate rays, at least from the direction of any individual viewer. "Then I have no excuse at all," she says, and then she rises into the air.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghb6eDopW8I

From outside, it doesn't look like much. A difference in halation, certainly. Perhaps there is a distant sound like the surf in an endless swirling loop instead of in-out-in-out. And yet the feeling to la Sirene fills her heart, raising things upwards. She breathes for a moment - and seems to lean forwards as she essays a short loop about two feet off the ground, which widens at the last moment to intercept Kyouka from behind with a clear and raggedly enthusiastic, "Get ready --"

Catch, then. Catch and rise, arms curled up underneath Kyouka's, so it doesn't strain her too much. It does likely feel a bit like the surf, or perhaps the feeling after laying in the surf for an hour and then standing up. The feeling doesn't quite go away, does it?

Rise up. So quickly. Perhaps this is the miracle, la Sirene thinks, and the surge in her heart is swift to reach its crest as she sees the visions of the Horror. She looks at the sky, says nothing and resolves to hope it will get better if she doesn't look at it, and descends. She aims towards an open space --

One which is full of people... but at least it is people who are mostly going in one direction. La Sirene dips down, coming to touch her toetips on the ground and set Kyouka down. That sense-memory-of-the-surf vanishes as she moves away, calling out, "ALL OF YOU!" She sweeps her left arm forwards, perhaps to indicate grandly towards a direction to go.

<Pose Tracker> Westar [Infinity Institute (U)] has posed.

In the everyday life of a Denizen of Labyrinth, there is no joy - but also there is no fear. There never was freedom of emotion, made possible by the near uniformity of Labyrinth's days. Every day is the same as before, so there is nothing to fear, and nothing to hope for. Only a grey existence.

Today, in Labyrinth, there is something different.

There were new joys, made possible by the intrusion of a gleaming hope. There was new investiture in goings-on, as evil was beheld and champions worth cheering opposed it. And now, there is new terror, as the grey skies turn black, and beings never beheld invade a realm that never changes.

But are some familiar faces in Labyrinth, too.

- - -

"What kinds of monsters did that guy bring in here?!"

The commander of a hundred Nakewameke is disturbed by how weird these outsiders are, contrasted with his familiar normal-item-turned-giant-robot minions. Having been helped out with a quick teleport, he pauses in his angry rant to give Cure Passion a nod and a thumbs up. "-yeah. Everything for Labyrinth, right?"

And without waiting for a lift, he starts running to where the smoke is rising from an increasingly non-existent building, following in the wake of Fate and Mikoto as quickly as he can. Albeit with a slight detour, according to the standard city plan there should be a materials depot just a block out of the way.

Westar's arrival at the eroded building is heralded by a metal I-beam crashing lengthwise into the nearest outsiders. He's commandeered a forklift, and is hurling materials off of it with deliberate intent - trying to give the Outsiders something to chew on that doesn't contain people, trying to make a path for evacuation. As obsidian replaces the building's lower floors, he leaps up to the place where the fourth floor should be, bellowing as loud as he ever demanded obedience before.

"I am Westar, Executive of Labyrinth! All denizens of this building are to evacuate immediately in an orderly fashion!" A pause, as he finds his way to the stairwell, throwing a door from its hinges to make an easier path. "We're here to help."

That last bit of comfort is...non-standard, admittedly. But the orders are familiar, and hopefully intention can fill the rest. If invoking Moebius's orders and drills is what he has to do to keep people safe, at least they'll be alive to apologize to later.

COMBAT: Westar has used I-Beam Buffer on Pink Moon Stick.

<Pose Tracker> Ren Aizawa [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.

Ren smiles at everyone else who seems just as determined to stop the Outsider from slipping away. "Alright!" She then turns to look up into the sky, heart hammering wildly in her chest as she watches that awful portal unleash more of those freaky creatures. The one that's fleeing with Jail is a priority, yes, but there's no way they'd be able to catch it with all of its brethren swarming around like that!

"Looks like we have to thin them out." Ren observes, then turns to look over at Lera. "Ready?" Of course, she gets her answer when her best friend picks up Cure Black and blasts off. "Oh!" She blinks, then turns to look over at Cure White, lips forming into a sheepish smile. "Wanna come with?"

Moments later Ren is streaking up through the air after Lera and Black with White securely riding along. She comes to a stop once they're properly out of the pit, hovering momentarily while still carrying Cure White. The swarm is close to blotting out the sky, if such a thing were possible. Everyone meanwhile splits off into different directions to handle other just-as-pressing threats.

<We'll handle the swarms!> Ren sends a mental communication out to her allies. <Be safe!>

There's a pause before she sends out another telepathic message, this one for Endo's ears only.

With that, she grips White tightly and says aloud, "Let's go get 'em!" before zooming upwards again. The swarm is still... well, swarming as swarms tend to do. But that doesn't seem to stop Ren who (with White) is seemingly on a collision course with them.

"We're with you Lera-chan and Black-san!" She shouts, and in the next beat dozens upon dozens of magical energy lances trace themselves into existence around the rapidly ascending forms of Ren and White, before then launching upward to impact with the swarming Outside in a cacophony of sound and light!

COMBAT: Ren Aizawa has used Haze Spear: Cascade Shift on Pink Moon Stick.

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

"Ah! 'Sank you Miss Lera'," Cure Black levies her weak English, grasping Lera's forearm in her hand. When they arrive outside, she lets go, catches up to the momentum she's still carying with a short jog, and halts, her amber eyes flicking about the horrifying scene.

"All this... because of..."

"Be safe," Cure White tells Cure Passion, slipping her hand off Passion's shoulder. As she and Passion turn, their long hair trails behind them, announcing the respective directions each girl has chosen so decisively. "We can't let that one escape," Cure White tells Cure Black.

"That's the goal up there," Cure Black agrees, squinting up at the portal to which the abomination is fleeing. "Miss Lera!" Running alongside the Device-wielder, Black leaps, catching her fellow athlete's forearm again.

"Very much," Cure White answers Ren breathlessly, as the Device-user slows down long enough to make the offer. Her fingers grip on tightly, ready for the acceleration Ren is surely capable of. Then Ren and Lera are off, both trailing a Pretty Cure, black and white pennants behind them.

"No you DON'T!" Cure Black shouts, bringing a knee all the way up to her chest, then kicking out like a mule to stomp an abomination away from Lera.

Bringing both her heels back far behind her, Cure White swings her body backwards, then comes forward with both feet, making her body rigid at the moment of contact. An Outsider careens away, largely unharmed but the unwilling recipient of a lot of momentum, and bounces into one of its fellow hive members, setting both into disarray.

"I got it I got it I got it," Cure Black tells Lera, a focused yammer of communication typical of the sports field. Hauling her leg back, she spears an Outsider, her foot stomping a bone-like shield that was protecting its stern, looking to crack it in half with her sheer physical strength. But though the 'bone' looks rock-solid, perhaps even too dense to break, Black's foot goes right through it, plunging into the Outsider's body. With the monster stuck on her leg like an olive on a cocktail sword, Black kicks wildly. "Ew! Why is that part soft? Nasty!"

"I've got it!" Cure White calls, and as Ren passes close to Lera, White slams a kick into the undulating, horrible mass trying to crawl up Cure Black's leg. Her shin, too, sinks right through, and is caught, binding Lera and Ren together by extension as the two Precure are now linked by an Outsider.

"Gross! Miss Lera, zap it!"

"No! I've got it!" Cure White swings her free leg over her caught out, twisting her body to get that ankle as far around the front of the monster as she can. "Hold it still!"

Shouting in frustration, Cure Black reaches down with her hand, letting the monster capture that limb too.

With the Outsider caught and stable, Cure White hooks her ankle in, and unrolls her twisted limbs, hauling the monster's body around with her ankle. Unable to follow the motion with Black grabbing it, that shapeless monster simply bursts, torn in half by Cure White's rotation.

"Whoa!" Black scrubs her now-free leg off with her other boot restlessly. "Nice!"

"Black, look--" White starts to warn. But despite her shouted admiration, Black was paying perfectly good attention. Planting a foot against Soaring Sky herself for maximal stability, Black cocks her mighty fist back and hook-punches the next Outsider to reach them, with enough force to burst open its side and send it plummeting, unnamable matter dribbling from its body, towards the courtyard that is increasingly far below.

"Miss Lera!" Cure Black calls. "I'm slowing you down, right? It's 'cool'!" she assures with an English word. "Drop me on a big one!"

"Likewise," White tells Ren, her powerful roundhouse kick punting a smaller Outsider like a soccer ball. "Thank you for taking me this far!"

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

"Yeah," Endo agrees with Diamant, "If she can save one world you can get them all no problem."

While Endo would like to pursue the Jail-eating Outsider upon emerging from the tower, the citizens of Labyrinth have a more immediate need. The yawning gates above will have to wait.

The knight skims low across the air, weaving down toward the residences and plazas below. One the way he scoops a fleeing Labyrinthian out of the way of scattering debris.

"Go!" He shouts, depositing them on a street down the line. During the brief pause he turns his eyes skyward, shooting back a message to Ren along with a smile she can't see: <Love you too.>

He curves back toward the Plaza after, heading toward the light Cure Passion creates. A flood of small purples spheres proceed him, the meteorites detonating to clear the path.

"Be there soon!"

COMBAT: Endo Naoki has used Meteor Strum on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick braces 21 Fatigue damage from Ren Aizawa's Haze Spear: Cascade Shift, taking 9 Fatigue damage!  Pink Moon
Stick's Block and Parry abilities activate!

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

Kyouka has come an awfully long way, in the less-than-a-year she's been a magical girl. She has formed a partnership and found friends the likes of which she could never have dreamed of before. She has learned of the tremendous potential within herself--and not jut that of Strike Wolf, but genuinely and truly hers. (There had bee... a lot of doubt, for a while.)

But she hasn't learned to fly.

If she's being honest, she's not really interested in learning? Theoretically she could, but... she likes running too much.

... It's a bit too far to run this time, though. She's listening to Nori's story, trying to take it in but quietly wondering if there'd be a better time--and then Nori lifts into the air, and then catches her under the arms. "Whoa-- Diamant!?"

The sensation of the surf fills her, for just that moment, and she decides to just go along for the ride.

There's far, far too much to do. The thing that ate Jail is escaping into the sky, but--there's people down below to protect, too. "We gotta help them out," Kyuouka shouts to Diamant, and the moment Nori sets her down--

Kyouka charges forward, kicking off with such speed as to kick back a gust of air towards her ride. "Alright everybody, keep moving! We've got your backs!" she shouts to the crowd, while she reaches an open hand forward.

A circle filled with midchildan runes appears in front of her hand, and in front of that appears an array of small rapidly spinning crescents, shining the brilliant violet color of her magic. Strike Wolf announces <Gale Shot> before all of the shots streak out and strike at as many of the Outsiders as she can hit.

"Hey!" shouts Kyouka. "If you think you can just come in here and attack these people after they poured their hearts out for us? You got another think coming!" She's trying to draw the attention of the invaders away from the people onto herself, to give them more time to escape.

COMBAT: Kyouka Okazaki has used Gale Shot on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Cure Black has used Sword Kick on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to dodge Westar's I-Beam Buffer, taking 28 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick braces 5 Fatigue damage from Kyouka Okazaki's Gale Shot, taking 4 Fatigue damage! Kyouka Okazaki is
Psyched! Pink Moon Stick's Block and Parry abilities activate!
COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant has used Dramatic Flourish!! on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick partially dodges 9 Fatigue damage from Fate Testarossa's Thunder Arm, taking 36 Fatigue damage! Pink Moon
Stick's Fade and Flash abilities activate!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick braces 6 Fatigue damage from Mikoto Minagi's Obsidian Spire: Entomology, taking 5 Fatigue damage! Pink
Moon Stick's Block and Parry abilities activate! Tangle applied to Pink Moon Stick!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to dodge Cure Black's Sword Kick, taking 12 Fatigue damage! Cure Black is Psyched!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick braces 6 Fatigue damage from Endo Naoki's Meteor Strum, taking 5 Fatigue damage! Endo Naoki is Psyched!
Pink Moon Stick's Block and Parry abilities activate!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick perfectly counters 25 Fatigue damage from La Sirene de Diamant's Dramatic Flourish!!, taking 0 Fatigue
damage! Critical Counter! Pink Moon Stick's Reverse ability activates!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick's counterattack, Space Invasion, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to La Sirene de Diamant!
COMBAT: Cure White has used Cat's Ankle on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to brace Cure White's Cat's Ankle, taking 15 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Cure White is Psyched!

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

The mind continues to try to render these creatures through substitution; and keeps failing. Their necks are sinuous, but not like a snake. Their weapons are terrible, but neither truly the talons of eagles nor the claws of tigers, but something stranger and sharper entirely. Their chief resemblance to insects, really, is the way they are a swarm; so many many many of them, all seemingly identical; but their carapaces are not true exoskeletons; and the hardness of them not hard at all, but, an impenetrable, undulating shadow.

Truthfully, their nearest neighbor, especially for those who never experienced them as a dream, is another terrible foe of Tokyo: the protodaimon incubated to emerge from victims, mostly Infinity Institute students, by the Death Buster cultists. They share a Wrongness that prickles the back of the neck, that fizzes like scum along the teeth, that coldly knots even the sternest of stomachs. And they share lethality. One protodaimon was more than enough to ruin the day of a force of magical girls. A half dozen couldn't be stopped without slaughtering a group of girls at Tokyo Tower, which haunts the memories of some to this day.

And here there are hundreds... maybe thousands.

All of them... hungry.

---

THE PLAZA

The screen that beamed in the magical girls' impossible battle against Labyrinth's dictator -- and the power behind Moebius' throne, the Queen of Belka herself, Northa -- is dark, and cracked. Something hit it hard; there is a faintly half-an-Outsider-shaped (whatever that even means) hole through one of its ends.

The Outsider in question is one of a half dozen descending on the crowd, which is swirling, leaderless and afraid. A moment ago they were surrounded. Now they are... still surrounded, but not alone, and not directionless.

Thus bidden by La Sirene, the people flee, mascots leading the way.

La Sirene often calls upon 'unlight' but this... is a much more literal version of what phenomenon. These shadows are as real as the monsters casting them, which is to say, not at all, in an extraordinarily dangerous way. Just touching their SHADOW, as one flies overhead, causes the familiar little child with the pink hair, the one that they first met and charmed with the power of sugar, to freeze, rigid and colorless.

The more motherly adult near them leaps in the path of the next alien before it can hurt the frozen child. Claws are out but rather than see her cruelly eviscerated, lines of shadow pour through her, almost fractal in their complexity, something between roots and circuitry.

Then she vanishes, entirely unmade.

When, a moment later, Cure Passion leaps in foot-first to halt the monster in its path, she too feels the tug of the void on contact. A terrible cold, beyond chill, beyond even vacuum... a true and complete nothingness. But unlike a civilian, she is equipped to resist it, at least for the duration of foot-upon-face. She feels herself start to sink... into it, almost, into the shadow, but then, in a flare of red light, rebound off of it instead with a force that sends it crashing to the ground.

Endo's meteorites clear another path for the crowd, which is vital; there are too many of them to take a single street away without trampling each other. And while under the control of Moebius they might have been too indifferent to care, right now they seem to care a great deal. Right in front of everyone, they are picking each other up when they stumble; others, who had been strangers because everyone was a stranger, flee hand in hand.

And Kyouka has their backs. Her crescents tear into Outsiders and she very much gets her wish: she has their attention. A huge Outsider bears down on her, maw-first, seeking to swallow her up as happened to Jail; and three more -- the last three in this immediate neighborhood, possibly -- go straight for La Sirene, Endo, and Cure Passion, claws out. Though Kyouka's is the most direct about it, all of them are here to consume magic... and the four of them are now the featured course on the menu. They may not freeze instantly, or vanish, but given half a chance, they will certainly be spirited away.

Thankfully the ground does not start buckling towards the world's core when an Outsider falls upon it insensate; the aliens die easily, and when they do, their corrosive effect on reality seems to die with them. They don't vanish as their victims do; rather, as though succumbing to the universe they've invaded, their corpses become stone. In Labyrinth, that stone is ribbed with silicon and tiny, but unlit, LEDs.

THE BUILDING

Speaking of silicon, the collapsing building... isn't.

<NEEDLE DROP!> One Last Time - Mezame - Mai-HiME OST - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rudziat8H_k

The utterly massive Child of the greatest of HiME, Mikoto Minagi, reaches out and, for the time being, catches it wholesale. More obsidian reinforces, and what could have been a giant slaughter is suddenly... a chance.

A chance that Westar seizes in both hands, once he lets go of the I-bar. A chance that Fate, faster even than the lightning coursing in her arm, will not possibly miss. Between the two of them, they find and assist a dozen people in seconds. All ages lived here, old and young.

But the Outsiders that thoughtlessly took out the fourth floor just by flying through it are still here, too. Not the one that Westar destroyed, no; it's stone now. But there are several more.

Each is individually horrible. Together, as they close on Westar from either side, they are overwhelming... darkness threatening to engulf him from every direction. Fate, too, finds herself sorely beset.

As for Mikoto... the building is starting to groan. Miroku can keep stabbing obsidian into it, but this cannot last forever.

But if she doesn't do something about the creatures circling the Child like sharks, 'not forever' may shorten much more dramatically still.

THE SKY

Even from high in the air, everyone sees Miroku emerge from the ground. He absolutely towers. And his presence seems to change the trajectory of the plummeting invaders -- they would prefer to land near him, presumably because of the enormity of magic that he represents.

Said differently, Mikoto's summoning is turning the invasion from a falling blanket into a tighter stream.

Cure Black and Cure White punch and kick any that would bar Lera and Ren's path upwards; and the two Device-wielders fill the invaders with golden bolts and bronze energy spears.

The invaders come and they come and they come -- and they die and they die and they die.

There's no sign of the rainbow one -- there are just too many -- and some are arresting their falls to slam at Lera from above, Ren somehow from below as one falls backwards, and Pretty Cure from either side. They don't seem to mind hitting one another, as long as they can get a chance to devour their prey. When they get close enough, they explode into a more liquid form that feels like it SHOULD smell like blood, but the only recognizable viscera is the girls' own, should it be shed. The monsters are ichorous, slimy, and move like -- like ten thousand worms in a bag.

Ten thousand worms in a bag that want to consume you.

But if the girls in the sky can keep any more from reaching the ground, long enough for the ground to be cleared by the teams below...

...maybe they can save the good people of Labyrinth.

"Look!" says Tarte, pointing up, up, up:

Cure Peach, Cure Berry, and Cure Pine are climbing the Tower, one pretty, pure leap at a time. Hand in hand they swing one another higher.

COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used The Jaws That Bite on Kyouka Okazaki.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used The Claws That Catch on Endo Naoki.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used The Claws That Catch on Cure Passion.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used The Claws That Catch on La Sirene de Diamant.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used The Outer Darkness on Fate Testarossa.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used The Outer Darkness on Westar.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used The Outer Darkness on Mikoto Minagi.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Visceral Eruption on Lera Camry.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Visceral Eruption on Ren Aizawa.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Visceral Eruption on Cure Black.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Visceral Eruption on Cure White.
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi braces 28 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's The Outer Darkness, taking 12 Fatigue damage! Mikoto
Minagi's Block and Parry abilities activate!
COMBAT: Fate Testarossa dodges 14 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's The Outer Darkness, taking 21 Fatigue damage! Fate
Testarossa's Fade and Flash abilities activate! Blind applied to Fate Testarossa!
COMBAT: Cure Passion perfectly dodges 19 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's The Claws That Catch, taking 0 Fatigue damage!
Critical Dodge! Cure Passion's Fade and Flash abilities activate!
COMBAT: Westar braces 40 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's The Outer Darkness, taking 17 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit!
Westar's Block and Parry abilities activate! Blind applied to Westar!
COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant braces 9 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's The Claws That Catch, taking 14 Fatigue damage!
Critical Hit! La Sirene de Diamant's Block and Parry abilities activate! Stagger, Stun, and Tangle applied to La Sirene de
Diamant!
COMBAT: Lera Camry perfectly dodges 18 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Visceral Eruption, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical
Dodge! Lera Camry's Fade and Flash abilities activate!
COMBAT: Endo Naoki braces 8 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's The Claws That Catch, taking 12 Fatigue damage! Endo Naoki's
Block and Parry abilities activate! Stagger, Stun, Tangle, and Trap applied to Endo Naoki!
COMBAT: Cure Black neatly dodges 20 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Visceral Eruption, taking 5 Fatigue damage! Critical
Hit! Cure Black is Taunted!

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

"Yeah... yeah, there is," Lera says, with a glance at Fate. She smiles. "So let's make sure there is an after."

Then, there's a last smile at Setsuna. And a nod; she'll be back.

It's about all she can promise.

She takes off -- again with a careful grip on Black -- and glances sideways at Ren. She flashes her best friend a grin, then nods. "Let's go, Ren-chan!"

She makes a 'whumph' sound of surprise, when Black kicks one ofthose things away from her -- and she looks sideways at her. "Nice shot!" she says in English. Then, back to Japanese: "It's handy having someone watch my six up here!"

But... she needs to drop her onto, to quote, a 'big one.' She looks to the side -- sees one flying at her side -- and she shouts: "HANG ON!"

She shoots upward, over a suitably large one, and then swings in to put Black down on it. Lera flips around -- gives her a peace sign -- and then turns around. There's a glance at Miroku, and then at Peach, Pine, and Berry.

Lera exhales before she dives down amdist them, and swings Soaring Sky into a group of them. Her blade lights up, an arc of white-gold light exploding off it and into the ranks of the Outsiders.

COMBAT: Lera Camry has used Radiant Saber on Pink Moon Stick.

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

"Everything for Labyrinth!" Passion agrees with Westar, finding it far more suitable than the old saying. And she means it. But then, they have gone their spearate ways. The terrible creatures remind Setsuna of one of the times she nearly left all the worlds she knows. ...But she will fight them. Because--

At the plaza she calls out. She sees the little one go frozen. She sees another disappear. "NO!" Passion cries. Then, she kicks. She feels the tug of the void... But she will not allow it.

"I am Cure Passion!" Setsuna calls to the people of Labyrinth. "Protector of Earth... and Denizen of Labyrinth!"

A huge outsider bears down on her in the midst of her friends, but Cure Passion doesn't hesitate. She is not spirited away by the Outsider, because she is not there when it strikes, abrubtly gone in a flash of crimson light.

"Haaaah--!"

She crashes down, not for the one that went for her, but for the one that is drawing on Endo.

"GIVE THEM BACK!" she cries, and blurs. Her fist slams down towards the Outsider. She recognized the effect--so instead of one large punch, she trails off with a flurry of smaller, never maintaining contact for more than an instant, but each one glowing crimson as surely as she is.

COMBAT: Cure Passion has used Crimson Flash on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Kyouka Okazaki partially dodges 11 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's The Jaws That Bite, taking 44 Fatigue damage!
Critical Hit!  Pink Moon Stick is Psyched!  Kyouka Okazaki's Fade and Flash abilities activate!

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

Endo is in the plaza and amidst the other three magical girls within just a few seconds more. Just in time to meet one of the Outsiders swooping down to snatch him up. They come together with a vicious crash, sword embedding in the alien force and claws sinking into the knight's barrier jacket.

It looks for a moment like he will face the consequences of his actions until Cure Passion's strikes shake him loose from the monstrosity.

"Passion!" Endo calls, "Thanks!" He's not going to let her efforts go to waste, Fallen Stern soon raised to take a chunk out of the intruder once the Precure has set him free.

COMBAT: Endo Naoki has used Blauverschiebung on Pink Moon Stick.

<Pose Tracker> Fate Testarossa [Infinity Institute (5)] has posed.

"Of course. ... There are people I have to come back to." She tells her, before glancing to Miroku to see if he'll be good. Fortunately, he seems to tolerate this for now, before trying her best to smile for Lera...

But the moment they're in flight... the smile vanishes again, as if in worry.

Fate looks back at her metallic boots as Mikoto suggests... unfortunately, the heels don't add enough, yet. One day.

Fate's coming out of a building, when she sees Miroku holding it up, while Westar directs the evacuation. "Westar-! Here!" And Fate comes down to deposit an elderly woman in his arms before flying back up.

"That was very clever!" She calls to him of the forklift and it's I-Beams, but as she makes her next pass, and the spell fades from her arm, Fate finds so many outsiders flying around, and towards-

There's only a moment's hesitation, before she dives right in, grasping another young man, flying through as they swarm after her like streams of darkness...

... and for one moment that lingers farm too long, both of them vanish... then abruptly she bursts through - them, the building - and rather than glass, computer like material flies, melting, disintegrating in mid-air... she dives down, as the darkness follows. "Hang on!"

One arming the young man who's wordlessly gasping she swings down, and grasps the blade Mikoto plunged into the building, turning, and swinging it around at the Outsiders following behind her.

A line of energy erupts, arcing out towards the Outsiders, splitting the air as it streaks towards them.

...

As Fate takes a breath from her near... she doesn't know, just that it was awful - experience, she puts the young man down... and...

"You should ask Westar for his autograph after. It'll make him happy."

The young man - who looked similarly haunted from the near-I don't even know-experience previously gives her a look like 'autograph???' as she flies back into the fray, chasing after more Outsiders, as she makes the interminable slog back towards the building's inside.

They're not nearly done here.

COMBAT: Fate Testarossa has used Blade Impulse on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Cure White dodges 9 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Visceral Eruption, taking 13 Fatigue damage!  Cure White's Fade
and Flash abilities activate!
COMBAT: Ren Aizawa fails to dodge Pink Moon Stick's Visceral Eruption, taking 25 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!

<Pose Tracker> Westar [Infinity Institute (U)] has posed.

One after another, civilians are evacuated from the building. Maybe the sight of a familiar Executive is helping - a little normalcy amid the chaos. Westar bellows commands, directs people to the safest way down Miroku's spikes, and for a moment he's almost able to forget about the utter horror that is trying to devour his city.

Unfortunately, the utter horror has not forgotten him.

An Executive of Labyrinth has more magic than the average citizen, meaning that he might be seen as a tasty snack - if such a concept makes sense. Westar does see one lunging, and breaks away from the path of evacuation to block its path; other sinuous creatures emerge through walls and ceilings, surrounding him in a writhing swarm of darkness.

As unknowable as the feeling might be, it's almost nostalgic; light was never permitted in the larger Dark Fall meetings, after all. This feels different in many ways; the things unseen writhe horribly, flooding his vision, pulling at his sense of self.

First, he has to endure. Recall the feeling of having even his sorrows drained for Moebius, and try to stand firm.

Second, warn the civilians. He shouts out, muffled by the things swarming him. "Get out of here - the building isn't going to hold!"

Third, he can't see what's attacking him. But he knows it's surrounding him, that the Outsiders are everywhere - so Westar applies all his tactical expertise, and decide the thing to do is punch in every direction at once.

COMBAT: Westar has used Familiar Old Punching Routine on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick braces 26 Fatigue damage from Cure Passion's Crimson Flash, taking 11 Fatigue damage!  Pink Moon Stick's
Block and Parry abilities activate!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick dodges 19 Fatigue damage from Lera Camry's Radiant Saber, taking 28 Fatigue damage!  Pink Moon Stick's
Fade and Flash abilities activate!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick braces 23 Fatigue damage from Endo Naoki's Blauverschiebung, taking 10 Fatigue damage!  Pink Moon Stick's
Block and Parry abilities activate!  Stagger applied to Pink Moon Stick!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick counters 12 Fatigue damage from Westar's Familiar Old Punching Routine, taking 35 Fatigue damage!  Westar
is Psyched!  Pink Moon Stick's Reverse ability activates!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick's counterattack, Space Invasion, partially gets through, doing 8 Fatigue damage to Westar!  
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick braces 9 Fatigue damage from Fate Testarossa's Blade Impulse, taking 14 Fatigue damage!  Fate Testarossa
is Psyched!  Pink Moon Stick's Block and Parry abilities activate!

<Pose Tracker> Ren Aizawa [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.

As the lances fade away after finding their targets, Ren curves around in the air. At the same time, Cure White delivers some serious blows of her own, even managing to rip one of the Outsiders in half with some assistance from Cure Black!

"Nice one!" Ren cheers, then pauses for a bit when her passenger requests to be dropped onto one of the flying creatures. There's a moment when Ren almost asks, "Are you sure?", but then she pushes that thought aside and only nods affirmatively. "You got it!"

If there's anything Ren knows about Cures, it's that they are more than capable of taking care of themselves. She still marvels at the sheer amount of poise and strength they possess. After giving White another friendly squeeze, she veers off to the left and does as requested, dropping the other magical girl onto a passing Outsider.

"Show 'em whose boss!" She shouts encouragement after White as she's carried away.

<Incoming!> The familiar mental ping and voice of Heraut warns, cluing Ren in to the fact that she's in danger of being smashed! She tries an aerial evasion maneuver, managing to get out of the way of a few of the divebombing Outsiders. But it's the one that decides to fall backwards that she's unable to avoid, smashing into her with enough force to illicit a surprised yelp and a few moments of topping head over heels through the air. She rights herself soon enough, thankfully, and shakes her head to clear her blurred vision.

Once it does clear, she's rewarded with the scene taking place below on the surface. Miroku, huge and unable to be missed, has been summoned and is doing his part despite being circled by a flock of hungry-for-magic predators. She can see signs of further battling going on in the plaza as well, and hopes their efforts there bear success.

"I won't let you down!" Ren shouts down to her allies, then turns to continue her own portion of the ongoing fight. "Heraut!"

On command, the gauntlet on her right fist ignites, the gems on it sparkling magnificently. She then streaks off towards the nearest swarm, rearing her shining fist back.

"Take this! <EFFULGENT...>" Upon reaching the swarm, she thrusts her fist forward. <...KNUUUUCKLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLE!>

And that's when there's an explosion that lights up the sky!

COMBAT: Ren Aizawa has used Effulgent Knuckle: Strike on Pink Moon Stick.

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

These are dire times, but Kyouka will take some heart in how the people of Labyrinth have grown and changed in such a short period of time. How they're helping each other, trying defend each other, pull each other up when they fall.

It fuels her determination to save them all the more. They don't deserve this--and as long as Kyouka has strength within her she is determined to see them save.

"No!" she cries out as she sees first one is frozen and then another is unmade entirely.

And that feeling drives her forward too. There's too much at risk to succumb to despair.

But meanwhile she has her own problems to deal with. She tried to get the attention ot the Otusiders and she has it. One comes for her, she stares--it's so hard to see what it is, a shape and form that both is and isn't something that can be readily perceived. That moment of trying to figure out just what's going on almost costs her as those jaws come for her--

Strike Wolf speaks up. <Kyouka.>

Right. Kyouka moves, both just in time and not fast enough. She avoids the fate of Jail, of being swallowed whole. But she's not fast enough to avoid those jaws clamping down over most of her, leaving an a head an arm and a leg free to resist. She shudders, as she feels the pull of that oblivion, that chill spreading through her body from the contact. "Let... go...!" she gets out through gritted teeth. And when the beast opens those jaws, perhaps to attempt a second bite, Kyouka rockets out of there.

And just like the denizens of Labyrinth are helping each other out in this moment, Kyouka isn't going to leave a fellow magical defender hanging. "Diamant!" she shouts, as she rockets forward along the ground. "Strike Wolf! Let's do it!"

<Affirmative.>

If touching these things is dangerous, then she'll just have to cushion her blow. A band of energy appears around her gauntlet s she runs, and her gauntlet starts to shine brightly. "Lunaaaaar--" She jumps, swings, and punches at the outsider trapping Diamant, releasing a small explosion of violet-white energy to hopefully keep her fist from making too much contact. "IMPACT!"

COMBAT: Kyouka Okazaki has used Lunar Impact on Pink Moon Stick.

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

"Westar-senpai!" Mikoto calls, with relief, seeing him take charge to direct the citizens of Labyrinth to safety. If he's on their side, maybe things will be okay--!!

But even with Fate's speed, and Westar's leadership, it's an entire building of people. An entire building which is -- again -- an entire building, even more massive than Miroku's massive frame. Worse --

"Rrrrgh--!" Mikoto yells, as she leaps forward to slice Miroku-the-sword through an Outsider coming for Miroku-the-Child. One out of a stream of them, all coming in to settle by her. No -- by him. They want...

"Miroku, put it down!" Mikoto yells, as Miroku, impossibly, shifts his grip on the building to set it down, its fourth floor now its base. More of those spires rise up to trap (to support?) it in place, as the Child moves to the side, wresting himself completely from the earth which is his elemental home. He lifts a palm to capture her, and brings her up to the back of his carapace; he knows what she's going to say, long before she says it. "They're looking at us. We'll move away from Labyrinth people!"

She knows they're leaving the building on borrowed time -- and surely very little borrowed time -- but if she can just distract them, draw them away from the evacuation, then at least Fate and Westar won't have to fight two battles at once.

It's better this way, anyway. If they get to a place free of people... Miroku can't fight freely with so many targets he's not allowed to hit. He swoops away from the building, and turns, lifting his great-club high -- before he SLAMS it down on the Outsiders pursuing his magical energies, cratering the ground for metres around it.

It's dangerous, she knows, to be noticed. To be seen.

But if they're looking at her, they're not looking at the citizens of Labyrinth.

COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has used Obsidian Spire: Efface on Pink Moon Stick.

<Pose Tracker> La Sirene de Diamant [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.

The Things sweep towards la Sirene as she rests one foot upon Labyrinth. The stellate pattern around her body relaxes but she has little time save to brace herself as the things begin to smash into each other.

What comes is something noisome and wet. Like grasping a sea slug, la Sirene thinks for a moment, the closest approximation she can make -- which is at least in the right ballpark on one axis, but ignores the three other axes on which such a thing might be assessed.

For one thing, she had that feeling when they were still about three meters away.

They don't stay that far away. But before the plague falls directly upon her, something happens. A miracle rescue - borne by Kyouka. La Sirene looks up towards Kyouka, relief in her pale eyes, and she has the chance to vault back a step afterwards. There is a burst -- enough for la Sirene to dive and tumble through. "Mercibeaucoup," she pants in the direction of Kyouka during the maneuver, rising up and immediately swirling with a scrape from her diamond-soled shoes to face the tide again. "How is it? How are they?" she asks, before pivoting round and swinging up her left hand for an old and trusted ally. Left arm swings up despite a passing hiss; right rises: "Les Mysteres," la Sirene breathes, before taking another deep breath as she concludes with a cry of invitation: "COME!"

The shimmering light echoes vast and cryptic shadows against that darkened signs. But the signs in the silver light's backwash, even as the 'fist' of lush darkness smashes inwards, are things of comfort and comprehension to human eyes.

Her eyes flick upwards momentarily. "... I hope we can..." She does not complete the sentence. The enormity of the situation is too vast.

COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant has used Les Mysteres on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to dodge Ren Aizawa's Effulgent Knuckle: Strike, taking 29 Fatigue damage!  Ren Aizawa is Psyched!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick braces 29 Fatigue damage from Mikoto Minagi's Obsidian Spire: Efface, taking 43 Fatigue damage!  Critical
Hit!  Mikoto Minagi is Psyched!  Pink Moon Stick's Block and Parry abilities activate!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick neatly dodges 36 Fatigue damage from La Sirene de Diamant's Les Mysteres, taking 9 Fatigue damage!
Critical Hit!  Pink Moon Stick's Fade and Flash abilities activate!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick braces 24 Fatigue damage from Kyouka Okazaki's Lunar Impact, taking 20 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!
Pink Moon Stick's Block and Parry abilities activate!

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

Squeezing Lera's wrist hard enough to hurt a little, Black weathers the sudden shifts in momentum needed to manuever over to the Outsider. "Got it," she confirms, when they are over it, and she lets go. Her pink boots slam down into the squirming, amorphous mass of the Outsider, and Cure Black founders for a moment, high-stepping like she was in a ball pit at a birthday party.

Dropping down from Ren, Cure White too lands atop an Outsider, listing to one side. With a limpid cry, she is forced to put a hand down on the creature, and some wobbling limb of it reaches blindly around to try and pin her down there.

"White!" Cure Black launches herself off the Outsider she's standing on, jumping off it before it can attack her. She lands next to Cure White, who rolls out of the way of the plummeting Outsider-limb and onto her feet. She looks down at her boots, her thick eyebrows lifting in surprise at how stable her footing is. Gradually her heels are starting to sink.

"I think this part of them is non-Newtonian!" she shares excitedly.

Black's eyes swing down to the indicated patch on the monster, and she instantly hauls her fist back. She has no idea what that means, but it sounds bad. "On it!"

"Wait--!"

The rippling green patch of monster-mass that Cure Black slams her fist down into shifts from a thick gelatin to something like steel as Black's knuckles slam into it. The impact is thunderous, an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object, and Cure White stumbles, almost falling off. For an instant, it seems like the suddenly metal-hard 'flesh' is unharmed. But then, with groan like a great rock splitting, it bursts, and a massive spray of squirming ichor blasts up into and around Black. Cure White covers her face from the eruption, her white raiment spattered. Suddenly slack, the Outsider begins to list to the side, its flight becoming a fall.

The two Pretty Cure leap as one, landing on an approaching Outsider. "Mou!" Cure White huffs. "I meant it's a good place to land, see? Its viscosity is determined by stress instead of temperature and pressure!" She hops, so that when she lands, the green patch hardens again, supporting her weight.

Cure Black punches a reaching blob of the Outsider away from herself, while White does the same to another with a palm strike. "I thought you were saying it was some kind of weapon!"

"We learned non-Newtonian fluids in the fall semester!" White stomps the green section to harden it again. "And please don't automatically attack something if you think I said it's dangerous!"

"Even if you say that," Black winks, just before stomping a reaching tendril back down into the Outsider's body. "I'm still going to do it. If somebody's really tough, I want to see if I can win."

"Ah," Cure White replies, unable to answer properly as Black has already lept away. Following, she is a half-second behind her partner for a few leaps. But as she speeds up to catch up, Black slips during a jump, and White ends up leaving her behind. Gritting her teeth, she manages to land on the bottom of the Outsider she's approaching instead of the top, shove off, and return, to where Black is shakily rising to her feet. "Go! I'm right behind you."

Cure Black shakes her head. "I don't... feel good."

Kicking away attacks with a few sharp motions of her foot, White drags Black fully upright with one hand, then turns to her. Disoriented by the sudden change from confidence to terror, she clutches onto Black's upper arms, searching her body for wounds, her eyes for answers. "What happened? Black!"

Cure Black looks at her, dazed. "We're high up... we're so high up. If we fall... even we would... right?"

"We need to jump," White insists, as the Outsider deforms to try and engulf them. "Green spot. Now!"

The two jump together, landing on the next Outsider up, and then, with an effort, again, onto the next. "Getting... there..." Black tries to assure herself. "Probably... I can jump again."

This world is ending -- the universe, absolutely on the brink -- and Cure White has eyes only for Cure Black. She lets the final battle swirl around her, and her inaction is almost a defiance in itself, of all the violence that threatens. There is something more urgent now to do then punch a monster. "Tell me!" White insists, taking a moment as the current Outsider seems too bent on approaching the courtyard to bother with its passengers yet.

"There's no time for--"

"Tell me," White says, gently this time. And this time, somehow, Cure Black obeys instantly.

"I think it... it got in my mouth," Black says faintly. "They... don't even hate us, they're just... empty. From this height, it won't matter, right?" She's babbling, looking at White, pleading. "It doesn't matter how much... I don't want you to fall."

There is always something more precious to do than fight. Lacrosse games, library sessions, picnic outings... there have been so many interruptions to their ordinary life. But here, now, today, one girl interrupts their extraordinary one for the other.

"Ne, Blacku," White says, very seriously, as she cradles the hearts on the back of her partner's fists and turns them over to reveal her bronze-and-black palms. She traces Black's life lines with her thumbs, so lightly that it's almost imagination, yet the slightest trace of her touch leaves a blaze behind exactly the opposite of the icy nothingness the Outsiders bring. "It's too late to stop me from falling."

Her eyes are so blue, and her skin is so pale, and her lips are so, so soft, as they brush against the cheek of Cure Black. It is a brief contact, by any normal measure. But when all they can afford is an instant, everything they cannot afford becomes extravagance.

The cold teeth gnawing at the edge of Cure Black's mind suddenly find their sharp tips melting as her thoughts flood with warm, golden light. That awareness remains there, gnawing, gnawing. But against the awestruck, reeling joy those teeth now seek to tear apart, they begin to melt down to nothing but raindrops.

"...it's not fair, is it?" Black says, her eyes fully back in focus, and only for Cure White. Her fingers dance with White's for a moment, then meet them tip-to-tip. "For these things to have to fight a girl who managed to go out with you."

COMBAT: Cure White has used Falling For You on Cure Black.
COMBAT: Cure Black accepts Cure White's Falling For You, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Cure Black is Cheered!  
COMBAT: Cure Black has used Sen no Sen on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick perfectly dodges 24 Fatigue damage from Cure Black's Sen no Sen, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Dodge!
Pink Moon Stick's Fade and Flash abilities activate!

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

THE PLAZA

Though just for a moment, Endo and La Sirene get snatched up by an Outsider apiece. The pain would be terrible, should be beyond description, but the... nothingness... that spreads through their bodies from the prolonged contact, is somehow even more frightening.

Thankfully it does not last for long. Cure Passion crashes down to free Endo with many swift and crimson punches; Kyouka sets La Sirene loose with a single, silver-violet slam.

Thus freed, Endo uses the business end of Fallen Stern (though, let's face it, like a cat which is pointy in six out of seven directions, every end of Stern means business) to bisect the one after Cure Passion; and Les Mysteres engulf and consume the huge Outsider that almost ate Kyouka. When the silver fades, only stone remains... all gaping maw.

It still looks hungry.

But for the moment, the plaza is clear of both people and monsters.

Someone even picked up the frozen child and brought them along to hide.

THE BUILDING

Mikoto splits an unsolvable problem into two -- leaving the bottom half of the building for Fate and Westar to finish evacuating, while the top half, already emptied at their hands, is placed safely clear.

At her direction, Miroku strides well away, into another city center -- a wide but thankfully empty thoroughfare. There are pros and cons to using him as bait. He is VERY LARGE and difficult to kill.

But, if he does manage to be defeated...

...well, she's already in peril, isn't she? If they lose the battle on Labyrinth there will be no Tokyo left to save.

Still... it makes every chunk of him taken out by Outsiders extra frightening, in its way.

And it makes the way that his club absolutely OBLITERATES them into a crater intensely satisfying -- frighteningly so.

This violence, isn't it what Mikoto was born to do?

Or was it what she was made to do?

Back in the bottom half of the building, Fate and Westar have a quarter-problem apiece, now: half the Outsiders and half the people. The former they can solve extremely efficiently with blade and fist respectively -- and a good half dozen of the aliens fall to the floor. Half their corpses bear Westar punch-shaped pockmarks. The other half make twice as many statues as their original numbers would have suggested.

Having dispatched them swiftly, it is a simple matter to evacuate the last of the people. They are enormously grateful, though one of them, a young woman, tells Westar admiringly:

"You don't have to be an executive anymore... you can be something else! Something better!"

IN THE SKY

By the time Ren has righted herself in midair the Outsiders are swarming her -- their shadows frigid and dense, their bodies only moreso. Fortunately she has an answer to this problem and it starts with 'eff' and ends in 'k(le)' and wow that was a really big explosion! Look out below, because two dozen ex-Outsiders are going to be making deep impressions when their stone bodies impact the ground.

And Lera notices the Fresh Precure determined to help their fourth, newest, and most beloved member save her people. Soaring in, she covers their ascent with arc after arc of white-gold light exploding off of Soaring Sky. And when they reach the top...

"Nasty things, nasty things, fly away!"

Cure Peach puts her hand in.

"Soar, melody of love! Cure Stick, Peach Rod!"

Cure Berry is next, like a football huddle.

"Echo, rhythm of hope! Cure Stick, Berry Sword!"

Cure Pine is last, making a Y of their three arms.

"Flutter, harmony of prayers, Cure Stick, Pine Flute!"

Artifacts in hand, they thrust them towards the sky, and shout as one:

"PRETTY CURE..."

Pink, blue and golden light erupts from the tip of the tower and begins to flow downward.

"...TRIPLE..."

Faster and faster it falls like a curtain over the city... until it hits the ground.

"...FRESH!!"

The Outsider Black and White are riding -- which, inexplicably, evaded a big punch from the former by hollowing itself out like a donut, which is not just non-Newtonian but non-reality, hits the sparkling curtain of Pretty Cure power and... bounces. It's like a giant circus tent of love, hope, and faith.

And, as the others will learn almost immediately, it is decidedly one-way.

They have cleared the ground; and the city can no longer be attacked by air.

They have saved Labyrinth for the second time in two hours.

Now it's time to save every other world.

High, high above, a prismatic Outsider is glimpsed behind countless others, getting closer and closer to the portal from whence they've all come.

<NEEDLE DROP!> One Last Time - Rise - Origa - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJjscA9Zvcw

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

Endo, La Sirene, Kyouka, and herself. Cure Passion keeps fighting, but she will fight to keep these precious friends safe too, as well as the people of Labyirnth.

"NOT ONE MORE!" she calls, and when the one becomes stone, it is an effort not to try to shatter it. She keeps hold of that feeling, though.

After all, anger is a feeling too.

The child has been picked up. And up, up, above--

"Everyone!" Passion calls, seeing her friends, her sisters, perform the move that stymied her so many times. She smiles, deespite the terror and horror all around them.

But only a moment. Because there is more they have to do. She looks up to find her friends, her girlfriend. She looks to Lera for just a moment, and is so happy to see that glow that says she's all right. ...But that's a feeling she will share with her later. For now--

"Let's go!"

Cure Passion will call upon Akarun's power once again--and blip out of existence at the plaza.

...Only to blip right back, next to Cure Peach and Cure Berry and Cure Pine.

"Everyone!" she says. "I knew you'd..."

She stops herself. "I'll--say later. Thank you."

Then she calls, "LERA!"

"...We'll finish this together," she says, and holds a hand over her heart, just for a moment.

With the Cures, with her friends--with Lera--

Cure Passion turns towards their enemy, and readies herself again to fight.

COMBAT: Cure Passion has used Together Again on Lera Camry.
COMBAT: Lera Camry accepts Cure Passion's Together Again, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Lera Camry is Cheered!

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

"Good job, Ren-chan!" Lera cries out to her, as she sweeps around in midair. She looks down at Peach, Pine, and Berry -- and she gives them a peace sign, too. She looks back at Cure Black and Cure White.

She looks then at Cure Passion -- blinking once when she appears, with a flash -- and then she grins. She reaches out, taking the hand that was over Passion's heart.

She squeezes once. "Yeah," she agrees, as she starts to lift upward. She beams down at her, her hand lifting up as she hovers up above this girl from another world that she fell in love with, all hose years ago. Her amber eyes sparkle as she looks down at her.

"Together, Passion. Nothing's gonna stop us now!"

Which is when the sword on her back chimes, and a tinny tune begins to play.

BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wxyN3z9PL4

"Sky, I swear to god."

COMBAT: Lera Camry has used Let 'Em Say We're Crazy on Cure Passion.
COMBAT: Cure Passion accepts Lera Camry's Let 'Em Say We're Crazy, taking 0 Fatigue damage!

<Pose Tracker> Fate Testarossa [Infinity Institute (5)] has posed.

Even Miroku is having a hard time, isn't he? Swords really have it rough... she remembers when Bardiche broke, and how long it took for Amy to put him back together.

She doesn't want to think about what would happen if Miroku broke.

Fortunately, the building breaks just as Miroku planned, long before the Child might, and she zooms in and out slashing and slashing, while grabbing people one by one that couldn't make it out on their own to Westar's calls. As the young woman calls out to Westar, Fate smiles and says... "... The best really is yet to come for him."

Despite the situation, she can actually believe it, can pull on that thread of hope that he'll get to define who he is yet, that she'll get a life yet with her little sisters, as they define who they are as well.

Her hands may be small, but she hopes, they're able to help give that gift to them.

But high - high up - she hears the Pretty Cure call, and with a sudden swish of a turn, she looks at the Pretty Cure Triple Fresh... and... something else that makes her look agog... at two on the back of a bug.

... "Looks like we need to go up there fast."

And with Miroku... Mikoto no longer needs help but...!

"Miroku! Grab Westar!"

... She probably isn't giving that as much thought as she ought to. But it'll probably work out! It's just, she's flying up before actually making sure it did.

Higher and higher she flies, slashing - and slashing, each slice of the blade flashing with an arc of lightning, and a crack of thunder.

Perhaps... if she catches up, she'll be able to figure out how she feels by then...

And as she catches up seeing their hands... Sky's reaction... it is unfortunately now, that Fate Testarossa catches up, as she comments...

"... I guess it's a teenager thing."

Hand Holding... Kissing... during a fight! Look apparently Black and White followed by Lera and Passion left an impression on the child.

"They must not be able to help themselves."

It sounds less judgmental, more than matter of fact, like she's learned something on this day.

COMBAT: Fate Testarossa has used Aerial Ace on Pink Moon Stick.

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

There are certain dangers to using one's Child; they have never been elucidated. Would Mikoto use herself as bait, if she knew it wasn't her life she was putting on the line? She thinks she will die, if Miroku falls. She doesn't remember the context of why she thinks such a thing -- the necklace which shattered. Trauma is so often a story told in pieces, never to be put together in quite the way it broke.

What-if has never been a realm at which she excels, though. She is a material girl, existing in the present, with what she tastes and smells and hears; that manner of doing has always made her so good at violence, acting where others would pause. Nature or nurture, it's still part of her...

... but so are the voices of her friends. And since they're part of her, they're part of Miroku, too -- whether he likes it or not. "Right!" Mikoto calls, to Fate, speaking where her Child cannot.

Miroku turns, jetting above the ground -- he floats, in exactly the way a brick shouldn't, with thrusters which flare with an unknown fuel as he moves through the air -- to reach Westar again. Just as Fate told him, he reaches out, and grabs the once-Executive of Labyrinth.

And maybe the thing Westar will get to be next is a squeeze ball, because Miroku does, in fact, grab him. "Miroku!" Mikoto chastises him, and it's only after she does that he stops squeezing so tightly.

It is possible to leap astride him, for anyone... brave enough. After a moment hovering there, though, that massive Child takes to the skies, a hovering orb of death which swings his greatclub into that outpouring of Outsiders as he ascends.

The most pressing matter, of course, remains the pressure Westar's enduring.

It's like a hug, as if the hug came from someone who hates just about everything.

COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has used Obsidian Spire: Embrace on Westar.

<Pose Tracker> Westar [Infinity Institute (U)] has posed.

At last, Westar staggers out of the darkness. The worse for wear, the eldritch has gnawed at him, but he got the better of the exchange probably. His eyes are still adjusting to the light and un-light of the strange situation, but he can make out where people are still emerging from the wreckage of the upper building. Rubble is easy enough to move out of the way, and once people are clear - well, it's easy enough to mark for demolition later, the foundations will need to be checked but that's standard procedure when replacing infrastructure...

The comment from one fellow denizen catches Westar off-guard. He's surprised, bashful, contemplative all in the span of a few seconds. "...huh. I don't, do I. Kinda turned into habit after introducing myself as one for so long...but you're right! I've memorized lots of recipes, maybe I could be a cook!"

There's a shout from on high, a storm of brilliant triple light raining down on Labyrinth - and despite everything, despite the change in circumstances, Westar flinches because this one's going to hurt.

And then it doesn't hurt, and he remembers that he's on Precure's side now. Huh. Still feels weird to think that.

The light is bright, and Westar's spirits are lifted by the realization that Labyrinth is safe...and then dampened by seeing an all too familiar sight. A giant monster has been battered by the trials of this battle, and might need assistance. After making sure the civilians are sorted, Westar starts running towards Miroku and Mikoto.

They aren't too far away, and he waves both arms in the air. "Minagi! Didn't know you had a giant monster to summon too - Miroku, right? Nice to meet you, and th-"

Fate calls out something tactical, and Mikoto seconds the command - and suddenly there is a very large hand reaching out to dwarf Westar.

"Eh?"

Westar vanishes into Miroku's inexorable grip as the Child takes to the skies, muffled words unable to escape its ominous might. It takes all of Westar's muscular strength to even get his head free of the fist, and he lets out a gasp when he does. A moment while he tries to meet that baleful gaze - that hatred that burns like a forsaken star.

Westar looks away first, and notices just how high they've gotten. "...uh. Thanks for helping out, you two! (Please don't drop me.)"

COMBAT: Westar accepts Mikoto Minagi's Obsidian Spire: Embrace, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Westar is Cheered!  
COMBAT: Westar has used Everything For Labyrinth on Mikoto Minagi.

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

Kyouka comes for Diamant's assailant, and Diamant, in turn, calls forth Les Mysteres to attack hers. "Thanks!" says Kyouka as she touches down momentarily from launching her attack. She catches that glance of Diamant's and looks up.

There is a lot. Kyouka can't deny that. But she reaches out to clasp a hand on Diamante's shoulder. "I know. But as long as we stick together, we'll pull through. Right?"

But the streets are clear, for the moment as she looks around. "Okay. That's one problem down, then." She looks over to the building that was collapsing, and... She's gotta remember to ask about Childs at some point. "Two problems, then..."

But then she looks up to the sky again, considering. She rolls her neck a little bit as she considers. "Then it looks like it's time to take the fight to them." She pounds a fist into a palm.

She doesn't even have to explain her crazy idea for Strike Wolf to know it what it is, or to know the answer to she'll get. "You ready?"

<Affirmative.>

<SoundTracker> Break Through It All - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3S3D0HSywGg

"Alright then." Kyouka kneels, legs tensed as a circle of bright violet enrgy erupts around her, filled with Midchildan runes. And after a moment another one grows from that, and then a third, and a fourth. She's charging up an enormous amount of power...

Suddenly her legs untense, and a shockwave of pressure bursts from her as she rockets upwards towards the rest of the fight with sheer velocity. The long belt behind her whips around wildly in the wind, her hair whips about, but her barrier jacket keeps her vision clear as the air rushes past her, filling her ears with noise.

Higher and higher she goes, and when she gets within range of an outsider her trajectory just about starts to slow... but then another circle erupts from her feet, and after a moment it channels magic up into her body, giving her a faint violet aura. <Sonic Blitz,> announces Strike Wolf.

Kyouka turns, and then kicks off the air as she releases a pulse of mana from the heel of her boot. In an instant she zips right at the outsider, twisting to kick it for the barest of moments--which lets her redirect her trajectory up, and with a flicker of movement she's suddenly upon a second, higher Outsider. This time a punch, the next a knee, and on and on.

She flits with magically-enhanced speed from Outsider to Outsider as she keeps ascending.

COMBAT: Kyouka Okazaki has used Sonic Blitz on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick cleanly braces 17 Fatigue damage from Kyouka Okazaki's Sonic Blitz, taking 3 Fatigue damage!  Pink Moon
Stick's Block and Parry abilities activate!  Diversion and Stagger applied to Pink Moon Stick!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick dodges 11 Fatigue damage from Fate Testarossa's Aerial Ace, taking 17 Fatigue damage!  Fate Testarossa is
Psyched!  Pink Moon Stick's Fade and Flash abilities activate!
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi accepts Westar's Everything For Labyrinth, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Mikoto Minagi is Cheered!  Withstand
applied to Mikoto Minagi!

<Pose Tracker> La Sirene de Diamant [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.

Less pointy or sharp than Endo - but that's most things. Or should we say 'Les' so?

There is time, enough, to breathe - and just about to breathe - before la Sirene looks past them. They're Winning. They HAVE won. But the other one became... stone? La Sirene's eyes turn towards it, mistrusting the creature thus fossilized. But then she turns her head to see Mikoto - to see that enormous horrible form of Miroku...

And yet, Miroku strives for righteous cause today.

La Sirene smiles, a small thing. First to Endo, then towards Kyouka, towards Passion. And then she looks upwards.

The stream of horror is coming... but so is Pretty Cure.

For some reason she feels like smiling again. Her left hand raises up to veil her eyes, or her face. She lets the smile happen. Then her head tilts down as she reaches for that ineffable feeling she held before. For her determination. For her hope. For...

The light around her does that same twinkling as it becomes a six-pointed stellate form. La Sirene smiles as she pushes herself up to the balls of her feet. Then straightens her feet out... by lifting up the toes. She has, in fatigued delirium and perhaps a deeper and more cthonic feeling, an instinct - she throws both arms above her head, like Superbia, and rises.

She moves her way to the left, too, near to Kyouka. She proffers one gloved hand -- and if Kyouka should reach the apex of that mighty jump without reaching suitable targets, she gives her a boost!

After that she sweeps her arms out, and that glittering stellate form of the un-light ripples outwards, forming swirls of ink and luminosity. When they intersect with the outsiders, the Others, the things-in-themselves, they grip and they squeeze and they surge - tidal forces, pressing.

Water tends to win out against stone, in the final analysis.

COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant has used Polyploia on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick braces 23 Fatigue damage from La Sirene de Diamant's Polyploia, taking 10 Fatigue damage!  Pink Moon
Stick's Block and Parry abilities activate!

<Pose Tracker> Ren Aizawa [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.

Steam pours from the gauntlet, discharging heat from the powerful punch. Watching the defeated Outsiders turn to stone and crash to the ground is highly satisfying for Ren. "That oughta show 'em!" She quips, pounding her fist into her other hand.

"Thanks Lera-chan!" Ren calls back, "Same to you!" It's important to encourage your allies. It helps them kick butt better. Ren's seen it -- and experienced it herself, for that matter!

Speaking of which, she turns to look down at the plaza, searching for the familiar mind of a certain sword-wielding boy she's madly in love with.

~Endo! When we get back home, let's go out for Bulgogi! All you can eat!~

Some say the way to a man's heart is through his stomach.

This is very much true for Endo Naoki.

COMBAT: Ren Aizawa has used An Ardent Promise! on Endo Naoki.
COMBAT: Endo Naoki accepts Ren Aizawa's An Ardent Promise!, taking 0 Fatigue damage!

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

Endo shudders at the lingering not-feeling of the Outsider's claws despite their temporary victory. A very small one in the face of Labryinth's ruptured sky and the limitless invaders that lurk in what remains.

But you have to start somewhere.

<BGM> DETERMINATION - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ssS-UIKZh8

Endo goes up. Fine aerial control lines in the realm of other mages... but straight lines are his speciality.

"Stern!" The boy barks, "This time!"

<THIS TIME.> The device affirms. <ENGAGE: ZERSTORUNG DRANG.>

Purple-black energy lights his path, bleeding off the dark metal of his device as magic races across its edges and sharpens them into lines somehow even more vicious. It fills the lingering nothingness from the Outsider's touch with heat and power.

"Lera! Black and White! Ren!" He calls out to those already lingering in the firmament. It's the latter he meets there, hand extending to snatch his girlfriend's."It's a deal." He informs her, pushing down the fear.

"Everyone! Let's work up an appetite."

<Pose Tracker> Cure Black [Juuban Public School (11)] has posed.
<SoundTracker> San nin no Kizuna - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFONk94CY-E

Two Pretty Cure, black and white, bound along up the neverending stream of Outsiders. Making little effort at damaging them now, they focus on catching up to their target, using the non-Newtonian patches on the monsters to make quick, stable jumps, mostly together, sometimes separating for a jump or three.

"Fresh Precure!" Cure White alerts Cure Black happily, as she notices familiar attacks flit past in fragments, their primary brunt already exhausted on the rows of Outsiders beneath them.

"Hm?" Cure Black smiles the smile of a girl so happy to hear Cure White's voice at the moment that it's difficult for her to understand what she's saying. Her cheeks are flushed with shy pride. Yet her focus, unlike her language retention at the moment, cannot be criticized, her leaps precise, her athleticism on full display in evading attacks. "Oh," Black figures it out belatedly after an embarrassed White jerks her head towards the ground. "CURE PINE! EVERYONE!"

Earlier in this dangerous journey, the Outsiders had not seemed to understand to protect the payload of energies headed towards the portal. But whether by intention or by dint of their increased density, they begin to whizz directly at Black and White more often. "Fullbacks, huh?" Black asks.

"We need to clear some of them out," White notes, evading one with a twist of her body. "Keep them off me?"

"Can do."

As the two land on the next Outsider, Cure Black steps forward, while Cure White inhales, gathers her chi with a scooping motion of her hands, and drops a devastating stomp on the Outsider's body. With a grinding shove of her foot, she spreads the weird matter of the dead creature out, and it catches like a sail, its descent slowing. Suddenly, the periodic whizzing-by of Outsiders mutiplies immensely, and Cure Black is immediately beset. Hurling punch after punch, the short-haired Pretty Cure pounds the Outsiders out of the way, gaining momentum and force as she goes, working her shoulders through the blows. She can see they are losing ground, but trusting her partner, she hastens her punches further, keeping up with the increasing drumroll of enemies.

Slowly rotating her arms, White watches the passing Outsiders, letting Black defend her. The moment one passes by close enough to reach, she lashes out, like a trained monk catching a fish by hand. Wrapping the monster in an agile grapple, she twists, drops her torso and points her boot to heaven, and hurls the Outsider directly into the oncoming stream of enemies. THUMP THUMP THUMP, impact by impact the being is torn to pieces, but not before it does the same damage in return to the first several it runs into.

Four more times Cure White repeats this trick, catching fish from the river, dumping them over her body in a martial throw, and clearing the path more and more. Black's enemies hit her faster and faster, each demanding a hard and precise punch, until the exhalations of effort begin to hit a familiar cadence. "HAAAAATCHACHACHACHA!"

THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP goes the last Outsider White throws. "Now!" She says. And bounding forward, the two take advantage of the empty tunnel of air they have created, rapidly progressing where they had been reduced to a slow crawl before. Their target... and the portal, is ahead.

COMBAT: Cure Black has used Hundred Fierce Fists on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Cure White has used Heaven and Earth Throw on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick braces 24 Fatigue damage from Cure Black's Hundred Fierce Fists, taking 20 Fatigue damage! Pink Moon
Stick's Block and Parry abilities activate!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to counter Cure White's Heaven and Earth Throw, taking 44 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick's counterattack, Space Invasion, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Cure White!
COMBAT: Endo Naoki has used Zerstorung Drang on Endo Naoki.
COMBAT: Endo Naoki accepts Endo Naoki's Zerstorung Drang, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Empower applied to Endo Naoki! Cleanse! All
of Endo Naoki's debuffs are cleared!
COMBAT: Cure White has saved her current combat state for later!
COMBAT: Ren Aizawa has saved her current combat state for later!
COMBAT: Endo Naoki has saved his current combat state for later!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has saved her current combat state for later!
COMBAT: Cure Black has saved her current combat state for later!
COMBAT: Cure Passion has saved her current combat state for later!
COMBAT: Kyouka Okazaki has saved her current combat state for later!
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has saved her current combat state for later!
COMBAT: Lera Camry has saved her current combat state for later!
COMBAT: Westar has saved his current combat state for later!
COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant has saved her current combat state for later!
COMBAT: Fate Testarossa has saved her current combat state for later!

2025-02-22 - The Labyrinth Reawakens

Navigation menu

Personal tools

Namespaces

Variants

Views

Actions

Search

Navigation

Game Information

Tools