1656/Smash and Grab

Smash and Grab
Date of Scene:	13 June 2024
Location:	Easter Company Acoustics Facility
Synopsis:	Ikuto, Yuki, and Michiru raid an Easter Company building to recover the catboy's violin.
Cast of Characters:	Ikuto Tsukiyomi, Michiru Kaiou, Yuki Hoshino

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Ikuto Tsukiyomi has posed:
Ikuto tried to keep cool as he watched the building from a rooftop a block down the street. This was the address Hinote had given him. It was there his father's violin was being held, and today...he was going to take it back in a way none of his enemies could avoid acknowledging.

Text message to Yuki Hoshino: "YUKI-CHAN. REMEMBER THAT THING I MENTIONED A FEW DAYS AGO? IT'S ON. HEAD TOWARDS THE EASTER COMPANY ACOUSTICS FACILITY, EAST SIDE OF THE CITY. I'M ON A ROOFTOP NEARBY. BE SAFE."

Text message to Michiru Kaiou: "MICHI-CHAN, YOU HAD MENTIONED YOU WANTED IN ON GETTING MY FATHER'S VIOLIN BACK RIGHT? I'M ON A ROOFTOP NEAR THE EASTER COMPANY ACOUSTICS FACILITY ON THE EAST SIDE OF THE CITY. GOING TO HIT THE PLACE TODAY AND GET THE INSTRUMENT BACK. MY GIRLFRIEND YUKI-CHAN WILL BE HERE TOO, SHE'S PRETTY HARD TO MISS WHEN TRANSFORMED."

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
    Sometimes Michiru would have her driver take her places before transforming. But this operation was something a little more dangerous than her usual fare, and she didn't want to get Takuya involved. So she mahou-ran across the rooftops, and it only took her about twenty minutes to arrive.

    Leaping from an adjacent building to the west, she strode across the rooftop to where Ikuto was watching their target. "I hope I'm not too late," Sailor Neptune said, with a light laugh. "Traffic was terrible."

    Is she...trying to be funny?

Yuki Hoshino has posed:
Yuki was in her dorm, working on the danmaku programming again, still not getting the results she'd hoped for, when her phone meows. She blinks and looks over at it, reading Ikuto's message. "That thing?" she asks herself. "Oh, right. The violin." The cat-boy had mentioned it rather briefly, and she's promised to help. Well, that made the decision simple.

"Alright, Argent Dawn, save the project and run a backup, we'll have to run the tests later."

"Affirmative, Master."

Minutes later, she's in the sky above the city streets, making her way to the location in question. "Hey Catte," she says as she lands nearby on the rooftop. "Got a lead, I hear?"

She offers the Senshi a friendly nod. "Pleasure to meet someone new. I go by Knight of Dawn when we're on business."

Ikuto Tsukiyomi has posed:
Ikuto waves to Michiru. "Not late at- oh, wow. You're one of the Senshi? That's awesome!" When Yuki lands soon after, he gives her a warm smile. "Hey there, Knight. This is one of my childhood friends, recently found again. I don't really know her 'work' name, but I accidentally let yours slip when I texted her. Sorry about that. She's on our side, though."

"I know this is going to sound a bit crazy but the uh, plan, is pretty simple. I'm going to transform, knock the front doors down, and cause a heck of a ruckus. What I need from you two is to first make sure any civilians get out safe while I hit their records and find where exactly in there the violin is kept. Easter for sure has some youma as security since they've been using them lately. They look like tall guys in trench coats and hats with yellow eyes and grey faces."

"Once I've got the location, we can grab the violin and make a mess on the way out. The youma aren't going to care about civilians getting hurt, so it's on us to protect them. I know this is pretty dangerous...so I'm glad you two are here. I wouldn't be able to do this on my own."

Yoru pokes his head up, giggling. "He almost never says anything like that nya."

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
    Yuki arrives and Neptune lifts up a hand to wave, her slender, gloved fingers wiggling a greeting. "I am Sailor Neptune," she responds. Yuki's not a villain, so she doesn't get the whole spiel. Instead she lifts up a hand to brush some hair over her shoulder. It almost seems to settle like flowing water. "It's a pleasure."

    She looks back to Ikuto and grins. "Yes, well, I've never done anything by half measures, have I?" She really doesn't. She listens to his plan and then nods. "Save the civilians and then wreck the place. Got it." She considers for a moment what her attacks look like and then she looks aside to Yuki looking her over. Then turning back to Ikuto.

    "Let's save the thank-yous for after we get out," she says.

Yuki Hoshino has posed:
Yuki nods, listening attentively. "This would be so much easier," she muses, "If I had that barrier spell I saw that one time." She shrugs. Nothing to be done for it now.

"So, we're just keeping the civilians out of the way... sounds like a plan, I suppose." She takes a moment to stretch, hands high above her head, then settles back down. "Do we have a plan of the building?"

Ikuto Tsukiyomi has posed:
Ikuto blinks. "...No, but I probably should have thought to get one. I get the feeling Easter's security buzzers don't connect to the police, so we likely have a while before anyone thinks to call them. Instead their buzzers probably just alert more of their youma goon squad. Just from what I've seen, those things don't understand the concept of civilians. If anyone gets in their way even by accident, they could hurt them. Take down any we run into, yeah? I can't imagine most of the people working at this place have any idea that Easter Company is up to no good."

The catboy glances down to the street from the edge of the rooftop. "Alright, I think it's about time we go give Easter the black eye this company has been asking for. Both of you, be careful." He looks to Yuki, then Michiru. "I mean it. If it starts to look too dangerous to either of you, say something and we'll leave, violin or not. I'm not letting anyone get hurt over this."

He grins and gives Yoru a thumbs up, the Chara jumping towards him as he leaps into the air, transforming on the way down to land on all-fours with cat ears, a tail, and a wicked metal claw on his right hand.

"My Heart, Unlock!"

Ikuto runs at the front entrance to the building, briefly making sure that nobody is directly in front of the doors before slashing forward with his claw, rending the glass doors into a mess of busted metal and glass. Surprised shouts and a couple of screams can be heard from inside as he goes in.

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
    Neptune looks aside toward Knight, sort of taking her in, and asks, "Do you have focused ranged attacks? We need to get the civilians out before I start throwing my attacks around." She really was not suited for indoor combat. "I can focus on the evac if you can cover me and the others."

    Her idea put out there, she grins and then turns to leap off the building. She leaps gracefully down to the ground landing with bent knees and then rising up. Running toward the building after Black Lynx she immediately calls out. "I am Sailor Neptune! I am here to help. Everybody, this way," she says. "Evacuate the building!"

    She keeps saying evacuate, but she's walking toward the building. Into the building. She's got to tell the people inside to get outside.

Yuki Hoshino has posed:
Yuki nods, "Focused and targeted, hai. And default to non-lethal," she adds. "Not a lot of volume to it yet, but I'm working on it." She grins and follows Neptune down, alighting near the entryway.

"You heard the lady! This is an emergency, clear the area!"

As she heads intot he building she starts charging a series of bullet spells, keeping an eye on Neptune as they head into the building. She doesn't have a target for them yet, so she holds them in reserve, taking the time to build up as many as she can hold.

Which unfortunately isn't a lot, but you fight with the weapon you have, not the one you want.

Ikuto Tsukiyomi has posed:
Ikuto keeps quiet, letting Michiru and Yuki do the talking. He just ripped apart the front doors and charged in, so he's pretty sure that if he started trying to tell anyone what to do they'd only panic.

Instead he moves quickly, hopping over and (admittedly not very politely) pushing past the confused, but mostly compliant civilians in his way who are filing out of the building as he heads for what looks like a security office. When a pair of trench coat-wearing youma stomp out and glare at him, the catboy shrugs and says, "You could have just not shown up for work today if you had sick leave. Instead you're making me do this the hard way. What a shame that you youma aren't smart enough to unionize."

Even as the youma respond with growls and vaguely threatening "speech", he's already in the air and kicking off a wall. A moment later and the youma are on the floor and dusting while the catboy digs through security logs on a clipboard. "Come on, come on...violin, instrument, case, anything? Maybe...this? 'Secure containment unit'. Says it was moved here close to a month ago.

Ikuto dashes back into the lobby, calling out to the two girls, "Basement, second level! Meet me there when the people are safe! This seems pretty easy huh?"

Of course no sooner had he said this than an alarm buzzer begins to ring and a polite digital voice calls out, "Attention all employees. A security incident is taking place in the building. Please leave the building immediately. Do not approach Easter Security personnel or interfere with their actions. Thank you." Following the announcement, the sound of heavy boots stomping up a staircase can be heard, and a door is thrown open with multiple trench coat-wearing youma filing out, ready for a fight.

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
    They had a strategy, and Neptune was going to stick to it. The employees had definitely not all exited the building yet. She looks around to see all the people still fleeing, and then looks at the youma. There's just no avoiding it. She's going to have to fight with her fists and her feet.

    "Cover me!" She yells toward Knight and then just goes barreling toward the row of youma. If Ikutu-kun could take out a couple with his claws, she could surely take out a few with some well placed punches, and kicks in her high heels. Like the Space Warrior Princess she was, she threw herself at them with the fury of the raging ocean. But not the waters of the raging ocean. Not yet.

Yuki Hoshino has posed:
Yuki watches Ikuto fight for a moment, before a group of approaching civilians reminds her of what she's here to do. "Right this way everyone, clear the building, the situation is under control." The order is punctuated with a pair of bullets set off in mid-air, like fireworks.

She follows Neptune deeper into the building, targeting a handful more shots at the youma as Neptune assaults them. "Keep up with the cat," she calls to the Senshi, "Don't get bogged down with these guys." She calls up another round of bullets as she takes to the air, getting out of the way of the obediently evacuating employees.

Ikuto Tsukiyomi has posed:
Ikuto sees Michiru rushing the youma and picks his own spot, quickly moving around the sides to hit some of the trench coat goons before they can figure out how to deal with the girl starting to punch and kick them. Circling and swiping out in a wide arc, he clears a path to the staircase. Seeing a number still filing up the staircase, he tilts his head and considers what to do for a moment.

"Neptune, Dawn! I'm going to hop on down the middle here. If either of you fly down after me, please *start* by reminding me not to look up!" He laughs, kicking one of the approaching youma back down the stairs and diving down the gap between the stairs for a quick path straight to the second basement level. The youma seem conflicted with some trying to go back down and others wanting to continue up, creating a traffic jam.

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
    As Neptune flung fists and kicks she reflected on how there must be other attacks she could use. Smaller attacks. It didn't always have to be Deep Submerge and Submarine Reflection. Surely she could do something with her magic that was more useful in situations like this. She would have to figure that out. Later. For now? Knight was right.

    She looked back over her shoulder and saw the mage up in the air. "They do seem to be evacuating just fine on their own. Follow the cat?" She nods. Follow the cat. She turns and dashes past the traffic jam of youma leaping up over the railing and jumping down. "Keep your eyes pointed down, Catboy!"

Yuki Hoshino has posed:
Yuki nods, as if the choice was obvious. "Follow the cat," she agrees, "Before he gets into more trouble." She picks off one last youma that was eyeing Neptune in a way that worried her, before heading over to the stairwell herself.

"Don't look out below!" she calls down to Ikuto before throwing herself over the edge, translucent black wings fluttering behind her as her flight spell slows her fall.

Ikuto Tsukiyomi has posed:
The catboy keeps his eyes glued to the floor until he's heard two pairs of feet hit the ground nearby, at which point he looks around. "Okay, if I were an evil jerk trying to hide a violin somewhere in my basement, where would I put it...?"

The second basement level seems to be built around one long hallway, with multiple rooms on each side. Ikuto begins darting from door to door, peeking inside each. "Toilets. More toilets. Janitor closet. Books. Even more books. Break room. Who designed this place?! It's like a kid's first base in a survival game! MORE books. Youma. Wait, youma?"

At the last one Ikuto stops after closing the door. He opens it again and is greeted by a youma goon punching him in the face. "Ack!" The catboy stumbles backwards and a handful of youma that were packed into the room pile out. Ikuto is about to raise his claw when his eyes widen and he ducks back into the room across the hall from the one he'd opened. "Oh crap!" His allies would understand when just a moment later what appeared to be small "bullets" of dark energy sprayed out from the doorway. The doorway and wall were scorched from the impacts, and Ikuto helpfully called out, "I'm okay!"

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
    Neptune doesn't have wings, but she does seem to glide down to the basement floor, landing on the cement with bended knees. She's a reincarnated space princess, what's a little gravity to her?

    She just stands there for a moment as he goes from door to door. She looks aside to Yuki and says, "He's not going to get into less trouble with us here, you know. He's just going to get out of it." And that's about when he says youma. She looks back to Yuki as if to say See? and then starts running down the hall to catch up to him. She doesn't want to Deep Submerge in the hallway, not with him in that room.

Yuki Hoshino has posed:
Yuki nods. "He's a cat, after all. Getting into and out of trouble is what he does." She shrugs. "Not as if he's gonna let it stop him."

She runs after Neptune, unhesitatingly throwing herself into the fray. She still has a handful of danmaku bullets at the ready, and at the sight of the youma she skids to a stop, slashing a hand forward to launch a set of them at it.

"Watch yourself, catte! These guys are playing for keeps!"

Ikuto Tsukiyomi has posed:
As the handful of youma that piled out fall to dust from Yuki's return fire, Ikuto pokes his head out of the doorway and nods. "I-I noticed! I found the violin too, in its case! It was just sitting here in this room! I'm almost thinking this was a trap, and the only reason it didn't work is that you two are here. Now that we've got the violin though, I'm thinking it's time to quit taking it easy on Easter's toys. Especially since some genius gave them -magic guns-!"

As if to punctuate that they do indeed have magic guns, more dark energy is shot out from the opposite room and Ikuto dives out of the way, turning mid-jump and swiping his claw in the direction of the shooters.

"Slash Claw!"

A cutting wind slices out from the motion, followed by the sound of a few more youma collapsing, while the doorframe and wall around is left with deep claw marks from the attack. "Anyone want to place a bet on more of those guys with guns waiting upstairs?"

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
    Neptune dispatches a solitary youma with a series of quick kicks and punches then pauses as she turns to watch Ikuto's attack again. She's never seen him in action before. This was not the kind of thing they did when they were younger.

    "Considering how many we bypassed by jumping down, that's an easy bet," she says, then she looks nervously farther down the hall. "What I'm worried about is that there's more in those rooms." She glances back to the other two saying, "Let's get back up the stairs, and I'll flood it."

    She turns to start running down the hall, reaching into the space that's always right behind her to pull out a violin and bow. Ikuto certainly recognizes it: Marine Cathedrale.

Yuki Hoshino has posed:
"No bet!" Yuki calls out, and eyes the youma and their guns as she closes in on Ikuto.

"Lancer's Shield!"

A gleaming triangle of Midchildan spell-runes flickers into existence in front of Ikuto, between him and the youma's fire. It's stretched a bit wider than normal, so not quite as strong, but it should help them get out of the way.

She doesn't recognize Neptune's instrument, but it does prompt her to say, "Now I feel musically inadequate. Thanks guys."

Ikuto Tsukiyomi has posed:
Just as Michiru had worried about, there are indeed more youma starting to come out of the rooms down the hall. Some are unarmed and others have guns, each seeming to be a black metal imitation of common handguns from the late 1940's with a foreboding purple glow at the barrel.

Ikuto follows Michiru, offering his hand to Yuki. "Let's follow Sailor Neptune, my Knight. I don't think we want to experience the power of a Sailor Senshi in this manner. I could teach you how to play a bit later, too." The catboy nods to the violin case now slung on his back and flashes the Knight of Dawn a smile.

Approaching Sailor Neptune, Ikuto whistles. "Marine Cathedrale...that takes me back."

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
    Neptune reached the top of the first flight of stairs and stopped. She could still see partially down the hallway. She could see her allies running up right behind her. But most importantly she could see how little volume there was going to be to hold all the seawater she was about to release. Her magic would bring the water in, and then physics would do the rest.
    
    "Run fast, I'll be right behind you, and so will the water," she says. With any luck, it'll help with the youma up top too. At least some of them. Then, once they're past her, she turns back toward the hallway and the approaching youma, and brings the violin up to her chin, putting the bow to the strings and plays a sharp, discordant chord.

    Submarine Violon Tide!

    Sea water seems to explode all around the hallway, immediately flooding it like a rapidly rising tsunami. Very rapidly rising, and showing no signs of stopping. Neptune turns around and runs as fast as she can up the stairs.

Yuki Hoshino has posed:
Yuki takes Ikuto's hand, nodding. "Looks like she's getting serious," she muses as she holds the shield between them and the youma. "We'll talk about those lessons later, ok?"

Following Neptune's direction, she starts to run, pushing the shield ahead to cover the front while the Senshi wipes away everything behind them.

As they reach the stairs, she offers, "I'm going to just take us straight up, but I can't do that, hold the shield, -and- shoot, so have that claw ready...."

Ikuto Tsukiyomi has posed:
Ikuto glances back to see water rushing over behind the three of them. "It's times like this that I'm -really- glad I stopped working for the bad guys," he comments with a swish of his tail. If there's one place a catboy didn't want to be, it was in a hallway full of water.

He nods to Yuki, giving her hand a squeeze. "Don't worry, I've got something that will help deal with anything waiting for us up there. Don't think I've shown anyone this move yet, mostly because it wouldn't have been particularly useful before." His claw arcs with energy, just waiting to be let loose.

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
    The water filled the entire basement floor and then forced it's way into the stairwell, going the only way it could: up. The other two could move quite fast, they could move back up the way they'd come down, in fact: right up the middle. Neptune, though, she had to take the stairs. There was no way she was going to beat the rising tide.

    And she didn't have to. She was the Senshi of the Deep Sea. She would ride that tide right on up. As the water chaotically splashed back and forth off the walls in a surging froth, Neptune threw herself into the space in the middle of the stairs and let the water just push her all the way up behind the other two.

    The water burst out the doors and Neptune stood there as it splashed out around and fizzled out. There wasn't enough for it to flood the main floor, but it had done it's job.

    And then they started shooting at her. Neptune dove to one side, leaving a path clear for the others to attack.

Yuki Hoshino has posed:
Right up the stairwell, bypassing all the floors in between, staying just ahead of Neptune's rampaging tsunami. Yuki'a flight may not be the fastest but it's more than enough today. She uses the last bullet she's been holding to blow a single youma out of her way, then keeps on going up into the vaulted ceiling of the lobby, while dark energy enhanced gunfire pings and pangs off of her shield.

"I'm staying high, you take the ground level," she says as she releases Ikuto's hand. Her shield flickers and fades as she puts her focus towards another round of danmaku bullets, to clear the youma out of the lobby.

Which is when a trio of youma focus fire on her, their bullets smashing her sheild and the last few hammering her body, sending her smashing into the ceiling to leave a girl-shaped dent in it. "I'm okay, I'm okay," she can be heard calling as the dust starts to clear, and then a fusillade of her own bullets returns the trio's efforts to them.

Ikuto Tsukiyomi has posed:
Ikuto holds on as Yuki ascends, and upon reaching the top with her he nods, dropping down. He sees Neptune diving for cover from the incoming fire and lets loose the energy in his claw as a light blue wave, arcing between multiple youma as it hits and locking them in place as they shout in surprise, as if hit with a stun gun.

"Taser Slash!"

Hearing more shooting, he looks up and sees Yuki impact the ceiling. Despite her assurances that she's okay and her own shots destroying the youma who had fired in the first place, the catboy bristles.

"She's okay. She's okay. We can just go, just-" The voice in his head suggesting a bit of common sense rather than an emotional response is silenced as Ikuto lunges for the nearest youma, still stuck in place from his attack as he slashes right through it. He cuts the incapacitated youma down one after another. Slashing, moving to the next, grabbing ahold of it and stabbing out with his claw. The catboy's movements are a blur.

Then, a siren can be heard outside.

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
    One ally was smashed into the ceiling, and the other one was going on a rampage killing youma that he'd already disabled. She knew a thing or two about mahou with rage issues. Pausing for a moment, she just shook her head at the thought of Uranus running into danger time and again, and then she took off to go stop Ikuto, glancing back over her shoulder at the hole in the ceiling to see if Yuki emerged.

    "Catboy! She's fine, we need to be gone before those sirens get here," she called out. It's a good things the civilians were already evacuated. Why would the heroes want to be gone before the first responders arrived? Were they not heroes?

Yuki Hoshino has posed:
Yes, sirens are bad news when you're in the middle of, to be perfectly honest, *stealing* something. Even if it was properly yours to begin with.

Yuki, having peeled herself out of the ceiling, barrels down towards Ikuto. Swooping by, she reaches out to grab him by the armpits. "Time to be leaving thie party, partner!" she yells as a last bullet shatters a large window to make an escape route for the flying mage.

Ikuto Tsukiyomi has posed:
"Sirens? Oh, shoot it's the pol-YIPE!" First Neptune had gotten him to snap out of the haze, and then he was being lifted up and away. "Oh. Yuki-chan! Thanks. Sorry, yeah we should definitely get out of here! Neptune, you're right let's get gone! We might be the good guys here but the police aren't gonna see it that way!"

They'd gotten what they had come for, and in the process quite a few youma had been destroyed and the building...well it wasn't a stretch to say that Easter would have a tough time explaining how the entire basement level was flooded to the insurance company.

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
    Neptune couldn't fly, but she could run in heels. They left through the window, and she left through the front door. She figured that the absolute worst case? She could play it like she was helping. She'd been helping, after all. She told the civilians to evacuate before it had come out over the speakers. She must have been helping. She's a hero! At least, that's what she hopes anyone who sees her will believe as she beats a hasty retreat from the crime scene.

Yuki Hoshino has posed:
Yuki doesn't so much as slow down until she and Ikuto are well out of sight of the Easter building. And any police who might have been arriving when htey smashed their way out. She doesn't stop until she's certain any pursuit is far behind them, finally coming to rest on the roof of a small (but quality) restaurant she knows. There, she gently sets Ikuto down and finally relaxes, taking slow deep breaths to let the panic out.

Ikuto Tsukiyomi has posed:
The trio had managed to escape, and Easter was down a violin. Still...wasn't it a bit -too easy-? The thought crossed Ikuto's mind as he gave Yuki a hug on the rooftop. Whatever came after this, they'd just have to deal with it one way or another. Worrying over it now wouldn't help. "Thank you, Yuki-chan. Getting this back was really important to me. Oh, I should text Neptune too. After that I'll take you to get some food." He grins as he gets his phone out and reverts back to his "normal" self.

Text message to Michiru: "MICHI-CHAN JUST WANTED TO THANK YOU FOR HELPING TODAY. THE VIOLIN IS REALLY IMPORTANT AND IT'S ALL I HAVE OF MY DAD. THANKS. IF YOU NEED HELP WITH ANYTHING AT ALL JUST LET ME KNOW. VIOLINISTS GOTTA STICK TOGETHER RIGHT? :3"