1663/Doom and Gloom: INCINERATION

Doom and Gloom: INCINERATION
Date of Scene:	14 June 2024
Location:	Mitakihara Ward
Synopsis:	Chaar of the Doom and Gloom Girls has turned an unofficial metal concert into a riot, and when the barrier goes up, the enraged dark energy infused civilians are still there against our heroes! Can Katsuko, Takuto, Amy, Kyouka, and Rashmi save the day? (Yes). Hinoiri's personal trainee is a fire-starter in her own right, but these heroes are ready to put out that fire!
Cast of Characters:	Doom and Gloom Girls, Rashmi Terios, Takuto Tsunashi, Katsuko Takezaki, Amanda Faust, Kyouko Sakura

---

Doom and Gloom Girls has posed:
It's Friday, Friday, everybody loves to get down on Friday, or at least, that's how the pop song goes. There are no pop songs playing now - not unless you count screams of rage as a pop song, anyway. What had started as a quickly thrown together metal concert in an abandoned building on the outskirts of Mitakihara has become a riot, with people rampaging in the streets, fighting each other, smashing cars, windows, and anything they manages to come across. Fire burns in hot bursts, forming a loose perimeter around the area, cordoning off two blocks of utter chaos.

The police have been called, but they're having trouble reaching the scene with the fire, and there's a heavy aura of dark energy over the entire area - not to mention a flying girl with red fur, dust-colored hair, and distinctly moth like eyebrows, flying overhead on insect wings.

Clearly, what's happening tonight isn't just a case of music gone mad.

"Rage," the red-furred Chaar of the Doom and Gloom Girls encourages, "Rage, and SHOW THEM YOUR FURY!"

She's raining fireballs down on the patches of flame, adding to their strength.

The Dark Energy in the area is strengthening the anger and rage of everyone within the area, Chaar siphoning their energy into a black crystal held tight in her left hand.

Once upon a time, Zoisite had conducted a similar attack, on Hikawa Shrine of all places, seeking to mark the place with violence. Chaar has no grand excuses - she is here to make a portion of the world burn.

She's been out of the hospital for a little while now, having been healed with a combination of time and a glowing wash of light and goodness that had almost, almost made her want to walk away from this whole endeavor... but now, she has a pulse beating in the back of her skull, amping her rage, and she knows that little urge was just weakness.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Having volunteered to take Amy about for awhile, and give her something to do *besides* have trouble operating her computer, Rashmi was just stepping out of the main school building, when Nicomachea detected the spike in Dark Energy levels. Heaving a quiet sigh, she moves aside the flap on her school bag, and raises her eyebrows. "How would you like to explode something that needs exploding?" she asks of the mahou-turned-doll, as she finds a handy something to duck behind. "Nicomachea? Set Up!" One flash of golden light later, the bag is stowed into her Device's storage space, and Amy placed on her shoulder, as she fles at best speed toward the building chaos.

A concert riot is an *extremely* concerning scene to happen upon, and her priorities shift in an instant. "Point me where you need to go, Red-chan," she says, as a complex circular seal spreads out beneath her feet.

    << *BONG!* >> << TIME-SPACE BARRIER >>

It begins as a ball of 'static' floating above Nicomachea's pages, but *rapidly* expands outward to cover the ravaged blocks, and then some. The larger of the redheads blinks, as the Dark Energy-stuffed civilians are shunted with them, into the dimensional pocket. "...Okay *that's* a problem."

Outside the spherical Barrier, a wide, glowing yellow ribbon fades into view, slowly revolving around the Barrier with almost-English lettering repeated upon its surface.

    << BACKUP REQUESTED. BACKUP REQUESTED. >>

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
Takuto -- the Ginga Bishounen -- arrives ON THE SCENE! already apprivoised, his little robot nowhere in evidence, rocketing up from the outskirts of the crowd to the same level as Chaar in the air.

There's a swift little grin as the barrier goes up -- it's not Zero Time, but it's certainly familiar and welcome -- and he squares up. His white military-esque coat with the red lining and the gold piping and big golden star pins sticking his cravat under gold braid is pretty wonderfully dramatic above the blue-white rocket effect of his flight, and his red-and-gold hair is as brightly fierce as his anger.

"HEY!" he yells out at Chaar. "Let these people go! I don't care about the energy-- I mean, okay, I do-- but not as much as I do about the fact that normal people are hurting each other down there!" He also doesn't care too too much about property damage, apparently.

Katsuko Takezaki has posed:
    Katsuko was doing some after school exercise when suddently. <WARNUNG! DUNKELENERGIE!> She doesn't hesitate to transform, with a quick. "Let's got Zwillingrute." And the matching <ANFANG> Her knight armor appearing and soon after she reaches the origin of the alert. She's about to put up her barrier when someone else gets to it first. Ginga Bishouned does the talking, Katsuko just does the rushing. She takes off into the sky, and though she's not fast enough to get into tonfa range yet, that doesn't stop her from firing a pair of barrets to zip ahead of her.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    After seeing that the dollmaker girl got home, Amy was passed from the Backstreet Slasher to his henchman, Taro. A familiar face, at last! Soon after that, she was able to get messages out confirming she was fine, at least, insomuch as being turned into a walking, talking, 45cm-tall doll can be called 'fine', and get a ride back to the dorms.

    To spare her being all alone (what if something happened?), today she's spending the day with Rashmi, listening to classes or reading light novels in her backpack, and discreetly talking to her friend in between classes.

    So uh, yeah, thanks to MAGICAL SHENANIGANS, Amy's currently a doll! About 1½' (45cm) tall, with a painted porcelain head and glass eyes that can look around under a red wig; There's articulation for her mouth to move like a ventriloquist dummy but when she talks it animates with much of the flexibility of a human mouth, except filled with creepy sharp teeth. The body must be some rigid material under her clothes; limbs have 'doll joints' although only her neck and hands are usually exposed. On the whole, she's still kinda creepy but not quite as much as you'd expect: For the most part she doesn't move like some unnatural puppet or doll creature, she moves naturally like a human being, which helps.

    Amy doesn't actually de-henshin -- she tried that earlier, but there's no discernable benefit when a walking talking doll is blatantly supernatural anyway and it'd be safer to have the physical benefits of henshin as she's not sure how fragile this body is -- she just uses her clothing to change outfits; with a plain blue coat over a simple, slim black dress she's a little less attention-grabbing.

    When the backpack flap is opened she looks up from her light novel. "Do you think this is what Cures' fairies do all day?" How would she like to explode something? Doll-Amy smiles with those sharp, pointed teeth. "Duty calls, huh?" She stands up in the backpack and pumps her fist. "I can still use magic just fine, let's do it! --Oop!" she stumbles off her feet when Rashmi moves the back somewhere to henshin discreetly.

    Instead of henshining, Amy switches to her magical girl outfit with a sparkly POOF! effect: A white shirt with frilly sleeves and matching bloomers under a reddish-pinkish sleeveless dress with a skirted vest overtop and matching shoes, a bow at the shirt's collar, and a beret on her head with a heart decoration on the right side. There's even a wand with a heart on the end! (This is only a costume prop and serves no function.) Also there's a blonde doll-wig, tied into twintails just above the shoulders.

    She rides on Rashmi's shoulder, mouth wide in shock as she sees the scale of the riot. "Uhhh... why are they still here? Are we in a barrier or not?!"

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
The concert seemed like something that Kyouko might have enjoyed too, but she was late getting here. She figured she'd miss the opener and maybe the first couple songs.. she did not exactly expect to arrive to a riot.

Well not THIS kind of riot anyhow.

"Well. Dammit." Kyouko shakes her head a little and settles on top of the building in her henshin, pulling out her spear.

"Is one of you going to.." Kyouko calls to the other mahou.. and then Ginga Bishounen is obliging with the obligatory justice speech. "We're good to go on the stabbings then?"

Doom and Gloom Girls has posed:
As not one, not two, but THREE (she can't see Amy just yet) redheads come after her, Chaar turns in the air to look at them, frowning. "Do you color coordinate when you're coming after people, or - oh, no, one of you has blue hair, ha! She sticks out like a sore thumb among you lot!"

The Ginga Bishounen might be rocketing her way, but the barrets firef from Katsuko is flying faster. Chaar thrusts her fists out, as though throwing a punch midair, and a burst of crimson flame ignites, causing the barrets to burst.

"Look, hot stuff, if you want these people to stop hurting each other, go ahead and let them hurt you. Because they won't stop until their rage burns out!"

The barrier means that the people have been trapped inside - emergency services such as police and the fire department are now handling the fires and the civilians who weren't infected with dark energy. When the barrier goes down, things will be in a much better state...

But for now, inside the barrier? The riot is still very much going on! And the flames the Chaar laid down, they're still burning.

A rock is launched up, in Rashmi and Amy's direction, as some of the rioters gradually begin noticing the people hovering above them.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
<< *BONG!* >> << SOLAR SHIELD >>

The rock impacts off a circle of golden light, and Rashmi narrows her eyes at the firey... moth-girl? Okay, moth girl. Sure.

Another chime from her book, and Rashmi's allies hear a sound that's very much like a voice-chat connection ping in the back of their mind, followed by a voice at more or less comfortable hearing levels. << So uh... *this* is a problem, does anyone happen to be a purifier? Because I guess with enough Dark Energy, you register as magical to a Barrier. If not, well... I can at least knock them out, but I'll have to basically hose the place with Barrets to do it, and I won't be *super* much help elsewhere. But until then... >>

<< *BONG!* >> << DELTA STRIKE -- BOOST UP >>

A trio of foxfire-like wisps resolve into being, then fan out. Kyouko, Katsuko, and Bishounen, all are the buff's targets, and for the next short moment, all of them have the power, and the sense of encouragement, to hit just that much *harder.*

Katsuko Takezaki has posed:
    Katsuku speeds up at the burst of crimson flame. <PANZERHINDERNIS> Zwillingrute pings out as a blue polygonal energy shield forms around her to hopefully tank any remnants of that fire and mildly obscure her actions. When she gets close enough, she breaks that shield right as she swings with one of her tonfa. There's magic in that strike, but not so much that it really rises to the level of any kind of spell. Just a pinch of it, relying on her own experience wielding the weapons otherwise.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
It's stabbings time!

"It's your fire. It's your riot." Kyouko points out. "And it's your dumbassery that got us here." She takes a few quick steps along the roof that she's on to be able to get some momentum to pole vault into the air and send herself launching towards Chaar, leading with the spear tip. She's got an eye on the direction the Ginga Bishounen is coming at, and angles herself such that Chaar has to split her attention between the two that are coming in with weaonry.

Now with added bonus of BOOST UP! She launches the spear just ahead of where she's jumping, to harpoon Chaar and then catch it again by its handle as it stretches out, chain links appearing to permit such a thing.

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
"Fine!" He waits until Katsuko's attack provides an opening, then draws his fists together and -- gets a buff? His eyes gleam as he charges his fists, then,

"TAU GALAXY BEAM!" he yells, and a beam of pure force rocks through the smoky air towards Chaar.

As soon as he's shot it, he pirouettes on the blue-white nimbus of his flight's base, thumping a fist into his chest. "Star Swordo-- EMERAUDE!" he calls, drawing forth the green energy sword; "Star Swordo-- SAPHIR!" he calls as he thumps the other fist to his chest and draws the blue energy sword--

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy tries to crouch down more and lean behind Rashmi's head, there's not much she can do for dodging up here! The abrupt motion high in the air allows her hat and the blonde wig to blow off, revealing: a fourth redhead! Fortunately, Rashmi's got a shield ready. <<"I'm not a purifier, unfortunately. Except for purifying with artillery fire.">>

    She re-conjures her hat and holds it on while surveying the battlefield. Are... are there really almost all of them with red hair? "Huh. What are the odds? Is it more common than I thought?"

    <<"I don't have a way to de-rage them. But if there's a chance that taking down the youma will fix them... That I can do something about!">>

    "Hey Rashmi, can you face towards her for a moment? Amy points at the DG girl with her wand, before dismissing it and taking a bracing stance on Rashmi's shoulder as she summons a little doll-size rocket launcher.

    "..."

    "...Okay, let's see if I can... Can you hold the grip with your hand for a sec? Down... down... there!" She conjures her launcher full-size on Rashmi's shoulder, straddling it and asking for a little help steadying it, and just magically fires it once it's pointed at Chaar! "Maybe we do coordinate! We'll show you we can be better reds than you are!"

Doom and Gloom Girls has posed:
"You're the ones who brought yourselves here," Chaar says with a snort, "You want to stop me. I don't want to stop you. That's all there is to it - whoa!"

They're all ganging up on her, and the thought makes her remember her training, makes her remember fire surrounding her as a sinister voice sings, and she snarls, insect-like wings flapping rapidly as she moves, dropped down to duck the tonfa, only to catch the beam to the chest and roll end over end in the air. Her wavy grey-brown hair curls like smoke as she's thrown, and she snarls, rage twisting her face. The thrown spear has missed, thanks to her being launched, but she grabs it as she uncurls, flips in the air so that her feet are pointed to the sky and her free hand pointed out in their direction.

"If you want to heat things up, then let's heat things up!" And fire bursts from her hands, racing along the length of the spear-harpoon and through the air itself, lashing out in wild tendrils that jerk and jolt in tangling twists after the four heroes (still hasn't noticed Amy).

A rocket is fired her way, and she buzzes her wings, soaring down to the ground, skimming over the rioting civilians.

"You see how they have what you don't?! All the power in the world, but it's all for them and never for you. Are you going to take that?!"

The crowd roars their response - a no that sees rocks, bottles, and any other random debris the civilians can get their hands on launched at the heroes.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Wait, wha--"

SUDDENLY, ROCKET LAUNCHER

Obligingly she helps to steady the weapon, she rocks back in the air a bit as the rocket goes off, and suddenly things are a lot more complicated.

"Here... I think I need to handle the civilians, and I'm pretty sure missiles are bad for... y'know. People."

<< *BONG!* >> << FLIER FIN >>

With Amy's diminutive size, the pair of golden, dragonfly-like wings instead settle on the mini-missile-launcher launcher's back, perhaps making flight a bit more intuitive than usual. "Go. Make as many openings as you can for the others."

Taking in a deep breath, she turns to the crowd, a momentarily *thunderous* look flashing across her face as DG Chaar works the crowd.

She knows where those words come from.

She remembers all too well what that attitude leads to.

Launched debris rattles and thunks off her shield, and she draws in a deep breath. << Nicomachea? Maximum homing, maximum bind. She needs to be *stopped,* and then we need to take care of the crowd. >>

    << *BONG!* >> << COMMAND INPUT EXECUTE, >> the book responds.

<< SOLAR BARRET -- GLACE SHIFT >>

Six Barrets materialize around her, and with a *skreee-CRACK* they become vaguely crystalline chunks of topaz-colored ice, and all six *launch* toward Chaar, following her trail as they strain to catch up with the Doom and Gloom Girl. If any one connects, it *sticks,* becoming a heavy and binding shackle that interferes with all movement. If more than one hits? The results stack.

Then Rashmi turns toward the raging civilians, and works herself up to actually turning nonlethal fire on civilians, for their own good.

...It's gonna take a bit of a run-up.

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
<< Yeah, pretty sure the only way we can stop the crowd is by stopping her, >> Takuto's voice comes in through Rashmi's link-up with everyone. << If Wako were here she might be able to do something about the dark energy civilians, but ... >> But she's not here. She's making up a final or something.

Takuto mostly dodges the fire with a swing through the air, slicing at it with Star Swordo Emeraude and getting a little charred for his efforts, but he ignores it and flies at Chaarwith his swords up and ready to go--

--and he gets hit with a broken glass bottle and a rock he doesn't manage to dodge, a line sliced up through his jacket sleeve and a rock bouncing off his extremely tall boot. He doesn't stop the charge. Instead, he goes for the arm holding Kyouko's speak.

"Galactic Cross Slash!!"

This time it's not one! then! the other! It's a one-two slash, and he's ready to catch the spear with his feet and sling it toward its owner if he can get it free!

Katsuko Takezaki has posed:
    Katsuko gets a triangular shield to help deal with the wild tendrils, though it only blocks some. The others get partially absorbed by that knight armor, but she involuntarily winces. That's gonna still sting in the morning. And unfortunately, she lacks nonlethal magic. She tries to get a message through to Rashmi with Zwillingrute of 'you guys deal with the normies I got nothing.' Then it's back to the Tonfas, she she rushes to fly past the doom and gloom girl with speed, each time making a half-hearted strike until she thinks she has an opportunity, at that point she accelerates in a flash of blue magic and swings hard with both tonfa. <ZWILLINGSCHLAG>

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
"Seriously?" Kyouko ughs softly as not only are they fighting the firey psycho chick, but also dodging random rocks and bottles. Which are entirely more irritant than actual damage, but irritant they ARE. She takes a rock to the her lower back and there's a growl of frustration at the painful irritant.

Kyouko drops her spear like the hot potato it has become and continues her momentum to be able to launch herself as a kick to the hand holding it, timed ideally to be just after Takuto slashes at it. Just to really drive home the fact that she should Drop. The. Spear.

Sure, she's going to be a little singed, but that's /fine/. Right? Right.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "Iiiii can do different kinds of-- ooh, do you think some kinda riot gas would help?" Amy offers, and then she's... riding a flying rocket launcher. Sure, why not?

    Her face falls, although it can't go pale at seeing the crowd turned against them. "No! It's not like that! I want to help my people, I swear! I just don't know how-- I want everyone to have magic! I'm so sorry, if you needed magic I'm so sorry I can't do more!" she pleads, the rocket launcher darting the way out of debris like a dragonfly before she re-summons it as... a fighter plane with missile racks? Except without engines, or canopy. Something with wings might work better with the flight magic, right? (She can't actually provide moving parts or control surfaces, though...)

    ...Actually that doesn't help as much as she hoped. Thrown debris rattles her ride from below; this shape is good for forward or swooping flight, but no help dodging like a VTOL.

    Fortunately it *is* just rocks and bottles, at least.

    "Alright... I'm sorry!" Puella Red turns her ride downward and swoops over the crowd, reaching over to pull a missile rack off the wing and ends up 'standing' on the little plane like a surfboard to aim downward, firing off smoke grenades to make it harder for them to see anyone to throw at! That's probably a helpful start, right?

Doom and Gloom Girls has posed:
Five of the six Glace Shifted Solar Barrets are dodged as Chaar wings left, right, up, down, flying with as much grace and far more purpose than an actual insect - but the joy of launching so many attacks is it's so likely for one to hit - and one does, catching her foot, creating a freezing, heavy, binding shackle that causes Chaar to yelp as she dips lower than anticipated, wings struggling. Fire isn't the only thing that can burn - ice can too, and though she's covered in fur, it provides minimal protection - efore long, her ankle is burning and then -

The Galactic Cross Slash is called out, and an attempt is made to dodge. Chaar has more power than experience though - this is her first real, solo fight, and though she's reveling in her power, she's not experienced enough to know what to expect from her opponents, especially when she herself is weighed down, and she screams as the two blades tear into her arm -

And a spray of red blood bursts into the air, as her red fur and skin are turn. The spear is dropped, and Kyoko's kick lands directly on the wound, as Chaar screams again, agony and rage.

"InCiNErAtIoN bUrSt!"

Flames burst from her body, a wave of fire that arcs out in a fiery tornado, building and building out in burning waves. The ice melts in a screaming hiss as it goes from solid to gas in seconds, and when the fire dies down, Chaar glares at them with gleaming hell-red eyes, the little voice inside her that demanded power screaming for blood and murder. Blood pours down her arm in rivulets, and fire burns in her fists.

"So this is what it's like to face you fuckers when you're Hinoiri FUCKING Kirara, huh?!"

The tonfa wielding girl comes flying directly for her and dark energy wafts as Chaar taps into the power at her disposal, the line of power from the being her boss invited her to take refuge in. Dark Energy covers her forearms, and she tanks the blow with crossed arms, though she shudders as her wounded arm handles the force, crunching up so she can kick out at Katsuko with a foot covered in flame.

Doom and Gloom Girls has posed:
Meanwhile, the crowd below continues to throw objects, mindless in their rage, their fury. Amy, wheezing and ducking and tiny, is hard to hit, but they sure try.

At most, they might clip the tiny wings, but considering she has a pair on her back, she won't even fall.

The fiery tornado has managed to wake some of them to their senses - a portion of the crowd breaking away as fear overpowers rage, and the human desire to get the HELL away from a blaze starts to overpower them. The debris launched at Kyouko and Ginga Bishounen slows to near nothing, the two of them having been at the heart of that blaze.

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
The moment there's a spurt of blood, real red human blood, Takuto flips backwards through the air, expression of shock on his face. "Shit," he says, then raises his voice, "SHE'S HUMAN!"

And then they're enveloped by fire, a tornado of flame, and Takuto immediately lets his swords dissipate as he rockets up through the air and overhead, hands reaching to hurriedly put out his hair and pat down his clothes--

He takes a deep breath, hovering up there and then tilts back his head and yells at the top of his lungs:

"APPRIVOISÃ! Dazzling the stage, Ginga Bishounen-- TAUBURN!"

As he calls out his secondary henshin phrase, he gestures with his whole body and both swords, and glowing phantom armor in the shape of his little robot encloses him, the steam plume on the 'hat' ruffled by the air then bouncing back into shape. The gold mask on the phantom mecha's face gleams, and in the darkness behind it, Takuto's eyes gleam red. His face is otherwise expressionless-- or at least, the mecha face in front of it is.

Then he puts his fists together and yells out, "TAU MISSILE!" and rockets himself his his armor fists-first at Chaar.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
The eruption of the fire tornado has Rashmi recoiling for a moment, and when it dissipates, and Chaar powers up, Rashmi *swells* with indignation. "Nah!" she calls across the air, placing a *second* layer of shields angled toward the crowd below, to make sure the debris doesn't distract her much. "She was *likable* despite being a Dark-poisoned idiot! And at least she had enough class to keep Beryl's words out of her mouth!"

She seems to have a lot more to say, but is brought up short by Bishounen's revelation that the moth girl is, in fact, actually human.

"Oh you poor idiot," Rashmi sighs... *probably* at Chaar, rather than at Bishounen, who is FACE-TANKING A HUMAN BOMB.

Probably.

And with the dodge being sloppy and inexpert, an idea comes to Rashmi.

    << Okay... I'm gonna give you guys a speed boost. The more you strike on the move, the harder it'll be for her to react! Hit her from all sides! >>

    << *BONG!* >> << DELTA ACCEL -- BOOST UP >>

This time, the power brings with it... joy, energy, like being a kid and running under the summer sun *just because you can* to Katsuko, Kyouko, and Amy.

It's not a speed boost that'll last long, but it'll make it a lot easier for the swarm to strike.

Katsuko Takezaki has posed:
    Katsuko is kicked, she manages to shift herself so the kick doesn't quite hit as hard, but that's force and fire, it hurts even through her knight armor. She almost crashes through a building, but manages to revert her motion just in time. "Only thing Hinoiri-chan has ever faced from me is hugs." She counters Chaar's words. "Perhaps if someone had hugged her more, or had hugged you more, neither of you would've felt the urge to hurt people for no good reason."

    And then she does the stupid thing.

    She rushes towards Chaar, taking advantage of Rashmi's speed boost, and rather than try to attack, she tries to hug the doom and gloom girl. While the girl is streaming fire.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
"HUMANS DO NOT LIGHT ME ON FIRE!" Kyouko yells in counter offer to Takuto as it becomes abundantly clear that Chaar is 100% utterly and totally lighting the whole damn pack of them on fire. With a Tornado!

Kyouko lands amongst the wreckage of people and stuff and things to be able to grab her spear and then the speed bursts kicks in. Kyouko launches herself back up into the fray of it all, her ribbons and hair and pretty dress going from red to RED to smouldering, her arm up to protect her face from the brunt of the fire. She's getting around the back of the Chaar-bomb, to attack from all sides.

But also to not sends spears into the crazy person who is hugging her. Wtf!? No time to think about that overly much. Instead Kyouko gestures with her spear as she launches towards the firey assailant, a wide arc being carved out with the tip of her spear. The spear gets launched off again, becoming a whole spray of spears to stab into the back of her. Ideally the slightly less protected and perhaps even less firey back of Chaar.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "Gah! No!" Amy sits back down and pulls at controls that don't actually move, but Rashmi's spell does, but also sitting in a model plane does NOT provide good visibility against things coming in from below her.

    As the firey tornado expands, Amy tries to go forward faster, tiny rockets appearing on the plane to help! That's normally really expensive, but at this size...

    She swoops up and loops around, which results in her hanging from the upside-down plane by the controls. Doll fingers can't get tired, fortunately! "Okay, that's not working... I need to think less Macross and more Angelic Layer or something... That's it!"

    She takes a calming breath, or at least, imagines doing so.

    She has flight magic. She has far less mass to move and can supplement it with her own magic. She should take advantage of that.

    The plane disappears, Amy covered in armor like a miniature mecha instead of her magical girl outfit. It's magic costume armor, not armor armor, but...

    She falls towards the DG girl, weaving around thrown debris as magic boosts her speed even more, firing miniature missiles the size of stubby pencils from racks on her arms. "No... It doesn't need to be a mecha! UNCHAINED TRANSFORMATION!"

    Unneeded armor SHOULD poof away, but in a moment of coolness, it pops off as if by explosive bolts, tumbling away behind her as she speeds up. Her costume underneath is centered around a white, black and red leotard with her soul gem blazing red from an angular white-and-red chestplate -- there's an armored 'skirt' open in front with rocket thrusters on the sides, with red armored gloves and boots over red and black 'sleeves', with armored barrettes holding her hair in twintails; Some of the armor pieces have pink accents, but mainly...

    Anywhere that CAN mount a thruster or a missile rack DOES. She speeds up FAST, largely resistant to G-forces or worrying about blood flow. A swarm of tiny missiles fires ahead of her, but...

    "PLANETTO BREAKAAA!" She just flies right into the DG girl at top speed, manifesting a (for her) big heavy launch tube to slam into Chaar with the full weight of!

Doom and Gloom Girls has posed:
"Of course I'm human," Chaar snaps at the shocked hottie with the dumb hair. Never mind that she's covered in fur and has moth eyebrows and wings, obviously she's human. She might say more, but then -

There's a moment where Chaar seems to float almost on default, as Rashmi's words ring through the air.

And then, all at once, she loses it completely, turning her back on the fight and focusing her burning, hell-red eyes on Rashmi.

"Oh, she's likeable! That's the secret! She's likeable! She was LIKEABLE when she burned me in training, the day after I got magic! She was likeable when she told me to SCARE YOU ALL UNTIL YOU BREAK, OR BURN AND BE ABANDONED!"

It's a hateful scream of words, directed right at Rashmi.

"She was LIKEABLE when drained me of everything I had and left me to die! I'm SO SORRY little BITCH SPARKLE, I didn't know I just had to be LIKEABLE and then you would -"

That's when Katsuko manages to hug her. The girl on fire. The girl in a rage and pain, on fire, and she's hugging her.

"What's wrong with you?!" She snaps at Katsuko, but she's not - amping up the fire? She's actually not struggling all that hard away from the hug? However, there's a problem here, and it's that, see, she was flying through the power of having wings, so now, she's dipping lower and lower, and then there's because there's only so much weight those wings can manage, especially in a fight, especially when she needs to be agile -

And that's when tiny missiles slam into both of them, Chaar and Katsuko alike caught in a rain of explosions, which - she's actually better against explosions, compared to cutting weapons, and she's not sure why, but she's grateful for it, though she can't see now and that's when something small but powerful rams into her from a sideways angle, managing to hit her but not the girl STILL stubbornly hugging onto her and they're both knocked end over end.

But Doll Amy has made a mistake - she's gotten in close. Chaar's injured arm lashes out, and she grabs the delicate doll senshi in a grip that would bruise if she were flesh and which causes her delicate porcelain to creak as if it may shatter - and then she slams her down, launching her towards the ground with as much force as she can.

This is what leaves her open for the rain of five thankfully-shorter-than-is-typical spears which -

Stab directly into. Three in the back, thankfully missing the spine. One in the back of her left upper thigh. One in the back of her light arm. They're lodged in there, two inches (five centimeters) deep at least, small rivulets of blood leaking around them, and she can't quite scream, a hoarse shout that makes her voice break leaving her -

And that's when Ginga Bishounen Tauburn doesn't so much drop out of the sky as launch himself at her - at both of them now - like a four hundred pound brick of the fanciest armor you ever did see.

He piledrives them into the ground, and there's a skidding crater created by their momentum, and Chaar is wobbling on her feet when she manages to stand, and at least the spears were dragged out when she hit the ground, and one of her wings is torn and half limp, her wounds bleeding freely, her cut and then stabbed arm especially bleeding an unfortunate amount - and her other hand is still, still, despite all of this, gripping the black crystal she'd been holding at the start.

Doom and Gloom Girls has posed:
And she's laughing. Furiously. Angrily. Laughing.

"Likeable! Thanks, Sparkle! I'll remember that! Just be LIKEABLE when you torture people and it's all good, everything's okay, we'll be your new besties and save you from all those dangers you brought on yourself! We'll tell the people YOU trained to be this way that YOU'RE the likeable one and not THEM!"

She raises the crystal high, and there's a palpable wave of dark energy, as the raging and the panicking civilians go still, arching their backs in silent screams as their energy and the dark energy they'd been imbued with is torn from them in an instant, visible streams of energy racing to the crystal. They collapse with heavy thuds as soon as their energy is fully drained.

Chaar slumps a little, lowering her arm as she looks at the crystal, and she laughs again, though her face is twisted with rage and hate when she looks up.

"All this, and I still got what I wanted. Tell my senpai that the student is better than the fucked up teacher!"

And then she duskports away, a familiar to some distortion opening in the world as drops herself directly in the infirmary at Obsidian. The flames she created are still burning, in their perimeter around the area, but that's the only noise, now, the civilians all being terribly silent.

Katsuko Takezaki has posed:
    At the bottom of the crater is a charred and battered Katsuko. Her knight armor did not survive all that abuse. Zwillingrute is back to being a necklace, and she's in her school uniform. ... someone should get her some medical help, because she's not conscious to ask for help herself, and she's not just going to walk away without treatment.

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
The glowing phantom cavalier of a mecha's pulled himself up out of the crater they made, and he checks briefly on Katsuko before calling out, voice strangely calm, "Rashmi-san? Katsuko-san is unconscious. Can you tell if the civilians are all alive?"

He drops down to his regular henshin from the phantom armor, moving to take the closest person's pulse. "I can't carry everyone..."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
"I can carry someone if I need to." Kyouko lands again after all of that.. next to the crater. She is vaguely smoking, and certainly smouldering. And not in any way that would be much more interesting were they all older. She reaches over to collect up her spear, tucking it back to .. wherever it lives.

"What was she on about?" Kyouko asks of everyone generally assembled. Clearly she is not in any loops.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Katsuko-chan!" Rashmi cries, flying down right on Bishounen's heels. Nicomachea drops open into Rashmi's hands the moment her feet touch the ground, and the request barely has time to finish before the seal spreads out under the Device Mage's feet.

    << *BONG!* >> << MANA INVESTIGATION -- WIDE-AREA SCAN >>

Holographic monitors blip to life above the book's pages, and the seal emits a golden *pulse* of light that sweeps over the fallen civilians.

Worriedly, she reads the emerging charts and graphs and sciency-words, then sighs in relief. "...They're just out. Drained unconscious. When I drop the Barrier, they can get medical help but I want to shore Katsuko-chan up first, before I call Nurse Meiou."

    << *BONG!* >> << SOLAR HEAL >>

Rashmi is not a healer, in the way that Mamoru is. But she *does* have a very good tool for battlefield recovery, that soothes hurts, slows bleeding, and injects just a bit of energy into the target, to get them, if not up and moving, then at least awake, aware, and in less pain. Like if a Cure spell were a bottle of Tylenol and a really good bath.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Chaar's words reach Amy too late, she's already zooming in on the attack by the time she can process them -- wait, well, Hinoiri is different, Hinioiri is usually reasonable... but wait, Hinoiri tortured this person?!

    Painted eyebrows raise, eyes fully open, and her mouth hanging open is as shocked as she can look when she realizes she's grabbed and

    Your body is breaking! That really hurts!

    Amy screams in pain, surprised to learn this body can FEEL that, and is flung to the ground with a CRACK!! but... it holds, the damage regenerating as it's done as she burns through magic... At a much-slowed rate thanks to the smaller body being repaired, at any rate.

    She looks up from where she's lying, 'armor' crushed and dented. "I'm sorry..." She croaks out, as Chaar rants. She raises her voice, holding her hand out. "I'M SORRY! You don't deserve--!"

    But Chaar is gone.

    Amy-doll is gonna lie there resting for a moment. It might be a little bit unsettling since there isn't breathing to indicate she's alive.

    After several seconds she gets up, gritting her teeth in expected pain only to realize that having regenerated the damage, she isn't sore, and being not-alive she isn't even tired, except emotionally. Huh.

    She walks, then runs over to where Takuto and Katsuko are. "I'm sorry, I can't carry anyone like this..."

    And then she looks over Katsuko. "Oh, fuck." She reaches for the first aid kit under her (also not present) cloak. "Um, shit, I don't have my first-aid kit... This could be bad, these burns... we need to stop infection, right?" She anxiously watches the healing spell.

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
"Oh good," Takuto says, breathing a sigh of relief. "It's okay, you two, I can carry her. I just wanted to make sure she's okay to move, first. Just call Nurse Meiou to let her know we're coming, and I can bring her directly to the school infirmary."

He crouches next to Katsuko and goes to pick her up really carefully, checking Rashmi to see if it's all right. "And also maybe tell us? Later? What that likeable and torture business was all about? I mostly missed the Hinoiri thing-- as I didn't run into her, thank the gods-- until she broke the sun."

He simply Does Not Ask why Amy is a doll, there's an injured seventh grader here.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"It's okay, Red-chan," Rashmi says, stooping and extending her arm for Amy to lift back onto her shoulder. "Bishounen-kun's got her, and Nurse Meiou'll make sure she's not down for long." When Bishounen moves to pick her up, Rashmi bites her lip for a moment, then nods, okaying the carry. "And... Yeah I guess there *are* people who never met her, which feels weird to say but... Yeah. Lemme know when you're free, and I'll go over the whole long stupid story that *I guess* involves more people at Obsidian than I thought. That goes for you too," she says to Kyouka. "...Do you have a phone or something? I'll give you my number and you can text me."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy dismisses the extra armor, changing back to the outfit she initially 'henshined' into. She feels kind of bad about the inherent silliness her appearance will bring to this moment no matter what, but guesses that a doll dressed in a cute magical girl outfit is slightly less ridiculous than a mecha musume costume. She gratefully climbs onto Rashmi's arm for a lift, spreading her arms for balance as she somewhat awkwardly walks up her lifted arm before sitting on her shoulder. "Hinoiri's done the whole, drain a monster-- I mean drain energy and attack with a monster thing lots of times, since last summer. But..."

    Amy thinks of how to put this, as she turns towards Takuto. "She was... usually restrained and polite, as far as Dark Generals go. Like she didn't really want to hurt anyone until she got really mad or really desperate. So, that's what we mean by likeable. I uh..."

    She looks between the others. "I have no idea who that even was. Some kind of firey moth girl? I thought she must be a youma, but she said she 'got magic'..."

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
"All right, thanks. I'll text you," says Takuto to Rashmi, lifting up off the ground with Katsuko in his arms. The bright blue-white glare of his flight flares up around his feet. "Ohhhh," he says to Amy, "yeah, like, we dance battled. I had no idea torture was part of her toolkit." But then he glances down at the seventh-grader in his arms and his mouth tightens. He nods to Kyouko, Rashmi, and Amy, and then takes off soaring into the sky, leaving a comet-trail of energy signature in his wake.