1724/Doom and Gloom: VASTLY OVERGROWN

Doom and Gloom: VASTLY OVERGROWN
Date of Scene:	04 July 2024
Location:	Botanical Gardens
Synopsis:	Zwei of the DG Girls just wants to collect some energy at the Botanical Gardens. Glimmer just wants her to have some fun (and to collect information for Riventon). Tuxedo Kamen, Bow, Sailor Uranus, Page Mage, and Laura La Mer? They just want them to cut it out.
Cast of Characters:	Doom and Gloom Girls, Glimmer Brightmoon, Mamoru Chiba, Bow, Haruka Tenoh, Rashmi Terios, Laura La Mer

---

Doom and Gloom Girls has posed:
The Botanical Gardens in Pikarigaoka. Such a plebian place, full of desperate souls staging photoshoots for summer weddings, dragging uninterested partners out on haphazard, last-minute dates, or even just dragging along whining children who would rather be spending mommy and daddy's money than frolicking among the flowers.

Youko Aota had hated the Botanical Gardens before she was scouted by Obsidian, before she proved herself the best candidate and became Zwei of the Doom and Gloom Girls. Now? Now she has to admit... she kind of loves them.

But who wouldn't love a place just brimming with their power? The trees, the roses, the flowers and vines and leaves, every scrap of greenery in the Botanical Gardens is just waiting to become her weapon, and Zwei isn't going to make them wait any longer.

"Oh, you poor darlings," she says, stroking the petals of a white rose, "You're growing the best you can, but this is hardly the most you can do. But don't worry. Big Sis Zwei is going to help you out."

She reaches for her henshin device, tipping her head back as black and purple energies burst forth to cover her in a cocoon of light - and is shattered by the spread of her wings. Where there had stood a pretty girl now floats a vividly green-furred young woman, moth-like wings spread wide, clad in something that looked like a bikini.

"Thank you, everyone~" She calls, pitching her voice melodically, both hands raised to the sky, glowing green. "Thank you for offering up your energy!"

And then the ground rumbled. The trees swayed. The vines shifted. The roses rustled. And all across the botanical gardens, the greenery bursts into motion: shoots, branches, leaves, buds, blooms - all of it sprouting wildly from the ground and beginning to snatch at the visitors.

Screams fill the air.

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
Glimmer Brightmoon was there and... was, admittedly, a bit disappointed. This was SO Perfuma's scene. NOT hers. This? This wasn't like... Oh, look, fruit. It was more like... flowers. This was boring... This...

Okay, this was kind of awesome. No fruit snacks, but rest. She'd kind of found a really nice place with the flowers... and was taking a quick nap, laying on the grass, cape over herself. Surely Zwei would handle things and--

AND THEN SCREAMS! She yelped, sitting up, looking around and only BARELY managing to teleport out before a vine could snag her. She appeared a bit behind Zwei. "Hey hey, you almost got me! Listen, Mothuma, we're supposed to be on the same side here, right?" No, she couldn't call her Zwei. Every time she'd tried she kept calling her 'Sway'. Weird names were NOT her forte. "You know, if you can make plants and all, why can't you like... magic up a fruit drink or something?" she asked, reaching out to snag her shoulder, to pull her in against her side with a mischievous grin on her face.

"You have all this power now, right? All this magic? Why not use it to give yourself something nice while you work? Don't you *deserve* a bit of reward for all of this?" The other hand moving out and about, gesturing on the horizon in a grand display. "What's the fun with all this magic and stuff if you don't get something nice, just for you, with it?"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Rude!" gasps Mamoru Chiba, and then the indignation turns into anger. "RUDE." He shoves his site map in his pocket and books it, finding a tree big enough to obscure at least part of him, then pulls his pocketwatch from his other pocket and holds it up in the air.

"Earth Prism Power, Make Up!"

After a jewel-toned and sparkling transformation, he bounds up and up, into the tree and then up and away from it as it tries to impale him-- away onto a lamp post, landing lightly enough and staying light enough not to crack its glass.

"How DARE you misuse the lush greenery of these lovingly cared-for gardens, making even the roses turn against the people only here to admire them? It's a lovely dream turned cruel for innocent viewers of nature's beauty, and I won't stand for it! I, Tuxedo Mask, shall be your opponent!"

And then there's glimmer, and also vines crawling up the lamp post to get him, so Tuxedo Mask jumps again, headed for another lamppost, and flings a rose furiously toward one of Zwei's wings!

Bow has posed:
"Hey Etheria! Welcome to another edition of WowBow's Travels on Earth! Today, we are at the Botanical Gardens, and let me tell you, Perfumia, you would love it here! There's so many green spaces on Earth where people come to relax and see the trees. I did a whole thing on the Sakura Festival, but this is so different. They are just enjoying the different flowers and trees. They use them for all types of events, from weddings to celebrations! Check out this flower! It reminds me of the one in your hair!"

Bow is narrating to his camera as he walks through the garden, cataloguing everything because some day, he'll show it to his homeworld (hopefully). Dressed for the summer, he was in a pair of jean shorts and a crop top tank top that reads 'Are You Good at Archery?' and below it, has a Yes and No box. On the back of the shirt is an x in the middle of the back where the mark was made.

As he continues his tour, he explains, "Here, in the middle of the garden is a large tree. It's not like the Heartstone tree, but it's pretty big!"

And then comes the screams. "Ah. I have to go for now. Hero time. Until next time!" Bow shuts off the camera, and runs towards a small grove of bushes, making sure everyone is gone, and then he grabs his device, holding it aloft.

"FOR THE HARMONY OF BRIGHTMOON! ARMOR, UNLOCK."

The Etherian armor forms around him as he grabs his bow, the magical string that developed after combining with Tuxedo Mask snapping into place. Leaping to find a position, he lands on top of one of the public information booths as two fingers draw back and he considers. "Ice Arrow!"

A blue arrow forms on the bow and he fires it at one of the vines whipping at Glimmer, pinning it down and freezing it in place. "No wrapping up my Queen." he says with authority, which he immediately ruins by adding. "You should chilll out and listen to her!"

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
    Haurka Tenoh is walking uncharacteristically alone through Pikarigaoka. Michiru's got an art showing, and while Haruka loves being near Michiru, there is only so much high-society nonsense she can tolerate, and she's actually kind of at her limit. So she let the sea siren have that one on her own, and is currently walking in a blue sundress, taking licks from an ice cream cone. It's a beautiful summer day and she's got nothing to do and that, in itself, is a rare wonder and she really could use the relaxation.

    Of course, the universe has other ideas - as it often does when it comes to Sailor Senshi, as well as other magical girls - and the concept of relaxation. The wind blows one direction, then turns to bnlow in another - an unnatural, non-meteorologic phenomenon that may just be local to Haruka Tenoh's immediate vicinity. But it tells her Something Somewhere Nearby Is Wrong.

    She looks at her barely started ice cream cone with a look of resignation, then starts to walk towards a nearby trash can before looking at it again, shrugging, and un-ladylike-ily finishing the entire thing by cramming it in her mouth. Maybe she has learned some things from Usagi.

    As the vines below are draining the energy from the visitors, a tall, slender sailor-suited warrior appears on a nearby rooftop. The scent of flowers hangs on the air as a series of petals drifts by on the wind - but those are not the monstrous flowers born by Zwei (and it's probably a good question where the petals even came from).

    Tuxedo Kamen is here and he has the justice speech wrapped up - Bow is here and has some sort of... appeal to listen. Close enough.

    "And if you don't stop what you're doing right now, I'm gonna cut you down to the roots like the weed you are. Guided by a new era, Sailor Uranus acts with elegance!" Nailed it. Even with the brainfreeze she's had since she vanished her ice cream.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Flying on patrol is one of the better parts of the mahou life. Soaring above her home ward, keeping an eye out for anything that would break the peace... Yeah. Being a mahou is pretty awesome.

    << *BONG!* >> << ALERT. MASTER. ALERT. ANOMALOUS CORROSIVE ENERGY SIGNATURE DETECTED >>

Following the waypoints marked, Rashmi banks down toward the Botanical Center, a sinking feeling in her gut.

And when she streaks into the Gardens to see the burgeoning florapocalypse, she skids to a stop in midair. Rapidly expanding, hostile plant life, a villain who looks like a palette-swap of Chaar, someone she's never seen before but seems to be on not-Chaar's side, an on-the-attack Tuxedo Mask, a henshining Bow, and a speechifying Haruka. Well, that at least confirms what's about to happen here.

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

As the bubble of green-black-staticky magic grows to envelop the Botanical center, shunting the area half a dimension to one side and filtering out the poor screaming noncombatants, Rashmi clears her throat. "Seriously," she calls down from above. "Why waste such a beautiful day by getting your butt kicked? You could be doing *so many other things!*"

Laura La Mer has posed:
Laura had been filling pages with dedicated reports to send to the Mermaid Queen, including photos of as many places she could possibly find. Not that there were many she knew could prove useful, so she was going at random still. Why Kururun had waited till the last possible moment to show her, she would never know. But then again, sometimes she feels like the seal fairy is in her own world.

Which definitely fit her at the moment, since she was having a pleasant nap in the Aqua Pot without a care in the world. That was actually a good thing, though. She wouldn't want the magic critter to be in harm's way if Laura happened to have an unfortunate encounter. Joining the school really had proved no luck in finding Pretty Cures. They really don't want to make it easy, do they?

She has found one already, plus another who might as well be a honourary Pretty Cure, but her lucky streak kind of ended there. Snooping around, she had found these Botanical Gardens to be yet another place of interest, not gathering as many people at once as the Academy, but she understood people here tended to come and go. Not bad.

She was taking around of a particularly curious plant that was apparently called a Bellflower when cries all erupt around her and there is a sudden movement from the plant she was observing. Grumbling and falling back in shock, by reflex Laura starts taking photo-bubbles in a rapidfire sequence while she awkwardly runs back, hoping the bubbles would sort of... cover for her. They certainly had no other utility.

"Your plant almost ate me!", she screams furiously at the mothgirl that seems to be responsible for the overgrowth, pointing a finger at her. "Seriously, what gives!? Why don't you try embellishing the places you like?! You can't tell me this", she indicates with her arm the chaos she created, "is better than creating your own paradise." That is what she would do herself if she had something that useful, though she wouldn't go that heavy on it.

Doom and Gloom Girls has posed:
Right, that was also a thing. As Glimmer teleports over, complaining about nearly being snagged, Zwei just looks at the obnoxious little brat that the middle manager who was nominally her boss had decided to saddle her with, and smiles, mockingly.

"Well, I just thought you could handle yourself, but, I'm so sorry, that was pretty rude of me, wasn't it?" She's pulled in just in time to avoid Tuxedo Kamen's rose, and a justice speech is called in the distance about the beauty of flowers and dreams and other things that she honestly doesn't care about. She holds up a hand, asking for him to wait.

"And I didn't even offer to give you any refreshments, that's just... so sorry, let me help you out. Little baby girl needs a little treat?" A tree branch tiiiiips down until it sways over Glimmer's head, loaded with pale pink peaches.

"Go ahead. Take one. I'll be busy handling the job, okay?"

And then she ducks under Glimmer's hand and spreads her wings, taking off into the sky - just as the ice arrow flies through the space she had occupied, freezing over a tree.

""Right, right, I know about you all," she chirps, with all the condescending good cheer of a fed up teacher. "You're those magical folks who consider themselves heroes, right? Well, see, I have a job, and, sometimes when we have jobs, we just have to do things we don't really... enjoy. You know?"

She clasps her hands together, above her heart, and smiles brightly, "So I'm just -"

And then the barrier spreads, taking away the civilians she's draining, but leaving the plants - the enemies - and a small orb of collected energy, which she sighs to see and quickly snatches up.

"Oh, Chaar did tell me about these. How rude! Just snatching away all of my little victims like that... well, almost all of them. Hey, honey? It looks like you left someone behind~"

She points at Laura, screaming furiously at Zwei and trying to demand that Zwei do... redecorating? Something irrelevant to her interests, anyway.

"Thanks for that! It will definitely help my goals!" They're still on the ground. Which means, even though she's high above them now, they're still within her grasp. From the ground erupts yet more plant matter, thorny rose limbs flying for Tuxedo Kamen, Sailor Uranus, and Bow, while tree branches extend to try and snatched Rashmi from the sky. For Laura, given that she seems fairly harmless, the bellflower she had been so casually admiring sends limbs out to try and ensnare her.

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
Glimmer Brightmoon grinned and snagged a peach from the branch. "No, Moth-uma. It's not making something nice for *me*. It... ohhh... wow..." she whispered, eying up at the barrier going around them. "Oh sparkles. This isn't another witch thing, is it?! Ugh!" And then... she teleported about five feet away.

"Okay, good, it's not. And hey, I don't get my butt kicked!" she called up to Rashmi. "I-- Oh. OHH! That gives me the best idea. Also, hi Bow!" she called out. She then grabbed another peach. Teleported to where the ice arrow... froze the vines... snapped off a piece of the ice..."I'll be right back!"

And then, in a flurry of sparkles, she was gone. This... this wouldn't be good.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Someday. ...effing someday, Mamoru will have enough power to call up roses and brambles like this again, and maybe have a shot at entangling them back -- but that day is not today. With such swift and directed action on Zwei's part, Tuxedo Kamen isn't fast enough to jump away this time. His ankle's entangled, and his cape, and the thorny brambles catch at the cloth of his henshin armor, even as he pulls out a rose with his left hand and sleight-of-hands a cane in his right.

Grimly, he twirls the cane fast and faster, going for a weedwhacker effect on the vines so troubling him, and he has another go at rose-ing a wing while he's waiting for enough of the rudely misused roses to be cut to let him get free.

"Look out!" he calls, "She's a petty condescending Mean Girl!" The capitals are audible. "Which is pretty bold for someone wearing fur under a bikini--"

Bow has posed:
Bow is really really terrible at remembering that Glimmer is supposed to be a bad person. Especially when she's in the perceived threat of danger. When he actually remembers that she's supposed to be bad, he slaps a hand over his mouth, and then suddenly takes it out to blurt out. "I'm so sorry you're bad! Wink wink." He actually says 'wink wink'. But now his attention has to go back to the real bad person! Okay, sure Glimmer is supposedly a bad person too. Right? Totally bad.

"I hate to tell you, but this is your last day on the job, you might want to pack up your desk and put on your pink slip!" he calls out to Zwei as he was about to fire another arrow. But instead, there's thorny limbs launching up towards him. There's no time to call out for a specialized arrow and is forced into firing a standard arrow, followed by another as he tries to knock back the vines to buy himself a moment's reprieve - but that's not happening as a couple of vines get through, the vines citting into his arms. He yanks away with a yelp of pain as he works to get himself a clearing.

Another arrow, this one called out. "Fire arrow!" He draws back the flaming arrow, firing it into the vines to set them ablaze as he leaps from the booth, hitting the ground with a roll, and starts to run towards Zwei.

Then Mamoru calls out and Bow blinks a few times. "Mean Girl?" he asks. And then he glances at the girl and he ohs. "It's /fur/." he says in sudden understanding.

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
    Okay, plant lady did not stand down when faced with overwhelming odds and the brilliant Justice Logic of the combined group. That's always how it is, though. Uranus guesses she wants to move straight to 'getting her butt kicked' then.

    Haruka Tenoh is, as a civilian, pretty damn quick and nimble... but as Sailor Uranus, Protected by the planet of Wind, Protector of this solar system - she's even moreso. In the time it takes for the rose thorns to erupt from the ground and drive for her she's jumped in the air, landing on the limb and is running along it towards Zwei.

    "This is your job? Well, it's obvious you don't work for the fashion divison... Oh - Hey, do you work for Beryl? Or with her? Cause if so I've got a message I reaaaally need you to deliver to her, I'm not sure if it got through from Thetis." She takes a leap off the end of the rose vine that she's been running along and tries to come at Zwei and deliver a diving kick to her, hopefully in the face, but she'll settle for stomach.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
As the branches reach for her, Rashmi soars backwards, putting up shield after shield to foil the branches from taking hold of her. It works well to hold them off... for a time. But one malicious maple twines around her foot, bringing her up short with a surprised "*WAUGH!*"

    << *BONG!* >> << SOLAR SHIELD -- RED SHIFT >>

A jittery, fuzzy shield envelops Rashmi, then immediately shatters outward in all directions, applying considerable kinetic force to the branchlets surrounding her... likely enough force to break her free.

Regardless, she twists in the air, holding a hand out toward Zwei.

    << *BONG!* >> << SOLAR BARRET -- GLACE SHIFT >>

Six, eight, a dozen balls of light blip into being around her, then with a screech-crack become chunks of golden ice. All at once, the ice Barrets launch outwards, targeting Zwei directly and maneuvering around oncoming branches. On impact, those Barrets that hit will cling, with more successful Barrets building up and hampering movement.

"Well maybe she could be a condescending Mean Girl with a better job? Customer service can be pretty rewarding!"

Laura La Mer has posed:
Hoping that mere photo-bubbles would do anything to keep the bellflower off of her really was a fool's hope, wasn't it? As was the fact this random plant girl dedicated her efforts for something better. The moment of shock passed, there is a look of astonishment when she realises just how much she messed up by giving into her fit of anger instead of finding a safe place to stay in (such as, of course, the Aqua Pot). Too late for that now, as the vines reach out for her.

She doesn't really have much attention to spare for the magical warriors all popping out around her like daisies, because they wouldn't be the kind of daisies that are snagging her with vines. How come was she told nothing about all these different kinds of heroes she would encounter, anyway? Yes, if she found those who had greatest resistance against the loss of motivation their chances would be all the greater, but why not use people that are already there?

Though, her mission is kind of secondary while she struggles and tries in vain to loosen the grip of the vines around her waist, even trying to bite at them as good as that would do her. "What's the purpose of just inciting fear? What do you take from this?" she asks, Zwei. The Witch of Delays had a pretty clear goal, but she is just scaring people. "I hope you get kicked into the horizon soon!" Hey, she in trouble already. It can't get any worse.

Doom and Gloom Girls has posed:
"Have fun entertaining yourself," is called to Glimmer as she bounces around - honestly, she doesn't care, but if she's not here that's probably for the best. Zwei would hate to get in trouble for impaling her or something.

Another rose flies for her, and this one does manage to tear a gash in her wing, even as she tries to dodge. She doesn't cry out, but blood trails along the edge of the wound, and she suddenly seems far less amused.

"Well darling, we all work with what we have," Zwei calls to Mamoru, "I mean, look at you, in a full tuxedo in 98 degree heat. "Don't tell me, I ruined your engagement photos?"

Tuxedo Mask is having success as a weedwhacker - his rapidly twirling cane is breaking through the vines near him, so she improvises, twisting her hand - "Let's play a game of whack a mole!"

And the branches above Tuxedo Kamen's head punch towards the ground, trying to smash him flat as he no doubt works at dodging. Meanwhile, the vines Bow has shot go up in flames - and there are so many vines, the flames are going to start spreading. And spreading. And spreading...

"Hey, just so you all know, the fire is not my responsibility~" Zwei calls, flapping hire as the burning vines create an updraft - good thing, too, because Sailor Uranus comes shooting through the air with a kick that manages to get her in the gut instead of the face.

Yaaaay...

Zwei doubles over in mid-air, which has the benefit of missing some of the solar barrets...

"Androgynous Sailor," she wheezes, "Don't you know it's pretty rude to touch strangers without asking permission? Here, let's try that again -" and she grabs the foot Sailor Uranus has firmly planted in her gut and swings her around like a bat, smashing through the Glace Shift Solar Barrets - forget brainfreeze, let's see some full-body-freeze!

"Customer Service? Please! The only thing worse than customer service is floor retail. All you have to do to see that is open Clock App!" And she launches Sailor Uranus towards Rashmi, daintily wiping her mouth. Ugh, Chaar had not said how much it would hurt to take a blow like that! "But hey, tell me something - if I break you, do I break the barrier?"

And then there's the girl, calling out to her - Laura is grabbed by the vines now, and they're going to start draining the energy right out of her, pulling away at her resources. Zwei's got to get some success out of this, after all.

"Well," she says cheerfully, "I was draining energy, which is a very useful thing. But now, I guess I'm just draining your energy. Ganbatte, little one! You'll be so helpful to my boss!"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Natural fibers breathe a lot more easily than fake fur," Tuxedo Kamen calls back cheerfully, "and nah, my engagement was streamed live, I'm sure people got--" he swipes the cane like a sword instead of a baton for once, cutting at a last batch of vines, "--plenty of screencaps."

He definitely works on dodging -- fortunately for him, he gets the vines away from himself enough to work on dodging, and, tears developing in his formalwear fast and furious, he grabs for a tree branch that's just tried to smack him and follows it up, using the momentum to fling himself up into the air and somersault over and atop another lamppost.

"Bow! Do you have any flood arrows?" he calls out, even as he's pulling his right arm in against his chest and it starts to glow.

Uncharged and swift, he flings his arm out at Zwei and yells, letting loose a burst of punchy laser,

"Tuxedo la Smoking Bomber!"

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"CLOCK APP ISN'T REAL LIFE!" Rashmi shouts.

    << *BONG!* >> << FLIER FIN >>

Cancelling her own active magic is the work of a moment's thought, but even a moment matters when someone is flying toward your face. Thus the flight spell impacts Uranus about the time that Uranus impacts Rashmi, sending both girls spinning backward in a tangle of limbs... And hanging in the air.

"That was close," Rashmi sighs, as dragonfly-like wings of light unfurl from Uranus' ankles. "You okay to help that girl? I'm --" Rashmi looks over Uranus' shoulder, at the spreading wildfires below. "-- probably going to make things worse, thank the kami we're in a Barrier. Just... think of it like gravity *completely* ignoring you while you're jumping!"

Patting Uranus' shoulder and grinning, she breaks away, swooping around and down toward Zwei. "I mean, maybe!" she calls down, in answer to the DG Girl's question. "Doesn't look like you're gonna find out anytime soon!"

    << *BONG!* >> << SOLAR BARRET >>

This time the Barrets that lance out at Zwei are simple energy balls, tuned for speed and power. If enough of them blast through the vegetation toward their target, some of the dozen might hit Zwei, *hard.*

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
    One day, Sailor Uranus thinks to herself as Zwei grabs her ankle, she will remember to open up with all of the cool flashy stuff that works from a distance, so that she can properly gauge an opponent's strength or lack thereof before getting so close. One day.

    She is going to respond to 'androgynous Sailor' but she can't because of the impact of being swung INTO some of Rashmi's cold blasts. Great, now more things hurt from cold. She grits her teeth as the pain and bite of winter spread threough her, but then she's launched towards Rashmi - her arm manages to reach out and grab an overgrown plant to slow her impact, but she misses it barely and is about to hit the girl when... there's no force imparted.

    "Wha... how?" she stops to answer. As she floats there. "Uhhh..." Okay, admittedly, she wants to spend the next half hour playing around with the fact that she is flying now but for the moment she has a job to do. Damn Duty, always getting in the way of Fun.

    So instead she speeds over to Laura's side. "Oh, this girl's energy? You want it?" she calls to Zwei before reaching out her hand and drawing the Space Sword from nowhere - swiping it out in one smooth stroke, using its gleaming blade to cut the vines away from the girl, the blade magically keeping exactly the right length to hack the vines without hacking the person underneath. "Guess you shouldn't have thrown me away so casually. Now you don't get to look at me up close -and- you have no energy to drain. Poor choice I think."

Bow has posed:
Uh. Well. Spreading a fire was not what Bow expected to do. He frowns to himself, and draws in a breath. This is his mess. He needs to fix it. There's a glance around. Where did Glimmer go? With no sign of her in sight - he returns his attention to the flame.

"Water Arrow." he announces. It's a tried and true arrow. And as it forms, he starts to fire it at the flaming branches. "On it!" he calls out to Tuxedo as he asks about the flood arrow.

And after the first arrow is fired, he repeats the command, forming water arrow after water arrow, dousing the flames hopefully before they can spread too much. Unfortunately, he has to stay in place to fire so many arrows at once.

With others attending to the girl trapped in the vines, he does take a moment to draw back one water arrow, and sends it flying towards Zwei. She's already in a bathing suit after all? The canister arrow flies at Zwei, before exploding, a gush of five gallons of water spraying down at her as it has been on the flames.

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
Glimmer Brightmoon had... well... she'd facepalmed, just a little, once she was out of sight. Bow. She loved him so much. But oh my gosh he was so not made for subterfuge. She couldn't help but remember when they went to that bar. 'I'm so bad. I'm a bad guy. I'm bad.'

How could he be so perfect and yet so dense at the same time? Sigh... well, either way, she got to work, humming lightly to herself as she worked.

It didn't take long before she teleported in... and then yelped, teleporting in a moment later. Arm wrapping around Zwei, both of them would disappear... only to reappear in a nearby tree, landing with a plop. Perfect vantage point to see where that... veritable *explosion factory* had hit. She let out a low whistle. "I think... they're mad," she said sheepishly. She then dropped... something... into Zwei's lap? "And that wasn't what I meant before, silly. You have *magic* now. You need to enjoy it a bit, you know? If you just get all 'grrrr argh rawr' you're not going to have any fun, and what's life if you can't do that?"

Inside the bowl... was... an ice snack. Peach flavored shaved ice.

She'd then eye the veritable crater left behind by the flurry of attacks and... "We might, um, wanna wrap this up. I'm not entirely sure that I can teleport us out of this mess thing with that barrier of theirs, heh heh..." She stuck her tongue out in a playful manner... Before holding out her hand and forming a great, blinding ball of light! Well, whatever Zwei wanted to do, she better do it fast.

Laura La Mer has posed:
The vines weren't really showing any sign of giving in to Laura's hands, as she feels the energy drain starting to tick in. Is this what it losing motivation power feels like? No, that can't be, she isn't any less determined to slip away from it, she is just feeling more tired the further it proceeds. "This certainly isn't a Layabout", she grimaces as she feels the drain making her weaker.

Which puts her on a strict countdown, and so she gives up on using her hands. She is not so foolish to keep trying the same ineffectual thing. "Who are you calling 'little one'? I am Grand Ocean's queen candidate and I didn't escape the attack on my home to be done in by a girl who hasn't seen a hairstylist in months!" Changing back to a mermaid, she starts giving vigorous slaps to the vines, giving a stronger impact than her hands with the strength of someone who has swimmed extensively at speed.

Of course, then Uranus comes in and cuts her free anyway, so her greater efforts don't matter. Instead, she finds herself falling to the ground, and in very quick thinking, she grabs the Aqua Pot and plunges inside. She'd very much want to avoid being smashed in the face by the path underneath.

Doom and Gloom Girls has posed:
"It's real fur, Masked Boy," Zwei calls, looking a little amused, at the conversational topic. She brushes a hand through her hair, and down her throat, fingers sliding through the fur which certainly does move like real fur. "They're real wings, too, so if you lot would stop tearing them apart, that'd be nice. We don't make a habit of tearing your limbs to shreds, you know? But if you really object to the fur, ask Riventon about it. It's not like I designed my own look! But hey! My hair is perfectly fine, thank you very much! Silky, shining, even - oh dear."

There's an energy beam heading her way - a strong one, by the looks of it. Zwei could duck and dodge again, but she's feeling a little cocky - a little like flexing on these wayward heroes. So rather than merely flying away, she calls out, "OVERGROWTH SHIELD!"

And plants surge up, creating a living shell around her, supported by thick roots and branches - just as Glimmer teleports her out of there.

And Tuxedo La Smoking Bomber tears a hole through that living shell, blasting the upper portion apart, even as Rashmi's balls of energy smash apart the supports and the base, and it's terrible destruction, even as cool water puts out the flames.

If this weren't in a barrier, the Botanical Gardens would be pretty messed up.

But when the smoke clears and damage is laid bare... there's no body, at least?

Of course there's no body. Zwei and Glimmer are standing on a nearby tree branch, and Zwei is shaking her head. "Wow, I really needed to make that shield thicker - wait, did you make this for me?"

It's clearly an ice snack, faintly pink-colored and sweet looking.

"Huh. That's actually... pretty nice of you. I wasn't actually expecting that." She takes a bite, tasting sweet, sweet peach iced snack as the Mahou are blinded. "Look, I'm such a nice girl, you know, I'm a nice girl who just does her best to make sure we get through the day, you know?"

The ground rumbles as vines surge out of the ground to toss everyone who isn't using Flier Fin to the ground.

"We should probably go ahead and get out of here, before they get back up and do something about that."

Wow, it would be really ironic to get hit now, huh? Especially since all the mahou are a bit of distance away, and the conversation probably can't be heard, but, eating snacks during a fight is pretty rude.

Bow has posed:
As the remaining flames are doused, Bow turns his attention to the spot where Zwei was, as it is absolutely devastated by Tuxedo Mask and Page Mage. But Bow knows Glimmer. He's been her best friend forever for a long time. And if Glimmer is involved, he knows that she will be teleporting away Zwei. But he also knows her range, the amount of teleports she generally has, and how long it takes her to recharge. With those factors in mind, he grits his teeth and considers. What's a way to get the message across that they're on opposite sides - without actually hurting her!

"Boxing Glove Arrow!"

As the shafted arrow with a large boxing glove appears in his hands, Bow draws it back, aiming at a paticular spot, and he lets it fly. If he guessed right (Glimmer's free to ignore that roll), the arrow will arrive at the same time that she arrives with Zwei on that tree branch and 'BONK' her upside the head. The boxing glove was full of feathers, after all. He didn't really want to hurt her!

Not that he doesn't get another chance to fire, or apologize, as the vines erupt beneath him and he's thrown into the air. "Net Arrow!" he yelps, firing the arrow beneath him to ensnare the vines and trap them and give him a place to safely land.

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
    The person(?!) that Sailor Uranus cuts free dives into some sort of magic apparatus... tablet... thing. "Well, you don't see that everyd..." actually, you see something like that all of the time though. When you're a magical girl. Weird stuff just happens. "Okay yeah, sure, fine." she says to the Aqua Pot. She turns around to see the remains of Zwei's shield, and Zwei and Glimmer... and... "Wait, what the hell! I had to rush my dessert to get here and now someone's bringing her one in the middle of the fight?!" she exclaims in pure frustration, even as her eyes re-adjust to the lack of flashbang-blindness.

    She's flying, and she can swerve-dodge the crushing vines, but she's really more annoyed about the mid-fight dessert delivery thing than she's trying to let on, eyebrow twitching. "You can't just turn the entire garden into... whatever the hell this is, and then eat shaved ice like you're not deserving a whooping. Was the kick not enough to get it through your head?!"

    She doesn't know they're leaving, and that might not stop her even if she did. She raises her hand to the sky and collects wind energy into a compressed gemlike state of orange crystal.

    "World...SHAKING!" she calls out, as the orange orb of energy slams into the ground and spirals before rushing towards Glimmer and Zwei, ripping a distinct groove in the barrier-fielded terrain before rising up to head on the trajectory for them.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
As the smoke clears there is... nothing in the ruins of the shell. One would *hope* that means a dusted youma, but their enemy is kind of a few levels above that--

--as evidenced by the VINERUPTION bursting up all around them. Hurriedly, Rashmi darts up a little further, casting her eyes around the battlefield.

    << *BONG!* >> << TELEPATHY >>

    << Is everyone okay?! >> her voice speaks in the minds of Bow, Tuxedo Mask, and Sailor Uranus. << Also where'd that girl go? Did she say she was a princess too? Tokyo's gettin' kinda stuffed full of royalty these day-- >>

* F L A S H *

Recoiling from the blinding flash that both disorients *and* gives away the target's position, Rashmi rises even farther from the snuggle-seeking vines, rapidly shaking her head and blinking away the burst of light-- right as Bow launches what is perhaps the best and most iconic attack of magical archers everywhere, only just discernible from the receding glare in her vision. << Awesome, Bow! >> she cheers, just as Sailor Uranus shakes the world apart between herself and Zwei's tree. And with the dazzling burst now only a few bright points in her vision, she asks for a target lock from Nicomachea... and a reticle appears in her view, directly over one of the more stubborn flash-spots. << Thank you, telepathic AR...>> With target locked, there's no help for it but to add her own attacks to the chaos.

    << *BONG!* >> << SOLAR BARRAGE >>

As much practice as Rashmi has been getting in at summoning, tuning, and launching Barrets, her weight of fire has been steadily more efficient, allowing for an ever-greater rate of fire. And with this particular spell wasting no magic on homing ability, the result is a fairly large volume of bright, forceful, thankfully-non-lethal Barrets chewing into the tree like a machinegun.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Honestly eating snacks during a fight is pretty understandable, former Hematite thinks, but then-- Mamoru nearly always used youmas. Right now, though, Tuxedo Mask doesn't know this is going on, he only knows that they freaking disappeared again, even as he rubs spots from his eyes from the flashbang and can't hear a damned thing for a moment.

They are not there. Seriously damn Glimmer's teleport. More annoying than Zoisite's by far.

When the ground shakes and rumbles and spits up more vines and brambles, he's both shaken off the lamppost and abruptly really really mad because this is his thing that he just doesn't have enough power to use, and he lands a little hard, three points, and he leaves his hand on the ground while the vines climb up him and twist around. Quickly, he closes his eyes and his hand glows, and when he opens them they're crackling a little with gold for a split-second.

Oriented on the tree properly now, knowing where they are, he then pulls his hand in again.

"Tuxedo--" he yells and his hand glows.

"--la Smoking--" he yells and it glows even brighter, and he flings his hand out with the last word,

"--Bomber!" he cries, and the attack he looses this time is bright, so bright, and filled with exasperation and indignation and aggravation and also punchy laser power, and the thorns dig in and he grimaces but holds the attack for that long, then closes his hand and yells, "YOUR FUR LOOKS LIKE POLYESTER! And if you don't want your wings shot at, don't do bad stuff!"

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
Glimmer Brightmoon gave a small shrug. "Yeah. As thick as you think you can make it? Trust me. It's never enough. I've seen She-ra cleave through entire space ships trying to get at whoever annoyed her. And don't even get me started on the things the Horde did. And of course I made it for you. After all, you're a real... peach," she said, actually sparkling a little with that grin.

... Oh gosh she really was like Bow. She even made fingerguns.

... Only for Bow's arrow to hit her in the face. So, his timing was a liiiiiiittle off for comedic purposes, but... oof.

As princess fell off the tree, not... actually really hurt so much as surprised. Teleporting in shock and... Landing at the base of the tree, confused and disoriented. "W-what? Ow, why, what? Boxing glove, who has a boxing glove arrow?!"

Then looked up to see... the approaching blasts. She gives a squeak and... sparkles! And doesn't teleport.

Oh. Oh dear. She... she was out of gas. "Uh oh." Oh that was *not* good. She held up her arms to shield herself as the coming destruction blasted at her!

On the upside, she wasn't... like... fully dark energy, so a bit of purification couldn't hurt THAT much.

If only these attacks were purification energy, right?

Laura La Mer has posed:
Despite being safe inside the Aqua Pot, it's still too soon to breathe a sigh of relief as she has to stop it from falling too. And it's a real close call, even if the emergency brake ends up waking up Kururun from her restful sleep. The seal fairy blinks as she groggily looks around, trying to understand what is it that just happen.

"No worries", Laura says to the seal's clearly confused face - she can understand that much - "Just a plant girl that was draining me." Metaphorically and literally. With the Aqua Pot now flying around the Gardens, the vines spare her from their assault, and she safely waits inside for everything to be over. Jeez, that girl really has no qualms about causing as much damage as possible.

"Thank you", the pinkette says embarassed to Uranus once the magical soldier has finished using the World Shaking, her head popping out of the Aqua Pot. "She... really made a mess though", Laura observes, unaware that Rashmi's barrier would isolate the actual impact of the destruction.

Doom and Gloom Girls has posed:
A boxing glove punches Glimmer in the head, and she tumbles down to the ground. And Zwei... stares, spoon full of shaved ice held to her lips as her eyes go wide. She leans over the tree to look down at Glimmer -

"Did... hey, you didn't fall and break your head, did you?" Unfortunately. This extremely good distraction means she doesn't notice the mahou setting up a series of extremely powerful shots -

at least, not until they hit her in the back. One after the other - first Tuxedo La Smoking Bomber launching her into the tree, which half-buries her into the tree. Then World Shaking, which pushes her through the rest of the tree, causing the top half to tumble to the ground.

And then Solar Barrage launches her into another tree.

There's a beat of silence, once the trees stop rustling, and then Zwei falls down to the ground. She's bruised and battered and -

"That... is not what I was expecting," she manages to get out, swaying on her feet, before launching into the air... like, three feet from the ground. "I can't believe you... ruined my dessert like that."

Seriously?

"It would have been nice if you hadn't of ruined my job, too, but... I'll just have to come back later." A pause. And then, swaying on her feet, "But like... way later. So... let me just..."

And so, she flutters along back to the now totally destroyed tree... grabs Glimmer back one arm... and duskports the two of them out of there.

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
    Sailor Uranus looks down at the head that has popped out of the clearly magic box thing. Outwardly, she remains pretty calm and collected about it, while inwardly she is... less so.

    "Don't worry, one of our friends is keeping the destruction contained." She doesn't try to explain how that works, since she isn't really sure. She's just been in Barriers before.

    "You could also come back never! like, way never!" Sailor Uranus calls in response to Zwei. She's a little annoyed the girl is still on her feet, and that she's able to get her and the other girl out of there, but she supposes she should be all happy about saving the day. So she just crosses her arms and glares at the spot where they used to be for a little bit, instead.

    Finally, she stops that to look around. "Well... Good job everyone! Sent em' home with their tails between their legs." she says, putting her hand on her hip.

Bow has posed:
<< I'm good! I totally forget this device has this feature! >> Bow admits, a little sheepish sounding at the admission. He has so much to learn about the device. But when Rashmi praises him about the arrow, he's still wincing that it hit Glimmer in the head and knocked her down. He's feeling a LOT of guilt over that and will probably be texting Glimmer later to make sure she's okay.

And he also misses out on the barrage of awesome by the trio of heroes. He'll worry about that later. He really needs to work on his teamwork with his allies. Preparing to fire another arrow... "Lasso Arrow!" that he was preparing to fire at Glimmer to capture her so that he could scold her... but before he gets the chance to do so, Zwei teleports her away and Bow stands there for a moment, watching the space where the pair disappeared and he blows out a breath of frustration. And now that she's gone, he can say it out loud.

"That IDIOT IS GOING TO GET HERSELF HURT WITHOUT ME AND ADORA! GAH!!!" And yes, that last part sounded just like Napoleon Dynamite. "We're the best friends squad, not the best friends solo!"

Rashmi Terios has posed:
It's a rare occasion when Rashmi gets the last hit in, and this feeling... It is a *satisfying* one. << Nico-kun, reminder: put in some extra overtime on coming up with something heavier than Barrets. >>

Satisfying enough that coming up with a finisher is now a summer project, apparently. But then Bow's exclamation has her starting, then flying down to touch down in front of Bow, puzzled. "...Wait, you *know* the glittery one? ...Wait best friend squad THAT'S GLIMMER?!"

Suddenly the events take on a different weight, and *another* mental note is made to talk to Bow somewhere... less frustrating, than the ruins of the field of battle. Shaking her head, she looks up and around, smiling at Uranus and Tuxedo Mask, nodding her agreement with the blond. "And on the upside, they didn't get much, and that's about the best we can hope for? ...Also that we got her before she could damage the *real* Gardens."

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
Glimmer Brightmoon covered her face when Zwei got blasted. Sure, she peeped through her fingers to watch, but she pretended almost... "Are... are you okay? And no, I fall all the time."

She was very skilled at it. The other girl grabbed her and they were off...

She'd uhhhh... "Let's... let's get some ice cream before we report this. I think we both earned it after that."

Oh she was SO texting Bow about that later. PUNCHING GLOVE ARROW?! GAH! That idiot was going to get himself hurt without her to help protect him all the time! She had a job to do, anyway! He needed to come at her, swinging! Or... at least... not pull his punches so much.

"Let's get you an ice pack, too. That last bit looked like it hurt."

Besides... she'd need to make a report to Takashi later, anyway.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Yeah," grumbles Tuxedo Kamen, wincing as he pulls the thorny vines off him and has to cut some of them as he gets slowly to his feet. A rueful look at Haruka. "Maybe next time we try a combo? Because that was... really annoying actually, but at least they ran away."

He glances over to Bow. "I'd be more worried about her messing with dark energy at all, honestly," he says, brushing off his suit, then letting it go and just dropping his henshin, leaving himself in his school uniform, a significant tumble down in style points.

He steps out of the brambles, then, and sighs. "At least she didn't recognize me," he says, then offers a wry, slightly tired smile. "Thanks so much for the barrier, Rashmi-chan. I love those things."

Then he looks at Bow, glances at the flying AquaPot, has no idea what to do with it, and looks back at Bow. "Sorry about your bestie," he says, and it sounds completely sincere. "But she's actively shielding them and they really, truly leveled up. I can't actually ... not attack even if she gets in the way."

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
    Sailor Uranus turns to look at Bow. "Wait, which one of those two idiots is your idiot?" she asks. And then she gestures to the area around them, before the barrier comes down. "Besides, do you really want to go join team Miracle Gro Science Experiment Gone Wrong?"

    "Or wait, is this another like, Hematite situation?" Not expecting that to mean much to Bow, she clarifies: "Tell me she's not like, your secret girlfriend who has four pretty female friends that also need saving, or something." Look, at this point, coincidences just aren't.

    Then she turns to Rashmi. "Okay, so you know the girl too?" It doesn't exactly take a rocket scientist to figure out which of the two girls is 'Glimmer Brightmoon' between 'plant girl' and 'made of sparkles' so it starts to make more sense.

    She looks at Tuxedo Kamen. "Yeah, I honestly... would have liked it to stick a little better. Then we could be asking these questions... to them directly." she says to him. And she gives a thumbs-up to Rashmi as Kamen compliments the barrier.

    "But Kamen-san's right there... Bow-san? If she's helping them drain energy, she's bringing them closer to destroying the world a second time and I can't stand by and just watch that." she says, a bit of apology in her voice, but also an edge to it...

Laura La Mer has posed:
"Wait, your dessert? After all the trouble you caused, what worries you is your dessert", she groans, jumping out of the Pot to land on the ground and talk to her directly. "If you knew what's good for you, you would be more concerned about the mess you caused", she snaps at her, emboldened by the all the attacks that she had seen her almost get the full brunt of. A pity that wasn't actually the case.

Well, at least, things turned out well. "Congratulations, all of you", she addresses the group of mahous. "I found it quite superb. I imagine you deal with these types of threats regularly, right?"

"Hmm, that's actually really convenient", she says to Uranus, shifting her gaze from one mahou to another with interest. "Which one of you is responsible for that trick? Does it work regardless of who has caused the destruction?" She remembers the net from last time, and if she could secure someone to avoid that, her reports would be all the more impressive!

But the question soon comes to a close when the dashing teen gives her the name and the face of the mage that did it. "Hey, are you around often? I am trying to find a group of people to fight the efforts of the Witch of Delays, and someone like you would be incredible."

"Don't beat yourself up over your friend", Laura tells Bow. "She will be taking care of herself, won't she? Go take a break. You will think much better after relaxing."

Bow has posed:
"I should work on a barrier arrow. It'd be useful to have. Better than a Boxing Glove arrow." Bow admits with a small frown as he scrubs his face with his hands after putting his bow back against his quiver.

"Yes, that was Queen Glimmer Sparklehair Brightmoon, first of her name, daughter of Angella and Micha and Queen of Brightmoon, Ambassador of Etheria and... apparently working for Obsidian." He blows out a sigh of breath in frustration as he lowers his hands. "I have a good idea /why/, but I don't want to discuss that here." he murmurs.

"Everyone okay?" Take the attention off of him. And then there's a nod to Mamoru. "I made her promise that she wouldn't use dark magic to make youmas. She would never break a promise to me, we've known each other since I was very young and... she just wouldn't do that!" he has to hold his hopes that she'll keep that promise.

Bow really is a well-meaning idiot.

As Uranus speaks up, he draws his lips into a tight frown. "The slightly rolly one in purple and brown." But then the question of their relationship is brought up, and Bow blinks a few times in confusion, cheeks darkening. "No, Sayaka Miki is my girlfriend, Glimmer is just one of my two best friends. Along with Adora Rainbowfirst, they arrived from a different point in Etherian history than me. But I know she wouldn't go bad! Or evil! And just... I don't want to talk about this here! And no, there's other princesses, but not like... Sailor Moon and the other senshi!"

And then to Laura, he shakes his head. "There are times she can't open a jar of jelly without help. Oh Brightmoon, she would make a jelly youma, just because." He's not relaxing, he's doing the opposite of that. Just give him a few moments to calm down.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"... let's go get ice cream," Mamoru says after a slightly awkward second and a half. "I think I'm done with the botanical gardens for today."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Glimmer Spar-- ... ...huh. I thought it was just that Adora and Catra were like five, but okay that's just how names go I guess," Rashmi mutters, shaking her head. But then Tuxedo Mask and Uranus lay down Hard Truths, and Rashmi sighs, putting a hand on Bow's shoulder. "I'm sure she's got really, really terrible reasons," she says gently. "But at this point the best we can do is stop her when we have to, and if she's not fooling around with Dark Energy then at least her terrible choices are hers, and *probably* won't snowball like-- well. Other bad decisions have."

Probably.

What are the odds that Glimmer manages a Dark spiral all her own?

"Anyway yeah let's save that talk for later, when I'm not about to drop us all into the middle of a confused but not blown up Botanical Garden."

This, said with a beam around at the compliments. Barriers *are* pretty great!

When Laura asks after said Barrier, she gets the redheaded mage's full attention. "Yeah basically it takes a designated space, and kind of... shifts it like half a dimension to one side. Generally it's set to filter out anyone that isn't magical at all, and whatever fighting happens is in this dimension, not that one... so probably the worst that'll have happened back home is the plants grew a *lot* and need to be trimmed. But all the fighting happened here, not there. And I'd be happy to help whenever you need!"

...

"...Y'know ice cream sounds *amazing* right now."

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
    ..."Also all of this talk about one of them, but do we know what the fuzzy plant lady's whole deal was? I was just guessing Beryl because a lot of things are her fault." Sailor Uranus asks while agreeing about ice cream - and moving closer to Kamen-san to ask how trustworthy he feels the lot of them are in a hushed tone.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Very probably Beryl, since they were working with Riventon," Mamoru says, sighing. "Replacements, you know? I didn't realize the wings were actually real, but... I'll have to ask him if they're human or more like Thetis."

He starts rolling up his sleeves and unbuttoning his shirt (white shirt underneath it, obviously). "I don't know the mermaid girl," he murmurs to Uranus, "but everyone else is fine. I'm just taking the chance because as much as I said natural fiber breathes, this weather is way too hot for full formalwear."

Then his hands are up. "Ice cream it is! I'm buying!"

Laura La Mer has posed:
Well, that was easy. They really are just that eager to help around here, aren't they? At the same time, the explanation she gets is actually an interesting one, and she actually wants to delve into the level Rashmi's abilities reach.

"That's fantastic! If we get a better time, there are some questions I want to ask you about your magic." She has got to hand it to them, she hadn't expected humans to have such a nifty piece of magic too.

"She was draining energy, that's what her deal was. She was certainly not after people's motivation power", Laura replies to Sailor Uranus.

But maybe she tag along with the group, and see what else they can cast a light on, because she definitely has even more questions coming. And discover what this 'ice cream' is.