1765/B-Point: Fear the Dark

B-Point: Fear the Dark
Date of Scene:	14 July 2024
Location:	Paris Catacombs
Synopsis:	(CW: Injury and Death.) The twisted catacombs of Paris are an eerie place at the best of times - prowling in the dark on the hunt for Metallia is far from the best time. Especially with the Doom and Gloom Girls attacking from the darkness. Bow, Culinary Guardian Daifuku, Tuxedo Kamen, Rocket Girl Red, Jolly Roger, and Lunar Knight face off against Zwei and Drie of the Doom and Gloom Girls, empowered to their max by Metallia. Blood is shed, and Daifuku and Bow have never burned brighter. But even stars burn out. Heroes fall. With Sayaka and Phantom's unexpected aid, our heroes press on - but no one will forget the cost.
Cast of Characters:	Doom and Gloom Girls, Chiyo Sakai, Bow, Mamoru Chiba, Erika Shimizu, Naru Osaka, Amanda Faust, Phantom, Sayaka Miki
Tinyplot:	Dark Kingdom Finale

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Doom and Gloom Girls has posed:
The darkness stretches onward, beckons those trapped within forward. Light arrows, flashlights, glowsticks - a variety of sources exist for illumination, but somehow, it only makes it all the worse. Shadows dance at the edge of our heroes' vision, breezes skirt against their ankles, teasing them onward with the hope of getting out of the tunnels -

Because they are in the tunnels, an eerie stretch or gray stone that's tightest at ceiling height, widens at shoulder height, narrows near the floor - a coffin-shaped stretch of stone that requires they walk single-file to squeeze through at all.

There are grooves of stone along the ceiling in four staggered stacks, and the rest is smooth and gray, marks of age visible, and the floor slants subtly, proving that they are heading down, down, down, into the abyss that is the sprawling city beneath Paris.

There are skulls in the stone, not bones this time, but markings that just out ever so slightly as if human faces had pressed and squeezed against the stone in a vain effort to escape entombment.

There's something else that's happening - the tunnels don't seem to bleed naturally into one another, or perhaps, they bleed too naturally into one another?

For you see... while all the Mahou present departed together, not all of them arrived together, in the group presently passing through the tunnels. Some of them may realize, suddenly, that they aren't with those they were sharing a tunnel with, just moments ago. People are appearing and disappearing, without a word, as if swallowed by the winking darkness...

Chiyo Sakai has posed:
Guardian Daifuku resists the urge to walk with a hand raised to trace fingers against the walls they pass. Normally if she were in a regular cave, or hallway that was as tight as this, she would do precisely that. Normally. The skulls that were intermingled here though made the thought of doing so push past even her horror movie seasoned nerves of steel. This was, after all, quite real.

It's almost impossible to move in this gooseneck tunnel and the shape of it doesn't leave her feeling any better about the fact that she's forced to walk with her Kine raised in front of her just-so so that they can both make it through the tunnel. Fighting in here would be near impossible. Something the plum haired girl was trying very, very hard not to think about at the moment.

That little flickering darkness just outside the view of the light she'd brought clipped to her apron causes her to glance behind her with worry, then back to the front again.

"Something's... Not right. More than the usual not right," she lets out quietly. "Who all is here still?"

Bow has posed:
:has been bandaged and treated as best as he could. The rat swarm on him had been devastating, but a soda and a couple of energy bars and he was ready to keep moving. His weapon of choice gripped tightly in his right hand, he follows after the group through the tunnels using light arrows to illuminating the way. And he notices that the group dynamic changes as they go along, and he shakes his head. "This is more confusing than Beast Island." he muttters.

When they arrived at the coffin tunnel, he reminds everyone, "Stick close." he offers quietly, "I'd say find your battle buddy. But it seems we keep trading out." he admits as he calls out to Chiyo. "Bow here! Lighting the way!"

And with that, he draws another light arrow, chipping away at his mana pool.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
These tunnels do not like tall things.

Tuxedo Kamen walks with an ungloved hand-- his left-- tracing the ceiling just above and in front of his head, going along with a slight hunch to keep from dragging his head against the ceiling instead.

"Hi Daifuku," he says when Chiyo asks, voice wry, face ghastly pale against the darkness behind them all. He wasn't there before. "We're at the edge of the Dark Kingdom, the stone is responding very sluggishly and I'm... familiar with the way it feels."

A beat. "Tuxedo Kamen here, and as far as I know I'm bringing up the rear."

Erika Shimizu has posed:
    Jolly Roger has a flashlight in her hand. And in her other hand she has a cutlass. She is prepared for a foray into the darkness. Sure, she's even walked off that hideous stab wound that leaked soda. But the flickering, dancing, shadows are no friend to her. And when she reaches the coffin-shaped tunnel she pauses outright.
    "Oh. Oh that's nae good." She mutters. "Roger here." She calls in reply to Guardian Daifuku while eyeing the various myriad skulls.
    Jolly Roger does not ger nervous easily. But when she does, there's always one thing the pirate can do to soothe herself...

    o/` "In the moonlit night on the Paris streets,
The catacombs hold secret beats,
Where silent skulls and ribcage bands,
Await the touch of her command..." o/`

    Oh that is a shanty. She's singing under her breath as to not attract undue attention, but that sure is a shanty.

Naru Osaka has posed:
This is not where Naru started. She got split off early, and had been with her Cheeky Kitty and Cure Wing. And now?

Now she's in a coffin shaped tunnel that she is VERY grateful isn't any smaller than it is, or that she isn't Tuxedo Kamen sized. She's tense enough just with the vague shape of the tunnel as she hurries to catch up with the group.

Not that everyone in the group is likely to recognize the Lunar Knight that comes up behind them. The puella know. Tuxedo Kamen knows. Few others do. An armoured figure, in silver with accents of oranges and greens, her helmet filled with fillagree and her skirt rustling easily as she moves. No heels here, as much as she could use the height, but rather knee high boots.

"Ugh." Lunar Knight makes a face. "I do not like how this place feels."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "I'm here. What do you mean not right?" Amy looks over at Daifuku. And then turns, eyes wide, to Tuxedo Kamen. "The Dark Kingdom? I thought you said-- oh. Of course. Pocket dimension could be connected anywhere, I guess..."

    She's wearing her headlamp again, but is also occasionally firing a flare into the tunnel ahead to light the way. And confirm they're not about to walk into the abyss or something.

    At the unfamiliar voice, she turns and looks curiously at Naru, who she's never seen transformed before. "Sorry... who are you?" Amy looks her over. "I don't mean to be rude, but... y'know... the situation is ripe for stuff like switching one of us with an imposter, or spells that make us see eachother as enemies, or something... although why add someone we don't recognize..." Amy taps her chin. "I confess I can't see the point of that. Unless it's to distract us from something else..."

Doom and Gloom Girls has posed:
Traveling through the coffin-shaped tunnel, there's only one way to go - forward. Eventually, the tunnel opens up, widens out to reveal a stretch of space - the ceiling is lower, requiring those of significant height to crouch to avoid smacking their heads against the ceiling, and walls frame doorless, empty rooms of stone, painted with old graffiti.

There's a feeling of wrongness in the air, in the world, as the flowers are looked upon, as the expanse of space is taken in. It's only natural, of course. Some of it is innocent, at first glance, large flowers painted with fading colors, but on second glance, there's something wrong with the flowers - with the way their petals seem to shift position after every glance, the eyes painted into their pistils, the gaping mouths at the center of daffodils, the fingers pressing from stone to grasp at the painted on stems -

The fingers are gone, on second glance, on third, but back on fourth.

And there are real plants, too, roses and tulips, daffodils and daisies, growing from the stonework, growing from the stonework in some places, placed like bouquets gifted to the long dead and damned.

Seated among the flowers is a green-furred girl with dark hair and insectoid wings. Some of those gathered recognize her as the young moth girl who attacked the botanical gardens not that long ago. Her name was once Youko Aota, but now, she is Zwei of the Doom and Gloom Girls.

Standing beside her is a purple-furred moth girl with curly brown hair, her wings folding in against her back. Once, she was Rie Mori, but she too, is now known chiefly as Drie of the Doom and Gloom Girls. Both of their eyes are wrong - black sclera with white irises, and when light falls on their faces, their pupils gleam red.

Drie stretches her arms above her heads as she sees the approaching crowd, forced to enter the space single file to enter at all, and she smiles, no warmth in the expression.

"Look, Zwei~ I told you there was something larger than the rats scurrying down here. Aren't you glad you came to feast with me?"

"You know, Drie, I am," Zwei says, and her smile is wide and hungry, "Because some of these vermin owe me a treat!"

Zwei gestures towards them - and the plant-life growing impossibly in the dark depths of these tunnels grows yet more, snaking vines lashing out to grab at limbs and pull.

Chiyo Sakai has posed:
Familiar voices even if they weren't the ones that Daifuku expected to hear, are met with a little sigh. "Bow, Tux," she greets with no small amount of relief. At least, so far. Amy is met with a little groan as well. "She was with us when we teleported, remember?" She calls back giving a shake of her head that ceases suddenly.

Because suddenly the room opens up into a wider area that was going to be harder yet for Tux. Her height was fine for it. The hammer she weilded not so much.

Quickly stepping to the side she makes way for others to come through behind her, while staring at the unfamiliar DG Girls before hre. SHE hadn't seen them yet, but the fact they were here shortly after Tuxedo mentioned the Dark Kingdom? This was not good.

When vines shoot out she swings her Kine forward automatically. The tight confines force her to keep it close to her body though she uses the long staff of the handle to try and keep things away from entangling her. The light suddenly grows brighter as the Kine itself ignites with flames that lick over the surface--Not burning the wood of the Kine, or her, but providing light and hopefully burning any unfortunate vines nearby.

Bow has posed:
As he comes out of the tunnel, Bow was about to summon another arrow just as the opening provides light - and vines rushing at him. Diving out of the way, he looks to the side as he notices what Daifuku is doing. "Great idea, Daifuku! Let's light them up!" As he moves to a knee, he reaches out his hand and calls out. "Flame Arrow!" As the flaming tipped arrow forms in his hand, he aims it at the daffodils, launching it into them as his magical string appears on his bow, another flame arrowed formed and fired.

"Let's wrap this up quick, this is just the appetizer before the main course and these two snacks will go down easily!" he calls out to the group. "Daifuku and I will work to clear the way!"

And with that, another arrow is formed and fired. Bow does not seem to notice that the flames on this arrow were not as strong as his first couple.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy blinks at Daifuku, and looks at Lunar Knight again. "Oh... right... with everything, I didn't get to ask who you were..."

    "The wall textures are changing. What does it mean, secret doors?" She does try walking over and pushing on the wall, as if that will do something, before continuing on.

    And then there's moth girls. They open with talking. That is their mistake. "EVERYONE DOWN!" The freaking 10-foot-long artillery cannon appears on her shoulder, tilts down slightly to aim at the DG Girls' feet, and fires an explosive shell that... might not have been the best idea in the catacombs? But they're in the Dark Kingdom now, so hopefully it's not as prone to collapse. The backblast is a splash of saltwater moving alarmingly fast, but that's probably far better than explosion for anyone caught in it.

    She dismisses the cannon and leaps over the approaching vines to the side, although in her rush she's not remembered to check that she's not leaping through someone else's line of fire.

Erika Shimizu has posed:
    It's seriously spooky. Spook levels are high. Almost 2spooky... But Jolly Roger presses on, clutching her hat down with one hand as she mutters the lyrics to that shanty under her breath while following the others through the coffin-shaped tunnel.
    Into a room with painted flowers and real flowers. ... She blinks, rubbing her eyes. Are the paintings playing tricks on her eyes.
    No sooner than she hears the Doom and Gloom girls she raises her cutlass.
    "Avast, who goes there, be ye friend or be ye foe?" She snaps.
    She gets her answer quick. She gets her answer REAL quick when the vines begin to grow.
    In the tussle she drops her flashlight, as she starts hacking away at the vines and brambles, trying to keep them from overgrowing. But the more she cuts the more they grow and the more they grow the more she cuts--
    She hears 'EVERYONE DOWN!' and looks up to see Amy with an artillery cannon.
    Jolly Roger freaking DUCKS, holding her hat down to her head.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"And anyway I can vouch for her, Red," Tuxedo Kamen says immediately, then falls silent as they continue through the coffin tunnel and he determinedly doesn't conk his head on the limestone. But then the ceiling gets lower, and lower still, and if Naru's not already in front of him he lets her past, because the smaller the space gets the slower-going the tall boy is.

Then there's the low-ceilinged room with flowers of wrongness and DG Girls, and grimly, he knows exactly how much he'll be able to manuever and dodge in here: Very Little. He immediately takes off his cape to avoid tripping on it, balling it up and chucking it into the coffin-tunnel behind them, and Bow tempts fate.

"Take them seriously," Mamoru calls out, his voice a little strangled as he takes a rose in hand and flings it between people to hit one of the places the vines are growing from--

--and he immediately gets doused in saltwater and comes out with a horrible-sounding little twist of a swallowed scream. "DON'T! Don't--" and there's actual panic in his voice? Bow will recognise it, Bow's been a soldier in the Rebellion.

Naru Osaka has posed:
"I was along for the teleport." Lunar Knight confirms at Daifuku's comment and Amy's challenge of her. "But I was not in this form. It is reasonable that you do not recognize me, but Tuxedo Kamen and Sailor Moon do, and that is what matters." She was in the back to begin with, but now there's vines in a small room and a giant blast of water. Messy.

The room feels even smaller as the Lunar Knight draws her Big Freaking Sword (BFS) and wades in, quite literally now that the water is all over the floor and swings her sword like a scythe. There's vines ripe for harvest after all.

Doom and Gloom Girls has posed:
"Oh, we're not the snacks, cutie pie," Zwei laughs, something dark and heavy in her voice, and she doesn't snarl or scream or rage as her vines are burned by kline and arrow, and she doesn't panic as the heavy artillery heads her way -

Because Drie is the next to gesture, and the trajectory of the explosive shell warps and twists, until it combusts not at their feet but in the space between Mahou and Gloom. Stone crumbles, the walls shake, heat flashes, and salt-water flies up. Mostly, the water splashes at faces, the majority of what the water does is help putout the fires -

"Thanks, Red~" Zwei is still laughing, still smiling, and her the ground cracks beneath the Mahou's feet as more vines break from the ground beneath them, weakening the floor and making for even more treacherous footing.

Lunar Knight's Big Fucking Sword comes in handy, here, shearing away a portion of the vines that emerge -

And then the world gets weird. Weird, as Drie's hands glow, and all around the Mahou, gravity dramatically lessens. Some of them will be a hair away from outright floating off the ground, while others have enough mass to cling to the ground, but find themselves off-balance.

"You're not welcome in the Dark Kingdom," Drie says scornfully. "Well - except for the screaming one. He's been doing an awful lot of that for a while now, doesn't your voice want to give out already?"

Bow has posed:
As they are splashed with the water, Bow was about to make a remark, something about, "At least your dressed for the water!" but it never comes. Tuxedo's strangled cry grabs his attention. He knows that tone. And when he looks over at Tuxedo, he knows that thousand meter stare of panic and fear. "FUCK!" he yells. His first curseword on the game, thanks Mamo! "Cover me!" And with that, he's on his feet.

At least for a moment, before he's feeling the pull of gravity lessen, and with a hard push, shoves himself at Tuxedo Mast and tackling him out of the line of fire. Grabbing either side of Tuxedo's face, he reaches down to take the rose and puts it in his side pouch. "Look at me. Look /at/ me!" he says, trying to get to Mamo. "We're in the middle of a fight. I know. They did things to hurt you. But this is your chance to get a little payback. We'll talk about the bad parts later. The nightmares, and fears, the tremors. I have them too. I learned to combat them. And I will show you. But right now? I need you /with me/." He bumps his forehead against Mamo's. "You're one of my best friends on this world, and I am not letting go until you tell me you're okay."

Even if he is exposed to fire.

Erika Shimizu has posed:
    And thus, Jolly Roger is met with a salty breeze. But tis not the balmy breath of the sea, and it's not refreshing in the least. "GAH! Blast it!" The pirate themed mahou snaps as she reaches into her greatcoat and draws a flintlock pistol.
    Only for her to start floating.
    "Whuh? Huh? A-ah... Awa... Awawawa!" Jolly Roger flails because uh.
    Look, Erika Shimizu is a very small, very light weight girl.
    Yeah she's struggling to keep aground right now.
    "Bloody barnacles! Blast it all I- somebody help!" She squeaks at first as she kind of... Floats face first into a wall with a dull thump.
    "Bweh...!" She huffs.
    "Well some of us don't rightly wanna be here too long, so iffin' ye'd kindly get outta our way!" She says once she regains enough balance to take aim and fires off her pistol at one of the moth-women. She doesn't care which at this point while she's busy trying to re-ground herself.

Chiyo Sakai has posed:
Guardian Daifuku finds the vines burning with satisfaction as she presses forward sweeping her Kine low and out. It was wooden and blunt but that didn't mean she couldn't use the flames that licked over it's surface as a weapon, or simply swing it out in front of her. Just. No overhead dramatic flying leap pounding hammer antics like she was accustomed to.

"Right!" She agrees with Bow when he says they'll press forward and she starts to do so--Right up until there's a shell being fired out, and water splashing back causing her to cry out in surprise and mild discomfort as her arm flings up to protect her face from the early explosion.

The scream from Tuxedo forces her teeth to grit recalling all he's been through lately as well. "Covered!" She assures Bow while stepping to the side to do just that. She could tank well enough and so far it was vines and--And gravity that slams her down toward the ground with the breath rushing from her lungs painfully from the extra gravity in the pocket she'd just stepped into. Mud and ashes from burnt plants, the taste of salt water still on that surface has her sputtering as she turns her head to the side to keep from choking herself.

Both hands push down to the ground straining to push herself back up to her knees at the least. She had that strength, but all-over gravity was hard to fight against. Breathing was... Harder. Somehow.

Naru Osaka has posed:
"Oh this IS satisfying." Lunar Knight is really quite delighted to be sinking her sword into vines and hacking them though. Her comment is muttered, possibly she had only really planned on using her inside voice, but that was not what happened.

And then.. gravity is no longer down. She isn't fully floating, her armour helps weigh her down, but fighting on one's tip toes is not ideal. Especially when you quite deliberately did NOT put heels on your henshin costume! "I don't think any of us WANT to be welcome int he Dark Kingdom." She mutters, trying to think heavy thoughts and stomp more. That will clearly help the gravity issue, right?

At least one can mostly still swing a sword, even from tiptoe, although keeping her balance while doing it is questionable at best.

Lunar Knight looks over as Tuxedo Kamen has the first of what is likely to be many freak outs tonight and she nods briefly, watching Bow and Daifuku cover him, and talk him down.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
There's saltwater on Mamoru's face and there's fire in the air, and Bow's gotten him out of the line of fire and there's no more water coming, and not all the saltwater on his face is cold. He meets Bow's gaze from behind his mask and it's a half-second, a second, before his own can focus properly, but he catches all the words and goes through them as fast as he's able--

--"Okay," he says in a small voice, then swallows, and lifts a hand and smashes his mask away because it's wet and it can take more of the water with it, and then his voice is more steady and present. "I'm okay," he repeats, and he doesn't say he's sorry even though he is, he says, "Thanks. Thanks," and then he just reaches out to grip the wall and steady them both as a half-step takes them into the gravity well Chiyo's covering them from.

He can, he thinks, he can land lightly as a feather when jumping higher than a moonwalker, in his planet's own gravity, and they're still at least partly, partly, PARTLY on Earth--

That hand on the wall glows dimly, and he lets go of where he'd been gripping Bow back in order to pull his hand to his chest, also glowing, and fling it out at Drie. "Fuck you! Tuxedo la Smoking Bomber!"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy's dodge jump keeps... going, as she floats towards a wall. Too late, Tuxedo Mask tried to warn her that explosives wouldn't work, clearly... A problem when she's Magical Rocket Girl Red! She thumps into the wall with a grunt. Where's that confident warrior mindset from earlier today?! She conjures armor to protect againt thorns again, and a gyrojet pistol, aiming-- wait, projectiles won't work! They're warping space (she thinks)... and something's happened to gravity. Well... a rocket girl should be able to handle zero- and low-g maneuvers, right? She dismisses the cloak and summons her thrusters into their spots on the armor.

    But... what can she do? Will melee even work? ...She'll see what happens with Lunar Knight's attack. For now, she leaps away from the corner she's in to fly in a low ark, a bit unsteadily as she gets a feel for flying in low-G, stumbling to a landing next to Tuxedo Mask and turning to watch the Knight and the DG girls while asking, voice lowered a bit, "So what kind of attacks will work? Why can't they warp spacetime against your attacks?"

Doom and Gloom Girls has posed:
As the gravity warps, the two Doom and Gloom Girls choose to close the distance between their targets, racing forward with arms outstretched, their fingers narrowing into sharp claws at the tips, their eerie eyes gleaming in the darkness. As they approach, they split off from each other -

With gravity itself turning against them, Drie isn't worried about the others, is focusing entirely on striking her chosen target - and that's Daifuku, prone on the ground and she strikes out, two blows at once - foot stretched out to kick away her kline, taloned hand coming down fast in an effort to claw at her back

And a golden glowing beam slams into her chest, knocks her teen feet back and into a wall. It crumbles around her and she snarls furiously, only to take a shot to the shoulder as Erika's wobbly aim proves true. She howls furiously.

Meanwhile, Zwei has gone for the sword-wielder herself, and flowers sprout around Lunar Knight's field - Bloodroot and Bleeding Heart, the pink and white flowers blooming and climbing around her legs, spitting poison.

It's not enough to do more than sting a Mahou's skin, but with Zwei lunging for Lunar Knight's eyes with her talons, that sting might well be just the right distraction!

All this, but gravity is coming back to normal with Drie regaining her breath.

Stone groans and creaks, and then there's human-sized branches of Hogweed breaking out of the broken up ground beneath their feet, and it stings and burns and blisters the skin whenever it's cut into, the sap super-strengthened by Zwei's power.

Bow has posed:
As Tuxedo recovers and launches an attack, Bow pressed to the side to clear his field of vision. Once he's fired, he pushes up and presses his hand to Tux's shoulder. "Welcome back." A couple of quick pats and Bow is moving on his way. With Zwei tearing up the ground and creating vines that are ripping at his armored boots and trousers. "Just because you want to sprout doesn't mean you should!" he calls out Zwei.

Doing so, he brings his bow back up and draws back. "Frost Arrow!" he yells out. Letting the arrow loose, it flies towards Zwei.

Not her vines.
Not her flowers.
He fires at her head.

"Hey Springtime Fresh, it's time for an early winter!" he yells as he draws back another arrow.

Erika Shimizu has posed:
    Gravity is a pain. And it's while Jolly Roger is struggling with it that she tosses her spent flintlock away, the gun dissolving to seafoam and glitter as soon as it hits the ground.
    She reaches into her greatcoat again and pulls out...
    That is a blunderbuss.
    She barely needs to aim with such a weapon, just points it in Zwei's direction as she goes for Lunar Knight.
    "Ah, no ye don't!"
    Jolly roger pulls the trigger. The riotous explosion of a shotgun goes off in he chamber as...
    Jolly Roger herself is /LAUNCHED BACKWARDS/ butt-over-teakettle into a wall with a THUD.
    "Argh!"
    Right into a patch of hogweed.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru pulls his other glove back on from wherever he'd put it, and, wiping the clean dry back of his hand over his eyes, he takes another ragged breath and smiles gratefully at Bow.

A glance at Amy landing next to him, and he looks flummoxed for a second. "Probably energy attacks are harder to do gravity things to? And I have a lot of roses, I'll spam roses..."

But this time-- this time he keeps his eyes on Drie, and throws a rose across at the first of the human-sized hogweed plants, right at the junction of stone and stalk. Death to you in particular, magic plant.

Hands free, now, he reaches forward to Chiyo and claps one on her shoulder, shoving bright golden energy at her to use for whatever she wants. "For a combo," he says with a slightly shaky laugh, and then he changes his position, moving across carefully until he reaches another side-room entrance.

Chiyo Sakai has posed:
Guardian Daifuku was almost up to her knees, almost. One leg had managed to bend and wedge beneath her. That would give her enough leverage and strength to get back to her feet easily even with the greater gravity in the area she's in.

Her head snaps up when her Kine is kicked away out of reach. It scuttles over the floor to stop right up against one of the newly sprouted Hogweed plants making it's recovery a prickly threat.

The claws come down over her back earning a few words that didn't bear repeating as lines of red score down her back. Annoying, painful, but not something which would yet keep her down entirely. She manages to finally leap back to her feet jumping backwards out of that gravity well. Into another, but it was easier. Lighter. She just had to be more careful how to move.

The hand that claps on her shoulder flooding her with the warmth of Tuxedo Kamen's familiar power, she glances toward him with a broad grin. Energy. Warm, pure, familiar and able to be funneled into one of her attacks that didn't require the hammer. "Combo," she agrees with a bright laugh as her eyes turn back toward the DG Girls already fighting with a renewed glint in her gaze.

Reaching into the pocket of her apron she pulls out a handful of objects that she bodily flings out onto the battleground. Colorful star shaped candies that eerily glow like embers of a fire, or fireworks about to spark to life.

"FLORAL KONPEITO BLAST!"

The candies explode in shards of light that lance toward the targets: Plants and DG Girls alike. Thankfully none of it aims toward them as the forward rolling motion of the throw seems to have been a way to 'aim' the attack.

Naru Osaka has posed:
Lunar Knight is just starting to come down to her feet as gravity settles when it settles entirely too much, and her boots are becoming floral. She's too early in her career for a costume change! She struggles to free herself, to have her freedom of movement back and the right balance to be able to swing that Big Freaking Sword as it's meant to be swung.

Lunar Knight matrixes back away from the talons coming at her eyes, because why would a helmet protect one's eyes.. then you can't see and be seen! Crazy talk! The twist as she bends backwards comes with a continued matrix inspired movement, her feet well pinned but her upper body showing what many many hours at the gym looks like as she swings the BFS around, with the full weight of her body behind it to slash at Zwei.

Sure there's poison spitting onto her legs, that's future her's problem. Surely it's /fine/, right? Right.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy nods to Tuxedo Mask. "My only 'energy attacks' need to be pretty close, though... Wait, is it just gravity that's the issue?" She rocket-dashes over to where Kine fell, diving to try and grab the hammer with an outstretched armored hand and minimal contact with what she assumes is some weird kind of stinging nettle. Then she's kneeling and flinging the hammer back towards its owner. "Daifuku!"

    If she's close to one of the DG girls, she'll give 'energy attacks' a try: Thetis has probably seen the effect before, those piercing lances of light, but this time Amy skips the launcher or flinging a projectile, just thrusting out a hand towards the nearest DG girl and conjuring something that instantly explodes, the high-energy particles punching several feet before petering out. That's as close to an 'energy' attack as she gets! The travel speed might beat gravity all the same, though.

Doom and Gloom Girls has posed:
For all the eerie surroundings, this battle hasn't seemed too off, thus far. The mahou are strong, the enemy is strong, they're trading blows, trading attacks, injury for injury, tit for tat -

But this isn't the same as usual.

The ground itself shifts and warps due to growing hogweed, and it surrounds the kline in prickly, load-bearing threat. More blossoms, blocking off the coffin-shaped tunnel, ensuring that there would be no fleeing, no escape -

Not! A red, red, oh so red with life and love rose slams stem first into the base of the plant, and it dies a swift death, purple mist rising - dark energy plant, gone!

Lunar Knight matrixes away from the slash to her eyes, swinging her sword around in an arc that's nearly slow-motion in it's effect, and scores a deep gash into Zwei's thigh in the process, red blood spurting out -

Zwei snarls with rage as much as pain and pulls a whip of stinging nettle from the ground and cracks it in Lunar Knight's direction - the tip snapping a mere inch from her right eye -

Just as a shotgun shell blasts her back - her left wing is shredded, blood spatter spraying those nearest to her and she shrieks with pain, this too much for rage to overcome -

And then the shriek cuts off and her eyes burn red, white irises filled with the same red of her pupils, and she laughs in a voice without inflection, without passion.

"Ah, little prince. Are you so eager to return to our sweet embrace, to die again? Do you think, if you die enough, you will see the woman who whelped you again?"

Doom and Gloom Girls has posed:
Metallia's voice, Metallia's words, filling the vessel that has so readily accepted her power, and she straightens Zwei's back, stands on her injured leg with no care, for she is beyond mere flesh and bone.

Sparkles of light burst, as Floral Konpeito Blast erupts, driving hards of light that pierce flesh, leaving weeping wounds in Zwei's flesh and there's a sense of hope, surely, rising in the hearts of these heroes, as they face the enemy, as they shed blood and deal grievous wounds -

An arrow strikes Zwei's head, frost blooming over her ear, covering half of her face, the flesh beginning to turn blue, beginning to freeze, to split with the sudden and intense chill.

Metallia's temporary vessel weeps blood from one eye as Amy's high energy particle burst erupts against her.

And then darkness seeps up from the ground, purple and black and her wounds begin to sprout with plants, her fur a deeper green where the plant matter begins to piece her back together. Dark Energy can heal, but not so fast. Better to fill the gaps. What does it matter if it takes, when you've already become something else?

Zwei turns on Amy and Bow, and her whip has become four, and she swings and cracks them down over the two -

Amy is light, maneuverable, has filled her henshin with little means of getting away. She's able to escape the worst of the blow, catching just a glancing strike of the whip to one of the more armored spots on her leg. But Bow? Bow catches the full force of the blow - on his bow raised in defense. It shatters beneath the weight of a blow that would split an ordinary man in half, sends him to his knees, vulnerable, and Metallia-Zwei lunges with a vines like spears, a horror of patchwork wounds - freezerburned, ice-split skin of her face weeping red, patches of plant life sprouting from thigh and wing and freckled across her body where the konpeito-shower cut.

All of this, and only then Drie does launch herself out of the stone, laughing and laughing and, her hair a mess with dusty traces of stone, and her hands glow a fierce, brilliant purple, and pressure sinks down on them, as the force of gravity doubles, triples, quadruples over them, weighing them down, with a suddenness that may slam with a suddenness that will likely result in people being smashed to the ground. Only the very physically fit will likely be able to move swiftly.

Zwei is not affected. Zwei is still moving, swift and deadly and fill of hate, to stab Bow, her spear-like thorns aiming for kidneys and liver and heart and lungs.

Only someone strong enough to move in this heavy gravity will have the strength to hope to save him.

Chiyo Sakai has posed:
Guardian Daifuku was breathing hard. Dirtied from the floor, bleeding along her back with the ache of recalling those claws raking over her skin. Yet her adrenaline was keeping her going. When the vines erupt further, and Amy attempts to throw her Kine to her, she reaches out to snag it from the air. It's caught firm in her grip, but only as hell breaks loose.

The awful voice of Metallia, heard for the first time by her, causes her to shudder. Moreso when it seeks to try and poke and prod at Tuxedo Kamen's past. His potential weaknesses. Anger flares in her eyes again even as everything else begins to happen all at once.

The whips that lash at Bow and break his *bow* leaving him just as unarmed as she was, and worse for wear as the gravity starts to increase again as Zwei lunges with murderous intent for Bow.

"No!" The defiant word breaks from her lips even as she leaps the last short distance to fling herself in between Bow and Zwei. Her Kine is brought up in both hands to block the vines aiming for vital points--

Ineffectually. Only the one that would have pierced her heart is blocked, and even it whips around the staff slicing up her chest, chin, cheek in the process. The others hit true.

There's a sound from Daifuku as she's struck multiple places. It's surely one of pain, but hit in the lung as she was by one it ends in a wheezing gurgle with eyes gone wide, and pained. Her mouth works trying to form words but unable to speak any.

She was strong. She was strong... Strong enough that she remains standing longer than may seem possible given the vines impaling her, and the amount of blood that was soaking through her dress and apron. The trickle of blood that comes from her mouth with a sudden violent cough.

The Kine clatters against the ground. Hands fall limp by her sides and the weight of her head seems too much. Her legs give last as she just crumples to the ground gazing at Zwei with eyes full of agony, and dread at knowing what was to come now.

The Kine flickers with flame once more only. Only a second as it burns away leaving an orange and white tabby cat in it's place that launches itself toward Zwei in a flurry of claws and screams of incoherent rage.

Bow has posed:
As gravity crushes down on him, Bow feels that full weight of increased gravity. The wood of his bow, a gift from Glimmer after he joined the rebellion, cracks and then shatters as he feels the weight in his bones as they fracture. Wounds open from healing areas and he screams, loud, painful, a scream of pain that echoes around the chamber, making it seem like the skullls are screaming back at him. He can barefly make out the figure of Zwei as she's rushing him, powerless to lift his arms in defense, fully exposed and opened to the Plant Girl's attack. There's nothing he can do to survive. He only has a few moments to think on his life. He's going to die to a salad. He closes his eyes for a moment, but what comes instead is the weight of... "Daifuku?!" he yelps as Chiyo bodies him out of the way as the attack that was meant to kill him, strikes her instead, and what wounds he does take, while fatal, give him a little more life and a brief second wind.

Bloodied. Battered. Bruised. Bitten. Beaten. Bow's in terrible shape. Blood trickles from the corner of his mouth. Wounds covered his body. Pushing himself to his feet after Daifuku saved him, he glanced to where she laid, dying out if not already dead. "No..." he said quietly. Why did she sacrifice herself to save him? It's his fault that she perished. She's gone and he's still here.

Bow's heart pounds as he faced off against the Doom and Gloom Girl, Zwei, her eyes glowing with an unnatural light of delight at falling Daifuku. Vines lashed out at him, each one a deadly whip aiming to ensnare and crush him. One of the strikes destroyed his bow that he was using for defense, another ripped through his side, opening a deep wound.

Breathing heavily, Bow glances down at the single rose he took from Tuxedo Mask in his hand, a symbol of hope and love amidst the chaos. He couldn't summon anymore arrows, and even if he could, Zwei had shattered his bow, part of which was embedded in his abdomen. He knew what he had to do. With a final, determined look, he met Zwei's gaze. And all he heard in his head was an old song he had heard once.

    I do not know what fate awaits me
    I only know I must be brave
    And I must face a man who hates me
    Or lie a coward, a craven coward
    Or lie a coward in my grave

"This ends now," he declared, his voice steady despite the fear gnawing at his heart

Zwei snarled, vines coiling tighter around her limbs, ready to strike. Bow closed his eyes for a brief moment, summoning the last of his strength. In one swift motion, he brought the rose to his fingers, casting the shattered bow aside and whispering a silent farewell to his friends, to the world he had fought so hard to protect. "La-la-Etherian Blossoming Bloom Blast!" he cried out, charging the rose between his fingers, he rushed the enemy henshin.

With a fierce cry, Bow slammed the rose into the girl's chest just above her bikini top and further into her heart, until only the blossom laid exposed. "Time to Bloom, Doom and Gloom! Get clear, cat!"

Bow has posed:
Time seemed to slow as the delicate petals began to glow, radiating a brilliant light that grew ever more intense. Zwei realized too late what was happening, her eyes widening in horror.

The explosion was instantaneous, a blinding flash of light and energy that enveloped them both. Bow felt a searing heat, a sensation of being torn apart and yet somehow held together by the power of his resolve. The shockwave tore through the room, bringing down a section of the ceiling over the pair with a deafening crash.

As the dust settled, the battlefield grew eerily quiet, if only just for a moment. Broken stone and debris lay scattered around the crumpled forms of Bow, Daifuku and Zwei. Bow's body was still, his broken bow lying shattered beside him, a testament to the sacrifice he had made. The rose, now nothing more than a scattering of singed petals, lay between them, a silent witness to the final act of a brave warrior. Bow's body is crushed underneath dirt and stone. The explosion had rend and blackened his armor, the heart shield piece ripped apart. Skin has been ripped from his face, his hair burned away at the front of his scalp. One eye is white, blinded by the explosion, his breathing ragged as the stone presses down on the covered wound to his chest.

In his last moments, Bow felt a strange sense of peace. He had done what he needed to do, had given everything for the sake of those he loved. As his vision dimmed, he imagined his friends, safe and free from the terror that had threatened their world. They will defeat Beryl. His death and Chiyo's will rally them to victory!

And then, with a gentle sigh, Bow closes his eyes, the light within him fading into the darkness, leaving behind only the memory of a hero's sacrifice.

Phantom has posed:
Behind the heroes a portal opens. A coffin mirror, familiar to those that have fought the Oresky Trio - or worse. the figure stepping through in a white long coat with high collar, the dreaded Precure Hunter. Phantom, hand on the hilt of his blade, eyes narrowed in angry concern, barely sparkling blue. He scans over the heroes in disdain until he finds the one he's looking for. Making his way to the fallen figure of Daifuku, he kneels down next to her, cradling her head in his lap and brushing his fingers in her hair and assessing her condition. The results he finds are dire.

"You don't have enough energy." he admits. "I could mirror you to try to save you, but the mirrors work by a slow drain and you wouldn't survive it."

There's a brief pause in his voice as he feels something deep in his chest. Something he has not felt in a long time, and for a fleeting moment, emotion shows on his face. "Damn you, Blue." he hisses before, "I'm sorry I did not make it in time." And as he leans down to kiss her forehead, she'll see a familiar locket around his neck. The small heart shape made of gold and the initials 'C.S.'. "But rest assure, I will be your revenge." He stays with her until the light fades from her eyes and then rises to his feet. His hand draws his blade, looking from the assembled heroes and towards the Doom and Gloom Girls. "Which one did it? Never mind, I will deal with you all."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Ohh..." Tuxedo Kamen breathes out as his eyes widen. Even before Metallia speaks, he understands from Zwei's face exactly what's going on-- and then the words come, and at the same time, Zwei's getting put back together by dark energy in front of them, and he feels sick to his stomach, but this is literally--

The words hit him like a brick to the face, and then he stares disbelievingly at the possessed girl. A brick made of incongruousness, apparently. "Wait, are you trying to get me on missing my mom? You're exactly as stupid as Kazuo said you are!"

Then he's moving, and then... he's not moving; he stumbles and falls to a knee which cracks against the dirty stone, and his blue eyes are fire as he sees what's unfolding that he can't touch. He can't throw a rose through this. He can't.

But maybe he can stop Drie and her gravity again-- he uses both arms. One to prepare and launch the attack and the other to steady it-- if he can stop Drie then he can get to Bow! "T-tuxedo," he grits, bracing his arm with the other against his stomach... he can't charge it up enough to make a giant boom, not like this, but it could still be enough; his hand flexes, glowing, at the end of his arm, and he lifts it slowly to face out at Drie.

But Bow-- BOW-- it's not going to be enough, it's going to be too late, it's-- "Oh gods--! Chiyo!" he cries out, wheezing, the quadrupled gravity making even breathing hard.

And then Bow--

It's all happening so fast, so very fast, too fast, and the tears are punched out of his dirty smudged face, and it's happening over again, isn't it? It's happening all over again, and this time they're close enough to touch, this time they're dying close enough to--

There's a stranger in the room. A stranger who teleported in-- and--

It's too much. His voice shrieks out at Drie as Bow's eyes close, maybe he can save them, maybe if he can get to them he can still save them, maybe they're not lost, maybe their hearts still beat, maybe he can fix them, if he can only get to them, this guy is saying Chiyo's still alive at least:

"TUXEDO LA SMOKING BOMBER!!!"

Sayaka Miki has posed:
Sayaka had been completely lost in here, prowling in the dark fending off these rats that kept coming from everywhere, and keeping a watchful eye on her mana reserves. Good thing for her she has her own lightbringer in the form of Tramonto (that really is an ironic name for a familiar she is using that way, but it's not like she can change it). Still, she has a good reserve of Grief Souls, so between that, the fact these guys were frankly pushovers and her own healing factor she is not particularly worried.

She starts dropping her cautious walking when she hears the noises of a fight going on, accompanied by some familiar voices, and some unfamiliar voices. "Stay a bit back", she tells Tramonto, not wanting it to attract undue attention as she draws her sword. "And keep Ula protected", she adds as she rushes towards the source of the noises, each step bringing her closer harder and harder than those preceding them. Gravity magic? She never would have thought she would be on the receiving of it. Hannah probably isn't part of the group then.

The sight Sayaka is greeted with is less than welcoming however, the group of friends she stumbles onto worn out from the fighting, an apologetic smile reserved to them. "I am really sorry for... being late..." she starts saying, the smile on her face disappearing when she notices that Daifuku and Bow lay there unmoving. "What is going on here? Bow, are you ok?", Sayaka says with a trembling voice. "What is going on here?" she asks quietly to the DG girls. "What have you done?", she says at a higher tone. The water starts bubbling and parting, lowering and rising, as Sayaka's shadow grows and takes a definite shape, one some can perfectly recognise.

"Oktavia, come." Sayaka says, no other words available as tears starts streaking down her face, her Soul Gem bubbling when a third of the magical energy is consumed, even if her heavy heart does her no favour. "I don't know which one of you killed him, but both of you shall pay", the bluenette says, before the Labyrinth unfolds and the Mermaid Witch appears.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy winces as the moth-girl's wing is shot out. That's gotta hurt, right? But then eyes glow red, and there's the creepy voice, and ah. Metallia can make everyone fight like a Puella Magi. That... is a problem.

    And it powered up the whip at the same time?! No fair! At least being in her self-invented 'super mode' gets her away from the whip in time -- but Bow is not so lucky. And then she crashes to the ground with crushing weight. Even with mahou strength, it's hard to move. "NOOOO!" She summons and unsummons a pistol but can't aim, and works on using her thrusters to support herself, rolling onto her back and then lifting up unsteadily, but it's too slow, too slow...!

    Chiyo is faster. But not fast enough to save herself.

    Amy will give Bow a new weapon. The launcher appears on her shoulder, and a second one lying on the floor a couple of feet away in Bow's direction. Damn, that doesn't quite work...

    She winces behind her visor as with sickening crunches Bow walks up to one of the moths, and--

    --Self-destructs.

    She can't get to him. She can maybe get to Chiyo. She hurries over to the fallen magical girl, wincing as she kneels by her side, thank goodness' Amy's outfit includes kneepads in this high gravity. She summons her cloak and pulls the first-aid kit out from under it. And then Phantom is there. Amy looks up at him. While he makes it clear he's hear on Chiyo's behalf, she pulls gunshot treatment items from the kit, added for this mission. She tries to stem the bleeding, but Amy can't see or fix the internal damage. She feels for breathing, a heartbeat. "T-two minutes. Two minutes before the brain-- we can save her... we can save her, right?"

    Phantom doesn't seem medically inclined. All he has is the coffin and it won't work here, for this. Amy looks up into Phantom's eyes andlifts a hand to point at Drei, wordlessly.

    And then Sayaka's here. "We can't get to him. Gravity magic. We have to, to..." She looks from Sayaka to Phantom to Tuxedo Mask to Drei, what can she do, what can she do?!

Erika Shimizu has posed:
    Holy CARP a lot happens...
    And yet... None of it is good.
    Though Jolly Roger scores her shot against Zwei, it's a pyrrhic victory at best, when Metallia makes her presence known.
    It's almost blood-chillingly terrifying, and if the dread pirate's dead blood could freeze in her veins, then it would.
    Jolly Roger can only watch on in abject horror, jade eyes wide and wild with disbelief as the crushing gravity keeps her pinned to a kneel where she had been standing before.
    "Ah... She breathes. It's numb, dumb, stupid little noise of disbelief as she watches Bow about to be killed.
    Only for Guardian Daifuku to take the mortal blows meant for Bow, all while the pirate can do nothing but look on stunned.
    And her sacrifice earns Bow the moment he needs to strike back with the rose in his hand.
    The ensuing explosion launches her back, slamming her into a wall with body-jarring force, but she doesn't even cry out, still too stunned from what she's just witnessed.
    Phantom and Sayaka arrive, but no amount of reinforcements could make up for what has just been lost.
    Slowly, Jolly Roger picks herself up to her knees again. But... The fight is gone from the pirate in this moment as she tugs her hat off and holds it over her breast.

    "It's time to go now,
    Haul away your anchor,
    Haul away your anchor,
    It's our sailing time..."

    It's a mournful tune that rises from the dread pirate, not a gay jolly shanty.

    "When your sailing's over,
    Haul away for Heaven,
    Haul away for Heaven,
    God be by your side.

    It's time to go now,
    Haul away your anchor,
    Haul away your anchor,
    It's our sailing time..."

Doom and Gloom Girls has posed:
The red-red-red lights in Zwei's eyes die as the Blossoming Blast plunges into her chest as Metallia loses interest in her dying puppet.

The shell of a henshin breaks as the rose's effect - they break magic, they break magic, they break magic - takes root.

Green flickers, before her henshin shatters. Brown eyes widen and the rose - detonates.

When the smoke from the explosion clears, Culinary Guardian Daifuku's body shudders and jerks as the spear-like vines dissipate, the release of pressure causing blood to pour from the three punctures in her chest, the tears in her flesh where the redirected vine slashed.

Bow lasts for a bare moment, his breaths wheezing out of him, but he's not the only one half-crushed - Zwei is too.

Only, where there had been a green-furred moth girl, there's just another human girl, dead on the ground. The flesh of her chest has burst, her neck rests at an obviously wrong angle, there is blood, frankly... everywhere, and her brown eyes stare, endlessly.

As Tuxedo Kamen reaches for Chiyo and Bow, Phantom arrives in a tide of fury, Drie quintuples gravity, shrieking in rage and loss, eyes glowing red.

"YOUKO!"

She lunges, and Tuxedo Kamen's pain, his loss, his love, blasts her across the catacombs once more, blasting her through a wall, a yawning darkness through which stalactites dip low from the ceilings and stalagmites just from the ground.

Not the catacombs.

And then the world becomes strange and unnatural, as water grows, and a witch stands from the darkness. Drie climbs from the hole, burning with rage, and stops short, seeing what waits for her.

"Your friends could have turned around and left," Drie says, Metallia says through her, before the red flickers, "But they chose to come here! This is your own fault!"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy grunts with the effort of adjusting the special clotting bandages in 5G now that the vines are gone.

    She lifts her head and turns. Red eyes glare at Drei. "Oh like HELL you're getting away!" The Rocket Girl stands, with a really awkward movement that somehow works with the thrusters, and if there's more gravity? She'll just have to use MORE POWER!

    The thrusters attached to her arms and legs and 'skirt' armor blaze bright as she flies across the room, long red hair billowing out from under the back of her helmet.

    Pulling her along means her hands are already forward, she just opens her palms and thrusts her arms out fully as she closes with Drei and repeats the trick she did before -- but instead of one explosive, she summons dozens of them in a tight grid in front of her.

    "Die."

    They explode, producing dozens of tight jets of hypersonic, superheated heavy metal nucleii.

    She'll make burnt swiss cheese of the moth girl, if she can.

Chiyo Sakai has posed:
Everything was so noisy. From the sound of the screams around her to the rush of blood beating against her eardrums. Daifuku doesn't speak, though she wants to. Her head moves trying to glance to see if Bow is all right. To give Mamoru a reassuring look even though it would be false reassurance. Everything was just. Too much right now.

Though the heat of her powers had always filled her she now felt a bone deep chill that spread through her until she wasn't sure she could feel her fingertips. It didn't matter. Still she tries to *move* to do something even if her body just *won't* follow the orders of her mind.

Then she does move though not of her volition as the vines that had remained in her vanish along with Zwei's magic is destroyed by the rose.

They always did say 'do not remove a knife' if you were stabbed and this is a similar reaction. A wheeze of breath comes from her as she feels that icy cold grow worse, the light headedness of blood loss making her eyes start to droop shut. It's pure will that keeps them open when Phantom suddenly appears to lean down and speak to her.

One shaky hand raises to reach for his face. Only trembling fingertips brush his chin. Her eyes drop to the flash of metal around his neck, and her lips move. A silent, 'You.' The corners of her lips twitch into a smile.

The cold was so prevailant. The sea shanty drowns out the rest of the sounds that were too loud. A final breath is let out. A long sigh, and her hand drops. There's no movement left to her.

It was up to everone else now.

Phantom has posed:
"You." Phantom repeats to Chiyo as the tears start to flow down his face. A small smile offered in return. And then she's gone. His body stiffens, his blood roils. Emotions he never knew he had rise in his chest and they almost make him sick, the bile in his stomach churns and his heart pounds. He heaves for breath, trying not to collapse into a sobbing mess. Fortunately, he's disracted.

As Drie's effect on gravite decreases, Phantom feels it. And he sees the attacks launched at Drie. Just to make sure they hit, he raises his hand. When he does, portals, coffin shaped, start to open. "FIRE INTO THEM!" he yells to the heroes, "I can guide them to where her gravity has no effect!" After he start to open the portals, he struggles to get to his feet. "Metallia, when we are done, you will join your puppets down here!" he promises angrilly.

And now that he has the portals open, he opens up the second part of the attack begins. "ETERNAL GAUGE!"

Red lightning lances out from behind his back, and if it strikes Drie, she will be yet another mirror in his graveyard. One he will display high, a reminder to all others that this the fate that befalls you if you Cross the Phantom.

Sayaka Miki has posed:
Ula districates herself from Tramonto's presence when she sees that Oktavia has been called, the familiar still following hand. If it could talk in a way Ula would understand, it would ask her what she is doing. "Please keep this a secret", the tiny mermaid asks to Jolly Roger. "I know it seems all so surreal, being in a Labyrinth and all, but there is a an explanation for this. Just one we are keeping on the downlow. But you have nothing to worry from Oktavia. That would be the Witch."

Sayaka meanwhile glowers at Drei. "Our own fault?" the bluenette repeats, gritting her teeth with anger and pain. "Fine by me. If that's how you want to play it, what happens to you next will be your own fault. Oktavia, show her." The bluenette starts waving her sword like a conductor's baton, and the Witch behind mimics her movement, several huge train wheels appearing floating in the air, each one moving as lightly as her heart is heavy. They killed Bow. She is forcing herself to ignore the ache. Bow has died. He will never see his fathers or his siblings again. They won't laugh or have fun together ever again.

All of it is gone. And it is due to them. And due to herself too. "I am sorry, Bow. I should have been here sooner." What can she even do now? She doesn't know how to deal with it. She isn't sure if she even wants to start facing this ugly new facet of her reality. What will happen now? One thing she knows, if Witches are fueled by despair, then what is going to come next will hurt them just as much as she is hurting. "Crescendo", she mutters, and Oktavia's giant point to the DG Girls, the huge wheels raining down on them in copious amounts, wrecking as much as they can reach.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
The gravity effect's gone! Tuxedo Kamen's attention shifts instantly to his two downed friends, Chiyo first because a second ago she was confirmed still alive, her hand is even reaching up, right? And-- and maybe her hand falling is just her passing out, right? Right??

He scrambles, ripping off his gloves, letting everyone else worry about Drie, and he reaches to touch Chiyo-- just her hand, there, her wrist, and there's a golden glow, seeking, searching--

--to find nothing to latch on to, nothing to feed energy to, nothing to hel. She truly is already gone. His heart's seizing in his chest and he clambers over to Bow just on the off chance--

--but as his too-pale perfectly unmarked right hand touches Bow's skin and glows there, too, there's nothing, nothing, nothing.

And Mamoru sits down.

He's silent for a second, two seconds, three. He looks up at what's going on, in his dirty formalwear, gloves and mask and cape all gone, and he listens. And he looks over at Chiyo, then down at Bow, and he pulls a rose out of the air, and he hurls it with an incredible force built of fierce horrible useless fury and loss, directly at Drie.

He knows Youko is dead. But so are Chiyo and Bow. And he knows Drie will only become a puppet as well, if left to Metallia. He knows nothing will reach her like it reached him -- she made a deal.

He doesn't bother telling himself it's a mercy, not when it's like this.

Doom and Gloom Girls has posed:
Zwei took the concentrated fire, as Drie lay in the stone, reflecting on how much she wanted this to all be over, and thus Zwei was worn down, down, down.

Drie, however, is fairly fresh, and more importantly, she's aware that everyone wants to kill her - she's just seen her friend kill two of the enemy and be killed in turn and she's not letting the same happen to her. The Metallia riding her mind wouldn't let her, even if her own self-preservation weren't riding on this.

"What happens to me WILL be my own doing," she agrees, and her eyes burn red, as she gives the demon leave to control her fully.
Ito as Puella Red opens her arsenal of detonation, as red lightning lances towards her, as portals open and wheels rain and seek to churn and tear, as a rose flies true and pure -

She brings her arms up, glowing a deep, deep purple, and crushes gravity together until a miniaturized black hole opens directly above her head, and it is pressure and it draws and it pulls and it devours - not just the attacks. It pulls on loose debris, rocks and dust, it pulls on the hogweed and everything that entails, it pulls on the bodies -

Yes, the bodies. Chiyo's body, Bow's body, they begin to lift, to be dragged to the open pitch hole of gravity.

If no one stops it, they'll be devoured.

And purple-black darkness crackles over Drie's body and regardless of if the bodies were rescued or not, she smashes the black hole in an instant, and it bursts apart, in an explosion that shatters a hole in reality - or in this case, the Labyrinth itself.

Drie duskports away, winded, grieving, raging, devoured by a demon -

And the mahou are left with their grief.

Phantom has posed:
As the eternal gauge is swallowed, Phantom was about to launch an attack when two things of interest are taken up by the black hole attack. Chiyo's body is one... the other? Phantom opens a portal, steps through, a portal opens in front of an orange and white tabby cat that he snags about the middle. "I have someone helping me with Chiyo." He hopes.

He opens a portal in front of Mamoru. "You, in the formal wear, step through and grab Chiyo. We will teleport away from the gravity well." Once Mamo steps through, a portal opens where Chiyo's body is starting to rise, with another to guide him back to Sayaka.

Teleporting himself next to Tuxedo, he hands Bonito over. "I'll take Chiyo with me and come back when the time's right."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "What?!" Amy exclaims, as the lances of light all BEND into a point. Just how WARPED is the gravitational field right in front of her?! Eyes wide, she starts flying backwards, then spins around so she can use the skirt thrusters too. She diverts course to try and grab Bow, in case there's some healing magic that can still save him-- oh, Sayaka's got it. She flies towards-- wait, is that Chiyo's cat?! Oh, right, the hammer was the cat. But Phantom's got her, and there's a portal for her to reach Chiyo, so she flies through, grabbing Chiyo and putting distance between them and the growing 'black hole'. Amy doesn't want to get close enough to find out how much like a real black hole it is!

    And when the threat is gone, she lays Chiyo down, or hands her off to whoever else wants to take her.

    "Sa--" oh right, Phantom is here, "Sharpsong." Amy's dismissed her helmet visor to talk more clearly. "The, the healers will... if they can do anything... your gem. Do you need...?" She asks, showing her own about 1/4-corrupted soul gem.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru stares at the-- hey-- HEY--

--but the stranger's got Bonito, so there's one thing, and the other is... "You're not the boss of me," the prince says automatically, not even thinking about it as he does, in fact, step through. He grabs hold of Chiyo's body, glancing over to make sure Sayaka's got Bow, and he pulls her back, hanging on to the wall... then blinks his wet eyes in his dirty face and trades body for cat, and he just hugs Bonito. HUGs Bonito.

After a moment he says in a dull voice, "I'll heal whatever you need healed. But. I need to just. Sit for a minute."

Sayaka Miki has posed:
Sayaka can only watch powerless as a black hole is conjured, devouring all the attacks with its immense pressure, and then then starting to pull in more and more, including, to Sayaka's horror, the dead bodies of their friends. She doesn't care what it might happen to Drei, when she sees Bow's lifeless body get dragged it, any importance of her presence has slipped away from the bluenette's mind. All that was important than was preventing Bow's body from disappearing.

A plea is reserved to Oktavia as a giant hand reaches out for Bow's body and holds him away from the raging black hole, until it explodes and blows a hole in the Labyrinth to the outside world of the catacombs. Sayaka doesn't even look at the surviving DG girl, instead just walking over to Bow's body, checking his pulse to get the confirmation she knows and dreads: that there is no chance of Bow having possibly been alive.

"There is no point, Red. His heart isn't beating", she forces the words out. "I don't need Grief Seeds, but thanks for the offer. It's true I will need more of them in a Greater frequency, but my stack can hold out, I think", she replies to the redhead.

Chiyo Sakai has posed:
Bonito was not happy at all. He'd done what he could to attack the DG Girl that had killed Chiyo, but... There was nothing he could really do either. Not at his size, not with being a cat, not without the full power of Sanbo-Kojin that had flowed through Chiyo in the first place. The well of gravity starts to pull and he's forced to scrabble and claw at the floor trying to dig in as his tail end is drawn up off the ground. A yowling whine comes up until he's caught by his middle.

Bristling and unsettled he finds himself carried out of the portal to be offered to Tuxedo Kamen. A familiar face at least so he's quick to clamber up into Tux's arms. Where he's promptly hugged.

"I know." Comes Bonito's quiet remark, fully capable of talking in his deep bass that sounded more choked up and raw than he wanted to admit. He buries his face in Tuxedo's armpit to hide while being hugged.

Phantom has posed:
"No, but you're hardly in any condition to argue with me. Unless you want to carry Chiyo around." Phantom responds. Now with Chiyo's body, Phantom opens a final portal, and steps through to who knows where. She'll be comfortable at least!

Doom and Gloom Girls has posed:
The catacombs quiet, the sounds of battle fading as the solemn stillness of grief takes root. The wall Tuxedo Kamen blasted Drie through reveals a path forward - into the twisted depths of the Dark Kingdom itself.

But they can take a moment, before they press on.

They just need a moment.