1932/Pings for the Memories

Pings for the Memories
Date of Scene:	07 September 2024
Location:	Park in Tokyo
Synopsis:	Eudial starts opening a portal in the middle of a park concert! What could this mean? It means that Usagi, Molly, Ami and Laisa are going to teach her she's in the wrong neighborhood... but what was with that strange youma she summoned and was that a portal to the dusk zone? What about that weird ping? These questions and more will likely be asked in this scene!
Cast of Characters:	Hotaru Tomoe, Laisa Samuiko, Usagi Tsukino, Molly Skyline, Amanda Faust

---

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
It was a beautiful day and a concert was being held in the park. There were stands setup selling novelty items, the band in question was on a makeshift stage in the middle of the park as a roaring crowd jumped and yelled...

It was loud, obnoxious, exciting.

And then... it was dreadfully, terribly, horrifically silent. In what seemed like a few seconds the crowd went from yelling, cheering, to... groggily wavering, then collapsing into piles. The band in question was missing notes before slumping over on the stage. An aura of darkness setting up all over the concert...

Near the center of the concert area, a few 'maintenance staff' were tapping on a console of a big, oddly familiar looking tower. The cause of the drain. And from it, a round portal had materialized behind it leading into a strange, distorted realm of darkness.

Laisa Samuiko has posed:
    Laisa had been here enjoying the concert. Not really caring too much about the music itself, but appreciating the good vibes and general excitement. It was fun to get hype about something, even if the thing in question didn't really matter to her.

    It's hot out, so she has a blue-flavored snowcone that she's been working her way through while soaking up the atmosphere. She almost doesn't even really notice that something is wrong until the volume suddenly goes away. This not being Laisa's first magical fight, it doesn't take her long to figure out in broad strokes what's going on.

    She sighs, leaves her snowcone on a railing, and then wanders off to go get changed. Snow Angel Mou Fubuki returns, picks up her snowcone, and starts eating. She casually approaches the dark tower while eating her cold treat and asks the workers, "So like... What's the deal here? Are you opening a portal to a hell dimension or something? Because like... we were kinda in the middle of a concert. Can't go you go be evil somewhere else?"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Sailor Moon had not been present for the concert - she wasn't a big fan of rowdy audiences, and Ami-chan had a preference for pretty boy idol groups over obnoxiously loud bands - but she had been in the area on patrol, Luna hanging from her shoulder as they made their way through the city. Tokyo didn't have very much in the way of large green spaces - even these parks weren't far from the typical urban jungle.

When the energy drain starts, it's Luna who notices first. "Sailor Moon! I feel an odd energy not far from here. We should check it out, promptly!"

"Okay, okay, but if it turns out to be another motorbike youma -" Sailor Moon grumbles, hopping from a rooftop down to the ground, making her way through the park, only to frown, as the noise of the distant crowd just... stops.

"That's... not good," she whispers, feeling Luna nod sharply, and then, there they are. An audience collapsed in heaps, a band slumped over their instruments, and just a handful of people near the center surrounding an odd console. With a portal.

Haven't people had enough of portals?

"Luna," she whispers hurriedly, you try and get closer to the console, I'm going to distract them!"

And then Luna is lightly launched towards a safe corner (she flips in the air and lands lightly on her feet, grumbling under her breath), while Sailor Moon leaps onto the stage.

"Hey! You evil-doers who get in the way of summer's last concerts! These people came to support music and these talented artists came to share their passion with the world. I, Sailor Moon, will not let you get away with stealing their energy and ruining their precious day!"

She strikes a pose. You know the one.

"In the name of the Moon, I'll punish you!"

Molly Skyline has posed:
In the crowd of music enthusiasts (aka a roaring crowd) is Molly, the purple-haired girl having an absolute blast and loving this concert. She's presented herself today in a goth outfit (well, goth-light, really); black boots, black skirt, a black corset over a dark purple dress shirt with a white bow in her hair, and the concert is...

...Having... a rather serious problem. Molly sighs audibly, and her shoulders hunch over at the sight of the tower that... she actually hasn't seen before, when that was going on she was drained and chilling out in hospital. Ahh well! It's still pretty recognizable as evil bad business.

So being awake in a field full of sleeping people, she shifts to her henshin, bringing staff to hand and taking on the Tiefling-styled look her primary henshin has taken on.

"Alright, that's enough of that," she declares, manisfesting purplish, translucent wings and taking to the skies (Or, well, like fifteen feet off the ground). Starcrash brings up a holographic battle-readout in front of her face, tracking friendly and hostile targets in different colors. "Starcrash, deploy a Time Space Barrier," she commands.

<< AFFIRMATIVE >>

The world shfits just a hair; the colors change just a little bit, in an expanding wave around Molly, expanding out to a large enough area for a battlefield, and removing all the innocent people from the immediate line of fire.

And she'd say more, but Sailor Moon covered the 'we'll stop you' speech more than well enough.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy loves music but does not love screaming crowds. But, Molly's going... And, seeing how Molly's dressed, Amy wonders if she can dress like that...

    This has resulted in one redhead girl in the crowd next to the other goth wearing something involving a black neck-and-shoulder-baring top, a black skirt, a superfluous belt, mesh, and black boots, who sort of bounces between focusing on the music, then being taken out of it by the end of a song or crowd noise and then looking down at herself and blushing and taking selfies where she can't stop grinning--

    And then it's silent. Huh? Amy looks around as people start collapsing... "Oh, come on...!" More quietly, she mutters, "I was kind of having fun..."

    Now the Eclipse Zone tower is obvious. When the worker's not looking her way, Amy transforms.

    "You... why'd you ruin our concert?!"

    Amy hefts her rocket launcher and... wait. Didn't Hinoiri say it wouldn't work to just attack the tower? She tries to remember just what it was Hinoiri said. Uhhhhh... Oh right, there are ways to communicate with people: <<Hey,>> Amy's voice is echoed into her allies' heads mentally, <<Does anyone remember what Hinoiri said was the trick to disabling these?>>

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
The woman at the console didn't glance up. On the opposite side of the portal there seemed to be... things... large... massive... bulbous eggs or... sacs or...

And then one of them opened and a...

A princess came out?!

Leaping through the portal. "Deal with them," Eudial ordered.

Molly's barrier went up... And then her device would get VERY weird readings. Namely, in that the barrier wasn't properly working. Glitches were appearing throughout it and, worse? The people inside? They weren't getting sent out. They were still HERE! But, on the upside? New people weren't being dragged in. So that was... good?

"Hello, Sailor Moon, Sailor Ice Cone, Sailor Wand and Sailor... Rocket... Launcher?!"

"Wait, what?" Eudial asked before glancing back and... "Huh. I have one of those at home..."

"I'll be the one defeating you today," the princess youma said before pulling out... a handful of forks?! "Tell me... do you know which fork is the PRINCESS FORK?!" As she began to hurl dozens of little forks at the girls!

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Oh, ew," Sailor Moon cries out at the sight of the bulging sacks, because, honestly? Super gross! "What are you even trying to do, huh?"

And then the egg opened, leaving a... princes... monster(?) jumping through the portal to face them, and Sailor Moon honestly doesn't know whether to feel insulted or pleased by that, but at least they aren't looking at massive bulbous egg sacs anymore, right? Right?

And that's when she realizes that, despite the barrier going up? ...the civilians are still here. Shoot! Being on the stage, she's drawing fire towards the band, and with a quick apology - she grabs a cymbal from the band's drumm set and uses it as a shield!

"Yikes! And I don't know Red-chan!" The forks are embedded right through the cymbal, though at least it did enough to keep her from getting impaled too!

"No problem! We'll stop you and we'll save these people! Why don't you see how you like it when things get thrown at you?!"

The cymbal (and the forks) begin to glow, transformed from metal to cosmic energy.

"Moon Cymbal and Forks Action!"

Meanwhile, Luna creeps around the location where Eudial and the maintenance team are, pretending at being a totally normal cat as she creeeeeeps towards the tower to see what, exactly, they're doing."

Laisa Samuiko has posed:
    Mou Fubuki just keeps eating her blue-flavored snowcone while other magical show up and start doing justice speeches. Just casually munching and listening. Eventually she chimes in with, "What they said," while giving the mysterious woman an annoyed stare. She's being outwardly chill about it but internally she literally cannot believe this crap right now and she's fuming at the fact that she's being ignored.

    The barrier goes up and Mou Fubuki has a moment where she wonders what would happen if she had left her snowcone on a bench or something. Would she get a fake Barrier-made treat in addition to the one left in the real world?

    While she's pondering this question and other meanings of life, an evil princess is showing up and... immediately forks her treat, sending blue-flavored coldness all over her henshin outfit.

    "No. I don't know. Should I? Is there a special fork called the princess fork or is that just a thing you've made up?"

    Mou feels like if it were a proper etiquette rule then she should know this. She either zoned out through that day's lesson or it's not real.

    Looking through the portal shows Laisa a vision of... some really weird stuff. Her blue eyes get a bit wider as she sees... whatever the heck that is on the other side of it. "Yeah, that's not cool."

    She raises her left hand into the air, forming a solid wall of ice between herself and the princess youma before even more forks can be thrown in her direction. Then the wind picks up around her, rapidly turning cold and chilling the air. It might be refreshing at first, but it doesn't stop at 'comfortable' and the Snow Angel works best in the cold.

    Laisa has been too far out of the loop to really know what the trick with these tower things are.

Molly Skyline has posed:
Wait...

What?

Molly looks around, hovering over the field full of unconscious concert-goers, who are all... still here. Why are they still here?! isn't this Barrier thing supposed to work?

"The barrier didn't work!" she shouts, "Everyone's still here!! The barrier is glitchy, I don't know what's wrong! Eveyrone be really careful what you hit!" And Molly, that goes double for you since you like blowing stuff up and firing beams all over the place. But, still, can't just float here doing nothing. So she climbs, gaining altitude so hopefully if she gets attacked, nothing bad will happen to anyone else. "Starcrash, deploy a shield -- just a standard shield, nothing with deflection."

<< DEPLOYING >>

As a bubble of energy snaps into place around the young device mage and disappears from view, she's already thinking about her next move. "Amy, you be careful too," she calls out to the red mage, "No rocket launchers this time! At least not yet." She pauses, thinking out her own next move. "Starcrash, Solar Barret, one barret only, maximum thermal output. Detonate early if it misses."

<< ARMED >>

"Fire!" Molly releases a single barret, searing hot and locked onto the Princess Youma; and as she does... there's... forks coming in, that slam into her shield and make it crackle out of existence, before a couple of them embed themselves into her barrier jacket, knocking her off kilter.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    The 'maintenance worker' seems to have opened a portal to what appears to be Tourian and Mother Brain. Amy doesn't know how to disable the tower but she knows how to disable Mother Brain: Just keep firing missiles!

    The wisdom of prioritizing this target is reinforced as an egg breaks off and hatches into a... youma princess? Yeah, better destroy the boss before it makes more adds!

    "That's right! I'm Sailor Rocket Launcher!" Sure why not confuse them, right?

    <<Uhh, Starcrash, what's up with the barrier?>>

    No rocket launchers this time! At least not yet.

    Molly asks this as Amy is already firing at least her second shot at the egg-brain-weird-biological-mass-whatever-it-is. To her credit, if they're knocked off-course they generally just don't explode. And this time they are rockets, perhaps because of where Amy's thoughts went, self-propelled projectiles rather than exploding shells fired from a cannon.

    "Uhh... How do we tell which one is the princess f--" Amy starts to ask, seeing the attack of... eating utensils... coming too late and dodging too slowly. "Ow! ...Why?! Darkness-charged forks?!"

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Eudial didn't seem to notice any of them. Tapping away on the console. A small little symbol, like a charging battery, could be seen on the bottom right of the screen as Luna got closer...

The princess youma, however, elegantly took a step towards Sailor Moon, pulling out... a spoon?! "Now now, princess, you shouldn't throw your PLATE!" And then she held up the spoon and one could almost hear the... almost... cartoony sound affect as it grew to massive size, like a bowl, for the cosmic fork and cymbal to go in, curve around the inside, and be launched towards the moon-themed magical girl!

"You don't know which fork IS the princess fork, do you? Tut tut, when will you girls learn proper ETIQUETE?!" There was no princess fork. She then chucked the now-massive metal spoon at Mou, like a metallic ice cream scooper of despair, to try and break through her ice wall!

Ha, she--

She really should have been paying more attention, as it was then that the barret and rocket strike her. Frankly, she really SHOULD have paid more attention to those. The youma was sent toppling back, skidding along the ground. "Agh. You clever girls. A bomb, the princesses natural enemy." NO THEY WEREN'T!

"But do you know what the sailor's natural enemy is?! ETIQUATE!" As she began to throw a flurry of forks and spoons at them again. Truly, she was a monster. "ALSO SCURVY!" Tune in for more youma-faxs.

Amy's rocket flew into the portal, erupting against the strange, disgusting sacks and...

... And when the smoke cleared? It was like... nothing happened. The blast didn't leave any marks on them, or scratches. Granted, everything there looked so disjointed and foul... but whatever was on the opposite side of that portal was *not* good...

Laisa Samuiko has posed:
    Mou frowns as she notices that the civilians are still here. This is going to be a problem if she starts unloading weather-based magic all around the area. Not that she has time to think about that with the princess youma throwing things at her.

    The ice cream scoop digs into her ice wall, cracking the ice and shredding it into pieces as Mou just watches this unfold. "Wow. I actually didn't know that was possible. Still pretty sure you're making up the whole princess fork thing, though. Like... what would that even be?" She taps her chin thoughtfully while the ice wall is being destroyed in front of her. "You have salad forks for eating salad... snail forks for eating snails... dessert forks for eating dessert... so would a princess fork..."

    Her ice wall finally shatters from the general chaos of magical combat. Mou Fubuki, also, should really be paying closer attention. She holds out her right hand and a solid staff of ice forms inside of it. At the top, the staff splits into a trident shape where each spike is its own icicle. "I've got it! It's a pitchfork. Like from a peasant rebellion!"

    Yes, because that's what's really important right now.

    She shouts, "I didn't vote for you!" while lunging at the princess youma, stepping over the crumbled bits of ice as she does so and somehow not slipping at all, trying to drive her ice trident into the monster while shouting, "Also, it's 'etiquette'."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
For the first time ever, Sailor Moon experiences a fraction of Chrono's ever-growing disbelief with the state of magic on Earth, as she watches her attack swirl around in a giant spoon and be launched right back at her.

And of course there are still civilians with her, so she can't just dodge and let the ground explode.

"That's cheating you jerk -" she yells, bringing her arms up in front of her in an X-shape as she's forced to tank her own blow, a cloud of smoke rising as the cosmic-energy filled items explode.

When the smoke clears, Sailor Moon's arms are covered in soot, gloves burned but still mostly whole. She's slid back several feet, but successfully kept the unconscious band from being impacted!

But since that didn't work, she needs to try something else.

"Bombs are everyone's natural weakness, dummy youma! Whoever heard of someone who was naturally strong against them?! And sailors are probably great at etiquette - YIKES!"

Abandon the civilians! She's taking too many hits! Sailor Moon runs around in zigzags, trying to dodge the forks and spoons. Several strike and manage to lodge in the chest armor of her fuku. When she finally manages to outrun the flurry of attacks, she grabs the Crescent Wand from the air, and carves a golden circle.

"Moon Healing Escalation!"

Try throwing purification back at her, fake princess!! And if she dodged, hopefully it would go right through the portal - maybe purification could act where rockets couldn't.

Meanwhile, Luna, looking up and seeing the icon, frowns to herself. A battery symbol? But was it gaining power from the drained civilians, or from the fight itself? The only way to find out is to get closer, see if she can read more of the screen, but she'll definitely be noticed then. Unless...

She mrows, actually mrows, and twins around Eudial's leg, doing her best to look like a very friendly, very lonely stray cat.

This... could go wrong.

Molly Skyline has posed:
"I'm not a Sailor!!" Molly shouts back at the Youma Princess, and hurriedly instructs Starcrash to raise another shield as a flurry of cutlery comes flying at her. Her wings do overtime to move her out of the way, and a bunch of them still manage to hit her, dropping her shield once again and embedding in her barrier jacket. "OW!!" she yells as one of them gets all the way through her plating and into her... well, her. Shepulls that one out and drops it. "Rude!" she shouts.

"Anyway, I'm a devicer, not a sailor!! And my name is..."

What what is her name? Other than Molly, which she doesn't want to admit to right here and now. "Uhm, lemme get back to you on that. I was thinking of Firefly, but my mana is purple... Firemoth maybe? I dunno." She sighs audibly. "Starcrash, Stellar Pulse, twenty barrets. No detonation in range of civilians."

<< ARMED >>

Molly unleashes a rapid tirade of barret-fire, all of it aimed at the Princess Youma. "WE'RE IN JAPAN USE CHOPSTICKS YOU BARBARIAN!" she shouts, as a stream of standard, exlosive barrets go flying straight for the cutlery-chucker, when she's clear from the civilians who are all laying around on the ground. As her attack finishes, she changes tactics, making a swift run for the stage to pick up a couple of the band-members and rush them to safety, dropping them somewhere amongst the crowd.

She'll get them later. Honest.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "I don't think you need a fork for that." retorts Amy's mouth on autopilot while her brain tries to focus on the fight.

    She's got a lot going on! Hoping no one replies through the telepathic link with anything Kyubey shouldn't hear, for instance. Should I warn them? Or would it only distract them? Ugh, my feelings of enjoying the outfit are ultimately just more emotions for his plan. Wait, the missiles did nothing?!

    "Hey, no fair!" She stops firing, stumbling over collapsed people after being hit by forks earlier. "Ack! No, I think a princess's natural enemy is guillotines and revolutions! I'm not... I don't think any of this is real etiquette!"

    Ugh, forks and spoons all over, Amy reflexively weaves between them but can't block them all from hitting civilians. Does she have to get closer? She starts leaping from spot to spot between fallen crowdspeople, trying to get closer to the princess youma, conjuring gyrojet machine pistols and spraying rocket-bullets at the 'princess.'

    "You know, I never did think to ask, why are you called Sailor Senshi, anyway?"

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
The youma blinks and opens its mouth, staring at Fubuki. And then put a finger on its chin. Was... it possible?

Was the princess fork the pitchfork? That-- Wait. "Princesses NEVER cheat!" the princess youma yelled, despite the fact it, and many princesses, cheated all the time. How ru--

Only to get the very fork it was confused by! "AGHHHH!" Well, if it wasn't the princess fork before, it certainly was now!

AND ESCALATION NO! The youma yelped and then stumbled back, pierced by the trident, puilling Fubuki with it as it collapsed away from the Moon healing escalation!

It hit the barrier! And... the energy of light and hope disolved away, sizzling in the air around the barrier. What... what was that place?

From within the portal one of the sacs seemed to open its eyes, turning towards Sailor Moon... the source of the purification...

The youma, meanwhile, was getting hit by a flurry of barrets, shrieking! Another massive spoon appeared in its hands which it used to SWING! Attempting to both hit Fuyuko off it and baseball strike the barretts back at their senders!

"Princess elegance rebuttal!"

Eudial rolled her eyes, only to pause and... blink. She looked down at the kitty and then... "Awwwww," Eudial said, kneeling down and just scooping the little kitty up. One hand under her, the other under her chin and gently scritching her. "Who's a cute lil kitty cat? You are, yes you are~ What's your name? Fluffy? Mittens? You look like a... mmmmm... Feline Dion, I think." Luna at least could see the display. It was... weird.

Oh my gosh it had a little Sunbreaker i nthe top left, looking smug.

But it also... looked different than the others had. It seemed to be drawing magic from... the civilians, though. People. And there was an alert, though if Eudial cared about it, she wasn't showing it. She kept closing it when it popped up.

"Almost done," Eudial said, giving a sigh. "Get rid of the one making the field!" she called back to the youma.

"O-of course, my queen!"

Eudial actually urked at being called that.

The youma then tried to grab Fubuki... and DANCE with her?! To send both of them into a twirl and then CHUCK her STRAIGHT at Molly!

Laisa Samuiko has posed:
    Mou keeps trying to stab after the first one hits. She can't really change or meaningfully affect the tower in any way, but she can keep the pressure up.

    At least, she could, before she was picked up and thrown.

    She yelps and loses her cool for a moment as she flails through the air. She can't really stop herself from hitting Molly but she can encase herself in so much white fluffy snow that it softens the blow for a bit.

    Regardless of however Molly reacts to having a Fubuki-sized snowball thrown at her, one way or another the Snow Angel finds herself on the floor, picking herself off and brushing off clumps of white. "You've got it backwards. We are the ones overthrowing you!"

    Mou Fubuki frowns as she considers the civilians who are still here, still being drained, and still basically in danger. The Barrier is glitching and while Mou doesn't know why, she does know that everyone here is holding back on account of the defenseless. So instead of attacking the princess youma, Mou skates across the ground, leaving a trail of melting ice behind her, and then works her way into the middle of the collapsed concert crowd.

    "I'll shield them!" she shouts out to the other sparkles. "If you find any, drop them off by me!"

    Then, extending her arms outwards into a T-pose, she stands in the eye of a windstorm that is suddenly picking up around her. Her long light blue hair whips back and forth as the already cooling temperature suddenly drops. All over the crowd, a dome of ice forms, separating the civilians from the magical fight. Wings of ice grow out of her back, emitting waves of frost. It probably can't stop them from being drained, but it might make it less likely for them to suddenly get blasted.

    "I'll focus on maintaining the dome. You all deal with Her Royal Monstrosity!"

    Granted, focusing on something like this does kinda mean she can't attack at the same time, but maybe enabling her allies will pan out more in the long run?

    "Also I'm not really a Sailor Senshi, so I have no idea. I'm just a girl with a cursed artifact who can't let it go."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "Another monster is waking up!" Amy warns. "Guys, triple tech! Or maybe, quadruple? Get ready!" Finally close to the princess youma, she switches back to a rocket launcher and--

    --uses the youma to rocket jump off of, flinging herself over towards Sailor Moon. "Here you go! Starcrash, enhance it! Sailor Moon, do the thing! Um... snow lady, can you channel magic into it too? I don't know."

    And she suddenly has some other weapon in each hand -- about the size of her usual shoulder rocket launchers, gunmetal black and with extra greebles on it suggesting some kind of energy storage or feed system but it's just aesthetics, and ultimately it's just another recoilless rifle, configured to fire a small projectile at hypersonic speed.

    She hands one of the Baby Baby Boom Guns to Sailor Moon and then stands next to her, readying her own shot as a followup attack on the strange thing on the other side of the portal.

Molly Skyline has posed:
Molly has just dropped off the two bandmembers she carried, if not to safety, then at least a bit... further away from the portal. She's turning around to go get more, when she's hit by a giant snowball with a Fubuki in it, all while she wasn't benefiting from a shield.

And so our purple-haired heroine finds herself laying on the ground, face down, wondering just how did she get there. How did she get here? This isn't at all what she had in mind two minutes ago.

"Don't... throw people at me," she gasps, as she clambers back up to her feet, tilting her head one way and the other. The bones in her neck pop audibly (to anyone within five feet of her, anyway), and she takes back to the skies. "Okay this is getting unfair!" she shouts, "And my barrier is glitching really badly, I might have to let it drop 'cause I don't know what will happen if I keep it up!"

That said, she's not dropping it just *yet*. "Starcrash, Stellar Pulse, twenty barrets!"

<< ARMED >>

Molly levels the staff at the Youma... and then she just shakes her head. "Nah." She points the weapon instead at Eudial, and holds her staff by one of its side-handles, narrowing her eyes. "Fire," she snaps, unleasing a rapid-fire burst of barrets at the witch who seems to be in charge of it all. "That's for your bad driving!" she shouts while they're going off.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Um, sailor collars, I guess?" Sailor Moon calls as she too works to get closer to the youma and away from collateral damage. She's smiling at the way the youma's fallen back at the power of her Escalation, proof that purification really is the way to go - hey why did her silver beams just dissolve away?! "I never really asked, but we definitely have to take this down, it's waking up!"

In the portal, the thing has opened it's eyes, and it's staring at her. Maybe it's not staring at her. Maybe it's a coincidence.

Sailor Moon shuffles to the side, circling the youma. The eyes stayed focused on her. Okay, so, not a coincidence. Ahahaha...haha...ha... great.

"Red-chan, I'm on it!"

Again, another circle is drawn, Sailor Moon pouring energy into the attack.

"Moon Healing Escalation!"

Again! Right at the youma! It won't matter if it hits allies, because it only effects Dark Energy covered enemies - ha!

Meanwhile, Luna was... honestly half-expecting to be kicked? But instead, she's been picked up and renamed... ugh, Feline Dion? Really? But she meows cutely instead, pretending that she approves of this name and these events, looking over the console as though she were an ordinary cat who can't read.

Sunbreaker's image... and continued draining happening on the civilians,,, and a pop up that Eudial won't leave open long enough for her to read. Hrm.

Wriggling a little, Luna topples over onto the console directly, making as confused and pathetic a face as her dignity will allow. "Mrr?" how did that happen, that innocent kitty face asks.

And then Sailor Moon's being offered a gun, which she's never used before, but well, video games, maybe? Firing it proves there's no recoil, and she's - hmm - trying to pass her energy through it just makes the whole gun start glowing. Whoops? Hot potato, hot potato, hot potato - GO!

"Moon Hot Potato Action!"

And the gun - which is certainly a kind of hot potato, is launched directly at the portal.

It's gonna explode.

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Eudial let out a yelp as Luna tried to get on the console. The moment her paws touched it, she'd *feel* the dark energy coursing into her. Like getting shocked with a little tazer. "No, Feline, you'll get hurt. This isn't for kitties," she said quickly, holding the cat and--

The cat got held tightly in one hand, while she turned around. She held out her right hand and... Oh, that was a lot of barrets. She just YEETED the cat towards a stuffed animal stand before the barrets rained down on her. "Oh, so you girls want to play THAT game, do you?" she asked. Tossing her 'stage hand' overalls away, revealing herself!

... In a labcoat. With glasses. She didn't have glasses before.

Also, she didn't have that big... device... before... in her hands. "Firrrrrre... buuuuuuuuuster... marrrrrrk--"

And then the blast of magic bullshit went PAST her and she yelped, quickly deciding that discretion was the better part of valor. As she ran!

The hot potato of a gun hit the portal... And exploded.

Smoke filled the area and, for a moment... It was success, it was--

And then the smoke cleared. And the portal... was still there. The darkness, the strangeness on the other side... was... still there.

The tower, on the other side? Had been right BY that explosion. And was starting to crumble. Big cracks having formed all over it. And the youma, princessy as she was, was looking almost as damaged. Cracks throughout her...

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Luna yelps as she's shocked by the rush of Dark Energy, hair standing on end until she looks more like a little puffball than a grown cat, red eyes wide with surprise.

That... did not go as planned. She's actually grateful for being snatched up into Eudial's arms - though, of course, seconds later, she's being launched through the air.

Sailor Moon, seeing this, freaks out.

"LUNA!" She's rushing for her cat, her partner, when she sees her land in the plushies, safe and sound, and she realizes that Eudial had... saved Luna. Made sure she didn't get hurt. Had...

Not the time for this. But it was definitely something on her mind - definitely something that keeps her from attacking the scientist, instead, turning towards the portal, she grips her Crescent Wand, and tries, for a third time, to see if she can do anything to the thing that birthed this horrible youma.

"I never quit, and I don't stop until everyone is safe! Moon Healing Escalation!"

Molly Skyline has posed:
A bunch of alerts flash on Molly's holographic display, most of them pointing to how the dark tower inside the portal is cracking and ready to break apart. Also, at how Eudial is running away after throwing Princess Moon's cat. Wiat.

She chucked the kitty?!

"YOU MONSTER!" she yells after her, as she's running off; but she's not about to chase her into the portal alone. Not this time at least. ...Maybe next time, or the time after that, we'll see. Instead, she glides up to the stage and lands on top of one of those big speakers that bands usually use for blasting the bejezus out of whoever is within fifty feet of them with overly loud music (which is why Molly always makes sure she's around fifty-five feet away, so she gets full benefit of music now and eardrums later).

"Starcrash," she instructs, "Charge... Stellar Convergence!" And she's got this 'oh boy oh boy' look on her face, like she's finally getting to try something she's been saving up for weeks. Which she has, and she is.

<< CHARGING >>

"...Wait what? How long does this take?" A little loading bar appears in her holo-display, so Molly can see exactly how long it *is* going to take, with a little emoji beside it that starts out like :( and then becomes : and then gets to :| at which point, Molly squints at it, before finally it changes to :) and at last, at long last, moves on to :D

<< ARMED >>

"FIRE!!"

Molly grips her staff tightly, pointing the star-shaped business end at the dark tower; at the end of her staff an eclipse orb expands to the size of a beachball, drawing in power (and a warning from Starcrash that the power drain is excessive for a first time use of this spell). The orb coalesces into a thundering beam of energy, sustaining itself over several seconds as it blasts into the dark tower; and while it's busy freezing the target, a serires of small, solar orbs, sizzling with extreme hit blink-blink-blink into existence around the beam. As the chilling blast runs out they fire, striking the now frozen target with overwhelming heat, over the course of several seconds.

"Thermal shock, baby," Molly declraes proudly. The vents on Starcrash open up, and both they and the ones on Molly's henshin horns hiss and billow out little clouds of purple steam. "Been waiting for a chance to do that."

<< MANA RESERVES AT TWENTY PER CENT >>

"...I need some fried chicken."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy's attempt at a combination attack turns out to have multiple flaws! She winces as the snow angel is thrown at Molly, too... and then Star Crash doesn't charge the weapon, and it doesn't matter anyway because when Sailor Moon tries the whole thing glows and is thrown into the portal and explodes! Oh well, at least it exploded inside the portal, that must've done... nothing?! "Are you kidding me?!"

    Also, Sailor Moon has no idea why they're sailors. Huh.

    OHNOLUNA! ...Was tossed into plushies. Phew.

    Amy's just kind of. Recombobulating for a second after plans totally went awry.

    Well... There's a youma that looks like it's begging for a finishing, and Amy's already holding a gun, so...

    She turns and aims and fires, a flash of flame spitting out the back of the gun as a large bullet is launched with way too much force and will probably just put a hole right through the youma and keep going. Um. Whoops, she really needs to plan better. The barrier's still working out there, right?

Laisa Samuiko has posed:
    Mou Fubuki keeps her hands in the air, maintaining the ice shield against any amount of collateral or incidental damage. Since no one is specifically focusing on her, it holds rather well.

    At the same time, frost and rime are forming around her, freezing her into place, and while her heavy ice wings allow her to channel more and more cold magic they also make it difficult for her to move. Which isn't really a problem when she's turtling up like this, but would be a problem if she had to give chase.

    The tower is starting to crack, and the youma is down, and for a brief moment Mou thinks that she can at least help put a stop to whatever this nonsense is.

    Purification seems to work. That's good, because Mou Fubuki has some of that as well.

    The snow woman waits for the rest of her allies to launch their attacks, holding up her giant ice dome in order to keep the non-magicals safe. Only when the other three have acted does she follow up.

    Her hand gesture goes from splayed fingers to clutched fists, and the ice dome above her shatters. The tiny shards of ice float into the air as wind picks up around them, gathering pieces of snow around it. She focuses her attention on the tower itself, though if the youma is close enough then it'll get caught up in the splash damage.

    "SNOW HEART SOLSTICE!" she calls out, before moving her arm in a 'throw ball' gesture, which launches the mass of snow and ice at the cracked tower. The projectile leaves a trail of purifying snow in its wake, and it explodes into even more purifying magical snow upon impact.

    Mou Fubuki takes a moment to catch her breath before already trying to form another ice wall, just in case. It's a bit thinner than the first one, but that's the drawback of going all out.

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Their combined attacks struck the tower and, even more destructively, the youma. Molly's beam blasting through the damaged tower, Amy's blast blowing through the youma... and causing it to erupt, sending dark energy into the air, only to sizzlke out of existence as... something...? Like a weird... ghost... or phantom? Flew out of it, back into the portal. Snow and ice finally struck the tower itself, causing it to spark and then implode, collapsing to the ground.

The portal, however, seemed unaffected by Sailor Moon's strike. As the purifying light struck it, it only seemed to fizzle out of existence... However, with the tower destroyed, the portal itself was quickly closing in on itself.

However, as the last motes of it closed, they'd feel one last, frantic thing... Like a ripple, washing over them. Something very, very small. A ping of dark energy... going out from the portal, only to return to it a moment later before it closed for good. Weak, but ominous...

Eudial, meanwhile, was gone. Nowhere to be seen... the girl having either dusk ported away, donned a new disguise or road off in a fit of rage. Road rage, even.

Laisa Samuiko has posed:
    As the tower collapses, the youma turns to dust and the portal closes, Mou Fubuki hesitates for a moment to see where Eudial went. Only when she's fairly certain the baddies are gone does she lower her guard. Her ice wall melts away into nothing, and the temperature slowly rises back up to comfortable levels. Eventually it'll turn back into summer heat, but at least for right now it's fine.

    "Well that was wild. I was having a good day," she says, feeling a bit grumpy. Her snowcone is gone forever, struck down by malevolent forces before its time. Alas, poor blue flavor. You will be sorely missed.

    She isn't sure what to make of that ominous ping, or really of anything else here, but she does spare a glance at Amy and ask, "Hey, didn't we save Christmas that one time?"

    Mou then starts looking at all of the drained people. None of them seem to be physically hurt, but they sure are passed out right now. "So much for the concert."

Molly Skyline has posed:
As it all comes to an end, Molly breathes a sigh of relief. Well, right before the ominous ping washes over her; and it makes her feel a chill, deep in her bones, that she can't quite shake off. She bites her bottom lip and shakes her head, trying to clear the sensation, which doesn't quite go away.

The device mage in her tiefling-themed henshin drops to one knee, letting out an audible 'phew' as the feeling does, finally, start to fade. Her barrier is still glitching and looks like it belongs in a Tron movie but with really poor visual effects, so she dispells it.

"That was a thing," she declares, as she stands up once more, and scratches the back of her head. "I-- Oh right, the musicians."

The purplenette goes to retrieve the two bandmembers that she'd carried off the stage, and picks them up to be returned to their previous positions before they wake up. Well... aside from the fact that Molly got it backwards, and the guitar guy is now where the drum girl was supposed to be, and vice versa. Oh well, it's close at least.

"Anyone know what that... thing at the end was? That dark *ba-ding* thing that... I mean I felt it, at least?"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
The purification fizzles out again, and Sailor Moon doesn't know if it's because she wasn't strong enough, or because it wasn't working. And that's a problem, for sure, because if her strongest attack isn't enough...

Is there any way for her to go beyond? To get even stronger?

With the tower exploded and the bad guys having mysteriously vanished, they're standing alone in the midst of a bunch of unconscious people. Not exactly anyone's idea of a good time... "We should probably call an ambulance, or something, so we get emergency services out here."

This, called as she rushes over to the plushie stand, where Luna has gotten herself together and is busily smoothing her fur.

"That tower is most certainly one of the ones that Sunbreaker created," Luna reports, "It even had a picture of her face on it," she sighs exasperatedly. Looking towards Molly, she adds, "I felt the ping, but I'm not sure what it was. I don't suppose your device was able to record the energy signature, or anything like that?"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy watches... all of this, dismissing the summoned guns and leaning over when it's finally all gone. "Phew... Well, at least those towers can be destroyed... but... did you all see that spirit or whatever go back to the egg-thing? And then some kind of... I dunno what that was. Darkness active scan? What was it looking for?"

    She blinks at Snow Angel. Save Christmas? "Oh my gosh we did. Um." She stands up straight and holds out a hand to shake. "Magical Rocket Girl Red. Nice to see you again."

    She looks around at the drained people and slumps her shoulders a bit. "Yeah... so much for the concert... Do we just... leave them like this, or...?"

Molly Skyline has posed:
"Yeah, uuhm..." Molly shrugs her shoulders lightly. "I'm... pretty sure they wake up on their own, in a bit?" She thinks that one through, standing amidst a little cloud of purplish steam that continues to rise from the vents on her henshin and Starcrash, though it's starting to lessen now. "But, uhm, that's a good... question.." she adds, looking at the... talking cat. She didn't know that cat could talk! She won't comment on it, that would be rude.

"Starcrash, did you record the 'ping' event? Can you offer any analysis?"

<< THE EVENT WAS RECORDED. ANALYSIS OPTIONS ARE LIMITED. THE EVENT INVOLVED THE USE OF DARK ENERGY. >>

"Oh, glorious, that's... helpful." Molly sighs softly. "Starcrash is pretty... combat oriented," she explains. "I'll show the recording to Rashmi-chan later, she and Nicomachea might have better insights."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"If you could show it to Sailor Mercury, that would be helpful as well. Her scanning and research capabilities are excellentm after all." Luna looks particularly pleased as she says this, though there's some concern in her face, too. "I saw the phenomenon. I'm not sure how to explain it, as we don't know anything about what we saw, but..."

"But it was weird and freaky," Sailor Moon sighs. "I think we should call an ambulance, like I said earlier. They should wake up, but, who knows if anyone got hurt falling over like that, and they might be scared, too. Passing out all of a sudden is pretty scary, you know?"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy looks around, startled by a voice not corresponding to a person she was aware of... oh, Luna's down there. "Ambulance... yeah, fair point. I guess if we don't want it tied to our phones, we just grab someone's and dial the emergency number... she looks for the nearest civilian whose phone she can obviously see. She'll try to sound frightened, telling the dispatcher that people collapsed at the concert, she's not sure if some of them might be hurt, etc.

Laisa Samuiko has posed:
    Mou Fubuki looks down at the offered hand from Rocket Red, and shakes it. "Snow Angel Mou Fubuki."

    Then she looks around at the concert and considers her options. "I was here before the fighting actually. It wont be weird if I make the call. Or we both can. Whatever."

    Then Mou starts her phone and starts talking. "Hello, yes? I'm at a concert. A lot of people are passed out here. I think it's because of the heat. ... Yes. Okay. ... I'll stay on the line. Um... gosh how many people are here?" She looks at the group, makes a rough estimate and relays it. Mou also drops the street address.

    She doesn't know much about the dark ping, other than she obviously felt it, and she doesn't have much to add to that side of the convo.

Molly Skyline has posed:
Molly bobs her head, "Yeah! Let's arrange that. How about later, after hours up at Okujoo Ramen? My Mom owns the place so I can hang out there with friends after closing hours, and there's always Ramen we can have. We can invite Rashmi-chan and Sailor Mercury both to have a look." She shrugs her shoulders lightly, "You'll have to invite Sailor Mercury though," she adds to Sailor Moon. "I haven't met her so I don't exactly have her number."

The purplenette looks around; at least two people have the 'call emergency services' thing down pat, so she doesn't need to also make that call. She lifts up off hte ground, hovering a few feet up in the air. "..I need chicken," she declares. "Really, really badly. I'm low on reserves and carbs are mana."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Sounds good! I'll ask her to meet up with us - she's great, you know? She's my girlfriend! I wish I could get some chicken, but I've got to head on out too," Sailor Moon looks incredibly proud of Sailor Mercury being her girlfriend, but, of course she is. A girl in love is a happy girl indeed! "Thanks for calling, Red-chan, Snow Angel Mou Fubuki-chan! I'm Sailor Moon - I look forward to working with you again in the fuutre."

She dips her head a little, bowing, and Luna, having climbed onto her shoulder, does the same. "I am Luna, and Sailor Moon is one of my charges. Thank you for all you did today. I look forward to working with all of you in the future."

With that said, the Beautiful Soldier of the Moon heads off.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy notes the way Moon looks talking about Ami-with-an-I. The world of relationships has so much to learn and understand. Is that how I look talking about Hannah? she wonders.

    Luna! Amy smiles and nods, "Yeah, I remember you from before! Long time no see!" She curtseys.

    Amy looks between the concertgoers slowly waking up, and Molly flying into the air. "Mind if I come with?"

Laisa Samuiko has posed:
    Mou Fubuki overhears Molly talking about food and frowns. "Weird... why would the thought of fried chicken send a chill down my spine?"

    After a pause she shrugs. "Eh, it's probably nothing."

    As the others start to scatter, Mou just watches them and stays on the phone. She covers it for a moment and says, "Yeah... see you around," before going back to talking to dispatch.