2095/Direct Action

Direct Action
Date of Scene:	23 November 2024
Location:	Botanical Gardens
Synopsis:	Ember drags Hinoiri and Scorpia out to deploy one of Eudial's towers, but make it less harmful. Somehow "less harmful" also means thirty wolflike Grimm. As per her usual, Ember ended up running away, but she got what she came for, and she even did less harm that the last time. Operation success!
Cast of Characters:	Ryoko Gushiken, Scorpia, Koji Silvia, Hinoiri Kirara, Madoka Kaname, Hinote Kagari, Amanda Faust

---

Ryoko Gushiken has posed:
Ryoko Gushiken was in love. She knew it was clouding her judgement, and she didn't care. She had her job to do, but she was going to try and do it better. Do it in a way that wouldn't make her girlfriend look at her the way Sarah had looked her the day she found out Ryoko worked for Obsidian. The day she gave Sarah the full measure of her trust. The day she promised to do less harm.

If it weren't for love, she never would have concocted the plan that she was putting into motion today. She had to have her official plan reviewed and approved by Eudial to ensure that the risk to the tower was acceptable. It was ridiculous. But she did what she had to in order to do the job the Grim Queen insisted she do while doing her best not to disappoint Sarah too much.

Ember wanted to deploy the tower where there were a lot of people, and today was perfect. The Botanical Gardens were hosting an event about the history of Labor Thanksgiving day, and the harvest festival that came before it. She was sure to get enough energy with the portal to find whatever it was looking for soon enough, and hopefully what she was looking for too.

Earlier, she placed the tower in its compact form, placed amongst the trellises like some sort of sculpture. Now? She was walking into the gardens with everyone else, though in her henshin. She had Hinoiri and Sarah with her, like they were all just coming to the event. But she quickly led them to where the tower was placed and turned to Hinoiri. "Alright, nerd, what do I do?"

Scorpia has posed:
Sarah was focused. She had one job to do. She had to protect Hinoiri while she worked on the tower. She couldn't let them down, but especially not Ryoko...Ember. The tall blonde's gaze falls on the tall, dark haired girl and her lips twitch into a soft smile. Oh how she loved her. The fact she was trying to do less harm, said more about her character than anything anyone could try to tell her about Obsidian and all of the evil they do in this world.

She chose to arrive at the event in her human form, in case things went smoothly. Because why wouldn't they go smoothly? This was a well thought out plan, so what could possibly go wrong? Standing close to Ember, she peered down at the tower, not understanding at all what it was that she's looking at, and murmured an incredulous, "That's a lot of buttons!"

Koji Silvia has posed:
As a rule, Koji Silvia wouldn't be attending something like this... it's not a topic he's interested in, since it has to do with a holiday, and for him most holidays are just a day to catch up on the things that don't get done normally...

    Buuuuuuuut NO...

One arm slung over his son is a dark olive skintonned man who looks slightly overweight, with a goatee helping hide some of the 'gone to seed' there, wearing sunglasses and a cap but also a sport coat and jeans... is Saburo Silvia. Naturalized citizen of Japan, massive weeb, and not one to let his son miss out on a chance at being culturally enriched by the experience.

Now despite what people might think, he has not only surprisingly accentless but very articulate Japanese as he says to his son, smiling, "Kojiro, stop being so dour! We haven't been out like this in a long time! And this is about Kinro Kansha no Hi! This is your father's day! I work harder than anyone!"

    "...you mean MOM does..."

The man looks shocked but then laughs and slaps his son between the shoulders, "Ouch! You really are your mother's son... she'd be taking the wind out of my sails too if she could be here."

More grumbles manifest from the young man in the glasses with the long hair, "That's because she's in Osaka at some meeting she can't talk about. And she'd have just ordered in and you'd be watching Arnold Schwarzegger movies."

Another laugh, and Koji is made to stumble forwards a could steps from that big HAND slapping his back, as Saburo intones, "That man is one of the greatest actors on the planet! An improvisational goldmine!" Then in english, he does a dead on imitation of the actor sneering out, 'Let off some steam, Bennett.'

As his father laughs, the look on Koji's face is a cross between wishing to collapse so far inward he could self-form a black hole, and so annoyed that his gaze could cut steel.

    "Go listen to the talk on the origins of the story, son... your old man's gonna hit the head, and then the bar... this body runs on beer!"

The soft mutter comes back as his father fades from the background, "I hope I don't know anyone here... I really, REALLY hope..."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara was, well... aware that this could cause problems. It turned out, for some reason, her past actions resulted in many, many of her ideas and thoughts angering others.

But the towers were a threat. Especially after whatever the Witches had done to them.

And Ryoko, or Ember as she was known, had agreed to help her reduce them. Protect the innocent from them. She couldn't touch them without going Sunbreaker and she couldn't go Sunbreaker without going Sunset of Sora. So this was her only option...

She'd wanted to invite more sparkles, but the deal was... Ember's girlfriend only. Ugh. This was *such* a bad idea... but... if done well... this could protect more people. So she'd had to try. She'd also looked online for disguises.

Which was why she was in a fedora and a big, black trenchcoat. With big, hipster glasses on. And a scarf.

She felt very, very hot, far too hot.

But now she was with the two, glancing to Sarah and... Double Trouble vouched for her, so she had to be good, right?

"Okay, bring up the display, hit the image of the sun in the top left on the display. Hold your finger there and send a pulse of magic along the..."

And then Ryoko would find herself being tutored on magic in a way that, frankly? She likely had never even imagined. It was like having a lot of knowledge on how computers work... and then being handed a computer that functioned off of rubix cube. That. This was going to be fun.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Madoka is here at the botanical gardens, along with a couple of her Chara. Kamiko is sitting on top of her head, eating popcorn next to Tia. The Chara Bearer is used to this, and has taken to holding her head very still so as to not throw her fairies off. Not that it would matter since they can fly.

    "There's something weird nearby," complains Kamiko.

    "I feel it too," says Tia.

    Madoka hears that and then starts looking around while her two Chara start telling her where to go. "I think it's over there." "No it must be that way." "Are you sure because it feels like..."

    It will probably take them a moment to really find the tower itself. Hopefully Madoka doesn't get too dizzy on the way over.

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Hinote Kagari is here, enjoying the festival in the botanical garden. Tracy is with him... floating over his right shoulder, hands in the pocket of his trenchcoat as he glances about conspiratorially. Tracy senses something wrong.

"I feel...it's a dark and stormy night...." says Tracy as Hinote Kagari glances about worriedly.

"That youma isn't back is it?"

"No this is something else.." says Tracy as Hinote kagari sticks a lollipop into his mouth, and grips the edge of the stick. "I see..." he says as he looks for a safe place to transform soon.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Oh right, Labor Thanksgiving Day. Amy has been in Japan long enough to hear about it, although she wasn't really paying attention last year what with all the magic going on.

    This year... well, it's not like Amy isn't a bit of a Japanophile or she wouldn't be here, she does like learning cultural details and is mildly interested in the history of something that sounds suspiciously progressive, or rather, in exact opposition to the Japan of today with its give-everything-to-the-company culture.

    Also someone said there would be free food.

    There had better be free food.

    In a lull between speakers, she glances down at her phone to see what online acqauintances are talking about. New story from... wait, didn't I already start reading the manga version? Huh. It's by the Shield Hero guy? ...That doesn't raise my expectations that it's gonna be great, honestly. Oh well, if I only read great manga I've got the wrong special interest...

    A boisterous, loud man talking to his sun rises above the general noise nearby and brings Amy out of her thoughts. She looks around curiously, but can't see over the people around her. The price of being short (which she willingly pays). Is that Silvia-san's voice?

    She emerges from the surrounding crowd and into view just as Silvia senior is making his way to the restrooms. "Silvia-san? So that's your dad, huh?"

    Amy thinks about this. "...Dang, I don't think I've actually met any of my friends' parents... So he brought you to this? Hey, did he say anything about there being free food? I'm starting to think it might just be a rumor..."

Ryoko Gushiken has posed:
Bring up the display.

That meant Ember had to expand the tower. It was in its compact form right now which was just a little bit bigger than Sarah. Some weird sculpture. But the display was only accessible when it was full sized. She knew that as soon as she expanded the tower, she'd be starting a timer. If she hadn't already started it by simply showing up. "I hope we get to turn on the portal soon because as soon as this expands we're gonna have company, and you know it," she hissed, but she did it anyway.

There was a pulse of magic for those that could feel it and then the tower expanded to its full size, nearly twice as big. And there was the display. Sure enough there was a sun in the top left. She'd seen it the last time. Ryoko pressed it and held her finger there. Then she glances oved her shoulder toward Hinoiri, interrupting the lecture, "I don't need to know the theory, Kirara, just tell me what to do."

She seemed to be completely ignoring the commotion that the sudden appearance of the tower caused, but she wasn't. She just hoped she could step away from the tower before the sparkles got here.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara reached up and pinched the bridge of her nose. "I am! You want to send the pulse of magic, like when you're eating an apple and the apple juice gets in your nose and it flicks a bit and your horn sparks from the shock? That, but in an L formula," Hinoiri said.

... Well, that was as clear as mud. "Oh, for buck's shake. Pulse your magic, into an L shape, then move it through the sapphire composite..."

And... oh for bucking real... It would take a bit, but before long Ember would find... oh. That was why they were hard to access. The display had shifted, and Ember could kind of... 'feel' what was going on, though the gemstone aparatus. "Now, focus on the swirling vortex. What color do you hear near your right elbow?"

... The worst part? THAT actually would make sense. WHO did magic like this?! WHAT WAS HER WORLD LIKE?! HOW WAS THIS TRYING TO SIMPLIFY IT?!

The answer was green, by the way. "Okay, so you need to shift it vertically until it's gold. DON'T let it go magenta, then it's too far."

Scorpia has posed:
Sarah's attention quickly diverts from what Ryoko is doing with the tower, to their surroundings. Her anxiety spikes, a hand rising to clasp her runestone without her realizing it, and she takes a deep breath. They were secluded enough, for now, that she simply called upon her powers. Dark red electricity runs up and down the length of her body and she's in her Etherian body once more, pincers at her sides, and scorpion tail raised high. It was time to be defensive. Nothing could happen to the people behind her.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Madoka's two Chara, the goddess and the oujo, felt the pulse at the same time. They point in the direction of the tower and say in unison, "There!"

    It takes them a little bit more walking, past the Labor Thanksgiving celebration, further through the gardens, until finally arriving to see the three mahou surrounding a tower. She yelps and then ducks behind a row of leafy flowers, then whispers, "Tia, we should probably henshin. Kamiko, go hide."

    A flash of sparkles and stars and pink later, Hope Blossom emerges and starts approaching the tower. "U-um... hi...?" She looks at the very tall scorpion lady, then tries to peek around her. "What's going on... oh! Oh geeze, that thing's dangerous!"

    She doesn't know Ember or Sarah that well, but... does she know the third person? Nah, couldn't be. She steps back for a moment and then summons her branch bow into her hands. "What are you trying to do here?"

Koji Silvia has posed:
It's like Nara Deer eyes in the headlights when Amy walks up and just starts talking to him, and all he can do is push his hands into the slacks he's wearing, and he says adamantly, "You're not meeting my dad, Amy." Saying her name rather pointedly.

    << Master. >>

Koji goes on, "He's a lazy, self-important, rude idiot who is going to think that you know things about me and he's going to try and get you to drink beer and tell stories, and be all chummy chummy..."

    << MASTER... >>

But he continues to rant as he looks at Amy with a sense of creeping dread, "You don't really... just... if you see him walk away. One he gets his arm over your shoulders, it's ov-"

    << --MASTER!-- >>

Turning his head suddenly to one side, the young long-haired boy almost yells, but ends up thinking very loudly, <<WHAT?!>>

    << Anomalous Energy Readings in the Area. Caution. >>

    "Oh you have GOT to b-..." He stops, takes a soul-calming breath, and then looks at the girl, "Go find a place to change. You know. -CHANGE-" Enunciating it carefully as he looks around, "Something's happening."

---

Saburo is washing his hands in the bathroom, humming the the opening theme from Conan the Barbarian when suddenly he stops and looks up, questioningly into the mirror, and whispers in English, "I... I know this... what's... what's..." And then he holds his head as if a migraine had struck.

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Hinote Kagari can sense the tower himself finally, and he can see it suddenly and he helpfully moves behind that series of bushes he saw, nice and tall hedges and---out from the other side comes Pulp Noir, who launches himself into a nearby tree upwards to sneak along it's branches...

He draws out his water pistol as he aims it down at the tower and then announces, finally, from his tree.

"Reach for the sky and stop touching that tower...!" he says to the crew operating it. He recognizes these towers...almost.

Is that an Eclipse tower!? Here!? Again!?

Amanda Faust has posed:
    You're not meeting my dad, Amy.

    She blinks. "I wasn't necessarily saying--"

    He's going to try and get you to drink beer and tell stories--

    "I'm underage! Beer tastes weird, anyway."

    She goes look a bit concerned over the warning that he's overly familiar, and nods, and then turns to look in the direction Koji is suddenly looking. "What?"

    Find a place to CHANGE.

    Amy nods. "Be right back. The 'head' is that way...?" Small size is to her advantage as she slips between people. "'scuse me. Comin' through. Gotta pee." It's a place she knows she can get out of sight to change, at least!

    She emerges from the washroom, muttering, "It's for a cosplay event." at anyone giving her weird looks as she heads towards the unmistakeable feel of dark magic.

Ryoko Gushiken has posed:
Ember had thought out this scenario thoroughly. She had to, in order to get Eudial to approve it. One of the pieces was how she was going to defend the tower. Her previous attempts had failed, and Eudial wanted something more likely to yield results. So, when Ember had placed the tower earlier, she had also placed several small devices, each about the size of a hockey puck, amongst the flowers. They all but disappeared. Laying in wait for her to activate them in her moment of need.

That need was now. She was in. She could see the vortex, but she could tell that from here on out she was going to need to concentrate. Scorpia was here to protect Hinoiri, but she wasn't here to be an actual villain. It was all on Ember to make sure this whole operation wassn't a waste. "Look lively, Scorpia," she calls out. "It's about to get real interesting."

She reaches down to grab hold of a small device on her belt, pressing a button on it. Each of the other devices she'd scattered around explodes in a cloud of darkness. In the place of each device stands a half dozen Grimm. These ones look like almost bipedal wolves, standing on their big, bent hind legs with skull-like masks over their faces and spikey bone at their shoulders and big claws at the ends of their fingers and toes. There were five explosions making for thirty Grimm spread out in a broad circle around the tower.

First there were roars, and then the Grimm started going after people. Some of them went after Hope Blossom and Pulp Noir but most of them? Most of them started lumbering toward the festival-goers. That's when the screams started.

Ember, though, she was tuning it all out. The Grimm would keep the sparkles busy so she could keep following Hinoiri's ridiculous directions. Move the green vortex up until it's gold, but don't let it get magenta. Sure. That made sense. That's how things worked. This was going great. "Okay, oh crap, no we're good, now what?"

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
And then the sparkle squad was here. Buck. Madoka?! SERIOUSLY?! Madoka? NOW? UGh. She reached up to adjust the collar of her trench coat. Yeah, the less people who knew she was here, the better. Hopefully they'd accept that Scorpia was doing good, because... Scorpia was a hero, right? Like, that scorpion tower just SCREAMED hero, right?

And now it was Pulp Noir. Oh, great, the girl who slapped her and the boy who punched her. Today was just *stellar*.

Well, at least they didn't know who she was. So long as they didn't look too closely, it wasn't like she was the only person in town with long red and orange streaked hair who looked this good in a trenchcoat. Right?

Wait, no, humans only had mono-colored hair by default. BUCK!

"Okay, now, before it--"

And then the tower emitted a pulse of darkness and they'd *all* feel it. As people began to collapse. Hinoiri stumbled back, against Scorpia. She wasn't shielded from the drain, now. And that? Did not feel nice.

"G-go for the... the ruby third point... feel it, twist it s-seventy, no, sixty percent north. C-clockwise. Then... pull two... pull it two full hoof..." She trailed off, shaking her head. "Pull it until you feel the pressure on it, l-like a rubber band about to, to snap. Then... then turn it one full sapphire northward, c-clockwise, and shove it b-back in. T-that'll... b-bring down the drain, considerably. T-then we can... can work on the... the next part..."

Oh, this did not feel nice. Ugh. She was fine, though. She was going to be fine.

Scorpia has posed:
Scorpia looked alive, yes. Alive, with two swirling balls of energy between both pincers. She hurls them both at two separate Grimm, aiming for their chests in the hopes they would disintegrate with the electrifying impact.

She calls over her shoulder, "I'll keep them busy. Hurry love. I'd rather not fight them if we can avoid it." And she's turned back around to focus on the chaos around them. Her next few shots miss intentionally, not hitting the Grimm, the sparkles, or the partygoers. What use would it be to Ryoko and Hinoiri if she killed all of the Grimm too soon? She would do her part and keep them fighting.

The feel of a small body hitting her back has Scorpia whirling around and supporting a limp Hinoiri, panic on her face, "Hinoiri! What do I do? Are you ok? Do you need me to shock you to restart you? Or something?? EMBER! What's happening to her??" For all that the tall girl had heard, she'd not seen the effects of this kind of dark magic. Nor had she felt it. It was terrible and she needed it to stop.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Madoka frowns as she watches the three of them work on the tower. Youma appear en mass, looking like wolfmen. She was hoping, maybe, this time would be different. She hoped, as she always does, that anything that looks suspicious is just a misunderstanding. Sometimes she's right about this. Today, she's not.

    "Alright. If this is the way that it has to be..."

    A few Grimm approach her, and she immediately fires her arrows into the air, letting them rain down and plant themselves into the ground. If the monsters approach, the arrows explode around their feet. Her eyes glance towards the other festival-goers with concern. Defending herself is important, but... she needs to protect them too.

    Madoka hops and skips back, firing upon the wolves pursuing her. Once she's sure she has enough distance, she turns towards the youma going after other attendees and starts firing magical bolts to draw their attention.

    Fortunately, Hope Blossom does not actually have time to look too closely at Hinoiri's hair or the rest of her disguise. Nor is she close enough to really recognize her voice or her name being called out. Not with this many distractions in the way.

    Kamiko, meanwhile, is hiding among the plants and frowning grumpily at the energy draining tower. "Dummy!" she shouts, giving away her hiding place.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy is trying to see where things are happening and then there are BEOWOLVES. DOZENS OF THEM!

    At least they're big and easy to see!

    Amy's signature launcher is in her hands. "There's no need to fear, the allies of justice are here! Magical girl business, GET CLEAR!" she shouts to the civilians, and glances behind her as she takes aim at one of the beowolves. "HEY UGLY! What kind of monster are YOU? And where's your dark general! SUPER rude to not even introduce yourself, by the way!" she calls out. "Backblast clear!"

    And an explosive is launched at a grimm further from the festival-goers. <<"Who else is here? Anyone? Oh Madoka thank goodness!">> Amy calls out over telepathy, initially unsure who's here but glad to see friendly faces start showing up!

Koji Silvia has posed:
If this was a show, the camera goes wide, centering on Koji... and then slowly does an orbital shot in, moving past the Grimm as they begin to manifest in the main hall, coming in closer as it sweeps by and people begin to show signs of weakness, leaning on things, dropping things from their hands... closer in, it continues to spin and more grin are seen on the exterior of the view as they begin to fall and more and more Grimm can be seen, some looming , some crouching, some taking ominous steps forwards towards the room. The shot them sweeps in until it just gets to Koji's eyes... the shine passes off his glasses to reveal them.

    "Set Up."

    Just said as a whisper.

    << SET UP. >>

It pulls back on the battlefield and standing there in the center, hair and scarf blowing in an invisible breeze is Hanzo, the Device Kunai held in a reverse grip in his hand, rope trailing back on his wrist.

The snarls of the Grimm can be heard, some closer to the victims... some leaving claw-dents in the floor...

    "Let's work."

(Because this is RWBY - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBri4PiLHls )

A small magic circle appears over his other hand and he leaps high, spinning to shoot a triplet of blade-shaped Barrets into one of the closest, disrupting it's magic and causing it to fall apart. As he comes down, he lands on the back of one, that begins to buck and throw him, but his Device's blade goes into it's head to kill it before it can smash into anyone. A third is caught as he flips off and back, throwing the ring end of the blade and wrapping around it's neck, yanking it back before the kill, and sending a pulse of magic along it to shock it unconscious.

But the move lands him in the middle of a pack of six of them, and he just sets his eyes, and spins the ring back in, holding the Device at combat ready, "Not today. You're not getting him. You're not getting anyone."

    "BRING IT ON!"

Ryoko Gushiken has posed:
These grimm are not particularly durable. They do not have much in the way of armor plating, and they don't even really seem to be made out of matter at all. It's like they're solid shadows with bones on them. Hope Blossom's exploding arrows manage to dispell two of the six headed toward her and Pulp Noir, and Scorpia's energy balls take out two more. That leaves just two to chase Hope Blossom, both of which she manages to to take out before she turns her attention to distracting more of them with her magical bolts.

The Grimm Amy shouts at pauses it's rampage for just a moment to listen to her, and then as if in reply it roars, and then starts bounding toward her on hands and feet like a lumbering wolf. Her explosive hits its mark, demolishing another Grimm, leaving nothing but a cloud of dust.

The pack surrounding Hanzo all roar in unison, but they can't all attack him at once, and they know it. They're not completely mindless after all. Only half of them attack. One from behind and one from either side. The other three bound off after some other civilians. There's so many, and they aren't even running.

"It's the tower, Scorpia, it's expected," Ember calls out as she tries her best to follow Hinoiri's instructions. "What kind of magic is this even?" She asks in exasperated frustration as she tries to judge the pressure of the magical pull and then rotate a full sapphire northward and shove it back in. The directions made sense, except for how they made no sense. Whatever. She could do this again.

And then Hinoiri said two little words that had Ember turning around with rage in her eyes. "NEXT STEP?!" She gestures with her hands around them and says. "How many more steps are there?! We do not have time for steps." Then she looks around. "At least it's already getting energy."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara was... was not doing her best. She could see the girls working, though. Well. Not too many. And then... there was a portal. And she glanced through it as it opened. "Ah... buck..." she muttered.

And then the portal flickered for a moment. As Ember's efforts took hold... and then drain on her? Decreased considerably. And... in a weird way? The darkness the others felt? Seemed to dampen. People who had collapsed were starting to get up, confused by their momentary lapse.

"Y-yes, just one more bit. There's... a cloud. Grab the cloud. The one with the SMILY face..." Okay, THAT part made no sense. "Oh... uhhhhh... topaz. Smell... the yellow topaz. Reduce the acidity, t-then... increase it by north three clicks, then west, four. Then shatter the GREEN ruby. Remember. It had to be the *green* ruby. That... that'll do it."

Of course, they'd all likely start to feel it, too. As it started to tap into the leyline.

"W-with that last bit, w-when you use one of these towers, t-trigger the golden bow and... and it'll load that as the settings, okay? You're golden... oh energy drain is a donkey's kick to the side of the head... I think... Scorpia, was it? We... we can go now. I'd rather... be out of here before they finish doing the... fighty fight parts..."

Scorpia has posed:
Ember's words do nothing to assuage the blonde's fears, a deep crease forming between her brows as she watches her girlfriend continue to fiddle with the tower. All the while, Scorpia is holding Hinoiri's body weight in the crook of one arm, careful not to hurt her with her pincer.

She hurls a few more evasive balls of energy towards the general direction of the remaining Grimm, her gaze scanning the room to take stock of what the "sparkles" are doing and how they're faring.

A laugh escapes her at the instructions Ember is given and she dehenshins quickly, scooping Hinoiri up into her arms and nudging her girlfriend in the opposite direction of the fighting, "Yep. Time to go!"

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Kamiko floats out of her hiding place to berate Hinoiri. "What are you doing? Working with Obsidian again?! I thought you were better than this! I thought you were smarter! Dummy dummy dummy dummy dummy! Hey! Don't fall asleep while I'm yelling at you!"

    Hope Blossom, ever aware of her Chara even at a distance, shouts, "Kami-chan! Stay away from them!" But the goddess is her own fairy and makes her own choices. Nevermind the fact that she acts like a child.

    Hope furrows her brow, and quietly hopes that her little fairy doesn't get herself into trouble while she's here defending the public good. Hearing a telepathic callout, Madoka responds, <<I'm here, Amy-chan. Looks like they have another tower up, but I haven't seen it act like this before. They're doing something weird over there.>>

    The drain continues, and many civilians are on the ground now. The wolf monsters aren't super durable but they do take effort and focus. There's a flicker, and then the drain starts to weaken. It's not that Hope isn't aware of them, but these are a lot of wolves and she has to solve the immediate problem.

    She keeps up her usual pattern of shoot and hop back, shoot and hop back, until she runs out of room and one of the Grimm catches up to her. She then holds the branchbow at one end and then swings it like a baseball bat, exploding with pink energy upon impact.

    Kamiko looks back at the flickering portal. "What are you even doing, anyways?!"

Koji Silvia has posed:
Hanzo actually LETS the one coming in behind hit him, his hand swinging back and leaving a small magical circle sitting in the air as the others converge, releasing in a cacophony of light.

    << FLASHBANG. >>

    <<Hanzo, I need 30 seconds of speed boost, and point targetting for my next Boost Shield.>>

    << Affirmative, Master. SPEED BOOST. BOOST SHIELD. >>

Riding out the hit, the Grimm makes ready to ram him into a wall, and possibly through it, but Hanzo brings up his boots and points right between them with one finger, putting a Boost Shield right on the point of impact. Just before both strike, he shoves his heels out and stabs his Kunai into the Grimm, causing him to go rocketting off and away as his body takes on a white-blue blur effect. Rolling and landing, he almost falls forward because it takes a moment to adapt to not just the energy being used but also how the world is running at a different pace.

Pointing his open palm out towards a leaping lupine monster that is going to hit a collapsed family, A magical circle appears and vanishes quickly and another one of those little shields appears between them and the Grimm. This isn't one of the defensive ones, it's the same as before, and when the beast runs into it, it ends up being shot upwards like an uppercut and slams into the ceiling, turning to dust.

The move costs him though as one of the remaining ones clears it's head, bites down on his scarf, and throws him across the room, almost towards Amy!

Tucking and turning out of it, his Device is somehow on his wrist, and both hands have circles, <<Stun Blades, spread fire.>>

    << DISRUPTOR SHOCK. >>

He sweeps his arms out like he's throwing, and 6 more blue-white knives fly out in a cone formation to strike more Grimm, hitting the two he already disoriented once, the two about to get people, and one more that was sneaking around to hit a victim. His sixth misses, but only by nature of the fact that the Grimm beast sees it coming and leaps up and out of the way.

Not even stopping to consider, he just peels right on to the next target, launching from a back-flip up and over to land on one of the ones close by Puella Amy, and just plants a hand on it, sending blue-lines like circuits through it and just causing it to... fall apart, "Amy, behind you, five targets, all easy. Be accurate, there's civilians on the ground. I'll cover."

Easily said, harder to do when he gets bodied by another ambusher and slammed into a wall before he can react or recover.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    A grimm roars. Amy blows it away, but another is rushing her down. "Tch..."

    From above, one could see the masked black shape rushing the small girl in the white cloak. She levels her launcher at it-- and then sees the three grimm running in other directions, chasing civilians. She takes her eyes off the one charging her. "HEY!"

    and

    the grimm

    is on top of where she was a split-second ago, the girl in red-and-white having already rocket-jumped to soar over the battle. "I TOLD YOU TO RUN!" she shouts to the civilians, cloak billowing as she aims downward and fires explosives down at one, two of the three before she lands.

    The tower and the people clustered around it did not escape her notice. Amy gets up from the crouch she landed in, turning towards the assembled Obsidianites, "What is it this time?! What are you-- HEY!"

    And she whips around to take aim at one of the other grimm going after civilians. "Your opponent is ME!"

Ryoko Gushiken has posed:
Ember had been paying attention. She had learned. If she wanted the Grimm to be an effective distraction she had to bring enough. And this time she brought just enough. She could hear the fighting as she tried to follow the rest of Hinoiri's instructions.

She grabbed the cloud and...smelled...it. It did smell pretty acidic. How was she supposed to reduce the acidity though? She was about to ask when she could sense it changing. Magic. It was never simple. Three clicks north, four clicks, west, and then she shattered the green ruby.

The tower hummed as it started to draw the energy from the leylines, and just moments after Scorpia dehenshined and nudged Ember, the tower made a pinging sound. It had found what it was looking for.

"Time for you two to go, yes," Ember said, looking to Sarah. "Get her home safely. I'm taking a different route." She reached back into her holster and pulled out another little hockey-puck sized device. She pressed a button on it to activate, and then tossed it into the air as high as she could. She's got a good arm, so when it explodes into a Nevermore which lets out an ear-shattering shriek, it's at least up in the air.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara glanced over at Kamiko and blinked, before sighing. "I can explain later," she mumbled, adjusting her glasses. "But believe it or not, Obsidian will *not* be happy about this if they find out. So please keep it down," Hinoiri hissed. "I'm doing what I can to *reduce* the damage from my creations, okay?"

There, she had it all sorted and-- "Wait, why did you dehenshin? There are still mon-- EEEK!" Annnnnd then she was grabbed, picked up. How? How was she able to carry her so easily? EEEEEK! A little flail! "U-usually when you carry someone off you do it in henshin so you can outrun the monsters!" And then... she reached up, holding her fedora down further on her head, no, her identity MUST stay hidden!

Scorpia has posed:
Laughing at Hinoiri's reactions, Sarah rushes up to Ember and grasps the back of her neck. Forehead to forehead for just a moment. Just long enough for her to murmur a soft, "Be safe, my love."

And she's released her and begins to dash away. She was not in her henshin, true. But she was still every part of the warrior she was back home. Besides, the Grimm were more than distracted by the others.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Kamiko squints at Hinoiri with a frown, then pauses for a moment, and finally sighs. "Fine. I'll trust you, but if you go evil again then you're getting the rainbow zap." Then, sensing that the Mystery Three want to leave she... begrudgingly... actually bends space a little bit to make Scorpio and Hinoiri's escape a little bit faster. Then she dips through a portal to her own Labyrinth and leaves before the scaries can get her.

    Hope Blossom, meanwhile, is continuing to harry and pick off Grimms. First the ones pressuring her, then the ones going after civilians, and then the ones going after her friends and allies. She is, after all, best at fire support in this henshin which often means whittling foes down with a death by a thousand cuts.

    She doesn't see the puck that the Nevermore comes from, but when she hears its cry her head turns towards it in an instant. "So, that one's the boss today, right?" She nocks back an arrow and holds it, letting the arrow grow as magic gathers. The top of her bow ignites in pink flames as she loudly intones, "CHERRY... BLOSSOM..."

    The arrow is released, not as a spread of fire, but as a single powerful missile of bright pink magic. As it reaches the Nevermore, she shouts, "... BLAZE!" as the arrow explodes near the dark creature, filling the air with a flash of destructive pink power.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy, behind you, five targets, all easy. Be accurate, there's civilians on the ground. I'll cover.

    Amy starts to turn-- wait no, there's the one in front of her -- tch, it's close, dare she use explosives? Whatever, she'll fire a tiny (well, 84mm-ish) cannonball instead and smash it! It's magic, the round will dissipate if it overpenetrates.

                                     Boom!                                      

    Behind her the backblast looks like a scaled-up muzzle flash, over in an instant, and she glances backwards as she fires... just an explosion, that goes off immediately in front of her, that flings backwards towards the closest of the five!

    Using the weapon as a counterweight, she twists in midair to right herself, unsummoning, adjusting her limbs' position, and resummoning it in clouds of pink sparkles in a split second as she hits the grimm from behind and slams the muzzle of her launcher into its side.

                                     BOOM!                                      

    Simultaneously an attack and movement tech, rocket-jumping sideways towards the next one. Adjust position again.

    Amy desummons, lifts her arms over her head, resummons, brings it down on the grimm's upper back just as she's flying over it and

                                     BOOM!                                      

    Horizontal momentum maintained, vertical added as the explosion flings her upwards, now she arcs over the next beowolf, firing another solid cannonball down at its back--

                                     BOOM!                                      

    --and comes down to land on top of another that's in the middle of roaring in the faces of scared civilians. "I'm here!" she brings the launcher down on it and fires another solid ball point-blank!

                                     BOOM!                                      

    The impact should be enough to kill it, this time not launching Amy as she drops to the ground when it disintigrates under her or whatever grimms do, while the civilians stare at the grinning redhead in amazement.

    The camera circle-pans around her to show the last beowolf Koji called out in the distance behind her, terrorizing more civilians right before Koji's or Madoka's attacks bring it down.

    ...And then there's a Nevermore.

    "What the heck IS this?!" Amy shouts up at it, weapon dismissed so she can throw her arms out to her sides. "What are these monsters?!"

    "Get clear!" she motions for the civilians near her to run and takes aim upward, firing a homing missile to aid Madoka's attack with another explosion of destructive... explosion power!

    "The raven may say never more, but I say... uh... I'm SAM-I-am, like... surface to air missile?" She stamps her foot, "Dammit, I messed it up..."

    Beat.

    Then she remembers the tower and looks back over that way. "Wait, what were they doing?!"

Koji Silvia has posed:
Pinned to the wall, Koji just jams the kunai-Device into the Grimm where he can, and energy pours into it...

    << STRIKE BLADE. >>

    << STRIKE BLADE. >>

    << STRIKE BLADE. >>

And on the third one, it finally gives up and falls to ash, causing Hanzo to fall to the ground panting. From his spot, he pushes himself to standing slowly, and says towards the flying Puella, "There's no name for them... at least not one I know. They're... ngh... summoned creatures from another place. Not sure where. But they always appear in large groups, usually to terrorize and steal energy from people. Whoever is behind them... I've never seen face to face, but they act like they're directed. It's why I stay on patrol and on the ground so much... I've been trying to find this person..."

Holding his side as he looks up, Hanzo channels some healing into himself to help with the feeling of the bruised rib, and in time he sees Madoka's pink shot lancing towards the giant raven, "Well that's new..."

Ryoko Gushiken has posed:
Ember is pulled into an intimate moment with Sarah, in which the blonde murmurs some sweet words. Hopefully soft enough that nobody overheard. They were going to be having a conversation about operational security when she got back to their dorm room. Or everyone was going to know who Ember was.

It was only a matter of time. She knew it. Sarah was so bad at secrets. She loved her. Sigh.

Then all of the sudden they were magically farther away. Ember turned to the little fairy goddess and just gave a nod of thank you. Then she turned toward the tower to press the button to make it go back into compact mode so the bird could carry them away.

When Hope Blossom exploded the bird. "AUUUUUGHHHHHHH!" Ember screamed, her eyes practically blazing with her rage. Those birds were so good in theory and so bad in practice in this city full of overpowered do-gooders. Now she was going to lose another tower and Eudial was going to be furious.

Well, at least she got the data. Maybe she wouldn't be. Ember turned to the tower and reached up to yank out the data stick with the ping results. It was the only component that had to be retrieved for the operation to be a success. At least, that was her opinion. Eudial would probably still be mad.

"Whatever," she said, and then raised her voice. "I didn't even want to fly away from here anyway. You can just destroy the tower for all I care. I got what I came for." Then she turned and started to run the other way as fast as she could.

She really needed to learn to duskport.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara had managed to avoid revealing her identity... mostly. And the only one who knew she was there? Kamiko. Well, that just meant she'd need to silence a little birdy later... Likely with a little mini ice cream, possibly a tiny coke and half a bag of M&M minis.

But bribery worked well.

That and she hadn't... really... done anything wrong this time. She'd managed to get the towers setup to hurt less people.

Also, Ember had it *so* bad, it was almost cute. A bit amusing. Adorable, even. She was *so* going to give her shit about it later. Also, maybe tell her to teach her girlfriend not to dehenshin until OUT of sight! GAH!

... But for now? She was just going to be princess carried, apparently. "You are *really* strong," Hinoiri finally said.

... Was... was this hot?

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Kamiko, fortunately, only barely remembers Sarah Point from somewhere, and doesn't know Ryoko at all, so she's not going to put two and two together this time. That doesn't mean they aren't being careless, though.

    Hope Blossom pumps a fist in the air and cheers as the Nevermore is defeated, and then turns her attention towards the tower. "Those things are usually a pain to get rid of so... I hope this works. Kamiko-chan, swap with me!"

    Kamiko appears next to her as Hope Blossom shouts, "My Heart: UNLOCK!" and with a flash of light she turns into Hope Concept.

    This time, there's very little weirdness. Her hair seems to still be ridiculously wrong, but she's not trying to reach into the mind of a Witch. Instead, she's just trying to pour out a lot of purifying power, which requires that she manifest herself very strongly. She's glowing with a faint pearlescent light as she makes a heart shape with her hands over her Humpty Lock.

    "Negative Heart: LOCK ON!"

    She thrusts her hands forward, and a beam of heart-shaped outlines fires out and attacks the tower.

    "OPEN HEART!"

    She yells, and an impossibly bright light fires from the Locket, using Madoka's power to attack the tower itself.

    It probably says a lot about how much of an impression these towers have made on her that she's not even convinced that this would be enough to destroy it. At least it's not blocking her powers this time.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    They ran away!

    And there's the tower. Amy recalls they're not easy to destroy... she dismisses her missile launcher, helping the nearby civilians to their feet and urging them to move along before approaching Hope Concept to watch, curiously.

Koji Silvia has posed:
With the bulk of the Grimm gone or quickly being taken care of, and Hope Concept coming out to well-wish that... whatever it is... into pink sparkly dust, Hanzo wipes the dust off his Barrier Jacket and goes over to a clear spot.

Holding up one hand, he generates a magic circle about as tall as his own body and for a few moments there are little motes of light being pulled into it. A second circle appears over it with three at triangle-points inside that begin to spin. 'Aiming' downrange towards the Tower, he exhales deeply and just says, "You two get out of here when this is over... I... I have to go take care of something here."

    << DISRUPTOR CANNON. >>

     The air goes ozone right near the edge of the circle and anyone close by can feel all the hairs on their arms and neck stand up just before a blue-white light lances out at the tower, bathing it in disruptive magical energy, letting Concept's Open Heart get it's work done.

Ryoko Gushiken has posed:
As a villain in Tokyo, the only way Ember ever finds any job satisfaction is in enjoying victories even when they're pyrrhic. It's still a victory. She still go the data. That means she won. Who cares that she's running away like a loser? Not her! Nope! She doesn't care at all. Nuh-uh.

The best part about writing off the tower is it means she doesn't have to move it. It's not her problem any more. She has faith in the sparkles to clean up after her mess. They did such a good job with all the grimm, just like she knew they would. A little too good. She didn't want them to destroy her ride. She was never going to get to fly away in this city full of anti-aircraft magical girls.

She didn't even pause to watch as Hanzo's Disruptor Cannon and Hope Concept's Open Heart utterly disintegrated the tower. But she winced at that moment all the same. She knew she was in for it when she got back to the office. Well, that was a problem for a future Ember. This Ember was leaving. She was gone.

She lost the tower, but the operation was a success. She even did less harm. Technically. With the help of all the sparkles. It almost felt good, the power of friendship. Maybe that would carry her through the tongue lashings to come.