2319/One Way Or Another

One Way Or Another
Date of Scene:	13 February 2025
Location:	Mitakihara Ward
Synopsis:	Mimete and Taiyan versus Haruka Tenoh-- and then versus Amy Faust, Bow Stronginthearm, Chrono Harlaown, Sailor Pluto, and SAILOR URANUS! They make her cry and run away.
Cast of Characters:	Mamoru Chiba, Haruka Tenoh, Bow, Setsuna Meiou, Chrono Harlaown, Amanda Faust

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Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mimete's not been having a great time of it. Every single one of her targets has gotten their heart crystals back and gotten away with them.

It can't be her choice of targets-- but with how badly the Bow situation went, she's pretty sure he was a bad choice of target because why would ANY of these kids go anywhere without a squad after that bullshit with Viluy and the one kid who died or something? So: No more pretty boys who are sparkle-adjacent, even if they're the most likely to have that resonance they're looking for.

She'd caught wind of a race upcoming, and discovered on the webpage that some of the star racers were very, very good-looking, and likely to have strong pure hearts dedicated to their calling, of course. This time she would absolutely get away with one, hee hee hee. Especially with her backup plan.

At the moment, Mimete is a perfectly innocent and wonderfully stylish girl-- short, with wisps of wavy ginger hair escaping her red headscarf and large round sunglasses obscuring her identity. Ish. Her bright yellow frock coat and cute black strappy heels are cute as hell.

She's sitting on a metal suitcase or box or something, on the curb, dreamily watching one team of the pit crew for the upcoming race as they discuss turns and angles and physics and crowd placement and safety zones...

On her back is some kind of instrument in a black bag, and she finally fidgets and stands up, picking up her metal box, and she trots across the street while taking an autograph book out of her pocket.

"Excuse me," she says politely to the prettiest boy there, and the moment Haruka looks, she's pressing forward with her notebook, on tiptoes, getting in Haruka's space. "Please may I have your autograph? I can tell you'd be famous--!"

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
Haruka Tenoh is in a crew jumpsuit - which honestly is visually similar to a racing jumpsuit. But she's not here as a racer; she'll be taking over for the 'official' racer once helmets are on like she always does. No, officially Haruka Tenoh is just a crewmember, and very few people know she's a racer. She is here looking at the track and putting some time in the garage to keep that aspect up.

    But she's got a wrench in her hand and if she was anyone else there'd be a little bit of grease on her, but being Haruka, somehow despite having rolled out from under a car moments earlier, she doesn't look that part at all.

    "Eh?" she says when the woman says excuse me. And then she asks for her autograph and Haruka's eyes go wide like a deer caught in the headlights. "F-famous?" the handosme 'boy' stammers. "No, I'm not famous. I'm just crew!" she says quickly. "I don't drive or anything, you must have me confused with someone else!" She says. Because it would be super-illegal for her to drive at all in Japan, much less race. And there's no way the handsome boy standing there is actually the stand in for a racer, nopenopenever.

    "I mean yeah one day I'll probably be the best racer in Japan - no, in the world! So of course..." She debates it for a moment and still takes the pen from her and signs the pad anyways. And gives her a wink. "You'll always cheer for me, once I do start, won't you?" Because how could that go wrong? 'Haruka <3' the autograph reads in romaji.

Bow has posed:
It is totally Mimete's fault for picking on Bow when he was on a DATE with Makoto and Mamoru and Usagi co-opted to go skating. And on top of that, do you know how long it's been since .... well, it's not proper to discuss how long it's been since someone's had a date, so we're not. But that's not here or there. Here, it's race day!

And honestly, Bow has been wanting to get a closer look at the horseless chariots, and the fact that race cars are very very fast... well, he has an unrealized need for speed. As he's looking over an engine that has been removed from an engine, he's got a notepad out and he's drawing pictures and snapping shots with his camera. "Oooooh. So the piston strikes, ignites the fuel and that creates thrust... I see." More notes are taken.

He should have brought Entrapta with him, she would have eaten this up. But also knowing her, she'd had ended up in one of the cars as a driver. Or comepletely taking one apart and leaving it spread out in all the various pieces.

And then there would be a souped up Emily zooming down the HVAC system of Radiant Heart.

He glances over as he notices Haruka, who he's met in passing now and again, but never more than a fleeting sparkle-adjacent type of relationship.

...but why does the girl asking for an autograph look familiar?

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
While racing was never much explicitly Setsuna's thing to watch...with Haruka Tenoh as her roommate, getting dragged into appreciating the sport at least casually was basically inevitable.

Thus it is that she finds herself in one of the better stands along the race route settling in to watch the race...because she's in the know about who's REALLY going to be driving Haruka's team's car.

Refreshments have been procured and a large insulated bag has been bought...that's actually more or less empty at the moment, as she's just using it as a cover for her dimensional pocket, where's it's FAR easier to keep hot things hot and cold things cold and not have to worry about spills or messes.

Just reach into the bag, pretend to rummage around a little and you can pull out whatever you like within reason and nobody will question it.

Thus, she reaches into the bag and retrieves a bottle of soda before looking over at those that came with her and offers them one as well, "Ramune?"

Chrono Harlaown has posed:
"I'll take one," Chrono Harlaown said. He'd, in a strange twist, not been asked to come... but had ASKED to come. He was... well... he wasn't...

He'd been slightly strange as of late. It wasn't right to call it 'clingy'. Perhaps 'protective'. The loss of Molly had hit him hard and while he kept his mask on well, those who knew him best likely have realized he isn't entirely the same as he usually was.

He'd been quieter, his smile a bit more forced...

Unfortunately, there was something else on his mind than just Molly. His mother had started mentioning hanging out with this... interesting... donut vendor. And Chrono was resisting the urge to interrogate the guy. So, you know what? Watching Haruka race would be interesting. A good use of his time, better than just thinking about his own recent failures as a protector, TSAB agent and Enforcer. Much better.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Racing was never Amy's thing either. Well. She does like going fast. And mascot racing videogames and such. But she never got into, like. Realistic car racing.

    Still, coming to see Haruka race sounds cool! And so she is frantically reviewing basic information about racing on her phone. So that she won't be thinking about how much Molly was into racing. When Setsuna offers soda she looks up from her phone with a smile. "Me, too!"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
It's actually also cute how the girl in the big sunglasses blushes, A LOT, when Haruka signs her book with a heart. "I-I'll remember this day for the rest of my life!" she stammers a little bit, eyes wide--

--and then she takes a half step back and takes her sunglasses off, and for a half-second her pupils are black stars in her red irises. Then she takes the rest of the step back and rips off her disguise, throwing it in the air!

Bow was absolutely right to be suspicious: underneath the coat and scarf and sunglasses is a very recognisable young woman wearing a floofy yellow skirt and stockings, with a black overskirt that connects to her black bodice, a thing of cutouts and star shapes. On her forehead is a three-pronged jeweled tiara. She still has the instrument in a case on her back.

"I am Mimete, level 40 witch of the Witches <s>5</s> 3!" she crows, kicking her metal box back violently and knocking it open. There's a plume of roiling pink smoke which clears to show... a, a purple youma that's got a tire inserted in its midsection! And a headlight on one breast. And spiky pink hair.

It says in self-satisfaction, "Taiyan!!" and makes an engine vroom sound while spinning the wheel in her abdomen. And then the youma lunges forward, tire spinning, to grab Haruka by the lapels and lift her off the ground, leaaaaning in for a kiss.

"AND SO WILL YOU, my beautiful Haruka! You would have been the best racer in the world!!! Your heart must be so pure~" Mimete is holding her hands to her chest, still hugging the notepad and also her witch's staff, but then she puts the notepad in her bodice somehow. "And you're the prettiest boy I've ever seen," she coos.

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
    Haruka has noticved how many friends she has here and it's heartened her a little bit, but none of them asked for her autograph. Yet. Maybe. And then suddenly...

    what. the. hell.

    And then Haruka's being yoinked up - five seconds ago things made sense. That was five seconds ago, this is now, when an anthromorphic tire-lady is trying to kiss her.

    "NO KISSING MICHIRU GETS MAD IF IT GETS TO KISSING" is how Haruka's brain chooses to process (or really, not to process) this and she unloads it as a run on sentance all out in one moment. "ALSO YOU'RE SO NOT MY TYPE PURPLE TIRE LADY."

    Haruka starts kicking at the youma with her legs, but she's out of henshin for the moment, and will probably need some support if she hopes to get free before she gets the kiss of soul-extraction doom. In the back of her mind, perhaps, she knows she has enough friends here she's going to be okay. But the more loud and aware part of her is just trying to kick the hell out of the youma despite being off the gorund.

Bow has posed:
Bow, sadly, had his back to Mimete when she sniped him, so he didn't really get a good look at the girl before his heart was a crystal skittling all over the ice like a wayward hockey puck. But when Mimete speaks up?

Nails on chalkboard level reaction. A shiver goes through Bow's whole body, from toe-tips to top of head. That voice he knows. It was the last voice he heard before...

"By Brightmoon, can't you use Kindling, like a normal person?!" There's a grunt as he looks around, and as he runs from the scene, he dives into the back of a container van. One henshin change later, Bow the Etherian Archer, who is not in fact Bow the Radiant Heart student, is popping out of the back of it, tossing aside a plush bear that had gotten stuck on his shoulder. But... but... "WHEELIE ABDOMEN? REALLY??"

"I don't think you're street legal!" he calls out to Taiyan as he reaches into his quiver. "Bolo-arrow!" As the arrow appears, he grabs it, as two large balls swinging down from the front of it. Drawing it back, he raises it, before firing away to send it flying to try to wrap around the youma's chest - and clock her in the head with the pair of balls.

"We'll save you, Haruka!" he calls out in encouragement.

Chrono Harlaown has posed:
Chrono Harlaown sadly, couldn't hide his identity. Fortunately, it did mean when there was danger, he was able to flick his wrist and make the card appear in hand, before he leaped off the stands, henshining in mid air.

And taking off right at them and... His first instinct was to go after Mimete. She was part of the team with that one woman, wasn't she?

But oh. He *felt* Haruka's pain right then. He *knew* it, so well. And as they say... Sisters before Witches. He'd rush at them, lining up and...

            <<Impact Cannon!>>

Attempt to launch an attack on the youma that was designed not to damage, but more... well... Get her *off* Haruka and send her away a good twenty... thirty... forty... feet away. Like getting hit by a cannon ball of knockback.

"Please, do not interfere in the work of professionals." Assuming it worked, and Haruka was free? "Please seek cover," he'd tell her. 'Seek cover and henshin, before more things appear to make us tired.'

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
The stands Setsuna and Co. are in aren't TOO far from the pits...but they're far enough away that words can't really be heard. Not over the murmur of the crowd and the ambient noise from the various pit crews working on the high-end engines.

Still, as Setsuna hands a bottle over to Amy and Chrono, she looks down at the pit and takes note of the distinctive bob of dishwater blonde hair being interrogated by someone acting like a fan...which gets a bink from Setsuna, but then she covers her mouth to hide a giggle before elbowing Chrono and nodding towards Haruka being confused over how to deal with a fan.

When said fan a moment later pulls a Youma out of her suitcase and does a dramatic clothing swap to reveal herself as one of the Witches...however many are left?

That gets a quick blink, then she frowns, "Heads up...youma in the pits. Game faces on and let's take them down."

At which point Setsuna takes advantage of the fact that the stands are temporary structures to slip between the seating and drop into the void space beneath before reaching up, grabbing her henshin pen and intoning, "PLUTO PLANET POWER, MAKE-UP!"

Fortunately for her, her henshin has a fairly small footprint, as she spins around in place, a sudden wind whipping up to conceal her before parting to reveal Sailor Pluto...who then runs out the back side of the stands before leaping up to land on the top set of the stands.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    'Level 40?' Amy mouths. But she's ducking down to transform, then leaping closer as she's not sure she can avoid hitting Haruka if she attacks the monster from back there. "He's right!" She chimes in after Bow says Taiyan isn't street legal, and comes down from a mahou superjump swinging her rocket launcher to bring it down on the youma's head. "What does level 40 even mean? You're making that up!"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
The youma does not seem at all perturbed by the yelling, but continues to try and suck Haruka's heart crystal out until she starts kicking, at which point Taiyan says, "Ow! Ow, ow! Ow!" and jerks her head back, scowling.

"What do you think you're doing?! You're a daimon!" screeches Mimete at her own daimon. "It's just some boy kicking you--"

And then Taiyan gets bolo-arrowed and while she's still trying to figure out what's going on, she gets konked twice in the head by magical arrow balls. This means she's confused and drops Haruka to wriggle out of the bolo strings-- but then she gets slammed in the chest and there's a crack in her headlight and she gets sent scraping across the asphalt until she manages to tip herself over and get the wheel on the ground instead of her rear end. That just means there's less resistance, and she does end up a good 40 feet away, with Amy about to KABONG her with a rocket launcher.

That just means that Mimete gestures broadly with her staff, and black sparkles trail after it, and Taiyan...

...splits.

Into two. Two wheels, each with Taiyan's pointy-eared huge-fanged pink-haired red-eyed head on them, and unfairly, when they roll, their faces stay pointed in front of them instead of rolling over their own faces again and again. And they roll fast.

One of them starts chasing toward Haruka again, and the other bounces up and spins through the air to try and bonk her right back.

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
    Unlike so many others, Haruka has been a little too in-the-fight to henshin, and she sure as hell doesn't want the Black Murder Clan to know her senshi identity, and even less catch hell from Setsuna for revealing it with other people here already fighting.

    So henshining is out, as she scrambled to her feet after being dropped by Taiyan.

    She rises to her feet and yells out "Thanks for the save everyone!" Then, she picks up a wrench off the ground, but by the time she turns around, instead of a lady-shaped tire monster, there are revving spinning tires with youma heads. She looks at the wrench like it betrayed her.

    And then she just throws the damn thing at the tire-head monster that starts chasing her. "Oh what the hell is up with today!" she yells. And then she takes off, track star running speed in action, throwing other things behind her as she runs down an alley, knocking anything she can down to hopefully slow the thing down.

    Maybe she'll be lucky and there will be nails or broken glass in something, but failing that, she's just hoping she doesn't end up like the helpless person in an action movie running into a random fence in the alleyway. Or at least not before she can get enough distance to henshin.

Bow has posed:
When his first attack is effective, Bow gives a little fist-pump of victory. Haruka is dropped - but he's not really in a position to go rushing in and trying to catch her. But there seems to be more than enough support that it only would be a matter of time before someone catches her? Mainly because there's a whole new problem - well, two new problems. "You're still short for a four-wheel drive!" he calls out in a taunt, clearly working on drawing the aggro of Taiyan.

It's a role he's familiar with from back home. Draw attention, let the heavy hitters get in for an attack. Not that he can't do the same. Attack, that is.

There's no call out this time, instead he just draws a very sharp, normal arrow from his quiver. Leaping up onto one of the car's hoods, he draws back the arrow and aims. "You're looking a little tired..." Bow calls out to Taiyan-2, as he gets a bead, feels the wind and releases a shot aimed directly at that wonderfully large tired in the middle of her abs. "...don't run flat, now!" he adds after he fires, readying to draw another arrow.

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
As has often been the case in the battles she's been in, Sailor Pluto finds herself rather at the back of the pack, with several people closer to the badguys than her.

Which suits her just fine...as between the distance and the fact that the verbal component of her primary attack is so quiet as to be basically inaudible beyond a few meters means that when she throws an attack, it can often be very nearly a stealth shot.

Thus, she spins around in place before leveling the Garnet Rod at the wheeled menace that's chasing Haruka and leading it a little as she whispers,

                    "...Dead Scream."

And with a final correction to try to properly lead the split half of the youma/daimon/cardian/droid/whateverthismonsteroftheweekiscalled, she sends a purple ball of Death energy screaming at it.

Chrono Harlaown has posed:
Chrono Harlaown has, admittedly, the same thoughts that Bow has. Namely, drawing attention. While Bow was focused on the second one, he focused on the one chasing Haruka. He stepped back and moved away, lifting his rod up.

To the unobservant, it might look like he didn't do anything.

To the more observant, they'd know that mister TSAB had just laid down a metric *planet load* of binds... And as the youma rolled after Haruka, it would find itself triggering them. As the ground underneath its wheels turned to ice.

Then ice.

Then ice.

And if it kept going, the last, biggest bind he'd laid in its path? Spiked ice. Yes. He had absolutely *no* desire to not pop those tires.

He moved back, moving near Bow as he focused on the one chasing the 'civilian'. "Please accept that sharp weather changes may make pursuit of uninterested parties difficult. If you would like to make an objection, please feel free and I would be happy to place you under TSAB imprisonment in a temperature controlled bind."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "HYAAAAA!" Amy shouts as she comes down from her leap and starts to swing the launcher over her head.

    After someone's made a jump is a great time to attack them, honestly, and Amy wasn't ready to redirect her flight -- so the wheel smacks right into her and throws her back into the stands with a crash! Fortunately she's mahou so that probably didn't break any bones, but it surely smarts.

    Still on her back and wincing, Amy lifts up one hand holding a gyrojet pistol and sends several rocket-propelled-homing-bullets at the wheel that attacked her -- is it too much to hope that they'll deflate a tire? (Probably!)

    "How does that even WORK?! The face doesn't move? How do you like... jump?! I have a lot of questions about magic! Are you Tai or Yan?!"

    She's not just ranting, as she hopes maybe the youma will get distracted thinking about any of these questions, and she ponders trying to conjure and hrow Haruka an extra pistol, but... she daren't do that without checking that she's trained in their use! And in Japan she's probably not.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
There is in fact broken glass in among all the other stuff that Haruka chucks behind her, and the wheel that's chasing her makes an extremely dismayed little deflating sound as she rolls to a stop and flops over.

She lets Haruka get away as she starts sucking in air and making constipated faces to reinflate herself, which is working, but a bit too slowly.

Mimete herself starts chasing after the tire a couple of seconds after it disappears down the alley, and she stops, considering, frowning. And then she whips her staff around to face the others and yells out, "CHAAAAARM BUSTAAAAA!" and a jagged rush of crackling yellow-at-the-edges dark energy shoots forth, right toward Setsuna in the stands. "Taiyan! Just fight them!"

Meanwhile, the two halves of Taiyan are having a really bad time of it: the one that had been chasing Haruka down that alley, which had flopped over? It finishes reinflating itself!!! And hurls itself back upright, huffs, and REVS, and starts after Haruka again--!

But Haruka has vanished. But it still has to get back to Mimete and fight everyone else!! So it revs again, does a 180, and vrooms right back out of the alley, headed right into a lot of ice. Oh does it slip, oh does it slide. Oh does it regret everything. It slips while trying to bump off something and skids on asphalt before hitting the ice spikes--and then it turns around and makes a scary scary face and RACES toward the two of them, Bow and Chrono, and whizzes by on Chrono's side, then gets toasted by Dead Scream in a big billowing puff of the smell of burnt tire and the concept of death.

MEANWHILE the other tire, Amy's tire, cackles after it bonks her into the stands. But then she's firing rockets at it and it yells "YIKES!" and spins the other way. "TAIYAN!" it also answers. And then it starts rolling directly at Bow and Chrono! And then Bow shoots it and it hits dead on and the tire bounces off the ground a couple of times as it tries to roll over the arrow as it slowly deflates, and then it bounces past Bow just as the other one is bouncing past Chrono--

--and Mimete starts laughing hysterically as the two boys have MAGIC GLOWING HANDCUFFS now attaching their wrists.

Once the tire's landed next to the one getting hit by Dead Scream, Amy's rockets hit the pile, and a rain of vulcanized rubber ash drifts down serenely thereafter.

Mimete is absolutely shocked and starts hoofing it away on foot.

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
    Haruka Tenoh had never in her life been so glad to hear the sound of a deflating tire. And probably, hopefully, would never again. But it does mean that the track star of Radiant Heart Academy is able to get a lot of distance, enough that she's gone.

    Enough that she's able to draw her pen out and henshin!

    And quite shortly thereafter, she's back, standing on the edge of a building.

    "How dare you attack a handsome person who's only crime is harmless flirting!" Sailor Uranus calls. "That, and defiling the internationally loved sport of racing with your stupid youma, is why I, Sailor Uranus, will punish y-."

    And she looks down and there's a pile of burning dead rubber where the youma? youmas? used to be. Well. "Wow, you got punished so fast I didn't even finish my speech." she says. "Well, the youma did, anyways..." she says as her eyes rotate over to where Mimette is.

    "HEY WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING?" she asks, jumping down from the rooftop and chasing after Mimette. And drawing her blade from nospace as she does so. She wonders if it has a stun setting. Or if she cares if it does. It's magic. She'll probably survive. But for now, Sailor Uranus is absolutely chasing Mimette with a gleaming magic sword. "I promise you I run faster in heels than you do even in sneakers, might as well just stop now before I get more annoyed when I catch you!"

Bow has posed:
Are things suddenly a little chilly out here? No, that's just Chrono. As the arrow strikes the target, Bow was about to prepare another one to fire when suddenly, there's a little boy standing next to him. Concern immediately flashes on his face. "Where's your mom? This area's dangerous!" And before Bow can say another word - there's more ice, and Chrono is quoting regulations and that he's with the TSAB and who he can file a complaint with.

Bow lifts a finger, eyes wide for a moment. But as Chrono continues? That finger goes limp, and those eyes go dead and flat.

"Oh. You're Rashmi's boyfriend. Shroter than imagnined." he deadpans.

"I work with her. I'm sure I'll hear about it later."

But before there's anymore conversation about who Chrono is, or Rashmi, or exchange recipes... he's suddenly... handcuffed.

To Chrono.

Worst day ever. There's a pull on the handcuff, inevitably pulling at Chrono as he lifts it. "This isn't funny!"

Chrono Harlaown has posed:
Chrono Harlaown blinked. Blinked a few more times. Blinked. Glanced back at Bow. Blinked. "We... we've met. We've gone camping together. I... I have a rather... I'm in an enforcer's uniform. I--"

And then he was cuffed. He sighed. "Okay, don't--" And, too late. He yelped as Bow just yanked him up,, his arm going up and trying to tug it back down. "I am Chrono Harlaown, an enforcer of the Time Space Administrative Bureau. I'm an experienced mage and I am more than capable of handling myself."

He... he didn't look THAT different, did he? He'd gotten a bit taller but...

But the spikes. He had SPIKES. How could he be forgotten?

"We need to focus on apprehending the... criminal and... and did you *really* forget me or is that just a short joke?"

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Seeing Mimete running towards where Haruka went, Sailor Pluto smirks and spins around for a second attack. This time on the witch behind it all.

Once more, her attack is whispered:

                "...Dead Scream."

But this time, in that short moment between when she ends her spin and aims and the moment the attack fires off her staff, Mimete's Charm Buster goes screaming at Pluto, causing the tall Senshi to dive out of the way and her Dead Scream to get flung straight up into the air.

After a few moments, she manages to clamber to her feet, looking a bit scuffed from a rough landing on the metal stands.

As she straightens up, she glances up in time to see her Dead Scream about to land nearly on top of her...and she instictively reaches up to catch it.

Which leads to her standing there with large glowing ball of purple energy in hand.

At which point Sailor Uranus makes her entrance and starts chasing after Mimete.

Pluto looks back down at her hand, up to the fleeing Mimete, judges the angles and realizes that what would work fantastic to help Uranus would be for a great big distraction for the bad guy. She's not QUITE sure she can cut the chord fast enough...but with a little bit of loud, she might make Mimete look her way and thus set her up for Haruka.

Also, she's internally giggling her head off at what she's about to do.

Raising her voice so that it can be heard, she loudly intones:

    "THIS HAND OF MINE GLOWS WITH AN AWESOME POWER! IT'S BURNING GRIP TELLS ME TO DEFEAT YOU! TAKE THIS! MY LOVE, MY ANGER, AND ALL OF MY SORROW!"

And with that, she begins sprinting towards Mimete from an off angle, her hand raised near her head with a glowing ball of power as she screams:

    "SHINING FINGER!!!"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Huh. What an enlightened answer! They are both Taiyan, of course! Amy did not expect it to be smart enough to realize that!

    Or, they were both Taiyan. It is gone now. Just more burnt rubber on the racetrack. Amy toggles off pain and stands, peering at the fleeing Mimete...

    And then she sees Bow and Chrono and a magic glow, and runs over toward them. "Hey! What'd you do to them?!"

    Uranus is shouting and her mind drifts a bit, wondering if running in heels is a magic power or a skill. A number of senshi have heels on their boots, come to think of it...

    Oh they're handcuffed. By a magic spell. "Hey, careful!" She warns, when Bow just yanks Chrono upward like that, but also, despite Bow's words, she is failing to surpress a smile.

    She holds a hand to her chin, considering how to undo this. "Shame she didn't get me instead, I guess we coulda just broken my thumb an' slipped it off an' regenerated it while I had pain off... Who do we know who can pick handcuffs?"

    And then she hears a familiar speech being shouted out. She didn't actually watch G Gundam, but she knows that line.

    Amy looks over with interest and shouts along, "SHINIIIIIING FINGEEEEEEER!!!"

    After that, she calls out, "Se--, Pluto-chan, can you pick handcuffs?!" She's been around a since handcuffs were invented, it might be a skill she picked up!

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
It's such a good justice speech, you guys, it's so good, and poor Uranus doesn't even get to finish it, but it was gearing up to get put on the fridge before being cut so ruthlessly short. Instead, however, Mimete's running-- and then runs faster-- and then bolts, and she hears all these things being called out, but good grief, shouldn't they be more worried about the handcuffs?? Than little old Mimete? Really!

"I'm going AWAAAY!" Mimete yells back to Uranus without looking-- and then Uranus sounds closer and doesn't she have a magic sword? And then she sounds CLOSER, and then whatthefuck is SHINING FINGER?

Now Mimete looks in wide-eyed alarm, and oh, oh, oh no, oh no, OH NO, OH NO--

Mimete starts to cry as she runs, the tears pattering on the asphalt behind her as they fall. Aww. "This isn't fair! I'm just trying to get that executive promotion!" she wails, and then Haruka's on her and she turns around and points her staff at Haruka and yells, "CHARMBU--"

Bow has posed:
'From the camping trip, remember?'

It takes a moment, and then a look of realization hits Bow's face like a ton of bricks. "OH SHIT! I'm SO SORRY!" he cries out, panic in his eyes and face. "We went fishing together! It's been so long! There was the whole Paris thing, then a runestone, and then all the other stuff, and we haven't talked much and I totally forgot! TSAB! Right, the aliens checking on aliens thing! I remember now!"

Not that his apology is going to do anything to help him at the moment. "I can't fire with one hand. I mean, I could try with my teeth, but... look, stick to the magic! I'll work on these shackles!"

Lowering to a knee, because he doesn't want Chrono to have discomfort while he works, Bow opens a small pounch and finds a lockpick set. "I've been wanting to try these! I usually don't have to, because Glimmer would teleport in and zoop, we'd be someplace else. I was captured once and held in a cell and that kinda... made me invest in these. Especially since we're kinda on the outs because she decided to work for Obsidian and is now using dark magic because there was an accident and she lost her powers, but she's still doing dark magic." He starts pulling out the tools to try to figure out which one to use. "So Usagi said I should try dating someone else, and I had a date with Makoto, but I'm not sure how that went. And Makoto kinda hasn't talked to me sense - but that's partially on me - I haven't really contacted her either. But she's a good friend and I don't want to mess that... oh, that won't work, let me try this pick..." he switches tool and continues to work.

"THE REASON IT DIDN'T WORK IS BECAUSE MIMETE TRIES TO STEAL YOUR HEART WITHOUT EVEN OFFERING FLOWERS FIRST!" he calls out loud enough for the Witch to hear, but he's back to picking the lock. "Not that I'm interested in her. I mean, dating someone that's into dark magic is kinda a no-go on my list. Not that it really... I guess it didn't bother Glimmer." A sigh.

"Anyway! I haven't seen you around, so I'm assuming that you're busy. And I haven't seen Rashmi since what happened with Molly and I keep meaning to check in on her and just... it's been weird. Did I tell you about the runestone?" he asks as he's moving around the pick, trying to... and then he realizes.

"These are magic, this might not even work. But I'll keep trying!"

"And I'm sorry for calling you short. I'm sure you're perfectly average for the world you came from."

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
    Sailor Uranus grabs Mimette by her shirt - as she doesn't have lapels - and lifts *her* off the ground like the youma lifted Haruka earlier, but with one hand - the sword in the other one.

    She's leveling the staff at Sailor Uranus, and Uranus tries to use her sword to deflect the staff to point in another direction than at anyone.

    "You know, it's probably easier for a pretty girl to get a promotion in a regular office." she says. "Easier, safer, you'd probably make a hell of an Office Lady if you'd stop trying to hurt people and go work at a normal career." the younger girl tells Mimette. "Or go and try out for an idol show or something. But don't go around making trouble for me and my friends because then I have to make trouble back. And I'm really, really good at trouble." Sailor Uranus says with a wink.

    Just before she tries to move from deflecting the staff to cutting it with the blade, or otherwise disarming Mimette. Though this also means she's probably a free shot for Mimette in the process, if she's willing to risk the staff to do it in that moment.

Chrono Harlaown has posed:
Chrono Harlaown gave a small sigh and shook his head. "It's... it's fine. I'm told I can be... forgetable... sometimes..." He had spiiiiiiikes. Sob. "And I think Sailor Uranus has it at this point. Just focus on the cuffs...

"... If you don't want to damage your relationship, avoiding it will only make it worse. If the date didn't go well and you're unsure if you'll work out, talk and tell her, then you can both move on and recover from it. Delaying it will only cause damage as expectations shift."

"... I understand. You... care about this Glimmer girl?" Chrono asked. "Just because you're not dating her doesn't mean you can't care about her. If she's like a sister to you? That doesn't mean you don't want the best for her."

"... And yeah. Things have been intense lately. I've been working on the Molly situation as best I can, But... no. I get it. I'm not the most... attending of students at the school, due to my out-of-school duties."

Urk. Another short comment. "Actually... I... ahhhh... Midchildians... often... develop... their linker cores, before their bodies grow. So more powerful linker cores tend to be shorter for a while..." He was TOTALLY bullshitting that. He was just a late bloomer. "... I'm in the middle of a growth spurt right now, actually."

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Sailor Pluto slows down as Uranus gets her hands on Mimete, passing by Chrono and Bow slowly enough to hear at least part of Bow's ramble...including the 'perfectly average' line.

Oh, THAT one won't be going away for a LONG time.

While her teammate is dressing the Witch down, she stands there, waiting to see how things go...and then when Uranus opens herself up, Pluto reaches out to touch the Witch on the leg where's she's being held up and discharge the now sadly rather reduced attack into her.

It's only a fraction of it's normal power, but it should hopefully disrupt the orange-haired witch enough that she can't attack.

Of course, she does so with yet another verbal incantation, calmly saying, "...Boop."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "That's really more of a Rasengan, isn't it?" Amy comments. "Although I guess that's not as cool, really, I got bored of Naruto after like a hundred episodes." Her rambling trails off into mumbling. 'Needed more Naruko. I wonder if we ever saw anyone else use that technique...'

    Bow mentions the camping trip, which gets her to turn back to focusing on the two next to her again. "Oh man, that reminds me! I just wanted to say, thanks for not doing anything to my room in retaliation for Mio's involvement in wrapping up all your stuff. I really appreciate not having my stuff hidden or wrapped up or anything! Damn, was that really not even a year ago? It does feel like forever, after Paris and everything...""

    After Bow tells Mimete off, she adds, also shouting in that direction, "I don't care if you give me flowers first but grabbing people you just met and trying to kiss them is rude! Get to know someone first!"

    She watches with interest as Bow tries to pick the lock. And listens to Chrono talk about is own little insecurities. Although rather than making fun of him she looks concerned. "There's gotta be a way to make you taller with magic if that's what you want, right? Especially as you're still growing..."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mimete is,,,

Well, things are a little up in the air for her, right now.

Tears are streeeaming down her face-- until Bow yells about her, and the tears dry up instantly, and Uranus moves the staff away because Mimete's looking in Bow's direction from up there in the air being held by her shirt front -- dangerous territory -- and she looks comically furious at him.

"I know who you are! Do you think I was going to give you a chance to mess things up for me?" she yells angrily back at Bow. While dangling. And then she adds to Amy, "I only like boys!!"

But then she's glaring at Haruka again, and Haruka winks at her, and in that moment of fluttering blushing GIRLS CAN'T LOVE GIRLS!, Mimete is at heart not someone who needs to worry about having her heart shot out.

She spins the staff sideways when Uranus tries to cut it, which means that a line gets carved through the skin of the staff, BUT it remains whole BUT...

The package on her back has a strap, and the sword just cut the strap, and the package-- the instrument case-- clatters to the ground. Mimete's eyes get HUGE. "Oh, shit," she says. "Okay, I'll be good, please put me down, I'll quit my job and get a job in Big Pharma or, or--"

"Myrhjklsmxc!!" Mimete interrupts herself as she gets static-shock-booped with a dimebag's worth of the concept of death.

Meanwhile, the glowing magical handcuffs finally... click.

Bow has posed:
As much as Bow wants to yell back about Mimete messing up his chance, Chrono brings up his relationship with Glimmer and Bow chokes on his words for a moment, sputtering in confusion.

"It's not like that! We grew up together! She's really kind... when she's not all dark magiced up. I just... she's made some decisions I don't agree with. It doesn't mean I don't care for her. It just means... it's tough love, okay!" he decries as he continues to work on the handcuffs.

"She's got this whole life at Obsidian that I'm not a part of. And she's from the future and has refused to tell me what happened to me. So. I don't know. And I'm not going to push her on it anymore. I tried everything I could think of, you know, to be there for her. And instead? She wants to be the bad guy. So it is what it is. And it..." he twists the pick.

"...makes..." Twist.

"...me..." Twist.

"...so..." Twist.

"MAD." PUSH... click.

The handcuffs come free.

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
    "Big Pharma or... something less evil. Preferably, less evil. You're supposed to take this as a chance to improve yourself, not double-down. Isn't it Tomoe LifeScience ALREADY Big Pharma?" she asks, and in the moment of this, and the alphabet soup in a blender that Mimette says, Sailor Uranus lets her go.

    "Is what's in the bag important, then?" Sailor Uranus asks, reaching over to try to pick it up around Mimette. Maybe because she thinks its useful to the heroside. Or maybe it's that innate Gremlinmode she has - no, by the look on her face it's more gremlinmode.

    "Guess you better not go back to evil pharma corp without this, huh?" she asks, holding it up. And ready to jerk it back if Mimette tries to grab it, perhaps toss it over her head to Pluto, like some sort of good-aligned schoolyard bully.

Chrono Harlaown has posed:
Chrono Harlaown sighs as Amy just... Shakes his head. It--

AND THEN HE CATCHES ANOTHER STRAY! WHY?! "W-what? It's not... I don't need magic... it's not a *health defect*, I'm growing! I've already grown like five inches in the last five months! It just took longer due to my developing linker core and not being human! Do you have any idea how irresponsible it would be to alter my physical body over something like height?! And even if I WAS naturally short and not going to grow, what is wrong with being short? It doesn't reduce my effectiveness at my job. People come in all shapes and sizes, both on midchildia AND on your earth."

Okay, so he was, obviously, a bit tense. But it wasn't really Bow or Amy's fault. He was tense for... unrelated, Molly-shaped reasons.

Of course, As Bow kind of... let off some steam of his own... Chrono blinked. And when the cuffs came off? He reached up, rubbing his wrists. In retrospect, de-henshioning might have worked, maybe. Metal gauntlets and all. Or it would have shrunk down.

"... I imagine that must be frustrating. If you know she's good at heart. But... sometimes people who are good at heart do stupid, bad, arrogant or reckless things. And they need others to step in and stop them. Sometimes the nicest thing you can do for someone you care about is stop them by any means necessary. Her path is not your own, and disapproving of her choices down not mean you stopped."

"... And sometimes? If someone goes down a path too far from you? You need to cut them out of your life. Because some people... get so lost in what they are doing, that they forget what they have to lose until it is gone."

"... Or like, just punch her. Violence seems to work here a lot. Maybe if you concuss her enough, you'll knock some sense into her. I don't know your exact situation and without more time to speak with and analyze both of you, take what I say with a grain of salt. I am neither a therapist nor your commander. I'm just an enforcer. Speaking of..."

He started towards the others and... "... Uranus are you *bullying* the dark energy general?"

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Sailor Pluto watches as Uranus deals with Mimete, the Garnet Rod appearing in her off hand as she leans against it slightly.

A look is given over towards Chrono and the rest as she hears the click of the handcuffs finally coming off, then she blinks as Chrono asks is Uranus is bullying the member of the Witches...howevermany.

She looks back towards Uranus, then turns to Chrono again, "Noooooooooo. Bullying her would involve things like me repeatedly bludgeoning her with the Garnet Rod here until all her teeth were missing and she'd need several million yen of reconstructive surgery to eat solid foods again."

As she says this, she waves said staff lightly in Mimete's general direction before looking back at her, "...but so long as she behaves, there's no need to do any of that."

Then she looks very pointedly at Mimete, "...RIGHT?"

Amanda Faust has posed:
     Amy can't help the grin of happiness that creeps onto her face as Mimete emphatically rejects that she could possibly be a boy!

    Also Mimete blushing at Sailor Uranus is like something out of a manga. This day has really zig-zagged.

    Five inches in five months? "Oh, congrats!" Amy smiles with earnest happiness for him! But when he talks about irresponsibility she frowns, standing up straight with her hands on her hips and... not looming over him. Damn, he really has grown.

    "What's irresponsible" she tries to poke the tip of his nose with the pad of her right index finger, "is the idea that you shouldn't make sure it's a body you like. You only get one, you're ineligible for a Contract. There's nothing wrong with being short," she smiles, "or being tall. As long as you like it." An image of Briar Rose comes to her mind again.

    Bow has a heart to heart. He may not have noticed the redhead who came over to check on the two of them. "I dunno why she chose evil," Amy looks thoughtful, "but what if she just didn't wanna tell you you died or got turned evil or something?" And then the handcuffs click and she smiles, "Oh, nice, you got it!"

    Now that they're taken care of, she strides over towards the Outers and the Witch. "What is in the bag? You'd really quit Dark Energy that easily?"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Oh make no mistake, Mimete does her best to be chill once she's set down. She straightens her shirt. She realizes Haruka's taking the rifle and gets a look like oh no oh no OH NO OH NOOOONONONO, and then -- yes, of course she swipes for it. And of course she is literally the same height as Chrono. Sailor Uranus is not.

Her eyes well up with tears again, but -- the others are coming closer too, now, and the one with the thing that kicked the daimon's ash is already here and booping her and that was so unpleasant and she might do it again--

"FINE," she says, literally stomping her foot, making a face like a punched muppet. "No," she tells Amy, "I lied, jeez."

And then she has one more go at yoinking the instrument case, this time with her staff, as she steps backwards into a duskport.

She gets away!

Haruka is so much faster than Mimete is that it isn't eve-- no, it's really funny.

So, she gets away but the bag does not.

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
    Sailor Uranus jerks the bag away from Mimete's staff before throwing it to Pluto.

    "Yeah, fifty-fifty chance we just took something super evil dangerous from her or we just stole her lunch and I'm going to feel like a jerk, especially with Chrono calling me a bully." she says. "Figure you can best tell if it's evil science tech or regular tech or cosmetics." Haruka has limited experience with most of those things.

    "Of course she lied, she's evil." Uranus says once Mimette's gone. "All we can do is hope I planted an idea and it takes root before I have to plant the sword." she says.

    Then she looks around. "Is everyone... okay?" she asks. "Nobody missing any hearts or crystals or anything else?"

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
As Mimete takes the emergency beam out, Pluto reaches out momentarily to grab her on reflex, then shifts to catch the case Uranus tosses over to her, letting go of the Garnet Rod which stands there in midair as if planted in the ground.

Carefully, she looks into said case, blinking and raising her eyebrows, "Oh. It's one of those rifle thingies they've been using."

She looks at Chrono and Bow, "Either of you know who this would be best to give to to reverse-engineer? It' be awesome if we managed to find a way to protect people from it."

Bow has posed:
Free of the handcuffs, Bow rubs his wrist. "I'm good, Uranus. Thanks. And again, sorry, Chrono. No wonder.. you are taller." he offers quietly.

But all the talk of Glimmer seems to has taken the wind out of his sails. "It'll be fine. Thanks for the advice. I appreciate it." he comments, rolling his shoulders as he de-henshins.

Chrono Harlaown has posed:
Chrono Harlaown just... just glanced to Pluto. Opened his mouth. Then shook his head. "Pluto, that's not bullying. That's assault and inflicting gratuitous wounds on a person. As for the gun... hmmm... for now, likely storing it in the shed. The mix of magic and technology... actually... I think... Rashmi met a girl who might be useful for it."

He then pulled his ramune out from his device, before de-henshioning and taking a drink. He then glanced to Amy. "I'm fine with my body. I have no need for an upgrade of any sort." He then glanced towards Haruka again. "... Are you going to be okay?" Well... he actually meant, mostly, because now the race would likely be cancelled or delayed...

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Chrono gets a thumbs-up at the announcement that he's fine despite his sensitivity about being short.

    Amy runs over to Pluto to get a look at the bag if it's opened. She's curious!

    Uranus asks if people's hearts or crystals or anything are missing, and Amy just smiles to the Senshi of Wind and holds up a fist so the back of her left forearm is facing the senshi, the gem on the back of her wrist full of deep red color, only barely limned with black inside the very top. "All good!"

    And then she turns to see Pluto open the bag and her eyes widen. "Wouldn't Entrapta be our best bet?" Amy strokes her chin with her right hand. "She's gonna want to test it to see how it works and take notes, though... But I guess it's okay if you put them right back in their body right away, right...?"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy realizes how that sounded as soon as the words were out of her mouth, and hastily adds, "I mean if she gets a consenting test subject, obviously!"

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Sailor Pluto scowls a little at the suggestion of letting Entrapta study the rifle...right until Amy hastily amends her statement, at which point her expression shifts to more of a 'my point, proven' look.

She shakes her head, then twists the case around in her hands and makes it disappear, "I'll put this away for now and we can see who we can get to look over it later."

She then looks around, "...but at the moment, it looks like the race is cancelled and I imagine the police will be here in a few moments, so we should all perhaps skedaddle..."

She pauses a beat, "...vamoose?"

Another beat, "...we should make ourselves scarce."

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
    Sailor Uranus shakes her head. "I'll be fine, Chrono-kun." she says. She can actually pick up a little bit of that 'because the race' energy from him. He's effectively a sometimes-housemate and when she's not being a Gremlin they share a lot of the same energy. "What's important is that they didn't get any heart crystals and got a thrashin'." she says.

    "We should probably keep it in the shed, yeah. Then a few people can have a look at it and Obsidian can't get it back." she offers.

    "Oh right, the cops. Yeah. That uh. Probably don't wanna be here for that. Even if there's less damage than normal people are gonna have all sorts of wild stories about what happened while their brains try to make sense of it without magic. And I don't think we wanna be part of that."

Chrono Harlaown has posed:
Chrono Harlaown glanced at Pluto. "Wh--" Then stopped.

'Whyt is it when I'm out with you two, I almost always seem to be running from the police?'

... But he knew the answer to that question. Oh. How. He. Knew.

He vamoosed, darting off. And by darting off, it meant getting in the car since like... Haruka or Setsuna likely drove them here. He didn't have a car.