2444/That Which Is Best Left Unoppened

That Which Is Best Left Unoppened
Date of Scene:	02 April 2025
Location:	Plot Room 1
Synopsis:	Seriss is performing another experiment, this time attacking people's emotions; and she's co-opted Glimmer into holding off the heroes for her, until she's ready, using certain threats. Nevertheless, Aloisia, Amy, Coco, Rashmi, and Usagi all turn out to stop her!
Cast of Characters:	Molly Skyline, Aloisia Stauss, Rashmi Terios, Glimmer Brightmoon, Usagi Tsukino, Coco Kiumi, Amanda Faust

---

Molly Skyline has posed:
It's been a little over a week since Seriss Nyx last made herself known to the Mahou, at the battle to stop Mistress 9 from opening a portal to the Tau Star. A battle in which they were successful, as it happens, but a lost battle doesn't mean a lost war. And so, Seriss has withdrawn to her experiments once more; though some might expect it only to be a matter of time before she reappears.

It's the early hours of the morning once again, when a pulse of dark energy ripples across Tokyo, centered on the docks; specifically a shipbreaker yard, where the hulks of old vessels are moored, waiting to be cut appart for scrap metal. One by one city block radiating out from this point see their lights flicker and die, until a significant patch of the city's industrial quarters are plunged into darkness.

All but for a single ship, floating out in the harbor, some ways out from the actual docks. A supertanker, once a nearly indestructible vessel but now a rusting hulk, listing and leaking oil like black blood into a dark ocean.

In the hold, something stirs; bright lights illuminate the interior of the ship, where something sinister comes to life, while on the deck a lone sentry has been stationed, with instructions to just give Seriss... a little more time, once the heroes arrive.

Aloisia Stauss has posed:
A pulse of dark energy ripples across Tokyo, and Aloisia Stauss was nothing if not stubborn. The sensation was like thousands of bees prickling across her scene, familiar and yet altogether Wrong. It wasn't long before she was there, wielding Platinklinge in her hand as she approaches the edge of the water, transforming into the magical armor the blade allowed her at that edge. It wasn't quite as good as her usual Knight Armor, basically a layer of armor over her normal clothing, but it was better than nothing as she gives a soft exhale.

"Fliegen."

Unlike her usual Devices, this one's spells were entirely manual, something she had to adjust to as she lifts into the sky to fly towards that tanker which was the source of the darkness, looking down over that oil slick. Hm. Can she help with that at all? Maybe contain it with a barrier of some sort? A lot of her usual spells weren't particularly available to her without her Sisters at her side. Tch.

There was one thing she COULD do though, that was for sure, as she lifts that zweihander into the sky, pointing it outwards to contain and protect...

"Gerfangnis der magie."

And she creates a Barrier over the area. Just enough to help ensure that nobody Extra gets involved and injured, her flight briefly lowering a moment at the extra energy drain. "Phew. This blade is an adjustment." She mutters to herself. "I shall have to treat it as training."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Of course it would be an attack in the middle of the night.

*OF COURSE* it would have Seriss Myx's signature.

Taking special care not to wake her roommates, Rashmi nonetheless manages to jolt from sleep to wakefulness, put shoes on to complement her sleep clothes, henshin, open her window, fly out, *close* the window behind her, and speed off to the industrial district with a low, teenagery 'Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuughhhhhhhhhhhhhh' the whole way.

*Because of course it was going to be Seriss.*

A muscle in the small of her back twinges at the memory of the *last* time she turned her back to that friend-stealing demon harpy, and Rashmi's mouth sets. This time, *no such mistake* will be made.

Banking down over the shipbreaking yard, she blinks as Nicomachea pings an alert abount the environment, and closes her eyes.

<< Nico-kun; when were done here, please help me figure out if there's anything we can do to clean that spill. I won't be *able* to sleep if I just left that there. >>

    << COMMAND INPUT EXECUTE, >> Nicomachea replied.

And a Belkan Barrier resolves into existence around the area, bringing a broad smile to Rashmi's face.

    << *BONG!* >> << TELEPATHY >>

Rashmi's magic reaches out, touching anyone in the area that Nicomachea could identify as an active-duty ally, and Rashmi's pleased voice rings out in the back of their minds. << Alo-chan! Good to see you, are you gonna *let me know* if you need support? >>

Gentle ribbing, *and* tacit order, all in one; Rashmi has learned much in her years as a mahou.

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
Dark Glimmer was... not happy to be here. Not at all. Especially once the oil started leaking. She'd started to object... but well...

A few reminders that one of her colleagues had, recently, betrayed the organization... And that perhaps aiding her here would lighten the load on Catra's head... well...

It was why Glimmer was on the deck of the ship, pacing back and forth, fiddling with the strange golden amulet.

... She really wished she knew how to do more magic. Because this environmental problem was something she DESPERATELY wanted to fix. To undo. And while she'd tried to contain it, her magic... was useless.

She wasn't Mermista. She couldn't gather up the oil and stop it. She couldn't do anything... and she was actively making the world *worse* and this time? She genuinely felt guilt. She felt... wrong about it...

And she couldn't do anything about it, not now.

... Damn it, Catra...

And then there was a barrier. She glanced up and... "Huh. So, you people are here, now," Glimmer muttered. She'd stand on the bow of the ship, waiting for them.

But she only intended to interfere if they tried to come on. If they dealt with the leakage? She wasn't going to get in their way.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
It's the early hours of the morning, on a school day, and Usagi Tsukino is in her dorm room, snoozing away on her back, head tipped back among her pillows and against the wall so that an impression of the straight wooden lines of her bunk have formed on her cheek, and she's snoring. Luckily, Naru is already long gone, it being her running-featuring-Kazuo hours, and Chibiusa had spent the night with Mamoru. There's almost no one to be bothered by the snoring!

Almost.

Luna is used to her charge's less than elegant behaviors, though, and she's tuning her own, browsing the web with dainty paws, manipulating the mouse confidently. She could be using the fingers of her human form, but truth be told, she has no interest in her human form save for when it's truly useful, and it's hardly necessary to use it for a simple computer search.

(Usagi's Twitch audience really, really loves seeing her cat use a computer. They have many explanations for it, up to and including hyper realistic plush puppet.)

When her computers sense a pulse of Dark Energy, however - particularly one that's recorded in her sensors... she frowns.

"Usagi-chan!"

Snnnnrt, is the response.

"Usagi-chan, wake up! There's trouble!"

"Hrrrhrmrmrmr," Usagi mumbles in response, turning over in bed, the blankets cocooning her. Her foot thumps the bunkbed rails and she grumbles, all without opening her eyes.

Luna's brow twitches.

"You asked for this," she says grimly, leaving the computer and padding towards the bed - she hops onto Naru's bed, and from there, leaps a good six times her own height to land on Usagi's bed. Padding closer to her princess, she observes the sleeping girl, her hair wound up in a thick braid, and crouches. Her hindquarters wriggle. Her tail stiffens.

POUNCE!

"WRAUGH!" Usagi yelps, as Luna lands like an eight pound missile on her chest. "WHY?!"

"There's trouble! Seriss Nyx is up to something!"

"But- but - BUT IT'S NARU HOURS," Usagi protests, as she sees that the sun isn't quite up yet. "Why me -"

"Because Naru-chan isn't home, and you are! Now get out there and help your friends, Usagi-chan!"


It's some minutes later that Sailor Moon, panting from the run across the city, reaches the edge of the beach, and groans.

"Oh come on- oh! Rashmi-chan! Aloisia-chan! Um, either of you have a way across the water... that isn't swimming? I think it's a liiiiittle too far for me to jump."

Coco Kiumi has posed:
Two hours earlier, Coco had woken up in her bed, the lingering feeling of a bad dream in the back of her mind. She didn't quite remember what that was about, but even so she could feel her heart race and the cold sweat clinging to her. It didn't take long for her to decide that she wasn't going back to sleep.

Nothing like a swim out at sea to get her thoughts off of things. Neither the cold nor the dark bother her anyway. She would have thought she would have gone there alone, but her silent walk through the hallways has been interrupted by Amy, who was on a bathroom break, and so it was that the redhead had joined her on her nighttime swim.

Luckily for her, it will have been a while before they find the leakage and the presence of dark energy, so Coco has had plenty of time to get peace of mind between now and then. If Amy had found herself getting tired, she will have gotten her own Live Stage to rest in while Coco keeps swimming.

The oil spill gets her to scowl at the ship, and suddenly there will be a trio of Live Stages trying to cover the zone of the oil and keeping it contained. "What's going here? Don't you know how many lives you are harming with that?", she shouts at the sentry on the ship. Normally, she wouldn't assume it's intentional, but with dark energy involved, her perspective is quite different.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy did not stay up super late this time! She got to sleep at a reasonable time and everything!

    And she thinks nothing of it when she wakes up in the middle of the night to run to the bathroom, only to run into Coco on the way back. "Coco? What are you doing up?"

    Well, it's not every day you get to swim with a mermaid! Amy decides maybe she can wake up for that...
    And so it is that she's out in the ocean where the cold has very much woken her up -- Amy's in a black-and-pink rash guard and drab green swim trunks, and since they're away from land when she wants to rest she just summons neon pink water wings while treading water. She kind of wishes she'd gotten a boogie board, or whatever they're called these days. She's experimenting with summoning multiple pairs of water wings and taking them off and propping up her legs and head to lay back and relax and float for a bit, when Coco offers a Live Stage, which she gratefully accepts and rests on, until Coco calls her attention to the ship and she feels that dark energy pulse...

    Out they go, Amy riding along on the Live Stage as they come into sight of the oil -- Amy's in a sort of intermediate costume, unsure if this is a swimming fight or not, with a white-and-black one piece and her hair up in twintails to keep wet hair out of her face so much.

    As Coco goes to work on containment, Amy sings to herself softly, in English, "[Cap-TAIN pla-NET, he's our he-ro, gonna take pollution DOWN to ze-ro...]" and then she stops and has a thought. "Hey, if Tuxedo Mask is Sailor Earth, does that mean he's [Captain Planet]?"

    Then she clears her throat and speaks up after the mermaid princess: "Seriously! Like, you bad guys are just dumping oil into the sea now?! This is like, saturday morning cartoon evil, and nonsensical too, you have to live on this planet too, you know!" She squints at the boat, trying to make out who's on it with the ship's lights at their back. "So what's your deal, are you like, a new pollution-themed villain and the Cure Planeteers are about to show up and help fight you?!"

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
Dark Glimmer sighed and leaned against the railing of the ship, glancing down at the mermaid below. Or, well... squinting through the night towards her. Gosh darn it, why was it night time? Nobody should ever, under any circumstances, be up at this hour. It should be the law.

Instead, she was here.

"... No, we're not. At least... I'm not," she muttered, before sighing. "Listen, the... oil is an accident. If you can stop it, I won't stop you. I'll probably help you, if I can. But I can't let the lot of you onto the ship. Just... if you can deal with... THAT... I won't get in your way."

Her fists were clenched and she just looked... tired. Well. She was. WHO WOKE UP THIS HOUR?! WHY?! WHOOOO?!

... Wait, was that the other moon princess girl? Oh, of course. SHE must be a morning person. Ugh.

"I don't know who Captain Planet is, I only really know Seahawk personally! And considering he keeps burning his ships down, I don't know if he counts as a captain still!"

Aloisia Stauss has posed:
<<I am nowhere near at 100%. I'm fairly certain I'm going to be the help in this situation.>> Is Aloisia's half-joking response to Rashmi. <<Without my sisters at my side, I don't believe I can do many of my usual spells. But I am still a Belkan Knight, and I shall not let such things hold me back.>>

Plus there was a bit of a personal stake in the current matter, really. <<Still, though it has seen better days, Platinklinge is a fine Magic Sword.>> Nevermind it was basically a Storage Device. Eh it's fine.

And Sailor Moon arrives. And asks for help. Aloisia doesn't particularly hesitate on that, the silver-haired knight returning to land to scoop up Usagi into her arms and then dart back towards the tanker. "You can land quite gracefully, yes? I'll get you there a little faster than just if I were flying." Aloisia says with a grin, as she shifts her pose, darting forward and then... tossing Sailor Moon at about the half-way point with a burst of magical energy to help her along.

"Mondschuss!"

It's not a real attack.
It's just her yeeting Sailor Moon.

Sailor Moon surely will be able to land gracefully on the deck, right?

Aloisia would arrive a bit afterwards, her own flight fairly slow since it's not her usual methods.

Others were also there, Coco and Amy, but the situation with the oil slick in general was a bit of a mess.

There was someone on the deck of the ship who seemed to be dark and talking about... stuff. And saying that she can't get onto the ship. "Unfortunately, what we need to stop is likely within that ship, as such..."

She flies towards that ship to land on it, nearby Glimmer. "What are you going to do to stop us?" She does, to her credit, not IMMEDIATELY attack Glimmer. But it's probably not going to be great for her health.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
<< AlochanwaitIcanjust >>

( Mondschuss! )

<< ...Put a Flier Fin on her... >>

Well at least Sailor Moon will be on scene first! This is good. Yes. ...Good...

"...Glimmer-chan?" Rashmi says, tilting her head in confusion as she hovers on the other side of Sailor Moon, "are you-- did you-- ... ..... *do you know who you're working with?!*"

Oh no, Rashmi is *angry.* Like, *actually mad* mad, and her eyes flick to Coco and Amy as they arrive, then to Aloisia, and back to Glimmer.

Quick history lesson for the 'new' people; probably on this ship is a woman by the name of Seriss Nyx. She's a daimon, riding the *living body* of *my best friend* and Alo-chan you don't even what to *know* what she did to Starcrash. Glimmer-chan, if you're gonna fight us about this, you're gonna be in the wrong, and I'm gonna *treat* you like you are."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Sailor Moon has made a tactical error. She has asked for help, from Aloisia-chan, who's the same kind of warrior as Hannah-chan, who -

In seconds, she's scooped up, and she's squeaking - "aloISIA-CHANWAIT-"

And then she is in the air, hurled with so much strength it might as well be an attack, and she is not a graceful lander at all. No, Sailor Moon is launched high, and shrieks (but not Supersonically, for the saek of all of their ears), as she reaches the apex of her arc, and then promptly falls, still at an arc, and manages to tuck and roll just as she strikes the deck of the ship, rolling like an ungainly top, spinning -

"moonspiralheARTSTOP!"

A pink heart the size of a twin-sized mattress appears, and instead of rolling right into a metal thing, she slams into a pink heart, that bursts into more pink hearts upon collision, and deposits her on the floor.

"Wow," she says, cheek smushed into the floor. "This is maybe the 15th worst morning I've ever had."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "How did you count them that fast!?" Amy calls out to Sailor Moon. "Also are you okay?!"

    The voice of the person on the boat sounds familiar, and Rashmi recognizes her. "Glimmer?! Is that you?!" Amy shouts up at her, squinting at her silhouette.

    "Really? The oil spill is just an accident?" Amy puts doubt into her voice, although honestly she doesn't expect Glimmer to have the context on this sort of thing. "That's what the non-magic villains say too, you know. If anything shouldn't Obsidian be able to make the ship magically tough or have countermeasures they can't? This is just sloppy!"

    And then Amy looks up from her live stage at Rashmi. "Oh no, she's here?!" She nods to the one left to stand in their way, "It's all true, Glimmer. Friends don't let friends' bodies get hijacked by evil necrotech science ladies."

    She conjures her launcher and rocket-jumps up to the deck. When she lands, she keeps it aimed up at the sky, not at Glimmer, but warns: "Let us pass, Glimmer. Or help us. You can't be okay with this, right?"

Coco Kiumi has posed:
Colour her surprised, it was an accident. At least, Glimmer has never been one to lie to her, and Coco instead remembers her mostly for her youmas escapades. So many youma escapades. And not all of them completely intentional according to what she had understood. That was definitely something.

"You still could have called one of us to help if you didn't mean to cause the slip", Coco points out to Glimmer, eyebrows raised at the unfortunate situation. This really could have been conducted a lot better than this.

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
Dark Glimmer blinked as.... Sailor Moon just flew over her head. Huh. Well. Normally what that girl did went over her head, not so literally.

And Rashmi asked if she knew who she was working with. And her eyes went wider by the word, mouth falling open. "She... she's... she did..."

And Glimmer's hands clenched before she glanced down at the ship. Yeah, you know what? Screw this woman. She didn't like this to begin with. She sighed and lifted a hand, about to duskport away and...

...

... But then they'd be going after Catra. They'd probably hurt her. If the stupid cat hadn't just...

"... Damn it..." Glimmer muttered before she pulled her hands back, dark energy forming in it. "I guess I'm in the wrong then, Pagemage. I've got orders and, right now? I don't have a lot of choice in the matter. For the record? I didn't cause the spill. And I did mean when I said I couldn't stop you from fixing it... but... I can't let you on the ship."

She then turned to Sailor Moon who, well... WAS on the ship. "Nothing personal." Before she unleashed a beam of dark energy at the sailor senshi, attempting to knock her back off the ship, with one hand. The other aimed at Aloisia and did the same, a big blast erupting outwards to try and knock her over the railing.

Molly Skyline has posed:
Seriss is still busy, deep in the cavernous hold of the ship while Glimmer is up on top, fulfilling her duty as a sentry. But the sounds of combat have begun, and this... this draws the attention of Seriss.

A small explosion from beneath the decks blows a hole in them, and with red wings unfurled Seriss rises, ascending languorously up into the air, rising to a height where she can properly observe what is going on. She has the Cygnus Lich in hand and as she ascends her barrier jacket materializes, armor plates slamming into place one by one. Her lips, visible beneath her helmet, curl upwards into a smile.

"Good, Glimmer, Good," she observes. "I confess I doubted you. Didn't think you had it in you... but you Do. How wonderful. ...but you are undercharging your attacks. There are five of them, and but one of you." She continues rising upwards as she speaks, "But worry not, hold them off for just a minute longer, and my creation will be ready to give you some... back up." Her grin widens, showing teeth. "I'll warn you when to stay out of her way."

Seriss gazes out over the forces that have come to stop her once again. "Ahh, Rashmi sweetheart, I see you just won'g quit. How positively invigorating to have someone so persistent... and you've brought some of your usual friends. And a new one, I see," she stares down towards Aloisia, "How interesting." She watches as her Battle Visor as the targets are labelled as hostiles -- and Glimmer as allied -- and hefts her staff. "Cygnus, charge Solar Barrage, Magnetar Shift, one hundred homing barretes per hostile target. Lock targetes. Hold fire for my command -- just in case they get... frisky."

<< ARMED >>

As Seriss smiles, watching the battle unfold, something below decks has gone from stirring... to awakening. A series of loud imacts reverberate through the ship; the lights flicker, and then something... screams. A long, loud, curdling wail.

Aloisia Stauss has posed:
And Sailor Moon flies, Aloisia watches expectantly! Aaaaand.... and she does not land the way she expected at all.

Well. That... that was not ideal. Luckily Sailor Moon was doing something to stop herself!

<<Wait you can put that on other people??? Midchildan magic is certainly convenient.>>

Others were making threats, comments, appealing to Glimmer's heart or whatever... but when Dark Glimmer turns towards Sailor Moon to unleash a blast of dark energy, Aloisia was immediately moving to get into Dark Glimmer's face, right into her personal bubble and point blank as those two blasts go off.

"Panzerhindernis."

A tri-shaped Belkan Barrier is brought up between her, GLimmer, and Sailor Moon, enough to ... well, not COMPLETELY stop the blast, with the slightly weaker weapon, but enough that she was the one likely tanking the worst of it.

Trails of smoke coming off of her form as she looks fairly scuffed from the blasts.

"As you wish."
"Platinspitze."

A shimmering metallic energy surrounds the zweihander as Aloisia stabs through the remains of her Barrier with simple intent: To stab Dark Glimmer with that magically enhanced sword.

"Sorry, Sailor Moon. When you said you normally would leap -- I made incorrect assumptions. I'll keep her busy while you recover."

And then another person shows up. An explosion from below decks that causes her footing to be momentarily unsteady -- and there she was. Seriss Nyx. Holding a twisted device.

...A familiar situation.
And she's a 'new one'.

"...Hey, Molly. Don't worry. It'll be okay soon. We're here now." One hundred homing barrets per hostile target. Hm. So she was using the tactic of 'large amounts of basic attacks for high energy efficiency' tactic. And something is stirring beneath deck. For now, though... for now... well, she'll do what she thinks she can do best right now: Focus on Glimmer and helping support the others.

...Frankly it was her best option, considering she wasn't using her Proper Device.

Coco Kiumi has posed:
Coco wouldn't have intervened with whatever Glimmer was doing since her initial warning was vague enough, but the fact that she doesn't want people on the ship at all is enough to make her change register. The Live Stages are still blocking as much of the oil spill as they can, but one of them would be swapped out for a fresher one, and the former would float just about above the ship (but not directly above Glimmer).

"What are you doing that you can't allow people on board?", Coco frowns at her from her position in the water. Admittedly, that and the dark were likely to make it all a lot less effective. Still, the shining sphere full of oil was a much more direct representation of her feelings.

"Explain why are blasting them off the ship, and working for Seriss Nyx, or I release the oil into the ship. I have three more like them", she gives Glimmer an ultimatum. And then the woman of Rashmi's warnings show up.

That wail only serves to reinforce her wariness, and probably, they should be getting this done quite soon. There are no words Coco has for Seriss, just a Live Stage rammed into her, and to add insult to injury, it will burst upon impact, releasing all the oil it contains over Seriss.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
When Glimmer declares that she's gonna be in the wrong, and that she doesn't have a choice, Rashmi looks-- disappointed? --in the choices of her friends' best friend. But now is not the time to argue ethics, especially when Dark Energy is flying toward Sailor Moon's face. If this is gonna go the TSAB way, then it's gonna go the TSAB way.

Incapacitate with overwhelming violence, *then* lecture.

<< I mean, support mage, *Nicomachea* can, >> she answers Aloisia, then launches skyward--

Just as Seriss makes her own grand entrance. And her opening sally earned a heated, disgusted glare from the Devicer.

"If *Beryl* couldn't make me quit? If *Walpugisnacht* couldn't make me? What makes you think a *hermit-crab youma like you* has any hope?"

But now Seriss is on the field, and a *multitude* of Barrets summoned as insurance. << Nicomachea, keep one sensor on Seriss. If those Barrets twitch, I want to know. >>

As her Device confirms her order, she turns back to the battlefield; eyes scanning the situation. Boost allies, *then* hamper enemy, this sounds like a good order of operation.

    << *BONG!* >> << TERA BARRET -- BOOST UP >>

A trio of wisps resolve into being, then dart out toward Amy, Sailor Moon, and Coco -- the last, on the theory that her purifying song *technically* counts as a ranged-attack? Perhaps it'll help, some...

    << *BONG!* >> << SOLAR BIND >>

And then a ring of sunlight appears, closing around GLimmer's ankle, locking her into place. If she wants to have this fight... she's gonna stand there and take the consequences.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy watches Glimmer closely, trying to remember just how the woman actually attacks. She knows Glimmer can teleport, but she usually fights with youma... (Later, Amy remembers they fought a Witch together and what attacks she used then. Oh, right.)

    Amy can see Glimmer thinking, and not being happy about this, but then she says the wrong thing.

    "Nothing personal?" Amy repeats the words in almost a snarl. "Y'know. A book once told me: When someone says it's not personal? Show them that it is personal. Make it personal for them, too. Do as much damage as you can. Get the message across, so they know: Whenever they do this to you? You're not little people they can grind up and crush, that they can do whatever they want to, and then add insult to injury with 'it's just business, it's the way of the world, it's a tough life, NOTHING PERSONAL. '" Again, she repeats the two words as distastefully as she can manage. "'Fuck them. MAKE it personal.'"

    She levels her rocket launcher at Glimmer and fires.

    She's not actually trying to kill Glimmer, though, despite her words, she's a magical girl and doesn't really believe Glimmer is an irredeemable villain. Like, it would still absolutely kill a nonmagic human, but Amy is focusing on trying to send Glimmer flying off the boat over doing as much damage as possible.

    Which would be a lot better of a tactic if she weren't fighting a teleporter.

    Though, before Amy can think about that, or follow up with more attacks, Dark Phoenix rises.

    Amy looks up at her.

    Amy looks down at the hole she came from.

    << Rashmi. Barrier. >> She warns, telepathically if Nichomachea has linked her in, otherwise she shouts it before running for the hole, conjuring a whole cluster of incendiary bombs -- boosted by Rashmi's magic! -- to drop down it.

    Fighting the monster on the ship is going to result in massive damage to it anyway. And if that's going to be risked anyway, then she may as well take the opportunity to try and damage the thing BEFORE it can fight back.

    The barrets she's about to take probably aren't as bad as a bad hit from whatever that thing is...

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"We're mahoujin, we get a lot of bad mornings," Sailor Moon says tiredly, before pulling her arms up, pressing her hands flat to the floor and pushing herself up to her hands and knees. "Glimmer -"

Rashmi has announced what she already knew, and boy is it useful that Luna is scanning things but it's early morning and she's crashed into, well, her own attack, and she's on her knees and too slow for - ALOISIA-CHAN!?

Most of the blast is deflected, and Sailor Moon throws herself to the side, ending in a sliding crouch sort of motion, the remnants of the dark energy blast missing her but gouging holes in the floor of the ship.

"No worries, Aloisa-chan, I'm never graceful but I'm always good at getting back on my feet. Glimmer, what the fuc-"

And then the floor explodes out, as Seriss Nyx appears, as expected, and Sailor Moon was factoring that into her calculation of how bad the morning is going to be, but seeing her -

It's almost enough to make this the fourteenth worst night.

And then there's a wailing, curdling cry, and Sailor Moon slams a fist against the floor.

"Either come out or shut up! I can scream harder than you!"

And then she's on her feet, remembering that Seriss Nyx is stronger than she's pretending to be, aware that they're on a ship in the middle of the ocean, and she swings her rod through the air and aims it at the hole in the ship, her eyes glaring daggers at Seriss.

"You stole her best friend's body, of course she's here every time! It's so early in the morning! It's so fucking early in the morning, you're not even trying to be subtle, why are you pretending any of this is a cute little surprise! Just send the monster out so we can kill it and I can limp my way back to class so I can fall asleep and get detention again!!!"

She's really not a morning person.

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
Dark Glimmer was no happier about this than any of the rest of them. "Just remember that," Glimmer snapped at Seriss. "This is a one time thing. I'm not your lackey," she snapped, her voice filled with rage. Ugh. She loathed this... worse? Both her blasts hit the new girl, who tanked them. Of all the-- OH YIPE SWORD NO BAD!

She leaped back, barely avoiding getting hit by the sword and--

Oh, hey, the mermaid girl got the oil. "Go right ahead!" she yelled at her. This wasn't so--

And then boom.

See, she was still figuring out how to teleport with dark energy. Like this? She barely could. It was harder

And Amy's blast hit her square on, knocking her back and *through* the railing.

There'd be the sound of a splash down below...

And after a few moments, a rather drenched, annoyed Glimmer would pop out of the water. "I'm really not feeling this..." she muttered. "The sea is supposed to be Mermista's territory, NOT mine... I'm the moon sparkly girl. Not the water girl... ugh..."

... Also, she was a bit concerned by that yelling, though. Worse, she really didn't want to be here. And she REALLY didn't like this Dark Phoenix girl. She was going to have to talk to Riventon about this...

... And Catra.

ALSO WHY DID THIS OTHER GIRL HAVE SO MANY LITTLE FIRE PELLETS FLYING AROUND THE AREA?!

Molly Skyline has posed:
Seriss tilts her head back and laughs, "Oh, child." She shakes her head. "I fail to understand why you keep blaming me. I didn't choose the body I was born into any more than you did. I didn't steal anything... I merely benefited from... an organ donor." She shrugs her shoulders dismissively. "If you didn't want this to happen, then you really should have taken better care of Molly, and not let her die alone in the Duskzone."

The Livestage slams into Seriss, who doesn't bother to move out of the way, and releases it's oil; a bubble of energy shimmers around Seriss as the stage smashes into it and oil slides around it, leaving the dark sorceress inside it untouched (Or, at least, clean), though the shield does flicker and strain visibly, even if -- for now -- it holds.

"Tsk," she shakes her head, "You didn't think I'd come up here unprepared, did you? Really now, such tawdry tactics. ...I'm not even going to bother opening fire. Not yet. Not unless you all decide to irritate me further." As she speaks, she brandishes the Cygnus Lich, pointing it especially towards Coco. "But I think," she pauses as the deck starts bulging upwards once, twice, thrice all in tune with hammering impacts, "The playdate I have arranged for you will be quite sufficient for your appetites for violence."

As Glimmer is flung off the ship, the deck finally buckles and bursts open; a hand that looks like hardened crude oil over a framework of metal bones reaches up, finding purchase on the deck before it is followed by a second, and a creature that looks like a gigantic mermaid gone terribly wrong hauls itself in an ungainly fashion up onto the deck. Its uper body is humanoid, for the most part; it's lower body is stretched out like an eel, with a dorsal fine like a deformed shark. Its mouth is full of jagged metal teeth, and a long tentacle with a glowing pseudopod sicks out off its forehead. Already, it is injured; part of its flank is on fire and melted through to show metal ribs, but it appears unphased, or at least uncaring. As it emerges, it reaches below deck with one hand, fishing about until it finds what it is looking for, and hauls it up onto the deck; a large, golden box, imacculately polished.

"Pandora," breathes Seriss. "Don't keep these children in suspense... Open your box."

And oen it, Pandora does; and the moment the lid is cracked open a terrible wailing issues forth, ear-splitting and enervating, attacking not the physical forms of those present, but their emotions; the sound reverberates through the area, bringing with it deep, unshakeable feelings of pain, loss, and sheer inadequacy.

Aloisia Stauss has posed:
Alright, Sailor Moon is back up on her feet, that's good. There's wailing cries and threats all around. "I don't particularly love this Dream." She mutters under her breath, almost out of habit. And it was dark. And this situation wasn't great. And also Glimmer didn't seem particularly into this either.

And in the water. Aloisia walks to the edge to glance down at her, musing a moment... before shrugging.

And throwing a life ring with attached rope overboard to her. To help her get out of the water, or at least make her not have to actively swim. "You clearly don't want to be here, and evidently have fulfilled your side of the bargain. Get out of here."

Her tone isn't particularly harsh or judgemental, after all it wasn't long ago ... well, that she can remember ... that she was on that same side, as Pandora climbs out of the box, and Seriss continues to talk and ... such. And there's... a massive mermaid there now. Well.

...If you can call it that. And it opens its box.
And unleashes
Very.
Familiar.
Feelings.

There is a moment that Aloisia looks as if she is going to falter, as a flash of fear crosses her face. As she looks almost ready to run.

But her grip on her sword grows tighter, both hands taking hold of it as she draws energy into her Magic Blade.

She fully turns away from Glimmer, giving her that trust, that moment of deciding, clearly, that she is no longer a threat.

As she leaps into the air, calling out...

"Platinwelle!"

And she brings that Magic Sword down, glowing metallic energy coating the blade once more as she brings it down in a heavy cut, unleashing a wave of energy in the wakes of its slash, aiming to cut both box and arm.

"There are some things too sacred to touch. You had best learn this rapidly."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Lady you don't *deserve* class," Rashmi spits. "You *deserve* the best petty little torments a teenage mind can think up, and *lucky you.*"

But Seriss *has* to unveil her latest creation, and it's *probably* gonna be something horrib-- oh yup, sludge monster wrapped around bones, all gloopy 'flesh' and misshapen mermaidy features and *so many metal teeth.*

<< ...Huh. I think she *really* doesn't like you, Yellow Pearl-cha-- >>

And the screaming begins.

<< YUP NOPE YUP NOPE DEFINITELY DOESN"T LIKE YOU >> she thinks around the quivering ice settling into her hindbrain, scooting back in the air away from the monster and slotting a module into Nicomachea's cover.

    << *BONG!* >> << BIND INDEX: SOLAR BARRET -- BLAZE SHIFT >>

A dozen Barrets blink into existence, bursting into golden fire and launching out. Blazing magic creates visible tracers as the missiles each set up their own defensive flight paths, juking and weaving around interference, to slam home and spread their burning payload...

...and activate the Binds placed in the center of each Barret. Hindrances that can be broken with enough applied force... but one has to *know* they have to struggle, and six or eight or twelve are more effective, collectively, than any single one is alone.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Oh wah wah, if you didn't want us to blame you for having Molly-chan's body you'd stop being such a smug bitch about it," Sailor Moon snaps, and there's the desire, deep in her, to cut a circle of light, to blast that smug look off Seriss Nyx's face with a volley of purifying light, and the only reason she doesn't follow suit is that they are still in the middle of a ship that is at sea and there is oil in the water and the SUN isn't even UP and -

"God! You act like you're soooo much more mature than us, here you go, time to needle us about Molly-chan dying, as if the people YOU work with didn't DO that to her, as if YOU didn't win out from it, as if YOU aren't doing the SAME BULLSHIT!"

She stomps her foot, and oil spills over Seriss Nyx - nope, it spills around her, because of course the insufferable wretch has a shield around her.

"It's too damn early for this!"

She screams to the sky, again, not a sonic scream, and then - the creature from below bursts onto the deck, enormous, terrible, a monstrous mermaid, oozing and wretched and full of teeth and already wounded from Amy's attack, and it's taking up so much of the deck, and Sailor Moon hops back a little, boosted by Rashmi's earlier boost up, and her eyes widen in horror -

The box opens. A sense of inadequacy, pain, and loss, the deep, writhing feelings at the bottom of a heart, and Sailor Moon rocks on her feet, eyes clenching shut, aching to her core -

And then she plants her feet.

<<Cover your ears everyone.>>

She loves Mamochan too much to not be in the practice of giving a warning, for this of all attacks.

"I SAID I CAN SCREAM LOUDER THAN YOU! YOU THINK YOU CAN OUT-WAIL A CRYBABY?!"

Her voice echoes through the area, warping metal, shattering glass in the portholes, rattling teeth and fillings and bone, as Sailor Moon's eyes burn.

"JUST STOP ALREADY! NO MATTER HOW BAD WE FEEL, WE LOVE MOLLY-CHAN MORE!"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy glares up at Seriss claiming she had no hand in taking Molly's body. "If someone ended up in Molly's body by accident and asked for help finding a new body so she could let Molly go, instead of constantly making our and her lives hell, that would be completely different and you know it." They LET Molly die? "Oh, fuck off. She saved us all from your monsters, and you're making her life a living hell because you're salty about it!"

    The monster comes up, and Amy sees that she got it good, its body is on fire and has a hole blown in it exposing bones, "Oh come on! Where do you get off, being able to still fight in that condition?!"

    Beat.

    "Okay, I guess I can't complain..."

    Amy's tune swiftly changes as the box opens and

    why is the box screaming?!

        it hurts

    why is the BOX screaming?!

        She has to fight it!

    and yet, it HURTS!!!

        They lost Molly and how will they get her back when Seriss Nyx is so strong and gets away every time?!

    What can she do?! A magical girl would be able to fix it, with love and hope -- which is what's supposed to be in the box, by the way! -- what kind of magical girl is Amy, Glimmer is making excuses because she doesn't want to be here and Amy's comparing her words to a dark scifi storiy filled with brutal violence

        That sort of thing is why she has a rocket launcher and can only cause as much destruction as possible, she doesn't shoot magical purification beams powered by her and the world's love being in sync, SHE can't HEAR the voice of the world

    Destruction won't get Molly back...




    Puella Red has dropped to her knees on the deck, gaze unfocused. She's got, y'know, stuff goin' on. If she were in a better mood she'd probably be commenting 'ohhhhh, that's what this trope is like in real life' or something, but that's not a painful thought, not a fearful one, not an inadequate one, and so the only thing that knocks her out of it is hearing an urgent, telepathic warning -- it's her friend Usagi's voice, so she decides to heed it rather than ask 'Why?' and covers her ears!

Coco Kiumi has posed:
The mermaid swims around carefully, waiting for the moment whatever hideous creature is about to emerge from below deck, and she finds herself face to face with a horrid caricature of herself, one that make her shiver from head to tailfin. She has never tried to get onboard, but she is not interested in doing that now.

"Probably. The dislike is mutual", the blonde mermaid tells Rashmi in response. You know what? For this she is going to use her best brand of purification, one that is going to eradicate all the nasty feelings Seriss is having wholesale. "The medicine for this is going to be quite bitter", the mermaid adds, taking a deep breath.

The seven-colored wind, the seven-colored sky
Overflow with hope to the world.
Your pure white wings, let them rest, and gently fall to sleep.
The sound of the bell of hope becomes the final song now...
This isn't a world made up of just strong people, so
Listen to my love in this song...

The voice of the Mermaid Princess soars strong, and its aura of purification spreads around everywhere. To her allies, that will feel like a balm that dispels all fatigue. To Seriss and the monster, it will instead feel like someone is burning away their dark energy and negative feelings. It's a process that is undoubtedly going to hurt if she doesn't have something to protect herself.

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
Dark Glimmer did not like that screaming at ALL. Feeling those feelings? Even if she had dark energy... well... it didn't help her feelings at all. It felt terrible, it made her feel small, weak, stupid. So many things. Now...

But oh, worse than that? Was what Sailor Moon did a moment later. Her eyes went WIDE and she squeaked, before her hands moved up to cover her ears. Ohhhhh. Oh that was OW!

And she went under the water, gripping the lovely ring hat Aloisia had lent her...

... She was going to have SUCH a talk with Riventon about this later.

And then the yellow one was singing and... it sent warmth through her... it made her smile as she came out of the water. And the amulet around her neck? Was now glowing with an orange light...

Glimmer blinked and then shook her head, before she disappeared and, after a few moments, appeared on the boat, below Dark Phoenix. Not where she wanted but... dark energy. "Hey. Girl! My side of the job is done. You're on your own from here. We're even." She gripped the amulet on her neck and looked to Yellow Pearl Voice for a moment... before she disappeared.

Molly Skyline has posed:
Seriss watches as her creation opens the box and unleashes a cacophony of terrible feelings upon the gathered heroes -- and incidentally upon Glimmer as well, which while not part of the plan seems to have been unavoidable. Ahh well; it seems the girl has played her part anyway. Good enough... this time.

As her latest monster is shrieking out loud, Seriss avails herself of greater altitude, and sees about restoring power to her shield; the globe surrounding her crackles as it rebuilds itself, while the sorceress within it observes the results of her experiment below.

And the Mahou get right to work, of course. Amy collapses, promptly, and Seriss' lips turn upwards in a smirk. One down; a weakness for Puella Red that hs been noted. But Rashmi is busy throwing out binds, Sailor Moon is screaming like a toddler with a megaphone, and the mermaid who doesn't look like she crawled out of a horror show is singing.

Pandora is hit by the binds, and it slows her down; but she isn't really advancing, just... safeguarding her box, that she curls around to protect from Usagi's bone-rattling scream, a scream that causes a goodly portion of the monster's oily flesh to destabilize and splatter onto the deck as a black, stinking ichor, revealing more of the metallic bones underneath. The globe of energy around Seriss glows a translucent orange, protecting the spellcaster within from the worst of it.

Coco's song causes Pandoa to almost wilt; almost, but the strength of the creature's horrible screams interfere with the music. Or, perhaps, Coco's song is interfering with the wailing. In either case... the effect diminishes. Amy and the others will feel the terrible, dark feelings recede and give way to Coco's song.

Pandora curls into herself, before looking up with a terrible gaze, from empty sockets where eyes ought to be. It focuses on Coco and then screams, letting forth its own ear-splitting, metal-rending wail that tears up the deck of the ship in front of it in its wake.

"Oh, that was loud," Seriss comments, focusing her gaze on Sailor Moon. "Must you be so ill behaved?" She laughs, "I jest, fight as you see fit, but enough of that, young lady. Cygnus, fire one hundred of the charged barrets and conserve the rest. Target Sailor Moon.

<< AFFIRMATIVE >>

A torrent of barrets are unleased towards Usagi; searing hot and tearing up the deck in their wake, creating a small storm of shrapnel in their passing.

As Pandora's scream dies down and the terrible feelings from the box resurge, Pandora struggles against her binds, at last; some of them break, but some hold, and it turns its visage upon Amy, lowering its head and opening its maw full of jagged metal teeth wide; impossibly wide, with the glowing psuedopod hanging off its forehead flaring to brilliance; a bright, warm, enticing brilliance. A promise of warmth, of safety in this cold dark world. A gentle embrace, as the dark mermaid licks her lips.

Safety.

If Amy would only

come

Inside

Aloisia Stauss has posed:
Better responses than Aloisia can muster are given to Seriss Nyx. It's not like she was particularly good at words a lot of the time, really. Especially not when being assaulted by the same feelings she had been consumed by for so many months. A call to cover her ears gets a movement to just that as Sailor Moon unleashes that scream. And Amy, nearby, falls to her knees.

As the screaming subsides, Aloisia moves almost immediately to Amy's side, that sword held lower in one hand as she reaches to gently take hold of Amy's upper arm and help her back to her feet. "Come now, little rocket engel, I know you're stronger than this. After all, you were chosen by Hannah, ja?" Her tone is level, calm, reassuring.

Also there might be a bit of a magical support there as well, a gentle sharing of that warm, secure, strong energy of Aloisia's. Even if she's beaten up, even if she's already feeling her energy levels start to falter slightly.

Something that thankfully was supplemented by that singing from Yellow Pearl Voice as she sings out that balming song and burns away her fatigue, restoring her faltering energy as Dark Glimmer does... exactly as she'd requested her to. Wonderful. One less target to worry about.

What /was/ something to worry about was the fact that, well. There was now a pseudopod appearing behind the maw of that massive mermaid. Attempting to entice Amy inside. Aloisia gives a soft exhale, as plasma starts to arc wildly off of her form as she starts to channel it into her Magic Sword, circuits inside of it burning and popping audibly as Aloisia stands tall, stands between Amy and the Monster. And she points her sword straight towards the center of that maw, right at that glowing pseudopod.

"She is not yours."
"...Plasmabolzen."

And from the tip of that blade, a crackling ball of plasma forms like an unwilling liquid, which with a flick of that blade is sent flying into that maw.

It moves slowly, at first. Not properly launched like it would normally be, almost drifting serenely through the air with that crackling, static-causing energy.

Until it gets close, at which point Aloisia flicks a small crystal dart into the center of that ball of plasma, which promptly explodes into a sphere of plasma. Possibly right in its mouth, if the Youma is too foolish to move.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
The scream just

    keeps

        on

            coming.

But through the despair and the loneliness and all the feelings she has *routinely* battled against over the last two years, she hears Sailor Moon's warning. Because the voice of a friend always, *always* shouts down the brainweasels. And thus, she covers her ears... just in time.

Sailor Moon has *pipes,* yo.

And as the wail ebbs, Yellow Pearl Voice's song comes in to fill in the cracks. A song of hope, a song of love, of uplifting the weak... Yeah. *That* gets Rashmi closer to equilibrium, and when she un-squinches her eyes, she hears Seriss target Sailor Moon.

    << *BONG!* >> << SOLDAR SHIELD -- GLACE SHIFT >>

As the Barrets begin their attack, a bubble of golden light envelops Sailor Moon, and with a screeching *CRACK* becomes a thick, crystalling shell of ice, irregularly faceted and covered in spikes designed to disrupt flowing energies that contact it. Which means it's not *ideal* against a massed attack of shots... But the ice is thick, and solid, and requires a good bit of wearing down before an attack can damage the bunny center within.

And then she turns to Pandora.

    << *BONG!* >> << BURST INDEX: SOLAR BARRAGE >>

No finesse, no tricks, just Barret after Barret launched toward those jagged metal teeth, that steel-boned, gloopy face. Each one packed with an extra payload of kinetic force.

A normal Barret, at average power, hits like a punch from a boxer. At full power, like a battering ram.

These Barrets hit like battering rams with concussion grenades on the end.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"YOU HAD BETTER BELIEVE IT! PRINCESSES DO WHAT THEY WANT!"

The monster is protecting the box. The monster is destabilizing, splattering where her scream ripples across it's flesh, and Sailor Moon is facing the monster dead on, trying to direct her scream towards it and away from her friends - yes, one of the few things she has voluntarily studied is the way soundwaves work, so the cone is being focused away (though soundwaves bounce and boy is there enough metal ship to bounce them around).

She's not surprised to be targeted. She's even less surprised to be defended, a thick icy shell forming around her in the instant that Seriss Nyx fires, ice that's abraded away, as the barrets fire and fire and fire and fire, chipping and melting and gouging away the shell, the inside becoming swampy with melting water, and Sailor Moon has stopped screaming, for the sake of not deafening herself with her own scream, her odango caps ceasing their glow -

The icy shell is worn away before the barrets are. Sailor Moon's crossed arms and chest armor block some of the strikes, leaving them singed and semi-melted, the Soldier of Justice marred but not down.

"If you think that was ill-behaved," Sailor Moon says, and there's a glint in her eyes, fury and passion and love, never for Seriss Nyx, but certainly for everyone else here, forced to deal with this monster. "Then I can't wait to show what else we've got."

Her hand goes to her tiara, and the metal becomes energy, blazing and bright in her first, sparkling with all the light of creation, of the cosmos. She holds it.

"You keep coming back with these horrors, and we'll keep coming up with ways to beat them down!"

And the shining light, trapped in her hand, glows bright as the full moon would, as bright as the distant, creeping dawn.

"Moon Tiara Boomerang!"

And with an elegant - yes, elegant! - throw, with all her strength and skill behind it, the shining discus of light flies towards the monster - only to curve, twist, and home in on the box!

Amanda Faust has posed:
    It's true, the world isn't made up just of strong people, they all have their weaknesses, and their love still matters...

    Thanks, inspiring mermaid song!

    Amy's eyes refocus on the monster, on the box that it's so clearly protecting -- she aims and fires an anti-tank rocket at it!

    And then Pandora goes for another mental attack, and Amy...

    Well from outside, she stands up and looks at the monstrous maw before her and just sort of looks puzzled.

    From the inside, maybe it's the lingering effects of Coco's song, and of Sailor Moon's countersong, but the compulsion to walk to her doom is recognized as nonsensical, though not immediately as hostile, and a bunch of other thoughts pile on like 'why on earth would it be safe to be eaten by the monster' and 'this is the second eating-people-themed monster, isn't it, after the fridge youma at the hotel' and 'it didn't drop a crystal, they never drop crystals' and 'Even if my powers worked that way I don't think I want an eating-things crystal'

    And then Aloisia steps in front of her, and Amy shakes it off, and just gives Pandora a '...really?' look, and armored boots and gloves and partial 'skirt' appear on her as she holds up her right arm and a big launch tube appears braced to it. "Enough of that."

    AURA PILLAR!

    And a missile flies up into the air, and then splits into a dozen which come back down, raining explosions on Pandora in an attempt to help overwhelm its defenses so others' attacks can have their full effect!

    And then she remembers Ahmya's gifts. Now is as good a time as any! She conjures a costume sword with a red, black, and white colorscheme matching her own, enhanced with Ahmya's blessings so it can maybe be an effective weapon, and holds it out to her side as she steps out from behind Aloisia, taking a breath, quietly noting, "You started this."

    BRAKE RELEASE!

    Thrusters in the armor 'skirt' fire, and she takes off, flying towards the mouth herself--

    GRAND

      --She swerves to the side, positioning the sword to cut into the side of the monster's mouth and along its body--

          BLAZER!

    --and the sword breaks after several feet of cutting and Amy flies off to the side to land on the deck, smiling in satisfaction. It would be really cool if all those finishers made the monster explode behind her right now!

Coco Kiumi has posed:
That glow distracts Coco from what is going on around her, clear familiarity that makes her stare wide-eyed to the pinkette that it's defending the best way she can by the uditive attack Coco's own song insulates her from.

It definitely feels final hits her with the essence of the magical strength that is released in opposition. "Glimmer...?", she asks with hesitation, her mind struggling to believe what her eyes are unequivocally telling her. That orange light, and her own, are a balm for herself too, in those few precious seconds it's still there.

Those can only be one thing. Why does she have that? Why does she have that? Wasn't she the one that brought the Orange Pearl to her? Why does she have Seira's heart fragments now? She would have thought Glimmer had understood. "Wait!", Coco shouts when she realises the pinkette is going away, but it's too late, and that comforting glow is gone together with Brightmoon's queen.

But that monster keeps on coming, and Coco can only rely on her voice now. The doubts and worries will have to wait for later. Right after the barrets headed for Sailor Moon, Amy almost got eaten, and they are all still in danger.

If beyond the rainbow, there's a sound of tomorrow being born, then...

In the midst of our journey, we aim for the land of the sun
Without a map, we head to the Promised Land.
This overflowing story will change into an endless future.
I'm sure I'll grant a lot of dreams, so...

The bell of hope echoes, and the door of fate opens.
I'm sure we'll reach the Last Paradise.
Even on days that the rain of sadness continues, I can continue to swim.
I've come to always believe deep in my heart... In myself.

Molly Skyline has posed:
From where she's hovering, Seriss watches as the battle proceeds, and it seems to be reaching its innevitable end. Pandora's howling refuses to abate; but it's almost as if there are two zones of sound, one the discordant, pernicious wailing from the monster and the other the powerful, uplifting music from Coco. The two sounds cancel out somewhere in the middle, as the mermaid (the real mermaid, not the mockery) is able to carve out a safe space for her friends.

The Plasmabolzen fires, and it indeed fires straight into Pandora's mouth; the explosion that goes off ripples down along the body of the vile creation, making it bulge and twitch, while Amy's sword cuts deep, starting with the mouth and continuing on down along its body; the ongoing explosions blow the wound wide open, leaving pandor a gasping, squirming mass of ichor and metal bones.

Seriss continues to watch, as Rashmi's barrage hits Pandora where Aloisia and Amy have already rent it open, blasting it into a further state of destruction, and all of it twitching and wilting as its wailing stops and Coco's song finally washes over it.

And then, Usagi's boomerang strikes the box.

A weird whistling sound, accompanied by a whoosh of foul and noxious gases issues forth from the box; and up above, Seriss breaks into laughter.

"Bold move, Sailor Moon. Bold indeed." She puts her thumb against her forefinger and snaps, vanishing into a burst of purple light and reappearing further up in the sky, banking around to head for Obsidian Tower.

On the ship, Pandora's oily flesh melts away, leaving just the metal underneath; one skeletal hand still clutching the box who's shrieking builds in intensity, the box physicall shaking and rattling, glowing brilliantly like it's going to melt;

And then it explodes, releasing a shockwave that blasts the ship in two and sends foul ichor splashing far and wide into the bay.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
The monster goes boom. The box? The box also goes boom.

And Sailor Moon feels the terror, in the instant it goes, and she spins, right there, like a ballerina, just twirling on her foot as she rises on her toes and calls the power up, pulling out every stop, Silver Crystal glowing -

Her words start out normal but quickly build to a crescendo as her voice keeps rising and the attack keeps going as she realizes the split seconds are ticking-

"Moon Spiral Heart HeARTHEARTHEARTATTACK!"

Large (but not enormous) translucent pink hearts burst out as she spins, flying towards her friends, and they may only be in time to take the brunt of the explosion and burst into shards of energy upon breaking, falling away into marble sized translucent pink hearts that fade away. Some of them, however, ram into her friends, launching them away from the explosion (though with the kind of force that's like getting a sack of flour to the body) at high speed - anyone who can't fly will end up taking a dip in the bay, for sure.

Sailor Moon can't hit herself with a heart, though, so the one in front of her just takes the brunt, before she goes flying back and into the sea, her henshin cracking, and then bursting into ribbons and light, leaving Usagi Tsukino floating, unconscious, in her pajamas. Well, someone will keep her from drowning, right?

Aloisia Stauss has posed:
Alright. Other things are generally being handled, Rashmi defending others, Sailor Moon throwing a moonmerang and being very sassy (Aloisia Approved, really), and a very elegant throw!

And then Amy was in front of her after snapping out of her thing, unleashing barrages of rockets and then following up with a sword. There's a small, firm nod. Quiet approval.

...Normally it would be much louder approval but frankly Aloisia was still pretty sore from eating the twin blasts from Glimmer and the effects of when the Box was open, not to mention the thing probably propping up her energy stores at the moment was probably mostly that persistent song from the Mermaid Coco helping to protect them. She gives a slow exhale.

<<After this is done, I have an idea for dealing with any oil still lingering.>>

Aloe pauses a moment.

<<I'm not sure how much longer my energy is going to hold out, but if the oil is pushed back into the tanker and a Shield spell is put over the hole, followed by some of the Rocket Engel's burning missiles and some of your solar shift barrets, the hole could possibly be patched until something more permanent can be done about this ship.>>

Is it really the time to talk about that, since they were still in the middle of the fight? Probably. She /did/ say she's almost out of energy.

Aaand then the box was starting to physically shake. And rattle. And glow. "...I'm really glad this is in a barrier right now."

She lifts the Device in her hand, one magical circle appearing over the box... and then... a flickering... secondary magical circle, as Aloisia focuses HARD, sweat beading on her forehead. "Pyramide..." That special pyramid begins to grow.

Boom.

"Shi--"

Just before the explosion goes off, Aloisia is knocked back by a giant pink heart, flying past some railing which she reflexively reaches to grab hold of and dangle from. Luckily the barrier is still up. So in the non-barriered world there's... just... a regular leaking boat... instead of a destroyed one.

Okay that's not much better.

<<I don't like this training>>

Comes the slightly out-of-it comment from Aloisia.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
As the monster gets shredded, and the Tiara angles into the box, a stray thought of Rashmi's floats through the psychic comms net:

<< I'm so sorry for that, Fate-chan... >>

Because there was a time when there was *just* enough time for the blonde to realized her face was about to be exploded in, once. And now Rashmi understands every layer of that '...Oh.'

So caught up is she in that moment of reflection, she doesn't even *see* the giant spinning heart until it blasts her clear away from the ship, up up, up into the air and away from the ship-cracking explosion.

When she has her bearings about her, she has just enough time to look around before hearing an almost pathetically quiet *splish*.

One mental query later:

"Moon-chan!" she cries, then lurches downward toward the treading figure, scooping the Princess out of the Bay and rising just far enough to look here and there for the signature glow of a Live Stage. "Yellow Pearl-chaaaaan?"

<< That's because this isn't the training. This is what the training is supposed to be worse than. >>

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Sadly, Amy is facing the other way when she gets the nod, because she's in front of Aloisia slicing open the monster.

    Amy really should have been looking behind her. If cool girls don't look at explosions, cool girls also go 'whaAAAH!' as they get knocked over by the shockwave as the ship splits in half.

    (Thanks to Sailor Moon, she didn't get launched through the railing like she did to Glimmer only faster!)

    She lifts herself to her feet and turns to Aloisia, worried. "I... don't suppose this stuff will go with your barrier when it's dispelled?" she asks.

    Fortunately, Aloisia has a plan. Amy's impressed! "There's probably going to be fire by the end of this... but a burning ship is better than dumping it all into the ocean..."

    And then Amy's eyes widen. "Wait, the ship is split apart! Like, it was one thing when there was a hole to weld, but can anyone really hold the two halves of the ship together?! And where'ed Sailor Moon go?!" Amy paces atop the sinking ship. "Should I just... burn it? If it all burns up in the barrier does that count as, like, the same as when we destroy buildings and then the one outside the barrier is fine and the broken one goes away?!"

Coco Kiumi has posed:
The monstrous mermaid, that grotesque parody that Seriss made with even an antithesis to her power melts away, and that box meets a similar end, starting to glow with the foreboding signs of an explosion.

Live Stages move to catch those that would need a hand to stay safe from that final attack, and one surrounds Coco as well, even if already being at a certain distance and in the water already would likely help keep her safe. Still, better safe than sorry with Seriss Nyx's involvement, who has just been standing around during all of this.

She keeps singing, a melody of purification that's still just as hurtful to the ears of those infected by dark energy, and her song reaches its apex. It's just about time to declare the finale on her performance.

"Fine Heart Pitch!" A final surge of purification accompanies her words, and then she leaves everything behind to go swim towards Usagi and hold her between her tightly, keeping her upper body above the water, at the same time Rashmi does. "Hi", Coco smiles at the Device Mage.

Aloisia Stauss has posed:
<<You are correct. Also ow.>> Aloisia floats off of the ship again, giving a soft exhale as she listens to Amy's concerns and then she shakes her head a little.

<<The ship should be less badly off once I drop the Barrier, it's still going to have the damage from BEFORE I put it up, but it should be a little less uh. Actually sinking into the bay after I drop it. The oil is still a problem, but the lack of containment should be less of one.>>

Aloe floats over towards the mermaid and Rashmi, crouching down next to the mermaid. "Thank you for the music, the energy from it was quite helpful." She comments towards her, before taking a deep breath. "Alright, uhm.... we should probably move away a bit before i drop the barrier so we don't end up inside of a random part of the ship or something before we start fixing this stuff." Pause.

"Also we might need to be ready to deal with possible coastguard responding to the oil spill."