422/A Bad Future!

A Bad Future!
Date of Scene:	14 September 2023
Location:	Mitakihara Ward
Synopsis:	Scorn and Lamya have a disagreement and fight over it. Puella Amy, Yelliw Pearl Voice and Cure Tide have to deal with it!
Cast of Characters:	Scorn, Mie Kitamura, Amanda Faust, Coco Kiumi, Aki Kurosawa

---

Scorn has posed:
NOT TOO LONG AGO:

"NO, QUEEN MIRAGE IS THE BEST AND WILL PLUNGE THIS WORLD INTO MISFORTUNE FIRST BEFORE YOUR DUMB CHILDREN'S PARTY CLOWN!"

"LET THE FUTURE REFLECTED THE MIRROR BECOME TERRIBLE, GO TERRIBAD!"

NOW:

A Terribad, a large creature at least two stories tall picks out the girder from a construction complex and throws it across the way down the road, as there's a trail of drained pedestrians in everyone's wake. THERE'S ALSO people on their knees muttering about how hopeless everything is.

It is raining feathers and feathers grows out of various surfaces of various sizes. There...are no heroes currently on scene and the Terribad seems to be... fighting another youma!? What!? Who's side is this thing on!?

Mie Kitamura has posed:
    Oh, not just any other youma. An Akanbe! This clown-faced monstrosity was created from a crane, it's long spindly body with short stubby feet trying to dodge the incoming girder. Unfortunately it crashes into the unfinished building that it had been working on back when it was a normal, every day crane.

    "AKANBE!" it shouts and swings it's one giant arm around, the weighted end of the line zipping out to try to entangle the Terribad.

    "IF YOU THINK I'M GOING TO STAND IDLY BY WHILE YOU SUCK AWAY ALL THE BAD ENERGY YOU HAVE ANOTHER THING COMING TO YOU!" The dragon-girl Lamya shouts. I mean, sure, she doesn't really have that undying loyalty to Emperor Pierrot that this woman seems to have to her Queen Mirage, but it's the principle of the thing, you know? Luckily it hasn't come to blows between Lamya and Scorn themselves yet. Just their minions.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    A giant monster?! In Mitakihara?! Who would have thought?!

    Puella Amy arrives on a nearby rooftop, but...

    The youma is... fighting another youma. Okay.

    You know what? She's still kinda sore from the other day, she has magic to conserve, she's going to prioritize clearing the battle area and *then* decide what to do to handle it.

    The tiny puella starts carrying people off two at a time to put in a building at least half a block away. If she sees a *conscious* civilian, she points at herself to indicate her costume, and warns them off with, "Magical girl stuff. Monster battle going on. Please stay away." ...As if that would have worked on her.

Coco Kiumi has posed:
The two youmas' fight could be heard from quite the distance with how fiercely they have been fighting. So it's no surprise that heroes would come out to play, figuratively speaking. Coco was feeding her otters when she notices the huge negativity that you would have to be magically blind to to not notice.

'What are they doing now?' she sighs. 'Sorry, you two, you will have to take care of that yourself. The bad guys here can't stay put a moment', she informs the otters. As the mermaid princess brings her arms to each side of her shell locket, she declares "Yellow Pearl Voice!", the pearl in her shell locket responding to her will and starting to shine with a yellow light.

A kaleidoscope of colours covers Coco's clothes as those change into her yellow gloves and boots with flowy extensions, as well as a yellow blouse with a yellow skirt, while her pearl expands into her trusty E-Pitch microphone, its blue shape settling comfily into her hand, the jewel nestled safely in the head's center.

In a matter of minutes, Yellow Pearl Voice is at the scene. "Alright, you two! What are you doing here? Don't you know that neither of you have any claim to the people's energy?" She doesn't know what they were discussing, but it doesn't take a genius to guess the context since they are duking it off.

Scorn has posed:
Scorn was atop a girder on the construction site and overlooking the city block this fight was slowly, slowly taking over. The bad energy, combined from the two sources could make you tingle enough from far away. Indeed, the Terribad (Which had a clipboard, was wearing a foreman's helmet and giant pencil) had become entangled in the line and was now toppling over onto the office shack, smooshing it beneath it.

It needed to untangle itself and crawl back to it's feet, when it did so, it move to leap into the air and swing it's giant pencil down onto the Akanbe.

There's no conscious people here, between the two sources of energy draining nearby. Everyone is either drained and flat down on their backs or currently kneeling and muttering about how hopeless this current endeavor of...whatever they we're currently doing is.

Scorn huffs. "FAT CHANCE. YOU KNOW FAT LIKE THE CLOWN YOU SERVE, HE'S FAT!" Scorn yells. "DRAGONS! MORE LIKE, YOU'RE DRAGGINAG THIS ON!" she yells.

Amy's actions go largely unnoticed.

Yellow Pearl Voice gets such a look. "Oh. It's you again. SUNBREAKER STOLE MY SECRET WEAPON SO DON'T YOU DARE SING AGAIN!" she says. "THIS IS BETWEEN PEOPLE THAT ACTUALLY MATTER." she yells at her.

Mie Kitamura has posed:
    "EMPEROR PIERROT IS NOT FAT! HE'S JUST.... FRILLY!" Comes Lamya's retort. She's not really good at this sort of thing. Collecting Bad Energy, sure. Being a dragon, most definitely. But debate? "AND YOUR QUEEN MIRAGE IS JUST.... A POO POO HEAD!"

    The giant pencil hits the mark on the Akanbe, causing it to wobble about moaning, "Akanbeeee..." it's eyes all twirly. Lamya flies down on her great wings to give a kick to the Akanbe to knock it to its senses. "Back to your feet you useless minion!" she shouts at it. "Get it!"

    "Akanbe!" it shouts, shaking its head to clear it, raising it's giant arm and swinging down at the Terribad.

    "That's more like it!" Lamya shouts. She turns back to scorn, "AND I'M THE BEST DRAGON! I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE!"

    Yellow Pearl Voice's voice catches her attention. "You!" She remembers this one. She's a princess! And now she's conflicted. On the one hand, she can't let this upstart with her youma just win. On the other hand... Princess! "Stay put! I'll deal with you once I deal with this... woman."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy -- who Lamya possibly recognizes as Amy from RPG Club, but who doesn't recognize her, transformed -- has made her way over to Lamya's perch. "Hey. Hey ladies. What do you *want*." She gestures at the monster battle. "Like, you clearly wanted attention, now you've got it. What do you *want*. What is Emperor Pierrot's *deal*. Like come on, don't you want everyone to know of his majesty or whatever, and your brilliant plan to bring him to power? C'mon." She waves an arm in Yellow's direction. "You've got a stage. You've got an audience. Let's hear it!"

Aki Kurosawa has posed:
From the sky, flying high, comes Cure Tide! That rhyme was on purpose, you know.

She comes down from the sky hard in a kick towards the Akanbe, trying to smoosh it directly into the Terribad in one go, kicking one into the other with all her strength.

Remaining hovering in the air, she looks to the two fighting monsters and mutters. "Give me a break." she says.

"I got you over here. I don't even know who you are." she motions to Lamya. "And my dumb, brainwashed sister over here." she motions to Scorn. "Fighting over. What is it now. Who's energy this people is? Who's stronger? Who cares!" she says angrily as she balls her fists up.

Yellow Pearl Voice? Gets a wave though. Hi Yellow Pearl Voice. So does Amy! Hi Amy!

Coco Kiumi has posed:
Coco flies up with the Live Stage so she is a roughly equal distance between Scorn and Lamya. She gives the former a look of her own as she proceeds on her naming choice. "I don't think that's a secret weapon anymore now that I know of it, besides, it wouldn't help as much besides sparing you the song itself." Coco reacts with scorn at Scorn's comment.

She doesn't say much to Lamya, only looking at her questioningly, wondering what she is going to accomplish asking her to stay put. "Surely you realise I am not going to wait for you two to finish, right?" she comments confused.

"Can't you please take your villainy elsewhere so people aren't affected? And I am pretty sure you can fight by yourselves without the need of using people to create those big guys." the mermaid princess goes back to address Scorn.

She waves at Amy with joy. "Hello, Red! It's great to have you here", she greets before adding with a laugh and a wink "And they are going to have many Stages, you know?"

When Cure Tide appears and waves, Coco smiles at her. "Hi, it has been so long, how have you been?"

Coco raises her arm without the E-Pitch up high, palm outstretched. "Let's start the concert then. "Legend of Mermaid: Pichi Pichi Voice, Live Start!" At the call of the song, 4 more Live Stages appear around Coco, the magical notes commanding them to hurl themselves at the enemies, 2 at the Akambe and 2 at the Terribad, all the while the music narrates the magical adventure of the seven seas, creating a peaceful atmosphere that fights the environment's darkness.

Scorn has posed:
The Terribad takes a hit to the head from the Akanbe and is protected from the hit with it's helmet, still sending the terribad skidding backwards through the ground! Until it gets smacked into from either the Akanbe being smacked into it , or Cure Tide kicking it. (Or both, really).

Amy gets all of Scorn's attention though when she finally speaks up. "Oh it's you, the girl who ruined my good chances of getting in good with Queen Mirage because she can't leave well enough alone!" she says angrily. Then Cure Tide arrives. "AND I'M NOT YOUR SISTER WHY DO YOU KEEP CALLING ME THAT?!" she yells at Cure Tide. "STOP MAKING THINGS WEIRD!"

She's about to tell her Terribad to attack the Akanbe again when musical notes (and their live stages) crash into the Terribad and hurt it even more. And the singing creating the peaceful atmosphere isn't helping either and Scorn has to cover her ears again and mutter, like Corvus the other day. "I hate it here."

"HEY DRAGON GIRL, TRUCE UNTIL THIS IS HANDLED THERE'S LIKE THREE OF THEM NOW!" Scorn calls out across the battle.

Mie Kitamura has posed:
    "AGREED!" Lamya shouts at Scorn. "I'll take care of the yellow one," she says. "You handle the other two." She alights into the air on her wings and makes a dramatic pose, pointing her finger at Yellow Pearl Voice. "Akanbe! Get the princess!"

    "AKANB--" It never gets a chance to finish, when a pair of Live Stages knocks it off its feet.

    "Why does Joker insist we keep using these things?" Lamya grumbles. "They're useless." Still. Akanbes are kind of tough, when it comes to physical combat, especially the Red Nose ones, which this one happens to be.

    It staggers to its feet and shouts out an angry "AKANBE!" and swings that long crane arm down intending to smoosh Yellow Pearl Voice.

    "Wait! No!" Lamya shouts at it. "We want to knock her out, not smoosh her into paste!" She shakes her head, "How am I supposed to kidnap her if she's dead!?"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy went to talk to the other one and Scorn *still* throws a fit. "Why are you so mad at me?! I just gave you the misery and despair you said was so good!"

    And then Scorn asks for a truce and her eyes go wide. WHAT, NO!

    Lamya agrees. "Aww, nutbunnies."

    Amy leaps into the air towards the Akanbe, firing a rocket at the arm to knock it off course. She's reasonably sure there are magical defenses to protect Coco but let's not put that to the test!

Aki Kurosawa has posed:
Cure Tide smiles and waves to Yellow Pearl Voice. "It's been a moment!" she says. "But later." she says as she looks over to Scorn and frowns. "She's Phantom Empire. They only want miserable energy when it's harvested from others." she says to Amy as Amy expounds to Scorn.

"Sorry, Scorn but you're my sister AND you're still dumb as ol' boots!" she says with a smile as the two ask for a truce, she moves in to call at a stream of water from her hand as she calls out. "PRETTY CURE, TIDE STREAM!" after spinning her prebrace, aiming to smack into the Terribad as Amy launches rockets into the Akanbe.

"HEY, RED YOU GOT CLOWNNOSE? I GOT THE OTHER ONE." she calls out.

Coco Kiumi has posed:
Yellow Pearl Voice grimaces in annoyance when the two of them form a truce. That was the sensible thing, but she was hoping that they would have kept their quarrel up for a bit longer.

"Maybe you should fight yourself if you think those demons are useless? Or are you afraid of achieving even less than them?"

She barely reacts in time when the Akanbe attacks her with its crane arm. The song of the seven seas spreads throughout the area once more, moving on to coat the Live Stage surrounding Coco in a special barrier that blocks unwanted entry or exit. That should last against this simple attack, right? In the meantime, the passive anti-darkness effect still hovers in the area as the melody of the mermaid princess resonates in the air.

Scorn has posed:
A Truce is formed, Amazing that two people on the same side can...pretend not to hate one another for like five seconds to punch some heroes.

The Terribad takes a hit to the face from the water and grarbbables a 'Terribad' yell into it as it's blasted backwards.

The Terribad however, gets back on it's feet and swings into the air, and comes down hard onto the ground with all it's might, sending a large quake into the ground when it sends entirely half the construction down, careening in pieces down upon both Tide and Amy!!!?

When Yellow Pearl Voice eggs them on, Scorn scoffs. "Four versus three then. I like those odds." she says dramatically, as she leaps into the air and attempts to knock Cure Tide out of the air with a wind infused **PUNCH**, sending her potentially careening down into the ground- providing she can find purchase, and if she can even be FOUND amid the confusion of knocking over half the construction site.

Mie Kitamura has posed:
    The rocket flies at the Akanbe's arm and, indeed, knocks it off course. However it stumbles and crashes into some of the work trailers that are situated on the edge of the construction site. "Akanbe..." it says, sadly.

    Roused by Yellow Pearl Voice's taunt, Lamya snarls, "Fine! You know what? FINE! I'll show you what it's like to fight THE GREAT DRAGON LAMYA, WYRM OF THE LAKE AND SCOURGE OF MARCHENLAND!" She flies at Yellow Pearl Voice with great velocity, smoke trailing from her mouth, and when she gets close enough, she blasts a burst of flame towards the magical girl.

    The Akanbe has managed to right itself by this time and swings that arm of its again, letting the line at the end play out to try to entangle Amy. After all, rocket launchers hurt!

Aki Kurosawa has posed:
Cure Tide watches as the Terribad is knocked over. Then it leaps into the air. What is it up to!?

And then it brings half the construction site downwards and Tide's eyes go wide and she has to start dodging girders and falling toolboxes and more girders and wood planks and rivets and all sorts of things and she jumps onto a girder and leaps upwards through a wooden plank, snapping it in half before she takes a girder to the side wing which smarts, but not a lot since it's just an energy construct from the bow on the back of her dress....

Then Scorn. Right behind her suddenly. Building up wind energy just slams her home through the mess and she smacks into a girder, pushing it out of the way with her body as she smacks home into the dirt, driven backwards. She'll need a moment to get her bearings again, she isn't even getting up yet.

"N..Nrg...H..HaruHaru..." she mutters.

Amanda Faust has posed:
> YOU GOT CLOWNNOSE?
    "I dunno, which one do rockets work better on?? Kinda feels like I got a thing going with [Miss Misery] over there, I may as well be the one to piss her off more, right?"

> They only want misery from others
    "OH. So Misery's great to HARVEST. That makes WAY more sense, she shoulda just said so! Just because we're hero and villain, doesn't mean we can't be on the same page about what everybody wants! Also what's Phantom Empire? Can you tell me later?"

    Oh hey, it's raining construction and there's cable arm and Amy is just generally in ALL the red targeting circles and a dragon's coming for Yellow. Amy rocket-jumps to the side, grabbing Yellow and flipping the launcher under herself and riding it as it scrapes against the asphalt. So she's not able to *attack*, but maybe she can keep them safe for a few seconds longer?

Coco Kiumi has posed:
"Good job, Red!" Coco cheers at her friend as her attack pushes the Akanbe away from the Live Stage. "You couldn't have chosen a better timing.

The taunt that she addressed to Lamya meanwhile proves a little bit too effective, involving Scorn in it. 'Well, I didn't expect that, better make the best of this situation then', she thinks before moving to address Scorn."I wasn't talking to you, Scorn, but it's interesting to know I struck a nerve." After all if she loses her calm enough, that ought to make her not think as well about her actions, right?

Coco feels the air leave her lungs as Amy tackles her out of the way of Lamya's dragonbreath. "Ow, thanks, Red." Even strengthened as she is by the peach's power, she probably shouldn't underestimate the strength a magical girl has. At least she is now in the playing field as all of them.

The mermaid princess reforms the Live Stage as soon as the two of them are in the same place, going back to sing her song that contracts darkness, narrating of miracle-filled adventures and treasures concealed beyond the seven seas. Much like before, two Live Stages appear next to her as she aims them at Lamya before throwing them.

Scorn has posed:
The Terribad finishes bringing down the house, and watches as it's master just punts Cure Tide into the ground. Scorn dusts her hands off and hufs in a dramatic fashion. "Too easy!" she says as she watches a dust cloud form up from all the falling debris. It engulfs her and the surrounding area...!?

When it clears enough. Scorn is seen walking towards Cure Tide. "If I can't win this fight against the dragon or rocket girl then I'll take the second prize, a Cure for Queen Mirage!" she commands as she moves, suddenly, like the wind forward towards Tide's location.

The Terribad, now free from being targeted for a moment, swings it's clipboard suddenly at Amy, like a discus or a boomerang, sending the flying writing instrument after her! It's...it's a HOMING clipboard!? It is! It's FOLLOWING her movements!

Mie Kitamura has posed:
    Lamya's fly-by attack misses when the Puella manages to tackle Yellow Pearl Voice out of the way, and the dragoness angles upwards and soars into the sky. She growls when she turns around, all sharp teeth and smoking breath. The two Live Stages come hurtling after her, and her red eyes seem to gleam in delight. "Those may work on Akanbes, but I am on another level!" With a great flap of her wings, she speeds towards the Live Stages, causing them to overshoot her.

    "Akanbe!" She shouts, pointing at the Puella. "The red one!" It shouts out "Akanbe!" and hurtles its crane arm towards her, in the opposite direction of the clipboard is coming from, hoping to sandwich the poor girl between them.

    Yellow Pearl Voice's efforts to keep Scorn and Lamya from sucking up any more bad energy from the hapless civilians seems to be working, though. Her bright lyrics and uplifting music penetrate the miasma that the two villains have conjured, to leave the people aware enough to try to leave the area. So there's that at least.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy grunts after the impact with Coco. She's still kinda sore... Shit, now it looks like the Cure got hurt?! But now the enemies are focusing on her. She looks at the oncoming clipboard, timing a jump just right to go over it -- only to get smacked by the crane arm she wasn't looking at.

    PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR SURROUNDINGS! Was that from Gundam, or Star Fox?

    She cries out in pain and hits a building with a groan... *and the homing clipboard is still coming for her.* It's all she can do in the split-second she has to make the launcher big and try to block with it.

Aki Kurosawa has posed:
Cure Tide finally crawls up from the massive hit in time to meet Scorn's approach and her eyes go wide as she suddenly throws up her hands and calls out: "Cure Wave S-shield!" suddenly, calling up a wall of water for Scorn to have to contend with to get to her.

She can't answer Amy's questions right now, she's too busy trying to not be kidnapped again. She keeps up the shield as she winces as Scorn impacts it, she keeps trying to fight wind with water. But water moves to wind. It makes waves. She can only hold on so long.

"Gull-chan. I know you're in there..." she says angrily as she suddenly forces the flow outward, trying to catch Scorn in the waves and trying to blast her backwards into her own Terribad!

Coco Kiumi has posed:
"Splash Dream: Pichi Pichi Voice, Live Start!" Coco resumes to sing, enchanting the atmosphere with the tale of messages drawn in stardust that move through the transparent love that surround the seven seas, offering a beneficial wave of moderate recovery from her injuries and fatigue around the area and pushing against the darkness again.

Scorn has posed:
Scorn ... meets that shield and smacks into it. She tries pushing forward into it and grrrrssss. "I'M. NOT. YOUR. SISTER." she says angrily as she pushes and pushes and she's almost...almost about to get through when Cure Tide pushes all that force backwards and she's flung backwards into her Terribad and the two roll over one another and get caught into a tangle of fallen debris. @.@

This'll be a moment now as the two regain their bearings and shake it off, the Terribad crawling upwards and Scorn falling over, still all swirly eyed from the fling as she shakes her head and quickly gets to her feet and curls wind around her fists, before sending out tornadoes of wind around the entire area. "SCORN TORANDO! HAHAHAHAHAAHAH!" she cackles as she tries to cause a nuisance for everyone, even while the Terribad weakens from the lack of dark energy to harvest slowly from the singing, and tries to leave into the fray again, trying to come down on Amy more properly, swinging it's pencil at her while it's clipboard returns to it's other hand as it ricochets off her rocket launcher!

Mie Kitamura has posed:
    A wicked grin touches Lamya's face. The Puella is down, being attacked from all sides from a Terribad and an Akanbe, and the Cure is focusing on Scorn, leaving Yellow Pearl Voice... the princess... all to herself. Muhuhwahahaha!

    She pivots in the air and rockets down to swoop up the mermaid into her arms, that is, if there wasn't suddenly tornados everywhere! "What?!?" she cries out and now she's trying to dodge the whirlwinds! To be fair, she's very acrobatic in the air, and is able to keep herself from being sucked into one of these things, but it takes all her concentration to do so. "WILL YOU STOP THAT?!?"

    Meanwhile the crane-Akanbe stomps over to Amy and attempts to squish her by stomping on her with a big clown foot!

Aki Kurosawa has posed:
Cure Tide can avoid tornadoes of air. She has to move and weave and she's ragged, and she has to go airborne again, but she can avoid them. She needs to stop in the 'eye of the storm' as it is and take a breather. She just needs a second. Good.

She's good. Her sister is still an evil witch, but she's good. She looks over to Scorn. She looks to the Terribad. She looks over to Scorn. The Terribad.

She has friends here! But. There's two monsters. And one is technically her problem. And also. It's pressing down on Red over there.

Even if she could smack Scorn with her purification attack. She'd need help. She doesn't have that right now. So instead she settles on turning towards the Terribad.

"JOY TURN INTO A SACRED POWER!" she calls out as she smacks her Prebrace. "LOVELY PREBRACE..."

She spins her hands around one another, gathering up energy as she summons up energy into a large , deep blue orb above her, which she them brings down and punches towards the Terribad, "JOYFUL WAVE SHOOT!" she calls out-- engulfing the Terribad into the orb before she calls out. "JOY, RETURN TO THE HEAVENS!" clapping her hands above her, and posing in the air as the energy escapes upwards, taking all the dark energy with it.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    So Amy's nemesis (apparently) is Cure Tide's sister brainwashed by darkness? That's rough, buddy. And also something Amy has no time to think about right now.

    The clipboard actually knocks the launcher out of Amy's hands on impact, making her cry out, but she immediately resummons it.

    She crouches low and finds herself diving and rolling out of repeated attacks from above as youma try to pencil her or stomp her. Fortunately, they're BIG and she doesn't really need to AIM -- the launcher shrinks down to rifle-size and she fires up at the monsters between desperate dodging.

    The moment Cure Tide gives her a moment to breathe? She rolls up to her knees and holds her arm out towards the akanbe, the launcher suddenly becoming a large tube braced to her arm. "I've had enough of this!" And her soul gem darkens noticeably as she fires a big missile that *immediately* splits into a bunch of smaller ones, scattered to hail against the side of the monster and give her a moment to breathe! Just regular explosives this time. She's not sure that shaped-charge warheads actually *help* against magic foes.

Coco Kiumi has posed:
Coco turns around, attracted by Lamya's cry of surprise, a chuckle escaping her lips as she looks at her struggling to keep herself away from the tornadoes. "Looks like everytime you try to kidnap me, another villain ends up saving me. It must be tough for you."

She goes back to singing her song of purification, a splash Dream of aiming for a paradise, kicking the waves barefoot and leaving the tears to the sea, a big wave of throbbing love whose song resounds eternally; the magical melody tends to the fatigue that is possibly setting in, and pushing against the dark energy in the area.

Scorn has posed:
The Terribad indeed gets destroyed in a cry of "So Relaxxxxinnngggg!...." the foreman in the midst of all this being freed from his mirror and then crumpling down into the same energy drain as everyone else. Scorn watches as her Terribad vaporizes and she stamps her foot and turns towards Cure Tide. "Tide you... you...." she as, filled with deathly anger----!

"BIG MEANIE!" she starts crying as her tornadoes dissipate and she starts crying. "WHY CAN'T I EVER WIN!?" she cries as she bawls and finally just disappears into a duskport..!

Seems Lamya wins the fight!?

That's good!

Now it's 2 versus 3! That's bad!

Mie Kitamura has posed:
    Well, the good news is that Lamya isn't buffeted by zephyrs and whirlwinds anymore, causing her to fly skyward to assess the battlefield. The bad news, she discovers, is that her temporary ally has gone and retreated, leaving her to deal with three magical girls on her own. "Damn that useless witch," she mutters.

    "Akanbe! Keep those two occupied! I have a princess to kidnap!" Might as well cut her losses tonight. She might not have been able to siphon off as much Bad Energy as she would have liked, but at least she'll be able to get away with kidnapping an actual princess. It's probably not what she should be focusing on, but her dragon instincts are strong and will not be disobeyed.

    "AakaAAaaAaanbeEeee...." answers her youma. It's not the acknowledgement the dragoness was expecting, and when she looks over to see what the issue is, she sees the Akanbe laying on the ground, girders bent out of shape and smoking from the impacts of Puella Amy's many, many rockets.

    "Aargh!" Lamya cries out in frustration. "These things are useless! Just--" She looks out on the field as she realizes she has no way to 'retract' or unsummon an Akanbe once they're out. That seems like a design flaw, now that she thinks about it.

    She shakes her head. Nevermind. "You win this round, magical girls," she sneers, tilting into the air to gain some height so she can address them. "But I'll be back." Her red eyes tilt and land on Coco. "For you Princess. I will not be denied." With that her form blurs and vanishes as she retreats into the Bad End Kingdom.

    Which just leaves the magical girls with a fairly broken, but not quite out of commission Akanbe. Already there are serious cracks in it's nose. It wouldn't take much more to finish the job.

Aki Kurosawa has posed:
Cure Tide turns towards the Akanbe now that the Terribad is destroyed, and sees Amy has brought it down to it's knees. Good. She spins in the air once and comes down with a massive kick right into that bright, red, dumb, nose as Lamya vanishes back to wherever these people come from.

She'll bounce off the nose and either it's finished or someone else here can finish it.

She'll clap her hands together and pose. "Ocean Spray Pretty Cure!" she'd shout, herself.

Because her partner is currently indisposed. As a dark general.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "If your monster is useless, doesn't that mean she won!?" asks Amy, but the dragon is focused on Coco.

    Amy doesn't know how Duskporting works. Maybe Lamya can still hear? "That's mega creepy, by the way!" Amy shouts. "I don't think she's into you! Take no for an answer, you weird stalker!"

    With only a brief glance, she fires another small rocket, casually, one-handed, without really looking, at the akanbe after Tide hits it, just to wear it down MORE if still needed. "Are you both okay??"

Coco Kiumi has posed:
"I have had enough of being kidnapped, you stupid dragon!" Coco unveils all her frustration out, a nervous response triggered by Amy's comment about Lamya having to take no for an answer.

"I spent years in a darn prison not that much larger than me, and I never going back there now that I have the means to stop it."

The mermaid princess is shaking violently, the memories of her imprisonment under Gaito causing her to lash out even after Lamya is no longer there.

"You didn't have to account for a whole barrage of Live Stages last time. You. Are. Not. Going. To Kidnap. Me." Coco keeps staring at the place where Lamya disappeared, her eyes red from all the emotions she vented, not moving away from there, repeatedly breathing fast and briefly.

Aki Kurosawa has posed:
With the Akanbe dealth with...

Cure Tide gets an explosion behind her from the rocket as she poses. It's awesome. She looks over to Amy though and suddenly wilts hard and rubs her arm against her head. "I'm okay. Tired, and hurting but I'll be okay." she says.

She looks over to the mess of the fight and looks back to Puella Amy.

"...s.." she thinks. "Sorry my dumb brainwashed sister wants to kill you." she says, with a straight face, gently rubbing the back of her neck. "But I think I remember why." she says with a little smirk. She looks over to Yellow Pearl Voice. "Yellow. Are you okay?" she asks, noticing the girl is shaking. She frowns, moving a little closer towards her.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Holy shit, Coco was kept in a tank or something? Amy runs over to hug her (the launcher disappears into sparkles.)

    And then she looks over at Cure Tide too. "Um." She holds out an arm as if to invite her to join the hug. "Sorry, I'm new at all this. And there's nothing for you to apologize for, I signed up for villains to try to kill me when I took the job. She's your sister? That's *messed up*. Do you wanna talk about it?"

Coco Kiumi has posed:
Coco doesn't turn towards Aki. "I am not going back there, I just am not, Aki." She keeps breathing irregularly. "I mean, I knew they would come after me, and sure enough, we have had to repel Isuru, but I thought it would have been just them."

In her agitated state, she doesn't really pay any mind to the fact Aki wouldn't know who Isuru is. She accepts Amy's hug as she runs over, circling her arms around the redhead.

"And yet, just as Gaito's Dark Lovers show up again, that dragon decided to make her appearance too, and of course, Isuru had to blabber everything about me being a princess, and now I have to deal with one more demon that wants nothing more than stuffing me in their collection."

Coco smiles nervously, still breathing rapidly, not really paying attention to the fact she could have very well said mermaid there and turned herself into seafoam, being safe by a mere coincidence. "But it's ok now. Next time I see them, I will show them all they won't an easy time now. The time they could do as they please is officially over."

Aki Kurosawa has posed:
Cure Tide kind of rubs the back of her neck some more. "I'm. Okay. S-sorry." she says when offered a hug. Maybe she doesn't do hugs well right now. She listens to Yellow Pearl Voice and frowns a little more. "I'm sorry." she says.

"For me it's just. My sister went missing one night when we decided to go out on a patrol." she says softly. "I never found her again until she popped up. Like this." she says softly.

"Now I dunno what to do. I've already hit her once with all the purification I could muster, but..." she rubs her arm. "Wasn't enough." she shakes her head. "But." she ohs.

"You had a question. Earlier. What was the question?" she asks to Amy. "You kinda shouted it when I was fighting earlier."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "Collection? Is the dragon lady doing the Ganon thing where your magic plays some part in unsealing whatever she wants access to, or is this just straight up 'Gideon Graves has a creepy frozen woman collection'?" Amy asks, before realizing that blithely belittling the villain by comparing her to pop-culture references doesn't work when the people she's speaking to are less than half her age and not nerds. ._.

    She squeezes Coco in the hug and then looks to Cure Tide. Your sister turned into the villain. That's rough buddy. Amy *doesn't* voice *that* thought. "Uhhhh... I don't remember? Like, I'm old, and have ADHD, and do *you* even remember what you were thinking about five minutes ago? Does anyone? Is that a thing most people can just *do*? --Oh now I remember, the Phantom Empire thing."

    "So, what *is* the Phantom Empire? I mean, there's an *Empire*? *what*? That sounds like a pretty big deal wait I think this was already explained to me. *Something* about... people *calling* themselves an empire after taking over a world... RIGHT. Yes, I think M-- err... Cure Daybreak told me. I remember now. Sorry." She steps back from the hug and rubs the back of her head with an awkward grimace. "...But, any additional info I should know about them wouldn't hurt! I'm sorry I don't know enough about how all this works to suggest ways to... undo whatever was done to her."

    Amy slumps. "All those years of engineering and science classes so I'd understand how the world works, and I don't know a *thing* about how the world *really* works at all." She mutters, "Damn, school really is kind of wasting our time, huh..."

Aki Kurosawa has posed:
Cure Tide looks a little defeated in all this. "You kind of blew up a purse that released me and others from being carted off back to the Phantom Empire. Remember?" she asks. "It was a pretty big deal to me anyways. I.. uh. Saw my whole life flash before my eyes?" she says with wide, wavering eyes and shivers. "Oowww. I don't wanna think about it."

Then Amy says something really weird. "Years of what kind of classes? What'd you go to a special school growing up?" she asks with confusion, rubbing the side of her head.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "Oh god... it was YOU and not M--Cure Daybreak that explained it?! I'm so sorry..." Amy's face reddens and her stance hunches slightly as she looks away as if looking for somewhere to hide. "I... uh... I was actually aiming for Scorn... I guess it's a good thing I didn't hit your sister... I'd never used it before, I turned into a magical girl *seconds* before that..."

    At the question she continues to look away awkwardly. "I'm a... f-fake... kid. I was a grown-up before Kyubey recruited me. I mean, I *did* teach myself about science and computers for fun when I was a little kid--" and she sounds proud of that! "--but... y-yeah. Not that it means anything anyway since" she throws up her hands, "*magic* is *real*."

    "...Which, I mean, is really cool actually? And I wish I could study and understand it? But like, I don't even know where to *start*."

Aki Kurosawa has posed:
Cure Tide blinks a little. "Oh. I mean. If you hit her. She has a hard head. Even as a brainwashed dummy, she's still... a dummy." she says flatly. "Dark energy hasn't exactly made her smarter, you know." she says, deadpan.

"Besides I didn't even know she was my sister yet at that point. Technically." she adds. She listens a little when Amy says she's a fake kid. "Wait. You we're a adult? And now you're not? That's really ... odd. How does that happen?" she asks curiously.

"Look. This ain't an exactly science. If you think too hard about this magic stuff, you're gonna have a personal crisis. Sometimes. You just let things be. Kami knows I didn't believe this stuff either until some strange dude in a military outfit decided mine and my sister's coffee was too hot."

"Right. I run. Gullwing Coffee. You should stop by sometimes. Usually. It'd be me and my sister but. Yeah know." she shrugs.

Amanda Faust has posed:
> Dark energy hasn't made her smarter, you know.
    "Well, that explains a lot." Amy replies, equally deadpan.

> How does that happen?
    Amy throws up her hands again. "I don't KNOW 'cuz it's *magic!* I mean, logically speaking, I was told I'd become a magical *girl*, not a magical *woman*, or magical *man*, so I guess it makes sense. But as for the actual *how*? What *rules of the universe*, what *physical and chemical interactions between molecules* happened that took me from a fully functioning human being of *one* shape" She gestures in one direction, then the other, "to *another* shape... I couldn't tell you."

    The petite redhead starts pacing around. "Like, I could begin discussing semi-scientific theories about how we're all just patterns of electrical impulses and connections between neurons, and if you copied that perfectly you could transfer it to another body, but that wouldn't explain *how* it was done, or how *this* body was created or where my old one went or how it *became* this body somehow..."

    Amy blinks. "Sorry, did you say a dude in a *military* outfit? What? I got the talking animal and *how does an animal even talk anyway?!* There are so many questions! For science! God, *this* is what we should be learning in science class instead of reviewing how many electrons fit in each shell or how acceleration is the second derivative!"

    She calms down and rubs the back of her head. "Well, okay, those are pretty important too, actually, but so is *magic*! Except that adults can't remember it, except *I* remember it, so how does *that* all work anyway? Like, am I okay because I was *turned* young? But what does that mean, is magic eyeballing me like carding someone at the liquor store in reverse?! There are young-looking adults and mature-looking teenagers, *that* can't be it, but then what aspect of youth *matters*?? And *why*??"

    Amy slumps to a sitting position on some rubble, and stares down at the ground. "Geeze. *This* is what I should be spending my spare time on, but where do I even *start*?"

Aki Kurosawa has posed:
Cure Tide kind of seems taken aback. "Well. Like I said. I don't worry about it. Yeah. Oresky. Dude in a brown military uniform. Claims he's the best at everything and is number one and does what Scorn does. Make Terribads and try to plunge the world into misfortune." she says.

"You're worrying too much. You need to relax. Maybe coffee isn't the best idea. How about the arcade soon?" she asks, stiltedly. "Come on. It's on me." she says, motioning along.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "Oh. I wonder whose brainwashed friend or relative *he* is?"

> You need to relax.
    "I..." She's not sure HOW. But then the arcade is mentioned and her eyes light up. "You go to the *arcade*? Ooh, do you play Virtual On or KOF by any chance? Err... what games are kids playing these days...?" She looks awkward as she realizes she was gushing about ancient things. "...Will you show me?"