2824/KTF - Focus Point B

KTF - Focus Point B
Date of Scene:	04 November 2025
Location:	Pikarigaoaka Ward
Synopsis:	Yuyami is back, and she's brought another portal, another youma, and an appearance from her 'Sensei'.
Cast of Characters:	Yuyami Kagayaki, Rashmi Terios, Takashi Agera, Amanda Faust, Hinoiri Kirara, Mamoru Chiba, Catra, Usagi Tsukino
Tinyplot:	Kill the Fade

---

Yuyami Kagayaki has posed:
    Today's target for whatever Riventon and Yuyami are working on is a quiet section of Pikarigaoaka - just off the side of a beautiful park, near a concrete levee, a surge of Dark Energy erupts and once more an area of Tokyo's surface grows unnaturally dim - a spike-like object begins to form as though pulled in from the Dusk-Zone bottom up, and a powerful shimmering shielding dome rises around it, with Yuyami Kagayaki, clipboard in hand, pacing around it.

    Periodically stopping to scribble something down on her notes, moving from the central spire to the four machines placed around it. She pushes her glasses up on her nose. Everything's in order, and the barrier's even been upgraded from last time... she's got nothing to fear. She just hopes she can have as much success as last time.

    The area even past the dome is starting to dull, like the colors have been washed out of it, though the dome itself is still a brilliant purple.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
A Dark Energy dome going up in *her* district? Oh *heck* no.

The moment Nicomachea narrowed down the location, Rashmi was in henshin and aloft, soaring toward a lovely part of the suburbs, comfortably distant from both the Korma Chameleon and the Okujoo Ramen, but still in *her district.* But when she brakes above the dome, she sees... a single researcher-looking person, wandering between terminals and spike and looking very much like the kind of Sunbreaker that the actual Sunbreaker would have stuffed into a locker.

Tilting her head, she begins by establishing civilian safely.

    << *BONG!* >> << TIME-SPACE BARRIER >>

And as the sky above Tokyo goes from blue to staticky yellow-black, Rashmi puts on her best smile as she lowers herself down, clearing her throat. "Hi!" she chirps. "Kagayaki-san, right?"

Having now met her before, who's to say how well a friendly approach might work? Worth a shot, after all.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    It feels like it's been a long day when Amy's done with club activities -- and she's not, like, tired like she was after The Worst And Longest Halloween Ever, but when she senses darkness she just... uggggh. Still, duty calls and all.

    But when she sees the dark spire and that dome forcefield up ahead as she leaps roof to roof, she isn't really feeling like going in swinging? And she does see a tempting opportunity to try and get an enemy to spill some information.

    Amy circles around and walks up, as quietly as she can, from whatever direction Yuyami's not facing.

    "How's the experiment going? Find anything interesting?"

    Amy asks, in a conversational tone as of a coworker asking how your project is going. She's got the cloak drawn about her and hood up, so all that can be seen of her outfit is the boots -- which while brightly-colored could pass for hiking boots or something if you don't look closely -- so she's not quite so obviously a colorful superhero here to foil your plans at a glance in peripheral vision.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Cure La Licorne could feel that presence of dark energy and... ick. Ugh. She haaaated it. It never felt good. Rotten. vile. Ick. It just felt... wrong. So wrong. It felt... bad. So bad. Sent wigglies through her. Made her shudder and icky feelies. So she knew she had to go check it out.

And when she arrived? Just in time to step through the barrier. Huh. Seems she wasn't alone.

But Yuyami was. Ah. Joy. Her eyes narrowed. And for a moment, Cure La Licorne's clenched and a bit of fire formed from her fist...

Before it went out and she sighed. No. That... wasn't what was needed here. She took a slow, deep breath. She glanced towards Rashmi and gave a small nod. Seems Rashmi was onto something here.

She glanced about. As long as they could keep her talking... "Interesting. I thought at first these were designed to draw power of some kind, but they don't seem to be keyed into the the leylines at all," La Licorne said.

Yuyami Kagayaki has posed:
    Yuyami at first, ignores the call, though the way her body twitches a bit indicates someone who both recognized her name being called and might have made a history of ignoring her name being called. The Barrier comes up, though, and that seems to get her attention, as she stops what she's doing, scribbles furiously, and then turns to the Device Mage. She pushes her glasses back up from where they've slid down on her nose. "Yes. Could you please stop interfering with my project?" she asks, gently, her voice a little unsteady.

    Amy reaches out to her, and Yuyami seems to respond before she realizes who she's talking to. "Yeah, actually! The plan to use Dark Energy to adjust the flo... wait..." she pauses and looks at her. "You... don't need to know what I'm doing." she says in the tone of someone who knows she SHOULDN'T talk but clearly wants to, like she's barely holding herself back because she knows she has to.

    "No, they're not keyed to the leylines." she said, when asked, like she was a bottle of discussion just barely being held on by a cork that was doing a poor job of being put back in the bottle. "The leylines don't go where we need them to."

    "Though right now there's a delay because of this spatial interference." she says. "Any chance you can just, maybe... umm... Go home? I'll be done in... about twenty minutes."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
'use Dark Energy to adjust the--' *what now?*

"...I mean I wish we could leave you alone," Rashmi says, and her tone is indeed *sincerely* apologetic. "But it's been our experience that using Dark Energy to do anything is a lot like using toxic waste to water a garden, y'know?" As she speaks, she slots a module into the cover of her Device, and with a gesture a Mid-Childan seal spreads out under her feet.

<< *BONG!* >> << AREA INDEX: MANA INVESTIGATION >>

Six basketball-sized sensor balls fade into being over her head, launch out and settle themselves around midway up the Dome's elevation. There, they become nodes in a thick loop of golden rune-tape and sort of... sit there, revolving lazily, feeding analysis back to Nicomachea for processing, spindling, and folding.

"But since we can't go home, I guess there's a monster or something you've got to keep us busy?"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy smiles a bit when it totally works for a few seconds. And then Yuyami just can't stop herself. "Maybe we can both learn about magic? Have you ever talked to a rock before? If we really have misunderstood this dark energy thing, how will we ever know better unless you explain it?"

    Rashmi asks about the monster. "Or maybe you can keep us talking for twenty minutes. Why is it twenty minutes, anyway?"

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Cure La Licorne cocked an eye. "Twenty minutes, huh?" La Licorne asked. "Odd, I figured Riventon would have expected you out here for at least another hour..." she said, before knocking on the barrier. "Tough cage he's got you in there."

If she was like Yuyami from her world... And it seemed Amy and Rashmi were goot to talk for the time being, that was helpful. Adjust the flow? Of the leylines? That... could... be dangerous... "Adjust the flow of the leylines? The calculations required for something like that must be incredibly complex. Riventon must think incredibly highly of your capabilities to send you out here on your own without jumping in to supervise himself," she said.

"Or something else. Superimposing locations in the dusk zone doesn't work, last I checked, due the nature of the dusk zone. It doesn't carry over, one to one. Unless you managed to find a work around? In which case, well... I must say I am impressed."

Yuyami Kagayaki has posed:
    Yuyami rolls her eyes at Rashmi. "Yeah, I'm sure that's your experience, because you're used to dealing with people who don't know what they're doing. Which, to be fair, is most people. And monster-people. But not me and Riventon-sensei." she says, simply. And Rashmi can tell that somewhere within the barrier there's another energy source - a strong one, a moving one. Not moving towards her, though. Yuyami pointedly doesn't answer about any sort of monster.

    Yuyami instead turns to Amy. "Well, the time isn't exactly ticking while I'm dimensionally disrupted, so I'm afraid sitting here and discussing magic with you isn't going to help me at all." she notes. "...a rock? You're a what now?"

    "Not the leylines. I already said they don't go where we need them. You're not very good at listening." she says, bluntly. "Riventon-sensei trusts me a lot!" she adds, a bit of pride in her voice for maybe the first time. "He says I'm the best assistant he ever had, and I'm going to prove that right. As soon as this barrier goes down." she says.

    "So... can you... do that thing where you go away for twenty minutes, or... is that really not an option? You're talking to me like you don't want to fight, but you're also preventing me from doing my job. I don't come to your job and get in your way."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
There's suddenly a VRRRRRRRM as a Honda Rebel 300 roars into the barrier bearing a masked rider.

With a cape. Tuxedo Masked Rider has a cape, and it whips around behind him as he pulls up to the center, rolls around to one side, and puts the kickstand down. Kickstand right? Anyway he puts it down and swings his leg over the bike to slide off, and then he stands up, smiling at Yuyami, doing the handsome masked hero version of vogueing with a rose but not so hard that it looks like flirting because it's not. It's style.

"I'm here to get in the way," he says warmly.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"I mean... our job kind of *is* making sure that Dark Energy creatures and experiments and plans and stuff don't happen, so... you kind of do?" Rashmi herdges. "That doesn't mean we have to hold it against you, you *do* seem really nice and definitely the kind of smart that Riventon would look for. Bu-u-ut..."

She trails off, frowning at her readings speaking of a second energy source.

    << *BONG!* >> << TELEPATHY >>

So the monster might already be waiting, or she might have a body guard or something, so be care-- >>

Mamoru rocks up, and just declares his intent to get in the way, and Rashmi just... sighs. << Aaaaand that'll be the fight starting. >>

Catra has posed:
Something is going on. Catra is aware of that much; she saw the barrier go up. Well, not so much saw it as felt it. Cat senses are sharp. It's not that she saw it or smelled it or heard it but she definitely sensed it. Whatever, this planet is weird, don't ask her to explain it.

And she was going to just drive right past, afterall she has a box of take-out noodles with extra tuna tucked away in one of her bike's cargo compartments (conveniently big enough) and she is absolutely hungry, but... Well. She's supposed to be trying to be a hero and that means not ignoring trouble. Right? That's what Adora always did, run head-first into every problem she could find, regardless of wether or not it's any of her business, and that seems to be what the heroes here do too, so...

Not long after Catra arrives inside the barrier and turns her stealth-black Honda Rebel sideways, laying down rubber as she skids to a halt beside Mamoru's bike and parks it. As she disembarks her Rachel Miller visage recedes in a burst of blue flames, leaving behind her feline visage and charcoal-black tuxedo with flaming orange accents. She makes sure to check the cufflinks before retrieving her noodles, and starts wolfing them down as she approaches.

"Alright," she begins flatly, between mouthfuls. "Barrier up. I know the drill. Who's ass needs to be kicked?"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "Wait, the barrier can do that? What else can they do that we don't know? I really gotta see if there's a way for me to use mine, huh..." Amy drops another little tidbit of info that she knows Obsidian already has.

    And then there's the sound of a motorcycle inside the Barrier and she looks over at.... Tuxedo Kamen Rider!

I'm here to get in the way.
    Amy's voice is a whine but also she doesn't sound that broken up about it. "Noooooooo..." Like when you've talked up something you don't actually care that much about and people know you don't actually care that much about it and you're doing it for the bit, although here she genuinely would like to keep Yuyami talking but also she knows it probably wasn't going to last long at all.

    She looks back to Yuyami. "You heard me. I'm a rock! And I have a barrier I don't know how to use. What does that even mean? Would you like to know? We can talk about that. Souls are real! So are aliens! Like, from space not just from other dimensions like Devices are."

    Amy just keeps spitting Fascinating Magical Tidbits while Catra walks up.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Cure La Licorne cocked an eye. "Oh, you definitely are at our job and getting in our way, our job is keeping people safe and, right now? This is stopping people from being safe," La Licorne said. "Dark energy like this has a lot of effects on people. A lot of effects I, unfortunately, didn't find out about until recently. I'd be happy to compare notes sometime if you're interested. But, for the moment..." She sighed, narrowing her eyes.

<< I met with the other Yuyami recently. About this one. She's... troubling, to say the least. Troubled, to say more. I'm certainly worried about this girl. Especially with her... well... idolizing Riventon like she is. >>

"We don't want to fight, though. Unfortunately, this rarely doesn't result in one. But that doesn't mean we have to hate each other, either. It just means... Well..." And right on cue, Catra and Tuxedo mask. She smiled ruefully. "That can happen. Mmmm. Nothing personal," she said with a sigh. "Best assistant he ever had, huh? Interesting. I think that's the cue for us to start this."

Yuyami Kagayaki has posed:
    Yuyami sighs and addresses Rashmi first. "Then you're going to be in trouble, I think. S...sorry." she says, helplessly. Then she looks at Amy, listening, and her gaze hardens a bit. "I know aliens exist. I work with a talking crab. Riventon-Sensei has only warned me about one alien, a white furry one, and he said not to trust it even if I think it's cute." she says, and hey, at least Riventon can occasionally give good advice.

    "You're trying to distract me, aren't you!" she says. And mentally beats herself up, though this only manifests physically in her grabbing her arm and squeezing it hard. This is only increased when Tuxedo Kamen rolls up and announces such - even if she flushes juuust a bit at the rose presentation.

    She looks to Hinoiri. Her eyes flare purple for just a moment, but clearly so. "Yeah, yeah... is your boogeyman under the bed. It's where your maps end and you just see 'here be monsters'. But it's so much more than that. It can be so much more. Life from nothing! Creation!" she says, a bit manically.

    Catra rolls up too, and announces a desire to kick something's butt. "A cat riding a motorcycle. I really should be more shocked by that than I am, but these last few weeks have been incredible." she admits. "You should be kicking their butts so I can go back to research." Butts, not ass. "As for me - you can try, but nothing's getting through this barrier."

    She turns back to her machines and the spire, and sighs. "Well... I'm stuck then. I guess we just have to do a quick experiment, and see if this disruption continues if the person it's connected to is removed." she says.

    *THAT* is the queue for the energy source Rashmi felt to suddenly move closer. Barreling out of the water filled levee like a big green freight train comes a giant crocodile creature, except it looks to be made of solid green and grey rock. It slams its tail into the concerete side of the levee it just burst free from, and rips huge chunks of concrete out of the barrier-terrain, hurling them with violent fury at the Mahou before moving in with surprising quickness for something the size of a large tour bus, to try to snap at Rashmi with its gleaming, crystal-like teeth.

    And outside, a floating boy in a lab coat with long silver hair inspects the edges of Rashmi's barrier before tapping it with his index finger. A brilliant purple light erupts, and a surge of Dark Energy crackles across the barrier visible inside and out - before the barrier shatters and everyone is deposited back in the real world. Including the giant monster.

    Yuyami blinks, and looks around. "Oh! Thank you Riventon-Sensei! Now I can continue the work." she says as though she did not just sic the giant cragadile on a bunch of people. Riventon floats at parade rest with both hands behind his back far above the fight. Watching, it seems.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Yuyami has heard of the cute fuzzy alien. "Oh good you know. Yeah, don't trust Kyubey unless a wish is worth your life."

    You're trying to distract me! "Well, yeah, but I honestly would prefer talking to fighting."

    "Wait, what do you mean life from nothing? I actually do wanna know what you're talking abou--the WHAT?!" Amy screeches in shock as she looks to Hinoiri for no outwardly visible reason, thoughts of the scroll of Ka or some kind of dark energy magitech clone deal spinning through her head. (Yuyami just implied she'd seen Dark Energy create life!)

    Time for a little experiment. "You know, that's actually a potentially important question, do barriers work that way?" Amy asks, although she forgets to use telepathy.

    "Another crocodile?! At least it's not made of teeth this time... wait, is it... a 'rockodile'?"

    The end of her pun is a bit hard to hear as she's suddenly also firing a small cannonball at it to try and knock its lunge for Rashmi off-target.

    Aaaand the barrier's down, great. "Oh hey! See? The barrier's down just like you wanted! We can keep talking, right?" Amy asks, as she continues to shoot at the rockodile.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Riventon *is* a talking crab," Tuxedo Mask says reasonably.

And then Riventon breaks Rashmi's barrier.

Instead of immediately fighting, Mamoru brings his communicator up to his mouth and says, "Sailor Moon! ~I'm in trouble~! Riventon just busted Page Mage's barrier and the monster's smacking actual Tokyo." He moves the comm away from his wrist and yells, "BECAUSE RIVENTON IS A TALKING CRAB."

And then he ducks the rockodile's hurled concrete chunks and irritably ducks behind a thing to slam a fist on the pavement. "Tuxedo la Smoking Crater!" he yells, sending the explosion rocketing underground to explode beneath the rockodile's feet.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Mamoru might have arrived by motorcycle, but it's actually complete coincidence that Sailor Moon is in the area, because she's just using the rooftops as a shortcut -

Then her communicator lights up, and Mamoru's message comes through and she just responds,

"REAL OR LIE?"

Obviously the question is about the crab. Still, if Riventon's going around breaking barriers and monsters are smacking Tokyo, she's going to drop everything and come help out, so she arrives quickly after. Upon seeing that Riventon is not a crab takes her tiara off, metal transforming into cosmic energy, and throws it at the rockodile.

""Moon Tiara Action!"

The tiara goes spinning for the rockodile's head, in the hopes of getting it to shut it's jaws before it can bite Rashmi!

"So that one was a half and half truth and lie. Barrier's down, monster's here, Riventon is sadly not a crab, that would be a lot cuter."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Oh, Kyubey? Yeah *absolutely* don't trust him," Rashmi agrees, bobbing her head... Then looks dismayed as Yuyami starts squeezing her own arm. That... does not look like a healthy coping mechanism. But the talks are breaking down rapidly, and Rashmi hurriedly scoots back and up into the air to avoid the giant... rockodile?'s heavy fangs.

...And then the Barrier shatters, and Rashmi knows *deep panic.* Whipping around to the source point of the failure, she recognizes Riventon's smug jerk face, and narrows her eyes. "ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?! *PEOPLE ARE GOING TO GET HURT NOW!!*"

With a growl, she peels off and begins conferring with her Device.

<< Analytical processes in abeyance; collect and store data only for now. Prepare for combat. >>

    << *BONG!* >> << COMMAND INPUT EXECUTE >>

<< So that dome *is* tough as heck, >> she says over the comms net. << Best I was able to get was, it's layered and set up like tank armor; there's spots that're supposed to wear away to protect other spots, and it's mostly fed from inside... But it's *also* being fed by the gator there. >>

Rashmi does not sound like she is having a good time anymore. The sheer amount of civic destruction *this* monster could cause...

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Cure La Licorne nodded. "Oh, yes. If you see Kyubey? Do not listen to a *word he says*. He will say just about anything to get you to do what he wants. Sure, some of it might be true, doesn't make any of what he says any better. In fact, it honestly makes a lot of it worse."

She did not trust him. Instant punt.

She still, very much, took what he said about her 'karmic potential' personally. Her eyes cocked at the 'life from nothing'. "Life from nothing? You're kidding, right? Have you ever *tested* a youma? Actually run some examinations on them. Or get a familiar, let me know how that goes," La Licorne said. "Dark energy isn't a toy, it's dangerous. It's not a boogie man, but it's not something you can just toss around haphazardly, either."

And then... "Wait, where did you get a cragodile?! HOW?!"

Only for RIVENTON to make his appearance. She felt her annoyance grow already and wondered if she could just... get him to go away. No. Doubtful. Not him. He never leaves on his own. Not until you made him. Jerkbutt.

"Ambitous blazer!"

Her body erupted into fire before she launched herself at the giant rocky aligator, attempting to kick it away! This time, using BOTH feet!

<< And it's not connecting to the leylines. I'm not sure what Riventon is up to... but whatever it is he's after, it was apparently important enough for him to come and show his smug face personally. >>

Catra has posed:
Catra continues to devour her noodles as quickly as possible, slurping them and the tuna up with her chopsticks until precious little of it remains. (There's some noodles left, but the tuna is all gone -- Catra has her priorities in order.) And it does indeed seem like there's about to be a big, proper fight. That's good, though, Catra likes fights. She tosses the lunchbox over her shoulder in the general direction of a trash bin -- it bounces off the top, her aim is perfect but it's one of those covered ones where you have to actually shove the garbage in through a flappy-door -- and readies the chopsticks like they're a weapon

"Alright, let's do-WHAAA?!"

As a massive Rocky Crocodile crashes down into the streets she promptly finds herself evading chunks of flying concrete, which has her dive, roll, and come to a skidding halt behind a cube van, the sort that would isekai you into a different genre. "Alright I should have expected that."

The chopsticks in Catra's hands erupt into brilliant yellow flames and she leaps, parkouring her weay up a wall until she's high enough to through them, one after the other at the Youma's eyes; she doesn't come down, she just grabs hold of a window ledge and throws herself upwards, digging her claws in to stick to the wall.

"What's this supposed to be? Rockadile? I'm pretty sure I fought one on Etheria but it was twice as big," she lies, but nobody knows that. And then, the barrier comes down. And there's Riventon. And the barrier is down.

"...Anyone touches my bike, I'm gonna stop playing nice," she growls, ears laying flat.

Yuyami Kagayaki has posed:
    "I did inform you that the disruption you created was interfering with my work. You started the fight when you disrupted what I came here to do, and didn't stop." Yuyami says pointedly, while looking down at her notepad. It's easier for her to talk while she's not looking at the monster or the people. "Cragodile, actually. And if I stop it now you'll just put the barrier back up, right?" she says without looking up, back to pacing around the magitech machines for a moment, taking notes still. Pointedly not looking at the fight for now.

    The Cragodile's snout and face is absolutely pummeled for the crime of trying to turn Rashmi into a snack. A cannonball hits it - and knocks a few chunks of rocky scales off while staggering it, before the Tiara hits it from the opposite side. Catra's attack comes in and it closes its eyes but the fire still hits its rocky eyelids, and it's mid-roar about this before the Smoking Crater erupts underneath it, taking it off its feet and slightly into the air, before LaLircone's double kick slams into it and sends it back a good distance, where it spirals.

    "If you'd leave it would cause no destruction." Yuyami says, her eyes lifting over the clipboard and then widening at the destruction. "I don't think it did that." she says, blinking, shaking her head, and returning to the machines for a moment before responding further. "Get it? I found it at a shop, a sculpted crocodile. Mix it with a little dark energy - okay, a lot of dark energy - and look! It's alive! And intelligent. It can follow orders, commands in Japanese! And its size increased so much too! Matter expansion, energy converted into matter, life and conscious thought into a formerly inanimate object!" she says, her eyes sparkling a bit. "That's the magic that flows through me now!" she says, her eyes flickering purple again. "The magic Riventon-sensei helped me find and harness. The magic people were trying to keep me away from! Just like how you're trying to stop our experiments! And you're trying to make me look bad in front of A TEACHER!" she says as she seems to come to this realization mid sentance with a sort of horrified rage.

    The cragodile slowly shuffles to its feet... before rearing forward on its front legs to present its crag-covered topside, and launching a storm of rocky shrapnel at the assembled Mahoujin. "Don't stop, CRUSH THEM!" Yuyami shrieks, and shortly after the shardstorm the creature rumbles forward to try to follow up with a couple lashes of its tail and another few snapping jaw bites. "AND IT'S CRAGODILE. I MADE IT I NAMED IT THAT'S HOW SCIENCE WORKS." she says, a little Dark Energy wafting off her now, visibly.

    Riventon doesn't directly address any accusations of being a crab. He's too far away for people to see him roll his eyes. But thanks to magic, his voice can carry. "Catra, if you don't stand down from interrupting my project, there won't be a safe place left in all of Tokyo for you to park your bike." he warns.

Catra has posed:
"Yeah?!" Catra splits off one of her illusions, and sends it down to tangle with the Youma -- and by tangle, we mean stand in front of it and be really annoying by directing a firey blast up at it. I mean hey, if it tries to eat the illusion, then there's absolutely no harm done. Catra doesn't further engage it herself, at least not just yet, she just claws her way up the outside of the building.

"WELL I THINK YOU'RE BAD AT SCIENCE!" she shouts back, "Hey Rashmi, maybe you should organize her to get some lessons from Entrapta! And for now, guess what, it's ROCKADILE 'cause I like that BETTER!"

Catra makes it up to the top of the building, and crouches on the corner of the rooftop where she can see what's going on, and analyze the Rockadile (it's ROCKADILE) and it's movements.

Meanwhile, her second illusion splits off, and appears right near where Riventon is standing. "Hey, boss. Or rather, not-boss. I think? I never did officially quit but whatever. I'm not interfering with your experiment, I'm just fighting the monster. And, hey, did YOU tell me I needed to commit to this? Talk about mixed signals. Come on, you said I have to at least put in the effort, now you're telling me not to?"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"You brought the monster, you're responsible for whatever it does," Sailor Moon points out, though, looking at the crater, she absolutely side-eyes her husband. She understands why Wako and Takuto want Sugata to do a beach clean up now. "And it's only causing trouble because your control-freak boss broke the barrier that would stop it from messing up the city."

Yes, her voice is loud enough for Riventon to hear. She dares him to say he's not a control freak.

The fact that Yuyami is covered in dark energy and genuinely considers Riventon a teacher is just... sad. Sad, that another person's been sucked into dark energy. Sad, that another person is selfish enough to worry more about all of this than anything helpful. Sad that -

"Cragodile? Oh come on! Rockodile was right there, you could have made a really good joke!"

Tsk, tsk, tsk, you're not even funny.

"You know, maybe you should - wait, sorry, I have to talk to your boss now," she literally stops trying to talk to Yuyami mid-sentence, turning to Riventon, "So are you just trying to burn all your bridges, or does it come naturally?"

As she's saying this to Riventon, her Crescent Wand is being sliced around to carve a golden circle in the air - silver light flares out in beams and mists of purification.

"Moon Healing Escalation!"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "I think I like rockadile better-- wait this is another KKF creature?!"

    Catra's also seen one before. "Does every other world have rockadiles?!" she asks, almost expecting to hear Chrono explaining that yes, actually, similar xenofauna have been catalogued on every inhabited world and it's stranger that Earth doesn't have them but he's used to it at this point.

    << If it was tank armor I could shoot through it! >> BANG Amy casually fails to pierce the dome with a pencil-thin visible-for-one-frame beam of light that spatters into sparks of burning metal on impact. << But it's ablative, you're saying... so we need something that punches through the ablative layer to weaken the layer underneath, or to exploit the properties of the ablative layer to wear through it more quickly... I don't suppose Nichomachea can tell us how to do that? >>

    For the time being, though, she keeps focusing on the cragodile, keeping her distance and firing dense metal balls from her recoiless rifle to try and crack it. << Or is it more like explosive reactive armor, and we can maybe trick it into expending itself somehow? >>

    Amy does feel slightly bad for Yuyami looking bad in front of a teacher. "Oh shit, sorry. But actually you're doing pretty well!" Amy notes, as she keeps hopping around to get angles to shoot the rocky youma without hitting her friends.

    "Like, you didn't try to end the world over breaking a nail, and you're probably the first person besides Riventon... and Sunbreaker, to realize how remarkable the fact that you can just make monsters like that really is!"

    "But as incredible as it is it's not that intelligent." Amy notes. "You guys made a fountain of youth youma once and when I tried to explain to it how it could help people so we wouldn't have to kill it it did not understand--guh!"

    Amy, midair, reflexively pulls her arms and legs close to her body so that the shrapnel just grazes her, then lands kind of off-balance and falls on her butt. "Urgh... It seems smart because it can do some things and--gaaOW!" Amy's slammed by the followup attacks, getting bashed by rock and sent tumbling across the ground.

    She's shut off pain so that she can keep talking, "--You don't know how it works, but the same is true for ChatGPT." She sits up and glares at it, adjusting for the lag in controlling her body as she conjures her launcher and takes aim again, "HEY CRAGODILE, NOD YOUR HEAD IF GLUE IS A GOOD PIZZA TOPPING!"

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Oh, honey.....

This is, visibly, the reaction that Rashmi has to Yuyami's Dark Energy-fueled rant. But there are more importnt things; fight the monster, keep the damage as contained as possible, learn *as much as possible* about the dome for the next time.

<< So I think the goal here is to *change the ley lines,* >> she says over the comms net, nodding her confirmation in Hinoiri's direction. << She said they were going to use Dark Energy to alter a... flow, I think? That... adds up to some pretty big yikes. >>

As she divulges, she sweeps around the Cragodile, and considers her options. For now... hinder.

    << *BONG!* >> << SOLAR BARRAGE -- GLACE SHIFT >>

The great thing about dangerously large enemies is, you don't *need* much in the way of tracking to hit them if you know what you're doing. Thus, Rashmi's icy Barrets fly out in a rapid-fire stream, sticking and building up and slowing down and making the clumsy even clumsier.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"I'm telling you, he's a talking crab, you can just start calling him Sebastien," Mamoru grumps in Yuyami's direction, then scrambles to his feet and brushes himself off to join Sailor Moon. He notices her giving him sideeye and holds up his hands. "I forgot. Sorry," he says sheepishly, then calls out to Yuyami, "You know, he gave his other assistants more power. It worked out badly for them. It's working out badly for him right now."

<< Speaking of leylines, I'm serious about not letting Riventon know what's coming from Kyoto because he'll want to eat the nightmare king. But also, changing the leylines was what we were trying to do with Midnight Tokyo>> Then he bites off a glove and takes a running leap--

--onto the back of the ROCKODILE, a rose in each fist, and he jams them into its neck and hangs on, the ungloved hand mostly holding to the rose with his thumb, because he is in fact now charging his lasers. It's made of rock. Maybe he can do "Tuxedo la Smoking ROCKODILE~!"

And then he LEAPS AWAY oh my god.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
And there it was. She'd learned a bit more from this. 'Look bad in front of a teacher.'

Riventon was her teacher. Sora help them all...

And life to an inanimate object... Well... she wasn't... entirely wrong. Wasn't entirely right, either though. And that was kind of the issue. Youma weren't really alive. They imitated it, but they weren't fully. The more you looked at it, the more you saw the signs. But without the girl taking the time to listen, it was kind of hard to explain that.

<< Yeah. It's... far from them. If they're not trying to alter them, but are tapping into something from the dusk zone, I'm not quite sure what they'd be going into. We'd need to catalog the local landmarks and see what they might have aligned with in the dusk zone. >>

She'd gone quiet, however, as the quips started flying back and forth. Because, frankly? Hers weren't needed. More importantly, she was taking this moment to watch and listen. Riventon and Yuyami. His threat against Catra, however, made her leap into the air and launch a flurry of flaming, purifying fireballs at the youma...

And one of them went flying at Riventon. "Oops~"

It wasn't an accident.

Yuyami Kagayaki has posed:
    The Cragodile doesn't nod its head because it's busy trying to snap its jaws on false Catra as the firey blasts soak into it. "We broke the barrier because it was interfering with the project - everything was going fine prior to your involvement." Yuyami replies. "That's simple cause and effect."

    A series of Rashmi's barrets slam into the creature from the side, which along with Rashmi's metal balls, do start to make some cracks appear in the creature's hide. "Tch. You talk like you understand science and progress - surely you understand that even if this one isn't as smart as we like, it's an iterative process?" she asks, even as Mamoru jumps on the back of the Cragodile.

    It turns its head 'unnaturally fast and angled' and tries to snap at Tuxedo Kamen and gets close - until the blasts of fire from Cure LaLicorne hit it and pause it from doing that. Which gives Tuxedo Kamen the time to pour energy into its cracked hide. At the finish of his Aria, the creature's skin visibly detonates- rock flying out in chunks around the area, revealing purple sap-like ooze that hardens after a moment - but then the Escalation follows up, and the sap starts to burn away from the purifying energy, revealing a device within the creature that seems similar to the four within the Yuyami is working in.

    Riventon's still up there, his lab coat closed and tightly around himself. It's telling that LaLicorne's single fireball fizzles out before it even gets to Riventon, interrupted by some sort of aura. Same with Catra's illusion starting to fizzle upon getting too close. "You're picking the wrong side Catra. Especially for someone who made her name in this world with a sword I made for you." Riventon replies. He looks down to Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask. Yuyami answered the comment about the Barrier needing to go down, and he's only mostly angrily thinking about crab-based youma attacking a certain apartment in this moment, which isn't productive, so he doesn't directly engage.

    Yuyami is more actively flailing around her equipment now, moving with panicked speed as though she can finish up early, as the creature's body is about half dripping liquid now, though it's trying to reform into stone.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
<<Cure La Licorne, don't engage! We do not have enough numbers to take down a whole Beryl, and that's what he basically is now, in power at least!>>

In spite of the fact that Sailor Moon is verbally antagonizing Riventon, her mental voice is quick and sharp in Rashmi's telepathy. Her Crescent Wand spins and is swiftly replaced by her Spiral Heart Moon Rod, and with a roll of her eyes she leaves off antagonizing her brother in law in favor of striking at the monster with the opening in it's side.

She spins, swift, her twintails twisting about her as she does, great pink hearts popping into existence, spinning under their own gravity.

She lets the enormous heart that results from all the momentum strike.

"Moon Spiral Heart Attack!"

It's only after the attack crushes through the gator's weak spot that she turns to look at Yuyami.

"So... you think you made life, something amazing... and this is all you could think to use it for? It's not even smart. It's not even clever. Everything you're sacricing... and this is it?"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Safely landing back by Sailor Moon as the thing's hide shatters, then oozes, then melts under his wife's tender ministrations, Tuxedo Mask bends to brush at the torn leg of his trousers where the thing ALMOST got him before Cure La Licorne's fire--

"...saved me..." he says, eyes wide, then realizes he did not flinch when she aimed fire in his direction this time. The BIGGEST smile breaks out over his face like pure sunshine, happy, happy. And he laughs out loud, and he SWEEPS his cape aside and flings his arm out, winging a spray of stem-out roses toward the most delicate-looking workings and also everywhere else it's a spray and it ain't baby's breath--

"Tuxedo Aggravating Insult Attack!"

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Cure La Licorne leaped into the air, it seemed it was time to finish this. She pulled her Heart Rouge Rod out and applied the lipstick, before blowing out.

"Scorching ray piercer!"

From her hair, the sun once again shown, forming the burning, purifying swords of flame that descended, raining down on the cragodile.

<< Don't worry, I'm not intending to engage him. >>

Cure La Licorne landed, and... Huh? Why was Tuxedo Mask smiling like that? Well... Whatever it was... She was happy for him. He was a friend after all, so... it seemed good. Always good to see friends doing good. And seemed he was doing a good job of aggravating his brother as well, which was nice.

She, on the other hand, was dissecting the words that both Riventon and Catra were saying... Before finally her eyes wandered from Catra to Yuyami. And...

"Wait," Cure La Licorne. "Riventon... I thought you were here for Yuyami. Are you only here... Riventon, is Yuyami just a replacement because Catra left?" Cure La Licorne asked.

No sooner did she say the words that she regretted them. Not for Riventon's sake. But for Yuyami's. Because... *ow*. She'd been there. Once.

Amanda Faust has posed:
Surely you understand it's an iterative process?
    "Oh, sure!" Amy fires and then lurches to her feet. "But that's just it: gen AI isn't gonna stop hallucinating just because they feed it more data, no matter how much people want it to."

    She stumbles back as she keeps firing, and she can compensate pretty well for the lag, but she's thinking out her speech too and is having trouble hitting at a good angle.

    "I've seen youma that had incredible powers. Powers you'd--gah!" A rock-chunk misses her by less than an inch, and her slightly-delayed reaction sends her stumbling,

    "Powers you'd think could be used to help people, or at least to further science. I was a living doll for half a week, how does that work? What can you learn about magic and how minds and souls and bodies work from that? Obsidian had a fountain of youth on their hands... so ask yourself this!"

    "Riventon's had years to use youma for good. Or at least to further science! Magic experiments can test things impossible to test otherwise and discover things you could share with the world. I could believe he's even tried."

    Amy switches to explosive rounds to try and blow the goo part of the gator apart, but she still struggles to land a direct hit through the lag.

    Amy stops firing and turns to point at Yuyami. "Riddle me this, Kagayaki-san: What keeps going wrong? Can it really be iterated away, or is there a problem with the very method you're using itself?!"




    "...Also if your goal is to create intelligent beings to use as tools I have a whole other speech to give."

Catra has posed:
Catra probes the edge of Riventon's magic-fuzzification field with her illusion; and even though it's just an illusion of her, the expression on her face is clear. Curiosity. Just how far out does this work to? ...Oooooohhhhh, about that far. Alright then.

Noted.

"Okay but, like..." The illusory feline gesticulates with both hands, "How are you defining the right side and the wrong side? And honestly, am I actually choosing a side here? 'cause I was under the distinct impression that after what I did to what's-her-face... Y'know, witch number whatever, I forget? I was pretty much persona-non-welcome at the Tower these days." She sighs audibly. "Not that that's anything new for me."

Oh, so we're at that point of the fight? Catra's other illusion has been busy dodging the Rockadile's jaws -- except when it doesn't, and she just reforms it -- but it seems like it's time for ending things. And, Powersend is hanging off her belt in its scabbard, just like always -- but she doesn't draw it. No, she doesn't need it. She doesn't. And besides she does need to give it back to Riventon at some point but she'll be damned if she's going to give it to him right now.

No, instead she leaps off the building, and as she summersaults through the air she focuses on the Spirit Ember, summoning solidified flames to form a katana -- no, a naginata in her hands; as she tumbles it grows in size, whirling around her in a big, brilliantly glowing circle -- until she lands, and drives the weapon through the center of the rockadile (she is NOT calling it a cragadile).

As she lands, she lets go of the weapon she made and just... turns to walk away from the monster, entirely calm about it.

Yuyami Kagayaki has posed:
    "You all really are as misguided as I was lead to believe; making irrational connections and just shouting things!" Yuyami says, pulled away from her work and frustrated. "You're the ones acting like Large Language Models, if anyone is, making vague connections between words but no real reason behind them. How can I possibly work with all of these... constant... Verbal hallucinations!" she says, her eyes still a soft purple glow. "You know what's going wrong? You are! He wouldn't have attacked if you had just let me DO MY WORK."

    Riventon continues to wait above, hands behind his back, cloak closed. He doesn't make moves to engage the mahou or stop all of what's coming. Which is... truly quite a lot. Even as the creature's insides try to shift to cover the equipment inside, each attack clears the path - Sailor Moon's heart slams into the creature and puts it back down, the roses push some more of the ink-like substance away and land a few hits on the machine, some of Amy's explosive rounds land close enough to either clear goo or prevent it from sliding back over the creature, and Catra comes down - her summoned weapon making a bit of a path in and lastly Scorching Ray Piercer lands a final, clean hit on the creature - and when it does, the delicate equipment detonates in a furious storm of Dark Energy that people should probably absolutely not be near - though it at least seems to be nice to the terrain. Or maybe some of the grass and rocks will become youma later...

    With the external generator down, Yuyami blinks away tears of... frustration. It must be frustration, with the situation. The spire in the center and all of the support equipment seems to half-fade, half-dissolve into black flecks that fade out.

    Riventon doesn't duskport - but he does move INCREDIBLY QUICKLY by virtue of the Flash Step spell Fate taught him, appearing next to Yuyami just as the flickering barrier goes down. "Yuyami provides an entirely different level of value to me than Catra did, and I already have a replacement for Catra anyways." he says quickly. Now that Riventon is closer, it's possible to feel the Dark Energy just exuding off him. Apparently he's not running with many limiters right now. And yet he still felt the Catra Replacement comment was important enough to address directly.

    Yuyami pokes her head out from around the much taller boy. "And it's one of my guardian beasts, so yeah, it was designed for that. Did you ever think you only encounter the things we make for protecting ourselves because you only ever encounter us when we're doing that?" Yuyami asks. "You don't have any idea what you're..." and Riventon cuts her off with a hand in front of her, and it's AMAZING how quick she quiets down - it's absolutely instant.

    "You don't need to talk to them. I've spent years trying to make them understand." he says, fixing his eyes on Mamoru. "They never will. They just have confusing yet infuritating insults and ignorance. Let's go do something more PRODUCTIVE." Riventon says before putting his hand on Yuyami's shoulder and duskporting out with her.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Nyeah, I'm taking my new sidekick and going home," Mamoru says, literally taking his mask off in public in front of Yuyami and Riventon and Godoka and everyone.... SPECIFICALLY to tug down one eyelid with a delicately gloved hand as he sticks his tongue out at his brother.

Then he puts his mask back on. "Dumbass," he says, turning away, scowling--

--until he sees Cure La Licorne again, and brightens once more. "Hey," he says to her, "Thanks for that back there. It almost got me."

And then he HUGS HER with like no warning.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Your work makes me sick," Sailor Moon says flatly, "And the fact that you really think you're doing anything? It's just sad. Go, Yuyami Kagayaki. Let Riventon tell you all about how much he can help you, and never mind all the people who walked away from him because they understood that he's wrong, that Obsidian is wrong. Close your ears and your heart and make it all about you, because who cares about the world if you can stuff your head with pseudoscience, right?"

She flaps her hand at Riventon.

"Maybe you'll make us understand when you're on the side that saves the world. So far, half the things we've saved the world from came from your side." And then he's gone, and she laughs a little as Mamoru just grabs Hinoiri up in a hug.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Cure La Licorne sighed, shaking her head at Yuyami. Oh, that girl had no idea. She couldn't blame her entirely, though. Moments like this, with everyone yelling at her? It didn't make for good avenues for 'discussion'. But... they weren't as 'ignorant as she hoped.

But they made for poor 'discussion' fields as well.

Riventon's sudden appearance, however, made her eyes narrow. So it seemed that, at least, warranted him making a direct, and immediate appearance. Interesting. That told her quite a bit as well... Riventon, what were you doing to that girl? She needed... to get her away from him. A time when she could talk to her. Alone.

When Tuxedo Mask turned to her, she nodded, giving a small smile back. "Of course. I mean, you've gotten me a few ti--" And then she was being hugged. Wut. Why was she being hugged? Why? What did she do? She blinked a stared before, awkwardly, patting him on the back... and then shrug, giving him a hug back. "Hey, anytime. Happy to help."

She mouthed over his shoulder to Sailor Moon. 'What did I do?'

Rashmi Terios has posed:
as the dome comes down, and there's nothing less to analyze anymore, Rashmi lowers herself to the ground, ending the Investigation spell. The whole construct glows and shatters into miniscule shards of light, that then fleck away into nothingness.

"...Gonna be chewing on *that* for awhile," she murmurs, then looks up. "...So now that I've met her? ...I'm *so glad* we got to Entrapta-chan first." And that seems to encompass everything she feels about Yuyami, and the tragedy of her first encounter.

Catra has posed:
Catra's ear flicks.

"What's that supposed to mean?" she demands of Riventon's retreating form, still speaking through her illusion. "Replacement for me? You can't just replace me! WHY DON'T YOU SEND YOUR REPLACEMENT TO ME AND I'LL KICK HER ASS?!" The feline raises her hands into the air, "Then we'll see what's what, won't we?! There's only one Catra and there's only one Spirit Ember!"

Was that pointless? Probably.

Did it feel good? ...Actually... no not really, it didn't help overmuch, Catra has to admit.

And the fight is over, and everone seems to be more or less pleased about it in their own way, which basically leaves Catra to... just... go back to her bike.

Amanda Faust has posed:
You're the ones vaguely connecting words together!
    "Go over those words again in your head later."

    Amy looks shocked when she can feel just how powerful Riventon is.

    Some tiny part of her notes that, for all her magic, she'll never seem that powerful to her enemies.

    ...But as satisfying as it might feel in the moment, she doesn't want people being afraid of her to be the state of things.

    Yuyami says her piece. So does Riventon. Amy responds to the former: "If it's really for good then tell us how! Why would we stop you from making the world better? You think sparkle power would stay as strong if we saw how we're fighting to make the world worse?"

    She holds out her hand. "Show us you're right, and we'll help you and see what all these sparkly light powers and your darkness can do together. Or we fight knowing we're making things worse, weakening us more than any monster ever could. It's win-win for you!"

    And then she looks over and sees Hinoiri recieving hugs and looking confused rather than like a cat that does not want to be hugged. Aww. She approaches the others, "Thanks for showing up when you did, that monster woulda been a pain without all of us together!" Amy it still kind of was you just have pain turned off right now please remember to get healed!

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Nice bike," Tuxedo Mask calls over Hinoiri's shoulder at Catra as she walks off, and then he pulls back and smiles down at Cure La Licorne, hands still lightly on her arms. "I didn't freeze. I didn't even flinch. At your fire."

He sheepishly lets go of her and awkwardly steps back, lifting a hand to rub at the back of his neck. "We seriously need to figure out what they're doing though," he says, sidling up close next to Sailor Moon... then just as he's about to lean to kiss her golden head, he sees Amy looking Fairly Ragged and he straightens back up and squints at her. "How hurt did you get? I wasn't paying attention."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"...You don't need to call it sparkle power," Sailor Moon pouts at Amy, "But otherwise, good try. I don't think she's going to listen to any of us with Riventon right there - girl has major teacher's pet vibes."

Hinoiri is looking at her, but Usagi just points at Mamoru and tries to mime fire, fire, no panic! But she's never been good at charades.

She drops it all by the time Tuxedo Kamen returns to her, and smiles up at him, innocent and loving.

"We really do. I mean - it can't be anything good. He's never up to anything good. And did you see the way she just shut up the second he put his hand up? Not good."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Cure La Licorne blinked a few times. Of course he didn't--

Oh.

OH!

"That's great!" La Licorne said, her own face lighting up. "That's really amazing! A wonderful breakthrough! That's so great to hear," she said, sounding, at least, genuinely happy about it. "Hey, Catra? Let's meet up later, okay?" she called out to her.

Before looking to the others. "And... yeah. That... yeah. So... some of you may have recognized her name. Some of you heard me freak out about her before. But... that girl... definitely is giving me the same vibes as Sora's new student. It's not just the name, either," Hinoiri said. "I met and talked with her about it."

"... As bad as I am about Sora? Yuyami... is worse. Like... admittedly... I... ahem... have.... a bit of... trouble... disagreeing with her at times," La Licorne said. "But I can do it. But this girl... if she's like the Yuyami back from my world? It has Sora concerned. And the way Riventon is treating her, and this project of his? Something is... definitely up. Things just... aren't adding up. And I'm not sure what we're missing yet."

"Sadly I don't have anything I can really... definitively say yet... But..." She rubbed the back of her head. "If you guys come up with anything, well... you all know where to find me. Shed, lab, all of that. I'll actually be heading back there later this evening."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "What should I call it then? I did say to think on our words later," Amy answers Sailor Moon.

    Then she inclines her head. "...If I'm right about how she was probably treated before... yeah, having teachers praise you even some of the time when everyone makes you feel unwanted is kind of a big deal, yeah."

    "Ugh," Amy groans in annoyance and looks up at the sky, "And we just seem like more of the same and she has no reason to want us to like her. But she's doing this so we can't really be even nicer than we are... The only way she's gonna have a different experience is if she like, tries to infiltrate us in disguise and finds out we're genuine about this and not scheming, but... you can't really fake spark-- uhh, non-dark power with dark energy, right? How would that even work?"

    "She knows we know who she is in civilian guise so she probably won't try that at school either--and oh right she doesn't have a henshin anyway."

    Hinoiri has exposition! Amy listens, surprisd. "So there's another Kagayaki-san in your world? That's weird, isn't it? You don't have versions of any of the rest of us, do you?"

    "If it's just her... could there be some kinda connection between them? Like, she sees some of the other Kagayaki-san's memories in her dreams and that's why she's sculpting KKF monsters?"

    And there's Tuxedo Mask(ed Rider)! Oh right, healing. Amy turns pain back on and winces, feeling her side. "It got me good with the tail." Under the bodysuit a big bruise and soreness, no broken bones, thanks mahou toughness. She does see how her arms are a bit scratched up from hitting the ground, and in a wash of pink sparkles over her, the uniform is repaired and the skin mostly is.

    She takes a few breaths and shifts position slightly, wincing. "Doesn't feel like any internal damage, though."

    She blinks. "Oh right! Uh... you said the leylines is what Midnight Tokyo was about... so this is probably like that?"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Seriously, behind the mask, at Hinoiri, it's a n_n face for sure. But then-- the conversation moves on. He coughs a little. "Calling it sparkle anything is an Obsidian thing," Tuxedo Mask puts out there hesitantly. "Maybe go with, I don't know, bright energy? Rainbow energy? Light energy? It's just energy, seriously..."

One shoulder's shrugged a little uncomfortably. "I didn't fully understand the plan at any point in time, all I know is we were trying to poison them to turn areas of Tokyo into miniature dusk zones, with the goal of eventually all of Tokyo. And then like probably the world or whatever."

Mamoru moves to touch Amy's arm lightly, and there's a golden glow, and yeah, it's only a little tender now.

"All I know is, they said it's not ley lines, and that is something we can confirm, with the resources we've got in the Shed, over the many times we've dealt with ley lines. Plus, we do know that the Oneiropope's nightmare king is rolling up the main trunk line between here and Kyoto. I think we should make sure we know what they're messing with first. What flow, you know? What flow was she talking about."

He exhales. "Anyway! Let's go home. Want a ride, most beautiful charming strong delightful funny powerful wife ever? My helmet's under my henshin and yours is in storage~"

Honestly it's not even a question, he's not even finished asking when Sailor Moon's over there, and then they're over there doing cute couple stuff involving kissing and getting on a motorcycle and dehenshining and rumbling off.

Catra has posed:
Catra looks over her shoulder at the people who are busy talking about... well everything. Riventon, Yuyami, the current struggle, what to do and where to go and chill... and she should probably go join them. Except that she doesn't.

"Uhh? Yeah, sure," she replies to Hinoiri, looking over her shoulder before she reaches her bike, which she straddles and fires the engine to life. She guns it hard, spinning it around 180 degrees and laying down a semi-circle of rubber before popping a wheelie and speeding off.

As she rides, her mind churns with thoughts and emotions, while she weaves in and out of traffic and thoroughly ignores the speed limit; it doesn't matter that she's not in her disguise, nobody's going to get that good of a look at her anyway.

Why is she speeding off? She should stay. Why isn't she staying? What is she afraid of? She's not afraid but why can't she just stay? It's not like she belonged at Obsidian. That much was obvious to everyone except her in the first six months, and eventually became obvious to her. She didn't belong there.

So why doesn't she belong here either? Why can't she find somewhere she belongs?

She loses track entirely of where she's going; her original destination before meeting up for a fight entirely forgotten. By the time she's burned through half a tank of gas she finds herself back at the abandoned, half burned dojo, and wheels her motorcycle inside rather than leaving it on the stree.

Inside the makeshift throne she built at the edge of the sparring mat is still there, and she plops down into it. The Spirit Ember is fished out of her pocket, and she gazes into it as if it were a crystal ball.

Except that it has absolutely no answers to give.