2532/Claws Tail Teeth Hands

Claws Tail Teeth Hands
Date of Scene:	28 April 2025
Location:	Crystal Tokyo
Synopsis:	The Black Moon Clan come knocking, and in the process, give Chibiusa a panic attack. As Small Lady flees, her parents chase after her, leaving Zoisite, Kunzite, Nephrite, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Uranus, Rashmi, Catra, Amy, and Cure La Mer to face off against Green Esmeraude nee Dragon and Blue Saphir. The good news? They win. The bad news? ...where'd the whole royal family go, again?
Cast of Characters:	280, Chibiusa Tsukino, Takuto Tsunashi, Hotaru Tomoe, Laura La Mer, Haruka Tenoh, Aloisia Stauss, Rashmi Terios, Mamoru Chiba, Nephrite, Usagi Tsukino, Kazuo Saitou, Zoisite, Amanda Faust, Makoto Kino, Catra, Madoka Kaname
Tinyplot:	Black Moon Clan
Tinyplot2:	BMC: Dimension Past

---

Blue Saphir (280) has posed:
Those who followed Chibiusa to the future have now spent five days dwelling in the nightmarish post-apocalyptic city that her home has become, a full day of which has been spent in the palace gathering strength, supplies, secrets, and above all, recovering their spirits.

The sun still doesn't shine, not with that layer of ash and soot heavy in the air, but in the Crystal Palace, the air is clearer, the light seems a little brighter, and the enormous crystals the entire palace is composed of offers little rainbows of light. The miasma that poisons the land, which has killed near every other remnant of organic life in the city - and slowly, steadily, throughout the Earth itself - is halted, here, by the efforts of the four guardian Senshi.

Crystal Palace is the final stronghold for this dying future. It is no surprise then, that the enemy which had so eagerly cut off this fortress, would come to call.

There are three of them, though there are plenty of Droids at their backs, clawing at the crystal stairs and growling at their inability to climb them. The three on approach aren't walking, but floating, as Dark Generals tend to - two men, and a woman. To some of those from 21st Century Tokyo, two of these figures will be recognizable - Blue Saphir, with his deep blue hair and attire, strikingly white pants and pale skin, and Green Esmeraude, with her vividly green hair, elaborate dress, and decidedly undainty fan.

The third, in the lead, is a man none of them have seen. Looking to be twenty-five or twenty-six, around King Endymion's physical age, he's pale, but not unhealthily so, with chin-length white hair and lilac eyes, dressed in a white suit with a creeping, vine-like pattern, and a blue-black cape with a deep purple underside.

He studies the Crystal Palace for a long moment, and then reaches out, palm facing the shut doors of the palace.

"We should make ourselves known." And then from his palm flies a beam of jet black energy, striking with enough force to rattle the walls, to shake the palace itself -

But light sparkles over the door, green and blue and orange and red, and the doors hold.

Prince Demande of the Black Moon Clan laughs, ever-so-slightly, and then he strikes again.

"Rabbit," he calls, and his voice is magnified by his dark power, spreading through the air, through the walls, audible to all, as though that booming power could not be seen. "You cannot hide with your precious aunties forever. How many are going to die before you hand over the Silver Crystal?"

Chibiusa Tsukino has posed:
    Chibiusa hides in her room as she hears the enemy calling. Her hands are covering her head, and her face is in her knees. She is shaking.

    Oh, of course, they mention her having the Silver Crystal. That's all they really wanted from her, right? All they ever wanted... Even though she brought it home, it wasn't enough to fix anything.

    Her heart aches. She thought they were lying. When Petz came to taunt her, to tell her all about the price of her mistakes, she thought it was all a lie. A taunt. An attempt to make her upset, to make her do something reckless, to make her feel bad for no reason.

    Well, now she knew she had every reason to feel bad, and she's very upset.

    As she hears the Droid army come, and the voices of the enemy, she leaves her room and makes her way for the front gate. Diana meets her along the way, walking by her feet. The small kitten looks up at her, asking, "Small Lady? Is what they say true? Do you have the Silver Crystal?"

    Chibiusa looks confused, then frowns down at the tiny kitten. "Yes...? I thought you knew that already?"

    Diana shakes her head. "No... We only knew that it was gone. It vanished when you did. How did you get it back?"

    Chibiusa freezes up. Her eyes widen as she looks down at Diana.

    She is trembling.

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
Green Esmeraude snaps her fan shut, smiling delightedly down at Demande hammering the door as she floats there, and then she opens it again and flutters it in front of her face for a second, chortling invisibly behind it--

--and when she lowers the fan and snaps it shut again, she's still laughing, back of her hand and knuckles half-hiding her mouth. "Ohohohoho!" it is. "Prince Demande-sama, would you like us to knock as well? I'm certain they heard you, but only one stupid, selfish little rabbit has come to cower in front of the doors, like the helpless little vermin she is~"

She floats lower, then leans forward with her hands on her bent knees, shut fan in one of them, and she croons toward Chibiusa, "You killed your mother, didn't you, darling?"

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Hotaru Tomoe heard trouble was coming. No. Heard trouble was HERE.

And she came a running. Racing down the halls, skidding to a stop the moment she saw Chibiusa. She then glanced towards the door. "Oh, why don't you go swallow some spiky marbles!" she yelled at it, before glancing towards Chibiusa.

However... before she could say anything... Esmeraude laughed, and she smiled.

But then she kept talking.

And that smile faded. And she took a slow, deep breath. Then, she stepped forward, and reached out a hand, to place on Chibiusa's shoulder. Gently. "We're here," she whispered. "And we're not going to let them hurt you. And we're going to make them eat all of those words, and likely a few teeth. And then some," she said firmly. "I'm here as long as you need me... and if you don't... I'll be happy to go and help them get rid of the garbage that is piling up outside of the door," she said, struggling, desperately, to keep her tone calm and level. "And don't listen to anything they say. It's what dark energy does... it makes you spill lies and slander... whatever you can do, or say, to make people hurt and suffer... and be as miserable and nasty as they are."

Laura La Mer has posed:
Cure La Mer grips compact and pen, turning to look at the door when the impact clashes against it. "They really waste all this time get used to the palace, and now pretend to have any sort of leverage? These guys really need to revisit their sense of tactics", Laura flips a hair strand back, standing pompously.

"Hey, Chibiusa", the Pretty Cure places a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry about these guys. We are all here, and nothing is going to happen to you, I promise", she nods seriously. "If you guys can hear that, we are not turning Chibiusa over, not even if you bring 10 planets' worth of people", she raises her voice at the man talking outside.

"What. Idiocy. Are. You. Spouting. Now?", Laura addresses Esmeraude with gritting teeth. "The nerve of saying something so dumb. Is this the best you can do? What's next? "Oh, it's your fault she died because you didn't do as we said?", she replies with a mocking voice.

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
    Sailor Neptune had tried to make herself useful where she could - a sounding board, a calming presence, a seer - but a seer who's mirror was clouded, as it wasn't the Deep Aqua Mirror that would have belonged to this world, to this timestream, and so its help was limited at best.

    Sailor Uranus, on the other hand, had mostly paced and tried not to ask questions that she knew the others had already turned over in their minds - questions about weaknesses, about when and where they could take the fight to the enemy. She was... well, bored wasn't the right word, but biding her time. She knew where she held the most value, and it was at the front of the charge, not in the planning rooms.

    In a sort of way it was like a weird vacation; no races for Haruka, no concerts for Michiru, and they spent a lot of time together and with Hotaru.

    Hotaru, though, isn't with the two of them when the thudding impact is made against the door. The two Sailor Soldiers rise in unison. They are already moving when the man speaks - already running downstairs, sword and mirror in hand.

    But they wait, armed and ready, at the doors. This isn't their castle, for one thing, but for another, they know better than to rush into danger alone; not here, not with the power they can sense on the other side of the doorway. But clearly, they are both ready - and it's sure not 'ready to give up any small pink friends of Hotaru'.

Aloisia Stauss has posed:
Aloisia's presence has been mostly rather lacking around the others -- not because she was being absent for bad reasons, she'd spent a lot of her time guarding a pocket of survivors discovered relatively early on in that ash and soot-covered world. More recently she'd helped to move them to said palace that was somewhat of a safe haven now, though she'd still spent a large amount of time around them. Providing what she can for them.

Still. It seemed that all-out war was coming.

As that beam from Demande struck the front door, Kristallritter stood from where she had been, giving a reassuring nod towards one of the survivors she had been talking with. Walking towards the front of the palace, she is somewhat behind when Chibiusa and Diana have that conversation, and that moment of panic she saw.

Mm. She hadn't gotten to know the little princess much -- not had much chance -- so she doesn't step in, but she did decide something. She was going to make sure to keep an eye out for -- and on -- her in the upcoming battle.

Esmeraude's approach -- and her taunt-- get an almost immediate response from the crystal knight.

<FERNWAND.>
<KRISTALLSPITZE.>

A six-point magical circle suddenly appears in front of Chibiusa, between her and the green woman.

And in front of the green woman, there was an equally sudden utterly silent knight, cold gaze towards Esmeraude, a gaze that looks down at *her* like the vermin she just claimed Chibiusa is, and planting her shield in the ground between the two of them. At first, likely seeming like a defensive movement. But it was planting a magical circle on the ground, a magical circle that creates a spike of crystal aimed straight for Esmeraude's stomach.

There are no words for the fury on Aloisia's face. But her actions likely spoke more than enough to make up for the lack of words.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
News of the advancing army filled the pit of Rashmi's stomach with dread. While she'd *hoped* that they'd have the luxury of striking out at a time of their choosing... being realistic, that would always have been the luck of the draw. Upside, between the defenses, garden, and all else... A siege *might* be at least survivable, which would be a win for their side.

At Esmeraude's words, however, Rashmi's dread ignites into fury. The *sheer nerve* of this wannabe-queen!

As Laura answers with derision, and Aloisia answers in Belkan, Rashmi drops a Shield in front of Chibiusa, and her voice rings out teenagerly as the noise of the crystal spike fades.

"The Palace is closed to visitors who can't behave themselves!"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru's jogging-while-henshining; he's not there much long after Chibiusa; he catches the end of what Esmeraude says and reaches for Chibiusa while her friends reassure her and defy the Black Moon Clan outside the palace. "Baby," he says firmly, "no. She's not dead. Your father would know, and he said she wasn't."

Tuxedo Kamen, half bent over with his arms out, but not scooping her up. Not with that look on her face. He's felt that look on his own face before.

Nephrite has posed:
A prismatic shimmering of colour, a nebula of stars, takes shape ad Nephrite appears. Constellations gather, swirl, and fade around him. Hovering above Sailors Neptune and Uranus, his cape behind him and wavy brown hair settling from weightlessness.

Sapphire eyes are upon the doors, and he doesn't bother with words. Only the singing sound of a sword being unsheathed and the glow of starlight called to line its edge.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
It's hard to say what a normal day looks like, in Crystal Tokyo, but at least being in the Crystal Palace means helping survivors instead of fleeing from Droids, keeping watch every minute for when they might stumble upon them. In between bringing survivor groups over to the Palace, Usagi had had time to talk to the King, to her friends, to eat, rest, and try her hardest to soothe Chibiusa, back in a home that's more desolate than could be hoped for, without even the comfort of her mother and father to hold her tight.

Every minute is one where Usagi is painfully aware that she is playing catch up to her own future self, a woman apparently so incredible that every single survivor whispers about The Legendary Sailor Moon at the sight of her. She can't stop feeling the weight of their desperate hopes on her shoulders, that she can save this world the way the her who was Chibiusa's Mama had.

She has no idea how she's going to do that, for the record, aside from, 'with the help of her friends', but she'd hoped they would have time to figure that out.

The resounding boom that rattles through the palace shows how misplaced those hopes were. There are screams, cries, panic - nothing falls, precisely, but the boom makes it clear that that the defenses holding are not absolute. How could they be, when the walls are shaking at all?

Sailor Moon rushes for the entrance, and tells every civilian she sees to get deeper into the Palace, where it's steadier. Jadeite, she also sees, with the people, preparing to be their defense, and she nods, and comes out to hear -

But she sees Chibiusa's panic, growing and terrible, and she realizes with a lurch that these defenses... may not be helping.

"We're never giving Chibiusa or the Silver Crystal up," she snaps at them instead, glaring at the woman in green she remembers as waving off her purification and the man in white, who she doesn't know and can only wonder about. "So leave her alone!"

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
Kunzite had words for Chibiusa; but there are other people talking to her, and too many people talking is not good for someone in a panic. Too much input. The important parts are covered. He moves to draw up a second shield to reinforce Rashmi's instead, protecting his prince; protecting the little girl who's done so much, so desperately, to try to rescue the people she cares about.

He doesn't speak. But when he hears Nephrite's sword drawn, there's just for a moment the faintest hint of a smile.

Zoisite has posed:
He'd been lingering nearby. When not at the library, it was in the music room, unhenshin'd . Recovering energy was important after all, and... He didn't really want to meet his other half. It set something heavy in his stomach that he existed and was present in the infirmary. So far away he remained, nearer to the front section of the Palace.

Which meant he saw the approach of droids. A sea of them. Another swarm? It would be a simple matter to deal with them. But he paused at seeing the three figures floating instead. The vibrant neon green caught his attention, recognizing the bitch as Esmeraude. The one in pure white he did not know of, and the outfit did remind him of the current King Endymion.

And of course, Saphir was with them, this time. The knot felt tighter in his middle. Not the third meeting he was hoping for, after his talk with Nephrite and Rashmi.

Yet, that aggressive flurry of cherry blossoms was present at the main entrance as he teleported and floated above the rest, arms crossed and keeping the petals around him, ready to strike.

He says nothing, just watches closely between the two near the door, taunting the Princess, and the one that seemed to linger behind them.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy finally slept somewhere... well, normal isn't the word, but after four days of post-apocalyptic camping or sheltering in Surprisingly Clean Future Bathrooms, anywhere in the palace feels more like a normal place to sleep, whether in a bed, on a couch, or just on the floor with some blankets (bless this teenage body being able to do that comfortably). She's spent most of her time in the library either searching for information on the enemy or collecting and archiving what little bits of information might be helpful to take to the past. (If some way to interface her 2024 laptop has been found, she has dutifully archived pop lit and any story reccomendations she got from the future folks.)

    So. Suddenly there's a booming voice, and she henshins and rushes to the battlements or whatever they have. << Don't listen to them, Chibiusa. You brought us back to help, after all. >>

    From the battlements (or whatever), she shouts, "No one is vermin. ...Not even you."

    She conjures missiles with incendiary warheads to airburst over the droids and shower them in FIRE, but she's more worried about the generals -- one of whom she's seen deflect a Moon Healing Escalation.

    "You blame her and her parents because your parents went to Nemesis, where Death Phantom was known to be sealed away. I get it -- your parents aren't here to rage against, maybe they're dead, maybe they showed you kindness and were remorseful for what they did -- But this is not Crystal Tokyo's problem. You would have been welcome to leave Nemesis and stay here. Instead, you did this, choosing to hurt others instead of helping yourselves, and still you so choose."

    Amy makes a show of looking across the horizon. "This is the vaunted new world you would build, when the King and Queen couldn't stop you? I am not impressed. You've had a whole month of freedom to build whatever you wished, and so you have laid bare all that you're about:"

    Amy spreads her arms. "Destructive tantrums."

Makoto Kino has posed:
"Sparkling Wide Pressure."

In the midst of what is mostly, for the moment, a standoff - a clear voice calls out from somewhere above, from the walls of the Crystal Palace.

There is a huge rush of air, a flash of crackling light.

And a tactical Jupiter missile comes hurtling down from on high as Sailor Jupiter launches herself bodily from whatever vantage point she'd been positioned at, ball lightning crackling between her hands as she drops into the midst of the droids behind the three Dark Generals like she fired herself out of a trebuchet.

Blue Saphir (280) has posed:
"It would be easy for you, little Rabbit, if it was your fault because you didn't surrender to us," Prince Demande says, and he is cruel, his eyes alight with sadistic enjoyment at the little girl's panic. Esmeraude's vicious prodding only heightens his enjoyment. "But I take it that means you haven't told your friends what you did."

"No, she must have thought to keep that to herself," Saphir says coolly, the third of the party, looking callously at the tearful girl now protected by so many layers of magic. "Perhaps we should thank her, for all the aid she's given us. It would have been far harder to crush the capital planet of this empire without her aid."

There is no smile on his lips. His eyes, scanning the crowd, take note of familiar faces, familiar fighters, preparing to suggest stratagem, to put up defenses where needed. When taunting cries sound out, he looks to his brother -

And Prince Demande takes the suggestion, and the call, and smirks.

"You're right, brother. Princess Small Lady Usagi Serenity, let Prince Demande of the Black Moon Clan offer his great thanks for your efforts on our behalf. Had you not stolen Neo Queen Serenity's Silver Crystal, your world would have lasted longer under the onslaught. Those who say that you are weak and pathetic, doomed to never live up to her power are wrong indeed - for who but the daughter of the Neo Queen and King could hope to unravel their legacy but you. Now open the doors, Rabbit, so I can take your castle, too."

His voice rings, projected by Dark Energy, carried to every inch of the palace. There is no escaping those poisonous words, that vicious variant of the truth.

Attacks rain, fired by a girl in red and Demande makes no effort to preserve the Droids that are fired upon, even when Sailor Jupiter herself launches forth and storms upon the droids - they break and shatter under her touch, lightning spreading far, downing their magitech functionality, leaving a spreading field of bodies of metal and flesh conjoined at her feet.

The Prince of the Black Moon lifts his head to declare -

"You may call it a tantrum if you wish. I call it vengeance." And he might have continued on, but for catching sight of Sailor Moon, calling that they'll never surrender, glaring with that hateful stare, and he laughs, delighted. "Sailor Moon, your eyes never change. Don't you know that your every defiant cry only urges me on?"

And he calls forth a wave of dark energy, fit to throw everyone - except, ironically, the Rabbit herself, back. Chibiusa, protected by so many layers of magic, is the only one guaranteed to still be standing.

Chibiusa Tsukino has posed:
    Diana, innocently, looks up at Chibiusa. "Small Lady? What's wrong? You know you can tell..."

    Esmeraude taunts her just as Chibiusa opens the front door. 'You killed your mother, didn't you?'

    "No!" shouts Chibiusa, gripping her necklace and shutting her eyes. She henshins into Masquerade Lapine in front of everyone, including the Black Moon Clan. Oh no. She really should not have done that. She's panicking and making mistakes and those mistakes are making her panic even more.

    Hotaru, Laura and Amy try to reach her, but Lapine isn't listening. She's too lost in her own fear to even respond. Aloisia, Rashmi and Kunzite come to her defense, but Chibiusa still can't feel safe here. She doesn't deserve their protection... They shouldn't have to weather Demande's attacks for her sake...

    Mamoru approaches. Chibiusa turns towards him, giving him a haunted look. There are tears at the corner of her eyes.

    < Flier Fin >

    Now she's making another mistake. One amongst many. So many mistakes all adding up to this disaster. All of them hers. The fate of her mother and father. The fate of the world. All of it is her fault, and she didn't even have the courage to explain that to small little Diana. Couldn't even face the little kitten right beside her. Let alone everyone else.

    Demande's words... Saphir's words... Esmeraude's words... Even if they aren't completely true, they're close enough to hurt.

    "Small Lady?" calls out Diana, before being launched back into the castle by Demande's attack.

    Chibiusa grips the edge of her cape. Such a worthless little coward. All she can do is flee, away from all the bad things, away from all her problems. The problems she herself caused.

    After the sound of Jupiter's thunder, Masquerade Lapine launches into the air and flies down the coastline, fleeing the palace, holding her hat down over her eyes. She can't even face her friends, or even respond as the Black Moon Clan mocks her.

    Worthless...

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
Green Esmeraude, in fact, starts laughing again as little girls start gathering around the ancient five year old. Hotaru with her reassurances, Laura with her defiance-- and then the big kids start showing up, and Esmeraude straightens, smirking. "If she were alive, wouldn't she be able to ~save you~ and your pathetic ~world~? Isn't that what she does? It has to be because you stole her precious crystal and left her helpless to die with the rest of the planet, with her useless husband--"

And some Senshi that she recognises, Uranus and Neptune, show up next and her eyes gleam. "Oh it will be such a pleasure to kill you girls again. You're so creative, and ultimately so full of fail," she says almost affectionately. "Uranus and Neptune, who thought they could take us on, ohohoho!"

Then her Prince is talking, and she backs off, still smirking, practically-- until people start attacking, at which point she looks terribly offended. She literally bats the crystal away with her fan, just in time, and she lets out an undignified little yelp, which she also turns into laughing as the crystal reflects off to go flying at the castle doors and shatter there. "Ohohoho!" she says, and then one of her hands turns monstrous and huge-- the one not holding the fan-- and extends, way too long and strong and bendy, to punch the Crystal Knight hard in the solar plexus. Really hard.

She grins almost ferally at Rashmi, tossing her vivid green hair and waving her beastly hand twinklingly at the Page Mage. "We know exactly how to behave with little creatures like you," she says breezily, then smiles at Nephrite in his uniform, and Kunzite coming to shield the young king and the little princess, and Zoisite with his flower petals and hilarious seriousness. "The girls told me about you butlers... how is life with your young king, you poor fools? Enjoyable enough for this, then?"

And there are the young king and queen, and oh dear god Esmeraude hugs herself with her one VERY WRONG arm, practically wriggling with joy. "And there they are, the children who think they can succeed where their betters failed. Oh I'm going to enjoy this so much," she says as Amy and Jupiter launch their attacks. Esmeraude teleports out of the way of them both on their way to the droids, then waves at them with that horrible hand. She laughs and laughs as Demande flings dark energy at the doors--

... and then the Rabbit opens them. Opens the shield around the palace. Esmerude's hand comes up to hide her mouth's little 'o' and her poison-green eyes are wide, wide.

"I can't believe the little idiot did it," she laughs incredulously.

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Hotaru Tomoe went still when she heard the news.

Chibiusa... stole... the silver crystal. What?

And then... Lumiunous titan? In front of her? and... everything? WHAT?

And then.... And then...

Her eyes went wider by the second, as hit after hit happened.

Except, now? The door was opened. Her words had done nothing... and the door was open.

And she wasn't in a henshin.

She had just a split second, her hand wavering, the blast coming at her, the wand in hand and--

Sailor Saturn shrieked, blasted across the room and hitting the wall across the room. Not prepared, but at least in henshin in time. She laid there for a moment, trying to process what happened. Where two of her friends just left. And also, she was ill prepared. But, on the other hand, she wasn't like... broken. She was just going to have to recover for a moment.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Sailor Jupiter launches a vicious assault, and Sailor Moon's Spiral Heart Moon Rod leaps to her hand, energy pulsing, ready to be launched -

But the attack that comes (first) isn't one of magic, but words, vicious and cruel, lobbed at a little girl who's shouldered the weight of too much responsibility, and when Chibiusa's small form is replaced by Masquerade Lapine's sturdier - but no less tiny - frame, she lurches in horrified relief, because secrecy lost is still protection gained.

"Shut up," she yells at the trio of hateful bullies, monsters, murderers. "Leave her -"

Flier Fin!

And then the dark energy comes, and Sailor Moon is thrown back into the doors of the Palace, head cracking against it in a way that makes her grateful for Mahou durability.

Masquerade Lapine takes off, fleeing from the battle, the palace, and her family, and Sailor Moon takes hardly a second to glare at the lot of them as she pushes herself to her feet. They aren't - he isn't - worth her time, not when Chibiusa is heading off on her own like this, face covered and shaking and -

"Chibiusa-chan!"

She's going after her daughter. It's the only choice she can make, never mind the battle that's brewing.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
And when Chibiusa flees? Mamoru, who'd been battered despite Kunzite's shield (so was a little disoriented), jolts to run after her. He doesn't have time to kiss Kunzite and Usagi is also running after Chibiusa; his gloved hand merely brushes against the other boy's arm in passing, elbow to fingertips, and then he's gone out the door too.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
The Crystal was *stolen?* And nobody knew?

That is in itself a lot to process, but also the least important thing about the moment right now. Kristalritter's attack being deflected is disappointing, but less than surprising; they're *always* stronger than they have any right to be.

And she can't help but blurt out a surprised 'Oh, *ew!*' as Esmeraude's arm becomes monstrous, too large and too long, just to sucker-punch Kristalritter.

"....Yeah so do we," she mutters in response to this horrible woman's taunting. "TSAB ru--"

*** DARK WAVE ***

Her hips catch a solid, elegant crystal bench, flipping her end over end on her way back until she finds a corner that can arrest *all* her momentum, and for a moment the lights go out. But only a moment, and she comes to with a gasp, a pained groan, and a series of chimes from Nicomachea

    << *BONG!* >> << TELEPATHY >>

    << *BONG!* >> << FLIER FIN >>

<< Okay I vote overwhelming violence, >> she says woozily into the new comms net. << Who else votes overwhelming violence? >>

Before long, it will be understood that Moon, Moon-Moon, and others have departed the field. But that is not this moment.

Catra has posed:
Catra was in an entirely different part of the palace while all of this was going on. Why? Because she's a cat and she wanted to be by herself. Afterall she still identifies quite strongly as a villain and being surrounded by, encouraged by, and worst of all trusted by all these heroes is unbalancing her self image. She still is a villain, right? She's the bad guy. Everythign she's ever done hasn't been for nothing, right? Or has it?

Just who exactly is she, anyway?

Adora didn't trust her, last time they met, so that's comforting at least. She might be a moron but she knows Catra is untrustworthy to heroes at least.

Catra's deep philosophizing on the nature of her own existence is, of course, interupted by the ruckus of the Black Moon Clan attacking, so she bounces to her feet and sucks in her breath, heaving a great sigh and audibly complaining "Why NOW?! while inwardly being quite pleased that she has something else to think about aside from her existential identity crisis (look, it's bad, okay?).

So, it's in the wake of Demande's dark energy attack that she arrives, stalking out in her cyan colored tuxedo with her sword drawn and in hand, and an intensely angry look on her face.

"I was THINKING," she snarls as she emerges, making her declaration without bothering to pay any attention to any of what anyone else has said thus far. "Why are you attacking now and who do I have to slice in half to get some peace and quiet around here? The future is literally dead you'd think five minutes to myself would have been easy!"

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
    Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus are here for it, they listen to it, they hear all of it - their faces show it. But something else happens. The two of them cross their arms in front of them and weather the punishing storm of Dark Energy as it comes through them; both of them can see they can't dodge it - and so they weather it, skidding backwards but not falling down... but then they hear the shriek, Sailor Saturn's cry of pain - Hotaru's cry of pain - and the two of them can no longer feel their own pain.

    Neptune runs over to Saturn, not treating her like a child but like a fellow soldier, kneeling down to ask if she's okay, to be a hand to help her back to her feet.

    Sailor Uranus shifts as she grits her teeth from the attack, to make sure she's in front of the two of them. "You idiots." she says, rising back to her full height. "You selfish, small-minded, poison-brained idiots. Attacking a world because of petty personal problems. Going after a small girl because even after all of this, you still all feel small, don't you?" She asks. "You feel small because you are small. Because this is still a tantrum. All you're doing is knocking over what others have built because you know you couldn't rise to a tenth of their level." She says.

    Neptune rises and moves to Uranus' side after checking on Saturn. "We call it a tantrum because that's what it is. But if you want to see vengeance... you just attacked my family and my friends. And I'll show you vengeance. I'll show you the storm of the sea." Neptune says, her eyes as furious as an ocean typhoon as she draws her mirror. She watches Mamoru and Usagi follow Chibiusa, like she just followed Saturn, and to her all is as it should be. Family following family in tough times. Now she just has to make sure they don't get interrupted talking to Chibiusa by some jackass with a magic megaphone.

    SUBMARINE REFLECTION! Neptune calls out as she turns the mirror towards them and unleashes a blast of salt-water-energy, like a tidal wave compressed into a ray.

    Sailor Uranus has her blade at the ready, but Neptune said her feelings on the subject excellently, in both word and deed.

Aloisia Stauss has posed:
Other shields were appearing around Chibiusa to provide further protection alongside that crystal wall of protection. Good. The mini-rabbit will be safe. And people who know more about her situation were there to reassure and help her. And others were appearing to help defend the castle and/or Chibiusa's honor.

Tuxedo Kamen, Sailor Moon.

...And the prince talks, more taunting of Chibiusa. More words aimed purely to hurt the young woman. Aloisia's lips purse even thinner. "Poisonous words, as worthless as the lips they fall from. Don't listen to them, Small Lady."

Flier fin.

Chibiusa launches into the air, fleeing towards the coastline.

"..."

A wave of darkness is launched towards ... well, everyone, something that causes Aloisia to slide backwards as the bottom of her shield scrapes along the floor of the palace, leaving behind a scraping path in its wake of armored boots and sharp shield.

The small cat is launched back, only for a barrier to appear in her path, one designed not to rebound or stop, but one designed to catch. A net of rope appearing to soften the cat's fall.

<FANGNETZ.>

The small lady shouldn't be alone. That face -- the body language. She recognized it. It reminded her of how she had felt, the immense weight before she became Prinzessin Nichts.

Thoughts that are interrupted as a fist is sent out towards her by Esmeraude, her crystal spike batted away with that yelp... and oh god it hurt, it hurt so much, was that a crack?! ... It's fine. She moved back a few more paces, but that look towards Esmeraude -- like she was beneath her -- passes over Esmeraude briefly, as the Crystal Knight doesn't even further respond to her.

Because Sailor Moon was also running after Chibiusa. And Mamoru.

And them running off on their own -- that wasn't smart. There was no way that could end well.

<<Rashmi. I'm going to go after them to help make sure nothing else goes wrong.>>

It's a slight delay before she can immediately chase after them... because she does one last thing before she goes.

<PYRAMIDENFALL.>

It's not an attack.

No, she's creating a golden pyramid around Esmeraude.

It's really pretty.

And very hard.

...Mostly as a delaying tactic.

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
At least, this time, Kunzite is familiar with how hard the Black Moon can hit. He doesn't try to brace against it; he tumbles, loose, twisting midway to bring himself into line with --

-- a kitten. There. A kitten who did not need to impact the walls. A net cushions Diana's landing before he can; he brings himself back up to one knee (the gloved hand touches, and he breathes). "Are you all right?" he asks the kitten. Because this is his life now. He's scanning forward, too, for Zoisite. Nephrite. Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, the Krystalritter. And reestablishing his shield over that cracked-open door - it's not enough, not nearly enough, but even a spiderweb might slow them down to brush it away. And it won't interfere with attacks, or people, headed outward.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy would from context guess that Chibiusa is indeed tied to the vanishing of this world's silver crystal -- maybe she even took it hoping to do something good with it -- but obviously no one could believe in a million years that she was working for them. "Please. You've wanted nothing but to kill her all this time. How stupid do you think we are? ...Don't answer that, you're wrong."

    The way Demande looks at and responds to Sailor Moon gets a look of mild disgust and "Gross." from the redhead.

    And then... oh no, Chibiusa's revealed herself. And is... running away from the safety of the Palace?! Amy stretches out an arm, "No! Don't!"

    And then the dark energy wave is coming and she can't dodge only brace and she is knocked on her ass, reeling and wildly firing rocket bullets up at the Black Moon Clan.

    << Don't fall for it! >> Is it already too late? << You've seen us forgive people who didn't even have good intentions! You really think we won't talk to you?! >>

    But Chibiusa's not listening...

    And what can Amy even do to attack them?

    Attacking seemingly invincible foes, or falling to them. Is there no way to win here?

    Sailor Moon finds another option, and Mamoru is right on her heels: Save the Rabbit.

    That seems like a bigger change she can help make than firing attacks at the Black Moon Clan's generals, and facing despair she clutches at the first hope she sees.

    Also her mind immediately supplies rationalizations: Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask can't fly, and a group that small won't fare well if there's more trouble (rationalizations can ignore that 1 more might not be enough to make a difference... but at least it's more likely one of them might escape?)

    Mini-missiles conjure at her side, and fresh bandoliers of incendiary grenades (with a few of other types) are hurled at Catra.

    The mini-missiles fly up to the Black Moon Clan and airburst -- into deafening sound and vision-obscuring smoke.

    Amy rocket-jumps after the Rabbit and the Moon and the Earth, possibly going flight mode to catch up or calling her rocket...

Zoisite has posed:
"Small La-" But Usagi followed, and so did his prince. Out the door and into the fray of droids and the rest of what was left of the Black Moon Clan. "Mamoru!"

Stupid child! Why did she-- she left the palace open for attack. The last place this world had as safety, not only for her!

He wasn't behind a shield however when the wave of dark hit, Zoisite was pushed back some. A hiss escaped between his teeth.

Furious. That's what he was.

<< CLOSE THE DOOR! THIS IS THE LAST FORT! IF YOU WANT TO GET OUT, GET OUT, BUT WE NEED THE DOORS CLOSED! >> Zoisite's mind bellowed telepathically, something triggering his anger. A vicious swarm of petals fly out between the door, aiming for Esmeraude.

Makoto Kino has posed:
<<Way ahead of you, Pagemage. >>

Sailor Jupiter straightens up in the middle of a small crater of droid wreckage, smoke and threads of electricity curling around and off her. The glare she fixes on the backs of the Dark Generals could cut glass.

Not that they notice. They're still looking ahead, at the Palace and its defenders, the door that's cracked open enough for--

Cold rushes through Jupiter's veins. From here she can see Masquerade Lapin flee - Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Kamen going after her--

--there's no time to think about it. There's more droids all around her, and the Dark Generals are pressing their advantage.

Her job is simple, Makoto told Izou, just the other day.

"Don't take me so lightly!" Stance squared, she draws back one foot and then lunges, driving a straight palm-strike into one of the droids between herself and the three Dark Generals. Voltage bursts from the point of impact, sending a spray of electrified shrapnel at their backs.

Laura La Mer has posed:
The marine Pretty Cure shakes her head when those villains insist on hounding Chibiusa with words of guilt and nefariousness, and she wants to get them to shut up, to learn that nothing they say will count.

Their accusations for Chibiusa are really heavy and effective, she can tell that much, but they can get to why that is once they are pushed back. Because she has gotten to know Chibiusa, and no matter what happened, she is part of her close circle of friends, and she knows that Chibiusa isn't the person Black Moon is trying to paint her as.

But before she can get one more word out, the mermaid gets thrown back by Demande's attack, and she rolls a few times before she comes to a stop, already with bruises to show for it. Managing to stop herself in a kneeling position, the rainbow heart on Laura's back shines with her determination.

Despite their efforts, Black Moon's words have created a breach, and forced Chibiusa/Lapine to flee, and Laura's fists with barely repressed energy. Calm down, she urges to herself, Usagi and Mamoru are with her, and Black Moon is here, things are ok still. Flying closer to Hotaru, she lends the purple-haired girl a hand. "Are you ok, Saturn?"

<<I am ready for this dance , Page Mage>>, she replies to Rashmi.

Nephrite has posed:
The wave hits, and it prevents any kind of move forwards for the moment-- doors opened, Chibusa fleeing, Usagi following her. *Mamoru* following them. It's fortunate that he's held in the air by his own power, pushed back as he is, but Nephrite manages to avoid being flung into anything directly.

As Neptune unleashes a tidal force below, he too recovers to aid her-- flying alongside the concentrated power, he sweeps in quick, looking to make a burning slash against the same target.

Blue Saphir (280) has posed:
The Rabbit is what all young children are: emotionally vulnerable and weak. It only takes the cutting edge of their words to break her spirit, as Prince Demande knew it would.

The others, let them protest and struggle, let them decry their tactics - Demande doesn't care about them.

What he cares about is the Silver Crystal, its mistress, and destroying everything which deserted them. He revels in the chaos and screams, as under the attack are launched backwards, and the door is open to them, the Crystal Palace vulnerable, protection voluntarily sundered, and he laughs, vicious and cruel as the Rabbit, in her kingly garb, flees, past mother and father at her heels.

"Going after a small child because it's easy to manipulate her into doing as we please," Demande corrects, casual and unrepentant. "Of course, it helps that the stupid girl actually did steal the Silver Crystal. When the truth is on your side, it's easier to twist the knife."

Submarine Reflection comes roaring at them, a ray of a salt-water-energy blasting forth, and Demande backhands the attack away in a casual magical defiance of physics, the attack impacting the Crystal Palace's magical protections instead, green-blue-orange-red warping against the unexpected assault from familiar energy.

"We handled you once, Sailor Neptune, and that was with a thousand years more experience. You'll need to offer more than your oldest parlor tricks if you wish to make a difference this time."

Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Kamen have thrown themselves full tilt off the palace, leaping from crystal jutting to crystal as they go after their runaway future child, and Demande sighs, almost wistful, as he looks at Sailor Moon. He'd love to stay and chat, but he's got a woman to steal and a man's life to ruin. The attacks - mini-missiles that explode with deafening sound and vision-obscuring smoke - are regarded in annoyance, as dark energy warps to protect Demande.

"Esmeraude, Saphir," he calls, casual and light, "Kill them all."

Saphir handles Sailor Jupiter - or at least, the lightning blitzing shrapnel created as she turns a Droid into her own weapon. Darkness rises in a swift shield, protecting himself and Esmeraude - the lightning covered shards are stopped, but the lightning crackles, and Saphir's earrings deepen their dark luster in response, as he calls upon more power.

"We would never take you lightly, Jupiter. No, you are someone we've kept a careful eye on."

And that's when about a dozen droids just... tackle Sailor Jupiter, all piling on in an effort to hold her down. They won't succeed - especially when Nephrite's tidal forces and burning slashes tear apart those trying to hold down the storm of Jupiter, and Saphir leaps up and back into the sky, cutting eyes glancing at Esmeraude.

"This is your show. I'll be your support, so don't fail me. It would be annoying to add another tune-up to my list of responsibilities."

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
A flower-petal attack! One-- ONE-- of the petals injures her, exploding against her arm, and she shrieks as if stabbed. The rest she waves away or explodes with the fan. Lightning crackles and spits and explodes behind her, and she spins in time to whack it shrapnel away with her fan in one hand, and with her leathery beast hand, hissing. She smooths her hair down after the lightning, eyes narrowed and lips pursed. At least she's not taunting anymore.

And then-- a really pretty golden pyramid around Esmeraude? Esmeraude blinks and pushes at it, then punches at it hard with her beast hand, then sticks her fan down the front of her dress which proves it's stretchy-- and that hand turns into a stretchy wrong-looking clawed huge spindle-fingered nightmare hand and she punches it with both beast hands and it cracks.

She smiles.

She punches it again, but now Demande is calling out to her and she calls back a little terrifyingly syrupy, "Yes, Prince Demande-sama!" She gives Saphir a dirty look.

And then she starts growing, the color of her skin shifting to match the mottled yellow and brown leathery arms, the shape of her head changing--

--her body fills the pyramid, and then it shatters into golden flecks and shards of dissipating light, and Esmeraude flies up, up into the air and grows, faster, thirty-two feet per second per second, toward the ground.

She's a gods-damned dragon. "OHOHOHOHOHO!" roars the dragon, its giant leathery wings shuffling and then expanding, and then she blows an enormous one-second gout of punishingly hot flame in Amy's direction and bats Kristallritter directly into the side of the crystal palace with a wing, trying to keep the two of them from going after her own Prince, Demande.

She's dwarfed by the size of the palace, but she's definitely bigger than Mamoru's apartment building-- not only taller, but wider. She's a big dragon. She's yellow and brown and scaled and leathery where she's not scaled, and her poison-green eyes are horribly human, and she spins with truly alarming alacrity, having a reasonable go at knocking everyone on the ground down with an immense sweep of her Godzilla-like yellow-and-brown tail.

Then she roars more fire, a tremendous one-and-a-half second blast of it in the direction of the stairs, meant to catch everyone there.

Chibiusa Tsukino has posed:
    Diana is a small kitten, easily tossed around, but also easily caught. Her tiny heart skipped a beat as she was launched. As she feels the net catch her, she takes a moment to catch her breath. Kunzite comes to check up on her, and she looks up at him. "I'm fine."

    Diana looks at the entrance to the palace, and then decides that this is very much not a place for a small kitten to be, so she says, "I'm going to help manage the survivors. Please, defend the gates!"

    Then she's running off, further into the palace. As fast as her tiny paws can carry her.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
    << *BONG!* >> << AREA INDEX -- SOLAR SHIELD -- GLACE SHIFT >>

Look you want to hang on to your best defenses, but when Rashmi sees that awful green woman TURN INTO A DRAGON defending against the alpha strike becomes top priority.

A convex disk of golden ice, about as large as the Palace gates screeech-CRACKS into being, interposing itself between the group and the dragon. "On it!" she calls after Diana, struggling against the weight of the pressure on her defense.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Madoka Kaname is not here.

    No, that does not mean that she is absent.

    Hope Concept is Not Here in the way that she has become the Concept of Hope and her love and optimism is spreading all over the battlefield. She's not a physical presence right now, but her presence can still be felt.

    Actually, that's also not true. There's a Hope Blossom here. In fact, there's like ten Hope Blossoms. No, there's nearly a hundred, slightly glowing and a bit ethereal, appearing amongst the Droid armies and assaulting them with arrows and smacking the ones who get too close with their bows. There's also like ten or so back in the deeper parts of the Palace acting as guards just in case something nasty sneaks past the front line, but that's not relevant right now.

    In the middle of the grand melee, a Labyrinth portal appears and a purple-tinged vehicle falls from the sky, looking like a giant multi-layered cake on wheels with a huge cartoonish tank turret poking out of the side of the top tier. The top swivels around with the turret, firing blasts of Labyrinth-made icing at the Droid army.

    Three guesses as to which Puella Magi is in the cake tank.

    Several of the Madokas point up and gasp at Esmeraude as she turns into a dragon, chattering amongst themselves with concern. As the fire comes towards them on the stairs, several of them jump away, but one of them gets caught and turned into pink vapor.

    Homura's cake tank tries to charge over the Droid army, while the big turret aims up at the Actual Fn Dragon and fires horrible magic icing at it.

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
    Sailor Neptune gives Demande the death glare. You know the one. The one she's just a little bit better at than everyone else. But he's not her present problem. Ah, no. That'll be the giant dragon and the hordes of robot-folk. The fire, specifically, she's more apt to deal with.

    SUBMARINE REFLECTION! she calls again, using her mirror's blasts of water to try to resist the dragon's breath. She can't really save everyone from it, but she can punch a hole through it, she figures.

    A hole through which a certain short-haired Sailor Soldier can rush through, carried by the wind, gleaming sword in hand.

    "Soon in addition to Sailor Soldier you can call me Dragonslayer!" she yells, flickering blade of bright solar wind in her hand. She is just straight up attempting to stab Esmeraude in the face. She figures it probably won't work, but you never know. Failing that, she'd rather fight tooth and claw with sword than trying to use it to defend against fire and heat. There's a method to her hyperaggression, down beneath.

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Sailor Saturn gave a small nod to Neptune, Uranus and La Mer. "I-I'm fine, we need to... G-go after... Chibiusa," she said, before slowly getting to her feet. As the others made their way outside, she made hers out as well. Closing the door behind herself. She glanced up at the dragon...

Then at the droids... She lifted her hands, the glaive forming in her hands, but then she stopped. Jupiter was in the midst of them.

<< I can't... unleash my attack like this. I might hit Jupiter. >>

Ahhhh, the joys of still being imprecise with her attacks. However, as the flames came, THAT, she at least, could help with. She drove the glaive down. "Silence Wall!"

A wall of, well, silence, would form around the group, helping to reinforce the barrier that Rashmi was creating.

<< I can't believe there's a DRAGON doing the OJOU laugh and ALL I want to do is WIPE her from EXISTENCE! >> She told her friend that she killed her MOMMY! That was UNFORGIVEABLE NO MATTER HOW AMAZING YOUR DRAGON OJOU LAUGH WAS!

Catra has posed:
Catra catches the bandoleer of grenades tossed to her by Amy, and slings it over one shoulder with a smooth, one handed motion 'cause she's a cat and she can make anything look cool. And one of the incendiary grenades is prmoptly pulled out, so she can yank the pin with her teeth and toss it over her shoulder into some of the approaching droids, because that's the way to do things -- cool people don't look at explosions. And villains are extremely cool.

Luckily, Catra happens to be near Rashmi when the gout of fire from the dragon's maw goes off, so she's behind the ice shield. She cringes just the same; no matter how cool you are it's hard not to cringe, when literally a dragon is literally breathing fire at you and everything within twenty feet of you, but... the shield protects her.

"So, great, a dragon then," she grumbles. "Where are Usagi and--" She pauses, listening for once, and her ears flatten out, "...Nevermind." She glances at Rashmi, "So, kill the dragon and its friends, go looking for your friends? In that order? This shouldn't take too long, I fought bigger stuff on Etheria."

No she didn't.

Catra switches her sword to a reverse grip, holding it behind her as she dashes off, apparently running away from the battle; but it's just so she can do some one-handed parkour up the side of the palace, until she has enough altitude so she can launch herself into the air, twisting as she sails towards the big dragon with her sword behind her, until she's close enough to swing it downwards in as powerful an arc as she can muster, all while yelling "HYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!" at it.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Okay, she shouldn't have attempted a rocket jump right after taking that attack, Amy's head is still spinning and there's

                                     FIRE                                    

    Amy shrieks and conjures an explosion that stops and slightly reverses her horizontal movement, and she falls to the top of the crystal supporting the palace, landing on herside with a grunt of pain. If she wasn't mahou that would've broken some bones for sure. As mahou injuries go it's not bad at all, but still, it's disorienting, which she does not need because

                                     FIRE                                    

    Amy gets her senses about her right quick and rocket-jumps into the air to dodge the flames... and as she soars into the air, like... that is a frigging giant dragon, what do they even do?

    Well, they shoot it. There's always the possibility it's not as tough as it seems and is a weapon of intimidation...

    That's what she'll tell herself...

    So at the top of her arc, she fires a magical 84mm HEAT round, making sure to hit somewhere other than where people are charging into melee.

    And if that don't work, use more gun.

    As she starts to fall, her weapon becomes a giant artillery cannon and fires a 105mm HEAT round that she hopes, at a half a kilometer per second, might even dent those scales from the impact alone before it goes off.

    "...Is that a cake tank? ...Nice."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
The fact that Saturn has closed the doors doesn't mean that Kunzite is letting his shield down. It's not as powerful as the protection that this time's senshi give the palace, but every breath counts. He gets to his feet as Diana skitters away, coming forward to lay a hand on the inside of one of the great doors - closer is stronger, as these things go - and glances aside at Zoisite. "Do you have something in mind?" he asks - it's almost a casual question, even in the face of all of this madness. Align to keep from getting in each other's way, that's all.

Besides. Saphir's out there. That's got to have Zoisite's attention.

Makoto Kino has posed:
Well, she certainly got their attention...

Droids converge on Sailor Jupiter en masse. They're met with a flurry of blows, sparks from her fists and the soles of her boots as she brawls ferociously.

There's a lot more of them than there are of her, though. Soon, the Senshi of Thunder is completely lost to sight in the midst of one big pile of droids.

For a moment.

The power of tide and stars cuts through the mass of droids from the outside of the mob. From underneath, the pileup shudders and heaves. Droids and bits of droids go flying in all directions as Sailor Jupiter bursts up and out, wind gusting in a wild spiral around her.

Breathing hard, she sweeps a quick look around. The Palace doors are closed again - good. Catching sight of Nephrite in the fray, she re-orients herself to drop down alongside him.

"That... can't be good." She unleashes a slender lance of electrical energy into the swarming droids, but her eyes are on the dragon.

Zoisite has posed:
A least someone heard him about the doors, and it was Sailor Saturn of all people. Once he heard the click, it was locked. There was no way for him to know for sure if the shields would be up again, or even the same, but at least this was one end that wasn't wide open for attacks.

Lungs hurt at the stretch of his inhale, letting it out as he could hear the magnified draconic voice boom outside.

<< AIM FOR THE DRAGONS WEAK POINTS! EYES! JOINTS! ANKLES, WINGS! >>

Another call out to the rest of the group. He couldn't tell if they were listening to him or not, but it was a shot in the dark.

Eyes cast down to the floor for a moment, deciding what he would do next. Remain on the outskirts, or join the fray? It was easier for him to aim for Esmeraude, but Saphir..? Another inhale, deep.

And he looks to Kunzite, hears the question. It's been a while since he last laid eyes on his boyfriend. "Many things." It's quiet. There's a hint of shame in his gaze, but he doesn't look away. "If I do something stupid, I hope you can forgive me." And there's a nod. "I love you." With that, he teleports outside and zooms right up to the dragons face.

"BLIND HER!" There's teeth to his scream, snapping his fingers as his cherry blossoms aim towards one of the two pairs.

"Sakura Conflagration!" Explosions upon impact.

Nephrite has posed:
"Things are a little heated--" Nephrite manages in return to Sailor Jupiter, slicing through a row of droids to gain some them space. The numbers keep coming though.

His back is turned to hers, so that between them they have little chance of being blindsided. His hand lifts high and a small barrage fires forth into the army around them, outwards from their position like flares, or falling stars. Small explosions surround them both and buy another moment of holding back their surge.

"Any plans here?"

Blue Saphir (280) has posed:
There's the first attack - a volley of petals directed at Esmeraude's eyes, exploding into flames upon impact -

But they don't impact the great dragon's human-like eyes. No, instead, they impact a shield of blue marred with white lines like circuitry, like veins, as Saphir proves that that offer of support was more than just words.

Under the weight of those explosions, the white veins char, and shield bursts, into black dust - harmless, to Esmeraude, but harmful to anyone who gets too close, in the sense that the dust, of course, is the remnants of expended dark energy.

If Zoisite is looking, he will find Saphir looking back, expression cool, black crystal earrings sparkling at his ears.

He does not like Esmeraude, in the same way that one does not always like those they grow up with, but she is his and he will not let them take her without giving it his best effort.

That said, he also isn't getting very close to her, because he has no desire to be caught in the crossfire of wings and tail and flame. R
That said, he also isn't getting very close to her, because he has no desire to be caught in the crossfire of wings and tail and flame.

A few more shields pop into existence around Esmeraude, Saphir focusing on her defense more than his, relying on the fact that she's a 10-story dragon to draw firee rather than him. Some of Homura's artillery is blocked, some of Amy's heat rounds - but not all, because he is, unfortunately, not a combat specialist, like his fellows.

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
A giant bulk of the alpha strike of fire glances off of Rashmi's sunny golden ice shield, spreading the flame out like a flower's petals. It does, however, also melt the ice shield by the end of the 1.5 seconds, and Rashmi might feel a bit toasty from the last of it licking at her barrier jacket and face. (Hotaru's shield holds the second longer that Rashmi's didn't, and very few people end up burnt. Esmeraude fitfully swipes at Rashmi and Neptune and Saturn with an enormous clawed appendage that still somewhat resembles a leathery skeletal yellow-brown human arm, even if it's as big as an SUV now.

The Actual Fn Dragon that is also actually a Dark General kicks dirt and rocks and broken concrete at Homura's cake tank and its icing, then blasts fire at them too, melting the goop into liquid and burning the liquid while it's still in the air. Ash falls down, and Esmeraude is pleased about both that and the vaporised Madoka. Not enough of them are vaporised though. There are still approximately two million of them. This does not please Esmeraude. Guess what that means!

More fire, this actually pointed at the droids-and-Madokas-and-Jupiter melee.

Also some slapping with that giant tail again--

But Submarine Reflection left something of a mark, the saltwater having gone up her giant dragon nose and stopping the fire for a moment, a moment in which Uranus goes after her face with a sword and a big streak of black ichor begins to ooze from her face.

The giant dragon snarls at Uranus and lunges to bite her, spreading enormous wings over the crowd and flapping them, making wind-- those are very big teeth, but there's no way Esmeraude can actually catch the Senshi of Too Fast For Speeding Tickets.

Catra's sword cuts shallowly into that leathery hide, and she gets slapped at, toward the ground, with the reflexes and ease of a Waffle House waitress. The same cannot be said for all of Amy's incendiary and shelly weaponry, because Esmeraude makes the mistake of trying to slap a missile out of the air, and it explodes against her DRAGON BEAST HAND. She ROARS!!! and there's more flame, blowing the explosives up midair and having a go at anyone currently in the air.

She takes a giant step forward to attempt to stomp on the heroes she just DIDN'T set fire to with her alpha strike.

And then Zoisite goes after her eyes.

Saphir saves her.

It's clear from the split-second blink of surprise at the lack of pain, then the split-second blink of surprise at Saphir himself, that she didn't actually expect the help from him. That doesn't, however, mean that Zoisite couldn't just do it again, and he can fly. So this time she snaps giant jaws at the redheaded boy in the air.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
There's a glow from the ground-- the blasted and scoured and salted earth beneath them glows, and a ringing voice sounds in everyone's minds through the magic of Rashmi and Nicomachea's telepathy and a bit of magic telepathy of its own:

<< I cannot aid you much, but I will give you what we have. >>

Mamoru? No: close, but... older, deeper, more full, more confident. The ground, then, doesn't just glow: it's warm, the light is gold and curls up around the heroes, helping any of them whose feet are on it, granting them energy, healing, power. Determination in symphony with them, an upwelling of feeling, power, from the dying Earth's gasping breaths, to help the children who have come such a distance to help his world, and his family, and Endymion says:

<< I am King Endymion, Senshi of Hearth and Home. I lend you my Mantle. >>

It's one hell of a buff. It also goes on long enough for people to get on the ground and catch it.

Zoisite has posed:
Zoisite does look once his attack is blocked by familiar colors. He backs up, finding the lone figure of Saphir, those familiar earrings dangling like targets. Esmeraude had them too, but her disappeared with the transformation. So the conclusion was rather clear to him.

Defeat Saphir, get access to Esmeraude.

He's never seen this man fight before, perhaps much more of tactician like he was at times, when anger wasn't running wild. A gasp escapes him when the dragon aims her jaws at him, quickly teleporting away before she could crush him.

He's near now. This was not how he wanted to do this. Petals keep swirling around him. There's no movement to attack at first, but it's clear in his eyes that he figured out the weakness. "I have what I promised you, but perhaps another time." Zoisite gives Saphir a nod.

<< Attack the Blue Saphir. >>

His fingers snaps and his petals aim for the man in blue instead, just as deadly in their damage once explossive contact is made.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    The fire comes down, melting through Homura's icing projectiles. Between Saphir and the flames, none of them get through. Homura, within the cake tank, frowns and narrows her eyes even as the act of running over Droids jostles her raven hair behind her. That flame's a problem, and so is that backup.

    The little pieces of ash that fall down soon turn into pink sparkles that twinkle out of existence. It's Labyrinth matter, after all.

    That much fire is bound to get a few Madoka clones, and even as a couple of squads of them get wiped out there's still plenty where that came from. The fact that the fire is indiscriminate manages to work both for and against them, as the empty space behind leaves pockets of ground where there are no Droids.

    Converging onto a single point, the Hope Blossom clones gather into a now open part of ground and form a perimeter around each other, with a circle of stick-wielding Dokas protecting a platoon of bow-firing Dokas. The ranged Blossoms aim their bows upwards at the Esmeraude Dragon, releasing a swarm of pink arrows that all split into a multitude of yet smaller arrows, each one spreading out and filling the air with pretty pink flak.

    Homura, meanwhile, notices that a lot of the shields are coming from Saphir, so the rampaging cake tank swivels its barrel to aim straight up at him, firing a few more frosting artillery blasts his way.

    Team Doka understands the value of a good support unit. That's why they'll focus one down if they can.

    Speaking of support, all of them are already on the ground, so they get Endymion's buff.

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
    Sailor Neptune might be a little busy watching Uranus go off to fight a dragon - like a brave, headstrong knight, her knight, though she'd never admit the distraction to anyone, especially Uranus. This does mean, however, she's not in the best mental place to properly guard against the giant swipe, and instead it collides with her, though she's able to angle herself and her impact so she does a little bit of a damaged spin than a full on out of control knockback. She's only a little bit staggered, between the initial blast of Dark Energy and this; honest.

    Meanwhile Uranus is keeping just away from those teeth - those very large teeth - and avoiding making a lot of jokes about it. Mostly. "That's not what necking is!" she yells. It was much shorter than other options, owing to her getting out of the way.

    She dodges behind a suitably large object and waits; she hears Zoisite's urge to go for weakspots, and it matches something she's been thinking. Those wings; buffeting the wind around like that - it's totally offensive. She clambers over her cover and leaps into the air, yelling as she does so.

    "Something so ugly doesn't belong in the air - you have no grace or elegance!" she yells. But she doesn't come after the wing she appears to be moving towards, instead, she goes after the joints of both. SPACE SWORD BLASTER! she calls as blades of Solar Wind tear through the air aiming for both wing's connections to her body.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
When a dragon is coming your way, you *take to the air* to ensure a dragon cannot squish you. This is basic 'best block no be there' theory.

<< Eyes, joints, wings, got it! >> Rashmi calls out, to ensure not only does Zoisite know he was listened to, but to help direct the efforts of others toward the same end, as a bright yellow magic seal spreads out beneath her feet.

    << *BONG!* >> << QUADRA STRIKE -- BOOST UP >>

Nephrite, Jupiter, Catra, Uranus, all four feel the effects of Rashmi's melee-attack buff.

ANd then Zoisite calls in an attack of Saphir.

<< ...Understood. >>

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

Ten balls of gelden light resolve around Rashmi... then snap outward, becoming hologram *swords* that all orient on the blue-haired man, and fire. Bad enough that they have a decent amount of defensive maneuvering programmed into their attack runs. Bad enough that *someone is shooting swords at him.* Even worse, that the swords are in fact shield-disrupting spells, designed to do more damage to defenses than they do to body.

It's just adding insult to injury, that when they land, they deliver a payload of kinetic energy that feels like *also* getting slapped with a truck.

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Sailor Saturn looks up at the giant clawed hand coming at her. "I am fighting a giant dragon. You know, this should be the BEST day of my life, how can you RUIN this?" she asked the dragon. Chibiusa, where were you? She had better be okay... Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask would keep you safe, wouldn't they?

Worse, she couldn't get a clear shot. Maybe she could try and just...

NO! That was just asking for trouble. If she tried to use it recklessly, then it wouldn't go off. Or, worse, it'd go off in her face. Or absolute worse, hurt someone. She dashed towards the left, leaping away, the claw narrowly moving passed her and the wind sending her sailing back and flipping through the air, though she managed to catch herself and land on a nearby tall thing, then leaped again, trying to get some distance between her and the dragon and, more importantly, trying to get a good vantage point. If she could just... get... a good angle... where she wouldn't hit anyone else...

Trying to leap and get higher as best she could, putting those senshi jumping skills to work.

... She missed being able to fly.

Of course, speaking of flying... THAT was much easier. A smile formed on her lips and she turned around, lifting her glaive into the air and looked towards the target the others had oh so helpfully pointed out to her.

"Silence Glaive Surprise!"

Her glaive spun around her, before unleashing a discus of white energy expanding outwards straight out towards the dragon's head... and, if she moved? Hopefully Saphir. It did force her to stop hor a moment, though. And hey, nobody ELSE on her side was in that general direction, so no friendly fire!

Catra has posed:
Abruptly, Catra is rolling hard on the ground. How did this happen? one moment she was doing parkour and slicing at a dragon, totally about to chop it into little dragon bites fit to go in a bowl of noodles, and the next she was on the ground with stars in her eyes. For a moment, she just lies there, testing the way her ears ring as she opens and closes her jaw. Is she concussed? ...No. Is anything broken? She stands up a little more slowly than she might have liked, and rolls her right arm, then her left. No, nothing broken.

"Ow," she complains, ears flat against her head.

This is so unfair. Everyone else is slinging around big spells and making shields and whatever else, and she's stuck just swinging a sword. And back on Etheria she would have been fine with that. But here it's been wearing lately, watching everyone else do flashy magic while the best she can seem to manage with her Spirit Ember is flame big enough to stand in for a bunsen burner. (Well alright she's done more than that but she's not consistent.)

So once again, Catra's stuck just with what she's got. And the most galling part is the dragon just swatted her away and has moved on like it doesn't know WHO SHE IS.

"HEY!!" she yells up at the dragon, and just... walks forwards towards it, resting her sword on her shoulder. "Don't you turn your back on me! We're not done!!"

Catra pulls an incendiary grenade off her bandoleer, pulls the pin with her teeth, and hurls it straight up at the monster. "You think you can just swat me aside? Do you even know who I am?!" A second grenade, this one high explosive, gets hurled upwards, thrown with all Catra's might and aimed true.

"I'm CATRA! And I don't just get swatted aside like that, you overgrown sewer newt!"

Fragmentation, incendiary, high explosive grenades, and even the smoke grenade and the flashbang, all get tossed upwards one after the other, until the cat stops walking, right out in front. Rashmi's buffs energize her muscles, and she looks over her shoulder to give the mage a nod, as she slips her hand into her pocket and pulls out her Spirit Ember, holding the orangey reddish stone in her hand.

"Alright," she mutters. "Now or never."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    The problem with melting the artillery round is that now you've traded the problem of an anti-tank artillery rounded flying towards you at five hundred meters per second, for a glob of molten metal flying towards you at five hundred meters per second, which is an exciting, new problem.

    << A-HA! >> Amy telepathically cheers with elation. << The dragon is weaker! >> What.

    << I mean, she can't defend that huge body as well as she can the small one! >> Amy had a faint hope of this sort of situation but didn't regard it as realistic. Man, is it great to have a long-shot hope come true for once! They really need it right now.

    << Same problem with the shields, he can't block massed fire! I wonder... >> Amy fires a shot up at the dragon which is intercepted by Saphir's shield -- the resulting colorful flames lick around the edge of the shield, but not enough to hurt the dragon. Oh well.

    The King's Mantle seeps up through her feet, easing her soreness from the fall earlier, and POWER flows through her.

    Ohhh, she knows what to do, but she needs to make sure Saphir doesn't block it, first. And also... she thinks she can do it more efficiently with help.

    << Rashmi, can I get one of those bowl forcefields, aimed at her? >>

    Now: She spreads her arms to her sides and channels the power flowing into her, and fires salvo after salvo of minimissiles that arc through the sky and rain down towards Emeraudragon, exploding in showers of BURNING, let Saphir try and block all of that!

    And then she takes a deep breath and touches her hand to the ground, feeling the king's power as she plans out the specifics of what she's about to do...

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
Kunzite can't see the fight. Can't participate directly. He leans his head against the doors, hands flat against them, and does not permit himself to be distracted from holding the shield steady to contemplate whether he might be able to develop a teleport himself on the spur of the moment. And he touches the Mantle, and wonders -- no. No. Later. Right now, he listens.

And listens to Zoisite switch targets: attack the Blue Saphir.

<< If he has the earrings, he'll expect someone to try for them - we've used that trick too often. And I don't think he needs them. Take care. >> Someone. How many people have done it now? He has; Zoisite; Amy, he thinks - and he's lost track of the others. Worth warning in general.

Nephrite has posed:
The dust and flame are met with a burst of wind, a small gale cut against the wind by Nephrite's blade.

Attack Saphir. Nephrite doesn't need any extra invitation there. He turns his attention up to the blue bastard and readies to hurl his sword through the air-- a spinning, agile thing aimed to strike Saphir, or at least be sent near enough.

A look is passed to Jupiter as Rashmi's enhancement floods him with added strength, and he nods at her. They follow orders, and hit hard.

"Shock him--" He says, turning to kick a droid.

Makoto Kino has posed:
Had she had any ideas? "Don't die--" is about all Sailor Jupiter gets out before the dragon is pouring flame onto and all around them. She throws her hands out, calling a surge of wind and petals that pushes in behind Nephrite's focused slash.

Power is welling up from the ground, flowing up through her feet and legs, steady and centered. She catches Nephrite's eye and nods, quick and short.

"Supreme Thunder!"

The sky overhead booms as Sailor Jupiter throws out her hand, sending a bolt of lightning searing down. It unerringly seeks Nephrite's sword, lightning to lightning rod - and in doing so, seeks Saphir.

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
They're going after SAPHIR. Saphir who saved her eyes. Saphir who can bring her back if she fails, here. Saphir who she can't bring back, and even aside from the fact that Saphir SAVED HER EYES, she doesn't want to face Demande and tell him that his brother died and she didn't.

Esmeraude sees the blue-haired man get exploding flower petaled at, just like what Saphir saved her from, and she ROARS and sends a horrifying SUV-sized beast hand after Saphir to yank him out of the air and bring him close (oh god and both Saphir and her beast hand get shot with Labyrinth frosting) not squishing, not pressing, just shielding. Just for a moment. With her wings as they are being sliced off--

Her wings, at the joints, are gushing black blood and big glopping drops of it are finally hitting the ground, and of COURSE they sizzle where they hit. But at the same time as she herself is getting attacked -- arrows and arrows, pretty pink flak, getting hit multiple times with swords that hit like trucks and stick in her leathery hide between scales... Her ragged wings tank some of Amy's and Catra's shots before they slough off the dragon's back and splat dead on the ground, black blood sizzling, then disintegrate into black corrosive dust.

She BLOWS FLAME at everyone on the ground again, even if the people on the ground aren't necessarily the same ones she tried to burn before -- she lets a gout of especially hot fire at Catra, then another at Saturn as she takes that girl's attack to the back--

Esmeraude pats Saphir on the head and then hauls back and yeets him into the distance. With great force.

And then she turns around and gets Nephrite's sword to the belly and it sticks, and it's so short that the dragon, despite the pain she must be in without her wings, with cuts on her face, her head, with explosions all around her, her hide pitted and bleeding and raw from everything thrown at both her and Saphir, and then Supreme Thunder hits the sword dead on and the lightning burns her, crackling along and blackening her scales and blowing them off, and she starts bleeding from the ears, and she SCREAMS and it's enough to actually collapse a couple of nearby buildings and make the ground shake and the Crystal Palace ring, and then she just lashes out at everyone, trying to take any of them with her.

TAIL! Sweep and whomp and slap and crush. WINGS! nevermind. BEAST HANDS! grab, slap, crush; she picks up Nephrite and squeezes him before throwing him at Jupiter with a tremendous snarl. MOUTH! snap bite crush, and lots more fire.

Blue Saphir (280) has posed:
Esmeraude looks surprised. Saphir glares in response, unimpressed, unamused, by the ichor rolling down her form, by the strikes that made it through. They have a job to do - to kill as his brother commanded, and they haven't accomplished that yet.

These heroes are not yet dead -

There is Izou Saitou, in his line of sight, and he is speaking of things that will not matter for this moment, but will for those to come, of what he brought. In this moment - in this moment, Izou will see that Saphir does not care about evidence and manipulation, that he is cold, laser-focused, that there is the matter at hand and all else must be held off, because this is what matters most -

Which is why Saphir is not, in the end, surprised, to be struck by Izou Saitou. Even as the petals erupt in explosions and flame, even as his skin breaks and singes and clothing sparks and chars -

It only makes sense to attack the support.

A vindictive frosting strike coats him in heavy, sticky material, and then Esmeraude is there and her hand is about him, her terrible beast hand, courtesy of Wiseman, courtesy of his gifts, instead of Saphir's, and she isn't squeezing -

He does not scream at her, does not beat back at her, because that would be a waste of effort. He understands the calculus. He understands the effort. She cannot bring him back. He can bring her back. He, then, is the more valuable piece.

It doesn't mean he doesn't try, even with his flesh singed and torn and the pain radiating through him - he raises a shield over her, blue and white and struck through with circuitry, with nerve patterns, is there any difference -

Amy's melting pot of attacks that shield, bursts it into dark energy dust, and the attacks fall upon Esmeraude.

He hears it, when her flesh is sliced away, the heavy, tremendous thud of her enormous wings falling to the ground, the way they crush nearby buildings and rattle the earth, and he does not scream but he thinks of Esmeraude furiously, Esmeraude who he doesn't even like, who he has never liked, who loves his brother in a way that he finds as pathetic as his own love for his brother, if far less platonic -

He will never, he realizes, forgive her for this.

She lifts him, her great and terrible scaley hand patting his head, as though he were no more than the smallest insect she could scoop from the ground, not even a doll, but a ladybug -

And the wind howls as he is thrown far, far away from the battle.

Not far enough to not hear her scream of agony and rage, but enough that she most certainly cannot hear his.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
The King's Mantle... Rashmi has *never* felt this much power flooding through her. Through her Device's channels.

Into her Accumulator. ...Well then.

She opens her mouth, but at that exact point Amy asks for a bowl-shaped shield. The tactic worked well, and would cost a fraction of the energy required... Buuuut...

<< Red-chan she's below me, I can't collapse a shield *and* fight the explosions *and* help out too... Sorry... >> With that, she turns her attention back to the monster... and its right rear leg. Yes... That will do nicely.

"Verbal Command: Accumulator Purge."

<< *BONG!* >> << COMMAND INPUT EXECUTE. PURGE CHANNELS GREEN. ALTERNATE GRIMOIRE LOADED. AWAITING COMMAND. >>

"Solar Buster."

    << SOLAR BUSTER >>

The coruscating line of energy is *mostly* gold, but there's a good few earth-tones in flecks speckled throughout. As Esmeraude is more or less a living creature, the Bombardment-class spell leaves her more or less intact, but the *pain* it delivers -- pain compounded by explosions, that *also* do no worse damage than smudges and scorches and more pain -- is incredible.

And all of that force and pain and boom and pain is concentrated down to a place the size of a human head, directly targeting the emerald dragon's right kneecap.

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
    After cutting through Esmeraude's wings, Sailor Uranus hits the ground near Neptune, and before she can admire her work, the shorter girl is pulling them both just barely out of the way of the gouts of fire from the enraged dragonlady - boot and skirt slightly singed, and the two girls share a look that is a whole conversation about that, about what to do next, all silently. But the power is now flowing through the both of them, too, and they know what to do. Make use of it. Solve a problem. End a threat. And take the first steps towards saving the world.

    The two of them step out of cover together.

5t"You know, this isn't the first time an overconfident creeper of an old lady tried to get rid of us." Sailor Uranus says. "I'm gonna tell you, it went real bad for her in the end, too."

    "She turned into a monster too, actually." Neptune says, tapping her chin. "Well, really, she just made her outside appearance match her soul, but I think that's the same thing that's happened here. Since I did see that you were at least trying to act the part of an elegant lady, though, perhaps I'll show you some grace and make sure we finish you off before you end up spending your last moments like she did - getting a truly well deserved final beatdown on the ground." Neptune finishes.

    The Senshi of Sea and the Senshi of Sky are standing together now, back to back. Empowered by their own energy plus the energy of the Earth itself... Earth, Wind, Sea... they can help finish this, along with their friends.

    Wind rushes around them, heedless of the rest of the world - this isn't the bad air that hangs stagnant in Crystal Tokyo's current state, this air is fresh and clean and perhaps of a kind that hasn't blown through the city since the Dark Energy corrupted everything. And at the same time, water begins to flow up from beneath, from around them, salty seawater mixing with the wind, collecting in the palms that the two senshi had now outstretched towards Esmeraude, forming into a sphere of energy, almost planetoid, blue like the ocean with a ring of golden air flowing around it - and rapidly it grows to be about the same size as the two of them as they call the attack.

    OCEAN GALE STORM! they call together as the very large blast of energy rushes at the dragon.

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Sailor Saturn should have been exhausted. Really, she should have been... But... she wasn't.

Hmmmm... Perhaps... it was that little bit of energy from Endymion, after all. She hadn't been entirely on the ground at the time, but she'd been a little bit, leaping to and fro, just enough to get a shimmer of it. Maybe it had given her a bit.

... Then again, her strike had hit the dragon in the back and the dragon was still here. Maybe she'd been able to hold back more than she had realized.

However, as she stood on top of her tall thing, a piece of crystal... She gazed down at the dragon, her glaive spinning around...

"Silence Glaive Surprise!"

This time, the energy discus that formed went down, straight at the center of the dragon, intending to tear through it and turn it to silence, to put it to rest, hopefully for the final time...

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Flames wash over the battlefield, and so many of the contingent of Hope Blossoms has been reduced to pink vapor. The large group that had gathered together for mutual protection? Wiped out in an instant. Homura's gut wrenches at the sight of it, and that's enough of a distraction that her own cake tank gets melted, with her inside of it. As the flames melt through her Labyrinth-made vehicle she raises her shield to absorb the flames. Her shield is strong enough to repulse Walpurgisnacht's fire but it's all around her now and honestly there's a point where the tank's armor stops being protection and starts being a liability.

    Those few Hope Blossoms that remain on the battlefield leap through the air and land next to the wounded and burnt body of Homura. Surrounding her, they step into one another, glowing brighter and brighter until the true form of Hope Concept appears in their place. "Homura-chan... stay back for now, okay?" she asks, and even if she's saying it like a question she's actually brooking no room for argument. Before the Puella can even respond, a Labyrinth portal is opening around her and taking her to safety.

    Hope Concept, actually, is looking pretty worse for wear. Sure she was never attacked directly, because she didn't exist at the time, but every Doka Clone or piece of Labyrinth matter was a manifestation of her power, and an attack on such things is an attack on her. That's why she's floating there with holes in her divine dress and tears in her translucent wings, her infinite hair tossed and frayed.

    She glowers at Esmeraude, and Reality Itself reverberates with her soft voice.

    "No."

    No to what, one might ask? No you can't be here? No I won't let you? No I disagree with everything you stand for?

    All of the above, really.

    Madoka in all her divine glory raises one hand into the sky as pink magic gathers in her hand, forming her branch bow. She lowers it at Esmeraude as interconnected runic circles and lines form in front of her. A rose at the top of her bow blooms, and sets itself on pink fire. As she releases her arrow into the runic wall in front of her, the circles and lines glow for a half second before unleashing a torrent of pink destruction in the direction of the dragon. Saphir will be dealt with later. As for Esmeraude... Madoka sincere hopes her next life will be a better one.

    To Neptune and Uranus, she glances and says, "Oh, the next one isn't for her."

Catra has posed:
Catra looks up, as Esmeraude inhales and breathes a blast of intense flame straight down at her. Any other day she would have bounced out of the way of it, run for cover, jumped, anything to avoid getting burnt all the way down to her bones, which is surely what this flame would do. She doesn't have any armor or magical resilience like half the people here, her longevity has always been entirely based on her ability to not take too many hits.

Now or never. The words echo in her mind as she looks up at the dragon, clutching sword in one hand and Spirit Ember in the other, and outwardly looking entirely relaxed about the situation, while internally her heart is hammering against the inside of her ribs. Either this will work or it won't.

Well whatever. The hell with it. Hinoiri's way didn't work, Glimmer's way didn't work. Time for Catra's way.

For a moment she just vanishes in the blast of flame as the dragon's breath washes over her, and one might expect for that to have been it for the cat.

But then something changes. Instead of just washing over her, the fire changes course, swirling around her like a blazing whirlpool to reveal Catra, holding the Spirit Ember up in the air above her as the fire drains away into the stone, that glows bright and brighter until finally it has absorbed everything sent its way. Catra herself is smoking, singed all over after the attack.

Her eyes erupt into a brilliant blue and yellow glow, and she walks forwards again, brnadishing her sword. "Yeah," she explains to nobody in particular. "Now I get it." She dashes forwards, splitting into two, then three, then seven, then ten, all of them darting off in different directions to parkour up the walls. The real Catra stays in the middle of them; her sword erupts into flames as her outfit changes, her headdress turning to a brass colored metal and gaining armored pieces of the same scattered across her body as she leaps upwards, seeking to land on the dragon's back. Her illusory multitudes all join in, and after Catra makes her first cut, she tosses the sword to one of her copies, which slashes at a weak point as well, before tossing the sword on to another. All told the sword changes hands again and again until it passes back to the real Catra, who swings it with muscles straining for the most powerful cut she can manage, seeking to drive the weapon down into the dragon's skull before yanking it back out.

Afterwards, as her doubles wink out one by one and the Spirit Ember's brilliance fades, she leaps down off the beast and lands in a half crocuh.

And then she just walks away without bothering to look over her shoulder.

Amanda Faust has posed:
LATER:
    Amy has been reading scientific papers for hours, and she's starting to wonder if these all originated from people at weapons research companies, who you'd think would keep such information secret, or if there are an awful lot of scientists that just like blowing things up and want to publish about it. "So it probably wouldn't have worked as well anyway..." Although that raises the question: if she had believed it would, would that change it? Magic is so hard to science, dammit!

NOW:
    << It's fine! >> Amy continues to keep her goddamn distance, rocket-jumping above flame although she winces at the scream... but she's looked at enough monster manual entries to be well aware of a dragon's full claw/claw/bite/wing/wing/tail attack routine and she would prefer to stay away from that thank you very much!

    Uranus and Neptune warn Emeraude about what happened to Beryl. "It's on the Evil Overlord list, you knoe. 'I will not turn into a snake. It never helps.' And now that you're a dragon without wings, what are you?" A lizard? Shut up, she does not have time to edit her dramatic lines she's improvising by the seat of her skirt here!

    She lands on the ground and holds her arms out in front of her, sparkles flowing over her as she feels the energy of the Earth, and dons the costume of Sailor Chalcopyrite once more, and channels the king's energy into a... wide, shallow copper bowl? She holds it over her head easily with mahou strength, and then holds the palm of her hand against the bottom of it, turning her body sideways so she won't take this blast as full on, and then lowers her arm--

                                  B  A  N  G                                  

    One might have expected she'd aim and then do a thing, but then the liner would've fallen out of position, so one moment she's lowering it, the next she's slammed into the ground several feet away by her own explosion.

    The bowl turned into a vaguely bullet-shaped projectile going some number of kilometers per second towards Emeraude, it's not like anyone's clocking it for a speeding ticket. Still charged with the magic of the Earth such metal comes from, and well there are a lot of magic bullshit defense options but breathing fire at it certainly wouldn't have helped!



    From her spot lying on the ground, Amy sees other people saying things, and chimes in, "WHAT?!"

Zoisite has posed:
Anything different would have been an alien concept. Saphir had his directive. Zoisite had his own. It was, for a moment, harder for him to change those gears, be candid after so much has been pulled out of him in the last couple of hours. Rough words, reminders, being emotionally compromised in front of three people, especially Venus...

Well...

Not his finest hours, but there was a comfort in battle, and comfort in the smell of smoke and fire. Like now, although he wished it were different--or wished Saphir would react to the pain of it. Most humans did. Maybe Saphir just wasn't most of what's expected in a human. Neither was Zoisite. Pain made him much more hungry for what's to come. Stubborn.

But a flash of ice cold sizzled the flames, and he was thankfully already backing up. And again, even faster, when that dragon came close to--

Ah bugger--

Everything else was a blur as he kept his distance from he flames, the snapping, the roaring that shook even the air. Hands were quick to cover his ears, following one attack after another on the creature once the force field was down. The sudden launching of Saphir that felt almost wildly cartoonish, to the final shock of sword and lightning.

Grabbing. Squeezing. Throwing one body into another. It hit him, like an earthquake and cold rush of water in his guts before shrieking in horror.

"NEPHRITE!!"

He flew down as fast as he could.

Nephrite has posed:
Somewhere in the midst of the fray, as Nephrite fought droids by hand and blast, He had the wherewithal to grab a mechanised body and turn it towards the flames. But that was no defence against the swipe of monstrous claws, and he was more or less blind to it coming.

The crushing impact knocked him down and, for a moment, flattened him under a deep press of weight. Air forced from his lungs. Darkness taking his eyes. Ringing in his ears. Then it was around him-- the grasp-- and it was all so fast.

Wind around his ears, and the vertigo of being swung about at force, and the pressure. The crush that bore down upon even his strengthened form was enough to crack bones, squeeze vitals, and send vision white. A cough of red left him, strangled.

Then he was carrening back down, but sensation and awareness was fleeting. Overwhelmed by what would later be immense pain, Nephrite's body hurtled back towards the ground-- towards Jupiter.

Makoto Kino has posed:
It all happens way too fast.

One heartbeat, Sailor Jupiter is back to back with Nephrite, combining their power to strike at Saphir and Esmeraude.

The next, the claw sweeps out, and all she can do is watch.

"Neph!"

Esmeraude hurls him at her and somehow, she manages to catch him - barely. Skidding backward with the force of impact, one knee buckling with the effort of keeping something resembling balance, but the sturdy strength of Jupiter cushions that last short distance between her and the ground instead of just getting bowled the hell over.

She can't think about injuries just now. Instead she looks to Esmeraude, to the dragon, with green eyes sharp as broken glass.

"Enough." The sky is black with clouds, rumbling in warning.

All around the dragon a charge prickles in the air, making hair stand on end, a dangerous vibration against the skin.

"Supreme Thunder--"

The sky roars and splits, lightning stabbing down bright and raw. Sailor Jupiter reaches up with one hand, the other arm still supporting Nephrite, and seizes it. Held, the lightning bolt writhes and thrashes around her like a live thing, a captured serpent, coils as thick as her body curling around her in ouroboros loops, temporarily preventing Zoisite's approach.

The Leaves of Oak glint against her hair, the symbol of Jupiter glowing bright green in the center of her forehead.

"DRAGON."

With another massive kraTHOOM, electricity arcs outward from her back and shoulders, forming a wingspan just as broad as the ones Sailor Uranus cut off Esmeraude. The shape of it rises, sinuous and massive and too bright to look at, a dragon formed of the pure elemental wrath of the heavens.

It rears up, jaws opening wide.

And then it dives, closing those jaws on Esmeraude's throat.

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
The giant dragon is roaring when she gets kneecapped by a direct shot of forceful agony, and she's bleeding heavily down the back and that splashing corrosive blood is getting everywhere, but everyone's wearing shoes so it's fine, right? It's fine. It's fine even though she's spitting flame again, and hauling her huge body around and throwing it at people feet first and stumbling every time she tries to use her injured leg-- she's past reason now, given it up when she threw Saphir, and her beast hands and dragon body are dying, and her eyes are no longer Esmeraude's human ones.

They're the same color, but they have the slitted pupils of a lizard, and the ichor drips down her face, and she ... okay maybe there's a little reason left, because she looks shocked (somehow), jerking her head back, then strangely manages to exhale a mountain of high-force flame at Neptune and Uranus in absolute indignant incredulity. HOW DARE.

...it doesn't last very long. After all, it's only fire, and OCEAN GALE STORM cuts right through it and into her other leg, cutting her a little further down to size (she's nine and a half storeys tall now instead of ten) and making it impossible for her to stand.

There's an earth-shaking WHUD as she falls down to tail and underside and bleeding partial leg and badly injured and in pain leg, and then Silence Glaive Surprise hits at the same time as Catra's cutting at Esmeraude and Esmeraude is trying to shift away from the ten Catras slicing off chunks of her, and the dragon happens to be leaned to the side a little when the Surprise is that she's now missing an arm.

It withers away, that radio-tower-sized Beast Arm going skeletal and then the flesh melting off the bone into that corrosive black dust, and then the bone itself dissolving and blowing away in the wind. The's another surprise, not capitalized, when Catra's last cut does crack the giant dragon's thick skull, and Esmeraude screams again, the ichor flowing freely down her back and face and sides. She throws more fire, but it's not as strong.

The hojillion strength of Hope Concept's godly Ultimate takes care of the rest of Esmeraude's scales and the dragon starts smoking -- the smoke is so bad to breathe don't breathe it -- from the amount of power being flung at her, shot at her, hurled at her.

Amy's bowlsplosion is far more painful than, but probably just as insulting as, a bowl of cereal being exploded on a table in front of someone. It slams into Esmeraude, and the immense dragon is shoved back with the force of it, and it takes a good big chunk out of her other arm even as it sends the unbalanced monster toppling slowly to one side and onto her back with one last spasming swing of her tail.

She's on her back, she's dying, she's already dying, and what little of her is left in there knows it and doesn't care. She only cares that she failed Demande, and didn't kill them all. Or, in fact, any of them that didn't vanish into pink smoke.

The skies then open up in all their grim deathly sootiness and brew a proper storm, woven through with the fresh clean air that Uranus blew into the area and all the ozone of promised thunder and lightning. There's no rain. There's no rain, there's only Jupiter's wrath, the goddess of lightning holding a growing, swirling, flailing bolt of it in her hand like a live boa constrictor on uppers, and then--

The Thunder Dragon comes down on the dying Regular Dragon and electrocutes her even as it bites into her and gets a thundery mouthful of ichor, which of course it doesn't care about because it's made of lightning.

Esmeraude lights up, crackling and jerking what's left of her, stiff and twitching with jaw locked shut, and she suddenly explodes, most of her disappearing into dark energy dust and vapor, which swiftly disperses in that wind.

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
What's left on the ground is a human-looking body with a metal-looking skull, landed in a pool of fizzling ichor, partially blasted open, missing an arm and part of a leg, dress in tatters, bloody and cut and battered everywhere, fan closed on the ground about five feet away.

Blue Saphir (280) has posed:
What's left, is the blasted remains of a human-looking body, a body that Blue Saphir has repaired more than once, reconstructed, resurrected, and that the fact that she threw him five miles into the distance will not stop him from doing it again.

There's the glint, in her blasted open chest, of a heart crystal, half of one at least, embedded within the muscle and sinew and wire and metal of her frame, and then there is no glint at all, because there is Saphir, standing over her, appeared from nothing in a teleport that spills darkness into the air.

He is rough, when he kneels before her body and lifts it into his arms, and his blue eyes seem to glow with uncanny light, and there is hatred -

And satisfaction.

"Rejoice in your victory," he tells them coldly, "Your royals, as the people say, is now in another castle."

He disappears.

So does the sense of Mamoru, that the Shitennou have always had. So does the sense of Usagi, that the Senshi - that Sailor Jupiter, here, now, and on the field - will realize has been there in some corner of her heart.

Gone.

Mamoru isn't dead, the Shitennou can sense that much, but he is further away than any of them have ever felt, including that time they were in Tokyo, and he in not-quite-Paris-anymore.

Usagi, though, seems gone entirely. There is no hailing her, or Chibiusa, on their communicators.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Hope Concept grimaces as she watches the corrosive blood just go everywhere and she's very very glad that her darling dear is no longer in this plane of existence and is instead resting on a giant pillow somewhere in Paradise while Medo gives her a checkup.

    My Concept, there's blood everywhere!

    The goddess frets as she looks to the left, and then to the right, as the acid just gets spread all over the place. Oh that's nasty. Oh that's not good. Did she turn back into a Droid or something? is that her fan? Augh what is all of this why are all of Madoka's enemies so gross.

    A tiny benotafraid appears through a Labyrinth portal and, against Madoka's stern warnings, decides to touch the corrosive blood. It immediately shrivels up and dies. None of the other benotafraids follow suit.

    Saphir comes along. He says Words. He collects the body and then he leaves.

    "In another castle...? Wait... what does he mean by that?"

    Hope Concept, after all, was not there to see what happened to Small Lady or those who followed her. That all sounds real bad though.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"'Your Prin--'" Rashmi begins to echo, but cuts off, eyes wide as she brings her Senshi communicator up to her mouth. "Chibiusa-tan? Usachan? Mamokun? Are you there?!"

Mental texts fly out to known cell numbers, regardless of the amount of coverage where they are or even if they're in this timeline; TSAB comms technology allows *government and finance* to happen across dimensions. << Guys? Guys are you there? >>

    << Error: Message timeout. >>

Wide, panicked eyes turn from the place where Saphir and Emeraude were, to the assembled mahou. "...I can't reach them," is all she says.

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
They'd done it. That thing was.... dying. Sailor Saturn didn't smile, though. This was her duty. To put an end to things like that. She was destruction. And there would be no rebir-- OKAY APPARENTLY THERE WOULD BE! HELLO PLAYER NUMBER TWO! NOBODY ASKED FOR YOU TO BUTT IN WITH YOUR STACK OF QUARTERS! She lifted her glaive, intending to launch another attack...

... Only for his words to cut through.

"... Wait... what?"

And then... They were gone. SHE... was gone.

Usagi was gone.

Sailor Moon was gone.

Chibiusa was gone.

and... That... that's not... "That's... not... fair..." she said softly.

She only just got her. She didn't have her and... This was her first mission. Her first mission with them. She was still learning, but she was trying her best. She was doing her best. Wasn't she? Why wasn't... she'd tried so hard... Wasn't she...

... Moon... Moon had to come back, right? Mamoru and... and Usagi... and Chibiusa... they were together... right? she'd... feel... if they died... right? That was HER thing... she was... she was the end... She...

... If they...

couldn't she?"Uranus?" she asked, her voice soft. Weak.

Broken.

"Neptune?"

...

"J-Jupiter?"

... They were supposed to protect the princess, right? But... but there's no princess here. They can't... find the princess...

... What do?

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
    "I... can't sense them." Neptune says, softly, looking down into the Deep Aqua Mirror. "The mirror can't find them, but it's been a mess since we jumped timelines." She admits.

    "So the dragon was just a distraction?!" Uranus says, punching one of the crystals nearby in anger. Neither the Senshi of Sky nor the crystal seem to give.

    "I don't think it was a distraction. I think they just had two plans. Or came up with another one on the spot when Chibiusa ran off." Neptune says, softly. "We just killed one of theirs."

    "Yeah, and we lost three of ours. Plus we've seen how hard they are to keep down." Uranus notes.

    "...The one in blue. We need to remove him." Neptune says, echoing a previous statement, but in her own calm but grave tone. Then she turns to Saturn. And walks over and puts her hand gently on her head. "We'll do what we always do. We'll find them. We'll come back from the time when things are difficult, and win." she says.

    "We need to find them, though, and soon." Uranus says. "I have seen far too many meat-robots in this timeline, to want any of our friends near those people for long."

Zoisite has posed:
It didn't process. None of it processed in his mind. The cruel joke, the look, nothing. It was just Nephrite. The stupid, horrid boar of a man that could tear him down with a look, dare to pull his curtains down and bitch about the glow in the dark stars in the hallway.

And it was just one shared look with Sailor Jupiter when he was kneeling across from her, the Star Seer between them and his hands checking vitals.

A pulse. Alarmingly uneven and slow.

Green eyes lifted to the guardian of thunder, and there was no discussion--not even a mutter. He knew from her gaze. So his hand pressed to Nephrite, and the other held Jupiter's wrist--

All that was left were pink cherry blossoms as he teleported the three to the infirmary.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy regenerates her hearing just in time to hear the bit about their princess being in another castle. "What?" She sends a minimissile at him but he's gone before it gets there and explodes.

    It soon becomes apparent that the Senshi can no longer sense Sailor Moon. And if she's gone...

    Saturn calls to her elders; Uranus notes the heroes are now down three.

    And there's the cherry blossoms of a teleport. "We'd better get back inside for now. And we'll... plan. Maybe we'll think of a way to find them if we..." Amy forces herself to take a deep breath. "Stop and think for five minutes..."

    Two of her best friends, and their child...

    Amy shakes her head. Thinking like that will only bring despair. She has to follow her own advice...

Catra has posed:
The battle is over.

The heroes won. Catra won with them. And she finally figured something out with as regards the Spirit Ember, and for a brief moment, the feline is awash with palpable elation. She holds the stone in her hand, looking at it with a look of deep satisfaction; until she looks up to comment on it, and sees the looks on everyone else's faces.

And then reality sets in. They lost Usagi, which... is unfortunate but they also lost Chibiusa, and Catra's blood, moments before infused with fire, runs to ice.

"Wait. What?" She glances at the Spirit Ember, and tucks it back in her pocket as she walks back towards the group. Well, mainly towards Rashmi. "What just happened? We won, didn't we?? How did we..."

She trails off, and turns to look around; her ears swivel, and her nose twitches as she sniffs the air, and slowly shakes her head. "I can't find them either," she mutters.

"So what now?"

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Yeah," Rashmi says, her brain a whirl. "Gotta stop and think..." Or in some cases, think *less,* but too much has happened in too short a time and victory *immediately* being soured does not help emotions stay in tune with thoughts.

"Gotta stop and think..."

Drifting down to the Outer Huddle, Rashmi rests a hand on Hotaru's shoulder, squeezing gently. "They're still alive," she says. "They *have* to be. He'd've said a *lot more* if they weren't. Amy-chan's right. We need to get inside, make sure Masato-kun's gonna be all right. Then we remember the most important thing."

Rashmi tries to look gentle, but between her internal panic and fury and upset and and and... Her eyes could strike sparks on flint, as she looks over her shoulder at Catra. "We're here. And *they* have put themselves between *us* and *people we care about.*"

"They're gonna be *sorry they did that.*"