2747/Venting Frustrations

Venting Frustrations
Date of Scene:	23 August 2025
Location:	Mitakihara Ward
Synopsis:	You know, Mai doesn't even remember why she started this fight anymore. But a bunch of mahoujin show up to stop her and Alberto and Alberto and Alberto and Alberto and Alberto and...
Cast of Characters:	Mai Elcamino, Hinote Kagari, Souta Camero, Catra, 222, Lincoln Blackwell, Roman Talleday, Veronica Perenna, Amanda Faust, Zoisite

---

Mai Elcamino has posed:
It's a beautiful night, the temperature balmy and the air not too terribly humid. What few stars are visible in Tokyo are bright in the cloudless midnight sky, not having to compete with anything more than a breath's edge of the crescent moon beyond the city lights.

It's a beautiful night in downtown Mitakihara and Elcamino Mai is up to no good.

Right on the block that divides office buildings from commercial from condos in three different directions, there's an office building owned by an Obsidian subsidiary whose manager called her cheap. You see where this is going, right? Some lowlife whose less-important little company doesn't even rate an office in Obsidian Tower had the cojones to call her, Mai Elcamino, Corona, cheap.

The problem with releasing venomous tarantulas into the office's ventilation system in retaliation is that they're impossible to herd. Therefore, because she knows those scummy little school children (we'll remind you she graduated high school last year) will magically show up and try to stop her again, and truly deserve a walloping especially after that sea water nonsense AND THE TEA...

...well, she'll wreck them, it's fine. This vengeance is more important to see to first.

"Ah, mis lindos monstruitos," she coos as she opens the lid of a box on the surface of the roof, crouching in her high heeled bootlets and miniskirt because dark energy is absolutely good for something. "You will do your mama proud. Break things and ruin things before you go into the computers and set them up to energy drain their users!" It's so sad that she doesn't realize how loud she's getting, or that just releasing the youmas sends out a dark energy signal.

"On the other hand... breaking things and ruining things can be next time. Pelotillero!" This vengeance is so important that, in fact, she doesn't want to get interrupted by the cops if her little monsters set off alarms. "APEX WORLD ORDER!"

<< ding~! >> << YES, MISTRESS. APEX WORLD ORDER~ >>

A time-space barrier blossoms out and hums into place, centered on the roof of the office building. Corona's hat feathers quiver with anticipation as she stands up, taking a step back from the box in this midnight world of monochrome. A large something starts unfolding from the box, and atop its ink-spill body is a hat exactly like Mai's, with wings and roses on it, but it's all black, made of dark energy.

"What, only one? And you're big? Can you break in?" Corona demands.

The youma makes a massive shrug.

"Fine! TRY!" she says, pushing the youma toward the HVAC unit.

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Hinote Kagari was walking downtown in night. Tracy was of course with him. The two we're tracing a series of strange youma sightings at Electronic sellers. Never attacking, just. Spooking people. Something about a QWuiz show. He wasn't sure. He took notes and Tracy was helping along with him.

That's when Tracy 'ehs' and looks up. Tracy, the tiny detective fairy looks up and gets a steely look. "It was a dark and stormy night... when I felt something foul in the air. It stunk, like the funk of dirty socks under the bed."

"HEY I FORGET ABOUT THOSE SOCKS SOEMTIMES OKAY!?" he says, but besides that, he knows what it means.

It means there's danger. So he and Tracy run through an alley...

"My own heart, Unlock!" calls out Hinote as he and Tracy Character Transform into Pulp Noir. Best Detective.

Pulp Noir climbs a fire escape as a barrier seems to come into existence. He doesn't hear someone like Rashmi in his head. Uh oh.

He gets to the top and hops up upon the HVAC unit.

"..." he eyes Mai. "The dame walked into my life. Tall. Dangerous air around her. She had a pet with her. Fiesty little thing. Attacking an poor HVAC unit."

"I turned to her..." and he did. "Hey, dollface, can you stop this before it gets messy?" he says, gripping the edge of his fedora.

Souta Camero has posed:
    It was such a nice evening, as far as Souta is concerned. Was being the operative word here. A bit balmy, a bit summery, but nothing that a quick swim in a pool wouldn't fix. Souta is on his way back from one of Mitakihara's public pools, his long blonde hair still up in a net, wearing a thin hawaiian shirt and his swimming trunks as he walked down the sidewalk. He had hoped that the cool evening breeze would help dry him off on the way back to campus. He hoped in vain.

    His spectacles pinged. < Alert. Time Space Barrier Detected. >

    Ah, of course. Those always meant trouble. Either Rashmi or Chrono was trying to contain a problem, or someone like Seriss Nyx was trying to be a problem. "Do we recognize whose it is?"

    < Disconfirmed. Unknown Mana Signature. >

    Souta adjusts his glasses, then turns towards the Barrier. "Alright. Let's check it out. Suit me up and open a channel."

    < Mission Start! >

    Within moments, his summer wear is replaced with the long coat of his Barrier Jacket. The magic of his henshin releases his hair from the net and dries it instantly, floofing it out as he rocket-dashes towards the boundary of the Barrier.

    << Inspector Camero calling out to any friendly mahoujin in the vicinity. What seems to be the issue? >>

Catra has posed:
Who knew that leaving Obsidian would make life so complicated. It's been more than a little while and Catra's head is still spinning. Spirit Ember. Adora. People. Joker. School. Hinoiri. Rashmi. Chibiusa. People. Lots of people. Feelings. Lots of feelings.

It's all too dang much, which leads to her being out on her Honda Rebel motorcycle, zooming around the streets and generally pissing off other drivers -- not as intentionally as she used to, she just treats them like obstacles and that annoys them for some reason -- all to both clear her head, and fill it with something she needs to concentrate on so everything else can just be background noise at most for a little while.

She doesn't listen to blaring loud music while she's riding though. Much s she's tempted. That would be insane.

Oh but then there's a time/space barrier. Yeah, she's well familiar with those, Rashmi and the other devicers have been up to using those for some time. And she might've turned away to avoid it and let it be someone else's problem, but it expands to suck her into it anyway, so...

"...Fine," the feline grumbles, bringing the bike to a squealing halt and dismounting it. She steps off, and leans her head back to sniff the air.

"Alright, what's going on and who's up to no good?" She pauses, and feels her face flush. "Did... I just say that... oh fer... this good-guy stuff is getting to me."

Ace Saijou (222) has posed:
Ace Saijou *hadn't* been looking for trouble this evening. It's been a tumultuous time in his life (the whole 'dying and resurrecting' was a bit of a shakeup, as was coming to terms with the generous salting of darkness that had pervaded pretty much the whole of his history), and he had been walking the streets as a matter of introspection. Not a heavy introspection, at least -- there is a considerable lightness to his manner, in fact. No, it had simply been a question of deciding what he was going to *do* from this point on.

Getting involved in an Obsidian member's petty revenge hadn't been on his list, but he can feel it when the time-space barrier goes up, making him turn and raise his head sharply as he peers off towards a certain rooftop further off.

There's no real *reason* for him to get involved...

...but he finds himself breaking into a run towards the site of the barrier all the same.

Lincoln Blackwell has posed:
He'd been on his way back to the dorms from the football pitch when a small green chipmunk had peeked out from under his shirt

"Do you smell that? There's a foul aroma on the air, pour pour!" Oolong had first informed him before he'd had been on his way.

Across town as quickly as he could--which, fortunately--was made all the quicker for his transformation to Cure Matcha. Wide eyes were cast toward the roof of this building and he faltered only very briefly.

"What the bloody hell is that?" The dark-themed Pre-tea Cure murmured to himself.

Not that it much mattered what it was. Cure Matcha was going to go blundering into it one way or another.

Roman Talleday has posed:
"I know that scent, Stir-stir! It's that awful lady from the other day!"

"What, who went mental over melting icecream?" Cure Chai had been patrolling-- looking for a fight, really-- and currently stood in his Princely and Pink-haired glory on a rooftop not too far away. "What was her name again? Some kinda beer--"

"Corona!" The pink chipmunk squeaked at him with a small frown, rubbing paws at her cheeks. "Oooh, she's up to no good again! Follow me! Come on!" A small flip and off she floated, surprisingly fast as her tail waved behind her.

"Alright, steady on-- I'm comin'--" Cure Chai leapt from the ledge, bounding through the urban sprawl towards the source of trouble. It isn't long at all before he presents to the scene, running up behind Amy with an "Oi!" Directed at Corona.

Veronica Perenna has posed:
Veronica had been feeling something weird for a while. She had been out there investigating the sudden reappearance of the energy tracks of her relics, hopping between buildings and chasing it with a persistence that had been lasting for well over a hour. Well, those little demons know how to hide it behind youmas. Still, she is quite used to this game of chase. She knows what to expect.

Except the feeling of a barrier expanding and dark energy growing just two or three buildings over. Well, that is certainly not one of hers. Leaping over to where Corona has started forming her youma of the day, the cat princess raises her eyebrows with a smile at the spider youma forming.

Landing on the rooftop, she clacks her boots together and gives a rather exaggerated bow to the tarantula. "Oh, hey, a spider youma. I met your kind once. She was a nice fellow, really loved with all her heart", she regards the youma with a smirk.

She gives a wave to the other magical girls gathering and finally takes a look at Corona with a slightly more wary look. "I am the Princess of Sarek. Who are you, and what brings you out here tonight?"

Mai Elcamino has posed:
The beautiful young woman turns to Hinote, and her expression transforms from moderately frustrated to actively sneering as she looks at the boy detective. "'Dollface, you pathetic little creature? Is that your idea of trying to use persuasion? Pinche chusma! PELOTILLERO! Flier fin!"

<< ding~! >> << FLIER FIN~ >>

The tin dog of a voice rings through the air as two pair of purple-and-white energy wings unfurl from Mai's back, framing her disdain with a mirage of angelic favor. She lifts off the surface of the roof and hangs there, wings beating as she hovers, glowing like a star. She does not hear Souta.

Here come the others. "Pinche basuras!" she curses at them, looking over the side of the building she's hovering over. She sees Catra and her motorcycle and oh that's it that's the limit they're sending CATGIRLS after her? "GATA METICHE! Mind your business! WAIT aren't you that stupid traitor?" she yells, then starts taking stock of everyone else rolling up.

"THERE ARE TOO MANY STREET RATS IN MY WORLD ORDER!" she announces. "Pelotillero, do something about that. Barrets. We'll shoot them. Exemplary Barrets!"

<< ding~! >> << EXEMPLARY BARRETS~ >>

The young woman hovering with her wings in the air lifts her hands and makes double fingerguns, then starts literally shooting her barrets where she points, and they look like they're carved out of glowing gems they are so pretty they are SUCH pretty barrets-- she starts shooting them willy-nilly as her youma starts ripping the HVAC unit clean off the roof of the office building. CROOOONCH-WREEEEEE-KLONNNG is basically the sound it makes. It throws the HVAC off the building in Catra's direction, technically aiming for her bike. It's the size of a Suburban.

"Why are none of you idiots the ones I saw last time? How many of you ARE there? I AM CORONA, and NO ONE can stay between myself and my desires!" she demands of Amy, then seems to notice her extremely long straight red hair and the fact that she intends to fight crime with it. "What do you care anyway, this building is owned by Obsidian and you hate Obsidian, don't you? Fool--"

And then CURE CHAI shows up and OH there's a ~frisson~ of shivery anger in the barrier's air, and Corona's eyes light up in rage. "You. YOU!" He gets a round of Exemplary Barrets to the face which Amy probably also is in-- no, they fly right over Amy's head because she's short and Roman is tall.

"ALBERTO! GO IN THERE! SHIMMY IF YOU MUST!" she yells, pointing the large youma at the hole in the roof where the HVAC unit was a second ago. It starts going in feet-first, and indeed, shimmying.

Catra has posed:
Catra is fast. Very fast. Faster than any human, certainly. (Well, at least most humans, but she's not willing to view it that way.)

She is however, not fast enough to get back on her bike and get it out of the way of an abruptly airborn HVAC unit that stamps the motorcyle into a flattened collection of now worthless parts and a puddle of gas and motor oil.

The words wash over her. Aren't you that stupid traitor?

Catra had been doing so well too.

The feline's ears flatten, her lips peel back from her teeth, and her hackles rise as she growls like backfiring chainsaw. Powersend feels good in her hand, though she can't rightly remember drawing it; she just rips the scabbard off and tosses it aside, letting it clatter over the pavement; flames wreather her form, replacing her outfit with a charred looking tuxedo, but with purple trim instead of the usual reddish-orange.

"How many times I gotta say it," she snarls, as she starts walking up the middle of the street. "Don't... touch... the GODDAMN... BIKE!!"

As she declares her causus belli, a pair of illusory doubles appear, walking along to either side of her, and together all three of them manifest bolts of flame that they hurl back up at Mai -- one yellow, one blue, and from the real Catra a purple tinged one, as dark energy seeps into the attack. And, it's not particularly strong; it's been a long time since she's used it, and this time it isn't intentional. But it's there.

"Why don't you come pick a fight with the ruler of the Etherian Fire Kingdom to my face?!" she adds. Nevermind that the Fire Kingdom hasn't existed for what, a thousand years, and currently has a population of Catra and just Catra, but hey.

"Wait until I find what's important to you!!" she adds, hurling another trio of fire bolts, "Maybe I'll SET IT ON FIRE AND BURN IT TO THE GROUND!"

Lincoln Blackwell has posed:
"Look at you, all steeped in villainy!" Cure Matcha calls out rather suddenly. "Cure Matcha is here to stir up somethin' sweet!"

Somewhere in the commotion of things, he'd made his way directly up the walls of the building. If he'd just been Lincoln, it might well have been a difficult climb, but as his mahou-self the effort had been surprisingly minimal. So, he had alit the lip of the roof directly beside Cure Chai, opposite Amy.

A black-and-green copy of Cure Chai's white-and-pink. Angled up at Corona like a sword, Matcha held a great teaspoon while the other fist was planted firmly against his hip.

"She likes to scream a bit, doesn't she?" Lincoln grimaced. "What's we do next, Chai?"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy blinks. "You can make Flier Fin do that? That's kinda cool, but I've got enough enemies who fancy themselves angels..."

    Pinche chusma? Pinche basuras! "Uhh... [Hablo solamente un poco Español, tambien. Anoo, chotto matte, I mean, gomen, sorry, uh, que es una palabra... Ah! Hablo solamente un poco, lo siento.]"

    She's so focused on answering in Spanish she forgets she could've just said it in Japanese.

    "But you're styling yourself as an angel!" Amy points up at her! "'Pinche chusma' indeed!" She's entirely guessing what that meant.

    "And I'm not a 'street rat'! Hey!" She finds herself dodging barrets and returning fire, her own 'finger gun' gestures conjuring little gyrojet bullets just past the tips of her fingers which immediately launch towards Mai. She forgets to make them home in at first, though.

    The Exemplary Barrets are sparkly shiny pretty, and Amy gives them a brief wide-eyed look and mutters something about 'Jim's Magic Missile'. "I'm surprised you didn't make them spell out your name... hey! You didn't tell us--" but then Corona is launching into her introduction.

    "Oh, cool! Well, nice to beat you, Corona-san!"

    And the youma is... getting away? "Hey! Hey! Stop that! " Amy fires homing bullets at it, still doing fingerguns. "Get out of there!"

Roman Talleday has posed:
"That's right!" Don't pose, don't pose-- he posed beautifully, long lashed and righteous-- damn it! "I'm here to stir you up again! Cure Chai!"

Oh, those really are very pretty barrets-- and they're aimed at his face.

Poor Darjeela had come to a screeching halt, wiggling tiny limbs int he air to slow herself above Amy's head, panic in her wide sparkling eyes. "Quack!" She never could remember it, she meant duck.

Cure Chai snatched the poor fairy down, crouching low behind Amy to avoid the whistling projectiles that flew overhead. He popped back up again wth the chipmunk securely in his teacup hat, hearing his partner's voice. "Oh, you done it now, you bat baddie! My boy's here and it's double the trouble what's bubbling up for you! Matcha, kick it!"

He brought his hand to the teacup on his head firstly, turning it on its saucer to spin as the Fairy ducked down into it with a glittering click. A swirl of pink steam gathered in the cup, coallescing around his fingertips as he drew it out and brought it to his lips. A kiss blown-- pitched whistle like a kettle boiling ringing out, directed into a narrow shockwave towards the shimmying Alberto.

Ace Saijou (222) has posed:
The barrier that Corona had erected wasn't the type the Dark Agency normally used, but Ace was startled to discover it was a type he was familiar with regardless: meant to keep only a certain type of beings out -- or a certain type of mayhem in. Curiouser and curiouser.

The fact that he was arriving only a few ticks behind some of the others (by way of having to make his way up from street level) meant by the time Kaitou Ace arrived on the scene, the action was already in full swing. The figure in the white uniform-style jacket, corset, and ballroom mask alights on the roof's further edge, blinking as he takes in the sight of vehicular homicide (homicide against a vehicle, in this case), streaks of -- accessories? -- being shot out, and some very colorful figures arriving on the scene.

If a certain party were here, Ace would *immediately* be on their side. As it is, he recognizes absolutely none of the people in play here. And as such, he stands right on the fringe of the action for just a moment, waiting to see what move he should make. Or indeed, if he should be making any at all.

Zoisite has posed:
This wasn't his usual tryst in the night. The mugginess of summer was treating him horribly to a point that he would indeed henshin and fly about in the night to cool off when sleep eluded him. It was just unfortunate that this night, he seemed to stumble into some trouble with a few familiar faces, and others that were completely alien to him.

Gods, what was happening this tim--

Oh-

In a scented flurry of cherry blossoms, Zoisite finds himself floating meters away from a certain individual--and the first thing to catch his attention was the expensive aroma of Chanel n5. He blinked a few times at this, not having expected such a classic smell to come from a criminal.

Oh wait, nevermind. He had been a part of Obsidian as well, and his tastes were immaculate. Perhaps there was some hope on that end if someone else was following closely behind such steps.

"Oh my my, what do we have here?" His tone carried a mocking giggle, green eyes taking in the visage. "Screaming like a pendeja senorita from a novella does not suit you, dear. Did we already get under your skin so fast? Tsk tsk."

With a shake of his head, he flies back towards the rest of the mahou, joining their efforts. He'd feel miserable later, but it would give him a good excuse for a cold shower later for some sleep. "Corona, is it? Espana o Mexico? O quizás sudamericano? Forgive me, my Spanish is quite rusty." With a snap of his fingers, circlets of cherry blossoms dancing around him as he watches the others for now. He'll make a move soon enough.

Souta Camero has posed:
    Souta's telepathy doesn't get a response, which probably means he's the only friendly devicer in the area.

    ... but if that's the case, then it's likely that the person who put up the barrier isn't friendly.

    Souta shows up a moment late, hopping up onto the rooftop to see the fighting already in progress and noticing barrets being fired everywhere. His green eyes narrow at Corona, and then move to the youma. "Corona, is it? Can't say I remember reading about you in the reports." He starts to stride towards her while Paradise Spectrum in greatsword mode ignites its glowing green blade. "Your magic is so pretty. Shame you use it for selfish ends. Why do you even want to break into this building, anyways?"

    He causally walks forward, but once he gets close enough he dashes towards the youma, raising his blade over his head and bringing it down on the youma. "That's far enough!"

Mai Elcamino has posed:
"Apex Shield!" calls Corona from above, looking down at Catra.

<< ding~! >> << APEX SHIELD~ >>

"There's a barrier, Gata Grunon! You're so stupid you don't know that your show bike is in the barrier? Ojojojojo," she ojo-laughs, hand coming up to do the ojo-laugh thing with delicate gloved fingers doing the ojo-laugh hand pose perfectly as her shield flings up, "perhaps you've been eating kitty litter like the disgusting garbage you are, marginal." The way she says it, marrr-HHHHHHinallll, sounds almost like a cat hissing in and of itself.

The shield flares bright purple-white like her wings, with a digital-looking pattern, when the fire bolts hit it. Corona drifts away from the edge of the roof so Catra will have to come up to annoy her further.

She hovers over to Cure Matcha and KICKS his teaspoon, sort of halfheartedly trying to overbalance him off the roof, but she's mostly paying attention to Amy and Chai as she does it. "I do not style myself as an angel," Corona sneers at Amy. "This is how Flier Fin manifested for me, as proof that I am blessed."

Oh. Oh dear. She's like that, actually.

Zoisite appears behind her and Corona flinches, turning, metaphorical claws out. "Lindo, querido Mexico, por supuesto," she bites out at the fiery boy. "And SHOTO, you cretin. What the hell would you know about telenovelas, you who hovers there and mocks their depth of feeling and true entertainment?! You're as irritating as that ninja boy--" And then Amy and Chai and Souta--

Oh. Oh no. He's hot.

--fire on or like literally legitimately SWORD SPLIT her youma, and Mai cries out in alarm, "Alberto! You-- what-- oh, ohoho, ojojojojojojo~"

Dismay turns into delight as Amy's bullets shoot off pieces of Alberto, and Chai's steamkettle whistle blasts into and melts part of its not-face, and Souta's sword splits-- and every attack makes Alberto split. Immediately, Mai swoops down to grab one of them and SHAKES IT VIOLENTLY over the hold in the roof, smacking it a lot and making it rain tiny hat-wearing little dudes which scramble into the building's ventilation system.

And then the other ones start climbing on literally everyone actually on the roof. All different sizes! From Chara-sized to dime-sized, and every one of them has a phenomenal hat. They are all the same hat, alas.

Catra has posed:
Someone is provoking Catra's temper.

The feline can feel herself quivering with rage, like she hasn't felt since... Well it's been a while. Well actually since that one time New Moon made fun of her. Which turned out super well (not counting broken knees) and this time, Catra has a lot more people around who are more or less on her side. Not that she's calculating any of that. Mostly she's just doing the math on following the current target of her seething ire up onto the roof.

Run, wall-run, jump, parkour, scramble with claws digging into the wall, use Powersend to catapult herself up, and she arrives on the roof in a crouched, holding the sword horizontally in front of herself while her doubles mirror the pose on either side of her. "Big talk from a howler monkey," she snarls. "Isn't there a zoo somewhere that's missing one of its exhibits?" She rises from her crouch, tail lashing behind her as she shifts Powersend to hold behind her back in a reverse grip, as she takes a moment to take it all in. The Youma Du Jour splits when damaged. Half of the little ones are running off into the ventilation system -- noted. Oh hey and Amy's here, that means there's potential for grenades, and she always likes grenades.

Catra's anger draws into itself, focusing from a blinding rage into a more focused, more controlled razor edge. Her snarl transforms into a grin, as she stalks towards the opening where the Youmas have been entering the building. "You know what they say about infestations of vermin," she muses, her tone morphing into poisoned honey. "You need to burn them out."

As the feline reaches the opening to the ventilation system she draws upon the power of the Spirit Ember, and focuses a sustained blast of flame down into the ducts, superheating the metal and filling them with fire that keeps spreading, and will keep on going if she's left unchecked.

Lincoln Blackwell has posed:
Cure Matcha wasn't thrown from the roof or anything. But, he was staring openly at his spoon for a few long moments before river blues lifted to fix agitatedly on Corona. She didn't hold his attention for long, though.

There was a small legion of tiny youma-things and Lincoln had no idea what to do about them. Well, of course, until he remembered Cure Chai's direction.

Kick it.

And so he did. Lincoln was quite the sporty young man and while these weren't quite football-sized, they were hacky-sack sized. The moment they were close enough to him, Cure Matcha started booting them clear. Dancing and bouncing, doing his very best to keep himself free of the wee buggers.

The dime-sized ones were bopped from toes and heels until they were just jolted away. The larger ones, however--

"Don't go about kickin' my spoon, y'onion bag!"

Cure Matcha kicked one of them directly at Corona's face.

Veronica Perenna has posed:
Pinche chusma? Should she be surprised at how much she can go from zero to 1000, or about the insults she is casually throwing around? "¿Dónde has estado escondiendo tanta rabia? ¿Debajo del sombrero?", the Princess of Sarek momentarily switches to Spanish, and takes off her own hat.

"Look, I can hide things under my hat too!", she show the empty velvet, and with a tap of her cane to the hat's top. Calling cards start flying out of there, either landing on the youma/Corona if they don't get out of the way, or landing onto the ground. Dodging them is quite easy, but in the event they don't they will find themselves assailed by a feeling of confusion.

Regardless of whether her move got her an opening or not, the Princess of Sarek runs closer, shimmering moonlight gathering around her to form a wall with vague hues of all colours and protect her from the gauntlets.

The prismatic surface starts cracking under the pressure of the attack, and each impact sends strong vibrations through Veronica's body, forcing a wave of dizziness through her. The cat thief stops her advance towards the youma, taking a deep breath to recollect herself.

"I would take my hat off to that, but I have a feeling you wouldn't enjoy that", she teases Corona. On the contrary, she probably prefers seeing it on the phantom thief's head given the stunt she just pulled. "She was insulting you", the blonde magical girl remarks to Amy at the redhead's puzzlement.

"Transient Lunar Flare!", Veronica, aims her cane at Alberto, glistening moonlight shooting off towards the monster, leaving behind a trail of silver sparkles that still shine against the dark of the night. The approaching spiders are met with much more regular strikes of her cane, cutting through the air to get at the swarming things.

Zoisite has posed:
They weren't spiders. They weren't. And yet his eyes took in the swarm of little humans, the mind registering the movement and scramble as though they were in fact similar to spiders. Bugs. Vermin. Something that made his skin crawl and desperately wanted to swat them away with intense prejudice.

Thankfully he had been flying, so his body was not taken over by small dudes. And he added more distance between him and them, petals increasing their speed in the swirl before gloved fingers began to scratch over his arms.

"Sakura Conflagration!" With intent in his mind pointing towards the general direction of the infestation like a maestro, cherry blossoms scattered like missiles towards each individual mini youma, exploding on impact.

Ace Saijou (222) has posed:
Kaitou Ace brightens as he sees Zoisite appear, as the presence of a familiar face (even without a skirt) simplifies matters considerably. Though they have yet to sit down and have a proper talk, Zoisite *is* a comrade-in-arms -- from Ace's old life, and all told, in this current one as well. That clears up any last question of just whose side he should be on.

Of course, the raging senorita who just conjured up a batch of minis to swarm the rest of the roof's denizens, does also simplify matters somewhat.

"There's something oddly nostalgic about this!" Ace calls across the roof to Zoisite in both observation and greeting as he darts his hand behind his back. And then whips it back out as he lunges to the side, unleashing a fan of playing cards towards the nearest bunch scrambling his way, greeting them with a spray of razor-sharp flying edges. "But we were never quite *this* silly, were we?" The forces under Queen Beryl may have whistled up some oddballs in their day, but they *did* have a certain standard. "Good to see you again, by the way!"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Barrets aimed for the new magical boy (there's a new magical boy! With an adorable fairy!) go over Amy's head because she's short. Being short feels great!

    Amy wonders if she could do an ojou laugh.

    Eating kitty litter? "What the f***?! Rude!" After Mai hisses, Amy notes, "I think that might've been racist." She looks to the others and then to Catra: "Does that count as racist? Speciesist?"

    There's an exchange between Zoisite and Corona and the lady is mad. "Hey, I'm not knocking telenovelas, I read trashy manga!" She feels reasonably certain she must have read two or three series with plots as hokey as she assumes telenovelas have, but she can't recall with certainty while focused on combat.

    And she realizes the monster's deal. "Ohhhhhh no, it's an asteroids monster..." And then she grins and poses dramatically, "Well, I can just-- GET OFF ME aaaa eww get off me get off me!" She spins around, trying to fling them off or scrape them off and flinging miniature fire grenades around the roof where people aren't, which might catch some stray youmites (youma mites) but doesn't help get them off of her...!

Roman Talleday has posed:
For all the Spanish getting thrown about, Cure Chai starts swearing in Russian.

Without hesitation, he starts stamping on and kicking at the swarm of tiny youma, perfectly re-enacting for this moment, the panic and rage of a young boy discovering he has stood upon a nest of bullants. A good boot sends a dozen flying, and he physically slaps a few from his waist.

There's exploding flowers and heated vents, and the little bastards flying every which way. But importantly, through the chaos, there's an irritated Pretty Cure who has launched himself at speed towards Corona, fully intent on slapping the youma-shaker from her abusive hands with a pink-steam wrapped hand.

"That's it, you've hit your limit on stupid hats!"

Souta Camero has posed:
    The Inspector has cut the problem in half? No, actually, he's only created two problems, and those problems have multiplied into smaller problems. Some of those problems are getting into the ventilation shaft and there really isn't a whole lot he can actually do about that.

    "Ah. Well. Wasn't expecting that."

    < Recommend Change of Tactics. >

    Souta commands, "Mana filter."

    < Mana Filter: Ice >

    The blade of his greatsword turns blue and frosty. He sweeps it over the swarms of increasingly tiny youma trying to cover them in ice instead of actually destroying them. It's a frantic motion, quick but focused, as he tries to make the best of a ridiculous situation.

    Over the sounds of his sword slashing about and other noises of combat, Souta comments to Mai, "I don't fully understand whatever it is you just said, but I'm pretty sure I don't like it."

Mai Elcamino has posed:
The youmas are absolutely spreading, but they're also... diminishing. The full mass of youma has diminished, even as the bits diminish in size they grow lesser in number. Because they literally keep splitting until they're tiny enough to squash both the originating youma and all the youma that it spawns by stepping on them.

Angrily, Corona backhands the youma back into Matcha's space, this time aiming for his face. "You are all so stupid! You should be thanking me! I'm practically doing your work for you, getting my own dear Pelotillero dirty..."

She pets the back of one of her gloves with her other hand, fingers sliding over the gem, and then she sees Catra getting into her shit, and she shrieks, "PELOTILLERO! APEX MANICURE!!"

<< ding~! >> << APEX MANICURE, MISTRESS~ >>

Long glowing purple-white DEATH CLAWS sprout from her right hand's fingers, and-- she glances at Veronica and takes the time out of her day to ask the girl, mockingly copying the way Veronica said it, "Donde has estado escondiendo toda esa suciedad? Nunca te duchas o es tu alma la que esta sucia?" And then as Vero goes after the biggest remaining copy of Alberto and positively demolishes it in one go, and people start discovering they can step on the little ones, or otherwise throw explosive flaming cherry blossom petals at them, beheading them with playing cards and sending their tiny hats flying as they go POOF into puffs of dissipating dark energy--

--or Veronica's calling cards make them start attacking each other--

--Chai comes up after Corona herself, and Corona slashes toward his face with her glowing energy claws with a snarl, then throws the other youma that she was shaking at him. Unfortunately for her it's now about the size of a quarter.

Oh no and they're being frozen by the hot guy-- she's running out of youma-- and Catra is messing up her plan and Corona swoop-lunges away from Chai to launch directly into Catra, death claws out, and yank her hair. "Jodete, gata! Que te folle un pez!"

<< ding~! >> << ADVISE TACTICAL RETREAT, MISTRESS~ TOO MANY CHILDREN OBJECT TO YOUR GRIEFING OTHER OBSIDIAN EMP-- >>

"Hsst! SHUT UP Pelotillero!"

<< ding~! >> << YES, MISTRESS~ >>

That should at least stop the squealing of the youma dying a heat death in the vents for a while. "You STUPID CAT! Enough of them have already left the vents, you're doing nothing but burning a barrier building! When I let this barrier go, it'll be you breaking and entering if you want to get my little Albertos out of the offices!"

Souta Camero has posed:
    Souta admittedly isn't really sure how to deal with this issue. "Paradise, are you tracking them?"

    < Multiple Perpetrators have Infiltrated the Building. >

    He grits his teeth as he considers his options. "Then the building itself is the problem." After a pause, the Inspector gets an idea. "Lightning mode."

    < Mana Filter: Lightning >

    The blue greatsword now turns yellow, cackling with electricity. "If I understand correctly, these vents are metal. Therefore..." He stands over the hole where the HVAC once was, sword raised high. "SPECTRUM OVERDRIVE!"

    As he shouts, his blade grows half again in length and size, dwarfing the Inspector as he swings it down, sending arcs of heated plasma down through the system. He hopes that this is a clever idea. He wishes that he had it sooner.

    He wonders if the lightning will hit anything that will cause a chain reaction. He has not yet decided if this is a good or bad thing.

Zoisite has posed:
It took him only a second to put voice to face as he turned to who addressed him, judgmental gaze quickly melting into fond recognition as Ace approached him. It had been a while since their last meeting indeed.

"Quite correct, we were much more creative than this. But it's a bit unfair to compare our dark accomplishments to others in Obsidian. Very few of them can compare to the damage we've done, and this one--" Jutting his chin at Mai, pointy nose lifted towards the air as he looked down on her. "Has quite a bit to learn about flair."

Zoisite offered his hand to Ace then, nodding. "Care for a lift? I'm sure we can avoid these little creatures better once in the air. In fact, let me add some of my spark to your attack, that way we can finish this entire night off." Once hand was taken, both were in the air.

Whenever Ace attacks, Zosite will add fire to each of the cards launched.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    (There are two new magical boys even! Wow!)

    "Doing our own work for us would be defeating yourself and stopping your own plan! Are you saying you're incompetent?!" Amy replies, frustratedly trying to brush tiny youma off her before she remembers she can just

    Boom!

    With the youmites as small and weak as they are, she can clear them away with point-blank explosions too weak to hurt herself with! (It helps that she's somewhat resistant to her own powers to allow rocket jumping to work.)

    "Did she say manicure?" Startled by the sudden long claws, Amy jumps back away from Corona! "Does that mean something else in Spanish?!"

    Now she's no longer being swarmed, she can focus on throwing more small firey grenades to mop up the rest across the roof. "Pretty sure I could blow up the whole building if I want."

    Although that would be more magic than she'd like to spend unless she knew exactly where to place the charges.

    But she's not alone, is she? << Hey uh, can any of your Devices tell me where to blow up to demolish the building? Oh, there's only the Inspector... let's try this, then! >>

    Amy runs over to the vent and hurls an armful of grenades down it, which mix with Souta's attack to flood the vent system with an expanding cloud of firey plasma! Hopefully that'll do it...

    Also a plume of flame shoots up out of the vent, the rush of hot air making the Puella Magi's hair and cloak billow dramatically!

Roman Talleday has posed:
Claws catch Cure Chai, shredding through his princely clothing and leaving a nasty slash as he drops back down to land-- it burns, and it's messed up his fit, and that just won't do.

"Exquisite flavour!" Again, he turns his lovely Teacup upon the saucer on his head, and it clicks into place. "Refined Gentlemen of Taste!"

The Bejewlled Teaspoon was taken from his hip and twirled in his fingers like a baton. A pirouette in graceful form starts a dance, a stream of pink milk flowing around him like a ribbon from the spoon. An elegant but quick series of motions pulls him towards his team mate, spinning cardamom pods seeming to dance with him in his flowing display, reaching out for Matcha.

Corona remembers what happened the last time. Now there is two of them, doing something together.

Copious amounts of Tea might also conduct lightning, right?

Lincoln Blackwell has posed:
Ducking his head beneath the returned youma, Cure Matcha found himself mirroring Cure Chai almost subconsciously. His own bejeweled teaspoon, still in hand, twirled between fingers and frothy green mist trailed behind it streamer-like.

He turned and danced until he found himself caught up in a slow turning waltz with his partner. Cardamom was joined by pale white camellia petals. There was a spin as the boys were joined into a very fancy twist off to one side. Somehow, they were making it closer to the opening.

Matcha was dipped backwards into a graceful final pose. "Now is the time for high tea!"

They unleashed pink and green swirling jets of purifying tea to wash out any remaining youma.

Catra has posed:
"Yeah, Amy, that was racist," Catra replies flatly. "Or species-ist or... whatever. And I don't speak Spanish but I'm pretty sure that was an overly complicated way for her to declare herself to be a moro--HEY!!"

Catra is confronted by someone who suddenly not only has claws like she does, but somehow has bigger ones, and that's basically just not fair. The feline has to choose between defending herself or continuing to burn the building, and she chooses the latter, expecting to get hit but whatever she's tough, burning the building down is both important and, honestly, a lot of fun, especially since they're in a barrier and there are literally zero consequences to doing so.

Except she wasn't expecting manicure-girl to go for her hair.

"What the-- What is wrong with you?!" the feline protests, as she finds herself yanked backwards by the sudden sharp jerk on her scalp. The fire comes to an abrupt stop and she rakes her claws in the air behind her, swinging and basically missing the foe who has gotten into the worst possible spot. Well, mostly the worst. It could be at least a little bit worse.

"Fine, that's how you wanna play it," she snarls, ears flattening out again as she resummons her illusory doubles, and tosses Powersend to one of them. "Feel free to stand still."

Her double without the sword summons blue flames on each claw; the claws are illusory but the flames are real, which the double then applies directly to Mai, raking at her furiously, while the other one surrounds Powersend with brilliant yellow flame before leaping into the air and plummeting straight down, follow the sword through the roof and into the heart of the building to hack at anything that looks load-bearing pretty directly.

"Probably should make a decision," she comments, flatly. "And maybe speak Japanese, I'm sure your little exposition was masterfully spoken but if nobody understand you it doesn't matter."

Ace Saijou (222) has posed:
"Most kind!" Kaitou Ace says brightly, skidding to a halt in his strafing rush so he can push off into a leap. Snapping a gloved hand out to catch Zoisite's and let himself be hoisted aloft; other clasps a small stack of cards between his fingers, raising them up to press brief to his lips --

"Delicious... " -- then snapping the fan of cards open, four Aces on display before whipping his hand back, and then out. " ..Four-Card Shot... " Letting them fly, streaking down with a shearing force that would be deadly all its own --

-- even without for the swirl of sakura petals that streams out, spiraling around each card before erupting into a sheath of flame. " ...Burning Season Special!" Turning them into miniature comets to crash and explode.

Mai Elcamino has posed:
"It's SO FUNNY," Corona gasps, tears at the corners of her eyes from the pain of the burns the illusory Catra's claws get her with, "that you think I care what garbage falls out of your misbegotten face!" She slashes at Catra, the real one, with her energy claws, going for deep dragging cuts, and yanks her hair around again-- she gets burned, she gets a little sliced when she doesn't move fast enough to put Catra between herself and Catra--

And she has to make a decision.

She decides to keep hold of that hair and drag Catra up into the air with her, then drop the cat down on the edge of the HVAC hole to see her scramble to keep her balance. "Bruja del demonio!" she yells down, ducking what fire gets sent her way. "What were YOU doing at the devil's sacrament, traitor? Traitor who can't even give up the dark energy after leaving, what a *loser*, using it to make youma-catgirls--"

She has NOT been paying attention to what everyone else has been doing, and now there's literally fire shooting out of the building.

"Ah," she says, "well." She flies higher. And then out over the street. It's a little safer there.

There's fire AND LIGHTNING shooting up out of the vent hole, and then comets impacting the roof like little balls of made-to-order hell, and then there's grenades being thrown in and exploding out with a huge fwoof and you know, Corona can appreciate that drama, Amy. That's good drama, that billowing.

Oh the two tea boys are doing something else she'll need to avoid next time. At this point, she's just waiting for the duskport door to finish opening. She doesn't feel any of her youma still running around, but maybe she'll at least get to see a cool explosion. :(

Oh. The first floor's windows blow out with BOOM. Then the second floor's. Then the third, and with each one, the building shakes beneath people feet. And sways. Then the fourth. The building starts to waver.

"You have a decision to make," Mai calls out gaily, the Dusk Zone door opening behind her. "Get off the building or dieeeee~"

Fifth floor. Sixth. Seventh. Mai waits.

Eighth. Ninth. The building starts to slowly, gracefully fall down. While on fire. There's a lot of fire.

Mai half-steps into the door, aiming to avoid the dust blooming into the night sky, and takes out a pair of opera glasses to see if there's anyone left alive, but she can't see through the dust. Oh well. They get tucked away, and Mai leaves, and the barrier goes down.

There's the whole hale hearty building, there's Catra's motorcycle.

Lincoln Blackwell has posed:
It was a lovely dance, but when all was said and done Cures Chai and Matcha are still holding on to each other in their elegant pose when the building starts to give up the ghost. There were explosions and fire and nothing at all good going on, and Cure Matcha wasn't really in the presence of mind to do anything specifically reasonable about it.

So he did something unreasonable. Cure Matcha screamed once and clutched tight to Cure Chai. "We're goin' down man!"

Roman Talleday has posed:
Cure Chai is nearly set off balance, the rumbling and exploding and the clinging-- more cursing in Russian.

Urgently, because they're still more or less in that pose, and because Matcha has latched onto him in panic, Chai does the only thing he can think of. He picks his partner up bridal style to carry him and starts running towards a ledge. Which, probably doesn't at all help Matcha's terror, actually, when Chai leaps off of it.

"Abandon ship!"

Souta Camero has posed:
    Get off the building or die!

    "I... choose to get off the building? That doesn't seem like a hard decision."

    < Structural Integrity Compromised > warns Paradise Spectrum, as the rooftop shakes and shudders beneath Souta's feet.

    "Yes I... gathered that," says Souta, wincing as he looks down at the building beneath his feet. He takes a moment to check around to see if anyone needs help. "Shield Spark, targeting all mahoujin."

    < Targets Acquired. Launching Shield Spark. >

    Several sparks of mana appear above Souta's head and, one after another, each one seeks out a nearby mahoujin and puts a protective bubble of magic around them, strong enough to take some amount of damage from the building collapsing and, more importantly, giving Souta something to pour additional mana into if someone really needs help.

    Souta takes one more glance around to see if anyone actually needs to be picked up and carried off... oh no one of the boy cures is panicking. The other cure is handling it. He follows after them and jumps off because, honestly, what else is he gonna do?

Zoisite has posed:
From his free hand, he snaps his fingers again and a bundle of cherry blossom petals to break Cure Chai's and Matcha's landing.

Otherwise, Zoisite was secure in the air, holding onto Ace as well and watching the beauty that was a collapsing building.

Catra has posed:
Catra reaches up abd behind herself to grab hold of Mai's wrist that's holding her, as she gets pulled up into the air, while she and the villainess are having a high-stakes scratching contest with each other. And Catra is certainly taking wounds as well; her tux is getting hacked at but she goes ahead and ignores the bleeding so she can dig her claws all the way into Mai's wrist, and she's still hanging on when Mai releases her. She keeps hanging on and channels all the heat and flame into her real claws as she can -- before she's finalyl shaken off, and falls back down to the rooftop below.

She lands on her feet, of course, going to a crouch to absorb the impact.

"That's a dumb choice!" she yells up at Mai, and promptly bounces off the building, parkouring her way back down by jumping from building to building to lamppost to the ground. She walks away from the explosion without bothering to look at it; she just produces a pair of sunglasses from inside her tuxedo, gives it a little one-handed flick to open the arms, and slides them smoothly onto her face.

As the time/space barrier collapses to return the world to the way it was before the whole fight happened, she just keeps walking; her doubles are banished, but she holds out her hand, arm extended. At first nothing happens; and then a window smshes outwards and a sword comes flying back into her hand. She steps on the scabbard (right where she left it) to kick it up into the air in front of her, catches it, sheathes Powersend, and hooks it onto her belt above her tail.

"Well she was rude," she grumbles to nobody in particular, as she straddles her back, revs the engine as it roars to llife, and pops the front wheel up in the air as she speeds off with a squeal of rubber.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy looks over at the fighting with Catra. What is wrong with Mai? "I think she's trying to make it a 'cat fight', but still, going for the hair is mean! ...Ohhhhhh, that's the point isn't it. The claws, too, going for marks..." She furrows her brow in thought about the implications of this fighting style.

    Fortunately, Catra can dish it out and show Mai that melee is a bad plan against someone who can be like three people all with swords. "Oh, you haven't seen a Bruja yet, lady!"

    And then everything starts exploding and Mai's got a portal. "Adios!" Amy waves to her, but... why is Corona hesitating?

    There's the sound of explosions and Amy runs to the edge, looking down at the cascade of windows blowing out in heat and flame, and smiles, mouth open wide, "Oh-hohhh, kickass, look at that!"

    She's not worried for herself, she can just, y'know, mahou superjump to the next building? But there's a lot of people here, so she turns after Mai's proclamation to look at the rest, "Anyone need help getting off?" If someone's not able to jump to the next building she can carry someone. Maybe two if one is also pretty short and she boosts her jump with an explosion.

    And then she's able to look back at the collapsing building, before it all disappears.

    The Puella Magi smiles to the others, "That went well, I think!"