1374/A Dark Lover... Trio!?

A Dark Lover... Trio!?
Date of Scene:	01 April 2024
Location:	Plot Room 1
Synopsis:	The heroes start their invasion of Gaito's palace and successfully defeat their first obstacle: the Dark Lovers.
Cast of Characters:	Coco Kiumi, Cho Konishi, Madoka Kaname, Makoto Kino, Mamoru Chiba, Amanda Faust, Usagi Tsukino
Tinyplot:	Usagi's Abyssal Nightmare

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Coco Kiumi has posed:
A placid early spring breeze blows through the field a Radiant Heart Academy, not at all foreboding of the grueling undertaking that the heroes at Radiant Heart Academy are about to take upon themselves. After last time's strategy meeting everyone has gone back, having cleared out a plan for the assault against Gaito's underwater palace.

Now everyone has been called back again to the Shed, this time to get the actual fight underway. They are only there because it's a place away from everyone's eyes, since they are about to be led to the lair of the King of the Deep Seas thanks to the magic of the Sealing Key.

Coco is already there as Yellow Pearl Voice, waiting for everyone there with the Key already turned into the Key Rod, ready to let the sacred item lead them there as soon as everyone is ready to go.

"Hello!", the mermaid waves to the friends that had gathered there, smiling despite the apprehension of finally going back to Gaito's palace. Well, it had to happen sooner or later, and this time she isn't alone anymore, and this time Aqua Regina's blessing is upon them in addition.

"Don't worry about fighting underwater", Coco chooses to remind them, "because the Sealing Key is a relic made by Aqua Regina, so her blessing will allow you do everything underwater with the utmost naturalness. You won't need to worry about breathing, are going to be great swimmers while under its influence, and even tricky powers like fire, electricity or projectiles will be unencumbered."

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cure Wukong was one of the first to arrive... primarily because she was close to Yellow Pearl Voice. Roommate privilage! And she was abusing said privilage... by sitting on her big pink cloud while she waited for everyone to arrive.

Petting an otter. Holding it like she was some kind of evil villain plotting to defeat a secret agent.

Also, the cloud would likely be useful later to cart Sailor Moon out when they were all done. One just needed a pure heart to ride it... and if anyone had one, she did.

That was why Kiseki couldn't ride it. Wuwu got a pass because he was Wukong, otherwise he wouldn't be able to ride it either. Yes, he was that OP.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Hope Blossom shows up a little sad. Gretchen isn't with her. From her hidden twin-braid ponytail hairstyle, those who know can tell that she's henshined with Lydian, the art Chara. Seemed like a fitting choice considering their enemy, and Lydian has already been down there anyways.

    As they begin to gather, Madoka takes a deep breath and steels her nerves. It's okay if Gretchen wants to sit out, she tells herself, but she's going to have to really talk to her later.

    Pushing all of that away, Madoka focuses on the task at hand. "Right. I remember. Thanks, Yellow Pearl Voice. I'm sure we'll be fine."

    Medo hovers over Blossom's shoulder, crossing her arms. "Remember to stay safe! Don't dive too fast! Look both ways before crossing a current!"

Makoto Kino has posed:
"It's kinda too bad I can't just zap the heck out of all of them," Sailor Jupiter muses aloud to no one in particular, as she strolls up in time to catch Yellow Pearl Voice's reminder. "Seems like a missed opportunity... but then again, it's no good if I take out everyone on our side, too."

Her curly hair is a bit frizzier than usual, and there's a smudge of flour on her nose - or maybe it's powdered sugar. There might be some in her hair, too. She doesn't seem to notice.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Tuxedo Mask is there, being very quiet, adjusting his gloves, leaning against the wall in a very tall fashion. He's there to support Sailor Moon and hopefully cause some devastating interrupts on the jerks they'll be fighting.

He's thinking about capes and water and looking very 'trust but verify' when Jupiter arrives. "I would rather not get zapped, no," he agrees wryly.

A beat. "Did you make cookies? Did you bring cookies?" he asks hopefully.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Here they are.

    Eight and a half months ago, Amanda signed up to fight evil and protect others as a Magical Girl.

    And now not even three-quarters of a year later, it's time to take the fight to a real-life Evil Overlord, to save several princesses, and with magic allowing them to both teleport to an underwater citadel and fight there as if on land.

    The heroines' party gathers to set out.

    'Magical Rocket Girl Red' as she's nicknamed herself, checks her belt pouches. Phone, check. Grief seed, check. The rest of her gear is summoned by magic, so doesn't really need to be checked. She feels like she should be checking something, so she just sort of fidgets instead.

    She nods at Yellow Pearl Voice's summary.

    She offers a slightly nervous smile to everyone.

    Medo says not to dive too fast. "We're going straight to the bottom of the sea. Hopefully, magic will protect us both ways so getting the bends won't be a problem." She considers the advice to look both ways before crossing a current. "We're going someplace inside, right? We're not gonna be out in the open so much. If we were, there wouldn't be any light down there to see by..."

    Jupiter is mildly annoyed that lightning working normally means it won't conduct through all their enemies. "Yeah, but--" ah, she sees the problem: They'd get zapped too. Amy nods. "Maybe next time we have to fight underwater, though, we can look into a way to... unshackle your lightning and have all of us wear insulating gear, or something?"

    She gives Usagi a concerned look. That's right, she's been plagued by nightmares for months on end. "How're you holding up? Do you want any caffeinated tea before we go, or anything...?"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Sailor Moon is a princess, she's in moderate distress, and she's pleased everyone is here to help her out - and hopeful that they can save some of the other people who are in distress, because fishbowl was an evocative term, and she thinks it must suck. These nightmares already suck.

"I definitely am in favor of not getting electrocuted! But I would also like a cookie, if there are those."

She makes puppy dog eyes at Makoto, already transformed and ready to roll out. Wait, no, that other thing: fight!

"I'm doing okay," she tells Amy, yawning, "I mean, I've kinda gotten used to it! It reminds me of my streaming nights, except worse."

Coco Kiumi has posed:
Coco had given out an otter to Cho again since she had liked having one with her the last time, and there was really no reason to say no to her. Chalk it up to roommate privilege, or how dear of a friend Coco is to her. "I am sure your lightning will pack a punch they won't forget anytime soon", she smiles in support of Jupiter after her consideration.

When Amy asks about whether they are going to be inside or outside, Coco tells her "We are going to be outside, but there is no light problem down there, everything will be as clear as dat and anyway, the door to Gaito's palace will be right in front of us."

With everyone now ready to go, Coco breathes in, gripping the Key Rod tightly as she seeks its strength. 'Please, Aqua Regina, aid us', she asks for the kind mother's help in her thoughts. "Key Rod Release", she exclaims, white light emanating from it, spreading so thoroughly that their surroundings are erased from sight, until it starts receding and they are then inside the residence, the huge door just behind them, and the Dark Lovers just in front of them.

Coco's look has changed too, her left glove suddenly adhering to her arm instead of jutting out and having changed to a pattern made up of water ripples, same goes for the left stocking that has shown up. Corals radiate outwards from her neck, covered by a transparent veil with brown pearls and white stars decorating it, the same decoration that is applied to the layer of fabric extending backwards and downwards from above her skirt, another layer with the water ripple pattern on the outside extending in much the same way from below the skirt. Lastly, her E-Pitch Microphone is now an E-Pitch Headset.

"The mermaid princess of the South Pacific!", Isuru exclaims, the first to turn around at that white light. "And with friends!", Yuri adds, her expression looking like a botched mix of a grin and a scowl, as if she couldn't decide on which was more suitable. Meanwhile, Maria's gaze is fixed on Sailor Moon, recalling all too well the dishonor she had gotten from losing the book. "We meet again", the ice demon says gloating. "How are you enjoying your nightmares? I hope you aren't having too much trouble sleeping."

"If you think you can interrupt them, well keep dreaming", the three quip with a line that seems very much practised after exchanging a look among themselves and an empty spot next to them. "Go, my water dragons!", Isuru exclaims, sending her creatures right against Cure Wukong, Rocket Girl Red and Hope Blossom. "Lover's Ice Darts!", Maria exclaims, a flurry of ice shards rushing towards Sailor Jupiter, Tuxedo Kamen and Sailor Moon both, the attack having freezing properties on what they hit! Meanwhile, Yuri's piano appears and she starts playing a nefarious melody that hurts those who listen to it.

Coco is quick to react to the last one, the Live Stage gently enveloping her in its white light, and the sphere shines bright in the watery environment. "Legend of Mermaid: Pichi Pichi Voice, Live Start!", Coco exclaims, her purifying voice fighting off 1 vs 1 against the dark melody of Yuri's piano.

She sings a nostalgic melody of stars that shine like pearls, a wondrous light released from them, an adventure filled with miracles like the kind mother wishes for everyone in her heart, a love that will unfailingly be reborn after the storm.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Medo turns towards Amy with crossed arms and says, "Y'know, Blossom said the same thing about the bends, but I don't think she really tested it."

    Hope, smiling brightly, says, "I trust in Coco's magic. It'll be fine!"

    She's quietly still as the world shifts around them. Madoka soon finds herself underwater, swimming around as if it were natural. She didn't really have to practice thanks to the magic, but she ended up doing her own kind of training anyways. Three dimensional thinking is very different, and will require new strategies. At least, that's what she assumes.

    As she's pondering this, Medo swims by in full diving gear. How did she get that? Chara magic. Don't think too much about it.

    As the battle begins, she sees a water dragon swimming right for her. She immediately swims upwards and keeps moving, kicking her legs as fast as she can. When her branch bow appears in her hands, she fires arrow after arrow in front of her, each one turning around midflight to pelt the dragon with repeated fire. As Madoka swims, she has two goals: To keep away from the dragon's attacks, and to get closer to the Dark Lovers.

    When the music starts, Blossom says, "Oh... so that's why Gretchen-chan didn't want to be here."

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cure Wukong would put the otter down and scoot it away when it was time to start. No otters will be harmed in the making of this butt kicking. She then reached up and drew her staff from behind her ear, enlarging it and swirling it once. The cloud faded away as well, though it'd be back later.

"You know, I wouldn't taunt the people who always kick your butt the moment they show up in the middle of your base!" she yelled out!

She then leaped forward, pole vaulting over one of the dragons before spinning her staff in front of her, deflexting the next as she ran at Isuru.

Landing on the ground, she went down to all fours, her staff spinning in the air before she snagged it in her tail.

She then sweeped with it, the staff growing many times longer to try and sweep Isuru's legs out from under her. "You know what they say, pride comes before the FALL!"

She, fortunately, was actually pretty used to fighting in water by now. Being best friends with a mermaid helped with that. Also, she'd been preparing for this. She even had time to make puns!

Makoto Kino has posed:
In the face of hopeful eyes from both Tuxedo Kamen and Sailor Moon, Sailor Jupiter can only sigh fondly. "These were supposed to be for after, but..." With just a little bit of a flourish, she pulls out a plastic-wrapped bundle from - where, exactly?

Don't worry about it.

Usagi and Mamoru get first dibs, but the cookies are offered around to all before Yellow Pearl Voice gets them under way. Little amaretti, crumbly on the outside and soft on the inside, rolled in powdered sugar. There's traditional almond flavored, matcha, and chocolate espresso.

Then the magic begins, and Jupiter quickly tucks away whatever survived those few minutes and gets ready to fight.

The spray of ice shards that greets them has her instinctively kicking forward, sparks already crackling around her fingers. "Kamen-san!" she calls out as she spreads her hands in front of her, sending a web of hissing, crackling electricity fanning out to meet the barrage.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
It's strange, moving through and breathing water like it's air, but nearly weightless. It's maybe a little bit like being in superjump mode all the time-- Tuxedo Mask flips up his cape and blocks a couple of the freezing darts that made it through Jupiter's net, and... it freezes his cape. He has a cookie in his mouth so he doesn't manage to call anything himself.

Before he gets caught in the awkwardness of manuevering a stiff-solid cape under the water, he detaches the thing and swims forward, using it like a giant triangular-ish thrown weapon -- just spin it as you hurl it forward and it should crash into Maria pretty fast!

It leaves him without a shield, but he's already pulling out a rose to use as a main gauche, and he produces a cane from nowhere to use as a very dull rapier. He finishes chewing cookie and swallows. "A-OK, Jupiter!" he replies cheerfully. Then, "I should have given you my cape to charge up!" he calls to Sailor Moon.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Aqua Regina? Right, the queen. Right, HER MOM. It again hits Amy how wild it is that Coco is a mermaid princess.

    She squints as the light surrounds them, then conjures pink sunglasses which she dismisses once the light recedes.

    Duelling songs start. She can't fully pay attention to them, because WATER DRAGONS. She summons a gyrojet rifle and fires at the dragon coming at her while shouting, ... well, she wants to say something dramatic. "Kidnapping girls and plaguing people with nightmares. You're all despicable! Ugggh, why did TV shows teach me that I'm supposed to TALK to the villains?! There's never anything I could possibly say that would sway you from your course!"

    As for the fight: First, she tests her mobility against the water dragons. Who can change direction and reposition faster? That's going to be key to informing her tactics here! One comes at her and she swims to the side, spraying rocket-bullets to test her aim and get the hang of shooting while swimming.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
There are cookies offered, and Usagi gobbles two greedily while everyone else is getting their share, calling out, "Thank you Jupiter-chan!" right he world shifts and changes, and they're - underwater!

Sailor Moon gasps in shock, practically choking on cookie, but of course, she can breathe as normal, just like Coco said she would - amazing! They're not walking now, but swimming, and yet somehow, it feels just as natural as walking would. It's like being in those paintings again, only she still has legs, and also, is totally familiar with it!

But of course they aren't just here to have fun. They're here to fight, and the main people making them do it are -

"Oh, you're just mad because I'm prettier than all three of you while sleep deprived."

And maybe that wasn't a good thing to say, because ice darts! But luckily, Mamochan and Makochan have it covered.

As the ice breaks - Sailor Moon lifts up her Moon Stick -

"Moon Healing Escalation!"

And sends a blasting of healing light at Maria!

Coco Kiumi has posed:
The water dragon sent after Madoka is perforated by the many arrows the pinkette sent after it after her maneuvers don't allow it to find the agile pinkette. And the one Wukong dodges meanwhile gets sent crashing into the wall behind her, the creature staying there dazed as it tries to recover from having not stopped in time.

Isuru isn't quick enough to dodge Wukong and she barely has the time to call another of her water dragons before she finds herself sweeped to ground, stars appearing in her vision as she groans due to the tough blow, on the moment barely able to wonder if she can get some ice pacs from Maria later..

The evasions Amy attempts are plenty successful, as the dragon fruitlessly tries to get a bite out of her several times before being done in by the rocket bullets.

With Jupiter disrupting a good part of the ice darts, the rest meet their end on Tuxedo Kamen's cape, which turns ice solid and Maria learns the importance of accounting for all possibilities, as her own attack is turned against her at the same time as Sailor Moon's Escalation hits her. The ice demon finds herself weakened as the dark energy that has granted her human form is destabilised, only able to watch as the frozen cape hits her in the face sending her too down onto the floor.

The aimless water dragon created at the last minute by Isuru looks confused around before Yuri switches approaches and changes her dark symphony slightly to send a dark pulse towards the two dragons present, making this one much faster and sending it to try and strike Wukong with its serpentine body as it heads to Red, its jaws open wide at her while the spikes on its head fire out at Hope Blossom. "Where even is Eril!?", the frustrated green haired girl exclaims. "Is she so deaf she isn't hearing all of this chaos?", not really considering that she may have gone further from them than expected.

The dazed water dragon next to the wall recovers itself as Yuri's music enhances it, and it swims around the two Sailors and Tuxedo Kamen at high speed, trying to envelop them into a whirpool before aiming to crush them in its coils.

Makoto Kino has posed:
Sailor Jupiter's eyes narrow dangerously as the water dragon begins to circle them, alight with a certain reckless glint. "Don't bother with this thing, Sailor Moon--"

Petals are already scattering into the water around her, stirring in a small vortex that moves counter to the whirling current the dragon is creating. "--I'll clear you a path! FLOWER HURRICANE!"

The current rushes around her, sheathing her in spiraling petals as she launches herself at the dragon with powerful kicks of her long legs. As the water dragon rushes past on its loop, she grabs for it with both arms, aiming to grapple onto the long sinuous neck and physically wrestle the thing out of the way, at least enough to give Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Kamen a clear route to the real targets of this fight.

Cho Konishi has posed:
"And she's down!" Cure Wukong said, spinning around and getting back to her feet, her staff swirling around her. "Thank you, thank you, I'm here all night. Well, hopefully not all--"

BAM! And she gets hit by a dragon tail, getting sent flying back into one of the walls and leaving a dent in it from the blow. She let out a low groan, before dropping down onto the ground. "R-right... r-right. L-less... that... gotta be more... ow... c-careful a-about this stuff..." she said, with a groan.

However, was the tail went past her, she threw her staff out...

And it would land across the dragon's tail, slamming and pinning it down to the ground, the weight of a mountain holding it in place. "T-that's what you get..."

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    "Here it comes!" warns Hope Blossom. "Hold onto me, Medo!" The tiny nurse chara grabs onto Madoka's pink hair as the spikes start flying out at them. Madoka dives deeper, trying to keep her path perpendicular to the trajectory of the oncoming spikes. This is the other benefit of Hope Blossom over Hope Witch: the fact that she can actually move.

    She fires a spread of arrows at the water dragon's spikes, but in the back of her mind she knows that she can't just spend the whole battle blocking attacks. Seeing that Yuri providing musical support, Blossom decides that she gets to be the next target. Specifically, her piano.

    Madoka fires an arrow which circles around her, and then she grabs it as it passes to use it as propulsion. It carries her closer to the green-haired Dark Lover, and when she gets close enough Blossom releases the bolt to unleash another spread of arrows that all go racing for Yuri's instrument.

    "It's not too late for you to back down!" she says, knowing full well they probably wont.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Around and around-- and then Makoto creates an opening for the starting-to-get-dizzy duo of Moon and Mask to get out, which works a whole lot better than trying to stab into the walls of a whirlpool, let me tell you what. On the way out, Tuxedo Kamen catches at Sailor Moon's arm, and he hands her a rose with sparkling eyes behind that luminous white mask.

"Let's get 'em," he says, and Hope Blossom is shooting at the piano too, and Mamoru grins. "Normally," he calls out, "I'd be hesitant to harm a musical instrument -- but I think you should have something SHARP to cancel out the FLATness of your performance!"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "You're too sloo-oooow!" Amy taunts like a certain blue hedgehog as she outswims and shoots the dragon. Amy is like two steps ahead planning out how to outmaneuver the water dragons, watching for when the boss monster changes its pattern and... it just doesn't, eventually going down to bullets. She didn't even scale up to explosives yet!

    Hmm. Maybe she's overestimating the power and skill of some of Gaito's minions...

    Okay, yeah, that was Phase 1, now they're sending a fast dragon after her!

    This gives her kind of the opposite problem! When it's faster than her, rather than planning too much as she casually outswims it, now she doesn't have time to think!

    So she comes up with a very simple plan:

    1. Stop running and use what little time she has to AIM a rocket right at the dragon's throat.
    2. If it STILL tries to eat her, swim INTO it to try and miss the teeth, and unleash explosives at it from inside its mouth while trying not to be swallowed.
    3. If she fucks up and gets bitten, she'll probably get a surprise attack on anything that was expecting her to die. She hopes it doesn't come to that!

    So as the dragon swims after her, she stops running, spins, is suddenly holding her launcher, and fires a rocket right at its approaching mouth!

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Yes! One down, two to go!" Sailor Moon cheers as Maria goes down, letting go of her Moon Stick in favor of snatching up her tiara, spinning it on a finger, as she makes a pose -

Just in time to trip forward as a water dragon roars towards her little team!

"Eeep!" She squeaks, but then Jupiter is grabbing the bull by the horns - the dragon by the whiskers? - and clearing a path, and a sparkling red rose is in her hand, and she grins.

"Oh, I think it's time to let the curtains fall!" There's power, and there are goofs, and it's clear in this moment which is more powerful. Holding the rose in her hand, Sailor Moon concentrates - and love and cosmic energy flood that already magic breaking rose, turning it from brilliant red to all the sparkling, glittering colors of the rainbow. "Moon Exploding Rose Action!"

And the glowing rose is launched right for the piana - where it detonates in an explosion of Earth-and-Moon magic.

Coco Kiumi has posed:
The spikes countered by Hope Blossom dissolve as if they were nothing as she starts approaching the pianist carried by the arrow, the Dark Lover gritting her teeth with her directly damaging symphony still kept useless by Legend of Mermaid.

The recovering Wukong is able to pin down the water dragon, the creature biting fruitlessly at the staff and pushing useless, unable to do so much as scratching it. Not able to get out of the way of Amy's attack, the water being turns into nothing as it gets a rocket straight to the face.

With Yuri's handiwork having successfully trapped some heroes she smirks pleased, thinking this may still be turned around if she keeps them there until Maria and Isuru recover. Only for that smirk to make a 180° when Jupiter slows down her current and suplexing the dragon.

"How about you back down!" Yuri angrily counters to Hope Blossom. "We are going to stop at nothing to prove our love for Lord Gaito and let him carry out his revenge!" When the rain of arrows and the explosive rose fall down upon her, she barely has the time to duck under the piano, the musical instrument broken apart and reduced to splinters and bars of metal.

"My piano! Do you have any idea how long is it gonna take me to get another one? Nevermind the fact I have been playing the best symphonies on it for ages, the only thing flat here is your cape! Forgot there is no wind here or something!" Yuri shouts at Tuxedo powerless.

"All of you, your hideous attacks and that stupid song of the mermaids. Lord Gaito will teach you all a lesson you won't forget, and to anyone that dares stand in the way of his revenge!", Yuri says, just grabbing as many metal bars from the rests of her piano and hurling them all at everyone here.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Madoka's gotta admit that for an evil musician, Yuri's got bars. Metal ones. That are being hurled at her as if they were javelins or something. "Oh geeze... I forgot that spear fishing was a thing!"

    Medo clings tight as Madoka tries to evade the thrown bars in a panic. One of them pierces the multi-layered frills of her dress, and another gets her square in the stomach. As she curls up into a ball, clutching her gut, Medo immediately zips around her to examine the wound. "Your henshin is still holding, but I bet that's gonna leave a mark."

    "Stay behind me, Medo-chan!" says Madoka, far more concerned for her fairy than herself. The pain is still coursing through her from the hit, but the pinkette is used to toughing things out by now. What's more, it looks like they're close.

    "We have the musical advantage now! I guess that means we get the better SCORE," she says, with a face far too serious for the awful puns she's making. "Sorry, Dark Lovers. You didn't MEASURE up."

    She draws back another arrow and lets it charge, growing larger and larger as she waits. A pink flame lights at the top of her bow.

    "Just give us Sailor Moon's possession and BEAT it," she shouts before releasing her charged arrow. "Blossom Blaze!" The resulting spread of arrows falls all around Yuri, her piano, and any other Dark Lovers or water dragons remaining. Then she immediately cups Medo in her hand before the nurse fairy gets any wild ideas about wandering off.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Of course my cape is flat, it got frozen," objects Tuxedo Kamen, gesturing to where it rests on the floor, not even budged by the currents. "Don't worry, after we finish trouncing you we'll get your friends, too, and kick your boss a lot, and then I'll get a new cape. I'm no longer attached to that one~"

He's not attacking for real, just talking, trying to distract the bar-hurling girl-- and then he goes for using his cane to parry the incoming bars or bat them back at the thrower. "What do you call it if a piano falls on a teenaged merperson?" A beat. THWACK. "A-Flat Minor! What do you call a fish that makes sure your piano is on key?" WHACK. "A piano tuna!'"

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cure Wukong could almost hear the victory music! Teamwork!

Wait, no, that was just from hitting the wall really hard. It--

Pink energy washed over her and she shoved off the wall. "Okay, I'm back!" she said happy. "It's time for some monkey bullshit!" she yelled before yanking out two handfuls of hair and flinging them into the air.

Dozens of Cure Wukongs rained down, spinning, kicking, punching! "Your Gaito hasn't got a chance! Castle or no, we've got the power of friendship, song and high grade explosives on our side!" she yelled!

The swarm of Wukongs working to try and ddeflect attacks aimed at the group and force an opening forwardd for the rest of the group! Well... most of them.

One of them was off in the corner reading manga.

Another was by Coco, backup dancing and DJing...

And a third was... serving... ice cream. Don't eat the ice cream. You don't want to know where it came from. It was hair.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    *Phew*. She overplanned again, even with so little time. Maybe Amy should have more confidence in her abilities?

    All that's left is... Yuri?

    "Lady. LADY. Revenge?! All Gaito has to do is leave people alone and he can live how he wants! Dude has a freaking underwater castle and we're only here 'cuz he won't let the princesses be." Amy waves her arms at their surroundings.

    In response, spearlike metal bars are thrown. Water doesn't slow them down as much as she'd hope. How dare they have magic to fight in the water too! She aims and fires another rocket at Yuri!

    Oops. That really hurt!

    Amy looks down, stunned, at the bar now piercing her belly. Did she get too confident? She reflexively grabs and starts to pull it, then winces. Wait, it's bad to pull things out, right?

    The red Puella Magi floats in the water, clutching at her abdomen, processing this.

    Forefront in her mind is that she can't die from this, otherwise she'd probably be a lot less calm!

Makoto Kino has posed:
No matter how much the water dragon thrashes and writhes, Sailor Jupiter cannot be shaken loose. Only when she's sure that Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Kamen are safely out of its immediate range does she rear back, releasing a double handful of electrical charge into it as she flings it away from her and the others with one great heave that leaves her floating upside-down in the water, a few stray petals still drifting around her.

"Oh my god," she complains at Tuxedo Kamen's jokes, laughing in spite of herself. "I'd throw you in the bay for that if we weren't already in the ocean. And as for you--!"

It's the trio of enemies she's calling out to now, as she flips herself neatly right-side up and crosses her arms in front of her. "Don't make me laugh! Supreme--"

Lines of bright energy sizzle over her arms, from her shoulders down her forearms to gather around her hands, until she releases it all in one white-hot blast of lightning. "--THUNDER!"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Proving your love is a sucker's game!" Sailor Moon flips the Moon Stick about, striking her classic pose, and it's almost like, despite the depths of the ocean, the moonlight is shining upon her. "You jerks who torment innocent people in the name of love, you don't even know what it is you seek! If the boy you love was going to return your feelings, he would by now! This desperate show is just making you look bad!"

Is fighting even necessary after a conversation that brutal? Is it? Is it really?

Of course it is. Sailor Moon spins, carving a golden circle into the water around her - it shifts and roils as energy seeps in, the shape imperfect, the light bleeding purification in -

And then as the circle is completed, she calls out the attacks name -

"Moon Healing Escalation!"

Silver beams of light and clouds of mist swarm towards Yuri!

Coco Kiumi has posed:
"I don't even have it! That's with Lord Gaito!" Yuri tells Hope Blossom. "So you can forget getting it! And scram now!"

"Please stop", is what Yuri says to the onrush of puns by Blossom and Kamen. "Your puns would get you into Gaito's prisons yesterday if he just knew of them", so spent by them she accidentally dropped the "Lord". She is almost envying Isuru and Maria for having been knocked out.

"You really know nothing about what happened to Lord Gaito, do you?" Yuri regards Rocket Red flatly. "Don't go comment on things you don't know!" the Dark Lover says in a shrill, ticked off voice.

Stopping to reply to Amy doesn't help her any, rather it hinders her so much, all the pointed down on her that even when she dodges she is hurled around by the shockwaves. The result? A battered, unconscious Yuri that just got her wish granted, now being the third Dark Lover to ne put out of commission.

It is then Coco stops singing her restoration song, and she exclaims to everyone "All of you! You were awesome. They probably won't wake up for a while and even when they do, they will not forget today anytime soon", she comments, approaching Wukong to stand next to her roommate (possibly accompanied by the clone that being her audience).

"Ok, we can rest a bit, and then go forward", Coco suggests still with a smile over the victory, looking hopeful to the hallways in front of them.