1573/In the Graveyard of Eternal Gauges

In the Graveyard of Eternal Gauges
Date of Scene:	23 May 2024
Location:	Precure Graveyard
Synopsis:	Sunset of Sora breeches the Eternal Gauge's Precure Graveyard, prompting a battle between Phantom and Sunset. Phantom does something desperate to end the battle - and both are forced to retreat - in different ways, and the Graveyard is sealed, for now.
Cast of Characters:	Phantom, Hinoiri Kirara
Tinyplot:	Sunset of Sora
Tinyplot2:	The Precure Hunter Attacks!? The Dreaded Precure Graveyard!

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Phantom has posed:
The Graveyard of the Eternal Gauges.

Rumored to have once been a vibrant field, it is now desolate and dour. There is no life to be found here. No green, no warm sun. Just the grayed landscaped covered in a thin fog. Protruding out of the ground are large amethyst stones, glowing lightly, casting their parlor upon the lone inhabitants of this forgotten pocket dimensions.

Gravestones - actually coffin shaped mirrors. The Eternal Gauges that hold within them various magical girls for who knows how long. Trapped in an endless slumber, caught in the midsts of their henshin magic, they hang suspended, trapped behind several red ribbons as they wait for a rescue that may never come.

From Cure Continental, the whimiscal British Cure, to the Russian Cure Katsuya, and even Cure Tender, the sister of one Cure Fortune are among the dozens that are rest here - with room for plenty more, when captured and held under the guardianship of General Phantom.

Who is currently not present, engaged in a battle elsewhere, looking to add yet another Precure to the collection and secure in the knowledge that few know of this place's location, much less how to access it - and leaves all of this potential power unguarded.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Sunset of Sora was searching. She needed... power. More power. More strength. More. She needed more. It hurt, and her body was burning... but if she wanted, needed, to achieve her goal? Then she couldn't let a small thing like pain stop her. She couldn't even let it slow her down. She was Sunbreaker. She was all powerful. She would NOT let it stop her. Or slow her. Never. Again.

And across realms, she had found it. Power. A lot of it. Dark energy. Perhaps it was the power she had already absorbed that allowed her to find it. A place of such terrible, eternal despair...

But a moment later, she tracked it. And while it took her a bit to break through dimensions and get access...

Finally, she was there. A graveyard. Were she truly herself? She'd have been horrified. But now? All she saw was a place to give her more of the power she needed, required. All was hers. All belonged to her.

Sunbreaker held up her hands and began to drain, sucking the power into herself, absorbing it, as her flames only grew darker and more wild.

Phantom has posed:
The graveyard rebels against the attempted usurption by the Sunset of Sora. The outflow of energy is interrupted and is pulled in by her, and for a moment, it sounds as if the girls themselves give a cry of pain and anguish that is reflected off the stones of the quarry as Sunset takes what is not hers.

And it's much, much too fast. Phantom has always relied on a steady stream from all of them, light, and only borrowing from one heavily for the transformations. Now, as Sunset takes harshly, the Eternal Gauges falter and start to show signs of being as weak as normal glass as the ribbons fade and cracks form in the glass facade.

And Phantom feels it. A weakening of his own powers - enough so that he has to withdraw from his battle. Once he has done so, he immediately snaps open the portal to the graveyard and teleports in to find that he is under siege.

His eyes narrow as he draws his blade, a baleful look to the attacker. "I know not who you are, but this is the property of Queen Mirage. And you shall not have it!" And without waiting for a rebuke, he launches immediately, the sword brought around in an attempt to cleave into Sunset and break her concentration and the flow of energy into her.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Sunset of Sora didn't seem to notice him, not at first. That is, until he drew his sword and was coming down at her. Her eyes opened a moment before it connected... And then flame formed in her palm. From the flames a black cane appeared, which her fingers coiled around before launching up, striking he sword with enough force that, were it a normal sword? It would have shattered. Even like this, Phantom could likely feel how much power was behind it. "More..." she said, eyes on him. "I *still* need *more*!" she yelled.

"Your queen is NOTHING before a SOVEREIGN! I am Hinoiri Kirara, Sunset of Sora! And all magic... is MINE!" she yelled, before launching herself at him. In her left hand, the cane resided... one just like Tuxedo Kamen's.

In the other hand, flames erupted, forming a second sword, with a strange handguard over her hand and thumb, like a certain blue haired puella... And then she thrusted with the sword, like a fencing strike... But it wasn't very good. She'd never fenced before, only watched Adrien. But the power behind it? The power more than made up for any lack of actual skill in it. The kind of power to easily push through guards and shatter defenses... along with many bones.

Phantom has posed:
"Sunbreaker?!" Phantom realizes, eyes widening as he unmasks the identity of the graveyard's attacker. Of course, it's the inevitable betrayl that those dinosaurs were all about. The eternal guage guard on his forearm glows brighter as sword collides with cane. He is far more experienced with the blade than she is with her stance, but the raw power she brings. He can feel it rising off of her.

A brutal blow slams on the sword, and while Phantom feels the weight behind it and is able to deflect it to the side, it shatters his own sword and slams into his unprotected forearm. The grimace that is seen over the snap of bones is obvious and Phantom leaps back.

"I will defend this to my last. For Mirage!" He calls out, and suddenly, he shifts. Sunset has seen this trick before. Moments after tranforming, Cure Denile is leaping back from the cloud, and raises her good arm. "NILE STREAM!" she calls out, a torrent of pressurized water launching from in front of her hand and sent towards the unquenchable fire.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Sunset of Sora growled. "Sunbreaker?! That is NO LONGER MY NAME! I AM DONE HIDING! I AM HINOIRI KIRARA! I WILL NO LONGER BE CONTAINED!" It was certainly Sunbreaker... but she was definitely NOT acting like Sunbreaker in the slightest. She had more in common with a youma now than she ever had the methodical, analytical Sunbreaker... Well. Except the anger. Girl always had anger problems.

"Then I will take your powr and then Mirage's! ALL shall kneel, all shall be mine! No more will I allow things to hold me back! I will gain ALL I DESERVE!" she yelled. The water came at her... and she held Sharpsong's imitation blade in front of her, fire forming around it, surging forward. Steam filled the air as the water was cut by fire, coating the area and hiding her from view...

For a few moments... before suddenly, there was was.

Above him. The cane and sword gone. Her hand coming down to try and grab his arm... And drain all that he was. Every single drop. It was hers. She was the sovereign. She would show ALL of them...

Hers hers hers.

But this was Sunbreaker. The tails and scales and outfit were all new. the sailor fuku and puella magi ring and labcoat weren't from before. But this anger. This fire. This... madness? This was her.

Phantom has posed:
"I shall never kneel." Phantom snarls, shifting out of his Cure Nile form and back into his base form as the steam mutes the battlefield further. His stance spreads, his bracer set to his side, ready to be used for defense. And then she's there. Sudden, sharp, quick.

Arm grabbed, Sunset gets a taste of the power of Phantom's command. Of what he could do if he had drained all of those within his graveyard instead of just using their powers a little at a time. A scream of anger and pain comes from Phantom as he attempts to rip his arm away, and finds that her grip is nigh impossible to break.

But he's not done yet. He's not some Precure. He's not Tuxedo Mask. He is PHANTOM, second only to MIRAGE, and is not so easily conquered! The bracer is brought around, shoved into Sunset's mid-section and he cries out as the bracer reflects, "ETERNAL GAUGE!!!"

Red lightning erupts from around him, cracking the mirrors further as he attempts to ensnare Sunset by the ankles and wrists and seal her into a mirror. A fruitless, desperate manuevuer to be sure, but is willingness to do this at point blank?

All for a few seconds of time.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
In the end, it wasn't... entirely fruitless. It was desperate though, to be sure. As she hungrily drained his power, feasting like a starving beast on his power...

The Eternal gauge worked. He managed to drive her away, ensnaring her. Binding her. The mirror formed around her! And, for a moment, there was peace.

And then, the mirror imploded. Not exploded. Imploded. And Phantom could feel it. She hadn't broken it. She had absorbed it. Using it as another link to him, to take from him. To steal from him.

And then she surged forward. And he could feel it... "Eternal Gauge!!!"

Was it his attack? Gosh no. It wasn't the same... but it LOOKED the same. As the magic tried to wrap around him, to trap him... to drain him. An imitation of his own power, but an incredibly dangerous one. If it happened, he'd be doomed. He needed to do something, NOW!

Phantom has posed:
As soon as his Eternal Gauge takes effect, Phantom is starting to move backwards. He's got to alert Mirage and the others. He should have enough time to get a message off -- no he doesn't. The mirror shatters moments after being formed, and the shards cut into him, his eyes wide as she turns and reflects the attack upon him.

There's no time to think. No time to react. Just do. And when in this state, most people would probably panic and crumble. Something needed to be done. Something reckless. Something... he had never thought he would have to do.

And in a way, Sunset only has herself to blame, because she inspired him. "...nice." he growls, as the chains bind and hold him and she starts to feast.

And once she's done with him - every girl in the graveyard would be hers to feed on. She could become impossible to stop.

Something had to be done. NOW.

And in the end, he does what he does best. He glances towards his bracer and then just smiles at Sunset. "You lose."

"LET THE FUTURE REFLECTED IN THE MIRROR TURN TERRIBLE!" Is... is he summoning a terribad? Is he going to make a terribad Sunset? Maybe one of the Precures he has captured. And then he adds... "Eternal Gauge."

The chains leap out. They surround Phantom, he screams out in the moment, a cry of anguish... and of victory. For as the mirror seals him in - Sunset will fill the reverse of power as he pulls everything in, sealing himself - and this dimension - if she doesn't leave NOW - she will end up trapped here forever. With him.

Phenomonially Great Powers - Very Small Living Space.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Sunset of Sora had drained power, and there was so, so much more. And she would take it all. She--

A desperate move. An attempt to seal, to bind, himself. To trap himself. To trap BOTH of them?

No. She couldn't allow this. She wouldn't allow herself to be broken in such a manner. Allow herself to be destroyed.

Her eyes narrowed on him. "I'll break this seal and I will return," she told him.

Before she disappeared in a flash of fire, the flames exploding out in all directions.

Abandoning her prey... for now. Just for a moment. Just for a minute. She'd return. And that power would be hers. She would shatter all that stood in her way... including Phantom's little graveyard.

Phantom has posed:
And as Sunset makes her own escape, hidden in the magic of everything... a small figure falls through a portal to Earth. Small and panda shaped, the fairy turned dark General falls, drained almost completely of power, his memories trapped in a prison of his own making.

Things are just about to get interesting.