1576/Who Let the Dogs Out

Who Let the Dogs Out
Date of Scene:	23 May 2024
Location:	Penguin Park - Animal Kingdom
Synopsis:	Ember tries a new strategy to harvest dust while accounting for the heroes keeping her from some of it. But between Scorpia's fearsome lightning powers, Loyalty's super speed, and Cure Wing's air support, she doesn't get any dust at all. Foiled again.
Cast of Characters:	Ryoko Gushiken, Scorpia, Niji Dasshu, Tsubasa Yuunagi

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Ryoko Gushiken has posed:
    It's late afternoon on a Thursday and Animal Kingdom is unusually busy. In addition to the usual tourists and regulars, the zoo is hosting an event for various interested clubs at the schools around Tokyo to come and learn more about the animals. Groups of folks can be found all over the small campus, and the busses going between buildings are always full, many people opting to just walk.

    It's just perfect for Ember's plan. She meanders along the paths between the buildings eavesdropping on conversations, and watching people's faces. She's hunting. She needs the right kind of targets for her magic to work. With this many people, she's sure to find plenty.

Scorpia has posed:
    Sarah is at the zoo today! Ryoko had been busy... with something, and the blonde did not want to sit around and wait for her to finish and come back to the dorm room. So, to the zoo she went! She wanders through the different animal exhibits, stopping to buy herself a vanilla ice cream cone, because delicious. And she stops at the monkeys! They were cute and entertaining. She steps closer to the fence and mimics their noises back at them, laughing at their reactions.

Niji Dasshu has posed:
    Niji Dasshu is, as usual, hanging out with some of her friends from the sports teams. It's kind of a collection of the basketball and (non-American) football teams - the ones who decided spending the day at the Animal Kingdom was how they'd spend the day. So one of those groups is headed by a particularly excitable rainbow-haired girl. The gemstone around her neck dangles, but if it is glowing a faint blue from the presence of Dark Energy, the rainbownette hasn't noticed it yet.

    She pauses at the cheetah exhibit, smiling as she leans a bit more forward over the railing to look in deeper, hoping to see the animal doing exactly what it's known for. And what a certain magical girl is also known for.

Tsubasa Yuunagi has posed:
Tsubasa visits the zoo a lot, really. Mainly because of the amazing bird exhibit. Which is where he is at today with his sketch pad and pencils. Sitting in front of the enclosure for the peacocks, one of them has his tail fanned out, showing off the magnificent and colorful plummage and chirring at the young teen as his pencils work over the paper. At one chirp, Tsubasa pauses and sets aside his pencil.

"I don't know about that." he says, a thoughtful look passing over his features. "Yes, your festhers are very colorful and shiny, but I'm more... into the flight side of things instead of dating advice?"

Wait. Is he actually conversing with the peacock? Maybe. Maybe he just doesn't have any friends and this counts as social interaction for the introvert. "But I'm sure if she likes you, she will pick you for your feathers, of course!" he adds quickly. "Now I'm going back to sketching. Would you like to continue to pose for me?"

Of course the peacock starts to skirt away, a sigh rising from Tsubasa as he tries to commit the details to short term memory for application to paper.

Ryoko Gushiken has posed:
    Grimm feed on anger and despair, which are emotions that one might not associate with the zoo. But it doesn't matter where, when so many people gather, frustration and annoyance can simmer and it takes just the slightest application of heat to bring it to a boil.

    A group of three students are having an argument near the Insect House, not far from the Aviary. They're trying to be discreet, but they're not doing a very good job of it. As their body language gets more aggressive, Ember passes by, brushing by two of them just like many of the other people in the crowded zoo. But a brush of her fingertips lights the fire under their rage, and their fight explodes as their rage starts to boil.

    She's already moved on to Penguin Rock, near the monkeys and the cheetahs, when those first two targets transform. Screams erupting around them as their bodies rapidly expand into huge black wolves with bony masks on their faces and bones sticking out all along their spines at and their joints. The pair of them start to rampage and people start to run in a panic.

Scorpia has posed:
    It was the screams that first caught Sarah's attention. She hadn't heard anything like that since being back in Etheria... before they kicked Horde Prime's butt. Heart racing, she looks to find the source and spots two hulking wolves, the stuff of nightmares. Something she'd see on Beast Island. A chill runs down her spine just as her necklace starts to hum with energy, lifting out of the collar of her shirt and levitating in front of her face. She looks around quickly and ducks behind the nearby ice cream stand. As she touches the red garnet in the necklace, she exclaims, "Becoming the best friend I can be! Princess Scorpia!" and something crazy starts to happen.

    Sarah's back arches as her feet leave the ground and her eyes close. Red colored energy bolts run across her skin, crackling and bolting out as she transforms. Her human hands morph back into her scorpion pincers as her clothes change into armor made of blackened leather- a sleeveless tunic paired with leather breeches that are tucked into a pair of badass combat boots. Her tail appears at her rear as her feet touch the ground again. The electricity surrounding her retracts into her pincers as her eyes open and a bolt of energy runs from her left pincer up across her armor- her runestone materializing over her heart, in the shape of a heart.

    Staring, wide-eyed and open-mouthed, Scorpia jumps for joy and fist... pincer pumps into the air. She was about to kick these wolves butt! Running out from behind the building, she sprints towards the creatures and stops a safe distance away, "Hey! You! Now let's get to the point!"

Niji Dasshu has posed:
    Anybody who's ever had to attend a day at a zoo with a parent (or child) who didn't want to be there, probably knew a thing or two about frustration and annoyance at the zoo. In fact, some sort of sibling argument or family argument was what Niji expected when she heard loud voices that grew loude. She turned away from her spot watching the cat like a cat, and wasn't expecting to see people running away. The zoo animals were loose? No, those were NOT Zoo animals! But the people around them probably would remember them that way. She looked down at her pendant, now glowing a bright blue. "Yeah, thanks, couldn't have figured that one out on my own." She says.

    "What's all that noise, Dasshu-san?" one of the others asks.

    "I think some of the animals got loose! We should find a better place to be like the rest of the crowd!" she offers, and sort of ushers her teammates into the mass of escaping people.

    But Niji herself ducks behind one of the exhibits - and a henshin sequence wwith upbeat music and a rainbowcolored flash bright enough to be seen by - pretty much anybody who is paying more attention than running - has a blur of a magical girl erupting out and heading towards the wolves.

    "Okay, okaaaay. Monster wolves. Just like big mean dogs. Let's uhhh..." she dashes off and comes back in a blur with a long pole normally used to control more normal animals. "Hey! Hey! Over here stupid furballs!" she says, jabbing them in the side as she moves almost too fast to track. "That's right, no focusing on the people."

    She turns to look at... the scorpion lady. Periodically. As in periodically between jabbing the wolves there's a frozen Geode Girl looking her up and down. "You're not with the wolves are you? Because they're animals and scorpions are insects, right - and you've got the heart. You're on my team, right? Hearts usually mean good, I think." Scorpions are not insects, but she might be right about the rest.

Tsubasa Yuunagi has posed:
As the chaos makes it's way towards him, Tsubasa raises from his seat, putting his pencils away and setting them on his notebook. He doesn't know what's going on yet, but he intends to find out. First, however, he needs to tend to matters here. Turning to the peacocks, he calls out, "Head to the back of the enclosure and hunker down! I'll send a bird to tell you when it's safe!"

And then to a pair of pigeons nearby. "Can you please take to the sky and tell me what you see? I will be there in a moment myself!" Why is he taking that moment, because he grabs a different pen from his pack and heads to hide behind one of the displays on the zoo grounds. Clutching it tightly, he starts his transformation.

Grabbing his Mirage pen, Tsubasa presses a small button on it, announcing, "Sky Mirage!" The crystal of the pen splits in half, opening into a small orb. In the meantime, he grabs a small disk with three small wings and clicks a button on the side of it, announcing, "Tone Connect!" As the orb starts to spin and light up, Tsubasa calls out, "Hirogaru Change!" And a moment later, "WING!" He hurriedly continues through the transformation, "Sparkling HOP!" As Cure Wing hops from magical disc to disc, a small canted top hat appears on his forehead, along with a double-sphere magenta earring on each ear, the left ear also marked with an orange heart.

"Refreshing STEP!" The orange magic over his chest transforms into his outfit of shirt, shorts, vest and long, birdlike coat-tail. "Clear and Sunny JUMP!" As the magic over his hands transform into gloves, Cure Wing leaps into the air, taking off into a figure eight and into a barrel roll before landing on the ground. He gives a wink and a bright smile before saluting with the left hand across his forehead to his right eye. And then he announces himself "Courage that soars to the heavens! CURE WING!"

Once he's transformed, the Higoaru Sky cure takes flight, lifting into the air to come join his bird companions. Once he spies the transformed wolves, he frowns. "I'm going to help, you two, get the other birds and help herd people out of the park!" he calls to them as he turns hia sttention to the pair of wolves just as a girl that appears to have claws and a tail appears. "Be careful!" he calls to her, unsure of what she can do, but she looks powerful enough.

And then Loyality is showing up as well, and he calls out as he swoops down to land on the ground nearby, not a three point superhero landing, he is far more finesse, with a light tap of both boots. "And air support makes three!"

Ryoko Gushiken has posed:
    The wolves don't really seem all that intimidated by either the Geode Girl or the Princess. Indeed, they seem rather intent on doing the opposite, each one zeroing in on one of the mahou, charging directly toward them. Each wolf a massive lumbering beast, far larger than any canine that might be found in a zoo. They both let out loud roars and show off the very sharp teeth inside their shadowy mouths.

    Meanwhile Ember heads directly toward the throngs of fleeing people, a wicked grin on her face. Moving in the opposite direction she lets her fingertips brush people as they run past her. She's really not making an effort to be discreet, but she also does not really stand out, except for how she's walking against the flow of people, and that might be noticed from the air.

    Fear is such a powerful emotion, one the Grimm love most, and nearly everyone was feeling it. As the crowds raced toward the exit, two more of them transformed into wolves, howling and snapping at the people around them, a fair distance from the other two wolves.

Scorpia has posed:
    Scorpia's eyes sparkle with her excitement. It was almost as if she was with the other Princesses! She nods and reassures the rainbow-haired girl that she was definitely not on the wolves' side. She inclines her head to the flying boy and looks back to the wolf that was charging straight at her.

    Her face serious, she points both her pincers at it, similar to how one would point a gun, and amps up her magic. Static builds, electricity swirls around the tips of her pincers, a ball on each hand of collected energy. Once she feels they are big enough, strong enough, she hurls them like curve balls towards the wolf.

    Gaining her balance once again after her throws, she plants her feet, puts her pincers up, and flexes her tail, positioning it to attack should her magical orbs miss, or not do much to stop the beast.

Niji Dasshu has posed:
    "Okay. That's awesome." she says to Scorpia's blast of curve-ball energy. "Man, I really got the rough end of the stick on powers sometimes I think." She looks down at her necklace. "Where are my frickin' laser beams." she says, almost shaking it for a moment. She does, however, manage to do this while continuing to harass the wolves. Which is interrupted by the wolf that's focused on her lunging at her! Niji manouvers the bar to block the thing's mouth, but that doesn't mean she doesn't have a giant furry monster barely avoiding snapping at her face but for the efforts of the bar.

    "Come on. Laser beam eyes. COME ON!" she says, trying to intently stare at the wolf to no effect. "Crap. A LITTLE HELP PLEASE" she calls after realizing that she can't really squirm out from under the huge monster and she seems to be quite laser-beam-less.

Tsubasa Yuunagi has posed:
Oh, cool. The new girl has pincers and a tail and can throw energy. That's pretty awesome, really, and it takes Wing a moment or three to get back into the game because he just thought that was neat. And then Loyalty is calling out about laser beams. "You have those?" Well, he didn't get anything that cool. And for a moment, he's torn - because off in the distance he can hear the new wolves that are forming - but let's be honest. Loyalty needs the help. And he's not going to run when his friends need help.

"On my way!" Wing calls out, and from his standing position, he takes flight, rushing towards the wolf. He lifts and flies over the head of the creature, past the snapping jowls, and he grabs the wolf by the scruff. "You need to cool off!" And with that, he lifts the creature with a mighty "HUP!" and twists, attempting to fling it off in the direction of the large pools in the hippo enclosure.

Thankfully there's no crocodiles or alligators there! Once the wolf is away, he lands, his hand offered to the Geode Girl. "Come on, let's tag team the others with the pinchie girl!"

Ryoko Gushiken has posed:
    The wolf barreling toward Scorpia is not a small target, and her lightning balls both hit it square on. The first cracking it's bony mask, and the second tearing through it's shadowy fur as it destroys the Grimm, leaving a young man sprawled on the ground in a cloud of magical dust.

    Cure Wing flings the wolf off Geode Girl Loyalty and it goes sailing, making a big splash in the water of the hippo enclosure. With an awkward sort of canine flailing, it rights itself and bounds out because the water is not particularly deep for such a large monster. Pausing to shake itself off, it starts bounding back toward the mahou that attacked it.

    Meanwhile, Ember parkours up to the top of the Reptile House and pulls the two blades of Nightfall from the holster where the rest in the small of her back. Pressing the butt ends together to form a bow. The string of magical energy thrums to life, and she reaches into her quiver to pull out three black arrows. Nocking the arrows, she draws back, and fires right into the crowd of fleeing patrons as they run by the building.

    That's three more wolves that burst onto the scene just a few moments later as she's running to leap off the roof and onto the next building over. The wolves are all running toward the fleeing people. There are so many of them. Ember smiled with a smug satisfaction. The best kind of kill is overkill.

Scorpia has posed:
    As the fearful screams continue, Scorpia doesn't wait to watch the wolf disappear and starts to scan the crowds running in sheer panic. It's when her eyes spot a character leaping on top of the reptile house that she figures out who's responsible for this catastrophe. Looking to bird boy, she calls out and points, "You! That archer is shooting arrows into the crowd and creating more wolves, distract her!" As she speaks, the wolf that the bird boy had flung, joins the fray again.

    The Princess of the Red Garnet begins to charge up her pincers again, growling with her frustration. These were innocent people! What could this mysterious person get out of all of this chaos?? She funnels her desire to protect these people, her desire to help the kids that were helping her fight the wolves, and the desire to turn the wolves back into who they were before, into her power. The runestone on her chest brightens to an almost blinding red as she yells out, "ENOUGH!!!" Twin arcs of lightning bolt from her pincers, spearing through at least 3 of the wolves as they stand somewhat close to each other.

Niji Dasshu has posed:
    r"Thanks!" she says, getting up and scratching the back of her head. "Wait, how does the hat stay on?" This. This is the question she chooses to ask. "I mean ... thanks. Wait I did say that." she says, nodding.

    She doesn't, at first, realize the girl is talking to the boy who elegantly landed in front of her. It's Loyalty - people are usually talking about her, right? "Uhh, oh right, the wings. Yeah I guess I do fly I just have to get enough of a head start?" she says. "Anyways, it um. Looks like you have the wolves handled. Pincered? Clawed? We can work that out later."

    She says, and then she looks back. "OH! Oh maybe she means you. Actually if she's like the hothead girl we should probably both go. Umm. Yell if you need us! But a different kind of yelling than just rightously angry knocking the wolf out of civilians yelling."

    And then she's running enough to get some distance and taking off in the direction of Ember.

    "You! With the bow! Stop that! I can probably outshoot you anyways so stop making yourself look like a jerk! And bad!" She yells rushing into Ember at a high rate of speed with the trail of rainbow blur behind her. She doesn't really have a plan, she's just going to bodily tackle the girl if she connects. Or maybe overshoot and have to loop back. You know. At least she's gonna distract her. Probably!

Tsubasa Yuunagi has posed:
As soon as the wolf is away and Loyalty is on her feet, one of the pigeons returns to Wing, chirping at him wildly. "What, wait, what was that?" the brightly colored Precure is asking, waiting a moment as he gets confirmation. But that will have to wait a moment because Princess Pincers just went off and he can feel the electricity on his skin as a tingle just from being close to her, the hairs standing on end for a moment. "That was a really powerful attack. Nice!" he says to Scorpia encouragingly. "She's definetly got the heart for it!"

"Anyway!" Cure Wing switches his attention to his little bird friend who is doing his best to fly away from the scene after delivering important intel. "My little friend said that he saw -- yes, that!" He says, responding as Scorpia commands him to go after Ember. He had this whole idea for a plan, but then Loyalty kind of... "Oh, I mean, there's little pins or magic or something that keep in place?" he offers to her about the question of the little top hat with a bow at a jaunty angle. And he becomes awkward. "Oh, yes, right, we'll both --"

Nope. Loyalty takes off without him. All rush, no plan. This feels familiar somehow as he lifts off the ground. And with the wolves handled for the moment, his hand reaches out for Scorpia. "I'm giving you a lift! Uh. I hope that's a load-bearing tail!" Because he grabs a hold of the Princess' tail and hefts as he takes flight, racing towards where Ember is, intending to use the powerful princess as a projectile. Which you know. "I'll get you close, you zap her! Great plan, right??"

Ryoko Gushiken has posed:
    Scorpia definitely has the wolves handled. Her lightning does not pierce through only three of them. The bolts that arc out from her pincers arc from wolf to wolf almost instantaneously striking the newest three wolves, and the two that had appeared just before. Both bolts converged on the last wolf, rushing toward the others from the hippo enclosure. A single attack leaving all of the poor victims laying unconscious on the ground in clouds of magical dust.

    Loyalty manages to intercept Ember as she's leaping from one roof to another, knocking her right out of the air. She's rather nimble, though, and manages to avoid being grappled, but only barely. Her hand comes up to grab hold of half of Nightfall, splitting it apart into two swords, spinning around in an attack that Loyalty can surely dodge, and she'd better. Those blades are sharp.

    But she's falling, and not from too high. Ember lands on the ground with her blades splayed out. Classic pose really. Then without even looking behind her she starts to run toward the nearest cloud of dust. This is what she came here for.

Scorpia has posed:
    Laughing, Scorpia enjoys the ride, and the fact that she just obliterated all of the wolves in one go. With adrenaline rushing through her body, as she's picked up and flown up up and away, she focuses her magic to create more orbs of lightning energy, raining them down in a blanket of strikes, aiming to hit the bad guy.

    She doesn't know why the girl is running towards the bodies that were once the wolves, but it felt important, so the Princess didn't want to let it happen. Her intent in throwing out lightning ball after lightning ball, was to intercept and to keep the bad guy from getting to their goal.

Niji Dasshu has posed:
    Loyalty does dodge it - but it's more some sort of magical girl innate reflexes and luck than it is a conscious dodge - she does see for a moment the gleaming danger and how close it came to putting a mark on her. "You get swords? And here I am just using my fists and stuff." she says, and then Ember is landing behind her.

    Loyalty doesn't know a thing about dust, but she does know a thing or two about the fact that there's downed people all over... and this woman is responsible for it. "Hey, I'm not done with you yet. You can't outrun me! I have like ONE POWER and I'm not gonna forget it!" she says, moving so as to try to get between Ember and wherever she's going. "We both know you can just teleport away so you're not running!" she says, trying to swing the blunt and quite frankly bitten and mangled pole at Ember.

    She did not have it when she went after Ember - yes, she ran over to pick it up. Especially given the whole swords thing.

    "Awesome electroclaw girl, keep the wolves from huurting anybody, unless there's no more wolves, in which case do the same thing but to her!"

Ryoko Gushiken has posed:
    Loyalty's faster than Ember and she's faster than Scorpia's lightning balls. The rainbownette interjecting herself between the villain and her objectives. As she brought the twin blades of Nightfall up to intercept and slice the mangled pole in two separate places. Cure Wing released Scorpia with her sticking a landing, placing herself between Ember and the dust she wanted too.

    Ember made a mental note to not choose Grimm that would pack together next time. The whole point of making so many was to be able to collect some of the dust even if the heroes prevented her from getting all of it. But with the wolves pack instincts, they all grouped together and now she can't harvest any of the dust.

    There's no way she can take on these two by herself. Either one of them alone, probably, but both of them together? She knows when to cut her losses. She'll choose more wisely next time.

    "I'm not a coward. I don't teleport away," Ember sneers. The truth is she can't. She doesn't know how to manipulate Dark Energy like that. But then she leaps up into a backflip, the twin blades of Nightfall clipping back into their holster at the small of her back, and she starts running in the opposite direction, away from them both, and away from the victims. That's definitely running away. No mistaking it.

Scorpia has posed:
    After landing like a total kickass superhero, Scorpia straightens just in time to see the bad guy running away towards the zoo exit. Indecision weighs on her for a moment, before she makes a decision and turns to the rainbow girl and grins, "Hi! I'm Scorpia, I really love your hair! And how fast you are! That's a pretty cool power. What should we do with all of these people who were turned into the wolves? Is there somewhere we can take them? I can easily carry at least 3 people, depending on their size!"

Niji Dasshu has posed:
    "Sure looks like you're running away!" Loyalty yells out at the retreating girl. "Ugh, I don't recognize her. Don't remember anyone talking about her and spooky animals and smoke." she says. Though, she's willing to admit, she may not remember all of everything.

    "So you have like, an animal themed power? That is SO cool." she says, turning to Scorpia. "We should probably... make sure they get to somewhere like a clinic." she says, looking at the people. "I dunno how everything exactly works but usually they get their energy stolen and they're okay but they need rest." she says, scratching her head a bit.

    "Scorpia's a cool name. I'm uh..." and her voice drops and she tries, earnestly, to get it out in a way she thinks sounds cool. She does not succeed. "...geodegirlloyalty." she says. "I didn't get to pick the name."

    "So are you part of a whole like, team of people? I guess we should talk after we get these people somewhere safe. I dunno if you're new to magic - you didn't seem it - but these normal people will have some sort of non-magic excuse, like a gas main exploded." Don't ask her how it makes sense in this circumstance.