661/The Stars Are Unbearable

The Stars Are Unbearable
Date of Scene:	27 October 2023
Location:	Plot Room 2
Synopsis:	Sunbreaker launchs an attack on the observatory, but fortunately a few magical girls (and an x-egg) are there to try and stop her! They... are mostly effective! Except Grechen. But she was adorable, so it was okay.
Cast of Characters:	Hinoiri Kirara, Madoka Kaname, Niji Dasshu, Amanda Faust, Sayaka Miki

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Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Sunbreaker was in a foul mood. For a lot of reasons. Not least of which was the fact she was maybe struggling with a choice she'd made a while ago but now had to make. And she'd been saved... twice... now. And there were just... things were HARD, okay?!

And they were having a special at the observatory, free for students of Radiant Heart. She'd decided to come here alone, maybe looking at the stars would make her feel better.

It hadn't. In fact, if anything it had made her more angry.

Which was why, as one of the tour leads were talking about some of the consellations, up above in the rafters, Sunbreaker was sitting, drawing a small magical circle on the ground as she prepared to show them what the stars SHOULD look like... Hoof placed, not these giant stupid gas giants.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Gretchen is here at the Observatory, but it's not that special because it's always a free admissions day when no one can see you. Hey, she lives in the RHA dorms and her Bearer is a student, so it's close enough right?

    Watching the stars has a slightly different meaning to her. It's a consideration of infinity, though not quite eternity. One day, all of these stars will die. In fact, all stars everywhere will, if things progress as science predicts. If she achieves her goals, will she live to see that? A sobering thought, and ironic considering her Bearer's life expectancy.

    The tiny X-Chara frowns as she looks at the various displays and pictures. Descriptions of far away celestial bodies that, despite being as dramatic as human language and understanding allows, seems to fall short of the majesty they intend to capture.

    She remains mostly unaware of the magic that is happening above her.

Niji Dasshu has posed:
    Niji is not, of course, at the observatory. That's a place for learning after school where eggheads go. She's not an egghead. What she is doing however, is running laps around Tokyo's streets during the late afternoon.

    As she jogs, jostling back and forth by her neck is the Geode - the little peice of rock she was gripping so tightly when she wanted to save her friend Adora.

    As Hinoiri draws the circle and Niji passes by the observatory the geode starts to glow a soft blue - and Niji slows down immediately.

    "What?" she asks it, as though the rock is going to speak back to her. She remembers is doing that before she ran into that horrible bird-monster, and so she's starting to put two and two together. She grasps the geode and starts to turn, and as she turns to the observatory she can see it glow ever so slightly brighter.

    "Maybe it just... detects lame things?" she asks nobody in particular. But she looks and sees its a free admissions day, which means there's a lot of people there... a lot of people who could potentially be at risk of another killer emu or crazy cat lady appears. "Awww, man..." she says, knowing she can't just walk away and then hear something bad happened she wasn't around for. With much grumbling she pulls out her ID and walks into the museum, grumbling under her breath like a child told to clean their room the entire time.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    No work save homework. No bills to pay. Not having some adult responsibility hanging over her head is a strange freedom, and sometimes Amy's lost as to what to do with it. A bunch of kids amention going to the planetarium and like... why not. She dimly recalls coming to one of these once or twice in high school? Middle school? The first time around, and maybe it'll be interesting to see how things have changed with astronomical discoveries and technological advancements over the last 20 years.

    And things get to the part on constellations, of all things, not science but *myth*, and she can't help piping up with comments here and there with her thoughts on the myth and her own knowledge from being a geek who's absorbed myth and myth-inspired fantasy for longer than any of the other students has been alive.

    It dimly bothers her, that she's not being told to shut up as much. Knowing people are just more willing to put up with a cute girl. But every time she starts to dwell on that, something the tour guide says pulls another connection in her brain and she pipes up again...

Sayaka Miki has posed:
It turns out Ula wanted to see the stars for making jewellery themed after constellations, and no, it wasn't enough to see pictures or videos of them, no, she wanted to see the real deal in all their gleaming glory.

So now Sayaka had to hope the local observatory let her in, sneak Ula in, keep her hidden from other people's gazes while she peeks through an telescope, and hope the sky has darkened enough to let her see the stars, because there is no way Sayaka is breaking in, there or in any other place.

"We are almost there now, Ula, I hope this satisfies you." Her new mascot nods, her head just peeking out of her school-assigned shoulderbag, excitedly replying "I will make such exquisite jewelleries it will be like you will have the stars themselves in your room", she promises. Sayaka is about to contest her on that, but then again, maybe she actually can do that. "Thank you, Ula, I will cherish them, she says instead."

Thankfully, it seemed like the hurdle of getting it wasn't as perilous as she had imagined, thanks to a promotion for students. Now to deal with the rest.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Sunbreaker put the final touches on the magical circle. There. Perfect. It glowed... for a moment, the fake stars on the ceiling of the observatory started to glow... A beautiful, radiating blue. Breathtaking.

Then they, one by one, went out. Flickering away. There was a few confused murmurs, some whispers...

And then, in the main area, where the observatory's telescope was resting... a roar tore out. Non-magical people began to collapse, their energy draining... and those who went into the observatory proper, would see a massive, moving star filled sky?

Except, it wasn't that. It was a BEAR! A bear made of the night sky itself. Stars etched into its body, towering up to the size of a house, so big it could barely fit into the room WITH the telescope.

Sunbreaker, meanwhile, was sitting on the telescope itself. What deep, terrible, awful deeds was she planning?!

... She was wondering if maybe she should have launched the attack at night, when the main viewing blocker thing was open... because it was REALLY cramped in here now.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Gretchen starts looking up as the stars start glowing, flickering and then going out. Her first thought is, 'Well that happened a lot sooner than they said it would', and her second thought is, 'Oh right, those aren't the real stars'.

    With one apocalypse turning out to be a false alarm, there's still the remaining very real alarm of a star bear attack. Gretchen whines, "Why does this always happen when I'm by myself?!"

    She draws her mask down over her face and makes a tiny black bejeweled bow appear in her hands as unnatural looking clouds suddenly swirl around the bottom of her dress. As she floats closer to the bear, she mutters. "This... this isn't that bad, right? It's like... Elden Ring!"

    Gretchen charges and releases one tiny, itty bitty arrow at the Star Bear. It's... not exactly super effective. Or even remotely effective.

    It's at this point when Gretchen remembers that she's kinda bad at Elden Ring.

Niji Dasshu has posed:
    Niji's current internal monologue as she wanders with the students (and peers down at her geode, tucked in her hand now, to try and guage if it was getting brighter or darker) is 'boring. lame. boring. snoozefest' - she's certainly not reading any of the plaques. Every once in a while something visual will catch her eye and she'll stop, but mostly... not her jam.

    She slowly makes her way down, and as she notices people slumping, she peers in and sees the giant bear... backs away. And immediately whispers to herself "Yes!" then feels bad bcause people are being put in danger. But it means she didn't put up with all of that for nothing.

    A quick look around and gripping her geode she thrusts her arm up in the air and... nothing. "Crap, what were the words... uhhh." she looks down at the geode. "C'mon. Let's just fight the giant bear." Then she thrusts it back up in the air and a burst of bright multiple colors that can probably be seen both in the observatory and down the hallways surges out - as does Geodge Girl Loyalty, who has no idea what's going on but at least it's not any more reading.

    "Thanks for setting up shop, I'm just going to do the hero thing and kick your butt." she says as she runs up to try to pester the bear by poking it and then dash back. Only... she's going a lot slower than GGLoyalty is used to going... slow enough the bear can react.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    The stars are going out.

    Amy's read stories where that happens, but this is just the planetarium's display, after all. "Uhh, your stars are going out." She points out to the tour guide, figuring this is just some programmer's attempt to make a more gradual transition before the lights come back on and someone hit it early -- or all her talking delayed the guide past the alloted time, *whoops*.

    And then there's a ROAR and the people go out just like the stars did. THE SKY IS A BEAR. Amy transforms immediately, aims her rocket launcher upward... wait. It hasn't actually attacked yet. What even is it? "Hey... what are you? Uh, can we talk, star bear thing? Can YOU talk?"

Sayaka Miki has posed:
"Ula, get into my shirt's collar, and don't move from there", is Sayaka's admonishment to her companion, noticing many people around her falling asleep. She hasn't seen much like it, but it sure isn't a good sign, which is possibly a big understatement. What is going to come next?

Whatever is going to come, it's gonna see her prepared. Sayaka returns her ring to its actual form, the Soul Gem shining as she brings it closer to her upper body, enveloping her in hot-blue energy. In a flash, the Sharpsong Puella Magi is standing there, her knightly clothes replacing it. A fortissimo hairpin is in her hair, and her Soul Gem shine in an elongated "C" shape over her navel, left uncovered by her top. Behind the heroine of justice a long white cape flutters.

When it looks like the stars Ula wanted to see have come down to greet them, except they are shaped together as a bear! "Oh, I have read about this! It's the Ursa Minor!", she says from the relative safety of Sayaka's shoulder.

"Not the time, Ula!" Sayaka says, summoning a giant sword (3 times the size of her usual swords) and throwing it at the bear with her right hand.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Gretchen's arrow strikes the bear! It...

Unimpressively bounces off. Making the bear turn to look at her and then gave a light growl... Before its head SNAPPED forward. The jaws closed around the poor chara in an instant. Eating her whole.

Then its mouth kind of... stretched out. Once. Twice. Three times! SPIT! The bear spat the chara out, along with some moist arrows, giving a low, angry growl.

And then a little blue blur came and swiped at it. Then ran off. Then poked from the other side. Then ran off. Then...

The bear was in a narrow, confined area and getting annoyed. The little blue thing was too agile, it--

Finally, the girl was there! The bear just dropped and *rolled* over. Rolling over the girl and... taking out a few of the seats in the observatory when it did it. On the upside, being made of the night sky, it was nowhere NEAR as heavy as a real bear of that size would be. Still, it was heavy so it was likely nice it only rolled over her for a moment.

Sunbreaker sighed from the top of the telepscope. "... No. The giant bear made of the stars can't talk! Even if it could, why would it talk to you?" Sunbreaker yelled at her. "It's a BEAR! Who tries to talk to a bear?" Behind her, her little energy draining tower dropped a small, black gem into her hands. Which disappeared. "And it's an ursa minor. Think of it like a golem, woven from the night sky to protect mages. A facsimile of one, at least."

And then sword. "Who throws a sword?!" Sunbreaker yelled, turning towards the source... The ursa minor let out a pained roar and turned towards the blue puella, swinging a massive claw at it and likely taking out a few chairs in the process, the sword still sticking out of its side!

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy winces when it rolls over people. And Sunbreaker is shouting. "What do *you* want?"

    Although, she's interrupted by the ursa swiping at her fellow Puella. "Nnno! Bad bear!" She fires a rocket, then a follow-up shot, to gauge its power and reaction.

    Meanwhile, she shouts up at Sunbreaker. "Alright, since you gave ME information, any small thing YOU want? Like, obviously I'm not gonna let the bear hurt anyone, or let you keep everyone asleep forever, but I'm open to suggestions if it'll encourage you to tell us your plans more often! ...I didn't mean that as snarkily as it sounded! Sorry!"

    To Ula, she asks, "How do you both know this thing is called an ursa minor? Like, according to *who*?"

Niji Dasshu has posed:
    Loyalty is having fun, being herself, pestering it, and then all of a sudden the bear takes a tumble and she makes a shocked and annoyed *ack!* sound as she's crushed - not by the tons of weight of an actual bear, but into a seat which is obliterated with her in it. Today Loyalty learns about how she can take more damage in henshin.

    Doesn't mean it's comfortable though. "ow...." she says, slowly rising to her feet. "How did it hit me? I'm like. Too fast." she whines. Okay try and figure out what's going on. That'd be the smart thing to do.

    Or, instead... Loyalty cups her hands to her mouth like a megaphone and yells up at Sunbreaker. "Hey, why did you summon it in such a tiny space? We're all uncomfortable in here." Also, Loyalty can't help but blame her being injured for that. At least there was somebody else for the bear to swing at. Okay. Not fast enough to swing at it but maybe she could keep it distracted for the other girls... she picks up a peice of wood from the destroyed chair and... then a rocket comes in. A rocket. Niji stares wide-eyed. "YOU GET A ROCKET LAUNCHER?!" she half-squeaks out. Then half-heartedly throws it at the bear before picking up another, and another, and another. She doesn't realize how fast she's doing it (much, much faster now - it's almost a constant stream of thrown random debris at the bear) because she's only grumbling about how it's NOT awesome that other girl gets a rocket launcher and she didn't.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    As Gretchen reflects upon her folly, she looks up in horror as the bear's mouth opens in front of her. Do stars normally have teeth? Maybe not, but bears do, and they are so... relatively large. Far larger than the X-Chara ever remembers them being. Then again, a lot of her memories are from her Bearer who, if Gretchen is being realistic, would still probably find such a monster to be relatively huge.

    The jaws close around her. She panics. Several arrows are fired directly at the walls, roof and tongue or whatever facsimiles of such exist here. When she is suddenly spat out, drenched and soggy with starbear spit causing her too-long black dress to sag, she flies up into the rafters while whining. "Waaah! I'm telling!"

    Now at a distance up and away, floating among the tiny lights that used to represent the stars, far enough that she at least thinks she's safe, Gretchen turns around to shake her tiny fist at the monster. "I'll show you!" she threatens, as the tiny barrier to her not-Labyrinth appears behind her. Two pairs of wings with weighing scales hanging from the tips flap their way out. They have no eyes to see, and no apparent face, but they still seem to be focused on the bear somehow. She points at the ursa minor and demands, "Attack! ... and you better actually listen this time!"

    The two eldritch not-Familiars swoop down at the youma, coming close to its face before flying away. If something's going to get bit, it may as well be these replaceable constructs.

    As chairs get destroyed and debris gets tossed around, the X-Chara grumbles, "There's gonna be so much property damage at the end of this."

Sayaka Miki has posed:
"Stars or not, it can still feel!" Sayaka rejoices when her large word penetrates its side. She wasn't quite sure up until now. How does a mass of stars even feel things? Guess she should thank her lucky stars animating things also makes them vulnerable.

Of course that doesn't prevent the bear from retaliating, and its paw sweeps quickly towards the Sharpsong Puella, giving Sayaka just the time to push back against the thing's paw, her teeth gritting as she tries to stop its advance to save as much property of the observatory as she can, the sword she was holding being abandoned to the ground with a thud.

Two more swords appear about the struggling bluenette, these ones normal sized, and they fly down onto the paw Sayaka is trying to hold back, seeking to pin it like thin, sharp, precise needles.

Ula meanwhile has heard Amy's question, but she is certainly not moving anywhere away from Sayaka. Can her tiny voice actually be heard with all this chaos going on? "I was studying your constellations for some jewels and this pattern was one of them!" she tries replying anyway. She hasn't had much to do over the last 10 days, anyway.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
The paw was slowed by the puella, though not stopped, allowing her the time she needed to pin the paw to the ground. Then, a moment later rockets struck the bear, making it stumble to the side in disorientation. The rocket dents its body and makes it stumble back, but it's not nearly as hurt as one would hope from the explosive blast. However, it did have to YANK its paw out, shaking the swords free... but now walking on only three paws.

"My plans haven't changed. Figure out the spell to attain my destiny, rise to the role of sovereign, leave this stupid planet behind. So, in this case, gather more energy. And... sigh... it's fine," Sunbreaker said dismissively. "I expected some of you girls to show up. If there weren't any new ones I'm sure the lot of you would have spawned in somehow. Like daisies popping out of the ground," she said with a roll of her eyes. "Speaking of..."

Sunbreaker snapped her fingers and then the bear roared before swiping at Amy with the wounded paw!

Sunbreaker then glanced to the... that was a lot of stuff being thrown at her bear, making it actually pull back, its attack at Amy going wide and missing due to the barrage of sudden balistics, teetering wildly and off balance. "HEY! You! Trash thrower! Who are you supposed to be? Why are-- oh for Sora's sake..." Sunbreaker snaps. The bear growls and its jaws snap out, catching a piece of chair that had been thrown and then crunching it...

Then there are more winged things flying about the bear's face. Sunbreaker just sighs when the bear starts snapping at them and ends up tripping OVER the telescope... shaking it for a moment and causing Sunbreaker to fall off with a shriek, crashing to the ground below. "OW!" she yelled. "RUDE! Okay, that's it!" she yelled. "Ursa min--" Whatever she was going to say would remain unspoken, as the ursa minor then stepped on her as it tried to maneuver in the tiny space with only three paws. Finally... it lunged its head own and grabbed a bunch of the garbage in its mighty jaws... before spitting bits of metal and chair all around, at the blue blur, the sword girl, the rocket launcher and even the owner of a barely used witch's labyrinth! However, the attack threw it off balance, making it roll forward and crashing into the stairs.

Sunbreaker... Sunbreaker groaned from the ground. "O-ow..."

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    The tiny X-Chara yelps as some of the debris and shrapnel metal gets flung in her direction. Gretchen darts down and away to dodge one flying piece of metal, then suddenly shoots upwards to avoid a splintery mass of wood. As she dodges this way and that she's reminded of a Bullet Hell game. Then she remembers that she's also really bad at those, too. Instead of jinxing herself a second time, she ducks into her Labyrinth to avoid further debris, leaving her two minions unsupervised.

    The two winged underlings look up at their boss's Labyrinth, and then at each other, as they silently consider the merits of slacking off. They seem to... chitter amongst each other in an unknowable tongue until one of them gets smacked out of the air by a sudden piece of chair. It falls to the ground, wing broken, while the other rushes to its side. Mourning its fallen comrade, the not-Familiar flaps menacingly at the ursa minor. Though its inhuman words are hard to understand, it's oath for revenge is clear.

    It flies towards the star bear with an unsettling battle cry, and the scales on the tips of its wings swing out to smack the bear in the back of its head. It's... it's about as effective as Gretchen's arrows.

    Please don't judge it too harshly. It's trying its best!

    Gretchen pokes her head out of the Labyrinth and looks down at the fight. "... next time I'm just calling Brai."

Niji Dasshu has posed:
Loyalty's eyes grow wide and she takes a chunk of chair to the shoulder - she doesn't get to see the world in slow motion or anything, man that would be handy - but she does have big blue wings on her back and she promptly flies up out of the range of fire. She rubs her shoulder wincing, but shakes it off.

    So she can laugh heartily at Sunbreaker. And point. And laugh. "That's what you get. For someone who started trouble in such an egghead place, you're not very smart, are you?" she says.

    Rather than go after the bear (There's a girl with swords and a girl with rockets, plus some sort of tiny minion maker, and she just gave the thing ammunition by throwing stuff at it last time) she has another idea, racing out and then back.

    To taunt Sunbreaker some more. "Sorry about that, was that too much, cause you look pretty burnt up about it. You should really COOL DOWN." she says as right before turning the nozzle of the fire extinguisher she grabbed off the wall outside and starting to try hose down Sunbreaker with it, because she is on fire and that is what you to things that are on fire. Doubly so when it's likely to be funny.

    Cooling things down is not how fire extinguishers work, but Niji does not know and does not care.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Oh no, Sunbreaker learned from last time and made a less-explodable monster! "Do you *really* need apotheosis to go back home? Ack!"

    Amy can't decide whether to dodge or block and sort of halfheartedly does both, only for the swipe to miss. "Honestly it sounds like we have a lot of questions on both sides here! We should just talk sometime!" She winces as Sunbreaker is stepped on by her own creation. "Are you okay?!" And then metal is flying and Amy blocks as best she can, making the launcher bigger and holding it vertically in front of her like a shield, it deflects some of the metal but other bits hit or cut her arms and legs. "Ahh! Nngh!" She grunts in pain, and steels herself.

    Once the bear has fallen down and stopped the barrage, the launcher is a sort of big pistol or flare gun or the like which she tries firing a mix of penetrating, non-explosive micro-rockets and miniature shape charges that try to puncture the bear with tiny blasts of metal plasma on contact.

    She's had bad luck with penetrating attacks working right on most magic foes so far, but you never know! She'd feel silly if it turned out they worked and she didn't try!

Sayaka Miki has posed:
Success! She slowed down the paw and then pinned it! The Observatory is (partially) safe! (For now.)

When Sunbreaker speaks, Sayaka looks up at her. "Weren't you the one with La Crima on the rooftop?" she asks, looking at her from the distance all over to the top of the telescope. Why'd she have to go all the way up there? If only she had a way to fly. She doubts she could speed up along the telescope before she lost the speed burst and a fall to the ground awaited her.

And then she says something about attaining her destiny and fueling a spell to go back with energy. "Sorry not sorry you got stuck here, but I am not letting you go back by harming people!" Sayaka replies, preparing to at least try to hit her with some swords.

Except Sunbreaker trips over to the ground and Sayaka doesn't even get the opportunity to put her in her place herself! She isn't sure if she should praise the bear to be great at backfiring or being annoyed at it for wasting their time with its clumsiness. Probably the latter, she doesn't think the bear is going to accomplish much as opposed to their attacks.

She starts running over to where Sunbreaker fell, her aim either to hold her down or getting her to stop harming harming people. (Though a part of her is shouting to warn Sunbreaker SHE is the one who should have stayed of Sayaka's way.) However the bear ruins her effort to keep the Observatory as safe as she can by eating some of it and then spitting out the junk on everyone. 7 swords appear in the air, shotting at all the debris to try and get it out of Sayaka's way. 'Can I at least save some of the remaining parts, please?' she thinks, looking at the lack of process in that regard with displeasure.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
The bear... the bear looked like it only bearly(ha) noticed the conks on the back of the head by the biblically accurate familiars. Shaking its head and lowering its ears to try and brush the thing off.

Meanwhile, Sunbreaker was NOT having a good day. "I am smarter than you, child, could ever--" Aaaand she got a mouth full of fire extinguisher. She shrieked, coughing, hacking. She lifted her arms up, covering her face... BEFORE FINALLY JUST ERUPTING INTO A FULL BODY COVERING OF FIRE! "GET OFF ME!" she yelled. She held out her right hand and... suddenly Loyalty was surrounded in a red glow of telekinetic magic.

Then promptly swung around her once and then HURLED through a nearby wall. Well. Another wall. The wall was pretty wrecked already so it didn't take that much to break through, but it was the concussions that counted.

"AND YES! I DO NEED APOTHEOSIS TO GO BACK! I CAN'T GO BACK UNTIL I ASCEND OTHERWISE SHE'LL JUST BANISH ME AGAIN BECAUSE APPARENTLY EVERYTHING I DID FOR HER NEVER ACTUALLY MATTERED!" Sunbreaker yelled.

Only for... penetrating missiles. They did deep into the bears body, before erupting... noooo. The stars! The bear stumbled back for a moment, hurt, aching... Then collapsed, nearly ON Sunbreaker. At least it also missed the telescope. Whew. It--

Then Sunbreaker saw Sayaka. The girl running towards her. The one who saved her. And her eyes went wide... her fire dimmed and she took a small step back.

"What... I... yes. I was there with... ugh. YOU shouldn't be here, puella! This ISN'T your fight!" she yelled at Sayaka. "It..." Then she looked to her bear. It had collapsed to the ground.

"FINE! You all win! Bye!" Sunbreaker yelled before snapping her fingers. The tower disappeared... as the draining ended. She followed suit a moment later.

The bear, however? The bear was still there. Collapsed on the ground. Body hurting, but still not defeated. Just a little more and it would disperse, back into the night sky as it should have been.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Gretchen, overhearing the conversation between Sunbreaker and others, lets out an oof. "Wow. Guess I'm not the only one with magic family issues."

    The tiny ineffectual Familiar keeps trying, but flaps away quickly at the slightest hint of retaliation. It knows how easily it can be hurt, and it's not really getting a meaningful payoff. Gretchen crosses her arms and frowns, noticing the lack of progress.

    "Okay, fine!" says the tiny X-Chara. "You two can come home now."

    As the two eldritch angel things start flapping back up to the Labyrinth, one struggling far more than another, a new challenger appears. A single, highly charged pink arrow flies through the hallways of the observatory, soaring above the unconscious civilians, and swoops down to attack the fallen ursa minor.

    Moments later, a chara-changed twin-braided Madoka Kaname is girly running into the room shouting, "Gretchen-chan! Are you okay?!"

    "Who asked you?!" grumps the X-Chara in her Bearer's direction.

    Brai peeks out from behind Madoka's braids and comments, "Yeah, she's fine."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "Okay! So you need to go back AND to not get immediately banished again! Two objectives! That's progress!" Amy shouts back.

    And then Sunbreaker's run away again, and the monster is... lying on the ground, all but beaten. It's certainly not worth spending from her Soul Gem to flashily destroy it.

    Amy turns towards Sayaka. "Ula! You know about this, right? She said it was some kind of golem, is there a way to just deactivate it? Writing 'death' on a piece of paper and putting it in its mouth won't actually *work*, right?"

Niji Dasshu has posed:
    Once more, Loyalty shakily rises to her feet. Groaning in pain. "Did she just throw me through a wall? With her brain?" Well, magic, but Loyalty's first thought is pop culture. Also last thought because Sunbreaker's away and it only looks like the bear is starting to still stagger up.

    "Do you know that girl, Blue?" she asks, not knowing Sayaka's name. Ugh. Swords. She didn't get any swords. She learned not to punch everything from the fight with the Emu.

    "uhhh, probably not, we need to... OH HEY I GOT IT" she says in response to Amy. She looks around and grabs a large model of one of the solar system's gas giants (it's Jupiter but she doesn't care) that feels reasonably heavy, and does a running jump into the air, turn, leaving a trail of rainbows behind her, before she slams it down on the Ursa Minor's head like it's a hoop and she's dunking a basketball, only she's going a lot faster, and the ball is a lot bigger and harder.

    "Come on and SLAM!" she shouts, and unintentionally also times this with Madoka's arrow.

Sayaka Miki has posed:
This is the second time Sunbreaker talks to her and the second time she tells her to stay out of her way. It certainly isn't something she has warned out at the start to everyone. What has she done to elicit that reaction? Is she not being taken seriously? At least this time, she hasn't tried to deter her by stating she would only get her hurt. That's good, but what's her deal still?

That's not a question that can be asked right now though, since she bailed out on her again!

Amy asks about Sunbreaker, though, so Sayaka turns towards her. "I am Sharpshong like this", she gestures towards her Fortissimo hairpin. "I just met her having a chat with La Crima. She warned me to stay out of this sort of like now, then bailed on me, just like now!", she explains, fairly miffed. "I wasn't even doing anything in particular the first time, I just chatted a bit with La Crima." Ok, she did have her sword out, but she had explained her reasons for that at the time, and put it away after she got reassured.

At least the bear is now nicely still on the ground and she can ensure it doesn't get up again. The whole Observatory didn't make it out fine at all. She might as well have used her whirlwind attack if this was the inevitable result.

Not that it matters now. 20 shining blue shapes appear above the bears, taking the shape of sharp swords, their imminent threat a promise soon to come true. The swords rain down, a merciless casted ready to puncture and stab any place of the bear's body within their reach.

Ula, safely grasping onto Sayaka's shoulder despite everything, dizzily replies to Amy: "The G-golem? Wha-what? I don't know anything about that, I only happened to read about constellations!"

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
The bear... the bear wasn't moving much after that. An arrow struck it, scattering some of its stars to the air. Then, a moment later, JUPITER hit it on the nose, crushing its face. It was crushed! It was--

RAINING SWORDS! OH GOSH! The swords rain down on it, piercing through the bear and tearing it apart! Stars are sent to the heavens and, up above, the magic circle that Sunbreaker had made faded away to ash.

The observatory... Actually, all things considered? It looked like they did a pretty good job. Sure, some of the seats had been broken, the telescope needed to be re-adjusted. There was a few holes in the wall. But it looked like there had been a minor gas explosion or something. It'd probably take a week or so to fix, not so bad considering what could have happened. Oh, and there was an oddly lot of fire extinguisher mess all over the ground as well... No idea how that got there.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Madoka, now here, winces at the mess that she just walked in on. There're broken chairs and holes in the wall. She has to wonder how much money it'd take to repair this. Probably nothing the observatory can't afford, she hopes.

    She carefully steps over splintered wood, torn metal and other forms of debris as she tries to get closer to where Gretchen is. Along the way she notices a couple of familiar faces and gives them each a tiny wave. "Hii Sharpsong-chan, Red-san. Sorry I showed up so late. I hope you're all okay!" Loyalty is unknown to her, so she gets a general "Hii" instead of being greeted by name.

    Gretchen is floating overhead. She floats a little bit lower, dragging her Labyrinth along with her as she gathers her minions. One made it on its own, while the other needs to be fetched. Madoka carefully hops towards Gretchen and asks, "Um... what went on?"

    The X-Chara doesn't even look in her Bearer's direction. She curtly responds with, "Bear attack," and leaves it that that.

Niji Dasshu has posed:
    "Wooooo!" Geode Girl Loyalty says, a fist up in the air. "We just kicked it's butt. And her butt." she notes, as though she hadn't just been thrown through a wall.

    "I gotta say this fight would've been at least 20 percent cooler if we hadn't had to do it in such a cramped up space, right?" she asks, looking around at the girls. "Do you guys know who that hothead was?" she says, grinning widely. "The last ones were just on a rooftop watching, but this girl actually seemed like she might've participated, at least until she ran off." She knows none of them, but maybe post-fight cheering can fix that.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "As a gas giant, it doesn't seem that Jupiter should be that good for hitting things-- Huh, Space Jam *does* go with everything." Sunbreaker ran away before? "Yeah, she does that a lot." Amy then stares at the summoned, skewering swords, impressed... until she realizes, "Wait, that didn't take too much magic, did it? We'll wanna conserve magic here, right?"

    She waves to Madoka and nods. "Star bear golem attack." Those were certainly words.

    She turns to Loyalty. "Uhhh... I dunno, it seems like it worked out, I guess? She's someone who wants to go home, apparently, and is willing to..." She waves at the destruction and unconscious people, "...that, do to it, but she seems a little more willing to talk and listen to reason than most of our enemies."

Sayaka Miki has posed:
"How are you feeling, Ula?" Sayaka looks concerned towards the mermaid still hanging onto her shoulder. "I will survive... maybe? I am not seeing the stars in a way I didn't expect... For the second time today", she replies the dizziness from all the movements Sayaka took today.

The pinkette has arrived too! "Ma-", Sayaka starts saying befofre biting her tongue. "Maple Bow!" she steers away from her friend's name, even if the sound doesn't perfectly coincides. The flower buds aren't anything similar either! "It's awesome to see you! What got you here?" she smiles at her arrival. "Sunbreaker had summoned a bear made out of stars, but it's dealt with!."

Ula, now sitting onto Sayaka's shoulder since things are calmer, waves at Brai and Madoka. "Hello, we got together again, nice to see you", and then says, once she spot Amy. "Oh, you too! Yes, hi."

She looks towards where Madoka is going and notices Gretchen. 'She is here too, of course', Sayaka thinks, still not liking her, especially after her last trick! "Gretchen, what was going on last time with Madoka? She was very ill due to you", the Puella Magi starts walking towards the X-Chara, recalling the state Madoka was in after the information overload, still worried about what that entailed and whether it would happen again.

She waves towards Amy and Niji. "Hello, Red-senpai, how was the battle? Any ache?" she asks confidently. "I don't think that will be a problem, I didn't spend that much energy." Then to Niji she says, "Yo, nice to meet a new ally. I go by Sharpsong, what about you?"

Niji Dasshu has posed:
    When the girl with the rainbow hair is asked what she goes by... she visibly winces a bit. "Geode Girl... Loyalty." It is not the coolest name. Not the name she would have picked for herself. "But you can call me like... so many other things." she says, scratching the back of her head. "Like, I didn't choose that name." she says, hurridly. "It's just the one I knew when I tranformed."

    Loyalty surveys the damage, and sighs. "Well, if this is what she does, I'm not sure they kicked her out of her home. Jeeze, what a mess." she says. "I wonder how many times I ran into stuff like that and just don't remember it..." she shakes her head.

    "Anyways... so you're sharpsong, and she's red? And... Maple Bow?" Niji asks, tilting her head. "Cool."

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    "Star bear golem attack sounds like it should either be a band name or a finisher," comments Madoka. Gretchen rolls her eyes.

    The name of 'Maple Bow' actually does manage to get Madoka's attention, though it takes her a moment to realize that Sharpsong is talking to her. Oh geeze. She's going to need a henshin name at this rate, isn't she? Something to think about later probably. For a moment her mind flashes back to Deathscythe.

    Brai and Madoka wave to Ula. Gretchen looks down to the koi mermaid with sudden interest, but then notices that Sayaka is there. She frowns behind her mask, and descends to Sayaka's eye level with her tiny arms crossed.

    "There's a limit to how much the human brain can learn all at once. I showed her more than that. If she could handle my power as she is now, I wouldn't be avoiding her so much." The X-Chara offers no apology. "Honestly I'm more worried about you fighting with Mami Tomoe. She's actually not a bad person. You should try getting to know her better." The masked X-Chara turns away from Sayaka and adds, "Not that you'd ever listen to me anyways," and starts to float upwards and away.

    Madoka calls out, "Wait a minute!"

    Gretchen responds, "I'm covered in star bear slobber. Grab me at your own risk." Then she vanishes into her Labyrinth.

    Madoka winces, and then turns her attention to Loyalty. "Um... yeah! That's... apparently my name! Hi!"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Sharpsong. Right. Amy needs to remember that. She dismisses her launcher and looks at her cut and bruised arms and legs from the battle. "...I'll be alright. The school nurse knows about magic, and we heal faster than normal, I'm pretty sure. Unless young people just heal *this* fast..."

    She gives Loyalty a curious look at the talk of the name. "Oh damn, you're new at this Welcome to magic." She smiles and holds out a hand. "I guess you can call me Red? It was supposed to be a temporary name but I don't know how to come up with one. So, super-speed huh? That's a pretty cool power!"

    She laughs at Madoka's comment about the word salad, then looks away as Madoka brings up with fight with Mami.

Sayaka Miki has posed:
Sayaka is about to tell Gretchen she actually is talking with Mami-san, thanks for nothing. Her fight with her was just something that came out of her trying to convince Mami Kyubey wasn't what she seemed to be.

But she disappeared as per her usual, so instead she turns towards Madoka. "Maple...-chan", she addresses Madoka, a half-apologetic, half-I-am-trying-not-to-laugh expression on her face, "if you happen to see Gretchen, could you please tell her I am not trying to antagonise Mami and I don't think she is a bad person?"

She sighs. "I don't want Kyubey to keep doing as he pleases with people." One should tell Sayaka her method of persuasion is quite lacking. Then she comes closer to Madoka and whispers her a "Sorry for the name."

There is also the matter of why Gretchen would even try to put that much information into Madoka if she knew there was a limit. What stopped her from doing something smaller? She is not here to be asked questions, so her dwelling on it is useless.

"Nice to meet you, Loyalty-san!" Said like that, the bluenette does have to stop herself from giggling. "If you need any help, I am here for it!" says the newbie, because she certainly can provide lots of it now.

"Makes sense", Sayaka nods at Amy. "Even the bruises I got during this fight are already gone." And there is no actual sign of it. Her healing factor already took care of it.

Niji Dasshu has posed:
    Geode Girl Loyalty nods. "Yeah I haven't been doing this a super long time. Apparently there's whole different groups of us besides me and my friend." she says. "Also that's the first time I met somebody on fire. Is she always like that?" she asks.

    "Yeah I got super-speed but I didn't get a rocket launcher or a laser or anything like that, so I just... make do." she says, shrugging. "Usually it works out okay."

    She winces again when Sayaka calls her Loyalty-san, but what can she do? She hasn't come up with a better name. Then looks at her own bruises. "Yeah I think mine are gonna stay for a little bit. Still. You were all really cool. Red there with the rocket launcher and you with all of the swords and Maple-chan with the big energy bow? Just neat. Do you have like, some sort of secret code network where you can talk to each other? I don't know how to get ahold of the other hero-people, I just keep running into them."

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    For the record, Gretchen only knows about the argument that happened during the tea party. If she knew about the actual altercation it'd be something else.

    Madoka droops a little bit at the name Sayaka's chosen for her. She blinks at Sayaka's response, and then nods. Brai actually chimes in to say, "She's more likely to talk to me rather than Madoka-chan, so I'll pass that along."

    Madoka shakes her head at the apology and whispers back, "It's fine. I should have one. It's safer for you too, right? Though... I may want to change it later."

    Crossing her arms, Madoka adds, "Well, I don't really trust Kyubey, either. I'm just not sure what to do about it."

    To Loyalty, Madoka nods, "Typically, yeah she's really um... fired up! Eheh. Though, you know, I think super speed is a pretty cool power too." Upon being asked about a secret network, Madoka considers. "Well, hm. We don't really have a centralized network like that, as far as we know. It's hard to do that while also remaining secret. I know there are a lot of us going to Radiant Heart Academy, though."

    Brai tugs at one of Madoka's braids, and the Chara Bearer says, "Oh! Um... sorry. I have to go. I was kinda on my way to something when Brai sensed Gretchen getting into trouble. I'll see you all around! It was nice to meet you, Loyalty-chan!"

    As quickly as she came, Madoka turns to leave. For once, she's at least fairly certain that none of the civvies have been too damaged.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy frowns at the mention of Kyubey, but now's not the time.. She stares at Sayaka's healed state though. "Damn... Like I think this is gonna take a day or two to heal... do you heal *better*?"

    At Loyalty's praise she blushes, "Aww, thanks." A code network? "*I wish*. We pretty much have to use our phones like normal people, I'll swap numbers if you want."

Sayaka Miki has posed:
The compliment by Loyalty is quite appreciated, giving Sharpsong a boost of confidence. "Superspeed is cool too! You only really got hit after a while, the bear could do nothing till for so many times it must have wondered what was going on."

Madoka explains the matter of the communication between Mahous, so she just nods along. Unlike Amy, she doesn't offer her own number yet.

"A day or two?" She looks at her own refreshed state. "I guess so?" She never really paid attention to the difference between her and Amy until the latter pointed it out. "Is this particularly odd?"

Niji Dasshu has posed:
Loyalty winces. "Oh, uh. I probably can't give my phone number out for uh. Reasons." Reasons like every team athlete in the school already having it, and her not being much of a hidden heroine because of it. "I should get like, a prepaid second. That's a good idea." she says.

    "I'd run get one but even super speed won't help me activate it any faster." she grumps. "But next time I see you I'll have a number I can give out." she says. "Oh... right, I was in the middle of my day when extinguisher-bait-chan decided to start trouble in the space-nerd building, so I'm gonna go finish up what I was working on. Numbers though! next time!" she says, sharply. And then she is gone like a cat on fire. Or like a girl who's favorite class is P.E. running from the concept of intense schoolwork and study.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Odd? Amy shrugs. "I dunno, I've never stood around comparing wounds with someone before. After the Train thing me and another Puella healed bad wounds fast but it drained magic fast, so..." she shrugs again.

Using burner phones for magical identity? "Shit, that IS a good idea." She pulls out a small pad of paper and pencil from one of her belt pouches and writes down a number, but when she looks up, Loyalty has already dashed away...

Sayaka Miki has posed:
Sayaka shrugs. "It's not something I am intent on start comparing, so I get that." Too creepy, for one.

"I am going to head back too. School can and will haunt me if it can."

"See you from me too", Ula floats up towards Amy for a greeting before going back to Sayaka as the two go back to the Academy.