1237/An X-citing Space Experience!

An X-citing Space Experience!
Date of Scene:	05 March 2024
Location:	Museum
Synopsis:	Utau Hoshina creates an X-chara. Everyone comes to stop her!
Cast of Characters:	Utau Hoshina, Tadase Hotori, Hinoiri Kirara, Madoka Kaname, Hinote Kagari, Amanda Faust, Yuki Hoshino, Coco Kiumi, Ikuto Tsukiyomi

---

Utau Hoshina has posed:
There's a space exhibit in the museum today. It's meteorites, some actual moonrocks, an elaborate orrery of the solar system hangs from above in the room this exhibit is setup in. A space suit is setup in a glass case and a kid in front of it loudly is talking to his friends.

"I'm going to be an astronaut! I'm going to go to space and spacewalk. I want to walk on the moon!" says the elementary school kid to his friends. His friends respond, with: "That's a dumb dream."

"Yeah don't you wanna do something you'll actually succeed at?" the other child asks. "It's hard to be an astronaut."

"Wait it's not dumb..." he fights. "It's...it's cool."

The other kids laugh and walk away leaving the space-crazed kid alone. "Really.. it's cool." he tries to maybe convince himself. His own dream darkening in his heart.

-------

Nearby, a twin-tailed blonde girl in sunglasses, and a hat looks on as her little devil chara senses something just right. "That' one!" says Il as Utau, in disguise nods and begins to sing lightly as two wings appear from her back as she chara changes with El, it's a soft tone. No words, just a soft, sad ,melodic tone.

"Maybe my dream really is impossible." says the child. "Impossible..."

"Impossible..." his heart egg being ripped from his chest, darkening into an X-egg. Which repeats that word. "Impossible." %[Muri!%]

"Damn, that isn't the Embryo." Says Utau Hoshina sadly.

Other people hearing the song are saddened by it, causing a lull in the general mood of the exhibit room, it seems!

So far the X-egg hasn't hatched into an X-chara. Yet.

Tadase Hotori has posed:
    Tadase Hotori is actually... not somewhere because of Kiseki's antics. And he's not somewhere because of Student Council business. In fact, he's actuaslly doing something for Tadase Hotori, for once. Seeing actual moonrocks, it sounds cool. And more than that... there's something very impressive about everything to do with Space. The level of effort required. The work.

    He's starting to walk towards the main exhibit hall when Kiseki tugs on his collar. "Tadase. Tadase stop." Kiseki says.

    Tadase turns and glares at him. "Kiseki, don't be trouble." he whispers. "It's gonna be cool anyways."

    "No, it's not that, I don't care about the museum stuff. But stop walking and listen." he says.

    Humoring him, Tadase does... "Do I know that voice... it sounds so..." A single name flashes into his mind. "What's she up to..." he says, poking his head around the corner along with Kiseki.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Sunbreaker was there as well, in a business suit, sunglasses on, even her flames off. Looking to all the world like... some kind of business woman. Sometimes it helped to be a bit taller in henshin, to look a little different. Seeing the x-egg, however, made her sigh. Just a hint. She didn't fully get what the people of Easter wanted with them. Some kind of miracle.

But, frankly? There were so many wishes, so many miracles, she tried not to think on it too hard. All she had to do was keep Utau from getting hurt. Easy enough.

She'd grabbed some cookies from the gift soap. 'Moon pies', they called them. They had cream and chocolate coating, so good enough. "Here," she offered, holding out the package so Utau would have one. "Sparkles will probably show up soon. They always do," she said, accepting the inevitability... Annnnd...

Okay, not yet. But any second now, she was sure.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Madoka is visiting the museum today, dressed her her usual school uniform. Well, there's maybe one difference: her usual pink ribbons are replaced by lacey black strips. She has two chara with her: Gretchen and Lydian. Her mood is a little sour, but she's putting on a brave face.

    Turning aside to Gretchen, her Witchy X-Chara, she whispers, "Do you sense any Witches here?"

    The tiny dark fairy shakes her head. "No, but... something else is happening."

    Lydian, the paint splotched chara, chimes in, "I think it's over there, at the space exhibit."

    With a thoughtful frown, Madoka starts moving in that direction. As long as she's a magical girl, she's not going to ignore trouble in any form. Floating after her, her two chara get increasingly uncomfortable. Lydian is the first to voice it. "It's... actually starting to feel a bit like Gretchen-chan... and not in the Witchy way."

    Madoka hears the music, and her head turns to hear it more closely. Hasn't she heard this before? Her pace quickens as she considers what to do. It's only a matter of time before something bad happens...

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Hinote Kagari is in his school uniform. Because students get a discount on admission. Really, that's it! He walks along the display cases. Tracy, the tiny detective chara is investigating along with Hinote, taking in an information card for one of the meteorites as he hears a voice not too far off as he turns around.

"What's with the sining---ah..." he feels. Assaulted somehow, by that music. On some sort of level.

Tracy reacts by lifting his magnifying glass up at it as he 'ehs'. "Maybe it was her voice. Maybe it's the X-egg she was summoning. All I knew. Was that songbird was gonna be trouble." narrates Tracy, with a determined look.

"X-egg?..." asks Hinote Kagari as he sticks fingers into his ears.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Dang. This rock, just feet away from Amy, came from the moon. It's something to think about.

    The school got some free tickets for students! And while Amy's not really a fan of the museum, this particular exhibit brings back memories of her childhood. In her (first) youth, she and her parents made the trip to Boston to see the Museum of Science many times. So long ago she can't even remember when the last time was, though.

    Was it... before she got a smartphone?

    At that thought, she snaps a few pictures of the exhibit and some selfies.

    While she's doing that, she hears the kids arguing and turns to tell them off and say encouraging words, but...

    She's not sure what.

    Like, on the one hand, there's something wrong about taking a child's dream away, but on the other hand, she can't honestly tell him he has a good chance of that dream coming true. And she always hated when adults lied. So encouraging false hope would be even worse.

    Now left with a soured feeling moments after being in awe at the space exhibit, she turns and walks away, eventually coming face to face with--

    "Madoka? Are you here to see the space exhibit too?"

Yuki Hoshino has posed:
Yuki Hoshino was visiting the museum, much like so many others on this fine and lovely afternoon. "Hope they have something interesting in this space exhibit," she says to herself as she gets closer. "Maybe something from one of the space probes."

And then there's music, just enough to hear it above the noise of traffic. She tilts her head, curious, looking around for the source, but doesn't spot anything. Must be coming from one of the cars nearby or something.

She keeps on walking towards the museum, a little smile on her lips as she hears the boy shouting about being an astronaut. She stops, though, as he collapses, staring. "Wha - ?" Clearly, never seen an X-Egg before.

Coco Kiumi has posed:
Coco is at the museum too, because, with how many many times she had seen the presentation on the moon advertised, she actually got a little curious over it. Admittedly, usually, her interest over the moon begins and ends within the confines of keeping track of the tides, not really that big.

She is walking around, reading the various leaflets and plaques, the stuff actually managing to sound interesting when her attention is torn away by a song, her feelings tingling with the senses of a magic at work. The song is enticingly urging to sleep, but it clashes with the warning it gives her, and it's weirdly similar sensation.

Following the lure of the voice, the mermaid keeps her guard up, trying to recall where it was she heard it before. It wasn't the Black Beauty Sisters for sure, this was too melancholic.

Utau Hoshina has posed:
Utau Hoshina keeps singing her tune. She keeps feeding energy into the X-egg, not particularly caring what happens to the boy it came from. It's just someone's dumb dream anyways. Other people around become lethargic due to her singing, and start to passout. Other X-eggs might start forming if someone doesn't do something fast.

The X-egg from the child dreaming to be an astronaut however starts to glow, and at the center cracks wide open into a tiny black figure with some sort of jetpack and wearing a space helmet!? It's hatched into an X-chara. "Hahahaha blast off!" cackles the tiny creature as it's jetpack lights up the room and starts to zip around, making the model of the solar system spin and start to wobble and soon it
's starting to crash to the floor...!

Utau Hoshina steps away from the chaos she's causing as she continues singing however. She does smile a little at it, as Il cackles in delight next to her head. "This looks like fun!" says the tiny devil chara. "Zoooom." she goes around Utau's head, mimicking the jetpacking X-chara.

Other weaker X-eggs we're starting to be pulled from the passed out folks around her. She kept up her melody however, empowering the X-chara she's created from the child's dream.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara would have, maybe, been annoyed having her cookies snubbed.... but admittedly? Offering some cookies to a person *trying to sing* likely wasn't the most polite thing to do as a villain anyway. So it was probably better to just let her sing. She took a moon pie and bit into it, watching the chara flying around. What did that ever--

"Oh, right. Your moon is like... a whole different thing than ours," she mumbled. She couldn't help but wonder what kind of weirdness it was to require people to wear such thick, bulky suits.

She then glanced to Il. Don't poke the little devil... no matter how amusing it might be to poke her...

Tadase Hotori has posed:
    Well, he was hoping the song wasn't exactly what it was. That the voice wasn't Utau's. and that she wasn't trying to pull out X-Eggs to push Easter's plot. But that's what's happening, and Tadase can't just stand by. He pulls out his phone and fires off a text to Ikuto.

        > TO IKUTO: Hey, your sister's at the museum trying to steal X-eggs. I guess she didn't get your memo still?

    Tadase still, perhaps naively, hopes he can handle this without fighting Utau directly. He steps out from behind the little doorway, not henshin'd yet, but the golden crown pops into existence on his head, as does the scepter in his hand.

    "Utau!" he yells out, walking towards her with a movement that seems almost angry - because it kind of is. "What are you doing, harming these people?! You're creating an X-Chara - harming a kid's dream - and for what? So that you can sacrifice children's dreams for the ones of some grumpy old man who never treated you or your brother right anyways?!"

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Madoka was so closely paying attention to the sounds she was hearing that she almost looks startled when she notices that someone familiar is right in front of her. "Amy! I mean... sort of. My chara seem to think something is wrong, and it's not a Witch this time."

    Gretchen clutches her stomach and leans forward a bit. "I really don't like that song... Doka-chan..."

    Madoka makes a shush motion with her mouth, and whispers. "Why don't you sit out today? Lydian and I can handle things."

    Gretchen glances at Amy and waves goodbye before vanishing into her false Labyrinth. The traces of her magic seem to be floating away, though she's intentionally making herself hard to track.

    Lydian finally spots the black X-egg and points, loudly saying, "That egg! It looks just like Gretchen's!"

    Madoka looks past her art Chara with wide, surprised and says, "Oh shoot!" As she watches the scene unfold. The X-Chara hatches, and it's all looking very familiar. "Run, Amy!" she warns as the model solar system starts crashing to the floor, turning to flee. Quickly she finds a nearby bathroom.

    "I hope Gretchen made it out okay," frets Lydian.

    "I'm sure she can take care of herself," reassures Madoka. "My Heart: Unlock!"

    A quick henshin sequence later, and Hope Blossom is running out of the bathroom and back to the X-chara. Oh geeze, how does she even deal with this? "Now wait a minute. I know you're excited, but don't just run around breaking things! Other people want to enjoy the exhibit, too!"

    For a moment she's quietly happy that Gretchen is merely grumpy and weird, rather than actively destructive. She hopes this isn't the norm.

    Hope turns to see Tadase and says, "You're here... how are we supposed to deal with this thing?" She knows that Tadase helped with Brai a while back, but Madoka doesn't remember how that went because she was kind of... passed out, at the moment.

    At roughly the same time, Gretchen reappears next to Coco. Still clutching her stomach and looking a bit under the weather. "U-um... H-hi... Coco-chan, Madoka is further in. I don't suppose you have a remedy for evil music, do you?"

    Yes, Madoka told her to leave, but X-Chara aren't exactly known for being obedient.

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Hinote Kagari sees Tadase Hotori and goes to join his side as he uncovers his ears and shakes off the sad crud this song is causing, a fedora appearing on his head, as he chara-changes Tracy is following next to Hinote as he grips the edge of his fedora.

"Tadase-san!" he says. "What exactly is going on here!?" he asks as the chaos goes on around him.

"Gods there's still like a bazillion things you need to tell me isn't there." he says as he takes a deep breath. He reaches into his jacket placing his hand on his watergun and getting ready to pull it, but he doesn't yet.

"Look Songbird..." Tracy smiles as he calls her that. "...I dunno what your deal is but we're gonna stop you!" he says, for dramatics.

Yuki Hoshino has posed:
Yuki is fairly clearly not clear on just what's going on here. X-chara? Dreams? You can -do- that?

It's hard to focus, with the song lulling at her mind. Subtle, not like the blatant drain of the Eclipse zone. She needs to - what? Sleep? no, no, that's not right..

She needs to defend. That's right. Fortunately, there's plenty of space among the exhibits for her to lose herself and find some privacy to invoke her Barrier Jacket. Which glitches on her, *again*. The leg armor doesn't form at all, and the kimono is morre purple than blue. It's ... functional. She slots her phone and Devicce into the left vambrace and heads back towards the mess.

"You there!" the Knight of Dawn shouts, raising a hand to point menacingly at Utau. "How dare you hurt these children? Release them AT ONCE!"

Ikuto Tsukiyomi has posed:
He'd just been about to dig into a pizza slice he'd snagged when someone had left their fresh order unattended for a moment. Catboy teeth were quite literally about to sink into cheese, sauce, and bread when his phone buzzed. It had to be something important, since he'd only given his number to two people thus far. He looked at Yoru, and Yoru nodded, picking the phone up and raising it to his face so he wouldn't get grease all over the case "I swear if this isn't something-"

"Shit." The pizza was forgotten on the rooftop, Ikuto wiping his hands on his pants and nodding to Yoru as the Chara already initiated the process of Chara Transforming, the pair merging in a flash of purple light. "Black Lynx!"

Ikuto was a blur, jumping from rooftop to rooftop as fast as he could. He didn't know what he was going to do but Easter couldn't be allowed to hurt more children, and his friend was asking for help. That was all the reason he needed to get involved.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy blinks at Madoka, giving a look that says 'you alright?' before she starts explaining. "Song?" Amy echoes, waving to Gretchen and looking around, turning when Lydian points.

Run, Amy!

    There's maybe a half-second of hesitation before she does. "A dark... whatever-that-is is really that bad?" she asks, before transforming alongside Madoka.

    With the sci-fi look to her, she looks slightly extra appropriate for this exhibit, although she's still more anime or raygun gothic than modern space aesthetic.

    "What even are you?!" she shouts at the X-Chara while trying to catch the pieces of orrery or at least stop some of them before they roll into things.

Coco Kiumi has posed:
It is only when she comes close to the X-Chara astronaut and Utau that Coco recognises the other blonde girl. The concert back then had allowed Easter to ensnare the dreams of many, but was their objective this specific one this time? Well, one or many, this doesn't change that something has to be done about this. Good thing that the song and the astronaut going around meant it was quite easy to transform without catching others' attention as she dives behind a pillar to conceal the light of her henshin.

Though before then, she is approach by an X-Chara she recognises and one she doesn't want to affect. "Well, I might have a remedy, in a way? But it's just setting my song in direct competition with that of Utau, so you should probably get away from here."

The Yellow Pearl shines from the necklace at her neck when she channels the melodious magic of the seven seas is. "Yellow Pearl Voice!" she declares, the pearl in her shell locket responding to her will and starting to shine with a yellow light.

A kaleidoscope of colours covers Coco's clothes as those change into her yellow gloves and boots with flowy extensions, as well as a yellow blouse with a yellow skirt, while her pearl expands into her trusty E-Pitch microphone, its blue shape settling comfily into her hand, the jewel nestled safely in the head's center.

"Legend of Mermaid: Pichi Pichi Voice, Live Start!", Coco exclaims, her purifying voice singing of a nostalgic melody, with stars that like pearls start releasing a wondrous light, a miracle filled adventure like the kind mother wishes everyone in her heart.

Utau Hoshina has posed:
Utau was indeed singing, and therefore, could not eat cookies.

Utau Hoshina has to stop singing when Tadase Hotori, Hinote Kagari and The Knight of Dawn show up and start demanding things of her. She looks aghast! "What's a little fun!?" she asks, throwing a hand out as he huffs. "I'm having fun." ahe demands again in her Chara-changed form.

"I only have one things to say to you, Hotori-san, and your rude friends!" she says as she throws he hands forward. "My Heart! Unlock!"

Il enters her egg, quickly, and the two fuse, a bright light overtaking her as she fuses with Il and character transforms into Lunatic Charm, right before everyone's eyes in the light, floating with her wings. She forms a trident immediately and guards it in front of herself as she smiles something wickedly. "Nightmare Lorelei~" she calls out.

Energy bats would fly out towards Tadase, Hinote and the Knight of Dawn.

----

Meanwhile, the X-chara is zipping along. "Space. Gonna go to space. Can't wait, Space! SPACE!" zips the X-chara, sending a SONIC BOOM that breaks a few cases s it zips along. Asking it to stop does nothing. It's a dream corrupted and won't stop until it's defeated. Purified. It's causing chaos but doesn't seem to be attacking anyone directly yet. It's sending debris EVERYWHERE however.

----

Rival singing goes on. There's a song of purification. It's calming down the weaker X-eggs that Utau produced with her own singing, sending them back down slowly starting to purify them back into Heart Eggs, hopefully. With Utau now being occupied she isn't singing anymore-making this easier.

Utau Hoshina looks surprised. "Oh, Not again. Not you." she says dripping with malice. "In that outfit." she says, looking towards Yellow Peal Voice as she becomes distracted.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Sunbreaker glanced up and then groaned. Of course. Sparkle Ear Worm. Err, Yellow Voice Pearl.

She snapped her fingers and fire enveloped her. She then stood there, in her relaxed, leather jacket, spiked, horn and all... a casual smirk on her lips. "Hey now. Don't crowd the lady. If you get too close to the 'talent', don't be surprised when you get 'bounced'," she warned.

A few orbs of fire formed, circling around her left hand. Not thrown yet, but a clear warning. She was security. Touch the little demon, though, get burned.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    "It's an X-Chara," explains Hope Blossom to Amy once she gets back. "I mean, Gretchen is one too, but her behavior is kind of exceptional. Most chara who get corrupted are more like... well... this."

    Speaking of Gretchen, the moment she hears how exactly Coco intends to counteract the song it takes her all of 0.4 seconds to realize just how uncomfortable that would be for her. To be further corrupted by one melody yet purified by another... that's a tug of war she's not looking forward to experiencing. "Thanks for the warning!" she says before vanishing into her own personal world again. You don't need to warn her twice.

    Once she gets to a distance from the museum that she thinks is safe, Gretchen pops out of her Labyrinth and takes a moment to listen to the faint, distant sound of competing songs. For a brief moment, she considers the recent changes in Madoka, and wonders if she still needs to be an X-Chara in order to stay out of egg form...

    No, it's not time yet. Gretchen's X-Egg forms around her and she floats away to safety.

    Meanwhile, Blossom is keeping her eyes on the rampant X-Chara. She's really not sure what to do in a situation where it just doesn't listen to you? Gretchen may have lashed out once or twice before but she was never this bad. "U-um... I don't want to break the child's dream, but..."

    Madoka's branch bow appears in her hands, and she nocks a pink magic arrow. Holding it for a moment, she considers briefly what to do. Damaging the X-chara seems like a bad idea, but maybe she can restrict its movement? Releasing her arrow, the single shot splits into many, and they all home in and chase after the wayward dream. None of them strike the X-Chara directly, but they try to swirl around it and trap it in a swarm of pink magic.

    Sadly, Madoka hasn't really done this much before, and there are a lot of holes that the tiny X-chara could conceivable get through if it's nimble enough.

Tadase Hotori has posed:
    "That's an X-chara." Tadase explains. "It's a corrupted dream - they can be made in a few ways but that one was created by Utau's song. She works for Easter. And through them, Obsidian." he notes.

    "We need to purify it, which means two big things: we need to wear it down so I can zap it, and we also need to NOT destroy it. If you destroy it - that kid's dream goes with it. So be careful with your attacks!" The last part, he calls out to everyone.

    "We also need to keep Utau from making any more..." he begins, but thankfully, the exact right person for that is here, and he lets out a sigh of relief at Yellow Pearl Voice's arrival and song.

    Utau fuses with her Guardian Character in a full transformation, and Tadase's eyes go wide. "Hinote, get back!" "Holy Crown!" Tadase calls, sceepter out, and a shimmering sphere of golden energy erupts from it, thee bats slamming into it with a THUNK THUNK THUNK. "I can't hold a Character-Transformation with just a Character-Change though." he warns. And true to that - the bats start making 'cracks' in the energy shield. "If she keeps this up - I'm not gonna be able to hold out. Can someone distract her so I can henshin?!" he calls. Well, he doesn't care who knows he can henshin right now, there's a giant golden energy barrier coming out of a golden scepter - he's probably magic.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy huns along a bit with Coco's song.

    But soon she's chasing the X-chara! "No! Stop! Ugh, we can't fight here! C-Yellow Pearl Voice, can you purify this?!"

    Hope Blossom says something about breaking a child's dream. "Wait, what?! Is that what... is that seriosuly what happens if we stop this thing?!"

    Fortunately, Tadase is on it with the explanation. "I got it, but... it's tiny! How can we fight it, especially in here?!

Ikuto Tsukiyomi has posed:
As if the unfolding chaos in the museum wasn't enough already a loud crash echoed through the room as a window exploded inward. Black Lynx landed amidst the shattered glass, standing up to his full height and quickly focusing on the gathered heroes and villains. Particularly on Sunbreaker. "Should have guessed you'd be involved, Sunbreaker. I'm properly transformed this time and I'm really not in the mood for talking things out. My lunch was interrupted for this and this is twice now you're around while Utau is having to do Easter's dirty work, so let's just go already!"

He looks angry and ready to fight in a way that the people who know him...really might not be used to seeing. Was lunch really that sacred to the catboy, or is this about Utau...?

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Hinote Kagari 'whoas' at the Character Transformation. He was told about them. But has never seen one before, but amazement turns to terror as he's attacked, and he flinches and brings an arm up to protect himself. He braces...

But Tadase's shield stops him from becoming bat bai. Hinote replies to Tadase's request by removed the Colt .45 waterpistol from his jacket and firing it at Utau. It's enough force to knock a normal person off their feet, but not damage anything, but it should be highly distracting as he pulls the trigger, the jet of water flying out.

"Oh. You're...!" he says as he looks at Sunbreaker. "That dumb Eclipse project manager." he says with narrowed eyes.

"Hothead." says Tracy. "Hothead." says Hinote.

Yuki Hoshino has posed:
Yuki is pushed on to the defensive the moment she steps into the fight! She throws up both hands in the path of Utau's oncoming blasts. "Lancer's Shield!" The rotating octagon of trigrams and Midchildan runes appears in front of her hands, rapidly battered by the blasts, forcing the Knight back a step.

"Rude? We're not the ones wrecking the place and hurting kids! Argent! Blast her!

" Aurora Lancer!" A series of new octagons form, spinning into darts of light to blast out a t the singer.

Focussed on Utau, she hasn't eeven nnoticed Sunbrreaker yet.

Coco Kiumi has posed:
"Of course, it's me, the mermaid princess of the Yellow Pearl Voice!", Coco exclaims back. "If you are set on harming people and trampling on dreams, I am not about to let your plan run its course, regardless of what you have to say about my outfit! The love of the seven seas will always promise peace to those willing to open their hearts to it," Coco replies, still not sure what Utau's deal is with her outfit. It is quite literally a divine one.

"Hi, Red", the mermaid replies from inside the sphere of white light known as the Live Stage. "I am working on it right now, just got to keep singing." Granted, she could turn the potency up by getting into the Super Idol form, and she is probably going to do that if this doesn't help.

Though, since her song is working well, Yellow Pearl Voice is fully set on singing, brief pause to reply to Utau and Amy nonwithstanding, and her melody purifies allies and repels evil, working to lessen the fatigue of the former and the potency of the latter.

Utau Hoshina has posed:
Lunatic Charm is beset with attacks. She spins her nightmare trident in the air to defect the attacks coming for her. Water jets off it, sending it everywhere, she won't fall just for some Chara-changed punk's watergun attack. Darts of light fly out at her and do impact her however, causing her to stagger in her own assault and attempts to block. Regardless the attacks give Tadase enough time to do what he needs to do as she regains her bearings and flaps up into the air on lithe, delicate batwings.

"SHUT UP ALREADY!" she yells. "You're off key, I can hear it, and and and--" she'd spend forever rudely critiquing Yellow Pearl Voice's song but there's work to do, she throws the Trident through the air towards the Knight of Dawn, quickly constructing a new one in it's place, the trident turning into a lance of red energy mid flight.

Oh. Ikuto is here. Her eyes light up. "Ikuto-niisan." she whispers, but then her eyes and expression return to sourness as she scowls. "Go away. I got things here." she says. Maybe she still doesn't get it.

----

The X-Chara is racing along and is suddenly is beset by arrows and for a few moments has to slow down to dodge them. It does weave through them carefully as it zooms. "Space. Need space. Gonna go to space. Won't stop. Space." it insists before Amy is able to get within grasping distance! Can she grab onto it and hold it!? IS that a good idea. Regardless,

---

Yellow Pearl Voice's singing, going unchallenged is returning X-eggs to the bodies of fallen people, turning them back into normal Heart Eggs. With Utau so caught up fighting it'll probably continue to be this way. It's also having an effect on the X-chara, slowing it down even more, though not able to shift it back to normal with such energy it has still!

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Sunbreaker cringed when a window was shattered. "Seriously? And you people get mad at us? At least put up one of those barrier things so nothing breaks. It--"

Then paused. Cat noir?! No. A different cat.

"Ughhh, why are there so many Catra knockoffs? Fine, though. If you want me to trounce your flank again, I'll be happy to oblige. At least this time you came properly dressed."

However, as she'd spoke the vein on her forehead had gotten bigger... and bigger... and bigger... and finally... She whipped the fireballs at Hinote. "IT'S SUNBREAKER!" she snapped.

She then turned back to focus on Black Lynx. Then hummed... And held up her right hand, a single finger... forming a very tiny 'sun' on the tip. "Hey, cat boy! CATCH!" And then flung it at him. As it flew, it compacted smaller and smaller...

But worse?

IT WAS FOLLOWING HIM!

Also, dang it! That song was driving her mad! ALSO WHY WERE THERE SO MANY OF THEM?! UGH! "Get LOST!" she yelled, before holding up her left hand and spewing off a flurry of small balls of fire, a handful of them at EVERYONE! But Utau and the x-egg, of course.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Hope Blossom still isn't sure how to deal with this. The pinkette is used to dealing with enemies far larger than her, not far smaller. One thing she knows for sure is that her side could absolutely use a few pieces on the board.

    ... Probably the wrong metaphor to use when the piece in question is a King.

    Hearing Coco's voice, Blossom smiles up at the mermaid. She doesn't want to interrupt the song because it's working, but Hope is glad she's here. "Keep it up! It's working!"

    Meanwhile, her arrows seem to be causing the X-Chara some difficulty but they aren't enough to stop it on their own. What could she possibly do here?

    Some of her arrows dissipate, their magic only giving them a limited flight time. She fires a few more in order to replace the lost, but at the same time she calls out, "So what if it's hard to make it to space? You can still contribute to science without that, and you don't have to give up on something just because it's difficult! If you like space so much, there's nothing wrong with studying it! There are a lot more people at a space program than just the astronauts!"

    Would a practical approach like that even work? Doka doesn't know. She slept through this part of the tutorial. Maybe it's a good thing that she's too focused on the X-Chara to really have mental space to respond to Sunbreaker's antics.

Tadase Hotori has posed:
    At least the bats stop. Tadase is a little worried about the Knight of Dawn - but it looks ... mostly... like that is a henshin and that means she's better positioned than himself and Hinote.

    "Stay behind me, Hinote." he says, a glowing light from under his shirt appearing before he reaches in and pulls out a lock with a clover-looking symbol. He has no idea what's going to happen to Hinote, but he knows that there's a limit to what he can do without going full tilt, even if that means doing it in front of all of these people - well, except for Sunbreaker they were all allies or... really complicated past histories.

    My Heart: UNLOCK! he calls, doing the hand pose of the unlocking.

    Kiseki returns to his egg, there is a brilliant (really bright) white light, and Tadase is no longer Tadase. He's Character-Transformed into something clearly inspired by a French king.

    Aaand then the boy he got in front of has drawn Sunbreaker's flaming ire. Platinum Royale holds up his scepter - but came out of the henshin a little too slow and takes the fireball head on - and is a little bit less platinum a little more 'slightly charred edges' as the fireball breaks and he staggers back, using his more staff-like scepter as an almost crutch to remain standing. "Ow...."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "She is NOT off key!" Amy turns and points dramatically at Lunatic Charm. "If you're not as good at singing, don't blame someone else! In modern words: Git gud!"

    Oh wait, the X-Chara is getting away! "Gah! How do we fix Space Core here and get it back into GladOS?! Uh, king guy, you said you could purify him?!"

    She blinks as an idea hits her.

    She conjures a missile in her hand, not loading or firing it, and holds it up. "Hey, space guy! Look! A rocket! Isn't it cool?!" she calls out to the X-chara!

Ikuto Tsukiyomi has posed:
Black Lynx glances to his sister. Gives her a small smile. He's happy to see her, even in a situation like this. "You know I can't just leave, Utau. Especially not while this girl- Hey! Hey hey hey, what the heck is that?!"

A narrow miss...at first. Cat reflexes are good for avoiding thrown projectiles, but he really wasn't expecting the thing to curve mid-flight and keep following him! Now Black Lynx is jumping around, just barely avoiding getting singed by the persistent orb. He thinks, and runs after Madoka and the X-Chara. "Kaname-chan, special delivery for a pest!" He flicks his tail in the direction of the fire orb as he tries leading it right at the rampaging X-Chara.

He has no idea if this is a terrible plan or a brilliant one, but he can't just ignore that there's what looks like a miniature sun chasing him around, and he can't really go after Sunbreaker while it's there.

Yuki Hoshino has posed:
The fight is definitely not going in Yuki's favor. She's gotten a few shots off, but she has to stop to switch back to her sheild when Utau's trident comes flying at her. "Hey! Watch it where you're chucking that thing! There are people trying to fight in here!"

Wait, what?

She just barely gets the shield into position in time, only to watch it glitch and derezz just as the trident hits it. Not a good sign.

Her banter needs work. So does her dodging. Here comes Sunbreaker's blast, and her shield isn't ready. Uh-oh. The Knight is slammed back into the wall of the museum, right through an exhibit - fortunately only a panel of photographs, not something delicate - but more than enough to be a decidedly uncomfortable landing in a Yuki-shaped dent in the wall.

"Hey..." she mutters, wiping a bit of blood off her chin. "There's two of you? No fair...."

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Hinote Kagari looks annoyed that his attack is just brushed aside. He then upsets Sunbreaker with a nickname she hates. That was really smart Hinote, good job. He's about to get toasted. He braces and wonders if this is how it ends. Toasted, well done, baked to perfection in a museum in a space exhibit.

Then Tadase Character Transforms with the help of the lock. And eats that fireball. He calls out. "Tadase-san!" he says worriedly, as he indeed stayed behind Tadase, luckily. He can usually do what he's told.

Being so close the lock's energy is rubbing off on him though as he starts to glow with a faint light. "Eh?"

"Come on, kid, let's go!" says Tracy, balling his tiny hands into fists.

What did Tadase just do. He saw it. Does. He. Do that. "My...My...he--"

"My Heart: UNLOCK!" he calls out, doing the same handsigns Tadase did. Are they perfect? No, but it's good enough. Perhaps it's all the intent that matters, as a light overtakes Hinote, Tracy entering his egg to merge with him, Transforming him into a suit... as he already has the fedora. A trenchcoat. And lastly a domino mask. "Pulp Noir....!" he says as he blinks a little.

"Woah." he says a moment as he looks down at gloved hands, before amazement turns into determination....

---and with all the magical might he can muster. He just tries to slug Sunbreaker right in the face with a strong right hook.

Utau Hoshina has posed:
Lunatic Charm looks at Black Lynx and frowns a little. Oh. Right, He's still rebelling. What a bad idea- that's just going to get Ikuto hurt. Or worse.

Tadase Character Transforms before her eyes. She frowns at this. But he eats Sunbreaker's fireball meant for his friend there. She feels slightly bad as the king takes the hit. He looks bad. She only wears the apologetic expression for a moment though as the guy he was with Character Transforms into some sort of masked detective and goes to slug Sunbreaker in the face.

She concentrates now on the Knight of Dawn, sending another strong wave of bats at her, another Nightmare Lorelei. Amy also is now a target for these bats aswell as she spouts off at Lunatic Charm. "Let's see her make a bajillion dollars with HER voice then!" Utau says angrily.

----

The X-chara could had been grabbed. But no one did that. It's still racing around, causing property damage, and being slowed down. "Space, gonna go to space." but still there's an impression of the boy's dream still there. "No, space is dumb... I'll never make it there... Everyone is right." says the voice. The dream is still corrupted. It needs to be purified.

The missile seems to attract the X-chara... who mischievously  tries to light it on fire with it's jet pack so it'll go off. This may not have been the brightest of ideas. "SPACE!" yells the X-chara triumphantly.

----

Good news, all the X-eggs are gone! Thanks to Yellow Pearl Voice's singing. Bad news, the X-chara is still running amok.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Sunbreaker smirked at the running cat. Good. And out of the corner of her eyes she saw the platinum boy get exploded. Then, woo! The new device user hit the wall. She did cringe, admittedly grateful nothing of value was lost. But they were totally winning this fight. Utterly smashing--

A blur of motion on her left made her turn just in time to see the fist... Before it slammed into her face.

The orb chasing Black Lynx exploded in a small poof, not doing much damage as the spell was ended, rather than connecting.

Sunbreaker, meanwhile, spun three times in place from the blow, her eyes swirlies as she wobbled left, right... then dropped.

"O-owie... It... it might be... a-a good time for a... tactical... retreat..." she said, eyes still swirling. Ow. It felt like he dislocated her jaw...

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Blossom sees Black Lynx pass by her and shouts, "Lynx-kun! Be careful!" Then she sees the mini-sun chasing him and, even though she didn't see the initial attack, she strongly suspects she knows who to blame for that.

    Madoka is at a loss, and Gretchen isn't here. Fortunately she is the Girl With Too Many Chara and three more of them just showed up. Brai, Medo and Sio fly through an open Labyrinth portal and into the museum, squealing loudly and flailing their arms. Brai shouts, "We're here to help, Hope-chan!"

    The pink arrows can corral the X-Chara a little bit, but they can't really land on it. Madoka's words seem to have not really gotten through, either. Fellow chara should be able to tackle the thing, though. Or at least, that's their plan. As the minidoka chara chase after the space X-chara, each of them tries to tackle it or get in its way. It's hard to surround something that can fly, but they try their very best!

    Hope Blossom, meanwhile, can do little but stand by and watch... at least until she realizes, "Wait... I could grab it, too... but... Gretchen actually hates getting grabbed."

    Brai shouts back, "That's just Gretchen's own issues. Help us!"

    Without needing further prompting, Hope Blossom leaps into the air to try and catch the space cadet. With variable degrees of success.

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Pulp Noir smacks Sunbreaker in the face. He closes his eyes when he feels the punch connect. There's something almost a little neat about this, as he draws his hand back as Sunbreaker meets the floor. He cooly, grabs the rim of his fedora, and slips his hand into the pockets of his trenchcoat and says, smoothly.

"Case closed."

That's the Tracy in him saying that. Maybe.

He then quickly looks over to Tadase and goes over to help him because lord did he eat that fireball for him. And he feels really bad about it.

"Hey, are you okay, Ta--Royale?" he asks. "What do we do about. All that now?" he asks, motioning to the X-chara.

Ikuto Tsukiyomi has posed:
The sun poofs out. Black Lynx stops, looking around awkwardly. Then he looks back at Sunbreaker...who is now on the floor after what looks like a solid right hand from...Hinote? He grins, calling out across the room. "Hah! Guess you can't take a hit as well as you give one! Good going, Hinote!"

A glance at Utau tells Ikuto that there's a serious problem, though. She seems to have the upper-hand on that other girl, and isn't letting up. This could end badly. He knows better than to just hope words are enough to get through to her when she's in one of her moods, though. He runs at the waves of bats she's sending at Yuki and raises his claw, swiping down. "Slash! Claw!" Cutting wind flies through the air at the bats from his clawed glove, and then he puts himself between the other girl and Utau. He doesn't raise his claw to Utau, but rather seems ready to take any further attacks aimed at her himself. "Stop this, Utau!"

Tadase Hotori has posed:
    Platinum Royale looks up from his quasi-slumped position just long enough to watch the now-transformed Hinote... or rather, Pulp Noir, land a very satisfying punch on Sunbreaker. And he doesn't think he's ever had a punch someone else recieved feel so... revitalizing.

    He looks to Pulp Noir as he asks. "Right, the X-Chara." It's still running around and risking its bearer's dreams if someone hits it too hard. "It looks warn down... we need to purify it... and that's my responsibility, now. That's what wearing the lock means." Now if only it would...

    And then it seems like Hope Blossom has the same idea. Just with a little bit more direct, physical interaction to make the idea happen. "Works for me! Thanks, Hope Blossom!"

    "Negative Heart, Lock on! OPEN HEART!" he calls, pointing at the X-Egg and making a heart shape with his fingers near the lock. Before a truly massive heart-shaped beam of cleansing energy erupts from it, with such force that even with his feet planted, they scrape back across the museum floor, the wind kicking up from him.

Yuki Hoshino has posed:
Peeling herself out of a Yuki-shaped hole in the wall is something Yuki had not expected to see outside of cartoons. At least her Barrier Jacket didn't glitch out on her. That would've been embarassing as all get out.

"Lancer's Shield" she orders, the the Device complies, projecting another rotating octagon in front of her as she heads back towards the fight, keeping a close eye on the singing villain.

And she's right to, as Utau focuses her attacks on the young Knight, bad time to be Yuki.

She's bracing herself for another round of bat-blasts, holding up her shield with both hands, when the cat-boy steps into the way. "Watch it!" she yells, trying to warn him off. She's ready for it... she thinks. But he's there, and the blasts are coming. So she goes back on the attack, taking advantage of the opportunity.

"Aurora Lancer!" The shield spins, breaking apart into a dozen smaller octagons, each one forming darts to hurl around the cat-boy towards Utau. "Surrender!" she shouts, "You can't win!"

It's easy to snark when someone else is tanking for you.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "She probably could!" Amy shouts back. And there's the X-chara being depressed, which makes Amy sad. "There, there..." she reaches to pat the chara's shoulder, but it takes the opportunity to set off her missile with the power of DREAMS! "Hey!" Oh gods she hopes it doesn't hit a person or anything priceless! At least it's, like, a pretty small one, that probablty won't even make a hole in a tough stone wall!

    They switch, now it's Madoka's turn to catch the wayward Chara while Amy, who was worried about the rocket, catches bats! "Agh! Ow! That HURT!"

    She summons her launcher and starts trying to counter any new groups of bats as they're summoned with some kind of missile that turns into a small fireball when it detonates instead of 'exploding'.

    Except uh. Last time she did that she was in a Witch barrier.

    And now she's inside a museum.

    The result is blinding to look at for an instant. A group of bats is vaporized, uncomfortably HOT air washes over everyone, and things near the bats she just fried might catch fire.

    Amy, who was about to follow up with another shot, steadies herself and rubs her eyes which now have a great big blob of afterimage in them and kinda hurt because she was looking right at it.

    To Sunbreaker, it looks like an idiot pyromancer just tried to make a flame spell as hot as possible or something and messed up.

Utau Hoshina has posed:
Lunatic Charm watches Sunbreaker just completely eat that punch, like. Just completely sacked onto the floor. She has to stifle the giggle because watching that was hilarious for a second. But only for a second because now it means she's on her own AND she's outnumbered AND her brother just stopped the attack going for The Knight of Dawn as she scoffs. "Bad kitty..." she says under her breath. "You know. I'm not really going to enjoy having to explain this to The Director. You're still making a really dumb decision, Ikuto-kun." she says with a pout.

She picks up Sunbreaker from the floor with one arm as she quickly dash flies upwards, through the domed, sky lit ceiling of the exhibit hall, running away because she doesn't really feel like getting her ass collectively kicked tonight anymore than she's going to enjoy all the personal time she really does need to explain all this to Easter's Director.

----

Amy vaporizes bats. They're not that hard to smack. Luckily nothing catches fire. Though some pictures of the moon landing get singed. Luckily they're just re-prints and not historical in and of themselves.

The X-chara, is grabbed by all the charas. It tries to struggle, trying to boost off again. But before it can. Negative Heart smashes into it, it squeals. "SPACCEEE!" a final time before the X-chara is healed! The X-chara turns slowly, into a shiny form of a chara in an astronaut suit as it gives the other charas a thumbs up. "I'm ready to blast off again. But not right now. Later. When he's ready." it says with a wink before it's heart egg closes around it, and it floats back to it's unconscious owner, settling back into their chest, absorbing into it.

----

Well. There's a large mess. But the day is saved. The X-chara is back where it belongs. And the only thing hurt is maybe Utau's and Sunbreaker's pride.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Sunbreaker blinked a few times. "Case... closed?!" she yelled. And launched fireballs at Pulp Noir's back! "MY CASE IS NEVER CLOSED!"

She, grudgingly, even tried to sit up! Ha, you thought she was down, but it was her, Sunbreaker! Mildly concussed! Okay, she was down. And her head hurt now, for TWO reasons. Stupid singer and PUNCH! And--

And now she was being carried. "Wait, what?" she asked, blinking in confusion, bleary confusion, a few times. "I could take 'em! Wait, no, I called for this... Go buck yourselllllllves..." Mildly concussed Sunbreaker yelled as she was carried away.

"... You really are his sister..." Sunbreaker muttered. Why? BOTH of them broke windows on the way in and out!

Ikuto Tsukiyomi has posed:
Ikuto should try to stop his sister from just running away. He doesn't, though. She's not going to listen to him any more than he'll listen to her right now. He sighs and watches her leave with Sunbreaker. He has a bad feeling about that one. He'll need to deal with the fiery girl sooner or later if he's going to get his sister out of this mess with Easter.

Turning around to look at Yuki, he looks apologetic. "Sorry about that. The girl you fought...she's my younger sister, Utau. Are you injured? Kaname-chan's Chara can help if you are. I'm Ikuto. Ikuto Tsukiyomi."

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    "I got it, I got it!" exclaims Brai, her grip finding purchase on the zippy astro-Chara.

    "Me, too!" shouts Medo, tackling the X-chara from behind. Then Negative Heart locks onto and washes over all of them, causing the minidokas to release the X-chara just in time for it to get purified.

    Hope Blossom cheers, "Good job, everyone! We did it!" With a bright smile, she watches as the stray dream returns to the child's heart, glad that they were able to keep at least one thing safe. Then the pinkette starts looking around at the mess and... "Eheh... Oops."

    She tries to put a fallen poster back up on the wall, but it just slumps down again. Awkwardly, she starts to backpedal out of the room. "Well... um... good work everybody! Ehehe..."

    Oh geeze. Who is going to clean this up?!

Coco Kiumi has posed:
Coco has been off on the side, doing her own thing with the magic that has been granted her, but the bats have been relentlessy assaulting with only Black Lynx's own attack on them saving her from that swarm. And in the end the X-Chara goes back to being a perfectly good dream, saluting the others. Looks like that is done here.

Coco just dissolves her Live Stage, and she looks around asking if everyone is alright.

Tadase Hotori has posed:
    Tadase topples over a little bit - nearly onto a display but he catches himself with his staff and steadies himself on it. Sunbreaker's fireball then an Open Heart? It really took a lot out of him.

    He watches Sunbreaker and Utau leave - not being able to really -do- anything about it but hold his henshin together until they leave. But once they're gone, he gives a half-hearted look around and *pop* goes his henshin, leaving a very tired looking Kiseki and a less-scorched but equally exhausted but standing Tadase Hotori.

    "Oh that did not feel good. Hi... people. Good. Job. Can someone help me out of here before I crash or the normals start waking up? I'd... really, really appreciate that."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy blinkblinkblinks, looking around at...

    Well, it could've been worse, right? Madoka leaves, and so do the villains, and Coco looks okay but Tadase looks tired, so she flashes a smile to Coco, "Thanks!" and runs over to the nearly-toppling Tadase, trying to steady him. "Woah, uh... Do you need healing or anything? Anyplace we can take you...?"

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Pulp Noir has fireballs launched at his back. He takes them as his coat lights on fire as he has to suddenly yank it off and start stamping on it before he ends up burned or something else lights on fire. This leaves him in a black suit with holsters with waterguns and so he frowns as the two leave. He doesn't chance anymore smart comments as she turns towards Tadase and frowns.

He'll help up Tadase. "Here." he says. "Sorry you had to eat that fireball for me. Are you going to be okay? Do I ... Do I take you to the hospital?" Pulp Noir asks. "I think I can carry you like this, if you want." he says. His henshin hasn't faded yet because he didn't eat a major hits.

He looks to the others. "Uh. Thanks all! I think we outta leave the last to the. uh. Normals." that's what Tadase just called them.

That feels weird. For lots of reasons. Also Amy is here helping! That's good.

Amy probably has a better idea of what to do!

Yuki Hoshino has posed:
Yuki nods, finally having a moment to stop and catch her breath. "Thank you for the help, Tsukuyomi-san. Your... sister? Seemed to be rather determined to put me through that wall..." She sighs and finds a bench to sit down on.

"I go by Knight of Dawn, when I'm out in one of these fights." She looks up at the broken window Utau and Sunbreaker escaped out of, then back to the crowd still in the museum.

"Gah. What a mess."

Tadase Hotori has posed:
    "I don't need a hospital I'm just a little tired." Tadase says, quietly. "I just don't wanna be here..." he gestures at the environmental... not-everything-being-great-right-now. "Maybe... just a park bench or something? I'm not that injured or anything, I just feel like I ran two marathons and got flattened like an American cartoon character.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Madoka sees everyone looking tired or checking on each other and feels a little guilty for almost ditching. Instead, she pauses, then rushes over to Tadase to check if he's alright. The flossie-wearing minidoka Medo, since she's here now, starts floating around the various mahou to see if they're hurt. Sadly she can do little but offer bandaids or disinfectant, because Madoka isn't so much a magical healer as much as she is a mundane first responder.

    Still, a quick checkup never really hurt anyone.

    Since Tadase already has people offering to help him stand up, Madoka instead asks, "How are you feeling?" Then, she asks the crowd. "Is anyone hurt? Maybe I should check the normies..."