1570/Worse than ever before...

Worse than ever before...
Date of Scene:	23 May 2024
Location:	Plot Room 1
Synopsis:	After defeating a youma on her own, Molly is riding high! Unfortunately, Hinoiri is coming in low... Leaving Molly in the hospital and making Rashmi consider what she's truly willing to do...
Cast of Characters:	Molly Skyline, Hinoiri Kirara, Rashmi Terios
Tinyplot:	Sunset of Sora

---

Molly Skyline has posed:
Molly hasn't battled a Youma solo before. Today was the first time for that experience, and it's been a tough fight. She was scared, going in; she'd called for backup from Rashmi of course, and anyone else in the area, but from her best friend first of course. As always. But the demands of battle are what they are, and you can't always wait, and this time the young artillery mage just had to slug it out one on one.

She's not very good at close up battle. She prefers to take things on at a distance; that's what her magic is best for. Unfortunately, the semi-truck turned Youma had other ideas. Now, it's a pile of dismantled scrap -- she'd better leave before she has to explain that -- and she's not in the best of shape either. Her barrier jacket is night in ruins, and she's leaning heavily on Starcrash, looking like she's been put through a brick wall. Which, she has.

Several, actually. There are piles of broken bricks everywhere.

The purple haired girl is panting heavily after the exertion, and looking at the localized devestation around her. Still, she has the presenve of mind to send an update. "Starcrash," she stammers out once she finds her voice, "Contact Nicomacea. Let Rashmi-chan know it's over, the area's safe for now." She pauses, looking left to right. "Well, as long as there was only the one, that is."

<< AFFIRMATIVE >>

"You don't have to be that formal."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
What was the saying, when it rains, it pours?

Well, for Molly, that semi-truck was the light sprinkle before the hail of misery came crashing down all over her face. As the girl turned around, a black hole seemed to just... appear overhead and behind her. From it, blistering heat rolled out.

And then a dark, burning figure flew out, landing with a crash, on all fours. Another youma?! SERIOUSLY?!

Except this one was.... somewhat... familiar. The black flames certainly were. That red and orange hair. But the scales, the lab coat, the black and red sailor fuku? Those. Those were new.

And the girl slowly rose up, looking at Molly... before hissing. "You. You. I know you. You... annoyed me. Attacked. YOU! You wouldn't LISTEN to me. You UNDERESTIMATED me..." Hinoiri said, though a part of it sounded like she was more talking to herself than to Molly. She lifted a hand to her head, before growling. "WILL EVERYONE JUST SHUT UP?!!" She yelled before holding up her hand. Darkness gathered, before just erupting out. And Molly could *feel* it. All of the energy just... drained from the local area. Civilians around the area just collapsing in sudden exhaustion. Cars just... stopping in place. Everything turning off, going silent in an instant...

Before Hinoiri turned towards Molly. And then, she grinned. "You... I... remember... you... do you know... who I am?" she asked, a cruel grin on her lips.

"I am Hinoiri Kirara... the Sunset of Sora... And you?"

"Are my prey..." and she started walking towards her. "You can just accept that you can't win and get hurt..."

"Or try and fight me... and get *incredibly* hurt... Your choice."

Molly Skyline has posed:
Wait, another one? Seriously? That's not fair!

As Molly's feelings of exhausted triumph are being interupted, she's about to tell Starcrash to let Rashmi know that things are indeed, not resolved afterall. Except, as becomes rapidly apparent, this isn't a Youma.

This is considerably worse.

"Sunbreaker," Molly whispers. She takes a step back; a glance to her side at what's happening, all the people suddenly exhausted, without letting the figure out of her sight. She grips Starcrash tightly, holding the device up in front of her as if it might protect her -- but Starcrash remains an offensive device, and hasn't recovered any defensive abilities to speak of yet.

<< YOU CANNOT DEFEAT THIS FOE >> cautions Starcrash. << WITHDRAW IMMEDIATELY >>

"Can we fly?"

<< NEGATIVE >>

Molly takes a further step back, and wipes the back of her hand across her brow. "I don't want to fight you," she states, forcing iron into her voice, before whispering, "Starcrash, message Nicomacea and warn Rashmi."

<< AFFIRMATIVE >>

"I don't want to fight you," she repeats, "But I *will*, if I have to." She ulps audibly, stepping backwards. "And you'll win, but it won't just be *me* getting hurt, just so you know. I've gotten stronger sine you last met me and I won't hold back this time. Just... go back through that hole you came out of and leave people alone!"

Molly clenches both hands tightly around her staff. "Starcrash, charge Eclipse Beam," she instructs.

<< ARMED >> answers Starcrash, as the blue jewel in the staff takes on a cold, pale glow. Molly holds the weapon up in front of her, her only shield against the self-proclaimed Sunset of Sora, with a spell held and waiting. And probably not much left after she's used it. But hey... what does a sorceress who's out of spell slots do in D&D? She figures something out, that's what.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
<< Rashmi-chan I'm fighting a youma, I could use some help! >>

With homework done, and Hannah consulted with, Rashmi was enjoying a quick soba on the antenna atop Clover Tower, when the call came in. Thus, it would be a bit of travel time, before she got to Molly's position.

<< It's okay Rashmi-chan, I beat it! >>

This news, with Rashmi still a good few kilometers out, has the redhead slow down her all-out trundle. "...Well good for her! So, whaddaya think, yakiniku to celebrate her first solo?" she asks Nicomachea, who simply chimes the chime of someone who has absolutely no skin in the 'what to get to eat' game.

Then Starcrash sends out an alert.

    << *BONG!* >> << ALERT. MASTER. ALERT. APPENDED ENERGY SIGNATURES PARTIAL MATCH FOR SUBJECT 'Sunbreaker.' EXERCISE MAXIMUM CAUTION. >>

By the time Nicomachea got the last few syllables out, 'maximum caution' meant 'maximum speed,' and a desperate voice message sent to Starcrash ahead of her.

    << Molly-chan, *get out of there* I can track your location and come get you! >>

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Sunset of Sora frowned when she was called... that. Wrong. Name. "Sunbreaker was the name I used when I hid who I was. When I worried about what you pathetic little.... insects... would think of me." She flicked a hand to the side, spreading her fingers out. "I had a new form, why not a fake form? But that was part of my mistake." She kept walking towards her. "I was... scared. I thought if I didn't make myself oh so perfect, I wouldn't be good enough."

"... But there was a flaw, you see. I was already good enough. SHE was unworthy of ME!" she yelled, before charging forward...

And, as the beam was unleashed, she held out her hand and caught it in her palm. Just like she had the Tuxedo La Smoking Bomber. Her palm traveling up it, the beam burning around the flaming palm...

Until it closed around the head of the device.

And held it.

Her tail then lashed out, coiling around Molly's waist and pulling her in. "I... warned you..." she whispered.

And then the draining. Sucking Molly's very power out of her body, mercilessly taking it, like ripping out a bit of her soul as the burning tail held her in place. Quick. Rapid. Brutal.

Before she'd, finally, let the device go... and then look down at her palm, before dropping the girl down as well. "You'd gotten stronger, congratulations," Hinoiri said. "You actually bruised my palm this time. It... SHUT UP!" she yelled again, shaking her head. People were waking, that empathy... panic... anger... fear... ugh. WHY?! She then hmphed, before disappearing into black flames a moment later. Uncaring of the destruction and damaged mahou she left in her wake...

Molly Skyline has posed:
Molly got the message from Rashmi, but she can't even send back an explanation that she can't run. She doesn't have time. Sunset is right here, literally in her face. What follows, from Molly's perspective, is almost surreal. It's like it happens in slow motion. She tells Sunbreaker to fire, and dutifully the artillery device does what it does best, and unleashes a focused blast of energy, inspired by the cold of outer space (which is very cold indeed).

But it isn't defended against, or avoided, just... almost ignored, until her hand grips Starcrash's jewel. Starcrash can't even get off a warning, before the draining begins.

Starcrash sputters, trying very hard to caution Molly to the danger, but it's too late. The jewel goes dim and turns gray; but Molly doesn't notice, she has her gaze locked with Hinoiri's, and the look in her eyes is a deep seated terror that she can't hide.

And then, she realizes that she's screaming. Her lungs empty; and though she fights it, trying her best to hang on, even pounding her fist against Sunset's shoulder, just as suddenly it's over.

Her assailant vanishes. She seemed taller, though, when she left. Did she really get that much bigger?

No, Molly realizes, her mind seemingly detached from her body. She wouldn't want to be there, it hurts too much. Every fibre is agony. That's why she's on her knees. That's why Sunset seemed so tall.

That's why the ground is coming so much closer.

Molly lands face-down on the pacement lack a broken marionette. Her glasses come loose from her face and land off to the side, one lense cracked and the other broken in half. She struggles to breath; breathing is really important, she thinks. Need to take a breath.

As the world gets dark around the edges, she finally inhales, and it all comes rushing in.

It hurts too much to scream.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
    << *BONG!* >> << ALERT. MASTER. ALERT. SUBJECT 'Starcrash' SUSTAINING CRITICAL DAMAGE. >>

...Rashmi dearly hates flash-step movement spells. They're disorienting, a little bit nauseating, and she has yet to develop the head or instincts for repeated tactical use.

    << *BONG!* >> << SOLAR FLASH >>

But as the panels open up on top of the long fins that stream out behind her belt, and with a flash propel her most of a kilometer ahead in the blink of an eye, Rashmi is committed to her course.

There are things she hates far, far more than her own discomfort.

    << SOLAR FLASH >>

    << SOLAR FLASH >>

    << SOLAR FLASH >>

And as the final blip propels her to within sight of the 'battlefield,' Rashmi's eyes widen in horror, the breath driven out of her by what feels like a single, brutal punch. But that doesn't stop her from flying as hard as she possibly can, and by the time she lands she's at least recovered the ability to speak. "MOLLY-CHAN!"

Dropping to her knees, she immediately starts going over her training. Stabilize combatant. Try to diagnose. If diagnosis interrupted, take combatant and leave.

    << *BONG!* >> << SOLAR HEAL >>

    << MANA INVESTIGATION >>

A circle surrounds Molly's body, pouring warm, healing energy into her wounds. As she knows from terrible experience, there's no way she'll be able to fix a burn like this, not in one spell. And as the circular, rune-etched ribbon of light encircles Molly, and provides detailed scans, Rashmi's mouth sets in a hard, grave line. Damage to Linker Core resembles damage found on Mamoru, so it's every bit as likely that the trickle of energy meant to feed Molly's reserves are going directly to Sunbreaker, and that Molly won't be healing easily without repeated magical support.

Just as well.

"Molly-chan," she whispers, letting the adrenalin fall away enough to allow her to feel, and for her teats to fall against her glasses as she leans over one of her first, best friends. "I'm gonna get you to the hospital soon, just--" she pauses, swallowing the lump in her throat. "--as soon as this spell's done. C-can I take Starcrash to check up on h-him?"

It's going to be okay. It's going to be okay. It's your job to *make* it be okay, so it *has* to be okay.

Molly Skyline has posed:
Molly is badly burnt, that much is evident without any need for magical investigation. Her skin is obviously in terrible shape. Outside of magic, she needs the burn unit, but... the burn isn't the worst part.

The purple-haired girl struggles to get up, just to get herself up off the ground even, just to arrange herself so her face isn't on the asphalt. But she can't do it. She can't will her muscles into even this simple task.

She can hear Rashmi beside her; and she's worried, but she's safe. That's good. At least it was over before Rashmi got here. At least someone found her, and she's not just laying on the ground, waiting for something even worse to happen while she can't do anything about it.

Abruptly, she realizes she's crying. She can't see much, without her glasses everything has gone blurry. Very blurry. Her barrier jacket is gone too, completely vanished since Starcrash shut down. Is that even the right term? More like he was aggressively turned off.

Starcrash is laying beside her while the circle of light shimmers around her, still in staff form and unable to even transform back into being an earring. Molly struggles to find the strength to nod her head a couple of times, barely perceptable.

"Okay," she whispers.

Molly just lays there, feeling like she should be unconscious while unable to fall asleep. She's too tired to sleep. How is that possible?

"I'm sorry," she whimpers.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"It's okay," Rashmi says, tears streaming down her cheeks. "I'm gonna have to move you, but I'm gonna getcha to the hospital, y'hear? An' I'll be visiting you every day, an' get your homework an' everything, just... I got you, Molly-chan. Stop fighting for right now, an' rest."

When the healing spell -- and how inadequate is her paltry magic to *this* task, honestly? -- runs its course, she does her dead-level best to move Molly without upsetting her wounds if at all possible. A Shield used as an improvised stretcher, a shield bubble to keep the wind off the poor girl...

It's not enough to keep it from hurting, but, with every effort taken to make the trip as comfortable as possible, she's *almost* as secure as if she were in an ambulance

And when they finally get to Mitakihara, and Rashmi de-henshins and secures Starcrash inside Nicomachea's storage... even the lies fall easily from her lips, how she found the British girl so close by, and she needs help badly.

There will be holes in the story, but what matters most is that emergency medics find Molly, and bring her in, and get to work.

And as Rashmi promises to return during visiting hours, she thinks back to a conversation she'd had with Usagi, just the other day.

    TXT to USAGI -- I know you don't need to hear it, but it'll probably help to hear it from me; I understand how much you hate her right now. Every time I get worried I think of how I'd feel if she did that to Chrono. So I'm not gonna be stupid with my words. I'm just gonna stand by my friend.

Molly was her first friend, and is one of her *best* friends.

She may not be Chrono, but... Now Rashmi understands.