1872/Cruising for a Bruising

Cruising for a Bruising
Date of Scene:	18 August 2024
Location:	Plot Room 1
Synopsis:	The Witch of Delays' servants don't waste any time with the Aqua Pot and Laura secured in the Witch's mansion, but Hope Blossom, Magical Rocket Girl Red, Wind Dancer and Pulp Noir aren't intending to let them do as they please! With their valiant resistance, the incident gets solved for the better when Laura comes back and unlocks the Mermaid Aqua Pact, doing her first henshin as Cure La Mer.
Cast of Characters:	Laura La Mer, Madoka Kaname, Zephyr Windstar, Hinote Kagari, Amanda Faust

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Laura La Mer has posed:
It has been several hours since Chongire has successfully kidnapped hours and brought her and the Aqua Pot to the Witch of Delays. Ever since then the Witch's minions have started going on a stealing spree of as much motivation power they can get their hands on. Sometimes the Complete Layabout have been repelled before they could do damage, sometimes they have successfully taken the motivation power.

For those people that have followed the trail of bubble photos Laura had left, either by boat, swimming or by some other means, they would have reached a point in the sea where their long line just stopped with no further clue as to where they could have brought her. Luckily for them, they are going to receive another trail to follow very soon.

"Really, what an annoyance", Chongire mutters flying aimlessly on his small green boat. Next to him, Doctor Numeri was accompanying the crab man, with the use of her own blue boat. "For how long will we have to go back and forth from the world of humans", she agrees with him dissatisfied. Before they can complain any further, their attention is however taken by the siren of a nearby cruise ship.

"Do you think that will do?", the doctor asks her colleague. "I think so", replies he, taking out the sickly green sphere that produces the newer type of youmas, quickly imitated by Numeri. "Come out, Complete Layabout!", the two of them yell in unison, their sphere respectively landing on a lifebuoy and the cruise's smokestack.

What follows is the usual formation of the purple dome, this time engulfing the ship in all directions and the theft of motivation, the people on the ship quickly becoming tired and despondent. "Why should we bother maintain this ship?" "I don't really feel like continuing this vacation." "Does my job even matter?"

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Brai has been following the trail of bubble photos since the moment Laura was kidnapped, all the way up to the point where they stopped. Madoka, since then, has attempted to take a much needed nap. The key word here being 'attempt', because her rest was fitful and full of worries. When she awakes; Lydian, Medo and Sio are watching over her, relaying the news from Brai.

    Sadly, she couldn't be there to address the other Layabouts. She was well past the point of exhaustion, and even now she's not fully recovered.

Having been left with few alternatives, and lacking the ability to fly, Madoka has rented a boat for the day. It's a fairly mundane boat, small enough to be operated by a single person (especially if they are helped by a squad of invisible fairies), but it's also well within her upper-class teenager allowance. It wont be that much of a problem unless it gets broken, and the pink girl doesn't have that many other options.

    When they get close to the spot where Laura's bubble trail stops, Madoka pulls the boat to a stop but she doesn't yet drop the anchor. She's not convinced that she's currently where she wants to be.

    The moment she spies the blue crab in a flying boat, she immediately calls to her Chara, "Brai-chan, help me out. Everyone else, mind the boat. Take it away from here if you need to. MY HEART: UNLOCK!"

    A flash of lights and stars later, Hope Blossom is standing tall in her boat rental, watching as a life buoy and a smokestack on a nearby cruise ship get turned into a Layabout. She gasps and covers her mouth, while Sio and Lydian start operating the steering wheel and throttle respectively.

Zephyr Windstar has posed:
    It's been rough. Wind Dancer's been flitting back and forth, attempting to stop the Layabouts. She's failed more often than not, but now, she's flying over open water, following Hope Blossom's boat.

    The Enforcer looks about as haggard as Hope Blossom did the previous day, though a grim determination etches her face into a scowl as she spots the Layabouts being formed on the cruise ship.

    With a shift, slewing around in a wide arc as she changes direction, before she surges forwards with a dull boom.

    She drops low, kicking up spray as she closes in on the ship and the youma. Once close enough, she pulls up hard, doing a tight loop-de-loop then diving onto the lifebouy Layabout, slamming her axe blade into it with a wordless growl. Tenraikaze intones for her. < Typhoon Saber! > the blade detonating with force.

Hinote Kagari has posed:
A kidnapping, a MYSTERY, Pulp Noir is here already, well. Chara-changed Hinote was. Forced to participate by Tracy who has his arms crossed, floating next to him. The transformation did mean he had the detective vision acting for him, letting him get a lead on bubble pictures until they stop and he looks around.

"The boat rocked with uncertainty. There was a storm on the horizon." he looked over to Madoka before looking up at the cruise ship and arriving dark generals. He draws the brim of his fedora down.

"Let's go, Hinote!" calls out Tracy. "Right!" says Hinote.

"My Heart: Unlock!" he calls out, Tracy enters his egg and Hinote merges with it, becoming Pulp Noir properly and looking back up on the cruise ship. "Looks like we might wanna do a boarding action, doll." he says. "You able to get up there?" he asks. "I think I can make it."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy walked away from the last battle with no idea what was coming.

    Layabouts everywhere. It's almost as bad as the dancing bears Sunset released everywhere. And it never stops! One battle minutes after another, and from communication with other magical girls it's happening all over the city.

    It's a wonder they didn't try this tactic before. Laura could never have been in, like, eight places at once! They can only hope that Laura being free was somehow preventing this, and will again as soon as they rescue her!

    She looks at her soul gem as they approach the cruise ship in the distance. The Silver Crystal supercharged it, and having no more grief seeds, she was conserving the overcharge as best she could... but now that extra brightness in the gem is gone, and it's almost 1/3 corrupted again. Oh how she envies the Amanda of several hours ago, whose only worry was that she might not see any of her friends at the beach that day! ...today. Right, it feels like so long ago but that was earlier today. She can't keep going like this...

    Which is why as soon as she got the call from Madoka she rushed to go!

    And since every minute they're out rescuing Laura is likely another minute Layabouts are fighting other magical girls in the city... Amy hurries things along by supplying a great big rocket to push Madoka's boat along!

    When Chongire is spotted, Amy hurries over to the rocket and straddles it. "All aboard!" It's big enough to ride, white with cartoonish red fins matching her colorscheme, and once everyone's on who's boarding that way, it detaches from the boat and flies over the cruise ship!

    "GIVE HER BACK!" Amy shouts, and then more quietly "everybody off" as she drops off the rocket to the cruise ship's deck, letting it continue on straight towards the smokestack youma before exploding in a huge blast!

    The red Puella Magi, haggard from hours of fighting, lands on the deck and glares at Chongire and Numeri, pointing dramatically. "This ends NOW."

Laura La Mer has posed:
The sudden attack from Zephyr isn't enough to surprise the Layabout, who turns against the incoming axe and takes out of nowhere a mini version of itself, intercepting the blow. "Hey, that's one of the kids from the fight at the docks", Chongire recognises him, looking at Wind Dancer unperturbed. "Is that so?", Doctor Numeri smiles. "Aren't you quite resilient. You should give up, though. None of your efforts matter."

Chongire frowns at Puella Red's arrival. "Give back who? The mermaid? Why so much effort to free her? There is no reason you should try so hard for her." At the same time, the smokestack, alerted by the redhead's scream, is quick to intervene against the rocket Amy has been riding, punching it back upwards so it can explode away from any of them.

"Layabouts, attack these nuisances", Numeri and Chongire say, the smokestack answering by bringing a flurry of punches against the Puella Red while the lifebuoy rolls on itself at speed against the Wind Dancer.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Hope Blossom frowns thoughtfully as she turns to Pulp Noir. "I can, but we'll have to fully commit to the action." Then Amy offers to provide a rocket-propelled ride and she responds with a nervous sweatdrop. With a courageous yet tired smile, she turns to her fairies and says, "We'll be back before you know it. Stay safe!" Then she hops onto the rocket, sitting side-saddle.

    The tiny fairies Lydian and Sio somehow manage to move the controls well enough to keep the rental at a safe distance. Meanwhile, Madoka hops off of Amy's rocket and watches as it flies towards the smokestack only to get deflected.

    "Even if we don't have Laura here to give people their motivation back..." Her branch bow forms in her hands, and she nocks a glowing pink arrow. "... I'm still gonna give it my best shot!" She fires upwards, and as her projectile splits into several they all rain upon the smokestack youma.

    Hope Blossom looks up to see Doctor Numeri and her eyes go wide. That was the one that Rens hung out with. Could the Meanie Dokas be nearby? ... No, Madoka would sense them. Instead, she calls up to her, "We're not going to give up that easily. You have no right to take her away, and you have no right to this energy, either!"

Zephyr Windstar has posed:
    Wind Dancer grunts and does a few twists in mid-air, landing with a dull thunk of her boots on the deck. She angles her Device, and makes to golf-swing swipe and deflect the Layabout. "Will. You. Both. Shut. UP!" she roars at Chongire and Numeri while continuing to swing at the lifebouy youma, chasing after it if need be.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    The deflected rocket soars up into the sky and... doesn't explode. Huh. Maybe Red has some control over when it goes off?

    "Our efforts don't matter?" Amy replies. "We've saved the world. And also Christmas." She points out.

    And then she points at Chongire. "She's our friend and shouldn't be your prisoner. And you played your hand too soon going all-out as soon as you had her. We probably would've taken longer otherw--uagh!"

    She's punched in the back, stumbles, glances back, and does a half-somersault in the air, firing the rocket launcher while upside down to blast the layabout at point-blank range and also send herself flying back to put some distance between them!

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Pulp Noir super jumps aboard the cruise ship, coat flapping in the breeze in a cool action shot as he lands and says. "Sorry jerkbutts. But Miss Laura asked for my help once upon a time and you don't leave a client's job unfinished. It's just bad for business." he says. "Among other things." he says as he grips the edge of his fedora.

So instead he draws his realistic water pistol at the smokestack, and fires a shot of a strong water blast towards it.

"So give up the ghost already. For someone spreading lack of motivation you sure seem to have a lot of motivation for whatever the freck you're actually about." he says with a feh. "Feh."

Laura La Mer has posed:
"Another magical warrior, they really are coming out in force against us. How precious", Numeri smiles when she sees Hope Blossom's arrival. "It's really nice that you are interested in destroying the Layabouts knowing the motivation would be lost. My applause to you. Layabout, do the honours." The smokestack obeys, breathing out a torrect of smoke against Madoka.

"I don't really think so, I am quite liking this chat", Chongire tells Zephyr, jumping off from his flying boat to walk towards the mahou. "And I would like to hear what you think you can do against us, anyway."

The smokestack's youma eyes widen when it sees the rain of arrows that are about to reach it, dancing around frantically to avoid them. Its efforts aren't all successful however, and quite a few of them hit their target, making it whimper.

The lifebuoy youma flies away when Zephyr strikes it, bouncing off against the wall before landing on the ground in a kneeling position, fatigued. It takes the second swing head on, enduring the impact to try and grab at the Wind Dancer's leg, throwing her against a few deckchairs if it manages to do so.

Amy's reply surprises Chongire, who does a huge jump landing right in front of the redhead. "I gotta say, thank you for saving the world for us. You did us a solid there. And are you really sure she is your friend? The Witch is offering her freedom from some constraint that has been placed on her in exchange for the mermaid's help. She may have betrayed you already." He smirks at the last sentence before bringing his claw down against the redhead's head.

"Why would you think we are actually engaged in any of this?", Numeri replies to Noir disinterested. "You would be doing this too if you had your superior breathing on your neck all the time. I really wish Butler would cut it sometime." The doctor raises her stethoscope from which three thick strings whip out, all of them intertwining with each other to form a barrier enduring the detective's water blast. Only one of them survives the attack, but that one retaliates against the detective, trying to hit him head on.

Zephyr Windstar has posed:
    Zephyr's axe swings up, and is about to come down again on the fallen youma, that is, until her legs are whipped out from under her and she's suddenly crashing into a bunch of deckchairs. She pushes herself out of the debris, standing while using her Device to push off of.

    Mismatched eyes glare at Chongire, but she has a youma to fight. She ignores the crabman, who's been distracted by Amy by now, and refocuses on the lifebouy. She spikes her axe into the deck, and speaks, finally setting up a "Barrier!" < BARRIER EXPANSION. >

    She then points her Device at the youma, and adds, "Chain Bind!" Purple chains erupt from spell seals that form around the youma, trying to pin the creature down.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Madoka's eyes widen and teeth grit as she hears what Dr. Numeri says. "Lost?!" The idea that destroying the Layabouts without Laura's help would destroy the gathered motivation energy is tragic, but... she can't let the enemy have it, either. Even as a Chara Bearer instead of a Puella Magi, Madoka is still forced to make grim decisions. She wishes they could find Laura soon.

    As the torrent of smoke comes towards her, she starts leaping from one spot to the next in order to keep away from it. When Madoka hears about the Witch of Delays making Laura an offer, she considers it. She doesn't really know Laura that well. Would she have made that choice?

    "I don't believe you!" she yells back. "She had the courage to stand against you with little to no magic of her own. I personally know what that's like, and I know what kind of risk that entails. Nobody would go that far, or put themselves in that kind of danger, unless they had conviction!"

    After all, Madoka was the one getting into fights when all she had was a Chara Change instead of a full Chara Transformation. People weren't wrong to point out that she could get killed that way. Yet even back then she was driven, and she imagines that Laura must feel something like that.

    The Barrier goes up, and Hope Blossom smiles to Wind Dancer. "Thanks! Now we can go all out."

    She swaps targets to focus on the lifebuoy youma, firing a spread of arrows which all explode into pink sparkly clouds, trying to blind and distract the float ring youma long enough for Madoka to rush in. Several branch bows appear in her hand and weave around each other into a wooden spear, which she tries to throw through the hole in the ring in order to pin it down.

    As for the smokestack... she'll have to deal with it later.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy flips over in midair and lands on the deck, before Chongire surprises her by landing right in front of her. "Eh?!" And he surprises her by thanking her for saving the world. "I didn't do it for you." And then she looks shocked and claps her hands over her mouth, before uncovering it again. "I'm not tsundere!" She angrily declares. "It just came out that way!"

    Moving on... Chongire announces that Laura has betrayed them. Amy pivots on one foot to call to the others, the claw whiffing just past her,

    "See? I totally called it, right? I told you they'd try to make us think she turned against us!"

    Amy steps away, trying to keep out of claw range, and smiles back at Chongire. "But you know, if you weren't bluffing you'd have brought her here to show us. Next time at least come up with a more interesting story if you want to distract me! Backblast clear!"

    And then she's holding her launcher again, aimed at the smokestack youma with Amy positioned so the backblast will hit Chongire if he doesn't move. She fires!

    As for Numeri, Amy calls out, "It sounds like your boss is an ableist jerk. Laziness doesn't exist, what is it that gets in the way and makes doing your job so frustrating?"

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Pulp Noir gets SMACKED by the stethoscope whip, sending him flying off the edge of the cruise ship. He deftly and suddenly throws his hand out though to grab the guard rail and uses it to climb his way back on board as he hops the rail and draws up his water pistol again.

"Neat trick. Won't work twice." he says as he draws the pistol on the evil doctor and fires a few quick shots of blaringly powerful water.

"Then why are you doing this. Leave. Walk away from it." he says drawing the brim of his fedora up.

"But then the question is, you can't. Or you won't." he says.

Laura La Mer has posed:
The lifebuoy youma rolls back when Wind Dancer's chains try to constrict around it, leaving them to hit empty space. It does manage to dodge all of Hope Blossom's arrows, but as the pinkette predicted, that leaves it unable to dodge her makeshift spear, pinning it against the wall. However, even then it doesn't seem to have suffered any damage from the impact and it is already slowly but surely making progress in freeing itself.

"You threw that thing up at the docks too", Chongire notes to Zephyr when the Barrier goes up. "For what good it did then. What is it supposed to do anyway?"

Numeri snorts when she hears the reason Madoka for believing Laura would refuse. "But would you do the same if you got offered something you really needed? Let's say the Witch offered to help your little wandering fairies, and make it so all of you wouldn't have to have any more disagreements. Would you really not want their happiness?", she chimes in.

"I said she may have betrayed you, but even if she doesn't have right now, it is only a matter of time before she realises her only choice is rotting in the Witch's prison forever or work with us", he shrugs at Amy. He is about to attack her when he sees that Hope Blossom has managed to pin down the life buoy youma. Pointing his claw at the pinkette, a purple portal forms in front of it, a rock being ejected at speed towards her, trying to push her off the ship.

The youma gets thrown back by Amy's rocket, crashing against the floor and forced to lay there as it recovers from the impact. While the backblast does reach Chongire, the dark general doesn't seem much worse for the wear, giving Amy a look of disdain before firing a rock at her too.

"You lot aren't taking into account that while none of us is particularly fond of Butler, we are still working for the Witch", Chongire frowns. "And she does need this, as much as we aren't very invested in it."

"Yes, Chongire is right. I am the Witch's doctor, and I would move anyway sooner or later since this goal of her seems to have a great impact on her health", Numeri sighs. In response to Noir's attacks, more whips lash out of her sthetoscope, meeting the water shots and canceling each other out. "Are you all done already?" she adds.

Zephyr Windstar has posed:
    Wind Dancer looks at the lifebouy youma. That's delayed enough she can probably do this. She adjusts her stance, then sweeps her Device in a wide arc, leaving points of purple light in the weapon's wake. After creating a field, they expand out into softball-sized spheres of boiling wind-aspected mana. With a flourish, she aims a swing in Chongire's direction, speaking a single word. "FIRE!"

    < IMPULSE BARRET, JETSTREAM SHIFT! > The spheres begin to emit smaller bullets of purple energy, like a multitude of machineguns pumping out tiny exploding bolts. "It allows me to go all out, like this." she explains, holding her pose as her spell continues to fire, each mote staggered so no two fire at the exact same time.

Hinote Kagari has posed:
"Current evidence suggests she hasn't agreed to help you. Else she'd be here in some capacity. You're still keeping her captive like a goldfish probably." Pulp Noir says as he lowers his weapon. "Wait, you're actually some sawbones!? Some Hippocratic Oath you follow there, chief." he says gruffly as he lowers his pistol back into his coat, to produce... a tommy gun!?

Yes, the Tommy Gun, which he starts firing in more rapid, numerous streams of powerful water jets through the air as he grips the edge of his fedora with his other hand.

"Look, make like a tree, and scram."

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Madoka's blood runs cold the moment Numeri mentions her fairies. She grips her branch bow tight. Her eyes widen, filled with a level of rage that the little pinkette never knew she had. This, she notes, is what true anger feels like. Not the mere annoyance of bad traffic, or the shock of getting slapped across the face by Hinoiri, or even the disgust she felt towards Beryl's creepy obsessions. No, this is actual fury. Or maybe it's fear. Fear at the thought that in a vulnerable moment; Gretchen, Rens and Tia might be misled by this Witch of Delays.

    It probably doesn't help that to her, making it so that she and her Chara 'no longer had any disagreements' could actually imply a few different things, but all of them are particularly dark.

    "Don't you dare!" she demands. "If any of you jerks do anything to my Chara... I'll---!"

    She's cut off as the portal opens before her. With branch bow in hand, she smacks the rock down into the deck with vengeance, leaving it embedded in the wood flooring. Then she looks up at Doctor Numeri, drawing an arrow while shouting, "We don't need your help. Keep your bad medicine to yourself!"

    Madoka takes her eyes off of the lifebuoy Layabout for the moment, which may turn out to be a bad choice, but she fires at Numeri over and over in a steady rhythm, nocking and releasing, nocking and releasing, each arrow splitting into many and saturating the air with pink magic.

    She knows she's firing on someone with considerable power, even if she lacks the motivation to really use it, but sometimes it's the thought that counts.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Direct hit! Amy steadies herself for a followup shot, then overhears Numeri talking about what it would take to turn to the dark side. "Never! Nothing would be worth hurting innocent people! Not even this!"

    Curse her brain, thinking too much. Is that really true? It was easy to say, and meant, but she imagines having lost her powers and gone back to what she was. She's not sure she could turn down a chance to be this again, however much fighting her friends would tear her up inside. She can't say she couldn't decide to hurt innocents for less. She let Hannah talk her out of breaking up even when she thought it was wrong.

    Ugh, that was an unpleasant thought. Amy points a gyrojet pistol at Numeri, and

    *KLONK*

    "AAAGH!" A rock hits her from behind and she falls to the deck.

Laura La Mer has posed:
"You really have drawn these kids' ire from the rest of us", Chongire mutters when he sees the attacks directed Numeri's way, tag-teaming with her and pushing back against Madoka's attacks with his rocks while the doctor takes care of Pulp Noir. "How'd you manage that, really?" She looks pensive, bringing a hand to her cheek. "Beats me, I was even making an offer for help. Sometimes kids can be quite unreasonable. I hope Elda-chan doesn't get this bad when she reaches their age." Chongire smirks at the thought. "Eh, she would probably take it out on Butler."

Focusing his attention back on the fight, Chongire looks at Zephyr's attack. "That's not bad", he mutters when he looks at the many wind spheres Zephyr has created. He doesn't look particularly worried, but still he has his interest piqued by the by windy arc. Just before the spheres fire, the life buoy is able to dislodge itself, fast enough to dodge some of them, while the others strike it and throw it backwards, but not enough to keep it down.

It is about to attack Zephyr again when there is the sound of a splash of water, and Laura jumps onto the ship, converting from mermaid form to human form in midair, and distracting the rest of them, who turn to look at the new presence. "Is everyone alright?" she exclaims worried, taking stock of the situation. "Oh, the mermaid has come back. How'd she escape the Witch's mansion?" Chongire mutters surprised. Laura doesn't register his question as she notices everyone that has been drained and Puella Red fallen onto the deck.

"How dare you do this?", Laura says, looking at Chongire, her expression locked in with shaking anger, not wanting to accept what they are doing. "How did you dare to do this to everyone?", she insists on questioning the crab-man, a ring suddenly appearing and intensely glowing with white light showing on her finger as the rock the Mermaid Queen gave Laura starts cracking, revealing a Mermaid Aqua Pact, blinding out Chongire and Numeri by the strong white light. "I will never forgive you!"

"Pretty Cure! Tropical Change!", she announces as a pink sphere surrounds her, her body changing to her human form with a dress made of blue energy as the giant bubble pops. Placing the Heart Swirl Ring sideways into the keyhole of the Mermaid Aqua Pact, she twists it upright and its seashell cover splits in half, revealing a purple base with white stars and blue waves on the left side and white hearts on the right side, surrounding a blue circle with a motif of crystals all around a white sphere.

"Let's put on make-up! Shine!", she declares spinning a pen with a glowing blue tip in her hand and rotating the circle as it turns pink, a water pillar rising and whirling before dispersing in 2 pink, 1 red, 1 lavender rose and 2 yellow spheres. "Face!" The pink spheres land on her cheeks, giving them a pink blush. The yellow spheres then briefly make her eyelashes glow yellow, adorning them with three pearls and making her eye colour turn pink with the exception of the blue heart at the bottom of her irises.

The red sphere lands on top of her hair, making it grow much more voluminous and colouring the middle section blue, then 2 giant pearls land on top of head's sides, the pink hair above twisting itself around them. Finally the lavender rose sphere lands on top of her lips, colouring them with the corresponding lipstick.

Another rotation of the Aqua Pact's circle and Laura calls out "Nails!", passing her pen on top of her left hand's nails, painting them azure while those on her right hand automatically change to match, before moving it to her toenails and painting them pink.

Laura La Mer has posed:
"Dress!" One more rotation and she draws a pink outline of a star vertically in front of herself, that then spins around rising above her head and descending to her waist before duplicating and the two stars move in opposite directions transforming her clothes into her magical outfit and placing the Mermaid Aqua Pact in a small pink bag appended to her waist.

Jumping upwards with a splash of waters, finally Laura introduces herself. "The Shimmering Ocean! Cure La Mer!"

Jumping with cold fury, she delivers a kick against Chongire, sending him flying back against the wall. "Let's turn this around! Mermaid Aqua Pot! Return the motivation power!", she yells, activating it and retrieving the rainbow energy from both Layabouts. "I will take care of the life buoy", she exclaims to the rest of the group, leaving the smokestack to them.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Madoka is distracted from her worry-fueled outburst by the sight of Laura rising out of the depths. In a better mood, she'd smile. Even as tired as she is, Hope Blossom is happy to see the mermaid. "You made it out! Are you alright?"

    Then Madoka stops in her tracks as Laura transforms right in front of them, revealing that at some point during her captivity she's become a magical girl. A PreCure, no less. For a moment, she smiles, glad to see that the girl has returned a bit tougher now. "Right. Let's wrap this up!" she calls out, then turns her attention to the smokestack.

    Bow in hand, she leaps into the air, draws an arrow back, and in that split moment at the apex of her jump she summons about 10 or so more branch bows hanging in the air around her. Each of them with their own glowing pink magic arrow ready to fire.

    "CHERRY BLOSSOM BARRAGE!"

    When Madoka releases her shot, all of her other bows follow suit, each one of them aimed at the smokestack as Hope tries to overwhelm it with too many shots at once.

Zephyr Windstar has posed:
    "As expected... not enough." mutters Wind Dancer to herself, dropping to a knee as her spell slowly winds down. She leans on her Device, as its vents open to vent steam that glitters with a suffusion of mana. She pants, looking up at the lifebouy youma as it readies to attack her. The Enforcer's face defiant, but there's no fight left behind those fierce eyes.

    That is, until Laura appears and kicks seven shades out of Chongire. "L-Laura?!" The name is spoken as if simply mentioning the mermaid might wake her from some hallucination.

    'I will take care of the lifebouy' "Right!" that leaves the smoke stack. She pushes off the deck, jumping up and away to land on a spell seal that forms in mid air. "Maelstrom Form. Storm Shift!" commands the Enforcer. < Switch Engine Drive. Shift Up! Maelstrom Mode! Storm Bits cycling! > returns the Device, as its form factor shifts. No longer a battle axe, now a long-haft single-blade axe. The other blade disperses, coalescing into a trio of turbine blade-like Bits that orbit around the Mage. "Ragios, Razgriz, Lethim. I call upon the Great Winds!" Wind Dancer's voice is level, her eyes closes as she shifts her posture, making a half-circle in front of her. "Parijium, Gralith, Horaph. Deliver unto me a Maelstrom!" As she incants, ribbons of purple magic lash out to coil around her ankles, thighs and waist, anchoring her to the spell seal. < MAELSTROM FORM SET. SWITCH TO BOMBARDMENT MODE. >
    The bits begin to circle the head of the axe, as the single blade ratchets around and exposes the gemstone. Thin lines begin to fill a sphere of magic, growing with each passing moment < ALL MANA CHANNELS CONNECTED. ANCHOR POINTS AND RECOIL DAMPENERS LOCKED. >

    The Bits begin to rotate faster, and faster, until they're a blur surrounding the watermelon-sized sphere of magic.

    < STORM RING HAS STARTED REVOLVING. MAELSTROM BUSTER READY TO FIRE. >
    Opening her eyes, Wind Dancer locks onto the Smokestack Layabout, angling her Device then biting out, "FIRE!"

    The sphere distends then erupts in a torrent of magic.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Chongire is complimenting Numeri on distracting them. "Ugh... Psychological warfare. Hey, we're not being unreasonable! You weren't offering to help, you were-- oh forget it."

    Whatever she's about to do is interrupted by Laura's return! "Ohh, that was slick!" she comments, on the mid-air transformation as she gets to her feet, "Laura, it's so good to have you back!"

    And... she's a Pretty Cure now?! Amy stares and smiles happy for her friend, "Congratulations!"

    She watches the transformation, freezing briefly at the second phrase. It's... an actual make-up based transformation? Amy has unexpected feelings about how feminine that is and now is not the time to unpack them.

    Let's turn this around! There's a fight to finish!

    Seeing Wind Dancer cast a powerful spell, she... adopts a similar pose? As the sea air blows her cloak and hair dramatically.

    "Darkness beyond twilight.
    Crimson beyond blood that flows.
    Buried in the steam of time is where your power grows.
    I pledge myself to conquer all the foes who stand
    before the mighty gift bestowed in my unworthy hand.
    Let the fools who stand before me be destroyed by the power you and I possess!

    DRAGOOOON SLA--"

    And that's when the giant rocket from before comes streaking down out of the sky right on top of the monster for a very satisfying KABOOM!

    (Fortunately, it is not actually as powerful as the spell she just pretended to cast.)

    She is grinning.

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Nothing grinds Hinote's gears more than a doctor that hurts people. Regardless of the reasons. Pulp Noir grips the front of his tommy gun and hehs. He raises it, ready to unleash more heck fromt it, when--- Oh. Laura! Is here! And she's a Pretty Cure!? Like she was looking for? Then she was looking for herself the whole time!?

Now, Pulp Noir is sure there's some joke in here about finding oneself, but he doesn't make it right now.

For now, he does as is asked, and starts firing his tommy gun at the smokestack, drawing his fedora's brim down.

Laura La Mer has posed:
"I couldn't be better!", Laura smiles at Hope Blossom, relieved to see that she is well despite being tired. "Sorry I couldn't get here earlier, I won't let them forget this!" she frowns at the two Dark Generals.

"That's me, yes. I got a nice makeover, didn't I?", she winks at Zephyr, flipping her hair back. "I hope you are ok despite everything", the mermaid looks earnestly at her.

"Thank you, it's good to be back!", Laura smiles brightly at Amy, glad to see that she is at least well enough to get up and talk despite the fact she'd been blown back when Laura had reached them.

"Let's finish this!", the new Pretty Cure declares, stirring with her pen the disk at the center of her Compact, causing water to gather and move in a pattern of recurve spinning lines as it concentrates inside the Mermaid Aqua Pact.

"Pretty Cure Swirling La Mer Stream!", she shouts, a huge rotating beam of water erupting out of the Pact as she points the pen at the lifebuoy, which gets struck back and detained within the pink outline of a conch. Giving her back to the others, she kicks her leg high up, turning her upper body back so she faces behind her, cheerfully declaring "VICTORY!" while the lifebuoy explodes in a rainbow light and returns back to normal.

The other youma isn't fairing much better, uselessly flailing under the rain of Madoka's many bows, each one of those arrows meeting its marks. And just about at the same time, the torrent of energy from Zephyr blows it back, leaving it crashing to the ground hopelessly, the only thing it can do is wait for it to end as it sustains damage after damage.

Not that its woes end there, with the courtesy of Puella Red's explosion corroding even more of the dark energies that form it, feeling itself get fainter and fainter. That least Pulp Noir to deliver the decisive blow, the damage of the impact from the many water streams of his Tommy Gun breaking the youma apart. Fortunately, the smokestack is returned to its original state and position anyway. Would have been very troublesome for the cruise ship otherwise.

"Such a nuisance, there are more of these brats now", Chongire raises his eyebrow when Laura turns into a Pretty Cure. "To think everything was going so well", Numeri sighs, shaking her head. With these comments the two of them vanish, bringing back with themselves their failure now that the motivation power has returned to people.

Zephyr Windstar has posed:
    As the youma falls, Wind Dancer's spell tapers off. The torrent becomes a stream, which becomes a trickle, that then wafts off into a twinkling of spent mana, the sparkling motes fluttering down. Tenraikaze's vents open, and eject a massive cloud of mana infused steam, clouding her from view for a few seconds. The ribbons dissipate, and after a moment, Wind Dancer falls out of the cloud, dropping heavily back onto the deck of the ship. < Chief? Chief?! Linker Core pressure low... She ran her power down. >

    After impact, Wind Dancer force shifts back to her unpowered form.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    When Hope's feet touch the deck again, her various bows vanish into pink sparkles. She watches as the sea cucumber lady and the crab man go back to... wherever it is that dark generals flee to when their minions are destroyed.

    She breathes a sigh of relief, glad that there's at least one person in the world that she hasn't let down recently. Granted, Laura more or less saved herself it seems, but at least they found her.

    Madoka walks slowly over to the railing of the boat, watching over the seas. Her fairies, being magic, got pulled into the barrier, but their real rental boat probably did not. Oh well, she's pretty sure that they can sort that out later. Turning to Laura, she asks, "So... you're a PreCure now. I guess that means no more waiting on the sidelines for you, huh?" She smiles brightly and tilts her head to the side. "Well... I'm glad you're on our side. Welcome to the--" Madoka trails off the moment she sees Zephyr collapse and dehenshin. She gasps, "Oh no!" before rushing to her side.

    Medo flies up to Zephyr and begins zipping around the fallen mahou checking her over. After a moment the nurse fairy says, "Looks like exhaustion. I bet she put a little too much into that last shot."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Defeating the youma is so satisfying! Amy turns on the Dark Generals. "Brats?! I'll show you brats!" She conjures the launcher again and they go away.

    She dismisses the launcher and slumps her shoulders, letting out a sigh. "Phew."

    And then Zephyr hits the deck. The Device's warning reminds Amy of the 'Snake... snake... snaaaaaaake!' call and she turns and runs over... fortunately, Medo is on hand for diagnosis, and Amy lets out another sigh, of relief, and drops to her knees. "Gods I am glad that's over. It has been a day. For all of us..." She turns to Laura. "You doin' okay after being kept in the Witch's Mansion?"

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Pulp Noir holds to the edge of his hat the entire time with the strong winds whipping around. When it's done he draws a cigarette? to his mouth!?... no.. it's a silver crystal lollipop, which he unwraps and plops into his mouth for the effect of one as he takes in the scene.

He watches Wind Dancer fall from the sky and he frowns a little. "Talk about bein the fall-guy. HEY is she okay?" he calls out as he jogs on over.

"So guess you found yourself?" he offhanedly comments to Cure La Mer. "Ugh, bad dcotors grind my gears."

Laura La Mer has posed:
"I really did not expect this, but yes, I am going to help out as much as I can", Laura replies excitedly to Hope Blossom. "I thought something like this was impossible, but the Queen has given me this rock before my return here and I didn't expect it would have contained a Mermaid Aqua Pact."

The explanation gets interrupted by Zephyr collapsing however and Laura hurries back after Madoka whe she goes to check on the Wind Dancer. "It's good that was all it was", Laura replies content when Medo reveals the cause. Nothing a good rest won't fix. Speaking of rest... "Are you ok, Blossom? You really look like you could use a break to rest too."

Cure La Mer nods at Amy's question. "Yes, they didn't do anything bad, or perhaps, they just didn't have the time to. It feels great to be back here, they really didn't expect anything, and Kururun was a great help, bringing me to Grand Ocean by herself, once we had escaped the Witch of Delays' aura."

"I really reflected on a few things while I was back there, so that's really the truth", Laura nods. "Numeri is really disinterested in helping, but she really would do a lot better if she followed her real calling, I think."

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    When told that she might need to rest, Hope looks over to Cure La Mer with eyes that look a little bit guilty. She taps her own lips as she considers what to say. "I would, but... some of my fairies got corrupted and starting running away from me. I think you actually saw them the other day, with the tea cup ride. I've been searching all over, but... they're really good at hiding from me." With a sigh, she says, "I'm not sure that I can rest right now. I'm not sure I can relax enough to. Not until I find them."

    Shaking her head, she says, "But... enough about that. I'm glad that Kururun was able to help you escape. I'm also glad that they didn't brainwash you or curse you or something."

    Hope kinda wobbles on her feet for a moment. She really is tired. A part of her wonders what her parents think about seeing their daughter run herself ragged. It's probably only a matter of time before Junko calls her out on it.

    Leaning against the boat rail, she watches as Sio and Lydian pull the rental boat up next to the cruise ship. The Barrier must have fallen by now, with Zephyr having passed out. She walks up to the knocked out mahou, squints at the face and says, "Wait... I've seen this person before." Then she covers her mouth, realizing that she's said too much. "Eheh... well... I should probably take her someplace safe. The people running this cruise might get mad if they realize we don't have a ticket."

    She scoops up Zephyr in her arms and hops down to the rental, pausing after making the landing as the relatively much smaller boat rocks back and forth for a second. Calling back up, she asks, "Do you need a ride back with us, Cure La Mer? Or are you going to swim from here?"

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Pulp Noir thinks long and hard. Okay, he can't spin the name Witch of Delays... age appropriately and he gives up. He hopes down to the boat with Madoka and he looks back up, giving a wave. "Yeah, coming with us, or going by tail power?" he asks with a cheeky grin from under his fedora.

"Yeah, the last time I saw this person as this person, they we're telling me to stop investigating. Glad I didn't listen." he says,a little coyly.

Laura La Mer has posed:
Right, Laura remembers the occurrence, and it makes sense that Hope Blossom is staying up, as much as it would clearly be better if she didn't. The worry she is feeling is as clear as day. "I will help you look", she offers the Chara Bearer, turning down her offer something she is not intending to let Madoka even contemplate. Not as she is right now.

"I am going to swim alongside you", Laura replies eyeing the boat. It doesn't look terribly big, so they are going to want all the space they can. And yes, for her, swimming is second nature. "I will go by tail power", she grins at Pulp Noir, jumping down into the water and reverting to her mermaid form, staying by the side of the boat. "I will stay nearby, though!"