1972/Did you know Apocalypse has a plural version

Did you know Apocalypse has a plural version
Date of Scene:	26 September 2024
Location:	Plot Room 3
Synopsis:	Rashmi and Molly finish a tough fight, just in time for the second apoocalypse in as many months to start up. Can't a girl get some sleep?
Cast of Characters:	Molly Skyline, Rashmi Terios

---

Molly Skyline has posed:
Two o'clock in the morning is a lousy time to be starting a fight, but when you're a Mahou and duty calls, duty calls. Sometimes a friend calls for help, and a friend always, always responds; and so Molly finds herself fighting alongside her best friend once again. And, honestly, she has absolutely nothing to complain about.

Her barrier jacket is in ragged shape; half the plates are almost molten from the amount of punishment she's absorbed, in spite of demonstrating some fantastic discipline in keeping her shields up. And she's only been put through a concrete wall once! So there's that! Now, it's closing in on three in the morning, but the fight isn't quite done. It's close; it's right at the moment when it'll swing one way or the other. Molly knows it, she's sure Rashmi knows it, and the Youma definitely knows it.

As Starcrash deploys a fresh shield and Molly hovers a good fifty feet above the ground, the Youma stands in the middle of what would be a busy intersection, absent the Time Space Barrier that's been in place for the better part of an hour. The Youma was formerly a piece of construction equipment with a twelve-thousand pound wrecking ball on the end of a chain that it's been using as a flail, while setting everything around it on fire like it thinks it's the Ghost Rider or something (a reference Molly called out early). Now, though, the wrecking ball is laying on the ground, the chain severed, and most of the Youma's plating is battered full of holes. It stands on its treads, looking up and howling as it shakes what remains of its limbs.

"Rashmi-chan, now!" Molly shouts, after a quick look at her holo-display. "Starcrash says it's weakened! We can finish it!"

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Two o'clock in the morning is a *rotten* time to be starting a fight, but a mahou's work is probably never done. And this has been an absolutely *brutal* slog of a fight; when a machine that *normally* is put to work wrecking buildings gets a fresh spurt of Dark Energy and just enough sentience to be *a complete jerk,* and only two mahou are present and awake to oppose it...

It's really just an awful slog.

Rashmi's Barrier Jacket is torn in places, broken in others, and scuffed absolutely everywhere else, and Nicomachea sports a couple of ugly cracks... but she's still in the fight. Low on juice, but still in it. And her capacitor is absolutely topped off, which makes her *very* glad that Molly's readings are callng an end to the show.

"Hff... Hff... Okay, Molly-chan! This is gonna take a sec to wind up, so-- GAH!"

Swooping back and up, away from a swinging steel ball covered in crackling purple lightning, she clears her throat. "Let's both hit it at the same time, okay? More likely to finish off that way."

Drawing in a deep breath, she pushes aside the concerns that Aloisia has put on her tactics, and announces the beginning of the end of the fight.

"Verbal command: Accumulator purge."

    << COMMAND INPUT EXECUTE. PURGE CHANNELS GREEN. ALTERNATE GRIMOIRE LOADED. AWAITING COMMAND. >>

"Solar Buster."

    << SOLAR BUSTER >>

The glowing canister attached to the back of Rashmi's belt goes dim all at once, as a ball of energy the size of Rashmi's head forms above Nicomachea's pages. As if struggling against its own surface tention, the sphere grows larger for an instant, quivers...

...Then collapses as a coruscating beam of golden light lances out, all of her spare energy collected into one point, then focused into a beam the size of a coffee cup. A beam that screams down out of the time-space-shifted sky, piercing through the youma's dented steel hide, and into the ground beneath.

The series of explosions that happen afterward are almost an afterthought... And not a patch on what comes next.

Molly Skyline has posed:
"Dangit, it reattached the chain again!!"

Molly complains about the Youma's ability to regenerate; one moment the wrecking ball is disconnected and laying on the ground, like it has been at least five times so far tonight, the next it's swinging it around again and smashing things very near where one of the girls happens to be. "That is so unfAI-HEY!!" she twists and ducks out of the way as the enormous flail comes for her next, letting Starcrash assist with her motions as she jets back into position.

Rashmi is charging her finishing move, so it's about time for Molly to do the same. "Starcrash, charge Stellar Convergence."

<< CHARGING >>

"Okay hopefully this doesn't take as long to charge as it did last time we did this in combat?"

<< Fifty Percent Charged >>

Molly watches the progression of emojis on her holodisplay go from sade faces towards happy faces much more quickly this time, though she still has to evade another swing of the wrecking ball.

<< ARMED >>

"FIRE!"

As Rashmi is unleashing her Solar Buster, she levels her staff, pointing the split star of the business end at the Youma. A pale blue glue coalesces into a massive beam of sheer frozenness, powerful enough to push Molly backwards as it fires; and as luck would have it timed to hit just after Rashmi's, so that one side of the Youma is boiling hot and the other side is frozen. As the beam is winding down, a series of searing hot barrets all blink-blink blink blink-blink-blink into a circle around Molly; ten of them in all, arranged all the way from above her head to beneath her feet.

All at once the barrets erupt, firing solar beams into the Youma where her eclipse beam just froze it.

Under the combined might of Rashmi and Molly's finishing moves, the Youma is done for. In a last act of defiance, it curls in on itself and then explodes, going off like a bomb and flattening everything near it that wasn't already flat.

Molly is flung backwards by the explosion, but the shield she raised earlier takes the impact when she slams into a wall.

"...Is it dead?" she inquires. "Do I need to go jab it with a stick to make sure?"

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"UUUUUUUGH, I *hate it when they do that,*" Rashmi groans... from the center of a globe of golden light, embedded into the replicated wall of the building across the street. The globe winks out, and Rashmi just *barely* catches herself on her wings before falling onto rebar. Even as she drifts toward Molly, she looks wiped out enough that even her wings are flickering now and again at her ankles.

"Molly-chan *don't you dare* poke it with a stick, I've been forced to watch enough scary movies to know how that goes."

Looking a long sigh -- only slightly tinged with smoke -- Rashmi looks down at the remains of the youma.

"...Also it's more crater than monster, now."

Molly Skyline has posed:
Molly's wings are doing the flicker-thing as well, so she lowers herself down to the ground, slowly and carefully, after a moment in which she thinks she's gonna have to rescue Rashmi from falling into rebar and at least starts moving to help.

"Okay, no stick poking," she admits. "But, we could probably ditch the barrier now. Or at least, once we ditch the barrier jackets..."

She makes good on that as she lands, going back to what she was wearing -- not pajamas this time, she was at least in a miniskirt, shoes, and a button-up shirt left untucked that's almost as long as the skirt, all under her favorite denim jacket -- and stretching her arms up over her head. "Technically, I should go home and sleep," she muses.

"But my Linker-Core is like, FEED ME SEYMOUR. ...Know anywhere that does... like... any kind of carb at this hour?"

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"At this hour?" Rashmi echoes, touching down onto the sidewalk and shaking her head. "The only place I *know* is open is, like, three train stops from here. ...That said if we *are* in Mitakihara after a fight, I *need* to show you the wonders of all-you-can-eat yakiniku. But for now... I think you're just gonna have to empty out your moms' fridge."

Her Barrier Jacket shatters, revealing a long t-shirt, pajama pants, and flats *without* socks. Someone dressed in a complete hurry, apparently, and gave up when they knew it was gonna be a Barrier Jacket occasion.

"Also also, protein is good too. Food *period,* really. It's just noodles are handy, y'know? Anyway... ready for me to drop the Barrier?"

Once assent is given, down it goes, and the real world floods back in, as the Barrier dissolves from its very top all the way down to the ground in a single wave of disintegrating magical energy.

Molly Skyline has posed:
"Well." As the barrier goes down, Molly holds up a hand with a single finger pointing upwards. "My Moms are both out of town, which means -- also, for once I notice I managed to make it out the door a mite better dressed for the world than you did, I feel immeasurably proud of myself -- Anyway, which means that since my place is close by and I don't have to worry about disturbing anyone, we can both go raid the fridge if you would like." She pauses. "It is well stocked."

While Molly is waiting for an answer, and grinning with all the mischief of a cheshire cat, something in the vicinity of Mount Fuji is brewing; nothing detectable yet, but it's not far off.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Molly-chan I would love to," Rashmi chuckles tiredly. "But it's almost 3 in the morning, on a *Wednesday.* I'm gonna be draggy all through school, but at least I know I can get a *huge* breakfast if I can get up with the alarm. ...Also you *should* feel proud of yourself, that last spell was *insanely* amazing. Was that in Starcrash's module when we installed it, or did you come up with that yourself?"

Tired, happy in the glow of victory, and more focused on her friend than the world around her... What is to come is going to be a very ugly surprise indeed.

Molly Skyline has posed:
"I could also give you pants to go back to the academy in that aren't pajamas," Molly points out, "Since you're, y'know, walking." She grins, and then beams at the praise about her spell. "No, that was something I came up with on my own. See, there's this movie... Alien 3? Which I'm not supposed to have seen 'cause one of my Moms doesn't think I'm old enough, but I have the internet so whatever. Anyway, they do a thing with making something real hot and then cold, and I just... did the opposite."

Molly is about to say more, when her brow furrows. At first, she thinks it's just her stomach rumbling. She looks down, then back up, "Hey..." She stops, and tilts her head, lifting one hand to scratch behind her ear.

"Do you feel that?"

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Pajamas are comfy," Rashmi protests. "And besides I'm gonna be flying anyway... I just want to save my magic for flying *up* the dorms instead of *to* them. I can get back to my window easy enough."

And then Molly starts talking about *another* scary movie, which Rashmi does *not* do well with, but if it gave her the idea for *that* kind of a spell that's a different story. "...So wait... thermal shock as the *point* of the spell? Wow, that's... Chrono's gonna be impressed, Molly-chan, I can tell you that much already."

And then... *something* happens. It's not a stomach rumbling, but... it's not an earthquake, either? But for some reason, it feels like both, and neither.

"Yeah... what...?"

Molly Skyline has posed:
<< MAGICAL ANOMALY DETECTED >>

"Uhm, yeah, I'm getting that," Molly mumbles. "But what is it? Where's it coming from?"

<< NATURE OF ANOMALY UNKNOWN. LOCATION: MOUNT FUJI >>

Molly's eyebrows rise. "I swear, if Mount Fuji turns into a Youma, I'm going to bed and hoping it's gone in the morning, I cannot fight *that*." Still, as she's speaking, she jogs across the street and henshins just long enough to get up a fire escape, before going back to her street clothes once more. The rumbling, of course, doesn't abate.

"Look!" she shouts, and points, from where she's standing five stories up. "Rashmi-chan, come up quick, you need to see this!!"

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Nicomachea tell me you're recording this," Rashmi says, hurrying after Molly.

    << CONFIRMED >>

The jump to the fire escape takes a couple tries, and a bit of a struggle ensues to pull herself up; having elected to go without henshin this time, it's a point of pride that she *can* haul her own body up onto the fire escape. Thus, she's about three floors behind Molly and scrambling, when her friend's excited shout rings out over the rooftops.

Panting and out of breath, Rashmi collapses against the railing as she finally reaches the rooftop, and just... *stares.*

Somehow visible against the starry night sky, a black cloud, laced with flickering red, rising above Mt. Fuji like a looming gargoyle, a harbinger of terror to come.

"...Molly-chan...?"

Molly Skyline has posed:
"I have no idea," Molly replies flatly. "It's... a big cloud of evil meanie-ness, is all I can tell you. Or at least, that's what it looks like."

The purplenette shrugs her shoulders, "I mean... what *is* it? We both felt it, right? Heck, Starcrash pegged it as an anomoly right away, he's usually not nearly as fast on that stuff as Nicomachea." She pauses, thrusting her hands into where her pockets would be if she were wearing jeans, instead of a long shirt and a short skirt; the result just ends up being strangely frustrating, which shows on her face for a brief moment.

"Okay so but... it's Mount Fuji. Which used to be a volcano, right?" She lets that hang in the air for a moment.

"Should we be worried?"

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"...Not as a volcano," Rashmi answers after a moment. "It's been dormant over three hundred years. But it *is* one of the most important spiritual symbols of the country, Molly-chan... And if something *that* creepy can show up and be felt from *that* far away..."

The redhead turns her tired, worried eyes to her friend. "Should we be worried? Oh yes..."

Sighing, she lifts up her glasses and presses the heel of her hand to an eye. "...I might ask Setsuchan to give me tomorrow off school. And then ask around and figure out what's possible to figure out."

Molly Skyline has posed:
"I think I might join you," Molly replies. "Even if I can't get the day off from school. I'll just engage in the time-honor, British cultural practice of skipping class in favor of something ifninitely more important. In this, potentially saving Tokyo, or... I mean I dunno, maybe we *do* need to save Tokyo."

The purple haired girl finally settles for hooking her thumbs into the top of her skirt, and just... looks up at the big cloud (or whatever it is) that's hovering over Mount Fuji. She watches, and sighs softly.

"Retrieve energy drinks," she mumbles, and a moment later she's holding a pair of cans that have pictures of dragons on them and proclaim themselves to be absolutely chock full of ENERGY, whatever that means. She shrugs, and offers one of them to Rashmi.

"I got a feeling this just turned into a really long night."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Rashmi holds up a hand, shaking her head. "Those things make me shake so hard and I'm gonna need my hands to do what I want them to do," she replies. "But I'm also gonna need sleep, so... Maybe a timed text message, asking if Setsuchan minds coming up to the dorm. When I crash I'm gonna need more than a couple hours sleep, I know it... Bleh."

Sighing, she shakes her head, then looks up at her friend with the puppy dog eyes. "...Though if that gives you enough of a boost... can I ask for a ride back to the dorms? At this point it's a tossup between 'am I gonna be staring at the ceiling and worrying for the next three hours' and 'am I gonna pass out the moment I hit the pillow.'"

Molly Skyline has posed:
Molly stores one of the energy drinks, before cracking the other one open and putting it to her lips. She downs it all in one big, long gulp, and afterwards stores the can as well (since she's not about to start litering). "...I don't usually do *that* with one," she admits, blushing softly. "But, yeah, ride back to the dorms, absolutely." She pauses, and ahems. "After which, even after downing this drink, I might go conk out on the roof."

The purplenette shifts back to her henshin, and extends an arm to support Rashmi with. "Air Britain ready to fly," she offers, flashing a grin. "A ride to the dorms, absolutely doable." She stops, and bites her bottom lip.

"I'm still trying come up with a superhero name I like," she admits. "And Starcrash is all space themed, and my Henshin is Tiefling-themed. ...What about Void Devil?" She blushes, clearly expecting to hear 'that's ridiculous'.

"It's ridiculous, right?"

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"I mean," Rashmi chuckles, looping her other arm around the back of Molly's neck, "I wouldn't go with it, myself? Just because it sounds like something you'd call someone from Obsidian. ...And despite your spell naming, I wouldn't suggest 'Galactic' anything, either. People might think you're a Star Driver, and that could get weird real quick."

"But," she says with fervor, "it's not *ridiculous.* 'Page Mage' is ridiculous, and it's stuck fast to me." With a sigh, she takes one last look eastward. "...What's ridiculous is I think that's two apocalypsoi at once we have to worry about. Did you know the plural of 'apocalypse' is 'apocalypsoi?' Did you know there *is* a plural?!"

Molly Skyline has posed:
"Man... everything I pick is bad for one reason or another." Molly sighs, and rolls her eyes. "Thing is, I'm LGBT, so we usually peg devils as good guys, y'know? Obsidian doesn't get to have 'em, they're *ours*, damnit."

She holds on tight to Rashmi, and takes off into the sky -- flying high enough that if anyone loses their grip she'll have ample time to do something about it. And hey, she's still got mana, even if it's not a huge amount ang even if her Barrier Jacket is still cooling down (she has Rashmi on the side that isn't still painfully hot to the touch).

"I did not know there's a plural," she admits. "It's always seemed sorta unnecessary to me? Like the word means 'end of the entire mother-flippin' world', it's not like you can end it twice. Once it's ended it's done. One apocalypse is usually all you need, right?"