2411/A Risen Palace

A Risen Palace
Date of Scene:	02 March 2025
Location:	Beach
Synopsis:	Gaito's palace has ascended from the abyssal depths, and his revenge against Black Moon is threatening to wreck the Earth along with them. Coco, Amy, Madoka and Niji seek to stop him, and push past the Dark Lovers when they block the way.
Cast of Characters:	Coco Kiumi, Amanda Faust, Cho Konishi, Madoka Kaname, Niji Dasshu, Gaito, NPC-Isuru, NPC-Eril, NPC-Yuri, NPC-Maria, NPC-Sheshe, NPC-Mimi
Tinyplot:	A Requiem of Dark Roses

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Coco Kiumi has posed:
Since Mitsuki had gone away from the Pearl Pier, things had mostly stayed the same. If either Amy, Cho or Madoka had been surfing the web, they would have stumbled on some people claming to have seen a winged horse with no hind legs and a tail fly around Tokyo, but the Veil took care of those soon enough. And soon after that, people would have had more troubles to think about than just sightings of the paranormal.

While those weird sightings go on outside, Coco has come back in the room where she had left them. "So, Hippo decided to go look around Tokyo just in case Gaito's little brother is somewhere in Tokyo, but he hasn't found anything so far, not even traces of the Dark Lovers or the Black Beauty Sisters. He might be in another magic center, or somewhere else completely unrelated", she sighs, sitting on her bed.

"Up to you if you want to stay, I will contact you later if we find any development", she tells them. "Gaito's palace is not anywhere it has been and he is moving so quickly it is hard to keep track of it with the Sealing Key. But we know for sure he has yet to go after Black Moon", she finishes summing up the situation. Frustratingly she doesn't know anything better than waiting and seeing what is going to happen, and keeping watch around the areas of Tokyo Black Moon has been known to strike.

Meanwhile, somewhere in the Hawaii, around 9am (local time) or 6pm (Tokyo time), a guy with red hair is surfing on the beach, skillfully moving on top of waves. He is no beginner, and yet a sudden wave catches him by surprise, sending him under. "This way, my other half", a voice reaches his ears, just as a man with grey hair catches his wrist. "Who are you?", the surfer shouts, gritting his teeth while the crest of the Panthalassa appears on his forehead. Gaito only looks at him mockingly.

"So, this is your power, my other half?" A look of confusion appears on the boy's face, repeating that weird epithet. "You and I have inherited by blood the dominion of the sea, but fate has it when I finally found you, I need you for something else. For the sake of the one I love, it's time to seek vengeance, Kaito, my brother." And with that, the two warp away from there, back to the depths of the sea.

But it would be many hours after that, at 6 in the morning that things would start to seem odd, with clouds gathering together on a day without a dawn, hidden from the thick mantle. Slowly but surely, winds start picking up strength and turbulences sweep across land and sea alike, prompting governments everywhere to declare a sudden emergency and scramble to put shelters together.

Off the coast of Yumegahama, a huge whirpool shakes the turbulent waters, dark energy swirling around its borders for several hours. "Coco!", Hippo barges in the room as a penguin, waving frantically its flippers. "I think Gaito is moving! There is a weird maelstrom at Yumegahama!"

All the mahoujin that receive Coco's message and head there will arrive just in time to see lightning intensifying as Gaito's palace rises right in the middle of the maelstrom, now finally unbound from the deep of the seas.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Ah, the perils of surfing the web. Amy won't get enough sleep, and is already regretting it when she finally drifts off. She wonders if she can blame the decision to not just try to sleep when she should have on being a teenager. But then, if she's able to have that thought, doesn't that mean she should've known better?

    Fortunately, in this youthful body, too little sleep now and then won't leave her a zombie all morning. Besides, the adrenaline of being woken up and told 'it's an emergency Gaito is on the move' does wonders for jolting one alert. So now here she is, transformed, sipping a to-go cup of caffeinated tea while walking or superjumping.

    "Rrrgh. Knew his first move wasn't gonna be against Black Moon. Just... how bad is the extra power he's supposedly gotten from finding his brother, without capturing any more of the princesses yet?" she asks Coco.

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cure Wukong had asked to stick near Coco during the 'waiting' period. After all... Coco was her best friend. And she knew as long as something MIGHT happen to her friend, she wouldn't possibly be able to relax. Not even a little bit. So instead she'd stayed at the mermaid hotel and had spent her time training with Wuwu. He, of course, was a little shit once again. After the funeral, it seemed, his grace period had ended. Joy of joys.

Of course, now that the time was here? well... She put her fingers to her lips and whistled, calling her pink cloud to her. "Okay!" she called, before offering a hand to Coco. "Want a lift, or find your own way?" she asked. After all... mermaid, water. But magic cloud. It was really a toss up which was faster to her, so she'd let the mermaid decide.

Before she, herself, would head out towards the rising palace and...

"Say what you will about the guy. He DOES know how to make an entrance... dang."

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Madoka and her Chara now have an additional thing to worry about, but it's hard to focus on that when they know full well that the Black Moon Clan is still at large and waiting to strike. Maybe it would be to their benefit if Gaito did retaliate against them. Sadly, it never actually turned out that way.

    Now there's a maelstrom off the coast, because the chaos never ends in Tokyo, and several of Madoka's Chara are chittering amongst themselves in a concerned hustle that isn't quite a panic but probably would be if they weren't already experienced in magical combat. As Coco's message comes in, Madoka responds right away with, "I'll be right there!"

    After choosing from amongst her Chara who to bring, she invites Lydian to henshin with her, and then shortly after Hope Blossom is super jumping across Tokyo's rooftops to get to the Beach. As she grows closer, she sees the palace rise and gets a bit mortified. "Oh geeze. Can't more people just keep their secret bases in a parallel dimension or something? Why did he have to show up here?"

    Sio, having tagged along, says, "Yeah, something like this looks really bad for business. And property values. And insurance rates." The tiny business chara shakes her head as she considers the sheer financial costs of having an evil palace just show up. "On the bright side I bet he'd make a killing if he opened up his palace to renters."

    Madoka sweatdrops at her Chara and says, "I don't think he's interested in commerce, Sio-chan."

Niji Dasshu has posed:
    Niji wasn't really standing guard over Coco. In fact, Niji had managed to miss a lot of what was going on to a lot of the Mahou - she'd been off on her own, working her way through the smaller youma that seemed to crop up and threaten random civilians whenever larger scale Dark Overlord style actions had threatened Tokyo. In a way, she felt like, given her lack of Giant Lasers and all, she might have been better off like this - as a 'street level' Mahou, keeping the smaller threats at bay so people who could create nullspaces and sing Dark Generals to defeat could handle their business. Plus she had so many teams and games she had to participate in, she couldn't let her teammates at the various and many Radiant Heart Academy sports teams down.

    But she had met the wonderful Yellow Voice on a couple occasions and had happened to be granted one of her pearls, and Niji knew the Mahoujin were being stretched thin; all of the concerns expressed in the Shed told her this. So it might be a surprise, but not entirely one, that given Coco's granting of a White Pearl and the presence of Coco as well as Cure Wukong, that when the castle rose from the ocean depths, a particularly bright colored young woman rushed up in a blur, baseball bat over one shoulder, blowing a pink bubblegum bubble which she pops and returns to her mouth before mumble-asking to other assembed there. "So... looks like this is our mermaid-napping ocean-jerk?"

Coco Kiumi has posed:
"Hi, everyone", Coco smiles to the group when they show up. "I don't think this is meant to be an attack on us just yet. Black Moon is in Tokyo as well", she observes to the red Puella, even if she keeps to herself the concern about the Worldwide phenomena. Has Gaito truly changed his mind, or is it merely the fact he is not bothering with restraining himself? It makes little difference in the end, though. Either way, they have to stop him. "You got the place right!", Coco smiles wide to Loyalty when she shows up. "We have to hurry, before Gaito harms more than just Black Moon", she quickly sums things up for her.

"Key Rod Release!", Coco invokes the power of the Sealing Key, letting it expand into its true form. "I think I should create a line of Live Stages a few at a time so that Loyalty, Blossom and Red can move through it to get to Gaito's palace", she explains her intention to the Monkey King. She knows that Red has her own flying method, but this ought to be less taxing on her Soul Gem, and she is sure that a speedster like Loyalty would appreciate a "land" path.

However, when they will have gotten half of the way towards the palace, a giant fish will leap from below the sea surface, its maw full of teeth open, but not aiming to catch any of the mahoujin (even if Cure Wukong will note the fish will have leaped up high enough to be on the same line as her cloud).

Crashing back down onto the sea, the fish's landing splashes water everywhere and reveals the four figures standing upon its back. "It's a Dark Lovers Orchestra with Leviathan!", they proudly announce themselves. "What, did you seriously think we would have allowed you to reach Lord Gaito just like that?", Yuri like exclaims with a disdainful laugh. "Unfortunately for you, our esteemed Gaito is aiming far higher than a lone mermaid princess and a group of magical Warriors. No doubt you have heard about Sara's death. Her killers will pay for her life with their own", Eril in her red-eyed mode (sclera and all), announces with a wide grin.

"But our Lord will no doubt be thankful that he didn't have to go out of his way to get back Sara's Pearl, as well as retrieve one of the two that got away", Isuru sneers, conjuring one of her water dragons and petting it mockingly. "And now that he has his full powers, even we has received his blessing, so you won't be able to take a step further, Maria smiles, five ice darts appearing between her fingers.

"I will support you!" Yuri starts playing her devious piano, release dark energy all over, an harmful wave that would crush the powers and spirits of the mahoujin. In a musical fight, the yellow idol of the seas is ready to sing her own purification. "Legend of Mermaid: Pichi Pichi Voice, Live Start!", she announces with vivid enthusiasm, with words painting a vision of a faraway world's nostalgic sog, a promise to always be connected thanks to the shared memory of the paradise of the seven seas. The oceans' melody radiantly shows the fantasy of a night where stars gleam like pearls and release a wondrous light, sure sign of a shining future that awaits everyone.

"Now go, water dragon!", Isuru points it to Hope Blossom, the creature's maw open while it races through the air to strike at the Pretty Cure. A large dark energy blast starts forming from the Leviathan's jaw and the air crackles around it when the abyssal creature sends it towards Cure Wukong. At the same time, shadow lines erupt from Eril's fingers, with the intention to constrict Puella Red. Lastly, Maria's ice darts fly from her hand towards Loyalty, ready to pierce her, and if they hit, a layer of ice will form over the point struck.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    'Black Moon is in Tokyo as well.' Amy just stares at Coco. "No. We're not this naive. He knows how this looks, if this really were an attack on Black Moon, he'd at least send a message or something, not that we could really trust him."

    As it comes to the plan of leaping from platform to platform, Amy looks to Cho, "can I ride on the cloud?" If accepted, she prods it uncertainly before climbing onto it. It seems she's always concerned it will judge her impure one of these days...

    Their trip is interrupted by the Dark Lovers. "Ugggh, why did we let you get away last time? We shoulda just killed you like we did Koan and uh, those other ones."

    When the song comes, Amy leaps onto a Live Stage in hopes of protection. But tendrils of darkness come for her anyway. "Ugh..." Amy groans at the realization that unless she spends power she's going to have to spend this fight limited to platforms. She leaps away from fingers, returning fire with homing rocket-bullets -- more to keep pressure up than an attack she really thinks will do anything, yet.

    "Why do you all follow Gaito anyway?! What's so great about him? Can't you remember what kind of person he is?! What do you even get out of ensuring he'll get to lord over you and be a jerk for all time?!"

Niji Dasshu has posed:
    Loyalty *does* appreciate the land path, because even though she can fly, it's a little bit more taxing on her. Of course, nothing is that easy. As she's dashing across the line of Live Stages, a giant fish rises out of the water and crashes down and seems to be providing a stage of its own, for a different group entirely.

    "I'm gonna guess Leviathan is the ltitle maid girl there on the Piano, right?" Loyalty asks sarcastically. The music starts and she can feel it sapping her energy, like an opposite of the Yellow Pearl Voice's uplifting song. "Gross." she says. "YOUR MUSIC SUCKS." she adds.

    Thankfully Coco is able to sing back and the two energies largely cancel each other out. "Alright, excellent. See? That's how music is when it's you know, good, and DOESN'T SUCK." she says to the opponents.

    Loyalty is being attacked by some blonde girl with ice spikes, and that's annoying because darts of ice are small and hard to see and so instead of dodging them easily she has to give them a wider berth than she'd like. But she's very very fast, and when all you have is a bat... everybody looks like they need to be batted. Still, some part of her is uncomfortable about hitting someone who looks so... humanoid, with her bat as hard as she can.

    So she makes a long looping curve and tries to get close to her, pointing the bat at her from what she hopes is a very uncomfortable distance much faster than her opponent would like - intending to poke her nose with the tip of the spraypainted, clearly battle-worn, and dented bat. "Come on, you're a pretty girl, don't make me hitcha with this." says the now very-close-to-Maria Geode Girl. "You could just not work for jerks and back off you know. Look at the people out there you're scaring. Good people, kind people, just living their lives now afraid because some jerk has summoned a castle where one shouldn't be and messed with the local like, everything." she says.

    "I don't wanna hurt you, but I have to make this kinda stuff stop if you won't stop yourselves."

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cure Wukong had no objection with Amy riding on the cloud, but when she arrived rose to her feet and pulled out her staff from behind her ear, the staff growing to her height while she gave a smirk. "There's no need for us to fight!" she yelled. "The Black Moon Clan isn't a friend to ANYONE of this world! However, doing things like THIS? This makes you just as much of a threat as them! As long as you keep endangering everything, we'll have to fight! That'll only make both of us weaker!"

Alas, her words weren't likely to have much of an effect at this point... And then the leviathan opened its mouth and unleashed DESTRUCTION towards her! She leaped into the air, her cloud disappearing in the blast of darkness (Hopefully amy too the opportunity to move as well). Unfortunately, while it'd come back later... right now, that meant she was in the air.

However, the music of Yellow Pearl versus the music of Yuri... She clutched the white pearl her best friend had given her, before taking a deep breath. "Well, Aqua Regina, there isn't going to be a more important time than now to support my friend. So please, help us!"

The pearl glowed a little and then she spun, pulling out a fistful of hair (OW!) and tossing it into the air...

And the clones would appear.

And as Coco sang, the MONKEY KING CHOIR would appear behind her, in rows upon rows, standing at attention, while the Music King Clone pulled out a conductor's stick from behind her ear... Tapped the air...

Yellow Pearl Voice would find her music supported by the Monkey King's choir.

The most miraculous thing about it? Only ONE of the clones wasn't in unison...

One in the top right was acapella-ing One-winged-angel. But a least she was singing.

Cure Wukong, on the other hand, had a giant leviathan to fight. She landed on one of Yellow Pearl Voice's stages, before leaping to the next, rebounding off them, before leaping straight AT Leviathan to try and grab it on the nose!

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    When the row of Live Stages is offered, Hope Blossom gladly hops into one of the bubbles of light and lets it wash over and envelop her. It's... a nostalgic feeling, almost. Back when Madoka didn't have powers yet, Yellow Pearl Voice would...

    She doesn't have time to think about that. The Dark Lovers have arrived and Madoka has apparently gotten the attention of an evil water-wielding mermaid. Because of course she did. As Hope's branch bow appears in her hands, the competing music between Coco and Yuri goes on in the background as the vicious water dragon starts to go after the Live Stage she's in.

    With a determined frown, Madoka suddenly jumps out of the light bubble and soars into the air, as the water dragon's maw closes around the space where she just was. At the apex of her jump, Hope unleashes her first volley of arrows in the fight, trying to pepper the water dragon with fire while also at the same time aiming to land at another Live Stage.

    It's a good thing that she brought Lydian to this fight, because all of the music and singing is really hyping her up.

    Meanwhile, Madoka is keeping one eye on Isuru. If she wants to make progress in this fight, eventually she's going to need to find a clear shot on the hostile mermaid.

    The pearl on her necklace, sitting next to the Humpty Lock, begins to shimmer slightly. Hope Blossom has kept it, all this time, as a memento of Coco's friendship. She doesn't yet notice that its power is starting to awaken, but Sio, who is clinging to her shoulder, is looking at it with curiosity.

Coco Kiumi has posed:
"Keep those away!", Yuri scowls at Red, her music surrounding them in a bubble of dark energy. But with Coco's song weakening it, they aren't fully stopped, and those that make it through end up clashing against more shadows, a last moment trick of Eril.

"Why we are doing this? I am not sure someone like you could ever understand", Yuri grits her teeth. "You wouldn't recognise greatness if it you in the face." The older of the Dark Lovers puts a hand on Yuri's shoulders. "Now, now, Yuri", Isuru remarks condiscendingly, "that's no reason to let her wallow in her ignorance. You, Red, Lord Gaito gave us true life when we were but fishes roaming in the depths", Isuru explains to the red girl with disdain.

"Wouldn't you be grateful to the one that gave you this great opportunity? If there is one thing we Dark Lovers all share is our love for Gaito, and one we will never betray!" At the end of her determined declaration, Isuru snaps her fingers and another water dragon is created, this time sent towards the Puella. The other one won't be able to see its twin for much longer, successfully destroyed by Hope Blossom's arrows.

"Who made you an expert on music?", Yuri practically glares daggers at Loyalty (she sure wishes that was a power she had). Unfortunately she is stuck with her piano magic, and even as enhanced as it is, it's still being kept at bay by the sea idol's Legend of Mermaid. And the green-haired Dark Lover sure wishes she had a choir's just like the one that came there from Cure Wukong, making the purification stronger. It's even starting to hurt again despite the two competing melodies.

"So you say I am a pretty girl", Maria tilts her head to the side with a smile as she hears Loyalty's words. "No enemy has ever told me that, I will be sure to remember those words after I kill you", she conjures another round of knives, and sending them yet again towards the rainbow girl. She is really not one for originality, that's for sure.

The Leviathan roars frustrated as its blast hits the empty air, but even that is nothing as Cure Wukong leaps around and succeeds on grabbing onto its noise. The waters get disturbed even more as the great fish thrashes about, trying in vain to throw the pinkette off of her nose. "Somebody stop her", Maria calls to action, while all 4 water demons try to keep her balance on their ride. "Don't you see this place is already taken? Go annoy someone else!" Eril's red eyes glow at the pink Pretty Cure, sending out arrow of shadow magic to pierce through her.

One of the Leviathan's movements, more frustrated and desperate that the others, releases dark energy into a wave, that mounts higher and ends up in Hope Blossom's direction, a wall of water that threatens to drown her.

Niji Dasshu has posed:
    And Loyalty too wishes she could glare daggers. Or laser beam eyes."...Waaaait, is that why you call yourselves the Dark Lovers? You're some sort of like, pack of obsessed girls over some evil dude?" Loyalty asks, pausing in her moment to try to process that. "And look, you don't have to be a pilot to know the plane shouldn't be upside-down in a tree, and I don't have to be a singer to know that your stuff makes me feel like crap." she says, bluntly.

    "Well, pretty on the outside. But on the inside..." she says as she starts dodging the hard-to-see knives as best she can at her greatly increased speed. "...you're still as dark as the depths you used to live in." she adds, picking up on what Isuru said. "And seriously, someone tell your 'lover' that you're not supposed to take 'another fish in the sea' literally. Or a bunch at the same time, eit- OW!" she exclaims as one of Maria's ice darts finds its home in her side and ices over part of her body and outfit to boot.

    "Alright, you hit me first, time to show you I'm not Geode Girl Kindness then." she says, and wonders if there even is such a person. Whatever."Don't say I didn't warn you."

    She grips her bat in both hands, teeth gritting from the pain, and swings it at Maria's side like she's trying to send her ice-dart flinging hand out of the stadium for a home run. She tried, she was the good Magical Girl, but now her side hurts.

Cho Konishi has posed:
"It's nice that you care about him that much, but sometimes caring abut someone is helping them see they're doing the wrong thing, that they'll be more miserable if they continue down this path!" Cure Wukong yelled, while holding on to the leviathan for dear life! Oh. Ohhh this was not going to--

And then an arrow hit her and she was sent flying off with a pained shriek. OW! She flew back through the air, only to land on one of Yellow Pearl's stages and roll back, towards the edge. She laid there for a moment, staring at the sky. Owwww.

Before, finally, she spun around to rise to her feet. She then leaped once more, twirling her staff before it began to grow to a good thirty feet long, ten feet wide... and dropped it horizontally at the leviathan's face, riding it like a skate board (or, at least TRYING) to grind down the leviathan's back. "CATCH A RIIIIIIIDE!"

... This was a bad idea. It was unclear who it was a bad idea FOR, though...

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Hope Blossom rests for a moment in her Live Stage as she considers her next move. Her pink eyes dart towards Cure Wukong and the clone army which... is actually kinda working together for once? For the most part, at least.

    Sadly, Madoka doesn't have time to be impressed. The wall of dark water is coming at her and she needs to respond now. She thrusts her hands in front of her and starts making multiple copies of her branch bow, each of them weaving together and creating a... fence? A board? Some construction of wood that she's just hurriedly slapping together because she needs some kind of protection. As she works, her pearl begins to glow more brightly, and the Humpty Lock begins to respond in kind.

    With a sudden flash, Madoka's makeshift wood wall glows with rainbow light, and as the wave hits her it knocks her out of the Live Stage, but she clings to her construction as it purifies the water around her. After gaining some stability, Hope Blossom starts to stand on her woven together branches and use them... like a surf board?

    There is now a pink bass guitar in Hope Blossom's hands, and the strings all glimmer with pearlescent light. As Yellow Pearl Voice's song rings out, she starts to play backing strings, adding power to the piece both in the musical sense and also in the sense that Hope Blossom's adding her own cleansing power to Coco's already purifying song.

    While on a surfboard.

    This decision clearly isn't Madoka's. This is Lydian taking over for a moment and the Chara Bearer is just rolling with it.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "Like... literally? You were just fishes he uplifted to intelligence? I guess that feels like you owe him a lot, yeah, but humans have bad parents all the time."

    A water dragon comes for her. "Oh no, not this again!" She fires some rocket bullets at it as she leaps back to another platform. "I dunno what to do against water!" She throws a lit stick of thermite at it, which just goes out once it's in water. Then her recoilless rifle is out, firing a high explosive magcially set to not detonate until it's inside the dragon made of water.

    "How does he treat you, though?! The, intelligence is your own! You could go to anyone! You can be thankful for that, but that doesn't mean you have to do whatever he tells you and accept his abuse!"

Coco Kiumi has posed:
"Arghh!" Maria shouts in pain when the bat connects with her hand, giving her a very nasty bruise and making one of her hands all but unusable. "You will pay for this!", she points at Loyalty with her free hand, and showing her she can use ice magic through that one as well when it starts to glow an icy blue.

Wukong grinding the Leviathan's back with her staff is in fact successful, giving the creature of darkness a very bad rash, and making it unable to focus on anything but the pain, its energy switching to try to close that wound, even if it's not managing it very well. The fate Isuru's water dragon is just worse though, staring confused around itself after it felt the missiles get into its throat, until they explode all at once, turning it into many inoffensive water droplets.

"Like you could ever understand the depths of our devotion!", they all shout at the same time to Loyalty's remark. "And just shut up!", Yuri tells the rainbow girl, not having a better retort for her evaluation of the green-haired girl's piano music. They were all fed up of having their devotion insulted and belittled, but Loyalty mocking Gaito for his decision to elevate them was really, really, one of the most frustrating things.

The only thing that could compare, was, say, implying Gaito abuses them. And in a rarer than rare occasion of cooperation, the four water demons share a knowing look, and with that as the only exchange, Maria and Isuru go after Loyalty, while Yuri and Eril go after Red. "Lovers' Ice Dragon!" the former shout, and the union of their powers creates a ice dragon flying towards Loyalty at speed and trying to bite her. Its bite too will freeze what it touches.

The latter two meanwhile infuse both their energies into the Leviathan, creating a shadow double with all the ferociousness of the original. The dark creatures too leaps at Red, maw wide open and ready to swallow her in a single bite. This one doesn't work that well, however, as the triple layer of purification covered by Coco, the Wukong Choir and Hope Blossom quickly erode the darkness, turning the mighty shadow beast into a wolf-sized monster. It's still trying to bite Red, though.

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cure Wukong couldn't believe that worked. Being Wukong really DID mean that you could just do weird, strange things and it'd all turn out okay. Sure, she knew this but it was still really cool to have confirmed. As the neared the end of the leviathan, the staff shrunk down to its standard, 'staff' size and she landed on the back end of the leviathan...

"MONKEY FIST PARADE!" she yelled before she started running back up the leviathan, spinning her staff and intending to, well, knock EVERYONE off the leviathan as she went, yelling the whole time. Because nothing said 'Wukong' quite like yelling and random violence.

"Being devoted to someone doesn't mean you have to do whatever they want! Do you think he'll be happy knowing that all he's done is try to undo the things that Sara tried to do when she passed?"

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    As the wave passes, Hope recognizes that she's no longer being attacked for the moment. She stops playing to reach up to her shoulder and pet Sio on the head, before telling her, "You should probably pull back for now. Lydian and I will be fine."

    Sio glances towards Madoka, then forms her Chara Egg around her to start flying away from the combat. The scale and distance of the fighting is a bit more than they're used to, and Hope would hate for one of her fairies to get lost at sea. Even if she was pretty sure Coco would help her look if that happened, why risk the potential trouble?

    Hope's board starts to fall apart, and before it can return to nothing she's already jumping to the nearest Life Stage. She hops from one bubble to the next, trying to stay out of danger while also get close as she can to the fighting.

    At first she has trouble interpreting her Chara's actions. Why a guitar? Yet, when she thinks about it, it kinda makes sense. Hope Blossom can make bows, and if she bends her power she can make things out of her bows, which generally involves wood and string. So it actually kinda makes sense that Lydian would go for a string instrument.

    It also gives Hope Blossom an idea for her next attack, because if these strings come from her bow...

    Madoka goes back to playing bass guitar, now with extra enthusiasm. Now she's acting in concert with her Chara instead of merely being controlled by her. And with every chord she hits, a flash of pink flies out, turns into an arrow, and starts flying at the Dark Lovers. Now, with Madoka's pink pearl shining bright, her playing is sending a spread of arrows at the enemy in time with the rhythm.

    Making the enemy try to follow a beat in order to dodge an attack is either a great idea or a terrible one, all things considered, but at least the guitar backing is still kinda helping Coco's music a bit?

Niji Dasshu has posed:
    Loyalty allows herself just a small sad sigh at the metallic thud of her only slightly magically enhanced bat. She wasn't really excited about needing to bash someone's hands in, but it's not like she was spraying those painful, dangerous ice blasts out of a gun or something. Never can make it easy.

    "Aw, man..." she says, rolling her eyes, when Maria reveals her other hand. "I'm sure we're both gonna pay for this honestly." she says.

    "You know if you were truly devoted to them - truly loyal - you would be able to understand that sometimes, people want things that AREN'T good for them! Things that are unhealthy! You're not helping him have a better life if you're helping him chase a dream that leads to his destruction or the destruction of others. If somebody's got a bad idea the loyal thing to do is to tell them it's a bad idea, not JOIN -" aaand she's cut off by the giant ice dragon - she manages to get her bat up in time, but the dragon's bite hits her arms and the bat, freezing ice shooting across the surface of both, while the impact of the attack knocks her off the platform and sends her into the water. For a moment, she's under the water, and things are quiet.

    Before she launches herself out of the water, rainbow trailing behind her, blue wings on her back.

    "If you care about this guy... lead him to a better life! One where people. aren't. HURT!" she says, gritting her teeth, dripping water, wings flapping, trying to get feeling back in her arm.

    "You just don't get it. You think you're being loyal and helping... but this isn't what that is. That's everything people get WRONG about what Loyalty is, about what backing someone is." she says, clenching her fist. "How can I get it through your head..." she says.

    She has not noticed she's glowing with a slight rainbow aura, but she is.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "What's that matter? Is he gonna punish you if he finds out I said he mistreats you?!" Amy shouts; she fires some more rocket-bullets at the dragon, but they don't really... do anything to water, and she has her own problem to worry about. "Woah!" she shouts as she sees the approaching shadow leviathan, frantically hopping to another Live Stage to avoid being eaten... but it turns out the assembled purification magic shrinks it, and as it swim-flies over the Live Stage towards her, she feels...

    The pearl?

    Something on her person, tucked away wherever he inventory goes when she's in henshin, wants to help. It has to help.

    Amy's fired a few rocket-bullets at the charging Leviathan, but she's chased to the edge of the platform as she backs away and it rushes up to chomp her when her left hand is suddenly holding a silvery-white flare, burning and shining against the darkness, driving the Leviathan to halt its charge as Amy summons a sledgehammer in her right hand, swinging it against the side of the dark leviathan and then exploding the side of the head that hits! "Oookay, that was cool, thanks Aqua Regina!"

    She also shouts to the others, "A chorus and you know all these instruments too? That is really..." it doesn't quite sound like a word she'd use, but she's not sure how else to say it, "Rockin', guys!"

Coco Kiumi has posed:
None of the Dark Lovers are prepared for the Monkey Fist Parade and as a result, Yuri is the one that gets saved from the chase, due to giving out an unseemly scream when she saw Wukong come up and do to the others, and she barely had the time to hide under there.

What happens with the others is that they are all unable to perform at Hope Blossom's rhythm game successfully while also trying to defend from the Monkey King, so they either get under the arrows in the process of dodging Wukong, or the staff smacks then around and adds an injury to another for a double combo.

None of the Dark Lovers is really able to tell Loyalty they want to support Gaito more than switch to her idea of what their devotion means to them, that's something bigger than all four can conceive, but even so they hear her words and can only grimace under them, purification added to them in a way that feels like being struck by many little daggers.

The shadow leviathan has it really bad when Amy's silvery-white flare turns into a sledgehammer and smacks the poor confused copy around, leaving it to dissolve completely with pained laments.

All in all it's a great success for the the mahou, and two figures standing on the sea at a distance, can't help but agree. The Black Beauty Sisters observe the result against the strengthened Dark Lovers and shake their head. "Hey, Sheshe don't you think Gaito has gotten lamer, going after some random clan instead of his real goal?", the shorter of the two asks. "Yeah, I agree. I don't really think it's worth it to stay with him. I think it's better to cut our losses and jump ship. And I just know how", she smirks peering at the Leviathan.

"Time to crash this party!", they shouts in unison, appearing next to the two groups of warriors and surrounding themselves in their own Live Stage of red light. "It's showtime!", the Black Beauty Sisters announce, a dark rhythm pulsing in the background with the start of their song.

A baroque that shuts away light becomes beautiful noise, that makes you listen.

The whisper of our dark trap cradles you, so sleep forever.

Slowly awakening
are the shadows of our hearts.
The crimson roses become decorations that force pearls to freeze over.

Now, together your wishes will all become one.
Surrender yourself to the great darkness.

The song would be extremely debilitating to the group of mahous, while the Dark Lovers would find the ocean turning against them, stirring them around and stopping them from getting back on the real Leviathan, and there is a huge and incredibly rapid wave to wash Yuri as well as Cure Wukong away from the Leviathan so they can claim it. Their smiles are wide ever so confident in their victory-

"What are you two supposed to be doing?", Gaito appears behind them in a blur, a barrier of light blocking the wave and interrupting the debilitating song. With a nervous grin, the two Dark Lovers turn around, only saying "Ah, Lord Gaito..." With a look that makes it clear he doesn't want to hear any excuses, a cascade of lightning is brought down from the skies, completely annihilating the two dark songstresses and reverting them to the anglers they were.

"Pathetic... Thinking they could betray me..." the Dark Lord's power shifts the seas once more, and brings the Dark Lover on top of the Leviathan, giving them a second wind. "See to it that you clean this mess up", he sighs after giving them new strength and disappearing to return to his task.

"Yes, Lord Gaito!", the four say, releasing all of themselves into the Leviathan, and as its eyes glow with darkness, beams of darkness fire all over with the united concert's power, and the beast this time swims to devour them all.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    The explosive hammer is just Amy's usual powers, but the flare... looks weird.

    The red from Amy's flare matches her soul gem, and it is pure, so pure.

    It's such a pure RED that the imperfections in sensors used to percieve it are exagerated -- patterns visible in the red from its diffraction through eyelashes and the shape of the viewer's pupil, and the little bits of microscopic stuff floating in the fluid of the eye.

    The pearl offers Aqua Regina's power and purification. But it has to be wielded by Amanda.

    It could be a sword, imposing the order of a queen on the hostile, burning darkness -- but would Amanda really do violence in another's name? Sure, she said she'd duel Otto for Hannah's sake if she could, but was that about fighting, or about sacrificing herself?

    A light shining, saying 'I am here', seperating 'I' from the darkness around is a start, but--

    Sleep forever.

    She's so tired.

    She didn't sleep enough last night.

    Maybe, just a little bit...

    Amy collapses, and the light stops shining as she tumbles and falls.

    But as she approaches the Leviathan's mouth, she starts to glow...

    Maybe it eats her. Maybe touching her is too much. But she shines so brightly, she burns that which would try to consume her, that which would do violence to Amanda Faust, she burns to the touch, and as she awakens from sleep her Puella Magi powers add actual fire and explosions and Gaito help the Leviathan if it took her in its mouth (there might be red light shining almost comically out of its eyes and mouth and earholes...) she is extremely unpleasant to be close to, and the more it tries to hurt her, the more it's hurt, unless it has the sense, and the chance, to run.

    Which is very cool and all but someone please fish her out of the water after this, ack it's cold!

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Madoka keeps playing as the battle rages on, trying to keep pressure up while also supporting Coco. Amy compliments her for knowing how to play an instrument and she gets a little awkward for the moment. "Honestly this is more Lydian than me. This is just a thing that Chara can do sometimes. I'd have to get a lot more practice before I could do this on my own, and it's not like I can really take this for graned, but... I guess for now it's probably okay?"

    As much as Madoka enjoys playing an instrument, she also knows that Lydian will tell her off if she tries to rely too much upon magic to be good at things instead of pursuing real skill.

    Anything else she could say on that topic is cut off by Gaito suddenly getting betrayed. Getting hit by two dark songs at once was, temporarily, overwhelming without Madoka being able to rely upon Kamiko right now. She started to falter, to drop notes, and to lose her place in the song. After a moment of this, she starts to realize that she can't really play at all...

    Fortunately it didn't last very long, and the moment Gaito punishes the Black Beauty Sisters she finds Lydian's influence helping her again. As her right hand strums and plucks the strings, and her left travels up and down the neck, Madoka starts to feel like she actually kinda gets it. Which is a pretty nice feeling.

    The Dark Lovers were put on the back foot before, and while Gaito may have given them a second wind, Hope Blossom is finding one of her own. Her pearl glows brilliantly, and a pair of pretty, magical, pink-and-white frilly concert speakers manifests in front of her, at the edge of her Live Stage, pulsating as she plays. She doesn't sing, because that's not her role here, but with each beat of her rhythm she adds another pulse of clean, soul-cleansing sound that fires from her speakers and adds to Coco's audial assault.

    Her addition to the song covers the battlefield, hopefully uplifting her allies and pushing back the influence of the cursed feelings coming from the Dark Lovers' hearts.

Niji Dasshu has posed:
    Something about these girl's idea of loyalty irks... well... Loyalty. She can feel it in her core. Just because someone did something nice for you, something grand, something even miraculous for you, didn't mean you had to bow to their every wish, especially bad ones.

    Then the other Beauty sisters arise and just when Loyalty thinks they're about to be outnumbered, they try to turn on their allies; and then are summarily executed in front of her.

    All of tthis is a lot to take in... but she's still got that glow around her. She still feels that energy in her heart. In her rising spirit.

    Which is a good thing because... the remaining four opponents and their GIANT KILLER FISH seem to be supercharged on energy.

    Getting out of the way of the incoming attack is a matter of flying up, but there are other people here; teammates, allies, and then there's civilians back on the mainland that could be at risk if they don't stop all of this.

    "We're not going to let you do whatever you want just because you choose to misunderstand Loyalty." she says, closing her eyes, and when they open, they shine with rainbow energy too.

    She doesn't know what she's doing. She's speaking without her own intent. She doesn't know how to do it. She's only vaguely aware that she is doing something, but she knows that this has to stop. She collects energy into her hand, which turns into a brilliantly bright rainbow sphere. About the size of an orange. Or a softball. "LOYALTY...."... she says as she tosses the sphere of energy into the air. "Homerun Special!" she yells as she slams into it with the bat. After she hits it it grows in size - until the orb is at least large enough to threaten the fish. A large ball of purifying energy. For the fish. For the sisters. To protect everyone.

    After it's hit, her shoulders slump and she starts to float downwards, then fall. Damn, that takes a lot out of her! But hey, an attack! if she survives maybe she can do that one again!

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cure Wukong was internally cheering as, one by one, the girls were knocked from the leviathan! VICTORY! WAS! THEIRS! Combining all of their attacks together to defeat the enemies was--

And then there was new music. She shrieked, lifting her arms up to try and shield herself and--

Nope. Too slow. The wave washed over her and knocked her off, causing her to flail and sink for a moment... before her staff became a floating 'log' of sorts in size and she popped back out. Guuuuuh. Annoying. She glowered at the two Dark Lovers. How dare they--

Oh. Hiiii Gaito. That... that boaded poorly. She reached out a hand to grip a flying stage as it flew by, crawling herself back onto it and dripping water everywhere, shaking off to send it flying and making her tail poof.

"We don't want to fight you, we don't want to *hurt* you," she called out. "But you're really not giving us a chance when you do things like launch tidal waves at the land and threaten the lives of so many people!" Cure Wukong yelled.

Behind Coco, the Monkey King Choir had been shifted, but not dispersed, regathering themselves, they started amping up. And now? Now was the time... for the finale song. Joining in behind the mermaid, singing along to give her words the oomph to finish this as Cure Wukong began to perform her seals, dancing around the stage.

"72 earthly transformations purification!"

And as the last one was launched, the beam of pink purification energy would launch forward, skidding along the water to join the attacks of the others against the leviathan and girls!

Coco Kiumi has posed:
Coco grimaces when the Black Beauty Sisters appears. She is not sure if they can handle all of this, but she still has a great many songs in them, and she is about to switch to the Super Idol transformation.

But then Gaito appears and punishes them for acting out of line, and disappears just as fast as he came here, however not before reinvigorating the Dark Lovers and the Leviathan. "That sure took a turn", she sighs. "Let's go everyone, it's the final stretch!", she says, and they are all still fighting, with Aqua Regina's own gift to show them all united.

She raises her right arm, the bracelet on her wrist shining with white radiance as a halo of yellow light moves downwards from the mermaid princess's head and her clothes change again: her left glove now adheres to her arm with a pattern made up of water ripples, while on her left leg a stocking has shown up with the same water ripple pattern, and on her right hand and on her legs a yellow glove and boots with flowy extensions show up.

Bathed in a white-golden glow, rhythmic pulses of light that give a warm embrace to the pain, soothe all the fatigue and push away the darkness, purifying the huge excess of dark energy that Gaito has brought.

"The Sound of the Bell of Hope ~Love Goes On~:Pichi Pichi Voice, Live Finale", the mermaid princess smiles gently, knowing that it's time to put an end to this wrong dream.

The seven-colored wind, the seven-colored sky
Overflow with hope to the world.
Your pure white wings, let them rest, and gently fall to sleep.
The sound of the bell of hope becomes the final song now...
This isn't a world made up of just strong people, so
Listen to my love in this song...

At the apex of the song, purifying hearts fly out in all directions, the reach of a big circle of love that won't end. "Fine Heart Pitch!", she concludes the performance with a serene smile.

Inside the Leviathan, Puella Red is burning bright, a whole host of flames that push their way out and cauterize the malefic creature, giving it no escape as it tries in vain to get her out.

The melodies of the Wukong Choir, those of the Super Idol Yellow Pearl Voice, Hope Blossom's own music thanks to Lydian... They all converge together and issue a challenge to the dark sky overhead, showing a serene day, even in the dark of Gaito's power. The Leviathan squirms and flails around blindly while the Dark Lovers try in vain not to hear the music that takes away the darkness at their core.

Then they are met with Wukong's 72 earthly transformations purification, who dazes them and all they can do is feel all those emanations of the Monkey King condensed in that beam, giving them no escape.

The Rainbow Homerun Special hits them dead center as well, a whole jubilation like she is in a stadium for that strike that hits the darkness out of the park in a splendid home run.

All these purifications together create a whole harmony of colours, making it clear for all to see of the unending push against evil, with hope, by hope and for hope. By the time these brilliant lights disappear, there are only five small confused fishes left.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Hope Blossom plays, and keeps playing, getting lost in the motion of her hands, the feeling of the strings vibrating against her fingertips, and the sound of her baseline adding to the harmony. It's beautiful in a way that Madoka doesn't usually get to experience.

    ... and when the song ends, all that knowledge and expertise is gone. She kindof misses it, but she can hear Lydian's voice in her heart saying, Well if you want to feel that, you can always practice more!

    Because, really, that's part of the point of a Chara. They can push you along, and give you a boost here or there, but following your dreams is still, ultimately, your responsibility.

    Madoka looks on, and sees that the Dark Lovers and their Leviathan have all been returned to fish. She blinks, and then glances to Coco. "O-oh... I guess it worked?"

    Floating within the Live Stage bubble, Madoka looks ahead to the palace. With a sigh she says, "Guess we gotta do this the hard way, huh?"

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cure Wukong stared through the light and blinding magic, watching... and...

... Fishes. Five very confused fishies. She blinked a few times, staring out from her live stage at the girls and... "Huh. They... they were not kidding," she finally said. "... Ummmm... I guess... stay away from nets?" she said, blinking a few times. Well... she wondered if they'd even remember them? Was the magic that gave them the human minds... well... Actually, they were probably already magic fish and would return to one of the mermaid oceans either way.

For now, they had a Gaito to deal with. And her cloud was... wrecked. She clutched the pearl to her chest as the choir began to poof into hair, crumbling away.

Luckily, she had a live stage. She was going to let Yellow Pearl draw them towards the castle now while she recovered her energy from that. "Okay, girls! We're almost there! We just need to beat up Gaito now! We! Can! Do this!"

Niji Dasshu has posed:
    Geode Girl Loyalty slowly floated down to the live stage, a smile on her face even through the ehxaustion. "Wow, I did it. I did something other than just beat monsters with my bat!" she says, and she's a little bit happy but a little bit too exhausted to truly celebrate. And then she looks towards the castle.

    "Guess it's not over yet, at all, though." she says, slowly hefting her bat up to rest it on her shoulder. She'd heard about other massively powerful threats - about Beryl, about Walpurgisnacht, about so many others. And now ... now here she was, facing down the castle of who she knew to be an evil mermaid-kidnapping sea wanna-be-emperor. "I guess this one is mine." she says, to nobody in particular.

    Then she steps over to the other group of girls. "We can do this, yeah." she says to Wukong. "We can do it together."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Sometimes, Amanda is so very tired. In her own way, she fought so hard just to hang on until she got a wish, and then it's been a new world, with new wonders and new problems, and at the heart of those problems people, same as before, wielding power to shape the world to hurt for their own gain. Against them stand she and her friends, with their own powers -- a Puella Magi is a soul and its wish, burning itself and the ashes of those once like it to stand against a world until it is ash, and today, a piece of Aqua Regina's power joined Amy's blaze.

    There's a bell, and Amy awakens to the words

This isn't a world made up of strong people, so
Listen to my love in this song...

    In darkness and danger, she burns with fire to survive, until between her and everything else the leviathan is gone and there are just fishes.

    Presumably a Live Stage is lifting her out of the water, or maybe Aqua Regina's magic is making her function just fine in the sea. She looks at the former Dark Lovers and Black beauty Sisters. "What the... dang, you really were just fishes. I'm sorry..." She looks up at the others, as the glow of the Red Pearl's light slowly fades. "D'you think they're happier this way? They're free from Gaito, now."

    She looks down at her hands. "Also, what the hell just happened?! That wasn't your song... it was the pearls your mom gave us?"

    She takes a breath and then smiles and holds out a fist to Loyalty. "Yeah! We can do this!"

Coco Kiumi has posed:
The fierce golden light surrounding Coco calms down and returns to a more calm yellow, bit the condensed feeling of her bonds is still there, lingering at the edges of her Live Stage, ever strong and ever present. Ahead of them, now free for them to enter, resting above the tumultuous waters, lies Gaito's palace, still thundering with the man's grief.

The five white lights holding them start moving closer to the floating building, and Coco looks towards Cho. "This time it's really just us", Coco approaches Wukong, with a wide smile at her incitement. "Let's make Gaito understand this time."

"First time using purification?", she asks to Loyalty. "I think you did a great job with it", she says, with a consideration for her tired expression. "This is the final stretch, Loyalty. If you need anything while we go to Gaito, you can talk about it, ok?", she adds with a friendly look.

Turning to Madoka, she says. "It really did", she confirms serenely. "It's ok, Blossom, Aqua Regina trusts in us, and I trust all of you as well. I have no doubt that we can all do this." And with these words, right now there is a very concrete feeling thanks to Aqua Regina's pearl that cannot be mistaken as anything but true.

"Considering how they went away, I bet the Black Beauty Sisters regret losing their chance at power, and the Dark Lovers, they probably regret not doing more. But now they don't have dark energy anymore, I hope they will learn to be happy for themselves", it's her consideration to Puella Red.

And with the castle door looming in front of them, the Live Stages gives it a push, opening with ease into the dark hallways, bathing them with their light.