1462/Dimension Past: The Radiant Dark

Dimension Past: The Radiant Dark
Date of Scene:	26 April 2024
Location:	The Golden Kingdom
Synopsis:	Echo-Kunzite needs energy for his Great Leader. He means, to protect Earth and Endymion. Yes. So he goes to get some. By eating a city. It's all fun and games until senpai notices Erika...
Cast of Characters:	Kazuo Saitou, Rashmi Terios, Erika Shimizu, Madoka Kaname, Usagi Tsukino, Jadeite, 174, Makoto Kino, Hinoiri Kirara
Tinyplot:	Operation: Past

---

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
Another portal; another city. The sky above is Earth's clouded blue, beginning to tint yellow and a pale orange as the sun sinks toward the horizon. Brick barracks and businesses and offices and crowds of narrow, tall residences sharing walls fill streets planned out meticulously not to a grid but a series of circles connected by radial avenues. Rubbing shoulders with them are temples - columned, teak-roofed structures often open to the air - and domed and towered palaces tiled in a blue deep enough to make an artist weep, decorated with delicate and graceful curves of gold. The largest circle, a mile and a half wide, is made of great walls with greater gates at each cardinal direction; the broadest avenues run straight to them from the oldest palace at the center --

-- a palace that stands in ruins, towers collapsed and walls caved in, as if struck by a great blow from the eastern gate. The eastern gate itself is functional but not yet ornamented, and the buildings along its avenue look ... new. A few years old at most. Not yet worn by the yellow dust that sifts and drifts in odd corners.

Something happened here, before. Something long enough ago to have been rebuilt from; something recent enough that no-one has taken the ruins apart for building materials, or to reclaim their space.

The people who throng the streets are dressed in all manner of styles, though robes and enough spare cloth to cover hair and face and hands at need seem to predominate. Among them, stepping out from one of the offices near the center, is a tall man somewhere in the first half of his twenties. He wears a uniform, cream-colored with golden trim, a scabbarded sword hanging from his complicated series of belts, a brown cape lined with cloth nearly the same deep blue as the tiles. Long, stark white hair reflects the sunset; a single faceted crystalline earring gleams brightly.

Kunzite surveys the ruins for a moment, then turns to study the faces of the passersby. The people on the street nearby take a single glance at him in return and suddenly press closer together to leave empty space around him, their conversation quieting as they pass, springing up with a hint of frantic nervousness thereafter. They notice him in exactly the way that they don't notice the handful of people deposited here and there by the portal's shimmering energy before it fades.

For just a moment, it's quiet. Maybe long enough to catch one's breath. But it's not a comfortable quiet at all.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Upon entering the portal, Rashmi cannot help but shudder with trepidation, as they move through time and memory, as eon becomes instant. Despite many of her traveling fellows disappearing on their own journeys, she took the time in the Golden Kingdom's sleepy, stinky city as the best kind of respite she'd think herself likely to get; a chance to process the horrors of the Moon Kingdom under siege, the maddened hate, the screaming, the carnage and charred flesh...

The Earth, aflame...

Despite her words to Uranus, Rashmi *is* intimidated by the theme behind this entire trip; once, a single woman became powerful enough to burn one world, in the service of murdering another.

So when she lands within another city, in front of another palace long reduced to ruins, that yawning pit of dread opens once more.

After witnessing the culmination of Beryl's mad design... What horror will be employed to *create* that outcome, here? What did this white-haired man *do* to create such fear in the people?

And *what is he going to do now?*

Shrinking physically away from this question, as she can't do mentally, she creeps closer to those travelers that remain. In her heart, she understands that it's *important* to witness what comes next, to know the full shape and scope of the fight ahead. But, oh, she does not want to, not at all.

Erika Shimizu has posed:
    Maybe... Just maybe... Erika Shimizu; the accursed pirate mahou known as Jolly Roger... Should have let her hat go.
    It's not like she couldn't have ran. She had her chance to run when Beryl opened the portal to LITERALLY the World War II the D-Day beach invasion of the Moon Mingdom, in the past. She could have just. Let her hat go into the portal and fled to save her own skin.
    But no.
    Hats are important. Especially a hat as cherished and beloved as a pirate's nautical bicorne.
    Erika Shimizu... Jolly Roger... Does not regret her decision.
    She is hurting for it, though. After seeing the hellish nightmare of the moon invaded she ended up separated from the main group of portal-swallowed mahous and has somehow managed to evade getting herself killed in the interim. But when another portal opens up she leaps into it like an overboard sailor grabbing for any rope they can in a squall.
    It lands her... Near Rashmi Terios of all people.
    "Oh blimey, ain't you a sight for sore eyes, mate." The blonde pirate huffs. "It's been one nightmare after the next an' I just think I'm right tired of it." She says, planting her hands on her knees and doing her best to catch her breath.
    Until she looks up.
    Until she sees the ruins. She sees the frightened people.
    She sees the Heavenly King.
    He seems important. Like he commands the presence he is owed and deserved of.
    She has no idea who he is, but here, in the past, she gets the absolute sense that she doesn't want to find out what has the people so hushed as he draws near.
    "Maybe we ought keep our heads low." She says, voice lowering to a conspiratory hushed tone.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Another day, another mortifying moment. Madoka hasn't left her Hope Witch henshin since leaving the marketplace full of angry merchants. Getting rocks thrown at you in henshin, she could shrug off. Out of henshin? Not so much.

    Well, 'shrug off' in terms of physical damage. It still hurt her feelings, even though these people weren't exactly real.

    Now she finds herself with a different part of the group, still on Earth. Sio has rejoined her Bearer's side, resting on her shoulder. Hope Witch studies the architecture and the damage done to it, wondering for a moment what caused it. Was it one of those monsters, or something else? The way Kunzite seems to be acknowledged by the general populace has Madoka thinking that he's part of the echo, and they way they seem to fear him makes her wonder what exactly he's done. What he's going to do.

    "It's kinda weird how there's no Veil here," she comments, looking at past-Kunzite. "In any case, we should probably avoid notice. I don't think we're very popular around here."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Another portal, another city, a non-familiar one this time, which is always fun. Usagi shakes herself out, trying to get her bearings even though the landing was as soft as ever -

And her eyes widen when she catches sight of the Heavenly King standing there, before the ruined palace.

"Oh, that's not good," she whispers, hurrying over to the group.

"I know I'm the last person to talk," she says when she catches up to them (and they may notice that she's no longer wearing her school uniform, but instead some local-looking clothes, a dress and wrap like that of a local (wealthy) woman. "Because I've gotten kind of involved twice now, but trust me, we should not and I mean not, talk to him or get his attention, at all, because this is not a good sign. Also hi, it's great to see you guys, I hope you're all doing okay, have you all been able to find something to eat, a place to sleep, how's it going?"

Her eyes keep straying to the motionless, silent Kunzite.

"It's weird to see him. I just saw Kazuo not that long ago, he came through the portal with Naru-chan and Sailor Mercury, but um, this guy? He's... bad news."

Jadeite has posed:
Jadeite remembers this.

Not very well. Not in person. When Beryl had commanded they rain horror upon the earth to fuel her journey to the moon, Jadeite had his own homeland to raze. But he remembers the way that destruction had delighted him through a veil of fog; he remembers the screams.

"There was no Veil back then," he says, and his voice only shakes a little. "We lived alongside humanity until... this happened."

He looks over to Usagi and nods. "Do not talk to him, do not be sighted by him, avoid him. We should find a portal away from here as soon as we can.'"

Clarthas Anode (174) has posed:
    After detecting this strange spatial anomaly, Clarthas tried to investigate, and ended kind of sucked in...

    So. He appears to be in another world, with its own society and style and such. Not a foreign concept to someone with the memories of a veteran TSAB agent. There's protocols for this -- adjusting a Barrier Jacket for a disguise is one idea -- but also Clarthas Anode is a bit of a paradox, gifted with powers that assist with disguises and blending in but also really bad at acting like it. Still, on a surface level, he's able to get clothes from a clothing store or something somehow. So for the moment his signature coat is replaced by a scholar's white hooded robe.

    He rubs his hand over some of the blue tiles, looking at the architecture. The place reminds him a bit of the 'heaven' of a world where those who ran things lived in an entire city of lavish and garish extravagance, though not quite so over-the-top.

    And yet, people who live like this allow the scar of obvious damage to stay? Weird. Maybe there's some magic at play here?

    Of course, Kunzite... draws the eye. The colors are wrong, but the same aura that makes locals shrink away from him in hushed whispers pings Clarthas's 'this is important' sense.

    As do other gawkers nearby who are not dressed like locals. Oh, what the hey.

    The seemingly-yet-another-local-in-a-robe turns to the group of magical girls (And one guy with excellent dress sense). "So wait, this 'veil' thing is new? Earth used to be like every other world? What happened?" Asks the man with ashen skin and red eyes.

    Just make friendly conversation! Maybe they feel like talking. He can't hold in his curiousity, damn it!

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
What did the damage to the architecture? Hope Witch's study shows her signs of an impact from one direction, a scouring away of the earth, a strike at lower walls and a tearing at foundations. It wasn't a monster that destroyed that palace. It was a force - a wave of water, or perhaps a great torrent of animated sand. Something that came from the east, channeled down that one street, and then did not go on to destroy the rest of the city. Something years ago, and not, it seems, repeated.

The tiles that Clarthas touches aren't, as they might be expected to be, ceramic. They have the faint irregularities of natural stone. There are entire buildings here clad in lapis lazuli and gold. Lavish extravagance, indeed.

None of the conversation is interrupted, not directly. It's not as if any of them have gone so far as to name names. Kunzite does not even regard them the way that he does others. All the same, at last, he draws a breath and murmurs something low to himself. There is no flicker of change in his expression as he lifts his hands.

Shadows spring up about him in a sphere of early night. A handful of the passersby closest to him stop moving, abruptly, and fall to the ground. Those just outside the sphere yelp, and pull back from it, and start hastily pushing away. There are, at least, no children on the streets. That's something, isn't it?

Near the group of travelers, there's nothing direct yet; only that a breeze crops up suddenly, light and cooling. Incongruously pleasant.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
As Jadeite speaks up, Rashmi's eyes automatically flick his way, and for half a heartbeat, she freezes entirely. It's been a long time since she's seen that uniform before, but when someone is screaming and exploding and you're blasted into architecture trying to save someone else...

Well, you remember that face.

But it only lasts a moment, because she *knows* he and the rest of Mamoru's 'guard' have been saved, redeemed... but bad memories have a habit of cropping up under stress.

Nodding to him, Usagi, and Erika in turn, she starts to scoot around the fringes of the group, sidling her way in the direction of 'away from Kunzite.'

Then one of the scene's players *notices* them, and she wheels around to begin a startled question--

--only for Kunzite to summon the sphere of blackness, and Rashmi only gets a syllable out before being startled into silence. "...I think everyone's right," she says slowly, staring at the precursor to horror to come.

"...I also think we should run."

Erika Shimizu has posed:
    And there's Usagi- or Sailor Moon- showing up dressed as a local saying that this is SUPER MEGA SERIOUSLY BAD.
    Jolly Roger blinks owlishly.
    "Blisterin' barnacles why didn't I think of dressin' like that?" She considers briefly why she hasn't bothered to disguise herself.
    Once again she reconciles this with the issue that, if she did she would have to do away with her hat.
    And that is no bueno.
    Annnnd that's when people closest to the Heavenly King collapse to the ground.
    "Right then, time to cast the lines and set sail, methinks." She says as she turns about and starts... Walking away.
    Casual. Casual. Just keep casual. JUST KEEP CASUAL.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Someone turns to speak to them - someone she doesn't recognize as part of their original group, someone dressed in local clothes - and Usagi jumps, worried that somehow they've made themselves part of the scene, that Kunzite is going to notice them.

Only, on a closer look, she... recognizes this person. Vaguely. Kind of.

Well, shit. No going Sailor Moon while they're in the same portal.

"I don't know if it's new," she says reluctantly, "But it doesn't like there's any kind of veils in this place. You work with Sunbreaker, right?" And her voice is pitched, to make sure everyone knows this is an Obsidian agent, even if she's still hoping to preserve enough of her identity that she can't be entirely recognized.

"Um... I kind of got these as a gift," she shrugs at Jolly Roger. "But - Ja-aaaay... is right, and I'm also right, and yeah, we're all right, we need to get out of here -"

And then people start hitting the ground. Oh that's not good.

"Yep! TIme to start - getting away -"

She's joining Jolly in walking away, grabbing Jadeite's sleeve to pull him along.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    When Hope Witch first suggested that they avoid notice, it was mostly to avoid a tense, unfriendly situation. The way Usagi and Jadeite seem to reiterate her words makes her... significantly more worried. "Maybe we can just go back the way we came?"

    The sphere appears, and it looks to her like an energy drain. Remembering how futile (and potentially dangerous) it is to come to the rescue in this place, Hope Witch joins the others who are trying to exit this stage of history.

    Walk away. Just walk away.

    Clarthas gets briefly noticed, but Madoka doesn't really have time to consider where she knows him from.

    "This is field trip is getting worse all the time," she complains.

    Sio, meanwhile, is looking at the architecture and quietly wishing that she could have mor time to figure out just how expensive it is, but she's not foolish enough to do anything but remain in the relative safety of Hope's shoulder.

Jadeite has posed:
"Yes, let's go," Jadeite agrees with Usagi and Jolly Roger and Rashmi.

Now is most DEFINITELY time to go. At a nice, calm walking pace. So that they don't run into anything or get caught in the crowd.

His eyes scan around for another portal - nothing appears yet, which makes his stomach curdle. They will need it, sooner or later.

Kunzite was very thorough. Especially back then, here and now.

And, hm, Obsideon? Time to be sparse with the information he gives.

"I'm watching for portals," he says, voice pitched calm. "My shields won't do much against this, but if worst comes to worst..."

Clarthas Anode (174) has posed:
    Oh hey, there's someone from modern Japan in local clothes here! The probably-an-untransformed-magical-girl, sensible blondie from the other day, addresses Clarthas. He nods. "Yeah." He tries to remember just how much he told the Heroes that day. "But if we're going to fight, I'd like to do it properly. Right now I'd like to know where the heck we are. Besides 'someplace where they think putting gold and opulance everywhere is tasteful', I mean." He waves an arm at the architecture.

    And then Kunzite just starts dropping people. No speech, no plan, no fighting heroes! "Gh. That's not how you're supposed to do it..." Clarthas mutters. "What was that?" "I don't know! Engaging Strife Drives." answers the gauntlet, which becomes visible as Clarthas pulls off the local cloak to reveal the gauntlet Sarida on his left hand, and his usual coat -- it's not exactly a Shittenou uniform but it looks kinda like it might be something by the same designer.

    Despite the spell callout, he doesn't look like he's itching to fight Past Kunzite. Folks want to run. "I can agree with that..." He floats along with the group, looking back to keep an eye out for if Kunzite decides to start unleashing more targeted attacks.

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
Walking away is still possible for the moment, this far from the center of things. But the center of things, as they say, cannot hold. There is a ripple of people trying to flee, moving faster and faster as people further away see the ones closer trying to escape and drop whatever errand they're on to do the same - or rather than dropping it, try to move faster, to run through the mass of people before it thickens too much, to get where they're going just in time -

And then there is the sphere of darkness. It expands, steadily, and where it touches people falter, stagger, crumple, fall.

"What are you doing?" someone shrieks at Kunzite, trapped in a knot of humanity just outside the border. "You're supposed to be --"

Kunzite takes no step toward the person shouting. Only rises into the air. His eyes are beginning to glow, now, a flat white that the shadows around him do not touch. "I protect the Prince," he answers, somehow audible and echoing, and his voice is very near Kazuo's; but there is no humor in it, none at all. An arrogant certainty, yes. No hint of laughter. "And I protect the Earth. I may regret that your lives are required for this. But that regret changes nothing."

The darkness swallows the person who tried to call him out. And it moves faster. Scraping at the heels of the people trying to run. Then flooding over them, too - and as each one falls, it moves faster yet; and its master's eyes burn brighter.

Panic floods outward, along with screaming. Apparently everyone else is on board with the getting away idea, too. At least not being part of the scene means that people shove their way around the little group, absently treating them like some kind of obstacle in the street.

Problem number one: the panic is also spreading in front of them, and a shrieking terrified mob is not easy to walk through.

Problem number two: there is no convenient portal appearing.

Problem number three: those with Devices or experience or talent to recognize these things are going to realize very quickly that that sphere is growing exponentially, and in a few seconds it's going to be at their heels to.

Problem number five: the pleasant breeze is rapidly becoming a wind, and while it's not cold, it's whipping up dust and debris, clouding the streets and trying to threaten Erika's hat.

That, at least, is clearly unforgivable.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Walking away, walking away, walking swiftly away...

Jadeite identifies an ex-coworker, and the only sound out of Rashmi's mouth is a quiet, if extremely teenagery, sigh. Okay, someone else on the other side she's gonna probably end up having to out herself to, by pure necessity.

Nicomachea helpfully keeps a running tally of the numbers produced by Kunzite's broad-spectrum energy drain, and Rashmi helpfully winces, fighting down the panic.

"So uh... walking is great if we don't want to be noticed but maybe we shouldn't be caring about notice, that's *exponential growth* he's showing. I *really* hope I'm not the fastest mover here, guys..."

Tugging the sunburst charm at her neck free from its magnetic clasp, she sends Nicomachea a mental command, and the charm becomes a very, very large book, be-armored and be-teched in Midchildan fashion. Falling open above her upraised hand, the pages seem to generate a quartet of screens, showing graphs and bars and scrolling data, and none of the visualizers look ready to go in any direction but *more* anytime soon.

"Yeah uh... *we gotta go.*"

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Sio clings ever tighter to Hope Witch's shoulder as the wind picks up and threatens to drag her off. Her hand slips, and she starts to blow away she's caught in Witch's hand. "Just hide in the Labyrinth, okay?" says Madoka, before tossing the business fairy into a small portal. Sio, at least, will have a safe place to hide.

    That just leaves... well, literally everyone else, and Madoka isn't sure that her Labyrinth entrance will be able to outpace that rapidly expanding sphere unless she herself does. Between Kunzite's sphere and the timey wimey bubble, Madoka's not really sure how much she trusts the relative stability of space time here. Which means she's not sure she can fully trust the integrity of her Labyrinth, but it will at least help her keep Sio safe.

    "Forget walking," says Hope Witch. She isn't good at dodging in this form, but that doesn't mean she's rooted in place. She super jumps up to the top of a roof, and then starts rooftop hopping because it (A) is faster than walking and (B) avoids the people traffic. Turning back to the others, she says, "This way! We have to keep moving!"

Erika Shimizu has posed:
    Right then, casual.
    As casual as can be, Jolly Roger continues to walk until she can no longer walk casually.
    Clarthas seems to remove his local disguise.
    "I don't know this man." Jolly Roger Roger denies Clarthas's existence as hard as she can.
    Then people begin to panic and fly in terror. She dares cast a glance back over her shoulder as the wind starts to intensify.
    "Gah, damn it!" She hisses as she reaches up to hold her hat down and keep from losing it again.
    And as she's looking back, she sees just how fast that sphere of darkness is expanding.
    "... Time to go."
    Rashmi need not tell her more than once. But the throng of people make it SO HARD TO RUN.
    No helpful portals to somewhere else show up, either, in this time.
    "Sod it."
    Jolly Roger reaches into the folds of her naval greatcoat with her free hand and produces a flintlock pistol, which she raises skyward and fires with a *KRAK-BOOM* into the air.
    "EVERY MAN FOR THEMSELVES, WOMEN AND MAHOUSHOUJO FIRST!" She shouts in hopes her gunshot will cause the crush of people to scatter away and give a bit more leeway and a path for the fleeing mahous.
While holding her hat in place.
    It's important.

Clarthas Anode (174) has posed:
    One of the humans speaks up, and is devoured. Of course the guy has not only the outfit colors reversed, but the eyes too. "Geh. Great power and authority used as an excuse to hurt people in the name of protecting them..." Clarthas scoffs disdainfully.

    Beings of great power claiming to 'protect' the world that care not for the lives of mortals; this sounds like the enemies from legends she read about in history class, not-- wait, what? When was that, exact--

    oh shit the sphere is getting bigger. Clarthas feels uneasy about whether he's protected against whatever the hell that is. Sarida is supposed to empower a mortal with a chance to fight and kill even something like this, but it's far from certain.

    One of them talks about exponential growth, and things are so dire there's no time to even tell them off for being a TSAB mage here, only give Rashmi a panicked look.

    He holds out his gauntleted hand. "Okay. Sarida. Void time. Remove the limits in the way of our escape!" Sarida's crystal 'eye' stabilizes grey for a moment. "Engaging Void Drives. ...Uhh, I don't have enough Resonance for the really cool stuff! This is the best I can do right now!" And they try to give everyone a darkness-powered speed boost, like what a henshin gives but more focused. (Yes, this means even if you're not henshined, you can jump up to a rooftop. Convenient!) "Geh... It's fine. GO GO GO!"

    Clarthas can fly, so he'll just fly over the crowd, following Madoka's lead.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
The cool breeze is becoming a cold wind, people are starting to scream, to panic, and then Rashmi abandons all subtlety -

And Usagi abandons all hopes of quiet, because she's not wrong. Living is so much more important than finding out if they can be hurt by the things that don't know they're here.

(Besides. If she could get spattered with goo, and kiss Endymion, she can probably get have her energy stolen by Kunzite, and she's done such a good job of avoiding things being awkward between her and Kazuo and his past self killing her would definitely make things awkward for Mamoru not to mention her, so -)

The broach is snatched up, lifted above her head.

"Moon Prism Power, Make Up!"

And then the ordinary girl in local clothes is the one and only Sailor Moon, and she really hopes Kunzite is too distracted to pay attention to her, as she whips around and grabs Rashmi up like a sack of flour, half over her shoulder.

"Let's go! Let's go, we need to get out of here, Mercury-chan made me look at so many exponential growth charts and all I got out of it was that they keep getting bigger!"

She leaps to a rooftop, Rashmi in her arms. There's a burst of energy, dark sinking into her skin, and she grimaces, nearly dropping Rashmi at the way her body tries to fight it. Not now, body! Be sick later! It's time to run for our lives!

"Jadeite! Follow me! Don't bother with the shields, he eats energy! More than people usually do, you know this, and he'll kill us all for Endymion, you know he will!"

Some of that might have gotten lost in Jolly Roger's roaring shout, in the crack-KOOM of a gunshot in a world that has never seen them.

Oh, in this outfit, with this hair -

Oh, she really hopes Kunzite can't see them from this distance.

Makoto Kino has posed:
In the distance, in the direction of 'away' - made indistinct by the rushing of wind that kicks up dust and debris and batters into their faces - there is a flare of green light, bright as new leaves.

And the wind

    stops.

--Well, no. The air still roars like an angry thing, racing breakneck into that devouring black void. Except here, where the group of mahous are running for their lives. Here there's a pathway, maybe a dozen meters wide, where they don't have to fight the air for every step forward.

At the head of the calm, Sailor Jupiter stands, back braced against the cold, cold wind with one arm outstretched and the other poised against her chest. Her hair and her fuku whip around her with the force of the gale that she's splitting like a knife, and she is glowing for all she's worth.

"This way!"

Jadeite has posed:
Ohhhh he's remembering why the four of them rarely shared a battlefield when things got serious, because all four of them could BE the battlefield when it got serious - Kazuo would be displeased to find out a shadow of himself killed either of them, liled anyone, and he didn't need that on his shoulders and neither would Endymion who would take it to heart -

The girl in pink and the ashen boy start flying, and the pirate is getting herself well out of dodge - it's about time he joined Sailor Moon in fleeing!

"I know he will! I"ll try and cover you - I think if it's getting bigger in a circle, we'll have better chances of avoiding it if we go up!"

And as he leaps after her, he spreads his cloak as much as he can, attempting to keep Kunzite from spotting her.

He's already died once! (Twice?) He's not findign out what happens if it happens again!

Rashmi Terios has posed:
While not precisely *used* to being scooped up and carried -- at least, not by someone who isn't a foot shorter than she is, male, and an interdimensional civil servant -- Rashmi very, very much looks grateful for the assist, even as her nose wrinkles as Dark Energy gets employed in their *defense.* Useful or not, there is documented proof that the stuff's bad for you, and probably powered by corn syrup...

But that doesn't mean she can't bend her personal resources toward the escape, and if it'll keep them from ending up like the *horrifyingly* defenseless innocents...

Rashmi closes her eyes, and for a moment Sailor Moon is carrying a Rashmi-shaped mass of golden, polygon-etched light, which shatters to find Rashmi in her Barrier Jacket, and above Moon's head spreads a two-meter magical seal.

    << *BONG!* >> << HEPTA ACCEL -- BOOST UP >>

Boosting spells have slowly grown more and more optimized over the past most-of-a-year, and while the energy requirements climb *sharply* the more targets one selects at once... With all the practice, Rashmi's worked out that she'll spend *most* of her energy reserves on this kick, not 'all of them three times over.'

Seven wispy foxfires streak out from the seal -- one lancing far ahead of them toward Jupiter, who will eventually need the burst of speed -- and for a brief moment, every mahou running from Kunzite's nuclear drain gets an incongruous feeling, as the energy sinks in.

    << You are young, and the summer sun is bright and warm, and you *just want to run* because somehow you feel more alive. >>

"Go, go, go!" Rashmi shouts as her spell finds purchase.

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
*KRAK-BOOM!*

And Kunzite turns his head, to observe Jolly Roger shouting, and the people shrieking and trying to push away from her as well. It's certainly opening up something of an easier ground-path along with the roof-path, and both of them include the direction of 'away' that the leaf-bright light marks -

"No," Kunzite says levelly, and Erika and the mahou can hear him as clearly as if he were standing beside them. "I think not." He opens his hands outward, and his eyes blaze that dead white in turn, enough to cast faint shadows as far away as Clarthas and Hope Witch and Sailor Moon.

Nicomachea's numbers, already spiking, spike so hard and so fast that the displays switch to a logarithmic scale.

The darkness rushes out to crown the city walls. To put a dome over everything inside them.

Abruptly Jolly Roger has all the path she wants, because while not everyone in its way falls immediately, everyone without magic is no longer capable of running.

The darkness is achingly cold, burning against the skin, sinking into bones and joints. Even Sarida's speed boosts seem like a faint light in comparison to it. It pulls at the heat of their bodies, tries to pull at their magic, at their life. (It may be a good thing that there are no Puella Magi here.) Jupiter's green glow remains a beacon, but a besieged one.

Frost crackles along windows, and along the golden decorations --

-- and Rashmi's spell hits them.

For this moment, they and Kunzite may be the only things fully alive in this city. And Jolly Roger may qualify as more fully alive than Kunzite.

At least he's not looking at anyone but Erika. Not yet --

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
The winds change - or rather, the wind stops, no longer fighting them, no longer pulling and tugging and bristling against them, and there's a voice, familiar, beloved, a voice that calls with surety, that brings courage to the heart and strength to the body, and Sailor Moon nearly sobs.

(Does, sob, but Rashmi will keep her secret, and Jadeite will too, if he wants to keep his shins.)

She doesn't dare to scream out that name, to exhale the name of that renewed hope, for fear of Kunzite hearing, Kunzite knowing, Kunzite realizing -

But it's such a relief to know that Jupiter is here. It's such a relief to know that Makoto is here, with them. It may be a danger, too, given the everything around them, but it's still a relief -

And then the darkness closes in over them, the cold sucking and chilling, pulling, draining, trying to take and take and take, heat and life and energy all at once, and Sailor Moon can practically feel her lips getting chappped -

And then a feeling, like the sun coming up, like the joy of a new day, and the utterly alien desire to run for the sheer joy of it.

And oh, does Sailor Moon run.

On the roof, they can run, she's strong enough to hold Rashmi, especially with the boost, but Jolly is still on the ground level, not running and leaping along the roofs, and those cold, cold dead eyes are on her, and Kunzite is dangerous, Kunzite is terrifying, Kunzite is -

"Oh, I'm going to regret this," she grimaces, "But Rashmi-chan, I need you to fly, okay?"

Fly? Why fly instead of run - oh Buddha preserve her - there's poor Rashmi, being launched up and away, towards Sailor Jupiter's more distant form, as Sailor Moon does... well it's probably not the stupidest thing she's ever done, but it might crack the top ten, as she dives into Kunzite's line of sight by leaping down from the roof at a run and snatching Jolly Roger up into her arms, as she springs up to the opposite roof with her, just fucking flooring it.

"Please don't trip, please don't trip, please don't trip," she mutters to herself, "I've got you Jolly, but your guns, do they fire like, bullets? Because if they do? If he gets closer? Fucking shoot him."

Clarthas Anode (174) has posed:
(Color-changing when void-empowered is optional. Behavioral changes may be psychosomatic. Is anyone going to study it and find out? Side effects may include lingering badfeels, angst, and faux-nihilism.)

    No, I think not.

    Clarthas turns around and raises his hand, ready for a confrontation. Wincing at darkness so intense that it eats away at someone suffused with it.

    Clarthas Anode leaks. Not that it can be seen with darkness all around, but the darkness inside him seeps out to be absorbed by Kunzite as well.

    Suspicion and judgement hangs in the air. Just poking at the back of your mind, the thought that no one can be trusted to act selflessly, that everything others do is for selfish if not evil reasons...

    And then Rashmi's magic brings the goodfeels!

    Oooh, the TSAB mage has a speed boost too, and it feels... good. Clarthas can't help but speed up, feeling like when he first learned to fly at the academy and it was just so great to go fast and feel the wind on his face!

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Suddenly the city is covered in a dome, and Hope Witch looks up as her face grows pale. Did they... not run fast enough? Pirate-chan has Kunzite's attention, for better or worse, but Hope Witch isn't sure she can really... win this fight here.

    Well, there's a lot more to fighting than winning, she guesses. There's also more to winning than killing the opponent. In fact, for all intents and purposes, if you lived you at least won something.

    Madoka's black branch bow appears in her hands, and she fires a spread of arrows into the air. The arrows spread out and explode into small Labyrinth gates, each of which produces an angelic Familiar wielding a bow of their own. The witch's minions all spread out and attack past-Kunzite, providing him something else to shoot at or, at least, hoping to keep his attacks spread out instead of focused on them.

    Turning quickly around, leaving her disposable minions behind, Hope Witch keeps bounding towards the relative safety that Jupiter is hopefully leading them towards. Or, at least, she's taking advantage of the lack of wind.

Erika Shimizu has posed:
    The pirate is, in fact, doing her darn best to get out of dodge. And after expending the flintlock pistol's single shot she casts it aside. It turns to seafoam and glitter as soon as it hits the ground. And then Jolly Roger is RUNNING no sooner than people start hauling behind to get out of HER way.
    Clarthas' speed bost hits her. Rashmi's as well and Jolly Roger starts tearing it down the open path and--...
    'No. I think not.'
    No sooner than those words are spoken, it's as though an eel has slid up Erika Shimizu's belly, a sick feeling of incredible, impending, ominous threat looming over her that makes even an undead girl like her queasy in the gut.
    "Uh..."
    There's Sailor Jupiter. There's the path. There's the way to freedom and safety...
    And then it's *ALL TAKEN AWAY IN AN INSTANT* as the cold saps her to her very soul.
    "G--guh..." The pirate-themed mahou gags as her already low resting body temperature plummets precipitously as she staggers over fallen forms of people that had been in her way.
    "Carp carp carp carp- barnacles..." She gasps in a litany like profanity while remaining rated G for general audiences as she stumbles.
She draws another pistol.
    With trembling hand she brings it to bear, turning to aim at the Heavenly King.
    It likely will amount to nothing, but Erika Shimizu will be damned if she can't say 'well at least I tried', as she aims, sighting the old styled flintlock dead at Kunzite...
    The shot never comes. At least not in that moment as Sailor Moon leaps down from the roofs and snatches up the pirate.
    "O-oh."
    This is all very well and good as the tiny pirate is scooped up by the blonde heroine of justice.
    "Ye need not tell me twice!" She says, taking aim while the moon princess leaps her up to roof level.
    With a KRAK-BOOM she freaking shoots at Kunzite.
    While still holding her hat down of course.

Jadeite has posed:
He has never been so happy to see Sailor Jupiter in his LIFE. He's getting her the best quality corn syrups or - corn flours? Whatever he can get from America that she can't get in Japan, because if it was just him and Sailor Moon and pretending near of them is near tears in horror much longer, someone would have actually started.

(Because nooo. Neither of them did. Surely not. It's! Fine!)

Page Mage, too, for that increidble boost, he's running faster than he has in two lives and he just has to make it to the other side!

....and now Usagi's jumping into Kunzite's sights to save the pirate, and if Jadeite jumps in he will DEFINTELY get in the way - so he's running for Jupiter, his cape billowing.

"Can I support your wind-blocking?"

Rashmi Terios has posed:
    << *BONG!* >> << ACKNOWLEDGED, GUEST USER. --FLIER FIN-- >>

"...Wait, wha--AAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaa--!"

It's a statement of fact that most mahou are much stronger when in henshin, but Rashmi's never been physically *yoten* like this before, and so her suprise Dopplers after her, for the time it takes to regain her bearings, as dragonfly-like wings unfurl from her ankles.

Nicomachea is a terrific help, because she doesn't quite *need* to be aware of her orientation, as long as her Device is.

And thus her panicked yell trails off, sort of embarrassedly, as she flies at her top speed toward the beacon of Jupiter's light...

And it's at this point the fear recedes, and she *registers* the draining of magic, of warmth, of life from her very core.

A quick eye is given toward her depleted reserves, a course considered for an instant, and a decision made.

<< *BONG!* >> << SOLAR SHIELD -- GLACE SHIFT >>

Rashmi twitches upward, orienting herself over Jupiter's head and to the Dark energy dome beyond. One hand stretches out, and a small, circular shield barely big enough to be called such resolves in front of her... Then, with a screeching crack, becomes a cone of jagged, golden ice, coming to an irregular point.

Perhaps, if luck holds, between the speed she travelsat, and the physical resilience of her ice-based shielding, she may be able to break through.

Makoto Kino has posed:
Rashmi's magical boost could not come at a better time. The strange surge of whatever it was from before, of energy or just of knowing she could do this, it's already slipping away. And then the dome comes down over everything and Jupiter's tall frame shudders, the bright green glow around her flickering as the energy is drawn off of her like escaping mist.

But then there's that golden light with its feeling of summer sun, and Sailor Jupiter holds steady. "Nnh--" It's half an answer to Jadeite, an inarticulate noise of negation as she shakes her head. "Just head for the wall!"

When Sailor Moon yeets the Pagemage toward her, Jupiter's stance does break this time. She's half poised to catch Rashmi before it becomes clear that Rashmi is very much going to keep going, and Jupiter's eyes get big as she tracks the bright line of that flight path.

Right. Time to book it. Catching Jadeite's arm in passing to urge him along, Sailor Jupiter digs her heels in and launches into a run herself.

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
Unnoticed behind Jolly Roger, the seafoam and glitter that the discarded pistol turns into freezes - fades - vanishes into the dark...

Kunzite certainly is not noticing it. He was noticing Jolly Roger herself. And now he is noticing someone in a sailor fuku, with a remarkably familiar hairstyle in a remarkably wrong color, diving in to rescue the pirate. A conclusion is reached.

It is ... perhaps not the one Sailor Moon was worried about.

Kunzite exhales, in a way that sounds remarkably like Kazuo being exasperated with Mamoru once again. "Venus," he says, still in that calm, even voice. "You forgot your bleach."

KRAK-BOOM! - and Erika's pistol fires at him.

"And you forgot," he says, and now there's a trace of amusement in his voice, and for those who know Kazuo, that may just make everything worse, "that that level of attack won't work on me."

He sweeps his cape forward, in a wave of intensifying darkness about him, and Jolly Roger's shot and the Familiars' arrows are swallowed up in it and vanish. And with that, with the concentrated magic in them --

Was Clarthas thinking something about color change?

Kunzite's eyes are not burning that dead white now. Seeping in around the edges is something horrible, something next to which his own increasingly tainted darkness seems altogether wholesome and clean. Something the colors of bruises and gangrene, of the blood that floods vision in a berserk rage. Something the colors of the hideous light that those on the Moon could see swallowing the Earth.

And as Rashmi slices at speed through the border between the massive energy drain and the brilliant sunset world outside, as she can see the homes and gardens and estates and farms and the great river that all sprawl outside the city walls, she can also see those colors flickering over the outside of the dome.

There is enough data for Nicomachea to provide her an analysis now. The great vicious circle, where Kunzite drains the life of the city and channels it -- somewhere -- to something that feeds on the power and grows, and enhances his capacity to consume in return. He had to push to get to the city walls, at that stage. It'll slow him a little, make him take time to digest the lives he's stealing. But soon enough he'll be able to reach casually beyond, to take in the confused residents and farmers who only know that something odd's going on in the city again. All the magic that was just shot at him ... just meant more to feed the system.

And Nicomachea can also confirm that all of this is enough stress on the echo that they're in to produce the faint flicker of another portal. An escape route, glimmering neatly a ways outside the eastern gate, where something else in history provided a weak point.

Time to book it, all right.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"ATTACKING HIM FEEDS HIM!" is all Rashmi can get out before the border's wall looms in front of her... and then she's through, and a moment of surprise bubbles through her brain.

    << ...Oh... it wasn't physical... >>

And in the distance, she spots the glimmer on the road ahead, and her eyes widen.

    << *BONG!* >> << TELEPATHY >>

    << EVERYONE! >> Rashmi yells into the mind's ear of all her travelling companions. << PORTAL! AFTER ME, IT'S ON THE ROAD!! >>

And she pulls up short in front of the warping of this memorial reality, turning to watch the road behind her. Mabe she'll be the first to reach the goal, but she'll be the last to get through it.

Jadeite has posed:
Jadeite knows how to interpret a 'get to safety, moron, so I can save the others' from Jupiter. He will be jumping through that portal to make sure everything's clear on the other side and to keep out of everyone's way - no need to have too many cooks, especially when so many of them were better at a beam attack - spatula? ladle? - than he was, defense oriented as he'd rebuilt himself.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Hope Witch notices Kunzite's mistaking Moon for Venus, but doesn't really have enough breath to correct him. She's not gonna link up with him telepathically either because who knows what these past echo things actually think, if they do at all.

    She thinks this despite already having a general idea of how a Witch's brain works, or maybe she thinks this because she knows how bad a magical brain can get.

    "No way... my attacks just fed him?" complains Hope. With a silent command, she orders the Familiars to rush Kunzite. Each of them, dutifully, begins wielding their bows as staves and fly at the past's Heavenly King. Such tiny fragile sticks might not do much but annoy him, but all Witch cares about in this moment is buying time for the actual people to escape.

    "I'm sorry," she whispers to her minions, despite knowing full well that they probably aren't self-aware enough to care.

    As for Hope Witch herself, she's headed straight for that portal, straight for safety, knowing full well that all she can really hope to do on this side is get in the way. She just hopes she's getting in Kunzite's way more than she is anyone else's.

Clarthas Anode (174) has posed:
Madoka warps reality with the power of who she could be!

    "SHIFT RADIATION DETECTED! Wait, that's a thing?! SHIFT RADIATION DETECTED! SHI--Alarm silenced. Uh. What are those?" Sarida speaks up.

    Clarthas looks back and his eyes widen at the sight of countless labyrinth gates opening for Familiars to shoot out of. Uh, what. What kind of ability is that?!

    And they got Kunzite's attention, and... everything goes weird.

    Man, he really wants to shoot this guy with a proper attack, but he can't do anything more powerful than what's already been tried without a chance to charge up. There's throwing darkness blasts, but uh, that's obviously no good against someone who can use dark magic this powerful. Clarthas might be part Boss Monster, but Kunzite is clearly Final Boss level.

    So he just keeps flying alongside the others.

    He may not be able to stop and fight, but he can fly and talk at the same time! "Who IS this guy?! Where ARE we?! What IS this? He KNOWS you people?!"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Sailor Moon nearly trips and kills them both when Kunzite's voice echoes, carrying to he the sound of his fond-exasperation, his amusement.

It's horrifying.

This isn't Kazuo. This isn't her boyfriend's boyfriend, her cool senpai. This is a vessel for a demon, a man who threw away all that he was and loved, and he does not get to taint her memories.

But she knows better - so much better - than to feed hime energy. After all - he's just reminded her of that fact.

"Don't shoot him again," she tells Jolly, voice tight, "He'll just strengthen himself with your power."

And it's infuriating.

Rashmi's voice, in her head - a portal! A portal ahead, and twisting her head, she sees it, and they can run through and there are questions being asked -

"Kunzite," she says bitingly, "The people of this planet called him Endymion's monster. And he eats energy, of all kinds so only hit him if you can use a physical attack -"

Portal ahead, but it's going to take her a little bit longer to get there, she slowed down to get Jolly Roger, and - and there's anger in the pit of her heart - anger and grief, because they are running along the roof and on the ground there are bodies -

"Your prince," she calls back, "Would be so ashamed of you."

She doesn't throw Jolly through the portal, but rather sets her down just in front of it, gives her the chance to walk through as Sailor Moon makes sure everyone else is clear.

Erika Shimizu has posed:
    Gun still smoking in hand, Jolly Roger watches as her magical powderball... Uh...
    Does nothing.
    No. That's not quite right. It does something alright- just what it does is the opposite of the intent put behind the attack.
    Kunzite *eats* Jolly Roger's bullet.
    For a moment. For a good moment, the pirate-themed mahou looks dead at the Heavenly king.
    Then she looks at her smoking gun.
    Back at Kunzite.
    Back at her gun.
    A dawning look of horror spreads on the buccaneer's face as she understands.
    This is a tier of foe she wants absolutely nothing to do with.
    Casting the empty gun to the ground, the miniscule nautical marauder clings to Sailor Moon for dear life.
    While still holding onto her hat.
    Look she came all this way for the hat, she's not going to lose it now.
    "--Don't slow down." The pirate says to Sailor Moon, "Not on my account, lass!" She says, painfully urging the senshi of justice to kick it up a gear.
    But they reach the portal!
    No sooner than she's set down, the pirate mahou lunges for the portal but stops short of flinging herself through it.
    "... I owe you." She says solemnly to the moon princess before stumbling on through.
    It does NOT matter where she ends up on the other side, she immediately collapses to her knees.
    Others are likely out of breath, panting, gasping for air after a run like that, hearts hammering in their chests...
    Jolly roger is just staring at her hands and how they gently tremble.
    She's not even winded. Her heart doesn't beat in her chest. Her blood isn't even pumping, but...
    Her hands are trembling.
    The undead pirate girl's hands are trembling.
    "I feel... Tired." She whispers.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Sunbreaker didn't know much about the situation she was going into. She knew Sailor Moon was in danger. She knew she was carrying the pirate. She knew... they'd probably be okay.

But why chance it?

Because some pathetic loser might get upset that her lame visions of the past, the visions of how she was such a FAILURE, wouldn't destroy her enemies? Please.

Sunbreaker was wreathed in fire as the gem shattered. Dark energy poured through her and then, a moment later, there was fire over Sailor Moon.

She didn't know much but she knew, at the end of the day, she *cared* about these idiots. Sunbreaker tore through, appearing in the midst of fire, before her eyes focused on Kunzite. He was--

Wait, no, a vision? UGH! This made it so much harder. Whatever. "HEY! GRIFFON BREATH!

She held up her hands and a black orb of fire appeared, expanding in them. "YOUR SUN GODDESS HAS ARRIVED!"

She then sent it flying through the air, at him! It'd explode, sending black flame everywhere and enveloping the area in destruction and fire and--

It was a distraction. It was big, it was flashy and it was a distraction to keep the guy focused on it because she knew, as she was, right now? She couldn't defeat this guy. But she could do one very important thing.

She turned tail and fled, heading towards the portal. Time to get going while the going was good AND SHE HATED THIS PLACE SHE SWORE IF SHE DIED FROM THIS SHE WOULD HAUNT ALL OF THEM!

Makoto Kino has posed:
Sailor Jupiter stays right on Jadeite's heels, only risking a look back when she has to pull up to keep from bowling him over physically as he reaches the portal. What she can see is enough to have her biting her lip. Sparks crackle and die against her fingers, even that small energy quickly sapped away by the all-consuming darkness.

The look she turns to Rashmi is a wide-eyed, incredulous one. "What are you doing?" she demands sharply, and moves to bodily herd the shorter girl through the portal. "No stopping, get through!" In the battle of wills over who'll wait to make sure everyone escapes, Jupiter is absolutely willing to use her strength and stature to bully the others out ahead of her.

Jolly Roger next, and when Sailor Moon looks like she's pausing Jupiter simply hoists the blond senshi under her arm. "Let's go!" Sunbreaker is already jetting for the portal. Her, Jupiter doesn't wait for, just dives through with Sailor Moon in tow.

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
"My prince," Kunzite answers Moon's call, "will live to be a--"

Annnd that is when the familiars rush Kunzite. Whapping him with tiny fragile sticks might only be a momentary confusion. But it's ... hard to talk around a tiny benotafraid flying into your mouth.

Phenomenal anticosmic power does not, it appears, guarantee dignity.

He spits out the familiar, sending it spinning dizzily, and starts to gather his power to strike back in irritation ... when there is black flame everywhere.

That's convenient. It means that the familiars begin to explode in small bursts of black flame, as Kunzite lashes back out with Sunbreaker's fire. So that he can continue channelling his own power to his sun goddess. His sun demon. A wave of his hand, and a twisted thread lightning tainted with Metallia's power lashes out after Sunbreaker's flight. But Sunbreaker is already going for the portal, and even if it hits, the lightning will only add to that speed --

Which will leave her on the far side of the portal, on a pleasant springtime meadow.

For a few minutes, maybe, they'll actually get a break.

Clarthas Anode (174) has posed:
A physical attack? Yeah, Clarthas is not swordfighting that guy.

    Suddenly, Sunny! "Sunbreaker! What IS this place?!" he shouts.

    She tries attacking Kunzite, despite the warning. Clarthas looks back to see what happens: He absorbs and fires it back. Clarthas waves a hand to try and counter the lightning with a bolt of darkness!

    Whether that works or not, finally he reaches the portal, where 'Venus' is waiting to make sure everyone's through. Clarthas remembers being that guy. He slows just long enough to gives her a nod, "'preciated, Hero." before flying through. It would be dumb to get into some sort of argument about who goes last.