Scene #2900: The Nightmare Nexus: Slaylines

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Emi Hoshino	It's Christmas day in Japan, and that means many things, but one of those things is ... Kentucky Fried Chicken The lines are -long- at the various KFCs across the city, including at the one closest to Radiant Heart where students from the school have gone to collect their own, while others are in the area conducting their own holiday affairs. All is well. You can feel the christmas cheer in the air. Sure, it's not -exactly- the same as its practiced elsewhere, but Christmas time is Christmas time, right? Well, sure. It's enough to just jazz anyone, put them in a good mood. The weather today was supposed to be cold and rainy. And it is. And its even colder than the forecast indicated it would be. So cold, in fact, that the rain has turned to snow. Which, honestly, is definitely causing a little havoc in the traffic as it starts to stick. Alongside the very long line for KFC is a singular Santa, ringing a bell and 'ho ho hoing'. He's very in character.
Rashmi Terios	It has been... a rough year. But there is nothing like the holiday spirit to make everything feel just a little better, spirits just a little lighter. There's the multitude of winter lights displays, the decorations, the music... ...The queue chaos outside of every KFC in existence... ...Okay the traffic problems beat at the bulwark of holiday cheer a little bit, but that just means Rashmi needs to wait a bit to make sure, before crossing streets. For the moment? Things are just... nice.
Ikiko Hisakata	Another day, another pack of strays to feed. While having some KFC ''would'' be part of Ikiko's Christmas if she was still living at home, she decided back around her first winter at RHA to make sure her canine friends get a little something special for the holiday season -- in this case, a bit of careful home ec experimenting crossed with her knowledge of what dogs should '''not''' eat in order to stay healthy. So, in addition to her usual cargo of food bowls and bags of kibble, she's also carrying a bento-like box of homemade fried chicken chunks: no bones, no spices that dogs are allergic to; just meat that's been diced, breaded, and fried as a little seasonal treat to be handed individually to each of her canine friends in addition to their usual supplementary meal.
Molly Skyline	There's no way around it; Molly has been... not herself of late. Well she's been more herself than most of the previous year, at least, on the basis that she's actually ''herself'', without any evil entities possessing her body, but her demeanour has been rather dampened for the last couple of weeks. She has been, in a word, listless. A lack of progress towards her getting a prosthetic arm -- or at least, to ''her'' a desperately perceived lack of progress -- might well be a chief contributor. Still, she's here; she's actually never had KFC before (never had one near where she grew up in England) and Rashmi was keen to go, so she's standing in line, donig her best to conceal her stewpot of emotions and be as enthusiastic as she knows she'd usually be.
Amy Faust	Amy honestly doesn't really ''care'' about this particular christmas tradition, but if friends wanted to have christmas KFC dinner and invite her... Well, she's ''seen'' the lines previous years and is wondering why she thought it was a good idea. At least she's in company? "Oof, it is getting ''cold''... I'm starting to think about henshining under here..." 'here' being an oversized and heavy cream-colored coat that's water-resistant enough for the stickier snow. She's starting to regret the green scarf around her neck though, it's just gonna get soaked... "I can't believe everyone wants to stand out in these lines... and this is ''with'' reservations? ...Well, we're here too, so..." She mutters, breath faintly visible as a cloud through her scarf.
Emi Hoshino	And Emi is here. Emi is in line. The christmas cheer isn't eve working on her. She's incapable of it. It's a goth thing, you see. At least she's dressed warmly, if gothically. Seems she's getting a bucket! But for ... who?! For herself? To share with KenKen, who sits upon her shoulder, nattering away at her about how cold it is? She makes a face at the spider and does what it wants: picks it up and tucks it under her hat. Darn spider. As Amy talks, Emi looks over her shoulder at her. "It's serious business," she informs her, solemnly. "And it sure is. I put mine on hold months ago when I came into some extra cash." She looks smug. She won't say how she got the extra cash. The answer is almost certainly through delinquency. The Christmas Cheer makes it all better, though, right? It's crisp and beautiful, and the snow is falling and the stars are shining and it smells good and everyone is being nice and its enough. "HO HO HO don't YOU look full of Christmas cheer," says the Santa to a young man who's passing by. "Thanks, Santa!" says the twenty something, looking amused. He's left behind his replica slay and its plastic reindeer, and the cosplay elves who are working alongside him. "Why don't you tell Santa what YOU would like for Christmas?" "To get out of this line faster?" "I can help with that!" The cosplay elves are smiling, watching. Smiles fixed on their faces. Such cheer. Sheanta pulls the big red sack that every version of Santa always carries and holds it out towards him. It doesn't just open up, it somehow seems to open wide and when that young man reaches inside to grab the present he's being offered, he just sort of tumbles in with a 'thanks, Santa!' that is deeply out of place given what just happened to him. It would be comical if it wasn't happening in front of you. What's worse is that seemingly no one notices. The line moves forward a step. Everyone is just so full of Christmas cheer. Nothing is going to ruin Christmas. Nothing.
Rashmi Terios	Molly gets a quiet pat on the shoulder, just about when the anxiety levels seem to be reaching a peak. Not the peak, because there's only so awful you can feel simply standing in line, but... Emi explaining the significance of KFC farther up the line earns a nod from the redheaded Devicer. "Yeah, Papi puts in his order in September every year," she confirms. "You really want to make sure they know in advance, because getting a refund on Christmas Eve is not something you want to deal with. And it's happened sometimes; not enough supplies on the day of, so you have to prioritize the money you've made and spent." The wandering Santa is greeted witht he kind of undulgent 'awww' and a smile that Santas usually are... but then the bag breaks physics, and the man is lost with incongrous thanks, and welp. Sometimes being mahou is suffering, and suffering is having to work on Christmas. With a brief stab of jealousy at Hotaru getting to meet Santa and she has to wreck a poser, Rashmi taps Molly's shoulder. "I'm'a henshin," she murmurs to her friend. "When you see the Barrier, your turn." And with that, she slips off to break line-of-sight, and with a half-obscured flash of golden light, gets ready for some ruckus. << BONG! >> << TIME-SPACE BARRIER >> From the nearby alleyway, a bubble of staticky yellow-black energy expands rapidly, enlarging to cover the block and most of the next one over, just in case some elbow room is needed for this fight.
Amy Faust	Amy nods at Emi. ''Months'' for KFC. She knows, she knows, but it still always sounds a little odd to an American. > I can help with that! Amy's brain doesn't process that she heard an exchange that makes no sense until she's already hearing the muffled 'thanks, santa!' and looks over. She freezes as the line advances and the person behind bumps into her. "Uhhh..." She nods at Rashmi's words, stepping out of line and breaking line of sight with 'santa' before she's suddenly engulfed in light for a half-second, which leaves... seemingly no change, until the barrier sweeps over them and as she turns, fire sweeps over her to leave her in her usual henshin outfit as an explosion launches her forwards and she tries to grab the sack on the way past, a plan that perhaps fails to take into account her relative mass compared to Santa's. "You really can't even take ONE day off?! We didn't let Toymajin ruin Christmas for anyone, and we won't let ''you!''"
Ikiko Hisakata	While Ikiko doesn't have line-of-sight on the badly-behaving Santa, she ''is'' close enough to be within the radius of the resulting Barrier -- and as a fellow mahoujin, that means she finds herself ''inside'' the Barrier, while her mundane canine friends are still where they were ''outside'' the Barrier. "Welp, can't say I was expecting ''this''," the young girl sighed as she stands up and touches her henshin device. There's a silvery glow, and then Cute Wolf Tsukiko does the mental equivalent of clearing her throat to catch the attention of whichever Devicer set up the barrier. << Pagemage, is that you? >> the wolfgirl 'thinks' towards her estimate of the center of the Barrier, even as she leaps upward for a better vantage point. << This color-shift seems like it's yours, and what in the heck is going on? >>
Molly Skyline	Molly leans into the pat on her shoulder, and closes her eyes, content to just... wait in line. It's cold, but it's not like a damp, down to the bones cold like she's used to from England so it's really not that bad, and her friends are here, and there's chicken coming up, and definitely people to help her with anything she might normally need two arms for, and Rashmi says something to her about henshin. She wasn't paying attention to the Santa business at all, but if Rashmi is going to henshin, and Amy is getting angry, then... something is afoot. Which means Molly needs to get her head in the game and perform. And not be a failure. Despite... challenges. So when the barrier goes up, Molly's barrier jacket replaces her winter garb, and the Battle Visor illuminates in front of her face; it marks all of her friends in blue with :) tags, and to her surprise, marks Santa and his minions with red names and >:( tags. Okay well, that's new. "Okay, Starcrash, charge... I..." She trails off, and takes a deep breath. "Activate Flier Fin. Charge Stellar Barrage, one hundred barrets, hold fire for my command." << AFFIRMATIVE. ARMED >> As wings flicker into being on her back, Molly holds her staff close against herself, waiting for the fight to begin.
Emi Hoshino	"..." Emi just stares at the Santa. Stares at the bag. "Are you fucking KIDDING ME?" What else can she do? Nothing. At all. Except stay out of the way. At least for the moment. Santa, in the meantime, was busy while everyone was preparing themselves and before the barrier goes into effect. He's smiling at another civilian, bag open, when horrible tentacles reach out and nab another person into it with an almost comical 'NOMF' if it wasn't so awful. "And you'll do, and you'll do... how nice! How nice! HO HO HO!" ...but then there's that barrier. And weirdly -- worrisomely -- those elves with theri big smiles make the transition along with the rest of you. And so do the reindeer. The plastic reindeer attached to the plastic sleigh. ...and those reindeer aren't plastic anymore. They're very, very real looking, monstrous, with wicked, curved, black antlers and one in particualr with a blazing red nose that looks like its charging up a beam weapon to fire at Rashmi. Because it does. "HO HO HO," says Santa Claus, "It looks like we've got some naughty children here! WHAT'S SAY WE GIVE THEM THEIR LUMPS, EVERYONE?!" Reindeer are charging, now, followed by the elves who have ... way too many teeth, all the while Santa's laughter is getting increasingly, ear-splittingly loud. And yet, it still seems all so jolly...
Rashmi Terios	<< BONG! >> << FLIER FIN >> Dragonfly-shaped wings of golden light sprout from Rashmi's ankles as she takes to the skies of Tokyo. << Hi Tsukiko-chan, yeah it's me! And wow this Christmas is a ripoff, I wanna know which division of Obsidian I get to file a complaint with. >> When a red-nosed monster reindeer stares at you with intent, and its nose starts to glow... you get ready to dodge a beam. Unfortunately, Rashmi's flight speed and reflexes do not give her i-frames enough to avoid more than a deep graze along her arm. << Star Devil-chan, get up and sweep the elves! Tsukiko-chan, can you keep the reindeer off-balance? Emi-chan-- >> because oh yes did Rashmi loop Emi in, partially out of habit and partially because it's the polite thing to do << --I'll keep an eye on you, let me know if you want me to physically take you someplace safer, okay? >>
Amy Faust	There is ''something'' kind of odd about the young man's words being repeated as he was swallowed by the bag, but Amy is more focused on the bizarre Christmas-focused nature of the monster. So far. Rudolph is CHARGIN' HIS LAZER and Amy absolutely just opens fire with high-caliber rocket-propelled slugs from something rifle-shaped that has a pleasantly chonky firing sound. "That's right! While Santa's out giving gifts today, the naughty children are here to KRAMPUS YOUR STYLE!" She throws a grenade that explodes into a wall of flame in front of the charging reindeer. "Eh? WHY ARE YOU LAUGHING SO LOUD!"
Ikiko Hisakata	<< Time for a hunt! >> Tsukiko grins toothily, the vibe of her fanglies getting emoted through the telepathic comms as she dashes forward to harry the reindeer into a panic. "Reindeer meat for the good doggos!" the wolfgirl taunts to the nightmarish reindeer, thinking about her canine friends happily chewing on snowherd beast haunch, bones and all. ...wait, haunches and jollility? Why does that seem... ''worryingly'' familiar? She shakes her head and focuses on the threat at hand -- namely, several sets of ''very pointy'' antlers, as well as plenty of menacing hooves. Angry herbivores are nothing to be taken lightly, ''especially'' when they're youma! And while the ratio of wolves to reindeer isn't good by normal hunt standards, Tsukiko ''does'' have one thing that most wolves don't have when hunting prey: Magical friends with AOE attacks.
Molly Skyline	"Hey everyone," Molly greets across Rashmi's telepathic network. "This is like the worst Santa ever. With a bag of devouring." She pauses, as she bends her knees and launches herself upwards, letting her wings carry her up to a higher altitude than Rashmi -- artillery for the win of course -- and oh thank goodness Rashmi is taking charge. "Got it," she acknowledges the command. << Starcrash, let's lock targets on all of the elves, and split the barrets evenly amongst the first four. Then let's charge Stellar Collapse and hit them all. >> Molly gives it a moment, watching numbered targetting brackets appear around her designated targets. << FIRE!! >> A swarm of blazing hot barrets rocket through the air at the first four elves; and moments later Starcrash reports that he is ready for the second round which Molly unleashes immediately, conjuring a half dozen glowing orbs around her that coalesce into unstable, superheated beams, striking the same point amongst the elves and detonating a significant explosion -- calculated not to catch her friends in the mess, of course.
Emi Hoshino	HO HO HO HO HO Santa laughs uproariously at the various points of resistance to his plan. The wall of flame goes up, the reindeers charge through. They're on fire now. Flaming reindeers with flaming antlers. It certainly injures them a bit. Meanwhile, the elves straighten up and begin to chant. "THE BEST WAY TO SPREAD CHRISTMAS CHEER IS SINGING LOUD FOR ALL TO HEAR." Their voices sink into a terrible harmony, producing a wave of magical energy that seems to fuel Santa's own magic -- and he's getting larger by the second. Worse, the sound definitely qualifies as a 'sonic attack', because it HURTS to listen to. It's so loud. Their singing. Beautiful, in way, and certainly bringing Christmas joy to bear ... but it -hurts-. If it weren't for Rashmi's telepathy, communicating all the racket of hooves and laughter and hohoho and singing would make it impossible to communicate. Santa claps his hands together once in a spray of snowy powder, "Ho ho ho! You dare to bring fire against the master of coal? The wielder of the ice and snow of the north wind? It's VERY FUNNY! WITNER WONDERLAND," yells Santa, invoking his power. And indeed, it gets -cold-. Whereas before it was merely a little snowy -- a rarity in Tokyo to be sure, now it becomes -bitterly- freezing so, slowing everyone down, making it harder to resist. Emi has dived for cover, herself, and then she can be heard over the link. There's some kind of...feed back to her telepathy, though, like a muffling or feedback. Still, she's understandable. "It's a Nightmare!" Santa sends the bitter winds, full of ice and shards, out to strike the mahou with one hand, and then a hail of stones -- wait, no -- lumps of COAL -- come from the other while the charging herbivores are going straight for Amy and Ikiko. The wind also diverts some of the missiles being thrown at the elves, for example, though it does disrupt their singing for a few moments which is great news for your ears. Still, it's what we like to a call a target rich environment and fortunately 'area of effect' does seem to be very helpful at the moment.
Rashmi Terios	Sonic assault, flaming reindeer, bitter cold and shards of ice and entire lumps of coal? There is just no justice on this earth, if she does not meet properSanta next year. While the bitter chill does bite at Rashmi, making her reflexes more sluggish... She knows how this works. She uses this tactic, and if she doesn't have a direct counter for it yet, that's only because she's had more urgent problems to solve. One hand reaches out toward Santa, and a Round Shield manifests, blocking the worst of the hits but allowing many more through that glance and graze... and fairly thoroughly beat up the Devicer's Barrier Jacket. But in a lull, she comes to a halt, and an intricate magical seal spreads out beneath her feet. << BONG! >> << TERA BLAZE -- BOOST UP >> Three bright, wispy orbs of golden magic fade into being around her, streaking out to touch Amy, Ikiko, and Molly, infusing their magic with a bit of her own golden fire. And along with the power, the spell carries with it an emotional payload; a feeling of righteousness, of DETERMINATION, of HOPES AND DREAMS that cannot, will not be extinguished. << Wait, Emi-chan.... repeat that? It's a Nightmare?! I... guess... that... makes... sense no it doesn't who has nightmares about Santa Clno wait not important what do you need us to do?! >>
Ikiko Hisakata	Nightmare? ''That'' jostles Tsukiko's mind, as does fighting enemies that have been set on fire; definitely don't want to try biting ''them'' while they're on fire... ...wait a minute. Dogs chewing on haunches => chewing on animal legs => chewing on ''bones''... Jolliness => cheer => joy => happy Happy HAPPY...! There's a sudden (and '''very''' loud) cacophony of animal sounds on the comms net, and while there's no-one present who can ''translate'' what the wolfgirl said, the gist is perfectly clear even to those who only speak Human: she is ''FURIOUS.'' << It's Bliss-chan! >> Tsukiko finally snarls. << Either Bliss-chan, or someone damn similar to her! '''''Contain and destroy!''''' >> Between that righteous anger and Rashmi's boosting magic, Tsukiko is '''definitely''' fired up, and she's taking the opportunity to go on the attack against the stampeding reindeer -- a countercharge from the front, a feint to one side, a blink-and-you'll-miss-it zigzag to the other side to deliver a flying knee into the ribs of a reindeer, then a fingertip rake to any Nightmare flesh along her escape trajectory as she dashes out of the herd to prepare for another assault.
Molly Skyline	<< VULCAN ACTIVE DEFENSE DEPLOYED >> Starcrash makes that decleration just in time, and an orb of energy with spell runes orbiting it appears behind Molly; like a magic gattling gun it rapid fires small energy blasts to intercept the volley of ice shards coming at Molly. Still, some of them get through, and within moments her barrier jacket looks like it got chewed on by a tiger -- but it's still holding together. Molly would comment on Starcrash taking the initiative with her defense, but she's too busy getting serenaded by obnoxious elves with megaphones for mouths, and that's an issue. Her ears hurt. And after getting pelted with that barrage, her body hurts. Her legs hurt. Her arm hurts. And somethow her OTHER arm hurts and that's just not fair. << Starcrash, charge Binary Flare, targeting the center of the Elves, >> she instructs. << Overcharge by fifty percent, disengage safety protocols. >> Gotta get this right afterall. At least Rashmi's Tera Blaze is giving her some confidence. Actually, compared to how she's been feeling lately, a lot of confidence. << AFFIRMATIVE. ARMED >> << FIRE!! >> A targeting bracket marks the space at the center of the group of elves and she fires; a pair of unstable beams of energy, wrathed in fire thanks to Rashmi's spell, blast down to converge at the target location; and where they hit they explode, setting off a second thunderous blast amongst the elves. Afterwards, the vents on her staff and armor open with a hiss, releasing clouds of steam around her while her heat circuitry glows brilliantly. << ALERT: MANA RESERVES AT SEVENTY PERCENT >> Starcrash advises her. Of course she didn't keep Seriss' vastly expanded mana reserves. Some things really just aren't fair.
Amy Faust	''Geeze'' that's loud. Amy conjures earmuffs -- not for cold but for ''sound'', but that can only do so much, making the noise more like a too-loud concert that dully hurts her ears and 'merely' drowns everything out and rattles the bones a bit rather than being ''constantly earsplittingly painful'' Mahou powers only do so much against the cold. Amy conjures the warmest-looking pink parka with a long light-blue scarf and it's still /cold/. If it weren't for Rashmi's timely boost, Amy would ''not'' have been able to dodge the ice shards, and as it is some of it wings her puffy coat, cuts leaking downy insulation. << A nightmare?! Wait, Emi, you're not transformed in-- if it's a nightmare can you transform!? >> Emi as a regular human in the Loud and Cold is worrying problem! "Ow!" Coal gets a direct hit, leaving Amy reeling, barely able to recover and leap over the charging reindeer in time. Fortunately, a target rich environment is where she excels, and soon min-missiles are raining down everywhere her allies ''aren't'' to try and melt elves, reindeer, and Santa to ash. Ikiko's conclusion is almost more chilling than the cold. "WHAT?!" << Not her, NOT AGAIN! They have sub-nightmares now?! Like, working for them? Is that a THING? >>
Emi Hoshino	"It's a Nighmare," repeats Emi weakly over the link. "I can tell! Uh. Weaken it or something I can have KenKen eat it! Or if you can hold it down and keep it from getting away!" The spider peeks out from under Emi's hat, where Emi is hunkered down in the cold and the sound. Her ears are bleeding. She may be a mahou herself, but right now, she's definitely powerless. "We're not in the dreamscape, it's here in reality!" Not like that's never happened before, but it's still not great. Nightmares have always erred on the powerful side as Youma seem to go around here. "Oh fuck you're right, it DOES feel like Bliss-Chan," says Emi to Ikiko. She can feel the Christmas joy, the desire to want to burst out into SONG, burbling in her chest and she hates it. The same goes for everyone else, really. The best way to spread Christmas cheer is to singing loud for all to hear!!! Ikiko is making progress with the 'herbivores', but it's ugly, bloody work even with the assists from the others. She's making headway, weakening and harrying them, and they're caught up with her rather than their other targets. She's keeping it under control. This is a good thing, but it doesn't mean she's getting snagged on the antlers a few times. Unfortunately, they can fly. And they start to. A sweeping red wave of death from Rudolf's nose is the next big attack that everyone is gonna have to avoid. Emi's crawled under a car for safety, at least. The elves singing is disrupted further and they're silent for a moment, giving everyone a window of reprieve and weakening the next set of attacks from Santa, who's using a wall of wind and ice to protect himself until some missiles and attacks come through once the elves singing was disrupted. He's sent flying backwards with a 'HO HO HO', crashing into the wall of the barrier before picking himself up. He's bleeding christmas wrapping ribbons. He staggers forward, wipes tinsel from his beard, and thunderously announces, "CHIMNEY DROP!!!!" ... you would expect this to be an attack in which he falls from the sky, or down the chimney, or escapes through one -- but no. ...it's an attack in which brick and mortar chimney edifices appear above each of the mahou, with intent to bury them in them. The elves are disoriented, trying to find their harmony again, but not really succeeding just yet. Some of them are just ... gone, of course.
Rashmi Terios	<< Copy that, >> Rashmi says in answer to Emi... And takes a moment to search the battleground, to get a bead on Emi's hiding place. If she's got no magic, then she is going to need some support, as well as better defense. Nicomachea pings when it has a lock on her, and with a thought she summons the one thing she can imagine will provide the most protection against the current peril. << BONG! >> << SOLAR SHIELD -- BLAZE SHIFT >> A dome of golden light raises around Emi, and the entire car she hides under... And with a flash, solid light turns into whirling, golden flames. While it won't be much help against more physical attacks, high-temperature magic is an excellent counter to shards of ice and winter cold. Plus it might just keep her warmer, in general. And as the flaming, bloody reindeer begin to lift off the ground, they come into the domain of the Devicers. << Star Devil! >> Rashmi calls. << I'm spotting your targets! Launch on my mark! >> << BONG! >> << SOLAR STINGER >> Half a dozen Barrets -- one for each of the surviving reindeer -- bwip into existence, and launch out. Each is locked onto one reindeer apiece, and each has been heavily modified from the average Barret; these are made for endurance. Like the standard barret, when these homing attacks hit, they carry the force of a small car... and bounce away, turning back to hit again. And again. And again. That sure is one way to mark a target for a more powerful attack... ...At which point the chimney makes contact, pile-driving the Devicer directly into the ground in a mass of bricks, cratered concrete, and pain. << O....oo....oooooowwwwwww... >>
Ikiko Hisakata	The flying reindeer are definitely a problem, but with the Devicers teaming up, they're no longer ''Tsukiko's'' problem. Well, other than the one with the beam-cannon nose, anyway. The wolfgirl dashes past the elves, trying to keep them between herself and Rudolph as some dynamic ablative cover against the beam-sweep. Any ''surviving'' elves get herded into a group, the better to try to knock them all down like bowling pins... Then the chimneys appear, and the wolfgirl gets a "they'll never expect ''this''" idea as the bricks start to plummet. She adjusts her speed, slowing down ''juuust'' enough to put her where she wants to be ''when'' she wants to be, then charges at the grouped-up elves, vaulting over them like she's parkouring through rush hour traffic-- --then using one of them as a kick-off launch pad for a sudden burst of speed, '''right''' as the bricks start to land. << ow ow ow ow ow, >> she grimaces from the inevitable pummeling from the leading edge of the brick avalanche, but at least it's the ''elves'' that are under the rubble, and not ''her.''
Amy Faust	Didn't Emi say that only nightmares at their most powerful could actually escape into physical reality?! << Who has a nightmare about Santa Claus okay that whole elf on the shelf thing was pretty creepy actually >> And now she can feel it. A ''pressure'', to sing. Not because she's full of joy and needs to share, not because KiraKiraFantastica's magic is sweeping her up in song, but that sick, tiring, forced-happiness from Bliss-chan's garden that she went around for a whole day-- "GAH!" Red death sweeps over her; the damaged coat blackens and she replaces it with a new one but the dark energy hits deeper, burning at her in a way that does ''not'' offset the freezing chill. C'mon, you ''must'' know something else to sing... some kind of anti-santa song? You know 'grandma got run over by a reindeer', there's gotta be something else demented in there, was there a Weird Al song or something... << If he bleeds, we can kill him! >> Amy shouts the words as she lands, but it can barely be heard -- fortunately, she uses telepathy too. > CHIMNEY DROP!!!! "NO." Amy launches missiles at the chimneys, aiming to blow them apart! Especially the one above her. Hopefully the stray bricks will land away from the mahou. A nightmare... Oh. Oh, she was thinking ''way'' too esoteric, there's an obvious source much dearer to her heart. "Blow up Mr. Sandy Claws?" Amy hefts a 4-tube missile launcher... "I wanna do it! Let's draw straws!" She aims it at him. FWOOSHFWOOSHFWOOSHFWOOSH! "Magic says we work together! Three of a kind, birds of a feather! Now and forever," "WHEEEE!" An explosion propels her across the battlefield. "Blow up the Sandy Claws, he won't win this fight! Friendship is the key and then, knock out all his lights!" Mini-missiles conjured around her rain down on the elves and on Rudolph. Look, she's trying, okay? And she's got to hurry, she's already got a demented smile the sappy holiday 'magic' must have put there!
Molly Skyline	<< What the-- BREAKWALL!! >> Molly sees the red blast from Rudolph's nose sweeping in her direction in time to do something about it, but that something isn't dodging; so she uses her desperation move instead, conjuring a powerfully protective shield around herself that absorbs and scatters the attack, holding just long enough for her to emerge unscathed -- but of course, she only gets one of those. And her ears are still ringing from the Elves and their... she's not going to call it singing, that would be offensive to Coco. << Got it! ... Starcrash, charge Solar Flare, set for Rapid Fire, target -- >> she pauses, watching as Rashmi goes after the Reindeer, << Target each Reindeer. >> She watches as the targeting brackets vanish from the elves and reappear around the Reindeer, all numbered -- Rudolph gets number 9, of course, with a >:@( face. With his nose so bright. << Twenty beams per target. >> << TARGETS LOCKED. ARMED. WARNING: MANA USAGE EXTREME. RESERVES BELOW FORTY PERCENT >> Well it's not a fight if Molly isn't overusing her mana. < FIRE!! >> Molly manouvers herself to a good position and lets loose her superheated wrath, the beams alternating targets as they blast at the Reindeer. As they hammer her targets with as much energy as she can pack into it, her vents hiss and her circuitry glows, and towards the end of it a new target gets marked on her display, a-- << ''CHIMNEY!?'' >> Molly of course is struck by the falling chimney, which carries her down with it most of the way to the ground; she slips out from under it more by luck than anything else, and still ends up crashing through a cube van on her way to the pavement without the benefit of a Breakwall. And for a moment, she just lays there. << Oh sure. Not a brick wall in sight for me to get smashed throguh. So just bring the brick wall to me. I see how it is. >>
Emi Hoshino	Santa takes a moment to take stock of his situation. He's been blasted. He's been battered. He's bleeding, even. His reindeer? Exploded into chunks of plastic. His elves? Smooshed under chunks of brick and mortar and coal. He's had enough. "ENOUGH! So you've forced me to reveal my most powerful weapon!" He rips his sack from over his shoulder which is too small to contain the person (people?) it had eaten and he tears open to reveal the maw with its many, many rows of teeth and invokes his most fierce attack with a bellow. "ALL" "I" "Want" "For Christmas" "IS YOOOOOOOOU," The winds intensify, powerful enough to lift even the stones of the chimney and pull the car off of Emi's hiding space. It's a powerful polar vortex, and it's pulling everyone towards the bag!
Amy Faust	"I say that we take a cannon, aim it at his door and then, knock three times and when he answers, Sandy Claws will be no--" ENOUGH! Amy's song is interrupted, and she stumbles back as Santa shouts, and then the bag sings-- She is simultaneously thinking of that one animation ('get the gun, Carter!') and ''also'' feels the urge to sing welling up inside her, displacing her own song. "Nngh... knock... three... times!" She conjures the artillery cannon to weigh herself down, but if the CAR is moving that's not helping much... as she repeats those lyrics, she fires one, two, three-- High explosive shells go for Santa and his bag, and then land close enough and explode, and the third goes wide as the polar vortex yanks on Amy's gun, "No!" BOOM! Fourth goes wide! "Come on..." Fifth time's the charm! It doesn't explode. It sits there, waiting. << Charge it up with magic and step back! You know the drill! >> And once there's something in it, hopefully... "PLASMA BOMB! Merry Christmas, ya filthy nightmare!"
Rashmi Terios	The problem with being smooshed under an entire chimney, and crushed into the unyielding pavement, is that even if you have magical armor... that's a hurt that lingers. So when the sack is torn open, and the maw of Consumerism Personified begins to try to... consumerism them... Rashmi is not in much of a place to actively resist. Her Flier Fin is still active... barely... and her Barrier Jacket is down to most of her bodysuit and a few brave shreds of skirt... but also still active. As the vortex begins to drag her up the rim of her own personal crater, Rashmi, squeezes her eyes shut, then opens them again, trying to focus on what will be, one way or another, her last gambit of the night. << BONG! >> << TERA BARRET -- BOOST UP >> Three more Boosts find their way to her fellow combatants, as a heavily cracked Nicomachea starts calculating debris vectors. One for Molly, one for Ikiko, and... one for Amy's bomb. And as the car crosses her path, what remains of her Barrier Jacket begins to glow, and waver... Then explodes into shards of light and kinetic force, slamming against the car and using the recoil to propel a battered and bruised Rashmi in the opposite direction. A battered, bruised, de-henshined Rashmi. Landing is going to suck for her...
Molly Skyline	Oh no oh no oh no. It's going after Emi now. And Rashmi is without her henshin. Amy is talking about charging something up with magical energy, but that's not really something she can do, so she leaves that up to someone else. At least Ikiko's doing her thing, and she's always effective, so that's good. but Santa has to be dealt with basically now. So, Molly grips her staff in hand, and uses her Flier Fin to pull herself clumsily back up out of the top of the cube van, just high enough that she can crouch on top of it and take a moment to breath, study her Battle Visor, and think about her life. << Charge... >> Molly trails off. What to do. Her hand shakes. There's so much going on. << BREATH >> Yes, breath. Not the first time Starcrash has given her that advice. << RECOMMEND MASSIVE ATTACK AGAINST REMAINING TARGET >> Well yes. She can do that. << Okay. Coronal Overload, retain five percent mana for shields and the trip home. >> << AFFIRMATIVE. ARMED >> Molly watches the little readout on her visor for her mana tick down to just a sliver remaining. Well, good enough. Sparks fly off what remains of her barrier jacket as she hops down off the cube can, raises Starcrash, and fires; a ball of incandescent energy appears at the end and collapses into itself, and the resulting beam that lays into Santa Clause is wider than she is tall when it goes off, pushing her backwards the entire time it is sustained. And when it ends, leaving a deep runnel blasted out of the ground, she immediately launches herself back into the air and makes for Rashmi. << Round shield, >> she gasps, getting her most bassic defense up as she lands in front of Rashmi. << I've got Rashmi-chan, someone protect Emi-chan! >>
Ikiko Hisakata	Tsukiko might be one of the least injured from the chimney drop, but ''least'' injured is not the same as ''un''injured, and it was her legs that took most of the battering. Still, she has her momentum, she can probably manage a Silver Wolf Tackle, even if it's gonna leave her legs extra sore for the next several days... ...but with a singing vortex to contend with, she's not sure if her legs are in good enough shape to compensate for ''that'' hazardous vector, and that's not even counting the challenge of trying to outpace a friendly explosive so that it doesn't result in friendly '''fire''' on a ''good'' day. At least she can still put her speed to good use! The wolfgirl scampers towards Emi, scooping her up and then cranking up the run speed. The combo of added weight, injured legs, and massive vortex is making things hard for Tsukiko, but she's ''slooooowly'' pulling away from the sack of suction. And leading with her shoulder in order to protect Emi, just in case the vortex dies faster than she can adjust her torque.
Emi Hoshino	It works. Thank God or the Kami or just mahou magic, it works. The combined assault erupts and Santa is sent hurtling back, aborting the vortex and leaving everyone to fall to the ground in a crash which can not possibly feel good. Emi is, at least, being carried by Ikiko and while she undertands the necessity of this she clearly doesn't love it. It's humiliating! A little! Meanwhile, KenKen, who had let herself loose and rode the vortex like... well... like a jumping spider on the wind, lands directly on the prone form of the Santa and ... ... BITES. CHOMP. Santa breaks apart into shards of prismatic energy -- dream energy that's stained with and veined with black. Seems the spider is absorbing that energy -- purifying it. Santa is beaten. For now. ... but that's when SHE appears. For those that haven't seen her before, Bliss-Chan is a glowing, pink fairy. A nightmare of ribbons and tassles and toxic joy. She exudes -happiness-, and you FEEL so happy just looking at her. Her wings buzz, sending pink sparkles in all directions. Her eyes are a colorful and spinning pinwheels and she is smiling. SMILING SO MUCH. And you want to smile too. "Oh wow, oh wow! Just look what you've done! You smashed all the magic, you spoiled the fun! You ruined the laughter, the sparkle, the cheer You broke Christmas, the best time of year, slaughtered all his lovely reindeer! You even murdered Santa, right there in the snow, Why make the children cry; don't you even know? And you shattered the toys and tore through the gifts! Left nothing but splinters and ugly little rifts! And all I was planning so gentle! so kind! I was planting happiness neatly arranged in your mind! A smile that would stick, a joy that would stay! To carry you sweetly into New Year's Day!" She pouts. It's devastating to behold, that pout. Her pinwheel eyes spin even faster now. "But that's okay!," she begins, manically, "that's just fine! Don't you fret!" "I haven't given up on you yet! Soon you won't worry, doubt or feel fear! Soon you'll be happier than ever, its near!" "No sadness, no pain just perfect, warm bliss that will never, ever end... isn't that RIGHT EMI?" And then she bursts into confetti, vanishing. For a moment, you swear you can see a hazy reflection of Tokyo within it -- something dark and wrong with it.
Rashmi Terios	Yeah, colliding with the ground does not feel great. Nor does the rolling. Luckily once she can summon up the strength to cast her weaksauce healing spell, Rashmi will at least be able to walk under her own power. From there, she can probably get herself to the point where she only has to lie about some bruising, and not an entire motorcycle accident's worth of scrapes and impacts. And there's Molly to protect her! This is just the best night, and definitely not ranked among the closest she's come to losing for good! Thanks, Santa Claus. An eye cracks open at Bliss-chan's patter, the unfamiliar Nightmare still sending a chill down her spine. The last time she dealth with a Nightmare in the real world, it was RateMyHenshin, and... no. Never again, no. And if this manic girl's on that level, Emi's terror of what has conquered Kyoto is extremely reasonable. << ...And the horse you rode in on, >> she says weakly over the telepathic comms, as Bliss-chan disappears in a puff of eldritch omen.
Ikiko Hisakata	For what it's worth, Tsukiko does place Emi down once the footing is no longer quite so hazardous. << Now you see why I was a bit... ''vociferous'' when I figured out which Nightmare it was, >> the wolfgirl apologizes to Rashmi, even as she scowls at the ominous confetti. Definitely '''not''' a good Christmas "gift".
Molly Skyline	it's over. Molly drops down to her knees, and phews softly. Her hand is still shaking. Her barrier jacket is thrashed, and she's gonig to have... explaining to do if she comes home with all those bruises, but hey maybe she just fell own. Like, down a flight of stairs. Sure, that totally doesn't make it sound like... like... Why is lying so hard? << Hey, Starcrash. ...Can you mark where we were all standing in line when this started, so we can be in the right spots when the barrier comes down? I still want my chicken. >> And Starcrash obliges; it's a trivial matter to reverse everyone's movements, and illuminte everyone's starting position on Molly's Battle Visor. << Okay so... I know where everyone's gotta be. >> And then, turning around, she properly takes in the condition that Rashmi is in, and goes straight to the other girl's side. And then just kinda stands there, without an arm free. "Uhm... Rashmi-chan. Are you ''okay''?!"
Amy Faust	"Yeah!" Amy cheers the others' attacks on, and Ikiko grabbing Emi! (Once again, Plasma Bomb demonstrates that Amy and Rashmi together can straight up 'I cast fireball' in real life, though without Takuto's contribution it doesn't go ''quite'' as crazy as last time. The street is still ash and glass under where Santa was, though. Good thing there's a barrier so no one has to explain that. Santa is... devoured. ''Damn''. That was pretty freaking metal! And then ''she'' appears. "YOU!" Amy shouts. She's failing to stop herself from grinning. "Stop, stop..." she mutters during the song. "You ''trapped'' people in that bag, lady..." Despite her protests, there's the crushing feel of being told she did ''WRONG'' paired with the promise of happiness if she'd just listen... But the happiness is sickly-sweet, it's ''off'', like the comfort Dark Energy gave Amy from Nemesis. "How is this happiness..." It's true, the concept of Bliss-chan scares her more than it probably should, for reasons some of which Amy will face soon. But the execution... Still. Bliss-chan got them all. ''Held'' them for a day, they were powerless, and that memory -- a foe that did that returned, stronger than before -- carries its own fear. But indignant anger on behalf of a friend is just a little bit stronger. "YOU LEAVE HER ALONE!" And then Bliss-chan is gone, and Amy drops to her hands and knees and catches her breath. "I'll be okay..." Cold. Darkburned. It hurts, but can she afford to regen it? (yes but if she does that every time it will build up...) She can't bother Mamoru on ''Christmas'', but maybe Coco's healing... or wait, did Rashmi have medical magic? "How is everyone...?"
Emi Hoshino	Released from Ikiko's grasp, Emi takes a moment to steady herself. When Bliss-Chan appeared, she immediately grabbed a rock and pointlessly hurled it at her. It didn't do anything. And it missed anyway. Shehe wipes the grin off her face that was plastered there by Bliss-Chan's magic and swears -- a long string of swears a nice Japanese girl would definitely not utter. "... that's it," she whispers, "I have to get back into the dreamscape. I can't afford to wait any longer.. I'm sorry, everyone. I'm sorry she showed up." A pause. '.. but at least we have chicken?" She offers. It's a weak joke, sure, but its something.