2704/The Last Checkered Flag

The Last Checkered Flag
Date of Scene:	23 July 2025
Location:	Plot Room 1
Synopsis:	Molly Skyline is in danger, trapped in an endlessly looping dream, set to live it out over and over until she fades away. But all is not lost; her friends are there, guided into the dream by Emi, ready to help her before it's too late.
Cast of Characters:	Emi Hoshino, Ikiko Hisakata, Rashmi Terios, Souta Camero, Usagi Tsukino, Hinoiri Kirara, Mamoru Chiba, Amanda Faust, Molly Skyline, Coco Kiumi

---

Emi Hoshino has posed:
When Rashmi came to Emi with this request, she was all too happy to help. This is her thing, her area of expertise as it were, and it's not exactly like she doesn't owe everyone a colossal amount for their help. It's literally the least she can do, even with the danger in mind. And so it is as it was before, for those who might know: a slumber party declared using one of the club rooms -- probably even the same club room -- as it was when it was time to rescue one Hinoirir Kirara from the Salarymen.

Emi awaited each arrival, sitting on one of the comfortable arrangements of pillows and cushions she made sure was present for everyone, dressed in pajamas already, polka-dot patterns of spiders and bats decorating them. Upon her shoulder sits an actual spider, very large, with its body splooted over it and and legs dangling on either side of her. It waves to people as they arrive, greeting them with a cheerful, 'Hello!'. Emi glances down at them, reminding KenKen that not everyone might be familiar and that she should be nice.

Once everyone is arrived, Emi spends a moment taking them in, studying them. She raises one hand to her face, covering her green eye while her blue is left to observe them intensely but ... slightly off focus. Like she's not looking directly at them. After each has been studied, she gives a nod, as if everything has checked out.

"Okay. No shadows. Good. Good, good. We're all fine here." She lets out a breath, cheeks puffing out cutely as she exhales. "Okay, so. Uh. I know like most of you so that's good. That makes it easier. So, same thing as like with Hinoiri. We're going to go to sleep and I'll bring you all to the Academy dreamscape. Give you all a minute to orient -- then we're on our way. I'll be feeding each of you a line of webbing to stick to. It's important that -whatever you do-, you don't let go of that web. If you do, there's a good chance I'll lose grasp of you somewhere in the dreamscape, or worse, in the dream we're going to. So hold on -tight-. No matter what you see, don't let go until I tell you its safe."

She looks down a moment. Combs her fingers through her hair as it falls in front of her face and then she looks back up, all a-shrouded by it. With her pale make up, it does create a very 'Sadako' like impression. She is no doubt aware of this. "Now, we're going to go to sleep. It's important that we all just make like ... normal. I promise you'll fall asleep, no matter how anxious you might be feeling. The making-normal will be just help relax you and you'll fall gently into a slumber, sooner rather than later. It's going to be fine. I promise. I have this ... thing that helps." She shrugs her shoulders. "And once you're all asleep, I'll pull you from your dreams."

She's not wrong. it doesn't take very long at all. Soon enough and one by one, everyone is dropping off like they're not about to take on an incredibly dangerous mission. You know. Just another after school activity here at Radiant Heart.

The next thing they know, they're in a familiar place.

The Radiant Heart Academy courtyard.

Here, where the great silvery moon hangs in the sky above them despite its phase in reality. Surely, no one can imagine why it might be here. Not at all. Scattered cherry blossoms drift on the wind, always circling in gentle patterns and never quite touching the ground, wafting on a heavenly floral breeze. The stones of the courtyard's paths are lined on either side by a grass so soft that it might as well be some kind of velvet, and majestic trees line it that seem to shift between wisteria and cherry blossom trees depending on the angle.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
And it is here that Emi feeds each of them that line of webbing, sparkling and pink and heavy. It sticks to their hand. The girl with the mismatched eyes is definitely Emi, but even -more- gothic were such a thing possible, swirling ruffled dress swishing with every graceful move. Here, she is in her element. Comfortable. Battle ready. This is what she does. Once everyone has the line of webbing, she smiles and says, "All right. Let's go. Remember what I said, each of you," and then she marches towards a classroom door, opens it, and walks inside.

... and then there is a sense of ... not quite falling.

They are passing through the dreamscape, rapidly, slipping into a spaces between the dreams and the dreamscape. It's not exactly like they're traversing through anything. More like ... -drifting-. Structures bleed in and out of shape. The sky doesn't have a fixed color. Grainy like an old film one minute, overexposed vibrant blue the next -- and that's when its light enough one can see at all. They can feel the whispers of other dreams. A meeting between old lovers. A hug with someone long departed. Others are ... incomprehensible, and daring to peer at them for even a second makes it feel like whatever they are will draw them in, were it not for the webbing that Emi had secured them with. Time dilates. Shapes bend. How long have they been going? Who can say?

... and then there is a sense of pressure building, mounting, and then like a wall crumbling and giving way as they tumble into ... some place. A dream.

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
The Hinoiri rescue had been a useful learning experience for Ikiko Hisakata, especially regarding the nature of dreamspace, reality, and the singular nature of henshins. So, this time, she waited until she was inside her dream, then transformed into Cute Wolf Tsukiko.

During the trip through the dreamscape, the wolfgirl stays focused on Emi, the connecting tether, and the other mahoujin. While keeping an eye on the terrain would normally be a tempting thing to do (the better to find your way back, my dear!), the non-Euclidian nature of the dreamscape means that such mundane efforts are... unproductive, to say the least.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
While Rashmi was certain Emi would help, when she first asked, it's *always* a nice feeling when someone says 'don't worry, I got your back.' And Rashmi showed her gratitude in the best way she could; by presenting Emi with a box of the best sweets that the Korma Chameleon offers, and a thank-you card besides.

Because to Rashmi, whether they succeed or fail, it's the willingness to help that matters

And for everyone else, she muses to herself as she accepts one of Mamoru's roses, there will be *such* a celebratory dinner at the Korma on her dime. Post-fite meals are practically sacred tradition.

Upon awakening in the Radiant Heart dreamscape, Rashmi takes a moment to just turn in place, and once more drink in the magic of the dreamscape. Instructions are listened to carefully, and Rashmi clears her throat for one last one. "So for those of you who haven't done this before; you can henshin here, but here is where your magic *goes.* We'll still be asleep in the real world, and our magic *won't be there.* That's why these slumber parties; best way to keep anything from figuring that out and Doing Something About Us."

With that, she henshins, herself, and gratefully accepts the cord.

"Good luck, everyone... And thanks again."

Following the Oneiromancer, Rashmi takes the sudden transition from walking to falling fairly easily; she flies regularly, after all, but when they arrive with an almighty tumble, and she gets her feet under her...

Screen after screen bwips to life above Nicomachea's pages, in the hopes that the Device's sensors have Dreamworld analogs, and that those sensors will have anything to say about their surroundings.

Souta Camero has posed:
    Souta Camero arrived in black button-up pajamas, precisely tailored for his frame. His bountiful blonde hair is in a black night cap, just to stop it from getting tangled up in anyone else. He has a fairly nondescript forest green sleeping bag.

    He listens to Emi's briefing, and while he's been given some understanding of what's about to happen he still feels fairly uncertain. Oh well. Any unasked questions will likely be answered by experience. A man hands him a rose, which is apparently magic, and he chooses not to question this either.

    When he arrives in the Dream World, he's wearing a TSAB dress uniform. He takes a moment to observe at the strange trees and other oddities. At the offer of a strand of webbing, he says, "Thank you," and ties it around his wrist. "Well. I suppose I'm as ready as I'll ever be."

    At Rashmi's direction, Souta summons his own Barrier Jacket. Paradise Spectrum starts in Tonfa mode. He too starts scanning the area, though he somewhat suspects his forensics expertise won't really help him here.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
The situation has been explained and everyone has been informed of what will happen, what is going on, what the hopes and stakes are. It's a chance and a risk, and of course Usagi will be there to help as she can and lend her strength. Molly's been in trouble a long time - if this is something they can do to help her, and get one step closer to ending this nightmare?

Of course she's here, in her cute little pink pajama set, her hair loosened from its odango but tied back in twin braids instead, bows attached at every six inches or so making for a long, long line of bows from her head to the tufts at her ankles.

She's set up her sleeping bag and pillows near Mamoru's, and Luna is curled up beside her, ready and waiting to watch over everyone as they sleep. No one should find them here in the Club Room, but just in case, she'll be able to ward them off.

The rose Mamoru offered is tucked into her hair with a smile at him, and she beds down in her pajamas, having learned from last time. When she slips out of dreams not fully remembered, she stands in her pajamas before everyone and transforms quickly into Sailor Moon, rose tucked against one odango.

"Now that we're here... let's find Molly-chan!"

The web is taking at Emi's direction, and she loops one end around her hand, making sure she won't just clumsily release it, and soon they're crossing the dreamscape, as beautiful and ephemeral as last time, tempting dreams calling and whispering, not even trying to attract but simply - existing as curiosities. She doesn't follow them, and stays focused.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara had arrived in her PJs, the cute red and black ones, with the sun on the front. And even gave the lil spider a pat. "Hey, KenKen," she said with a smile. "Hope Emi isn't giving you too much trouble," she said with a teasing tone.

Of course, she listened and followed along, not giving Emi any grief as she explained. She was getting a bit... not old hat at this, but knew the record by now. Emi was pretty good at this, and Hinoiri had depended on her, more than once, to be a good emergency sleep aid when she needed it. So coming here wasn't that hard.

And once inside the dream... Henshining up wasn't hard. Cure Le Licorne was ready for action! Pounding her fist together, she'd then take thread and... "YAHOO!" she yelled before jumping through the dreams, falling into the great beyond! "WOOOOOOO!" she yelled. Well... If you're going to fall through the dream worlds... why not have fun with it? She didn't yell the whole way, obviously...

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
A too-tall older teenaged boy walks in with fluffy black hair with red tips, and clean glasses, and a dark red yukata with a maroon arabesque print on it, a gold-colored obi and gold-colored trim. He sets up, then watches Usagi set up next to him, and his sleeping bag isn't even open. He's just going to lie on top of it, because... because.

Before everyone falls asleep, Mamoru sheepishly pulls out his backpack, and in it there are enough roses to give everyone who's coming, and an extra for Molly in case she can use it once Emi wakes her up, or-- however it'll go-- "Just hold it like this," and he's legit holding it like a knife he's about to stab with, "and stab a surface with it, and it should open a temporary door to like... a save room that's a courtyard. It's got outdoor seating. There are usually cookies and a cold thing to drink there. It's still a dream though, and Emi can get you out." He grins at the rose in Usagi's hair when she puts it there.

When everyone wakes up on the campus, they still have their roses, in the dream, and Mamoru's Tuxedo Mask, and he has a mild problem with a full heart and a lot of rainbows. No shadows, no! But like, visual trails of faint sparkling background happiness when he moves. He solemnly takes the thread from <s>Sadako</s> <s>Himeko</s> Emi and nods, also looping it around his hand, and his wrist.

When they leave, and start falling through pressure and sensation and emptiness and openness, and the deep red inside of his cape desaturates in the silvery moonlight and takes on aspects of the platonic night sky, the end of a sunset--

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Slumber partyyyyy!

    Sure, it's going to be dire and dangerous but also slumber party! Sort of. And also Rescue Mollyyyyyyy! And that's worth celebrating!

    It's still kinda hot for the full pants-and-button-up-top set; Amy's in a grey shortsleeve shirt with "LOVE" printed on the front in glittery pink letters, and pink faux-satin shorts with frilly trim on the legs.

    As usual she's prepared a fan for white noise, a blanket to sleep on, a sheet to sleep under, her pillows, a water bottle to sip if thirsty, and her collection of plushies (off-white rough-textured bear, brown cougar, Magical Tragar-chan, and a stripey cat.)

    She smiles to Emi and the others when she comes in, and to people as they arrive. "Shadows?" she echoes back, but, there's business to do.

    Anxiety and the past on her mind lately mean that it's Mallory who appears in the dreamscape, Amy's oversized field jacket fitting him much less loosely, but he almost immediately henshins to the familiar form of Magical Rocket Girl Red.

    She takes a moment to drink in the sight of Radiant Heart's dreamscape, then slips the rose into one of her belt pouches and takes the offered line of webbing and wraps it around a vambrace she conjures onto her arm, and around her chestplate. Just to be sure.

    They traverse the dreamscape. "Jesus. Is this what walking through Shadow is like? Maybe really near to Chaos..."

    She gives Hinoiri a curious look. "I'm a little surprised you're not a unicorn, or can you not be Cure la Licorne and a unicorn at the same time? Hmm..."

    As the journey goes on and she loses sense of time, she does sometimes find her attention drifting to the mysterious dreams... but whenever it does, the web line pulls taut and reminds her to follow.

Molly Skyline has posed:
When the team who have come to rescue Molly finally arrive, with Emi's guidance, in the right dream, the first thing to assault the senses is the chilled air. It is deathly cold here. The ground, a field of formerly vibrant wildflowers, drowns in an ankle deep slurry of brackish, oily water that is deeply unpleasant to wade through, even covering a raised of pathway of broken cobblestones that leads, up a hill, to an Onsen.

or at least, what remainds of an Onsen. The building looks like a meteor hit it, leaving it blasted open as if from within, with pieces hovering in the air mid-explosion. Trees that might once have sported beautiful cherry blossoms stand naked, illuminated by lightning that splits the darkened skies, followed by the bone-rattling report of thunder.

Beyond the onsen lies a vast field, laying beneath an oppressive layer of the bad water. At the far side of it rises a dark cliffside, with a cave opening at the bottom. Standing atop the cliffs, looking very much as though it belongs anywhere but here, rises a tall lighthouse built of black, oil-slicked bricks. in place of a light it features a baleful red eye, held in the grasp of a myriad of hovering, diseombodied hands, arrayed with fingeres like eyelashes as it spins splowly, emiting a far-reaching cone of pernicious red light.

The entire scene has the feeling of darkness creeping in. So much here is polluted and defiled. Everything feels wrong to the senses; feels wrong, smells wrong, sounds wrong. It jars the senses and sends static through the mind. None of this should be here.

Neither should you.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
Emi lands in a fluff of skirts, ethereal webs wafting off her as the ones everyone hold onto dissipate. She brushes her palms off her skirt and she looks a little pale and sweaty. Seems doing that has left her momentarily winded. She needs a moment -- but just a moment -- to recover. She takes a deep, calming breath and then straightens up. Eyes closed.

"This is the barrier realm between Molly's dream and everything else. It's not -her- barrier, though. Someone built this piece by piece to keep us out and her in. There's a cave there, below the lighthouse. That's our way in, assuming we don't get lost in a maze of twisty passages all alike."

And then Emi starts off in that direction, fully intending to just march right in. "Keep close," she tells the others.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    The dream is... an onsen? A creepy shady onsen where everything is messed up.

    Amy mutters, "[If we have to fight a were-chameleon outbreak, I fukkin' swear...]" But as she looks around and takes in the scenery more, something more immediately threatening gets her attention.

    The Puella Magi steps next to Sailor Moon and points. "Eye of Sauron over there..."

    But they don't draw aggro immediately, and the longer they're here, the more Amy becomes aware of this persistant feeling of wrongness and you-don't-belong-here. It's not like Nemesis, it's not killing her, but...

    She's reminded of how, shortly after she arrived at Radiant Heart, a lot of places had a you-don't-belong-here feeling, but one that faded as they became familiar and she noticed how comfortable she was there once out of her head. Except here, more time and seeing how things actually are only reaffirms how wrong everything is.

    At least Emi knows which way to go. She follows. "Entering a cave in this place? I got a bad feeling about this... I guess the Eye isn't going to notice us?"

    A thought occurs to her. "If someone other than Molly could make this here... does that mean anyone else could construct things too, in the barrier-space? Or is this situation... unique?"

Souta Camero has posed:
    Well! This place certainly feels wrong. Souta wonders for a moment how a place like this compares to the Dusk Zone he keeps hearing about. Then again, maybe he doesn't want to know.

    He looks down to the rose in his hands and decides to pin it to his Barrier Jacket like a boutonnière. "I see. So this will be our escape ticket." His green eyes scan the landscape for a moment before he says, "... good to know."

    Souta doesn't complain about the conditions he has to work in because he's a TSAB officer, but that doesn't mean he has to pretend he feels safe here. He follows after Emi while keeping an eye out for potential threats or issues that might come at them from the sides.

    "As far as keeping people out, I can see why this would be effective."

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
"No need to tell me twice," Tsukiko murmurs to Emi, grimacing at the water and the smells. She's glad that the others are here, both for the support and for the variety of skills present.

Amy's question prompts a worried glance from the lighthouse to the Puella and back. "Honestly, I'd rather not find out," the wolfgirl remarks, follwing Emi briskly -- or at least as briskly as the terrain allows.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Rashmi cannot help but suck in a breath between her teeth as the vicious chill of this dream assaults them. The webbing is wound around her left hand, and the rose slipped into the lapel of her Barrier Jacket.

"...That tracks with the available information," she murmurs at Emi's explanation. "Seriss seems to *really like* eyes surrounded in weirdness. ...Which makes me think we need to avoid that light at any cost."

The destroyed onsen is given a careful, sweeping look, then she moves after Emi, keeping close as dictated. "Yeah," she says in answer to Souta. "Searchlights make *great* warning signs."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
It's a gross, creepy place, this barrier realm between Molly's dreams, and Sailor Moon's face is scrunched up in distaste, but the small heel that she has will help keep her out of the water, and that's enough -

"The eye of what?" She blinks at Amy, twisting to stare and then looping her arm through hers, deciding to keep close the easy friendly way, that's not spooky and creepy.

This place thinks they don't belong here, and it's right. But it doesn't belong here either, so who cares what it thinks?

"It doesn't really matter, does it? We're not going to leave without who we came for, so even if they throw everything at us, we'll just stick it out."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Tuxedo Kamen regrets his lack of heels. The rainbows and trails of sparkles are gone within point two seconds of realizing what he was standing in.

He slogs unhappily through the filthy, oily water, tucking his cape over his arm so he doesn't get splashes of the stuff on it, because those would travel. He really doesn't belong here. He's been places before that didn't like him, he's been places before that wanted him dead, places that wanted him corrupted, but never someplace so inimical to him. The other places were forces of nature, and this? "Why does it have to smell so bad?" he mutters.

"If we get absolutely desperate I can try and sense stuff through the ground but wow yikes that would have to be absolutely desperate," he also says, when they're almost there.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Cure La Licorne gave a shrug to Amy. "It can vary. I can switch between them, depends, honestly. For this? Human felt better."

Geez... the fact it was... so... strangly... the onset... damaged... shudder. IT felt wrong. She followed behind Emi, nodding along.

And every step, well... "I think I've walked through bogs that were more welcoming..." she muttered, giving a shudder. "And those ones had a hydra in them..." she muttered. "I do not envy you trying to sense things through evil-alien's dream-dirt, Tuxedo Mask," Licorne said with a shrug.

She glanced around before sighing, wishing she could just... find some tall things to jump from, rocks, rubble... She did NOT like slogging in this. Even if her boots WERE tall...

"Also, humans are *much* taller than ponies. There are some advantages to having two legs over four..."

Molly Skyline has posed:
The middle of the water-covered field is a terrible place to be, should one find themself spotted. There are no trees, no stones, no buildings; absolutely nothing to break the line of sight, and aside from the flashes of lightning, the plain grows darker with every step. The only real way to stay on track is to follow the awful lighthouse, with its spinning red light, as the group of heroes trudge through the boggy ground. At least it's just boggy; it is just boggy, right? That isn't a tentacle wrapped around your ankle, is it? Luckily, it does seem that the lighthouse so far as not noticed them.

But no good thing lasts forever.

<< ## inTRUDeRS DETEcTED ## >>

The cone of red light snaps around, shining directly down at the group of approaching Mahou and focusing into a narrow, intense glare, almost blinding to look at in the otherwise deepening darkness. Only the unblinking eye surrounded by fingers is clearly visible.

<< ## aNNIHILATE ## >>

The beam winks out, and there is a second of silence before a fusilade of glowing red energy blasts rain down from the eye, rapid-firing into the general area of bog where the heroes stand. Wherever they miss the Mahou and hit the ground they vaporize the water, blasting clouds of mud and steam up into the air, fit to assault lips and noses and throats with heat and a horrible, eye-watering smell.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Moon Spiral Heart Attack!"

Sailor Moon spins through the brackish bog water, some of it spraying towards the ankles and shins of her opponents, and an enormous pink heart flies forth from the Spiral Heart Moon Rod, not so much seeking to damage the tower, as creating a truly enormous obstacle to tank the shots.

Unfortunately for Amy, she'd been linked arm in arm with Sailor Moon when she started the attack, so she was spun about too, arm in arm, looped like a doll - or ballerina - and they come to a stop almost daintily. Except for the splashes.

"Whoops," Sailor Moon laughs sheepishly, but, then the shots are firing down, and there's burning mist and smoke and eurgh so

"WE'RE GOING FOR THE TARGET!"

And she just plows ahead, dragging Amy along with her, dashing for the cave, occasionally firing off Spiral Hearts to try and tank blows.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
Emi stares up at the great blazing eye as it detects 'intruders'.

She lets out a sigh.

"Yeah, that checks," she grumbles under her breath.

Emi has faced countless dangers in the dreamscape on her own and in response she has developed a skillset that is, let's say, not team friendly but works for her. She's just going to have to count on everyone else to get out of the way and make it to the cave she gestures at in the distance."Try not to get too spread out," she yells as a blast comes zooming towards her.

And Emi moves, but ... not a lot. In fact, it's minimalism for her that's key. Expending as little energy as possible while getting clear of the attacks. A woven shield of thick webbing soaks up a few before being dissolved under rhe brunt of them into smoky pink sparkles, say, or she simply hops to the side in a single, flowing movement and then twirls forward. It's almost like a dance.

Almost.

And she'd probably hit you if you suggested that to her.

She scurries forward like the spider perched on her shoulder still.

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
"Fewer limbs in the muck, and more distance between the stinky water and your nose? Good call," Tsukiko nods to La Licorne, subconsciously shaking her arms at the thought of being in muck up to her elbows.

She grimaces in agreement with Tuxedo Kamen -- focusing on enhanced senses when what is present is a dozen shades of disgusting to normal senses is definitely no fun.

    And speaking of the disgusting setting...

The wolfgirl yelps at the energy barrage, quickly covering her nose and mouth to minimize the smell and splatter of the superheated stench-mud as she dodges forward, aiming to reach the cave without outpacing the others by too much.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
This is an awful place. And it completely tracks with everything about Molly's captor; take something that is nice, and make it awful, just because you can. Because nobody is allowed to *have* nice things if they are not solely for you. Rashmi is largely silent over the course of the trek, unsure if the use of magic will make them detectable, unsure if that eye's not gonna do something horrible, and trying not to fume about how they are walking through a dream representation of *everything she hates about Seriss Nyx*--

'Intruders Detected'

By the time the eye's light whips around to focus on them, Rashmi is fiddling with something in Nicomachea. When the word 'Annihilate' is called out, Nicomachea has an announcement of his own.

    << *BONG!* >> << AREA INDEX: SOLAR SHIELD -- GLACE SHIFT >>

Lurching forward after the others, Rashmi raises her un-webbed hand, and a huge circle of golden light resolves into view, turning into a thick, spiky shield of golden ice with a screeching *CRACK*

    << *BONG!* >> << FLIER FIN >>

No reason not to use magic *now,* And Rashmi pushes off the ground, trying her hardest to bring her group-sized magical umbrella over as many mahou as possible, seeking to shield them from the furious barrage for as long as her shield -- hardened, thick, and made to absorb multiple impacts as it is -- can last.

She tries to breathe through her mouth as the bracking steam plumes rise, and instantly regrets it; the smell may be foul, but if you have ever *tasted* stagnant water and scorched, rotting leaves and dirt, you have regretted having senses just as much as Rashmi does in this moment.

"C'mon, c'mon!" she calls. "Bunch up and keep close, scatter when the shield breaks!"

Because Rashmi has *zero* illusions about her shield lasting all the way to the cave.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Eye of what? Amy opens her mouth to explain, then decides now is not the time. "...nothing that conveys salient information that seeing a big glowing red eye in the sky doesn't already..."

    Sailor Moon says they'll stick it out, while Amy thinks of frustratingly-placed detector towers on difficult helldives and having to fight wave after wave after wave after wave after wave after wave of bot reinforcements before getting to make any progress. Forget esoteric lycanthropes -- She doesn't want to fight a horde of whatever Seriss cooked up to guard this place, in its home territory.

    She does feel a little more at ease from linking arms with Sailor Moon, though. And also from the recoilless rifle she's carrying on her opposite shoulder.

    At least her boots are waterproof -- at least, against this much water -- and her cloak isn't quite long enough to get wet, but it could easily get splashed by vigorous movement or dip in if she crouched at all.

    She nods agreement with a grimace as Tuxedo Mask says he'd have to be desperate to sense through the ground here. Although, that makes her wonder... "Does that work in dreams? We may not notionally be on Earth; and you're lying on the floor in the real world but that's not connected to here..."

    She also nods in agreement with Licorne that she very much would not want to be walking through this on four hooves...

    It couldn't last.

inTRUDeRS DETEcTED
    "BACKBLASTCLEAR!" Amy warns, immediately whipping the weapon into position and firing a surprisingly well-aimed anti-tank round at the distant eye, for whatever good that will do. (At this distance, there's a noticeable delay before impact.)

    Energy blasts rain down, and Amy is swept up in Sailor Moon's spin, twirled around and splashed by a shot that barely misses her despite it all, splashing all over her and "Oh gosh that's worse, that's so much worse, why?!" She can conjure her helmet at least to keep subsequent blasts from splashing her in the face, but all she can do is cling to Sailor Moon's arm and try to run fast enough to not get dragged through the icky water!

    Which isn't that hard, they're the same height, but Amy keeps getting swung around and around every time Sailor Moon fires off a shielding heart.

    It wouldn't be so bad if not for the awful smell making her kind of nauseous and the suddenness of it... @_@

Souta Camero has posed:
    Sailor Moon's determination brings a smirk to Souta's face. He can respect someone with the temerity to look danger directly in the eye and go, 'yeah **** you too buddy'.

    "That we will," he agrees, trudging through the muck and yuck as if he's somehow used to it. Well, the trudging part, at least.

    He's watching the Lighthouse when its baleful eye finally turns upon them. He hears Paradise Spectrum transmit, < Warning! > and he is immediately on his guard.

    < Return Shield > he commands, as a spiraling magical circle appears in front of him, absorbing the first few beams as vaporized water rises all around him. There's no cover nearby, and no real fighting that thing for him at this distance, but Emi has pointed out the path. Which means...

    < Slider Fin >

    Magical dust kicks up around his feet, and he's dashing forward as magic boosts him along. < Protect the others > he commands, and Paradise Spectrum responds.

    < Shield Spark >

    A handful of magical motes of light appear around him, spreading out to nearby mahoujin, prioritizing those not covered by Rashmi's umbrella. Each of them opens into a smaller version of his Return Shield, absorbing a few of the hostile lasers before dissipating. Hopefully the extra defense will grant his friends a bit more survivability as they make a break for it.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
This is where things like hats come in handy. Before his hair so much as gets its red tips singed, Tuxedo Mask has procured his top hat from wherever it lives and hurriedly put it on. Now he hunches his shoulders and pulls his cape up around his neck from inside and runs for it. "It works--" he yells toward Amy and Moon as they all book it for the cave, "when I don't think about it, Red! Ow, ffffff--"

He tilts into it when the steam billowing up his cape and splashing at the ends of it and weighing it down turns into sticking to his legs, and he runs even faster, catching up to Rashmi's shield; his cape and his tux and his him all have holes in them now, though the lattermost are more like... we'll say dents. But he gets to the mouth of it and just goes in.

Molly Skyline has posed:
energy blasts like lasers pour down relentlessly, blitzing through the night without respite. Rashmi's shield absorbs a few before breaking; not a huge number, but enough to give everyone a good start to keep moving towards the cave unimpeded. Souta's shield helps those who need it, and Emi can most certainly take care of herself, but it remains a rough, difficult journey to finish rushing towards the cave.

Usagi's Moon Spiral Heart Attack gives contest to the incoming blasts; they erode each other, and there is again a moment of respoite until the heart Attack can do no more and dissipates with a burst of energy, letting more red beams come sailing through. Amy's explosive round is dead on target, and explodes against the shield surrounding the eye, revealing it as a series of interlocking hexagons that glow an angry orange, dispersing the attack before fading from view.

All through it all, the assault never wavers, and only intensifies the closer the Mahou get. The eye gloes with its own heat, and looks like it's starting to melt by the time the first of them reach the cave -- and it seems the eye is unable to point straight down, as the attacks finally taper off.

<< ## OUtER DEfenSES PENeTRAtED ## >>

The cave, upon reaching it, seems less a cave and more like a refuge. It's like someone has stuffed things into it in a hurry that they didn't want to get covered in all the grossness outside, though the air quality is absolutely no better. An oil lamp that looks like something you'd find in a fantasy movie hangs from the roof of the cave, illuminating the small, rough space. The interior is stacked with shelves and crates, overflowing with... Dungeons and Dragons books, RIFTS books, half-built lego sets, a gaming laptop that still has a game running, and stacks of magazines about all sorts of things from RPG Games to Automobiles. Plenty of it has fallen on the floor, shelves have collapsed, and it's generally a mess, but at least the contents of the room are just in a mess and not corrupted. Yet.

<< ## INITIATe dEATH EcLIPsE PROTOCOls ## >>

Though the firing has ceased, the terrible eye's words boom out across the brackish plain.

<< ## EcECUTIONER UNlEAShED. TERmINAte SUBJeCT: MoLLY ## >>

At the far end of the cave, a door. A simple, wooden door, painted blue, a little bit on the rickety side with peeling paint. Tacked onto it about two-thirds of the way up, a piece of paper with two words handwritten in English; 'Molly's Room'.

From beyond the door =, faintly heard comes the sound of an engine revving. A deep, meaty sound; not from anyone's ordinary car for running around, getting groceries. A race car.

Souta Camero has posed:
    Souta gets into the interior of the cave, dashes past the entrance, and plants his back against the wall. He watches those behind him try to get in out of the rain of deadly beamspam, sending out more Shield Sparks to give them a little extra durability, draining his mana reserves in order to do so. Or does it? Does that work in a dream world? If he looks at his Device's HUD, will he be able to read it?

    Now's not the time to wonder about that. While he was watching out for his allies, Paradise Spectrum was analyzing the room. She alters him to the door, and warns him of the horrible sounds coming from behind it.

    "Like I'll allow you--!" is his response. Slider Fin is still active, and his feet just barely hover off the ground as he speeds towards the door to Molly's Room.

    Paradise shifts into greatsword mode, the two white metal tonfas becoming one wide hilt as a green pointed greatsword flares to life. Souta leaps at the door, shouting, "Spectrum Overdrive!" and his energy blade flares even brighter, becoming a green fiery blur of fury as he brings it down onto the door.

    Because using door knobs is a luxury, not a right.

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
Tsukiko find a clear section of wall to lean against, catching her breath while nodding thanks to Rashmi and Souta. She frowns a bit at the announcement of unleashing, then looks at the door.

"Guess we need to keep moving," the wolfgirl sighs, starting to walk towards the doorway. "Just... we should probably get ready to dodge as soon as we go through that door. In case it dumps us out on a racetrack."

A pause as she glances to the others. "A busy racetrack," she adds, then cautiously steps through.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Rashmi's shield cracks, chips, then shatters outright, her evasive maneuvers placing her right on the edge of a good many plumes of superheated nastiness... and no small amount of actual hits from the fusillade. Each one knocks her to one side, then another, but as the cave looms ever closer, Rashmi squeezes out a bit of extra effort.

    << *BONG!* >> << SOLAR FLASH >>

Traveling a few dozen meters in the blink of an eye is a great way to beat raining hellfire to your destination. Even better if you can do it more than once.

But the action takes a good bit out of Rashmi, so when she fetches up inside the gaming cave, she has to pause a little bit to catch her breath, and have a look around. "...Is *this* where you hid from her, Molly-chan?" she breathes, something deep in her heart squeezing painfully.

As Souta equips his greatsword and takes on the single most terrifying foe of any TTRPG adventure -- a simple, closed door -- Rashmi tries to stop him, but... The voice outside *did* say that an executioner has been unleashed, with Molly as its target. This is *concerning.* More concerning is the idea that on the other side of the door is a racetrack, and *they didn't bring Haruka.*

If anything proves to be the mahous' downfall this night, it might just be that they didn't bring a racer to a racetrack.

Still, she positions herself next to the door, waving all the others through. With the doorway smashed open, there's little need to fear the way can close before she can follow, so, best to make sure *everyone* is in before she follows.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Cure La Licorne had, fortunately, experience in (some) situations like this. So the moment she heard detected... She closed her mouth. And sure enough... splashback. Yup. Don't breathe...

It didn't make it any more pleasant. It did, however, mean she didn't need to taste it.

Still smelt foul when she could breathe in a moment, though. "... Stellar," she said, flatly. Before running after them!

Of course, once they were inside, there was... a cave. With an engine. And an engine... with a.... race car engine?

She raced towards it and... "If we're racing something, I hope they have motorcycles..." she muttered.

Because, in the end? They *did* have at least one racer... And she, technically, did have One win on Haruka...

... Sure, she almost *died* for it. And had been forbidden, for her safety, from ever racing her again. BUT SHE STILL COUNTED IT.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    (If it needs a forcefield, that means it can be damaged! As they race to the cave, Amy switches to a 4-tube missile launcher -- still man-portable-size -- and keeps steadily firing missiles at the eye, the tubes magically refilling every 4 shots. The only interruptions are when Usagi spins her -- the launcher goes flying out of her hands, only to disappear into pink sparkles as a replacement is summoned to Amy's hands afterwards -- and when they finally reach the cave and Amy dismisses the launcher.)

    When they reach the cave and see the inside, Amy feels a lot of things.

    This is a place Molly made, in all this...

    Those poor books! Collapsed shelves, everything falling apart... and poor Molly, having to live in it!

    "Has Molly... been living here, all this time?" It's kind of a relief, actually, to imagine Molly cooped up here rather than floating bodiless in nothingness with the occasional torture session from Seriss.

ExECUTIONER UNlEAShED.
    "If she could kill Molly at any time, why didn't she?!" Amy wonders, but the answer immediately comes to mind: "Oh." Because then she couldn't torture her anymore, she doesn't say out loud.

    "...If Seriss Nyx wants to kill her now... that means she thinks we have a real shot at this! I don't suppose we can use that car to get out of here fast?" Amy asks, hopefully, as she runs to the door and tries to open it, and failing that, bangs on it, and dismisses her helmet visor to clearly call out "[Molly! We're here to rescue you!]" in English.

    Beat.

    "[We're real!]" Amy adds, "I read the Lazlo book, it spends not enough pages on education and magic and medicine and techno-wizardry and more pages than I'd like on police, even if they're 'good' police!]" That has to be a sentence that Seriss Nyx would not invest the time in being able to make up.

    Whether the door opens or is smashed in, Amy hurries through with the others.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
A moment's respite from a previously-relentless attack-- Tuxedo Mask stays away from the walls, he doesn't want them touching him, or touching his injuries where the lasers got all the way through his cape. He breathes. He doesn't like that either. But-- but--

He looks for Usagi, and then he looks at Sailor Moon, just for a moment, and he regenerates his rainbow sparkle trails, because they're ~married~ and everything'll work out. Even if he's rather the worse for wear, even if everyone is, even if they haven't yet found Molly and "Hey!"

Despite the trails of sparkles when the bedraggled bishounen moves right now, he's got a slightly more annoyed expression than Ikiko's sigh. "Oh hey, TSAB-san," he says as if reminded, "Forgot to introduce myself before we fell asleep. I'm Tuxedo Kamen, I'm with her--" and he points at Sailor Moon, "who you probably already know. What you might not know is that we got married a month ago!"

Souta's moving away already 8D and Tuxedo Kamen follows after the rage cop past Rashmi and calls, "On the moon! Molly, we saved you a piece of cake! It was made with ingredients from Kirakirafantastica! I, Tuxedo Mask, am saying these words one after the other, so you know I've got to be real too--" A beat. "And I hope they have motorcycles too. I am not getting in any speed demon's car..."

Emi Hoshino has posed:
It's with a grateful sigh that Emi sees everyone has thus far successfully evaded being hit by those beams. Injuries in the dream world are no laughing matter, as most of them know by now. Sweeping quickly drying gunk from her boots with her webs -- hey it works -- she settles herself down after checking on each individual through and through. Looks like everyone's okay. It's only then she lets herself relax until she hears it declare 'Terminate Molly'.

"Oh, there's no chance in hell that's happening," she says, steadfast in her determination.

And then there's the sound of that race car. She blinks her eyes, slowly. A saying comes to mind -- one from english class when they were talking about how english words can be the same backwards and forwards.

"Racecar spelled backwards is racecar?" she asks, eyes turning towards Amy a moment. She'd know, right

"It's a loop," she blurts, "Her dream doesn't sit right in time," she murmurs, "the dilation we felt when we got closer. She's looping. Backwards and forwards." She holds a hand up.

"She gets to the end of the dream and then they loop her back to the start of it so she never 'wakes up'. We need to stop that part, but if we interfere too quickly it could have catastrophic consequences on the dream and we could lose her entirely given how fragile it all feels."

She pushes towards the door.

"... which is probably how they mean to execute her. Unmoor the dream and cast her off into the sea of dreams where she'll dissolve into dreamstuff entirely alongside the rest of it. Only works if she's been gradually weakening this whole time, losing the tether that binds her to ... herself. Punch this Nyx for me since I can only settle for fucking this plan up."

She cracks her knuckles.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
There are some blaster scuffs, but Sailor Moon's not really thinking of how few injuries there are. There's some very disgusting splatter, stinking to high heaven and gross, but the important thing is that -

There's Sailor Moon getting to the cave with Amy, and looking around at the collapsed shelves and the stacks of gear for games she'd only recently heard about, the damage and the obvious signs of someone desperately trying to keep themselves together, and the call for an executioner. Could Seriss Nyx be more cliche? Like, really, come on, they break into the princess' tower so she calls on an executioner? Lame!

Maybe if she thinks of it with pep, she won't be freaked out. Instead, she links up with Mamoru, calling out, "It's true! Sorry Molly-chan, but we'll make sure you visit the Moon Castle so we can tell you all about our wedding as soon as you're safe with us!"

The rainbow sparkles bounce off of her too, accompanied by little hearts and crescent moons. She doesn't seem to notice.

Souta breaks down the door - she does notice that.

"Whoa. Alright, he's cool!" Engines roar, and really... they should have expected that. "I don't know how to drive, and I don't think this is the time to learn!"

Molly Skyline has posed:
The door holds up under Souta's assault. Well. For about three seconds, anyway. After that it is swiftly smashed to toothpicks; the entire cave shudders from the assault, half-built lego projects collapsing with bricks clattering across the floor, and a printed picture formerly tacked to the wall flutters loose, falling to the ground in front of the Mahou; it's a selfie Molly took of herself with Rashmi at the Onsen everyone visited, just a couple of weeks before...

Well. Before.

As the door is smashed to splinters, it isn't at first possibel to step through, even though the way is open it's like trying to step off the map on a video game where you aren't supposed to go. It looks like you can go that way, you just... you just can't.

Until abruptly, you can.

Gone is all the horridness left behind; the nighttime air here is much sweeter, up at the top of a winding mountain road. It feels like spring, with fireflies buzzing in th eair; there are small crowds of people all over the place along the roadisde, and a sizeable group nearby at the top, standing at a viewpoint where most of the road can be seen, all the way to the bottom.

The howling roar of engines intensifies; there are a couple of cars rushing down the winding road, tires squealing as their drivers push them to speeds one could only describe as despearately unsafe.

At the top, three more cars wait at what one might consider a starting line. A red one and a blue one side by side, and behind them both, a white Toyota Supra, exactly the same car that Molly once showed Rashmi a picture of, with all the things she's talked about adding. Everything she's ever gushed about, in those joyful moments when her best friend was ready to listen to her being a complete nerd about the things that make her happy.

Standing next to the car... is Molly. Definitely Molly, albeit an older version of her than the current teenager. This Molly is in her early twenties, dressed in ragged jeans, a cropped shirt and her ever-present jacket. Only, her left arm doesn't look quite right, somehow. It's not the right color.

In this dream, this version of Molly has a prosthetic.

The arrival of her friends draws no reaction from the purplenette, who remains standing beside what is most definitely her car. She just taps her foot, waiting for some unknown signal.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
Emi has, of course, never met Molly. She has no idea who she is, really, beyond someone in need of help, so it should be no surprise that she immediately asks them to verify: "This is her, right? This is Molly?"

She's hot her arms out, ready to hold back anyone who tries to get too close, who might get too emotional and do something she views as unwise... not that she'd blame them if they did. The impulse to grab her and yank her out of here is strong in -her-, after all.

She lets out another breath and then turns her eyes on the others again before instructing, quickly, "Don't touch. Don't disturb. She's locked in and anything we do that'll impact that is going to be bad. No, we're going to need to guide her through her own dream, make sure it completes, and then we'll be able to break her out of it." A pause. A glance towards Hinoiri. She clears her throat.

"... they're gonna do everything they can to stop her from, I guess, winning."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
It's a good thing Emi put her arms out, because the *moment* she claps eyes on Molly, Rashmi starts a lunge in the now-older girl's direction, but pulls herself up short before she can take more than a single step.

'Don't touch. Don't disturb.'

The mulish look on Rashmi's face lasts only for a few seconds, but then she works through the logic and -- hesitantly -- nods. "O-okay... so... How do we do this? I can't fly at racer speeds, and my Boosts only last a couple seconds each. ...Do we dream up cars?"

Souta Camero has posed:
    "Yes, I saw the wedding," says Souta to Mamoru, with a polite smile, "Though I'm afraid I had to miss out on the more... tense parts. I got paranoid about an attack from behind and I suspect I wasn't alone. I'm glad you got your wife back in the end, though." Walking past the wreckage of the door, he waves at Mamoru and says, "Since I couldn't say it at the time, Congratulations. It's a pretty big step to make, but from where I'm standing it seems you both lucked out."

    Yeah, he's talking pretty casually for someone who just spent several seconds trying to destroy a door. A part of him thinks he may have over done it a slight amount, another part knows he was playing the odds and getting it right isn't always as good as getting it now.

    He'll just have to... hope that nothing important broke as the cave shuddered and everything fell over, because while he knows Seriss Nyx to be pointlessly cruel, he doesn't think she'd bluff about something like killing someone. When they get to the dream, he notices the older woman by the car. He doesn't know Molly by sight. He did notice the picture, and his Device recorded it as evidence, but at Emi's question he has to look to the others for confirmation. Rashmi especially.

    They're being told not to touch or disturb. He crosses his arms and tilts his head to the side. "Guide... how exactly? We can't interfere with her, but can we influence other parts of the dream? Places she might not be looking directly at, maybe?"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    They can't go that way? "What the heck? Is it loading?!" Amy wonders; while they wait, she notices the printed picture, suspecting it might be a key item, folding it up and stuffing it in one of her belt pouches.

    An old road on top of a mountain. In this dream... Amy's hair is shorter, chin-length, and she's dressed less distinctively than Molly, in a white T-shirt and blue jeans and sneakers. A black leather jacket is slung over her shoulder like she's Haruka or something. At least she looks like she belongs here...

    She looks at Molly, but her friend is just so intently focused that Amy follows her gaze to watch the race, intuiting that Molly's turn doesn't start until the previous racers finish.

    Emi explains. Amy looks from the already-racing cars, to Molly, to Emi, to the other racers waiting to go up against Molly and their cars, (those sure are cars. Amy does not know models she hasn't driven) back to Emi.

    "And how do we guide her, then? Or do we, like, interfere with the other racers? Do we race her?"

    Amy holds a hand to her head. "Wait... we can't mess up the race, she has to get the chance to win or lose fair and square, by her own skill. Or d'you think someone else is gonna cheat, and we're to play guardian angel and stop it somehow?"

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
So-- no direct interference, or at least no direct interaction. Someone can probably figure out how they're supposed to get where they need to go, when they need to be there.

    In the meantime...

"Maybe we should sweep the road ahead of the cars?" Tsukiko suggests brightly. "I mean, it works for that one weird sport in the Winter Olympics..."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Cure La Licorne blinked a few times and then, slowly, a wide grin formed on her lips. Before she glanced around. "So... we just need to make sure she *wins*, then?" Licorne asked, grinning to Emi.

Oh. And Emi was right to look at her. Because if there was *one thing* that set her off, every time, without fail...

And she, luckily, managed to not touch, or grab anything...

"Admittedly, this would really be more Haruka's jam when it comes to cars than mine, but..." she said. "I at least know how to support when it comes to things like this," she offered. "If we can't touch her, can we touch everything else? Like, say... light the other cars on fire?" she asked with a small smirk. "Because I am pretty good at THAT part of things, at least," Licorne offered with a big grin.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"No, we should definitely sneak cheat so she can win," Sailor Moon says cheerfully, "This is a dream she's been stuck in for months, she can have a real and good dream version later. This is about making sure we get Molly-chan home, so even if we can't touch her or disturb her, we can still make sure Molly-chan wins so the dream can end!"

She's exclaiming, but not loudly, just with a certain amount of enthusiasm. She's not going to suggest crashing cars, not with who her husband is, but she's certainly wondering if they can do things to stop the cars.

"Are slowing things down spells a thing? Can we do that? I can't do that, but nothing I can do is really subtle, but I guess we could try and sneak around and sabotage cars?"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru grins sheepishly, hand up to rub at the back of his head. "Sorry, man, I didn't see you," he says a little awkwardly. "I hope you at least got cake."

"Well they've got multiple points of failure," says Mamoru to Emi, and then the masked boy looks from Molly to the racecars to Emi again, and he sidles away from Souta (oops) and closer to Sailor Moon and Amy. But he does call out, "I'm not saying we should trip every single one of them, but I'm not not saying it, either. There's the referee someone could replace, there's the pit crew we could replace..."

Molly Skyline has posed:
While Molly's rescuers are discussing strategy -- and CHEATING -- Molly herself is still standing beside her car, waiting. The other two drivers are already in their cars, busy revving their engines at each other like rival birds trying to establish dominance in front of a female. Molly, of course, is entirely ignoring it.

One might be forgiven for thinking that this is all that it is -- just a nice, pleasant dream about auto racing, set sometime in Molly's future, where she is presumably about to go zooming down a hillside highway at some sort of ill-advised speed. But, of course, that isn't going to be all that it is. in the distance, cracks open up just... in the air, like the dream has a boundary and past that it's just scenery that goes off into some unreachable distance, like a video game; and some...thing is trying to force its way through. Something spindly and horrible, with lots of limbs like... spider's legs crossed with squid tentacles.

Molly and the rest of the people present in the dream are wholly oblivious to what's going on, all too focused on the race in progress, where someone is about to make it to the finish line with the other driver right on their bumper, and Molly is just about to get in her car when

"Hey. Skyline."

Molly turns, to face a young man a good eight inches taller than her, who has stepped out of the crowd and approached... unconfortably close. "Look," he continues without bothering to wait for her acknowledgement, "You can race, but don't... pass anyone. Alright?" He gestures towards the two cars positioned in front of hers, "There's people from Honda and Toyota in the crowd tonight, both of those guys have a real shot at getting a sponsorship for professional racing. And we both know you don't have a future there." He looms over Molly, somehow even more uncomfortably close. "I mean what's this," he continues, now holding her prosthetic arm and yanking it up in front of her. "What's you supposed to be? Captain Hook? You can't truely compete and we both know that. So drive and have your fun but stay in the back."

Molly puts up with this without a word, leaning back against her car, until the man finally leaves and stalks off to the side, leaving Molly with a dark look on her face as she gets in her car and closes the door with a slam.

"Can't race," she mutters, fastening her seatbelt harness, "Can't win... Can't compete..." She grinds her teeth. "Well fine, let's just get to the finish line and then we'll see who has a sponsorship and who has a face like a smacked arse."

The cracks widen, slowly fusing into one as the strange limbs work together, pushing it further and further open; and a lone figure, human-sized and cloaked in darkness drops through and into the crowd.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Well. *This* definitely qualifies as a nightmare, even if nobody but Emi and her Intruders can see the rents-to-nowhere, the horrific limbs that push them wider... Rashmi is all set to do her best to make it as clean a race as possible...

...And then NPC McJerkbag rocks up to literally be the idiot bully in every sports movie -- complete with derisive ableism, no less -- and with a few words, destroys Rashmi's ability to stage a calm and reasoned defense of her friend's endless dream.

"She is getting across that finish line first and I don't care how many buildings we have to drop on everyone else to get her there," Rashmi says quietly... but not so quietly that her friends can't hear.

There is a special kind of evil in literally crushing a person's dreams on repeat, the way this vignette seems to hint at.

And then a figure drops out of the void, and into the crowd. "...Also *that* cannot get to her," she says, staring directly at the cloaked person-like-object. "Pretty sure that's the execution thingy."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Cure La Licorne was grinning.

Was not giving the kind of grin that made one feel warm, or safe, or calm.

This was the kind of grin they had seen on Sunbreaker's face, right before bad, bad things used to happen. Terrible, horrible, things. Often to them.

This time? That grin was pointed to other people. This time, it was pointed towards terrible, horrible people. She cracked her knuckles. She cracked her neck.

"So then. We're in agreement?" she asked. "Before I do anything that will get me on any lists, scolded, yelled at, or makes its way back to Sora or Runa or La Mer? I'd say Coco too, but well... you're here. Sorry, Coco, but you may wanna turn your back, or like... not watch. I've been to more than a few unicorn noble talent fairs and some of them don't believe in playing fair." She punched her fists together. "I'm going to watch the roads and other cars. Who wants tentacle-mc-creepy, and who wants to deal with mc-douche-enheimer-stomp-a-dream?"

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
Tsukiko nods in agreement with Rashmi. "I'll help go after the executioner-thingie," she says to La Licorne. "I'm not exactly in the building-yeeting category -- even though this is a dream, I'm not sure I can suspend my disbelief that far -- and I'm generally better at brawling against youma than I am at sabotaging sneakily."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy looks like she's about to argue with Usagi and then reality cracks. A gyrojet pistol appears in Amy's hand as she looks at the distant spidery limb... but it doesn't seem to be immediately threatening and also the mob guy suddenly has her and all of Molly's Friends' attention.

    Afterwards, Rashmi is adamant. "...I don't think this is the kind of dream where the other racers will play fair, admittedly. I'd still rather counter their cheating first, if possible..." At Hinoiri's question she gives an uncertain, "I was planning to look for interference in the race, but..."

    Amy dismisses the pistol and approaches as close to the racers as she thinks won't look like interfering.

    Still dressed in the T-shirt, jeans, and slung-over-the-shoulder leather jacket of someone who looks like they're supposed to be here, Amy smiles and waves, cheering, "Skyline! Wooooo! We're rooting for you! Give 'em hell!"

    She's not sure which problem to tackle first, but right now? She can show Molly that someone in this world does believe in her and want to see what she can do.

Souta Camero has posed:
    Inspector Souta, being indeed a detective, has some pretty sensitive equipment. Sensitive enough that he heard that. His green eyes narrow at the man who just spoke to Molly, and there's a temptation in Souta's mind to just run up and deck him. A temptation he does not give into. Yet.

    < Jerk Detected. > chimes Paradise Spectrum.

    With a scowl and a shrug, Souta says, "Well, you're not wrong. Track him, if you can, and if you notice any of our party assaulting him: no you didn't." Then he looks up and notices the cracks in the air and... wow that looks so weird. That's... he's going to need a moment to get used to that visual. He keeps watching as the dark figure drops into the crowd and says, "Paradise Spectrum, track that one too."

    The Inspector frowns. The jerk is a jerk, but that thing might be the actual threat.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"I can be subtle," says the boy with the red tips, in full formalwear and a mask and cape on a sunny summer day. "I'm gonna find the guy."

And then he gets down on one knee and, before anyone can try and stop him from doing something stupid, he puts his fingertips on the ground of the nightmare and starts looking for what's real, what are real people, what's not a natural part of the dream or Molly's psyche.

Tuxedo Kamen's fully expecting to have to psychically swim in the corrosive oil-slicked sludge they were trudging through earlier, but it should at least show him what direction to go in, what kind of movement patterns the malefactor is making and the speed at which they're going.

Once he has a bead, he'll make a run for it, but for now he's searching. Subtly.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"I don't think they're going to cheat," Sailor Moon throws the NPC goons a dirty look. "They seem like the sort who think they're too good to need help beating a girl."

They're jerks. They suck. But -

"This is Molly's dream though, so... that means this is what she's worried about, right? About getting rejected by the racing world, even when she makes it. It almost makes me feel super bad that we're going to help her get out of this by cheating."

Almost, but not quite - especially once they start noticing cracks in the sky. Oh that thing is - that thing is horrifying, creepy awful like the worst things from Himeko's mother, or a Witch, and she grabs her tiara in a hurry, the metal changing to gleaming light. The words are whispered instead of shouted -

"moon tiara action!"

And off the swirling disc of cosmic energy and love made physical-ish goes, straight for the maybe-would-be-executioner.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
"Yeah, please take care of that," says Emi, nodding toward the emerging darkness. She's confident the others can handle it ... but she's not done here. Not even close. There's too much to take in. Too many little signs, bits of dream logic she's following, analyzing ... intuiting. After all, it's not like she's ever met Molly before. She doesn't know what the girl dreams like, or even what she's supposed to look like. Emi raises a hand to her mouth, then covers one eye. Trails of purple-pink webbing follow her movements, dissolving into dream-ash as quickly as they appear.

"...Too stiff," she murmurs, more to herself than anyone else, working slowly through a conclusion that remains based only on the thinnest of ephemera and intuition.

"Win or lose, that doesn't matter. The only thing that maters now is that she reaches the end of the dream. She has to."

Her voice drops, its husky resomance a little firmer.

"This isn't just a dream about her future. It *is* a future." She seems modestly impressed, actually, for just a moment before her eyes go up towards the sky.

Coco Kiumi has posed:
Coco watches the scene unfold appalled. She is not sure who the man is, but were this not a dream, she would have already stopped his words and told him to leave her alone in no middle terms. But it's not something that they can do anything about. And besides, the last time Emi and her changed the flow of a dream, things turned out much worse.

Today, the sea isn't going to retaliate against the rest of it, even if it would have a good reason to. Well, at least not completely. When that man has stepped away from Molly, he gets a small blink of light from a sudden Live Stage that enter and goes away in the space of a second, bright enough to let him see residual spots of light even after it's gone.

But they have bigger problems, such as the reminder they aren't alone in having their sight on Molly. The creature isn't really distinct enough to let Coco catch sight of it, but the effects of its presence are distinct enough. "Emi, remember the time dreams bled into each other?", she points out the cracks to the oneiromancer. "We should probably get those cracks under control before they turn into something bad on their own."

She doesn't really want to leave the creature to its own devices, but between two threats, the obvious one should probably get dealt with first before dedicating attention to anything else.

Molly Skyline has posed:
"Ready!"

Seems the big jerk in his casual white suit is -- now that he's done clearing spots out of his eyes, how did that happen -- one of what passes for a race official, here on the mountainside. And now he's standing out in front -- well, off to the side since there's three cars and Molly's in the middle of the road, tucked in behind the other two -- getting ready to give everyone a send off.

"Set!"

All three cars engines rev hard, drowning out the sounds of violence, especially as Usagi's Moon Tiara strikes the shadowy figure. The impact shatters in, sending little... bits of shadowy figure flying everywhere, like it was a stained glass window brought to life. The action garners immediate attention; a big tentacle ending in hands clutching a gigantic eyeball emerges from the cracks in the sky as the strange appendages struggle to pull it open wide.

GO!"

All three cars pull away with squealing tires and little clourse of rubber-smelling smoke. The red and blue cars, both looking extremely new, jockey for position before the red one pulls ahead; Molly in her vehicle from the 90s gets stuck behind both of them but her front bumper is only an inch -- maybe two -- away from the car in front of her.

<< ## INTERfERENCE ## >>

The voice screeches discordantly out of the crack, the same voice as the lighthouse from earlier.

<< ## tERMINATE ## >>

The eye glows, building up intensity before it fires, unleashing a rapid burst of beams aimed down at Usagi. The aim isn't great; and where they miss the Mahou and strike people who are enthusiastically watching the race they explode into flashes of light and vanish. None of the other bystanders seem to notice, however. Everyone's just too absorbed in the race.

<< ## UpGRAdE ## >>

The voice booms out again; and a second shadowy figure crawls emerges, dropping down into the crowd. This one vanishes much more swiftly from sight. Somewhere in the background comes a "Hey!" followed by the sound of an engine starting up.

Mamoru will certainly sense this second intruder into Molly's dream. The cars, the spectators, the jerk; they're all part of it, every bit as much as Molly is, and it's noticeably painful each time one of them gets hit by the laser blasts targeting Usagi. Ahh; but the shadowy figure is off. It's got it's own car, and is busy peeling off down the track after Molly; and nobody seems to have noticed, but perhaps there's still a chance to stop it.

All the while the cheering continues. This isn't a long race; it'll be over in a matter of minutes, and from the vantage point up on the top of the hill people can see every turn. Molly's still in the back but she's close behind the other drivers, and around Amy there's a cluster of people joining in with her, to cheer the purplenette on.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Cure La Licorne rolled her eyes. "Yeah. Sometimes they think that. 'Oh, she's nothing, I can beat her regardless.' But trust me. People like that? 'Oh, it doesn't matter if I cheat against her, she never had a chance anyway. It's better if she loses now, she never had a chance, better she loses now.' Trust me, I've heard it all before."

"Especially if they think someone big and important is watching and they wanna look good. Lots of people are 'too good' to cheat until they think they'll lose."

"Listen, she's been stuck in this dream for months even before this thing burst in here, I'm going to make sure what caused that doesn't happen this time."

She took off like a bolt. Luckily for her, precure package came with amazing jumping and speed. Not super speed, but one advantage to that? It wasn't quite flight, but it let her do things like...

Leap VERY high into the air to get a bird's eye view of the track, for a few moments and peer ahead. She HAD raced before, she had experience... And sure, she wasn't a race car drived, but she knew how to race as a biker. She could at least get the right idea of where the right place to make the move to break out from the pack would be...

More importantly, to try and see where the 'tricks' might be...

If Molly had been stuck in this dream for months, and getting her out, completing it just needed her to win... something happened. And it wasn't just the terminator. And she trusted the others to handle it. She landed on something high, trying to get as good a view as she could as she ran... If she was the kind of jerk face who didn't care about interfering in a race, or wanted to drive another racer off the track... Where would she make her move?

... She might have also been driven off the road... or driven people off the road a few times too... maybe... don't... don't judge... Girl was competitive.

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
Well, one attacker down... and a new one to take its place. Figures.

Once the eyeball beamspam has cleared, Tsukiko takes off, chasing after the new shadowy figure and its car.

    (insert 'dog chasing car' joke here)

While the wolfgirl normally wouldn't try getting into a footrace with a motorvehicle, her speed does fit into the nature of the dream, so she's going to try knocking the shadowy figure off of the road with a lunging kick. At the very least, it should slow down that pursuer, giving the others more time to solve the rest of the dream.

And if her move does force the eldritch monstrosity to send a replacement, well... at least Tsukiko should be in a better position to intercept it.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Usagi thinks the boys won't cheat, because she has experience with competitive games--

    And Amy's reminded that she's new to this, hasn't faced that challenge at every turn, and feels--

    --no time to sort out feelings now! She nods to Usagi, glad someone gets the reticence to help Molly by cheating, but concerned that Molly has to fear this, has to dream of her future like this... hopefully a nightmare isn't indicative of how she usually feels, but perhaps that worry is there, nonetheless.

    Amy burns with the need to right injustice and help Molly not need to fear this.

    And then the mob(?) guy is-- "You're one of the refs?! Oh no way dude, we just saw you try to fix the race! Disqualified!" She makes an X with her arms.

    And then moon tiara action shatters the executioner(?) and they have It's attention.

    When the voice screeches Amy mmediately turns towards it, firing .51-cal rocket-bullets at the distant crack, for whatever good that will do.

    It is... disconcerting to see the dream-people simply deleted like that.

    Amy is heartened by the dream-figures cheering Molly on, but also did a fucking dark energy shadow-car just drive by no, fuck that, Amy turns, and sights, and tries to shoot out the tires.

    She doesn't even need to aim true, they're magic homing rocket-bullets (non-explosive)! But who knows what a magic evil shadow-car can take?

Souta Camero has posed:
    Paradise Spectrum tracks Usagi's tiara as it impacts the shadowy monster. Understandable. Souta notices the flash of a Live Stage temporarily blinding the Designated Jerkface and smirks, but he doesn't have time to revel in it.

    His Intelligent Device notices the introduction of the shadow figure in his own car, and his gut tenses up. Paradise Spectrum chimes, < Crime in Progress. Tracking Perp. >

    "Slider Fin," calls out Souta, as wisps of dust appear around his feet. As he leans forward, a burst of magic from the soles of his Barrier Jacket's boots launches him directly ahead. Normally he'd want a vehicle of his own for this, but Slider Fin is deceptively fast. Is it fast enough to catch a dream racecar? Souta certainly hopes so.

    Preparing Snare Spark: Max Charge. >

    "Preload Paradise Chain."

    Calculating necessary Mana draw... Complete. On your mark, Champ. >

    Inspector Camero notices others taking a similar approach as him, and he uses the openings provided by others to try to reach casting range of the shadow's car before it finishes reaching top speed. "Snare Spark!" He calls, as a large spark of mana flies out of his hand and launches at the offending vehicle, aiming to grab onto a tire and pull against its momentum, trying to force it to stay still. "Paradise Chain!" he calls again, as glowing green chains of translucent mana erupt from the ground around the car, trying to wrap themselves around it and bind it to the asphalt.

    "That's enough. Pull over!"

Rashmi Terios has posed:
So the All-Seeing Eye isn't just in the border-dreamworld. *That* is handy information to hate needing to have, as the dream world seems to just explode in problems to take care of and obstacles to clear.

Usagi launches an attack at the figure... and gets targeted for her pains.

Hinoiri, Ikiko, Amy and Souta seem to have the 'integrity' of the race well enough in hand, but there's a *lot* that isn't being taken care of. Not least...

    << *BONG!* >> << TELEPATHY >>

<< Emi-chan, >> she thinks into the newly-established comms net. << What can you tell us about those cracks? I'm guessing they're Starcrash's intrusion on the dream but... *can* we seal them? Kamen-kun, Moon-chan, are you all right? Yellow-chan... thanks. I shouldn't have enjoyed that as much as I did. D'you think maybe what this race scene needs is a soundtrack? >> she continues, launching off the ground to get air. If she can't *catch up* to the cars, given their speeds, she can at least try to keep track of them. << Anyone, shout if you need help from me, okay? Nicomachea: try and get me scans of that portal, just in case we *can* do something about it. >>

    << *BONG!* >> << COMMAND INPUT EXECUTE: INVESTIGATION >>

Yes, Rashmi is hanging in the air even after the distant tower opened fire. Yes, she just sent a bright ball of magic toward the rents in the sky. Yes, she is aware that the next assault is probably going to be aimed at her.

There's no collateral lives to worry about, this high up.

Coco Kiumi has posed:
So much for limiting damage before it could escalate, Coco purses her lips at the appearance of the big eye. Oh, well, she tried at least. Is that another one of Seriss' creatures? "I would have figured Seriss kept an eye on us, but this is a little much", she says out loud.

Molly is still going to achieve her dreams no matter what it's going to get in her way, even if they have to hold this thing off every step of the way, and she has just the song for that. "Let's hear about the Sun's Paradise, the Promised Land. With a Pichi Pichi Voice, the Live Starts!", she promises cheerfully, holding her shining E-Pitch securely.

Let's set out on a great journey, beyond the sun and the wind
I'm sure we'll open the door to paradise that's not on any map

On the morning you were born into this world
Bells of blessing rang out
Each person is born holding
Just one precious treasure

Don't forget the feelings from that day
Flowing in your heart - My Dear Songs

We're in the middle of a journey, aiming for the land of the sun
Toward a promised place not found on any map
Turning an ordinary story
Into an endless future
Because surely, we'll make all kinds of dreams come true... so smile.

A Live Stage appears around Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Kamon while the purification spreads, and the white sphere of light starts repelling the laser attack of the creature, holding it off long enough that they are out of danger.

<< I wouldn't leave a friend alone >> Coco replies smiling to Rashmi. << I think my choice of music fits the situation like a glove, do you think so? >> she checks the Device Mage's opinion.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Well at least... at least nothing, Tuxedo Mask missed the guy. His lips purse as he gets back to his feet, just as the thing starts blasting lasers at Sailor Moon. "Do you MIND?" Mamoru seethes at the eyeball shooting lasers, whipping a rose stem-first at it like a reflex. He throws his cape up between the eye and Usagi, expecting to get shot at himself, and then...

...nothing? Not nothing, a Live Stage! "Yesssss, thanks Coco-chan!" he calls.

Turning to Sailor Moon, he says conversationally, "Let's work on blinding it, huh? How about punchy purification glitter bombs?" And he holds a hand out and grins, leaning in to murmur a phrase next to Usagi's ear.

(He definitely gives her a second-- and--) << Hey. Everything but the monster in the sky and the Mysterious Racer L is Molly's dream. >>

And then he flings out his cape away from them both, facing the Eye of Rassilon with Sailor Moon, and a veritable BARRAGE of sparkling glittery half-moonbeam purifying magic-breaking roses fly forth from the blood-red depths of his cape's lining, set to explode into purifying and absolutely annoying to look through glitter on impact, as they yell together--

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
On the one hand, she got it. On the other hand, a really gross eye started shooting at her. Not a win!

Livestage for protection on the other hand, is absolutely a win, and one Sailor Moon expresses with utmost maturity: pulling a finger to her eye to lower the lid and sticking out her tongue. "Nyah!" What? She's a teenager she doesn't have to be mature.

She doesn't have to be alone, either - Yellow Pearl Voice, in all her generosity had sealed Mamoru and Usagi in together against the violence of those attacks, and as her singing pours out, the air feels warmer, cleaner, lovely.

"Thank you so much, Coco-chan! Molly-chan's lucky to have you in her dreams!"

There's a whisper in her ear, and she flushes even though they're ~married~ and giggles as she takes his hand. Of course she wants to combo with him! Of course she wants punchy flowers of the purifying sort!

She twists her rod and cuts a circle in the air just before his throw, and his roses fly from his cape and through the circle and take on all the glittery half-moonbeam glory.

"Moon Healing Rose Bomber!"

Emi Hoshino has posed:
Emi Hoshino sideeyes Mamoru and Usagi. SO obnoxiously in love! It's distracting! Ugh!

In any event, Emi lets everyone do their own thing. They know what they're doing, and they do it well. She's got things to piece together -- and piece together she does. First, she addresses Rashmi, since a direct question was posed... telepathically. This is just weird for her, even if she's experienced things akin to it in dreams before. She tugs on a lock of hair and blows her long bangs out of her face. They promptly reshroud her almost immediately.

"Yep, they're something forcing their way in. I got some of 'em," she says, moving forward now in leaps and bounds. She's agile here in dreams. It's her territory, her space, and she's already on the ball. Webs slash over the cracks, binding them up in spots, as she leaves a line of webbing between each and onto the next. She's hard at work sewing things -right- up, but even that's going to be prove difficult with as many as there are, and they're still spreading. The racing vehicles... well, when you need to get one space to the next, they're GREAT help. Connecting herself to them with her webs as they go around the track and using them for the momentum they provide as she sails from space to space.

She's busy, okay?

Still, her answer rings loudly over the telepathic link.

"Hit it good and we might be able to buy Molly time and drive it back," she answers, distracted and distant and focused on the thing she's -doing-.

Molly Skyline has posed:
All three cars are pushing hard down the windy, narrow highway, and judging by the reaction of the (un-disintigrate) members of the crowd, they're the three who're doing it faster and tighter than anyone else has this entire night. These three here, these are the contenders. (All three of them, despire what one person had to say.) Molly remains at the back, until the blue car takes a hairpin turn a little too wide; molly strikes, accelerating hard into the space and forcing the blue car even further out as she passes, taking up his place.

All of this is most apparent to Hinoiri; as is, up ahead, the spot where there's... something waiting. It's not sabotage by any member of the dream, and the two racers trying to take the win instead of Molly don't appear to be the guilty parties. No; this is something evil and monstrous; creatures waiting in the bushes and on the side of the road, their purpose not immediately clear -- but one can guess.

The eye keeps firing at Usagi, even as the Live Stage appears to protect her, and the energy blasts crackle as they split apart and disperse all the way around the stage. It can't and won't hold forever, but for the moment, while Coco's song rings through the dream, it keeps up.

<< ## INTERfERENcE ## >> snarls the tower-voice. << tERMINAtE ALl inTRUDERS >>

By all, it seems to mean Rashmi, Usagi, and Coco on that list most prominetly, as blasts start coming their way in droves; though they aren't the only ones, as a few rain down towards Amy and Souta, and a few more chase Hinoiri down the road.

The car going after Molly does't get nearly as far as its driver might've hoped. It skids out of control as Amy shoots out the tires, and Souta's chains bind it in place -- which lines it up nicely for Ikiko to kick it. As Wolf meets car, her foot crumples the side of the vehicle in and launches it, breaking Souta's chains and sending it tumbling and flying over the side of a cliff. A long cliff. We won't be seeing that one again.

Racing here is dangerous.

Emi's webbing is... not precisely closing the fissures but tugging them shut, though they still glow angrily in the sky. And it earns the ire of the Eye.

<< ## PRiORITiZE TaRGET: DREaMWALKeR ## >>

The eye stops firing for a moment, as it shifts its gaze onto the one Mahou who knows dreams inside and out; and then it cuts loose, directing an unending volley in her direction.

A volley unending, that is, right up until Usagi and mamoru uncork one of their first married couple combo attacks: Moon Healing Rose Bomber. And, sure, not all of the glittery moonbeam roses make it; a bunch of them get blasted away incidentally. But a solid number of them do make it, and the eye shrieks as it gets pierced, and retreats back into its fissure. To regroup, of course. It's not retreating. Just bleeding ichor.

Molly, meanwhile, is entirely focused on what's in front of her; the red car, and its driver. Her much older car is keeping pace just fine -- of course it would, she built the engine -- and now all she needs is to get an opening. Or create one.

"Get off my ass bitch!" yells the driver ahead of her; not that Molly can hear him, but this is a dream and it rings out for everyone's ears. And hey, Maybe Molly did hear, as a thin smile comes over her deeply focused look.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "OW!" Amy, focused on the shadow-car, gets blasted out of nowhere. From the ground, though, she's suddenly got the jacket on and zipped up and rocket jumps out of the way of the others, soaring further down the course.

    And from there she can see the eye, daring to try and focus down Emi, and the creatures up ahead, "Oh no you don't!"

    The puella Magi she twirls in midair as fireworks shoot out from her, flying out towards the eye's fissure and the creatures to explode in distracting light and noise! It may not be very damaging, but hopefully it will be an annoying debuff others can exploit! The eye just does not get a break from glitter to the face! To the... eye?

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
The Live Stage holds, which is everything that Sailor Moon needed it to do - it holds and doesn't falter under the assault, and the combo attack strikes, and the eye retreats, and sure there are still those shadowy guys to worry about, but it retreated it -

"Let's get this over with! Even if we have to pick Molly-chan's car up and throw it across the field!"

Sailor Moon doesn't try to think up a car, or a plane, or a jetski, or anything like that - she just runs out onto the field. She's not nearly as fast as Ikiko or Haruka or Niji, but she's faster than a fit but still pretty out of shape teenager ought to be, and her hand goes to her tiara again -

"Moon Tiara Action!"

And she hurls it for one of the cars on Molly's trail, too worried about clipping Molly to try and hit one of the cars in front of her.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Cure La Licorne narrowed her eyes the moment she saw it. Oh. Wanna cheat, huh?

<< Two bushes ahead, I'm going at the right one, if someone wants to take out the left, let me know, I'll be going at it next. >> she said. << Also, thanks Rashmi for the communications network, as usual. >>

There was no flashy callout. There was no magic precure attack. There was just a girl. Her competitive urges. And Righteous Indignation.

As a moment later, that bush on the right? She landed in it. And then there was *fire*. A fist came down, and then there was a pillar of black flame, about twenty feet in the air, rising up, as the competitive flames of a unicorn who didn't *like* it when you cheated her *friends* out of their *deserved* wins unleashed her *righteous indignation* out on whatever was in said bush. And when she rose up, illuminated in those flames, her eyes seemed to glimmer when she turned towards the other bush.

<< Actually, you know what? I got it. That felt goooooood. >>

Before she pounced and there were angry, cackling, gleeful unicorn sounds before she disappeared into the next bush. And more fire.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
<< Coco-chan that is *perfect,* thank you so much, >> Rashmi replies as the music begins... and you can almost *hear* the rock guitars backing up those vocals!

And... good, so Emi *can* do something about the cracks--

'Terminate all Intruders'

...Well, at least this barrage *includes* Rashmi. That's... something, right?

The Devicer isn't the most terribly *speedy* flyer, but she is fairly maneuverable; thank Chrono for giving her training on how to fly evasively, and *keep* flying evasively when you get winged a few times. ...And a few times more. And a few times *more.*

When the Eye announces *Emi* as a priority target, however... that absolutely will not do.

    << *BONG!* >> << SOLAR FLASH >>

Being able to move multiple dozens of meters in a single step is *handy,* especially when you do it more than once. The spell itself is fairly mana-intensive to do multiple times in a row, but Emi *needs* to be protected, *especially* if she's the primary target.

Which is why Rashmi blips *into* the withering fire, positioning herself between Emi and the Eye, one hand already out as blast score and crack her Barrier Jacket.

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

Exploding out from the air in front of Rashmi's hand is a wide, glittering disk of golden ice, spiked and thick to soak up as much of the remaining fire as possible--

...At which point the attacks land, and the eye *retreats.*

<< Oh good job, everyone! >> Rashmi calls out, her mental voice a touch ragged as she struggles to catch her breath.

Souta Camero has posed:
    Souta watches as the Evil Nightmare Car of Evil gets flung off a cliff. Normally flinging yourself into certain doom wouldn't always stop a flight-capable TSAB officer from arresting you, but in this case... << Target down. I'd pursue and apprehend, but I'm pretty sure that person wasn't 'real'. >>

    Beams are coming at them, and Paradise Spectrum is on top of it. < Return Shield. > The Inspector holds up his arm and a swirling magic circle appears over it, cracking and shattering as it takes a couple of direct beam hits from the eye monster.

    Souta looks at the distance between himself and the nearest threat, which as far as he can see is the eye monster that has just retreated into its fissure. He doesn't notice the shadow monster ambush until Hinoiri calls it out... and starts handling it. << Don't let your guard down. There might be more up ahead! >>

    As he magic-dashes down the track towards Molly, he forgets for a moment that he's supposed to be on foot, and the next time he looks down he realizes that he's driving a motorcycle. Or at least, he's driving what a TSAB officer thinks a motorcycle should look and act like. That... was not what he expected to find, but he'll roll with it.

    With his engine roaring, he races down the track. His long blonde hair billows behind him as he holds the handle in one hand and Paradise Spectrum's Greatsword mode in the other.

    As he passes by the fissure that the eye is hiding in, he leaves a few Spark Barrets in his wake, tiny motes of condensed mana that fire a spread of barrets into the fissure until they exhaust themselves.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Yesssssss YESSS!!" crows Tuxedo Mask, punching the air. "Ahh-- so good! Thanks again, Coco-chan," he says, and darts off to stand closer to the track, so he can charge his lasers there and wait to fire off enough force to blow a car right off the road-- provided the assassin's car doesn't swerve out of the way of a Tuxedo la Smoking Hot oh wait oh no no no no Mamoru this is not a good time to have a guy hot moment.

It's really not, Souta, stop being a hot long-haired cop with a giant sword on a motorcycle just stop, really,,,

At any rate he was too busy being married to notice that the evil car went offroading with extreme prejudice, so he's waiting a little while before he realizes the car's already gone. He... quietly uncharges his laser.

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
With the pursuing shadowy figure booted from the track, Tsukiko listens to the comms to figure out where to go next. La Licorne has one side of the track cleared-- no, wait; make that both sides of the track cleared. The blasty eye is trying to recuperate, the Inspector is chasing after the racers, and Sailor Moon has clipped the racer that Molly had passed.

    Now what?

"Well, when you don't know what you can do, do what you can do," the wolfgirl sighs to herself, jogging after the racers to try to stay close enough to help... and picking up the occasional rock to chuck towards the fissure that the blasty eye is trying to hide in.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
'Dreamwalker'.

"Huh," says Emi, pausing for a moment as she dangles in mid air from the cracks in the seams that she's attempted to tie shut with her webs. Spider silk is as good as any thread when its made of dreamstuff, and such things have close connections if one pays attention to myth and legend -- and isn't that some of the things that dreams are made of?

Emi lets go of the thread and hits the ground with a roilling crouch, skittering like a spider herself out of the way of some of the chaos and crowds.

"Dreamwalker," she repeats. "Yeah, that's me. You know you're in it now, don't you?"

While she might be playing brave, the recognition of her 'particular set of skills' has her on edge and it shows. She doesn't like being -seen-.

Coco Kiumi has posed:
You certainly can hear the instruments backing up the vocals since the Live Stage takes car of the musical accompaniment while Coco herself sings for hope, for trust and love.

The yellow mermaid smiles brightly when she receives the thanks of her friends. It's always nice to hear how warm they are, but her smile gets even brighter when she hears them turn that warmth to each other, a knowing look given to the couple in love. They really can't help themselves, can they?, she smiles to herself.

"You sure are persistent", Coco mutters to the eye, shielding herself with the Love Stage as well as Moon and Tuxedo, gleaming bright while she moves the sphere she is in to go after the monster. It's really something that's built for races, but at least she has aerial advantage and can go in a straight path unlike presumably the cars below.

You can't see it, but your treasure
Is always deep within your heart

Don't forget the feelings from that day
Spreading wide in your heart - My Dear Place

The bell of hope rings out, opening the door of destiny
I'm sure we'll reach it --- the final paradise
Even on days when the rain of sorrow keeps falling, we'll keep moving on
All this time, deep in my chest, I've kept believing... in myself.

When you hear the sound of tomorrow being born
Beyond the rainbow...

She gives her attention to Molly now that Moon and Tuxedo keep being safe, and as she is being tatgeted as well, she starts continuously moving the Live Stage she is in to keep out of the monster's range, until it gets tired of aiming at her. If she can continue like this, that's less attention she is giving to everyone else, and it's hopefully wasting its time while her purification can have more time to keep hurting it and reducing the dark energy as well.

Molly Skyline has posed:
Hinoiri's assault against the booby-trapped bushes lands just in time, and one after the other masses of black, rubbery tentacles are treated to the firey stomping of a gleeful unicorn who loves her job. They both fight back, naturally, striking at her and trying to tangle her up with stinging suckers; but at the very least it all means that Molly and the other two racers are able to roar past unhindered. Though, the blue car in the back does skid sideways after being struck by a flying tiara, staying on course through the skill of its driver but leaving black skid marks behind, and a cursing, confused driver behind the wheel.

As the eye is driven back the Mahou might find themselves enjoying a moment of breathing room. Emi's webs appear to be closing the cracks. The fusillade of laser-fire has abated. Molly appears to be doing well in her race, riding close on the bumper of the lead car, with still at least a minute left in the race to sort that problem out, and a few more tight turns coming up.

Everyone makes mistakes, of course. The lead driver keeps glancing back and forth between the road in front of him and the pair of headlights behind him, and he's a hair starting his drift into a corner; and suddenly he finds a white Supra blocking him from being able to recover as Molly pushes past him, and suddenly it's his turn to ride on her bumper, but only for a moment as she floors it and zooms away.

Up in the sky, the eye retreats further back into the fissure; it pulls back its appendages, letting Emi pull more of the fissures shut. it might be easy to miss a single, shadowy figure dropping out of it and down into the crowd; this one with more defined features, a hint of purple hair, and... horns, and a tail? it clutches a staff topped with a crystal heart, visible for a second before dashing away into the crowd.

Coco's music provides a thrilling soundtrack as Molly crosses the finish line, finishing first as she turns the car sideways, tires squealing as she slides to a halt in a cloud of smoke. She emerges from the car to the sound of jubilation, with both her arms, flesh and prosthetic, raised up in the air. "How about that?!" she asks, her opponents (and Souta on his bike) left with no choice but to come to a halt on the other side of her Supra and well away from the lime light.

Yeah. How about that? The scene fades, as if stretching into the past, falling away like a movie fading from the screen. But the dream isn't over, as voices float through the darkness around Molly and Mahou alike.

"Rookie driver Molly Skyline donates her entire prize purse to charities for young amputees and transgender youth," intones a man's voice, like he's reading a script for a radio station.

"Really? You gave it all away? What's wrong with you?"

"Molly, sweetheart, you need to be careful," comes a woman's voice.

"Why?"

"Because you upset people, and--"

"Maybe they need to be upset."

"You're a girl with prosthetics who races and beats able-bodied men, and you give away your winnings. You're not playing the game by the rules and people who are invested in those rules don't like it. I'm not telling you to stop, just... be careful."

"Who do you think you are, hunh? Robin Hood?"

"Perhaps you shoulder consider not trying so hard in your next race."

"You know, we could be RICH, instead you think you have to be some kind of hero to people you don't even know?"

As the disembodied voices drift through the space, one thing is painfully clear; even without the presence of the eye, Molly and her friends are not alone. Something else is here. And as the darkness fades, the haze starting to give way to the inside of a garage, that something... is coming as well.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
As Molly crosses the finish line, a savage joy envelops Rashmi. *Yes* her friend deserves to win, *yes* she hopes those jerks are fond of apples, and as the scene fades into darkness, the 'narration' makes Rashmi's joy even stronger; It would be *just like her friend* to do that, and the disembodied voices swiftly turn the joy into righteous indignation.

<< Who the hell does she think Molly's parents are?! >> she grumps into the telepathic comms net. << *Neither* of her moms would *ever* say anything like that! >>

Fume grump fume fume seethe grit teeth.

As the world begins to change locations to the Okujoo's garage, Rashmi narrows her eyes, looking left and right. << ...I don't... like this. For a lot of reasons. But I don't think we're alone. >>

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy has a pretty good view from the air of cracks starting to close, a figure going somewhere, and UNICORN WRATH stomping the monsters that lie in wait. Soon after she lands she sees Molly cross the finish line up ahead and cheers, running towards her and then

    Darkness. Voices of those who serve the status quo. Amy clenches a fist, somewhere.

    It doesn't even occur to Amy that << Those are supposed to be here parents?! Seriss Nyx really doesn't know her at all... What a lazy... how can she be this incompetent and give us so much trouble?! >>

    Reality -- or, well, a facsimile thereof -- fades in. They seem to be in a garage.

    Amy's appearance is unstable, for the moment. Sometimes she's Magical Rocket Girl Red, and sometimes she's still in the leather jacket and jeans with short (for her) hair. Either way, she has a laser burn on her from taking a direct hit from the eye. But she's not sure if she's in a magic fight, or more of a social call at the garage.

    Amy looks around. At Rashmi's concern, she responds, "But the garage is her home..." and then she sighs. "Which is all the more reason that bitch is probably gonna twist it... Where is Molly?"

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
<< I think I saw someone drop into the crowd near the end, >> Tsukiko replies, slowing down now that she's no longer having to chase after vehicles. << Didn't get a good look, though; all I could catch was a vertical blip, sort of like the executioners, but didn't see any actual disturbances in the crowd. >>

The wolfgirl circles around Molly protectively, growling under her breath at whatever/whoever/whereever the new threat is.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Cure La Licorne was, honestly, still walking off the high of *that*. And had the biggest grin on her face. Just... kind of giddy walking towards them in a daze. << Mmmmm... I liked it... >> she murmured.

Then, however. She snapped out of it. << Wait, what? Oh, right, yeah, no. They'd never say that. That's wrong. Nasty, terrible. Bad, bad lies thing. Hee hee. Lets break some faaaaaces. You know, this has been incredibly therapeutic. Who would have thought that beating the tar out of Seriss Nyx's manifestations would feel so incredibly good? Well... I guess almost everyone. >>

<< ... And geez... yeah. I've... met a few nobles who talked like that... but they didn't talk to their own kids like that, usually the people who went up against their kids... >

Souta Camero has posed:
    Souta, quite intentionally, crosses the finish line last. It's not his job to interfere with the actual race, but instead merely to observe while staying close enough to make sure everything stays on the up and up. Something like a sweep team or a referee, rather than an actual competitor. As he, his motorcycle, and his long flowing hair cross the line, he pulls off to the side and watches Molly take the lime light with a reserved smile.

    Good dream, ma'am. Hope it comes true.

    The words that come after are... rough to hear. He considers out loud. "Okay. I can... maybe not sympathize with, but understand the psychology behind a few insecure men being shown up by someone they wrongfully view as a lesser. It reflects a level of bigotry and arrogance that's often a mask for inner weakness, but it's not surprising. What doesn't add up is the hate for charity."

    < Theory: They are scrubs. Supporting Evidence: They exhibit maidenless behavior. >

    "Well, there's no denying that."

    Souta has forgotten about his motorcycle. Ergo, it no longer exists.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
The race ends. With all their intervention and the enemy's intervention, it ends with Molly's win, and everything seems a little bit better -

And then they're in a different place, as Molly is mobbed by...

"I don't think Molly's moms are like that," Usagi says doubtfully, and then turns slowly, rod still at hand. "But after all the execution attempts, I don't think Seriss Nyx is going to stick to Molly's fake moms being kind of disapproving... I mean, the hate for charity makes sense, I guess, if this is Molly-chan's first race and they needed the money themselves, but, they've got like, two whole businesses, don't they? This seems more like dumb anxiety turned Bad."

Coco Kiumi has posed:
Coco had never actually met Molly's parents or even gotten to spend much time with Molly herself before Seriss became a problem, but she really really would have wanted to bet by what the others, and especially Rashmi said about her that what they were seeing was wrong even before Rashmi's loud conformation.

With that eye, she can only assume both Seriss and Alala know after all, and they are resting on their laurels thinking they can't actually make it that far. Until they can, of course.

<< We will make them stop sully Molly's life very soon, Page-chan", the blonde princess asserts to her friend, looking around at the crowd in search of that mysterious someone.

Coco lets her Live Stage lift her up higher to get a vantage point over the crowd, and she offers one to Tsukiko for the same purpose. << Want to look from above, Tsukiko-chan?>> she offers the wolf-girl.

"Well, some people just don't deserve love", she smiles in agreement at Souta and his device.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
Emi hits the ground after having patched another hole with her needle and thread, so to speak, and she's right there rubbing her shoulder. She has admonished herself before to 'never Spider-Man', but she did in fact just Spider-man, down to using the racing vehicles as tethers for her webs to get somewhere faster. The end result of this is that she's pretty clearly wincing and rubbing her shoulder. That -hurt-, but it got her where she needed to go.

And there will be time to worry about the pain later. Right now, Molly needs her full attention. She doesn't seem surprised when the dream seems to change focus, drift in darkness. <<Hold on tight, everyone>> she thinks towards them, still unsettled by that ability. It comes through the link, her thoughts shaped with jagged edges and anger.

As the garage takes shape around the Mahou, Emi's taking a moment to recover. Centering herself. She twirls her parasol once, places it over her shoulder, and straightens up. <<You're right. We're not. There's something still in here with us,>> She's looking around, staring here. There. Green eye closed, blue eye open. Hunting for -something- and ready to leap to Molly's defense when the time is right. All business.

She strolls over towards Hinoiri for the moment, parasol in her right hand held over her shoulder while trails of webs flake off from the fingertips of her left.

Molly Skyline has posed:
Everything continues to shift and coalesce; voices change, leaving it unclear who was saying what, though if one thinks back, it doesn't sound like the discouragement came from Molly's Mom's, as the voices continue; Molly can be heard in the background with a voice rising in pitch and tension against an oppressive crescendo of anger, almost physical in its manifestation.

The garage seems at first to be the one on the ground floor below Okujoo Ramen in real life, but it shifts, to a different place; similar, with fast cars on hoists, but then it shifts again, as the voices keep arguing, to what looks more like a household garage, with space for four cars, a big garage door, and a man door into, presumabely, a house. Molly's Supra is here, alongside a much newer black car -- an obvious racecar, but in place of sponsorship logos all over it, it just has one word on the hood, in English. Spitfire.

The other two spaces are empty; but the garage has a lot more in it, aside from toolchests and shelves with carparts. There's a sofa with a blanket, a TV with a playstation, shelves of lego and DnD books, racing trophies, and many pictures of Molly with friends, all grinning.

Molly is not present, but the heroes are not alone. Something is in here. In the walls, perhaps. Already, fissures are forming; all around the garage, but none near the door into the house. A door that drains of color and seems more and more... incorrect as the moments pass, with the shouting on the other side reaching a heightened pitch.

A door that flings open as Molly bursts through.

"--you dumb bitch!" Shouts a voice, as Molly slams the door shut and throws the bolt on a lock that is, curiously, mounted backwards from how one would usually do it. There's a heavy impact from the other side of the door, followed by a bellowed "COW!" that echoes through the room, as Molly rests her back against the door and sinks down to the floor.

One of the cracks widens; the strange, spider-tentacles can be sensed rather than seen, as everywhere in the garage where Molly isn't the lights dim, as if there were just a grim spotlight shining only on her.

Something has arrived.

Souta Camero has posed:
    Souta shrugs at Coco's words. "True. A part of me wants to be glad that was a dream and those men aren't real, but I suspect feelings like this come from real experience." Then he hears the insults flung at Molly and cringes. Ouch. Poor girl.

    Something else is here. Paradise Spectrum notes it too, but the nature of this dream space makes it hard for his magic to pinpoint. The spider-tentacles are here. Both Souta and Paradise can feel them.

    "Paradise Spectrum, try projecting a hologram to pinpoint where the tentacles are felt. If they take up physical space, I want to see them."

    As commanded, the Intelligent Device tries projecting holograms around. They are ghostly, translucent images that flicker and occasionally glitch, too artificial to ever fool anyone, but they are visible. Souta doesn't yet know if the light from his holograms would actually light up this space, or if such efforts are swallowed up by whatever spotlight effect is happening right now.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Something is here. Something is with them. Everything is warping and changing, too many layers to the dream, and Sailor Moon is ready to be out of here, something is coming to kill Molly and they need to get her out of here -

<<Purification incoming. I don't like how any of this feels.>>

It's decisive and sudden, it's her deciding exactly what this situation needs - what they need and what Molly needs, a flood of purifying energy, love and light and a reminder of the way things can and should be, as a golden circle of light is carved into the air and beams of silver light burst out, bouncing off the walls and flying through everyone in sight.

"Moon Healing Escalation!"

This attack only punches Dark Energy - it won't hurt anyone of them, but it gives a refresh, just as Coco's singing had earlier, a flood of hope and positivity and a reminder of love.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
The dream fuzzes and distorts, and perhaps Rashmi feels a little embarrassed to have gotten things so wrong... But then it resolves into a *small* garage, more fitting of a home than repair/upgrade work... And the Devicer *cringes* as the door is hurled open, and those words follow her (aged-up) best friend into what is clearly a sanctuary from the *rest of the house.*

"Oh, Molly-chan," she can't help but whisper...

And then the lights dim. Souta's Device begins to pick out the possible *placement* of those horrible, reaching tentacles. And Usa-chan starts throwing purification around like the world's happiest disco-ball. And as a beam passes through *her,* and there's that surge of joy and hope and love...

Rashmi steps in front of Molly, turning her back to her weeping friend and staring down the nearest tentacle reaching out.

And summons a dozen Barrets, with a clear look of 'you just *try it,* see what happens' on her bespectacled face.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    << Your world has nobles that talk like that? Huh... >>

    As for Souta's question, Amy raises an eyebrow at him. "Lifting the needy up is altering the status quo. People like that like rigid heirarchies, with themselves not on the bottom. If the people on the bottom get lifted up... It doesn't matter if it's better for everyone. All they care about is..." Amy scratches her chin. "the phrase 'objects in mirror are losing' comes to mind."

    Beat.

    "...Car side mirrors often say something like 'objects in mirror are closer than they appear." she adds, realizing everyone might not get the reference.

    No Molly. Only fissures. Amy's in her usual henshin.

    And then there's Molly... and catty insults and tentacles somewhere and the general sense of a menacing and hostile dream.

    Amy running towards Molly has blonde hair, blue eyes, and what her friends have decided is a cute pink magical girl outfit.

    "Molly! Don't listen to them!" She reaches to pat a shoulder, or pull into a hug.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Cure La Licorne frowned, clenching her fists and moving a bit deeper into the garage. She nodded. << Yeah, some of them. 'Know your place' and stuff like that, basically. It's obnoxious and exhausting. Sora hated it. So did I. >>

As purification washed over the area, she punched her fists together, lighting up but not going on the attack yet. Souta was helping to give them a view of the threat, but she was waiting for a more... visible guide, basically, before she went full assault on it. After all... she uhhhh... Was very much in a 'take no prisoners' mood tonight. And didn't wanna burn the place down. Or up, as it were.

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
Tsukiko hums a little bit, trying to get a sense of the particulars. Why is future-Molly with someone who doesn't support them? Why is... well, all of this?

    (Aside from Seriss being a usual pain in the metaphysics, anyway)

The hum gives way into a snort of exasperation. While a Soulful Howl would suit the wolfgirl's velocity, and Sailor Moon's purification showed that positive energy would be good for the mood (and bad for any dark energy), Tsukiko just is not having much luck in figuring out the details she can't see.

"I really want to kick that rude jerk in the face," the wolfgirl grumbles sullenly. "And maybe punch dream-Seriss as well, although that might come with its own issues."

Coco Kiumi has posed:
One second she is floating up in the air, the next one she is standing right to everyone on the ground, and she puts her hand on her forehead as she adapts to the disorienting change in her surroundings. No wonder Sara's teleportation had a second of adjustment to it, if this is what it feels without.

But there are also more important things to do, and things that require her attention more than a singular spell of dizziness. She too can feel they are not alone, and that something else is crawling in this space with dark energy. Moon and Tsukiko have the right of it, to intervene with such a solidly applied purification strike.

Her song works in tandem with her Senshi and Accursed friends to repel the dark energy, and provides solace from the fatigue that comes with fighting this long. While she keeps singing her melody of joy and refreshment, the mermaid looks around at any sign the presence faltering might give away its position.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
The healing magic washes over her and Emi's aches and pains recede into the background buzz of her racing thoughts. She's taking in the sounds, the room, the omnipresent feeling that there is something they can't see nearby.

"We're not at the end yet," murmurs Emi, thoughtful. She closes her green eye, leaving only the pale blue of her other to study the room. She then lunges forward, slashing out with a slender line of webbing as thin as piano wire. It strikes at -something- and she calls out, "Here! Hit here!"

Of course, it -looks- like empty space, but Emi's shimmering web has sliced into -something-.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Sensed rather than seen is where Mamorus shine: he closes his eyes right there in the middle of everything and crouches down, splaying fingertips over the floor, trying to get the floor's eye view of the tentacle things. But! Emi calls it, and he doesn't open his eyes: Tuxedo Mask's other hand flings out from under his tattered cape and looses a rose like a streak of red lightning, directly at where Emi is pointing.

It might break something important! It'll at least be a reasonable painting of the target. An insistent magical rose sticking out of an invisible monster makes a wonderful bullseye.

Molly Skyline has posed:
Emi calls out an attack, and Mamoru goes for it. A rose cracks throughn the air, striking true against its target, and where it strikes the air around it ripples, distorting as something becomes visible. Or perhaps, someone.

it looks like Molly, with purple hair and all, but with a devil's horns and tail, and dressed like it -- or she -- just stepped out of a super stereotypical fantasy movie. She could've been at home safeguarding Frodo on his way to Mordor. She holds a staff with a heart-shaped jewel at the top of it, and her other hand holds an iron buckler, now with a rose quivering in the middle of it. But something isn't quite right about her; there's a darkness hovering around her, that feels incongruous with her being.

Usagi's purification washes over her, seemingly not doing much to her, even while it pierces the dream-fissures and illicits an otherworldly howl of rage as the eye and its tentacles get pushed back once more, aided by Rashmi's barrets and Souta's target-finding. But the room seems to expand, to grow bigger, as if to accomodate the new foe that has entered.

Amy is exhorting Molly not to listen to the person on the other side of the door, but Molly can't hear her. Not yet, it seems. For a moment the purplenette just sits with her back to the door, listening to a series of heavy thumps against the other side of it, before she gets up to retrieve a glass and a bottle of something gold-colored from a cupboard; a bottle half empty, offering a solace that has been sought before as she pours a glass and downs it in one gulp, before brushing her fingers over her eyes.

The figure, meanwhile, uses her staff to knock the rose out of her shield, and her tail lashes behind her as she regards the heroes arrayed in front of her.

"I cast Disintigrate," she states, with an echoing, far-away version of Molly's voice. The jewel on her staff glows and a moment later a green beam blasts out of it, targeted straight for Molly -- or perhaps for Rashmi, who is standing in the way.

Souta Camero has posed:
    Souta considers Amy's response. "... I see." He has feelings and judgements about that mindset that he's keeping to himself. Not because he'd consider them controversial, but because right now he wants to focus on Molly's safety. Not only from the threat against her life, but from such cruel voices and their horrible words.

    Between Emi's insight and Tuxedo's rose, the fiend is revealed. Immediately Souta is considering combat, only slightly hesitating because the enemy looks like Molly. Close quarters like these call for Twin Tonfa mode, which Paradise Spectrum assumes quietly. "I cast 'oh no you don't'!" shouts the Inspector.

    < Shield Spark: MAX. >

    Rashmi has her own shields, of course, but Souta is throwing out his own to support what she has, as the spark he generates immediately places itself between her and the false Molly and blocks as much of that beam as it's able to before it shatters.

    Meanwhile, Souta is charging towards the Dark Molly, twin energy tonfas turned such that the glowing green spikes are facing forward, and when he gets close he plunges both towards the enemy.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Tuxedo Kamen is already prepped for this -- he sees shields being flung up as soon as she's saying 'I cast' and by the time she finishes saying 'disintegrate' the second rose cuts through the air, this time aimed for the stone at the top of the staff. Then, "Sailor Moon, catch!" he calls and lobs her a rose. "I think I'm having an orientation crisis, how do I postpone it?"

Rashmi Terios has posed:
When Emi and Mamoru reveal the existence of the threat, Rashmi is relieved... right up until it's further revealed, that now the thng sent to kill Molly, is *her Dungeons and Dragons OC.*

There are just not enough words to describe how immense an injustice that is.

But then it levels the staff at Molly -- and by extension Rashmi -- and before the second word is done being cast, Rashmi has her Shield loaded and ready to cast. And as Souta's Shield comes up to give her an extra few moments' breathing room, Rashmi looks to the Inspector, nods her thanks, and extends her hand toward the beam.

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

Fairly expensive to cast at this point, since she might have repeated the trick a handful of times in the past few years... But one need only look at the way the impostor's spell is digging through Souta's Shield, to know that extraordinary measures need to be taken. In this case, it's an array of *six* shields, equally positioned in the space betwen her hand and Souta's Shield, each next shield growing smaller as they resolve into place in front of the last. The whole construction resembles a series of lenses set up to focus light to a very, very fine point...

...but as Shields, they serve the opposite purpose; to absorb and disperse energies directed at it, for as long as they can stand up. And when Souta's shield finally breaks down...

The beam of coherent Disintegration splashes against the smallest, frontmost shield, the overspill meaning it doesn't have to eat quite so much directly; that's what the *others* in the array are for.

Then the frontmost shield collapses entirely, meaning the next-smallest gets the full impact of the spell. Then the third... then the fourth...

Honestly, Rashmi kind of *needs* to hope that the spell peters out before she finds out what 'Disintegrate' really means, in this context.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
And there we go. As the figure revealed themselves... Licorne's body erupted fully in flames. She smirked.

As the wave of destruction lanced at their friend... Another friend impeded it.

"Ambitous blazer!"

Her body on fire, she rushed forward, fists and feet a blur as she kicked and punched, launching attack after attack at the girl. "I cast PUNCH and KICK!" They got defense handled, she had all the offense, all the time. Let's see how well she can cast with all of the flaming fists and feet coming at her face. Or how well she can defend her fancy rock with, again, not trying to get punched in the face.

DISTRACTION!

Coco Kiumi has posed:
Is that Seriss? Or merely one aspect of her, helped out by the dream aspect of this place? All Coco knows is that all this changing of targets Is making her really want to spare very little on Seriss and Alala when they do reach them. Which is hopefully very soon.

"And I cast "Hello, did you forget about us!?", Coco remarks, and she immediately starts singing. A third layer of protection surrounds Rashmi, a Live Stage that tries its best to repel the sustained beam away from the redhead together with the deteriorating power of Coco's sung purification, or at least lessening its strength before or after the other protections in place.

Blown by a seven-colored wind,
I was heading toward a distant cape
Before dawn, I heard a melody
A song that felt so very nostalgic

Birds flap their wings toward the eastern sky
Come on, there's a shortcut to the Treasure Island

After a stormy night, new life is born again
To carry the message of love
In the Paradise of the Seven Seas
Even if the day comes when everyone must leave this place behind
I won't forget
The Melodia of the Seven Kingdoms

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
Tsukiko yelps and dives for cover -- tanking hits is not her forte, especially when it's something like disintegration!

There's a clatter as the wolfgirl lands in a pile of dream-clutter, then some clanking as she sticks her head out (with a small bucket in a jaunty position over one canine ear).

"Say... isn't she in RPG club?" Tsukiko asks the others, still watching the 'spellcaster' warily. "Is this a dream of thinking she has to choose between her beloved career and her favorite hobby?"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Purification doesn't seem to do much to the Devil Girl facing them, though the Eye and Tentacles that are still after them too.

"How many things are trying to kill Molly?!"

She complains at the sight of those pushed back enemies, though the command to disintegrate has her turning pale before coloring with upset, and Tuxedo Mask's thrown rose - and question - pulls her back. The rose is twirled, lighting up with pastel colors of energy, sparkles and she launches it, point first, at the staff.

"Moon Rose Action!"

And when the rose point reaches and digs into the staff, it will explode.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Molly can't seem to interact with her. "It's us, your friends! Dammit, is Seriss stopping you from seeing--?!"

    Molly imagines her future self is driven to drink. Amy sighs. "It really tastes awful, you know..." But people don't drink like this for the taste, now do they...

    Emi locates the target. Amy turns, holding out her wand, but already so much is happening.

    The enemy... is a demonic version of Molly? Oh no... Molly shouldn't have to think of herself this way, she's not a--

I cast Disintigrate.

    Requires to-hit roll. Allows spell resistance. Fort save -- 5d6 on a success, 2x caster level d6 on a failed save (or some other number in 5th edition? It's a lot, either way) Amy knows this, in her bones, in an instant, and calculates countermeasures -- but no one is ready to counterspell and there isn't time to ask for a shield or spell resistance if anyone even has it.

    But it has to hit to do anything.

    So Amy tackles Molly as fast as she can, hoping it's enough.

    "...She's a tiefling?! ...Not a demon, right..." Amy almost laughs in relief.

    Ikiko had another worry. "Nah, Seriss is using a copy of Molly's D&D character to kill her." Amy sounds oddly positive and relieved about this. It's messed up, but it doesn't indicate the sort of messed-up self image, the hurt of others deciding what you are, that a demon-Molly would; this is not the situation Amy feared.

    Also, that beam is still going? "THAT'S NOT HOW THAT SPELL WORKS!" Amy complains. "Sickly green beam, damages someone or disintigrates a volume of matter it hits!" Amy slaps her forehead. "Seriss didn't read the rulebook. Of course." She stands up, "Is it too much to hope for that attacking her will disrupt her ability to cast...?"

    Amy has to quickly consider whether a dream paradigm that allows for this can somehow be leveraged to Amy's advantage. She's pretty sure she can't get extra abilities, though, nothing that will help... And all the coolest weapons aren't safe for someone else to stand next to. Still...

    Amy faces the nightmare and holds out her wand. "I cast..."

    "DESICCATE THE SUPERNATURAL!"

    Nothing happens.

    "Just kidding, I cast rocket launcher." BOOM!

    "How many hit points do you have, fake wizard...?"

Emi Hoshino has posed:
'Disintegrate'.
'Tiefling'.

Emi stops mid wire throw and just groans. You don't need telepathy to hear the thought that is clearly passing through her head right now, but unfortunately for everyone, they are in telepathic contact so they all ger to hear Emi think "Oh god, it was her with Amy and the nerd shit! It's nerd shit all the way down."

Still, despite her protests, she doesn't seem that put off.

"Molly's dream self isn't lucid, don't interrupt her," she says aloud, bounding towards the tiefling, now, hands out in front of her with a cat's cradle of webbing between her fingers, long gothic skirts swirling in pretty display of black and pink. Juking to the side, she tries to get around Molly by hurling herself towards the nearby wall. A wall which she proceeds to run up without even breaking stride through the use of more of her webs as footholds to stick to it. When she reaches the ceiling, she twirls around and aims to drop towards 'Evil D&D Molly', two thick lines of webs outstretched from her hands that she lashes out with to batter and bind with.

Molly Skyline has posed:
Rashmi gets her layered shield up behind Souta's, and it is just in time; the sustained green beam -- sickly looking but sustained in spite of Amy's protests -- first tests the strenght of Souta's defenses, and blows cleanly through them after a couple of seconds, before striking the first of Rashmi's shields and blowing through it, too. As it strikes the second, the blast gets split into multiple beams that spray outwards, striking the floor and walls and ceiling of Molly's garage and drilling holes throuh them into the dream-stuff on the other side; holes that lengthen as Rashmi's shields are knocked out, one by one, until the last one falls.

Luckily for Molly, Rashmi is still stnading in the way, even as Amy tackles her to the ground. Luckily for Rashmi, her barrier jacket holds against the last second of the attack.

Barely.

Molly picks herself up off the floor, and shakes her head. "Jesus Chrisy Molly, that was only one drink," she mutters to herself. She looks at the bottle in her hand, that she has somehow managed not to spill; after a moment she puts it to her lips, has a swig, and then replaces the cap and sticks it back in the cupboard. As the pounding of fists against the other side of the garage door finally abates, she retrieves a couple of tools and lifts the hood of the black car that says Spitfire, revealing a tight looking engine with a number of hoses leading to it, all labelled 'Hydrogen'.

Tiefling-Molly finds herself weathering PUNCH and KICK from an extremely enthusiastic Pretty Cure, and hurriedly shouts "I cast shield!", enveloping herself in a globe that doesn't quite stop everything, leaving several blows to impact her directly; Souta's tonfas, also, test her defenses, striking both buckler and sorceress. "Misty Step!" she shouts, and vnaishes in a cloud of pink sparkles, reappearing on the other side of the garage.

Molly, meanwhile, is entirely engrossed in working on her car, all while muttering to herself. "Accelerate hard in the first corner," she mumbles, "Forty degree turn, watch the opposition. Brake, shift down, accelerate out of the turn, shift up, two hundred meters to the next turn..." It doesn't look like she's doing repairs; she's just checking connections, making sure everything is just... exactly the way it should be.

But her corrupted DnD character isn't finished. "I use my sorcery points," she declares, "Twin-casting Blade of Disaster."

Two glowing pink sword-shaped holes in space appear, both of them slicing away, hurling through the air for the heroes -- and arcing around to go after Molly.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
It's a good thing her Barrier Jacket is enough to handle the last of the heavily-attenuated beam. It would be *awful* for Molly to learn that Rashmi was *this close,* and fell before the very end. And then, y'know, there's how it would shatter everyone else. And--

Okay this is not the time or place to muse on how Seriss and her creator have completely upended Rashmi's entire emotional trajectory over the last eight months. There is the job in front of them, and Coco's music and the lingering effects of Usagi's purification are an *excellent* bulwark against the creeping doubt trying to sink its fangs into her mind.

Molly's still safe if not happy, and the doppelganger is trying to cast Shield.

Well, okay, but what can it *really* block?

    << *BONG!* >> << SOLAR BARRAGE >>

Can it block, say, a twelve-round-per-second machinegun of sustained Barret action?

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Cure La Licorne gave a smirk. "Oh, you haven't even *begun* to see the blade's of disaster! You're *looking at her*," Licorne snapped. Then paused. Flushed. "T-that's not what I meant! You all know what I meant!" she snapped, before drawing her rouge rod and twirling it in her hand. "Now, time for you to see MY blades!"

"Scorching ray piercer!"

She applied the lipstick on her lips, before holding the rouge rod to the air and unleashing the power of the sun, the rays turning to blades of piercing, purifying swords.

"Get. Out. Of. Our. Nightmares. And back under the ROCK you crawled out from!" Licorne snapped.

Souta Camero has posed:
    Souta gets ready to jab Tiefling-Molly again before she Misty Steps away, and he doesn't need to be a D&D nerd to know what that means. She's gone, clear across the room from him, and he has but moments to act.

    There was a time in Souta's life when he would have insisted that he could handle this threat alone. Right now he's glad that his drill instructor cured him of that.

    << I'm on the left! >> he transmits, before dash-jetting across the ground to put himself between Molly and one of the Blades of Disaster, arms crossed over his chest.

    < Return Shield > announces Paradise Spectrum, as a magic circle appears in front of Souta's wrists, spreading out to cover his whole body. After Souta analyzes the attack he realizes that it's actually a tear in space?

    The Return Shield catches the attack, and the binding magic of the swirling runic circle tries to keep the rift bound even as it tries to tear through, getting within an inch of his face. Unable to fully absorb the attack, he decides to redirect it instead, turning the Return Shield into a binding disc meant to trap the Blade of Disaster, which he then throws at the other Blade in flight.

    After that, he's out of breath. The Inspector needs a moment.

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
Tsukiko picks herself up out of the pile of dream-clutter, and starts chucking the debris at the flying pink blades. No velocity for a Silver Wolf Tackle, no song for a Soulful Howl; just a wolfgirl's stubborn determination to try to protect the dream of one of her friends.

And if the random junk being thrown isn't enough, and if the Inspector's redirect doesn't knock out the other blade, well...

    ...she still has enough acceleration for a grim intercepting lunge if the situation calls for it.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
The Devil Girl Molly is treating all of this like a game - acting out a play, and Sailor Moon calls out, "Too bad for you, this isn't a game! Forget about sorcery points, this is about Molly-chan's life, and you can't have it! Kamen-kun! Together!"

They've done a number of combo attacks, and it would be entirely fair for Mamoru to wonder 'but which one though'?! He doesn't have to wonder long - Sailor Moon's Cutie Moon Rod vanishes in a swirl of light, replaced by the Spiral Heart Moon Rod, and she dives towards him, spinning like a ballerina, or a top, the whole way, until she can clutch his hand, as hearts begin to appear all around her.

They did this in the real world, only once, testing out Entrapta's shooting range, her 'zone'. It had overloaded the thing, kicked them all out while it recalibrated. She hopes it does more than that to this nightmare holding Molly captive.



"Moon Spiral Heart Smoking Crater!"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    I cast shield! "That's not a-- D&D doesn't work that way..." Amy mutters.

    She is already looking for where Evil Molly will teleport to after hearing 'Misty' -- << Teleported! >> she announces mentally, and she does gasp in horror at hearing Blade of Disaster invoked. << DON'T LET IT TOUCH YOU! >> And twincast?! "Can you do that?!" Again, her first thought is for Molly. She can't counter this attack, and she can't afford to get hit by it either, even as a Puella Magi.

    It's not that she doesn't trust someone else to shield, she knows the Devicers will -- but after what Disintigration did, she's not sure that will be enough.

    Still, she tries to be gentler this time, pulling Molly out of the way rather than tackling her to the ground, muttering 'Sorry'.

    << Both of these are disintigration spells... if only we had a way to deflect her attacks back at her! >>

    And then Amy points at Evil Molly. BANG. "I guess I'm a fighter." BANG. "I attack again." BANG. "And use my action point." BANG.

    Same strategy as the subway nightmare -- she'll use her own magic to keep up the pressure -- as long as she's not having to tackle Molly again -- while the others hammer it with their own unique magic.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Moon Spiral Heart Smoking Crater!"

The call from Mamoru is in unison with Usagi after he takes her hand and he doesn't get dizzy, and all of a sudden he's grinning, grinning, grinning, because this one was SO much fun. He's laughing as hearts appear all around them, spinning around them, but they aren't just pink - they're pink and white and gold and even a dusky charcoal-grey, some as small as Usagi's fist, others as large as Mamoru's head, until there's the great heart - taller than her, taller than him, wider than their joined arms spread, and a dazzling display - a bright pink heart shot through with white-gold streaks, like a piece of kintsugi, a broken heart pieced together, made stronger for the experience -

And then it flies for the target, for the Tiefling Molly, the living incarnation of her Dungeons and Dragons character out to destroy her, and lights shine like twinkling stars in the expanding garage, an endless array of targets, shining crystals -

And the pink heart shot-through with white-gold flies at speed for the Tiefling Molly - and then explodes , shattering light with physical effect, shrapnel that pierces through -

but it's not just the heart that explodes, because the ground under the her craters, splintering apart, as the Earth beneath splinters up to destroy the monster.

Coco Kiumi has posed:
Tiefling Molly looks overwhelmed enough that it's high time to push her away for real regardless of what she actually is. The Yellow Mermaid Princess raises her right arm and calls out within herself Aqua Regina's blessing, the bracelet on her wrist shining with white radiance as a halo of yellow light moves downwards from the mermaid princess's head and her clothes change again.

Her left glove now adheres to her arm with a pattern made up of water ripples, while on her left leg a stocking has shown up with the same water ripple pattern, and on her right hand and on her legs a yellow glove and boots with flowy extensions show up.

Bathed in a golden glow, rhythmic pulses of light that give a warm embrace to the pain, soothe all the fatigue and push away the darkness.

"Pichi Pichi Voice, Live Finale!", the mermaid princess smiles gently.

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

At the apex of the song, purifying hearts fly out in all directions, the reach of a big circle of love that won't end. "Fine Heart Pitch!", she concludes the performance with a serene smile, extremely strong purification burning the dark energy and the one that holds it.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
Twirling, twin blades. Of course.

Emi instinctively tenses, ready to duck for cover but the way the blades move tells her something different is going to happen -- and she's ready when they do. They're too sharp for even her webbing, she's sure of that from the way they're slicing through the air, so she instead flicks a line directly onto the hilt of one, aiming to flick it out of the air and redirect it...

...towards the Molly-Devil-Girl. At least, that's her plan. Hopefully it works.

Hopefully.

Molly Skyline has posed:
A furious assault is launched against the corrupted tiefling. Solar barrages, combo attacks, scorching blades and more. The DnD character's shield doesn't hold up, even as she screams "Rules lawyer!!" at Amy over it. She casts more spells, from Magic Missile to a Fireball that engulfs half the room, blocked by the shields thrown up and especially by Coco's efforst one defense.

In the end, it is a redirected Blade of Disaster, caught by Emi and sent spinning with a 'return to sender' that finishes her off; or rather, finishes the fight. The dark aura of wrongness is blasted off of the tiefling, leaving her to collapse, gasping, on all fours on the floor.

"Almost outta hit points," she gasps, her voice sounding much more... normal. "...Thanks," she adds, before passing out, face down on the floor.

Molly keeps working, blissfully unaware of everything going on around her. Well, maybe not blissfully, but certainly unaware. She works, and works; until eventually she's satisfied, and slams the hood down before returning her tools to the chest. After a moments consideration, she pulls the solitaire, blue-jeweled earing out of her earlobe, and dumps it in with the tools before shoving the drawer closed. "Time for a change anyway," she mutters, as she heads towards the couch. A stereo gets turned on in passing, and loud music fills the space as she collapses on the couch, pulls a blanket over herself, and

The dream shifts again, fading as voices echo through the nothingness between.

"You've given away every prize you've ever won to charity. You broke your ties with your sponsors and fund your racing off your mechanic shop. Is this sustainable?"

"Yes, absolutely. I keep doing it, don't I?"

"And somehow you find time to lobby for better supports for minorities and people with health challenes. How long do you think you can keep this up?"

"As long as I can. As long as I'm alive. I will never stop fighting for the people who have no heroes."

In the background, the sound of a car engine pushed to its limit fills the air, and the Mahou find themselves in the stands around a race track; somewhere in Europe by the look of things, with crowds of people watching some extremely fast cars go around the track at extremely high speeds. In the air, fissures are trying to form; but whatever it is that's trying to force its way in, is having an extremely hard time doing so. Below, a single car stands out from the rest, black with the word Spitfire emblazoned on the hood.

"And the white flag is out, last lap, but every drier on this track except for one knows it's not for them," calls out an announcer as the black car hurls itself over the line, whining loudly as its driver pushes the rev counter into the red, racing on the very narrow line between greatness and destruction. The people in the crowd are all cheering, naturally, but Molly can't hear them; not that she needs to, to know who's name they're chanting.

"It looks like driver Molly Skyline from Tokyo will get to follow through on her promise to donate this race's prize money to prosthetics research," continues the announcer, while the black car keeps going, flying into corners fast and tight and passing people who, it seems, have already been passed, not that anyone is trying to stop her at this point. And it seems like nothing will.

"Come on," whispers Molly, sitting behind the wheel where she looks... relaxed. Calm and untroubled, amidst all the speed and chaos that would have most people hanging on fore dear life; here, in this place where she can find respite from the tumultuous nature of her life. "One more checkered flag. One more chance to be someone's hero."

And as she flies around the corners she comes back around, the engine roaring as she opens the throttle and charges for the finish line.

Molly Skyline has posed:
Sometimes, things happen; sometimes terrifying things happen and there's nothing you can do. From somewhere in the stands, someone's small dog got loose and in its mischievous joy, runs out onto the track; and a little girl runs after it, catching up and crouching to grab it, right out in the middle. There's a collective gasp from the crowd; everythning slows down.

Molly's reaction is instant, using both feet for all three pedals, shifting down and spinning the wheel, throwing the car sideways as she drifts her vehicle out of the way, missing the little girl and her pet, both frozen in sudden terror. But in so doing, she surrenders control of the car to physics, and the concrete wall protecting the crowd at the next corner rushes up to meet her. Metal shrieks as it gives way; hydrogen fuel splashes over everything, there's a spark, and everything vanishes in fire as the dream shifts and changes, one last time -- and still, the fishures are trying to open, as flame fades to darkness and the sound of a little girl, a little Molly, weeps through the void.

Souta Camero has posed:
    The world shifts again, and Souta breathes a sigh of relief as they reach the next 'scene'. A successful career, despite the odds. A noble dream, to be sure. Then suddenly... a disaster. How could this happen?

    How should Souta respond? Is the horrible fire just part of the dream, or an attack? It's over too quick, and fissures are moving in, and there's a sinking feeling in Souta's gut. He hears Molly crying out, and he can't interfere with her directly, but he can still protect her. His mana reserves are low, and if he threw out another shield or a spark he might not be able to sustain it, but his weapon remains reliable.

    < Halberd Mode >

    As his twin tonfas shift, change and extend into a white metal shaft with a head of green blazing mana, Souta jet-dashes for the nearest fissure.

    < Mana Filter: Ice. >

    The green energy blade turns blue, and as he swings it at the nearest fissure it's coated in ice. He dashes to the next fissure, and the next, striking each with his chilling polearm in the hopes of sealing as many as he can. "Paradise Spectrum: find the source of that voice."

    < Confirmed, Champ. >

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy's Red again by the end of the fight. She cackles at being called a rules lawyer.

    As it's back to narration, Amy notes, "This... this is a dream too. Not riches, but to be able to keep doing good somehow, without depending on corporations..." Amy smiles, but it's a bit of a sad smile. "You deserve this and more. Life shouldn't be a constant struggle, a constant fight..."

    But then... she is getting to make a name for herself out there! Amy cheers with the rest as Molly crosses the finish line.

    And then there's a dog and a little girl on the track. And what comes next is inevitable. Amy feels frozen in place.

    "MOLLY!"

    Darkness.

    And Amy knows it's a dream. That that was just a sad ending to a dream, and not Seriss's meddling to kill her, because it felt like a dream, but it's still sad. Not quite the same way as when she thought Molly was gone, but... Amy's still choked up and crying, tears running down her cheek.

    "...You couldn't picture a lasting future for yourself either, huh? Only dying a hero..." she chokes back a sob.

    After ruminating on that for... seconds? Minutes? She's not sure how long it's been... Amy walks towards the sound of crying.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
As the corruption leaves this alternate Molly, Rashmi breathes a long sigh of relief... Only to blink sharply, as Molly takes *Starcrash out of her ear* and drop him into a toolbox. Wait... If she's old enough to drive, then... then...

...Oh.

<< ...That's why all this is her nightmare, >> her horrified, hushed voice sounds over the telepathic net. << ...The heart of her worst fear... *It's the Fade.* >>

And she sits with that realization, as the dream fades, only to be replaced by another. More racing. More determination to be someone's hero, at the cost of anything that won't help make that happen.

A terrible, awful accident. A fatal one?

But... why is the little girl crying? Why does it sound like a *young* Molly?

*Why is 'reality' still trying to tear itself apart to get at her?*

<< ...Emi-chan, >> she thinks into the darkness. << I think... I think if she doesn't get *help* she's going to lose this fight. Mamo-kun, if you can back me up... I think it's time to put a little fight into *all of us.* >>

"Verbal Command: Accumulator Purge," she says into the rent and screaming dark.

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

"Hang on a little longer, Molly-chan," she whispers as if talking directly to that scared little girl, then takes a deep breath. "SOLAR BLESS!"

    << SOLAR BLESS >>

Rashmi's spell shine bright as it battles the darkness, reaching out to every friend and ally in her vicinity. It's not just *power* she offers, power that seeps into the magic of everyone the light touches, but a feeling. Of bone-deep, unshakable righteousness. Absolute *certainty* that as long as you keep fighting, keep moving forward, keep faith, then nothing can ever stop you forever.

And Rashmi hopes, prays, that just *being* in Molly's dream, emitting this wave of emotional support...

Maybe some of that drive can find her, too.

Coco Kiumi has posed:
The dream changes again, and a fresh breeze gently moves Coco's air again when the mahoujin find themselves in the open again. The blonde mermaid blinks as she looks around in a hurry, trying to find the next source of danger rather than pay attention to the race in front of her. A set of tentacles, an eye monster, a tiefling Molly, anything else, it probably won't take a lot of time before they have to duke it out with yet another threat.

Her eyes fall on the girl and the dog a second too late, her arm reaching out and her voice starting to sing to call a Live Stage... Too slowly, and the tragedy unfurls, the crash filling her ears with crushing inevitability. The Mermaid Princess grits her teeth, and she searches for the crying small Molly. How deeper is this dream going to go? What exactly is Alala using to sustain it?

Her voice sings once again, full of a comforting melody that fills the spirit with happiness and chases away despair as she keeps searching again and again through that void.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Cure La Licorne did her finisher and, admittedly? Okay... she was... tired. She'd been unleashing a lot of fire. This was therapeautic. It felt gooooood. But she wanted to rest now. Rest sounded nice. Very nice. She needed nap now.

But she could rest when this was all over.

She picked herself up, as best she could, and started making her way towards the screams and crying. Trying to find where that crying, screaming girl was...

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
Once the blades and the tiefling mage have been dealt with, Tsukiko flops to a sitting position. The rest of the dream is viewed through a daze -- the accumulation of success, the impending triumph, the trade of one catastrophy for another. Rashmi's and Yellow Pearl's efforts help blunt the sense of despair, but the wolfgirl is definitely exhausted on multiple levels.

    But her friend needs her.

        And she can still move.

Staggering to her feet, Tsukiko lurches forward, trying to find the source of the crying. Between the efforts of the others and her own canine ears, this should be straightforward enough for her to locate (and get to) Molly before she completely faceplants.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
--to be honest, Tuxedo Mask is really regretting not having thought through the nightmares of Molly Skyline; he closes his eyes. He doesn't see the crash. He unfortunately hears it, can feel the heat; he steps back, he focuses on Sailor Moon before he even opens his eyes. When he does, it's in time to feel Rashmi's buff roll out and blanket everyone in the light with certainty, and Mamoru cannot help but think that that is an incredibly useful buff it's like Viking berserker mushroom soup. "Thanks, Rashmi-chan-- I don't know how, but tell me later! This is more than fine, thanks for the boost!"

It really helps push away the downward spiral of more car accidents--

--and then there's crying. "I think I figured out how to postpone it," he says, and kisses Usagi. His ears are red when he pulls away, then pulls out another couple of roses. "This might be actual her we can wake up maybe? And we can get her out of here?"

He jogs ahead to find the source of the crying too, and stabs at the fissure he thinks it's from. "Hey, Molly-chan! Can you hear us? Wake up! Enough of this, we've come to get you out!"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
For a moment, it seems like they've won. Sailor Moon knows better than to trust it, now - it had seemed like they'd won before. She's ragged with exhaustion though, having put so much into that attack that she's beyond grateful when the enemy actually does fade - when they're left with just Molly, working away.

Usagi doesn't know anything about cars - her grandfather has one, and her dad drives it sometimes, but like most Tokyoites, they take public transportation everywhere. Watching Molly work on the car, adjusting and fixing, doesn't really make any sense to her, anymore than watching Hinoiri mess with her motorcycle had, but it's at least peaceful.

And everything is going better. Molly is fighting for a dream that makes sense to her, pushing to be a hero all in her own way...

When it goes wrong.

"No way!" Her arms go to Mamoru, immediate, instinctive, wrapping around him as things continue to go 'wrong in a way that is so - painfully reminiscent of that early trauma -

But when the roses are handed to her, she takes them, nodding sharply, tipping her head back to the feeling of Coco's music washing over them and Rashmi's Mamo-boosted Solar Bless.

This isn't how things will end. This is just a bad dream.

Stab! Go the roses, jamming into the fabric of the dream, as Sailor Moon tries making a circle of them for an escape.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
With the tiefling dispatched, Emi doubles over and grabs her knees through her skirt, panting. That took a lot out of her, as redirecting powerful magics through will and force alone is more taxing than if she'd engaged in a straight up fight, that's for sure. It also means she's not ready when the dream shifts again. She braces herself, straightens up, sees the child, the dog...

There's a flicker of horror written all over her face.

"No, no no. You don't... that's not just a dream. It's a glimpse!"

And then the car crash. She'd been reaching out with her webs, trying, trying so hard to reach them in time, to do something so that what she senses is coming doesn't come, but she's simply too exhausted from dragging everyone here and the fighting combined with her own activities before hand that she's just too slow.

Fortunately, she's not alone. She lets the others do things for a moment before she falls back onto the ground in a pile of skirts on her bottom. She'll be fine, she just needs a few seconds.

Molly Skyline has posed:
The darkness pulls back, gradually giving way to a scene in the countryside; not the Japanese countryside, that much is clear, but a place with green, rolling hills in all directions. There's a cobblestone road, full of potholes, with a low fence of carefully fitted stones running all the way down one side of it, keeping a small flock of sheep away form where the cars would be, if there were any. On the other side of the road is a decaying petrol station -- the distinction made clear by the sign that says "Last Petrol Before York" over peeling paint. A few vehicles are parked outside; a couple delivery vans, an ice cream truck, and some non-descript person busy filling up a rather blocky and uninspired looking sedan.

Sitting on the ground with her back to the petrol station wall, around the corner from the front door and where everyone is, is... a little girl, with purple hair, no older than six. She's dressed in a school blouse and a skirt, and has bandaids on both knees, and has a headband with bunny ears in her hair; but she's crying, rubbing her eyes with her knuckles until she hears people arriving. And then, she looks up; and her eyes go big at the sight of all the Mahou. For a moment, her breath catches.

This Molly reacted to the heroes. This Molly, it seems, can be interacted with.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
<< A glimpse? What-- >> But the dream is shifting again, and Emi is too passed out to answer questions, by the looks of it. Rashmi can sympathize with the others, she is *absolutely wiped...*

But they still have a job to do.

And it turns out? Kiddo Molly is *utterly adorable,* enough that she might be made entirely out of Amy's power. Forcing herself to move forward, as cracked and scorched as her Barrier Jacket is, she can't help but smile gently at the child who is *perceiving them.*

"Hey," she says softly, dropping into a crouch and putting a hand out, to better get across the idea that she's speaking to the young girl on her level. "We've been looking for you for a while. You okay, kiddo?"

Souta Camero has posed:
    Molly... Molly is here.

    Before coming here, Souta only had a passing idea of who this girl was. He had Chrono's reports on Seriss Nyx to go over, but that was about it. At this point he feels like he could recognize her face from anywhere, having seen it over and over.

    Except this is a child, and she's crying, and she's looking at them as if they actually exist here.

    Souta smiles in a way that he hopes is friendly and charming. He watches Rashmi approach and follows after her. With a flourish he produces the rose that Mamoru gave him and offers it to Molly.

    "You probably shouldn't stay here. Or... what was that line from that one movie? Oh right."

    "Come with us if you want to live."

Molly Skyline has posed:
Molly sniffles, and looks up at Rashmi; and at first she just looks confused. Someone is talking to her. People are looking at her. Big people.

"No," she replies, choking back her tears. No, everything is not okay. Everything definitely is not okay, that much is clearly writ across her features. She looks up at Rashmi, and her bottom lip quivers as the weight of the world settles itself on her little shoulders.

"Everyone else... Everyone else got ice cream but I didn't."

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
Tsukiko wobbles forward, turning and leaning her back against the petrol station wall, then slumps into a sitting position next to this Molly.

"Hey," the wolfgirl smiles tiredly to the youngster, content to just relax here a moment and let the others do most of the talking. But if Kiddo Molly looks like she wants to pet Tsukiko's ears?

Dang right she's going to tilt her head to enable that.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    << A glimpse? What do you mean? >> Amy wonders, worried, at the same time as Rashmi. But...

    Someone's still here. Someone's crying, right? Amy keeps walking towards her through the darkness...

    Amy's so focused on making a connection with the kid, that when the dreamscape returns, well.

    The red-haired red-eyed child is unmistakeable but is also around the same apparent age as child-Molly; she's ended up in the t-shirt, cargo pants, and jacket as she often does, though.

    She's so focused on reaching Molly that she's only a few feet away when she snaps out of that focus, realizes that the world is back, that se has closed the distance, and also that Molly is looking at--

    --Amy glances behind her, anxiously, in case there's some new terror or nightmare, but there's only--

    --her and her friends. Amy breathes a small sigh of relief and offers Molly a friendly smile. "Hey." She holds out a hand and walks the rest of the way over to her. "Hey there. I'm Amy. Why are you crying?"

    And then she looks up at Souta with wide, alarmed eyes as he quotes Terminator, and looks around again for danger.

Everyone else got ice cream but I didn't.

    Amy breathes another sigh of relief and tries to hug her. "That su--stinks. There-- I'm sure there'll be more ice cream..." she's about to say 'soon' but she's not sure what's going to happen, and she refuses to be the kind of hero who lies to children.

    "But uh... we're friends, and we can help you."

    << How is this going to work, anyway? >> Amy wonders. << Molly... if we take her away from here... is she no longer in her body? How do we get her back to reality? Is there some magic where if we bring her back, her dreamself will become real? >>

Emi Hoshino has posed:
"Dunno. I've never done this before," says Emi to Amy, casually, like it's no big deal that she's just flying by the seat of her skirts. She sweeps along towards Molly, but doesn't want to crowd her.

<<We need to get her out of here,>> she broadcasts over the mental connection. "Man, this is just so weird. Anyway, I can take her back -- all of us back -- to Radiant Heart's dreamscape for starters. She'll be safe with me for the time being. <<She'll still have a connection to her body but she'll be outside of it as best as I can figure. It'll protect her from being exterminated, at least.>>

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Cure La Licorne blinked a few times and stared at the Molly, before looking to Rashmi. She opened her mouth to say something and... stopped. Oh, what she almost said was likely not the best idea because... Well... She instead kept her mouth shut and kind of rubbing the back of her head. She glanced to Emi, Coco and the ones who were muuuuuch better at these kinds of things. She was.... definitely not. And since she had definitely bullied Molly more than she had ever like... Helped her?

She was *not* going to like... try and... say 'Girl, just get over it and let us help you! THIS IS A RESCUE!' This required a delicate touch. No fire and dragging'. But hey, that was the good thing about being a team. Everyone had their talents. She punched things and lit them on fire, some people cooked, some people talked and comforted better, soem people through the moon, some people wore tuxedos. It took all types.

Souta Camero has posed:
    So... ice cream. This is a matter of ice cream. Well, Souta can handle that easily enough. He hands the rose to Rashmi and says, "Keep an eye on her," while he goes into the gas station.

    A few moments later he comes out with a pint of Mint Chocolate with a wooden spoon, a Dreamstick ice cream cone, a dreamsicle, and an ice cream sandwich. "Here. Take your pick. Or several if you want. Whatever you don't want we'll be glad to eat."

Molly Skyline has posed:
When Souta arrives with ice cream and offers it to Molly, she at first can't believe it; then her eyes light up, and she scrambles back up to her feet; and when she sees that one of the options is Mint chocolate her breath catches, and she bites her bottom lip before daring to point at it. "Mint Chocolate, please," she says, quietly, like she's half expecting it all to be a trick. "It's my favorite," she adds, earnestly.

And as soon as the ice cream is being given to her she stands on tip-toes, hands stretched upwards as though she were reaching up to receive mana from heaven; and when the treat is in her hands she digs out the first spoonful, savoring it before looking back up again, with a fresh tear glistening in the corner of each eye.

"Thank you," she whispers, before she sits back down, and eats another bite.

"My name's Molly," she adds, looking up again at her rescuers; and then, for a time, that's all it is. Just a little girl, enjoying her favorite ice cream, in the middle of the decaying English countryside of her memories.

Slowly, the dream shifts; everything changes, and the Mahou find themselves back at the Onsen where they first entered, but now it is different.

In the distance, the lightouse has crumbled right down to its foundations. The brackish water and corruption remain, but the Onsen itself is no longer ruined; it's like someone drew a big circle around it, and within that space the corruption is held back. The flowers have regained their color, and butterflies hover lazily in the air. A white Toyota Supra is parked outside amongst the flowers; and inside, everything is back in order. Molly's RPG collection and her favorite lego kits are displayed proudly; pictures of her and her friends are in order, and there, curled up on her side on a sofa against the wall... there is Molly. Teenage Molly, wearing a pale pink dress with her patched denim jacket overtop, seemingly fast asleep; just as she was, right before that one terrible day on the beach.

Souta Camero has posed:
    Mint Chocolate. How did Souta know? Because Mint Chocolate is a lot of people's favorite. People either love it or hate it, and if Molly was in the latter group well... that's what the other options are for.

    It is, of course, not a trick. It's offered to her, along with the spoon. Then he looks over the ice cream cone, the dreamsicle, and the sandwich before offering them to the others with him. "Anyone care for some dream ice cream? I doubt they're all that caloric, considering." He'll let others pick before choosing one for himself.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy is surprised that worked. "How did you--" but the sight of young Molly enjoying the ice cream like it's her whole world for a moment melts her heart.

    At the introduction, she replies, "Nice to meet you, Molly." And then big red eyes look up at Souta expectantly, and he's offering ice cream, and she grins. She's about to say 'hell yeah' but she can't say aych ee double hockey sticks in earshot of little Molly...! after a second's consideration, little Amy takes whichever of the other ice creams isn't anyone's first choice, and then holds out her other hand towards Souta for a fist bump. "Way past!"

    She can't remember what it was like, to get something when her world was that simple -- but the taste brings a nostalgia for summers long ago, all the same.

    The world fades.

    It returns, and Amy looks around in wonder at the change -- and makes sure the Eye is no longer there watching -- and then sees Molly, and Amy smiles in relief, now a teenager again too, still in her dream-clothes.

    "She can finally rest now, free of Seriss's torture?" Amanda looks to Emi. "Do we uh... do we pack up this stuff and bring it with her, or does it go with her because it's all in her head..."

    Amy considers that turn of phrase. "But, like... we're in her head? And she's in her head?" Amy scratches her head.