2994/Oh No Cartridges: Running With Scissors

Oh No Cartridges: Running With Scissors
Date of Scene:	02 April 2026
Location:	Shin Hoshi Shotengai
Synopsis:	As usual Mai starts shit over something petty, but this time she smacks those who come to stomp her with WAY TOO MUCH FIREPOWER, presenting the gathered magical friends and colleagues with a horrible question: HOW? How did she git gud. How. WTF. You know? W T F.
Cast of Characters:	Mai Elcamino, Molly Skyline, Nanoha Takamachi, Miho Inada, Ikiko Hisakata, Koji Silvia, Rashmi Terios, Souta Camero, Yaling Yao
Tinyplot:	Oh No Cartridges

---

Mai Elcamino has posed:
The first sign something's wrong is, of course, the fact that there's a purple time-space barrier shot through with streaks of dark energy that balloons out over Shin Hoshi Shotengai. At least it's also a pretty predictable wrong, right?

Corona. Dark Lieutenant Devicer working for Hawkmoth. Known secretly by Rashmi as Mai Elcamino because she paid for a meal in henshin with her mundane credit card...

She's known by everyone who's had to deal with her as a petty, cruel, rude, bullying Mean Girl who, on graduating high school, obviously didn't actually leave the mindset in any way. She's not out to kill people, just piss them off enough for Hawkmoth to akumatize them.

Last time she fought anyone, she akumatized after her youma Esteban was killed in his flippy floppies for releasing bitey knee-high gummy bears in the grocery store. That's apparently a thing that can happen, even if Usagi purified the hell out of her-- but at the moment, Usagi can't be called in to purify her, with her powers not working right now (because Mai totally bullied her out of them, DEFINITELY)

Who knows, maybe she can be talked down? Maybe? She's stomping down the emptied-of-people desaturated shopping street in henshin despite her angelic wings (wings can't make the angry clack of her heels with its excellent echo down the street).

She's clutching an ant farm in both gloved hands, eyes blazing, teeth visible in her fury.

She probably can't be talked down.

Molly Skyline has posed:
Today has been a relatively good day for Molly, thus far, she's managed to keep a pretty decent mood through her school day and upon returning home, went straight ot a magazine about really fast cars so she can flip through, read the articles in detail, and drool over the pictures of really really fast automobiles.

This lasts right up until Starcrash alerts her to the Time/Space barrier that, obviously, is dark energy nonsense in progress.

So the purplenette sighs and oh-wells, tossing her magazine off the bed on her way to retrieve her arm from its charging cradle, phone in hand. "Hey Sirri, text Rashmi; 'Dark Energy Barrier just went up, I'm on my way'." Donning the arm still requires more practice, but she achieves it in record time and is out the window post-haste, henshining as she plummets and taking off on her translucent wings once they're cast. Her Battle-Visor flickers into view in front of her eyes, marking the Barrier as a hazardous area and noting her allies as they come into range.

Nanoha Takamachi has posed:
Nanoha Takamachi is walking to the shops to pick up snacks, Yuuno...is not with her. Instead, she hums and looks up and... well that's a time space barrier. She zips into the streaking weird time space barrier and...

"Oh it's you with the... cow?" she asks. "Hey what's with the ant farm!? Why are you mad.....d..."

"Did your ants die!?" she asks worriedly. "Are they okay!?" she asks. "Here, m..maybe I can help...." she says. Well. What can she do?

Nanoha hasn't transformed yet. Uh oh. That's gonna be a worry in a moment.

Miho Inada has posed:
    Miho was out shopping for some new music. She got a few new CDs of EDM music, and a few club mix cds. She decided that maybe she'll stop by one of the shopping streets to get some snacks for her and Amy to enjoy. Maybe some gummy bears. Yeah, Gummy bears! That would be perfect!

    As the girl does down the street, she stops. She sees the dark energy barrier go up. Miho takes a moment to hide behind something, and henshins into Yukihime.

    Yukihime takes a deep breath as she comes out. The mahou stretches out, and flicks her left wrist. "Wolves of the Capital.", she says, calling out two beads into her infamous snow wolves to her side.

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
Ikiko's first clue that something was up was when the stray dogs she had been in the middle of feeding near Shin Hoshi Shotengai vanished as the Barrier shunted the non-magicals away. "Well, that's not good," she muttered, glancing around to make sure there's nobody in direct line of sight.

One phrase and a silvery glow later, Cute Wolf Tsukiko is darting around, looking to meet up with known friendlies and avoid identifiable foes; upon seeing Nanoha (and, by extension, the nearby Corona), the wolfgirl bounds over to the smol Devicer to provide her with backup if needed.

Koji Silvia has posed:
    And it was such a quiet day too...

    Koji was right in the middle of it all when the barrier came down. Why? Because of there was an old man running a used toys and electronics shops almost at the end of the street and around a dingy alley corner. So it wasn't really obvious at first until he was handing his card over for the purchase of a half-dozen old game systems, and the man just up and VANISHED on him.

    << TIME SPACE BARRIER HAS BEEN EST-. >>

    "I'm pretty aware of it, Hanzo... you're not usually this slow on the uptake."

    << APOLOGIES, SIR. >>

    Nope, the animators skipped the SET UP animation for this ep, and as the young man steps out of the shop, he's already in full henshin, and has Flash-Stepped up onto the one of the decks overlooking the district to see what in the world is going on.

    "OH."

    "GREAT..."

     The sigh is audible in his tone as he lands close by Nanoha, and says, "Oh hey, it's been a while."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
When the purple Barrier went up, Rashmi could not *help* but sigh. As much as she'd like to not *have* to deal with Corona -- Usagi's troubles have been casting a bit of a pall over the magical half of her workday -- the fact remains that if *no one* handles it, she's guaranteed to ruin many, many days. And if *someone* has to deal with her, it may as well include Rashmi... and the text that comes from Molly simply cements it.

As they converge on the Barrier, and enter it, Rashmi makes a note for Nicomachea to have her own Barrier spell on auto-cast. After all, the *last* time Corona stomped about under Barrier with bugs, she *dropped it like an absolute jerk* just long enough to scatter bugs all over the place.

    << *BONG!* >> << SUPPORT NETWORK >>

Icons of friends and allies nearby bwip into being above Nicomachea's scroll configuration, in time with the setup of her telepathic support network. << Check check, >> she says, << Warning, everyone: Corona might drop the Barrier the moment she lets those bugs free. Keep an eye out, and be careful. >>

"Oi, Corona-san!" she calls. "What happened today?"

Souta Camero has posed:
    Souta was leaning against the wall of the bus stop, conversing with another RHA student he had run across while out shopping. When the barrier went up, he watched as his classmate vanished, reached up to take off his glasses, and says, "Well... guess she wasn't a magical girl."

    < She was cute. You should flirt with her more. >

    Rolling his eyes he objects, "We weren't flirting, we were talking."

    < Correction. You were talking. She was flirting. >

    "You tease me like that every time. Deploy Barrier Jacket."

    Souta's henshin sequence is quick, because this is the kind of episode where a lot of people are henshining all at once an the animators tend to skip out on that.

    < Mission Start >

    << Inspector Camero reporting in. Warning duly noticed, Rashmi. >>

    He arrives a little later than the rest to the party, casually walking towards Mai but being a bit slow. He wants to keep his distance from... whatever this is. If anyone can talk her down, maybe Rashmi can?

Mai Elcamino has posed:
"A bull, dios mio," Corona says from between her teeth at Nanoha, finding it more important to correct her first than answer her question, probably because of all of the sushi jokes she didn't make about toro. "AY! You judgmental--" (wow) "--little cretins--" (yikes)

She lifts the ant farm high over her head, glaring daggers at Nanoha and Ikiko and Koji, and wings it HARD into an open-doored shop with no people anywhere. It whips through the air at henshin strength speeds and smashes open with a spray of sand and ants and shattering glass, when it hits the floor in there. The ants immediately disappear, and she crosses her arms and says smugly, "Pelotillero, Apex Shield."

As the tinny prissy over-formal voice of her own personal superpowered yes-man Device confirms her demand with a cheery echo, a purple-white shield matching her wings curls into shape around her, then gets as shot through with dark energy as the Barrier itself.

Corona sneers at Rashmi and is about to answer when she spots Souta, who's...

...extremely pretty, but like...

...walking like a cop and frankly probably the kind who can't be bought, so she rolls her eyes and looks back at Rashmi with narrowed eyes. "The girl in that shop, she was making my employee uncomfortable. Very uncomfortable! And he is not allowed to do anything about it, my poor boy, or one of you awful creatures will kill him. So I wreak revenge on his behalf."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Your 'employee' is a *youma!*" Rashmi shouts back, waving her hands. Sorry, Souma, but it really doesn't look like this one is gonna be talked down. "If you want an employee that won't be a *public danger,* maybe start by HIRING PEOPLE-PEOPLE INSTEAD OF MAKING THEM!"

...Oh and she just yeets the damn ants into the Barrier, where they wreak ruin on their own. "Y'know what? Fine. *Fine.* If you need to start trouble *this badly,* fine."

    << *BONG!* >> << EVADE -- DECLINE >>

When Rashmi wants to boost people up, it's with a lovely little will-o-wisp style ball of energy that sinks in, and provides a power boost *and* a little emotional nudge in the direction the boost orients. This one?

Flies *straight at Corona,* splashing against the Shield and... *staining* it yellow, in a small space about a handspan in diameter. And just sits there.

What her allies will notice -- and perhaps before long so will Corona -- is that magical attacks will subtly *bend* toward that stain on her shield, as if *attracted* by Rashmi's spell.

Nanoha Takamachi has posed:
Nanoha Takamachi's eyes go wide when talk of releasing monster bugs goes through her head but she mutters. << Nanoha Takamachi! Acting TSAB Artillerist! Chrono said so. >> She says.

She looks back to the distraught young woman and frowns. "What, that's horrible! But you can't wreck revenge just because....if..if everybody did, everyone would be missing limbs and eyes..." she says. Or something like that. She got the saying wrong.

"Oh! Bull then. But..." she frowns and calls out "Raising Heart, Set up!"

And she transforms on the spot, Raising Heart forming into her hand as she gently holds it downcast. Not to threaten with it.

"...Do we really need to fight?" she asks. "Over this?"

Miho Inada has posed:
    Yukihime takes a moment to stay hidden a bit. She blows up some snow up in air. "Friends of the Forest. Dance of the Snow Fairies!", she says. The snow turns into a small group of Shima-enagas. Yes, she just made some magical puff snow birds. They fly up to a roof top, giving Yukihime a birds' eye view of whats going on.

    Yukihime walks out into view. "Just who is her employee that's a youma?", she asks. The girl stretches a little bit, walking with her wolves, down towards Mai. She bows her head to those she knows as she starts to relax a little bit. The birds should help keep her alert to any attacks. Hopefully.

Yaling Yao has posed:
"Would this be enough for Nacchan?", Yaling mutters, taking rapid steps not to drop anything.

The bag of soil in Yaling's hands is big enough to cover her entire face, and occasionally there is a quiet thump, brought on by the irritated slaps of the fairy snake wrapped around her neck.

"Sorry, Shifu, I will get a bag soon enough", the green haired girl promises, bouncing the bag of dirt to give BaiBai some more space.

And then the Barrier drops, and the fairy's eyes widen in concern, at the same time Yaling mutters a simple "oh."

"That must wait. Do you feel ready, Yaling?", the snake asks her protegè, and she receive a eager nod in response. "Never been more ready!"

She extends her hand, and a flower blooms in her hand, taking the shape of her journal compact and pen. A scroll flows around her upon opening, floating in the air, waiting just for her next move, and her hand marks it with elegant green and white, showing the name Cure Suzhen for a second before the paper absorbs it.

The scroll shudders and retreats with a snap, leaving a jade pipa in its place. Serene notes spreading in the air from the magical instrument when Yaling starts playing it, and a flurry of white lotuses surround her. When they disperse, Cure Suzhen is standing in her place. "Wellness, Warmth and Wisdom from White Snake's Gaze! Historic Legacy! Cure Suzhen!"

"Who bothers making fake ants?", Cure Suzhen says with a headtilt, and leaps a bit closer to where Rashmi is staining Corona's shield with yellow energy. "Let's take a step back, alright? This is, well, a bit much!", the Historic Pretty Cure comes in at the end of the back-and-forth on the situation.

Souta Camero has posed:
    Souta THE COP watches Mai THE PERP yeet the ants into a shop where they just vanish and well... he knows what that means.

    "Littering is something Japan takes very seriously, miss...?" He glances to Mai, then Rashmi, then figures out the answer to his implied question by eavesdropping. "Corona, was it? You know... this was a pretty nice day. Are you sure you want to ruin it? I mean... you could just maybe talk to the woman in question? Try to reason things out?"

    Oh, Souta. So naive. Like a sweet summer child.

    "Tell you what. If you'd rather not do it yourself, tell us who your employee is and maybe we can speak to her on your behalf? I'm sure it's just a misunderstanding."

    Souta somehow doubts that will work, but it's worth a shot.

    Rashmi put something on her shield, and the Inspector frowns. He leaps from the ground onto the wall of a storefront and starts dashing along it to get in position behind Mai. If they're going to go into combat, he may as well get ready for it.

    "This could still very much be a nice day, you know. We can just clean up the ants, sort things out, and walk away with no hard feelings."

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
"From what I've seen, it might be easier to mention which of her employees aren't youma," Tsukiko replies to Yukihime while still keeping an eye on Corona. "Although I'm pretty sure Devices don't count as employees, so... well, in that case, there isn't a list to mention."

The wolfgirl scowls at the implication of the ant deployment, but doesn't comment about it... mostly to avoid potentially giving Mai ideas.

<< She's the type who would ruin someone's face just because other people think they're prettier than her, >> Tsukiko remarks to Nanoha with a mental grimace. << Petty, vindictive, and cruel. >>

Molly Skyline has posed:
<< THREAT: CORONOA DETECTED >> Starcrash reports as Molly enteres the barrier; and a red bracket with a >:( face next to it appears around the Dark Leftenant (Molly will be using the British spelling today and always). << RECOMMEND PRE-EMPTIVE STRIKE >>

"...Okay but she hasn't done anything yet," Molly points out. "I know you want me to be more... confident in battles, and you're trying to protect me, but getting me to just straight up initiate a fight isn't really the way to do either." Molly lets out a sigh and adds at a mumble, "Even if that's what I did to those three bullies the other day. ...And got my arse kicked for my trouble."

"But it was worth it."

Molly takes up a position high up in the sky, letting her wings hold herself in position while she considers her options. "Starcrash," she decides at last, "Charge Plasma Flare, ten second duration and hold the spell ready."

<< ARMED. HOLDING >>

With the spell ready, Molly drops out of the sky, plummeting at the maximum speed that she can allow without the landing being painful, and lands in a crouch beside Rashmi. She stands, shoulding her staff and resting her barrier jacket-clad prosthetic on her hip.

"Hey," she greets. "So... look, we could just work this out, right? the gummy bears were really cool, I'm sorry we destroyed them, but maybe this time we don't have to do violence?"

Koji Silvia has posed:
    From behind the half-mask covering his mouth, Hanzo says, "Some girls want a parfait and some tea. Some girls want to level a city block. And then some girls distort space and time to throw a tantrum."

With a shrug, he holds out one hand and begins closing his hand over the air, "Shin Hanzo..."

    << GEISTMESSER - DIFFUSION BLADE >>

    "Thank you."

    Within his grip a ghostly blue wakizashi-shaped energy blade appears, but the portion that would be the 'blade' has this odd blacklight edge to it. Swinging it a couple times in the air to test it out, the sword leaves a motion trail behind it, and he nods, "Not bad." And then he shrugs his shoulders, "Okay, let's do this."

    Anyone standing close feels something akin to a gust of wind as kinetic energy is amplified and displaced as the magical boy vanishes and is suddenly in the air, doing a falling slash right down on top of the shielded Mai, saying aloud, "HEADS UP TELENOVELA!"

Mai Elcamino has posed:
"You haven't even MET my employee yet, how DARE you call him a youma!" huffs Corona, her wings lifting her off the ground and bringing her up in the air too, sparkling gentle with her own energy at their heart, as yet only crackling dark energy at the edges of them. "He hasn't DONE anything! He's a little smarter than a cat! You just kill dark generals and their subordinates with impunity whether or not they're youma, I heard about what happened at Tomoe Life Sciences and Beryl Holdings--"

And then Nanoha's weighing in, and Mai's eyes flash again, dark eyes narrowing once more. "Nobody else has to do any revenging. I can do all the revenging. And we don't need to fight over this, no. We can all leave. I'm satisfied."

The dark energy's crackling harder now, and Corona flinches when she gets a splatterball of yellow on her lovely purple shield, and she looks REALLY INSULTED, producing a flip-flop from ... between her hands?? and she THROWS IT at Rashmi. It's not even magic. It's just stunningly accurately aimed. And then she pulls her hands apart again and produces something else, clapping her hands together to disappear it again. Her eyes gleam, and a glowing halo and crown of black and white and purple roses manifests around her head, ghostly and beautiful, and she sighs, ahhhhhhh.

"You see? I have not committed a magical crime, yet I have the magic police after me. Sailor Moon herself told me that if it wasn't scorpions and it wasn't dark energy cucarachas it was fine!" Corona yells, arms crossed again. Her shield crackles dark lightning across it again, and she glares over her shoulder at Souta. "Don't kettle me, cop!"

She flings her arms out to her sides and rises higher, closer to the glass ceiling. Ha ha. "Soy mejor que vosotras perras," she sneers harder. "I'm an angel. I'm a saint. I'm--"

Under attack from the "TRAITOR. How do you like it in Japan? Are they nice to you?" bellows Mai at Koji in her husky voice as his nanoblade of energy scratches a zappy groove through her shield of energy. "I would be HAP-PY to leave. I came out to have a good time, BUT SOMEONE ATTACKED ME," she singsongs then, and she sounds only slightly aggrieved. She's starting to sound triumphant, which is probably worrisome. "Just remember, I didn't start it with you idiots today~~"

And she KICKS at Koji from above, trying to send him face first into the ground hard enough to make him take the subway, just with dark energy henshin strength. But then she adds something else. "Exemplary Barrets!" she yells and spins in the air with her hands out to her sides, shooting at everybody.

Her barrets are shaped like little skulls now, and when they zip through the air they leave trails of dissipating white rose energy-petals that gently float into nothingness as they're left in the barrets' wake.

They also really, really, really, really pack WAY TOO MUCH of a punch.

Nanoha Takamachi has posed:
Nanoha Takamachi blinks and looks at Koji. "Huh!? Why did you do that!?" she frowns and looks to Rashmi and looks BETRAYED too as she takes to the sky, trying to evade the skulls as she frowns and just barely evades, the hem of her barrier jacket burning a little as she turns around. "I'm sorry about that but now there's no choice... isn't there?" she says sadly.

"Hammer Shot!" she calls out as she fires off a small series of shots, like a shot gun slug of energy from the tip of Raising Heart.

"Stop, please!" she says. "Before this gets worse somehow for everyone...!" she calls out.

Koji Silvia has posed:
    The upgrades to the Barrier Jacket do help some against that kick, which just like the shield, is much much MUCH stronger than it looks. Which means while Hanzo was just MOST of the way down through to the underground train terminal, a flying V of purple Barrets not only knock him down all the way into the tiled flooring below... the second to last one cracks the tiles, and the last hit leaves the Devicer in a crater, smoking, and unconscious.

    *DING*

    "The 19:15 train to Shinjuku will arrive in 1 minute. Please step back from the platform so passengers may disembark. Thank you."

*DING*

    The message repeats in English.

     And even in dark magic warped time-space, lacking any of said passengers...

    ...the trains are meticiously on-time.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"HOW EVEN IS ANTS IN THE SHOP JUSTICE?!" Rashmi hollers, once again baited into utter infuriation by the fact that Corona not only cannot be reasonable, but *refuses* to be so hard that trying to talk to her like a reasonable person is doomed to fail. The chancla that comes at her is caught -- with no little surprise at how *hard* the object could be thrown -- and tossed back.

When she produces something, then disappears it only to manifest... a crown? Of roses? Made of *magic?!* ...it throws Rashmi for a loop, distracted a bit by the sheer confusion. << Nicomachea, run analysis on th--WHOA! >>

Barrets fly out in all directions, and the first couple are dodged -- barely -- by a single panicked swoop, but the sheer strength of the spell could still be *felt* crackling past her face.

It's the third and fourth that get her, though... One to the gut, shoving Rashmi's breath out in a sickened croak, and another hits her leg like a speeding truck, sending her spinning back to slam into the building behind her.

<< Okay... so, >> she struggles to say in the comms net. << Engaging was a bad idea... Souta-san...? Do you have *any* idea what that was?! >>

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
<< I'm not particularly well-versed on theology, but which religion has an angel of pettiness? >> Tsukiko asks the others, mostly rhetorically. That said, the new visuals are a bit unnerving -- not necessarily from the looks themselves, but the fact that they don't seem to be mere cosmetic flair.

And then the attacks start, and the wolfgirl is busy dodging blasts, especially when the evaded shots start leaving noticeable dents in the Barrierscape. "Definitely not going to be chewing on those!" she yelps.

But between the sheer volume of Barrets and their progressively improving aim, Tsukiko only manages to postpone getting hit, and eventually loses her footing, which makes it easier for the rest of the Barrets to lock on, which results in her getting juggled across the ground for most of the block.

<< ...asides from painful? >> the wolfgirl winces in agreement with Rashmi.

Souta Camero has posed:
    "I mean it's not really kettling when you can just fly," defends the Inspector. Barring her from leaving wasn't exactly the point of his maneuver so much as getting ready for a fight, but well... whatever his intentions were don't really matter now do they?

    Skull Barrets are coming out at him, at all of them, and he doesn't have enough time or energy to shield everyone. Reflexively he calls out, "Round Shield" as she dashes to the side, but as his shield goes up it gets impacted a lot more than he expected and... well... wow. A few hits in and his shield is shattered. The next hit strikes his barrier jacket and sends him into a wall leaving a Souta-shaped hole behind him.

    Tch. Ouch.

    < Up and at 'em, Champ. >

    "I know, I know..." he says, pushing aside a bit of rubble before picking himself up. Rashmi is asking him a question, and Souta forwards it to his Device. << I mean it could be any number of things, but... Paradise Spectrum? Any idea? >>

    < Scanning Database for known Lost Logia matching description... Estimated time: 5 minutes. >

    Well that's not great. Meanwhile, there's still a battle to fight. As Souta walks out of the hole he just made, or rather the hole that Corona made by launching him, he says, "Alright. Now I'm kettling you. Paradise Chain!"

    < Confirmed >

    Glowing green energy chains rise up out of the ground around Mai, reaching up into the air to wrap around her with the intent of binding her down. Of course, if she's getting enough of a power boost, they might just break.

Miho Inada has posed:
    Yukihime wasn't exactly expecting an attack. She had some defenses in place, but things are happening much faster then she thought they would. So much so that she is left undefended when the sudden attack happens. The mahou doesn't even have a chance to move her wolves before the first hit happens. Her wolves instantly poof, as does the birds. The beads go back to her wrist, before several more hit Yukihime.

    Yukihime is lifted off the ground, and gets bounced around a bit. The final skull smashes into Yukihime, and sends her flying back into a store window. The window shatters as the girl slams into a counter in the back of the store. The counter is smashed, but not as smashed as Yukihime is at the moment. She tries to get up, but finds things are...rather difficult. The world is spinning, and her arm feels...funny.

    Yukihime struggles to get up, but she just...can't find her feet at the moment. She tries to lift her arm to help herself up, but it doesn't seem to move. She looks at her shoulder, and it looks...odd. She blinks a few times. Then the pain hits her hard! OW! She must of tried to do a break fall when she hit the counter by instinct. And well, yeah, it didn't break her fall...It did...find a new location to sit at...

Molly Skyline has posed:
So her barrets are shaped like skulls now? ...Well honestly, Mai has always been super way over the top so that doesn't seem at all out of the ordinary at all. But, it is an attack coming in so she mentally instructs Starcrash to raise a shield anyway; nothing too fancy, she is an artillery mage afterall and not a defensive specialist, but it out to be enou--

The barret that hits Molly slams straight through her shield and the only reason she doesn't shriek as she's sent skidding across the ground on her back (sparks flying) is the fact that the air got taken out of her lungs. She wheezes for a moment, laying where she comes to rest, while << BARRIER JACKET AT 69% >> helpfully pops up along the bottom of her Battle Visor.

"What... that?!" she gasps, rolling onto her side so she can push herself back up to her feet. "Starcrash, f-... Fi-..."

Why is that word suddenly hard to say?

The purplenette takes a step back. She looks down, at her right hand. Her hand is shaking again. Someone is talking. ...It's Starcrash, telling her to breath. He's raised another shield for her too, without being asked. How did that hit so hard? She can't hit that hard. She doesn't need to ask Rashmi to have Nicomachea analyze the attack to know that. She could unload dozens of barrets into Mai and it wouldn't compete with that. Any thought of accusing Mai of being extra over the appearance of her barrets dies on the vine.

But she's still here, with her friends, and has to fight, even if her heart is racing, filled with terror of what could happen, thoughts grown in the fertile soil of what did happen. She chose to be here afterall.

"Fire," she whispers at last, and a crackling arc of searing plasma erupts from her staff, striking Mai's shield where the little yellow stain sits, and lasting for ten seconds.

...And she already knows that won't be enough.

Mai Elcamino has posed:
On firing, the rose crown flickers away, and Mai looks-- looks like she's gonna clap her hands again, is what. The crown comes back. She grins, eyes flashing in merriment, even as the Hammer Shots from Nanoha hit on Rashmi's magnet spot and on the spot where Koji 'chipped' the energy shield with alarming force. A bigger crack forms. She's still gloating over Koji's still form. "This little pendejo needs to stop saying telenovela like it is an insult," she says in satisfaction at his massive faceplant, at everyone getting so smashed up just from her barrets. "He can roll in the dirt where he belongs."

Then she starts laughing, swooping around in there until Souta calls out a bind and catches her in it, at which she starts laughing harder, forced in a fake-it-til-you-make-it way.

Until the last sustained energy beam from Molly...

...pops Mai's bubble and the binding spell clutches her instead of her Apex Shield. Then her rosy crown glows bright and her wings are raised and she laughs again but it sounds drunk this time, drunk on power. With her feet on the ground and the glowing green energy chains keeping her there, Mai raises her voice,

Corona's voice calls out with all the confident rightness that comes from absolute conviction, husky and deep, "Pelotillero! You know. You know. In my own name, I call upon the power of my father and the fury of my mother to protect me and punish my enemies! Let the abyss open wide below and the heavens collapse from above!" Her voice raises an octave as she laaaaughs and laughs, "APEX MUERTE!"

In the sudden silence, Pelotillero's prissy little voice echoes.

<< ding~! >> << AFFIRMATIVE, MISTRESS~! APEX MUERTE! >>

Nanoha Takamachi has posed:
Nanoha Takamachi frowns and says. "They shouldn't say that, you're angry. I get that. But--but surely.... there's a better way to handle this?" she says.

She's frowns. "Look...L--"

"LISTEN TO ME!" She calls out as she levies Raising Heart and starts charging... "DIVINE....!"

< Div- >

On the second part of the Aria, Mai's bombardment shatters into her and she screeches out in pain. Everything burns and she suddenly, with a sudden flash, is out of her barrier jacket.

In the air.

She starts freefalling down. This is gonna hurt some more in a moment.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
*Clapping hands* precedes the boost... Once again, Rashmi is distracted by the odd gesture, and the *evident powerup* gained from it. Another screen bwips to life above the status symbols, and information begins to scroll--

--and is *immediately* disregarded because THAT IS AN ARIA and there's only one thing that aria can hail. About the same time that Nanoha is desperately trying to get an attack off, Rashmi's Barrier Jacket glows golden, reforming into its Exia Mode configuration as she swoops down to street level.

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

There's no time for Index augments, no time for tricksy strategies and clever attack vectors; Corona's finisher is coming, and Rashmi gathers as many people as possible under a shield of golden, spiky ice. She can only hope it's enough, as Nicomachea's analysis continues.

It *has* to be enough.

'APEX MUERTE!'

*It won't be enough.*

That is the last thought that goes through Rashmi's head, as what would normally level a city block but is now *boosted,* impacts her best, strongest Shield and is held at bay... for maybe three seconds.

Then the ice is wrenched into golden dust, and there's a moment of blinding pain before the world just... goes away.

Rashmi is unconscious before she can even fall to her knees, and when she hits the pavement she is *absolutely* out.

Koji Silvia has posed:
    Coming conscious hurts...

    << ...IR. >>

    << ...SIR. >>

     << W_K ...P BOSS. >>

    Koji's eyes blearily flutter open, and his ears catch the muffled sound of someone sounding off an attack that sounds both big, bad, and by the lightshow he's just barely making out... probably fatal.

    Part of him, the part that's still kicking himself for being that brash, and showing off, wants to just close his eyes and take it. The rest of the vocal majority is either going 'OW!' or is telling him there's something he can see up there.

    Someones are falling...

    Eyes refocus just a bit with the thudding of his heart so loud it continues to muffle all other noise, and the the double-vision managed to snap back into place to see it's a very small and very un-Jacketed Nanoha.

    He can barely say it, so he just mouths to words, or he says it and he just can't hear it over the tinnitus and the heartbeat, as he points one and up at the young mage.

    << CHAIN BIND. >>

    Two circles appear one on each side of Hanzo, and lance out, each with a kunai-tip. But instead of hitting Nanoha, they wrap around her and then yank her at speed down underground. At Hanzo's chest a small hex shield appears and when it connects, it steals almost all of the girl's momentum with a little magical *PUFF* of disapparation.

    Arms around her, the best he can do it turns himself, plant a boot, and then Flash Step as far out of the line of fire as he can, taking one rail to the back of the Barrier Jacket as he bounces them into the earthquake-proof tunnel.

Souta Camero has posed:
    The bind holds, but not for long. That second load provided just enough evidence for Paradise Spectrum to narrow down the list substantially. < Target Identified: Cartridge System. >

    To other devices in the area, Paradise starts transmitting relevant data. Though right now there is a heavy amount of emphasis on how much of a power spike these things cause as well as precise calculations on how likely Corona is to wipe the floor with all of them. That's a very high percentage, and it keeps ticking closer 100 as that bombardment is released and people start falling.

    << Takamachi-san! >> he calls out, seeing her fall. He scans her for a moment to see that she's probably not going to die or anything. It's still non-lethal Midchildian magic, and he sees someone else going in for the rescue. Instead, he targets as many of his allies as he can.

    << Paradise Spectrum, Shield Spark as many as you can. Prioritize the wounded, the support and back row combatants. >>

    < Confirmed. Shield Spark, Repeat Cast. >

    One by one, motes of green mana fly out of the twin tonfas on Souta's arms, spreading out as each one chases after an allied mahoujin to place a shield in front of them. Thinned out as he is, he likely can't cover everyone in time, but he's certainly going to try.

    He's in no position to launch a counter attack right now. He forgets to protect himself as the spell hits him and well, he's out too.

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
Tsukiko shakily gets to her feet, sizing up her options. Her legs are hurt, she's scuffed up with road rash, and at this point she's at the far end of the shotengai. She might be able to get back up to speed if she dashes back in, although the acceleration take longer than usual due to the leg injuries.

Before she can decide on a course of action, Corona essentially makes the decision for her. The distance to the potential defense of Rashmi's shield is too high to be a practical option, so the wolfgirl dives for the structural cover of the Barrier'd building, hoping it'll withstand the blast.

    (it doesn't)

Miho Inada has posed:
    Yukihime blinks a few times. She sees the attack coming, but she can't lift her right arm. The arm that holds her naginata, when she's guiding her wolves. And given she can't call her wolves at the moment, this leaves her literally defenseless. Not enough time to gather her magic into the dire wolves, even if she could use her right arm. A snow bunny comes over with her phone. She sends a quick text over to Amy.

<<Well, umm s***...sorry >>

    Yukihime hits send before the attack smashes into the building. She lifts her left hand. Some blue fog comes out of her mouth, before she blows some snow off her hand. Several snow bunnies come out, and run off. She sends all her magic into them as they run off. "Hopefully...They can find Rashmi, and she can...fix everyone.", Yukihime whispers. The attack slams into her, and destroys her phone. The henshin drops, and Miho is found...behind the building. She really wishes she used the door instead of the wall to leave the building though.

    Miho is fighting to stay concious as hopefully her bunnies can find Rashmi. However...they're already melting very fast as her magic is fading quickly. Miho is thinking the ground next to her...is looking...very...soft...She lays there, KO'd...

Molly Skyline has posed:
Molly doesn't need the warning flashing urgently on her Battle Visor to tell her that there's a massive attack incoming. This, she knows. She's also quite well aware that there really isn't any sort of shield she can raise that will help. She takes a few steps to join Rashmi under her shield, even though she's pretty confident that won't help much either, and it takes a lot for her to suspect that Rashmi's support won't be enough.

"Starcrash charge Stellar Barrage," she instructs in a hurry, "Lots of barrets all the mana disengage safeties!"

<< ARMED. RECOMMEND RETREAT >>

"Not while my friends are in the field!" And Rashmi's shield is already getting hammered. Hard. "FIRE!!"

With a shaking hand Molly's staff erupts into the best, hurried offense she can manage. As Rashmi's shield fails, Souta's takes its place protecting her. It lasts long enough for her to get off a few more barrets before it fails; then Molly's own Breakwall gets activated, and it saves her for... another two seconds.

And then she screams, taking the full brunt of the assault against her already damaged Barrier Jacket. She's on her knees, then her stomach, as Starcrash slips from her grasp and clatters on the ground. The lenses of her glasses crack as she lands face-down; and she struggles to pull herself forwards but can't.

This feeling is familiar. The last time she felt like this... She woke up as Seriss Nyx.

That thought echoes in her mind, as her vision narrows to a point and she plummets into unconsciousness.

Mai Elcamino has posed:
"Ugh. Apex Shield," Corona says as they start trying to fire back at her.

<< ding~! >> << YES, MISTRESS~! UGH APEX SHIELD. >>

She looks so pleased as, one by one, they fall. She looks SO delighted as they all lose. She has lost way too many times to them. Unfortunately for her, Mai has literally no idea it's not a TPK, here, because she's faceblind and didn't count how many people she was fighting, and doesn't notice that both Nanoha and the previously-out Koji are missing from the visible collapsed losers.

She gloats. She gah-loats. "Sucks to suck I guess, I wouldn't know," she says, but that's unsatisfying because they're all unconscious.

"Well, whatever, have fun with ants and screaming people."

She adjusts her hat, then drops the barrier after lifting off the ground from the vanished chains. As she flies away, there are indeed ants and screaming people.