Scene #2911: A Ticking Time Bomb

Owner	Pose
KeyLimePie	It's one of the colder evenings of the winter thus far, with nearly a dozen of Japan's winter resorts receiving over a hundred inches of snow, and Tokyo itself being graced with flurries of frost and frigid rains. It's the sort of day that sees most desperate to stay within their homes, unwilling to risk their health in braving the weather. Mahoujin are not often lucky enough to have that option, though, and Puella Magi are for good reason considered the least lucky among the bunch. A Puella ''needs'' to fight, if they want to stay alive, after all. Amy will feel the sense of the witch in Penguin Park, tucked between two trees, near a picnic bench, the perfect place for people to innocently (and accidentally) enter, becoming a prey. The portal is nearly invisible, cast in shadow as it is by the trees and the dark rain clouds overhead, but she of all people will definitely be able to find it.
Amy Faust	It's been a long time since snow days were a regular occurance. Amy grew up where you could easily expect 1-3 big snows a year, but Japan... Walking around campus in the snow has just reminded her of the blizzard ''last'' junior year, wandering around a winter wonderland seeing people throwing snowballs and making snowmen... It was neat to ''see'' this much snow in Tokyo, until the frigid rains came. Then Amy wanted to hurry inside... but she felt it. It's her duty, and she'll need a grief seed soon. Text: I sense a Witch in the direction of Penguin Park. She doesn't notice that a bit of freezing rain on the screen stops it from registering her 'send' push as she slips the phone back into her belt pouch and sets off. Being Magic certainly does help against the weather, but it's still unpleasant, trudging and leaping through slush as freezing rain comes down. By the time she reaches the park, it's not falling as hard, but she's still kind of soaked, water getting in around the edges of her conjured raincoat. She thinks she sees the portal, but stops and triple-checks, triangulating from a couple of different points using the Witch-tracking technique she was taught so long ago. And almost as long ago, she was given the advice: Never enter a Witch's Labyrinth alone. She assumed it had been passed down from Puella Magi to Puella Magi since time immemorial. But now... why is no one coming? A minute ticks by, then two. More and more, the thought of people ''already'' inside the Labyrinth begins to weigh on her. If there are any, then her hesitation might get them killed... She approaches close to the portal, squinting as if it might be somehow possible to see through it if she tries hard enough. "Is..." she starts to call out, but feels silly standing there in a park talking to apparently no one. Screw it. "IS ANYONE IN THERE?!" she tries calling. ...Can that even work? This has never been tested. Where ''is'' everyone?!
KeyLimePie	Initially, there's no one there to answer Amy. No one to speak up, no one to comment. There are still a ''few'' people around, but most of them are at working at the various attractions in the park - museum staff for the three museums, zoo staff, cleaning staff who have hurriedly wandered in search of shelter rather than get drenched. If someone is there, they aren't in sight, that's for sure. There's just the soaked park, the brief snow of the day melting away under the frigid rain, sure to leave piles of ice behind later.
Mamoru Chiba	At that moment. Half a second after Amy checks, she can hear jogging up the path, splashing cold and gross with every step, and a jostling phone flashlight looking for reflections on the asphalt and in the dead grass. But that jogger hears the HELLO? and veers off toward Amy. "Amy?" It's Mamoru, and no wonder he didn't look right, he's wearing the big poncho over his leather jacket and he's got an umbrella up, and in the dark, who the hell knows. "Oh, shit. Earth Crystal Power, Make Up!" He's henshining as he jogs the rest of the way, dark colors and sparkles and jewel-toned lights fading into the evening's wintry mix of weather and the darkness. "Do you want me to call for more help or you think we can take her?"
Amy Faust	Amy turns to the jogger. "...Mamoru?!" She glances over him as he henshins, and waves him over. "I already called for help..." She looks at the little distortion in the air. "...Aside from Walpurgisnacht, I've yet to meet a Witch I probably can't beat if I dump enough magic into it..." She glances at the gem on the back of her glove's wrist, already tinged with some small fraction -- an eighth, a tenth? -- of cloudy darkness. "I mean, as long as she doesn't pull some trick like making the boss arena underwater or something. Or there being two Witches and everywhere inside is on fire." Beat. "...You were really out here jogging, in ''this'' weather? Do you think anyone else was?" She looks to him, then back to the portal. "I've been waiting a couple of minutes already. If..." She reaches a hand out towards the portal, anxiously, imagining anyone in there... If he doesn't say anything about going in or take action, after a few more seconds, she can't take the thought anymore. "Two is probably enough. Exponentially better than one, for sure. We'll work it out..." and she moves to step through.
Mamoru Chiba	"I lost my earring on my way back from the museum," Tuxedo Mask explains, "so on the off chance it was shiny enough to find on the ''rain slick ground'' with a phone flashlight..." He shrugs one shoulder. "Don't think I'll find it. Glad I was looking, though." He looks around the park, too, and tucks his hands under his arms, for once wearing the top hat. The brim is wide enough, at least, that the icy rain isn't dripping into his collar. He frowns. "Yeah let's go in. I'm gonna try to focus on you so I know which way is up, but I might need to actually tag you physically with a hand on the reg. I should have more practice in Witches without my bunnies or my boys." Determined look! This is gonna go GREAT. They go in together.
KeyLimePie	Labyrinths are always bizarre places, the world topsy-turvy and not quite right, and this one is no different - it's strange, for lack of a better description, strange, loud, and full of chaos. As Tuxedo Kamen and Red materialize into the space, they find themselves on a papercraft pirate ship, solid beneath their feet in spite of the fact that they can ''see'' that it's a two-dimension construct of paper stacked together to create height. They're walking on it and it's under their feet but it's also two dimension and the world is two dimension - A cannonball is fired and nearly clicks them and it ''too'' is two-dimensional, circles of paper stacked atop one another to create an illusion of a true sphere, and it's actually moving towards them but there are also literal paper lines appearing behind it, stacks of them and moving, motion lines that are there in real life to see. There's water beneath them, waves, all papercraft. The world they've entered is two dimensional paper, and they are on it's dimensional axis, in spite of the fact that they are still themselves three-dimensional. And as they take all of that in, the cannons continue to fire on them. They're coming from the other ships - they're captured in a ship's battle, multiple cannons firing, not just on them, but on the flying papercraft figures darting about through the air, green and blue and humanoid but not, fey and agile. They never get hit, these figures, darting about with all the coordination of a stage play, but Tuxedo Kamen and Red aren't a part of the production, and ''they'' don't know where to dodge to avoid disrupting the performance. Above them, behind them, around them, comes the sound: tick. tock. tick. tock. Consistent as a metronome, unignorable.
Amy Faust	Focus on her to know which way is up? Her thoughts flash across her face -- Confusion, and then 'oh right', and then 'oh, so you'll have to find your way around like the rest of us' and then 'but we should stay together anyway' and 'wait, I wonder if he's actually bad at navigation without them the same way I'm bad at social stuff' "Stay close." Is what she says, as they step through. Papercraft world. It's been awhile since they had a ''really'' visually fucky Witch, and this one is messing with perspective in a way that makes her head hurt if she thinks about it but that she seems to be able to operate in if she ''doesn't'' overthink it and just treats it like videogame visuals or something. At the sound of the cannon she turns that way and crouches, lowering her center of mass and starting to step aside, although it missed anyway, just barely. Wait, the cannonball is 3D and the motion lines behind it are angled but the ship deck-- Amy shakes her head. Don't think about it. "You uh, you doin' OK?" She reaches for her belt pouch but there's no time for binoculars to look at the other ships, but there's no time, there's more cannonballs. After a couple of seconds of dodging Amy starts ''testing'' the cannonballs, shooting them first with non-explosive gyrojets from her pistol, then scaling up to what most would consider a bolter round and then to an HE shell fired from her shoulder launcher, trying to determine if she can knock them out of the sky and if they behave like paper, metal, or something else. And all the while, tick tock. "Is this a Peter Pan thing? Is that ticking coming from a crocodile?" She's so focused on the projectiles that she's not looking around in other directions or closely at anything else, for the moment.
Mamoru Chiba	Maybe it's a mistake, but Tuxedo Kamen briefly sags in relief when ''at least the gravity works like gravity'' and at least there's ''air'' and everything's not on fire and it could be so much worse in so many ways and it's not the eye-ful bog witch-- and then he realizes that he's also got the relief of pressure from the everpresent incipient migraine of the Nightmare Nexus having moved to Tokyo, and-- --he does himself the favor of jamming his earplugs in before stumbling out of the initial line of fire, then catching himself, no, no, he doesn't want to figure it out, even if it's beautiful, because stopping to figure it out is how to die to it. It's ''beautiful''. He's ''so sorry''. "More okay than I thought I'd be. It's probably the Witch's heartbeat," he says a little grimly, starting to fling roses at the cannonballs petals-first to cancel their momentum. "Tuxedo Rose Exfoliation! It's certainly the heartbeat of the Labyrinth, of this world within a world-- Tuxedo Rose Exfoliation! Everything but us is moving to it. Tuxedo Rose Exfoliation! I want to figure it out! I want to know the steps of the dance. Tuxedo Rose Exfoliation! But I don't think we should. We have to just stop her. Tuxedo Rose Exfoliation!" Apparently to Mamoru this means 'blow everything up': he abruptly crouches down on the deck and places his hands against it, glowing. He can't ''sense'' things in here like he can outside, but the deck is for all other intents and purposes 'the ground'-- he hopes. "Tuxedo la Smoking Crater!"
Miho Inada	It's the type of night for a ice and snow mahou to come out and play. Cold weather, and snow. Perfect for the Yuki-Onna know as Yukihime. Miho decided to henshin, and go out and about. She drifts in the wind a bit as she snowports around the city. Its not long before she feels something nagging her a bit. Something not quite right with the area. So, she goes heads to where the issue is. Its not long before she sees Red and Mask as they seem to be looking at something. After a few seconds, Yukihime snowports down. She follows the pair into the paper world. She blinks a few times as she stares a bit. Her voice comes out soft and gentle, carrying a bit like the wind a bit. "Is...this a witch's lair?", she asks. Yukihime looks...very confused as she looks around. She is definitely not used to this environment. "Are we...in a notebook?" The mahou takes a moment to formally bow to Red and Mask. "I sensed something wrong, and followed you in. May I assist?", she quietly asks as she stays behind the pair. Yukihime is wondering just how would her magic work in here...For now, she focuses on trying to stay out of the path of the cannonballs.
KeyLimePie	The shots that Red fires are variably effective - though it seems like it's more about her intent and aim rather than the type of weaponry. Whatever she fires off with more aim to ''stop'', whatever takes proper energy like an attack, is able to bounce away the paper cannons, some of them falling into the water (creating paper splash patterns), others exploding in mid-air, pieces shattering in papercraft displays rather than burning up. The glittery roses have the former effect, creating splashes and sending the cannons flying away, and the interaction seems to gather the attention of the darting figures, because they soar closer, even as the cannons keep firing, weaving between them as they get closer. This ''would'' seem to be a Peter Pan thing, by the way - the figures are spritely and fey, faceless. The green figure is in pants and a leafy-looking tunic, straps of paper the color of leather tying the clothing together, and the one in blue is in a layered paper dress, hair streaming behind her, moving in ripples of stacked paper. As Tuxedo Kamen slaps his hand on the deck of the ship, it ''erupts'' outwards, paper tearing apart, and for a moment, the world itself has a hole in it, an impossible tear that yawns open and devours, an impossibility - three dimensions in a two dimensional plane, like trying to see the fourth dimension even as the mind rejects it. Then the hole is fixed and the papercraft ship is sinking into the papercraft water, and the green spritely figure dives and grabs Yukihime about the shoulders, taking off into the air with her. From the hole in the ship - now purposeful, now papercraft, now revealing water - leaps a great paper crocodile, mouth gaping wide as it lunges for Tuxedo Kamen. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. It isn't coming from the crocodile, but the world itself.
Amy Faust	The cannonballs are easy to stop or destroy as long as that is your intent, and do not behave as if they have consistent mass and makeup. ''Weird''. But makes its own kind of sense, in lines with Amy's early theories about the nature of Witches' Labyrinths. May I assist? "Miho?!" Amy stares at her in surprise. Then answers, looking a bit concerned, "Of course, although my opinion is academic: None of us are leaving unless ''she'' lets us, or we kill her." Then her expression softens slightly, and she reaches for the yuki-onna's hand. "Miho-chan--" "[Shit!]" Amy swears as she has to dodge more cannonfire before their fingers make contact, and 'Peter' swoops in trying to nab her. "Familiars!" Amy warns, firing rocket-bullets up at them from the pistol in her hands. "Guess it ''is'' a Peter Pan thing..." She doesn't expect them to do much the first few shots, but then remembers the weird cannonballs and focuses on conceptualizing it like... It's like in Undertale. She is a human with determination -- monster magic means nothing, if she well and truly intends to kill them. (And there's a bit of bleed from the old thought of seeing herself as a magical Witch-slaying machine, her new body and capabilities ''designed'' for this.) Of course, there's no guaruntee that Familiars will follow the same logic as what may have literally been set dressing. Perhaps, in this Labyrinth's logic, even if all this world's a stage, the Familiars are Players as much as the intruders. Also there's a hole in the world but -- as it isn't ''growing'' -- Amy's focus is drawn to the Familiar trying to take Yukihime. "Hey! Let her go!" The words 'she's MY girlfriend!' float through her mind as what a script would call for if this were an anime, but that sounds weirdly possessive wait did she ''seriously'' just say 'let her go' while they're flying over water "Wait, don't--" If Yukihime ''is'' dropped over water, Amy's outfit changes to flight mode and she tries to catch her and bring her to the nearest deck. Mamoru is fighting something that is perhaps a crocodile out of the corner of her eye, and Amy just trusts he can handle another Familiar for a few seconds while she's distracted. (It's not the Witch, there were no boss titles.)
Mamoru Chiba	Tuxedo Mask absolutely lets Amy deal with Miho; he just stares at the yuki-onna magical girl, then shakes his head, the ship has a HOLE IN THE WORLD in it and he has to take advantage of that, he has to make it bigger, has to-- This idiot prince is >< close to jumping in lasers blasting but it's too fast (thank goodness really), and then the ship he's on is sinking, which, to be fair, he did actually expect, he just left it to be future him's problem. He is now future him, and future him actually has bigger problems than the sinking ship; he doesn't even NOTICE Yukihime getting yoinked because there's a giant papercraft crocodile coming at him murder-first. He's instantly up in the air, the jaws snapping shut three millimeters below the toes of his fancy shoes as Mamoru launches himself upwards. He one thousand percent aims for the crow's nest, and ten thousand percent yells, deliberately irregularly offbeat with every syllable, "tUxEdO La suMoKiNgu BoM bAaaAa!!" He's hanging over the paper railing of the crow's nest with one hand curled around it and the other shooting a giant fricking laser at the crocodile. "WHAT SHOULD I KNOW ABOUT PETER PAN!" he yells Amy-wards.
Miho Inada	Yukihime was starting to reach for Red's hand before 'Peter' decides it needs a girlfriend. Normally Yukihime would be paying more attention to things, but well, this witch...is very distracting. Yukihime is just lost in how everything looks, so not paying attention as she gets kidnapped! EEEP! She pauses. "I'm not a...Dammit...I am a princess. I'm not going to another castle!", she yells out as she gets Familiarnapped. "Wait wait wait! Do not drop me into the water! Bad idea! Bad idea!", she calls out. Yukihime latches onto the familiar! "Do not let me go! Red! Mask! Help!", she calls out. Yukihime is not much of a front line fighter. And lacks a certain amount of strength, so she's flailing uselessly at the familiar. The mahou just looks down at the water. "What does peanut butter have to do with a witch?!", Yukihime calls out.
KeyLimePie	Peter Pan and Wendy Darling flit through the air, dodging bullets, and getting struck by a few, which blow holes in them. Wendy Darling patpats Peter Pan wherever she finds holes, but he just preens as they fly off, and offers her a thimble for ever hole she in turn receives. Peter Pan weighed down by Yukihime but not seeming to let that bother him - brings them down, half-dunking Yukihime in the papercraft ocean, which gets her wet ''and'' gives her papercuts (they hurt like regular papercuts, nothing excessively damaging) which is just a bit unfair. He soars up, higher, and Wendy Darling trails after him, the both of them laughing even though they don't have mouths, and they move a bit like stock motion figures, on beat with the tick and tock of the world. Red yells for Yukihime to be let go and he lets out a peel of laughter audible over the fire of cannons and lets her go. Wendy Darling catches her once she's dropped a dozen feet in the air, and swings her back towards Peter Pan, the two of them playing keep away as Red in her flight mode tries to get Yukihime back. There are more of them - Lost Boys who fly out to try and join the game or divebomb Amy - but the other Peter Pans and Wendy Darlings are lurking back, like understudies on a stage production. The crocodile that's come after Tuxedo Kamen sinks back into the hole, only to jump back up - And eat the off-beat Tuxedo La Smoking Bomber, the beam shooting right through it and yet somehow ricocheting off the paper pieces it's made of, trapped and bouncing, and Mamoru might realize that ''it's off beat''. The world is tick tocking and the beam is tock ticking and the crocodile familiar is neither dead nor alive, frozen in mid-air and jerking back and forth as the beam ricochets, an actor pulled out off stage.
Amy Faust	Amy flies to intercept, and Wendy nabs Yukihime first, and Amy stares, open-mouthed, for a second, hovering, and then looks mad. Yes, she's had bullies mess with her in the past, and she's also acutely aware that with her current flight method hovering in shock for a second just wasted a tiny bit of her soul. WHAT DO I NEED TO KNOW ABOUT PEANUT BUTTER?! Amy, angry at the familiars, shouts back, "I don't know where to start! Island of unaging kids, fairy with flying dust... there's pirates! If the clock isn't the crocodile, it has to do with Captain Hook! If he's not a familiar, does the Witch see herself in ''his'' place?!" She's too distracted to think about ''why'' would a Puella Magi see herself as Captain Hook, right now Magical Rocket Girl Red is too busy chasing Peter and Wendy and filling them with holes that don't seem to ''do'' anything while her soul gem ticks down. Like, she could fly for ''minutes'' with her current technique before Witching if she doesn't use any Finishers, but she ''knows'' her life is ticking down-- Especially when the whole WORLD goes: Tick, tock, tick, tock... Yes, she ''has'' been firing close to the beat without thinking. It's hard not to get pulled along. "Bullies! Ugh! You're not even real kids, you're just their cruelty! Is this really ''happy thoughts'' to you?!" She hasn't even had a moment to think about or respond to how ''jarringly, gratingly'' arhythymic that Tuxedo la Smoking Bomber was, but does notice out of the corner of her eye that the familiar is ''stuck'', taking constant damage like Tuxedo Mask just used the Rockman 1 Thunder Beam pause trick on it. She tries shooting on the off-beats, but... that's just a form of rhythym too! Maybe if she tries an attack with a call out? AU RA PIL --f***! She fell into a rhythym again! This is actually really hard!
Mamoru Chiba	Up in the crow's nest of the sinking ship, Tuxedo Mask fumbles in his pockets and comes up with some hard candy, which he jams in his mouth and then--jumps, far, far, across the water, so high, his parabolic arc aiming to come down in the middle of the water, he'll get horrible papercuts and a tremenjus splash, won't he? I SAY THEE NAY, he ''superjumps off the water'' toward the next ship, and all the way, he's getting his phone out and jamming through his music collection, the stuff actually on his phone instead of what he needs to stream for, and he pulls up ... Positive Mental Attitude by Kemuri, which has a much faster BPM and emphasizes the backbeat. "RED!" he yells, "MEGAPHONE A WALTZ! Tuxedo la Smoking--" He lands on the deck "--CRATER!" of the next closest ship with both feet flat and a hand on the ground in front of him, a perfectly poised three point landing.
Miho Inada	Yukihime gets half dunked, and she gets several papercuts. She winces a bit, and growls a bit. "OW! Lets not play toss the Yukihime!", she snarls at the Peter and Wendy as they toss her around. She takes several deep breaths as she times the next toss as her head bobs and weaves like a boxer. As the mahou gets tossed, she kicks out her leg. Hopefully the toss and her extending her leg will catch 'Wendy' by surprise. "Red, don't worry about me, focus on finding the witch!", she says. The snow and ice mahou winces a bit. If she falls into the water, is that going to be bad, or can she swim to the ship? She's not sure, and not really ready to find out the hard way. "I'm figure out something.", Yukihime says. "Water water everywhere, and not a drop to spill...", she mutters.
KeyLimePie	Yukihime argues with the two familiars, but they don't seem to care much for it, playing their game - when the Lost Boys join, they start to toss Yukihime in every widening circles, and kicking out only results in her getting dropped before being caught again by someone else - it just makes the game more fun. Itseter Pan and Wendy are shot by Red - and she fills them with holes - And finally, Peter Pan takes a swan dive, sinking into the water, just seconds before Wendy Darling does. They drop Yukihime... and ''the understudies take the stage'', trying to catch her - they don't succeed before Red herself does, Yukihime ''finally'' free, those the New Peter Pan and New Wendy Darling don't look very pleased by this. They dive for Red, and cannonballs start firing, because that Aura Pillar wasn't completed - And Tuxedo Kamen tears another hole in the world with his attack on the ship, and music starts playing that disrupts the tick tock tick tock of the world and from the hole in reality that hurts to look at comes a great hooked hand that swipes Tuxedo Kamen off the ship and under the papercraft water. Whether his phone survives or not is probably up to a bag of rice. The hooked hand is soon joined by an arm in a papercraft red coat, and a torso, and yes, the Witch is Captain Hook, with a great ticking tocking clock for a head, and a boss title in Witch Script that can't be read. She roars, and the familiars rise together and start dive bombing the heroes as cannons strike them.
Mamoru Chiba	Not shoes nor cape nor good red lining, Tuxedo Mask is swiped underwater, and Captain Hook is beautiful, the Witch is beautiful, the labyrinth is a work of art, she's all a horrifying work of art, and he is ''not'' going to get in trouble for dying to a Witch. The mechanistic motion of everything makes the clarity of OH THAT'S COLD WATER snap ever brighter as he ditches his cape, his shoes, his hat-- and jams another candy in his mouth and ''pulls himself up on the '''EDGE''' of the water'' like it's a chinup bar, crunch crunch that blessed candy, and he hauls himself up ''dripping'' to run the hell away across the surface of the paper waves, yelling, "FOUND THE WITCH!"
Amy Faust	> Focus on finding the Witch! "She'll show up! I'm not ''leaving'' you!" Tuxedo Mask has an idea and plays... some ska song she's never heard but it takes her ears back to the 2000s nonetheless! She starts shooting in time with HIS song, and then decides to further muck up the timing by thinking about trying to do Radical Faith by Taq on the DDR machine. Drawn into one beat or the other, ''most'' of her shots no longer fall into the same rhythm as the TICK, TOCK. "You were right! If the Zone had a DDR mode we'd've been ''ready'' for this!" When she ''finally'' catches Yukihime she hugs tight, spinning in the air conjuring waves of missiles to blast the Lost Boys. With how much it took to take down Peter and Wendy this one attack probably won't ''finish'' them but-- oh, only two are actually coming for her? The minimissiles headed for the other Familiars change course and rain into the understudies, blowing them to papercraft smithereens a split-second before their daggers reach the midair mahou. Corruption slowly fills her gem. More than a seventh now. "I'm sorry." She mutters. "That must've been awful," a growl comes into the Puella Magi's voice, "Being tossed around like their goddamn ''plaything''..." Hook is here. ...Or, whatever the Witch's name is. Amy still hasn't memorized ''all'' the characters. (It occurs to her that maybe she should just start practicing using Witch runes as a cipher until she ''can'' read them. It might be important one day.) "Why has this girl been made to feel she's Captain Hook?" Amy mutters. She briefly considers how the symbol she believes is in her own Witch would fit into a story with the Lost Boys -- no -- or pirates -- also no -- and wishes she hadn't. "Here, turn around... can you use your attacks from the air or do you need me to set you down?" Amy helps Miho turn around in her grip so Amy's hugging and holding her from behind. It's less comfy than it could be, with the armored chestpiece, gauntlets, greaves, and armor-skirt of flight mode all poking her. Missile racks appear on all of those pieces. MAHOU MISSILE MASSACRE! ''Dozens'' of missiles launch out, although Amy's not dumping nearly enough power on the Witch just yet, as many of the missiles split off to intercept and explode the Lost Boys, each now imbued with more magic than the ones she just used on Replacement Peter and Backup Wendy. Amy holds Yukihime tight and keeps her in the air, or flies her to the deck or crow's nest of the sinking ship, whichever is asked. If Yukihime happened to look down at Amy's arm while they were flying, she could see the corruption surge a bit further across it. Darkness filling almost a third, now.
Miho Inada	Yukihime makes a small pout face. "You're so not letting me live this down for awhile. Red the Knight saving Princess Yukihime?", she giggles before giving Red a quick kiss on the cheek. "I'm very old school. Not really good at air fighting.", she admits. "Put me on the deck, and I'll use my bow and arrow to keep the familiars away from you and Mask as you fight the witch.", she tells. "I don't have the firepower to deal any real damage.", she tells. Once Red puts her down on the ship deck, Yukihime calls out her bow, and starts gathering ice into it. "Blizzard of Arrows!", she calls out. A icicle forms as the arrow. She draws back, and lets the icicle fly. As it flies, it shatters into dozens of smaller icicles, flying towards the familiars. "Hey, silly question to ask while in a fight, but want to go on a date sometime soon, Red?", Yukihime asks as she starts firing arrows. Yes, Yukihime just asked Red out during a fight. She noticed Amy's arm, but isn't saying anything about it until later. Fighting and date asking first. For now though, Yukihime stays in the back, focusing on keeping the fight between Amy and Mamo vs the witch without her familiars.
KeyLimePie	There will be no answers gained from this Witch, only devastation raining - though Mahou Missile Massacre and Blizzard of Arrows do a ''lot'' to brunt the initial tide, papercraft Familiars bursting apart. It's not enough to stop the Witch - but the second Mahou Missile Massacre does a lot to crack the glass of the clock's face. The Witch screams. The clock face winds back, back, back, and - The ship's that were destroyed rise back up. The Familiars that burst come back together. Running out of time, back in time, but the Witch is still damaged... And the Familiars launch an all out assault, every single one of them trying to stab and shoot, cannons and daggers flying.'
Amy Faust	> Red the Knight saving Princess Yukihime? kiss Amy can't help grinning, cheeks a little pink. > I'm old-school "That's fine." Amy swoops towards the deck. "Aerial combat is a specialty of the Anything-Goes school." No one's getting your references, Amy! "Well, more I've played mecha action games and then had to learn for real." She sets Yukihime down and steps aside, standing next to her. > Blizzard of arrows! "[Kakkoii~~~!]" Amy cheers. In English localization it will seem weird that this isn't followed by 'pun not intended', but ii is literally 'good' not 'cool as in cold' so there's no wordplay here! Alas. > Want to go on a date sometime soon? "YES." Amy replies, grinning. In this moment of terrible battle in a warped and alien world, it's nice to have good hangout time to look forward to! The Witch REWINDS TIME for her Familiars and Labyrinth. '''"Oh ''COME ON!''"''' Amy shouts. The Familiars are back. If Amy keeps destroying them, she'll burn magic while the Witch rewinds time again... "No, no, NO!" Yukihime stays in the back, but... Red is a ranged fighter too, there isn't really a ''front'' line. Amy's stepped between Yukihime and the Familiars, but she's focused on the Witch, as a 105mm cannon three or four meters long appears on her shoulder, aimed at that clock face. REPEATING FIRE! The first cannonball goes wide. An 'OH, SHIT' expression flashes across Amy's face, but she dismisses and reconjures the cannon, adjusting her aim, and fires again, right on target this time! Corruption fills two-fifths of her gem. Familiars descend upon her. Dodge STAB dodge STAB CUT -- her slowed reflexes are becoming a problem -- although the next familiar gets smashed out of the air as she unsummons the cannon, turns, and resummons it mid-swing, but three more slice into her before she can jump away, trying to aim at the Witch again Another clean shot right for the clock face! The Lost Boys make her pay. A knife parried by her cannon grazes her arm, and then more knives cut into her, stab into her, graze her, miss her (another familiar smashed by cannon), cut her, thank goodness she can't feel the pain, and then she's got it down, dancing out of the way of their attacks despite the lag. They've GOT to finish the Witch before the Familiars come around. Amy takes aim again, struggling with the lag, firing wide and wincing at the thought of the wasted magic and time. Increasingly desperate, she fires twice more, her attacks barely on target. Her soul gem is half dark and she hasn't even healed yet... she's looking increasingly desperate...
Mamoru Chiba	"Yes, good, FINALLY," Mamoru shoots over his shoulder at Yukihime, and WHOOPS he should have been-- he eats his last candy before he falls in the water and jumps to the re-risen crocodile ship since he can't fly. He can't fly and everything's coming at them at once, from every direction, all the attacks they've already repelled, rewind rewind rewind-- and Tuxedo Kamen is drenched and shivering and cranky about it. "You don't get to ''do'' this, I'm so sorry, Captain. For what it's worth, you'll have a better end than you bargained for, and you'll get to have another chance," yells Mamoru, and he laughs hollowly because he's lost a trauma just in time for the new one to have plenty of space to move in: he got dunked in seawater and he's fine, he's fine. Maybe he was ERASED last month but he's ''fine'' right now-- They're in a Witch being attacked with everything, so 'fine' is relative, but it's nice to not have the seawater problem anymore! Ooh. Usagi and Kazuo are ''not watching'', Zoisite and Nephrite and Jadeite are ''not watching'', Mamoru can-- ...no, it would work, but he'd feel guilty about it, to hell with that. He will not be throwing himself at the Witch to latch on and Smoking Crater its head, sadly, he is so sad about it as he jumps around, dodging most of the attacks but getting a fair number of papercuts and one long slice from a dagger down his arm before he makes it back up to the crow's nest. He doesn't even have his cape for tanking anymore. Tuxedo Mask, wearing white tie and tails, a mask, and sock feet, throws up his glowing hand instead and lets his strength gather in the air in front of his outstretched palm, shimmering and bright and brighter, white-gold, brighter still, "Tuxedo la Smoking Bomber!" When you absolutely have to level a half a city block and Sugata's not handy and it's okay to have it come from the side...
KeyLimePie	Peter Pan and Neverland are parts of a story. Not quite a fairy tale, but thanks to a certain company and film, occupying a similar spot in the imagination. Most people love Peter Pan and Wendy Darling, but this Witch had seen herself in Hook. r In the endless repetition, the way it just kept happening again and again, the endless hunt for the next grief seed, the next Witch, the way it never seemed to be enough, the way she was always running out of time, being chased by the clock. Tick. Tock. Repeating Fire and Tuxedo La Smoking Bomber are enough. Her clock is punched, the hands spinning wildly as they collapse to the sea, the papercraft falling, falling, falling, the two-dimensional labyrinth collapsing in on itself. The Witch dies, and they are back in the real world, in the trees near a picnic bench, a grief seed being rained on.
Amy Faust	It's finally over. For the mahoujin and the Witch. Amy smiles in relief as she sees the Witch starting to break apart before she can fire a sixth shot -- she dismisses the cannon and drops to her knees as the papercraft world fades around her. There's a lot of red in her uniform, and starting to stain the path or grass below her as the rain washes over her. Pink sparkles wash over her. Beauty is never tarnished. She's back to her henshin's base form, costume pristine, but Mamoru will see the bruises and internal damage later -- she just did the minimum regeneration to try and keep things from getting way worse. She's keeping pain turned off for now. "We did it..." Amy's ''relieved'', but that went a bit worse than she was hoping at the end and she ''definitely'' spent much more magic than she goes into a fight hoping to. When someone brings her the grief seed -- or she picks it up on their way out -- she holds it to her half-dark soul gem until it shines red and pure again, and she smiles a bit at ''not'' seeing the constant reminder of corruption in it she's had to for the past few weeks. "Thanks, guys. I don't... wanna think about how that woulda gone alone..." ''Never enter a Witch's Labyrinth alone'', she reminds herself. May she remember that next time she even ''thinks'' it might be a good idea... There's a chance she could've won, but... ...Well, hopefully it'll never come to that, right?