1640/If It Ain't Nailed Down...

If It Ain't Nailed Down...
Date of Scene:	21 June 2016
Location:	Mitakihara - Downtown
Synopsis:	Miss White and WPS holds up an auction. Voltron-kun gets stolen, and an auctioneer nearly gets Shiniko'd!
Cast of Characters:	Hannah Sharpe, 37, Sora Hisakata, Haruna Kurosawa, Mikoto Nakajima

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Hannah Sharpe has posed:
The auditorium rented out for the underground auction is fairly large. A two story affair, it's just gaudy enough to make sure that everyone knows that only rich and important people are here today. The common rabble are kept away from the expensive auction by black-suited security.

Miss White is both of these. She'd gotten in a few minutes before the auction started, sneaked into the back, and mugged the poor guy. Her fellows with her, of course, have their own tickets to the affair.

The auction drags on, with no announcer appearing. Finally the stage crew wheels out a few of the items up for auction. It's here that Miss White steps out to a bewildered audience.

Tap tap tap right on the podium. The good twenty people look to her. Security is approaching, and the owner of the auction, a bald man in a black suit, is already standing up with a scowl.

"Good evening ladies and gentlemen! I have an announcement to make!"

She snaps her fingers to a certain Witch with her.

"This auction is now officially cancelled! Now, I'm going to need you all to take a nice, quiet, nap! Show time, Witch-chan~!"

Sora Hisakata has posed:
And with that, shadows descend upon the event, accompanied by a cold, malicious giggle. Shiniko glides onto the stage her red eyes watching the audience as her shadows fall upon them. Like any shadow, they are the absence of energy, and while some of the energy that is fading from those audience members is lost, most of it is not.

Some of it in fact going straight to her, the energy becoming hers. It's nowhere near enough draining to kill, but it'll knock them out. "Sleep tight, dear kleptocrats~"

Haruna Kurosawa has posed:
Cure Gull is sitting in the audience, a girl with seafoam green hair-- also using a PreCard to give her a green bussiness suit. She sticks out like a sore thumb. The magic surrounding her protects her from the energy drain's effects. Corvus is not with her. (She doesn't bring Corvus when she's up to mischief. Guilt by association and all.)

She has one of those little auction paddles and lifts it up!

"I'lllll take the cute girl in the suit starting at 10,000~" she sings out, yeah okay, she totally had to work that in. Also... she leans down to the guy next to him and checks. Yup. Out like a light. Still okay. Waking up tired isn't horrible.

She totally not needs to tell Spark the story about how she robbed an auction of a valuable magical artifact out of mundane hands. She stands up and looks around.

"Okay...." she says with a pause after.

She's waiting for someone to kick in a window or something.

Mikoto Nakajima has posed:
Mikoto had been planning on simply purchasing several parts she wanted. It's not as if she can't afford a few things, even at the prices they're likely to go for at an auction like this one. She's attending in henshin, of course, though not in Hagane's familiar blue suit - that would be too obvious. Instead she wears a pale blue ao dai, trimmed with a darker sapphire blue and a scattering of sakura petals.

She grows mildly frustrated at the continued absence of the auctioneer. It isn't as if she doesn't have important things she could be doing, after all. Still, she bides her time, tapping her foot and drumming her fingers against a paper fan.

And then all is interrupted by Ms White. Well, that will make things interesting, at least.

As the wealthy and powerful slump around her, she gives her fan a flick, letting it spread out to display the image of a gamboling set of kittens, and flutter it to give herself a slight breeze.

Then she flicks it shut, and suddenly it isn't a fan, but her familiar rapier.

Even so, she simply bides her time yet again, meeting White's gaze ever so briefly before moving on to keep an eye on the objects she's here for.

Mint Chip has posed:
From the crowd, another girl watches Hannah. She's alert and on the lookout for trouble, even as she looks too young to be sitting alone. In her hand is a small walking stick, with a few flowers that look like they're blooming right out of it.

Her brown eyes overlook the room, her braided ponytail moving along with her, elegant black and red dress crowned with the same sort of oddly-so-alive flowers. She holds the stick ready to interrupt any sort of unintended distraction.

As opposed to Hannah's distraction which was very much intended.

Hannah Sharpe has posed:
Several audience members scream before passing out. Down they go to Shiniko's draining. Some of the audience have above normal energy, too! Will this be an easy smash and grab?

Gull gets a grin. "Gull-chan, you paid for me long ago! You bought my heart with your love~." Her hands are on her chest, crossed, all dramatic like! She even throws in a wink, the cheeky CEO.

Snapt! That gets Hannah's attention. It's Hagane! "Yo! Hagane! Whatcha lookin' for? Help haul all of this crap into the van out back, and I'll let you keep whatever you...eh?"

It seems Gull won't need to wait long at all. After all, the auction house owner is still very much standing.

"Damn kid! Ya think I don't know what I'm sellin' here? I knew some jerk like you would come along! HEY SECURITY! GET 'EM!" Comes baldy, very much radiating Dark Magic (if weakly so!).

The security team is still up. They tremble, and the 'humans' grow several feet, ending up as masked, suit-wearing robot-like beings. Obvious knock-offs of Eclipse's own stuff, but still big and beefy. There's eight of the things. One's already charging for Miss White, raising a large baton-like club. Another charges for Gull, the same way!

The other six are crowded around the auction owner protectively.

Miss White does a good dodge-roll to the side, the sweeping club-baton smashing into the auditorium floor and sending splinters of wood everywhere! These things are strong!

"Bah!" Comes Hannah, 'peering' over to the feeling of being watched. Welp, time to appeal to human greed.

"WPS, beat 'em down! I'm going to start looting. HEY! ROSE-GIRL! HAGANE! You get one free pick of the loot if you help me beat down baldy-kun and his robo-jerks! What do you say, huh?"

Haruna Kurosawa has posed:
Cure Gull grins cheekily, even blushing back at Hannah! But then the jerk over there is still standing and she squints. "What? Wait." she taps a finger to her lips and frowns heavily. Robo-goons, but they're... off from what she sees around WPS tower.

So they must be knockoffs, right? This guy isn't screaming they're on the same side anyways.

She grins as she raises her hands and gets ready as she charges forward, up over the seats with a jump as she attempts to Pretty Cure infused 'Chop!' down into the face of the robo-goon--- wind swirling around her hand as she infuses a little of her own wind element into the chop--- then she attempts to follow up with a kick!

She doesn't need to be incentizied to kick goons for Hannah. "Well we know too~" she sings out. "Also we're taking it home and your butts gonna cash the check~".

Sora Hisakata has posed:
There's many sins of which Shiniko can justly be accused, but greed is not one of them. Pride, Wrath, Envy are all practically undeniably in the list. To a certain degree Sloth (in the form of Negligence) and Lust (for Power) are also there. But neither Greed nor Gluttony are sins that accompany her mindset.

Still she came here to fight the corruption of the auctioneers, and the auction leader yet stands, which undeniably makes him her target. "Corrupt little man~" She giggles as she glides forwards, balls of cold dark fire forming in the air around her, taking on an orbit. "Did you think you could get away with selling this artifacts? That nobody would question the legitimacy of their presence~?"

Then, the sing-songiness fades, and what's left is pure cold malice. "Your judgment is come, the verdict is death. Surrender now, and it will be painless. If not..." She accentuates the point by sending one of those dark flames straight for one of the robo-goons that surround him.

Mikoto Nakajima has posed:
Hagane's lips curl into a brief little smile, and she offers White a nod. "So be it," she murmurs, and rises from her seat. As the security goons shed their disguises, she gives her blade a flourish.

"Shame on you," she calls to the auctioneer, "Your silly little trap has sprung on nothing at all." A quick wave of her blade, and a mana-helix spirals out towards one of the robo-goons. She leaps after it, skipping from chair-back to chair-back, to end up engaging it directly.

She fences with it for a few moments, taking plenty of time to show off with flashy, wild moves, before turning about to launch a simple, straightforward thrust at its chest.

Mint Chip has posed:
Tamiko perks up at 'Rose Girl' and smiles a bit softly as the knockoff roboyouma begin to rise. "I don't need a handout, I'm here to help you." she says, as she waves her wand and it becomes a long staff. She charges - far too fast and nimble for a girl of her age or size - and begins to put the staff through the roboclones, knocking them down like an expert fighter.

"But I think it'd be in Eclipse's favor if we got all of this back, don't you?" she asks in her soft voice. "I'm sure we can make better use of it than this cut-rate loser." She moves around, trying to keep the knockoff roboyouma away from everyone else as best she can!

Hannah Sharpe has posed:
The robo-goon charging Gull gets a chop to the face, slamming it down into the ground! It's face is nicely dented, there's a few sparks, but keeps going for the moment. It drops the club, and instead tries to grab for Gull, and throw her into the second story balcony seats like some kind of mahou projectile!

The auctioneer sneers. "You're the ones who're going to be payin' through the nose once I sue you!"

He then pauses, and peers at Shiniko. "You're the one attacking here! And stealing too! We're both sinners, you idiot! Stop trying to take the moral high ground!"

Poor robo-goon doesn't even see it coming, trying to round on Hagane. FWOOMF! The thing melts into slag. Apparently 'evil justice fire' is their elemental weakness.

The auctioneer's eyes go wide.

"H...hurry up and take 'em out, robots!"

Another robo-goon gets a good fight with Hagane! At first, it's knocked down, but gets back up again! That club slams down, only to be parried again and again with Hagane's Device! Finally, it flails, club falling from its hand, staggering back! Wide open!

That final thrust catches the chest, and it falls down, sparking and turning to black magic floating harmlessly into the air.

The auctioneer is visibly sweating at this point, and then down comes PM Tamiko! Left with only four defenders, all of them go down to their faces from taht sweeping strike of her staff.

Miss White pauses, already having shoved several Device Parts into a bag. She has her right hand on a very expensive antique vase. She is soon spinning it on a single finger not unlike a basketball, backing off to give her mahou partners some room. She one-handed bags another magical artifact.

"...Eh? You work for Eclipse?" A brow rises, and then she shrugs, flicking the vase into the air only to bag it neatly.

Bloody showoff!

"Hey, I'm not about to turn down free help /or/ stealing knock off roboyouma! YOU HEARD ROSE-GIRL, KIDS! Knock 'em down, but don't kill 'em. We're taking them home!"

Auctioneer has something to say about this. Namely, he pulls out a magical cell phone, and pushes several buttons. The four robo-youma get up, and suddenly fly to pieces! They zoom together, and form a giant single robo-youma, voltron'ing together!

He laughs. "Get 'em!"

Voltron-youma raises a giant fist, and aims to smash right for Tamiko's face!

Haruna Kurosawa has posed:
Zing. That's a Cure Gull being flung into the high balcony seats with a tumble, a few seats go flying up and over the edge when this happens and a loud rattle and some dust settles off from the ceiling. Really, a Mahou fight is the BEST way to get that hard to reach dust, truly.

Cure Gull pops back up and humphs! "WELL. I WAS GONNA GO EASY ON YOUR BUTT , BUT THEN YOU MADE A MISTAKE!"

"YOU THREATEND LEGAL ACTION!"

"AND I HATE READING LIABILITY CLAUSES!" she yells out as the giant Voltron Youma forms.

"Well $%$@!" she calls out.

"GULL WINDY HURRICANE!" she calls out as she summons up a torrent of wind with the power of her PreBrace, trying to hold the new youma in place for everyone else.

The rest are just small fry right now, right?

Sora Hisakata has posed:
"No see, that's where you have it wrong, dead man~" Shiniko giggles, and the balls of dark fire orbit faster as she creates another couple. "I did not come here to take anything, I came here to administer justice. But then, the ones who let me know there was justice to be done deserve a little something for their support of the cause."

Shiniko's eyes practically shine an unsettling red when she says the next "By my hand shall justice reign, and all injustice be destroyed~" She tilts her head sidewards a little, "And I will destroy it piece by piece, bit by bit, and you're next~"

"I don't work for eclipse, and I barely work for you, White-san~" Shiniko points out with another giggle, "I'll try not too damage if I can but I'm here to kill a sinner~" And that's when the robo-youmas go all voltron, "Now now, dear~" She says, looking past it at the man she clearly intends to kill, "Tricks like that are clever, but will do little to delay the inevitable~" She doesn't attack it, she sends the first of those dark fireballs flying for her victim.

Mikoto Nakajima has posed:
The robo-goons who were in her way dealt with, Hagane takes to the high road again, skipping across the chair-backs towards the artifact-laden table. She's got to get her share of the goodies, after all!

She pauses briefly to raise her blade in salute to Gull and the others, but then it's tucked under one arm - as a fan, once again - and she's pulling out a satchel to load up with bits and bobs from the auction table.

"Mmm, some of these look fairly pristine..." She lingers over a small pillar of crystalline circuitry. "Yeah, this is exactly what I need." She tucks it in her bag, wrapped in a scrap of cloth.

She pauses after that, flicking her 'paper fan' around to point at the youma Gull is fighting, and let out a quick trio of mana helixes. "SMALL PRINT EDITOR STRIKE!"

Mint Chip has posed:
Tamiko's eyes narrow. That's her response to the giant fist heading for her. Why is she so calm?

Because before the fist can connect, she takes her staff and points it at the voltron-youma. A giant flower blooms rapidly at the tip, a bright red rose, which slams forward, a thorny stem behind it connected to the staff as it challenges the fist for supremacy, magical sparks flaring off both of them.

"You know, that's a neat trick, but a whole bunch of idiots all combined is just one big idiot." she says, as the center of the rose glows and she tries to win the fight with a surge of energy from the center of it.

Hannah Sharpe has posed:
Up goes the Gull, and Auctioneer-kun gives a look of brief fear. "S...stupid youma! You should've killed that twerp!"

He's hammering on that phone now, the sweat easily smelled by now. Miss White looks a little green here. Cursed good nose!

"Somebody get that guy out of here before I lose my lunch, please!" Comes White-chan to those gathered. She manages to bag another Device Part.

Wind whips around, drawing in Voltron Youma! It's powerful fist still swings for Tamiko, but neither can it dodge thanks to the storm rolling around it.

Miss White manages a thumbs-up in Gull's direction. It's all she can do right now. Clearly BO is her weakness.

Hagane skips over, and scoops up her prizes! Miss White chuckles. "Pretty good catch, right? Don't you love a good B&E? A little chaos and sinning is bad for the soul, but good for the body~" She quips.

And then there's a fan flick of mana helixes! WHAM! Right in the back of Voltron-kun! Sparks again fly, pieces of metal fall off, and it's punch is jerky at best now!

Which leaves Tamiko an excellent opportunity! That red rose slams into that fist, throwing up a shower of sparks. The ground beneath the Voltron-youma digs in, crumbling beneath the titantic challenge of 'bot and mahou! And then that rose glows, and the robot-fist is shredded apart, only for the rose end to punch right into the youma's face!

It's sent flying back towards the stage, causing Miss White to throw herself down to the ground, one robot-foot grazing her cheek in a small splatter of blood. She rolls to her feet. Thankfully between her and Hagane, all the loot has been neatly bagged up.

With a cough, Miss White slowly gets up, raises her free Raging Tempest holding hand, and points to the downed Roboyouma.

"Dimensional transfer!" Comes R.T. The youma is sucked out into an Eclipse lab.

"...Not bad. Not bad at all, kiddo. What's your name?" Offers Hannah to Tamiko, finally smirking. A small sigh.

At least, until Shiniko turns onto the auctioneer. Horror briefly flashes over Miss White's face. But the fire is already racing towards the man as he swiftly starts to flee. Death can give a man wings.

"...You want to go that far, rather than scare him and make him one of our employees?" Miss White questions, then shrugs.

"Yeah, I guess that's true. Well do what you want. But that weight's on you, Witch-chan." She warns to the girl. Off towards the van she goes.

If Shiniko doesn't stop her fire, or someone doesn't get in the way, the auctioneer will get burnt to ash!

Hannah Sharpe has posed:
Up goes the Gull, and Auctioneer-kun gives a look of brief fear. "S...stupid youma! You should've killed that twerp!"

He's hammering on that phone now, the sweat easily smelled by now. Miss White looks a little green here. Cursed good nose!

"Somebody get that guy out of here before I lose my lunch, please!" Comes White-chan to those gathered. She manages to bag another Device Part.

Wind whips around, drawing in Voltron Youma! It's powerful fist still swings for Tamiko, but neither can it dodge thanks to the storm rolling around it.

Miss White manages a thumbs-up in Gull's direction. It's all she can do right now. Clearly BO is her weakness.

Hagane skips over, and scoops up her prizes! Miss White chuckles. "Pretty good catch, right? Don't you love a good B&E? A little chaos and sinning is bad for the soul, but good for the body~" She quips.

And then there's a fan flick of mana helixes! WHAM! Right in the back of Voltron-kun! Sparks again fly, pieces of metal fall off, and it's punch is jerky at best now!

Which leaves Tamiko an excellent opportunity! That red rose slams into that fist, throwing up a shower of sparks. The ground beneath the Voltron-youma digs in, crumbling beneath the titantic challenge of 'bot and mahou! And then that rose glows, and the robot-fist is shredded apart, only for the rose end to punch right into the youma's face!

It's sent flying back towards the stage, causing Miss White to throw herself down to the ground, one robot-foot grazing her cheek in a small splatter of blood. She rolls to her feet. Thankfully between her and Hagane, all the loot has been neatly bagged up.

With a cough, Miss White slowly gets up, raises her free Raging Tempest holding hand, and points to the downed Roboyouma.

"Dimensional transfer!" Comes R.T. The youma is sucked out into an Eclipse lab.

"...Not bad. Not bad at all, kiddo. What's your name?" Offers Hannah to Tamiko, finally smirking. A small sigh.

At least, until Shiniko turns onto the auctioneer. Horror briefly flashes over Miss White's face. But the cold-fire is already racing towards the man as he swiftly starts to flee. Death can give a man wings.

"...You want to go that far, rather than scare him and make him one of our employees?" Miss White questions, then shrugs.

"Yeah, I guess that's true. Well do what you want. But that weight's on you, Witch-chan." She warns to the girl. Off towards the van she goes.

If Shiniko doesn't stop her fire, or someone doesn't get in the way, the auctioneer will get turned into a proper dark-energy ice-statue!

Haruna Kurosawa has posed:
Cure Gull coughs and watches as the guy flees. "Ha!--- yeah that's right you better r----"

And then Shiniko is threating to kill the man. One time. Gull could had stopped something like this before. But she was blissfully ignorant and still is.

Except this time intent is stated and it's HAPPENING.!

"What!? Shiniko, no!" she calls out as she suddenly blows a wave of wind out at the fire--- "GULL WINDY BLAST!" she calls out---

She's TRYING to throw the fire off course-- she can't teleport in the way of that afterall, but maybe she can stop Shiniko from making a mistake she'll regret later.

IF she succeeds of course.

Mikoto Nakajima has posed:
Hagane sweeps the last few items into her bag, and tucks it away into - somewhere. Surely she couldn't fit a bag that big under that nice sleek outfit, could she?

Apparently she can.

She's preparing to simply leave with her select booty, when she hears Hannah's chiding of Shiniko. That isn't good.

She doesn't condone killing. Except of those who are irreconcileably evil. She stood aside when White killed the old WPS CEO. Okay, so maybe it's a little hypocritical of her.

(("Protection,")) a mechanical voice speaks, almost reluctantly. It's followed quickly by (("Binding."))

A spell-glyph appears beneath the running man, chains erupting from it to reach for his arms and legs, and another between him and the oncoming ice-blast... will it be enough to save him? Or simply pin him in place for her to finish the job? Sometimes it's hard to predict.

Mint Chip has posed:
Tamiko looks up at Hannah. "I'm Tamiko. Tamiko Adachi. I'm an employee too. Actually, I'm supposed to be assigned to help you. I figured I'd get an early start. I don't like waiting around." she says, still quiet. Almost meek, but with a well-hidden sterness.

She looks at the cold fire with a sort of dispassionate look until Hagane and Cure Gull move to change the flow of battle. "Hmmm. I'm not sure if he deserves that, but I'm not sure that he doesn't."

"It's not my place, really." she says, softly, walking over to stand with Hannah.

Sora Hisakata has posed:
Between Gull and Hagane, Shiniko's cold flames fail to impact her victim. Rage shows in her face as she stares at the two, "You would stand in the way of justice? You will perish with him if you do not stand aside now." Though the fury is clear, she does not raise her voice to bring it across. It is in fact barely more than a wisper. "This man's life is forfeit."

The Witch takes advantage of the binding Hagane has put into place. Shadows quickly coalesce into a circle around him. "Shadow Witch's Hex." At five equidistant points on the circle, dark flames light up, and the pentagram forms in between. From shadow, savagely clawed demonic hands form, filled to the brim with dark energy, and they attempt to grasp the poor man, push him into the ground and tear him to pieces. If this succeeds, well, the cold fire would likely have been kinder.

Hannah Sharpe has posed:
Miss White stretches, watching the scene unfold. There's a frown on her face, but she reigns it in. She recalls when Euphemia killed the first CEO of WPS. She didn't like it then, she doesn't like that kind of thing now.

After all, one can /use/ people if they're still alive.

But neither is she going to get in Shiniko's way. In that, she could well be guilty of both deaths. No, she leaves it all to her employees and partial employees!

Gull's wind burst throws off that initial cold-fire aim, rendering it mute! Tamiko similarly doesn't intervene, and Miss White grins.

"No kidding? Yeeesh, the higher ups need to get better at email! Seriously, I'm not /THAT/ far down the totem pole!" She offers. There's a slightly salty smile here. No, Miss White, you're nowhere near at the upper ranks yet.

Sudden Miss White is in front of Tamiko, reaching out, the blind woman groping for a hand to shake vigorously.

"Nice to meet you, Tami-chan! Can I call you that? GREAT! Let's do lunch some time, huh? A woman of your talents is exactly who I love working with!"

And then Shiniko's magic flares out, slamming towards the swiftly crying, utterly outclassed auctioneer! Death comes for him!

And is stopp by the barest of margins by Hagane's protection spell! Shadow magic and Device magic war, only for both to shatter. The bald man takes the opportunity to sob, and then summon up the last of his own reserves.

"Y...you! Shadow Witch Shiniko! I'll get you back...AWAY!" FWUMPT! He wildly teleports away with the last of his magic!

And lands right in a dumpster. At least he'll crawl away stinky.

Miss White sighs. "...What a pain. Oh well. We've got loot, kids! C'mon, to the van with you all! Dinner's on me!" Griiin. Surely this will soothe any lingering feelings over!

Haruna Kurosawa has posed:
Cure Gull watches in horror as Shiniko tries to enact her version of Justice and then....

Well Hagane saves the day, thank kami-sama.

Deep breath, she looks over to Hannah and frowns and then back at Shiniko and frowns.

"ARE YOU INSANE!? That isn't justice." she spits before she hrmphs.

Dinner. Yeah. Dinner sounds nice. Let's do dinner she thinks. "Y--yeah White-chan. Dinner! Haahaha." she says nervously. Off she goes!

Mint Chip has posed:
Tamiko nods a bit, spinning her staff as her henshin drops, leaving her in an Infinity Elementary uniform, complete with little sailor's hat. "Well, that was... effective." she says with a smile. "I'm sure it'll be nice to bring news of a success back with us, instead of failure like so many of my compatriots." she says with a grin, looking up at Hannah.

"Dinner is nice. I'm a growing girl, right? So just know it's not gonna be cheap." she says with a smile that just doesn't seem like it suits the rest of her demeanor.

Mikoto Nakajima has posed:
"Petty," is Hagane's opinion of Shiniko's actions, and she isn't ashamed to make it clear. "There are better ways. Let him run. Let him worry. Let him fear you."

Once upon a time, someone that - isn't her - was an expert at the strategic application of fear. Like this.

She doesn't bother to change her appearance, simply walking over to rejoin White and Tamiko. "Don't worry. White-chan probably owns the restaurant, by this point."

She offers a hand to the Puella. "Hi there. I'm Hagane. Good work today, koneko-chan."

Sora Hisakata has posed:
"No, I am not insane, but you are already dead." Shinoko answers Cure Gull as another pentagram of shadow forms below her, her voice cold with strong malice. Then the Shadow Witch is engulfed in darkness, fires made of dark energy that chill the air around them.

When the fires fade, Shiniko is gone.