3785/Breaking, Entering, Ring Pops, Slime, and Bones

Breaking, Entering, Ring Pops, Slime, and Bones
Date of Scene:	30 July 2019
Location:	The AM/PM Mini Market
Synopsis:	In which Kyouko mocks, Mamoru successfully opens a door, Jadeite regrets life choices, and Nephrite finds out cocktails cannot be made of green apple syrup and blood.
Cast of Characters:	Mamoru Chiba, Kyouko Sakura, Jadeite, Nephrite

---

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
The slightly tipsy Tuxedo Kamen -- he smells of honey whiskey -- tries to give Kyouko the most woeful puppy-eyed look he can possibly muster. It's a little bit ruined by the fact that he's at his most dashing and is wearing a mask that kind of diminishes the effect. "But we won't *do* anything to anything! And we'll pay for them! Come on, Kyouko, pleeeeeease?"

It was a dare. It's always a dare. It's a dare resulting from Mamoru bragging about his B&E skills from his phantom thief days. They all know he can pick locks, but he said something about 'undetected' and he's already failed that hardcore by begging the person locking up to let him break in. This has not occurred to him.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Kyouko is indeed locking up. She is going home. She is standing outside the sliding-glass doors of the conbenie, key in hand, wearing jeans and black t-shirt, her orange apron and bandanna already stowed away inside. She eyes the whisky-smelling Prince with something like disapproval colored by just a hint of jealousy, whether that's for the whisky or the attempted b&e not entirely clear. She folds her arms over her chest.

    "No, because you're drunk and this is my job and I don't want to have to explain to Tachibana-san why there's a broken window or shit all over the floor or the freezer door was left open or anything like that. I have to get home because Naru is making steak tonight so I can't stay and babysit." Not because Naru is waiting for her. Because there is steak. She frowns.

    "Does Kunzite know you're out here doing this?" Her tone vaugely suspicious.

Jadeite has posed:
"Kunzite knows everything," Jadeite points out. He's leaning against one wall of the conbenie, purifying a stack of shadow Pokemon while his prince tries and fails at the first stumbling block. "Told you we should go to 7-11. I bet someone already took all the blue raspberry ring pops anyway."

It's the best flavor.

Nephrite has posed:
Nephrite stands just behind Tuxedo Kamen with the air of one who is way too eager to egg his friend on. "But Kyoukooooo. Don't you want to be the judge? You'd be a great judge. As an actual employee, you'll be able to tell us if he left any incriminating evidence behind. You know... " he gestures vaguely. "If he wanders in front of the security cameras, if he trips over his cape and knocks over an entire shelf of snack cakes, if he can't resist leaving behind a rose at the crime scene as a signature..."

The threat of Kunzite looms over them with Kyouko's words. Nephrite has to very strongly resist glancing behind them to see if his steely gaze has been magically summoned. He points at Jadeite. "What he said. So no need to tell on us."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Tuxedo Kamen waves a hand around dismissively at 'does Kunzite know', and looks O F F E N D E D at the idea that he might break windows or leave freezer doors open. But then he sees Jadeite inside and frowns even harder. "You're not supposed to teleport! That's cheating. Besides, it's not EVEN breaking and entering if you go through the open door while an employee is there holding the key! Get out here--" And then the further insults! "Oh my god you think I'd-- your lack of faith is disturbing. Punkass."

One last try. "Please? I'll-- um-- buy you pocky?"

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Kyouko bang on the window. "Jadeite get out of there! We have security cameras and I've done enough editing of those things without permission, I don't need to do it more."

    Then she scowls at Tux. "No. Go home. Or go break in somewhere else. And besides," this addressed to Nephrite, "If I'm supposed to be the judge, I have to fail him already for walking up and asking permission of the employee on duty. That's the exact opposite of undetected."

Jadeite has posed:
"But the PokeStop wouldn't let me spin it from out there," Jadeite complains, "And it's not cheating if you're using every tool at your disposal. It's not my fault you'll puke if you do it." Buuuuuuut Kyouko is hanging on the glass, and 'Kyouko' is not afraid to teleport after him. And the PokeStop is taking forever to reload. And he just purified his last Pokemon. And -

Point is, he leaves the conbenie, and pops over on Nephrite's side instead, making it just in time to nod sagely at Kyouko's judgement.

"She's right. So far, you suck. Let's go to 7-11! They have the pudding filled dorayaki this month, and we don't know anyone who works there."

Nephrite has posed:
Nephrite looks at Mamoru helplessly. On one hand, this means he and Jadeite win already. On the other hand, it is way too anticlimactic if this is how the night is going to end. "Okay you get one freebie. This was a test run."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"...fine," says Mamoru with a scowl, and suddenly his hat's in his hands because he jams it on his head like he's got a grudge. And then he grabs his cape and turns on his heel, swirling it fantastically dramatically. "Jadeite! Nephrite! TO ME! Apatite likes steak better than breaking and entering so it's HER LOSS."

He leaps--!! And then pauses and calls down from the top of the streetlight, "Kyou do you want candy?"

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Kyouko actually hesitates for a second, because she does like breaking and entering. Then she seems to remember herself, and, like the mature adult she is, sticks her tongue out and waggles her hands at the sides of her head.

    Which is exactly how she is when Tux turns back around and offers her candy, leading to a somewhat awkward tableau. She actually blushes, pulling her hands down after a moment. "...yes." She says. Then huffs, and turns around.

    "I'm going home. You guys don't let Prince Drunkenstein hurt himself. Or get arrested." Then she's stalking off into the streetlit evening.

Jadeite has posed:
"...but we're already with him," Jadeite says with audible confusion, before looking looking doubtfully at the streetlight. "And I don't think we can fit up there, either."

Mamoru might be the Drunkenstein, but he is Drunkenstein's Monster, or, something else almost equally as intoxicated anyway. None of this can possibly go wrong. Everything will be fine. Other such lies. This is not a time for thinking! This is a time for drinking! No, wait, they did that already, this is a time for doing! Yes. Perfect.

The one streetlight is still, regrettably, taken, so Jadeite leaps up on top of a trashcan, not nearly tall enough to look impressive, but enough to Feel Tallish.

"They can't arrest us if they can't catch us! Leave it to us, oh steak whipped one! We will see this through to the end, so prepare for trouble!"

Nephrite has posed:
Nephrite squints up at Mamoru. "Hey, stop hogging all the street lamp! Wait, are we going to the one at the subway station or the one on the corner of something and... whatever?"

The tall things are claimed. Well, tall and tall-ish. Nephrite opts to saunter down the street after them. "And make it double! Avengers away or something."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Yeah let's go Legion," Tuxedo Kamen calls down from the light. "The corner one. The subway one's open all night." And then he Bounds Away and doesn't actually fall off anything on the way.

Five only slightly awkward minutes later, involving Mamoru saying he was waiting up for them even though he wasn't too far ahead because actually he forgot where the place was and wouldn't admit it, they're on the roof of the 7-11 and Mamoru's peering over the side, waiting for the locking-up procedure to start. He takes a can of coffee out of his hat in the meantime, and whispers, "He's sure taking his damn time locking up. Is he on the phone? Maybe I should go for the back door instead." He pauses as if considering what he just said, then EYES his friends. "Don't."

Jadeite has posed:
Peeking over the roof alongside Mamoru, Jadeite opens his mouth, and then closes it. what. He wasn't going to say anything. There are no jokes on his mind. Back doors are not joke-worthy at all, not even a little bit. He says, instead, "Won't he just see you if you go in before he's done locking up? We won't give you two freebies. If you mess up this time, you have to dance the macarena on the top of Tokyo Tower in henshin, like you said you would."

The consequences of devastating dares...

"Do you have another one of those?" He means the coffee, not the hat, which will give him hat hair. "Maybe we should spook him out. Make him think the place is haunted, and then you can break in and he'll blame the mess on a ghost!"

Nephrite has posed:
On Mamoru's other side, Nephrite has stopped watching the 7-11 altogether and is outstretched on his back, looking up at what little can be seen of the stars so close to the city lights. "And you have to do it holding a rose in your teeth. That part's key."

He rolls his head over to look at Jadeite. "Hey, no helping him. Not unless you both want to do the macarena when you definitely lose."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"That's," says Tuxedo Kamen reasonably, "why I haven't made my move yet. I'm just annoyed he's taking forever." He starts looking delighted at the ghost idea and then annoyed, all of a sudden. "Why do you keep assuming there's going to be a mess? I was literally only ever caught once and it was the last time I did this while LITERALLY SLEEPING." He huffs, then glances back and glares at Nephrite. "I don't even know the macarena. And a rose was NOT part of the deal. This is breaking and entering, not a tango."

Finally, there's a door open and keys jingling and the guy does indeed have his cellphone between his ear and his shoulder super precariously. At least he's not rawdogging it. Having to wait longer for a busted cellphone screen all over the sidewalk is not in Mamoru's plans.

Convenience stores being what they are, and chain stores being what THEY are, it's late enough that the streets are nearly deserted. One cop car is all that's visible and occupied, and it's cruising, not parked. So as soon as it's gone past and turned a corner, Mamoru hands his half-gone can of coffee to Jadeite and leaps down off the roof silently, then sprints across the street and into the shadow of the awning. His mask's visible for a moment to see if they're following or letting him sink or swim on his own.

Jadeite has posed:
"Because it bugs you, and also because you definitely almost tripped on that last streetlight," Jadeite says reasonably, throwing a glower over at Nephrite. "I'm not helping, I'm just...advising. It's different. Don't ask questions."

It's not different at all. Also that wasn't a question. It's fine.

He's about to ask Mamoru how mad he thinks Kazuo will be if he reignites the Baby Shark wars with the Macarena, but then Mamoru is gone and coffee is all he has to remember him by. Alas sweet prince. A quick glance down reveals the barest glimpse of the prince, and he finishes the can as he watches him settle into place.

"It's not helping if I go down and watch, right?"

Nephrite has posed:
"I think they generally just call that the peanut gallery. Or like, insurance, if he sets off an alarm and needs a quick teleport out. Whatever." Nephrite sits up and dusts his uniform off before hopping off the rooftop.

On street level, he stage-whispers in the general direction of where the mask was last seen, "Sagittarius says you're gonna lose!"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
The great thing is that Mamoru's gloves are a glorious moonlit white like his mask. That means that Nephrite can, in fact, dimly see a solitary raised finger connected to a fist, right through the glass.

He's already inside.

A somewhat fraught ten seconds later, the had-already-been-blinking alarm light next to the door -- and in fact, the dim lights at the back of the store that make it a shadowy energy-saving camera-visible nighttime environment also go off.

Ten more seconds pass.

Twenty.

A full minute.

Jadeite has posed:
Jadeite hops down too. Earth forbid he resist the urge to be a peanut gallery. Except, of course, Mamoru is already inside, and that's...actually pretty impressive. "For some reason, I thought that would be a lot less easy and cool," he admits to Nephrite, since Mamoru can no longer hear him say it.

And then they wait. And wait. And wait. And -

"There's no way a 7-11 ate him, right?" He is growing concerned, slightly. Somewhat. A bit. Nothing changes. Still dark. Still silent. Okay. He can't take it. He's going in.

A swift flicker, and he's inside as well, in the corner tucked by the entrance, peeking around. "Heyyyyyyyy-"

Nephrite has posed:
"I thought it would be more dramatic," Nephrite admits. "Either in the funny way or the justice speech way. It's less fun if he's actually this good at it."

The wait happens. And happens some more.

"I did get eaten by a couch once," he notes uncertainly.

Jadeite loses patience first. Nephrite sighs. There also wasn't supposed to actually be a need for a rescue. He follows.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
It's still and silent in the store. No sign of their tipsy dramatic prince anywhere.

There's not a single light on, except for the red emergency exit signs above the doors. Not even the air circulation system is running; the refrigerators aren't on, and neither is the cash register-- it's like the place is suffering a power outage. Either Mamoru's really stupidly good at this or there's something really stupidly wrong. Could be both.

Silent silent silent.

If they shine lights of any kind it'll be visible from the street, and if the power's out, the clock is ticking from when the alarm company will notice. If they start going up and down the aisles, they will in fact find Mamoru's hat, brimming with a rainbow of ring pops, sitting on the floor in the middle of one. It may be tripped over. Nothing else is in disarray.

Jadeite has posed:
No one responds to the hey. Not a sound stirs in the convenience store, not even the running of the refrigeration units. The thought of how much food could be wasting strikes Jadeite's attention, almost as much as the thought that maybe his prince was eaten by a refrigerator unit. A refrigerator youma even.

"You try that end, I'll take this one," he suggests, before darting off into the darkness, taking quick, light steps and keeps his hands at his sides, to avoid bumping or touching anything. Either Mamoru is here and something is wrong or he's gone and also a jerk, but either way, he won't find out by waiting.

And besides. He has enough cash that he could leave some in the refrigerator to replace any snacks he may want to rescue from a lack of refrigeration.

Nephrite has posed:
It's dark. Dark and quiet. That is not a 7-11's natural state, which makes it decidedly eerie. "I thought we were joking about the getting eaten part!" Nephrite whispers loudly.

They're splitting up. "Wait Jadeite no don't get eaten too! Watch out for refrigerators!" But Jadeite is already a shadow amongst the shelves. Nephrite starts tentatively down the other way. "Dude come out already, this isn't funny!" he hisses at the shelves. "I swear if you're doing this on purpose, I'm pushing you off the Tokyo Tower."

Suddenly he stumbles, rocking into a shelf loaded with salty snacks and sending a few tumbling to the floor. At his feet is a hat. A very distinctive hat. "Jadeite!" At this point, Nephrite's so-called whisper, tinged with drunken panic, could wake even the deepest sleeper. "Jadeite I think the shelves ate him!"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
That's when they can feel it. Not hear it, not see it, but feel it. There's something that's pulling at them, and not in the familiar, friendly way Mamoru generally does when he's checking in on them or wondering where they are. It's something spiky and corrupted, and it feels--

--it feels like dark energy, except not... quite. It starts like a buzzing under their skin's just gotten ramped up to noticeable, or like they're standing beneath high tension power lines but it's pulling instead of flooding.

Right after Nephrite's panicked stage whisper, there's a sound from the far corner, somewhere around the slurpee machine. It's vaguely reminiscent of one of Zoisite's carnivorous poison flowers back in the Dark Kingdom spitting out the indigestible parts of something, wet and extraordinarily unpleasant and accompanied by the hiss of acid spit eating away floor tiles.

Glimmering on the floor between Jadeite and the corner is Mamoru's communicator watch: looks like he did at least have the presence of mind to try calling them.

Looks like whatever's going on objected strenuously; there are crunchy pieces of it everywhere.

And the alarm company is still on its way presumably? Unless someone's asleep at the monitor.

Jadeite has posed:
Nephrite's voice rings through the air, and suddenly the thought of snacks is the last thing on Jsdeite's mind. Neph doesn't panic over nothing - if he says the shelves ate Mamoru, then there's a *really good chance* the shelves really got him. He turns on his heel, ready to go sprinting for the sound of his voice, bets be damned, when the feeling hits, yanking at him, tugging under his skin like something sickly, prying into places only one person has the right to touch and he stumbles back, into one of the shelves and half a dozen bags of chips and candies hit the floor, rattled by his weight.

It's not enough to cover the sound, the wet and hacking noise of something terribly disgusting and wrong spitting up something that clinks and clacks. Against his own better judgement, he draws closer to the sound...

And nearly steps on the glimmering object, the edge of his shoe nudging it across the floor. With a paranoid glance in the direction of the noise, he crouches to retrieve it, and inhales sharply when he realizes what it is, and how wet it is.

"Something really ate him," he mutters to himself, disbeieving, before calling out louder, "That was his communicator. Something actually 'ate him', I think, what the -"

Why didn't they 'actually' tell Kazuo where they going? Why didn't they make Kyouko come with them? He's never drinking again, and other impossible promises. He sticks the wet communicator in his pocket, trading it for his phone and more importantly, the flashlight setting on it, immediately brightening the space directly around him. Forget stealth, this is more important than maybe getting arrested. "I'm going to see where it came from. Follow the light!"

Nephrite has posed:
Nephrite isn't prone to panic except in places that eat people, which is unfortunately becoming a thing he has encountered enough to deserve its own category. He picks up the fallen top hat carefully, holding it to his chest with one arm like either a protective shield or a teddy bear, still upright to carry the precious cargo inside. With his other hand, he gathers a half-formed attack -- a ball of starlight suspended in his palm, conveniently bright and ready to strike at a moment's notice.

"Okay, but like, don't touch it, whatever it is. I do not like that sound. Do you think it's trying to puke him up?" He follows the gleam of Jadeite's phone. "Shouldn't have had that last whisky sour," he mutters.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
The source for the sound is definitely the corner between the wall and the slurpee machine, where only last week there had been a magazine carousel; it's since been moved elsewhere, and the closer they get, the more the floor glistens, and the lights they carry definitely show that something large and heavy was dragged through the slime trail. And it's slime. Iridescent slime. Like a giant slug. At least it's not the shelves? Probably?

Some of the dark shadows in the corner come into sharp relief then: that's definitely dress shoes and ankles and the cuffs of very fancy tuxedo trousers, and they're definitely encased in hardening goop. They get closer and can hear, in fact, a hissing clacking argument going on--

--and when they shine lights directly into the corner in question, they can just see the edge of a ventilation shaft with the grille removed. There's an inordinate amount of slime.

They can only just see the edge, because in the way-- crammed in because there is zero space in there for one adult male and two youmas (think those ridiculous square kitten images from the mid-00s, or cartoon pictures of elephants trying to fit into glasses of water)-- there's a gelatinous slime monster with a handlike appendage around Mamoru's neck, a trail of golden energy dimly visible as a stream inside it like its arm is a slurpee straw, and a monster made entirely out of shark jaws and teeth with one of its hand mouth jaw man door hand hook car door toothy things closed on Mamoru's bleeding head, and golden energy's crackling around there too. Tuxedo Kamen's got goop all over him and they seem to have managed to shove his arms up into the ventilation shaft but are paused at that part of the operation.

The slimy monster's telling the shark jaw monster, "No you eat extra, *I* eat extra! Then fit!"

Jadeite has posed:
The youma composed entirely of shark teeth and jawbones hiss-snaps at the slimy monster, it's voice is emanating from somewhere in the middle of the largest pair of jaws, the ones where the creature's head ought to be. It's maybe a quarter of Mamoru's height, so it's half crouched on his shoulder to keep a good grip on his head. It waves its free arm-jaw in sharp gestures as it responds, "Stupid head! Eat exta now, all gone later!"

The last thing the little creature expects is for a light to fall on them, casting them into grim light. If it had eyes, they would be huge. But it doesn't have eyes. It has only teeth and bones and those are all very wide instead.

The teethjaws digging into Mamoru's heead release with wet sucking sounds as they teeth extract themselves from his scalp and hair. Mostly extract themselves. Head wounds bleed terribly - there's a distressing amount of blood on those teeth, and hair tangled into the sockets of those tightly crowded teeth.

Jadeite gapes at the bloody sight created by the little monster, demanding, "Sharptooth -?" before it launches itself off of Mamoru's shoulder and at Nephrite's face.

Nephrite has posed:
Two things occur. First, Nephrite gives Jadeite an incredulous look. "This is one of yours? Please don't tell me it's going to si--"

He is cut off as secondly, the thing launches itself at his face. The attack he had prepared in his hand fires off, a beam of starlight zinging in a wild arc across the slime creature and the slurpee machine and probably some wall. The top hat goes sailing over the shelves, ring pops glittering in the air as they spill forth. Nephrite goes flying backwards onto the tile with a pronounced "oof!" and a monster made of teeth and jaw and teeth on top of him.

In his defence, he's had a lot to drink.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Those two things occur, and simultaneously with them, another set of events is in progress. Slugslime monster stays right the hell where it is, keeping the mostly-unconscious prince between himself and Jadeite-- oop, and Nephrite's beam, at least mostly-- and it shoots a big splort of iridescent quick-hardening slime at Jadeite. It's aiming for his face, ish, or maybe for his hands? or? well it's aiming for Jadeite, but it's in a panic because its Mamoru-holding appendage got grazed and it HURT.

It hiss-screeches, "MINE! MINE!" and makes an unpleasant blorping sound as it starts trying to retreat into the vent and drag Mamoru too, nevermind Mamoru's arms are in the vent and the creature is trying to drag him by the neck.

With Sharptooth's 37th jaw having absented itself from his head, the golden crawl of his self-healing is doing a much better job at fixing it, and he's definitely starting to get more air since Neph's beam hit its arm and made it considerably more painful to use. So Mamoru's at least starting to come to, because his glued-together feet kick weakly and he starts trying to pull his arms back.

Slime monster screeches and then slorps over him and starts sucking energy faster, starting to glow gold with stolen power. The struggling ceases again.

Jadeite has posed:
Events continue to occur simultaneously, with Jadeite and the Slugslime monster going at each other, while Sharptooth continues its efforts to savage Nephrite. The difference of course, is that, Sharptooth just wants seconds on his dinner. Jadeite wants his prince back - and he's willing to take a lot worse than a round of quick hardening slime to the hand to achieve that end.

The slime monster goes skittering into the vent, dragging Mamoru by the throat, and Jadeite lunging after him, half climbing on top of Mamoru to catch the creature before it can get too far, and he manages to get a hand on Mamoru's neck, fingers digging into the slipper-slimy surface of it's grasping appendage. Cold billows out from under his fingers - he's trying to freeze the appendange solid, so he can break it off and get Mamoru out of there before the stupid thing strangles him to death.

It's not the slime covered hand, thankfully, but that's because he'd gripped the edge of the vent with that one, and uh, whoops, it's starting to do that quick-harden thing right to the wall. Good news, at least he doesn't have to worry about losing his grip. Bad news, if Slugslime decides to come hurtling back, they're both super stuck.

Sharptooth yowls as the energy beam knicks one of its bony bits, teeth chipping with the force. It clings to Nephrite's uniform jacket with one grasping jaw-hand, and tries bashing him over the head with the other. It had worked on Mamoru, so surely it will work again, on this bigger, explodier, and all around meatier meal.

Nephrite has posed:
On one hand, being pinned to the well-worn tile of the neighbourhood 7-11 by a series of shark jaws is not what Nephrite would call ideal.

On the other hand, he is Nephrite, and something is trying to pin him to the floor. Meatier target, indeed. His hand comes up to bash at the smaller set of jaws approximating the creature's stomach -- "thanks for bothering to give your monstrosity a tapered waist Jadeite but why did it have to be teeth?!" He rolls to the slide, taking hold of the nearest grabable jaws with both hands and slamming the creature into the slurpee machine. Both hands are definitely gushing blood now, but that is less important than the green slurpee juice that is now gushing out of the machine, oozing over shark bone and Nephrite alike. "Come on Grandma Shark, sing the song already."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Slugslime shrieks in agony even as Mamoru's shoulders are literally just not fitting in the vent and like, half his head and his arms partway past his elbows are in it and that's gonna be really uncomfortable when he wakes up again if Jadeite can't pull him out-- but damn, that appendage freezes like it got splashed with liquid nitrogen and practically crumbles in Jadeite's hand. Those are some pretty bad burns the rapid cold hit Mamoru's neck with, too, but what the hell, he's a healer! He'll be fine.

The important part is that he legit just slimy-slips right back out of the vent with Jadeite's added weight on him. Unfortunately for Jadeite, that means that he's also lost his purchase and the only thing holding him even partially upright is his hand stuck to the wall. Hopefully he can do something with that.

FORTUNATELY, however, the rapid freezing of that appendage and its subsequent loss mean that Slugslime is no longer in actual contact with Mamoru, so Mamoru is also no longer being drained of energy at all. It'll be a moment before he can do much, but he starts waking up with furious alacrity. And it's not just the alacrity that's furious. "...why. Why did you... make that, Jay..?!"

He squirms, making faces because moving his arms hurts and his hands are stuck together and that's literally not helping anything, and he hurts everywhere and his head's got blood and slime and saliva all over it, and he's got slime all over him, and this is... "Ohmygod fffuuu-- so unsanitary-- Jadeite-- Jadeite freeze the whole vent... why did you invite an elephant what is that--"

Jadeite has posed:
"I was having an emo time," Jadeite snaps back, concentrating on trying not to burn Mamoru too much and failing hardcore because carefull magical coordination and over-inguldence on whiskey are not compatible topics, and adrenaline does not actually sober a person up. "C'mon, c'mon stop screaming and just let - OW!"

Good news, it worked, and Mamoru is no longer being choked or tugged or held captive. Bad news, when he slips away - literally, even, because of course he does - Jadeite's knees slipped right out from under him alongside Mamoru, and his forehead has introduced itself to the vent. The world is all sparkles and pain and screaming Slugslime. This sucks, this sucks, this sucks -

Sharptooth is learning the meaning of 'biting off moe than it can chew', and it doesn't like the sensation, not at all. Bones crack and crunch as it's slammed into the slurpee machine, but there's blood gushing alongside the brightgreen juice, and it strains the joints of its body to grip down on Nephrite's hands. It's trying to do what a youma does best - drain his energy, so it can recover, and he can let it *go*.

And because it's all teeth, Sharptooh has so many ways to dig in and try and force open the stream of enegy, jaw-hands and jaw-feet flailing to get purchase and dig in deep. At least it's not screaming, not like how Slugslime is.

"Couldn't you wake up like, fifteen seconds ago," Jadeite whines at Mamoru, clutching his head with his free hand and not the vent. "Just trust that I am...regretting everything about making that guy, just, ow - "

Ice creeps through the vent and the metal contracts and warps under the intense cold, and even his hands are getting cold, please let this gross monster just die.

Nephrite has posed:
It's not particularly difficult for the bundle of teeth to find purchase through Nephrite's uniform through which to start sucking up energy. The problem is he does not care. His hands wrap around that smaller set of bones that holds the creature's middle, heedless of the fresh cuts in his palms. "No way, Skeletor Jaws! You don't get to snack on me."

When he has a firm grip on the jawbones in question, he begins to pry them apart, as hard as he can. If he can just pull hard enough on the already cracked bone, he can break the entire creature in half. If he can do it, that is, while lying on the floor, his energy steadily seeping out, while covered in blood and slurpee syrup.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Sorry-- if I'd been awake, uh, I'd've woken up sooner--" mumbles Mamoru, squinting through his gluey mask at the very close very sharp very bloody and very sugary green teeth-fight going on somewhere next to his midsection, judging by the slurpee machine and his distance from the vent.

There's a horrifying echoing BANG from inside the vent as Slugslime freezes solid enough to expand in place and actively explode the duct from the inside. Mamoru winces. Pieces of frozen slime clatter down the shaft, some of them bouncing out onto the floor and getting stuck in the viscous and hardening goo all over it.

Mamoru's focusing a little better, especially since with the spectacular death of Slugslime, a bunch of his energy just came back. He skids and twists his way back closer to Jadeite as fast as he can, gritting his teeth the whole way because wow what the hell his neck is searing in addition to everything and this really feels like a hangover or maybe it's Neph yelling. "Can't get my hands out. Touch my face with your free hand. Then even if you gotta rip the skin off your palm you gotta detach from the wall, I'll make it not hurt okay? And fix it. Help Neph after, your baby thinks he's a capri sun--"

Jadeite has posed:
"Why can't one of my babies just be a good kid who doesn't become a robot zombie or a blood thirsty youma," he's lamenting, because lamenting is better than considering the frankly horrifying death of that youma. He doesn't feel bad, because it absolutely earned it, but did it have to explode like that, couldn't it have just quietly frozen into a lump of rock for some poor heating vent and air conditioning technician to find in a few months? Did it have to do all that? And did he really have to rip his hand free?

Yes. Unfortunately, yes he did.

"We're never breaking and entering without someone with brain cells again. We keep sharing the brain cells and that's why we're always in this mess and I'm never making vent art again - " His free hand touches Mamoru's face. His weight shifts so he's braced on his knees. Okay. Okay. Pulling. He's pulling. His hand is sticking to the slime and ice, but he's pulling and it's not so bad. Not so bad. Not so - "Oh fu- "

And meanwhile, Nephrite may be bleeding energy and actual blood everywhere, but he's still terribly strong. Sharptooth writhes as his hands pry at its hip-joint-jaws, and it screeches in rage, "Leggo! Leggo! Stupid head, gonna bite!"

Technically, it's already biting him, but its kicking and kicking and kickng in a rage, trying to get itself loose. To wriggle free of his grip, slippery with blood as it is.

Nephrite has posed:
"You first!" Nephrite grunts. Blood and syrup are dripping in his eyes, soaking through the sleeves of his uniform. With a final guttural roar, he shoves all his strength into tearing apart the mighty jaws. "Go back to the ocean you piece of dried up sushi!"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru's shoving energy at Jadeite, like, usually he uses his hands to heal? It's more efficient since he can focus better that way, but he doesn't necessarily have to. Especially since he's spent so much time with people draining energy from him, he knows full well he doesn't have to be touching with his hands to transfer energy. It's just that the healing requires more concentration than just shoving energy. So while Neph is bleeding everywhere and in the process of literally ripping apart jawbones that are trying to eat him, while covered in green, there's a lightshow in the corner as Jadeite leaves a layer of palm-skin on the wall.

Good side: that's a lot of energy! It shouldn't hurt much while Mamoru is his anaesthesiologist.

Bad side: the healing part's kind of willy-nilly.

Other bad side: they're going to have to torch that part of the wall. How many minutes has it been? Seven? Eight? Not that any of the boys know this, but the alarm company that services this building has a ten minute response time to this neighborhood with no traffic. And they're not cops. No sirens.

Still more bad side: Neph's running out of energy too. Maybe he'll at least get his back if he destroys Sharptooth. But maybe not. And he's hella injured too and, again, Mamoru no-hands.

Sorry one more: They're probably going to need to get Mamoru to do the teleporting. And... well hey at least they're all already a mess.

"GO NEPH GO NEPH--" Mamoru starts chanting loudly, "go neph go neph" he quiets down because his head really hurts. And so does Jadeite's hand. There was also sliding backwards, the two of them, when potential energy turned into kinetic energy, and everything is gross behind Neph and Sharptooth now, more or less. "Sushi? Ow god damn, ow, why, you and your hands-- shit I'm losing track of what's going on, but I know for damn sure this had nothing to do with breaking and entering and we're buying a 7-11 in the morning..."

Jadeite has posed:
The pain was there, for a single hot second anyway, an awful tearing sensation as his flesh began to give way, but then it's nothing more than pins and needles and blood running down his palm, because Mamoru's energy is shining like a sunbeam to the face through a crooked curtain or something, and he can't really feel any of that. Can you overdose on energy? Probably not! But with how bad this night is? Wouldn't surprise him at all.

"Okay, okay, okay, let's just, okay let's get up, hold still so I can climb you -" He doesn't mean it the way it sounds, but it's also kind of true, because with just the one hand for bracing and it being pressed up against Mamoru's face, he kind of needs to basically half climb up him to get to his feet. All they need to do is not slip, slide, and fall right back down as he does so.

They've got this. One monster dead, one monster - he can't risk peeking, because that poor thing is his baby, his horrible monster baby - about to die, and no cops yet.

"Go Neph!"

The cheering is properly timed. As Mamoru begins to lament the need to buy a 7-11, the creak and crack of breaking bone grows louder, louder, still louder, until with a last shriek of rage and pain, Sharptooth is broken in half. Jawbones writhe and kick in his hands, but it only takes seconds for the broken pieces to dissolve into clay dust.

Nephrite has posed:
Cracking and shrieking and now chunks of dried clay are falling on Nephrite. He collapses, arms out like a starfish or a very sticky attempt at a snow angel in the puddle of syrup and blood. "That," he pants, and then pauses a moment to pant some more. "That was less fun than hanging a shark from the roof. I'm done with sharks. No more."

He tries vaguely to get up, but either gravity or blood loss or syrup has him stuck to the floor. "Somebody please teleport me somewhere that is not here. Preferably a pool or bathtub. But not the ocean. There's sharks in those waters."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru definitely flinches at the final CRACK, braced as he was for it with all the splintering sounds, and he most assuredly does not think about any of the stuff all over any of them, or on the floor, or yes all of it. "Okay," he breathes out, still making Jadeite's hand glitter kind of, and Neph is a mess and Mamoru can't replace blood, and-- there's one thing he has to think of. DNA evidence. "Neph you gotta get over here and grab Jadeite. One of the two of you, imagine there's a powerful river going to the sea in your palace. Aim for that. And-- and one of you's gotta call Kunzite maybe he and Zoi can figure out how to torch the evidence in here before anyone gets here, and I dunno where my communicator went."

He takes a shaky breath. "Today is a shitpost on reddit."

Jadeite has posed:
He's the least injured, and none of his energy has been drained. Mamoru's got the right idea, but Neph getting up right now is probably not happening. "Okay, Neph, instead of that, we'll com to you. Just don't bleed out on us, okay? I'm going to burst all the pipes in here, and the sprinklers going off will help with some of the blood, at least enough that they'll maybe just think it's cherry syrup until we can get Kunzite to agee with us that Zoi committing a little minor arson is for the greater good."

These are the first couple oof steps of the plan, even if he's kind of skipping a few. Who can blame him? He's dragged Mamoru's arm over his shoulders, and is dragging the two of them over the slime and blood and syrup covered floors, ready to enact the worst teleport that anyone of them is ever going to experience, ever, probably. There had better not ever be a one worse than this, anyway.

"We'll go to my palace, because I think it has the least amount of dirt, okay?" And he's not, exactly, dropped Mamoru on Neph, because that would just be cruel, but he's sort of sunk down and propped Mamoru over Neph's legs, because Neph is sprawled on the ground and that' the only way he can grab hold of them both for the teleport. "Mamoru. This part is very important."

His bloody, skinless, once-slimed palm presses against the ground, so his good hand can stay connected to them both, tangled in the messy cloth of their shirts. Frost blossoms underneath his touch, freezing the blood in place, and the air around them cools as he sends trails of frost up into the ceiling, targeting not the whole pipe system, but paprts of it, just enough to build pressure and pop the metal -

"Do not throw up on us."

They teleport out, just as the sprinklers burst and the water starts to pour. Outside, a car pulls up to the sidewalk, and the alarm technician coming to investigate what's going on here just stops annd stares, taken aback. Even with all the lights off, they can hear the sound of water striking the ground where the sprinklers are raining merry hell. They reach for their radio.

"Boss? Uh, I think I need back up."