441/Repaying Debts Part 1

Repaying Debts Part 1
Date of Scene:	11 October 2015
Location:	Mitakihara - Downtown
Synopsis:	Miss White repays debts to Eclipse. By dumping hazardous chemicals illegally. The guardians of tokyo intervene. Cure Gull is Captain Planet.
Cast of Characters:	Homura Akemi, Yuko Minami, Hannah Sharpe, Runealy Waldia, Haruna Kurosawa, Kazue Yamamoto

---

Hannah Sharpe has posed:
Miss White has incurred quite a few debts to earn her new position and fortune, and it's time to pay it back. But she has a bit of a problem.

~WPS Skyscraper~

The CEO frowns, rubbing the back of her head as she looks at the object of her goal. A hand confirms it. A fraking tanker truck, and the feeling of noxious, horrible magical runoff with just a quick scan.

Why did her superiors think it was okay to give her this job. She can't drive! Sighing, she calls up her allies, and with the help of Eclipse members, a robo-youma or two, and a certain Familiar, they make it to the drop-off point.

~Beachside Tokyo Harbor~

Miss White ruffles her suit back in place, gets out, and peers out at Tokyo Harbor from the beachside portion of the town. There's a sidewalk, beach, and a distinct 'no dumping' sign right beside the massive tanker they just drove up with.

Hannah grins, turns around, and holds her hands behind her.

"Alright then! Who's ready to commit some felonies!?" With that, she throws up a barrier, protecting them from mundane matters.

And begins pulling out the mundane hose that will start dumping out horrible magical chemicals into the water. Surely nothing could go wrong with this as shining green ooze begins to pour out.

"Keep an eye out, people! Who knows if we will get any magical girl environmentalist types!" The horrible sludge pumps away, and the barrier is fairly obvious to those passing by!

Runealy Waldia has posed:
Rune probably should not be wandering Tokyo at night alone, not in her current condition. Yet she is doing just that, pacing the harbor to think. This is an odd place to do it, as the harbor is a major shipping site and even at this hour it's not entirely silent. Yet it is a very distinctly 'Earth' place, different in scale and layout than any comparable harbor back home and the contrast is helping her ponder some things...

...Until a wide magic-barrier spreads through the area, including part of the harbor she's in. "Hn?" She's familiar with these, and goes tense; being inside a barrier means there is probably a fight going on. She needs to figure out what precisely is happening, and begins climbing a ladder.

Even that act, getting her to a warehouse rooftop, leaves her short of breath. Yet Runealy presses on, untransformed and getting to a rooftop edge in order to spot the tanker truck. She has seen them around Tokyo from time to time, but had no idea as to their purpose. Now they're doing... something unnatural with the water. That's the most she can figure out at a glance. And so Rune calls out: "What is this? What's going on?" It will be easy to hear this, and easy to spot her as she stands up high, surveying the odd situation.

Yuko Minami has posed:
     Yuko lets out a weary sigh as she looks over at that magical barrier in the distance, glancing between it and the innocuous little bag in her hands. Why did something have to happen /today/ of all days? Today's supposed to be the day she finally gets to start the third game in that trilogy of incredibly shitty, yet freakishly rare games!

     Alas, being a magical girl is not all fun and games, and she resigns herself to hiding the bag in an alley just inside that barrier's area of effect before undergoing her compact-aided transformation. And then she's off to find the source of the barrier! It takes her a while to get there even while throwing her shields to use their momentum to propel her, but she does manage to get to the heart of the matter!

     Quite literally, even, since one of her self-shield-throws lands her right on top of the tanker. By accident, too, but... Well, at least she's there! "Stop right there, fiends! What are you doing with that-"

     There's a look of recognition. "... Miss White? What is all this?" Cure Boost has a look of surprise on her face as she says this, keeping her tower shields held close to her sides and shoulders while staring straight at the white haired girl.

Homura Akemi has posed:
Homura could drive. Granted, a couple members of Eclipse have seen her 'driving' and probably didn't want her driving a tanker full of magitoxins.

Still, she's here, leaning over the water and looking underneath the waves. Commiting felonies isn't something she objects to, and while this activity is gross it's the kind of thing she's had to get used to. She probably objected slightly when she first heard about it, but decided to shrug off her trepidations in favor of 'just getting it over with'.

She barely even looks away from the water as other magical girls show up and start raising objections. She will eventually have to deal with them, probably, but for the moment she's focused on the water.

She just hopes no one finds the secret cache of naval warships she may or may not have hidden around here. She really should've kept notes on that kind of thing.

Haruna Kurosawa has posed:
Haruna Kurosawa enjoys the beach----- Haruna and Aki would go all the time. They didn't live too far from the beach then---- Aki had a nice rented apartment they both lived in you could smell the ocean from. They were living over here, with help from thier parents--- Mitakihara Public was a nice school to attend, after all- and it was worth it to be close.

Of course... Aki dissapered in the explosive accident.

The beach was still a happy memory--- the waves... the seagulls... the myraid colors and smells of toxic magical was---wait-a-minute.

She blinks blinks and turns to look up the beach at--- magical weirdness. She frowns. "Corvus, what's that?" she asked the silver raven. "I dunno. We should check it out!"

One Rollin' Mirror Change later, Cure Gull flies through the air and comes down onto the tanker truck also. Near Boost!

"Aha-! I found you villian! Dumping waste into the oce----whowhatha!? Miss White! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" she says pumping both fists down in front of her.

"S..Stop this at once!" she insists! "You're gonna poison sea life!" Cure Gull says.

Kazue Yamamoto has posed:
    After yet another fruitless day searching for Witches, Kazue has arrived at... Wait, what? The Harbor? Kazue checks the map on her smartphone and confirms it: Made a wrong turn... With a sigh, Kazue texts her mom and tells her she's gone out with a friend so she doesn't worry like the last three times, and almost leaves the harbor when loud screaming about felonies is heard in the distance and the familiar feeling of a barrier emerges over her head.

    Despite the obvious threat she may be facing, Kazue is pumped to see some more action! Kazue sprints to the source of the yelling, and finds Miss White and Co. dumping chemicals into the sea. Whatever that stuff is, Kazue's getting some bad vibes from it.

    Her suspicions are confirmed when she sees a familiar face jump onto the tanker truck, and with a giggle of delight, Kazue raises her right hand to the sky, makes an ILY sign and says "Stick it to the man!" as she starts her transformation.

    Her spiked guitar perched on her shoulder, Kazue walks toward the tanker truck, eyeing down White and then giving Cure gull a grin as she turns to face her. "Hey! Good to see you again! Mind telling me who this is?"

Hannah Sharpe has posed:
Hannah's brow twitches in annoyed recognition. There's someone standing up on high, and that voice is all too familiar now since their last meeting!

"H...hey! Should you really be out here like this!?" She calls out to the Princess, avoiding her name. They /did/ have a truce, after all!

Shields fly in, and then Miss White winces in a completely different manner.

"B...Boost-chan!? Seriously, careful! Read the labels!" She points. There's a large red explosive symbol there.

She nudges just a bit closer to Homura. No signs of naval warships yet, though as Miss White kicks the valve all the way open, there's boiling water and...is that water moving a bit!? Definitely not natural. What /is/ this stuff!?

And then in comes Cure Gull, landing right next to Boost!

To be fair, Haruna has a point.

"Just paying back a few debts, okay!? Besides! There's plenty of water! I have no doubt that dumping highly reactive (and highly illegal) magical chemicals into the bay here will have /any/ negative side effects on the local ecology at all! Right Homura-chan? Drop in the bucket and all!" Grin! A winning smile! Whisper!

"...They make any wrong moves, we knock 'em out. Good kids, but..." Shrug. /Magical defenders/!

She laughs awkwardly.

"So why don't we all just go home, and let us get this stuff pumped out! It'll be fine!"

Smile. The water behind her seems to be solidifying and /wiggling/. Homura might want to worry about that stash after all.

Slowly, Hannah frowns as the new girl arrives on the scene, and she snaps her fingers. Two more robo-youma-gangsters step out from the tankers, their guns click-clacking as they aim.

"Alright kids! This can go the easy way or the hard way! I'm pretty fond of some of you guys, and really, I respect you showing up! But can you really beat us, huh? Doesn't take long for that thing to spill out it's contents, you know? Make up your minds!"

She slams her twin spiked knuckles again, wind magic growing in her hands.

"I'm not the patient sort!" She yells, particularly at the new magical girl.

"Name's Miss White by the way." She finally adds, mostly for Kazue's benefit.

Runealy Waldia has posed:
Apparently this is a problem. Now that Rune has had a moment to look over who's here, she recognizes some of these people. Some aren't very familiar, but noted in her eyes all the same. Some are friends, some are possible-friends, others are former enemies who might well become enemies again if she continues to interfere in this matter. And apparently the hoses are a bad thing, since Cure Gull sounds upset - poisoning sea life does strike Rune as a pretty bad thing - and Boost likewise seemed unhappy about this event.

And then she's called out on being here. It's a fair concern; the princess is in pretty bad shape. Blue's treatments have been helping, but demon energy is not so easily cured, and loves to 'burst' when treated to inflict secondary damage on its victim. "No, probably not... but I wanted to think about some things, and now here I am and I have to deal with the situation as it is. Poisoning the harbor isn't 'paying back' anyone, that's just..."

She thinks on it for a moment. What would happen if the shipping routes back home were damaged? Her father would have plenty of insight on that; there's the obvious ecological harm, but economic harm too. "...People fish. People ship merchandise. You'll be hurting them too, they need money for food on the table. It might be a 'drop in the bucket' overall, but you tell that to the five or ten or hundred people who will have to figure out what to do for the next however long it takes for the water to clear out! Sorry, but I can't ignore this."

And so she does something very unwise. "Summoning Princess' Tiara!" The magical headwear appears in-hand. "The Line of Succession..." It's passed from one hand to the next, brought to her head in the same motion. "Transform!" A flash of red light engulfs Rune, and when it fades her wand is in-hand and magical garb in its place. Someone is apparently no longer hiding their identity. This is not the mistake. What might be a mistake is that she's aiming down at one of the robo-monsters and launching a wand orb at them, opting to fight despite her condition. To her credit, even though she's moving with an obvious shortness of breath... her aim seems to be decent, her movements reasonably proper for the moment as she begins a sideways sprint on the rooftop to keep her vantage point.

Notably, she's avoiding firing on White. Just the robo-gangsters seem to be bearing her attacks right now.

Haruna Kurosawa has posed:
Cure Gull looks to Kazue and gives a worried expression..."S--she's Miss White... she's... she's a friend... but....!" she grits her teeth, He hands digging into her palm.....

She's- angry. Dissapointed. There was... there was a /lot/ Haruna was ready to accept, and forgive about Miss White. She knew what she did was not smiles and rainbows and nice feeling. She remembers everything that she learned about Eclipse. But--this... this was personal. There was a reason her sister picked 'Tide' as her Cure identity.....and there's a reason she picked 'Seagulls' as her Cure identity. The beach.. the ocean. They were the two sisters happy place- and the other- isn't even free.

Miss White was now--- messing it all. Spitting in it. "I--I can't allow this Miss White..." she says through gritted teeth. She really... she really wants to say Hannah, but. No. Even she won't do that. Not even with how it feels like Miss Sharp was using those fists to kick her in her metaphorical gut.

"I won't let you mess the ocean. I won't let you! I.. I can't face my sister if let you do that..." she says- her hands coming up in a flat martial arts stance in front of here.

"I'm sorry. But. But. I need to stop this. I'm going to stop this!" she says.

Then she adds something- a phrase that Pretty Cures aligned with Blue-Sama- God Deity of the Blue Skies use when they're protecting something.

"With My Life On The Line!"

Her hands shake. Just a little bit. Maybe. Maybe she can get her to back down.

Yuko Minami has posed:
     More familiar faces! Cure Gull gets an appreciative grin at her apparent support, that girl with the amazing hair gets a confused glance at being in the truck, and that girl with the pink hair is... She's definitely familiar somehow, but how? Well, she does seem just as concerned, so that's a good sign. The girl in green (that isn't Cure Boost herself) is unfamiliar, but she doesn't set off any warning signs in the Precure's head, either. No, the only warning signs are coming from Miss White herself!

     ... And maybe a little from Homura just because she's in that truck.

     And the warning labels. She's fairly quick to hop off that truck once she realizes just how badly that could have ended if one of her shields had hit the thing. Not that the shields are flaming or anything, but... Well, red means bad, right?

     "Even if that's the case, what you're doing is still wrong! There's fines if you don't follow the proper channels and file the proper paperwork for dumping out magic... Uh. Magical residue."

     Okay, maybe there aren't. But still! "... Anyway. If you won't listen to reason, then I'll just have to make you listen." Cure Boost slams her fists together with a dramatic shout, her tower shields clanging loudly together as they materialize out of thin air while she takes on a defensive stance!

     "With my fists." Nailed it~ Maybe not to the level of Cure Gull's, but still.

Homura Akemi has posed:
Homura gives Hannah a sideways glance as the water starts to wrigle and move. She whispers to her, "If that stuff turns into a youma and grabs me I'm going to set it on fire." She doesn't know exactly what it is, but she is fairly certain she doesn't want it invading her personal space.

Finally she turns around, casting a dour gaze on the magical defenders. She can't help but sweatdrop at this whole situation. This isn't the kind of thing she wanted to get caught doing.

At least Madoka isn't here.

As Gull, Runealy and possibly others begin to get hostile, Homura sighs. "It's going to be one of those days, isn't it White-sama?"
She pulls a shotgun out of her shield and starts to wave it in the direction of the magical defenders. She doesn't fire yet. "There actually aren't a lot of laws dictating magic or magical disposal. Besides, if there were laws, I'm pretty sure they'd be written by the people in charge. Which would be us, anyways."

Not that Eclipse would be considered a legit government by... most people, but she's rolling with it anyways.

Kazue Yamamoto has posed:
    Kazue is taken aback by Cure Gull's sudden anger, and gives Miss White a determined glare as she hears her friend's speech. "It seems like your 'friend' here needs to be tought a little respect!" Kazue exclaims as she forms a disc of concentrated sound and air in her outstretched hand, which echoes with her words as she speaks them. "Pollution's one thing, but I'm not gonna let you mess with my friends."

    She turns her gaze slowly to the black-haired Puella standing next to White and gives her a confused expression, noticing her for the first time. "You're... One of us, aren't you? Don't tell me you're working for her..."

    To be honest, Kazue's winging it as much as Homura is at this point.

Hannah Sharpe has posed:
Miss White sighs. Rune isn't exactly wrong. Nor is anyone else, really.

"...Well I won't exactly say you're wrong about that." She adds, and then the girl transforms. Wince.

"/Hey/! Should I call you 'Baka Princess' now!? In that kind of condit...oh come on!" Howls Hannah in irritation, before Rune is after her robo-jerks. One of them is struck, and loses an arm, beginning to wildly fire at her. The other wise is far more accurate, his bullets clipping uncomfortably close! Her gaze lowers just a bit.

She can feel that dark sickness within.

/Sigh/.

"Don't kill any of them, got it, you two!? That's an absolute order!" She gives the two robo-gangsters.

There's an audible squinting of her eyes as she looks over to Homura.

"Welcome to Eclipse. This is our hump day." She offers right back. Yup. One of those days.

"...Yeeeeah, seriously, blow it up if it gets close to anybody, Homura-chan." She sounds about as uncomfortable by now as Homura does.

And worst of all, she's really, really made Gull angry. Miss White looks just a bit shameful at this, but then straightens. She /scowls/!

"Is this bay really that important to you, Gull-chan!?" Comes Hannah sharply!

"...You're not just bluffing, are you?" She sighs, and rubs her head, then offers a bitter smirk.

"You know the kinds of things we do. Does this really surprise you? Yeesh. You really didn't belong in that kind of thing." For a moment, she sounds sad.

When she looks again, it's with utter seriousness.

"Don't go saying something like that so easily." She softens, and holds out a hand, her finger making a 'come get it' motion.

"But anyone who offers a challenge like that? I won't turn down!" She kicks the (admittedly worrying!) valve of the magical sludge tanker closed. The boiling slowly stops, and the wiggling gets less.

"Show me if there's more than just words in that conviction of yours, Cure Gull! Cure Boost! Let's see if there's any steel left in those shields of yours!" All of her fire and fury are back as Cure Boost slams those shields together! This probably doesn't bode well as she's suddenly trying to provoke the heroes. And...still smirking?

Even Hannah can be a pain sometimes. Poor Homura.

An eye closes as she smirks at the trio atop the tanker.

"Besides. Homura-chan has a point. We're going to the top, we're going to rewrite everything! The laws of those outside this barrier dont' mean anything right now! Now get off my darn truck, kids!"

She kicks out, and a burst of magical wind rushes for the trio, aiming to bowl a duo of PreCure and a Puella off of the truck!

She chooses right then to give a grin to Kazue.

"You're welcome to try to teach me 'respect' if you're strong enough!" Further taunts the woman.

Runealy Waldia has posed:

Runealy blinks, eyes wide as Homura takes aim at several people - she ends up being one of them. "Are you serious?" The prospect of fighting Homura alarms her on many levels, and it's one Rune is not eager to actually try. "Earth might not have many laws about it, but there's still 'right and wrong'... are you really going to hurt us... kill us, maybe," she's taking the threat of Homura's strange - to Rune, at least - weapons seriously, having seen that in the Puella Magi's hands they do just as well as a magic wand. "Over something like this? You're really defending this and saying it's because you're in charge? I don't want to fight /you/," especially not a Puella Magi, and among them especially not Homura, "I know your situation, but... hnn!?"

She's interrupted by two things; Kazue joining in the conversation with Homura (which is not what Rune is shouting in alarm about), and shots from robo-monsters (which she /is/ shouting about!). Boot wings lighting up with a silver glow, Rune leaps over the initial shots and another 'pulse' glides her aside from the second set of attacks... but it was a very close thing, and Runealy winces upon landing; moving like this is hurting.

"Maybe I am stupid," she agrees with Hannah's frustrated insult-question, "but I can't ignore this. It's going to hurt people, and your only reason for it is 'we are strong', and 'paying back debts'... who pays back anything in poison?! Are you hearing what you're saying, does that really sit right with you? Isn't doing what you want because you're stronger just what those bandits," Rune uses archaic terms, notably, "in the park tried to do to your friend?" She's avoiding naming names.

Her wand aims at one of the robo-monsters again, wand lighting up to shoot one... two... three thin red rays. One is an outright miss; her aim was just plain off. The second is close and might connect. The third is more clean, and will require some kind of defense to avoid... but none of these are as powerful as her earlier blast. Her composure in this battle is clearly flagging, and she hasn't even been hit yet. It might stand in contrast to the healthier defiance shown by the Cures.

Haruna Kurosawa has posed:
Cure Gull is shaking. But she hasn't dropped her stance..... Giving Boost just the slightest of nods to suggest she's listening.

"To me...no. This bay....is important to my sister! To Aki! Wh--what will I tell her... if I ever see her again!? That I just let you mess it up!? That I'm friends with you!? T..There's gotta be a better place to dump this, but instead your just filling the few good memories I have with---with this!" she seethes.

Yes. This is a personal matter. This isn't just a cup..or a wrapper. This can really hurt things.

Corvus left from her shoulder much earlier when she said her earlier threat. He knew what this meant. He didn't like it, but he understood---- Corvus had taken long walks on the beach with Haruna many times. He knows it's important to her for many many reasons.

Homura has a shotgun. Is that dangerous to her? Rocks.. crashes. They only stung. She was unsure about guns.

When Miss White blasts out in fury, her bow explodes into seagreen wings, she lets the wind carry her backwards quickly as she hovers upward. High, higher as she weathered the attack.

At the apex, she did a small loop, and then suddenly threw herself down at Miss White in a increasingly faster kick to her upper region- trying to aim for square in her chest.

Gull... Gull didn't want to do this. Hannah was a friend....Ao was a friend. This hurt. This hurt a lot. But she had a duty. She had to stop this. Even if it wasn't personal-- she was poisioning the sea water- she'd be expected to butt in as being a member of Virtue alone!

Yuko Minami has posed:
     So that's how it's going to be, then. Miss White, amazing-hair-shotgun girl, and a load of robots against the rest! It's not as bombastic as what Cure Boost has seen in her games, but this is reality!

     "It'd be one thing if this only harmed your own waters and animals, but I know you don't have a permit for the ocean!" This whole thing is sounding more and more confusing to Cure Boost as she starts putting words to it. "But if this is the way you want it, then I'll be happy to oblige!" Even though she's helped Miss White in the past, she certainly has no qualms about facing her in battle once more.

     And with another bash of her shields together for dramatic effect, Cure Boost launches herself straight towards Miss White! It's probably not the safest idea of hers to go straight for her while leaving everyone else unattended, but she /is/ at least trying to make herself the easiest and biggest target for now!

     There's little actual technique or strategy behind her first attack, going for a rather straightforward rush with one shield in front of her to weather the burst of wind coming straight at her! Magical steel creaks and strains against the wind, and the green Precure is slowed down, but she's still slowly closing the distance between herself and Miss White! The other shield is held at her side, both to provide herself with extra protection as well as giving her some cover from Homura. Even if she's a magical girl, shotguns are probably still dangerous, especially in the hands of another (maybe) magical girl!

Homura Akemi has posed:
Homura frowns at this whole thing. Well, fighting other magical girls is par for the course in her life anywyas. However, Kazue's words get her attention. "So you're a Puella Magi, too? Of course I'm working for her. A steady paycheck, Grief Seeds, dental... I'm surprised more Puella don't go for it. They sell out other Puella for Grief Seeds, but they wont sell them out for Grief Seeds plus a paycheck? People like us shouldn't live in denial of what we are."

Hannah starts fighting. Well, there wasn't really any avoiding that at this point, Homura imagines.

To Runealy, she says, "I doubt you'd die just from getting shot a few times. Don't be so melodramatic. I'm not saying its a righteous action, but that kind of heroism only gets people like me killed." Homura flips her hair and adds, "Well, at least you know why I don't judge you."

Cure Boost's shielding is seen as an intent to fight Homura, or at least an opportunity to shoot at something she doens't have to feel guilty about. A single solid slug is fired at Cure Boost, aiming for the center of that shield.

Kazue Yamamoto has posed:
    Seems like there's more to this than just getting Grief Seeds, Kazue quickly muses to herself, remaining silent as the two Cures begin their attacks. Cure Boost jumps to meet Miss White and Cure Gull fires an arrow of energy, so Kazue decides now might not be a good time to attack White, lest she misfires and messes up the attacks of her allies. Instead, Kazue jumps from the truck, putting her weight into flinging her disk at one of the robots shooting at her ally in red, and hoping that the sound that will burst from it will keep them rattled enough for a clear shot later.

    She dematerializes her guitar and rolls safely onto the ground next to a black-haired Puella with the most jarring magical weapon she has ever seen firing uncomfortably close to her. Seeing a chance to disarm her as she fires, Kazue rises from her crouching position and swings her arm up, materializing her acoustic club in the process, aimed at the shotgun,

     Kazue huffs in disgust at Homura's words "I don't know what YOU are," Kazue says, initiating her attack. "But I don't want to be affiliated with it. I'm hunting witches, not people. Sure, I admit, I was sold out, but I'm not gonna become a mercenary and exploit the power we get on others!"

Hannah Sharpe has posed:
"When you make a promise, when you take on a debt, you repay word for word! Even...even if it means..." Hannah's teeth grit, and she's looking away, not able to face Runealy for a moment.

And then she names Ao-chan indirectly.

"DON'T YOU DARE COMPARE ME TO THEM!!!" She howls out, and the robo-youma respond in kind. Those clipped shots become tighter. One Rune-shot goes wide, another grazes along the armless, wild shot robot. But the second robo-gangster actively dodges away, stepping aside as a shield of darkness briefly lights up, only to be penetrated! Thanks to that, the hit is negligable, despite the damage she did at first to the pair.

"You don't need permits, Boost-chan, when you have money!" She calls in turns, meeting the other girl as she rushes in head-first even as Hannah's wind pushes Boost back! Wind magic pushes her into a majestic leap, leg flying upwards as she aims a spinning knife-kick down towards Boost, aiming not for her body, but for the upper lip of a shield! She's trying to send the girl shield-over-heels spinning towards the ground like a top!

She's sure to stay out of Homura's gunfire, too!

But whatever fury she has cools just a moment. It's important to her /sister/. Miss White gets it. But as her leap and kick to Boost leaves her open, there's the flying kick that slams right into White's chest! She throws up her hands in the last minute, but that doesn't save her from being smashed right back into the dirt, bouncing and coughing once before rolling back to her feet, sliding back a few feet more before coming to a standstill.

There's pain in her eyes, but a smirk remains as she rubs away the dirt on her cheek.

"...So that's it. Well, I won't say you don't have good reasons. But if it's not me, it's going to be someone else that defiles this bay. Unless you can show me the strength you've gained, Cure Gull. Come on. Impress me, prove to me that you'd fight anyone for your sister, and maybe I'll decide to listen to you." A goading challenge.

"After all, how /are/ you going to defeat /HIM/ if you can't even take out me!?"

Then Kazue chucks a magic disc at one of the robo-guys! The armless one gets whacked in the face, sent flying, missing his other arm. He flails around, right on the ground! That last robo-guy focuses on Runealy!

But Hannah does rub salt in Kazue's wounds.

"That's how this world works, kiddo! People exploit and use each other! The only kinds of people who can change that are the ones who have all the power! Only power lets you solve anything!"

Runealy Waldia has posed:
"I was always taught that fighting can be lethal, and it can be lethal in an instant, so you always take it seriously!" Rune retorts to Homura. "But you're right... I'm not looking down on you either, not judging you. We're looking at the same problem on different scales, after all. I just found a different answer. ...No," she puts herself inside a red forcefield bubble to have a moment to finish this thought mid-fight: "Really, I was /given/ a different answer. Handed to me by people who wanted me to stop fighting them, and finally I was in a position where I had to say 'yes'. Some day, I hope someone can talk to you about a better answer for your problem too. Until then, I won't fight you unless I have to." That could leave an interesting 'what now?' if the situation ever came down to just Homura defending this tanker.

Yet that's just a hypothetical. Here in the present, robo-gangster shots are pelting her forcefield and it's visibly shrinking and cracking from the damage. "How is what you're doing any different?" A call to White's shouted retort about Ao and motives. "If there is a difference, tell us, but so far all you're talking about is strength, money, 'someone else will do it', and repaying debts. What you're doing right now is exactly why..."

Her shield shatters; Rune can't finish the sentence right now, she has to move! Another leap carries her over the next shot from the robo-monsters, then... one of them manages to tag her in mid-air.

She lands off-balance on the roof edge, then teeters and falls off! Runealy screams as she plummets, boot-wings only managing to slow her fall rather than prevent it; she still slams into boardwalk hard, vision going black with little silver flashes through it. Teeth grit, Rune starts to pick herself up.

She coughs, trying to finish her words to White: "This sort of thing is why I refused to repay you by having my friends and I be your personal army, even for 'just one favor'. One way or another, someone gets hurt and this just keeps going on as some ridiculous cycle!"

Now up to one knee, Rune's tiara gems light up and begin spitting out a stream of tiny green energy-dots at the robo-gangsters. If the wand beams were even weaker than her emerald orbs, these are weaker still. Not insignificant, but not a dire threat to their well-being. She's barely moving, and it's possible even these foes will now hold the advantage over her.

Yuko Minami has posed:
     Blocking a shotgun slug really is quite different from defending against the physical and magical attacks. Cure Boost is even caught off guard by that shot, yelping briefly at her arm snapping back from the impact against her shield. Dropping that shield and letting it dissipate, she's forced to materialize a new one hastily just in case there's more shots sent her way.

     "Nngh..! So that's what it's-" As much as Boost loves theatrics, it's definitely something she needs to work on not doing so much since it leaves her open to attacks. For example, Miss White's knife-kick! It's a good thing that kick was aimed at the shield, or else she'd be eating the pavement right about now.

     No, instead she's just getting sent spinning-slash-cartwheeling from the momentum of being thrown over her shields, the shields' momentum carrying her back up, and so on a few more times. Definitely not the most elegant way to get knocked off her feet, but at least it looked cool!

     Well, until she pukes a little. "... I-Impressive. But it'll take more than that to put me down!" Burping quietly as she straightens herself back up (and wobbles on her feet), Cure Boost hunkers down behind her shields while one of her elbow pistons starts whirring loudly. "I can't get that gunk out of the ocean, but...!"

     The shield-wielder braces her feet firmly on the floor before punching forward against the back of her shields, the force travelling through the first and into the other to send one of the shields flying right at the hose! She can't launch it at the tanker or at Homura, after all: Innocent or not, who knows how many people could be hurt if that tanker exploded or if Homura couldn't get out of there in time?

Homura Akemi has posed:
Kazue knocks the shotgun out of Homura's hand, forcing Homura back in the process. Before the shotgun even hits the apex of its arc, Homura already has another gun out: an uzi.

Homura glares at Kazue as she speaks, and then with a heavy sigh she responds, "It's always the optimistic who end up taking it the worse. That kind of naivete will just hurt you in the end."

"Even if you insist you aren't like that, other Puella Magi will sell you out in a second if they think it's convenient! Maybe they'll do it because they don't like your fighting style, or maybe they'll do it just because they don't want to shatter their fragile view of the world. Or maybe they're just greedy and think that they deserve the Grief Seeds more than you do."

Homura opens fire at Kazue, holding the trigger down to unleash a sputtering rain of bullets. "In the end, this is the world you signed up for. Most of us don't last long, so welcome to the rest of your probably short life."

To Runealy, she adds, "No other Puella Magi has ever found a solution. I doubt there's any path that will save everyone, which means that there's always going to be someone who isn't going to make it."

Haruna Kurosawa has posed:
Cure Gull kicks off Hannah into flip and lands back down on the truck top. She frowns. "I...I wouldn't be fighting you.. if I didn't think I'd have a good reason!" she says loudly. This is not the shy or bashful or awkward Haruna that people know. Nope. "You and A-chan (She does not use Ao's full name. She's expecting Hannah to know who 'A-Chan' is without saying the girl's name outright!) mean so much to me!" she admits as she puts a hand up. Grrr. /Him/. She'd only met him once. And he was driven off by all the others there. She couldn't even touch Phantom, the Precure Hunter.

"Wh--when I face Phantom again! It won't be alone! I'll have my friends..!" she says loudly.

"We're all going to rescue my sister together! and.. and maybe even some other Precure!" she says. Cure Victory wanted that last bit---if they were going in----she wanted as many back as they could bring. She doesn't know if that's possible. People go there. To Phantom's area. They don't come back. They get put to sleep in mirrors. She wonders what that must feel like. It causes herself to loose concentration, until she closes her eyes and just suddenly dasges forward, her translucent seafoam green wings leaving a trail as she attempts a hard, forceful punch into Hannah's face!

Kazue Yamamoto has posed:
    Before Kazue can even reply to Homura, the unnatural appearance of a new gun in her hands causes Kazue to launch herself off of the floor and quickly strum a cord from her guitar, forming a small shield of pressurized air in front of her to block the spray of bullets. Two shots manage to brush closely past her left arm and right leg, and Kazue winces in pain. Kazue hears Runealy's scream and immediately lands close to the weakened magical girl, launching once more into a mad charge against the robots in front of her with a magically concentrated battlecry at a high enough frequency to stun the pair as she crashes her club down on them both in a single horozontal strike, starting with the one with the most limbs.

    Kazue, breathing heavily from her attack, considers Homura's words as she prepares for whatever attack comes her way. All this talk of life expectancies. Of betrayal. This is getting heavy. Kazue is scared, tired and afraid of messing up.         
That familiar feeling again...

    But unlike her last moment of fear, this time she's going to grit her teeth and live through it, no matter the consequences. Kazue looks to Cure Gull as she says she won't be alone in her fight. She has her friends.

    Friends...

    It dawns on Kazue that she has been marching through her life thinking she could only achieve anything great by herself.

     Kazue, lowers herself onto her good knee and readies her weapon to play another defensive strum if Homura decides to fire again.

     "We all make mistakes," Kazue says to Homura through her heavy panting. "There's always gonna be challenges. What matters is that you push through them! And when we're together, we there's always going to be a solution!" Kazue is filled with adrenaline-fuelled determination as she calls to Cure Gull.

    "Wherever you're going, Gull-chan, I'm coming with. You can count on me."

Hannah Sharpe has posed:
Rune offers a far more dangerous punch to Hannah's emotions than the lasers she's pummeling the robo-gangsters with! The girl is actually off-put for a moment, trying to come up with a retort.

"SHUT UP! This world is already in a ridiculous cycle! And sometimes you have to...oh, forget it!" She huffs, the metaphorical battle well in Rune's hand.

But the physical battle is far less favorable, as her lances of magic from her crown as she falls hits the remaining robo-gangster. The creature leaps forward, taking the shots on its beige long coat, and then comes down. It raises its arms, gun ready to slam the butt down onto her head!

"I SAID NO KILLING!" Adds Miss White, her fury only rising.

The youma then reverses grip, and slams its gun's butt viciously right towards Rune's stomach, aiming to drive the wind out of her and knock her out with an ending boot to the back of the head!

Thankfully by then Kazue leaps in, and swings her club down in time to destroy the remaining robo-guard, falling to pieces, leaving her with a weakened Runealy to contend with!

And then Cure Boost lands on her /feet/.

"...Huh. You're as solid as ever." Hannah sounds impressed.

And then a shield goes flying towards the tanker's hose! It slices the thing off, and Miss White huffs. It's good thinking.

"Shouldn't underestimate a PreCure..."

Case in point! Cure Gull rushes for Hannah, and she takes it right in the face! The power of the strike has the two girls sliding through the dirt, dust kicked up, until Hannah slams into a tree! The power causes the thing to crack and fall, Miss White turning her cheek, and shivering for just a moment.

Her face, now horribly bruised, turns to a smile.

"You're getting stronger, Cure Gull." She states, then arms will lean over to wrap her up in...a hug!?

She squeezes, hard enough to hopefully yoink out some air.

"We will get your sister back. Promise. But you have to be strong. To be able to stand up for what you believe in. Just like you did today. I'm proud of you."

Her voice raises. "...But I'm the kind to finish my jobs while I can still move!" She'll grab Gull by the shoulders, lift her up, and try to kick her as hard as she can in the chest with a burst of wind! She tries to shove the girl as far away from the tanker as she can. Then, squirming away, she ends up with a wind-boosted leap over to Homura.

"Use your abilities to get anyone out that looks like they're too slow. Got it? And don't worry about me. I've got this."

Then she's going for the tanker! Leaping upon it, she kicks hard, rending part of the metal open. Reaching into her pockets, she flicks something, and there's a lit match. The barrier around the tanker shrinks, soon just encompassing herself (hopefully!) and the tanker.

"I'd start running kids!"

She drops the match.

The resulting explosion is a massive burst of horrible Dark-fueled energy, that seems like a miniature mushroom cloud somehow exploding into itself multiple times. A horrible, horrible end for anyone caught within!

The barrier barely holds out, leaving shorn metal, and a patch of corruption that someone will have to seal away.

~WPS Headquarters~

Miss White tumbles through the air as the force of the explosion, shiftly cut off, slams her into her office desk! Half way through it. Almost immediately, a biohazard team and medical team are there, ready to disenfect and generally treat her horrible magic burn wounds!

Last minute teleport spells are amazing. Even if she's not perfect at them yet.

Runealy Waldia has posed:
Runealy winces as gunshots ring out, drowning out anything she might immediately want to say; she'll have to wait a moment, voice low as she admits to Homura: "I don't have a perfect answer right now either, but... I really do hope somebody, whether it's you or me or anyone else, finds it." It is perhaps interesting that she and Kazue have been having related but nonetheless disconnected arguments with Homura, as Kazue is now rushing to help Rune.

The alien princess did not expect this, not one bit. "Hn? You're...? Thank y-- ahh?!" Her gratitude is interrupted by a rifle looming over-head. Rune starts to raise her wand to block, but a spasming cough causes the staff to fall out of her hand and clatter to the ground; the strike is clean, if aimed lower than originally planned, and smashes her to the floor with a hurt cry!

Another sickly cough follows, then... Rune is engulfed in a red light, and her transformation fades. If any further blows are forthcoming, she has no answer for them and may well have to hope Kazue can continue to help out... because the alien princess is crawling away, then turning to get to her feet and working on a stumbling, limping run to try to retreat. "Sorry... I'll have to leave the rest to you!" She's already working on committing Kazue's appearance to memory, wanting to be sure she finds this new Puella Magi soon and talk when circumstances might better allow it.

She has, in any event, granted White's wish. Rune is no longer arguing with her, and is instead just trying to get away from here. The barrier might be a problem for complete escape, but if she can even get out of immediate danger... that might be enough. Especially since an explosion is in the near future. She may well need help getting sufficiently far enough away from THAT, however!

Homura Akemi has posed:
"I wonder if you'll still feel that way after..." Homura starts to say something to Kazue, but then trails off. No, there's no real point in trying to convince a Puella to be depressed. Just because fate is inevitable that doesn't mean there's any need to rush it.

Runealy goes down, Hannah starts to rip apart the tanker. Homura knows enough about explosives to predict whatever's going to happen next. She'd normally hesitate to use her time powers, since she makes to make her Grief Seeds last, but in a case like this there's no time for second guessing.

Well, actually, Homura has all the time she needs, since she just stopped time.

She looks around trying to see who needs help the most. The Cures seem healthy enough, Hannah has teleport magic. She doesn't know a thing about the other Puella, not even her name. As for Runealy...

Runealy can barely stand up on her own.

Well, better follow Hannah's orders, right?

Homura reaches out to grab Runealy's hand, bringing her into the timestop. If someone else is touching Runealy at the time, they'll probably get drawn in, too. "We're going. Can you walk?"

Yuko Minami has posed:
     "Don't underestimghlbl." Cure Boost would be much happier about her plan actually succeeding if she wasn't busy reeling from the tumbling and spinning. Case in point: she's /really/ starting to feel ill after all that tumbling and spinning, and she's trying not to keel over despite barely managing to even get half of a coeherent sentence out.

     The pain shooting through her injured arm from blocking the shotgun shell, then the kick, THEN punching the shield does help mitigate that somewhat, but only in the sense that she can only feel so much discomfort at once before it all just starts drowning out the other.

     "You'll.. Ggh. You're done now! Leave this pl-ugh." She really needs to stop talking right around now. Thankfully, the tanker's about to explode, so no more things to worry about... Right?

     Wait. Explosions are bad! Very, very bad. Not so much for her since she's still transformed and has one good arm to use her shield with, but definitely not good for those without those same advantages! Case in point: Runealy (now that she actually somewhat recognizes the girl in her untransformed state), Gull, Kazue, even Homura (and that amazing hair) ... Miss White's out of the way, but how is she supposed to protect them all?

     By throwing more shields at the problem, of course! Or dropping them, rather, as Cure Boost starts running about materializing and dropping tower shields as makeshift walls between the girls and that impending explosion. She summons and drops a few by Gull to form the first wall before circling around to Kazue, Runealy, and Homura. She's still slow on her feet, though, and all she can do by the time she even gets there is stack shields upon shields in front of her to try and weather the blast for all four of them!

     That's definitely not going to be fun. If only she knew to actually make contact with Runealy.

Kazue Yamamoto has posed:
    Losing consiousness fast, Kazue reverts her transformation and kneels face down as she struggles to listen to White's deranged talk with Cure Gull as she goes from a heartfelt promise to save Cure Gull's sister to killing whoever is unprepared at this very moment. Luckily, Kazue's little speech was not in vain, as Cure Boost materializes shields in front of her and... Okay, Kazue is probably hallucinating, because she just saw that pink-haired girl dissappear into thin air. With a barely audible "thanks" directed at Cure Boost, Kazue lies as close as she possibly can to the nearest shield and faints...

Runealy Waldia has posed:
Rune suddenly finds herself on the receiving end of a lot of help. Shields from Boost, which she notices while looking over-shoulder at the noises going on behind herself. "Th--" Her gratitude is only given a syllable's opportunity to be voiced, before it's cut off by...

...Homura? Homura has easily overtaken her. She has to hope this isn't going to turn into an incredibly one-sided fight with the Puella Magi. Fortunately, it isn't. "This is as fast as I go," her stumbling limp 'run' amounts to only a little better than a walk in overall speed, even if she's trying to do better than that. "What about the others, though?"

Homura Akemi has posed:
"Half of them probably would just attack me, and dven if they wouldn't it's not worth the risk. They're just going to have to manage," says Homura, still holding onto Runealy. "Besides. I've seen those shields before. They're pretty tough."

She starts to lead Runealy away, at least far enough to make sure she'll at least survive to see another day.

Runealy Waldia has posed:
"So you're worried they might attack you, but not me?" That's actually a reasonable conclusion to make about Rune given her current condition! "I don't know whether you're saying that because..." She coughs, an obvious illustration that she can't really attack, "Or if you trust me, but either way..."

Rune does not decline this gift. She does not demand Homura go back to help the others, or insist she'll handle this on her own. She knows just enough about Puella Magi to know that Homura has essentially offered 'part of her life' (until a Grief Seed is obtained to replenish it) to ensure Rune's own life continues.

And so she follows Homura's lead, head low. "Thank you. I'll repay this and then some." This incident is ultimately one more fine reason she can't look down on Homura, can't truly judge her... one more reason to hope that some day, a better answer can be found for the Puella Magi's problems.

Haruna Kurosawa has posed:
Cure Gull sort of frowns at Hannah. "You don't have to do thi----" but then there's a match and the light on Cure Gull's face falls into a 'Oh butts!' look of surprise. Cure Boost drops a shield in front of her and blinks. She braces against it. When Cure powers work together, they're supposedly a lot stronger. Let's see if this shield can do it!

----and it does. Kind of. It protects Gull from the blast directly. But this doesn't stop it from also pushing her into a nearby building after the explosion.

She manages to come out of this generally okay, though everything hurts all over.

Corvus was far away enough to not get hit by stuff, but he did use a wing to shield his eyes from the blast. The silver raven flies down onto Gull's shoulder. "Okay. Well. That could had gone better." says Corvus. "You think?" Gull asks tiredly.

Gull raises her PreBrace. "Wings of Hope, turn into a sacred power.....!"

Cure Gull was doing her purification stuff. She did this- with less fanfare than an actual enemy deserved--- Seafoam green light engulfing the lingering corruption and burning it away.

"T..thanks Boost-chan." she'd smile before taking off--- She does give Kazue a smiling look before she dissapears.

Kazue Yamamoto has posed:
    As she bobs in and out of consciousness after the explosion, Kazue realizes she was in fact taken to the hospital. Between each wave of fatigue, Kazue manages to pick up a few passing conversations by her bed.
    "...Chemical traces have disappeared... Almost no damage..."

    Despite the seemingly good news, (and the occasional questioning of logic) Kazue is hearing, she can't help but feel something nagging at her in the back of her mind. Something happened. Something's changed. But despite her concerns, she hasn't the strength to find out her intuition is telling her.

    For now, all she can do is wait...