Evening in Mitakiara. The sun has just sunk below the horizon, but the western sky is still aflame with pinks and golds in the aftermath of its departure, glimpsed through the tall buildings which obscure most of the sky. The lights of the city have come alive, and people mill on the sidewalks, going about whatever business they might have after work. For all intents and purposes, it is a normal evening.
However, not everything is as normal as it appears today. Those with a sensitivity can feel it first.. the onrush of dread, the feeling of wrongness. Something is coming, and it's coming fast. Why here, and now? There are several vetern Puella in the vicinity- surely a death sentance for any Witch choosing to make an appearance. Maybe it's not a particularly bright Witch... or maybe it's an unusually powerful one.
Either way, the result is the same. The Labyrinth blooms in the sky just outside Mami's appartment, the ripple in reality spreading outwards to engulf anything within a radius of a block or so. Those normal streets, milling with people suddenly vanish as the Labyrinth expands, replaced by a bizarre, hellish landscape.
The sky is green and brown, like rotten meat. The land is gone- what had been a city is now a sea. A sea of roiling, sloshing.. paint. Thick and liquid, swirling with every color combining and rippling in nauseating, psychadelic patterns, it stretches from horizon to horizon, an ocean of the stuff. Protruding from it at various, seemingly random intervals are rock-like projections, sharp and jagged. Other than these, there is nothing solid to stand on.
Pedestrians who had been walking on the street suddenly find themselves treading paint in this vast, bizarre sea, the Witch's Kiss appearing on those who are unfortunate enough to have been drawn into the Labyrinth. But worse than that, there are Familiars in the sea. Huge sharks, of rainbow hue and seemingly constructed out of randomly jumbled parts of painter's equipment- easels and paintbrushes and stuff, with jagged teeth made of painting knives. They thrash through the water.. one lunging up to encompass a helpless former pedestrian in a single snapping flash.
Of the actual Witch which has spawned this nightmare, there is currently no sign.
A spike of energy, a feeling of dread, and that wrongness. It felt... so... wonderful! It was like a magnet attracting the Forsaken Doll. She began to approach, basking in that darkness, especially as that Labyrinth blooms. As the labyrinth blooms, it might not be that hard to mistake Maeko for a particularly strong familiar... but that was wrong. She was not a creation of despair... she was a creation of /hatred/ and /anger/. Passion. Also, she definitely didn't look like a huge rainbow-hued shark.
~My, my.~
~Such an interesting little place I have stepped into.~
~Are you a curse too?~
~Hmm... no... you feel wrong... but... still. Let's play together.~
Maeko smiles cheerfully towards those sharks, looking for the source of it all, her voice coming out an /off/ sing-song as she spoke in the general direction of the Witch. A hand reaches into the back of her outfit, slooowly withdrawing her massive, hooked cleaver. No doubt with this much energy, someone would come to disrupt her play... and there were so many that looked like her dear former owner that were in this 'curse's' grasp, which caused an unnaturally wide grin to spread over the Forsaken Doll's face.
~Yessss, suffer.~
What a terrible night for two curses to join forces... maybe.
You never could tell with Witches.
Mami Tomoe is intricately, uncomfortably aware of the feeling of Witches coming to. The fact that one spawns so close to her apartment of everything is vastly unsettling. She stares at the door. She's hoping that the trio got out in time, but part of her doubts it. She stares at the labyrinth forms, before she sighs, a delicate sort of noise.
~ o/ solti ola i ... o/~
One pretty transformation sequence later, Mami is standing at the edge of what is no longer her building, eyeing the paint distastefully. She's not going to get dirty - so she flicks her hand, and her ribbons anchor themselves to high points in the barrier, and she backs off, then takes off at a run, swinging through the barrier with decent ease.
"Paints, easels... some of artistic-related witch, I would presume." Mami, also make the obvious statement.
Madoka nods mutely at Mamoru's advice, clenching her eyes tightly shut as he carries her ever closer to the apartment's stairwell. She has no idea what's going on, and suspects that she really doesn't *want* to, if her friend is running so fast and telling her so little. At least at this speed, they'll certainly be down all those flights of stairs in no time.
Well...she thought that's what the plan was. When she feels linen turn to silk and the telltale 'whoosh' of falling in her stomach, her eyes snap open reflexively, not stayed even by the calm that Mamoru is attempting to give her.
Calm can only go so far in the face of madness.
The girl's frightened eyes dart wildly around as they fall, trying in vain to piece together what's going on. Suddenly, she's clinging to a sharp tuxedo, not Mamoru's everyday clothes, and they're plummeting past floor after floor in the shadow of the stairwell. Worse, there's something changing around them. Shifting. Like reality itself is tearing at the seams and becoming something *else*. Stairs and shadows give way to a sky the color of rancid meat, and instead of the dread silence of a moment before, she hears the crash of waves beneath them.
Halfway down, and Madoka's screaming.
Thankfully, the girl only has a few terrifying seconds to take in this new world before they both come to a sudden landing on a rock. No doubt that, for Tuxedo Kamen, such a thing is trivial; Madoka, however, is not at all prepared. Her grip is shaken loose by the sudden impact and, in her instinctive struggle to correct it, she realizes all too late that she's knocked them both toward the sea of paint.
Plunged into a Witch's Labyrinth about as literally as possible.
Homura is lying on her bed, looking at the cieling, thinking about how messed up her life is.
Well not exactly. She's thinking about how the Kyouko situation is probably just going to get worse and not better. She's thinking she'd go about dealing with Kyouko if it came down to it. She's thinking about what she'd say to Mami the next time she sees her. She's thinking about checking up on Madoka to make sure she isn't in trouble.
So yeah, she's thinking about how messed up her life is.
Her phone rings. She picks it up. It's Mamoru. She answers. "Hi?"
His words come too fast for her to really interject. Mami's address, then. 'Madoka. Witch here. Trying to get out.' Then silence.
Homura doesn't need any further prompting. Mamoru wouldn't joke about such a thing. She is henshined, out the door, and running through a timestop without a second thought.
So Mami really is befriending Madoka this time, or at least that's what Homura assumes. Mami might be trying to recruit her as a magical girl, or maybe Mami's just lonely again. At least, that's what Homura assumes. The timestopper girl would never just guess that this was all a part of Kyouko's revenge scheme.
Homura shows up almost immediately after the Witch appears. That's the benefit of having timestop powers. She drops into the labyrinth, landing perfectly on a rock, and looks around. Color water, not to be confused with watercolor. Sharks. A doll that confuses Homura in that she can't decide if she fits the aesthetic or clashes with it entirely. Mamoru. Madoka. Madoka falling into the paint water and Mamoru falling in with her. No no no no no that's not acceptable!
"No!" shouts Homura, running across the rocks to Madoka and Mamoru. She's in a hurry. She slips. She falls into the water. Paint covers every inch of her with bright colors.
She doesn't stop for anything, swimming through the paint to reach her friends like she's some kind of rainbow-coated determinator.
"Twist the cord of fate!"
Mamoru's urgent words do not give Seishi very much pause as she runs pell-mell for and down the stairs. Seeing him jump the railing with Madoka on his back does - but only for a heartbeat. In the next moment, already reaching to pull the ribbon from her hair, she vaults the railing after him.
With a fluttering of wide kimono sleeves, a girl in red samurai garb and a mask crafted in the grimacing face of a scowling oni lands on the same rock that Tuxedo Kamen and Madoka did. She's not unbalanced by carrying another person on her back, and manages to keep her footing, but behind her mask her eyes are wide. "A Nightmare--?"
More importantly - her attention quickly focuses on the two floundering in the paint, and she quickly moves to the edge of the rock to offer a hand out. "That doesn't look safe at all."
Kyouko Sakura had been sitting on the roof of Mami's apartment building, considering her next move. She probably should have thought about what to do after kidnapping Madoka /before/ she actually went and did it, but well.. as has been mentioned before, strategy is not exactly Kyouko's strong point. She sits on the edge of the roof, chewing on a pocky stick that hangs out of the side of her mouth, watching the sun set. She'll have to deliver a ransom note to Homura.. something like, 'don't interfere with my battle with Miss White, or Madoka gets it!' or something like that..
These thoughts are interrupted by the feeling of an onrushing Witch. Kyouko's brows furrow as she feels it. "Here? Now?" For her, she doesn't even think about dread, or fear. She's not thinking about the hostage she assumes is still safe in the apartment below her, nor does she spare a thought for the innocent civilians who are likely to end up Witch-food. Rather, a small grin comes to her lips, one fang peeking out of the corner of her mouth. "Dinner's coming to me tonight. And I didn't even order out. I guess the big city really is more convinient!" She stands, already in Henshin, her spear materializing out of thin air into the grip of an extended hand.
Then the building vanishes, and suddenly she's falling.. straight towards a sloshing sea of paint. "What the- mother effer!" She curses, not having expected this. Kyouko can't swim!
Luckily, Mami is below her. She watches Mami spear out some ribbons and begin to use them like vines in the jungle. This suits her just fine. Spreading her arms and legs, she directs her fall skillfully, lacking a wingsuit but managing to use her limbs to angle her descent towards Mami's most recent ribbon. She snags it as she zooms by, hand closing on the magical fabric, body whipping around it as she stabilizes herself, then leaps to the next one without hesitation as Mami forms it, the ease with which she does this speaking of the years the two of them spent hunting Witches together in the past.
"Mami!" She calls down, suddenly seeming to realize. "Where's the kid?!" Her brows suddenly furrowed as she searches around for Madoka, not spying her flailing below in the paint. Oh, shit. She just wanted to kidnap her, scare her a little, get Homura off her back. If she /dies/, things are going to get a lot more out of control.
Already in his henshin, and flying down at a high rate of speed on the back side of the complex, is one Takashi Agera. He'd been flying through Pikarigaoka when the witch's barrier began to expand. The system he'd set up throughout Tokyo was paying off, and now he could afford to be on top of many more major energy surges - from artifacts, fights, and witches.
He hits the ground outside, and can feel the barrier. Not being a Puella Magi though, getting into a Witch's barrier was a more difficult task. "Axion, we're going inside." he says to his device.
<<JAWOHL>> comes the response. He pounds his fist into his other hand a few times, charging up negative energy in it as he does, and he slams it as hard as he can into the barrier. There's a tremendous spike of negative energy, and his fist is fighting to crash through the outside of the Witch's barrier and grant him entry. "BREAK THROUGH IT!" <<JAWOHL. Barrier break!>> the voices announce, and a final surge of energy pushes the barrier aside for just a moment - flecks of energy shooting off around him as he slips through the hole before it closes.
On the other side, Riventon is deposited above the paint sea, nowhere near a rock, and has to instinctively take flight, looking for one of the many rocks to perch on. <<Danger! Multiple contacts in vicinity!>> reports his device.
"You mean multiple opprotunities, don't you?" he asks as his feet come to rest on the jagged tip of one of the protrusions. <<JAWOHL.>>
There's a sudden shudder in the barrier, and out of the space literally /falls/ Kyubey, in the path of Mami's swinging. "Mami-san!" he all but yells telepathically as his body falls from the sky.
While Kyubey can't show fear - even he can be surprised, and his voice is clearly communicating a degree of shock. If Mami doesn't catch him during her swings, this particular body of his is not going to be silky and white for long.
Well, Tuxedo Kamen can't actually blame Madoka for screaming, but he really wishes, as they fall, that it wasn't directly in his ear. Nothing to be done for it: he shifts in mid-fall, one hand coming up to grasp Madoka's arms around his neck and shoulders, and the other moving what of his cape isn't squished, like a rudder -- a rock, yes, good!
A Madoka panicking, no, bad! SUBMERGED!
Determinedly not letting go even in the lightless opaque rainbow they've fallen into, the masked boy wrenches Madoka off of his cape and ditches it so it doesn't tangle them, then works his way up and up-- he hopes-- Homura can probably see his hat floating by-- and then there's Seishi's hand grabbing at his as Homura swims closer.
He grabs that hand and immediately twists around, trying to get Madoka up and out first.
Nothing overly urgent seems to be occuring in the paint sea at the moment, as various parties enter the Labryinth with varying degrees of grace. There's still no sign of the actual Witch. Those with the senses for it can feel it.. somewhere below. Under the paint. But still a ways off. It's definitely coming closer though.
In the meantime, the paint sloshes like a sea in storm, waves of the stuff crashing into the rocks, ensuring anyone standing on them gets speckled with colors like they stood too close to a sneezing pixie.
The sharks continue to feed. Every few minutes, one less hapless pedestrian is swimming in the ocean as a shark surfaces to swallow them down in huge, oversized bites. None of the sharks have attacked any of the arriving magical people yet, though.
Something is falling at her annnnnd Mami suddenly recognize who - or what - it is. Mami lets go of her ribbon to dive forward to catch Kyubey, sailing through the air down towards rocks, landing on the paint-covered lsickness of them and sliding forward, teetering dangerously close to getting dumped in like Mamoru and Madoka were. Speaking of Graceless And Graceful, Mami whirls around to glance down at the group, before she stomps one of her feet, grumpily. Of all the witch barriers to caught in, god. A trio of ribbons suddenly appear down the quintet - one short, but Madoka's tiny.
"Kyubey, what are you doing here?" She asks of the white creature, comfortingly stroking its silky soft fur.
She lifts her voice then, to Homura and Kyouko. "You don't think the witch is under all that paint, do you?" It's a horrifying thought to the elegant Puella Magi.
There's energy from one person. Were those... ribbons? The doll's purple gaze shifts up towards Mami Tomoe, taking her in silently. Well. She had a lovely aesthetic. The doll could admire that. And none of these newcomers that arrived without the influence of the Witch's Kiss didn't seem to match the appearance of her hated target. Which meant one thing.
They were food.
Some of them moreso than others. The pink-haired one didn't seem to have that much energy, though the one holding her seemed to have a fair amount. The doll began to slowly approach, not seeming to mind the paint that was covering clothing and cape. One of the ones with more energy seemed to have just fallen in the paint. That meant she would probably be more vulnerable. Paint in the face and eyes was not pleasant, after all.
Another falls from the sky. Grabbing onto the yellow girl's ribbon. Yelling about a kid? Perhaps the one that the man was carrying. The Forsaken Reaper is slowly lowered, the tip of it dragging through that sea of paint. A panic, people flailing in the paint. Her attention is drawn upwards. Dark energy. Deliciously strong dark energy. Maeko's gaze lifts up towards that Barrier Break. The appearance of Riventon, flying above the sea of paint. The source of that dark chill, that dark energy. And... and... was that a flying rabbit? He was almost like a toy. The Puppet lifts her hand, thin wires appearing from her hands, as a small rabbit-like puppet appears. She lifts her hand, before sending it flying towards Kyubey. If nothing intercepts it, that rabbit would catch Kyubey on its little body. To recover him and bring him towards the Doll's side. Likely sitting atop the little rabbit puppet's head.
~You are cute. I am going to keep you.~
Yep. Priorities for the doll. Get and keep the little cute animal. What? She hates humans. Not whatever Kyubey is. Slowly, Maeko continued that approach towards the girl covered in paint, and the two flailing in paint. She slowly moved that rabbit doll alongside of her. For now, just walking. And humming some tune or another under her breath.
That tune only becomes more joyful as the sharks surface, as they eat those hapless pedestrians. Her smile was definitely not friendly. ~Such delicious morsels this curse seems to have attracted.~ Maeko giggles softly, hopping from stone-to-stone now, landing with a 'click' each time her feet touched rock, those high heels not seeming to impede her movement at all. The kidnapper of their 'dear' Kyubey is coming.
It's not that Madoka can't swim. As though her mother would let her go without such a basic skill -- she'd been in lessons since she was three. She's a perfectly capable swimmer under normal circumstances. It's just that these circumstances are anything but normal.
So the pink-haired girl flails about under the paint sea's waves for several seconds, the lack of air burning in her chest, only hanging onto Tuxedo Kamen because he refuses to let her go. The paint nearly blinds her -- combined with the violent rocking of the waves, it's not long before she loses which direction is up.
Is this how she's going to die?
No. Not today, it seems, for she feels the strong pull of Kamen's arm and hears the sounds of the world come back to life around her as her body surfaces once again. Somehow -- she can't really see the details with the paint still in her eyes -- Madoka finds herself back on the rock, propped up on her hands and knees, coughing as air rushes back into her lungs.
"Where..." the girl manages after a moment, rubbing at her eyes to clear away the rainbow paint that obscures her vision, "where are we?" There's panic there, as anyone might expect, but she's reining it in as well as she possibly can, considering. "There -- there wasn't anything like this before."
It's probably for the best that she can't properly see just yet. Riventon's presence wouldn't do her fragile composure any favors.
Homura keeps swimming after Mamoru and Madoka. She sees the ribbons coming down, probably Mami's. Homura grabs one, wrapping it around her wrist, but she doesn't start climbing yet. When she gets to the spot where Mamoru fell in, she takes his hat and places it on her own head.
Colors and hats aside, Homura's priority is getting Madoka to safety. A shark approaches as Mamoru is helping up the pink one, and Homura doesn't even hesitate to produce a shotgun and fire. "No you don't!" She keeps firing, and the shark charges closer.
When it gets close, its mouth opens wide, Homura turns the gun around and smacks the shark on the nose. It whimpers and turns away.
It's only after Madoka is safe that Homura leaves the water, using the ribbon to climb up. She holds a bit of her sleeve out to try to clean Madoka's face, if she lets her.
To Mami, Homura responds, "It feels like it is, but it's not like we can swim in there after it. We wouldn't be able to see anything. Is there a way we can lure it up to the surface?"
Kyouko gets an empty stare, but nothing else. Homura still isn't sure how to deal with her. Maybe she wont have to, at least until the Grief Seed comes out.
The cursed doll approaches. Homura decides that the talking doll is probably not a familiar. She says, "Uh... hi. Actually you can keep that if you want. Just keep him on a leash or something. He drinks tears and subsists mostly on his own smug little grin." Homura tries to give Kyubey away. If only she could get away with it.
Riventon's appearance doesn't make Homura happy. She swore to kill him. She meant it and still does, but now isn't the time.
Riventon stands on the edge of that rock, as the two small orbs detach from his gauntlet. Orbiting around him, they do a job of keeping the sharks away with pinpoint energy bolts - and, of all things, he leans down and sits on the edge of the rock while they do.
He also waves to Homura. He's challenging Kyubey in the 'smug grin' department now, as well.
In reality, he's waiting. He's here for the grief seed, and the fight is secondary.
Kyouko swings from Mami's ribbons easily, passing from one to the next with expert ease, her spear held in the other hand not used for ribbon-gripping. When Mami settles on top of a rock, she helpfully produces yet more ribbons, which Kyouko continues to cling to. The longer she can stay out of that paint the better. Her eyes quickly scan the situation below- she spies Tux hauling Madoka back out of the paint.. ok, good. Hostage is still safe. The Witch.. she can feel it down there, but it's not here yet. There's still time.
Her eyes dart about, settling on the creepy floating doll-girl and narrowing slightly. What the-well. It's not a Witch. Unless it attacks her, she dismisses it for now, although it does seem to be trying to make off with Kyubey. Meh, not much of a loss. She spies the creepy guy who had been jonesing on Madoka the other day too, off in the distance on a rock but again- he's not a Witch. Unless he attacks her, she has other priorities.
Those priorities swing dramatically when she sees Homura crawl out of the paint and move to help clean Madoka's face. Oh, Akemi-san. Of course you would show up. Her lips curl back in a feral little snarl. And oh look.. you're distracted by Madoka. How /perfect./
Kyouko sees red, and not just because that's the color of her eyes. Her plan was to use Madoka to get to Homura. Maybe it just worked out differently than she expected, but the result is the same. She knows Homura can't respond to attacks she doesn't see coming, and she seems /pretty/ occupied with cleaning Madoka's face and fussing over her at the moment. Kyouko spies an opportunity.
She's moving before she spends too much time thinking it over. Using Mami's ribbon, she swings, getting up momentum.. back and forth, back and forth, until she's whistling through the air. And then at the exact right moment, she releases the ribbon and pushes off.. arrowing her body like a torpedo through the air straight at Homura.
If all goes according to plan, Kyouko is going to literally spear Homura off the rock with the high-speed impact of her body, crashing into the dark-haired Puella, tearing her away from Madoka, and sending them both careening into the paint sea.
Kyubey wraps himself around Mami in his quickly-becoming-a-standard stole position. "This witch is pretty powerful, and the area's pretty busy! What's going on here?" he asks.
That's when Misa's puppet familiar begins to dive for him, and he shirks back and hides behind Mami. "This is very important, Mami. I need to talk to that girl over there, the little one with the pink hair - and I need to not be grabbed by whatever that is."
Kyubey doesn't know fear, but he does know the annoyance of perhaps not reaching his goal, and 'going over to creepy doll girl' is not a part of his plan.
Between Tuxedo Kamen's efforts and her own, the samurai girl sees Madoka safely up out of the paint. Once that's accomplished, keeping a firm grip (wrist to wrist for greater security), Akashimaru takes a step back to haul the young man in his paint-soaked formalwear up onto solid ground.
Where are they? poor Madoka asks. Good question.
"It's a nightmare," Akashimaru tells her, speaking with a confidence that she doesn't quite feel. "A terrible dream." She doesn't know of anything else such a strange, surreal landscape could belong to, and yet - something doesn't feel quite right.
Well, even if it's not a Nightmare, the description doesn't seem inaccurate. Straightening up once everyone's out of the paint sea, the samurai girl begins to reach towards her belt, looking to one side and the other to take stock of their situation and its immediate dangers--
--just in time to see Kyouko come flying at them like a rocket. With no time to think about it, Akashimaru acts on instinct. "Look out!" she cries, leaping to physically shield and yoink her out of Kyouko's path before the puella magi makes impact.
"I'm going to be really angry if the Witch is the rocks, like a sea monster--" mutters the completely paint-covered boy, wrenching out of his jacket and kicking his shoes off and dropping them in the paint to go with the lost cape. He mushes his hair back and loses the gloves next, so he can wipe the damn paint out of his eyes under the mask, and he's just gotten himself to the point where he can see when there's an explosion of Kyouko and Homura and Akashimaru-yell-tackling, and he flinches back and crouches by Madoka and Akashimaru, taking stock.
Riventon, ugh.
Homura and Kyouko and Mami he's just not going to worry about right now. (He can't even point fingers at Mami wearing a stole as part of her henshin, he has a god damned tailcoat.)
Sharks eating civilians, he can't do a damned thing about.
CREEPY DOLL GIRL? Can't be the witch, she clashes with the aesthetic. She's approaching, but she's not the witch and there's a lot of noise and fuss, so for the moment, he turns his attention to the two remaining on the rock with him. "I'm afraid this isn't a dream. It's a warped reality created by a creature made of despair and it's trying to kill everyone it can get its hands on. They," he points up at the three Puellae, "are supposed to find and kill it. I am *not* a good fighter, and *they* are distracted with each other. There's also a jerkbag hanging out over there and I don't know who this other girl is. We can't get out until the witch is dead. We need *you* to fight for us," he tells Seishi, then grabs Madoka's (paint-coated) bare hand with his own. "I need you to try and talk sense into those three."
The world comes back to Madoka! And a doll lady is approaching her! Her head tilting slightly as she looks at the paint-covered pink girl. ~She has not recieved this barrier's curse, yet does not seem to have the same energy as the rest of you. Interesting.~ Maeko's voice comes amusedly, watching Madoka for a few moments. And then one of the humans was speaking to her!
Oh hey she can keep the cute thing? Maeko turned that smile towards Homura, giving a slow bow of her head towards her. ~Why thank you. That's very gracious of you. It seems we feed on similar things.~ She says matter-of-factly. Nope. She doesn't care that she's basically just giving herself away. The doll's arm lifts, the Forsaken Reaper lifting. Coincidentally as Kyouko leaps to attempt to spear Homura. That massive cleaver is swung, attempting to slice through Homura -- which might also coincidentally slice through Kyouko! ... ... ... Strangely, the cleaver would do... no real damage. In fact, it would feel more weird than painful, if it strikes. Oh also the magical energy in their Soul Gems might be mildly drained. Not a major one... just enough to be alarming, most likely!
Kyubey recoiled from her puppet though. That annoyed Maeko, though she was somewhat understanding. Animals didn't like being grabbed. ~Aw... you don't want to play with me, little bunny-rabbit..?~ Comes a disappointed voice. It would be innocent and adorable, if it didn't come from a cursed and malicious doll. ~I'll definitely take you to the little pink girl.~ She didn't care what happened to the girl. Kyubey was cute though. And that might be a way to get him on her side.
Really, Maeko's presence... might be helpful for Riventon! Since she was hungry and they happened to be her chosen meal right now! Which means that things are probably going to get extra complicated for the good guys! Sharks. Infighting. A creepy doll... Kyubey... and finally Riventon! For once, things might be on even footing... for 'evil'. Or it'll just devolve into an all-out-combat. That might work too.
If that wasn't a sign that the creepy doll girl wasn't on Tux's side... it'd be hard to make him believe otherwise! She is definitely not there to help them.
Homura is completely caught off guard by Kyouko. This is actually a pretty decent feat. Homura is in the middle of a labyrinth so she knows to stay aware. Homura is also half-expecting Kyouko to attack her at any time. She isn't quite expecting to get clobbered in the middle of cleaning Madoka's face, however.
Yet that's exactly what happens.
Homura is slashed with the Forsaken Reaper while being tackled. There isn't much she can do about it that wouldn't give away Homura's powerset to Kyouko. Her Soul Gem darkens from the hit. What kind of attack is that?!
So even if the doll isn't a Witch, she's still an enemy.
There are two big flaws in Kyouko's plan. The first flaw is that Homura's arm is still wrapped in Mami's ribbon. This might backfire on Homura later, but for now it means that when Homura is sent flying into the water (and Mamoru's hat is sent flying off in a random direction), Homura can just pull herself back out. Which she does, but takes considerable effort since she's doing this while also recovering from being Kyouko'd.
The second flaw is that explosives are still effective in a thick medium like water. The waves of force still transfer. Ever hear of dynamite fishing? Homura's response is like that, dropping grenades into the colorful water as Kyouko is still in it.
On the bright side the explosives probably keep the sharks away from Kyouko, too. Homura's helping!
As a side note Homura probably looks really freaky, dripping with color and dropping grenades into the ocean with a :| face.
Akashimaru gains points for protecting Madoka. Tuxedo Kamen does too, but he's already sitting on a ton of points already.
"Kyouko are we going to kill the Witch are are you going to be a jerk today?"
A shotgun is pointed at Maeko. "Don't do that again." She seems a little relaxed for someone dealing with an energy drainer, but considering the kinds of people she works with...
Kyouko's attack is a success, slamming into Homura and knocking them both into the paint. They impact the surace with a *sploosh*, sending paint fountaining, and Kyouko swirls about, attempting to grapple Homura and keep her in the water. She might have gotten slashed by the doll's sword in the middle of the attack, but there's almost no resistance from it- she doesn't even particularly notice. She didn't count on Homura managing to keep hold of the ribbon though, and before she can inflict any additional damage, the dark-haired girl has climbed out, and started dropping grenades in the water!
As previously stated.. Kyouko can't swim. That is, she has no formal swimming training. She's still a physically (and magically) powerful individual with a great degree of athletic capability, so she's not about to drown, but she's also far from graceful as she flails about in the water. The explosions push her about, none hitting her directly but the shockwaves spinning her and making her head spin. It's actually a little pathetic, seeing her trying to get the hell out of the paint. Shame on you, Homura.
So the grenades are working. On the other hand, it also seems to attract the Witch.
The presence of the Witch suddenly rushes closer. The whole sea trembles. And then it appears.. rising out of the sea of paint. And its /huge/.
It appears like some kind of ancient leviathan, but made of scratched up, doodled on paper. It's easily the side of a small building, something like a whale but with huge, terrible teeth. Oh, and tentacles, at least a dozen of them, emerging from under the paint around the main body and waving about in the air as paint sluices off the sides of the beast.
It surfaces right next to the rock the majority of the people are standing on. And directly under Kyouko, who suddenly finds herself sitting atop a giant Whale-Cthulu-Witch's head, dripping paint.
The Witch makes a horrible screeching sound, its hideous, tunnel-sized maw gaping as tentacles rush down towards basically everybody all at once!
Kyubey leaps away from Mami's neck as she swings overhead, landing on his feet like a cat next to Madoka.
"Madoka Kaname!" he says, sharply, speaking quickly - though it's not out of his mouth - everyone can hear it. "You can do a lot more than just talk sense into them!" he says.
"You could defeat them all - make them stop fighting, defeat the Witch, save everyone and end the fighting!" he adds. "All you have to do is make a contract with me, like Mami and Kyouko did! Make a contract with me, Madoka Kaname, and become a magical girl!" he gets out as much as he can, as quick as he can, while Homura is distracted by Misa and Kyouko.
As the witch surfaces, Riventon jumps back off the rock and into the air. That is... a legitimately big monster. Wouldn't be out of place in a Godzilla movie. So he's actually sort of glad to have all of the others here to put in the work.
As the tentacles rush in after him, he deflects them off of hastily-generated Round Shields, walls made of runes and energy, rolling with their impacts through the air to lessen them, and those same energy orbs sending slicing beams at the ones that seem to be more persistent than the others.
But it's obvious to any of the magically-inclined folks, especially who've seen him fight, that Riveton is doing the /absolute minimum/ here. He's waiting for the others to finish off the creature, and conserving his strength as he does so.
The paint is *stubborn*. Like real paint, only gross and lumpy, unnatural. It stings at her eyes even as she tries to rub it away, and her efforts seem to be making it worse for a bit -- until she feels another soft sleeve on her face, much more effectively cleaning the gunk from her vision. Madoka eventually gives up and welcomes the unexpected help, blinking several times once she can finally see again.
She catches a single, brief glimpse of Homura. "Akemi-san...?"
And then, in a flash of crimson, she's gone.
Or, more accurately, Madoka herself is gone, just now registering that someone tackled her out of the way of some danger that she didn't see. The pink girl lands with a squeak, looking frantically about for any sign of her friends. Her rescuer is obviously friend'ly', and answering her question about where they are, but now Tuxedo Kamen/Mamoru is grasping her hand, giving her a totally different answer, a totally different responsibility--
--a monstrous whale is rising out of the painted sea, as tall and wide as a skyscraper--
--'Make a contract with me!'--
Mamoru's efforts at calming her backfire totally, and the open channel in his mind is filled with a wave of Madoka's terror, a multilayered thing that stretches beyond the current moment and into times past, gifting him with a vision of absolute destruction, and a small, pink-haired girl standing in its midst, sobbing.
"I -- I can't!" she finally shrieks, wresting her gaze away from the Witch and the fighting magical girls, away from Kyubey (who should be dead) and Mamoru (who expects so much of her). "I don't know what's going on! I can't do anything! I just...I just..." Here, the tears finally come, overwhelming her completely. "I just want this all to stop!"
Homura is never too distracted to deal with Kyubey trying to contract Madoka. Misa and Kyouko are considerable problems on their own, but Homura turns her back on both of them, the Witch included, to rush over to Kyubey and shotgun blast him away.
Well, Homura's retreat wasn't /completely/ undefended. A ton of mines are waiting for the tentacles as they come for her, exploding and blasting the tentacles so that Homura (and probably those around her like Madoka, Seishi, Mamoru, etc) are safe, for the moment.
"That wont be necessary."
Homura wonders for a moment how she's going to back that up. It's not like she can just end the fighting like that.
Madoka freaks out, and Homura's heart just about breaks. The thought that Madoka is in pain, and that Homura might be /causing/ it by not telling her things...
"You just want it all to stop? ... but Madoka... it's not that simple. We have to fight. Puella Magi need to fight Witches in order to get the Grief Seeds we need to live. This is like hunting to us."
Homura speaks, and realizes that she's probably just confusing the matter more. What the heck is she doing? "Look, um. Sometime later... we can talk, alright? I can at least explain what's going on."
She may as well. It's way too late to keep her out of this.
It's then that she turns around to face the Witch. Riventon is conserving his strength because of course he is. Kyouko is right on top of the Witch but Homura doesn't really care. Homura is about to lift her rocket launcher to shoot at the Witch, and 'accidentally' shoot Kyouko, but she hesitates for a moment.
"Madoka... do you really not want us to fight? I mean, the Witch is going to have to die either way, but do you really want the fighting between me and Kyouko to stop?"
Akemi starts opening fire at the Witch, rocket after rocket firing into the huge tentacled thing, but she aims low to avoid hitting Kyouko. Maybe it doesn't have to keep escalating. It would be nice if, for once, Kyouko and the rest of them didn't die horribly.
"Six of one..." Akashimaru quips dryly in answer to Tuxedo Mask, picking herself up off of Madoka and helping the girl up again. "I didn't say it wasn't dangerous."
In any case, now's not the time. "Sorry," she says to Madoka, a quick aside apology for the rough handling, and then she's reaching for her belt again, drawing out the short, slim metal bar that is her tessen. "All well and good," she says to Tuxedo Kamen, snapping the fan open with a flick of her wrist as she eyes up Maeko as the most likely immediate threat, "but I can't fight what I--"
'Can't see,' she was going to say, but before the words have left her, the paint-sea splits with the emergence of the witch, massive and horrible. Maeko is very abruptly no longer the biggest menace in sight.
Me and my big mouth, Seishi thinks.
"Right, on it." It's a resigned chuff of breath behind the scowl of her mask. Akashimaru shifts her stance, draws back her fan - such a ludicrously small weapon for this situation, but there's no time for hesitation. "...gonna need a bigger boat," she mutters to herself, and then her voice rings out loud and clear: "Go, Hiraisen!"
As the witch's tentacles snake through the air, her hand snaps out. The fan goes flying, gleaming with red light, a blur of motion like a bladed disc that cuts a long curving arc through the tentacles and back to Akashimaru's hand.
Kyouko suddenly finds herself on a rapidly rising white island. Oddly, while the paint clings to and colors everybody else, it doesn't seem to color the whale-witch at all, the paint simply running off of it and leaving its white, crinkled-seeming body as monochrome as it started. The Witch's sudden arrival even takes Kyouko by surprise- she had been so focused on Homura that she hadn't been paying attention to the sense of if rushing closer. But now it's here.. and she just seems more annoyed than anything else as she scrambles to her feet atop its massive bulk, scowling and slipping a little bit as the paint slides back off into the sea.
"You have bad timing, dinner." She snarls at the Witch, only to stumble as Homura's rockets start slamming into the thing, making it quake and roar in even more fury than it was already in, which is considerable fury. This fury is only further added to by Akashimaru slashing through many of the tentacles, not to mention the efforts of the others to keep them at bay.
Kyouko shakes her head, red ponytail (well, rainbow-colored and dripping ponytail) swaying behind her as she mutters, "This is ridiculous." It is patently unclear to which of the many ridiculous parts of this scenario she is referring.
She holds her hand up above her head, and her spear re-appears in it, manifesting out of thin air. She turns and stabs down into the Witch, running and leaping off the side, dragging the spear with her.. the point tearing a huge and expanding rip in the side of the whaleish creature, which, it seems, rips like the paper it seems to be made of.
However, this comes to an abrupt end when one of the tentacles whips out of nowhere to grab her.
Kyouko only has time for a brief surprised sqwuak before the tentacle whips her around.. and tosses her directly into the whale's gaping mouth, where she vanishes into the blackness out of sight.
She's panicking-- it floods him, floods his awareness, takes Mamoru right out of the knowledge of the kaiju looming above them about to rain death and bite off their heads, out of the question of what the hell that white thing is-- it plants him firmly in someone else's impossible, awful past. Somewhere in the back of his head, he's struck by the revelation that this is real, too, as real as everything he dreams--
Paint-covered and missing half his costume, skinny and rainbow-colored, gripping Madoka's hand like it's a lifeline made of fire, poison, and roofing nails, Tuxedo Mask wrestles himself back to the present in time to vaguely catch the tail ends of what they're saying. And just in time to stare uncomprehendingly at Kyouko getting tossed down the kaiju's gullet.
All of a sudden he's on his feet -- still not letting go Madoka's hand -- and he yells, "HOMURA IT JUST ATE ISHMAEL GET HER OUT BEFORE YOU ROCKET IT MORE!"
'Don't do that again'. That statement from Homura simply gets a gaze from the doll, who looks at the shotgun, and the woman. She didn't seem immediately intent on attacking her. She'd gotten some energy. ~You seem to be afflicted with a curse. Though perhaps not a magical one...~ The Doll murmurs softly, looking towards Homura with a slightly tilted head. How interesting. However, interesting magical girls with shotguns would have to wait.
As there was a massive tunnel-mouthed being rushing towards them, with a mass of tentacles. Maeko shifts her hand slightly. ~It seems this curse is out of control.~ Maeko says, turning slightly towards the Witch. Immediately, the doll moves as it surfaces. A leap, unnaturally high. ~Let us get it under control.~ She murmurs, lifting her hand. Her fingers twitch and move, as the bunny-puppet's twin-bladed ring begins to speed rapidly, held in quickly moving tiny hands. If they didn't know better, it is just the right amount of weirdorable it could be a Familiar. The tiny doll is sent flying towards the base of those tentacles... with simple intent. To attempt to slice as many of them off as possible, with a long motion. ~I wonder if this curse will be tasty...~
A crying little girl. Crying that she wants it all to stop. ... It was delicious, not that she was particularly focused on that. Instead, she's focusing on that witch, intent ont just... beginning to cut it apart! As her rabbit doll did its thing, that blade is put to use again, beginning to cut at that witch and start to cut away at its energy. ... Witch Energy was probably not the tastiest thing in the world, though.
So the question is, at this point, where in the world is Mami Tomoe?
The answer to that is straining her powers. This is a bad barrier with a lot of places where falling in is going to be a bad idea so she's got ribbons anywhere there's people, especially near the group with Madoka in it. She doesn't want the pink haired one hurt anymore than she's already been by this mess so it's her way of objectively keeping an eye on her (and Homura ... and Mamoru and the other person and where the heck is Kyouko?)
Oh. She got ... eaten.
And Kyubey's getting dollnapped!
"Hey, no, you can't do that! Kyubey's mine!" Mami please, get better friends. She flicks a ribbon towards the Incubator, aiming to just ribbon him and pull him back to her, even as she starts setting off rifles towards the whaleshark with a grumble. Why can't anything go right lately?!
Kyubey is on the edge of the rock talking to Madoka one moment. Then, there's a shotgun blast. The kinetic force of it knocks Kyubey into the air a good distance, then into the paint ocean, where the corpse sinks. Because of this, nobody sees the way there's nothing to make up the interior - no bones, no blood.
It doesn't take very long before Kyubey (or another Kyubey, really) climbs out of the opposite side of the paint shore and back onto the rock. He shakes himself dry of the paint like a cat (getting it all over anybody who stayed clean in the process) before picking up where he left off. "Look, Madoka! It just ate that girl! You could help fight it! You could protect everyone! /AND/ I can grant you any wish you desire!"
Before Homura can kill this particular Kyubey, he's wrapped up in one of Mami's ribbons, returning to her and wrapping around her again. "Mami-san, that girl is very important, and the somber Puella doesn't want me to contract her for some reason..." is all he says. He keeps a lot of cards in hand, as usual.
Madoka is (obviously) aware of her own panic, though she doesn't realize the effect it has on Mamoru, completely blind to the image of desolation with which she filled his mind. Her hand remains clasped in his -- by force of habit more than anything else, at this point -- as she listens to Homura, still unable to stop her tears.
"Yes!" she shouts at her question. "Of *course* I don't want you to fight each other! Magic...magic's supposed to be used for good. It's supposed to be a wonderful thing." She locks eyes with the black-haired girl. "If you have to fight -- fight against monsters. Against other people, against girls like us...it's just too horrible, Akemi-san. I can't bear to watch you do it."
Madoka sniffs, trying to get a better hold of herself. "I don't care what she did to me--"
And then the red girl is *eaten* by the whale, swallowed whole as Homura fires her rockets, as though her pleas meant nothing at all. She freezes, beyond tears, beyond the ability to react to the terror that's unfolding around her. Time seems to slow as her mind reaches its capacity for distress, overflowing itself until she's left with nothing but numbness.
In the distance, she sees civilians disappearing into the mouths of wooden sharks.
...is this what it means to be a magical girl? Tearing at the throats of those who should be your friends while horrible monsters kill innocent people?
Madoka goes eerily still, quiet, eyes glazed over and transfixed on those she has no power to save.
"I wish..."
"K'so," hisses Akashimaru under her breath, snatching the flying tessen out of the air as it arcs back toward her and snapping it closed in one swift motion. This whole situation is getting worse every second. There's a lot of yelling going on around and behind her that she isn't tracking at all because that nightmare whale beast just swallowed a girl whole right in front of her and all she has in her arsenal is a fan - a magical war fan, but still, a fan. They could spend all day hacking away at this thing, and the girl it ate doesn't have that kind of time.
Well, you work with what you've got--
Akashimaru whistles, sharp and shrill and loud. Red light flashes outward in an arc from the tessen in her hand, becoming the curve of a bow strung with crimson cord. The arrow appears out of nowhere as she draws the string, a heavy black thing; it's no rocket-propelled grenade, not even a rifle, but if she puts it in the right place, maybe...
"Hey, ugly!" she grits behind her mask as she sights. "Eyes on me."
The bowstring twangs. The arrow becomes a thin streak of black flashing towards the Witch's nearest eye.
Homura listens to the one girl she'd ever /really/ listen to saying what she's doing is horrible. She's upset. She buries it. "Even if it's horrible... it's what I have to do... magic isn't as great as you think it is, Madoka."
'I don't care what she did to me!'
Homura pauses. What did Kyouko do to Madoka?
No, no, Homura doesn't want to make Madoka suffer. Going on a revenge-fueled rampage against Kyouko will certainly make Madoka suffer.
What did KYOUKO do to MADOKA?!
Homura watches as Kyouko vanishes into the belly of the whale. Will she save her? Of course she will. She doesn't have a choice, even if saving Kyouko is something she'll regret later. It's not even something she has to think about.
"Forget about Kyubey, Madoka. /I'll/ fulfill your wish."
Somehow.
Time stops. She pulls a long rope from behind her shield, because of course she has some rope and of course it would be long, and ties one end of it to a sturdy rock.
Well, pretty much any time-frozen rock would be sturdy enough, since collapsing or giving way takes time and time is frozen.
Then she walks across the frozen stone beach. She pauses at the shoreline to take a single glance at the large Whale Witch, looking up at it with a frown, before jumping into that large mouth, holding tight onto that rope just in case she finds herself swimming in something opaque again.
When she finds Kyouko, she considers. If Kyouko figures out how Homura's powers work, it would be really bad for Homura. Homura doesn't really think that Kyouko would just forgive her just because Homura saved her life once. It wouldn't be that simple.
On the other hand, she jumped into the whale's mouth for a reason, didn't she? No point in changing her mind now.
Reaching out and taking Kyouko's hand, Homura pulls Kyouko into her own little world. "I'll save your life. This time. On one condition. We have a truce for the rest of this fight. No promises about tomorrow. No promises about what happens with the Grief seed. I'm not promsing that I wont fight you some later date, and I'm not asking you to promise not to come after me. In fact, I don't really think it'll be over between us unless we /settle it/ somehow." There is a sharp emphasis on the phrase 'settle it'.
"I just need to know, that for right now, as long as this Witch is alive, we aren't enemies. Otherwise I'm letting go of your hand and letting you die here, because I'm not letting myself or anyone I care about get killed over you. It's bad enough /one/ of got eaten while we were fighting. I don't intend to repeat that."
Homura looks down at her paint covered hands. Drops of color drip from her hair, running down her henshin and onto the ground. When she looks back up at Kyouko, her gaze is cold and firm. "That's the only choice you have: Get along with me for /five/ minutes or die. Do I make myself clear?"
If Kyouko takes her up on her offer, Homura walks back to safe footing, using the rope to guide her back or to climb as necessary. Once they're (relatively) safe, Homura just lets time continue again.
The Sharkwitch will also have a metric boatload of C4 dumped into its stomach set to detonate after the two Puella have gotten out, because that's how Homura rolls.
Granted, If Kyouko /doesn't/ take Homura up on the offer, it's going to get complicated. Homura isn't planning on leaving her to die, regardless of what either one of them says.
Whatever Kyouko did to Madoka... that question will have to wait.
This is a massive Witch. It's mere presence is enough to send terrifying waves of despair and fear through those present, though most are strong enough to resist them. The fighters are doing an admirable job in fending it off, Akashimaru severing many tentacles, Maeko even more, reducing the Witch's energy with her slashes. But there just always seem to be more tentacles rising from the paint sea, swatting at the insignificant bugs, as the Magical Girls must seem, which so sting it.
Akashimaru's arrow to the beast's eye does seem to have an effect though, the blow striking home and causing the whale-like Witch to rear back, shrieking in pain, its tentacles flailing madly as it thrashes in the water. It's not down quite yet, but that one certainly hurt it.
Meanwhile, Homura has frozen time and entered the whale's gullet. She finds Kyouko madly clawing at the inside of the Witch's throat in an attempt to slow down her descent into it's belly. Homura touches Kyouko, and suddenly, the redhead is in motion again, even as the rest of the world stays frozen.
She gasps, staring around in shocked, mute surprise for a moment.. although the flash in her red eyes indicates she is rapidly assembling a picture of the situation.
Then her eyes dart to Homura as the dark-haired girl speaks. Kyouko, dripping in paint from head to toe and looking worse the wear than even Homura, listens in silence as Homura offers a temporary truce.
Then she spits in her face. It's a nice, thick glob of mostly paint-water that Kyouko nearly swallowed on her way in, and it strikes Homura right between the eyes.
Then she says, "You've done enough. Just hold still."
Kyouko keeps hold of Homura's hand, keeping the world frozen. She closes her eyes. Homura can feel her calling up her magic.. a faint red glow beginning to emenate from the redhead. Then the throws her arm up.
A /giant/ spear, the size of a cellphone tower, erupts upwards through the whale, while a second one shoots straight down, through its base. Then Kyouko lets go of Homura.
The world un-freezes. The two giant spears rotate, just once, like a huge buzzsaw. The Whale is literally cut in two, its tail-section falling away from its head section, spilling Homura and Kyouko back out into the sea.
Kyouko would not have been able to do this without Homura's help- it took time to gather and deploy her magic like that, time which Homura gave her. But did she accept the temporary truce? It's not clear.
Meanwhile, the Witch screams and thrashes some more.. but it's /still not dead/. Its tail section sinks into the depths, but its head continues to writhe and scream, tentacles spearing at the Magical Girls. However, between Kyouko's de-tailing and Akashimaru's eye-shot, and the other's efforts too, it is quickly close to death. A few more good shots ought to do it...
"Homura won't let you contract Madoka-chan?"
Mami really doesn't have time to think about that as the Witch survives Homura + Kyouko, before Mami lightly steps onto a rather big rock. She needs the space. She keeps the small Incubator tucked into one arm, the other one flinging out a ribbon before she jerks it back to her, the ribbon originating in a giant cannon that barely fits on the rock in front of her.
"TIRO!"
Everyone ducks.
"FINALE!"
An arrow shot towards the witch's eye, Mami sending ribbons out to block her. So many interesting things happening. Maeko was thoroughly amused. And hungry. Luckily, she'd not had to use any energy just yet, so she was just enjoying the little snacks she was getting from the cuts she was making with her cleaver. Slowly, steadily whittling things down.
A wish? ... Wishes were powerful. Extremely powerful. She wasn't sure she wanted to make that Madoka was given a careful look, her eyes shift over Madoka for a few moments. She takes a small breath as she lifts the hand controlling the rabbit. Only for Homura to step in. Maybe it won't matter. Of course... then Homura seemed to disappear. The doll shifted slightly. Where did that girl go? What? ... Still, she would keep an 'ear' on Madoka. While on the witch.
Hmm. That strike to the eye had done a large amount of damage. She begins to move and dance around the tentacles, even breaking apart once or twice to evade them! ... Phew. Hard. She lifts her hand, her rabbit going for the other eye -- right... as the whale witch is suddenly cut in half. ... However... it's not dead yet. It's still moving. It was in it's dying throes, probably!
And then Maeko begins to do something that will likely piss off the Puella as it may effect the later Grief Seed. Runes begin to glow on the side of the Forsaken Reaper. Black runes, dark energy glowing along the edge of that blade, the doll's eyes beginning to glow.
~FORSAKEN REAPING.~
It was a simple stab. A simple movement The blade is stabbed down towards the witch. Black energies begin to swirl around stab wound, if it's not somehow stopped... swirling up, pulling into the doll. Rapidly attempting to devour as much fo the Witch's energy as she possibly can.
Before the Tiro Finale dislodges Maeko, sending her flying off into the distance. It's... probably somewhat hard to tell if Maeko is going to be coming back. Because that sent her flying pretty far. Team Maeko's blasting off again?
There's a huge amount of energy in the air as the magical girls unleash their attacks. Axion actually has to stop recording data for a moment to avoid an overload. Riventon can only imagine that the time is near.
He knows a bit about Homura, Kyouko, and the goofy guy in the top hat, but a lot of the rest of these girls are unknown quantities. He can only hope that the infighting they're showing continues - between that and how much power they're likely using, maybe this Grief Seed will be an easy procurement.
If not, maybe he can grab the pink haired girl and duck out. Either way, while everyone else is finishing off the Witch, Riventon's getting ready to rev up.
That freaky thing that Homura shotgunned is back and talking, and Madoka's freaking out even more, and Mamoru's still holding her hand bare-handed, and then everything is happening at once: shooting and arrowing and ribbon-kyubeying and kaiju-thrashing and Homura's gone and Madoka's starting to say the words that Homura seems to have been keeping her from saying -- given their conversation on the rooftop about wishes and miracles and sacrifice -- and Mamoru's fighting to keep his mental walls up with everything he's got, now, so he can be even a little bit useful...
...and a little bit useful turns out to be sidestepping around Madoka like a swingdance move that gets his arm around her, putting his free hand over her mouth, holding her tight, and leaping up and away with her. He comes down on another rock, significantly further away from the battle and the explosions and thrashing and Kyubey, and incidentally, from Riventon.
When they land, he instantly lets go of her and takes a really deep breath, then gets down on his knees in front of her. He pulls off his mask (far enough from the others, and covered in paint as he is, that it's not a danger right now) at the same time as grabbing for her hand again, and his expression is determinedly steady, his eyes clear blue. Instead of just leaving the floodgates open to Madoka's panic, this time, or trying hard to keep his walls up, he pours all his effort into the healing golden glow of peace, and stillness, and calm, and reassurance. It's the will and the belief of someone much older than sixteen or seventeen, of someone with more confidence and assurance than someone with Mamoru Chiba's background could ever hope to produce kindly.
"Don't. It wouldn't be a miracle. You don't know the cost to everyone else. Also, what the hell is that white and pink thing with the improbable earrings?" he says, voice deliberately gentle and light.
Kyubey looks up at Mami, eyes unblinking and face unmoving. "Is that her name? Homura? She's an oddity - She's clearly a Puella Magi like you, and not some other sort of magical girl like the others - but I didn't contract with her. At least, not that I know of..." he says.
"And yes, she keeps using violence to prevent me from talking to the pink haired girl over there, Madoka Kaname. She has such potential! Like you, Mami-san! I was hoping she'd meet you and that you could work with her and train her. To be her sempai... and her friend!"
To be perfectly honest, Madoka doesn't wholly understand that she's making a wish to begin with. She's about three seconds from passing out, her mind filled at turns with gut-wrenching terror and sanity-preserving numbness, and her foremost desire is for everyone to simply *not be here*, to not be doing these awful things to each other while a monster threatens and kills so many in the background. Not that Kyubey would care, of course. A wish is a wish is a wish, no matter the emotional state of the one who makes it.
Thankfully, she's not given the chance.
The pink-haired girl is slammed back into reality by the sudden sight of Tuxedo Kamen and the hand that comes down over her mouth. Before she can even parse what she sees, the two of them are soaring, then landing on another lone rock in the vast paint sea, this one much further from the battle. She can still see the giant spear that erupts from the center of the whale, followed by the fantastic canon blast that would have blinded her if she were any closer; but those are good things, right? They're aimed at the monster. Not at people. It means they're winning.
Tension releasing palpably from her muscles, Madoka finally turns her eyes away, looking directly into Mamoru's, which are no longer hidden by a mask. And, true to his efforts, he receives no more blind panic from her. The haunting images are stayed, and by the steadily returning color in her face, he might surmise that his magic is working, returning her to a (slightly) less frantic state of mind. Taking into account that she's a powerless civilian in a reality-defying nightmare world.
(Empathy often being a two-way channel, of course, he might also see a split second, ghostly image of a Madoka-that-could-be. Smiling, determined, bedecked in bows and frills and pink. Truly, the contrast between that girl and the terrified thing before him is striking.)
"...I'm sorry," she finally says, wiping at her eyes now that the tears have slowed. "I just -- I don't want anyone to die. I don't want them to fight anymore." She's said it a thousand times, she's sure, so she sinks into an apologetic quiet, not elaborating anymore. When Mamoru asks his question, she can only shake her head in confusion. "I'm not even sure. It's the thing that Homura shot. I really thought it was dead...but I guess it's not." Madoka looks up once more. "Do you think it's bad?"
Homura's face is spat in. That was actually worse than she expected. Well, maybe it's not a complete loss. Kyouko seems to be doing something other than trying to murder Homura. Homura is okay with that.
Homura releases the rope to wipe off her face. It's not like the rope will fall or anything.
While holding onto Kyouko she manages to toss C4 around, reaching into her shield to pull out more and more. A double whammy from the inside should really mess this Witch up. The two of them apparently had the same idea. To be fair, it wasn't a /bad/ idea.
Homura has to deal with not getting an answer. Whatever. As long as it lasts until the Witch is dead, Homura still got what she wanted.
Kyouko lets go. Homura gets a good idea of what she's going for. Once she's done with her own explosive setup, Homura lets time resume for herself, too. After Kyouko and Homura are clear, probably via swimming out, Homura just lets the C4 detonate. She'll be out of the way by the time Tiro Finale hits.
Which is good. She really doesn't want to get Tiro'd twice in one week.
She vanishes again, reappearing on dry land. She turns to the now distant Mamoru and quietly texts 'thank you'. Her phone now has splotches of paint fingerprints on it.
At least around Mamoru, Homura can be sure that Madoka is safe.
Homura turns around to face the witch, and keep an eye on Kyouko, Riventon, Misa, and Kyubey. She doesn't say anything. Instead, she runs a hand through her paint-soaked hair, flipping it back and flinging paint from her once-black locks.
She promised to end the fighting between herself and Kyouko, and she promised to explain things to Madoka later. She can keep at least one of those promises, but the other she isn't too sure about.
This Witch may have gotten more than it bargained for, as powerful as it is. In short succession, it is shot in the eye, energy drained, chopped in half, exploded with C4, and then blasted with Tiro Finale. I think we can all agree it's probably pretty dead.
It's actually pretty impressive to watch, as Homura's C4 goes off, throwing up a huge fireball, only to be pierced by the blinding flare of Tiro Finale, which, essentially, vaporizes whatever was left.
Smoke fills the air, but the Puella, at least, are familiar with what is happening- the world shimmering as reality shifts. Returning to normal. The paint sea vanishes, along with the rocks and the sharks, returning the busy downtown street of Mitakihara. Debris and people are strewn about. Some of the people are clearly dead, and look as though they have been chewed on. Others are groggily getting to their feet as sirens sound in the distance.
One thing becomes clear though- while the paint sea might be gone, all the paint thats actually /on/ people... is still there. Gross.
Kyouko is left kneeling in the middle of the street, covered head to toe in multicolor glop, a normal-sized spear clutched in one hand as she reches up to wipe her eyes. "Ugh.. effin' hell." She mutters to herself.. then suddenly seems to perk up, head turning as she looks around frantically. Where's the Grief Seed?!
There it is, in the middle of the street, next to a manhole cover, incongruantly inconspicuous. The redhead turns and scrambles towards it on all fours, intent on snagging it, although she's still several yards away..
"Yes, Homura Akemi. She--- she didn't contract with you?"
Great, now Mami has double confusion stacks. She shakes her head at the little Incubator. "I will talk to her, but I cannot say she will make a wish. Homura seems very focused on her, for reasons I do not understand yet. It would be nice to have another friend, though." Aw, Mami. She doesn't go for the Grief Seed fight.
Kyubey commits the name to memory. "Homura Akemi. I have no idea what sort of things she might have told Madoka Kaname, or lies. She seems really hesitant! But I can see it within her, she'll make a great magical girl!" and a great Witch, but that's not really Kyubey's point.
"Maybe you can help me, Mami? And her? There must be something she wants bad enough to make a wish for, after all. And I don't think Kyouko is the most reliable partner you could ask for, given the way things ended up last time."
Riventon doesn't even think twice about going for the Grief Seed - it's what he's here for, after all. Combat information and potential Madoka-takings are a bonus.
"There's no need to fight over this one, girls - it's mine!" he announces. But unlike Kyouko, he doesn't dive for it.
He stretches out both hands - from one, unleashing a powerful blast of dark energy to get between Kyouko and the Grief Seed. From the other, a mass of thin lines of negative energy, whipping through the air making the sound like metal cables whistling through the air, intent on grabbing the Grief Seed within them and tugging it back towards him. If anyone else gets there first and grabs 'his' seed, the cords will instead turn in the air to attack them.
The Witch goes up in a spectacular conflagration of cannon fire, C4, and splattering paint. Gripping her bow, hair and clothes whipped around her from the shockwave, Akashimaru watches as it goes, and the nightmare landscape fades - mostly - back to normal.
She is grateful for the impassitive grimace of her mask, sharply conscious of the difference between her power and that of these other girls who fought here tonight. A fan, a bow... even if it is magic, it hardly compares. It shouldn't matter, she knows, so long as the monster is dead, but still there's a bitter taste of frustration in the back of her throat.
People died here, people with families and friends who will never know or understand why.
The Shinken draws its power from her will, O-Yasu told her. If her will had been stronger--
Her eye falls on the grief seed just as both Kyouko and Riventon move for it, and some restraining tether gives way in the back of her head and anger surges up like a fountain. Without even thinking about it she snaps back her arm; the bow vanishes in fragments of red light like a popped soap bubble, and in the next instant the fan soars out, spinning towards Riventon's cables in a sharp-edged arc of red.
"What do you think you're doing," Akashimaru demands in a voice fierce enough to match her mask's snarling face, "trying to take what you've done nothing to earn?"
The labyrinth fades, the Grief Seed drops, and Homura immediately bolts into action. She runs up to the Grief Seed, getting closer even as Kyouko does, and runs past it as a bit of paint probably splatters all over it, rushing towards Mamoru and Madoka. Riventon's cables might reach out for her, but Homura runs past them, probably getting rainbow paint all over them as well.
Look, Kyouko just lost her stockpile and Homura isn't so greedy as to take it. Also Homura just doesn't want to fight her right now. She has priorities.
She also suppresses the urge to 'accidentally' drop a few mines at Riventon's feet. It's a very powerful urge.
Leaving a trail of splattered paint in her wake, Homura looks between Madoka and Tuxedo Kamen. "Look, we should go." Explaining things to the authorities would be strange, and if Homura leaves now she wont have to worry about another revenge plot from Kyouko.
"You wanted an explaination, Madoka? I can tell you what's going on. I can't promise that the truth is very pleasant. I wanted to keep you away from it, but I think it's too late for that."
Homura frowns, saying, "I don't think I can do much about the infighting. It's not as simple as just letting that girl have whatever she wants, and I'm not going to help the one who tried to kidnap you." She's referring to Riventon, still unaware of Kyouko shenanigans. "I'm sorry about that, but it's not that simple."
He can't wipe paint off Madoka'd face because he's covered in it, himself. But once Madoka's calm, Mamoru stands up and gives Madoka a wry, apologetic smile, putting his mask back on. "I'm sorry," he tells her. "The best way to get people to talk to each other is to talk to them. You can't use magic to stop fighting and still have the same people you started with. So really-- you already have the best way to get them to work together to stop the bad things."
He takes a half-step back around, so they can both see Homura approaching, and grips Madoka's hand a little tighter when he sees the wreckage of people in the street. He lowers his voice. "You should go with her. Get some explanations. If you need to talk afterwards, call me, okay? If you can't sleep, if you can't cope, call me and we'll figure something out."
Finally he steps back away Homura gets there, and after she speaks to Madoka, he tells her, "I'm going to make sure Kyouko-san is all right once she gets the seed, and keep her occupied if I can. You know how to reach me. Please do. There are a few things we need to discuss."
Kyouko is scrabbling towards the Seed on all fours, leaving a multi-colored trail behind her, when these weird dark wire things come down out of nowhere and snatch it! They don't get too far before Akashimaru's fan snaps them and the seed drops to the ground again.. but now its all the way on the other side of the street from Kyouko. She sinks down to her knees again, panting.
Ugh.. she is just so /done./ "F*CK THIS TOWN." She shouts to the sky in helpess anger.. then climbs unsteadily to her feet. Red eyes find Mami, and she all but screams at her across the street, "Do you see?! You see what happens when you try to work together? IT NEVER EFFING WORKS!" Then she turns and just stomps the hell away down the street, leaving multi-hued pant footsteps the entire way. Anyone close enough might actually hear her sniffling before she vanishes between a couple of building soff to the side.
"Kyou--"
Mami grits her teeth as Kyouko takes off, before she closes her eyes, clutching Kyubey to her more tightly, resisting the urge to just bury her face in his fur to calm herself. You don't handle your mascot like that.
"... I'll talk to her. If she'll talk to me ever again."
Welp, there goes Mami's friends*. The gem in her hair darkens.
* - potential friends.
Kyubey pushes his warm, fuzzy body as close to Mami as he can. "Lets go home and have tea, Mami. You've had a hard day - and things are still really wierd here in Mitakihara."
Elsewhere in the city, Maeko finally comes down from being launched by the pair of explosions. There is a slightly smoking Maeko that impacts with the ground somewhere! Rather than deal with the pain, she opts, instead, to turn back into Misa. She got her energy for the night. Misa could deal with the pain while they regenerated.
Madoka nods wordlessly as Mamoru says his piece. He's right -- of course he's right. It's not her place to wish away an argument, even if it's a violent one. She's not naive enough to believe that people will never fight with each other (though that would certainly be *nice.*) Brainwashing people into cooperating...yes, he's definitely right. That's not a miracle at all.
Homura walks over not long after, and there's yet more silent listening from Madoka, who's still trying to process her return to reality and everything that has happened since she left tutoring today. Her forecast about the infighting is far from encouraging, but there's little she can do to change that. For right now, at least. If she could just persuade everyone to sit down and talk...
Her eyes catch on the dark figure swiping away *something* on the ground, and the fear that Homura and Mamoru are all too familiar with seeing reignites across her face.
"We have to get out of here," she says quietly, desperate not to attract Mr. Black's attention. "H-He -- *He's* here." A shaky finger gets pointed in the direction of the brewing Grief Seed Battle. They have to leave before that deadly gaze turns upon her once more.
Homura glances between Tuxedo Kamen and Madoka. Kamen has things to talk to her about? "Yeah, sure. Later. Thanks again, Kamen-san."
Homura hears Kyouko's outburst, and turns to watch with a frown as Kyouko leaves. She's not even getting the Grief Seed that Mami and Homura left for her?
Homura frowns, and shakes her head. "I don't know how i'll ever get along with that girl. I don't even know what she wants anymore. I thought it was just about Grief Seeds and turf wars, but I don't think it's about that anymore."
Homura looks back at Riventon, and then looks back at Madoka. Without her magical powers, she can't really defend herself against things like that, can she? Homura wanted to be the one to protect her, but...
"Yeah he's a real jerk. Let's just leave while he's distracted."
Homura starts to walk away, hoping that Madoka will follow. "Hey, do you want to get something to eat? It might be better if we go someplace quiet where we wont be bothered."
Mami takes Kyubey and sulks off to her apartment. At least she has mochi left.