Two kids gather in front of the theme park. There rather excited about visiting today! With the school break and all, they can spend an entire night here! Even past thier bedtimes. "Hey, are you ready!?" says one to the other kid. "Yeah I am! Oh! Um... I have. A new friend coming. Can we wait for him?" says the other. The other blinks. "Oh.. someone new? But... won't they take time to get here?" he asks. Just a hint of jealously in his voice.....
There is a sudden burst of wind in the air. A man in a white coat, red hair, and an oddly placed sword lengthwise against his wait appears as he lowers himself to the ground--- as if summoned by the mere act of uneasy friendship itself.
"Friends....." he says. "Just like Happiness. An illusion." he says. He unseaths his sword. It's glowing white. "I will eliminate it for Mirage-sama...."
He raises his sword and begins to glow red.
"LET THE REFLECTION OF THE FUTURE IN THE MIRROR TURN TERRIBLE!" he calls out.
Weird things happen. The two boys are sucked into a coffin like mirror--- weird red ribbons wrap around it.
"COME ON OUT, TERRIBAD!" calls Phantom.
The Mirror Flashes with inner turmoil, and there's a sudden flash of white light from the Mirror. Appearing in front of it is a Terribad, a large humanoid like creature with weird feather-winged shades and wearing a white cape. "TERRIBAD!" it calls out.
It begins waving it's arms. Purple crystals begin to form all around the area. People begin running.
"Come On, Precure!" he calls out. He seems to be trying to pick a fight with someone that hasn't come. Luckily. Maybe someone else /will/.
Runealy isn't here to witness the initial problem, but she is wandering the Uminari area on a mix of patrolling for problems or leads on energy to steal and being lost in thought. Ultimately, she finds problems; problems towering over some of their surroundings, albeit not all of them. Problems big enough to be seen from quite some distance away. "Another one?" She's talking to herself, worried. "And it's in about the same part of the city?"
Implications race through her head, but most of them arrive at frightening conclusions and quickly spur her to action. She ducks out of view to hide her identity, transforming in an alley and emerging to sprint toward the theme park with wand in hand. "Just what are those crystals? What are you doing?" She's not sure if she expects a coherent reply. With people scattering, her boot wings light up with a silvery glow and launch her above the crowds. This serves two purposes: It lets her aim at the Terribad and launch a pair of green wand-orb tips at it, with intent to burst into emerald sparkles on impact. It lets her do this without risking hitting a bystander, which is a good thing. It also means that if the Terribad retaliates directly on her... it will be while she's in the air, not mixed in with bystanders. This, also, strikes her as a good thing as wide eyes and a tense body take in the situation.
Naoko is beginning to wonder if maybe she's just never going to be able to enjoy a theme park again. She and Ataru made plans to visit it today: part of an ongoing effort to make her more comfortable in public. Naoko arrives first - today's attempted outfit is a pair of beige capri pants paired with a baby blue blouse with a floppy pink bow on the front - and then gets a text from Ataru saying that he's going to be late. So Ataru waits near the entrance.
Half an hour later there's a monster attacking, because of course there is. The crystals are a new touch, too: what could this one's deal be? Well, only one way to find out: Naoko runs around the corner to find a discreet place to transform. One flash of yellow light and a snazzy transformation sequence later, Valkyrie Kirin is on the scene! "Monster! The end to your reign of terror is at hand! Sworn protector of innocent hearts everywhere, I, Valkyrie Kirin, will see to that!" Pose!
Ataru, relates, via text, that his lateness is due to his Dad being silly. This is code, Naoka learned earlier, meaning 'Dad is trying to get me to wear a dress/be more ladylike and/or be properly dressed for an important visit later'.
Phantom lowers his sword. It gets reseathed. He is standing next to the Terribad though. And right behind him is that mirror with the trapped friends--- closed eyes, expression of despair on thier face.
Phantom throws his hand out. "I'm Phantom. I'm the Pretty Cure Hunter." he says seriously. "You two are not Pretty Cure. If you walk away. I will not persue. If you get in my way, you will sleep forever in despair on the other side of the mirror." he says says.
The Terribad continues to spread crystals over the area. They become big, craggy, awful looking. The ground begins to turn into purple dirt wasteland.
He doesn't answer about what the crystals are for.
He seems to be holding off the Terribad's outright attack right now. He seems to be genuinely be giving a chance for these two 'heroes' to leave in favor of trying to attract a Pretty Cure.
Ataru, relates, via text, that his lateness is due to his Dad being silly. This is code, Naoka learned earlier, meaning 'Dad is trying to get me to wear a dress/be more ladylike and/or be properly dressed for an important visit later'.
Phantom lowers his sword. It gets reseathed. He is standing next to the Terribad though. And right behind him is that mirror with the trapped friends--- closed eyes, expression of despair on thier face.
Phantom throws his hand out. "I'm Phantom. I'm the Pretty Cure Hunter." he says seriously. "You two are not Pretty Cure. If you walk away. I will not persue. If you get in my way, you will sleep forever in despair on the other side of the mirror." he says.
The Terribad continues to spread crystals over the area. They become big, craggy, awful looking. The ground begins to turn into purple dirt wasteland.
He doesn't answer about what the crystals are for.
He seems to be holding off the Terribad's outright attack right now. He seems to be genuinely be giving a chance for these two 'heroes' to leave in favor of trying to attract a Pretty Cure.
Kirin's eyes widen: a magic mirror! Could this have anything to do with the King? "I'm not about to run away and let these children suffer, or let your monster do whatever it is it's doing already." She leaps forward, landing gracefully on a nearby tree branch, then waves her scepter. "SHINING TOPAZ!" Yellow lights sparkle around the scepter for a moment before firing off at the monster in a barrage of twinkly pain.
The princess hears Valkyrie Kirin's shout, and winces. They're bold words, inspiring words... heroic, and she realizes in a low voice: "That's probably going to make us enemies." The look on the faces of those within the mirror only serves to further hurt her mood, and she's taking Phantom's threat seriously. 'Sleep forever in a mirror'... that could very well happen, and if does, her world will simply die by default in about six months.
The smart move would be to run off and leave Kirin to deal with this alone, thus. Her head lowers as she lands, considering this offer. It would be easy to just walk away for the sake of her home. Yet after a few seconds, she doesn't do that. Even when faced with a threat she's extrapolating to be even worse than Phantom meant for it to be, Runealy decides she's not comfortable with a Terribad raging unchecked until - or IF - other responders arrive, or leaving Valkyrie Kirin to fight solo.
"And if I leave, then what?" It's a question voiced from a mix of fright and 'hurt'. "Do you just continue on like this, doing..." Kirin fills in the sentence for her, and she lets that cut her off. Only once Kirin is done does she add: "So you can't just do as you like!" Then she turns to aim at some of the crystals spreading through the area. Runealy is curious, and launches another wand-orb. This one shatters in mid-flight, turning into a wide spray of green magic-sparkles as she tries to pepper the crystals and see what effect it has. Anything seems better than just outright letting the blight spread.
Phantom merely stands there, looking all stotic for a moment. He doesn't look particularly bothered that the heroes have joined in the fight. This is a minor frustration at least, for his long term plans. "Then you will sleep forever in despair." he insists.
Kirin fires yellow light at the monster. It impacts and forces the thing back a bit. "Terribaaaad!" it yells out.
It leaps forward toward's Kirin and tries to bring it's huge foot down ON her. She'll probably want to get out of it's way and try another angle.
Runealy's spray burst hit crystals. They begin exploding into purple light. Shards fly out. Luckily, the shards don't cause a chain reaction upon hitting other shards, or else this would be a problem and a big mistake. This does mean, however, that purple crystals shards are now flying out towards Runealy and most likely Naota, too! There's of course, no way Runealy could had know THAT would happen. She probably doesn't want to do that again however.
"Why do you waste your time on such people?" Phantom asks curiously.
"Ack!" Kirin hurriedly jumps back out of the way of the monster foot, only to realize that there's flying shards of crystal everywhere. "Get behind me!" she says to her ally of the moment as she holds her scepter out before her. "STALWART EMERALD!" A green glow surrounds and flows behind her like the trail of a comet, enveloping her in a shield that harmlessly deflects the crystals. "Saving their lives is not a waste, and if you understood that then the world would be a better place!"
"I probably will," Runealy somewhat agrees with Phantom's threat. "Just not today." She doesn't sound particularly defiant or 'cool' on this point, voice low and ashamed. Then she gets to learn a very important lesson: Directly attacking the spread of the 'purple waste' causes a retliation in kind! "Hn!?" She's driven back, making another boosted leap up and away from the first shard spray... though a few manage to graze her lower legs, making a few cuts there.
She puts herself in a red energy bubble to ward off the next spray, wincing as they shatter against her shield. Then finally, she has to land near Kirin; it works out since Kirin wants her there anyway... and the alien princess quickly sees why. "Seems you know what you're doing!" It's praise, with no hints of mockery or passive-aggressiveness to her words.
Then Phantom has a very good question. "Why? They matter to someone. Someone in those crowds running from us means something to someone else out here in Tokyo. Those two," she gestures at the mirror with the two trapped children, "matter to someone too. If something happened to any of them, someone, somewhere would be asking 'why?' for very different reasons. Because of that...!"
Her sentence trails off, as she leans around to aim beside Valkyrie Kirin. This is done to try to take some advantage of Kirin's shielding efforts, while still launching another orb. This one is like the earliest ones she used... meant to burst on impact, and aimed for the Terribad. /Not/ the crystals; lesson most definitely learned on that front!
Kirin jumps back and raises a shield. This is a good plan--- this thing is big, powerful and seems primed more for a melee fight than launching lasers or blasts or anything like that. Though it probably could if it wanted to probably. It charges forward, and attempts to bring it's fists down on Kirin and Runealy. It throws it punch.
Runealy hits with an orb, it blasts backward some by the force and has to step backward to prevent itself from falling forward. "Terri!" it lets out, just part of it's name. This one isn't particuarly talkative it seems today.
The Terribad picks up one of the crystals ripping it from the ground, and aims to throw it down at the two! They probably don't want to be anywhere near this thing's impact point.
Phantom listens. "Everyone dissapears. Happiness... Love... Friendship, are not worth your time." he says plainly.
Kirin releases the shield and darts forward, under and in between the monsters' legs. It's big and slow and seems kind of stupid, so maybe running is the way to play today. Once behind it she turns on her heel and swings her scepter again. "SHINING TOPAZ!" More twinkly ouchy-lights flying at the monster. "Everyone dies eventually, but that doesn't mean that caring for them isn't worthwhile! We need to reach out to one another: it's the thing which keeps us going!" Phantom's faux-nihilism isn't impressing her.
Runealy is briefly relieved when the Terribad is driven back by her blast, but... it's still on its feet, still going, still a very real threat. "Not sure I'm comfortable asking you to shield both of us, not against something that huge," she offers to Kirin. Its fists are possibly big enough to squish them both in a single blow, the princess fears. "So I'm going to keep moving, but thank you!"
'Keep moving' proves to be a good idea. When the massive monster hurls a crystal - the entire cluster of a crystal, not just some tiny shard of it - their way, she leaps aside... a split second too late. The very edge of it grazes her midsection, serving as a blunt impact that sends Runealy spiralling through the air with a hurt cry until she lands in a heap some distance away! Quite the blow, but it would have just straight-up crushed her had she not dodged, so the alien princess opts to settle for her vision going black with 'silvery flashes' running through it as she comes to terms with the pain.
This leaves her as the last to chime in on the topic being discussed between Phantom and Kirin. "She's right," Runealy takes sides with Kirin in this debate. "If we give up on all of that as 'pointless in the end'... that will /be/ the end, there won't be another generation. Everything stops." Using her wand as a brace to pick herself up, Runealy insists: "I'm not okay with that!" Then she aims at the Terribad, unleashing a trio of thin, ruby-red rays at it. Not a supremely devastating attack, but a decent effort for someone still getting their bearings. "Why would you even say something like that!?"
Phantom's nihilism is ANYTHING but false. But that's what generally being a guy made of corrupted dark energy just tends to be like. "Happiness is an illusion." he says. "People step all over each other for gain. When the chips are down, you'll abadon your friends, too, and you will abandon them." he says. He sounds /really/ sure of himself. "The only truth is misfortune." he says.
Phantom jumps backward to stand on one of his crystals. "The entire world will look like this. Only then... will you understand." he says.
The creature tries to grab Kirin as she runs between it's legs. The monster is hit in the back. It knocks it's forward as Runealy launches ruby red rays into. It's getting weaker. It jumps into the and lands down hard on it's feet. Nearby crystals shatter, sending out shards everywhere--- and the general quake isn't too pleasent either.
"I will spread this misfortune to please Mirage-sama." he insists. He's letting the Terribad doing the fighting still.
Kirin is peppered with crystals, unable to call up Stalwart Emerald in time. "Ouch!" She braces, trying to properly defend herself from the onslaught: as soon as its passed she raises her scepter one more time. "I'm really sorry that you believe that," she says, her voice suddenly resonant with gentle compassion, "but I can't let this continue. PRISMATIC DIAMOND!" Shimmering multicolored motes of light dance around her, gathering to her scepter and then blasting as a single beam of coruscating brilliance at the Terribad.
"What?" Runealy listens to Phantom's philosophy, and finds it... bizarre. Comprehensible; she hears the words, she follows the concepts, but she is utterly lost to piece them together into anything she could fully agree with. There might be bits of things they might see some very vague agreement on, but the whole of it is lost on her...
...Until he lands on a crystal perch, explaining his goal a little better. She jolts in place, chilled by the implications. "No, I think I understand you just fine." Runealy doesn't elaborate, but she knows an entire group of beings that want something just as bad or possibly worse as Phantom does, and now this fight makes even more sense to her. Frightening sense, but it rules out running away as an immediate option.
"I can only imagine why you'd feel that way. But I can't stop just because what you want scares me...!"
As Kirin braces to deliver a final blow, the alien princess joins in. "Wardliiight...!" A clear dome forms in front of her wand, expanding wide enough to potentially trap the Terribad within should it manage to engulf the monster. "Epilogue!" This shout sends the dome flying, trying to seal the monster within. Interestingly, this seal, should it take hold, is one-way; Kirin's beam will be unhindered regardless of what happens with Runealy's efforts. And if it does make contact, the dome begins to glow with a gold light that expands within it, eventually filling up and causing the whole assembly to burst!
Prismatic Diamond collides into the Terribad. This doesn't quite stop it. It does make it begin to unsteady itself. "Baaaaad!" it yells out. Kirin is /sorry/ he feels this way!? The utter..sheer.. /nerve/ of this /hero/. His expression just darkens a lot. This is a personal affront. He will not forget this. She may not a be a Pretty Cure--- but he may be already imaging the perfect spot for her in his Pretty Cure Graveyard. It may not happen today, or tommrow, or maybe-- never at all. But BOY is he thinking hard about it right now.
He's so caught up in his thoughts that he's not able to order his Terribad to defend against Wardlight Epliouge, which engulfs the monster, and with a sudden and hard hit causes the monster to begin to break apart. oddly, it yells....
"SO RELAXING..."
The mirror holding the two friends shatters harmlessly and releases the two friends who fall down to the ground. The Crystal shards begin to melt away, and the dark purple wasteland begins to fade away. Phantom jumps off the crystal before it too, evaporates.
He pulls out his sword. He points it at the two heroes.
"... it seems Pretty Cure are not the only threat to misfortune I should be worried about here after all..." he says.
"...I will defeat all mahou shoujo.. for the sake of Queen Mirage-sama!..." he says.
But he doesn't charge. His sword doesn't fire a beam.
"When we meet again. You will grovel for forgiveness."
He dissapears into a sudden burst of wind that flies out against the area- teleporting away to places that are obviously not very nearby.
Naoko sighs. "Well, that's over with. Do you know what any of that was about?" This question to the princess.
'Relaxing?' That is not quite what Runealy expected the one-two punch between her and Valkyrie Kirin to be described as. She expected 'augh no why' and other shouts of anguish, or denial that this could be happening. 'Relaxing', followed by the mirror breaking and the children emerging while the crystal blight fades... is well outside what she imagined would happen, but it's a very welcome surprise. Phantom's threat jars her out of any celebration though, as she tries to size him up... and just isn't sure what to make of him. Phantom's threats are dire, thinking about them is scary, but she does not yet realize he has the very real potential and power to make good on them.
Her ponderings are interrupted by Valkyrie Kirin, however. "Only the slightest of ones. It sounds like he's an officer of some kingdom here to invade Tokyo, but that's just me guessing from him talking about 'Queen Mirage'. No idea who that would be, or why they'd attack here." A pause, then, "Are you okay?"
Queen Mirage? Kirin looks confused, then shakes her head. "Nope, never heard of her. I'm Valkyrie Kirin. But for right now I need to go see if it's still possible to meet up with a friend." She waves. "See you later!" And then she hops off, displaying the casual disregard for gravity's clutches so common to magical girls.
"No, we..." The princess starts to protest, then reconsiders. "...No, go meet them. Next time, I might not let you just walk off, but this time," Or jump off, it seems. Runealy lets her sentence go unfinished, instead turning and walking away from the park. Her head lowers, transformation fading once she's well out of sight.
This evening has given her much to think about, and one more invading force to be worried by. "Queen Mirage, huh..."