Scene #3058: Endless Runner

Owner	Pose
Ren Tanaka	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urnII7K2WBE The Union has to make itself available to handle all sorts of crimes, threats and dangers, even when some of those happen to be a little strange. A little earlier today, for example, Joe Kellogg's Adventurer and Exploration Society (JKAES) sent in a missive explaining that a private mercenary company had tripped their way past a silent alarmship off the coast of 'Krave island'- an otherwise publically abandoned jungle-filled island in the Great Oceans. Said island is entirely off limits to the public due to its inhabitants, and the fact that it is a source of great and mysterious power- supposedly, the ruined temples on the island contain an idol rumored to be 'the source of all chocolate'. The inhabitants are sentient pieces of cereal. Stranger things have happened at sea... Naturally, when it comes to exploring a jungle island that has spent hundreds of years growing in the tropical sunshine, you need an explorer, or a pathfinder, and Ren Tanaka is both of those things. So he's brought a machete, and he's brought another two members of the Union, and they've recently made landfall on Krave island and made their way inward. The mission is to find these mercenaries, arrest them, and if necessary secure this mysterious idol. And this is to say nothing of the natives...
Elphelt Valentine	A tracker is definitely needed. Elphelt Valentine is only good at finding Gears and other VAlentines, and that's only because of her inborne senses. When it comes to tracking down criminals? Not so much. What she /is/ good at is making sure who opponents stay alive. Sometimes, being utterly opposed to taking life can be a good thing. Especially when you have magic. Thus, on the little jungle island, Elphelt meets up with their guide. "This is so exciting! We get to arrest the bad guys /and/ see a place where cereal comes alive! Oh, I should've brought a camera! Maybe some chocoaltes too. Or would that be bad? Don't worry everyone, if we meet any of the natives, Elphelt VAlentine will be on the case! I'll show them the power of hope and love!" The oddly dressed woman pumps a fist in the air, wobbling on one foot. She's wielding a large sword that looks oddly like a cake cutting knife. She took it out of her bouquet. There's also a burst of magical sparkles and hearts as she says this. "Lead the way, Ren, Sakura!"
Sakura Kinomoto	Sakura Kinomoto is here! Currently decked out in her Adventuring Gear - that is, a thin leather vest with far too many pockets, a white cloak with a hood that comes down over her eyes, sturdy walking boots and... a short skirt, because of course. She's twirling her wand idly in her hand as she looks around at their surroundings. She seems to be taking the whole 'cereal comes to life' thing in stride... When Elphelt mentions a camera, Sakura wordlessly pulls out her cell phone and offers it to her. It has a built-in camera better than most consumer digital cameras... because it's from the 24th century.
Ren Tanaka	The island itself is... well, 'colourful', sort of. Filled with luscious bright greenery and with no small amount of ruins, the island speaks volumes about the ancient civilization that once inhabited it- perhaps only equalled by the amount it /doesn't/ say. For example, why, if the island is still inhabited, is so much of it in ruins anyway? :\|a "Alright, and so I shall," he replies to Elphelt. Lead the way, that is. "Have either of you done this sort of thing very much before?" he asks, although he only briefly looks back at both of them. "(Don't take any pictures of the people if you can avoid it, it might startle them.)" "We're in a ... protected area, sort of. I'm going to be slashing through the plants, I suppose, but we shouldn't really do it willy-nilly. Don't get distracted and seperate from me if you can avoid it. Always, always maintain an awareness of where magnetic north is, relatively speaking. Keep your eyes peeled and let me know if you see animal tracks, vehicle tracks, or anything that suggests another well-equipped humanoid's been nearby." "Elphelt, you've got equipment- I'll need you to cut either of us loose if we can't manage it, or defence against animals in a pinch. Sakura... I don't really know what I can suggest for you to do, but I'm guessing card magic, I'm open to suggestions really." Pushing through a big bush with huge pointy leaves, the three of them come across a long ... what seems to be a watercourse stretching to either side of them. "Alright. What do you think we should do here, then?"
Elphelt Valentine	The camera is taken with a big goofy smile. "Oh, you're amazing! Thanks!" Then she's starting to snap pictures like some kind of tourist. Every cereal-flora and cereal-fauna is taken in as she goes on a picture spree. She's no match for Tomoyo and her videocamera. Some things are beyond human and Valentine alike. She deflates just a bit though. "Awww...okay, I guess it would be rude." It doesn't last long though, as she comes back to business. "Right. No, first time in a jungle, and the only criminals I've fought was in a city. I don't have much practical experience, and Mother didn't program me with any tracking skills. I'm only good with other Valentines and Gears." The girl hefts her cake-cutting sword across a shoulder, ready to hack through any particularly difficult vines should it look like Ren needs help. "Okay! Hmm." She focuses her eyes, those green orbs visibly shifting just a bit. Definitely not human except at first glance. She keeps an eye out for any signs of evidence.
Sakura Kinomoto	Sakura gives Elphelt a small smile, but still doesn't actually say anything. At least, until Ren asks if they've done anything like this before. "Not exactly like this," Sakura admits. "But I've been on plenty of hikes through forests and stuff, and tracking down criminals is... Kinda part of my job. Although I can only really track magical things with any accuracy... Still need to ask Ezio to help me with that..." She crosses her arms, frowning a bit. "This might be quicker from the air..."
Ren Tanaka	"It's more that they might think you're stealing their soul or something," Ren admits awkwardly. "Alright, well, I've got good news. In a manner of speaking, the two of you can cover each others' backs. Sakura, you've got more experience with the plants. So you can help her out with the whole... awareness of how to move through things. Elphelt, you can watch Sakura's back. That's animal duty." He strolls forward into the opening, and taps his feet in the ground. The ground underfoot is moist and crumbly, with small puddles here and there. "Something about this is sort of strange..." Ren mumbles, splashing his foot in a muddy puddle. "Sakura, if you want to try exploring from the air, try... hmm. Make your way along the ... I think this is a river? Just see if you can get a measure of where this path goes to and from. Elphelt, follow her on the ground, keep her safe." Flying's not going to be easy- there are a lot of low-hanging plants and trees flanking either side of this river. "Don't go too far. I'll make some sort of marker here so we know where to come back to."
Elphelt Valentine	"So maybe scour from the sky while we look on land?" Adds El as Sakura speaks, nodding to the girl. She looks up to gauge the tree cover. "If we have enough cleared trees anyway." "Alright!" She adds affirmatively, then starts following along the river. She opens up her comms to Sakura. "Let's keep sending coordinates! And let me know if treecover gets too thick, I can cut them out if we need to." Away she goes! Mostly she keeps an eye to the trees for potential threats to Sakura, but also following the river. She still tries to spot useful bits of evidence along the way!
Sakura Kinomoto	Sakura nods her head. "Alright. Rivers are good landmarks to follow while flying..." Sakura knows from experience. The number of times she's gotten lost while flying... Sakura produces one of her violently pink cards from one of her many pockets. She closes her eyes, holding it close to her face - before flipping it into the air. Her wand is spun from one hand and behind her back to the other hand, before being lifted into the air. "FLY!" she cries, touching the tip of the wand to the falling card - and pink feathery wings erupt from her back, which she promptly uses to leap into the sky. One gets the impression most of those theatrics were unnecessary.
Ren Tanaka	Theatrics are ALWAYS necessary. One thing is obvious from only a few minutes of searching- that this long path was definitely a river of some kind. It's got a natural curve to it and a lot of pitted, standing water. There are also some odd, craggy rocks occasionally found here or there which seem to have jagged cracks in them, which seem almost like teeth- And that's sort of where the problem may begin for you. Because when those rocks start to become more common, Sakura may- if she's not careful- find herself slowed down by something in the air, or even snagging on a fibrous spiderweb. Or will it be the other way around? Will Sakura, in the air, spot the aerial outline of something in the river before Elphelt approaches it- 'it' being snapping crocodiles which have been hiding in the mud? Or will they successfully cover one another's backs, and avoid the animals? And just why are they so close to those intimidating-looking... /are/ they rocks?
Elphelt Valentine	Never let it be said that Elphelt doesn't look out for her allies. Indeed, she makes a rookie mistake: focusing too much on Sakura and not enough on her own surroundings! First it's time to deal with that spider web! "Careful Sakura! There's a web!" She adds over the comms, and pulls out something from her bouquet! She takes careful aim with the glorious weapon that she's deigned shall save Sakura's life! POP A blast of champagne and a high-pressure cork goes flying into the air, wetting the silk as the cork will blast away that particular obstacle! Then she turns a rose into her rifle, ready to shoot down whatever might be trying to attack Sakura with concussive rounds! Unfortunately that means she's entirely oblivious to any gators that might see her as an overly flowery snack!
Sakura Kinomoto	"Hweh?" Sakura turns her head towards Elphelt as she calls out to her - just in time to see a champagne cork(?!) fly right past her head! Luckily her forward momentum takes her through the hole in the web Elphelt's 'attack' made for her. Also luckily, she happens to be looking in the right direction to see those crocodiles riding up out of the mud... "EARTHY!" she cries, producing another card and flipping it into the air in front of her. When she taps it with her wand, a green, crystalline feminine figure erupts from it! She gives the crocs a stern look - and the mud they're bursting out of suddenly hardens into something more like rock.
Ren Tanaka	Oh my gosh that is one big spider. It fortunately-for-Sakura scurries away into the plants, allowing her full scope to handle what Elphelt may have missed out on! Those alligators may have been stepping stones if this was full of water, but as it stands they're just a threat- one which comes dangerously close were it not for Sakura locking them down in the nick of time. ...and is that some sort of noise from the huge rock? Something's making a sound inside that craggy crack... And suddenly, the shape of it might make a lot more sense. Several creatures which look almost like yellow pillows peek out of the crack- which is in fact, a statue, a native of the island writ large. A half-dozen of the small things, only a foot tall apiece, scurry out of the statue's mouth, making high-pitched noises which are just angry gibberish really. They scale down it and hop around, one of them breaking a spear it was carrying into bits. It seems as if they are /unhappy/ you weren't caught by the creatures.
Elphelt Valentine	Elphelt lets out a yelp of surprise as the gators come for her! She's too slow, falling to her backside as she trips over her own two feet! But the earth rises and hardens thanks to Sakura, and Elphelt lets out a breath of relief. Her bunny-eared headdress droops! "They almost got me! Great job Sakura!" She calls out. And then there's the statue, which releases a ton of the tiny natives. "H...hey, REn, Sakura? Could this be our statue?" She tries to discretely send an image to Ren and the other girl. Hopefully she won't get skewered for the trouble. And worse, she can't understand the little ones. So she smiles, and raises both hands. "H...hey! I'm not here to hurt you! I promise! We just want to find the bad men who came through here!'" She tries, trying to keep her voice as placating as possible, and without any antagonism in her voice. When in doubt? Use sparkles. She creates a pretty little pink heart in the air!
Sakura Kinomoto	Sakura floats down to land beside Elphelt, her wings vanishing into a burst of cherry blossom petals - which promptly dissolve into rainbow light before hitting the ground. "We're here to find the other strangers. Then we'll take them and leave," Sakura says, obviously just assuming they'll understand her. Which is a pretty safe bet. Translation effect and all that.
Ren Tanaka	The small fellows are actually kind of surprised by this. They're not actually used to other people being able to understand them, it seems! And these people are giants, as well. It might be a bit intimidating. <<"That's a statue, but not the statue,">> Ren says to Elphelt over the phone, evidently looking at the picture on the other end. "The one we're looking for is golden and a lot more... idol-y. But you managed to find more than I did in the other direction! I'll follow the river along, and-">> Another one of the small things suddenly runs in from the underbrush, shouting loudly (and just as incoherently) at the others. They all get a bit excited! And start moving behind Elphelt and Sakura, trying to push them along. Are they leading them to where they want to go? They seem to want ot move quickly! Will they follow the natives into otherwise unknown underbrush, or wait for Ren?
Elphelt Valentine	They have a decision to make! As the little ones are pushing them along, Elphelt looks to Sakura. "Sakura, can you fly again and maybe use your magic as some kind of signal for Ren to follow us?" "Okay! Uhh, looks like the little ones are trying to lead us somewhere! I think they're friendly. Come on, Sakura! Ren!" It should be noted that ELphelt is a bit naieve and too trusting. She can't help but think the tiny cute natives are going to help them! She'll leave the rest to Sakura and Ren!
Sakura Kinomoto	Sakura allows herself to be ushered along! She seems completely unconcerned with what's happening. She does think the natives are kinda cute... although that's not really why she's unconcerned. Maybe it's because she has her ally by her side! "Huh? Oh, sure, I can make a signal. ... I should probably stay on the ground, though. So..." She pulls out one of her cards - slowly, this time, to give the natives plenty of time to see what she's doing isn't aggressive - before tapping her wand against it. "Light up the sky. Glow." The card vanishes, as a floating orb of light appears above them, before floating up into the sky. Followed by another orb, then a third... then dozens.
Ren Tanaka	<<"Eco-friendly flaregun, I like it,">> Ren says, before moving into the underbrush makes his signal begin to waver. <<"I'll bring up the rear! Remember what I told you about!">> It's time to go for a little bit of a- well, this is graduation into jungle run 101. The natives can scurry through this so much faster due to their small size, and they don't seem to even consider that the other two might have problems, so Sakura and Elphelt will need to look out for one another! Watch out for that creeper. WATCH OUT THAT ONE'S A SNAKE. Don't get hit in the face by a leaf. Tread carefully, one of you is bound to get stuck in the mud if you don't! Actually, is that mud after all? It looks like mud, but it smells weirdly sweet, and- And then the natives are tossing a few more spears to them, and everything gets a bit... weird. Another river seems to be snaking through the underbrush, but this one is brown and flowing freely, and something is... apparently, crawling its way out of it. It's rather large... Crawling out of the 'river'- apparently- is nothing less than a huge piece of chocolate, square and blocky and yet moving like an animal on each of its corners... and the natives are all over it suddenly, poking it with spears and trying to cast nets onto it... And they seem to want you to help?
Elphelt Valentine	Elphelt has quite a bit of difficulty here, given her choice of dress and overall innate clumsiness. Several times Sakura will have to save her from tripping into Obvious Danger. In turn, she's still quite the sharpshooter, using a glaringly pink pistol to knock out any raging animals that get too close to the young girl! But then there's a moral quandry. She seems utterly lost. Elphelt loves animals, and hates killing. But so too do these people need to eat, presumably. "Wh...what do we do Sakura!? Should we stop them? I mean...they need to eat, but killing is bad too..."
Sakura Kinomoto	Sakura is quite athletic! She easily vaults over obstacles - and helps Elphelt along too. She pulls off some impressive acrobatic feats that will not get any justice in this brief synopsis. Alas. If only Tomoyo were here to capture them on video. Sakura has no particular moral qualms with this situation. But she notices Elphelt looking quite uncomfortable. "...We'll leave it to chocolate's natural predator," she says after a few moments of thought, pulling out yet another card. Exhaaaaale. "Remove the chocolate beast from our path. Sweet!" The card produces an adorable little fairy-thing, seemingly composed of cotton candy. She's wearing a poofy yellow dress and has poofy pink hair, along with equally pink skin. She's also peering at Sakura in bafflement... until she catches sight of the chocolate beast. Oh, good, her Master isn't going mad. She gives a little grin, conjuring a piece of ribbon candy that she ties around her forehead, before throwing her wand over her shoulder and zipping over to the choco-beast. Now, it must be mentioned that, for the past three years, Sakura has been trying to treat her cards more like 'people' than 'objects'. This includes letting them out to hang out or goof off. Some of them have gotten quite attached to various mundane things. Such as television for example. The Sweet swoops in close to the choco-beast, then suddenly snaps her hands out in a rapid-fire display of inappropriate martial arts prowess. "Chocuto Hyakuretsu-ken!" the tiny sprite calls out in her equally tiny voice. After a dizzying number of blows, the Sweet has been propelled through the air from sheer momentum to behind the chocolate-beast. "...Omae wa mou shindeiru." The chocolate beast promptly explodes with a snap of the Sweet's fingers.
Ren Tanaka	"I'm here! I'm here!" shouts a voice from behind the two of them. "You guys really made tracks! I was worried I wasn't g-WHOOOOF" Ren has really had to sprint to follow behind the two of them, and he gets there just in time to be smacked in the face by a flying shard of chocolate. And he's down! Eyes swirling, Ren can only barely pick himself up from the floor, face covered in mud. lick "My face is covered in chocolate." The natives- or, well, as is more obvious now, they can properly be called chocovores- happily gather up the broken pieces, many of them jumping around Sakura's ankles and making a lot happier cheering noises. "Interesting decision to make," Ren says to the two of them. Having gathered everything up, the chocovore party has agreed to lead them to somewhere they can find out what they need to track down the mercenaries, apparently. It's hard to really communicate with them. "That big dried-up river was also running with chocolate," he explains to the two of them. "This island's ecosystem is bizarre. I can't quite understand it, what do you both make of all this?" Eventually, the three of them reach a dead end- a narrow, cracklike cave entrance, which nonetheless has a bright light shining from underground(?). Through it, there's... well, something bizarre. Away from the sunlight, the ground under the island- cave walls, floor and stone buildings alike- are all quite sharply white, with somewhat-but not vastly-less ruined buildings and stone structures all over the place. Chocovores in their dozens seem to be coming and going, but many of them seem to be rather downcast and morose. A lot of them are slumming around and crying by aqueducts and grooves in the ground, constructed channels with traces of liquid chocolate in them. Other seem to be using various contraptions like huge wooden hammers to rather brutally pulverise more of those huge, animal-like pieces of chocolate.
Elphelt Valentine	There are no words. Elphelt, for once, is caught speechless. Her eyes are wide as she watches Sakura's card punch a chocolate creature into /exploding/. She looks from Sakura, to the card, and back, her jaw slowly closing from its gaping. "Y...you're really scary for someone so young." El can't even get up the nerve to be upset, what with how /insane/ that was. The appearance of Ren has her breifly trying to hug him until she stops shivering. Squeeeeze. Her eyes are a bit teary. Eventually she'll release him, at least looking a little better. "Umm...well, if the statue is the source of all chocolate, maybe we should follow the river? Maybe it acts something like an ocean being the source of inland water." She suggests, quite rationally. She's been doing a little reading. And then they're in this horrible cave, with depressed chocovores and animals being slaughtered. El breaks away, runs up, and kneels in front of one of the chocovores. "H...hey! Are you okay? Everyone here look so sad..." She peers with big, wide, caring eyes.
Sakura Kinomoto	Even Sakura just kinda staaares at the Sweet for a bit. "...That... wasn't what I was expecting you to do..." she says to the card with a somewhat blank expression. Then she responds to Elphelt: "H-hey, I'm fifteen you know." Pout. The Sweet, meanwhile, catches a sliver of chocolate as it falls from the air and pops it into her mouth. Bliss~ "Wouldn't that make it more like a spring?" Sakura suggests after Elphelt's musing. "...But, yeah. Let's try going upstream?" The Sweet is continuing to stick around. Experimentally, she runs one finger along the white stone(?), then licks her finger.
Ren Tanaka	Ren Tanaka gives Elphelt headpats. There there, there there. He only rolls his eyes a little. 'Upstream' leads the three of them to - a stepped pyramid, somewhat mayan in appearence ("But there are stepped pyramids in indonesian, chavin and sardinian culture- even some in north america!" Ren will be happy to say). Many of the channels seem to lead to this pyramid- which has evidently seen better days itself, with some fresh scorch marks and chips, cracks and damage. "It's strange, isn't it?" Ren says. "These people seem like a bit of a brutal lot, but they took to us very welcomingly. They seems to be more than willing to accept us weird giant-people." "Perhaps it's both," he speculates when Elphelt and Sakura speculate on the nature of things. Inside the pyramid, there are an awful lot of rather upset chocovores. Some of them seem to be crying, even. There is, indeed, a central 'spring'- but it, itself, is dry, even though all of the channels lead up to it. There's a magical twang in the air, as well. When the three of them are close enough to the altar, suddenly the ground shakes! There's a rattle as the dried-up spring shakes, and something bubbles up- it's fresh, liquid chocolate, but it rapidly hardens into a jagged and twisted mass! The chocovores seem to be spooked and panicked, as whatever this is starts to shamble towards them!
Elphelt Valentine	El just sort of smiles at the pouting form of Sakura! "A spring huh?" She ponders thoughtfully before other matters take her attention. The stepped chocopyramid gets a quick picture, before she nods to Ren. "Maybe we're too big and scary? I reallly hope they don't think we're gods or something. That would be awkward. Being carved onto walls makes me look fat!" El doesn't catch the twang, but she does see the dried up spring. "Oh no! No wonder, their spring's all dried u...huh!?" Suddenly there's a shambling mass of sentient chocolate! Elphelt bravely leaps in front of the little natives. "Bad! Don't hurt these people! Everyone, run away! I won't let you hurt anyone!" She holds up her bouquet on her shoulder, and suddenly, it transforms into what looks like a cross between a canon and a bazooka, wrapped up in white bows and pink paint. When she pulls the trigger, there's a WOOOSH sound as a giant rocket goes hurtling for the onrushing mass! If it connects, it'll cause a concussive explosion to hopefully send the monster flying, or otherwise knock it out!
Sakura Kinomoto	"They have stepped pyramids in Creation, too! And probably lots of other places. It's pretty much the easiest way to build anything, isn't it?" Then in they go! And... a giant choco-beast rears its ugly head before she can really comment on anything. She dashes forward, in front of the 'chocovores': "SHIELD!" she calls out, summoning a translucent yellow energy bubble around the group. Although Elphelt and Ren find they can pretty easily leave it if they want...
Ren Tanaka	Yes, generally stepped pyramids are not hollow inside either, but this is an underground blindingly white cave city. With a monster in it! A monster that's kind of huge, and clearly intimidating- perhaps if the chocovore inhabitants were a little less in a miserable state, anyway, they could react to this better... Unfortunately, what happens instead is crying and panic. And maybe a little bit of explosions. Priority one when you're a hero in this sort of situation is to protect the innocent people, isn't it? No matter what they are, they're still people. And that's what Sakura does- creates her shield to put an orange barrier between them and the monster. And Elphelt helps! By using that explosive attack, the monster's pushed back even further. It doesn't explode in one hit, but - it's possible that this kind of thing is a huge danger to the chocovores, but not necessarily elites? "I've got absolutely no idea what to really do here!" Ren says, while herding and moving the chocovores backwards and away. "I've never met a jagged razor chocolate monster before!" Indeed, despite this looking like a shambling mass of chocolate cornflake cake, it's definitely got lots of surprisingly sharp edges for something made of what it is. As you might find out! It's thrashing and rolling about a lot! Look out! This is all so weird.
Elphelt Valentine	Sakura is Shielding her heart out, Ren is completely confused by razor-chocolate-monsters. Elphelt, too, is confused and still torn over what to do. For all that she loves all creatures, being a hero can be so violent. She hates it. But if she falters now, there's a lot of cute little chocolate natives who are going to get hurt. "Oooh, stop it! You're making me mad, Mister Chocolate Ginsu Knife!" This is all said as the thing is lashing around, and there's grinding metal sounds as the odd material of her dress is cut up! She eek's, and is briefly thrown back by the creature's strike, all cut up and leaking her odd Valentine blood. "O...ow! Careful guys!" Nodding to Sakura, Elphelt ponders. "Can you hold it in place with your magic, Sakura? I might be able to, ah...calm it down!" She hesitates just a moment. This is going to be very, very weird if it even works. Giving Sakura a moment, she puts away her rocket bouquet, which transforms back into roses. Reaching into her dress, she pulls out a single bullet! It has the odd heart-shaped symbol that adorns some of her dress, and she flicks it casually into the air! Plucking a single red rose, the bullet lands and it transforms into a long rifle! Leaping back in a graceful flip, spinning the rifle in the air as she loads it, she lands on one knee and takes aim! "This is my last resort! MAGNUM WEDDING!" BLAM! The heart-etched bullet rushes for the chocolate-creature, pink magic filling it as it impacts! Oddly, unlike a normal bullet, this one just seems to dissipate and cause a little pink shimmer where it hits. If the creature is even capable of it, Elphelt's magical bullet tries to speed feelings of love, affection, or maybe just cute pet puppy love towards herself. And perhaps the natives and her companions by proxy! Elphelt looks on, praying that it works.
Sakura Kinomoto	Sakura can't help but grin a bit at Elphelt's request. "You want me to hold it down? I don't know..." She twirls her wand in her hand, holding it out horizontally in front of her while fanning three cards in her hand. ... When did she even draw those cards...? "Binding spells are only my specialty." "Become a binding chain!" she calls out while allowing all three cards to flip and tumble into the air, fluttering almost like falling flower petals. They bunch up together at the precise moment Sakura strikes them with her wand... She's doing this on purpose isn't she. "Windy! Wood! Shadow!" From the three cards, a multitude of tendrils erupt forth - solidified wind, woody branches and vines, and, below them, the shadows created BY those tendrils rise from the ground to combine with them! The result is... quite a lot of entangling.
Ren Tanaka	The monster is trying to ram that shield! Splinters of jagged... well, it's still chocolate, break off as it tries to get through, unsure of what it's doing, having never encountered magic before. In the process of this rampage it also ends up crashing and smashing Elphelt as well, unfortunately only a little bit after Sakura ends up using her various elemental binds to pin it. This thorough trapping, which casts jungle leaves and pleasant breeze through the air, keeps it in place and allow the pink-haired Valentine to-- Well, this thing doesn't have eyes, but that's definitely little pink hearts floating up from it as ... This is all SO WEIRD. Sufficed to say, Ren, who is carrying chocovores in his arms, just... blinks as the razorthing becomes very still and placid and pleasant. But it's still going to try affectionately nuzzling Elphelt, and that's probably going to go just as badly. Ren just kind of throws his hands in the air. Several Chocovores are cheering and heartbubbling too, though!
Elphelt Valentine	Honestly, that worked a little better than expected. Turning to Sakura, she gives a big grin! "Good job Sakura! We make a good team!" Rushing over, she'll wrap the girl up in a quick hug. But more pressing matters come up. She watches as the thing goes all heart-bubbly and generally nice! She lets out a happy laugh! "Oh, good! I knew we could all be friends! Now why don't you just stay there and be a good little chocolate slime and...W...wait that's too comfy you're not my type I'm sorrrrryyyyy!" Cue Elphelt playing distraction as she runs around in circles in that massive basin-pit thing where the chocolate bubbled up, flailing her bouquet and roses going everywhere as she tries to avoid chocolate-hug-death. "That wasn't how it was supposed to goooooooo!"
Sakura Kinomoto	Sakura laughs as Elphelt hugs her! "I guess! I work well with people in general~" But then Elphelt is... still being chased. Sigh. Sakura doesn't panic. She's been at this for six years now. Instead, she closes her eyes, and extends her right hand - quickly shifting her hand through three distinct gestures before twirling around her wand with her left hand and taking hold of it with both, her fingers finding themselves on very specific spots. She's done this so many times she doesn't even have to look to get it right. "Return to the form you were meant to be in!" She calls out, while swiping her wand down and pointing it at the chocolate monster. Magical tendrils shoot... from the -monster- rather than her wand, to be drawn -into- the wand...
Ren Tanaka	IT'S JUST REALLY REALLY AFFECTIONATE. IT WANTS TO HUG YOU. IT'S LIKE A BIG BROWN DOG. Made of sharp things. Well, now the chocovores are laughing as well, ensuring that they're pretty much going to have a positive opinion of this huge pink giant goddess forever. Sagas may be wrote about this day, religions redefined! Ren is- actually, admittedly, about to do something about this- he gingerly puts down one of the chocovores he's still holding on to and looks worriedly at that machete he's got by his side- but thankfully(?), Sakura takes the initiative from him. Whatever wild elemental magic runs through the naturally occuring chocolate on this island is absorbed by Sakura, and the chase ends fortunately as the unpleasant razorchocolate (THAT'S clearly what it was. Some sort of manifestation of all of those assholes who try to give out chocolate-covered razor blades at Halloween) seems to sort of... well, it becomes more like one of those animate blocks of chocolate instead. NOW you may pet it as much as you wish. A few minutes pass for everyone to calm down after all the excitement. Such as it was. Ren's got his hands in his pockets, and is looking around the altar- at something Elphelt may have noticed as she got close to it. Or maybe not, she WAS busy after all. To the point, there are in fact vehicle tracks and footprints on the floor, which don't just belong to them. They were, admittedly, running around a lot, but amidst all of the havoc, what tracks were made by them and what ones were made by the people who evidently came in here to take that idol?
Elphelt Valentine	Sakura's spell saves El from a horrible, huggy cutty fate. El stumbles, and thuds right on her face. In front of the now transformed choco-blob. Blinking, she grins! "Yesss! You're much better this way, Mister Chocolate!" She picks up the small creature, and puts it on her shoulders. Leaning down, she smiles to the natives! "We're going to do our best. So everyone else should too! I believe in all of you!" When in doubt, try to life the poor chocopeople's spirits. Then she's over to Ren, giving Sakura a thumbs up in between petting the chococreature. She then spies the tracks. "Hey, guys. Are those tire tracks?" She points to them. Odd! "Might be our culprits!"
Sakura Kinomoto	Sakura gasps with relief. She was worried that might not work... She always gets worried that spell won't work whenever she casts it. When Elpphelt points out the tire tracks, Sakura nods her head. "Probably! I can't imagine what ELSE would make tire tracks out here... C'mon." She pulls out a card again. "Fly!" And off into the air she goes.
Ren Tanaka	It's very sensitive to heat. Store in a cool, dry place. In an emergency, may be used as a food supply. But then again, can't most pets? The chocovores give the three of them an assortment of cheers, which is almost indistinguishable from the previous angry shouting really(?!), and let me tell you a scholar would really have a lot of fun figuring out how these guys' language works. Ren gives a little bow, even though he never really did anything. And now, we've got work to do! Onward! It's time to chase those tire tracks, and take a brisk jog out of the pyramid and through the cave city. It seems as if, as you follow those, it's obvious that whoever did this wasn't just happy taking the idol and running- they've pushed over machines, broken doors, and generally caused as much damage as they can on the way out of here. The tracks continue to go through another cracked cave exit... And back in the outside world, it seems as if there's... yes, although we're back in the island norm of overgrown plants and ruins, there's definitely something more than that up ahead. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_hHVkupIQw Several vehicles are stopped up ahead, as well as a couple of tents and no small degree of slashed and burned plant life cleared to make space for them. People are definitely there as well- including one talking and giving instructions to the rest, seemingly a middle-aged man with a bullwhip at his side and gesturing with the fedora hat he's holding on to...
Elphelt Valentine	Back to work! After a bow of her own, she's off, with choco-friend in tow. He'll eventually be stowed in the magic bouquet, thankfully in a safe environment. She has to keep those champagne bottles safe after all! When they arrive in the tents and burnt area, she tries to find a convenient cover spot. El's good mood is utterly dashed at such destruction. The girl actually looks utterly furious. "Well? Do we go in loud? Or should we have Sakura do some bombarding and then we pick off the rest?" She offers to the two. It's fairly obvious these guys are our culprits.
Sakura Kinomoto	Sakura... vanishes in a blur. Relocating in the branches of one of the trees, not that Elphelt or Ren can really see that... Then she contacts them over her radio. Subvocalised, so it sounds just a liiittle computer-assisted. "You go in loud. I'll back you up from here."
Elphelt Valentine	Elphelt gives a grin, and then pops out from cover! She pulls out her rifle with one hand, starts firing wildly at the various men around, followed by pulling the pin on a pineberry! She hucks it at the middled aged bullwhip man! "Burning and pillaging is wrong! Face love and justice, you jerks!" She yells out. Definitely trying to get their attention so they don't notice Sakura or Ren!
Ren Tanaka	"You guys have a weird sense of priorities," Ren mumbles to himself. "Maybe we don't necessarily try to shoot them all on sight? Besides, I know that-" And then everything gets quite excited in a hurry. Elphelt throws a grenade, the man giving some talk to the others only barely spots it- and one of the three shoves him out of the way as it rolls and splashes underneath one of the vehicles. And even though the Mythbusters poo-poohed this, the gas tank DEFINITELY explodes. "Jimminy Christmas!" Ren shouts at the top of his voice, only capable of really following along behind her. http://orig04.deviantart.net/3d8a/f/2011/117/4/1/pitfall_harry_jumps_on_by_dbzshonen13-d3f1tga.png "Pitfall Harry, I presume?" Ren asks. The shoved- a spiky-haired man in green who's honestly really rather shocked right now- goggles in shock. "What the hell, Traveller? What the actual hell?" http://tinyurl.com/p4e8flz "Are you hurt? Did anything get you?" asks the woman- a pink-haired girl herself with a flower in her hair, whose armguards begin to glow with energy and sigils as she looks around in a hurry. "Takuya, watch yourself!" https://gyazo.com/409d868e04ad17acf859653c6264cecc "I can take 'em, Miranda!" replies the third, a petulant-looking young man with a pair of curved, draconic horns. He bristles, and puffs his cheeks, and breathes a short jet of flame at Elphelt's feet. "Don't underestimate me!" http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31b-OCvQYEL.jpg "Gonk," says the third. It's a plasticky-looking but stocky droid with two legs, no arms, and a chip on its shoulder. "Gonk, gonk." "Look," Ren says, as Harry stands up and stares him down. "Just give us the idol and oh my goodness I feel dirty saying this. And no-one gets hurt."
Elphelt Valentine	Things explode. /Actually/ explode. "Wh...wait! Who uses fossil fuel vehicles!?" She looks a bit dismayed at it all. At least until the fire-breathing draconic-horned man breathes fire at her! Her toes get singed! "Owwww! Stay back!" She has her pistols out and keeps them pointed, but at least she's not firing again. "Ahhh...y...yeah, give us the statue please! You guys stole it anyway!" She pouts at the group!
Sakura Kinomoto	Sakura sighs a little bit. Well, Elphelt's trying at least... Time to back her up. She leaps from the branches of her tree, landing on her feet to the rear of the group. "Erase." She produces a card, which produces a... jester? A jester who promptly swipes a checkered cloth over the two trucks and the burning wreckage of the jeep. Which promptly vanish as the cloth is pulled away again. What. "Sakura Kinomoto, Mage of Tomoeda and Ally of the Union. You four are under arrest for theft, ecological terrorism and trespassing on a protected island. You should really give up and come quietly." Sakura keeps her voice completely level as she says this. She sounds like a professional!
Ren Tanaka	TTakuya pales a bit. Oh crikey she's got guns as well? Yeah, he... no, he's not gonna be scared! He has to- "Gonk." "-Fatty, don't! I don't need you to protect me..." The droid's standing in front of the boy now, both of them trying to swallow what might be a little bit of fear at this whole thing. These guys might have been tougher under other circumstances, but blazing in and blowing up their jeep seems to have been a very strong first impression. "You /do/ know that there's a rather big community... society of people underground that are using that idol, right?" Ren asks. "Yes, I know that!" Harry replies. "Listen-" And that's when Sakura uses Erase, sneakily using the card magic - even though they technically outnumber them, the other group are still off of their game and not able to react to the continually pressing advantages the Union side has- to make their only way of escaping 'disappear'. Harry splutters. "What the?! What are you-?! Idiot! You just-- I don't--" He presses his face into his hat, and breathes like it was a brown paper bag. Calm. "...we were going to destroy it," he says tepidly. "...apparently they just did it for us?" replies Miranda.
Elphelt Valentine	And then Sakura just erases stuff from existance! It reminds her of the kinds of things she knows her Mother is capable of. There's real, primal fright in her eyes for a moment before she masters herself. The girl is an ally. And plus, she sounds pretty cool while trying to arrest them! Maybe she can get Sakura to teach her some time! But eyes on the prize. That's been erased. El lowers one gun to cross her arm. "Then maybe instead of destroying an important cultural idol to these people here and slash-and-burning lovely foliage, how about turning yourselves in?" Nevermind she just blew up a truck herself.
Sakura Kinomoto	And suddenly Sakura has zipped ahead - gotta love the Dash card - to confront the Indiana Jones expy. She kinda has to stand on her tiptoes to do it, but she gets right up in his face with a glower. "What did you just call me?" Deathglare. But then she takes a few steps back, crossing her arms. "So, why did you want to destroy it?" Not letting on that, no, it's totally fine. The Erase isn't permanent! Well, not immediately permanent, anyway.
Ren Tanaka	Ren Tanaka is honestly kind of... just standing there, now, because honestly HE'S confused himself now. He has no idea what Sakura can do exhaustively, so for all he knows she MAY have just indeed destroyed the idol, and he doesn't have an implanted radio he can subvocalise into to /ask/ her. So he just... does nothing, honestly. Just stands there, taken aback more visibly than even Elphelt. "Are you seriously so peed off that we just cleared a little space for making camp? It's not even that big-" Takuya tries to say. Harry just gives Sakura a stare right back, glaring down the bridge of his nose at her. "You've got an awful lot of cheek, expecting us to be arrested when you've just done worse as we have. If you /must/ know?" He casually walks away from her. "Whatever makes this island tick, the idol messed with it somehow." Points at the chocolatething on Elphelt's shoulder. "Those ... living chocolate things. They don't come to life anywhere near as often as they should do. The chocovores just drink up the liquid before it can turn into animals. And then they do some pretty brutal things to the ones that do appear. I would have much rather had the animals inhabiting the island than those savages and their contraptions." "Frankly, here's my counter-offer, there's two of you and four of us and /you/ just took out the thing you were probably sent here to get because of your damn bull-headedness. You accept that you just washed out and let us walk away before we kick your asses."
Ren Tanaka	"There's three of us," Ren says, irritated. "Mate, if you had your mouth hanging open any more a fly'd go in."
Elphelt Valentine	Elphelt is way in over her head and out of her element. Especially as the man seems to be making a good point if it's true! "That's..." She gulps. If what they're saying is true, then the statue is really screwing with the ecosystem. She looks to Ren, then to Sakura. She tries to whisper to her companions. "Hey...can either of you examine that idol? Where'd it go? Did you teleport the thing? If they're right then maybe it really should be destroyed." "But they're still doing illegal stuff..." Frown. She looks to Sakura here. Seems she's the most experienced operative here, so she's deferring to her.
Sakura Kinomoto	Sakura shakes her head. "Okay, I'm going to admit, Elphelt kinda jumped the gun a bit. When I said 'go loud' I didn't expect her to throw a GRENADE at you..." She shoots Elphelt a mild Look. A mild one, understand. "I have no idea what a pacifist is even doing with a grenade..." she mumbles. "If it was meant to be non-lethal why did it -blow up a jeep-?" She's going on a bit of a tangent here. "Buuut... no, your reasons aren't good enough for us to just let you go away. Destroying the idol isn't the solution to this." She then snaps her fingers - and the idol appears in her hand, safe and sound. "...Did you think I'd just destroy your stuff without knowing where the target is? Come on." Okay she's being a bit cocky here.
Ren Tanaka	https://gyazo.com/10b4ce13aabc11e2ddffb47a7f2b1b51 And here is the idol in question! Overall it's three feet by two feet of golden-seeming metal, although it's hard to say exactly what it is- it's magical, to be sure, practically thrumming with some sort of foreign magic in fact. Chocovores included in picture for scale. "Possibly a lesson to be learned there, yes, not to belabour the point," Ren chips in as Sakura makes some good points as to the specifics of 'going loud'. "We're still gonna fight you-" "No, we're not," Harry replies to dragon boy. "But I don't want you to-" "Gonk! Gonk gonk gonk. Gonk-" "Ko kyenga see, yes, yes. Look, these people are miles out of our league. They'd probably blow us to smithereens if we tried anything." "Fine, fine, we're giving up. Don't hurt us." Ren... looks kind of sour, and finds a rock to sit down on. "This is far too complicated for any of us to really be doing anything so drastic right away." "Removing that idol... did it make the rivers dry up? Was it rerouting? We don't know enough about... these peoples' culture to make snap decisions." "We have to do something, though. I think we're probably going to have to arrest you."
Elphelt Valentine	"....It usually doesn't really blow stuff up! Just kinda uses non-lethal magical explosives." Pause. "Aparrently that doesn't count when it comes to gastanks." Something to keep in mind for the future. Blush. Well, there's the idol, and then El's ready with her pistols. "Like Sakura said!" But she pauses. Looking to Ren, she nods. The guns are put away. "I promise you all won't get hurt. Ren's right. We should have the idol analyzed, get the real story here. If any of us do something too stupid it'll hurt this lovely place." Frown. She looks imploringly at the group before her.
Sakura Kinomoto	"We're not experts on this. But there's people in the Union who ARE. Or, at least, are educated enough in the right fields to... investigate and stuff. Come up with a long-term solution. In the meantime, the natives will need something to eat... We can probably get Fayt to deliver a shipment of chocolate to tide them over until we can figure out that long-term solution..." Sakura muses, tapping her wand to the side of her head. She then smiles at Harry. "I'd like to apologise for our rashness. But we're still arresting you." She snaps her fingers, and one of the trucks reappears. "...Ren, can you drive this thing? I don't have a licence."