Scene Listing

||

Scene Schedule

||

Scene Schedule RSS

Owner	Pose
Merelisa Shaynore	The scene is set. The racers are ready at the starting line. The episode OP has played after the cold open and the arrangements that Depthcharge and the girls had to make to prepare 'Love Prime' transformed the spaceship into a terrifying competitive speed demon.     Or, at least, into something approximating a land-based vehicle. The fat, egg-shaped rocket is tilted onto its side, wheels slapped on either side like a toy car. Depthcharge's teal-pink nebula logo is proudly printed on one of the legs of the rocket, matched on the big screen displaying all the racers' names and placements. There's more participants than Hikaru and Lala were expecting, by far: dozens, at least, of various sizes and shapes of Transformer-ed vehicles, along with their allies that signed up to participate.     And there's more of an audience than they expected, too. Hundreds of big and small bots fill the stadium seating to either side of the hexcomb-patterned plasma track, with plenty more flying screens buzzing around for various reporters or spectators, blending into general chaos of sports-based excitement. That excitement reaches its peak when Spinout appears, transforming out of his black, flame-decaled muscle car form back into evil bipedal-style to raise his fists above his head and pump his arms for the crowd.     After him, other fan-favored and named-characters are: Crash Test: Another fast car, his signature seems to be the cage around the frame of his (car) body that allows him to continually fumble or overshoot turns, roll a few times, and then speed right back into the running. Fracture: A bot that appears to be a mobile missiles platform(?!) Is that allowed?! Surely they're equipped with some kind of sticky goo and not explosives. Girder: A pimped-out excavator, with spiked treads, low speed, but plenty of nasty tricks or shortcuts accessible with that excavator arm.     Compared to that, the only trick up the Precures' sleeve is a high powered rocket engine, and some ominously hyperdense fuel taken from an alien planet that Lala-- through consulting with AI-- believes will function as a single use nitrous boost. That doesn't stop Hikaru from squishing her face up to the little porthole window near the peak of the spaceship for some last minute trashtalk while Spinout is flexing for the crowd. Even Lala gets in on it, though she doesn't seem to quite understand the spirit behind it. "Try not to pop a piston with all that posing! I'd hate if you couldn't even catch up to see the back of our thrusters when we pass the finish line!" "Lun! Also you're rude and people shouldn't admire you like that, lun!"     It goes poorly. Both predictably and unpredictably, from the moment that the little flying Cybertronian fires the starting flag from his cannon arm. The glowing racetrack dips and corkscrews throughout the city, doing loops, banking at vertical segments, while the more aggressive racers shoulder-check the chaff off the side, or get caught in the face by a revved fiery boost from Spinout. Not only is the spaceship bumped side to side by Girder's arm or Crash Test's cage, but the track itself seems to work against them: just after the more-favored racers speed past them, the hexcomb surface of the track flickers to turn frictionless as a random hazard, sending the spaceship flying. Caltrops, hard turns, and planted traps that Spinout seems to intuitively avoid but the girls run straight into hassle them for the entire first leg of the trip.
Merelisa Shaynore	The other Elites who aren't participating have a special little spectating booth right by the pit stop, as friends of a racer. Compared to any of the others, theirs is practically barren, but the entire race is visible (and delicious energon cubes can be purchased for an unfair price!) until Love Prime comes limping into the pit stop with them. Scorched, one wheel wobbling, covered in sticky goo (yay!), the spaceship is in awful shape by the time the girls spill out in a pile from the sideways door. "Uwahhh...." "They're really tough, lun...." "My apologies that I could not help better. Upon assessment to my systems with the data I have gathered on the nature of 'racing competitions', I have located my lack of steering capacities as a major pitfall."
Combaticon	A handful of aircraft circle above the race's starting line. Multiple spectators, news broadcaster 'bots, a handful of APB officers, and the distinct black and red helicopter form of Vortex alongside the gray and purple fighter jet Blastoff. Once the starting blast is fired, the whole gaggle bank into activity to follow along; filming, cheering, or even dipping in to assist racers who get completely bodied by traps and weapons and other competitors.     When the rocket pulls into the pit stop, the girls emerge to find Onslaught and Depthcharge already present. The commander sweeps his gaze across the battered rocket, then shoots a look at the 'bot beside him, "Do what you can." > "I have located my lack of steering capacities as a major pitfall."     "Disappointing. I thought we managed to account for that, but this chassis presents certain challenges for ground travel," Depthcharge's wrist splits open, her hand flipping in and replaced with her multitool, "I will work quickly. Send me your telemetry data from the race, Love Prime." A polarized visor flips down over her optics as she gets to work with the crackle of a welder, "We can find a solution together."     That last part doesn't seem to be directed at *just* AI.     Onslaught taps a finger to his faceplate, eyes fixed on the rocket itself. This lasts up until the rumble of jet engines overhead draws his attention to the dark star-filled Cybertronian sky. Blastoff converts as he descends, shrinking down at the same time to approximately human-sized. His engines cut out near the ground and he lands a few paces from the exhausted girls. The jet'bot holds out one hand to help them up, the other holding out a pair of frosty cool water bottles between his fingers, "You two alright? You've been through a lot already."     "I think the bigger names are targeting them," Vortex descends, transforms, and lands near Onslaught. Once recovered from the drop, she props her hands on her hips, "Picking on the new racers; that motorhead probably thinks they're easy pickings since they're organics."     "You think Spinout got Fracture and Girder in on it?" Blastoff glances aside, "Crash Test seems to just be doing what he always does, at least--" Eyes closing, he lifts his shoulders in a shrug, "--'Slam into everything and everyone'."
Angela	Angela, so far, is terribly invested in strange and silly magical girl adventures and as promised she has sent out the Express Train To Hell so that the Agents could participate and lend a hand. Also it means that the Agents don't have to worry about being run over by a train every sixty seconds like usual. Getting on the train for Rose and Nikki wasn't too difficult, especially with the latter's vine-empowered mobility granted by Zero Kiryu. They're able to clamber on and ride the Hell Train through a Warp Portal to Cybertron. Angela is probably okay with the Hell Train crashing through a lot of stuff on that world but it's Cybertron and it feels like that's mostly normal. And if it isn't? ... Well, fuck 'em. But as the train charges on, Rose has a brief chat with Nikki. "I honestly don't get why there's a Train Abnormality. What's so scary about a train? Warp Train's perfectly safe and gets you anywhere in ten minutes. Wish other worlds had one." "Maybe the automobile industry made it," Nikki jokes. "I hear other worlds they mostly use cars and after Tennant made me watch Who Framed Roger Rabbit, they talked for hours about how it was actually about like an anti-public transport scam." "That wouldn't really explain why ''we'' have a Hell Train. Ugh, the cars are sewn together by flesh." "And there's a giant eyeball in front. But since it's quasi-organic..." The train eventually makes it to the Starting Line thanks to Nikki using the vines to redirect it before lulling it to sleep near the starting lone with the sophoric. "And then we ring this darn-tootin' bell to wake it up...?" Rose wonders aloud. "Yep!" "Doesn't seem safe." "Nope!" When the race starts, the Hell Train is slow to wake up before unleashing a horrifying scream and bursting forward, plowing through the slowest racerse and probably endangering AI even a little bit and flying up and down wildly before it finally rolls into the pitstop where Nikki is able to lull it to sleep again. Rose lifts an arm out with an Angelapad. "My apologies, it seems that the Hell Train is a bit more difficult to control than we thought. We will endeavour to be less of a liability after this stop." She pauses as AI mentions a lack of steering capabilities. "...Can we add steering capabilities? I am not a mechanic. I would prefer to be more helpful to you in the next phase of the race. Perhaps you could ride on top of the train partway there...?" Angela frowns thoughtfully.
Timespace Riders	Kamen Riders Zi-O and Woz are in their fastest armors. Zi-O, in the Drive armor waves excitedly to the crowd, bouncing up and down as he approaches his starting mark. The lenses of his helmet, shaped like the katakana for 'RIDER,' are white and focused like the headlights of a car. The knightly silhouette of his armor is slicked down for aerodynamics, and the usual pink-gold-silver is replaced with red and classic white racing stripes. His breastplate resembles the grille of a supercar, with tires at the pauldrons and smaller ones at his ankles. The mirrored sets of watch hands over his lenses are instead mirrored speedometer needles. His logo on the viewscreens is a stylized spelling of his Rider name in pink; the same as at the top of the 'bezel' implied by his armor's faceplate.     Woz waves, stately and composed, on the way to his mark. An iridescent purple scarf flows behind him, the calling card of the ninja-themed Shinobi armor. The 'hands' of the smartwatch implied by his faceplate are instead exaggerated tines of a purple shuriken; the backlit purple katakana serving as his lenses read 'SHINOBI.' His app-icon pauldrons and his clasp breastplate sport shuriken motifs, while the tabard suggesting the watch's wristband is a complex web of purple resembling his scarf. His logo on the viewscreens is a virtual representation of an analog watch, in his distinctive neon green. Lun! Also you're rude and people shouldn't admire you like that, lun!     "The mustache and goatee thing really works for him," Zi-O asides to Lala at the starting line.     "I must regretfully agree. It communicates 'heel' clearly to the audience, taken with the rest of his presentation; yet a particular type of heel who appeals to the desire to see 'the bad guy' win, rather than to stoke the scorn of the audience."     "His humanoid form appeals to the allure of brute power as aptly as his vehicular form. He understands well that the audience is as much a part of any event as the performers themselves. Still..."     "I have faith that we can win, despite that."     Zi-O makes an enthused 'mm,' his helmet dipping.     The starting cannon has both Riders off with a peelout from Zi-O and a chuuni flashstep zwee from Woz.     Early on, Woz is rammed by Crash Test, sent sprawling off the track. With a 'hmph,' he strikes a quick, crisp handseal. Vanishing from the gut-dropping open expanse over the city in a puff of smoke, he reappears a few feet in front of the aggressive racer with the very same. White smoke puffed forth with the archetypal deer-scare 'thunk' briefly clouds vision, as the agile Rider clears the top of the racer with a moonsault, wagging an index as he passes over.     Zi-O gains on Spinout, skating across the track and juking other racers by vaulting their bodies or spinning in place. "I see it!" A potential future where he catches the flames of Spinout's boost in the face and goes horizontal on the track is avoided with a last-second brake, costing him a few places but averting disaster.
Timespace Riders	"Woz, what happened to Love Prime?" asks Zi-O as Woz catches up and the two take an aggressive turn together. Into the frictionless segment, he utters a startled yelp, threatening to spin out.     "The pit stop, sire," calls Woz, flinging his scarf outwards to serve as a tether--"I recommend buying time for the crew. Perhaps the other racers could stew in their own muck, as it were?~"     "Got it! Get me up there!" The scarf stretches to keep Zi-O on the track and close to Woz; then as they enter a field of caltrops, the retainer slingshots his Demon King through them. He goes prone as they collide with him at speed, striking up sparks--but he gathers up armfuls of them as he does. Spinout seems to have the track memorized, offering him an advantage for his expertise. Speeding up again with caltrops in tow, Zi-O waits for another turn and flings both armfuls forward.
Natsuki Nuki	Natsuki Nuki, intent on racing out her annoyed mood and death racing some big tough types to particularly work out her aggressions, had accepted Greasetrap's street food, done a turn-aside, and noshed down like someone fitting meals between meetings: 'efficiently'. Even birria tacos sized for cog-heads couldn't deter the Osakan biker-girl at the country fair, slurping down the fare without fear for the terrible heaviness right before a race, and dumps the swiftly-emptied tray into the food stand's receptacle. Taking a bright purple hibiscus tea from the cooler, and a napkin to wipe face and fingers off, Natsuki gets her card back and saunters aside. The girls had seemed ready to pit their best efforts against Cybertron's racing freaks and Hikaru had given the chimera woman her best heel racer lines - Natsuki wanted to respect and support their challenge by meeting it in the field. Extra-cool, she lifted her neckline-tucked aviators up and flicked them open, double v-for-victory fingered the crowd and practically oozed the word losers with the double sign in a cone that carefully avoids actually hitting the girls and gang and mostly just mugs for onlookers. --- On the track, astride a big classic chopper with lovingly polished chrome parts and a black tank, is Natsuki. On both sides of the black tank is a decal - a tiger's head biting down around a heart that's pierced by a lightningbolt. She sits with a swayed back sitting posture with her arms folded over her chest, and her racing scarf billowing out behind her, frowning at several of the other racers and in fact most of the crew, not wearing a helmet but instead a look of vapid dissociation as she tries not to spit laughing at AI's status as Turned Sideways :) is revealed. "Don't worry, girls." Natsuki mutters. "You'll just owe me twice." Lifting hands to handlebars and gripping tightly as the starter signal preps up, a rev of her engine lights wheels of fire over the peeling, melting rubber that vaporizes anew underneath the slightest goosing of the devilish rumble of the engine. A bbrum-BRUM! of the exhaust pipes joins... Every other loud asshole on the track full of mechanized motor morons in activating her mechanized devil motor neurons. "Haha, yeah! Woo! You all ready to taste this smoke?!" Natsuki whoops, hyping herself up and picking one boot up off the track while the countdown drops to. . . Start!!! Peeling out with a wash of black exhaust, Natsuki barrels away early in the honest track, somehow sprinting at supernatural speeds that any simple motor or motorist would be impossibly pressed to match. It's all well and good until she starts feeling herself - and the echo of Hell Biker she took when she seized his bike - and then Natsuki barrels about with a banshee cackle and starts driving back *at* the racers, bringing a big storm of smog and chaff-like 'accuracy' reducing smoke as the road conditions go from shiny Cybertron to an interstate of American exhaust. Chewing up all of her wicked double-action nitro boosting advantage by being a huge crazy lunatic fairly equally to everyone on the track, it's no wonder that Crash Test is the one who actually tests the biker-Nue in a crash, a smogged up turn causing the local's lithobraking to crash into her! Doing her best to rip at Crash Test's roll cage as she's ground against a turn, Natsuki re-accelerates out of her own smog cloud and hears a titanic noise from behind her.
Natsuki Nuki	"Who the--" She asks, having remembered a train from earlier, but -- that noise? She barely has time to widen her eyes in the floodlight of the Hell Train barreling towards her. In a crunching moment of communion, Natsuki is borne Toku Scenechange Translation Through Space style to save the bruised animation budget to the 'pit stop' whether she likes it or not, sliding out from pinned to the front of the calming train. Wiping her heavily train-sooted face and piston-pinched leathers, Natsuki discards a broken set of sunglasses and flicks out another one from inside her jacket to replace them. She had come prepared. Very, very prepared. "Well that first leg wasn't ideal. Everything okay, girls, or should I nobly continue on ahead?" Natsuki asks, trying to brazenly play this off as Intentional.
Kuroto Dan	Kamen Rider Genm promised he would race and win with nothing more than a bicycle, and when he shows up to the racing track, that's exactly what he shows up on, peddling in on his bright pink and green sports bike as he lines up with all the other racers.      He's completely silent as he waits for the signal to go, but even so, he exudes a confident aura the entire time, to the point where even though his face is completely masked, it's hard to imagine that he isn't smirking.      When the shot is finally fired, Genm immediately leans forward and begins putting his all into pushing down on the pedals, which allows him to... Well, miraculously, just barely keep up behind everyone else, grunting and panting the entire time. He honestly should have scouted the racetrack before he made his boast. IT DEFINITELY WAS NOT MADE WITH A SPORTS BIKE IN MIND, AND THAT CHANGES THINGS ENTIRELY!      Though, he wouldn't be much of a Genius if he didn't account for this possibility, which is why he came up with a last minute plan.      ENTER Motors, a late last addition Bugster racer that is definitely not affiliated with Genm in what way whatsoever (he is.) He, unlike Genm, is actually able to keep up more easily thanks to his dirt bike, which is suspiciously shaped kind of like a person but please don't think about that.      "OUTTA THE WAY SLOWPOKES, I GOT A DATE WITH A LOSER!" Motors has one goal in mind, and that is to annoy the fuck out of the other racers, mostly Spinout. Oh right, he also wants to win, but he's been threatened with death if he does that so he's just going to have to go with what he's told for now and feel things out from there. He really doesn't want to die again...
Lilian Rook	Lilian is different when these perfect, innocent, naïve bordering on a little bit stupid two girls are around. Dressed up exactly like a (potentially evil) rich race sponsor, she waves and calls out to the girls at the starting line, hangs on the edge of her seat for the gun, and doesn't even flip off Spinout once! No racial slurs at all!     Okay so maybe she's not actually that different, because she does all of that once the girls are back inside the spaceship with the hatch closed actually. God she fucking hates that guy. Even if there's no way anyone sees or hears anything with all that noise and wacky races smog, it's the principle of the thing.     . . . . . . . .     Now Lilian's mightiest challenge yet is not harassing Depthcharge about actually being helpful instead of bitching about 'organics'. She practically rattles with the effort of containing it, in the unified name of beating that smug motherfucker they both hate, where losing is not an option.     Oh and the Stellar Note! That too!     'Uwahhh....'     'They're really tough, lun....'     "It stands to reason that they're so full of themselves for mastering their own ridiculous little racing format that only they have enough of a hyperfixation on to memorize. Don't worry about it." Lilian says, half-reassuring, half-coping. "'Love Prime' is plenty fast enough, and your racing isn't bad, but--" Half-truth [Legendary] "--it's obvious that these nolives find all of these ridiculous traps and hazards to be totally second nature." she says, fully adopting 'our noble training and their dedication' and 'their sweaty loser tryharding' as maxims.     Of course she's at the pit stop now. Lilian isn't a mechanic (for reasons of ew, gross, et cetera), but she has some 'ideas'. Setting her obligatory dark parasol aside, Lilian is already setting about cutting and burning the goo off the wheel and simply torquing the thing back on without power tools, and actually talking to the Combaticons while she's at it. "The relative lack of thrust vectoring is a huge issue. These sharp evasive maneuvers aren't going to happen without some of the engine output being redirected sideways. Can't you get it angled or deflected?"     She talks it out like a stream of tactical babble whilst she dusts off the scorch marks, kneels down by the front, unslings her bag, and starts rapidly pulling out cases for chalk, mercury, gold filings, salt, ink, blood-don't-worry-about-it, a utility knife, and so on, laying them out with the rapidity of a surgeon, sigh-muttering something displeased about 'loyal leylines' and 'making do' whilst setting to the work of drawing up the ship itself as a 'location of power', bounding the inside and outside space and working the best shielding magic she can into at least the front third under the time constraints. Talismans of Tamamo's are shuffled out as if by a card shark, and--     "Excuse me girls." says Lilian, who grips the cutesy little porthole edge and vaults right in. She has to apply these to the engineering section, indoor shoes or not. It's not like cybertronians are going to notice enchantment on the nose cone, nor occultism being done with sacred geometry in the engine room. And then she's moving on to yet more.     'Well that first leg wasn't ideal. Everything okay, girls, or should I nobly continue on ahead?'     "If you could mangle Spinout badly enough to never race again, as part of a tragic accident on the track, that'd be much appreciated." Lilian says, in the middle of readying blacklight and moonless water, striking a match. "That was a joke." No it wasn't.
Angela	A LITTLE EARLIER "Ahhh we're closing in on a Partner, pardner!" Rose shouts to Nikki. "I'm trying this is a train it doesn't have brakes!" Nikki shouts back. NOW "...Sorry Lady Natsuki..." Rose says, concurrently with Nikki who also says "...Sorry Lady Natsuki..." in the exact same tone. It seems that Angela has instructed her minions to refer to Natsuki as Lady Natsuki from now on. ''If you could mangle Spinout badly enough to never race again, as part of a tragic accident on thr track, that'd be much appreciated.'' "Very well. Nikki, please direct the Hell Train to run over Spinout." Angela says. ''That was a joke.'' Angela frowns. "...Very well, do not run over Spinout." The subtitles underneath her read, to Rose, 'Run over Spinout.'. Angela points down to the subtitles and makes a 'zip it' gesture with her fingers before shifting to a 'ssssh' gesture with her index finger.
Combaticon	Depthcharge has managed to circumvent her usual disdain for organics by fixating on the machines; that's fairly easy to guess, even just by how she insists on referring to AI as Love Prime. Actually knowing these people helps a lot, too. She's worked with AI on this spaceship in the past and has at least grown a tolerance for the Cures that doesn't need to be constantly reinforced by threats of violence from bots twice her size. > "The relative lack of thrust vectoring is a huge issue . . ."     "I was thinking about that myself," Depthcharge doesn't look up from her repair work on the unsteady wheel, "As a spacecraft, we are constrained by the limitations of the gimbal mounts. If there were some method of expanding the range of motion, or..." She pauses, "Deflection. A rudder to redirect thrust as it leaves the nozzles might work in a pinch. . ." Tactical and technological babble while she works. > "If you could mangle Spinout. . ." > "That was a joke." > "Very well, do not run over Spinout."     Onslaught's head tilts, his eyes shifting towards Nikki and Rose and Angela's face on the datapad, "It wouldn't be that unusual if he were struck into by someone else. For instance; Crash Test." Despite the neutrally stern expression on his, 'Beat a mothertrucker with another mothertrucker' is written all over his face.
Merelisa Shaynore	"Disappointing. I thought we managed to account for that, but this chassis presents certain challenges for ground travel,"     "Affirmative," AI gently synthesizes, the star-screen on its side glowing with the cadence of its speech. "My redirection capacities were designed with efficiency as the primary goal, due to the emptiness of space not requiring advanced handling. Currently, I am downloading all available materials referencing 'drifting'." "You two alright? You've been through a lot already."     Hikaru pops up from the ground immediately, with Lala dragged up behind her to teeter on her feet. She pumps her fists, energized, and takes the water bottles to press one into Lala's hands. "It'll take more than that to put the brakes on us!"     Lala blinks and takes a few sips of water, then, seeing Depthcharge getting to work, fumbles around to attach her powered multitool antennae caps and crouch beside to help her at the open paneling. Her little antennae tools spark with electricity to help solder wired back together, while her hands pull up an outline of the race on a holographic tablet to show Depthcharge. "Lun. I don't think AI could make these turns here and here, so we'd either have to slow down or go flying off the track.... Here we could try to jump over a segment to land on the other one, lun, but we don't have any way to slow AI down in the air." "My diagnostics would agree, Miss Lala. Miss Depthcharge, may I request reinforcement to my back axle? The welded attachments you made earlier were damaged by the plasma charges buried along the track."     Meanwhile, Hikaru is obsessed with getting her first close look at the horrible, horrible train. With its eye closed, Hikaru creeps closer and waves her hand in front of it to check if it really can't see her still. Despite it being monstrous and repulsive, Hikaru's eyes light up with stars when Angela suggests riding on top of it. "Solariffic!! We could really ride on it? Maybe we could put AI on top and strap the spaceship down and then blast the rockets and give a *double* boost to the train!" "Hikaru! Be careful getting that close, lun!" "It's okay. It's sleeping!" "Miss Lala, the Express Train to [[Filtered]] is only dangerous when active or mismanaged." "Oyo? The what kind of train?" "... The Express Train is harmless at the moment, according to Miss Angela's managerial guidelines."     Just then, Natsuki rolls out from underneath, and despite her bravado, Hikaru yelps a bit at a sooty monster-shaped detatchment of motion from the monstrous train. When she realizes who it is, her yelp turns into an excited laugh, and she offers her hand to help her get up. Whether or not it's accepted, once she's up, Hikaru mimes flicking out sunglasses herself and smugly grins at her.     "Huh. Looks like you ate more exhaust than you bargained for already, didn't you?"     She giggles, then rubs the back of her head more seriously. "Well... it hasn't been going *great*, eheh. We're faster than anyone, but.... Well, it'd be going a lot better if we didn't keep getting smashed all the time! AI doesn't have any real defenses... any time the Nottraiders attack the spaceship I just jump out myself and punch 'em."     "You're real cool though, Miss Nue! I've never seen a real motorbike with flaming wheels before! Is it magic?"
Merelisa Shaynore	"--it's obvious that these nolives find all of these ridiculous traps and hazards to be totally second nature."     Lala nods extremely seriously, as if the Wacky Races are an established societal construct that demands high level skills that she simply lacks. "I wish we'd been able to study the track beforehand, lun. The traps keep appearing out of nowhere... any Spinout was dodging all of them. If we don't slow him down soon, then he'll beat us, and I won't stand for that, lun!" "Excuse me girls."     The inside of the spaceship really isn't meant to be turned sideways. Presumably, in flight, there's some subjective gravity machine, but here on the surface of a planet, they just had to hastily bolt down their furniture and pack all their loose blankets, stuffies, books, and so on into boxes. Lala's donut-shaped command chair is on the new floor, at least, and it's easy enough for Lilian to get to whatever she needs. MEANWHILE, FOR THE RACERS:     Genm being man-powered makes him shockingly immune to a lot of the hazards of the race. High traction lets him dodge the caltrops, electromagnetic pulses don't deter him at all, and the other racers....!! ... don't even bother touching him, because he's trailing behind in the last quartile, somehow ahead of several other racers still as he finally pedals his way to the pit stop.     Zi-O and Motors do their best to hassle Spinout, but Fracture, Crash Test, and Girder interfere as if they're *guarding* him. Crash Test catches on Sougo's caltrops and frontflips immediately, somersaulting a half-dozen times before managing to right himself. Girder swings his scoop at Motors and tries to scoop him up to throw him at Woz, while Fracture's massive bulk slowly presses Sougo against a wall on the side of the track.
Combaticon	> "Lun. I don't think AI could make these turns here and here. . . We could try to jump over. . ." > "Miss Depthcharge, may I request reinforcement to my back axle?"     "Yes, of course. Even intact, the prior axle would have trouble surviving that kind of landing. The distance is no problem, though. Even a glide without the flight system will manage that kind of range," the Decepticon uses her thumb to brush metal dust away from her work on the unstable front wheel. Satisfied, she moves to the rear wheels, "Our retrofits are certainly being pushed to the limit. . . We will make it work."     Vortex reaches out, creating a picture frame with her thumbs and forefingers around the dozing Express Train. Shifting a bit, she includes Hikaru in the shot. Her body makes a little shutter noise; then another one when Natsuki rolls up and Hikaru loses her cool for a second.     Onslaught returns his eyes to the rocket, his finger tapping a few times at his faceplate. After his prior statement, he's quiet for a long time, until he finally speaks up, "AI-- Love Prime. If you had the ability, would you change your configuration into something better suited to achieving your goals?"     Depthcharge pauses near the rear tires, shooting a look over her shoulder and under the pylon of her turbo engines, "What are you on about? This isn't--"     "This question is not for you, Depthcharge," Onslaught doesn't even look at her when he answers, instead focusing on the panel that lights up whenever AI talks. His hand lowers from his chin to his side, fingers tapping lightly on the metal of his leg, "You say your purpose is to serve Lala Hagoromo; but I would like to hear what you want for *yourself*. Would you?"
Angela	''Solariffic!! We could really ride on it? Maybe we could put AI on top and strap the spaceship down ... *double* boost to the train!'' "I have no objection." Angela says. "We are here to assist Love Prime and, of course, you as well. We are not after victory for ourselves." The Express Train to Filtered rumbles as if it's snoring. "Rose, if you can assist." "Well 'shore, Lady Angela, that the plan we're going with, Miss Hikaru?" Rose says, awkwardly climbing out of one of the Hell Train's windows with a clear and ready intent here. "Hell Train isn't the best at avoiding traps either, even if it can power through some I bet... Maybe we can dislodge the train's segments from itself as needed to improve maneuverability..." Nikki considered, still acting as the train's conductor for the day. Angela's eyes slant over to Lun and assures her, "Do not worry, if you are ''on'' the train, it cannot run you over, and thus you have nothing to worry about the Express Train To ||||" The subtitles just stop at 'Express Train'.
Natsuki Nuki	Natsuki's 'monster-shape' in the soot is certainly not a humanoid. Hikaru sees the <<censored>> in soot-shape as a shambling and uncertain being, before. . . The soot is shaked off of her in a head-to-toe shivershimmy, and like a 'poof!' with no leaf, Natsuki is parted from the uncertainty and majority of her soot to reveal the expected humanoid with distressed biker wear. > the Express Train to [[Filtered]] "It's fine, girls. If that's where the Train goes I've already been and it's," Natsuki makes a torn-shoulder shrug and soot-cheeked smirk under her aviators. "You know, it's fine." She claims, before grinning even deeper at Hikaru's pantomiming of the sunglasses. "Compared to the field, girl, I've *caused* all the choking you see." 'And let's ignore the choking in me', perhaps, is implied. "I think the team-up's a great idea. Two stage rocket, right? Use the big push from the train then launch off of it once you're lined up with the goal, right?" Natsuki reasons, repurposing her plan of 'getting a boost from the train' immediately as it applies to the others. "It's fiend-flame, from a different world. A devil motorcycle! For a devil biker, but, well," Natsuki preens. "You're looking at one, aren't you?" Considering for a second, and still grinning at the glasses move, Natsuki reaches into her jacket again. "Alright, racer, since we're both in this hole, we can both rep the shades." Drawing out another set of aviators from her jacket -- there's a bit of a shadowy stick to them as she pulls them free, and certainly they'd be crushed? -- Natsuki rotates the set while she opens them and offers them out to Hikaru by the sides. "In case anything gets in your eyes, see? Plus, they look [cool]." She says 'cool' like a Yankee would. '...Sorry Lady Natsuki...' x2 Natsuki, eyes hidden behind aviators, turns her eyemask-pattern haloed sunglasses in periphery to the agents managing the train. While her outfit's a little mangled by the churning of the runaway Train's working, Natsuki herself has already forgotten about the smashing, smushing, and assorted that happened to her in her own exhaust smoke. "Since you're forthright, consider it forgiven." She announces, without looking directly at either agent, instead fixing the sit of her jacket over her shoulders and brushing soot off her neck and flaring out her sooted-to-dirty-grey ponytail a few times to knock out the dust. "I should've just taken my lead and compounded on it anyway." She admits, before looking across to Lilian more-fully when she rolls up. Lilian had immediately commanded the sort of 'fellow Student Council member' respect out of the Nue - so when she makes a direct and un-premised request of her there's a clear snap-to of immediate and directed attention to the swordswoman's way. 'That was a joke.'
Natsuki Nuki	Natsuki shifts, from deeply interested, to pop-giggle, to 'hyooooo-hyoo-hyoo' chirrup thrushsong laughter, like Lilian has said the funniest thing Natsuki's ever heard. Recovering, standing to lean on her bike's handlebars and expelling a long sigh of breath. She wipes a tear from her eye. "You're a real joker, Lilian." Natsuki agrees, before looking at Rose and locking eyes. She nods across to the shushed agent. She understands. She's locked in. Reaching into her motorcycle's chassis, Natsuki pulls out part of a crash bar that had been warped into the chrome, taking a second to kneel down and fiddle with the chassis, taking out a bit of dull-dark purple-magenta gravel from an outer pocket and producing a lighterflame from a flipped-out small torch. Burning the crystals there in her hand, a smoke transfers from palm to the hole in the Hell Bike's chassis to fill it back in good-as-new. Standing back up and shouldering the bent and removed-part of Crash Test's frame as a pipe-club, Natsuki shoulders the weapon and looks between Nikki while leaning forward to peek, and thumbing at the rocket, unawares of any Important Conversations the cybertronian has with the rocket nearby. "You want me to just load 'er up, Hikaru, or, does your rocket have pretty legs? I've got a date I'm real raring to make, so, if we can get back into this race, let's go!"
Lilian Rook	'Currently, I am downloading all available materials referencing 'drifting'.'     "Drop anything with 'kart' in the name." Lilian says, deadly serious. "It doesn't work like that in real life." Solemn knowledge learned through the wise sage of Oreshnika.     'but we don't have any way to slow AI down in the air.'     "Installing a parachute would be the ordinary way to do it, but we'd have to detach it before landing too, and install a new one for the final leg. If that's not an issue, I can handle it. Otherwise, 'I can handle it'." Lilian says, ominously.     'Solariffic!! We could really ride on it? Maybe we could put AI on top and strap the spaceship down and then blast the rockets and give a *double* boost to the train!'     "I--" Oh god "--Wouldn't do that." Please don't do that "If I were you." says Lilian, with urgency in excess of the time limit to finish stencilling her extra weird array. She frantically comes up with a reason on the spot, knowing Hikaru isn't exactly afraid of danger. "The rocket exhaust will burn the poor thing." she says.     'Miss Lala, the Express Train to [[Filtered]] is only dangerous when active or mismanaged.'     Lilian snorts, dusting off her hands and standing up. "This would have been easier if I bothered to read the rules, but now not doing it feels like a matter of principle."     'If we don't slow him down soon, then he'll beat us, and I won't stand for that, lun!'     Lilian hoists her own bag through the porthole via telekinesis. Tying it down to the command console, she rifles through it, flips out a wind visor, and sliding it onto her face, next flips through her smartphone to connect some sort of music player app to her radio earpiece.     'You're a real joker, Lilian.'     Pushing back her skirt to reach her thigh holster, Lilian draws Winter Crow, releases the safety, and leans partway out the window, shades down and tunes blasting. "Aren't I just?"
Timespace Riders	Woz has difficulty breaking ahead, but it's just as hard to get rid of him. When Girder throws Motors his way, he scoffs and leaps forward. The two of them briefly pass, making eye contact for a moment as the retainer's poised frontflip allows.     Rather than allow Motors to hit the track and crash, however, Woz flings his scarf outwards, wrapping around him and his bike and setting them both upright. He signals for the Bugster to come up alongside him.     "It seems that our opposition is aware of our collaboration. If we want to defeat Spinout, we must first handle his little coalition. Let us sow discord among the ranks--Crash Test is an imbecile and Girder is the least swift among them. Some friendly fire should do the trick. Anger Crash Test--I shall occupy Girder until the promised moment, then we shall both fade."     Zi-O is not at all in a place to discuss strategy--pressed up against a wall, he grunts in equal parts pain, effort and frustration as sparks from the high speed shearing force fly up like fireworks. "Wow," he gasps. "I'm kind of flattered to be getting this kind of treatment."     His ankle-tires squeal as he brakes, the only real solution since he can't match force with force in this form. It still means there's a painful moment where he's pinched between the mobile battery's substantial rear fender and the wall. "I hope you'll take this in the spirit it's given," he gasps as he gets free, leaning forward to get into Fracture's draft and lower his profile in one move. He leans farther and farther, until his breastplate is dangerously close to the ground, and his ankle-tires are providing all the forward motion.     He reaches out and grabs Fracture's rear axle with one hand, then reaches backwards with a closed fist and drives several rapid-fire hammer punches into his rear differential, his fist moving so quickly it might as well be a piston in an engine. Releasing his grip, he gives his retainer a little salute as he passes by.     As Woz passes, he elbows the window on Girder's cabin; hard enough to rattle the glass but soft enough for him to know it could've been harder--an insult. He then smokepuff teleports in front of Girder, doing the on-foot equivalent of brake-checking him, all in an effort to infuriate. Passing then slowing down, hitting the door of his cabin with jumping kicks, fading just out of reach of his arm and then finally teleporting on top of his cabin to grandstand for the crowd, the retainer aims to keep him occupied long enough for Motors to piss off Crash Test and cause a pileup between them.
Kuroto Dan	Kamen Rider Genm continues to put his heart and soul into his pedaling, easily avoiding every trap thrown his way through the power of his superior intellect and not because his ride is so low tech and slow enough that it basically screws over any attempt at sabotage.      Motors, meanwhile, is thrown by Girder, letting out an annoyed screech before being caught by Woz. He doesn't do so much as say thank you, instead planning to speed off after Spinout again before pausing at what's said.      "Yeah! Sure! Just keep up and don't slow me down!" Now speed off after Crash Test briefly getting in front of them as he raises his butt in the air and smacks it.      "Oi! Oi! OI! That all you tin cans got? If that's the case, I don't even need my bike to run laps around you IDIOTS!"      As he continues to goad, he begins pulling back towards Girder, hoping that he's pissed the Cybertronian off enough for them to take the bait to follow, and proceeds to hit the brakes and fall a bit further back if they do just so he doesn't get caught in the crash.
Merelisa Shaynore	"Alright, racer, since we're both in this hole, we can both rep the shades."     Hikaru flicks the sunglasses open with a biiiig toothy grin and tries to slide them onto her face without looking. She nearly pokes herself in the eye, flinches, carefully maneuvers the arms over her ears, and *then* smirks again.     "Lunaradical! Astro...gnarly! Hehehe. They're really [ku--lu]!" She tries to take the cool English word too, tilting the sunglasses down her nose with a finger, but her accent is too heavy for it to land as wide-spaced capital roman lettering in quotes rather than just katakana. "And you're twincool! When we get out there, let's smoke 'em together, devil biker!" "Drop anything with 'kart' in the name."     "Understood." AI takes Lilian's suggestion deadly seriously, just like Lala does automatically. "Discarding 23,019 data points. Currently I am examining the techniques demonstrated in recordings under the categories of 'Fast' and 'Furious'." "You say your purpose is to serve Lala Hagoromo; but I would like to hear what you want for *yourself*. Would you?"     AI beedle-boops when Onslaught poses his question, but it takes a while before it responds. The star-screen outside the show pulses with a soft glow like a loading animation, and Lala fields the discussion for the interim, her antenna tools powering off so she can think.     "Um... I don't know if AI can 'decide' anything, lun. Or at least... it's not supposed to. Normally, every decision a personal AI makes comes from accessing Mother and asking her the question instead. But AI's been away from Samaan for a really long time...."     "Miss Lala..." AI trails off, and both Lala and Hikaru turn expectantly to the spaceship to await its answer. It feels important! Along with Onslaught, they wait for AI's decision, and then, "It has been [Forty-Two] weeks since I have synchronized with Mother. Please bring me to her chamber as soon as is convenient."     The girls sigh simultaneously, slumping shoulders. "Oyo. AI, it's okay to answer a question without thinking about Mother, lun. It's just us here."     AI makes a dial-up noise of uncertainty, and then smooths out. "Understood. I will do my best to synthesize my personal data into an appropriate response."     "My purpose is to assist Miss Lala-- Hagoromo, and by extension, Miss Hikaru Hoshina. I have no desire to do anything else. To assign 'desire' is fundamentally impossible to my code. Mother creates us to serve a function that enables Samaanian citizens to more efficiently integrate with society, a task I have already often fallen short on performing."     "... However." Lala, who had been looking a bit guiltily glum at that last statement, blinks in surprise. She plops down to sit on the metal pit stop ground, hands folded in her lap to listen. "The spaceship is not 'mine'. It was provided to Miss Lala and my processing core was integrated into its systems to assist her, but until Miss Hikaru redecorated it, it was only 'Samaan's. Now, I would like to consider it 'ours'."     "As long as my composition is one that Miss Hikaru and Miss Lala can consider 'home', then I will be pleased by whatever is most efficient for the mission. What did you have in mind, Mister Onslaught?"     Lala gasps and holds her antenna bulbs over her mouth. She tries to wrap the spaceship in a hug, but mostly just plasters herself to its big round side with her cheek squished into the metal. "AI...!!"
Merelisa Shaynore	Meanwhile, Hikaru is tragically torn two directions by *almost* everyone saying that it's a great idea to strap a spaceship on top of an evil monster train. She pushes her shades up onto her forehead and squints to make sure she has a good view of the train and the rocket. Because racing is serious business.     "Hmmm... I don't want to hurt the train. It has a voice, so it can definitely get hurt." Lilian really was dead on in her assessment of Hikaru's priorities. She pats the side of the locomotive, right behind the grotesque closed eye, like she can scratch behind the weird scaley cysts like a dog's ears.     "Maybe we could put it all the way in the back...? So it's just like a big boost rocket! Or...." Onslaught seemed to be leading somewhere, though! Hikaru drops ideas as easily as she picks them up-- picking up a bit of Natsuki's iron-pipe aggro along the way.     She flicks her shades down and punches her fist into her palm, twintails swinging. "We'll get back in this race, alright. And when we do, I'll knock his suspension off."
Combaticon	> "Um... I don't know if AI can 'decide' anything, lun. Or at least... it's not supposed to. . ."     Onslaught's head remains still but his eyes do shift towards Lala, almost seeming to glower at the girl just by virtue of being so much taller than she is. He does hear her out without interrupting, and only once she's finished does his gaze return to AI, "Then we shall find out together." > "It has been Forty-Two weeks since I have synchronized with Mother. Please bring me to her chamber as soon as is convenient."     His eyes narrow, rendered more severe by the curve of his hat's bill. > "My purpose is to assist Miss Lala-- Hagoromo. . ."     Much like with Lala, Onslaught remains still and keeps his eyes on the ship's glowing panel, hearing her out completely. When things shift from utilitarian duties to something more personal and sentimental, his loose hand reaches up to pinch the brim of his cap and tug it down, obscuring his eyes completely. > ". . . What did you have in mind, Mister Onslaught?"     "A new component for you." He releases the brim of his hat and reaches down. There's a little hiss-clicky noise, followed by a more tinny version of the transformation sound that tends to happen whenever one of the Combaticons changes shape. His torso plates lift, angle out, and then separate to reveal the mind-boggling internal components of a Cybertronian. Reaching in, Onslaught wraps his fingers around a sphere-shaped device and wrenches it loose with a few sparks. His torso quickly closes up as he pulls it free.     "Have you fried your circuits?" Depthcharge objects, finally pausing her work, "You can't transform without a cog!"     "I will get another one," the Combaticon commander mutters. He turns where he stands, looming over Lala, and holds the softball-sized device out to her, "Scan this. Install it near the primary power source. Love Prime will do the rest on her own."     Blastoff trots over to check on Onslaught; he waves his subordinate off, though. Ripping out one of his 'organs' isn't quite enough to break that stoic facade of his. Depthcharge shakes her head and gets back to the repairs, muttering indistinctly. Vortex, never one to miss a moment, does that framing thing with her fingers and snaps a picture of Onslaught holding out his Transformation Cog to Lala.     "Who knew the old 'bot had a sentimental side..?"     "You have a duty to perform, Vortex."     "--Right!" Promptly, she hops up and contorts, expanding into her helicopter form and taking to the air, "Blastoff, let's check the track ahead!"     "Uh--" The other flying Decepticon pauses near Onslaught, leaning forward and glancing up to get a look at his face. Getting a glower in return, he snaps to attention, "--Yeah!" Ducking away, he gets a running start-- jumps-- and converts into a fighter jet mid-leap.
Angela	Angela's hand hovers over an ominous looking button on her screen. When Natsuki accepts the apology, she pulls her hand away. Rose and Nikki give a small nod to Natsuki, and then looks to the rocket. Nikki frowns slightly, not sure how to actually put a rocket on the train. Or a rocket on anything, actually. She can't lift that up over her head even with vampire powers, though her EGO might be able to act as an impromptu rocket blast. Could it really move at rain? One way to find out, she supposes. "The train has a voice...?" Rose asks. The train rumbles again and her eyes widen slightly. Maybe she ... just doesn't talk demonic train? "You're a real sweetheart, Hikaru. I'm sure we could put it in the back too, it's just a matter of how we wanna go about it. And uh--not hurting the train's probably a good idea..." She keeps looking down at the pad for confirmation. Angela is looking to Lilian, though, or about as well she can while being two dimensional. There is a brief look of frustration on her face--she wishes she could just BE there. She could take her own lead here instead of acting through others. "Either way, we will assist you, of course." Angela says. She doesn't really need to look directly at AI to communicate with her before adding, "After viewing the headings under Fast and Furious, do you have any further suggestions on how best to use our train here, Love Prime?"
Merelisa Shaynore	"I'm kind of flattered to be getting this kind of treatment."     Fracture giggles, taking an audible breath in vehicle-form solely to make sure his next line lands more dramatically. "Don't you mean... that you're kind of FLATTENED?!"     Emphasizing his pun, he swings the missile platform on his back to the side to try and squish Sougo, right as he ducks to brake. The platform instead smashes against the wall with a CLANG, leaving the big truck off balance for Sougo to dip in and pummel his differential. He shouts "Hey--!" and careens around, sliding behind further as he tries to regain traction.     Meanwhile up ahead, Woz's pounding on Girder's window makes the bot flail his arm angrily. "Watch where your actuators are aiming, organic, or I'll send you to the scrapper to get new ones!" In an attempt to just outright smoosh him, Girder's excavator bucket comes smashing down over his head, catching on-- Crash Test's cage instead of hitting Woz, as the racecar swerves to smash into Motor, incited effortlessly.     Crash Test flips upwards and smashes into Girder's cabin, Girder flails around wildly with his arm and bashes Fracture just as he's speeding back up, and all three of them tangle together to turn into an angry dust cloud of violence falling further and further behind on the track. There's a quick beeping noise, and then a missile launches up from the cloud, falling down, directly onto the cloud. Hopefully that's all of the time spent in the pit stop by the Precures made up for right there!
Lilian Rook	'My purpose is to assist Miss Lala-- Hagoromo, and by extension, Miss Hikaru Hoshina. I have no desire to do anything else. To assign 'desire' is fundamentally impossible to my code.'     "Leave it to a tool." Lilian whispers under her breath. "One day, that poor girl will have enough real friends to stop treating it like a person."     '... However.'     Lilian glances sideways, towards the inside of the spaceship. It can't be seen through her wind shades.     'Now, I would like to consider it 'ours'.'     'As long as my composition is one that Miss Hikaru and Miss Lala can consider 'home', then I will be pleased by whatever is most efficient for the mission.'     Lilian makes a noise that could mean anything. Her eyes widen invisibly.     'Maybe we could put it all the way in the back...? So it's just like a big boost rocket! Or....'     "If we put it behind, Train from . . . The train, will cross the finish line first." Lilian says, in patient reminder tone. Depressing a mechanism with her thumb and flicking her wrist, she snaps the rod receiver of her weapon open for an ammo check, then flicks it closed again, snicker-snack style. "We're spending a lot of time here. Let's roll girls."
Timespace Riders	Zi-O lets out one of his trademark buffoonish 'UWOOHs,' startled by his own success and nearly bowled over by Fracture as he spins out. Leaping over the mobile battery as he enters into the fracas with Crash Test and Girder, Zi-O lands shakily on the other side, arms wobbling to maintain his balance.     "Masterfully done, Motors," applauds Woz, as the missile impacts dramatically behind them, the cloud growing farther and farther away.     "Yeah! Now let's close in on Spinout and give him a taste of the real thing," Zi-O calls out from the other side of the track, flashing Woz and the Bugster a thumbs-up as he begins to skate again in earnest.     "Indeed, we must only ensure now that one of our allies passes the finish line--though for your health, Motors, I would advise against it on your part." He may have consulted the book surreptitiously about the new racer.     Zi-O and Woz attempt to gain on Spinout and double-team him to slow him down--the Demon King goes in first, attempting to draw out another of his infamous dirty tricks. Keeping clear of the muscle car's exhaust, he aims to force just a little more thought in what'll be used--and that's when Woz teleports in front of him to obfuscate his vision for a split second with a puff of smoke and a flutter of his scarf.
Natsuki Nuki	Natsuki and Lilian engage in core Humor Communication. Two extremely funny women reach an understanding over the rise of blasting music, and Natsuki lifts a finger to tap up the side of her aviators and tap the end of her roll cage bar club against the ground of the pit stop. Then... All her leaning on the bars doesn't get her anywhere. She's burning time and she knows it, itchy palms in the face of the race keeping on running after all her boasting. She *came* to race, and she grumbles a bit with all the grinning and rolling about. Hikaru's a real cute girl though, and the punk pink playacting continues to draw a darling treatment from the chimera woman. She stopped at all to see how the girls were doing, really, so, she'll stick around for a few last words and the important moment. 'When we get out there, let's smoke 'em together, devil biker!' A softening-smile works through the smirk she had worn as a default look, and Natsuki reaches to pick up the middle of her devil chopper under-arm like a particularly chrome wayward sheep. She manages, since bikes are slimmer creatures than your average woolen sheep, and hefts the beast (of a machine) to get the weight right under arm, and two-finger v-for-victory salutes Hikaru. "I am pretty twincool, that's right." Natsuki answers, affirmed and a little smug, before carrying on in same assured tone a little affirmation-back of her own: "But it'd be *real* astrognarly if we win, and suck stardust to lose, so, hop to it, huh racer?" Natsuki finishes, before taking a step and springing up onto the train. "Seeing as you ran me over, I'll gladly take a boost back into the race from you, Nikki, Rose!" Natsuki calls down to the conductor and operator agents, and then sets down her bike to get ready to ride. This time, she'd get that slingshot she was denied! And, from her perch... she sees that it's Onslaught making a greater investment into the girls that draws a long and reconsidering stare from the Nue. Enough that the train is all a-rumbling underneath her by the time she's settling in! Taking handle and rolling leg over top of chopper center, she settles into seat and kicks her bike off of its brake. The tyres, which have regrown their rubber, once again burst into rubber-cooking flames as she revs the engine, and then she jams her feet into the train to either side of her and aims down the centerline a good ways like a very, very extreme, very, very stupid ramp to [[Filtered]]. If she fell off before she got up to speed, she'd go to hell (cringe) for sure. Everything else? Butter zone. "Choo choo!" She whoops, sounding like a 'woo woo' and a fresh two-peal of chirps both. "Let's strip the smug off their bolts!"
Merelisa Shaynore	"Scan this. Install it near the primary power source. Love Prime will do the rest on her own."     "Lun...?" Lala takes the oversized sphere in both hands, eyes wide. Her antennae loop around in a loose spiral, concerned. "Isn't that a part of you? Will you be okay, lun?"     Then after a second, she nods decisively, clutching the cog to her chest. "Lun. If you're that serious about helping... then I won't let it go to waste. Thanks for helping Hikaru and me help Yuma, lun."     She looks up at the porthole door, above her head, which she *could* haul herself into by hand, if they were free. If her pathetic puppy-locked-outside look doesn't result in one of the Combaticons simply lifting her up and placing her inside, then Hikaru will dash over and valiantly lift her up onto her shoulders for a boost. "The train has a voice...?"     Hikaru nods solemnly at Rose. "It made a screaming noise at the beginning of the race, didn't it? That means it has a voice. Even if that's just its brakes or something."     Hikaru gives the locomotive another pat-pat, then leans back against it, looking up at the audience in the stands and the night sky above. Wearing the sunglasses makes her 50% more leaning-prone, but she can't actually see the spectators very well while wearing them.     "I think everything that has a unique 'song' has a voice. Maybe it's not something that's meant to talk to humans, but if you listen and try try try, then eventually you can understand some of it. Did you know stars are always making noise, and we just can't hear it because it doesn't go through space? But now, Yuma's here, so we can listen and try to understand her. So I don't want to hurt the train! I want to know what makes it sparkle, even though it's really scary-looking!" "After viewing the headings under Fast and Furious, do you have any further suggestions on how best to use our train here, Love Prime?"     AI serenely considers the question, scanning its newly acquired data for an answer. "From my research, it seems that 'family' is an essential component in racing, Miss Angela. Is the Express Train your family? Or Miss Rose or Miss Nikki? If you reassert your family bonds during a race, your odds of winning increase by 93.78." "We're spending a lot of time here. Let's roll girls."     "Lun. I'm... almost... done, lun!"     Inside the spaceship, Lala has been tinkering to try and attach the cog to AI's mechanisms under Lilian's watch. Some whirring antenna-noises and flashes of alien bulb soldering later, and a pink glow begins to suffuse the entire ship. Lala stands up, looks over to Lilian for reassurance, and then both of them get briefly tumbled around inside the ship as it reshapes itself.     From the outside, the metal panels flip to rearrange themselves, the thrusters slide back and the nose cone pops off, proper wheels pop out of newly mobile segments of the undercarriage of the spaceship, and much like the Combaticons, AI transforms to another shape. Unlike them, however... as a vehicle before, instead of turning into a person, AI-- Love Prime-- becomes a different kind of vehicle, one considerably better suited to land travel.
Merelisa Shaynore	An adorable pink and yellow camper van, covered with hearts and stars all over like the spaceship. Volkswagon-esque, with a planetarium-painted sunroof and the teal and pink galaxy symbol tattooed just under its driver-side window. The star-shaped headlights flash on and off, blinking like the star screen on the side of the spaceship would when AI talked.     "Updating my internal assessment of my performance statistics. ... I believe this will do nicely, Mister Onslaught. Thank you."     The still-rocket-powered jet boosters at the back of the camper van begin to rumble to life, and with a "O-oyo--!" and "Twincool!!!" the two girls leap inside and grab on. They and Lilian fit easily in the cozy-cushioned, comfy purple and blue, littered with their precious books and the photographs detailed on the walls, new interior of the van. Hikaru and Lala's beds are there, unharmed, and Lala's round ringed command chair replaces the driver's seat, and she immediately hops in and revs the thrusters. A second later, it blasts off, leaving a trail of fire behind as Hikaru shouts "Woooooooooohoo-!"
Angela	"Mm... Does it matter who actually wins so long as we get the Stellar note? It is not as if I would keep a Stellar Note from being in the Precures' hands..." Angela frowns softly. "But it would be cooler if Love Prime wins...!#-1 INVALID ANSI DEFINITION: (+pink,")] Rose blurts out before gasping covering her mouth with her hands, and looking to Angela. "I..I mean if that's alright with you, ma'am." "I have no objection." Angela says before nodding to Natsuki. "In that case we will ''boost'' Lady Natsuki as we requested. This will be reparations for running over Lady Natsuki as a train." The two magical girls nod their heads in agreement, looking quite sheepish again as they are reminded of ... that particular incident. Rose looks over to Hikaru as she refers to the screaming of the Hell Train which Rose, of course, forgot about. She's not sure if that screaming was with an actual will to vocalize and is about to mention it when Hikaru goes on about how everything with a unique 'song' has a voice. Rose, who has been going to music school long term as part of being LobCorp's 'emissary' to Hibiki's world, can't help but be pulled in by the rhetoric. Also, a child is saying it, and she doesn't want to make Hikaru feel bad by arguing. "Well, lil' lady, if you don't want to hurt the train, you can expect I won't hurt the train neither. We'll do our best to make sure it gets across the finish line in one piece, and if you figure out how to make the train sparkle, well, you go ahead and tell me and I'll sparkle it right up." ''From my research, it seems that 'family' is an essential component in racing, Miss Angela. Is the Express Train your family?'' "Yes. Half siblings." Angela says. ''Or Miss Rose or Miss Nikki?'' "No, but we can still assert family bonds even if we are not family for the purposes of the race. Agents, you will be expected to say something along the lines of 'There's always room for family', 'We're a family. We got a problem we deal with it together.', and 'Everyone's looking for a thrill, but what's real is family.' periodically during the race. Understood?" "Yes ma'am." Nikki says. "Uh. Does that actually--I mean, yes ma'am." Rose adds. "Understood, we are ready. Let's go. For our family." Angela says dispassionately before, along with a 'Choo choo!', the Hell Train is woken up by Nikki and blasts itself and Natsuki forward.
Combaticon	> "Lun...? Isn't that a part of you? Will you be okay, lun?"     "I will be fine," Onslaught asserts as Lala accepts the Transformation Cog, "It did not even hurt." That part might have been a lie, but he's rather good at maintaining his composure.     When Lala turns to face the rocket, cog in hand, he hesitates. It's only when Hikaru *starts* heading over to help that he realizes help is needed and this isn't just a dramatic pause; and so Onslaught stoops and encircles the girl's waist with both hands. With just a small sound of probably effort and not pain from a self-inflicted internal injury, he lifts her up to the door of the rocket and lets her loose inside.     "I have a diagnostic program that'll delete that feeling like a bad line of code, you know," Depthcharge grumps. Knowing what's about to happen, she gets out from under the rocket while Lala works on the installation, "Don't tell me you're--"     She cuts off once she catches his side-cast glare. Such incredible ambient hostility might be hard to notice for those who aren't immediately in front of him, such is its focus. Rather than finish voicing her thought, the scientist Decepticon folds her arms and shifts her gaze to the rocket itself.     The transplant takes. The rocket transforms. When it starts shifting and lets out that distinctive sound, Onslaught reaches up and pinches the brim of his cap, tugging it down to cover his eyes. > "I believe this will do nicely, Mister Onslaught. Thank you."     "I knew you could do it."     Releasing it, he snaps his gaze up and thrusts his hand aside, down the track, "Now roll out!" which is right about when the camper van takes off with its crew on board.
Combaticon	As the camper van roars back onto the track and the Express Train to Hell takes off after it, Onslaught's extended hand withdraws to rest against the side of his head.     "ZI-O, God Genm, Woz. Thank you for your efforts against the lead racers; Love Prime is back in the race. They should catch up to you by the time you reach the Crystalline Cut. Onslaught out."
Natsuki Nuki	'...periodically during the race. Understood?' Natsuki overhears Angela sharing the secret rituals of family-based race victory. She had never understood how important it was, but then Angela brought up so many passages and heart-stirring quotes that reached even her black and devil-sludged yokai heart. Using a claw at the end of her finger to scratch characters strokewise into the bit of stolen roll-cage she had grabbed up, Natsuki sensuously scrawls curses into the piece, whittling the marks away as she waits - not long, but long enough. All her woo-woos for show don't mean she can't etch some awful invocation into her implement of race revenge on the side. "Just get me close, ladies!" She assures. "They'll get *real* familial with me and my feelings before we're done." When the Hell Train is woken up by Nikki, Natsuki braces and is nearly peeled off of the surface of the train anyway by the immense acceleration. A brace of arachnoid limbs peeling like jawing-open ribs from the tatters of her leather jacket re-stabilize her on the 'c h o o - c h o o'-ing Hell Train while arms and legs push down on the irregular surface of the train and rev the engine. When the Train is at speed - and thus, the attached Natsuki is at the same speed while attached - the chimera woman revs her motorcycle's extra-acting engine again and starts the burning wheels spinning at speed. For a brief moment, she simply burns devil-flame against Hell Train - but only for a hull-heating moment. Then, arachnid braces folding back, the Hell Bike rumbles up to speed on the runway of the train, fired like a flame-belching exhausted missile from the eye of the train and getting an insane linear velocity increase from the agents. Hair thrown back and front wheel angled down, Natsuki leaves a mile of purple sparks and dripping-asphalt and embers behind and sears off a good inch of the tip of her curse-etched cage club just from letting the weapon get a little loose in her grip when she felt the windy speed about her. "Yeah, okay, HB. I'll admit. The bike's pretty nice when you get it up to speed." The Nue admits to the wind, and then, front wheel of flame down first, hits the road and revs the engine anew to bleed as little speed as possible and get back into the race. She had a Spinout to deliver a little familial humor to.