Scene Listing

||

Scene Schedule

||

Scene Schedule RSS

Owner	Pose
Dimokratia	Not too long ago. . . The pages of a great book were pulled open, age-dried paper protesting faintly with the crinkle of use. Upon the pages, nondescript text - more runes of ink and brushstroke than clear text - heiroglyph across neat lines, telling a story in an ancient language. There are many pages that are turned through - and many have stories for another time. As each page turns, some pages reveal the shapes of figures or landscapes across muralesque layouts. Hills with eyes, flowers wreathed in flame, a diagram of a pipeworks like some newspaper maze - and a figure that the turning pages linger on. Crowned, with an eye-obscuring single bang and a long dress, the royal depicted is one of closed-eyed grace, and in her cupped hands floats a golden star on a page of age-turned tan and ink-black. Another turn of the page, and there is a second royal, depicted besides. There is a slight difference in skirting and coating, in height and span, but not in crowning, and not in the depiction of closed-eyed serenity as on left page, bang-covered royal offers to her opposite-paged counterpart (down, slightly) the golden star. And, besides, on page facing, the clear-faced royal does the same, offering (up, faintly) a golden star. Both appear to be giving, and not receiving, and both are lingered on before a final turn of the page reveals the radiant pop-out of an embossed binary star, two orbiting shapes in beatific gold. Narration joins the images. "A long, long time ago, the first Toadstool royals met with the Watcher of the Stars, Rosalina, as a shooting star passed over the night sky. A terrible storm had darkened every light in the Mushroom Kingdom, and hope dimmed with the waning of the last Power Star within the borders." "It was then that Rosalina descended from the dark clouds, attended by living starlight, to share with us the Binary Star - a Power Star beyond any others. In our darkest hour, the Binary Star lit the Mushroom Kingdom with new light, signifying the bond between peoples across the stars." The somber lights come up, and Princess Peach Toadstool claps gloved hangs together and smiles full lips, turning to address the camerapoint, which bobs up on Lakitu cloud. "Which is why, on the holy days marked by shooting stars, the Kingdom will be displaying this ancient treasure and hosting the Binary Star doubles tennis cup and 150cc kart course! Don't miss one of the biggest sports events in Mushroom Kingdom history!" Peach cleverly swaps out her crown for a white racing helmet with visor, and before she can flip down the visor over her eyes her skirts and coats have changed out for sleek racewear in white and pink and a long scarf breaking up her frontal profile. "Yours truly will be representing the Kingdom to get the title back from the Koopa Kingdom after the Rainbow Road Invitational - see you there!" The transmission switches to a splash screen, branding for the Mushroom Kingdom Council for Tourism, a fanciful crowned royal seal, and a floating-sky-castle sort of image with the runes in titleage for Comet Observatory. However. . . During field registration for the Binary Star Cup, Toadstool Castle has an unexpectedly aggressive visitor - and not one on the racetrack. Because of the recent partnership between the Commonwealth and the participating Kingdoms in a space exploration program sponsored by the Silver, orbital attention was extremely high towards the ongoing Binary Star Cup events with the pre-opening of the 'Gateway Planet', a low orbit satellite pseudoplanetoid that hung above Star Hill, and the spread of the galactic tapestry beyond finally becoming open for the peoples below and above.
Dimokratia	That attention, and the cooperation between the Comet Observatory and Mushroom Kingdom, was intended to bridge the far distances between old allies and develop vertically in peace to new heights. The promise of new friends and new opportunities - and new lands to occupy - meant that the Binary Star Cup and the aftermath could meaningfully change the lives of the inhabitants for the better... Once the royals got done smoking each other's exhaust and fiercest serves. That attention was not all benign. Floating past the Gateway Planet was a fleet of craft - saucers, all, with one grander than the rest. While Professor Elvin Gadd - stationed on the Gateway Planet to oversee the Mushroom Kingdom's side of the orbital team-up - picks up his P.H.O.N.E. (Pseudo-Heuristic Otherfolk Navigation Equipment) and spins the cord around his finger while operating the mad science rotary phone that could call space. "Yes! Hello! Yes." The Professor begins dodderingly, starting off strong and then pausing just long enough for someone to think it's their turn before remembering he's on the phone and continuing his stilted salutation. His accent, which is heavily translated, has a particular dialectic and cadence - 'ee, a-yabu-yabu' and other strange Simlish phoneticisms that nevertheless work out to real words. "Hello? Yes hello? Hi!" He continues to fruitlessly greet on an open line as the off-white metal saucers descend. When the tops finally are visible - sporting a high purple polka-dotted dome in the center - Gadd takes a look out his little space cottage window and his tiny science gnome smile dims as he stares at the saucers and the saucers stare back at him. Putting his hand over the P.H.O.N.E.'s handset, he hoots to the pair of young girls out on the landing platform: "I will print more forms!!" He shouts. The Pretty Cures, who had arrived early, are still being entertained on the Gateway Planet when the invasion fleet continues to descend, a collected pink glow from beneath the falling fleet of discs combining to fire a brilliant beam of disastrous light down towards Toadstool Castle. . . A tremendous explosion the color of cobalt expands from the castle's center keep, rippling outward as strange purple polka-dotted entities tumble from the sky like wicked confetti, slowed by the outward pressure-rush of blue that eventually freezes in place the events taking place. Time, radiating outward from Toadstool Castle, stops. Then, it shatters. NOW: The Mushroom Kingdom has fallen, occupied 'last week' by an invading force of alien fungus creatures known only as Shroobs. Speaking a strange language and using advanced technologies, the purple polkadotted alien mushrooms menace with pincher claw hands, ray guns, and strange Playbrick-like dual screen flip phones they use for communication. Toadstool Castle itself has been ripped from the land and flown skyward out of the orbit 'days ago', and what stands in the crater is a tremendous purple mushroom growing from the ruin. The streets of the castle town, where the Warpgate spits out on the ground (it is a very tight fit for vehicles, seeing as nearly all local warpgates in the Mushroom Kingdom are Warp Pipes) are a mess of tall-stalked standing mushrooms and devastation. Overhead, Shroob Saucers float lazily, hunting stragglers and firing down at them with pink energy bullets. One poor Toad civilian, running between buildings being chased by one such saucer, can be seen being impacted by the energy beam and transmuted on the spot into another standing non-animate purple mushroom. On the ground, more Shroobs go about marauding and looting, while a smear of faint spores leads up, up, up out into space.
Dimokratia	ELSEWHERE: The time ripple effect set off by the Shroob Mothership expands such that it distorts and reshapes events through an uncontrolled detonation of chronal energy. Up on the Gateway Planet, where E. Gadd, Dimo, Hikaru, Lala, and Yuma are, the temporal distortion breaks against the little ball of rock and a mix of standard (space) grasses and trees and the mix of (also space) cyberflora just abutting. However, upon that planet is another of Elvin Gadd's inventions: The Atmosphere Surpriser! A device that combines antenna and what might just be a hot air balloon apparatus repurposed to create a jet of energy upwards into the pseudoplanetoid's atmosphere - which it does have! Because the outer edge is defined by the slightly colored gossamer-thin bubble that has both the properties of ectoplasm and fabric, and a little >_<;; constipated face that's just barely visible. Like seeing out from the inside of a tremendously overfilled balloon, the Boo Atmospheric Guard, or, B.A.G. system uses a captured Boo to project a safe environment within. That 'safe environment' remains safe as the chronal energy expands outwards and dissipates before reaching outer orbit, the Boo going from >_<;; to a T__T;;; state of distress while the Gateway Planet rumbles. "Hikaru, Lala. Something has--" Dimo, having been trying to explain the complex fungus-gnome-magic princess relations to two children, acts a sort of shocked few have had the chance to see, snapping her attention through solid stone to gaze down at the source of the detonation, and in the wake, the change to Time itself in the aftermath. "A disaster has occurred. May I rely on you to assist?" Dimo asks, standing from her crouch to walk towards Gadd's work cottage. "Elvin! We must go to the surface!" Dimo calls at a quick walk. Across the short distance, the workshop cottage door opens and... a suitcase with legs practically boots open the entryway. "Did someone say. . . ADVENTURE?!" The aggressively happy and boisterous luggage asks. Dimo is, once again, surprised, but not shocked. This is a lot more normal for Elvin. "I am pleased to meet you. I am known as Stuffwell!" The suitcase's big smile pops open and shut the latches to approximate a nod or bow. "If it's not inconvenient before we begin, I'd like to proceed with some basic instructionals. Have any of you heard about the happy wonders of Badges? I'm a BIG badge enthu--" "End! End tutorial! Skip! Skip now! Skip Tutorial Now! Cancel Tutorial Skip Introduction!!" Gadd calls, trying to push Stuffwell out of the doorway. "Hey! Watch the leather, Professor! No need for the shoving!" Stuffwell protests before Gadd quite unceremoniously grabs the luggage and starts walking out the door at a shuffle-hustle towards the quartet (and Love Prime, behind on the pad). "A very delicate experiment I was asked to oversee by the Princess herself has gone terribly, horribly wrong! Wrong, I say!" Gadd explains, and then spends a good second shufflewalking and not saying anything while truly Gaddhandling Stuffwell. Dimo stops, looking down at Gadd as he yanks open the briefcase and reveals an inside that is obviously more spacious than the outside. Within, pulling a whole warp pipe's mouth out of Stuffwell's internals which leads... *inside* Stuffwell, Gadd hug-stabilizes the edge of the pipe. "Stuffwell's Warpulator can get you back to the Castle, but you--" Dimo sighs with a hot fry to the edges of her tone, looking at the small aperature. "Am clearly too large to fit. I will follow behind with the Professor." Dimo explains. Stuffwell, face down on the ground, shouts a jovially muted: "ENTER for ADVENTURE!!"
Tamamo	Arriving to deal with the emergency would have made sense. Arriving to play tennis would... well, Tamamo-no-mae isn't actually very well versed in that sport, but she could probably manage. How the bunrei of Amaterasu does show up to the tragic state of affairs makes clear that it was that other event she'd been planning on. She's even brought her own ride! Whether she'd place high is extremely questionable, but just having an exhibition match for the experience would have been more than satisfying.     And so, having swapped blue, black and gold princess-priestess wear for a motorcycle and fully covered suit of the same stylings despite its different purpose, Tamamo leans into a quarter-circle stop at the sight of Mushroom Kingdom citizens being transformed into different, less animate mushrooms.     "Eh?" It's not exactly the sort of thing she expected.     "Did the plans change...?" They did, of course.     "Are.. are you alright?" A transformed, alien fungus is unable to respond to her, in all likelihood.     "Hold on, just a moment, please--!" Baleful transformations are a very common sort of curse, and she has plenty of uncursing supplies. Maybe one of the talisman-written spells in her satchel will help, possibly!
Audrey Basque	EARLIER, AT THE LIBRARY     Audrey stews, essentially, semi-idle at an empty desk in General Works and reading through a stack of essays she printed out for class. She's not wearing the uniform, on account of not being here to work! What she's got is a simple dark sky blue, starry skirt and a long-sleeved white blouse, almost like a formal dress shirt, though the sleeves are rolled up to her elbows, given she's got nothing to hide today. Red pen in her mouth, highlighters of two colors held in the same hand, she's expertly (and evidently boredly) combing the texts for quotes.     The Audrey from three months ago would insist this is more important than anything else, but today's Audrey jumps at the chance to inquire where Roland is going when she sees him on his way out, and then the next thing he knows is that she's tagging along.     NOW     Audrey pops out of a Warp Pipe upside down, and has just enough of a reflex to tug at the air and float up rather than tumble out of it without any grace. Instead she hovers in zero-G above the pipe with an amount of dignity greater than zero but still not that much either.     "Oh, right. That's how they are here," she recalls, because this is her second time here! We don't talk about the first anymore.     Idly floating ten feet up in the air, she squints at the evident (and ongoing!!) destruction. THAT is new from her last visit, for sure. The extremely typical flying saucers would be cute if they weren't actively turning mushroom people into-- different, less people mushrooms.     "I'll-- I'll handle the... mushroom people? But not the ones with guns." That's so unclear. She feels about, for power, for the stars-- what an odd-feeling world, now that she's actually paying attention to its sky. She hadn't, before.     From her position, she tugs at one end of the landscape and slides it oppositeways, trailing and extending the ground to sweep up as many of the (normal) mushroom people as she can, round them up, and then slide that part of the land behind cover, and as far from the saucers as feasible.     It probably looks and feels very janky to those poor mushrooms, but it's certainly better than being shot.
Combaticon	Vortex had been pestering Onslaught regarding this 150cc race for a while; wanting to see how races on other worlds are carried out, even if the low numbers produced no end of ribbing and eyerolling from Blastoff. Ultimately, the Combaticon commander relented. However, Depthcharge insisted she was busy; Brawl admitted no interest whatsoever (and probably wouldn't fit through a Warp Pipe anyway); and Swindle was nowhere to be found.     To that end; it is only two robots that emerge into the Mushroom Kingdom from a person-sized green pipe, accompanied by the usual sound of the warp effect winding down. The taller of the two, Onslaught, reaches up to pinch the bridge of his metal military cap between thumb and forefinger, glowing red eyes narrowing as he lifts his gaze up the stalks of the warped space mushrooms.     "'Mushroom Kingdom'. I see." he mutters.     "It didn't look like this in the promotional pictures," Vortex's wingblades snap out and whirl up to speed, carrying her aloft. Shielding her eyes with one hand, the smaller of the pair peers out across the invasion-battered castle town, ""What a dump!"     The commotion nearby draws Onslaught's attention before he can (customarily) fold his hands behind his back; the Toad that got blasted and turned into a mushroom. His head tilts, one eyebrow lifting towards Vortex.     "Oh. They're being invaded, ok."     "Recon. Avoid direct engagement for now."     "Understood!" Vortex flips forward in midair, body rearranging and panels unfolding; her chassis expands mid-conversion until a fully-sized black attack helicopter ascends over the city, keeping a healthy distance from flying saucers while taking in the extent of the damage, concentrations of Shroob air and ground forces, and seeing if she can get a better look at the colossal mushroom growing where the castle once stood.     On the ground, Onslaught taps his mouthplate in thought, then jumps down from the warp pipe's ledge. He glances up at the stream of spores spinning up into space. Opting to keep his profile low, the Combaticon commander decides to walk towards the spore pillar's source, rather than utilize his alternate big-rig truck form.
Angela	The Magical Girl of Love, recent employee of the Library for the purpose of helping Abnormalities adapt to society and humanity in ways that don't necessitate eating, mutilating, driving mad, murdering, or overwriting, is also allowed to go on adventures! Tentatively! Angela is supervising her via the Eggpack, which Love is wearing. Love has been told to be very very very excessively careful with the eggpack but, well, she IS Love so Roland has also been dispatched with the objective: Protect the Eggpack. It seems silly, of course, but Roland is nervous about what Angela might do should something happen to it and is EVEN MORE nervous about what PETRA would do. Angela might just rip a limb off, sure, but Petra will do ''something'' which is far more unnerving to the Fixer. None of this explains why Angela's team is here NOW, however, but odds are Angela's determination to help the Precures is a big part of it. Helping the Mushroom Kingdom might genuinely be a part of it too because the last thing she wants is some kind of political power vaccuum that makes Sarracenia's kingdom more important or something and also, like, Bowser might do something too. Love and Roland pop out of the pipe after. "Mushrooms..with guns?... I guess that's why they call it shooting spores...!" Love says, energized because she hasn't fought a Dark Kingdom of any stripe for SO LONG. "Don't worry, Magical Girl Witch Wizard Audrey! We're going to save the day and learn a valuable lesson for sure!" "Just uh... Be careful of the Eggpack," Roland begs. "It's important to Angela okay?" "Relax, Roland. The Eggpack is not helpless." Angela adds. "Time to blast some invaders from the Dark Kingdom...!" Love says before pointing her staff at a UFO immediately and sends a string of flying star-shaped energy projectiles at the UFOs. "Good job helping people, Audrey! Maybe you can even find yourself a MAGICAL PET--" "NO. No magical pets. No mascots. No helpful mystical furry companions." Angela says. "Why noooooooot?" "Because." Angela will never trust a mahou mascot again.
Audrey Basque	A helpful, burger-sized NECRON CANOPTEK SCARAB, its lightingwork sunrise golden rather than green, floats out of a pocket on Audrey's blouse. It chirps, in a weird digital warble kind of way, seemingly in objection to Angela.     "Well, I have this one," Audrey responds to Love.     "It's not furry, or magical, so it's okay right?" to Angela.
Futaba Nuki	Something about the story told some time ago still troubles Futaba as she arrives, but it has taken her quite a while to figure out why. It's not about how convenient it was that the watcher came with just what the Toadstools needed, because she's seen convenient heroes show up before. Celebrated, even, and fashioned much of her styling after them! It's about the chosen methods of celebrating the occasion, either, because she's all about partying and celebrating good times dedicated to the exploits of grand figures, especially those that she could learn a thing or two from as fellow royals. "So they're still running on that big Binary Star, and... They got no Power Stars here besides the big one?" Futaba asks her fellow Elites as she makes her way through the streets leading to Toadstool Castle, rolling a shoulder while looking up at the hunting Saucers above. "Getting a weird feeling that that might become a problem sooner rather than later if all this keeps up... Dang. So much for trying out that tennis game." Yes, Futaba had come ready to participate in the Mushroom Kingdoom's doubles tennis cup, and she had even dressed for the occasion in a sleeveless tennis dress with matching visor (red with black lining). She'd bought a new tennis racket to really fit the part, too, even though her knowledge of tennis is sorely lacking. "Well... If we get this cleaned up fast enough, maybe we can still make it before they ring the starting bell!" Tugging her visor down a little to keep it on her head (and to keep her leaf held in place), Futaba starts running towards one of the Saucers from below, pivoting into running up the side of a building to maintain her pace and get more height. Once she's ran believably high enough the side of that building, she leaps off of that towards the Shroob Saucer with her racket in- No, her hand is a massive tennis racket now, net wreathed in flames while she tries to slap that Saucer right out of the sky. "Oi, cut that out! Or get all your friends over here so we can hurry this up!"
Sarracenia	As the Shroob Saucers float lazily about performing tyrannical tasks, a group of shapes appear in the distance. They steadily grow larger, and soon enough the low hum of large propellers can be heard as a collection of 13 large wooden airships closes in on the Mushroom Kingdom. Those familiar with the design may recognize them, but it is hard to tell at first who exactly it is. After all, both the Sundew and the Koopa kingdoms have similar styles when it comes to airships.      Once they are closer though it is impossible NOT to tell the difference. The lead ship has a golden figure of a princess at its bow. And standing on the bow above that golden figure is the figure it is based on. The baker's dozen of ships moves to take up an arc a short distance from the castle town, then rotate to face their broadsides toward the alien ships. Dozens of gleaming cannons slide out of ports along the sides of each ship.      Sarra, her silvery grey hair flowing in the wind, then moves below deck. A portion of the hull of the Sundew Sovereign opens and out drops the Dyna, Sarra's personal wooden VTOL (much like an Osprey in design). It falls a short distance before the propellers catch it and it proceeds forward with Sarra inside. She flies toward the largest of the invader ships, then stops as close as the time field allows. A large megaphone pops out from the bottom and the princess pops open her canopy with a mic in hand. She stands tall, her hair and black dress fluttering in the wind from the rotors.      "Attention Shroob invaders and citizens of the Mushroom Kingdom! I am Princess Sarracenia, Crown Princess of the Sundew Kingdom! As trade partners with the Mushroom Kingdom, we have come to offer our aid to the people of the Mushroom Kingdom! Shroob invaders! We are willing to offer a chance at negotiation before the Sundew Navy is forced to take action! This is your only warning! Continued hostilities against the Mushroom Kingdom will be met with appropriate force until such time as one of the plumbers arrives and handles you himself!"      As she waits for an answer, Sarra raises a hand toward the row of wooden airships behind her and in unison they all deploy a cannon from beneath that could easily hold a car. And in what seems like a practiced display they each in turn slide a giant shark-faced bullet into place so that there is a steady series of 'ka-thunk' heard.
Star Twinkle	Earlier today-- or maybe last week!-- Hikaru and Lala watched a certain commercial inside their adorable pink space ship, and simultaneously pointed and popped off at a spinning shiny 3D icon shown in the trailer: the Binary Star, or as the Precures would know it, the Gemini Stellar Note. After that, there was a tedious adventure with vehicle width restrictions (while Hikaru protested that surely Onslaught's transformation cog should let AI go tiny-mode), and then a very exciting adventure when meeting Dimo (while Hikaru suddenly conceptualized getting her *own* transformation cog and becoming thirty feet tall), and then-- BWEEEEEM! BOOOOOOOOOOOM!! "O-Oyo?!" "Uwahhhhh!" ""-¯¯¯¯¯¯!!"     Their conversation with Dimo is cut off by the laser beaming right past Gateway Planet and the subsequent temporal explosion that rocks the planetoid. Hikaru and Lala grip each other's shoulders with Yuma alarmedly trilling between them until it settles down, with Lala's antennae scrunched up like zig-zags out of surprise. Once the B.A.G. system holds firm, Hikaru grips the colorpul pendant hanging at her neck, still confused.     "What-- what was that? Did it come from those UFOs?? Are they attacking the race?" She's spinning towards the building where Gadd retreated to, already seeking for a way down to the planet before Dimo even asks. "We have to go save them! Even if it's not the Nottraiders!" "Lun! Thanks for your help Dimo, but we'll--" "It's probably not the Nottraiders, even though the shape of the flying saucers were similar! Unlike the classic style of UFOs that Adamski saw in the 50s and the Nottraiders use, those had rounder tops like the ones people all over the world saw in the 60s, known as-- a-ah! Wait up Lalaaaa! I'm coming!"     Hikaru, after being distracted and lagging behind by peeking over the planetoid's horizon to try and get a second look at the Shroob saucers, hurries to catch up. Lala, meanwhile, is waving her hands in front of her frantically to try and politely insist to Stuffwell that she's not in need of a tutorial, but unlike with Gadd, she's easily barrelled over.     "S-sorry, Mr. Stuffwell! It's-- no, lun, we don't need to know about badges right now! I'd be happy to learn about badges later, lun! But-- but right now--! Oyo..." "A very delicate experiment I was asked to oversee by the Princess herself has gone terribly, horribly wrong! Wrong, I say!"     Lala nods and holds up her gloved hand, tapping the digital display on the back with her antenna to cause it to light up. "If there's an experiment, then maybe AI can scan it, lun. And once we analyze it, AI could teach me how to fix it."     Hikaru pounds a fist into her palm, a motion mimicked by one blob of light on Yuma's face smooshing into another. "And we're Precures! So we'll keep you safe!"
Star Twinkle	"ENTER for ADVENTURE!!"     Down on the planet, Hikaru is the first one to clamber out of the warp pipe, followed closely by Lala. This isn't an early-transformation episode, so despite the chaos, they don't immediately reach for their greebles-- they can't fight at full strength before knowing who their opponents are! Hikaru runs off to try and intervene between the mushroom-on-mushroom violence, and Lala holds up her hand with AI's glove on it and aims it towards the Shroob, with a shimmering scan-line of light rising up and down.     "AI! Is there anything in your database on them? Why are they attacking?!"     Hikaru dashes and tackles one of the Toads out of the way just as a beam of Shroobification laser shoots out of a UFO. She picks up the much-smaller Toad and places him gently down in front of her, pointing at the eviler-colored mushrooms wandering around with weapons. She's never seen one of the Toads before, but since she's just recently learned that fungi all have divinity in their spirits, she has to imagine this as some cosmic battle between heavenly and devilish mycelium.     "Hi, are you okay? You live here, right? Who are those people attacking? What do they want?"
Dimokratia	The Toads of the Mushroom Kingdom live in an occupied territory, and have for 'several days' subjectively. For every empty home or ruined storefront or peaceful little quaint and extremely mushroom themed building, there are two or three of the transmuated Shroobified mushrooms. Inside the stores behind counters, among the aisles, out in front of doors, in the streets - each narrow purple stalk marks the place a Toad or other civilian was attacked by the Shroobs. The Warp(gate) Pipes in the Town area are a good distance away from the Toadstool Castle crater, and the area seems more devastated than extracted from, but further in it becomes clear that the expectable amounts of Shroobified people stalks. . . dwindles. Small gangs of them act out disorganized patrols, and the saucers overhead do a mix of pattern sweeps and responding to calls from the purple mushroom infantry and their dual-screened Playbrick phones. With the entry of everyone pouring and flying through the Warp(gate) Pipes to plunge this problem like a heroic plumber might - via bootheeling whoever was causing issue - the Shroobs react first in surprise, and then in force. Racegoers and speed enthusiasts dressed for the occasion from the Combaticons to Tamamo are a high-visibility target for the flying saucers, wobble-flying in little spinny arcs while discing through the sky in a perpetual state of 'tilting badly, but never tilting over'. Another high-vis target is the Magical Girl of Love -- when she straight up zorches them with Mahou Beams! The beams hit on the technological platforms of the Shroob Saucers and explode meatily rather than sparking. Blowing chunks out of them is an overkill of effectiveness, but it doesn't actually eliminate the 'pilot' inside. Rather, the Shroob drops out of the Saucer like a truly stupid pair of alien pants, screeching in untranslatable wingdings and claws ineffectually at the air before their antigravity envelope fades. Like a cartoon character with a delayed drop, the disabled Shroob pilot falls gear-less to the ground and then begins trying to run at Love with pincher claws! She'll have to time an Active Defense against the Shroob's aggression before it lands, or... You know, shoot it. Futaba has a similar experience, with a twist: an aerial approach gives her a clear view of the Shroob Pilot's mushroom cap and their shaded eyes poking out of their saucer pants. Attacking from above towards the pilot directly is much more effective! The saucers dive out of the way actively and shoot her with scenery-damaging raygun blasts, but the tanuki ninja's ultimate tennis ninpo racket-smacks down the group of Shroob Saucers she aims at as a whole gang of flies swatted, sending the dazed Shroobs forcefully into the ground and spiking their bouncy bodies like a solid tennis down-serve. There doesn't seem to be much hope of the races or tennis tournaments running. Drapes and torn banners of celebrations promised stand unchanged from when the invasion back-began, and in the darkened distant sky a massive flying turtle-fortress silhouette blooms alight and visible as the Koopa Cruiser of King Bowser battles Shroob aerial fighters closer to the border. The racetrack, outside the castle town, hangs dim and without powerups - a truly dismal expression of what should be joyous occasion of unity or at least being collectively angry at the state of small engine vehicle races and sports events put on by monarchs.
Dimokratia	Audrey and Tamamo, however, are critical at gaining some real answers. The spatial magic that Audrey works quickly gathers up a small number of Toads - as well as the Shroobified stalks of them, depositing them near the Warp(gate) Pipes while Tamamo applies her healing talismans on the closest she comes across. The lean of the mushroom seems to indicate movement -- and her curse-clearing blessings work against a rather dire transmogrification of substances. As she asks fungus to 'Hold on', Tamamo's applied occult knowledge and breadth of pre-written talismans melt the mushroom in a transformative reverse. Slowly, white spreads from a polkadot and reveals red, and then, the top of the stalk leading to the cap reveals: an aged face! "M-mario!!" The elder Toad cries out, in fear and shock, and then sees Tamamo and. . . Well she's not a Shroob. "Miss, M-mario was *abducted*! Taken away! With the rest!" The elder Toad shares, the talisman having a bit of a trouble completely restoring the transmuted mushroom-person completely on the spot and instead slowing to the speed of thawing ice. Looking over towards Audrey, who is floating upside down and conjuring large spells, with her Hair like That, the terrified Toad gasps. "A princess?" He gapes, relief and confusion both appearing. "Princess Peach, the castle -- the aliens took them all!" The Toad raves. It's about then the Sundew air cavalry arrives, big heavy ships with threatening cannons and the grand proclamation of another of the (local, actual) Princesses drawing all sorts of attention from ground and air. The Combaticon recon sweep finds on ground and air what Sundew sees from high angle - a solid Shroob Mushroom, growing and expanding in some way as it maturates where the castle once stood. There's a definite energy signature that the mushroom draws on - and it's being guarded. Soft pulses of energy suck into the alien spire-shroom, growing as a cloud might crawl across the landscape on a lazy day yet much more sinister. The drawn energy gathers in the spots of the shroom, and then when it hits a criticality, spoors out to fall down like rain in globs and gloms and: Spawn a fresh set of purple alien race war mushroom jerks. Onslaught is *not* the priority target by the technological saucers after he slips around for recon, and with Futaba being actively battling the fliers as they come and Sarracenia threatening them with huge cannons, neither is Vortex once the pair get off the pipes. The answer to all questions of diplomacy, however, is violence. Trio-flights of Saucers start flying dozens at a time at Sarra's navy warships, more boiling out of the dark clouds where Bowser and *his* navy is engaged. Some of these are bulkier, heavier models (for bulkier, heavier shroobs) that are deeper and wider and have a deeper and wider gun that shoots deeper and wider bullets like every other enemy upgrade. Others straight up near-kamikaze abduction overpass Sarra's deck crews and try to make off with any sailors or individuals on the top: including the proclaiming princess! Nearer to the ground, the mayhem is more personal. Shroobs jump out of allies and spore-spawn in massy clumps that spill out haphazardly before the purple aliens find their feet and charge. Many of them make for the 'safe' Toads, most of which are fleeing through the Warp(gate) Pipes themselves that everyone entered through, and the sudden appearance of a ground-sprouting pipe in their way is a cue that even more help has arrived. The old Toad stuck partially as a mushroom planted in the ground shakes his stalk to try and hop off too but he isn't a complete cartoon character and struggle-leans instead. A young Toadette scampering up a pipe to escape turns to the arriving Pretty Cures. "They're aliens! Terrible, abducting aliens! They take people away to suck the Vim right out of you! And that's if they don't turn you into a statue!!" She exclaims, before hopping up on one high pipe and squatting down...
Dimokratia	And not going anywhere. Standing on black air. Distressed, the Toadette front-dives into another pipe, which actually works. 'Why are they attacking?!' AI, as well as those with advanced knowledge of alien races, could search the Shroob to a thought-to-be extinct race of fungus people whose original home planet (a giant mushroom) experienced a total collapse. There were stories of fungal space pirates afterwards, but, few cases were substantiated though people regularly went missing in sectors with rumors of mysterious mushroom sightings. And the case does seem to be similar here. Getting charged down by a massed wave of angry aliens, those on the streets have little time to plan - but lots of opportunity for ACTION! Wait. No. That's what Stuffwell says. "Happiness! ADVENTURE has started!" Stuffwell's muffled face claims, from inside the pipe that Lala and Hikaru arrive from.
Angela	Roland and Angela are both surprised to see Hikaru and Lala. "Precures?" They say simultaneously and then Angela glowers at Roland for daring to. Love is, of course, thrilled buit seems content to help people by blasting the UFOs rather than rushing out to save the mushroom people. It's a team effort! And Love hasn't blasted in SO LONG. ''M-mario was *abducted*!'' "I suppose Mario really is missing." Angela says before adding, "/Roland/" As if he was personally responsible for his kidnapping. ''It's not furry or magical, so it's okay, right?'' Angela fixes Audrey with a look. "Thin ice. But not banned." Angela decides, cautiously, probably thanks to her own fondness for Harriet who is a bit dreadfully close to ''mascot'' as it is. "I'm so proud of you accepting your mahou nature," Love asides to Audrey shortly after blasting a UFO, critically distracting her but... Roland steps in smothly, a rifle materializing in his hand as he blasts the Shroob point blank in the face before it can get its meaty claws on Love! He is not an experienced LobCorper and Love feels human enough to him that he thought she was actually in danger and not a horrible monster herself! "Oh! Thanks, Sir Roland!" Love babbles before her eyes settle on Hikaru and waves excitedly in her direction. "Hiiiiiiiiiii o/~ <3 <3 <3 Precures~<3!" Roland winces visibly.
Combaticon	It's possible that one of the more data-minded Combaticons could search up information on the Shroob and perhaps even discern some sort of solution or tactic from that. Neither Onslaught nor Vortex are that Combaticon.     Vortex keeps her distance, true to Onslaught's earlier command, drifting sideways or even backwards to avoid the denser clusters of aggressive saucers-- such is the power of a helicopter. Others go on the offensive, but she has a mission, and the giant mushroom feels like it's key to everything. When the spots puff up and release more Shroob soldiers into the city, she calls out.     "I have something to report!"     Onslaught pauses, holding one of the Shroob troopers off the ground, held at arm's length while his other hand taps the side of his head, "What is it?"     "The large organic structure looks like it's the source of the attack force. If we can destroy it, their reinforcements should stop."     "Understood. Achieve air superiority and give me targeting telemetry." Onslaught twists at the waist, throwing his foe across the street and through a storefront with a cartoonish crash. He hasn't fired a single shot yet; relying on hand-to-hand so far to deal with Shroob that aren't distracted by Futaba or Sarracenia's more eyecatching activities.     "Right! Let me clear some breathing room first--" In midair, the black helicopter folds in half and twists around, producing arms and legs and head while also reducing in size to something more like a human while still ostensibly being a robot with helicopter greebles. Her thighs split open further and she draws out a pair of blaster pistols from inside. While the panels close up, Vortex takes aim at different targets with each weapon-- shoots twice-- and changes targets. It's a bit chaotic to watch while she's also evading incoming fire.
Audrey Basque	With as many of the Toads safe as she could manage, Audrey rights herself, with a confused stare when she's called a princess. This is the... third? No, fourth... time this occurs, somehow, and this time she didn't even mention her magical rank! Though, that kind of pales compared to the information they're given.     Sarracenia said Mario would save the day!     But he is, in fact, Missing!! (thank you Roland)     And the other princess, too.     Having no actual need to keep the scarab out, it withdraws into her pocket again, which it definitely does not fit in and yet disappears into. Audrey nods to the older Toad. "We will do what we can-- I'll relay the information."     She gently floats towards Tamamo, by way of pushing herself just a bit and letting the lack of gravity do all the work. "Lady Tamamo! It is good to--" Ugh, no, try again. "Glad to see you. Ah... I am still taking in the situation, but if you believe my talents would be best applied to some particular task..." Still too stiff! But good enough.     She turns to Love, briefly. "Huh? N-No, wait, I didn't mean-- I'm not a mahou shoujo!" This too somehow keeps coming up, but it makes more sense.     Her eyes turn to Lala and Hikaru when Love draws attention to them. Friends? Lala's voice sounds familiar, come to think of it... that girl with the idol friend? They don't LOOK like combatants but then she's one to talk. She's about to say hi, when that massive spire-shroom spawns reinforcements in... after pulsing energy.     "-- pardon, Lady Tamamo, but... do you feel that, too, coming from over there?" She motions for the spire. "I may have an idea. It's gathering energy-- I might be able to stop it from releasing it. And-- if we could, say, cause it to accumulate even faster..."     Well, presumably, it would destroy it.     Using the fact she's NOT currently being shot at, she starts trying to get a feel for the spire-shroom's energy. If it's anything like ley lines, or a magical nexus or capacitor of some kind... turning its boundaries inwards is her goal. Let it keep accumulating energy! Let it do MORE of that, even, but cut off its ability to spend it at all.
Star Twinkle	"They take people away to suck the Vim right out of you! And that's if they don't turn you into a statue!!"     Hikaru clenches her fist and looks in the direction of the Shroobs with a glare. "Evil abducting aliens... how could you do this to people?! You come all this way to a totally different planet and you find little mushroom people just like you... shouldn't that be twincool?! Shouldn't you be excited?! It should be a precious thing to find people like you in the universe, and I won't forgive you for attacking them instead!!"     Lala's glove projects a rotating purple hologram of what the Shroob planet was thought to look like, along with a scrolling screen of information in AI's database. "Hikaru! They're a kind of alien that does this on lots of planets, lun! The Shroob!"     "Got it! Then...!" Hikaru wraps her hand around her pendant. "We'll stop them here!" ""Star Color Pendant!"" ""Color Charge!""     The girls brandish their pens and trace out ribbons of light, drawing on their Precure costumes. Colorful light turns into ruffled dresses, puffy shorts, heels, and stellar-themed ornaments, with ringed-planet baubles at the end of Hikaru's extra long twintails, and a shooting star headband drawn between Lala's antennae. When their transformations are complete, they pose side by side, with one of Hikaru's arms up in the air, and Lala forming a heart with her hands.     "The twinkling star that shines throughout the universe, Cure Star!"     "The Milky Way stretching across the heavens, Cure Milky!"         ""Star Twinkle ¤ Precure!""     Once transformed, the street around the Precures quickly gets cleared out. A star-laden punch from Hikaru sends a laser-gunned Shroob flying, and Lala's antennae send out blasts of teal energy that disable a UFO in the sky. After that short combat segment, they look up at the destroyed racetrack that they came here for with serious expressions, and then notice their allies. "NO. No magical pets. No mascots. No helpful mystical furry companions."     "Roland! Angela! And... the Magical Girl of Love! It's good you're here, lun!"     The girls' expressions light up on seeing that their Friends Across The Universe have shown up, with Onslaught and Tamamo too. Then, Sarracenia's voice comes over her loudspeaker as yet another friend, renewing their determination.     Then Hikaru looks aghast and clutches Yuma tightly, squeezing the little Star Drop in a hug while looking over at Roland. "Wait, what's wrong with magical pets?! Did Yuma do something??" She also thoroughly ignores Angela's request by holding Yuma up towards Love like Simba in the Lion King, displaying the floppy tentacled alien with a confused green curl on her face like a trophy. "The large organic structure looks like it's the source of the attack force."     "It's making more and more of them..." Hikaru murmurs.     "Lun. There's some kind of energy powering it, but... AI hasn't had enough time to scan it completely. Tamamo-no-mae and that other person are trying to do something about it... I'll go help!"     While Hikaru stays fighting through Shroobs to protect the remaining Toads in the street, Lala hops over to Audrey and Tamamo, sliding down on a heart-shaped teal magical platform as if surfing. "Hello! I've had AI scan that big mushroom, lun. Is there any way I can help shut it down?"
Sarracenia	'Miss, M-mario was *abducted*! Taken away! With the rest!'      'Princess Peach, the castle -- the aliens took them all!'      When Sarra hears this news she is...skeptical. "..Mario was kidnapped? That seems...unlikely. He is a hero who has overcome many invasions of the kingdom." she says over the radio. She peeks over the side of her aircraft to look down at Tamamo and the others down below. "Are you certain?"      She barely has time to hear Tamamo's answer before she and her ships are under attack. Sarra hmphs with a light smirk. "Good. I was hoping to blow something up today." she says. She looks toward her airships and speaks into her mic. "All ships, fire at will! Banzai Bill launchers, focus on the mothership and the giant mushroom!"      The airships underside cannons fire a baker's dozen of Banzai Bills. The relatively slow moving giant bullets seek out the largest alien ship and the giant mushroom, six for the first and seven for the second. Then, the airships break formation, proving to be much faster and agile than ships of their size would suggest. There are hundreds of booms as the cannons fire, sending exploding cannonballs sailing through the air at incoming attackers and lazy defenders.      They aren't fast enough to evade incoming abduction beams though, and a number of piranha plant sailors are abducted. Sarra blinks in surprise as she sees this. The airships crews can't really go below deck and still fly, so...they have to just manage.      Sarra huffs and is about to close her canopy to join the fight when...a beam surrounds her! Sarra gasps in some combination of surprise and delight and looks up into the beam. For a long moment she doesn't fight it. She may be a heroine now, but she may never outgrow that desire to be kidnapped and saved by a hero.      After that long moment though, Sarra mmphs as she realizes she should be helping in the fight. But...kidnapped! But...fight! But...kidnapped! She is too indecisive to escape, and if something is not done she could end up kidnapped, too!
Futaba Nuki	The meaty explosions of Love's beams turning the Shroob Saucers into something that reminds Futaba of yet more food reminds the tanuki that she hasn't eaten since this morning. The temptation to bite into one of those is tempting, but she'll have to behave for now. Seeing pilots dropping out like cartoon characters and bouncing right off the ground is goofy-looking enough to distract her from that with snickers, at least, as does getting shot with all those big flashy blasts. Even without scenery to maneuver on whilst in the sky, Futaba still manages to execute some sick ninja flips and twirls on the way to spiking the Saucers, landing on the corner of a nearby building in the classic ninja-squat afterwards. "Leave the gunners to us, Audrey! Me and Love've got plenty of fight to spare for these soarin' spores!" The ninja boasts with a loud laugh as she stands back up to bring her hand up in a light salute to the Magical Girl of Love. As she does that, though, another thought starts running through her head... Aren't the Toads also spores? Or spore-adjacent? Is everyone here a mushroom? No, no, she's pretty sure those heroic plumbers aren't mushrooms, and Princess Sarracenia and her army are more flowery than mushroomy, and then there's that giant turtle fortress... And then she hears that one of those plumbers has been kidnapped along with several others. "Explains all the missin' folks and the creepy raceway over there. Dang, we're really dealin' with some real crap if even the red guy got snatched up." Grumbling lightly, Futaba's attention shifts to Hikaru when she sees her going for the save of one of the toads, and then she looks back up when more of the Saucers start showing up. "Hey, gals! You been keeping a low profile at school?" She calls out in a casual-ish conversational tone even as she scampers off that rooftop, sprinting down the side of the building with her racket-hand trailing behind her to start bounding from wall to wall and remain a tricky target for those saucers.  Although joining the melee in the streets is incredibly tempting, she sees all those fliers still harassing Sarracenia's aerial forces. "Speakin' of... You said they were comin' from the big one, Vorts?" After getting clued in by vortex Futaba opts to keep the flashiness high while still sticking to the sports-theming of today's fighting. With one hand in the shape of a giant racket, Futaba turns her other into a long, black baseball bat with gold lines along the bottom half and white lines along the top. "Then... Alright, keep your eyes up here because we're about to score big time!" Shouting towards the Shroobs with an energetic shout, Futaba sprouts wings to start chasing after the Saucers directly with all the lights and particle effects that would naturally come from a flaming tennis racket and a white-blue glowing baseball bat. Predictably, she takes huge swings at the saucers, rising above them when possible to try spiking them into their grounded comrades to thin out the crowds.
Tamamo	'Miss, M-mario was *abducted*! Taken away! With the rest!'     Tamamo knows who Mario is, though it takes her a moment to recall the name of Luigi's brother. "Ah, good, if you can still breathe, you should be recovering without issue! I was worried, for a moment. Oh, with 'the rest'? And, before that -- whither were they taken, do you know? Were they flown away, or...?"     It's a difficult situation. The transformation isn't being undone fast enough for those transformed to get away, the enemy forces continually reinforce, and Tamamo needs to be somewhere else to do something about it -- but if she leaves, something terrible could happen to the half-transformed mushroom-man while the shroobs continue to menace. Stopping halfway carries all sorts of delicate risks, but her defensive magecraft is little good against continual fire. If they didn't have guns, it would be a little different, but even bullets with angry faces don't tend to have enough of a mind for her to trick.     '...but if you believe my talents would be best applied to some particular task...'     "Oh, Ms. Basque." Tamamo glances around, but doesn't spot whatever she's looking for. "In fact, it does seem necessary that someone continue to see to these people's safety for some moments yet, while we act to remove the danger."     'Hello! I've had AI scan that big mushroom, lun. Is there any way I can help shut it down?'     "Oh, Lala, and Hikaru-chan! I am glad to see you both. Between the many of us, perhaps... it would be possible to cut off the giant mushroom in a sealed space, but I wonder if that would not be--"     Oh no! The flying saucer-shaped-pants-clad shroobs are shooting at her! Tamamo deploys a spread of talismans from her travel satchel, using up half an episode's worth of pyrotechnics as bullets of varying widths meet mutual destruction with expendable paper spells.     "Oh, how nice it would be to have the time to think up some elegant solution. Very well. One-way barriers... these should suffice for your plan, Ms. Basque. Lala, can you please take these, and throw them at some surface when I say? Once the barrier is in place, I will trust to spatial manipulation to close any gaps around the target space, and, if we are quite fortunate, any energy it draws in will be unable to escape."     Tamamo passes a thick handful of ink-scrawled ofuda to Lala, and says, "Come, now, and hold tight!"     'When did Tamamo learn to drive a motorcycle to racing standards, anyway?' One might wonder such things, as she directs Cure Milky to get on behind her. Unfortunately, 'she didn't' is the answer.     Zooming off with an engine roar the moment Lala has grabbed on, Tamamo races through the invaders, dodging right and left, hitting a cheery triangle by a mushroom house's wall and driving up the wall, flying through the air and between a trio of saucers, and landing back onto what amounts to a track without even looking below her. It can only be luck. When the bullets fly by and impact other saucers instead of her, it's just that she was that fortunate. When a row of buildings have roofs close together just long enough for her to make a tire-screeching, tile-clattering turn onto another pathway that wasn't visible a moment ago, it's only that she was so blessed that she doesn't wipe out.     "There!" she calls out, every so often. Geomancy, knowing where to put down another angle in the barrier to obstruct the flow of energy, comes easily to her.
Angela	This isn't Roland's fault!!! Angela is blaming him too though. ''I'm not a mahou shoujo'' "Right..!" Love winks. "You ''arent'' a mahou shoujo." Yeah somehow despite saying so it feels like Love has cottoned onto the opposite meaning. But luckily she is soon distracted by the actual mahous. "Wow! Now that the Precures are here, we're sure to solve this Dark Kingdom invasion lickity split! Thanks to the power of friendship and teamwork!" Love says happily but then... THERE IS TROUBLE IN MAHOU KINGDOM PARADISE. ''What's wrong with magical pets?! Did Yuma do something??'' "Nothing is wrong with magical pets," Angela lies to a child. "But it requires responsibility to care for them properly." Well that's probably true. "Really, any sort of pet. But especially magical pets." "Mphhhh..." Love complains. "But you may pet Yuma if they're okay with it." Angela adds, reluctantly, like a begrudging parent or too responsible older sibling doing her best. Love makes the biggest sparkle puppy eyes she can at Hikaru, "Oh!! May I? Yuma is so cute!! And I love her??" But if HIkaru says no (or if Yuma makes gumpy noises) Love WILL behave and keep her hands to herself. "Nobody from the Magical Kingdom I'm from has any magical pets..." Though sometimes they are their own critter but Love doesn't think to mention that since it's not really the same in her mind.
Star Twinkle	"Lala, can you please take these, and throw them at some surface when I say?"     Cure Milky takes the ofuda obediently, neatly stacking up the talismans in her hand and carefully sliding the top one offset so she can easily and reliably grabbed it when called upon. As offered, she follows along with Tamamo's instructions, but she's so focused on Sarracenia's strange willingness to be kidnapped in the radio along with being an extra set of hands for Tamamo, that she doesn't realize what she's agreed to until it's too late.     "Lun, I can drop these, and they'll block off the big mushroom? I'll also protect you, so... w-wait, 'hold tight'?! Oyooooooooooo--?!"     Lala clings tightly around Tamamo's waist to stay on the motocycle, yelping with each hectic bounce and skid. The ofuda are shifted into her antennae, because she doesn't trust herself to not immediately fall off the bike if she even unlatched one of her arms, and one of the deelybopper bulbs flicks a talisman in the direction Tamamo indicates like dealing cards. Big, heart-shaped magical shields made of teal light spring into existence whenever Tamamo's luck isn't enough to avoid a laser blast or a flying saucer's attack.
Star Twinkle	"But it requires responsibility to care for them properly."     "I take care of Yeti just fine!" Hikaru insists back to Angela, sqooshing and wobbling Yuma like play-doh. "And I take extra good care of Yuma! Since she doesn't have anyone but me and Lala."     Yuma, to back up Hikaru's treatment of her, squashes the oblong mask of light on her face in a rough approximation of a nod, along with a short synthesized song. "¯¯__-_¯¯¯-¯!"     When Love is given permission, Hikaru holds Yuma close, angling her so that the side of her big round head is available for Love to touch. "So, so, you have to be gentle, but she really likes if you pet down her big tendril thing here, like this, but not too close to the tips. And then the tuft of hair on top too, you can scratch there." "And I love her??"     "I love her too," Hikaru agrees, in this brief pause in the fighting. "She's the prettiest shooting star I've ever seen."
Dimokratia	Right out the gate, the Magical Girl of Love holds it down for the mahou, blasting and zorching away and interdicting most of the much more dangerous Saucers, then having piles of ground targets afterwards. One such advancing on her - the first, fresh from its saucer - is levered on by Rolan's rifle and dispatched in a decided 'spray of spores that looks like bullet ejecta' PG-but-not-really effect. Roland might have a bit more work coming his way as Love blasts away, more flanking and lunging mushrooms trying to jump on his back and fang down on his neck and shoulder. Others, with ray guns, sprout from the roofs of the town buildings and shoot down at Love and Roland! Large area attacks and wide beams are great, and the Shroob spin and pouf into PG paffs of spore-filled smoke upon being 'defeated'. Big juicy explosions with plenty of love-love sparkles (embers, ashes, projectile debris that might be prop foam) keep things more or less controlled otherwise, so their teamwork even looks planned! "Yes!" Wails the partially decursed old Toad, to the multiple 'Mario(s) is Missing(s)'. "He's missing! What will we do?! Who will save us without Mario?" Distraught, the softly sobbing old Toad droops while he gets a bit more neck and shoulder mobility. "It's just not the same to say 'and Luigi'! And I don't even know your names! That's a lot of ands! No, it has to be Mario!" The local dialogue is a bit hero worshippy when it's not royal worshippy. It can't be helped by these idol-kingdoms and states. Just look at Sundew, or the Koopas! And so perhaps it is only here, where a Toad could look at a crowd of incredible and varied heroes and go 'WOW I wish MARIO was here!' on prompt, that a chunky machine Elite named Onslaught can somehow primarily stick to ''quiet'' takedowns of metal biff, pow, and socko on the Shroobs as he advances without drawing the same attention as the central lane featuring the Girls Magical. With some good maneuvering and coordination with Vortex while Futaba goes crazy as the tanuki sky baseballer, Onslaught's path is more or less handled of Saucers and he can make good time to the giant Shroob Mushroom while barreling through small packs of the spawning-into-space Shroob packs. Audrey gets her answers from farther away, reaching out to the natural energies of Toadstool Castle Town and the massive mushroom before her. The land seemed drained, though it wasn't from the direct consumption done by the mushroom. Instead, the shine of starlight - particularly, Power Star-light - is the primary magical source here and the majority of that light is captured within the massive mushroom. There are, scattered here and there, points of light where a star still laid buried whole within the ground, enriching the world, but most of them had been dug up by the Bros. Centerpiece to the clasp for those Power Stars to be trapped within the enormous mushroom is: A damaged star, crystal blue with only two of its five points present. An oar on Time's lake, a crystal that cast light not through space but past and future, the fragments of that star was creating a helixing-upwards growth of the mushroom, taking energy from the past - and things, too. Manipulating the power of a *special* Power Star would be quite the Princess-type trick, and Audrey (as well as other magically sensitive types) can find the flow moves particularly from the broken time-star up through the fungal structure, gathers in the dots, and projects out time-displaced Shroobs! They were not, per-se, 'PG dying'. The defeated Shroobs that weren't a part of the initial attack, and especially the ones that were being summoned en masse, seemed to be being eliminated as time paradoxes which never *did* exist. Lala and Hikaru, highlit by the crossed explosions of the UFO's Lala shoots down and several cinematic paffs of paradox-defeated time Shroob with a startling spurt of animation budget, stand to see the massive and morbidly empty racetrack and adopt a frame of somber faces.
Dimokratia	This was what Pretty Cure fought for! Joy, and expression, and laughter, and driving at ninety miles an hour in a bumpercar to spark drift into a rainbow block full of powerups. The Rainbow Road called, And so did the guns of the local style of skyships! Banzai Bills fall as grinning cannonfire, bearing down on Saucers and Shroobs and just in general (as is the way of Bills, which go as they will). More explosions, which the kingdom might be used to more if the populace wasn't primarily reduced to statues or being extracted from, pop through the area, for those not in the air the ground feels very much like a kart track from the wrong tileset. Dark tones and disaster and a bit of firelight, the Shroob and circumstance have turned Toadstool Castle town into a stage much more resembling the outskirts of a Bowser's castle stage! Peril and fear and rubble-blocked turns are just a basic currency here. Hikaru joining Roland and Love in protecting the street Toads escaping en masse through the Warp(gate) Pipes is a ragged bunch from what should be in a town of this size, but time has clearly not been kind to the Mushroom Kingdom. Starry punches from the pink get some turns-and-looks, and some mutterings of 'Princess!' 'foreign Princess!' echo about her *loudly*, considering the motif, but the Toads are being protected, and they know not to waddle too long in the danger. Toads understand when it's time to bail, or else Mario (and Mario's Brother) wouldn't be half as effective as keeping the slightly dinguscore populace more or less safe. The space aliens' overhead forces get absolutely pasted by Sarracenia's navy, turned into falling shrapnel and Shroobs of varying sizes when the Banzais smash into them in quantity, some of the largest and most mature Shroobforms with their fearsome metal UFO apparatuses getting speedrun by 'who would win, 3 cycles to defeat or 13 smartbombs?' and poof'ed violently. However, much like most of the populace of the Mushroom Kingdom, the land's most kidnappable Princess is abducted off the deck while entering her 'gosh! shucks!' cycle about it. While very on-brand, a shooting star moving across the sky sure seems to be getting closer to her and the UFO beaming her up and away! Without an elegant solution presenting itself, the group sets up an inelegant set of solutions to tide over the populace while the problem is put to rest. Tamamo herself, meanwhile, engages in Racing whether the town and area is set up for it, putting that 'it's like a Bowser Stage now' to the test in the very literal sense. Despite her lack of particular learning, perhaps sick racing skills are entirely as easy as riding a bike! Beyond blessed and riding the local buff of 'almost ready to be raced through on purpose', Tamamo's stunts carry her up through rooves and backstreets and right through Shroob patrols, Lala and Tamamo can work together to plant barrier talismans while the flying force is sufficiently devastated that the ongoing threat of saucers drops significantly. It's quite nice that Hikaru and the Libraryoids (ft. Audrey Basque) are protecting the pipes and the Toads, because Stuffwell's Warpulator 'other end' is still there, the mini-pipe suitable for non-Supers Marios - and someone pops out of it. A gnome of a man appears with a grey candle-flicker of hair on his otherwise bald, round head, wearing a labcoat closed and a pair of loafers, glasses with lenses so thick his eyes are not visible, a big nose, and a single exaggerated snaggletooth when he smiles. He has a simple black tie on, and has a little trouble climbing down from the pipe until Stuffwell retracts the Warpulator pipe and flips back up into a suitcase. "Salutations, ADVENTURE!" The luggage exclaims, before drawing in a breath very animatedly. This doesn't go anywhere - Stuffwell just wants to smell the adventure. (Stuffwell has no discernable nose.)
Dimokratia	"Everything's gone terribly wrong!" Elvin Gadd declares. Then pauses. "And the castle is gone too!!" Which seems more primary than a 'too', but, Gadd is focused on his own business - the lab *in* the castle. "Oh, what's that?" The old scientist wonders, starting to wander towards the entrance of a shop a Shroob is obviously peeking out from the doorframe on. ABOVE, Sarra sees the shape get closer and closer and closer while her abducting UFO keeps having to divert around the anti-air fire being directed around by everyone. Futaba nearly catches the abducting saucer, but something else gets it first. Like a hot spear from the sky, a lance of kinetic energy jackets a pillar of metal that strikes like a railgun shot from Heaven, instantly obliterating the Shroob (pants and all!) and dragging Sarracenia out of the sky at a rather perilous velocity. However, the 'pillar of metal' isn't one solid object but a spiraling open and wind-catching expansion of avian-styled wings of thrusters and sails. Within them is Dimo, herself an eight foot tall sophont and obviously mechanical champion with a short dark jacketing that could pass as racing leathers at a distance. Landing in a thrust-vector and flap of wings, Dimo first attends to catching Sarracenia like the princess is in the cliche kinds of action movie, all prediction and cool effect and already to looking where Sarra *will* be. "Princess Sundew. If you wish for a transmutation, you might do *so* much better than a *fungus*." The sophont champion purrs warmly off the reactor-buzz under her tone, and then slides Sarra to her feet out of the sudden grip she was in, and, walks to a stop near Elvin Gadd and gently poles the tottering man back with a length of chrome silver like a comedian might get yanked back off the stage. Gently corralling, she turns Gadd to the enormous mushroom. "Professor, please do not wander off. If you insist on your normal behavior you will require. . . executive assistance," The sophont tries to explain, but unfortunately Professor Gadd is now on laments and process and not even one whit of the middle of Dimo's sentence. "Is that... the Cobalt Star??" Gadd asks. "Wow, Professor! You can see it from here? Those must be great glasses!" Stuffwell cheers. "No." Gadd yabu-yabus. "I'm asking! is it a blue star? The Cobalt Star is *very* powerful and *very* dangerous and also please I'd like it back thank you!" "When we are in a position to negotiate for your side projects back, Professor, I will inform you." It appears as if the complication is not so simple as 'jiggle the star out of the socket', though. With the Shroob being contained, smashed, and the paradoxical spawning being easily handled, the massive mushroom changes tactics. Because that is not a Mushroom Castle. That is the Mushroob Castle. The tremendous Shroob-style mushroom that has entirely replaced the castle crater vibrates so powerfully, strains and shifts, that it seems like an earthquake happens far deeper in the world. And then one eye opens. And then the other. A terrible, wingdings you feel in your bones call is belted out, as the bursting-out of enormous castle-tower sized arm with pincers like industrial crushers sends 'aftershocks' from the shift up and out. At the base, the core belly, two corners of the Cobalt Star crackle, a reverse of the spooring-out now gathering up power to ready for serious Three Stage Bossfight With Enormous Thing! Within, at least 100 but perhaps 200 depending on era Power Stars feed this titan a huge amount of power! It's a battle, and the very landscape stands against you! Literally, with big purple fungus feet!
Combaticon	In the air, Vortex whirls in place and quickly skims her surroundings. The scuffs, dents, and scrapes on her armor betray where she'd been struck, though in ways she was able to mitigate. Her posture shifts, throwing her weight back and bringing her right hand up towards the towering MUSHROOB SPIRE. It isn't her weapon that shoots this time but something in her wrist, just under the heel of her hand. Little more than a dart, it starts transmitting once it sinks into mycelial flesh.     "Transmitting! Take it away, boss!"     Understood.     The eye opens. Vortex freezes in place, save the whirling of her rotors, staring up at it. ...     Transmitting! Take it away, boss!     "Understood."     Onslaught removes his index finger from the side of his head, disengaging his commlink. His other hand whips to the side, hurling a Shroob trooper into a handful of its compatriots. As he looks up through the buildings-- the eye opens. His own eyes, glowing red, narrow just a touch.     "Attention all units," Onslaught begins, even as his body splits open and unfolds and expands with the telltale noise of his T-Cog reconfiguring his form. With a heavy sound, a dark blue Roadmaster semi strikes the Mushroom Kingdom's broken pavement hard enough to bounce on its suspension. The Decepticon symbol shines in the center of the grille, "Target sighted and confirmed: Angry. All units engage." On the back of the truck, the twin artillery guns lift up and swivel into position, light riding around the outer edge of each barrel, "I am beginning artillery bombardment. Don't stay close for too long."
Audrey Basque	Audrey, of course, relays everything she can-- in what limited words she has to even understand what she's poking at. She's good at messing with forcefields larger than her head! Not necessarily at understanding what they do, though she can certainly mess with them without understanding.     And temporal mechanics are not her forte.     A matter she has passing knowledge of, in the sense any educated enough mage understands you can mess with time, and any educated enough astronomer(astrologer) understands also you can mess with time. But regardless:     "O-Okay, good news," she taps her earpiece, so everyone can hear. "Containing the energy SHOULD keep reinforcements down some and make it feel pretty bad. Bad news! There's some kind of damaged magical artifact of some kind in there, along with some smaller ones like stars, and it's what's causing... how do I even explain this..."     Internally, Audrey screams at knowing what she felt but not having the exact language to express it, or even interpret it. "I don't... ugh! Time stuff. It's time stuff. It's taking energy from the past, somehow!"     She deflates a bit, realizing that of all the powers to blindly mess with, this would easily make the top ten worst ideas list. No, actually, for once, she almost voices out 'the one time I could really use Miss Rook here', and then wisely elects to keep her mouth shut.     And then the Mushroob Castle--     "HUH WHY DOES IT HAVE EYES?!"     And wingdings.     She's still floating, so while the earthquakes are no big deal, the aftershocks do rock her and cause her to spin a bit. Oh. Oh that's, super bad, actually. Now it's a time-powered big monster shroom.     "I... don't think I can mess with that while it's moving! P-Probably not *safely*, anyway. I don't think we're avoiding having to fight it!"
Angela	Love listens intently, nodding furiously like the harder and faster she nods the more likely her sincerity will be understood! This is super duper important that this gets across to the Precures! Because she knows that a magical pet, especially one that is also a star. "Just be careful, Love." Angela says. "It isn't always clear whether you are bothering a pet or making one happy. I imagine it is even more so for magical creatures." "I...i'll be careful! Because she's also Hikaru's friend!" Love's cheeks pucker out a bit. "And...how can I help train Abnormalities to get along with people if I can't even handle a sweet star like this?" Angela hesitates, then nods slowly. Love follows Hikaru's directions carefully. Her hand is wavering and quaking as she tries to be as gentle as she can possibly can with the little star. The world and saving the day vanishes from her mind for a bit as she pets the tendril, and scratches the hair, and then Love smiles and says, "Thank you for being such a good friend to Lala and Hikaru." with a warm smile. "So long as you keep them near, I'm sure you'll grow up to be the kindest and prettiest star in the universe." Roland watches her for a moment but then grimaces as he hears something (Sarracenia being enthusiastic about being kidnapped) over the radio. "I understand," Angela tells Roland sympathetically but is still watching Love. Roland ISN'T because he's worried about the fact they're in an active combat zone and is forced to cover Love's back while mushrooms are still trying to devour them. But he seems capable of fighting groups, though he's definitely sweating and muttering under his breath complaints as he fluidly switches between gunning down shroobs and then slicing them apart with a pair of knives before just as quickly summoning a sword to his hands (Durandal!) to bisect another. Genuine fear and focus is in his eyes as he fights. He doesn't see these as cute Mario enemies, each one is a deadly threat in his eyes and if he lets even one slip by, Love or--worse--those two sweet kids might get CHOMPED. He seems to breathe easier once Love is done petting and Hikaru joins back in with fighting the invaders. Until finally... Mushroob Castle. ''HUH WHY DOES IT HAVE EYES?'' Roland placesa hand on Audrey's shoulder sympathetically. Gives it a small squeeze. And he says, with his voice full of kindness and understanding and experience and exhaustion. "Because it's going to eat us, Audrey." Roland says.
Tamamo	Tamamo's racing off-track in a place practically almost set up like a (very dangerous) race course. Lucky! Everything proceeds -- well, not smoothly, exactly, but the nail-biting moments never become any worse. You'd almost think Tamamo had rehearsed the whole thing or, perhaps, that she knew what was around every turn, Shroobs and Bullet Bills included.     "Very good! That was the last one we needed, Lala. And now, for... oh, oh dear." Hearing what Audrey communicates comes a little before the castle opening its eye.      "Is it a castle...?" Close enough. "I hope that everyone else is quite alright."
Futaba Nuki	Surely fighting these Shroob Saucers in the sky will enkindle the locals' hearts! They might be scurrying for their lives at the moment, but Futaba's confident that they'll soon be cheering the names of their visiting saviors any day now.  That... Doesn't come to pass, because they're way more into Mario than she expected. Or is it just that older Toad that's obsessed? She'll have to keep her ears open to see if that's just how things are here, and she also makes a mental note to talk to the man in question if things are indeed that way. Until then, Futaba needs to focus. The clash with the Shroobs seems to be going pretty alright, and she's still getting good practice swinging at high-flying enemies, although Sarracenia getting abducted by one of those saucers does give her some reasons for concern. Those concerns don't remain long, thankfully, when Dimo shows up coming straight through the offending flyer! "Yo! Nice hit, Miss Dimo! Are we gonna go hit more of those flying folks like last time, then? Or... Oh, old guy. And is that a...?" The ninja calls out eagerly before getting confused at the sight of Stuffwell and Gadd further below, doing one more unnecessarily mid-air flip before spiraling towards the ground to rejoin the group. "She's right, y'know. I mean, you don't wanna look like a shriveled burger topping, do ya, princess?" Futaba doesn't demonstrate with a visual for once, instead just staring at Sarracenia for several moments once she starts noticing her new look. "Uh... It hasn't been THAT long since we last met, has it?" Looking from Sarracenia to Dimo and Gadd afterwards, the ninja purses her lips as she has to work a little extra to  process what's going on. "I dunno about givin' you that thing back if it's really that dangerous. I mean, how'd it get...?" Futaba has no idea where the star is. She gestures around vaguely to try and guess where it is based on where anyone else looks, then stops when she sees and feels the Mushroob Castle moving with the crackling of the aforementioned star inside it. She inhales deeply, then claps her normal-shaped hands together while starting to advance towards the monstrous castle. "We'll figure that out later. There might still be some people in there, so let's hurry this up!"
Sarracenia	Amidst all the objections to her being kidnapped on purpose and all the explosions in the sky, Sarracenia almost doesn't notice the thing headed toward her abducting UFO. When she does, she peers at it curiously. "What is-"      The princess barely has time to process the thought before the UFO is hit and she is pulled toward the ground at railgun speeds. The princess yelps in surprise, only to land in Dimo's arms a few moments later in a proper princess carrying posture. Sarra blinks her eye a few times before looking up. "...oh my~" Sarra is charmed almost instantly by Dimo's style, display of power, and proper address of the princess. That Dimo is an 8 foot tall construct of some kind is largely unimportant to the hero-centric princess. "W-well, transmutation into a fungus was not the objective. But, I think the objective was acheived~" she says, blushing a bit and resting a hand and her head against Dimo's chest, soaking in the warm purr.      A moment later though, Sarra raises an eyebrow as she is lowered to the ground. "...I know you, do I not? Your voice seems familiar and..." She looks Dimo over. "...your feel is familiar..." she murmurs, a hand drifting to the lotus still in her hair.      "The Cobalt Star? I do not think I have heard of that." Sarra says, looking off in the direction that E. Gadd and Stuffwell are looking. "How did you lose it?" she asks.      Only for the ground to start shaking. Sarra yelps and struggles to stay on her feet, only to finally fall onto her rear and hang on as she watches wide-eyed. "Th-that thing is alive?!" she exclaims as the Mushroob Castle starts moving. Once she is able to Sarra pulls out her phone. "All captains! Reform ranks and reload all weapons! We are going to need them!" she orders.      The Sundew Navy, having decimated the Shroob ships with help from everyone else, forms up into a flying V facing toward the enemy castle. "Prepare to engage." Sarra says, getting back to her feet.      'HUH WHY DOES IT HAVE EYES?'      'Because it's going to eat us, Audrey.'      Sarra hmphs and smirks confidently. "Is this your first giant monster, Mr. Roland? Do not worry, with all of us at your side you will be just fine." she says, as if she has faced dozens of such creatures. She doesn't address Audrey. She's still mad!
Angela	Roland stares at Sarracenia like she's even more frightening than the monster house that eats people. Eventually he remembers to lie. "...Yeah. It's my first giant." He shudders at some unspoken memory.
Star Twinkle	"Who will save us without Mario?"     Hikaru doesn't seem to grasp at first that the Toad is very particularly focused on the specific, sole, Mario Brother. "It's okay! I, Cure Star, will save you!" She puffs up her chest and bonks her fist against it, trying to look heroic. As she holds that pose, and the Toad continues to 'Mario, oh Marioooo!', her confident smirk gradually transforms into a lopsided smile, partway open for an awkward laugh. "Ueheh..."     This doesn't take the wind out of Hikaru's sails for long, though! Partly because she gets to grab a fallen flying saucer and spin around several times to throw it like a discus at another flying saucer, which is every girl's dream, but also because she gets to do that and *then* get referred to as a princess by the cheering crowd, which is the *other* half of every girl's dream. She rubs the back of her head with faux-embarrassment, and then waves the Toads safely out of danger-- with a liiiittle magical star flair coming off of her hand, to complete the look. "Awww, ehehe... a *princess*? Me? Well, you know, eheh... you all better head to safety! I'll protect you!"     When Tamamo's motorcycle eventually comes to a halt, Lala is shivering from adrenaline, squeezing Tamamo's waist almost hard enough to hurt. Dizzy-eyed, she pries her arms loose like pliers, but leaves her head slumped on Tamamo's shoulder, antennae occasionally letting off spasmic jolts of electricity. She blinks a few times to clear her vision, just to see the Shroob castle opening its eyes.     "Uuuuuuu... w-wait, it's coming to life?! Staaar! We have to finish it before it causes any more damage to the kingdom, lun!"     Lala jumps off of the motorcycle with a wobble, and rushes over to rejoin with Hikaru. This being a giant purply monster with glowing eyes, created by a horde of invading aliens with silly little ray guns, they know exactly what to do. After all the fight sequence in the castle town already, it feels like it's time to bring out their strongest attacks and finish up the episode! They stand shoulder to shoulder and hold their hands out, while teal and pink sparkly dust swirls around them to merge into one big attack. ""Chilly light of the stars, sparkle through the heavens!" "Light of imagination, perihelion!" "Shadow of contemplation, aphelion!" ""Precure ¤ Comet Cruising Clash!"     The dust coalesces into a spiraling twin series of colored balls, scintillating like magic ice, that launches out of the Precures' hands towards the Shroob. Normally, this would be the part where the impact of the attack causes an explosion of light and a dusty nebula of light to surround the monster and purify it back to normal, but instead, the magic just splashes against the boss monster and gets shrugged off with just a puff. "Oyo?!" "It didn't work at all...!"