Scene #9416: Star¤Twinkle Precure ~ Silver Mario Galaxy 5

Owner	Pose
Star Twinkle	Poofing through the cosmic clouds at the end of the breakneck Launch Star tunnel, the stellar destination that Luma's trail led to is like an island suspended in space. Puffy nebula-clouds filled with glittering stars form a semi-solid surface to stand on, extending to five points at the edges of the island. Towards the center of the island, stardust builds and piles into foothills, with one singular hill poking up high in the middle, and hanging above that hill in perpetual static motion is a shining palace built into a comet. The comet's trail is stained purple with corrupting spores, streaming off of a massive mushroob that's rooted itself into the palace like rot, and swarming around it are... familiar-looking UFOs, to anyone who's fought besides the Pretty Cures before. To every direction off of the island is a thick tapestry of stars, right in the beating heart of the entire Mushroom Galaxy. Hazy and tilt-shifted, the starscape blurs into streaks with every step you take, as if the Star Road is in a constant state of hyperspace, and walking along the golden road to one of the other points of the star would bring you to a different corner of the galaxy. Gravity is light and dreamlike, poofing up clouds with every footfall, and the area is silent besides soft twinkling music box chimes. That is, until a voice cuts through the quiet with a haughty scoff. "Hohhhhh? To think that you would pursue so far even through the reaches of this primitive galaxy. I have underestimated you, Precure." Standing right between the eyes of the hill (because the hill has eyes), is a teal-skinned man with an exotic alien outfit and triangular neon orange sunglasses. He holds one hand up to his face, fingers splayed between his forehead and cheeks, striking a dramatic pose with the golden grip of a weapon held down by his side. He pulls his hand away, curling his fingers towards the group of Elites with a disdainful smirk. "I see you have joined forces with the warrior princess of those barbaric, backwards kingdoms as well. Such a pathetic alliance is no match for the combined power of the Nottraider Empire and the Shroob Colony-- you will fall before my might just as your feeble 'Mario' did before you!" Cure Star grimaces and clenches her fists, shouting back up at the man on the hill. "Kappard?! How could you be willing to work with those guys?! The Shroob chew up entire planets and leave them empty!" "Hah!" Kappard throws his head back with a laugh, clapping his palm to his forehead. Seeming genuinely incensed at that of all things, he retorts, "Those backwards fools doomed themselves to that fate long before the Stellar Note landed on their rotten world! By opening their gates and allowed the locusts to swarm their lands for trivialities such as 'tennis' and 'go-karts', they had invited their own destruction! The Shroob were only a symptom of their careless generosity! Even you were only interested in taking what you believed was rightfully yours-- their 'Binary Star'!" "...Khhh--!" Hikaru grits her teeth and slides her foot backwards. Yuma makes a low, distressed hum at Hikaru's emotional wounding, flying around her. Lala steps in to take her place, straining to raise her voice. "No! You're wrong, lun! We all were there because... we really wanted to race, lun! That's what brought us all together from all across space! People from different worlds can have fun together, not just fight, lun!"
Star Twinkle	"Hmph. I have no time for this childish nonsense." Kappard huffs and turns his face away. He lifts up his hand and curls it, framing the shroob-infected observatory in the background like a skull held high by a Shakespearean actor. "It matters not what you think of our temporary allies. Lady Mujinko's wisdom will lead Nottrei into a golden age, and it begins today, when I strike you down and claim the Star Drop as hers." "So now, Cure Star, Cure Milky, Princess, and all your little 'friends'-- here we go." Kappard's golden weapon erupts with dual blades made of wavering light, already having stolen power from something 'else' earlier. One side is rings of red and orange with a core of white, and the other is blue and dark blue, with both of them having an outline of 'petals' made of energy. He springs off the hillside with a 'boi-oing' sound, flipping around in the air and swiping his sword down at the group, sending a wave of bouncing fiery and icy balls raining down towards them.
Futaba Nuki	Futaba really would've liked to have a chill day off here. All the stars shining before her, all those sparkling hills and comfortable-looking clouds are practically screaming at her to run around, reach out, and just swing herself off of them... She could probably still pull that off now, actually, but she needs to find the right time for it so it looks like proper heroism rather than just goofing off. "Maybe if I slingshot off one of those clouds, I could do some kind of hyperspace Rider Kick, but if the angle's off..." Leaving her concerns about insurance coverage for another time, Futaba soon finds herself face to face with a familiar foe that draws her eyes right to the shining spot right at the top of his head. "Kappard... It's been a while! As if buggin' these gals across space wasn't enough..." The ninja holds two fingers up to her face with one hand while extending the other hand towards Kappard with a dramatic pose of her own. "Now you guys're lookin' to start a whole war with other planets and leave nothin' but bones behind? That's...!" Futaba throws her arm over her shoulder, complete with a dramatic flap of her scarf over her face as it drifts lazily by her head. She needs a bit of coverage to remind herself that intergalactic war is a bad thing, but fighting someone with that kind of jump in ambition? That's getting Futaba's heart racing, and she claps her hands together to start going through the usual array of ninja hand seal-themed moves before shoving both hands into each side of her fanny pack. "... That's right. What any of us think doesn't matter here. All that matters is that we settle things, here and now!" A sheathe comes out from one side of the pack while a flaming katana slides out from the other, and Futaba gives the blade a brief twirl to make sure the flames flicker around her properly while sliding the sheath back into her bag. "With our fists." She adds, cleaving her katana through one of Kappard's bouncing elemental balls before starting to beeline towards him. The ninja starts doing all manner of rapid flips as she advances towards him, too, darting around in a seemingly random pattern to make her approach hard to predict... At least, unless Kappard notices that she's exclusively moving into the path of the icy balls. Slicing into those with her flaming katana looks a lot cooler than doing the same with fire, after all. "Now, take it! Secret Technique #94: Elemental Incursion!" Futaba goes through a few more hand seals, does a horizontal flip over another bouncing ball, then launches a pair of flaming kunai at Kappard that leave a trail of gleaming flames in their wake. There's probably a pattern to this elemental theming, too.
Audrey Basque	It's all very pretty. A younger Audrey might have wondered if this is what the cosmos was like, before she was old enough to know and understand that, magical symbolism largely cast aside, stars are just big balls of fire, most planets are barren, and there's no miracle out amongst the glittering dots. There's Fate, and meaning, and power, but no marvel such that a child imagines. A palace out in the stars, on a comet... She takes a moment to adjust to her new movements as they reach the Star Road proper. This is intuitive, to her, even if it's disorienting-- and for all the scare about being shot out of an accelerator, their personal little stars made it safe and bearable despite physics saying it shouldn't be. And is that SOUND? In SPACE? "Nottraider Empire and the Shroob Colony" Oh there's a man here! Colorful-- armed. Taunting. She'd hoped for a second the palace would be pleasant to visit. "just as your feeble 'Mario' did before you!" "Oh. Is that why Mario is missing?" Audrey ponders aloud, filling in the necessary quota of reminding everyone that Mario is indeed missing. She's about to ask Hikaru and Lala if they know this man, but that becomes self-evident when Hikaru, then Lala, respond to the taunts. So his name's Kappard, and he works for a... Lady Mujinko? They're looking for a 'Stellar Note' and a 'Binary Star'? Which, obviously, are separate things from the Cobalt Star that is ALSO being searched for, and a Star Drop, which is Yuma. She's trying to keep up! "here we go." Until attacks. That's going to make it hard to keep up. Audrey, who had been holding the ANGELAPAD as diligently as possible to allow her a full view of events, has to let go of it with one hand to defend herself. Her barrier weakened from the trip to the Star Road, the fire & ice pellets break through it! It's that simple, and she's not exactly operating at full attention, or focus, or mental energy. Her (Librarian) uniform is scorched a bit, freezes a bit in places, but nothing dangerous or deadly yet. "S-Sorry, Angela, I don't know if I can keep your pad's camera steady while fighting! I'll do my best!" A flick, for now; there's so many large rocks and debris. Reaching out to yank a chain of asteroids and sling them right for Kappard will do fine until she's fully situated. Would the locals get mad if she had to... no, somehow, the thought of deforming or twisting the Star Road is so weirdly profane. This isn't just 'some terrain'.
Combaticon	> "Hohhhhh?" "Nottraider." Onslaught tilts his head down as he drifts in space above the Star Road. The serenity of the stars and the scenery just couldn't help but be broken by the villain's haughty monologue. Reaching out, he snatches Depthcharge by the leg and drags her down in order to have a face-to-face. "What's your malfunction?" as if she hadn't just tried to shoot her commander a few nanoclicks ago. "Unified, overwhelming firepower." as if he wasn't almost just shot by his underling a few nanoclicks ago. "Let go of me, you have clearly blown a diode." "You already know what this enemy is like." Recoiling, Depthcharge's expression is unreadable behind her battle mask; concealing her mouth and eyes as it does. Swiveling, she casts a glance towards Kappard while he trades words with Cure Star and Cure Milky. After a moment, she tilts her head back with a scoff, "FINE. I will enjoy the break while you do all the work." With that signature sound of the Transformation Cog, Depthcharge transforms. Not into a high-speed attack boat, but into two distinct pieces of equipment. Her head retracts while the torso unfurls into jetcraft wings, relocating the turbo boosters further down; Like this, she affixes to unfolding mounting brackets on Onslaught's back. Her limbs all disconnect, unfurl and reconfigure, and combine into a positively enormous blaster rifle. Even with his prodigious strength, the awkward weight is clear in how he lifts it. "I am getting tired of this," Onslaught mutters, hefting the cannon in both hands. Don't strain yourself too hard, moron. And don't get me killed. He's barely adjusted to the change in his weight and balance when Kappard launches an offensive. Onslaught sweeps the Charge Rifle back behind himself, using his body as a shield while also only slightly putting the Depth Jetpack in harm's way. Both are pelted by fireballs and ice balls in seemingly random patterns. This guy could learn a thing or two from Blitzwing. Thermal shock. Do you know what that is, organic? Only Onslaught can hear Depthcharge's commentary, and so others might just interpret the noise he makes as one of strained effort and pain. He doesn't swing the giant rifle forward just yet-- instead, it's the cannons on his back that open fire, bombarding Kappard with purple laser bolts that explode into bursts of smaller lasers after a short delay like sci-fi flak rounds.
Angela	Roland doesn't think he remembers this guy. He racks his brain but he doesn't exactly recall... Love also doesn't remember this guy but that doesn't mean much because she knows she can be pretty forgetful. Flamel erased her memories, she remembers that, so maybe she DOES know him and just doesn't remember? She wiggles back and forth on her feet. She doesn't think she knows exactly what he's talking about but she does know that it's normal to team up with princesses. "I can't help it. I have Beautiful Princess Disorder." Love protests. "Did you really defeat someone as incredible as Mario? Do you have him trapped in a giant ball?" Wow, if this guy was able to defeat someone as incredible as Mario, he must really be dangerous. "Oh Kappard. Like Kappa--" Roland says distantly. Angela of course does remember Kappard and she is irritated by something he says, immediately speaking up from her little Angelapad that-well is Audrey still carrying her? You bet! "Tennis and go-karts are not trivialities. They are important aspects of living a full and fulfilled life. Even Bowser is willing to engage in g-okarting and tennis and he has to kidnap princesses in order to have companionship." 5r''Khhh--'' "Don't listen to him, Cure Star! Even if you came here for a purpose, I know that in your heart of hearts you always want to make friends and help people out and have fun with them. If you only wanted the Star, you wouldn't have fought so hard to protect the Mushroom Kingdom!" She swings her staff around with her hands to show that she's serious about this! Love also knows it's important that you can't just shrug off a first attack from a magical villain's lieutenant. Though she deftly leaps away from the fire and ice balls, she makes sure to go, "Kyaaaah!" And still get winged by them so she she gets appropriately bruised and scratched up. It helps that she can't actually move quickly enough to dodge them completely. Slowly staggering back up to her fete she says, "ghhh...you're really strong... But you're underestimating the power of our friendship and our love...!" Roland, conversely, gets slammed down by a pair of ice balls and grimacing in pain he says, "gghhh...these balls are heavy..." With effort he pushes one off his body before working on the other. Love recovers more quickly and fires a spray of stars at Kappard!! Bright colorful stars that explode upon contact! "Pretty Star Explosion!" She shouts. "Arcana shouldn't be used for evil!" ''I don't know if I can keep your pad's camera steady--'' "I am used to it. Do what you must." Angela sys.
Dimokratia	Meanwhile, aboard Love Prime: Stuffwell, the sentient suitcase, had opened up to produce a coconut cup drink, which had been taken by Elvin Gadd who was in a particular mood. Hoping to see the majesty of space and not discuss his feelings, Gadd took a long sip of his Vacation Juice and then sat back as a little man still slightly small on the scale of the seats, labcoat draped about lap. Reflected in his glasses is the glowing goldscape of stellar-trail following as Love Prime escapes the Gateway Planet and the kingdoms below completely to pick up the path in the blazed wake of the Star Road travelers. Streaks of color all along the visible spectrum go bouncing in their path across space as leaping points of starlight, left as both navigator path and boost strip for AI to pick up speed to chase after the Precures and reach the heavenly realm above the cosmic plane. There is a certain satisfaction, in this. Gadd had been one of the figures working most closely with the Silver to push the kingdom's reach into space, to explore, to chase the stars that he never could quite jump to reach no matter what he invented, and now - he went into space on an alien rocket ship to chase the Star Road. "They'll never call it a jump..." He yabus with a faint sigh, and a sullen smile. He can't stay mad, and still achieve a dream. He can't defer wonder until after Mario's found - that's just not how it works. Dimo, perched slightly precariously on her seat in the pastel playhouse of a spaceship interior yet seeming to have a good time of things while seated in a half-crouch with a smile painted across carbon-dark lips, is more vocal of her thoughts. "With a path, the astrogation will become more a matter for your helm skill, Love Prime." The faint tak-t-tak fall of gunmetal and carbon black fingers land atop console and brush across without applying pressure with composite tips. "I believe it will be a challenge you can overcome, and grow from. The path before you is clear, so, how far will you go? Will the momentum carry you past the end of the trail? To grow more complex is to grow more divine, my people hold." Not 'believe', but a firm statement. "If you require assistance..." The two long chrome trails that trail fluidly form her back, skirted in semi-transparent skirtings like metal jellyfish umbras, shift, pouring further from the base of her spine to pseudopod out from their passive position to find the same contact points that Lala would with her antennae. The connection is different than manipulation in physical and electrical - but Dimo can speak across many layers and connections, as bright as a sunbeam and as present as the scent of a summer day, sizzling with synapse-crackle about the edges like simple electricity singing harmony to the surrounds. "If you require assistance, merely give me a signal and I will provide the appropriate level of support." The champion adds, low in tone and repeated across multiple frequencies. Just short of oath, a firm insistence. And then . . . '--here we go.' Gadd sits up, slurring a little. His yabus gain a bit of a 'bluh' to the 'bu', but he's still a doctorate. "That young man's(h) jump!" He blurts, pointing at the display screen and then taking another grinning sip of his Vacation Juice, which he was not wasting after getting out. Dimo, noncomprehending, pans gaze over to Gadd, quirking a brow. "He is a frequent rival of the Star Twinkle Pretty Cures. I have read the file -" Gadd, scooching to the front of his seat, reaches up to place his drink on the starship counter (to precariously roll but not quite ever tip over and spill) and point at the screen. "Don't you see?"
Dimokratia	Remoting in from Lala's connection to Love Prime, the voices of Dimo and Gadd are projected into the Star Road. "As I was saying," Gadd begins, forgetting he's only just started the conversation with everyone else. "Be careful about that young man'sh agility! There's something I can't place about it..." "Love Prime and I are still en route to the Star Road. You'll have to work together to repel Kappard. The doctor believes something is wrong, so take extra caution while you plan your attack. We'll perform analysis on our end."
Sarracenia	'I see you have joined forces with the warrior princess of those barbaric, backwards kingdoms as well.' "B-barbaric?!" Sarracenia exclaims, then blinks and looks down at the Luma she is still cradling in the baby carrier on her chest. "Oh, sorry cutie. Was that too loud?" She pulls out a thick blanket, fluffy blanket from her purse before pulling the Luma free and swaddling it in the blanket. "Now, just take a nice nap while we handle this meanie." she says in the most baby-talk tone ever before gently slipping the Luma into her purse. It should be completely safe from harm in there! She clears her throat, then hmphs and stands tall again, her silver hair billowing lightly in the odd gravity. Her one good eye locks onto Kappard. "We are a proud kingdom with one of the most advanced societies to be found in our world! If you had any idea how badly and -easily- we defeated the Shroob invasion of the Mushroom Kingdom you would be running for your life right now!" 'you will fall before my might just as your feeble 'Mario' did before you!' Sarra laughs haughtily. "Ha ha ha! As if one such as you could defeat the heroic Mario! There is no way he has fallen! We will discover what you have done with him and bring him back, and then your Lady Mujinko will be vanquished just like King Bowser has been so many times!" 'Those backwards fools doomed themselves to that fate long before the Stellar Note landed on their rotten world! By opening their gates and allowed the locusts to swarm their lands for trivialities such as 'tennis' and 'go-karts', they had invited their own destruction!' Sarra mmmphs, anger rising. "Those activities are to foster good relations between the kingdoms! Not to mention they are just fun! Do not mistake generosity for weakness! And do not -dare- accuse these innocent Precures of anything so heinous!" 'It matters not what you think of our temporary allies. Lady Mujinko's wisdom will lead Nottrei into a golden age, and it begins today, when I strike you down and claim the Star Drop as hers. So now, Cure Star, Cure Milky, Princess, and all your little 'friends'-- here we go.' Sarra's hand reaches up to her Silver lotus hairpin as soon as the 'here we go' is said, and in the span of a second it flows into her hands and forms into her signature hammer. As Kappard leaps over them she swings her hammer in an overhead arc, sending out a chaff of Silver flechettes to try and intercept as many fire and ice balls as possible. She is unlikely to get all of them, but with an opening made she twirls to conserve the hammer's momentum and swings again, sending a much more directed burst of those Silver spikes at Kappard. Sarra then twirls her hammer and brings the haft down to create a resounding 'thud'. "I am Princess Sarracenia Sundew, Crown Princess of the Sundew Kingdom and...lest you forget...Aspiring Heroine! There is no way you will defeat us! Between me, the Cures, and our friends you stand no chance!" After that she looks around at the UFOs. Without even one airship it will take a bit longer to handle them. But then, she does have capable allies with her. 'The doctor believes something is wrong, so take extra caution while you plan your attack. We'll perform analysis on our end.' Sarra blinks a few times. "C-caution...?" It is Dimo asking, so it carries weight with Sarra. But...she is pretty much the opposite of caution. "Er...of course! Caution!" There is very little chance she will be any more than slightly more cautious.
Star Twinkle	"What any of us think doesn't matter here. All that matters is that we settle things, here and now!" "Ha! That's right!" Kappard doesn't even seem particularly angry at Futaba, but he underhand swings his sword upwards to direct a rush of ice balls towards her anyways. Landing on the ground, he's caught by one of her flaming knives, but the fire-flowery end of Baldome swipes through the others and vaporizes them in an elemental counter. "All that matters is your strength! Your determination to seize what rightfully belongs to you! The fate of the world cannot be found in petty arguments about what is 'right', but in the clash of our weapons!" Cure Milky throws up a shield to bounce most of the fireballs off, but she's pinned down under the bombardment. Arms crossed over her head, she's hammered down and her magic shield begins to crack, until Star swoops in and swings her arm, sending an emanation of stars smacking all of Kappard's projectiles away with the help of Sarra's Silver. Star lands in the clouds with a poof, but her head is still bowed and her fist is clenched. "The Nottraiders... isn't that too far, even for them? Didn't they see what happened to all those Toads when the Shroob got to them? How can they be okay with that? That Mujinko...." "Tennis and go-karts are not trivialities. They are important aspects of living a full and fulfilled life." "Those activities are to foster good relations between the kingdoms!" "Uuu-- lun! We know what matters! People having fun, and living together happily, and meeting all sorts of new and interesting people... that's what everyone wants, lun! So no matter what, we'll stop you!" Reinvigorated by the collective shouts, Hikaru punches her fist into her palm. "Right! Kappard, we'll punch right through you! And one day, however long it takes, I'm gonna talk to your Mujinko, and I'll learn why! Because even though it's terrible... I want to know! Even for you!" Hikaru pulls out the Warpulator and gives it a wiggle, causing stardust to coalesce into another launch star above Lala. As Lala is about to be rocketed out of it, Hikaru leaps up to double-jump off her own star platform, catching Lala mid-launch and redirecting her with a 'hhaaa--!' of exertion to send her flying into a kick at Kappard. Kappard is shockingly nimble, even to Onslaught, Sarra, and Futaba who have fought him before. With little 'woop's, he bounds off terrain, backflipping backwards to dodge out of Onslaught's laser flak and sliding down a vertical cliff on the central hill only to spring off when an asteroid flies towards him, hopping on top of it and sending it cratering downwards. He lands on one of the smaller foothills, only slightly elevated with his heel digging into the 'face' on the hill.
Star Twinkle	"Ha ha ha! As if one such as you could defeat the heroic Mario! "Do you have him trapped in a giant ball?" Kappard puts his hand to his chest, lifting his chin to look down past his nose at Sarracenia. "'One such as me'? One of Lady Mujinko's most trusted assistants? General of the Nottrei Army? Feared conqueror across the Starscape Galaxy? I should hope, princess, that my titles are up to your exceeding standards" With a flourish, he retrieves another glowing blue shard-- the third fragment of the Cobalt Star. He raises up his sword and calls out dramatically, "My blade, Baldome! Draw in and crush the hearts of those who hath stood in my way!" Rather than the dark energy swirling around and drawing from any of you, as it has before, it envelops the piece of the Cobalt Star in his hand. There's a brief flicker of heroic red, almost drowned out, before the darkness clears away and Kappard is equipped with a backpack-like device that Sarracenia might recognize-- as a teal-palette version of Mario's F.L.U.D.D. The hose over his shoulder pumps out a massive stream of water, and Kappard's hand magically bends it into a sphere. Lala's charged kick impacts it and her teal lightning dissipates through it without touching him. Cure Milky falls to the ground, water wicking off of her costume quickly, but still soaking her hair. "Oyo?! Is that...?!" "Yes! That's right! What was once your 'hero'... is now the tool I shall use to defeat you once and for all!" F.L.U.D.D. modulates into a twin-jetted hoverpack, blasting out water forcefully that Lala has to roll away as Kappard is levitated up into the air. Once he's gained height, he spins around rapidly, flinging water in every direction, and then follows it up with a barrage of ice-flower balls to attempt to freeze you in blocks of ice!
Sarracenia	''One such as me'? One of Lady Mujinko's most trusted assistants? General of the Nottrei Army? Feared conqueror across the Starscape Galaxy? I should hope, princess, that my titles are up to your exceeding standards' "Your titles matter little!" Sarra says back. "Mario has defeated tyrant kings! The one only aspect which is important is...being a villain! And that is...why..." The flicker of red is very brief, but Sarra notices it. She loses some of her fire as she realizes what must have happened. When the F.L.U.D.D. is drawn out, she growls lightly. "So, that is what you did with him! He is merely trapped!" she exclaims, then...lets out a 'hee' along with a slight smirk. "It will avail you not! You might be able to use the tools of a hero, but they will not give their all for you like they would for him!" As the water starts freezing, Sarra quickly reaches into her purse. "Here! Everyone, take one and use it immediately!" she says before throwing fire flowers out toward all her allies before using one herself. Now in a fiery red dress, she starts throwing fire balls to counter the ice with the intent that her allies do the same. "When did he get so fast?!" Between fireballs, Sarra keeps throwing out Silver arrows at Kappard. She certainly isn't fast enough to keep up with him on foot, so this will have to do for now!
Combaticon	> "As if one such as you could defeat the heroic Mario!" "Do not underestimate an enemy officer," Onslaught chides, bright red eyes shifting briefly towards Sarracenia. When his gaze returns to Kappard, he continues, "He is an officer for a reason." Turbo boosters ignite, keeping Onslaught aloft easily (as if they were meant to make something far, far heavier fly instead). He keeps that enormous rifle back, using his body as a shield while evaluating Kappard's movements. This seems much faster than the prior encounters indicated. And what about all that noise he's making? "Completely new behavior." > "Oyo?! Is that...?!" > "Yes! That's right! What was once your 'hero'... is now the tool I shall use to defeat you once and for all!" Target the sword. Dipping his head slightly, Onslaught shields his face behind his free hand, splashed with water and pelted with ice. It freezes over his artillery guns and threatens to choke out his flight boosters while covering much of his metal surface in just enough ice to hinder his movement. With a grunt of effort, the Combaticon commander twists himself and flexes his outstretched arm to shatter the ice covering his primary articulating parts. With his cannons still ice-jammed, he swings forward that ginormous blaster rifle and steadies it with both hands, his legs splayed out in front of him for balance. "If you insist on standing in my way..." After a second of acquiring target, Onslaught fires-- a lance of high powered purple laser straight at Kappard's beloved twin-blade Baldome, centered on the hilt right where he's holding it. "I will not hesitate."
Futaba Nuki	"Tennis and go-karts are not trivialities." "That's right... I came here lookin' for a tennis tourney and everything!" Thanks to Angela, Futaba finally remembers (or just gets reminded) why she had come to the Mushroom Kingdom in the first place. With that important lesson reverberating through her mind, the ninja changes back into her tennis outfit in the brief moment between her tail obscuring her from view and revealing herself to whoever's looking right at her. She's still using her flaming katana instead of a tennis racket, but there's only so much she can do with that kind of artifact. "I don't know if I can keep your pad's camera steady--" "Do what you must." "Pass it 'ere!" Futaba waves at Audrey and the Angelapad, but not with her hand. That's busy swinging a flaming katana around! No, what's waving at them is her tail, elongated in somewhat bizarre looking way that almost looks like a selfie stick. Rather, she just turned her tail into a selfie stick. Dare Audrey dare entrust the Angelapad's fate to Futaba's transformed tail? "Be careful about that young man'sh agility!" "The doctor believes something is wrong, so take extra caution while you plan your attack." "Sounds like he's gotten stronger since the last time we fought... Alright, alright!" Sounding even more pumped up than before, Futaba can certainly confirm that change for herself when Kappard sends more of those ice balls her way. Even though she gets pummeled hard by the increased quantity of ice balls, the ninja actually looks more fired up with the opportunity to strike at more of them in the process. That brief break to smack away more balls also provides Futaba an opportunity to see how far he's come since their last battle. Seeing how deftly he evades shots and springs off the terrain gets an intrigued whistle out of the ninja, and she's soon giving chase so as to not fall too far behind and risk having to play catch up instead of actually fighting him properly. "I still remember hearin' about your dedication to Lady Mujinko the last time we fought. Glad to see it hasn't faded one bit since then..." Despite the compliments, however, Futaba frowns slightly when she sees the flicker of red that come across as something completely different to her. "What was once your 'hero'..." "Oh. Oh, that's..." Futaba can't really fault him for that, either, as she glances at the golden bangle on her wrist and the flaming katana in her hand. "Using the power of your fallen foes, too... Rrgh!" Why did he have to get so much cooler than last time? Grasping her face dramatically with her free hand, Futaba throws her upper body backwards while thrusting the katana forward to point the tip towards Kappard, striking another pose even as the icy barrage comes hurtling towards her. The ice all but consumes the tennis tanuki, swallowing her up in a block of ice while she holds that strange pose... Seconds later, however, the ice starts to melt, and the flames from her katana starts bursting out of the block, wreathing Futaba in flames while somehow keeping her tennis uniform intact. (The Angelapad is also protected, if she was handed over earlier). "N-n-no wonder you're a hero to your p-people..." Futaba starts, but she doesn't sound so satisfied with that declaration. Muttering something about the ice under her breath, she swipes her hand across the back of her katana, spurring the flames into a greater intensity before resuming her charge. She bounces off of hills, slides under flying ice balls whizzing just past her, and she even kicks off the back of another ice block to launch herself at Kappard with a flurry of rapid one-handed swings from the katana before spewing out a gout of flame right from her mouth and a closed fist in front of her face.
Angela	"Yeah! Punching is the express route to understanding!" Love agrees proudly as Roland finally shoves the second ice ball off of him before flopping onto his back, defeated. He might not be ready to fight magical girl villains. He certainly feels out of his wheelhouse. "Roland, I expect you to help appropriately." Angela says, leaning back in her chair. "If he has captured Mario you must save him. We can hold it over Sarracenia." "I'm not that petty..." Roland complains but he does stand himself up, rolling away from water blasts and ice blasts to try and get a feel for ho9w exactly to help out? Should he be targeting the backpack? But is Mario in there? He better not risk that. So instead he uses the lining of his suit that Audrey stitched in to summon a pair of pistols, firing them rapidly at Kappard before trading the pistols for a shotgun, aiming dead center for Kappard's body. Love, distracted by Roland's technique, wondering if guns are appropriate magical girl weaponry--is readily drenched in water, then frozen in a block of ice! Somehow she managed to throw out a peace sign with her fingers before getting frozen, but she's stuck!
Audrey Basque	Audrey of course does her diligent best to keep the Angelapad facing Kappard so that Angela can have a passionate speech about... "Hang on, you go-kart? A-And play tennis?" Well she didn't say she did, exactly, but the way she seems to value the activities and know about them... "Be careful about that young man'sh agility!" That could mean ANYTHING, though! "My blade, Baldome!" That substantially narrows it down. Audrey recognizes the fragment of the Cobalt Star, both by feel and by appearance. So it's not merely agility, he might have... weird time powers, then? "Yes! That's right! What was once your 'hero'..." ... and that? Is that why Gadd is so worried? "Pass it 'ere!" Audrey entrusts Futaba with ANGELAPAD x1. "I need it back after!" This frees up her hands! The incoming stream of water is met with Audrey's renewed spatial barrier, folding layers of space around herself in a sphere-- the water is caught, forming a sphere of water around the sphere of-- well, distance. Nothing, really! But a lot of nothing. And then the water freezes. Audrey, now inside a large hollow block of ice, frowns a bit. "I... did not think that through." No wait hang on, if Kappard thinks she's stuck or frozen or whatever, maybe he won't pay attention to her? She could just teleport out but... what if instead she just played the part and then surprised him? She just needs a second. Wait for him to focus on someone else, and-- Reach out, rupture space, and try to swipe the F.L.U.D.D. off his back! She'd settle for the piece of the Cobalt Star, but that backpack seems to be powering him up and it might keep existing even without the Cobalt Star. Audrey need only hope the shard won't make him precognitive even to something like teleportation.
Dimokratia	Dimo advises caution when going up against the highly agile Kappard, while a slightly durnk Elvin Gadd continues to try and work the sensors by pointing at the screen and making emphatic noises. With champion in periphery attempting to assist in multiple dimensions at once, the fight continues for a few beats and moments with the simple sound of doctor and champion working in the background onboard Love Prime. There's a background sound of Stuffwell starting in on "Doctor, would you like a tutorial on telecommunication devices?" and earning frustrated "I know how to use a phone! End tutorial!" in return, while Dimo warns first of the alightment of energy. "Kappard is a skilled duelist, and has an adaptive weapon. Try to avoid being thrown off your patterns by his--" Dimo councils steadily, before Kappard escalates so much that the audio profile of the advisory communication changes to emphasize Gadd. "That! That there! The-- the-- wooshing... woosh device!" Gadd pauses to take another sip of Vacation juice, then coughs and aspirates in anguish as the evil flash goes from red to F.L.U.D.D.'s evil simulacra. "As I was saying - that that!!" A flabbergasted Gadd accuses with the point of a finger (that doesn't translate, yet you're sure he's speaking about F.L.U.D.D. by timing). He rallies. "Thief! Theft of my intellectual property! And also -- you didn't! You couldn't! Someone as narrow as you could never defeat Mario!" "Doctor, please, the combat support." Dimo reminds. "Would you like a tutorial on effective communicati-" "As I was saying!! My masterpiece invention - the Flash Liqudizer Ultra Dousing Device, known as Fludd, is the most advanced multipurpose water delivery and transit device known to all the kingdoms! And space! And right where you are! Watch out!!" Still excited, Gadd continues on after a breath and sip of beverage. "There are a number of attachments--" "There are a number of attachments that I am explaining! As I was saying, the multi-modal intelligent head attachment allows water shooting, hover and flight, rocket boosting, and hydroplaning turbo!" Dimo rounds out the update with a faint note of concern-tinted assurance. "In the hands of a water manipulator, I must reiterate: act with thought, for it appears as if your opponent is using the temporal anomaly to draw on Mario's powers. . . directly?"
Star Twinkle	"So, that is what you did with him! He is merely trapped!" "A hero who has failed their people is already defeated!" Kappard declares, from his high-up hoverjet perch. "That he is imprisoned within the Cobalt Star is only an extra layer of humiliation! If your Mario is not defeated, then look upon what remains of his charges and tell me that he still deserves the title of 'hero'!" "Glad to see it hasn't faded one bit since then..." Kappard clutches his fist to his chest, tilting up his face and closing his eyes dramatically. "Of course not! My dedication to Lady Mujinko stretches to the edges of the galaxy! As does every Nottrei's!" Gesturing more like a stage performer than a fighter, the emphatic point of the blade of Baldome down at the Elites causes the pooling water on the clouds to lightly surge upwards, not enough to do anything. "Nottrei is alone in this! The only truly united people, united by our shared disgust for the rest of your pitiful, cruel worlds! That is why our victory is inevitable!" Cure Star struggles to stand, using Sarracenia's gifted fire flower to kick a fireball out of her foot and shatter the ice pinning it to the floor. Her outfit, already pink, intensifies to hot red, with a little pointy orange flower pin opposite her hairband. "If people are cruel, why not try to tell them? Why be cruel back?! No one wants to hurt people! When it comes to aliens... people just don't understand!" While Kappard is bloviating, his hand with Baldome waves out to the side, giving Onslaught a clear shot. The laser hits his hand, and he grunts with pain as Baldome goes flying away, and FLUDD's repositioning in the air is far too slow for him to catch up. Then, the empty tank of water on his back sparkles with cobalt-blue motes, and time reverses locally to reset FLUDD back to when the tank was full. Kappard quickly shifts it to the hose mode, and after spraying a stream of water towards Baldome, he holds out his hand and draws the water back into it, pulling the sword along with. During its transit, the sword flips around, bringing the ice-flower side of the blades into the position for Kappard's primary use. Cooled from the water and ice-aspected, each time Baldome meets Futaba's flaming katana, it throws up a burst of steam, and Kappard presses the assault back towards Futaba, laughing wildly. The pair of them start to sink as Kappard's hoverjets of water pitter out, and then he's thrown backwards by her flame breath and by Roland's bullets. Apparently, they have exactly the same impact as a punch! It must be because of his armor. As Gadd's exposition about FLUDD plays in the corner of the screen, Kappard lands back on the nebula-surface of the Star Road, gripping the manipulator-handle of the backpack device menacingly. He holds up the Cobalt Star-- Audrey's magic struggles to affect it directly, because it's an attended plot-important greeble!-- and the fragment rotates slowly, showing reflections of blurry Marios in different power-ups. "That the 'greatest technology' of your primitive world involves the manipulation of water is a flourish on my own argument. Water is the lifeblood of a world and its people. And yet, here, it's reduced to petty machinery, to be used up and discarded. Sickening blindness, from a people that will cannibalize themselves whether or not Lady Mujinko casts you into darkness. Still, the products of your world can be amusing, at least."
Star Twinkle	"My blade, Baldome!" The next powerup that Kappard manifests from the Cobalt Star is... a fat little penguin suit, that he immediately equips. It replaces his armor with a penguin onesie, with wide flippers that still grip his twin-blade, and a hood drawn over his head with a beak placed between his eyes. FLUDD releases a torrent of water all around Star Road, blasting people back, and then a follow-up wave of ice balls from his sword freezes it... not around the Elites, but in smooth, slippery ice tracks, arching around like a roller coaster, making it nearly impossible to move around on the ground without falling! Kappard flops down to his stomach and flaps his flippers, and despite appearances, it sends him rocketing around the ice untouchably fast. Sliding on his stomach, he zips past the Elites to swipe at them with Baldome, cackling with delight. Lala attempts to follow by conjuring up a heart-shaped platform of magic to surf on, but she's still too slow...! Audrey's magic can finally catch hold of FLUDD, though, and yanks it off of his back. Lala dives off of a loop-de-loop made of ice, floating through the low-gravity to grab the device midair and clutching it to her chest in a slow flip. "Lun! Now he can't make any more!"
Star Twinkle	While Kappard is rolling around on his stomach in a stupid little onesie, a pair of people float down from the UFOs swarming the observatory above. They're each in a puffy cloud with a blissful smiley face on it-- a Lakitu cloud, Sarra would know. One of them is a young cyclopean alien girl with purple skin, zig-zagging antennae, and giant frizzy pigtails. The other one is clearly her butler, a cat man with a tailcoat a necktie, sternly watching with his hands folded behind his back. The former, Eyewon, folds her arms across her chest, eye squinting and lips twisted in an expression of sheer, unadulterated disdain. This expression is directed at... not the Pretty Cures, but her own companion in the Nottraiders. "Iya, iya... don't you have any dignity, dummy? You look like a freaking toddler, not a Nottraider general. If you wanted to move fast, like, you could've asked me for some rocket boots, or even my freaking hovercraft. Like, have some respect for your image, dork. It reflects badly on all of us." Kappard, zooming midair in a graceful arc like a dolphin after having launched himself off of an ice slope, responds in passing, with a flipper smugly curled under his chin. "Foolish Eyewon. I shall crush my enemies with their own tools. That way, they shall know beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I, the magnificent Kappard, am superior to them in every way!" Eyewon's antennae flatten to either side, eye upturned and her hands on her hips. "Ugh. You're, like, so embarrassing. I'm leaving."
Futaba Nuki	"I need it back after!" "Don't you worry your pretty head about a thing!" Futaba declares as she stabs her katana into an ice block, forcing it upwards to cleave the whole thing in half and stave off the shivers for at least another few seconds. "I'll make sure nothin' bad happens to Angela's eyes and ears here." She turns the tail-mounted Angelapad towards herself, brings her hands up in a quick peace sign and smile for the camera, then turns her attention back to the battle at hand. As promised, Futaba's quite good about keeping it out of harm's way, even when she's taking some of those ice blasts head on herself. She makes sure to keep the camera trained on the fight, too, doing so even when her face couldn't possibly be looking at where the pad is. Of course, just being really good at controlling her own body isn't enough to make this fight any easier, as Kappard's abilities bolstered by the FLUDD proves to make just reaching him tricky enough. "the multi-modal intelligent head attachment allows water shooting, hover and flight, rocket boosting, and hydroplaning turbo!" "it appears as if your opponent is using the temporal anomaly to draw on Mario's powers. . . directly?" "Sure sounds like the thing was made for Kappard... Dang, we really couldn't have a worse matchup than this!" Once again, Futaba sounds more excited than concerned even as she tries to drum up an idea on how to actually fight Kappard to a close rather than just staying on the back foot the whole time. "If that thing's all about water, and his powers are all about water..." An idea forms, and she's already well armed for exactly what she had in mind. "So if we just make sure he can't get any more water in, then that'll be the ticket!" She feels reinvigorated for the battle as her katana continues to clash with Baldome, sweating profusely even as the ice freezes that sweat and melts repeatedly from the flames surrounding her weapon. The tanuki clearly seems to be right at home in this battle-haze with the Nottrei's hero, and she even makes a point NOT to transform her wounds away, ensuring that each slash from Kappard's sword remains visible even when they're forced apart. "And yet, here, it's reduced to petty machinery, to be used up and discarded." In the middle of Kappard's monologue about water, Futaba looks confused for the first time. "Didn't I watch somethin' about this a while back? Water cycles or...?" She struggles to figure it out even though something sounds off to ninja, visibly trouble identifying what that thing is..
Futaba Nuki	"My blade, Baldome!" Casting that concern from her mind anyway, Futaba thrusts her katana into the ground to hold it steady as she prepares for Kappard's next attack! It's... Fatter than she expected. Cuter, too, and the ninja takes a moment to inhale deeply before coughing into her hand a few times. "D... Dude. Come on." Futaba's hammy tone drops for that moment, too, as she looks around slowly while trying to gauge everyone else's reactions. It also keeps her from looking directly at Kappard, giving him ample opportunity to cut into her while she's distracted trying specifically not to look at him. "Ow! Dang it... A-alright, fine!" Suddenly sounding irritated, Futaba realizes that the heat in her face isn't going away, and she promptly transforms into massive-ish dinosaurthat still has the big green leaf on her forehead, a golden belt around her midsection, and the Angelapad safely embedded into the tip of her tail.. "Trying to distract us with that kind of form... No more slippin' around, then!" The dinosaur-shaped Futaba promptly starts breathing fire all over the ice-arena, going for wide and high to mitigate Kappard's mobility advantage as much as she can. She pauses briefly only to take a breath, and also to lift a stubby little arm towards that other familiar pair all the way up in those clouds. "Yo, Eyewon! Hey, Bakenyan. Fancy seein' you two here!" Another blast of fire breath, and then Futaba raises her arm like she's trying to lean on something while eyeing the cat man specifically. Sadly, the dinosaur arms are far too short for that. "You come here often?"
Combaticon	A direct hit-- Kappard responds to knocking his sword away by manipulating various factors into yanking it right back into his grip. Onslaught's optics narrow slightly. Unexpected. Here I was hoping someone else would capitalize on that opening to get the Cobalt Star. I get what I deserve for relying on organics to do a 'bot's job. "You are getting distracted," Onslaught mutters to nobody in particular. Hovering as he is with his Depthcharge flight pack, turning the floor into ice isn't as big of an obstruction for him. Honestly, what did I expect? When Kappard, now equipped with the Penguin Suit, jump-soars past him, Onslaught whirls in midair and puts the Giant Cannon between himself and the evil sword Baldome. Metal strikes metal with a satisfying ring and a spray of sparks and liquid Energon that splatters onto the ice below. --Ow! What are you doing?! "Pay attention and do your job properly." Futaba turns fire breath on the icy arena while the villain argues with one of his own comrades-- that cyclopean alien that attacked the race on Cybertron. Onslaught's attention flicks towards Eyewon for just a nanoclick. Long enough to be noticed, but short enough to make it clear he's not interested in throwing shade her way. Instead, as the icy stunt track Kappard created starts to fall apart, Onslaught relies on Depthcharge's estimation for where he's going to wind up when friction reintroduces itself to him. And that's where he fires his cannon, after a presumably wet and cold landing.
Sarracenia	'Do not underestimate an enemy officer, He is an officer for a reason.' Sarra's cheeks puff at the chiding, then she hmphs. "I have no doubt he has served his lady steadfastly, but that does not change the fact that he is a villain surrounded by..." She looks around, then nods. "...yes, surrounded by heroic figures." Even if she doesn't like all of the people around her, Sarra recognizes when others have heroic qualities. 'If he has captured Mario you must save him. We can hold it over Sarracenia.' 'I'm not that petty...' Sarra mmphs at the idea of Angela's agents saving Mario, but still she says, "...As long as he is saved it matters little who ultimately does the saving! But, my compliments to you Mr. Roland for your maturity." 'A hero who has failed their people is already defeated!' "A defeated or captured hero is still not a fallen one!" Sarra declares. "All that means is that he will return and defeat you in the end!" 'If people are cruel, why not try to tell them? Why be cruel back?! No one wants to hurt people! When it comes to aliens... people just don't understand!' Sarra gets a somber look at that. "...some people do want to hurt people, Cure Star." she says. Her eyes flick toward Audrey (no doubt indicating Petra), then to Angela. "And they will use any twisted logic they can to make it seem like they are justified." Futaba's clashes with Kappard are quite spectacular to watch between the sparks and the steam, and Sarra finds herself really wishing she had super speed or teleportation or something. Kappard pulls out another power-up, and Sarracenia...blinks in surprise. "...a penguin suit power-up?" she says quietly, and despite the situation her eyes sparkle a bit. "Why did I not know about this?!" she exclaims...only to cry out a moment later as Kappenguin comes darting by and slashes her legs out from under her. The princess goes down hard, landing with a bounce on her bottom. Her legs are still attached of course, but deep cuts have hamstringed her. Fortunately, green light flows over her from her green mushroom power-ups. It's enough to get her back on her feet, but if she wasn't catching him before she certainly isn't now. That is, until she reaches into her purse and pulls out...a giant ice skate! She pulls out a few more in case anyone else wants one, then hops in and is off down the ice. She then pulls out a Bullet Bill power-up. "Let us see if you think our karting is such a silly pastime after this!!" Sarra exclaims, then is engulfed in an explosion. A car-sized Bullet Bill comes rocketing out, chasing Kappard down the ice as if it is magnetically attached to the ice road. It may reach him, it may not, but either way after several seconds it explodes and Sarra comes rocketing out in what is basically an ice skate kart. Using the speed from the Bullet Bill power-up she works to close the distance. But...she doesn't close it completely. Because next Sarra pulls out a Blue Shell. The winged, spiked shell flaps a few times in her hand before she laughs in a way that almost verges on evil before she throws it. The shell locks on to the person in first place on this 'track' and tracks him doggedly. When it finally reaches him it explodes quite powerfully! "One should really be careful when ahead of the pack~" The two clouds floating down from the observatory finally draw Sarra's attention, and she sighs heavily. "...not you again." she says toward Eyewon. The cat butler is fine though as far as Sarra is concerned. He is Eyewon's Gregory, and Gregories are to be respected. 'Ugh. You're, like, so embarrassing. I'm leaving.' Sarra blinks in surprise, then laughs loudly before shaking her head. "I see even on your world the wonderous abilities and cute outfits that are suit power-ups are just not respected!"
Audrey Basque	Water everywhere again! But... not aimed at them, just the terrain? The ice sphere around Audrey cracks and shatters all the same, to reveal that she... does not know how to skate. Or deal with ice physics. This... may actually be her first time standing on ice? Still, she can salvage this! She just needs a second to stand still, grab that backpack and-- "Lun! Now he can't make any more!" "Good catch La-- Cure Milky!" She has to remember. It's important. You don't do a magical girl dirty like that. It's not as efficient and quick as she'd have liked, but it's true! Teleporting greebles like the Cobalt Star is way more complicated than just knowing its position and changing it. That thing has heft, and power, and also a plumber, apparently. Now that the backpack is taken care of... THUMP. Audrey slips and falls onto her ass, grumbling. She attempts to get back up. She slips worse and ends up on her stomach, face first into the ice. Uses her arms to try to get herself back up, and fwips further ahead until she hits the side of an ice ramp going up. "?!?!" WHY IS IT SO HARD? Depthcharge's CANNONFIRE shakes the ice and further prevents Audrey from rising. She makes a noise somewhere in the realm of 'frustrated enough she might actually cuss', which has only really happened once. Ish. "...some people do want to hurt people, Cure Star." "Stop lying to the magical girls, I can feel your glare! It's really not like-- woop!!" Slip, trip, spin. Frown. Eventually Audrey remembers she can fly, and starts hovering off the ice. She straightens herself, dusts all the ice shavings and snow off her uniform, and crosses her arms like she's pouting. "Ugh. You're, like, so embarrassing. I'm leaving." Just in time to not miss the new friends. Friends who are not staying, apparently. Flicking a wrist, tracing a line-- pulling on something, she sends a ripple out, trying to shatter as much of the ice as it's possible to with a wave of fluctuating gravity to stress it. Then a drag, trying to follow Kappard's zooming shape with her hands until she's superimposed whatever she pinched onto him. While HE is unaffected... he is now the proud owner of a gravity field that's attracting all the shattered ice. A lot!
Angela	Angela doesn't seem to object who is holding onto the Angelapad but she is sort of not looking much at that particular screen right now because it's swerving around a lot. Instead she's looking off to the side frowning and suddenly walking off away from the screen. Since visitors are usually Syndicates--Angela doesn't know why but it's thanks to Lilian's warning to the Liu Association that Fixer groups are largely staying away--but that also means they tend to be less inclined to wait for her so it's just showing an empty space until a little wandering kodoma waddles over in front of the camera and sits itself down there, cocking its head to the left and wiggling gently. She isn't around to hear the last jab from Sarracenia but that's probably for the best. Angela isn't exactly known for being gentle with children, she's known for crushing them in a giant hydraulic press. She'd probably agree though, that some people do want to hurt people, but would she say so? To an innocent magical girl? The world will not find that out today. Instead as Love continues to be frozen, Roland clenches his teeth as Sarracenia compliments his maturity. Maybe that's why Angela is inclined to be spiteful? Ugh. He can't stand the feeling like she's just waiting for whatever he happens to think or do or say in the moment to justify herself. But punching someone with bullets seems just fine to him, he's honestly rather accustomed to people just deflecting them away so this is still an improvement--and there's no way he's going to be able to keep up with this Kappard guy on mobility, so guns it is. He turns his gun towards the ice prison Love is in and fires off a shot, shattering it to pieces. Love shakes her head slightly and exhales, looking a bit cold and dizzy. "AHem! Thank you, Sir Roland! I'm going to Arcana Slave him no--" "I don't think we have time for that." Roland says. Love frowns, disappointed, so she just launches a laser blast Kappard's way, a small one, since she can't even do the whole chant. Sometimes this happens, she tells herself. It's pink, at least, not the dire and spooky purple.
Star Twinkle	Hikaru isn't nearly as graceful on the ice as Lala is with her magic heart surfboard, but she's at least familiar with the physics of ice. She scrambles over to Audrey while she's slipping around, ducks into a three-point slide to not just skid right past her, and then gives her a hand. After lifting her up, Hikaru advises, "If you keep your feet wide apart, it's a lot easier to stand!" Kappard, on the other hand, takes to the ice like a fish to water, or like he himself did to water earlier. The penguin powerup gives him speed and mobility when navigating the ice on his stomach, flipping overhead on loop-de-loops to bash people with a fiery or ice slash of Baldome. As silly as it looks, he seems genuinely thrilled to be beset on all sides by the Precures and their allies, dextrously outmaneuvering them and redoubling his efforts with an energetic growl whenever an attack lands on him. It is, as Sarra accurately observed-- kind of like kart racing. Lala and Hikaru work together to try and pen him in, with Lala's high speed on the ice being used to skate in front of him and force him to swerve or else collide with Lala's protective magic. When he does, Hikaru swings her fist down at the ice in front of him like a stage hazard, sending up a shower of stars and shattering the ice to try and make him stop. Together with Audrey's help breaking the ice, Kappard's maneuverable areas gradually shrink, before they start melting too. "Yo, Eyewon! Hey, Bakenyan. Fancy seein' you two here!" While Eyewon just rolls her eye in exasperation, Bakenyan gives a politely neutral greeting on her behalf. "Greetings, Miss Nuki. Sir Onslaught, Princess Sundew, Miss Angela, and... as well." Oddly, his professional demeanor slipped to simply mumble past not acknowledging Cure Milky or Star, despite his willingness to nod his head to the other familiar enemies. "Lady Eyewon will not be staying much longer. Part of the conditions of our alliance with the Shroob was to trade technological secrets for my lady's benefits, hence our attendance to this meeting at the Comet Observatory. Now that that has been done..." He trails off, eyes drifting over to Lala specifically for a moment. "... We shall bid you adieu." "I see even on your world the wonderous abilities and cute outfits that are suit power-ups are just not respected!" "Ugh!" Eyewon rapidly taps her foot in frustration, which is visible because of the little puffs of cloud coming out of the bottom of the Lakitu cloud. "Of course I don't respect something stupid like that! I make my power-up suits look cool for the Nottreis! Kappard's, like, a grown freaking adult, and that's baby clothes! You'd look even more ridiculous wearing baby clothes, you dumb old hag!" Eyewon sticks out her tongue, and then the both of them fly back to one of the spaceships, slipping back in through the top before flying away. Yay!
Star Twinkle	"Let us see if you think our karting is such a silly pastime after this!!" "Hahhh?! This isn't--!" Kappard's deep offense at this fight being called that causes him to slip up and get hit straight on by Sarra's blue shell. He goes flying, penguin suit knocked off by the impact, and when Futaba's melted water and Audrey's pelted ice shards hit him at once, he can't adapt modally to both. Still, on top of the puddles of water, he's mobile just from his affinity with it, cutting through the water more easily than running. "Yeah! It's just like racing, Kappard! And face it-- you thought it was really really nebulamazing there, for a second, didn't you?!" Kappard growls and slices through the water, sending a knifelike wave of it towards Hikaru and Sarra. "Rrrr... shut up, you miserable worm! This is a battle!" Kappard raises up the Cobalt Star fragment, but this time, Onslaught is more ready. The cannon shot knocks him backwards, and Hikaru immediately follows up by leaping up into the air, swinging her arm around to wind up a punch with a magical star growing in intensity. "Milky! Love! Let's hit him at the same time! Precure ¤ Staaar Punch!" "Milkyyyy Shock!" Kappard is blasted away again, and this time, the Cobalt Star shard goes flying from his grasp, landing with a soft blue glow in the clouds of Star Road. He struggles back up to his feet, wiping at his mouth with the back of his hand and glaring at everyone. A few tense seconds pass, and then his hand drops away, and his expression sinks from antagonistic resentment to... disappointment, somehow. "Tch. Take your victory, Pretty Cures and your Princess. It will not matter in the end. Strength... in the end, only determines the sturdiness of your ideals. In the face of armies, or world-devouring hives... it means nothing." Kappard runs and jumps off of a hill, and in the lower gravity, he can escape the pull of Star Road entirely to flip through space towards the UFOs. Hikaru watches him go, de-belting after a moment, with an oddly pensive look on her face. "Did he sound... unhappy? About... what...?"
Sarracenia	'Of course I don't respect something stupid like that! I make my power-up suits look cool for the Nottreis! Kappard's, like, a grown freaking adult, and that's baby clothes! You'd look even more ridiculous wearing baby clothes, you dumb old hag!' Sarra huffs angrily. "I am not a hag!! I am a princess!! And I bet you would look adorable in a tanuki suit! I bet you are so upset because you like them but think people would say you look stupid! Here, have one!" Sarra throws one at Eyewon, though even she doesn't have the arm to throw it hard and fast enough to catch a cloud flying away. "Minster Bakenyan! Be a dear and make sure she receives it at least, will you?" she calls out, then blinks. "Wait, what benefits are they receiving?" 'Rrrr... shut up, you miserable worm! This is a battle!' "Kart races are -indeed- battles, Kappard! I bet you would enjoy them immensely!" Sarra adds on to what Hikaru is saying. "Perhaps you should join us in our next race!" Yes, she extends the invitation even though they are currently fighting over a kidnapped hero. 'Tch. Take your victory, Pretty Cures and your Princess. It will not matter in the end. Strength... in the end, only determines the sturdiness of your ideals. In the face of armies, or world-devouring hives... it means nothing.' 'Did he sound... unhappy? About... what...?' Sarra skids to a stop in her skate next to Hikaru. "Strength and friends though can defeat armies and world-devouring hives!" she says to Kappard as he leaves, then looks to Audrey. "I did not mean you!" she calls out before turning to Hikaru. "Perhaps you were right. Maybe no one actually -wants- to hurt people. They just think they have to for some reason." she says. She carefully climbs out of her skate and gingerly steps onto her feet. She winces some, but she can stand. She makes her way over to the Cobalt Star shard to collect it, provided no one else beats her to it. "At least we got this back. Does this mean we can save Mario now? We will surely need him if we want to defeat the Shroob and the Nottreis."
Combaticon	"Solid effect," Onslaught reports. Shifting as Kappard makes his retreat, the Combaticon commander fires a few more times-- lower charge, more for effect than injury. Stop you processorless scraplet, you're just wasting my Energon. He relents, hefting the huge rifle up and bracing it with both hands. Optics shift from Kappard to where the Cobalt Star fragment fell. His optic shift again from that spot to the Precures, assessing them for any serious injury. Before he can say anything-- Depthcharge disengages from him. The flight pack transforms back into a torso and the gun transforms back into arms and legs and reattach. Immediately, the smaller Decepticon twists and glowers down her back at the ugly bare-metal scarring down her legs and the backs of her arms, "You clod! A protoform would do better!" "You are tougher than you think," Onslaught responds without looking. Lazily, with no visible flight mechanism now, he drifts down to the runaway waters where the Cobalt Star fragment had fallen. He land lightly, crouches, and collects it. There's a resounding CLANG as Depthcharge axe-kicks the top of his head hard enough to dent his metal 'hat', shooting sparks out of all of his joints at once. Still, with his free hand, Onslaught hands the fragment to Sarracenia when she approaches before he turns to contend further with his violently angry subordinate. Despite how severe he looks...basically all the time, this is a scolding that he listens patiently to. Though it might take a while. A scolding that carries on even while Depthcharge sets about with repairing him-- and includes far too much technological gobbledegook to make sense to anyone other than probably Dr. E. Gadd.