Scene #9444: Star¤Twinkle Precure ~ Silver Mario Galaxy 6

Owner	Pose
Dimokratia	Combat with the BLADE OF THE NOTTREI, KAPPARD, ends with the star road questants managing to repel the sword-wielding elite abusing the length and depth of contextual transformative produced by the lands Sarracenia, Dr. Gadd, and the missing Mario Mario (of the Brothers Mario). While the battle is pitched and difficult as the very inventions you have all been lightly relying on to carry and guide you forward to success are suborned in shadow by the Nottrei commander including one of Elvin Gadd's finest inventions: F.L.U.D.D.! Divested of that, and his Cobalt Star piece that was allowing his time dilated arsenal of powerups similar to the time dilated army of Shroobs, a charge was led by the Star Twinkle Pretty Cures - and you! - into the Comet Observatory. Heavenlike, the Star Road's highest peak hangs above the five stellar points connected by golden lines that wrap the entirety of the lands '''beneath''' in the connection of the Power Stars and the congress of cosmic energy through the galaxy. Not quite stairs, not quite ramp, the bridge up the cloudy mountain is also in the silhouette of (Power) stars, end to end and rising golden towards the celestial span of the Comet Observatory's grounds. Beneath, tumorlike, pulsing gently - like heartbeat, steady pumping - is the upside-down fat purple mushroom cap you are now familiar with as the most basic and most important Shroob edifice: Giant evil mushroom. Unfortunately, it is not just growing from the site of Toadstool Castle's crater, but from the heavenly temple of Rosalina herself. The Comet Observatory, despite its state of being overtaken from underneath with fungal growth, is otherwise a beautiful floating sky palace set over the golden glow of the Star Road in porcelain whites and a kind of mauve frilling like a large pavilion tent spanning over a covered island. The pavilion tent structure spires up, with two more levels and an observatory tower, while around is a walk in microcosm without true floor (beyond a pillowy pouf of mycellum) and instead a truly minimalist arrangement of stone, path, soil neatly pressed and manicured into a pleasant green groundcover without irrigation or support, a small external library, and a few other assorted islands both connected by strut and only 'attached' by linkages of light. Joining you on your approach is LOVE PRIME, conveyance-partner of the Star Twinkle Pretty Cures, which decelerates from Star Road speeds as it matches pace with the dash-up of the group. Dimo, of the Silver, as well as Doctor Elvin Gadd and his trusty yet tutorial-denied fully autonomous living luggage Stuffwell all disembark in light leap, Dimo catching the doctor and Stuffwell doing a potentially-intended frontfall-flip that somehow ends with an on-point landing and immediate transition into animated walking like the sprites were changed out in a visual novel and it didn't fall from spaceship and approach speed. "SALUTATIONS!" Stuffwell announces, immediately cut off by Gadd. "Yesh hello! Ash I was shaying-" Slur-yabus the slightly drunk Gadd, his constant slightly-swirly glasses sloshing as his head wobbles. "We have to save Mario! And defeat these. . . purple villains!" Dimo, who had landed in a graceful flare of long chrome trails into the single beat of great metal wings of a moment, folds back down into light jog as the group transitions off of stars and onto the faint grass of the arrival area. "This facility has been seized by the Shroob's organic vector. The doctor and I will move to the engine room of this satellite and attempt to purge the growth on the underside. Meanwhile," "Stuffwellsh will join you! For the strife-battling! Aheh!" It's unclear if Gadd is coughing, laughing, both, or just a little phlegmy in his yabuing. "And for keeping in contact through the P.H.O.N.E!"
Dimokratia	Despite spelling it out, both Stuffwell and Dimo look to the doctor. Dimo, normally perfectly composed with the arm-cradled little man, manages to only quirk an eyebrow. "If you think that wise." Dimo concedes, stepping to the side and looking over at Angela's agents. "Magical Girl of Love, Roland, I will be requiring your assistance -" While you arrive, so do your interception force - popping up from behind shrubs and around windows and phoning about your location from around the corners of buildings. Shroobs and Shrooboids (the robot ones) pinch claws and gather up in a great halo of eyes and hate from the forward field, and, centerpieced: a full squad of Nottraiders! The silver-suited space soldiers with big N's on their otherwise primarily featureless helmet, stance up, some drawing beamy blaster pistols not dissimilar from the Shroob's blasters, and others brandishing straight out classic powerups! While several Shroob raise and consume evil purple mushrooms - you know, the ones that usually kill you with poison! - several of the Nottraider soldiers lift completely normal white-speckled red Super Mushrooms! Both consuming their Shroober or Super Mushrooms and growing into second story forms, the Super Shroob and Super Nottraiders lead the charge of their lesser siblings. Waves of beamfire, stolen Fire Flower power, and the physical threat of goons big and small immediately rise to greet the gang as they arrive! Forming a spear of chrome silver mid motion of arm and shoulder to slice-deflect aside the hot burst of Fire Flower shot detonations, Dimo gestures out to the onrush with her other hand, smiling across carbon-dark lips. "- for I will be too busy protecting the doctor to open a path." With Roland, Love, Dimo, and Gadd diverting around the perimeter and fighting their way with spear, beam, and struck blow, the main force is left to you to deal with! Deeper within, magic senses can find a greater-within temple structure that houses multiple immensities of power - some as familiar as foes, others as familiar as the stars around them, and a third... simply familiar! But still, no sign of Mario...
Futaba Nuki	Futaba is ever-present as she has been throughout this race to save the elder Mario, floating alongside the Silver like a trusty wingman if she had a wingman shaped like some kind of weird kite. Is there even wind out here? Does Futaba even need to be doing that? Perhaps not, but making approach that way feels far more visually impressive than just sort of floating along with her arms at her sides, and it keeps the blood flowing well in anticipation of what's sure to be a battle against the giant mushroom and its defenders. "Are you gonna be okay heading that way on your own? I know Miss Dimo'll be alright, but..." Futaba asks, looking from Dimo to Gadd as she starts making mental guesses at how he could keep up with Dimo on the way in. "You got any firepower in that coat of yours? Jetpacks, flamethrowers, crazy bulk arms?" Stuffwell joining the main attack force gets a more confident laugh out of the ninja, though, and she brushes her nose once before pumping her fist in the air right in front of herself. "Well, I'm sure it'll work out 's long as we keep our heads on. IF anyone needs cover from whatever they've got up their sleeves, just say the word and I'll be right on it." Futaba's boast proves to be one she's more than willing to live up to, too, as the battle begins against the interception forces first. More than eager to draw attention to herself, the ninja charges into battle just like a ninja should, with her bright red scarf flapping behind her while drawing a flaming katana out to start flourishing it all over herself. "Come on, come on! You've got to do way better than that to get anywhere near me!" As Futaba shouts out that challenge, she somersaults over incoming blasts while sliding under others, bringing up her katana to shield herself from others that aren't quite so easy to dodge in a cool-looking way. Raising a leg for a heel-stomp, an armored boot instead comes down at the head of one of the oncoming Super Shroobs, and then the ninja leaps off of that to make sure she gets at least one cool descending attack on someone before the day is done!
Audrey Basque	You can tell Audrey is getting back on her feet from the fact she's wearing her cute outfit again, cloak and all like a dork, rather than her Library uniform; which surely must mean she wasn't thrust into the assignment forcefully by Angela, for a change from last time. Or the one before? Both! Hair down, enough of a smile on her face to not look out of place amongst the stars, she is driven entirely by one thing: getting to see the Observatory, overtaken or otherwise. This is her element! She'd forgotten it, for the longest time, or maybe she'd simply adopted the wrong viewpoint. Basking in the Star Road's golden light is rejuvenating. This isn't the Hidden Continent, and the power that flows here isn't simple, raw "mana". But it's not about that! It's about the moment. Still, shame about the Shroobs. Contrast with when they launched, Audrey's flight is controlled and precise. When they approach, her landing is a sparkling, crackling, refracting mess of broken mirror shards, short-range skipping from approaching the Observatory to simply standing by everyone else. "The doctor and I will move to the engine room of this satellite and attempt to purge the growth on the underside." "Of course. Good luck. Once the growth is gone, I might be able to command the considerable power here to help us, but until then, it's interfering a bit too much for me to do it on-the-fly. Now that I'm rested..." Her cloak shimmers, the starry sky within an exact replica of the very universe around them! She's calling on the stars. "I can sense a few different sources of power in here, but if you give me one second, perhaps I can..." Shroobs and Nottraiders! Oh that's a lot of Shroobs. And... soldiers? Audrey's not familiar with the Nottraider grunts. "... two or three instead of one, maybe..." Audrey pours her effort and focus mostly into her barrier, folding dozens of layers of space over herself to catch the incoming beams and flames in a great spiralling mess around herself. Her eyes look back at her cloak, then up at the universe-sky. Stars o stars, where is Mario? Just point a direction, it'll be enough. While she awaits the twinkling star or three that'll give her the hint she needs, she goes about trying something Sophia gave her an idea for. Compress and squeeze all that fire and energy, tighter, and tighter, rip it all from its orbit around her until it forms-- A COLORFUL EXPLOSION. Audrey is knocked back (possibly into someone else!) by her own failure, which serves to aggress the Shroobs coming at her with a colorful mix of all their tricks, but also momentarily grounds her with an "oomph!!" that shatters her barrier like invisible glass or crystal. "Uuugh!! That was supposed to be easy." Well, maybe those things just don't mix. No, no, she just didn't try hard enough. "A-Anyway! One second, I'll divine our way!"
Combaticon	Depthcharge's repairs on Onslaught are hasty but effective, following the fight with Kappard. He lifts his hand, flexing his fingers with a light creaking. Without turning his head, his eyes shift to his comrade, "This will have to do." "Do not bother thanking me," Depthcharge's left hand flips out, tucking her multitool away, "You already expressed enough gratitude all over my stabilizers." Still complaining about the damage she sustained while acting as equipment for the commander; she hasn't had a chance to repair herself yet. Love Prime arrives and, with her, Vortex in helicopter form with her rotor blades folded back, soaring jet-like on rocket engines. Briefly, she does a lazy loop around the rocket ship's flight vector, then banks away to join her fellow Combaticons as they touch down in the Observatory's courtyard. Nearing the ground, Vortex's airframe splits open and folds up, reconfiguring (and shrinking) into her robot form just as she hits the immaculately laid stone pathway. "That organic contamination beat us here..." "We were following them. Of course we'd find their source. What did you expect, bolt-brain?" "Enough," Onslaught raises a hand to silence his subordinates, his eyes sweeping across the gathering Nottraiders and Shroob/Shrooboid soldiers. When they all start powering up and increasing in size, his posture straightens slightly. <J-IC-Scene> Combaticon Onslaught says, "I see. The enemy has a new tactic to try." <J-IC-Scene> Tamamo says, "As it would be more convenient, I shall seek to somewhat funnel them together. Be sure to listen for warnings of incoming fire." <J-IC-Scene> Combaticon Onslaught says, "Depthcharge. Vortex. Assist Tamamo. Mark groups of opportunity and I shall open fire." "Of course." "Right!" Onslaught kicks off, sliding back between the two smaller robots with him. As he does so, his body unfolds and reconfigures with that distinctive sound. By the time he's stopped moving, the commander has become a large Roadmaster semi with a military-converted trailer bed, which itself plays host to a two-gun artillery piece. Stabilizers unfold, anchoring him in place while the guns raise into a mostly-vertical position. Depthcharge breaks left, taking to the air with the rumble of jet thrusters from the torpedo boat bits folded up against her back. Circling around, her right arm splits open and flips her hand back so that a collection of three quad-barrel gatlings can flip forward and unfold, "Might as well test this before I give it to Brawl-- I call it the Scrapmaker!" she hisses, opening fire with three distinct streams of purple-tinted laser bolts. Vortex breaks right, similarly going airborne and circling around the other side. She proves she can actually fly without using her rotors when she removes the entire assembly from her back, presenting the whirling blades in front of herself as a shield from various Nottraider and Shroob projectiles, "So many--! It's a shame we might mess up such a nice place!" Her calves split open at the back, exposing the bombs of her helicopter form. While defending herself, Vortex drops a sequence of explosives to hem in some of the goons. "The palace will have to endure. This is for its own good," Onslaught is still audible over the distinctive rumble of his own diesel(?) engine.
Sarracenia	Seeing that ugly fungus growing from an otherwise grand and beautiful observatory draws quite the frown from Sarracenia. "I am not sure if anyone lives here, but they will surely appreciate the removal of that thing." she says, clutching the star shard that seems to contain Mario against her chest after the battle. She thanks Onslaught for collecting it as Dimo, Gadd, and Stuffy arrive. Once they have, she approaches them. "Doctor, Dimo! We have-" But, the trio is already giving information and assignments for the next segment of the battle. Sarra tucks the shard into her purse, then pulls the little Luma up enough to give it a little kiss on the forehead. "Stay in there just a bit longer, little one. We will have this place cleared out soon." she says, then gives it a pat on the head before gently wiggling it back down into her purse. Sarra's cheeks puff more than a little as Love and Roland are picked to assist Dimo, but since there are plenty of baddies to bash she will forgive it this time. One can hardly be blamed for wanting to spend time with Love. The wave of baddies both big and small starts toward them, and Sarra hmphs haughtily at the incoming horde as she reaches up to touch the Silver lotus on her head. Her black gloves are soon covered in silver, and she stretches the silver between her hands until it forms into her signature hammer (replica). "Do you realize how many hordes the great Princess Sarracenia has stopped at this point? You really stand no chance, especially considering the comrades that have joined me!" she calls out to them. She twirls her hammer about herself effortlessly, then charges right toward the incoming enemy horde. Funneling will surely be helpful, but for Sarra thinks there are enough that funneling isn't necessary. Still, she calls out, "Thank you, Lady Tamamo!" as she throws a trio of Bullet Bills upward. They come back down as Sarra goes into a spin, hammering them toward the Shroob with sounds like ship artillery firing. Sarra follows them in herself, getting mobbed quickly but swinging her hammer fiercely and showering the Shroom and Nottraiders with Silver shards every swing.
Tamamo	Tamamo was away for a little while, and now she's back. How long was it? How much time passed outside? Don't worry about it! Time proceeds at just the rate necessary for all destined events to occur. "As it would be more convenient, I shall seek to somewhat funnel them together. Be sure to listen for warnings of incoming fire." Having a few allies nearby and a lot of enemies is hardly ideal, and so, Tamamo sets about trying to make this chaotic mess of a battle a little more organized. Reaching into the magic pocket of a slightly-unzipped racing suit, she draws a stack of paper talismans, and lets them fly in neat arcs, like the lines of a fan being unfolded. They plant onto the ground to either side of her at a fair distance, and link together in faintly wiggly-glowing lines that are hard to focus on. Shroobs and Nottraiders treat these as if they were out-of-bounds walls, 'forced' to press their assault by running around them, and thus grouping up into a smaller number of approaches. Shrooboids, unfortunately, will probably just ignore them, unless they're the smarter sort of AI. The less mind there is, the less can be manipulated by this sort of charm, and Tamamo hasn't had the opportunity to tune her magic for all present threats. "Fire on three. One..." The next set Tamamo has to toss takes flight while she, herself, is under fire, making a concerning number of sparks and glass-shattering sounds as magical arrays flicker into visibility and break in front of her. She's holding for now, but... "Two..." The barrage hits the ground in a neatly surrounding pattern around one super-shroomed Nottraider and a lot of smaller Shroobs where they've been pushed together by the impression of out-of-bounds-ness. "Three." When she said 'fire,' she meant fire. The curse goes off at her utterance, a hellish blaze that leaves curious, geometric patterns of ashed grass on the neat landing lawn. It's a thoroughly unpleasant place to be, for anyone who didn't listen to the warning.
Star Twinkle	Hikaru is still a little perturbed by Kappard's mood after the battle, uncharacteristically quiet while the group takes the bridge up to the Comet Observatory. She's not unhappy, per se, because she did magically punch him in the face while he was swinging a sword at her and she did win and needed to win for the sake of saving a world, but she's just a bit thoughtful on the way it ended. In contrast to the blistering speed of the travel through the launch star earlier, ascending 'above' the Star Road and seeing the whole galaxy spread serenely out in every direction is meditative, like drifting to the bottom of the ocean. Lala is right by her side, of course. She's still feeling plenty talkative herself, but first, she holds out the little handheld telescope, the Star Warpulator, out to Hikaru. "This would be a good place to look at stars, right, lun?" "Oh? Ohhhh!!! That's true!" Hikaru grabs it in a flash and starts looking out beyond the edge of the Star Road at all the solar systems beyond. "Nebulamazing... there's all kinds of constellations I've never seen before, and--! There's a gas giant around that star! And there's a pulsar! And...." Meanwhile, Love Prime is proud to announce the end of their hyperspeed voyage to her passengers, having navigated through planets and around asteroids at speeds that cannot be safe for an egg shaped adorable pink rocket ship. Thrusters in reverse on approach to the Observatory, Love Prime's synthesized voice somehow sounds a little out of breath, even while she makes a ping like an elevator arrival. "We have reached our destination, Miss Dimo, Dr. Gadd, Stuffwell." A pause, while the heart-shaped porthole hisses open for them to hop out. A tiny bit prideful, "Currently, my hull durability remains at 99.9999967% of maximum and my computer and launch systems are within acceptable parameters. Miss Lala, I will remain in orbit for a rapid evacuation if you summon me." "Oh-- good job, AI, lun!" "The doctor and I will move to the engine room of this satellite and attempt to purge the growth on the underside." "Lun!" Battle-ready, Lala grasps her Star Color Pendant in her palm and looks up at the spaceship floating above the fungified observatory. "AI, let me know if they get into too much trouble. And you can count on us, lun!" "Stuffweeeeeeelllllllllllllll...!!!" Hikaru bounds excitedly over. "Since you joined our party, now's a perfect chance for a tutorial! Can you tell me abouttttttttt..." Hikaru loves to be exposited at! In the calm of the moment they arrive before the random encounter music begins, she races through all the options of-- what is this place? Can you travel to anywhere from here? How's that big star in the center work?-- but just then, a laser blast bwoops from behind her and scorches the ground right next to her feet, causing her to jump! "Eep! Er, spinning attack tutorial!!" "Hikaru! There's lots of them, lun!" "Right! Let's go, Lala!" "The twinkling star that shines throughout the universe! Cure Star!" "The milky way that stretches across the heavens! Cure Milky!" Since they've transformed once already recently, this time when they plug their pens into their pendants, there's just a flash of light until they're in their colorful magical girl outfits and poses. They jump in opposite directions, a comet trail of colored light behind them as a Super Nottraider fist smashes into the Observatory deck where they were.
Star Twinkle	On the subject of Mario's disappearance, Hikaru muses while landing a Star Punch on a Shroob, with a spray of cutesy stars radiating out from the impact. "Kappard was taking Mario's power from that Cobalt Star piece... so maybe, if we can find the last pieces, we'll be able to bring Mario back!!" Lala crosses her arms in front of her in an X, causing a teal heart shield to pop up and block a powerful punch from one of the giant Nottraiders. It still cracks under the force, and she grimaces. "Oyo... we have to be able to find them here, since that giant mushroom is here like before! But there's so many of them, lun...!" Hikaru bounces off one of her star platforms, supersized pigtails bobbing in low gravity as she lands nearby Sarracenia in the rampage. "Sarra, Sarra! Do you have any powerups that could match theirs?" At Tamamo's warning, not only is Lala thoroughly outside of the array, but she has a secondary assist for it too. At her shout of "Milky Shock!!!" a stream of greenish electricity comes out of each of her antennae, arcing in different directions to form a ring that zaps any of the enemies who try to leave the fire zone and stuns them.
Dimokratia	"A bit of strain, the graze of stardust, that's good! Proof of your well-taken journey!" Dimo praises, to Love Prime, just before departing. Luma, still in Sarracenia's care, has awoken from it's sleepy nap, having certainly been jostled around by fighting yet mostly serene and hopeful, cradled! It does seem to trust Sarracenia for general and specific reasons that it does not disclose in any form you recognize. Yuma, certainly the closest being to the younger star-child, understood it as finding safety in 'something as close to usual as possible'. It wasn't quite right, wasn't sleeping entirely out of comfort, but... Luma was saving up power for the journey. Now, here, the little starbit gets squirmy as they come up on the Comet Observatory, and is calmed when kissed and stuffed into purse. Grabbing the Cobalt Shard as it's zipped back into purse and and holding the object about by rounded star-arm, the Cobalt Shard dims and spreads its light towards Luma, charging up. This may be a secret tool for later -- but first, Sarra has some battle to work through with her Silver-gloved replica hammer. 'You got any firepower in that coat of yours? Jetpacks, flamethrowers, crazy bulk arms?' DOCTOR ELVIN GADD, currently cradle-seated in Dimo's arm, taps his temple. "Of coursh!" He confidently yabus, lifting hand from head to point proudly up, ready to reveal his device. Then he pauses, with eureka-raised finger turning back to tap the bottom of his chin. "Shomething like that." It's utter chaos for a brief few moments as the battle is joined, Depthcharge's ranged tri-weapon blast volleys joining a Milky Shock's ring-based lockdown zones that trap enemies in ''kill'' boxes in crashing into the great gang of Shroob and Nottrei. Cartoonishly scattering in a lazily-animated sets of translation through space upon being exploded by Combaticon fire or upon contact with the electrical rings they parabolically arc back into the Observatory to land in sprawls and among the rush of their own back lines. At least, from the initial blast, several of the Shrooboids detonate before becoming a problem of timed jumping and defenses - a great victory for all. The rest, before they can close, are immediately locked in by Tamamo's barrier walls. Not interested in interacting with talismans, the rush around the mega-sized Shroob and Nottrei becomes a complete bottleneck as several become guystuck on all of the bodies trying to get around them. Funneled into Vortex and Audrey's countermagical explosioncrafting from air and ground, the horde of lesser enemies around their big counterparts is fire effected tremendously, their super-sized companions not faring too much better. Reduced, after their mushroom powerups account for little more than an extra hit in their novice hands against the elites, while Futaba and Hikaru charge right into the front line with melee combat - big felling punches and axe kicks. With the Super Shroobs bombed to hell by air and magical support, Futaba can get all her drop attack desires to come true on the mushroom-heads while Hikaru gets to giving the usual suspects (of Evil!) a good thrashing like she's going through katas (of canned footage). Tamamo guides the party inwards, while Dimo and her secondary party circle around, Audrey's asking of the stars (there are so many stars here. this is where stars are born, a cradle of heaven.) provokes a response in an intense, personal way from a voice she's never met yet may have been hearing from far away all her life. Wouldn't that be nice? If the stars were voiced by a beautiful woman?
Dimokratia	You've come so far, Speaks the voice of the stars, and like narration it seems to roll through the whole observatory as a whisper, something that strokes the inner ear with meaning. And you're so close, It continues, and then the voice emits a faint struggle against... something. And it is not too late. Deeper within the castle, you'll find everything. If you've brought the other pieces, there's still hope. Please, The voice implores, and then is joined by a second though indistinctly. Hurry. Luma, unzipping from Sarra's bag and charged with Cobalt Star energy, rumbles out a warble-hum and vibrates before shooting off at top speed - fairly fast for a little guy! - as a shooting starlight path leaving a rainbowtwinkling glitter trail deeper into the keep and cannoning through some of the reinforcements in the back that were trying to get out more powerups. The Cobalt Shard is still within Sarra's purse, safe for now, as Luma charges onward to chase that very voice that beckons you deeper. It isn't a direct path -- the halls are much bigger on the inside, warm and made of colorful metals that give an impression of diffracted light through the entire building, as if following a sunrise depicted in mural as you advance through the halls. There's a turn, and in the glow of the Cobalt Shards you've collected, it feels like a different castle all the same. Stretched out, and the intervening areas a haunted-dark. A force presses against you, against the walls, like a rush of wind that stops just short of contacting you, that cannot on Luma's starlight path but threatens even a few steps off of it - a rush of progress-dispelling illusion and dark magic that can send you in an instant all the way back to just after the start, to keep wandering down the same long sunrise hallways with only the unmoving phase of the sunrise to tell that you've stopped completely. Which may be a problem, when down the staircase comes footsteps. A whole LOT of footsteps!! The SWIGGLER (Mk. II Custom), operated with a Shroob scientist in a dome cockpit set into a mushroom. . . cooler helmet of green bubbly drink that feeds into pipes around the biomechanical and fully operational Shroob-Wiggler-Scienceexperiment-Awfulness. It approaches the party, carefully traversing the long flight of steps in a single cycle of feet and a confident centipede-with-mickeyshoes about to bear down on the party. With a battle cry (that you can't hear but can see the wingdings textbox for), the SWIGGLER Mk II barrels down the path at you, snaking and breathing green globules of bouncy rubber that doesn't goop OR stick OR sizzle: it's got bounce physics and will straight up gunk shoot you back to the start! And, back at the start: There's still goons! There's still a fight, seemingly endlessly, chasing from the rear!
Futaba Nuki	"Of coursh!" "Shomething like that." Breathing a light sigh of relief, Futaba grins somewhat sympathetically at Dimo anyway just slightly above where Gadd is being held.. "Hear that? Maybe you won't have to be too busy defending him now. Now if only he waited 'til after we were finished to get blitzed..." "but if you give me one second, perhaps I can..." "So you just need time to get your star powers aligned, right?" Futaba shouts towards Audrey as another volley of Super Nottraider flames scorch her arm, drawing a brief grimace out of her. "Then take aaaall the time in the universe, and leave the chumps to me. I could walk through these kinda fires in my sleep!" Another boast, and then the ninja starts twirling her blade around herself to weave both her own and her opponents' flames together in a flashy, if somewhat confusing display of pyrotechnics. Another twirl, and she swipes her blade sideways to fling a wave of fire right back at her assailants, then charging onwards again to keep making herself the nearest target in range. "Do you realize how many hordes the great Princess Sarracenia has stopped at this point?" "So you ARE a horde type... Mhm, mhm. 'splains some stuff, for sure. Then dueling ain't really yer style, huh?" "The palace will have to endure. This is for its own good," "Let's hope they ain't got some kind of load-bearing star in there, then. 's long as they don't.. Eh, go nuts!" "Be sure to listen for warnings of incoming fire." Futaba is going to be listening to them, but for the wrong reasons. Naturally, the ninja's first instinct is to charge right towards those flames, but she quickly swerves off in another direction just before contact once she realizes that the fire is far hotter than she'd like to test. "But there's so many of them, lun...!" "Don't you worry, Lala. The more of them there are, the less our side has to worry about missing!" Futaba assures as she practically ragdolls backwards to keep her head out of the way of that Milky Shock, cheering a moment later when she sees just how far all that electricity is going alongside Depthcharge's own blasts. "Hah... See what I mean? We could fire anywhere and hit someone, so that's one less thing to worry about. We can worry about grabbin' the stragglers for the star pieces later!" Hikaru's the closest person she can fight alongside at this moment, too, and Futaba's almost looking for excuses to do that cool back-to-back pose with her. Now doesn't quite seem to be the time just yet, though, as the airstrikes and initial charge are going pretty well already, so she'll have to settle with jump-kicking Super Shroobs on the other side of where Hikaru's going. "We're making good time, folks! Yeah, we've even got-" Futaba stops when she hears the mysterious voice going through the observatory and right into her head, bracing her non-flaming katana close to herself with both hands. There's something about what the voice says that's giving her a strange gut feeling, but she can't pinpoint why just yet. There's a pleading voice to save, after all, and she can't let that apprehension slow her down. "Don't you worry, mystery voice.. We'll save you and that Mario Luigi guy all in one swoop!" Another boast, and Futaba chases off after the speeding Luma. She bounds off walls when the turns come a little too suddenly to slide across the ground even though she's just running normally, using her tail to bounce herself around and maintain her top speed the entire time...
Futaba Nuki	Until the SWIGGLER appears. She hears it before she sees it, but she doesn't stop herself from rushing at it as fast as she can, eager to see what the source of all those footsteps is. Against her better judgment, the ninja keeps going at full tilt even though she's busy reading the wingdings textbox at the bottom of her vision instead of actually paying attention to the Mk II firing green gunk towards her. "The heck is...? Oh, poison? Easy!" Unfortunately for Futaba, she makes a bad guess as to what the green globules are and transforms her arm into a solid steel shield as she slams right into the globs. A second later, and she's subjected to a whole bunch of physics hurling her right back at the goons at the rear. "What the...?! That isn't poisoooooon...!" Her voice echoes as she sails past her allies, slamming one transformed gorilla arm into the ground to arrest her momentum just seconds before she would've been overwhelmed. And then she rushes into the swarm of goons instead. "Get to that voice! I'll hold these jerks back!" One more boast, as Futaba's arms return to their normal shapes so she can engage in yet another pitched few vs. many battle, flaming katana vs. evil purple mushroom-powers. She's really putting a lot more effort into doing this in her humanoid ninja-themed state, too, mixing flashy katana slashes with more brawler-esque punches, elbows, and body checks to hurl those goons around and create some chaos while she's at it.
Audrey Basque	Mercifully, Audrey got knocked away from the problems, and not into Tamamo's eventual hellfield. She's has, to no surprise, no interest in being left behind, and hurriedly runs along when Tamamo proposes they make for the center (lobby?) first and go from there. This might have made it a bit harder to read the stars, if the stars weren't talking. She might love this world, now. There's no need to question a voice you feel you've heard a thousand times before. Let alone a voice you've heard everytime you've looked at the sky. Oh the urge to stop and ask a thousand more questions. Later, later... but it's such a hard thing to resist. It's vague, of course, it always is! But it's enough. "Deeper!" Audrey confirms to the party, in a rare moment of just letting her senses (magical and astrological both) dictate her direction. "Make sure you don't lose the other pieces! We'll need them!" For what? No idea. But she said so. After Luma, and where she thinks is right. No hesitation. What a massive palace though. An observatory no less. What she'd give to spend some time here when there isn't an invasion or crisis going on. Almost there, mind your steps, mind the path and... "GAH!" SWIGGLER!!! "So much for a clear way in." It barrels forward at them, along with annoyingly bouncy rubber balls. Being knocked back to the start would be a huge problem, so she'll focus on them. Sarracenia warns to stay back, and Audrey, having been IN FRONT of her big guns before, wisely elects to stay at the princess' side. Side-rear. Closer to rear than side. It's wise, and safe. Raising her hands, Audrey seizes the castle's gravity. Some of it, at least. A gentle tug, like a string of starlight being moved out of place. Alter gravity's pull on the rubber balls. Alter the Swiggler's very own gravity, and make it attract its own bouncy little threats. Let's see how it likes being knocked back down the hall and made vulnerable!
Combaticon	Once the initial force is halted, Onslaught transforms again-- returning to his robot mode. The Nottrei and Shroob have, for the moment, been dealt with. His forearm splits open and a blaster pistol flips out into his waiting hand, held up at the ready as he advances forward into the palace with Depthcharge and Vortex landing behind and to either side of him-- Vortex now wielding two of her rotors as swords while Depthcharge keeps that monstrosity of a chain cannon deployed, braced with her free hand. "Whoa... It's even nicer inside!" "Some manner of physical distortion. Interesting." > "You've come so far and you're so close..." Onslaught stops, raising his free hand. The other two robots stop as well. His head tilts just slightly, hearing out the melodic voice's hushed words. After a moment, he shifts just enough to glance at Depthcharge. He says nothing, but the question is clear. "If you also heard that, then it is unlikely to be an audio glitch," the sciencebot states plainly. "Then we proceed." The little Luma seems to have the same idea. As it dashes off, Onslaught speeds up to a run to pursue the star child's sparkling trail. Unfortunately, the SWIGGLER MK.II (custom!) trundles in the way. All three Decepticons hit the brakes almost as soon as they'd sped up, raising their weapons at the ready. > "That isn't poisoooooon...!" Depthcharge jerks out of the way when Futaba sails right past her due to Physics. "Scatter!" Already, Vortex takes to the air with the whirling of rotors. Depthcharge manages to avoid a direct hit. The bulkier Onslaught is hit squarely; hurled back in similar fashion right into the mob of goons already getting their second wind. He's an easy target while sliding across the ground on his back, sending up trails of sparks. "Slag-- Vortex, go for the control dome!" Depthcharge barks. She braces her stance though, aiming the Scrapmaker back towards the closing horde and opening fire to try and support those who wind up kicked back there. (mostly) Safe from bouncy ball knockback blobs due to the miracle of flight, Vortex circles near the expansive ceiling. Once she sights an opening, she readies her swords and locks her back rotors into a V-shape, diving on the SWIGGLER MK.II (custom!) from above and going right for the funny glass dome the Mad Shoobentist pilots it from.
Sarracenia	'Sarra, Sarra! Do you have any powerups that could match theirs?' Sarra smiles as Hikaru lands nearby. "Ah, hello Hikaru! I do have plenty of power-ups! For this situation I would suggest either the hammer or boomerang suit. Both could hit multiple enemies with each toss. The Metal Cap would also be quite good! Or, if you would like some more explosions to disregard, I have plenty of Bob-ombs!" Sarra talks even as she keeps swinging, but she also tosses out a hammer suit power-up to Hikaru, and anyone who gets close enough and/or wants one also gets one. Sarra doesn't toss bob-ombs to her allies though because that would be dangerous! She does however start adding them to her attacks, swinging her hammer with one hand and tossing bob-ombs up and over with the other to thin out the ranks that Sarra can't reach directly. The voice speaks, and Sarra almost pauses fighting to listen. "Who was that?" Sarra asks, only to blink in surprise when the Luma slips out of her satchel then yelp as it blasts off. "Hey! Do not go alone! It could be dangerous!!" she exclaims. Suddenly the horde is in her way instead of just in need of defeat. Sarra growls, then pulls out a Bullet Bill power-up. "Come on, Hikaru! Follow that star!" she says, then leaps toward where Luma went and explodes. And a car-sized Bullet Bill rockets out from the explosion, carrying Sarra (and possibly Hikaru) within it. It plows nearly effortlessly through the smaller enemies, barrel rolls around one of the larger ones, then explodes again in the midst of more enemies to send Sarracenia spiraling through the air up and hopefully over the rest. As she nears the entrance to the observatory, Sarra pulls out a black box with a red ! on it. She hits it, then tosses it out behind her. It starts unfolding, steadily growing in size until it is a box-shaped cannon that a truck could drive into. With a resounding KA-THUNK a shark faced Banzai Bill slides into view before firing. It arcs upward before coming back down, aiming for the most dense concentration of enemies gathered up by Tamamo. The enemies there are soon engulfed in a growing series of explosions culminating in one last large blast that leaves a mushroom cloud in its wake. Sarra quickly follows the rainbow trail through the halls and down the stairs, frowning at the feeling that a misstep could be disasterous. "Little star! Where are you?" she calls out, only to be intercepted by the SWIGGLER. "Another one?" she huffs. She reaches into her purse and pulls out...a missile launcher bigger than she is loaded with four shark-faced missiles the size of a person. "Out of the way!!" she exclaims before firing all four in series...before she gets bounced off the trail. She appears back at the start, stares for a moment, then her shoulders slump. "...are you serious?" She takes off at a jog to rejoin the fight. On the plus side, she might be able to give more people some power-ups!
Dimokratia	ALONG FOR THE RIDE, Stuffwell is a dynamic suitcase with extra suave stepability. Moving Fast meant leaning forward a little and shuffling those legs real hard, and you bet Stuffwell somehow kept right up with Hikaru (who had opted into tutorial) like he was pinned into a part of the air near her model. "YAYIFICATIONS! I will now give you a tutorial on:" Stuffwell begins, before pivot sliding between the legs of a Nottrei soldier to clear past them before Hikaru punches them out in one strong star-popping cross punch. "The proper use of badges! Watch closely as I attach this badge to my fine leather!" Stuffwell somehow opens, flips out a badge, closes, and lands the badge on its ''lapel'' (Cheek???) such that it is: depicting two brown workshoes. Like Mario! And also, coincidentally, Stuffwell. Then, bouncing with a 'boowhip!' of a high jump, Stuffwell divesteps on a Shroob's head so hard the whole creature Goomba-flattens down into a nearly 2d plane with a star-pouf expellation to either side of landing. "They're used to enhance your ability to Get Important Things Done! Remember to focus on what you're good at in a fight, and equip BADGES to make what you're good at great!" Going right back to jogging along, since having to slow down for SICK HOPS was a necessary distraction - for Tutorials. "The top of my checklist today is: Making sure I use Timed Attacks to take advantage of weak points!" MEANWHILE, BREAKING OFF, Dimo is quick to advance, ducking under a Magical Girl beam cast wildly through the breakthrough flank of the group to pounce on the de-supered Nottrei and Shroob. As a smooth but incredibly complex motion, Dimo moves from a half-crouch with trails braced to either side of her like great grasshopper legs and then moves at a blur through space, trails following at sides in vague crescents. For a beat, they're broad metal wings again, spread wide and beating for air control and pure speed, and then as she prepares in fragments of a second after, they become indefinite again. As she lands, she turns, the morphic silver blades her trails are now whipped around to send the Nottrei sparking back and suit-compromised and instantly defeating the least Shroob in a fray of motion. Gadd, in her arms, is a dizzy head-lolling mess with a goofy smile on his face for being held by a large robot while action happens around his drunken self. Dimo, moving from spin right back into forward step advances steadily under Love's eager blasting. Roland, even if he doesn't want to work, is 'thoughtfully' fed some targets to beat down, but perhaps the Agent has learned that jump attacks are quite effective in this world, and can chain a few together. Dimo sets this up as a challenge. Otherwise, Love will have to do it. With a little extra help, Dimo can effect her own advancing line and supporting line, carrying Gadd around to the engine section of the celestial temple. "You are making better time than I! Take care!" Dimo transmits over wideband, Gadd given too hard a spin cycle to take point. "The Shroob will have had quite the opportunity to fortify this place."
Star Twinkle	"You've come so far," "Huh?" "Oyo?! A voice!" "That must be a star spirit or something!" The ethereally-voiced 'please' rockets the girls into action. Fighting the endless horde encounter, even being scorched and outnumbered ceases to wear the Pretty Cures down once there's a direct call to help. "Star! We can save her as long as we get to the center!" "Yup! We'll just have to push through!" "Lun! I'll open up a path through for you!" But just as Lala is charging up her antennae in front of her like a cannon, Luma races off and bowls through the crowd, causing her to falter. Yuma, startled by the sudden departure of their 'younger sibling', makes an alarmed synthesized trill and then zips through the air after her, with the gap in the enemies closing behind them. Yuma bobs and weaves around the Shroobs and Shrooboids, barely dodging laser blasts in pursuit while the upper 'brow' of her blobby facial light mask furrows in concentration. ""Yuma--!!"" That means there's no time to waste! Lala pulls out a plasticky greeble pen similar to the one she transforms with and plugs it into her pendant again, drawing out the astrological symbol for Cancer with the ribbon of light from its tip. "Cancer Star Color Pen! Color Charge!" The flash of light afterwards puts her into an alternate form: a temporary, specialized power-up of her own! Cancer Milky has fluffier hair than usual, teal up-do spilling over her shooting star headband, and the ends of her antennae, rather than the biological bulbs augmented with stars she usually has, have giant metal grabber claws like a t-rex gripper. The claws reach out and clamp down around the Nottraiders in her way, lifting them up like dolls only to whip around and hurl them into their allies, bowling them down. Hikaru grabs onto the Bullet Bill with Sarracenia and Lala zips past the zappily-unconscious foes to follow after the pair of star-children in the hallways of the observatory. The sound of Yuma's song is still audible up ahead, an agitated swing up and down arpeggios of encouragement and high energy, urging speed and safety and echoing back down the dark-magicked halls to brighten their way just a little bit. The SWIGGLER (Mk.II!) appears! Hikaru tumbles off the Bullet Bill, finally grabbing and holding up Sarracenia's hammer power-up. "No! You're not gonna stop us from saving this place, and everyone else you've hurt! Hhhhaaaaaaa...!!" The hammer power-up flashes and gives Hikaru a silly pink helmet strapped under her chin, yellow star smack on top of her dome and her giant pigtails squished out either side. She swings around the big blunt hammer with one hand like it's as small as a baseball bat, and then runs and leaps up to swing it down onto the cockpit with a shout. Meanwhile: Yuma's song continues, echoing around the room! It's not just that Yuma's 'speaking' to Luma and insisting on accompanying the star baby, but the song gives you the energy to fight on too! Each time you're beaten down, you find it a little easier to get back up, suffused with the determination to bring Luma to that voice that overcomes all obstacles! Lala's giant claws clamp onto the legs of the Swiggler, engaging a teeth-gritting clash of strength between them as she tries to hold it back from its advance. She leans forwards, fists clenched and heels grinding against the floor to try and resist being pushed off the central path and spacially-looped backwards. When a blob of goo gets launched at her, one of the claws releases the Swiggler to bzzorp it with electricity in retaliation, causing the goo to boil and explode before touching her.
Tamamo	"The hall, is it being affected by... a curse...?" Tamamo had already been worried that a few more seconds of chaotic battle would have progressed her from the 'expending invisible resources' stage of damage to 'visible scrapes.' Quite terribly, that happens soon after she's inside -- only worse! Or... not quite so bad! She's unsure how to judge the result of-- Once those bouncy physics attacks are launched, she interposes her her suddenly-visible mirror behind her just-as-suddenly-visible shattering magical shield arrays, only to take the attack so solidly that she's blown backwards with an audible gasp, the mystic connection between body and floating mirror-shield giving her a phantom gut-punch when she fails to keep her feet. She'd say something about only needing a few more seconds, if she hadn't had the wind knocked out of her. She'd also say something about how unfair it is, if she could think of how exactly to articulate that point. It just feels right to her to think she shouldn't be subject to unsolicited physics. Alas, this is the present reality, rapidly approaching the rearward horde. It's all she can do to spin about to land on her feet when she reaches the edge of the star-lit path, and the dark magic of stalled progression takes hold. Fortunately, breaking dark curses weakened in the presence of celestial lights is exactly this bunrei's field. When she lands on her feet -- on the ceiling, very briefly, before gravity can remember her -- Tamamo slaps down (up) a fresh array of charms, feeling in an instant for the tangled paths of Fate and, equivalently, stellar orbits, the paths Sun and Star (wiggly star-babies included) will and must take, and shifts her array to guard the entirety of that path in symbolic miniature just before she begins to fall. Mid-air, she shines in pale-golden light, banishing and daring dark forces to melt before her. And then the shrooboids fire on her from behind, leaving a raw scrape across her cheek. "Oh! That stings!" Rummaging for her healing supplies while on the run is always so troublesome.
Star Twinkle	"The proper use of badges! Watch closely as I attach this badge to my fine leather!" Hikaru lands on the ground after a jump plus hammer attack at the Swiggler, with a secondary CLANG when the hammerhead hits the ground next. She turns to Stuffwell, the absolute pinnacle of greed sparkling in her eyes. "Hey, hey, is there a hammer badge?" When Futaba is launched away by the terrible curse of physics, Lala turns her head away from the Swiggler and shouts. "Futaba!!" A biiiig ol' claw on her antenna stretches down the hallway, right down the middle line to reach out towards Futaba like an outstretched hand, grabbing and yanking her back to the fight before she can be overwhelmed by the horde of mass encounter enemies at the start.
Dimokratia	Passing through a tremendous cloud of Sarracenia's mighty detonations sending mooks flying left and right away from the central entrance of the Comet Observatory, the whole party can make it in Futaba guesses terribly wrong in her expectation of what the SWIGGLER (Mk. II, Custom) is planning on doing with its evil interdiction setup. Not at all aimed at really doing a whole heck of a lot of direct harm, the bulk of the (nearly) invincible angry drinky centipede and the snute shoots of rubberized balls all contribute to the very real threat of getting sent to the SHADOW REALM... of the goons you were already fighting, before. There's still quite a lot of them, rushing in to try and attack from behind with beamy blasters, but it's not everyone's problem. At first, it's just Futaba's! Smacked into the crowd, she gets locked into continuous struggle with a dogpile of Shroobs with guns and claws and lunges and body tackles that are easy enough to elbow and punch and slash through, hurling goons away -- but there's more. There wasn't a whole crowd of Elites worth of goons boiling back there, but there was enough for one. It's a grueling gauntlet for a few moments against Futaba! Audrey is wise to place herself both behind and to the side of Sarracenia because the poor princess of hammerly ways is pushed into the dark-cursed slipstream by the smush of the onrushing SWIGGLER!! It's awful and perhaps the only safe spot is retreat, or doing advanced multibounce tricks! The SWIGGLER (Mk. II Custom) gets an absolutely rude pattern involving side to side zigzags with triple-angle shots, masterfully manipulated into bullying Audrey some and Sarracenia quite a bit to send another member of the party back to basics through the curse slipstream on the wings of the room. Suddenly, Futaba has assistance! Princess Grapefruit and Tanuki team up to double team the goons in the rear, and the pressure comes off them individually. And just as suddenly, Audrey has no screening. Thankfully, she does have Combaticons. Vortex's always-flying option means they can go right over all the ground bouncyball shots and dive down with a diving power attack with her rotorblades! The Scientist Shroob throws its claw arms up and panics, smashed heavily enough to crack safety glass down the center and smash off half the SWIG PIPING powering the SWIGGLER's green sippy concoction that's allowing it to produce those balls! Somehow. There is a construction occurring here that is opaque but the patterns are Not good. Massive angry temple-point emojimarks appear over the scientists's head, and then taking the controls again, the SWIGGLER starts emitting the same with a slightly glitchy offset but plenty of power to spare. Smashing Vortex out of the way with a swat of the head as the big caterpillar waves its dome left and right, Lab-Shroob just going all out to shake rattle and roll the party into a wall and back into the pile! Around this time, Audrey's spell takes effect, bouncing back the rubberized balls into the sucky threat, slamming it repeatedly with overbounced spheres which are gravity assisted to occupy the same space of the Swiggler! Forced back - by gravity, and by the power of (its own) balls (timely defended), the Swiggler must slow and eventually must stop. Passed off with a Hammer powerup, Hikaru gets Brothers Mario about this business. Classically speaking, the Wiggler's danger spot was the top of its head - but here, it was the weak point. Given a good and solid mallet with cartoonish proportions yet considerable heft and a great balance, Hikaru immediately understands the hand-and-a-half handle perfect for swaying and swinging and maneuvering, and the big mallet head perfect for putting a good wind up of smash onto her target.
Dimokratia	"A hammer badge? Of course! Let's see you try a TIMED ATTACK!" Stuffwell hoots, opening in a slide to flip out a glittering hexagonal badge that has the image of a big blue-green metallic hammer on it with nice detailing and real topographical work. It's a fine badge! It also turns the WOODEN mallet in Hikaru's hands into some kind of freak metal hammer. A metal cap - for mallets? What the hell is Gadd inventing? "With the PUMMEL Badge, draw back and wait for the perfect moment to strike! A well timed first hit will defeat the enemy in a single blow!" Stuffwell advises, and Hikaru goes for one mighty twimst-up swing on the cockpit dome with her falling smash from the Star Grapefruit Splash (finisher canning pending) the glass shatters in one slow-feeling detonation, and the hammer moves from connecting the glass to connecting with the Shroob. POW goes the Science Shroob pilot, right out of the cockpit. Lala, clashing to buy Hikaru time, is able to achieve a sweet, sweet twist of her own, rolling the Swiggler off to the side, disabled and pilotless. With the curse abated in a flash of illuminating light, the area you run in becomes compressed, smaller. The grandness shrinks, and the distance becomes more reasonable to 'small satellite observatory, interior' and not 'massive, sprawling final boss castle'. The scenery remains, up a flight of stairs and towards what is more set up as a main hall rather than a throne room, doors simple enough to open once gang is gathered. The Nottrei and Shroob in the back weren't actually infinite - there was just a lot of them, and after getting smashed for a bit by Sarra and Futaba in the back, there's not that many stragglers harassing the group. At the door, Luma waits, bouncing there impatiently, but able to wait for someone else to open the door. And past the door. . . The grand hall within the Comet Observatory is like stepping out into open sky, through a door that stands on a field of soft dark-blue grass that twinkles in a reflection of dewlight under a blanket of stars that is both foreign and usual. Your stars are here. As is your neighbors, just besides. There's so many stars, a spinning lightshow of layer upon layer of patterns lost in the mix of other patterns. Knowers understand and beholders may appreciate, the strangely out there inner room within the Observatory, which the party steps out into on from a door large enough to accept Dimo or a Combaticon standing proud, yet is represented frame-only on the other side. The portal - the disjointed reality, still feels correct in placement, As this semi-round and well-loved ball, this flying grassy place in space, is the seed of it all. A comet, covered in soft grass, with an almost-too-bright white canvas upon a somehow-mundane wooden easel set up next to a stool off to the flank. All about, the stars spin gently, slave to the roll of the irregular Gateway Planet-or-less chunk of cosmic wandering. Ahead, before you, is something strangely misplaced: a throne, in gold and purple, at the top of a golden dias. At the top is... Princess Peach? Blonde hair, hanging, crown wearing princess in pink, there's something odd about her, as she waits as if trapped or sleeping. There's an urging to remain focused, guarded, that this is wrong, that-- %#&#$!!! screeches something throneward in wingdings. ''Peach'' stands, and on the back of her glove that reaches up to her face, to grip ahold of hair, bears one of the last required Cobalt Shards. Thanks to the translation effect, you mostly get it. <<Be quiet! Agh, you're so weak but so annoying!>> Instead of the beautiful Princess Peach, you instead see the peeling-mask reveal of Princess SHROOB, who wears a pendant with a prodigious grey N upon it over her red high-collared dress. Her 'hair' is really more a styled fungal mass, and she has the pure-red eyes of the rest of the Shroob.
Dimokratia	With an imperious wave of her hand, Princess Shroob lifts fist and then gestures out towards the whole group, trailing the blue glow of the Cobalt Star. In return, from among the group, Luma draws from Yuma's song the power of determination, and uses the stored up power of the Cobalt Star again, sending out a wave that washes through the grass like an audible wave, and washes away the golden throne behind Princess Shroob with concentric rings of blue-white light. In its place, in technological restraints and a kind of powered stasis is the tall, elegant teal and white robed princess that you seem to know yet have never met, and, one you probably came here seeing the ad of more simply bound with chains connected to a sleeping chain chomp and manacles on, is Princess Peach Toadstool looking like she's ready for a race and not for royalty in a white and pink racing outfit. Unlike the other woman, Peach is awake. "Luma! You're back! And -- brought friends!" Her surprise is audible. But you all have some work to do. Rippling up from the time stream, painted on like ink filling vessel, watery and illucid but still real even in shadowed form, a nudge over five foot of slightly round humanoid appears before you, in a counterposed gang. Some of them stand with closed fists, others with hands on their hips, others with capes, others that are color inverted and crackle with fire, others holding watery mallets. There's enough for each of you, at least one copy of a hero. To channel them, Princess Shroob seems to have to stand there and vaguely direct them, or at least pour Cobalt Star power into the copies, but... Can you get past (Copy) Mario and steal back the last pieces you need to turn this around??
Combaticon	With Depthcharge's assistance, Onslaught regains his feet and fights his way forward. To her credit, Depthcharge isn't just a sitting duck waiting to get Bounced herself; swiveling in place and deploying her own laser blaster to deflect incoming spheres. By the time the Combaticon commander has rejoined his science officer, the SWIGGLER Mk.II (Custom!) has been toppled over by the combined might of Hikaru and Lala. "Anyone get the license plate of that Autobot?" Vortex's voice wavers out of the dent she made in the floor when the critter smashed her. "Stop complaining. You are a Decepticon." With a groan, the helicopter'bot peels herself off the floor and stands up, her joints creaking. She shakes her head with a distinct rattling sound, then straightens her posture to glance back at the other two Cybertronians. Onslaught eyes her, then lifts his blaster pistol and steps her. Depthcharge follows. With a sigh, Vortex glances over her shoulder at her bent rotors. She tensess a bit until they straighten, then hurries after the other two robots along Luma's sparkling trail. At last catching up to the little star child, Onslaught pauses to glance at the patient little creature, then lifts his eyes to the door. His blaster folds into his arm and, with a heavy shove, he pushes the great doors open to either side. Despite how out of place he looks in the sudden, new, serene surroundings-- he presses on, his blaster flipping back out into his waiting grip. "A different sort of spatial anomaly," Depthcharge observes, casting her eyes upward to the stars, "Not how I would use it, but. Whatever suits the owner." When Onslaught stops, she steps to the left to stand beside him, lowering the Scrapmaker to check its ammunition. In the grand hall, Vortex whirls her rotors back to life and takes to the air, clearly in awe. It's a wonder that only hitches when she finally sees that throne, the person on it-- and that person peeling off their face(mask). She settles in hovering above Onslaught's right shoulder. "Cobalt Star fragment," Onslaught identifies it right away. His head tilts forward slightly, adding to the severity of his already pretty severe default expression, "That does not belong to you." His free hand raises, palm up, fingers flexing, "I am with the DJD. Hand it over and sentencing may be lenient." Princess Shroob instead decides to turn up the heat-- literally, in the case of the three robots. Depthcharge ducks behind Onslaught, using him as cover while he is pelted with fireballs. With a grunt, Onslaught shields his face with his empty hand, swinging his pistol-wielding arm back, "Vortex!" During a brief pause in the fireball barrage, Depthcharge swings out from behind her commander and levels the Scrapmaker, barrels already spun up. Her battle mask snaps in over her face as she opens fire, spraying down the trio of Copy Fire Marios. Vortex had ascended when the barrage began, picking her targets. When Onslaught calls her, though, she abandons the attack run and dives back to him. Mid-dive, her body reconfigures-- and so does his, the arm folding up and away while the shoulder bulks out and presents a socket. Vortex slams into position with a spray of sparks-- now in the form of an arm easily as large as Onslaught's entire body. The fingers flex, then clench into a fist. Rotors fan out from the new bicep, whirling to life in a way that Onslaught utilizes like a shield. Wheels fold down from his legs to his heels, rushing him forward. He doesn't charge the copies of Mario, he'll leave those to Depthcharge. Instead, Onslaught rushes Princess Shroob herself. He drops the 'shield' at the last moment, drawing back, then ramming a big metal fist right at the toxic princess' midsection.
Sarracenia	Usually Sarra is happy to fight hordes of enemies, but there is an adorable star child, another adorable star child, AND two children from the stars in there that need her! Not to mention Audrey who finally looks like she's okay again! And Combaticons that have been mostly amicable toward her even if she has teased them a few times about the universal greeting! The princess slows as she nears the mob again, then hmphs and reaches into her purse. She pulls out another power up. The metal cap. The most unstoppable power-up next to being empowered by an actual power star. She then runs toward the Shroob horde, a living silver princess statue wielding a giant silver hammer, and goes into a spin. She gains spin speed as she goes, and by the time she hits the horde she is a battle top of destruction mowing her way through. Fireballs and laser beams and giant Shroob blast, sear, and pound her, leaving scuffs and dents in the metal, but she just keeps going until she breaks through to the other side. It lasts just long enough for her to get clear of the mob. The princess takes off running as her silver body fades back to normal, downing a green mushroom as she goes. She reaches the throne room just in time to see...an actual toadstool princess??!?! "Ew!" Sarra exclaims before thinking about it. Then she hesitates, thinking about it, wondering if she should apologize to this princess for judging based on appearance. But then, there is the whole attack and kidnapping and all of that. Sarra hmms, then shakes her head. "No, yeah. Ew." she says, then blinks as the other two princesses are revealed. "Princess Peach! It is good to see you are alright!" Sarra calls out, putting her usual disdain for the much more popular princess aside for now. Will Peach recognize her? "Who is that other princess? I do not believe I am familiar with her." Sarra says, then pauses. "...and yet..." The luma is her, and Sarra smiles to it. "I am glad to see you are alright, little one! Just hang on a bit more and we will get free your princess! I am assuming she is the other one?" Sarra turns her attention back to the Shroob princess. "Release them at once, or you will..." she trails off as those shadows appear. Sarra looks them over, confused at first, until she realizes who they look like. Sarra lets out a growl. "How dare you defile the heroic plumber like this?!" she practically screams before reaching into her purse. She pulls out a chunk of dark colored iron as a shadow plumber wielding his own hammer comes toward her. "And you try to disrespect me by sending a hammer wielder after me?!" The iron piece begins to glow lightly with a prismatic effect before Sarra stuffs it into her Silver hammer. The glow soon surrounds her hammer, then flows steadily over Sarra. "I cannot abide this! Not to mention..." The glow engulfs Sarra and her teeth clench. "You made Luma worry!!" Princess Sarracenia may not remember all the details of what happens next. She just hammers as if demon possessed until the Mario clone is a smudge on the floor, no doubt resulting in plenty of blows landed against herself. Then, she is after the Shroob princess. She wouldn't kill a fellow princess, but...you'd be surprised what you can live through.
Futaba Nuki	As pleased as Futaba might be fighting against a swarm, fighting so many of them alone is a different beast from fighting them alongside several other Elites. She's scrambling, she's flipping, she's dipping, and she's getting bounced around even as she throws hands with the lot of them. Sarracenia's arrival in the back of the group helps spread some of that attention around, and Lala's use of proper judgment when it comes to not letting Futaba get in to deep means the tanuki even has an exit when things start getting too hot! "Were there this many of you guys a minute ago? Well, as long as I'm here, I won't let you take a single step past-" In the middle of doing an unnecessary somersault off a Nottraider's face during her monologue, Futaba looks down as Lala's big antenna claw latches onto her complete with audible blink-blinking noises. "Oh. You guys got lucky...!" Once again, her shouts at the stragglers way in the back get that doppler effect as Futaba's brought right back into the fight against the SWIGGLER, landing exactly one more kick on it in passing before it's defeated and its pilot is ejected. "Whew... Alright, alright, enough screwin' around back there. Good call, Lala!" Giving the more shocking of the two a hearty thumbs up of approval, the tanuki stumbles a little over her own feet on the way through the observatory as it shrinks to a more reasonable size. She's not too bummed out about not having a full sized boss castle to run through anymore, either, as she takes it all in stride and joins Luma in front of the door to what's sure to be a sick boss chamber anyway. "Don't worry, Luma. We'll get 'em outta there, just you wait." With that declaration uttered, she steps into the hall, and she sees the potential rescue target: Princess Peach! She's already stretching one arm halfway out to pull herself over before stopping once she hears that translation, only then realizing... "... Oh. That ain't our rescuee, either. That's... Who are you!" Futaba calls out to Princess Shroob, apparently willing to give the last foe between them and the true rescue targets a chance to issue any kind of self-introduction before engaging in more violence. Her attention is stolen briefly when she notices Princess Peach and Other Woman held in stasis not too far away from Princess Shroob, but gets her head back on once she sees the approaching ~~Polygon Team~~ Copy Marios. "One for each of us, huh? Alright, let's see what these shadow clones can do!" True to form, Futaba takes the fight straight to her caped copy foe, throwing heavy haymakers and getting confused when sweeps of the cape get her all discombobulated and slamming her fist into nearby walls and pillars and other things that really suck to punch. She takes some pretty heavy-handed hits of her own, too, but it's all in service of learning the gimmick behind this newest foe! It doesn't take long for her to start comprehending the gimmick, too and Futaba starts compensating by throwing attacks out behind her. A rushing charge with the katana raised overhead turns into Futaba suddenly thrusting it backwards as the cape comes towards her, and blasting flames out of the same in all directions helps compensate for when she's not sure which direction she's going to be swinging in. Eventually, she even takes to the air with a big dramatic jump, striking several poses while in midair. "Let's see if you can take this one... Don't think you'll be able to turn this one around!" Instead of hurtling down towards the caped copy, however, Futaba hurls her katana at Princess Shroob instead. She sends it spiraling forward like a flaming buzzsaw that's growing in size, not because it really is, but because Futaba's adding her own mass to it and making herself the projectile!
Audrey Basque	Audrey is repeatedly denied and re-granted a frontline! Her wizardly privileges are barely holding on. Getting to watch how straying from Luma's safe path sends people back is a good indicator of what sort of terrible curse this is, but it doesn't make it any more desirable to be sent back! Futaba, then Sarracenia-- the Combaticons are still there! It really looks like the SWIGGLER (Mk. II Custom) is going to either run her over and overwhelm her with its projectiles when her spell finally takes and gives IT a taste of its own medicine. This is when she notices that a. Tamamo is glowing with a similar light to Luma, and presumably also keeping the temporal curse at bay, and b. Yuma's song is... empowering? Reinvigorating? Audrey's not quite used to that sort of effect, oddly, enhancement magic of any kind! It's be a waste not to use it though. Making sure to stick by Tamamo, going up the stairs as the hallway normalizes and the curse seems less oppressive, up until they reach-- The grand hall. Audrey continues to bemoan the fact this is an invasion. Enough stars here she might think herself at the center of a galaxy, but a more artistic one, not the blinding white and overwhelming sensation scientific knowledge demands she'd expect there. Whoever built, and tends to, this place... Must really love the universe. But a throne, here? It's out of place. Is that Princess Peach?-- no, it's wrong, she can almost hear the voice. The screeching confirms it. Even the space alien mushrooms have a princess here? The bar must be low. When the hostile princess lifts her hand, Audrey by instinct raises hers defensively, but nothing happens quite yet-- Luma acts first, and now Peach and the other are in plain sight. But no Mario? Oh. There's Mario, actually! "!" A concentrated blast of water smashes into Audrey, before she can put her barrier up. It's enough to shred through clothing, damaging cloth, shirt and skirt alike while she attempts, barely, to stand her ground. Without Yuma's song, she'd have been blown away to the edge of the room, or out wholesale. "Gah!!" She gets her priorities in order before her balance gives out. Fall backwards-- into a tear, space cracking behind her in a mess of mirrored shards. Pop back out of another tear, other end of the room, soaked and miserable. Next, fold space up. Another of Sophia's ideas. No barrier this time. Compress as much force, as much gravity, as much distance as possible into something like a massive spear. A mess of distorted, garbled space, that she "lifts" by raising both arms. And then brings down, towards the copy of Mario hounding her, hearing Sarracenia's demand to have the fake princess all to herself. Unless avoided, the lance goes right through its target! Or it'd be more accurate to say the target is subjected to being put inside the large column as it passes by. With every square inch of it having a different gravity, with all the distance compressed in it, the force... no, no, she wouldn't make it lethal. But it'd scramble your insides and surely put the desire to fight far away from you. Heaven knows what it'll do to a 'fake' shadow copy though!
Tamamo	Wearing a bandage-like patch over her cheek makes it look worse than it is, but Tamamo is back in the action in short order. Having not looked behind her, she isn't aware of how few enemies are still chasing them, making that sprint to the fore a little unnecessary, but it at least fits the theme of the racing suit she's still wearing -- and soon feels a sense of vindication over bringing, once the princesses are revealed. "Once more, it seems that gentle diplomacy is not an acceptable option... and once more, a... no, I suppose that queen was not fungal in nature, but she did wish to spread her progeny everywhere. Is this the same sort of imperialist ambition at work, or shall we call it a twisted sort of maternal impulse? Oh, but without asking, what if it were something else, entirely? Is there some grudge between these princesses of which we were unaware?" But speculating over the motivations of mushroom-related conquests won't stop the very physical, if time-distorted, march of Copy Mario feet, gigantoform, toward her. Still, it's seeing Luma and Yuma up front that arrests Tamamo's attention a critical moment more, as she intones, "Shine brightly, little ones. Having already played the guiding star, a night of endless possibility should end with the sharp break of morning's light." A giant stomping just barely fails to find her, instead hiding her within the dust cloud required by such a scale. Just barely, good fortune found her in the moment. "And as to this possibility, I suspect it a timeline in need of pruning. Let us cut away." She dances, twirling in the midst of danger, knowing well by this point the great dangers of a Mario Jump, trusting to something that only has the outward appearance of instinct to keep her safe. After the sixth close call, Tamamo's spin takes her into a pose, hand held high, and it drops in the same moment as the six talismans below Super Mushroom Copy Mario's feet trigger, calling down lightning from the heavens all around her. It's over in a thunderclapped moment, the path to ground and back again, as well as the branching forks that travel along mystic paths of similarity, moving from copy to copy to controller.
Star Twinkle	"A hammer badge? Of course! Let's see you try a TIMED ATTACK!" "Yes! Hahahaha! Yes!!!" Hikaru's reward for listening to the tutorial and slapping the badge on her chest is a STRONGER HAMMER. In the freeze-frame aftermath of the upgrade, Hikaru's outfit in summary has: knee-length twintails with planetary rings on the end, a pink bicycle-esque helmet strapped under her chin, a giant metal hammer, and more frills, ruffles, and stars than can be counted. This is Hikaru Hoshina's final form. There's no need for a combo finisher to get past the Swiggler! This could be because of the cumulative power of Hikaru and Lala's allies and their masterful teamwork, with Hikaru nailing the first-strike capabilities of PUMMEL and Lala executing a flawless quarter circle, but more likely, it means the battle isn't over yet. Forging ahead, the girls hurry to follow after the glowing trail that Luma and Yuma left, deeper and deeper into the Observatory. Neither Yuma nor Luma have the abilities necessary to open doors and progress the adventure, so they're both stymied together here, bobbing around. Yuma isn't quite as patient as Luma is, but for a different reason than she was earlier. Insistent querying beats and measures are exchanged with the littler star-baby, and then Yuma swirls around in the air restlessly, tendrils streaming behind her. When the Precures reappear around a bend in the hallway, Yuma immediately beelines back towards them, perching on Lala's shoulder like a stumpy-legged parrot. Her face splits off into three orbiting green blobs, and then she continues her song, redoubling its intensity. "Alright, everyone! Let's go reunite Luma and end this once and for all!" The interior of the room has the melancholy flattening effect of a wide open field at night, at least for the duration of the cutscene. This is a place where it feels wrong to speak overloud, curdled and mixed with the uneasy hesitance that both of the girls feel. "Princess...? Are you okay, oyo...?" <<Be quiet! Agh, you're so weak but so annoying!>> "Ahh--! Bodysnatcher princess!" Hikaru twirls her hammer around, slamming it into the ground beside her, gesturing with a free fist to punch towards the Princess Shroob. "Alright, that's the last one! We're gonna defeat you right here, take that Cobalt Star back, free Princess Peach, and save Mario!" Yuma drifts off of Lala's shoulder, causing the green Pretty Cure to hold out her hand to her, dropping it when she intuits where Yuma's expression is pointed. "... Alright, lun. We'll distract them, so stay safe, okay?" While Cure Milky and Cure Star are battling their Mario clone, Yuma has her own mission: take Luma, break past the enemy line together, and get to those princesses, all while supporting her allies with her song! Yuma's head-tendrils wrap Luma close to her chest, and then like a cat-sized football player, she barrels across the room, fighter-jet-veering past boomerangs and water sprays to bring Luma to Peach and Rosalina.
Star Twinkle	"A well timed first hit will defeat the enemy in a single blow....!" Hikaru repeats to herself, grip tightening around the hammer haft. When her Mario clone throws a boomerang at her, she rears back, teetering on her back foot to wait for the input prompt to swing and SMASH that boomerang right back at the Mario. On the far side of the room, joined up with the princesses, Yuma releases Luma and contemplates how to solve a problem on her own. With a lingering look at the sleeping princess, Yuma's glowy facial symbols blob their way into the shape of a star that breaks apart into five circles, in concentric orbits. She turns her face down to the sleeping Chain Chomp, and then sings one piercingly loud note to wake it up, darting past it and baiting its retaliatory bite into the very chain attaching it to hold Princess Peach in place.