["Barrier critical, purging."] Bright Day said, the flickering barrier momentarily strengthening and rushing outwards in a ablative pulse. It only halted the onslaught for a second, the expanding wave hitting the Director and disispating.

In rescue, an inexplicable lamp post erupted from the ground, its blazing light drawing the Director's insane flurry of laser fire in. It glowed with the contained energy.The dashing figure on top leapt free a second before it exploded. “The toss of a coin sends me to your aid, ladies!”

Akari took advantage of the lull. "No chance to miss! Shooting Star!" she shouted, faling like one herself, nocking her bow to realease a fully charged shot.

The last surviving mudman sprang into the air, spreading itself into a thick disc to act as a living shield.

"No!" Mitsuko shouted, leaping skywards.

["Celestial Sphere"]

"Impulse Rush!"

With a flare from her Impulse Wings, Mitsuko thrust herself at a downward angle, Celestial Sphere appearing just before the tip of her weapon. Not firing it, she rammed bodily into the blocker mudman.

The orb bored through the creature like a cannonball, the mudman's amorphous substance stretched into a wide ring around the point where Mitusko passed through it, breaking apart in her wake.

"Yaaaah!"

The sphere hit just below the eye, a shimmering green field appearing just above the Director's shadowy armour, mapping the shape of every whorl as the Rides glowed.

"Break through it!" Mitsuko shouted as the Director raised a scythe to strike.

Bright Day pulsed and the firing disk collapsed to launch the attack. The crimson projectile grinding into the Ride augmented armour, Mitsuko forced her sphere forward, stabbing into her missile from behind with the shining tip of the spear.

There was a yellow flash, golden light erupting forward and directly into the Director, several Rides cracking. Mitsuko was hurled back unsteadily, tumbling through the air.

Almost instantly after, the comet tailed Shooting Star hit, the green light shattering like broken glass and the shadow beneath boiling off like foul steam from the silvery explosion engulfing the crab-like monsters' torso, the green light of its central eye almost drowned out, the smaller lights of more Rides giving out.

Mitsuko regained her balance in midair, drifting slowly downwards as the Impulse Wings supported her, watching the spectacle.

An icy ribbon plunged into the light, hitting with a snowflake burst, the Director stiffening as hoarfrost crept out along its spidery limbs. The green light of its eyes flickered.

Eight burning stars impacted it last, each one causing a new burst of light.

With a mad, high keening, the Director surged forward, smoky shadows chasing it. It launched into the air with the frames of Void Windows opening about it, cracked Rides glowing as they charged for a new volley. Several exploded, and it fell back.

Its body dissolved into shadowy motes, starting from the extremities and working inwards, burned out rides dropping out of its frame to litter the ground, until there was just the dimming glow of its eye. With a spark, it decomposed into a casting circle, sending up a new flare like the mudmen before vanishing completely.

It was finally over.

OOC: I was wanting to wait for more Verda activity, but it's taking too long, so here's the end of the Autekka fight.

Shimizu landed to the ground, certain that something that big had to have been the big boss that they needed to defeat to maintain the peace.

"Oneesan!"
"Aw, hell." Shimizu turned around and saw Takuya run towards her with an arm waving wildly. It was dark, but Shimizu's scanner was pretty big and glowing, so Takuya already had the questions formed when he got close. "Oneesan, what in the world are you wearing?"
Shimizu rolled her eyes. "Your father's strange present."

Takuya looked her older stepsister up and down. "Dad bought you that?"
"It's a complicated story. I'll tell you later. Look, it's kinda dangerous right now, so could you go home right now and tell Mom and Dad that I'm fine?"
"No, I'm staying here until you come home with me!"
Shimizu stroked Takuya's head. "Okay, kiddo. Just don't be disruptive, okay?"
"Hey, I'm not a little puppy."
Shimizu dragged her gaze across the area so see if the scanner could pick up anymore freaks, just to be safe "Ponpon, disband."

Takuya seemed to feel better seeing her sister without the armor and rocket pack on, and the two joined the rest of the group.

Learning to Ski!
 

["Ambit mode thrust limit exceeded. Suspending primary drive."]

Ceres' report was the only thing that kicked Akari out of her protective fury. Glancing down at the rapidly approaching ground, the girl quickly understood a very important fact about her combat burn that had been intended to confuse the director as to the inclination angle of her attack. She'd forgot to factor a very valid concern about her capabilities.

"Only took a few seconds to get that high, so... Oh no!"

The ground was getting really, really big. It was also doing this at a very, very rapid rate. Akari was uncertain if she could equalise her momentum safely with her current level of skill, and without her main wings.

["Greave friction set to minimum."] Ceres added, ["Find landing incline to safely transfer momentum."] as a light-blue aura of energy glew around her boots.

The ace-in-training nodded as calmly as possible for one having their first close encounter with overspeed dives. Her AESA readout highlighted the nearest, and perhaps only sloped location in the park. None other than the remains of Roji Riraku's lamppost, now smouldering at its exploded tip, but the post of which was still mostly serviceable. Hopefully, maybe.

With a last-second maneuver, Akari positions herself to crash into the lampost, and extends her legs such that her boots will contact with the listing pole. All the while, she prays Ceres knows what she's doing.

*click, Ksssht!* Her boots contact with the post, spraying sparks as one might expect from what is effectively grinding a pole with magical rollerblades. The post crumples under her impact, but not before safely transferring her to a more lateral trajectory. Akari shoots off down the street, those nearby capable of hearing a doppler-shifted "Eyaaaaa!" and feeling the accompanying mild shockwave as she passes. An avid rollerblader but not one of the stunting bent, Akari still manages to slow herself with her fins quickly enough, before peeling out in a rough circle, splaying sparks as she comes to a halt, panting heavily.

["Greave friction fully resumed."] Ceres reports as Akari stares at the pavement with disbelief and adreneline-filled terror. Her boots seem quite calm as they obediently dissipate their bluish aura.

"We... Won?... I'm alive... I was flying!" Akari says disjointedly, the past few moments of ecstacy, fury, frustration, terror, and glee overwhelming her simultaneously. What she was doing was clearly, patently crazy, and yet... She felt strangely at home here.

"You were totally flying. Fortunate, since you're probably the only Autekkan aerial ace currently on earth." Ceres speaks in Akari's mind a simple calm, yet inspiring bit of encouragement. Steeling herself and standing up, she joyfully thrusts Ceres Aphelion skyward, assuming a massive ^_^ grin and cheers victoriously.

"We are the best magical girls EVER!"

Alex looked from the charging Director, to Demi, then back again. Then let out an inner sigh. Of course she can’t fly out of here.

Swiftly, he reached down and grabbed Demi by the wrist. “We’re leaving.” He muttered, as he sprang backward and into the air, taking Demi with him.

Unfortunately, he’d missed the newly formed mudmen. While he and Demi sailed above them, they didn’t get far. The guardians both fired off a tendril of mud at the flying pair, trapping Alex’s red clothed legs and holding him fast.

He let out a surprised gasp as he realized what had happened, and realized his predicament. Quickly, he glanced from side to side for some place to throw Demi. He couldn’t fight well with her up here.

Another connection! He realized suddenly, it was a lot fainter then the one to Demi, he was surprised that he even noticed it. Not taking more then an instant to question it, threw Demi towards whoever it was, hoping his magic had shown him the answer he needed, and that the throw would carry her far enough.

The auburn haired youth didn’t have any more time to focus on her at the moment though, as he felt the mud bindings growing tighter and heavier. “You won’t hold me.” He hissed twisting his body as much as he could.

“Flowing Streams!” The floating scarf behind him lit up with purifying light, and swirled down to capture the mudmen’s extended arms in a tight bind. The mud creaked almost instantly as the purifying magic took hold. The arms fell to pieces seconds later, as Alex pulled himself away from them, and recalled his scarf to him.

He floated back a few paces, turning his attention back to scene in front of him.

((OoC: Alex’s throwing Demi toward Panko. Though, I have no idea who she is .))

Demi really didn't consider too much of what was going on around her as she watched the things move closer and closer to her position. She felt her body get tugged in various directions, and the person that saved her lift her above the crowd. Without too much thought, and only truly breathing inwards, she took a second to assess the situation while slowly gathering magic in her usual style. "~String the mud creatures, siphon magic and with that, we can really use the white star.~" Demi didn't really think about it too much, by now just wanting it to be dealt with, and with some familiarity shot her strings, noticing them go into the two mudmen. Though, about this time, she felt herself being launched away from those beings and towards someone else. "~She knows what she's doing, forget about it and let whatever plan she had catch you, right now just siphon!~" With that sort of wording, Demi felt magic begin to course through her strings a little bit and into her body, the pull getting stronger as her mind honed in on it singly.

"We... We did it?" Anzu asked, realizing what had just happened. "We stopped all the monsters? I mean, really??"

The harp's strings glowed and let out a few notes, canceling out the Song of Flight. Anzu dropped down the remaining few inches to the ground.

"For now, yes," the little object replied calmly. "You fought... passably, for now. Not bad for your first try, but we do need to work on keeping your attention in one place."

"Oh," Anzu said lamely. "Well I'm really not used to having to fight--- Wait, did you say 'for now?' Does that... Does that mean they'll come back?"

"Possibly," the harp replied. "With Verda and Autekka waking up again, anything's possible. That is why you need to learn better control over your powers."

Anzu looked around, fearing more mud creatures.

"Those mud things.... Those were Verda?"

The harp let out a twang that almost sounded like a sigh.

"No, no, a Verda is a kind of mage. There are two types of spell casters: Verda and Autekka. You're an Autekka. That means you use me to create and control exterior forces. Verda are mages whose power comes mainly from within themselves. I'll explain it better later. For now, all you need to know is that our job is to find whatever it is that's causing all this nonsense, and put a stop to it."

Anzu looked over to Akari and the others. She recognized most of them from her old school. Anzu still wasn't sure what was going on or why she had been suddenly given this power, whatever it was, but she would make the best of it. Plus... it was pretty cool.

"Yeah!" Anzu cheered. "We are! We were flying, and doin' magic, and everything! We're amazing!"

"I wouldn't go that far...." the harp replied. Anzu didn't pay attention.

Its over, it's finally over! Mitsuko thought, safely back on the ground again. She resisted the urge to caper around, leaning on her spear a little for support until she felt more steady.

"We are the best magical girls EVER!" Akari shouted, having landed without too much incident.

"Yeah!" Anzu cheered. "We are! We were flying, and doin' magic, and everything! We're amazing!"

Bright Day's core flashed once to get Mitsuko's attention.

Oh? she thought, looking at it intently. Ah, I see.

"This isn't the end." Mitsuko said, feeling awkward and trying to look like she knew what she was talking about. She felt unpopular. How did those stoic, warrior types deal with the feeling?

"I don't know how much you know," she said, "but there's something out there that is going to cause a lot more trouble like this and soon. It's still... waking up. And if we don't take it out now, we won't be able to later."

["Correct."] Bright Day flashed, clearly having a high opinion of the assembled group's capabilities. Looking about the assembled mages, a lot of them seemed suspiciously familar.

"I'm Shimizu Mitsuko and this is my sister, Akari." she said, indicating the proclaimer of best magical girlhood. "It can only be fate that brought us together tonight." she continued, having racked her brains for something a little more inspiring to say. "I don't know about you, but Akari and I are going to go and stop it!" she finished triumphantly.

Her conviction crumbled. "Uh, if that's alright with you, sis?"

* * *

With Alex and Demi taking to the air, the Director simply continued forward, drawing level with the mudmen it had summoned behind them. The tree Mero had slashed continued to fall harmlessly behind it as Alex and Demi shot up and away from the Director, Alex dealing with the mudmen's attempts to cling on and Demi counterattacking..

Taking a step forward, the Director sliced through the siphon strings attached to the mudmen on either side of it with a downward stroke of its scythes. Its second pair of arms jabbed out, scythes deactivated, to implant them with Ocular Rides, one implanted in the right arm and the other in the left.

Scuttling forward with the minions at its side, the Director glared up at Alex and Demi.
Cycloptic eye glowing, it prepared a charged shot, discolourations where it had been damaged. Appearing to have settled on a more defensive posture, the mudmen stayed close and a weak shadow field appeared about it, more a smoky miasma wreathing its body than a zone of darkness.

One of its long limbs suddenly lifted up and delivered a mule kick to Mero sneaking up behind while the giant cat was still in mid lunge.

Bluffing about using the charged laser on Alex and Demi, its eye rolled back in the featureless lump of its head to look directly behind, charged beam firing to sweep at the knocked back Mero and through the bushes where Mernarker was lurking.

Synopsis: Panko catches Demi, recognizes her, yells orders at everyone, and uses Cat's Call. Everyone make a save against sonic effects!

Panko caught Demi, falling on her butt with an "Ooph!" Getting up, she wondered who would throw a girl at her. "Are you ok?" she asked, offering a paw to help the girl up. She recognized her, it was that crazy girl. She hadn't done anything too terrible to her before- well, not directly.

Demi either got up or she didn't, and Panko turned her attention back to the fight. A huge monster was beating the whiskers off of what was probably the cute kitty. The two smaller mud men were now upgraded, and Panko regretted not attacking them sooner. In the street, there was a guy surrounded by snow and a... she paused, considering the man-ish girl surrounded by lights and ribbons. She decided to wonder about it later. She didn't see Menarker.

Her objective was to break up the monster's formation. There had to be a reason that they were clumped together. Maybe the monster was scared by the arrival of Mero? Whatever the reason, she knew that they'd never beat them together, that's rule one of being a punk: pick on people when they're alone.

Knowing that it would draw the monsters attention, she tried to shout above the noise "Hey! Everybody pick one of the smaller monsters and cover your ears! Try to get them apart!" Panko took a deep breath, briefly considered whether the mud men could understand what she said, then went ahead with her plan anyway. "Cat's Call!"

"...And you're going to help," the harp prodded. "Yes?"

"Oh," Anzu said lamely. She felt like she was being forced into this, but at the same time felt uncomfortable about refusing to save the world. "Um... Yeah! I guess I... um...."

"Yes?"

Anzu looked around again. This group of... mages... were all that stood between those monsters and her neighborhood. What would the non-magical people do if the monsters attacked again and the Autekkas weren't there to fight them?

"Yeah! I'll help stop it too!" She finished, sounding more confident. "You can count on me n' Koto! Oh! I'm Anzu, by the way."

"......Koto?? Who's that?" The harp's strings shifted as it pondered this. Anzu grinned.

"It's you, silly! I have to call you something, don't I? And I think it's a cute name." Anzu replied, holding the harp up to eye level.

"I have a name. It's Silver Harmony."

"Oh. But Koto is so much easier to say," Anzu reasoned. "And it's much cuter. Cuz I can call you Koto-kun."

"No."

"Awwww. Just Koto, then? Pleaaaaaaase?" Anzu begged. "It's a good name, and I never get to name anything! My sister named Lychee, and my brother got to name the parakeet we had when we were little! All I got to name was a fish, and it died!"

"Fine, fine, do as you please." bristled the harp. "What do I care."


"All right!" Anzu cheered. "Me n' Koto will help fight!"

"Uh, if that's alright with you, sis?" Mitsuko said with a sudden loss of conviction, but Akari wasn't going to let her sister feel anything of the sort if she could help it. Especially not with a newly blazing fire within her heart and a weapon most likely centuries old. There was a higher calling somewhere out there and she was determined to find it, even if it meant doing crazy things to save the world. Not everyone got lucky enough to have help saving the world, you know?

Jogging over to her in the most dignified power-walk she could muster, Akari threw her right arm around Mitsuko and faced the assembled group. "That's right! If we don't stop it, uh... Bad... Bad things will happen!"

["It is likely it will severely mutate several people until it has expended its current charge."]

"Yeah, bad things! Bad things we can't let happen!" Akari shouted again with added reassurance. Confident she'd at least done what she could to get everyone riled up, Akari turned to her sister and lowered her voice. "After all, when have I ever let you down?" She winked, then meekly added, "On purpose, anyway?"