Scene Listing || Scene Schedule || Scene Schedule RSS
Owner Pose
Lapis Lazuli Calm. It was calm, so calm.

The ocean was beautiful, twinkling in the moon light, without a single sign that things were about to get worse. Well, aside from one teeny tiny detail.

Luna was the princess of dreams and, in her time as a captive, had managed to alert the people of the multiverse to her location and, even more importantly, what Lapis planned. None of which was good. However, the gem was hidden deep under the ocean, in a castle of ice. Not exactly the kind of place you'd want to engage one of the multiverses most powerful hydromancers. But who knew? Perhaps if they worked hard, they could stop whatever Lapis was up to, once and for all.

Perhaps.
Princess Luna      Princess Luna could not be certain her message had gotten out, nor when rescue might arrive. She could only keep sending the messages. Although she had been sending them every few hours for the last several days, only those who were sleeping could hear the messages, and in her current state Luna could not do her usual dream interactions. Just a voice in the dreamer's mind and a moon silhouetted image of Luna, no doubt leaving the dreamers wondering if they were merely dreaming or if they were getting an actual message.

     But, enough of the disaster victims and other costal areas had reported it that the news had carried the story and even narrowed down the search area quite a bit via triangulation. Still, there was not much to go on. People who had reported having the dream had said that the short message contained little information. If any of those now trying to reach Luna had experienced the dream, they would know what the people meant. All Luna could say in each message was, "I hath been taken captive by Lapis. I believe she is planning something terrible. I cannot tell where we are, except that we are deep underwater in a frozen castle. Please, send help."

     Luna was not only so brief merely because using her dream magic in such a circumstance was difficult, but also because she really did not have any information that would be helpful. Hopefully others can follow the triangulation, or perhaps track the dream signals with some sort of magic sensing device.

     At the moment, Luna is again encased in ice, like a pearl from a giant oyster. Somehow she is not suffocating, nor is she freezing to death. But, all she can do is watch Lapis plan. Or more disturbingly, have twitch-filled conversations with herself about protecting her friends.
Athela Valemore A vague message was all some people needed. At least to one accustomed to the callings of the divine whilst aslumber, as Athela had been between helping with the coastal recovery efforts by day, and make out the impressions of the vision. Not the equine patron she was use to coming to her dreams, but a call for help is a call for help.

Besides, being a Tide Caller was to her advantage both for her own sake and for helping others locate the location. Her aquakinetic abilities were not as potent as the Gem's, but having freedom of movement in any body of water meant the depths, the cold, or the lack of air to breath would not hinder the young knight. Amongst her and her two aquatic pokemon, guiding the rescue party and whatever means they use to traverse the depths should not be too hard.

But getting there is only the beginning of the quest, and the trials that certainly lie ahead...
Princess Luna      The pony-people of Luna's Equestria have come to help if they can, and one way they can is with one of their primative, basically steam-tech submarines. It is small, only about 20 feet long and 10 across, but it looks sturdy and more importantly airtight. A small crew of gruff pony men is currently getting it ready for deployment, checking the seals on the big yellow cigar-shaped vehicle with one large propeller in back. It has a hatch on top of course, and it looks like it will be cramped at max capacity, which seems like it would be about 10 people. Any heroes who ask would be allowed aboard up until the sub hits its passenger limit. They also have old-style diving helmets. The big spherical kind that seal about the head and have a hose attatched to an air pump inside. Not much good for long underwater movement, but should be enough to get inside the ice castle since indications are it is dry within.
Xiaomu If it were a matter of getting there on dry land, Xiaomu would totally be on her way with her lightcycle. If the target was an island or otherwise on the water's surface, she'd have somewhat more trouble - but the ice magic in her staff-sword, Suiren, could well get her there without too much trouble.

When the destination is *underwater*, though, the sage fox has a problem. She's not about to go 'nope, can't help out' and use that as an excuse to stay home and play video games, though; even if she doesn't have a particularly personal stake in rescuing Princess Luna, Lapis Lazuli has still earned the sage fox's attention. So the availability of the Equestrian submarine, while a surprise to be sure, is quite welcome to see.

... Just so long as nobody else on the rescue mission has too many problems with Xiaomu humming a certain old Beatles song under her breath. At least she's not humming it the *whole* time?
Eve     After Lapis Lazuli's 'warning' to stay away it was all but inevitable Eve would show up. Especially also since the Paladin warnings as well. This is pressing a few of her buttons. She hates the idea of restricting someone's free will, and saying it's 'for their good' while at the same time denying them their own choice just annoys the hell out of the small blonde girl. That Lapis Lazuli seems to be not of her own right mind, well, that's another matter entirely. Eve can trust herself to do a little percussive maintenance there, and she's less sure of others' willingness to fight without unnecessary violence.

    She's here on the shore, pursing her lips and considering the cold waters below. She has a transformation she can use. It's useful for this sort of thing, even if she's never really practiced it for actual combat use. But this seems like a good opportunity to try! But then, the ponies also have a transport mechanism. That too seems like it'd be useful, and that way she doesn't have to worry about how to breathe. Less impressive perhaps, but potentially far handier.

    So yeah, for now, Eve will take the sub. She casts a dubious near-glower Xiaomu's way, apparently suspecting the sage fox of being about to make inappropriate jokes or something.
Maya Maya was concerned about this, if not for the information Luna had given that Lapis was not in her right mind due to some sort of outside infulence? People would be seeing Maya as a ball of wrath on legs thankfully this is not the case. She is on edge though and she is almost uneasy on the water but she'd used an flight spell of osme sort to give her wings so the terrain in at least getting there was not /huge/ issue.
Staren     Staren finds himself riding an old-timey submarine! Although, on reflection, he doesn't think he's ever been on a new-timey submarine -- it's just not a situation that comes up much! The Lazlo Defense Force has such things, of course, to patrol Lake Ontario and protect people from lake monsters... but... naval operations are something of a specialty area, and they're not his.

    He's still not sure what he'll do if it comes down to some sort of aquatic conflict. He's attached some water thrusters to his suit on a belt mount, but that can hardly keep up with a hydrokinetic. Still... They've got to try to do something if they're going to save Luna... and Lapis, too, as this is clearly not normal behavior for the gem.

    Sometimes he starts humming along to Xiaomu's song, too.
Lapis Lazuli Lapis Lazuli was sitting in a corner of the room, her knees hugged to her chest. Head buried against them. "Safe, safe, safe..." she whispered. She reached out a hand and the bubble holding Luna imprisoned opened, spilling her out. She looked... worse. Gray and drab. But her eyes looked a bit... blood shot. Which was strange, since they didn't have blood. "They're coming... I'm sorry... Luna. I will protect you..." she whispered.

Finding the castle was easy. A big, castle in the sea? No problem.

See, the problem came when they got close... And suddenly the water began to swirl around it in a tight little vortex. Intending to lock the submarine in place... As the top level of the castle suddenly formed itself into a spear and LANCED up towards the submarine, intending to impale it in a single gesture.
Princess Luna      Princess Luna was growing more worried about Lapis with each passing day, even hour. She could not be sure, but judging from past experiences with supernatural creatures, she suspected that whatever this parasite was it was slowly draining the power from Lapis's gem. When she is released from the bubble, Luna has to take a moment to orient herself before she moves to sit by Lapis. "...Lapis. Thy visitors art not here to harm me. They are here to protect me. Just as thou art protecting me. Please...do not harm them. They only wish to help. Both thee and myself." she says, taking one of Lapis's hands. She cannot be sure what is going on above, but she has a feeling it is not good judging by the sounds she hears. Swirling water and forming ice.

     The crew of the submarine is starting to pick up Xiaomu's humming as well, and their work is starting to gain a rhythmic beat to it. But, just as it seems they might burst into song...the submarine is caught in a vortex! It is hardly a powerful craft, and is quickly caught up. "I think we're here!" the captain shouts to the rest of the crew and passengers as the submarine starts to swirl with the vortex. "Full power to the engines!" "We're givin' 'er all she's got, cap'n!" "If you lot are plannin' on makin' an exit, now's th-"

     CLANG!!

     That ice spear smashes into the underside of the sub, puncturing right through the bottom but not managing to punch the top. It is a double-edged sword, since while it does indeed rupture the hull it also pins the sub in place and keeps it from flooding for now, allowing passengers to get out through the dive hatch on the underside with their dive helmets if they wish. "Go go go! We'll have to go up as soon as that ice spike breaks! Don't worry about us! We've been in tougher situations than this!" the captain calls to the others.
Athela Valemore If there was any downside to this it was that of the five Pokemon she had, only three of them were truely suited to coming this deep. So Athela had left her Timburr and Gogoat back at the coast to help with the recovery efforts. That left her with the Vaporeon and Samurott swimming along with her, and Goomy likely huddled down in her cloak somewhere as it usually did.

Locating the ice palace beneath the sea was not hard. Approaching it was another matter entirely. Especially when the castle itself seems to take on the defensive.

Athela pulled herself upright as if to tread water, scowling a bit. She had expected the castle to have some manner of defense, but the massive spike of ice being hurtled out comes faster than even her anticipative abilities could respond. Some wise saying on not dwelling over spilled drinks goes here. No time for it, they still need to get to the castle.

Athela gestures to her pokemon with a twirling motion, then grabs onto her Samurott as the three take off. Up, loop over, and then swimming in their own spiral counter to the vortex, faster and faster. At first a tight spin but then pressing out wider against the whirlpool's force.

Essentially Athela and her Pokemon are using their own elemental abilities to counter the whirlpool and push it back open. Both to give the damaged sub a chance to pull free, and the rest of the rescue party a 'tunnel' towards the castle below.
Xiaomu The sudden 'turbulence' of the whirlpool gathering around the submarine actually prompts Xiaomu to *stop* humming, getting a firmer grip on Suiren. "Yeah, I think we might --"

Cue the ice spear, which nearly puts extra 'ow' in Xiaomu's name due to her being precariously close to the point of impalement.

"You fine foals and fillies make sure you get out of this in one piece, I have to teach you the lyrics!" Xiaomu advises the submarine's crew as she rapidly dons one of the diving helmets, her qipao and vest replaced in a poof of gold-colored 'smoke' by a snug-fitting wetsuit, mostly black with red and silver markings. Fortunately, her handguns and grenades were already in a water-tight carrypack - she was ready for the prospect of swimming, if push came to shove. Turns out that shove was already nice and comfy in a top bunk, and push came along a lot sooner than expected.

Metaphors aside, Xiaomu wastes little time in exiting from the submarine and propelling herself along the whirlpool-'tunnel' to the castle, practically 'running' as she swims. Anyone who gets a close enough look would see she's conjuring little chunks of ice, just big enough to push off of, rather than depending entirely on her swimming skills.
Staren     Staren is starting to sway to the music a little before suddenly things get shakey, and then

    CLANG!

    A quick glance around verifies the sub isn't /destroyed/. "Go!" Staren shouts, "We'll find our own way back up!" At the same time as the captain is speaking. He nods, and severs the ice spike with his beam saber before hurrying to the airlock.

    Once outside, he fires at the spike to try and break the sub free faster -- seems he's swapped out the beam cannons for laser cannons specially tuned for underwater function.

    Once it's clear the ponies can escape, he flies downward, thrusters unfolding into position on the sides of his armor and rotating downward, VTOL style.

    "It's 'mares and stallions', by the way. You called them children and little girls."

    "So, any idea how we can get in? I suggest we not use the front door this time... though it may not matter..."
Eve Submariner Eve wastes little time getting out of the sub through the dive hatch. She springs towards it, covering her body and clothing in a thin shell of nanometal in midair. She gleams silver like a tuna, then she splashes into the sea.

    Sometime after she's disappeared into the water, Eve completes her transformation into a mermaid. Her legs are covered by a finned tail, her clothing by a thin shell of mermaidy nanometal. No point in getting her clothing wet after all! And she can ZOOM underwater! Her fins are as good as flippers. And while she can't actually breathe underwater, she can go fast enough that it shouldn't be needed. Hopefully.

    She also can't speak underwater, so instead of answering she zooms off, trying to find an entrance into the ice castle. From the underside presumably. It's not likely anyone will be opening a window!
Xiaomu Ever the height of maturity, Xiaomu sticks her tongue out at Staren. Her diving helmet may or may not hide it, thereby ruining the effect. "Wouldn't have been alliterative that way," she points out. "And I'm how much older than them?"
Staren     "Iiiii guess that's true." Staren replies. FOUR MORE WORDS? OK.
Maya Maya was ready as she could be the castle in the sea was something and Maya thoughts are lost as the sub gets speared It's time to get going, it's really time to get going. She won't be wiaitnt for long before. Maya for the longest time could not swim, this is thankfully not an issu3e as she's now out of the sub in short order. This has to be handled today and she comments over the comm.

<<You can call most of us kids, right Xiaomu?>> She's going to keep up with Xiaomu and Staren.
Lapis Lazuli Lapis Lazuli twitched. "They aren't here to protect you. I am. I am here to protect you." She grabbed Luna by the shoulders, tightly, digging her fingers into her. "Don't you see? They want to trap you. Us. They want to. Trap us again. Ten thousand years. Trapped. Trapped in my mind. Don't you see? DON'T YOU SEE?!" she screamed, shaking the girl. She then shoved her back and went... still. She wasn't fizzing in and out this time, either. Was she focused? Was whatever causing this, making itself less... destructive? Or something else?

Still, she frowned. ".... Goodbye." She said. Before reaching her hand up.

Outside, a giant hand of iced suddenly formed. It wrapped around the sub and, in a single moment, crushed it to dust, killing all inside.

Or rather, that was might have seemed as if it was going to happen.

However, the hand formed and when it did, the waters slowed. Althela's counter to it made it get even weaker. Staren's own blade cleaved through the ice, freeing them and then...

The hand stopped. Only for a second. It started to close, then jerked slightly. With the aid offered by the others, it was enough. The submarine burst free, heading out into calmer waters. Like literally ANYWHERE BUT HERE!

Lapis, meanwhile, looked confused, her hand twitching. "He...llo?" she said, then bzzt for a moment. Athela's movements were slowing the whirlpool for now. But they'd need to move fast. There weren't any obvious entrances into the castle. No doors or windows, in fact it all seemed to be solid wall on all sides.
Princess Luna      Luna winced at the tight grip, and can't keep a slight look of fear from creeping into her features as Lapis shakes her like that and then shoves her away. Luna falls back with a 'omph' before she sits up again. Her eyes widen a bit as Lapis seems to stabilize...but in the wrong mindset. And when Lapis reaches out like that, Luna cries out! "Lapis! No!" Luna can't see what is happening outside, but she has a pretty good idea from the situation. She isn't in time to stop the actual attack, but soon after Luna moves in and takes the hand Lapis was holding up. She sits in front of Lapis this time, looking into her eyes. "Lapis. Thou art not a prisoner." she says, squeezing that hand firmly. Luna tries to think back. Back to her own time as a force of evil. Logical arguments made little difference to her at that time...is a forceful solution the only option? Luna isn't sure, but she has to try something. "Lapis...why is it thou art so certain that we shalt be imprisoned? We are not bad, nor have we been accused. So, why is it that thy thoughts keep turning to images of thy friends, all good and law abiding people, being imprisoned? This is not the Gem Empire. Beings are not imprisoned for minor crimes or failures, and even major issues can often be solved without imprisonment. Please, try to think...all of this is not necessary."

     The ponies in the yellow submarine are certain that they are facing their final curtain when that ice hand forms. "Power! Power!" the captain is shouting to his crew. But then...they are free! The top of the sub scraps against the fingers of that frozen hand before it goes sailing through the water like a rocket toward the surface. "Seal that breach!!" is the next command, and a pair of unicorns use their telekinetics to keep the water at bay. Once they are presumably out of danger the captain radios back. "Good luck, all of you. And thanks." The sub keeps going, though. They can't stay out here with a hull breach, even if this was calm water.
Xiaomu No doors, no windows, no skylights (Gawain would be pissed), just a solid palace of ice.

"If she's actively maintaining control of the palace to keep it like this," Xiaomu comments to her allies, "we're gonna have a REALLY hard time getting inside. But if she just shaped it and is letting it stay the way it is with occasional touch-up ..."

The sage fox draws her sword, little crystals of ice condensing in the blade's wake, and swims right up to the castle wall - probably an upper floor, but whatever's most convenient. Then she touches Suiren's blade to the ice wall and tries to use its elemental magic to start reshaping PART of the castle to her liking - trying to start crafting a 'bubble' to surround her allies, and then to narrow through the castle wall so they can get inside ... along with a bare minimum of seawater.
Athela Valemore It is fortunate Staren was there with a weapon ready and Athela did not need to call her pokemon off from weakening the waters to deal with massive hands of ice as well.

As soon as she felt the water's pull weaken and the sub take off towards the surface she turned, and with pokemon dived back towards the castle itself. All the while Athela had a determined grimace upon her features. Something was wrong with Lapis and she was not operating in her right mind according to the clues Luna had been able to give. All the same, misguided good intentions or naught, she could not allow the Princess to be held against her own intents.... and quite possibly Lapris against HER own intents as well.

Never expected to be doing this underwater, but it looks like it's time for a bit of seige warfare.

Athela motioned her two pokemon towards the ice castle. As they dive deeper Sprite grabs onto the back of Samurott, the Vaporeon glowing with a sparkly effect as she uses Helping Hand. With the boost to strength Lancer lives up to his name, lunging forward to stab his Iron Head helmet-blade into the icy wall not far from where Xiaomu is doing the same. Steel attacks are super-effective against Ice, and while the Pokemon type matching doesn't necessarily effect fully outside their own fights, there's still a chance he might be able to weaken the ice to help the sage fox's effort.
Staren                   "It is fortunate Staren was there with a weapon ready"                  

     See!? Carrying over a dozen weapons at all times is totally justified!    

As they reach the wall of the castle, Staren dials his laser to a weaker but rapidly-pulsing beam that can be used like a welding torch. If Xiaomu using ice magic against water magic doesn't work, he's ready to try cutting them a hole that way.
Eve     Eve, running out of air, doesn't have a whole lot of time to wait for subtle magics to get them in. She swims down to Xiaomu and gestures at the wall, definitely scowling. She's not about to smash her way through the wall, not if there's a good chance of getting through with minimal leakage... and of course assuming she gets a way to breathe. If not? Well, her tail packs all the power of a double-legged kick and it's backed by nanosteel. If ice magic and laser torches don't work... uh... maybe brute force will work?
Maya Maya is keeping with Staren now and looks to him for a moment before he makse use of his laser. She gets the idea and will bring our her own rifle ,turning on it's beam fuction though at a lower setting it might be overwhelemd by the water but she will see hopefully this will work. She holds her weapon steady as she works.
Lapis Lazuli Lapis Lazuli twitched. Twitch twitch twitch. "Do? What did we do? WHAT DID WE EVER DO?!" she screamed,slamming her fists down. The walls of the room cracked. "NEVER WANTED TO COME TO EARTH! Ordered, told! Trapped, trapped for THOUSANDS OF YEARS! Why? What did we do? WHAT DID WE DO?! Stuck here, told to come, to fight. To make. To create. To obey. And punished. Why? WHAT DID WE DO?!" The castle shook with each and every word, and they could see cracks forming in it. "He finally let me go, and what? WHAT DO THEY DO?! THEY want to trap us again. They always want to trap us again. SHE WANTS TO TRAP US AGAIN!"

And yes, the castle was just made, not maintained, by her. Together, the group manages to create their orb in the ice, moving through the walls quickly and, with power and skill, the group managed to blast their way into... a dark chamber. Wet and cold as a freezer. But dry enough for their purposes.

Lapis hadn't noticed their arrival, yet. Judging by the lack of spears trying to impale them.
Princess Luna      Unaware that the castle has been infiltrated, Luna looks around as the walls around her crack. She prepares to cast a protective bubble just in case, then keeps pushing. "Who! Who wishes to trap thee again?!" she shouts back, putting her hands on Lapis's shoulders and giving a squeeze. "Whoever it is, I shalt protect thee! We can protect each other! WHo is it that is trying to trap us?!" she demands, her voice almost reaching the Canterlot Shout level.
Eve     Eve wasn't actually scared of drowning. Well, not too much. She's not suicidal, but she has a great deal of faith in the ability of various companions. Sure mermaid form carried some risks, but it offered a great deal of leverage too. And for that matter, now that she's in the castle, she's here as just herself, no helmet or anything to worry about.

    Eve's scales fade, absorbing back into her skin, leaving behind a perfectly dry and mostly-unwrinkled dress. The only sign of her immersion is her wet hair. She draws her hair through it, squeegieing away excess water, leaving her more damp than actually wet.

    This takes little time, and so she's fairly quick to start moving down the icy halls, heading towards the shouts and shrieks.
Xiaomu And they're in.

Xiaomu shapeshifts back into her qipao and vest, taking a moment to get her handguns out of her carrypack, then fastening the latter up nice and tight once again. Once her handguns are stashed inside her vest, she takes her staff up again (re-sheathing the sword inside of it) and begins moving as well. Unlike Eve, Xiaomu is probably going to smell like wet fox for a bit; at least it's a clean and wholesome sort of smell.

Still, it gives her a good reason not to get upwind of Lapis Lazuli ... at least, not until the gem girl is already aware of the group's presence.
Athela Valemore Why have precision skill or brute strength when a group can work together with both? Is that not the way of a true adventuring party?

Once everyone is through the openings made and into the castle Athela instructs her Vaporeon to reseal the opening with Ice Beam. 1) to keep the chamber from abruptly flooding behind them & 2) if the breach isn't obvious hopefully Lapis won't notice them as quickly.

Then Athela draws her weapon and sets forth to find their path onward. "Let us make haste before she sends more of her defenses to intervein."
Maya Maya is anle to get in as part of the group effort and once she's inide it's dry enough? She taps a hairclp she's weaing and her clothing changes to her more standard outfit and there's catch it's a henshin squnerc e with effects and everything else. She may look a bit sheepish but now isn't the tim to worry about that, though she may be accused of being some sort of magical girl at least in jest now.

"LEts move."

She doesn't say anything else though as she moves to follow with Xiaomu but she keeps her weapon out who knows what could happen here and she's not forgot Lapis did some nasty things to her dog more or less.

"Keep alert this entire place is one big weapon for Lapis."

There is a fear thoguh she could mess witht he water in an human or like life form's body....she prays that Lapis isn't /that/ powerful.
Staren     Once they're inside and dry, Staren pulls a belt with an air tank on it and an orange-sized blob and hands them to Eve. "These will turn into a suit if you end up underwater again... No good against crushing pressures, but can at least give you air. Mix is calibrated for the pressure down here... be careful about the bends." As he's in a hardsuit, he doesn't have to worry about that.

    He'd better hope his armor doesn't get destroyed. He has no diving experience and the bends sound painful.

    He also quirks a brow at Xiaomu shifting out of an old-timey diving suit and into normal clothes. "That's a neat trick. Must be great for cosplay..."

    On he goes. A few robotic insects deploy from his bag to fly and scout the corridors ahead. They're not especially fast, but they are small and unintrusive. Normally. Bugs might stand out in an environment like this...
Lapis Lazuli Lapis Lazuli shrieks, gripping her head. "They do! They! The crystal gems! Homeworld! Peridot!" She screamed, gripping her head. She was hyperventilating a bit, which was weird since she only breathed when she focused on it. She then shoved Luna away and spikes rose up from around her, descending as if to stab her. "Don't you touch me!" She yelled. "I won't let you--" And then froze. She looked confused and then looked down to her arm. A tentacle of water had wrapped around it, stopping her. The spikes retracted and then she looked to Luna. "Luna... I...." She reached out, her hand shaking. More cracks were forming throughout the castle now.

Then her eyes widened and her hand pulled back. "No. No no no. They're here. They're..." Then her eyes narrowed. "Good bye," she said. And then Staren would go through an all too familiar experience. From all directions, spikes of ice suddenly thrust out, criss crossing to try and impale them. She turned and started to walk towards the entrance of the room, not looking to Luna.
Eve     Eve accepts the tank and blob gravely. Certainly it'll help, since it's not likely they'll be able to use the sub to get out. She won't have to worry about the bends if she doesn't spend long breathing high-pressure air... but that's a worry for a later time.

    Now, she has to worry about ice spikes. Eve's quick to call up a shield, having the defense literally at her fingertips. The metal spreads out from her hand, giving her a little protection. It's her speed that's her major protection however; she dodges as best she can, swinging the hardened metal shield almost like a weapon, aiming it only for spikes that would otherwise be undodgeable.
Xiaomu Oh that's a LOT of spikes with very little warning. Xiaomu simply pours on the speed, trying to outrun the formation of spikes and get out of the section of corridor that's about to be the biggest, messiest shish kabob platter in the history of spike traps ...

And if she manages to get clear, *then* she draws her handguns and starts shooting at the ice spikes to try and help her allies. Yeah, the sound of gunfire is probably going to carry, but either the trap was automated (which seems unlikely) or Lapis already knows the group is there.
Athela Valemore Athela Valemore lets out a low sigh. "As much as I wish not Lazuli harm whilst she not be of her right mind, a thorough beating may be the only way to put sense back into her." Hopefully that is the worst that it will take to rescue both Princess and Gem.

And then there's ice spikes of doom everywhere.

Deja vu, anyone?

... Actually, that's fairly accurate in this case. In the split-seconds the ice spikes start to form from nearby surfaces Athela's divine insight blares from experience. Reflexively she responds by diving to the floor. Which evades the high spikes but would not do so well against any coming from said floor.

If it wasn't for Lancer also diving as his trainer does, grabbing the smaller knight once she's down and wrapping his limbs and tail to cover her. Ice spears smash against his armor as it sheens, using Iron Defense to shield himself and trainer alike. When spikes do burst from the ground the force rolls the heavy 'mon over but the defenses minimalize the damage.

Sprite on the other hand looks like she got impaled!... At first. But the Vaporeon literally liquifies from around the spike, leaving a faint trail of mist in her wake due to the cold as she dissolves into her elemental form and uses the amorphous puddle to slither and swirl between the various spikes with only minor harm to her now only semi-corporeal form.
Princess Luna      Luna is getting really worried about Lapis now. Even if she was thinking about such things as 'gems don't even breathe' she would be worried! Luna yelps as she is shoved away again and cries out as those spikes suddenly lance out toward her. Luckily they stop before Luna is pinned like a butterfly, but it leaves Luna wide-eyed and panting heavily herself from a rather close call.

     But, once they have receeded, Luna is on her hooves again and chasing after Lapis. "No! Thou art not going to leave me here!" she exclaims, sliding to a stop and holding her arms out to bar Lapis's way. "I know some part of thee does not wish to do this! Please, look at thy actions a moment ago! I was nearly harmed by thee! By the very person who has vowed to protect me! Something is wrong, Lapis, and thou must try to break the grip of the creature that is holding thee captive! Thy belief in thy freedom is a lie! Something has captured thee, and it is not Homeworld or other gems! It is this!" Luna's horn glows, and a plethora of mirrors appear. They are illusionary mirrors, but they still do the task, showing Lapis herself from every angle, and many of those angles will include a view of her gem with that...thing! Whatever that thing is! "Dost thou not see? Thou art already a prisoner...in thy mind. Because of this thing."

     Luna can hear commotion downstairs now, and is hoping she can convince Lapis to stop before the others get here and stop her by force.
Staren     The spikes target Staren and not the drones... interesting!

    Staren can't think about it now, though. As before, the spikes are stopped by his forcefield, cracking it all over and shattering a layer into amber sparkles! One of this discs on his chestplate explodes in a shower of sparks and smoke, and he swiftly activates his wings to fly backward before Lapis thinks of having the spikes push again. "Dammit, what is your problem?! We're here to help Luna, AND you! Do you really want to live all alone at the bottom of the sea?! For one so worried about being trapped, you've sure gone to a lot of effort to trap YOURSELF AND Luna! But it doesn't have to stay this way! You can have friends, and forgiveness, if you let it go!"

    He realizes after he says it that that's potentially a lie. If she turns out to have been in control of her own actions, or impossible to return to normal, she is SO going to jail for all the death and destruction she caused. Still, maybe the earlier point about trapping herself will hit home.

    He sets his suit to warn him about ANY movement from the ice, even if he's not looking at it. Hopefully that will give him a chance to dodge further attacks as long as Lapis isn't paying enough attention to course-correct.
Maya Maya does not hold back for long she's moving ahead she's going onwards nd then she sees Staren come under attack. Maya pullss back and she's trying to keep from getting stabbed upherself.

"Keep moving, don't sit still." Maya's mind races as she attempts to find a way to get to Lapis and do something about this. It's going to be a long slog at this point she thinks. Maya's rifle joins Xiaomu's own barrage of Gun fire in short order.
Lapis Lazuli Lapis Lazuli blinked a few times. She stared. "Luna... I..." she whispered. There was a twitch. "I... hurt.... you...." she whispered. And then she flickered. There it was, that flicker. She stared for the longest time. Below, all the spikes retracted. For a moment, there was silence. Then, after a moment... Two walls rose up to block the passage on either side. A trap? Well, they were in her den. But...

If it was a trap, there didn't seem to be anything else. No spikes came to try to impale them. No cracks formed. It just held them there. That was, until the walls and halls around them began to crack and crumble, turning into... Pearls. Spear and all. At least a dozen of them. And they charged the group, spears raised.

Lapis grabbed Luna's hand and stared. "Luna... I..." She said softly. Then her gaze hardened. "I... will not... leave you. Behind." She then tried to walk again, tugging the girl with her.
Princess Luna      Luna lets out an exasperated sigh as the vision of her gem seems to be ignored by Lapis. Her hand is taken and she follows after Lapis down the walled off corridor. The princess just can't figure out what she should do! This sort of thing is usually what the Elements of Harmony are called upon to handle! Luna silently wishes she could still use that purification magic as she is tugged along.

     Perhaps there is no other option, Luna realizes. Without a way to purify Lapis, perhaps popping Lapis is the only way to stop this. But...would Lapis hate Luna afterwords? Paralyzed by indecision, Luna is dragged along. But, even as she is dragged, she realizes she can't let Lapis escape. Being popped might be unpleasant, but it is only temporary. If Lapis is disabled, then perhaps they can figure out what's wrong! Luna's horn starts to glow, steadily gaining strength. If she -is- going to pop Lapis, it has to be all at once, and she doubts she can do it alone. Hopefully they will pass the others soon...
Athela Valemore As the attacks cease for a few moments Lancer stands up, setting Athela on her feet before pulling away from her. "Your assistance was most prudent, my friend. Let us ma--" She's interrupted by the ice walls forming, red locks fwishing with the abrupt motion of her head jerking the other way to look. And watch the walls 'break' to create humanoid spear weilding forms instead.

"--Cobalion's beard!" Athela amends her previous comment with exasperated tones. Resolute Blade glimmer as she turns and swings, catching the spear of the Pearl charging her with prongs on the back of the sword. She twists to yank the spear aside, and side kick one of her boot clad heels into the attacking construct. "This woman doeth not make helping her any easier!"

Next to her Lancer pulls the hilts from his arm-guards, the blade manifesting as he does so and giving the appearance of swords being unsheathed as he does so. "Samuroooott!" He raises the swords up and then makes a cross-over slashing motion with them that instead of striking directly at the Pearls sends an Air Slash slicing towards them with sheering force like a strong ocean wind.

Vaporeon for the time being has stayed in her elemental form, hiding along the floor like as a puddle. It's fairly good for stealth, as long as she's making sure to stay out of the way so no one accidentally slips on her.
Staren     Staren's ready for more spikes. Instead he gets... copies of the Crystal Gem, Pearl? Well, okay...

    He fires the laser cannons -- tuned to a more damaging, higher-energy frequency of light now that they're not shooting through water -- at the Pearls, then switches to beam swords once they close in. The real Pearl's millenia of melee combat expertise would no doubt handily trounce him... but do these copies have the fighting skill to keep up with even a decade of experience in the Multiverse?

    Even so, there's enough for like three to fight each of them. He has to take two hits to his forcefield for a chance to disarm one, and he wouldn't be surprised if they can reform them. If they can't be disarmed, he breaks from melee, trying to fly up and shoot them from above, but hesitant to start using explosives in a combined space and against what might be disposable, endless enemies. He can't risk them figuring out what sort of attacks are most effective against the field... if they can even learn and adapt.

    "Do you think maybe the golems run on automatic, while the spikes are consciously directed? I wonder what's distracting her..."
Xiaomu "Y'know," Xiaomu remarks idly as she looks around at the sudden swarm of enemies, "I figured bringing fire-element grenades into an undersea castle made of ice was *probably* a pretty bad idea, but I guess I underestimated what we'd be up against just a smidge ... oh well."

Her hands slip inside her vest briefly, then come out with a handgun in each hand. And without further ado, she opens fire on the hostiles - and she's not necessarily standing still while she rains bullets upon a portion of the horde. Any of the Pearls who try to close in will find that Xiaomu is very agile, and even when an enemy gets into hand-to-hand range, she can still shoot them just fine. If push REALLY comes to shove, Silver and Platinum (her handguns are named, yes) both have little blades worked into their frames ... but by and large, she's focused on dishing out as many bullets as it takes to keep her own skin intact.

Once the crowd has thinned out some, she'll start looking to see if any of her allies need some cover fire too.
Maya The battle is well underway now though, Lapis turning the castle against htem all and Maya is concerned in a waqy she very rarely is after being in the multiverse for so loing. Elites are dangours but powers like Lapis? On their scale are not so common. She keeps moving anmd she will make ready to enage in more combat as clones of Pearl come after them, well constructs made in pear's image.

"Great.."

Maya starts moving about at a fiarly high speed and rather than fire off rifle shots the housing on the rifle parts and small missiles launch out seeking out the pearl clones.
Lapis Lazuli Lapis Lazuli didn't seem to notice Luna's actions. She dragged the girl through the castle as the wall around them began to get thicker and thicker. The minions were... well, they were not very well trained. However, the fact they were made of water made them still quite dangerous. Each time they were smashed, they turned into puddles, only to reform. Their strikes weren't very strong, but so many of them were making it slightly difficult to deal with.

All of them might begin to notice the ground of the castle was rumbling. The wall on one side, they could see through the ice to see water rush in as the walls outside began to melt away. Or maybe shift? The wall was looking thicker.

Of course, that was probably only a secondary concern as suddenly the minions just... froze. They vibrated for a moment, and then with a sploosh, then collapsed to the ground. Why...?

Luna and Lapis, the latter dragging the former, would turn the corner into the room, appearing on the hall opposite the one they had come from that was now melting away.

She stared at them for a moment and then... Lifted her hand up to her com.

Click.
Princess Luna      And that is the moment Luna knows she has to strike. Lapis is distracted, and has not launched her attack yet. She shouts to the others, heard even over Lapis's comm, "Strike now! She is beyond reason!" She then wraps her arms around Lapis tightly and says softly to her, "...Forgive me, Lapis."

     Then, she fires her full power beam, right at Lapis's head. "Forgive me Lapis!!" she screams as she tries to pop her best friend. It probably seems all the more terrible to those who don't know what happens to a gem when their body is damaged too much. But, Luna doesn't let go of Lapis during the entire blast, trying to hold her for the others to strike as well. Even if they have to strike Luna as well.
Athela Valemore Looks like it was time for some epic back-to-back fighting!

Or not, as the Pearl constructs abruptly collapse into liquid. Lancer's whiskers bristle as the Samurott leans forward to poke at one of the puddles with the tip of his razorshell sword, as if not trusting it to actually be 'dead'.

Athela heaves a few times, trying to catch her breath. For what little time there is to do so, attention darting in the direction of the emerging Lapis and Luna... and apparently things are going towards the 'beat sense into Lapis' route. Would 'popping' her or whatever it's called deal with the 'thing' Luna had hinted was controlling the Gem? Was there really time to mull over it? Probably not, but Athela was hesitant to enact on it all the same. What if this just made Lapis believe all the more they were the ones trying to 'trap' her? She wanted to help Lapis, and despite her earlier musings on beating sense in, didn't want to drive her farther over.

But while she hesitates part of her little squad does not. Off to the side where she's maybe been unnoticed and forgotten due to her amorphic state Sprite swiftly congeals back into proper Vaporeon state at Luna's shout. Eyes flicker, remorseful, but at the same time there seems to be no other option. "Vaaaa.." Several shards of energy manifest, swirling around the pokemon once before aligning mid-air points first and hurtling towards Lapis like a half-dozen darts.

Realizing Water and Ice attacks won't be very effective on the aquamancer Gem (or what she essentially sees as another Water type), Sprite instead resorts to one of her stronger and still highly accurate non-elemental attakcs: Trump Card.
Staren     At one point, Staren produces a stone from his bag and charges one of the Pearls, trying to touch it to her while shouting, "Now I've got your power!"

    ...Nothing happens.

    "Oh right, can't cast through the armor..." And he's sure not taking it off, so we won't find if he can animate the Pearls as his own golems.

    The entire golems reforming after defeat is just unfair! Staren tries to fly and avoid them.

    And then Lapis shows up.

    "Uh, you're the one who's trapped yourself here, lady." Staren points out. And Luna says to strike now....

    Staren dimly recalls Sunstone or someone explaining that the gem is just the gem, at least insomuch as he's a brain, and the body is a projection or something that reforms with time.

    Well then.

    Staren fires the lasers at her, and follows up by charging with the beam swords! Hopefully, Luna grabbing her will distract her long enough to keep her from just putting up a wall or something!
Maya Maya notices the rumble, rumbles like that are almost never good for her. THe minions vanished and then just go sploosh somehing is going on here. The entire castle was melting and Lapis was contiuning. Lapis is on the comm and she frowns ths is going to be serious. Others speek Maya thinks she's not the best with words and she knows it well. She looks at Lapis now, those green eyes narrowing.

"Your not well, Lapis. Look at what you are doing. How many other people you made suffer for this?! Your making the very one you want to protect /suffer/!"

Maya shockingly doesn't shoot just /yet/. She's also open tobe attacked or seems to be so.
Xiaomu Luna may know what happens to a Gem when their body takes excessive damage, but Xiaomu *doesn't* (yet) ... and she's really, really short on good attacks that would damage Lapis without risking harm to Luna. Besides which, whatever's going on - with Luna claiming that Lapis is beyond reason - there are actually more unanswered questions than Xiaomu is willing to just ignore.

Lapis is terrified, that much is obvious - there's somebody who promised freedom but took it back, who promised safety but trapped Lapis and those like her.

.... not that different, maybe, from the way Lapis claimed she was 'keeping Luna safe' by imprisoning her.

The sage fox shakes her head a bit, and refrains from attacking just yet; she's partly seeing what her allies (plus Luna, gotta love self-rescuing princesses) are doing and how much of an effect they're having. IF Xiaomu needs to intervene, she should have a chance momentarily ...
Lapis Lazuli Lapis Lazuli turned. "What?" she asked in confusion. Then.... LASER BEAMS TO THE FACE! She let out a scream, her hands thrashing out.

Then missiles, energy from a vaporeon all striking her. Her magic runs rampant for only a moment, but her body was never meant to endure something like that. There's a poof, and her body disappears.

Revealing a blue lapis lazuli, with a black, scorpion like creature wrapped around it. The legs and tail digging into the stone so tightly that gouges had been dug into it. Across the things body were little green and red specks. It rolled and clattered on the ground, against Luna for a moment and... IT STUNG HER! It was still active, whatever it was! And it would burn, oh how it burned. Like having fire dug into her veins.

And then the world exploded. Cracks suddenly erupted throughout the castle and, whatever Lapis had been doing, it was stopped now. Water suddenly tore through the castle, chunks of walls being torn away and the thing with the gem being caught in a torrent as large chunks and ocean water collapsed on them.
Staren     So Lapis's gem has a scorpion clinging to it? That's... weird. And it's risky to attack it, they might damage Lapis... And it's risky to grab, because it just stung Luna...

    And then water washes everything away! "Don't lose her! We can't let her get away!" He tries to chase after, and let the flowing water carry him wherever the gem goes... but he may have jumped in too late...

    It's not that he doesn't care about Luna. But in the heat of the moment, making a rushed decision like this, he subconsciously assumes everyone is as prepared as he is...
Princess Luna      Luna is practically forehead to forehead with Lapis even as she keeps the beam going, and she just keeps apologizing over and over the entire time as she keeps Lapis hugged tightly. Rockets explode against Lapis, and whatever the Trump Card is impacts. With them in such close proximity, Luna takes a moderate amount of the hits as well. But then, success! Luna lets out a laugh of relief and happiness as Lapis pops...only to yelp when she sees that terrible scorpion thing! "Let go of her you vile-gyaaaaahh!!" Luna is stung as she tries to catch the gem, and the fire that suddenly explodes through her veins sends her to her knees, trembling and clutching the spot on her arm where the stinger landed. "Nnng! N-no! Lapis!!" she cries, tears flowing now. Especially as the castle starts collapsing and the water rushes in. "Lapiiiiiiis!!" Luna cries desperately as the scorpion-clad gem is washed away.

     With the pain nearly immobilizing her and the water and huge chunks of ice crashing in around them, Luna has to choose protect herself and her allies over catching her friend. Her horn glows and a protective bubble forms before she is tossed and smashed about within it by the crashing water and ice. Cracks quickly start appearing, but Luna pays them no mind as she tries to focus, managing to direct the bubble in the general direction of her rescuers. "G-get in! I should be able to hold off the water and get us to the surface now that my horn is free!" she pants out, gritting her teeth against the pain.
Athela Valemore Yep, Lapis was holding the castle together to some degree. Hard to miss the way it starts to break and let water flood in once she's been disabled.

Which turns this into the sort of situation any heroic sort hates to face even more than the big bad villain -- having to decide between two people needing help, having learned that Lapis was in her own way a prisoner as well... But in the end, the knight had to think of more needs than just the perils here, and the fact that the alicorn princess has an entire nation that needs her as well.

Though in the end, Luna sort of makes it for them. "You won't be able to help her if you perish now!" Lapis, even as a gem trapped by that... thing, has a better chance of surviving the collapsing castle and surging water than anyone else here, save herself and her pokemon.

Athela grabs the nearest people, being Xiaomu and Eve, and practically shoves them into/onto Luna's bubble in front of her. Luna was hurt and weak as well, no need make her strain herself even more. "Worry not 'bout us your highness, we will help the ascent!"

Once everyone needing to be is inside both Samurott and Vaporeon grab onto the bubble as they can to help guide it through the waters surging into the crumbling castle.

Athela puts a comforting arm around Luna's shoulder. "I know this is a difficult choice... But if we doth not escape now, there will be none help for her later."
Maya Maya now sees the horor something has infested LApis it wasn't just a mental issue it's something latched on to her, old memories of a slave crown come to mind an there's anger at the thing on Lapis she isn't sure how best to help. It's time to pull out if they are alie they can help. Maya will follow after the others leaping for the bubble before it's too late.

"We will be back!"
Lapis Lazuli It was a disaster. As they made their way out, they could see the remains of the shifting castle crashing and breaking, crumbling to debris on the ocean floor.

And in it... Lapis. Her gem, somewhere in that mess.

Alone. Prisoner. Captured.

Of course, if they decided to examine Luna, they'd soon discover... she'd been injected with something.

Something akin to rocks. Easy to remove, but boy did it hurt while it was inside. Like having an open flame under the skin.

On the up side, all they had to do was find a gem the size of an 8-ball with a scorpion on it, amongst the rubble of a destroyed castle at the bottom of the ocean and... Oh, maybe it wasn't an up side after all.
Staren     Staren's buried in ice for his trouble. "Oh, come on! Ice is supposed to FLOAT! Freakin'..." Staren mutters.

    And he doesn't even end up close enough to the gem to find it easily.

    He can't search like this. He needs to come back with tools.

    So he cuts his way through the ice and floats up. Oh well. :( It was worth a shot!
Princess Luna      Luna had tears flowing down her cheeks the entire ride, but refused to sob. Too proud to admit her vulnerability in front of others. And she could blame it on those rocks that had set her nerves on fire. She looks down at the collapsing castle as they float toward the surface, where the yellow submarine has patched up and is waiting to carry them back to shore, but it stays on the surface to avoid any more trouble if possible. Luna doesn't say a word the entire time except to thank someone for a bandage. Scream perhaps when those burning pebbles are removed from her, but she does very little actual talking.