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Kale Hearthward	THE SETUP How much official (or unofficial) cooperation there is between the Paladins and the Watch depends on who you're asking, when they're being asked, and who's doing the asking. Depending on how the variables line up, the answer is either a sternly worded form letter chastising the asker for even considering that there's any coordination between the two groups, or some variation on "Oh yeah I have a Watch cell leader in my bowling team, you said you want a joint mission, let me see what I can set up," and no further questions are asked. Coordination happens. A lot of paperwork and bureaucracy happens on one side, a lot of disorganized radio chatter happens on the other side. (It is debatable as to which is more efficient.) A suitable joint mission is found, with suitable joint stakes - the Watch has the intel and the local agents, the Paladins have the materiel and the local authority, and it concerns the local theme park which is of interest to both. THE SITE Wonderworld! Everybody loves Wonderworld. Wonderworld is a creation of the Wonderfilm corporation, founded by Tell Wonder - most famous for such cartoon characters as Minkey Murine, multiple movies (some theatrical and some premiering on the Wonder Channel), acquiring the Quasar Fight media empire, and most recently picking up Harbor Comics and the Harbor Cinematic Universe along with it. Any similarity between Wonderworld and any other theme park is entirely coincidental, by the by. Wonderworld is roughly divided into six sections - from the southernmost entrance going east, there's Wondertown Central Avenue, Wonderfutureland, Magic Mountain, Danger Adventure Land, Corporateland, and then in the center Wonder Castle - which is visible from every point in the park. It's all laid out kind of like an equilateral pentagon, with pathways or transportation connecting each zone to each other zone. Today's a normal day at the park, with a normal guest attendance load, which is key because:
Kale Hearthward	THE MISSION This is in fact a real, legitimate mission. It's just that this is the sort of thing that a couple low tier investigators would look into, not a miscellaneous handful of elites (from two factions, even). That fact is *not* set out loud, it doesn't show up anywhere in the mission briefings, the mission is presented entirely straight faced. The mission is to investigate reported irregularities inside of Wonderworld. Those irregularities are: * Unusual theme park mascots (matching no known Wonderfilms property) which are being rude to guests. * Staged fights amongst the aforementioned mascots which seem unusually realistic * Damage done to rides and scenery in the park * A rumored secret route the Magic Mountain Coaster can take (the mission notes mention the rumors don't seem terribly credible). And then once everyone gives a quick verbal report they have the rest of the day free. STARTING THINGS UP Kale's waiting at the entrance, with wristband tickets for everyone. "Low profiles," he says, as he hands them out. "Which means, looking like you belong here, as tourists." "Which means going and at least looking like you're having fun," he adds. "So - go hit rides, grab food, hit the gift shops, pose for a character photo with a mascot - you know, go do tourist things, don't just investigate." "And it's also probably best if we group up, instead of all running off to investigate on our own - you know, since two sets of eyes might catch something a single set won't."
Ishirou	Ishirou was here!  He was in a very ugly sweater, with a pair of boy shorts, and sneakers.  The socks were pulled up instead of let down because he's a /nerd/.  He gets his wristband ticket from Kale.  Beside him, POD, which is a tiny box with two arms that floats, is wearing a sun hat.   "You know, I've never been to a theme park before.  So this is a new thing!  Hmmm..." he says though knowing, or at least suspecting, the real reason for this mission.  He scratches the underside of his chin and looks around for a moment.   "So just break up into pairs?" he asks, wondering, or if there were bigger groups.
Go Shijima	Go needs to look like a tourist. Having a digital camera is a great way to suggest that. Hanging by the strap 'round his neck, Go's also gone for functional, if tacky attire--a tank top and cargo shorts to keep cool, Wonderworld branded sunglasses, and a visor. Taking the wristband and slipping it on, he somewhat hypocritically advises Ishirou:      "You look like a dork. You'll fit right in," he says, lightly punching Ishirou on the shoulder. "I'll group up with you! If you've never been to one before, this'll be a great chance to have some fun while we work."
Karlan Nobles	Who doesn't love Wonderworld? People who haven't heard of it, mostly. The pair hailing from Kjerag certainly haven't, but they're actually dressed for the weather and for the part today, having done a bit of research to get the appropriately overpriced summer apparel from official channels ahead of time to look every part the Wonder Adults they totally are. Pramanix: "I know you're trying to look the part, but..." SilverAsh: "But?" Pramanix: "... But do you really need to wear that hat sideways?" SilverAsh: "It's what's popular these days." Indeed, SilverAsh is wearing his Wonderworld logo'd cap sideways along with an eye-searingly Hawaiian shirt (with Wonderworld character silhouettes making up the shapes) and licensed fishing pants that will at least keep his pocket stuff dry. Pramanix is opting for something slightly more subtle: A wide-brimmed summer hat, ladder shades, and an off-the-shoulder top and shorts combo that coincides with the yellow and black color scheme of a slightly obscure bee-themed Wonder Channel character. The details of the mission are a little hazy to the pair, but the intent is clear enough. Upon spotting Kale, Pramanix raises her hand in a friendly wave before nudging SilverAsh to do the same. Pramanix: "A tough mission, definitely. We'll have to take this very seriously." SilverAsh: "Quite seriously indeed. I'm sure our acting skills will be put to the test." Pramanix: "Undoubtedly. We'll need try very hard to look like we're having fun." SilverAsh: "Ah, the sacrifices we make for our noble causes." There's almost a moment when it looks like they might snicker, but snicker they do not. They're professionals! They'll need someone or someones to group up with, though, whether the siblings stick together or not.
Hibiki Tachibana	Wonderworld! Everybody loves Wonderworld. Probably. On the approach, Hibiki looks more surprised than anything else, peering well past the front entrance towards the towering miscellany of rides and attractions filling the park. "When's the last time I've even been to any kind of theme park...? Oh, right..." Mishellam.     Though that time was...well, not all fun and games. This isn't either, but it /is/ fundamentally different. She's here in her usual - mostly, with shorts reasonably less nerdy than cargo shorts, some big old boots, and her big yellow jacket actually tied around her waist this time, leaving her just in the tanktop underneath. She'll fit in just fine here as some teenager here to mess around.     "I got it, I got it," she replies towards Kale, taking hold of the offered wristband and looping it on. For a moment, she stops and opens her mouth. Probably some comment or another on the very obvious Watch and Paladins collusion going on here, which is something that even she knows is something he especially wouldn't do unless he had to.     Then she takes one look at the gathered group for today, closes her mouth, and promptly turns towards SilverAsh and Pramanix instead. Once again, she looks like she's going to say something--only for a look of mingled confusion and maybe a little bit of horror at the older brother's choice of clothing. Specifically shirt. After two seconds of staring, she clears her throat very audibly.     "Uh...right. I'll be happy to tag along with you guys, if you need it. I'm a free agent today. Though maybe I'd stand out in the middle of you guys, so splitting up isn't a bad idea..."
Rita Ma	A tourist... that's what Ms. Grier said she is, isn't it?      Rita has no real idea what "a tourist" looks like, but fortunately her usual cropped-jacket-and-skirt look isn't terrible for blending in on any modern world. She does, after seeing the others, dip back around a corner and make the concession of materializing herself a straw sun-hat.      She pads POD on the head gingerly before accepting her wristband, but her eyes are on the park's interior. The castle, the rides, the sounds of commercialized joy- there was that one time in C's world, but otherwise she's never experienced anything similar. It even pierces her prior glumness, just a little.      "Right," she repeats, trying to rouse herself from staring at the bright colors and pretty lights. "We need to at least pretend we're having fun, and... we need to pair up."      Her eyes meet Kale's, briefly pleading. Isn't there a way to get paired with Lilian without having to say so out loud? But finally, she summons up her strength with a little steeling breath, turns to Lilian, and holds out her hand.      "I guess that just leaves us, Ms. Rook." It does not. "The 'coaster' sounds fun, doesn't it?"
Chase	There is a considerable list of things that they need to do here today, but before any of that, the most important thing to do when engaging in these sorts of activities is to blend in. Luckily for Chase, there's plenty of vendors selling clothes to help him achieve that goal, and after spending way more money than he assumed goods of such low quality are worth, he's finally ready to start.      And by getting started, that mostly means standing menacingly behind Go and Ishirou. A presence that would probably be more intimidating if not for the fact that Chase is currently wearing a hat adorned with the park mascot's ears and some novelty shades. Or maybe that just makes that worse.      "If you are pairing up, I am going with. I do not trust either of you to be productive otherwise."
Lilian Rook	Lilian is . . .     Lilian is smart enough to catch this kind of thing. When someone is trying to pass it off in front of her. She can tell when someone is sweatily begging her for a waste of time that someone else could take care of, just because ninety-five percent odds aren't enough for them.     But if a Paladins operator presents it to her in a stonefaced manner and elaborate dossier like that, Lilian simply assumes that the incident is far larger than outlined, and that command must have serious reason to worry if they'd call her for something like this. The operator having no secret knowledge to pry out is just sensible opsec. It's like a quiet, knowing nod. Only you, Dame Commander Rook, can be trusted to handle this. We're putting our best assets on this one; read between the lines of the milk run. You're savvy. We trust you to get it.     This is otherwise known as 'too smart by half.'     Lilian dresses as casually as she can while her current issue persists. She's spent some amount of time huffing and fussing in front of a mirror about it coming off as 'childish' (so are the worries of a girl who is just barely drinking age in the US) and hassling Tamamo for second and third and fourth opinions, but ultimately there are only so many things you can wear in high summer that cover your lower legs and blend into a themepark.     Which is to say she started by lifted the look from Xion's gothy-sweet summer shenanigans style and fiddled around with various combinations of leggings/skirt/belt/short-sleeved cutoff/calf boots/half glove ensemble without checkerboard or purple plaid until she doesn't look like a Kingdom Hearts alt-outfit and just kind of lightly punk. Unfortunately the neckline rather ruins the mystery of where Night Mist's pendant goes in 'concealed carry' mode.     She puts the wristband next to the clean white one with the black stripe.     "You know, this would be a considerable sight easier, Hearthward, if I simply surveilled the area the ordinary way. Why exactly does this call for pounding pavement? I'll be able to see anything from a mile away at any of these vantage points, and it's not as if they'll get away from me; I'll get to them instantaneously either way." says Lilian. She stares at him, unblinking, for a good few dangerously thoughtful seconds.     "I'm not an idiot." she says. The tension crackles like lightning. Breathless heartbeats go by. "You're hoping that they'll recognize us regardless, and that we'll lure them out. They have sights set on Elites, don't they?"     "Agreed. Let's split into pairs. One gigantic group will get nowhere." She says to Ishirou. Go's insistence on claiming his roommate instead earns the teeniest bit of ire. "We're supposed to appear to be having fun. You're not here to take a day off. Think about this logically. Ishirou has the top reconnaissance ability of this group, and I have the the top mobility. Wouldn't this get done more quickly that way?" She looks around. "Tachibana and-- What's the point of requesting factional cooperation then?! Aren't you three just going to wander around scoffing cotton candy and missing the exact same things? Hearthward, please take-- No! Chase! You should-- This isn't a field trip!" So says Lilian, but she's really starting to look like someone who's been passed over four times already after the teacher said 'make a group of three!'.     Rita is very brave. Lilian won't, or can't, look at her. "Shouldn't you be searching that water ride and its alleged mystery route? With someone else who can stay down there too. Unless we want to be here all day and the next, please think about delegating this efficiently."
Kale Hearthward	Kale carefully doesn't comment on Ishirou's fashion choices, though it looks like he direly wants to say a few things about them. "That... looks the part," he says to Silverash, blinking, when he sees him. "Yeah." "And yeah, serious mission," says Kale, keeping straight-beaked. Kale meets Hibiki's gaze and opened mouth with a similarly straight-beaked expression - he spent some time practicing in front of a mirror *just* to make sure he wasn't about to give anything away. And then to Lilian. Moments go by. Kale's mind races - excuses, apologies, or just flat out denials? What's the best move there? Is there even a best move? Thankfully, Lilian comes to her own conclusion. "Ah- can you forget you realized that?" says Kale, deciding to lean into it. "It'd work better if you don't look like you're on the lookout for someone..." "Well-" says Kale, meeting Rita's gaze. "Um - yeah, I think Lilian Rook and Rita Ma would make a good pair, because-" Shit, he hadn't thought this far ahead yet, he just kinda hoped things would settle in a way that'd put them together. "Well, the water rides, and-" He seizes on a different solution when a lifeline presents itself. "Well, actually - looks like the other groups are settled! There's Pramanix, Silverash, and Tachibana - then Shijima, Ishirou, and Chase. That just leaves Rook and Rita, you two have to pair up." He nods, satisfied. Then the flaw in this arrangement occurs to him. "Oh, um, and me I guess." Great job, Kale! You made yourself into a third wheel. "Okay, okay. Let's see, um, Rook, Rita, and me will go check out that water ride... Chase, Shijima, and Ishirou, you go investigate the mascots, and Pramanix, Silverash, and Tachibana will go check to see about damaged rides. That work for everyone?"
Lilian Rook	"Beg pardon?" says Lilian, not quite stomping a foot, but doing so spiritually. "What do you mean the other groups are settled? This isn't a classroom. We can change these arrangements as much as we like." Beat. "And why do you want to go anywhere near a water ride? Isn't water the opposite of your thing?"
Ishirou	The arm punch gets an OW from Ishirou, who gives Go a withering look, followed by a wry smile.  "Fine, you can come, but I'm going to get you back and you won't see it coming," Ishirou promises.  Of course, this is made even more awkward by Chase.  He starts to complain... POD, however, lowers itself down just a little so Rita can pet it with optimal efficiency.  POD is a good girl, and has rather come to enjoy these outings with Ishirou.  Not that it has feelings or anything, you understand? However, when Lilian comes to start breaking them up into efficient groups, and threatens the idea.  Kale goes to catch this, to which Ishirou gives him a thumbs up.  "Well, you heard the bird.  Off we go to investigate mascots."  He laughs, shoving Chase and Go into the direction of 'anywhere but here' before Lilian can recover.  The POD makes a 'bow' to Rita and then follows along.   Unless she kidnaps it.
Karlan Nobles	Hibiki approaches the pair of snow leopard-y people, and Pramanix has to turn away for a moment to hide some snickers at that reaction to SilverAsh's enthusiastic getup. SilverAsh, meanwhile, just has his usual smug-bastard-slight-smile on that he usually does, seemingly unperturbed by her stare. Pramanix: "That'd be lovely, Hibiki. It'll be more fun with the three of us!" SilverAsh: "Mission-mandated fun, of course." Pramanix: "Oh, of course. Very efficient fun." SilverAsh: "Fret not, Hibiki. If you fear standing out at all, I will simply have to pose as your chaperone." Lilian takes things far more seriously than even Pramanix and SilverAsh (pretend to) do, though, and they both make similar intrigued noises when she identifies potential flaws in the current groupings. Kale raises his own hasty counterpoints, though, and they pick up on the intent soon enough after putting two and two together. Pramanix: "There's more Watch members here, too." SilverAsh: "Indeed. It's inevitable that there'd be some overlap, especially in groups of three." Pramanix: "Ishirou and Lilian can't group up together if they're already strong scouts." SilverAsh: "It would be more efficient for myself to group with others as well. Tenzin's eyes are my own, and this will more than compensate for Pramanix's and Hibiki's." He gestures upwards with his head lightly. There's an eagle circling around far overhead! Pramanix grouses a bit at being told her eyes suck.
Rita Ma	Rita does not kidnap the POD, mercifully. But she does give it a cute little wave goodbye.      Her expression tenses when Lilian rebuffs her. Her hands ball up by her sides. It's hard to tell exactly what emotions she's choking down, but it's easy to tell she's choking down something ugly.      "I don't know what you mean, Lilian," she finally says in a glassy tone. "I didn't bring any diving equipment at all. I don't think anyone here is especially well-suited for it. But someone needs to do it, right?"      She resolves the tension by simply grabbing Lilian's wrist and beginning to walk in the direction of the Magic Mountain Coaster. "Thanks for coming with us, Mr. Hearthward," she says, with a little bit more warmth. "What do you think is causing all this?"
Go Shijima	A complex spread of emotions plays across Go's face, once he turns and spots Chase. Anxiety forces a loss of words, until he catches sight of that ridiculous hat. Despite himself, Go snorts.      "Sure, Chase. We'd be happy to have you--eh?? But Lilian," he says. "If we actually are having fun, then we'll look like we're having fun," Go postulates, displaying that monolithic wit and intellect known of all Kamen Riders.      "It'll be fine," he adds, nodding in agreement with Kale. "Right," utters go with a nod at Ishirou. He makes a beckoning motion, marching up to a conveniently located placard with a map.      "Let's head to Central Avenue first. Not a ton of rides there, but there are a few classics." 'Classics?' "We'll hit up the Ghost House, then grab a bite to eat and see if there's any mascots. From there," he says, tracing his finger eastward around the perimiter, "We'll be systematic about it. Move on to the next area, catch a few highlights, then move someplace open and public to see if we catch any in the act. POD'll be a big help for that, and of course, me and Chase can step in if any of those 'staged fights' get a little too real."      With that, Go leads the two of them into the closest part of the park, intending to ride the Ghost House. He probably did a lot of research on this place, if he knows about 'highlights' and 'classics.'
Kale Hearthward	RITA/LILIAN GROUP "Oops, sorry Rook, all the other groups are leaving already," says Kale, hoping they all get a move on quickly in general and away from Lilian in specific. "Looks like we're stuck with the configuration we've got after all, it'd be too much of a pain to coordinate swaps at this point!" "Here, let's go and... how about that funnel cake?" says Kale, looking from Rita to Lilian. "Let's go get some funnel cake! That'll help us look like we're blending in." He gestures at one of the concession stands just inside. They smell strongly and overwhelmingly of fryer oil and various sugary substances.
Hibiki Tachibana	SilverAsh is strong. Very strong, in more ways than one. Even she can't help a wry smile back towards the pair after that. "Sheesh, do I really look like I need a chaperone? Well, if it makes the mission go smoother..." She trails off lightly, before similarly glancing off towards the others.     Lilian's tension-crackling reaction and narrow miss, followed by Kale's response and her blustering around for different groups...that smile of hers doesn't exactly leave. It does buckle a bit at the cold shoulder that Rita gets, but she thinks she's getting a better and better handle on all of this now. Right.     "Don't worry, Lilian. Even if you can't trust me on it, you know SilverAsh is gonna keep things in check for sure. You don't have anything to worry about on our end. Good luck with your end of stuff, alright?" Despite most of that being delivered in a way-too-casual tone, the last bit has the air of being very genuine. Rita at first gets a small grimace, but it eases up somewhat as she takes the raven-haired girl's wrist and hauls her off.     As they both go, Kale gets A Look and a nod. Of trust, implicitly.     "Leave the rides to us. We'll look into it. Just call if you need any help."
Lilian Rook	The noise of cat-herding annoyance Lilian makes when Ishirou starts making a break for it is intense. The second lat-- actually no, Lilian is just right in front of him before he can go anywhere, arms crossed, expression a different kind of cross.     "You realize you can't just hurry away and start wasting your time on amusement park rides before I can catch you, right?"     She looks up at Pramanix. "What? Of course we can." She looks to SilverAsh. "Tenzin's eyes? Is that some sort of intelligence-gathering power I'm supposed to know about?"     And then she is grabbed. Her other hand jumps at her thigh, and finds nothing holstered there. She grasps empty air for a quarter second. Then she comprehends it's Rita grabbing her wrist. Lilian thinks about this rationally.     §We're all currently undercover. Rita is way too strong for me to simply pull my hand away if she really wants to keep hold of it. I can't just punch her in broad daylight with a million people watching. I could punch her where nobody can see, but then there'd be a big fuss as people bring medical attention to figure out why the little girl fell over. Taking us both somewhere else won't solve this and will just waste time. Using magic will almost certainly tip off whoever is hoping to attract Elites; it'll leave traces even if I hide it from the crowd, who will certainly talk about it if I don't . . .§     "God dammit." Lilian whispers under her breath. "If you're going to be like that, then I'll simply let the Watch take responsibility for an operational failure." she huffs. Unfortunately, she has little choice but to walk, because fighting with a girl at least half a foot shorter than her in the middle of a Wonderland park is a gambit where Rita wins all the outcomes (provided Rita is a quick-thinking sociopath who can play a crowd, or liable to cry; one of these might be true).     "Path of least resistance as always, Hearthward." Lilian mutters. She takes a second to just hold her face in her hand, breathing in deeply. Rita feels all of Lilian's muscles clench up through her wrist, and her pulse rapidly decelerating to something that isn't boiling with anxious frustration. When she lowers her hand, it's as if nothing at all had ever happened. Lilian can fake excitement and sunshine just as well as anything else. "Well, if that's what you want~ But don't eat it all right away, otherwise you'll get an upset stomach on the rollercoasters!"     Lilian quietly gags just a little at the fryer oil smell, but it takes no time at all to pay for three of them and hand them out as if Rita is her little sister and Kale is . . . well, a coworker.
Kale Hearthward	KARLAN/HIBIKI GROUP Tenzen, what do your eagle eyes see? There - at the foot of one of the roller coasters in Wonderfutureland, there's a bit of something off. It's in a spot that wouldn't be easily visible from the ground, obscured somewhat by some of the park's greenery. Specifically, after getting a bit closer by hopping a fence, it looks like part of the roller coaster's steel scaffolding is partially melted. The melted area is about a foot wide - and not fully melted, more saggy, like butter that's been left out on the counter overnight. "Yeah, I'm looking, Bradley, I don't see it," says a voice, nearby. Talking on the phone. "Well, it'd have to be somewhere you went yesterday, right? And you were over here next to the Loop of Tomorrow. That's where the concessor ran off to." It's a park employee, who's carefully searching every inch of the ground, cell phone held in place between her shoulder and chin (the poor man's 'handsfree') as she does so. She's heading towards the group's general location, in her search...
Karlan Nobles	'Sheesh, do I really look like I need a chaperone?' SilverAsh refrains from commenting on that. Instead, he turns with a dramatic sweep of his non-existent coat at Kale's hint that they should probably get moving sooner rather than later. "Let us reconvene in... Two hours? I must admit I'm not familiar with how long it takes to finish exploring a place like this, but that should be a modest amount of time to find something worth mentioning." He proposes, sparing a quick glance towards Rita and Lilian that almost looks like a concerned look. Almost is the key word there, since it's still SilverAsh. Pramanix is a little more obvious about it, but she does manage to turn away quickly enough once it looks like there's actually going to be cooperation on that end. She hurries over to Hibiki, patting her shoulder lightly before starting to lead the way towards the rides! And funnel cake. Pramanix is definitely going to lead them to funnel cake, whether or not they should actually be eating that before going on rides. Once the three of them are a safe enough distance away, though... Pramanix: "Do you think it'll be alright?" SilverAsh: "We'll have to trust in the plan and succeed regardless. The fallout if we fail could be even worse for them." Pramanix: "Right... Hmn. Alright, then! Hibiki, have you ever been on any of these rides before? Any tips?" Eventually, Tenzin spots the distorted fence area, and he relays that information to SilverAsh somehow with only a single eagle noise. SilverAsh, meanwhile, does that forward lean over Hibiki's and Pramanix's shoulders to keep his voice down while looking like he's posing for a picture. "Ten o'clock. Melted scaffolding, and an investigator coming towards us." He murmurs, listening closely to the employee and pretending not to watch her as she scours the ground for something. "Shall we stay out of her way to check that out, or... Should we offer aid?"
Chase	"Haunted house?"      Chase tilts his head in minor confusion. He was under the impression that these sorts of places were meant to be enjoyable. A building full of horrifying ghosts feels the opposite of that. That is, unless there is more to it than that. Or perhaps, just perhaps, Kamen Rider and his friend are trying to sabotage him somehow.      Still, it's not like Chase has any better ideas, so he just decides to go with it. Worst case scenario, he'll have to deal with them if there's japes involved.      "Alright. Lead the way."
Ishirou	Ishirou about jumps out of his skin and screams a high-pitched sound that perhaps only dogs could hear when Lilian teleports in front of them.  However, thanks to Rita's quick reaction, and Kale's words, they get the go-ahead.   Ishirou, slightly shaken, continues on.  "Oh right, a haunted house..." a pause, "Well, I don't get this Chase, but apparently being afraid can be enjoyable if it's in a certain environment..."
Kale Hearthward	ISHIROU/CHASE/GO GROUP Into the Ghost House! It's oooOOOoooOOOooo-h so spooky! There's a queue. The queue isn't itself spooky, or particularly long right now, but it's getting longer. The park seems to be filling up fairly quickly. The ghost house ride is largely as anticipated - spooky ghosts, family-friendly macabre humor, high end practical effects, and implying that all of the riders are dead at the end of the ride - you know, the usual. Looking for a wide open area with mascots after that leads them towards the center of the park - the foot of the Wondercastle. There look to be plenty of mascots near there. They pass by Minkey Murine, who's doing a photo op with a kid in a wheelchair - who looks like all his dreams have come true, or at least all of his mouse-mascot-costume-adjacent dreams, at least. They pass by Glover Goose, who is alongside a school group, a dance team, who are doing some complicated choreographed number - Glover Goose is utterly failing at the dance steps, in a particularly entertaining way. They pass by a bag of popcorn with arms and legs and an ugly bulbous face, which doesn't seem to match up to any of Wonderfilms' popular characters? "Okay, kids, let's get a picture!" a passing dad says, whose kids run over to the popcorn mascot and pose. "Wha- hey, get lost, you frickin brats, shoo! Out of my way, before I blow you to Wonderkingdom Come!" yells the popcorn mascot. One of these things is not like the others.
Hibiki Tachibana	"SilverAsh...!" Hibiki half-groans and half-whines at getting written off like that before she follows behind regardless. All she can do now is hope the Rita-Lilian-Kale group will work out, which...well. If there's anything she could do on that end, right now at this moment in time, she's still not quite sure what it is. But she'll figure it out. She still has a certain ghost's words in her head. For now, as the mastermind of all of this, she'll trust Kale.     So she'll focus on their part of the mission, heading off and replying to Pramanix. "Not at this park specifically, but I've been on rides like 'em before, yeah. If they're getting damaged, that's serious business...especially if it's the kind of thing that nobody notices until it's too late. I guess we should find if they've shut down any of the rides, and look into as many as we can..."     Tenzin gives them their lead though, and she huddles in and listens. Her eyes drift in the direction of the employee. Fortunately, fence-hopping is in Hibiki's purview of Delinquient-Adjacent Skills even if she wasn't a wacko martial artist, so that bit won't be a problem. The older of her companions gets a glance. Hm. "...Let's see if we can't give some help. Maybe we'll learn something about...whatever the heck caused steel to melt. We're just a bunch of tourists, right? It won't look that weird if we're just offer a hand to someone looking for something."     Assuming the Karlan siblings are in agreement, Hibiki will happily flag her down as she approaches. "Excuse me! Are you looking for something, miss?"
Kale Hearthward	KARLAN/HIBIKI GROUP The park employee looks up - the trio grabbing her attention. "What are you doing here? You're not supposed to be in this area," she says, standing up and pulling the phone away from her ear. "... Okay, yes, though. If you've got some sort of..." She looks the trio over. "... Cat like... searching abilities. We really need to find something." She reaches into her pocket and pulls out a wristband. It looks a lot like the wristband tickets the trio had to put on and scan in at the turnstiles to get into the park, except bulkier and more high tech and more colorful. "It looks a lot like this, my friend dropped his, and we really need to find it. Like, really really need to find it. It's important," she adds. "(Who are you talking to? Did you find it?)" asks the person on the other end of the phone. The employee ignores it. "We're trying to retrace his steps, but there's a lot of ground to cover and we're really short on time."
Ishirou	Ishirou rather /enjoys/ the haunted house because all of these things are fake scary.  Unlike the stuff, he has to deal with on a regular basis.  The psycho horrors from various worlds, the esoteric threats to his mental health, Persephobee, and other terrifying Cognito hazards.   Off the ride, Ishirou was smilin' pretty large.  He's also looking back toward Chase.  "So enjoy the ride?" he asks.  He knows Go did because Go's a giant nerd and already plotted out the course.   This takes them by the various mascots.  The first one gets an aww.  The second one gets a laugh.  The third causes him to pause.  He scans it and then holds a hand out to...remote hack it.  Biological or otherwise.  He'll have it pose for the camera and be nice...before walking towards them for a picture. "Gentlemen, we should find a quiet place to speak to the popcorn," he says, with a slight bit of menace in his voice.  The kind that is very upset that someone would ruin the day of children.  In a place of fun.  He walks the popcorn somewhere isolated for Go and Chase to get some answers.
Rita Ma	Rita is almost certainly not a sociopath, but she doesn't seem all that far from crying today. No point in chancing it.      She's tense, too, legible through the vibrato shivering of her fingers on Lilian's wrist if nothing else. But her face is turned away. When Lilian wills herself to relax and put on that fake sunniness, Rita's jitters only intensify.      Rita wears a bittersweet, depleted smile while accepting her funnel cake. "Th- thanks, Ms. Rook. I'm on 'a diet', but..." She licks some of the powdered sugar off and tastes the edges without actually eating any.      It's important to 'pretend', though. So she keeps holding onto it, even while it gets cold and soggy, and she gets those awful hunger pangs.      "Excuse me?" she asks one of the staff members. She doesn't even need to pretend to look bedraggled and forlorn. "Which way is it to the water rides? We were really hoping to see those today."
Go Shijima	"You're not actually dead," Go feels the need to quietly qualify for Ishirou and Chase on the way out. Walking with the two to the next stop, the famous castle, he continues: "How about it, though? I can see why people have such good things to say. I don't know if it was holograms or animatrons or what, but those statues Guess it's good we got in before the..."     Line.     "Hey," says Go, sotto voce. "Do you guys see that?" While the popcorn mascot is distracted berating children, Go snaps a picture as Ishirou does what he does best.     "...right! Come on, Chase." He very nearly goes for a Kamen Rider Scene Transition, before he realizes that most tourists don't get around by frontflips and somersaults. Walking, very normally, he follows Ishirou, until there's an opportunity to have a private conversation.     Having known Chase for some time, and been on the wrong side of him for most of that time, Go knows that he has a certain... intimidating air. Even with a silly hat on. "This is my friend's first time here," says Go, hands in his pocket. "I don't think he likes your attitude, Popcorn."     "He doesn't do well with bad attitudes," adds Go with a warning tone, rocking casually on his heels. "But if you tell us what we want to know, I might be able to help him see reason. What do you say we give it a try--starting with who you're really working for."
Chase	The haunted house was not haunted. It's not even a real house. Were it not for the fact his visit was paid for by someone else, he feels like he should complain about false advertising.      At least the park mascots are somewhat impressive. Young men and women dressed in what appear to be poorly ventilated costumes to bring happiness to children. There's something commendable about that, even though most of them are probably more in it for the pay.      That makes the Popcorn mascot's attitude all the more loathsome to Chase. As Go introduces him to the worker, the Roidmude reaches out to forcefully grab hold of their hand. He doesn't say anything either, instead just opting to stare the mascot straight in the eyes as his grip slowly gets ever more tighter and painful.
Karlan Nobles	Pramanix: "They do look like they're moving rather quickly... Oh, we should go on one when we're done here." SilverAsh: "After we make sure they're not malfunctioning, of course. It wouldn't do to complete our mission only to be thrown off the track at such high speeds." Pramanix: "... It could be exciting, though. Do you think we'd be alright if that happened, Hibiki?" With Hibiki explaining the dangers inherent in improper maintenance, the pair have an alternative thing to look out for! The melted buttersteel is certainly an odd thing to look at considering how steel generally doesn't work that way, but they'll have to keep that in mind for later as the park employee approaches and immediately typecasts two of the three of them. SilverAsh decides not to contradict her assumption. "That's right, ma'am. A more colorful version of your wristband should be easy enough to spot with our... Cat-like eyesight." Even he's cringing a little as he says it. Pramanix turns her head away again, presumably to start the search already and definitely not to hide more snickers at his expense. "Was it lost near any of the rides?" She asks, half-hinting to SilverAsh where to look. Catching the signal, he gets Tenzin to start circling over the Loop of Tomorrow in search of the colorful band (around that saggy area in particular). Pramanix, meanwhile, is going to keep trying to ID some other potential spots. "Besides this spot here... Was your friend working anywhere else when they lost it?"
Kale Hearthward	LILIAN/RITA/KALE GROUP Kale is blissfully unaware of Lilian's internal monologue - though he does catch what she huffs under her breath. He's not too worried because he knows this is in fact a softball mission and there's nothing actually strange going on at this theme park. "Oh, don't worry, I think we can all handle it just fine! We've all got strong stomachs," says Kale, as he takes his funnel cake, and proceeds to scarf it down. The adage 'eats like a bird' apparently doesn't apply. He looks a little concerned at Rita not eating hers, but decides to give her an out - maybe her stomach is upset. "Here, I'll take a bit of it off your hands, if you're that worried - that way it won't go to waste." He ends up eating Rita's funnel cake as they walk, and then whatever of Lilian's she doesn't eat, too. "Water rides, back corner of the park," says the staff member, helpfully. "Right down that way." 'That Way' takes the group past rows of booths of carnival games - ring tosses, pop-gun firing ranges, and the like. "Oh, we should blend in a bit more," suggests Kale. "Here, let's win some prize to carry with us. Rita, you're good at fishing, right?" He points towards the next booth - there's a game that involves dipping a weight on a fishing pole into a 'pond' of plastic fish, and trying to get them to bite on it. The prize is a goldfish inside a plastic bag.
Hibiki Tachibana	"Well, if anything /did/ go wrong, it'd be way better if it was us than anyone else, right?" She gives a reply to Pramanix before they re-enter THE PRESENT MOMENT.     'You're not supposed to be here' gets a slightly awkward chuckle out of Hibiki--clearly, she didn't plan ahead this far. It thankfully turns out to not really matter in short order, as the need for help seems to supercede that. "A wristband...?"     She looks over it, briefly. Yeah, that's definitely way more advanced, and also a lot more gaudy. Even kind of toyetic due to it being bulkier despite the obviously higher tech level. It almost makes her think of something like...nah, couldn't be. Probably just a coincidence.     "Trying to retrace his steps...okay. Four pairs of eyes are better than one, so we'll do our best." She nods up towards SilverAsh and Pramanix, and immediately makes to follow the latter in her quest of a more mundane attempt at searching about. Tenzin will probably be doing the heavy lifting, but covering more ground is always useful.     "Or doing anything that might have made him lose it? If you were retracing his steps, maybe that'll give us a clue on where he might have dropped it..."
Kale Hearthward	ISHIROU/CHASE/GO GROUP "Wha - hey, why are my legs movin' like this!" yells the popcorn, as Ishirou moves it. Ishirou gets some unexpected scan results, also. "Yeah, well, maybe OP-Corn doesn't like *your* attitude!" says the popcorn, once Go makes his introduction. "And I got no problem telling you who I work for - Lord Everything, who's gonna rule over this whole park, and then the whole world!" Chase rolls intimidation. The popcorn, which might be named OP-Corn, leans back. "Um..." "... I'm waiting till the park fills up, then I'm gonna blow things up," he explains. "Wait - why am I telling you this?!" He wrenches his hand away, and manages to forcefully gain control of his feet again - mostly to take several steps back away from Chase.
Kale Hearthward	KARLAN/HIBIKI GROUP "Well he was fi- finding... lost change all over this section of the park," says the employee. "(Finding lost change? No I wasn't,)" says the phone. "(I was-)" She quickly jams her finger down on the hang up button. "Right - um, so also there was a... stage fight going on yesterday against this giant microwave, I mean giant microwave mascot, and... he followed it around, looking for lost change, so I'm going around checking everywhere he went, following the stage fight, I mean," she adds. Meanwhile, Tenzen's search can confirm that there's no wristband of that description anywhere near the Loop of Tomorrow ride.
Ishirou	Ishirou goes for the rehacking, deciding to force the issue by trying to read his memories and surface thoughts, and then trying to go deeper to try and find out everything he can.  Who this guy is, who he works for, what's going on, where are the bombs that he knows about...stuff like that. "You should tell the truth, friend...you don't want to make Chase mad," he says, with a sweet smile.  "Go on the other hand is a big softy, so he can't hold Chase back forever..." he says, making a motion towards his wrist as if saying.. 'Time's ticking.'
Lilian Rook	As far as pretending to enjoy something, while actually feeling tense and conflicted and miserable and twitching with the urge to fight, or else suffer the professional consequences . . .     Well, Lilian has struggled through worse. She's doing fine keeping up appearances.     Rita's visible despondency is more the issue. An adorable little blonde girl looking that upset when getting given a sweet treat at a theme park stands out. "Oh, really I'm sorry, I should have asked." Lilian laughs apologetically. "Well, let Kale have yours and I'll get you something else, okay Rita?" The vile concoction of sugar and deep fried vegetable oil is unceremoniously handed over to Kale on demand. "Pick out anything you like! We have the whole day, haha."     Even if there's no flaw in the facade, that only makes it kind of creepier when thinking about how totally fake it must be. Lilian's wrist trembles with quiet tension the entire time it is held; the seamless mismatch with her sunny casual excitement is probably cause for a therapist to wonder.     When they come across the fishing game, Lilian leans down and puts her hands on her knees to check out the goldfish at eye level. "Aww, they're kind of cute, aren't they? But still, carrying one around in a bag all day feels kind of mean doesn't it? We'll have to get a fancy jar or something at least! If you get one Rita, I'm sure they have some souvenirs around the water rides so we can put some gravel and a little house in the bottom or something!"     Leaving Rita to the game, Lilian turns around slowly, then motions with her finger for Kale to lean close.     "Pushing funnel cake on her, and now a live fish? What the fuck is wrong with you Hearthward?! Do you think about anything at all?!" Lilian whispers way too loudly.
Karlan Nobles	Pramanix: "A microwave mascot...?" SilverAsh: "And finding lost change..." Pramanix: "I suppose if anyone could turn a microwave into a mascot, it would be the creator of all this." SilverAsh: "Indeed. More importantly, though..." SilverAsh shifts right from communicating with his eagle wordlessly (somehow) to addressing the employee directly. "Are your colleagues being paid so little that they must scrounge for loose change from visitors and mascots to get by? Surely there'd be better ways to earn money here than that, no?" Pramanix, perhaps realizing something off about that, follows up the question with one of her own. "What's this microwave character's name, anyway? I've been a little out of the loop lately, you see. Uh... You know. The economy." She chuckles with a dramatic sigh before nudging Hibiki and clapping a hand on her shoulder. "I was hoping to catch up on some of the movies we've missed once we're back in the hotel, you see. Oh, was it a good fight?"
Go Shijima	The Dumb Cop smiles 'serenely' at OP-Corn. "You're telling us this because you're a smart guy, OP-Corn." he says in a polite, sweet tone. "This 'Lord Everything' isn't going to get what they're after today. I've been around the block enough to know how this goes--it's guys like you that catch the heat for someone else's mistake."      Tsk tsking, Go shakes his head. "It's tough, isn't it? But you know, I really think you'd like it better in our neck of the woods. Cooperate with us, and I'll get you that chance. Don't you wanna spread your wings and be your own... concession?"      There's a glance towards Chase--a silent look that says 'go ahead, I'll finish up here.' Stepping closer to OP-Corn, Go wears a friendly grin. "A work-release program's gotta be better than getting dragged before the Dark Generals and 'made an example of,' huh? Think about that. And if anything useful comes to mind, now's the time."
Rita Ma	"Oh. Of course, Mr. Hearthward," Rita says. She hands him the funnel cake, then smiles feebly. "Sorry, it's... please don't worry about me. I'm okay. It's normal." That is a lie, but not for the obvious reasons.      "Something else...?" Rita is successfully brightened up, even though it's probably an empty promise. What are the odds of a theme park like this having raw meat on hand? "Thank you, Ms. Rook! I'll keep an eye out for anything I might like."      From the moment she catches a glimpse of the goldfish, Rita's transfixed. There's nothing really like that in the oceans proper. "Yeah! It's like it's made of copper, Ms. Rook! I've never seen a fish like that before. I bet Ms. Grier will be really surprised if I bring back something so pretty, too!"      Her grip on Lilian's wrist, which has been slowly slackening, is finally relinquished altogether as she picks up the fishing rod. It takes her a few tries to get used to the toy rod and the plastic fish, but once she does, her skill shines through and she starts briskly racking up the points.      In just a little time, she's got her goldfish in a bag. Whether or not she was too engrossed in the carnival game to overhear Lilian's conversation with Kale isn't clear. She's smiling, but it's a shyly troubled, doing-her-best strained smile.      "Ms. Rook? Could you please carry the fish for me? I'm scared I might hurt it on accident."      Translation: she's starving and she doesn't want to be tempted.
Hibiki Tachibana	Lost change. 'No I wasn't.' Hm. "Guess you can't have loose change sitting everywhere in a park..." She murmurs idly, while both having a look around and giving a long think.     Giant microwave. Popcorn monster guy(??) that Ishirou's group has come into contact with, planning to blow up the park(??). There's a connection there, even a punch-idiot could recognize it. Just like she has a hunch that her friend was looking for a lot more than just lost change. Still, it's too early to give away their investigation. Gotta stay on the down low.     She'll play it cool. She's good at that. (She's not, but she can try). Pramanix nudges her, and Hibiki gives a curt nod back to her before focusing back on the employee. "Ah--yeah. I'm kinda curious about these stage fights now that you mention it, too."     Though a microwave sounds like a pretty funny thing to make a mascot...what's next, a popcorn one?" She phrases it like a joke, but if there's any reaction, she's watching for it.
Kale Hearthward	LILIAN/RITA/KALE GROUP Things are going well! That is Kale's thought, anyway. They've had food (well, he's had food (he's had too much food)) and they're all out here on a nice day, enjoying each others' company, with no tension between them, and Lilian and Rita are holding hands (!!!), and there's no situation developing nearby that'll ruin the carefully orchestrated day out. And so there is complete and utter and genuine surprise on Kale's face when Lilian goes off at him. "(What? Everyone likes Funnel cake, and she likes fish?)" Rita presents her goldfish. "(See?) Yeah! That's a nice one." He still doesn't know what Lilian is talking about, but apparently he's putting her on edge, and he needs her to relax a bit for all of this to work out.. Best to bail for a bit. "Here, I know, how about I go win us another prize... somewhere here, while you two take a breather? Maybe talk a bit, because - that's what tourists do, they talk! Ha ha!" He heads off towards a different part of the carnival area, leaving them alone.
Chase	OP-corn manages to pull himself away, with Chase no longer bothering to hold on. Instead, he reaches inside of his coat, pulling out a Mach Driver that he immediately slaps on to his waist.       " I would start praying that I find these bombs by the time I come back. If I do not, you will experience every conceivable pain in an instant."        Chase opens up the chute on the chromed belt buckle, before sliding in a purple and black toy bike inside of it and slamming it back down.                               Signal Bike! REAPER!!                                                                    Chaser!                                            The belt lets out a mix between a high energy voice and a menacing warbled tone as Chase's form is covered in a purple light, transforming them into a form that most would call 'Kamen Rider'.        And then, with a push and hold of the button on top of the Mach Driver, time crawls to a stop. He doesn't hesitate to start moving, immediately rushing to various popular attractions within the park as he scours various landmarks for any signs of tampering.
Kale Hearthward	KARLAN/HIBIKI GROUP "Right, the microwave man, was... Meltman, I think..." "... Yeah I think they're, um, focus group testing a bunch of new mascots. You know, seeing what flies and what doesn't?" she says. "Some new thing every so often..." She tenses up a bit when the popcorn is mentioned. "Oh? The... popcorn one? You saw that one? He... hasn't done anything yet, right?" "Because they usually wait till the park fills up more before they start... the show. Actually I probably really should... get going, whether or not we've found the other band," she says, and then turns and leaves quickly, turning a corner and disappearing into an employees only door.
Kale Hearthward	ISHIROU/GO/CHASE GROUP Ishirou gets some mental readouts. The popcorn shakes his head (whole body) at Go. "What? What are you even talking about? My loyalty to Lord Everything is as absolute as the sesame seeds across his surface!" And then Chase gets a very immediate reaction to his transformation sequence, though likely not the one he was going for. The popcorn seems to light up with recognition. "A-" PAUSE Chase does not find bombs. He does, however, find a wristband hidden behind a trash can - a bulky, colorful wristband, like the person Silverash was talking to had. The wristband seems to call to him. UNPAUSE "-Kamen Rider! Now everything makes sense - you're here to get in the way of the Concessors plans once again!" The popcorn reaches down into its bag/body, and grabs two large, fist-sized unpopped kernels. "Die, Kamen Rider!" It flings both of them Chase-ward...
Karlan Nobles	'What's next, a popcorn one?' Pramanix: "Right? Now that you mention it, though... We haven't yet, have we?" SilverAsh: "We'll pick up some popcorn and funnel cake on the way to the next ride." As the talk of rides and closures continues, Hibiki brings up a rather obvious point that SilverAsh had missed earlier: Is the damaged ride still running? While the employee runs off, He has Tenzin do a quick look around that ride with the melted steel. Strangely enough, though, just thinking about that has him considering something else... "Why 'Meltman'? That would indicate a faulty microwave rather than its intended purpose." He comments aloud, stroking his chin once as he checks out the melted steel more closely. His suspicions raised even more by the mention of popcorn and microwaves, he takes off his cap to poke it into the metal to see if it's still hot and malleable or if its since cooled off from whenever it got melted into this state. <J-IC-Scene> Hibiki Tachibana says, "...Oh, she left real fast as soon as we brought up a 'popcorn mascot'. Yeah, this is weird." <J-IC-Scene> Hibiki Tachibana says, "...I'm gonna follow her." <J-IC-Scene> Ishirou shouting, hitting dirty, and explosion sounds. <J-IC-Scene> Ishirou says, "They know what Kamen Riders are, they're monsters!" <J-IC-Scene> Karlan Nobles | Pramanix says, "Looks like we'll be tailing her together, then! We'll have a better chance of slipping out if she or her friend turn out to be monsters, too." Pramanix, meanwhile, sticks with Hibiki. She's looking positively excited to go with her on this tailing mission, keeping her hat down and her tail carefully wrapped around her midsection to minimize accidental knocking-over of stuff.
Ishirou	Ishirou gets and relays what he can get...which of course causes him to tilt his head.  "This is absolutely insane.." he muses, wondering what sort of people would do all of this..? Then bombs.  He dives for cover, getting a little dust on him as he pushes up from the ground.  Coughing, and patting his clothes down he stares up at the popcorn.   "POD." he says, with menace.  "Hammer." 'Hammer Program Activated.' POD says.   An energy hammer appears above the POD, before swinging in an overarching shot towards the top of the Popcorn's head... devastating and also debilitating!
Hibiki Tachibana	Meltman. Testing new mascots. Hm...     ...Hm. Some things start clicking, with some of the news over the radio. Slowly, but surely. Including why the sight of that wristband made her think of Chase and Go. Just as she begins thinking on it, the girl's reaction to bringing up the popcorn 'mascot' happens...and she runs. Hibiki glances at both Pramanix and SilverAsh once she's out of earshot.     'They know what Kamen Riders are, they're monsters!'     Ishirou's call over the radio hits, and her expression hardens up--before she quickly dashes towards the same door the 'employee' disappeared into, with Pramanix in tow! One of them is definitely way more experienced at sneaking around than the other, but the magical girl nevertheless puts her best foot forward on this stealth op, staying low and keeping as quiet as she can.     A few moments are given before she shoves the employee-only door open, and sleuths her way in to try and tail the girl to wherever she's off to in such a hurry. "There's only two things she could be," she murmurs. "And that's either..." Monsters...and Kamen Riders, huh? Whatever the hell this concessor stuff is all about, they're gonna get to the bottom of it.
Lilian Rook	Lilian is not having it with Kale's logical assumptions taken at a surface level. "Just how half-assed can you get?!" she hiss-whispers. "You didn't do any research about who you were bringing for this at all, did you?!" That's still not explaining anything. "Let me guess; the idea was just to get as many big names all in one place to draw them all out and so you can jump to the fore, fight them all off singlehandedly without ending up in a crater somehow, claim the credit and scramble over the backs of that much name recognition? Typical!" Unbeknownst to her (and only her), there is no reason to get that personal. There's nothing going on at all. <J-IC-Scene> Ishirou says, "Uhhhh...holy crap." <J-IC-Scene> Ishirou says, "Guys he's not a guy in a costume..." <J-IC-Scene> Ishirou says, "He's litterally...a biological popcorn suit..." <J-IC-Scene> Go Shijima says, "So? That's no excuse for rude behavior." <J-IC-Scene> Ishirou says, "I mean, sure, but..." <J-IC-Scene> Ishirou says, "He's...the suit..." <J-IC-Scene> Ishirou says, "I mean..." <J-IC-Scene> Ishirou says, "Biological mascot character!" <J-IC-Scene> Go Shijima says, "Chase and I run into this kind of thing all the time." <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "Beg *pardon?*" <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "No. Never mind. I'll be on my way." <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "Sit tight for just a second." <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "But Ms. Rook-!" <J-IC-Scene> Ishirou says, "It's fine. The three of us can handle this Lilian." <J-IC-Scene> Ishirou says, "It's litterally just a...weird monster thing." <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "Ishirou, you can barely walk straight." <J-IC-Scene> Ishirou says, "Yeah, but for once Go can and Chase is also here." <J-IC-Scene> Ishirou says, "Also I got it firmly biohacked." <J-IC-Scene> Kale Hearthward says, "Rook, please don't make a scene?" <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "How am I going to make a scene joining them?" <J-IC-Scene> Ishirou says, "Actually, with this thing being like this...I want to wager a guess that the water park ride might be important to investigate. It might be some sort of dimensional hole." <J-IC-Scene> Hibiki Tachibana says, "Biological...mascot character. Yeah, that doesn't sound too weird, but still kinda weird. You guys got it handled for sure." <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "Dimensional-- . . ." <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, very cautiously, "If you say so. You would know." <J-IC-Scene> Ishirou says, "I'm not /one hundred/ percent sure, but biological mascot characters, and a park ride that sometime disappears when people go on it?"
Lilian Rook	In the meantime, Kale has made his escape, and Rita has returned with her prize. "I . . ." She glances back where her Paladin ally disappeared off to. "Well alright." says Lilian, deflating. She wears the look of someone who really doesn't want to, but thinks that the cost in animal cruelty and orphan girl trauma and guilt is probably slightly higher than the cost of just carrying around a fish. "Hearthward went to try and one-up the others, as I suspected." she says, lying as naturally as breathing. "We'll have to keep going without him. If Ishirou thinks there's something at the water ride, then there's reasonable odds that something is up."     Weirdly, without the Fellow Professional to Focus On The Mission around, Lilian's businesslike affect diminishes considerably; she looks and sounds sort of weary about nothing going her way and dimly reluctant to be stuck with Rita alone, but resumes walking with gradually increasing relief with the arrangement, probably figuring that it's better off she doesn't have someone to keep up appearances in front of if things get messy.     That and something else. Even if Rita isn't the most savvy girl around, she's at least paying attention, and that alone is enough to notice the way that Lilian's crowd-scanning stare becomes less and less professionally subtle and eagle-eye focused on oddities, and more and more nervously distracted, silently trying to take in each and every single person around and mentally keep track of where they're all looking, even with the touristy smile still on her face. She begins hovering closer to Rita, then folding her arms and holding them closer to her body, speeding up to get past large groups of people, and only slowing down in relatively out of the way nooks.     ". . . I'd have thought you'd be tired of fish." says Lilian, out of nowhere. They're the first words she's spoken in a good five minutes of park navigation. "They're exciting for people who live in the city, but I thought you'd be more than used to them." Lilian dovetails her route towards the waterpark section past as many food stalls as she can, glancing around for hotdogs, burgers, fish and chips; anything where there'd be a constant flow of recently defrosted meat rolling out of freezers and onto grills. Once they get close to their destination, before the lines show up, Lilian reaches into her bag and hands Rita --without looking at her-- a paper-wrapped slab of something she definitely didn't pay for. Her teeth audibly grind for a few seconds, as if chewing on words. "If we're seriously about to be fighting living food mascots then I'd rather not chance it. So hurry up."
Go Shijima	Go sighs. "Well," he says, "I guess I respect the loyalty, if nothing else--" He slings his dorky fanny pack around and dips his hands in, procuring the Mach Driver in one and the shift bike in the other. "Let's..." A dramatic flourish, both hands crossing as the belt is fastened. "Henshin!"                               Signal Bike! RIDER!!                                                                    MACH!                                            The FiveS armor, a touring-racer variation of Go's usual red and white suit, is flash-forged onto his body by the disembodied hardlight tools of a pit crew.      The last piece snaps into place just as Go's foot snaps outwards in a sweep aimed for OP-Corn's legs. The armor revs as he channels the momentum from the sweep into a shoulder-to-hip strike with the spinning wheel of his laser pistol.      "Chase! You heard Ishirou. Let's send this guy to space!" His fist mashes the button on his belt, sending a lance of burning exhaust from the belt.                             Hissatsu! FULL THROTTLE!!                                  Leaping into the air wreathed in a corona of red-hot energy, Mach crashes down on a trajectory aimed straight to (and through) OP-Corn.
Chase	The first kernal pelts Chase in the face, causing them to take a step back, the second however, is immediately swatted out of the air with a punch as Chaser starts storming forward with long leg strides before bursting into a full sprint. He quickly lifts the greeble chute on the Mach Driver back up before smashing it back into place.                             Hissatsu! FULL THROTTLE!!                                  Jumping high into the air, Chaser delivers a powerful flying kick straight into the popcorn monster's chest, his body crackling with purple energy as he combines his attack (unfortunately) combines with Mach's.
Kale Hearthward	ISHIROU/CHASE/GO GROUP Ishirou's energy hammer comes down, crushing the tripped OP-Corn - and then Mach and Chase come in with DOUBLE FULL THROTTLE rider kicks, causing massive damage - "Ghh - what? New tricks?" it says as it gets back up, shaking it off. It seems to be a fairly tanky living bag of popcorn, as far as living bags of popcorn go, though it doesn't look like it can withstand another big hit like that. "That's fine, that's fine - because OP-Corn has just the one trick - and it's one that's always POP-ular!" He reaches into his bag-body, and grabs more kernels - and then just rapid-fire starts grabbing and throwing them, a solid few seconds of motion-blurred kernel tossing. There's no real aim to them - but when he stops, the unpopped kernels litter the ground, with the same menace as a field full of land mines. Land mines on a hair trigger that are within the blast radius of other land mines. "Ha ha - and once you pop - the rest won't stop! Stop popping, that is! It's a chain reaction of buttery flavor! I may burn from overcooking, but this theme park will know Lord Everything's disflavor!" --- KARLAN/HIBIKI GROUP The employee's trail heads down into one of the service tunnels, and then to an empty store room. She stops once she thinks she's alone. "Doing this solo is going to be dicey..." she says to herself. "Of course Bradley had to lose his RideBand the day of a monster attack..." She slaps the wristband on her wrist, and pushes on the center of it.                 RideBand entry confirmed. Now boarding: THRILL.                 She reaches both arms out, and pantomimes grabbing onto an invisible bar and pulling it down towards her lap. "HENSHIN!"      KAMEN RIDER THRILL is now leaving the station. Please enjoy the ride.       --- BOTH GROUPS "SPLASH... DOWN!!!" An orange and white armored figure scene-transitions into the plaza - landing an impact on the ground that causes a tidal wave at her feet. The wave washes over the area - it isn't strong enough to push anyone around more than a little bit, but the water causes the popcorn kernels to fizzle out. "No! My kernels - oil and water don't mix," bemoans OP-Corn. "... Who are-" says Kamen Rider Thrill, standing back up straight, looking over at the other two riders. "... Nevermind! Deal with this guy first!" Pramanix, Hibiki, and Silverash can have followed her in as well - she was moving fast, but she took a direct route through the service tunnels to get up to the plaza.
Ishirou	Ishirou's eyes widen.  How did he manage to survive two rider kicks..?  "Oh no!  I don't think you two are in synch enough!  It's fine, we can..." Then popcorn goes everywhere.  Oh that's not good, Ishirou thinks about what to do, he can probably hack a number of them before they go off... However, Kamen Rider THRILL is on the scene!  The water fizzles out the bombs, which causes Ishirou to wonder about how this works?  You know what, later!  He looks at the Popcorn.  He raises a hand up... He starts hacking again.  This time to paralyze him.  "Go for it!"
Rita Ma	"Thanks, Ms. Rook," Rita says firmly as she hands off the doubtlessly invaluable gleaming fish. "I really appreciate it." A little pause follows as she glances off after Kale. "I hope he'll be okay. He's been... a little bit better lately. I'm not sure why."      "The water ride will be nice," she adds, with excessive confidence. "Or, I hope so. I've never been on one before. What are they like?" She picks up on Lilian's visible discomfort, but doesn't address it (yet) beyond just holding Lilian's arm in a more companionable way. If anything, she seems really happy to be used as a 'shield' like that.      Rita's answer to the fish question comes after only a moment of thought. "Do you ever get tired of trees, Ms. Rook? I mean, they're all around you wherever you go on land, right? And they all look sort of the same." A pause. "I bet you don't. It's hard for people to get tired of nature. The more you see it, the more you appreciate it, right?"      "... I guess trees don't usually become monsters. But something so small can't remind me of a monster, anyway."      Rita's face lights up when Lilian offers her the meat slab. Even if Lilian's face is averted, she can feel the disbelieving giddiness in Rita's voice and the way she eagerly plucks it from Lilian's hands. "Oh! Thank you, Ms. Rook!! You really didn't have to do this for me, but... I'll be right back, okay? You're the best."      Rita ducks into a quiet side-area, away from prying eyes. It takes her less than ten seconds to demolish the meat slab. There are unsettling noises.      When she re-emerges, though, the fact that she's no longer starving is the least of the changes. She's wearing a skin-baring, mildly risque, punkish outfit to match Lilian's, utterly unlike her usual wardrobe.      Rita offers Lilian her arm again, but walks slightly in front of her now, the better to absorb attention. "It's okay, Ms. Rook," she says quietly. "We're together, okay? And we can be normal for each other."
Go Shijima	If Ishirou's going to hold this guy down...      "Right! Good to have you, Thrill! Careful now, this one's dangerous!" The fingers of his left hand race across the dialpad of the FiveS car slotted into his belt. 364 -- DNG      The hubcap on his armor changes, becoming a 'danger ahead' road sign. Twirling the Zenrin Shooter, Mach strikes a pose, holding down the trigger. An energy buildup occurs at the emitter, until blue lightning crackles threateningly across the pistol. When it begins to spread up his arm, Mach releases the trigger.      A single hardlight bullet with cartoonish eyes and fangs resembling a decal on a fighter plane bounces unassumingly from the barrel, hopping up to OP-Corn. 525 -- JCK      Pneumatic jacks sprout from the back plates of Mach's greaves, and his sudden sprint towards OP-Corn caps off in a high-flying lateral leap. Bouncing off of a park bench, he soars overtop, both jacks springing out to slam into the popcorn-monster's back.      It's right when Mach lands on the other side that his unassuming construct grows several times larger, until it's roughly the size of a small motorcycle. Turning very sharp fangs, considerable weight and a ferocious appetite against OP-Corn, the bullet certainly took Ishirou's gameplan to heart.
Kale Hearthward	THE NOT BULLYING POPCORN GROUP Kale conspicuously doesn't re-emerge. There's a queue forming - not too long right *now*, but the park's steadily getting more crowded. A few minutes later, Rita and Lilian can get onto the Magic Mountain ride, which is an indoor ride (or, as someone will helpfully point out during a future episode, a 'dark ride') and also a water ride. There's enough room for two people to sit on the same bench. The log-shaped vehicle goes up a conveyor lift as some Wonderfilm animatronic characters sing and give some backstory that really doesn't matter all that much, and then it makes a few gentle twists and turns through a series of passageways... ... And.. there, right up ahead, just before the drop, is that... a side tunnel, hidden behind Bayer Rabbit's thorn patch?
Karlan Nobles	Pramanix has absolute zero issue with letting Hibiki lead the way, offering her occasional guidance at most to evade detection if it ever looks dicey. It's entirely possible it doesn't, though, as they're able to just the employee going through a transformation vaguely similar to a certain statuesque man in purple. "That wasn't anything near what I was expecting..." She murmurs to Hibiki, waiting until the transformation stops and Kamen Rider Thrill starts heading off to follow her towards the most obvious source of danger that is OP-Corn way over somewhere! SilverAsh, conveniently enough, ends up going all around the park and winds up regrouping with everyone else roughly when the orange and white Rider faces off with OP-Corn. Pramanix: "Is that a...?" SilverAsh: "Yes, that appears to be our culprit." Pramanix: "And three Kamen Riders? Oh, this'll be a spectacular explosion!" SilverAsh: "... How do /you/ know these things?" With their target identified, it doesn't take long for the tourists-in-disguise to draw their own weapons as well: A sword in a cane, and a bell. Pramanix does her snow pope thing and brings down the snow to gather it all around OP-Corn's feet to try and freeze it in place with an extremely localized blizzard, building that snow and ice upwards rapidly up its body. SilverAsh does his swordguy thing as he lets loose with a rapid flurry of slashes and stabs that slice right through the air itself while advancing on the OP-Corn, moving away from Hibiki in particular to make sure she's got enough room to do her punchgirl thing at it. He ends his strashing spree by sheathing his blade, then running past the popcorn monster only to draw it for one more slash and resheathe in the blink of an eye. He doesn't actually need to do that last bit, but it's practically a routine for him at this point.
Hibiki Tachibana	<J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "If they're concerned with Kamen Riders then she probably is one and the wristband is her hunk of weapons-grade illegal plastic. I'd put money on it." <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook beat, "Are there women Kamen Riders?"     That theory, and Hibiki's leading one, are both proven to be pretty correct in short order as KAMEN RIDER THRILL takes the scene. Leaning out from behind a convenient corner and watching the henshin sequence in full, Hibiki blinks a few times. "...So her friend really did lose his transformation device. Man. That really sucks." In her tanktop, her own pendant is conspicuously just hanging around her neck. ---     One scene transition later, the camera cuts to Hibiki and Pramanix dashing out from the tunnel's exit into the plaza (plus a super convenient SilverAsh), and she stops in her tracks to watch the sight going on ahead of them. Wow. She knew that they were throwing hands with OP-Corn, but seeing a guy post-double Rider Kick keep on going is a rare sight. "...Well, let's go ahead and make sure this gets settled too, then!"     "Balwisyall nescell Gungnir tron...!" One abridged henshin sequence of her own later, the suited-up magical girl is cocking an arm back as the piston within her gauntlet slots backwards. Jacks of her own eject forward from her boots as she braces herself, leaps--and then slams said jacks back in while mid-air to suddenly propel herself towards OP-Corn.     The resulting punch would be very devastating already. It's double-devastating when she unleashes what's effectively a pilebunker of raw force into his body on contact that visibly blasts through the opposite side.     He probably doesn't deserve all of this. Then again, ruining the sanctity of a theme park kind of warrants it.
Chase	"It is because the others are not taking this seriously. I did everything I was supposed to."      Chaser deflects the blame on to Mach, while tossing the bracelet he had found previously to Ishirou. If a kick did not work, perhaps he simply needs to move up in his repertoire.      Pulling out the Break Gunner, Chase loads a toy vehicle into the top of the gun before immediately pushing the nozzle of the gun into his palm.                                 Tune - Chaser Bat!                                                                     Execution!                                          A metal crossbow formed of various scraps of metal attaches materializes and attaches itself to Chaser's gun arm, as the Definitely Not a Kamen Rider aims the weapon at the popcorn monster. There's a brief sound of humming energy that lingers in the air before Chase pulls the trigger, which lets loose a large bolt of energy aimed straight at the monster's face.
Lilian Rook	'I hope he'll be okay.'     Lilian shrugs.     'He's been... a little bit better lately. I'm not sure why.'     "When you spend time with someone vastly outside your league, everyone gets some degree of an urge to try and rise up to meet them. It's hard to be around pros forever and not ever want to get any better. The only person we both know like that is . . . well, never mind. It took him long enough."     'Do you ever get tired of trees, Ms. Rook?'     "I suppose not. But as far as gifts go, they need that excitement factor. They . . ." Lilian pauses to think. Rita hadn't seen her room, but she'd seen the lillies out front. "The more you see it, the more you appreciate it, is it?" says Lilian, thinking out loud, and glad for the distraction. "I'd say that it's . . . the more you see, the more you begin to understand the ways they can be and the things that go into making them, and then you get the urge to try your own hand, and see what comes of it. Or perhaps, more you understand it as a set of things that are influenced and influence one another, instead of something that just naturally appears for no reason, the more you begin to feel aware of where you connect to it; how you interact with that part of the world as a human being."     Lilian exhales the dross of that difficult thought, and still has room for a cynically amused sniff. "Oh, there are no shortage of old tales about trees and ponds and mushrooms and groves of flowers being dangerous. People without much power over something see monsters everywhere they look in it."     'You're the best.'     Lilian quietly flinches.     'We're together, okay? And we can be normal for each other.'     Still struck dumb by the speedy reappearance and sudden, startling shift of wardrobe, it takes Lilian a couple of seconds of uncomprehending staring to blink herself back into the present and actually understand what Rita is saying. The exact moment she makes sense of the words is marked by a short, sharp, shuddery gasp that's cut off halfway. Lilian swallows hard, then remains silent until they've boarded the ride. The white noise of inane mascot songs is drowned out by the rush of recollection swirling around in her head from the first time she'd ever tried dressing down. Rita had been there too.     "Why are you trying so hard?" Lilian asks. "Why are you even . . . paying that much attention? I don't understand. I can't understand, even if I try to cheat. What's the point of all this? I know you feel guilty about . . . the island. I'm not stupid. And I don't like how uncomfortably close to pity it seems to be. But all this 'making up' is pointless, isn't it? If next time is going to be the same as last time; if we're only friends as long as my friends aren't your enemies, then why?" Lilian takes a second just to try and catch her breath. "Just leave it like it was. Don't keep building it up if I'm just supposed to accept it being torn down again. The more you do this, the more you make me think about how it was before, the more it's going to hurt next time."     "Stop. I can live with being 'sort of friends, sometimes'." she lies, appropriately, as easily as she breathes; too fast and not very well.     Coming up on the secret passage is almost an afterthought. None of this is surprising to her, believing that this is a legitimate mission. It costs her zero effort to circumvent the theme park ride grips.
Kale Hearthward	KAMEN RIDER CROSSOVER GROUP "Wait - Wait! I'm not done yet! You're supposed to wait till there's three seconds between pops!" OP-Corn tries to move - and finds he can't, the paralyzing hacking keeping him firmly pinned down. And then there's no more time for running or for popcorn jokes. There's only time for rider kicks, fangs, energy shots, blades, and a devastating pilebunker. There's the requisite tokusatsu moment of existential lag. "For- FOR LORD EVERYTHING!" And then he explodes. And as he explodes, there's... cheering and applause? Further out, someone has set up sawhorse barricades, behind which crowds of park-goers have gathered, watching the battle. "Special effects were a lot better this time," says one park-goer, as the applause dies down. "I liked the special guests - I wonder how much they had to pay to get KRE cameos..." says another. "... Ah, I'm sure you all have questions, but... I need you all to stay in character for just a bit longer..." whispers Thrill, to the others. "This is all still just a show... at least till the crowds disperse a bit..."
Ishirou	Ishirou nods back to Thrill, "Just pretend this is some Paladin's/Watch cross-over thing!  It'll make sense to them I think!" Ishirou says, with a thumbs up.   "Thanks for the help, Kamen Rider Thrill!" he says, a bit over the top and holds a hand out to Thrill.  "I, Ishirou from the Paladins had a lot of fun both fighting evil and enjoying Wonderland, and am glad we could protect it from Lord Everything!" Ha ha ha...ha.   He looks towards the others to join in.
Go Shijima	Staying in-character, is it? Heh... this 'dumb cop' can do that perfectly fine.      Mach wraps an arm around Ishirou, and another around Chase. For the other Kamen Rider, this is probably torture enough. Ishirou, however, gets an armored noogie on top.      "That's right! It was our pleasure to protect your smiles today!" Noogie over, Mach gives a fervent thumbs up, before clapping Ishirou heartily on the back. "Be sure to check back tomorrow for more amazing adventures!"
Hibiki Tachibana	"I'm not sure they need to be told it's a Paladins and Watch thing, Ishirou...KRE cameos, huh...?"     Hibiki sounds like she's lingering on that for a moment with an odd change in tone, having turned to glance at the crowd at first in confusion and then dawning understanding as Thrill whispers to them all. It all makes sense now. Everything clicks together. So this is what they meant the whole time about those 'stage fights'...     Man, this is a weird theme park. But not a bad one, she thinks.     There's a bit of hesitation before she brings her hand up in a wide wave to all the civilians watching, losing some of that battle tension. There's something like a scoff from beneath her scarf that slowly turns into a smile. "Protecting smiles..."     She hopes things are going well on Lilian and Rita's end. In more ways than one.
Rita Ma	Rita squirms out of the ride's safety bar simply by virtue of being small, without even needing to cause property damage. Her phone's flashlight function illuminates the dark ride's hidden passage; she tries to stay in front of Lilian, but might not succeed this time.      'Why are you trying so hard?'      Rita flinches. The flashlight's beam jumps. "It's not pity, Ms. Rook. I promise."      "Back on the island... if I'd still tried to claim the monster, but I didn't take away your choice of whether or not to fight me. Would you still have hated me for that?"      "I want someone to understand me. I want you to have someone who understands you, too. And... I know we were good friends, once. Before I messed it up. That's why I don't want to let go."      "I know sometimes you'll do things I don't like. And sometimes I'll do things you don't like. But I want to think that could be okay, as long as I can be strong enough not to push you away like that. As long as I don't make it ugly."      "... Would it be? I need to know. I'm reaching out as much as I know how to. I can't survive this halfway-forgiveness much longer."
Chase	Chaser just stares at the crowd as KR Thrill tells them to play along with this being an act. What would a park mascot say at a time like this? Chase digs deep in his head for something that would be considered an approvable thing to say to children, before finally coming up with something he finds acceptable.      "Stay in school, and be sure to drink your Ovaltine(tm)."
Karlan Nobles	The mysterious evil popcorn is defeated! As SilverAsh and Pramanix turn around, prepared to congratulate their allies on a job well done in solving the mysteries behind the park, they realize that there's an audience right there. Turning to the crowd, there's a moment when Pramanix and SilverAsh realize that this is pretty normal aside from the overacting, and then they get right back into character. Pramanix: "On behalf of the Watch, we thank you as well, Kamen Rider Thrill." SilverAsh: "Today's victory for the Watch, the Paladins, and Kamen Riders is only the beginning. On behalf of Karlan Commercial, I look forward to working with all of you once again." Pramanix manages to hide a mild cringe at that self-plugging, but she's not about to blow up SilverAsh's spot after all that. His horrible outfit can do that for him. Still, she does have to wonder whatever happened to Rita and Lilian...
Kale Hearthward	LILIAN/RITA GROUP The passage turns out to be a tunnel, not a dimension hole as Lilian first thought. It goes winding downward, and then further downward, past ground level... ... To a locked vault door. There's a keypad on it, along with an elaborate engraving - several lines describing, in pictograph form, various features of Wonderworld, or Wonderfilms in general - the number of smokestacks on the boat in Paddleboat Wally, the number of times the phrases 'Little' and 'Earth' are sung on the It's A Little Earth Isn't It ride, and so on. It's an elaborate puzzle that requires extensive knowledge of the Wonderfilms media empire just to figure out the questions, and then again to figure out the answers, and even then it takes nonintuitive logic to extract a keypad solution from all of the pictographs that are engraved on the door. Alternatively, if they just try the vault door, it turns out to be unlocked.
Kale Hearthward	KAMEN RIDER GROUP Thrill looks relieved. "Thank you," she says, and gestures for the group to join her in a backstage area. "... Since the Concessors are trying to ruin the park... knowing that it gets attacked every couple of days would drive away people quicker and ruin it faster than anything else," she says (staying transformed). "So - I know it's reckless to pretend that it's all mascots and a show, but..." "... but me and Coast can fend them off just fine, and nobody's gotten hurt!"
Ishirou	Ishirou's following along with a wave to the guests. "Okay but /why/ are they doing it? What's the deal with Lord Everything?"
Kale Hearthward	"We have... really no idea. It's only this park. The best guess I have is that Tell Wonder - the guy who made Wonderfilms - did... something decades ago, way back when, and this is some sort of long delayed revenge. Since I heard one of them mention his name once."
Ishirou	Ishirou makes a sound as if thinking. "We might need to dig into the past of this place for more answers...this kind of thing can't go on too much longer because the probability that someone WILL get hurt is going to increase over time."
Karlan Nobles	With Thrill giving them the story behind the Concessors and the park, the siblings have some time to figure out how to actually proceed from there. Pramanix: "Well, now that we know all this, we can't just ignore the danger." SilverAsh: "Oh, we certainly could." Pramanix: "..." SilverAsh: "... But we wouldn't. Are there only two of you? Where did you find these... What were those armbands called?"
Lilian Rook	Lilian halts as the flashlight beam bounces, but only because that in of itself is a startling thing to have happen in a dark place. A snap of her fingers is sufficient for an entry level light spell, causing eerie blue-green ghost lights to spring into existence at a convenient orbit, but she doesn't resume walking straight away.     Lilian breathes in deeply. "No. I wouldn't have hated you. I was . . . mad, at the time. But that's different. I was angry because I saw you . . . looking after that thing. I was there when it came after us; a ship full of everyone's hard work and brightest hopes and bravest volunteers to help other people suffering. It's something I thought I was going to get to feel good about, after all of that. And then that awful creature just started . . . eating. I wanted it dead. And I wanted it brought back to life a few dozen more times so I could keep killing it. And it felt . . . so unfair, that it could be that evil, that awful, hurt and kill people like that, and at the end of the day, someone would be there to care for it and kiss it better and make the consequences of its actions go away. Even a stupid, hateful monster. But not--"     Lilian just keeps walking instead of finishing that sentence. "I didn't hate you for that. I understood that you weren't there; you didn't see it; it was practically just good luck, for you. And maybe if we'd been able to talk about it, perhaps we could have settled on something. I don't know, maybe getting rid of that monster and 'finding you another one' as a trade, by the Fifth. And if the others had a problem with that . . . maybe I'd have fought them, maybe I'd have abstained, maybe I'd even have joined them. But it would have been my decision. I could have tried to do the right thing, by the rules that I know are right. I'd live with it at the end of the day."     Lilian falls silent for the rest of the tunnel walk. She comes up to the vault door, briefly consults future possibilities, and then scoffs, shouldering open the door without touching the locks.     "I noticed you don't have anything to say for yourself about the monster." Lilian says. "Or fighting the others. Just that you pushed me into it." A short, thoughtful pause. "You've really been thinking about this a lot." Scanning around the inside, Lilian brings up her own smart device and readies the camera viewfinder. The gallery icon in the corner gives away that her most recently checked image is that ridiculous photo on the Benitez estate, with the maid disguise.     "It's not half-forgiveness." Lilian says. "I'm mad at myself that I've already forgiven you. I know that I shouldn't have; because if I let you know that, then you'd know you could just do it again, and I'd probably forgive you again. I meant it at the time; you . . . crossed a line, that I don't think you were aware of. But after that, I just wanted it to be true. I wanted you to hate me back, so I could stay mad about it, and then we'd just be normal enemies. I wanted to be able to think of you as a shitty person. And then you just . . . wouldn't. So I don't know what to do with you."
Kale Hearthward	"You're welcome to - we've been trying, a bit, but haven't found anything yet..." "... There's two of us, yeah. They're called Ridebands, and - this is going to sound ridiculous, I know, but..." She hesitates a moment. "A cartoon character gave them to us. Not - like a mascot costume, or someone dressed up as one, but an actual... animation cel style..." She rubs her face - or attempts to through the helmet. "There's an old, obscure character, Johann Sebastian Gander - like, really obscure, official appearances I could count on both hands, and he was made for a oneshot TV edutainment special, and then after that didn't get any appearances for like twenty years, and even that was a voice-only-" She clears her throat, realizing she's getting off on a tangent. "So. Yeah. It's... weird."
Ishirou	Ishirou listens to all of this.   "I mean, honestly not all /that/ strange.  I mean, I was an android until half a year ago so there's that.." he shrugs.  "I think the evil mascots that are uh...actually living things is far weirder." He shudders.  "Or living maid dresses.." "Well, I am very GOOD at finding things out, hacking, and such.  Just point me where I need to go, and sometimes you don't even need to do that!" Honestly, an excuse to get to come back here alot.
Ishirou	Ishirou also hands the other ride band to Thrill. "Oh yeah, I think this is the thing you were looking for, right?"
Hibiki Tachibana	Into the backroom they go, out of public eye. Honestly, that's just fine by Hibiki, though she similarly remains transformed.     "...Kinda sounds more like a magical girl mascot character than anything else..." She murmurs beneath her breath at the mention of a literal cartoon character being responsible for giving them fabulous secret powers. She scratches at her cheek, just overtop of her half-face covering scarf.     "...Well. Now that we know what's going on, it's just like they said - it's not as if we'll just ignore it. Plus," she glances back over her shoulder. "Seems like the crowd really liked those 'cameos'."
Kale Hearthward	She takes it quickly. "Yes! Thank you, thank you - I swear, I'm going to just glue it to Coast's wrist, or something..." "... Bet you all don't lose your belts. Those look a lot harder to misplace."
Karlan Nobles	Pramanix: "Like a 2D... Flat thing with the outlines and all that?" SilverAsh: "That would be rather interesting to see. I can't say I've ever seen anything like that." The name of the character goes right over their heads, unaware of Wonderworld's general catalog as they are. The obscurity is certainly something to keep in mind for later, though, as is the fact that Thrill mentions that the latest appearance didn't even have a visual to go with it. Pramanix: "Ishirou raises a good point as well, though..." SilverAsh: "Oh? What did you have in mind?" Pramanix: "We'll need costumes ourselves." SilverAsh: "Some of our outfits don't even have belts, though."
Hibiki Tachibana	At hearing that, Hibiki apparently realizes something - and she /does/ de-transform. There's a little burst of harmless light and she's back in her casual clothes, where she grabs at the crimson, crystalline pendant hanging off her neck and lifts it up slightly.     "Well, I don't got a belt, but mine would be pretty easy to lose if I didn't have it with me all the time. I kinda figure it'd be the same with you guys, and you'd just...you know, have them on all the time." Beat. She looks at Chase, then Go. "...I mean, those guys got belts. Really big bulky belts they can't keep on all the time. At least you can...I dunno, put your sleeve down over yours."
Kale Hearthward	The vault door opens. Inside, a generator clicks on and whirrs to life automatically, and a moment later the lights come on. The vault contains a lot of things. Old film canisters. Wonderfilms memorabilia. A large, signed portrait of Tell Wonder, the founder. And... ... along one wall, a set of displays. Empty displays for physical items, which clearly at one time held things, things that have recently been removed. Most prominently are three small displays labeled 'COAST', 'THRILL', and 'DARKRIDE'. They look like they might have held wristwatches, or something similar in size to wristwatches. A pair of larger displays, that clearly held motorcycles. And a weaponry rack - which is not *entirely* empty. Alongside slots that clearly held a spear, gun, and sword, there's... a slot holding a camera. Not a point and click camera, but one that looks more like a handheld security camera (if there is such a thing), albeit one in the typical 'illegal plastic' style that Kamen Riders have.
Rita Ma	'I was angry because I saw you . . . looking after that thing.'      Rita's eyes drop to the floor. Rough, achey feelings swirl through her head as Lilian paints a vivid picture. And yet, 'shock' is not one of them. She couldn't have known about the attack on the Semitone, but the paradigm is deeply familiar to her.      'But not--'      Rita grimaces and looks away. "Yeah. I'm sorry, Ms. Rook."      'You've really been thinking about this a lot.'      "I have." There's a silence filled only by their echoing footsteps. Then: "I figured out the things I was sorry for. And I've said sorry for them. I'm sad that our goals were different, but that's bound to happen sometimes. I didn't enjoy fighting the other Elites, but I'd do that again. Taking away your choice... that's the thing I wouldn't do again. So I can say sorry for that, and mean it."      When she catches a glimpse of that camera roll icon, a shaky little smile crosses her face. Yeah. That was really nice. ... I miss that, now. I miss it a lot. Then she turns away, busying herself with the vault door's keypad before that's rendered irrelevant.      'If I let you know that, then you'd know you could just do it again.'      "Not wanting to hurt you is a good enough reason," Rita says.      'You . . . crossed a line, that I don't think you were aware of.'      "I wasn't, back then. But... Mr. Ishirou explained a little. I'm really sorry for that, too. I didn't realize..." A pause. "For most of my friends, fighting like that isn't so serious. I didn't realize how serious it was for you."      'So I don't know what to do with you.'      "I don't know either," Rita says as she follows Lilian into the vault. "I've always felt like people should hate me." (She means it: always.) "But they never have. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, for them to suddenly realize I'm awful. I thought... finally being hated would be a relief. But it's not. When I thought you really did hate me, I felt worse than ever."      "I miss you, Ms. Rook. I miss what we had together." Her voice trembles a little bit. She finds an excuse to turn away by picking up and examining the weird camera, so Lilian doesn't have to see her face. "I want that back. But I can't stand... you hurting me on purpose, while I have to keep pretending nothing's wrong."
Lilian Rook	'I figured out the things I was sorry for. And I've said sorry for them.'     "I suppose you have." Lilian says, doing her best to sound noncommittal. ". . . I'm glad. If you'd just thought the words instead of saying them, or if you'd started apologizing for everything and begging to be forgiven . . . those mean different things. Something would change. So I'm glad you can be the kind of person who knows what she's sorry for. I don't know many of those."     'Not wanting to hurt you is a good enough reason'     "Plenty of people say that, but they'll do it anyways when it's convenient; because it 'doesn't count' if you forgive them."     'I miss what we had together.'     "Yeah." Lilian exhales, slow and shaky. She tilts back her head to look at the highest shelves, but the room having exhausted its purpose is plainly obvious. An awkward silence passes. Then, "I miss it too."     It's sort of weird hearing soft little bootsteps instead of echoing heel clicks, but it's unmistakable Lilian's arms on Rita's shoulders. "I'm sorry too. Not for fighting, or for being angry at you. But I'm sorry I put you through all of this after. I should have known better, but I still treated you like . . . a lot of people that you aren't. I couldn't bear to cut you off, but I couldn't bring myself to just get over it either, so in the end all I did was leave you in that . . . in-between place; that state where you're just kept from leaving but never allowed to get close, and get hurt for trying. That kind of thing is normal to me, but girls like you don't belong there. So I'm sorry too. For trying to keep going with a lie as nasty as 'I hate you'."
Rita Ma	Rita breathes in softly and turns a quarter of the way around when she hears those soft bootsteps. Then she realizes they're coming from Lilian, uncharacteristically subdued, and not a third person in the room.      She doesn't startle when Lilian puts her arms on her. Instead of tensing up, she finally relaxes, letting out a shivery breath.      Lilian isn't given a chance to see Rita's tears. But she can feel them soaking through her shirt when Rita turns and wraps her arms around her, squeezing maybe a little dangerously tight.      A couple of heartbeats pass where the only noise is Rita breathing. When she does speak up, it's to say: "I forgive you, Ms. Rook. Thank you for having me back. I was really scared that... no, it doesn't matter now. But thank you."      After she finally disentangles herself, sheds a few more tons of accumulated stress, and wipes her face with the back of her hand, Rita adds: "Ms. Rook? Since the others took care of the monster problem... do you want to just hang out at the park for a while? I know you're busy, so it's selfish of me to ask, but I'd enjoy it a lot. We already have the tickets and everything."      "Oh! I can hold the fish now, too," she adds as an afterthought, making little grabbyhands at the bag.
Lilian Rook	"I . . ." Lilian chews on the words a little while longer. Not for reluctance; it couldn't be, with Rita pressed bodily against her in a teary hug. Unfamiliarity is the name of what stalls her tongue for precious seconds; the alien quality of saying the words out loud. Precisely because she means them, they stick in her throat, begging to be rendered instead as backhanded non-unconfirmation, and weeks of uneasy truce; anything but this.     "I forgive you too. I'm sorry and I forgive you." All the air escapes her in the effort of those words. Lilian needs a moment to recover. "Well, Hearthward completely wasted my time with this one. Or the others were just sensationally fortunate for a change. I have the day blocked out until closing time for this operation, so, what's the harm in making certain there isn't really a dimension hole?" A tiny grin demands the use of her lips, as she hands over the water-filled bag. "On one condition." Lilian says.     "You have to give it a name by the end of the day."