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Phantom Thieves LAST TIME, ON ST. BARBARA'S COLLEGE FOR ORDINARY PEOPLE

"It's my duty, charged to me by my people on Crystal-0, to merely observe and not to interfere with earthly matters."

"If I can't ace my physics exam, they're going to pull my scholarship..."

"Mwa ha ha ha... soon, soon! The Devouring Flesh shall Rise!"

"I can't be Harriet *and* Shield Maiden at the same time!"

AND NOW, OUR STORY CONTINUES...

We open the episode not, for once, on the inhabitants of St. Barbara's campus, but on several visiting elites making their arrival. St. Barbara's has terrible parking, so hopefully they've got some other mode of transportation, or they might be walking a bit.

We get a view of St. Barbara's as they arrive, helping to set the scale. St. Barbara's campus stretches out, across the dormitories and the buildings for the various subjects, across the gymnasium and sporting fields and several other notable locations, though the place they're headed to is the campus's main ballroom, where the Archaeological Society's charity gala is being held. It's ostensibly a normal event for a good cause.

What the visiting elites don't know - what they can't know, what nobody but we the viewers know - is that everyone who's attending St. Barbara's this year is special in some way. From the freshmen to the seniors, from the janitors to the head staff, everyone has something happening behind the scenes, some secret to keep hidden. Few have realized that any other person here (besides themselves) has some secret identity, and to this date none have yet realized that *everyone* has some secret identity.

... That's all underneath the surface here, though. For the most part, the superpowered antics have been happening across the other cities and towns nearby (or further out, given the new travel options multiversal unification brings with it) and incidents don't usually happen *on* the campus, with a few notable exceptions. So the campus looks entirely normal to the average visitor, aside from maybe a few craters in the sidewalks here and there.

With all that aside, the destination of our handful of elites is the main ballroom, which is already filling up. The food is buffet style, since that cuts down on catering costs (this is still a charity event) and seating is semi-open. There's a few tables reserved for VIP, but presumably that includes the elites.

There's a few tables of note - the head table, nearest the stage at the back of the room, has one Kentucky Jones, explorer and archeologist, discoverer of the *mumbles into back of hand* treasures of the *improvises something since it's not written in the script* people, famous for having zeppelin fights with nazi-coded evil archeologists (who aren't actually literal nazis, as that'd hurt our Y-7 rating) and ostensibly the most important person here - ostensibly, but in reality he's a side character who won't appear in future episodes, so none of the elites should pay him any attention. Probably more interesting to talk to is his daughter Harriet, who's got a royalblue theme going on with her outfit, and is looking a bit squirmy. Every now and then she checks her phone, or glances up at the rafters (there's nothing there), or picks sullenly at her plate of food. Also at the head table is St. Barbara's dean of education David Riley (aka Dean Davey), who's absently shuffling index cards with his speech written on them.

The other notable table, not far from the head table, has a few students, among them one in a wheelchair, who's paying more attention to his phone than anything else going on around him, and next to him is an alien who resembles a bunch of reddish brown rocks in a human shape. The latter is being at least moderately more social.

There's a good bit of time to go before the start of the ceremony and second act hook (followed by the ad break), so the visiting elites might want to grab food or socialize (or do whatever else they came here to do).
Rowdyruff Boys     Only two of the Rowdyruff Boys are suited to this kind of event.

    Brick isn't the most socially able of the brothers but he is the one who can process events like these the best. He speaks well, but not kindly. He is dressed in a black suit with a pale grey shirt and a tie that matches his eyes. He isn't managing a friendlier-than-usual expression at the outset, and so comes off as about as approachable as a particularly stern English teacher.

    Boomer is the social butterfly of the bunch and although he is dressed more-or-less like Brick with the exception of tie color, he has enough audacity in him to add a cape to his outfit. It's black with a lining that matches his tie, and golden-yellow clasp. He's also a smiley sunshine child that picks up on the agitation of Harriet and sweeps right on over without regard for who it is that surrounds her.

    Hey, he doesn't know anybody here. Not REALLY.

    "You look like you're having a bad time. Wouldn't happen to need a hand with something, would you?" Boomer asks Harriet, following the line of her gaze upwards and then back down again.

    "Wonderful," Brick grumbles upon observing this, but there's really nothing he can do about it.

    In spite of being totally unsuited to this kind of thing, Butch is down the street (for a relative value of the same) drinking a milkshake from the nearest fast food restaurant or equivalent he could find. His outfit is coordinated with his brothers, but his tie is long since untied and there's drywall on his jacket.
Powerpuff Girls Earlier, on the Powerpuff Girls:

Bubbles and Buttercup Utonium idle in their father's house in Townsville, California. Bubbles, on the couch in her pajamas, leans against the arm of the couch and contorts into new shapes and curls while looking at her phone and giggling. Buttercup, emotionally but not physically sore from a thrashing she had recently received, sits on the other end of the couch with a game console in her hands, wearing a t-shirt, shorts, and socks.

Enter Blossom, already in a long red dress with a black band waistline. "Girls, I'm going to the Archaeological Society dinner tonight. You should come!" She encourages, especially to Buttercup.

Bubbles sits up. "Archaeology? What kind of archaeology?"

Blossom blinks. "Ah... Action?" Bubbles frown-pouts softly. Buttercup snorts. Blossom engages from another angle. "It's catered?"

"You know I can tell when you're lying." Bubbles shoots back, putting down her game console on her lap. Blossom, scoffing, lifts a hand to flourish at her collar. "I'm not lying. I just didn't read that part. It's some foundation about stiff-jawed antifascist artifact reclamation. They're almost always catered."

Bubbles shrugs. "Well, I'm not doing anything today!" She announces. In a flash of blue light and a streaking blur towards the stairs, Bubbles disappears only to reappear in a matching blue dress. "Ready!"

"Fine. But I'm not going to wear the--"

AND THUS THE POWERPUFF GIRLS ARRIVED,

In three matching dresses for the three color-coded superheroines. Having flown in from the parking lot and walked into the ballroom-hall, Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup enter the room in formation, Blossom leading. The ruby leader immediately makes her way to the Kentucy Jones table, leading her skipping sapphire sister by the arm.

Buttercup scans the room once boredly, brushes her short black bangs over her left ear annoyedly, and heads for the food table. "Ordinary, huh? That's gotta be the shadiest title for a school I've ever heard."
Futaba Nuki Although Futaba's been to regular schools before and even dresses regularly in stuff that wouldn't look out of place for a student, college is another matter entirely. That doesn't mean she can't blend in easily enough, though, wearing a gray-blue blazer and skirt combo along with her usual ninja-esque* red scarf. She's also got a huge silver back ribbon on today that actually matches the skirt fairly well, but it's easy enough to explain that away as some funky fashion choice since she's already got the leaf on her head, the markings on her eyes, and the big gold bracer on her right wrist.

Hopefully, it won't make her stick out too much as she pigs out at the buffet, resisting the urge to revert to her tanuki form just so the food can last longer. She doesn't want to draw (too much) attention to herself, after all, so she actually stops piling her plate up after the second layer to meet the renowned explorer that she's totally watched stuff about before.

"Mister Jones, hi! Real glad to meet you. I've been a big fan since watching *that one really movie Harriet wishes everyone would forget*." She greets him and Harriet with an eager wave of her free hand, glancing up briefly when she notices Harriet's gaze going up at the rafters. Seeing nothing gets her curiosity piqued, though, as she scooches over to Harriet while occasionally glancing towards the two trios coming in.

"Expecting something cool to happen? Like... Ninjas? Does that happen here?"

*It flaps. Constantly. Even a lack of wind indoors won't stop it from floating.
Go Shijima      The growl of a coasting performance superbike crawls up and down the parking lot. Every pass, the rider's eyes convey more annoyance, visible through the visor of his helmet. Usually, bikes have a bit--a hair--easier of a time, but the parking situation here is so bad that Go can't even count on that. He's still got an impatient streak, and it doesn't take long before his helmet thunks into the console between the handlebars. "You've got to be kidding... why aren't there more? Why is it so far from one to the next?!"

     He ends up parking a few blocks down and walking the rest of the way there. He's dressed for the occasion: a white blazer and pressed slacks, matched with a red button-up shirt, the top two unbuttoned to let the collar flare out just a little. He's also brought a digital camera along--a notoriously unreliable one, afficionados may note, but his has somehow lasted long enough to show signs of use.

     He spends a little time kibitzing with Dr. Jones, but eventually moves on to Harriet, after noticing her upward glances and general demeanor. "Yeah," he says, nodding in agreement with Boomer and Futaba. "Not to beat a dead horse, but is there... something up there that's bothering you, maybe?" It's not likely he really believes that (after all, he noticed all the nothing up there), but sometimes asking obvious questions helps get to what isn't obvious. "Are the lights too bright?"

     "...Oh, I'm Go, by the way. Go Shijima."
Phantom Thieves The camera cuts over to Butch first. Perhaps this is a worthwhile C plot.

"Hello. I hope you are. Enjoying your milkshake." says the waitress, coming over and stopping next to his table. "All of our customers must have a good. Restaurant experience. It is a high priority."

She smiles. It's a natural looking smile, but the timing is off, as if she just got to the part of some internal script that transitioned from 'recite dialogue' into ' perform smile'. "Can I get you anything. Else?"

Back at the main ballroom. "Hmm? I'm fine! Really. I'm totally happy to be here." Harriet, who's not fine nor happy to be here, manages to smile at him. "Really. I just don't want- I mean, I'm hoping everything goes well and nothing bad happens tonight. Not that there's any reason it would!"

She glances around, and then leans in. "Look. Okay," she whispers. She doesn't know who the Rowdyruff Boys are, but at this point, she is fairly desperate. "If you want to give me a hand, figure out some way I can slip away from all this. Spill wine on my dress or something, I don't care."

Dean Davey, meanwhile, waves over the arriving two thirds of the other trio. "Ah! The Powerpuff Girls! I'm so glad you could make it!"

"Don't suppose I can interest you in transferring schools, too? You'd be a real asset to our operation here, a real addition to the fertile ground of learning we're trying to grow something terrifically special in - by which I mean the next generation of students," he adds.

Buttercup, meanwhile, has the buffet to herself, at least for the moment. It's unfortunately pretty standard charity fare - the trays of ziti-based 'meat pasta', the slightly rubbery chicken, the room temperature biscuits with individually wrapped pats of butter that-

Wait, is that a bug, scurrying under the biscuit tray?

"Quite, quite," says Kentucky Jones to Futaba. "I'm glad that some people appreciate the records of my exploits, and don't just dismiss them as 'cringe'."

"(That was six years ago, I was like thirteen...)" mutters Harriet. "No, we don't get ninjas here... that's kind of a silly question, sorry."

That's not true, though. The school has a ninja infestation. It's just that nobody has seen them, obviously.

It's when yet another person approaches her, asking what's up, that Harriet realizes she's being a bit too obvious about where she's looking. "Oh, um, okay so it's really silly..." she says, trying to play it off. "I just heard they did renovations here and, well, I guess a little worried that maybe they got something wrong and a chandelier will come down." There are no chandeliers. "Er, I mean, a light bulb coming out of its socket, or a sprinkler busting, or something, you know? Like I said, just silly intrusive thoughts."
Rowdyruff Boys     Brick falls in near Blossom in fairly short order as soon as the Powerpuff Girls actually show. This is fairly normal, and more-or-less what he did to normalize the presence of the Rowdyruff Boys as not a threat of imminent vandalism, grand theft, or murder. It mostly worked. He's eyeballing Boomer most of the time, though, because why wouldn't he? Socially suited though he may be, he wasn't broadly suited to what tended to be going on at these goddamn things.

    "Boomer. Just Boomer," Boomer introduces himself, when everybody else getting on with doing it peer pressures him into remembering that this is a thing you should do. He's the kind of person who makes a great friend and forgets to get their number. But he makes great friends constantly, so why worry too much about it? (He does.)

    He is asked to do the specific sort of thing he's not supposed to. For a long, long moment Boomer stares into the middle distance. Should he ask Brick about this? What sort of consequences might it have? What--

    His eyes flash momentarily -- not stealthy, but real blink-and-you-miss-it speed -- and the tablecloth catches fire directly adjacent to Harriet. She is immediately at threat of catching on fire.

    "Oh no! You'd better move or you'll ruin your dress!" Boomer removes his cape and goes to put out the fresh, spreading fire. His eyes flash again, and now the lower corner of Harriet's dress IS on fire. Just a little. Easily patted out! But plenty worth going to change for. He winks, and carries on putting out the tablecloth -- ineffectually, until Harriet is gone.

ELSEWHERE...

    Butch stares at the waitress for a long moment, blinking slowly. He looks at his cup. Then he points at it, "Two hours. I need two hours worth of this." He doesn't seem to realize anything is off with her, though.
Futaba Nuki "Cringe is cringe, but... Different times, you know?" Futaba replies to Kentucky Jones with a laugh, then turns back to Harriet as she realizes Boomer and Go have come over to inquire about Harriet's ceiling curiosity as well. Shea raises a hand towards them in greeting, then glances upwards again when all sorts of potential ceiling mishaps are brought up.

"That... Could happen, I guess. But don't worry, we've got things covered in case something does happen." Futaba boasts, slapping herself on the chest while gesturing at Go and Boomer. "You've got me, ninja warrior extraordinaire! Mister Shijima, fastest Rider in the R... East, and a fantastic driver and photographer to boot! And..."

She pauses, staring at Boomer a bit more closely. "Have I seen you on TV before? You look kind of..." Futaba trails off as her gaze drifts sideways, noticing Blossom and Bubbles nearby as well as Brick not too far away. There's a long pause as her brain scrambles to process all of this star power at one table, and she leans sideways to see if she can spot Buttercup and Butch, too.

Yep, she sees them alright. Going wide-eyed and starstruck, Futaba opens and closes her mouth several times before leaning towards Harriet and quietly whispering to her. "Y... Yeah. Don't worry. They've got anything huge covered, too." A moment later, she leans right over towards Go and shakes him from the side, sounding less like a cool and collected ninja and more like some fan freaking out. "Can't believe they're here, too...!"
Go Shijima      "Eh? What about them? I'm a Kamen Rider and you're from some really prestigious family, aren't you?" He asks obliviously. "It's not like we're screaming fans or something." He is probably at least a little fan-ish.

     "I..." Go tries to look like he believes what Harriet says at first. "Okay!" He's pretty good at it. It isn't until she leans in that he actually does believe what she's saying.

     "Oh! Okay."

     He does a good job of pretending to badly put out the fire, running over to the buffet and returning with ineffectual scoops of ice carried in cups. It does make him look like an idiot, but he'll do plenty of flips later to make up for it, probably.

     "Phew..." he says, once it's out. "That was a close one."
Powerpuff Girls Blossom has a pure field of control in situations like this, flourishing openly with a turn of shoulder and chin to look about the room, a lifted hand to wave and at those she catches the eye of, and a direct line to the Dean. Her passage is marked with a little smile at Brick, pantomiming tightening a tie and winking as he falls in. "You cleaned up, Brick."

Bubbles, with Blossom distracted, seizes first blood. "Well hello there, Mister Dean sir! It's great to be here. Thanks for inviting us!" Actually only Blossom was invited. Another thing she didn't share. Still, there doesn't seem to be a problem! "It's really nice to be invited to places and be wanted. Isn't that right?" Her hands steeple together before her and she bobs while smiling, cheerful and bright.

Blossom steadies herself to jump in with a whisk of her hair at the neck with a moment of closed-eyed focus, and then continuing on to the Dean from Bubbles' question without missiing a single beat.

"Yes, of course. Being wanted and appreciated is what everyone wants. But, sir, surely you know we're currently enrolled at Stanford? It'd be so disruptive to our studies to leave during the year - do you have a summer program you'd like to offer? Maybe we can be in the neighborhood if there's an interestin lab you'd recommend doing something interesting in chemistry?"

"Or Marine Biology?" Bubbles adds, eager.

AT THE BUFFET

Buttercup, a full cup of '''punch''' in her hand, sips sourly with quarter-lidded eyes as she dryly surveys the party of stiffs. Boomer is being a menace -- lighting fires and everything. Buttercup snorts, turning to shovel forkfuls of pasta salad into a fresh cup so she can actually eat while she walks, heading for more carbs while she gets to the (slowly) ((quickly)) drying biscuits in their heater tray.

Buttercup goes bug-eyed (literal) and freezes, stamping back and crushing her pasta cup in her hand. Her eyes, glowing green for a moment, start leaking green dot-motes.

Then, breathing, swallowing, forcing the reaction down, Buttercup forces herself to be Normal and looks around for a staff member to -- while covered in ex-cup-pasta -- calmly explain there may be some bugs at the buffet table.
Futaba Nuki Speaking of big things, there's a small fire courtesy of Boomer! Futaba catches on quickly, though, and joins Go in grabbing ice to aid in getting that fire out of the way. She's overcompensates in the wrong direction, though, just grabbing an entire bowl of punch to throw on the flames, surely to invite ants along if that's not dealt with sooner rather than later.
Phantom Thieves ELSEWHERE

"Yes sir! The world record time to. Drink a milkshake is nine point eight seconds. Thus to ensure that you have two hours. Of milkshakes available without interruption, I will place an order for. You of seven hundred. Thirty. Four. Point. Six. Nine. Three eight seven seven five five one zero two zero four milkshakes right away!"

She smiles. She turns. She walks back towards the kitchen.

BACK AT THE BALLROOM

"Oh no! A fire! I'd better run away!" says Harriet, standing up quickly and doing so. Her acting skills leave something to be desired.

"What - dangit, a fire," says Kentucky, also standing up. He doesn't seem to have noticed that Harriet's 'running away from the fire' has gotten her clear out of the ballroom, even though the fire's out. "I thought this school invested in non-combustible tablecloths. What exactly did you spend my endowment on?"

"Ah - um," Dean Davey is suddenly multitasking his featured guest being upset along with talking to his potential prize transfer students. "Summer programs - right! We have one for studious cultists - I mean, cult studies - er I mean OCcult studies - sorry, tongue tied, POP cultURE studies. And Marine Biology, sure," he adds, quickly. "Here, uh, how about we go ahead and start the ceremony?" He turns back to Kentucky and ushers him up onto the stage, before anything else goes wrong.

Buttercup's pasta mishap doesn't draw that much attention, especially with the brief fire happening and Kentucky getting brought up onto stage. She can find a staff member, who finds not literally a bug, but...

"It looks like someone glued plastic spider legs to a computer chip?" says the staffer, holding it up for Buttercup to see. "Maybe some club had this room earlier and were making these, and we missed cleaning it up. Our apologies ma'am."

The staff member is about to offer Buttercup some towels, when the lights go off across the entire room.
Phantom Thieves A single light comes back on. A spotlight. (Was that spotlight in the room a moment ago?) It's shining upwards, into the rafters.

"Ah HAH HA HA HA HAH HA HA HAAAAAH..."

There's a single figure illuminated near the ceiling, standing on one of the support beams. She's wearing bright green spandex, has a utility belt packed full of tools, and is wearing a similarly lime green masquerade mask over the top half of her face. "All of you rock pushers, consider this my calling card! The elusive Limeight is here to take what's most dear!"

Limelight pulls out a grappling hook, fires it into the roof, and then starts swinging down towards the two figures on the stage - one of which is holding the shiny silver plaque he'd just pulled out from the podium!
Rowdyruff Boys     Boomer laughs in response to Futaba recognizing him. He winks but makes a shushing gesture with one finger. A little quietly, he remarks, "More likely on YouTube, but hey, same diff." Either way he's not trying to draw too much attention to himself. That would be bad, right? Maybe not, considering what they're trying to do for Harriet, but still. His attention swivels to Go. "Kamen Rider? So, you transform?" It seems like he's at least heard of the idea...

    In the meantime, it's hard to tell if Brick is giving Blossom an offended look or if it's a what-did-you-expect look. Eventually he nods and says, "Yeah. I assumed that if you three showed up something roughly matching was appropriate. Boomer insisted on coordinating more, and then..." His eyes flick towards Boomer, who is holding his now-smoking cape. He gestures vaguely at his brother.

    Thankfully, things near at hand swerve into education. "What sort of athletics program is in play here?" He asks, and Blossom is unlikely not to pick up on his line of thinking. Butch is awfully aimless; he's not certain that Buttercup is, but wouldn't be surprised if she was.

STILL ELSEWHERE...

    "Sure. Seven hundred and whatever milkshakes. Sounds good," Butch says, sighing in agitation and looking down at his outfit. A pretty pointless thing to wear for HIM, at least. But even he only has to think about this for a couple of moments to think about what's going on and eyeball the kitchen. More literally than most would; he's looking straight through the walls.

BACK AT THE GALA...

    Laughter rings out, and Brick lifts his head towards the rafters and then looks towards the stage. He considers the whole thing for a long, long moment and-- does nothing.

    "Wait, what just happened?" Boomer wonders, mystified. He can't put the pieces together.
Futaba Nuki If nothing else, being able to distract herself with throwing punch on a fire actually helps Futaba calm down a bit after seeing some of her childhood heroes and their adversaries in the flesh. Breathing a sigh of relief, she claps a hand on Go's arm firmly with only the slightest of disapproving noises when he brings up her family. "I mean, yeah, but... I do more outside of that!"

Realizing that not everyone might actually know about that not-quite-secret, she turns to Boomer with a similar shushing gesture. "I won't say anything if you don't." She bargains, snickering a moment later before finding her attention snagged again by Kentucky's irritation, Davey's attempts at pivoting, and finally at the lights just going out entirely.

When that one light comes back on, Futaba's glad it's not on her. She finally gets a chance to eat some of her food, but she doesn't get to eat for long when there's a new masked figure far overhead. "Limelight? Haven't heard of this one before..." She comments while quietly shoveling more of that food into her face, waiting around a little longer to see where this mysterious new arrival is going with all of this.

Futaba's got an inkling, and she's pretty sure she should be doing something, but she wants to see what this is leading up to first. That's sure to make a bigger impact than acting too soon, anyway!
Powerpuff Girls Bubbles seems delighted - but she always does - and she makes a point of carrying on her smiling face towards the Dean while cheshire eyepanning over to Boomer as he starts shit with a cape and fire. Dean Davey is back on them from Kentucky, and the sapphire Puff nods along with an "Mmhmm, mmhmm?", and he's back off to Kentucky to clear up the clear misunderstanding about the endowment and Bubbles is back to trying to de-stupid Boomer remotely, with just positive thoughts and narrowing eyes.

Brick earns a little smirk and brow-lean from the ruby Puff. "Well you look fine. Even if you let Boomer dress you." She lifts from that back to the Dean, effecting detached interest. Blossom follows the cult->occult->pop culture studies with a tier-raising eyebrow at each adjustment. Until, finally, she reminds:

"Ah, sir, Chemistry. Not Cult Occult Pop Cult-ure. That sounds like biology."

It is then, with poor Buttercup in the wings being grossed out by spider-legs instead of a whole spider, that the lights go down. And the lights come up, on one person-!

Blossom, besides Brick and the Dean, closes her hands into fists. "This doesn't seem like a planned event, Dean Davies. Is this one of your extracurriculars?" Blossom asks evenly.

Buttercup, in the back, is a lot more pointed, cupping her hands to her mouth and shouting (normally) from the back. Her voice has a truly penetrative volume despite generally holding back. "Hey! Are you some kind of super-thief?!" Poetry, from the shadowed emerald.
Go Shijima      "I do, yeah," says Go to Boomer. "For better or worse."      Ominous laughter ensues. "...rock pushers?" He glances around, checking the faces nearby for any sign of recognition. Namely, whether he should be offended.

     Sotto voce, "She's itching for someone to try and stop her," he says to Boomer, with a smile. "I don't know why. But I could use the chance to blow off some steam." He shrugs.

     "Not so fast, Limelight!" He calls out dramatically, pointing for added effect. His camera is conveniently out-of-frame as he straps on the motorcycle themed Mach Driver.

                               Signal Bike! RIDER!!                              

    "Let's... Henshin!" After a two-hand flourish like the turning of a wheel, he jams a tiny car-slash-phone into a transparent chamber in the center of the belt, and presses down, mashing the button.

                                    MACH 555!                                    

    The engine revs, a lance of flame spewing from the belt's 'exhaust.'

     Sleek, aerodynamic white armor is flash-forged upon him. An homage to the sport of racing, vertical red racing stripes run down the middle, repeated on the twin shouldercapes at the left shoulder. The right shoulder bears a forward-facing wheel, the 'rear wheel' to the wheeled energy pistol in his hand. And of course, he does the whole routine--because he hasn't done it in a while, and she seems like someone who'd appreciate a little showmanship.

     "Drift..."

     "Overtake..."

     "I'm always at..." Arms thrown wide open, and the sound of a superbike's revving engine. "Mach Speed! Kamen Rideeeeer..." Two windmills of his right arm, accompanied by revving sounds, then briefly lifting his knee to his elbow. He bends low, before stancing wide *and* low with both arms wide open, palms out. "Ma-ach!" It's completed with a singular jazz hand from the non-pistol-holding hand. This is, notably, plenty of time to make an escape.
Phantom Thieves ELSEWHERE

The waitress enters into the kitchen. She gathers together a lot of milkshake ingredients into the largest bowl she can find. (Incidentally, the 'famous' milkshakes here turn out to be just powder and milk.)

Then she stops, looks left, then looks right, checking to make sure she's alone.

Then her right hand folds in on itself and gets pulled into her right arm at the wrist, and is replaced by a whisk, which whirrs up at high power as she uses it to blend the milkshake mix.

BACK AT THE MAIN BALLROOM

The spotlight tracks Limelight as she swings downwards. "Yeah! I'm *the* superthief, soon to be renowned the multiverse over for my exploits and my heists!"

On stage, Kentucky reaches for his whip - he doesn't have it. Limelight finishes her swing, snatching the silver plaque right out of Dean Davy's hands and landing on stage, before clicking a button to release her grappling hook from the ceiling...

"To start, I'll be taking this..."

... and then as the grappling hook retracts, she whips it around with her free hand, and it starts artfully coiling around Kentucky Jones, tying him up!

#-1 INVALID ANSI DEFINITION: +limelight "Annnd I'll be talking this, too!"

And then she pauses. She tilts her head a bit, as if listening to someone speaking in her ear. "Oh, wait... you three..."

Three more spotlights click on, shining on Blossom, Bubbles, and the pasta-mishapped Buttercup. There definitely weren't this many spotlights in the room before this, right? "The *Powerpuff Girls!* Oh man, we got to pull off a heist right underneath the freaking Powerpuff Girls collective noses and we didn't even know you all were here! Man, you must be so embarrassed! And..."

Another spotlight comes on Kamen Rider Go. "... Um, you! I - I don't know who, well - okay so what does Kamen mean - you can't just expect me to know everyone who -" She seems to be having a discussion with whoever's in her earpiece. "Well, whoever you are, also must suck to be you. Well, toodles!"

And with that, she hefts the archeological award under one arm and the archaeologist under the other, and makes a beeline to leap and jump kick out of the closest window, if she's not stopped!
Rowdyruff Boys     "There's no point in not allowing him to use his talents, such as they are, even if I can dress myself fine," Brick replies to Blossom, with a shrug. These WERE his clothes, after all. It just happened to be Boomer that coordinated it all. Even so, he seems annoyed by it all. He seems annoyed by most things though, and this may not actually need to be interpreted as... well, anything at all.

    As for the topics of study though, he looks a little perturbed. "I'm familiar enough with the occult not to need further classes on it personally, but it isn't exactly college course material to begin with, except in the form of anthropology classes and the like."

    "And no," he adds, "That's definitely a robbery."

    When his question is confirmed, Boomer gapes at Go. "That's so cool! We just kind of have our powers, when we transform it's usually because--" But the reason they transform, if at all, never really comes up. His attention swivels back towards Limelight and the stage. Should he be helping stop this? His eyes flick rapidly to Brick, then to Blossom, then back to the stage. Neither of them is doing anything yet, so he doesn't, either. This changes quickly.

    "Boomer, interference," Brick shouts, calmly. Then he stands back and starts to make a call.

Wishing he'd been told to do it just a second sooner, Boomer lifts off the ground in a flash of blue and tears after Limelight. He's plenty FAST enough for it and hurls a bolt of not-quite-lightning not-quite-tazing at her. It's somewhere inbetween those two ideas in intensity.

ELSEWHERE...

    Butch picks up his phone, is told there is a fight, pays in a wad of too-much-money, and fucks right off from the milkshake place.
Futaba Nuki Decisions, decisions. Record, or join in the brawl? Get some sick footage of her heroes against an adversary she's never seen before, or get a chance to make that sick footage herself?

Both is good. After taking a quick detour to the buffet table to open the Video Recordring app on her phone up and prop it up with one of those little finger ring things that doubles as a stand), Futaba runs up to the stage and launches herself into the air with one of those spiraling twisty jumps that's wholly unnecessary just to get on stage, but does have her scarf flapping every which way to make her own appearance that much more dramatic.

"Superthief Limelight, huh? Pretty cocky of you, to be trying to pull this kind of stunt in front of THE Powerpuff girls, THE Rowdyruff Boys, THE Kamen Rider Mach, and last but not least..." Raising a hand, she disappears in a puff of flame, then reappears* several seconds later on the other side of the stage in a similar-looking fire from the ground.

"Ninja Warrior Futaba, at your service!" This, too, gives the masked thief plenty of time to tie up Kentucky Jones and snag her prizes. With the chase beginning in earnest, Futaba dashes forward several feet, stops, then turns to the audience and her waiting phone. "We'll be right back, folks. Don't worry, Mister Jones will be safe and sound soon!"

With that declaration issued, Futaba's legs coil briefly like springs before she launches herself towards/through that same exit window, then chases after Limelight on foot for the time being.

"What's your game, Limelight? Trying to get ransom money for old Mister Jones?" As Futaba calls out to Limelight to try and suss out a motive, she flings herself closer with one gorilla-like arm while the other swings out towards the thief in an attempt to trip her up with an oversized vine-like appendage that's equal parts gross-binding and cushioning for the captive.

*It involves shrinking herself down, sprinting to the other side of the stage, and then blasting out another puff of flame while growing herself through it.
Go Shijima      A cold wind blows across Go Shijima. "C'mon... if you're gonna know one Rider, shouldn't it be me? 'America's Kamen Rider?' Look," he says, dejectedly pointing at the red racing stripes, white armor, and blue visor. "Eh? Eh?" Nothing.

     'It must suck to be you.' "...whatever!" Tires at his ankles peel out, as he power-skates after her, weaving expertly around tables before vaulting over another to gain some altitude. His free hand races across the dialpad on the little phone car, as he keeps pace neck and neck with Boomer.

                              Signal Change!//787-                              
                                      STP                                      

     The hubcap on his shoulder-tire changes to a triangular STOP sign, as a tiny motorcycle appears in the laser pistol. His feet hit the ground, tires squealing as he drifts across the floor. A trigger pull sends out a rapidly expanding, triangular screen of red light, with STOP written across in demanding, bold white.

     As it passes, it binds Limelight in brief but intense time dilation, meant to bind movement and buy the others more time!
Powerpuff Girls The lights come up on Kamen Rider Mach FiveS charging the stage, and three members of the audience:

Blossom, arms crossed and hands closed into fists, defiant-eyed in her gaze up at the stage.

Bubbles, surprised but only just, more at the callout than the spotlight. Her fair hand comes up to shield her eyes from the glare.

And Buttercup... lightly sprinkled with pasta and wilted arugula, grinning wolfishly at calling out the girl on the stage. "We ain't gonna be embarrased. But you're right! We're the freaking Powerpuff girls!"

Blossom turns to Brick, quirking a brow at the dressed up Ruff. "Care to lend us a hand, Brick? We couldn't even go out to one party together without them making it about us."

"It's clout exploitation!" Bubbles complains, steamed rrr-ing hot. "It won't stand!"

"Then we're in agreement."

Buttercup becomes a SKRRR!-ing streak of green as she bolts off after Limelight, aiming to tackle the super-thief right to the ground, but more than likely running her over instead.

Blossom, lifting into the air, starts scanning around for traps or tricks while approaching the spotlights to look for an accomplice or system in the roof.

Bubbles, second Puff on stage, chases after Buttercup, aiming for the window to cut off the escape. "Drop the hostage, clout thief!"
Phantom Thieves There's a *yelp* as the lighting hits Limelight. "Hey! Watch it!"

Futaba goes to trip her, and then blast her with flame "Pssh! Like we'd get a bunch of money for this rock-pushing loser! I'm just gonna rough him up a little, he's gotta have done something to deserve it!"

Go launches his TIME DILATION. As he does so, though - a tiny device on Limelight's belt sparks, and then she's moving as if the dilation hasn't affected her.

"Huh, so that's what that does," comments Stagehand to himself, from where he's been watching from a secure remote location (the men's bathroom).

Limelight goes to duck Buttercup, and then - comes up short as Blossom blocks the window escape. "Ha - that's right, I'm going to steal *all* of your clout! This is going straight to the front page! Powerpuffs left clueless and empty handed as hot new thief Limelight steals everything not nailed down!

Instead of going for the window, Limelight kicks her heels together - and then leaps for the space *next* to the window. Magnetic boots activate, and now she's running along the walls, heading for one of the room's other exits!
Phantom Thieves ELSEWHERE

Butch might become aware of someone running after him shortly after he leaves. It's the waitress. Somehow she's able to nearly keep up with his speed.

"Sir! Sir! You only left me enough money for four hundred. Thirty three. Point seven five nine six two zero zero four. Milkshakes!"

IN THE BALLROOM

Blossom's examination of the spotlights reveals that they're being maneuvered and positioned by someone. Something. Somethings, precisely.

Hundreds of those tiny computer chips with plastic spider legs, all working together to move the spotlights around.

They even move *just* like real spiders, too.
Go Shijima      "She's slippery," Mach notes--but he's been at this too long to let that surprise him. He's off like a bullet again, chasing Limelight up the wall through sheer speed and agility, leaving tire tracks as he pursues. Again, his fingers race across the dialpad.

                                  Signal Change!//876-                              
                                      TRN                                      

     The hubcap on his shoulder-tire changes to a road sign advising an upcoming turn, the pistol-slotted motorcycle changing to match its blue and white colors. Mach feathers the trigger, aiming seemingly at random rather than at Limelight herself. A table, the rafters, the odd spotlight. In every case, the projectiles do not hit their targets.

     Instead, they make sharp turns, homing in on Limelight from several different angles, dipping beneath tables, above rafters, around spotlights and even around the archaeologist to do so. "What is it with you and pushing rocks?!"

     Mach springs off of the wall, propelling himself towards her and spinning the wheel at the end of his pistol. Gunning the thrusters on his armor to spin himself as well, he attempts to cut Limelight off with a dramatic corkscrew attack following the homing shots!
Futaba Nuki "'We'? So There's the more than one of you, huh?" Sounding quite proud of herself at that deduction, Futaba lands somewhere behind Limelight with a light thump and doesn't miss a beat in continuing the chase, running on all fours for a moment before rising back up into a more ninja-like run.*

Of course, actually running that way only lasts as long as there's solid ground beneath Futaba's feet, but Limelight goes for the walls instead! Leaping from a rafter towards that wall, Futaba catches herself on the wall with her knees and tail growing pinprick-like talons to help her stick to it while getting her bearings back.

"But what did Mister Jones ever do to anyone besides make movies? Even if they sucked-which they didn't-it'd make more sense to go after the... I dunno. Studio or whatever!"

Upon realizing which way Limelight actually appears to be headed, the tanuki launches herself backwards this time, doing a quick backflip in midair before turning herself around with those arm-wings flapping to keep her aloft and gliding towards Limelight once again. Still curious to see where this is all going, Futaba dives forward to pick up speed before doing another mid-air backflip, whipping her tail in a wide somersault to try and throw Limelight off her escape plan once again!

*The type with the hand up in front of her face and the other trailing behind her. That run.
Rowdyruff Boys     "Already on it," Brick says to Blossom, dully. He's not really interested in the whole clout-talk, but he broadly agrees with the idea that they got dragged into it last-minute. It wasn't their Gala, and this isn't their thief. Not exactly. But if she's going to shout about it, it doesn't hurt to give it a try. He returns to his phone call however, and says, "Fine. Take care of it."

    Butch doesn't bother paying like a normal person. He responds by literally grabbing his wallet and hurling fistfuls of dollars out of the sky at the waitress-robot. There's plenty enough there, the Ruffs are very well-off. There's probably a change problem being introduced, though...

    Adjustment in approach. One thing that Brick can't help but observe is that the thief doesn't seem to want to do very much damage to the surroundings. Going through the wall, if she was anywhere near able, ought to have been an option. Magnetic boots, though-- must be pretty reinforced. He snaps his fingers and points Boomer off to the side.

    Boomer intuits what's intended of him and leaves the building wholesale to circle out along the exterior and wait.

    Brick in the meanwhile takes up the baton of running interference. His eyes flash as a wide beam of heat vision sweeps from the new target exit towards Limelight. It's actually a lot less harsh an attack than Boomer's lightning; the unfocusing of it probably softened it up a bit.

    "I'm not sure I count a gala as a real party anymore," he remarks to Blossom.
Powerpuff Girls Bubbles and Buttercup both go after Limelight in their own ways, Buttercup a lot more kinetic -- she's actually trying to hit Limelight, but doesn't get close, and the time distortion doesn't so much help as dazzle her for a moment.

"Hey, watch it pyros guy!" Buttercup calls, zipping after Limelight to beat her to the window only to be a step and a half behind as the thief is off along the walls. "I'm only here for the food! And what do you think happens when you get outside? Then I can start trying to really hit you!"

Bubbles zips forward, air-stopping and turning to gather cerulean balls of light into her hands from supercharging particles in sworling air. Landed at the far side of the wall that Limelight is dashing towards, Bubbles moves to pincer the dashing thief and finish the chase here and now!

Blossom, hovering in the rafters, holds out a hand towards the top of the light frame, trying to get a better look at the devices there -- there's so much motion, she can't make out if it's just lights or a bomb -- when it hits her.

Motion?

Blinking, she refocuses her ruby eyes into thermal spectrums and shrieks.

"Oh ew! Eugh! Oh there's so many of them!!" Blossom recoils strongly, eyes filling with ruby light and radiological dots of diffused energy, before flaring out as a heat ray, fairly indiscriminately blasting the lights and the spiders with laser vision!

Buttercup stays on target, on the rear, closing *fast*.

Bubbles turns to look up towards Blossom, distressed.

Blossom, panting, highlight with a corona of red dots and fight-or-fight slamming down onto fight in the face of Spiders, looks down at Brick. "I'm not sure I consider this a habitable building any more. It's infested." She declares, direly.
Phantom Thieves Go leaps into the fray, and quite handily cuts Limelight's escape vector off. She has to skid to a halt on the wall (literally leaving marks on it) and change course, slowing her escape further.

On her new course, she almost runs straight into Futaba. Once again, she takes a hit, and has to change course *again* - this time having to detour to the extent that she's practically running straight up the wall instead of making progress to her chosen exit.

Now on a predictable path, the heat blast fries her, and Bubbles blasts land true.

"Halt, evildoer!"

A new voice enters the fray, along with a flung shield, which slams against the wall right next to Limelight before returning to its flying owner's hand. "Thank you, fellow heroes! But introductions will have to wait!" She's got a vaguely valkyrie-ish costume. With her presence, that's yet another vector of interference on Limelight's escape.

"Hey! Careful, I'm gonna drop him, and we're pretty high up-" says Limelight, and then she grins deviously. "Actually, broken bones are kinda funny, aren't they!"

She hits the retract button on her grappling gun again, and lets go of one of the two things she's holding. (Hint: it's not the silver plaque.)

Kentucky Jones, still stunned by all that's going on, doesn't so much as scream as he starts falling...
Phantom Thieves Blossom blasts the lights.

Everything goes dark as they're destroyed..

"Hey! How are they supposed to see my grand escape like this!"

After a moment, the actual lights in the room come back on.
Rowdyruff Boys     The more things change, the more they stay the same. Since they haven't reached a point of 'escape attempt' where anyone has gone outside, Boomer is just... waiting. Floating outside where Brick had indicated, charged up and ready to go! The moment isn't going to come just now, anyway. He has a big dumb grin on his face because it's gonna be sooooo good when that person comes out through the window! And it would, if that ever happened.

    Butch finally shows up by plowing through the window that Boomer is staring at, and continues to stare at as his brother uses it to go inside. It's not important that anyone goes INSIDE the window, the problem is if they come OUTSIDE of it.

    Brick clicks his fingers and points at Limelight. There's lighting problems, but it's not really an issue for the trio. Butch responds by joining the pursuit being undertaken by Buttercup and Bubbles, beginning to hurl kinetic projectiles after Limelight. He doesn't even notice that somebody is falling; it's hard to tell if it's tunnel vision or genuine disregard.

    "Not the guy to be complaining about bug infestations to," Brick responds to Blossom, shrugging a little performatively. "This isn't a great showing for a school trying to poach you, though," He folds his arms over his chest, floating there adjacent to her, and watches the arrival of Shield Maiden. He makes an extra-sour face.

    "Not a hero," he says, while doing superhero things and nothing but superhero things.
Futaba Nuki Blossom's shriek and especially her wild blasting of (seemingly) nothing has Futaba slowing down as she comes back to the ground . "Whoa, whoa! Easy, Miss Blossom! That's what calling the exterminators is for!" She calls out with evident concern, although her eyes are keeping her looking all over the place now.

For one, she spots Go coming down when he springs off the wall. More importantly, she sees Kentucky Jones getting dropped by the escaping Limelight, and only has a moment to think of what to do. "Uh oh! Ah.. Mach! On me!" Going with the first idea coming into her head, the tanuki stops rolling long enough to slide herself right beneath his landing path, turning herself into a trampoline for the convenient rebound maneuver.

Once the coast is clear, the 'legs' of the trampoline coil tightly again as Futaba next tilts the top of her trampoline-y self towards Limelight. "Hey! Trying to steal stuff's one thing, but dropping a regular person like that...!"

Futaba launches herself upwards with a massive burst of speed and force that might very well crack the tiles below her in the process, hurtling towards Limelight on a direct collision course. With that much force behind it, it might very well be enough to punch through the wall or ceiling Limelight might have been taking care to avoid breaking.

"That's just asking for a butt-kicking!" Without a hostage to worry about injuring, Futaba starts throwing (literally) giant haymakers at Limelight on her way up while whipping her tail forward to try and pull her right back into her fists along with her flying companions' own attempts to stop the heist.
Go Shijima      "Keep on her," shouts Go to the new arrival--and to the others, aside from Futaba: "Thanks," He calls out, as he enters freefall, the thruster-ports on his armor sliding shut.

     The moment before he impacts Futaba, his fingers punch a quick code into the dialpad above his belt:

                               Signal Change!//525-                              
                                      JCK                                        

     As his feet dip into the tensed surface of the trampoline, he coils up, jumps. Loud pneumatic cracks sound as pistons in his boots rocket outwards just before he loses contact with Futaba, springing him even harder into the air. "Hah!" A graceful frontflip has him rising to catch Kentucky just in the nick of time, arms outstretched to halt his descent.

     Those thrusters fire up again to slow them to something more reasonable for someone not in a powersuit, and he gently sets the archaeologist down, offering a two-fingered salute off one of his helmet's antennae. Go breaks into a brisk jog for just a moment before revving up again and peeling out on the tire-tracked floor, racing up the wall to rejoin the fight! Without having to worry about Jones anymore, he can use the standard function on his energy pistol, which he does--liberally.
Powerpuff Girls Blossom, still spider-crawly distressed, is not entirely charitible to Futaba's chiding. "I'm fine. The thieves had some sort of insect support creatures! Be on the lookout! Blossom guides, remaining positive and supportive of evil-fighters in the moment! She doesn't lose her cool!

Blossom feels very self-confident and does not need to deal with this problem. Brick makes it worse, but mostly for the school. "Ah -- watch the hostage! Oh, that Rider has it."

Blossom, relieved, remains aerial with Shield Maiden down below. "It looks like the light's back on our side, Limelight! Now give it up!"

Bubbles, fighting for her clout life, pumps a dive for Kentucky Jones before the super-speed Kamen Rider Mach is already there with a convenient trampoline! "Nice work! Looks like the only clout you'll be holding onto is the kind that comes from a list of failed crimes!" She challenges, chasing Limelight and zorching towards the cieling.

Buttercup, much simpler, goes right for the knockout punch. "And I'm gonna add to your list of broken bones, sister!"
Phantom Thieves Kentucky falls. At the last moment, he lands in Go's outstretched hands - and from there can be delivered to the ground, stunned but safe. Shield Maiden breathes a sigh of relief.

More attacks come at Limelight. GUNS, and grapple attempts, and kinetic projectiles, and the triple threat of Blossom, Bubbles, and Broken Bones.

"You all think you can contain me here? Hah! You might as well be trying to catch smoke!"

There! A broken window! Limelight's magnetic boots disengage, and she leaps full force from her spot on the wall...

... along the way, going to use practically every elite in the room as a stepping stone, M*rio-ing her way from one to the other, before going to dramatically leap through it, plaque still in hand! "Do me a favor and livestream your reaction when you open the paper tomorrow, Powerpuff LOSERS!"

(*Now* Boomer gets to do a thing.)
Go Shijima      "Thanks again for the assist, Futaba!" calls Mach, a briefly visible thumbs-up given in the midst of his blinding speed.

     He might as well be trying to catch smoke--but Mach can't resist the chance for some wordplay. "Please," he shouts back, as Limelight footstools him on his ascent along the wall. "I catch smoke all the time! Occupational hazard." When her foot impacts his side, he twists and pivots along the wall, lowering himself to blunt the impact of the blow--and to funnel momentum into a counterattack with the rapidly spinning Zenrin Shooter.

     Having made that parting shot, he guns his thrusters and climbs up to the rafters, once more mashing in a code. His form is a blur of red and white, making it over to her side in no time, coming to a halt with a screech of the tires on his ankles.

                               Signal Change!//775                              
                                      SPL                                      

    The hubcap on his shoulder tire changes to a sign advising a split in the road ahead. Rather than shoot directly at Limelight, he fires through the window, the blue bolts striking the ground outside and seemingly disappearing into it. A split second later, the ground spits out a hail of needle-thin bolts in several different directions, creating a hellish obstacle course for the thief as Mach closes in for a jet-powered flying tackle!
Futaba Nuki "Support? Wait, you mean bugs can be spies?!" Futaba sounds like she's been taken completely off-guard from the thought Blossom puts into her head, somehow managing to forget that she could shrink herself to that size and engage in the same things, were she to put her mind to it. "They could pull off all kinds of crazy stuff! Like some kind of ant... Army, right under our feet!"

She sounds a little too excited at that, but has enough sense to (eventually) get her mind back on the pursuit. "Good work, Mach! Blocker Lady, check on Mister Jones!" With Kentucky's safety confirmed by Go, Futaba looks back up at Limelight just as she's reaching the last leg of her escape plan. That foot comes towards Futaba's face, and...

It doesn't find purchase at all. Instead, that step might very well be a misstep if Limelight's not ready to step on nothing, as Futaba's entire body shifts around her leg like some kind of weirdly malleable tube. "Joke's on you, Limelight! Smoke's heavier than air!"

Completly wrong phrasing notwithstanding, Futaba entire body loses its physical coherence as the tanuki goes from flesh and blood to smoke and vapor, not coming anywhere near the ground before already floating back up towards Limelight. Predicting her probable escape route as that very window, Futaba solidifies once more as she brings up her giant hand over her head, then swings at Limelight with an open-palm as though she was using her hand like some kind of giant flyswatter!

She'll probably realize after the fact that the way she's swinging her hand might just launch Limelight out that window instead of at a wall, but Futaba never was that great at handball, anyway.
Powerpuff Girls The Powerpuff Girls, lit brightly with the room, and their own powers, and the help of the people around them, work in a clear synchronicity.

"Keep you here? Why? The only thing staying here-"
"Is that stuff you stole!"
"You're leaving, after that grin gets wiped off your face!"

Buttercup is first up at bat, close in and speed-zipping a fist right towards the dodgy thief as the emerald puff air-brakes besides the thief on the wall. "Curtain call, sister!" She shouts, and Butch breaks through the wall beneath, scattering debris and blasts which force Buttercup to shield herself and cough. "Butch?! Cut it out! I've almost got her!" But she does not get anything, reaching out and finding only literal smoke and the feeling of getting air hopped over on Limelight's way towards the window. "Hey!"

Bubbles is a lot more focused on getting back the object, diving from beneath to grab the item right out from under Limelight's sticky fingers -- and just getting goomba stomped for her trouble, until Limelight gets to the window. And Bubbles gets to shout.

"Boomie get her! She's gonna steal my clout!"

Blossom, looking down, and tracing the most likely path out, drops to the ground, smiles and waves at the valkyrie with a "Hi! I'm Blossom. Athletic program is looking better around here!" She greets, before disappearing in a red blur of SKRRR! out the door and around the people, hooking around the outside of the building, and ending up outside, fists on her hips. "There's nine of us! You really don't have a chance of escaping, even if you were faster than light! Give up!"
Rowdyruff Boys     "Not real a hostage. Her secondary mark just became too big a liability to carry on with, but her actions have largely been fundamentally slanted towards minimizing collateral and stylishly exiting," Brick replies to Blossom, beginning to drift towards the window that Boomer is waiting outside if. "Although she's counting on somebody to save them, she wouldn't do that if she wasn't absolutely certain one of us would split off to handle it."

    "Which means," he flashes a smug smirk towards Limelight, "she wasn't slick enough to one hundred percent this even with all the cards in her hand.

    He doesn't actually care about this clout nonsense but he gets the impression Limelight does, and the idea that she was off her game during her big moment seems like it would annoy her to him, so he takes joy in the presumed agitation."

    Boomer never stopped monitoring the window, and he's there as Limelight leaps out of it. There is one frozen moment where he blinks at her, and then he receives instructions:

    "Electrify yourself!"

    Boomer does as he's told by multiple people, a crackling field of lightning enveloping his whole body. Brick might've been banking on Limelight going out that window and trying to use his brother as a platform the way she used everybody else in the room.

    Butch bursts back out of the window in pursuit, but is given pause. "Why the fuck would I want to catch smoke?"

    "She's trying to steal your what?!" Boomer calls over all the surrounding noise. He's already a stage hazard at both Brick and Bubbles's request, but he WOULD like to know what's going on.
Phantom Thieves The moment of truth.

Mach's wheel fires out, creating a heckish obstacle course. Limelight shifts her weight in midair, managing to juke her way through most of it, though Mach himself following that up with a flying tackle ends up ruining the rest of it for her.

Futaba's slamming hand hits her next - it does indeed propel her through the window a bit faster, but definitely not in any way she'd appreciate. She flails a bit, trying to get control of her mobility back. She practically flies right into the combo attacks of the trio - there's a particularly satisfying noise as Buttercup's fist connects, in particular. And then she's through the window.

Right into Boomer's electrical field.

In her ideal plan, she'd step on the ledge outside the window and use that to regain momentum and footing for her next jump to the roof of another building. In reality, along with everything else hitting her, the electric field stuns her, and she ends up just stumbling on that ledge and from there simply falling down towards the ground...

... right down towards Blossom's position...

... and then, from seemingly out of nowhere, a van skids *right* by Blossom, and Limelight ends up hitting the roof. It's all she can do to hang on as the van accelerates and peels off into the night.

"Hah... got it, got it and got away from you all," she calls, fading into the distance. "Ah ha, ha ha ha ha... (ow.)"

"That was... a cheap plaque they got from a trophy store, right?" says Shield Maiden, as she flies down. "Yet she acts like she stole some great treasure worth millions... I don't get her."
Rowdyruff Boys     "She told everybody who she was and what she was about immediately," Brick says to Shield Maiden, descending to join Blossom and the local hero with a faint tap. He folds his arms over his chest. "'I'm the superthief, soon to be renowned the multiverse over for my exploits and my heists'. Her knowledge of the venue was comprehensive as was the guest list. She went for somebody notably locally famous as her secondary objective, and wanted the lights on so she could be observed."

    "There's also a secondary possibility," he adds, turning to look towards Kentucky Jones. "Which is that the visiting archeologist was carrying something and that the primary objective was retrieving it from his person, requiring the temporary kidnapping. In that case, the plaque was simply a distraction. Something petty and nonsensical that everybody would go 'what the fuck' at."

    Boomer lands nearby, scratching his head. "How do you pay that much attention to everything...?"

    Butch has lost interest entirely and started picking at whatever buffet table food and drink can be salvaged.
Futaba Nuki Floating back down to the ground, Futaba holds an oversized hand out in the unlikely event anyone actually needs someone to catch them. Before long, she puts all of herself back to normal size and their usual proportions, save for extending her tail briefly to pull a chair over so she can take a load off.

"That sure was something! Excitement, fighting, drama, and a new-" She looks right over at Shield Maiden. "Is that a new face around here? Sure was new to me. And if she put her mind that hard over a dinky little plaque..."

She strokes her chin, sounding vaguely satisfied. "There could be some good chases in the future... Well, as long as it's not putting any regular people in danger. Again."  Remembering Jones, she goes to check on him, but keeps listening as Brick gives his detailed analysis on the situation. "Someone that wants people to notice her, huh...? Hm. Maybe... Nah. We'll definitely see her around again."

She joins Butch at the buffet table, picking up her phone before gasping in horror. She never actually hit the record button on that video app.
Go Shijima      Mach watches the van go, stanced up. The moment it turns the corner out of sight, he removes the little dialpad car from its chamber. The armor dissipates, and Go Shijima crumples, sliding down the wall. His shirt is stuck to him with sweat, and his chest heaves with exhaustion as he wipes the sleeve of his blazer against his forehead.

     Still, he manages to smile. It's nice to fight someone who's both honest (in her way) and, crucially, not tied up in emotional knots about you and everything you represent. "I get her," he says, between breaths. "It's like Brick said. She wanted to make a flashy entrance, show us up, and make a getaway. Hard for me to be mad about a motive like that."

     Glancing towards Boomer, he adds, after a few more seconds of catching his breath, "Usually, people that put on performances like that have a lot going on under the surface. And sometimes..." Sometimes it's a smokescreen for something else. "Nevermind," he says with a smile, waving a hand dismissively.

     "Could I get one of you guys to bring me some water?" He asks, generally. "I'm beat. Really shouldn't have suited up, but I couldn't resist." Like he said earlier--he saw a chance to blow off some steam, and he took it.
Rowdyruff Boys     "I get it. Being the center of attention is pretty fun. You're probably pretty used to that, though, huh?" Boomer asides to Go. He gets this because he enjoys theatrics too, although in his case he really is just that simple. Mostly. He might have some insecurities to get over. He vanishes into a streak of blue for a moment, displacing the air in a great gust of wind that repeats as he returns, passing a local brand of bottled water to him.

    When Futaba comes over, Butch lifts his head a little to look at her. He looks at her phone, and then back at her. "Tried to record the show? Ask Brick about it. He wears a cam so he can review his days. Fuckin' freakish if you ask me."
Powerpuff Girls Blossom is standing ready to receive the final stand or surrender of a super-thief who was suddenly out of cieling to swing from. Boomer, electrically powered, discharges violently, and Blossom smiles. A plan coming together, perfect. And the thunk of feet on metal was--

Blossom gapes as Limelight makes her getaway, and lingers on the ground watching the car go until it turns the corner and Mach releases his transformation. Speechless, for a moment, she zones back in to Brick explaining everything to Shield Maiden.

Blossom clears her throat, disbelief gone and returned with pleasant professionalism. "By paying attention, Boomer. Limelight is either some sort of advanced machine-controller with a gimmick, or has a supporter who's some kind of tech-hacker sort. The spotlights were rigged with mechanical spiders." Not that anyone could confirm that, because she fried them with heat vision.

Thankfully, Buttercup floats down from the window, following Bubbles. "There was a mechanical spider at the buffet table, too." Bubbles snorts. "Oh. Is that why you went hasta la pasta?" Buttercup grumble-snorts and doesn't respond.

Instead, Bubbles turns when Go asks for water and with a

SKRRR!

of zipping light-trail from the buffet table, around Butch, to the water cooler, to-- Stop. And wait. For the cup to fill. Her light-trail almost catches up to her by the time the cup fills achingly slowly from the cooler, drip - by -- painful --- trembling ---- DROP ---- ! oh it's full.

SKRRR!

Goes Bubbles back to the thirsty Kamen Rider to hand him a cup of cooler water that is cold, from the cold tap. It is also mildly radioactive from traveling through space in a blur but it's the good kind of sparkles, don't worry.