Scene #8396: The Hardly Castle Stage 2

Owner	Pose
Rowdyruff Boys	The CASTLE of HARDLY... is still under attack! By you! There's probably some catchy music playing, even. Thankfully, there is no tortured and autonomous drill-filled section of the castle for you to frustratedly meander through, or excessive rows of instant death spikes that would instantly be defeated by half of you having the ability to fly and the other half having other compensatory abilities. But much like with FATHER, the second rung of the castle seems to be somebody's personal chambers rather than an actual functional fortress area. This time around, you're not being harassed by wall-hacking barrel-throwers. But what you ARE being harassed by isn't actually much better. The distinctive VRRR! that usually accompanied the high-speed flight of the Powerpuff Girls and Rowdyruff Boys started buzzing you aggressively the moment you took one step into this part of the castle that resembles a ten year old's room. There are a LOT of broken toys around here... they might've been defenses once, now that you think about it. It's hard to get a good look at the figure that darts in and out, ignoring the walls as the previous stage enemies had, but a splash of purple and brown is obviously visible from the trail of light that it leaves behind. The girls, at least, have seen this color scheme before. It's definitely not dredging up any old traumas. It's a little odd, though, this looks far more like a boy's room than a girl's room. The distinctive gendering of certain types of toys absolutely inundates the surroundings, accompanied by colorful wall murals displaying scenes of transforming robots and carnage. Ordinarily this probably wouldn't actually mean anything -- the Powerpuffs had diverse interests, after all -- but Dick Hardly is absolutely the kind of guy to strictly impose gross gender norms in his house. The actual path forward is pretty linear, setting aside that there's a forcefield preventing progress at the end for the moment. The overall place, outside of the areas that are a kid's room, has the stylization of a suburban american home from the 1980s. Lots of wood and faux-wood, leather and faux-leather furniture, pastels and stripes in bedrooms and bathrooms, cd racks and tethered land line phones... It's hard to admire (if one were inclined TO admire it) with all the ongoing fly-bys, though. Brick pushes backwards from one of the ongoing purple charges, returning to before what he deems the "starting line" before which they weren't being attacked. He frowns, looking at the floor. "New Chem-X Kid. They'll probably still be vulnerable to a variety of childlore nonsense. Try to make games of your advance. Matching power for power will be needlessly difficult."
Remee Halcyon	"Why does this place look like-" Remee gets her answer pretty quickly as the group has to fall back. "Someone's home. Got it." > "Try to make games of your advance. Matching power for power will be needlessly difficult." "Literally games?" ... It's worth a shot. "Hey!" Remee calls out, just generally shouting forward since she's not quite sure where the new kid is at any given moment of zipping around. "Some of my friends and I are gonna play Red Light Green Light, okay?" "The way it works! I'm going to take turns saying Red Light or Green Light. When I say Red Light, they have to STOP. When I say Green Light, they can GO." "The important part! You aren't allowed to punish them unless I've said Red Light and you see them moving, okay? That's how the game works." "Okay, I'm going to start in a moment. Remember, only move on Green Light. Ready... set... RED LIGHT!" Remee goes for the fake out. It's important to establish she's playing this game fairly, which means letting Ishirou stumble and get decked. "Okay, okay, GREEN LIGHT!" Then a few seconds later: "RED LIGHT!" "GREEN LIGHT!" "... rrrrrrRED LIGHT!" And so it goes, Remee calling out the phases of the game as they move forward. Hopefully the home team here plays along.
Ishirou	Ishirou still isn't exactly 'okay' despite what he has said to everyone about being 'just fine'. The amount of psychic damage done to him by 'Father' has drudged up some deep cracks in his mind thanks to certain people, his own stupidity, and other deep-seated things left over from a lifetime of being a robot slave. He doesn't even notice the first VRRR, which knocks him over, forcing him to run face-first into something. It's less painful than it is both embarrassing and off-putting. Recovering, he attempts to follow the speed, but it's more than simply trying to analyze what's going on. It's faster than he can process... Brick's suggestion is noted, and a plan is already forming. When Remee calls for Red Light, he works on his part of the plan. His scanners looking for paths that the new Chem X kid can take to smack into them, then he moves his hand in such a way as to send a few bits of energy around. At each location he selects, in the path of the child, he sets to make the floor rubber bouncy, with just enough give as to turn the momentum they'll be moving in with upwards. Then he does this right above each bouncy square, aiming to make sure that the kid doesn't hurt themselves... chem x or not, he isn't going to be cruel. Two OPTIONs also fly out, hovering near Sougo, Woz, and Corona. They'll support their attacks, either with increased effort in the damage part, or accuracy in the attempt to hit part.
Futaba Nuki	Like a good half of the group, the ninja that accompanies those charging through the Castle of Hardly would have an easy time dealing with rows of spikes. Sadly, Futaba doesn't get a chance to show off her anti-spike abilities, but she does at least get to show off her sprinting stance as they charge through the castle. She does it with one hand behind herself and one in front of her face, of course. No behind-the-back flapping here. "What's with all these toys?" Futaba asks as she leaps past a pile of toys, glancing back at the debris briefly before catching a glimpse of the speedy figure up ahead. Not recognizing them just yet, she only raises an eyebrow slightly at the colored lights and focuses more on not getting caught up in whatever those lights are rather than trying to solve whatever might be the cause of them. She has to shrink and flip through some of those flashing lights, and it's not without a bit of confusion on her part, but Futaba certainly doesn't look like she's going to drop her guard just yet. The sheer number of toys and gendering is a little foreign to her, too, but less because of the gendering and more because of her own upbringing. She does certainly seem to be more interested in the transforming stuff, but only in passing compared to the rest of the decor. "We had a few of these back home... Wait. Who's this supposed to impress, though?" Futaba asks aloud as she peers around the room while following Brick back out, squinting briefly at the CD racks on the off chance there's any soundtracks from shows in the aughts she might recognize. 'New Chem-X Kid. They'll probably still be vulnerable to a variety of childlore nonsense. Try to make games of your advance. Matching power for power will be needlessly difficult.' <J-IC-Scene> Remee Halcyon says, "Um... red light green light?" <J-IC-Scene> Remee Halcyon says, "You all game?" <J-IC-Scene> Sougo Tokiwa says, "I don't know that one--how's it go?" <J-IC-Scene> Ishirou dully, "What is that?" <J-IC-Scene> Remee Halcyon says, "You don't- I mean, okay. You stop moving when I shout Red Light. You can start moving again when I shout Green Light." <J-IC-Scene> Ishirou says, "...what about yellow?" <J-IC-Scene> Remee Halcyon says, "We don't use yellow." <J-IC-Scene> Ishirou says, "...Huh." <J-IC-Scene> Sougo Tokiwa says, "Got it!" <J-IC-Scene> Remee Halcyon says, "Right, anyone else in? I'm about to get started making the calls." <J-IC-Scene> Corona Arclite says, "Reckon it's game time then" <J-IC-Scene> Futaba Nuki says, "I don't get it, but... Sure, whatever!" Sounding and looking eager to play along, Futaba squats down with her hands on the floor, ready to fling herself forward the moment Remee throws out the first green light. When she hears the red light, though, Futaba is still in the middle of throwing herself forward, but she stops herself with a strategic transformation of her head into a heavy weight to force the rest of her body to drop with it. The followup steps afterwards are far more controlled, with her limbs and neck extending in a steady rhythm while the rest of her torso stretches out like some kind of oversized tarp. "So that's how this game works... Neat! What do we gotta touch to win the game, anyway?" Despite her question, she's following Ishirou's lead in trying to get ahead of where the unseen kid is, trying to build up enough of a lead to put herself right in their path like some kind of freaky wall!
Angela	Random and Rook are the team today. Random is a nonbinary agent with blue hair and a sideshave. They are wielding a strange baton with a clear globe on the end within which a galaxy(?!) is swirling around inside. Rook is the long black haired bakuran wearing captain of the Control Team as usual, still wielding Penitenec himself. They are briefly disoriented by the speed of the movements but keep moving forward all the same, albeit with far more trepidation. They listen carefully to Brick's advice. "You know any boys games, Rook?" Random asks. "Oh I only played games of all genders," Rook rolls his eyes. "Like 'Don't get caught out at 3 am' and 'Don't steal from anyone too important.'" Remee mentions a game of Red Light Green Light. The expressions of the Agents are blank until Remee describes the game. "There's no way that'd work right?" The two run forward, but Rook accidentally runs past into the Red Light portion. "You have to go back." Random says. "You're shittin' me." Rook grumps. "Follow the RULES, Rook. Pretend we're doing Abnormality rules." Rook sighs and trudges back to 'the start', trying to catch up with the others when it's GREEN LIGHT again, Random grumbling under his breath the whole while. Random's pretty good at the game though, using the strange baton to help balance themselves. They smirk evilly. "And if you've got jumprope I'll show you how many I can do in a row, heh..."
Timespace Riders	Zi-O in the sleek, red-blue-silver Biorider armor, turns his helmet towards his retainer, giving Woz a confused glance. The gentle lighting gleams from the red katakana reading 'RIDER,' serving as his helmet's eyeplates. "Are those... toys?" He asks, gesturing towards the broken probably-former-security devices. "The walls... this doesn't look like a--UWOH!!" Zi-O's form turns into a blue gel, quickly speeding away to avoid the speeding Chem-X Kid, as Brick had called them. Woz, in the more technical Quiz armor, doesn't fare so well, taking a spark-shooting impact dead center and uttering a grunt of pain as he's knocked backwards, flying a short distance to land on his back and further smash an already-broken drone. Brick's plan draws a nod in the affirmative from the still-liquid Zi-O. As he solidifies again, Remee suggests a specific game, albeit one he isn't familiar with: <J-IC-Scene> Remee Halcyon says, "Um... red light green light?" <J-IC-Scene> Remee Halcyon says, "You all game?" <J-IC-Scene> Sougo Tokiwa says, "I don't know that one--how's it go?" <J-IC-Scene> Ishirou dully, "What is that?" <J-IC-Scene> Remee Halcyon says, "You don't- I mean, okay. You stop moving when I shout Red Light. You can start moving again when I shout Green Light." <J-IC-Scene> Ishirou says, "...what about yellow?" <J-IC-Scene> Remee Halcyon says, "We don't use yellow." <J-IC-Scene> Ishirou says, "...Huh." <J-IC-Scene> Sougo Tokiwa says, "Got it!" Woz gets to his feet, catching a glancing blow, but managing to procure one of his transformation watches. "In that case..." As he slots it into the gate on the left of his belt, a lively melody with shamisen and taiko drums plays. Dare Ja? Ore Ja! NINJA! Futurering Shinobi! SHINOBI! Transformed into a ninja-themed armor with shuriken prominently displayed on the cuirass and pauldrons, Woz forms an archtypically 'ninja' hand gesture--a kuji-kiri--as an iridescent purple scarf flows dramatically behind him. Working in tandem with Remee's callouts, both Riders take advantage of their speed forms. Zi-O speeds in a literal sense, his liquid form a blur until he stops on a dime, easily funneling his momentum into OPTION-boosted attacks should a cue be missed by their 'host.' Woz, meanwhile, 'speeds' by way of smokecloud teleports complete with the iconic 'thunk' sound of a deerscare, sweeping with the sickle-tipped variation on his odd, touch-screen polearm, his ability to make reads likewise boosted by the OPTION assist. (The hype-themed weapon pun here is SICKLEST. because of course it is.) "Hi!" says Zi-O, on a RED LIGHT. "I'm Zi-O. That's my retainer, Woz. What's your name?"
Corona Arclite	Corona Arclite spent most of her younger days in a Space Western orphanage or on the streets, to the room of standard childhood objects and decor would be right fancy to her if she cared enough to delve into examining it. Which is a bit hard to do when there's something fast and annoying buzzing around, forcing her to keep on her toes. Both literally and metaphorically speaking. "Whut the tarnation did he do, make 'em part skeeter?" A few ideas on how to proceed fly back and forth. Make it like a game to get a kid's attention. Okay yeah, the group is clever, they can work with that. Corona reachs into her seemingly bottomless bag of gadgeteer tricks, and pulls out a hand-sized sphere. Red... Green... Red... Green... as they're moving and stopping and moving she's using her precision skills and heightened senses to keep track of the stop/go of the opponent in the room. Until they get a GREEN LIGHT and she lobs the sphere. "Catch!" Not hard to do. In fact easy to grab it before the next RED LIGHT. And when the enemy hopefully is stopped from moving, realizing the 'ball' is actually a small ticking explosive. They'll have to either hold onto it as it blows, or throw it away and risk getting called for moving on a RED LIGHT. Corona decided she was going to play HOT POTATO at the same time. Because combining games to make up new games is the sort of crazy childhood thing she does have experience doing.
Powerpuff Girls	PREVIOUSLY ON POWERPUFF GIRLS: Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup fought a rude dad - FATHER! Well, Bubbles didn't, she protected the boat. While everyone had feelings, Princess Morbucks had more of a 'lethal disagreement' with FATHER. Worked over, drubbed emotionally and bullied by barrel monkies, Princess had done her best shot at dive kicking the man dead for good - and was stopped by the intervention of the Brick. Brick explained that the Girls decided when it was time to kill someone, and they still hadn't given that order. To take it from them would be stopped with his full force - or, at least, that's what Morbucks heard. She understood it, because it was simple enough, and a rule she could follow. SO NOW... The Girls Plus One all fly, spread out across the approach through the HardlyCastle. Princess Morbucks is still with the Girls, staying tight on Blossom at the low-back of a tight aerial diamond. It's when they're VRRR!'ed into by the purple-and-brown of oh-so familiar color. Blossom spots the incoming child and breaks high, drawing up her legs. Princess sees Blossom jinking high and jinks low, cartwheeling to the ground and landing in a jog as she brings up a palm and tries to draw a bead. Bubbles, on the right wing, dives as well, and lands to project a bubble-barrier. Buttercup gets punched in the face and yowls. "Hey! Punk!" Red-Light-Green-Light sees the girls arranged, with Princess huffing a fallen ginger bang off of her face with an haughty puff of air. "Yellow's not needed? Fine then. Fight them, see if I care." Blossom sees the color swatch and takes up a nervous defensive stance. Bubbles gasps, floating with one hand over her mouth wide-fingered, and her other helping her focus on projecting her bubble-barrier. Buttercup, unwised and instantly feeling it from a 'real' hit activating her fighting-Butch reflexes first. 'Green Light!' Buttercup, bruised cheek giving her wild grin a puffed-cheek accent, blasts off in a drive towards their faster-than-a-speeding-bullet adversary right from the start. "C'mere squirt!" She calls, reaching out two-handedly to try and command grab the little Chem X Child into a powerful (and highly frictive) noogie. It will certainly cause flame to happen... If she gets into applying force.
Rowdyruff Boys	RED LIGHT! The bolt of purple pauses mid-flight. He -- you think it's a he, he's dressed more like one of the Rowdyruff Boys when they were young than the girls -- looks down at the group. Brown-haired but with a ponytail, he doesn't really resemble any of the boys or girls that you know. In fact, only the girls really know whom this person takes after. It's doubtfully going to be a problem for them. The Rowdyruff Boys, for their part, just look kind of baffled at his appearance. Green light! The purple Powerpuff Boy zips towards Ishirou, then stops when another red light is called. His frown intensifies. Another GREEN LIGHT is called, and he doesn't seem to notice the terrain manipulation enough not to bounce right into it. He ricochets a few times, halts himself after colliding with the ceiling and walls just about twice, and rights himself in a pause. GREEN LIGHT! As soon as it's called, the Powerpuff Boy opens his mouth and screams as loud as he can, which not coincidentally is plenty loud enough to drown out any TOO immediate attempts at screaming red light. The sound echoes through the hall as the boy ... counts people? He's pointing from one to the other and then-- then he settles on Ishirou. One more VRRR later and he tries to punt Ishirou directly into his own terrain manipulation. This kid doesn't know their own strength well enough to not hit pretty damned hard, though. Oh well, boys will be boys, right? "That's not how you PLAY THE GAME!" The purple boy complains when he runs into Futaba, rearing back and striking at her with considerable force. All things considered though, it seems like the kid falls into the beats of games well enough, even if he does inject some modifiers into them. A few scored hits by Woz and Sougo are met largely with the same reaction would at getting hit by boffer weapons-- a bit of a flinch, a glance that acknowledges something happened. He's not much less invincible than the Puffs and Ruffs are, though, if at all. "I'm Badger," Badger says, reaching out and grasping the "hot potato" thrown at him. It explodes, leaving him comically soot-covered. He looks kind of aggravated at that, but not aggrieved like a combatant being attacked really should be. Badger takes a deep breath and exhales, knocking over furniture and objects all around before pulling out a phone and hitting a button. The floor begins to get hot. "Jumprope's over there," he asides to Rook and Random, pointing on the far side of the room. There's some real precarious platforms to get to a jump rope. A different approach, maybe? GRAB. Badger finds himself seized by Buttercup, yelping indignantly. "Who're you calling a punk, you washed up wannabe goth?!" He demands, squirming free enough to bring a knee up towards Buttercup's chest.
Angela	"Oh sure." Random says. They immediately start platforming. "Good luck Rook!" Rook gives a hapless shrug and a shake of his head like he's about to say 'Doesn't that beat all.' "Doesn't that beat all?" He says. He looks to Buttercup. Three powerpuff ladies seem like they should be able to handle one powerpuff boy and Red Light Green Light isn't really a game for him with that topheavy mace of his. That mace of his... Rook plants his feet. He takes a breath and places the mace before him and makes his best attempt yet. "Hey kiddo, you wanna see a skull?" There is, indeed, a skull on the head of his mace. A big one! Random just platforming the whole while. "Maybe you uh... could ...show us something cool you have?"
Remee Halcyon	Remee clasps both hands over her ears at the scream, and reflexively shifts back from wolf to human. Thankfully, the noise fades. > "... What?" > "No, I can't hear you, can you speak up?" Why's everyone being so quiet all of a sudden? At least all that noise from the zipping around is gone. Remee wipes off some sweat from the sides of her face, where it was trickling down from near her ears. "Right. Um. Next game. How about... the floor is lava?" she calls. She can't hear herself either, that's odd. She'll just have to speak up more. "Oh - hide and seek! Yeah. Okay! Come try to find me." Remee's good at hiding. It's also an opportunity to keep getting closer to the end of this section.
Ishirou	Ishirou is starting to sweat the moment he's being focused on. Why are they focusing on him? What did he do? Why is it always him? His plan...somewhat works? The bouncing happens as expected, but then as double expected he's smashed into, and he goes bouncing. You can literally hear the pinball sounds as Ishirou goes flying, hitting every single bouncing square he placed down until he goes flying into one of the sides and into a pile of legos. That could have hurt a lot worse, he realizes, but he did get dropped into Legos. Groaning, he pushes up and shakes his head. OPTIONs spread out again, this time to Futaba and Remee, who he thinks need the help the most right now. If he gets charged again it's going to hurt... What can he do..? That's it. He realizes. He motions towards one of the large toys, a giant dinosaur, and sends more light into it to manipulate it. Now the very plastic dinosaur is off towards Badger, trying to 'eat' him. Eat just means shoved into its mouth and bounced around a little. "Why me.." He asks.
Corona Arclite	Oh things are getting hot now! Even if it's not literally lava, it is heating up quite fast regardless. And while Corona can maybe take the heat, it doesn't stop the fact it's going to melt through her boots if she stays standing on it. Not bothering with platforms or furniture or whatever, instead the wily vixen shoots the hookshot built into her gauntlet upwards, impaling the ceiling and hosting herself off the floor. The heat is still less than comfortable up here, but at least she's not directly touching the hot surface. The sweltering temperature she will contend with. It's hardly the most practical position but she's done with worse. She still has one hand available to draw a different weapon which expands in her grasp. She aims. And fires. No where near Badger. Or does it need to be, as the energy bolt bounds off a wall, off the ceiling, ricochets off various other boy's room objects to zip towards the target from an entirely different direction and angle than it was fired in.
Timespace Riders	"Nice to meet yoooOW!" The floor heats up beneath the king and his retainer. Woz, in the agile ninja-themed armor, can more easily escape it. Vanishing in a puff of smoke, he appears several feet above, his polearm stuck into the wall. Hanging from one arm, he makes a grunt of effort, throwing, with his free hand, a spread of explosive purple shuriken at Badger. The heat from the floor causes Zi-O's superspeed liquid form to bubble and steam, and as he speeds for the nearest colorfully painted wall, his footsteps leave hissing, quickly evaporating tracks behind. "Your room is pretty cool," calls Zi-O, now leaving tracks on the depictions of robots and carnage as he runs up and along the wall in a blue blur. "You like robots?" he asks, springing off of the wall with a sudden kick, to fly through the air and shoulder-check Badger. "Tag! You're it!" He lands on the heated ground, but not before switching forms to something better able to take the punishment. His hand twists the RX Ridewatch in his belt-- RX TIME! Roborider! His armor changes, both in color and in shape--the sleek bodysuit is given over to heavy, bulky plates not nearly so conducive to speed and maneuverability, but much sturdier. The plates are black with metal trim, and Zi-O's faceplate sports a mouthguard that suggests just enough humanity to fall short thereof, while the red katakana serving as his visor glow with a robotic hum. "Catch me if you can!" Badger -absolutely- can--but Zi-O will have a hefty counterattack waiting.
Futaba Nuki	Finally getting a better look at the boy in purple, Futaba purses her lips briefly while trying to get her bearings straight as the game continues. Unfortunately, that shriek has Futaba wincing in pain and reflexively covering her ears up before the sound can really punch into her skull. She has to stay there for a while, too, and when she finally listens again... The purple boy is screaming at her next. "It's just moving and stopping, right? First time I've heard of it!" She admits freely, eyes widening when she realizes that he's coming right at her. Was it red light or green light, though? She can't really remember, but she's going to assume and prepare for the worst. Instead of throwing herself out of the way, she braces herself for his charge and transforms her torso into a rubbery mass to absorb the impact and pose less of a threat to the kid than if she had turned into a brick wall or something. Mighty as she is, though, Futaba still gets tossed backwards by the crash, skidding across the ground flat on her back with a bit of a painful spin before slowing herself down. "Yeesh... Badger, was it? You really got some punch in there!" Despite the visible bruising even after Futaba turns her body back into... Body, she's still feeling rather good about playing along with this whole thing for now. That means jumping across the platforms to get to that rope. Having learned her lesson from last time, she takes Remee's 'floor is lava' directive to heart, and she starts bounding around on various pieces of furniture and the walls just to make it to the ends of the platforms before leaping towards the next one. She doesn't even use her transforming gimmick to make her legs bigger or froggier, either, instead just using the raw power of her natural-ish (or as natural as her human form's legs are) to get there! "So... Hey, Badger! What's with all those busted up toys earlier, anyway? You handling 'em rough or something?" She asks in mid leap, catching onto the edge of a platform and hanging off of it for a bit to turn her head around to face the Powerpuff Boy. She's doing that full 180 degree head turn, though, totally doing it on purpose between giving Badger an 'innocently' curious look while her tail inconveniently takes up too much space behind her.
Powerpuff Girls	Princess Morbucks remains leaned against the back wall, placing in a golden pair of airpods into her ears and typing with pursed lipped single taps of golden-armored fingers on her wrist screen to switch to something with a good rhythm and beat-- Instead she gets screamed at by a Powerpuff Boy, and doesn't hear much of anything, despite turning up the volume annoyedly! She's really trying to not participate in this one! And then the FLOOR gets hot. Rising up off the floor on a wash of jetboot while her Power Crown deploys MorBeats, by MorBucks noise cancelling cup headphones ofer her ears, the yellow returns to trying to listen to her music and not participate... ...in children. Blossom claps her hands over their ears and squints closed her eyes, bracing against the sonic storm. When they aren't causing it, they're pretty awful to listen to! Bubbles switches both hands to her barrier, but a bubble-shield still transfers sound, and her partial defense causes her to recoil in shock. It's worse, for Bubbles because she feels it the loudest: who this person reminds them of. "Are you back, Bunn-" Asks the blue, tearing up. 'I'm Badger' No, Bubbles. He isn't. Buttercup, trying to apply a terrible noogie to the boy in her commanding grab, doesn't actually give a hoot about the jarring, sound-eradicating tinnitus in her ears. A brawler at heart, with this kid in her grasp, she's at her strongest. And then at her strongest, Buttercup gets called a washed-up wannabe goth. Washed up! WANNABE! This child-!!! Gets a very clean hit, doubling over Buttercup in smash hitstun as she floats over the Lava Everything. Blossom, ever the practical actor and having had quite enough of the immaturity, immediately zips up to try and wrist-grab Badger right when Futaba asks about the toys. "People who don't get better immediately are being hurt - so you need to learn how to play nice. I'm sure you know how!" Buttercup, lifting a hand and sucking in a breath from being sucker-kneed by a superchild, protests lightly. "Not sure about that one-!" She grimaces, but - all the girls have gotten a decent sense of this Powerpuff Boy. Is he really Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice? Hardly had bragged about it!
Rowdyruff Boys	"That IS pretty cool," Badger cedes to Rook, meandering over to check out the skull. He has to think about it for a second, looking around the room in search of 'something cool'. The problem is he hasn't actually existed all that long, and this stuff is "his" insofar as it was left here for him. Eventually he produces what appears to be a 3d Printed grenade. You aren't certain it isn't a real, functional grenade, but badly made. Badger turns his head as one of 'his' toys is animated into a legally distinct purple dinosaur. He responds by immediately firing a sweep of eye lasers towards it-- notably he is not targeting Ishirou, its animator, directly. Seems like he honors some amount of this actually 'being play'. Corona on the other hand fires a real ass laser that bounces around before burning a hole in Badger's shirt and scorching the skin underneath. It's not as much damage as you'd HOPE from shooting somebody with a laser, but it IS taken as an attack instead of games. The sweeping eye lasers that were fired at "Barney" WERE play more than they were an attack. The room-consuming, wall-to-wall beam of heat that lances out at Corona is anything but. The red light fades a moment later, just in time for purple explosive shurikens to hammer into Badger from the side. He winces away from these, looking annoyed. "C'mon, play right! That guy is just shooting lasers at me. Although, the purple shurikens ARE pretty cool..." //Tag, you're it!// "Oh, was that just a distraction? Hmm..." Badger looks thoughtfully around. Tag-backs are lame, so he doesn't look after Sougo immediately. Though, he does pick up some shitty BUILDING BLOX and throw them at high velocity at Woz for the shurikens a moment ago. It does mean that Sougo's plan doesn't quite work out. Badger is fortunately prompted by Futaba, whom he immediately ZIPS to, slapping at her tail. "Now YOU'RE it! And no tag-backs, go chase somebody else first." Badger is grabbed by the wrist. He looks up at Blossom in outrage. "They're shooting grenades and lasers at me! You can't talk to me about fair while they're doing that, you old hag!" He jerks his hand free and shoves her back, drifting uneasily in the air. Unbeknownst to Blossom, this boy WAS made with a little bit of Everything Nice because Hardly was too mad at the idea of going to the trouble of getting it WITHOUT using it. This, as it happens, was a minor mistake. "I'm forgetting something," Badger says, tapping at his chin. "Oh right! Hide and seek!" He inhales sharply and then exhales, sending a gale whipping through the room that overturns most things you can hide behind-- probably to Remee's detriment. Hey, no rules say you can't move the hiding places!
Ishirou	Ishirou's eyes go wide as the lasers come. He tries to move to the right...and does! The problem is that the pure range of the lasers and their intensity was too much. When the beam moves on, he's left sitting next to a white-hot glowing hole in the wall, nearly hyperventilating. He staggers to his feet, trying to think of something...anything he could try. His robot body has lost some mass. Mostly because it's dripping off his body. Cooling systems kick on, and try to put out the burn. He hates this. No, roughhousing is...a losing proposition. Okay... no. This is something that isn't going to work in his favor. He's respecting the rules, but he's still going to outperform him in this contest. Okay...okay..! Futaba Nuki says, "We'll tucker him out and then talk some sense into him, then! Maybe a few scares here and there... But something doesn't feel right here." That's... it! He uses his electromagnetic force to try and put various pieces of other toys together. Then shifting them so that they resemble teddy bears. Each teddy bear moves on its own, forming a small army of very small bears. Then they rush Badger. They don't try and rough house, instead they attempt to...! Tickle him. Every angle, every vantage point. He's going to tucker out this kid by making him laugh uncontrollably.
Remee Halcyon	> "Still can't hear anyone - oh. My ears got damaged," realizes Remee. This is right before Badger wrecks all of the good hiding spaces - and her with it. Good news: Remee's healing regenerates now that she realizes what's wrong. Bad news: The rest of her is kinda wrecked. ... Good news: She has actually a very good hiding spot right now, underneath a pile of debris that used to be furniture. This gives her time to think. "Ugh. What's with this kid..." ... Well, he's... a kid. That's the thing, isn't it. It's not his fault that he's keeping them from getting where they need to be. He's responding to things the way a kid would. What else would a kid respond to? "... Would -that- work? It'd draw a lot of his attention..." It'd be kind of... demeaning, wouldn't it. But nobody would care, though, right? --- "Hey kid! Good work! You get a new puppy!" It's not clear where the voice came from. Somewhere over there. But there is in fact a dog approaching Badger, with a sign around its neck reading 'NEW PUPPY'. The 'NEW PUPPY' is... a bit too large to be a puppy, though. It's a bit too large to be an adult dog, at that. In fact it doesn't even look like a domesticated canine at all - it looks more like a wolf. It is carrying one end of a tug-of-war rope toy in its jaws, though. "Woof," says the alleged new puppy.
Corona Arclite	In the heat of the moment Corona thought she could sneak in something a bit more substantial by stretching the game references. And sometimes when you gamble, the odds come back to bite you in the ass. She underestimated how into the moment Badger was with her 'laser tag'. Instead of being clever it pisses him off to the point of 'seeing red' becoming a very real thing as he turns his eye beams on her. Which somehow hit with the force equivilent to a massive concussive blow even though they're energy beams (maybe?). Chemical X just puts physics over it's knee and beats it's hiney black and blue. And it's target even worse. Corona is blasted free of her grapple point, clear across the room, and into the opposite wall. From which she falls to the floor. And various other decorations of the room fall on top of her, slamming her into said floor. Deja vu and stuff like that. At first just a fox tail is visible sticking out of the pile. Then it flicks and twitches and wiggles between stuff to disappear. A little after a random object is pushed aside, and Corona battered and busted up manages to slog out. "Tarnation, not how Ah planned that going." She snorted. Spat out some blood. Rubbed her muzzle on the back of a glove. Spat a bit more. Uttered a few other things that will stay under her breath and unheard. Dusted off what remained of her hat and put it back on her head. "But now Ah know how a certain coyote feels." Okay so going outside the stretch of toys and games and playtime was not a great idea at all. Hopefully others here will at least heed from her mistake. Corona does, instead taking out a different 'weapon', which looks like a punked-out supersoaker with the legal names filed off. Which yes, is filled it water. She uses it for putting out fires, normally. Right now, she's using it like one would a squirt gun.... just one that fires with a lot more pressurized force... which will probably just make it closer to a 'normal' spray against someone with this kind of durability. It is what it is as Corona tries to adjust back to making it 'like playing a game'.
Angela	Rook is shown a ... grenade. Rook is from the Backstreets of the City whic his definitely no place to raise a kid if he had parents which he didn't. He distinctly remembers not handling his first explosives until he was twelve. The grenade ... doesn't seem safe to use as a grenade, if nothing else. But he's noticing a trend. "Hey, kiddo." Rook says, taking a moment to crouch down, grunting as he does so in order to get a better look at his eyes. The Teddy Bears attack. He feels a little sick to his stomach. This powered up kid isn't actually an Abnormality OR a magical girl, he's coming to realize, and the situation is making him feel a little queasy. He doesn't want to engage an actual child like this. "You ever been outside?" He asks. "Not like, outside around here, just... Outside. Like to ... places that aren't ''here''? Like outside this general area?" He frowns. "You've got way too much energy but it only makes sense if you've been cooped up around this joint." Rook glances around. "Toys too fragile for you?" Random finally returns with the jumprope. "Hey..." She wheezes. "How many do you think you can jump...?" Rook holds out a hand for a moment before looking back to the kid. "You know we're not here to play games right? But that doesn't mean we can't be friends, or find kids your own age to play with once you can like... But if you want to play with other kids your own age, you gotta learn to be gentle cause they aren't as strong as you."
Futaba Nuki	That slap to the tail has Futaba yelping briefly, more from surprise than real pain, although it's still a little jarring just because of Badger being made of the Powerpuff stuff. Pulling herself up onto the platform, she's about to launch herself over to try and catch him, but... 'Now YOU'RE it! And no tag-backs, go chase somebody else first.' "Aye aye, Cap'n!" She brings her hand up in a mock salute, then glances around rapidly at the rest of the group to see who she can work off of as well as figure out how to continue approaching Badger and tiring him out. If there's one thing Futaba's learned since coming out into the Multiverse proper, though, it's taking almost everything at face value. Approaching Badger through the idea of games being the law of the land rather than just getting into a slugmatch means she has more options to put her transforming powers to good use, but actually picking one is going to prove difficult. Plus, she can't just go after Badger first. That means tagging... "Eenie, meenie, miney..." She makes a little show of picking a target, even, growing her hand to several times her own size just so Badger can (theoretically) see it bouncing and wagging at each person in their group. She goes through the whole little ditty, too, and her finger finally lands on- "... Mister Woz!" Turning to face the ninja-themed Rider, Futaba bounds forward and starts gliding towards him, making sure her back is facing Badger first before winking at Woz as though signaling him for something. What specifically is kind of unclear, but it might be a little more obvious once she shoots right past him, then turns her boots into something far softer and larger to give him a firm push vaguely in Badger's direction. "You're it! No take-backs!" She calls out with an amused laugh, followed by a startled yelp once she realizes she's falling right towards the floor which is totally still lava. That requires Futaba to scramble a little bit more just to make sure she's sticking to furniture and walls rather than touching the floor just to get back to where Badger is. "Better keep moving, Badge! Remember, the floor's lava, and the puppy needs a save before it gets... Uh. Soaked! In lava!"
Timespace Riders	"He's got a point, Woz. Can't you play along?" Woz is agile enough to avoid a direct hit from the hurled legos--swinging from his embedded polearm not only pries it free, but carries him upwards in a nimble backflip. He is not agile enough to escape the shockwave from the force with which they were hurled. Their impact point at the wall beneath him still pushes him off course, sending him tumbling to the ground to land unflatteringly on his side. "Very well, my Demon King." Getting back to his feet with a teleport, Woz appears before Futaba, just out of arm's length. Even playing tag, he is given to his usual theatrical display, issuing a challenge to her by way of a self-aggrandizing 'hm' of amusement, his free hand thrown out to the side before he leads her on a merry smokepuff chase. Across the resculpted room, weaving in and out of Rook and Random, along walls, even up on the ceiling--Woz knows the ninja will be able to keep up with his ninja-themed armor's abilities. <J-IC-Scene> Blossom says, "Hardly created him, out of what must be a mix of our ingredients and the Rowdies', with edits. It doesn't look like he's been let out, though. Sougo, I think you're going to be up. I don't think the Girls can help him like you can." A beat passes. "Woz. Could I request you help? Bring Zi-O to me, and Sougo - stay that form. You'll need strength." <J-IC-Scene> Sougo Tokiwa says, "Got it!" <J-IC-Scene> Woz says, "Understood." After a gravity defying chase, he is pushed by Futaba and tagged 'it.' The Rider twists in midair, extending a foot to (much more gently than he'd thrown the shurikens) tag Badger. "You are 'it!'" Springing off of him he turns, inverted in midair, and flings his iridescent purple scarf outwards. It wraps around Zi-O and deposits him right next to Blossom. Zi-O turns, his armor making a robotic whirr as he gives Blossom a crisp thumbs-up. "Go for it, Blossom!"
Powerpuff Girls	Blossom, standing for a moment in sizzling lava, is called a hag and is thrown away, while the L-Corp Agents speak to the core problem here. Loudly, they observe how bad off the child is here - broken toys, surly attitude, and not at all the nursery rhyme purity of what should be. He knows nice! He knows kindness and strength both, but he's not acting it. Aaaand they're also bombing and laserbeaming him. "You're not wrong that they are, but those aren't threatening to you like what you're doing is threatening to them. You know fair, you can touch gently!" She calls, chasing the boy -- but she's not 'it'. She can't catch him. "And there are other children, who are locked in their 'rooms', who your creator is hurting! Is it fair to them, for your dad to hurt them - and hurt you?!" She's making a guess, and a dangerous one - but she has a feeling. She has several feelings. Bubbles, and Buttercup are in varying states of hitstun, emotional (as Bubbles just has a breakdown about a lost sister) and physical (as Buttercup has a breakdown in her guts and is still righting from being anime Killing Blow'ed by a small child. Blossom has the plan though. "Sougo!" Not Zi-O. Not the Demon King of Time, but the Kindest, Strongest candidate for the title of that crown. Sougo, the boy who is 'it'. "Catch him, Hug him. "-work your magic-" Be 'Kamen Rider'. "-and win the game." And don't let go. Blossom, picking up Sougo in his heavy RX-themed armor, SKRR!'s across the field to push for the 'Winning' play of their childish, childhood game.
Rowdyruff Boys	"Wh-- hey, stop that--" Badger objects to the swarm of tickling teddy bears. He does not handle this particularly well, and is only REALLY saved by the fact that he is basically a ten year old superman. Eventually his meandering mid-air convulsions start throwing things off by NECESSITY, at which time bears go flying in every direction. Remee draws his attention immediately afterwards. Purple eyes flick towards the canine where the voice came from. "I'm not allowed to have pets. Dad's allergic. Shoo!" There is a palpable disappointment there, though there's also probably a little bit of nice leaking out. Who wants to turn a puppy out on the streets, after all? Or in this case, out on the middle of the ocean. Might be helpful to point that out to him, actually. But before he can explore the possibility independently, a pressurized stream of water hits him. Badger flinches back in surprise, squinting at the thing that was used to fire him. He doesn't actually have a water gun that cool, but he does VRRR! off and return with a water balloon, chucking it back at Corona. //You ever been outside?// Rook asks. "Uh, I've seen the ocean, if that's what you mean," The fact that Badger doesn't seem to know what's meant by that suggests that, no, he hasn't been outside this compound in a meaningful sense despite obviously being capable of high-speed independent flight. //How many do you think you can jump...?// "Can't count that high." //You know we're not here to play games right?// "I mean, yeah. You're kinda home invaders, dude," Badger points out, shrugging. He glances over towards Ishirou. "Yeah, some of you guys seem a little melty. Not all of you, though..." "Wha? You can't get soaked in lava!" Badger takes out his phone again and turns off the heat-floors, evidently at least swayed in that regard by the presence of a puppy that should leave. "And take the puppy out of here! Dad's allergic!" Badger is re-tagged. He blinks, looking around frantically. Who should he even...? And then Blossom is there again-- and she, mostly, says all the right stuff. But one thing that she says is precisely the wrong stuff. A red ring materializes around the outside of Badger's pupil. He inhales, and nobody could possibly imagine that what's to come will be good. When he exhales what comes out is some kind of awful charged energy field -- probably a gas, or plasma -- that crackles and burns with purple electricity, filling the room. NOTE!: You have indulged the gimmick enough to clear the stage, even if you are KOed.
Timespace Riders	"Got it!" The robotic antennae on Zi-O--no, Sougo's helmet, serving also as the hands of a clock, turn backwards, leaving little silver afterimages in their wake. The ticking of a clock is heard, briefly, as he is thrown upwards to meet Badger, a mounting battle cry escaping him as he flies through the air, arms outstretched. Teddy bears from Ishirou, flung wildly by Badger's thrashing, bounce off of his armor. Here and now, it's only a few seconds between him and Badger, if that. But the seeker of the throne traverses several days in the span of those seconds, watching, tracing backwards in time. The robotic-mantled Rider's helmet turns down in sadness, as the first day reveals Hardly's style of parenting is the same as anything else: The bare minimum. Why care for your son, if you can just use hypnotic suggestion to make him feel cared for? Why spend time with him, when you can spend money on toys? The next day, and the next day after, aren't much better. Badger is happy, because he has everything that a kid thinks they want. But Hardly is absent, and neglectful when he's even present. In time, it's not hard to guess that Badger will find out his father just doesn't put in the effort to show interest in his interests. By the time he's Brick or Blossom's age, Badger will probably cut things off with Hardly out of bitterness. In the present, Sougo's battle cry reaches its pitch, and stops. Armored arms whirr, as servos guide them into a midair hug. One metal-plated hand rests on Badger's back, the other gently cradles his head. Lasers pierce through the armor, forcing a belt-out--but Sougo won't be deterred even by the armor's feedback. "Hey," he says. Badger is happy, for now, so Sougo's temporal jaunt revealed. And it's pretty unlikely that he'll be convinced this arrangement is unhealthy. But Sougo has had a lot of experience as a lonely kid--and his time with Woz, and in the Concord, has made him tremendously happy. "We have to go for now... but we can play again any time you want. I promise." Sougo's loose-fitting button-up is soft and warm. "It's good to have lots of friends who can listen to you." Sougo withdraws, hands on Badger's shoulders, and lifts the right to give him a thumbs up. He wears a wide, bright smile, brown eyes twinkling with warm sincerity.
Corona Arclite	Corona Arclite slumps, weapon dangling at her side. It took a lot out of her just getting up to correct her mistake the first time. She's well aware of the limits after that, because she doesn't have much more than that left in the first place. At the same time, she chuckles somewhat dryly. "Welp. Looks like Ah gonna get one foot in the grave 'gain." She pushes herself back up, at least for the moment. The weapon is put back in her inventory. The bare remains of her hat is adjusted one more time. "Reaper still gonna need a bigger shovel iffen Ah'm expected to stay though..." This would be a 'smoke em if you got em' moment, but there's yungin' present so we won't be like the OLD old westerns and such bad habits. It's not a shovel and Badger isn't really that Grim, but he's got some nasty blowback there. "Ugh. The hell is that? Atomic halitosis?" She manages to get in a final bit of witty remarks before being overwhelmed, slouthing back to the floor with a groan. She won't be getting up from that one so soon.
Ishirou	Plasma breath comes out in a typhoon towards Ishirou. "Oh no." Seconds later, the camera is just showing the stream of plasma breath wash over the area Ishirou once occupied. Inside, Ishirou is only (slightly) being melted. It's scream-worthy, and once it's all over, a very slapstick, soot-covered Ishirou stands there. If this were loony toons, he'd fall to the ground as dust. Instead, he just collapses. to the ground. "Ow," he says, undermining how badly that hurt with those words. However, despite everything he still can function. Somehow. He looks up... it's almost there, he can feel that they have victory in their grasp. They just need one more push. He can calculate this... Numbers go flying by Ishirou's head, in his mind, trying to set up everything. 'Take the Puppy and leave.' That's it. Ishirou flops onto his side and motion towards Remee. The Teddies all flock to her, climbing up on her and playing on her back. They are adorable, they are cute. ISHIROU IS OPTIMIZING THE CUTENESS OF THE PUPPY FOR THE CHILD.
Remee Halcyon	"Woof," says the new puppy. (It says 'woof', instead of actually woofing.) Someone should tell Badger that he should play with the puppy. The puppy is joined by dancing teddy bears. This is good. Will it be enough?" Remee digs deep. She busts out the most forbidden weapon she has in her arsenal in this form. She gives Badger... ... the BIG EYES.
Futaba Nuki	A lot of effort is put into trying to wear Badger down, and to get him to calm down. Things are looking on the up and up, too, enough for Futaba to actually let her guard down a bit as she laughs at what's sure a welcome reprieve in this home invasion adventure. "Alright, alright, we'll get her outta here. Once we're back, though, we really need to have a talk with your dad about..." Blossom finishes that thought for her. Unbeknownst to Futaba, however, she doesn't actually realize that something that's said is wrong enough for Badger to react terribly, and she even approaches him with a hand going towards his shoulder for a light pat. That field of purple hits her right away, and it's fierce enough that Futaba actually needs to transform herself hastily just to withstand it all. More specifically, she turns most of her insides into rubber again, and she jams spiked legs through the ground just to ground herself for good measure. That's how that works, right? Right. Pushing through that crackling field, she slides forwards to join Sougo with Badger, slowly worming her way into that embrace with her head (just her head) (her neck's gotten longer to compensate). "Mister Sougo's right. We've got some work we gotta do, but we'll be back for ya. Just be patient, alright?" She reaches up to ruffle Badger's hair briefly, then hums softly in thought. "And if you're worried about allergies... I could turn into one of those weird looking hairless cats for a while if you want to see something weird!" Futaba's suggestion is followed by a light-hearted laugh, but it's just long enough to make it unclear as to whether she's joking about that suggestion or not. That, of course, becomes not-a-joke as her head turns into that of a hairless cat, wrinkles and all. At least her body is still her own.
Angela	''I've seen the ocean, if that's what you mean'' But then someone says something--a targeting reticle appears in the boy's eyes. Rook is too close but Random-- Random shouts, "CAPTAIN!" And body slams him out of the way moments before that energy field slams into Random. They scream in pain before collapsing to the ground, looking charred and smoking as they collapse to the ground in a smoldering heap. Rook swears under his breath, jabbing a green ampule into Random's body. The wounds start to revert themselves before he-- Rook looks up to Sougo for a moment as he speaks with sincerity, and combat hugs the boy. Rook steadies his breath. It's not his fault. He's not actually an Abnormality. He's gonna make this kid an orphan if he gets anywhere near Dick-- He steadies his breath, pushing away the vengeful thoughts for Random, for the kid. "There's a whole world past that ocean, kid." Rook says. "And worlds past that too." He stands himself up and says, pulling Random up with him. He isn't going to interfere with this hug assault. "One day you'll be ready to see it. I've met boys like you, they did alright in the end. Just you remember that when life's got you down. You'll end up just fine."
Powerpuff Girls	Blossom has her own faults, and also isn't perfect with children. Commander and leader of the Puffs, she's still uncomfortably adult to a newborn of their power type. Still, the Nice shines through, so she has faith. She says the absolute wrong thing, but also: She delegates to the most likely male figure to solve this - the kind would-be king. Bubbles, not emotionally crippled so much as unwilling to take a swing at all at a Powerpuff Boy without some particular and specific reason to. She has no such hesitation in defending one of her sisters, having been too teary-eyed and weepy to look for the lava-allergic doggie just moments ago. Bubbles, erecting a field with her arms stretched wide, takes the majority of the blast directly, soaking it first with her bubble-barrier and when that pops under the stress, doing her best to shove the lightning away. She's partially successful, and it's completely sucky. Buttercup doesn't know what to do, kind of dislikes this kid, kind of is having an emotional moment of her own. She can't punch her way out of this one and wasn't really great with children as a child - as a surly not-so-wannabe goth, she's spicy to be around. But so are the agents. Zipping close, Buttercup is a hair'sbreadth late to save Random, but Rook already is administering some kind of medicine that brings the agent from the brink. Despite the palpable anger - an anger that the emerald puff thinks she understands, Rook goes ahead and explains the outside world. It's sweet, and inspiring. It's the right answer, or right enough for Buttercup. "We came from the outside world. And we're going back, after. Do you want to come with us? There's more people like these two guys," Rook, and Sougo. "-and doggies in the outside world too."
Rowdyruff Boys	Badger seems out of it after the rings around his pupils appear. He doesn't even seem to really know that he did it, though he's aware that SOMETHING happened. Blearily, he looks towards the "puppy" that is busily being GLOWED UP. It's probably working decently, he glances towards the rope-thing, and then back towards the puppy's face. "I'm tired..." Futaba distracts him a little by stretching her neck weirdly and doing a lot of strange shapeshift-y stuff, but his attention is finally drawn back to the person that's doing battle-hugs. It's such a weird thing to be doing, but even Badger understands that this is a signal to slow down at the very least, not that he recognizes that he was playing too rough to begin with. He nods, a little woozily. "Sure," he says. "Okay." "But why does your friend want to turn into a sphinx cat...?" It's kinda moot. There are dancing bears and a very cute dog. "Ugh, fine. There's not really an outside here, I guess we can go use one of Father's big halls..." "... Hey, what happened to that guy?" He asks Rook, pointing at Random. "Anyway, I don't mind it here. It's not like I'm missing anything. Not that I know of, anyway. I think we're going somewhere else, next. This is just kind of a... work-home? I guess?" Badger doesn't understand the world at large enough to actually get that there's anything off about that. He looks up at Buttercup when she approaches, tilting his head slightly. "Uh, pretty sure I have to stay with my dad?" The rings in his eyes flash again. There's definitely something enforcing obedience or loyalty in some gradient here. Probably loyalty more than obedience; he's definitely not supposed to let anybody through but he seems disinclined to keep 'playing'. "But I guess I don't mind visiting wherever you're talking about." AND SO... You get a few minutes to recover before you go deal with the real villain of this story. This is a multi-parter, the day isn't saved yet!
Ishirou	Ishirou tries to push himself off the ground. He doesn't make it very far and instead just flips back onto his back. "POD. You're going to need to make repairs again.." he says, as the RESCUE transformation cancels, and POD detaches. Already moving to start repairs on Ishirou. He watches and listens. There is... true kindness being shown to this child. It's touching. It's touching in a way that he wasn't really expecting. Some tears fall out the corners of his eyes as he lies there. When did he... lose the ability to care like that? He knew he had it once, but why did it feel so hard? Was everything really from Petra? Or was it she touched on something and now... Now he's like this. Will he ever not be like this again? Will he be thoughtless and insufferable forever? Will he just continue to hurt people around him and now show any care? Why did it hurt so much? 'Father's' words ring in his mind. He didn't know what he was... and the real question... Would he ever?
Angela	"Oh they're not a guy. Not a girl either." Rook points out. The enby population of The City is pretty high actually and it's even pretty normal for ladies to have names like Alfonso or Don Quixote and men to have names like Emma. He isn't going to tell this kid he fried Random a moment ago. "They're just tuckered out. You play hard." He does actually manage to crack a grin when he says he's not missing anything. "How'd you know? You don't know what 'anything' is yet, kid." He removes his gakuran hat, spins it around and places it right on the kid's head. A gift? "You'll see what I mean someday. Thanks for hanging out with us today. I'm sure we'll run into each other again sometime." He stands up then, now hatless and feeling a bit empty without it but some things are more important. He gives a small nod to the Powerpuff Girls as they refer to some of the many wonders of outside. But he quiets down after. Getting worked up like this, he thinks. Getting worked up like this, it's not how Fixers are supposed to be. ...But maybe getting worked up once in a while isn't such a bad thing, he thinks dangerously.
Rowdyruff Boys	"Oh," Badger looks past Rook at Random. "Okay, then." He looks a little confused at being be-hatted, but at least has enough nice in him to straighten it out and say, "Thanks! And uh, yeah, probably. The guys around dad seem to cause a lot of problems." It doesn't occur to him at all, of course, that 'dad' is the problem. Maybe it can't.
Rowdyruff Boys	"Just a little while ago," Brick says, striding past Ishirou. He's headed for Blossom, but he takes his time going about it. "I would've said you seemed wretched. Right now you seem to have swung back around, a little. If you can stop the pendulum where it is, do so. If you can't, at least slow it down so it stops in the middle." He carries on, kicking off the ground a yard or so away to fly over to Blossom. There's a little planning to do between now and the confrontation... but only a little. If they wait too long, he might bolt-- or come out to meet them on his own terms. Neither would be good.