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Rowdyruff Boys Turns out, adding everything nice to his son wasn't the greatest idea. Better, though, than having dozens of low-quality xeroxes that turn on you on a dime because of your emotional neglect. That one turned out to be a pretty lethal error back in the day. But that was then, and this is now.

Dick Hardly stands up from behind his desk and retrieves his helmet, affixing it to the neck of his suit with a hiss. It seals itself neatly, though the overall effect isn't particularly impressive. The whole rig is made of an old timey diving suit, and the tank that he slings onto his back is a mixture of oxygen and Chemical X. He'd gone through the whole 'Chemical X poisoning' thing before, too. It was useful in gaining the strength to... well. He hadn't survived that ordeal at all. But it was useful in gaining the strength to almost win. Now, limiting the dose ought to be enough to stop all the painful mutations.

The tank creaks open, a steady supply of breathable oxygen flooding the suit along with gaseous Chemical X. Hardly could feel his body swell with abrupt and unnatural muscle growth. No tentacles this time. The tentacles were the worst.

"May as well spring all the remaining traps," he grumbles, pressing a button as he strides out towards his office door.

    BACK NEAR THE GROUP...

A whole bunch of dumb traps are sprung. Spike walls and floors, moving laser walls, little drill assholes that phase through the floors and ceilings and have no apparent practical purpose beyond doing contact damage. There's really nothing to be done but smash on through, this area is a lot less complicated than all the others, it's just full of this garbage.
Futaba Nuki "We'll see you again on the way back, alright? I'll come up with something cool for you by the time we're done."

Having left Badger with those words of encouragement (?), Futaba's mentally prepped herself enough to continue through the rest of Hardly's traps. It's almost reassuring to see those around compared to the distinct lack of them in those living areas earlier, prompting the ninja to hop in place a few times while she lets her limbs settle back into their regular shapes.

"Let's see if we can't clear some of these out, huh? Getting back'll be easier if we don't have to jump through all this stuff!" Futaba claps her hands together as she goes through a whole swath of hand seals and vague movements that occasionally look like her hands actually just blending together at times, and then she turns into some kind of alligator-snow plow hybrid.

"Those things coming out of the floor might be a problem, but... Eh. Watch your step!" And then she starts charging on through, using the snow plow-y-er side of her face to dig up and push through those spikes while giving a far wider berth for those laser walls.
Angela That's the trick isn't it? You want your creations to be good to you but if they're good to you they can be good to anyone. And if you make them so they're not good, well, they can be bad to you too. It's a bit of a Catch 22 of supervillainy.

Justin Rook is a man on a mission. He is not happy. You could even say he is sore. Metaphysically sore. Physically he's alright. Random took the brunt of the damage. the HP 'Bullet' restored them from near death but they're pretty relaxed about that as one might tend to be if they're used to receiving such ampules. Actually, these things are usually fired out as bullets weirdly enough. Best not to think about htat one too much. Or how this tech came to be.

Rook grew up in the Backstreets. Life was cheap there but it was a known and accepted phenomena for the City. What is new to Rook is the idea that someone would create a person for a purpose and then abandon them.

He submitted a report during that brief break to Lobotomy Corp and now Angela is paying attention. Rook has no idea why Angela would care about A child created for a purpose and neglected, programmed in such a way that freedom is ever out of reach but even the AI who has seen seventy thousand Hells play out is troubled by the treatment of Badger and insists that the matter be resolved...permanently.

But both Rook and Angela know that even at the end of a father's life, their shadow wouldn't exactly leave at first anyway and Rook's thoughts are a mess as he tries to think about what he should really do. Would One Sin pay for a Hundred Good Deeds in this case? He wields Penitence, but--what would be the right thing to do here? Or at least, what would be the wrong thing? He has to be stopped regardless, but what then? Fixers that don't figure out what comes next usually end up dead.

The two former Fixers battles against traps and avoidl laser traps as best they can. They aren't wholly successful but they do their best.

Eventually Rook has a question for the pros.

"Hey." He says. "After we beat his ass, do you got a way to break all that programming shit? Like, you got a plan for how to help that Badger kid out?"
Ishirou Ishirou is running with the group again, back in the RESCUE suit, but with no attachments quite yet.  He's already got OPTIONs out on people, once more aiming at bolstering their already significant prowess.  Ishirou is also trying to analyze the way ahead, but very quickly things turn...

Wily-esc.

Spike traps, laser traps, and everything in between are released at them.  Ishirou is forced to send small lights around the group.  Some lasers become less lasers and more very high-powered (but normal) lights.  Some spikes become rubbery and bouncy instead of painfully dreadful.  Sometimes parts in the touch damage ceiling turn into safe spots to bounce off of.

He can't escape all of these traps, but he can manuever with the best of them, coming out the other side with barely any damage and running with people.  

"Yes, I can work on his mind to remove the programming gently.  I just need time, quiet, and again...time.  Though if it's anything like everything else he's done it's likely very half-assed.  So maybe less time..." Ishirou responds to Rook.  "Though even with it gone he's going to need time and good people around him."

Which... seems to be that Ishirou isn't indicating he's one of them.  
Remee Halcyon Remee switches on 'big bad wolf' mode once again as the traps come out. There's no immediately noticeable change for most people, but those with magically attuned senses can see an expansive aura surrounding her and/or whatever she happens to be focused on.

What is noticeable for most people is how easily she gets through the gauntlet. The narrative force at play here exaggerates flaws and cut corners even in well constructed architecture - against shitty traps that'd be at home in a house of sticks or straw, Remee could theoretically literally walk through one as if it were a Shoji wall and Remee was an American tourist.

"Yeah," she adds to Rook's inquiry. "Getting free of your family's influence isn't easy. It took me two years, and I started when I was much older than Badger is now." Remee is implying she's entirely free of the rest of the Halcyons, which is 'debatable' at best.

> "Though even with it gone he's going to need time and good people around him."

"Superpowered support group. Got it."
Timespace Riders "See you again soon, Badger!" Sougo's wave is as big as his smile. Into the next room, his cheer is overtaken by buffoonish surprise. "UWOH!!" Sougo dive-rolls, unarmored, out of the way of a wall-penetrating drill, procuring his bulky white TIMESPACE DRIVER as Woz, still armored in the ninja-themed ShinobiArmor leaps in to interpose himself, deflecting it with his sickle-tipped, touchscreen polearm.

     Sougo fastens his tranformation belt securely, then rises from a kneel, procures and presses the crown on two futuristic-looking pocketwatches. ZI-O! Ex-Aid! The name called by each echoes through space.

     "This one feels like the play!" With those watches slotted into place, the display on his Timespace Driver reads AU30 in blocky LCD font. The silver gears and hands of a great analog clock form behind Sougo, ticking away as his hands, held up and out, pantomime the movement of the clock hands behind him in reverse.

     "Henshin!"

     Sougo's hands grasp the Timespace Driver and spin it.

                                   ARMOR TIME!                                    

     Large pink gears envelop him completely, protecting him from the worst of Hardly's traps, before fading to reveal--

o/` Ka-meeen Rider! o/` ZI-O. . .

     His usual wristwatch themed armor is palette swapped white, green and pink, with a colorful breastplate sporting 90s four-color controller buttons and a 'health bar' above. Two clock hands on the helmet form the classic Rider 'antenna,' with pink katakana flying into place over a pair of cartoonish goggles to spell out "RIDER." Stylized game mascot 'hair' in an anime style stands boldly atop the helmet, between the clock hands.

                          Level UP! o/` Ex-AIIID! o/`                          

     Sougo nods confidently, and gets Ex-Aid's catchphrase wrong: "I think I can clear this level with no continues!" He's just not enough of a gamer to be sure.

     The Demon King, working with his still-armored retainer, makes a high-flying, acrobatic advance through the gauntlet. While Woz teleports between obstacles in puffs of smoke complete with the iconic deer-scare 'thunk', Zi-O makes gravity-defying jumps and double jumps heralded by 90s handheld platformer bleeps and bloops. Woz throws spreads of explosive shuriken, landing atop Futaba after narrowly avoiding a brush with a spiked wall. A swipe of his sickle polearm sends a crescent of cutting green energy flying above her to pre-emptively clear would-be counterattackers.

     Meanwhile, Zi-O's rapid bouncing jumps are themselves attacks, his feet stomping with forceful impact and rewarded with flashing HIT!! graphics that appear at the point of the attack, seemingly from nowhere.

    "There's more than enough of us here to handle 'good people,' Ishirou--you're included in that!" Sougo catches onto more than his carefree air of innocence shows.
Powerpuff Girls IN BADGER'S ROOM:

While the Big Bad Doggie has gone off, Princess Morbucks has remained behind, her heat-resistant armor mostly unbothered by childish games. But she does notice something.

"Pretty sick plasma stream kiddo." The ginger and gold lady notes, appreciative in the manner of a Plasma Stream Enjoyer. She doesn't really get the narrative possibility there, doesn't have an ear for feelings and the cries for help.

She has a power crown, fifteen years of keeping up with her own two hands and the things she built, and a chip on both shoulders about it. She runs businesses. She knows what makes little boys happy. She knows the rhyme, at least.

"You want me to make you a robot dog?" Princess asks, red-lit eyes scanning over the room full of melted, broken toys. "I think I've got the perfect concept. You like red, right?"

WE'LL GET BACK TO THAT - MEANWHILE:

A hallway full of traps barely slows the girls down, only sticking with the pack to crash through traps and barricades when Ishirou doesn't shut them down. Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup each fly with faces set in personal masks of determined resolve -- though Bubbles is hanging out near Rook and Random today. The twintailed blonde's bright blue power-aura hums and glows like a limnal layer about her as she answers: "It's the same way you've already started. We'll stop Hardly, without killing them. The real person behind all of this can just bring bad people back anyway - the only way forward is to do better than that. So we will! Thanks to everyone's efforts - so just fight on a little longer, okay? Then, we'll save the day!"
Rowdyruff Boys "Uh... o...kay?" Badger doesn't have any plans to leave and is a little baffled at the reassurance being aimed his way.

The "level hazards" aren't that tough. Futaba plows through them effectively, creating a window, which gives the Fixers the opportunity to get through proportionately unscathed. More so than they might have been, anyway.

Brick flies up parallel to Rook. "Having seen its effects, I think I know where Hardly got that power. The most you can do is help the kid to reclaim his autonomy. It ends up being some kind of vision quest garbage."

He glances at Ishirou. "Probably don't shortcut it. I know faster sounds better, but it's not. Not with HIM."

All around, the advance proceeds smoothly-- there's too many talented people working in concert for that to be in doubt at all-- and all that's left behind in the wake of the group is debris and flickering, buzzing, malfunctioning laser traps.

    BACK WITH BADGER AND PRINCESS...

"Plasma stream?" Badger wonders, because he doesn't actually remember doing the breath thing. "Dad's not allergic to THOSE... and the other dog just left. So sure! And I guess. Purple's my favorite. But I think yellow is nice too." Obviously.

    AT THE END OF THE TRAP-FILLED PATH...

ARMORED HARDLY kicks open his own office door, sending it spiraling down the corridor and splintering either when it meets one of the malfunctioning traps in the back or the person who is most in the lead. It doesn't really matter to him. He lumbers out, forced to duck beneath the doorframe as he does so, his suit and the Chem-X circulating within it making him much larger.

"Now isn't that cute... BUT WE'VE PLAYED THIS GAME BEFORE. GO HOME, KIDS." Hardly growls out, his voice suddenly very much like HIM's-- and a little like Brick's, at times. The words carry a heavy weight that reverberate outwards and compel-- it's not easy to resist, even for those who are experienced doing so.
Corona Arclite Hardly makes a intense exit of his office and entrance into the scene with a reversal of the usual kicking the door down. It hurtles down the corridor. Corona leaps at a sideways angle, rebounding off the wall thanks to the augmented boots, and vaults over the improvised projectile. While putting herself on a vector towards Hardly himself as his weirded up voice echoes at them.

"Time fer ya to pay up fer all the trouble you've put folks through!"

As she's rocketing towards the amped-up industrialist she pulls out her personalized sledgehammer, the head crackling to life with green destabilizing energies as she uses the momentum of her maneuvers to heave a heafty swing and try to put a few instabilities in the suit's protection! "Just like a nutjob to hide inside a big ol' shell. Good thing Ah brought a cracker!"
Remee Halcyon "Vision quest garbage. Got it." Remee nods. "Mmmmight be able to help a bit with that, too, once he's ready for it."

And then Hardly arrives. "Oh, he's..."

More details become apparent. "Oh, we're... going to have to deal with your family next after this, are we?" she says to Brick. "My condolences. At least yours knows how to cook a decent steak omelette."

The commanding voice causes Remee to shrink back. She tries to cover her ears - but for the second time today, having good hearing is a curse instead of a blessing. "No," she complains, despite her feet moving her back all on its own.

When she can get herself back under control, the gun comes out. Sticking near the back of the party, she takes aim and fires... trying to take out any important-looking connections or bits of the suit that are keeping him powered up.
Ishirou "There's more than enough of us here to handle 'good people,' Ishirou--you're included in that!"

Ishirou pauses upon hearing that.  He's touched, actually, because right now his own self-worth is pretty low.  "I'm glad you think so, Sougo, but I don't know myself..." Some things weigh heavily on him still.  Lilian, and what he's done to her.  What he's done to people around him.  His own self-worth and validation.  

Perhaps his courage is really what is degraded more than his kindness.  Though one could argue they are closely linked.  It requires someone to be brave to be kind.

"I know, Brick.  I will be careful, and I can take out the actual forced compulsion part without any harm to Badger.  No shortcuts, even if the work is shoddy... honestly it might be because it's shoddy it's so dangerous."

The words strike Ishirou, causing him to shake and struggle to stay put.  As he is now it's so very hard to not accept them and do just that.  Why is he even here..?  He's just in the way and a hindrance...

/No/.

His eyes scan again, bright blue behind the visor.  He wants to do a suit...

Ishirou summons up one of the armor pieces.  It fires ahead, trying to ram Hardy the moment the boss HP bar fills, aiming to stagger him.  Once it bounces back it splits.  Ishirou leaps, flying to each one as it attaches to a different part of the base RESCUE unit.  

'FRAME'

This is followed by another, which attempts to ram Hardy again.  This time two drills attach to his arms, and trends to his legs.  

'BURROW'

Drill arms and a bulky form protect Ishirou now, as he continues to scan.  Data is fed to Sougo and Woz.  The Puffs' options glow, pointing out all sorts of points on the armor he sees, and Rook's OPTION informs him of the connection between the air tank and the suit.  
Rowdyruff Boys "No, not at all. My father is not a threat that can be solved permanently or by violence," Brick replies to Remee, simply.
Timespace Riders      "Fortunately for Badger, I have been known to be of use, for such things as involved as 'vision quests,'" says Woz, gesturing with a grandiloquent sweep of his free hand from atop the shapeshifted Futaba. He is, after all, helping Zi-O become king. "That my Demon King desires a better future for him is reason enough to assist."

     He leaps off of her in an agile frontflip, attempting to stop the flung door with a slice from his polearm. It only half-works, instead sending a still fairly-solid half flying towards Zi-O to crash into him and send him sprawling to the ground. The retainer is clipped by both halves, himself, and each Rider gets to their feet.

     Neither of them is accustomed to resisting unnatural compulsions, and so as they get to their feet, they find themselves turning and moving against their respective wills. Their movements are clumsy, like marionettes left to wither for too long, limbs sluggish and jerky as they march down the hall, away from Hardly, each grunting with effort to try and stop themselves.

     They get about halfway down the hall before Ishirou's data feed scrolls over their helmets. It gives the both of them something, anything else to focus on, but the weight of Hardly's voice. Zi-O bars Woz's movement with an arm thrown out across the retainer's chest, and another clutching the exposed panel of a wall which formerly housed a spike trap, torn off by Futaba. "Rrgh... we're... not... going home... without stopping you first!"

     Zi-O forcibly shoves Woz back, sending him tumbling over, before the Demon King mounts a rising battle cry and wheels around. He bounces off of the walls with more video-game beeps, manifesting a pair of hefty, wrist-mounted piston bludgeons, each sporting a sizeable green B-button at the end. Closing the gap between himself and Hardly, he pummels the chemically augmented con artist in an erratic press-and-fade offensive, each strike creating more of those colorful HIT!! notifications.

     Woz, getting to his feet, mashes a button on the touchscreen of his polearm. Shakily assuming a battle stance and facing Hardly, he zips down the hall, creating afterimage duplicates of himself that attack from multiple angles, raking their sickles across his armored form, and seeming to prioritize strikes to his helmet, taking advantage of Zi-O's harassing pummels.
Powerpuff Girls Everyone's advance is loud and purposeful, and the trio of Powerpuff Girls work in tandem with the part of determined heroes (of Townsville, and beyond) to chase down and defeat one very abusive slick 80's Dick: Richard Hardly.

Blossom, at the front with Buttercup, is surrounded by the now-expected Options out of Ishirou. Fed all sorts of targeting data, the ruby red allows herself a heroically confident smirk, here at the end of what she expects the short road to victory to be. Recovery comes after - first the day had to be saved.

"I didn't expect a rerun of you, Dick, but you can't think this ends well for you! You traded away great for good enough for too long that less than the lethal dose still isn't great enough to win!"

With charged heatvision, Blossom attacks the indicated weakpoints in 'good enough' with carving glances and focused beams from over Buttercup's shoulders and head. The angry emerald-green goes straight for the power forward point, tackling into Armored Hardly with a zip and then plating her feet and hard-stancing to grapple with the heavy diving suit, tearing and ripping at the arms and cabling of the suit that she can get her hands on. Even if it's backed by Chemical X -- so is she.

Bubbles, hanging back with the Agents, isn't any less effective, following Blossom's heat ray blasts with arcing bolts of electricity!
Futaba Nuki 'After we beat his ass, do you got a way to break all that programming shit? Like, you got a plan for how to help that Badger kid out?'
"Kids are real good at learning by example, right? So... You know. Hanging out with him, show him by example how to be cooler and better than he'd be with just his dad." Futaba answers, an audible smile coming into her tone moments later as more people respond.

It's not really visible what with her face being a snow plow at the moment. Somehow, though, she still manages to look like she's bobbing her head to the Zi-O tune.

Squawking briefly at Woz landing on her, Futaba still manages to keep her gait steady even while crashing through whatever she can reach, handling those things coming from below with their impromptu teamup maneuver. She's working double time, too, to try and help make up for Princess' absence, although she doesn't sound/look (mostly sound) with Bubbles' encouragement.

"That's right! We just gotta turn this whole thing around, then make sure ol' Hardly stays on board with it all. And then...! Uh." The alligator plow shrugs a second later. It sounded cooler in her head.

Hardly arrives sooner rather than later, and Futaba braces herself as some splinters of the door smack her right in the face. Only then does she finally remember to transform back into herself, sleeveless ninja suit and all giving her arms plenty of room to move once she settles back into a combat ready stance with her hand crossed in front of herself.

"That's right... It's time to finish this game, Hardly!" She shouts back defiantly, leaping forward once before slowing down right afterwards as his voice hits her right where she's weakest: The head. Even after enduring quite a few mental attacks in the past, this one still isn't any easier to deal with.

"Tch... We've messed around enough, but you've got to grow up sooner or later, too. All that tacky junk's not fooling anyone, old man!" Pushing through that stoppage in her head, Futaba melts herself down into the floor before sliding towards the Armored Hardly at a rapid clip. Once she's close enough, she bursts up towards him from below in the form of a net, trying to wrap herself around him and tightening rapidly to try and bind him with a whole mess of vaguely organic, vaguely metallic strands.
Angela Rook doesn't seem to get Ishirou is trying to exclude himself there. He figures ideally it'd be locals providing that kind of service unless someone from off world intends to adopt or something. He has no idea how the multiverse looks after folks like Badger. It's entirely possible they just don't. Rook can barely leave the facility he works for. It's not gonna be his job.

It might be... He looks to Brick and nods once to him. "He a half brother of yours?" He remembers about HIM after all, he might not be experienced of the outside world but maybe he can trust that Trio he was originally assigned to study like any other Abnormality to look after him.

What a world, he thinks.

He thinks quietly of Bubbles' words about HIM as well. "Feels like typical Wing behavior." He says of bringing back jerks to cause more problems. "Why does 'the real person' go to so much trouble anyway to cause problems like this? They just bored?"

For some reason, Rook wasn't imagining a guy named Dick Hardly to be so big.

Random says, "Haven't been a kid for a while." to Hardly. "What're you doing, creating a kid like that and just throwing toys at 'em that they can't help but break? That's like an actual kid, you're having us fight."

Rook, strangely, feels the urge to... leave. While Random shakes it off, it takes Rook a moment to clear his head. "Ugh, looks like an Aleph, talks like an Aleph, but is just some Dick--"

"We know his name Rook."

Rook is inclined to agree with Brick that trying to rush matters with Brick wouldn't work out too well. Guy doesn't even know of the outside world. Even the LoboCorp team has at least seen the outside world in the past--except for that computer girl who--

--is now speaking from Rook's monitor.

"Stop talking and beat him black and blue." Angela says to Rook. "You've a job to do."

Rook can't argue that. He runs out towards Armored Hardly, swinging the large mace at him while Random carefully studies patterns, tapping at a datapad as they take some effort in recording them.

"No point in killing you, but my experience with PRISON tells me you'll have plenty of time to look at your bruises and think about what you did wrong." Rook says as he takes a swing.
Rowdyruff Boys "Criticism of advanced equipment hardly seems like a relevant topic for a kitted-out fox," Hardly growls at Corona. It's unclear if this is an intentional play on words or if it just came out that way as a coincidence. At the same time as the hammer impacts with a powerful CLANK, failing to penetrate but denting the armor substantially, there is a pronounced HISS as Hardly swings a fist back out at Corona.

He sneers at Remee, "Not quite 'good enough' that you can fully resist, eh? Well--" Hardly moves a hand in the way of a shot at his 'air supply', which dents inwards at the palm. The armor is probably less durable than the man himself is underneath it. He makes an aggravated noise.

"Why don't you... STAND STILL FOR A MOMENT." Hardly 'suggests', before producing a drill from the small of his bag, revving it up, and driving it in towards Remee.

How tough and strong is Dick Hardly right now? The answer, as Ishirou learns from the impacts, is 'pretty damn'. He doesn't seem to have the power of flight but he responds to brute force about the same as the Puffs and Ruffs-- not very much at all, even if you can tell there was a solid impact. The suit takes more damage than the man himself suggests he took.

"Drills, eh? I like your style! Not that it means anything NOW," Hardly pushes forward into the drills, what appears to bronze flakes coming off of his fancy diving suit-- though it's probably something more complicated than that. With his free hand he tries to grab Ishirou's drill arm and turn it against him, "You don't even know if you still want to be here, so why don't you just give it up already?!"

TAP TAP TAP TAP wall jumping is pretty distinctive, actually. Hardly shoves Ishirou away and turns to meet the approaching Zi-O, reaching out with an over-enlarged hand try to grab him and-- hit Woz when Woz appears, though the attempted strike occurs simultaneous with Woz's own head-strike, which hits hard enough at least to cause a rivet to come loose and start leaking gas into the air.

Thankfully, all the battering on the suit is making actually quite a lot of progress and sets up very neatly for what comes next. Blossom's heat vision zeroes in on spots that have been repeatedly weakened by incoming attacks and Buttercup moves in to stop Hardly from simply going after Blossom directly in retaliation. The arms burst at the elbow, exposing the unnaturally muscular spray-tanned skin underneath. The armor seals itself at the elbows, preventing further gas from spewing out. That release gives Hardly a moment free from Buttercup's grappling though, and he reaches up lightning-fast to turn the valve on his tank sharply. The hiss from the helmet intensifies, and Hardly grows a little larger. Almost too big for the suit, now, even with the adaptive properties it seems to have.

He sweeps a heavy fist towards Buttercup, trying to knock her back into Bubbles.

"The last time we did this I had you. I didn't lose because of YOU, I lost because of ME! And I've fixed the way I lost that time," Hardly shouts back. It's clearly a sore spot for him.

A net springs up underneath Hardly. He's awfully strong, Futaba learns-- though even for him there are easier ways out of a net than brute force. He snaps at her, "Where the hell do a bunch of children get off telling me to grow up?! I'm the one who realizes how the world really works! BECOME PUDDING." If his voice should compel her successfully to do this, he immediately springs forward and bursts out of her mass. Otherwise he's stuck, for the moment.

Which is unfortunate for him because Rook swings a large, skull-y mace at him immediately afterwards. It clongs against his helmet, cracking the glass. "Everyone's always talking about the CHILDREN. Pah! Utonium sent his kids out to fight too, and they were younger back then! Why don't you go be pissy with the man that started it all!"

He takes an open-handed swipe at Rook, still at least partially distracted by Futaba even in the best case.
Angela ALSO THE POWERPUFF GIRLS DECIDED TO KEEP THE POWERS AFTER THE PEOPLE OF TOWNSVILLE PROT--

Anyway, Rook's answer to this is, "Who?" because he has no idea who Professor Utonium is.

"Oh there was a file back when we were first arriving that said he created the Chemical X compound. It said, and I quote, 'Sugar Spice and Everything Nice' were intentional parts of the formula but Professor Utonium accidentally added an extra ingredient to the concoction--" Somehow Random's voice gains reverb when they say, "Chemical X."

Rook's expression is decidedly nonplussed.

Rook gets sideswiped by a robo hand into a wall, leaving a decidedly non-PG smear against it as he slides down.

Random then shoots Rook with a gun. The blood seems to pull back into his body as he sits himself up, groaning. "I mean you don't actually care about any of that right? You're just saying that to get us to shut up aren't you?"

Rook cricks his neck. "Your turn Random."

Random nods, darting in to rapidly swipe at the mech with Our Universe (it's basically a cool looking mace).

Random has no idea why Hardly is even doing this and, frankly, they think better of asking.
Ishirou "You don't even know if you still want to be here, so why don't you just give it up already?!"

Ishirou's knees buckle at that, even more so when he's just casually tossed aside.  Especially with his own drill being sent into his own system by the very much stronger Dick.  Lights are on his HUD warning him of the damage, but the emotional damage is stronger.  He shakes, trying to shake his head.  Trying to deny it.  

He does want to be here.  He does...!

He does... he doesn't...

But he's still here.  He digs his drill into the ground and forces himself up. He's exceptionally strong and tough.  The thing that caused him to lose last time has been fixed.  He's confident that he has the one up over the girls and the group.  His mind is reeling, maybe he's right... would anyone blame him for just leaving..?

'BECOME PUDDING.'

Ishirou's head snaps up.  No..!  He is back on his feet.  No! He screams internally.  He's got a plan.  He rushes at Dick from behind, the drill arms come down trying to surprise him and dig into the tank.  /DICK/ might be tough, but his equipment is still equipment.  He just needs to know what and how it's made.  

OPTIONs fly out around him, while he has Dick distracted.  He attempts to override Dick's mind control by literally using mind control on Futaba to tell her to /ignore/ that order.  

"You can do it, Futaba, you're... strong and brave and you shouldn't listen to this hack!  Someone who thinks that mass production is about making weapons.  Who uses modernity for its worse excesses and not what it's intended for..!" He OPTIONs go on hyper mode, feeding her a direct feed of everything he knows.  Every weak point, every strength.  She'll know exactly where to hit.  

"I won't leave... I won't!"  
Corona Arclite Hardly Punch? More like hardly a punch!

Actually it's a pretty good punch. It's just that Hardly has made himself a big burly guy and Corona is a nimble fox. Even moreso using the hardsuit, as she jukes to the side with a burst of nitro thrusters, leaving the swing to catch nothing but empty air. Swing and a miss!

Reinforced heels cause a few sparks as they scrape against the floor to arrest her movement afterwards. She releases the power level on the handle of the sledge, dispersing the energy and retracting the tool back into it's storable size to drop back into her inventory. "Darn rawht Ah am. Made by muh own hands, time, grit and sweat!" She thumps a fist against the plate covering her chest. "Made to last, do it's job and do it well 'nuff the first time." Usually. There's trial and error and all that which goes with experimenting. Part of being an inventor.

Corona keys up a different combat option, drawing a version of her large handgun that connects a reinforced tube to the inner workings of the power supply backpack. The glow from the internal furnace is visible between the vents as the exhausts huff and fume. The tubing visibly bulges as something from the furnace is pumped into it.

But it's not fire like one might expect.

When Corona points the gun at Hardly and fires it is instead a smoldering, gleaming semi-liquid. The leftover slag of metalurgy, still hot enough to burn into whatever it gets sprayed across!
Remee Halcyon > "No, not at all. My father is not a threat that can be solved permanently or by violence,"

Remee seems to take this at Brick's word.

She also, unfortunately, takes Hardly at *his* word - staying stock still as the drill revs up.

What follows is not suitable to commit to text, aside from making a joke about Remee's mixed heritage. You know. Like, saying she's three quarters werewolf, but right now only about half of that is left? Except let's not actually make that joke, it's not very good.

"No!" She manages to push free again before he can dig in *too* far, and goes to take cover again, further away. There's not much she can do about him commanding her, short of ripping her own ears off (which is a drastic step), so maybe if she puts more distance in she'll be able to just break free of the next command before he can close in on her?

Oh, also, she shoots him again.
Timespace Riders      Zi-O is caught by the leg mid-jump, letting out a startled cry as he's flung across the room towards his retainer. Tumbling end over end, he nevertheless avoids a direct impact thanks to Woz's quick thinking. The retainer strikes a hand-seal like Futaba's, disappearing in a puff of smoke. The smokecloud dissipates as Zi-O flies through it, the Demon King given just enough time to right himself and make another impossible 'bweep' double-jump.

     "He's strong--gotta keep him guessing! Woz, cover me!"

     "By your command, sire!"

     Woz makes a distraction for Zi-O, running along the wall with his polearm shouldered, throwing a rapid-fire stream of explosive purple shuriken so quickly that his silver-green wristguard is a neon blur. Determined to make a nuisance of himself, he attempts to flank, aiming a few of his spread at the tank on his back.

>I lost because of ME!

     "Honesty about your own shortcomings? I *am* surprised, Dick Hardly."

     Zi-O swaps out into another armor, quickly slotting a different watch in and spinning the bulky white TIMESPACE DRIVER.

                                   ARMOR TIME!                                  

                                 Level UP! Brave!                                

    A knightly suit of armor, silver with blue trim, appears in Zi-O's path. Crossed, wrist-mounted swords of fire and ice are held up in a silent, chivalrous challenge. Zi-O makes a leap forward, crashing through the armor, which breaks apart and snaps into place over him. The over all 'gamer' motif remains, but where his previous armor was the mascot of some beloved platformer, this one looks like the protagonist of a difficult RPG. The katakana spelling 'RIDER' on his visor and serving as the helmet's 'eyes,' change color to gold, as the pink 'hair' shifts to the lifted visor of a knight's helmet, complete with a regal blue plume.

     "To your empire of knock-offs and half-measures... thanks, but I gotta pass!" It wouldn't be Zi-O if he didn't mangle another Rider's catchphrase. Whereas the Ex-Aid armor focused on overwhelming through agility, the Brave armor revolves around swordplay and elemental duality--"Justin, Random--follow my lead!" Zi-O attempts to soften the armor up for the mace users, leading with his ice-blade to blast it with freezing cold, fading and whirling around the Agents, swiping with the fire-blade to send crescents of roiling flame after Hardly should he attempt to grab them as he did the Demon King.
Powerpuff Girls 'And I fixed the way I lost that time,'
Blossom, behind Buttercup, gets bowled into when the emerald green gets thrown back by Hardly and his pressurized arms. She rips them free, and she's loose too.

And so it's both of them driven back in a power-pile. Overdosing on the adaptive power suddenly is a surprise, and even the two Puffs aren't invincible towards physics.

Blasting out through the back wall of Hardly's final chamber, Bubbles is suddenly 'alone'. But: She really isn't. "Hardly! You talk SO much trash, and you're right - you did put us under glass the last time and made us watch." Bubbles declares, pointing an accusatory robin's egg blue painted nail at Roid Armored Hardly. "This time we brought exactly what beat you - friends, and people who'll help us, even if we get knocked down!"

Crackling with surging wreaths of electrical discharge, Bubbles closes her pointing hand into a fist and bursts forward in a streak of sapphire to join Random in the melee beatdown with more suit-frying blows of electricity, knowing that even if she gets swatted down too - Futaba, and everyone else, was already wise to the slick Dick's tricks!

"We got better too, Dick!"
Futaba Nuki "What's with you, anyway? All this power, all this potential, and all you wanna do is drag people down!" Futaba's ire towards Hardly becomes more evident with each second as she grapples with him, finding his suit to be far sturdier than she initially expected. She shoves her feet through the ground at first to try and get some more leverage, but that doesn't last for long as his next psychic command weakens her hold, and she melts once more into... Well.

A big ol' pile of pudding, complete with gold flakes and leafy specks scattered throughout. The pile of Futaba burbles, and for a moment, it does feel like it'd be more comfortable to just laze around like that. It'd certainly be easier, and it's not uncomfortable to sludge around, even if she had to do it forever. It's not satisfying, though, and it doesn't  last long as the pudding mass starts to churn, almost like it's boiling over while Ishirou's own mind control clashes against Hardly's in the middle of all that.

"Hgh... Geez, Ishirou. You know I know that already. I've got a... Lot more to show ya if you think I'd let that keep me down!" Futaba shouts back finally as the slimy goop making up her body starts sliding towards Hardly's armored legs, inching her way up steadily while clinging on and... Not reforming?

Not yet.

"I'll get off... However I want until you get it through your thick skull! The world needs strong people that'll pull everyone else up, not... Not posers that just shove everyone else down that's trying to climb their way out from the bottom!" The pudding mass starts sliding upwards faster and faster, even growing in quantity until it could practically engulf Hardly with the sheer amount of that sludgy gold-green-yellow stuff.

"Me and everyone else here already figured that much out. Now it's your turn to learn, so keep up!" The Futaba pudding mass joins in the elemental beatdown being delivered by Bubbles and Zi-O, completing the triangle of elements by vibrating rapidly enough (and cheating with that flaming katana power of hers) that outright flames start broiling on the surface. The heat inside Futaba is just as intense, too, as if trying to smoke Hardly out through his own armor.
Rowdyruff Boys "And WHY would I commit any more effort than that to YOU? I don't even know who you are!" Hardly replies to Rook. He doesn't seem all that confused with off-world special ops showing up, though. A gleaming red light builds in the helmet before a refracted laser pours out of the forward lens. It's pretty diluted, but it sweeps across the room towards Random's right side, terminating abruptly as the mace descends on his shoulder. He gives a shout of frustration and pushes the mace off of him.

What is the equipment? It is some strange composite of bronze and Chem-X that gets labeled 'Orichalcum', though it seems to use the Chem-X ingredient sparingly. You get the impression that the surrounding building is made out of a sturdier version of the same stuff. Once again, it's just 'good enough' being experimented with. At any rate, it isn't as tough as it could be; the actual suit is mostly regular bronze.

"Are you sure about that?" Dick spits, hoping to sow uncertainty. Regardless, Ishirou starts carving at his tank and he immediately spins and tries to slap that boy right across the corridor.

His back is turned to Corona when she shoots at him, the metal slag splashing across the drill-weakened tank and neatly setting up further attacks on the tool-- which is immediately followed up by Remee taking the same shot, causing the tank to begin hissing dangerous.

"STOP THAT! STOP SHOOTING ME! WE'RE STILL IN CALIFORNIA WATERS, YOU KNOW," Hardly rages, trying to twist Corona and Remee's minds into just fucking right off.

Hardly has been spun around with regards to his tank enough that most of the attacks, Woz's included, going towards it end up being dedicated to it-- which is fine, because it suddenly erupts when Woz lays into it, sending a hail of shrapnel into Hardly's back and all out into the surroundings. This, of course, is a problem for Hardly.

Eventually. He's got enough of it in his system to last a fight. Not being able to superdose it means that there's definitely no phase 2 of this fight, though.

The combo by Sougo is enough to make Hardly lose the majority of his remaining armor -- save for the helmet -- which falls to the ground with several subsequent hisses as he gives ground and retreats towards his office doors. This doesn't seem to be an actual RETREAT however, as he is focusing on the group at large.

"I know the value of the PREMIUM PRODUCT you insufferable little shit," Hardly gripes. He takes a deep breath. Too deep a breath. Way, way too deep a breath. Lungs don't hold that kind of air deep a breath.

//This time we brought exactly what beat you -//

"Professor" Dick Hardly steels himself for another attack, shocks sending his body into momentary convulsions as he continues to give ground, and give ground, and give ground. The lot of them eventually emerge into the tacky, 80s guy office with large expensive wooden desk and all sorts of 80s guy furniture and electronics.

He makes a frustrated noise, evidently ACTUALLY AGREEING with Bubbles, in no small part because he is pretty surrounded. Dick Hardly remembers being surrounded before. It ended with him burning to death on a factory floor.

"You little fucks!" Hardly rages, because he doesn't obey his own source material's rating.

He stomps on the floor, causing the back half of the office to break off of the side of the oil rig and begin sliding down-- then seizes it as the roof comes within easy reach.

Yeah, he's swinging that whole ass building down on top of the rest of the building that everyone is occupying. This is about to be a gigantic mess. The people with super strength should probably make sure that it's a LIMITED mess.
Remee Halcyon Remee gets told to stop and go away.

She very nearly does. By which it is meant: she's left the room and is down the hallway before she manages to get a hold of herself.

"Hey! Stop that! I've-" she yells as she sprints way back into the room - just in time to see Hardy about to hit one half of the building with the other half of the building. "- Oh."

She takes a deep breath, and shifts to her full monstrous form, and plants her feet solidly on the ground at the edge. "Little pig, little pig, don't threaten me with a good time..."

She winds up. "Or I'll huff... and I'll puff..."

She swings as Hardy brings it in close, trying to just simply shatter his part of the building into rubble with one supernarratively enhanced blow!
Corona Arclite Dick Hardly may hardly be a man anymore, but he is still a huge dick. Or at least enough of one to realize that being physical with the wily gunslinger vixen isn't getting him anywhere. So instead he tries again to play mindfuck games instead. Which, considering Corona isn't exactly the most mentally stable individual (what mad science inventor ever is?), is a lot more effective.

"Aw sunnovabitch!" It's enough that she actually recoils back from Hardly, dropping the smeltdown gun. Which fortunately doesn't fire when the trigger isn't pressed, and the hose retracts it back into storage before we can have any friendly fire issues while Corona is busy squirming and grabbing the sides of her head, cussing up a storm that is mostly drowned out admist the other sounds of battle. Because she is saying a lot of things that shouldn't be heard by other ears, regardless of ages!

Snarling and thrashing as she tries to resist stumbles backwards, tail snapping back and forth to keep some semblance of balance. "Bloody damn hell inna basket!" she finally manages to blurt out. "Shoulda put some kinda sensory filter in the headpiece for dealing with drugged up brain frackers! Ya bloody ass, headspace is MY space."

Shaken and stirred and mentally rattled to the core, but not out of the fight despite the psionic distress aggrivating that she's kind of forcing herself into a fighting position after the last time she got clobbered. Corona is just too stubborn to not keep going, one foot in the grave or not.

Glints flicker across her goggles as targeting systems try to compensate for the brain games, and Corona draws her personalized handcannon out of it's holster. Slaps the chamber shut and gives it a spin. "Iffen ya put half the effort into the quality of yer production that you did into trying to fight us, maybe yer industrialization wouldn't be such a ramshackle slapdash rattletrap that puts half the ass in mass production!"

Heel spurs brace her stand as Corona holds her arm out and aims at Hardly, pulling the trigger as fast yet precise as she can with her shots, the oversized handgun barking loudly with the shots. Every one a shell containing a core of gelified pulsarium, making them highly volatile and thus explosive.
Ishirou "Are you sure about that?"

Ishirou's body and mind shake again.  He's not sure of anything, he's certainly not sure of his own words, his own strength, his own thoughts, his own shape, his own worth...

It would be so easy to just leave, right?  What is he even actually doing?  He's not doing appreciable damage, he's not contributing like the rest of the super-powered people.  He's just hanging on to their coattails like always.  He's just here because he was saved by someone with power, and wanted to be like her.  

He can't even treat her right.

He's hyperventilating again.  It all threatens to collapse on him... and he didn't mean the building.  He can't move, sitting there looking up at Dick swing the building at him.  For that moment it wasn't about anyone else around him.  That building, his body... he was going to die again wasn't he..?  Was he still being reckless?  

Then Remee protects him.  He looks up, slowly uncovering his eyes as she doesn't even take a second to jump back into the thick of it.  

'You are not a warrior.'
'You need to learn how to fight your way, you can't fight like I do.'
'I can't wait for you to get your bravery.'
'Being brave isn't about being afraid, it's about going on when you are.'

That was it...

He's had enough of this guy's mouth.  He might not be the one to close it, today...

But he can at least mute it.  He stands up, once more, as he starts calculating so many things.  Dick's current position with the building, Remee's charge...

There.  Remee's OPTION glows, channeling data into her, letting her know where she needs to land every blow.  Because he sends that data into Futaba as well, coordinating the two's assault together, to make /every/ blow hurt more.  To make every shot somewhere he didn't want it to be.  It didn't matter if he wasn't the strongest, or smartest...

It just mattered he was here.  

Another ball of light comes through, aiming to sneak through their defenses and hit Dick directly.  He forces his own attempt at mind control through.

"Shut /up/."
Angela Random and Rook glance over to Zi-O and give him a nod. They'll follow their lead one way or another. Dude's the Demon King, that SOUNDS reliable. "Dude," Rook says to Hardly. "I don't WANT you to know me." He may be a professional worker but he also recognizes the joys of not being a total hardass about it. That's more Random's department--but there aren't too many workers in the Lobotomy Corp that think their lives matter in the grand scheme of things. Those that do.... It's not an easy job for those with pride so much as a strong ego.

"We're outta HP Bullets, Random!!" Rook shouts.

Random brings up her arm, the laser slicing against the Our Universe EGO armor. Sparks fly across Random's face as they stare at Dick Hardly. A thick red scar rips across Random's right shoulder but they aren't sliced in half so they'll think fondly of the wound one day.

Fire swirls around Random. Ice swirls around Rook. It's purely cosmetic for them but... The building is starting to come down. That means they don't have too much time left either.

"He's not staggered yet. Been an honor, sir." Random says.

"We're getting out of here, both of us." Rook says.

The two dart forward, swinging their maces simultaneously for the sides of Dick's head.

"You know--I'm not mad." Random says softly. "He'll be alright. I was." This isn't really to Dick, it's more to themself. And they don't explain it any more than that.
Futaba Nuki As Hardly's armor comes off, Futaba too slips off of him as the psychic command to become pudding wears off before long, giving her a chance to reform herself and make sure everything's still in place. As she follows after him, Futaba pauses to check on Rook and help him to his feet if that's needed before hurrying onwards and scooping up whatever bits of armor she can on the way in a massively overgrown hand.

By the time she sees Hardly again, though, he's ingested even more of that concentrated PRODUCT, and Futaba grimaces when it becomes clearer that he might be taking way too much of it at once. "Hey! Cut that crap out! You-"

The floor gets shakier once Hardly stomps through that part of the oil right, and her eyes widen when the building gets swung right at her and everyone else. If it was anywhere else, Futaba would totally be fine with just trashing as much as she can during such a fight, and she'd probably even be thrilled about it. Adding to it, even, with all those fireworks that she had talked about using during one of those planning phases so sort-of long ago.

"You've got a kid waiting for you in here, dumbass!" Futaba shouts at Hardly as, instead of just going with the big scenery destruction, she instead expands in size rapidly, turning into what might as well be a parade blimp-sized version of herself in tanuki form. She takes that section of the building right to the face, all in an effort to keep it from causing even more collateral damage. She doesn't move for several moments as blood pours right down from her forehead, and it takes several moments more for her to shrink back down to her regular (human) form.

Once she comes back down, though, Futaba sprints forward suddenly, smacking her hands together at a rapid clip. Taking a cue from a certain blue heroine she's fighting alongside today, those hand seals generate visible static with how quickly Futaba's hands are moving, eventually building into something akin to electricity by the time she's sprinted right into arm's length of Hardly.

"Do something right for once, and show him you're better than this!" Futaba thrusts her hands forward in a double-palm strike right at... Through him? With Ishirou feeding her data on when to best time her attack with Remee's, she doesn't actually go for the big palm strike to center mass with the electric detonation.

Instead, Futaba turns herself into an electrically charged mist (with similarly charged leaves and a golden bangle floating in it). Mist-Futaba is still carrying all the momentum she had when sprinting at him, though, and that electric cloud body of hers flows all around Hardly, releasing all of that built up electricity at once as she passes over him. She reforms back into herself moments later on the other side, all while dramatically facing away from Dick Hardly with her big red 'ninja' scarf flapping dramatically around her.
Timespace Riders      'A building,' being swung down in the middle of a hallway, inside an oil rig, is much too large an attack to simply avoid, or to parry with swordplay. Both Riders share a glance, wordless understanding exchanged as they hastily swap forms.

       Future Time! Immovable! Implacable! Futurering Archwolf! ARCHWOLF!      

                              RX TIME! Roborider!                              

     Both of them take a direct hit.

     Woz, in the silver-black ArchwolfArmor, with its breastplate, pauldrons and boots sporting wolf themes, braces for impact, the claws of his boots digging into the metal floor of the hallway as the building comes down, shoulder faced towards the oncoming attack. Three snarling wolves--one for each pauldron and a third on the helmet--seem to come alive, eyes shining in anticipation of the blow, as the katakana on his visor gleam.

     Zi-O, standing side-by-side with his retainer in the bulky, 80s-robot-themed yellow-black Roborider armor, mirrors Woz's stance, his helmet's katakana shifting to a glowing artificial red with a sonorous hum.

     Zi-O is smashed into the ground, his bulky armor leaving a person-shaped divot in the hard floor below as sparks fly from him. He utters a shout of pain, as Woz does much the same. Though the retainer is unmoved by the force of the blow, the damage thereof is not so easily mitigated. As solid bulkhead, portholes, loose furniture and machinery alike batter and break against his armor, golden sparks and smoke shower freely from the black, wolf-themed plates.

     When the rubble, detritus and powdered foundations clear, Woz is still standing, shaking the massive blow off with some effort--and Zi-O, with much the same, gets back to his feet, heralded by the whir of robotic servos.

     "I told you, Hardly--that I'd show you the difference between a copy and an homage! The difference is love, enthusiasm, warmth--and those can't be imitated!" Zi-O mashes the stop on the Timespace Driver, and spins it, shouting and holding his arms to either side, forearms up.

                                  FINISH TIME!                                  
                                HARD TIME BREAK!                                

     Panels on the chestplate of his bulky armor slide open, revealing a tightly-packed spread of micromissiles. They race out in a near-contiguous stream, thin tendrils of smoke following their explosive departure as they explode all around Hardly, the force of the impact intended to launch him into the air...

     While Woz opens and closes the gate on the side of his Beyondriver to queue up a finisher of his own.

                       Beyond the Time! Archwolf EXPLOSION!                      

     Woz charges towards Hardly at a full sprint as crackling energy builds, traveling from the wolf helmet down to the 'claws' on his wristguards. He leaps into the air, arms and legs spaced to catch Hardly--and piledrive him right into Futaba's passing mist form.
Powerpuff Girls 'You little <rude word :bubsgasp:>s!'
Bubbles, continuing her solo stand with her fair arms raised in closed fists, just as determined as her sisters, having found the firm resolution to see an act through in her own way. She had cried, before, unburdened herself of what seeing Badger had done to her.

Dick Hardly was a cheap man, and Bubbles was ready to tackle the building on her own - to fight back against Hardly, she was willing to block the whole building on her own and let everyone else go for Hardly. But: The sapphire Puff isn't let down by a single person! With the tremendous backing of Several Super-Strength Powers In Unison - including the late fly-on by Blossom and Buttercup from the crater to join Woz and Remee respectively in super-shoves against the incoming architecture.

"You can act like a good enough businessman!"
"A good enough father!"
"A good enough threat!"

"But really, you're small!" Blossom announces, and blows a thick cloud of architecture-stopping ice breath over the problem to bind up the rubble and prevent any further collapse.
"And this doesn't work out for you!" Buttercup adds, summoning a green tornado to sweep up the debris into the ice cloud.
"And this time, we'll do better than last time! You won't get to hurt anyone else!" Bubbles finishes, zooming over the wrecked building to focus entirely on: the defense of Rook and Random, clashing intentionally with Hardly's last gasps of power while the real work - as it went down last time - is done by Everyone Else... caring more than Hardly expected.
Rowdyruff Boys It is impossible for Remee to shatter the building before it can be used as a club because it is already being used as a club and made several impacts. Nevertheless the PROBLEM of the club colliding fully with the building in which you are sitting and therefore crushing the shit out of certain people who are not so adept at dealing with things like 'the entire building hitting' them is solved deftly as its shadow falls over her.

Hardly in the meanwhile is lucky that he is currently hopped up on what is probably at least a mild overdose of Chemical X for a human being, because he is, in order: Shot with explosive rounds, having the overall assault coordinated against him by Ishirou, and dual teched with maces by Rook and Random.

That last one is enough to make him too woozy to really speak. But even if he were, he wouldn't be saying anything nice. It is, for example, the case that he has something to say to electric mist Futaba, but he's too busy being gigatazed and not thinking straight to articulate it as anything other than random vocal spasms.

Ishirou's attempt at mind controlling Dick Hardly simply slides off, though. He sees the familiar face of HIM for a split second as he attempts it, a single crab claw raised to his chin in what may be passing interest. It doesn't much matter though, because Hardly isn't actually in any condition to speak anyway.

Especially since he gets juggled into the air by Sougo, then slammed back down into Futaba's tazer-cloud by Woz a moment later.

As the building-attack resolves itself and Remee tears it apart on contact, a chill wind passes out and solidifies it, causing it to settle back onto the edge of the platform unsteadily as it gets pushed away. There's a lot of oil rig infrastructure in that thing, you probably don't want it falling into and melting in the ocean. You'll end up with weird fish, you know?

And just like that, a silence settles across the HARDLY CASTLE...
Rowdyruff Boys Brick lands at the edge of the devastation zone and walks forward with some official-looking paperwork in hand. He straightens it out with a flick of his wrist. "Dick Hardly, you're under arrest for..."

For a moment it looks as if Dick is about to try to take a breath to speak.

"... fourteen years of tax evasion," he concludes.

Hardly has nothing to say to that one, he just groans on the ground.

The sound of clapping echoes in the air simultaneous with the appearance of a swirl of red mist, in which the silhouette of HIM appears. "All of you did SOOOO well. IT'S A SHAME DICK IS SUCH A PREDICTABLE DISAPPOINTMENT. Don't worry, I'm not here to continue this... 'battle'." He looks distastefully down at Dick. Under his breath, he adds, "More like a back-alley beating, if you ask me." Then he perks back up and says, "When you're all done, you should come unwind at the DINER. Here, have some coupons. Ta-ta!"

A shower of buy-1-get-1 free coupons for the Devil's Due Diner rains down across the oil platform. They all expire the Monday after next.
Ishirou Ishirou jerks back at seeing HIM just sitting there staring at him with interest.  He's pretty sure any interest from HIM is bad, and he doesn't want any of that interest from the BANK of HIM.  Thankfully, plan A had already gone to fruition in making Dick shut up.  

Relieved, Ishirou a bit battered and beaten, and mentally tired just sits down on the rubble and lets Brick and the others take care of the local law things.  Normally he'd be all over this... but he's really just tired.  

Rubbing his face, he watches, glad for this to be resolved.  He was looking forward to at least a little rest.  Nevermind that he has another eight other thread's he's following.
Angela "Sweet! Coupons!" Random says.

Justin Rook snags one out of the air and takes a look at it. "It's a buy one get one free deal."

"...For a diner."

Rook nods solemnly. "He really is evil. Tell you what it'll be my treat, Random."
Corona Arclite Corona Arclite lets out a sigh of relief as Hardly goes down after the beating, even as the building is also crumbling apart. Glances at her wrist device. "Oh thank gawd, we're runnin out of furnace power." She taps a few controls, and the hardsuit retracts from her form, collapsing back into the mechanized jackalope as he thumps to the ground. And Corona thumps right down next to him. "Sabelle is.. so not... gonna be happy 'bout us fightin' like that," she manages between pants.

Hopalong just click-whirrs in agreement, exhaling a plume of smoke the same way a person would wheeze from exhaustion.

"But what we gotta do is done an--" She stops as HIM appears... but only to congratulate them rather than start another fight, and disappear leavine coupons in his wake. She eyes it, then sighs and stuffs it in a pouch. "It's practical evil," she remarks towards Rook & Random. "y'know how many people never act'ally use coupons or gift cards? Then stress over the lost oppritunities when they remember 'em..."
Futaba Nuki Dick Hardly finally settles down, and Futaba's allowed to let the adrenaline wear off as Brick comes forth with that paperwork to place Hardly under arrest. She doesn't even turn around at first, focused as she is on... Nothing? Nothing! She needs a moment to just let herself decompress after that fight, and she lookslike she's about to transform again when she hears an eerie voice coming from not too far away.

Luckily, HIM's voice isn't one that puts her on edge right away, so she actually allows herself to breathe a sigh of relief while turning around slowly. "Well... Yeah, of course. We've gotta be the cool ones that kids like Badger follow, right?" She boasts with a confident, if rather worn out smile that fades once she looks back down at Dick's prone form.

Futaba sighs a moment after that, then approaches him to squat nearby and give him a light flick on the forehead. "Oi. Hardly. Shape up before you show up again. You don't want Badger remembering you the way you are now, right? Right." She states with utter confidence, clapping her hands once before hopping back onto her feet (and a little assistance from her big fat tail). "We'll keep a good eye on him until then."

The shower of coupons comes down, and Futaba starts gathering them up without a hint of shame. "Next Monday, huh..? Looks like we're set for the week! Plenty of time to show Badger all the cool shots from our fight." She proclaims with another boisterous laugh, then pauses for several seconds as something finally dawns on her.

"... Tell me one of you caught all that."
Powerpuff Girls Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup wind down in their own way. Blossom cheered, surrounded by debris and ashes and flames, floats down to a standstill and smiles. Her bright red ribbon around her orange-red hair flutters in the disaster, only a little duffed from where her skull had gone through several retaining walls.

"And that's that."

Buttercup lands beside, arms crossed. Her face is in need of tape in several places. "Good riddance. If he wants to be old school, he can gold down for old school sleaze reasons."

Bubbles, having hovered near the airjuggle to ground pound, goes crosslegged mid-air and crosses her arms, pleased and floating-adrift sideways. Even the ticket-tape rain of the Devil can't get her down. "But we're not bound by that old way. We'll do it right, even if we stumble. Because we've got lots of help."

SPEAKING OF LOTS OF HELP:

Confidently fists-akimbo on her golden skirted hips, Princess Morbucks 'arrives' at the scene hovering low on a wash of blue white. Besides her, is ostensibly Badger and... A red, clearly mechanical dog with a purple metal frame and skeleton and tail, fully clad and detailed in red armor and canine accessories, including two floppy headband-like ears. The large, expressive optics are a bright yellow. The canine companion-bot flies on four jet-feet that function identically to Morbucks' jet-boots...

And the power armored ginger is a little light on the airframe, without some of her average agility. Curious!

"Don't worry, girlie!" Princess Morbucks calls with cupped gold-gauntleted fingers about her mouth. "You looked pretty good!" She whoops.
Rowdyruff Boys "Yes," Brick says, eyeing HIM as he fades back into smoke, "I did 'get all that'. I'm not sure you should be showing it to that kid. Probably just alienate him from everyone here."

He folds his arms over his chest and elaborates, "When I said that simply 'deprogramming' him would not be effective, it was not because you cannot mitigate the effects of what was done without engaging in elaborate questing. However, what was 'imposed' has been reinforced naturally. I'm not inclined to simply engage in normal deprogramming."

"When my brothers and I were resurrected, he took elements of our being that we at least superficially did not like. We came back a lot dumber, and I was the only one left smart enough to actually work it out and take it back. Santa Claus did some intervening on that count, though."

"All of that is to say, taking things back from HIM should be done ritualistically, not A to B. We'll figure it out later, I suppose."

The distant sound of boats approaching can be heard, a streak of blue and green leading them on the horizon.

Brick dusts himself off. "I'm done with this place."

Bringing up the rear of this all with Princess Morbucks is Badger, who is sitting on the new robot dog's back cross-legged, undeniably pleased with the dog and probably with Morbucks, but also looking astoundingly confused at the whole thing. "What's tax evasion...?"

                And so once again the day is saved, thanks to...                
                                      YOU