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Merelisa Shaynore (Make sure you +bbread 24/386!)

    It's been less than thirty minutes since Hikaru and Lala separated from the Elites. In that time, Mao's concert came to a close, the auction participants came and went, Doramus stalked out flanked by guards, and the mood of the night settled into a late-hour lull. Most of the clients weren't at the club for either Mao *or* the foregone auction, so the holographic gambling tables are still just as active as they were, but the atmosphere is much calmer.

    It's been thirty minutes, and somehow within that time, Hikaru and Lala got kicked out to the streets, lost their magic, and they have an interplanetary criminal in tow when the Elites eventually filter out of the club to rejoin them. The magical girls bow repeatedly in apology while the blue-hatted Blue Cat leans against a wall behind them, idly pulling on a retracting wire coiled inside her watch while waiting.

". . . So that's what happened, lun... we're sorry. And that was when Blue Cat found us."
"She's going to help us... eheh, uh... you know...."
"We're going to steal it back from Doramus with the space thief Blue Cat, lun!! We're stealing it!"
"He stole it first!"
"Lun!"
"And it's super duper galacticool to meet a *space phantom thief* and I wanna do a *heist*!"
"L-lun."
"And Doramus is supposed to be *astrordinarily* rich, so he's probably got all kinds of crazy stuff in there--"
"H-Hikaru!"
"Right, right, ueheh. Just stealing back what's ours."

    *Gosh* these girls bounce back fast. When they started the grim task of relaying their past half-hour of adventures to the Elites, they looked guiltily on the verge of tears, but now they've brightened up back to normal. Even while Lala is pouting and fuming at Hikaru, while she rubs the back of her head in chagrin, for suggesting a little felony burglary as a treat, it's hard not to read smiles into their expressions. Meanwhile, it's nearly impossible to read anything at all into Blue Cat's face, besides a pointed disinterest in Hikaru and Lala's routine. For the most wanted criminal in the galaxy, she sure does seem barely older than them.

    "... It's mutually beneficial, nna? This little thing," She unfolds one arm to point a gloved finger at Yuma, who's closely inspecting her with a curious trio of green dots. "Will point us right to the vault. I take what I want, you take what you want, and we're on our way, nna?"

"How do you know so much about what Yuma can do, Blue Cat?"
"There isn't a thief in the galaxy who isn't interest in the Star Drop, nna. And I'm *the* thief. I probably know more than you do about-- her, nnaha~"
"E-eh--! Ah! Th-this isn't the Star Drop! She's, um, eh, a fan! She's just dressed up like the real Yuma! Or--"
"Nnahaha! Cut it out with the act. If I wanted to steal her, I'd be gone before you could catch a glimpse of my tail."

    While Hikaru has her arms draped obscuringly around Yuma with an awkwardly casual expression, and Blue Cat is adjusting the edge of her oversized sunglasses with the smirk slipping off her face, Lala looks over to the Elites uncertainly. Uncertainty, both in whether this 'is' okay, and whether it'll 'turn out' okay.
Merelisa Shaynore     Later-- but not too later, because as it turns out, a galactically infamous thief is pretty familiar with the street layout of Planet Zeni-- Blue Cat leads you to the rear side of a massive mansion. A towering structure made of the dark blue and purple stone you've seen everwhere else on Zeni, but heavily accented with malachite green and gold. Green towers capped with deep purple onion domes and gold spikes, swooping arches and windows multiple stories tall, a walled garden covering acres, a front door as a massive dragon's head-- it's as ostentatiously wealthy as wealth gets. Hikaru is fascinated by it, and even with Lala's nervousness, her twincools end up filtering through to her too.

    The behind of it isn't as grand, because there's very purposefully photographable angles and less-photographable angles (which one is angled towards the main entertainment strip is an easy guess). The twenty-foot-high wall is wrought with iron and zappy-looking holographic defenses at the top, patrolling with giant armed guards inside, but Blue Cat just pushes up her glasses, whistles casually, counts to ten under her breath, and then kicks an invisible seam at a certain point in the wall.

    "Y'know, that Dragon Clan, nna. Real security freaks! And at our ~Lord Doramus's~ own precious home, that brat wouldn't settle for anything but the best. So thank your stars that my best is better, nna~. Even with all my intel, though, the hardest part's still getting in that first step."

    Blue Cat does a little wink (you can't see it behind the sunglasses, but she tilts her head like she is) and a two-fingered salute away from her face. So hold on tight, and don't blame me, nna?"

    And then the grass beneath your feet drops away in two big panels, sending you and the Precures plummeting down a deep shaft, while Blue Cat whips out a grappling hook to slow her fall.
Combaticon > ". . . So that's what happened, lun... we're sorry."

    Onslaught has spent the majority of the two girls' story with his arms folded, the only motion the occasional blink, the only sound the occasional pip-pippo or other soft electronic sounds that accompany the slight changes in his microexpressions. It doesn't help that his default expression is a glower, especially with his mouthguard in place.

    "I am not angry," he finally says, his tone measured and even, "Only . . . disappointed." His head turns slightly towards Blue Cat, one eyebrow lifting. If Yuma isn't concerned, though, he willingly accepts that the Phantom Thief means them no harm. From the report Brawl submitted, the little creature is quite the perceptive beast.

> ". . . I wanna do a *heist*! And Doramus is supposed to be *astrordinarily* rich, so he's probably got all kinds of crazy stuff in there--"

    Swindle perks up with a beep that sounds distressingly identical to a cash register bell, "Now you're speaking my language!"

    Brawl dims her visor, analagous to closing her eyes, "Don't get too excited." With her thumb, she indicates the pinkette, "Just getting back what was stolen."

--

> "Even with all my intel, though, the hardest part's still getting in that first step."

    Onslaught tilts his head back to examine the wall itself, rubbing his chinplate. Brawl makes a show of imitating him, with the added low-voiced comment of "Isn't this kinda tacky? Rich people taste sure hits different."

    Blue Cat's commentary however has Swindle paying attention. Leaning forward towards the spot she kicked, he taps his own chin, "And the plan is...?"

    Then the ground gives way. Immediately, Brawl drops like twenty tons of iron ore. Presumably, somewhere at the bottom, her impact is-- about as subtle as a meteor impact. Once Onslaught gets his bearings mid-fall, he kicks off the nearest wall to propel himself at the opposite; digging in with one hand and bracing with one foot to slide down at a much more controlled rate-- while holding out his free hand for someone else to grab onto.

    Once Swindle rights himself, he-- remembers he can fly, coasting down at a calm rate, "I like this plan!"

    "My achin' actuators..." floats up from down below.
Timespace Riders Right, right, ueheh. Just stealing back what's ours.

     Sougo looks between Blue Cat and Hikaru, a smile slowly spreading. He nods. "I have a good feeling about this," he says.

If I wanted to steal her, I'd be gone before you could catch a glimpse of my tail.

     "Indeed," Woz offers with a smirk and a sweep of his palm towards Blue Cat. "Your reputation precedes you. How fortuitous that you don't."

     Sougo gives lala a thumbs-up.

--

     When Blue Cat demonstrates what she means by 'her best,' Sougo's certain buffoonish 'uwoh' is muffled by Woz, who by this point knows how certain it was to happen. The scarf billows outwards and wraps around Sougo's mouth, pulling him close as it draws taut. With one arm around Sougo, Woz slows his own fall by means of his boot and his palm pressed against the side of the steep, dark shaft.

     After the landing, Sougo quietly gushes over Woz's assistance.

     "That was really cool!"

     "I live to serve, my Demon King," says Woz, preeningly, before a little bow at the waist.

     "Though I must offer credit where it is due--Blue Cat has clearly done her research. What is the significance of this, if I may ask? A secret passage? A fault? Some means of maintenance? Or... a means of apprehending would-be thieves which we shall yet turn to our purposes?"
Rita Ma      'Cure Glow' spends the entire recounting posed very politely. Her hands are folded behind her back. Her upper body is canted slightly forwards. Her lips sloooowly purse slightly more. She tries to trade conspiratorial glances with Blue Cat, but they probably bounce off.

     Lilian, and probably Lilian alone, can tell exactly what's on the tip of her tongue for those solid few minutes:
     At what point can a Cure suggest just whacking this rich guy?

     All she can do is--

     Lala looks over to the Elites uncertainly. Uncertainty, both in whether this 'is' okay, and whether it'll 'turn out' okay.
     Nod so emphatically. "Sometimes Cures just have to steal things!" she says, all Cool Older Girl like. "The justice of 'who owns something' isn't as important as the justice of 'who needs it', Lala."

     - - - -

     Still, she's never exactly 'heisted'. The closest she's come is that one time she and Lilian wore maid dresses. Looking over the manor's defenses from the street, she sinks deep in thought, rousing only to clap with delight about Blue Cat's wall trick.

     "Huh? Blame you? But you haven't done anything wrrrooaaa--!!"

     Cure Glow's grappling hook substitute is 'gouging her fingers into the shaft's walls and spark-grinding her way down'. Before Lala and Hikaru can plummet past her, she grabs them by the backs of their shirts in her other hand.

     Sliding down at an exactly parallel rate to the thief, she gets to shout over: "Blue Cat! You could've warned them!! Haven't they been going through enough?"
Natsuki Nuki The Auction had gone acceptably for Natsuki, in the sense that she had gotten everything she wanted. The Auction had gone terribly for her as well, because the chimeric club owner had almost bought the favor of the Pretty Cures with petty cash.

'There wasn't a buyout price -- ten times! Fifty times, bring that back!!'

'Defeat' rang in her anger-flattened ears, excusing herself to collect the items that were hers from the auctioneers with an oath about 'the price it's going to be sold at' to Hikaru and a polite-yet-curt nod to her talking partner the bug-man in the crowd and a look to Lilian as if expecting her to follow.

Authorizing payment for her items on a touch pad she breaks with the final jam of her finger at the rate -- each zero reminding her of that miserable Doramus, and the games she was forced to play. But then, it was all hers, and she stalked in to the secure room to take her own items.

Before the pile of jewelry, the snarling Natsuki glared a dangerous look at the attendant, while from the slit in her black dress provided easy escape for the length of hungry scales to escape her pretty wrapping. Off the top of the pile and smashing through the case, her tail brutishly claimed it's prize and cracked the cursed knife in half with a single snap like a vermin-spine, glutting on the audible shriek and haze of sickening magic and sending a pleased shiver back up length to ride up Natsuki's spine.

"Now... where was that other useful bauble?" The Nue asked, pawing through a pile of merely brilliant and priceless relics for that clever little ring she had also purchased.

---

Exiting the venue while tossing a turning-disappearing etched ring like a coin, Natsuki is still at a scowl while flipping out her charm-dangling phone to loudly chk-chk-chk click through her contacts list to arrange the rest of her things being delivered to Osaka -- when she can practically taste the misfortune before turning to see Lala and Hikaru, as well as the Blue Cat.

'. . . So that's what happened, lun... we're sorry. And that was when Blue Cat found us.'

Natsuki stares at Hikaru and Lala like a truly disappointed 'really now?' quarterlidded glare of disapproval fitted to the slight downturn of her eyes. "You saw him cheat me right out in the open and thought you'd win in his house? Girls, that was stupid." She gets right out there and says it, including the part necessary to know why. Betting the farm and losing was bad enough -- betting the farm after 'good' evil cursed money had failed was truly a fool's game.

"So, of course you're taking it back by force." She agrees, as if the girls had turned their situation around in the most obvious way. "Using Yuma's a good idea, though." Natsuki decides, looking less judgementally at Blue Cat. "You can't crack anything if you don't know where it is. And they didn't exactly walk anyone past it during a *tour*.

---

Later, at the rear side of the mansion, Natsuki taps Lala on the shoulder and collar-presses her hand, the Invisibility Ring that had been up for auction dropping into the deelydoo Cure(less)'s hands after. "Here, you'll need something to use to get around. I expect that back, by the way. It's just an advance on the promise I made Hikaru."

As for Hikaru, Natsuki fishes pulls something from 'behind her back', reaching fingers into the black back of her dress to pull free a strange pocketwatch with ghost-white silver smooth plastic bezel and a black body. On the face is the date '2018'.

"And you can borrow this one. It's an armor -- turn the face and press the top button." Natsuki instructs, winking up at Sougo and Woz as she loans Hikaru the Ridewatch.
Natsuki Nuki Blue Cat has brought them to blank wall, though, which doesn't impress Natsuki all that much. The kick against the invisible seam gets the chimera woman stepping forward, rolling her shoulder and clenching her arm meaningfully. "It's just a *wall* she starts in on, before--"

The floor falls away, and with more shock than a feeling of danger, falls.

"Is it *always* falling with you two?!" She asks, once again an incredulous older sister.
Futaba Nuki It had taken some doing, but Futaba managed to escape the clutches of the rich ladies shortly after the conclusion of the auction! She's still feeling a little gross and tipsy, though, and she's still leaning back against one of the walls while she catches her breath. Who knew actual hosts and hostesses had to deal with that kind of treatment around all those rich people they had to service?

Actually, she's known that for a while thanks to so much people-watching, but she never thought it'd be so gross-feeling to actually be in the hot seat. Even the drink tasted foul compared to those she's shared with her sister, and her head is still half-liquid when Hikaru and Lala rejoin the Elites as she's filtering all that stuff out directly onto the floor.

The bowing, though, has her putting her regular head back on (forma brown hair) and approaching them with a raised eyebrow. The explanation, though, gets a more sympathetic look, and the presence of the mysterious Blue Cat gets curious glances in turn. Eventually, she's nodding along with the course of action that's been decided on, and she fixed her gaze on Blue Cat while approaching her.

"A thief and a ninja, working together? Never thought I'd see the day." Futaba jokes, still dressed up in her host cosplay rather than her usual ninja-gear. "Well, I ain't got any complaints. A law-abiding hero might be more of a stickler about this kind of thing, but..."

Wait. Crap. Hikaru and Lala are watching. What if they get the wrong idea from this? Futaba's face goes through multiple stages of thought in front of Blue Cat as she purposely avoids turning to the pair for a while, struggling to figure out a smart-sounding exception to this that won't also give them the wrong idea about why this is fine.

Eventually, however, she actually gets one entire idea, and she turns to the pair with her wisest-looking face on (by adding wrinkles under her eyes). "We're not stealing anything back, just taking back what was taken in an illegal game. Where I'm from, kids ain't allowed to gamble until they're twenty!" She proclaims, patting each of them on the head firmly in turn. "So let's go get your things back, eh?"

Later, Futaba's hair is back to its vibrant orange, and her outfit is that of a ninja clad in bright salmon-pink to contrast the darker blue outfit of Blue Cat. She follows the thief easily enough, two fingers raised in front of her face at all times in that classic ninja-way while whistling lightly at the sight of the grand mansion.

"Not bad, not bad... Nice place Doramus' got here. Good amount of flash..." Futaba comments as she stops in mid-step beside Blue Cat, one leg bent at the knee as Futaba just holds that half-step action pose that would look perfect for a gacha jpeg from several angles. "Shame about the backside, though. Can't believe he's half-as-"

Hikaru and Lala are here. "-... dedicated as he should be to makin' this place look good, with all that money he threw at the Stellar Note." Grinning in smug satisfaction at her save, Futaba raises an eyebrow when Blue Cat mentions holding on and...

"Blame who for what?" And then there's a sudden drop! Futaba drops like a rock, of course, because her tail is too fat to allow her to slow down and also because she's quick to adapt on the way down. Transforming herself into a big goopy blob, she lands at the bottom with a big squishing noise, ready to soften the landing for Hikaru, Lala, and anyone else that needs the help getting down!

"Pretty good secret passage, alright... Didn't think Doramus would be the type to willingly take a fall this steep, though. Think he's got a parachute somewhere up there?"
Lilian Rook     Seventy-two--thirty minutes is not enough time for Lilian to feel better about the night ended. She can remain fuming for days at a time, if she needs to. It is, however, enough time to start working out a plan in her mind like normal people simulate arguments in the shower.

    It's also apparently enough time for the girls to lose the single most important thing for both of them to not lose, and for Lilian to get even more mad on their behalf.

    '. . . So that's what happened, lun... we're sorry. And that was when Blue Cat found us.'

    "You know . . ." Lilian says, not waiting for a reply, but simply dragging out her agitated pause. Arms folded, she repetitively taps one finger on the inside of her upper arm, in lieu of her toe for how loud it'd be in her shoes. "If you'd lost them fair and square, I'd be very disappointed in the both of you. Hearing you won-- well I'm still very disappointed you took the risk, but clearly you had a strategy in mind, so now I'm just furious that slimy little daddy's boy couldn't even keep his diaper up after that huge public strop he just embarrassed himself with-- and with young girls no less!" Lilian's 'furious' sounds more 'restlessly agitated' than 'enraged', which somehow makes it a tiny bit scarier.

    She takes a moment to spare Blue Cat a look, and forms no particular opinion. Phantom thieves aren't really her thing.

    'Will point us right to the vault. I take what I want, you take what you want, and we're on our way, nna?'

    "Ordinarily, I'd be against this." Lilian says. "But I couldn't possibly care less if a thief is stolen from, so take the shirt off his back if you have to."

    'If I wanted to steal her, I'd be gone before you could catch a glimpse of my tail.'

    "Fortunate for you that you don't."

    . . . . . . . .

    'Y'know, that Dragon Clan, nna. Real security freaks! And at our ~Lord Doramus's~ own precious home, that brat wouldn't settle for anything but the best.'

    "Ricing up your own home with overwrought security only reveals a weak character." Lilian says, staring at the gaudy* mansion. "Paranoid. Pathetic. Weak and fearful. Who wants to see armed guards patrolling around their goddamned garden? What a way to tattle on yourself to the whole world that you keep things you know are a terrible."

    'So hold on tight, and don't blame me, nna?'

    Lilian glances back over her shoulder, hair sliding partly away from her back window, ink catching the neon light almost as bright as her eyes. "I'm already doing this in one of my nicer dresses. This better not be-"

    It is. Whatever swear Lilian was going to use is either mixed up in a scream or drowned out in everyone else's. In the end, she accelerates to the bottom ahead of everyone else, correcting herself downward with a burst of black static and somersaulting head over heels at the last second. Smoothing down her dress, Lilian takes a deep, caaaaalming breath, and says "Helping these two is putting you on my good side. Please try and stay on it." Lilian snaps her fingers, and ignites her little orbital rings of ghost lights.
Merelisa Shaynore "You saw him cheat me right out in the open and thought you'd win in his house?"

    Hikaru puts on a seriously troubled expression and rubs at the side of her head. "Oh, ehhh... that was cheating? I thought it was... that a buyout price was normal, or something...."

"Only . . . disappointed."
"Girls, that was stupid."
"If you'd lost them fair and square, I'd be very disappointed in the both of you."

    Both girls buckle further and further with each admonishment as if they're physical weights, smooshed by wavy purple unhappiness-lines. In unison, they both agree, ""Sorry, it was really stupid.""

    Lala continues where Hikaru doesn't, though, her petulant anger overflowing into a sudden heeled foot-stomp and harrumph. "But seriously, lun! What's *up* with that guy?! And he was being so rude to Mao, too, lun! She's so nice, so why does she have to be around someone like *him*! I didn't like him from the start and I didn't say anything because I didn't want to be rude lun, but I didn't expect him to do *that*!"

    Lala heaves a couple angry breaths to Hikaru's wide-eyed approval, and then taps her antenna baubles to her ears and bows in what looks like an apologetic gesture. "... Sorry for yelling, lun."

"The justice of 'who owns something' isn't as important as the justice of 'who needs it', Lala."

    Lala looks just about 10% uncomfortable with the fact that everyone declared not just their willingness, but with the exception of Lilian, their enthusiasm, for going along with the plan. That's a lower percent than it'd be if they said no, but the slight crimping of her antennae shows that she's still a little tense.

"But what about... the justice of who *earns* something, lun...?"
"But he didn't earn it! He cheated and stole it!"
"... Oh yeah, lun. That's why sometimes Cures have to steal things! A-and for the stuff Blue Cat's planning on stealing..."
"He probably cheated to get that, too! He deserves it!"
"Lun! Okay!"

"A thief and a ninja, working together? Never thought I'd see the day."

    Despite Futaba being in her hostess outfit still, Blue Cat takes the ninja claim entirely within stride. Her arms folded, she rolls her head in a mutually joking 'ah, mou,' way with Futaba. "A thief working together with *anyone*? It's unbelievable, nna. I'd be ashamed if some of you weren't thieves too."

"So, of course you're taking it back by force."

    Blue Cat snaps her watch-wire back into place, and drums her nails on the face of it. With the distinct sense that she's side-eyeing Natsuki even though her sunglasses obscure it, she says, "I'm glad you understand, nna."

"How fortuitous that you don't."
"Fortunate for you that you don't."

    Blue Cat's tail flicks, and she doesn't turn back to look at Lilian when responding. "... Every thief has to learn to swivel her ears to fortune's call, nna?"

"Here, you'll need something to use to get around."
"And you can borrow this one. It's an armor -- turn the face and press the top button."

    Both of the girls take their gifts with dutiful respect, but Lala's respect manifests as her cupping the billion-yen artifact as carefully as she can and nodding wide-eyed, while Hikaru's is holding the Ridewatch tightly and lightly stamping her feet in excitement. "Armor-armor? Like a transformation? Lunaradical~!"
Merelisa Shaynore     Hikaru and Lala fall down the shaft with their hands locked together, holding tight to each other while screaming with Hikaru's pigtails flapping upwards. Rita snags the back of Hikaru's dress as they plummet past, and then feels the secondary yank of Lala hitting the limit of how far down Hikaru can reach. With one arm holding on to Rita and the other straining to keep her grip on Lala's hand, Hikaru waits until Onslaught's open hand is within reach, and then passes Lala off onto him, with Yuma worriedly swirling around her in his palm. Both of them heave sighs of relief, and Hikaru dangles limply in Rita's hand like a wet towel, until she accidentally slips out near the bottom to plant facefirst into the Futaba-goo.

"You could've warned them!! Haven't they been going through enough?"

    At her leisurely pace down, Blue Cat pulls down her cheek with one finger and sticks out a tongue. "Nna, so the mythical warriors of the galaxy need babysitting once they lose their toys? I gave a warning, and now they're fine, geez."

    Fifty feet down, the bottom of the shaft is a sheer indigo-concrete floor, mercifully *not* littered with the corpses of other thieves, because of the ratings. There's a tunnel that goes in the direction of the house, the kind of bunker hallway only ever built by governments and paranoid rich people, lit with florescent green-tinged lighting. The green light on blue floor is intensely unflattering on those of you with skin, but it's easy to imagine how much better suited it'd be for Doramus's green scales, and it occurs that that might be an intentional design choice for the household.

"A secret passage? A fault? Some means of maintenance? Or... a means of apprehending would-be thieves which we shall yet turn to our purposes?"

    Blue Cat's grapple whirrs to let her lower down from her much more comfortable drop. She also sounds like she's eased up on *something* inside herself, but she also might just be enjoying herself while doing crime. "Both, nnahaha! It's a secret passage for whoever it deems worthy, and for us would-be thieves, a tragic plummet to our untimely but deserved deaths!"

    At fifteen feet above the ground, she reels her grapple in with a snap and drops to the ground with an indulgent flip, and pushes up her sunglasses so they glint. "It's ironic, but biometrics are the hardest thing for me to crack, nna. Could always just lop off his head and drag it around back, but then I could just go through the front!"

    Hikaru pulls herself out of going "Woahhhh... soft...!!!" in the Futaba-pile, then teeters around before clapping her hand over her mouth. "Wait... Blue Cat... you don't, right...?"

"No! I wouldn't bring you kids along if I was a *murderer*, nna!"
"I'm an adult, lun!"
"Well I'm more of one, nna!"
Merelisa Shaynore "Helping these two is putting you on my good side. Please try and stay on it."

    Once the two Precures are distracted by looking down the hallway, Blue Cat puts a hand up and curls it like a paw, trying to sound coyly smug and only half-succeeding. "I'm a thief and a liar, nna. It'd only be a matter of time anyways. Once those ordinary circumstances are back, I'll vanish, en tapinois."

    "And besides, who said I was helping them, nna? They're helping me."

    Up ahead, Hikaru and Lala are following Yuma's lead, as the glowing stellar fairy seems to 'sniff' around with a bubbling screensaver-like expression. There aren't any rooms to either side of the hallway for some time, while you are, as far as you can tell, walking underneath the gardens. After a bit, Blue Cat, who's been strolling near to the back until now, makes an unworded noise of warning. She spins a playing card on top of a finger, and then flings it ahead, curving it around Hikaru's head to her shock. Barely a foot in front of her, a thin red light catches on the card, and a laser mounted on the ceiling lights up and shoots a burning hole right through it.

    "Be careful, nna!" She walks right past Hikaru and Lala, who've now frozen still in shock after a yelp, and keeps talking while casually ducking under an invisible first beam and contorting herself through the rest. "It's state-of-the-art, as you'd expect. The Dragon Clan owns these particular security systems, y'know? Lord Doramus is real proud of them. Supposed to fry you on the spot, if you trip them, nna. Not that I'd know."

    Lala looks up at Natsuki, and then at the ring on her finger. "Lun... scary. But the sensor noticed the playing card, lun, so it has to be visual instead of infrared. I can use Natsuki's ring to get through, and then throw it back for you Hikaru...? But then the ring would be visible..."

    Lala can get past just fine with the use of the ring, softly "Oyo--"ing when turning invisible, but hushing herself immediately as if being invisible forces her to be quiet too. Hikaru will need help with either getting through, or having the ring delivered back to her!

    After that, the passageway finally reaches what looks like an entrance into the actual *building* part of the manor. Worked stone, rather than the bare indigo concrete of the tunnel, with a locked door. Blue Cat makes quick work of that again, hooking some device into the bottom of the keypad and then, again, being as casually confident as she can with her palm on her cheek as the door opens without her even looking at it.

    "Watch your step here too now, nna. I'll need you soon, so don't go getting pulverized by the best security the galaxy has to offer."

    Beyond the door is... several sleepy guys?! Three alien men, all jacked, all in the same uniform as the guards outside, with one bulky leopard-man and two green skinned gleeps with big chins. They're all dozed off in their chairs, because this is an entry into the lower floors, and no one important is down here right now! You could probably wake them up and beat them to a pulp, but Blue Cat's preference is to silently slip out of view around the doorframe and... seemingly actually disappear, besides for a flicker of unidentifiable movement.
Timespace Riders ... Sorry for yelling, lun.

    That outpouring of frustration from Lala wasn't unnoticed by either Rider, but, at the bottom of the secret passage, it's Woz who speaks up first.

    "A moment, Lala," he says, fixing his brown eyes on her. Speaking softer and stepping a little closer, "You will find, as you continue your endeavors as a Precure, that there are many who must work without ever truly receiving their due. Others, still, who must associate with those who are unworthy of them. This is either because of the powers arraigned against them, the doors which shall be open to them, or the cost of not doing so."

    "It is not disagreeable that you should find such an arrangement unjust. If I may offer a silver lining of sorts, let it be that Mao's leverage is limited, but not nonexistent, and she knows this, also. Should you wish to support her, keep those feelings close to your heart, that you might recognize the opportunity to do so when you see it."

    With that, he offers her a little inclination of his head and a sweeping palm, as if to say 'after you.'

    At the flung card, Woz arches his brow with interest, and Sougo jumps up on one leg like he's expecting an explosion to happen. To his credit, Woz doesn't need to muffle him with the scarf this time.

    The retainer does have *some* experience with the arts of stealth, though in his case it's largely more to do with blending into crowds and disappearing around city corners than it is with this sort of work. Still, he turns and offers Sougo a bit of nonverbal guidance, pointing downwards at his boots and pantomiming walking a rolling heel-to-toe to reduce the sound of footsteps.

    The Demon King and his retainer thusly attempt to sneak past the sleeping guards!
Futaba Nuki "I'd be ashamed if some of you weren't thieves too."
"Hey now. I've never sto-" Futaba stops, looks at her bracer, peers at her fanny pack that's housing her flaming katana, and then she doesn't finish that sentence.

"I gave a warning, and now they're fine, geez."
"It builds character. I got some pretty harsh trainin', and look how I turned out!" The slime-form tanuki chimes in, wiggling around a bit and giving Hikaru a quick pat on the back to help steady her as she climbs out of her. Somehow, the obvious difference in their physical forms doesn't occur to her one bit.

Afterwards, Futaba loiters in slime-mode for a while as she takes a quick headcount to make sure everyone's actually down safely. Once everyone's there, she schlorps back up into her regular form, although her tail is still a smidge drippy for a good minute. She whistles lightly at getting a better look at the bottom of the shaft, wrinkling her brow shortly afterwards.

"Pretty bad drop for anyone that can't handle it, though. Wouldn't want to be the unlucky groundskeeper that stumbles into this place for the first and last time." Ignoring the clean-enough ground because of the ratings, Futaba looks up and then pumps a fist approvingly for Blue Cat's unnecessary flipping maneuvers.

"Could always just lop off his head and drag it around back, but then I could just go through the front!"
"If I can get a close look of his face, I could fudge it." The tanuki boasts without elaborating further, just smiling confidently and then laughing at the little age competition between Blue Cat and Lala.

The reveal of the laser obstacle via the girls nearly getting shot and Blue Cat saving them from getting fried has the ninja pondering how to proceed as well. She doesn't doubt everyone else's ability to get by mostly unscathed, but Hikaru's going to need a hand or three!

"Idea." Futaba says plainly, then stretches her hand aaaall the way up to the ceiling. Pointing at the laser with her regular-arm hand to signal what she's doing, the long-arm hand does a ninety-degree turn and zips right towards the mounted to laser. She's racing against the sensors to try and shove the laser back into where it came from before it can zap her or anyone else going through!

She won't object to breaking it, of course, because breaking things is fun.

The sleepy guards, meanwhile, don't get that much attention from the ninja in comparison. A cool fight would really be right up her alley, but they could be more interesting if they came in as inconvenient reinforcements upon running into Doramus or something. Thus, Futaba leaves them alone, but not without studying their features just in case she needs to identify them later.
Combaticon     By the time folks are landing at the bottom, Brawl is heaving herself up amidst rubble and dust, shaking herself into a more tidy state. Leaning forward, the tankbot's chassis emits a distinctive five-stage mechanized noise as she transforms-- then interrupts it and returns to her robot mode with a satisfied little nod. Nothing critical seems to be broken.

    Onslaught slides down steadily, holding on to Lala in his cold metal hand. Near the bottom, he pulls her up and disengages from the wall-- landing roughly while using both arms to support the girl. He sets her down without issue, only a brief "Are you unharmed?" before he glances up whence they came.

    Swindle descends gently, hands on his mechanical hips, until he touches down and immediately steps forward after Blue Cat, "I can appreciate spontaneity. And the entire Phantom Thief thing-- very chic. Have you considered marketing your image~? I could fetch you a great deal on printing services for calling cards--"

    Blue Cat reveals the detection lasers, then slinks right through them. Swindle pauses, tapping his chinplate. With a hiss-tss, the panel on his abdomen slides out like a drawer and he lifts his hands, wriggling his fingers for a moment before diving both into his storage system, "Dragon Clan security, you say? Of course he'd use his own family's brand. Let's seeeee~... I don't have that model of transmitter, buuuut..." After a moment, he pulls out a canister-shaped grenade.

    The pin is pulled and the object starts to hiss, belching out white smoke. A simple smoke grenade; of course a weapons dealer would have something as common as that on-hand. He casually lobs it into the corridor, allowing the smoke to highlight the sensory lasers. Once he can easily tell where they are, the smallest Combaticon has a rather easy time slipping through.

    Onslaught, likewise, creeps his way through the array of lasers

    Yeah there was no way a bulky robot like Brawl was getting through that. It isn't until Futaba jams the laser turret that she realizes her moment's come and quickly scoots through to the other side.

    Noting Blue Cat's preference for not interrupting the enemy when they're being Incompetent; Onslaught tucks his hands behind his back and steps past them at a steady walk. Swindle slinks closer, taking a good look at them and resuming at a leisurely, relaxed pace. Brawl, huge and unlasered, steps through the watchpost with a big swing to her arms with each step.

    A second after she'd departed, she leans back into the watchpost space to make sure Futaba's made it through with the others. That confirmed, she reaches out with one hand to extend a rude gesture to the three dozing guards, then ducks back out.
Lilian Rook     'But seriously, lun! What's *up* with that guy?!'

    "It's an unfortunately typical way for an heir apparent to turn out when they're raised irresponsibly." Lilian grouses on. "Being given unlimited access to what their ancestors worked hard for, sometimes for generations, without first experiencing what it's like without, or being put to any sort of hard work to earn it, warps their personality. Not being sufficiently taught discipline, etiquette, presentation, respect, image, or proper socialization, encourages them to act out on it as often as they like, with no thought for how it reflects on their family or their company."

    "Even amongst their own circles, they're always regarded as unsightly eyesores. Their parents should be embarrassed of them. The fact that they don't reign them in advertises to the whole world just how sloppy and careless they are. People will suck up to these sorts of unflattering spoiled bullies for as long as they can siphon away the fortune, then ditch them in a heartbeat once they've overspent their welcome." Wow! She really has feelings about that!

    'A thief working together with *anyone*? It's unbelievable, nna.'

    "Don't you people work with . . ." Lilian turns her hand over a few times in thought. "Getaway drivers?"

    '... Every thief has to learn to swivel her ears to fortune's call, nna?'

    "Don't mind me." she sighs a tiny bit. "The thought briefly made me angry. I'm not the sort to threaten people for having already made the correct decision. Puffing up and looking tough after someone has already declared no intent to get in your way is pathetic."

    'Armor-armor? Like a transformation? Lunaradical~!'

    "A-ah . . . B-be careful with that, okay?"

    'I gave a warning, and now they're fine, geez.'

    "It's about being mean, not whether they'll survive it!" Lilian snaps again, still fussing over Hikaru getting a Kamen Rider greeble. She glances down at the bare skin exposed at her shoulders, grimaces unpleasantly, and stresses even more, brushing her hair a little further forward over her shoulders and trying no to turn her head too far.

    'Could always just lop off his head and drag it around back, but then I could just go through the front!'

    "Haha . . . I thought about it."

    Lilian presses her palms to her cheeks, closes her eyes, and takes a deep breath before proceeding.

    'And besides, who said I was helping them, nna? They're helping me.'

    "However you want to think of it, I mean it." Lilian huffs. "If you want their help then don't antagonize me."

    Lilian startles silently at the laser blast. Stopping cold, she stares down the corridor of what she imagines to be invisible beams of instant death and . . . stares off into space, looking vaguely shellshocked. It was a long time ago. Please don't be this again. Please.

    'Lun... scary. But the sensor noticed the playing card, lun, so it has to be visual instead of infrared.'

    Lilian blinks. "Oh. That's . . . a very good observation." She clears her throat as if she had misspoken about something, but seemingly only for her own benefit. "And you're certainly very casual with your own life." she says to Blue Cat, halfway through the corridor by now. "Admittedly, I'm very impressed." comes out a little begrudging.

    Lilian blips into existence in front of Blue Cat, arms idly crossed, thinking to herself 'thank fucking god it's just turrets'. She takes the ring back to Hikaru the same way if it isn't handled already.
Lilian Rook     'I'll need you soon, so don't go getting pulverized by the best security the galaxy has to offer.'

    "The best?" Lilian whispers, archly, staring at the sleeping guards in incredulous fashion. "Really? Not even in shifts?" Scoffing quietly, Lilian opens up her fingers and pantomimes a loose group around an invisible vector, quickly filled in with getly crackling black particles that form a solid wire which she pills from. Before Blue Cat fucks off, whilst the others are sneaking past--

    §If they're sleeping, there should be practically no resistance. Better safe than sorry.§

    --Lilian blips across the room in the middle of a showy casual strut, flicking back her hair with her eyes dismissively shut. The guards behind her are now thoroughly tied down to their chairs with complicated patterns that require very little pressure to eliminate any slack.
Rita Ma      Rita's descent has left five perfect, half-inch-deep parallel gouges all the way down the shaft wall. Normal precure things. Fortunately nobody ever looks up. She sighs with relief.

     "Well, they are amazing, Blue Cat... but birds kick out their young as soon as they can fly. I think we can do a little better than birds."

     "Ricing up your own home with overwrought security only reveals a weak character."
     Hmmm. Rita will remember this about Lilian. For now she just nods in emphatic agreement.

     "Could always just lop off his head and drag it around back..."
     She conspicuously dooesn't object, until Hikaru does, whereupon she pretends to look shocked. Well, a little shocked.

     Lala has a lasers solution, and Lilian solves it for Hikaru too, which Rita cheers for in a very restrained way as if the lasers might hear her too. When it comes to her own turn...

     I don't want to tax Ms. Rook if I don't have to. Let's see... She rummages in her pockets for a couple of spare coins and throws them down the hallway just like the card, one at a time. Lit up, bzzt. Lit up, bzzt.

     She nods to herself, like she's keeping a rhythm, then crouches.

     Fwoooobzbzbzbzbzztsh.

     Rita lands daintily on the other side, just before every laser fires near-simultaneously behind her. Thank you, targeting delay!

     She's prepared to just softwalk right past the sleeping guys, makes a little 'ueh?' when something changes in her peripheral vision, then glances between Lilian and the bondage before clasping her hands in soft awe.

     Scampering to catch up with Blue Cat: "So did you have a plan for the biometrics, anyway? ... Do you have an up-close photo of him, maybe?"

     Wait, no. How would a Cure solve this? "Um, how do you usually open biometrics, Hikaru and Lala?" Wait, no, that makes her sound deranged now.
Natsuki Nuki Falling down a long drop isn't precisely a bad thing for Natsuki -- in a her-vs-the-ground competition, she wins. Paying attention to the Precures a bit more when they tumble out of the air - because out of all of the group they're the ones Natsuki *hasn't* actually seen fall out of the air, despite her accusation that this happens all the time - the older Nuki is almost given a blobby sister stop at the bottom of the fall before with her horror she looks down and her tail shoots out to the side of the shaft like a venomous anchor to breakfall her drop like Blue Cat's grapnel wire except angry and serpentine, bungeeing Natsuki with slight indignity just short of splashing into Futaba.

Instead she stares down while bouncing to still with crossed arms and a disappointed look on her face.

"Okay, that's a little cute, but only because you were about to let like ten people step on your face." Natsuki admits, with the exact tone of 'a little cute' meaning 'stupid, but it works'.

Swinging loose and hitting the underground level with both arms still crossed and tail retracting to swaybesides neutral, Natsuki continues along with Blue Cat, Lala, and Hikaru pointedly 'not noticing' (but very much noticing, with at least one pair of eyes and a faint smirk) when Lala pops off for the rare treasure she's being loaned.

And treasures are, apparently, required. Blue Cat is more than helpful enough with timely warnings despite their demurrer of caring or helping, and stops up Natsuki just like the magicless Cures when the 'be careful!' is called.

"Doing a lot of work for them helping you." Natsuki asides, as the tossed playing card gets shot clean through to put a burned-in period at the end of her thought. "This kind of overwrought challenge area is all show. A real thief will crack it, and sometimes even an idiot will."

Lifting foot, Natsuki gives Futaba exactly what she apparently wants and shoves her sister in the lower back with a light kick, making contact before transmitting force to shove her out front.

"Go get the ring! Aren't you some sort of magic ninja, now?" She demands, while Futaba dose something quite different entirely. With her sister leaping into the air to whole ass the laser emitter, Natsuki sees her opportunity to figure out Hikaru's problem.

Leaning forward and stepping, there's a crackle of brightly electric travel as a thunderless shock leaps across the ground, springing in the shape of a leaping tiger and landing besides Blue Cat having sped through the lack of an actual consequence without the full finesse of a ninja or thief. Landing and transmuting back from a flash of energy to a mildly electrostatically charged state, she's just about to reach for Lala's ring when Lilian has already bipped into the spot, and the ring isn't even on the far side of the laser grid.

'Oh. That's . . . a very good observation.'

Taking credit anyway, Natsuki taps a temple while carrying her smirk at Lilian. "She seemed like an invisibility ring type. I'd have to slim my finger to wear it anyway -" She adds the end with a presentation of her claw-ended slightly fuzzed fingers, flexing them in a faint way to extend the tips as a show. "And it's really not my style, either. That's why I'm betting on Blue, hmm?"
Natsuki Nuki Moving along with Blue Cat, arms swaying without the use of jacket pockets to holster thumbs, she barely sneaks once Lilian also uses the classic 'instantly teleport chains onto useless guards' move. A classic!

'Really? Not even in shifts?'

"It's the best unmotivated wages buys." She rumbles, sotto purr, and then smiles faintly over to Blue Cat.

"You know," Still faint. "You shouldn't tell people you're a liar before you're done with them. Whether or not it's true, if you say it..." The sotto rumble is spiced by a faint chuckle-chirp. "... is it guilt, or confidence? Or both? Don't say it's 'because later on you can reference back' to wiggle out of it 'counting'. Don't be boring." She insists at the thief. Is she expecting interesting?
Lilian Rook     'And it's really not my style, either. That's why I'm betting on Blue, hmm?'

    Lilian regards Natsuki's offered fingers, and spends a while letting her stare drift to and rest on the claws. "Hm? Oh I see what you mean." she says, blinking rapidly. "I've never been particularly big on rings of all things. I use my hands too much, not to mention how much I'd be worried about damaging one.

    'It's the best unmotivated wages buys.'

    "Oh my god that unwashed embarrassment would shortchange his own ridiculous guards, wouldn't he?" Lilian gasps in exasperation. "He'd set up a farcical labyrinth like this and then pay the men he's entrusting his life and fortune to thirty credits an hour."
Merelisa Shaynore "This is either because of the powers arraigned against them, the doors which shall be open to them, or the cost of not doing so."

    "Lun... I guess that's just the way it is, for idols." Huh, she seems to have understood that particular point really fast! "Mao's really brave for doing what makes her happy that way."

    Blue Cat hesitates when she overhears the conversation, then stops. After another second, she scoffs without turning around. "'Happy'? She's doing what makes her *rich*, nna. Don't get deluded into thinking that she's noble just because she's *winning*."

    Lala wheels around, and in an uncharacteristic moment of aggression, balls up her fist and shouts. "Well, at least she's not a *thief*, lun! She looks really happy when she's singing for everyone's happiness on stage! All you're doing is *stealing* it, lun!"

    Blue Cat pauses again, then dips the brim of her top hat down and keeps walking. "... Well, I can at least say that I'm just as happy, nna."

"And the entire Phantom Thief thing-- very chic. Have you considered marketing your image~?"

    "Ahaha." The nasally cat-affect on her dry laugh slips away for a moment, before coming right back after. "Haven't needed to, nna. Everyone already knows my image, and they're not interested in buying."

"Don't you people work with . . . Getaway drivers?"

    Blue Cat raises her hand and waves loosely back and forth. "Never needed one, nna. Chalk it up to my unmatched skill and impeccable self-reliance."

"If I can get a close look of his face, I could fudge it."

    "Nna? Could you?" Blue Cat turns on her silent heels and squints intently at Futaba, with a side glance to Natsuki. "Retina scans, fingerprints? How deep do you go? You need a closer look than you got earlier?"

    Apparently, the 'state-of-the-art' security includes some sort of sensor to notice physical tampering. Futaba trying to straight up shove it away makes it immediately fire right into her finger, which *sucks*, but doesn't evaporate her instantly, presumably unlike a regular person. The laser flails around on its swivel and blasts a couple more beams at her, but it gives enough time for Brawl to get through relatively safer

"Oh. That's . . . a very good observation."

    Lala makes a :> smile of pride, radiating sparkles at how good of a job stealing she's doing. She twists the ring around her finger while Hikaru hypes her up ('That was super duper smart, Lala! Now you'll be safe getting across and I could use the ring after and then there's the door so it's not much longer--' and the soft click-clack of her heels on the other side signals her arrival before she reappears. Hikaru comes across in the same way, but only disappearing after she lines herself up with Natsuki like the lasers are the starting line for a sprint, and then reappears on the other side face-flat, having tripped over one of her heels while running too fast.

    Brief commiserating at the state of their borrowed dresses ensues, under their breaths to not wake the guards.

"Ouuuuu... I got a tear in the dress from the floor."
"And I lost one of my hairpieces earlier, lun... what are we going to tell *Mao*?"
"She said we could keep them, but oh noooo... it's still so sad for her gifts to get messed up like this...."
"Oyo... you were really pretty in it. A-- n-not that you aren't! Or, the dress?! It's pretty even though you're a little messed up-- a-ah-- oyo..."
"Thanks! You're super pretty too, Lala."

    Blue Cat calls out, airily dismissive with a small scowl, "There'll be replacements in the vault, I bet. Probably in your size, too, nna." Thank god 5'2" is also the size of adult women.
Merelisa Shaynore "Doing a lot of work for them helping you."

    Once together on the far side, Blue Cat scowls at Natsuki and snarks in a volume that's actually appropriate for a private conversation rather than a performance. "Well, it's convenient for me, so I will. What, should I be helping them less? Is that what you'd recommend? You're helping them *too*."

"Really? Not even in shifts?"

    Blue Cat snickers, getting her goofs out with Lilian before she vanishes. "Head to toe in Dragon Clan security merch. Anyone who's anyone in the galaxy'd pay top dollar for these *highly-respected* mercenaries, nna; and anyone who isn't knows that's a load of junk."

    Invisibility ring passing might get Hikaru and Lala past the sleeping guards perfectly fine, but Lilian's method this time is way better. They're pinned to the chair such that it doesn't even matter whether they wake up, which is good, because Brawl's massive bulk instantly wakes them as she tries to squeeze around the room. They all thrash in their chairs and try and call out for help, but with them already tied down, it's effortless to gag them however you see fit.

    Hikaru's method for one of them is, after a moment of panic at them raising an alarm, to hastily pull apart the giant pink ribbon at the front of her dress, cram it fully into the green alien's mouth, and then wrap the remainder around his head a couple times to hold it secure. She pauses, glances mischievously to the side, and finishes off the wrapping by tying a new, smaller bow over his mouth.

    "Ooh... scary, but that's the worst part over, right? Blue Cat?"

    Past that room is a hallway going in two directions, and neither, seemingly, contain Blue Cat. Hikaru and Lala glance both ways worriedly, and Yuma joins them, but one direction in particular catches her attention. The circular blobs of light on her face bop against each other in a triangle, and a two-note rising MIDI tone indicates her attention towards the hallway to the right.

"Oh--!"
"That must be where the Stellar Note is!"

    Then, just when no one's attention is turned towards the other hallway, Blue Cat appears soundlessly a short ways down it. Kodoku, who happens to be the only one pointed in that direction at the time, sees her stand up suddenly from a shadowy point in a doorframe, like she melded out of the shadows. She claps her hands once deadened by the gloves.

    "Great, great, nna! There's going to be a lot more hallways like that, so it's reassuring to see your Star Drop's abilities *personally* work."
Merelisa Shaynore "So did you have a plan for the biometrics, anyway?"

    Blue Cat cups her hand to her cheek, smirking. "Oh, no, the biometrics were outside. If a *proper* member of the Dragon Clan were to use that chute, it'd deploy a ladder for *them*. No, what I need *you* for is coming up soon, nna."

    "You see, it's rumored that every family member of the Dragon Clan has the most fearsome and powerful guardian for their most valuable treasures; so terrifying that no one has ever stolen from them and lived, nna. They say the name isn't just for show. That somewhere deep in this manor, blocking our path from the treasures we're here for, will be a terrifying, *true* dragon."

"Um, how do you usually open biometrics, Hikaru and Lala?"

"Um, I don't know what that is, lun."
"It's like how AI recognizes your personal charge! Or super secret spy gadgets scanning for your eyes!"
"Oh! I open them by touching my antennae to them, Rita!"

    Hikaru, not disapprovingly, has another question for Rita in return. "You ran *really* fast even though you weren't transformed. Was that magic too? How'd you do that? It was really twincool!"

"... is it guilt, or confidence?"

    Blue Cat shrugs one shoulder, and ducks her face to look away from Natsuki. "It's just true. You can tell just by looking at me."

    That line, and simmering on Natsuki's prompt for her inability to casually brush it out of her head, causes Blue Cat to repeat it a second time after several seconds of silence. She lifts up her head and pushes up her sunglasses, sweeping past Yuma (who's been turning through labyrinthine hallways while her interest-chime grows in complexity) to put herself in the lead of the group. "You can tell just by looking at me, nna? You *shouldn't* trust me, and you're *wrong* if you do. We're working together because we all agree it's to our mutual benefit, no other reason, nna. So you could call it confidence, that I know who I am, nna~"

    Blue Cat lays her hand on the heavy door Yuma stopped in front of. Her tail thwips around, a specific ornate gold key coiled in the tip of it, and she no-handedly slips it into the lock with a click. "So here's our mutual benefit then, nna? I have to warn you, I'm a bit of a scaredy-cat when it comes to full-on fights--"

    The door creaks open into the vault, revealing a dragon curled up on a pile of gold. The dragon is the size of a small cat, green and purple to match Doramus, and it makes a tiny yawn with a flare of fire at the sound of the opening door, before going right back to sleep.

    The *treasure* is not nearly as small.
Timespace Riders That somewhere deep in this manor, blocking our path from the treasures we're here for, will be a terrifying, *true* dragon.

    "How fitting," says Woz, pursing his lips. "If you don't mind my saying so, you seem very interested in Yuma. Is this a... professional interest?"

You *shouldn't* trust me, and you're *wrong* if you do.

    Sougo frowns thoughtfully, glancing towards Natsuki.She says that, and it's good to believe people when they tell you who they are. But is she telling us who she is, or who she wants us to think she is? I don't know.

    After the series of labyrinthine hallways helpfully navigated by Yuma, and the vault is laid before before them, Sougo stifles a laugh. "That can't be true," he says, sotto voce.

    "What do you mean, sire?"

    "I mean... it has to get bigger or something, right? Or it..." he gestures wildly with his hands, "Goes crazy, or something."

    "It is of course entirely possible that Doramus is an imbecile," Woz softly replies.

    "Sure! But, just to be on the safe side, I'm going to take a look." Sougo's form flickers for a moment, as if his idle animation dropped a frame. His wristwatch hangs a fraction too long between motions of the second hand.

    As he travels through the tiny dragon's past, he seeks out answers: Is it really as harmless as it seems? And--if it wakes up, is there something we can bribe it with to not cause trouble?
Lilian Rook     'Well, at least she's not a *thief*, lun! She looks really happy when she's singing for everyone's happiness on stage! All you're doing is *stealing* it, lun!'

    Lilian smiles in gently approving humu-humu repose.

    'A-- n-not that you aren't! Or, the dress?! It's pretty even though you're a little messed up-- a-ah-- oyo...'
    'Thanks! You're super pretty too, Lala.'

    Lilian mouths the word 'cute'.

    'Anyone who's anyone in the galaxy'd pay top dollar for these *highly-respected* mercenaries, nna; and anyone who isn't knows that's a load of junk.'

    "Congratulations to the working class for their successful adaptation." Lilian says, drily, but not insincerely. "It's his fault for being so uncritically gullible about what money buys." Lilian stops to applaud at Hikaru's gag-tying skills, praising her as well as Lala with a little "Well done!"

    'They say the name isn't just for show. That somewhere deep in this manor, blocking our path from the treasures we're here for, will be a terrifying, *true* dragon.'

    Lilian delicately looses her pendant from the front of her dress, brandishes the true form of Night Mist, and allows it to trail behind her without quite touching the floor in the narrow corridor, letting her gait loosen up into a casual strut. It looks slightly unhinged, carrying that sword while wearing a sexy party dress. "Finally! I've been waiting for~e~ver to get to call myself a dragonslayer!"

    'So here's our mutual benefit then, nna? I have to warn you, I'm a bit of a scaredy-cat when it comes to full-on fights--'

    "Don't worry about it~" Lilian sing-songs, clearly in a better mood. She swing her sword around her wrist like one would the hook of an umbrella.

    Her mood evapourates when she actually sees the dragon. Her sword clanks to a halt braced in front of her, point down like a statue. She stares at the little critter on the heap of gold unblinking, lips slightly parted, practically redrawn in thick lines and flat shades.

    "Why did you go and get me me all worked up." she complains at Blue Cat.
Combaticon     > "Haven't needed to, nna. Everyone already knows my image, and they're not interested in buying."

    Swindle closes his eyes, bringing his hands up in a shrug while shaking his head, "Can't blame a 'bot for trying."

    The guards waking up when Brawl saunters through winds up being the reason for her returning and showing them how her hand can transform-- There's limited options! She does also linger long enough to tip their chairs so they fall down before catching up to Onslaught and the others. It's meant as a lesson, but since she doesn't say anything, it's unclear if they'll learn anything.

> "No, what I need *you* for is coming up soon, nna. . . blocking our path from the treasures we're here for, will be a terrifying, *true* dragon."

    Onslaught tilts his head slightly, regarding Blue Cat with his hands still folded behind his back, right below the cannon mounts, "Several of my comrades have alternate modes based on such creatures. It will be interesting to see a live specimen."

    His forearm splits open. A pistol-sized blaster flips out into his waiting hand and he lifts it to the ceiling in a readied position. Beside him, Swindle reaches into his abdominal drawer and pulls out a large black cannon, clipping it to his left forearm. Once attached, it emits a faint hum and several lines on it light up purple. Once she's caught up, Brawl spreads her feet and hangs her arms out to either side in a general readied battle posture.

> --The dragon is the size of a small cat--

    Onslaught lowers his weapon. His free hand raises, pressing thumb and forefinger to approximately where the bridge of his nose would be while his eyes close.

    Swindle pauses as he's adjusting his arm cannon. Without skipping a beat he removes it again and drops it into his drawer, slamming it shut, "Well, what a thrilling battle! Now that I'm done helping you, how about I help myself?" Rubbing his hands together, the merchant-bot steps forward.

    Brawl's arms drop to her sides, limply, "That's it?" The giant Decepticon's voice is absolutely crestfallen. Complete and utter disappointment seeping from every syllable.

    "I appreciate the live example," Onslaught carefully measures his voice and it's kind of obvious here that he's covering up annoyance. Lowering his free hand, he reaches out, "There is one small matter left to attend to." When he extends his fingers, a metal arc unfolds from his palm. Wrapping those fingers around Blue Cat's wrist produces a telltale series of ratcheting clicks-- when he releases, a handcuff affixed to the master thief's wrist, the chain connecting to his own armored forearm, "As you said; it would be foolish to trust you. Consider this a form of 'insurance'."
Rita Ma      "Probably in your size, too, nna."
     Rita, who had silent-warmly approved of Hikaru and Lala talking about how pretty the other is (normal girlbestie stuff!), now looks over at them. And down at them.

     Rita, who is about 5'8";
     looks at Lilian, who is about 5'6";
     and makes a little helpless gesture at Hikaru and Lala, 5'2".

     Was that me? Did I look like that? Is that real??

     "Ah, um, I can fix up your outfits later if you don't find something you like more! So don't worry." Rita pluckily cups a hand over her eye telescope-style in her cure Glow pose, regaining her poise. The stuff about dragons, in the meantime, passes almost completely over her head.

     "Oh! I open them by touching my antennae to them, Rita!"
     All the tension about having asked a stupid question goes out of her. Her gait turns cheery-peppy, and her eyes smile shut. Cute...

     "You ran *really* fast even though you weren't transformed. Was that magic too?"
     "Ah! Um," oh my god Rita, how'd you get this dumb? Is it just because-- "Well, you know, Ms. Rook was doing it too!" Who hasn't claimed to be a Cure. Hhhhhhhhhh. Clammy dread. Think think think.

     "... When you've been a Pre-Cure for a long time," Cure Glow finally says, pretending to look serenely distracted-thoughtful as if she's only struggling to put something obvious to words, "you'll learn lots of little skills, Hikaru. It's just helpful to be able to solve problems without needing magic!" Crisis averted! Moving laser-fast is definitely a learnable skill. You can get that by playing tennis, or something.

     "And don't worry, Blue Cat," she says over the door creaking open. "You did get us this far, so of course we'll protect you. That's not--"

     The sound of handcuff-clicks turns her head on the same ratchet. Onslaught clearly deserves her attention more than the funny little lizard.

     Pivoting to hold up her fist indignantly and stamp over: "H-huh?! What are you doing?! We're about to be in a fight, and you're chaining her up??" The particular earnestly-incensed tone is very like Cure Glow and very unlike Rita, but the threat of force in her posture is there.
Futaba Nuki "Okay, that's a little cute, but only because you were about to let like ten people step on your face."
"Oh, gross. Who knows what everyone's stepped in since we got here." Futaba shivers briefly, somehow bothered more by that now than the times she's turned herself into a couch. "Guess a net would be less gross, but that goop form's soooo much easier to pull out on demand."

She still grins after a moment, though, because her big sister called her cute (indirectly but still). She also doesn't need to be told twice to help Hikaru get across the obstacle, but being on the same page about prioritizing that certainly puts a bigger pep in Futaba's step! Or a firmer hold on the laser in this case even though it's blasting her finger and burning it pretty badly. She's not about to show weakness in front of everyone, though, so she just steels her jaw from the inside while stiffly turning towards Natsuki and Hikaru to give them a firm thumbs-up with her other hand and inspire CONFIDENCE.

"Doesn't hurt!" It totally hurts, but Futaba's ego won't allow herself to acknowledge that. She waits until Brawl's passed right on by and the coast is clear before following along and nonchalantly turning her whole arm into slime to let the burns dissipate on the way.

"Retina scans, fingerprints? How deep do you go? You need a closer look than you got earlier?"
"Closer than just a glance, for sure. Uhhh. I mean, it's just copyin' the way someone's eye and fingers look, right?" Futaba guesses, utilizing the power of stuff-she-watched-on-TV to reason out ways she might be able to crack something like that. She's also peering right back at Blue Cat, squinting at her eyes and sunglasses while grinning mischievously. "If I looked close enough and turned into 'em big enough, even his eyes and hands couldn't hide any secrets from us."

The tanuki turns her hand into a larger version of Blue Cat's shades for emphasis, capturing every detail she can see and then some! She's even captured some of the subtler surface wear and tear along with the coloration, although there's some leafy bits stuck to it that won't come off even when she runs her finger over the top.

With the guards sufficiently tied down, Futaba's feeling good about continuing along with the crew at a leisurely pace. She snickers lightly at Hikaru's choice of gagging, even letting out an approving noise when she remembers to wrap it all up. "Good thinking! You wouldn't believe how many times I've seen someone get bound up just like this and spit stuff out in a minute."
Futaba Nuki "You *shouldn't* trust me, and you're *wrong* if you do."
"Guess some of us'll just be wrong, then. Heroes ain't in the business of doubtin' folks when they're being truthful about themselves being liars." Futaba comments with a laugh, brushing a finger over her nose before resting her hand on her chin. "Wait. So does that mean we should believe you about bein' a liar? Or lying about not being trustworthy...?"

"I have to warn you, I'm a bit of a scaredy-cat when it comes to full-on fights--"
"Yeah? Well, more reason all of us make a good team. Probably more of us here that're built for full-on fights than not, and-" Before Futaba can finish her thought, the door opening animation reveals a dragon inside the vault! It's not nearly big enough-looking to make for a grand battle, though, and Futaba squats in place to get a better look at the cat-sized creature.

"... Huh. You think this one's got a bigger parent waitin' around here?" Futaba's gaze starts wandering again as she looks for signs of big collateral damage: Scorch marks, claw marks, conspicuously deep pits in between piles of so much stuff. "Miss Rook's got the right idea. We need something... Bigger, yeah. Wouldn't feel right messing with the kid, and definitely wouldn't be deservin' of the title that way."

While Futaba's mulling over the possibility of a bigger dragon and the matter of trusting Blue Cat, she notices Onslaught moving to handcuff Blue Cat. At first, she looks surprised and borderline offended like Rita does, but she tamps that down a few seconds later. "Hold up, Miss Rita. I don't think that little one's gonna be startin' anything, and..."

She goes right back to watching Blue Cat curiously, apparently eager to see how she'll live up to her reputation.
Natsuki Nuki 'Oh I see what you mean.'

Natsuki had not expected Lilian to zone out just a little bit to the tiger claws, but splits into a smile all the same. At a close inspection - Lilian can see the claws lightly gloss-lacquered and maintained with care. If she's looking. Natsuki was definitely showing off for a second, even if it was quite real that she'd have to downsize the monster hands to fit the band. With her current style...

Well, it's no wonder she passed off the treasure as an opportunity to make a good-faith advance. Trading up was an important technique in making deals.

'Oh my god that unwashed embarrassment would shortchange his own ridiculous guards, wouldn't he?'

Natsuki just scoffs and nods knowingly. "Motivation takes premium rates. Premium rates affords premium talent. Premium talent ensures premium results. It starts from where you invest, and you can't forget to invest in yourself - you're the one you have to count on."

Somehow able to keep things at a refined fashion-dress mosey because somehow the dress came back after the short stint in a forked-bolt to foot-race with Hikaru, Natsuki doesn't bother messing with the help because the entire situation is one that she'd rather just hire out all of the guards and walk through the area with impunity...

But they're doing things the Phantom Thief way. And that fills her deals of the day, so that's seems to be the way.

"Me?" The Nue looks over at even the side-glance, shaking her head. "I built for power." Nakedly honest. "The baby's the blessed one at that - she could probably do fingerprints with a look at them. She can do a bucket with the water in it, just don't ask her to or you're getting a pail that'll look at you." She agrees with Futaba's assessment of herself despite the constant spitting rivalry she usually exudes towards the younger Nuki. "She does the whole 'ninja' thing and rinsed the best money could buy, so, I stopped buying help for that and decided to do things myself." She finishes, with fanged grin off at Futaba that's for her own benefit than outwardly aimed humor.

'It's pretty even though you're a little messed up-- a-ah-- oyo...'

Natsuki laughs low, pantomiming dropping thumbs into jacket pockets and 'dragging' left side down. "A little messed up's better. Do it the way that feels right for you, it makes it 'style'. Do you think it's better with your hair done back, or after you fix it a bit with you hand? Same question with a tight tie , or a shirt collar done up all the way. 'Standard' is suffocating, and a little mussed just makes the stuff."

'It's just true. You can tell just by looking at me.'

". . ." Natsuki -- and Kodoku, her tail -- both narrow eyes just slightly, both pair of red eyes drilling deeper on the turned-back.

"Guilt, then." She murmurs, just for Blue Cat, and as confident as if she knew it her own self. Then, when Blue Cat repeats herself, Natsuki raises her voice to be heard by their momentary 'group leader'.

"I know your angle, of course." She claims, far more than cat-*like* in her back-aimed amusement. 'Mutual benefit' meant 'my benefit' -- but that could be anything. If she was a liar -- could she 'not have stolen Yuma', earlier, or, was it 'not to her benefit to do so'?

"A liar shouldn't call themself a liar. It spoils the lies." Which means she was a bad liar, or... Lying to hide something else.

Mutual benefit.
Natsuki Nuki 'It is of course entirely possible that Doramus is an imbecile,'

""It's so much more than possible. Don't join Blue in dissembling, it's unbecoming. Call him a f--" And to avoid a bleepcensor, retracks like Futaba to... "--aaailure at business, like is so plainly obvious. Who *piles up* their treasure? Gallery the good pieces and make the rest work for you. Simple stuff."

Natsuki, among the group, doesn't even notice the dragon on the pile, looking around interestedly at the room before being re-guided back to the little dragon at the top.

'Why did you go and get me me all worked up.'

In absolute deadpan, more boredly disappointed 'that's it?' downlooking at the treasure pile, Natsuki asides to Lilian in fullest seriousness: "If you throw Futaba at it, you might feel better." With the permission implied. It's okay. Lilian can get one.

'As you said; it would be foolish to trust you. Consider this a form of 'insurance'.'

That and a click distract Natsuki, eyebrows rising into her platinum blonde hair over the expressive darker mask about eyes. "Didn't expect someone to prove me right *already*--" Before quite simply staring at Blue Cat with the open look of 'now don't bore me!' interest.

Now to see what the greatest Phantom Thief in the galaxy had against a rather bulky authority with a set of cuffs and a dream. She thought she knew this one, but, to see a master at work? Sublime!

Or really, *really* funny.
Merelisa Shaynore "If you don't mind my saying so, you seem very interested in Yuma. Is this a... professional interest?"

    Blue Cat lingers with her hand on the corner of a wall, about to follow Yuma down the next hallway. She tilts her head to look over her shoulder, holding the brim of her hat steady with her other hand, her expression unreadable behind the sunglasses.

    "... I can't remember the last time I had a difference between professional and personal. I'm a busy girl, nnaaa?"

"If I looked close enough and turned into 'em big enough, even his eyes and hands couldn't hide any secrets from us."

    Blue Cat leans in closer when Futaba leans in closer, sunglasses just inches away from her face. When Futaba suddenly transforms to match the sunglasses, a surprised giggle of 'fufu--?' slips out of her, and she leans back before turning away. "Well. Pretty good job, nna. You're a natural talent."

"you'll learn lots of little skills, Hikaru. It's just helpful to be able to solve problems without needing magic!"

    Hikaru is *astonishingly* willing to accept this information from Rita, considering that the shockwave of wind from Rita's sprint blasted some hair loose from her pigtails. She nods at Rita excitedly, clutching the Ridewatch to her chest where her pendant would normally be.

    "I get it! We can't always transform, but like Blue Cat said, we can't let ourselves be totally dependent on it. But... for me to learn to do something *nebulamazing* like that, could you teach me?"

Then, in the vault...

    "... Ah. Well. It was supposed to be bigger, nna."

    To everyone's disappointment about the dragon's size, Blue Cat seems to be equally disappointed. After the door lamely swings open and the dragon settles back down for its nap, she holds her hand up in an awkward freeze-frame of her dramatic performance, sunglasses-ed face not shifting off the dragon. It's enough of a letdown that the hundreds of billions of shien worth of treasure seems to lose some of its luster until she recovers.

    But there's a *lot* of luster to go around. Piles of gold, as any Scrooge McDuck vault needs, and jewel-encrusted ancient weapons scattered around and hung on walls. Chests full of magical artifacts, a dedicated display case to the ludicrously expensive iridescent jewelry from Planet Rainbow, designer wardrobes, shoes, statues that must've been put here for storage instead of display. Yuma flies into the room with a low-high hum, perching on the hilt of a golden dagger and staring right at the Precures' pendants sitting in a jewelry box on the pile.

    It makes the dragon seem even more embarrassing as a guardian by comparison, and the reality that Sougo sees is even worse. Not because of the conveniently enraging backstory of Doramus cruelly starving this little beast so it stays small, or trying to scam a dragon out of someone and getting a runt instead-- but because, unfortunately, the visions are kind of adorable.

    At the ceremony of Doramus as a tiny green-scaled nub-horned baby, where he received his dragon, there weren't any Clan members nearly as young as him, so he was the only child for a long time. His companion was a dragon that never grew any bigger, no matter what medicines or special food the Clan leaders tried to give them. Effectively worthless by the standards that their dragons are meant to be judged by, but doted on by him nonetheless, as a lifelong pet and friend rather than a fearsome guardian. Sougo can watch Doramus hand feeding the snappy little lizard space sardines to make sure, but it's really not going to be a threat.
Merelisa Shaynore     Not privy to that, Blue Cat dramatically shrugs and walks into the vault. "Guess you got a free ride, nna. Now if you'll excuse me, I have--"

    Click.

    She comes to an abrupt halt, handcuffs rattling. She looks down at her chained wrists, and her sunglasses slide partway down her nose without the ability to use her hands to push them back up. Underneath are brilliant green eyes, slowly strafing across the Elites arrayed around her with a hard to read expression.

"Blue Cat--! But she was helping us!"
"Sh-she's a criminal, lun, but doing it right now is...."
"We didn't *promise*... but it still feels like breaking one."

"Didn't expect someone to prove me right *already*--"

    Her eyes land on Natsuki and linger, and then she closes them and bows her head. "... I see. So that's the way it is. As Natsuki says, I can hardly blame you for believing that I'm telling the truth about myself."

    "So, then, now that we're back to normal: allow me to reintroduce myself--!"

    In an instant, Blue Cat's body melts away, leaving the cuffs empty and jingling where her wrists were. In her place is a blue-furred housecat, already mid-leap to soar up to the top of the highest gold pile where the glowing cylinder of the Stellar Note is. When it lands, it morphs back into Blue Cat stanced with her arms spread wide, Stellar Note gripped in one hand, and a grappling hook that snatches the rack of priceless Rainbowian jewelry and ratchets it towards her in the other.

    "I am the one who traverses the universe, the space thief, Blue Cat! But that isn't all, nna?~ I am she of a thousand false faces, whose name strikes fear across the galaxy, who no bond can hold and no defense can stop! And I, too, have a wish your Star Drop will grant!"

    Just then, the upper door to the balcony of the vault slams open. Kappard, with his double sword in one hand and an unconscious Doramus dragged across the floor in the other, steps in, and tosses him unceremoniously over the edge onto a (rating-appropriately fall-breaking) pile of gold, which frees up his hand to point dramatically at Hikaru and Lala. "Precures! Your time has come!"

    "And that's my cue to go, nna?"

    With a clean backflip, Blue Cat launches herself up onto the balcony with her arms laden full of iridescent jewelry and the Stellar Note in hand. Kappard steps back in surprise, expecting her to attack him, but instead she just shapeshifts and morphs into the form of Doramus, ducking under his arm and running away through the manor.

    "Help, help! Oh no, it's terrible! Guards! There's a *fight* going on!"