Scene #9445: Star¤Twinkle Precure ~ Silver Mario Galaxy 7

Owner	Pose
Dimokratia	LAST TIME... The party split in two - one gang led by the STAR TWINKLE PRETTY CURES and your starbound friend LUMA, and the other led by DIMO of the SILVER. The former, shoving through the central castle-like tower to reach the core that had been corrupted by the presence of the invading SHROOB and the mysterious machinations of the NOTTREI, had reached the COMET SEED CHAMBER, a tumbling and lonely comet tumbling through a blanket of every star all at once, overseeing every cosmos simultaneously. The latter, pushing around the ring of the Observatory, pushed through a group of the powered up goons of purple and N-emblazoned white-silver. Roland and Dimo, forced in part to take the front over his quiet protestations, engage in a running and leaping battle, carving a wedge of a path that's pruned by the magical beams of Love as they work down and around rather than in and through. The fungal overtaking of the Shrooboid inversion of this heavenly palace colors the fabric of the surrounds, murals of space being overwritten by genealogies of purple mushrooms with dark eyes and wicked countenances. Tentacles, limbs that are not quite humanoid, mycelium-spongy and curling like brackets and frames of archways depict the triumphs of the Shroob lit by the captured light of a black hole. "Thish place has fundamentally lost the proper order of the Stars! This ish no palash of the Shhroob!" Elvin Gadd fumes, wrapped around Dimo's protective forearm and kicking limbs in an elderly 'let me at 'em!' impulse, and around fending off the leaps and fanged-jawing of the Shroob when they don't blast away Dimo cannot help but ask her questions while fighting with some unveiled incredulity. "Truly? You wish to fight, doctor?" Dimo inquires. "I washn't lying to that young girl!" Gadd claims, and the smaller fork of the group slides to pose in a back-to-back-to-clamped-to-arm array surrounded with countless red eyes and glowing-malevolent N's. From within his labcoat, a little telescopic nozzle extends up past collar, nozzle-billed face and screw-eyes cranking from + to x as it stutters to life. "Thish time, Doctor GADD will clean up the town!" Elvin shouts in something like battle roar, and Dimo releases the wobbly little doctor to join the battle pose with his prototype-pocket F.L.U.D.D. Unit deployed, flipping control sticks through sleeves and into hands. "Let'sh-ha go!" Roland immediately has to intercept Shroobs blasting and Love blasting back, but in the station-rattling scramble, progress begins to be made. MEANWHILE... Having led the way through a cursed trap dispelled by Tamamo, Luma's path blazed past the twisted Toadstool Castle foyer-approach and through the spatially elongated gangway to approach the Seed Chamber, the battle had been joined by everyone versus a storm of watery Copy Marios! Summoned by Princess Shroob, the 'bodysnatcher' that Hikaru had shouted in surprise over, the final pieces of the COBALT STAR are held by this purple imposter of the familiar Princess Peach! Her armies of Marios are summoned directly from the stellar lynchpin of what seems like Time Itself in this reality, unstuck entirely save for this conflict, here and now. All that matters in the whole world has narrowed and contracted to this point -- and you are in it too, in place of one man with a red hat. And you are in it too, fighting that man's short Italian shadow. Even the gap cast by him in the world is formidable, spinning with snapping, confident fists and hurling curlywicked fireballs as fastball specials that drill into chests and weak points with a prescient kineticness. With a hammer he's a fiend, all motion and pivot and leverage, and with a cape he can snap cloth like sheetmetal and dive into at absurd velocity. Leaping, jumping, assaulting, the copies of Mario are an overwhelming danger.
Dimokratia	But they're not Mario. Not really. They lack his 'stashe, his pure gumption, the heroic will to push past reasonable into something incredible. They lack star power, and they just don't have that hat. One by one, they fall, cracked aside or sent sprawling and splashing as wet ink onto the grassy ground, while Princess Shroob does a mix of cheer, shout, stamp her feet, and demand more of her silent army of CPU Lv9 Mario's Shadows. "%#&#$!!!" Rages Princess Shroob in wingdings. You're too late! The power of the stars is already ours! "&^%$$ ####!!!" Fumes the evil space mushroom. Our empire will last forever! Mother comes! "@@@@ &&&*& ^v^v^v^!!!" Your end comes! And Mario isn't here to save you! declares Princess Shroob, from behind her shield, summoning a Mega Mushroom'ed Mario with a deep diminishment of the Cobalt Fragments in her glove. The gloopy, mostly-liquid Mario rises out of the grass uncertainly, before sweeping a large gloved hand across the field. Nearby, Cure Star and Cure Milky are smashing the original storm of Marios with shock and sundering hammer smack, and they're imperiled first! Is this the END, with everyone battling what should be their own greatest ally?!?! Luma and Yuma, gathered in a binary star spin, reach Princess Peach who pushes against bindings on the ground, struggling for only a brief moment before she glows brightly empowered by the two star children. Bindings snapping, Princess Peach lifts in a half crouch, then immediately moves to the still-collapsed and 'sleeping' voice of the Stars, Rosalina. Still orbited by fretting stars, Peach touches Rosalina's shoulder and shakes lightly, frowning. She needs something. Rosalina isn't waking... "Stuffwell! I need your help too!" Peach calls, and from the Super Mario melee, a hustling pair of boots and a deluxe leather exterior moves at cutscene speed. "Princess! Salutations!!! Your Stuffwell SOLUTION is HERE!" Proudly powerslides the suitcase, spinning hard enough to accrue Dash Sparks on the drift turn. "Do you require a TUTORIAL on SAVING THE UNIVERSE?" Narrowing eyes and holding out hand, Peach's lips purse. "No, thank you Stuffwell. Sports day, please!" The suitcase dutifully snaps open and speaks muffled, face flat to the ground and textbox smushed. "What are we playing today, Princess?" "Let's play golf!" Intones the royal of the Mushroom Kingdom as if drawing forth Excalibur. The driving iron that springs from suitcase to hand is certainly wielded like it. --- In the 'Engine room', the Shroobified architecture seems to suck upon a glowing core beyond that of any normal star, dimmed in color to an unhealthy orange. The whole room has the energy of being nocturnal, dimmed to lowest setting despite the objective presence of near overwhelming photonic presence. The radiation expected - the logic of reality - is suspended here, and bare to the breath of this orrey-heart has the same auspice of viewing an eclipse in daytime. Rare, portentious, and a little unreal. That is, until Gadd's F.L.U.D.D.-spray and Love's outrageous target-rich beaming scrub the choking mycelium clear, working in to etch clear pathways choked with purple. An incredible amount of energy was siphoned away, and some of the Shrooboid connections at the deepest point seem also technologically connected, draining power off and away rather than dominating at the source. Roland and Dimo must form a narrowing circle of safety at speartip and bootheel, but light starts to seep back in as the group bisect away the connections of malevolent mushroom and magnificent heavenly palace. It peels. It sucks, and spores, and slides, the mass coming off of Comet Observatory's belly. "We have but a little more to do! Push! we will rejoin our allies quickly!" ---
Dimokratia	The comet-seed stage shakes. The stars dim, winking out. The light shifts bluer, redder, purple by extension, and Princess Shroob becomes definite only in the cobalt bubble projected by her command of the final lost pieces of the time-Star and the reds of her dress. A raise of both hands. Her voice cannot be heard over a great cacophonous din. The text box translation is clear enough, an undercurrent of looming despair. SPACE - THE STARS - TIME ITSELF ABANDONED THE SHROOB. Clawed hands raise, exultant. SPACE - THE STARS - TIME ITSELF IS NOW OURS TO CONTROL! Spongy tentacles strike down randomly, punching through the dimming starscape in unhealthy cracks even as the final lesser Copy Marios are soundly defeated. It is an invasion, a violation from beyond space and time, and the limbs seem to be animated strangely and outside the motion of the universe you're in, as if something from off the very stage and curtain of reality itself reaches spongy tendrils in and hungers. The final Mega Copy Mario swats and silently sweeps, incapable of speech but capable of violence along with this threat from outside. Herrincess Shroob's triumphant cackle seems final, thundering with the cracking, crumbling of the cosmos about you. EMPRESS OF ALL, EMPRESS SH-- Booms the text-box contained voice of the purple foe, before the text box and the bubble of time is crashed into and cracked like hard boiled eggshell by the powered-up Luma and the singing Yuma. Behind that, Princess Peach shoulders through the shattering barrier, takes posture, and fores out one swift crack of a swing and the barely audible triumph-note of a "Nice shot!" before Peach's about-the-head crack sends the Shroob royal to the ground. Barrier falling, Mega Copy Mario staggering and vulnerable to banishment, Peach crouches down and retrieves the last shards of the Cobalt Star from the fallen body-'snatcher' (fashio-snatcher, at least), and turns over her shoulder to look and shout-- "Rosalina! Wake up!!" --- Because this is also a magical girl story, it is at that exact moment that the mycelium mass sucking as fat tick upon the Comet Observatory is worked free and clear of the energy system heart of the station, Love free to Arcana Slave it into atoms and spacedust over the Star Road and power flooding back into the station brightly. --- --Ah!-- The 'voice of the stars' rings in everyone's ears, and then Rosalina's visible eye snaps open, pushing herself half-up and reaching out hand towards Peach. Already aware, snapping awake like a lightswitch turned back on, her gasp is delayed from sheer marionette-muscular motion to be ready to receive the star pieces. "I'm ready!" Rosalina confirms. Peach throws the shards in her grip, Luma and Yuma speed away again following the arc of the toss, and the other three pieces gathered up across the adventure zip and slip from grip and join their fellows in this climactic moment. Under a crumbling sky, as the Comet Observatory is pulled apart from 'within' due to a devastating threat from without, Rosalina conducts Luma, Yuma, and the five pieces of the Cobalt Star together into a narrowing and narrowing spin. She begins ready to hug them all together and thee compression of her arms is slow, deliberate, pressuring a great amount of force back into cohesion as one unit. Yuma and Luma spin faster and faster, turning into a single golden ring with sworl of black dot-eyes and green note-face while the star crackles and merges piece to piece and face to face. As one, all the watches and chronometers among the party immediately advance one second, and then another, and then another. Time gasps its own stuttering, startled breath. Rosalina hugs three of her children to her chest - Luma, the Cobalt Star, and Yuma, and exhales after a great working of her own so soon after waking anew.
Dimokratia	"I'm sorry, Cobalt Star, but please just a little more." Rosalina begs, and the croak of her voice reveals how little she herself has left after this months-long day. Overhead, there is a looming. A head, with teeth? Eyes set into cranium? Hulking, multitudinous, twisted. Looming over the palace, the seed-place of the Star Road, Paradox Empress Shroob drives tentacle-arms down to reach you, grab you, fend at you. From what remains of the starscape, there's a shattered-glass kaleidoscope of motion, infinite stars whipping past across spiderweb cracks, and the little comet you are on starts flying past familiar terrain. Stars. The fluffy clouds of the Star Road. Planetoids at speed. Pathways of chrome, fingers and connections. A faint highway reaching from a swiftly-growing-closer point. The Gateway Planet, its strange stellar grasses and its Boo-wrapped gasses only isn't smashed into because the Comet Observatory seems to slip away from around everyone, as they fall backwards into yesterday. In a sunrising purple-to-orange moment of falling, the entire party appear tumbling through the air, in-atmosphere. The sparse cloud cover whips past and then you are past it, followed by startled once-lounging Lakitu. Around you, approaching rapidly, is the suspended course of the RAINBOW ROAD, the premier mid-air go-kart track for the race that never happened, and you fall past curve and courseway with ample time to grab on and ride down. Princess Peach and Princess Rosalina fall through the sky, Peach holding Stuffwell and having found a large parasol to float down, and Rosalina just sort of floating while carrying the three star children. Dimo, Gadd, Roland, and Love tumble similarly, having been carried by the same temporal wish back to the DAY OF THE EVENT... And also the DAY OF THE RACE! Overhead, PARADOX EMPRESS SHROOB also falls through this final gap in spacetime, pulling itself into the sky and hurtling after the Star Twinkle Pretty Cures and Princesses of the Kingdom - and you! - as waves of saucers ridden by Nottraiders follow in its wake to descend upon the Mushroom Kingdom again//for the first time. The citizenry, looking up, from a restored Castle Town, and an invasion that had never happened, gape and then start flailing and running around. The tumble of heroes like a rain on race day snaps into a reality of grand daylight festivities and one final wave of enemies descending to try to make it all happen again... But their numbers are diminished. The Cobalt Star has been secured. Time has been... mostly? ... mended! And now there's just one last falling threat to confront, returned to the start. ONE FINAL MEANWHILE//A Slow-Noted Introduction At THE END. . . Bouncing out of bed, the sleepy occupant the camera momentarily focuses on 'bwoings' from sheets to floor fully dressed in a two-story house on the outskirts of Toadstool Castle Town, past the walls and near the woods but with its own dedicated Warp Pipe - a real luxury afforded to the local legend - and rubs his brown-haired head. Waving off a grogginess that feels like having worked out for a whole week and sleeping for a year all at the same time, the man wipes his eyes and reaches for bedstand to affix signature hat to head. Warm, as it had been resting in a sunbeam, his hat fits snug and soft to his head, and he steps out onto his balcony to get a breath of fresh air. Only to see a huge falling fleet of airships and a massive monster falling near the Castle! Bouncing up nearly a story in the air, the man claps his hands to his cheeks and pops his eyes. "Mama mia!!!" Leaping over his balcony, Mario dashes towards the Warp Pipe just past his mailbox.
Futaba Nuki	So much fighting. So many Shroob, so many Nottraiders, so many Copy Marios, and nothing but a whole lot of friends and guts to fight them all off with. These kinds of insurmountable odds are just the sort that Futaba finds herself thriving in, bouncing all over the place and going in and out of transformations every few seconds to pull her weight and then some. There's an evil princess shouting at her and her alies, and that eventually becomes a battle over time and space. A lot of it passes Futaba by in a sort of fugue state, just moving her body by reflex and manipulating it wildly in ways that would be quite unnerving or impressive if she had an audience to show off in front of. Without thataudience, though, she's a little less mouthy than usual right up until Peach breaches the barrier, and Rosalina awakens. Futaba leaps after the thrown stars and alongside Luma and Yuma, both providing them with bodily cover on the way towards Rosalina and to look at her one visible eye with a grin that makes it pretty obvious she's already cracking up over something. "Come on, sleepyhead! It's time to get up!" --- Descending from the cosmos onto Rainbow Road, Futaba's doing very little to slow herself down. She even teis to propel herself onto the track faster, compressing her arms into her sides while wrapping her scarf around her body so she looks like a red and orange bullet about to crash right into one of the turns of the track on the way down. Instead of slamming into it facefirst, however, she tucks herself into a ball at the last second, making contact with the colorful course at just the right angle. She starts rolling along it with all that built up speed, racing along it for a few turns before hurling herself back off of it, scarf whipping around her once again just in time to see where she's ended up with everyone. "We're back...! Alright, we can work with this!" Beaming brightly with a waiting audience and only a moderate amount of self-inflicted motion sickness, Futaba splays her arms and legs out to her sides to finally slow her fall and make sure her entire colorful tennis outfit (with unnecessary scarf) is proudly on display for the citizens below and the Shroob Nottraider Alliance above. "Attention, one and all, people of the Mushroom Kingdom!" Despite being in freefall, Futaba's quite good at projecting her voice. Is it good enough to reach the people far below? She can hope so, at least while she's shouting in between swooping through the air to avid getting blasted right out of it it even as she flicks her tail around like a massive oar to guide her through the skies. "We interrupt your race day special with a LIVE SHOWING! It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to witness your very own Princess Peach, Princess Rosalina, and Professor Gadd teaming up with Elites from all over the Multiverse to save the day against this spacefarin' menace!" Futaba sweeps an enlarged arm sideways to gesture broadly at everything falling from the sky, pauses briefly, then goes right on with the shouting. "It's unplanned, unscripted, and coming to your very own Castle Town! So y'all better get back inside with some cover over your heads!"
Sarracenia	The watery false Marios were an insult upon the good name of the red-capped hero, and Sarracenia hammered away at both the imposters and the evil princess until finally being swept back by the Mega Mario. It was a power-up she rarely if ever used due to the pure destructive potential...and of course the fact that it could easily result in someone having a potentially embarrassing view of her from down on the ground. So, it is with half relief and half chagrin that she calls out, "Princess Toadstool!" when Peach emerges with that golf club in hand and swings for a hole in one on the evil princess. "It is good to see you are okay!" The part that follows is almost a blur. Any pieces that Sarra had collected of the Cobalt Star make their way from her purse to Rosalina's caring embrace. Meanwhile, Sarra is watching wide-eyed and a bit concerned as the world -- no, the very universe -- seems to crumble around them. It is simultaneously scary and beautiful to see the stars swirling around them over the fractals of space. As the group rides the comet back through time and space to where this all began for them...Sarra ends up (probably through her own efforts) floating down at least in frame with the other princesses. She is a princess of this land as well, not just another 'and you'! She has used a Feather power-up, and so has a golden cape that is arresting her descent. She lands in the center plaza of the restored Castle Town, hammer in hand and eyes upward. "You really do not know when to give up, do you? Well, I suppose I cannot fault anyone for that. But, be warned, would-be Empress! We defeated you when you had all the star power of that place! What makes you think we will not defeat you again! Even without..." Sarra blinks as a certain red-cap atop the head of a certain heroic plumber comes into view. Her eyes start to sparkle and a huge smile appears on her face. "Mario!" she exclaims happily. "You are okay!" She then looks back up at the Shroob. If the Sundew Navy is not here yet due to time shenanigans, you can be sure it will be only minutes before they arrive again. "You all may as well save yourself the trouble and leave! You stand no chance against the heroes of the Multiverse -AND- the most heroic plumber in Pipeland history!"
Combaticon	The Combaticons have experienced their fair share of endurance battles. The monstrously powerful Paradox Empress of the Shroob, gorging on the energy of the Cobalt Star-- that's a new one, but the trio of robots aren't about to give up, at the very least, helping keep her attention with the whirling blades and giant fist of Onslaught's Vortex arm and helping suppress the inky Mario population somewhat under control with waves of gunfire from Depthcharge's Scrapmaker. > "Rosalina! Wake up!!" > "I'm ready!" Resisting a colossal, spongey mycelial tendril trying to smash him, Onslaught shoots a look at the stirring princess. His eyes shift the other way at the staggering Mega-Mario. Rosalina reasserts the rules of time. A nanoclick registers in his chronometer. Time reinstates itself. Reality shifts. And now the Combaticons are separated and falling. Depthcharge thrusts her limbs out in a spread-eagle way, slowing her descent until Vortex can grab on to her; then transform. Whirling rotors strain to arrest the speed until, at last, she lifts away. "Onslaught!" "Your flight system is going to fail with this kind of acceleration, you fool!" Twisting in midair, Onslaught's own body twists, unfolds, and rearranges with that distinctive sound. Rather than try to stop himself, he leans into it-- heavy tires screech when they touch the Rainbow Road on one of its infamous deep slopes. As the road arcs out of the dive, the Decepticon's suspension groans under the strain. His brakes lock, dragging black marks across the colorful surface. With a swerve, Onslaught finally slides to a halt amidst the thick smoke of tortured rubber and brake pads. "We are not done yet," he's already elevating his artillery guns, aimed nearly straight up at the colossal Paradox Empress amidst the falling airships. No sooner has he brought them to bear does he open fire, one right after the other, with enough recoil to rock the heavy artillery truck on its overexerted shock absorbers.
Angela	Roland is curious about Dimo, admittedly. Unlike some from the City he doesn't really give one shit about the Head's taboos and is actually more curious than uneasy, but right now his sword's gonna be what he focuses on. Love's blasts sometimes get a little close for HIS comfort, but Roland never is truly threatened by the idea that Love might catch him in the back. In a sense, the work is nostalgic. A simpler time with simpler monsters. Now... "Don't be so eager, you don't want to go in with a hot head." Roland suggests to the old man but, to be honest, his heart isn't that into it. And he's got his own work to do. It's meditative. And sometimes Roland even jumps on one, or a series of shrooms even one after the other like he's going for one-ups but he doesn't adapt as well to using the pages as Angela does, his personal style is so honed he tends to default to it. "Nice one, Doctor!" Love shouts, smiling bigly at his pun. When the path clears, Roland says, "Our chance...! Yeah..." He takes a breath and looks to Dimo. "One breath, two..." He says. "Alright. Let's go." He feels like it might be offensive to use the local Let'sa. The sounds of "MAJOR ARCANA SLAVE!" is a bit heartening when it's on your side in situations like this. WHAT, TIME?? Roland and Love have fallen onto the floor, dizzied by temporal shenanigans. Love even has swirlyeyes. Roland isn't a cartoon character so he doesn't but he still gets back up first, just in time to see an italian plumber soaring through the sky. "Holy shit, Mama Mia..." Roland is in awe. That jumping power he's been borrowing is nothing compared to the real thing! "No wonder everyone's so inspired by this guy." Love gets up. "yay! We freed the captured man guy the evil magical queen wanted to draw power from, that means we've all but won!" Love says as if this happened before. I mean it does happen a lot actually. "You're saying that like men get put into devices all the time." Roland asides to Love. "It's normal! I appreciate the Queen Shroob is sticking to the classical way of doing things!" Love's cheeks puff out slightly. "You need to watch more magical girl anime and you'll understand how the world really works, Roland!"
Star Twinkle	Battered on the ground from the giant Mario's weighty smashes, Cure Milky's heart-shaped shield is ran through with cracks, while Cure Star, scraped up and grimacing, tries to push herself back to her feet. Struggling under the massive Mario's fists, the Pretty Cures are pinned in place with grim prospects on a cosmic scale, until the pink princess's driver sends the false copy staggering. "Princess Peach!!" "Lun! She's okay!" While the galactic collapse of the Empress Shroob's ascent rages around them, Milky grasps Star's hand and they glare fiercely into the cobalt glow of the Shroob's last fragment of the star. Brandishing her Star Color Pen defiantly, Lala shouts to raise her little Lala voice above the cacophany, teal magic shining at the pen tip. "You can't control space, lun! Space is for everyone! You'll never have it all to yourself, and that's what makes it beautiful, lun!" "I'm ready!" The triumphant sing-song that Yuma makes upon Rosalina's awakening lingers and echoes, swirling around the Pretty Cures and their allies to sink into them and glow gold. As the Cobalt Star pieces itself back together with the help of the star-mother-and-children, the scrapes accumulated on the Pretty Cures from their long battle magically fade away, flooding them with energy just in time for the last push. "We're ready too, Miss Star Princess!" Hikaru punches a fist into her palm, sending out a sparkle of glitter from the impact. As the Shroob Empress's tentacle comes crashing down, Cure Star leaps up to meet it, even as the Cobalt Star's working makes time fall away underneath the pair of them. Swinging a punch even as the temporal gravity makes her fall back from a dramatic clash with the Empress, Hikaru's clenched fist throws off golden light that condenses into a spinning star. Flung fist-wards to intercept, the star and the tentacle crash into each other and explode, sending a shower of small star-sparks rushing through the reversal of time along with them. Tumbling past the Star Road, past the orange streaks of Launch Stars, past Gateway Planet, Cure Milky 'swims' through the temporal current to lunge at the two baby stars, wrapping Yuma and Luma in her arms and hugging them tight. "This is it, lun! Our chance to set everything right! Thank you so much, for helping us get here!" THE DAY OF THE RACE! The colorful shine of Rainbow Road's semisolid surface glows around the Pretty Cure's heels even as the purple darkness menaces from above: ahead of them, the incoming invasion; behind them, the people they'll save! Hikaru presses the Star Warpulator into Lala's hands, both of them sharing a determined look. "I'll try and slow her down! You go get the Stellar Note, Milky!" "Lun! I'll be back soon, Star!" With a swipe of the Warpulator, a launch star spins into existance above the green Pretty Cure, and with a comet trail of speed, she's fired through the air to shortcut halfway down the track of the Rainbow Road, in a maneuver that would surely get her banned in the race. Milky lands on the track, skating on a heart-shaped shield of magic like a surfboard, hurtling through turns and corkscrews towards the finish line where the Binary Star is. Meanwhile, Star readies herself for a facedown with the Empress descending on the world, to defend the happiness this day was meant to have!
Tamamo	A great deal happens in ridding that place of its parasitic growths, and in confronting a monarch scorned by time, but to focus on the leap into yesterday... Tamamo-no-mae's power of breaking falls is, strange as it may be, better at heights not astronomical. Still, where a parasol will somewhat do, so do the great robes and their flapping silk, rushing down toward the racecourse at yet dangerous speed. The ornate mirror that is the materialization of her Eightfold Blessings appears below Tamamo's feet, and she steps off it, suspended briefly in the air, and onto a rainbow road, where -- because this where Tamamo surely arrived on this very day, for the purpose of joining this race -- she finds her motorcycle, and sparkling wisps of world-correcting (and transformation obscuring) smoke restore her racer's bodysuit, which she'd never left. It's all very simple, when one simply lists out the day's events in chronological order. "Well, now, I suppose it is less than simple to halt an invasion for which one had no expectations, nor plans." Tamamo revs the engine once, is satisfied with the sound, and takes off. Every moment she's moving is one in which she might not be pinned down by flying saucer fire and descending goons, and a moment in which she 'might' be safe is uncannily close to a moment in which she is 'guaranteed' to be barely safe. She zips the course in less than record-setting time, learning the twists and turns and keeping more of an eye to the land below than to what's descending. "If I had time to be sure... but a careful study cannot be found in the cards dealt, today." It would be a lot more convenient if she could shield the castle-town by integrating a defensive array into its dragon veins, but oh, well! Plan B, it is, beginning with getting just close enough to each passing group of Nottraiders that they might reasonably believe they could catch her, and not just be slipped past or run straight over. "By all means, never cease to try, would you? It is a day for a race, after all." She's not very secretive about the talismans she's dropping at every corner of the track as she passes, but as long as they don't realize she's setting up a charmed field, it shouldn't matter. Anyone not on the reasonably short list of 'allies she remembered to exclude' will find an obsessive fascination with the Rainbow Road as soon as they've come close to it, or looked at it for too long, and become unable to leave until they feel they've won. That might help take heat off the town a bit, but it's also going to get crowded.
Dimokratia	There's a few heroic nods and affirmative 'mm!' shared between the Princesses Rosalina and Peach and those that leap to their aid. Rosalina is a little hard pressed to share a moment with those that help her... The shout of 'We're ready too!' is the beginning of that very turnabout that sends you back to the start. Transitioning to EVERYONE FALLING AT SPEED THROUGH THE RAINBOW ROAD... The Rainbow Road 100cc Qualifier Cup currently ongoing between the peoples Pipeland makes the scintillating roadway in the sky over the Mushroom Kingdom active with color and sound and sight and useful powerups. The scent and sound of engines and the grip and burn of rubber is potpourri to the air, as Toad and Koopa racers rip through the track at top speed for hopes at competing with their heroes in the 150cc bracket. At the end of the track in a display dias is the BINARY STAR, which while it fits in with the theme, is not a local object but really the Gemini Star Note, a twinkling object of celestial beauty more in common with Yuma than Luma as it spirals with a colorful two-node golden orrey array. Rosalina, most controlled descent by simply not obeying relational gravity the same way as a normal person, opens her arms to release the Stars - Yuma, Luma, and the Cobalt Star - out into the air over the Mushroom Kingdom, letting the happy spinning of the released trio orbit her for a moment. Exhaling a weakened breath, Rosalina reaches out a hand to touch the dimmed Cobalt Star's span in passing as it orbits, and the set of four heavenly bodies drop into the Castle Town without engaging in the excitement of the race, easily hidden from the excitement even glowing as all get-out due to... Futaba starting the hype train. The local Lakitu doing aerial footage of the race and racers peel away from the pipes and little people to focus on the falling ninja announcer as she gets into it, camera flashes following the falling heroes and floating screens highlighting their journey as they tumble onto the slopes of the Rainbow Road. Some of the place's greatest heroes are floating right through the midst of the race and that's much more interesting than if Toadette will overtake Koopa Jr.! As she stands tall in giant form, emceeing for the floating camera-holders and taking up the jumbotron with her goofy face, Futaba has everyone's attention for the main event. Dimo and Doctor Gadd, falling in cohesion (because otherwise Gadd will just tumble through space uncontrolled), tumble past Roland and grind onto the surface of the track on a pipecurve. The Champion artfully lands track and emits dash sparks from foot contact, sliding on the ground and carrying on in a faint disobeyance of friction as she makes for the rainbow <?> blocks on the track - sensing freely-offered power. Stuffwell needs to issue no tutorial here - the apparent ITEM BOXES are free to be crashed through for mid-motion equipping. Lala zips past, heading for the finish line while the Paradox Empress Shroob roils through the air as a mass of unsettling and off-keyframe tentacle attacks. The Combaticon rollout beneath hammers the falling mass with heavy artillery shells that cause citywide panic as several explosions shatter the air with heavy booms, airbusting into the massive Shroob with an incoherent roar. The brain-like head of the empress pushes through a mass of arms, wide and vague mouth opening to screech in both hate and protest, directing the lesser Shroob saucers to attack the Decepticons preferentially with barrages of beam fire. Onslaught, personally, seems to be selected for ground zero of the hateful mass, long fungal arms smashing spear-close and dragging the whole body down onto the Decepticon with all the momentum saved up. It's a titanic smash, but the Paradox Empress is off-course!
Dimokratia	The race is taken at zipping pace, Tamamo both carving off a path for herself and ensuring the falling Nottraiders can't slice off their path with the Shroob's pincer. The Rainbow Road becomes more of a talisman-barrier fiesta than it normally is, and the 100cc track turns into a labyrinth of frustration going back to the '64 era, with Shroob UFOs and the somehow-present and on-model Nottracers (Nottrei with racing helmets on in go-karts and scarves) which had entered the race smashing into walls and tumbling off the track. Cure Milky is able to crash through a powerup box from the Star Warpulator's pathing autoboosting her like a Bullet Bill along the track at ludicrous speed and and gain a TRIPLE MUSHROOM powerup to spend dash boosting to the goal once the stellar comet-bounce wears off, and find the greeble that's taken no time at all to find//what's felt like months of diligent work! Ripping into first place while the entire track devolves into chaos, she's in pole position for the prize! Meanwhile, on the ground, Sarracenia, Roland, Love, Hikaru, and the floating Princess Peach land in what amounts to a town square, where Onslaught and the Empress Shroob have tumbled into a broad KINGDOM PARK AND TENNIS TOUR where the golf and tennis tournaments are held. Their advance -- the moment to pose -- comes after a 'yah' and a 'wah' becomes a 'hoo!' as Mario Mario (of the Brothers Mario), capped and stashed, cape-spins through the air into a corkscrew that defeats a looming trio of saucers and lands without breaking stride in a spin killing pivot. With a red shirt and blue overalls on, the Italian-accented man has a wisp of heroic stature to his short proportions and a yellow halfcape down his shoulder, pinned to his lapel with a long feather. "A princessa Sun-adew? Thank you-a so much!" His thick words speak, a moment of genuine appreciation for the not-often ran heroine in the Pipeland epic of the tales of the Mushroom kingdom. The posing moment is cut while Princess Peach drops in Mary Poppins style with parasol and Stuffwell, to offer Mario 'his' luggage. With practiced snap-out, Mario reaches into Stuffwell and retrieves a big wooden mallet almost as big in the head as his torso is square, shouldering it as he looks into the park. To the gang on the ground, he nods, and says the thing. Everyone's saying it! The level's started. "Let's-a go!" The next moments are hectic. Peach, trading parasol for driving iron, advances with Mario, though the red hatted hero takes the fore for the pair, leaping in while the bursting limbs of the Shroob Empress attack out in patterns that snake out in threat for a moment before thrusting forward. A hop defeats the first swing, and then sliding low defeats the second, but that's just the prelude. Approaching the Paradox Empress is a brutal act of thrashing and pumpfaked reaction prompts, screeching noises that are positively stunning, and of course, Onslaught at the center of the whole monster mash. The Racers can gather up powerups that may be useful for the fight, but on the ground, it's Mario leaping into the air before cape-bombing down through tentacles to get in a mighty thwock of a hammer swing to open the fungal monster's defenses up.
Futaba Nuki	As she's rolling (and then running) through the track, Futaba has to wrap her head around how to actually work around Mario being a plumber. Something about pipes, perhaps? Unclogging... This one's going to take a bit. She's really feeling the energy coming to her, though, as she sees the Lakitu swooping around to get footage of the race and catching some of this descending battle as they pass on by. Spotting her face on that jumbotron below, Futaba's obviously eating up the attention as she clears her throat, then gets right back on conducting the hype train even with the pitched battle going on around her and the kart racers blasting right past her. "Hold onto your caps, folks, because we're making sure this race to the finish ain't going to end in a dead heat! We've got Roland makin' a special appearance, coming to us from the City! Don't let his dashin' good looks fool ya, because this city boy's takin' you on a one-way trip straight to Pound Town!" Snatching one of those item boxes out of the air, Futaba doesn't even realize they're powerups at first when she just chucks one of them at a Shroob UFO that's coming dangerously close to the racetrack and, by extension, the racers. "And speakin' of Pound Town, your mom's got nothin on Princess Sarracenia! The Shroob and the Nottraiders couldn't keep her tied down, and now she's ready to tenderize 'em just in time for dinner!" As she kicks off the track to launch herself after the same UFO, Futaba might actually get to see what's in that item box while she's trying to catch said UFO in her giant-sized hands. Clearly, she's eager to show off her shotput skills, as she does a few twirls in midair before flinging it at the Paradox Empress' face like a... Frisbee? Clearly, she doesn't know how the shotput works. "And what better way to put a good sear on these guys than with some heavy firepower? We've got Onslaught comin' in hot with the big guns, but don't you worry! We're not servin' roadkill for dinner tonight, just grilled Shroob caps with diced tentacles!" She goes quiet for a bit longer after that, only realizing seconds after saying it that she might have messed up a bit. Was that last one in bad taste considering the locale? Alas, it's too late for her to pull that one back now.
Sarracenia	Sarra gives an approving smile and nod as Futaba starts issuing shelter in place warnings, and an outright laugh escapes her as Onslaught unleashes artillery on the Empress. On the ground, Sarra blinks a few times at Love's and Roland's exchange. She ponders a moment. "...hmm. I suppose it does happen fairly often in such stories." She hadn't really thought about it before. 'A princessa Sun-adew? Thank you-a so much!' Sarra practically beams at the thank you. "Well, of course! It is important for the heroes of Pipeland to watch out for each other~" she says. 'Let's-a go!' The line is said. Sarra smrks confidently and grips her own hammer firmly, only for her eyes to go wide again as Mario himself pulls out a hammer. They are Hammer Siblings~ She stares starry-eyed until the moment is interrupted by the flailing tentacles. She follows Mario's lead, going into a trademark spin as she leaps, bouncing off of and into tentacles like a pinball in its machine. She takes a few hits, but that just sends her harder into the next tendril as she bounces and leaps her way upward. The princess is a pro platformer herself, and shows it when she kicks off the sides of tentacles and somersaults through the air, spinning and hammering all the while. When she gets close enough, Sarra pulls out a power-up. A Bullet Bill! Actually, she pulls out a few, and any who are nearby or below her might be able to join in the living artillery strike she is about to deliver. She squeezes her power-up and is engulfed in an explosion. A Bullet Bill the size of a car comes flying out, sailing straight up at that ugly Shroob face with all the power and speed of a rocket. The Bullet Bill explodes powerfully, and Sarra comes spiraling out in the opposite direction. As she falls she throws a few bob-ombs, then artfully flips backward to land on an incoming tentacle before hopping away again. 'Don't let his dashin' good looks fool ya, because this city boy's takin' you on a one-way trip straight to Pound Town!' Sarracenia can't help a bit of a derisive snort at dashin' good looks being ascribed to Roland. All the while, the silhouettes of incoming Sundew airships grow larger on the horizon, promising an even more explosive end for the Shroob, the Nottrei, and the Empress if they last that long.
Combaticon	"Hang on!" Vortex calls out. Her rotors snap to a halt, folding back into a double-V shape. The rockets on the sides of her engine housing burst to life, shooting her forward and down in an evasive arc amidst Empress Shroob's thrashing mycelial appendages. All of her weaponry is aimed either Forward or Down; so sadly Vortex can only cut off bursts of laser fire at Shroob UFOs in passing while doing her best to avoid being smashed to bits. And it's not like Depthcharge can do much while under Vortex's canopy other than hang on and curse in the harsh electronic noises of Cybertronian. The artillery truck that is Onslaught burns its wheels for a second, then lurches backwards down the track to try and at least make himself a harder target than a stationary one. A Roadmaster truck isn't much for speed, even compared to go-karts. His greatest asset is the torque and muscle to haul those heavy guns around. In the cab, the handbrake shoots up and the wheel spins suddenly and wildly; hauling the truck into a gut-churning spin that gets Onslaught facing the right direction to not be stuck retreating in reverse. He doesn't pay much mind to any Nottracers who get caught up in the maneuver, given the size of his truck mode compared to the track. His priority is also not getting smashed to bits by the colossal Empress Shroob. "I appear to have successfully gained--" The entire truck rocks when tentacle slams down on the Rainbow Road, close enough to snap off one of his side mirrors, "--Enemy attention. Another wild swing manages to tear off his left-side artillery gun in a spray of sparks and glowing pink liquid Energon. The remaining cannon fires back, aimed at that brain-like face amidst the roiling mass, "Work quickly."
Tamamo	With a casino-like jingle, Tamamo clips the first item box, coming up with-- Triple Red Shells! Launching them away with a stacatto rhythm, the next is item box is-- Triple Red Shells! And the next box is-- . . . Blatantly cheating through unshown means, Tamamo mixes up the terror of racing near her with talismans that blast fuel-exploding fire, wheel-shatterin ice, or storm-blasts of air that send Notracers into wild, corkscrew spins. One item box she merely nudges with an outstretched hand, causing it to flip upside down on the track, moved just out of position, and explosively fail to open when the next opponent passes by the same point. "I wonder, are the races usually like this?" Possibly. Probably not. She can't be sure. The things she didn't even bring to the track already seem a bit dangerous, on top of it all being up in the air. "Oh, L-- Milky! Are you alright, up there?" It seems like it, but Tamamo's had to carefully follow the track without shortcuts, so she's a fair ways behind. "We should catch up with the rest, but first..." Completing the competitiveness-fueled mind-labyrinth to lock the invaders in the trap-filled Rainbow Road requires completing the same track, herself, and it's only after zipping around, even further past the finish line, that Tamamo angles her bike into a turn low enough to nearly touch her knee to the ground, swing two fingers through an item box and come away with a golden star with black eyes. "Would you come with me for a moment, please?" And then she falls off the track for what would be a terrible fate below, were it not for the rainbow glow of Star Power. Things might not have been entirely finished up in the air, and there isn't a race course waiting for her below, but that didn't stop her last time she'd arrived.
Star Twinkle	Cure Milky joins, not only the racers of the day, but the the ensorcelled extraterrestrial arrivals, in a mad race to the finish line. Lacking a kart of her own, it's Kappard that comes to mind when she's surfing down the rainbow turns and hills on her heart-board, remembering the way that he twisted and shifted his weight while navigating on the ice during their fight on the Star Road: it really was just like kart-racing! A boost mushroom lets Lala crash through the back of a Nottraider's kart and send them flying, and, knees bent to duck under a falling saucer with only inches to spare, Lala nabs her next power-up along the track. A small lightning bolt, meant to just send a brief zap to stun the other racers, but Lala clasps it between her antenna and supercharges it full of her own electricity. When she tosses it up, the pillars of teal lightning bzoom down explosively on the Nottraiders racing alongside her, tossing them up in the air with distracting spinning and loss of traction-- even sending them sailing off the edges if they were approaching a tricky turn! Blasting through that cluster of aliens and zipping down a straightaway on the rainbow track, Onslaught can see a horde of hostile go-karters building up behind Cure Milky. Bouncing green shells riccochet off of guardrails, aimed by the Nottrei and Shroob at Lala, and a flash of red within the grey and purple alien traffic jam signals an even more dangerous homing shell, that Lala can't possibly dodge on her surfboard! Zooming down the track towards Onslaught, Lala makes no motion to divert either direction to navigate around the truck in the middle of the road, instead barreling down the center and bending her knees. "Onslaught! I'm gonna jump, lun! Get ready!" With a burst of Pretty Cure-sparkle, Lala grips the edge of her heart-surfboard and hits a sloped booster, spinning up in the air and soaring straight over Onslaught's artillery. The following Nottraiders, not so skilled with sick jumps, are too fixated on chasing after her, and one by one slam into the side of Onslaught's truck and spiral out. Lala lands on the other side with her opponents cleared out, and a little speed boost as a bonus! "Are you alright, up there?" "Lun!" Lala shouts back down at Tamamo, teal sparks shooting up from her drifting. "Just a little bit more!" ON THE GROUND . . . "A princessa Sun-adew? Thank you-a so much!" "Twincoool!!! You know Mario??" Hikaru might not be entirely clear on how Pipeland royalty and heroes work, but she's staring at Sarracenia with starry eyes regardless. She's gotten hyped up enough about Mario (now, no longer missing!) to consider him de-facto awesome, and so for one of her own buddies to be greeted by the hero by name! Nebulamazing! This only intensifies when Sarracenia mirrors his hammer usage, thus cementing Cure Star's resolve. "Stuffwell! I've learned everything I can from tutorials! Give me a hammer badge!" Double-jumping up after the others, Hikaru brandishes her own hammer, accelerating off of a star-jump to swing and THWACK at the Paradox Empress's tentacles.
Angela	Oh thank god he's not being expected to win a race without a way to race, Roland thinks, he doesn't even know how to drive, really, least not well enough for that kind of track (Roland hasn't seen Love's other form and, as such, doesn't know he could've ridden her dragon form in lieu of a vehicle). He also doesn't exactly know how to play tennis or golf. He gets the general idea. With golf, you hit the ball into the hole. In tennis, you use a racket to hit it over the net, but he couldn't even begin to imagine how the scoring works. It goes, like, 15 to 30 to...40? Why?? But it is genuinely heartening for Mario to be around. Their job was to save MArio and right there he is. It'll be nice to survive the rest, though. ''Wooden mallet almost as big in the head as his torso is square.'' "So that's why..." He murmurs about Sarracenia also using a ridiculous mallet. He glances over to Sarracenia and sees her starstruck expression. It's unfortunately endearing and he kind of gets it actually but he shakes his head to clear it. Some things he can't forgive, he shouldn't forgive--if he forgave, what even would be left of him? ''Don't let his dashin' good looks fool ya'' "...Whut?" Roland says stupidly. It's such an alien thing to hear ascribed to him that he almost lifts at his face to make sure he still has his on. He pats it a couple times. Sarracenia's incredulous reaction doesn't bother him since he knows it's completely because he made sure she doesn't like him, but he is unsettled by the comment. Has he gotten better at lying? His face shouldn't be dashing or handsome. His grimaces, his pained expressions, his scowl and stress lines mean something to him. It's a sign, to him, that he is still affected by the bullshit, he hasn't accepted it, he can still make a terrible expression when he sees something terrible. It's strangely come to be important to him. ...But, of course, this feels more fantasy than real to him. Like he's thrown himself into a happy little dream involving earnest well meaning magical girls, heroic plumbers, and problems solved with golf and racetracks. He takes a steadying breath and lets it out slowly. She's just playing around, he tells himself. Probably didn't know what else to say about him because he's a living lie right now. ...Wait, he thinks, working through his pages. He has something doesn't he? He draws out a page and it vanishes into light, being replaced with a bat. He grows a pair of horns and fangs as it appears into his hands. "Maybe I'm ready after all." He says, swinging the bat to send buffeting winds at the Shroob Empress's projectiles, intending to send them flying right back at her! Meanwhile Love--being sporting and feeling like it's very important to be in theme--is actually mitigating her laser blasts by keeping them in the form of energy ''balls'' instead of going for the full doom laser, sticking to cartoon star and ball-shaped pink bolts.
Dimokratia	Onslaught, truly, draws an unfortunate amount of aggro from the Paradox Empress in his artillery shots. A moment to appreciate the overwhelming assault falling upon him is all the time he has to mount a defense before the Decepticon and the land round him is saturated with savagery. Lashes of purple tentacles tipped with metal shearing claws aren't the 'least' of his worries because they're plenty lethal all on their own, but up close, the Empress uses bulk and beastly ferocity close in with a kind of ambient energy field in ripples and lashes that spark and crackle out to stab beam and bolt metal-bodied warrior-way. The monstrous fungal royal lurches forward, leading with head to take a big bite out of Onslaught and be done with the metal pest when the cannon barrel lines up with toothy jaws and blasts into the 'weak' point (there is no critical hit zones, but there are several softer points!). Staggered and stunned, such as it can be, reeling back and pausing in the attack there's a precious moment to position. On the Rainbow Road, as the race is run through (or surfed through), and the falling crowd of time displaced goons finally start to settle like a form of liquid to the lowest point they can cling to, plenty of tokusatsu dinguses and alien fungus bouncing off roofs and cartoonishly sliding down rounded shakes and off of the hanging trackways into the slow racer traps about the periphery. There's not a lot of death, but there are a lot of dinguses. Tamamo's barriers wall them off nearly completely, while the lucky fox blitzes through crowds of rival 'racers' with unmatched item selection for being 'low placed' and the rubberbanding effects of good sport helping her case. If the races are normally like this, nobody answers, Lakitu swarmed into Futaba's hypebeasting as attention turns beneath and below. Futaba passes through a powerup box on her travel through the air rolling, and when she enlarges, a UFO from above is slung like a discus (which is only an At The Olympics game mode, and thus will not be tutorialized), and the hurtled projectile smashes the dazed-back Shroob Empress down in a smearframe smoosh that leaves her clearly dizzyframed for an extended opportune attack moment! Wriggling fiercely and trying to hurl limbs into the way, the Magical Girl of Love's themely beams and bean blasts lash down, obviously animated such that it is IMPOSSIBLE for her to teehee-teamshot her allies. It's not allowed! The camerawork won't allow it! It's too expensive to animate you being hit so it won't happen! Within the writhe of beamed limbs and the same curling-crisping playing but mirrored left-right to open the way, the melee-and-bombs gang close up. Toadstool Castle Town clears out - for the second time, or perhaps the first - Mario joins a fresh full party of allies in taking the hammer swinging fight right to the foe! Peach steadies her driving iron like a greatsword, two handed and fierce, swing-clashing with a claw tentacle. Behind her dramatic golf clash, Roland goes to work on reflecting projectiles, batting the barrage back with curving trails to smash into the flagging Empress. With a heave up of golfclup and ducking under the motion to snap out a Fire Flower, Peach changes her skirtage to white and red and draws a trio of 'golf'-fire balls to smack them explosively towards the empress in quick hook-sling. Dash-sliding under Peach's window and sprinting past Roland, Mario weaves between beam attacks and Bob-omb and Bill detonations like an artful dance, blocking with the head of his hammer thrust bluntly before him as much as he swings wide and cracks aside tentacles. Ahead of Peach, Mario also snaps out a Fire Flower, joining her in matching outfits of white and red and losing the yellow feather-pinned cape in a dissipative flash to swing out a flaming defensive twirl that smoothly transitions into a Super Fire Swing charge windup!
Dimokratia	Corkscrew uncoiling torque force into one hell of a pivot swing, Mario cracks the Empress from low to high, leaving her vulnerable to attack from up high! "Good-a loo-king!" Mario calls, a mix of genuine and jovial and not knowing the black suited man, and holds out a gloved hand towards the advance of Roland. Given even a shove Mario's direction, Roland will be 'wa-hoo!' swung wide up into the air: given a perfect aerial attack angle for a Super Jump of his own! One girl, among all, has requested aid. While Mario does his hammer exhibition, Stuffwell powers across the golf course with a dashpuff under both feet as the luggage beelines for the CALL to AID (and Adventure!!!). "Salutations and ofcourseulations! You bet your leather, missy, one BADGE coming right up! Let's go all out with a big one!" Flipping open, the talking leather suitcase pops open and flops to the ground, a visible menu being rapidly scrolled through several dozen options until the second to last is selected from the 'MARIO' menu. There is also a LUIGI, PEACH, and GADD menu, but they're greyed out for now. Hikaru - Cure Star - pulls from the Man Himself's Badge Inventory. And the one she gets is a gold star medal, a badge with a golden hammer with a red metal midbody and an aura of immense power merely coming off the badge! The Superstar Hammer badge lets Mario maximize Hammer power to the limit while under Star Power! Hmm, that one might be useful...
Combaticon	> "Onslaught! I'm gonna jump, lun! Get ready!" "Use caution!" that's the closest thing to concern Onslaught has ever expressed just in the tone of his robotic voice. It's all for Lala's safety; the monstrous Empress Shroob trying to tear him to pieces is-- well, he's had beings trying to kill him plenty of times, but a (presumably) fragile organic being he actually cares about throwing herself into danger has every single figurative hackle raised. And yet he accommodates the teal Precure's trajectory, swinging his gun aside and lowering the barrel just enough for her to clear it while Nottraider racers smash into his side and tires hard enough that he loses rear traction for a few hair-raising seconds. One final shot lands right in the Empress' gaping maw before one of those armor-piercing tentacles slices into the gun turret, gutting the mechanism and pulling a pained grunt from the Decepticon. He serves, avoiding a followup just narrowly. "I am running out of rubber," he manages, tensely, "Now would be a good time." "For Primus' sake," Depthcharge hisses, "He's so slagging careless when he gets like this." "Like what?" There's no 'face' inside Vortex's cockpit, but the tone of her voice heavily implies that earnest sidelong glance of hers. "You've gotten enough altitude finally," Depthcharge immediately changes the subject, "Get to work while we still have a commander." "--Ahh, right!" The jet-powered attack helicopter banks into a roll, Depthcharge clinging to the interior as gravity suddenly inverts. Now positioned above Empress Shroob as she pursues and tears pieces out of Onslaught, Vortex swoops down across the great fungal noble's back, dropping cluster bombs into every cluster of hostile tentacle roots she can see.
Tamamo	'Just a little bit more!' "I shall see you there!" And so, the race continues, as it will continue for some long while yet, for any trapped in the barrier. As for Tamamo, she descends. "Thank you, and now, I shall be alright, I think." Alas, Star Power is as fleeting as fame. Tamamo waves off the starman's disappearance after the massive crash of rider and cycle to roof tiles causes extensive cosmetic damage, leaning around to check her vehicle only afterward. "Oh, dear, even with that boon, these tires cannot hope to hold out for much longer, can they? Perhaps I should not have run over all of those... ahem, ahem. This calls for the... the 'pit crew,' yes? Well, there is no time for that, now." Thinking she'll have to make it just a little longer... "Oh! So, there is Mr. Mario! Ya-ho~!" Tamamo waves on the way in, with a shout that might not make it over the sounds of engines and battle without the help of text boxes. "My, but he is quite the athlete, after all." She'd almost like to simply watch how everyone else manages, but even if it's handled, that just wouldn't be appropriate by this point -- to say nothing of the ever-present chance for a last minute twist. No, it's best to be sure about these things. The right way to handle luck is to not let an enemy have any, in the first place. Moving too quickly over rooftops to call it 'rattling,' Tamamo makes the same sort of leaping, banking, wall-riding stunts as she'd done in that first battle, the one that has yet to and now won't happen, calling out warnings of, "Slide left!" and "Coming through! Leap right!" as if she knew where people were about to be by the time they could react, and lifts up, spins a quarter-round, and comes to a screeching, sliding finish nearly flat the ground, passing below the ever larger Shroob Monarch with a cursed talisman prepared just for her. "And... there!" Cheerfully, "That should be enough." A sinister-looking charm, but stuck where it'll hardly be noticed, even as it shifts and binds the near-future threads of possibility to ensure that the approaching doom (in the form of many magical finishers) will be unavoidable.
Futaba Nuki	"so that's how that works..." Nodding slowly in approval as her embiggened form gets even bigger, Futaba adjusts course. Her target continues to be that Shroob Empress further below, and she continues to treat talking as a free action even while landing atop another UFO to start jockeying it towards its own leader in a rapid descent. "Atta boy... We've got a whole host of heavenly warriors on the home field, too! We got not one! Not two! Not three! Heck, not even four, but FIVE starvelous battlers shinin' a light on the Shroobs and the Nottraiders' designs on this here planet! Cure Star'll laying the smackdown on anyone trying to set foot on this planet, and Cure Milky's got enough juice to send 'em crashin right back down to earth with the way she's just clearin' through that track!" Bringing up juice reminds Futaba that she has't actually drank anything in a while now, and she smacks her lips a few times. Sadly, there's no time for a water break, as she still as plenty of hype-beasting left to do, and the adrenaline's really kicking in as she draws her flaming ka-tennis racket out from the top of her tennis dress. "Better hope they don't get lost gettin' bounced all around like that, though, because we've got THE bunrei of the sun along for the ride, Tamamo-no-mae! Looks like she's stealin' all the luck from these guys with the hot run o' shells she's snatching up! And if that ain't bad enough of a home team advantage, Princess Rosalina's here to..." The ninja doesn't actually know anything about Rosalina. She remembers seeing her descending with the star children in a way that most certainly wasn't conventional, but other than that... "... I don't even need to tell you what she's going to do to you! The folks here at home already know, so let's leave the away team in suspense!" As far back in the race as she is thanks to not trying to actually win the thing, Futaba crashes through one more item box with her face and immediately breaks into a wide grin. "Oh, hey. Ain't this one of Sundew's favorites?" Cracking a broad smile for the camera as she holds up mouthless face of a Bob-omb for the viewers at home, the ninja hoists it overhead while her off-model extra arms practically shove the UFO down towards the Paradox Empress. "And if gleamin' gold ain't your style, we've got the shiningest silver bringin' it all together, Dimo! If the Shroob had a real leader like her, maybe we'd be singin' a different tune today!" Shouting as loudly as ever, Futaba crashes the UFO-with-Bob-omb-and-herself right into the top of the Shroob leader, culminating in a grand explosion full of... Stars? Not as much fire as she thought there would be? It's probably not as big of an explosion as she was hoping for, but futaba can still work with what she's got. Backflipping out of the smoke that she may or may not have detonated her own smoke bombs for, Futaba emerges with wings sprouted along her back, zipping around the tentacular Shroob with her flaming tennis racket still in hand. It almost looks like she's playing defense on the other side of the court as she starts smacking flying debris and missed projectiles right back down at the Shroob Empress, spiking fireballs and UFO chunks and kart fragments alike back down with gleaming blue and orange trails.
Sarracenia	'Twincoool!!! You know Mario??' Hikaru's excitement and staring boosts Sarra's ego quite a bit...even though she is almost as surprised as Hikaru is that Mario knows who Sarra is and recognizes her on sight. "I do? Er..I mean..I do, of course! Our paths have crossed once or twice~" She isn't going to mention that it is literally that. The Sundew princess has never been on an adventure with Mario, and has only actually met him on those occasions where an event (such as a kart race) is being held in the Mushroom Kingdom. Sarra is starry-eyed again herself as Mario skillfully weaves through his allies' attacks to land his own...and is immediately in a huff with cheeks puffed when /Roland/ gets a boost from Mario. Why does that self-described non-hero even have to be here?! She isn't going to blame Mario, of course. He's being a proper hero and helping his allies. That gets her back to starry-eyed. That and the dazzling display he and Peach put on with their fire flower power. Not one to be left out, Sarra pulls out her own fire flower... ...distracting Sarra enough that she gets summarily swatted away by the Empress. She lets out a yelp as she goes flying right toward the race track! She blinks as she spots Onslaught being torn into and calls out, "Onslaught! This might help!" as she tosses a green mushroom toward him. She really has no idea if it will work on a robot, but it's magic so...there's no reason to think it wouldn't, right? She lands on the track, then hmms. "...there is really only one proper way to deal with an enemy in Pipeland!" she exclaims, then reaches into her purse. She tugs on something, then grunts and tugs harder, and finally pulls out a mushroom bigger than herself with a yellow cap and red spots. She squeezes it tightly like a giant plushie, and is engulfed in a puff of white smoke. The Sundew princess suddenly surges in size, growing to nearly ten times her usual size! She crouches low, then leaps with all her might. The power of the Mega Mushroom sends her sailing upward, above the Paradox Empress. She gives her now even more gigantic hammer a twirl as her arc carries her down at that giant fungus head, then stands on the head of her hammer as she plummets down. She places a hand on the front of her dress to try and keep it from showing too much, but she still better not spot anyone looking up! (Mostly Roland) The speed and force of the fall soon has a burning aurora like a falling comet forming around her, and her spiral leaves a trail of sparkles in a twirling display. "Land on their head!" Just as the massive hammer head is about to impact, Sarra kicks downward to add even a bit more force.
Angela	Roland is pretty certain he's not a hero. How often are assassins heroes anyway? And heroes are supposed to be able to, generally, save the people they want to save, at least when it's very important to. They suffer setbacks of course. Roland's suffered setbacks certainly. But more than any of that, more than the fact he's fought in wars, more than the fact he has resigned himself to working with the Library for his own goal that he just won't say--well, he knows what goes on in his mind better than anyone. Heroes don't think like that. Heroes are more people like Lala and Hikaru who are out there proudly stating their beliefs while staying true to them, facing the universe with open hearts and hopeful smiles. Roland doesn't have any of that. But he can at least admire it. He knows he can't be a hero but some part of him still admires them. It's probably also true that Mario has no idea what kind of person Roland is, so Roland isn't assigning any value to getting a helpful hand from the guy, really, though it still lifts his spirits some. After all, he can still appreciate the fantasy of it in the moment, fighting alongside a hero in a cape. He is, obviously, not going to look up he's in the middle of a fight! Love, though, always eager to help team attacks, gives Roland a bit of a bump to push him towards Mario. A ridiculous gloved hand is being extended towards him. His eyes widen and he smiles. He thinks of his time fighting with an old partner of his he grabs hold of Mario's hand. And then he's THROWN INTO THE AIR HE WASN'T EXPECTING THAT? The noises Roland makes as he soars up into the air in a truly undignified manner are truly impressive. And as he starts falling towards his target he just outright screams in terror as he falls feet first towards the Shroob Monarch, both feet extended towards the FINAL BOSS??. He is pretty sure his body will shatter upon impact like he knows from the page he's been using during this adventure that it won't, but he FEELS otherwise. After making impact, though, he bounces a couple more times on the creature before tumbling down, rolling over and flopping onto his back, essentially defeated (by Mario).
Star Twinkle	"Let's go all out with a big one!" "Heck yeah!!!! That's what I like to hear, Stuffwell!" Hikaru Hoshina is allowed one (1) 'heck' in a movie duration feature! She is immediately compelled to use another one when she draws out from Mario's own inventory, a golden hammer, to grip in her own two hands. Swinging it around her head and experimentally smacking it into the ground causes a thwoom of a shockwave that flattens the grass, eliciting another devious giggle from her. Instead of going so far as to say heck, Cure Star hoists the hammer onto her shoulder with a pink shimmer of the Pretty Cure's own Star Power, and then gets a running start to leap up after Mario. Each swing of the hammer connects with a sparkly sound effect as a magical star blossoms into existence at its head, lagging the animation for a moment before exploding against the Paradox Empress Shroob's tentacles. There's so much oomph to its impact that even the girlish might of Cure Star is partly at its mercy to swing around and be blown backwards, having to reposition in the air each time by manifesting stars under her feet to double-jump off of. Like a bee with a thunderous stinger, Cure Star zips around the periphery of the Empress Shroob, until one flailing tentacle finally catches her. Spiraling through the air, she soars right past Roland, going in the opposite direction, and even further above her is Sarracenia coming stomping down. With everyone following the lead of the red jumping man, the pink Cure has to regather the energy to follow suit! Flipping over in the air, Hikaru arranges herself to land with a squat on one of her magical stars, charging up energy to launch herself like a cannon straight back downwards, falling, jumping, and boosting all at once. With MAXIMUM hammer power, the golden comet-trail of star power grows behind her, mashing A as many times as she can to charge the impending combo attack that's about to crush the Empress.
Star Twinkle	Meanwhile, Cure Milky streaks across the finish line well ahead of her competition, having built up to such a speed that zappy teal trails are left in her wake. Without stopping, she snatches the Stellar Note off of its pedestal in a drive by-- with a barely-audible "Sorry lun I just really need it thank you!"-- clutching the golden shine in her fist. Careening from the end of the elevated racetrack, Lala can encircle the hectic boss fight arena happening in the golf course below, in a moment of relative high-speed peace to examine the Stellar Note with Yuma flying beside her. A golden music box cylinder, inscribed with the tiny bumps that carry the parting gift of the star that birthed Yuma, in the form of a lullaby. On one end is a pair of twin curves, connected by parallel lines, that symbolize its name. "Here you go, Yuma. We're halfway there now, so I promise, we'll get all the rest, lun." With a flash, the little treasure is replaced in Lala's hand with another one of the colored power-up Pens, which she immediately grips tightly. "Gemini Star Color Pen! Color Charge!" After the form-change flash of light fades away, Gemini Cure Milky is in an enhanced outfit, with longer hair, a sparkling skirt that drapes off of the back of her pumpkin shorts, swirls of blue and green stripes to contrast the teal, and, obviously, a power up! Besides a pause for the splash screen to properly display the new form, Cure Milky wastes no time in joining the fray versus the Empress-- and with the powers of the Gemini pen, there's no time wasted at all. A streak of light, moving at impossible speed, splits off in two directions from where Milky was, one green and one blue. Encircling the Empress Shroob, neither of the moving forms come to a full halt, but within the flickers of light are afterimages of Cure Milky flashing from one place to the next, some blue-shifted and some green. While the Empress Shroob helplessly tries to batter down the new arrival, only to swipe helplessly through the afterimages, an overlapping chorus of Lala's voice shouts out, as electricity sweeps over the golf course to envelop the oversized Shroob on every side, "Precure ¤ Gemini Milky Shock!"