Scene #7383: Product Placement 2/2

Owner	Pose
Samhain	LAST TIME: The various heroes went around talking to the Student Council and the Athletics Director, learning things about their personality and about the stolen sports drink cooler. Robin was able to inform the Watch that there's rumors of a monster causing problems. Strawberry poured whole milk into tea worth thousands of dollars a kilo. NOW: The alert goes out from Daisuke. The monster had been sighted. And...it explains the mystery of the missing gatorade tank! A big orange cylinder, with arms, legs, and a sideways cap, an angry face on the top of the cylinder, and a weird hose-like protrusion, like an elephant's nose. He's spraying lemon-lime liquid everywhere, but not attacking anyone. Yet, despite the lack of attack, he's certainly not friendly, as he rams through the empty basketball court. "Once all my lemon-lime goodness is sprayed everywhere, I'll make the sugars inside explode! Everyone who stepped on it will die! Hahahaha! Gatorharm is here to play!" Daisuke's already suited up into Masked Baller Spalding, and is in 'stealth', aka, listening to the Gatorharm. "Bros, come quick. This stuff's all over the school." The ball's in your court. What do you do?
Kale Hearthward	A hot dog vendor runs onto the basketball court, pushing his hot dog court. "Stop, monster!" calls the middle aged, overweight hot dog vendor. "You shall menace this school no longer! For standing against you is the Gale Empire's East Wind Regalia - Kale Hearthward! Surrender, or face the consequences of your actions and the pain of your defeat, for as long as I live and breathe!" The hot dog vendor draws a sword from somewhere, and exudes a menacing aura as he Lines Up. It is clearly Kale Hearthward - the voice of the inconspicuous hot dog vendor that's been hanging out selling hotdogs around campus all day has abruptly changed, as has his manner of speaking, as has the fact that he's wielding a sword that he's pulled out from somewhere and has just announced that he is Kale Hearthward, East Wind Regalia, etcetera. He just... hasn't made any move to actually remove the disguise. Maybe he's forgotten.
Selene	Selene's guesses weren't quite on the mark this time around, but that doesn't stop her from beaming with overconfidence as she huddles up by Masked Baller Spalding. She stares right at the thing calling itself Gatorharm, grimacing after a few moments at its boasts and shouts. "It's not even blue flavor... Gross. Better than white, though." Rubbing her head, she adjusts her fashionably school-appropriate beret, only then realizing that she's wearing that and not her usual hat. It's not like she hasn't come here already wearing that beret TWICE. "IF we can't touch the floor 'cause it's covered in color-juice, though, then it should be fine if we dry it up!" Brimming with vigor once more, Selene pops open one of her balls and releases that familiar black and red cat onto her head. Breaking off from Spalding, she takes the most direct path towards the Gatorharm, apparently not even considering that it might see her coming from that direction. "If you're gonna blow stuff up, it should at least be the orange flavor!" Or hear her, apparently, as she immediately gets right to shouting at the monsterized sports drink container. "Even your body's orange, so what's the big idea? Yellow's just weird and creepy like the greasy fat guy over there!" She waves at Kale for emphasis, then flips a luchador mask (blue and green) out of her handbag and onto her face in one swift motion before posing both arms extended out and above her head. "Let's get the mess cleaned up, TC! burn it up, and we'll get someone to sweep it up later!" And then the cat starts breathing fire onto the floor juice. The floor juice that is indoors. This cannot possibly go wrong.
Strawberry Princess	Strawberry Princess's response time is, as always, impeccably sharp. She's dressed in what's become her new casual attire, but she's panting for breath as she leans on the court's doorframe. Her lungs are, very obviously, not conditioned to keep up with her spindly legs. "God," she says under her breath. "It's every few days, huh. How do the Ribbongers manage..." For now, her horrifying wand is staying in the carrying-case slung diagonally across her back. Her hand scrabbles its way to her waist holster instead, pulling out a simple black handgun. "HEY," she shouts to get the creature's attention as she draws a bead on it. A pause as she catches her breath and thinks of what to say next. "Uh... please don't? Don't- do that. The exploding." She side-eyes the hotdog vendor for a moment before sparking with recognition. "Oh. You put it a lot better, yeah. What he said." Of course, when it inevitably refuses to stop its rampage, she screws her eyes up tight and sucks in her breath, viscerally radiating discomfort. It's talking, which makes this muddier- blurs the line between 'monster' and 'person'. But if it's threatening to blow high school students up... that just barely gives her the strength to squeeze the trigger. Even if she does drop her aim a few degrees last-second to go for the knee.
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	>Come quick. There's Gatorharm all over the school. Marching out from the woods, where he had literally just been waiting on a stump, Bercilak's pace is leisurely. Gatorharm will likely hear the clank of his heavy boots as he crosses into the basketball court. "Not 'Hatoraide?' Hm..." The Green Knight shrugs, armoring up. A cloak of helleria grass and helleborne flowers grows from his shoulders, completing the heavy armor ensemble after his horned helmet appears. Wild Boar of the High Wasteland -- Bercilak The haft of his axe is tapped against the hardwood floor. From the nearest lemon-lime pool, there sprouts, of all things, a carpet of thick, damp moss, soaking up the fluid in an effort to suppress the intended explosive effect. All around the court, the moss spreads where Torracat's perhaps ill-advised fire doesn't burn it up first. "I am Bercilak, the Green Knight. I, mine frends... and yon rostere of sausige," a gesture to the hotdog man. He's not questioning. "Shalt halt thy astruinge. Saith unto me the name of he that made ye, and I shalt make not thy scomfiture a dethli one." Having named the terms of a covenant, the Green Knight then rushes into battle, attempting now to stop Gatorharm with a thrust-assisted shoulder-check, into an armored knee to the stomach, followed finally by a strike from the axe's haft meant to force them to the ground.
Xion	'Once All My Lemon-Lime Goodness is sprayed everywhere, I'll make the sugars inside explode!' A part of the frame in the corner goes dark. A stage appears. A spotlight clicks onto the stage, where Xion stands, coat and all, finger pointing accusingly. "Stop right there! Not only is blue the best flavor of gatorade -- you've made gatorade lewd! This world is one, even through all the darkness, of fun! Nobody has fun when they're sticky - or being attacked by someone trying to subject them to liquids they don't want. I'm here to stop you, not as a matter of monsters, but as a matter of taste." Her stance widens as she settles into bent-knee pose, thrusting forward both fists a medallion in each - one red, with a headlamp face, and one purple, with a mono-eyed machine man. "I'll turn the keys -- and put a stop to your golden showers, Gatorharm!" The red medal flashes, emitting a car horn and a NASCAR-announcer-like voice belting out "DRIVE". The purple medal flashes, announcing "JUSTICE" The two lights cross, Xion's outfit expanding the black bodysuit with segments of metallic purple and gunmetal underplate. Her chest is sashed by a line of red crossed by a line of black forming a large X. Her left wrist is ringed in red light as a bracer forms about it. The transformation finishes with a screech of tire and a pulse of purple energy. "It's time for a reset at top speed --" Her armor finishes the announcement. "DRIVE! Type -- Viral"
Samhain	The group lets loose the first attacks, as Gatorharm finally notices them, laughing about his explosive yellow gatorade. "Blue?! Orange?! Don't make me laugh! Lemon-lime is the most refreshing flavor! And the most explosive! Because when life gives you lemons..." Selene starts setting the gatorade on fire, and his eyes widen. It's here that those around him can see the seams on his body. He's a Stitch. "No, wait-" The gatorade spill explodes, buffeting Gatorharm and recoiling him back. It's here that the others can get their attacks in - Strawberry's pistol drops one of his big beefy legs, hitting dead-on in the knee and dropping him on one-foot. Bercilak's slam and trip leaves him on both knees, while the Hot Dog Man's menacing aura causes him to stagger. Xion's transformation has him staring at her (and has Spalding nodding along furiously, who also points a finger out). "WHAT?! Another Masked Baller?!" And then, to Bercilak."My creator? Why, that would be..." Right as he's 'about to tell' Bercilak, suddenly, that hose trunk nose is whipped around, spraying more sport drinks everywhere. It detonates in mid-air, explosive bursts with a taste of sour, trying to do literal splash damage, as he starts to right himself back up, pointing a finger. "As the greatest Stitch, I don't fear death! If you think I'll be like Statueface, think again! I'll destroy you all!" Spalding starts spinning an energy basketball, and shoots it straight at the Stitch, who whips it out of the way with his hose, taking light sear damage. A clear melee defense, it seems.
Kale Hearthward	"Ah - you aren't going to be like statueface... not going in quietly, then, I see." Hot Dog Vendor attempts to parry the spray of liquid, which doesn't really work out, not least because it explodes. Now it's even more obvious that Hot Dog Vendor is a disguise, since some of it burns away with the explosion. "For the unrepentant, you gain naught but two things from me -" The hot dog vendor flourishes his sword. "A modicum of respect, for sticking to your accelerators - for being so forthright and committed that you'd decry other options afore the battle is truly joined!" "And yet, the second of these things that you gain..." Hot Dog Vendor brings the sword up to his lips, and blows into the hilt. "Breath Weapon Periactus, rending apart your form, for which no thanks are to be expected in return! Prepare yourself for oblivion!" The Hot Dog Guy air-dashes across the basketball court, bouncing off of the far wall and coming back in to attempt a flyby attack with his sword, which has now turned into a giant drill!
Strawberry Princess	Strawberry is- despite her distance from the explosive blast- knocked over, landing on her back on the sidewalk just outside. She lets out a dull, rasping groan, feeling the deep bruises along her spine already forming. Assess the damage: her fingers run along the back of her head, making sure she didn't hit it on the pavement; her eyes scan the front of her body to make sure there's no shrapnel stuck in her. "Sloppy," she scolds herself- untransformed, she's defenseless. Better late than never. Grabbing at the carrying case laying next to her, she pulls out her magic wand. No more mistakes. There's a faint pink flash of light from outside the baseball court. A second later, a force-wall appears inches behind Gatorharm- and then Strawberry herself swoops back into the court at harrowing velocities, spinning around at the last moment to contact Gatorharm's head with both feet and slam his plastic skull into the force field, hammer-and-anvil style! Her knees bend on impact, absorbing the bone-shattering force with practiced grace, and then let her flip backwards off of Gatorharm as the force field behind him shatters. Flaring her sparkling translucent wings, she swoops back to a far upper corner of the gym, already drawing a bead on him with her pistol again and twisting to minimize her forward profile.
Selene	That went not how Selene expected at all, and she steps back momentarily at the explosion of sports drink. "Isn't liquid supposed to be wet? Unless it's the electrolytes or something, but I'm pre-tty sure that's not how any of that works!" Staying further away from the main battlefield so as to not risk horrible maiming, Selene is more than willing to let the Torracat fight closer to the general danger field being put out by Gatorharm. The cat leaps around as it tries to avoid that yellow spray, but the exploding liquid manages to leave searing marks upon the cat's from those repeated impacts. "You're doing great, TC! Try something different, though! We can't let the rest of these guys show us up!" Shouting to her cat, Selene takes a moment to plan out her next moves. She can't quite plan on a mid-battle evolution, she doesn't have quite the same budget as Xion does when it comes to special effects, and she definitely doesn't have a weird thing to blow into like the Hot Dog Guy or a freaking axe and the martial skill of Bercilak. She also takes a mental note to ask about handgun training from Strawberry Princess. She does have the tools for a more unconventional match, though. "From half court! Flame Charge Moonsault!" Somehow, Selene pulls out an entire folding chair and ladder out of her bag, opening each one up and hurling them onto the basketball court (conveniently landing right side up). The cat, noticing that signal, sprints for the chair, leaping onto and off of it to scramble up the ladder. Upon reaching the top, it leaps right for the Stitch, backflipping once in the air and bursting into flames as it aims a burning hot belly flop right at Gatorharm!
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	"If thou wouldst hath thine own astruinge o'er the name of thy maker..." A lemon-lime explosion detonates right in front of the Green Knight. The smoke clears. Rather, it is cleared by force, as his towering form comes barreling through it, his armor gleaming as the scorch marks from that explosion vanish rapidly. The axe is brought to bear as he steps forward with his right leg, hooking through that sprayer-trunk with the beard of the weapon. "SO BE HIT!" He lifts Gatorharm up and swings them bodily around overhead, attempting to slam them into Hot Dog Guy's drill-sword. Flinging the Stitch downwards, he sidesteps Strawberry's attack, chasing after her to capitalize on her body-slam with a vicious overhead swing of the axe, edge bearing down hard enough to split and splinter the boards of the court. "Ah, sori," says Bercilak after he hears the first round from Strawberry's pistol, leaping forward to give her a cleaner shot. Hanging off of the backboard...actually, so heavy as to bend it, he releases his grasp, landing with a thud. No sooner do his feet touch the ground than does the haft of the axe crash against the court with authority. A bed of vines and tumbleweeds grows around Gatorharm, which will rapidly combust in contact with Torracat's bodyslam!
Xion	"There's nothing refreshing about needing a shower. And--" Xion dramatically pauses,lifting her right fist while bracing her forearm at the elbow with her left hand. Like tighting a glove down over her fist, she pumps the fingers closed. "Will defeat you, and the gum disease gingevitus." Unfortunately, she gets sugar bombed badly, arms flailing back as her armor sparks and flashes. The anxiety theme plays, as a slow-motion pan lingers on the way she has to plant her feet. "You won't defeat... The Grim Reaper's power... by only caring about your self!" Low in her stance, she turns her right shoulder forward, hand at the brace to work the purple medal set into the brace like a lever. "Viral! Viral! Viral!" Calls the bracer as Xion Drive Armor leaps into action. Sprinting past Strawberry (with a "--Hi Strawberry!--") Princess and slide-kicking under her vaulting back-hop, she launches from her spring-coiled ground slide to a rising uppercut, right leg cocked. As she carries forward, she snaps out her foot while pirhouetting to transition into a twirling kick. The final spin of her motion, as she lands, crackles with extra power, as her bracer pops in the callout BREAK.
Samhain	"Why am I fighting a hot dog man?!" Gatorharm shouts out, as the drill-sword suddenly pierces into his stomach. This starts creating cracks in the plastic, and is absolutely strengthened by Strawberry's super-speed kick into the newly created force wall. There's a loud CRACK, and gatorade starts spilling out of his stomach, as he woozily starts whipping the two of them with his snout, trying to smash limbs with sheer hose force. Bercilak's axe comes in, and cracks more of his casing with a vicious overhead, while TC's fiery moonsault misses him outright, but ignites the spill, causing more electrolyte-sugar explosions. As Xion comes in with her big catchy phrase and attack, fist into foot, twirling cool kick, Masked Baller Spalding joins her. He dribbles an energy sphere, jukes in, and comes on the opposite side of Gatorharm from her. The two impact at the same time, causing more leakage of sports drink and cracked plastic falling everywhere. Despite that, Bercilak, Selene, Xion, and even Spalding aren't safe from harm. At this close range, the hose moves to whip at them, spraying liquid all over them if it can land an accurate hit, as Gatorharm shouts out. "I NEED ASSISTANCE!" There's suddenly a feeling of malice over the court. Something's watching. There Will Be Backup next round.
Selene	"Because I don't know why a hot dog man! What's... I mean, it's A gimmick." Selene squints at Not-Kale, somehow managing to look incredibly judgmental despite her face being entirely covered by that painted mask. "I dunno if that's gonna take you far, but... Eh, I've seen dumber stuff get pushed hard." When the cat botches the moonsault and ends up exploding yet more things that probably should not be exploding, Spalding's words echo in the back of Selene's mind. She nods slowly as though she's come to a realization about something, and she raises a finger before pointing it dramatically towards Gatorharm once more. "Alright, TC... He wants backup, so lets end this match quick! Get right in there, no sell that sucker, and give it the biggest pop of its life!" The cat's sweating slightly as it hears that command, very obviously not pleased with the notion of moving /into/ the range of that hose. As it hears a sharp yelp from Selene getting sprayed with the explosive liquid, however, its hesitation disappears, and it charges right into the oncoming hose. Selene's down, seemingly for the count, but the Torracat is still up! It winces as it's blasted directly by another discharge of burning yellow fluid, but it tries to capitalize on being in such close range. Its bell glows with the intense heat building up inside of it, coming out moments later in a rather short range puff of flame that explodes upwards into a massive pillar of fire, all centered right on the Gatorharm.
Xion	<J-IC-Scene> (NPC) Masked Baller Spalding, having gotten a radio, says, "Bros, I gotta be able to practice, be more careful, y'know? Lemme know if you need any sweet team play." This is a battle against the shot-clock. Twenty-four seconds to play. Otherwise, the happiness of the team is in danger. A hose of Lemon-Lime liquid splashes all over Xion's Type Viral armor, settling in and making drenching her through with sticky, sugary badness. She struggles, momentarily, against the sticky bindings as the sugar hardens. "Purge!" She gasps, and the purple in her armor bursts out, carrying the sugar away with it. Restored, with only the one black sash across a now-red armor suit, she backsteps. "The right power is--" Xion worries, her good feeling about the right combination of powers to defeat Gatorhate or Hater-ade or Sugar Bomb or whatever the sentai name for the tooth decay monster is this time. Then -- it dawns on her. "I'll just have to entrust my power to another. That way, it'll balance out. Then -- the power I need to use is:" She holds out the Mashin Chaser medallion, thumb against the side, before bringing it in against her palm. "Super X!" Pronounced 'Super Key'. Moving to throw the medal forward, it hangs in the air just past her hand, crackling. "TRIPLE" Growls the heavily synthed voice. The medallion's edges pulse out a ring of purple, which Xion steps through while holding her hand towards Spalding. "Pass!" He doesn't throw her a physical ball, but an orange energy sphere, which spins into an orange-and-black medal in her hand. She starts dribbling the energy sphere, first straight, then between her legs, then smashes the ball up and takes a bracer-up posing stance, slotting in the Spalding Medallion into her brace and depressing a meaningful-looking finisher stud. The Drive Armor announces: Full Throttle! The Chase Medal growls: EXECUTION. And the Spalding medal blares a loud MLG Horn with Baller! All of the power, red and purple charge up in her outstretched hand as the ball of orange drops towards it. As all three meet, she spins once and heaves, with both hands, the whole finisher ball at Spalding. "Bro! DUNNNNNK!" The streak of b-ball power surges towards his hands. Will he... SEIZE VICTORY?
Kale Hearthward	"Why are you fighting a hot dog man - what hot dog man?" Insert beat panel here. "Oh - breeze it, I forgot to take the disguise off," says the hot dog man. He makes a dramatic motion as he lands on the ground - and now he is no longer a man wearing a hot dog costume, but instead a bird wearing the hot dog costume. Either way he's also covered in the electrolyte-explosive liquid. "Ah - ha! I understand your confusion now, because you were not fighting some Random Hot Dog Man who you had a chance to defeat, no..." "... You were fighting Kale Hearthward, East Wind Regalia, who you have no chance of defeating!" He poses, dramatically. "The time for regrets has long passed, I'm afraid! And now..." He blows into his sword to recharge it, and then weaves a spell with his offhand and tosses it into the drill as it starts going again. As it spins, it also acts as an origin point for a powerful force - a localized low pressure front, forming an almost magnetic tornado as the winds in front of Kale start pulling the gatorade monster towards the drill! "For the truly unrepentant - EAST WIND RADIAL CORE!" The localized tornado spins, with a terrible noise, as it pulls inwards. The drillsword spins, with an even worse noise, as Kale swings it.
Strawberry Princess	Gatorharm's flailing 'trunk' lashes Strawberry's shin as she retreats from melee range- the bulk of the impact is defrayed in a shimmer of pink light at the point of impact, but it still elicits a wince from her. That, plus the bruises on her back- she'll want to spend some time with an ice pack tonight. Time to take a safer tack for now. As she twists and tacks in the air, room spinning around her, Strawberry finds a piece of cover that only a brain trained on three-dimensional thinking for years would pick out: the hoop itself. Using her flight to 'crouch' on the backside of the hoop's reinforced backboard as if the vertical surface were a floor, she leans forward upside-down to peek 'over' its bottom edge and line up the shot with her handgun again. It didn't bleed real blood the first time she shot it, so this is fine, right? It's got to be. Even so, she shuts her eyes at the last second. Bang.
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	Bercilak closes in for another few swings. Running down the court, he is waylaid by a whipping strike from Gatorharm's hose! The hose-whip is smacked aside by the cheek of the axe, Bercilak's hands moving up the haft to choke up on his grip. Explosive lemon-lime juice splashes against his armor, sparks flying from his pauldron as he makes a counter-attack. "I ithoughte thou wert afered not!" His hand grabs that trunk as it flies wide, yanks backwards, and uses the elastic tension to deliver a splintering gauntleted fist right between Gatorharm's angry eyes. He makes a follow-up right cross with the edge of the axe, using it as a punching weapon with his grip so far up the weapon. Backing up, left foot first. Hands slide back down the weapon, edge held at the left side. An underhand swipe, an expert change of grip once more to use the heel of the beard in a downward crunching swipe. Looking over his shoulder at the sound of Selene's injured cry, he makes a surprisingly agile backwards leap, landing beside her with an impact weighty enough to shake the ground slightly. The axe is shouldered, a gauntleted hand offered as nanites begin to mend the burns suffered by the explosive sports drink. "Uphaunse thy hed, queen," says Bercilak to the lucha-masked trainer. "Thy corounet is ifallinge." Gradually, those wounds disappear, as burned skin is treated, stimulated into regrowing faster. Glancing upwards, at Xion passing her power to Masked Baller, he nods. There is a sound like a gun going off, but not quite the same as Strawberry's pistol. All of his thrusters fire at once, as he races to catch up with Torracat and Spalding. Flying through the air, he pulls upwards into a slow loop, nowhere near as graceful as Strawberry's flying. He stops, inverted, hovering over Gatorharm following Kale's attack. He drops, holding the blunt eye of the axe parallel with the horns of his helmet. Gravity takes over for a moment, and he begins to fall. Moments before his impact, those thrusters fire again, and he flips, driving the butt of the axe's head into Gatorharm's face, just as his armored knee crashes into the Stitch's abdomen.
Samhain	All at once, people prepare to destroy the Gatorharm. Kale creates a tornado that pulls Gatorharm in, preparing to pierce through him with the drill, as everyone strikes at once. Strawberry's gun goes off at center-mass, blasting more plastic and bleeding more yellow liquid. Selene's pillar of fire joins with the tornado, burning up Gatorharm inside. Bercilak's axe smashes into the frowning face, cutting in with the force of thrusters to make a loud crush. And Xion... "Heh. A real baller always knows the power of team play. The sphere Spalding throws to Xion is thrown back, a real pass, a combination spear of the power of Drive, Chaser, and Baller. Masked Baller Spalding seizes victory in his hands, as the ball is dribbled forward, and then... Spalding presses a trigger on his belt. SLAM DUNK Spalding leaps into the air, right as the drill sword breaks the last of Gatorharm's defenses. The sphere is slammed down into the weakened cracks the others made, rippling with energy, and impacts straight into the Stitch. An explosion of orange, purple, and red. The group's cohesion has won the day, it seems. But, when the smoke lets off, Gatorharm is still there, on the floor, broken, cracked, but not dead - yet. "Assistance..." As he calls out, the malice grows deeper, and then, someone's there.
Samhain	The background music changes. From a triumphant track, to the sound of a flatlining hospital machine. The beeps go slower, and slower, as if they're about to stop at any time. But then, as the darkness warps in a circle behind Gatorharm, the nurse steps out. "Oh, my dear, you've really gone and made a mess of yourself. How weak are you? Don't you worry, my prized creation. I'll give you one more chance. Let's make things better." She's wearing silver-and-black hospital scrubs that are similarly reminiscent of battle armor. Her face is two red eyes, with a respirator mask over her face, somehow twisted to seem like a grin. Her cap has a strange logo that looks like a corruption of the Rod of Asclepius, and her hair is short, black, and literally wispy and smokey. The Bad Nurse, with a twist of a hand, starts pulling flex tape-like gauze out of her scrubs. She moves over to Gatorharm's cracks, slaps it on, and moves a finger from her lip to point at himm. And then, she starts to walk away, as dark power infuses into the monster, but not without a reaction to the group. "Ara~ara~. What fine specimens." The music goes from flatlining to a stable heart beat rhythm. If anyone considers attacking her, they don't get a chance. Gatorharm starts to grow, from 'human-sized' to several feet taller and much bulkier, even as he also starts to lose his mind. "OHHHH YEAHHHH! FEEEEEEEEEEELING REFRESHED!" His trunk stretches out, and starts spinning, as pitch-black liquid spews out. It's still...gatorade, but it's now toxic to the touch, and is forming into mini-tsunamis that move to strike everyone. They're quite strong, meant to kill in one hit if he has his way!
Kale Hearthward	"What the..." Kale frowns at the sudden toku villain appearance. "Was that... a medical professional?" The monster is re-invigorated. Kale frowns again. "Well that hardly seems fair-!" He cuts off as the mini-tsunamis of black liquid start spewing out. Given how previous liquids in this fight have gone, touching that stuff seems... ill-advised. "Tabtrack!" he calls, his jet boots firing off and sending him backwards and upwards. That's going to buy him some time, but only so much time, with the liquid still coming at him... "I am..." He weaves left, narrowly avoiding a wave of the vile void. "The East Wind Regalia!" He weaves right in the air, twisting to narrowly avoid another wave, pulling his feet up and back to narrowly avoid touching it and still almost skimming the surface regardless. "I am the wielder of Breath Weapons Gobo, Periactus, and Tabtrack! Whereas one would pay an emperor's ransom to possess one, I have THREE!" Another wave. Kale goes up - pressing his back nearly flat against the ceiling to avoid it. "And you think you can use these deadly sports drinks..." One more wave. It's coming right at Kale. There's no room to dodge. There's no time to dodge. And the wave splits. The wave gets whisked away, to either side, by the sudden gust of winds that form around the avian warrior. He doesn't have to dodge. "... to challenge the EAST WIND?!" Kale Hearthward, in contrast to probably everyone else and everything else in the gymnasium, does not have literally a single drop of the dark liquid on him as he goes for the counterattack, charging in at the next opening to swing at the monster with his spinning sword! It'd possibly be more dramatic if he wasn't still wearing the hot dog costume, though.
Selene	Feeling weirdly conscious even after getting caught in the explosion, Selene grunts lightly as she feels her wounds not feeling so wound'ly thanks to Bercilak's nanites. She's still pretty damn frail-looking, but her spirit seems unharmed as she boun... ... Slowly sits up while raising her thumb in a universal signal of "GOOD JOB" to Bercilak. It seems she's being quiet on purpose for once! "Queen, huh? Hm... A royalty gimmick. That could... No, no." She shakes her head, then reaches up to straighten out her mask while scooching sideways slowly so as to not make it too obvious that she's moving somewhere less flammable. "That's too rich for my budget. Maybe in ten years or so once I get sponsored." Breathing a sigh of relief at the Gatorharm's flashy toku explosion, Selene doesn't get a chance to check on the Torracat's injuries before the tone shifts from victory abruptly into ominous hospital noises. Spotting the Bad Nurse, Selene strokes her chin lightly while staring at her from behind that mask, grumbling after a few moments. "That just isn't fair. I'd be hot too if I had a weird transforming suit!" As she shouts, the cat looks over, apparently surprised at its trainer's relatively healthy state. It's caught off guard shortly afterwards by the giant Gatorharm's tornado of suck juice, getting tossed arund and flung out moments later! "Oh, crapples. Alright, time for the hot tag!" Bringing out two balls next, Selene recalls the injured Torracat (who doesn't seem pleased about being recalled at all) into one while popping open the second, revealing a giant blue bear/cat that's lying on its side and half-asleep. It scratches its back lazily as it looks up at Gatorharm, then back at Selene as she grabs the ladder from earlier and hands it over. "You're up Slunch. We got a hot tag, falls count anywhere, so nail the three count!" Nodding slowly, the Snorlax grabs the ladder and flings it right over without getting up, the steel climbing implement landing flat on the floor a short distance to the side and behind the grown Gatorharm. The creature itself bounds over with surprising (but not necessarily great) agility moments later, shaking the ground with each pounding footstep. It keeps charging even as it gets into grabbing range, aiming to leap forward and grab the Gatorharm in one swift movement before flipping both of them around in the air with mid-air flip and landing right on top of Gatorharm with the ladder as an incredibly painful landing zone! And then rolling right off afterwards for a little extra crunching and not staying in the line of fire.
Strawberry Princess	Strawberry has, unfortunately, never met the school nurse- she's in no position to be shocked by the reveal! But even if she had an opening to take the shot, she couldn't. That's clearly a real person, even if the weird gatorade-monster isn't! "What are you doing?!" she yells from across the court, grimacing. "That thing's trying to hurt people!" Unfortunately, that appears to be the point. When the tsunami comes, she responds with her typical alacrity, pushing off the back of the hoop to rocket up towards the ceiling and away from the onrushing liquid. Unfortunately, she's too close to the back wall- the black tsunami hits it, splashes upwards, and catches the side of her leg, soaking through her costume to the skin beneath. She immediately yelps in pain, cursing her poor positioning. As Strawberry 'lands' on the ceiling, she rips her costume's leg up to the knee to get a look at the skin beneath- a patch of it is already reddening from the splash. Is she really feeling woozy, or is that her imagination? The tip of her wand gains a white-hot spark. Under her Shimmer Aura, a magical girl is only flesh and blood. Any unknown toxin should be presumed lethal. Scenes from her old career flash before her eyes- mahous struck with mysterious Endling-shards that burned them from the inside out; clean victories turned pyrrhic days later as healthy girls succumbed to black-oozing scratches. Ordinary people would flinch to do what Strawberry's doing. But as she shaves off the top few centimeters of exposed skin with her beam, thinned to a hair's-breadth laser, there's no hesitation; her hands are working by themselves. Limit the exposure. The devil you know is better than the devil you don't. Gatorharm is even less of a person than it was when this started, and Strawberry has much, much less patience. Her leg still bleeding from the field ablation, she swoops down, fires a brief and blinding pulse from the Annihilator Beam with a hypersonic pop, and encases Gatorharm in a force-bubble at the same instant. The miniature blast of brilliant searing energy bounces around inside the bubble a dozen times before expending itself in a fraction of a second, aiming to turn the monster inside into swiss cheese before exploding in a backwash of pink force-shards and diffuse plasma!
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	The Bad Nurse appears, empowering Gatorharm. As the Stitch grows, he is forced off his foe, landing on his back with a grunt. That'll probably scuff the court. Sorry, Spalding! Slowly, he gets to his feet, watching as his foe grows bulkier and taller. Bercilak shoulders the axe, cracking his neck, digging his heels in. "Thy refreitment I shalt fraist mine own self," he says, stepping forward to point a finger dramatically. "Quell me, if thou cannst." A wave of toxic black liquid strikes him. It melts the huge and bulky harness which sits atop him, toxic fumes forcing their way past his armor's filtration systems as warning lights blare on the inside of his visor. Residual splashes melt through the thick plating beneath that, burning briefly at his skin... before the damage begins to rapidly mend. Pits in the armor's surface fill in, the Green Knight's lungs purged of the foul tarry substance. Hmph. Bercilak turns his back on the enemy, his cloak regrowing where the last splash withered its grasses and flowers. "E'en withe assistinge from thy ivel felaues," he says, lifting his axe. "Thou'rt MIGHTLES!" The haft is slammed into the court. The moss which had previously soaked up the combustible lemon-lime drink quivers with a life of its own, greasy green-grey tendrils shooting across the court to ensnare the stitch, carried by the currents of of Kale's breath weapon as he disperses the toxic waves sent his way. True ballers are team players. Integrating the comubstible fluid into their genetic make up, the mosses cover Gatorharm's bulky form, soaking the Stitch in his own evil lemony brew. "SIBS! Scorche this jobroni." Waves of healing nanites head Slunch's way, to protect the Snorlax from resultant explosions, and the Green Knight marches past Strawberry to offer a healing high-five as she passes.
Xion	Throwing all her power into a pass is different than just using it herself. Through the powers of Drive, Chase, and Spalding, the tingle on her suit-material wreathed fingers is more pleasant than she thought it would be. "It does feel good to be on a team,-" Xion nods, around her cross (sideways-x)-shaped facemask. "-bro." She finishes, as if remembering whose power she had taken and sent back. But then -- calamity! An Ara-ara lady appears to MAKE THE MONSTER GROW! "Oh no! That hot lady filled him with..." Xion pauses, failing to comprehend for a moment. What did he get filled with? Healed up? Darkness? Evil corn syrup? Artificial Stitchener? Whatever it is, the wave crashes into Xion and sweeps her away in a budget-burn of sloshing syrup, sparks, and an explosion that ragdolls her back. The red lines of her Drive Armor peel away with a potentially-mildly-sassy belt Nascar-voicing a "Nice Drive!" as she eats it, sprawling out on the court after the wave has passed. The ickiness is now all over her, but she has an altogether different approach than the Devil-She-Knows brutalism of Strawberry Princess. Mostly she just sticks to the floor with a squeaky sneaker-against-court sound and groans. "Now I'm going to need a shower. Alright. Let's try this again." Hopping up, Xion brings her fist to her chest, drawing out her keyblade with a metallic 'shwink!' The three medallions she had used - Drive, Chase, and Spalding - snap into orbit around her. Setting her feet and extending her sword, the medallions spin down to the tip of her keyblade, an orbit tight enough for the medallions to whizz through the star-shaped opening at the teeth of the 'key'. "If a combination finisher won't stop you -- how about a team combination finisher! Super Triple X!" Pronounced 'Super Three Key'. The spinning comes, faster and faster and faster, until the three colors begin smearing together. With a 'ha!', she thrusts the weapon out, firing a focused red-orange-purple beam of Grim Cop Baller energy down the court after Bercilak calls for the jabroni to be Scorche'd.
Samhain	The black liquid hits everyone but Kale and the Bad Nurse (who is walking away stylishly). Even Spalding is thrown back, nearly detransformed, but the power of his allies still fighting keeps him going. A sword slash from Kale. Binded by Bercilak, who sprays the liquid on him to make him flammable. A Snorlax smash that nearly flattens him. A burning sensation from a basketball orb that comes to ignite the electrolytes and set Gatorharm on fire. Exploding bubbles that swiss him. And... Three beams, that impact on. Each attack hits together, and... There's one more explosion. But this one rings true. The black liquid detonates around him, but when all the smoke clears...the basketball court is damaged, but repairable, and there's a fractured gatorade tank on the ground. Spalding is sitting down in a crouch, gasping, about to detransform before anyone can show up. And a black orb, one that Xion can certainly recognize as not corn syrup, rises into the air, before exploding harmlessly. The Bad Nurse is long gone. GATORHARM - DESTROYED
Selene	And so, the fight is over! As that orb rises, Selene scurries over to where the Snorlax is already standing, hastily releasing the Torracat from its own technological ball room. "V!" Of course they're going to pose. Selene has the smaller cat standing on her head, the giant bearcat is holding it up by its forelimbs, and the smaller cat is just sort of dangling with an utterly baffled and groggy expression on its face. Once the explosion clears, she gives each of them a pat on the head and belly, then recalls her fight animals into their balls before taking her mask off and turning to her companions with a hearty laugh. "And just like that, the day is saved! Everything worked out perfectly in the end." She gets one look at the basketball court and the busted tank, turns around slowly, then runs as fast as her shitty little legs will take her! She doesn't even get near the front gate before collapsing into an out-of-breath heap.
Strawberry Princess	Strawberry hovers in the air and keeps her wand pointed at where the monster was for a few more seconds. She uses her subtle clairvoyance, too, to check the immediate area for the Evil Nurse- she's not skulking in the wings waiting to throw an ambush, is she? Strawberry has been Toku Bastarded once this week, and it's not going to happen again. When she's finally confirmed that the area's safe, she drifts down to standing, powers off her wand with a grinding clunk-clunk of fuel rods and hiss of steam, and promptly regrets standing at all. She manages to limp over to Bercilak, though, keeping up her forced and pleasant smile while using her wand as a crutch. Pulling up her black jeans around her knee, she reveals the blackened shallow scorch-mark on the skin of her left leg where she applied her worse-than-the-disease field cure. "Hey, uh- Mr. Bercilak? If you're still okay- could you help me with this? If not, it's... fine, I promise."
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	Bercilak's armor fades away, as does his axe. Everyone gets a high-five, his strength carefully used so as not to slap five too hard. This is what the team does, after a win. But there is something that he said he'd do, which he indeed must. He always keeps his word. Bercilak disposes of the hoop which his backboard jump bent. Tapping his axe gently against the court, a gnarled mass of entwined roots forms a base, from which a trunk sprouts, lengthening and widening at the exact proportions of the backboard on the opposite end of the court--precisely within regulation parameters. A flexible branch, with the same tensile strength as the metal ring on the opposite hoop, sprouts in a circular shape, and growing from it there is a net of leaves. He looks over his shoulder before his handiwork is complete. "Verily, mine corageful frend." Just being near him causes her injury to stitch itself up, the skin on her leg treated, disenfected and quickly regrowing to replace what was lost. It's not as fast as his own preposterous healing factor, but it certainly beats waiting for it to grow normally. "Whanne-so thou suffer subsequent aveniminge, bitell me," he says, gently patting her on the shoulder and smiling warmling. "Mine clerkly craft contres poisoun als." He adds, between chuckling, "Al be that 'twas muchly strengthi of thee to contre the poisoun thusly." Offering her a thumbs-up, he strides over to the other hoop. That one isn't damaged--but even if both are the same, it wouldn't be seen as fair to have two seemingly different hoops. A new one is made, exactly mirroring the other in strength. Still, his work isn't done. "I shalt mete with thee al latteremore. Emend must I the sportinge-place!" Bercilak, master of single-rider mechanical steeds, leaves in search of the floor buffer.